Children as young as four are suffering from mental health problems such as panic attacks, anxiety and depression, teachers say.

Almost all of the 2,000 who responded to an NASUWT survey said they had come into contact with mentally ill pupils.
Members of the teaching union suggest schools are struggling to access enough support to deal with the issue.
The Department for Education said it was investing Â£1.4bn to ensure all children get the help they need.
The union is highlighting the problem at its annual conference in Manchester this weekend and it will also discuss school funding and the online world.
The survey found:
Nine in 10 said they had experienced a pupil of any age suffering from anxiety and panic attacks, while 79% were aware of a pupil suffering from depression and 64% knew of a youngster who was self-harming.
Around half (49%) were aware of children with eating disorders, and a similar proportion (47%) knew about a youngster with obsessive compulsive disorder.
Pressure of exams and testing, family problems such as ill health or a break-up and social media were all seen as having an impact on mental health.
And when asked about how it affected pupil behaviour, most teachers agreed that it led to an inability to concentrate in class and led to a pupil being isolated from other students or have problems making friends.
Chris Keates, NASUWT general secretary warned there was concern among teachers about a gap in the availability of experts and counselling to help children with mental health needs.
"It is clear that teachers and school leaders are seeing many more children and young people who are exhibiting the signs of serious mental distress.
"Teachers and school leaders take very seriously their duty of care to their students and it is clear there is a great deal of concern in the profession about the gulf in the availability of expert physiological support and counselling for pupils with mental health needs."
A Department for Education spokesperson said no child should suffer from mental health issues and that it was investing a record Â£1.4bn to ensure all children get the help and support they need.
"We are strengthening the links between schools and NHS mental health staff and later this year will publish proposals for further improving services and preventative work.
"Schools can teach about mental health in a number of ways and we have funded the PSHE Association to provide guidance for teachers on how to do this.
"We have already announced plans for every secondary school in the country to be offered mental health first aid training. We trust teachers to deliver assessment in a sensible manner that will not create stress among children."
The NUT is also meeting in Cardiff for its annual conference this weekend.
Speaking beforehand, the union's general secretary Kevin Courtney said: "Funding is going to be a theme that dominates the conference.
"In schools around the country, class sizes are going up. We are seeing arts, dance drama and music being cut. Vocational education is being cut.
"We are seeing schools around the country sending letters to parents asking for money on a regular basis to make up for the the gap that the government is leaving in school budgets."
The Department for Education insists that schools in England are funded at record levels and that its investment will rise as pupil numbers rise.


Tourists recreating a scene from Bond movie Skyfall have been accused of causing damage in a Highlands glen.

The film from 2012 has Dame Judi Dench's M and Daniel Craig's 007 standing side by side looking out over the landscape of Glen Etive.
Social media campaign, Glen Etive the Dirty Truth, blames visitors to the same spot for causing erosion.
National Trust for Scotland said it was aware of the problem and has asked people to respect the environment.
The trust (NTS), which manages land in the area involved, said the damage was being done to a roadside verge, but it did not believe the wider landscape had been harmed.
The popularity of Glen Etive, and the wider Glen Coe area, with tourists has increased because scenes were shot there for Skyfall, the 23rd film in the Bond movie franchise.
The campaign, Glen Etive the Dirty Truth, flags up problems with wild camping and littering in the area.
It has highlighted an issue with visitors' cars causing damage to ground in the glen.
A spokesperson for NTS said: "We are aware that an impromptu layby has developed where people are stopping to see the Skyfall spot.
"This is on the roadside verge and is a limited area, which, is not impacting on the wider landscape.
"It's great that so many people want to visit the area and experience this wonderful place for themselves.
"As a conservation charity, we would always encourage visitors to think about their impact on the places they visit and what they leave behind, whether that's litter or tyre tracks."
NTS said that the arrival of spring would likely see a rise in visitors to the area.
The spokesperson said: "It's a good time to remind visitors of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code - take your litter home, if you're camping, remove all traces of your pitch and don't pollute.
"Unfortunately, some people just don't follow this advice.
"The trust takes responsibility for tidying up our land - every year we remove hundreds of bags of rubbish."
The spokesperson added: "In the next few weeks, we're running a roadside tidy up to help get Glen Coe ready for springtime. We're really grateful to our dedicated volunteers and partners who help us in this work."


A young mother who died in a house fire in Rhondda had "a heart of gold".

Abbie Bloodworth, 19, died after a blaze broke out at a house in Cwmparc, Treorchy, just before 12:00 BST on 19 August.
In a family tribute, her mother, Samantha Dorricott said: "Abbie was my rock, my world and I miss her deeply."
The cause of the fire is being investigated by the fire service and South Wales Police.
"She was a fabulous and loving mother to her three-year-old daughter Chantelle," added Ms Dorricott.
"She was kind, funny and had a heart-of-gold."


Wolverhampton Wolves fought off a valiant Belle Vue Aces comeback to win the Elite League for the first time since 2009 in the Grand Final.

Wolves lost Wednesday's second leg 50-42 in Manchester, but their 18-point victory in leg one at Monmore Green on Monday ensured they clinched the title.
Freddie Lindgren starred for Wolves, winning three leg-two heats.
"Belle Vue came out really strong and fighting, they rattled us, but we had the most quality," Lindgren said.
"We were the best team and we won it. It feels awesome. It's been a really good year for the whole club, everyone has been fighting all season."
Belle Vue fought the visitors all the way, but speedway world champion Tai Woffinden sealed the title with victory in heat 14.
Woffinden, 26, who rejoined Wolves in August, was also in the victorious team seven years ago with Lindgren and Peter Karlsson - the 46-year-old Swede claiming his fourth title with Wolves.
Karlsson confirmed after it would be his last appearance for the West Midlands club.
Peter Adams, Wolverhampton team manager, said his team deserved credit for overcoming the top two sides in the regular season's league table.
"Credit to Belle Vue they made a real fight of this, but the league table doesn't lie," he added.
"After 28 matches Belle Vue and Poole were clearly the best two teams in the league. But for us to knock both of them out in getting our hands on the title again is great credit to us."
Wolverhampton's semi-final win over Poole, when they came from 12 points down in the first leg, was the largest first-leg deficit successfully overturned in a two-legged Elite League match.
They then thumped Belle Vue in the Grand Final first leg 54-36 on Monday.
"Eighteen points at the Wolves den was just a mountain too big to climb," said Belle Vue team manager Mark Lemon. "The best team won over the two legs, but we came second again. It's disappointing
"You can top the table, be minor champions, but that means nothing. You've got to do it on these two nights."
Wolves have now triumphed on three of their four appearances in the Elite League final, in its 20-year history, having won in 2002 and 2009, as well as being runners-up in 2004.
Belle Vue, who have been national champions 10 times, going back to their first in 1933, have now lost all three of their Elite League finals, having also been beaten in 2005 and 2015.
Wolves have been the champion team in British speedway, under its various names, five times in their history.
Wolves team manager Peter Adams has extended his already record haul of top-flight titles to nine.


Saracens will face a "special atmosphere" when they play Munster in the Champions Cup semi-finals, says the team's director of rugby Mark McCall.

The defending champions crushed Glasgow 38-13 on Sunday to set up a last-four tie in Dublin on 22 April.
Munster have been playing on a wave of emotion since the death of head coach Anthony Foley in October.
McCall said: "I don't think our players realise what is coming. It's important they do by the time we get there."
He believes handling the emotion of the occasion will be a significant challenge for his players as they seek back-to-back European titles.
"I think it's going to be one of the most special atmospheres anyone has ever played in," McCall added.
"There is going to be an emotional element to it, and we must make sure we are ready for that and can cope with that.
"It's going to be a very, very special occasion to be part of, but that's not enough for us, we want to keep on going in this competition."
A number of Saracens players will be returning to Dublin a matter of weeks after England were denied a Grand Slam, while Wasps were also heavily beaten by Leinster at the Aviva on Saturday.
"The fact a lot of our players played in that England against Ireland game is going to help," McCall said.
"We have a very experienced group who relish these big occasions."
Saracens are still on course for a second successive domestic and European double, and captain Brad Barritt says the squad is hungrier than ever.
"We are a trusted group of friends who are honest with each other and push each other hard to be the best team we can be," Barritt told BBC 5 live.
"We have obviously set ourselves a mountain to climb from the success last year, but the pleasing thing is the hunger and the desire in the squad is bigger than it's ever been."
You can listen to BBC Radio 5 live's Rugby Union Weekly podcast here.


A 13-year-old girl was killed after she dropped her mobile phone on to New York subway tracks and was struck by a train while trying to recover it.

The girl, identified as Diana Kadribasic, died on Sunday after she was hit by an R train at the 63rd Drive-Rego Park station.
Police said the train came into the station as the girl was trying to climb back on to the platform.
She was taken to Elmhurst Hospital, where she died, police said.
Commuter Stephen Topete told ABC New York that people were crying on the platform after the incident.
After the accident, New York City Transit released a statement urging customers to alert subway staff if they drop something on to the tracks rather than trying to recover it themselves.


Dozens of car tyres have been slashed in a "mindless act" of vandalism in Portsmouth, according to police.

At least 21 cars in Festing Road and Salisbury Road in Southsea were targeted overnight.
It is thought a blade was used to puncture holes in the tyres. The damage has left many victims unable to travel for Christmas and is set to cost some hundreds of pounds in repairs.
Police described it as a random attack and are appealing for witnesses.
Sgt Alan Cameron from Hampshire Police said: "Whoever is responsible for this mindless act of damage has not only impacted financially on their victims at an expensive time of year but may have also stopped some of them being able to travel to visit loved ones over this festive period."


Ride-sharing service Uber has acquired a New York-based artificial intelligence start-up which it hopes can speed up its progress in creating self-driving cars.

The deal, for an undisclosed sum, will see Uber gain 15 specialist researchers who will form a new division at the company known as Uber AI Labs.
Geometric Intelligence’s co-founder Gary Marcus told the BBC the team would have a wide brief - ranging from improving traffic predictions to working towards a future of flying cars.
Recent reports have suggested Uber’s aggressive growth, which has required heavily subsidising fares, meant the firm lost more than $2bn (£1.6bn) last year. That figure is likely to go up in 2016.
But Uber’s chief product officer Jeff Holden said the enormous losses were not a serious concern to the company.
"We’re actually in very good shape," he told the BBC.
"Those sorts of things look bad from the outside."
Efficiency
Regardless, Uber is pushing forward with attempts to become a far more efficient transport company.
In the near term, that means the new AI team will be improving on the company’s ability to predict when and where cars may be needed, drawing in data from various factors, such as weather forecasts.
Longer term it means accelerating the roll-out of Uber’s self-driving car fleet, which is already being tested on roads in Pittsburgh and San Francisco.
Currently, those cars, made by Volvo, have a person sitting at the wheel ready to take control.
But eventually the aim is to remove the need for a human altogether, putting the several hundred thousand Uber drivers out of a job.
"Historically what you’ve seen is as technology has taken jobs away from people, new jobs have opened up," Mr Holden said.
Mr Marcus said job losses would be a necessary by-product to achieve safer roads.
"The way I think about it is there are trade-offs, but one of the plusses is that eventually the roads are going to be much safer for people."
Looking further into the future, Mr Marcus imagines a world of flying cars taking us to work.
"They’re going to allow people to take long commutes at 75 or 150 mph where you’d otherwise get stuck in traffic. It’s really, in a not-too-distant future, going to be something that is practical."
Uber recently published a white paper exploring the idea.
Real-world consequence
The Geometric Intelligence team will become Uber employees and most of the team will relocate to Uber’s headquarters in San Francisco.
The start-up has up until now been funded by private investors and will maintain its close ties with New York University.
Mr Marcus said his company stood out because it used a different approach to artificial intelligence, one which takes inspiration from how a child’s brain develops, particularly when discovering language.
Companies like Facebook and Google are investing heavily in so-called "deep learning". This technique involves feeding a computer millions of pieces of information, such as images, so it can learn patterns and begin to recognise objects and categorise what it sees.
Mr Marcus said he felt this approach fell short.
"Deep learning is not all that it’s cracked up to be," he said.
"It’s very good for certain problems, but it doesn’t allow us to do the kind of inferences that people often do. We need next-generation techniques."
Existing technology is promising, he said, but has too low a success rate to be considered safe to use in self-driving cars.
"What I see is approximation with statistics. What people do is get something that works 80% of the time and they’re happy. Nobody dies if I tell you you’d like this book and you don’t."
Geometric Intelligence’s approach is to work on systems that as well as using large data sets, can also be taught rules that mean it can learn without relying on having pre-inputted information.
"When you work on a problem with a real-world consequence like driving, you want to be as close to 100% as possible."
Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC and on Facebook


A fire has damaged a dental building close to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

The fire started in a bin in a nearby underpass, according to a spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS).
They said the fire broke through into a tunnel and set fire to the dental building, run by Queen's University.
The building sustained smoke damage and some damage to its pipework, but there are no reports of injuries.
The blaze was reported about 20:20 BST on Thursday.
The NIFRS sent at least four fire engines to the scene, along with a team who specialise in dealing with hazardous materials.
The fire has been extinguished but a cordon was put in place for public safety.


Arsonists are being blamed for a fire which has destroyed a shelter on Redcar's revamped seafront for the second time in less than a year.

Two fire crews attended the blaze at the Esplanade opposite Pacitto's ice cream parlour just after 22:00 BST on Saturday.
The shelters were built as part of the Â£30m seafront revamp two years ago.
Cleveland Fire Brigade said the blaze was being treated as malicious and police were investigating.
Councillor Neil Baldwin said the shelter had been "completely destroyed" in the blaze.
"It's just bizarre, the damage looks awful. You've got to ask yourself what pleasure these people get out of doing this. I'm speechless.
"The fire brigade had to peel the roof off to put the fire out and the shelter looks completely destroyed."


Women's Super League One top scorer Beth Mead is among four players called up to the England squad for the first time for their international friendly tournament in China.

The Sunderland striker, who scored 12 goals in WSL 1, was overlooked for last month's Euro 2017 qualifier in Estonia.
Chelsea's uncapped trio Hannah Blundell, Laura Coombs and Drew Spence have also been selected.
England face hosts China and Australia in the tournament starting next week.
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While 20-year-old Mead, who has just completed her first season of top-flight football, was left out of England's opening European Championship qualifier, she was invited, alongside Blundell and Coombs, to be part of the training camp in preparation for the match.
"I am delighted to welcome the new players into the group," England manager Mark Sampson said.
"They have all shown potential with their clubs or when they trained with our group prior to the World Cup. The player pool in England is growing, and creating strong competition for places is crucial to driving our players and our team to the next level.
"The tournament is an opportunity for the team to continue to grow and a chance for our new players to lay down a marker and demonstrate their international capabilities."
Eight of Chelsea's WSL 1-winning side, including forwards Eniola Aluko, Gemma Davison and Fran Kirby, have been included in Sampson's squad of 21.
Forward Lianne Sanderson, who left Arsenal to join Portland Thorns in the United States on her return from the summer's World Cup, is recalled for the first time since England's bronze medal success in Canada.
Sanderson's Portland team-mate Jodie Taylor is the only other overseas-based player selected.
Goalkeeper Mary Earps, whose relegated Bristol Academy side conceded 61 goals in 2015, is again included in the squad after being brought in as an injury replacement last month.
Defender Alex Scott is the only Arsenal player named, with Sampson opting to rest other members of the Gunners' squad and all Notts County players as they prepare for the Continental Tyres Cup final at Rotherham on 1 November.
Goalkeepers: Karen Bardsley (Manchester City), Mary Earps (Bristol Academy), Rachael Laws (Sunderland).
Defenders: Hannah Blundell (Chelsea), Lucy Bronze (Manchester City), Gilly Flaherty (Chelsea), Steph Houghton (Manchester City), Claire Rafferty (Chelsea), Alex Scott (Arsenal), Demi Stokes (Manchester City)
Midfielders: Isobel Christiansen (Manchester City), Laura Coombs (Chelsea), Jo Potter (Birmingham City), Jill Scott (Manchester City), Drew Spence (Chelsea)
Forwards: Eniola Aluko (Chelsea), Gemma Davison (Chelsea), Fran Kirby (Chelsea), Beth Mead (Sunderland), Lianne Sanderson (Portland Thorns), Jodie Taylor (Portland Thorns)


A transgender woman who told her friends she would kill herself if she was sent to a male prison has been found dead in jail.

Vikki Thompson, 21, was being held at Armley, Leeds, where she was pronounced dead on Friday.
Friends of Thompson, who was born male but had identified as female since her mid-teens, said she had asked to be sent to a female prison.
An investigation into her death has been launched, the Prison Service said.
Thompson, from Keighley, West Yorkshire, was handed a 12-month jail term in August which was suspended for 24 months.
The BBC understands she later breached the terms of the sentence, and was remanded in custody at Bradford Crown Court.
Her solicitor, Mohammed Hussain, said he had advised the judge she was "essentially a woman" and asked for her to be sent to New Hall women's prison, near Wakefield.
He said he also asked for any sentence to be reduced if it was decided Thompson would be sent to an all-male prison.
Mr Hussain described Thompson, who had not undergone gender reassignment surgery, as a vulnerable transgender person.
The issue of sentencing transgender prisoners was raised last month, after Tara Hudson was initially sent to an all-male prison.
She was later transferred to a female jail after a campaign calling for her to be moved.
Alex Kaye, from SafeT, which represents transgender people, said he hoped Ms Thompson's death would bring about a change in the law.
"Any woman would not be happy to be in a male prison regardless of any gender identity history," he said.
Source: The Care and Management of Transsexual Prisoners, Ministry of Justice website
Thompson's boyfriend, Robert Steele, said he had spoken to her a day before and had booked a visit to the prison before her death.
"She didn't like it in there because people were saying things to her because she was dressing as a female," he said.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: "HMP Leeds prisoner Vikki Thompson was found unresponsive on the evening of Friday, 13 November.
"Staff and paramedics attempted resuscitation but she was pronounced dead at 20:48 GMT.
"As with all deaths in custody there will be an investigation by the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman".
West Yorkshire Police said Thompson's death was not being treated as suspicious.


Women's FA Cup finalists Manchester City and Birmingham drew 1-1 in the league in a preview of 13 May's final.

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Elsewhere in Women's Super League One, Chelsea won 4-0 at Reading, and Bristol City edged a five-goal thriller at fellow-newly-promoted club Yeovil Town.
Karen Carney, Drew Spence, Ji So-Yun and Hannah Blundell got Chelsea's goals as they went top after two wins from their opening two games.
Arsenal host Liverpool in the other mid-week game on Thursday.
In-form Chelsea - who hammered Yeovil 6-0 on Sunday - were comfortable winners again as Carney headed them in front in the first half before a clinical second-half display overwhelmed the hosts.
At Taunton Town, Bristol City started brightly and led through Claire Emslie's early penalty after the Scotland international was fouled by Yeovil's Lucy Quinn.
Annie Heatherson's header from Quinn's cross made it 1-1 before the break, and Sarah Wiltshire's superb, dipping volley put Yeovil ahead.
But Chloe Arthur's low finish saw Bristol City level before an unfortunate, looping own-goal from Nicola Cousins gave the visitors their first league win since promotion and left the Lady Glovers with three losses from three top-flight games so far.
Last year's champions Manchester City - playing their first league game of 2017, after their run to the Women's Champions League semi-finals - had to come from behind against a resolute Birmingham, who led through Emily Westwood's header from Coral-Jade Haines' first-half corner.
But England right-back Lucy Bronze's good run and finish made it 1-1 after the break, and World Player of the Year Carli Lloyd could have won it but was denied by a fine save from Ann-Katrin Berger of Birmingham, who drew for the second time in two games.


Eating disorders are complex and can affect anyone.

When Eliza Small started seriously restricting her eating two years ago, she was referred for specialist help.
Her family had a history of eating disorders. But she was refused specialist outpatient mental health treatment because her body mass index (BMI) was too high.
''It made me feel like I wasn't good enough at my eating disorder," she said.
"It made me feel like I would have to get better at it.''
Which she did. A family member eventually paid for her to have private treatment and she was diagnosed with atypical anorexia - all the symptoms but not the right weight.
But what is the right weight?
Prof Tim Kendall, England's most senior mental health adviser, says weight shouldn't come into it.
''If you leave an eating disorder until it's got to the point where, say with anorexia, they've lost say a third of their body weight, that has a lot of longer-term consequences which make it very difficult to treat, so it's wrong in my view to leave this until it's got very bad.
"To be told you're not thin enough - it's almost an incitement to get worse. It's like someone going to their GP and being told - you drink one bottle of whisky a day right now? Come back when you drink two.''
Prof Kendall believes patient choice is important and community care has a much better chance of success. It should never be withdrawn, he says, and hospital treatment should be enforced only in the most extreme cases.
Guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) state that on its own, BMI is an unreliable measure of an eating disorder.
BBC Breakfast asked all 62 mental health trusts in England and Wales if they used BMI to decide who would qualify for outpatient eating disorder services.
Of the 44 trusts which responded, one-third said they did.
All said they used it along with other indicators - such as the speed of weight loss. Three trusts, however, said it was a primary measure. They were Derbyshire, Coventry and Kent and Medway.
In some areas, patients might be refused access to services if their BMI was over 14. In others, like Kent and Medway, if it was over 17.5.
Some trusts said they had a minimum threshold under which people might be refused outpatient services.
This is what happened to Claire: ''The first thing they did was weigh me and tell me my BMI was too low.
"I would have to go to hospital. I didn't want to, I'd had a bad experience before and I thought I was making good progress as an outpatient. So I was left to my own devices.
"Everyone's eating-disorder experience is completely different, you can't put everybody in the same box - you have to listen to the person, to how they are feeling."
Sarah Hodge, from Kent and Medway Partnership Trust eating disorder service, said they would rather not use it as a measure at all, but the problem was resources.
''You can have much more success when people have a higher BMI, they're much better able to engage with the therapy. But we just don't have the resources.''
The Department of Health says more funding is on the way: "We are investing Â£150m to develop community services in every area of the country for children and young people." Eating disorder guidelines from NICE are being redrafted. The hope is some of these concerns will be addressed when new guidelines are published later in the year."
Eliza said: ''You wouldn't tell someone with cancer to come back when their condition had deteriorated, why tell someone with an eating disorder?"
725,000
people affected in the UK
11%
of patients are male
49% of those being treated in hospital are under 20
40% of patients have bulimia
10% are anorexic
50% have binge-eating diorders
Research from the eating disorders charity Beat suggests more than 725,000 people in the UK are affected by an eating disorder.
The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence estimates around 11% of those affected by an eating disorder are male.
The Health and Care Information Centre published figures in February 2014 showing an 8% rise in the number of inpatient hospital admissions in the 12 months to October 2013.
It is estimated that around 40% of people with an eating disorder have bulimia, 10% anorexia, and the rest other conditions, such as binge-eating disorder.
Many eating disorders develop during adolescence, but it is not at all unusual for people to develop eating disorders earlier or later in life.
Source: Beat: Beating eating disorders.
Fit and fat: Is BMI the best way to tell if you're healthy?
Where are you on the global fat scale?
Update 4 August 2016:  This story has been amended to remove the Cumbria trust from the list of trusts using BMI as a primary indicator. Although it told the BBC that BMI was a primary indicator, the trust has since stressed that it is one of a number of criteria used after a diagnosis of anorexia.


Facebook has reported a jump in profits in the third quarter on the back of increased advertising sales.

The social media firm reported a net income rise of 11% to $891m (Â£579m) in July to September, compared with $806m in the same period last year.
Facebook also reported that developing markets had seen strong growth in the number of users.
Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said the company was "focused on innovating and investing for the long term".
The world's largest social media site reported 60 million new monthly active users in the third quarter, bringing its global users to 1.55 billion.
A growth in monthly active users means a potentially larger audience for advertisers using Facebook.
Ad revenue was key to Facebook's third-quarter performance, growing 45% to $4.3bn (Â£2.8bn).
Investors have been looking to see how Facebook's increasing emphasis on video would pay off.
Facebook reported eight billion video views per day from 500 million people, compared with four billion views in April.
In addition, the company has said it wants to increase advertising revenue from Instagram and Whatsapp in the past, but investors have been anxious to see specific plans.
The firm did not disclose Instagram's ad sales figures. But the app is expected to bring in $595m in mobile ad revenues this year, research firm eMarketer said.
Facebook's website and Instagram photo-sharing app, which opened up its platform to all advertisers in the third quarter, account for more than one in five minutes spent on mobile devices in the US, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said.
Facebook was also looking to show strong growth in its mobile user numbers, with mobile popular in developing countries. The number of mobile daily users was up 27% in September to 894 million.


Coastal communities in Wales face being abandoned as rising sea levels mean the cost of maintaining defences can no longer be justified, BBC Wales can reveal.

A 2010 report found £135m must be spent annually on defences by 2035 just to maintain the current level of risk.
Councils across Wales are now planning for a "managed retreat".
Natural Resources Minister Alun Davies said it was not currently part of Welsh government policy.
But BBC Wales' Week In Week Out has found local authorities around Wales are already making preparations.
Fairbourne, in Gwynedd, is expected to enter into managed retreat in 2025. It is one of around 50 communities listed as being in such areas in the next 45 years.
More than 400 homes are expected to be abandoned in the village by 2055 as part of that policy.
Resident Sonia Norton, 83, said: "Ten years will probably see me out and it's not good for the future, for Fairbourne as a thriving community, because it will stop people buying in here.
"The people already here will probably just last it out."
Murray Dods, who runs Fairbourne Railway, said: "Any kind of policy that declares that there is a cut-off point is inevitably going to make house values in the area drop.
"Who'd buy a house in a place that they know isn't going to be there in 20 years' time? At some stage somebody's going to make themselves very unpopular by saying 'no more'."
The advice to retreat from some communities comes from Shoreline Management Plans (SMPs), which draw up a future strategy based on the state of existing defences, the economic importance of the area and information on sea level rises.
Gwynedd council adopted its SMP last year and has accepted that in the long term it cannot continue to defend Fairbourne.
"The plan is trying to sustain the position in the short term, but in the long term we will have to have that managed retreat," Gwynedd council leader Dyfed Edwards said.
"I recognise that people are going to be in a very, very difficult position. We cannot leave them on their own, we have to support them in the future," he added.
One of the main factors leading to the decision is the rise of sea levels.
Mike Phillips, professor of coastal geomorphology at University of Wales Trinity St David, said science was against low-lying villages such as Fairbourne.
"Sea levels are rising. It means the cost of defending this place will be too high," he said.
"As a coastal scientist, I think it is right to consider managed retreat as an option because we cannot afford to continually defend our coastline."
But Natural Resources Minister Alun Davies insisted the Welsh government was not considering managed retreat at present.
"At the moment managed retreat is not actually a part of our policy approach," he said.
"But your basic point that you can't do everything, everywhere and you can't fund everything, everywhere is absolutely correct."
A 2010 report by Natural Resources Wales' predecessor body, Environment Agency Wales, found £135m needed to be spent annually on flood and coastal defences by 2035 just to maintain the current level of risk.
Building more defences, in order to take people out of flood risk areas, would increase that spending to £170m a year by 2035, the report said.
Civil engineer Jaap Flikweert advised the US Army Corps of Engineers on safer defences for New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
He said it was important to plan ahead of potential disasters to avoid putting people's lives at risk in the future.
"If you see it coming, take the time - use the time - of a generation to make that change," he said.
Week in Week Out is on BBC One Wales, Tuesday, 11 February at 22:35 GMT


Ex-captain Michael Vaughan has backed Kevin Pietersen's claims that England's bowlers were an intimidating clique, adding they could be "disrespectful".

Pietersen, who was sacked in February, claims there was a "bullying culture", where players were forced to apologise if they made mistakes in the field.
Vaughan said the "bowlers' cabal" has been a "problem for several years".
"The likes of Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad have been disrespectful to fielders," he wrote in the Telegraph.
Vaughan, 39, who captained Pietersen in England's 2005 Ashes-winning team, added: "No one drops a catch on purpose. How would they feel if every time they bowled a bad ball everyone turned to them and said: 'What the hell are you doing?'"
Vaughan said he had encountered a similar situation in his early years at Yorkshire, where he would "hate" fielding because he was "scared" of making a mistake.
"The irony is that James Anderson has spoken about how difficult it was for him when he first played for England," Vaughan added.
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"So I hope these bowlers know what they are doing to the guys around them, especially the inexperienced ones."
Nottinghamshire fast bowler Ajmal Shahzad, who played one Test and 11 one-day internationals for England, agreed with Pietersen's assessment of cliques in the dressing room.
"I wish I could have socialised with my peers a bit more and been accepted a little bit more," Shahzad, told BBC Radio 5 live.
"Off the pitch you would go off and socialise with your friends in the team, and there were maybe two or three cliques who would stick together. I guess these cliques are not a healthy thing to develop."
Pietersen, whose new book is published on Thursday, also accused wicketkeeper Matt Prior of being a disruptive influence on the team.
Former England spinner Swann described Pietersen's claims as "codswallop". He added that the book was "the biggest work of fiction since Jules Verne".
Pietersen had his England central contract terminated in the wake of the 5-0 Ashes defeat in Australia, as the England and Wales Cricket Board set out to create a new "team ethic".
Speaking to the Telegraph on Monday, he claimed he had been "marginalised and demonised" by England and that ex-coach Andy Flower "ruled by fear".
Former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott said Flower had failed to man-manage Pietersen.
Boycott told BBC Radio 5 live: "I have played in a lot of teams. The best captains I played with could be forthright when they wanted to be but understood the different needs of the members of the team.
"The real leaders can handle different types of people. It has been quite obvious for some time that the England set-up has not been able to handle KP. KP maybe has part of the blame but if you are someone like Andy Flower, you're not out there scoring runs, so your job is to pull all the players together."
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Former England captain Mike Gatting said: "Think of bullying KP, I'm not sure that's quite right. He's a larger than life character, he is his own person at times and he gets on and does things," he told 5 live.
"Maybe he didn't like what was being done, but he was captain remember, for a short time. Sadly that didn't last long. So he had a chance to actually mould something in that team and he didn't take it."
Former England batsman Allan Lamb told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's quite sad to hear but I think it's something that's gone on. In every dressing room you are always going to have someone who is upset."
Asked if there was any chance Pietersen could make an international return, Lamb said: "I can't see that happening. I can't see the ECB taking him back after this."
Watch Kevin Pietersen's full interview with BBC Breakfast.


Michael Conlan is a strong favourite to see off Australian Jarrett Owen as part of the undercard of Manny Pacquaio's WBO welterweight defence in Queensland.

Conlan will have high hopes of making it three wins from three professional fights in the super-bantamweight fight at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
The Belfast fighter's opponent, a Brisbane native, has won five, drawn three and lost four of his contests.
Pacquaio will defend against Jeff Horn in the top of the bill fight on Sunday.
Should former world amateur champion Conlan win, his Top Rank USA stable are considering adding the Irishman to the Oscar Valdez undercard in Arizona later this summer.
Mexican-born Valdez, who is also signed with Top Rank, successfully defended his WBO featherweight title with a unanimous points victory over Miguel Marriaga in California in April.
Conlan stopped Alfredo Chanez in Chicago in his last outing in late May, the referee calling a halt in the third round of the scheduled six.
The 25-year-old won a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics and stopped Tim Ibarra inside three rounds on his professional debut at Madison Square Garden on St Patrick's Day.


Weather warnings have been issued for parts of south, mid and west Wales, from Sunday into Monday evening.

The Met Office said rain, hail, thunder and strong, gusty winds could be expected, with possible localised flooding, between 15:00 GMT on Sunday and 18:00 on Monday.
Up to 4cm (1.5in) of rain could fall on high ground.
A warning of gusts of up to 80mph has been issued for the south east from 03:00 to 18:00 on Monday.
Network Rail said it was drafting in extra teams to tackle any problems the storm causes to the railway, and advised train passengers to check services before travelling.
Sunday's warning covers Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Bridgend, Ceredigion, Neath Port Talbot, Vale of Glamorgan, Powys, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Newport and Torfaen.
Monday's warning is for Vale of Glamorgan, Bridgend, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Cardiff, Newport, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire and Torfaen.


Ben Franks hopes his first return to Twickenham on Saturday since the World Cup final will mark a perfect start to his London Irish career.

New Zealand prop Franks is set to make his first start for the Exiles against Wasps in the London double header.
The 31-year-old played the closing 22 minutes of the 34-17 victory against Australia less than a month ago.
"I've never played anything other than a Test at Twickenham, so that's going to be exciting," he told BBC Sport.
Franks, capped 47 times by his country, made four appearances during the World Cup.
The former Wellington Hurricane admitted the atmosphere around the tournament was markedly different than in his home country four years previously.
"It felt like we were in our own little bubble," he said. "There was less pressure than in New Zealand, when the whole country was living and breathing every second of it, and it was like being inside a pressure cooker.
"We were out of the way and just went about our business for the first four to five weeks. Then from the quarter-finals onwards, it just flew past.
"The final itself was pretty unique as both sides came out and played running rugby, which made it very exciting."
Now the focus for the older of the two front-row siblings - brother Owen started the World Cup final - has shifted from lifting the Webb Ellis Cup to making an impression with Tom Coventry's London Irish in Premiership rugby.
"I felt I'd achieved all there was to in New Zealand having played over 100 Super Rugby games," said Franks.
"I'm good mates with Brad Thorn (former All Black second row) and he told me I would enjoy playing in England.
"The family were really excited about coming over here, probably more so than me at times, and they've jumped right into the culture and got involved."
And why choose London Irish as the place to make that switch?
"What stuck out for me was the club have been at a point for a while where they feel they've underachieved," he replied.
"What they've done with the training facilities and the desire they have to be one of the top teams excited me.
"When they talked to me about the move, I could easily see myself buying in to what they want to achieve."


Great Britain won the overall 2017 World Cup title as the men's four took gold at the final regatta of the series in Switzerland.

The title was secured as the men's four beat Italy in Lucerne.
Three regattas make up the World Cup, with an overall winner in each event decided by the combined results from each leg.
The men's quadruple scull also won silver and took the overall event title in the process.
Bronze from the women's eight took Great Britain's tally to four for the weekend, after the lightweight women's quad won silver on Saturday.
The results gave Great Britain's victory in the World Rowing Cup overall standings, having accumulated 134 points across the three regattas. New Zealand finished second, ahead of Poland.
"We set out to be the best nation across the series, so I'm very happy we have achieved that goal and have seen some excellent performances in the process." said Sir David Tanner, British Rowing's performance director.


Free all-day car parking has been re-instated at 10 sites in Lincolnshire, three years after it was scrapped to save money.

East Lindsey council introduced charges at 13 sites in 2013 in a bid to offset government funding cuts.
The authority is now consulting on the introduction of an overnight parking charge across all its managed sites.
Deputy leader Graham Marsh said free parking was re-instated after feedback from businesses and the public.
More on this and other local stories in Lincolnshire
He said: "I can see the logic for it [charging] - trying to get a consistent strategy across the district - but it didn't work and different areas have different needs."
Mr Marsh said it was hoped the changes would be a permanent measure.
The council announced in December it was considering a Â£2 overnight parking charge on all paid car parks in the district, but this is yet to be implemented.
Mr Marsh added: "We need to assess what impact it will have, and realistically will it raise sufficient money for what it costs?"
The authority is currently trying to make savings of Â£6m by 2019/20.


A young farmer has spoken of his shock after most of his flock of 56 lambs were killed by two dogs.

Thomas Hadley was telephoned on Friday to say two dogs were attacking his sheep in Risbury, Leominster.
Mr Hadley, 23, said when he arrived the field was "scattered" with dead and injured lambs and the dogs were still attacking other sheep.
Police sent armed officers and seized the dogs. A 64-year-old man has been arrested and bailed.
The man, from Leominster, has been bailed until October on suspicion of allowing a dog to be out of control and allowing a dog to kill or maim livestock. A police spokesman said the firearms officers were deployed as a "matter of precaution".
Mr Hadley said 33 of the lambs, who were born in April, died from their injuries or shock or had to be destroyed.
"I haven't slept at all," he said. "We are still missing 11 lambs and these could be fatally injured lying somewhere and we have searched a two-mile radius of this place and haven't found them."
Mr Hadley, who also works as an sheep shearer and livestock agent, has been breeding sheep for three years and said the incident had cost at least Â£10,000.
"I have lost the breed lines and will have to start from scratch," he said.
"People don't realise that their dogs can do this," he said. "You can't trust any dog around livestock."


Liam Noble and Mike Edwards each struck twice as Notts County hit back to record a resounding win over Crawley, who have lost their last three games.

Keeper Roy Carroll's clearance cannoned off Bobson Bawling for debutant Rhys Murphy to roll the visitors in front.
Notts levelled when Edwards headed in after a throw-in, and a minute later Noble lashed in to the top corner.
Noble then converted a penalty after Izale McLeod was fouled and another Edwards header sealed Crawley's fate.
The winning margin could have been even greater but McLeod, against the club he left to join County in August, was denied by Freddie Woodman, while Graeme Burke's long-range strike was also well saved by the visiting keeper.
The closest the Red Devils came to hitting back was when Carroll was alert to palm away Sonny Bradley's close-range header.
Notts move up to 16th place as a result of their second home win of the season, while Crawley slip into the bottom two with the same goal difference as Dagenham in 22nd, but having scored a goal less.
Crawley Town boss Mark Yates told BBC Surrey:
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"I am massively frustrated and massively disappointed for the supporters who made trek up and were supporting us at home.
"We started the game well, got the ball down and played with real threats and perhaps could've done better with the chances we had.
"We decided to press the self destruct button and not deal with things and make poor clearances and all of a sudden, within a minute, we were 2-1 down.


ScottishPower is shedding 200 jobs from its customer service departments in Scotland and southern England.

The company said it needed fewer staff now that it has completed the move to a new contact handling system.
A source said it was confident that it would achieve the target through a voluntary redundancy scheme.
The job cuts are from a customer service workforce of 1,800, spread across five sites, three of them in Glasgow and Hamilton.
A company source said: "We have started discussions with the unions and employee representatives, and there will be opportunities for around 200 people to leave the retail business over the course of 2017.
"We have always managed major change programmes through voluntary means.  Indeed, should we receive too many applications for voluntary redundancy, then we will have to prioritise according to operational requirements.
"Our last similar programme was oversubscribed. This follows the implementation of our new customer service system, which is now fully embedded."


A man who saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish children during the Holocaust features in a new set of stamps.

Sir Nicholas Winton organised eight trains to carry 669 children destined for Nazi concentration camps from Czechoslovakia to London in 1939.
He features in the set of six stamps issued by the Royal Mail which honour some of the UK's greatest humanitarians and their achievements.
Sir Nicholas, who who lived near Maidenhead, died last year aged 106.
The other two first class stamps feature Sue Ryder, who founded homes for people in need, and Nobel Prize-winning scientist Lord Boyd Orr.
Featured on the three Â£1.33 stamps are Quaker philanthropist Joseph Rowntree; Eglantyne Jebb, founder of the organisation that became Save the Children; and Josephine Butler, who campaigned for women's rights and social reform.


Conservationists have returned Scotland's smallest butterfly to a part of Ayrshire after a 30-year absence.

The Small Blue was last seen in Irvine, on the North Ayrshire coast, in 1983.
The Scottish Wildlife Trust and Butterfly Conservation Scotland collected 30 butterflies from a monitored site on the Moray coast.
The butterflies were then transported 225 miles to the trust's Gailes Marsh Wildlife Reserve and neighbouring Dundonald Link Golf Course.
Kidney Vetch grows in abundance at both sites. The Small Blue is dependent on Kidney Vetch to complete its life cycle.
Local reserves manager for the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Gill Smart, said: "This project illustrates the need to prevent species dying out in the first place as bringing them back is not a simple matter.
"However, research was undertaken by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and Butterfly Conservation Scotland into the ideal locations, and hopefully now they will thrive once again."
The Small Blue project grew out of the landscape-scale approach to conservation.
This involves enlarging, improving and joining up areas of green space to create a series of green networks.
Species then have a better chance of survival if they can move across the landscape.
The coastal habitats and golf courses in the south Irvine area are a good example of such a network.
Scott Shanks from Butterfly Conservation Scotland said: "The most important element was getting the site ready to receive the butterflies.
"Local volunteers have been sowing and planting Kidney Vetch there for three years.
"They are delighted that the plants they nurtured so carefully could soon be getting munched by Small Blue butterfly caterpillars."


Manchester City Council's veteran chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein has retired.

Sir Howard was 17 when he walked in to Manchester Town Hall to start his first job as a junior clerk. His first task? Pot washing.
The boy from Cheetham Hill would walk out 46 years later credited with transforming the city.
"Ever since I was a boy I knew I wanted to make a difference to the people of Manchester", he said.
"Growing up in my community, you had a social conscience."
Sir Howard said 1970s Manchester "still had soul, but had lost its way. It had been left behind by globalisation. I was looking for the opportunity to change all of that."
Opportunities can come in the most grotesque of forms, and in 1996 the Manchester bomb was his.
Some people call the IRA explosion the best thing that ever happened to Manchester. He disagrees.
"It was an appalling time in every Mancunian's life. It was devastating. It took us a long time to recover."
Sir Howard was appointed chief executive in 1998 and remembers a time of political compromise.
"We were a staunch Labour council but we knew the value of working with the Conservatives.
"We knew it was time to open up to market forces and investment and working across political lines. We put Manchester first."
It worked and by 2003 Manchester was aesthetically transformed.
The city council became the first local authority to win the RIBA client of the year.
It was also the year he was knighted - though his biggest career sadness is that his parents were not alive to witness the day.
Just don't talk to him about the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
"The whole period leading up to the games was sheer agony for me. Securing and maintaining funding was unbelievably stressful. I couldn't wait for them to finish."
Though they did lead to one positive outcome for him - his beloved Manchester City was able to move to what became the City of Manchester stadium.
Did he declare personal interest in securing the move?
"I didn't need to. My love for the club is as good as written on my flesh. And besides, City was the only show in town to make the stadium permanent."
When asked about his biggest achievement he is keen to talk about the regeneration of Hulme.
"It was 15 years of engaging with residents to make sure we got it right. Erecting something like Beetham Tower is much easier. This was transforming communities, people's lives. Look at it now."
Does he think his city can continue to grow at the same rate it has for the last 20 years?
"Undoubtedly. There is a growth path which is unprecedented. My question is how fast, and how much more we'll grow? Not if."
Sir Howard says Mancunians have not seen the last of him, but there are things he wants to do with his family, "while I still have something in the tank."
And how will he remember his fellow Mancunians?
"Proud, passionate, edgy, and want to do the best for themselves and for the city. That's the motto I live by. I hope I've done my best for Manchester."


Plans to build the first distillery in the Scottish Borders in almost 180 years have taken a major step forward.

The Three Stills Company has announced it has secured funding of £10m to support its plans to establish a distillery in Hawick.
It has acquired a disused industrial site in Commercial Road and it expects to submit plans for its redevelopment early in 2016.
Existing buildings will be converted and a visitor centre will be created.
The firm, which already produces Clan Fraser whisky, claimed the venture could boost tourism and create new jobs by tapping into the existing skilled workforce.
Its directors said they wanted to uphold the "rich industrial tradition" of the region, which has been a centre for textile production.
John Fordyce, who is also the project leader, said: "The historical context was one major factor in us identifying Hawick, but so was access to natural resources and raw materials.
"There is a plentiful supply of pure water which the mills have depended on for cashmere and tweed production.
"It's one of the reasons behind Hawick's reputation for quality manufacturing.
"We also have on our doorstep what is undoubtedly Scotland's most fertile barley-producing land."
Funding for the project has come from private investors including the Duke of Buccleuch and Edinburgh-based investment company Badenoch & Co.
Its owner, Malcolm Offord, will become chairman of The Three Stills Company.
He said "We have a blue-chip group of investors, all of whom have an interest in or direct link to the Scottish Borders - I look forward to helping the management team deliver another boost to Scottish manufacturing and export".
The firm is the latest in a series of companies to express an interest in establishing a distillery in the region.
Last year, Mossburn Distillers unveiled plans for a £40m new distillery south of Jedburgh.
It was hoped the scheme could create 50 full-time jobs with more than seven million bottles a year produced at the site.
And earlier this year a competition was launched by R&B Distillers to allow the public to select the location for a new distillery which would be the first in the Borders since 1837.


Three men have been reported to prosecutors following a spate of robberies at bank ATMs across the west of Scotland.

The incidents took place on 21 and 22 April in central Glasgow; Stevenston, North Ayrshire; Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire; Port Glasgow, Inverclyde and Biggar, South Lanarkshire.
It is alleged people were distracted or pushed aside and money taken.
The men reported over the incidents are aged 28, 18 and 17.
On Thursday 21 April, a 59-year-old women was making a transaction at the HSBC cash machine on Buchanan Street, when she was pushed to the side by two men who allegedly stole a three-figure sum of money from her.
At about 18:50 that day, at the Royal Bank of Scotland ATM at Morrisons supermarket in Kilwinning Road, Stevenson, a 51-year-old man was distracted by two men who allegedly took a three-figure sum of cash.
A similar incident happened at a Santander ATM in the Avenue Shopping Centre in Newton Mearns at 08:45 on Friday 22 April.
On this occasion, a 77-year-old woman was distracted by two men who allegedly made off with another three figure sum of money.


The heads of Libya's two rival parliaments have met for the first time, Libyan television reported.

Agila Salah, from the internationally recognised congress in the eastern city of Tobruk, and Nouri Abusahmen, from the Tripoli-based General National Congress, held talks in Malta.
But the expected signing of a UN plan for a national unity government has been put back until Thursday.
Libya has been in chaos since the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.
Amid the turmoil the country has become a major departure point for some of the thousands of migrants travelling to Europe.
There is also international concern that the so-called Islamic State group is taking advantage of the instability to expand inside Libya.
The meeting in Malta between the two men follows weekend talks in Rome in which world powers urged Libya's warring factions to stop fighting and back a unity government.
Whether they will sign is far from certain. Mr Salah pleaded for more time, warning that "acting hastily would lead to more problems in the future", the Times of Malta reported.
For his part Mr Abusahmen said "we will not accept foreign intervention against the will of the Libyan people" referring to the UN-backed deal.
There are divisions within both parliaments on the UN accord. One GNC member told Associated Press the two leaders are attempting to forge a separate deal without UN involvement.
The signing is scheduled for late morning local time on Thursday in Morocco.


Northern Irish golf star Rory McIlroy has broken off his engagement with tennis player Caroline Wozniacki.

Two-time major winner McIlroy, 25, and Danish former world number one Wozniacki, 23, announced their engagement on New Year's Eve.
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"The problem is mine," McIlroy said. "The wedding invitations issued at the weekend made me realise that I wasn't ready for all that marriage entails."
The couple had been together for more than two years.
McIlroy is currently at Wentworth for the BMW PGA Championship, the European Tour's flagship event which starts on Thursday.
Wozniacki is set to compete in the French Open in Paris starting on 25 May.
In a statement issued through his management company, McIlroy added: "There is no right way to end a relationship that has been so important to two people.
"I wish Caroline all the happiness she deserves and thank her for the great times we have had."
"The news has shocked the worlds of both golf and tennis, particularly with the timing of the split. McIlroy is due to start a crucial run of tournaments, while Wozniacki is playing the upcoming French Open."
Speaking at Wentworth on Wednesday, McIlroy said the decision to end the engagement had been mutual and amicable.
He said it was a difficult time, but that the move was best for both of them.
McIlroy won the US Open in 2011 and US PGA Championship the following year.
Wozniacki, who has reached the final of one grand slam tournament - the US Open in 2009 - is currently ranked 13th in the world.
When McIlroy announced their engagement, he tweeted: "I have a feeling it is going to be a great year."


A deal worth $1bn (£655m) designed to compensate US football players for head injuries suffered during their careers is set to be approved, lawyers said.

More than 4,500 former players had sued the National Football League (NFL), saying it hid the dangers of concussion-related trauma.
Some case lawyers say they want to get money to players now by settling the deal.
Others believe the settlement is not enough and the NFL should pay more.
The deal has already been granted preliminary approval by Judge Anita Brody, district court judge in Philadelphia where the settlement agreement was filed.
But she asked that it be revised by Friday to include wider compensation coverage, according to lawyers.
The settlement is designed to cover players who develop dementia or neurological problems related to concussions suffered during their professional careers.
In total it is expected to cover about 20,000 now-retired NFL players over the next 65 years.
But lawyers have questioned why it does not cover future pay-outs for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), seen by some as the injury synonymous with football-related concussion.
The condition, which can cause depression, rage and other mood disorders, can only be diagnosed after death.
However some scientists believe there may be tests for the living within 10 years.
"We have been screaming that CTE is the most serious... injury that will occur to these players over time," said Chicago lawyer Thomas Demetrio.
Judge Brody rejected a previous deal last year, saying it would not be sufficient to cover 20,000 NFL retirees.


A group of long-finned pilot whales that became stranded on rocks off Skye were able to return to open water with help from rescuers on Tuesday evening.

Twenty-one animals had first beached at Staffin on Monday afternoon.
Most of the whales were saved but 10 then went on to strand themselves on rocks on nearby Staffin Island.
Eight whales died including a female and her new born calf. The stranding is thought to have been triggered by the female having problems while calving.


Failing GP surgeries in England have been warned they face closure by the NHS's first chief inspector of GPs.

Prof Steve Field, who starts his role on Tuesday, also wants local doctors to offer services seven days a week.
However, the Royal College of GPs says the profession is already at "breaking point" and longer working hours could put quality of care at risk.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has reiterated his calls for GPs to improve their care for the elderly.
Prof Field was appointed by the Care Quality Commission last month to oversee the quality of care provided by GP surgeries across England.
Speaking to the Guardian, the former chair of the Royal College of GPs indicated his willingness to improve standards in poorly performing surgeries by using sanctions, such as fines and the suspension of licences.
He said: "I will not hesitate at all to order the closure of GP practices that we find to be unsafe, or providing poor access, or which do not care for patients properly or treat them with dignity.
"While we've got some of the best general practice in the world, it's let down by a small percentage of practices which aren't providing appropriate access or quality of care," he added.
Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said doctors would be prepared to take on more work but not at the risk of patient care.
She said: "The concept of widespread weekend access is laudable but quality of care must never be sacrificed for access and GPs are already working 11 hour days, with some making up to 60 patient contacts in a single day.
"No doctor in the NHS should be expected to work weekends on top of this without a break. It is not safe or sustainable, for patients or GPs."
Dr Gerada also said GPs should be fairly remunerated for their work.
She added: "GPs currently make 90% of patient contacts within the NHS - for only 9% of the budget.
"We are keen to do more but the profession is now at breaking point and we do not have the capacity to take on any more work, without the extra funding and resources to back it up.
"We are calling on the government for an emergency package of additional investment for general practice to protect GP services and protect the care we deliver to our patients."


Thousands of High Street pharmacies in England could face closure after ministers confirmed plans to alter the funding system and make cuts.

The Department of Health said it wanted to reduce the £2.8bn a year pharmacy bill by more than £200m over the next two years.
It has been suggested cuts on this scale could lead to up to 3,000 of the 11,700 pharmacies being closed.
Currently, the average pharmacy receives £220,000 a year from the NHS.
This accounts for between 80% and 90% of their income and includes a flat rate of £25,000, which nearly all pharmacies receive.
The changes being announced scrap that and put much more emphasis on performance-related funding, with ministers understood to see the current system as outdated and inefficient.
Figures previously provided by the Department of Health - it has been looking into the issue for some months - suggested the number of pharmacies had increased by a fifth in the past 12 years.
And it has said about 40% of community pharmacies are found in clusters - with three or more within 10 minutes' walk of each other.
The pharmacy industry has been lobbying ministers in recent months, warning the move could put more pressure on GPs and accident and emergency departments, as pharmacists provide advice and support to patients.
But Health Minister David Mowat said the government had decided to press on despite these protests, as the current system was not the best use of "valuable" NHS resources.
"Far from jeopardising services, our modernisation package will help improve them," he added.
He said special funds would be set up to support pharmacies in isolated areas and to help set up more in GP surgeries and hospitals, which would be "more convenient" for patients.
Ministers believe these two measures will help offset the closure of High Street pharmacies - it expects another 1,500 GP surgeries will have in-house pharmacists by 2020. These are much cheaper to run.
But Sandra Gidley, of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said she was "deeply disappointed".
"We fear for patients, the public and pharmacists who may be significantly affected by changes in opening hours and staffing levels in community pharmacy, as well as the knock on impact on already pressured GP and A&E NHS care."
And Shadow Health Secretary Barbara Keeley said the move would be "damaging" and lead to increased demand on the health service as well as pharmacies.
"The government's plans are not only deeply unpopular, they are short-sighted and they will hit areas with the greatest health inequalities hardest," she added.
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Google's artificial intelligence unit DeepMind is getting serious about healthcare - with ambitious plans to digitise the NHS - but first it needs to convince patients to hand over their medical records.

Back in February, it began work with the Royal Free to create an app to help doctors spot patients who might be at risk of developing kidney disease.
The first most knew of the partnership was when it emerged some months later that it would be accessing 1.6 million patient records as part of the deal.
That led to some pretty negative headlines and questions from some of the patients involved as to why they had not been informed their data was being used in this way.
The app - dubbed Streams - is now under investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) while the National Data Guardian, which is tasked with safeguarding health data, is also looking at it.
Newly determined to forge a better relationship with the public, Google hosted its first ever patient engagement forum this week at its new headquarters in King's Cross, pledging that it wanted, in future, to work in closer partnership with the public.
"Patients are at the heart of what we do and as we embark on this decade-long opportunity, we really need a diverse group of people to help us design the products," said Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind and head of DeepMind Health.
The audience was polite during the presentation - making encouraging comments and seeming excited about the possibilities.
So far, DeepMind has two other continuing projects:
But, during the course of the forum, it became clear that DeepMind has much more ambitious plans when it comes to patient data, so much so that anyone attending could have been forgiven for thinking that it had won a contract to digitise the NHS.
Mr Suleyman spoke at length about a patient portal that would be accessible to both patients and doctors and available on their own smartphones.
It would allow doctors to search a patient's entire medical history in chronological order before they arrived at their bedside. Patients may be able to input their own data, for example, if they suddenly had a change in their condition or experienced problems after an operation.
The plan shocked some audience members who had not spoken out earlier.
"What was astounding to me, was the sense of entitlement that this commercial company clearly feels to access NHS patient medical records without consent and that many in the room seemed to have accepted that unquestioningly," said Jen Persson, a co-ordinator from campaign group Defenddigitalme.
"Patients have been left out so far of what DeepMind has done. The firm is not at the start of 'patient and public engagement' as it put it, but playing catch-up after getting caught getting it wrong," she added.
The patient portal is just an idea at this stage, admitted Mr Suleyman, and his team is probably "years away from building it".
The audience raised concerns about how safe such data would be and valid questions were asked about how DeepMind could ensure data did not get into the wrong hands.
"It may be that we stream data so it is not stored on a local device or that we have Trust-owned devices with an encrypted operating system or that data won't be accessible outside of the Trust's wi-fi," offered Mr Suleyman.
But he admitted there were also big hurdles: "How do patients verify themselves, how do we handle someone forgetting their password? There is a lot of work to do."
There is currently no national agreement between the NHS and DeepMind and the BBC understands that there was no representative from NHS England at the event.
The forum - which was a mix of formal speeches from doctors and patients who have been involved in DeepMind's trials as well as views from the audience - also heard from a health data-sharing advocate, Graham Silk.
The businessman was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2001 and given three years to live. He found out for himself the power of having his data in the right hands when he was invited to join a trial with an experimental new drug.
He has since set up a charity to put doctors and patients in touch with new drug trials and believes that we have a hypocritical view when it comes to data-sharing.
"Millions go on Amazon every day and give away their name, address, bank account details and it is bizarre that they don't feel the same about health data which has the power to do the most good," he said.
He thinks data is the "lifeblood" of the NHS but cannot understand why some patients might be wary of sharing information that could ultimately save their life or the lives of others.
He wants to see a system where the NHS can earn money from selling patient data to commercial partners.
"Much of the focus of the media and others is on whether using data is safe but, if we are to improve patient outcomes, we have to utilise this precious asset."
Perhaps the most pertinent question posed during the forum was one from a patient who asked simply: "What's in it for Google?"
Mr Suleyman has previously told the BBC: "Ultimately we want to get paid when we deliver concrete clinical benefits. We want to get paid to change the system and improve patient outcomes," something he reiterated at the event.
Ms Persson is not convinced.
"DeepMind couldn't answer clearly what their business model was with these NHS Trusts and what was in it for Google.
"Given that Google spent over Â£400m buying the DeepMind start-up in 2014, they clearly expect to make money from something," she said.
Google is not the only firm that the NHS shares data with but it is difficult to say how many there are as they are not centrally stored and each trust makes its own agreements.
Each one goes through a rigorous approval process.
DeepMind said that patient information is held "with the highest level of security and encryption.. and isn't shared with Google."
Patients can opt out of sharing data by emailing their NHS Trust's data protection officer.
Only 148 Royal Free patients decided to do so after learning about the DeepMind partnership.
Those figures chime with a survey commissioned by medical research charity the Wellcome Foundation earlier this year to find out more about public attitudes to data sharing.
Its survey of more than 2,000 patients, conducted in April, found that most were unaware that their data was being shared with commercial organisations and that there were "red lines" that patients felt should never be crossed - such as sharing data with insurance companies.
But only 17% said that they would never consent to their anonymised data being shared with third parties, even for research purposes.
There is obviously a lot of good that can be done with patient data and advances in data mining and artificial intelligence offer an incredible new tool for doctors and care-givers.
But it is a tool that needs to be used carefully, thinks Ms Persson.
"Hospital trusts should think twice before gifting commercial companies confidential data on an ad hoc basis, without informed patient consent, without transparent oversight, and patients should be asking what precisely will it be used for, by whom, and with what safeguards."


Money will be saved by combining the police and border agency, says Guernsey's new Head of Law Enforcement.

Patrick Rice took up the new role as head of the police and Guernsey Border Agency last week.
The former Guernsey police chief said the business case for the joint role was undeniable.
He admitted it had caused some anxiety among staff and it was his job to allay their concerns with a clear plan for the future.
Mr Rice said: "[The police] collaborate very closely with its colleagues in Jersey, and the border agency does with its colleagues in Jersey as well.
"It is about finding where the duplication is... and where to pool resources, as we have done with our colleagues in Jersey around [police] training."
He said the police and border agency faced the same financial challenges as other States departments and his focus would be to make savings while protecting front line services.
The States of Guernsey is currently undertaking a five-year programme aimed at delivering Â£31m of savings from the annual budget by the end of next year.


Cannes Film Festival has come under fire after reports women were turned away from a red carpet screening for wearing flat shoes instead of heels.

The women - some of whom were said to be older with medical conditions - were attending the world premiere of Cate Blanchett's new film Carol.
Screen Daily said the festival had confirmed heels were obligatory for women at red carpet screenings.
However the director of the festival said the "rumours" were "unfounded".
Thierry Fremaux tweeted: "For the stairs, the regulations have not changed: 'No smoking, formal wear'. There is no mention of heels."
A note about dress codes on the festival's website appears to reinforce his point. It says "black tie /evening dress is required for gala screenings" - with no guidance on heel height.
Screen Daily first reported the story, after a "Cannes regular" told them how a woman wearing Rhinestone-encrusted flat shoes was denied entry.
The unnamed source said: "Someone I know was turned away for wearing nice flats, nothing you would wear to the beach. They were in their 50s. They told her she could go and buy appropriate shoes and come back."
Asif Kapadia, whose Amy Winehouse documentary screened at the festival last weekend, also tweeted that his wife had been challenged over wearing flat shoes, although she was eventually allowed in.
A spokesperson for the festival confirmed to the BBC on email: "Rules have not changed throughout the years (tuxedo, formal dress for gala screenings) and there is no specific mention about the height of the women's heels as well as for men's."
She added that hosts and hostesses were reminded of the rules.
The story provoked widespread outrage on Twitter, where the head of film at the SXSW festival, Janet Pierson, tweeted a link to the story with the words: "Why I don't go to Cannes".
British writer Caitlin Moran tweeted: "Utterly extraordinary it's reported that women - including those with disabilities -  are being TURNED AWAY at Cannes for not wearing heels."
Buzzfeed's film critic Alison Willmore said actress Emily Blunt had been asked about the story at a press conference while promoting her own film, Sicario, at Cannes.
"I think everyone should wear flats," the Devil Wears Prada star said, according to Willmore..
Todd Haynes' film Carol, which is screening in competition, stars Blanchett and Rooney Mara and is about an illicit lesbian romance in 1950s New York
The festival said it had made efforts to address the gender imbalance between male and female directors this year, despite only two female directors being in competition.
They selected French director Emmanuelle Bercot's drama La Tete Haute (Standing Tall) to open the festival and organisers hosted a UN conference into equality on the red carpet.
Director Agnes Varda, who made her name during the French New Wave of the 1960s, will also become the first woman to receive an honorary Palme d'Or.
The Times arts correspondent Jack Malvern tweeted: "So much for the year of women."
Irish Times journalist Laura Slattery tweeted: "But Cannes, flat shoes are in fashion this year... Well, they definitely are now."


Hampshire batted for two sessions on day four to ensure their Championship match with Middlesex ended in a draw.

The hosts resumed their second innings at The Ageas Bowl on 76-1, a lead of 51, before declaring on 290-5 at tea.
Opener Jimmy Adams was removed by Steve Finn (2-59) after making 70 before Adam Wheater (57no) and Ryan McLaren (46no) shared an unbroken stand of 104.
Set 266 to win off 31 overs, Middlesex lost Sam Robson for nought, but closed out the game on 55-2.
Hampshire and Middlesex have both drawn their opening three Division One matches of 2016.
Middlesex went into the final day knowing they needed quick wickets to force an unlikely win, and Toby Roland-Jones provided an early breakthrough when he had Hampshire captain James Vince caught at backward point by Robson for 38.
However, Adams batted throughout the morning session to take Hampshire to 172-3 at lunch.
England pace bowler Finn provided a glimmer of hope for the visitors after the interval, dismissing Liam Dawson and Adams in consecutive overs, but wicketkeeper Wheater and all-rounder McLaren removed any chance of defeat with a fine century partnership.


Investing heavily in school computers and classroom technology does not improve pupils' performance, says a global study from the OECD.

The think tank says frequent use of computers in schools is more likely to be associated with lower results.
The OECD's education director Andreas Schleicher says school technology had raised "too many false hopes".
Tom Bennett, the government's expert on pupil behaviour, said teachers had been "dazzled" by school computers.
The report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development examines the impact of school technology on international test results, such as the Pisa tests taken in more than 70 countries and tests measuring digital skills.
It says education systems which have invested heavily in information and communications technology have seen "no noticeable improvement" in Pisa test results for reading, mathematics or science.
"If you look at the best-performing education systems, such as those in East Asia, they've been very cautious about using technology in their classrooms," said Mr Schleicher.
"Those students who use tablets and computers very often tend to do worse than those who use them moderately."
Annual global spending on educational technology in schools has been valued at £17.5bn, by technology analysts Gartner. In the UK, the spending on technology in schools is £900m.
The British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) says schools have £619m in budgets for ICT, with £95m spent on software and digital content.
But Mr Schleicher says the "impact on student performance is mixed at best".
The report says:
"One of the most disappointing findings of the report is that the socio-economic divide between students is not narrowed by technology, perhaps even amplified," said Mr Schleicher.
He said making sure all children have a good grasp of reading and maths is a more effective way to close the gap than "access to hi-tech devices"
He warned classroom technology can be a distraction and result in pupils cutting and pasting "prefabricated" homework answers from the internet.
The study shows "there is no single country in which the internet is used frequently at school by a majority of students and where students' performance improved".
Among the seven countries with the highest level of internet use in school, it found three experienced "significant declines" in reading performance - Australia, New Zealand and Sweden - and three more had results that had "stagnated" - Spain, Norway and Denmark.
The countries and cities with the lowest use of the internet in school - South Korea, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Japan - are among the top performers in international tests.
The study did not gather a figure for the UK's internet time in class, but the UK has among the highest levels of computers per pupil.
But Mr Schleicher says the findings of the report should not be used as an "excuse" not to use technology, but as a spur to finding a more effective approach.
He gave the example of digital textbooks which can be updated as an example of how online technology could be better than traditional methods.
Mark Chambers, chief executive of Naace, the body supporting the use of computers in schools, said it was unrealistic to think schools should reduce their use of technology.
"It is endemic in society now, at home young people will be using technology, there's no way that we should take technology out of schools, schools should be leading not following."
Computers in UK schools
Source: BESA
Microsoft spokesman Hugh Milward said: "The internet gives any student access to the sum of human knowledge, 3D printing brings advanced manufacturing capabilities to your desktop, and the next FTSE 100 business might just as well be built in a bedroom in Coventry as in the City."
Head teacher John Morris also strongly rejected the idea.
"We're preparing our children for jobs that don't yet exist," said Mr Morris, head of Ardleigh Green junior school in the London Borough of Havering.
"We're training them to use technology which hasn't yet been invented. So how can you possibly divorce technology from industry or from teaching and learning?
"When people say too much money is being spent on technology in school, my response is 'Nonsense'. What we need is more money, more investment."
The government's behaviour expert Tom Bennett said there might have been unrealistic expectations, but the "adoption of technology in the classroom can't be turned back".
England's schools minister Nick Gibb said: "We want all schools to consider the needs of their pupils to determine how technology can complement the foundations of good teaching and a rigorous curriculum, so that every pupil is able to achieve their potential."


John Terry says he has not made up his mind whether to retire from playing and "needs a good week away to reflect" before making a decision.

Defender Terry, 36, is leaving Chelsea this summer after more than two decades at Stamford Bridge.
Swansea, West Brom and Bournemouth have been linked with the former England captain, while a move to China or the United States appear other options.
"I've got options but nothing sorted or in stone," said Terry.
Media playback is not supported on this device
"Everyone keeps asking me and no-one believes me when I say that I've not got anything sorted."
Terry was an unused substitute in Saturday's 2-1 FA Cup final defeat to Arsenal at Wembley.
He has made 717 appearances for Chelsea and is a five-time Premier League title winner with the London club.
He has also won the Champions League and Europa League, as well as five FA Cups and three League Cups.
Although he has yet to make up his mind whether to retire, Terry is keen to become a manager once he does decide to stop playing.
"I think I've got too much to give and I've learned too much not to pass that on," he added. "I do want to be a manager."


Venezuela has joined Mercosur, six years after first applying to join the South American trading bloc.

President Hugo Chavez went to Brazil for the ceremony, in his first official trip abroad since being diagnosed with cancer more than a year ago.
"We have waited for this day for many years. This is our path, it is our project, a South American union," said Mr Chavez.
The Venezuelan president is running for re-election on 7 October.
He says he is now fully recovered from his cancer, which took him to Cuba several times for medical treatment.
Mr Chavez was welcomed in Brasilia by President Dilma Rousseff and the leaders of the other full members of Mercosur - Argentina's Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Uruguay's Jose Mujica.
Venezuela's inclusion was made possible with the temporary suspension of Paraguay in June over the impeachment of president Fernando Lugo.
By Joao FelletBBC Brasil
With a presidential election just two months away, Venezuela's admission to Mercosur is good news for Hugo Chavez.
It ends a long drawn out process that began in 2006 and is a chance for the Venezuelan leader to argue that his country is not economically isolated.
In the same year Venezuela left the Andean Community of Nations, the region's second largest trade bloc, which includes key allies of the United States.
Now Mr Chavez can strengthen links with governments that - with the exception of Paraguay - are sympathetic to him.
He argues that Mercosur will give Venezuelan businesses access to a vast market, helping to reduce his country's dependence on oil.
However, uncertainties remain. Paraguay, which is temporarily suspended from Mercosur, continues to argue that Venezuela's admission to the trade bloc breaks the organisation's own rules, which require the decision to be unanimous.
While at home, some Venezuelan businessmen fear joining Mercosur will lead to a flood of cheaper imports causing economic pain instead of gain.
The fast-track trial by the Paraguayan Congress was seen undemocratic and unfair by other Mercosur members.
Venezuela's admission to Mercosur was blocked for years by Paraguayan congressmen because of concerns about Chavez's democratic credentials
A statement by the Brazilian foreign ministry said "the incorporation of Venezuela alters the strategic positioning of the bloc, which will now extend from the Caribbean to the extreme south of the continent".
Brazil said Mercosur was "also positioning itself as a global energy power in renewable and non-renewable resources".
Before the summit in Brasilia, Mr Chavez signed a separate agreement with President Rousseff to buy six E-190 airplanes by the end of the year.
The planes, made by Brazil's Embraer, are to be used by Venezuelan airline Conviasa.
Mr Chavez said Venezuela, which is one of the world's largest oil producers, may in turn export crude oil to its southern neighbour.
"We proposed it and President Rousseff was very, very interested. Brazil is still importing oil and we are increasing production."
But Venezuela's admission to the trading bloc remains controversial also in Venezuela, where local farmers fear an influx of cheap agricultural products from Brazil and Argentina.
Other associate Mercosur members include Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Peru, but they have little influence in the main decisions and no veto power.


A new secondary school serving the west of Cardiff could be built in the next three years.

Council cabinet members will consider a report recommending holding a public consultation at a meeting on Thursday.
The new school would be built on the site of Glyn Derw High School, Caerau, and replace that and Michaelston Community College, Ely.
It would welcome pupils aged 11 to 18, open in September 2018 and have indoor facilities for community use.


Napoli's hopes of catching Serie A leaders Juventus were dealt a further blow with a 2-0 defeat at Inter Milan.

A second loss in three league games leaves Napoli six points behind the defending champions, who are at home to Palermo on Sunday (14:00 BST).
Captain Mauro Icardi put Inter ahead with his 15th goal of the season before Marcelo Brozovic doubled the lead.
Roberto Mancini's side moved to within three points of Roma in the third Champions League qualification place.
Roma are away to Atalanta on Sunday (11.30 BST).
Napoli, still missing suspended top scorer Gonzalo Higuain, have just five games left to try and overhaul champions Juventus to win a first league title since 1990.
They fell behind after four minutes when Gary Medel floated the ball through for Icardi, who looked fractionally offside, to steer the ball past Pepe Reina.
The former Liverpool keeper was beaten again a minute before half-time when Stevan Jovetic and Icardi combined to set up Brozovic for a neat finish.
Jose Maria Callejon volleyed just wide for Napoli after the break but Milan went closest to adding a further goal as Jovetic's chip was headed off the line by Kalidou Koulibaly.
Elsewhere, fourth-bottom Carpi helped their survival hopes with a 4-1 win over Genoa, while Torino moved into the top half after securing a third successive win with a 1-0 victory at Bologna.
Inter Milan captain Mauro Icardi: "I always said that we are a team that can fight for the top spots.
"We showed it tonight and in the Italian Cup against Juve (losing on penalties). We had an extraordinary first half of the season, we did badly in January, now let's see where we can finish.
"We have to think about ourselves only and then we will see at the end of the season what the other teams will have done too."


A memorial service has been held to mark the centenary of an explosion at a munitions factory in Bradford which claimed the lives of 40 people.

The Low Moor Munitions Company, in Bradford, was destroyed when a fire triggered a series of explosions, on 21 August 1916.
Among those killed in the tragedy were six firefighters.
During the service at West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue headquarters a memorial to the victims was rededicated.
Chief fire officer Simon Pilling said: "It was a devastating event that took the lives of 40 people and injured up to 100 others.
"We felt it was fitting to mark the centenary here at fire service headquarters as we've been able to relocate the statue from Scholemoor Cemetery to here, where we have renovated and restored it."
Among those attending the service was David Crosby, from Vancouver, whose grandfather, Knighton Pridmore, was one of the firefighters killed in the explosion.
The Low Moor site produced picric acid to colour carpets, but it was converted into a munitions factory during World War One.
An exhibition marking the centenary opened at Bradford City Hall on Friday.


The Welsh Government is reviewing NHS charges for visitors from outside the UK, the health secretary has said.

Vaughan Gething said he was "looking again at charging arrangements" for people from countries without reciprocal arrangements with the UK.
In a new BBC Wales poll, 79% of those surveyed said they would increase charges for visitors from outside the UK for using the health service.
But Mr Gething said such charges were a "marginal area" of NHS activity.
Speaking to The Wales Report on Wednesday, he said: "We have reciprocal arrangements with most European countries, and as long as those reciprocal arrangements work I see no reason to intervene and change those.
"However for people outside the UK and Europe where we don't have those, we're looking again at charging arrangements."
"Later in the year I'll get to make a decision on what charging may or may not look like."
But the health secretary added: "This is such a marginal area of activity."
"Really, when you're talking about the central funding of the health service, with the big challenge that we face, the actual conversation about charging people from abroad is an absolute distraction."
Asked whether he would consider charging patients who have illnesses caused by their lifestyle choices, Mr Gething said: "If you're really saying, for example, that someone with lung cancer who smoked should therefore be charged for their treatment.
"I actually think that when you get into real examples like that, people will very quickly say that isn't what I think should happen.
"When you think about the practical reality of it, it isn't that simple at all."
Mr Gething warned while the Welsh Government had made "significant additional commitments" to the health service from its budget, there would be difficult consequences if austerity continues across the UK.
"The challenge will be if we don't see the tide turned back on austerity every single part of the UK health service system will face really awful choices, that I don't think the public will tolerate."


Veteran actor Dan Frazer, best known for his role as Captain Frank McNeil on 1970s TV crime series Kojak, has died aged 90.

His daughter, Susanna, said the actor died of cardiac arrest at his Manhattan home on Friday.
Frazer began his career in the 1950s playing character roles in various TV series including The Phil Silvers Show.
He played Captain McNeil during all five seasons of the Telly Savalas cop show, which ran from 1973 to 1978.
He also had roles in The Andy Griffith Show, The Untouchables, McHale's Navy and My Favourite Martian.
The actor made his big-screen debut in 1963 Sidney Poitier film Lilies of the Field and appeared in two early Woody Allen comedies, Take the Money and Run and Bananas.
After the initial run of Kojak, Frazer reprised his role as Captain McNeil in the 1983 TV film Kojak: The Belarus File.
In recent years he had guest roles on all three programmes in the Law and Order franchise.
He also appeared in independent film The Pack with Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss, which screened at a number of film festivals earlier this year.
Susanna Frazer described her father as a "very truthful, naturalistic actor".


Thousands of London Underground staff have voted to go on strike over two separate disputes, the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) union said.

The union said 85% of station workers had voted to walk out in a dispute over staffing and safety.
Drivers on the Piccadilly line also backed action over a "wholesale breakdown" in industrial relations.
London Underground (LU) said the RMT should "work with us constructively... rather than threaten strikes".
About 3,400 workers are involved in the two disputes which could affect services in the run-up to Christmas.
General secretary Mick Cash said a "toxic impact of the job cuts programme" had made working on the Tube "horrific".
"Our dispute is about taking action to haul back the cuts machine and put safety back at the top of the agenda," he said.
The RMT executive is to consider the ballot results before deciding the next move.
Transport for London (TfL) said both ballots had low turnouts, with 33% voting in the ballot over staffing and safety and 49% voting in the Piccadilly line dispute.
Steve Griffiths, LU's chief operating officer, said "an independent review was being conducted" into the closure of ticket offices and talks had been planned "to discuss the RMT's concerns on the Piccadilly line".
The Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) union has also announced it will ballot hundreds of members for strikes over the closure of ticket offices.


A charity worker who fired a shotgun over the heads of hunt riders is being investigated by a wildlife charity.

A video filmed by a member of the hunt appears to show four shots being fired, spooking horses, with spent shot raining down on the riders.
Police said they had spoken to the charity worker but concluded there had been "no crime".
Cornwall Wildlife Trust confirmed that it was investigating the claims by North Cornwall Hunt against the man.
More on this story, plus more Devon and Cornwall news
Hunt secretary Amanda Carpenter, who shot the video, said a total of six shots had been fired over the heads of the hunt on Monday 2nd January.
Debris from a tree which was hit is shown falling onto the road where the 50-strong hunt was riding from Blisland to Bodmin Moor.
About half of riders on the day had been children, one of whom had been "severely affected" by the incident which had caused them "stress and trauma", she said.
The trust said no action had been taken against the staff member at the centre of the allegations.
It said in a statement that it was "aware of an allegation made on social media in respect of an incident involving a member of staff in a private capacity".
It added: "The organisation takes any such allegation very seriously so, if necessary, it can take appropriate action."
A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesman said they were called about "shots being fired".
"The incident concerned a dispute between a hunt party and a landowner," said a spokesman.
"Police have made enquiries and spoken to the interested parties. No crime has been recorded."
Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, said: "People have different views on hunting but firing a gun in the proximity of horses is not in any way a legitimate form of process.
"Such an irresponsible activity could easily lead to serious injuries to both horses and riders."