Syrian government forces backed by Russian air strikes have seized several neighbourhoods in the ancient city of Palmyra, state TV has said.

Russian aircraft carried out 40 missions over the city in the past 24 hours, the defence ministry said.
A monitoring group said the fighting was the most intense seen so far in the Syrian army's campaign to recapture the city from so-called Islamic State (IS).
IS seized the Unesco World Heritage site and adjoining modern town in May.
It destroyed archaeological sites, drawing global outrage.
Two 2,000-year-old temples, an arch and funerary towers were left in ruins.
In a statement, Russia's defence ministry said the strikes hit 158 IS targets killing more than 100 militants.
Images released by the Syrian military showed tanks and helicopters firing at positions in Palmyra. The date of the footage could not be independently verified.
Pictures also showed repeated explosions and smoke rising from many buildings.
IS warned residents to leave the city earlier this week as the conflict intensified, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The monitoring group said government forces had taken three neighbourhoods that are part of the modern town, AP news agency reported.
Syrian state media said earlier the army had taken full control of the al-Amiriya district on Palmyra's northern edge.
On Friday, Syria's official Sana news agency reported that troops, backed by Russian air strikes, had taken a reconstructed 13th Century castle perched on a hill to the west of the Roman-era ruins.
The castle, known as Qalaat Shirkuh or Qalaat Ibn Maan, sits on a 150m-high (500ft) hilltop overlooking the ruins and is of strategic importance, pro-government media reported.
Palmyra: Blowing ruins to rubble
Why IS destroys ancient sites
Government forces briefly entered the town on Thursday but were pushed back.
The prospect of its liberation has been welcomed by Unesco, the UN's cultural agency, which has described the destruction of Palmyra as a war crime.
The jihadist group, which has also demolished several pre-Islamic sites in neighbouring Iraq, believes that such structures are idolatrous.
But the head of Syria's antiquities authority Mamoun Abdelkarim promised to repair as much of the damage as possible as a "message against terrorism".
In addition to its ruins, Palmyra is situated in a strategically important area on the road between the capital, Damascus, and the contested eastern city of Deir al-Zour.
Recapturing Palmyra would be a significant victory for the government and Russia, which withdrew most of its forces earlier this month after a six-month air campaign against opponents of President Bashar al-Assad.
Russia's intervention is widely seen as having turned the tide of the five-year civil war in Mr Assad's favour.


The deal announcing the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran could open a market of 80 million consumers, but the mood is cautious.

Oil firms Shell and Eni, and car giant Peugeot are among those who have held recent business talks in the country.
Henry Smith, associate director at Control Risks, said managers based in Dubai and elsewhere had been flying to Tehran to consider opportunities.
The accord between Iran and six nations needs formalising and implementing.
Mr Smith says it will be up to companies' head offices to make the final decision because of the perceptions of risk with regard to Iran.
He thinks it will be October at the earliest before sanctions are lifted.
The agreement will be debated in the US Congress, but US President Barack Obama has said he will veto any measure to block it.
Iran is keen to attract big international oil and gas companies as it tries to increase output and investment over the coming months.
In a statement, Shell said that when all appropriate sanctions were lifted, they would be "interested in exploring the role Shell can play in developing Iran's energy potential".
Peugeot is more closely poised to move in. It says the deal "should clear the way for significant progress in our discussions" with its historic partner, Iran Khodro.
A partnership with Iran Khodro involves the re-assembly of older Peugeot models made in Europe, but a new arrangement would move to full manufacturing of cars using the most up-to-date methods.
Stock market investors also appear keen. Charlemagne Capital, an asset management group, recently teamed up with a Tehran-based firm to establish a fund to invest in the Iranian securities market.
The firm's portfolio adviser, Dominic Bokor-Ingram, said a lot of people had been contacting him in the wake of the announcement: "You don't often find a closed economy where the stock market is so developed."
Iran's stock exchange is cheap and is less than 1% foreign-owned, but liquidity is low and conditions remain economically and politically uncertain.
Iranian-born Xanyar Kamangar, who runs investment and asset management company Griffon Capital, thinks there are huge opportunities in food and drink, pharmaceuticals and technology.
"Iran has natural resources that compare with Russia. It has highly educated, very tech-savvy consumers and 92% of its adult population have bank accounts."
But solicitor Nigel Kushner, director at the British-Iranian Chamber of Commerce, who advises companies on how to legitimately do business in Iran, says there remain real practical stumbling blocks.
He warns that until cross-border money transfers are relaxed, it will be very difficult to invest in the country.


William Hague has said he "hopes" the Iraq Inquiry report will be published before the 2015 general election.

It was thought that the Chilcot inquiry into the run-up to the 2003 invasion and its aftermath might report once hearings ended in 2011.
But more than three years later, there is still no sign of it, amid disputes over the release of some documents.
Mr Hague told MPs he had no say in it but hoped it would be released "in the not too distant future".
The leader of the House of Commons was quizzed about it by Conservative MP Keith Simpson, who asked if it would be published "this side of the general election" adding "or is it going to be like the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce in Dickens - something that we will expect in about 50 years time?"
Earlier this year Lord Owen warned that if it was not published by February 2015, it might have to be delayed until after the general election to prevent it becoming too politicised.
Mr Hague told MPs: "I'm not in control of the timing of the release of the report. Certainly ministers hope it will be available in the not too distant future.
"You will recall that in 2006 I was, from the opposition benches, moving motions calling for such an inquiry that were resisted for two years... but we were opposed by (Labour) in setting up an inquiry.
"Had they agreed to it then, that inquiry would have reported long ago. "Personally I certainly hope it reports before the general election, but I'm not in control of that."
The inquiry held 18 months of public hearings between the end of 2009 and early 2011.
It examined the background to the war, the conduct of military operations, post-war planning and the UK's role in post-war security and governance until British troops left in 2009.
Those giving evidence included Mr Blair and his successor Gordon Brown, senior Cabinet ministers during their governments, military commanders and diplomats.
The inquiry also met the families of some of the one hundred and seventy-nine British troops who were killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2009.


Doctors hope a new study will help them identify the best time to operate on patients with heart disease.

The £1.3m research will look at tracking more effectively when a heart is starting to fail.
It is hoped this will help medics decide the best time to perform surgery while minimising the risk to patients' health.
The study will be conducted in Edinburgh and will recruit between 200 and 300 patients in Scotland.
Operating too early can put heart patients at unnecessary risk but intervening too late can mean heart muscle becomes irreversibly damaged.
The research will focus on patients with the most common form of valve disease, known as aortic stenosis.
The condition is caused by the narrowing of a major valve, which puts the heart muscle under pressure and reduces its capacity to pump properly.
It can lead to heart failure and sudden death.
Gauging the severity of heart valve disease can pose difficulties, particularly in older patients who may suffer from a number of other health conditions.
The trial will see patients undergo detailed heart scans and blood tests to track the capacity of their heart to pump blood, providing a baseline against which their future heart function can be compared.
Half of the patients will receive early surgery, and the other half will be given treatment later.
By analysing patients' heart function before and after surgery, doctors will determine what impact replacement valves have had. They will also be able to determine at which point the surgery has had the greatest effect.
The project is funded by the Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust through its annual Award for Biomedical Research.
Dr Marc Dweck, British Heart Foundation research fellow at Edinburgh University, said: "This type of heart disease is very common and, with an ageing population, we are set for an epidemic.
"Rates are set to treble by 2050, so it is crucial to develop new interventions now.
"We hope that by optimising the timing of life-saving surgery, we can deliver major reductions in patient illness and death, leading to a step-change in treatment."


Veteran Harry Potter actor Sir Michael Gambon has revealed he is no longer able to play roles on stage due to problems remembering lines.

"It's a horrible thing to admit, but I can't do it," he told the Sunday Times.
"When the script's in front of me it takes me forever to learn it," the 74-year-old continued. "It's frightening."
Sir Michael can currently be seen in Fortitude on Sky Atlantic and appears in BBC One's upcoming dramatisation of JK Rowling's The Casual Vacancy.
His agent was unable to comment further on the Sunday Times interview.
"You've got to go to work, haven't you?" he told the newspaper's Matt Rudd, dismissing suggestions he might give up acting altogether.
Fellow actor Dame Judi Dench told BBC Radio 4's PM programme she has been taking a health supplement as a "preventative" to memory loss, but not as a cure, as suggested by some newspaper reports.
"It sounds like I started to take these when I started to not remember the lines, and that's not true. I was told about this in 2002 and I started to take them then because I was learning The Breath of Life by David Hare with Dame Maggie [Smith].
"She and I both took them. I've put everybody on them since, they're absolutely wonderful, they've done the job. So mine, I hope is a preventative," said Dame Judi.
When asked by presenter Eddie Mair if they worked she said: "Well, I'm touching wood, you can't believe what wood I'm touching, but so far so good. I think in 59 or 60 years I've been on the stage there is an occasional moment where you completely forget a line, but so far I'm able to retain them."
Dame Judi said as well as taking two tablets each morning, she tried to learn something new every day to keep her brain active.
"I try and learn just one fact every day. I'm a games player and I love things that involve words. I could do the whole of A Midsummer Night's Dream for you now or Twelfth Night... I can't put you through that!"
According to the Sunday Times, Gambon - best known for playing Professor Dumbledore in six of the eight Harry Potter films - suffered panic attacks in 2009 after forgetting lines during play rehearsals at the National Theatre.
It also reported that Gambon was due to appear in a play with Tom Hollander last year but withdrew from the production shortly after rehearsals began.
"There was a girl in the wings and I had a plug in my ear so she could read me the lines," the actor confirmed.
"After about an hour I thought: 'This can't work. You can't be in theatre, free on the stage, shouting and screaming and running around, with someone reading you your lines.'"
A member of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre acting company, Sir Michael went on to win three Olivier awards for performances in National Theatre productions.
The four-time Bafta winner - known as "The Great Gambon" in acting circles - last appeared on stage in 2012 in a London production of Samuel Beckett's play All That Fall.


Ricardo Santos scored his first Barnet goals as they moved into the League Two play-off places with victory at Leyton Orient.

The Portuguese defender's quick-fire brace put the Bees in control at Brisbane Road before Curtis Weston sealed the points in added time after Paul McCallum had halved the deficit.
Santos, a recent signing from Peterborough, seized on a fumble by O's goalkeeper Alex Cisak to break the deadlock from close range in the 63rd minute and he doubled the advantage three minutes later following good work from Nana Kyei.
McCallum gave the O's a lifeline when he powerfully headed in a Callum Kennedy corner with 10 minutes remaining but Weston guaranteed the three points when he crashed the ball into an empty net after a lob from substitute Jamal Campbell-Ryce rebounded off the crossbar.
Although the teams went into the interval all-square, the visitors should have been well ahead having missed five clear chances, and leading scorer John Akinde was the main culprit for their profligacy.
His best chance came after just four minutes when he stabbed wide from close range with the goal at his mercy.
Fellow striker Simeon Akinola spurned two straight-forward chances set up by Akinde as the home side struggled to contain the Bees' attacking threat.
However, an incisive display after the break deservedly earned the visitors their sixth victory in eight matches.
Report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Leyton Orient 1, Barnet 3.
Second Half ends, Leyton Orient 1, Barnet 3.
Foul by Michael Collins (Leyton Orient).
John Akinde (Barnet) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Nicky Hunt (Leyton Orient) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Nicky Hunt (Leyton Orient).
Mauro Vilhete (Barnet) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Goal!  Leyton Orient 1, Barnet 3. Curtis Weston (Barnet) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the high centre of the goal.
Jamal Campbell-Ryce (Barnet) hits the right post with a right footed shot from the centre of the box.
Ricardo Santos (Barnet) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Ollie Palmer (Leyton Orient).
Michael Collins (Leyton Orient) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Mauro Vilhete (Barnet).
Attempt missed. Elliot Johnson (Barnet) left footed shot from outside the box is too high from a direct free kick.
Foul by Nigel Atangana (Leyton Orient).
Jack Taylor (Barnet) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Ollie Palmer (Leyton Orient).
Ricardo Santos (Barnet) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Goal!  Leyton Orient 1, Barnet 2. Paul McCallum (Leyton Orient) header from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Callum Kennedy with a cross following a corner.
Corner,  Leyton Orient. Conceded by Ricardo Santos.
Attempt blocked. Ollie Palmer (Leyton Orient) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
Corner,  Barnet. Conceded by Nigel Atangana.
Attempt blocked. Mauro Vilhete (Barnet) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Attempt missed. Gavin Massey (Leyton Orient) right footed shot from the right side of the box misses to the left.
Substitution, Leyton Orient. Ulrich N'Nomo replaces Josh Koroma.
Substitution, Barnet. Tom Champion replaces Nana Kyei.
Foul by Nigel Atangana (Leyton Orient).
Jamal Campbell-Ryce (Barnet) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Corner,  Leyton Orient. Conceded by Ricardo Santos.
Substitution, Leyton Orient. Ollie Palmer replaces Teddy Mezague.
Goal!  Leyton Orient 0, Barnet 2. Ricardo Santos (Barnet) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Nana Kyei.
Corner,  Barnet. Conceded by Yvan Erichot.
Goal!  Leyton Orient 0, Barnet 1. Ricardo Santos (Barnet) left footed shot from very close range to the centre of the goal following a corner.
Corner,  Barnet. Conceded by Tom Parkes.
Substitution, Barnet. Jamal Campbell-Ryce replaces Simeon Akinola.
Attempt missed. Mauro Vilhete (Barnet) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left.
Attempt missed. Gavin Massey (Leyton Orient) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left.
Corner,  Leyton Orient. Conceded by Harry Taylor.
Paul McCallum (Leyton Orient) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Ricardo Santos (Barnet).


A man has admitted killing his baby son in a "harrowing incident" at his home in East Kilbride.

Supermarket worker David Sinclair, 34, shook his five-month-old son Joshua in a fit of anger, causing him to die at Hairmyres Hospital hours later.
At the High Court in Glasgow, Sinclair pleaded guilty to culpable homicide in regard to the infant's death on 6 December, 2012.
He is due to return to the court for sentencing next month.
Sinclair was originally charged with murder, but admitted the reduced charge of culpable homicide, just days before he was due to go on trial.
Prosecutor Ashley Edwards said that on the day the child died, Sinclair and his now wife Kirsty and Joshua went swimming and then shopping in East Kilbride.
At 17:30 Kirsty Sinclair went out to meet her mother and sister.
Just 11 minutes later she received a phone call from Sinclair, who sounded "shocked". He told her: "Joshua isn't breathing properly, come home right away." He then hung up and dialled 999.
The court heard that Kirsty Sinclair, who is pregnant, married Sinclair on the anniversary of their son's first birthday on 9 July 2013, and had said she was standing by him.
Initially the cause of Joshua's death was unascertained, but the case was reviewed by a team of medical experts who discovered evidence of trauma in the eyes and brain which could only have been caused non-accidentally close to the time of death.
One of the experts, Dr Peter Richards, consultant paediatric neuro-surgeon at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, said: "This would be compatible with him having suffered a shaking injury involving handling at greater force than encountered in everyday life.
"It would be compatible with a shaking event where a carer, who has not planned to injure a child, has a momentary loss of control with tragic consequences."
Defending QC, Ian Duguid, told the court that Sinclair had found it "unimaginable" that the handling of his child would have resulted in such catastrophic injuries.
The  barrister added: "He is extremely remorseful for the events which have ensued. Witnesses in double figures would have come forward to talk of his caring abilities as a parent."
Det Ch Insp Laura McLuckie, who was the senior investigating officer in the case, said: "David Sinclair admitted to being responsible for the death of his baby son, Joshua, who died needlessly at a young and vulnerable age.
"My sincere condolences go out to Joshua's extended family, who have endured this harrowing incident and continue to live with the pain of Joshua's untimely death.
"A defenceless baby died at the hands of his father, the one person whose role was to protect and care for him."


A "dangerous" murder suspect is on the run after being released from a Northern Ireland prison by mistake.

Michael Lawrence Smith, 38, was last seen in the Belfast area at 12:30 GMT on Tuesday and has not returned to Maghaberry Prison.
The police said he had been "released erroneously" by the prison service and had failed to return.
Mr Smith, who is on remand for murder, had previously applied for bail, but been refused.
Det Supt Kevin Geddes said Mr Smith had "an extensive history of violence" and urged the public not to approach him.
"I would ask Mr Smith to hand himself in to the authorities without any further delay and ask anyone who knows of his current whereabouts or who has any information to contact police on 999," he said.
In a further video message released on social media, Det Supt Geddes addressed Mr Smith's family and friends, urging them to persuade him to give himself up or contact the police with his whereabouts.
He also warned the public that Mr Smith was "dangerous".
A spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Prison Service said Mr Smith's "erroneous release" was being investigated.
He is charged with the murder of Stephen Carson, who was shot dead in his Belfast home in front of his partner and nine-year-old son in February 2016.


A camera lost six months ago in Australia has been reunited with its owner thanks to a social media manhunt by a stranger who found the device.

Backpacker Chris Hesford, 22, from Jersey, lost his GoPro camera while kayaking in Byron Bay, New South Wales.
Months later Australian Steve Carmody found the camera in a riverbed 60 miles (97km) away and took to social media in a bid to find its owner.
After two weeks and 8,000 shares on Facebook, Mr Hesford was identified.
Mr Carmody posted on Facebook saying: "If we can track down this bloke I have 32 GB of precious memories to be returned."
The post went viral and the story was picked up by Australian TV news, which showed photographs from the camera's memory card of Mr Hesford, who is now working as a lawyer in London.
The images depicted Mr Hesford on his travels around the world, including at top of the Empire State building, visiting the Grand Canyon and posing near the Sydney Opera House.
Friends of Mr Hesford saw the pictures, told him the good news and he got back his long-lost photos, which were still on the broken camera's memory stick.
He said: "I was just in shock, really.
"It's amazing that Steve made such an incredible effort to find me.
"Steve, I am extremely grateful for your efforts, and if you are ever in London the first pint is on me."
Mr Carmody told ABC Gold Coast radio: "It's very cool, it just goes to show the power of social media."


Cannabis and heroin with an estimated street value of £430,000 have been seized from a vehicle in South Lanarkshire.

Three people were arrested after police stopped the vehicle in Lesmahagow on Friday during an "intelligence-led" operation.
Two men, aged 28 and 30, and a 28-year-old woman are in custody over alleged drugs offences.
They are expected to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Monday.


With Theresa May's end of March deadline for triggering the UK's exit from the EU fast approaching, much remains undecided, not least what will happen to British trade.

As an EU member, the UK and UK-based firms can sell their goods to EU customers without having to pay additional taxes. Likewise, British firms and consumers can import from the EU tariff-free.
The prime minister has already ruled out continued membership of the EU's single market post-Brexit, with many assuming this means the UK will also leave the customs union.
Essentially there are two options:
The WTO is an international agency with 164 member countries and its purpose is to promote international commerce. All the leading world economies are members of the WTO, including the UK. European Union countries are also all members, but they act together in the WTO as the EU.
One of the most important principles of the WTO is that you should not discriminate between other WTO members. The UK and the EU would both have to impose on one another's exports the same barriers they apply to goods from the other WTO member countries.  In fact, in the absence of a free trade agreement they would be obliged under WTO rules to do that.
They include import tariffs, which are taxes applied only to imports. WTO members make commitments that they will not raise tariffs above a certain level. Those maximum levels, known as bound levels or bindings, vary from country to country and product to product. The tariffs they actually apply can be, and in many cases are, below those levels. But if you do go below bound levels, you have to do it for imports from all WTO members.
For the EU the average maximum tariff is 4.8% for all goods. But there are some big variations.  It's generally higher for agricultural produce, 10.9% on average. For most industrial goods it's quite low, but for cars, the tariff is 10%.
Assuming the UK were trading with the EU under WTO terms, the figures are an indication of the levels of tariffs British exporters would face on their goods. It would make them less competitive in the EU market than they currently are with no tariffs at all.
The UK's new schedule will have to have the consent of the other WTO members. It is administratively easier and less likely to be contested if we stick with the arrangement that we already have, as the UK's ambassador to the WTO, Julian Braithwaite. wrote in his blog: "So to minimise any grounds for objection, we plan to replicate our existing trade regime as far as possible in our new schedules."
However, the UK would be free to apply lower tariffs. In some cases it is highly likely we would. For example, the EU imposes seasonal tariffs on orange imports when the Mediterranean producers have their harvest. Getting rid of that is an example of what one former trade official described to me as "low hanging fruit".
Some economists, including Patrick Minford of Cardiff University and one of the leading members of Economists for Brexit (now renamed as Economists for Free Trade), favour a more comprehensive exercise in cutting tariffs and other barriers unilaterally. But these cuts would have to apply to goods coming from the EU as well.
Don't be fooled, some aspects will be more complicated. For some farm produce, for example, the EU has quotas that can be imported at lower tariffs (called tariff rate quotas). We don't yet know how these will be divided between the UK and the remainder of the EU.
There is also the question of what happens to that produce when it is traded between the UK and the EU. Currently it is tariff-free. Both will probably want a slice of the other's reduced tariff quota. That will mean either a bigger total quota or a reduced slice for some other country.
In the WTO, the EU has agreed to a cap on some of its farm subsidies. We don't currently know what type of system the UK will adopt and potentially this an area of difficulty. The EU however is well below its subsidy cap, and that could make this area less contentious than it might have been.
No. There are many other types of trade restrictions. These include rules on product specifications, labelling, testing, and requirements for authorisation from a national regulator to provide some types of services. The UK would have to decide whether or not to maintain EU rules in these areas.
Currently a trade dispute would be a matter for the European Court of Justice. Theresa May has already said that its jurisdiction in the UK will end. If there is a trade agreement with the EU it would probably contain some arrangement for a tribunal to make rulings.
If there is no such deal then any dispute would have to go to the WTO's dispute settlement system, which can establish panels to make rulings.
Whatever happens, the UK and the EU will be subject to WTO rules. It is just that the membership of the EU and any new trade agreement that might be negotiated allows for deeper integration than is involved in simply complying with the WTO's rulebook.


Finding Dory has clung on to the top spot in the UK box office - despite the threat from nearest rival Bad Moms.

The adult comedy, starring Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell, took £1.47m in its first week, falling just behind the animated Pixar film.
Finding Dory took another £1.51m, bringing its total UK takings so far to £35.8m.
Suicide Squad dropped one place to third, with takings of £1.27m, followed by new entry War Dogs.
The comedy drama, starring Jonah Hill and Miles Teller, is based on the true story of two men in their 20s who won a contract to arm America's allies in Afghanistan.
The top 10 also saw a new entry for horror film The Purge: Election Year, which took £807,803 in its first week.
Mechanic: Resurrection, a thriller starring Jason Statham, debuted at number 10, with a total of £508,715.
Jason Bourne is in the charts for a sixth week, taking £732,632 and the number six spot this week, with The BFG following in seventh place with £658,840.
Lights Out - another horror film - took £558,167 in its second week of release and is in eighth place, with David Brent: Life on the Road at number nine with £508,762.
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Even before the 2015 Bafta game awards were handed out, Daniel Gray knew it would be a good night for Monument Valley.

"We feel like we've won, just for being nominated, especially for best game," he said on the red carpet, beaming from ear to ear.
The pocket puzzler won best British game and best mobile game, missing out to Destiny in the top category.
But who needs Baftas when the President of the United States is playing your game?
"They actually contacted us about six months ago," said Gray, explaining that producers of Netflix original series House of Cards asked permission to feature the game.
He and his colleagues at UsTwo - the company behind the indie hit - didn't have to think twice.
"Of course you have permission to use it - why would you not?!" he told them.
It features in an episode of season 3 when President Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) plays it in the White House. In previous shows he's a fan of first-person shooter games.
The show was released on Netflix on 27 February.
"It's definitely had an effect," explained Gray.
"It goes to show the amount of people that don't know about games unless they see it in another medium.
"Last week we had about 8 times the number of downloads we usually would do. It's insane, we never thought it would have that kind of effect."
But this is a game which hardly needed a helping hand.
Monument Valley has been downloaded around 2.5 million times, taking more than $5.8m (Â£3.94m) in revenue.
The game won an Apple Design Award in June 2014 and after was announced as iPad Game of the Year in December.
But although all the awards undoubtedly helped, Daniel Gray insists the game has earned its success.
"People say: 'You were really lucky that apple helped you out - you got lucky.' But it wasn't.
"A lot of hard work went into coming up with an idea and a concept that we thought would really resonate with people."
UsTwo Games sparked a brief backlash in November after charging Â£1.49 for extra levels - a fee many gamers later thought justified after trying them out.
The company has recently shown off a design for in-car displays.
"We always say we want to surprise people.
"The idea that the creators of Monument Valley - in a different section of that company - can produce something beautiful for cars is going to surprise you every single time."
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The number of people unemployed in the UK rose by 80,000 to 2.51 million in the three months to July, official figures have shown.

This is the largest increase in nearly two years, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. The jobless rate now stands at 7.9%.
Youth unemployment also rose sharply, by 78,000 to 973,000.
The total claiming Jobseeker's Allowance rose by 20,300 in August to 1.58 million.
The number of people in employment in the economy fell in the three months to July, by 69,000 to 29.17 million.
"Clearly this is a very unwelcome set of figures. Any increase in unemployment is something we really don't want to see happen," said Employment Minister Chris Grayling.
He said the data would "reinvigorate" the government's "determination" to take steps to get the economy growing and create private sector jobs.
The government is looking to the private sector to offset job losses in the public sector resulting from its wide-ranging programme of spending cuts, designed to reduce the UK's debt levels.
Source: ONS. Increase/decrease on February to April quarter.
Mr Grayling reiterated the government's determination to continue with its programme of cuts, as the alternative of borrowing more money was not a credible solution.
Analysts said the unemployment figures reflected weak economic growth.
"Today's data provide further evidence that the fading of the UK's economic recovery is having increasingly severe effects on the labour market," said Samuel Tombs at Capital Economics.
"Continued rises in unemployment in the coming months seem likely."
However, some argued that, given the current economic environment, the figures were not as bad as could have been expected.
"The biggest surprise has been the resilience of the labour market given how weak growth has been," said Ross Walker at the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The UK economy grew by 0.2% between April and June.
The total number of unemployed men rose by 39,000 to 1.45 million in the three months to July, while the number of women out of work increased by 41,000 to 1.06 million, the highest figure since the three months to April 1988.
The latest figures for public sector employment show a fall of 110,000 between March and June to 6.04 million. This is the largest fall since comparable records began in 1999.
The number of people employed in the private sector increased by 41,000 to 23.13 million.
The ONS figures also showed that total pay in the three months to July rose by 2.8%. Excluding bonuses, pay climbed by 2.1%.
This figure is watched closely as it shows wage inflation in the economy. One reason the Bank of England has given for keeping interest rates at record lows is that inflationary pressures are largely temporary and external, and are not being exacerbated by rising wages.


The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has said a merger with Deutsche Boerse would be "compelling" as the UK firm reported a rise in profits for last year.

The LSE said the tie-up would be an "industry-defining combination" with substantial revenue and cost benefits.
The talks, first announced on 23 February, are still "ongoing".
It comes as the UK stock exchange company announced a 31% rise in adjusted pre-tax profits of Â£643.4m.
Including one-off items, profit before tax from continuing operations was Â£336.1m last year, the LSE said.
A merger with the German stock exchange would create a "group with global aspirations", said Xavier Rolet, the LSE chief executive.
"The boards believe that the potential merger would represent a compelling opportunity for both companies to strengthen each other," the company said.
LSE did not mention a potential rival bid from the owner of the New York Stock Exchange.
On Tuesday, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which owns the flagship US stock market, said it was considering making a takeover offer for the LSE.
ICE has until 29 March to make or announce an offer, while Deutsche Boerse has until 22 March.
Under the proposed "merger of equals", the LSE would own 45.6% of the combined group and Deutsche Boerse would hold the remaining 54.4%.
Both companies said all their key businesses would continue to operate under their current brand names.
The merged company would also have dual headquarters in London and Frankfurt.


Joe Thompson has signed a six-month contract with League One side Rochdale, returning to the club with which he began his career.

The midfielder more than 150 appearances for Dale before joining Tranmere in 2012, and returned for a loan spell in 2013.
The 27-year-old was released by Carlisle United at the end of the 2015-16 campaign.
Rochdale began 2016-17 with a 3-2 home defeat by Peterborough on Saturday.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.


The number of homes sold in the UK fell sharply in November, according to the latest figures from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

Completed sales dropped from 122,000 in October to 106,000 last month.
However, the November figure was still higher than for the same month last year.
Overall, it means that residential sales for the first 11 months of 2015 are almost identical to those for the same period last year.
If that pattern continues in December, then sales for the whole of this year are likely to match those for 2014 at about 1.22 million.
Andrew Montlake at the London mortgage brokers Coreco said: "This year we have gone back to some normal seasonality, for the first time in a long while.
"Also some amateur landlords may have been put off buying buy-to-let properties because of the impending tax changes they face."


Being dropped from the England squad provided a "kick up the backside", says midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

The 23-year-old Arsenal player last played for the national side in a Euro 2016 qualifier in October 2015, scoring in a 3-0 victory over Lithuania.
But he missed the finals in France through injury and was not selected for Sam Allardyce's only game in charge.
"It was a wake-up call," said Oxlade-Chamberlain. "To be available, feeling good and fit and not be in was a jolt."
The former Southampton man, who has been capped 23 times for the Three Lions, recovered from a knee problem in the summer and has played eight times for the Gunners this season.
However, he was left out of the 2018 World Cup qualifying win over Slovakia, before Allardyce left as manager following a newspaper investigation claiming he offered advice on how to "get around" rules on player transfers.
Interim boss Gareth Southgate then recalled the Arsenal player for the matches against Malta, on Saturday (17:00 BST), and Slovenia next Tuesday (19:45 BST).
"I have been playing for England since I was 18 and while I wouldn't say I took it all for granted it just seemed to be a part of my season - to play for Arsenal and to play for England," added Oxlade-Chamberlain.
"I am not young now, I am 23, so you need to be performing and playing as much as you can to deserve a chance to go and play for England.
"Being back in the set-up now makes me realise how special it is and it is something I want to keep happening in the foreseeable future.
"There are a lot of young players now that are doing really well and it's not an easy squad to get into. You shouldn't just be able to walk into an England squad."


Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has assured young Welsh international talent Ben Woodburn there is a route to a regular place in the Liverpool first team.

Woodburn, 17, made his senior debut for the Merseysiders off the bench late in their win over Sunderland.
Klopp said there were many positives about Woodburn, but that the Wales Under-19 international needed time.
"There is really always a way, even when the first team is a really strong side," said Klopp.
Against Sunderland, Woodburn became the third youngest player ever to make a senior appearance for Liverpool, aged 17 years, one month and 11 days.
Klopp admitted it was a special moment for him and Woodburn.
"I thought it was a good moment, not only for Ben, but to show it for all the other boys in the Academy," said Klopp.
"There is a way [to the first-team], especially for you, whoever you are, as long as you are here and train hard and work hard, everything can be possible."
Cheshire-born Woodburn has pledged his future to Wales, and recently starred as they narrowly missed out in the U19 Euro 2017 qualifiers, but he still remains eligible to play for England.
Media playback is not supported on this device
He remains very highly-rated at Anfield and recently signed a new long-term professional contract at the club.
But Klopp admitted that when it came to a regular run in the first-team for Woodburn, he was yet to make up his mind.
"I'm not sure. Ben is a wonderful boy, but I am not sure," Klopp added.
"A lot of signs are very positive signs, not only with him. That's good to have.
"We can all speak a lot of times about opportunities for the young boys in our squad, and all that stuff, and sometimes we have to show it."


Celtic starlet Kieran Tierney hit the headlines earlier this week, after he stepped in to stop a fan making a very expensive mistake.

The supporter was considering spending £175 on a shirt he thought Tierney wore during Celtic's 3-3 draw with Manchester City in the Champions League.
But when he contacted the 19-year-old full back on social media, the player replied saying he still owned the shirt and it was likely to be a scam, the Daily Record reported.
Experts claim the sports memorabilia market has been flooded with thousands of fakes in recent years.
Auctioneer David Convery and Det Sgt Kevin Innes told The Stephen Jardine Programme on BBC Radio Scotland how to spot the genuine article.
Mr Convery, a sports memorabilia expert from Great Western Auctions in Glasgow, said the market is huge.
"I've been selling sporting items since 1987," he said. "I've seen the market grow and grow especially since the advent of the internet."
But he reckons 90% of items that are sold at charity auctions or online are a "fake or a copy" - very few are authentic match-worn shirts.
"At the start of every week, the majority of the big clubs will farm out 40 to 50 replica shirts signed by the team to various good causes, charity," he said.
"The majority of the time, people are buying a replica signed shirt. There are very few genuine shirts that are actually out there to be bought on the market."
He said he knows of one shirt signed by David Beckham, which was sold at a charity auction for £27,000 - even though it had never touched his back.
"It's fantastic for the charity," he said. "But in the real market it is only worth about £70."
Earlier in his career, Mr Convery said he sold the shirt worn by Jim Baxter during Scotland's 1967 win over England.
But he fears there are many copies of the historic item.
"I've seen subsequent shirts selling as being worn by Jim Baxter on that particular day when we became unofficial world champions," he said.
"However, he had the only shirt and I sold it. All the other ones - be wary. "
Price should be the first indicator of authenticity, according to both Mr Convery and Det Sgt Kevin Ives, of the City of London Police intellectual property crime unit (PIPCU),
"If you're buying online, I'd echo the old cliche -  if it looks to good to be true, then it probably is," said Det Sgt Ives.
He also urged buyers to be wary of the websites that they're using.
He said: "My unit shut down over 23,000 of these counterfeit goods websites since 2013.
"Some of the trends that we've noticed is that these are not run by people in the UK, so you can look out for spelling or grammatical errors.
"The websites will take longer to load up on screen and some of the hyperlinks won't work."
Mr Convery suggested that people looking for match-worn shirts check out the sleeve length preferred by particular players as well as the badges used.
"Really, for a professional like myself, I need to touch it," he said.
"Material is very important - professional footballers like good, breathable material... if it's not the same material, just be wary."
He also likes to check the provenance of goods, preferring to buy from a trusted dealer or family of the sports person in question.
"The bulk of the modern stuff I see these days - and I see a lot of stuff, the majority of which I turn away - I just don't like the provenance, I can't guarantee it."
Det Sgt Ives said the sale of counterfeit goods affects jobs and industry in the UK - but it can also put the personal details of the buyer at risk.
"There's actually a real danger to the people buying these goods," he said.
"What can happen, and does happen a lot, is that if you buy these goods from a counterfeit website, the website needs people's fake details to open up new websites when they've been shut down.
"We've had people who have bought a pair of trainers and ended up with 500 counterfeit goods websites opened up in their name.
"And that opens you up to lots of issues because if the next person realises their goods are counterfeit, it's your name and address behind the website."
Some goods may also be shoddily made and even dangerous, he warned.
If buyers have used online market places like Ebay and Amazon, they should report report it to them, said Det Sgt Ives.
"Generally speaking they are pretty good at following the dispute," he said.
The police officer also recommended buyers get in touch with their credit card company, if that has been used to purchase the product, as they may be able to help obtain a refund.
He added: "I would urge people to report these things to the police if there's a counterfeit seller or to their local trading standards."


A farmer has been fined after dumping 40 tonnes of industrial waste outside a village.

William Johnston, of Walsham-le-Willows, Suffolk, admitted dumping the rubbish, described as building material and household waste, last April.
Suffolk Police said it was a "potential danger to motorists and other members of the public".
The 44-year-old admitted the whole episode was "hugely embarrassing" and "regrettable" as he left court.
He dumped the rubbish, described as building material and household waste, at the side of Finningham Road on 9 April last year.
Updates on this story and others from Suffolk
Police officers and the Environment Agency removed the waste, which they believe was unloaded using a tractor and trailer.
Johnston was fined Â£1000 plus costs of Â£1600 after pleading guilty to fly-tipping at Bury St Edmunds Magistrates Court.
In a statement, he said the rubbish had been unlawfully dumped on his own land before he moved it, and he later paid Â£4,000 for it to be cleared up from the side of the road.
Jonathan Reed, prosecuting on behalf of Mid Suffolk District Council said he was pleased the court had recognised the "severity of the offences as well as the dangers to users of the highway."


Ireland's Katie Taylor will begin her Olympic title defence at the quarter-final stage after receiving a bye in the boxing draw for the Rio Games.

Lightweight Taylor will take on Finland's Mira Potkonen or Adriana Araujo of Brazil on 15 August.
Five Irish fighters have been handed byes including London 2012 medallists Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan.
Light-flyweight Barnes and fellow Belfast boxer Conlan, a bantamweight, begin in the last 16.
Barnes goes into the ring against Spain's Samuel Carmona Heredia or Armenian Artur Hovhassinyan on 8 August.
The winner between Armenia's Aram Avagyan and Arashi Morisaka of Japan will face Conlan six days later.
There were also byes for light-heavyweight Joe Ward and middleweight Michael O'Reilly.
Belfast flyweight Brendan Irvine meets Shakhobiddi Zoirov of Uzbekistan in the first round while Ballymena's Steven Donnelly fights Algerian Zouhir Keddache in the welterweight first round.
Lightweight David Oliver Joyce is also in first-round action, with Andrique Allisop of Seychelles his opponent.


A hearing has begun to consider overturning the verdict in Tommy Sheridan's defamation trial.

In 2006, he was awarded Â£200,000 in compensation to be paid by the News of the World's publishers News International.
The now-defunct tabloid printed allegations about the politician's private life which included claims he visited a swingers club.
The former Scottish Socialist party leader has always denied these claims.
The hearing at the Court of Session in Edinburgh has been brought by News International in the hope of having the verdict against them "struck down".
Three judges - Lady Paton, Lord Drummond Young and Lord McGhie - will hear legal submissions over three days.
Mr Sheridan, who was a Glasgow regional list MSP for eight years from 1999, was awarded compensation after winning the defamation trial in 2006.
However, in 2010 he was found guilty of perjury while giving evidence during the defamation case.
He was freed from prison after serving just over a year of his three-year sentence.
In submissions to the latest hearing, Alastair Duncan QC, representing the newspaper group, said that because Mr Sheridan was convicted of perjury, the decision of the defamation jury should be set aside.
He told the court that evidence had emerged which would have made it impossible for the original jury to say that the politician was the victim of defamation.
He added: "The verdict is unsafe because of the conviction. It is essential to the cause of justice for it to be set aside.
"We say that the verdict be set aside because its basis is contrary to the evidence which is before the court."
Mr Sheridan, who is representing himself, was also expected to address the court.


The boss of Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson, is offering his personal staff as much holiday as they want.

On his website, he said that his staff of 170 could "take off whenever they want for as long as they want".
He added that there was no need to ask for approval, nor say when they planned to return, the assumption being that the absence would not damage the firm.
Mr Branson said he was inspired by his daughter, who read about a similar plan at the online TV firm Netflix.
"It is left to the employee alone to decide if and when he or she feels like taking a few hours, a day, a week or a month off," wrote the billionaire.
"The assumption being that they are only going to do it when they feel 100% comfortable that they and their team are up to date on every project and that their absence will not in any way damage the business - or, for that matter, their careers!"
He added that he had introduced the policy in the UK and the US "where vacation policies can be particularly draconian". If it goes well there, Mr Branson said he would encourage subsidiaries to follow suit.
"We should focus on what people get done, not on how many hours or days worked. Just as we don't have a nine-to-five policy, we don't need a vacation policy," he wrote.
The blog is an excerpt from a forthcoming book.
Virgin Group employs more than 50,000 people around the world and operates in more than 50 countries.
Mr Branson started the company in 1970 and it has gone from a mail order record company to having businesses in telecoms, travel and financial services.


Police have searched an estate after the disappearance of the first white-tailed sea eagle to be raised in the east of Scotland in almost 200 years.

The male bird, which was raised in a nest in Fife last year, was fitted with a satellite tag before it could fly.
Police have made searches of Aberdeenshire's North Glenbuchat Estate where the eagle was last tracked to.
The owners of the North Glenbuchat estate are yet to respond to inquiries from BBC Scotland.
Police officers have spent the day searching property on the estate.
A Police Scotland spokesman said: "We are concerned for the welfare of a white tailed eagle and enquiries are ongoing to locate the bird.
"Around April 10, 2014, we became aware that the bird was missing from the Glenbuchat area of Strathdon as there were no further recordings from its transmitter.
"There is concern for the welfare of this very rare bird.
"As a result searches have been carried out in the area on both land and within premises."
In recent years, several satellite tagged golden eagles have also disappeared in the Strathdon area.
In 2011, the body of one of the birds was recovered at Glenbuchat. Tests showed it had been poisoned.
RSPB Scotland's Head of Investigations, Ian Thomson, said: "The disappearance of this white tailed eagle is very depressing, and particularly so since it joins a list of other satellite-tagged eagles that have vanished on the grouse moors of upper Donside in the last few years.
"It is significant that the only carcass found was that of an illegally poisoned golden eagle back in 2011.
"A police follow-up to that incident, on this same estate, found a poison bait, a poisoned buzzard and a shot short-eared owl.
"Four other satellite-tagged golden eagles have disappeared in the same area, without trace or further transmissions from the tag, in the last five years. This area has become a black hole for eagles".
In 2006, the then head gamekeeper on the North Glenbuchat Estate, Hector McNeil, was fined Â£850 at Aberdeen Sheriff Court after being convicted of poisoning wild birds and possessing an illegal pesticide.
In June last year, BBC Scotland revealed police were investigating the alleged destruction of a white tailed eagle nest in Angus.
It was thought to be the first nest to be built by white tailed eagles in the east of the country, following a reintroduction programme.
Police Scotland have asked anyone who was in the Glenbuchat area around 10 April and who may have any information to contact them by dialling 101.
The last British white-tailed eagle was shot in Shetland in 1918.
Since the 1970s, the species has been reintroduced to the west coast of Scotland.
Over the past six years, the focus has switched to bringing back the bird on Scotland's east coast.
More than 80 birds, taken from nests in Norway, have been released from a secret location in Fife.
The reintroduction project is run by RSPB Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and Forestry Commission Scotland.
It has cost Â£452,000 to date, with funding coming from the RSPB, SNH and the Heritage Lottery Fund.


The Africa Cup of Nations is all set to kick off on Saturday, 17 January.

12 January 2015 Last updated at 08:10 GMT
Ahead of what will be the 30th tournament of its kind, BBC Africa takes 60 seconds to tot up some of the facts and figures from previous years.
Produced by Baya Cat


It's another sign of the power of the head of NHS England Simon Stevens in shaping the political debate over health.

As I wrote over Easter, the £8bn identified by Mr Stevens last autumn as part of his proposed solution to a looming NHS funding gap had generated a mixed response from the leading parties.
Now it has fuelled a heated series of exchanges dominating the campaign debate.
To recap - Simon Stevens and other NHS leaders in England predicted a £30bn gap by the year 2020.
That's the difference between anticipated demand for health care from a rising population and a budget increasing in line with inflation and no more.
More than two thirds, they said, could be covered by efficiency savings, in effect seeing more patients and carrying out more procedures for a set amount of money.
But that still left £8bn above inflation, they argued, which the government of the day would need to stump up in 2020.
That figure would be reached, it was assumed, after a steadily increasing injection of cash over preceding years.
The Liberal Democrats said a little while ago they would find the £8bn if they were in office.
Some of this would be funded by identified tax measures, but the bulk of it would, in the words of Nick Clegg, come from the "proceeds of growth".
In other words the Lib Dems assume they will find the money if the economy is growing normally in the years leading up to 2020.
Now, after skirting around the subject and dropping various hints, the Conservatives say they will as a manifesto pledge commit to finding the £8bn in real terms in 2020.
Actually it will be "at least" £8bn and could be more, according to party sources.
There are no revenue-raising plans linked to this plan.
The Tory line is that voters can trust them to deliver next time on the back of their record of increasing NHS funding over the last parliament.
They say the NHS budget in England in 2015/16 is more than £7bn higher than in 2010/11 so finding £8bn by the end of the next parliament should not be a problem.
It's worth noting that the £7bn extra figure was reached over six financial years so over a longer time frame than a single parliament.
So where does that leave Labour? Unlike the other main parties it has not signed up to the Stevens financial numbers.
It is sticking with its pledge to raise NHS funding in England by £2.5bn a year from 2016, in effect making a start on the journey towards £8bn.
Labour points out it has specific tax-raising plans, including the mansion tax, which cover this spending commitment.
It argues this is real money and that the Conservatives and Lib Dems are guilty of promising "funny money" and making unfunded spending pledges.
The debate is in essence between "trust us, we can deliver" with a higher long-term spending pledge and a more cautious and funded shorter-run plan.
As always it will be down to voters to assess the arguments either way.
In the end £8bn could prove too small a government top-up for the NHS.
The efficiency savings talked about look extremely ambitious and may not be achieved.
And of course there could be unpalatable decisions about even deeper cuts in other Whitehall departments or tax rises to sustain cash injections required by the health service.
This issue includes NHS funding, GP access and social care, particularly of older people.
Policy guide: Where the parties stand


Cricket Scotland chief executive Roddy Smith has announced that he will leave the role at the end of December.

He is approaching the end of his 10th year in charge and thinks it is the right time to seek a fresh challenge.
Cricket Scotland chairman Keith Oliver said: "There is no doubt that the governing body of cricket in Scotland is unrecognisable from where we were in 2004.
"And the credit for this must go to Roddy and his staff."
During Smith's time as chief executive, his management team have increased from eight to 25 and turnover has quadrupled.
I am delighted that I leave an organisation in good health with a growing game and after a year of exceptional on-field performances by national teams at all levels
Cricket Scotland reported a rise in participation figures for players, coaches and umpires during those 10 years.
And the national side have secured a place at next year's World Cup finals in Australia and New Zealand by beating Kenya in a qualifying event.
Oliver, who has worked with Smith during that whole period, said: "Back then, we could not have imagined we would have won global qualifying events, played in world cups at youth and senior level, played One Day International games in front of thousands, run a fully professional national team as well as winning numerous development awards at a European and Global level.
"I and all at Cricket Scotland wish Roddy every success in his next role."
Cricket Scotland will start the recruitment process to find Smith's successor with the aim of having a replacement in place early in the new year.
Smith said: ''I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with Cricket Scotland and it's hard to believe it has been nearly a decade.
"I am delighted that I leave an organisation in good health with a growing game and after a year of exceptional on-field performances by national teams at all levels.
"Ten years is a long time for a chief executive of a national governing body and now feels exactly the right time to move on to my next challenge.
"With a Cricket World Cup to look forward to early next year and a number of newly-appointed quality staff to work with, I am looking forward to handing over to my successor an organisation that is very well placed to succeed in the future."
Cricket Scotland announced in June that it plans a new "world class" base in Stirling, relocating from Edinburgh, with a new pavilion at the home of Stirling County Cricket Club designed to host international matches.


Thousands of junior doctors and their supporters gathered in Leeds to protest over plans to change the terms of their contracts.

The government said the changes, due to start in August 2016, were to create a seven-day NHS and will improve safety.
Organisers of the protest, held at Victoria Square, said the "unfair" move would be "unsafe for patients".
Critics say it could mean high pay cuts with "normal hours" re-classed as being from 7am to 10pm, Monday to Saturday.
Extra payments for working unsociable hours will only be given outside of these times, rather than the current arrangements of 7am to 7pm, Monday to Friday.
Organiser Phil Atkinson, an anaesthetist from Leeds, said: "We genuinely believe that this contract will be unsafe for patients, unfair on junior doctors and threaten the future of the NHS.
"There was originally going to be a roadshow by NHS employers to explain the contract and to get our feedback, however it was all cancelled.
"So instead, we are at this event to publicise why we feel this contract is so bad for our patients."
He added the NHS's "most acute specialties" which provide 24-7 care would be "financially penalised" under the contracts.
Arka Das, a medical registrar, said: "One of the best things about Britain is a free national health service, something I'm proud to be part of.
"If it's really going to affect how much time I'm able to spend with my family and friends then I do need to think, for the first time, about where else I'm going to have to work."
Protests have already been staged in London, Manchester, Nottingham, Newcastle and Bristol.
Andrea Jenkyns, Conservative MP for Morley and Outwood, disagreed the changes would put patients at risk.
She said: "We realise that they're incredibly tired and work incredibly hard, so we are going to reduce the hours they are going to work and increase their basic pay - meaning we're increasing the overall pension contributions as well.
"When people are overworked they make mistakes, so I think that it's the right thing to reduce the hours to protect them and to protect patients."


More than 88,600 visitors attended an annual Welsh youth festival in Caerphilly county, up 2,300 compared with last year in Gwynedd.

Over 15,000 competed in categories including singing and dancing at the Urdd at Llancaiach Fawr in Nelson.
The Urdd began in 1922 to help young people learn and socialise in the Welsh language. It has become one of Europe's biggest youth festivals.
Next year's week-long event will be held in Flintshire.


Former Rangers owner Craig Whyte has gone on trial accused of a fraudulent acquisition of the club.

The 46-year-old faces two charges relating to the 2011 purchase, one of fraud and another under the Companies Act.
He has pleaded not guilty to both allegations.
Mr Whyte went on trial at the High Court in Glasgow on Thursday after a jury of eight men and seven women was selected.
It is alleged that he pretended to then Rangers owner Sir David Murray, and others, that funds were available to make all required payments to acquire a "controlling and majority stake" in the club.
The funds included clearing an £18m bank debt, £2.8m for the "small tax case" liability, a £1.7m health-and-safety liability and £5m for the playing squad.
The Crown alleges Mr Whyte had only £4m available from two sources at the time but took out a £24m loan from Ticketus against three years of future season ticket sales "which was held subject to an agreement or agreements being entered into between the club and Ticketus after said acquisition".
The second charge under the Companies Act centres on the £18m payment between Mr Whyte's Wavetower company and Rangers to clear a Bank of Scotland debt.
Mr Whyte is being represented by Donald Findlay QC, while Alex Prentice QC is leading the prosecution team.
After being picked, Judge Lady Stacey asked the jury to "consider matters" before evidence was to be heard in the case.
She said: "There has been some degree of publicity about Mr Whyte and Rangers - putting it at its broadest - over the last number of years.
"Do you know Mr Whyte? Do you know anyone personally who may be a witness?
"During May 2010 and May 2011 (time of charges), were you a shareholder, bond holder of season ticket holder of Rangers?
"Ask yourself is there any good reason why you cannot be an impartial member of this jury."
The judge also encouraged jurors to "put out of mind" anything they may have read or heard previously about the case.
After a short break, none of the men and women selected had to be excused.
The first witness is expected to give testimony on Friday when the trial continues.


The man who won The Gambia's disputed election says he will be sworn in as president at the country's embassy in neighbouring Senegal.

Adama Barrow also invited the general public to attend the ceremony.
Last-ditch efforts by regional leaders to convince Yahya Jammeh to quit as president failed overnight. They have warned they could remove him by force.
Mr Jammeh, 51, lost elections last month, but wants the results annulled citing errors in the electoral process.
Mr Barrow, who is also 51, made the announcement in a message posted on his social media accounts on Thursday.
The message said he would be "sworn in today at 4pm (16:00 GMT)".
West African military forces, stationed at the border, are ready to enforce a transfer of power in The Gambia, a popular beach destination among European holidaymakers.
UN Security Council backing for intervention is being sought by Senegal and the regional bloc Ecowas, but some diplomats said if Mr Barrow requested help after his inauguration such approval would not be needed.
At the scene - Thomas Fessy, BBC News, Banjul
It is eerily quiet in The Gambia's capital. Most streets are deserted; shops, petrol stations and banks are all closed. People are mostly staying home uncertain about what may happen as European tourists continue to evacuate their hotels.
In some areas, men are standing on the roadside, arms crossed or looking at their phones. Some told us they were waiting for President Jammeh to go and would take to the streets once Mr Barrow was sworn in this afternoon.
They said they wanted West African troops to come in as soon as possible. Some also told us they were worried about Mr Jammeh's actions should there be an offensive against him. But so far we have seen little presence of security forces in the city.
Could there be conflict? - Joseph Winter, BBC News
Hopefully not. The Gambia's army chief, previously seen as a close ally of Mr Jammeh, seems wary of action. "This is a political dispute. I am not going to involve my soldiers in a stupid fight. I love my men," the AFP news agency quotes Ousman Badjie as saying.
However, he has little influence over an elite unit of fighters, called the Gambia National Guard, who may opt to fight even if vastly outnumbered by the Senegalese and Nigerian forces as they are from the same ethnic group as Mr Jammeh. The Gambia's armed forces is said to number 2,500.
One key question is how ordinary Gambians see the Senegalese troops if they do cross the border. The Gambia and Senegal are made up of the same ethnic groups which were divided by colonial borders, so they speak the same languages and share the same culture.
However, a fierce rivalry has developed between the two nations, with many Gambians feeling they are looked down on by their more numerous, French-speaking neighbours.
So while supporters of Mr Barrow will presumably see any intervention favourably, there is also a danger that it could be seen as a foreign invasion force.
Why is Mr Barrow in Senegal?
Mr Barrow, a property developer who has never held public office, has been in Senegal since the weekend following an invitation to attend a summit of African leaders who back his victory.
He did not even go back home when his eight-year-old son died after being mauled by a dog. He missed the funeral on Monday as he was advised to remain in Senegal for his safety.
The president-elect tweeted and posted on Facebook that his inauguration would take place at 16:00 GMT at the embassy in the capital, Dakar.
He has joined at least 26,000 Gambians, fearful of violence, who have sought refuge in Senegal.
His spokesman says Mr Barrow's team is keen for a peaceful resolution, but accepts military intervention may be inevitable.
"Ecowas is on the side of President Barrow - and if he's sworn in obviously he has to be at the State House. If the other side refused then you are simply talking about a state of war," Halifa Sallah told the BBC's Newshour programme.
He said that President Jammeh had been given a letter promising that he would be given the same rights and privileges as Dawda Jawara, The Gambia's only other ex-president.
Why is Mr Jammeh refusing to stand down?
Mr Jammeh, who first came to power in a bloodless coup 22 years ago, initially accepted defeat, but later reversed his position.
The electoral commission has accepted that some of the results it initially published contained errors, but said they would not have affected Mr Barrow's win.
His legal challenge to have the vote annulled cannot be heard by the Supreme Court until May because of a lack of judges, so parliament has stepped in and extended his term in office by 90 days and imposed a three-month state of emergency.
Human rights groups accuse Mr Jammeh, who has in the past claimed he can cure Aids and infertility, of repression.
Retaining power would also ensure he was not prosecuted in The Gambia for alleged abuses committed during his rule.


The official chat forum for Valve's Dota 2 game has been hit by a hack attack, a security company reports.

Leaked Source said email addresses, user names and passwords for more than 1.9 million people had been stolen in the attack.
The passwords had been weakly protected by extra security measures, it said, and would be easy to crack.
The hack was revealed just as Dota 2's global tournament, The International, gets under way in Seattle.
More than $20m (Â£15m) in prize money is up for grabs for Dota 2 teams taking part in the tournament.
Leaked Source said the attack, on 10 July, had only now come to light.
The data taken was protected or scrambled using the MD5 hashing system to which was added a random element - a process known as "salting".
Despite this, Leaked Source said it had been able to convert more than 80% of the hashed and salted records back to readable text.
More than one million of the 1.9 million records in the dumped database were for email accounts at Google's Gmail service, it said.
And a significant proportion seemed to be disposable email addresses simply used to sign up for the forums.
Game-maker Valve has yet to officially comment on reports of the attack and the theft of credentials.
Brendan Caldwell, a reporter at the Rock Paper Shotgun news site, urged forum members to change their passwords, even if they did not use the site much any more.
He also pointed out that the forums for Dota 2 were separate from Valve's larger Steam gaming service.
"So you've only got a problem with your Steam account if you use the same password for both," he said.


A state funeral has been held for former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, who died last week.

PM Tony Abbott and former leaders Julia Gillard and John Howard were among hundreds at the ceremony in Melbourne.
Tributes were paid to the man who led the nation between 1975 and 1983, propelled to office by a major constitutional crisis.
Peter Nixon, who gave a eulogy, said the country had "lost a unique and great Australian".
Malcolm Fraser became prime minister after the unprecedented dismissal of Gough Whitlam by the governor general over a budget impasse - a move that shocked the nation.
"The only source of hatred for Malcolm was policy issues, not people," said Mr Nixon, who served as a minister in Mr Fraser's government.
"The fact that Gough and Malcolm, who were the leaders in the toughest political contest in the nation's history, came to respect and like each other demonstrates what big men they were."
Mr Fraser was seen as a champion of refugee rights, including the many from Vietnam who arrived after the war.
Members of Melbourne's Vietnamese community gathered outside Scots' Church to pay their respects.
"He means everything to us but mostly freedom for saving us from the refugee camp. It's a very deep loss for our community," Phong Nguyen told Australian media.
Malcolm Fraser died on 20 March, at the age of 84, after a short illness. After Gough Whitlam's dismissal, the Liberal Party leader went on to win three elections.
In office he introduced laws that returned land to Indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory, created Australia's family court and protected a major part of the Great Barrier Reef.
In later years, he became a staunch critic of his own party because of its policies on rights of Indigenous Australians and refugees - eventually leaving the party in 2010.
"There were no days in his life where he woke and ceased to care about current affairs," his son Hugh told mourners at the funeral. "His sense of responsibility endured to the end."


A registered sex offender who used his mobile phone to film a boy in a campsite shower has been sentenced.

Jac Grmusa from Treorchy, Rhondda Cynon Taff, pleaded guilty to 11 offences, including voyeurism and sexual grooming.
Merthyr Crown Court heard he filmed a 16-year-old who was attending the Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells in July.
Grmusa was sentenced to four years and eight months in a young offenders institution.
The court heard the boy reported the incident to the police and Grmusa was arrested.
His phone was examined and Grmusa was found to have used a gay dating app to contact a 14-year-old boy.
In grooming the child, Grmusa had met the boy three times.
Grmusa had used other apps to contact a 16-year-old boy who he had sex with. He also distributed images of young boys.
Speaking after the case, Det Insp Neil Jenkins, said: "Grmusa's conviction is the result of a complex and technical investigation.
"This excellent team work has resulted in a dangerous individual being taken off the streets and has no doubt prevented further harm to children."
An NSPCC spokesman said: "Grmusa used popular social media channels to target some of his young victims and commit serious offences against them.
"He did not care about the consequences his actions would have on vulnerable children.
"This case highlights once again that online safety is one of the major 21st Century child protection challenges, with the internet used as a gateway by abusers to commit hundreds of offences against children each year."


Militants have killed at least 16 people in a gun attack on a beach resort in southern Ivory Coast.

The attackers fired on beach-goers in Grand Bassam, about 40km (25 miles) from the commercial capital Abidjan.
The resort is popular with both locals and foreigners. Four of the dead were Westerners, including a French and a German national, officials say.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said it launched the attack. The gunmen have been "neutralised", officials say.
Ivory Coast was once one of the most stable countries in West Africa.
However, a civil war broke out in 2002, pitting the mainly Muslim north against the largely Christian south. Since then, peace deals have alternated with renewed violence.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) was quick to claim responsibility for the attack. It published its claim in four languages - a sign that the group was seeking to boost its media profile to match its recently enhanced operational capabilities.
The brief statement in Arabic, English, French and Spanish was published as an image on AQIM's Twitter account and through the messaging app Telegram.
The format resembled the style used by jihadist rivals Islamic State group (IS), indicating that AQIM wants to emulate IS's more advanced media operation.
AQIM said in the statement that three of its militants were responsible for this attack.
AQIM has been almost dormant in the past few years. But it stepped up its presence after announcing in December that it had partnered with the more active militant group al-Murabitoun which is known for high-profile hostage taking. This allowed Al-Qaeda to claim credit for al-Murabitoun' s hotel attacks in Mali in November and in Burkina Faso in January.
How a mother and her baby survived the attack
Profile: Al-Murabitoun
Africa Live: BBC news updates
A witness to Sunday's attack told AFP news agency that "heavily armed men wearing balaclavas" had opened fire near the L'Etoile du Sud hotel, which was full of expats.
One of the people on the beach, Belgian Charline Burton,  told the BBC she grabbed her daughter and ran to hide in a toilet.
"We could hear them shooting so we could hear that they were going right next to where we were. It was a miracle the baby didn't cry," she said.
Fourteen of those killed were civilians and two were soldiers, officials say. Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko said four of the civilians were Westerners, and included a French and a German national.
There is no word on the nationalities of the other victims.
Ivory Coast's National Security Council is holding an emergency meeting to discuss the attack.
President Alassane Ouattara visited the site a few hours after the attack and promised that security in the country will be strengthened.
"These cowardly attacks by terrorists will not be tolerated," he added.
French President Francois Hollande also condemned the attack.
BBC regional reporter Maud Jullien says Ivory Coast has been identified as one of several countries in West Africa at risk of being targeted by Islamist militants.
AQIM claimed deadly attacks on luxury hotels in Mali in November and Burkina Faso in January.
The group, which has its origin in Algeria's civil war of the 1990s, has expanded across the Sahel regions south of the Sahara in recent years.


A jury in the trial of a teenager accused of plotting a terror attack has been shown footage of him practising with a petrol bomb.

Michael Piggin, 18, is alleged to have planned attacks on targets in Loughborough, Leicestershire, including a mosque, a cinema and a school.
The trial was shown a video of the teenager spray painting hate messages and hurling a Molotov cocktail bomb.
He denies two Terrorism Act charges but admitted having explosives.
In the latest video shown to the trial at London's Old Bailey, Mr Piggin is seen spraying "No more mosques!" on a wall of Loughborough leisure centre on a path at the back of the building.
Another video shows him lighting a rag stuffed into a bottle full of fuel, commonly known as a Molotov cocktail, and then throwing it against the same wall.
The jury was told that at the time up to 12 children were using a creche in the building, which has an outside play area.
In the shaky video, Mr Piggin, who has Asperger's Syndrome, is seen walking over to the bomb and inspecting the flames, which lick up the wall of the leisure centre.
He can be heard saying "we are the URA, we just done a Molotov". Earlier in the hearing, the jury was told "URA" stood for the Urban Revolutionary Army.
Mr Piggin, of Beaumont Road, Shelthorpe, admits three charges of possessing explosives but denies possessing articles for a purpose connected with terrorism and having a document containing information likely to be useful for committing or preparing an act of terrorism.
He also denies possessing the Mujahideen Poisons Handbook, which is banned under terrorism laws.
The trial continues.


A 32-tonne tipper truck was too wide to be driven on the steep road where it crashed and killed four people, a court has heard.

Mitzi Steady, four, Robert Parker, 59, Philip Allen, 52, and Stephen Vaughan, 34, died in the crash in February 2015.
Bristol Crown Court was told the truck was too big to legally travel down Lansdown Lane in Bath.
Driver Phillip Potter, 20, of Dauntsey, denies causing the deaths by dangerous and careless driving.
His boss Matthew Gordon, 30, of Dauntsey, who was driving another truck in front of Mr Potter, also denies 14 offences while the truck company's mechanic Peter Wood, 55, of Brinkworth, denies four charges.
Prosecutor, Adam Vaitilingam QC told the court Lansdown Lane, which has a 6ft (1.8m) width restriction for HGVs, was known locally as a "rat run".
He said: "These two lorries were both a lot wider that 6ft - they were about 8.5ft (2.6m) wide - and they were not using Lansdown Lane for access - they were using it as a short cut.
"They were ignoring the prohibitions. These lorries were not allowed to be and should never have been on Lansdown Lane."
The jury heard tachograph records show the drivers had not taken mandatory breaks in the hours before the collision and both lorries were speeding as they approached Lansdown Lane.
Mr Vaitilingam said the ABS warning light, which indicates problems with the braking system, was on in Mr Potter's lorry meaning it should not have been driven.
Mr Potter and Mr Gordon were driving two trucks carrying 32-tonne loads from a Wiltshire quarry on 9 February last year when the crash happened.
The court previously heard the brakes of Mr Potter's truck failed and the vehicle hit several pedestrians including Mitzi and a car containing Mr Allen and Mr Vaughan, both from Swansea, and Mr Parker, from Cwmbran, south Wales.
Mr Potter is also charged with causing serious injuries to Karla Brennan and Margaret Rogers - Mitzi's grandmother - by dangerous driving.
He denies a total of 10 charges against him.
The trial continues.


Plans to place conditions on routine surgery for smokers and the morbidly obese in Devon have been dropped.

The Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (NEW Devon CCG) had proposed the plan to help cut a Â£14.5m deficit.
The Royal College of Surgeons, which was among the critics, said losing weight was not possible for some.
The CCG, which organises the delivery of health services, reversed the plan following feedback.
As part of cost-cutting measures announced in October, patients with a BMI of 35 or above would have had to shed 5% of their weight while smokers would have had to quit eight weeks before non-essential surgery.
What is morbid obesity?
On Thursday the CCG announced that it would not require patients to undergo weight loss or stop smoking.
Ben Bradshaw, former Labour health minister and MP for Exeter, welcomed the change of plan.
He said: "What we're talking about at the moment in Devon, and I think people need to understand this, is a wholesale rationing of healthcare in a way we've never seen in the NHS."
Dr Sarah Wollaston, chairman of the Health Select Committee and Conservative MP for Totnes, said: "These kinds of measures - if they are evidence-based and good for patients - then there is an argument for saying that we do them everywhere but that wasn't the reason this was being introduced."
A CCG spokesman said: "We announced a series of measures to improve health outcomes in October. This produced a helpful public debate which we have followed with interest.
"We have come to the conclusion that there is already a strong public acceptance of the need for people to continue to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing.
"We have therefore decided to further promote smoking cessation and weight loss services to improve outcomes for patients."
It said plans to change from using some branded drugs to more generic drugs, restricting hearing aids and second cataract operations would be subject to consultation.
The management of hernias and suspension of some treatments such as ultrasound guided injections also remained under consideration.


Final results for every event of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

Men's downhill
Men's combined
Men's giant slalom
Men's Super G
Men's slalom
Women's downhill
Women's combined
Women's giant slalom
Women's Super G
Women's slalom
Men's 10km sprint
Men's 12.5km pursuit
Men's 15km mass start
Men's 20km
Men's 4x7.5km relay
Mixed relay
Women's 7.5km sprint
Women's 10km pursuit
Women's 12.5 km mass start
Women's 15km
Women's 4x6km relay
Two man
Four-man
Two-woman
Men's sprint free
Men's sprint classic
Men's 15km
Men's 30km skiathlon
Men's 50km freestyle
Men's 4x10km relay
Women's sprint free
Women's sprint classic
Women's 10km
Women's 15km skiathlon
Women's 4x5km relay
Women's 30km freestyle
Men's (GB win silver)
Women's (GB win bronze)
Men's singles
Women's singles
Pairs event
Team event
Ice dance
Men's aerials
Men's halfpipe
Men's moguls
Men's ski cross
Men's slopestyle
Women's aerials
Women's halfpipe
Women's moguls
Women's slopestyle
Women's ski cross
Men's
Women's
Men's individual
Men's doubles
Women's individual
Team relay
Normal hill/10km
Large hill/10km
Team event
Men's 500m
Men's 1,000m
Men's 1500m
Men's 5,000m relays
Women's 500m
Women's 1,000m
Women's 1500m
Women's 3,000m relays
Men's
Women's  (GB's Lizzy Yarnold wins gold)
Men's normal hill final
Men's large hill
Men's team
Women's normal hill individual
Men's halfpipe
Men's slopestyle
Men's snowboard cross
Men's parallel giant slalom
Men's parallel slalom
Women's halfpipe
Women's slopestyle (GB's Jenny Jones wins bronze)
Women's snowboard cross
Women's parallel giant slalom
Women's parallel slalom
Men's 500m
Men's 1,000m
Men's 1500m
Men's 5,000m
Men's 10,000m
Men's team pursuit
Women's 500m
Women's 1,000m
Women's 1500m
Women's 3,000m
Women's 5,000m
Women's team pursuit


F1 team Marussia has ceased trading nearly two weeks after being placed in administration, making about 200 staff redundant.

Administrators FRP Advisory confirmed the Banbury-based team had folded after failed efforts to find a buyer.
Marussia will not take part in the two remaining championship races in Sao Paulo and Abu Dhabi this month.
Another struggling team, Caterham, has turned to crowd funding in an attempt to run in the final race.
Finbarr O'Connell, interim principal for Caterham, based in Leafield, Oxfordshire, said it needed to raise Â£2.4m.
He added: "I can't think of a better way to get us all together and show our support to the team than this."
Rewards for backers include having their names printed on a competing car.
Joint administrator for Marussia Geoff Rowley said the team's plight was "deeply regrettable".
It was placed in administration on 27 October and had been in talks with two potential investors.
An anonymous employee said staff were "very, very disappointed" and "quite bitter about it".
"Whilst the team made significant progress during its relatively short period of operation, operating a F1 team requires significant ongoing investment," said Mr Rowley.
"Sadly no solution could be achieved to allow for the business to continue in its current form.
"We would like to thank all the staff for their support during this difficult process."
FRP Advisory confirmed staff had been paid up until the end of October.
Marussia became the second F1 team to be placed in administration last month after the Caterham team also folded.


Curlew numbers in one of the birds' strongholds in southern England have experienced a "shocking decline", conservationists have said.

Figures released by Wild New Forest (WNF) show a two-thirds decline in breeding pairs in the national park over the past 12 years.
In 2004, about 100 breeding pairs were identified, compared with 40 recorded by volunteers in 2016.
Runners or dogs disturbing ground nests may be affecting breeding, WNF said.
The curlew, with its long down-curved bill, is Europe's largest wading bird and it typically nests in open areas of heath and bog at ground level.
WNF said if the New Forest curlew population continued to decline at a similar rate the species could become extinct in southern England within two decades.
Nationally, curlews are already included in the most at risk red category of the latest British Birds of Conservation Concern 4 list.
The Wild New Forest report said observers had located 19 nests during 2016 and although chicks appeared to have hatched at nine nests, others were clearly abandoned or the eggs had been taken by predators.
Nigel Matthews, head of recreation management and learning at the New Forest National Park Authority, said the curlew population was a "barometer for the well-being of wildlife" in the New Forest.
"Disturbance is likely to be a cause of the decline, it's vital that we do all we can to reduce instances of birds being startled by people," he continued.
The UK is thought to have about 68,000 breeding pairs with numbers falling nationwide.


Shares in oil companies weighed on the UK stock market as crude prices remained under pressure.

At the close, the FTSE 100 index was down 8.5 points, or 0.11%, at 7,439.29.
Shares in Royal Dutch Shell and rival BP closed slightly up after struggling earlier in the day as oil traded above $45 a barrel.
On Wednesday, the price of Brent crude oil had fallen to $44.35 a barrel, its lowest since November, although it recovered to $45.61 on Thursday.
Oil prices have been dragged lower by excess supplies on the global market, despite the efforts of the Opec producers' cartel to limit output in order to push prices higher.
Pharmaceuticals firm Shire was the top riser in the FTSE 100, up 3.7%, after the European Medicines Agency validated its marketing authorisation application for Veyvondi, which treats an inherited bleeding disorder called von Willebrand disease.
Outside the FTSE 100, shares in Imagination Technologies jumped 16% after the company put itself up for sale.
Imagination is in dispute with its largest customer, Apple, after the US tech giant announced earlier this year that it planned to stop using Imagination's technology in its products.
On the currency markets, the pound slipped 0.1% against the dollar to $1.2658 and was up 0.08% against the euro at 1.1355 euros.


Paralympic fencer Gabi Down has retired from the sport at the age of 17 because of a wrist injury.

Down was one of Great Britain's youngest para-athletes competing at London 2012 and she helped the women's epee team finish eighth.
She has just had a year-long break and does not want to risk surgery which would "leave me with scar tissue and potentially a worse injury".
"I still want to stay as involved with fencing as I possibly can," she added.


A rural broadband group planning to offer superfast net services in Oxfordshire has been told that the project cannot go ahead, the BBC has learned.

A similar project in Dorset was turned down last month.
It comes just weeks after a report criticised the government for wasting taxpayers' money by giving all of its broadband funds to BT.
Those involved are angry that BT will monopolise rural broadband rollouts.
Both Oxfordshire and Dorset county councils have signed contracts with BT to provide broadband services to rural areas.
These contracts mean that alternative schemes are no longer required.
Having competition in the broadband market is important, think experts.
"Some of the niche operators want to deliver better and faster services now, and don't understand how BT can win contracts on what they believe is a weaker product," said Sebastien Lahtinen, founder of broadband news site ThinkBroadband.
BDUK, the group set up by government to oversee rural broadband rollouts, has been widely criticised for how it has handled the process.
All contracts in England and Wales have been awarded to BT, which is providing so-called fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) services to the majority of UK homes.
Fibre to the cabinet provides fibre to the green street cabinets that are located in towns and villages around the UK but relies on old-fashioned copper connections to reach individual homes, meaning that the further a home is from the cabinet, the slower the service will be.
Most of the rival rural broadband providers want to roll out fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) services, which run fibre all the way to premises and are faster than FTTC.
As well as doubts about whether that is the best technology to use, there has been outrage that taxpayers' money has gone to a former telecom monopoly.
A recent report from the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said that the government needed to spend funds set aside to get superfast broadband to the last 10% of the UK more wisely.
As part of the process to get broadband to the really hard-to-reach parts of the UK, broadband groups were encouraged to bid for a separate pot of money, known as the Rural Broadband Community fund.
In July, Culture Secretary Maria Miller lent her support, saying that innovative broadband schemes like those in Dorset and Oxfordshire should "co-exist happily alongside the wider rural broadband scheme, led by BT."
The Cotswolds Broadband scheme aimed to provide fibre-to-the-home services to 5,000 premises in West Oxfordshire.
It was disappointed to find out that the scheme cannot go ahead.
"Oxfordshire County Council has supported this all along but has now decided it is not going to separate it from their contracted plans with BT," said Hugo Pickering, head of Cotswolds Broadband.
"We have already put in a whole lot of money and so the council may receive a compensation claim," said Mr Pickering.
Mr Pickering later
He believes his scheme would have offered better value for money for taxpayers because the majority of it is privately funded by residents and other interested parties.
"We only wanted 34% of state aid, which is much lower than BT, which in some cases is asking for 90% state aid," he said.
It is a point echoed by Steve Adamson, who runs a similar scheme in Dorset, aiming to run fibre networks along disused rail tracks.
"Our scheme offered fibre to the home, which is not what BT is offering. It was going to be better and it was going to be cheaper," he said.
"The decision was delayed until such time as the county council had signed its contract with BT. It became clear that BT intended to include the area we were going to cover leaving our scheme dead in the water."
A third rural broadband scheme, B4RN, that is already up and running in Lancashire, is waiting to hear whether it will qualify for Rural Broadband Community funding.
Chris Conder, one of the founders of B4RN, told the BBC: "There should be a level playing field and no cheating when it comes to taxpayers' money. BT is effectively stopping any innovation or competition and reducing the effectiveness of government support."
B4RN is due to meet with BDUK shortly.
Mr Lahtinen is not surprised that BT is dominating rural broadband.
"BT has an existing nationwide wholesale broadband platform and channel  which ensures consumers have a wide range of choice as to who they buy  their broadband service from," he said.
"Many councils are also likely to see BT as a 'safe option' as so many other councils have made the same decision."
In response BT told the BBC: "It is up to the local council to decide who they work with on rural broadband. Having said that, a key consideration is that any network which benefits should be open to all ISPs to use. That way, local monopolies are avoided and customers have choice.
"BT has spent huge sums developing systems that support such competition and it may be the case that small local operators can't meet those conditions and are therefore ineligible to receive public funds."


A look back at the top trending BBC Scotland stories that made the news on Twitter this year, from Brexit, to comets to Storm Barbara.

The year had barely begun when the sad news broke of the death of David Bowie. Among many tributes came this performance at Glasgow's Kelvingrove.
A stormy winter stretched from the end of 2015 into February, with Henry arriving to usher in the month.
February went out with a bang on the 29th, and incredible footage of a meteor over Scotland lit up Twitter on the first day of March.
Nessie was discovered in April, or at least a vintage film prop lying at the bottom of the famous Highland loch.
A couple the big beasts of Scottish comedy also made plans for a return in May, as Jack and Victor announced a new run of Still Game.
June's Brexit vote transformed the political landscape and brought people onto the streets in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The fallout from the Brexit decision brought talk of an indyref2 onto the agenda and new Prime Minister Theresa May was quick to play down the prospect.
Police Scotland's move to include a hijab in its official uniform choices was a big talking point in August.
A giant wasp was caught on a live feed of Reporting Scotland in September attacking Glasgow - well not quite.
Back to #indyref2, and in October First Minister Nicola Sturgeon set out plans to publish a consultation on an Independence Referendum Bill.
One from the archive did the business in November - looking back at how a young Andrew Murray began his journey to becoming tennis world number one.
And finally, it was a festive scene that caught the imagination towards the end of 2016, as Storm Barabara swept in on a Christmas tree in Dunoon.
For the latest news from around Scotland on Twitter you can follow @BBCScotlandNews.


Detailed plans for Southend United's new stadium have been lodged with planning officers, the club has confirmed.

Bosses plan to build the new ground at Fossetts Farm to replace the Roots Hall stadium.
The complex, if built, would include a 22,000-seat ground, a hotel and flats.
The club has wanted to move from Roots Hall for more than a decade because, boxed in at all sides by housing, it cannot expand.
The club said in a statement on its website: "This submission represents a major step in the future of Southend United Football Club and we now look forward to learning the decision of the council in the coming months.
"Should the council approve the submitted plans it would be the club's intention to commence construction without delay."
Southend Borough Council has yet to publish the plans on its website.


Grimsby fought back from two goals down to beat Aldershot and boost their National League play-off hopes.

Charlie Walker's deflected free-kick put the hosts ahead, before Giorgio Rasulo's shot doubled the lead.
Grimsby then took a 3-2 lead with goals from Padraig Amond, Omar Bogle and Nathan Arnold, before Rhys Browne fired in an equaliser for Aldershot.
But Jon Nolan's cross went over Shots keeper Phil Smith and into the net to earn the Mariners all three points.
The result keeps Paul Hurst's Grimsby side third in the table, seven points above sixth-placed Braintree.
Aldershot Town boss Barry Smith told BBC Surrey:
Media playback is not supported on this device
"I am just disappointed with the goals we conceded, but I thought the first-half the players showed that commitment and desire. The passing football we like to do and like to play made us score two great goals.
"In the second half we still played some good stuff and the boys still worked hard, but lapses of concentration in our box cost us.
"The players know who they are picking up in the box. Phil Smith has held his hand up for two goals and feels he could've done better, which is credit to him, but it's lapses of concentration."
Grimsby Town manager Paul Hurst told BBC Radio Humberside:
Media playback is not supported on this device
"First-half going in at 2-0 was very concerning because I asked them some questions and they were quiet.
"To drag themselves back into the game and get in front and then have the disappointment of going 3-3, but clearly there was some luck in the end with the winning goal from Jon Nolan.
"We've certainly earned some luck, we haven't had it recently and I'm hoping that's a change in that fortune. What a fantastic three points and reward for the fans that were not happy at half-time as we all weren't."