Lancashire's hopes of pipping Surrey to the Division Two title suffered a setback when the opening day of their game against Essex was rained off.

The decision that no play would be possible at Chelmsford was taken by the umpires at 14:15 BST.
The Red Rose county are eight points behind Surrey, and promotion has already been secured by both teams.
Alastair Cook is set to play for Essex before England's tour to the UAE, where they will play Tests against Pakistan.
Lancashire batsman Alviro Petersen:
"Losing the day's play was not great but there is still time to get a result.
"At the start of the season, if people had said we would get promotion and win the T20, we would have taken that but we are still hopeful of winning the division."
Essex captain James Foster:
"There's nothing you can do about the weather and the ground is extremely wet.
"But there are still three days left for play and we are keen to pit our skills  against a side who are guaranteed promotion."


Diego Costa could add a further historic flourish to a spectacular start to his Chelsea career in Sunday's clash with champions Manchester City.

The Spain striker has scored more goals - seven - in his first four Premier League games than anyone before him. Another goal for the Spain striker at Etihad Stadium could see him equal the record of eight - jointly held by City's Sergio Aguero and former Coventry forward Mick Quinn - for a player's first five outings in England's top flight.
On the evidence we have seen so far, and despite a nagging hamstring problem restricting him to a substitute's role in Wednesday's Champions League draw with Schalke, few would back against him getting more than one.
Considering his sensational form since his £32m move from La Liga champions Atletico Madrid this summer, the easy assumption is that Costa is a natural-born goalscorer who has always been a prolific marksman.
That is far from the case, however. Until just over 12 months ago, he had a very different profile and looked more likely to spend his career as a useful but problematic squad player rather than "one of the greatest strikers in the world", as Jose Mourinho recently called him.
Although Costa has always been a tremendously hard-working, committed and team-oriented player, for a long time goal-scoring was by no means his greatest strength - in fact, it was arguably his greatest weakness.
After leaving his native Brazil as a 17-year-old in 2006 to sign for Portuguese side Braga and then joining Atletico a few months later, he was sent on loan to no less than five different clubs and failed to set the world on fire. During his first six seasons in Spain, two of which were spent in the Segunda Division with Celta Vigo and Albacete, Costa's league-scoring tallies were less than impressive: 6-10-8-6-10-10.
With his loan spells doing little to suggest he would ever become a regular starter for Atletico, Costa came extremely close to leaving the club for good in the summer of 2011, a move to Turkish side Besiktas only falling through when he suffered an injury after the deal had been agreed.
In those early days Costa always had potential, and his sheer determination was greatly appreciated by his various managers, but he was also extremely raw and inconsistent - especially in front of goal.
But there is a simple explanation for the striker's late development: until the age of 16, he had essentially been a street player, receiving little in the way of formal coaching and playing virtually no organised football.
Whereas most young players develop their technique under the guidance of qualified coaches and the benefit of professional facilities, Costa learned the hard way on the streets of Lagarto, his small hometown in Brazil.
Rather than scoring feats, the statistics that caught the eye in Costa's early years were his disciplinary problems. The fiery forward received 49 yellow cards across five league campaigns between 2008 and 2013.
His street-fighting mentality and fierce ambition to establish himself as a successful professional was a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, it made him an incredibly hard-working and brave player with little consideration for his own personal safety. On the other, it made him a magnet for trouble, his unquenchable competitive spirit too often crossing the line into outright nastiness. At times, he appeared to be so busy looking for a fight he would forget to play football.
The most unpleasant manifestation came in February 2013, when he embarked upon a running battle in a match against Sevilla which concluded with opposing midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia receiving a red card for a stamp on Costa and later accusing the Atletico striker of racism.
A few weeks earlier, Costa had enraged Real Betis defender Antonio Amaya by aggressively mocking him for a mistake which led to an Atletico goal, leading Amaya to spit on him in a subsequent encounter and thunder: "Costa has no heart and no shame."
At that time, the Brazil-born striker was firmly established as public enemy number one for opposition fans and even his greatest admirers would have been forced to condemn some of his on-pitch antics.
His temperament was getting in the way of his talent.
The major turning point in Costa's career came in the summer of 2013 when Atletico accepted an offer from Monaco for Radamel Falcao, their leading scorer and attacking focal point.
Suddenly, Costa's role was transformed. Rather than serving as a physical foil for the Colombian's predatory talents, he was now the most important striker at the club, around whom the team's style would be constructed.
The additional responsibility presented a huge challenge, but it also brought a welcome display of confidence and immediately proved to be the making of a significantly improved player.
Another key factor was the huge influence of Atletico boss Diego Simeone, a fellow South American who knows a thing or two about successfully harnessing an aggressively competitive nature. He recognised a kindred spirit in Costa.
Simeone could regularly be seen yelling at Costa from the sidelines during games, beseeching him to calm down and avoid trouble. Motivating Costa has never been a problem, but Simeone managed to channel his energies in a more constructive manner.
He also played Costa cleverly with his media declarations, simultaneously reinforcing his confidence by regularly telling the world how good he was, while also keeping his striker focused by issuing public reminders that he still had a lot of room for improvement.
The combination of Costa's new importance within the team, his greater experience after a late start in the game and his relationship with the father-like Simeone turned him into a far more mature performer, thriving on his new status as Atletico's chief goal-getter.
Costa's rapid improvement saw him score 27 league goals, and 35 in all competitions, to spearhead Atletico's unlikely title triumph last season, and also moved Spain national boss Vicente Del Bosque to persuade him to switch international allegiances from his native Brazil.
After a long and fraught journey, Costa had finally arrived.
Despite his success over the past 13 months, can a player who never registered more than 10 league goals in a season until he was 25 really transform himself into a goal-per-game scorer?
History suggests that kind of dramatic improvement is rarely sustained in the long term, but one man who bucked the trend is former England captain Alan Shearer. The Newcastle legend (206 goals in 404 games) was not a particularly consistent marksman during his early days with Southampton (23 in 118 league games) but became a goal machine after moving to Blackburn (131 goals in 172 games).
Shearer has been impressed by Costa's exploits in England so far, telling Match of the Day: "He is looking the real deal. When it is not going as it should be for Chelsea, they have a goalscorer who can get them out of it.
"He is always available. He always wants the ball to feet and if you want to push him around and bully him, it is all right because he will do the same to you."
While Costa will never shy away from a physical challenge - one of the main reasons he has adapted so quickly to English football -  what will happen when English football adapts to him? Will Costa continue to be so successful when Premier League managers have worked out how to negate his strengths?
Costa's struggles on the international stage (he has not scored in seven appearances: two for Brazil and five for Spain) have done nothing to allay suspicions that he is a limited performer who can only thrive in a predominantly counter-attacking team.
Spain, of course, play in a very different manner, and after Valencia striker Paco Alcacer's goalscoring debut against Macedonia earlier this  month, Del Bosque now has to decide whether to stick with Costa or switch to a player, like Alcacer, whose abilities are more in tune with his team's short-passing, possession-based approach.
In Spain, many fans are currently siding with the latter option.
In contrast with his difficulties in establishing himself in the international arena, Costa is perfectly suited to the demands of English football.
With fans expecting their teams to opt for all-out attack rather than worrying about the space they leave behind, it's unlikely he will come up against too many of the deep-lying, disciplined defences that cause him trouble.
Instead, the physical and fast-paced style of the Premier League should continue to play to Costa's strengths, finding space in which to operate and bullying opposition defenders out of his way as he charges towards goal.
Chelsea, it is clear, have got themselves an uncompromising striker who will give every ounce of effort for the cause, and who has significantly improved both technically and mentally after struggling during the early part of his career.
Whether he maintains his prolific scoring rate remains to be seen, but the early signs are encouraging.


The MJM Group has agreed to buy the former Shackleton Barracks military base in Ballykelly, County Londonderry.

The firm, based in Newry, County Down, specialises in the fit-out of cruise ships and yachts.
It intends to use the Shackleton site for a new business fitting out private planes which it said will create an initial 100 jobs.
A spokesperson added MJM has a vision to expand that to more than 1,000 jobs as the 621 acre site is developed.
Shackleton was sold by the Northern Ireland Executive, which inherited the site from the Ministry of Defence.
Aside from fitting out planes, MJM is planning a rail carriage fit-out facility and an IT services centre .
Jarlath Quinn, the group chief executive, said: "Other business ventures under serious consideration by us is the development of a 60MW solar farm at a cost of Â£60m.
"In addition, we could also continue to facilitate the use of the site by film crews and would accommodate other business proposals from interested parties to help further develop the site to help achieve its full potential."
MJM is paying Â£1m for the site and fully developing it will take an investment many times that amount.
The group founder and chairman Brian McConville said the site presented an "enormous opportunity" which will benefit the local community.
"Growth is a must for our 'can do' attitude in the company, we must continue to grow" he said.
"By being awarded the Shackleton deal, this allows us now to create further facilities for the group to grow and expand on their worldwide trade for more business."
Mr McConville added that he was taken aback by the existing facilities on the site, including aircraft hangers and a runway, which his company will use for its new private planes venture.
"It's pre-built, it's all sitting there.  We were amazed to see such a facility," he said.
"The group has planned, in the years going forward, a massive investment in the area, we're going to create a lot of jobs."
Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said MJM has committed to providing a refurbished community building and outdoor recreation facilities.
He said proposals made by other bidders could also come to fruition.
"MJM Group will now develop the site so some of the other initial sale proposals could well be part of their plans, depending on commercial discussions and negotiations."
Another part of the Shackleton site is due to become the new headquarters of the Department for Agriculture and Rural Development.
That project received planning permission earlier this week.


Identity theft is reaching "epidemic levels", according to a fraud prevention group, with victims most likely to be aged in their 30s.

ID fraudsters obtain personal information before pretending to be that individual and apply for loans or store cards in their name.
A total of 89,000 cases were recorded in the first six months of the year by UK anti-fraud organisation Cifas.
That is a 5% rise on the same period last year and a new record high.
"We have seen identity fraud attempts increase year on year, now reaching epidemic levels, with identities being stolen at a rate of almost 500 a day," said Simon Dukes, chief executive of Cifas.
"These frauds are taking place almost exclusively online. The vast amounts of personal data that is available either online or through data breaches is only making it easier for the fraudster."
ID theft accounts for more than half of fraud recorded by Cifas, a not-for-profit organisation that shares fraud prevention tips between businesses and public bodies.
More than four in five of these crimes were committed online, it said, with many victims unaware that they had been targeted until they received a random bill or realised their credit rating had slumped. This would prevent them getting a loan of their own.
Fraudsters steal identities by gathering information such as their name and address, date of birth and bank account details.
They get hold of such information by stealing mail, hacking computers, trawling social media, tricking people into giving details or buying data through the "dark web".
I got a worrying insight into how our online activity can leave us open to identity theft when a security company offered to examine my digital footprint.
Its 30-page report showed that a lot of personal details that might be useful to a criminal were out there on public websites - but if you choose to have an online presence, that is quite hard to avoid.
Far more worrying was the presence in hidden corners of the web of some of my passwords for various accounts, harvested in some of the many hacking attacks on major online firms.
Luckily I had already changed those passwords, but the security researchers told me that anyone in the Western world who used the internet reasonably often was likely to have their details held in one of these data dumps. That information is up for sale on a number of criminal marketplaces.
Identity theft is big business and it is thriving on the dark web.
Victims are more likely to be in their 30s and 40s, often because a good deal of information about them has been gathered online.
The stereotypical image of a fraud victim is someone who is elderly and vulnerable, but the over-60s are the only age group that has seen cases fall this year compared with the first half of the year, according to Cifas.
The age group which has seen the biggest rise is 21 to 30-year-olds. This finding was mirrored in separate research by credit checking company Experian. It said that since 2014, it was increasingly likely that victims were male, aged in their 20s and living in London.
Cifas said it was important that employers needed to be alert to fraud, rather than just consumers. There had been a sharp rise in ID fraudsters applying for loans, online retail, telecoms and insurance products, it added.
"For smaller and medium-sized businesses in particular, they must focus on educating staff on good cyber-security behaviours and raise awareness of the social engineering techniques employed by fraudsters. Relying solely on new fraud prevention technology is not enough," Mr Dukes said.
Katy Worobec, from UK Finance, which represents the banking industry, said: "Tackling fraud and financial crime is a top priority for the industry. Banks have sophisticated controls in place to safeguard the financial system from fraudsters, and work closely with enforcement agencies and government to identify and disrupt criminal activity."
Anil Sharma found out the hard way that fraudsters had enough information about him to obtain new smartphones in his name. Not one but two mobile phone contracts taken out through a well-known high street retailer were posted to his Liverpool home.
He says the chain was quite dismissive of his plight and he was forced to contact the mobile networks to resolve the situation. One was more helpful than the other, Mr Sharma says, but ultimately both accepted that the contracts were taken out fraudulently and cancelled them.
As well as taking a good deal of phone bashing to resolve, the identity theft was also stressful - and affected his credit score as well. "It's very very worrying."
But how did the fraudsters obtain his details? Initially Mr Sharma thought it was the result of losing his wallet a couple of years ago, but Action Fraud says an online breach is the more likely culprit.
Source: Cifas


In an open space near the railway in the South African township of Soweto, several young men and women in their early twenties are smoking nyaope, a new drug cocktail.

Some look like the walking dead they are so stoned.
"I was studying but then I quit because of the drugs. I dropped out of school at 14," Thuli says through glazed eyes.
She says she sees no future for herself.
She is just 16 and hooked on an extremely addictive drug which is sweeping across this nation, seizing new victims every day.
Nyaope is a whitish powder - low-grade heroin mixed with ingredients such as rat poison and sometimes even crushed-up medicine for people with HIV.
Sprinkled on top of marijuana, it is a highly addictive, life-wrecking cocktail.
"I must smoke this thing; it's our medication. We can't live without it.  If I don't smoke, I will get sick," says another smoker, who did not want to give his name, as he breathes in a lung full.
Despite being high, these addicts all say they want to quit because they realise they have been imprisoned by a drug which is sending them down a dead end.
"When we were young we took marijuana first at high school and experimented with that before going onto the harder stuff," says Kabelo, a 32-year-old nyaope addict.
"These days the youth are starting with nyaope - straight in on the hard stuff."
Twenty-three-year-old Nomvula, rolling another joint with her pink nail-varnished fingers, says: "My family wants to help me. They think jail would be good for me as a rehab."
Costing just a little more than $2 (Â£1.25) a hit, it is relatively cheap.
But as lives crumble, users soon start stealing to fuel the habit.
They make enemies in their own family and among the normally extremely friendly community.
Ephraim Radebe, a recovering addict, said he was caught by people in the very next street to his home.
"They set upon me, beating me with bricks, saying I must die.  Then one man brought petrol and wanted to burn me," he said.
Mr Radebe says he was "sick and tired of being sick and tired" and has now managed to be clean for two months - much to the relief of his mother, whose life had become hell.
"When I came home, I would take off my earrings and put them in my bag," recalls Rose Radebe, Ephraim's mother.
"The next day morning they were gone. He would steal from me and even from my mother's home or the neighbours.
"This thing is destroying the parents even more than the child because every day you feel like: 'Where did I go wrong?'"
Even though it contains heroin, the drug nyaope is still in the process of being classified as an illegal substance and the government says this has hampered efforts to prosecute cases involving the drug.
There have also been reports of police officers working in cahoots with the dealers.
Whilst nyaope is mostly found in Gauteng Province around Johannesburg, a similar cocktail known as whoonga is available on the streets of Durban and communities in the Western Cape have been ravaged by the drug Crystal Meth, known locally as tik.
Following the rapid rise in drug addiction, the government has pledged to set up a rehab centre in each of the country's nine provinces.
"The department is funding a lot of non-profit organisations that are dealing with the drug issues," says Lumka Oliphant, spokesperson in the Department of Social Development.
"Our communication campaign has heightened, so people know the consequences of drugs and so that our children are educated, as they are the ones the drug dealers are targeting."
Judging by the speed at which nyaope is spreading among the community, it is abundantly clear that the government's intervention is woefully inadequate.
Soweto's main treatment centre is overwhelmed.
"Soweto is a very big area and I have only four social workers," says Ananias Mbewe, director of the South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (Sanca) in  Soweto.
"If I had sufficient funds I'd be able to employ new social workers and to retain the ones I have, especially the young ones."
"We must join hands again substance abuse.  It's a societal problem that affects everybody - the youth, adults.  It knows no colour and it knows no gender," says Mr Mbewe.
Sanca does not offer any in-patient treatment, which makes quitting harder.
"You take the medication there at Sanca and then you come back home and most of your friends are doing nyaope, so you get tempted easily to go back," one addict tells me.
Realising that sufficient help is not available, Mr Radebe and another recovering addict, Anwar Jones, are helping other addicts to stop smoking nyaope.
They find them where they are smoking or at the rubbish dumps where they look for something to sell to fund the next hit.
"I don't see myself as a human being," one young man says as he strips copper wire from an electrical appliance.
"But you are," shoots back Mr Jones, who has received some free counselling training from the Ubuntu Academy of Coaching and Training, U-ACT.
"And the change can happen.  The change will happen.
"We want to help you get clean, get reconciled with your families and have a better life."
A "Good Samaritan" has offered Mr Radebe and Mr Jones some support and by engaging help from Narcotics Anonymous, addicts are able to start the difficult road to recovery.
"I don't want to go to jail. The community should help us, so we can have a rehab for girls," says Thuli.
"I do want to stop but it's hard for me, it's really hard."


Ospreys kept alive their slim hopes of a top-six finish in the Pro12 with an easy bonus-point win over bottom side Treviso.

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Dan Evans, Dan Baker and Owen Watkin crossed for first-half tries to put Ospreys 21-3 ahead at the interval.
Olly Cracknell, Hanno Dirksen, Evans again and Ben John scored after the break, with Dan Biggar converting six.
Alberto Sgarbi got a consolation try for Treviso, who had Dean Budd sent off.
Ospreys had seen Wales forwards Paul James and Justin Tipuric together with Canada wing Jeff Hassler and South Africa centre JJ Engelbrecht ruled out for the season.
But they still had too much ability for the Italians, who remain stuck on a tally of just two victories in the Pro12 this season.
Evans got the scoreboard moving after just eight minutes as he stepped his way through some poor tackling from the 22.
Jayden Hayward knocked over a penalty in a rare bout of Treviso pressure, but Baker made the most of a rolling maul after 22 minutes to plunge over from close range.
Teenage centre Watkin then forced his way over with Biggar converting for the third time to make it 21-3 after 26 minutes.
But the Ospreys missed a chance to get the bonus point in the final minute of the first half, when Budd stripped Baker of possession on the line.
Budd and Robert Barbieri were yellow-carded in the opening stages of the second half as injury-hit Treviso were forced on to the defensive.
Cracknell sealed the bonus point after 53 minutes and the Ospreys swept back upfield from the kick-off with Dirksen finishing off a spectacular team effort for the highlight of the night.
Sgarbi pulled one back for the visitors with Sam Christie converting, but after Budd's second yellow card for a swinging-arm tackle, the Ospreys went back onto the offensive.
Evans and John finished off the rout in the closing stages with Biggar adding three further conversions.
Ospreys: Dan Evans; Hanno Dirksen, Owen Watkin, Josh Matavesi, Eli Walker; Dan Biggar, Rhys Webb (capt); Nicky Smith, Sam Parry, Dmitri Arhip; Adam Beard, Rynier Bernardo; Olly Cracknell, James King, Dan Baker
Replacements: Scott Baldwin, Gareth Thomas, Aaron Jarvis, Rory Thornton, Dan Lydiate, Brendon Leonard, Sam Davies, Ben John
Treviso: Jayden Hayward; Angelo Esposito, Luca Morisi, Alberto Sgarbi, Ludovico Nitoglia; Sam Christie, Edoardo Gori; Alberto De Marchi, Ornel Gega, Simone Ferrari; Filo Paulo, Jeff Montauriol; Marco Lazzaroni, Alessandro Zanni (capt), Robert Barbieri
Replacements: Cherif Traore, Matteo Zanusso, Salesi Manu, Dean Budd, Abraham Steyn, Francesco Minto, Chris Smylie, James Ambrosini
Referee: David Wilkinson (IRFU)
Assistant referees: Dan Jones, Martyn Lewis (both WRU)
Citing commissioner: Gwyn Bowden (WRU)
TMO: Tim Hayes (WRU)


British sprinter Bernice Wilson has failed in her appeal against a four-year suspension handed out after a positive drugs test in June 2011.

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The 27-year-old, who tested positive for two anabolic steroids, broke into the British team last year, competing at the European Indoor Championships.
Wilson blamed a contaminated sample for her positive test.
UK Anti-Doping chief Andy Parkinson said: "This sends a strong message to anyone looking to dope in the UK."
Lincolnshire sprinter Wilson tested positive for banned steroids testosterone and clenbuterol after running the 100m in 11.95 seconds at the Bedford International Games on 12 June.
Wilson won the Commonwealth Games 100m trials in 2010 only to miss out on a place in the England squad due to not meeting the qualifying time
She issued a statement in July calling for UK Anti-Doping, who administer drug testing in the UK, to withdraw the case and open an internal investigation to determine the cause of the contamination.
However, an independent National Anti-Doping Panel upheld the European Indoor 60m semi-finalist's four-year ban.
"We have successfully argued for a four-year ban which demonstrates that UK Anti-Doping always seeks robust sanctions against athletes who look to cheat the system and betray those around them," Parkinson added.
"[It] gives clean athletes the confidence that we are working hard on their behalf, within the framework of the World Anti-Doping Code, to protect their right to compete in doping-free sport."
Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador tested positive for Clenbuterol during the 2010 Tour de France, which he claimed was a result of eating contaminated beef.
Clenbuterol, similar to the asthma drug salbutamol, is used to treat breathing disorders as a decongestant and bronchodilator. It causes an increase in aerobic capacity, blood pressure and oxygen transportation, and speeds the rate at which fats are burned.
It is officially classified as a sympathomimetic steroid.


Huddersfield have signed New Zealand-born loose forward Sebastine Ikahihifo from St George Illawarra Dragons.

The 25-year-old former New Zealand Warriors player has been signed on a two-and-a-half-year deal.
Ikahihifo, who is set to make his debut at Magic Weekend on 22 May, joins a Giants team lying 11th in Super League.
Paul Anderson's side, who are being kept off the bottom only by struggling champions Leeds, have won just three of their 14 league games this season.
But they are into the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup after a 36-22 home victory over Leeds in the sixth round.
Ikahihifo, who joined Sydney-based Dragons from New Zealand Warriors last September, had to be released from a two-year deal with the Australian NRL side.
The signing of the 6ft 2ins forward, subject to international clearance, should bolster the Giants for the second half of the 2016 campaign, starting with their Magic Weekend meeting with St Helens at St James' Park, Newcastle.
"We have lost a number of players from the squad for various reasons," said Anderson. "Sebastine will bring size, maturity and grit to our pack.
"We have been looking for quality players for a long time now. I am really pleased that Sebastine has decided that now is the time for him to come to the UK and that we are the club of his choice.
"He is someone we have looked at previously but he wanted to remain in the NRL. Now that's changed we will welcome him with open arms.
"Final clearance is expected to be finalised any day now and will hopefully be completed ahead of Magic Weekend."


Madonna got justifiably - and unjustifiably - angry over claims made in a film script; Friends star Matt LeBlanc may prove to be the saviour of a British TV brand; the sad passing of Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme  - and much more...

Here's a round-up of some things you might have missed in the world of entertainment news this week:
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.


Gary Ballance scored a timely century on the opening day of Yorkshire's County Championship Division One match against Middlesex at Scarborough.

In the final round of matches before England name their squad for the first Test against Pakistan, Ballance, a potential candidate for a spot in the middle order, made an unbeaten 106.
With Alex Lees and Tim Bresnan each scoring 63, Yorkshire closed on 291-5.
Tim Murtagh took 3-61, but Steven Finn bowled 21 wicketless overs.
Yorkshire, second in the Championship behind Roses rivals Lancashire, were in danger of wasting sunny conditions after winning the toss.
Adam Lyth fell to Murtagh from the very first ball of the match and, even though his opening partner Lees found some much-needed first-class form, the hosts still slipped to 131-4.
But Bresnan, batting at six, joined Ballance for an entertaining partnership of 126.
After the all-rounder was bowled by the willing Murtagh, Ballance clipped the same bowler for successive boundaries to complete a chanceless century, his first three-figure score in the Championship since last August.


Scottish water voles have been found to travel enormous distances, enabling them to persist in fragmented habitats.

The large rodents travel around bogs, lochs and moors in order to join, or establish, new colonies.
Although the findings were based on a species adapted to a "patchy" environment, the work could help biologists understand how habitat fragmentation may affect other animals.
The research was presented at the British Science Festival in Aberdeen.
Water voles living in the north-west of Scotland live in small family groups of five to 10 individuals separated from other small populations by kilometres.
By studying the behaviour of the mammals, Prof Xavier Lambin and his colleagues from the University of Aberdeen discovered that far from remaining isolated, young members of the family groups wandered huge distances away from their "home" territory.
"We were astounded," Prof Lambin told the BBC.
"Those animals typically have a home range of a few hundred square meters, and we found them moving two to three kilometres, a few even moving 15 kilometres between [the site of] their birth and their first reproduction."
The vast journeys are extremely hazardous for the voles, during which they are exposed to predation away from the safety of their burrows.
The dispersal strategy appears to be very effective in allowing the voles to thrive in such small numbers and at such great distances from each other.
Individuals arrive at a "patch", wait five or six days to see if a potential mate arrives, and then move on if no other voles appear.
"They will hit the road, and again face predators and take the chance, and hopefully find another patch. They can do this for seven weeks - if they're lucky," Prof Lambin said.
BBC Nature: Watch baby water voles released into the wild
He told the BBC how he and his team employed a citizen science team of interested members of the public as well as members of the university to help monitor individuals and whether they were present in appropriate habitats.
"For the last 13 years, we've had a team of volunteers that roam the hills for six weeks a year, students and researchers. We visit all the patches that has habitat that would be suitable... Then we use capture-marking-recapture techniques with a little e-tag, and we also take a small piece of tissue from which we can extract DNA, so we can reconstruct the dispersal behaviour," he said.
The results from the work indicate the ability to travel large distances, creating links in a network of colonies, enables the mammals to persist at very low densities in the hills of north-west Scotland.
The researchers also concluded that the movement of voles from one patch of habitat to another spread diseases or pathogens to the newly explored areas.
But it also led to populations in danger of "crashing" being rescued by colonising individuals.
"It's actually this movement of individuals moving and colonising patches that lets these populations persist for long periods of time," said doctoral student Chris Sutherland who co-presented the research.
"It's a balancing act of the colonisation process when they move huge distances compensating for the fact that, because these populations are naturally small, they're more likely to go extinct," he said.
Although the water voles have evolved this behaviour in a naturally fragmented habitat, the research team hope their work will allow them to understand how important movement across corridors and between patches is for the survival of other species that find themselves in an increasingly fragmented world.
"Humans keep chopping up big pieces of landscape into smaller and smaller patches. And the ability of species to persist in those fragmented landscapes really requires them to be able to disperse and find each other," Prof Lambin said.
Professor Lambin and Chris Sutherland appear on the special British Science Festival edition of Material World broadcast on Thursday 6 September and will be available on the iPlayer.


Laura Robson won her first match in the main draw of a WTA tournament since 2013 as she beat Morocco's Ghita Benhadi at the Rabat Open.

Robson, 22, broke serve six times on her way to beating the 18-year-old wild card 6-1 6-1 on the clay.
The Briton's last WTA main draw win came in September 2013, before a wrist injury required surgery and put her out of action for 17 months.
Robson will play Hungarian fifth seed Timea Babos in the second round.
The former British number one is currently ranked 426th and has lost WTA first-round matches in Indian Wells, Miami and Charleston this year.
She beat world number 117 Klara Koukalova in Stuttgart last week but then lost in the final round of qualifying.
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In the space of 24 hours, Washington was the scene of two Americas.

President Trump's supporters came feeling they've just taken their country back.
The protesters on the women's march feel they have just lost theirs. It is that stark.
The mood at the march was determinedly cheerful, there were men, children and lots and lots of women. Grandmothers teaching their granddaughters the political ropes.
But the underlying message was clear - liberal America has just been shoved out of power.
These marches were enormous and they came out in cities across the country to repudiate not just Donald Trump, but his whole world view.
They didn't just protest about women's issues, there were also signs addressing his positions on climate change, healthcare and Muslims.
Can they change President Trump's agenda? Probably not.
But approval ratings matter - they are a form of political capital and when this many people really dislike the new president, that makes it harder for him to persuade members of Congress to support him on difficult issues.
The polls show us that Mr Trump is the most unpopular new president in American history. Those are the facts.
These marches put faces to those numbers.


Musician Jesse Rae has been told he will not be allowed into polling stations or the election count in the Borders if he carries his claymore.

The 63-year-old is rarely seen in public without the 5ft sword as well as steel helmet and tartan outfit.
He is standing as an Independent candidate in the Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk constituency.
Scottish Borders Council has informed him he cannot take the sword to the count or polling places.
Mr Rae, from St Boswells, is best known for writing the hit Inside Out for Odyssey in 1982 as well as his own single, Over The Sea.
He has stood a number of times for political office and is one of seven candidates for the Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk constituency.
He is up against the SNP's Calum Kerr, Conservative John Lamont, Kenryck Lloyd-Jones of Labour, Lib Dem Michael Moore, UKIP's Peter Neilson and Green candidate Pauline Stewart.
Returning officer Tracey Logan wrote to Mr Rae: "I must ensure that people are able to vote on the day without any perceived threat or risk."
A Scottish Borders Council spokesperson confirmed: "Mr Rae will not be permitted to enter polling stations or the count centre while carrying a claymore to ensure the safety of members of the public, presiding officers, poll clerks and other staff."
Mr Rae claimed the local authority was being small-minded.
He told the BBC Scotland website: "The letter is just tae try and humiliate me and embarrass me in front o' the press and media that they know will be at the count centre."


Few games in English football have provided more drama over the past 30 years than some of those in the play-offs.

There have been changes in format and final venues since their inception in 1987, but they are now a staple of the football calendar that offer delirium and desolation in equal measure.
To mark the 30-year anniversary of the play-offs, BBC Sport is asking you to vote on your most memorable Championship play-off final moment.
The online vote will take place during our live text coverage of the 2017 final between Huddersfield Town and Reading at Wembley on Monday.
Voting will start at 13:00 BST and end at 17:30 BST, and we will announce the winner shortly afterwards.
Here are the eight options to choose from...
1993: Swindon Town 4-3 Leicester City
Swindon had won the second-tier play-offs three years earlier, but were denied promotion to the top flight having admitted 36 breaches of league rules - 35 of them concerning illegal payments made to players.
They were back at Wembley in 1993 under player-manager Glenn Hoddle, who scored the first goal as Swindon went 3-0 up against Leicester.
Back came the Foxes. Julian Joachim, Steve Walsh and Steve Thompson all scored in a 12-minute spell to level the match at 3-3, and it took a late penalty from Paul Bodin to secure Swindon's promotion.
Four days later, Hoddle resigned to take charge of Chelsea.
1995: Bolton Wanderers 4-3 Reading (aet)
The English league structure was being reorganised in 1994-95, so only one team was promoted automatically from the second tier that season.
Reading, who had finished second in the table behind champions Middlesbrough, were 2-0 ahead after 12 minutes against Bolton and also had a penalty saved just before half-time.
Wanderers pegged them back in the closing stages, as Owen Coyle and substitute Fabian de Freitas sent the game into extra-time.
Mixu Paatelainen and De Freitas' second extended their advantage, although Jimmy Quinn fired in Reading's third before Bolton's promotion was confirmed.
1996: Leicester City 2-1 Crystal Palace (aet)
Steve Claridge developed a habit of scoring big goals for Leicester City. Less than a year before his 1997 League Cup final winner for the Foxes, he had sent them back up to the top division at the expense of Crystal Palace.
Garry Parker's penalty cancelled out Palace's opener from Andy Roberts, and the game was deadlocked until the final minute of extra-time, when Claridge found the corner with a shot from 20 yards.
Even Leicester manager Martin O'Neill had been expecting a shoot-out. Seconds before Claridge's winner, he had substituted goalkeeper Kevin Poole for giant Australian Zeljko Kalac, believing he would be a better bet at saving penalties.
Kalac did not touch the ball during his brief cameo at Wembley.
1997: Crystal Palace 1-0 Sheffield United
Crystal Palace got over the disappointment of their 1996 defeat by Leicester to go up via the play-offs in 1997 - and in similarly dramatic circumstances.
This time it was Sheffield United on the wrong end of some late Wembley drama, as Palace captain David Hopkin curled a shot into the top corner from 25 yards in the final minute of normal time to seal a 1-0 victory for the Eagles.
Palace have won four second-tier play-off finals, more than any other club.
1998: Charlton Athletic 4-4 Sunderland (aet, 7-6 pens)
Only two second-tier play-off finals have been settled by penalty shoot-outs - Birmingham beat Norwich in 2002, four years after Charlton had defeated Sunderland.
Clive Mendonca's superbly taken hat-trick for Charlton would have grabbed the headlines in any other year, but that was only part of the story.
Sunderland led three times but the Addicks would not be shaken off. It was 4-4 after extra-time, which meant penalties.
After 13 successful spot-kicks, Michael Gray's tame effort was saved by Sasa Ilic and Charlton were promoted at the end of a remarkable final.
2008: Hull City 1-0 Bristol City
Dean Windass saved one of his best goals for one of the biggest stages in English football, as he sent his hometown club Hull City into the top division for the first time in their history.
The 2008 final was a big occasion for the Tigers and their opponents Bristol City, who had gone 28 years without top-flight football and were one win away from a second successive promotion.
Hull-born Windass settled the contest with a stunning 20-yard volley from Fraizer Campbell's cross - one of the finest goals ever scored in a play-off final.
2011: Swansea City 4-2 Reading
No Welsh club had tasted Premier League football until Swansea City won promotion to the top flight in 2011.
They made a fast start against Reading and led 3-0 at half-time thanks to Scott Sinclair's double and a third goal from Stephen Dobbie.
Reading pulled it back to 3-2 and Jem Karacan hit the post as they searched for an equaliser, but Sinclair converted his second penalty of the game to complete his hat-trick and send Brendan Rodgers' Swansea up.
Mendonca, Sinclair and Preston's Jermaine Beckford (for Preston in the 2015 League One final) are the only players to have scored three times in a Wembley play-off decider.
2014: QPR 1-0 Derby County
QPR secured an immediate return to the Premier League with yet another last-minute play-off final winner against Derby.
Rangers played most of the second half with 10 men after Gary O'Neil was sent off for cynically bringing down Johnny Russell, who was bearing down on goal.
Derby had dominated the match before O'Neil's dismissal and there looked to be only one winner until Zamora's last-minute intervention.
Zamora, who had scored West Ham's winner against Preston in 2005, capitalised on a poor clearance by Rams defender Richard Keogh and, with QPR's only shot on target in the match, found the corner from 15 yards to guarantee promotion.
Want to tell us about your favourite play-off final moment? Get in touch using #bbcefl on social media and the best observations will be used in BBC Sport's live text coverage of the 2017 Championship play-off final.


The DUP leader is expected to say Stormont parties were very close to agreeing on the kind of Brexit they wanted, before talks paused last month.

Arlene Foster will make her remarks to a Eurosceptic thinktank in London.
Mrs Foster will say she is optimistic the parties can pick up where they left off, once the election dust settles.
The former first minister will tell the Bruges Group she is prepared to be flexible about the terms of any Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland.
She is also is expected to attack Jeremy Corbyn for refusing to single out the IRA for condemnation when pressed over his past campaigning activities.
The Labour leader said "all bombing is wrong", as he was repeatedly asked to condemn the IRA alone for its role in the Troubles.
Mrs Foster denounced those comments as "beyond the political pale".
The talks aimed at restoring the power-sharing executive were put on hold on 27 April until the general election is over.
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Secretary of State James Brokenshire extended the talks deadline until 29 June.
At the time he said some progress had been made, but that there were still a number of outstanding issues.
The political deadlock came after a snap Northern Ireland Assembly election on 2 March brought an end to Stormont's unionist majority and the Democrat Unionist Party's lead over Sinn Féin was cut from 10 seats to one.
The late Martin McGuinness quit as deputy first minister in January in protest against the DUP's handling of a botched green energy scheme.
Sinn Féin has said it will not share power with Mrs Foster as first minister until the conclusion of a public inquiry into the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme.


In a 2014 lecture to students at his former high school, Sean Spicer outlined a set of 17 "rules for life" that they would be wise to follow.

Rule number 16, he told the students at Portsmouth Abbey in Rhode Island: "Follow your mom's advice: It's not what you say, but how you say it. The tone and tenor of your words count."
The now White House press secretary also told students that they should be true to themselves. Rule number eight, was relevant here, he said. "Trust your gut. If it does not feel right, use caution."
With that guidance in mind, Mr Spicer's bellicose press conference with the White House press corps on Saturday suggests that the new presidential spokesman will not sugar-coat his words over the next four years.
While the press secretary-journalist relationship is naturally an adversarial one, Mr Spicer has, in his first few days in the role, already cast himself as being in open conflict with much of the mainstream media, pledging to "hold the press accountable".
This, it appears, is the frontline of a strategy that White House Chief of Staff Reince Preibus described as a will to "fight back tooth and nail every day" at supposed media efforts to "delegitimise" the president.
Mr Spicer, 45, is not a new hand at managing negative press coverage.
He previously served as spokesman and chief strategist for the Republican National Committee (RNC) and has long criticised coverage of his party and Mr Trump.
He took the post of communications director at the RNC in 2011, a time when it "was deep in debt and had a badly tarnished brand", according to the Republican Party website.
He is said to have helped turn around its fortunes by boosting the social media team, leading rapid response efforts to combat attacks, setting up an in-house video and production team and expanding the use of surrogates - people who can publicly appear on behalf of candidates, defend them and boost their appeal.
Trump attacks 'dishonest' media
How will US media cover President Trump
Mr Spicer has not shied away from criticising Mr Trump in the past. In July 2015, speaking on behalf of the RNC after Mr Trump questioned Republican Senator John McCain's status as a war hero, he said that there was "no place in our party or our country for comments that disparage those who have served honourably".
He also described Mr Trump's June 2015 comments about Mexican immigrants being rapists and criminals as not being "helpful to the cause".
Before joining the RNC, he worked as Assistant US Trade Representative for Media and Public Affairs in the George W. Bush administration: a role that involved promoting the kind of free trade that his boss now fiercely criticises as being unfair for the American worker.
Still, Mr Spicer was loyal to Mr Trump on the campaign trail even as the path-breaking candidate split the party and many Republican luminaries distanced themselves from him.
The broad-shouldered, compulsively gum-chewing Republican ("Two and a half packs by noon," he told the Washington Post) is a long-time member of the US Navy Reserve.
He received a Masters degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College in Newport in 2012 and is known to be fierce, and deeply competitive.
One editor who has been blasted many times by Mr Spicer told the Post that her young child recognises his voice on the phone and bursts into tears.
His wife Rebecca is the chief of communications at the National Beer Wholesalers Association and previously worked in the Bush White House after a career in television news.
As press secretary, Mr Spicer will serve as President Trump's most visible spokesman, and is expected to hold daily televised media briefings, though he has spoken of his desire to shake up the way White House media is managed.
While he has said that Mr Trump will do press conferences, he also wants to utilise technology to "have a conversation with the American people and not just limit it through the filter of the mainstream media".
He has also described White House press briefings as having become "somewhat of a spectacle".  Many would use that word to describe the first under the Trump administration.


Dubbed the "Princess" of Uzbekistan, Gulnara Karimova is known both for her pop star image as well as her political ambitions.

But an apparent fall from grace has seen her lift the lid on the secretive politics of one of Central Asia's most authoritarian states.
Viewed until recently as a potential successor to her father, the publicity savvy Ms Karimova has been using the micro blogging site Twitter to attack key figures and institutions of the Uzbek regime.
Her unprecedented actions come in response to moves apparently aimed at curbing her influence.
Apart from her artistic ventures, which have included a pop video with French actor Gerard Depardieu, Ms Karimova has built a reputation as a powerful businesswoman.
She has been closely associated with several TV and radio channels which routinely portray her as a philanthropist and patron of the arts.
Through her Fund Forum organisation Ms Karimova has organised a steady stream of public events, from charity mass weddings to the annual StyleUz art festival.
But her pervasive media presence has taken a sudden nosedive.
Last month a handful of TV and radio channels close to Ms Karimova stopped broadcasting. One media group was put under investigation on suspicion of financial wrongdoing.
The media blackout also hit Ms Karimova's showpiece event - the annual StyleUz festival - usually graced by international stars; both Jose Carreras and Sting have performed in the past.
But in contrast to the routine headline coverage of past years, state media gave the 2013 event the cold shoulder.
On top of that, the singer Lara Fabian pulled out after being criticised for agreeing to perform in a country known for human rights abuses.
The Fund Forum organisation running the event, and which Ms Karimova chairs, has since come under pressure from financial regulators.
In response Ms Karimova has lashed out on Twitter, an unprecedented move in the secretive country where the media are tightly controlled.
In a tweet from 13 November she claimed that men with assault rifles had ransacked the youth studio of one of the closed TV stations.
"People were beaten up," she wrote, adding that young people had been intimidated with fabricated cases of sabotage and anti-government sentiments.
But her most astonishing comments came when she accused the country's powerful security chief, Rustam Inoyatov, of masterminding the hostility against her and of aiming for the country's top post.
Responding to a tweet asking her if Rustam Inoyatov would seek the presidency, she tweeted: "He will! He is already fighting for it!"
She also accused Mr Inoyatov of threatening her and stopping her from running for president.
"This is what he said," she wrote. "We will not touch you if you lie low."
In other tweets Ms Karimova alleged that the security service is using threats, beatings and forced confessions, even against its own officers.
"They have already beaten up staff members to force them to confess to actions they did not commit," she wrote on 4 November, giving details of the beating of one officer who she claimed had his ribs broken.
She also wrote that officers had been targeted for blowing the whistle on illegal activities in the security apparatus such as drinking at work, racketeering and smuggling alcohol and cigarettes.
Such allegations chime with accusations by human rights bodies who say torture and mistreatment are systematic in Uzbekistan's justice system, something regime figures routinely deny.
Observers say the public outpourings have brought into the open an intensifying rivalry within the Uzbek elite with the question of who will replace 75-year-old President Karimov looming large.
Ms Karimova has long been seen as a leading contender, but a series of problems at home and abroad have undermined her.
Last year her name became embroiled with a wide-ranging money-laundering and bribery investigation in Sweden and Switzerland after several of her close associates became suspects.
This year the probe came closer to home with reports that her properties in France had been searched as part of the investigations.
In September her troubles became personal when her younger sister, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva revealed in comments to the BBC that the siblings had not spoken for years and the family was deeply divided.
Miss Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva also gave short shrift to her sister's chances of becoming president.
In an apparent response Ms Karimova accused her sister and mother of engaging in sorcery.
More broadly she has blamed the negative headlines on enemies trying to blacken her name.
But she is now facing much more serious threats.
Ms Karimova has alleged that there were attempts to shut down her Fund Forum organisation and that people were collecting negative facts against her.
Given her place in a regime notorious for choking off civil society organisations, her defence of NGOs and free speech seems startling.
"What kind of NGO's can operate in the country then? Maybe only docile and silent ones can?" she tweeted on 7 November.
Ms Karimova also wrote there had been attempts to poison her with mercury and that she was still receiving medical treatment.
The pressure has been telling.
Ms Karimova has distanced herself from any presidential ambitions, saying she was not interested in "that hellish post".
More recently she tweeted, "they want me to shut up already and leave".
Johannes Dell, BBC Uzbek and BBC Monitoring contributed to this article.


Dundee Stars head coach Marc LeFebvre hailed his team after picking up four Elite League points this weekend, but will worry about negatives later on.

An overtime win over Fife Flyers on Saturday was followed by a penalty-shots victory over Belfast Giants as the Stars went the distance and claimed all points available.
And after edging past title challengers Belfast, who clawed a 4-1 deficit to 4-4 to take the game into overtime, LeFebvre was understandably delighted.
"It's a huge four-point weekend and that's three wins in a row for us now after getting past the hell of a hockey team in Belfast," a jubilant LeFebvre said.
"We knew it was going to be a full 60-minute game against them, but full credit to our guys.  We found a way to win in overtime against Fife and we did it in a shootout against Belfast.
"It's two big wins and four points in a weekend and while Belfast put us under pressure late on, I'll look at that and any other negatives, when get back to work on Tuesday.  I just want to enjoy this."
Stars travelled to Fife Flyers looking for a top-eight spot and ended up going the distance with their Kirkcaldy rivals before taking both points in a 4-3 overtime win.
Felix Poulin's first was an equaliser from Justin Fox, before the Fife man added a second, which was then cancelled out by Vinny Scarsella as the teams were tied at 2-2 after the first period.
Joey Sides fired Stars in front in the second and the leveller from Brendan Brooks sent the game into overtime, where Poulin struck to clinch the two points.
Stars hosted Belfast Giants on Sunday, a team in the thick of the Elite League title race and did it again, taking victory in penalty shots after a 4-4 draw.
Mikael Lidhammar and Kevin Bruijsten put the Stars two up, with Jim Vandermeer pulling one back for the Giants before Bruijsten adding his second shortly after.
The night got better for the home team when Scarsella fired home a penalty shot to make it 4-1, but Giants' Derrick Walser clawed one back shorthanded in the final minute of the second.
The visitors got to within one of their hosts in the first minute of the third as Blair Riley scored with Belfast's second shorthanded goal to make it a nervy final period.
Riley struck again with a couple of minutes to go to tie the game at 4-4, with Dundee hanging on as the game moved into overtime then penalty shots, where Lidhammar was the only success.
Fife went to Edinburgh Capitals on Sunday and got back to winning ways as they completed a three point weekend to move to fifth in the Elite League table after winning 4-3.
Matt Sisca and Justin Fox put them two up before Ian Schultz pulled one back for Edinburgh.  Chase Schaber added a third, but Yevgeni Fyodorov pulled Caps to within one again.
Carlo Finucci's late finish effectively sealed the points, although a late one from Fyodorov for his second made the scoreline most respectable for the Caps.
The Capitals had two points in the bag from the weekend after visiting Braehead Clan on Saturday night, winning 3-2 as they looked to start clawing their way into the play-off reckoning.
Mason Wilgosh opened the scoring for the Caps, but Corey Cowick was on hand to poke home the equaliser for Braehead.
A bullet shot from Michal Dobron restored Edinburgh's lead, only for Matt Beca to restore parity for the home side.  However Yevgeni Fyodorov's winner in the second period proved enough.
Clan made their way to Manchester Storm on Sunday and it turned into a weekend to forget for Ryan Finnerty's men, who lost 6-3 after an early collapse in the third period.
Matt Beca and Scott Pitt put Braehead two up before Darian Dzuirzynski pulled one by the end of the first.
Storm blitzed their visitors in the third with a hat-trick from Jack Prince and two from Matt Bissonnette and although Mike Hammond got one back for the Clan, the game was lost.
Saturday
Braehead Clan 2-3 Edinburgh Capitals
Fife Flyers 3-4 (OT) Dundee Stars
Sunday
Dundee Stars 5-4 (OT) Belfast Giants
Edinburgh Capitals 3-4 Fife Flyers
Manchester Storm 6-3 Braehead Clan


The funeral of legendary Indian cartoonist RK Laxman has been held in the western city of Pune.

The government of the western state of Maharashtra has announced a memorial for the cartoonist, who was cremated with state honours.
Laxman died in hospital of multiple-organ failure, aged 94, on Monday.
He was renowned for chronicling Indian daily life and politics. His daily cartoon appeared in The Times of India for more than 50 years.
He was best known for his iconic "Common Man" character, an eight-foot-tall bronze statue of which was unveiled in Pune in December 2001.
"Laxman was not just a cartoonist. What he said through his cartoons will inspire future governments. Though he is no more, the Common Man he created will live forever," Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, while announcing the memorial for the cartoonist.
Top political leaders and media personalities attended the cremation.
By Soutik BiswasIndia correspondent
Laxman's daily cartoon in Times of India was known for lampooning political leaders, sparing no-one.
One of those caricatured by Laxman, former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, surprised the cartoonist by ringing him up, not to complain, but to request a signed copy of the cartoon to frame.
In 2005, the government honoured Laxman with the Indian civilian award Padma Vibhushan.
The youngest of six sons, Laxman began drawing as a boy but was turned down to study at Bombay's prestigious Sir JJ School of Art because, it said, he lacked talent.
He began working as a cartoonist in the 1940s, working for The Times of India from 1947 just as the country gained independence from Britain.


A US couple has praised the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) for finding their seven-year-old son after he went missing during a visit to Titanic Belfast.

Tim and Sarah Southwell from Hamilton, Montana, told the Belfast Telegraph what happened in a letter.
They said said they spoke to PSNI Con Jim Millar within 15 minutes of last seeing their son.
Mr Millar and fellow officers found the boy "a mile away from the museum".
The US couple said their son had "slipped away among the crowd at the Titanic museum" during a family visit earlier this week, as part of a three-day trip.
They said they contacted Con Millar over his lunch break at the Dock Cafe and explained what had happened.
"Without giving it a second thought Con Millar was up and engaged in priority one - finding our boy," they added.
"Con Millar displayed an air of calmness, professionalism and downright excellence as he went about engaging his network of fellow officers to implement a plan for locating our son.
"I was impressed with his compassion and inventive thought in implementing a plan of action."
The couple said that when their son was discovered 45 minutes later by the police officers he was "scared and shaken, but in good health".
They added: "We are forever grateful for their service and will look forward to another visit to this wonderful city in the years to come."
The PSNI's Ch Insp David Moore said the service was "grateful for the kind comments from the family".
"The neighbourhood police officers involved in the search acted quickly and professionally and were delighted to be able to reunite the family," he added.


A £38m flood defence scheme for Carlisle has been completed months ahead of schedule.

Three people died in January 2005 when 175mm of rain fell in just 36 hours, causing £250m of damage.
The flood alleviation scheme will protect about 3,000 homes and businesses around the city.
It includes miles of raised defences, two new pumping stations, 30 flood gates, two raised footbridges and seven CCTV cameras.
It is the result of close partnership work between the Environment Agency, Carlisle City Council, Cumbria County Council, United Utilities and local businesses.
Glyn Vaughan, from the Environment Agency, said: "We are extremely pleased to have delivered this major project for the people of Carlisle.
"Originally, the scheme was due to be finished in March 2011 but thanks to the tremendous support of everyone involved, we have managed to complete it almost a year ahead of schedule."


Jordan Williams scored twice to help Barrow extend their unbeaten run to six games and make it three consecutive defeats for Chester.

Ross Hannah's 19th goal of the season from close range put the home side ahead, but the lead did not last.
After half-time Williams broke through the defence and curled past goalkeeper Tony Thompson to equalise.
With five minutes remaining the forward then lashed in a wonderful low strike from 25 yards to seal the points.


The SNP has urged the prime minister to not "carry on regardless" with Brexit as it called for her to secure a UK-wide compromise.

Speaking during Prime Minister's Questions, SNP MP Angus Robertson said Holyrood had voted overwhelmingly against triggering Article 50.
But Mrs May responded by saying the Supreme Court had ruled Holyrood did not have a veto over Brexit.
She added that an independent Scotland would not be in the EU.
The Scottish Parliament voted by 90 to 34 to oppose the UK government starting the process to leave the EU during a largely symbolic vote on Tuesday.
And all but one of the country's 59 MPs has opposed the government's Brexit bill, which is due to complete its passage through the Commons on Wednesday evening.
Mr Robertson told PMQs that the prime minister had failed to keep her promise of securing "an agreed UK-wide approach" before starting the process to leave the EU.
The Moray MP said: "If the United Kingdom is a partnership of equals, will the prime minister compromise like the Scottish government and reach a negotiated agreement before invoking Article 50 or will she just carry on regardless?"
Mrs May said the UK government had a mandate to negotiate on behalf of all its nations, but insisted she was committed to working with the devolved administrations.
She added that Mr Robertson "constantly refers to the interests of Scotland inside the European Union, but an independent Scotland would not be in the European Union".
The exchange came ahead of the Scottish government's Brexit minister, Michael Russell, meeting his UK government counterpart for further talks in London as part of the Joint Ministerial Committee.
Meanwhile, the Courier has reported that the prime minister is preparing a "secret strategy" in the belief that First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will demand a referendum in August of next year.
And the Herald has published a poll which suggested support for Scottish independence increased after Mrs May indicated the UK would be leaving the single market.
The BMG survey of 1,067 adults living in Scotland, which was carried out between 26 and 31 January, put independence support at 49%, with 51% wanting to stay in the UK, when the "don't knows" were excluded.
But the poll also suggested that, once "don't knows" were excluded, 56% of those asked do not want another independence referendum before the UK leaves the EU, while 44% do.
A similar poll by the same company last month suggested 45.5% were Yes supporters and 54.5% backed No, almost the same result as the 2014 referendum.
Former SNP leader and Scottish first minister Alex Salmond, who has consistently predicted a referendum in the autumn of 2018, tweeted the latest poll alongside the words "Game on..."
Ross Greer of the pro-independence Scottish Greens said the poll "highlights the impact of Westminster's refusal to seriously consider Scotland's vote to stay in the EU or any compromise proposals which have been presented to them".
But the pro-UK opposition parties at Holyrood repeated their calls for the SNP to rule out a vote on independence.
Scottish Labour MP Ian Murray said the SNP was "fixated" on independence, but claimed that "people in Scotland are very clear that they don't want another referendum".
And Liberal Democrat MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton said the Herald poll showed no "meaningful shift" in support for independence and a "great reluctance among Scottish people to thrash this out again".
BBC Scotland's political editor, Brian Taylor, said Scotland appeared to be "almost certainly" heading towards an independence referendum next year.
But he believed it was "unlikely" that Ms Sturgeon would announce the date and details of the vote at the SNP conference in March.


Wycombe Wanderers have signed striker Craig Mackail-Smith on a one-year deal following his release by Luton Town.

Mackail-Smith, 33, was let go after scoring five goals in 18 appearances on loan at Peterborough last season.
The striker has scored 171 career goals during a career spent with Dagenham, Peterborough, Brighton and Luton.
"Craig could be the final piece in the jigsaw for us and I'm over the moon to bring him here," Wycombe manager Gareth Ainsworth told the club website.
"He's got talent and a pedigree which are above this level and I've no doubt he will strengthen the options we have in our frontline."
Mackail-Smith is Wycombe's fourth summer signing after Adam El-Abd, Nathan Tyson and Jack Williams and could make his debut against Notts County in League Two on Saturday.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.


The vulnerability of the Kingdom of Tonga to any rise in sea level is starkly evident from the moment your plane begins its descent.

From the air, the flat, small island of Tongatapu doesn't look much like land at all, with the astonishingly blue Pacific Ocean dominating the view.
But it is home to Tonga's capital, Nuku'alofa, and to the majority of the country's population - 70,000 or so out of around 90,000.
And for Tongans - who have lived here since the 9th Century, when the first settlers arrived by boat, the issue of rising sea levels and climate change is not just one for discussion at an abstract level - it proves a threat to their very existence.
Tonga's economy is weak - based to a large extent on remittances from expatriates, and on foreign aid.
Agriculture is mainly at subsistence level, and fishing - which is done by traditional spear - has lost some popularity over the previous decades, as cheap imported off-cuts of meats have replaced much of the traditional diet.
Highly religious, and well educated, Tongans' attachment to their fragile land is something evident in their pride and discussion of traditions and culture.
Tourism is barely visible on Tongatapu, where most land is owned by the King and the nobility (33 families).
Foreign investment is not much in evidence either; though what is evident is that many people from Tonga's 150 outer islands, which scatter over hundreds of miles of sea, are relocating to the main island as their own fragile habitats face an uncertain future.
These are often in informal settlements, which can suffer from a lack of infrastructure, and some of which are in tsunami "red zones".
Yet at Fafa Island Resort, a tiny, picture-perfect island merely 20 minutes by boat from Nuku'alofa, tourists enjoy the luxury of sleeping in a traditional Polynesian hut - right by the beach. Or they do - for now.
Vincent Morrish, who manages the hotel with his wife, points out the erosion that will mean the huts will eventually have to be moved back into the centre of the island.
"We're already having to move the restaurant and bar area back," he says, pointing out at what was once the beach, but is now between 5-10m (16-32ft) out to sea.
"We're fighting the inevitable," he adds, as he walks around the makeshift defences the resort has put in place to hold back the increasingly fierce tides.
When asked if in 100 years the island will still exist, he replies: "Absolutely not". And the tourists? It's a question not answered.
Mr Morrish says the kitchen was rebuilt further back from the water a year ago, and they'll be shutting in February to relocate the restaurant and the decking - otherwise, their guests will be dining in the water before too long.
Living by the sea is a proud part of Tongan culture and identity, with 80% of Tongans living right on the coast.
Yet rising tides and increasingly unpredictable weather is making life difficult.
Siali Lola Heeya the executive director of the Civil Society Forum of Tonga, a local non-government organisation, visits a road near the capital, where a coastal community with little infrastructure exists.
"This road was washed away by the rising tides," says Ms Heeya. We rebuilt it but it's going again."
The road is a thin strip of land separating a small swamp where mangroves have been washed away - leaving the land unprotected from winter cyclones - and a lagoon leading to the vast Pacific.
It is a stunning spot. A short distance from the road is a tiny speck of an island - just one tree remains.
Ms Heeya looks troubled as she points it out: "People used to fish from there - they used it as a base. It was a [proper] island not long ago."
The families dotted along this coast have few sources of income - and many still fish for their food - with spears - as they have done for millennia.
Do they fear the rising seas? Not necessarily, says Ms Heeya.
"Many people just accept changes here - nature changes - it is just part of life and they don't really have much choice.
"There are cyclones, there is a rising sea - but for many of us, getting on with life as normal is a way of not accepting the problem - and just coping."
But a problem it is.
Sione Fulavai is Tonga's senior climate finance analyst. He is in no doubt that the problem of small island economies vulnerable to changes in climate is urgent, and that the rest of the world is duty-bound to pay attention.
He is in Paris - along with many other pacific island states - at this week's UN climate change talks, where a legally binding agreement on carbon emissions is sought. What will he be asking?
"A lot of countries and governments are in Paris negotiating their economies - we're just asking for survival," he says.
"We don't want to become another extinct culture."
Does Mr Fulavai feel dwarfed by the size and might of other global economies on this issue?
"We're fighting against the dollar, against the poundâ€¦ we are tiny - we haven't got the size or the money - but we are suffering the most."
What about relocation? Something often talked about with small island communities. Relocation has already taken place within Tonga across its string of small islands.
Mr Fulavai is firm - relocating Tonga is unthinkable, and besides, where would the whole population of over 90,000 relocate to?
The nearest land is Samoa, Fiji and New Zealand. He says none of these are viable options.
"Where would we go? We are tied to our land - to our culture," he says. "Without our lands who are we?"


One was a finalist on MasterChef, another is a breast cancer nurse and a third has done three tours of duty in Afghanistan.

The six new MPs we have been following over the past two months have come from all walks of life and their reflections on life at Westminster have been fascinating.
If the pundits were surprised by the election result, so were many of the candidates. Former army captain Johnny Mercer - who this week has appeared half naked in an advert for Dove shower gel in the United States - was the unexpected Conservative winner for the seat of Plymouth Moor View.
It was such a surprise that he had not prepared an acceptance speech.
Fellow Conservative Maria Caulfield was also a surprise winner, prising the Sussex seat of Lewes from the Lib Dem veteran Norman Baker.
She comes from a working class background in South London and was only drawn into politics when the Labour government planned cuts to the hospital where she was working as a nurse before becoming a sister leading a team in breast cancer research.
She plans on continuing some of that work while she is an MP: "I think it's really important that I am able to dip in and see with what's happening in the NHS and so I can see for myself and hear from other nurses and doctors what life is really like and not just take it as something we're told here in Westminster."
Most of the 182 new MPs find the Palace of Westminster utterly baffling at first. It's something I remember myself as a rookie political journalist - I always seemed to end up in the House of Lords.
Jess Phillips. the new Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, told us: "I have only just found the ladies' toilets after three days.
"Hopefully it's going to get a bit better from here."
Johnny Mercer, despite all those years of orienteering in the army, constantly found himself in the kitchens.
"Rather disturbingly I always seem to end up in the kitchen which is slightly worrying, but I'm getting to know all the staff because I just ask one of them to and they point me in the right direction," he says.
"We're getting to know each other quite well."
For many of the new intake the traditions and customs of Westminster are intensely frustrating. Jess Phillips told us: "It's a silly place to work where people wear tights and carry swords."
The new SNP MP for Glasgow East Natalie McGarry can't stand the formality of the parliamentary conventions like addressing other MPs as My Right Honourable Friend.
She told us she was appalled to see a Conservative MP with his feet on the table next to the mace - or that "big gold thing" as she described it.
She also hates the uproar in the Commons.
"The Tories are particularly bad at it, it sounds like rutting pigs," she says.
"I was frankly astounded that this is a thing that they do, they sit with their feet next to the queen's big gold thing - the mace?  Yes the mace! It's been such a boys' club for so long that some of the conventions frankly don't belong in the 21st century."
But Johnny Mercer is disparaging about the SNP.
"There seems to be a fairly intense fight between the SNP and Labour for the other side of the chamber," he says.
"It's a bit of a pound shop 'Braveheart' really - trying to hang in there and kick out Dennis Skinner - so that's always amusing."
The new SNP MP for Edinburgh East, Tommy Sheppard, only joined the party a few months ago.
He was a Labour member for many years and ended up as a full time official as assistant general secretary in Scotland.
"If you'd asked me seven months ago I would have denied any intention of ever being here," he says.
He is clearly versatile - he runs several comedy clubs and was in the final of MasterChef.
"I  was robbed actually," he jokes.
"I think it was a political decision to be honest."
But he's got a new role now: "We've all been given a special brief to work on, mine is shadow spokesperson for the Cabinet Office which can mean everything or nothing.
"Someone once joked that it's a little bit like the director of 'better' from the W1A programme.
"It's not, it's not.  It's a very serious position."
Tulip Siddiq held the seat of Hampstead and Kilburn (Glenda Jackson's old constituency) for Labour by the narrowest of margins.
She knows her way around Westminster as she used to work here as a researcher. We caught up with her on the day of her maiden speech which is one of the initiation rites for new MPs.
But politics is in her blood. Her grandfather was the first president of Bangladesh and the current prime minister - Tulip's aunt - came to watch the speech.
Sheikh Hassina says "One day she'll be someone in this country - that I can predict it.  I'm really, really proud of her."
Johnny Mercer's maiden speech won high praise from the prime minister. He described how his best friend died in his own arms.
The former captain decided to become an MP to campaign on better treatment for army veterans based on his own experience, as he explained to us.
"One patrol commander I turned up to after an improvised explosive device explosion had seen two of his soldiers eviscerated in front of him essentially and this section commander was walking around almost in a trance - and so the effect is very, very real."
But those powerful real life experiences has meant he is in no fear of the whips and so is prepared to rebel if the government doesn't spend 2% of GDP on defence.
He said: "David Cameron has given personal assurances to the head of Nato and to some heads in the army that that 2% is going to be met.
"It hasn't been officially announced.  I personally would clearly like it to be seen to be met and if it's not I'll do everything I can to rectify that".
Tulip Siddiq is equally outspoken - she wants the mansion tax scrapped by her party and is defiant about high speed rail.
"I've made it very clear that I will be rebelling on something if the Labour Party puts a motion forward on [HS2] which I know that the Conservatives are also supporting but it destroys 300 homes near my constituency and I will be putting my constituency before the party in that case and so I think the whips are a little bit nervous about that."
And on one of the biggest issues facing the country - Europe - Conservative Maria Caulfield is also preparing to stand her ground. I asked whether she could imagine campaigning to leave the EU.
She replied "I personally could - I am quite a Eurosceptic.
"That's not to say that if David Cameron renegotiates an amazing deal, especially around the free movement of people, that I couldn't be persuaded to vote to stay.
"I probably will vote to leave, not 100% sure, I'd say about 80% sure."
Labour's Jess Phillips wants to use her experience as the director of a Women's Aid centre to challenge Michael Gove.
"I will be able to take him on having run Ministry of Justice contracts for the last five years," she says.
So what about the future? She is determined to keep a grip on reality.
"My biggest challenge in all this daunting regalia is to try and stay just me, just Jess, Harry and Danny's mum, you know, the woman who lives in Birmingham."


An 18-year-old man has been charged with murder after a man was fatally stabbed in Lancashire.

Michael Keen, 42, was found dead in a property on Hazel Avenue, Darwen, on Thursday.
A woman, 42, was also taken to hospital with stab wounds but has since been discharged.
Daniel Bamford, of Warrington, is also accused of section 18 wounding with intent and has been remanded to appear at Preston Crown Court on Monday.
Police said a post-mortem examination found Mr Keen died from multiple stab wounds.
Three males from Liverpool, aged 15, 16 and 43, who were arrested on suspicion of murder at a nearby address on Frances Street have been released without charge.
A further five males, aged 17, 19, 23, 33 and 44, have been bailed until 25 October.
The five had been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. The 17 and 33-year-old had also been held on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs.


A letter has been released showing that Arlene Foster wrote to the Scottish government to say allowing NI civil partnerships to be converted to Scottish same-sex marriages would mean legal "uncertainty".

Mrs Foster wrote the letter in 2015 when she was the Finance Minister.
She told the BBC last week she had no recollection of the letter to then local government minister Marco Biagi.
No correspondence had been sent in a personal capacity, she added.
At the time the Scottish government was bringing in legislation to allow a civil partnership made in another jurisdiction to be recognised in Scottish law as a marriage.
When asked about the letter by the BBC, Mrs Foster said: "I'm not quite sure what he (Mr Biagi) was referring to but it certainly wasn't a letter from me and I've no recollection of a letter from me.
"If I'd written to him officially as Minister of Finance or something like that around recognition laws here in Northern Ireland, I have no recollection of it. I certainly didn't write in a personal capacity."
Mrs Foster's letter came six months after her party colleague and predecessor Simon Hamilton wrote to Mr Biagi.
That letter has also been released, along with Mr Biagi's replies, following a BBC News NI Freedom of Information request.
The letters show that Simon Hamilton asked the Scottish government in March 2015 either to not exercise a power to convert non-Scottish partnerships or to exercise the power "in such a way as to exclude Northern Ireland civil partnerships".
Mr Biagi wrote back to Mr Hamilton stating that it was the Scottish government's intention to allow a civil partnership made in a jurisdiction outside Scotland to become a same-sex marriage.
Then in September 2015 Arlene Foster, who had succeeded Mr Hamilton as finance minister, wrote to say she shared her predecessor's concerns about the proposal.
She also argued that civil partnerships formed in Northern Ireland should be excluded from being allowed to become same-sex marriages in Scotland.
"In this instance we can achieve legal certainty by restricting the definition of a 'qualifying civil partnership' so as to exclude civil partnerships which were entered into in Northern Ireland," she wrote.


Australia won a second Olympic swimming gold medal on the opening day of Rio 2016 by setting a world record in the women's 4x100m freestyle relay.

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The Australian quartet of Emma McKeon, Brittany Elmslie, Bronte Campbell and Cate Campbell won in a time of three minutes 30.65 seconds.
The United States won silver, with Canada taking bronze.
Earlier, Mack Horton won Australia's first gold medal of these Games in the men's 400m freestyle.
Find out how to get into swimming with our special guide.
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Boris Johnson will focus his General Election campaigning on up to a dozen key London seats, including some the Conservatives believe they can gain as well as those where they look vulnerable to defeat.

London's mayor looks set to spend nearly all the campaign in the capital, dividing his time between target seats, City Hall and the constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip where he is standing to be the next MP.
That is contrary to reports he will be playing a major role across the country and comes after criticism he has been spending too much time already in recent months helping candidates in marginal seats outside London.
His involvement at the heart of the campaign also looks like being in contrast to what some saw as his detached role in the 2010 election.
Details of his schedule are yet to be finalised, but he is expected to make at least two visits each to battlegrounds such as Brentford, Croydon Central, Ealing and Acton and Enfield North, where polling suggests the incumbent Conservatives are struggling.
He will also be deployed in seats which the Tories believe they can gain, such as Hampstead and Kilburn from Labour, and Sutton and Cheam, and Twickenham from the Liberal Democrats.
Campaign visits will happen mainly in the morning before he resumes mayoral duties at City Hall during the afternoons.
Visits to Uxbridge are likely to be confined to Saturdays, Friday evenings and Monday mornings.
There has been some criticism that he recently opted out of a hustings in the constituency but City Hall said it clashed with a mayoral question time event in north London.
It is apparent the Conservatives are hoping to derive maximum benefit from the mayor's popular appeal, integrating him fully into their London campaign.
Some observers say the Tory campaign in 2010 suffered from a lack of cohesion between Conservative headquarters and Johnson's own team.
The mayor was one of three likely potential successors named by Prime Minister David Cameron this week.
This was seen as a further attempt to bind in a figure inclined to independent thought and action in the past - always potentially perilous during an election campaign.
For several months Johnson has been paying pre-election campaign visits to Conservative target seats around the country including in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Staffordshire, Yorkshire and Lancashire.
He recently flew to Devon for a pub lunch with one MP. Last week he was in Cheshire. On Thursday he is due to be in the Midlands.
There's been some criticism that the mayor has not visited several key London seats so far this year, but paid visits to the US and Kurdistan as well as these visits to support candidates around the UK.
The Evening Standard published a column with a headline accusing him of leaving Tory MPs "high and dry".
A City Hall source said the claim was "palpable nonsense".
A spokesman for the mayor said: "He will be continuing with a range of mayoral duties given his responsibilities for running the capital.
"During the campaign he will be in London for the vast majority of time."


One of five missing Hong Kong booksellers thought to have been detained by Chinese authorities has returned home, Hong Kong police say.

Lui Bo and four others associated with publisher Mighty Current, which produced books critical of Chinese leaders, went missing last year.
Mr Lui, the general manager of Mighty Current, disappeared on 15 October while in Shenzhen in southern China.
All five men later surfaced in custody of Chinese police.
The men appeared on Chinese television on Sunday, with four of them, including Lui Bo, saying they had been detained for "illegal book trading".
Public confessions have long been a part of China's criminal law although experts say many confessions are forced.
Hong Kong police said in a statement that they met Lui Bo on Friday.
Mr Lui told Hong Kong police he did not need any assistance from them or the Hong Kong government, and asked police to cancel the missing persons case related to him, they said.
"He refused to disclose other details," the statement added.
Pro-democracy lawmaker Albert Ho told AFP he believed Mr Lui "must be very scared", and that his request that police drop his case was "just to show the mainland authorities that he will keep quiet".
Hong Kong's missing booksellers and 'banned' Xi Jinping book
Causeway Bay Books, the Hong Kong shop owned by Mighty Current, closed following the disappearances.
The case has sparked accusations of China violating Hong Kong's judicial independence.
Two of the men, Gui Minhai and Lee Bo, were outside mainland China when they disappeared. Mr Gui was in Thailand and Mr Lee in Hong Kong - where Chinese police do not have jurisdiction.
Mr Lui's two other colleagues, Cheung Chi Ping and Lam Wing Kee, are also expected to be released on bail in coming days.
Mr Lui's release comes just a day before the opening of China's annual parliamentary session, the National People's Congress, in Beijing.
The UK has previously expressed concern about the disappearances. It said last month that Mr Lee, who has a British passport, was probably "involuntarily removed" to China in what would have been a "serious breach" of the Hong Kong handover treaty.
However, China's foreign ministry has said its officials would not behave illegally, and urged other countries not to meddle in its affairs.
Mr Lee was shown on Chinese state TV on Monday, denying he had been abducted by Chinese officials, and saying he would renounce his British citizenship.
However, his supporters believe the interview was done under duress.
1. Lui Bo, general manager, goes missing in Shenzhen, 15 October
2. Cheung Jiping, business manager, 32, goes missing in Dongguan, 15 October
3. Gui Minhai, co-owner, 51, goes missing in Thailand, 17 October
4. Lam Wingkei, manager, 60, last seen in Hong Kong, 23 October
5. Lee Bo, shareholder, 65, goes missing in Hong Kong, 30 December


A thriller about an abducted child and a biography of Lewis Carroll's Alice character are among the 20 titles up for this year's Costa Book Awards.

The nominated books are divided into five categories: novel, first novel, biography, poetry and children's book.
The category winners will be announced on 4 January, with the overall book of the year revealed on 26 January.
Kate Atkinson, who won the award in 1995 when it was called the Whitbread Prize, is also in the running.
Atkinson's A God in Ruins is nominated for the novel award, alongside Anne Enright's Booker-longlisted The Green Road.
The awards are open to authors based in the UK and Ireland and are worth Â£3,000 to each of the five category winners.
The winner of the overall prize, awarded last January to Helen Macdonald's memoir H is for Hawk, receives Â£30,000.
COSTA BOOK AWARDS 2015 SHORTLISTS
The Girl in the Red Coat, Kate Hamer's thriller about a kidnapped young girl, is one of two thrillers in contention for the first novel award.
The other is The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley, a debut novel that had a first print run of just 300 copies.
The other first novel nominees are Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume and Things We Have in Common by Tasha Kavanagh.
The latter, a former film editor who worked on such films as Twelve Monkeys and The Talented Mr Ripley, has published several children's books under her maiden name, Tasha Pym.
Andrew McMillan, Kate Miller, Don Paterson and Neil Rollinson are the four poets shortlisted for the Costa poetry prize.
No poet has won the overall book of the year award since the late Seamus Heaney was named the recipient of the 1999 prize.
The Story of Alice, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst's exploration of Lewis Carroll through the adventures of his most famous creation, is up for the biography prize.
It is shortlisted alongside books about 17th Century antiquarian John Aubrey, the Prussian explorer Alexander von Humboldt, and a house in Germany that was lived in by five different families.
Andrew Norriss, who won the 1997 Whitbread children's book award, is nominated for the Costa equivalent for his latest work, Jessica's Ghost.
He is the only male on a category shortlist completed by children's authors Frances Hardinge, Hayley Long and Sally Nicholls.
This year's nominees comprise 12 women and eight men in all, with ages ranging from 27 to 68.
"The quality and breadth of talent and writing in this year's lists is staggering," said Christopher Rogers, Costa's managing director.
Novelist Louise Doughty, writer Matt Haig and journalist Penny Junor are among the individual category judges.
Speaking on Radio 4's Front Row on Tuesday, literary critic Alex Clark tipped Enright - the first Laureate for Irish Fiction - to be overall winner of the 2015 prize.


A scandal-hit NHS trust which came under intense scrutiny over emergency call-outs has been issued with a warning notice by the health regulator.

South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (Secamb) has been told it must adequately manage NHS 111 calls in a timely manner.
It was also told by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to make improvements to several other systems and processes.
The trust said efforts to address the issues were already under way.
It follows an inspection by the CQC at the beginning of May.
At the time it was announced chief executive of the trust, Paul Sutton, had resigned after it emerged Secamb had run a secret and controversial pilot during which up to 20,000 patients had their ambulances delayed.
A review by Secamb said failings in how the trust was run led to the "high risk" project, which did not have approval from board members, the 111 NHS helpline or commissioners.
The trust has until September to address the immediate concerns highlighted by the CQC, including problems answering NHS 111 calls and the availability of kit, before a full report will be published later in the year.
Its action plan includes:
This warning notice is piling the pressure on the ambulance service.
A full inspection in May highlighted a range of issues, and this notice makes it clear some of those issues need sorting immediately.
Problems answering the NHS 111 service are perhaps the most worrying for inspectors.
Secamb is already  being investigated after it dodged national response targets to gain more time to assess some seriously ill patients.
In a pilot project during the winter of 2014/15 the trust delayed sending help for certain 111 calls and transferred them to the 999 system, thus gaining an additional 10 minutes to respond.
Here we are a year-and-a-half on and the NHS 111 system is still a major cause of concern for the CQC.
Add to that issues with kit, medicines, staffing, a temporary chief executive, a temporary chairman and a huge demand on their services from us - the public - and this is an ambulance service struggling to cope.
Acting chief executive of Secamb, Geraint Davies, said the trust was "sorry for not providing the service that the communities we serve should expect and deserve".
He said: "Along with the rest of the trust's executive team, our priority now is to focus on addressing the issues which the CQC has highlighted.
"We know that there is a lot that the trust needs to do to improve compliance with a number of systems and processes to ensure the safety of our patients.
"My aim is to restore public confidence and faith in our service."


UK service personnel who are unable to spend Christmas at home because they are deployed abroad have been sending messages home to loved ones.

The Ministry of Defence has released pictures of some wearing Santa hats and Christmas jumpers over their uniforms and taking part in carol singing.
Thousands of UK military staff are stationed around the world carrying out patrols and anti-terrorism work.
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon praised their professionalism.
About 1,000 personnel are involved in the campaign against the so-called Islamic State group, with the majority based at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.
In the Gulf, HMS St Albans and other Royal Navy warships are serving over the festive period.
In the South Atlantic, 1,200 are stationed in the Falkland Islands while HMS Protector is on patrol in Antarctica.
In Afghanistan, 450 personnel from the Army and other services are supporting Afghan National Security Forces.
Mr Fallon said: "This Christmas our brave servicemen and women are serving overseas and here at home to keep us safe, whether securing the skies, patrolling the seas, or leading in the fight against Daesh [Islamic State].
"I pay tribute to their determination, professionalism, and everything they have done this year."