Italy's Supreme Court has upheld jail terms for seven policemen and doctors for brutality against protesters at the G8 summit in 2001 in Genoa.

The sentences, ranging from one to four years, relate to the abuse of more than 250 people detained by police at the nearby Bolzaneto barracks.
The arrests followed clashes between anti-globalisation protesters and police at the summit.
But all of those held at Bolzaneto were later proved to be innocent.
They were released without charge.
In a separate incident during the summit, 23-year-old protester Carlo Giuliani was shot dead by a policeman.
Friday's ruling concerns a police raid at a school were protesters were sleeping and the subsequent detention of many of them at the Bolzaneto barracks.
The court confirmed the sentences handed to the policemen and prison doctors in 2010.
Many of those detained said they were physically humiliated and threatened with rape.
One of them told the BBC that he and dozens others were detained by police: "All of us were handcuffed, and made to stare at the walls. They (police) would pass and slap us in the neck, spit at us, insult us, threaten us.
"When you asked to go to the toilet, they would take you but - once there - kick you, push you to the ground.
"I was convinced they were going to kill us."
He added that a girl sitting next to him "had vomit all over her, and her face had been transformed by fear".
The police brutality at the Genoa summit generated headlines around the world, and several trials have been held since.


Great Britain's Adam Burgess won bronze in the men's C1 at the Canoe Slalom World Cup in Markkleeberg, Germany.

The 24-year-old clocked 101.76 seconds to finish behind Slovakia's Michal Martikan and Sideris Tasiadis of Germany in the third leg of the series.
Martikan took victory by 0.69 seconds on the Markkleeberg course to secure the 20th World Cup gold medal of his career.
"The manner in which I did it today is what I'm happy about," said Burgess.
"Third in the heats, third in the semis, third in the final. That consistency is what I had last year and it's what got me a lot of good results."
The fourth leg of the World Cup is in Ivrea, Italy from 1-3 September.
Women's K1
Ricarda Funk (GER)  103.85 (0)
Jessica Fox (AUS)  106.31 (0)
Eva Tercelj (SLO)  109.17  (0)
Men's C1
Michal Martikan  (SVK)  100.88  (2)
Sideris Tasiadis    (GER) 101.57  (2)
Adam Burgess  (GBR) 101.76  (0)


Ireland's two biggest parties may be closing in on an agreement allowing the formation of a minority government.

Water charges have been one of the main sticking points to reaching agreement.
Richard Bruton of Fine Gael told RTE there would be a suspension of water charges as part of the proposed deal.
He said people who had already paid their bills would have to be reimbursed if a decision were taken to abolish water charges.
Negotiators from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are to meet later to discuss the proposals, which could result in a Fine Gael-led minority government.
The deal would see an independent commission to consider the overall funding model for water supply and conservation matters.
Its recommendations would be put to a parliamentary committee, which would take its own proposals to the Dáil to vote on.
Water charges would be suspended for nine months to allow for this process.
Mr Bruton said Fine Gael did not win the election so it could not impose its policy on the Dáil.
Following the election, more than two months ago, Fine Gael had 50 seats, Fianna Fáil 44, Sinn Féin 23 and the Labour Party got seven.
But no party was able to form a majority government and TDs have so far failed to elect a taoiseach.


The daughter of one of the victims of fraudster Edwin McLaren says the conman is "pure and utter scum who preys on people who are at a low ebb".

The woman, who asked not to be named, told BBC Scotland her father had a major heart attack soon after he found out that McLaren had cheated him into signing away the ownership of his house.
She said: "His health has deteriorated quite badly since then and for the past five or six years he has been half the man he was.
"He's had two heart attacks and numerous in-patient stays. He just wants to curl up into a ball and die for what Edwin McLaren has done to him."
Her father had a house and had been looking to release cash to pay off debts and give to his children.
She said McLaren had seemed like a "knight in shining armour" but instead of a Â£30,000 equity release the paperwork her father signed was for the ownership of the whole house.
They only found out about it a few months later when they got a contract saying they were now tenants.
She said McLaren had appeared to be a "nice" man and her father had come to consider him a friend.
"I liked him to at the beginning but there was something that was not quite right and it niggled," she said.
"I did say to dad to go to a solicitor to get it checked out but because the trust was already there with Edwin he didn't want to do it."
She added: "I don't think dad should have gone into it lightly, I think he should have sought legal advice but that's when the confidence trickster part comes in.
"McLaren has this ability to make you feel loved, that you are part of his family and anything he does will be for your better quality of life."
She said she had never dealt with anyone as "charismatic" as McLaren and she herself got "rolled along" with his lies.
"Looking back, I wish we'd never met the man."
She said she now thought McLaren was a total "devil" who was "screwing with people's lives".
"He thinks he is above the law and he will get away with it and I don't think he should," she said.


US President Barack Obama has implicitly criticised FBI director James Comey over the new inquiry into Hillary Clinton's email use.

He said US investigations should not operate on the basis of "innuendo" or "incomplete information".
The FBI is now investigating new emails that may be linked to its probe into Mrs Clinton's private email server.
Mr Comey has faced a fierce backlash for announcing the move just 11 days before the presidential election.
Mr Obama's remarks are his first public comments since Mr Comey's announcement on Friday that the FBI had discovered a new batch of emails that may or may not be relevant to an earlier, closed investigation into Democratic presidential candidate Mrs Clinton's handling of classified information.
"I've made a very deliberate effort to make sure that I don't look like I'm meddling," Mr Obama said in an interview with website NowThisNew.
But he added: "I do think that there is a norm that when there are investigations we don't operate on innuendo, we don't operate on incomplete information, we don't operate on leaks. We operate based on concrete decisions that are made.
"When this was investigated thoroughly the last time, the conclusion of the FBI, the conclusion of the justice department, the conclusion of repeated congressional investigations was that she had made some mistakes but that there wasn't anything there that was prosecutable."
Who is ahead in the polls?
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Later on Wednesday, at a rally in North Carolina, President Obama urged Democrats of all ethnic backgrounds to get out and vote for Mrs Clinton.
He said her Republican opponent Donald Trump was a threat to hard-earned civil rights, the country and the world.
"The fate of the Republic rests on your shoulders," President Obama told the rally.
"The fate of the world is teetering and you, North Carolina, are going to have to make sure that we push it in the right direction.
"I am not on the ballot, but I tell you what - fairness is on the ballot; decency is on the ballot; justice is on the ballot; progress is on the ballot; our democracy is on the ballot."
It emerged in March 2015 that Mrs Clinton had been breaking federal rules by operating a private email server while she was secretary of state from 2009-13.
Her lawyers combed through the server and provided the state department with 30,000 work-related emails, but her campaign deleted another 33,000 messages, saying they were personal in nature.
Mr Comey concluded in July that Mrs Clinton had been "extremely careless" in handling classified information, but there were no grounds for any charges.
The latest emails were found in a separate investigation into allegations that former congressman Anthony Weiner sent illicit text messages to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. Mr Weiner is married to one of Mrs Clinton's closest aides, Huma Abedin.
The FBI has reportedly obtained a warrant to search the cache of emails belonging to Ms Abedin, which are believed to have been found on her estranged husband's laptop.
There are reportedly 650,000 emails to search through on the laptop, but it is unclear who sent or received the emails or what they were about.
Mr Comey and Attorney General Loretta Lynch have said they are working quickly to sift through the newly discovered emails.
Democrats have angrily demanded that the embattled Mr Comey rapidly make public what the agency knows about the new email trove.
On Sunday, the Democratic leader in the US Senate Harry Reid accused Mr Comey of violating an act which bars officials from influencing an election by revealing the bureau was investigating emails possibly linked to Mrs Clinton.


British Paralympic champion Kadeena Cox says she is focused on defending titles in two sports at Tokyo 2020 despite not knowing whether her medical condition will curtail her ambition.

Cox was one of the standout performers at Rio 2016, winning gold in both the athletics and cycling competitions.
The 26-year-old has multiple sclerosis, which affects the nervous system.
"I can have a relapse at any point that can throw me out," she said. "I hope it's a long time until it gets worse."
Cox, who is competing at July's World Para-athletics Championships, added: "I have severe relapses that put me in hospital. I'm unlucky in that sense. But I have a disease modifying treatment that manages it.
"I used to not plan ahead because of the condition I've got. But I've put that at the back of mind and not let MS control my life."
She said: "The aim is to be able to replicate in Tokyo what I achieved in Rio or even perform better."
Find out how to get into disability sport with our special guide.
Cox has had "up and down" periods in the year since winning Paralympic gold medals in the athletics T38 400m and cycling's C4-5 time trial, as well as two other medals in Rio's athletics events.
First, there was the issue over her appearance in Channel Four winter sports game show The Jump, which had resulted in a serious injury for former British gymnast Beth Tweddle in a previous series.
Cox had her funding taken away by British Athletics during her time on the show but has since had it reinstated.
"They put me back on it when I returned to training and showed form," she added. "I've got no complaints. They were supportive.
"No sport wants me to get involved in something dangerous. They wanted me to focus on London 2017 - but I needed a break from sport."
And last month, the Manchester Metropolitan University student had her Paralympic medals stolen from her car. However, after an appeal on social media, they were returned.
The Leeds-born athlete can now focus on the forthcoming championships and the build-up to Tokyo 2020, where once again she plans to compete in both athletics and cycling. She has, however, taken a year's break from cycling partly due to her "academic workload" and a work placement.
Cox is one of a handful of British athletes to compete in more than one sport at the Paralympics and Olympics.
Five-time Olympic cycling gold medallist Sir Bradley Wiggins is hoping to join that select bunch having announced he hopes to make the Great Britain rowing team for Tokyo 2020.
"He's a legend," said Cox of the 37-year-old. "As an athlete you have it in-built - he has to be a sponge and take in all the new information.
"Eventually you build up to being the good athlete that you are. He's a legend and will do well."


A man who threw a plastic beer bottle on to the track at the start of the men's Olympic 100m final has been found guilty of public order offences.

Ashley Gill-Webb, 34, of South Milford, North Yorkshire, was arrested at the Olympic Stadium on 5 August last year.
Gill-Webb, who also shouted at athletes including Usain Bolt, was found guilty of two public order offences at Stratford Magistrates' Court.
His lawyers had said he was suffering from a "manic episode" at the time.
District Judge Ashworth said he would limit the maximum sentence to a community-based penalty and granted Gill-Web conditional bail until the sentencing.
Gill-Webb was found guilty of intending to cause the 100m finalists harassment, alarm or distress by using threatening, abusive or disorderly behaviour, contrary to Section 4 of the Public Order Act as well as an alternative charge contrary to Section 5 of the act.
District Judge William Ashworth said: "The two charges relate to a period of two to three minutes before the start of the Olympic 100m men's final on August 5 2012.
"Mr Gill-Webb quite deliberately looked over his right shoulder and then round to look over his left shoulder to see if anyone was watching him and then stepped for concealment behind other spectators.
"Satisfied that he was not under observation, he threw the bottle very close to the competitors who were listening for the starting gun."
"The video, in my view, quite clearly shows Mr Gill-Webb checking to see if he is under observation before taking the risk of throwing the bottle.
"I am sure that he was at that point weighing up the chances of being caught before throwing the bottle in an effort to disrupt the start of the race and put off Usain Bolt.
"I am sure, therefore, that he was at that point acting rationally and wrongly."
The court heard Gill-Webb, who has bipolar affective disorder, managed to get into the Olympic Park and the stadium using an old ticket. But no ticket was found on him when he was detained by police.
He pushed his way through the crowd in the exclusive seating area close to the starting line from where he lobbed the bottle.
He was confronted by Dutch judo champion Edith Bosch after he threw the bottle. She heard him say "Bolt, I want you to lose", the court heard.
Other witnesses said he also shouted at other finalists, including Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake and Justin Gatlin of the US.
Bolt eventually went on to win the race in 9.63 seconds.
Gill-Webb did not give evidence at the trial and had denied the offences. But his DNA was later found on the bottle.
Following the verdict David Robinson, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS London, said: "Gill-Webb's decision to throw a bottle on to the track at the men's 100m final was reckless and irresponsible.
"This incident came close to disrupting the most-watched event of the 2012 Olympic Games, which was broadcast to millions of people across the world and for which many athletes had trained for years".


The British public must show "resolve" and "carry on with our lives" in the wake of the terror attacks on Paris, Prime Minister David Cameron says.

It comes as extra funding has been released for the UK's security services to help combat Islamic State terrorism.
Mr Cameron, who is meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, told BBC News he was hopeful of an agreement with Russia over the future of Syria.
It comes as the French prime minister said the attacks were planned in Syria.
Manuel Valls said the authorities believed new terror attacks were being planned in France and other European countries.
A total of 129 people, including one Briton, were killed in Friday's attacks on bars and restaurants, a concert hall and the Stade de France. So-called Islamic State (IS or ISIL) claimed it was behind the killings.
A minute silence for the victims will be held in the UK at 11:00 GMT, to coincide with a Europe-wide silence at midday French time.
UK reaction to Paris attacks: Live coverage
Paris attacks: Latest updates
Who were the victims?
Briton Nick Alexander from Essex has been confirmed dead and Home Secretary Theresa May said other Britons had been injured.
Mr Cameron said people should be "vigilant" against those who want to "change our way of life and destroy our way of life".
"Remember that our freedom depends on showing resolve and carrying on with our way of life, which is exactly what we ought to do," he added on Radio 4's Today programme.
Mr Cameron is meeting Mr Putin in their first face-to-face talks for a year, at the G20 summit in Turkey.
He said dealing with Russia over the future of Syria was "difficult" and that there had been some "profound disagreements", but added that Mr Putin recognised the threat IS posed to his country.
Civil war erupted in Syria four years ago, and now President Bashar al-Assad's government, IS, an array of Syrian rebels and Kurdish fighters all hold territory. Millions have been displaced and more than 250,000 people killed as a result of the fighting.
The new funding measures will allow MI5, MI6 and GCHQ to recruit an extra 1,900 officers, and a doubling in funding for aviation security is also expected to be agreed this week.
The funding for the 15% increase in staffing for the three intelligence agencies was revealed ahead of the publication of the government's Strategic Defence and Security Review, which is expected next week.
BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford said this was an increase on the number previously briefed to the media by the Treasury.
The intelligence agencies already have about 12,700 staff.
The extra funding for aviation security is expected to be used to pay for more experts to assess airport safety in countries with large numbers of British visitors, among other measures. The UK currently spends about Â£9m a year on this issue.
Lord Carlile, a former independent reviewer of terrorism laws, told BBC News Islamic State could be "exterminated" if there was international will.
"The Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon has been absolutely right in recent weeks in calling for parliamentarians to support more vigorous bombing of ISIL," he said.
"We must destroy them otherwise this will go on for a generation.
"If people start what is in effect a war then they must reap the consequences for people around them I'm afraid. This is not a group one can talk to or negotiate with."
Meanwhile, officers from the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command unit are interviewing people returning to the UK from France who may have information about the Paris attacks.
The Met is also appealing for any potential witnesses to contact its anti-terrorist hotline, on 0800 789 321.
Mr Alexander, 36, from Colchester, died in the attack at the Bataclan concert hall, where he had been selling merchandise.
His family described him as "generous, funny and fiercely loyal".
Friends also paid tribute to him on social media. Joe Trohman, lead guitarist of the rock band Fall Out Boy, described him as a "great guy".
Tributes: Nick Alexander 'clever and charming'
More than 80 people died at that concert hall, one of a number of locations targeted by attackers.
The US band Eagles of Death Metal were playing a gig when militants burst into the venue and opened fire, but the band themselves survived unscathed.
Other bands, including U2, Motorhead and Foo Fighters, have cancelled gigs in Paris.


Prospective Labour leaders have clashed over Labour's record in government in their first public debate in the race to succeed Ed Miliband.

Former cabinet ministers including Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham defended Labour's fiscal record and spending on schools and hospitals.
However, candidates from the 2010 intake of MPs argued that the party spent too much while in office.
The debate followed Chuka Umunna's withdrawal from the leadership contest.
The remaining candidates appeared at the annual conference of the Progress think tank in London.
There was agreement that Labour needed to demonstrate economic credibility to regain power, with shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt telling the meeting that the party needed to be "trusted with public finances and the family finances".
Mr Hunt, who was first elected to Parliament in 2010 when Labour lost power, argued the last Labour government "spent too much" and failed to "leave enough economic headroom to deal with the economic crisis and the recession".
Shadow health minister Liz Kendall said: "There's absolutely nothing progressive about spending more on debt interest payments than on educating our children."
But shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: "The Tories have had a triumph of spin over the facts in saying what they said about the economic record of the last Labour government."
The former chief secretary to the Treasury said the deficit did "grow too large" in the government's later years but insisted: "The last Labour government ran more surpluses in its first term than the Tories did in 18 years."
Yvette Cooper, another former chief secretary to the Treasury, said: "We should never let anybody tell us that it was too many teachers, doctors or nurses that caused Lehman Brothers bank in New York to crash."
Shadow international development secretary Mary Creagh said: "People have forgotten the economic credibility that the last Labour government had."
She said Labour had built schools and hospitals that were "treasured in our communities".
Ms Cooper, Mr Burnham, Ms Kendall and Ms Creagh have declared their intention to run for leader, while Mr Hunt told the conference he would make an announcement next week.
At the same event, shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint announced she would be running for deputy leader.
The Don Valley MP told the Today programme ahead of the debate that Labour lost the election because "fundamentally the public did not trust us on the economy".
Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw has already announced a bid to be deputy, saying Labour "must and could win the next election", but only if it "broadens its appeal by adopting sensible, centre-left politics which celebrate wealth creation and entrepreneurship".
Former Labour campaign co-ordinator Tom Watson is reported to be crowd-funding a deputy leadership bid, while Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy has said she is "open to the question" of running.
Barnsley East MP and shadow transport secretary Michael Dugher - a fierce critic of Ed Miliband's election campaign - is to run Mr Burnham's campaign, according to the website LabourList.
It is reported that Mr Burnham also has the backing of Labour peer Lord Falconer, who was lord chancellor and justice secretary under Tony Blair and was close to the former PM.
Shadow culture secretary Chris Bryant has signalled his backing for Ms Cooper, tweeting that the next leader must be "someone who's been tried in the fiery furnace of public opinion".
Mr Hunt said on Friday he would be be attending the debate - along with the other four hopefuls - to "set out my analysis on how we begin to understand what went so wrong and why".
He added: "We must use this leadership election to ask some very profound questions.
"All voices in the party must be heard so that we can have a full and proper assessment as to why the politics of nationalism triumphed in Scotland and huge swathes of England, and how we have allowed the Conservative Party to present a more compelling vision for Britain to so many millions of people."
Speculation still surrounds shadow business secretary Mr Umunna's decision to pull out on Friday, when he said he was not "comfortable" with the "pressure" of being a candidate.
As well as citing extensive pressure and scrutiny Mr Umunna also said he was ruling himself out because of concerns about the impact of the bid on his family.
A rising star of the party, Mr Umunna was first elected to Parliament in 2010 - alongside Tristram Hunt and Liz Kendall - before joining the shadow cabinet.
Asked about the candidate who might win, Conservative Chancellor George Osborne said: "The Labour leadership contest has descended into farce.
"But it's not actually about personalities. I don't think the Labour Party any more represents the working people of this country who aspire to a better life."


A logistics company has confirmed it is investigating after six members of staff were taken to hospital with suspected carbon monoxide poisoning.

A further 33 people at the Kuehne and Nagel depot in Draycott-in-the-Clay, Staffordshire, were seen by paramedics.
Two men and two women were taken to hospital in Burton-upon-Trent, and a man and a woman taken to Royal Derby Hospital.
The firm said "they are not in immediate danger".
More on this and other stories from Stoke and Staffordshire
West Midlands Ambulance Service said it was called to the site in Ashbourne shortly before 13:00 GMT on Monday after a woman reported feeling ill and it "quickly became apparent" she was suffering from the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Ambulance officials said: "A number of other patients then began coming forward. Ambulance staff worked quickly to assess them all in order to establish the severity of their conditions."
A spokeswoman for Kuehne and Nagel said a "thorough investigation" is under way.
She added: "A number of people were given oxygen at the site and six were taken to hospital as a precautionary measure."


An oil painting given to Hollywood icon Vivien Leigh by Sir Winston Churchill is to be sold at auction this year.

The artwork, Roses In a Glass Vase, was painted by the wartime prime minister and shows flowers he picked at his country home, Chartwell, in Kent.
It was given to the Gone with the Wind actress during a supper he hosted in 1951 to celebrate the birthday of her husband, actor Sir Laurence Olivier.
The painting is on display at Sotheby's from Monday.
Expected to fetch Â£100,000, it is part of a sale in September of a collection of Leigh's belongings including jewellery, couture, books, furniture, porcelain and art.
Leigh, who kept the painting on the wall opposite her bed, said it gave her "the determination to go on".
She said: "Whenever I feel particularly low or depressed I look at those three rosebuds.
"The thought and the friendship in the painting is such a great encouragement to me."
Sotheby's said the auction would see the spotlight fall on the screen star's private side.
Frances Christie, head of Sotheby's modern and post-war British art department, said the painting revealed a deep and long-lasting friendship.
"Churchill's gift of a still life or roses to Vivien speaks volumes about the respect and regard he felt for her," she said.
"Theirs was not a passing acquaintance, but a friendship that endured for more than 20 years."
She said Churchill inspired Leigh to begin painting herself and the pair shared "mutual solace in an activity where they found a refuge from all the trials and tribulations of daily life."
Leigh and Churchill met in 1936 on a film set when she was a little-known actress and Churchill was an established politician.
They remained friends until he died in 1965. Leigh died two years later.


The Northern Irish accent is notoriously hard to mimic, and actors Timothy Spall and Colm Meaney are the latest big screen stars to test their mimicking mettle in The Journey.

The biopic about the relationship between politicians Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness premiered at the Venice Film Festival this month.
London-born Spall and Dubliner Meaney join an acclaimed cast of actors who have tried to perfect Northern Irish pronunciation - with mixed success.
BBC News NI trawled through the cinematographic archives to bring you five memorable attempts:
5. Natascha McElhone - Ronin (1998)
The English actress took on the role of Belfast IRA operative, Deirdre, who is part of a team of hired mercenaries in Paris trying to steal a mysterious and heavily guarded briefcase.
Unfortunately for McElhone, her accent kept flip-flopping from a heavily southern Irish dialect to the actress's own dulcet tones.
But she wasn't alone at messing up the accent.
4. Sean Bean - Patriot Games (1992)
Sean Bean's version of the Northern Irish accent dominated Patriot Games - in a bad way.
The movie also stars Harrison Ford, who plays retired CIA analyst Jack Ryan. His family witnesses a terrorist attack on the Northern Ireland secretary of state.
Who's responsible for the attack? Sean Bean, of course, doing his best (or worst) Belfast accent as a member of the Provisional IRA.
There are several other Northern Irish accent attempts by other actors in the film that would make viewers cringe, but Bean's was just the one that stood out the most.
3. Brad Pitt - The Devil's Own (1997)
Now of course, it wouldn't be fair to lay all the focus on actors who can't seem to grasp the way Northern Irish people speak. Many English and Irish actors have failed at doing American accents over the course of film history.
But for veteran US actor Brad Pitt, who has managed various accents throughout his career, it seems the Belfast brogue was just too much to master.
He played Belfast IRA man Francis "Frankie" McGuire, who leaves Northern Ireland for the United States and ends up exchanging gunfire with (guess who?) Harrison Ford.
Natascha McElhone also makes an appearance in the movie... maybe she decided to star in Ronin the following year to have her own go at the accent.
2. Richard Gere - The Jackal (1997)
Acclaimed American actor Richard Gere certainly didn't have the worst Northern Irish accent ever heard on film, but the veteran star didn't exactly do a great job either.
He plays Declan Mulqueen, a former IRA sniper (are you seeing a pattern here?) who the FBI turn to for help to identify an assassin known as the Jackal.
If only Gere had turned to someone for help with his accent.
1. Tommy Lee Jones - Blown Away (1994)
We've saved the best for last - sorry, Tommy Lee Jones. While he's renowned for his role as one of the Men In Black, his performance in Blown Away only lives on because of his poor Belfast accent attempt.
The American actor plays a convicted Northern Irish terrorist, Ryan Gaerity, who escapes from prison and heads to the United States to seek revenge on his old friend and former IRA member, Liam McGivney, now living as a bomb squad officer in Boston.
Both he and Jeff Bridges, who plays McGivney, fail to master the Northern Irish twang.
From the stereotypically Irish names, to the Irish dancing scenes, it is worth a watch even just for a chuckle.
Northern Irish accents have two major historical influences acting on them that make them unique from those of the Republic of Ireland or elsewhere.
These are from Scotland and from the English North and Midlands. This means that anyone trying to sound as if they are from Ulster needs first to move away from sounding generally "Irish", adopting some distinctly home-grown features instead.
They have to wrestle with a complication in whether vowels are pronounced "long" or "short": for example, vowel sounds tend to be drawn out before "v", "th", and "z" sounds, but to be short when they precede the sounds "p", "t", and "k".
All this means that an actor cannot get away with simply sounding "Irish" if they need realistically to represent Northern Irish speech.
They need a good voice coach who can alert them to a raft of features that are the product of complicated social and political forces acting over a long period, that have regional and social variations and that are constantly changing.
It can be done and it can be done without studying the huge volume of technical literature which experts have produced to describe the subtleties.
But only the really gifted actor, advised by an equally gifted tutor, can be expected to master it.
It seems the Northern Irish lilt is not just tough to master, it's also not very popular.
In 2005, a survey of accents for the BBC found that the most unpleasant voice was that of the former DUP leader, Ian Paisley.
However, it wasn't all bad news. The BBC Voices survey said people from Northern Ireland were also the "most proud" of their accents.
Maybe that's because they're the only ones who can do them properly.


The police investigation into the Shoreham air disaster in which 11 men died is 95% complete, a pre-inquest hearing has been told.

Det Supt Adam Hibbert told the hearing in Crawley a file was being submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service.
Sussex Police has been investigating pilot Andy Hill, 53, for possible manslaughter by gross negligence.
The date for the full inquest into the 2015 crash, which saw a jet plummet on to the A27, has been set for next year.
Live: More on this story and other news from Sussex
Det Supt Hibbert told the hearing that a "conservative estimate" was that 25,000 documents in relation to the police investigation were now held on the force's database.
"We continue to talk with the families and I'm extremely grateful for their continued support and patience in what continues to be upsetting circumstances for them all," he said.
Mr Hill has been questioned voluntarily under caution by police.
The vintage Hawker Hunter jet crashed on to the dual carriageway while performing a looping manoeuvre during the Shoreham Airshow nearly two years ago.
West Sussex coroner Penelope Schofield said the inquest may have to be suspended pending the outcome of any criminal prosecution.
But she assured families at the hearing that she was was monitoring the police investigation.
She told them: "I want to assure you I am satisfied that they are moving forward as quickly as they can in quite difficult circumstances and they are hoping to bring their investigation to a conclusion as quickly as possible."
Speaking on behalf of the families after the hearing, Gerard Forlin QC said the families were very disappointed.
He said the crash had taken place more than 22 months ago.
"However what they want is a full, frank, thorough and fearless investigation into this incident," he added. "And of course for that they will wait as patiently as they can."


Primal Scream, Roni Size and Tricky are among the acts who will play at BBC radio station 6 Music's third annual festival in Bristol.

6 Music will broadcast gigs from venues including the Colston Hall, O2 Academy and Trinity from 12-14 February.
Bristol natives Beak, The Blue Aeroplanes and DJ Pinch will also perform. The full line-up will be revealed next month.
Previous 6 Music Festivals have been held in Manchester and on Tyneside.
Primal Scream singer Bobby Gillespie joined 6 Music DJs Mary-Ann Hobbs and Steve Lamacq to launch the festival in the city on Tuesday.
The band will perform material from their new album Chaosmosis live for the first time at the festival.
And it will be a homecoming for Tricky as the trip-hop auteur showcases material from his new album Skilled Mechanics, which is released in January.
Mary Anne Hobbs promised the festival would be an "unforgettable experience".
She said: "This year, the festival is coming to Bristol, a place where music is such a primary element of the DNA of the city.
"The 6 Music Festival is such a special event because it brings all the elements of what we do as a digital radio station into a physical space - the artists, the whole of the station's staff and presenters, and of course our wonderful listeners."
Lamacq said: "Bristol has some fantastic venues - I was there a while back to see a band called The Archie Bronson Outfit and had an excellent night at the Colston Hall so I'm really looking forward to going back there.
"I've also presented a lot of good shows from Bristol over the years including Sound City for Radio 1 in the '90s and some gigs for 6 Music, so I know the appetite for music is really healthy around the city. I hope people come along and enjoy it."


A stadium in Brazil that was due to host athletics at the 2016 Olympics has been closed indefinitely because of structural problems with its roof.

The Joao Havelange stadium in Rio de Janeiro was built only six years ago.
It was also being used as the main football venue in Rio, while the city's Maracana stadium is being renovated for next year's World Cup.
It is an embarrassment for Brazil as it prepares for its two huge sporting events, say correspondents.
The authorities have also acknowledged delays in work on the Maracana and a funding problem at another stadium, which is set to host the opening match at the World Cup.
Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes told a news conference on Tuesday that he had been told about the structural problems at the stadium - locally referred to as the Engenhao - earlier the same day.
"I asked if this represented a risk for spectators and they told me it did, depending on the wind speed and temperature.
"On that basis, I immediately decided to close the stadium until we had more details."
He said the situation was "simply not acceptable" for a stadium which opened such a short time ago, and warned that those responsible would be held to account.
The stadium opened late and over budget in 2007.
It has since been leased to local football club Botafogo.


Former jockey John Buckingham, who famously won the 1967 Grand National on board Foinavon, has died aged 76.

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Buckingham became part of horse racing folklore when steering the 100-1 shot through a mass of fallers at the 23rd fence to win at Aintree 49 years ago.
Of 44 starters, only 18 finished.
"It was havoc. Three jockeys turned Foinavon down but I'd have ridden Dick's donkey to be in the Grand National," said Buckingham in a BBC interview in 2010.
"What people don't realise is that we'd got it all planned before we left the weighing room!"
BBC horse racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght:
Buckingham might not have been the best-known jump jockey of modern times but, unlike many of his higher-profile contemporaries, he has an indelible place in racing history.
Foinavon really was a complete no-hoper in the 1967 Grand National, and was so far behind when the melee took place that Buckingham was able to steer past the incident, and go so far clear that they weren't caught up.
It was quite likely the most dramatic staging in the race's history - at, ironically, the smallest fence on the track, later renamed Foinavon - and even to this day, a regular racecourse refrain is that such and such is "the biggest shock since Foinavon".


Officials at a state park in Oregon are investigating whether a rare rock formation was deliberately toppled.

A mobile phone video appears to show three people pushing against the famed "Pillar Rock" until it collapses.
The unique outcropping, also known as the Duckbill, has long been a popular destination for tourists visiting Cape Kiwanda park on Oregon's Pacific coast.
Officials had at first believed that the coastal sandstone pedestal had naturally eroded.
But they are currently re-evaluating that assessment after being shown the video by David Kalas, a visiting beachgoer.
Mr Kalas said that up to eight people participated in toppling it a week ago, but that five had walked away when the remaining group stayed to push it over.
"We confronted them and they said it was a safety hazard," said Mr Kalas, who had gone there to film a summer holiday video with friends.
"They said one of their friends had broken a leg on it. It's like their weird revenge thing", he added.
The pedestal was roughly 10ft (3m) across, and had been a popular destination for tourists seeking photos.
Police and parks officials will meet on Tuesday to discuss possible criminal charges.
A similar incident took place at Goblin Valley State Park in the state of Utah in 2013.
Two Boy Scout leaders received probation and a fine after posting online a video of themselves knocking over a rock formation believed to be about 170 million years old.


As excitement burbles about who will win at the Oscars in February, spare a thought for the film industry losers.

Every year there are countless disappointed runners-up in the race for the greatest prize in showbiz.
Sadder still are the vast majority of movie makers that never even get nominated for an industry gong.
But the unluckiest of all are those whose hard work doesn't even make it on to the big screen.
One director that knows how it feels to have his creative vision canned is Oley Sassone.
His infamous 1994 movie The Fantastic Four - charting the origins of the Marvel Comics superheroes - remained hidden from public view for more than two decades.
'Kicked in the gut'
"I remember exactly where I was when I got the call," he says, recalling when he was told the film would never be shown to the public.
"I was driving down San Vicente Boulevard in Los Angeles, and I literally had to pull over by the side of the road to take a few deep breaths. It was like getting kicked in the gut by a mule. I'd worked so hard.
"The film's exec Producer Bernd Eichinger sat me down and said: 'Oley, I'm sorry, but we can't release the movie. There's a contractual agreement'.
"And then a lightbulb went off in my head. I realised we had been made to get it into production by a certain date otherwise Constantin Films would lose the rights to the Fantastic Four franchise.
"That was the agreement with Marvel. The movie just had to be made, it didn't have to be shown."
The Fantastic Four is one of a surprisingly common number of movies made each year that stay locked within the vaults of its copyright holders.
And it's not just legal reasons that keep these films from ever seeing the light of day. The most common cause is the death of a key actor before filming is completed.
Thriller Dark Blood was six scenes short of being finished when its star River Phoenix died of a drug overdose in 1993.
Director George Sluizer deemed there to be enough footage to cobble together a final cut, but despite a warm critical reception when it premiered at the Netherlands Film Festival in 2012 to a private audience, the film has never been given an official release.
Hidden away
Some movies stay unreleased simply because they run out of money - like All American Massacre, the 1998 sequel to horror classic Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Even though the entire film has been shot, to this day director William Hooper has been unable to raise the mere $8,000 (£6,400) needed to finish post-production.
And some films fall at the final hurdle because they're just plain awful, like 2013 fantasy satire Gods Behaving Badly.
Not even a stellar cast including Christopher Walken, Susan Sarandon and Alicia Silverstone could stop critics from labelling it as "remarkably feeble" and "unfunny" when it premiered at the Rome Film Festival.
Since then, there have been no further screenings.
Perhaps the most notorious canned movie is The Day The Clown Cried - a wildly misjudged drama about the horrors of the Holocaust starring comedian Jerry Lewis.
Filmed in 1972, Lewis plays a clown imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, entertaining children on their way to the gas chambers.
He subsequently u-turned on his enthusiasm for the project, but Lewis is known to be in possession of one of the only existing copies of the film.
"You will never see it. No one will ever see it," he told Entertainment Weekly in 2013. "Because I am embarrassed at the poor work."
Such was the furore surrounding The Day The Clown Cried, it has attained an almost mythical status amongst film buffs.
Sassone believes that by keeping movies locked away, it risks drawing more attention than just letting the film be released as normal.
"When people want something that they can't have, it makes them that much more eager to get it," he says. "Rumours swirl about what's in it, and that creates a mystery or a conspiracy. It becomes cultish."
Sassone's Fantastic Four fiasco was chronicled in the 2016 documentary Doomed. The key players quibble over the precise details of why the film never made it to cinemas, but to Sassone what matters most is that those who worked on the movie never got to see it.
"I tried to get them to at least give me a copy, so I had a record of my work," he says. "And they said: 'Sorry, we can't do that, the movie's been confiscated.'
"Thank God, one guy from the studio had it on three-quarter-inch video. It wasn't great quality, it was just a straight transfer to video, but I took it over to a dubbing house in LA to reel off a few VHS copies.
"I'm guessing that some kid working there ran off a few copies for himself, because years later bootlegs started circulating at comic book conventions."
'It does look awful'
In 2015, the film was finally leaked on YouTube and currently holds a 29% approval score on aggregate review site Rotten Tomatoes.
"People criticise the movie because it looks awful," Sassone says.
"And I agree because it does look awful - but the original movie doesn't look like that. They've only ever seen terrible copies of the movie made from VHS to VHS to VHS. And it pains us because everybody put their heart and soul in to this film.
"It wasn't about the money - what hurt was that we knew we had a hot little film that cost almost nothing to make. We were never completely satisfied with the special effects, but the drama was so true to the original comic book characters."
Meanwhile in 2005, executive producer Eichinger went on to reboot the Fantastic Four franchise in a mega-budget summer blockbuster starring Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba and Chris Evans. To Sassone's delight, it has a lower Rotten Tomatoes score than his take on the movie.
"Will they be talking about the latter versions of the Fantastic Four in 22 years' time? I dunno," he says. "When we had the premiere of Doomed all these kids came up to us and said: 'Your movie is so much better than all those crappy big budget Fantastic Fours!'
"I asked why and they said: 'Because you hit the characters! It was real.' Obviously we can't compete with the special effects, but it was some vindication after all those years when they said our film was better than the $50m (£40m) versions."
As a hero of hidden Hollywood, perhaps Sassone has achieved a prize greater than winning an Oscar - his movie is the stuff of Hollywood legend.
"It's hard to say how my life would have panned out if the movie had just had a regular release," he muses. "I think I would probably have been offered a studio picture or a bigger movie somewhere.
"Instead I went on to make a lot of television like Hercules and Xena: Warrior Princess, so I had a pretty successful career anyway.
"But I always tell people, it's the movie business. Pay attention to the word 'business' - because that's what it is."
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.


Britain have won four golds at the European Paratriathlon Championships.

Ex-swimmer Lauren Steadman continued her unbeaten record in the PT4 event, winning by almost three minutes.
Alison Patrick, who like Steadman has achieved the qualifying criteria for the Rio Paralympics, was victorious in her PT5 event.
Andy Lewis gave his Paralympic hopes a huge boost by winning the PT2 event, while Lizzie Tench claimed gold in the women's PT1 category in Portugal.
Tench's event is not part of the Rio programme.
Lewis, who was ranked 10th in the world coming into the event, beat the top two in the world rankings, Michele Ferrarin from Italy and France's Stephane Bahier.
The 33-year-old from Gloucester, who lost his leg after a motorbike accident when he was 16, put in a superb performance on the 5km run to claim victory.
"I don't know what to say," he told BBC Sport. "I've only been doing triathlon for 20 months. I left my job not knowing where it was going to go and I can't believe it."
There were also silver medals for Faye McClelland (PT4) and Melissa Reid (PT5) while Joe Townsend, who lost both of his legs while serving with the Royal Marines in Afghanistan, took bronze in the Men's PT1 event.


Mae cyn-arweinydd y Blaid Lafur wedi beirniadu Jeremy Corbyn am ei ymdriniaeth o fesur Brexit.

Dywedodd yr Arglwydd Kinnock, mewn cyfweliad gyda rhaglen Sunday Politics BBC Cymru, fod Mr Corbyn wedi methu â chymryd mantais o ffraeo ymysg y Ceidwadwyr, ac yn hytrach wedi niweidio'i blaid ei hun.
"Mae beth allai fod wedi gallu bod yn broblem ddifrifol i'r blaid Geidwadol o achos y rhaniadau dwfn yn y blaid honno ar Ewrop... wedi troi i fod, o achos ffordd aneffeithiol o ddelio gyda'r mater gan arweinyddiaeth y blaid Lafur, i fod yn gyfres o anawsterau i'r blaid," meddai'r Arglwydd Kinnock.
Ond mae llefarydd newydd y blaid ar Gymru, Christine Rees wedi dweud y dylai'r blaid uno y tu ôl i Mr Corbyn.
Er bod Mr Kinnock yn canmol Mr Corbyn am ddewis Syr Keir Starmer fel llefarydd y blaid ar Brexit, aeth yn ei flaen i ddweud wrth y rhaglen: "Rwy'n digwydd credu fod yr arweinydd Llafur wedi gwneud nifer o gamgymeriadau strategol wrth ddweud na ddylai fod pleidlais rydd.
"Byddai hyn wedi galluogi adlewyrchu'r bleidlais yn yr ardaloedd yr oedd yr ASau'n ei gynrychioli, ac ar yr un pryd fe fyddai modd canolbwyntio'n galed ar amgylchiadau ein hymadawiad [o'r Undeb Ewropeaidd]."
Dywedodd y cyn-Aelod Seneddol dros Islwyn, oedd hefyd yn Gomisiynydd Ewropeaidd am bron i ddegawd, ei fod yn credu y gallai'r cytundeb terfynol dros adael yr UE gymryd llawer iawn hirach na'r ddwy flynedd sy'n cael ei grybwyll gan rai, ac nad oedd "deng mlynedd yn afresymol".
Ychwanegodd arweinydd y blaid Lafur rhwng 1983 a 1992 y dylai Mr Corbyn fod yn "cynnig dadleuon cryf a pherthnasol ei hun am yr angen i ddiogelu lles pobl Prydain, yn enwedig y rhai hynny sydd leiaf diogel yn economaidd".
"Os ydych yn arweinydd, dyna'r hyn sydd yn rhaid i chi ei wneud. Dyna eich swydd," meddai.
Mewn ymateb dywedodd Ms Rees wrth yr un rhaglen: "Fe ddylen ni fod yn cefnogi'r arweinydd mewn unrhyw ffordd allwn ni, achos dyna yw strwythur y blaid Lafur."


Large crowds of tourists enjoy the Christmas lights decorating Manger Square in Bethlehem as they wait in line to enter the Church of the Nativity.

"If you are a Christian from Nigeria you want to see the place where Jesus was born," says Ajiboye Bola excitedly.  "All you were reading in the Bible, you see that it was real."
"It was very important to come here for historical purposes, for our culture," says Paul Shackner from Florida.
Israel's tourism ministry says 2010 has been a record year.
It expects 3.4 million tourists, including 2.4 million Christians, to have visited the country by the end of December.  According to officials, half the Christians arriving in Israel also travel to Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli Deputy Director General of Tourism, Raphael Ben Hur, insists his ministry "doesn't do politics" and stresses the economic benefits of co-operation with the Palestinian Authority.
"We don't have any dispute when it comes to the pilgrims in the Holy Land because this is a bridge of peace," he says.
"With all due respect to the politicians, I want to tell you it's very difficult to divide the Holy Land. You can't say to a guest, 'Come to Jerusalem and don't come to Bethlehem'."
However, Israel's security concerns mean that most tourists must enter the Palestinian city of Bethlehem from Jerusalem, crossing an Israeli checkpoint and passing the eight-metre high West Bank barrier which surrounds the town.
Some two million visitors are expected to make the trip to the West Bank in 2010, and Palestinian officials say the role of politics should not be downplayed.
"There are a lot of issues which are very rooted in the political conflict," says Palestinian tourism minister, Khaloud Daibes.
"The occupation cannot be beautified. Israel is still monopolising tourism for its benefits and putting a lot of pressure on our side."
Israel - which has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967 - severely restricts the movement of people in the Palestinian territory, citing security concerns.
Ms Daibes says Israel also controls archaeological sites on land claimed by the Palestinians and has not allowed them an airport of their own.
In the grotto under the nativity church, Israeli guide, Mikey Horesh, points out the star marking the spot where Jesus is said to have been born.
He first did the tour 15 years ago, but then there was a long hiatus. The Israeli authorities did not allow Israeli guides into the occupied West Bank for security reasons after the Palestinian intifadas, or uprisings.
Only this year, Mr Horesh was among 100 Israeli guides and bus drivers who were given a special state licence to come back to Bethlehem as part of a pilot project.
"We really missed this because it's part of the pilgrim tours," he says.  "We had to send tourists through the border, through the checkpoint, to passport control, and then to join a Palestinian bus and a guide.  We didn't know what was happening."
The Palestinian authorities now want it to be made easier for their licensed guides to work in Israel, which they say is in accordance with agreements both sides have signed.
Instead they worry that restrictions could be increased, affecting even those with Israeli residency, living in Arab East Jerusalem.
Recently a group of Israeli members of parliament proposed legislation that required large tour parties to be shown around Jerusalem by an Israeli citizen. They argued Palestinians could present a biased history.
The draft bill was dropped, but the chairman of the guides' union in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Samir Bahbah, insists the suspicions at the heart of it were not justified.
"It's obvious for tourists, they know everything, they are not stupid," he says.
"They know there is politics, there are checkpoints and a separation wall.  When we are asked about that, I'm asking my colleagues not to go in-depth on the politics, not because the Israelis dictate that to us, but because most tourists are on a pilgrimage. They want to know about spirituality."
Even though tourism is highly politicised, there are groups trying to bridge divides.
After about 30 Israelis arrive in Bethlehem their party joins more than a dozen Palestinians from Jericho, for a joint tour.
They take a look at the church, share a falafel snack and are then taken to a refugee camp and to meet people living by the barrier.
"I see it from the other side as I drive home, but I never saw it close up with all this graffiti on it," exclaims a woman from Jerusalem.
While Israeli citizens are not ordinarily allowed to travel to the occupied territories, Visits 2 Palestine arranges military permission for them to go for the day.
"It's been a year and I'm glad to say that almost 1,000 Israelis have come to Bethlehem and Jericho since," says co-founder, Noa Maiman.
"The older generation, kind of our parents' generation, in their fifties and sixties, for them it's quite regular, because it used to be like that.  But for our younger generation that was brought up to terror attacks and to fear, it's completely mind-changing just to be able to come here."
For the Palestinians involved, who cannot freely visit Israel, the chance to meet Israelis who are not in uniform is part of the appeal. There are frank exchanges on food, traditions and politics.
The trip ends with the entire group playing traditional Arab music and dancing at a coffee shop.
While increased tourism of this kind seems a long way off, it is an encouraging display of how it could bring the two sides together.


An engine fault was responsible for a plane crashing in Perthshire in January, air accident investigators have concluded.

The engine of the Cessna plane cut out at 3,000ft while taking off from Strathallan Airfield, near Auchterarder, on 17 January.
The pilot attempted to glide back to the airfield but overshot the runway, crashing through a fence and a hedge.
Neither the 55-year-old pilot or any of his five passengers were injured.
The newly-published report said piston rods in the engine had failed, cutting power and causing oil to spray across the windscreen.


A Welsh charity is extending help to children from Ukraine who are still affected by the world's worst nuclear disaster almost 30 years ago.

Eight girls from Korosten in northern Ukraine are spending a month in Swansea as part of a special trip organised by Chernobyl Children's Life Line.
The children are paired with host families and taken on day trips.
Each child is also given vital health check-ups to help with any medical conditions caused by their environment.
Organiser Brian Morgan said children from the region are still suffering from high levels of radiation poisoning which can cause heart and thyroid problems.
"When they come here they have quite a lot of cesium, some strontium and other radioactive elements in their bodies," he said.
"It comes from the ground, the water they drink, the food they eat - even the air they breathe.
"When they're here, a month of eating clean food and breathing clean air gets rid of the radiation and boosts their immune systems."
On 26 April 1986 one of the reactors at the Chernobyl power plant in northern Ukraine exploded.
Radioactive contents remain at the plant today, polluting the surrounding environment, but it is still unclear how many people have been harmed or killed by it.
This year, construction work has started on a new shelter to make the site safer and stop radioactive material from leaking.
Children are chosen at about the age of 10 because their bodies are developing most rapidly.
Chernobyl Children's Life Line said it is at this point that a lengthy break can do most benefit to their immune system.
"I'm so excited by everything we've done," said Yulia. "We've been doing so many activities, I will remember this trip for my whole life."
The charity has helped about 50,000 children to travel to the UK for extended holidays with host families since 1991.
But this is the first time youngsters from the Ukraine have been invited to Wales by the group.
Historically, the charity focused on the country's poorer neighbour, Belarus.


The 65-year-old woman who died in a collision between a car and a coach in County Down on Friday was Muriel Wing from Dromore.

The crash happened on the A1 between Dromore and Hillsborough at about 08:00 BST.
Three people who were on the coach were treated by paramedics.
The road was closed in both directions for several hours but has since been reopened.
Police have appealed for anyone who witnessed the crash to contact them.
Insp Rosie Leach, of the Police Service of Northern Ireland's roads division, said it had been a "bad 24 hours" on the region's roads after Ms Wing became the second person to die in less than 10 hours.
A motorcyclist was killed in a crash in Newtownards in County Down on Thursday night.
"My appeal to motorists is pay attention to what you're doing - be aware of your surroundings and what other motorists are doing," added Insp Leach.


Swansea City defender Jordi Amat says their home game against Premier League relegation rivals Sunderland will be like a "final."

Swansea's 5-0 defeat at Tottenham and Sunderland's win over champions Leicester City means Bob Bradley's side are bottom of the league.
Sunderland are two points ahead of Swansea in the relegation zone and visit the Liberty Stadium on Saturday.
"It's one of the most important games of the season," said Amat.
"We have to learn from [the Spurs game] and be ready for next week because it's a final."
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Saturday's heavy defeat at White Hart Lane ended Swansea' two match unbeaten run which had seen them draw 1-1 at Everton and beat Crystal Palace 5-4.
After facing Sunderland, the Swans travel to West Brom and Middlesbrough and then have back-to-back home games against West Ham United and Bournemouth.
"I believe we've got a strong team and we need to be better," Amat added.
"In the last two games we were playing good - the idea was clear. We need to come back like the last two weeks.
"This month is so important for us."


Gareth Southgate's four-game tenure as England's interim manager ended in disappointment as Spain scored twice in the closing moments to snatch a draw in the Wembley friendly.

England looked on course to further bolster Southgate's claims to succeed Sam Allardyce as they impressed and took control through Adam Lallana's early penalty, awarded when Spain keeper Pepe Reina hauled down Jamie Vardy.
The Leicester City striker's fine diving header from Jordan Henderson's cross just after the break gave England a lead they did not look like relinquishing as the clock ticked down.
Former Liverpool striker Iago Aspas' superb curling finish in the 90th minute gave Spain an unlikely lifeline - and England allowed them to complete the comeback as Isco smuggled home a far-post finish between England substitute keeper Tom Heaton's legs in the fifth and final minute of injury time.
A friendly against an understrength Spain was never going to be a deal-breaker when it came to measuring Southgate's suitability to be England's next permanent manager.
It was, for 89 minutes at least, a very good night for the 46-year-old and an excellent way to conclude what has effectively been a four-game audition to take over from Allardyce.
Aspas had nerves jangling with that brilliant curling effort - and then Isco's even later twist meant Southgate's tenure ended on a sour note.
Until that unexpected turn of events, the former Middlesbrough boss will surely have relished England dominating a Spain team that had looked unrecognisable from the team that would have contested a competitive fixture.
The hosts looked to be heading for a record of three wins and a draw from Southgate's quartet of fixtures, though the result is unlikely to deprive him of the chance to become England's next permanent boss.
However, it was not the finish he would have expected - or wanted - after Spain's late show.
Liverpool midfielder Lallana may have only lasted 25 minutes before going off injured, but in that short time he emphasised once more what a mature, developing international player he is and how important he will be to England's future.
Elegant and composed, he slid a superb pass through for Vardy to win the penalty that Lallana converted emphatically.
And while he went off shortly afterwards, his goalscoring, man of the match display in the 3-0 World Cup qualifying win over Scotland, and his match-winning goal in Slovakia, underlines that he is now a figure of real influence for England.
What a mixed bag for Southgate and England - from the pleasure of taking a two-goal lead to the pain of its concession in the closing minutes.
Southgate will surely be delighted with how the team looked in attack, even with captain Wayne Rooney injured and striker Daniel Sturridge on the bench.
Vardy showed flashes of last season's form, while Raheem Sterling and Jesse Lingard linked up in promising fashion throughout.
The bad? The way England - much changed by that stage admittedly - rattled in those last few minutes. A few nightmares were revisited there.
The Football Association needs to decide whether Southgate is the right man for the job.
If he is appointed then his first game in permanent charge of England is scheduled to be a friendly against Germany in Dortmund on 22 March.
Match ends, England 2, Spain 2.
Second Half ends, England 2, Spain 2.
Goal!  England 2, Spain 2. Isco (Spain) right footed shot from the right side of the six yard box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Daniel Carvajal.
Offside, England. Marcus Rashford tries a through ball, but Jesse Lingard is caught offside.
Corner,  Spain. Conceded by John Stones.
Attempt blocked. Isco (Spain) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Koke.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Delay in match Jordan Henderson (England) because of an injury.
Foul by Koke (Spain).
Jordan Henderson (England) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Delay in match Eric Dier (England) because of an injury.
Goal!  England 2, Spain 1. Iago Aspas (Spain) left footed shot from the right side of the box to the top left corner. Assisted by Álvaro Morata.
Iago Aspas (Spain) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Jordan Henderson (England).
Corner,  Spain. Conceded by Andros Townsend.
Corner,  Spain. Conceded by John Stones.
Álvaro Morata (Spain) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Phil Jagielka (England).
Attempt blocked. Isco (Spain) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Hand ball by Nathaniel Clyne (England).
Isco (Spain) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Andros Townsend (England).
Substitution, England. Aaron Cresswell replaces Danny Rose.
Koke (Spain) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Eric Dier (England).
Substitution, Spain. Nolito replaces Sergio Busquets.
Offside, Spain. Iago Aspas tries a through ball, but Álvaro Morata is caught offside.
Attempt missed. Danny Rose (England) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the right. Assisted by Jordan Henderson following a corner.
Corner,  England. Conceded by Ander Herrera.
Daniel Carvajal (Spain) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Daniel Carvajal (Spain).
Danny Rose (England) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Attempt saved. Álvaro Morata (Spain) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Koke.
Corner,  Spain. Conceded by Nathaniel Clyne.
Daniel Carvajal (Spain) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Jesse Lingard (England).
Substitution, England. Marcus Rashford replaces Jamie Vardy.
Offside, Spain. Isco tries a through ball, but Álvaro Morata is caught offside.
Substitution, England. Andros Townsend replaces Raheem Sterling.


Two people have been left with "life-changing" injuries after a corrosive substance was thrown on to them through their car windows.

Resham Khan and Jameel Muhktar were attacked on 21 June at traffic lights in Beckton, east London.
The cousins had been celebrating Ms Khan's 21st birthday before the attack.
Both suffered severe burns to the face and body and Mr Muhktar, 37, was placed in an induced coma. No arrests have been made, police said.
Both continue to be treated in hospital. Ms Khan has damage to her left eye and required two skin grafts.
Mr Muhktar, who has since been brought out of his coma, has burns across his body arms, legs, back, neck and the right side of his face as well as damage to his right eye.
On social media, Ms Khan said: "I'm devastated. I keep wondering if my life will ever be the same. Acid attacks in the UK are unheard of for me.
"The pain was excruciating. I was struggling to close the window. My cousin struggled to get us away. I saw my clothes burn away in front of me."
According to police the two had stopped at traffic lights during their drive when the man approached them and threw the toxic substance at Ms Khan through the window.
The attacker then circled around the car and threw more of the acid at Mr Muhktar, before eventually fleeing the scene.
In 2016-17, there were 398 victims of crimes involving "noxious or corrosive" substances, such as acid. This compares with 146 in 2012-13.
Violence with injury is the main offence to have seen a rise. In each of 2015-16 and 2016-17, there were 191 victims, compared with 67 in 2014-15.
Noxious or corrosive substances have also been used in five rapes between April 2012 and March 2017.
Not all these incidents will involve acid. Because of the way the Metropolitan Police recorded the data, the figures show all victims of crimes where any "noxious or corrosive" substances were used.
The force released the figures under the Freedom of Information Act.


Nobel prize winning campaigner Malala Yousafzai has received a conditional offer from a top UK university.

The 19-year-old, who is studying for A-levels, told a conference her focus was on achieving its requirements.
"I have received a conditional offer which is three As," said Malala, who was shot by the Taliban in 2012 for her campaign on girls' rights to education.
Her speech drew a standing ovation from the Association of School and College Leaders conference in Birmingham.
Malala, who narrowly escaped death after being attacked on her way home from school in Pakistan, did not confirm which university had made the offer.
But earlier this year she told Newsweek magazine that she had recently had an interview for a degree place at an Oxford college.
Lady Margaret Hall was the first Oxford college to educate women and former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto also studied there.
"I'm studying right now," Ms Yousafzai told the conference.
"I'm in Year 13, I have my A-level exams coming and I have received a conditional offer which is three As. That's what my focus is right now and I hope to continue my work and also continue my studies."
She confirmed that alongside her degree, she would continue to work for the Malala Fund, which campaigns for girls across the globe to get a minimum of 12 years quality education.
"My goal is to make sure every child, a girl and a boy, they get the opportunity to go to school.
"It is their basic human right, so I will be working on that and I will never stop until I see the last child going to school.
"And I'm really thankful to you all for you support for encouraging me for my mission.
"That's what makes me and keeps me so strong so thank you so much for that and thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak."
The teenager also provoked laughter from the audience when she revealed she thought she was in trouble when she was called out of a chemistry lesson to be told she was the next Nobel Prize recipient.
She told delegates: "Suddenly, our deputy head teacher appears in the classroom and I'm just quite shocked, because why would she call me? I thought I was in trouble or something.
"She called me outside and I went and she said 'you have won the Nobel Peace Prize', so it was a big surprise, and I said 'thank you'."


An investigation into how police handled an incident where a man fell to his death in Glasgow has appealed for witnesses with video footage.

The 47-year-old died after falling from a window at the Central Hotel, near Central Station, on Gordon Street.
The incident happened after officers attended the hotel, at 11:30 last Friday, as part of an ongoing inquiry.
The Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc) is examining the circumstances surrounding the fatality.
An initial appeal was issued on Monday for anyone who may have witnessed the incident to come forward.
Now a spokesman for the investigation team has asked anyone with video footage to contact them.
"We would like to thank the public for the overwhelming response so far to our initial appeal, which has provided us with important information to assist with our inquiries," he said.
"However, we are aware of the existence of crucial footage taken from mobile devices around the time of the incident and would urge anyone with this to come forward.
"We are keen to speak to any witnesses who were in Gordon Street, near to the entrance of Glasgow Central Station, between 11.15 am and 11.30 am on Friday 11 November 2016 who may be in possession of such footage."
Anyone in possession of video footage of the incident is asked to contact should contact the Pirc.


Owning a car for many Ethiopians - even those with ready cash to spend in one of the world's fastest-growing economies - remains a pipe dream.

"I have been saving for nearly four years now, and I still can't afford to buy even the cheapest vehicle here," a frustrated Girma Desalegn tells me.
He has been shopping around for a whole week in capital, Addis Ababa, and has still not found an affordable car.
He is looking to buy a second-hand car imported from the Gulf states or Europe - but even they are prohibitively expensive because the government classifies cars as luxury goods.
This means even if a vehicle is second hand, it will be hit with import taxes of up to 300%.
"I have a budget of $15,000 (Â£12,300) and had expected that with that I could buy a decent family car.
"I don't want to buy the Toyota Vitz," he says pointing to a row of small hatchbacks that have now become popular on Ethiopian roads.
These cost about $16,000 in Ethiopia; in neighbouring Kenya the same car costs not more than $8,000.
It seems little wonder that Ethiopia has the world's lowest rate of car ownership, with only two cars per 1,000 inhabitants, according to a 2014 Deloitte report.
Henok Demessew, who has been running a car import and sales business in the capital, blames taxation.
"If it was not for that, we would have been able to import better cars either from Europe or America. But in order to make any profits we have to sell cars at such high prices.
"On top of the cost of shipping the cars from say from Dubai via Djibouti, we have to deal with multiple taxes to the government, making this one of the toughest businesses to be in, even though it's seen as lucrative."
The Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority says both commercial and private vehicles imported into the country can be subjected to five different types of taxes.
However, despite the heavy tax burden there is a rise in the numbers of car imports.
In 2016, government records show that 110,000 cars were imported to Ethiopia, an increase of more than 50% on the previous two years.
Kasaye Ayele, a tariff officer at the customs authority, says there is some discretion.
"Vehicles that are imported to be used for public transport - we collect a much lower tax of 10% and not all five taxes are applied," he explains.
"But for private cars we check the engine capacity and if the capacity is big, we collect anything between 60% and 100% [of taxes due]."
Once all taxes are added to an imported car's price tag, it could cost nearly three times more than the retail price in its country of origin.
But Mr Kasaye defends the taxation policy, saying it was fair and staggered. He cites examples of discounts given for buying second-hand cars.
In a bid to encourage people to buy cheaper, locally made cars, the Ethiopian government has given incentives such as tax breaks to foreign car manufacturers to set up and assemble new vehicles in the country.
Currently Ethiopia produces 8,000 commercial and private vehicles for the local market a year - something the government admits is way below the country's potential.
Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has often pointed out plans for Ethiopia to become a leading manufacturer and exporter of locally made cars.
At least half a dozen car assembly plants, mostly Chinese, have been set up in Ethiopia.
One of them is Lifan Motors, which was set up nearly seven years ago. One of its cheapest saloon models costs about $20,000 new.
It has a plant on the outskirts of the Addis Ababa which assembles about 1,000 cars a year - way below its capacity.
For the company's deputy manager, Ma Qun, this is down to a lack of confidence in the local market from consumers.
Those who can afford imported brands, will choose them over local cars - despite the high taxes charged on used cars, he says.
"We are not satisfied. Our factory's capacity is about 5,000 a year but we sell just 1,000 units.
"It's because the policy doesn't restrict second-hand cars. So there aren't really many incentives for us to compete.
"We are waiting to see if there will be a change in the policy."
For many Ethiopian car buyers it comes down to value for money.
"We often prefer imported cars because we believe they are much better than the Chinese assembled here," one prospective buyer said.
"On top of that, people don't trust cars assembled locally because what we import from China are not up to a standard quality."
Another pointed out concerns about spare parts for locally assembled cars.
"Those you usually find around here are not genuine. That is the major reason people prefer Japanese cars."
But the government is highly unlikely to change its luxury tax on foreign cars.
So for people like Mr Girma, who wants a big, reliable car for his family, it remains a Catch-22 situation and his search will continue.


Fifa has banned former Thai football federation president Worawi Makudi for three months.

Football's world governing body found he had breached an earlier ban that barred him from all football activity.
Makudi, a former member of Fifa's executive committee, was banned for 90 days in October after allegedly breaching Fifa's code of ethics.
The 64-year-old was part of the group when it voted on who should host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in 2010.
According to Fifa, Makudi was "still involved in the affairs" of his national association during his suspension.
Makudi has also been fined 3,000 Swiss francs (£2,133).


Jeremy Corbyn has urged US and North Korean leaders to hold face-to-face talks "in the interest of sanity and safety".

He was commenting on an escalating war of words between US President Donald Trump and the North Korean regime.
"We cannot play fast and loose with nuclear weapons and nuclear threats," the Labour leader said.
Mr Trump has issued another warning to North Korea with a reference to US weapons being "locked and loaded".
Speaking before Mr Trump's latest tweet, Mr Corbyn said: "I think it's time that both Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un toned it all down a bit.
"Maybe even spoke to each other. Maybe even returned to the table."
He added: "I ask them both. Calm down. There are phone-calls that could be made, discussions that could be held.
"Surely, in the interest of sanity and safety over the whole world, do it."
End of Twitter post  by @realDonaldTrump
The Foreign Office repeated a statement it released two days ago when asked for a comment on Mr Trump's latest intervention.
A spokesman said: "We will continue to work with the US and our international partners to maintain pressure on North Korea and counter the security threat posed by its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
"We have been consistently clear and forthright in our condemnation of North Korea's destabilising and illegal behaviour, including through support for UN Security Council resolutions to bring in sanctions that will limit North Korea's ability to pursue its nuclear weapons programme."
North Korea has threatened to fire missiles into the US territory of Guam and the US president has warned North Korea of "fire and fury".
Mr Trump has also boasted about America's nuclear arsenal, while unconfirmed reports claim Pyongyang might have made a nuclear warhead small enough to fit onto a missile.
On Friday, Mr Trump tweeted: "Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!"
The Labour leader said that "of course" the UK should play a role in mediating the current impasse.
"All the five declared nuclear weapons states need to get on board with this - to bring North Korea back from the brink - bring Donald Trump back from the brink."
Mr Corbyn, a longstanding anti nuclear campaigner, said efforts should be made to "support the UN's efforts to make nuclear weapons illegal worldwide.
"That surely has to be the way to go."
Asked on Thursday about President Trump's "fire and fury" warning, Damian Green, the UK's first secretary of state, said: "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."
He added: "That's why we are operating as hard as we can through the proper diplomatic channels to make sure that we see a de-escalation of tensions."
Tensions have increased in recent days, with North Korea saying a plan that could see it fire four missiles near Guam will be ready in a matter of days, if approved by Kim Jong-un.
It described President Trump as "bereft of reason".
The US has warned the North its actions could mean the "end of its regime".
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said Pyongyang would be "grossly overmatched" in any war against the US and its allies.


The first NHS hospital to be handed to a private management firm will be back inside the health service in March, a parliamentary watchdog has been told.

Steve Melton, head of Circle, which ran Hinchingbrooke in Cambridgeshire, from 2012, was being questioned by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
He said budget cuts and high demand made the deal unsustainable and denied a damning report was the cause.
Last month, the Care Quality Commission branded the hospital "inadequate".
Mr Melton said the report did not show the full picture and the trust's income increased by only Â£1m over the franchise period.
From Hinchingbrooke's chief executive, to the boss of the Care Quality Commission (CQC), to the man who's responsible for finances within the NHS, the six senior executives called in front of MPs read like a Who's Who of those who had been involved with the hospital.
The hearing was feisty, with MPs putting pressure on Circle over the hospital's finances and on NHS bosses over the contract they signed with the firm.
There were particularly tough questions for the CQC from Peterborough's Conservative MP, Stewart Jackson, who accused the regulator of basing its damning inspection report on "anecdote and tittle-tattle".
So did the MPs get answers? Well, they got a range of answers and that was the problem.
Almost every difficult question they asked received a different answer from each organisation.
But on one key issue there was a straightforward answer - we now know that the hospital will be handed back to the NHS in March.
Mr Melton told the committee he was "proud" of what Circle had achieved and would be ready to consider taking on similar contracts, if the terms were right.
The Department of Health's director of finance, Richard Douglas, said there was nothing in Circle's performance that would prevent them being considered for future contracts.
He added: "I don't think there will be any more of the kind of franchising we have had, until we have resolved some issues."
Head of the CQC, David Behan, insisted he stood by the report, which last month branded Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust "inadequate" and called for it to be taken into special measures.
PAC chairwoman, Labour MP Margaret Hodge, said the decision to award the contract to Circle had been "rash" and health service officials played down the risks when they entered into the private sector franchise.


A man who was shot in the leg by a gunman in Glasgow chased after his attacker, police have revealed

The 34-year-old was getting into his vehicle in Shawhill Road, in Shawlands, at about 08:30 when he noticed a man near his driveway.
When he went to investigate the man shot him once in the leg.
Police said the victim chased his assailant but he got into a car and was driven away. The attack is being treated as attempted murder.
The injured man received hospital treatment but was later released.
The gunman is described as 5ft 7ins tall, wearing dark clothing and a dark beanie hat.
Det Insp Colin Hailstones of Cathcart CID, said: "We now understand that the incident occurred around 0830 hours this morning in a highly-residential street in the Shawlands area.
"The 34 year-old man was shot at once and he received injuries to his leg and has been treated in hospital. He has since been released.
"I know that local residents will be concerned by this incident. We understand that this was a targeted and isolated attack. It is being treated as attempted murder.
"Detectives are currently searching the area around Shawhill Road, Pollokshaws Road and St Ronan's Drive. Specialist officers will be conducting work in the area alongside detectives and we are conducting door to door enquiries and assessing opportunities to capture CCTV.
"We will not allow such a brazen act of violence to go unaccounted for."
The gunman fled into Hector Road and towards Pollokshaws Road and continued into St Ronan's Drive where he got into the passenger side of a dark-coloured car.


Barclays is close to appointing former JP Morgan banker James "Jes" Staley as its new chief executive.

Hiring an investment banker is being seen by some analysts as a prelude to making a push back into that industry, one which the last holder of the top job, Antony Jenkins, was backing away from.
But will an expansion into a sector dominated by a few American names be successful? After all, this won't be Barclays first drive into investment banking.
During the deregulation of the City of London in the 1980s, Barclays bought stockbrokers De Zoete & Bevan, and Wedd Durlacher, a firm of stock market wholesalers.
The resulting amalgamation was BZW. But its expansion was curtailed by then-chief executive Martin Taylor, who broke it up, selling its equity business, and retaining fixed income as a new company, Barclays Capital.
He told investors it wasn't profitable, and the capital it sat on could be better used.
The second expansion came under the leadership of a more recent figure at the bank: Bob Diamond. Starting at Barclays in 1996, he expanded its fixed income (bonds) and foreign exchange businesses. Barclays Capital became the lender's most profitable unit.
But after the Libor scandal and his subsequent sacking, retail banker Antony Jenkins was promoted to chief executive and began cutting trading desks and the investment bank's salary bill.
Mr Staley's posited arrival was not met jubilantly by investors. Barclays stock fell by as much as 3% following the news. A cloud around the way the industry is viewed in the UK may the reason, says Chirantan Barua, banking analyst at Bernstein.
"Every time someone goes up on stage and says we are going to be a retail bank, the stock goes up," he says.
"Because we hate investment banking. The other thing that happens is, to be profitable in investment banking you need scale and therefore capital.
"Where are you going to get that from? That's why the reaction is negative.
"Getting Jes in would mean moving the bank more towards an investment bank."
For an enlarged investment bank to work, it will have to be big enough to take on competitors across the Atlantic.
Big clients like hedge funds are less likely to trade with a bank that won't do complex lending, and picks and chooses business, Mr Barua says.
"Having just the juicy part - that's not how it works."
He estimates Barclays may need to find Â£4-5bn of extra capital, through raising it from investors or selling something.
There are two alternative strategies for the investment bank, however.
"They should really just carve out the investment bank and ship it back to the US where they bought most of it," says Cenkos Securities analyst Sandy Chen, referring to Mr Diamond's purchase of Lehman Brothers's north American assets, which be bought after the bank collapsed.
US investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have a competitive advantage over their European peers in the form of friendlier regulators.
What the detached investment bank would lose is the strength the larger group can provide in the form of customer deposits.
This wad of cash - liquidity strength - allows the group to borrow cheaply in the markets and fund the investment bank. But competitors such as Goldman seem to cope without such advantages, says Mr Chen.
The other option was hinted at last week by Barclays chairman John McFarlane, who told the Financial Times that European investment banks should consider merging to create a regional champion to compete with US rivals.
"Barclays could come up with a joint-venture scheme and then it could be spun out," says Christopher Wheeler, an analyst at Atlantic Equities.
He adds that candidates with whom to merge the business could include a Swiss giant such as Credit Suisse or UBS, a global operator such as HSBC, or a French competitor such as Societe Generale, which has little overlap with Barclays in investment banking.
This would be a less expensive option than finding the capital to bolster a Barclays-owned firm, he says, and would allow a new chief executive such as Mr Staley to do all the other jobs that will be demanded of him.
"He's got to see them through ring fencing," Mr Wheeler adds in reference to the proposed process of separating retail and investment banking operations.
"The job he has is to reinvigorate the investment bank. It's not collapsed by any means - it's still a serious player, but you have to pull the whole thing together," says Mr Wheeler.
Mr Staley will still need to be approved by regulators as a choice for Barclays. If they say yes, it may be a sign things have thawed between them.
Investment banking is a "complex business", so it's hard not to have an investment banker running a bank that owns one, Mr Wheeler says. But after Mr Diamond's departure, it would have been very hard for Barclays to have chosen anyone other than a retail banker like Mr Jenkins.
Mr Staley's hiring is "not a foregone conclusion" says Mr Chen. Regulators may challenge Mr Staley's experience in retail banking, he adds.
Barclays said: "The process of appointing a new group chief executive officer has not yet concluded, and Barclays will provide a further update once that is complete."
Whatever happens, investors will want to see a more concrete plan for the investment bank, says James Box, an analyst at fund manager Brewin Dolphin, "especially when we are looking at how businesses like this need huge scale to succeed".
And executives at the bank will have to answer the question which perennially hangs over investment banks they own - for whom it will make money.
"If you want to make money from investment banking, it's best to work in one, not hold shares in one," says Mr Box.


So did South Africa really pay a $10m (Â£6.5m) dollar bribe to make sure they won the right to host the 2010 World Cup?

This is one of the several corruption allegations engulfing Fifa, whose president, Sepp Blatter, has just announced he will be resigning.
If it was a bribe, it appears to have been a breathtakingly elegant, deniable one - performed both in broad daylight and years late.
In recent days I have been talking, mostly off-the-record, to some senior figures here in South Africa - including one at the heart of the alleged corruption.
As you would expect, the denials have come thick, fast and indignant.
"Everything was above board. There is no story," said Roland Williams, a spokesman for Danny Jordaan, who led the 2004 team that bid for the tournament.
South African officials have confirmed that $10m due to them from Fifa was, in effect, handed back to the football's world governing body with a note in 2008 that it should be given, instead, to the Diaspora Legacy Programme, to be "administered and implemented directly" by Jack Warner, president of Concacaf.
"What he or anyone else in the Caribbean did with the money subsequently is nothing to do with us. Our hands are clean," said one source.
Besides "that's just not how corruption works in Fifa - it's done pocket to pocket, in dark corners", said another well-placed official.
If the idea that South Africa's government might willingly forgo $10m, in order to help the "African diaspora", sounds suspicious to some jaded ears, remember that, at that time, then-President Thabo Mbeki was a staunch proponent of exactly this sort of philosophy.
South Africa's whole pitch for the tournament was based around the notion of 2010 being "Africa's World Cup" and in Mr Mbeki's eyes that was not just a geographical concept.
Indeed a 2011 interview has emerged in which Mr Mbeki, said that "by African we don't just mean... the continent, but we also mean the African diaspora.
"As a result of that it was then agreed that... funds that would be made available for the hosting of the World Cup in South Africa... other funds would also be made available in Trinidad and Tobago to develop soccer in the Caribbean."
Does that mean South Africa is off the hook?
Not yet.
We still know nothing, for starters, about the earlier Paris hotel room incident where, the FBI alleges, tens of thousands of dollars were handed over in a suitcase by a South African official to someone representing Mr Warner, who has denied all the US allegations.
We may learn a little more at a news conference on Wednesday in Johannesburg hosted by the Minister of Sports Fikile Mbalula.
One of his aides described it as an opportunity for the media "to drop your bombs on us".
In the meantime, a few other questions spring to mind.
Why has South Africa's Football Association (Safa) taken such pains to insist that "neither the [Fifa] Secretary General Jerome Valcke nor any other member of Fifa's senior management were involved in the initiation, approval and implementation of the Diaspora project," when a letter from Safa dated 2008 regarding the $10m donation is clearly addressed to Mr Valcke himself?
A minor bureaucratic detail or an attempt to protect someone senior? Mr Valcke, who denies any involvement in the scandal, is not under indictment and prosecutors have not accused him of wrongdoing.
When will we learn the identities of the FBI's South African co-conspirators #15 and #16?
What evidence - beyond the allegations of co-conspirator #1 who "understood the offer" to be a bribe - does the FBI have to show the South African government intended the $10m gift to be a corrupt payment to Mr Warner?
If you have other questions for South Africa's minister of sport, please tweet them to me @BBCAndrewH.


Family horror film Goosebumps scared audiences up a treat at the North American box office at the weekend.

The movie, based on the popular children's book series, took $23.5m (£15.2m) in its first three days.
It stars Jack Black as horror writer RL Stine, whose imaginary demon creations are accidentally set free in a small town.
Ridley Scott's space adventure The Martian was bumped into second place, taking $21.5m (£13.9m).
The Matt Damon film has now taken $143.8m (£93m) in its third week of release.
Steven Spielberg's cold-war thriller Bridge of Spies, starring Tom Hanks, opened at number three with $15.4m (£10m).
Guillermo del Toro's gothic horror romance Crimson Peak did not fare as well in the Halloween period, debuting at four with $12.8m (£8.3m).
However with an R-rating - where those under 17 need to be accompanied by a parent of guardian to see the film - it was expected to have a more limited audience than the PG-rated Goosebumps.
'Horrendous result'
This weekend also saw the release of Cary Fukunaga's drama Beasts of No Nation, about child soldiers in Africa.
After making headlines earlier this year when Netflix bought the distribution rights for $12m (£7.8m), the film was simultaneously released in cinemas and on the streaming platform.
But the film, starring Idris Elba, only made $50,699 (£32,800) across the 31 cinemas it was shown at, averaging $1,635 (£1,057) per theatre.
Although rival distributors called it "a horrendous result", Netflix told Deadline it would not release information about the film's streaming performance, but added it was "very happy".
It is understood the film was given a limited theatrical release to qualify it for the upcoming awards season.
In a limited release, abduction drama Room also earned a respectable $120,000 (£77,600) from four screens.


The family of a woman who died after a boat accident will set up a charity to help villagers in Laos who searched for her when she was missing.

Johanna Powell's relatives want to thank local people in the area around Pak Beng for their efforts after a tourist boat she was on capsized.
The body of Ms Powell, 37, was found further down the Mekong River two days after last Saturday's accident.
Nine other tourists and three crew members escaped.
"We're looking to set up a charity in Johanna's name," said her brother-in-law, Dean Price.
"We want to make sure that the money goes to the villagers out there who searched for Johanna. We understand that when the police search stopped the villagers were carrying on into the night.
"They were finding documents, purses and wallets full of money and handing them back. They were totally honest.
"So we want to help the local people where Johanna's life was cut tragically short."
The family are receiving help from the British Embassy in the Laos capital, Vientiane, and would like to buy items through the charity for the villagers such as textbooks and pens, rather than send cash.
The body of Ms Powell, a BBC Wales picture editor living in Cardiff but originally from Pontypridd, is due to be returned next week but a funeral date has yet to be set.


A pack of wolves has been spotted in Northern California for the first time in nearly 100 years.

The appearance of the five grey wolf pups and two adults could signal a return of the animals, which have not been found in the state since 1924.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife first discovered the pack this month in Siskiyou County near the Oregon border using a remote camera.
The wolves have been named the "Shasta Pack" after a nearby mountain.
"This news is exciting for California," Charlton Bonham of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said on Thursday. "We knew wolves would eventually return home to the state and it appears now is the time."
State officials spotted a lone adult wolf earlier this year They believe the same wolf is associated with the newly spotted ones because of where it was photographed.
Another lone wolf made headlines in 2011 when the animal wandered into California from Oregon.
Wolves were almost hunted to extinction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in western US states by hunters and ranchers who sought to protect their livestock.
In 1995, federal officials reintroduced wolves into Yellowstone National Park and since then the animals have spread to neighbouring states.
Karen Kovacs of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said the migration to Northern California is an amazing accomplishment only 21 years after the wolves were reintroduced to the Northern Rocky Mountains.
California has considered gray wolves an endangered species since 1973, making it illegal to kill or trap them.
Officials are soon to release a Wolf Management Plan and are encouraging the public to report information about wolf sightings in the state.
Wolves do not pose a "direct threat to human safety," officials said, but they recommended people do not approach or feed them.


Former Rangers chief executive Charles Green is taking the club to court in a bid to get them to pay his legal fees after he was charged with serious organised crime offences.

BBC Scotland has learned that Mr Green claims his contract with the Ibrox club entitled him to legal cover during and after his spell in charge.
His lawyers have written to Rangers and want a court ruling on the claim.
It is understood the fees involved could be in excess of Â£500,000.
The court ruling could happen as early as next week.
Mr Green and a number of others, including the club's former owner Craig Whyte, were arrested and charged earlier this month.
The moves followed an investigation by Police Scotland into off-field events at the club in 2012 and 2013.