The trial of a doctor accused of falsifying patients' information to push them up an organ transplant list has begun in Germany.

It is alleged the doctor falsified information in at least 25 cases, and accepted money from multiple patients outside Europe in exchange for placement on the Eurotransplant list.
The doctor, who has not been named, denies all the charges.
A shortage of organ donors has led to competition between transplant centres.
In January, German media reported 38 patients with liver problems were falsely listed as dialysis cases in order to shorten their wait for a transplant. Three doctors at the Leipzig University Clinic's organ transplant centre were suspended.
All the cases in the scandal concern liver patients, and all but one of the alleged manipulations took place in 2010 and 2011.
The doctor faces 11 charges of manslaughter and three of bodily harm resulting in death, German media report.
He is alleged to have falsely claimed that some of the patients were on dialysis, and that others were alcoholics who had completed the necessary period of abstinence from alcohol before a transplant.
He must have known that other patients would have been put at risk through his actions of not receiving organs and of dying as a result, the prosecution alleges.
The charges of bodily harm relate to three cases in which livers were allegedly transplanted into unsuitable patients.
There has been a sharp drop in organ donations since the scandal broke.


Google has confirmed that it is to introduce a "buy button" to its search results imminently.

The button would give Google Search users the option to purchase without needing to visit a separate website.
The company's chief business officer, Omid Kordestani, said he wanted to reduce "friction" for users so they buy more things online.
Google faces significant competition from Amazon, where many people now begin their search to buy products.
"There's going to be a buy button. It's going to be imminent," said Mr Kordestani on stage at the Code Conference in California on Wednesday.
The change would make it easier for shoppers to buy products featured in its shopping ads that appear alongside search results.
Mr Kordestani also noted that about nine out of 10 purchases are still made offline.
He added that the number of location-based searches to help users find something close to them had doubled in the past year.
Getting users to buy products as a result of searching is a key revenue earner for Google which currently charges retailers a premium to appear in a prominent position on the results page following a relevant search query.
"With Google Buy set to only be available on mobile devices and the search giant recently changing its algorithm to favour mobile optimised sites, it's clear Google believes that smartphones and tablets are the way forward for e-commerce," said Kevin Dallas from Worldpay eCommerce.
"This move from the world's biggest search engine might alarm some merchants but companies should see Google Buy as a positive, spurring retailers to acknowledge the benefits for consumers when they invest in making their site mobile optimised.
"Customers expect to be able to transact swiftly and safely from mobile devices and any company that hasn't done so will be swiftly outmanoeuvred by more nimble competitors."
But Google's move may also cause concern for retailers who are keen to maintain a close relationship with customers said one expert.
Steve Mader of retail specialists, Kantar Retail told the BBC: "Google enabling their product ads to be linked to an opportunity to buy without leaving its platform is a great step towards a more convenient product search solution."
"What remains unclear is how this will impact the narrative retailers have with their shopper - a relationship retailers are hesitant to erode.
"We anticipate this will have the largest impact on research intensive or discretionary purchases such as consumer electronics."
Google is making further announcements about most of its services and products at its I/O developers conference in San Francisco .


An undercover police operation targeting drug dealers in Swansea has seen 26 people jailed for a total of more than 50 years.

Police targeted the supply of crack cocaine and heroin in the city centre.
Operation Avignon was launched partly in response to a VBS.TV documentary called Swansea Love Story which showed addicts injecting themselves in public.
The Swansea Crown Court sentencing followed undercover offices targeting street dealing in the city centre.
Police said they were determined to disrupt the supply of class A, B and C drugs with a particular emphasis on heroin and crack cocaine.
It was partly in response to the number of drug deaths and overdoses in the area.
It was also motivated by the amount of discarded needles and other drugs paraphernalia found in the city.
Officers also said they wanted to tackle the image of Swansea portrayed in the film which followed the everyday lives of addicts.
During sentencing, Judge Peter Heywood said: "Heroin leads to a life of misery and degradation, it's a downward spiral for those who take it.
"The police very properly had concerns about the escalating problem of heroin use in the city.
"It was becoming readily available and easy to get hold of.
"It's almost at endemic levels in south Wales."
Supt Phil Davies of South Wales Police said the sentences reflected "the concerns that society has in respect of Class A drugs" and "in particular heroin supply within Swansea and the impact it has upon the the community".
"I also hope that these sentences will provide a focus for reflection upon the need to seek harm reduction advice for those who are addicted to this drug and a stark reminder of the likely consequences to those who continue supplying class A drugs within our community."


Australia has said it will resume its military air operations over Syria.

A temporary suspension was declared on Tuesday after Russia warned it would treat aircraft from the US-led coalition as potential targets.
That warning came after the US shot down a Syrian military plane.
The Australian Defence Force said it had been "a precautionary measure to allow the coalition to assess the operational risk".
The statement did not say how long the suspension had been in place.
Australia has deployed about 780 military personnel as part of the US-led coalition fighting the so-called Islamic State (IS) in both Iraq and Syria.
The temporary halt in operations came as the coalition and the fighters it is supporting on the ground attempt to oust IS militants from Raqqa, the de facto capital of the "caliphate" they proclaimed in 2014.
Australia joined the US-led coalition in Syria in September 2015, but did not carry out any operations in the country between March and May this year, according to the defence department.
Russia warned on Monday that it would track coalition aircraft with missile systems and military aircraft, but it stopped short of openly saying it would shoot them down.
The move came after the US shot down a Syrian Su-22 which, the Pentagon said, had bombed US-backed fighters battling IS near the town of Tabqa in Raqqa province.
It was believed to be the first air-to-air kill of a manned aircraft by a US military jet since the Kosovo campaign in 1999.


Aston Villa have suspended striker Gabby Agbonlahor and will conduct an investigation following allegations concerning his conduct.

According to media reports, the 29-year-old was pictured with laughing gas canisters while partying in London on the same night Villa were relegated.
Agbonlahor was already on the sidelines after being told he was not fit enough.
Villa were relegated from the Premier League after losing 1-0 to Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday.
They are bottom of the table after collecting just 16 points from 34 games.
The West Midlands outfit are also without a manager following the sacking of Frenchman Remi Garde and have been hit by two key resignations.
Former Football Association chairman David Bernstein and Lord King, a former Governor of the Bank of England, both quit the board on Monday.


The EU's proposed cap on banker bonuses will drive business away from London, Boris Johnson, the mayor of Europe's biggest financial centre, has said.

He said the move was "self-defeating" and would at best provide "a boost for Zurich and Singapore and New York at the expense of a struggling EU".
EU officials struck a provisional deal on new financial rules overnight.
Under the deal, bonuses will be capped at a year's basic pay, but shareholders can agree to double this cap.
Top bankers and financial traders can earn bonuses multiple times their base salaries. But there has been public outrage over bonuses following the huge bail-outs of banks.
Many voters and political leaders on the Continent - as well as many economists in the UK - blame excessive bonuses in the financial sector for encouraging the risky behaviour that led to the 2008 financial crisis.
"Overall, this is a major achievement for [the European] Parliament, in curbing the culture of quick profit and irresponsible lending that has played such a pernicious role in fuelling Europe's banking crisis,'' said Sharon Bowles, a Liberal Democrat MEP.
The agreement was reached during eight hours of intensive talks in Brussels between members of the European parliament, the European Commission and representatives of the bloc's 27 governments.
The UK, which hosts Europe's biggest financial services centre, was opposed to any caps on bank bonuses and had been trying to rally other governments in the 27 countries in the EU behind its opposition to the bonus cap.
By Jonty BloomBusiness correspondent, BBC News
Although a bonus that doubles your annual salary sounds pretty generous to most people, in the cut-throat world of international finance, some at the very top expect a share of the profits they make their employers, and that can sometimes be many times their basic pay.
But there are a limited number of such people. Just on Wednesday, Barclays announced plans to publish the pay bands of its 140,000 staff, only 500 of whom are thought to earn over Â£1m ($1.5m), although much of that is likely to be made up of bonus payments.
These proposals are also not as draconian as they appear at first sight. Bonuses are limited to a maximum of one year's pay, but that can be increased to two years' pay if shareholders agree. Many banks may well try to soften even that limit by paying far higher salaries in the first place. And they will be allowed to offer bonuses in the form of shares at discounted prices if they are paid out over several years.
But even so, there are those who fear that these proposals, intended to undermine the bonus culture that many blame for the financial crisis in the first place, may instead drive away the so-called rain-makers of the financial system. The elite performers who attract business and profits, and who can and do move easily from bank to bank and from country to country, basing themselves wherever pay and bonuses are highest.
Q&A: Banker bonus cap plan
Viewpoints: EU banker bonus cap
The London mayor argued that the bonus rules would drive talent and investment away from the City to financial centres outside the EU.
"This is possibly the most deluded measure to come from Europe since Diocletian tried to fix the price of groceries across the Roman Empire," claimed Mr Johnson, adding that the decision was likely to further strain the relationship between the UK and Brussels.
Prime Minister David Cameron has promised a referendum on the UK's relationship with the EU if he wins elections due in 2015.
Reacting to the latest agreement, Mr Cameron said the EU should concentrate on tightening up banks in other ways.
"We are absolutely clear that we must be able to implement the Vickers plan in the UK, which in some ways is tougher than regulations that are being put in place in other European countries.
"We want to have this proper ring-fence between retail banks and  investment banks and the rules must allow that to happen."
The Vickers plan, based on the Independent Commission on Banking report led by Sir John Vickers, is designed to keep saver and business deposits from being compromised by the more speculative activities typically undertaken by investment banking operations.
Othmar Karas, the European Parliament's chief negotiator, said: "For the first time in the history of EU financial market regulation, we will cap bankers' bonuses.
"The essence is that from 2014, European banks will have to set aside more money to be more stable and concentrate on their core business, namely financing the real economy, that of small and medium-sized enterprises and jobs."
But Joe Rundle, head of trading at ETX Capital, in London, said the cap would backfire. He told the BBC: "It will drive up fixed salaries to compensate. Businesses that do not need to be inside the European Union will leave. And when banks invest in future divisions, it will be outside the EU."
The deal paves the way for Basel III, an overhaul of banking rules.
The G20 group of rich nations had originally planned to bring in Basel III last month, but that has been delayed to January 2014.
Basel III focuses on a ratio of high-quality capital - called tier 1 - which is needed to cushion it against any future shocks. It will rise to 9% after the rules come into effect.
"This overhaul of EU banking rules will make sure that banks in the future have enough capital, both in terms of quality and quantity, to withstand shocks," said Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan, who led the negotiations.
Once the proposals are formally agreed it will start the biggest shake-up of the banking system since the global financial crisis.
The lack of solid financial cushions meant that many banks were vulnerable, and eventually required taxpayer-funded bailouts to avoid bankruptcy.


Belgium's Luca Brecel won his first ranking tournament as he beat England's Shaun Murphy 10-5 in the final of the China Championship in Guangzhou.

The 22-year-old came from 3-1 down to win nine of the last 11 frames against 2005 world champion Murphy.
Brecel, who shocked Ronnie O'Sullivan in the quarter-finals, is the first player from continental Europe to win a ranking title and he pockets £150,000.
Victory moves him from 27th to 15th in the world rankings.
Brecel is now up to 11th in the race to make the Masters in January, with the top 16 players qualifying.
Murphy, 35, wins £75,000 and climbs from eighth to fifth in the rankings.
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Torquay United manger Kevin Nicholson says he is concerned about the knee injury former captain Luke Young suffered in the loss at Tranmere.

The 23-year-old was forced off after just 17 minutes of the game and will miss Tuesday's trip to Dagenham and Redbridge in the National League.
"It's worrying because he's been excellent," Nicholson told BBC Devon.
"The way he's been playing and pressing, he's been one of, if not our most, consistent outfield players."


A cancer surgeon investigated over the deaths of a number of his patients has been sacked.

Sudip Sarker worked as a consultant colorectal surgeon at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.
A police inquiry into Mr Sarker's actions began in 2013 after concerns were raised about the number of patients who died while under his care.
He was excluded from working at Worcestershire Royal Hospital and Redditch's Alexandra Hospital in 2012.
At the same hearing, conditions were placed on his registration by the General Medical Council.
Worcestershire Acute Hospital NHS Trust's acting chief executive Chris Tidman said: "I do hope that the dismissal provides assurance that the trust will take whatever action is necessary so as to protect patient safety.
"In the meantime, Mr Sarker continues to be investigated by both the police and the General Medical Council."
A telephone helpline and dedicated email address were established in 2013 for people to discuss any concerns.


More than half a million new cars were sold in March in the strongest month in the UK since 1999.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said almost 519,000 cars were registered as sales grew 5.3%.
Sales of alternatively fuelled vehicles jumped 21.5% year-on-year, with diesels and petrol cars up nearly 5%.
March is typically the biggest month, accounting for around a fifth of the year's car registrations.
The sales figure is the highest since the UK moved to a new system in 1999 that meant new number plates were issued in March and September each year.
It is second only to August 1997 when 525,539 cars were sold.
Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said, "The sector's strong growth in March rounds off a robust first quarter as British consumers continue to demonstrate their appetite for new cars, especially ultra-low emission vehicles."
Almost 770,000 new cars were registered in the first three months of the year.
The top selling models in March were the Ford Fiesta, Vauxhall Corsa and Ford Focus.
The UK car industry has been growing for four years in a row, helped by cheaper finance and stronger exports.


A rescued dog that provides companionship at a care home is recovering after having a hip operation paid for by residents and staff.

People in the wider community also chipped in to cover the cost of William's Â£8,000 operation last month.
He first arrived at Invernevis House in Fort William early last year.
William had previously been found neglected in Cyprus by a couple from Keith in Moray who were visiting the island.
Invernevis House manager Kit Cameron said: "We are pleased to say that William successfully came through his hip operation with no complications and is doing fantastically well.
"He lived his whole life with a degenerative hip condition and he's now free from the pain that caused him. He's under doctor's orders to take it easy, but try telling him that.
"The residents are taking great care of him and nursing him back to full health."


Tom Dumoulin won the opening 9.8km time trial of the 99th Giro d'Italia by just one-hundredth of a second.

The three-week race is beginning with three stages in the Netherlands, and the Dutch rider delighted home fans by winning in 11 minutes three seconds.
He beat Primoz Roglic of Slovenia on the flat, technical route in Apeldoorn to claim the race leader's pink jersey.
"It is a relief. I'm feeling sick in my stomach now but at the same time so happy," said the Giant-Alpecin rider.
"A hundredth of a second is a breath of air. It wasn't my best time trial but I'm wearing this jersey now.
"I will defend this as long as possible. I don't think I have the level to compete in the real big mountains."
Italy's Vincenzo Nibali, who rides for Astana, won this race in 2013 and is among the favourites to repeat that feat when the race concludes in Turin on 29 May. He was 16th on stage one, 19 seconds adrift of Dumoulin.
Another tipped to ride well is Movistar rider Alejandro Valverde, who won the 2009 Vuelta a Espana in his homeland. The 36-year-old is competing in his first Giro and is 23rd, 24 seconds off the pace.
There are no British riders in the race but British-based Team Sky's Spanish leader Mikel Landa finished 40 seconds adrift.
The race was not on the schedule of Britain's Chris Froome, who is focusing on winning a third Tour de France title in July.
Saturday's second stage is a largely flat 190km sprint stage from Arnhem to Nijmegen.
Stage one result:
1. Tom Dumoulin, Ned/Giant-Alpecin 11 minutes 3 seconds
2. Primoz Roglic, Slo/LottoNL-Jumbo same time
3. Andrey Amador, Crc/Movistar Team +6secs
4. Tobias Ludvigsson, Swe/Giant-Alpecin, +8secs
5. Marcel Kittel, Ger/Etixx-QuickStep, +11secs


Staying in the EU could increase the UK's population by up to 5.23m by 2030, Vote Leave has claimed, putting the NHS under "unsustainable" pressure.

Justice Secretary Michael Gove says the "safer" option to protect the NHS is to leave the European Union.
The calculations are based on five new states joining the EU by 2020 and the pull factor of the UK's Living Wage.
Britain Stronger in Europe said Mr Gove's claims were "absurd, cynical and frankly wrong".
Prime Minister David Cameron has said it will be "decades" before Turkey joins the EU and there is no firm date for the accession of Albania, Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia.
A briefing document from Vote Leave says the EU's commitment to the free movement of people and the UK's new National Living Wage mean net migration from the EU to the UK will be between 170,000 and 430,000 a year - adding between 2.58m and 5.23m people to the UK population by 2030.
This issue covers immigration and free movement within Europe.
The group calculates the NHS could have to contend with a new group of patients the size of "four Birminghams", and A&E demand could increase by up to 57%.
Voting to leave could mean "millions of pounds saved in ending EU contributions" could be given to "strengthen" the NHS instead, Mr Gove said.
"Boris Johnson and I will use all our influence with government to give the NHS additional support when we wake up on 24 June. But if we vote to remain, I fear that the NHS will only face additional pressures.
"Even without the accession of any new countries, we can expect a continuing net flow of 172,000 new individuals from the EU into UK every year."
But the EU was committed to allowing five new countries to join, he said, whose citizens would "inevitably" be attracted to the UK: "The idea of asking the NHS to look after a new group of patients equivalent in size to four Birminghams is clearly unsustainable."
The Office for National Statistics predicts that net migration to the UK - from countries across the world, not just the EU - will add up to just under three million by 2029.
Vote Leave says the ONS has "consistently underestimated the true level of migration" in the past and there are "strong reasons to doubt this forecast".
But the campaign group's figures were criticised by those campaigning for the UK to remain in the European Union.
Mr Gove's Conservative colleague Philip Hammond said: "I think these figures are very often just plucked from thin air and they're not designed to inform - they're designed to confuse. The reality is that further steps of EU enlargement are likely to be some way away."
He said Britain could use its veto on a country's application to join the EU "if we decide that it is in our interest to do so".
Mr Gove stood by the figures, describing them as "robust and methodologically fair".
Asked whether Vote Leave were abandoning the economic argument to concentrate on immigration, he said they were running a "full spectrum campaign" adding: "I think we are winning the economic argument".
Lucy Thomas, the deputy director of Britain Stronger in Europe said Mr Gove's claims that A&E demand could increase by 57% were "absurd, cynical and frankly wrong".
She added: "By leaving the EU's single market, our economy would hit and our public finances would be be 36 billion pounds poorer. That would mean hospitals, our NHS, would be far worse off. So leaving would damage our NHS, not make it stronger".


Saracens and former Scotland lock Jim Hamilton has announced his retirement from rugby at the end of the season.

After helping Sarries retain their European Champions Cup crown on Saturday, Hamilton confirmed this campaign will be his last.
"The time is right. This will be my last season as a rugby player," said the 34 year-old, who won 63 Scotland caps, in a social media post.
"I am honoured to have played this beautiful game for so long."
Hamilton featured in two Rugby World Cups, but called time on his international career after missing out on selection for the 2015 tournament.
As well as back-to-back European titles, the second-row has won successive Aviva Premiership crowns at Saracens, and will play his part in the Allianz Park side's defence of the trophy, which continues with next weekend's semi-final against Exeter Chiefs.
"It doesn't get much better than that for me personally," Hamilton told BBC Scotland after Saracens clinched the Champions Cup by beating Clermont Auvergne at Murrayfield.
"It's absolutely amazing to be back at Murrayfield, a country that love, where I played for 10 years.
"Clermont are a fantastic team, they've been blitzing people all year in the Champions Cup. Their defence was amazing, you saw five metres out it took a lot to get over the line. They're a quality team over ball.
"But we've been in these positions before - three years ago, we were in a semi-final and lost to Clermont, and the year before that we were in a final against Toulon and lost.
"Now we've done the double because we've been in this situation and the guys are experienced."


A woman who called the ambulance service more than 400 times in the last two years has been jailed.

Mariette McHarg, of Barry, also made 59 visits to an emergency department at University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, attended a poisons unit at Llandough hospital 55 times and called the GP out of hours service 127 times.
The cost of care was estimated at more than £170,000.
She was sentenced to 24 weeks in prison.
McHarg appeared on Tuesday at Cardiff Magistrates' Court on a number of charges, including the assault of a police officer and the assault of two nurses.
Robin Petterson, the Welsh Ambulance Service's clinical support officer for Cardiff and Vale, said it was essential the service was protected for life-threatening situations.
"We recognise that some frequent callers have complex needs," he said.
"In this particular instance we have dedicated a large amount of time working with multiple partner agencies to provide increased support and advice for her to access appropriate services.
"Unfortunately, despite repeated attempts to identify her unmet needs, there was an escalation in her behaviour which led to us having to pursue court action as a final deterrent."


The last time an old order collapsed in the Middle East it seemed obvious who should be invited to construct a new one.

When the Turkish Empire in the region disintegrated - consumed in the desert storms of the Great War - Britain and France were still, just about, major imperial powers.
The blood of a lost generation of young men and the riches built up over centuries had been poured into a narrow strip of European land on the Western Front, but in the Old World there were no territorial spoils to be had.
The Middle East though was different.
With the Turks defeated in Jerusalem and Damascus and Sinai and Gaza there was a new world to be made.
Britain, mandated by the League of Nations to govern the Holy Land, could set about honouring its commitment to the Jews of the world to build a national home for them in Palestine - probably not guessing that the issues surrounding the promise would remain a potent source of violence and discord a century later.
It was a moment of cataclysmic global upheaval and new nation states were formed like new islands thrown up by an undersea volcanoes: Jordan and Iraq in the British sphere of influence and Syria and Lebanon in the French.
In that age of empires no-one questioned the right of the Europeans to draw new borders to parcel up the old world - at least no-one the Europeans would have listened to.
The Sykes-Picot agreement is a secret understanding concluded in May 1916, during World War I, between Great Britain and France, with the assent of Russia, for the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire.
The agreement led to the division of Turkish-held Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine into various French and British-administered areas. The agreement took its name from its negotiators, Sir Mark Sykes of Britain and Georges Picot of France.
Some historians have pointed out that the agreement conflicted with pledges already given by the British to the Hashemite leader Husayn ibn Ali, Sharif of Mecca, who was about to lead an Arab revolt in the Hejaz against the Ottoman rulers on the understanding that the Arabs would eventually receive a much more important share of the territory won.
Why border lines drawn with a ruler in WW1 still rock the Middle East
In recent years of course those desert storms have begun to rise again and the structures built in that last great time of change are creaking in the wind.
Syria is consumed in the fires of civil war and it is hard to see how it will emerge again as a unitary state.
Next door in Lebanon - still traumatised by its own long years of conflict - a fragile tradition of co-operation between different religious communities just about hangs together.
The Kurds, Sunnis and Shia gathered together in the single entity of Iraq by the British may ultimately choose in the future to separate.
The old order lasted for almost exactly 100 years - one wonders if that is more or less time than its Anglo-French architects Sykes and Picot envisioned.
There has been no global cataclysm on the scale of the Great War to provide the catalyst for the changes which are already under way.
But we got a feel for some of the forces that will shape the new order in Vienna this week when the world's great powers - the UN Security Council plus Germany - struck a deal with Iran.
The talks were convened of course to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions - and so they did.
But they were a kind of acknowledgement too of Iran's status as a regional power - a sense that in effect nothing can be settled in the modern Middle East without the Iranians.
Iran after all is the main force propping up the faltering Syria regime of Bashar al-Assad, and it is using Hezbollah, the militia it founded and funded in neighbouring Lebanon to bear the brunt of the fighting.
Iranian-backed Shia militias have been fighting in Iraq against Sunni extremists - often filling vacuums left by the country's armed forces.
The Houthi rebels in Yemen too are part of this Iranian regional movement.
Iran is the great power in the world of Shia Islam, just as Saudi Arabia would see itself as the leader of those who follow the Sunni tradition.
There are plenty of small wars in which their proxy armies fight each other in what sometimes feels like a looming regional confessional conflict.
America is still a great power in the Middle East, of course, but it is not the power it was - not least because it would find it hard to say what its preferred outcomes would be in this current age of conflict beyond an apparently hopeless search for stability.
And these are confusing times.
America wants for Syria the kind of regime change that Iran is hell-bent on stopping but in Iraq both find themselves fighting the barbarous extremists of the so-called Islamic State.
The problem in the Middle East is that its perfectly possible for my enemy's enemy to be my enemy.
This was a week of change though.
Once the US and Iran glared at each other across a chasm of values:  where the Iranians saw themselves as champions of Shia communities and exporters of revolution the Americans saw only sponsorship of terrorism.
That may now begin to change although we don't know how far or how fast that change will go.
Through the gloom of the current desert storms it is hard to know for sure what sort of Middle East will eventually emerge - but it is already clear that one of the strongest winds blowing in the region blows from Iran.


The SNP would try to form an alliance to pursue "progressive policies" if the general election results in a hung Parliament, Nicola Sturgeon says.

But the SNP leader said the "reality" was going to be a Conservative majority government.
In an interview with the BBC's Andrew Neil, she also said the cap on public sector pay rises was not "sustainable".
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has ruled out a coalition between a Labour government and the SNP after 9 June.
In a speech in Glasgow, Mr Corbyn attacked what he said was the SNP's "obsession" with an "unwanted and unnecessary" second independence referendum.
In her BBC interview, Ms Sturgeon said the Labour leader was not "credible as an alternative prime minister".
Asked whether her party would back Labour in key Budget votes if there was a hung Parliament, she said: "We will work for progressive policies and we will work for the policies we put forward in our manifesto."
If there was a hung Parliament, she said "of course we would look to be part of a progressive alliance that pursued progressive policies" but predicted this would not be the outcome despite polls showing a narrowing of the Tories' lead.
"Voting Labour in Scotland risks letting the Tories in," she said.
Ms Sturgeon said she did not agree with Mr Corbyn's plans to raise corporation tax - a key source of funding for Labour's manifesto pledges.
And asked about her predecessor Alex Salmond's claim that Labour was "copying" key SNP policies, she added: "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."
The SNP launches its manifesto on Tuesday, and Ms Sturgeon promised to "get Scotland's voice heard".
She gave what she described as a "clear hint" on public sector pay, which is currently subject to a cap, saying future settlements should "recognise the cost of living pressures that public sector workers are having to live under".
The Scottish government's public sector workers are currently restricted to an average 1% pay rise in line with the rest of the UK, although it has offered extra help for the lowest paid.
Ms Sturgeon was also quizzed on her party's record in government in Scotland, where it controls devolved policies such as health and education.
"I don't sit here and say that we're perfect," she said of the performance of Scotland's schools, but she insisted progress was being made.
The SNP leader, who is pushing for a second referendum on Scottish independence before the Brexit process has been completed, also set out her bid to keep Scotland in the EU.
She said it was her aim to maintain full EU membership, although if independence was secured after the UK had left, an interim arrangement might be needed to maintain single market membership.
Labour's shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner rejected the idea of a progressive alliance, telling BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour: "If Labour were to be the largest single party, then the honourable thing to do in my view is to govern as a minority government."
He said other parties would then be challenged to back Labour's "progressive" policies by voting for them.
The Tories claimed Ms Sturgeon's comments meant Mr Corbyn could be "propped up" as prime minister by the SNP during Brexit talks.
Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said: "Nicola Sturgeon has underlined the danger presented by the SNP at this election.
"She confirmed what everybody in Scotland knows - she wants to get up on 9 June and use the election result to manufacture the case for another referendum.
"And she confirmed that the SNP would back Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister if there is a hung parliament.
"We know she would demand a referendum in independence as part of any deal with Labour. And given Jeremy Corbyn has said he's 'absolutely fine' with a referendum, we know he'd be willing to roll over."
Scottish Liberal Democrats Willie Rennie said:  "Nicola Sturgeon says Jeremy Corbyn isn't a credible candidate for prime minister but is prepared to make him prime minister. It's an absurd position.
"Liberal Democrats have ruled out any coalitions. There will be no coalition with Theresa May and her plan for a damaging hard Brexit and a cold hearted plan for the country.
"There will be no coalition Jeremy Corbyn and his plan to support that damaging hard Brexit."


The EU police agency Europol has set up a new team to break people-smuggling gangs who send migrants on perilous voyages across the Mediterranean.

The maritime intelligence unit, called "JOT (Joint Operational Team) Mare", is based at Europol HQ in The Hague.
The UK and 12 other EU countries are involved. JOT Mare will help the EU border agency Frontex and national police to track and stop the gangs.
Italy and Malta have faced a surge of migrant boats heading for their shores.
The EU says the chaos in war-torn Libya has created fertile ground for the smuggling gangs to send dangerously overladen migrant boats towards Europe.
More than 220,000 migrants entered Europe illegally in 2014, compared to 60,000 in 2013, the European Commission says.
There were more than 3,000 deaths of migrants at sea in 2014, and in 2015 there have already been more than 1,000.
"Doing more and better to counter smuggling is a priority for the European Commission and it will also be one of the main pillars of the European Agenda on Migration that we will adopt in May this year," EU Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos said.
In a statement welcoming the JOT Mare initiative, he said Frontex was currently monitoring several non-EU ports and about a dozen large vessels in the Mediterranean, "which might be used for smuggling migrants".
Besides the UK, the following countries are involved in the new Europol unit: Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
The scope of maritime patrols off Italian shores has been cut back since Italy ended its Mare Nostrum operation last November. It had focused on picking up migrants in distress after setting sail from Libya.
The EU now runs a border control operation called Triton, limited to European territorial waters, with fewer ships.
Gerald Hesztera, a Europol spokesman, told the BBC that national police forces would send specialists to work at JOT Mare for a year or more. They would remain on the national payroll while engaged with the EU team.
JOT Mare's main job is to collect and analyse intelligence on people-smugglers, he said. "We can co-ordinate and make the connections", to help national police operations, he said.


Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock has hinted Wales midfielder Emyr Huws could be offered out on loan in January.

The 23-year-old is not featuring for the Bluebirds, though Warnock said he was "not bombed out at all."
He explained that the good form of Arun Gunnarsson and Joe Ralls was the main reason Huws was not making the matchday squad.
"As it comes to January I suppose I will have to have a chat to find what he feels like," added Warnock.
"A lot will depend on what he wants.
"I'm quite happy to have him in the squad and he knows he's not bombed out at all he's training very well, but I do like to have that extra forward on the bench.
"He's been unlucky in some respects in the fact I've been delighted with the midfield.
"I think Gunnarson and Ralls have complemented each other, but I know he's itching to get a game.
"But it's difficult really to change what I think has been going very very well."
Huws has played 10 times for Wales, but missed out on the Euro 2016 finals when Chris Coleman's team reached the semi-final.
He joined Cardiff from Wigan Athletic in August 2016, but has made only three appearances this season - and none under Warnock who was appointed manager on 5 October.
Huws has played in three of Wales' four World Cup 2018 qualifying matches.
"I like to help players as well as just look after my first team squad," said Warnock.
"I realise when you're not in the team it's not very good for you."
Cardiff City are one place above the Championship relegation zone following their 3-2 win over Huddersfield.


In a country fighting to preserve patriarchal and tribal traditions, Pakistan's women can face brutality - and even death - if they fall in love with the wrong person.

Arifa, 25, dared to stand up to her family, running away with the man she fell in love with and secretly marrying him.
The following day in a busy street in Karachi, Pakistan's most populous city, her male family members surrounded the newlyweds and, at gunpoint, dragged Arifa away.
It was five days before her husband, Abdul Malik, heard any news of his wife.
"I got a message that she had been murdered. That was the most difficult day of my life," he tells me, holding back the tears. "After great difficulty I managed to establish that my wife was alive and had been hidden somewhere."
Fearing for his life, Mr Malik has lived in hiding for three months.
"In Pakistan, love is a big sin. Centuries have passed, the world has made so much progress - men have reached the heavens. But our men are still following age-old customs and traditions from the dark ages," he explains.
It is these traditions and customs - which focus on denying women freedom - that have growing acceptance in Pakistan and are encouraged by hard-line religious scholars.
The rule of law is often ignored.
This is a world where a woman has few rights in practice - she is the property of her family until she marries.
Then ownership passes to her husband's family, with the risk of death if she brings dishonour to the family.
This year alone, more than 1,000 women have been murdered for so-called honour crimes - and these are just the ones of whom the authorities are aware.
In May, the case of the young, pregnant woman Farzana Parveen shocked the world. She was stoned to death by her family for marrying the man she was in love with, rather than the man they had chosen for her.
What was most shocking was that it happened outside Lahore's high court, in front of policemen and passers-by.
In November, following worldwide media attention, Ms Parveen's father, brother, cousin and former fiance were all found guilty of murder and given the death sentence, while another brother got 10 years in jail.
But more often than not, those who commit these brutal acts against women are never charged, protected by tribal laws.
Some hard-line religious scholars believe that only through the killing of an offending family member - usually a woman - can honour be restored to the rest of the family and tribe.
The most surprising point is that few people in Pakistan nowadays are willing to challenge these tribal traditions and customs. In fact, according to a recent survey from the Pew Research Centre, an overwhelming majority of Pakistanis support the full implementation of Sharia - Islam's legal system.
In the backstreets of Karachi, I find a madrassa where thousands of boys and young men receive their religious instruction. I want to ask the local clergyman about his thoughts on adultery, for which women have also been murdered in "honour killings".
"The punishment is what is prescribed in Sharia, which is stoning and lashes," the mullah tells me.
One of his pupils backs his teachings: "Once it is proved, in Sharia, the punishment is either lashes or stoning."
At this madrassa, I find little sympathy for women who stray - punishing adultery is a clear-cut duty.
But what does the country's law say? In 1979, Gen Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistan's military dictator, introduced the so-called Hudood Ordinance - a controversial set of laws that attempted to Islamise Pakistan. Among other things, it made adultery punishable by stoning and lashing.
In 2006, the then President, Pervez Musharraf, tried to liberalise some of these laws to protect women, but the enforcement of his reforms has been limited and adultery is still a crime.
Karachi's central prison for women is where many of those accused of adultery end up.
Sadia is 24. She arrived at the prison four months ago after her husband of nine years accused her of sleeping with another man. She is still awaiting trial.
"My husband divorced me, beat me and then kicked me out of home," she explains. "Then he went to the police and told them that I'd run away with another man. In reality he and his family beat me and kicked me out."
Sadia tells me she does not have access to a lawyer and is not sure when she will be able to leave. At the time of my visit, there are 80 women in the prison - many have no idea why they are there and end up languishing in jail for years without trial.
Some of the more lucky women end up at a handful of shelters across the country.
I travelled to the Edhi shelter for women, a heavily guarded compound in one of the most notorious and dangerous neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Karachi, known for its Taliban sympathies.
Most of the women here have run away from abusive relationships or have been thrown out on to the streets by their families.
The women live at the Edhi shelter peacefully, sharing chores, helping with the cooking, cleaning and taking care of each other's children. There are never any questions asked about why a woman has sought refuge at the home.
There is one strict rule that everyone abides by - nobody is allowed in without the say of the women, including the authorities.
"If she is having an affair outside of here, we don't care, we don't ask. She can stay as long as she likes,"  Samina, a volunteer at the shelter, tells me. "If her family come to take her and she goes willingly, then she is free to go."
What if the police are after her for adultery charges, I ask. "No, we won't hand her over to the police," says Samina.
Draped in a red headscarf, Ayesha says she has left her home five times with her two young children, fleeing to the safety of the shelter.
Each time, her husband comes to collect her. But she tells me the abuse and torture she is subjected to when she returns with him force her to run away again.
Ayesha says her husband accuses her of having an affair. "My husband would lock me up and then he would start to beat me, beyond any limit, forcing me to say that I was having an affair.
"My children would scream, 'Please someone save our mother.' But no-one would listen, no-one would come."
Ayesha tells me she has no intention of returning to her husband now. Although the future remains uncertain for her, she says she feels lucky to be alive.
Despite a growing middle class, attempts at modernity and secular condemnation, combating ingrained institutional misogyny has become increasingly difficult in Pakistan.
In a society fighting to preserve patriarchal and tribal traditions, women face brutality and gender-based violence in both urban and rural districts.
And as religious fundamentalism continues to gain ground, the freedoms of women are increasingly attacked.
BBC Our World's Pakistan's Women - Punished For Love broadcasts on the BBC News Channel at 21:30 GMT on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 December - or catch up online.
Internationally, you can see the programme on BBC World News on Saturday 13 December at 11:30 GMT and Sunday 14 December at 17:30 GMT.


Dog owners have been urged by the local council to keep their animals under control after a series of fatal attacks on deer living in a Reading graveyard.

It comes after several roe Muntjac deer were found dismembered in Reading Old Cemetery.
Green Party councillor Rob White said: "Owners should keep their dogs on a lead when walking in the cemetery."
Warning signs are also being put up in a bid to deter people from walking their pets in the grounds.
People living nearby believe dogs are responsible for the attacks.
"Something needs to be done about it," said resident Barry Coll.
"We're convinced someone's been setting their dog on them."
A herd of up to 12 deer - which have a distinctive dog-like bark - were thought to be living in the graveyard.
Since then fatal attacks only three stags have been seen.
Thames Valley Police said it was investigating the reports of possible dog attacks on deer at the cemetery.
Reading Borough Council stressed it had not received any reports of organised activity at this stage.
A spokeswoman added: "We will be working with police to investigate further and improve the 'no dogs allowed' signage and security of the site."


Thirteen children aged between one and 12 were among 35 Afghan Sikh immigrants found in a shipping container at Tilbury Docks, Essex Police have said.

The group arrived on Saturday on a ship from Belgium and were said by police to be victims of "people trafficking".
One man was found dead and the others were taken to hospital to be treated for severe dehydration and hypothermia.
The 30 people released to police include nine men and eight women aged between 18 and 72.
They have been brought to a makeshift reception centre set up inside the terminal buildings at Tilbury Docks.
Police said they are "being spoken to about their ordeal" before they are passed on to the UK Border Force.
The other four people discovered in the container remain at Southend Hospital.
Essex Police said the stowaways are to be interviewed to find out how they came to be inside the container.
Police launched a homicide investigation following the death of the man, who is thought to be in his 40s.
A post-mortem examination was carried out on Sunday but police say further tests need to be undertaken to establish the cause of death.
The container is being forensically examined, they added.
Officers are working with Interpol and other international authorities to try to establish what happened.
Supt Trevor Roe of Essex Police said: "The welfare and health of the people is our priority at this stage.
"Now they are well enough, our officers and colleagues from the Border Force will be speaking to them via interpreters so we can piece together what happened and how they came to be in the container.
"We now understand that they are from Afghanistan and are of the Sikh faith.
"We have had a good deal of help from partners within the local Sikh community in the Tilbury area to ensure that these poor people, who would have been through a horrific ordeal, are supported in terms of their religious and clothing needs."
The Red Cross provided food and welfare for the group overnight.
Immigration lawyer Harjap Singh Bhangal told the BBC that the Sikh community in Afghanistan had long complained of harassment.
He said the number of Sikh families had been "dwindling" and they faced verbal and physical abuse.
He said: "As a result Sikhs are leaving Afghanistan, and they feel persecuted, and they're leaving for other countries in Europe such as Germany, France and the UK."
The history of Sikhs in Afghanistan goes back about two centuries. In the 1970s they are thought to have numbered about 200,000, with most living side-by-side with other communities in cities like Kabul, Jalalabad and Kandahar and involved in the fabrics and clothing business.
But the population is now thought to number less than 5,000. After the Soviet invasion in 1980, a great number migrated to India. A second phase of migration took place after the fall of communist government in 1992. And during the civil war that followed, Sikh business and homes were occupied. They were forced to leave the country with other minorities, including Hindus.
During the Taliban era, Sikhs gained some independence. However, they were forced to wear yellow patches in order to be "recognised or differentiated" from other Afghans.
After the US invasion in 2001, Sikhs were given more freedom by  Hamid Karzai's new government. But even now they are in dispute with the government over their custom of holding outdoor cremations.
Until recently, Sikhs did not have any representation in the Afghan Parliament. However, last year President Karzai allocated a seat for them, which will be shared with a Hindu representative.
The discovery was made after the container arrived from the Belgian village of Zeebrugge at about 06:00 BST on Saturday when "screaming and banging" were heard coming from inside.
All the remaining containers on the ship have been searched and no-one else has been found.
Essex Police said there were initial concerns more people could be inside a container that arrived at Purfleet but that this turned out not to be the case.
Belgian police said they believed the lorry which delivered the container in Zeebrugge had been identified through CCTV footage.
Chief Inspector Peter De Waele said it was likely the people were already inside the container when it was dropped at Zeebrugge as it appeared "impossible" the group could have entered it during the hour it was at the port.
It is not known where the container, one of 64 aboard the P&O commercial vessel Norstream, originated, nor where the people inside it were heading.
Former head of the UK Border Force Tony Smith said those inside the container were victims of international organised criminals.
He told the BBC: "They're being exploited because the prize is a passage to the West - that's what they want, they want to migrate to the UK or to Europe but they're being exploited by criminal gangs who are probably taking their entire life savings away on the promise of a passage to the West.
"We really need to get a message out to migrants that if they want to come to this country there are legal routes that they need to explore and they need to apply for visas and permits."
Anthony Steen, chairman of the Human Trafficking Foundation, said: "It shows how desperate people are to improve their economic situation - how desperate they are to leave their own homes, and own countries, and hope to arrive in somewhere that's more accommodating, more kind, and offering them a better quality of life. Usually, they're sadly wrong."
Police have set up a "casualty bureau" hotline for anyone concerned about relatives. The numbers are 0800 056 0944 or 0207 158 0010 if dialling from outside the UK.


An off-duty police constable was killed during a night out after he was attacked by a man who struck him with a "pile driver" punch, a court heard.

PC Neil Doyle, 36, died following the attack in Liverpool city centre in the early hours of 19 December last year.
Andrew Taylor, 29, Christopher Spendlove, 30, and Timmy Donovan, 30, are on trial for murder at Liverpool Crown Court.
The three men also deny wounding with intent and causing grievous body harm.
There were gasps in the court as the jury was shown CCTV footage of the disturbance. Prosecutors claim the defendants were  "determined to get into involved in a physical confrontation."
The footage showed one of PC Doyle's colleagues being repeatedly punched and then kicked while on the floor.
Jurors heard Mr Taylor, a football agent, felled PC Doyle's colleagues with punches and then "delivered a pile driver which took Mr Doyle's legs away".
The punch left the officer staggering across the road before ending up in a gutter, the court heard.
He died after suffering an injury to an artery in his neck, which led to bleeding over the surface of the brain.
It was the same injury that killed Australian cricketer Philip Hughes a month earlier, jurors heard.
The court has been told how PC Doyle was "baited" by Mr Taylor after the men met just before 03:00 GMT in the city's Seel Street.
The defendants are alleged to have followed the officers to the Aloha bar.
Mr Taylor was said to have addressed PC Doyle with "are you having a good evening officer," which put him "on the defensive".
The defendant was described as "trying to bait" the officer into having a fight, according to one of the constables present.
He realised, in his colleague's view, that "something was not right".
Nicholas Johnson QC, prosecuting, said: "According to Mr [Robert] Marshall, Mr Doyle was, to use his phrase, 'switched on', and realised something was not right.
"It is said by Mr Marshall that Mr Taylor was very persistent and declined to make himself scarce, and said things like 'that's not very nice officer' when asked to go away.
"The impression Mr Marshall got was that Mr Taylor was trying to bait Mr Doyle into having a fight."
Mr Johnson added: "The three defendants were determined to get involved in a physical confrontation with the three off-duty policemen.
"They decided to go out of their way to have a fight.
"There was a confrontation, violence followed and the police officers ended up in hospital."
The court heard one of the bar's doormen, Sham Choudhury, saw a punch being thrown at PC Doyle, who he said had moved onto the pavement. After having a punch thrown at him, he threw one back before things "descended into violence."
The three defendants also face charges of wounding with intent to Robert Marshall and causing grievous body harm to Michael Steventon, both colleagues of PC Doyle.
The trial continues.


Doedd dim tystiolaeth bod rhannau o gorff dynes gafodd ei lladd wedi cael eu bwyta, yn ôl patholegydd gyda'r Swyddfa Gartref.

Bu farw Cerys Yemm, 22, wedi i Matthew Williams, 34, ymosod arni mewn hostel yn Argoed, Sir Caerffili yn 2014.
Clywodd cwest bod Ms Yemm, wedi cael 89 o anafiadau - hanner y rheiny i'w phen - ac mai achos meddygol ei marwolaeth oedd trawma i'r wyneb a'r gwddf.
Dywedodd y patholegydd, Dr Richard Jones, wrth y cwest bod Ms Yemm hefyd wedi colli ei llygad chwith yn yr ymosodiad.
Anafiadau i'r geg
Bu farw Williams ar ôl i'r heddlu ei saethu â gwn Taser yn dilyn yr ymosodiad ar Ms Yemm mewn stafell wely yn y Sirhowy Arms yn ystod oriau mân 6 Tachwedd 2014.
Dywedodd Dr Jones mai anafiadau i geg Ms Yemm oedd fwyaf arwyddocaol.
Roedd hi wedi cael ei brathu tri neu bedwar o weithiau, ond chyfrannodd hynny ddim at ei marwolaeth.
Clywodd y cwest hefyd bod profion wedi dangos bod Ms Yemm wedi defnyddio amffetaminau a chanabis cyn ei marwolaeth, ond doedd hynny 'chwaith ddim yn ffactor yn ei marwolaeth.
Mae'r cwest i farwolaethau Ms Yemm a Williams yn parhau.


The executive head teacher of a south London academy that is being investigated by the Charity Commission is to retire.

The Durand Academy in Stockwell said Sir Greg Martin, 63, would be retiring in September after 29 years.
The trust running the academy received Â£17m from the government to set up a state boarding school in West Sussex, which opened last year.
The Charity Commission announced its investigation in February.
The Durand Academy has an early years centre, and a junior school and middle school in Stockwell.
It also has a weekly boarding upper school at the former St Cuthman's school site in Midhurst.
The Charity Commission is looking at the relationship between the academy and the Durand Academy Trust, a separate body that runs and governs it.
The investigation began after a hearing of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee which said there was an "unacceptable lack of clarity" over who owned assets held by the trust.
Committee chair Margaret Hodge said it was "dismayed" that despite already earning more than Â£200,000 as the head of a primary school and being one of the highest-paid head teachers in the country, Sir Greg had received more than Â£160,000 a year in management fees from a charitable trust.
Sir Greg was knighted for services to education in 2013.
The Durand Academy said his retirement was planned and had been discussed with the governing body over a number of months.
It said he was hugely respected and had transformed the school, which previously had children leaving at 11 unable to properly read and write.
He will be replaced by the current head Mark McLaughlin but will continue to be a governor of the school.
Mr McLaughlin said in a statement: "Sir Greg has made a huge impact on the educational opportunities offered by Durand and I look forward to continuing to drive this forward in the future."


Many parts of Scotland are at risk of flooding over Christmas after more heavy rain affected the country.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has issued dozens of warnings, most of them in Tayside.
People in the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway have been asked to pay close attention to the weather forecast over Christmas Day into Boxing Day.
Warnings were also in place on Christmas Eve covering Strathglass and Callander.
Storm Eva is expected to bring further bad weather to areas which have already been badly affected.
A weather warning of heavy rain is in place for much of southern Scotland from 15:00 on Christmas Day through to 23:45 on Boxing Day.
Many roads across Dumfries and Galloway were affected by surface water or flooding on Christmas Eve and drivers were asked "slow down and take care".
The A76 Dumfries to Kilmarnock road near to Drumlanrig Castle was reported as "flooded but passable".
The B724 Annan to Dumfries "low road" was flooded with a road closure in place west of Cummertrees.
In Dumfries itself, the Whitesands car parks were closed due to flooding in the area.
High winds also affected the north of Scotland on Christmas Eve with gusty of 60mph to 70mph forecast and up to 80mph over the Western Isles.
Eleven out of 26 Caledonian MacBrayne routes were disrupted but the situation was improving.
Passengers were asked to check on the website, on Twitter @calmac_updates and also on the freephone number 0800 066 5400 for regular updates.


Harry Arter says his commitment to playing for the Republic of Ireland has been judged "a little bit unfairly".

The Bournemouth midfielder has managed just four appearances for his country in two years since making his debut.
He missed out on selection for the Euro 2016 finals but is still keen to establish himself as a regular.
Arter was named man of the match in the friendly win over Uruguay but is not expected to start Sunday's World Cup qualifier against Austria in Dublin.
Jeff Hendrick and Glenn Whelan could be manager Martin O'Neill's preferred midfield pairing with Wes Hoolahan in a play-making role, and Arter possibly having to settle for a place on the bench.
International opportunities have been limited, much to the frustration of the 27-year-old, who once had to deny speculation he was about to switch allegiance to England prior to playing his first competitive game.
When asked about his stop-start international career, Arter said: "it's been disappointing".
"I've felt my commitment levels have been judged a little bit unfairly and one thing I've always said to myself is that I won't say too much to the press about being judged on my commitment.
"I'll just try and perform on the pitch and show when I play that I'm one hundred per cent committed."
Arter started in the reverse fixture against Austria which the Republic won 1-0 at the Ernst Happel Stadium, and hopes a niggling injury won't trouble him further this week.
"I've got a slight little problem with my ankle at the moment.
"It probably requires an injection at the end of the internationals, but it's nothing too important. It was just a little bit of soreness.
"I'm mentally strong enough to put niggles like that to one side. In the past, I've unfortunately missed out on a few trips through injuries that I've been unable to play through.
"When I can play through something, I'm more than prepared."
Victory over the Austrians would edge the Republic ever closer to qualification - they and Serbia currently enjoy a four-point advantage over both Austria and Wales in Group D.
He said: "it (victory) would put us in a great position, it will be a long summer individually and collectively if we don't get a positive result, so fingers crossed."


A new book challenges an idea of St Kilda as a lost world where islanders lived in isolation from wider society.

St Kilda: The Last and Outmost Isle draws on the most detailed archaeological survey of the archipelago ever undertaken.
It features rarely seen and previously unpublished photographs of its inhabitants, visitors and landscape.
People lived permanently on St Kilda for thousands of years until the last left 85 years ago.
St Kilda, a group of small islands and towering sea stacks, lies 40 miles (64km) west of North Uist in the Western Isles.
The book follows an eight-year survey and research programme by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) in partnership with National Trust for Scotland.
RCAHMS is now part of new body Historic Environment Scotland while the trust works with the Ministry of Defence and Scottish Natural Heritage in managing St Kilda, a designated World Heritage Site.
The book's authors, archaeologists George Geddes and Angela Gannon, have lived for months at a time on St Kilda and this has given them an understanding of what life was like for former inhabitants.
Mr Geddes said the islanders were often thought of as a "lost tribe", who escaped modern life until the last minute as "a virtue of their isolation and self-sufficiency".
He said: "Most of us have a romantic notion of St Kilda as a place apart, a place that is somehow different.
"Having read a book on the islands as a teenager, I first went there to escape from another job, and found that living there changed my life completely."
Mr Geddes said those who had lived on the islands on a more permanent basis were closely connected to communities in the Hebrides and west Highlands.
He said: "Their way of life was very similar to those living in the rest of the Western Isles.
"For all of the historical period, St Kilda was part of a farm with another island, Pabbay, and the islanders paid rent to the Macleod chiefs, much the same as any other Highland community.
"Of course, they were far more self-sufficient than you and I, but they were very much tuned into a complicated clan economy."
The book also explores islanders' use of almost every corner of the archipelago.
Growing crops and raising cattle and sheep, they also famously harvested seabirds for their meat, feathers and eggs from cliffs and sea stacks, such as 196m (643ft) Stac an Armin.
Since 1957, people have lived on the main island of Hirta on a temporary basis to operate a military radar station.
Hirta is also busy during the summer months with researchers, volunteers and tourists.
Among the book's rarely seen photographs are images taken by Scottish climber and broadcaster Tom Weir. They include pictures showing early work to establish the radar station in 1957.
Mr Geddes said: "Most writers at this time saw the arrival of the first machines on the island as a kind of desecration of the islands, just then becoming a National Nature Reserve."
He added: "The military pictures are fascinating as they capture a huge change in the culture of St Kilda, many of the soldiers initially sent to build the base being far from happy about it."
From photographic archives, other powerful images were found for the book. Many of them show people who lived, worked and raised families on St Kilda.
"In a few cases, all that has been written on the back of some of these photographs was the word 'natives'," said Mr Geddes.
"The book tries to explain that St Kilda, its landscape and people, fit like a glove with the rest of Scotland.
"St Kildans were just as individual as you or I, and their story is as much about their choices and decisions when faced with living in this difficult place, as it is a story about wider historical and societal changes."


In the novel Catch-22, the author Joseph Heller famously wrote: "Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them."

He'd taken a quote by Shakespeare on greatness and turned it on its head.
The implication was clear: mediocrity is a bad thing, to be avoided. Yet most of us go on to live what by most measures are pretty ordinary lives.
So what's wrong with settling for mediocrity?
Listen to Manuela's programme: How to be Mediocre
It's a subject that became a field of study for two Italian academics, Gloria Origgi, a researcher and philosopher at the Jean Nicod Institute in Paris, and Diego Gambetta, a professor of sociology at Oxford University.
It all started over a decade ago when they met up and got chatting about their experience of working and studying overseas, comparing it to how things were done in Italy.
They exchanged stories about turning up at Italian conferences and finding that workshops had:
It wasn't how things were organised in France and the UK, where the two academics had now settled.
They decided to dig deeper, going beyond their own anecdotal experiences. The result was an Oxford University paper about what they call "kakonomics" - kakos being ancient Greek for bad.
Their premise was straightforward: sometimes parties conspire, whether consciously or unconsciously, to achieve the lowest possible outcome - the most mediocre outcome.
But why?
It appears it has to do with people shunning a perceived tyranny of excellence.
"Sometimes all this rhetoric about efficiency is just unbearable so people like to have a chance to just ease up," says Ms Origgi.
It goes some way to explaining Italy's fabled la dolce vita - its famously laidback lifestyle. But if the old adage is that all good things in life are free, then la dolce vita comes at a price and the price is high standards.
Take the case of Italian olive oil manufacturer Leornardo Marseglia, who was charged with fraud in the 1990s for selling adulterated oil under the label "extra virgin", something that should denote it is of superior quality, say Origgi and Gambetta.
Even in Italy, extra virgin olive oil is expensive, and when Mr Marseglia was later acquitted he justified himself by arguing that thanks to his adulterated oil many people could afford to buy it with the label "extra virgin" at a reasonable price.
Mr Marseglia told The New Yorker magazine that at home, his family used ordinary oil anyway: "For us, the concept of 'good' is enough. We want to be average folks."
But the route to mediocrity isn't always paved with such disingenuity.
For Krista O'Reilly Davi-Digui, who lives in Canada with her husband and three children, it is heartfelt.
"When I say I'm mediocre, I am," she says, posing the question in a recent blog, What if I am mediocre and choose to be at peace with that?
"I love to learn but I'm not the most brilliant person. I like to write but that doesn't mean I'm the greatest writer. I'm just kind of plain."
Krista studied for an education degree, dropped out after suffering bouts of anxiety and depression, and is now a certified holistic nutritionist and "joyful living educator".
"The messages are always do more, be more, sacrifice sleep for productivity, bigger is better, rush, rush, rush," she says.
"It just destroys me. I feel like that isn't life and I don't want it and I can't even begin to keep up. So many of us just want to get off that hamster wheel and just breathe."
But many of us never do. For some, sheer hard work may transform that wheel into a ladder, but what if it doesn't? What if all that hard work goes to waste?
Mark Manson is a popular blogger on personal development issues who gets thousands of emails from readers every year. More recently he noticed that a lot of the advice people were looking for was for issues that weren't really problems at all
Rather, they were worrying about their achievements, about not excelling or standing out in their chosen field.
"The fact is that they just fall into the 99% of achievement which, you know, we all do," he says.
The problem, Mr Manson argues, is that social media ensures we're constantly exposed to the highlight reel of people's lives and that's leaving some feeling like they're not quite making the most of their time on this mortal coil.
He says that while "mediocrity, as a goal, sucks... as a result, is OK".
It's similar to the conclusion Gloria Origgi and Diego Gambetta came to in their study.
Ms Origgi recalls the experience of an American friend who was renovating a house in Italy. The Italian builders never delivered when they promised to but conversely they didn't expect payment on time either, so both sides gained something.
In the end though, the renovation was never completed, which wasn't perhaps what the American friend had bargained for.
But in general, the deal is you give up high standards and in return you get flexibility and an overall easier, more laidback life.
Which brings us back to Krista O'Reilly Davi-Digui. She lives in a small town of about 10,000 people in the Canadian province of Alberta, just outside the city of Edmonton.
That's rich, oil country where glass-like lakes reflect soaring, thickly forested mountains and clear, cobalt-blue skies.
It's not particularly isolated, plus she's travelled quite a bit in her life, to Africa, Europe and different parts of Canada.
What's more her husband is west African and she's taught herself to be bilingual.
I put it to her that all of that doesn't sound very average to me.
She pauses and laughs sheepishly. "I guess it just depends on who you're comparing me to."
For more from Manuela and the Business Daily team, listen at 08:32 GMT each weekday on BBC World Service or download the podcast and check out episodes and programme highlights here.


Michael Flynn's short tenure as Donald Trump's national security adviser ended in controversy when he resigned over contacts he had made with Russia before Mr Trump took office.

After just 23 days on the job, Mr Flynn was forced out over revelations that he had discussed lifting US sanctions on Russia with their ambassador to Washington, and that he lied to the US vice-president about that conversation.
Since his departure, revelations have kept on coming.
Since Mr Flynn left the White House the Pentagon has launched an investigation into whether he failed to disclose payments from Russian and Turkish lobbyists that he was given for speeches and consulting work.
In March, he registered with the US government as a "foreign agent" due to his work for the Turkish government.
Former President Barack Obama warned Mr Trump against hiring the former general less than 48 hours after the November election during a conversation inside the Oval Office.
Mr Flynn has requested immunity from the congressional committees investigating alleged Russian meddling on the 2016 election in exchange for his testimony, but so far no committee has taken him up on the offer.
"As a former military officer, you simply cannot take money from Russia, Turkey or anybody else," said Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz.
"And it appears as if he did take that money. It was inappropriate, and there are repercussions for a violation of law."
Mr Flynn was all but written off two years ago when he was removed from his post as a Pentagon intelligence chief by Mr Obama.
But the retired US Army three-star lieutenant-general was one of Donald Trump's closest advisers and most ardent supporters during the 2016 campaign.
His importance was underlined just days before his resignation, when he was with the president at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida as he hosted his first foreign leader there, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
In the past, Mr Flynn has complained he was fired from the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) in 2014 after just two years for telling hard truths about the war on Islamist extremism.
Mr Flynn said the US is losing a global war against Islamist extremism that could last for generations.
But insiders have suggested his exit at the DIA may have been related to his unpopular overhaul of the agency.
Former US officials who worked closely with him described him as extremely smart, though a poor manager.
Indeed, Mr Flynn, a father-of-two who married his high-school sweetheart, went on to become one of the Obama administration's most outspoken critics, all the more surprising as he was a life-long Democrat.
But the Rhode Islander said he no longer recognised the Democrats as the party he once supported.
He instead decided to align himself with Mr Trump, a man whom he rated as a hustler and outsider like himself, part of a larger fight against "the dishonesty and deceit of our government".
Mr Flynn was an almost evangelical supporter of Mr Trump.
"We just went through a revolution," he said after the businessman's shock election victory.
"This is probably the biggest election in our nation's history, since bringing on George Washington when he decided not to be a king. That's how important this is."
Mr Flynn and Mr Trump shared many views, including the advantages of closer ties with Russia, renegotiating the Iran deal and combating the threat from Islamic State militants.
Like Mr Trump, Mr Flynn called the 2003 invasion of Iraq a strategic blunder.
Even the areas where the two disagreed at first were quickly smoothed over.
Gen Flynn's declaration that he was pro-choice was quickly amended to pro-life in July, after it sparked outrage among Trump supporters.
And, like Mr Trump, he was no stranger to controversy.
Back during his days at the DIA, he apologised for a presentation which suggested make-up made women "more attractive" and encouraged people to dress for their body shape.
He later said neither he nor the agency "condone this briefing".
In 2016, his appearance at a banquet held in honour of the Russian government, where Gen Flynn sat two seats away from Vladimir Putin, raised eyebrows, with his apparent warmth towards Moscow concerning some national security experts.
More controversial yet have been his views on Islam.
In February 2016, he tweeted "fear of Muslims is RATIONAL".
In August, he spoke at an event in Dallas, Texas, for an anti-Islamist group Act for America, saying that Islam "is a political ideology" and that it "definitely hides behind being a religion".
Some expressed concern at how much influence Mr Flynn could wield over a president with little international experience.
But for all his critics, there were those who stood behind Mr Flynn, a man who built a reputation as an astute intelligence professional during his three decades in the US Army.
David Deptula, a retired air force lieutenant general who used to work with him, praised his willingness to "speak truth to power and not politicise his answers".


A shot has been fired at a house in Londonderry.

Damage was caused to a door and window of the property during the incident in the Clon Elagh area at about 03:30 BST on Sunday.
Police have appealed for information about the shooting.
They want to hear from anyone who saw a number of men in a vehicle that sped away from the house in the direction of Skeoge Road.


A review is under way that will cut the number of Scottish seats in the House of Commons from 59 to 53.

The move, which was outlined in 2011, will see the total number of MPs across the UK reduced from 650 to 600.
England will have its number of seats reduced from 533 to 501; Wales will be reduced from 40 to 29; and Northern Ireland will lose one of its 18 seats.
The Boundary Commission for Scotland has until 1 October 2018 to recommend the new constituency boundaries.
The rules require broadly equal numbers of voters in each constituency, except where a constituency is larger than 12,000 sq km, and also limit the size of a constituency to 13,000 sq km.
The average size of the electorate per constituency across the UK is 74,769, with the electorate of each constituency having to be within 5% of that - meaning each must have between 71,031 and 78,507 voters.
The constituencies of Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Western Isles) and Orkney and Shetland are protected by law, so are not subject to the review.
Lord Matthews, deputy chairman of the Boundary Commission for Scotland, said: "The rules within which we work put great emphasis on equal electorates across the UK, and as a result the review is likely to result in significant change for many constituencies in Scotland.
"Consultation remains a key part of the review process and we will fully consult upon our proposals in due course so people across Scotland can feed in their views."
Scotland elected 72 MPs to serve in the House of Commons until being reduced to 59 ahead of the general election in 2005.
This was because it was felt that the creation of the Scottish Parliament meant Scotland no longer needed to be over-represented in terms of its population size.
The SNP won 56 of the 59 seats at the most recent election, with Labour, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats winning one each.


A 35-year-old Irish woman has died while climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

It is understood she was climbing Africa's highest mountain as part of a group trip with an Irish travel firm called Earth Edge.
Earth Edge said in a statement that the woman died at 08.15 local time on Friday morning.
The statement added that their "thoughts and condolences are with her family."
The cause of the woman's death is not yet known.
The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs has said it is providing consular assistance to the woman's family.


Nicola Sturgeon has said she was "deeply moved" after visiting Srebrenica to pay her respects to the victims of the 1995 genocide.

The first minister laid a wreath at the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial.
Ms Sturgeon and former moderator of the General Assembly, the Very Rev Dr Lorna Hood, also met survivors and relatives of some the victims.
Eight thousand Muslims, mainly men and boys, were killed after Bosnian Serb forces took over Srebrenica.
The atrocity, during civil war in the Balkans, was the worst on European soil since World War Two.
Ms Sturgeon tweeted: "Deeply moved to visit the memorial to the victims of the Srebrenica genocide at Potocari. We must work to learn the lessons."
Scotland formed close links with Srebrenica after scientists went there to help identify remains in mass graves. Later, some of them gave evidence at The Hague on the war crimes.
The charity Remembering Srebrenica uses the example of the massacre in an education programme which aims to raise awareness of the dangers posed by hatred, racism and intolerance.
Dr Hood said: "The terrorist events of the last few months and years around the world should make us even more aware that hatred and discrimination if left unchallenged and unchecked can lead to terrible evil even amongst those who had previously been neighbours and friends.
"Many of the bereaved are still waiting for justice and for the remains of their loved ones to be found."
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was later convicted at The Hague of genocide and war crimes in the 1992-95 Bosnian war, and sentenced to 40 years in jail.
In 2015, Ms Sturgeon met representatives of the Mothers of Srebrenica at a service in St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh, marking the 20th anniversary of the tragedy.
During her visit to the town, she will see the work of the Christine Witcutt Day Care Centre for children with Special Needs, which is dedicated to aid worker and teacher Christine Witcutt from Wishaw, who was killed by a sniper in Sarajevo.
Ms Sturgeon said: "It is a privilege to visit Srebrenica and learn first-hand how survivors and bereaved family members of the genocide have fought to preserve the memory of their loved ones."
She added: "The Scottish government will preserve the memory of the Srebrenica genocide - the worst atrocity on European soil since the Holocaust - through education, commemoration and close relations with Remembering Srebrenica Scotland.
"We too have a role and responsibility to ensure future generations are able to remember and learn from the failure to protect Srebrenica."


Joe Root has become the leading batsman in the ICC world rankings after helping England beat Australia to regain the Ashes on Saturday.

The 24-year-old Yorkshireman hit 130 in the first innings at Trent Bridge as England won by an innings and 78 runs.
Root has scored 443 runs at an average of 71.79 so far in the series with two centuries and two half-centuries.
He replaces Australia's Steve Smith, who slips to third in the rankings with South Africa's AB de Villiers second.
Root is the sixth England player to top the batting or bowling world rankings since 1980.
He made his Test debut against India in December 2012 and has scored 2,716 runs in 31 matches at an average of 56.58
Speaking after England regained the Ashes, Root said: "I put my form down to hard work, being very relentless in your practice, and doing the things you don't want to - you've got to face bowling in practice that whistles around your head."
Meanwhile, England's Stuart Broad has moved up three places to second in the bowling rankings after taking 8-15 in the first innings at Nottingham.
James Anderson is third after missing the fourth Test with a side strain, while South Africa's Dale Steyn remains top of the rankings.


Leicester City striker Jacob Blyth has joined League One strugglers Blackpool on loan for the rest of the season.

The Foxes signed the 23-year-old from non-league Leamington in 2012, but he has yet to make a first-team appearance for the current Premier League leaders.
Blyth has had five loan spells in the Football League, scoring five goals in 23 league games to help Burton win promotion from League Two last year.
He also had a six-game loan spell at Cambridge earlier this season.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.


The World Bank has cut its growth forecast for the Asia Pacific region for this year and next, because of the risks posed from a sharp slowdown in China and raising US interest rates.

The bank now expects growth in developing East Asia and the Pacific to be 6.5% this year and 6.4% in 2016, down from an earlier forecast of 6.7%.
The latest estimate is even lower than growth of 6.8% last year.
Major development banks have recently revised lower their growth forecasts.
Last month, the Asian Development Bank said slowing growth in China would drag down the developing region's growth to 5.8% this year.
The International Monetary Fund also flagged in September that slowing growth in the world's second largest economy posed a threat to the global economy.
"Developing East Asia's growth is expected to slow because of China's economic rebalancing and the pace of the expected normalization of US policy interest rates," said the World Bank's regional chief economist Sudhir Shetty in a statement on Monday.
"If China's growth were to slow further, the effects would be felt in the rest of the region, especially in countries linked to China through trade, investment and tourism."
East Asia accounts for almost two-fifths of the world's economic growth, according to the World Bank.
The US-based lender now expects China's economy to grow 6.9% this year and 6.7% in 2016, down from an earlier forecast of 7.1% and 7% respectively.
The Asian giant is headed for its slowest growth in a quarter of a century this year and calls are growing that it may undershoot the government's official target of 7%.
Interest rates in the US, meanwhile, are expected to rise for the first time in nearly a decade in the coming months, which could result in a flood of capital leaving emerging markets as Asian currencies are hit.
"While this increase has been anticipated and is likely to be orderly, there is still a risk that markets could react sharply to such tightening, causing currencies to depreciate, bond spreads to rise, capital inflows to fall, and liquidity to tighten," the bank said.


The anti-immigration Danish People's Party (DPP) has become Denmark's second largest political party after a general election that saw the ruling coalition lose power.

The DPP attracted record support, wining 21% of the votes - up from 12.3% in 2011.
Meanwhile, Helle Thorning-Schmidt resigned as prime minister and leader of the Social Democrats, paving the way for Liberal leader Lars Lokke Rasmussen to start talks on forming a government.
Despite overtaking Mr Rasmussen's Liberals - until now the biggest opposition party - the eurosceptic DPP may not be part of the new coalition.
Its leader Kristian Thulesen Dahl said the party might be more efficient in opposition.
Mr Dahl, who took the reins of the DPP in 2012, has led the party to increasing popularity amid public concern over the cost of immigration to Denmark's welfare state.
The party has toned down some of its more inflammatory rhetoric on asylum seekers and Islam, and veered to the left on economic issues.
As well as tougher restrictions on asylum seekers, it campaigned in the election for higher pensions for low-income earners and more money for healthcare and the elderly.
Correspondents say the shock result also brings UK PM David Cameron a powerful new ally in his bid for EU renegotiations.
The DPP wants Denmark to leave the Schengen area - boosting border controls is one of its top issues - and to make it harder for EU migrants to claim benefits in other member states.
Formed in 1996, the DPP is a relative newcomer in Danish politics.
In May 2002, the country's Liberal-Conservative government - largely dependent on the DPP's support - introduced what it described as Europe's strictest immigration laws, reducing the grounds for being granted asylum and cutting benefits.
Like many other nationalist parties across Europe, the DPP was Denmark's biggest winner at the European Parliament elections in 2014 - taking nearly 27% of the vote.
The party now sits with the European Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament, alongside Mr Cameron's Conservative Party and the euro-sceptic Alternative for Germany party.


A woman who recently returned from west Africa is being tested for Ebola at a hospital in Edinburgh.

She was admitted to the Western General Hospital on Thursday after developing a fever.
However, there has been no confirmation that she is suffering from the deadly virus.
She was taken by secure ambulance to the hospital's infectious diseases unit and was being kept in an isolation unit.
Melanie Johnson, Director of Unscheduled Care at NHS Lothian, said: "A patient who recently returned to Scotland from west Africa has been admitted to our Regional Infectious Diseases Unit (RIDU) at the Western General Hospital after they reported a raised temperature.
"As a precautionary measure, and in line with agreed procedures, the patient will be screened for possible infections and will be kept in isolation.
"We have robust systems in place to manage patients with suspected infectious diseases and follow agreed and tested national guidelines."
The suspected Ebola case in Edinburgh comes around 24 hours after Northampton General Hospital said it was treating a possible case.
The hospital has since confirmed that the female patient, who has a history of travel to west Africa, tested negative for the  virus.
A Scottish government spokesperson said: "We are aware that, as a precautionary measure, NHS Lothian has admitted a patient who has returned from West Africa.
"In line with agreed procedures, the patient will be screened for possible infections including Ebola and will be kept in isolation, again as a precaution.
"Scotland has a robust health protection surveillance system which monitors global disease outbreaks and ensures that we are fully prepared to respond to such situations."
Last month a Scottish nurse, Pauline Cafferkey, from South Lanarkshire, became the first confirmed UK case of Ebola after she returned from Sierra Leone where she had been working with the charity Save the Children.
She is being treated at London's Royal Free Hospital and was in a critical condition although she has since improved.
Ms Cafferkey, 39, had travelled home to Scotland via Casablanca, Morocco, and Heathrow Airport in London.
She was later placed in an isolation unit at Glasgow's Gartnavel Hospital after becoming feverish, before being transferred by RAF Hercules plane to London on 30 December, and taken to the Royal Free's specialist treatment centre.
Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, such as blood, vomit or faeces.
The virus has killed more than 8,400 people, almost all in West Africa, since it broke out a year ago.
The World Health Organization says the number of people infected by the disease in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea has now passed 20,000.


Two men charged in connection with a £160m drugs haul off the coast of Ireland have admitted conspiracy to import cocaine.

The luxury yacht Makayabella was intercepted in September last year after crossing the Atlantic.
David Webster, 44, of Rillmead, Otley, and Philip McElhone, 29, of Freemantle Place, Leeds, both appeared via video at Leeds Crown Court.
Both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import Class A drugs.
The two men were remanded in custody by Judge Guy Kearl QC until sentencing in September.
It is believed the drugs, which came from Venezuela, would have had a street value in excess of £160m.
The Makayabella was intercepted in poor condition by Irish authorities in the Atlantic Ocean, 200 miles off the south-west coast of Ireland, while investigators also seized a 25ft (8m) motor boat called Sea Breeze, moored in Pwllheli, north Wales.


James Dresnok, the last known US soldier living in North Korea, died of a stroke aged 74 late last year, his sons have confirmed.

Mr Dresnok's children said he was loyal to North Korea until the end, in a video interview published last week by local news outlet Uriminzokkiri.
After crossing over to the North in 1962 he went to lead an extraordinary life in Pyongyang.
This included a stint as a star in North Korea's film industry.
Rumours of Mr Dresnok's death surfaced earlier this year, and the latest video, featuring his sons Ted and James Jr wearing military uniforms and speaking in fluent Korean, is confirmation.
James Jr said that "our family was shocked because my father died unexpectedly", but added "my father ended his days without regret."
Ted, who is the older son, said his father "received only the love and care of the party until his passing".
"One thing that our father asked us to do was to become faithful workers that render devoted service to the dear leader Kim Jong-Un and to raise our children so they will follow and brighten that path," he said.
The interview was published online by North Korean television news outlet Uriminzokkiri last Friday.
It was the second time the two sons had appeared on the channel. In May 2016 they were seen praising North Korea in another video.
The two men have said in the videos that they serve in North Korea's military, and are married with children.
Given that Mr Dresnok died last year, questions have been raised about the timing of the interview.
It was published just before the US and South Korea embarked on military exercises which routinely anger the North, and comes after weeks of provocative rhetoric between the US and Pyongyang.
It also appears to be targeted at a foreign audience - it was published on Uriminzokkiri's YouTube channel and has not been aired or mentioned in domestic media, according to BBC Monitoring.
But the video has also come out a week after the Los Angeles Times ran an interview with another US soldier who defected to North Korea, Charles Jenkins, whose past accounts have clashed with Mr Dresnok's. Mr Jenkins eventually  made his way back to the US.
North Korean analyst Michael Madden told the BBC such videos were a relic from a bygone generation of North Korean propaganda play.
He said it was likely that many of those who acted as Mr Dresnok's minders are no longer part of the leadership.
Uriminzokkiri is not considered state media, but is thought to be run by North Korean intelligence, and is meant to have a pan-Korean outlook with an external focus, according to Mr Madden.
"The department is long known to have been responsible for the small and motley collection of foreign North Korean citizens, and the message conveyed by the sons of Mr Dresnok is likely to have been an important one for them," said Mr Madden.
Mr Dresnok was one of four US soldiers who defected to North Korea in the 1960s, and spent more than 50 years living in the secretive Communist country.
He was facing divorce and a court martial at the time of his defection.
In a 2006 documentary film with British filmmakers called Crossing The Line, he said he told himself "to hell with this - I was fed up with my childhood, my marriage, my military life. Everything - I was finished."
"There's only one place to go."
He left at lunchtime on 15 August 1962, not sure if he would survive the trip across the mine-strewn demilitarised zone (DMZ) marking the border between the North and South Korea.
But he did, eventually starting a new life on the other side, and marrying a Romanian woman, with whom he had Ted and James Jr.
He also had a third son, born in 2001, after he married the daughter of a Korean woman and an African diplomat following the death of his Romanian wife.
Along with other deserters, Mr Dresnok played a prominent role in North Korean propaganda cinema from the late 1970s onwards - playing the American enemy - and became a household celebrity.
He also taught in a foreign language college, and translated writings by North Korean leaders into English.
His voice was used in messages played across the border at his former brothers-in-arms, telling US soldiers about his new life and encouraging them to cross the border.
"I have never regretted coming to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea", he said in the 2006 film's opening minutes, speaking in English with a strong American accent.
"I feel at home. I really feel at home... I wouldn't trade it for nothing."


A 19-year-old man will appear in court after four pedestrians were struck by a vehicle in Leicester city centre last year.

Three men and a woman were hit by a car that failed to stop on Humberstone Gate on 1 November.
Wahid Rob, from Neston Road in Leicester, has been charged with four counts of attempted grievous bodily harm and dangerous driving.
He is set to appear at Leicester Magistrates' Court on 10 July.