Thousands of people have attended a rally in Washington DC to mark 50 years since Martin Luther King's famous I Have a Dream speech on civil rights.

Jobs, voting rights and gun violence topped the concerns of many of those who marched to the Lincoln Memorial.
Eric Holder, the first black US attorney general, said he and President Barack Obama would not be in office had it not been for the original marchers.
Mr Obama will mark the event on the actual anniversary next week.
Among those who addressed Saturday's rally was the mother of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager shot dead in Florida last year, whose killer was recently acquitted.
"He's not just my son, he's all of our son and we have to fight for our children," Sabrina Fulton said.
Earlier she told the BBC many young African Americans had been left afraid by the acquittal of neighbourhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman.
She called for a change to laws in many American states which allow the use of deadly force if a person feels seriously threatened.
Saturday's event comes a few days before the actual anniversary of the original march on 28 August 1963.
King, who was assassinated in 1968, led about 250,000 people to the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall and delivered his famous speech from its steps.
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character." he said, in one of the most celebrated pieces of American oratory.
Martin Luther King III, King's eldest son, told the marchers from the same steps on Saturday: "This is not the time for nostalgic commemoration nor is this the time for self-congratulatory celebration.
"The task is not done. The journey is not complete. We can and we must do more."
In his speech, Mr Holder said of the 1963 demonstrators: "They marched in spite of animosity, oppression and brutality because they believed in the greatness of what this nation could become and despaired of the founding promises not kept."
The spirit of 1963, he said, now demanded equality for gay people, Latinos, women, the disabled and others.
Organisers had hoped to gather some 100,000 people in Washington. The crowd was predominantly African American but included white Americans and others.
Mr Obama, the first black US president, is due to commemorate the event on Wednesday with a speech from the same spot where King spoke.
He will be joined by former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, while churches and groups have been asked to ring bells at 15:00 (19:00 GMT) to mark the exact time King delivered his speech.


A four-month-old baby was injured when her pushchair was hit by a car.

The girl suffered face, arm and shoulder injuries when she came out of her pushchair in Darlaston on Wednesday morning.
The child was treated by paramedics at the scene before being taken to Walsall Manor Hospital, ambulance staff said.
The accident took place in Pinfold Street, shortly after 10:00 GMT. No-one else needed treatment, West Midlands Ambulance Service said.
More on this and stories from Birmingham and the Black Country


Two men have been injured after a car was deliberately driven at them, police have said.

The 19- and 53-year-old were walking on Cathcart Road in Glasgow, near Somerville Road, at about 00:55 when a car was reversed into them.
The younger man was released after treatment at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
His companion is in a serious but stable condition in the same hospital, with leg and head injuries.
Det Sgt Martin Smith said: "Inquiries are at an early stage and we are currently viewing CCTV to try and establish the circumstances surrounding this incident.
"The car involved is a small white three door, with a dark roof and dark alloy wheels. It was last seen travelling north on Cathcart Road.
"At the time of the incident the area would have been busy with members of the public and I urge anyone who witnessed this incident or anyone who has any information that could assist our inquiry to contact Cathcart CID immediately."


MPs received photos of dead babies and severed heads in the build up to the vote on Syrian air strikes, shadow Commons leader Chris Bryant has said.

The Rhondda MP said politicians' offices had been barricaded, and one MP's house had been surrounded.
Mr Bryant said such abuse was "beyond the pale" and that security at MPs' homes and offices should be reviewed.
Caerphilly MP Wayne David said he was called a "murderer" and "warmonger" for backing wider military action.
Mr David and Mr Bryant were among the four Labour MPs to join 11 Welsh Conservatives in supporting David Cameron's proposals, the measure was passed by a large majority of 174 on Wednesday night.
Air strikes targeting Islamic State militants in Syria began shortly afterwards.
Mr Bryant told the Commons on Thursday that many people had "hurled a great deal of abuse" at MPs on both sides of the debate.
He said some had been called "murderers, peacenik, terrorist sympathisers, whatever", but insisted "no MP should ever be intimidated".
"Sadly the abuse for all members of this house has been beyond the pale," Mr Bryant said.
"Several members have had their offices barricaded, one member had her house surrounded, many had photos of dead babies pushed through their front door at home.
"I gather today some members have received photos of severed heads."
"MPs have broad shoulders, of course we do, but can I ask members to review the security of members homes and offices," Mr Bryant added.
Mr David, a frontbench justice spokesman and former minister, told BBC Radio Wales that as well as being called "a warmonger" he had been told he would have "blood on my hands", had received anonymous calls to his office and was threatened with de-selection.
Mr David, Mr Bryant and Stephen Doughty were the most prominent Welsh Labour MPs calling for military action.
They were joined by Susan Elan Jones, the Clwyd South MP.
Twenty of Wales' 25 Labour and three Plaid Cymru MPs rejected the plan.
Among the Welsh Labour MPs who voted against air strikes were shadow cabinet members Nia Griffith and Owen Smith.
They were joined by Kevin Brennan, Geraint Davies, Chris Evans, David Hanson, Paul Flynn, Carolyn Harris, Huw Irranca-Davies, Gerald Jones, Stephen Kinnock, Ian Lucas, Madeleine Moon, Christina Rees, Jo Stevens, Nick Smith, Mark Tami and Nick Thomas-Symonds, Jessica Morden and Albert Owen.
Ann Clwyd was absent from the vote due to illness.
Although the Liberal Democrats said they were in favour of air strikes, the party's only Welsh MP, Mark Williams, voted against.
Glyn Davies, Conservative MP for Montgomeryshire, who voted in favour of the action, said most MPs accepted there was no certainty the strikes would work to combat so-called Islamic State targets.
"If there was certainty then there would be no difficulty securing the vote of everyone. It's a big problem we're confronted with - a massive problem," he said.
The prime minister said carrying out UK air strikes in Syria would "keep the British people safe", as MPs debated the issue on Wednesday.
Mr Corbyn had claimed David Cameron's case "doesn't stack up", but he allowed his MPs a free vote on the issue.


The UK's largest warship marks "a new phase in our naval history", the Queen has said, as the vessel was officially named in her honour at a ceremony at Fife's Rosyth Dockyard.

A bottle of whisky was smashed on the hull of the 65,000-tonne HMS Queen Elizabeth - the first of two new Royal Navy aircraft carriers being built.
The Red Arrows flew over the dockyard before the ship was officially named.
First Sea Lord Admiral George Zambellas said the ship was "fit for a Queen".
"HMS Queen Elizabeth will be a national instrument of power and a national symbol of authority," he said in a speech.
"That means she will be a national icon too, all the while keeping the great in Great Britain and the royal in Royal Navy."
Addressing the audience, the Queen said the "innovative and first class" warship, the largest ever to be built in the UK, ushered in an "exciting new era".
"In sponsoring this new aircraft carrier, I believe the Queen Elizabeth will be a source of inspiration and pride for us all," she said.
"May God bless her and all who sail in her."
About 3,500 people involved in the design and construction of the carrier watched the celebrations, alongside dignitaries and politicians including Prime Minister David Cameron, First Minister Alex Salmond and former prime minister Gordon Brown.
Mr Cameron said it was a "very proud day" for Scotland and the UK, while Mr Salmond said it was a "huge day" for the workers and their families.
Ian Booth, of the Aircraft Carrier Alliance which is overseeing the ship's construction, said it was a "historic occasion".
"The ship truly reflects the very best of British design and ingenuity," he said in a speech.
The Red Arrows flypast was followed by a procession of three generations of Royal Navy aircraft, including a historic 1950s de Havilland Sea Vixen fighter - the last and only flying aircraft of its kind in the world.
The Queen oversaw the ceremony by pressing a button to release a bottle of Islay malt whisky - suspended at the front of the ship - to smash on to the hull.
The naming ceremony, a naval tradition dating back thousands of years, marked the first time in more than 15 years that the Queen has christened a Royal Navy warship.
Six shipyards in the UK including Tyne, Rosyth and Appledore have been involved in building parts of the carrier.
More than 10,000 people at more than 100 companies have worked on HMS Queen Elizabeth, which has been beset by construction and design delays.
The estimated cost of the vessel and its sister ship is Â£6.2bn, well over the initial projected cost of Â£3.65bn.
The warship is as long as 25 buses and can carry 40 jets and helicopters at a time. It will have a permanent crew of almost 1,600 when it enters service in 2020.
Mr Booth described it as a "floating military city that can deploy aircraft, that can act as a disaster relief centre".
Glenn Campbell, BBC Scotland political correspondent
It so happens that the Royal Navy has chosen to name and float its new aircraft carrier on American Independence Day.
Yet this ceremony signals the UK's intention to continue to independently project military power in the world for decades to come.
Albeit that the largest warship ever built in Britain will carry fighter jets made largely in the US.
But one question that arises is: in whose name will HMS Queen Elizabeth and its air crews operate when they come into service in 2020?
Will it be the flagship of the UK as it currently exists or only for England, Wales and Northern Ireland if Scotland chooses its own independence in September's referendum?
The UK government argues that the union offers Scotland greater security as well as greater job prospects for thousands of Scottish defence workers.
The Scottish government believes NATO would guarantee an independent Scotland's defence and that shipyards such as Rosyth and Govan would continue to prosper by winning orders from both the UK and Scottish defence ministries.
The huge choice that Scotland faces looms large at the naming of a very big ship.
The carrier has still to be fitted out and floated, to make way for the assembly of its sister ship HMS Prince of Wales.
Assembly of HMS Prince of Wales is set to begin at Rosyth later this year.
The naming of the first of the two ships comes five years after the first metal was cut on the vessel and 33 months after the first section entered the dry dock at Rosyth for assembly.
Firefighters had to be called to a fire on board HMS Elizabeth last month. A small fire had started in one of the vessel's hull compartments but fire crews only reported minor damage.
The US last month grounded all of its F-35 Lightning II fighters, the type of aircraft due to fly operationally from HMS Queen Elizabeth, after one caught fire on a runway.
The US Department of Defence (DoD) said all 97 stealth fighters would face additional engine inspections following the incident at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida on 23 June.
The F-35 is due to make its international debut at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford from 11 July but the DoD said it would make a final decision on whether it attends early next week.


The UK's vote to leave the EU will cause instability and uncertainty that will challenge the UK car industry.

That was the verdict of the trade body, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), as it reported record turnover for 2015.
While the UK's automotive sector has "gone from strength to strength", the leave vote may cause problems for the car industry, it said.
Turnover rose 7.3% to Â£71.6bn while jobs and vehicle production also rose.
However SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said that the outlook had been clouded due to uncertainty about dealing with trading partners in Europe.
"As a result (of the vote), the industry now faces new challenges. Uncertainty, economic instability and an undoubted impact in terms of cost, influence and ease of business," he said in a speech.
The number employed in the sector rose by 17,000 to 814,000 and there was a 5% rise in vehicle production to 1.7 million in 2015, the SMMT said, and car manufacturing output is already up more than 10% so far this year.
But the UK's future access to the single market has been brought into question following the vote to leave the EU.
Hawes said success has been due to unrestricted access to the single market, input to EU legislation to safeguard the interests of UK Automotive, and the ability to recruit talent from abroad.
He warned that the threat to this from leaving the union could jeopardise the ability to access important markets.
"We need full and unrestricted access to the single market now and in the future, 80% of what we produce is exported and the only way to succeed is through unrestricted and reciprocal access to the EU and global markets," he told an industry summit.
Jonty Bloom, business reporter
After the referendum British business is trying to explain to the government what it wants from the negotiations to leave the EU. What everyone seems to be talking about is "access" to the single market, but as the prime minister has said, "access to the single market has many potential different meanings".
Japan and the USA have "access", as one economist told me even Haiti does. But many countries have to negotiate a trade deal, pay tariffs, get through customs and all abide by EU rules and regulations to get their goods into the EU and they don't have a say on those rules.
By comparison, at the moment we are members of the EU's single market and have been for decades, we enjoy totally free movement of goods, finance, and people around the EU, without any tariffs and we have a say on how the rules are written.
That's why much of business thinks "access" should mean "membership of" the single market, what David Cameron today called the "best access".
That is why at its international conference today, the head of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, Mike Hawes, said "80% of what we produce is exported and the only way to succeed is through unrestricted and reciprocal access to the EU and global markets."
And by "access"  Mr. Hawes means "membership" of the single market.
Read Jonty Bloom in full
However Jaguar Land Rover's group strategy director Adrian Hallmark said the EU would be unlikely to take any action that would disrupt trade, at least for the luxury end of the market.
"It's in the interest of the EU to maintain access to the UK market, so I can't imagine that there would be any overly punitive measure in the premium end of the business. It would be cutting the European nose off to spite its face," he said.
He added that the business would remain UK focused and that there were no plans to change its headcount or employment strategy.
Demand for both cars and commercial vehicles in the UK reached record levels in 2015, with 2.6 million and 420,000 registrations respectively.
Investment in research and development by the industry also reached a record high of Â£2.5bn in 2015, representing around 12% of the country's total spending.


A pizzeria has become the second business in Londonderry to have been badly damaged by a fire in the past few days.

The blaze happened at Papa Busty's take-away, on Waterloo Street, at about 16:30 BST on Monday. The take-away has only been open for five weeks.
The Fire and Rescue Service said the blaze was started accidentally.
On Sunday the Rainbow Chinese take-away on Carlisle Road was also damaged by fire.
Paul Quinn's 21-year-old son, Darren, owns the pizza business. Mr Quinn said he was devastated.
"It's a new business, he came back from England with his girlfriend, it's only open five weeks," he said.
"Business was picking up great, they were very happy with it. They put everything into it so it's very upsetting.
"It's just unfortunate, but I'm just glad there were no lives lost or people hurt."
Jonathan Tate from the Fire and Rescue Service said it was a very difficult blaze to deal with.
"There were 30 firefighters here to deal with the incident. The damage to the take-away is significant."
Mr Tate told BBC Radio Foyle that the inside of the business was "destroyed".
The take-away is on the bottom floor of a three-storey building. The two flats above the restaurant are derelict.


Aberdeen councillors are being warned they face prison or fines if they break London Stock Exchange laws on insider dealing, BBC Scotland has learned.

A letter has been sent to all 45 elected members setting out Market Abuse Regulations.
They have been asked to sign the letter acknowledging the terms and return it to the authority's legal department.
It comes after the council became the first in Scotland to issue bonds on the stock exchange worth £370m.
That followed credit rating agency Moody's assigning Aberdeen an Aa2 rating.
It will be used to fund infrastructure projects including the new Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (AECC) and the City Centre Masterplan.
The local authority said the bonds were less expensive than other available loans.
BBC Scotland understands that some councillors were initially concerned about the terms of the letter and whether it would impact on their ability to raise concerns publicly about the council's finances.
Insider dealing - where a person uses inside financial information to their benefit - is a criminal offence and is punishable by a heavy fine or imprisonment.
Market abuse is when someone can be given an unlimited fine for disclosing financial information that might affect the value of bonds and investments.
As well as councillors, senior officials at Aberdeen City Council are also included in the insiders list that must be disclosed to the Financial Conduct Authority on request.
An Aberdeen City Council spokesperson said: "Aberdeen City Council successfully issued bonds on the London Stock Exchange in 2016 and as a result must comply with the Market Abuse Regulations.
"In line with these regulations, the council is obliged to keep a list of those individuals who have access to inside information.
"Elected members and staff who have been identified as having access to inside information relating to Aberdeen City Council have been notified in writing and asked to acknowledge receipt of that letter, which contains further detail of the insider list and its purpose.
"Training sessions on the Bond and compliance with associated regulations are under way for elected members and staff, underlining the responsibilities of the organisation and individuals. It should be stressed that the requirements for confidentiality in relation to specific subjects and issues are in line with the existing terms of employment and Councillors' Code of Conduct.
"The Bond issue was the subject of several reports to full Council in 2016, which outlined the implications of the public listing on the London Stock Exchange and made it clear it was highly likely all elected members would be on the Aberdeen City Council Insider List. These reports were considered and recommendations approved by elected members during full Council prior to the Bond issue."
The council said that so far no one had refused to sign the letter, and councillors have been given until Friday to respond.
Currently all of Scotland's councillors are governed by a code of conduct.
In extreme cases, a councillor can be disqualified from office for five years for any breach.
Aberdeen City Councillors now face a potential police investigation if they are suspected of breaching Market Abuse Regulations.


A teacher has been suspended following his arrest in connection with a stalking offence, BBC Scotland has learned.

Ross Davidson, 45, a teacher at a school in North Ayrshire, was arrested on Wednesday.
The alleged offences took place between May and July 2014, according to the Crown Office.
A spokesman for North Ayrshire Council confirmed that a teacher had been suspended from his post.
He added: "It would not be appropriate for the council to comment further on matters relating to an individual employee."
A Police Scotland spokeswoman confirmed that they had made an arrest.
"We can confirm that on Wednesday 19 April, a 45-year-old man was arrested in connection with an offence contrary to Section 39 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing Scotland Act 2010," she said.
A report was submitted to the procurator fiscal, she added.
The fiscal at Kilmarnock received the report, according to the Crown Office.
A spokesman said: "The procurator fiscal at Kilmarnock received a report concerning a 45-year-old male, in connection with alleged incidents between May and July 2014.
"The accused was liberated from custody pending further inquiries."


West Ham do not just have off-field issues to contend with since their move to London Stadium - they have got problems on the pitch too.

Injuries have hit my old club hard, especially in attack and with the more creative players in their squad, but there are other reasons Slaven Bilic's side are struggling for form.
Last weekend's 4-2 defeat by Watford was a good example of their current issues.
The Hammers started well then got a bit complacent and stopped doing the basics - working hard for each other, allied with good organisation - that helped them do so well last season.
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If you compare their focus, discipline and the intensity of their play then, to what we have seen from them so far in 2016-17, it is no wonder their performances and results have dropped off.
Their only league win so far came against Bournemouth, when they kind of fell over the line with a late winner against 10 men. Against most other Premier League teams they would not have got away with it, but fortunately for them they were up against another team who looked a little bit undercooked early in the season.
In every area of attack and defence, West Ham are less effective so far than they were last season, when they finished seventh.
It is very early days but Bilic has a lot of work to do to get them back to that level, and he has to do it quickly.
Looking at the fixture list, West Ham have got a run of games next where you would expect them to pick up some points, especially at home.
Things have to improve soon because the last thing they need in their first season at their new ground is a situation where they are stuck near the bottom of the table.
The longer this bad start continues, the more it will play on the minds of the players and the fans that their first season after leaving Upton Park is going to be spent battling relegation, rather than pushing for the top six again.
I don't think the West Ham team is lacking ability-wise, or in terms of physical fitness. It is mentally where they just do not seem to be at it so far.
Part of that can be put down to the stadium move. London Stadium is a fantastic arena and a great platform for the players to express themselves, but it also brings added pressure.
Last season, Upton Park was a fortress where the Hammers went 16 games unbeaten between August and April.
It would have been hard enough to repeat that even without having to adjust to life at a new stadium, and it is understandable that they have not taken that form with them.
The trouble in the stands with standing, segregation and stewarding has hardly helped because I know a fair few fans did not want to move anyway, and they are even more unhappy now.
When I played for West Ham, we knew the Upton Park crowd would always try to lift us when we needed them.
But, for various reasons, the atmosphere at London Stadium is very different at the moment, and that needs to change.
On top of having to deal with their changed surroundings, the Hammers have also been without their superstar - Dimitri Payet - for most of the new season.
Payet had only played 23 minutes out of a possible 630 in all competitions before making his first start of the campaign against the Hornets.
Earlier in the summer there were rumours he was injured and, until the transfer window closed, there was a bit of uncertainty about whether he was staying or not. None of that helped matters.
It feels like everyone was waiting for him to come back into the team because, when he did, everything would be OK.
Despite his brilliant rabona assist at the weekend, obviously things did not work out that way.
Along with Hammers defenders James Collins (with Wales) and Angelo Ogbonna (with Italy), Payet was involved in the latter stages of Euro 2016, which I think is another factor here.
Because of the emotion and adulation surrounding the France team that he was a part of, it would not surprise me if the summer is still affecting him in some way.
If so, I could understand it because I had a similar situation when I was at West Ham and went to the 2002 World Cup with England.
I look back and think physically I was all right - I had not lost a lot of fitness because I was even cycling to keep ticking over when I went on holiday to the south of France after getting back from Japan and South Korea.
But mentally I was not ready and, when I came back, it took me two or three months to really find my feet again.
What happened to the Hammers that season should be a warning too - we started really badly, winning only one of our first eight games, and ended up being relegated with 42 points.
It is a shame that a situation as significant as the one we saw in the stands on Saturday was allowed to happen, but I think those off-field problems can be resolved.
A police presence and properly trained stewards who understand a football crowd will make a big difference, and improving the lines of communication between the supporters and the board would help a lot too.
Some fans will still be unhappy, of course, because they did not want to leave Upton Park, but I do think the move is a positive one. The new stadium is fabulous and they are very fortunate to get it. It has brought something extra to the Premier League already.
On the pitch, I am confident Bilic can get his group of players back together again, in terms of their team spirit and work ethic.
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They need to keep creating chances the way they did against Watford but, as a team, they need to defend much better. I am not just picking on the defence and goalkeeper there because that has to start from the front with the centre-forward.
Last season they made it difficult for the opposition to break them down and did not concede many goals but if everyone does not dig in and work hard then it becomes very difficult.
Too many players seem distracted at the moment, when they really need to be focused on the new task in front of them.
It is easy when you are playing football with freedom, like this team did when things were going well last year, but at the moment things are harder because they are in a battle and they do not appear to be ready for it.
Trevor Sinclair was speaking to BBC Sport's Chris Bevan.


Politicians are often accused of talking rubbish, but when it comes to Thursday's local election that may well do them some favours.

Speak to candidates knocking on doors in each of Wales's 22 local authority areas and they will tell you that voters appreciate a bit of trash talk.
Local councils are responsible for keeping land in their area clear of litter and refuse, including dog mess.
So how are they doing?  And what issues do they face in trying to keep our streets, town centres, parks and beaches clean and tidy?
Based on the latest How Clean Are Our Streets report, an annual independent survey funded by Welsh Government and carried out by Keep Wales Tidy (KWT), you could argue that the situation looks rosy.
The survey has been going since 2007, monitoring more than 3,000 streets across Wales.
This year, there were reductions in all types of litter recorded with dog fouling and smoking-related rubbish at their lowest levels yet.
The survey's cleanliness indicator gave an all-Wales score of 69.3 - the highest yet,  although there are still challenges for urban areas and the gap between the lowest and highest figures is still widening.
However, with litter estimated to cost Welsh taxpayers an estimated Â£70m a year in clean-up costs, there is an emphasis that dealing with it cannot lie with councils alone.
Jemma Bere, policy and research manager for KWT, said:  "Even though progress is being made, litter remains a real and persistent problem for many communities. To effectively reduce litter in Wales, it's vital that we continue to work in partnership with local and national government, agencies, businesses and schools, developing a more joined up approach."
That is echoed by councils themselves, given the financial position they are in.
Since 2009/10 expenditure across Wales's local authorities on environmental services, which includes bin collection and street cleaning, has seen a 12% cut, while money spent on regulation has fallen by 47%.
Councils are having to work in different ways, partnering with charities, encouraging volunteers to carry out street clean-ups and take up offers from private agencies to catch litter-droppers on their behalf.
Tim Peppin, director of regeneration and sustainable development at the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) told me that the quality of the local environment was "always at the forefront" for councils.
"The appearance of an area really counts.  So local authorities have been trying really hard on issues such as litter, fly-tipping and dog mess against a backdrop of budgets for environmental services being squeezed."
"A lot of effort goes into thing like route planning for emptying bins in public areas so they don't overflow."
Social care 'headache' for Welsh councils
Looking for better school marks
Increasingly private agencies are taking over when it comes to enforcement action.  They operate on a no-fee basis, taking a cut of any fines they dish out on the council's behalf instead.
It has meant that despite a period of much tighter budgets, the number of fixed penalties issued by Welsh councils for littering has increased sharply - chiefly where private firms have been used for litter enforcement.
Wrexham Council had faced a litter clear-up bill of Â£1.2m but a year ago brought in private enforcement wardens, who already operate in two other north Wales council areas.
For a council which issued just 47 litter penalties in 2015/16, more than 3,100 fixed penalties were issued in the first six months.
The council has recently signed a contract with private firm Kingdom for the next two years.
As well as a wielding a stick and hoping it will act as a deterrent, the council is also engaging with the voluntary sector.
Shane Hughes, project officer for Keep Wales Tidy in Wrexham, works with more than 40 different community groups, as well as schools, who volunteer at different times for litter-picks and clean-ups.
It is not just town centre litter, but dog fouling and litter thrown into country lanes and into hedgerows in the borough's villages "get people wound up".
"The numbers of volunteers involved in each litter-pick can range from 10 up to 30 or 40 people sometimes," said Mr Hughes.
"Everybody is working together for the greater benefit of the community and we work hand in glove with the council, but also with the local police - the PCSOs. It's important there is a multi-faceted approach."


Britain claimed five more gold medals at the Rio Paralympics, including a best-ever tally of three in the rowing.

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Rachel Morris led GB's rowing success with arms-shoulders single sculls gold.
Lauren Rowles and Laurence Whiteley won the trunk-and-arms mixed double sculls and the mixed coxed four added a third gold for ParalympicsGB.
In track cycling, Lora Turnham won the B 3km individual pursuit and the men's C1-5 team claimed sprint gold in a world record time.
Compatriot Neil Fachie won cycling B 1km time trial silver, with Sophie Thornhill, gold medallist in the 1km time trial on Friday, and her pilot Helen Scott taking bronze in the B 3km pursuit.
There were British triathlon silvers for Lauren Steadman in the PT4 and Alison Patrick in the PT5, with Melissa Reid taking bronze in the same event.
GB's Tom Aggar won bronze in the men's arms-shoulders single sculls.
The four rowing medals were won within an hour on the Lagoa water in Rio and Great Britain have now claimed 20 gold medals and 46 overall to sit second in the medal table behind China.
Morris, who had both legs amputated because of complex regional pain syndrome, finished ahead of China's Lili Wang, while Israel's Moran Samuel took bronze.
The Welsh competitor switched to rowing in 2013 and now has three Paralympic medals across two sports, adding to the hand-cycling time trial gold she won in Beijing in 2008 and bronze at London 2012.
"That was the hardest thing I've ever done," she said. "It just goes to show if you have stuff drilled into you every day by the coaches and you do it you can win."
The pairing of Whiteley and Rowles was only created last year, when 18-year-old Rowles switched from wheelchair racing to rowing.
The duo won silver at last year's World Championships and in Rio beat the silver medal-winning pair from China and the third-placed French team to add a Paralympic title to their collection.
James Fox, Pam Relph, Dan Brown and Grace Clough, along with cox Oliver James, defended Great Britain's gold from London 2012 in the mixed coxed four, finishing ahead of the USA and Canada.
GB have dominated this event in recent years, taking gold at the past three World Championships - although only Relph, 26, remains from the boat that prevailed in London four years ago.
"It feels amazing. Coming through that last 250 metres I knew that we had won it," said Relph.
"We knew we were fitter, stronger and faster than our rivals but we still had to deliver."
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Turnham, 26, who has a hereditary sight-loss condition, teamed up with her pilot Corrine Hall to beat New Zealand's Emma Foy to improve on her fourth place at London 2012 and bronze at the World Championships.
Jody Cundy, who won gold in the 1,000m time trial on Friday, Jon-Allan Butterworth and Louis Rolfe, bronze medallist in the C2 3,000m pursuit, beat their own world record, set in qualifying, to take team sprint gold.
The trio clocked a winning time of 48.635 seconds to beat China by 1.279secs.
It was Cundy's seventh Paralympic title across both swimming and Para-cycling and his second in Rio following his disastrous disqualification in the time trial at London 2012.
"After four years ago and being the lowest I've ever been this is probably the highest I've ever been," said the 37-year-old.
"I was properly nervous for the kilo, I didn't really enjoy it that much. But this one, with these two guys, and the way they have been riding in the last couple of months, it's a pleasure to get up there and perform."
London 2012 gold medallist Fachie, who has a congenital eye condition, and his pilot Pete Mitchell finished 0.419 seconds behind gold medallist Tristan Bangma of the Netherlands in the B 1km time trial.
Britain had high hopes of bolstering their gold tally in the Para-triathlon, with the event included at a Games for the first time.
But Andy Lewis' PT2 gold on Saturday will be GB's only gold, although the women added two silvers and a bronze.
Steadman, who was born without a lower right arm, had been favourite to add a Paralympic title to her 2013 and 2014 world crowns.
But the 23-year-old former swimmer from Peterborough lost out to the USA's Grace Norman by one minute and four seconds.
In the PT5 classification for visually impaired athletes, world champion Patrick, with her guide Hazel Smith, and world bronze medallist Reid, with her guide Nicole Walters, finished second and third respectively behind Katie Kelly of Australia.
Britain's Bethany Firth and Jessica-Jane Applegate will take their 200m freestyle S14 rivalry into Sunday's final (22:37 BST).
Defending champion Applegate set a new Paralympic record of two minutes 7.95 seconds in her heat, only for Firth, already 100m backstroke gold medallist, to beat that time by 1.99secs.
Tom Hamer set a Paralympic record of 1:57.31 in the 200m freestyle S14 heats and Rebecca Redfearn followed suit in the 100m breaststroke SB13 with a time of 1:17.08.
Their finals are at 22:29 BST and the 22:09 BST respectively on Sunday.
GB's men's wheelchair basketball team made it three wins from three in their group to qualify for the quarter-finals.
They beat Germany 66-52 on Friday and will face London 2012 bronze medallists USA on Monday to decide who will be the Group B winners.
There is the prospect of double gold in table tennis for Britain, after Will Bayley and Rob Davies progressed to their finals.
Bayley, who was born with the muscle-shortening illness arthrogryposis and was a silver medallist four years ago, beat Spain's Jordi Morales 3-1 in the class seven to set up a gold-medal match with Israel Stroh of Brazil on Monday.
Davies, who uses a wheelchair after breaking his neck playing rugby, overcame Endre Major of Hungary 3-1 in his semi-final and will meet south Korean Young Dae Joo in the class 1 final on Tuesday.


Senior officials "deliberately delayed" carrying out child protection measures to help Bury Council's ruling Labour group before an election, reports say.

Reports seen by the BBC state former chief executive Mike Owen and head of children's services Mark Carriline failed to act quickly enough after claims were made against a councillor.
Simon Carter later admitted 16 charges of making indecent images of children.
Mr Owen apologised for any errors but denied any political motivation.
Mr Carriline could not be contacted while Mike Connolly, the former council leader, declined to comment.
At an extraordinary meeting later, Bury councillors will vote on whether to publish the results of two independent reports into the council's handling of the situation.
The contents of those reports have, however, been seen by the BBC.
They found Mr Owen and Mr Carriline had "inexplicably" and "deliberately" delayed implementing safeguarding procedures when allegations about Carter first came to light in the spring of 2015.
The then Tottington councillor was on the adoption register at the time.
Later that year, Carter was given a three-year community sentence and placed on the sex offenders register for five years, at Bolton Crown Court.
Although Carter was immediately removed from the council's list of people approved to adopt children, the reports found Mr Owen and Mr Carriline waited up to five weeks to carry out a string of child protection measures that should have been implemented within 48 hours of the allegations being made.
That included taking eight days to inform the two schools where Carter was a governor.
Mr Owen quit the day before a disciplinary hearing while investigators found Mr Carriline guilty of serious misconduct and recommended his immediate dismissal, but he resigned before the recommendations were put before the council.
Mr Owen demonstrated a misguided desire to "help" Mr Connolly, investigators concluded, which manifested itself in inappropriate briefings, a desire to control the proper flow of information and a failure to adhere to the council's policies and procedures.
The disciplinary panel concluded this was a misguided attempt to protect the former administration and its leader Mr Connolly from public scrutiny in the run-up to the 2015 elections.
In relation to Mr Carriline, the disciplinary panel found he was overly compliant to Mr Owen and, in so doing, lost sight of his statutory duties.
Mr Owen told the BBC that he accepted his position as chief executive was "untenable irrespective of the outcome of the [disciplinary] hearing".
He said he had always denied "any deliberate wrongdoing", adding he was "truly sorry" for making "procedural errors of judgment".
He "absolutely refuted abhorrent allegations" that his actions were intended to "help [Mr Connolly] and to impact the result of the election".
Mr Connolly, who is still a councillor, told investigators he had been wrong to give Carter a written reference on council-headed notepaper ahead of his sentencing, describing him as "trustworthy, honest and reliable".
Mr Connolly refused to comment when contacted by the BBC.


The world's biggest carmaker, Toyota, is recalling another 5.8 million cars worldwide over potentially faulty air bags made by supplier Takata.

The models include the Corolla and the Yaris subcompact models, most of them sold in Japan, China and Europe.
The cars affected were produced between May 2000 and November 2001, and between April 2006 and December 2014.
Global carmaker have for years been hampered by recalls of airbags made by Takata.
Toyota said it was calling back 1.47 million airbags in cars sold in Europe, 1.16 million in Japan, 820,000 in China, and 2.35 million in other regions excluding the US.
Toyota's recall on Wednesday brings its total of recalled Takata airbags to 23.1 million. So far, a total of 12 carmakers have had to recall vehicles because of faulty Takata airbags, with the total number of recalls expected to exceed 100 million cars.
Car parts maker Takata is already facing huge compensation costs over its airbags, which are used by many car manufacturers and have been linked to at least 16 deaths worldwide.
US regulators believe the volatile chemical used in the inflators, ammonium nitrate, can cause airbags to explode with excessive force.
Several automakers, including Toyota, Honda, Mazda and Ford have said they will stop using Takata airbags containing ammonium nitrate in future models.
Takata also produces seatbelts, child seats, and other safety-related car parts.


Three men have been arrested by police investigating two shootings in County Down.

Two men, both aged 32, were injured in separate gun attacks in Newry between Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
Detectives detained three men after searching a house in Coalisland in County Tyrone on Friday.
The men, aged 20, 27 and 31, were arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, attempted murder and possession of a firearm.
A 26-year-old man who was arrested in Dungannon in County Tyrone on Thursday remains in custody.
Another man, aged 28, who was also arrested on Thursday, has been released on bail pending further inquiries.


The Smithwick Tribunal has concluded that Irish police officers colluded in the IRA murders of two senior Northern Ireland policemen

Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan were shot dead in an ambush in March 1989 as they crossed the border into Northern Ireland after a meeting in Dundalk Garda station.
The report was published on Tuesday after almost eight years of painstaking investigations. It runs to 434 pages, with more than 1,000 pages of appendices.
Here are some of its key findings.
Mr Justice Smithwick said there was much evidence that Chief Supt Harry Breen was "the specific target of his operation".
Chief Supt Breen had been a hate figure for the IRA since undercover British army soldiers shot dead eight of its members and a civilian at Loughgall police station in County Armagh, in 1987, when he was pictured afterwards with weapons recovered by police.
His colleague Bob Buchanan had visited Dundalk about 20 times in the seven months before his death, and the judge said it was "plausible" that the ambush could have been mounted with knowledge of his regular travel combined with surveillance.
However, he said that would have been an "extraordinary piece of good fortune", and it was "significantly more likely" that the IRA knew Chief Supt Breen was coming.
Mr Justice Smithwick said there were two phases to the IRA operation:
With the first phase, the judge said the circumstances pointed towards information having been leaked to trigger the beginning of the IRA operation.
He said he found no evidence this information had come from the RUC, and it was "more likely" to have come from Dundalk Garda station.
He said this was supported by information received by both the PSNI and An Garda Síochána from reliable sources "indicating that there was collusion".
With phase two of the IRA operation, Mr Justice Smithwick said it "seems beyond doubt that the IRA acquired information that the two officers arrived at the station".
While the report concludes that the IRA's information about their arrival came from within Dundalk Garda station, the tribunal does not identify what individual or individuals were responsible.
The judge said he had received "live and of the moment" PSNI intelligence that the IRA had received information about the two officers from a Garda detective "who was not publicly associated to the Smithwick Tribunal".
The names of three Garda officers featured heavily in the Smithwick Tribunal's hearings, who all denied any role in the operation - Finbarr Hickey, Leo Colton and Owen Corrigan:
The Smithwick Tribunal interpreted collusion in its widest sense, covering not just direct actions but deliberate omissions, failures to act and turning a blind eye.
In his final report, the judge said the tribunal had not uncovered direct evidence of collusion.
"There is no record of a phone call, no traceable payment, no smoking gun - this is not surprising," he wrote.
However, he said he had built up a picture of how and when the ambush was mounted and executed through a detailed examination of the day's events.
It emerged that there were three aborted attempts to carry out the gun attack, according to written evidence submitted by the IRA to the tribunal.
"Twice the car didn't show, on the third occasion it was tracked using the Edenappa Road on the return journey," the IRA's evidence said.
"However, due to unconnected high levels of enemy activity in the general area (an Army helicopter) we were unable to execute the operation."
The statement by former IRA personnel set out their account of how the day's events unfolded. The judge said that while it was not a "signed witness statement of any individual" and had not been tested in cross-examination, it remained a valuable resource.
Three IRA members also held a face-to-face meeting with the tribunal's legal team in April 2011.
One of them said that 90% of the IRA's operations were based "on the human weakness of habit".
On the day of the murders, three or four people were used for the surveillance, while a total of "30 or 40" IRA people "were on the ground for the operation as a whole".
Other witnesses put this figure as much higher, such as retired Army brigadier Ian Liles, who said it would have involved up to 70 personnel, including people acting as lookouts and checking roads for security patrols.
The tribunal heard evidence that area around Edenappa Road, where the two officers were shot, had been "out of bounds" for a week before and was only withdrawn at 11am on the day of the shooting.
The judge said this was "noteworthy, and indeed tragic".
He said it appeared there had been a British army operation to monitor and protect the main Belfast to Dublin railway line that passed nearby.
The judge said two earlier investigations examining the question of Garda collusion were inadequate.
"The best opportunity of establishing the truth of the matter arose in the days and weeks following the ambush," he wrote.
"In these circumstances, it is particularly regrettable that both police services acted swiftly to dismiss speculation of the possibility of collusion rather than to deal with that by means of a thorough and credible investigation."
He said it was an example of "the prioritisation of political expediency in the short term".
The RUC chief constable at the time, Sir John Hermon, had told journalists he had spoken to the Garda commissioner and they could categorically rule out the possibility of a mole within Dundalk station.
The tribunal heard from a number of witnesses who questioned the true nature of the relationship between the two police forces.
Among them was former RUC officer Alan Mains, who had been Harry Breen's staff officer and knew both of the murdered men well.
He said that on the morning of the killing, Ch Supt Breen had told him he felt uneasy about going to Dundalk and expressed concern that some members of the gardaí were on the IRA's payroll.
However, he said that when he met Sir John Hermon the next day, the chief constable did not believe him.
"The chief constable was very dismissive of me making that remark and said that that was rubbish, or he disagreed, and he quickly said that that man had been investigated and he had been cleared," he told the tribunal.
The judge said evidence suggested there were attempts by superior officers to "sanitise" Mr Mains' account of events.
"I am of the view that Mr Mains was encouraged not to refer to Mr Breen's uneasiness and specific concerns about Mr Corrigan in the interest of a greater expediency, namely not to do anything which could destabilise the relationship between the RUC and An Garda Síochána," the judge wrote.
The judge said he hoped the Dublin-based tribunal had "contributed one small part" to changing a culture of failing to adequately address suggestions of wrongdoing.
"Either for reasons of political expediency or by virtue of misguided loyalty," he said, this had been "a feature of life in this state".
He said taking such allegations seriously was essential to the integrity of An Garda Síochána.


Two dogs left homeless after their owner died in a Conwy county motorbike crash have been rehomed together.

Susie, a 12-year-old collie and Jilly, a 10-year-old cairn terrier, were taken in by Snowdonia Animal Sanctuary after 72-year-old Jennifer Taylor was killed in a crash near Betws-Y-Coed.
Sanctuary owner Anne de Berry said the dogs were moved to a "brilliant" new home on Tuesday.
"They have a new mum and dad. It's fantastic," she said.
"[The new owners] had a dog which had to be put down a month ago due to old age.
"One of our volunteers went to do the home check this morning and text me: 'Brilliant'. It's a brilliant home."
The dogs' owner Mrs Taylor lived in Dolgarrog.
She was the passenger on a BMW bike when it collided with a Nissan Qashqai on the A470 close to Waterloo Bridge in the town on 4 October.


A 34-year-old man is to stand trial accused of abducting his girlfriend and throwing a snake at her.

Eduards Koleda is alleged to have held the woman against her will at an address in Arbroath in February.
It is alleged he chased and grabbed her before punching her on the body. He is then alleged to have thrown a snake at her and seized her and held her down.
Mr Koleda denied a charge of abduction and assault to injury on indictment at Dundee Sheriff Court.
Sheriff Alastair Brown continued the case until January.


Eve Muirhead says Scotland are in good shape to challenge for honours at the European Curling Championships.

Her rink line-up changed after winning Winter Olympic bronze for Great Britain in Sochi, with former nurse Sarah Reid replacing lead Claire Hamilton.
"We've had a solid start to the season and Sarah's fitted in really well," skip Muirhead told BBC Sport.
"It's a work in progress but we're still one of the best teams around and our chances in Switzerland are good."
After the frenzy of attention following their Winter Olympics success, Muirhead feels the team is now suitably focussed.
"It's huge what winning an Olympic medal does to you," said Muirhead.
"It was like a whirlwind afterwards and it does change your life in a lot of different ways.
"But now we're back to normal and a lot of training.
"We can't take our foot off the gas - if we perform the way we did last year it won't be good enough this year.
"We need to stay ahead of other countries."
The European Championships in the Swiss town of Champery run from 22 to 29 November.
Last year, Muirhead's Scotland were undefeated on their way to the final, but were beaten to the gold by Sweden.
Despite having a new younger line-up, the Swedes will still represent tough competition for the Scots.
Hosts Switzerland, who took bronze 12 months ago, will also be strong despite the fact their experienced skip Mirjam Ott has retired.
"We're going to have to be at the top of our game; you can't write off any nation," said Muirhead.
"We plan our calendar around these events so it's a case of getting out there and seeing it through."
The men's rink representing Scotland will be skipped by David Edwards, after his quartet beat Olympic silver medallist David Murdoch at the Scottish national 'playdowns' in October.
Under Murdoch, the Scottish men took bronze in Stavanger last time round, while Switzerland are the defending champions having beaten Norway in the final.
There is other home nations interest at the event, with England entering men's and women's rinks in the B Division, where the Welsh men also have representation.


Senegal coach Aliou Cisse has expressed his surprise at Mohamed Diame's retirement from international football at the age of 29.

Diame, who plays his club football in England for Newcastle, announced his decision earlier this month, saying he believes he is no longer among the best Senegalese players.
But Cisse, who had mainly used Diame as a substitute since he took charge of Senegal in March 2015, disagrees with his decision.
He could still give so much as he had a lot of years left in him. But he's taken his decision and I have to respect that
"I'm completely surprised because everybody knows I have a good relationship with Diame," Cisse told BBC Sport.
"Clearly, it's a personal decision but one I disagree with because he's still young - a good player and his country needs him.
"He could still give so much as he had a lot of years left in him. But he's taken his decision and I have to respect that."
Diame appeared 36 times for the Teranga Lions and played at the 2012 Olympics.
Meanwhile, Cisse has refused to be drawn on whether Senegal will seek a replay after Fifa banned Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey for life for 'match manipulation' in their World Cup qualifier.
The ban results from a penalty he awarded to South Africa in a 2-1 win over the Teranga Lions in a 2018 World Cup qualifier in November.
Lamptey penalised Kalidou Koulibaly for handball, but replays showed the ball hit his knee.
Cisse told BBC Sport: "The referee may have been punished but this [to ask for a replay or not] is a decision for the Senegalese football federation president Augustin Senghor.
"I don't want to speak about this sensitive matter."
Favourites Senegal are third in group D behind Burkina Faso and South Africa in the battle for the sole ticket to Russia.


Macclesfield kept their National League play-off hopes alive with a 2-1 win at bottom club Southport.

The Silkmen led 2-0 in little more than a quarter of an hour, Neil Byrne heading the opener from Danny Whitaker's cross before Andy Halls set up a near-identical second for Anthony Dudley.
Ryan Higgins halved the deficit three minutes before half-time, cutting in from the right and firing home from 30 yards.
Byrne saw a long-range effort pushed wide by Chris Cheetham and Mitch Hancox headed against the bar from close range as the visitors sought to kill the game off, but two goals proved to be enough.
Match report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Southport 1, Macclesfield Town 2.
Second Half ends, Southport 1, Macclesfield Town 2.
Substitution, Southport. Richard Brodie replaces Declan Weeks.
Substitution, Southport. Andrai Jones replaces Jamie Allen.
Substitution, Southport. Jim Stevenson replaces Liam Hynes.
Second Half begins Southport 1, Macclesfield Town 2.
First Half ends, Southport 1, Macclesfield Town 2.
Goal!  Southport 1, Macclesfield Town 2. Ryan Higgins (Southport).
Spencer Myers (Southport) is shown the yellow card.
Goal!  Southport 0, Macclesfield Town 2. Anthony Dudley (Macclesfield Town).
Goal!  Southport 0, Macclesfield Town 1. Neill Byrne (Macclesfield Town).
First Half begins.
Lineups are announced and players are warming up.


A scheme to vaccinate badgers against Bovine TB has been suspended indefinitely because of a global shortage of the BCG vaccine.

In an email seen by the BBC, the Institute of Zoology (IOZ) said it was unlikely badger vaccines would be available until at least May 2017.
The IOZ said funding had subsequently been cut for the West Cornwall Badger Vaccination Initiative.
It had hoped to vaccinate up to 1,000 badgers in the "next few years".
Click here for live updates on this story
"Advice from Public Health England is vaccination should only be made available to humans and that animal use of BCG should be restricted during this period of vaccine shortage to conserve global supplies", a spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said.
Last year the government suspended the sourcing of the vaccine for badgers in order to prioritise the formula for human jabs which protect against TB, following guidance from the World Health Organisation.
The Institute of Zoology said it had hoped to use expired but still effective stock from last year for the initiative, but claimed their request was declined by the Home Office.
The Â£2m scheme, which started as a pilot in 2013, was seen as a possible long-term alternative to culling, as part of efforts to tackle TB in cattle.


Two renegade officers who attacked a Venezuelan army base last weekend have been captured, the country's defence minister has said.

General Vladimir Padrino tweeted that the "leaders and masterminds of the paramilitary and terrorist assault" had been arrested.
The suspects are a 38-year-old former captain, Juan Carlos Caguaripano Scott, and a lieutenant, Jefferson Garcia.
Two of the rebels were killed and eight seized after the incident in Valencia.
Venezuela has seen four months of violent anti-government protests, and almost 130 people have died in clashes.
Just before the barracks attack, a video released on social media showed the uniformed men saying they were rising against the "murderous tyranny of President NicolÃ¡s Maduro".
"This is not a coup but a civil and military action to re-establish constitutional order," said the leader, who gave his name as Juan Caguaripano.
Venezuelan officials say Mr Caguaripano was discharged from the army in 2014. They claim he commanded around 20 uniformed men during the attack.
He then escaped with Lieutenant Garcia and some stolen weaponry, they say.
The 6 August incident raised tensions in the divided country, where critics of President Maduro say he is trying to cement a dictatorship.
Mr Maduro insists his actions - which include creating a pro-government assembly with the power to rewrite Venezuela's constitution - are the only way to re-establish peace.
The US has led a chorus of international alarm against the Maduro government in recent weeks, and has imposed sanctions on several high-ranking Venezuelans - including the president.
President Donald Trump said on Friday that he had not ruled out "a possible military option if necessary" against Venezuela.
Gen Padrino dismissed the claim as an act of "craziness". He told Venezuela's state television: "It is an act of supreme extremism. There is an extremist elite that rules the United States.
"As a soldier, I stand with the Venezuelan armed forces, and with the people. I am sure that we will all be on the front lines of defending the interests and sovereignty of this beloved Venezuela."
The White House said Mr Maduro had requested a phone call with his US counterpart on Friday. It said President Trump would speak to Venezuela's leader "as soon as democracy is restored in that country".


The small business rate relief scheme is being extended for another year, Economy Minister Edwina Hart has said.

It means business rates do not have to be paid on properties with a rateable value of £6,000 or less.
Lower levels of relief are available to those with values of up to £12,000. England has a similar scheme.
Business rates will be fully devolved to Wales in April, but Mrs Hart said she had no plans to vary them in the first year.
An expert panel recommended 'stability' would be the best policy.
But she told AMs she would consider 'divergence' from the rest of the UK in the future.
Plaid Cymru economy spokesman Rhun ap Iorwerth said it was "deeply disappointing" that Mrs Hart had ruled out any expansion of the scheme before 2016.


Coventry City's plan to groundshare with Northampton Town for the next three years has been "reluctantly approved" by the Football League board.

But League chairman Greg Clarke still hopes City can resolve the long-running row with their Ricoh Arena landlords for the sake of their fans.
"The board did not take this decision lightly," said Clarke.
"It remains a matter of deep regret that the two parties involved cannot come to an agreement."
After the long-running saga of their rent row with Arena Coventry Ltd (ACL), Coventry agreed the groundshare deal at Sixfields in the wake of last month's takeover of the club by the Otium Entertainment Group.
Of course Coventry should be playing in Coventry but the reason why they cannot for this temporary period is not down to us
A statement released by the League on Monday afternoon stated that their board of directors had "reluctantly approved an application by Otium Entertainment Group - the administrator's preferred bidder for Coventry City FC Limited - for Coventry City to play its home matches at Northampton Town's Sixfields Stadium for an initial period of three seasons."
"Of course Coventry should be playing in Coventry, but the reason why they cannot for this temporary period is not down to us," said Northampton chairman David Cardoza.
"There wasn't any plan for us to try and tempt another club away from their local community for our financial gain. We are simply helping a fellow football club, at their request.
"Had we not reached agreement, and had Coventry been forced to look somewhere else, it may have been at a stadium even further away than Sixfields and with a club who were less aware of the sensitivity and emotion felt by Coventry fans.
"All we can do is make the period when they are playing their home games at Sixfields as bearable as possible for Coventry and their supporters."
When home fixtures clash, Northampton's games will take priority.
"If both teams are at home on the same weekend, Coventry will play on the Sunday and, if there is a midweek clash, Coventry will play on the Wednesday," said Cardoza.
"No Northampton Town games will be moved as part of this arrangement, subject to any television requirements."
This occurs for 15 of Northampton's 23 scheduled home matches next season, the first clash coming on the opening day, 10 August, when the Cobblers face Newport, with Coventry now forced to host their 'home' game against Bristol City a day later.
against the club moving out of the city last week and Clarke said the Football League believed clubs should play in the towns or cities from which they take their names.
"Nonetheless, from time to time, the board is asked to consider temporary relocations as a means for securing a club's ongoing participation in our competition.
"With no prospect of an agreement being reached between Otium and ACL, the board was placed in an unenviable position - with the very real possibility of Coventry City being unable to fulfil its fixtures for next season," he added.
"This would inevitably call into question the club's continued membership of the Football League."
Coventry have been in administration since March, and despite being  they  to pay creditors.
Meanwhile, Otium are required to provide a performance bond of £1m for the League as an assurance of the club's commitment to return to the Coventry area.


Wayne Rooney admits his decision to drop his demand to leave Manchester United and stay at Old Trafford has turned out to be the best move of his career.

Rooney, 25, signed a new five-year contract in October just 48 hours after announcing his intention to leave, also issuing a statement casting doubt on the quality of Sir Alex Ferguson's squad.
The striker, with the England squad for the Euro 2012 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Wales, has since helped United win a record 19th domestic title and reach the Champions League final, where they lost to Barcelona.
And Rooney has started this season in devastating form, with five goals in three successive Premier League wins that have put United at the top of the table.
He said: "I'm thankful I ended up staying and signing because I said at the time after I signed my new contract that I had made a mistake and I owed performances and goals to the fans for what happened.
"It's the best decision I've made in football career. To still be there and enjoying it, winning things and seeing the team coming through and playing the way it is, is fantastic. The average age of the side in the last two games has been 23. That's great for the future for us and hopefully we can bring more success to Old Trafford.
"What I did say at the time was wrong and I admitted that. We've brought players in, which is great. I'm enjoying playing with these younger players. It is not only going forward where they help us, they do a bit more running as well which is always good for me.
"I'm enjoying it. I'm in a happy place both on and off the pitch. We're playing a different way, a lot more high pressure on the opposing team and playing with a lot more energy and pace and that's certainly helping us."
Rooney also gave his support to United's new 20-year keeper David de Gea, who has had uncertain moments since his £18.9m summer move from Atletico Madrid.
He said: "I think he's obviously a good shot stopper. I hadn't seen much of him before he signed but he is a good shot stopper and his passing out from the back is alongside Edwin Van der Sar's. He very rarely kicks long to a forward, he always tries to pick someone out.
"He's still young and got a lot to learn but he's working hard and doing well in training. He's a strong character. After the Manchester City game and then West Bromwich Albion he didn't seem to be too affected by the fact that not everything went for him. He was on the training pitch the next day working hard and in the last couple of games he's done well for us. I think he will only get better the more he plays."


It is difficult to imagine two more different worlds.

The often harsh offshore conditions of an oil and gas industry life, and what might be regarded as the somewhat more pampered, hipster world of barbering.
However that is the slick transition that some oil workers who have lost their jobs are making. And they seem to be loving it.
Aberdeen hairdresser James Dun's House recently advertised for trainee barbers for a new salon they are opening up.
Co-owner Dean Walker said he was surprised to get applications from former oil workers looking to change career.
Three of them have now taken up the scissors and wax and are well on the way to becoming barbers.
Mr Walker intends to set up a training centre at James Dun's House where former oil and gas workers can learn the barbering and hairdressing trade.
He said: "Surprisingly there was quite a lot of interest from the oil and gas sector, from guys looking to change the direction of their career.
"We are used to getting people straight from school, so there's an element of maturity (with the oil and gas workers) and a willingness to learn.
"They are really keen to get going.
"Barbering's become a really cool thing, very trendy."
One of the trainees, Alan Gibson, 34, worked in oil and gas for 17 years before being made redundant.
He told the BBC Scotland news website:  "I had a look around but there was not much out there.
"Barbering is something that I have always quite fancied.
"I am quite good with my hands and have a good eye for detail. New is always good."
Skills Development Scotland (SDS), which supports and advises oil workers who have lost their jobs or who are facing redundancy, told BBC Scotland that there is evidence that an increasing number of former oil and gas workers are being forced to seek careers outside the industry.
Mike Duncan, director of Energy Skills Scotland - part of SDS - said: "Barbering is not something we initially thought of as a retraining opportunity, but I'm delighted to hear an Aberdeen business is stepping forward and teaching these guys the trade."
The barbers are due to complete their training at the end of the summer and are looking forward to a new workplace, a new career and a new future.


Questions have been asked about the safety of Leeds' tallest building after the death of man who was crushed by a lorry which blew over in strong winds.

The accident happened near to the 110m tall (360ft) Bridgewater Place, a building which architecture experts say has created a wind tunnel.
The council said there were wind effect issues and they were "looking urgently" at ways of "making the area safer".
The building owners said a wind tunnel analysis was done before construction.
The dead man, a 35-year-old from Calderdale, was walking on a bridge over the Aire on Neville Street when a curtain-sided lorry toppled over on Thursday afternoon.
He was hit by the falling vehicle and taken to Leeds General Infirmary where he later died.
A 22-year-old woman from Leeds was also injured and is said to be in a stable condition in hospital.
The tallest part of the tower block is side-on to the river, along which the prevailing wind blows.
Dr Lindsay Smales, senior lecturer in building, planning and geography at Leeds Metropolitan University, said: "Unfortunately I don't think there's a great deal you can do once you've built a tall building like that to mitigate the problems of micro climate and the effect of the wind.
"The reason why it's a problem is because they're often large slab buildings. The wind hits them and then just goes straight down to the ground because it can't go around."
Tim Riordan, chief executive of Leeds City Council, said as part of the original planning application, a wind assessment was carried out on behalf of the developer, which indicated "the impact the building would have on wind speed would be minimal".
He added: "However, since the building was completed, there have been unforeseen wind effect issues around it."
Mr Riordan said developers and architects were undertaking work with a wind engineering consultancy to identify the "most effective solution to resolve the ongoing issues".
He added: "Following the tragedy on Thursday afternoon, however, we are looking urgently at other ways of making the area safer."
The building owners and original developers, Bridgewater Place Ltd, said all building and planning regulations had been fully adhered to.
"As part of the requirements for obtaining planning permission, Leeds City Council specifically requested that a comprehensive wind tunnel analysis was conducted to assess the effect of the building on the surrounding area."
West Yorkshire Police are also investigating how the lorry came to overturn.


Yorkshire clinched a second consecutive Championship title as a superb bowling display dismissed Middlesex for 106 on the first morning at Lord's.

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The home side were 0-3 at the end of Ryan Sidebottom's opening over, taking him past 700 first-class victims.
The left-armer later bowled last man Tim Murtagh for figures of 5-18, with Tim Bresnan contributing 4-30.
Yorkshire also struggled with the bat in reply, but skipper Andrew Gale made 98 as they reached the close on 238-9.
Their title was confirmed when Notts were bowled out for 204 in their home game with Durham.
Following Middlesex's collapse, they were the only side with a mathematical possibility of denying Yorkshire, but needed the maximum of five batting bonus points to stay in the race, and only managed one.
Yorkshire arrived at Lord's with a 43-point lead over Middlesex, and opted to put them in on a greenish surface after winning the toss.
Sidebottom's third ball trapped Paul Stirling lbw and he had Nick Compton caught behind and bowled Dawid Malan with successive deliveries later in the over.
Debutant Stevie Eskinazi edged to Adam Lyth in the slips and when Bresnan took over from Sidebottom's new-ball partner Jack Brooks, he quickly had Neil Dexter caught behind.
Sam Robson (26) followed in similar fashion and off-spinner James Middlebrook removed John Simpson (28) with the final ball before lunch.
From 92-7 at the interval, Middlesex lost their last three wickets for 14 runs as Sidebottom finished the innings with the final ball of the 33rd over.
Failing to gain any batting bonus points meant the home side could no longer catch Yorkshire in the Division One table, even if they somehow manage to win the match.
The visitors progressed to 129-3 at tea in reply, with Gale - who was not on the field when they won the title in 2014 because of suspension - unbeaten on 54.
The left-hander looked set for a third century of the summer, but was caught at second slip off Neil Dexter (3-24) as he looked to play the ball into the leg-side and the champions slumped from 187-4 to 221-9.
It looked like they might be dismissed before stumps, but bad light brought a slightly premature end with Jack Brooks 12 not out and Sidebottom on nine.
Yorkshire cricket director Martyn Moxon:
"The first win is really special, but given the circumstances this is probably a bigger achievement than winning last year.
"That first over epitomised what Ryan was all about, and to get his 700th wicket as well, he's been a fantastic bowler over the years and there's still a lot of life left in him.
"To combine developing England players with domestic success is a fantastic effort from everyone involved.
"To have provided so many England players this summer and still won the Championship, with two and a half games left, I think it's a remarkable achievement."


Women make up only 5% of the 3,500 pilots employed by British Airways, the company has said.

10 March 2016 Last updated at 12:09 GMT
School Reporters Zena, Ariha and Simranjit from Harlington School in north-west London visited Heathrow Airport, where they spoke to BA pilots Helen McNamara and Aoife Duggan to see what the company is doing to increase its female ratio.
School Report is a project helping secondary school students around the UK make their own news for a real audience. Follow more reports from students on the project's 10th annual News Day on Thursday.


Worcestershire have been cleared by the England and Wales Cricket Board after an investigation into the abandonment of their opening County Championship game against Kent at New Road.

Interim chief executive Tom Scott said he was "delighted" with a Cricket Discipline Commission ruling of "no grounds for any further action".
But commission chairman Gerard Elias QC, did offer one note of caution.
He raised concerns about playing matches so early in April.
Mr Elias has "invited the ECB to consider whether any further actions and/or safeguards were possible to seek to ensure that county grounds staging matches in April were more likely to be able to do so satisfactorily."
With a history of flooding throughout the year because of its proximity to the River Severn, New Road is more prone to being under water than most grounds.
It is more usually in the winter months when it is affected, sometimes even as late as February or March, and the start date of 10 April for the four-day meeting with Kent was the second-earliest ever to a Championship season at New Road - the home game against Yorkshire in 2012 having begun on 8 April.
The loss of the Kent game was the first time that Worcestershire's opening fixture has been totally washed out in over a century, although the early May meeting with Bill Lawry's 1968 Australian tour team also failed to get under way.
But it also awakened unfortunate memories of a more recent abandonment, coincidentally also against Kent, following the great flood of June 2007.
A further downpour also caused the abandonment of the following month's game against Lancashire before the county rerouted to Chester Road, Kidderminster for the remainder of that season's four-day fixtures.
Gerard Elias, QC, found there was no evidence that the pitch itself was unfit, or that Worcestershire had, by the action or wilful inaction of its groundstaff, done anything which adversely impacted upon the possibility of play.
He was satisfied that reasonable decisions and actions had been taken by the club in the light of the condition of the playing area in the period leading up to the match and weather conditions that prevailed.
In the 24 hours before the commencement of the match, when the home team practised on the whole of the square and playing area, Worcestershire reasonably believed that the ground would be fit for the match the following day.
"We are delighted with the response and findings of the ECB investigation into our game against Kent," said Scott.
"We were as disappointed as anyone that the elements conspired. It was not what we desired from a playing point of view and financially. We also have sympathy with supporters from both sides who may have travelled considerable distances and spent substantial funds and were frustrated by events.
"But the fact of the matter is that on the Friday before the game the outfield was perfectly playable and the players were also able to practise on the Saturday. That we then had substantial amounts of rain over two of the next three days is nothing we had no control over.
"Everyone at Worcestershire County Cricket Club was left frustrated, none more so than the groundstaff who had put in Herculean work to ensure the ground was fit to play after our two winter floods."
After a week off following the abandonment against Kent, Worcestershire drew with Gloucestershire at Bristol last week.
England Lions batsman Joe Clarke, still only 19, posted his highest first-class score, 135, while England all-rounder Moeen Ali made 210 runs in the match.
On Sunday, their international credentials will be under the scrutiny of England captain Alastair Cook, when Essex visit New Road.


Generally speaking, England will be very happy to have won the Test series against Sri Lanka without really breaking sweat.

Even though they did not finish the job quite as quickly as they did in the first Test, their nine-wicket win in the second Test at Chester-le-Street was still very comprehensive, and Sri Lanka were never really in the game.
England coach Trevor Bayliss rated their performance an eight out of 10. I'd give them a seven - they are still not quite firing on all cylinders and, as captain Alastair Cook admitted, there were moments when they took their foot off the pedal. But that is probably being picky.
It is always hard to accurately assess a team when their opponents are poor, as Sri Lanka have been for most of this series.
But one thing is clear: James Anderson is bowling absolutely brilliantly. Even if he was up against top-class batsmen, he would still be making the ball do the same things.
He is at the top of his game and his elevation to the top of the Test bowling rankings is richly deserved.
Fast bowling is such a fickle game, and so much of it depends on rhythm - the elusive code that is so hard to describe or quantify. Anderson was bereft of rhythm in South Africa, but suddenly he is running up happy again, 'kissing' the pitch and taking stacks of wickets.
You could argue that better batsmen would play him better, but in these conditions, moving the ball both ways, Anderson is a dangerous proposition for anyone on the planet.
You cannot underestimate the importance of the overs he bowled for Lancashire earlier in the season, taking 12 wickets at an average of 20.75 in three matches.
No matter who you are and how much Test cricket you have played, you do not get your rhythm back in the nets.
What a contrast with Steven Finn. Finn was arguably the bowler of the series in South Africa, where Anderson struggled, but now his rhythm seems to have deserted him again.
He is not doing anything wrong - I know well from my own playing days that sometimes you can run in with just as much effort and think you are letting the ball go just as fast as always, but it just does not come out with the same snap.
What worries me is that he has got no opportunity to rediscover his rhythm before the final Test at Lord's begins on 9 June - there is only one T20 Blast match for Middlesex that he could possibly play in.
Finn has to play at Lord's. There has been some talk that England might want to have a look at Jake Ball, who has been in the squad for the first two Tests, but he can bide his time. Finn knows Lord's well and this might be his opportunity to get some form back.
Even when you are winning, you must look to move the team on, and there are a couple of areas that will be causing the England management some concern at the moment.
Jonny Bairstow has been brilliant with the bat this summer but his wicketkeeping remains a work in progress. He does make mistakes: he drops catches and misses stumpings.
It is a very hard job, and slow-motion replays can be very cruel on keepers because you think 'how has he missed that?' But it happens in an absolute flash.
But I do not think his position behind the stumps is under threat. Unfortunately, those misses can sometimes be costly and, if he makes too many, his place as a keeper will come under scrutiny.
The other problem is the form of Nick Compton at three. Although he will be mighty relieved to have got 22 not out in the second innings as England chased 79 to win in Durham, his problem is that he has not scored heavy runs all summer - for England or Middlesex.
Lord's is a ground he knows well and he will be desperate to do well. It will be a flatter pitch than we have seen so far this summer and the conditions should be easier for batting.
If England can win the toss and bat first, he will have a really good opportunity to nail down that position - that is the way he will be looking at it.
I do not think his England place necessarily hinges on how he plays in the third Test - there is quite a big break between that game and the first Test against Pakistan on 14 July and he could go away and score a stack of runs for Middlesex.
But if he does not get a score people will be looking at him even more.
One man whose place certainly is not under scrutiny is Cook. What an incredible achievement for him to become the first Englishman to reach 10,000 Test runs.
He has done it in the hardest possible way - opening the batting, much of it with the burden of captaincy, and with uncertainty over his partner at the other end. Those are three ingredients with which most people would find incredibly difficult to succeed.
You must have absolute admiration for him. He is not a stylist and he does not have people dashing in to watch him, but that is Test cricket.
You need players like Cook to blunt attacks and lay the buildings blocks of an innings for the team. He has fulfilled that role absolutely brilliantly, and he will go on.
For a while, he was as obdurate with his captaincy as he was with his batting and, as a skipper, you do not really want that. But he has definitely opened up over the past year and his confidence has grown enormously.
Yet he can still go out to bat, put everything away and focus on what he has to do with a bat in his hand - and that is a great testimony to him.
That focus has been in some ways Cook's defining quality as a Test batsman, and it was in evidence right from the very beginning.
I remember him arriving in Nagpur after that long journey from the West Indies, just two days before making his debut, and he made 60 and a hundred.
You thought, 'this bloke's pretty special', because he can focus totally on batting. Long may he continue.
Jonathan Agnew was speaking to BBC Sport's James Gheerbrant.


Cattle has been flown into Qatar to boost milk supplies amid a blockade of the country led by Saudi Arabia.

The 165 Holstein dairy cows arrived from Germany - the first of about 4,000 cattle due to be imported.
Air, sea and land restrictions have caused turmoil in Qatar, which is dependent on imports to meet the basic needs of its 2.7 million residents.
The Saudi-led bloc warned of new measures against Qatar after it rejected their demands.
The cows arrived on a Qatar Airways cargo plane via Budapest on Tuesday and were taken to a new, purpose-built dairy.
Qatari firm Power International has bought the cattle, with chairman Moutaz al-Khayyat telling Bloomberg last month that once all the cows were flown in, they would meet about 30% of the country's dairy needs.
The products will be sold under a new dairy brand Mr al-Khayyat has launched.
It has been five weeks since Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates began the boycott over Qatar's alleged support of terrorism and ties with Iran. Qatar denies wrongdoing.
Before the blockade, most of the dairy products sold in Qatar were imported across the land border with Saudi Arabia.
The Gulf kingdom has also been looking at securing new trade routes and suppliers of food, including yoghurt imported from Turkey and dried goods from Morocco and Iran.


As Ibiza Rocks marks 10 years of live events on the White Isle, the organisers have announced a new four day event in Croatia.

Yep, it's called Croatia Rocks.
The festival will take place on party beach, Zrce, from 20- 23 July 2015.
Radio 1's Zane Lowe, who is Ibiza Rocks' music director, said: "We're looking forward to playing in Croatia next year, as the Rocks family continues to find new audiences in new places."
Croatia Rocks is the latest in a wave of music festivals springing up in the country with Hideout, Outlook and Garden festivals taking place there over the past decade.
Organisers say the event will "bring something new to Zrce, with a combination of established live acts and DJs plus genuinely exciting new artists and producers".
As well as the main stage performances, club partners from the UK and Ibiza will join a line-up of "Balearic fused beach and boat parties".
Shane Murray, Brand Director, Ibiza Rocks said: "This is a genuinely exciting move for Ibiza Rocks and marks a significant new chapter in our story as we reach 10.
"Croatia has clearly evolved from an emerging to an established music destination and it's long been a wish of ours to bring the spirit of Ibiza Rocks to the beach."
The 1975, Haim and John Newman were among the acts to perform at Ibiza Rock 2014.
Tickets for Croatia Rocks will go on sale on 28 November, with the line-up being announced nearer the event.
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A climber who had to be rescued after getting lost in the Cuillins on Skye has been criticised by police.

Skye Mountain Rescue Team and the Stornoway Coastguard helicopter were called out on Sunday evening.
The helicopter crew picked up the man and airlifted him to safety.
Lochaber and Skye Police tweeted: "Google maps on a phone with no charge, no map and a hopeful attitude are no mix for hills on Skye (or anywhere!) be prepared not rescued."
Jonathan Mustard, from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, added: "Prepare and plan for your walks in the hills.  Wear suitable clothing and footwear, ensure you carry suitable equipment like a map, GPS, a fully-charged mobile phone or a locator beacon and make sure you check the weather.
"If you do get into difficulties, call 999 and ask for help."


Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard is on the brink of finalising an 18-month deal to join Los Angeles Galaxy.

The 34-year-old will sign a contract worth about £6m across the full term of the deal, making him one of the highest earners in Major League Soccer.
An announcement is expected this week following Friday's shock news that Gerrard will quit Liverpool at the end of the season.
He will be available to join the Galaxy once his Reds contract expires in June.
David Beckham famously spent five years at the LA club until 2012, while Gerrard's ex-Liverpool team-mate Robbie Keane currently plays for the Galaxy.
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While MLS has a salary cap structure, each club has three designated player places, which they can use to sign star players.
The retirement of 32-year-old Galaxy captain Landon Donovan, MLS's all-time top scorer, has paved the way for Gerrard to join the league as one of its top earners.
Gerrard's deal is worth around £4m a year - or about £76,000 per week.
The 2015 MLS season runs from March through to October. The full fixtures list will be announced on Wednesday.
He joins former England midfield partner Frank Lampard in swapping the Premier League for the US. Lampard, 36, will join New York City in the summer after his short-term deal at Manchester City was extended until the end of the season.
Former LA Galaxy player Alexi Lalas told BBC Radio 5 live that Gerrard will be "an ambassador" for the MLS on and off the field.
"There's no way around the fact that he's a legend, but when he gets here he has got to perform for a team that is already very, very good," Lalas said. "That is ultimately what he will be judged on, just the way David Beckham was."
Gerrard has scored nine times in all competitions this season, including both of his side's goals in Monday night's FA Cup third-round win at AFC Wimbledon.
Liverpool have come in for some criticism since news of his impending departure broke, with former team-mate Jamie Carragher among those who believe they should have done more to keep him.
Gerrard, born in the Merseyside village of Whiston, joined Liverpool's academy when he was nine years old, making his first-team debut as a substitute against Blackburn Rovers in November 1998.
He led the club to the Champions League title in 2005, scoring his side's first goal as they came from three down to draw 3-3 against AC Milan and then win on penalties.
He has also won the Uefa Cup, two FA Cups, three League Cups, one Community Shield and two Uefa Super Cups, and earned 114 England caps before retiring after the World Cup.


Tennis players will not be able to plead ignorance if they test positive for banned substances, says the International Tennis Federation.

Ex-world number one Maria Sharapova, 29, had a two-year ban reduced to 15 months after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) ruled she was not told about a change in the drug's status.
She tested positive for meldonium less than a month after it was banned.
The ITF said "appropriate steps were taken to publicise any changes".
But, in a statement, it added: "Nonetheless, we have reviewed, and will continue to review, our processes for communicating changes to the prohibited list to players with the aim of ensuring that no player can claim that they had not been fully informed."
Sharapova is a five-time Grand Slam winner and was Forbes' highest-paid female athlete for 11 consecutive years, until American Serena Williams moved above her this year.
The Russian, whose suspension is backdated to the date of her first positive test on 26 January 2016, can return to action on 26 April 2017.
"I have learned from this, and I hope the ITF has as well," she said.
Sharapova tested positive for meldonium at the Australian Open in January 2016 and an out-of-competition test on 2 February.
She said she had been taking the drug since 2006 for health reasons and was unaware it had been added to World Anti-Doping Agency's (Wada) banned list as she knew it only by the name mildronate.
However, the Cas appeal hearing said Sharapova was at fault for not giving her agent "adequate instructions" in checking Wada's prohibited list and "failing to supervise and control" her agent.
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Sharapova's lawyer, John Haggerty, called the Cas decision "a stunning repudiation of the ITF" and that "it exposes the ITF decision for what it is - pure fiction".
"As we demonstrated before Cas, not only did the tennis anti-doping authorities fail to properly warn Maria, if you compare what the ITF did with how other federations warned athletes of the rule change, it's a night and day difference," he added.
The chief executive - Johan Eliasch - of one of Sharapova's sponsors, racquet manufacturer Head, said "justice had been served" and called the original ITF decision "wholly unfair".
Eliasch said "there is no doubt Maria broke a rule" but he claims there are inconsistencies in the anti-doping regime and changes are needed.
"This calls into question the revelations about certain Olympic athletes who were granted therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) for substances that could most certainly be considered performance enhancing and have been proven to be performance enhancing under significant clinical testing," added Eliasch.
"Meldonium, the substance that Maria had been taking, has yet to be proven under any significant clinical testing to have any performance enhancing benefits."
Eliasch called for "a wholesale comprehensive review and change to the anti-doping system in identifying performance enhancing drugs".
Former Wimbledon champion Virginia Wade said it was "inexcusable" for Sharapova to find herself in this situation.
However, speaking to BBC Radio 5 live, Wade added: "She's 100% right. The ITF should be more clear.
"The players need to be much more attentive and you have got to realise that, even if you are trying everything to make yourself feel better, do better, be stronger, that it has to be within the rules."
Pat Cash, the 1987 Wimbledon men's champion, said the 15-month ban was "just a little bit on the lenient side", although he believed Sharapova did not know the drug was banned.
He also accepted that Sharapova had a "fair point" when it came to the ITF.
Cash added: "There is no doubt her image has been tarnished. Her reputation will never quite be the same."
BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller
"Sharapova could return to the WTA Tour in Prague or Rabat in the first week of May and, if a wildcard is forthcoming, the French Open will be on her schedule just four weeks later.
"She will be 30 by the time she returns, but 2017 will no longer be a write-off, even though it is likely to take her several months to regain her sharpness.
"The crux of the matter is that the court decided it was reasonable for Sharapova to delegate her anti-doping duties to Max Eisenbud and the IMG agency, even if on this occasion those duties were not exercised with remotely enough care.
"In the past three years, both Marin Cilic and Viktor Troicki have also successfully argued less blame should be laid at their door.
"Cas has repeatedly set a player's bar of responsibility lower than the ITF think it should be - and as a result there must be a concern some players may in future take anti-doping less seriously than they should."


Japan's economy expanded at a faster-than-expected rate between July and September, due to higher exports.

Gross domestic product rose at an annualised rate of 2.2% in the three months to September, the third consecutive quarter of expansion.
Japanese firms have relied on overseas sales to make up for lacklustre domestic demand.
There are concerns a Donald Trump US presidency will hurt Japan if anti-free trade rhetoric became a reality.
But since the election result, the yen has fallen against the dollar. That makes Japanese goods cheaper abroad, which is good news for the country's exporters.
The latest official data showed the world's third-largest economy expanded by 0.5% compared with the three months to June - better than the forecast of 0.2% growth.
It was some rare good news for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's projects to help stimulate the economy - dubbed Abenomics.
However, analysts said this pace could not be sustained given Japan's reliance on exports.
"Consumption is barely there, and in capital expenditure there no growth ... so Japan is relying very much on the outside," Takuji Okubo, chief economist of Japan Macro Advisers, told the BBC.
And Kohei Iwahara, an economist at Natixis Japan Securities, said the figures could be a "one-off windfall", predicting a slowdown in the last three months of 2016.
In August, Japan's cabinet approved an economic stimulus package worth more than 28 trillion yen ($275bn; £207bn) - Mr Abe's latest attempt to boost growth through spending.
However economists were largely disappointed with both its scope and likely impact.
And last month Japan's central bank again pushed back the timeline for hitting its 2% inflation target to March 2019 - a move that raised more questions about the country's economic recovery.


The person who beat a calf to death with a piece of wood has been described as "despicable" by police.

The animal was found lying next to its mother in a field at Llanelian, near Colwyn Bay, in Conwy county.
The heifer was just three days old.
"It's a truly, truly despicable act and the rural crime team will be investigating it thoroughly," said Sgt Rob Taylor, of the North Wales Police rural crime unit.
"She was born on Saturday. Last night she was with her mother and was perfectly happy and healthy.
"This morning she was dead with her mother next to her. She's got an extensive head wound and it looks like someone has gone into the field and struck her across the head with a piece of wood, which was also left there."