Rangers hope to give defender Rob Kiernan a chance of facing Celtic next week by appealing against his sending-off against St Johnstone.

The centre-back was dismissed 12 minutes from time during Wednesday's win after a late lunge on Saints striker Graham Cummins.
He faces an immediate two-match ban.
That would rule him out of Saturday's Scottish Cup quarter-final with Hamilton, as well as the Premiership derby with Celtic on 12 March.
But caretaker boss Graeme Murty has confirmed Rangers plan to challenge referee Kevin Clancy's call.
The appeal would go ahead next Thursday, freeing Kiernan to face Accies - but they would then be left waiting on his availability for the Parkhead clash.
Asked if it was worth an appeal, Murty said: "I think so, yes. We will have to put some more meat on the bones of the appeal when we go to the board but I think it is definitely worth an appeal.
"As it stands he would miss this Saturday and next Sunday. If we appeal, it would be heard next week, so Rob would be eligible for Saturday."
Emerson Hyndman's late winner saw Rangers close the gap on Aberdeen, in second place, to six points, and extend their advantage over Hearts - in fourth - to eight points.
Media playback is not supported on this device
With speculation that Rangers could unveil their new director of football as early as Friday, with a new manager potentially to follow next week, Saturday's game against Hamilton could be Murty's last in caretaker charge.
He insists he has "no set goal in mind" for his future, but feels his brief stint in charge will only boost his own career.
"In my calmer moments when I make my decision about where I want to go, this experience - as difficult as it's been at times - will make me a better practitioner wherever I am," said the 42-year-old.
"It will make me a better coach, a better man-manager and better able to appreciate the athletes I work with, whatever age they are.
"I can only be thankful for this time and the developments I'll make."


The Greek government's decision not to make the IMF repayment on Friday is being interpreted across Europe as a political statement rather than desperate economic necessity.

Greek officials familiar with the country's financial situation say it has the money to make the bank transfer and the next IMF payment due in a few days' time.
So the decision to become the first developed country EVER to delay a repayment to the IMF is understood as being the latest message of defiance from Greece to its international creditors: "Don't push us too far. We'd rather snap than bend".
And it could yet come to that.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is under immense pressure at home, as will be painfully evident on Friday when he addresses the restive Greek parliament.
His party was, of course, voted into government on an anti-austerity ticket, with a promised hard line attitude towards Greece's hated international creditors.
At this tense, precarious stage in bailout negotiations, Athens is prickling with rumours that Mr Tsipras may yet call a referendum or even snap elections in the hope of getting a popular mandate either to crash out of the eurozone or, more likely, a popular nod to take the medicine necessary to stay in.
Mr Tsipras reportedly spoke again at length to France's President Francois Hollande and to Germany's Angela Merkel by phone on Thursday night.
In a BBC interview a little earlier, the German chancellor told me that Greece remained a No 1 priority for her.
She said she still hoped there would be a positive outcome but admitted the negotiations were tough and she was insistent that the Greek government still had a lot of work to do.
Often painted as the villain of this drama, it's worth remembering that Chancellor Merkel is also under huge pressure at home over Greece's euro woes, including from within her normally extremely loyal CDU party.
Greece was front page news in the German newspapers again on Friday - as it is most days.
German taxpayers are the biggest European national contributors to Greek bailout funds.
Germans are very aware that this current hoo-ha is focused only on finding a short-term solution for Greece, never mind Greece's long-term economic viability.
The current vexed bailout runs out at the end of this month.
Greece will then still need tens of billions of euros of help to survive.
EU leaders are used to late-night, last-minute compromises.
Many are planning for that on Greece at an EU summit late this month.
But Alexis Tsipras is not your typical euro-politician.
He remains an unknown quantity and that makes Europe's economists and politicians pretty nervous.


The highest part of what will become Europe's tallest inhabited building has been lifted into place in London.

The Shard near to London Bridge, in Southwark, now reaches 310m (1,016ft) high.
The final piece of steel - a spire weighing about 500 tonnes which is 66m tall - was craned into place at the top of the building earlier.
Designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, the south London skyscraper is made up of 87 storeys.
The UK's highest crane moved the spire into place.
The spire alone is made up of 800 separate pieces of steel.
To ensure a precise fit, builders first constructed the spire at ground level at Dalton Airfield in Yorkshire.
They then dismantled it before delivering it to London and reassembling it ready to be hoisted into place on top of the Shard's concrete core.
Irvine Sellar, Chairman of Sellar Property Group, the developer, said: "This is another milestone in the development of the Shard which has become a global iconic landmark building.
"It is a 'vertical town' that includes a viewing gallery, restaurants, a five-star Shangri-La Hotel and residences as well as offices and, of course, it will be open to the public."
The spire is being clad in 516 panes of glass - a small part of approximately 11,000 panes that have been used to clad the Shard overall.
Work on the exterior of the tower is planned to be complete in June.


Fire fighters have been tackling a blaze at the site of the former Immaculate Conception College in Londonderry.

Crews have been trying to contain the fire, which started at 05:00 GMT on Wednesday morning.
Concerns were raised due to asbestos in the building.
The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service have said that the fire was started deliberately.


Germany's Thomas Rohler snatched javelin gold in dramatic fashion after silver medallist Julius Yego retired injured with two attempts left.

Media playback is not supported on this device
Kenya's world champion Yego, 27, led with a season's-best 88.24m, but fell on the follow-through in round four and sat out the rest of the contest.
Rohler, 24, then threw 90.30m in round five to win Germany's first javelin gold since the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Trinidad and Tobago's Keshorn Walcott took bronze with a throw of 85.38m.
Walcott was the youngest Olympic javelin champion when he triumphed at London 2012 at the age of 19 years and 131 days.
Yego, nicknamed 'YouTube man' after his unorthodox method of learning the sport, won Kenya's first Olympic medal outside of boxing and running.
Subscribe to the BBC Sport newsletter to get our pick of news, features and video sent to your inbox.


The leader of the Welsh Conservatives admits he has not read the party's UK manifesto for the general election.

Andrew RT Davies was asked on Tuesday about the party's policy on introducing minimum funding for Wales.
The Tories have denied any confusion over a funding floor being dependent on a referendum on income tax powers.
Mr Davies said there was "nothing to clarify" but admitted he had not read the UK manifesto as he was "not interested" in it.
The UK Conservative manifesto said the introduction of a funding floor was dependent on the assembly holding a referendum on devolving some powers to vary rates of income tax.
But a party spokesman later said there was only an "expectation" an income tax referendum will be held, a position then restated in the party's Welsh manifesto.
Mr Davies was asked to clarify the situation at a media briefing in the Senedd on Tuesday.
He said: "There's nothing to clarify, it's in the manifesto. Our manifesto.
"I haven't read the London one because I'm not interested in the London one.
"It's the Wales one I'm interested in.
"That's the one I endorse, that's the one that's relevant to the people of Wales."


As the 2016 Olympic Games edge closer, BBC Sport takes a look at everything you need to know ahead of the world's biggest sporting event this summer.

When are the 2016 Olympics?
Friday 5 August - Saturday 21 August.
Where are they being held?
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
When is the opening ceremony?
Friday 5 August at the Maracana Stadium. Rio is four hours behind the UK, so the ceremony start time for UK viewers will be 00:00 BST (20:00 local time).
Why was Brazil chosen?
Rio won the final round of voting (held in October 2009) by 66 votes against the 32 votes given to Madrid, the other finalist, after Chicago and Tokyo were eliminated in the first two rounds.
The deciding factors included South America never having hosted an Olympics, and the regeneration the Games would bring to Rio, Brazil and South America.
How many countries will compete?
206
Which sports will be in the 2016 Olympics?
42 sports will be contested - swimming, judo, volleyball and modern pentathlon are just some of the sports involved.
Are there any new sports this year?
Two new additions: golf returns after 112 years and rugby after 92 years.
Is Brazil ready to host the Games?
The completion deadline for work to be finished is Friday 1 July.
A major concern has been the metro extension intended to connect the Olympic Park in Barra de Tijuca with the rest of the city, which has not been finished.
Officials claim it will be ready for the beginning of the Games and can transport more than 300,000 people a day to ease the traffic congestion in Rio.
Could Russia be banned from taking part?
Russia's athletics federation was suspended by the IAAF (athletics' world governing body) in November last year after being accused of "state-sponsored" doping.
As a result, all Russian track and field athletes intending to compete in Rio will undergo a minimum of three independent anti-doping controls.
A decision will be made at the IAAF council meeting on 17 June as to whether Russia can send a team to the Olympic Games.
How to watch on the BBC
The BBC will broadcast live coverage every day from Rio across TV, radio, BBC Red Button, connected TV, online and the BBC Sport mobile app.
There will also be live text commentary, features, expert analysis and highlights of all the big moments, so you won't miss any of the action.
For all the latest Rio 2016 news, click here.


Bangladesh beat a spirited Netherlands side by eight runs in their first match of the World Twenty20 in Dharamsala.

Media playback is not supported on this device
Tamim Iqbal batted through the Tigers' innings, hitting three sixes in his unbeaten 83 from 58 balls, but lacked any meaningful support as they posted 153-7 from their 20 overs.
Opener Stephan Myburgh and captain Peter Borren both made 29, but the Dutch left themselves too much to do.
Tight bowling at the death left them tantalisingly short on 145-7.
Captain Mashrafe Mortaza was Bangladesh's hero with the ball as his four overs cost only 14 runs, just when the Dutch were looking to press the accelerator.
Relive Bangladesh v Netherlands with in-play highlights clips.
One team from Group A, which also includes Ireland and Oman who meet later on Wednesday, will qualify for the Super 10 stage when the eight major teams enter the competition.
Media playback is not supported on this device


Paul Pollock's hopes of competing at the Olympics have been dealt a major blow after a foot injury forced him to pull out of Sunday's London Marathon.

Pollock, 29, is currently the fourth fastest of the Irish male qualifiers for the marathon in Rio but each country can only send three athletes.
The Holywood man must now hope that his superb World Half Marathon run last month will sway the Irish selectors.
Pollock was 14th in Cardiff with Mo Farah the only European ahead of him.
"I didn't want to have to depend on the selectors but the stress-response injury I have means if I did attempt to run in London after getting an injection, it would be virtually 100% certain I would have a fracture afterwards which would put me out for at least eight to 10 weeks," Pollock told BBC Sport Northern Ireland.
"That just wasn't a sensible option so I have had to pull out of London and hope that the selectors look at the World Half Marathon where I finished over two minutes ahead of all the other Irish Olympic hopefuls and my other recent performances."
Pollock also finished ahead of Ireland's current leading marathon qualifier Kevin Seaward at the Wokingham Half Marathon and another 10K race in recent months.
"If the Irish selectors are picking the strongest team for the Olympic marathon, I would like to think I would be one of the three athletes that they will select."
Pollock had been hoping to improve on his personal best of 2:15.38 set in Berlin last September.
Sergiu Ciobanu is currently the third fastest Irishman with 2:15.17.
Pollock's regular training partner, Belfast runner Seaward is the fastest of the Irish qualifiers having run 2:14.52 in Berlin while Mick Clohisey clocked 2:15.10 in Seville two months ago.
Athletics Ireland are scheduled to pick their marathon selections on 23 May when the qualifying deadline expires.
Pollock felt the injury when he attempted to train five days after his impressive run in Cardiff where he clocked a time of 62 minutes and 46 seconds in wet and windy conditions.
An MRI scan revealed a "stress response" and after Pollock mulled over the issue for the past fortnight, he was forced to accept the inevitable on Sunday and pull out of this weekend's London event.
Pollock will hope that rest and treatment over the next few weeks will enable the injury to recover and enable him to maintain his ambitions of competing in both the European Championship 10,000m and Olympic marathon.
Glengormley runner Thomas Frazer, among the eight Irishman to achieve the Rio standard after clocking 2:17.45 in Rotterdam last April, will compete in London this weekend along with another Northern Ireland man Stephen Scullion and Rathfarnham's Sean Hehir.


Championship side Rotherham United have signed defender Darnell Fisher on a three-year deal from reigning Scottish Premiership champions Celtic.

The Millers have paid an undisclosed fee for the 22-year-old who made 21 appearances for Celtic in three years.
Playing mainly as a right-back, Fisher began his career at Farnborough before moving to the Glasgow club in 2013.
He made 23 appearances while on loan at St Johnstone last season, as they finished fourth in the Premiership.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.


More than 500 drivers failed drink tests in the Christmas crackdown, Welsh police forces have revealed.

Drivers were also checked for drugs during the festive campaign after a change to the law last spring - leading to almost 100 more arrests.
Nearly 23,000 motorists were breathalysed during December.
North Wales Police also revealed it randomly tested its own officers for drink and drugs, with all tests coming back negative.
North Wales Police revealed its youngest drink-driver was a 16-year-old who crashed a moped in Mochdre, Conwy.
The force also recorded one of the highest over-the-limit readings - a 44-year-old man from Bala, Gwynedd, who was close to four times over the legal limit of 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath.
Senior officers also defended the decision to test its own staff.
"We wanted to demonstrate to the public that we were also looking inward in our preventative approach and it was pleasing to see that all tests came back negative," said Ch Insp Darren Wareing.


Liam Boyce is ready to answer Northern Ireland's call having bounced back from his Euro 2016 omission to become the Scottish Premiership's leading scorer.

Media playback is not supported on this device
Boyce, 26, is the form forward in the squad with Conor Washington and Jamie Ward unavailable and Kyle Lafferty still out of favour at club level.
It's a big change from 12 months ago when Will Grigg pipped Boyce for a place in the Euro 2016 squad.
"I just put it behind me and tried to look towards the future," said Boyce.
"I knew coming up to the Euros, Griggsy had better form than me in the second half of the season.
"I'd had an injury too and he was banging in goals right, left and centre. I sort of expected it (that I'd miss out) although that didn't make it easy.
"I knew I was beaten by a better man at the time."
But 12 months on, Ross County's Boyce has linked up with the Northern Ireland squad after a run of 10 goals in his final 10 games of his club season.
His late run of goals brought his season's tally up to 23 and Ross County assistant boss Billy Dodds has admitted that the club would have been embroiled in a relegation battle but for Boyce's strike-rate.
Boyce accepts his spirits are high as he prepares for Friday's home friendly against New Zealand, which is a warm-up for the crucial World Cup qualifier in Azerbaijan on 10 June.
"I am confident at the minute after ending the season in good form. I'll try and keep doing what I'm doing.
"I didn't get picked for the Euros and not having a good second half to the season.
"This season I just wanted to come back in and show that wasn't a trend and have a good second half to the season. Thankfully I was able to do that."


X Factor finalist Fleur East already has a number one.

The 26-year-old has topped the iTunes chart after performing Uptown Funk during Saturday night's semi-final of the ITV competition.
The tune, by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars, is only available digitally and features on Ronson's upcoming album Uptown Special due out next year.
Fleur's mentor Simon Cowell said the performance was one of the top three in the show's 10-year history.
He said it had all the makings of being "one to remember".
So, last-minute song change. Check.
Singing AND dancing. Check.
Being a little known track, as it's not physically been released yet. Check.
While the viewing public were clearly impressed they downloaded it so much it hit the top spot on iTunes, one person had something else to say.
And shock, horror, it was Lily Allen.
She tweeted: "Is this even out yet? #XFactor ... Well done to @sony for managing to get a not yet released song of theirs sung on prime time weekend telly. #uptownfunk #shazam #airplay
"It is an amazing song and Fleur did it justice but it's still a great example of music industry corruption. #uptown funk"
The so-called "corruption" she's talking about is more just clever song choice by Simon Cowell, surely?
Note that Mark Ronson's track is physically released on 11 January on Columbia Records which, along with Simon Cowell's label Syco, are both part of Sony Music.
After Fleur belted out the tune wearing black hotpants and a gold jacket there was a standing ovation from the judges and gushing comments from Simon.
"Let this moment sink in because this is the moment that you went from a contestant to a star," he said.
"That was in the top three best performance I've seen on the show."
When Fleur was told the good news about grabbing number one on the iTunes singles chart on The Xtra Factor she was obviously thrilled: "Oh my god! I can't believe it! Right now I am literally lost for words, but feel on top of the world," she said.
So that was Sunday night and as I write it's still at the top spot now (the only of the current X Factor contestants in the top 40), while the video of her performance has already racked up more than 670,000 hits on YouTube.
Seventeen-year-old Lauren Platt was kicked out of the competition on Sunday leaving Fleur East, Ben Haenow and Andrea Faustini to battle it out in next weekend's final.
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube


A severed human head has been found in a Cambridgeshire quarry.

The head was found by a quarry worker at Mepal, between Chatteris and Ely, on Monday afternoon. It is not yet known whether the head was male or female.
Officers are also searching a landfill site in Bedfordshire, from where they believe the head came.
Police stressed the discovery at Block Fen Drove was of a head and not a skull and that they were trying to establish how long the remains had been there.
More on this story
The head has been removed and is being analysed by the Cambridgeshire Coroner.
Det Insp Jerry Waite, from the Beds, Cambs and Herts Major Crime Unit (MCU), said: "We are conducting enquiries both locally and across the county borders, and would urge anyone with information about the finding to contact us.
"At this stage we do not know if the head is male or female, however we have got officers carrying out searches at a site in Sharnbrook, Bedfordshire, as we believe this is where the remains may have come from."
A forensics team has been at Mill Road, Sharnbrook, 40 miles away from Mepal, since Monday afternoon.
It's pretty peaceful here on Block Fen Drove, apart from the lorries rumbling past, continuing with their work.
One driver stopped to say there were quite a few police down at the quarry site.
Only one police car has been seen leaving the site in the past few hours. Reporters are being kept well back from the cordon.
Mick George Ltd, which has an aggregates and landfill site at Block Fen Drove, told the BBC: "We are working closely with the police and providing them with all the information they need to undertake their investigations."
A number of companies operate out of Mepal quarry, and many extract aggregates to be used in the construction industry.
Police said the head was found at about 15:00 BST by a Mick George worker.
A spokesman said officers expected to remain at both sites overnight.


The public will be able to challenge a wider range of sentences given for terror offences under new plans.

Currently, people in England and Wales can challenge punishments given for the most serious terror offences under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.
But under the changes - which come into effect on 8 August - sentences for 19 other crimes will be open to challenge.
Calls for the extension came after hate preacher Anjem Choudary was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison.
His crime - inviting support for so-called Islamic State - was not previously covered by the scheme.
New crimes that can be reviewed under the ULS scheme include supporting proscribed organisations, encouraging terrorism, sharing terrorist propaganda, or not disclosing information about a terrorist attack.
The new scheme will not be applied retrospectively.
The Ministry of Justice said only a small portion of the 80,000 Crown Court cases heard each year were reviewed.
Attorney General Jeremy Wright QC said: "The ULS scheme allows victims of crime, their families and the public to request a sentence review if they feel it's too low.
"Widening the scheme to include terrorism offences will allow us to challenge more sentences and is a welcome first step to extending it even further."
Justice minister Dominic Raab said the legislation was "making sure those who radicalise young people, and those who wilfully and culpably turn a blind eye to terrorist activity feel the full force of the law".
The ULS scheme was recently used to increase the prison sentence for a man who killed his ex-girlfriend in a "violent and protracted way" from eight years to 12-and-a-half years.
Rhys Hobbs, 46, of Tonna in Neath, killed Andrea Lewis, 51, in her home in Fairyland Road, on 30 January 2016. She was found with 43 injuries including to her skull and torso.


BBC Breakfast's business presenter Victoria Fritz went into labour after coming off air, with one of her fellow presenters acting as her birthing partner.

Presenter Sally Nugent stepped in after Fritz's husband was stuck on the motorway.
Fritz later gave birth to a baby boy at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester.
The baby had been due to arrive in early December but Fritz's waters broke after she came off air.
Fritz tweeted her "heartfelt thanks" for the BBC Breakfast "team effort".
A BBC spokeswoman said that Nugent had only intended to keep Fritz company while waiting for her  husband, who was stuck in traffic on the M6.
"When Sally heard that she'd gone into labour she offered to be there until Victoria's husband got there. But her husband never arrived so she found herself at the birth."
Nugent tweeted: "You won't believe what happened after work yesterday. Huge congrats to our very clever @VFritzNews."
"It's going to be a brilliant story for his 21st birthday! What an incredible day."
A picture of mother and baby was put on BBC Breakfast's Facebook page with the headline "Breaking Breakfast Baby News!"
"24 hours ago Victoria was presenting our business news - today she has some rather more important news to deliver!
"He was in a bit of a rush to greet the world and arrived a few weeks early so he doesn't have a name yet but both mother and baby are doing well."
Many viewers were surprised at the news because she did not look heavily pregnant when she was presenting the business segment.
Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram, or if you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.


Investigations are continuing after a teenage girl was raped by two men on a double decker bus in Glasgow.

The attack happened on the top deck of the 57 bus as it left the Silverburn shopping centre in Pollok, Glasgow, at about 22:30 last Friday night.
The 14-year-old sat downstairs with a friend but then moved to the upper deck where she was assaulted and raped by two men.
Police have appealed for other passengers to come forward.
Bus operator First Glasgow said the driver was unaware of the assault but ejected the two men involved later in the journey due to separate unruly behaviour.
Detectives said the girl engaged in conversation with two men who had boarded the bus in the city centre.
Her friend, also 14, went up to see her and raised the alarm with passengers downstairs.
'Frightening experience'
A woman and two men came to the girls' aid. They all left the bus two stops along from Silverburn.
The passengers are said to have waited with the girls until they got another bus home, thought to be in the Darnley area of the city, where police were contacted.
No CCTV footage is available from the bus.
Both of the attackers are said to be aged around 18 to 20.
One is about 5ft 10in, with a shaved head and wearing a black jumper.
The other man has brown, spiky hair and was wearing a tracksuit which may have been grey, with a body warmer or jacket.
Det Con Jackie Carroll of Strathclyde Police said: "This was a very frightening experience for the young girl concerned, and thankfully she was assisted by her friend and the Good Samaritans on the bus who ensured she got home safely.
"She has been left traumatised by her ordeal.
"We're continuing extensive enquiries into the incident, and would like to trace two men and woman who came to her assistance, as they will have vital information which could help with our investigation."
Police said the two men were very loud and using crude and lewd comments to other passengers.
The bus driver ejected them at Pollokshaws Road, near to the park, at about around 00:30 hours.
A spokesman for bus operator First Glasgow said: "Our thoughts are very much with the victim of the assault."
"We are assisting the police with their investigation and would echo their appeal for anyone to come forward who may have information about the incident."
He added: "Our driver was not aware of the assault. Unfortunately, the incident took place on the top deck of the bus and therefore out of our driver's eyeline and no-one on board approached our driver to report a disturbance.
"The driver ejected the two males in question sometime later in the journey - this was due to separate unruly behaviour."


A Conservative AM forced to face a ballot of party members has come top of the South Wales East regional list for the 2016 assembly election.

Party officials opted not to automatically reselect Mohammad Asghar, prompting an open contest.
On Thursday night it was announced Mr Asghar had topped the poll.
A second AM forced to follow the same procedure, William Graham, finished outside the top  four - meaning he is effectively de-selected.
Second on the list will be Laura Anne Jones, previously an AM between 2003-07.
In a statement, Mr Graham said: "Whilst I am personally disappointed that I will not be part of an expanding Welsh Conservative team after the elections in May, I remain as invested as any of my colleagues in the goal of bringing an end to this tired Labour government."
The Conservatives currently hold two of the available four seats in South Wales East.
The 60 AMs include 20 elected via regional lists, aimed to give a fairer reflection of support for each party.


The Guatemalan authorities have detained 14 former military officials on charges of human rights abuses during the country's 36-year armed conflict.

Among those detained was Manuel Benedicto Lucas Garcia, 83, a former general and brother of former president Fernando Romeo Lucas Garcia.
A former minister of the interior was also arrested.
Many of the detainees allegedly worked where a mass grave was found.
Manuel Benedicto Lucas Garcia is a former army commander said to have been involved in founding Guatemala's paramilitary groups.
His brother ruled Guatemala from July 1978 to March 1982.
Both face charges of crimes against humanity and being involved in the disappearances of hundreds of people.
The Guatemalan attorney general, Thelma Aldana, said they were being detained in connection with the disappearance of at least 558 indigenous people between 1981 and 1988 in a military zone in Coban, in the northern department of Alta Verapaz.
She said  this was "one of the largest cases of forced disappearances in Latin America".
Military Zone 21 currently houses a military training centre, but in 2012 four mass graves were found containing the bodies of "non-combatant civilians identified by survivors" said Mrs Aldana.
In 2012 a group of five ex-paramilitaries who had operated in Zone 21 were given life sentences of 7,710 years for their involvement in the mass killings.
According to prosecutors,  survivors said the army had killed, in one massacre alone, 256 indigenous people - mostly women, children and old people from the Mayan Achi ethnic group.
The army had accused the local poor Mayan farmers community of supporting left-wing guerrillas operating in the area.
Prosecutors said testimonies from survivors had helped officials locate the mass graves in Zone 21 Coban and connect them to the officers.
Mario Polanco, the director of an organisation representing the families of the victims of the conflict, the Mutual Support Group (GAM), described as "historic" the arrest of the 14 ex-military officers.
"These are people who had thought they were masters of the universe and Guatemala," he said.
Guatemala's armed conflict ended in 1996 after a peace accord.  In the last 10 years the country has begun prosecuting human rights cases from its past but few high-level officials have been jailed.
The conflict pitted right-wing governments against left-wing insurgents and led to nearly 250,000 deaths.
A UN-backed truth commission said the armed forces carried out more than 80% of human rights abuses during the conflict.


Councils are calling for powers to enter houses and other premises, such as illegal schools, where home-educated children are being taught.

The Local Government Association says its ability to check if children withdrawn from schools in England and Wales are suitably educated is limited.
Currently, council officers can enter a premises only if they have specific concerns about a child's safety.
The government said it was "cracking down" on unregistered schools.
Councillor Richard Watts, chairman of the LGA's Children and Young People Board, said the vast majority of parents who home-educated their children did a fantastic job.
They worked well with their local council to make sure that a good education was being provided, he said.
Concerns have been mounting about children being taught in illegal schools - those offering 20 hours of lessons a week which are not registered with the Department for Education (DfE), education watchdog Ofsted or local authorities.
There are fears some schools may have links to extremists and that lessons may be taught in dangerous buildings.
The chief inspector of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw, raised the issue in November 2015, and in February this year the DfE said it was investigating 21 such institutions in England.
In Wales, calls have been made for a mandatory home education register after an eight-year-old boy who had no contact with the authorities died from scurvy.
Any parent has the right to withdraw a child from mainstream education without giving a reason.
However, it is the duty of local education authorities to ensure young people in their areas are receiving a suitable education.
Councillor Watts said: "In some cases, a child listed as home-schooled can, in fact, be attending an illegal school.
"With limited powers to check on the work a child is doing, however, councils are unable to find out whether this is the case.
"They work closely with their communities to help identify where illegal schools are, but the ability to enter homes and other premises and speak to children would go a long way towards tackling the problem."
In May, Sir Michael said Ofsted was looking into 100 suspected illegal schools.
A DfE spokesman said it had "taken steps to ensure the system is as robust as it can be".
"We have announced an escalation of Ofsted investigations into unregistered schools, with additional inspectors dedicated to rooting them out, a new tougher approach to prosecuting them and a call to local authorities to help identify any settings of concern."


Homes were evacuated as firefighters tackled a large blaze at a derelict church in Carmarthenshire.

Crews were called to Park Congregational Church on Murray Street at about 19:00 BST on Thursday after reports of smoke in the tower.
Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service said 20 firefighters would remain at the scene to dampen down.
Murray Street and the surrounding roads were closed for safety reasons but no casualties were reported.
Residents living close to the church were evacuated to Llanelli Leisure Centre and the Vista Lounge restaurant.
Dyfed-Powys Police Insp James Davies said: "The church is well alight and has sustained substantial damage.
"Due to concerns for safety, a large number of properties in the surrounding area have been evacuated and a cordon is in place."
The cause of the fire is being investigated.


Italy boss Antonio Conte has refused to discuss whether he will return to club management following Euro 2016.

Media playback is not supported on this device
Conte announced last week he will step down from his position with the national team in the summer.
And the 46-year-old has been heavily linked with the managerial vacancy at Chelsea.
"At this moment, nothing interests me," he said. "I'm the coach of the national team and it's an experience which has taught me so much."
Conte was appointed Italy manager in August 2014 shortly after resigning as coach of Juventus.
"It's been a fantastic, extraordinary experience and I've always envied coaches who have taken part at a World Cup or a European Championship," he added.
Conte, whose contract ends after Euro 2016 in France, said he had been asked to clarify his position by Italian Football Federation president Carlo Tavecchio.
"I have thought about it and weighed up my decision and when I had no more doubts, I informed the president - the one who chose me and wanted me here," he added.
"I feel a great desire to work. I'm excited about the competition in June, I am raring to go.
"These are experiences that happen once in a lifetime and I feel a great responsibility."


President Donald Trump's son has come under fire for criticising London's mayor, shortly after a terror attack on the UK capital killed three people.

Donald Trump Jr tweeted an article written last year, in which Sadiq Khan said terror vigilance had become "part and parcel" of life in a global city.
Mr Trump quoted the headline and tweeted: "You have to be kidding me?!"
He angered many Britons who accused him of exploiting the tragedy and implying the quotes were made after the attack.
Dozens were hurt in Wednesday's attack, when an assailant drove a car through pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and then fatally knifed a police officer who tried to stop him entering the Houses of Parliament. He was then shot dead.
Two hours later, Mr Trump tweeted an article from the Independent newspaper in September 2016.
In the article, Mr Khan was speaking shortly before a meeting with New York Mayor Bill De Blasio, on the day after three bombs exploded in New York City and nearby towns, wounding 29 people.
The attacks had given him a sleepless night, he said, as he pondered the dangers faced by big Western cities like New York and London.
"Part and parcel of living in a great global city is you have to be prepared for these sorts of things, you have to be vigilant, you have to support the police doing an incredibly hard job, you have to support the security services," he said.
On Wednesday, after the attack in Westminster, the mayor said that Londoners "will never be cowed by terrorism" and that the city stood together in the face of those seeking it harm.
Mr Trump's tweet incensed many British people on Twitter, including MP Wes Streeting, who called him a "disgrace" for exploiting the tragedy.
Others accused him of implying that Mr Khan's comments were made after the attack.
Mr Khan, London's first Muslim mayor, has previously clashed with Mr Trump's father, in January denouncing the US president's travel ban as "shameful and cruel".
Last year, he accused the then-candidate Trump of being "ignorant" about Islam.
Mr Trump responded by challenging the mayor to an IQ test.


Ryan Giggs is not under consideration to become Manchester United's next full-time boss as the club begin their search for a successor to David Moyes.

Giggs, 40, has been put in temporary charge after Moyes was sacked following just 10 months in the job.
But the Premier League club feel an experienced manager is needed to turn things round after this season's slump.
Gary Lineker thinks United are "in crisis" after their worst season since the Premier League began.
It's such a huge transfer window for United that they need an experienced man at the helm
"They have not qualified for the Champions League and are in a worse situation than 12 months ago," said the BBC Match of the Day presenter and former England captain.
"Then they had lost their manager. This time they don't even know whether they are going to be in European football next season."
Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane, speaking to ITV Sport, said Moyes should have been given more time and accused the players of letting the manager down.
"Some of the players should be ashamed of themselves," he said.
"To be seventh is disappointing - and he will take responsibility for that - but I don't think he's had that support he needed and he deserved more time."
Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho, talking before the club's Champions League semi-final first-leg at Atletico Madrid, added: "I just feel sorry for David, like I feel sorry for every manager that loses his job."
Moyes took over in July 2013 following the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson, who won 38 trophies, including 13 league titles and two Champions League crowns, in a 26-year reign,
Robbie Savage, who was in the United youth ranks with Giggs and was also a team-mate with Wales, says the club need an experienced head as they look to rebuild their squad over the summer.
"In the future, Ryan can be a successful manager," Savage told BBC Sport. "But going forward it's such a huge transfer window for United that they need an experienced man at the helm.
"Keeping Ryan as assistant manager would be a great idea. He has United in his blood and has won countless trophies.
"He would be able to learn the ropes from a manager who has won trophies and been there and done it."
Giggs, the most decorated player in English football, has yet to decide whether to continue his playing career.
After winning 13 Premier League titles and the Champions League twice with United, as well as the FA Cup four times and the League Cup three times, his current contract runs out at the end of the season.
It is understood United's hierarchy reached their decision to dispense with Moyes reluctantly but also in the knowledge they had little alternative.
They were forced to bring forward a public announcement when British newspapers began reporting the 50-year-old Scot's tenure was set to end.
Sunday's 2-0 defeat at Everton means United, currently seventh in the Premier League, will miss out on the Champions League for the first time in 18 years.
It would also now take a favourable sequence of results for them to secure a place in the Europa League.
Poor results are not the only factor to count against Moyes, who was sacked a year to the day after United were crowned champions.
Media playback is not supported on this device
United officials hope Giggs will be able to restore a sense of bullishness to the club, as well as a return to the positivity and attacking philosophy for which the club are so well known.
As the search for a second manager in less than a year begins, Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola appear to be out of reach.
Klopp says his contract with Borussia Dortmund is "unbreakable", while Guardiola has guided Bayern to the Bundesliga title and Champions League semi-finals in his first season in charge.
It leaves Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal in a strong position, given Carlo Ancelotti is under contract at Real Madrid and both Diego Simeone and former United defender Laurent Blanc, presently at Atletico Madrid and Paris St-Germain respectively, have never coached in England.
Van Gaal's managerial curriculum vitae is impressive.
The 62-year-old won three Dutch titles with Ajax between 1991-97, as well as the 1995 Champions League. He then secured two La Liga crowns at Barcelona and enjoyed Bundesliga success at Bayern Munich in 2010.
Savage believes he would be the perfect fit for United and has a great relationship with striker Robin van Persie.
"If Manchester United don't invest heavily in the next transfer window, then they will go backwards," added the former Leicester City, Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers and Derby County midfielder.
"Van Gaal is a fantastic manager who has been there and done it and will command respect."
Former United goalkeeper Raimond van der Gouw says Van Gaal has an impressive pedigree.
"He has proved he's a good manager," Van der Gouw told BBC Radio 5 live. "He's a champion in Holland, Germany and Spain. He can be a good manager for United."
Van der Gouw also insisted Moyes was always likely to find it hard making an impact at Old Trafford.
"If you have to go to a big club like United, you need experience," he said. "It's a big step to go from Everton to Manchester United. It's a much bigger club, much more responsibility."
Former Manchester United manager Wilf McGuinness succeeded Sir Matt Busby in June 1969, taking over in similar circumstances to Moyes when his predecessor moved upstairs.
McGuinness reached three cup semi-finals, but failed to win any silverware and was sacked in December 1970.
"Everybody hopes to go to clubs like Manchester United and stay the rest of their lives, but unfortunately it did not work out," he told Radio 5 live.
I hear pretty much first-hand that some of the players were pretty dismissive of the new regime... that is poor professionalism
"I'm sorry to see him go. It was a tricky job, but Manchester United must have success and win things."
Asked if there were similarities with his own situation at Manchester United, McGuinness added: "That's right, but it didn't work and several others found that out as well."
Despite United's current troubles, club officials believe they can regain ground quickly. "Reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated," one club source told BBC Sport.
The finance is certainly available to strengthen the squad, as it would have been had Moyes remained in charge. United are also convinced their absence from the Champions League need not be too much of a handicap in the recruitment process.
But Lineker believes the players need to improve their attitude.
"There is no question the players let David Moyes down," said the former Barcelona, Everton, Tottenham and Leicester striker.
"I hear pretty much first-hand that some of the players were pretty dismissive of the new regime. That is poor professionalism.
"Some of them have probably made life quite difficult for David Moyes."


The chief constable of Greater Manchester Police has urged the editor of the Times newspaper to apologise for an "offensive" murder report headline.

The headline, "Imam beaten to death in sex grooming town", ran on Saturday following the death of Jalal Uddin, 64, in Rochdale on Thursday.
It is understood it was later changed to "Imam beaten to death in Rochdale".
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said he was "appalled". Nobody from The Times was available for comment.
The chief constable has written an open letter to the newspaper stating: "The headline has no relevance to the horrific murder of a former Imam in Rochdale."
He added: "Your headline and its irrelevance to this case has the potential to cause community tensions.
"It is also offensive to the thousands of peaceful law-abiding Muslims and non-Muslims in Rochdale who are shocked by this murder."
Mr Hopkins concluded: "I would hope in the circumstances you issue an immediate apology and provide a response."
The victim was found with head injuries in a park in the Wardleworth area on Thursday night. He died in hospital.
A 31-year-old man being questioned has been released without charge and eliminated from investigations.


Struggling Women's Super League One side Doncaster Rovers Belles have appointed assistant first-team coach Emma Coates as their new manager.

Coates replaces Glen Harris, who left the club on Sunday.
The 25-year-old was previously head coach of Leeds United's reserves side, before joining the Belles in 2014.
Doncaster won promotion to the top flight last season, but are bottom of the table after losing their first three games of the season.
"I'm delighted to have been given the chance to take charge of a team with such a great history in the women's game," said Coates.
"The club have supported me throughout my development and I'm looking forward to leading the team forward.
"We now have to focus on developing some momentum for the second half of the season."


England coach Eddie Jones has backed Dylan Hartley for the role of Lions captain in New Zealand next year.

Hartley has excelled as England skipper in 2016, captaining the side to eight straight victories, including a Grand Slam and a series win in Australia.
And Jones feels the 30-year-old should be a prime contender to lead the Lions against the All Blacks.
"I think he would be a great candidate," Jones told the BBC.
"He has clearly done a good job leading England - he has got the ability to develop relationships with people - and therefore he would be a great candidate for the Lions job."
Jones' choice of Hartley as captain in January was controversial at the time, given the player's chequered disciplinary record, but the Northampton hooker has been a revelation in the job.
The duo's unbeaten tenure has seen them secure a first Grand Slam success since 2003, and England's first ever series win down under.
"He is very good with the players in making sure they understand standards we want in the team, and making sure they understand the values that are important," Jones added.
"He continues to do that on a daily basis and that is so important for a captain."
One of Hartley's lieutenants - vice-captain Billy Vunipola - says the skipper's approach is perfectly in tune with that of Jones.
"I feel he is a clone of Eddie," Vunipola told BBC Sport. "They are both brutally honest and you have a lot of respect for that because you know where you stand."
And the number eight says Hartley's captaincy style gets the best out of his players.
"He will always put the team first. He is very selfless - everyone is equal. If he thinks you aren't pulling your weight he will tell you, and if you are doing a good job he will tell you."
"He would never ask of us something he wouldn't do himself. He is very inspirational, and a lot of boys follow him in that respect."
England go in to the third Test in Sydney in Saturday hoping to secure a historic 3-0 whitewash over the Australians.
Listen to Eddie Jones on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday morning, and don't miss 5 live Rugby on Thursday at 21:00 BST for a comprehensive preview of the final weekend of the summer tour matches.


Mercedes say they are "optimistic" Nico Rosberg will avoid a grid penalty after the gearbox problem that afflicted him at the British Grand Prix.

If the team had to change the gearbox as a result of damage from Silverstone, Rosberg would be hit with a five-place grid penalty in Hungary this weekend.
Mercedes said Rosberg would run the gearbox in practice on Friday at the Hungaroring "to make sure it is OK".
A spokesman added: "We are optimistic that it will be."
Rosberg was demoted from second to third place at Silverstone after Mercedes were found to have broken rules restricting radio information given by teams to drivers as they tried to help him fix the problem.
The German heads into the weekend with a one-point championship lead over team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Mercedes have not won the Hungarian Grand Prix since the start of their domination of F1 following the introduction of turbo hybrid engines in 2014.
Hamilton holds the record, jointly with Michael Schumacher, for most wins at the Hungaroring, with four victories.
Rosberg has never finished higher than fourth at the track.
Subscribe to the BBC Sport newsletter to get our pick of news, features and video sent to your inbox.


York City have signed striker Johan ter Horst from Hull City and Wrexham defender Hamza Bencherif on loan for the rest of the season.

Ter Horst, 21, joined the Tigers in the summer of 2014 after scoring 26 goals for Folkestone Invicta to help them reach the Ryman League play-offs.
He has been part of Hull's under-23 side, scoring in his last two outings.
Bencherif has played 28 games for Wrexham this term and both could be in the side to face Barrow on Saturday.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page or visit our Premier League tracker here.


The sense of fair play is an important human trait, but new research suggests that it's a key behaviour for dogs and wolves as well.

In tests, if one animal was given a more substantial reward when performing a task, the other one downed tools completely.
It had been felt that this aversion to unfairness was something that dogs had learned from humans.
But the tests with wolves suggest that this predates domestication of dogs.
Scientists have long recognised that what they term a "sensitivity to inequity", or a sense of fairness, played an important role in the evolution of co-operation between humans.  Basically, if others treated you badly, you quickly learned to stop working with them.
Researchers believe that the behaviour is also found widely in non-human primates.
Experiments in 2008 demonstrated that dogs also had this sensitivity. This new study shows that it's also deeply ingrained in wolves.
The scientists tested similarly raised dogs and wolves that lived in packs. Two animals of each species were placed in adjacent cages, equipped with a buzzer apparatus. When the dog or wolf pressed it with their paw, both animals got a reward on some occasions. Other times, the dog or wolf doing the task got nothing while the partner did.
The key finding was that when the partner got a high value treat, the animal doing the task refused to continue with it.
"When the inequity was greatest they stopped working," said Jennifer Essler, from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna.
"For some of them it was a really really quick and strong response. One of the wolves stopped working after the third trial of not receiving anything while his partner received something. I think he was so frustrated he even broke the apparatus."
The fact that the behaviour was found in both wolves and dogs helps to overturn the idea that dogs learned this concept because they were domesticated.
The experiments suggest instead that the behaviour is likely inherited from a common ancestor to both wolves and dogs.
"It makes much more sense to say that this would be something shared from a common ancestor than to say it evolved twice, or to say that it came from domestication," said Jennifer Essler.
The question of social status or hierarchy also played an important role in the experiments with dogs and wolves of higher rank taking umbrage more quickly.
The human impact on dogs isn't entirely absent though.  Pet dogs are less sensitive to being treated unfairly - probably because of their experience with us!
"I think it's clear that this is affected by both domestication as well as their life experience with humans because you do see a difference between pet dogs and pack-living dogs," said Jennifer Essler.
"It seems that having a life experience living with humans makes them more tolerant to inequity that comes from humans."
The study has been published in the journal Current Biology.
Follow Matt on Twitter and on Facebook


House prices in Wales have risen by 5.7% over the past year, official figures show.

It is a slight drop on last month, which was 5.8%, said the Office for National Statistics.
The most recent figure comes in behind the UK average, which was 10.4% and England's which was 10.8%.
The average house in Wales now costs £172,000 compared with homes across the UK where the average figure is £271,000.
In England the average house costs £283,000.


A police helicopter and dogs are searching for a missing woman in Fife.

Maureen Bannister, 43, from Leuchars, has not been seen since about 14:00 on Sunday.
It is understood that shortly after this Ms Bannister left a house on Pitcairn Park in a blue-coloured Ford Focus with her dog, a black/grey-coloured cross-breed Yorkshire Terrier.
Ms Bannister is known to walk her dog in and around Tentsmuir Forest.
The dog was found near the woman's car in the Tayport area shortly after Ms Bannister was reported missing.
The missing woman was described as 5ft 4in tall, of slim build and has long dark hair.
It is not known what she was wearing at the time of her disappearance but it is likely she will have been wearing navy Wellington boots and a navy thigh-length jacket with a cream-lined hood.
Insp Paul Dick, of Police Scotland, said: "Our search for Maureen has been under way since around 01:00 on Monday but unfortunately we have not yet located her.
"We are extremely concerned for her welfare as are her family who are desperate to find her safe and well.
"Today, I'm appealing to anyone who may have seen Maureen or even spoke with her, to come forward to police immediately."


A whistleblower paramedic, banned from two hospitals in Worcestershire, has been given an apology and seen the restrictions lifted.

Stuart Gardner, who works for West Midlands Ambulance Service, had criticised care at Worcester Royal Hospital A&E unit.
He was banned by the hospital trust, which said his comments had upset staff.
It has since backed down and offered Mr Gardner an apology.
"Unison and Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust have agreed that the Trust does not have the authority to exclude an individual paramedic from its premises and the paramedic has received an apology for the suggestion that he should be excluded," the union and hospital trust said in a joint statement.
Two weeks ago Mr Gardner told the BBC he had seen patients being treated in corridors at the Worcester Royal Hospital and said conditions were the worst he had seen in his 26-year experience.
He said he had not criticised doctors or nurses but wanted to "raise concerns" about the location of treatment.
"I was highlighting that issue and saying [patients] should have been on the wards," he said.
Mr Gardner said he had been informed by the chief operating officer of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust that he was "not welcome" on either of its two sites.
At the time, Unison had said it was considering legal action. It said it welcomed the latest decision by the hospital trust.
The two organisations said, like other parts of the country, hospitals in Worcestershire had seen high levels of demand in A&E in recent weeks.


Royal Mail has reported a near 15% fall in half-year profits with revenues little-changed across its business.

Letter volumes fell 4% in the six months to the end of September but the fall was offset by a 4% rise in parcel volumes.
Royal Mail reported adjusted pre-tax profit of £240m against £287m a year earlier.
It said performance for the full financial year would depend on Christmas - its busiest time of year.
Royal Mail said its "transformation costs" increased by £47m in the period with some 3,000 staff opting to take voluntary redundancy.
It said the total cost of restructuring the business this year was likely to be at least £180m.
The rise in the number of parcels came as a result of gaining new customers, Royal Mail said.
But despite the increase in parcel volumes, revenues from Royal Mail's UK parcels business - which includes its letters division - dipped 1% in the period.
The fall in UK parcel revenues however was offset by an 8% rise in revenues across the rest of Europe.
Although letter volumes continued to fall, the 4% drop in volumes in the six months to the end of September was at the lower end of the range forecast by Royal Mail.
Shares in Royal Mail rose 5.8% to 480.5p in early trade. Its shares were boosted because the 2% fall in underlying operating profits to £342m - Royal Mail's preferred profit measure - was less than expected, and the firm also said UK operating costs would be "at least" 1% lower this year.
Moya Greene, chief executive of Royal Mail said the company had delivered a "resilient performance" in what she described as a "competitive trading environment".
The half-year results are the first to be published by Royal Mail as a completely privatised company after the government sold its remaining shares in the business last month.
Royal Mail increased its half-year dividend payment to shareholders to 7p per share from 6.7p per share a year ago.
Royal Mail said little about the review of the way in which it was regulated, announced by communications regulator Ofcom in June, other than to say it had submitted its response to the review in September and agreed there was a need to consider the effectiveness of the existing regulatory framework.
Ofcom has said the review is expected to be completed and a revised regulatory framework in place during 2016.


A machine that can "unboil" protein-rich egg whites, winning an Ig Nobel Prize in 2015, may also have important medical applications, its inventor says.

Prof Colin Raston, a chemist from Flinders University in South Australia, has discovered that his Vortex Fluidic Device (VFD) can also slice tiny carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to uniform length with unprecedented precision.
Individual CNTs, which are just a few nanometres in diameter or about the width of a small virus, have incredible properties - they are 200 times stronger than steel yet five times more flexible, and conduct electricity five times more efficiently than copper wires.
But an inability to consistently create nanotubes with uniform lengths and properties has been one of several obstacles that has frustrated scientists' efforts to harness these materials, which can be used for highly targeted drug delivery in cancer therapy.
"When you make CNTs normally, they're entangled - it's like a bowl of spaghetti. They're all stuck together and they're different lengths," Prof Raston told the BBC.
Shortening them currently requires toxic chemicals, which can chemically alter the surface of the CNTs, changing their properties and limiting their functionality.
Prof Raston's VFD, which mixes fluids inside a rapidly spinning glass tube, could offer a cleaner, faster alternative for cutting CNTs down to size, also opening up applications for electronics.
"What our device does is untangle the carbon nanotubes and then slices them, so you overcome two problems in one go," he says.
Using just water, a liquid solvent, and a laser, his team was able to consistently produce CNTs with an average length of 170 nanometres, without degrading their properties. The results were published in Nature's Scientific Reports.
"It's one of highest tensile strength materials, and yet you put it in a liquid, and you spin it in a special way and with a laser you can cut it down," he says.
Prof Raston says his sliced CNTs are small enough for drug-delivery vehicles, and could also improve the efficiency of solar cells.
The idea for the VFD was conceived on a 15-hour flight from Los Angeles to Sydney in 2010. Prof Raston wanted a small machine to use for continuous flow processing, a type of manufacturing where chemical reactions take place between fluids mixing inside a tube.
"It was a eureka moment," recalls Prof Raston. "I came up with the idea for the device, and I drew the plans on the plane."
The VFD has what looks like a glass test tube, about 20mm in diameter, tilted at a 45 degree angle. This tube is spun at very high speeds, up to 9,000 revolutions per minute.
"While you're spinning it, you actually add liquid to the bottom of the tube through stainless steel jet feeds," explains Prof Raston. "The speed of the spinning tube coupled with the incoming flow creates intense, highly dynamic micro-mixing."
This mechanical energy means the machine can create bio-diesel without adding any heat, and can also unravel and correctly fold proteins, he says.
Prof Raston and his colleagues demonstrated protein unravelling by successfully unboiling an egg, reverting gelatinous whites back into liquid form. It was an achievement that in 2015 earned the research team an Ig Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
The tongue-in-cheek Ig Nobels honour scientific research that seems unusual or funny at first glance but on closer inspection has merit.
That same protein-folding mechanical energy is what enables the device to manipulate CNTs: "Because of the complex way the liquid moves it has intense shear [force], and therefore it bends the nanotube," says Prof Raston.
This creates a kink in the structure - with the nanotube bent, his team added vibrational energy, using a near-infrared laser to slice through the weakened kink where the tube was folded.
Assoc Prof John Stride from the University of New South Wales in Sydney is an expert in carbon nanostructures, and says "if the researchers can reliably slice the CNTs 'to order' then this is a real advance".
"Anything that allows us to control and manipulate these nano-objects will be of use in developing applications," he says.
"The beauty of the approach is the relative low-tech aspect of it essentially being a spinning column of liquid that does the initial workâ€¦ with a near-infrared laser providing the energy to cut the tubes.
"It's almost like laundry in the washing machine being spun outâ€¦ it's very simple to picture what's happening, but of course that's occurring on the molecular scale, which is really quite intriguing."
Prof Stride also says that, if they're proven to be inert, shortened CNTs may provide an "effective mechanism for drug delivery to the inner cell region".
"It's a nice finding. I don't think it will completely revolutionise carbon nanotube research, but it's a significant advance in the field."


The European Commission has warned that eight eurozone countries, including Italy, are at risk of breaking EU rules because of excessive budget deficits.

Under EU rules, member states are not supposed to run annual deficits greater than 3% of their total economic output.
But the Commission, which has the power to oversee eurozone countries' draft budgets, said the eight risked "non-compliance" in 2017.
The others include Spain and Portugal, which have already had a close call.
EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici sought to downplay the negative opinion against Italy, pointing to the extra costs of handling a series of earthquakes and the migration crisis.
"For Italy, a significant part of deviation is due to the costs associated with seismic activity in the country, which has been very serious this year and dramatic," he said.
The EU "will take that into account", Mr Moscovici added.
Both Spain and Portugal escaped being fined over their budget deficits in August, when the EU Council gave them more time to conform to the rules and reduce their deficits.
Last year, Spain's deficit was 5.1% of its gross domestic product (GDP), while Portugal's stood at 4.4%.
The other five countries warned by the Commission were Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Lithuania and Slovenia.
Although all EU countries are required to run budget deficits below 3% of GDP, only the 19 countries that use the euro as a currency can be fined.


A suicide attack on a minibus in Kabul has killed at least 14 people and injured several more, Afghan authorities say.

The victims were Nepali nationals on their way to the Canadian embassy where they worked as security guards.
The attacker waited for the bus as it left a compound, police said.
The blast was followed by a separate bomb attack on a market in Badakhshan province that killed at least eight people and wounded 18.
The Taliban said they carried out the Kabul bombing, the first such attack since the start of the holy month of Ramadan.
The bomb went off shortly before 06:00 local time (01:30 GMT) on a main road leading out of the capital towards the city of Jalalabad.
The guards were employed by a private security company, an official told AFP news agency. At least eight other people were injured.
The incident follows a suicide attack on a bus near Kabul last month and an attack on a court in Ghazni in June. Both attacks were claimed by the Taliban in revenge for the execution of six prisoners.
The Taliban have been waging an insurgency against the government since 2001. Nato ended its combat mission in December 2014, although about 13,000 training and counter-terrorism troops remain in Afghanistan.
Peace efforts have stalled after the Taliban refused to participate in new talks with the Afghan government until foreign forces had left the country.


Eleven former board members of the NI Events Company are facing a legal bid to have them banned from acting as company directors.

Disqualification proceedings issued by the Department for the Economy over the directors' roles began on Thursday.
The application follows critical reports into the oversight and running of the body which folded in 2007.
The court heard some of the respondents plan to contest the proceedings.
Others were said to be considering whether to give undertakings.
The eleven named in the papers are: Samuel Mervyn Elder, Jasper Perry, Gerry Lennon, Jim Rodgers, James Clarke, Thomas Alan Clarke, Paul Henry McWilliams, William David White, Aideen Corr, Victor Campbell Haslett, and Catherine Williamson.
Gerry Lennon is Visit Belfast chief executive and Jim Rodgers is High Sheriff of Belfast.
Thomas Alan Clarke is a former chief executive of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and James Clarke is the current chief executive of the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools.
The NI Events Company (NIEC) was formed in 1997 to support major sports and music events.
Lawyers for some of those who sat on the NIEC's board have claimed they were being made scapegoats to deflect attention from civil servants who failed to provide proper scrutiny.
Following a brief hearing, the case was adjourned until November.


"This is going on in every town and city in the UK."

The words of Martin Narey, chief executive of Barnardo's, which runs a number of projects working with hundreds of sexually abused teenaged girls.
Child sexual exploitation by older men who groom them - not on the internet, but on the street - is finally getting widespread public attention.
The Derby case, which saw the ringleaders of a gang which groomed and abused teenage girls in Derby given indeterminate jail terms, has provided shocking evidence of the persistence of some abusers.
Abid Siddique, 28, and Mohammed Liaqat, 27, led a gang that cruised the streets of Derby - looking for, the judge said "sex at any price" - with young teenagers.  He described Siddique in particular as a "sexual predator, with a voracious sexual appetite".
Siddique was given an 11-year sentence, with a requirement he serve all of it before being considered for release.
Liaqat was sentenced to eight years on the same terms.
Their victims were offered drink, drugs and lifts to parties.
Once they seemed friendly with the men, they were raped or sexually assaulted - sometimes kept prisoner, sometimes thrown onto the street after the abuse.
Derby was typical of a pattern of exploitation being tracked by police and experts around Britain.
The girls tended to be 16 or younger. Often they were from challenging backgrounds - homes with inconsistent parenting, or with a history of alcohol or drug problems.
And there is one controversial factor that many of the experts in the field are often not happy to discuss freely. The race of the abusers.
The string of convictions in cities such as Rotherham, Preston, Blackburn, Rochdale and now Derby have more often than not involved Asian men, specifically men of Pakistani origin, and mainly Muslim.
In this case the judge said the race of the victims and their abusers was "coincidental", but there are concerns within Asian communities about the problem.
Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, a Muslim youth organisation, became the first community leader to speak out in a BBC interview two years ago.
He is not afraid of raising the issue.
"Although there have been some cases of white men being involved in this sexual exploitation of young girls, most of the perpetrators are Muslim.
"There are some Muslims who think that as long as these sex gangs aren't targeting their own sisters and daughters the issue doesn't affect them... but the vast majority of Muslims find these actions abhorrent and disgusting," he said.
He stresses these are not religiously-motivated offences but crimes carried out by men for "their own depraved sexual gratification".
"These people think that white girls have fewer morals and are less valuable than our girls."
Another commentator, Manzoor Moghul, chairman of the Muslim Forum, agrees.
"Offenders are under the misapprehension white girls are easy prey. The way they dress, their culture, makes them easy pickings," he said.
But other experts in the field believe it is wrong to suggest that child sexual exploitation is solely perpetrated by Asian men against white girls.
Sheila Taylor runs Safe and Sound Derby, a group that was instrumental in persuading girls to give evidence against Siddique and Liaqat.
"This model of street-grooming is going on in many places. It is just that the recent spate of prosecutions against Asian men in the north of England and Midlands makes it look like it is concentrated in these communities," she said.
She believes some exploitation cases are harder than others to investigate, and is particularly concerned about the sexual abuse of young boys by older gangs of varied races.
Boys are simply less likely to talk about being raped, she says.
Barnardo's workers in London have also told the BBC about girls they have worked with who were abused by street gangs in the capital.
In some cases the grooming involved offering young people the chance to join a gang, in return for their participation in group rapes.
All of those working on the problem say it is important to remember the victims are too young to be able to legally consent to sex. Even if they do not say no to their abuser, it is still rape.
There is a growing feeling this is a problem that needs more vigorous attention from the government.
Derby Safeguarding Children Board has told the BBC it will formally request the Home Office carry out research into the backgrounds of those involved in sexual exploitation.
The Home Office said: "We are working to ensure local police and children's services are well placed to respond to child sexual exploitation, including supporting dedicated child abuse teams and specialist officers in every police (force)."


Wigan Athletic have signed Stoke City goalkeeper Jakob Haugaard on loan for the rest of the season.

The 24-year-old former Denmark Under-20 international has made seven appearances since joining the Potters from FC Midtjylland in 2015.
This season he has been behind Lee Grant and Shay Given in the Potters' pecking order and only played twice in the EFL Trophy.
Haugaard will provide extra cover following Adam Bogdan's knee injury.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page or visit our Premier League tracker here.


Millennials - give up your smashing avocado toast brunches and buy a house instead.

That's the message coming from Australia this week, leaving young people on social media outraged, and those who are a little more seasoned in years scratching their heads.
A column at the weekend for The Australian newspaper by "baby boomer" columnist Bernard Salt contained one paragraph asking why young people today spend their cash on fancy breakfast rather than saving for a property.
"I have seen young people order smashed avocado with crumbled feta on five-grain toasted bread at $22 a pop and more," Mr Salt wrote.
"I can afford to eat this for lunch because I am middle-aged and have raised my family. But how can young people afford to eat like this? Shouldn't they be economising by eating at home? How often are they eating out? Twenty-two dollars several times a week could go towards a deposit on a house."
The implication - that young people should save for a house instead of enjoying the same luxuries the author does - was met with much derision in Australia, where house prices have rocketed in recent years.
Mockery erupted on social media over the mathematics, which suggest you could stop a weekly brunch for well over a century and still not quite reach your savings goal.
Professional media organisations weighed in, with an opinion piece in the prestigious Sydney Morning Herald calling for "smashed avo toast" to be made the national dish.
Comedian Deirdre Fidge, writing for SBS, decided to share her "life story", titled "I Stopped Eating Smashed Avocado And Now I Own A Castle".
But the comic reaction masked a concern by some that young people simply can't access the housing market no matter how much they save - so are spending their cash on enjoying life instead.
"What do you do when you can't afford to buy somewhere to live? Well, you decide to live," Bridget Delaney wrote in The Guardian.
"Brunch is the opiate of the masses. We are not going out for brunch instead of buying houses: we are brunching because we cannot afford to buy houses."
Australian foodie magazine Broadsheet - which is naturally at the centre of the smashed avocado circle - argued that cafes have become a social hub for millennials, whose friends are spread far and wide.
But they've gone one step further - collaborating with some of their favourite cafes to launch "home savers" specials to several menus this week - at about A$11 each.


A man has been charged with robbing a post office in Cumbria.

It follows an incident in which a member of staff was threatened with what was believed to be a firearm at the shop in Frizington in October.
Paul Roger Farish, 18, of Moor Place, Frizington, appeared before West Cumbria magistrates charged with robbery and possessing an imitation firearm.
He was remanded to appear before Carlisle Crown Court on 7 December.
A second man, aged 19, who was also arrested, has been released on police bail until 14 December.


A Scottish surfer, missing for more than 30 hours in the Irish sea, has been rescued and flown to hospital in Belfast.

The man left to go surfing from Machrihanish beach near Campbeltown in Scotland on Sunday and did not return.
After the alarm was raised, rescue teams from Scotland and Northern Ireland searched the sea and shore line.
Hopes were fading when he was spotted by the Coastguard rescue helicopter.
Dawn Petrie at Belfast Coastguard Operations centre said: "With nightfall approaching we were gravely concerned.
"But at 7.30pm tonight, the crew on the Coastguard rescue helicopter were delighted when they located the man, still with his surf board and 13 miles off the coast.
"He was kitted out with all the right clothing including a thick neoprene suit and this must have helped him to survive for so long at sea. He is hypothermic but conscious."


The infrastructure minister has announced there is to be a review of the renewal process for blue badge holders with "life-long mobility issues".

Chris Hazzard said the he was mindful that many badge holders have "conditions which are unlikely to change."
The consultation process will take place over the coming months.
It will consider the renewal process and fees.
The minister said he had asked officials to undertake a review through a consultative process that will begin early in 2017.
"The outcomes of that consultation will direct both the legislative and operational requirements to make the changes necessary to the renewal process.
"The review, I hope, will produce a simpler, more accessible application process for those applicants with life-long mobility issues," he said.


The deal to sell Nottingham Forest to Olympiakos owner Evangelos Marinakis is "99%" complete, says Fawaz Al Hasawi.

Forest owner Al Hasawi has told BBC Nottingham Sport that prospective new owner Marinakis is meeting with the English Football League this week.
A previous takeover by a United States consortium, led by businessman John Jay Moores, fell through in January.
The Reds ensured their Championship survival with a 3-0 win over Ipswich Town on the final day of the season.
They only stayed up on goal difference and manager Mark Warburton said the club should "never be in that position again".
He would not be drawn on the likely takeover by the controversial figure of Marinakis, but said there was plenty of reason for optimism at the City Ground.
"A relegation dogfight is not what we are about," added Warburton. "I am confident it won't happen next season, and I say that because I have seen the quality within the squad.
"We need a tight squad of 21 or 22 players next season. I have got good young players coming through to fall back on too.
"Now is an important time for the club. It is all about support network.
"I am sure the guys well above my pay grade will get that work [takeover] done. It is nothing to do with me."
Colin Fray, BBC Radio Nottingham
"It is not a time for celebration, it's a time for relief. But it is also a time for looking forward and for making sure this is Forest's lowest point.
"The quicker the takeover goes through the sooner Mark Warburton and director of football Frank McParland can begin the rebuild.
"It's a been a shambolic season and one Forest just want to forget."


Four people, including a 15-year-old boy, have been injured after a van crashed into a bus stop in Clydebank.

The incident happened on Kilbowie Road, in the West Dunbartonshire town, at about 07:45.
The 52-year-old male van driver was taken to Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital along with the teenager, a 42-year-old man and 48-year-old woman.
The driver has since been discharged but is the subject of a police inquiry.
Police have appealed for witness to the crash to come forward.
It resulted in the closure of the route between the A82 Great Western Road and Second Avenue. All four people injured remain in hospital, police said.
Insp Adam McKenzie of Police Scotland said: "It is quite clearly a serious incident from the word go when pedestrians are struck by vehicles.
"One person had been knocked completely over the small wall at the back of the bus stop.
"The driver was still partially trapped within the vehicle and debris from the bus stop was embedded in the vehicle as well."
He added: "At the moment we are conducting the forensic side of the inquiry - photographs, measurements and every piece of physical evidence that we can gather.
"The vehicle will be removed and will be subject to a full mechanical examination as well.
"It's a busy area and I would ask that if anyone in a vehicle or a pedestrian has witnessed it this morning, and has not already spoken to police, could they please come forward."


A senior politician from India's ruling party has retracted messages he tweeted about Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan.

Kailash Vijayvargiya said his suggestion that Khan's "soul is in Pakistan" had been misconstrued.
Mr Vijayvargiya's tweet came after the actor spoke out against "extreme intolerance" in India.
Dozens of Indian writers, scientists, historians and filmmakers have returned awards to protest against what they say is growing intolerance in the country.
Mr Vijayvargiya had said that although "Shah Rukh lives in India, his soul is in Pakistan".
Many Indians took to social media to condemn the politician, who is a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
Khan is the latest high profile figure to express serious concerns about "intolerance" in India, which have been fuelled by the killing in recent months of rationalists MM Kalburgi and Govind Pansare, as well as the lynching of a man suspected of eating beef.
The government denies intolerance is on the rise and has called upon party members not to make "controversial" statements.
But even as Mr Vijayvargiya retracted his tweet, another influential BJP regional leader criticised the actor on Wednesday.
Yogi Adityanath said there was no difference between the actor and the founder of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group Hafiz Saeed, who India and the US accuse of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Hafiz Saeed had earlier tweeted in response to the row over Khan's statement, by telling the actor that he would be welcome in Pakistan.


The Scottish government has imposed a moratorium on underground coal gasification (UCG).

Cluff Natural Resources had been planning to use the technique to extract gas from under the Firth of Forth near Kincardine.
The company halted work on the project in August until the political debate on the issue was resolved.
Campaigners had been calling for UCG to be added to the existing moratorium on onshore unconventional oil and gas.
The Scottish government said it was treating UCG as a separate technology to onshore unconventional oil and gas, which includes hydraulic fracking.
It said it was adopting a "cautious, evidence-based approach" to both techniques, with a separate moratorium on UCG allowing the necessary time for "full and careful consideration of the potential impacts of this new technology".
The UCG process has been around since the 19th Century, but is only now becoming commercially viable thanks largely to technological developments and the rising price of gas.
Its supporters argue it is a new and cleaner way of extracting the estimated 85% of the world's coal reserves that are too deep to mine using traditional techniques.
According to Dr Harry Bradbury, founder and chief executive of UK clean energy company Five Quarters, this process results in 20% of the CO2 produced from traditional coal mining.
But environmental campaigners have claimed that UCG is a risky and experimental technique, with a "very chequered history" around the world.
Read more about UCG
The SNP had been due to hold a potentially divisive debate on the issue at its autumn conference later this month.
Prof Campbell Gemmell, the former chief executive of environmental agency Sepa, has been appointed to lead an independent examination of the issues and evidence surrounding UCG.
Ministers have informed the Scottish Parliament that the government will carry out a "thorough and wide-ranging research process" into the potential impacts of such onshore techniques.
They have also published a planned research and public consultation timetable, and confirmed that the public consultation will begin once the research process has been finalised and the results published.
Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said: "We should never close our minds to the potential opportunities for Scotland from new energy technologies - but we must also ensure that community, environmental and health concerns are all fully taken account of.
"The research we propose in this timetable will give all interested stakeholders important information to allow a more informed debate during the public consultation.
"In line with our evidence-led approach we are today also putting in place a moratorium on the onshore planning of underground coal gasification developments to allow time for full and careful consideration of the potential impacts of this technology for Scotland."
The issue of unconventional energy extraction is a tricky one for the Scottish government.
Ministers have already announced a moratorium - basically a fancy word for an indefinite ban - on unconventional oil and gas extraction methods, like fracking.
There's been huge pressure from green groups, and ministers say further research is needed, given the various environmental concerns which have been raised.
Today the Scottish government has widened out that ban to cover what's known as underground coal gasification - that's a process where hard-to-reach coal is converted to gas.
But there's a political dimension to this as well as an environmental one.
The Conservatives reckon this has nothing to do with Scotland's best interests and everything to do with the SNP trying to avoid a potentially divisive debate on the issue at its annual conference next week.
Those claims are flatly denied by senior Nationalists, who say it's the duty of the government to make sure methods like coal gasification are safe before they get the go ahead.
Nevertheless the SNP knows this is politically sensitive. On the one hand, environmental groups are demanding the ban be made permanent. On the other, some energy firms say methods like fracking are needed to keep the lights on.
And in the middle, is the SNP trying to work out where voters stand, just seven months away from an election.
While powers to award onshore unconventional licences are being devolved to Scottish ministers, powers to award operators exclusive rights to exploit coal resources for UCG rest with the UK government and the Coal Authority.
Because of this, the Scottish government said the moratorium on UCG would be implemented at Scottish planning authority level.
Cluff chief executive Alex Cluff said he was "very disappointed and surprised" by the moratorium announcement.
He said: "We have made a publically-stated commitment to carry out a full environment impact assessment prior to submitting a planning application.
"That assessment would have provided the Scottish government with all the information that they require.
"It seems to me to be very much a politically-driven issue and not, in my humble opinion, an issue that is in the public interest."
Mr Cluff added: "The question you need to ask is what is Scotland going to do after the closure of Longannet takes 40% of Scotland's electricity-generating capacity out of the system? I would say it's a very serious situation.
"This [gasification] is not the whole solution - it is part of the energy mix -  and to delay it by another 18 months when there is a crisis looming up rapidly is in my opinion ill-judged."
Mr Cluff has previously argued that UCG would "represent a major advance towards Scottish energy self-sufficiency and is therefore entirely consonant with the concept of Scottish independence."
But the announcement was welcomed by environmental groups.
Lang Banks, director of WWF Scotland, said: "While this rightly puts a hold on underground coal gasification for now, we hope the final decision will be to rule it out completely."
Mary Church, head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: "We are confident that when the evidence is independently assessed and the Scottish public have had a chance to voice their concerns, this consultation will lead to a full ban on unconventional gas and fracking."
Scottish Conservative energy spokesman Murdo Fraser accused the Scottish government of ignoring scientific evidence on the issue.
He added: "A recent report from Biggar Economics stated that underground coal had the potential to create a multi-billion pound industry in Scotland, supporting 5,000 jobs.
"It is disappointing that this opportunity is being put on the back-burner as a result of the SNP's internal difficulties. The SNP need to start listening to the scientific evidence on this and on so many other issues."
Scottish Labour welcomed what it described as Mr Ewing's U-turn on UCG.
The party's environmental justice spokeswoman, Sarah Boyack, said: "For months now the SNP has faced the accusation of being two faced on fracking and unconventional gas by campaigning in elections on anti-fracking platforms whilst reassuring big business behind the scenes that Scotland would be open for business.
"They can't have it both ways but it looks like they're going to try to until at least the 2016 elections."


A piece of bone found on the site of the Sewol ferry disaster off South Korea has been confirmed as belonging to one of the missing victims.

The Sewol sank off Jindo island on 16 April 2014, killing 304 people, almost all of them children.
The bodies of nine people have never been recovered and relatives have long campaigned for them to be found.
The ship was raised in March after almost three years on the sea floor and towed to port.
Workers are searching the silt and debris inside the wreck to search for human remains, while divers are looking on the seabed where the ferry had been lying.
The 34-centimetre bone was found at the site of the sinking.
"The result of a DNA test on a bone piece identified it as Danwon high school teacher Ko Chang-seok," the maritime ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
The sinking of the Sewol shocked the nation.
Most of those on board were teenagers from the same high school. Many obeyed erroneous crew instructions to remain in their cabins as the ship sank.
The disaster was blamed on a combination of illegal redesigns, cargo overloading, the inexperience of the crew member steering the vessel, and lax government regulations.
The ship's captain was later convicted of murder.


The stress of a job he had only being doing for a year was etched into the face of Kabul's police chief, Zahir Zahir.

His eyes had a look of exhaustion around them and he apologised for his unshaven, unkempt appearance as our cameraman got ready to start recording the television interview.
A barber had been waiting at his office all day, poised to smarten him up, but the police chief's schedule had been so packed there had been no time.
Mr Zahir was speaking to us during an upsurge of Taliban attacks in the Afghan capital which have killed dozens of Afghans and several foreigners, including American soldiers, British embassy staff and South African aid workers.
In one of the most sophisticated attacks, the police chief himself had been the target of a suicide bomber who had reached one of his offices in the heart of the heavily fortified Kabul police headquarters.
It was sheer luck that Mr Zahir had not been there at the time.
"I was running a seminar with a foreign delegation," he said. "When he [the bomber] came to my floor, he asked the guards where I was and they told him I was in my other office. I am normally in that office every morning at that time to sign documents for people."
Mr Zahir, who had been delayed by a few minutes at the seminar, was about to go to that office when the bomb went off, killing his chief of staff and injuring six visitors.
He was convinced the Taliban had inside help enabling the suicide bomber to get through security checks.
"The Taliban have infiltrators, spies inside some places," he said. "One of them, who knows a lot of people here, brought the suicide bomber into the compound in a police vehicle which went past the checkpoints and was barely searched. He was then dropped off by the staircase."
The guards at the final checkpoint, at the entrance to the building, did apparently search the bomber, but failed to find the powerful explosives which were hidden in his underwear.
Even now after this huge lapse in security, there are no X-ray machines, metal detectors or other scanning equipment to prevent further attacks.
Instead, the large numbers of people going in and out of the building every day are all searched by hand.
Mr Zahir, who had survived several other assassination attempts in the past, was fatalistic.
"When I leave home, I say goodbye to all my family and I assume I will not be going home that night," he said.
"Even now as I am sitting with you, I think something will come out of your camera to kill me or someone will come in from the corridor to blow me up.
"I am prepared for it every minute. I serve my people and country, I don't care for my own life."
Such fatalism seemed strange for a man who bore primary responsibility for the security of Afghanistan's capital at a critical moment of transition.
With the withdrawal of most foreign troops now almost complete, the Afghan police and military will soon be virtually on their own in the fight against the militants.
Already over the past year, the Afghan security forces have suffered very heavy casualties as they have taken the lead in combat operations.
And now the Taliban have stepped up their attacks in the capital, showing they can carry out suicide missions almost at will, including against the expatriate community.
It is a clear message the militants remain a force to be reckoned with and that they intend to pursue their goal of forcing all Westerners out of the country.
It was no surprise, then, that the police chief confirmed they would continue to be dependent on help from the residual Nato force of approximately 12,500 troops which will remain in the country next year.
It is supposed to be focusing more on training and advising the Afghan security forces rather than getting involved in combat operations.
But Mr Zahir had no doubt they would help with operations against the Taliban when needed.
"If we need their support and it's urgent, the [Nato] generals won't ask for permission from their bosses, they will come immediately," he said. "They would send planes and even ground troops."
But Zahir Zahir himself will not be the man calling Nato commanders for their assistance. Not long after giving the BBC this interview, he resigned.
No reason has been given but it is thought to be in connection with the recent suicide attacks by the Taliban in Kabul which left the police looking helpless in the face of the onslaught.


The BBC is to launch a topical radio panel show where the host and most of the guests are women.

BBC Radio 4 has commissioned a pilot of Where's The F In News, created and presented by Have I Got News For You series producer Jo Bunting.
The station said it would be "an energetic and intelligent female-anchored show" with a "predominantly female panel".
The gender balance on panel shows has been a contentious issue.
In 2014, the BBC's director of TV pledged to have at least one woman on every such show in response to criticisms that they were too male-heavy.
Bunting said: "Apparently if a woman speaks in a meeting for 50% of the time a man speaks, he genuinely thinks she's spoken the exact same amount as he has.
"When I read that, I thought, how can I really annoy that man? So I've created a show featuring a shedload of intelligent and funny women."
The Where's The F In News panel will "use the events, trends and talking points that they think should be top of the news agenda as a starting point for a number of fresh and funny challenges", the BBC said.
The show is one of a raft of new comedy commissions announced by Radio 4 for 2018 and 2019.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.


A Frenchman who inherited a large house from a relative has found an astonishing 100kg (220lb) haul of gold hidden under the furniture.

The unnamed heir discovered the glittering hoard in a variety of inventive locations, including under piles of linen and in the bathroom.
"There were 5,000 gold pieces, two bars of 12kg and 37 ingots of 1kg," auctioneer Nicolas Fierfort told AFP.
The treasure is worth an estimated â‚¬3.5m ($3.7m; Â£3m).
Mr Fierfort said he had visited the house in Evreux, Normandy, to value furniture the new owner was selling.
He said he totally overlooked the gold, which was "extremely well hidden".
The coins and gold bars only came to light when the house's new owner started moving things around.
'Lost Caravaggio' found in French loft
'Lost in flood' cash found in Germany
Joan of Arc ring returns to France
First, he found a tin box of coins screwed to the underside of some furniture.
Then came more, carefully concealed in a box meant for a bottle of whisky.
Finally, the man unearthed a staggering pile of gold bars and ingots.
"At that point he called his solicitor to make an inventory," Mr Fierfort said.
According to certificates found in the deceased's estate, the gold was legally purchased in the 1950s and 1960s.
It has already been sold on to buyers in France and overseas.
However, local newspaper La Depeche, which first reported the story, said the golden hello may come with a sting.
The finder will be liable for 45% inheritance tax and, if the original owner did not declare his or her assets, a further three years of back taxes.