Thieves cut through a 12,000-volt electric fence to steal eight miniature horses and foals.

The five horses - the largest of which is about 0.8m (2ft 8in) in height - and three foals were taken overnight from a field near March, Cambridgeshire.
One of the foals, which is only three weeks old was taken without its mother, and will die without specialist care, owner Daniel Everett said.
Police are investigating the theft of the show animals.
Cambridgeshire Police said the horses were taken sometime between 22:00 BST on Wednesday and 07:30 BST on Thursday.
More news from Cambridgeshire
Mr Everett and his wife Jo had 30 miniature horses and foals which they breed for showing.
The animals are kept in a field next to their house in the village of Stonea.
Mr Everett said he believed the thieves parked a lorry on the road, cut through brambles then made their way down an embankment to the field.
"They left rubber gloves and ropes behind, so they came prepared for the electric fence," he said.
Two of the foals, which were about two or three months old were taken with their mothers, but he is concerned for the welfare of the youngest.
"It's not weaned and without its mother it will die," he said.
Mr Everett said he and his wife "spent years creating our own bloodline".
"We are gutted. It's pure greed. There's no value in the horses without the legitimate paperwork, which we still have," he said.
The couple has informed horse sale companies and posted about the theft on buying and selling sites such as Gumtree and Preloved.


The growth of personal borrowing in the UK stalled slightly in December, the latest Bank of England figures show.

Outstanding personal debt rose by just £1bn that month, the smallest monthly increase since May 2015, to £193bn.
That left the annual growth rate of the UK's personal debt mountain, which covers credit cards and other non-mortgage loans, steady at 10.6% a year.
The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, recently warned that personal borrowing was rising too fast.
In November he said: "We are going to remain vigilant around the issue, because we have seen this shift [in borrowing]".
The amount of outstanding personal debt, excluding mortgages, rose that month to £192bn, which was the highest level since December 2008.
Of the Bank's latest figures, Martin Beck, senior economic advisor to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club, said: "We think it unlikely that this represents the start of a steep downturn, although demand for unsecured lending is likely to ebb this year, as household finances come under increasing pressure."
Other new Bank data suggests that the UK property market will be steady in the coming months.
The number of new mortgages approved for home buyers, but not yet lent, was steady in December at just under 68,000.
That was the highest monthly figure since March last year.
Meanwhile the recovery of corporate borrowing in the UK appears to have stalled.
The amount of money owed by non-financial businesses to their lenders fell slightly in December, for the second month in a row, to £449bn.
The contraction of this sort of borrowing after the 2008 financial crisis was one factor which prompted the Bank of England to launch its policy of quantitative easing in 2009, to encourage companies to borrow and spend and to help bring the economy out of recession.
With commercial banks forced by the authorities at the same time to restrain their lending and clean up huge bad debts, it took a long time for corporate borrowing in the UK to recover.
The Bank's figures show that the outstanding debt owed by non-financial businesses fell steadily, from £522bn in April 2011 to £428bn just over four years later in June 2015.
It then revived in 2016, rising to £453bn last October - the highest such figure for three years - before falling back again in November and then December.


George Osborne will deliver a Budget on Wednesday 8 July, less than four months after he delivered the last one.

£730bn
Government's approx annual expenditure
£30bn The IFS says this would have to be cut from government depts to meet deficit targets by 2018-19
£12bn Planned cuts to welfare budget by 2017-18
£5bn Government plans to recover  this in a clampdown on tax avoidance
Of course, a lot has happened since March and the chancellor no longer has coalition partners to keep happy.
Even so, he's also expected to have a Spending Review in the autumn and an Autumn Statement in the winter, which adds up to a lot of set pieces in one year.
He must have something interesting to say or he wouldn't bother and many journalists criticised the Conservatives for not giving more details about some of their plans during the election campaign.
Remember, he's planning to cut overall spending by 1% for the next two years and then freeze it in the third year to get rid of the deficit.
One of the biggest questions will be where he plans to find the promised £12bn of cuts in welfare spending by 2017-18.
It's not going to be easy because he and the prime minister have ruled out reductions to so many benefits.
With the prime minister having said that he will not cut pensioner benefits or child benefit, you can see from the chart above why he is expected to have to cut working tax credits and housing benefit.
He may still not give full details of where the cuts will come, but it would be surprising if we did not know any more about it by the end of the day.
You can see from the chart below how Mr Osborne is hoping to bring tax revenues and spending closer to each other to get rid of the annual budget deficit during this parliament.
Clearly, almost all of the plans come from cuts to spending as opposed to rise in taxes.
Among the measures designed to raise more money is £5bn in savings from anti-avoidance measures, which may or may not happen.
The government also has to fund £4bn in tax cuts that it promised before the election, which includes things like extra childcare provision and raising the stamp duty threshold.
This turns attention towards departmental spending. It is not clear how much detail we will get on departmental spending in this Budget and how much will be saved up for a Spending Review later in the year.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies says that taking account of areas of spending that have to rise, Mr Osborne has to find £30bn of departmental spending cuts by 2018-19. He has already announced that £3bn has been found in efficiency savings across departments this year.
In the last parliament, the government had a pretty good record of achieving the cuts it wanted in departmental spending, but it is likely to be more difficult this time round.
You would expect the government to make the easiest cuts first and it has quite a small majority in the House of Commons if any of the measures prove unpopular among its back-benchers.
In addition, the cost of public sector pensions keeps rising as more public sector workers retire and live longer. While the amount the government is borrowing each year is falling, the total amount it has borrowed is still increasing, which means interest must be paid on more money, albeit at a very low interest rate.
Spending on the National Health Service is not only protected - the government has promised to be spending an extra £8bn a year on it by 2020, which implies bigger cuts in other departments.
Education spending is protected for children aged five to 16 in terms of cash per pupil, so rising pupil numbers would also need to be made up for by cuts elsewhere. And international aid is also protected, and will grow in line with the economy.
As a result, the IFS reckons that the current plans to cut spending by 1% for the next two years and then freeze it for a third will actually mean cuts for unprotected departments averaging 5.4% a year for three years.
That will come on top of the cuts that have already been made since 2010, which are shown in the chart below.
The first budgets of new parliaments are notorious for raising taxes and cutting spending, but it's hard to imagine that Mr Osborne will not find anything to sweeten next week's statement.
We know from the Conservative manifesto that the income tax personal allowance will be growing again and that there will be measures that effectively increase the threshold for paying inheritance tax.
If he doesn't find anything new and eye-catching to sweeten the programme, expect Thursday's headlines to be all about welfare cuts.


Donald Trump's son-in-law attempted to set up secret communications with Moscow a month after Mr Trump's election, US media say.

Jared Kushner wanted to use Russian facilities to avoid US interception of discussions with Moscow, the Washington Post and New York Times said.
Mr Kushner, a senior White House aide, has not commented.
He is said to be under scrutiny by the FBI as part of its inquiry into Russian interference favouring Mr Trump's win.
Reports in the US say investigators believe he has relevant information, but he is not necessarily suspected of a crime.
The most recent reports - which cited unnamed US officials as sources - said Mr Kushner had spoken with Moscow's Ambassador to the US, Sergei Kislyak, about setting up a back channel using Russian diplomatic facilities in America.
The meeting was held in early December at Trump Tower in New York - Mr Trump's power base.
According to both reports, Mr Trump's first national security adviser Michael Flynn was present at the meeting.
The secret channel was supposed to be used to discuss Syria and other policy issues during the transition period between Mr Trump's election in November and his inauguration in January 2017.
The Washington Post says the proposal surprised Mr Kislyak as it meant Americans using Russian facilities at their diplomatic missions in the US.
The New York Times said the line was never established.
The US and Moscow have always had a hotline - popularly referred to as the Red Phone, even though it was not a telephone. This was meant to enable the two superpowers to avoid nuclear catastrophe during the Cold War.
Mr Kushner appears to be proposing a similar set-up.
But what is unusual is that this would be a channel using Russian hardware.
So this would have been outside official communications normally used by a team about to assume the leadership of the US - meaning US leaders were using Russian channels instead of their own.
And, significantly, these communications would not form part of documented US policy-making.
Very. Remember that Russian allegations of interference to sway the election in favour of Donald Trump emerged in May 2016 with the first reports of hackers targeting the Democratic Party.
What followed were reports that US intelligence agencies had traced the breaches back to Russian hackers. In August, Wikileaks released 20,000 internal emails of members of the Democratic National Convention (DNC), stolen by the hackers.
Mr Trump's then campaign manager, Paul Manafort, resigned after being accused of accepting millions of dollars in cash for representing Russian interests in Ukraine and US.
In October, the US intelligence community released a unanimous statement formally accusing Russia of being behind the DNC hacking.
So, by December when the alleged Kushner-Flynn-Kislyak meeting was held, the Trump team would have had grounds to believe in the existence of an investigation into the Russian links.
The Washington Post had already reported FBI investigators were focusing on meetings Mr Kushner held last year with Mr Kislyak, as well as a banker from Moscow, Sergei Gorkov.
Mr Gorkov is the head of Vnesheconombank, which has been subject to sanctions imposed by the Obama administration in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The bank is under the control of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and other members of the government, and has been used to fund major projects such as the 2014 Winter Olympics in the southern Russian resort of Sochi.
Mr Kushner has said he did not discuss sanctions with Mr Gorkov.
His lawyer has previously said his client would co-operate with any inquiry.


Sri Lanka successfully chased down a record target of 388 to beat Zimbabwe in the one-off Test in Colombo.

Kusal Mendis, Niroshan Dickwella and Asela Gunaratne all hit half-centuries to complete the highest ever chase in Asia and the fifth best of all time.
Victory had looked beyond Sri Lanka when Sikandar Raza (127) rescued Zimbabwe from 59-5 in their second innings and took them to 377 all out.
But Gunaratne batted for almost four hours on the final day to seal the win.


Former Middlesbrough and Sunderland midfielder Julio Arca will fulfil a lifelong ambition when South Shields face Cleethorpes in the FA Vase final at Wembley on Sunday, 21 May.

Arca, 36, played 317 league games but never made it to the national stadium during his professional career.
However, he scored to help South Shields to a 6-1 aggregate Vase semi-final victory over Coleshill Town.
"It's a personal dream," the Argentine playmaker told BBC Newcastle.
"We did it and everyone deserves it at the club - the manager, the players and the people behind us who worked really hard to have a quality ground."
Shields almost did not make it past the fourth round, but for a floodlight failure which forced the abandonment of the tie against holders Morpeth at a time when they were 4-2 down with nine minutes remaining.
They convincingly won the rescheduled fixture 4-0 and followed up 5-2 and 6-1 victories against Team Solent and Newport Pagnell with another high-scoring success against Coleshill on home turf.
Arca's spectacular strike added to goals from Gavin Cogdon, Carl Finnigan and David Foley to ensure comfortable progress to the final.
Shields' cross-Tyne rivals North Shields won the FA Vase at Wembley in 2015, beating Glossop North End 2-1 in extra-time.
South Shields can emulate that feat, and continue the Northern League's remarkable record in the Vase, with member clubs winning seven of the past eight finals.
"I think that was the dream day, everything went our way," Arca added.
"We're in the final, but it's only half of the job done. We achieved something fantastic for the club."


Musical movie La La Land has picked up eight awards at the Critics' Choice Awards including best film.

Damien Chazelle was named best director but the film's stars, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, missed out on acting honours.
Natalie Portman won best actress for her portrayal of former first US lady Jackie Kennedy in Jackie.
Casey Affleck was named best actor for his role as a troubled caretaker in Manchester by the Sea.
The best original screenplay award was tied between Chazelle for La La Land and Kenneth Lonergan for Manchester By The Sea.
Click through to read full winners' list
Chazelle paid tribute to Gosling and Stone as he collected the best picture award.
He told them: "Both of you (gave) more than I ever could have expected from actors... just the most transformative performances I've ever been lucky enough to film."
La La Land's other wins included best song and best score.
The film opened in just five cinemas in North America this weekend, grossing $855,000 (£678,464) for Lionsgate, according to box office estimates. The $171,000 (£135,751) average per cinema is an all-time record for a film opening in so few cinemas.
Viola Davis was named best supporting actress at the Critics' Choice Awards for her role in Fences, a family drama set in 1950s America.
She was also given the inaugural See Her Award, which honours actresses who redefine the portrayal of women in the media, after becoming the first black woman to win the Emmy for best actress in a drama last year.
Mahershala Ali won best supporting actor for his role in coming-of-age film Moonlight.
Disney film Zootopia won best animated feature.
Like the Golden Globes, the Critics' Choice Awards also honour television.
British stars Thandie Newton and James Corden both picked up awards - Newton for best supporting actress in a drama series for Westworld, and Corden for best talk show for his Late, Late Show.
Evan Rachel Wood won best actress in a drama series for her role as robot Dolores in Westworld.
John Lithgow was named best supporting actor in a drama series for his turn as Sir Winston Churchill in The Crown, the Netflix drama about the Queen.
American Crime Story: The People v OJ Simpson won four awards, including best film made for TV or limited series.
Courtney B Vance - who played Simpson's lawyer Johnnie Cochran - won best actor in the same category, while Sarah Paulson was named best actress for her role as prosecutor Marcia Clark.
Sterling K Brown picked up best supporting actor for his performance as prosecutor Christopher Darden.
Game Of Thrones was named best drama series, while Silicon Valley picked up the best comedy series prize.
Alec Baldwin was named best guest performer in a comedy series for his turn as Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live.
It comes after the US president-elect tweeted that the sketch show is "totally biased, not funny and the Baldwin impersonation just can't get any worse".
Comedian TJ Miller hosted the awards show in Santa Monica, California, two days after he was arrested for allegedly slapping a cab driver.
He made no reference to the alleged incident.
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A pathologist has cast doubt on claims that a teenage recruit at Deepcut Army barracks killed herself, suggesting someone else fired the fatal shot.

Prof Derrick Pounder, who was called in by Pte Cheryl James's family to review evidence, told her inquest he could find no soot around the wound.
He said it was "the critical issue" in determining firing distance.
Pte James, 18, from Denbighshire, was found dead from a bullet wound to the head at the barracks in November 1995.
She was one of four recruits to die at Surrey's Deepcut base in a seven-year period.
Prof Pounder, a forensic pathologist, was engaged by Pte James's family to re-examine her body after it was exhumed in August 2015 following a previous inconclusive inquest.
He told the new hearing in Woking, Surrey, that contrary to suggestions by other expert witnesses, he believed marks on Pte James's face and hand were not soot, which they had said suggested the bullet had been fired from close range.
He believed the dark marks on her face were either dirt or bruising, adding that the "critical issue, the decisive issue, is the presence or absence of soot around the wound".
John Beggs QC, representing Surrey Police, suggested the pathologist might be embarrassed by his suggestion that the wound was inflicted by another person as there was no evidence to that effect.
But Prof Pounder denied he was embarrassed, adding: "My view is there's no soot on the face. It follows from that it was not self-inflicted. It follows from that it was inflicted by another."
He compared photographs of Pte James's face with those of another, unnamed, soldier, who was known to have committed suicide.
The latter "clearly show the seared-in soot and propellant" and bits of soot next to the wound.
"When we turn to the photos of Miss James what we see are lacerations. What we don't see is any seared-in soot and propellant," he added.
He disputed earlier suggestions by a forensic ballistics expert that soot could enter the wound rather than remain on the skin around it if a bullet was fired at close range.
"This is not how the skin behaves in such cases," he said.
The hearing continues.
Who were the Deepcut four? Background to the deaths and timeline of events.


Republic of Ireland footballer James McClean has surprised a team of children with Down's syndrome following a social media appeal.

Londonderry's Oxford Bulls was formed in October 2015 but have struggled to find another team to play against.
A plea was put out on social media several weeks ago to try to find them some competitors.
The team's manager then received a message from West Brom star McClean, which he thought was a "wind-up".
"Out of the blue I get a message from the man himself, James McClean, on Facebook," Kevin Morrison said.
"To be honest I thought it was one of those fake accounts, that somebody was taking the hand out of me.
"He said: 'I'm playing a match on Tuesday night, I'll be back in Derry at lunchtime on Wednesday - how does that sound?'"
Football strips and runners at the ready, it was still a surprise for Kevin Morrison's son when one of his idols joined them at the city's indoor football centre - and brought a few mates to make up a team.
West Brom forward McClean had featured in the Republic's friendly defeat by Iceland just 24 hours earlier.
"My wee boy, Adam, would be a big fan of his. James walked in and Adam was standing at the edge of the pitch," Mr Morrison said.
"He pointed at him, then he pointed again and then the jaw opened. He's was kind of star-struck for the rest of the game.
"I think it was a fantastic day, we're going to have some great memories to take away from it."
All the young footballers have a passion for the sport and the team has been set up with the help of the Foyle Down's Syndrome Trust.
It provides a wide range of activities for young people and adults with the condition.
Despite McClean's big match experience, Mr Morrison told the BBC that his young side gave the forward a good run for his money.
"He [McLean] had a fantastic attitude and they loved him for it," he said.
"The lads had a ball and James was an absolute gentleman, we couldn't believe our luck."
The team had initially tried to find a squad with similar abilities, but with no success.
After this week, the Bulls are now being offered potential tournaments against the likes of Manchester City, Everton and Liverpool.
"You have no idea the offers we've had, it's been crazy," Mr Morrison said.
"My phone is nearly melting. I've had hundreds of messages from mainstream football clubs right across the island, right over to England.
"[Northern Ireland winger] Paddy McCourt came down to help in training on Sunday as well, so it has been an amazing week and the boys have really responded to it.
"They've taken to it like ducks to water and I think we could have serious footballers on our hands before long," he added.


People who recover from swine flu may be left with an extraordinary natural ability to fight off flu viruses, findings suggests.

In beating a bout of H1N1 the body makes antibodies that can kill many other flu strains, a study in the Journal of Experimental Medicine shows.
Doctors hope to harness this power to make a universal flu vaccine that would protect against any type of influenza.
Ultimately this could replace the "best guess" flu vaccines currently used.
Such a vaccine is the "holy grail" for flu researchers. Many scientists are already testing different prototypes to put an end to the yearly race to predict coming flu strains and quickly mass produce a new vaccine each flu season.
Dr Patrick Wilson who led the latest research said the H1N1 swine flu virus that reached pandemic levels infecting an estimated 60 million people last year, had provided a unique opportunity for researchers.
"It demonstrates how to make a single vaccine that could potentially provide immunity to all influenza.
"The surprise was that such a very different influenza strain, as opposed to the most common strains, could lead us to something so widely applicable."
In the nine patients they studied who had caught swine flu during the pandemic, they found the infection had triggered the production of a wide range of antibodies that are only very rarely seen after seasonal flu infections or flu vaccination.
Five antibodies isolated by the team could fight all the seasonal H1N1 flu strains from the last decade, the devastating "Spanish flu" strain from 1918 which killed up to 50m people, plus a potentially deadly bird flu H5N1 strain.
The researchers believe the "extraordinarily" powerful antibodies were created as the body learned how to fight the new infection with swine flu using its old memory of how to fight off other flu viruses.
Next they plan to examine the immune response of people who were vaccinated against last year's swine flu but did not get sick to see if they too have the same super immunity to flu.
Dr Sarah Gilbert is a expert in viruses at Oxford University and has been testing her own prototype universal flu vaccine.
She said: "Many scientists are working to develop a vaccine that would protect against the many strains of flu virus.
"This work gives us more confidence that it will be possible to generate a universal flu vaccine."
But she said it would take many years for a product to go through the necessary tests and trials.
"It will take at least five years before anything like this could be widely available."
The number of deaths this winter from flu verified by the Health Protection Agency currently is 50, with 45 of these due to swine flu.


Has "no running commentary" run out of steam?

The government has announced that it will accept Labour's idea to publish a plan, of sorts, for Brexit, before Article 50 begins the legal process of the UK disentangling itself from the EU.
Some Tory MPs were set to gang up with Labour tomorrow in a vote to force ministers to publish something, anything, about their plans for Brexit, against Theresa May's wishes.
Remember, one of the few things that we know for sure about the prime minister's plans for leaving the EU is that she does not want MPs to be able to tinker with them, scrutinise them in a meaningful way, before she actually gets to the negotiating table.
So has she just backed down? In pure terms, yes. Labour's Keir Starmer, the party's Brexit spokesman, will claim victory. And by accepting Labour's idea, ministers have been pushed to do something they been intent on avoiding - promising to publish their intentions before the technical legal process begins.
But what will that actually look like? So far, so vague. Accepting the amendment does not mean they have promised to do anything in particular.
Number 10 sources say they have not committed to publishing anything specific - a Green Paper, a White Paper, or frankly, even Theresa May's shopping list.
They say she has always said she would update the Commons and the public, as and when it was possible, without damaging her negotiating strategy.
They also have not given any promise on when they might publish whatever that is. And in theory, sources point to the fact that all the public comments the prime minister has made so far on Brexit have been "published", as in , she uttered the words, and then they appeared in the newspapers, online or on the TV or radio.
Ministers are also trying to turn the tables on Labour and the potential rebels, amending the Labour motion MPs will vote on tomorrow to back Theresa May's timetable to get the ball rolling by the end of March.
This may well be enough to avoid an embarrassing defeat in the Commons tomorrow, but will not sate MPs' growing desire for the government to be more forthcoming about its plans. And it makes no difference to the government's determination to avoid a vote in Parliament before the Article 50 process begins.
This fight might have been delayed, but it hasn't disappeared.
PS In other news, you might be pleased to hear that "Brexit means Brexit" appears to have been retired. In its place from the prime minister's lips today: "Red, white and blue Brexit" No idea? No, me neither. Answers on a postcard.


A South Lanarkshire cheese company at the centre of an E.coli outbreak has restarted production.

South Lanarkshire Council has said it is satisfied that Errington Cheese Ltd now has the relevant controls in place.
The firm's Dunsyre Blue variety was linked to an E.coli outbreak last July in which a three-year-old girl died.
The company - which is now producing cheese under a revised food safety management system - disputes that its products were responsible.
The Carnwath-based firm's new season Lanark Blue cheese has now been put on the market.
A total of 11 people received treatment in hospital during the E.coli outbreak in the summer of 2016.
In September, Scotland's Food Safety watchdog, Food Standards Scotland (FSS), imposed a ban on all cheese produced by Errington. People were advised not to eat the cheese and to return it to the seller.
In January, Errington won the latest round of a court battle against the sales ban.
The interim order was designed to force the council to either abandon the case against them or initiate new proceedings under food hygiene regulations.
In February, a batch of cheese was seized by officers from South Lanarkshire Council but later that month the council announced it was allowing the sale of the Corra Linn cheese.
Food Standards Scotland said that decision was "premature" and warned people not to eat it.
On Thursday, Food Standards Scotland said South Lanarkshire Council had provided the necessary assurances that the cheese products covered by the Food Alert For Action issued in September 2016, and revised in November 2016, had either been destroyed or seized to protect public health.
The agency said it could not comment further due to ongoing legal proceedings.


The death of a murderer whose cancer was discovered two days before he died has led to changes in prison procedure, an inquest heard.

James Paul Colton, 34, from Swansea, died in hospital after complaining about back pain for months.
He was serving life for the murder of a friend following a drunken argument.
The inquest at Worcestershire Coroners' Court heard that healthcare staff at Long Lartin prison accept they failed in a duty of care to Colton.
He died four months after he was transferred from Cardiff prison, jurors at the hearing were told.
Previously, the inquest in Stourport-on-Severn heard that an inmate had told staff that Colton was "exaggerating his pain" in order to get out of the prison.
GP and nursing experts who compiled reports for the coroner, Geraint Williams, concluded that the quality of care received by Colton fell below acceptable standards.
In extracts read out to the jury, they said that Colton's pain level and worsening condition should have been properly assessed and the failure to do so meant that "significant milestones" in his illness, and an opportunity to provide him with effective palliative care, had been missed.
Sarah Campbell, a mental health development lead nurse at the prison, said that "a whole range of changes in protocol, procedure and practice" had emerged from staff "dismay" about what had happened.
The inquest continues.


The US has thanked Iran for the swift release of 10 US sailors held for entering its territorial waters.

Secretary of State John Kerry said the resolution of the matter was "testament to the critical role diplomacy plays in keeping our country safe".
Republican presidential hopefuls had criticised the administration over its handling of the incident.
A deal on Iran's nuclear activities - which they also disparage - is said to be days away from implementation.
The sailors were detained on Tuesday when one of their two vessels broke down while training in the Gulf.
The incursion was "unintentional", a statement from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards quoted by state media said.
Iranian state media said the sailors were released into international waters after they apologised. But Vice-President Joe Biden denied this, saying the boat had had simply a problem and there was "nothing to apologise for".
The US is investigating how the sailors entered Iranian waters.
Thanking Iranian authorities for their "co-operation and quick response", Mr Kerry said: "These are always situations which have an ability if not properly guided to get out of control...
"This kind of issue was able to be peacefully resolved and officially resolved, and that is testament to the critical role diplomacy plays in keeping our country safe, secure, and strong," he added.
Iranian state broadcaster Irib News has published pictures of the sailors apparently being detained.
Later pictures published on the Revolutionary Guards' website showed the group sitting on a Persian rug, with the one female member wearing a headscarf.
The tentative and still largely potential softening of relations between Washington and Tehran in the wake of the nuclear deal seems to have passed a delicate initial test.
The Tehran authorities have quickly accepted that the US patrol boats strayed into their waters by accident.
The process to begin lifting the sanctions imposed on Iran due to its nuclear activities is expected to get under way at the end of this week.
There are many conservatives and hardliners in both countries who would dearly love to sabotage the deal. Consequently both governments may well have been eager to get this episode resolved as quickly as possible.
Clearly the economic benefits of lifting the sanctions may have been too great an inducement for the agreement to be derailed now.
Mr Kerry called Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif shortly after the incident. The pair developed a personal rapport during the nuclear talks.
Those detained - nine men and one woman - were taken to Farsi Island, in the middle of the Gulf, where Iran has a naval base.
Conservatives in both countries have opposed the nuclear deal, under which Iran will limit its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.
In the US, Republican presidential candidates were among those expressing outrage at the sailors' detention.
"Iran is testing the boundaries of this administration's resolve," said Marco Rubio.
"[Barack] Obama's humiliatingly weak Iran policy is exposed again," Jeb Bush said in a tweet before the sailors were released.
Donald Trump said Iran was "toying" with the US.
Iran's deputy nuclear chief has meanwhile denied a report the Arak heavy-water reactor had been decommissioned, which would be a final step towards implementation of the nuclear deal.
Iranian state media's coverage of the incident has been studiously restrained and measured in tone.
The usual pejorative terms usually reserved for the US and other Western powers - such as "global arrogance" and "enemies" - have been conspicuous by their absence.
State TV and radio reports did highlight that the US incursion had been "illegal" and that Tehran wanted an apology, later reporting that it had got it.
The mood music was far less tense and confrontational than during the capture of British sailors in in 2007, with Iran insisting they strayed into its water - an accusation London denied.
Then, the Iranian media initially accused the UK servicemen of spying, and later mockingly reported that one of them had cried when his music player was confiscated.
Read the full media report
What is it? In July, Iran agreed a landmark nuclear deal with six world powers to limit its sensitive nuclear activities for more than a decade in return for the lifting of crippling sanctions. The US is confident the agreement will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Iran says it has the right to nuclear energy - and stresses that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only.
When is 'implementation day'? Iran will not see the UN, US and EU sanctions lifted until the global nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), certifies that it has fulfilled its commitments under the deal. Iran reportedly says the IAEA will do so this Friday. US Secretary of State John Kerry says implementation will take place "within coming days".
What does Iran stand to gain? The sanctions have cost Iran more than more than $160bn (Â£102bn) in oil revenue since 2012 alone. Once they are lifted, the country will be able to resume selling oil on international markets and using the global financial system for trade. Iran has the fourth largest oil reserves in the world and the energy industry is braced for lower prices. Iran will also be able to access more than $100bn in assets frozen overseas.


A radical change to how and what children in Wales are taught is under consideration 26 years after the national curriculum was introduced.

Prof Graham Donaldson wants computer programming and IT in all classes to be as important as literacy and numeracy.
Schools should have more flexibility to teach around a central curriculum.
The results of the independent review have been called "a compelling, exciting and ambitious vision" by the education minister.
Prof Donaldson - a former chief inspector of schools appointed last March to look at what is taught in Wales - suggests:
Analysis: Curriculum change in Wales
'Positive, profound and patient' proposals
Read a copy of the full report
The Successful Futures report has taken nearly a year to compile and Prof Donaldson said he had received a "clear and consistent" message after taking evidence from more than 700 people, from pupils and parents to teachers and business.
The former schools inspector was commissioned by Education Minister Huw Lewis to undertake a comprehensive and wide-ranging review of the national curriculum and testing.
Mr Lewis said: "The scope and scale of the changes he envisages are both fundamental and wide ranging and will take time to create and secure".
Prof Donaldson said the proposed changes were about better learning and higher standards.
"Better learning because it draws on evidence from Wales and beyond to focus on what really matters in a modern school curriculum," he said.
"Higher standards because it sets high expectations for learning and provides ways in which schools and teachers can help young people to meet, and often exceed, those expectations."
Chris Keates, general secretary of the NAS/UWT union said the report would be considered carefully.
"We broadly welcome the thrust of the review which has the potential to make a positive difference for learners, teachers and the wider workforce in Wales.
"The emphasis on ensuring that teachers are given sufficient autonomy in the classroom to make decisions about teaching and learning is particularly welcome."
David Evans of the NUT praised how the review had been conducted, adding:  "It is absolutely critical now that what Prof Donaldson has set in motion is implemented fully in conjunction with the profession".
The Welsh government said it would launch a "great debate'" on the curriculum shortly.


American Alexander Rossi has been named Manor's official reserve driver.

Rossi, 24, will combine his duties with his first season in the IndyCar series in the US, attending 11 grands prix.
Racing director Dave Ryan said Rossi had been kept on after racing for the team in five races last season because they needed "a safe pair of hands".
Manor are employing two rookies as their race drivers this year - Mercedes protege Pascal Wehrlein and Indonesian former GP2 driver Rio Haryanto.
Ryan said the reserve role "always carries the potential to step up to race".
He added: "For Alex, F1 is still unfinished business. He did a great job when he drove for us in five of last season's races and he's a highly-rated and valuable part of our line-up.
"He does have one heck of a schedule ahead of him and it's a commitment that only the most disciplined of drivers would be able to manage."
Rossi said: "I've invested most of my career in F1 and I'm not one to kick my heels and wait for things to happen, so this is my way of staying sharp and prepared.
"It was disappointing to miss out on a race seat with Manor Racing this year; everyone knows I pushed and worked hard for it.
"I'm confident this experience will add to my role as a very important cog in an F1 team's wheel."


A 22-year-old man has been charged with the abduction and attempted murder of two men in Midlothian.

The incident happened on Monday at a property in John Street, Penicuik.
The 22-year-old is due to appear at Jedburgh Sheriff Court.


The space rock that hit Earth 65m years ago and is widely implicated in the end of the dinosaurs was probably a speeding comet, US scientists say.

Researchers in New Hampshire suggest the 180km-wide Chicxulub crater in Mexico was carved out by a smaller object than previously thought.
Many scientists consider a large and relatively slow moving asteroid to have been the likely culprit.
Details were outlined at the 44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
But other researchers were more cautious about the results.
"The overall aim of our project is to better characterise the impactor that produced the crater in the Yucatan peninsula [in Mexico]," Jason Moore, from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, told BBC News.
The space rock gave rise to a global layer of sediments enriched in the chemical element iridium, in concentrations much higher than naturally occurs; it must have come from outer space.
However, in the first part of their work, the team suggests that frequently quoted iridium values are incorrect. Using a comparison with another extraterrestrial element deposited in the impact - osmium - they were able to deduce that the collision deposited less debris than has previously been supposed.
The recalculated iridium value suggests a smaller body hit the Earth. So for the second part of their work, the researchers took the new figure and attempted to reconcile it with the known physical properties of the Chicxulub impact.
For this smaller space rock to have produced a 180km-wide crater, it must have been travelling relatively quickly. The team found that a long-period comet fitted the bill much better than other possible candidates.
"You'd need an asteroid of about 5km diameter to contribute that much iridium and osmium. But an asteroid that size would not make a 200km-diameter crater," said Dr Moore.
"So we said: how do we get something that has enough energy to generate that size of crater, but has much less rocky material? That brings us to comets."
Dr Moore's colleague Prof Mukul Sharma, also from Dartmouth College, told BBC News: "You would need some special pleading for an asteroid moving very rapidly - although it is possible. But of the comets and asteroids we have looked at in the skies, the comets are the ones that are moving very rapidly."
Long-period comets are balls of dust, rock and ice that are on highly eccentric trajectories around the Sun. They may take hundreds, thousands or in some cases even millions of years to complete one orbit.
The extinction event 65 million years ago is now widely associated with the space impact at Chicxulub. It killed off about 70% of all species on Earth in just a short period of time, most notably the non-avian dinosaurs.
The enormous collision would have triggered fires, earthquakes and huge tsunamis. The dust and gas thrown up into the atmosphere would have depressed global temperatures for several years.
Dr Gareth Collins, who researches impact cratering at Imperial College London, described the research by the Dartmouth team as "nice work" and "thought-provoking".
But he told BBC News: "I don't think it is possible to accurately determine the impactor size from geochemistry.
"Geochemistry tells you - quite accurately - only the mass of meteoritic material that is distributed globally, not the total mass of the impactor. To estimate the latter, one needs to know what fraction of the impactor was distributed globally, as opposed to being ejected to space or landing close to the crater."
He added: "The authors suggest that 75% of the impactor mass is distributed globally, and hence arrive at quite a small-sized impactor, but in reality this fraction could be lower than 20%."
That could keep the door open for a bigger, more slowly moving asteroid.
The authors accept this point, but cite recent studies suggesting mass loss for the Chicxulub impact was between 11% and 25%.
In recent years, several space objects have taken astronomers by surprise, serving as a reminder that our cosmic neighbourhood remains a busy place.
On 15 February this year, 2012 DA14 - an asteroid as large as an Olympic swimming pool - raced past the Earth at a distance of just 27,700km (17,200mi). It had only been discovered the previous year.
And on the same day, a 17m space rock exploded over Russia's Ural mountains with an energy of about 440 kilotonnes of TNT. About 1,000 people were injured as the shockwave blew out windows and rocked buildings.
Some 95% of the near-Earth objects larger than 1km have been discovered. However, only about 10% of the 13,000 - 20,000 asteroids above the size of 140m are being tracked.
There are probably many more comets than near-Earth asteroids, but Nasa points out they spend almost all of their lifetimes at great distances from the Sun and Earth, so that they contribute only about 10% to the census of larger objects that have struck the Earth.
Paul.Rincon-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow Paul on Twitter


Frenchman Thibaut Vallette leads reigning champion Michael Jung at the halfway stage of the Badminton Horse Trials dressage.

The 43-year-old, who beat German Jung to team gold at last summer's Rio Olympics, posted a score of 38.7 penalty points on Qing Du Briot.
Jung, 34, scored 40.0 penalties leaving him and La Biosthetique Sam FBW third behind Bettina Hoy on Designer 10.
"I am very happy. I didn't expect to do so well," said Vallette.
"It was the best test the horse has done this year. He has had some difficulties since Rio, and although we made a few mistakes at the beginning of the test, he was then listening to me again."
Nicolas Touzaint is the only French rider to have won Badminton in its 68-year history.
British debutant Alexander Bragg riding Zagreb, and Tom McEwen with Toledo De Kerser, are joint sixth.


The notion of sportsmen and sportswomen being deemed worthy role models for our children has taken such a battering over the years that you wonder why some people still persist with it.

Tyson Fury was one of the more recent, glaring examples of how daft the whole concept can be. The boxer might be heavyweight champion of the world but he has a very strange view of it.
Fame and success might bring money and profile, but not always respect. You need something extra for that.
In the grand scheme of sport's descent into the gutter, Fury is a relative innocent. From cheating athletes to corrupt sporting teams and nations to institutionally crooked associations, so much has poisoned professional sport.
But then along comes somebody who inspires awe for all the right reasons and makes you refocus on the good guys rather than the bad.
The admiration for Andy and Jamie Murray at the Australian Open - and beyond - is vast, but it is the life story of Helensburgh's Gordon Reid that stands out above all others, even if he's never likely to get a fraction of the attention of his more glamorous countrymen.
As of Saturday morning UK time Reid became the Australian Open wheelchair champion. En route, he beat his doubles partner, Shingo Kunieda, the world number one who had won eight of the previous nine Australian Open titles.
In the final, Reid, ranked fifth in the world, beat Belgium's Joachim Gerard, the world number four.
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Reid won two doubles Grand Slam titles last year, and though he fell at the final hurdle in Melbourne, Saturday brought his first singles crown. It's not just talent or hard work that got him there. Where he is a beacon of positivity and a hugely inspiring figure - not just for our kids but for everyone - is his strength of character in the face of cataclysmic adversity.
Reid is only 24. As a six-year-old he fell in love with tennis. At 12, he contracted a neurological condition in his spine called transverse myelitis that put him in hospital for six months and in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Before he had even left hospital he had started thinking about competing as a wheelchair tennis player. Twelve years old, remember. Twelve!
In an interview last year he spoke of his mindset. "You can focus on what you can do instead of worrying about things you can't do and what's been taken away from you," he said.
He spoke of his "dark moments" and "periods of my life where I was quite down and finding it quite hard, but I think tennis has definitely been a big help to me and helped me overcome a lot of the hurdles that have been placed my way. It was just about making the choice of not letting the condition defeat me and just trying to turn things back around."
As glorious as his game is, his words are just as powerful. Reid is a beacon of brilliance and, yes, a role model, in every sense.
Jordan Rhodes is on the cusp of a move up the pecking order of the Championship, from Blackburn in 18th place to Middlesbrough in second. For the privilege of having one of the division's most consistently prolific goalscorers at their club there is a fee of £9m Middlesbrough seem only too happy to pay as they push for promotion.
When you factor in the £8m Blackburn paid Huddersfield to bring Rhodes to Ewood Park in 2012 that's £17m in transfer fees on a player who turns 26 next week.
The money involved is hardly a surprise. Rhodes is a predator of renown in the Championship. In his three full campaigns with Blackburn he has never been lower than second in the league scoring table at season's end.
It begs a couple of questions. Firstly, why isn't he already playing in the Premiership? Secondly, why is he such an irrelevance with Scotland?
In the time that Rhodes that has been at Blackburn, many of the strikers who have gone from Championship to Premiership have done it via promotion rather than transfer.
No Premiership club took a gamble on Leicester's Jamie Vardy while he was in the Championship. No Premiership club signed Charlie Austin or Troy Deeney or Odion Ighalo or Danny Ings while they were in the second tier. They all had to reach the top by getting promoted into it.
It was the same for the leading scorers from 2012-13 and 2013-14, Crystal Palace's Glenn Murray and Ross McCormack of Leeds. The latter is still in the division with Fulham.
Daryl Murphy was the main man last season and he remains at Ipswich, though at 32, his age would have counted against a move upwards.
There are exceptions, but mostly there seems to be a heavy reluctance on the part of Premiership clubs to dip into the Championship in search of strikers. That's one reason for Rhodes not already being there.
The second - and we hear this a lot - is because he has flaws in his game. His hold-up play isn't good enough. His game management is not strong enough. He has technical deficiencies that are holding him back. He can't play the lone striker role.
We hear this mostly from Scotland managers. Craig Levein, in the first instance, and now Gordon Strachan. It's been beyond the wit - or the inclination - of both to give Rhodes a proper shot.
Rhodes scored 87 goals in 148 games for Huddersfield and 83 in 169 for Blackburn. With Scotland Under-21s, between September 2011 and May 2012, he played six competitive matches and scored eight times. Scotland were unbeaten in those six games.
At U-21 international level, he's played eight games and scored eight goals. It's an all-time record for Scotland.
There's no doubting that Rhodes has things he needs to work on, but he has goals in him and Strachan is not exactly blessed with people who are proficient in putting the ball in the net.
He continues with Steven Fletcher, but surely, when the friendly season kicks-in and then gives way to the competitive stuff later in the year, Strachan has to expand his options with Rhodes and Leigh Griffiths and anybody else who might have been able to do something about Georgia 1-0 Scotland.
Rhodes has been shoddily treated by Scotland. He made his debut in November 2011 and has won just 13 caps. It's extraordinary that Strachan hasn't invested in him.
In his Scotland career - including the early days under Levein - he has started only three internationals [and has scored three times] but only one of them was a competitive match, almost two years ago. He has played 107 minutes of international football since June 2013.
Maybe Strachan is right. Maybe Rhodes is unable to make the ascension to international football, but how will anybody know until he's given a reasonable chance? He hasn't been as yet.
Meanwhile, Middlesbrough, in an automatic promotion spot to the Premiership at present, continue to count out the millions to secure his services.


New Middlesbrough signing Alex Baptiste has undergone surgery on a double fracture of his leg.

The former Bolton defender, 29, suffered the injury before half-time during a friendly against York City on Saturday.
Baptiste made 32 league appearances on loan at Blackburn during the 2014-15 season before agreeing a three-year deal with the Teesiders.
The operation took place over the weekend and was deemed a success.


Agreement between the UK and the rest of the EU over David Cameron's reform proposals is possible next month, one of the leading negotiators has said.

Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, said he would table "concrete proposals" for discussion at February's summit of EU leaders in Brussels.
Should a deal be reached, it would open the possibility of a referendum on the UK's membership being held in June.
A poll must be held by the end of 2017, but the PM is thought to favour 2016.
Downing Street responded to Mr Tusk's comments by saying the process would be driven by "substance not schedule".
And a spokesman added: "But a deal in February would pave the way for getting on with this."
Mr Cameron is trying to negotiate a "better deal" for the UK in the European Union as a prelude to holding an in-out referendum on whether the UK should remain a member.
Negotiations are focused on four key areas: economic governance, sovereignty, competitiveness and curbs on EU migration to the UK.
Both sides are insisting progress is being made but that obstacles remain, particularly in relation to the UK's proposal for EU migrants to have to wait four years before being able to claim in-work benefits.
Holding a referendum in the first half of 2016 - which senior government ministers reportedly favour - effectively hinges on the other 27 EU members agreeing to the UK's proposals next month.
Mr Tusk, the former Polish prime minister who now chairs meetings of the European Council, has raised expectations of an agreement, tweeting that he would put forward detailed proposals in the run-up to the summit.
"I will work hard for deal in February, not easy but possible," he wrote. The European Council, he added, had "demonstrated willingness to look for compromises" in all four areas without "compromising fundamental values".
He told a plenary session of the European Parliament that a set of changes allowing the UK to remain in the EU was urgently needed.
"I will do everything in my power to find a satisfactory solution, also for the British side," he told MEPs. "As of today, the result of the referendum is more unpredictable than ever before. Time is of the essence here. And this is why I will work hard to strike a deal in February."
The BBC's Brussels correspondent Ben Wright said months of intensive diplomacy between London, Brussels and EU capitals will come to a head when Mr Tusk circulates draft conclusions to which he hopes every leader will agree. While a deal was expected, he said it was not inevitable.
No 10 would not be drawn on the PM's preferred referendum date after Scottish Secretary David Mundell suggested there was no obstacle to it being held in June - a stance opposed by the SNP because of its proximity to May's elections to the Scottish Parliament.
Speaking on Tuesday, UKIP leader Nigel Farage predicted a weak compromise on the issue of migrant benefits. Citing the sexual assaults on German women in Cologne on New Year's Eve, he claimed the issue of border control and the safety of British women would be central to the referendum.
Referendum timeline: What will happen when?
Guide: All you need to know about the referendum
Q&A: What does Britain want from Europe?
Analysis: Cameron tries to avert slanging match
More: BBC News EU referendum special


The revelations in the millions of papers leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca uncovering a suspected money laundering ring run by close associates of Vladimir Putin may leave readers drowning in a sea of confusing terms and phrases.

Although there are legitimate ways of using tax havens, most of what has been going on is about hiding the true owners of money, the origin of the money and avoiding paying tax on the money.
If you are a wealthy business owner in Germany who has decided to evade tax, an international drugs dealer or the head of a brutal regime, the methods are all pretty similar.
Mossack Fonseca says it has always complied with international protocols to ensure the companies it incorporates are not used for tax evasion, money-laundering, terrorist finance or other illicit purposes.
A shell company has the outward appearance of being a legitimate business. But it is just an empty shell. It does nothing but manage the money in it, while hiding who owns the money. Its management is made up of lawyers, accountants or even the office cleaner, who do little more than sign documents and allow their names to appear on the letterhead. When the authorities try to find out who really owns or controls the money in the company, they are told the management does, but it is all just a front. Someone else is just paying them so they can hide their money from the authorities or in some cases their ex-wives. Shell companies can also be called "letterbox" companies, as they consist of little more than an address to post documents to.
If you have a shell company, you don't want it based in London or Paris where the authorities can normally find out who owns it, if they really want to. You need an Offshore Financial Centre, or what is often called a tax haven. These are normally based in small island countries (hence the name), with a great deal of banking secrecy and very low or non-existent taxes on financial transactions. There are many such countries or authorities around the world, from the British Virgin Islands, to Macao, the Bahamas and Panama. Even in such places most of the financial services are perfectly legal: it is just the secrecy which also makes them very attractive to tax evaders and crooks the world over, especially if the regulators are weak or turning a blind eye.
For that extra layer of anonymity and so that you can move large amounts of money around easily, bearer shares and bonds are an obvious answer. Every British Â£5 note has the words "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of five pounds". That means if it is in your pocket it is yours: the person "bearing" or carrying the cash owns it, can spend it or do what they like with it. Bearer shares and bonds work in the same way, the person who has it in their pocket, briefcase or safety deposit box owns it. But they aren't worth Â£5. Bearer bonds normally come in nice round figures like Â£10,000. Very handy if you want to move vast amounts of money around and great if you want to deny ownership. If the bond is kept at a lawyer's office in Panama, who is to know whether it is yours, or even that it exists? This helps to explain why the US government stopped selling bearer bonds in 1982. They were just too easy for crooks to use.
Money laundering involves cleaning "dirty" money so that you can use it without arousing suspicion. If you are a drug dealer, fraudster or, let's say, a corrupt politician you will have a lot of cash and no way of spending it or hiding it for a rainy day, without giving the game away. The money needs cleaning, so you can ship it to a dodgy firm in an Offshore Financial Centre and they might help you convert it into bearer bonds, owned by a shell company that no one knows about. You could also use it to buy a bolt-hole in London or the South of France in case of a coup, maybe pay the kids' school fees or fund a great aunt's shopping trips to Paris.
One of the ways of punishing and trying to limit the power of notorious regimes around the world is sanctions. These can involve limits on the importation of military equipment or ammunition, bans on the exports of oil and other goods, and personal sanctions; closing the bank accounts of dictators and their friends, families and supporters. The British government currently imposes thousands of sanctions against countries, their businesses, banks and many named individuals.
But the more onerous the sanctions on a regime the more money is to be made by breaking or busting them. Providing secret bank accounts for torturers and mass murderers, supplying weapons to one or even both sides in a civil war or funding the nuclear ambitions of isolated regimes. The profits are huge and, of course, lots of secretive bank accounts and shell companies in parts of the world where officials turn a blind eye, is key to making sanction busting profitable and safe. You can see the list of UK sanctions here.
To try to stop people hiding money from the tax authorities the European Union introduced the European Savings Directive (ESD). Basically, banks in EU countries collect the tax due on bank accounts held by citizens of other EU countries. So you can't be an Irish person with a Dutch bank account and hope the Irish tax authorities won't find out about it or collect the tax owed. The ESD made it much more difficult to hide your money in Europe. It is interesting because when the ESD was being discussed and introduced there was a sudden increase in people who wanted to open bank accounts outside Europe, hence the surge of interest in places like Panama and the British Virgin Islands.


Two people arrested following child abuse allegations against former Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath have been released, Wiltshire Police has said.

The two unnamed suspects, the only ones to have been arrested, were also told they face no further action.
Operation Conifer has been examining the claims since appealing for alleged victims to come forward in summer 2015.
The former Conservative prime minister died at his home in Salisbury in July 2005, aged 89.
Operation Conifer was set up after the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) began to investigate alleged historical corruption.
Information from a retired officer sparked concerns that Wiltshire Police had deliberately caused a criminal prosecution against a suspected brothel keeper to fail in 1994.
But last year the IPCC said it had found no evidence the case was dropped because she had threatened to make allegations against Sir Edward.
In December, Wiltshire Police Chief Constable Mike Veale wrote a public letter to "set the record straight" about the investigation.
Mr Veale said the probe was "complex and multi-stranded" and was "not a fishing trip or witch-hunt".
He stressed he took his responsibilities of operational independence "very seriously" and said he would not be "buckling under pressure not to investigate or to conclude the investigation prematurely".


Thailand has passed a law banning foreigners from paying Thai women to be surrogates, after two high-profile cases sparked debate last year.

The legislation also bans the use of agents, or any promotion of women willing to carry babies for others.
Last year the case of a little boy born with Down's syndrome put Thailand's surrogacy industry in the spotlight.
His Thai surrogate mother said his Australian parents abandoned the boy but took his healthy twin sister home.
Under the new law, only married Thai couples or couples with one Thai partner who have been married at least three years can seek surrogacy, and commercial surrogacy is banned.
Anyone caught hiring a surrogate mother faces a maximum jail sentence of 10 years.
Agents touting surrogate mothers would also face imprisonment if caught.
The case of the Australian boy - named "baby Gammy" - made headlines around the world after his Australian parents took his healthy twin sister home and left him in Thailand.
He remained with surrogate mother Pattaramon Chanbua, 21, and was later granted Australian citizenship so he can have access to medical care.
Concern about the industry worsened when a Japanese man was found to have fathered more than a dozen babies by different Thai surrogates, a case later dubbed "the baby factory".
It has been nearly five years since Thailand began drafting a law on commercial surrogacy. The bill had been stalled by successive political crises, but the plight of Baby Gammy, and then the shocking revelation of Mitsutoki Shigeta's 16 or more surrogate babies, spurred the Thai government into action. They were shamed by the moniker 'Womb of Asia' that Thailand had earned from its booming surrogate business.
The yearning of childless couples for babies will now probably move on to less regulated countries. But will surrogacy end in Thailand? The money to be made is so tempting for poor families that the business may still survive as an underground, illegal one, with all the dangers to the women of exploitation and poor health facilities.
Law enforcement in Thailand is famously lax. And there is still a debate over whether legitimate surrogates should be paid something for the time, effort and health risks they take in carrying some else's baby.
Tackling 'wombs for rent'
Q&A: Surrogate babies
Commercial surrogacy was supposedly banned by Thailand's Medical Council in 1997.
Nevertheless a booming surrogacy industry has sprung up, attracting many foreigners.
According to Families Through Surrogacy, an international non-profit surrogacy organisation, the UK has the highest number of people in Europe seeking surrogacy overseas and the second-highest globally after Australia.
The organisation estimates that hundreds of UK residents travelled abroad in 2014 to Thailand and the US - the two most common surrogacy destinations.
Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) said last year that up to 150 Australian couples were expecting a child by a Thai surrogate mother in 2015.
Families Through Surrogacy estimates that parents travelling to Thailand pay approximately 1.7 million Thai Baht ($52,000; Â£34,000), comparable to estimated costs in the US, Mexico and India.
Lawmaker Wanlop Tangkananurak said the law - which was first read in parliament in November - aimed to prevent Thailand from being "the womb of the world".


A man has admitted attempting to break in to Wayne Rooney's home while he was playing in his testimonial match at Old Trafford.

Ex-serviceman, Robert McNamara, 24, of Scarborough, pleaded guilty at Chester Crown Court to attempting to enter as a trespasser with intent to steal.
The alarm at the footballer's Â£6m property in Prestbury, Cheshire was reportedly triggered on 3 August.
McNamara will be sentenced on 21 December.
Judge Nicholas Woodward said there were "very worrying features" in the case and ordered a pre-sentence report to be carried out by the probation service.
Rooney, his wife Coleen, and their three sons, Kai, Klay and Kit, were attending the charity tribute game against his first club, Everton, when the break-in bid took place.
McNamara of Newby Farm Crescent, Scalby, was arrested six days later.
The prosecution case was not outlined during the brief hearing but the court heard that McNamara had recently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and that his family had sought help from Combat Stress, a veterans' mental health charity, earlier this year.


Residents in Londonderry remain out of their homes after a bomb attack on a serving police officer.

The device, believed to have been planted by "violent dissident republicans", was discovered outside the officer's home on Wednesday.
The bomb was reportedly found under a car at Ardanlee and exploded as Army technical officers tried to defuse it; no one was injured in the blast.
Catholic and Church of Ireland bishops have condemned the attack.
The area remains cordoned off and about a dozen families have not been allowed to return home amid an ongoing security alert.
The vice-chairwoman of Northern Ireland's Policing Board said the attack "would be on the agenda" during a meeting with the Chief Constable, George Hamilton, on Monday.
"This was a live device that fell off a car and the community is very upset," said Debbie Watters.
"At our last board meeting, we were reassured that he (George Hamilton) did have adequate resources.
"Obviously in light of what has happened that is one issue we will question the chief constable on."
Despite the attack, Ms Watters added that she did not believe people would be dissuaded from joining the PSNI.
The Ardanlee bomb is the second attack on a serving police officer in as many months.
The device was intended to kill and inflict harm in the community, said the PSNI's Supt Gordon McCalmont.
"This was an attempt to kill one of my colleagues," he said.
"My thoughts are with my colleague and his family. You can imagine the impact this trauma will have on them."
Bishop Donal McKeown of Derry and Bishop Ken Good of Derry and Raphoe said the incident showed a "callous disregard" for life.
"There can never be any justification for such a crime," said the Catholic and Church of Ireland bishops.
"It was wrong. It was evil. And it showed a callous disregard for the lives not only of the police officer targeted by the bombers but of the officer's neighbours too.
"Our people want to move forward - together - to a better and brighter future. The bombers seem intent on taking us backwards and keeping us apart.
"They must not succeed."
Both Church leaders urged anyone with information on the "attempted murder" to share it with the PSNI.
Chairman of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland Mark Lindsay said the officer had had a "narrow escape".
"This was an act of cowardice. It was reckless and wanton, and displayed utter disregard for life," Mr Lindsay told the BBC.
"These people are relics of the past and we could have been looking at total carnage yesterday. It was a narrow escape, it's a risk that goes with police officers day and daily.
"It's worth remembering that this Officer was singled out because of the job he does, which is to protect the entire community and rid us of this terrorist scourge."


A pig belonging to Princess Anne was killed after a wild boar got on to her estate, the royal has said.

She told a farming conference her property had been visited by a wild boar on Tuesday, according to the Western Morning News.
The Princess Royal is reported to have told delegates her "Gloucester Old Spot boar is no longer with us as a result".
The princess, who lives at Gatcombe Park, is patron of the Gloucestershire Old Spots Pig Breeders' Club.
She has kept pigs for a number of years at her Gloucestershire home.
The princess told the conference: "We had a visitation in my woods the other day from a wild boar.
"Unfortunately, my two sows are obviously in season, but we had just put the boar in with them.
"My Gloucester Old Spot boar is no longer around - he was killed by this visiting wild boar.
"So far, we haven't found the origins of this particular invader and I'm hoping I'm not going to see him again for a bit.
"But you never quite know where your challenges are going to come from, do you?"
Gloucestershire Old Spots are listed as a minority breed on the Rare Breeds Survival Trust watchlist, with between 500 and 1,000 breeding females believed to be in the country.
There is a large population of wild boars in the Forest of Dean - 17 miles (27km) away from Gatcome Park.
On Monday, 47-year-old Raymond Green was killed on the M4 in Wiltshire in a crash caused by a wild boar wandering onto the motorway.
Sgt Steven Love, from Wiltshire Police, said it was a "truly tragic incident" involving a "particularly large wild animal".
The two incidents have prompted North Wiltshire MP, James Gray, to write to Natural England expressing his concern about wild boar sightings.
"People are increasingly worried that the wild boar population is now out of control and constituents of mine in Box and in nearby Corsham have spotted them recently", he said.
"I have therefore taken the opportunity of writing to Andrew Sells, Chairman of Natural England, to seek details of the evidence known to him on the current wild boar population, and to seek his advice on what can be done about this growing problem."


Russia has criticised the US and UK for using "unacceptable" tone and rhetoric in speeches on Syria at the UN, after being accused of "barbarism".

On Sunday, US permanent representative Samantha Power said Russian and Syrian forces were "laying waste" to besieged rebel-held areas of the city of Aleppo.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that such language might damage efforts to end the five-year civil war.
Activists meanwhile reported dozens of fresh air strikes on Aleppo overnight.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said at least two civilians had been killed and many wounded.
At least 162 people are believed to have died in rebel-held Aleppo since last Monday, when a truce brokered by the US and Russia collapsed.
The US, UK and France, which back the opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, openly accused Russia of lying about its involvement in the assault on Aleppo at an emergency session of the UN Security Council.
British permanent representative Matthew Rycroft said Mr Assad's forces and Moscow had "plunged to new depths and unleashed a new hell on Aleppo", which was once Syria's largest city and the country's industrial and commercial hub.
He alleged that they were committing war crimes by using bunker-busting bombs to destroy underground shelters, dropping incendiary weapons indiscriminately on civilian areas, and targeting the city's water supplies.
Ms Power told the meeting: "Instead of pursuing peace, Russia and Assad make war. Instead of helping get life-saving aid to civilians, Russia and Assad are bombing the humanitarian convoys, hospitals, and first responders who are trying desperately to keep people alive."
"What Russia is sponsoring and doing is not counterterrorism; it is barbarism," she added.
Pro-Kremlin media in Russia have been gripped by the discussions on Syria at the UN Security Council, but they offered little comment on the accusations levelled against Moscow.
Instead, they dismissed the charges as "groundless" and hailed the response of Russian envoy Vitaly Churkin. "Both US and UK permanent representatives were lavish in criticising Moscow and Damascus, but received a firm response," said Gazprom-owned NTV.
State-owned newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta accused the US and its allies of trying to "exert pressure on Damascus and Moscow, while doing nothing to meet their own obligations".
Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin blamed the unravelling of the truce deal on the US, saying it had failed to convince mainstream rebels to distance themselves from "terrorist" groups, especially the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.
Mr Peskov also rejected the Western criticism at a news conference on Monday.
"We note that the tone and rhetoric used by official representatives from the UK and US is generally unacceptable and it can seriously damage the settlement process and our bilateral relations," he said.
Mr Peskov acknowledged that the truce deal had been "not very effective", but insisted that Moscow "definitely remains hopeful".
He also warned that "terrorists" had used the truce to "regroup, replenish their arsenals and obviously prepare for offensive actions".
Meanwhile, a medical source in rebel-held Aleppo told the AFP news agency that a shortage of blood meant hospitals were struggling to deal with the huge number of casualties caused by air strikes over the past four days.
There was also no water supply in many areas after pumping stations were damaged at the weekend, and several charity kitchens were forced to close because of the violence.


Rory McAllister scored a double as Peterhead eased aside Montrose to reach the Scottish League One play-off final against Forfar Athletic.

McAllister headed the hosts in front  before doubling their lead from the spot six minutes into the second half after Nicky Riley was brought down.
Montrose were reduced to 10 men when Matty Smith was shown a straight red in the 69th minute.
And Jordon Brown completed a 4-1 aggregate win in stoppage time.
It means Montrose, who finished fourth in League Two, will be playing in the bottom tier again next season.
Peterhead, who finished second bottom in the division above, get another chance to retain their League One status.
Match ends, Peterhead 3, Montrose 0.
Second Half ends, Peterhead 3, Montrose 0.
Goal!  Peterhead 3, Montrose 0. Jordon Brown (Peterhead) header from the right side of the six yard box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Rory McAllister.
Corner,  Peterhead. Conceded by Terry Masson.
Attempt blocked. Ryan Strachan (Peterhead) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
Corner,  Peterhead. Conceded by Matthew Allan.
Liam Gordon (Peterhead) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Liam Gordon (Peterhead).
Ryan Ferguson (Montrose) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Corner,  Peterhead. Conceded by Matthew Allan.
Corner,  Peterhead. Conceded by Allan Fleming.
Attempt saved. Michael McMullin (Peterhead) left footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the bottom right corner.
Foul by Jamie Redman (Peterhead).
Greg Pascazio (Montrose) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Grant Anderson (Peterhead).
Kieran McWalter (Montrose) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, Montrose. Kerr Hay replaces Chris Templeman.
Substitution, Peterhead. Grant Anderson replaces Simon Ferry.
Substitution, Peterhead. Leighton McIntosh replaces Nicky Riley.
Attempt blocked. Paul Watson (Montrose) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Corner,  Montrose. Conceded by Liam Gordon.
Substitution, Montrose. Kieran McWalter replaces Graham Webster.
Nicky Riley (Peterhead) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Matthew Smith (Montrose) is shown the red card for violent conduct.
Foul by Nicky Riley (Peterhead).
Matthew Smith (Montrose) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Attempt saved. Graham Webster (Montrose) right footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Attempt missed. Jamie Redman (Peterhead) header from the centre of the box is just a bit too high.
Attempt saved. Rory McAllister (Peterhead) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top left corner.
Craig Reid (Peterhead) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Graham Webster (Montrose).
Foul by Nicky Riley (Peterhead).
Matthew Allan (Montrose) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Corner,  Montrose. Conceded by Ryan Strachan.
Attempt blocked. Ryan Ferguson (Montrose) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
Ross Campbell (Montrose) is shown the yellow card.
Foul by Rory McAllister (Peterhead).
Matthew Allan (Montrose) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Graham Webster (Montrose) is shown the yellow card.
Goal!  Peterhead 2, Montrose 0. Rory McAllister (Peterhead) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner.


A Libyan man can sue the UK government over claims he was illegally sent back to Libya and tortured, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

Abdul Hakim Belhaj alleges that former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and MI6 were complicit in arranging his and his wife's rendition from China in 2004.
The High Court had ruled the case could not be heard in the UK courts because it could damage foreign relationships.
But appeal judges said the claims were so "grave" a court should hear them.
Mr Belhaj, now a politician in Libya, said: "My wife and I are gratified by the judges' decision to give us our day in court," adding their alleged torture was "as fresh and as painful for us as if it happened yesterday".
His lawyer Sapna Malik said it was "very significant step forward" to the case being heard in England.
Mr Straw, who has previously denied being aware of the rendition, and the government, have been given leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Foreign Office said it was considering whether to make an application. The case would not be heard until after any appeal.
Dominic Casciani, BBC home affairs correspondent
This judgement is a major blow for the government. The three judges have demanded that a light be shone into dark corners of the state's work - and not for the first time. Time and again the Court of Appeal has said allegations of wrongdoing, linked to security and intelligence, must be examined if the rule of law is to be upheld.
The key factors in this decision are clear: The judges say that international law and practice demands that alleged human rights abuses be examined. They say that it becomes even more important to do so given that claims are made against serving or former British officials.
Another reason they give is that unless an English court looks at the claims, the truth may never come out - and that is a denial of justice for both sides.
And most embarrassingly for ministers - they brush aside claims that allowing Mr Belhaj to sue would damage international relations.
Rendition involves sending a person from one country to another for imprisonment and interrogation, possibly by methods such as torture, that would be illegal in the country doing the rendering.
Mr Belhaj, former leader of an Islamist group which fought the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, claims British intelligence provided information that facilitated his rendition, along with his pregnant wife Fatima Boudchar.
Last year, Mr Justice Simon ruled at the High Court that the case against Mr Straw and Sir Mark Allen, ex-head of counter-terrorism at MI6, should be thrown out.
The government had argued an English court could not adjudicate on claims of rendition and torture in Libya, even though UK officials allegedly knew about them.
The judge said that because most of the claims related to officials in China, Malaysia, Thailand and Libya they were "non-justiciable" in the UK.
But on Thursday, appeal court judges said the proceedings were not barred by state immunity.
One of the judges, Lord Dyson, said: "There is a compelling public interest in the investigation by the English courts of these very grave allegations.
"The stark reality is that unless the English courts are able to exercise jurisdiction in this case, these very grave allegations against the executive will never be subjected to judicial investigation."
Mr Belhaj was jailed for six years after he returned to Libya. Mrs Boudchar was also imprisoned, but released shortly before giving birth.
The couple have refused so far failed to reach a settlement with the UK government, saying they want it to admit what they say happened.
In March last year, Mr Belhaj offered to settle the case with a token payment of Â£1 from Mr Straw and the government, an apology and an admission of liability - but this was rejected.
Cori Crider, a director at human rights charity Reprieve, which also represents the family, said: "The government so fears this case going to trial that they have stalled for years by throwing up a parade of scarecrows - claiming, for example, that the United States would be angered if Mr and Mrs Belhaj had their day in court in Britain.
"The court was right: embarrassment is no reason to throw torture victims out of court."
A statement issued by human rights organisations Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists, Justice and Redress said: "We welcome the decision of the Court of Appeal which now enables the very serious contention that UK authorities and officials were directly implicated in the 'extraordinary rendition' of the claimants to be properly assessed by courts in the UK."


Fossils of a sea worm that lived on the ocean floor about 500 million years ago are giving new insights into how early creatures evolved.

Tube-like structures once thought to be a type of seaweed were made by a worm that lived a solitary life on the sea bed, say scientists.
The research, published in the journal BMC Biology, suggests the animal, Oesia, was a filter feeder.
Fossil discoveries of this kind are rare.
The research was carried out by academics from the universities of Cambridge, Toronto and MontrÃ©al, and at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.
Prof Simon Conway Morris, from St John's College, University of Cambridge and a co-researcher on the study, said: "Oesia fossils are pretty enigmatic - they are very rare and until now we could not prove which group they belonged to.
"Now we know that they were primitive hemichordates - perhaps the most primitive of all."
Hemichordates are a group of creatures that belong to a larger group called deuterostomes, of which vertebrates (including humans) form a separate branch.
Karma Nanglu, from the University of Toronto, and the study's lead researcher, said: "Hemichordates are central to our understanding of how deuterostomes evolved.
"Through them, we can get clues about the anatomy and lifestyle of the last common ancestor that we all share, and this adds further evidence to the hypothesis that the ancestor was a filter-feeder like Oesia."
The specimens, found near Marble Canyon in the Canadian Rockies, are well preserved, giving details of the animal's internal anatomy.
Oesia


With an experienced squad and home advantage, the weight of expectation will be on Ireland's shoulders when the Women's World Cup starts on Wednesday.

Twelve of the players named by head coach Tom Tierney have played at previous tournaments and they reached the semi-finals last time out in 2014.
The Irish famously beat the-then world champions New Zealand three years ago and went on to finish fourth.
They lost to England who beat Canada in the final in Paris.
Ireland, Grand Slam winners in 2013, will face stiff competition from the world's best professional outfits.
Defending champions England, four-times winners New Zealand and 2014 runners-up Canada are hotly tipped for title success.
Getting out of their group will not be easy for the Irish who find themselves facing Australia, France and Japan.
Australia have a point to prove after coming off the back of five straight losses, and possess the physicality and drive to pull off an upset.
Ireland played two friendlies against Japan in June, and narrowly came out on the right side of the score on both encounters, but the Japanese set down a marker by showcasing their flair and pace.
France are a familiar foe, one Ireland are used to having tough encounters with in the Six Nations, and it is likely they will put in a typically tenacious performance once again.
The unique opportunity to win a World Cup on home soil is one of the pinnacles of sport. Can Ireland make it count?
Having competed in seven Six Nations and two World Cups, Nora Stapleton is a veteran of the Ireland squad.
She has witnessed just how far the women's game has come during her seven years as an international.
"A few years before I started playing for Ireland, the girls had to buy their own jerseys, and squad members used to sleep on friends' floors when they were coming to Dublin for training sessions," says 34-year-old Stapleton.
"Everything now is taken care of, which means we have the best of everything - nutrition, strength and conditioning coaches, and a full-time head coach."
Experienced fly-half Stapleton has extra incentive to get to the final in Belfast on 26 August.
In 2013, she took up the position of Women's and Girls' Development Manager at the IRFU, and in recent months has been focusing on World Cup legacy projects.
"My role is everything from girls' mini rugby up to adult participation, and how we develop the game for all ages," add the Donegal woman.
"I also play a big part in trying to ensure that there is a clear pathway from the clubs, to the province, to the Irish team."
"My end goal is for every club in Ireland to have some form of women's team.
"Girls all over the country want to play, and my job is to give them that opportunity."
Winger Hannah Tyrrell has made a speedy rise through the ranks of rugby - but her journey off the pitch has been even more remarkable.
Tyrrell suffered from bulimia and mental illness from the age of 12, and has used her experiences to help others.
At this year's Rugby Players Ireland awards dinner, she was recognised for her work with the Tackle Your Feelings Campaign.
"It is about looking at the wellbeing of not just the rugby community, but the wider community," Tyrrell, 27, said.
"The main aim was to challenge the stigma around mental health.
"I struggled with an eating disorder and self-harm in the past so for me it was an opportunity to share my story in the hope that others won't go through the same struggles that I did."
Tyrrell, a former Dublin GAA player, credits her love of sport with aiding her recovery.
Four years after hanging up her boots, Grand Slam winner Joy Neville is set to grace another World Cup - this time as a referee.
The woman from Limerick won 70 caps, captained her country and played in the 2006 and 2010 World Cups.
Neville says the significance of a tournament on home soil cannot be understated.
"It is massive. I think it would be fair to say this is the biggest women's World Cup to date, with four different broadcasters showing the games live, and the support for the Irish national team has been immense.
"It is a massive opportunity for developing women's rugby in Ireland. Hopefully it will increase participation, we will see the growth of clubs and more schools taking up touch rugby."


Glastonbury festival has confirmed that the Dalai Lama will make a special appearance at the festival.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader will visit the Somerset site on Sunday, although no timing has been announced.
Festival organiser Emily Eavis said she was "honoured" to welcome him, calling his visit "a special moment for the festival".
Kanye West, The Who and Florence and the Machine top the bill for the festival, which opened yesterday.
Florence stepped in after Foo Fighters' frontman Dave Grohl broke his leg, forcing the band to pull out.
Other acts appearing include Rudimental, Burt Bacharach, Pharrell Williams, Mark Ronson and The Moody Blues.
The Dalai Lama will be talking in the festival's Green Fields area.
A spokesman said the key themes of his visit would be "the promotion of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's message of compassion, non-violence and the oneness of humanity".
Glastonbury will also have a visit from Professor Stephen Hawking, who is due to appear in the Kidz Field. It's not known what format his "performance" will take.
And the festival has not lost its political principles. This year, two members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot will appear to give talks about their protests against President Vladimir Putin.


EL Doctorow, critically acclaimed author of the novels Ragtime and Billy Bathgate, has died aged 84 in a New York hospital, according to his son.

Richard Doctorow said his father died of complications from lung cancer.
He was known for works which re-imagine the American experience, placing fictional characters in recognisable historical contexts.
US President Barack Obama paid tribute to him as "one of America's greatest novelists".
The president tweeted: "his books taught me much, and he will be missed.''
In a 50-year career, Doctorow published 10 novels, a stage drama, two books of short fiction and numerous essays.
EL Doctorow was a son of the Bronx, famed and celebrated for historical novels that captured the rambunctiousness of New York.
His breakthrough work Ragtime was published in 1975. The novel was set in the run-up to America's entry into World War One. It brought together real life figures like Harry Houdini and Henry Ford with characters sketched in the author's imagination.
Billy Bathgate chronicled the Depression-era and traced the criminal career of a young kid from the Bronx, who fell under the spell of the mob.
But arguably his most acclaimed novel was The March, which reconstructed one of the American Civil War's most controversial campaigns - General Sherman's brutal advance through the South.
"History is the present," the author once said, "that's why every generation writes it anew."
Doctorow received critical praise throughout his career. He won the National Book Award for fiction in 1986 for World's Fair, the National Book Critics Circle award in 1989 for Billy Bathgate and again in 2005 for The March.
"I don't know what I set out to do," Doctorow said in 2006 about The March.
"Someone pointed out to me a couple of years ago that you could line them up and in effect now with this book, [cover] 150 years of American history. And this was entirely unplanned."
The breadth of his work was recognised last year with the award of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction.
Born Edgar Lawrence Doctorow on 6 January 1931, he was named after the author Edgar Allen Poe. Doctorow would go on to describe him as "our greatest bad writer".
He published his first novel, Welcome to Hard Times, in 1960 following a stint as a script reader for movie studio Columbia Pictures.
Several of Doctorow's novels including Ragtime and Billy Bathgate were turned into movies. Ragtime was also made into a Broadway musical in 1998.


Beth Tweddle has pulled out of the reality show The Jump, after crashing during a practice.

The Olympic gymnast crashed into a barrier after successfully completing her jump.
After just two weeks, several stars have already ended up in hospital after competing on the Channel 4 show.
Some fans have even taken to social media to ask for the show to be cancelled because they say too many people are getting hurt.
The Olympic gymnast suffered an injury to two bones in her neck but has had surgery.
Her parents say early medical indications have been positive and that she's been able to "move her hands and feet."
She is the third competitor to leave the show because of injury.
Olympic swimmer, Rebecca Adlington was the first to leave the show, after dislocating her shoulder.
Actress, Tina Hobley dropped out next after she injured her elbow and fractured her arm.
A Channel 4 spokesperson told Newsround:
"The Jump is now in its third series and since launch 46 celebrities have taken part successfully. Though it is a new course the events have been designed to be no more difficult than in previous years and all contributors have undertaken a rigorous training programme to prepare them for the show.  All winter sports carry some element of risk but  in light of the number of injuries this year,  Channel 4 has asked the producers to review safety procedures again to further reduce the prospect of accident."
Images provided by Channel 4.


A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of his wife.

Brendon Constant, 87, of Richmond Road, Wisbech, is charged with murdering Jean Constant, 86, on August 22 last year.
Mrs Constant's body was found after police investigated reports of concern relating to Poppyfields care home in Chapman Way, Eynesbury.
A post-mortem examination concluded Mrs Constant died from plastic bag asphyxia in association with heart disease.
Mr Constant appeared before Cambridge Magistrates' Court then Cambridge Crown Court.
He was remanded and will appear before the court for a plea and trial management hearing on 3 May.


Rangers fans held a protest against the club's board during the Championship game against Queen of the South at Ibrox.

Fans were alarmed at the threat of Rangers International Football Club possibly going into administration if a proposed open offer of shares fails.
An announcement was made to the Stock Exchange on Friday.
It revealed RIFC is seeking to raise Â£3.7m by offering more than 19 million shares to existing shareholders.
The open offer is not underwritten, though, and needs at least 15 million of the shares to be taken up to succeed.
The announcement emphasised that the Â£3.7m is required to pay creditors and meet working capital needs, and that if the offer fails, RIFC could fail to meet their undertakings.
Emergency funding would need to be sought, with the money required to cover a shortfall in season tickets, with 15,000 fans having refused to renew this summer.
Dissatisfaction with the board is long-standing, as is the club's fundamental financial problems - with a further share issue planned for October - and fans expressed their anger and frustration on Saturday.
Red cards were handed out before kick-off at Ibrox, and disgruntled fans held them up in the 18th and 72nd minutes, with the club having been founded in 1872. A further protest was also planned for outside the main entrance to Ibrox following the end of the game.
Fans have been opposed to the board and the shareholders who have an influence on the directors since the annual general meeting last December. Supporters are also opposed to Mike Ashley, the owner of Newcastle United, raising his stake in Rangers.
That discontent found its voice at Ibrox, and is likely to continue in the following weeks as the financial situation remains unstable.


A new chief executive has been appointed to the Derry and Strabane super council.

John Kelpie, who is currently the strategic director with Derry City Council, will take over when the body is formed in April 2015.
The group in charge of getting ready for the change is the Statutory Transition Committee (STC).
The chairman, Sinn Fein councillor Kieran McGuire, congratulated Mr Kelpie on his appointment.
"This is a very daunting task for any person to take on," he said.
"There are massive changes coming our way and John has demonstrated that he can facilitate and promote this change.
"The STC is also very grateful to both the existing chief executives within the existing councils for the leadership that they have demonstrated in the transition and reform programme to date."
'Leadership'
SDLP councillor Gerard Diver told BBC Radio Foyle that Mr Kelpie was capable of handling the challenges that lie ahead.
"John is an extremely capable person who has a proven track record of working in local government. I wish him every success," he said.
"Obviously a very important aspect of this role is going to be trying to capitalise and build on the opportunities created.
"John has brought a degree of creativity to his work and he has the leadership skills that we are looking for.
"Councils are going to be taking on additional powers in terms of planning and community development."
The elections for the new council will take place in May.