The world's biggest technology companies are joining forces to consider the future of artificial intelligence.

Amazon, Google's DeepMind, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft will work together on issues such as privacy, safety and the collaboration between people and AI.
Dubbed the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, it will include external experts.
One said he hoped the group would address "legitimate concerns".
"We've seen a very fast development in AI over a very short period of time," said Prof Yoshua Bengio, from the University of Montreal.
"The field brings exciting opportunities for companies and public organisations. And yet, it raises legitimate questions about the way these developments will be conducted."
Bringing the key players together would be the "best way to ensure we all share the same values and overall objectives to serve the common good", he added.
One notable absentee from the consortium is Apple. It has been in discussions with the group and may join the partnership "soon", according to one member.
The group will have an equal share of corporate and non-corporate members and is in discussions with organisations such as the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence.
It stressed that it had no plans to "lobby government or other policy-making bodies".
"AI has tremendous potential to improve many aspects of life, ranging from healthcare, education and manufacturing to home automation and transport and the founding members... hope to maximise this potential and ensure it benefits as many people as possible," it said.
It will conduct research under an open licence in the following areas:
Microsoft's managing director of research hailed the partnership as a "historic collaboration on AI and its influences on people and society", while IBM's ethics researcher Francesca Rossi said it would provide "a vital voice in the advancement of the defining technology of this century".
Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of Google's artificial intelligence division, DeepMind, said he hoped the group would be able to "break down barriers for AI teams to share best practice and research ways to maximise societal benefits and tackle ethical concerns".
And Amazon's director of machine learning, Ralf Herbrich, said the time was ripe for such a collaboration.
"We're in a golden age of machine learning and AI," he said.
"As a scientific community, we are still a long way from being able to do things the way humans do things, but we're solving unbelievably complex problems every day and making incredibly rapid progress."
Artificial intelligence is beginning to find roles in the real world - from the basic AI used in smartphone voice assistants and web chatbots to AI agents that can take on data analysis to significant breakthroughs such as DeepMind's victory over champion Go player Lee Sedol.
The win - in one of the world's most complex board games - was hailed as a defining moment for AI, with experts saying it had come a decade earlier than anyone had predicted.
DeepMind now has 250 scientists at its King's Cross headquarters, working on a variety of projects, including several tie-ins with the NHS to analyse medical records.
In a lecture at the Royal Academy of Engineering, founder Dr Demis Hassabis revealed the team was now working on creating an artificial hippocampus, an area of the brain regarded by neuroscientists as responsible for emotion, creativity, memory and other human attributes.
But as AI has developed, so have concerns about where the technology is heading.
One of the most vocal and high-profile naysayers is Tesla's chief executive, Elon Musk, who has tweeted the technology is "potentially more dangerous than nukes [nuclear weapons]" and expressed concerns humans were "just the biological boot loader for digital super-intelligence".
Last year, Mr Musk set up his own non-profit AI group, OpenAI.
It is not, at this stage, part of the Partnership on AI.


Police are investigating the death of a man who was reportedly attacked by another patient on a hospital ward.

The Daily Mail said former World War Two pilot Kenneth Tyrer, 90, died at the weekend, two days after being attacked at Yeovil District Hospital.
His son Bill said: "Somebody has to be accountable for his death."
Yeovil Hospital said in a statement it was "working closely with the police and coroner's office following the death of a patient".
It added: "We are also carrying out our own internal investigation. Our thoughts are with the family at this very difficult time."
The newspaper reported that Mr Tyrer, from Milborne Port in Somerset, had flown Hurricanes and Spitfires on hundreds of missions for the Royal Air Force.
He had been admitted to hospital in May with an infection. He also had dementia, was deaf and going blind.
Bill Tyrer, who lives in Spain, said his father had remained in hospital because he had been too frail to live at home alone. There had been plans for him to move into a care home where his wife lived.
"He should have been safer than he was at home. He was the sort of person I thought was the backbone of Britain. He never complained, he never asked for anything," he said.
"He fought for this country and now we have to fight for him."
A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said: "We are investigating the circumstances around the death of a man at Yeovil Hospital. The hospital is helping us with our inquiries."


A court has heard how police stopped a man driving with no lights on and found a stash of ecstasy in his car.

James McIntyre, 28, from Stranraer, was caught in Dumfries last year with 500 tablets in his glove compartment.
He admitted being concerned in supplying drugs in Moffat and Dumfries between 22 October and 5 November.
At Dumfries Sheriff Court, he was ordered to be under supervision for 12 months and carry out 150 hours unpaid work.
The court heard that McIntyre told police he had arranged to meet another man at McDonald's car park in Dumfries when he was stopped.
He also admitted that he had previously been involved in a deal in Moffat involving 1,000 tablets.


McLaren chairman Ron Dennis is trying to take back control of the McLaren Group.

The 67-year-old has agreed with his fellow shareholders a price at which he could take a majority shareholding if he can raise the necessary money.
Dennis owns 25% of the McLaren Group, long-time partner Mansour Ojjeh 25% and the Bahraini royal family's Mumtalakat investment fund the remaining 50%.
All parties will remain shareholders if the deal is finalised.
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A McLaren spokesman said: "No transaction has taken place, but the shareholders have had discussions on how to best facilitate and enhance the future growth of the McLaren Group.
"When and if a transaction takes place, it is not envisioned that the current shareholders will exit McLaren completely, and announcements would be made at the appropriate time."
Dennis has not yet raised the money required to buy the shares he would need to take his holding past 50%, and the other shareholders are not obliged to sell if he does.
McLaren refused to say how much Dennis needed to raise, but the company is said to be worth about £1bn so he would require at least £250m.
BBC Sport has learned the Bahrainis want to remain involved in McLaren, contrary to speculation.
It is widely known within F1 that there has been tension at board level at McLaren in recent months following the deterioration of the relationship between Dennis and Ojjeh.
The two joined forces in McLaren in the early 1980s and have been business partners ever since.
But they have been at loggerheads recently over professional and personal issues.
Ojjeh, 62, has been back to health since the summer after surviving two double lung transplants over the winter of 2013-14.


A post-mortem examination will be held following the unexplained death of a woman, police have said.

The 53-year-old was found with serious injuries at a house in Littledean, Gloucestershire, on Thursday afternoon.
Officer were called to the property in Broad Street at 15:00 GMT. The woman died a short time later.
A cordon is still in place at the property, where officers are carrying out inquiries.


Guest blogger BBC Wales political correspondent Aled ap Dafydd on breaking that old rule about not mixing religion and politics.

Picture the scene. A log fire burning in the corner of a Treorchy pub. The Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood being bowled some easy, cuddly questions about how she came into politics, and then came the googly.
I ask her four quick-fire questions, the type that have no right or wrong answer, shouldn't land you in hot water, couldn't lose you any votes. There was a slight pause when Leanne Wood chose Eisteddfod ahead of the Hay Festival but no hesitation when it came to question three.
"God or no God?"
"No God."
So what have we learnt? More than anything, ask a simple question and you get a simple answer. Point the camera, ask an either/or question. Politicians are too clever by half if you give them the slightest wiggle room.
Leanne Wood, by her own admission, would rather be nuanced about the goings on beyond the public eye, as she told me only a couple of minutes before her non-believing revelation.
"I am a private person. I've tried very hard to separate my political life from my private life. I have an 11-year-old daughter. She hasn't chosen a public life and so I work very hard to keep the two things separate."
If weekends aren't taken up by Sunday service, how does the Plaid leader relax?
"More likely to be a bottle of beer on the sofa. I'm more of a radio person on a Saturday night generally than a TV person."
"Strictly?" I ask. "No definitely not."
One contest at least she won't be voting in.
You can see the item in full on Newyddion9 on S4C at 21:00 GMT tonight.


Germany's coalition government has announced a reversal of policy that will see all the country's nuclear power plants phased out by 2022.

The decision makes Germany the biggest industrial power to announce plans to give up nuclear energy.
Environment Minister Norbert Rottgen made the announcement following late-night talks.
Chancellor Angela Merkel set up a panel to review nuclear power following the crisis at Fukushima in Japan.
There have been mass anti-nuclear protests across Germany in the wake of March's Fukushima crisis, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami.
Mr Rottgen said the seven oldest reactors - which were taken offline  for a safety review immediately after the Japanese crisis - would never be used again. An eighth plant - the Kruemmel facility in northern Germany, which was already offline and has been plagued by technical problems, would also be shut down for good.
Six others would go offline by 2021 at the latest and the three newest by 2022, he said.
By Stephen EvansBBC News, Berlin
Nearly a quarter of German's electricity comes from nuclear power so the question becomes: How do you make up the short-fall?
The official commission which has studied the issue reckons that electricity use can be cut by 10% in the next decade through more efficient machinery and buildings.
The intention is also to increase the share of wind energy. This, though, would mean re-jigging the electricity distribution system because much of the extra wind power would come from farms on the North Sea to replace atomic power stations in the south.
Protest groups are already vocal in the beautiful, forested centre of the country which, they fear, will become a north-south "energie autobahn" of pylons and high-voltage cables.
Some independent analysts believe that coal power will benefit if the wind plans don't deliver what is needed.
And on either side of Germany are France,  with its big nuclear industry, and Poland, which has announced an intention to build two nuclear power stations.
Germany's nuclear power politics
Mr Rottgen said: "It's definite. The latest end for the last three nuclear power plants is 2022. There will be no clause for revision."
Mr Rottgen said a tax on spent fuel rods, expected to raise 2.3bn euros (Â£1.9bn) a year from this year, would remain despite the shutdown.
Mrs Merkel's centre-right Christian Democrats met their junior partners on Sunday after the ethics panel had delivered its conclusions.
Before the meeting she said: "I think we're on a good path but very, very many questions have to be considered.
"If you want to exit something, you also have to prove how the change will work and how we can enter into a durable and sustainable energy provision."
The previous German government - a coalition of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens - decided to shut down Germany's nuclear power stations by 2021.
However, last September Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition scrapped those plans - announcing it would extend the life of the country's nuclear reactors by an average of 12 years.
Ministers said they needed to keep nuclear energy as a "bridging technology" to a greener future.
The decision to extend was unpopular in Germany even before the radioactive leaks at the Fukushima plant.
But following Fukushima, Mrs Merkel promptly scrapped her extension plan, and announced a review.
Germany's nuclear industry has argued that an early shutdown would be hugely damaging to the country's industrial base.
Before March's moratorium on the older power plants, Germany relied on nuclear power for 23% of its energy.
The anti-nuclear drive boosted Germany's Green party, which took control of the Christian Democrat stronghold of Baden-Wuerttemberg, in late March.
Shaun Burnie, nuclear adviser for environmental campaign group Greenpeace International, told the BBC World Service that Germany had already invested heavily in renewable energy.
"The various studies from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change show that renewables could deliver, basically, global electricity by 2050," he said.
"Germany is going to be ahead of the game on that and it is going to make a lot of money, so the message to Germany's industrial competitors is that you can base your energy policy not on nuclear, not on coal, but on renewables."
Shares in German nuclear utilities RWE and E.On fell on the news, though it had been widely expected.
But it was good news for manufacturers of renewable energy infrustructure.
German solar manufacturer, Solarworld, was up 7.6% whilst Danish wind turbine maker Vestas gained more than 3%.


Harry Redknapp says he will not be paid for his three-game stint in charge of Birmingham City if he fails to keep them in the Championship.

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The 70-year-old agreed to take over at St Andrew's on Tuesday, a day after Gianfranco Zola resigned.
"I'm not being paid. It doesn't bother me though," Redknapp told BBC Radio 5 live.
"I have got a bonus. It's not a massive one, but I said 'if I don't keep you up, I don't want paying'."
Former West Ham, Tottenham and Portsmouth manager Redknapp revealed he had the same arrangement when he worked as an adviser to Derby County at the end of last season.
He added: "I said to them 'if you don't make the play-offs, I don't want any money'. If we hadn't made the play-offs, I wouldn't have got paid anything."
Redknapp has not managed in English football since leaving QPR in February 2015 but is confident he can have an energising effect on Blues, who are only three points clear of the relegation zone.
He said: "When a team only wins two out of 24, it tells you it's not going to be easy. But you've got to believe in yourself and believe in the team.
"I've been in these sort of situations before. They're always difficult, but I'm ready for it."
His first game in charge is away to local rivals Aston Villa on Sunday, and Blues then face Huddersfield at home before finishing the season away at Bristol City.
And although Redknapp is initially only involved for those three matches, and has attended just one training session so far, he has already seen enough in the club to believe it can challenge for the top six - if he can mastermind survival.
"I think if we can stay up this year, the potential is here to build a team that next year would be looking at the play-offs," he said.
"It's not that difficult to put together a good team in the Championship, if you know what you're doing. You can go out and pick up players, you haven't got to spend fortunes.
"Right now, it's tight at the bottom. Wigan and Blackburn have still got a big chance, so we're going to need some points from somewhere, starting if we can on Sunday."


Kenny Dalglish believes directors of football can prove invaluable to the modern-day team boss - as Rangers look poised to implement the system.

Dalglish was a director of football at Blackburn Rovers and Celtic - and also worked with one as Liverpool manager.
"It's much-maligned here... because people don't really understand what it is," he said.
"So as long as you know where you stand and lines are drawn before you start, I don't see a problem."
Rangers are awaiting a decision from Southampton head of recruitment and scouting Ross Wilson after offering him the director of football post.
And Portuguese coach Pedro Caixinha, currently with Al-Gharafa, is believed to be their first choice as team boss.
Dalglish believes British football has been slow to embrace the system despite clubs on the Continent having adopted the system as far back as when Celtic were winning the European Cup in 1967.
"As long as the lines of demarcation are perfectly clear: if you're the director of football and I'm the manager, you will do the negotiations for players or transfers then I don't need to have anything to do with it," said the 66-year-old.
"This is just one scenario, it's not necessarily the same for everybody, maybe the manager wants to negotiate for transfers.
"The manager will always pick the team, should always pick the team. He will train and coach them, he will also decide which players come in and which players go out."
Dalglish enjoyed working under a director of football at Anfield.
"I worked with one when I went back to Liverpool with Damien Comolli and it was fantastic, the work he did," he recalled.
"He looked after all the finances with players, organised all the scouting and, if I said 'we need to have a look at him', he would send someone out.
"If he saw somebody, I would go and have a look. And there was never anyone that came in the door that I didn't want to come in.
"For me, it can take a lot of work off the managers. Especially in the Premier League in England, they need as much time as they can get to prepare their teams."
Dalglish became one of British football's first directors of football after leading Blackburn to the title in 1995 and took on the role again at Celtic Park as John Barnes began a brief and difficult spell as manager.
"I never had a problem because I stuck to my job," he added. "I knew what my job was and John knew what his job was.
"I was frustrated that it never went better for everybody, but it wasn't because there was a clash in roles.
"I don't know what they will put in place, but I'm sure the board of Rangers and the management and the staff and the supporters are all looking for them to be a lot more competitive in the next couple of years."


Notts County's miserable home form continued as they were comprehensively beaten by mid-table Exeter.

Jayden Stockley opened the scoring for the visitors before Izale McLeod levelled the game going into half-time.
Substitute Jake Taylor's low finish put Exeter back in front and Christian Ribeiro's neat header gave the visitors a two-goal cushion.
Ollie Watkins' cool finish punished slack County defending to seal the points for the Grecians.


A study of the world's largest subway networks has revealed that they are remarkably mathematically similar.

The layouts seem to converge over time to a similar structure regardless of where or over how long they were built.
The study,
          in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface
, analysed 14 subway networks around the world.
It found common distributions of stations within the networks, as well as common proportions of the numbers of lines, stations, and total distances.
In some senses, it is unsurprising that the study found that networks tended over time to comprise a dense core of central stations with a number of lines radiating outward from it.
By choosing the world's largest networks, from Beijing to Barcelona, the results were bound to represent networks that serve city centres with a dense collection of stations and bring commuters inward from more distant stations.
But the analysis shows a number of less obvious similarities across all 14 networks.
It found the total number of stations was proportional to the square of the number of lines - that is, a four-fold increase in station number would result in a doubling of the number of lines.
The dense core of central stations all had the same average number of neighbours in the network, and in all cases, about half the total number of stations were found outside the core.
In addition, the length of any one branch from the core's centre was about the same as twice the diameter of the core.
The number of stations at a given distance from the centre was proportional to the square of that distance, but only up to the edge of the core; at more distant reaches of the network, the number of stations contained was directly proportional to distance.
The authors analysed how the networks grew and added lines and stations, finding that they all converged over time to these similar structures.
They authors point out that the similarities exist regardless of where the networks were, when they were begun, or how quickly they reached their current layout.
"Although these (networks) might appear to be planned in some centralised manner, it is our contention here that subway systems like many other features of city systems evolve and self-organise themselves as the product of a stream of rational but usually uncoordinated decisions taking place through time," they wrote.
The authors say that the systems do not appear to be "fractal". Fractal systems follow mathematical patterns that seem equivalent in a number of physical and social systems ranging from the movements of planets to the movements of depressed people, but they
          may or may not reflect a deeper, more universal organisational principle
.
Nevertheless, the team wrote that some underlying rule is likely to be driving the way subway systems end up worldwide.
"The existence of unique long-time limit topological and spatial features is a universal signature that fundamental mechanisms, independent of historical and geographical differences, contribute to the evolution of these transportation networks," they wrote.


Alan Johnston, a trainee accountant from Liverpool, travelled to Hillsborough with a number of friends, all of whom survived.

This is the full statement to the inquests from his brother, Ken Johnston:
Alan Johnston was a wonderful young man, in the prime of his life and with an exciting future ahead of him.
He was handsome, articulate, well educated and healthy.
He was much loved by his close family and friends. Alan was only 29 when he passed away.
Alan was born to Charlie and Elizabeth on 6 March, 1963 at their home in Walton, Liverpool. He was the youngest brother of Charlie, George and Ken.
Profiles of all those who died
His father passed away when Alan was quite young. He grew up with his mother and his third elder brother, Ken. To add to Alan's grievance, his beloved mother passed on, too.
Both the two younger siblings had a very close-knitted and inseparable relationship until that fateful day. Ken mentored Alan through his primary education.
At 10 years old, Alan won the Margaret Bryce Smith scholarship which allowed him to further his studies at the Liverpool Institute. He performed well at the Institute and went on to attain high grades at O and A levels.
Alan also represented his school sports teams in competitions.
Alan commenced his career with the National Health Service Section under the Treasury Department based at Walton Hospital. He was assigned as an articled accountant while studying his way through chartered accountancy examinations.
Alan was very sociable at work and a frequent blood donor for the hospital he worked at before his death.
Alan had a fiancÃ©e and had plans for a wedding that summer before he died. Alan had a wide circle of friends during his life, was very sociable and great fun to be with.
He enjoyed live concerts, which he went to frequently. He had been to watch Elvis Costello's performance with his friends on the Royal Iris ferry on the River Mersey, and the Rolling Stones at Roundhay Park in Leeds.
He was a proud owner of his record collection, which included anything from Steely Dan to The Jam and Iggy Pop.
He was always very smart and well turned out with a crew cut and sharp attire - the only 'mod' we knew with the combination of smart 'Como' shoes and a punk's mohair jumper.
Of course, he also loved his sport. He was a good, speedy footballer and played attacking midfield for his school and a local club side.
Undeniably, he was a very keen supporter of the Reds. He had a season ticket for the Kop and occasionally travelled to away games with his friends.
Alan also loved his tennis and played regularly before and after work at the Walton Hospital staff tennis court. He was an ardent fan of John McEnroe and played with the same replica wooden racquet - although he was a little more polite to umpires.
Alan was much loved by his family, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and friends. He shall be missed with infinity. Alan's close family is desperate for the justice he deserves.
He was an amazing guy. God bless you, Alan. Rest in peace.


A judge has retired to consider a claim for compensation by five victims of sexual abuse at a Catholic school.

More than 200 men claim they were abused at St William's residential school in Market Weighton, East Yorkshire, between 1970 and 1991.
The De La Salle order, which ran the school, has apologised "unreservedly" for the abuse and the actions of its former principal.
James Carragher was jailed for sex offences against children at the home.
Solicitor David Greenwood, acting for those claiming compensation, said St William's was "the biggest single home where boys were abused" that he had seen.
His Honour Judge Gosnell said he will rule on each case separately in the coming weeks.
BBC Inside Out Yorkshire and Lincolnshire discovered that the Catholic Church had several opportunities to investigate the abuse but failure to act meant boys continued to be abused for decades.
There have been three criminal investigations into abuse at the home.
James Carragher, of Cearns Road, Merseyside, who was principal from 1976-1990, is serving his third prison sentence for physically and sexually abusing boys there.
He was jailed for nine years in January after being found guilty of 21 indecent assaults and three serious sex offences. He was cleared of a further 30 charges.
Former chaplain Anthony McCallen, formerly of Whernside Crescent, Ingleby Barwick, Stockton-on-Tees, was jailed for 15 years after being convicted of 11 charges including a serious sexual offence.
He was acquitted of eight other charges at the same trial.
The compensation case was heard at the High Court in Leeds.


Two men accused of bludgeoning a man to death with a dumbbell have been found guilty of his "sickening" murder.

Atul Shah, 47, was found dead in Crescent Road, Luton, on 6 January.
Luke West, 23, of Abbots Wood Road and Kyle Pitchford-Price, 23, of Dovehouse Hill in Luton, both denied his murder, although West admitted manslaughter.
Luton Crown Court heard the dumbbell was smashed into Mr Shah's mouth with such ferocity that three of his teeth were later found in his stomach.
A liquid chemical used to encourage plant growth was also poured over his face.
The court was told the men attacked Mr Shah after going to his flat to rob him of money and cannabis.
During the five-week trial, forensic pathologist Sir Alexander Kolar took the jury through a catalogue of injuries found on Mr Shah's body, including bruises and swelling to his face and head and cuts and lacerations.
The court heard the pair bound and beat Mr Shah, hit him with a broom handle and used a kitchen knife to inflict other injuries.
He was found naked from the waist down with his ankles tied.
A post-mortem examination found Mr Shah died as a result of multiple injuries.
Det Insp Justine Jenkins of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Hertfordshire major crime unit said: "This was an absolutely sickening and brutal case, with both Pitchford-Price and West inflicting unimaginable torture on their victim."
Speaking after his death, Mr Shah's family said they were "devastated and may probably never recover from this cruel horrific murder of Atul".
"We know those who are guilty of his death will serve their time in prison, however, we are truly saddened to say that the outcome of the trial has no bearing on the fact that we will never see Atul's smiling face again."
Both Pitchford-Price and West were also convicted of conspiring with others to rob Mr Shah.
Corrina Armstrong 21, of Dovehouse Hill, who was the girlfriend of Pitchford-Price, and Callum Holton, 19 were cleared of the robbery charge.
However, Armstrong was convicted of conspiracy to burgle. She admitted perverting the course of justice.
Brian Edge, 56, the step-father of West, was cleared of perverting the course of justice.
West and Pitchford-Price, together with Armstrong will be sentenced at a later date.


The Scottish Football Association's disciplinary panel has rejected Dundee's appeal against the red card shown to their goalkeeper Scott Bain in Sunday's derby against Dundee United.

He will miss Dundee's match against Ross County at Dens Park on 2 April.
Bain, 24, was sent off for a foul on Billy McKay inside the penalty area that was deemed to have denied McKay an obvious goalscoring opportunity.
Dundee boss Paul Hartley had pointed out the presence of a covering player.
McKay slotted home the resultant penalty to halve his team's deficit before equalising in injury time.
Bain could make his Scotland debut against the Czech Republic on Thursday. He is one of four uncapped players in Gordon Strachan's squad for the friendly in Prague.


Striker Matt Green says he is attracting interest from Championship clubs having left Mansfield Town following a "demoralising" season.

Green scored 13 goals as the Stags just missed out on the League Two play-offs.
But the 30-year-old only managed four league goals after Steve Evans took over as manager in November.
Green told BBC Radio Nottingham: "He's the new era and unfortunately I wasn't part of his plans; that was obvious. I turned into an unhappy player."
Green, who returned to Mansfield in May 2015, scored 86 goals during two spells over four seasons with Mansfield, but said the time was right to leave.
"It is demoralising for any forward if you have scored the amount of goals I have and you are not getting the respect you think you deserve," he added.
"Bids were being turned down and they were not really enlightening me about it, so it was very frustrating towards the end of the season."
Mansfield agreed to cancel his contract and Green said there had already been plenty of offers.
"It's from League Two to the Championship at this moment," he added. "I offer goals, I am still quick and strong and I look after myself. It will be interesting.
"I have some great, great years at Mansfield Town and it gave a lot to me as a club and I gave a lot back. But I have to move on - that is football. I think my time at Mansfield was done.
"Everything changed as a positive for the football club when Steve Evans came in, but not for me. Sometimes you have to shake hands and move on in a situation like that. It was very friendly and respectful and ended on good terms."


A mum wept as her "Mary Poppins" nanny she found through an online advert was jailed for nine months for theft.

Zoe Appleyard-Ley, from London, said her two children were robbed of their innocence when Emma Currie used her bank card to steal £900 cash and disappeared in her car.
Currie, 45, was convicted at the Old Bailey of the theft and attempting to withdraw £400 more on 17 June 2013.
But the jury could not agree a verdict on whether she stole a Mercedes car.
There was also no verdict on three counts of fraud relating to an alleged £500 spending spree at Oliver Bonas, Superdrug and Boots and an attempted fraud at Monsoon amounting to £579 and could not decide whether Currie stole £170,000 worth of valuables.
The prosecution has said it will not seek a retrial.
In addition to the jail sentence, Currie was handed a restraining order to stay away from the Appleyard-Ley family.
Gumtree is an online classifieds website on which users can post adverts for free.
Mrs Appleyard-Ley, an investment banker, described the three-day trial as a "living hell" as Currie attempted to justify her crime during the trial "by painting a portrait of a monster".
As part of her defence, Currie had falsely accused her employer of trying to pull off an insurance scam, taking drugs, and abusing her children - even though a social services investigation concluded it was a malicious complaint.
Reading a victim impact statement, Mrs Appleyard-Ley, supported in court by husband Sven Ley, described Currie as a woman of "conniving, malicious charm".
"There are no words to describe the depth of the trauma and the short, medium and long-term effects that the cruelty of Emma-Jane Currie has had on me and my magical two young children who were four and six at the time of her ruthless theft," she said.
"She knowingly robbed them of their innocence and faith in human nature from the one place they were safe, their own home, where she had been in a position of absolute trust."
The trial had heard how Mrs Appleyard-Ley, from Belgravia, thought she had found her own "Mary Poppins" when she hired Currie to be her live-in nanny in May 2013.
But on June 17 of that year Mrs Appleyard-Ley reported the theft of items including iPads and a laptop after Currie failed to bring her a cup of tea in the morning, jurors were told.
Currie was accused of taking £170,000 worth of valuables and driving away in her employer's Mercedes.
She was driving the car when police pulled her over near Gatwick the next day.
After her arrest, Currie told police she took the car "as my employer owes me money", adding that she had worked for three weeks without a day off.
She went on to claim she had consent to drive the Mercedes after handing in her notice on the agreement she would return it later.
Giving evidence, Currie described the allegation she had stolen jewellery as "preposterous".
She also claimed she had used her employer's credit card in shops because she had been asked to buy presents for her children's teachers and friends.


A mountain rescue team, search dogs and a helicopter are looking for a 64-year-old man missing in Snowdonia.

Stephen Longfellow, from Leeds, was last seen on Sunday when he spoke with walkers in Llanfihangel y Pennant, Gwynedd.
Police found his car close to the Tryfan mountain and are concentrating their search there.
The hunt will cover areas with crevices, dips and gullies for as long as there is light on Friday.
Mr Longfellow's family have travelled to Snowdonia and are being supported by officers.
North Wales Police said he had indicated he intended to go walking at Tryfan or the Snowdon Horseshoe route.
His family alerted police when Mr Longfellow failed to return home on Thursday.
Sgt Andy Davies said: "We are increasingly concerned for his welfare."


In the beginning, people laughed, people mocked, people went on television and radio and on social media and had a hoot at Brendan Rodgers' expense.

Back in July, not that anybody is in any danger of forgetting, Celtic lost the first leg of a Champions League qualifier to Lincoln Red Imps, a team from Gibraltar that had in their ranks a labourer, a shipping agent, a customs officer, a civil servant, two policemen and just five professional footballers.
Everybody went barmy. The defeat was deemed the worst in Celtic's history.
There were calls, by Celtic's own supporters, for much of the team to be binned. Joey Barton - then at Rangers - went on Twitter and posted emojis of faces crying tears of laughter and tears of sadness.
There were GIFs of a slapstick Efe Ambrose, there was thunder and lightning about the ineffectiveness of Scott Brown, who was deemed, by Celtic people, "an embarrassment to the club" and "our worst captain ever".
This was not how Rodgers imagined life to be in a job he described as a dream come true.
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In the chronicling of Celtic's sixth successive title win there are many landmarks and even though that Red Imps game was in a different competition in a different country, it has its place in the story.
It showed Rodgers how desperately lax Celtic could become, how a lack of professional pride could dog them in the most extraordinary and humiliating of ways.
He kept a calm demeanour but that loss was an affront to the values he holds dear - hard work, honesty, bravery.
Rodgers tells a story about Dedryck Boyata that cuts to the heart of what he looks for in a player. Boyata was out of the Celtic team and almost a forgotten man. Rodgers had given him things to work on to improve his performance but the centre-half was still nowhere the first team.
One evening Rodgers had to run a late-night errand to Lennoxtown. It was around midnight when he left. He heard some noise coming from the gym and poked his head around the door. In there on his own, working away, was Boyata. Rodgers knew in that moment that the Belgian was not finished at Celtic. A player with that kind of desire is exactly what the Northern Irishman wants at his club.
Everything changed under Rodgers - and quickly.
When Celtic needed a player to step up and convert a penalty in the last minute of a game against Astana that would put them into the final round of Champions League qualification, one of Rodgers' new signings did the job. On his 20th birthday, Moussa Dembele gave the first small sign of what a sensational signing he was going to become, what a coup Rodgers had pulled off in getting him for the trifling sum of £500,000.
Dembele is on 32 goals for the season and is one of the most talked-about young players in Europe. He is just one feelgood story among several.
Four days later, on the opening weekend of the league season, Celtic were level at 1-1 after an hour. Rodgers turned to his bench and brought in another of his recruits, Scott Sinclair. With nine minutes left, Sinclair got the winner, an early illustration of what he was going to bring to the table in the months ahead.
The 28-year-old former Chelsea and Manchester City forward was a busted flush until Rodgers renewed their relationship that had blossomed so well at Swansea. He has got 21 goals.
Even at that early stage of the campaign, Celtic fans were noticing a difference in their team. Brown was slowly getting back to his combative best, James Forrest was more of a consistent performer than before, Dembele and Sinclair were scoring goals and creating goals, and in late October a new and improved Stuart Armstrong emerged.
Armstrong had been shunted out on the left side of midfield under Ronny Deila despite everybody telling the manager he needed to play in a central role. His confidence had become shot, his role in the team peripheral.
Rodgers had not started Armstrong in some key games early in the season - both legs of the Hapoel Beer Sheva tie, the thumping victory over Rangers at Celtic Park, the ill-fated trip to Barcelona, the huge occasion that was the home game with Manchester City, the home game with Borussia Monchengladbach, the League Cup semi-final against Rangers.
It was only when Armstrong started, and scored, in the league win against Ross County on 26 October that he got a sustained run in the team. And he was different player. Strong, influential, a creative threat, a leader, a goal-scorer.
He has 13 goals this season and is now a Scotland international.
In helping his club, Rodgers is also helping his adopted country, not just in the fantastic renaissance of Armstrong, but in the reinvigoration of Brown and the continuing development of Kieran Tierney, a young player whose future gets brighter by the month.
Celtic have all the financial advantages, it's true. They were always going to win the league, that's obvious.
Even those who believe in miracles gave up all hope of a title race as early as late October when Celtic held a nine-point advantage over the field. Nine became 13, then 16, then 19.
This is what they should be doing, of course. But they didn't do it last season. At this point of the season 12 months ago, Celtic held just a four-point advantage over Aberdeen, albeit with a game in hand. It was only in April that they kicked on and stretched clear.
This season, Celtic were out of sight even before the marketing people had a notion of dressing-up Leigh Griffiths as a Christmas elf. They'd disappeared over the horizon by the turn of the year.
It's understandable to downplay Celtic's domestic dominance, but it's worthwhile exploring it all the same. We think of them rampaging their way to the title, unbeaten and largely unthreatened. We think of the hammerings they've dished out. In league matches they've scored four or more goals against eight out of the 11 teams in the Premiership. They got five against Rangers, St Johnstone and Motherwell. They got six against Kilmarnock.
Easy? Unquestionably. But they've had to graft at times. Before this weekend they'd won 27 league games and 12 of them had been by a goal.
This cuts to what some rival managers say about the greatest improvement that Rodgers has introduced - hard work and improved fitness.
They have the talent, but what other managers keep saying is that as much as Dembele and Sinclair and Armstrong and Brown have made them borderline unbeatable domestically, it's their physical and mental robustness that is the key change.
As one Premiership manager said recently, "They're relentless. When they have you on the ropes their hunger to finish you off is greater than it's been for a long time."
That's backed up by their scoring record. In all competitions, Celtic have scored 28 goals after the 80-minute mark in matches this season.
That playing to the last whistle is down to Rodgers. He's trying to create a culture that's not just going to work domestically but internationally. The chants of 'Here we go, ten in a row' are all very well to him, but what he wants is not just success at home but growth in Europe - the true testing ground.
Winning the title was a formality, but it's how they won it that counts. They've found new players and reawakened others.
It's not just another league title that Celtic fans are celebrating, it's the belief that better days lie ahead for this team on a bigger stage, if only they can keep it together and add to it.
Rodgers is not the type of manager to settle for what he has. A title is always to be cherished, but he'll see it as just another stop on a much longer journey.


As an Aberdonian schoolboy in the 1970s, the man who's now the Lord Chancellor saw his dad's fish merchant business go to the wall.
Over rowies (Aberdeen buttery rolls to the uninitiated) and tea, he and his parents, Christine and Ernie, flicked through family photos - including of Mr Gove's grandfather who had started the business more than a 100 years ago that in the end, went under.
The family blamed the European Common Fisheries policy then, and they blame it now. Mr Gove's father said it just "ruined the Scottish fishing industry, it all went downhill".
For Mr Gove, his early experience, followed then by what he described as "airy-fairy theorising" about Europe at university in the 1980s that had little connection with real lives, was enough to persuade him that the European Union is a flawed institution and we should vote to leave.
As you'd expect, by now, Mr Gove isn't deterred by the economic warnings about Brexit, including the doom-laden ones from his close colleagues.
The accusations that the "outers" just don't have a plan for the economy seemed like water off a duck's back.
He was however, as you would probably also expect, visibly uncomfortable when I asked him what it was like for his close friend David Cameron to accuse him and Boris Johnson of "untruths".
He said, perhaps not entirely convincingly, that he didn't mind that at all and wants the PM to stay in number 10 until 2020, whatever happens.
But Mr Gove seems if not perhaps confident, then resolute, that this vote will change things.
He said on 23 June people will give a "very clear instruction to the establishment that they want a change in direction".
It sounds rather like he expects the outers to take on the rest and win.


Britons Rachel Joyce and Liz Blatchford were second and third respectively as Australia's Mirinda Carfrae won the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii.

Carfrae, 32, won her second title in a time of eight hours 52 minutes 14 seconds, breaking Briton Chrissie Wellington's course record of 8:54:02.
Joyce was second in 8:57:28, with Blatchford (9:03:35) third and defending champion Leanda Cave 13th.
The event comprises a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile cycle and a 26.2-mile run.
Carfrae, also champion in 2010, said: "I just had one of those days where you don't hurt - I didn't know I had a performance like that in me."
British competitors had won the race in five of the previous six years, four by Wellington.
Joyce, 35, said: "I gave everything and when you do that, you can't ask for any more."
Compatriot Jodie Swallow did not finish.
The men's race was won by Belgium's Frederik Van Lierde in 8:12:29 - the eighth-fastest time in the 35-year history of the event.
"I tried to be smart and it worked out," said Van Lierde, who was third in 2012.
"After last year, I believed I could do it. I worked hard this year. This is amazing."


Plans for a new link road connecting Leeds with the city's airport have been revealed.

Leeds City Council has drawn up three options for improving access to Leeds Bradford Airport.
Two proposals include building a new link road from the A65 between Rawdon and Horsforth while the third involves upgrading the existing route.
The West Yorkshire Combined Authority has earmarked Â£38m for the scheme but the costs are yet to be finalised.
A public consultation is expected to be launched in November with a view to construction starting in 2019.
Councillor Richard Lewis said a new link road would help tackle congestion, delays and the use of rat-runs on the current road network.
"We have a need for better road and rail links and a link road is clearly one we can do most easily and see the benefits," he said.
"Anyone who uses the A65 knows how congested it is. These proposals can make a considerable difference."
The first option includes building a more direct route from the A65, which runs along the east of the airport and joins the A658 Harrogate Road from the north.
The second runs to the east of Rawdon and only provides direct access to the airport where it joins Harrogate Road from the south.
The final scheme would see the existing A65 and A658 around Rawdon and Yeadon upgraded with new junctions and wider roads.
Work is expected to finish by 2022 and full details of the plan can be found on the council website.


A teenage driver who caused serious injuries to a pregnant woman and a 13-year-old girl when he crashed the car they were travelling in during a high speed police chase has been detained.

Steven Thomas, 19, reached speeds of up to 100mph before crashing into a tree beside the A158 near Hagworthingham, Lincolnshire, in May.
The girl suffered fractures to her back and the woman sustained a head injury.
Thomas, from Alfreton, was sentenced to 12 months detention.
More stories from across Lincolnshire
Prosecutor Phil Howes told Lincoln Crown Court: "[Thomas] was trying to evade a police pursuit on the A158 Horncastle to Skegness road, and because of his excessive speed he lost control at Hagworthingham.
"It caused significant damage to his car which collided with a tree and there were significant injuries to his two passengers."
He said the officer involved in the pursuit estimated that at one point he was travelling at 100mph and Thomas seemed to be still pulling away.
The court heard Thomas had sustained a serious brain injury in the crash.
His barrister Andrew Vout said his client is due to undergo an operation to insert a plate over his brain and needs therapy for slow speech and poor balance.
Sentencing Thomas, Recorder Paul Mann QC, said: "Having seen the photos of the wreckage, it is a wonder any of you survived."
Thomas, of Scott Drive, Somercotes, Alfreton, pleaded guilty to two charges of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
He was also banned from driving for two and half years and ordered to take an extended driving test.


A Rangers fan has admitted making racial gestures at the weekend's Old Firm clash.

Paul Kenny appeared from custody at Glasgow Sheriff Court where he admitted the offence contrary to the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act.
The 28-year-old, from Girvan, South Ayrshire, made the gestures at Ibrox Stadium on 29 April after Celtic player Scott Sinclair scored a penalty early in the game.
Celtic won the match 5-1.
Kenny admitted engaging in behaviour that would be likely to incite public disorder by shouting and making "racial gestures".
He was granted bail with the condition that he cannot go to any regulated football games.
No narrative of facts was read out in the court and it was continued until a later date for background reports.
Sinclair, a Celtic forward, said the abuse he suffered at Ibrox in the weekend win over Rangers was "very shocking" and the 'first time it's happened' in his career in football.
He said it all came as "a big surprise" and that racism "shouldn't be around" in the game.
Fellow Rangers supporter David McLellan also admitted an offence under the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act.
The 23-year-old from Irvine, Ayrshire, ran on to the field, behaved in an aggressive manner and confronted Celtic player Scott Brown.
Procurator fiscal depute Ruth Ross-Davie said that six minutes into the game at the Rangers home end Celtic were awarded a penalty.
She said: "They scored the penalty, players started celebrating.
"Players were running around the home support end at which point Mr McLellan ran on to the pitch towards the Celtic player Scott Brown and confronted him on the pitch.
"His approach was aggressive and intimidating. He was held back by other players on the pitch and the referee before making his way back to the track side where he was stopped by stewards."
Defence lawyer Emma Skett described his actions as the "most idiotic of behaviour".
She added: "He immediately realised what he had done and stupidity of what he had done."
From the dock, McLellan told the court he was sorry, adding: "As soon as I done it I realised I shouldn't have done it."
Sentence was also deferred for reports and bail granted with the same football condition as Kenny.
A third Rangers fan, Steven Morrison, from Pollok, admitted singing sectarian lyrics of a song at the match.
He too will be sentenced at a later date and was granted bail with the same conditions not to go to any regulated football matches.


The pound has had a testing Brexit year - and most of us are feeling it.

The devaluation of the currency, against both the dollar and the euro, has been the major event, post-referendum.
Put simply, it has made things more expensive, from the goods we import to the cost of a foreign holiday.
It comes as the negotiations on the UK's exit from the European Union begin in Brussels.
Against the euro, the pound has dropped 12% since last June, and at one point in October it hit a six-year low against its neighbouring currency.
"I think consumers are very much aware of where things are now," said Brian Telford, head of markets at Danske Bank in Belfast.
Sterling's depreciation is central to the rising cost of living.
Last June, inflation was 0.5% - now it is 2.9%, overtaking many people's pay rises.
Clothing, energy and food are all more expensive than a year ago.
"The weekly shop is costing a little bit more than it used to because an awful lot of what we buy comes from somewhere else," said Mr Telford.
There is a flip-side, but one likely to provide much comfort to customers.
Many visitors have increased spending power - their dollars or euros are going much further - and tourism in Northern Ireland is prospering.
Local manufacturers are also exporting at record levels.
Rising sales are linked to their goods now being cheaper in our major markets, Europe and the United States.
Economist Neil Gibson believed the pound "was probably over-valued" before the referendum.
"Ultimately as a region we need to export more and balance away from more consumer spending.
"In a long-run this is a welcoming re-balancing in the currency, but that does not make it any less challenging for people as they go out to spend in the shops," he added.
The pound's fortunes in the short-to-mid-term will continue to be tied-up in Brexit, with the money markets responding to the kind of trade deal the UK finally emerges with.
It will have an impact felt by us all.


The three-point turn could be dropped from the UK driving test as part of biggest update to the exam in 20 years.

Under a revised practical exam, learners may also be asked to use a satellite navigation system instead of following road signs.
About 1,000 learners will take part in a trial of a new practical exam.
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency said any eventual changes would be subject to full public consultation.
"We are carrying out initial research to explore how the driving test could better reflect real-life driving," said a DVSA spokesman.
The DVSA is an agency of the Department for Transport and sets the standards for driving and motorcycling in the UK.
The theory test was introduced in 1996 and a section where motorists are asked to find their own way to a destination - aimed at assessing "independent driving" - in 2010.
Under the other changes being considered, drivers may no longer need to reverse around a corner.
The DVSA said drivers may instead be asked to focus on more realistic everyday manoeuvres, such as reversing out of a parking bay, or re-joining the flow of traffic from the side of a road.
But reverse parking - either into a parking bay or parallel parking - would remain as one of the manoeuvres candidates could be asked to perform, a spokesman said.
The two vehicle-safety questions are currently asked at the start of the test. In future, one these may be asked while the candidate is driving. The DVSA said a candidate, for example, may be asked to show how they would operate the rear heated screen while driving.
The Driving Instructors Association welcomed the plans.
Its chief executive Carly Brookfield said: "DIA has been heavily involved in the scoping of this project and is enthusiastic about the opportunity it presents to evolve the L-test to a level where it more realistically assesses a candidate's ability to competently and safely manage road based risk and driving in real life, on real roads."
RAC Foundation director Professor Stephen Glaister said: "We all rely on our sat navs but they are not infallible and it is when they have led us down a dead end that we need to know how to do a three-point turn.
"It's fine to add some aspects to the test but we should be cautious about removing the basics."


The father of one of the victims of flight MH17 has said he had to believe those on board died quickly or it would "hurt forever".

Newcastle United fan Liam Sweeney was among 298 people who died when the Boeing 777 came down over eastern Ukraine in July 2014.
His father, Barry, travelled to The Hague for the Dutch Safety Board's report into its downing.
The report found that the plane was hit by a Russian-made BUK missile.
See how updates on the MH17 report unfolded on North East Live.
Liam Sweeney, 28, and fellow supporter John Alder, 63, were on board the Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur en route to New Zealand, to watch Newcastle United play in a pre-season tour.
Relatives had a private briefing prior to the publication of the report.
Barry Sweeney described the atmosphere as "quite composed".
"There were a few questions afterwards, obviously there are still angry people in there," he said.
"But the Dutch chairman got a round of applause at the end to be honest with you, he was as frank as he could be.
"Basically [we were told] that the plane was hit by a BUK missile.
"The cockpit then broke off - probably creating confusion in the rest of the plane.
"Hopefully most people were unconscious by the time this happened - and that's probably a comfort to 298 sets of relatives.
"We're all here for the same reason, they sort of told us what we already knew, we can't be 100%, but we have to think no-one suffered on that flight.
"I'm going to have to just go away and think yes, Liam died instantly... because if you think otherwise, it will hurt forever."


Russian officials have criticised a lack of communication by US authorities over the death of Mikhail Lesin, a former aide to President Putin.

They said they became aware of details of his injuries only when the medical examiner's report was released on Thursday.
Mr Lesin, 57, was found dead in a US hotel four months ago. US coroners say he died of head injuries.
Medical examiners say the exact circumstances of death are not clear.
Russian media had reported his death as a suspected heart attack.
He was one of the most influential figures on the Russian media scene.
Who was Mikhail Lesin?
The Russian embassy in Washington told the BBC that it became aware of the injuries sustained by Lesin only on Thursday, when the medical examiner's report was released.
Press Secretary Yuri Melnik said Russia had made repeated requests for updates on the investigation but very few facts had been given.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said no detailed information about the case had been provided to Moscow via the channels used for such cases.
"In the light of these media reports we hope that we will receive the detailed information," he said.
Washington DC's chief medical examiner said Mr Lesin had, as well as head injuries, blunt force injuries to the neck, torso, arms and legs, without concluding how the injuries had been sustained.
Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck said the case remained under investigation, the Washington Post reports.
He declined to say whether the post-mortem examination results meant a crime might have been committed.
The New York Times reported that Mr Lesin's injuries were the result of "some sort of altercation" that happened before he returned to his hotel.
A former Russian press minister and one-time head of the powerful Gazprom-Media Holding group, Mikhail Lesin was found dead on 5 November 2015 in the Dupont Circle Hotel.
It is unclear why he was in Washington but several family members were resident in the US and had business interests there.
He worked as an aide to the presidency between 2004 and 2009 and was instrumental in the creation of Russia's state-funded international broadcaster RT (formerly known as Russia Today).
The BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Moscow says that for years Mr Lesin was the mastermind behind the Kremlin's wholesale takeover of the Russian media landscape after Vladimir Putin became president.
As Russian press minister and media adviser to the president, he earned the nickname The Bulldozer for the way in which he crushed all Kremlin critics in his path, our correspondent says.
After Mr Lesin's death, President Putin spoke of his "enormous contribution" to Russian media.
Competing theories
Various theories are swirling in the media about what happened to Mr Lesin now it has it emerged that he suffered multiple injuries.
Last November the UK's Daily Mail raised the possibility that the FBI could have faked Lesin's death in order to give him witness protection - as a valuable information source, since he had long been a Kremlin insider.
It also quoted Mikhail Seslavinsky, head of Russian media regulator Rospechat, as saying Mr Lesin had appeared happy and healthy a month earlier. He added that he had undergone complicated surgery for a spinal injury, but was now practising sports.
There are unconfirmed reports that Mr Lesin had had a dispute with financier Yuri Kovalchuk, a longstanding friend of Mr Putin.
A Russian forensic expert quoted by Lenta.ru website (in Russian), Alexander Aulov, said Mr Lesin's injuries were consistent with a severe beating, not an accident or the result of convulsions.
In 2014, Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker called for an investigation into Mr Lesin over possible money laundering, saying he had moved his family to the US and bought several multi-million dollar properties in California.
Some of the properties reported to have been bought by companies connected to the family include, according to the LA Times, a house in the Pacific Palisades for almost $4m and a house in Beverley Hills bought in 2011 for almost $14m.
His son Anton Lessine has produced several high-profile Hollywood films, the Business Insider website reports, featuring stars like Brad Pitt, Woody Allen and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Lesin's Gazprom-Media group is owned by Gazprombank which, in turn, has links to Bank Rossiya, described by the the EU and US authorities as "the personal bank" of top Russian officials.
Bank Rossiya is under EU-US sanctions, as is the bank's biggest shareholder Yuri Kovalchuk. He is a longstanding close aide to President Putin.


The number of police officers in Scotland has fallen slightly to 17,272, down by 46 compared to a year ago.

But the total has maintained the Scottish government's pledge before the 2007 Holyrood elections to appoint an additional 1,000 officers.
The government said increased police strength had come as crime levels were at an historic low.
Critics have said it is unrealistic to maintain such staffing levels given the funding cuts faced by Police Scotland.
The current total is 1,038 higher than 16,234 police officers recorded in March 2007.


The PGA Tour is to introduce blood testing next season and will align its list of prohibited substances with that of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).

The Tour will still use urine testing as an anti-doping measure, with blood testing intended to detect substances such as human growth hormone.
Commissioner Jay Monahan said the move would "better substantiate the integrity of golf as a clean sport".
Suspensions due to recreational drug use will also now be reported.
Currently, misdemeanours related to recreational drugs are kept confidential but this will no longer be the case as part of widespread changes in policy for the 2017-18 season, starting later this year.
The PGA Tour provides the week-to-week competitions for many of the world's top golfers who base themselves in the US, while the European Tour does so in Europe.
It has operated its own anti-doping programme since 2008 and consulted with both Wada and US Anti-Doping in putting it together.
But its banned list differed to the Wada code in three categories, relating to asthma medications, allergy and anti-inflammatory medications.
Wada's figures for 2015 showed that golf carried out the fewest drugs test - 417 - of any summer Olympics discipline.
The International Olympic Committee urged the PGA Tour to adopt fully Wada's code before the sport's return to the Olympics in 2016, where players were subject to blood testing.


Former two-weight world champion Ricky Hatton has trained a fighter to a world title for the first time.

Kazakhstan's Zhanat Zhakiyanov survived two first-round knockdowns to outpoint American Rau'shee Warren and claim the WBA bantamweight title in Ohio.
The 33-year-old, trained by Hatton since 2013, was given a split decision 111-115 116-110 115-111.
Hatton, 38, tweeted:  "He's only gone and done it. Been with me years. Couldn't be prouder."
Zhakiyanov stunned many inside the Huntington Center with a tenacious comeback as the fight progressed in Warren's home city.
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He improved his record to 27 wins and one loss, inflicting a second defeat on 29-year-old Warren's 16-fight professional career.
Hatton's last fight came in 2012 after a three-year spell out of the ring during which he suffered with depression and substance abuse.
The former light-welterweight and welterweight champion now manages and trains a number of fighters from his gym in Hyde, Manchester.
Zhakiyanov, who signed for Hatton Boxing in 2011 but only starting training with him two years later, is in the same weight division as Britain's Jamie McDonnell and IBF champion Lee Haskins.
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A County Antrim woman has admitted being drunk in public while in charge of a child aged under seven.

Tara Jane Lawther , 46, from Templepatrick, assaulted police officers who were called to Coast pizzeria, Portrush, County Antrim on 10 October.
At Coleraine Magistrates Court on Monday, she admitted three assaults, two on police officers.
She was released on her own bail of Â£250, pending reports.
She is banned from all of the Ramore chain of restaurants and is not allowed to drink or enter licensed premises.


Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has led tributes to former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who has died at the age of 82.

Ayatollah Khamenei hailed a "companion of struggle" despite their differences, saying this was a "difficult" loss.
President Hassan Rouhani praised Mr Rafsanjani as a great man of the Islamic revolution.
The government has announced three days of mourning, making Tuesday a public holiday for his funeral in Tehran.
Mr Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989 to 1997, was pivotal in the 1979 revolution. But later in life he became a counterpoint to hardline conservatives.
"The different opinions and interpretations at time in this long period could never entirely break up the friendship between us," said Ayatollah Khamenei.
Mr Rafsanjani died on Sunday in a hospital in Tehran after suffering a heart attack.
His body was taken to Jamaran prayer hall, the residence of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Rohullah Khomeini, where relatives, politicians and religious figures gathered to pay their last respects.
Mr Rafsanjani had been a mentor to President Rouhani, whom he supported after his own attempt to run in the 2013 election as a reformist candidate was rejected by the powerful Guardian Council.
Mr Rouhani said on Twitter: "The soul of the great man of the revolution, symbol of patience and resistance, has gone to Heaven."
Analysts say Mr Rafsanjani's sudden death is a major blow to the president, who is preparing for re-election in May.
Iranian newspapers across the political spectrum are paying tribute to Mr Rafsanjani. Most front pages are splashed with pictures and captions highlighting his central role in Iranian politics. Many have used black as a background.
"Iran mourns the death of contemporary Amir Kabir," moderate Arman-e Emruz announces, comparing Rafsanjani to the man widely considered to be Iran's first reformer and moderniser.
An "irretrievable loss", moderate daily Iran laments, while reformist Aftab-e Yazd, under a picture of Mr Rafsanjani's grieving children, affirms that "Iran is mourning".
Even hard-line dailies are joining in the accolades. Javan notes his closeness to the founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in its headline: "Man of tough days of fighting and friend of Imam and the Leader rushes to meet God."
Hard-line Vatan-e Emrooz describes him as "one of the pillars" and "a genuine figure" of Iran's Islamic Revolution.
BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.
BBC Persian's Kasra Naji says Mr Rafsanjani was a great survivor of the Iranian revolution, always managing to stay afloat in the unending political struggles between the hardliners and the moderates, remaining influential.
In recent years, our correspondent says, he has been a central figure in the reform movement that has been trying to have a moderating influence on Iran and Ayatollah Khamenei.
Mr Rafsanjani's final role was head of the Expediency Council, which tries to resolve disputes between parliament and the Guardian Council.
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was born in 1934 in south-eastern Iran to a family of farmers.
He studied theology in the holy city of Qom with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini - who went on to lead the Islamic revolution of 1979 - and was imprisoned several times under the Shah.
In the last year of the 1980-88 war with Iraq, Ayatollah Khomeini appointed him acting commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
He was seen as the main mover behind Iran's acceptance of the UN Security Council resolution that ended the war.
Mr Rafsanjani was also a key player in the development of Iran's nuclear programme, and recently gave staunch support to the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
He was a man known for a sharp wit but who could also be ruthless.
He advocated progressive economic policies, encouraging private businesses and improving infrastructure. His own business holdings were reported to be widespread.
Mr Rafsanjani ran for a third time for president in 2005 but lost to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Mr Rafsanjani became openly critical of the victorious president and in 2009, he sided with reformers who disputed that year's elections. Nevertheless, Mr Ahmadinejad won a second term.
Mr Rafsanjani continued to champion moderate causes, such as the release of political prisoners and greater political freedoms for parties prepared to work within the constitution.
Some of the members of Mr Rafsanjani's family have also made the headlines. His daughter Faezeh Hashemi attracted the ire of hardliners when she met a leader of the Bahai religious minority - which Iran's leadership regards as a heretical sect - last year.
And his son Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani was jailed in 2015 after being convicted of "security offences and financial crimes".


Germany's Alexander Zverev became just the third man to beat Roger Federer this year as the 20-year-old German won his fifth title of 2017 in Montreal.

Zverev, ranked eighth, won 6-3 6-4 at the Rogers Cup to claim his second Masters 1000 title and extend his winning run to 10 matches.
Federer, 36, lost for just the third time in 38 matches this year.
The Swiss can still take the number one ranking if results go his way at the Cincinnati Open this week.
Either Federer or Rafael Nadal will replace Andy Murray at the top of the standings on 21 August.
Zverev gave further evidence that he is a contender for the biggest titles as he became only the second active player after Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to win two Masters titles, outside the 'Big Four' of Federer, Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Murray.
The German has drawn level with Federer on a Tour-leading five titles in 2017, following up last week's victory in Washington.
Federer, who missed the clay court season, was playing in his first tournament since winning Wimbledon on 16 July.
"After vacation and practice, it's always a bit of a shock for the body," he said. "I felt all right all week. Had a bit of muscle pain, aches and pains here and there, just because it's back on the match courts, on the hard courts."
He said he will "take a decision in the next couple of days" whether he plays in Cincinnati, where he has a first-round bye.
The US Open, the final Grand Slam of the year, begins on 28 August.
Federer added: "Looking ahead to the US Open, obviously I want to be in the best possible shape. Winning my third of the year, my 20th Grand Slam, would be completely insane. I just hope I'm going to be 100% ready when the moment arises."
Japan's Kei Nishikori has become the latest top 10 player to pull out of Cincinnati, after the world number nine withdrew with a wrist injury.
Murray and Wimbledon finalist Marin Cilic have withdrawn, while 2016 US Open winner Stan Wawrinka and 12-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic will miss the rest of the season.
Former world number ones Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka have withdrawn from the women's event.


Police in Australia have charged a 22-year-old man with committing a terrorist act and attempted murder in southwest Sydney.

They say he was inspired by the Islamic State (IS) group.
Officers say the attacker repeatedly stabbed a 59-year-old man in a suburban park and then tried to stab a policeman.
A large knife has been seized from the accused,  who will appear in court later on Sunday.
The victim, who was reportedly walking his dog in the park, suffered injuries to his body and hands, and remains in hospital in a serious condition.
Although the authorities say they believe the attacker was inspired by IS, they do not think he has close ties to any extremist organisation.
"This is the new face of terrorism. This is the new face of what we deal with," New South Wales state police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn said.
Timeline: Australia's terror threat
The arrest comes two days after a teenage boy was charged with making threats at Sydney Opera House.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said last week the threat of a terror attack in the nation was "real" after an IS call to followers to target prominent Australian locations.


England and Wales have seen the biggest jump in the number of deaths a year for a whole generation, a public health expert suggests.

Professor Dominic Harrison says this must act as a "strong warning light" and suggests cuts to local authority social care budgets could be partly to blame.
Public Health England says it is monitoring the provisional data.
And its officials say a particularly bad strain of flu and an ineffective vaccine may be behind the rise.
Prof Harrison's own analysis backs up figures in the Health Service Journal which suggest there have been 5.6% more deaths in England and Wales in 2015 than in the previous year - the biggest increase in the national death rate since the 1960s.
Though the final figures - which take changes in population size into account - will not be released by the Office for National Statistics until the summer, experts say more needs to be done to understand the reasons behind the spike and urge public health experts to focus on wider factors, not just influenza.
Prof Harrison, director of public health in Blackburn and Darwen and adviser to Public Health England, also points to a separate report by Public Health England which reveals a large number of local authorities showed a fall in life expectancy at age 85 in 2014.
Taken together he says the figures suggest "something is making the population more vulnerable to death."
Prof Harrison says reductions in local authority social care budgets have particularly affected preventative care services that would normally provide daily one-to-one contact for elderly people.
Cuts to meals on wheels services, for example, could mean more elderly people go through entire days without seeing anyone else, and if they are ill this would mean they deteriorate without anyone noticing, he says.
He adds: "One of the things this data might be telling us is that that it is just not possible for the health and social care system to contain costs, improve quality, reduce inequality and improve outcomes within such a rapidly diminishing resource envelope."
David Buck, senior fellow in public health at the King's Fund, agrees that wider issues such as changes to pensions, must be taken into account.
He added: "Public Health England, as a guardian of the nation's healthcare needs to get behind this and investigate more thoroughly."
Public Health England said statistics for older people fluctuate from year to year.
Professor John Newton, chief knowledge officer at PHE added: "There is often no obvious pattern to this but it is clearly important to keep a close eye on the trends, and consider a range of possible explanations.
"In 2015, the monthly death figures suggest cold weather and flu may have played a part in the high numbers of deaths in the early part of the year."


Before our marathon eight-hour flight, Capt Thomas Hyde, the commanding officer of one of the B-52 bombers, briefly describes the mission.

He says we will be doing a number of simulated bombing runs around what he calls "the island". He makes it sound like a short training flight over a remote abandoned outcrop of rock somewhere in the North Sea. But the island he is referring to is in fact Britain.
It is the first time the B-52s have returned to their European "home" for more than a decade.
RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire is one of the long-range bombers' forward operating bases - alongside the more exotic islands of Guam and Diego Garcia.
The last time they were in Europe was in 2003 - the year America launched "shock and awe" on Iraq.
Now their arrival is more about flexing America's military muscle.
But it is seen as significant given Russia's recent intervention in Ukraine.
Col Leyland Bohannon of the US Air Force says the timing is "interesting" while insisting it is "not connected".
But he adds wherever you fly a nuclear capable bomber "it does send a message".
The B-52 is  a warrior of the Cold War.  But it is still a symbol of American power.
The one we are flying in was built in 1961. It has since undergone numerous upgrades.
And while the B-52 was once used to conduct "carpet bombing" now it is more likely to carry cruise missiles and Laser Guided Bombs.
It is also capable of delivering nuclear weapons - these days ones fitted to cruise missiles that can be fired well away from its target.
But in the cockpit you can still see the shutters fitted to protect the aircrew from the intense blast of a nuclear explosion.
It's areminder of the B-52's history as an offensive weapon of last resort, as well as its appearance in the film Dr Strangelove.
There is another, more light-hearted, reminder of the famous Stanley Kubrick satire in a safety briefing given just before our flight.
It shows a still from the film under explanations of how to exit the aircraft in an emergency.
But for this visit there are no real bombs to drop, yet alone ride. It has been announced that the three B-52s and their more modern stealth cousin, the B-2, will not be carrying any live weapons while in the UK.
Despite its hulky appearance, life on board for the crew is cramped. Beyond the cockpit it is more like a submarine than an aeroplane with red lights and screens the only illumination.
Behind the two pilots are the seats for the Electronic Warfare Officers.
For our trip their electronics have been covered in black dustbin bags to avoid being seen by our camera.
Below, down a small narrow ladder, sits the navigator and the weapons officer squeezed into a cupboard-sized space with numerous screens and buttons - including those used to launch the weapons from the massive bomb door below.
The plane has been designed to carry bombs and fuel rather than people.
Andrew, the officer directing the bombs and with his hand on the trigger, answers to the call sign "Mayhem".
Air traffic control refers to B-52s over the radio as "Doom-One-One". The US military is clearly happy to use call signs that do not hide their business.
The crew though are more vague as to where they drop their weapons in their simulated bombing runs over "the island".
Although as "Doom-One-One" criss-crosses Britain from Land's End to Scotland we do seem to spend a significant amount of time over the north coast of Wales and Merseyside.
The three B-52s and the two B-2s now at RAF Fairford are expected to return to the US at the end of the month.
Though their training here is all about being ready, the current volatile situation in the Middle East is another reminder that the crews can never be sure of where they might be flying over next.
With a range of 8,000 miles (12,900km) on just one tank of fuel, the B-52 is able to reach pretty much anywhere in the world.
It has already seen action during the war in Vietnam and more recently in Afghanistan and Iraq.
And with a lifespan of at least another 30 years it could still could be used in anger again.
The crew of the bomber are anxious to show in this training mission that in the era of so-called "smart bombs", their targeting is not indiscriminate.
It is a mix of new as well as old technology.
In the words of Capt Hyde, the B-52 is proof that "you can teach an old dog new tricks".


Glamorgan have signed Australia pace bowler Shaun Tait for the second half of their Twenty20 campaign in 2016.

T20 specialist Tait previously played for Glamorgan in that format in 2010.
The 33-year-old made his 21st Twenty20 international appearance in January, and has also played Test and one-day cricket for Australia.
Chief executive Hugh Morris said they were in talks with another overseas player for the first seven games of the T20 Blast, which starts on 20 May.
Morris said: "We're very excited. Shaun's been with us before in 2010,
"He's bowled really well in the Big Bash [Australia's domestic T20 league] in recent years and this winter he got back into the Australian Twenty20 team at the beginning of the year.
"He's one of the quickest bowlers in the world and I think everyone that's going to come and watch us this summer will be excited."
Head coach Robert Croft played alongside Tait, who has retired from the longer formats and played for Essex last summer, during his previous stint with the Welsh county.
"We've done some research, we've looked into how he's performed and he's still at the top of his game," said Croft.
"When he was here, he was giving and helpful as an individual and he provides that X factor to the team that we have.
"Having that strength in depth in the bowling department is very exciting for me."
Glamorgan's opening T20 game is away to Surrey on 26 May, with the first home match against Essex on 1 June.


Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has asked for help from the United Nations to boost supplies of medicine.

Mr Maduro said the UN had the expertise to normalise the supply and distribution of drugs in the country.
Venezuela's Medical Federation said recently that hospitals had less than 5% of the medicines they needed.
The president blames the problems on an economic war against his government and the sharp fall in oil prices.
``I've asked for support from the United Nations to help treat the economic and social injuries that have hit our people,'' he said Friday on television.
The opposition says Mr Maduro's mismanagement is to blame for the country's worsening economic crisis.
Shortages of food and many other essential items mean Venezuelans have to face long queues almost daily to buy basic goods.
Medicines are no exception.
Correspondents say Mr Maduro's acknowledgement that Venezuela needs outside help is indicative of the dire situation the country is in, despite having some of the largest oil reserves in the world.


About 40 firefighters tackled a blaze which gutted a children's play centre.

Fire broke out at the Funky Funhouse in Mercers Row, Cambridge, at about 22:40 BST on Friday, destroying the soft play area, cafe and day nursery.
No-one was inside at the time, but the company estimates damage caused by the blaze to cost about Â£750,000 to repair.
About 2,500 people were expected to use the centre over the long weekend, they added. The fire was started deliberately, an investigation found.
Aaron Othman, one of the company's directors, said it was "hugely distressing as everything inside is gone".
He said he believed the building had been broken into, and the safe and tills emptied, but was still waiting to see if the structure was safe to enter.
"It's the worst possible time," he said.
"We had eight birthday parties booked today [Saturday] and were expecting about 700 people.
"We're working hard to make arrangements with other venues so we don't disappoint the children."
The company had just completed work on a new day nursery within the complex, and was awaiting the "OK from Ofsted" before opening, Mr Othman added.
Fire crews were called in from neighbouring Suffolk to assist Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service tackle the blaze at the centre, which is situated on an industrial estate close to a recycling depot.


Police are investigating the deaths of a man and woman at a tenement in Dundee.

The two bodies were discovered at a property in Rosefield Street in the city's west end.
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said the deaths were being treated as unexplained.
The property has been sealed off by police while officers investigate.


The Portuguese president has invited incumbent Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho to form the next government, despite him having lost his majority.

The centre-right coalition led by Mr Passos Coelho won the most seats in the election on 4 October.
But Socialist leader Antonio Costa has been working to build a coalition with far-left parties.
Many believe that Mr Passos Coelho will fail to pass the test of a vote of no confidence in Portugal's parliament.
President Anibal Cavaco Silva would then be expected to ask the left to form a government.
There are fears that weeks of uncertainty could harm Portugal's economic recovery, more than a year after it exited the strict terms of its â‚¬78bn (Â£57bn) international bailout.
EU officials have threatened to take action against Portugal for missing a 15 October deadline to present its draft 2016 budget.
Portugal is still running one of the highest budget deficits in the eurozone.
12%
of the workforce is unemployed
20%
of people live below the poverty line
485,000 emigrated from Portugal between 2011 and 2014
125% debt to GDP - the second highest rate in the European Union
Mr Passos Coelho's Social Democrats have promised to present a budget, but the two left-wing parties campaigned strongly against his outgoing government's record of harsh austerity.
The Left Bloc is seen as allied to the anti-austerity Syriza party in Greece, which for months tried to renegotiate the terms of Greece's eurozone bailout.
Portugal's Communist Party is regarded as anti-euro and anti-Nato, although it is thought to have moderated its eurozone policies in recent weeks.
If Mr Costa's Socialists are eventually chosen to lead a left-wing coalition, it would be the first time since the fall of Portugal's dictatorship in 1974 that a right-wing president appointed a government backed by communists.
After his re-appointment as prime minister leading a right-of-centre coalition, Pedro Passos Coelho has 10 days to appoint ministers and secure parliamentary approval.
That may prove impossible, since his coalition lost its majority in the 4 October election and the Socialists have pledged to reject his programme if their talks with other parties succeed.
Together, the Socialists, Left Bloc and Communist Party have a majority. All wanted the president to appoint Mr Costa - arguing that anything else was a waste of time.
If Mr Passos Coelho does fail, the president could then appoint Mr Costa or keep the incumbent on as caretaker.
Fresh legislative elections may only take place from June, after voters have elected a new president early next year.


A County Antrim woman who is returning to work while fighting cancer has called for more support for others in her position.

Lynette McKendry had inflammatory breast cancer in one breast and a different form of cancer in the other.
She had a double mastectomy in February and is on a phased return to work.
Mrs McKendry works for the Department of Justice and said it has fully supported her, but others have not been so lucky with other employers.
"I know of one girl whose line manager did not contact her for the entire six months she was off," she told BBC News NI.
"Then they were on the phone every two weeks asking her when she was coming back to work.
"I found that even when I was off colleagues were regularly in contact, they visited me so then I didn't feel so isolated from the workplace."
Mrs McKendry has chosen to work between home and the office, and said her employer and line manager had been excellent.
"I think it's critical that the employer is there to support the employee during their time off, as well as trying to get them back into work either during or after their treatment is finished.
"If the support isn't there then it can be a lot more traumatic."
She had tried hard to normalise an extremely difficult situation, said Mrs McKendry.
"I am trying to keep everything as normal as possible for the kids, for my husband and for me," she said.
There are currently more than 20,000 people aged 15 to 64 living in Northern Ireland with cancer and, according to Macmillan Cancer Support, people are often forced to leave work.
Paula Kealey, from the charity, said there needed to be greater awareness among employers about dealing with cancer.
"Almost half of people here living with cancer have to make significant changes to their working life after diagnosis, with some having to leave their jobs completely," said Ms Kealey.
"Employers have an obligation to do the right thing under the Disability Discrimination Act, which protects people who have cancer from discrimination at work.
"We are urging employers to have the conversation and to have flexibility."
Mrs McKendry's boss, Alison McIlveen, said: "We have a responsibility to do what we can and see how we can support people back into the workplace.
"It's important that we help them to normalise their lives and at the same time do our best to mitigate the impact it has on the business.
"For larger companies or employers that is easier than for smaller companies."


I would urge caution over some of the figures for rupture rates of the banned PIP breast implants.

In the past few days there have been claims suggesting that around 7% of the implants have ruptured.
But that is misleading as it is based on one small group of patients.
The Transform cosmetic surgery group has issued a statement saying the rupture rate relates to seven out of 108 patients it fitted with PIP implants since 2005.
The statement says: "This is therefore far too small a sample to provide a robust statistical analysis."
It appears to be these figures which prompted the health secretary Andrew Lansley to set-up an expert committee to review the safety data on PIP implants.    The committee, which meets on Wednesday,  will be attempting to determine what the overall rupture rate is among the 40,000 or so women fitted with PIP implants.
The trade body which represents private hospitals and clinics described the 7% rupture rate reported in recent days as misleading.  Sally Taber, Director of The Independent Healthcare Advisory Services, (IHAS) said:
"Following an audit of our members, which includes data on thousands of patients from leading groups including Transform, The Harley Medical Group, Spire Healthcare, BMI Hospitals and The Hospital Group, we can confirm that the average rupture rates reported for PIP implants is within the industry standard of 1-2 per cent."
Last week the medical watchdog the MHRA was quoting a figure of around 1% as an average rupture rate for PIP and other implants.
This was one reason why the MHRA and health ministers decided not to follow the French lead and recommend the removal of the PIP implants.
In France, the reported rupture rate is 5%, although I have also seen reports that the rate there is 3.6%.
Tim Goodacre, president of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons and an Oxford University lecturer said even a rupture rate of 1% would be high:
"If you have an implant the likelihood that you will need follow-up surgery is about 1% per year.  But that can be for a whole range of reasons.  Ruptures of implants are, in my experience, rare.  After 10 years 10% of women will have needed follow-up treatment, but 90% will not."
Mr Goodacre is one of a number of surgeons on the expert panel meeting tomorrow.
Several groups are calling for a registry of implants.  Sally Taber from IHAS suggested this should work along the lines of the National Joint Registry.
This was set up in 2002 and records the details and outcomes of all hip, knee and ankle replacement surgery in the NHS and private sector.
A breast implant registry did operate from 1993-2006 but was eventually shut because only a small proportion of women were willing to take part in the scheme.
Sally Taber said every patient must be prepared to have their data recorded, which would need to be anonymised.
We may never know exactly how many women in the UK have PIP implants.   Although clinics and surgeons are required to record information, many firms have gone out of business.
A national register of implants would allow women to get information from a central database, bypassing the firm which treated them.
Tim Goodacre agrees that a registry would improve standards:  "At present we can't easily say how many PIP implants were done, where and how well.  We must have traceability so that even if a company goes bust, the device can be traced."
Another surgeon on the PIP expert committee said there are no firm figures on what proportion of PIP devices have ruptured.
Fazel Fatah, president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons said:  "None of these figures are completely reliable or are a true reflection of what's happening.  A significant number of patients do not go back to the clinic where they had their surgery if they suffer a rupture. Instead, they go to the NHS and are dealt with in the NHS. We do not know the exact rupture rate in the UK."
Mr Fatah said he believed women should plan for having implants removed.  "The point is not so much the rupture rates but that the quality of the silicone in these implants is not of medical grade. Therefore, the implants are not fit to be implanted into humans."
He said women should not be caught in the middle of an argument over who should pay for the implants to be removed, adding that clinics who carried out the surgery had a "moral obligation" to women and must not be allowed to profit from removing the devices.
About 95% of the PIP implants were done by private clinics, for breast augmentation.  Many of these women are seeking urgent appointments with their implanting surgeon.
It is worth repeating that no medical organisation has found any increased cancer risk from the PIP implants compared to other devices.  The authorities in France have recommended they be removed as a precaution, and not as a matter of urgency.
Andrew Lansley has given another clear indication that ministers are going to stick to their original advice that the implants do not pose a safety risk.
He denied pre-empting the findings of the expert committee - due on Friday - but said that there was still no evidence to suggest that routine removal of the implants was warranted.
If ministers maintain their position it means that women whose implants are not causing obvious problems would have to pay if they want them removed.