Global equity markets signed off on their worst three months in four years on Wednesday.

Markets saw falls of between 7% and 15% over the three months with the Shanghai index falling furthest, down 25%.
Confidence in stocks has been hit by the crisis in Greece, the Chinese slowdown and the threat of higher interest rates.
However, most markets ended the month with a final flourish, some making gains for the single day of over 2%.
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones, the main American index, ended up about 1%. The London FTSE 100 bounced up 2.58%
But the numbers for the major markets from July to September make for sobering reading.
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde said: "On the economic front, there is... reason to be concerned. The prospect of rising interest rates in the United States and China's slowdown are contributing to uncertainty and higher market volatility,"
The markets started the quarter in the throes of the Greek crisis. Many investors were convinced there would be no bailout, economic chaos in Europe, and a Greek exit from the eurozone.
That did not happen, but the European economic recovery has been anaemic at best.
And a mere week after the Greek agreement, China had a Black Friday with the Shanghai market falling over 6%, sending markets round the world into a tailspin.
Markets are often derided as wildly inaccurate economic barometers, but economists were agreed this indicated two very obvious facts: the Chinese stock markets were vastly over-valued, and the Chinese economy was slowing.
They were supported by a growing stream of weak economic figures coming out of China.
That then had a knock on effect on global commodity prices, trade and shipping, and battered the shares in the big mining and energy companies and their support services.
That hit the economies of commodity exporters like Australia, Brazil, Chile, and South Africa, weakening their currencies.
At the end of August China devalued its currency, the yuan, which caused another panic, as investors speculated the country was about to embark on a series of rapid devaluations to undercut its competitors.
With the benefit of hindsight the devaluation seems to have been what the Chinese government always claimed it was, part of a slew of reforms to allow market forces to dictate the value of its currency.
Ms Lagarde in her speech on Wednesday said: "China ... is in the midst of a fundamental and welcome transformation. It has launched deep structural reforms to lift incomes and living standards. These reforms will, by design, lead to a "new normal" of slower, safer, and more sustainable growth. "
But in the meantime the reforms are causing huge volatility in the world's markets.
On top of all this the US - and the UK too - are considering putting up interest rates.
While the Chinese slowdown has worried American investors, they have fears of their own that US shares are simply overvalued.
Next week sees the start of the third quarter reporting season for America's big companies, which is likely to dictate the mood of the market through to the year end.
Meanwhile, the numbers on the US economy have been ambiguous.
Figures for August showed a sharp 3.2% fall in exports as the weakening global economy and the strong dollar made U.S. goods more expensive for foreign buyers.
The August employment figures were disappointing, but not disastrous.
US economic growth was revised upwards showing an annualised growth rate of 3.9%. But the numbers were for the second quarter - before the summer turmoil.
But some economists believe the economy is strong enough to withstand a rate rise.
Peter Morici, business professor at the University of Maryland, said: "Overall, a Fed interest rate increase won't harm growth and jobs creation, and the Fed is likely to begin gradually raising rates at its October or December policymaking meetings."


Algeria are back as Africa's top team in Fifa's ranking for April, while Cape Verde slip from the summit to sixth.

Moving up from third to first, Algeria have re-established themselves, helped by a 7-1 thrashing of Ethiopia in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.
In contrast, Cape Verde were beaten twice by Morocco.
And Nigeria have tumbled to 14th in Africa and 67th in the world after being eliminated from qualifying for the 2017 Nations Cup.
Top 10 African sides in Fifa's rankings for April (world ranking in brackets)
1. Algeria (33)
2. Ivory Coast (34)
3. Ghana 38)
4. Senegal (43)
5. Egypt (44)
6. Cape Verde (47)
7. Tunisia (47)
8. DR Congo (51)
9. Guinea 58)
10. Congo (59)


Those David Cameron once called loonies, fruitcakes and closet racists will be savouring their revenge today.

UKIP has made a historic breakthrough in Westminster just a few months after winning a national election - for the European Parliament.
It has shown it can win under the first-past-the-post voting system as well as under a proportional system.
When Douglas Carswell takes his seat in the Commons next week he will serve not just as a permanent reminder of the prime minister's miscalculation but as a temptation to his old allies on the Tory benches to follow suit.
That is why the Conservatives are so desperate for victory in the next by-election in Rochester triggered by another Tory MP who defected to UKIP.
Ed Miliband cannot relish these Tory troubles. Although Labour held on to Heywood and Middleton, it did so with a vote share scarcely bigger than at the last election. That will do nothing to calm party nerves after a conference season that saw it go backwards.
The question now - how far UKIP will go? No-one knows but what is beyond doubt is that it has already gone much much further than those who dismissed and insulted it ever thought possible.


Home Secretary Amber Rudd's proposal at the Conservative Party conference that companies should be made to disclose what percentage of their workforce is non-British has attracted a good deal of media criticism on the Continent.

Eastern European media were particularly irked by the suggestion. They noted that despite the UK government's subsequent "backpedalling" on the plan, such proposals could "irreversibly damage" the UK's image as a liberal and open country.
The German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine expressed its concerns over the UK's "increasing anti-foreign and protectionist rhetoric" and described Ms Rudd's proposal as the "shrillest reaction… to the growing resentment against foreigners in Great Britain so far".
In an article entitled "Goodbye, world", another German paper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, observed that "this is not just about visas and fees. This is a new spirit since the Brexit vote".
Some media outlets in other European countries noted that the home secretary's initiative had sparked an "angry and indignant" reaction, even among Brexit supporters in the UK.
The French business daily Les Echos said that the sense of outrage was so strong that the British government had been forced to row back on the proposal in a bid to put an end to the controversy. This was in reference to the British government's later statement suggesting that UK companies would not be told to list or name foreign workers they employ after all.
Similarly, Belgium's RTL Info radio said that Britain had no choice but "to backpedal on the plan to list foreign workers".
Media in Eastern Europe were equally indignant in their condemnation of Ms Rudd's proposal, which Poland's TVN24 channel described as "controversial".
The Romanian paper Adevarul noted that "London is creating obstacles for foreign workers" and predicted "hard times for foreign students and doctors" in the UK. The Digi24.ro website was even more blunt. "Brexit: London wages a war against migrants," it said.
The Czech website iDNES.cz warned that Ms Rudd's plan exposed "the ugly side of Britain".
Another Czech news website, Denik.cz, predicted that the proposed practices would "irreversibly damage the reputation of Britain as an open and liberal economy".
This view was echoed by the Hungarian news website Index, which said that "many people, including British employers, have baulked at Rudd's plans, and some are already saying that the government intends to make racism almost compulsory in Britain".
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.


Sega has started to release free mobile versions of classic games from its back catalogue.

The first five, including Sonic the Hedgehog, are available now via the Apple and Android app stores.
The gamemaker said it planned to release additional titles every two weeks for the Sega Forever service.
Some fans have complained about the first releases, saying Sega has done a poor job of converting the classic titles to mobile devices.
"Above all else Sega Forever is a celebration of nostalgia," said Mike Evans, head of Sega's mobile division in San Francisco in a statement. "It's about allowing fans to reconnect with past experiences.
"It's a very easy conversion to take those games to free," Mr Evans told games website GamesIndustry.biz.
As with many other apps, Sega said it would run ads before and after the games were played. However, it said it would make it easy for players to avoid them.
"We're just bolting in the advertising support model and a single in-app purchase that can disable those ads," Mr Evans added.
Sega said it would cost $1.99 in the US  and Â£1.99 in the UK to turn off the ads.
The online gaming catalogue will eventually feature titles from all the Sega console eras. Initially Sega said it was concentrating on games for the Master System, Mega Drive and Game Gear consoles but those made for the Dreamcast and Saturn would follow.
The first five games on Sega Forever are:
Games can be played via a portable device's touchscreen or by a controller. Sega said they would also be playable offline but people can save their progress online if they wish. The games firm said it would eventually add a multiplayer option to many of the games.
But not all fans of older games were happy with the arrival of Sega Forever. Retro games enthusiast John Linneman criticised the way they had been transferred or ported to mobile devices.
He said the "lousy emulation" led to glitches during gameplay.
"There are loads of dropped frames, hitches and skips," Mr Linneman told games website Nintendo Life. "And when a notification occurs, it gets much worse. So it never plays smoothly."


US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has apologised for calling half of Donald Trump's supporters "deplorable" people.

But the Democrat launched a furious attack on her Republican opponent and promised to keep fighting "bigotry and racist rhetoric".
Mr Trump had responded by saying the comment was "insulting" to "millions of amazing, hard working people".
Opinion polls suggest Mr Trump is gaining on Mrs Clinton.
The rivals are neck and neck in the key battleground states of Ohio and Florida.
Hillary Clinton's "basket of deplorables" comments have drawn immediate comparisons to Mitt Romney's 2012 line about 47% of Americans on government dole supporting Barack Obama and Mr Obama's 2008 characterisation of downtrodden Pennsylvanians as clinging to guns and religion.
Unlike those noted gaffes, however, it is not clear how Mrs Clinton's public remarks will directly damage her. She is certainly unlikely to peel off any of Donald Trump's supporters by calling some of them racists or homophobes, but they have stuck by their man through thick and thin. Mrs Clinton's own backers likely agree with her description.
The only question is how the sizable chunk of undecided voters view the controversy. They had started to move toward Mrs Clinton after the Democratic convention but are recently back up in the air or aligning with a third party. They may take exception to Mrs Clinton's calling fully half of all Trump supporters - millions of Americans - deplorable, which is why she has walked back this portion of her comments.
If the debate turns over how many of Mr Trump's backers are overtly racist or bigoted, however, that is political terrain the Democrat will gladly fight on.
Speaking at a fundraiser in New York, Mrs Clinton said: "To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the 'basket of deplorables'. Unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up."
They were, she told the LGBT event, "racist, sexist, xenophobic, Islamophobic  - you name it".
The rest of the Republican nominee's supporters, according to Mrs Clinton, were "just desperate for change".
In his tweeted response, Mr Trump said, "I think it will cost her at the polls!"
Mr Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, said: "They are not a basket of anything. They are Americans & they deserve your respect."
Reince Priebus, head of the Republican National Committee, said Mrs Clinton had shown "her outright contempt for ordinary people".
Millions of Americans, he said, supported the Republican nominee because they were "sick of corrupt career politicians like Hillary Clinton".
Other Republicans mocked Mrs Clinton, sharing photos of the crowd in the Florida venue where Mr Trump spoke on Friday.
The hash tag #BasketOfDeplorables has been trending on social media as indignant Republicans attack Mrs Clinton.
"A candidate who writes off half the country as a #BasketOfDeplorables should be disqualified", was one comment on Twitter.
Apologising, Mrs Clinton said: "Last night I was 'grossly generalistic' and that's never a good idea. I regret saying 'half' - that was wrong."
"As I said," she added, "many of Trump's supporters are hard-working Americans who just don't feel like the economy or our political system are working for them."
But for most of the statement, she attacked her rival, accusing him of building "his campaign largely on prejudice and paranoia" and giving a national platform to "hateful views and voices, including by retweeting fringe bigots with a few dozen followers and spreading their message to 11 million people".
"David Duke and other white supremacists see him as a champion of their values," she said in the statement.
It was, she said, "really deplorable" that her Republican opponent was linked to people from the right-wing "alt-right movement".
Passions are high just over two weeks before the first election debate between Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump on 26 September.
After one of the most bitterly fought election campaigns in living memory, Americans go to the polls on 8 November to elect a successor to President Barack Obama.
The Democrat is standing down after two terms in office.


Fresh doubt has been cast on the record of a Korean climber, who was hailed in April as the first woman to climb the world's 14 highest peaks.

Oh Eun-sun "probably failed" to reach the top of the world's third-highest peak, Kangchenjunga, the Korean Alpine Federation (KAF) judged on Thursday.
Top Himalayan record keeper Elizabeth Hawley is investigating the KAF ruling.
If she decides to list the 2009 ascent as "unrecognised", the record will pass to Spanish climber Edurne Pasaban.
Ms Oh climbed Annapurna, the last of her 14 mountains above 8,000m, on 27 April. Ms Pasaban completed the list by scaling Shisha Pangma just under three weeks later, on 17 May.
Ms Oh responded to the Korean Alpine Federation's verdict - issued at a meeting of seven local climbers who have scaled the 8,586m mountain - by describing it as "a unilateral opinion".
"All participants were climbers who had doubts about my achievement from the beginning, so their conclusion must have been already set," she said in an interview with MBC television, quoted by the AFP news agency.
Miss Hawley, keeper of the authoritative Himalayan Database, told the BBC in June it was looking "unlikely" that Ms Oh summited Kangchenjunga.
This came after one of the three sherpas who accompanied her on the ascent of Kangchenjunga said she stopped 150m below the summit, in high winds.
The sherpa, Nurbu, told Miss Hawley he was leading the group when the others waved at him to come down.
Another sherpa, Dawa Wangchuk, has already stated publicly that the group did reach the summit.
"I'm sure she's not lying. She just believed her guide, Dawa Wangchuk. She had great confidence in him," Miss Hawley told the BBC.
Jin Park, a spokesman for Ms Oh's sponsors, the Korean outdoor clothing firm Blackyak, said Dawa Wangchuk had climbed Kangchenjunga four times.
"So I think there is no possibility for confusion about the summit," he said.
Doubts have been circulating about Ms Oh's ascent of Kangchenjunga for months.
Experts say there is no convincing picture of Ms Oh on the summit, and have questioned whether she could have finished the last 200m or so of the climb, when clouds obscured the view from below, in the time available to her.
Is Oh Eun-Sun a record-breaker?
A member of the next team to reach the peak of Kangchenjunga, in May 2009, the Norwegian climber Jon Gangdal, says he found Ms Oh's Korean flag weighed down by stones, some 50m or 60m below the summit.
At present, the ascent is listed as "disputed" in Miss Hawley's Himalayan Database. In June she said it seemed likely to remain that way, even though evidence was "piling up" against her.
Questions about Miss Oh's ascent of Kangchenjunga first arose in Korea itself just weeks after she claimed to have reached the summit. Climbers linked to a rival woman climber Go Mi-Young (who died in a climbing accident in July 2009) were particularly sceptical.
Korean Alpine Federation secretary general Lee Eui-Jae said participants in Thursday's meeting all shared the view that Miss Oh's photographs on Kangchenjunga did not "seem to match the actual landscape".
"They also agreed that Oh's previous explanations on the process of her ascent to Kangchenjunga are unreliable," he told AFP.
Meanwhile, Eberhard Jurgalski, from the website 8000-ers.com, points out that most climbers who want recognition for their ascents either take conclusive summit photographs or have eyewitnesses.
He says he has seen convincing photographs of Miss Oh on the summit of only eight of the 14.
"If someone is collecting peaks and wants to be accepted as the first woman to have climbed all 14 8,000ers, she should be able to give more evidence of her climbs," he says.
"The whole attitude of people who want to be accepted as having done exceptional things must change."


Mercedes say they will make a Formula 1 car available for Robert Kubica to try if he recovers sufficiently to be able to drive one.

The Pole, whose right arm was partially severed in a rally accident in 2011, has driven Mercedes' F1 simulator.
Motorsports boss Toto Wolff told BBC Sport Kubica was "helping" Mercedes.
"If there's any chance of getting him back in a DTM touring car or F1 cockpit, we'd love to do it," said Wolff.
"Any team would love to have a Robert Kubica."
But Wolff, also the executive director of the Mercedes F1 team, emphasised that the former BMW and Renault driver was focusing mainly this year on his programme in the European Rally Championship.
"He is somebody I have known for 10 years but it's absolutely his call how he wants to help us and his main focus is rallying," said Wolff.
"This is where he wants to be successful and what he wants to do in the future."
Kubica, 28, is competing in rallying this season as he continues his recovery from the injuries that forced him out of F1 ahead of the 2011 season.
The Pole, who was one of the most highly regarded stars in F1, is undergoing regular rehabilitation on his right arm, which still does not have full movement.
Kubica posted competitive lap times earlier this year in a Mercedes DTM (German touring car championship) car - during a test arranged by Wolff - and admitted at the weekend that he had been in the Mercedes F1 simulator.
BBC Sport understands the door is open for Kubica to continue to use the Mercedes simulator should he wish to do so.
Kubica has made no secret of the fact that he wants to return to F1 eventually, assuming he can recover sufficient movement in his right arm to allow him to operate an F1 car within the tight confines of its cockpit.
"There is no guarantee I will or will not come back to F1," he told Autosport magazine on last weekend's Rally Azores.
He added: "Unfortunately, my F1, not career, but my F1 story got interrupted, so I found rallying was my best option to slowly come back. For this year, it was what I was looking for."
Kubica's former team Lotus, which changed its name from Renault ahead of the 2012 season, have also made it clear they would welcome Kubica back.
And Ferrari have in the past made no secret of their admiration for his skills.
But the fact Kubica is now being given access to the Mercedes simulator - one of any F1 team's most closely guarded secrets - suggests they would be his number one option should he recover sufficiently to allow him to race in the sport again.


Hungary's prime minister has said he wants to debate the possible reintroduction of the death penalty with his European Union partners.

Viktor Orban said current penalties for serious crime were too lenient and capital punishment should be "kept on the agenda" in Hungary.
He raised the issue after the murder of a young tobacconist last week.
Austrian MEP Joerg Leichtfried said bringing back the death penalty would be "barbaric".
Mr Orban's Fidesz party has been coming under increasing pressure as it loses ground to the far-right Eurosceptic Jobbik party.
Last week a 21-year-old female shop assistant was murdered in the western town of Kaposvar. Her funeral was held on Wednesday.
The prime minister's comments have aroused controversy at home and abroad.
Fidesz, which has governed the country since 2010, is expected to face a strong challenge from Jobbik when elections are held in 2018.
Mr Orban's Fidesz, which has governed the country since 2010, is trying to compete with the radical nationalist Jobbik party, which has emerged as the main challenger to his rule.
Jobbik have long promised to restore capital punishment if they come to power - now a possibility - at the elections in 2018.
Another issue in Hungary is the scene of the crime - in a so-called National Tobacco Shop.
The sale of tobacco in Hungary has been limited since 2013 to such shops, the windows of which are blacked-out to prevent young people under the age of 18 seeing inside, and being encouraged to smoke.
A spate of attacks in such shops has provoked a public debate about the physical safety of assistants in shops that passers-by cannot see into. Some shop keepers have begun taking down the foil that covers the windows, in defiance of the law.
Other government politicians have made statements supporting and attacking the idea of the death penalty as a deterrent.
The leader of the Fidesz parliamentary group, Antal Rogan, said on state radio that he was aware that capital punishment was not permitted under EU rules.
But he said "a substantial debate can be raised [at] EU level" if a member state disagrees.
European Parliament President Martin Schulz said he would contact Mr Orban to discuss the issue.
The Council of Europe (CoE) said the return of the death penalty would be "contrary to the values that Europe stands for". Its human rights commissioner, Nils Muiznieks, expressed his concern and called on Hungary to pay more attention to human rights.
He also mentioned a controversial questionnaire launched by the Fidesz government last week, which openly links migration to terrorism, and blames EU policies for the current influx of illegal migrants.
Hungary banned the death penalty shortly after the fall of communism in 1990.


Scotland's men's basketball head coach Erik Olson has left his role to take on a job in Denmark.

The American was appointed last September on a two-year contract and was charged with guiding Scotland to the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
"Erik recently led our Senior Men's Team to two wins over Ireland and Wales," said basketballscotland's head of performance, Barry Lang.
"We wish him well in his endeavours and thank him for his contributions."
Olson also worked with Scotland's international youth players and coaches, along with his role as assistant coach at Glasgow Rocks. In October, he said Scotland were "in a great spot to lead [Commonwealth Games] qualification".
The former Falkirk Fury player previously coached sides in Australia, Iceland and United States, and said at the time of his appointment that his intention was to "implement a proper training method" to develop "elite players".
"Olson, who has worked hard since his appointment last year to develop Scottish talent at all levels of the performance pathway, will depart his role with immediate effect," said basketballscotland in a statement.
"basketballscotland would like to wish him well with his future career and thank him for his contribution to performance basketball in Scotland."


Departing Leicester Tigers fly-half Freddie Burns says he is unhappy at the way his move to Bath was handled despite relishing the chance to play for his hometown team from next season.

The 26-year-old will return to his first club in a deal which sees England fly-half George Ford rejoin Tigers.
"I am really happy but I would be lying if I said I was happy with how it came about," Burns told BBC Radio Leicester.
"I had a year on my contract. I'm a man of integrity and wanted to see it out."
Burns said that he is filled with "immense pride" by the prospect of playing for Bath, despite the circumstances of his Leicester exit.
"The direction the club wanted to go in was told to me and then I made the best decision to go home and represent my childhood club," he added.
"Everything keeps moving and I am really excited. I am disappointed with the way it came about and the way it was dealt with, but you cannot affect those things sometimes and you have to crack on."
Burns joined Tigers from Gloucester in 2014 and said it will be "tough to walk away".
"I have a lot of motivation in the last part of the season," he explained. "Hopefully I can make it a successful one and I can leave with my held up high and with people thinking a lot of me."


Republican Ted Cruz has made individual liberty the key theme of his presidential campaign announcement.

Speaking at Liberty University in Virginia, Mr Cruz is one of several Republican hopefuls to emerge from the Tea Party movement.
He described his mission as "reigniting the promise of America" because "for so many Americans the promise of America seems more and more distant".
He is the first high-profile Republican to officially enter the 2016 race.
Mr Cruz urged Americans to rise up and say: "We demand our liberty."
The speech followed a middle-of-the-night campaign announcement on Twitter.
Making an appeal to cultural conservatives and religious Republicans, he said: "Our rights don't come from man but from God Almighty."
The junior Senator from Texas talked the crowd through his childhood and religious faith before moving on to lay out his political agenda.
Read story in full
Many of the students present at the speech were required to be there, CNN reported.
Since his election to the US Senate in 2012, Mr Cruz has developed a reputation for being an uncompromising conservative willing to challenge Democrats as well as his fellow Republicans and has garnered the adoration of many anti-establishment Republicans.
The Texas senator has proven himself at times to be a thorn in the side of his party's leaders and senior members.
Mr Cruz spoke on the Senate floor for over 21 hours in a marathon speech that contributed to the 2013 government shutdown and was aimed at encouraging his fellow lawmakers to repeal the president's healthcare reform, nicknamed Obamacare.
The speech included a reading of Dr Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham" to his daughters, who were said to be watching their father on television.
He later joked that the event featured hours of his "favourite sound" - his own voice.
Before entering politics, Mr Cruz worked as a high-profile lawyer representing the State of Texas before the Supreme Court. He also taught law in Texas.


Lufthansa has cancelled almost 900 flights after it lost an eleventh-hour legal bid to halt a pilots strike.

The two-day strike over pay began at midnight local time, with Lufthansa saying about 100,000 passengers will be affected.
Flights by Lufthansa's other airlines including Eurowings, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, and Brussels Airlines are not affected, the airline said.
The industrial action is part of a long-running pay dispute at Lufthansa.
The pilots' union, Vereinigung Cockpit, has organised 14 strikes since April 2014.
On Tuesday, Lufthansa made two legal challenges to halt the strike.
A Frankfurt labour court first rejected Lufthansa's application for an injunction. Later in the evening, the Hesse state labour court rejected the airline's appeal.
Pay talks between the Vereinigung union and the German airline broke down earlier this month, and Lufthansa said the union had "consistently rejected the offer" of mediation.
The union is calling for a 3.7% pay rise for 5,400 pilots dating back to 2012.
Lufthansa, which is facing increasing competition from budget rivals, offered a 2.5% increase over the six years until 2019.
Meanwhile, a separate dispute with cabin crew at Lufthansa's low-cost subsidiary, Eurowings, led it to cancel more than 60 flights on Tuesday.


League One side Portsmouth have signed Swindon Town captain Nathan Thompson on a two-year contract.

The 26-year-old defender was out of contract at the County Ground this month after spending his entire career at the Wiltshire club.
He is understood to have turned down a new deal to stay with Swindon following their relegation from League One last season.
Thompson is primarily a full-back, but can also play centre-back.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.


China has announced it will ban all trade in ivory by the end of 2017, and that begins today, March 31st.

This decision marks a huge step in the fight against poaching, with some animal conservation charities calling the decision "historic" and a "game-changer" for the future of elephants.
By the time the stores close, almost half of China's authorised ivory factories and shops will have locked their doors for good.
A team of experts from the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) will be on hand to make sure it happens.
The rest of China's legal trade will be gone by the end of the year - a total of 34 factories and 138 shops.
The UK's Prince William, has welcomed the Chinese government's decision as "an important commitment".
China is currently the biggest buyer and seller of ivory in the world - in fact some people think around seven out of every ten pieces of ivory in the world ends up for sale there.
The decision came as part of a big convention called Cites, which took place in 2106 in South Africa.
China's State Council has said that the sale and processing of ivory will stop by 31 March - meaning that registered traders of ivory will be stopped from buying and selling it - aiming to stop the trade of ivory in China by the end of the year.
Poachers hunt animals such as rhino, elephants and tigers to sell their body parts.
Rhino horn and ivory, which is found in elephant tusks, can be illegally sold for huge amounts of money.
They're sold in different countries where they can be carved into ornaments, jewellery and even chopsticks.
Some people buy them to show off how rich they are, and others believe they have magical healing powers and use them as medicines, but scientists say these medicines don't work.
If poaching continues at its current rate, creatures like elephants and rhino may be gone in our lifetime.
Speaking about China's decision, executive director of the Wildlife Conservation Society in Asia, Aili Kang, said: "I am very proud of my country for showing this leadership that will help ensure that elephants have a fighting chance to beat extinction."


Black Friday bargain hunters are being courted by Google, which wants them to try out its latest search facility.

The tech company has made it possible to see how busy shops and other popular destinations are, in real time.
A search for a shop now delivers a status update - such as "a little busy" - and information about how long people typically spend at the location.
Google says it should help users navigate "Black Friday swarms", but one expert questioned its usefulness.
"It could be seen as unwelcome by some retailers because if they are absolutely mobbed, it could put more people off from visiting," said Bryan Roberts, a market researcher at the TCC Global consultancy.
"But in reality, Black Friday is a bit less frenzied in the UK than it has been in the US.
"Last year, there were virtually tumbleweeds blowing round lots of stores on the day.
"So, while it could be useful for some people in the run up to Christmas, I expect [outside the US] it will be a slight irrelevance on Black Friday itself as most of the shopping activity will be online."
Google has offered its Popular Times feature within its Search and Maps tools since July 2015, but until now the tool only presented historical trends about when a venue was busy.
The new live information facility is based on information sent from Google app users, who share their location data with the company.
If Google has not been able to scoop up enough examples, its status update remains limited to saying how busy a place "usually" is.
When the BBC tested the service, it found this was frequently the case for mid-to-small sized UK shops, while larger outlets and shopping centres were more likely to deliver the promised real-time data.
At present, there is no way for businesses to opt out of the service beyond deliberately blocking mobile phone signals.
"If any business has feedback, they can send it to Google via a link on their home page," said a spokeswoman.


In the leafy garden of a laid-back Italian restaurant next to Fifa headquarters, four men sit at a table, talking earnestly, even tensely.

"We just have to keep on, keep on going," one says.
These are Fifa men, and one of them is Walter de Gregorio, Fifa's director of communications, and the man who had to sit alone on Fifa's vast auditorium stage last Wednesday morning and explain to the world's press just why it was that seven senior football officials had been hauled from their beds by Swiss police early that morning, and detained pending extradition.
In the six days since, events concerning Fifa have moved with astonishing speed.
Its controversial president Sepp Blatter was asked to resign, instead he stood again and was re-elected with a handsome number of votes.
More allegations of bribery and corruption followed, and within days Mr Blatter had resigned after all.
So what, I asked Mr de Gregorio, did he think it would take now to fix Fifa?
Reform must begin with the executive committee, he indicated.
"It's no use the president saying he can't monitor everyone all the time," he said, in reference to Mr Blatter, who said exactly this just last week when bidding for re-election.
Mr de Gregorio suggested that unless there was more oversight of Fifa's executive committee members, then whoever became the new president would have the same problems as Sepp Blatter.
So a new structure built to prevent quiet deals (some would call them bribes) and, Mr de Gregorio said, obligatory "integrity checks".
But what exactly is an integrity check? The anti-corruption organization Transparency International (TI) has been calling for such checks for quite some time.
"But," says Gareth Sweeney, who is director of TI's corruption in sport initiative, "it depends on the integrity of the integrity check."
To be really effective, Mr Sweeney says, there would have to be rigorous background checks - not just for criminal records, but about previous employers and current professional contacts, in order to ensure there is absolutely no conflict of interest.
But integrity checks alone will not, Mr Sweeney believes, be enough to fix Fifa.
TI would like to see fixed terms for everyone on Fifa's powerful executive and finance committees, as well, of course, for its president. So no more decades in office for Fifa bosses.
Another suggested change would be to hold open rather than secret ballots.
This, some suggest, would force national football associations to be accountable. Instead of going into a booth and casting a secret ballot, as 133 did last week for Sepp Blatter, the associations would have to vote publicly.
Finally, TI believes Fifa should have external independent directors on its executive and finance committees too, in a similar way to the International Olympic Committee, which, in the hope of repairing its reputation after suffering its own corruption scandals, now has more checks and balances than are actually legally required.
But in Switzerland itself, some Fifa watchers believe the damage of the last week may not be repairable.
Guido Tognoni, a former marketing manager for Fifa, believes the organisation is heading for "destruction", and that tinkering with its current set-up is not an option.
A Swiss Social Democrat member of parliament, Daniel Jositsch, has suggested a complete dismantling of Fifa as it stands now, hiving off its commercial side into a limited company, complete with shares and shareholders, and governed by business law.
The purely sport side would become a not-for-profit foundation.
Perhaps surprisingly, another member of the Swiss parliament and one of Fifa's fiercest critics, Roland Buechel, is less pessimistic.
He says he is prepared to be "positively surprised" by Sepp Blatter, who, having announced his resignation and now with just a few months left in office, may finally achieve serious and effective reform.
To do so he will have to commit to it though, something he has not really done in the past. And he will have to take on football's powerful confederations, the regional groups which national football associations join.
It is these confederations which have resisted change in the past, and which may resist again.
Gareth Sweeney of TI fears the groups who voted to keep Sepp Blatter in power may now mobilise around a new presidential candidate who is reluctant to tackle reform.
All agree though that the fate of those seven senior football officials who were unceremoniously removed from their five-star Zurich hotel last week and taken to a Swiss jail may be the best catalyst for reform.
Apparently, the seven gentlemen, while resisting extradition to the United States, are also rather unhappy with the very basic standards of their Swiss prison cells.
And there are those two criminal investigations. However many reforms Fifa introduces, the investigations are under way and will continue.
"Reputationally," says Gareth Sweeney, "it's very likely things are going to get a lot worse for Fifa before they get better."


All photographs courtesy Panos Pictures.

To mark the United Nations Day of Anti-Bullying, the Internet Society and Panos Pictures asked young people around the world what their dream internet would look like.
"The internet needs to feel more like chatting in a bar," said Adela Goberna, 23, a newly qualified lawyer and co-founder of the Internet Society's Youth Special Interest Group.
"You need to be able to say, 'OK, our opinions are different but I respect what you're saying and I'm getting something from this conversation.' And I think that type of conversation makes people much more relaxed and willing to speak."
Ayu 'Ulya is a 25-year-old teacher and game designer from Banda Aceh, Indonesia.  Her game, called Cempala: Prime Numbers, teaches students mathematics while also talking about ecology and Indonesian heritage.
"We need to share and preserve culture through the internet. We have to be open-minded and think outside our boxes. We have to think creatively.
"Because I'm staying in a corner of Indonesia, and am far away from Western culture, it doesn't mean I can't learn about it. I can learn everything from internet, think and compare. Take the good things and throw out the bad things."
"My role is to create ways that governments, businesses, and people can talk to each other to make the internet better in the Philippines," said Benjz Gerard Sevilla, part of the Internet Engineering Taskforce, a group whose mission it is to make the internet work better.
"It's not a silver bullet, but it's about making sure there's content and there's equitable access to it."
Elif Sert is a 22-year-old law student and blogger living in Istanbul.
"You can share your love on the internet. I can just go to the Philippines, buy my tickets, meet people on couchsurfing.com and go. This makes me feel alive and makes me feel like a world citizen. It allows me to have friends everywhere."
Balpreet Kaur, 22, is in her last year of International Development at Ohio State University in Columbus.
In 2012, a post on Reddit mocked her appearance, but rather than getting angry, she posted a response talking about the importance of her Sikh faith and provoking a thoughtful discussion of how we treat strangers.  Her response went viral and sparked an incredible discussion about the power of positivity online.
"There's nothing special in what I did. We all have that capacity," said Kaur.
"And so to label one person as inspiring and the other person as not so inspiring, it's kind of difficult for me to reconcile. If there are parts of me that are inspiring, then I'll take it.
"I'm glad that even if I don't intentionally want to inspire you, there's something in me that you see that is inspiring, and that inspires me that you're seeing this."
The Internet Society and Panos Pictures are using the tag #dreamInternet and would like to hear your views and stories to inspire others.


Another package believed to be linked to a cocaine haul with a street value of £50m has been found on a beach.

About 360kg (793lbs) of the drug was found on Hopton beach, near Great Yarmouth and a beach near Caister, both in Norfolk, on Thursday.
The latest package was discovered on Kessingland beach in Suffolk on Saturday. Police believe it is linked to the other finds.
The National Crime Agency said it was continuing to investigate the haul.
However, it refused to comment on reports of other packages being found, or locations where they had been discovered.
More news from Norfolk and Suffolk
Suffolk Police were called on Saturday after a package was found on the beach near Lowestoft.
"It is suggested that this find is linked to the earlier discoveries at Hopton," a Suffolk Police spokeswoman said.
"UK Border Force Agency and National Crime Agency have both been notified. The parcel has been recovered and the NCA is dealing with it."
Another package also washed up on the Norfolk coast at Happisburgh, the Lowestoft Journal reported.
Mary and Nigel Green, who were walking their dog near Happisburgh, told the BBC they spotted a black parcel in the sand on Sunday morning.
"Alarm bells sounded straight off because of what's happened down the coast," Mrs Green said.
"It was wrapped in gaffer tape but it was waxy sealed, so we knew straight away what it was".
Police refused to comment on the Happisburgh package.
Mr Green said the police told him they had received "quite a few phone calls" about other items being found.
Valerie McGee, another dog walker, made the initial find of the drugs on Hopton beach last week.
She spotted "about 10 sports bags, roped together, with plastic containers that looked like floats".
They were still intact, she said, but she "didn't look as I didn't want to uncover anything unsavoury... I left that to the experts".


Northern Ireland joined England and Wales in the last 16 of the European Championship after finishing as one of the best third-placed teams.

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Northern Ireland - in their first appearance at a Euros and first major tournament since 1986 - will now meet either Wales or France for a place in the quarter-finals.
Michael O'Neill's side lost 1-0 to Germany on Tuesday but finished third in Group C, with their tally of three points enough to see them advance on goal difference.
Turkey's 2-0 victory against the Czech Republic ensured that Northern Ireland will be one of the four best third-placed teams who will go on to join the group winners and runners-up in the knockout stages.
A tie against Wales would take place on Saturday (kick-off 17:00 BST) in Paris, or they will play France in Lyon on Sunday (14:00).
The Republic of Ireland will qualify for the last 16 if they beat Italy on Wednesday (20:00 BST).
Italy, who are already through to the next round for a last-16 meeting with holders Spain, are set to make "between seven and nine" changes for the game, according to boss Antonio Conte.
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"It's surreal," O'Neill told BBC Radio 5 live. "We were just on the coach so have been following on the BBC website. I'm not sure it's really sunk in yet, but it's a fantastic achievement.
"We knew the group would be difficult. What we saw tonight was a team that refused to be beaten by a big margin and did everything possible to stay in the game.
"Over the three games we deserve to be in the last 16. What we went through tonight will prepare us for anything in the next round and our players will be ready for whoever."
Asked whether he would rather face Wales or France, O'Neill added: "If I was picking a team I thought we had a better chance against I would say Wales, but we'll see who comes out after the final group games on Wednesday."
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Wales now know that they will either play Northern Ireland, Turkey or Albania.
Roy Hodgson's England side play their last-16 match on Monday at 20:00 BST against the side that finishes second in Group F.
By failing to finish top of Group B, England now find themselves in the same side of the draw as Spain, Italy, Germany, France and, potentially, Portugal.
Wales' reward for finishing in first place is an apparently kinder route through the tournament.
Switzerland, Poland and Croatia are in their side of the draw and could be joined by Belgium and Portugal if they both qualify from their respective groups. Belgium face Sweden in Group E on Wednesday, while Portugal play Hungary in Group F.
Defending champions Spain lost for the first time at a European Championship since 2004 when they were beaten 2-1 by Croatia on Tuesday.
They will face Italy in the last 16 and, like England, will have to come through a tough side of the draw to reach the final.
Group A: France and Switzerland
Group B: Wales and England
Group C: Germany and Poland
Group D: Croatia and Spain
Group E: Italy
Group F: Hungary
Best third-placed teams: Slovakia and Northern Ireland
A further two best third-placed spots are still available for the last-16 stage, with Albania clinging on having gained three points in Group A.
Two further places are still up for grabs in Groups E and F who play their final group matches on Wednesday.
Romania, Russia and the Czech Republic managed just one point each and Ukraine failed to collect a goal or a point.


Mobile CCTV cameras are to be deployed outside eight Lincolnshire schools to stop parents parking illegally.

The county council said the aim was to improve the safety of children, "school crossing patrol personnel" and improve the flow of traffic.
The authority has pledged £35,000 to improve markings outside the schools and £33,000 to fund the cameras.
The CCTV will provide evidence for enforcement proceedings and start in January 2017.
The eight schools included the trial are: William Alvey Primary, in Sleaford; Westfield School and Bourne Grammar, in Bourne; St Thomas' School and Boston West Academy, in Boston; National Junior School, in Grantham; and St Francis Hill School and The Priory Whitham Academy, in Lincoln.
The council said: "The enforcement of the school zigzags will help to deter drivers from parking in an area that jeopardises the safety of children and school crossing patrol personnel."
It said previous ways of policing parking outside schools did not always provide conclusive evidence whereas CCTV footage would be "sufficiently robust".


Bangladesh's Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of an Islamist leader, Abdul Kader Mullah.

The judge dismissed his appeal, saying it paved the way for his execution.
Mullah had been scheduled to be executed on Tuesday, before gaining a reprieve. No new date has been set.
He was convicted in February of crimes against humanity during the country's 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. The senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party denies the charges.
Jamaat says that the trial is politically motivated.
Mullah's defence lawyer Abdur Razzak told the BBC that his client had been denied justice and that the case against him relied on the testimony of just one witness.
But Attorney-General Mahbubey Alam told the BBC that "since the review petition filed by Kader Mullah has already been dismissed by our highest court - namely the appellate division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh - there is no legal bar to proceed in the execution order".
Mr Alam said that Mullah had exhausted all avenues of appeal. But Mullah's lawyers dispute his conclusions. His final hope rests with a presidential pardon.
His trial earlier this year sparked protests from Jamaat supporters. They accuse the government of pursuing a political vendetta which has resulted in the imprisonment of several of the party's senior leaders.
Security was stepped up in Dhaka in advance of Thursday's ruling.
Mullah is one of five Islamist leaders condemned to death by Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), set up in 2010 to investigate atrocities committed during the 1971 conflict.
Nobody knows exactly how many people were killed. Independent researchers think that between 300,000 and 500,000 died. The Bangladesh government puts the figure at three million.
So far none of those convicted of war crimes has been executed.
Mullah - who is assistant secretary-general of Jamaat - was initially sentenced to life imprisonment for killing unarmed civilians and intellectuals in the Mirpur suburb of the capital Dhaka.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets demanding the death penalty, a move that prompted parliament to amend a law allowing the state to appeal against any verdict reached by the war crimes tribunal.
The Supreme Court then passed a death sentence, enraging Jammat supporters.
While the government explains the need to bring war criminals to justice, Jamaat has hit back with talk of Islam being under threat.
BBC Bengali Editor Sabir Mustafa says that Bangladesh is divided between Bengalis wanting to preserve their cultural and linguistic heritage and those wanting to foster a more overtly Islamist identity.  Our correspondent says that the divisions go to the heart of the country's identity.
The government set up the special court to deal with those accused of collaborating with Pakistani forces who attempted to stop East Pakistan, as Bangladesh was then, from becoming an independent country. The two wings of Pakistan were held together mostly by a shared religion,
Bangladesh broke away from Pakistan 42 years ago after a war which saw killings on a mass scale, the exodus of more than 10 million refugees and military intervention by neighbouring India.
Human rights groups have said the special court falls short of international standards and that Mullah have another opportunity to appeal.
Jamaat is barred from contesting elections scheduled for 5 January but plays a key role in the opposition movement led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).


Scotland's largest investment firm, Standard Life, has reported a rise in profits for last year.

The Edinburgh-based company increased the assets it managed by 4% to £307bn, with pre-tax profits up 9% to £665m.
Chief executive Keith Skeoch said the firm had made "considerable progress" despite "volatile markets".
The news saw Standard Life's share price jump 3% as trading opened at 08:00, although it has since settled to a rise of just over 1%.
The firm had warned of a drop in annuity business last year, as it switched its focus to "fee-based" business.
Conditions have been difficult in the markets amid continued anxiety about the global economy, but Standard Life said the breadth of its investments helped it withstand the instability.
Mr Skeoch said: "While the difficult conditions in global financial markets may persist for some time, Standard Life remains well positioned to meet the needs of clients and customers around the world.
"The breadth of our investment propositions, underpinned by a strong investment performance and innovation, combined with our strength in pensions and savings, the power of a trusted brand and a strong balance sheet, means we have a well-diversified and resilient business that continues to deliver for customers and clients as well as shareholders."
The firm reported net inflows more than doubling to £12.6bn, with 67% coming from outside the UK due to an "expanding global reach".
Fee-based revenue was up 10% to £1.5bn, while the company's dividend reached a total of 18.36p, up 7.8% for the year.


Assistant manager Kevin Nugent will take caretaker charge of Charlton Athletic until a new permanent boss is appointed to replace Russell Slade.

Nugent, 47, was Slade's number two and has previously had spells as caretaker manager at Swansea and Leyton Orient.
The League One side sacked former Orient and Cardiff boss Slade on Monday after less than six months in the job.
Nugent will be assisted by first-team coach Simon Clark and Chris O'Loughlin, who has joined the staff at The Valley.
Charlton have dismissed reports linking O'Loughlin with the manager's job, stating he will not become their new boss.
O'Loughlin has had a spell as manager of Belgian side Sint-Truiden, which is part of a network of European clubs owned by Charlton owner Roland Duchatelet.
The Irishman has also been head coach of AS Vita in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and had stints on the coaching staff at Orlando Pirates in South Africa and Melbourne Victory in Australia.
The Addicks, who are 15th in the table, host Port Vale on Saturday.


Mae cynghorwyr Gwynedd wedi pleidleisio o blaid Cynllun Datblygu Lleol allai weld mwy na 7,000 o dai yn cael eu hadeiladu yng Ngwynedd a Môn.

Mae'r cynllun, sydd ar y cyd ag Ynys Môn, yn golygu y gallai hyd at 7,184 o gartrefi newydd gael eu hadeiladu ar draws y ddau awdurdod.
Y Cynllun Datblygu Lleol fydd yn gosod cynsail ar gyfer ystyried ceisiadau cynllunio am y 15 mlynedd nesaf.
Fe wnaeth 30 o gynghorwyr bleidleisio o blaid y cynllun, gyda 30 yn erbyn, a phedwar yn atal eu pleidlais.
Cafodd y cynnig ei basio yn dilyn cefnogaeth gan y cadeirydd, Annwen Daniels.
Yn ôl Arweinydd Cyngor Gwynedd, Dyfrig Siencyn, mae angen mwy o dai er mwyn ateb y galw am gartrefi yn y sir.
Ond roedd mudiadau iaith yn dweud y byddai codi cynifer o dai yn golygu lleihad yng nghanran y siaradwyr Cymraeg yn y ddwy sir.
Roedd y cyfarfod yn benllanw ar chwe blynedd o waith paratoi ar y Cynllun Datblygu Lleol, gan osod fframwaith ar gyfer datblygiadau newydd yn y ddwy sir.
Ond fe wnaeth adroddiad gafodd ei gomisiynu gan Gymdeithas yr Iaith, ynghyd â thri mudiad arall, ddod i'r casgliad y byddai'n arwain at ostyngiad o 2% ar gyfartaledd yn nifer y siaradwyr Cymraeg.
Roedd yr ymgyrchwyr iaith wedi cynnal rali ddydd Gwener cyn i gynghorwyr Gwynedd gyfarfod i drafod y mater.
Mae'r cynllun datblygu hefyd wedi cael ei feirniadu gan rai o feirdd a llenorion amlycaf yr ardal, mewn llythyr agored ar drothwy ymweliad yr Eisteddfod Genedlaethol ag Ynys Môn.
Dywedodd y llythyr y byddai codi dros 7,000 o dai yn yr ardal yn "tanseilio'r iaith Gymraeg yn ei chadarnleoedd olaf".
Mewn ymateb ar y pryd dywedodd y cynghorau eu bod wedi cynnal asesiad effaith ar yr iaith Gymraeg, ac mai bwriad y Cynllun Datblygu oedd "hyrwyddo economïau lleol iach, [sicrhau] tai digonol ar gyfer trigolion presennol, [a] chefnogi twf cymedrol".
Dywedodd Mr Siencyn fod y cynllun yn ateb y galw lleol am dai newydd, ac nad oedd adroddiad Cymdeithas yr Iaith yn rhoi sylw digonol i symudedd cymdeithasol, a'r hyn all ddigwydd dros gyfnod o 10 i 15 mlynedd.
Wedi'r bleidlais, dywedodd Mr Siencyn: "Mae'r cynllun yr ydan ni fel Cyngor wedi ei gymeradwyo yn seiliedig ar dystiolaeth gynhwysfawr am y materion hynny sydd fwyaf pwysig i bobl leol, sef tai gan gynnwys tai fforddiadwy, gwaith ac iaith.
"Mae'r fframwaith yn gosod cyfres o bolisïau blaengar a fydd yn sicrhau fod datblygiadau tai yn cyfarch anghenion lleol, yn amddiffyn ein cymunedau ac yn eu galluogi i ffynnu."
Mewn datganiad ar y cyd dywedodd Aelodau Seneddol Plaid Cymru, Liz Saville Roberts a Hywel Williams, a'r Aelod Cynulliad Siân Gwenllian eu bod yn "nodi penderfyniad" y cyngor i gymeradwyo'r cynllun, ac yn "cydnabod yr angen am dai lleol addas sy'n blaenoriaethu anghenion teuluoedd a chymunedau yng Ngwynedd".
"Fodd bynnag, rydym yn siomedig iawn bod y fframwaith cynllunio presennol ar gyfer Cymru, o dan reolaeth Llywodraeth Lafur Cymru wedi arwain at Gynllun Datblygu lleol sydd heb ganiatau'r hyblygrwydd angenrheidiol i fynd i'r afael ag anghenion penodol cymunedau Môn a Gwynedd.
"Mae angen cynnal adolygiad cynhwysfawr o'r system gynllunio; un sy'n greiddiol i roi anghenion cymuedau lleol o flaen gofynion datblygwyr gan gynnwys ystyriaeth gynllunio gadarn ar gyfer yr iaith Gymraeg."
Bydd y Cynllun Datblygu Lleol yn weithredol hyd at 2026 ar ôl cael sêl bendith cynghorwyr y ddwy sir, ac mae disgwyl i gynghorwyr Môn drafod y cynllun yr wythnos nesaf.


Three men accused of helping a 17-year-old Cardiff boy leave the UK to join fighters in Syria have pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges.

Kristen Brekke, 19, of Grangetown, Cardiff, Forhad Rahman, 20, of Cirencester, and Adeel Ulhaq, 20, of Nottingham, all appeared via videolink for the hearing at the Old Bailey.
They are charged with preparation of terrorist acts.
They will next appear at the Old Bailey on 25 June for a four week trial.
The three men are all charged with preparation of terrorist acts with the intention of assisting an individual - who cannot be named for legal reasons - to commit acts of terrorism.
Mr Rahman is also charged with two counts of possessing a document likely to be useful for terrorism.
In addition, Mr Ulhaq is charged with entering into or becoming concerned in a terrorist funding arrangement.


A tenth woman has come forward to accuse US presidential candidate Donald Trump of sexual assault.

Karena Virginia said Mr Trump approached her when she was waiting for a car outside the US Open tennis tournament in New York in 1998.
She accused the current Republican nominee of grabbing her breast and making objectifying statements about her to other men in his group.
Mr Trump's campaign dismissed the claim as a "fictional story".
"Discredited political operative Gloria Allred, in another coordinated, publicity seeking attack with the Clinton campaign, will stop at nothing to smear Mr. Trump. Give me a break," said Jessica Ditto, a Trump campaign spokeswoman.
"Voters are tired of these circus-like antics and reject these fictional stories and the clear efforts to benefit Hillary Clinton."
Mrs Virginia - a yoga teacher who comes from the New York area - said she expected to be personally attacked by Mr Trump, but felt it was her "duty as a woman, as a mother, a human being, and as an American citizen to speak out and tell the truth about what happened to me".
"Perhaps he will label me just another nasty woman", Mrs Virginia added.
Mr Trump, at the final televised presidential debate in Las Vegas, called his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton "such a nasty woman".
Speaking at a press conference in Los Angeles alongside her lawyer Gloria Allred, Mrs Virginia recounted her alleged encounter with Mr Trump when she was 27 years old.
She said she was waiting for her hire car to arrive when Mr Trump approached her and made comments about her physical appearance to a group of men he was with.
"He said: 'Hey look at this one. We haven't seen her before,'" Mrs Virginia tearfully recounted, saying that his words described her "as though I was an object rather than a person".
"Then his hand touched the right inside of my breast. I was in shock. I flinched."
She told reporters that Mr Trump then said to her: "Don't you know who I am?"
"I felt intimidated and I felt powerless," she said, explaining that the incident left her feeling "ashamed" and that she blamed herself for many years.
Mrs Allred - who is a vocal supporter of Mrs Clinton - insisted that her legal office was not working in co-ordination with the Clinton campaign, and that Mrs Virginia had sought her help to announce the accusation.
She said that there were no corroborating witnesses to the incident, but that Mrs Virginia had recounted the story to friends soon after, and also later to her husband.


Goldman Sachs has been fined $36.3m (£27m) by the US Federal Reserve for using confidential documents improperly obtained from the central bank.

The Fed said Goldman Sachs had used documents, obtained by a former Fed employee, to brief clients during presentations.
Goldman Sachs has already paid New York regulators $50m over the same incident.
The case has highlighted the issue of staff moving between big banks and the agencies that regulate them.
According to the Fed, a former Goldman Sachs senior banker Joseph Jiampietro, asked a new, junior employee Rohit Bansal to obtain confidential documents from the Fed, where Mr Bansal had previously worked for eight years.
Those documents were then used to advise small and medium-sized banks on the Fed's decision making in 2014.
Both Mr Jiampietro and Mr Bansal were sacked after another colleague reported the incident to the compliance department.
In addition to the fine Goldman Sachs will have to put in place new oversight measures.
In a statement, the Fed said it "expects all firms, including Goldman Sachs, to comply with all US laws, rules, and regulations".
It added that Goldman Sachs must set up effective strategies for handling these types of incidents and ensure they are quickly brought to the attention of senior managers.
The Fed also announced it was instituting enforcement proceedings against Mr Jiampietro.


Theresa May says she has "absolute faith" in the UK's nuclear weapons system despite reports that an unarmed missile went off course during a test.

The Sunday Times says the missile, fired in June, veered off course, weeks before a crucial Commons vote on Trident's future.
When questioned by the BBC, Mrs May repeatedly refused to say if she knew about the misfire ahead of the vote.
Nicola Sturgeon said it was a "hugely serious issue".
Scotland's First Minister, who is a passionate opponent of Trident, tweeted: "There should be full disclosure of what happened, who knew what/when, and why the House of Commons wasn't told."
Meanwhile Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn said it called for "a serious discussion".
He told Sky News: "It's a pretty catastrophic error when a missile goes in the wrong direction, and while it wasn't armed, goodness knows what the consequences of that could have been."
In July, weeks after the test and days after Mrs May became prime minister, MPs voted overwhelmingly to spend up to £40bn on replacing Trident.
But when asked by BBC's Andrew Marr whether she knew then that the misfire had happened, she said: "I have absolute faith in our Trident missiles. When I made that speech in the House of Commons, what we were talking about was whether or not we should renew our Trident."
She was asked a further three times but she did not answer the question.
The Ministry of Defence did not give details of the test process but said it was a success.
Labour former defence minister Kevan Jones has demanded an inquiry into the claims, telling the Sunday Times: "The UK's independent nuclear deterrent is a vital cornerstone for the nation's defence.
"Ministers should come clean if there are problems and there should be an urgent inquiry into what happened."
The Sunday Times says the test fire was launched from HMS Vengeance off the coast of Florida.
It says the Trident II D5 missile was intended to be fired 5,600 miles (9,012 km) to a sea target off the west coast of Africa but veered towards the US.
The cause remains top secret, the paper adds, but quotes a senior naval source as saying the missile suffered an in-flight malfunction after launching out of the water.
HMS Vengeance, one of the UK's four Vanguard-class submarines, returned to sea for trials in December 2015 after a £350m refit, which included the installation of new missile launch equipment and upgraded computer systems.
According to the Sunday Times, it is expected that Defence Secretary Michael Fallon will be called to the Commons to answer questions from MPs.
In July, MPs backed the renewal of Trident by 472 votes to 117, approving the manufacture of four replacement submarines at a current estimated cost of £31bn.
During the debate Mrs May made clear she would be willing to authorise a nuclear strike, capable of killing 100,000 people.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) described reports of a misfire as a "very serious failure".
"There's absolutely no doubt that this would have impacted on the debate in Parliament on Trident replacement," General Secretary Kate Hudson said.
"Nuclear weapons technology is not 100% failsafe. In so many ways it is a disaster waiting to happen, the consequences of which are too terrible to comprehend," she added.
BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale said while the MoD has described the test as a success for the crew and the boat, it has not denied the report that the missile itself might have veered off course.
In the past the MoD has issued a press release and video of successful tests but its silence on this occasion has raised questions as to whether any fault was deliberately kept quiet ahead of the key vote, our correspondent added.
Labour's official policy is to support renewing the Trident system, but leader Mr Corbyn - a longstanding opponent of nuclear weapons  - wants to change the party's position and has launched a defence review to examine the issue.
Ms Sturgeon has described the nuclear weapons system as "immoral" and "impractical".
All 52 SNP MPs voted against its renewal in the House of Commons vote.
A statement issued by both Downing St and the MoD said: "The capability and effectiveness of the Trident missile, should we ever need to employ it, is unquestionable.
"In June the Royal Navy conducted a routine unarmed Trident missile test launch from HMS Vengeance, as part of an operation which is designed to certify the submarine and its crew.
"Vengeance and her crew were successfully tested and certified, allowing Vengeance to return into service. We have absolute confidence in our independent nuclear deterrent.
"We do not provide further details on submarine operations for obvious national security reasons."
The Trident system was acquired by the Thatcher government in the early 1980s as a replacement for the Polaris missile system, which the UK had possessed since the 1960s.
Trident came into use in the 1990s. There are three parts to it - submarines, missiles and warheads. Although each component has years of use left, they cannot last indefinitely.
The current generation of four submarines would begin to end their working lives some time in the late 2020s.


An officer with the Metropolitan Police is to be charged with perjury over evidence given at the inquest of a man who died in custody in south London.

Sean Rigg, 40, who had schizophrenia, suffered a cardiac arrest at Brixton police station on 21 August 2008.
The inquest in 2012 found police used an unsuitable level of force with him.
Sgt Paul White gave evidence at Mr Rigg's inquest. The CPS said it had reviewed the case at the family's request and would prosecute Mr White.
A second officer was originally referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) on suspicion of perjury and perverting the course of justice.
Sue Hemming, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's (CPS) Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said she had considered the evidence against the second officer but concluded there was insufficient evidence to prosecute.
Sgt White, who was based at Lambeth Borough at the time of Mr Rigg's death, is due to appear before Westminster Magistrates Court on 8 September.
In a statement, Scotland Yard said it was aware of the CPS decision to prosecute an officer and the officer concerned was on restricted duties.
It said it was also co-operating with two investigations by the IPCC following the death of Mr Rigg.
The first is a re-investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death and the second is an investigation into the evidence given by Met officers at the inquest into Mr Rigg's death. The musician had been arrested on suspicion of attacking a man in Balham, south London
The statement also said: "The Metropolitan Police Service would again like to emphasis our sympathy to Mr Rigg's family and acknowledge their loss."


The World Cup will be expanded to host 48 teams, up from 32, Fifa has decided.

An initial stage of 16 groups of three teams will precede a knockout stage for the remaining 32 when the change is made for the 2026 tournament.
The sport's world governing body voted unanimously in favour of the change at a meeting in Zurich on Tuesday.
The number of tournament matches will rise to 80, from 64, but the eventual winners will still play only seven games.
It will make a mockery of the qualification process for most confederations
The tournament will be completed within 32 days - a measure to appease powerful European clubs, who objected to reform because of a crowded international schedule.
The changes mark the first World Cup expansion since 1998.
New Fifa Now, a campaign group that says the governing body needs to reform, labelled the expansion "a money grab and power grab".
"It will dilute the competitiveness of the tournament and, therefore, the enjoyment of fans," it said in a statement.
"It will not help development of the game or provide improved competitive opportunities for lower-ranked nations. Instead, it will make a mockery of the qualification process for most confederations."
Fifa president Gianni Infantino has been behind the move, saying the World Cup has to be "more inclusive".
Speaking at a sports conference in Dubai in December, Infantino said expansion will also benefit "the development of football all over the world".
He added: "There is nothing bigger in terms of boosting football in a country than participating in a World Cup."
Despite saying "the decision should not just be financially driven", Infantino did highlight the possible financial upsides.
According to Fifa's own research, revenue is predicted to increase to £5.29bn for a 48-team tournament, giving a potential profit rise of £521m.


David Haye says his comeback could last only one fight if his efforts do not give him the confidence needed to become a world champion again.

The 35-year-old faces Australia's Mark de Mori on Saturday in his first fight for three-and-a-half years.
Haye said: "I'm not going to do this if I don't believe I can win that title."
He won the WBA heavyweight title in 2009, lost his belt two years later to Ukraine's Wladimir Klitschko and retired in 2013 with a shoulder injury.
The British fighter weighed in at a career heaviest 16st 3lb 5oz on Friday against De Mori's 17st 5lb 8oz.
Haye's last fight saw him beat fellow Briton Dereck Chisora at Upton Park in 2012.
Haye, who is expected to beat De Mori, 33, said: "If I'm in there and it feels so far away from me then that will be a consideration [to retire again], even if I win the fight.
"Unless I'm 100 per cent confident I can beat somebody, and become world champion, there's no point getting in the ring."
Haye said he would know if his abilities were on the wane, and added: "I've boxed for long enough to know that if I'm getting hit with shots I don't normally get hit with. That's a tell-tale sign."


At least 51 people are now known to have died from a mudslide that engulfed a village in Indonesia.

More than 50 people are still missing from Friday's incident in Jemblung village on the island of Java.
Hundreds of rescuers have been digging through mud and wreckage, searching for survivors.
The operation was halted on Monday as more rain prompted fears of another landslide. It is due to resume again on Tuesday.
Officials say hopes of finding anyone alive are fading.
"We hope and pray that we can rescue some of the missing but the chances are slim," a local search and rescue chief Agus Haryono told AFP.
The Indonesian President, Joko Widodo, visited the scene at the weekend and urged authorities to speed up rescue efforts.
The search has been hampered by heavy rain and difficulty accessing the disaster site.
At least 11 people were seriously injured and hundreds of others evacuated.
Flash floods and fatal landslides triggered by seasonal downpours are common in Indonesia.
Many of the inhabitants of the chain of 17,000 islands that make up Indonesia live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains.
Authorities say around half the population - about 125 million - is at risk from landslides.


A "cavalier" lorry driver has been jailed for three and a half years for causing the death of a cyclist by careless driving.

Barry Meyer, 52, of Walthamstow, crushed Alan Neve with the lorry's front and back wheels, causing "almost instant death", the court heard.
Mr Neve, from Poplar, was hit during morning rush hour in High Holborn on 15 July 2013 and died at the scene.
Blackfriars Crown Court banned Meyer from driving for 10 years.
Meyer had previous convictions for drink driving and admitted causing the 54-year-old's death.
He was also guilty of driving without insurance and a licence.
CCTV footage of the crash showed Meyer also drove through a red light.
Sentencing Meyer, Judge Worlsey said the harm the lorry driver had caused was "devastating beyond all measure."
Mr Neve's widow Penelope was in court when her statement was read out.
It said: "I want to start by telling you that I loved Alan with all my heart and that he made me happier than anyone else in the world."
"There is not one area of my life that has not been affected," she added.
The court heard how when Mr Neve's rucksack was brought home from the scene, his wife took out the sandwich he had made for his lunch and froze it.  It is still in the freezer.
She also folded up the last bedding he used and stored them in a wardrobe.
"His pyjamas are still under his pillow. I smell them and imagine he is here," she said.
London Cycling Campaign welcomed the jail term and 10-year driving ban, but said: "We believe, however, that a lifetime driving ban is essential to keep such dangerous drivers off the road."


Workmen have corrected the spelling of road markings in Cambridge by covering the offending letter with black paint.

The "20 minuites max parking" sign was painted at an NCP car park at the railway station about two years ago.
Last week contractors arrived, but instead of removing the extra "i" in "minutes", they repainted it.
It has now been painted black. An NCP spokeswoman said: "Everyone involved has committed to playing Scrabble in their lunchtimes as spelling revision."
Steve Buckley, who works opposite the station, photographed NCP contractors arriving on Thursday.
He said he thought they had come to correct the original error, but instead repainted it, making it brighter and more noticeable.
"I've seen what they've done now, it's just a black stripe over the errant "i", but I guess it's slightly less obvious," he added.
The NCP spokeswoman said the newly blacked-out letter "i" was a temporary measure and contractors would be returning to repaint the whole word - correctly.
"You don't think you actually have to check whether they know how to spell 'minute'," she said.
"We'll be testing them from now on."
The NCP would check the spelling on its signs and road markings in the future, she added.


Billy Joe Saunders' WBO middleweight title defence has been cancelled after his opponent was arrested for alleged links to organised crime.

The Briton was due to fight Avtandil Khurtsidze on 8 July in London.
But following his arrest in New York, the Georgian's promoter Lou DiBella has confirmed he will be unable to travel.
Thirty-three members and associates of a Russian crime syndicate, including Khurtsidze, have been detained.
In a statement, acting Manhattan US Attorney Joon H Kim said: "The dizzying array of criminal schemes committed by this organised crime syndicate allegedly include a murder-for-hire conspiracy, a plot to rob victims by seducing and drugging them with chloroform, the theft of cargo shipments containing over 10,000 pounds of chocolate, and a fraud on casino slot machines using electronic hacking devices."
Khurtsidze earned the bout with Saunders after winning the interim belt by stopping Britain's Tommy Langford in April.
Saunders' most recent fight was a successful title defence against Artur Akavov in December.


Youths gathering in an Anglesey town centre face being ordered to move, after police imposed an anti-social dispersal order in the area.

It follows complaints over gangs of young adults gathering in Llangefni, drinking alcohol and causing criminal damage.
The power allows police and community support officers to force troublemakers to leave.
The order will remain in force until 01:00 BST on Sunday.
"The action we are taking is twofold," explained Sgt Tracey Llewellyn, from Anglesey's Safer Neighbourhood policing team.
"Initially we would like to reassure those living in or visiting the town centre that we are taking positive action against youths causing repeat issues of anti-social behaviour in and around the town to ensure that they are not plagued by the behaviour of certain youths.
"Equally importantly is to protect young people from the excesses of alcohol and its potential consequences."
The dispersal order means any person under 16-years-old can also be taken home, or to a place of safety.
Individuals can also be banned from the area for up to 24 hours, or face arrest if they return.


The mother of a teenager who took his own life following a battle with drugs has called for a secure children's mental health unit for Northern Ireland.

Sarah Fox's son Aaron, died aged 16.
Ms Fox said it was "horrendous" watching her son "self destruct" and said she believes a secure unit could have saved his life.
She said she felt powerless and was told Aaron had to want to quit drugs to get all the help he needed.
"There was nothing we could do, it had to be down to Aaron," she said.
"How can a 15-year-old boy know he needs help?
"We're his legal guardians - we should have been the ones making the decisions, not him.
"These kids need to be on their knees before anyone will listen.
"It keeps us awake and puts knots in your stomach. I just wish we could just go back to that day."
In a statement to the BBC, the Department of Health said there were currently no secure treatment units available for under 18s.
They said care for children with addiction problems is provided in line with NICE guidelines, which indicate self help as the first line of treatment and then formal cognitive behavioural therapy with family support.
They said there was not enough demand for a secure unit and the priority for the future would be strengthening existing provision in early intervention and intensive community based support, rather than on a specialist secure unit.
The health minister, Michelle O'Neill said she is trying to improve the response for those who are in crisis.
SDLP MLA Nicola Mallon said she is dealing with cases similar to Aaron's in her own constituency, and said there is not enough support available.
She said when a child's mental health has deteriorated due to drug use there is no safe and secure space available to them.
"For children who really, really are in a bad place, they need somewhere they can go", she told BBC News NI.
"It's not about locking a child up - it's about trying to put the child somewhere safe so that they can get all the help they need."


Police have questioned three people about the sudden death of a woman in Coagh, County Tyrone.

She was Amy Reid, 21, from Coolnafranky Park, Cookstown. A neighbour said she died during a house party in Coagh early on Friday.
Two men, aged 26 and 39, and a 32-year-old woman were arrested for questioning about drugs. They had been taken to hospital as a precaution.
They have been released on police bail pending further inquiries.
Ms Reid's neighbour, Peter Cassidy, said that the family were "absolutely shocked" at what had happened.
"She was a young girl with everything to live for, tragically taken away so young.
"I have seen her from since she was a child up to now, a bubbly girl who enjoyed life.
"She had three brothers and a sister, they're totally gobsmacked. They can't take it in. The parents are totally devastated."
Ulster Unionist councillor Trevor Wilson said it was a "terrible tragedy".
"She had her whole life ahead of her. When the news reached Cookstown and the people that lived round about where she lived, it was very sad and they are really stunned."
Sinn FÃ©in councillor John McNamee said he knows the young woman's family.
"At such a young age of 21, it is terrible for the family and for the whole community. We should reflect on what really happened, a young woman, 21 years of age, in the prime of her life has lost her life," he said.
"Her family, friends and neighbours are totally devastated."
He warned against speculation about what happened at this stage.


Hauliers have warned they may seek compensation for extra costs totalling £600,000 a day because of the Forth Road Bridge delays and diversions.

The bridge has been completely closed until the new year after steelwork faults were found.
The Road Haulage Association (RHA) said the main diversion route was adding an extra £30 in fuel costs.
The Scottish government said the alternative travel arrangements were working better than expected.
Repair work on the bridge is due to begin next week. Operators said they were carrying out a controlled test on Tuesday to check out structural behaviour.
The RHA welcomed the setting up of a dedicated HGV lane on the A985 and a temporary relaxation of  Department of Transport  rules on drivers' working hours.
But RHA chief executive Richard Burnett said the Scottish government did not appear to appreciate fully the extra costs being borne by hauliers.
He said: "The knock-on effects for hauliers are already beginning to bite,
"Although we welcome the dedicated HGV route on the A985, the additional cost to hauliers is immense.
"The extra cost for a single HGV to replace what is in effect, a 2.5 mile journey with a detour that can amount to approximately a 60 mile round trip will add an extra £30 in fuel costs alone.
"With an estimated 10,500 HGVs using the bridge each day, the additional operating costs for the industry will be well in excess of £600,000 per day.
"Already we have had reports from members who have had no alternative but to ask their customers for a rate rise. A request that has, unsurprisingly, been met with a great deal of resistance.
"In addition to the increase in operating costs, the overall efficiency of the haulage industry in Scotland is already being greatly reduced as a journey that would take 30 minutes can now take up to three hours if the route is congested."
Mr Burnett said there was concern the extra costs meant Scottish hauliers would be unable to compete for contracts
He added: ""This current state of affairs in unsustainable and we shall be pushing the Scottish government for compensation.
"Hauliers, already working to tight margins simply cannot absorb these extra costs.
"We need answers. Why, despite regular routine inspections, were these defects not picked up before? And why did they become so serious so quickly?"
Meanwhile, Transport Minister Derek Mackay based himself at the National Traffic Control Centre during the rush hour disruption to see how the alternative travel arrangements were working.
Traffic Scotland reported hour-long queues on southbound approach to Kincardine Bridge, the alternative Forth crossing from Fife.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who visited the traffic control centre, said the contingency plans were "working as well as we could have expected".
"Clearly the closure of the bridge is causing inconvenience and disruption to people and I absolutely understand that," she said.
She thanked the travelling public for their "patience and forbearance".
Ms Sturgeon said there was significant extra capacity on the trains and the buses and a diversion route for buses and HGVs.
She said: "I would encourage people who are being incredibly patient to continue to think about car sharing, using the buses - there is extra capacity still on the buses and the journey times are not as long as might have been the case.
"Think about staggering your journey times to and from work. If we all play our part, then we will get through this with as little disruption as possible and then hopefully get this bridge open again at the start of the year."
The first minister added: "We are absolutely determined to get the bridge open at the start of the new year and, weather aside, from everything the engineers have told me this morning they remain optimistic that the repairs can be done in this timescale."
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said it was the biggest change to Fife's transport system in 50 years.
The MSP for mid Scotland and Fife told BBC Scotland that some villages in Fife, such as Culross and Torryburn, were not designed to cope with the extra traffic now passing through them.
He also called for some of the restrictions to be lifted outside peak times to help local residents.
Mr Rennie, a keen cyclist, said he had asked the transport minister why people could not cross the Forth bridge on bicycles.
The minister said the bridge was an "active" workplace and there would be risks involved.
The crossing restrictions have been lifted for some patients travelling for cancer treatment but they will have to be escorted across the bridge.


An Australian mother woke to the sound of her son's screams and found a python wrapped around his belly.

Tamara Thurgood struggled to pull the snake off her son after it bit him repeatedly on the face while he slept, relatives said online.
Ms Thurgood told local media it was "like a nightmare" as she fought to free her son.
She said Tyler, 6, had his eyes closed during the ordeal and could not remember being bitten.
Two male relatives who were called to the property at Eungai Rail in northern New South Wales killed the snake.
Snake experts described the encounter with what was probably a 2.5m (8ft) coastal carpet python as an "unfortunate chance meeting".
Bryan Robinson, a wildlife management specialist for Queensland Fauna Consultancy, told the BBC it was an unusual scenario.
Mr Robinson said snakes usually bite for self defence, and around 95% of people bitten were either trying to catch or kill the reptile.
"It doesn't mean the snake was attacking him, the kid could have rolled on him in his sleep," he said. "Human beings do not fit into the prey selection of any Australian snakes."
Relatives said Ms Thurgood wanted to share her story online in the hope it would help other families protect their children. She has since asked for privacy.


Islamist fighters have withdrawn from two towns in central Mali following French air strikes, officials say.

Mali's army earlier said it had recaptured Konna, which triggered the French intervention after it was seized by the rebels.
Now the mayor of Diabaly says soldiers have taken control of the town.
Islamist fighters in neighbouring Algeria say they have kidnapped foreign gas workers in retaliation for France's involvement in the Mali conflict.
Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency says it fears the fighting could force 700,000 people from their homes.Mali Islamists 'flee two towns'
Some 150,000 people have already gone to neighbouring countries, Reuters news agency reports.
By Andrew HardingAfrica correspondent
It quotes the UNHCR as saying that 400,000 more could flee Mali, with a further 300,000 displaced within the country.
The first 100 troops of an African force landed in the capital, Bamako on Thursday evening.
The soldiers from Togo and Nigeria are part of a long-planned West African force that will join the French and Malian armies in fighting the Islamist insurgents who took over northern Mali last year.
Nigeria says it will increase its forces to 1,200.
France says it now has 1,800 troops in Mali after intervening initially with air strikes to try to halt a rapid advance by the Islamists.
Correspondents say a strong French contingent is at Segou, north-east of Bamako, to guard a major bridge across the Niger river, which the rebels would have to cross to threaten the capital.
Bamako-based journalist Kodji Siby told BBC Africa that he had spoken to residents in Konna, about 550km (340 miles) north of Bamako, who said the Islamists fled the town when Malian soldiers deployed.
"We have wrested total control of Konna after inflicting heavy losses on the enemy," the AFP news agency quoted a Malian army statement as saying.
Earlier this week, French officials denied a claim by the Malian army that the government had regained Konna.
The area is not accessible to independent observers. The aid group Doctors Without Borders told the Associated Press it had been trying to get to Konna since Monday but all roads leading to the area were closed by the Malian military.
On Thursday, French forces were bombing the town of Diabaly, 350km from capital, which was captured by Islamists earlier in the week.
There was fighting on the streets until 03:00 GMT on Friday, Diabaly Mayor Oumar Diakite said from nearby Niono - and Islamists were reported to be leaving the town.
"Soldiers are in the town carrying out mopping up operations," he told Reuters news agency by telephone.
"There are lots of burned-out vehicles that the Islamists tried to hide in the orchards."
His information was coming from residents who were telephoning him.
Getting accurate reports from the area has been difficult, as the rebels had destroyed mobile phone masts to prevent local people passing information on rebel movements, he said.
The residents had to travel outside the town to make the phone calls, he said.
In total, 3,300 regional troops will be deployed in the conflict under a UN Security Council resolution.
Defence sources say France is likely to boost its troop numbers to 2,500.
Nigeria will lead the West African force, with Chad, Benin, Ghana, Niger, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Togo also sending soldiers.
Islamist groups and secular Tuareg rebels took advantage of chaos following a military coup to seize northern Mali in April 2012. But the Islamists soon took control of the region's major towns, sidelining the Tuaregs.


Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange are to hold a vigil to mark his 1,000th day inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Mr Assange sought refuge at the embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning over sex assault allegations.
On Friday, there was a U-turn from Swedish prosecutors who offered to travel to London to interview him.
Sympathisers with placards are expected to gather outside the embassy later.
Mr Assange sought asylum at the Ecuadorean Embassy on 19 June 2012 shortly after the supreme court rejected his final appeal against extradition.
He is wanted for questioning relating to one count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation, and one count of rape against two women in 2010.
Mr Assange denies the allegations and has said they are part of a smear campaign against him.
He argues that if he is sent to Sweden, he could then be extradited to the US where he fears he will face the death penalty for publishing leaked US diplomatic cables.
For 1,000 days he has remained in a small room with a bed, sun lamp, computer, shower, treadmill and cooking facilities, the BBC's Jon Ironmonger said.
Last month, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe admitted the total cost of guarding the Embassy had exceeded Â£10 million.


Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola knew this day would come but it was painful nonetheless - especially as his previously flawless Premier League side were so completely outplayed by Spurs.

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Guardiola's run of six straight league wins at the start of his reign ended with a warm embrace for his victorious counterpart Mauricio Pochettino, the Catalan's smile and low-key touchline body language confirming he had no complaints about this 2-0 defeat.
He was as dignified in defeat as he has been in victory - but what lessons emerged from this reality check for the team installed as firm Premier League title favourites?
Guardiola likes his side to get their opponents on what Sir Alex Ferguson called "the carousel" - a label plucked from the days when Xavi and Andres Iniesta tormented teams by passing as if they were born in possession of a football, and illustrated by two emphatic Champions League final losses for Manchester United at the hands of his Barcelona team.
What happens when a team not only refuses to jump aboard the carousel, but takes decisive action to stop it before it makes its first spin?
Celtic and their manager Brendan Rodgers started it in that 3-3 Champions League classic at Parkhead on Wednesday when they pressed, hassled and harried City relentlessly, never giving Guardiola's players a moment's peace as they were forced to come from behind three times to take a point.
Spurs, with players of a higher calibre, rattled City from the first whistle, with the outstanding Son Heung-min leading the charge while Guardiola's full-backs Pablo Zabaleta and Aleksandar Kolarov were attacked mercilessly. The latter was so unnerved, he slashed Danny Rose's cross into his own net for the first goal after nine minutes.
Only John Stones retained a modicum of composure as Tottenham, following Celtic's example, tore into City. One observer suggested the pace of the first half was so high you needed to be at peak fitness to watch it, let alone play in it.
And on the touchline was the grand orchestrator Pochettino, waving his players forward with demands to press City higher and higher up the pitch. At one point his orders took him into Guardiola's technical area, such was his desire for Spurs to carry out his game plan.
City just went back and back, rattling all the way, as Spurs gave them a thorough going over without demonstrating any of the frailties that allowed them back in against Celtic.
Guardiola will know there will be more where this came from. The Premier League is an unforgiving arena - any perceived weaknesses are pounced upon and highlighted.
He will have learned from this thunderous 90 minutes, and will at least be comforted by the knowledge that not too many teams will have the speed, fitness levels and ability to carry it off for 90 minutes.
As Guardiola rightly said afterwards: "Losing is part of the game. I never thought that we would not lose a game. You can't imagine that. It is normal to the process. Sometimes it happens and it can help us improve.
"It is October. You cannot imagine my team is already done. I am new here. So far it has been an amazing performance but we need more. We have to work more."
Best to learn the lesson early, perhaps.
Claudio Bravo is a central plank in Guardiola's future plans for Manchester City but still looks desperately ill-at-ease when placed under the sort of pressure Spurs applied.
Taunted almost every time the ball landed at his feet as Spurs fans revelled in the high-octane approach of their team, he became a symbol of City's struggles, despite a fine second-half penalty save from Erik Lamela.
The 33-year-old was brought from Barcelona after Joe Hart was shown the door, to not only be a goalkeeper but act as instigator of City's style to play out from the back. This day will not be considered a success.
The good news is he will know he has the backing of Guardiola
Bravo's interventions arguably led to more attacking opportunities for Spurs than City, firing one clearance high into the danger area and almost getting caught in possession in the early moments of the second half.
It is proving to be a tough transition for the Chilean, with trust yet to be built with his defenders as he finds life harder without members of Barcelona's elite to find with the ball at his feet.
Bravo's vulnerability has also been noted by opposition supporters and he will need to learn to block out the jeers that will come his way when he is in possession.
In his defence, and to stop him simply becoming an easy target on occasions when it goes wrong, he was not responsible for either goal and there were plenty in front of him who have to take their share of responsibility for City's first league defeat.
The good news is he will know he has the backing of Guardiola, who has shown such faith in Bravo and believes he will prove that £17m was money well spent.
Guardiola was right to provide some sobering context to this defeat. City have made a magnificent start under his stewardship but in real terms he has barely walked through the door.
The jury may be out on Bravo but elsewhere he has bought well. Stones was an honourable exception to Sunday's defensive struggles while Nolito, Ilkay Gundogan and Leroy Sane will add unquestionable quality.
Guardiola, however, is currently presiding over an ageing defence and the creaks are showing in 31-year-old Pablo Zabaleta, a magnificent City servant, and Kolarov at 30. Bacary Sagna, 33, was back-up on the bench along with 31-year-old Gael Clichy.
To add further mitigating circumstances, Guardiola was without arguably his most potent creative influence in the injured Kevin de Bruyne while the return of a injury-free Vincent Kompany will be welcome.
They are unlikely to run into many teams as driven and full of desire as Spurs were on Sunday
Guardiola will probably need another two transfer windows to make this his City side - the fact they have started so brilliantly is testimony to the instant impact he has had at Etihad Stadium and on the Premier League.
A full and firing City, working to Guardiola's principles, still have the talent to grace the Premier League this season and they are unlikely to run into many teams as driven and full of desire as Spurs were on Sunday.
Guardiola's measured response was just right. This was bound to happen - and he has shown in the past he is a very fast learner.
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