Local councils in Wales have been told they can save £151m a year by cutting their administration costs before any consideration of mergers.

The sum is more than 3% of Welsh local government's annual budget of £4.4bn.
Public Services Minister Leighton Andrews said the report he ordered supports the need for reform.
He said "savings can be delivered now" to boost frontline services by improving the management of areas like property management, IT and finance.
The 22 Welsh councils are facing the prospect of merger to 12, 10 or even fewer authorities with a proposed map expected to be unveiled next week.
But Mr Andrews said there was already scope for savings.
"When I commissioned this review in November last year, I made it clear I expected all local authorities in Wales to focus the limited resources available to them on delivering front line services to citizens, and to reduce spending on administration and backroom services," he said.
"The report emphasises the value of authorities benchmarking these services against their peers within Wales and best practice internationally.
"Many of these savings can be delivered now without the need to await wider structural reform to local government in Wales.
"We will now consider the recommendations in the report, which will enable local authorities to compare and contrast expenditure and understand where practice should be changed to move a greater proportion of the spending to delivering services to citizens."


A defeated UKIP leadership candidate has said he is not "hopeful" that new leader Paul Nuttall will get the support he needs from the party's ruling body.

Welsh activist John Rees-Evans said Mr Nuttall was effectively powerless without the support of the national executive committee (NEC).
Elections are currently taking place for the ruling body.
Former leader Nigel Farage had a difficult relationship with the NEC.
Mr Rees-Evans came third in the leadership contest with 2,775 votes (18.1%). Mr Nuttall won with 9,622 votes (62.6%), while Suzanne Evans came second with 2,973 votes (19.3%).
"Constitutionally, the role of the leader is limited in terms of determining the direction the party may take," Mr Rees-Evans told BBC Radio Wales' Good Morning Wales programme.
"He needs the support of the NEC and if he doesn't have that support he is effectively powerless."
He hoped that Mr Nuttall would get that support.
"Right now we're in the middle of an NEC election," he said.
"I shall do my very best to try to support candidates that I think will back him and do believe in some of the principles I have stood for very overtly during my campaign.
"I'm hopeful he will get it, but under the present NEC I'm afraid I wouldn't be hopeful."
The NEC was alleged to have "defied" former UKIP Wales leader Nathan Gill over the selection of assembly candidates at the beginning of 2016.
Ex-leader Nigel Farage had publicly criticised one UKIP assembly candidate, Gareth Bennett, as not the sort of person the party would be proud to have as an assembly member.
But despite that the NEC rejected calls to deselect him. Mr Bennett went on to become an AM.


Rangers captain Lee Wallace admits his season may be over due to injury.

The 29-year-old is recovering from surgery on a stomach tear and is targeting a return for pre-season training.
Wallace has missed Rangers' last six games and expects to sit out the remaining three in this campaign.
"At this moment in time, it will probably be the summer when we return for pre-season," Wallace told Rangers TV.
"The stomach and the tear itself, the repair went fine. I saw the surgeon two weeks later and he was happy with how it looked.
"There has maybe been a bit of pain coming from my hip and my groin, and obviously they are all connected. We just need to get those things right and it's not quite settled in the way I would have liked it.
"There's time now and we are going to use these remaining weeks to build that flexibility and get myself back to a level where I can join in training again."
Wallace suffered the injury during the 1-1 draw with Motherwell at Ibrox on 1 April. Although now working through his rehabilitation, he admits it is doubtful that he will be available for Scotland's World Cup qualifier against England on 10 June.
Rangers return for pre-season training - after a two-week summer break - on 5 June, but Wallace has been granted two extra days off for his wedding.
"There have been a lot of bizarre headlines coming from outside of here about players mumping and moaning about breaks and weddings, and it's just nonsense," Wallace said.
"If we are told we are getting a day off or two weeks off by the manager of the club to prepare for a new season, then we will fall in line with that with no mumping or moaning.
"Two weeks is fine to recharge the batteries and recharge ourselves mentally, have a wee break from it all and look forward to getting back in."
Wallace's replacement at left-back, Myles Beerman, says he has been on a steep learning curve following his first-team debut.
The 18-year-old conceded a penalty in last month's 5-1 defeat by Celtic at Ibrox, but feels he will become a better player for the experience.
"I have learnt an incredible amount in such a short space of time, I've learnt more in a month than possibly I have learnt throughout my whole career," Maltese defender Beerman said.
"Every footballing career will be full of negatives and positives but you just have to try and keep a consistent feeling and attitude towards everything - that is what being professional is all about.
"I have definitely learnt from giving the penalty away against Celtic, it was a silly tackle and a bad mistake on my part. For future reference I know what I will be doing differently.
"I was disappointed in myself big time because I shouldn't have done that but straight away I tried to pick myself up as much as I could. All in all, it was a tough game and it was quite hard to handle."


Leicester City returned to the top of the Premier League with a draw at bottom-of-the-table Aston Villa.

Shinji Okazaki opened the scoring for City, reacting quickest to poke home after keeper Mark Bunn had athletically clawed out Jamie Vardy's lob.
Riyad Mahrez missed a chance to double the lead after Leicester were awarded a controversial penalty for handball.
But Villa striker Rudy Gestede levelled after his second-half shot deflected past keeper Kasper Schmeichel.
Leicester are now a point clear of Manchester City and Arsenal at the top of the table, but the Gunners will go back to the top if they get a point against Stoke on Sunday.
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It might be over-exaggerating to say Villa have turned the corner after their fans' furious reaction to the draw with Wycombe in the third round of the FA Cup, but after manager Remi Garde's first win in midweek, there will be more optimism around Villa Park now.
Whereas in previous fixtures heads had dropped after going behind, on Saturday Villa continued fighting and they had more of the ball and won more battles than the league leaders.
They still have defensive frailties, none more obvious than when Vardy was afforded time to get onto the end of Schmeichel's long clearance.
Bunn may have backtracked well to keep out his lob, but his defenders were too slow to the rebound, letting Okazaki in for the opener.
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The success of Claudio Ranieri's men so far this season has primarily been built around two key men, Vardy and Mahrez.
Between them they have 28 goals and 10 assists in the Premier League, and while Vardy - who has just come back from a minor operation - did well for Leicester's goal, he did not look as sharp as when on his record-breaking streak earlier in the season, and missed a chance to win it in stoppage time when he fired over from a tight angle.
Mahrez's weak penalty - his second missed penalty in a row - will be a frustration to his manager, as will Leicester's inability to finish the game when in front.
The main talking point of the first half was Leicester's penalty decision. It was the assistant referee who flagged for Aly Cissokho's handball, but it simply added to the recent confusion over the rule.
The Villa defender had dived in to block Mahrez's shot from a couple of yards, but the ball struck his arm up by his face with Cissokho facing the other way.
The FA state: handling the ball involves a deliberate act of a player making contact with the ball with his hand or arm. The referee must take the following into consideration:
The home side had their own strong claim for a penalty in the second half when Leicester defender Robert Huth wrapped his arm around Libor Kozak's head to get to a cross first, but the referee turned down the appeal.
Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri: "Yes, we lost two points. We started very well and scored a goal but after the missed penalty the Aston Villa players took a new energy.
"If we score a second goal, we close the match. We are very sad but also I say to the players 'if we make the performance the result is not important'.
"It's one point, it's OK, it's a derby - but we are disappointed."
Aston Villa manager Remi Garde: "If you look at the two games we've played we can be pleased about the spirit. These players have the right attitude to try to save the club from relegation. Sometimes it takes time.
"If there is pre-season it's because it's useful and when you don't have pre-season to work with your team it's more difficult. I didn't have this time and when I arrived the team had lost seven games in a row.
"I know my face was new in the dressing room - my language as well - but it doesn't take hours to put it right."
Both sides have FA Cup third round replays to take care of. Aston Villa host League Two Wycombe Wanderers on Tuesday night, while Leicester are at home to Tottenham Hotspur.


Two and a half years ago, at the start of their career, Oh Wonder singer Josephine Vander Gucht fell over a gate, smashing her front teeth and breaking her nose.

It forced the band to remain anonymous for almost a year: No photographs, no interviews, no videos.
But there was an upside. Last year, as she caught a train home from Heathrow, she sat next to a passenger "covered in blood [with] no teeth, looking sorry for himself".
"I tentatively went up to him and his girlfriend and said, 'I just wanted to let you know you'll be fine'," recalls the 27-year-old.
"'Go to the dentist tomorrow, don't panic, you'll be great'. And he was like, 'Oh, thank you so much!'.
"And then this guy opposite us piped up, 'I broke my nose, too!'. And suddenly this whole little carriage was talking about their injuries, which was remarkable.
"When I got off the Tube, I was so excited. Chatting to strangers gives you such a buzz because there's that element of fear before you talk to someone.
"So I walked from Brockley station back to my house, singing into my phone. And I've got this really funny voice note, which is like, 'I'm getting high on humans!'"
Later, Josephine sent the melody to her musical partner, Anthony West, saying, "We have to write a song about this tomorrow".
"I just sent a text back saying, 'You're crazy,'" he laughs, but the demo was worked up into a full song, High on Humans, which features on the band's upcoming second album, Ultralife.
Like her Tube journey, the song tingles with nervous energy, capturing that extraordinary feeling of connecting with other people; a theme that runs through the record.
The duo were moved to write about "what it means to be a human in this day and age" after a head-spinning two years, in which their music became an online phenomenon, resulting in a record deal and a tour that ran to more than 200 shows around the world.
The success caught them completely off guard. Oh Wonder was conceived as a songwriting project, whereby the two musicians could subsidise their solo careers by giving songs to other artists.
In September 2014, they created a Soundcloud page and, prompted to describe themselves, wrote: "Writing duo, one song a month".
"We thought it was a good way to build up a portfolio over a year," explains Josephine. Then their first song, Body Gold, amassed 100,000 plays in just three days.
"We thought it was a fluke," says Anthony. "But then we uploaded something the next month, and the same thing happened. And it just kept snowballing.
"On the first of every month, we'd go to a little coffee shop and just release a song and thousands of people would play it. It was amazing. It was the best year ever."
Initially, they stayed incognito - partly because of their mantra "it's about the art, not the artist", but mainly because of Josephine's injuries.
"I had no teeth," she grimaces. "It was a really ill-timed accident."
"For a while, she had a little lisp," adds Anthony, who had to edit all of his partner's vocals to remove the erroneous "esses".
Recording on a budget of just Â£200, they hit upon a vocal style where both musicians sing in unison, with Josephine's voice in the centre, and Anthony singing twice, once in the left ear and once in the right.
The technique was actually a happy accident - they'd recorded two sets of vocals so the songs could be pitched to both male and female artists, but their managers advised them to blend the two takes, and it became Oh Wonder's unique sonic signature.
Fans, it seemed, couldn't get enough of it.
"Because we released a song a month over a long period, our fans had a year of their lives soundtracked by our music," says Josephine.
"Rather than just, 'Oh, I really like that song you did,' we get, 'You released that song when I was at university or I had moved to a different country'. We get the most heart-warming stories. Hundreds a week."
Anthony recalls a gig in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where a 50-year-old woman approached the band to express her gratitude for the band's music. Her son, who had recently died of cancer, had been a fan. In his final months, they would wait on tenterhooks for every new release.
"When he died, she was with him and they were listening to his favourite song," says Anthony. "And she said, 'I thank you so much because now, when I listen to that song, my son is there with me.'"
Stories like that helped alleviate the drudgery and loneliness of touring - "when you go from 3,000 people screaming your name to being back in the dressing room, on your own, eating a yoghurt."
Being whisked around the world has changed the two musicians in ways they never expected.
"I've found that I've become fiercely loyal now," says Josephine. "If someone has an engagement party and I've said I will be there, I will cancel everything, even if it really compromises things, in order to make it."
And that, in a nutshell, is what Ultralife - both the album and its title track - is about.
"You and I will both have days where we're really sad, like, 'it's Friday night and I'm in on my own and there's no food in the fridge and I'm miserable,'" says Josephine.
"And the next day you wake up and you're like, 'I feel fantastic, I feel so liberated and empowered and I have loads of mates and it's incredible.'
"Ultralife is the word we use to symbolise the someone or something in your life that pulls you out of those trickier moments and into the celebratory, ultra version of yourself."
So who is that person for Oh Wonder?
"We haven't been asked that yet!" laughs Josephine, before Anthony chips in with a vague answer about friends and family.
Many assume the duo are a real-life couple - but they have been doggedly reluctant to discuss a potential romance, even though they live together and have an uncanny knack for finishing each other's sentences.
"People think we're brother and sister, which suits us just fine," Josephine told one interviewer.
Instead, they want the focus to be their music, which they wrote eyeball-to-eyeball over a piano in a rented AirB&B apartment in New York.
Compared to their first album, Ultralife is "pumped full of energy", a direct response to the audience's reactions on their last tour.
Sonically, it's a big leap forward, while retaining all of the breathless boy-girl beauty of their debut.
The band don't want the album to propel them to Beyonce levels of fame ("I think it would just be very lonely," says Josephine), but it could jeopardise their chances of striking up anonymous conversations on the Tube.
Which, as Anthony attests, could be a blessing.
"I once sat with a Danish friend on the Tube," he says, "And there was two girls opposite me talking in a foreign language.
"Later, my friend told me they were Danish, too, and they were tearing into my shoes, talking about how awful they were.
"I thought they were quite normal shoes, honestly."
Oh Wonder's new album, Ultralife, is released on 14 July by Island Records.
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Eight-time winner Wild Oats XI has been forced to quit the Sydney to Hobart yachting race due to a broken hydraulic ram, organisers say.

Wild Oats later confirmed this, tweeting that "most importantly all crew onboard are safe".
The shock announcement came as the supermaxi yacht was in the lead.
It is a second consecutive year that Wild Oats XI had to retire from the gruelling 630-nautical-mile (1,167km) race.
In 2012, the crew set a new record by crossing the finishing line in one day, 18 hours, 23 minutes and 12 seconds,
Four yachts have so far withdrawn from this year's race, leaving 84 in the running.
Perpetual Loyal is currently leading the fleet by more than 15 nautical miles.
"We saw them [Wild Oats XI], they were just a couple of miles down," Perpetual Loyal navigator Tom Addis told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"We called them on the radio to make sure they were safe or sound, we were worried they might have lost somebody overboard or something but they're all good. It's sad for them."
The accident happened as the yachts entered the Bass Strait, which separates mainland Australia from the island of Tasmania.
The race is due to end in the Tasmanian port of Hobart early on Wednesday.


A decision on whether a Cornish seaside town will keep its ban on new-build second homes has been delayed.

In May more than 80% of residents in St Ives voted to reserve new homes for full-time residents.
A Penzance architectural firm challenged Cornwall Council's decision to allow the referendum to go ahead.
A High Court judge has reserved judgement on whether there should be a judicial review into the vote while he considers evidence from both sides.
It is hoped there will be a ruling from Mr Justice Hickinbottom within weeks after the day-long hearing at Bristol Civil Justice Centre.
Either side could then take his decision to the Court of Appeal.
The vote was part of a wider housing plan for the town.
Under the government's 2011 Localism Act if more than 50% of voters support a neighbourhood plan it carries "real legal weight" and the local planning authority must bring it into force.
But RLT Built Environment Ltd says the policy is an attack on the town's two main industries - tourism and construction.
Cornwall Council, which oversaw the referendum for St Ives Town Council, said it was confident the correct process had been followed.


Is India's politics becoming less dynastic?

Serving up some revealing data on the stranglehold of family and lineage on Indian politics, historian Patrick French wrote in his 2011 book India: A Portrait that if the trend continued, India could slide back to the days when it was ruled by a "hereditary monarch and assorted Indian princelings". He also expressed concern that the next Lok Sabha - the lower house of parliament to which 543 MPs are directly elected - would be a "house of dynasts".
New research by political scientist Kanchan Chandra of New York University actually points to a fall in the number of dynastic MPs in the new parliament, formed after May's general election.
Professor Chandra found that 21% of the MPs in the new parliament have a dynastic background, down from 29% in the last parliament. (A survey by The Hindu newspaper, however, found a quarter of MPs - 130 - in the current parliament have a dynastic background.)
Also, 24% of India's new cabinet, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is dynastic in nature, down from 36% in the previous Congress-led government.
The fall in numbers of dynastic MPs in the parliament may have something to do with the massive victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is considered to be less dynastic than the Congress party it replaced in government. (The BJP alone has 282 of the 336 MPs in the ruling coalition.)
"For me the decline in numbers of dynastic MPs is significant," Baijayant Jay Panda, a prominent MP from the regional Biju Janata Dal (BJD) party, told me. "I think we will see a further fall in numbers in future parliaments."
Professor Chandra is not so sure.
She says most parties, including the ruling BJP, are favourable to dynastic politicians: 15% of the BJP's MPs and 26% of its cabinet are dynastic, and a number of its chief ministers have had their family members follow them in political positions.
Of the 36 political parties that have now at least one seat in the parliament, the leaders of at least 13 (36%) were preceded by family members who were MPs. Also, as Professor Chandra says, the rise of "young, aspirational voters does not quite represent a deterrent to dynastic politics".
This appears to be borne out somewhat by a survey of young voters by the Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) in 2011 that found that although the majority of young voters - 18-30 years of age - opposed dynastic politics in general, they preferred voting for a dynastic candidate when a dynasty was associated with youth.
More interestingly,  another study by Milan Vaishnav, Devesh Kapur and Neelanjan Sircar earlier this year found that 46% of Indians had no problems supporting dynastic politicians. "What we found was kind of shocking," said Mr Vaishnav. "Nearly one in two Indians say, if I had a choice, I would prefer to vote for a candidate who has a family background."
Also, India's Nehru-Gandhi family which leads the Congress is no longer the only dynastic party. The fragmentation of Indian politics has led to a sharp rise in parties led by regional dynasts - at least 15 of them remain politically significant despite many having fared badly in the recent elections. No wonder, as Professor Chandra points out, dynastic politics is alive and well in the states: 28% of the state governments are led by a dynastic chief minister.
To be sure, politics is not the only sphere where India tolerates dynasties - they dominate businesses, Bollywood and many other spheres of life.
In politics, dynasties offer readymade kinship networks that substitute for party organisations. Dynastic politics, Professor Chandra argues, is also linked to "increasing returns from state power" - public officials continue to yield enormous discretion in the exercise of power and patronage from what remains a large and powerful state.
But things, Mr Panda insists, are changing.
He believes that more first-generation politicians with no dynastic links are coming up than ever before and predicts that regional dynasties will splinter further and wither away.  Most importantly, he says, social media is making it easier for politicians to organise networks without depending on families.
"When you are a dynastic politician you easily inherit the network that helps you win election. But the advent of the social media shows that this advantage is breaking down and politics is becoming a more level playing field," Mr Panda says. For evidence, he points out the way the anti-corruption Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) used social media successfully in Delhi's state elections last year to mobilise supporters.
"I am not saying," Mr Panda cautions, "that dynasties will vanish overnight. "But as more and more young Indians get connected to the world, there will be a breaking down of established modes of feudalism. That includes dynastic politics."


A young woman has told the Becky Watts murder trial she had a number of "threesomes" with the man and woman accused of murdering the teenager.

The woman said the arrangement with Nathan Matthews and Shauna Hoare was consensual.
She also told Bristol Crown Court Mr Matthews was "a bit controlling" of Ms Hoare and "jealous of her speaking to other men".
Nathan Matthews, 28, and his girlfriend Shauna Hoare, 21, deny murder.
The dismembered body of 16-year-old Becky was found in a shed in March.
The woman, who was visibly upset as she gave evidence, told the court she had known Ms Hoare since 2010 and had met Mr Matthews through her.
She said she thought Mr Matthews could be "paranoid" and added: "I think he was jealous of her speaking to other men."
The woman told jurors she became involved with the liaisons with the defendants after splitting with her boyfriend.
"At the beginning of 2014. A threesome, two occasions I think, over a month or two," she said.
"It started as a joke when I was with my partner because I was spending a lot of time with them. He would joke I was having a threesome, but I would laugh it off because it was ridiculous.
"By 2014, it came up in general conversation."
She told the court she had been on holiday to Butlins in Minehead in August 2014 with Ms Hoare, Mr Matthews, Becky, Becky's father Darren Galsworthy and stepmother Anjie - Mr Matthews' mother.
She said they appeared to be "just a normal family".
'False start cuts'
The court has also heard from Professor Sarah Hainsworth, an expert in materials and forensic engineering.
She demonstrated a duplicate version of the circular power saw recovered from the shed where Becky's body parts were found, to show how loud it was.
Jurors were also handed the saw to see how heavy it was.
Mr Matthews has admitted using the saw to dismember Becky's body.
Prof Hainsworth said it "would be easier to conduct a dismemberment such as the one I have seen if more than one person were involved".
However, she said the lack of "false start cuts" could mean "the person sawing was very careful and methodical".
'Nooks and crannies'
The court then heard from forensics expert Claire Morse who said it was "extremely surprising" none of Becky Watts' DNA was found in the bathroom where her body was allegedly dismembered.
The bathroom at 14 Cotton Mill Lane, home to Mr Matthews and Ms Hoare, was searched several times for blood.
Ms Morse said that did not mean the body could not have been cut up there, if sheeting was used.
But she said it is "a difficult thing to clean up and get out of all the nooks and crannies".
Mr Matthews, 28, of Hazelbury Drive, south Gloucestershire, admits killing his stepsister but denies murder and conspiring to kidnap her.
He also admits perverting the course of justice, preventing Becky's burial and possessing a prohibited weapon.
Miss Hoare, 21, of Cotton Mill Lane, Bristol, denies murder and conspiracy to kidnap, the weapons charge, perverting the course of justice and preventing a burial.
Two other men, Donovan Demetrius, 29, and James Ireland, 23, deny assisting an offender.
The trial continues.


A man has been charged with murder after an 85-year-old woman died on her way to hospital.

Police were called to a property in Rectory Road, Sittingbourne, on Thursday, following concern for the welfare of an elderly woman.
Jean Robertson, 85, was pronounced dead on the way to hospital, Kent Police said.
Stuart Lay, 44, of Homewood Avenue, Sittingbourne, has been charged with murder and remains in custody.


A council has revealed the scale of its financial contribution to major repair work at its flagship leisure centre.

Last year Dumfries and Galloway Council refused to release the details following a BBC Scotland news website Freedom of Information request.
It has now confirmed it will pay just over £1.3m towards remedial works at the DG One centre in Dumfries.
The case was taken to the Scottish Information Commission but the council has now voluntarily revealed the sum.
The DG One centre shut in October 2014 but a legal wrangle between the council and the original builders meant works could not start for nearly two years.
They finally got under way in September last year with a timeframe of about 18 months for completion.
The £17m centre opened in 2008 but suffered a string of problems which led to its complete closure in 2014.
The total cost of repairing the issues uncovered is just short of £10m and contractors McLaughlin and Harvey started site works on 5 September last year.
Dumfries and Galloway Council had refused to reveal the scale of its contribution when first sought via an FOI request.
However, it has now confirmed the figure to be £1.301m.


A GP cleared over the death of a 12-year-old boy from Blaenau Gwent has now been formally acquitted of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Joanne Rudling, 46, and her colleague, Lindsey Thomas, 41, went on trial in May charged with the manslaughter of Ryan Morse by gross negligence.
Dr Thomas's case was thrown out and a judge ruled no case to answer on the manslaughter charge against Dr Rudling.
Dr Rudling was acquitted of the outstanding charge at the Old Bailey.
The youngster died at his home in Brynithel in December 2012 after suffering from a mystery illness.
A post-mortem examination later showed he had Addison's disease - a treatable but also very rare condition.
Dr Rudling was due to face a retrial at Cardiff Crown Court over a charge of perverting the course of justice later this month.
But during a hearing in London on Friday, High Court judge Nicola Davies indicated that evidence the Crown sought to rely on would be excluded from the trial.
So the prosecution offered no evidence and Dr Rudling, who was present in court, was formally acquitted.


Police investigating the rape of an elderly nun in the Indian state of West Bengal say they have arrested a key suspect in the crime.

The police allege 28-year-old Nazrul, also called Nazu, was the man who raped the 74-year-old nun.
The man, allegedly a Bangladeshi citizen, was arrested at a railway station in Kolkata (Calcutta).
The incident caused outrage in India and led to street protests in many cities across the country.
This marks the sixth arrest in the crime.
Police have identified eight suspects in the attack, of which two still remain untraced.
"All the five accused arrested earlier have named Nazrul as the person who raped the nun," a police officer told the BBC.
Dilip Kumar Adak, deputy inspector general of the state's Criminal Investigation Department, told the AFP news agency that police acted on a tip off that Nazu, who had fled to Bangladesh after being identified from CCTV footage of the attack, was due to return to Kolkata by train.
In May, the police said they had arrested Milon Sarkar and described him as the leader of the gang which attacked the convent. They said it was not clear what role the man had played in the case.
During the attack in Ranaghat town on 14 March, money was stolen from the convent school and the building ransacked, before the nun was raped in the convent itself.


At least 14 people have been killed in a Pakistan bombing which militants say was in revenge for the execution of a policeman turned assassin.

The suicide attack, at the entrance to a court in the north-western town of Shabqadar, wounded nearly 30 others, police told local media.
Militants said it was to avenge the hanging last week of Mumtaz Qadri, who was seen by many as a religious hero.
Qadri killed the governor of Punjab in 2011 for opposing blasphemy laws.
Shabqadar is located on the border of the tribal district of Mohmand, which remains volatile years after the military said it had been cleared of militants.
"The court and judges were our target as their practices are un-Islamic," a spokesperson for Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), told Pakistan's Express Tribune.
Why did Pakistan keep hard-line mourners off air?
How Punjab governor's killer became a hero
The attack in Shabqadar is the first response by Taliban militants to last week's execution of Mumtaz Qadri, a former police guard who had shot dead a provincial governor for alleged blasphemy. It took place in the same region where a similar attack on a university campus in January left more than 20 people dead.
This region in north-western Pakistan is located on the border with Pakistan's semi-autonomous Mohmand tribal district, which adjoins the Afghan province of Kunar.
In the past, the area has been home to the so-called Mohmand Taliban, a regional ally of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP). But most of its sanctuaries were eliminated by the military in a series of operations during 2011-12.
However, the Mohmand Taliban slipped into neighbouring Kunar, from where they have continued to be able to launch attacks inside Pakistan.
Pakistani officials have been raising the issue with the Afghan authorities, but many analysts suggest Kabul doesn't have the resources to establish its authority in the remote mountainous region.


A man who drunkenly turned up to a beer garden revving a chainsaw displayed "lunatic behaviour", a judge said.

Mark Jones, 39, of London Road South, Lowestoft, pleaded guilty to affray after an incident on 10 December.
Ipswich Crown Court heard he had returned to the Kings Head pub in Beccles 15 minutes after he was asked to leave, "roaring the chainsaw".
In mitigation, Jones's lawyer said his actions were "foolhardy to the point of reckless".
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The court heard Jones had threatened door staff he was going to come back with the power tool when he was asked to leave.
Police had been called and were at the scene when he returned 15 minutes later.
Jones got no closer than five yards to the pub, it was heard.
Sentencing Jones to a 21-month suspended jail sentence, Judge David Goodin said it was "lunatic behaviour".
He said: "The thought of a big man, which you are, drunk at a pub with a chainsaw roaring, is almost unimaginably frightening.
"The temptation to send you straight to prison is almost but not quite overwhelming."
Mitigating, Jones's lawyer Stephen Dyble said: "There was not a great deal of thought.
"It must've been an alarming experience to witness but there was no suggestion it was being brandished and it was not being thrust towards anybody."
Jones was also given a curfew between 22:00 and 06:00 seven days a week.


Tottenham made it seven top-flight wins in succession for the first time since 1967 and continued their pursuit of leaders Chelsea with a dominant victory over Bournemouth.

The game was essentially won in a three-minute period in the first half in which Mousa Dembele fired Spurs ahead from close range following a corner before Son Heung-min doubled the lead with a darting run and neat finish.
Harry Kane, making his first start in a month, made sure of the three points with a low finish just minutes into the second half.
The strike makes the 23-year-old just the fourth player to score 20 Premier League goals in three consecutive seasons after Alan Shearer, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Thierry Henry.
Vincent Janssen capped off Spurs' afternoon by scoring just his second Premier League goal of the season in injury time, just minutes after coming on as a substitute.
Mauricio Pochettino's side are now four points behind Chelsea, who face Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Bournemouth, who managed one shot on target, are now without a win in four matches and remain seven points above the bottom three with six games left to play.
With this win Tottenham surpassed the 70 points that gave them third place in 2015-16, during which they challenged for the Premier League trophy until their 36th fixture - a 2-2 draw at Chelsea.
The smart money remains on the Blues playing a more central role in extending Spurs' wait for a first title since 1961, especially if they win at United, but Pochettino's side are doing everything to capitalise on any potential slip-up.
This is a more mature, clinical and refined Tottenham side than 12 months ago, and this performance illustrated that perfectly.
From the start they pressed their opponents relentlessly and dominated possession before the goals came.
Dembele's was a simple but emphatic finish following Christian Eriksen's corner. Son showed speed and guile to score after receiving a pass from Kane, whose goal was the result of great tenacity in winning the ball from Simon Francis in the box.
The biggest cheer of the afternoon, though, was reserved for the contribution of Janssen, who followed up his own blocked shot to score his sixth goal in his 35th appearance of what has been a tough first season in English football.
Spurs have now scored the joint-most goals in the division, conceded the fewest and are hitting peak form at potentially just the right time.
They have also made White Hart Lane a fortress. This was their 12th victory in succession, making it their longest-ever winning streak on home soil in a single top-flight season.
Bournemouth are now without a win in three, since last month's 2-0 win over Swansea which lifted them up to 11th.
This game was no barometer of their suitability for a possible relegation fight, simply because Tottenham were so good. But Eddie Howe's side were easily brushed aside, having now conceded three or more goals in 12 Premier League games.
They were second best in every department as Spurs bullied their defence, bossed midfield and denied Benik Afobe and Joshua King any sight of goal.
Their only shot on target came in the 74th minute, when Charlie Daniels' long-range effort gave Hugo Lloris the simplest of saves.
Their dismal afternoon was compounded when on-loan midfielder Jack Wilshere limped off injured following a tackle on Kane in his own box.
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Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino, speaking to BBC Sport: "I am proud of our players after that performance. We have to wait to see what happens.
"Harry Kane is a fantastic player - he is one of the best in England and it is fantastic he is fit again to help the team.
"Son is brilliant - he needed time to adapt his game but he is now fit and healthy and he is feeling really comfortable.
"I was happy for Vincent Janssen because I knew it was his only chance to score and it's important he feels the happiness when you score.
"At the end of the season when everyone is tired, we need everyone to have the right mental attitude and happiness helps. We now need everyone to rest and get ready for the next few games.
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"The three points are very important to keep our dream."
Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe, speaking to Sky Sports: "We know we need more. We've known all along.
"The danger is if everyone says, 'You're safe.' We've got to focus the  players' minds that we're not."
Tottenham await the result of Chelsea's game at Old Trafford and then face the Blues in the FA Cup semi-finals next weekend. They return to league action on Wednesday, 26 April at Crystal Palace.
Bournemouth have two big Premier League games to come this month - next Saturday's home game against Middlesbrough, followed seven days later by a trip to Sunderland.
Match ends, Tottenham Hotspur 4, Bournemouth 0.
Second Half ends, Tottenham Hotspur 4, Bournemouth 0.
Goal!  Tottenham Hotspur 4, Bournemouth 0. Vincent Janssen (Tottenham Hotspur) right footed shot from very close range to the centre of the goal following a corner.
Attempt saved. Vincent Janssen (Tottenham Hotspur) left footed shot from the left side of the six yard box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Ben Davies with a cross.
Corner,  Tottenham Hotspur. Conceded by Simon Francis.
Ben Davies (Tottenham Hotspur) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Joshua King (Bournemouth).
Substitution, Tottenham Hotspur. Vincent Janssen replaces Christian Eriksen.
Attempt blocked. Christian Eriksen (Tottenham Hotspur) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Moussa Sissoko.
Substitution, Tottenham Hotspur. Moussa Sissoko replaces Dele Alli.
Attempt missed. Charlie Daniels (Bournemouth) right footed shot from the left side of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Ryan Fraser.
Corner,  Tottenham Hotspur. Conceded by Charlie Daniels.
Attempt blocked. Son Heung-Min (Tottenham Hotspur) right footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Mousa Dembélé with a through ball.
Corner,  Tottenham Hotspur. Conceded by Harry Arter.
Eric Dier (Tottenham Hotspur) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Joshua King (Bournemouth).
Substitution, Tottenham Hotspur. Victor Wanyama replaces Harry Kane.
Substitution, Bournemouth. Lys Mousset replaces Benik Afobe.
Attempt missed. Joshua King (Bournemouth) right footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Marc Pugh.
Attempt saved. Ben Davies (Tottenham Hotspur) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Jan Vertonghen.
Corner,  Tottenham Hotspur. Conceded by Simon Francis.
Attempt saved. Charlie Daniels (Bournemouth) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top centre of the goal. Assisted by Marc Pugh.
Offside, Tottenham Hotspur. Dele Alli tries a through ball, but Son Heung-Min is caught offside.
Ryan Fraser (Bournemouth) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Ben Davies (Tottenham Hotspur) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Ryan Fraser (Bournemouth).
Attempt saved. Son Heung-Min (Tottenham Hotspur) right footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Ben Davies with a headed pass.
Substitution, Bournemouth. Ryan Fraser replaces Junior Stanislas.
Attempt blocked. Dele Alli (Tottenham Hotspur) left footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked.
Dele Alli (Tottenham Hotspur) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Harry Arter (Bournemouth).
Attempt blocked. Son Heung-Min (Tottenham Hotspur) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Harry Kane.
Attempt saved. Christian Eriksen (Tottenham Hotspur) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Ben Davies.
Corner,  Tottenham Hotspur. Conceded by Harry Arter.
Attempt blocked. Junior Stanislas (Bournemouth) left footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Harry Arter.
Corner,  Tottenham Hotspur. Conceded by Steve Cook.
Attempt blocked. Eric Dier (Tottenham Hotspur) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Christian Eriksen.
Foul by Kyle Walker (Tottenham Hotspur).
Marc Pugh (Bournemouth) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Attempt saved. Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Son Heung-Min.


Worcestershire made it four wins from four in Division Two with a win inside three days against Northamptonshire.

Resuming on 53-2, Rob Keogh (88 not out) helped the home side to 343 in their second innings, leaving Worcestershire needing 148 to win.
Opener Daryl Mitchell followed his first-innings 161 by scoring 78 not out to guide his team to victory.
The visitors utilised the extra eight overs of play to wrap up an eight-wicket success at Wantage Road.
Mitchell finished the match in style with three fours and a six off Steven Crook to complete a win which keeps Worcestershire in touch with Division Two leaders Nottinghamshire.
Their maximum 24-point haul lifts them to second, within 13 of fellow three-day winners Notts, but Steve Rhodes' side have a game in hand.
The day was marred slightly by an injury to Northants batsman Richard Levi, who retired hurt after being hit on the helmet by a Josh Tongue bouncer.
Levi was taken to hospital for a precautionary scan, which revealed he was suffering from a mild concussion, but he was later allowed to return home.
Northants captain Alex Wakely told BBC Radio Northampton:
"Worcester have outplayed us. Their disciplines were much better than ours. We fought well, but we lost that game in the first innings with both bat and ball.
"Our statistics are pretty poor with the bat. You're not going to win games of cricket with that.
"We're making the same mistakes over and over again. We've got to find a way to not do that."
Worcestershire captain Joe Leach told BBC Hereford & Worcester:
"I challenged the guys at the start of the week to get us a position to win the game and we've done that.
"Hats off to Mitch for two fantastic innings in this game and the bowlers have toiled away well too.
"12 months ago we probably played similar cricket but didn't win a game. This time we've managed to kill sides off when we've had the chance."


David Cameron has told the BBC he will seek re-election as the Conservative MP for Witney at the 2020 general election despite standing down as prime minister this Parliament.

The prime minister ruled out running for a third term in office ahead of the 2015 general election.
He said if he won he would serve the full five years of this Parliament, until 2020, and then leave Number 10.
Mr Cameron has been the MP for Witney, in Oxfordshire, since 2001.
He was re-elected in 2015 with a majority of 25,155.
Speaking to BBC deputy political editor James Landale last March, Mr Cameron had said: "I've said I'll stand for a full second term, but I think after that it will be time for new leadership.
"Terms are like Shredded Wheat - two are wonderful but three might just be too many."
There has since been much speculation over who will succeed him as prime minister, with Mr Cameron tipping Home Secretary Theresa May, Chancellor George Osborne and London Mayor Boris Johnson as potential leaders.
Mr Cameron was asked at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday if he would resign as PM if the UK voted to leave the EU - against his recommendation - in June. He replied: "No".


The former owner of Manston Airport has been told by MPs to make details of her deal with its new owners public to counter claims of asset stripping.

The Kent airport closed last May, seven months after being bought by Ann Gloag, co-founder of the Stagecoach Group.
She subsequently sold a majority stake of the 700-acre site to regeneration specialists for redevelopment.
The Commons Transport Select Committee said Mrs Gloag should make clear who would benefit from any redevelopment.
A spokeswoman for Mrs Gloag said she would not be commenting on the MPs' report into smaller airports, which follows evidence given to the select committee in February.
In a statement, regeneration specialists Chris Musgrave and Trevor Cartner said the stake they had bought "gives us a controlling interest, and future redevelopment rests with us".
"Mrs Gloag's stake in no way gives her control over the site or the joint venture company, though she will benefit from the successful redevelopment."
Mr Musgrave and Mr Cartner said their interest was "solely in redeveloping the site for the benefit of the local economy".
"The fact remains Manston Airport, as pointed out in the MPs' report, has not proved economically viable despite the millions spent to make it a success," they added.
Campaigners fighting to keep the airport open petitioned Thanet District Council following its closure asking it to compulsorily purchase the site.
In December, the council considered a compulsory purchase order (CPO) involving US investment firm RiverOak as the indemnity partner, but decided not to proceed with it.
However, in the select committee report, MPs said Kent County Council (KCC) should have done more to support Thanet as it considered the CPO.
They said KCC had failed to fulfil its "strategic oversight function as the local transport authority".
KCC leader Paul Carter said the authority "worked very closely with the district council".
"I've read the details of what we said we'd do and we've done everything we could possibly have done in helping and supporting Thanet District Council."
He said the Thanet-commissioned study into Manston concluded that unless the owners had Â£100m to start off with, the viability of the airport would always be "enormously challenging".
"What I would like to see is the owners of Manston Airport creating significant employment opportunities for the people of east Kent and helping to support and grow the east Kent economy," he added.
Conservative MP for North Thanet Sir Roger Gale, who is in favour of keeping Manston open, said the select committee had "absolutely got a point" and criticised Mr Carter.
"The county council passed a resolution unanimously supporting the airport and Thanet council in its endeavours to go for a CPO.
"Fairly shortly after that, the leader of Kent County Council pulled the rug out from under Thanet."
Sir Roger claimed Mr Carter was "distracted by the possibility of a development site".
Earlier this month, a government review was ordered into the decision not to go ahead with the CPO.
The committee concluded that although welcoming the decision, "the uncertainty faced by the public and other interested parties could have been reduced if it had not taken three months before the Department for Transport acted".


An 81-year-old woman died and another elderly woman was seriously injured when they were hit by a car in West Yorkshire.

The women, both pedestrians, were struck on Wakefield Road, Pontefract, at 16:00 BST on Saturday.
An 89-year-old woman suffered life-threatening injuries. Police said she was in a stable condition in hospital.
A 21-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.


As the debate begins over whether to reform US gun laws in the wake of a mass shooting at a school in Newtown, Connecticut, public figures, activists and those affected are starting to speak out on the issue.

I don't know of any policies that would prevent this kind of thing. The killers in these mass killings are willing to commit the crime knowing full well they'll be caught and spend the rest of their lives in prison [or get the death penalty]. Or they are willing to kill themselves - as in the Connecticut case - or they allow themselves to be shot by police.
This is a person who is willing to die in order to kill large numbers of people. Almost everyone who commits a mass shooting planned it for hours or sometimes weeks - or in the case of Columbine, a year. They're going to be able and willing to do more to evade legal controls.
If you can block a less-motivated person who is only going to be motivated to get a gun for a short period of time, that's going to be an easier task than preventing someone who is motivated to kill large numbers of people.
We can improve the background checks in two ways. Currently the federal background check only applies to gun dealers. If you buy a gun from a private source there is no federal requirement for a federal background check.
In most of the US if you buy a gun from a friend or relative you're not subject to a background check.
Currently, the law says you can't sell a gun [to a mentally ill person] and a mentally ill person can't buy a gun. But in practice the background checks don't work that well because the records are radically incomplete.
Politicians can no longer be allowed to defend the status quo. They must, instead, be forced to defend our children. Parents can no longer take "no" for an answer from Washington when the topic turns to protecting our children.
The violence we see spreading from shopping malls in Oregon, to movie theatres in Colorado, to college campuses in Virginia, to elementary schools in Connecticut - it's being spawned by the toxic brew of a violent popular culture, a growing mental health crisis and the proliferation of combat-styled weapons.
I say good luck to the gun lobbyist, good luck to the Hollywood lawyer, who tries to blunt the righteous anger of millions of parents by hiding behind twisted readings of our Bill of Rights.
Our government rightly obsesses, day and night, on how to prevent the next 9/11 from being launched from a cave in Afghanistan, or a training base in Yemen, but perhaps - just perhaps - now is the time they start obsessing on how to stop the next attack on a movie theatre, or in a shopping mall, or a college campus, or in our children's first grade classes.
Joe Scarborough was speaking on his show, Morning Joe on MSNBC.
First, Congress should pass the Fix Gun Checks Act, which would close the "private sale loophole" that allows more than 40% of gun sales to go through without a background check. It would require every gun buyer to pass a background check.
The majority of gun sales already go through the background check system, and it's neither onerous nor intrusive, nor does it infringe on anyone's rights.
This bill would also require states and the federal government to send all necessary records on felons, domestic abusers, the seriously mentally ill, and other dangerous people to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
Second, it is time to pass an enforceable and effective assault weapons ban - one that isn't riddled with loopholes and easy evasion. A previous ban expired in 2004, and even though President Bush supported reinstating it, Congress never acted. That must change.
Congress should also ban the high-capacity magazines that have been used again and again in these mass shootings. These weapons and ammunition can be used to kill large numbers of people quickly, and regulating them certainly falls within the bounds of the Second Amendment.
And third, the president and Congress should work together to make gun trafficking a felony - as Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, and others have proposed.
This legislative package would make it harder for criminals, drug abusers, minors, and the mentally ill to get guns, and harder for them to inflict the level of carnage that we saw this weekend.
It's not a panacea, it wouldn't get rid of all the guns on the streets, but it would go a long way towards limiting them and limiting the number of people killed.
Michael Bloomberg spoke publicly at City Hall in New York.
What is the government planning to do? Come and get the guns? I don't think so - it would be unconstitutional at this point. Our Supreme Court has already ruled on this issue.
It's not going to play in the US. The gun-owning community is not prepared to give up their firearm freedoms because a few individuals misuse those freedoms.
When we start looking at guns, we miss the opportunity to focus on the problem. In whose hands are the guns? This particular problem, and all the other mass shootings, involve clearly mentally deranged individuals.
We have a failed mental health system now in this country, and if we don't put resources into getting at these people before they commit such horrible acts we're not going to solve this problem.
I hope things do change. There is a lot of things that we could do, we could do better.
We can talk about the "gun show so-called loophole" [allowing purchases without a background check] but that's not where criminals obtain the majority of their guns, even very few.
I wouldn't do anything particularly on the gun laws. I would focus, if we're dealing with mentally deranged individuals, on our mental health system.
We can't incarcerate people, we can't take them off the streets until they actually do something that's dangerous.
Well, it's too late when they've already committed murder or killed themselves, if we can't help them beforehand. And our laws prevent us from helping them.
There are probably going to be some major modifications made [to gun laws]. I am a firm believer in our constitutional rights so I don't believe that Americans should give up guns. I don't think there should be a ban on all guns.
I think maybe a partial ban on certain kinds of handguns, and I'm also for training people in school - principals and administrative people that would want [to carry guns].
I'm OK with the fact that they want to have a concealed weapon, in case anybody did come into their school. Teachers would have a way to defend their students and themselves.
This is getting pretty grim that anybody can walk on a campus and there is no protection for those who are in the school themselves.
Gary Kleck, Richard Feldman and Beth Nimmo were speaking to the BBC


Labour's Ceredigion election candidate has apologised "wholeheartedly" for once suggesting "Tippex" be thrown over cars displaying English flags.

Huw Thomas also suggested on a discussion forum in 2006 the flags were for a "simpleton" or a "casual racist".
Earlier this week, he called for Plaid Cymru to replace its candidate for "divisive and hateful language" about some English people living in Wales.
Mike Parker had made his comments in a magazine article in 2001.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage waded into the row, criticising Ed Miliband and saying Friday's development had echoes of a tweet, by a Labour front bench MP during last November's Rochester and Strood by-election, which was branded "snobby".
Emily Thornberry quit her job as shadow attorney general over the message, showing a terraced house with three England flags, and a white van parked outside.
Mr Farage said: "It is clear Ed and his party have learnt nothing from Emily Thornberry and that Labour hate England."
Mr Thomas's views were posted on the Welsh language website 'Maes E'.
Writing during the 2006 football World Cup, Mr Thomas said: "I agree it is totally sickening the number of English flags to be seen around Wales. It really shows the level our society has been infiltrated by immigrants who aren't ready to integrate."
He also stated: "I got the opportunity when I was offered an English flag for half price in WHSmiths Oxford to answer with the sentence 'Since I am neither a simpleton nor a casual racist I must decline your offer.'"
Mr Thomas then had a suggestion for anyone annoyed by flags on cars.
"... TIPPEX - throw a bottle of the stuff over the car, it will look ridiculous (especially if it's a shiny boy racer-ish car), it will take hours to clean it (or money in the car-wash) and, without looking closely, it will look like bird poo!"
In a statement on Friday, Mr Thomas said: "I apologise wholeheartedly for these comments, made while I was a young student. These are not my views now and I deeply regret writing this post online.
"Every candidate at this election will have gone through a political journey. Most will have said or thought things when they were young and at university, college or school that they now regret. This is certainly the case for me."
He added that people in Ceredigion "deserve an MP that will admit when they are wrong".
Responding to the development, Mr Parker said he was "not interested in trying to smear other candidates for what they may, or may not have said".
"This election, for us, is about tackling the Lib Dems, the incumbent MP, on their record as part of the coalition government," he said.
But local UKIP candidate Gethin James said: "I think, in some respects, Huw's comments were worse than the comments that Mike Parker made, because he was inciting people to cause criminal damage to people's cars, and that is certainly not something that someone should be doing."
Liberal Democrat candidate Mark Williams warned the "constant to-ing and fro-ing" was distracting from the real general election issues.
"The people of Ceredigion have to decide which candidate has the strength of character to be their voice in Westminster," he said.
Henrietta Hensher, who is standing for the Conservatives in the constituency, said local people had been let down "by the Welsh nationalists and now by their Labour candidate".
"Only the Welsh Conservatives will be speaking for all people in Ceredigion at this election," she added.
Earlier this week, Mr Parker became embroiled in a row over claims he once compared some English-born residents of rural Wales to Nazis.
Responding to criticism of Mr Parker's comments in a 2001 magazine article that referred to "gun-toting Final Solution crackpots", Plaid's candidate said he would not use such phrases now, as he was "hopefully wiser", but there was nothing to apologise for.
Party leader Leanne Wood condemned what she called a "deliberate attempt to smear" its candidate, but said the words "final solution" were "problematic".
The candidates so far declared to be standing in Ceredigion are: Henrietta Hensher (Conservative), Jack Huggins (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition), Gethin James (UKIP), Mike Parker (Plaid Cymru), Huw Thomas (Labour), Daniel Thompson (Green Party), and Mark Williams (Liberal Democrats).


A penalty from Diarmuid O'Carroll three minutes into injury-time secured a point for Crusaders and maintained their seven-point lead at the top.

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Mark Hughes scored for the hosts in the 72nd minute with a low right-foot shot from the edge of the box.
Josh Robinson was sent-off on 87 but O'Carroll levelled after Paul Heatley was brought down by Liam Bagnall.
Ryan Harpur scored a hat-trick as Dungannon leapfrogged Ballymena into eighth with a 4-2 win at Warden Street.
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For the Sky Blues, it was a fifth consecutive league defeat, while the Swifts have now taken 10 points from their last four Premiership outings.
Andy Mitchell swivelled and volleyed into the net when the ball fell to him in the fifth minute, for his 13th goal of the season.
Harpur netted a 15th-minute penalty after he was fouled by Dwayne Nelson, then David Cushley pulled one back with a low left-foot shot into the bottom corner after good build-up play.
Allan Jenkins equalised by rounding Andy Coleman and slotting into the empty net a minute before the interval.
Harpur dinked the ball over Nelson as he came off his line in the 54th minute and completed his treble three minutes later by slotting in left-footed.
Warrenpoint went into their game against the champions at Milltown with a record of five wins and three draws from their previous nine league fixtures, having conceded just once in six Premiership matches.
In the first half, Heatley headed over from a Forsythe cross and the latter then nodded over from Michael Carvill's delivery.
Hughes's strike looked to have earned Barry Gray's side victory and Crusaders' woes deepened when Robinson was dismissed for bringing down John McGuigan as he bore down on goal.
Substitute O'Carroll's late spot-kick salvaged an unlikely point for Stephen Baxter's outfit and 'Point remain 11th in the table.


Barrow and FC Halifax played out a goalless draw in their National League clash at Holker Street.

Both sides had lost their opening fixture, so were looking to produce a positive response.
Midfielder Asa Hall sent an early chance over for the hosts before Jordan White was just off-target with a free-kick, but Halifax then went close as Connor Oliver hit the crossbar.
In the second half, Barrow substitute Dan Cockerline saw an effort saved just after coming on and Liam Hughes had his shot pushed over as the visitors held out for a point.
Match report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Barrow 0, FC Halifax Town 0.
Second Half ends, Barrow 0, FC Halifax Town 0.
Substitution, Barrow. Bradley Bauress replaces Alex-Ray Harvey.
Substitution, FC Halifax Town. Matthew Kosylo replaces Ben Tomlinson.
Nathan Hotte (FC Halifax Town) is shown the yellow card.
Substitution, Barrow. Liam Hughes replaces Jack Barthram.
Substitution, Barrow. Daniel Cockerline replaces Jordan White.
Gomis (Barrow) is shown the yellow card.
Second Half begins Barrow 0, FC Halifax Town 0.
First Half ends, Barrow 0, FC Halifax Town 0.
Bohan Dixon (FC Halifax Town) is shown the yellow card.
Tom Denton (FC Halifax Town) is shown the yellow card.
Substitution, FC Halifax Town. Ben Tomlinson replaces Martin Riley.
Martin Riley (FC Halifax Town) is shown the yellow card.
First Half begins.
Lineups are announced and players are warming up.


A petition calling for an end to the suffering of monkeys bought as pets has been handed in at Downing Street.

Monkey World ape rescue centre in Dorset has rescued 100 primates from the British pet trade, half of which have been in the last five years.
It wants owners to be forced to provide the same level of care as zoos.
Centre director Dr Alison Cronin was joined by musician Peter Gabriel and South Dorset MP Richard Drax to hand over more than 110,000 signatures.
Dr Cronin said, despite building two facilities to house more than 50 "pet" monkeys - including marmosets, tamarins, capuchin monkeys, spider monkeys, a saki monkey, and a lemur - the rescue centre was now full and had a waiting list.
She said: "There is also a very tragic human side to this story as many well-meaning, but ignorant, people are buying these wild animals, at vast expense, from unscrupulous breeders, animal dealers and pet shops that are taking advantage and telling people it is OK to keep a monkey in solitary confinement, in a bird cage, in their sitting room.
"It is tragic and out of control."
Monkey World is home to over 250 primates of more than 20 different species and is the largest primate rescue operation in the world.


Turkish media reaction to the AKP's decisive election win is clearly split along the pro-government/opposition fault-line.

The state-run TV channel TRT Haber and the pro-government stations Kanal 24 and Star have been leading on the AKP's triumph and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's victory speech.
The pro-government channels also highlight President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's statement in which he says that the Turkish people had given a "strong response" to what he describes as "the terrorist organization" - the banned Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK).
The pro-opposition Fox TV, on the other hand, focuses on divisions in Turkish society, saying that while one part of electorate is celebrating victory, the other part is mourning.
Another pro-opposition channel, CNN Turk, showed Faik Tunay, a former MP from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), saying that opposition parties needed to "think long and hard" about the reasons behind their continuing failure to appeal to the Turkish people.
A similar divide can be seen in the Turkish press. Pro-government papers hailed the AKP's win as an endorsement of its policies and a vote for stability, while anti-government papers warned that the party's tighter grip on power could lead to more repressive rule.
The mass-circulation daily Hurriyet - which has come under pressure from Mr Erdogan and the AKP in recent months - opts for the relatively neutral headline "The decision of the ballot box".
Another mass-circulation daily, Milliyet, says that the "landslide" result will enable the AKP to govern alone.
Several pro-AKP papers go so far as to proclaim the outcome a "revolution". Aksam calls it the "November revolution", while Sabah refers to it as the "Ballot box revolution".
Pro-Islamic papers are jubilant in tone. Yeni Safak hails what it describes as a "magnificent victory", while Yeni Akit offers its "congratulations to the Muslim world".
The pro-government tabloid Gunes says that "Turkey has won".
Secular, pro-opposition and pro-Kurdish papers accuse the AKP of playing on the people's fears of civil strife in its election campaign.
The anti-AKP Cumhuriyet describes the result as a "victory of fear", and the resounding opposition defeat as an "earthquake".
The secular tabloid Sozcu says that "terror has increased", while the leftist Taraf says that what it calls Mr Erdogan's "chaos plan" worked to his advantage.
Meanwhile, the pro-Kurdish Ozgur Gundem predicts a "new era of struggle".
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.


Actress and film-maker Isabella Rossellini to chair the jury at next year's Berlin Film Festival, organisers have announced.

The 58-year-old, whose films include Blue Velvet and Wild At Heart, showcased her directorial debut at the German event in 2008.
Festival director Dieter Kosslick called her "a multi-faceted, creative film artist".
The 2011 festival is due to take place from February 10-20.
Other members of the panel, who will decide prizes including the main Golden Bear, have yet to be announced.
This year's judging panel was led by film director Werner Herzog.
Rossellin, the daughter of Italian film director Roberto Rossellini and movie star Ingrid Bergman, is the director of Green Porno - a series of short films on animal sexual behaviour.


A man has faced court via video link in Australia charged with the murder of young mother, Karlie Pearce-Stevenson, who disappeared seven years ago.

Daniel James Holdom, 41, did not apply for bail after his arrest in Cessnock, New South Wales on Wednesday.
Ms Pearce-Stevenson's remains were found in the Belanglo State Forest, south of Sydney, in August 2010.
Her daughter Khandalyce's remains were found in July, 1,100km (685 miles) away in a suitcase in South Australia.
Police told the media on Thursday morning that said they had pinpointed the date Karlie Pearce-Stevenson was murdered.
Ms Pearce-Stevenson was probably killed between the 14 and 15 December 2008, they said.
"We believe that Khandalyce was murdered at some point after Karlie but we are trying to establish the exact time," Detective Superintendent Mick Willing told reporters in Sydney.
DSI Wiling said he was unable to take questions from reporters because the case was due before the courts.
The pair were last seen in November 2008, when Ms Pearce-Stevenson was 20 and Khandalyce was aged two.
Khandalyce's remains were found five years after her mother's, on the side of the road near the South Australian town of Wynarka.
Local media say the accused was an acquaintance of Ms Pearce-Stevenson.
Detectives say they both suffered "violent and deliberate" deaths.
Their bodies will be laid to rest in their home town of Alice Springs.
On Tuesday authorities revealed that Karlie Jade Pearce-Stevenson's bank account had been accessed hundreds of times after she was killed.
Police also said an impersonator called her family, providing proof of life, and convinced them to deposit more money into her account.
Ms Pearce-Stevenson's mother withdrew a missing person's report in 2009 after she received fake text messages and at least one phone call.
NSW and South Australian police are jointly investigating the murders.


Vanuatu is in "immediate" need after Cyclone Pam tore through the country at the weekend, its president says.

President Baldwin Lonsdale said the storm had "wiped out" all development of recent years and his country would have to rebuild "everything".
Aid has begun arriving in the storm-hit nation - one of the world's poorest - but contact has still not been made with some of its more remote islands.
Aid agencies say it could be one of the worst disasters ever to hit the region.
The official death toll stands at eight, but it is expected to rise.
The BBC's Jon Donnison, in the capital Port Vila, says just about every house there has received some damage and the situation for many people is bleak.
One village chief told our correspondent there was a desperate need for fresh water supplies.
896hPa
Low pressure reading (in hectopascals) makes it one of the  most intense tropical storms
270km/h
Sustained winds - with gusts up to 300km/h - caused extensive damage
Largest ever recorded  tropical storm was Typhoon Tip (North-west Pacific 1979):
Typhoon Tip's  low pressure was 870hPa
Tip had sustained wind speeds of   305 km/h
Most intense Atlantic storm was Hurricane Wilma (2005) with low pressure of   882 hPa
At the scene: Phil Mercer, BBC News, Port Vila
The sense of devastation is absolutely immense and when you land it doesn't take long for that sense of devastation to increase.
Many family homes have been stripped of their roofs or flattened by very powerful winds and torrential rain.
The air here is very thick with smoke because the cleanup has already begun - the debris is being chopped down, collected and burned. There is a sense here that people will rebuild but it only takes a brief moment in the capital to realise that this rebuilding effort will take many months if not years.
This is a vast archipelago, the population is spread over more than 60 islands and communications are down. It's very difficult for the authorities to have a true picture of the devastation but it's clear the number of dead will increase when communications are made with those outlying areas.
In pictures: Vanuatu devastation
Eyewitness accounts: 'I am safe but many are not'
Did climate change cause Vanuatu damage?
The category five storm, with winds of up to 300km/h (185mph), struck populated areas when it reached Vanuatu early on Saturday local time (+11 GMT).
President Lonsdale, who was attending a disaster preparedness conference in Japan when the storm hit, has appealed for international help, telling AFP news agency: "The humanitarian need is immediate, we need it right now."
"After all the development we have done for the last couple of years and this big cyclone came and just destroyed all the infrastructure the government has built. Completely destroyed."
Earlier, Mr Lonsdale had described the storm as "a monster", and said he had not been able to confirm that his own family was safe.
The president said climate change had contributed to the disaster, saying his country had seen changing weather patterns, rising seas and heavier-than-average rain.
Unicef worker Alice Clements in Port Vila said all the power lines were down, and many staff of the capital's only hospital were unable to get in to work.
She told the BBC a major bridge connecting Port Vila to the eastern part of the island looked like it had "a huge bite taken out of it".
"This isn't just some rickety bridge, it's made of concrete and steel, and now there's just steel girders sticking out. It really shows the sheer force of the storm."
How poor is Vanuatu?
There is major concern about islands to the south, including Tanna, which was in the direct path of the storm. The Australian Red Cross tweeted that it had heard of "utter devastation" there.
Paolo Malatu, co-ordinator for the National Disaster Management Office, told the Associated Press news agency that planes and helicopters had been sent to fly over the islands and assess the situation.
Military planes carrying supplies have started arriving from Australia and New Zealand, and other countries have pledged to help. Commercial flights were due to resume on Monday.
In a statement on Sunday, Oxfam Australia said this was "likely to be one of the worst disasters ever seen in the Pacific".
World Vision said it had not been able to contact more than 30 of its staff.
Pam had already caused major damage on other Pacific islands, including Kiribati and the Solomon Islands. Tuvalu declared a state of emergency after the cyclone caused flash floods there.
It is now moving down the east coast of New Zealand. The storm has weakened significantly but about 100 people have been evacuated from coastal areas in Gisbourne, on the east of the North Island. An alert is also in place in the Chatham Islands, about 680km south-east of Wellington.


Hospital consultants should consider working weekends to cut the spike in deaths, a doctors' leader says.

Dr Mark Porter, the British Medical Association's consultants chairman, said the mounting evidence about the problem meant it was time for doctors to put themselves forward if needed.
He said it would not be necessary for every speciality or hospital, but it needed to be looked at case-by-case.
There is a wealth of research into higher mortality rates at weekends.
At the end of last year, the research company Dr Foster found mortality rates rose by 10% at weekends. Other studies have shown similar correlations.
Staffing - and in particular the presence or absence of senior doctors - has been highlighted as a key factor.
At the moment consultant cover is commonplace in intensive care and A&E departments.
But in most other areas hospitals rely on consultants being on call, which means they give advice over the telephone and only come into hospital in emergencies.
Some trusts have started looking at changing normal working patterns, but Dr Porter said it needed to become much more common.
"It will need investment by trusts, but it also needs a willingness by doctors. That is the challenge for us.
"Consultants understandably feel like they have rightly got away from working weekends. They will have done that earlier in their career and are wanting to spend time with patients [during the week] providing really good care.
"But there is mounting evidence of an association between higher death rates and weekend care. We can't prove that it is a causal link, but we cannot ignore it either.
"It will be different for every speciality and every trust, but it is something that needs looking at."
He cited the example of his trust - the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire - which has started getting consultant anaesthetists to work 12-hour shifts on Saturdays and Sundays.
"It makes a difference having the consultant there rather than just on call," he added.
David Stout, of the NHS Confederation, which represents managers, said the BMA was right to suggest a greater consultant presence would help.
"Having a consultant on call is very different from having one there, overseeing what is being done and making decisions on the wards.
"The key question is how we afford this. Hospitals can't just employ more.
"It may be that we need to reconfigure services and do some of this care on fewer sites so we make sure we have the right cover. We have to put patients first."
Ministers are already known to be keen to address the issue - and are currently considering offering financial incentives to hospitals to improve weekend services.
NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh added: "Having more senior staff and consultants around at weekends is fundamental to the NHS shifting from a five-day-week to a seven-day-week.
"It will mean better support for junior doctors and key decisions - like what tests to run, what treatment to give and whether to operate - can be made more quickly."


Jonny Bairstow's unbeaten 125 was backed up by Yorkshire's seam attack as they put Division One leaders Middlesex under pressure at Headingley.

They were tottering on 96-6 when Toby Roland-Jones (4-78) claimed two wickets in the first three balls of day two.
Bairstow hit four sixes and 10 fours and added 59 with last man Jack Brooks before they were all out for 229.
Brooks then dismissed Joe Burns and Nick Compton as Middlesex moved to the close on 127-4, a lead of 110.
Dawid Malan (33) and James Franklin (26) will resume their 55-run stand on the third morning and if they can turn it into a substantial partnership, then the balance of the game could tilt in their direction.
Bairstow's 187-ball innings was in marked contrast to the rest of Yorkshire's batting, with Jack Leaning's 20 the next highest score.
Leaning was caught behind off the first ball of the day and overseas signing Glenn Maxwell followed two deliveries later as Roland-Jones boosted Middlesex's hopes of a first-innings lead despite their own modest total of 212.
But Yorkshire's tail supported Bairstow long enough for him to reach three figures off 161 balls with a boundary off James Harris and earn them a slender advantage of 17 runs.
Burns (20) and Sam Robson soon cleared the deficit, but the loss of the former and Nick Compton to successive deliveries by Brooks was a major setback.
Robson (34) was then lbw to Patterson, who bowled 14 miserly overs for figures of 1-14, and the visitors also lost Neil Dexter before the close.
Yorkshire coach Jason Gillespie:
"It's one of the best innings you will see in Championship cricket. I thought the way he batted with the lower order was simply outstanding.
"In the context of the game and the situation we found ourselves in, to gain a first-innings lead was fantastic.
"We are quite fortunate at Yorkshire to have Jonny in this game. The (England) selectors haven't picked him so all Jonny can do is score as many runs as possible and keep (wicket) as well as he can.
"We shouldn't expect him to be around at Yorkshire because I think England honours will come sooner rather than later."


Jofra Archer took 10 wickets in a match for the first time to give Sussex hope of beating Leicestershire heading into the final day at Grace Road.

He posted figures of 6-70 as the hosts were bowled for 175 before tea, having taken the final Sussex wicket early on.
Leicestershire's middle order crumbled with only Harry Dearden (36) and Zak Chappell (27 not out) offering fight.
Needing 232 to win, Ben Raine bowled Harry Finch and had Chris Nash caught but Sussex closed well-placed on 100-2.
Sussex's Danny Briggs, who contributed 27 to Sussex's first-innings 10th-wicket partnership of 83 with Vernon Philander, took 3-40 during Leicestershire's second innings and saw out the day as nightwatchman alongside Luke Wells.
Archer's bowling display was all the more timely as an ankle injury prevented South African Philander from bowling.
Sussex need 132 runs to win on the final day and deny their opponents a first Division Two win of the season.
Sussex seamer Archer told BBC Radio Sussex:
"The wicket didn't change much from the first two days - it's just a wicket where you have to be consistent with your line and length.
"Briggsy pretty much had the holding role and he did very well to pick up some wickets as well - it's always a bonus, it gives the pacers less to do.
"I'm feeling tired now - it's always good to be off, my work's done and we have a two week rest so it's fine."
Leicestershire's Clint McKay told BBC Radio Leicester:
"I think they're slightly ahead of the game - they've played very nice cricket throughout the day and we probably didn't help ourselves out, especially with the bat.
"The game's definitely in the balance - a couple of early wickets tomorrow and I think it'll make for an interesting day.
"All in all I think it's quite a good pitch, it's about us hanging in there and making sure we hit the top of the stumps enough tomorrow until one of those balls does something off the wicket."


A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman's body was found in a property in Birmingham.

The 23-year-old woman was discovered at an address in Nechells Park Road at about 10:15 GMT.
A post-mortem examination would take place in due course, West Midlands Police said.
A 30-year-old man was arrested on Thursday morning. The force said it was not looking for anyone else in connection with the woman's death.


More needs to be done to improve the phone system used by the public to report flooding, according to a report by auditors.

The number of calls abandoned by people who could not get through during flooding in 2015 was 15% - better than a peak of 27% in 2012.
While the report found much good work had been done, it identified areas that needed more work.
Delivering flood defences on time and on budget must also improve, it said.
The report was carried out by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, which assesses the River Agency's effectiveness in identifying and reducing flood risk.
Comptroller and auditor general Kieran Donnelly said there was "scope to improve the performance of the flooding incident line".
While the agency had spent £33m on flood defences over the last five years, he said, most had come in late and over budget or both.
In one case a section of work at a stream in Mount Vernon in north Belfast had cost £590,000 instead of the projected £189,000.
New flood walls at Moneymore, County Londonderry, cost £2.2m instead of the expected £1.2m.
The report found that some of the overspend appeared to be due to overly optimistic initial estimates.
Mr Donnelly said while recommendations had been made to prevent this happening in the future, it would be several years before it could be judged whether they had worked.
Around 43,000 homes in Northern Ireland are at risk of flooding from either rivers or the sea - about 5% of the total.
The Rivers Agency, which is part of the Department of Infrastructure, manages 400km (248 miles) of culverts, 107km (66 miles) of earthen flood embankments and 26km (16 miles) of sea defences.
There have been a series of flooding incidents in recent years caused by localised downpours, sea surges and large storms.
In 2012 about 1,600 homes were damaged when south and east Belfast were badly affected.


Manchester United face an anxious wait to discover the seriousness of the toe injury that has forced Phil Jones out of the England squad.

The defender did not travel to Dortmund for Wednesday's friendly with Germany, instead going for scans and X-rays.
Jones, 25, was injured in an innocuous training ground tackle at St George's Park, with reports claiming it involved United team-mate Chris Smalling.
England manager Gareth Southgate did not reveal whether that was the case.
If the injury turns out to be a break and keeps Jones on the sidelines for a lengthy spell, it will cause a selection concern for United manager Jose Mourinho as they prepare for nine games in April.
Southgate said: "I don't know who it was with. It was just a nothing sort of thing really. It is very unfortunate for him and a huge disappointment as he has been playing very well and has had some injury difficulties in the past.
"We have respectfully sent him back to his club and we will know more once he has had scans and x-rays over the next 24-48 hours."
Southgate has no plans to call up a replacement as yet, but will "assess his options" after Wednesday's friendly in Germany, the FA said.
England play a World Cup qualifier at home to Lithuania on Sunday, for which Chelsea's Gary Cahill is suspended.
Southgate's other options at centre-back are Smalling, Manchester City's John Stones and Burnley's uncapped Michael Keane.
On Sunday, West Ham winger Michail Antonio withdrew from the England squad with a hamstring injury.
England squad:
Goalkeepers: Fraser Forster (Southampton), Joe Hart (Torino, on loan from Man City), Tom Heaton (Burnley).
Defenders: Ryan Bertrand (Southampton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Nathaniel Clyne (Liverpool), Michael Keane (Burnley), Luke Shaw (Man Utd), Chris Smalling (Man Utd), John Stones (Man City), Kyle Walker (Tottenham).
Midfielders: Dele Alli (Tottenham), Ross Barkley (Everton), Eric Dier (Tottenham), Adam Lallana (Liverpool), Jesse Lingard (Man Utd), Jake Livermore (West Brom), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal), Nathan Redmond (Southampton), Raheem Sterling (Man City), James Ward-Prowse (Southampton).
Strikers: Jermain Defoe (Sunderland), Marcus Rashford (Man Utd), Jamie Vardy (Leicester).


Mainland shares have seen several days of erratic trade in recent weeks - despite moves by the Chinese securities regulator to calm markets.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite surged as much as 8% on Monday morning following a weekend of emergency meetings and more attempts to correct the volatility. It finished the trading day up 2.4%.
Here is how Chinese authorities have reacted so far:
It was all hands on deck over the weekend in a blizzard of emergency meetings and breathless headlines. Big market players were given no choice but to sign up to a government rescue.
Brokerages promised not to sell shares until the Shanghai market had recovered 4,500 points. They had to reach into their pockets on the spot for $19bn (£12.2bn) in a stabilisation fund.
All new share issues are suspended forthwith. The central bank will provide "liquidity support", in other words turn on the lending tap, to help borrowers boost the market.
These emergency measures follow a slew of others over the course of the past week.
Taken together, they constitute a stunning retreat from market principles and suggest that at this point, the government itself has little confidence in its own financial markets.
Whether any of it will work or not remains to be seen. Shanghai's benchmark index surged nearly 8% at Monday's opening with the Shenzhen exchange not far behind.
But they fell back later in the day and Beijing will not breathe out yet.
Nearly $3tn in stock values has been wiped out in three weeks and some warn that the stabilisation fund may not be enough to corral the bears and stop the slide.
Others complain that the government moves will benefit big players who buy the blue chip shares and offer little help to small retail investors.
But more fundamentally many wonder why the government is panicking at all. Investors who bought more than four months ago are still sitting on a tidy profit given that shares rose 150% over the space of a year before losing 30% in three short weeks.
At home and abroad, there are analysts who argue that the bubble needed to deflate and that a short sharp downward shock for investors is a useful corrective to speculative habits.
If the underlying fear is damage to the real economy wouldn't it be better tackled by tax cuts or public spending increases?
But that is not the deepest fear. The government's terror is being seen to be incompetent and even impotent.
This is a matter of confidence which goes well beyond the stock market.
Speculators have called Beijing's bluff. The stock market has become a classic "too big to fail" problem, which is where step two comes in:
Beijing sees its own credibility as the thin red line between order and chaos.
If confidence in the stock market fails, might it also fail in the banking system, the already fragile economy and ultimately in the management of all three?
The fact is that no one knows how much debt is out there or ultimately who stands behind it when the lenders cave in. Add to uncertainty the risk of public outrage.
Anyone who invested in shares before March is still sitting on a profit, but that still leaves a lot of people who have lost their shirt.
After all, 12 million new trading accounts were opened in May alone, the majority in the hands of buyers with little education, even less trading experience and whose stock market adventure was funded by borrowing.
The first rule of governing China is to keep angry people off the streets. Hence the paradox of a government introducing panic measures in order to look all powerful.
Of course, government taking control is not what China's stock markets are supposed to be about.
Markets require regulation but at the end of the day they need to develop effective feedback, co-ordination and a mature assessment of risk.
Government infantilising investors by galloping in to ensure the index stays up is not a market outcome.
Issuing orders to market players to buy this, hold that and freeze the next thing is a retreat to command economics.
No wonder one state newspaper has declared the stock market "a battlefield".
But what constitutes victory? And who exactly is the enemy? This leads us to step three:
A few bad apples? At the end of last week the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) announced an investigation into market manipulation. After months of suspicious trading patterns, the timing of this move will provoke a hollow laugh in some quarters.
Foreigners? On social media, rumours swirled last week about overseas investors undermining the market by betting against Chinese shares via stock futures.
But the China Financial Futures Exchange has already denied these rumours. Chinese markets are largely insulated from global pressures and foreigners are marginal players however tempting a target.
A fall guy? Many investors are calling for the regulator's head. The chief of China's market regulator is Xiao Gang and his days must now be numbered.
But the real blame should lie squarely with the central government.
Its strategy, clear for the best part of a year, has been to pump up the stock market so that it could earn billions by selling shares in state owned enterprises, and at the same time make the public feel paper-rich again after the languishing property market had made them feel poor.
On this arithmetic, government and its state owned enterprises could offload debt, and Chinese citizens could be persuaded to save less and spend more thereby energising the rest of the economy.
But this was government gaming the market for opportunistic reasons rather than building a healthy stock market for the long term.
Beijing knew better than anyone that the surge was driven by borrowing, with speculative bets made not on any clearheaded assessment of company prospects or earnings but on gaming government hype.
In March, Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the People's Bank of China said: "A buoyant market on a solid footing could be a reliable funding source."
But what about a buoyant market on a shaky footing? Economic growth in the first quarter fell to 7% year-on-year.
And there was no sign of a turnaround in the second quarter. Until 12 June, stocks galloped ahead regardless.
All along sober heads warned that Chinese stock markets were stepping onto a "treadmill to hell".
Reform guru Wu Jinglian called the market "a casino where one player can see the cards of the other players".
Hu Shuli, editor of the financial journal Caixin cautioned against "pushing a 'mad bull' stock market to solve fundamental issues".
"Follow the trend until you find yourself in a coffin," thundered one market sceptic.
But we are where we are.
At an important crossroads where Beijing has chosen to flout its own reform agenda and move against the market. Perhaps there was an alternative to panic, invincibility and blame.
A confident Chinese government could have elected to hold its nerve; honour its pledge "to make markets the decisive force" in the economy and think about what it would do in the real crisis which threatens over bad loans and property.
Is it too late? Probably.
And worse, the events of the past 10 days have undermined reform, undermined confidence and made the real crisis substantially more likely.


Aldershot striker Scott Rendell scored a first-half hat-trick to help his side thrash Woking.

Rendell, who left Woking for the Shots in the summer, took his tally for the season to nine with three close-range finishes.
Shamir Fenelon had poked home between Rendell's first and second as the hosts took a 4-0 lead into half-time.
Anthony Edgar saw his penalty saved by Shots goalkeeper Jake Cole to compound the visiting team's misery.
Match ends, Aldershot Town 4, Woking 0.
Second Half ends, Aldershot Town 4, Woking 0.
Substitution, Aldershot Town. Will Evans replaces Kundai Benyu.
Substitution, Aldershot Town. Jim Kellerman replaces Scott Rendell.
Kundai Benyu (Aldershot Town) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Substitution, Woking. Terell Thomas replaces Ismail Yakubu.
Substitution, Aldershot Town. Matt McClure replaces Shamir Fenelon.
Substitution, Woking. Anthony Edgar replaces Nathan Ralph.
Substitution, Woking. Fabio Saraiva replaces Keiran Murtagh.
Jake Gallagher (Aldershot Town) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Second Half begins Aldershot Town 4, Woking 0.
First Half ends, Aldershot Town 4, Woking 0.
Goal!  Aldershot Town 4, Woking 0. Scott Rendell (Aldershot Town).
Joey Jones (Woking) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Goal!  Aldershot Town 3, Woking 0. Scott Rendell (Aldershot Town).
Goal!  Aldershot Town 2, Woking 0. Shamir Fenelon (Aldershot Town).
Goal!  Aldershot Town 1, Woking 0. Scott Rendell (Aldershot Town).
First Half begins.
Lineups are announced and players are warming up.


Macduff Shellfish Group is being snapped up by a Canadian seafood firm in a deal worth nearly £100m.

Clearwater Seafoods will pay £98.4m for the wild shellfish processor, which is owned by the Beaton family and private equity fund Change Capital Partners.
Macduff, which is based near Peterhead, specialises in scallops, langoustine, whelk and crab.
It operates factories in Mintlaw, Stornoway and Exeter.
It also owns and operates 14 scallop harvesting vessels from its Dumfries facility and employs about 400 people at seasonal peaks.
Under the deal, Macduff will retain its name and operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Clearwater.
Macduff was founded in 1987 by the fifth generation of the Beaton family, who have been involved in the seafood industry for more than 120 years.
Nova Scotia-based Clearwater is one of North America's largest seafood companies, employing about 1,400 people.
Macduff said the deal would bring the company access to new markets, investment and opportunities for growth.
Macduff chairman Euan Beaton said: "Having reached our goal of building a £52m business, we had one suitor in mind which shares our vision and values to enable us to accelerate our growth on a global scale.
"This deal is great news for our operations in the UK, bringing investment and access to new markets within an extremely successful and respected business.
"It provides learning and development opportunities for our staff as we share best practice with Clearwater and it gives fishermen access to more markets."