As a mission, it sounded easy - to find out where the money from my humble water bill goes.

It turned out to be an eye-opening tale of global finance and deeply contentious figures.
My company is Thames Water, the UK's largest water and sewerage provider, with 14 million customers.
First I got on a train to Milton Keynes, home of the Open University, to meet Michael Pryke, from its social sciences faculty, who has studied the finances of Thames Water.
He explained that after privatisation in 1989, English and Welsh water companies were floated on the stock exchange and, as public companies, were expected to be accountable and transparent.
Since then, some have been bought by private groups of international investors seeking high returns.
Mr Pryke showed me a diagram of Thames Water's "wedding-cake" corporate structure. There were eight levels, including the water provider that sends me my bill.
One of the eight companies is registered in the Cayman Islands. The owners are the Kemble Water consortium, led by an arm of the Australian investment bank Macquarie, which manages a range of investors, including Chinese and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds.
He explained how Thames Water raised money for investment, issuing bonds or securities. These are sold to investors who get their money back with interest, at some future date. The big surprise was these investors were not investing in pipes and sewers, but in customers' ability to pay their bills far into the future.
As Mr Pryke put it, "they're turning you into a walking, talking financial asset - a human revenue stream". Some of these bonds run until 2062, when I will be long gone.
He also explained that the process of securitisation involves various financial companies who earn fees at each stage.
He recited a list: "You've got financial advisors, you've got legal specialists, you've got credit facility providers, you've got finance lessors, you've got hedge counterparties, all of them paid out of household bills."
Next stop was Parliament, where I met Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke, a former tax lawyer, who showed me an unpublished report he has prepared on the water industry.
He was concerned about levels of dividends paid to shareholders. He said for the past three years, Thames Water had paid out more in dividends than it actually made in profits, borrowing to make up the shortfall.
He described this as "taking out the cash reserves they have, paying that out to shareholders and going down the bank to borrow more money".
By now I really wanted to talk to Thames Water. They wouldn't do an interview but told me Mr Elphicke was incorrect -  though they did not produce specific figures for the past three years. Instead they quoted an average over eight years, saying the company "has paid out 82% of post-tax profits as dividends since 2006".
The structure of some water companies is largely composed of debt - the kind generated by securitisation.
In his report Mr Elphicke looked at the "gearing" of Thames Water, that is, its ratio of debt compared to the capital in the business. His figures suggested 93% of the business was debt.
Again Thames Water said Mr Elphicke was wrong - because he had used an inappropriate measure of its debt (total creditors rather than net debt) and said the real figure was 76%. That was still pretty stunning to me.
File on 4
Several other water companies have similar structures to Thames and similar levels of debt.  Does it matter if a company is so "highly geared"?
Robert Miller-Bakewell, a leading water analyst, told me "there's no doubt" such companies are managed in a different manner.
"The whole focus is on cash and that may move attention away from issues like customer service and capital investment," he added.
And then there's corporation tax. I learned that companies can defer paying it if they make big investments, but also if they're paying interest on debts. According to Mr Elphicke, my water company has paid no corporation tax for three years.
Thames Water does not dispute this. Indeed it has said it may not pay any, for up to a decade, because of the scale of its investments.
Most water companies have asked the regulator for lower price rises for the next five years, at or less than the rate of inflation. However, Thames Water wants to raise bills by 11% to help pay for a super-sewer to address sewage pollution in the Thames.
Some argue if the company had spent less on dividends it would have money in the bank to spend on the new tunnel.
Former water regulator Sir Ian Byatt, who oversaw the industry from privatisation until 2000, is opposed to the building of the Tideway Tunnel - he thinks there are cheaper options - but he too is outspoken in his view of Thames and its dividends policy.
"I'm very worried about the scale of dividends," he said.
"I believe that Thames in the last six years have paid out extremely large dividends and those dividends, I believe, should have been available for future investment, but because they've disappeared and because the structure is opaque and the authorities opaque - how do you get them back again?
"I think there are an awful lot of clever wheezes going on in the water sector at the moment and I'd like to see it much simpler and much more transparent and the companies required to explain where the money is going because I am also a bill-payer and I like to know where the money is going."
It has not been a reassuring journey for me. It has raised serious questions about transparency and fairness in our water industry. But next time I click the mouse to pay my water bill, I will have a better idea where the money is going.
File on 4 was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 20:00 GMT on Tuesday, 14 January. Catch it on the BBC iPlayer.


Arlene Foster has confirmed that the DUP received a donation to advertise a pro-Brexit position in Britain prior to the referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union.

Speaking on BBC NI's The View the DUP leader said: "We registered as a party in the Leave campaign because we felt very passionate about it.
"We played a role nationally.
"We received a donation which has been properly put into the Electoral Commission," she added.
Mrs Foster said she did not recall how much money was involved.
She declined to reveal the identity of the donor or donors but said the money was properly accounted for "under the rules as they currently stand".


The family of a man who died in police custody have met the Lord Advocate to discuss his death.

Sheku Bayoh, 31, died after being restrained by officers in Kirkcaldy, Fife, on 3 May 2015.
His partner Collette Bell, sisters Kadi Johnson, Adama Jalloh and Kosna Bayoh, and mother Aminata Bayoh met Frank Mulholland QC in Edinburgh.
They have said they fear Mr Bayoh's race may have played a part in his death.
The relatives spoke to reporters on Sunday after a memorial service which was held near the spot where he died in Kirkcaldy, Fife.
Mr Bayoh, originally from Sierra Leone, died in police custody after he was restrained by officers following an incident in the town on 3 May 2015.
His family have been campaigning for the truth about his death.
Mr Bayoh's death is being investigated by independent police watchdog PIRC.
Mr Mulholland was asked to update Holyrood on the investigation last September and told MSPs: "Having met the family on two occasions, I know the effect that this tragedy has had on them and they have borne their loss with great dignity.
"They are right to demand answers and a thorough, impartial and objective investigation is what they deserve."
He also confirmed that a fatal accident inquiry into the death will be held, regardless of any criminal proceedings.
Asked how worried she was that racism may have played a part in his death and the subsequent investigation, his sister Kadi Johnson said: "We are very worried. Because the way he was injured, I think racism had to play a big part in it."
Speaking about the memorial service, she said: "Sheku was a very happy boy. A very happy, outgoing boy. We want his legacy to linger on in a joyful way, because that is how he was."
Police have previously dismissed suggestions of racism surrounding the case.
In October 2015, the Lord Advocate urged all those with an interest in the death of Sheku Bayoh not to engage in "speculation and a running commentary".
The same month, Barry Swan, the brother-in-law of one of the principal police officers involved, claimed in a BBC interview that the officer "hates black people."
And in June 2015 both the Scottish Police Federation chairman Brian Docherty and a Scottish Police Federation lawyer  hit out at criticism of the police from Aamer Anwar, the family's lawyer.


UBS has confirmed it is being investigated by US authorities into whether it helped Americans evade taxes through investments banned in the US.

The Swiss bank said US regulators were investigating potential sales of so called "bearer bonds".
These bonds can be transferred without registering ownership, enabling wealthy clients to potentially hide assets.
"We are cooperating with the authorities in these investigations," the bank said.
The fresh investigation by the US  Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York and from the US Securities and Exchange Commission comes after UBS paid $780m (Â£512m) in 2009 to settle a separate Justice Department tax-evasion probe.
And it comes as authorities in a range of countries are considering examining HSBC's actions in helping more than 100,000 wealthy individuals avoid paying tax.
UBS made the announcement as it revealed a better-than-expected 13% rise in fourth quarter net profit to 963m Swiss francs (Â£683.9m).
However, it warned the increased value of the Swiss franc relative to other currencies, following the Swiss National Bank's decision to abandon the cap on the currency's value against the euro, would "put pressure" on its profitability.
"The increased value of the Swiss franc relative to other currencies, especially the US dollar and the euro, and negative interest rates in the eurozone and Switzerland will put pressure on our profitability and, if they persist, on some of our targeted performance levels," it warned.
UBS results for the full year, were hit by more than $1bn to settle past scandals. In November, it was one of six banks fined by UK and US regulators over their traders' attempted manipulation of foreign exchange rates, paying 774m Swiss francs in total.
It also paid $300m in the second quarter to settle charges it helped wealthy German clients evade tax.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is continuing to investigate UBS over currency manipulation allegations.


A Pembrokeshire tortoise, whose legs were hurt by a rat, has been fitted with wheels to help her get around.

The 90-year-old tortoise, called Mrs T, had been placed in a garden shed to hibernate for winter, when the rat injured her.
Mrs T's owner, Jude Ryder, paid Â£1,000 in vet bills before turning to her mechanical engineer son for help.
He used the wheels from a toy plane and designed an axle which he fitted to the tortoise's shell.
Ms Ryder said: "She took to her new wheels straight away but she has had to learn how to turn and stop.
"She can get a good speed up, much faster than before."
Please remember if you find any injured animals, tell your parent or guardian.


Communities across the UK have lost more than 40% of their bank and building society branches since 1989, according to a new report.

The study, by Nottingham University, found that nearly 7,500 branches closed between 1989 and 2012.
However, it said that the rate of closure had been slower since the year 2000.
The industry said fewer branches were now needed, as many customers had switched to phone or online banking.
The report also found that areas of high unemployment in the UK had lost bank branches at a faster rate than other areas.
Between 1995 and 2012, regions defined as "traditional manufacturing" and "built-up" areas lost 39% of their branch network.
By contrast, areas characterised as "middle England" lost far fewer branches.
Overall, manufacturing and inner city areas have lost branches more than three times as fast as suburbs and small towns, the study says.
The report's author, Shaun French, said he was particularly concerned about the effect of bank closures on poorer communities.
"Branches in less affluent areas have continued to disappear at an alarming rate," he said.
And he warned that fewer banks in areas of low incomes could drive people into the hands of payday or doorstep lenders.
He said he had particular concerns "for people on lower incomes, who may approach more predatory forms of institutions in the absence of a bank".
But, as the report recognises, the decline in branch numbers in recent years has been much slower than in the 1990s.
The industry body, the British Bankers Association (BBA), estimates a 7.4% decline in branch numbers between 2006 and 2012.
That amounts to 800 closures over six years.
The BBA said that decisions to close a branch were taken only after all other options, such as reducing staff hours, had been considered.
It said that technological advances had reduced the demand for branch visits.
"That change is only going to increase with innovations such as smartphone apps and internet banking, which ultimately means that fewer people now need to go into a branch on a regular basis," said a BBA spokesman.
But some people, including the Campaign for Community Banking, worry that a new round of closures could be just beginning.
This week, HSBC appeared to resume its closure programme after a strategic re-think.
It announced the names of five rural branches that are to close, with a further 20 closures expected by October.
Royal Bank of Scotland, which includes Nat West, has closed 82 branches this year, including 22 at Ulster Bank.
Santander has closed 45, while Barclays has shut 16.
The incoming boss of RBS, Ross McEwan, has said that the state-owned bank has 10% too many branches, prompting worries that more will close.
"It's the lull before the storm," said Derek French of the Campaign for Community Banking.
"We are concerned that we are going to see another take-off in branch closures," he told the BBC.


The Bank of Scotland has announced it is to close 23 branches in Scotland.

The bank announced the closures as part of a "strategic review".
It said the move was a result of falling customer demand, and because of overlaps with other nearby branches.
Seven are in Aberdeen and the north east, four in Tayside, and three in the Highlands. Two are in Edinburgh, two in central Scotland, two in west Scotland and one in Lothian, Glasgow and Forth.
The full list is:
A Bank of Scotland spokesperson said: "In 2014 Lloyds Banking Group announced a three-year strategy, which included a programme of planned branch closures.
"As part of this strategic review, we can confirm today that Bank of Scotland will be closing 23 branches.
"In most cases, this is as a result of falling customer demand while in others it is because of overlaps with other nearby branches.
"Branches will continue to play an important role in our multi-channel customer offering.
"Bank of Scotland is committed to maintaining a local presence and we expect to continue to have the largest branch network in Scotland."


From the time the scrum was set to the moment Stuart Hogg's footwork got him over the French line for Scotland's opening try, the ball went through the hands of 13 different Scottish players in 14 phases that lasted one minute and 48 seconds.

These numbers are hardly revelatory. We've seen them from Scotland before against France and England and Ireland and Wales and pretty much everybody else you care to mention.
We've seen Scotland hold on to the ball for an age in games like this. For a decade and more we've seen them batter their way from halfway, across the opposition 22 and up to the try-line.
And then we've seen it all go wrong.
Not just seen it, but expected it. The expectation is changing, though. Murrayfield's fatalistic attitude is under threat now that Scotland have backed up their win in Rome with their first victory over France in 10 years. The 29-18 scoreline is also their biggest win over France in 17 years. This is the kind of history that Scotland want to be involved in.
Media playback is not supported on this device
It's only a few short weeks, but it seems like an eternity since Greig Laidlaw's men were being spooked by the thought of 10 championship losses in a row. Now the narrative has altered and it's become about a shot at three straight wins, in Dublin on Saturday - a feat that Scotland haven't managed in this competition since Rob Wainwright's team of 1996.
Ireland will have more substance than France. Better players, greater motivation, a cannier coach in the celebrated Joe Schmidt, Vern Cotter's old pal from their days at Clermont. On Sunday, France showed again that their reputation outflanks their reality. Guy Noves isn't so much staging a revolution as a re-run of recent failings.
Scotland had the hammer blow of an early French try, then they lost their stand-off, Finn Russell. In the opening 13 minutes, Cotter's side gave up a try, three penalties and a line-out and for those of us who can still see the ghosts of the past, it was ominous.
This team, though, has a resolve that doesn't just exist in sound-bites in press conferences. It was there in glorious deed.
Stuart Hogg typified it. In a game that is dogged, at times, by brutality and danger, Hogg reminds you of rugby's beauty. He's a modern player but he plays the way the maestros of yesteryear played, back in a time of space and freedom and invention.
Hogg will get the headlines but he had a hell of a supporting cast.
Duncan Taylor has gone from nowhere man to pivotal in the midfield. Laidlaw has gone from a slightly haunted leader into an inspirational one. John Barclay has exposed as lunacy his long exile from the set-up. There are renaissance stories here.
If they carry on and win in Ireland then even the most doubting of souls would have to admit that a corner has been turned at long last.
Tommy Seymour was not one of the names on everybody's lips as the Scotland fans floated out of Murrayfield.
We could start the roll call of key influences in a huge Scotland victory and it would take a while to get to him. Two defenders beaten all day, five carries, 25 metres gained. Solid, but not spectacular. Not by his standards. Seymour is a fine predator, but this was a game where the prey were just a little too hard to find.
Why talk about Seymour? Because of one moment that reveals the truth of what players and coaches say about games of this magnitude being decided by fine margins. Sometimes the margins are so fine that you need to watch the game all over again, pausing and rewinding, to find them.
This is where Seymour comes in.
Sunday's Test is in its 36th minute and France are on the attack. Maxime Mermoz is blasting up the left touchline, Hogg measuring him for the tackle. In the background is Seymour, watching the play like a hawk, anticipating Hogg's hit and the subsequent ruck, at which he would play a major part that would go largely unnoticed in real time.
When Mermoz hits the floor, Seymour swoops. His timing is perfection. His body immovable. Mermoz has no option but to hold on and give away the penalty. What happens next is Scotland's progression in microcosm.
Everything is quick and accurate - the decision-making and the execution. Seymour rips the ball out of Mermoz's grip and shovels it to Taylor, who is 10 metres inside his own half but blissfully aware of the opportunity at hand. He taps and goes - and goes.
Virimi Vakatawa can't stop him. Neither can Wenceslas Lauret. Taylor gallops on and scores in the corner, then Laidlaw bangs over the conversion from the touchline. Seven beautiful points in the blink of an eye.
Seymour didn't score on Sunday, he didn't make any box-office plays or produce moments that got Murrayfield to its feet, but his contribution at that breakdown had a huge ripple effect. It set Taylor in motion, whose try shook France, who never fully recovered.
That was Scotland's second try of the day and a window to the new team's ambition. So, too, the third. We will remember Laidlaw flinging out a speculative pass and Hogg helping the ball along to Tim Visser while simultaneously fooling Scott Spedding, who was expecting Hogg to catch it.
That was a lovely moment that spoke to Scotland's ability to finish, but the penalty that gave Laidlaw the freedom to throw that Hail Mary pass without fear came on the back of a surge from WP Nel.
This was in the 66th minute - a prop still driving on while the two starting French props had already been replaced. This is the norm for Nel and Alasdair Dickinson, his partner in the front row.
Dickinson has played 282 minutes of this Six Nations, Nel has played 298. Of all the other props only England's Dan Cole has had more involvement (301 minutes).
As a partnership, Dickinson and Nel have been out there together far longer than any other starting props. It's a symbol of their great strength but also a sign of the uncertainty about what's in reserve.
The burden on them has been huge, but these are physically and mentally strong men. Against France, they were part of a Scottish pack that won three scrum penalties and two scrum free-kicks (Scotland won a fourth penalty when Moray Low replaced Nel). In Rome, they won six scrum penalties.
Joy at scrum-time is a new phenomenon for Scotland - as is winning Six Nations matches. They have two in a row now. After Sunday, Ireland won't doubt their capacity to make it three.


A Â£30,000 project to refurbish the public toilets in the birthplace of legendary lavatory maker Thomas Crapper is set to begin.

The facilities at The Green, in Thorne, will undergo renovation after funding was secured from the Town Centre Innovation Fund and Doncaster Council.
Thomas Crapper, whose name is synonymous with public conveniences, was born in Thorne, in 1836.
The work, due to start on Monday, is expected to take six weeks to complete.
The leader of Thorne & Moorends Town Council Martin Williams said: "So many toilets are closing down all over the place so we thought that it would be good to refurbish some so all of the shoppers have got some decent facilities.
"I can't get him [Thomas Crapper] to open them but we could make it a memorial to him and put up a blue plaque."
Public toilets in South Parade will be opened while the work is completed.
According to the Thomas Crapper & Co website, despite popular thought Mr Crapper did not invent the WC but was behind a number of important innovations in sanitation.
Mr Crapper died in 1910 and is buried in Elmers End Cemetery, in Beckenham, Kent.


A former chief superintendent has appeared in court charged with pushing his groin against three women on trains between Taunton and Bristol.

Gary Davies, 53, is accused of five indecent assaults on the crowded trains between December 2015 and May 2016.
He denies any wrong doing and is due before Bristol Crown Court next month.
Mr Davies, of Shoreditch Road, Taunton, left Avon and Somerset Police in 2012 to work for Bristol City Council, where he leads a unit for troubled families.


World number one doubles pair Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza have ended their partnership after 16 months.

The pair have won 14 titles since April 2015, including three consecutive Grand Slams.
However, a 41-match winning streak ended in February and they have failed to advance beyond the quarter-finals in their past four events.
But Swiss Hingis and India's Mirza will reunite to defend their WTA Finals title in Singapore in October.
The self-styled "Santina" team issued a statement which said: "We have mutually agreed that we would each be open to playing with other players for the remainder of the season.
"Perhaps, because of our great past results, we have had very high expectations from our partnership and unfortunately did not get the results we desired recently.
"We would like to clarify that it was a totally professional decision based purely on our recent results."
Mirza will link up with Czech Barbora Strycova at next week's Western & Southern Open, while Hingis is at the Rio Olympics partnering fellow Swiss  Timea Bacsinszky.


A second Jon Favreau-directed Jungle Book will be made and Angelina Jolie will reprise her role in a Maleficent sequel, Disney has announced.

The studio also confirmed a Mary Poppins sequel, starring Emily Blunt, and 101 Dalmatians spin-off, Cruella.
The Mary Poppins film will also star Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote and performed in Broadway hit, Hamilton.
A Tim Burton-directed Dumbo and a "Tinker Bell project" starring Reese Witherspoon are also in development.
Also confirmed by Disney were a live-action adaptation of Madeline L'Engle's fantasy novel A Wrinkle In Time, the Dwayne Johnson-starring Jungle Cruise and The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, a Christmas story based on ETA Hoffman's 19th Century tale.
The studio also confirmed writers for the projects, which include Kelly Marcel, who wrote the screenplays for Fifty Shades of Grey and Saving Mr Banks, penning the Cruella film, and Jennifer Lee, who wrote Frozen and Wreck-It Ralph, scripting A Wrinkle In Time.
While not confirming release dates for any of the films, the studio did announce a release schedule, which will see live-action films based on fairy tales released in July 2017, April 2018 and December 2019, and another two untitled films put out in March and December 2018.
The new version of The Jungle Book, a mixture of live action and animation featuring the vocal talents of Idris Elba and Bill Murray, has taken over $160m (£110m) in its first two weeks of release in the US, while live-action films Alice In Wonderland, Cinderella and Maleficent took a combined $2.5bn (£1.7bn).


A British vet is to operate on a blind orangutan in a bid to restore its sight.

Aan was shot more than 100 times with an air rifle on a plantation in Borneo in 2012, leaving her blind in one eye and severely sight-impaired in the other.
Vet Claudia Hartley said Aan, who has been in captivity since the attack, would be able to fend for herself in the wild if the surgery works.
The operation is planned for February.
After Aan was attacked, vets managed to remove most of the pellets, but 37 had lodged in her head, blinding her.
Her hearing was also affected, rendering the orangutan overly-sensitive to noise.
Local Live: Read more news from Cambridgeshire
After a three-hour operation Aan, aged between 10 and 12 years, was taken to live out the rest of her life at a reserve in Borneo run by charity the Orangutan Foundation.
"That's quite miserable for an animal as intelligent as an orangutan," Ms Hartley, a veterinarian ophthalmologist from Cambridge, said.
"It's akin to a human being in a prison cell, and that's her life 24/7. It's the best the charity can offer her because it keeps her safe, it keeps her fed."
After examining the orangutan in September, Ms Hartley said there was a "good chance" of restoring sufficient sight in Aan's right eye to enable her to return to the wild.
"Even though she will only be one-eyed, she will be able to be released because primates can still forage one-eyed," she said.
The procedure, similar to a cataract operation on a human, is planned for early next year.
Its success or otherwise will be known "pretty much straight away," Ms Hartley added.
"I'm fairly certain I can make the eyeball see, but it's whether that will get through to the brain is the crux of it."
Ashley Leiman, director of the foundation, said being able to release Aan would be "absolutely amazing".
"As a blind orangutan, she was going to spend the rest of her life in a cage," she said.


Victoria Pendleton is a "great advert" for racing, says the owner of the horse she hopes to ride in the Foxhunter Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.

The Olympic cycling champion, 35, has been criticised by some ex-jockeys, who feel she is putting herself in danger.
She was unseated from favourite Pacha Du Polder at Fakenham on her National Hunt Rules debut on 19 February.
But Andy Stewart, who owns Pacha Du Polder, said: "I fully endorse Victoria and what she's trying to achieve."
The unseating at Fakenham followed another fall in the novice riders' point-to-point event at Barbury Castle on 14 February.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Pendleton only had her first riding lesson a year ago.
Writing in her column for betting exchange Betfair on Monday, Pendleton said: "It's hard to believe that just over a year ago - 22 February 2015 to be exact - was the first time I sat on a horse, and now I'm two days away from my second Hunter Chase.
"There have been a few knocks and setbacks along the way and of course there was the fall at Fakenham last week. But being totally honest and realistic, I would be surprised if such setbacks didn't come with a challenge of this magnitude.
"I love learning and improving, which is something I really missed when I finished cycling and that's exactly why I've been bitten by the horse racing bug."
Former champion jump jockey John Francome has said Pendleton "wants saving from herself" and is "an accident waiting to happen".
But Stewart added: "The manner in which she has conducted herself throughout has been exemplary.
"The challenge allied with her positive approach has been a great advert for racing and her involvement has led to widespread coverage of the sport far beyond the racing pages."
A decision on Pendleton's participation at Cheltenham will be made after she rides Pacha Du Polder at Wincanton on Wednesday.


It is picturesque, with stunning views of Pen y Fan and a charming rural setting, but Yscir has a unique problem.

The Powys community, near Brecon, which has about 1,000 residents, is the only ward in Wales where no-one wants to stand as a councillor.
It is set to go unrepresented on Thursday as voters across Wales go to the polls for the local elections.
But why does nobody want to represent Yscir?
Elsewhere in Wales, there are 92 uncontested seats, where councillors will be returned without any votes being cast, but Yscir currently stands alone as being unrepresented.
Incumbent Gillian Thomas, one of several independent councillors in Powys, is retiring and, so far, no-one wants to replace her.
And the impending void is news to some people.
Retired couple Tess and Brian Birtles, of Aberyscir, had not heard their ward would be left without a voice.
Mr Birtles, a former communications firm boss, said he was disappointed, adding: "Powys could have done more to encourage people to stand in the ward, because ultimately it will mean that we're not represented at the local government."
Still, he does not want the job himself.
"I'd find it immensely frustrating," he said, "because it doesn't seem very much is done by the councils these days apart from cutting services and reducing costs."
"It's quite sad", Mrs Birtles added, speculating people might not want to stand "because we're not suffering the austerity measures that some areas are experiencing" with many of the residents retirees.
People, in Yscir, she said, were "living the good life".
But that is not to say they all think it is rosy in the garden.
There have been complaints about changes to waste services, while the decision to close Welsh-medium stream at Brecon High School has also sparked debate.
Ms Thomas, 79, said it was "not good for democracy" no-one had put their name forward.
"When I won the last election I said that would be my last term," she said. "My age is getting on, and I want to do things I want to do."
Ms Thomas, who had previously had a farm in the ward before moving to Brecon, said she had found the job "very rewarding".
"When my husband died very suddenly at an early age, it really saved me that I had an outside interest," she said.
So, what is putting people off taking up the cudgels in Ms Thomas' absence?
"I think it's quite big shoes to fill," said Valerie Davies, who has lived with her husband, Peter, in Aberyscir for eight years.
She said the lack of a willing replacement was a "sad reflection" on the community, but also questioned who would want to join a club "being continually attacked by the rest of the populace".
Mr Davies - 35-year army veteran who, like his wife, is now retired - said most people's dealings with the council concerned planning.
"It wasn't advertised or publicised that nobody was standing," he added.
He said he might consider it, but added: "The dealings I've had with parish councils over the years, it always ends up looking a bit petty."
What about younger residents?
Eliot Lawrence, 32, of nearby Cradoc, was also unaware of the vacancy.
"It's not ideal, really," he said. "I've not got any major, pressing concerns, but if something did happen and there's no-one to fight for it, it would be an issue then."
But he admitted he would not consider battling for the seat, adding: "It's not something that interests me really."
Colin Badhan, 76, who runs a B&B in Battle, also did not fancy the job.
"When I get the local magazine pushed through the door it all seems pretty petty stuff, to me anyway," he added.
While fellow Battle resident Jennifer Puttick was "shocked" no-one was standing, she could understand why.
"Maybe a lot of people are wising up. There's not a lot you can do now," she said. "There's rules and regulations already set in place."
But residents' reasons for not throwing their hats into the ring seem no more exotic than those you might find across Wales.
So, it is just...
There are 92 uncontested wards across Wales this year - where not enough people have been nominated to trigger an election and where those nominated are elected by default.
And Powys also has the second largest number of these - 16 - behind Gwynedd's 21.
A rural county, Powys' HQ is situated 25 miles (40km) from Aberyscir in Llandrindod Wells.
One senior political figure at the authority said it meets during the day and not the evening, due to distances members have to travel, and this reduces the candidate pool.
Jessica Blair of Electoral Reform Society Cymru said: "Rural areas do see higher rates of uncontested seats and there are likely numerous factors for this, such as geography and smaller population size."
But she pointed out Scotland, with fewer councillors over a larger geographical area, had only three uncontested seats. She argued it was an indicator of the "health of local democracy and a failure of councils to modernise their approach to working in rural areas".
Steve Thomas, chief executive of the Welsh Local Government Association, said he was unsurprised there were uncontested seats in rural areas and distances were "an issue".
But he said the lack of political organisations had an impact - with the prevalence of independent candidates "who rely solely on their own resources" proving a differentiating factor from some other elections in other parts of Wales.
For its part, Powys said timings for meetings would be reviewed after the elections, with views sought from councillors.
To fill the Yscir post, Powys will need to re-open the nominations and hold a separate election later in 2017.
In the meantime, the little ward, with its assortment of opinions, concerns, frustrations and voices, will remain silent in the council chamber.


A drug dealer has been jailed for a minimum of 20 years for murdering a man who was stabbed to death.

Steve Stannard, 37, died of multiple stab wounds at his Norwich flat in Bowers Avenue on 5 November last year.
Hassiem Baqir, 20, of Howberry Road, Thornton Heath in south London, had denied his murder but had admitted dealing drugs from Mr Stannard's home.
The jury at Norwich Crown Court found Baqir guilty on Thursday. He has been given a life sentence.
Judge Anthony Bate, sentencing, said Baqir had "showed a callous indifference to Steven's fate after he had been stabbed".
"You left him bleeding to death on the ground and made no attempt then or later to summon help."
He said the sale of drugs was "an evil trade that blights and ends live".
The court had earlier heard how Mr Stannard was stabbed twice in the back and three times in the front. The wounds perforated his lung and his heart.
His dog, a border collie called Trixie, was also stabbed.


Warwickshire have put three of their most promising youngsters on academy development contracts for the 2016 season.

Irish all-rounder Mark Adair, 19, slow left-armer Sunny Singh, 19, and former Worcestershire junior Ed Pollock, 20, a middle-order batsman, have all signed.
All three players will be part of Dougie Brown's first-team squad.
"We're hopeful that giving them more experience will ensure that they continue to develop," said Brown.
"They have exciting futures in the game," added the Bears director of cricket. "Mark, Sunny and Ed will form an integral part of the squad for the 2016 season and hopefully push towards full contracts."
Belfast-born Adair, who made his first-class debut in last season's final County Championship game against Somerset at Taunton, joined Warwickshire's academy the end of the 2012 season.
India-born, Birmingham-bred Singh, who joined the academy in 2013, has been a Second XI regular for the past two seasons. He has spent this winter at the Darren Lehmann Academy in Adelaide.
High Wycombe-born Pollock also made his first-class debut against Somerset last April, for Durham MCCU.
The former Worcester Royal Grammar School pupil, who is studying at Durham University, also played for Herefordshire in the Minor Counties Championship last summer, making 227 not out against Shropshire.
Warwickshire, now under the leadership of Ian Bell, are looking to improve on a season in which they finished fifth in Division One in the County Championship.
In limited-overs cricket, the Bears came sixth in their One-Day Cup qualifying group and, as defending champions, were beaten on home soil at Edgbaston in the semis on T20 Blast Finals Day.


Keith Farmer clinched a double success in the Supersport class at the British championship round at Knockhill.

The Clogher rider won Saturday's sprint race and followed that up with a victory in Sunday's feature race.
Andrew Irwin from Carrickfergus was runner-up in both events, with David Allingham fifth and third, and Dublin's Jack Kennedy third and fourth.
Allingham lies 27 points behind series leader Tarran Mackenzie, with Farmer third overall and Irwin fourth.
Yamaha-mounted Michael Laverty finished eighth and 10th in the feature Superbike races and lies 13th in the championship standings.
Glenn Irwin drops from fifth to ninth in the series after missing this weekend's races with a dislocated shoulder and dislocated elbow suffered in Friday's free practice session.
Fermanagh's Josh Elliott was fifth in one of the British Superstock 1000cc races on his return to action with the Tyco BMW team in place of the injured Ian Hutchinson.
Carl Phillips ended ninth and 12th in the same class on his MD Racing Suzuki.
Eugene McManus had a best result of third in the MotoStar class, with Richard Kerr fifth in the same race.


Plymouth Argyle kept their League Two promotion hopes on track with a convincing win over Mansfield Town.

Plymouth's Gregg Wylde fired in the opener with a stunning volley from outside the box past Scott Shearer.
Ryan Brunt doubled the advantage from the penalty spot after Peter Hartley was fouled by Krystian Pearce.
Mansfield's Ryan Tafazolli hit the post with a header, before Brunt completed the scoring when he deftly turned Jake Jervis' cross into the far corner.


Kevin O'Brien defied a hamstring injury to steer Ireland to a three-wicket win over Afghanistan and square the five-match One-Day series at 2-2.

All-rounder O'Brien took four wickets and then hit an unbeaten 72 despite having to go off with a hamstring injury early in his innings.
Afghanistan were dismissed for 220 and the Irish reached their target with three wickets and three overs to spare.
The deciding match is at Greater Noida in India on Friday.
O'Brien, who had missed two matches with the injury, returned to resume his innings having retired hurt when on nine.
Ireland's reply had looked in some trouble at 130-6, but O'Brien hit two sixes and eight fours and shared an important seventh-wicket partnership of 66 with Gary Wilson.
O'Brien had claimed three early wickets as Afghanistan stumbled to 11 for three after choosing to bat first.
After the match, O'Brien said he was not sure if he would be fit to play in the decider.
"It is the same hamstring injury unfortunately, which doesn't look too good," said O'Brien at the post-match presentation.
"We will assess it in the next 12-24 hours to see where we go."


As Unesco considers if the Great Barrier Reef should be listed as "in danger", scientists are tapping into a record of the reef  created by a huge photographic survey of this underworld wonder.

The XL Catlin Seaview Survey is an extensive scientific study that aims to carry out a rapid assessment of the current state of coral reef systems and to make the information publicly available for scientists around the world to use.
Developed and overseen by Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, who is the director of the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland, the survey has been independently reviewed by a panel of international experts.
According to the survey team, the world's reefs have lost 40% of their coral in the past 30 years and remain at risk from overdevelopment, pollution and climate change.
It is worse for the Great Barrier Reef. It has lost half of its coral cover in the same time, a 2012 study by the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences found.
Unesco last year warned the Australian government that dredging of the seabed to create larger ports, along with other destructive forces, was putting the Great Barrier Reef at risk.
The XL Catlin Seaview Survey began in 2012, surveying 32 reefs along the entire length of the Great Barrier Reef and in the remote Coral Sea.
A total of 150km of reef was surveyed with special cameras. The images can be accessed online by scientists and the public.
The study created a visual record of the shallow reefs but also investigated a large crop of coral 125m under water that had never been seen before.
Special cameras created 105,000 GPS-located, panoramic images for the survey.
But a lot of the Great Barrier Reef has never been explored.
The survey is now being conducted in other oceans.
In 2013, the team surveyed the coral reefs of the Caribbean and Bermuda, before moving to the waters of South-East Asia last year.


Aberdeen secured Europa League football for next season with a hard-fought win over St Johnstone in Perth.

Media playback is not supported on this device
Ryan Christie shot the visitors into a 19th-minute lead, with Tam Scobbie then diverting a Jonny Hayes cross into his own net before the interval.
Danny Swanson replied from the penalty spot after a trip on Steven MacLean.
Saints pressed hard for an equaliser but the team in fourth can no longer overhaul second-placed Aberdeen, who stay nine points ahead of Rangers.
With both previous league meetings between these sides this season ending goalless, fans could have been forgiven for taking their seats in hope more than any real expectation.
But there was nothing cagey about the impressive start from the visitors.
Aberdeen were keen to exorcise the ghost of last weekend's 3-0 home defeat to Rangers and, from the first whistle, their spirit was unquestionable.
On-loan Christie started in place of Niall McGinn, who is nursing a groin problem that leaves him a doubt for the Scottish Cup semi-final with Hibs next Saturday, and it took the midfielder just 15 minutes to make his mark.
Christie jinked delicately past two defenders and after powering into the box he lashed a shot past Alan Mannus. It was just reward for early Aberdeen dominance.
Hayes was providing the width for Aberdeen as usual, and the Irishman was the creator of his side's second. He whipped in a tantalising cross from the left and when Scobbie tried to clear it, he turned it into his own net from two yards.
Other sides may have crumbled but Tommy Wright's teams have never lacked belief and they came out after the break like men possessed.
Shortly before the break, Blair Alston made way for Danny Swanson, who was back in the squad following his two-week suspension for his now infamous altercation with team-mate Richard Foster, who started.
It was a substitution that changed the dynamic of the game completely and before long the home side had pulled one back. Anthony O'Connor pulled down MacLean and Swanson converted from the spot.
As the net bulged, nerves set in for Aberdeen, who now knew they were in a fight.
It was played like a cup tie after that with the home side sensing things were swinging their way. They found a vigour that was missing in the first 45 minutes and rocked Aberdeen back on their heels.
Derek McInnes's side remained focused though and showed good game management to hold out in the face of intense pressure.
In the race for second it could be a big three points the Dons and rarely have they battled harder for victory.
St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright: "We didn't start at all and I thought we gave Aberdeen far too much respect. They were poor goals to lose from our point of view.
"Realistically we can't compete with a club like Aberdeen in terms of budget, but we gave them too much respect and that's what's disappointing.
"We go into the split with our tails up though. We have a four point lead over Hearts and all our focus is now on finishing in fourth spot."
Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes: "The players deserve so much credit. We deservedly went ahead and dominated the first 30 minutes.
"We are just annoyed how we started the second half and then when they get the penalty a lot of people will have been asking how will they react but I thought we stood up to it well. We never controlled the second half but I thought we deserved all three points.
"It's another game chalked off with five to go. We just wanted to concentrate on ourselves and make sure we got back to winning ways.
"For too long Aberdeen haven't been playing any meaningful games near the end of the season but having the challenge in the cup and teams challenging us in the league has been good for us."
Match ends, St. Johnstone 1, Aberdeen 2.
Second Half ends, St. Johnstone 1, Aberdeen 2.
Attempt missed. Danny Swanson (St. Johnstone) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left.
Paul Paton (St. Johnstone) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Jayden Stockley (Aberdeen).
Substitution, Aberdeen. Jayden Stockley replaces Jonny Hayes.
Craig Thomson (St. Johnstone) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Jonny Hayes (Aberdeen).
Paul Paton (St. Johnstone) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Graeme Shinnie (Aberdeen).
Jonny Hayes (Aberdeen) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by David Wotherspoon (St. Johnstone).
Richard Foster (St. Johnstone) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Jonny Hayes (Aberdeen).
Steven MacLean (St. Johnstone) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Kenny McLean (Aberdeen) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Steven MacLean (St. Johnstone).
Substitution, Aberdeen. Peter Pawlett replaces Ryan Christie.
Foul by David Wotherspoon (St. Johnstone).
Ryan Christie (Aberdeen) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Craig Thomson (St. Johnstone).
Andrew Considine (Aberdeen) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Attempt missed. Brian Easton (St. Johnstone) left footed shot from outside the box is too high.
Foul by Shaleum Logan (Aberdeen).
Danny Swanson (St. Johnstone) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, St. Johnstone. Craig Thomson replaces Michael Coulson.
David Wotherspoon (St. Johnstone) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Shaleum Logan (Aberdeen) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by David Wotherspoon (St. Johnstone).
Foul by Jonny Hayes (Aberdeen).
Danny Swanson (St. Johnstone) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Substitution, St. Johnstone. Murray Davidson replaces Liam Craig.
Hand ball by Graeme Shinnie (Aberdeen).
Ryan Christie (Aberdeen) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Brian Easton (St. Johnstone).
Foul by Anthony O'Connor (Aberdeen).
Steven MacLean (St. Johnstone) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt missed. Jonny Hayes (Aberdeen) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the left.
Corner,  St. Johnstone. Conceded by Ash Taylor.
Attempt blocked. Graeme Shinnie (Aberdeen) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.


The aunt of TV quizmaster Bamber Gascoigne has bequeathed an "extraordinary" collection of books to a Cambridge University college.

Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe, left more than 7,000 books - including first editions by Wordsworth, Shelley and Byron, to Trinity College's library.
The duchess, who died in 2014 aged 99, kept some of the rarest, undiscovered works in an old blue suitcase.
Mr Gascoigne said it was "a delight" to see the books in their new home.
The former University Challenge presenter, who inherited the duchess's former home, said the collection had contained "treasures and rarities unknown to anyone" since the death of his aunt's father in 1945.
It was "thrilling", he said, "that they will from now on be available to everyone".
The duchess's bequest included previously unknown manuscripts by Napoleon Bonaparte, George Washington, Florence Nightingale and Charles Dickens.
Trinity College's librarian Dr Nicolas Bell described the find as "an extraordinary library - one of the most important private collections in Britain, which offers untold discoveries".
He said they found what the duchess called 'the holy of holies' in an old blue suitcase stored in a bedroom cupboard.
"Opening the suitcase was an exciting moment," said Dr Bell. "It contained some exceptionally rare first editions of Shelley's poems, books inscribed by William Beckford and Oscar Wilde, a pristine first edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, and some bizarre curiosities such as a fragment of Voltaire's dressing gown."
The duchess's father, Robert Crewe-Milnes, and grandfather, Richard Monckton Milnes, both studied at Trinity before embarking on political careers.


It would be easy to dismiss the row over HIV preventative drug Prep as a one-off, rather odd bout of infighting over who is responsible for what seems to be a very effective treatment.

But in many ways it goes to the heart of the dilemma facing the NHS in the 21st Century: how to meet the rising demands being placed on the health service.
Not only are there more people, but those people are living longer with a range of conditions that require care, treatment and support.
That is because medicine is advancing all the time, and so people are surviving diseases and illnesses that in the past would have killed them.
It can be seen in the growing numbers of people living with heart disease, cancer, dementia and, in this case, HIV.
It means the costs to the NHS are rising - all the time.
Close to three-quarters of the NHS budget goes on treatments aimed at helping people manage their conditions rather than cure them.
The response of government and health experts has been to call for a greater emphasis on prevention to try to stop as many of these conditions developing in the first place.
Hence, efforts are put into stopping people smoking, drinking too much and eating the wrong foods too often.
Prep is a form of prevention - albeit not aimed at stopping the risky behaviour, rather reducing the risk that behaviour leads to problems.
In that sense, you could argue, it is more akin to, say, statins, used to lower cholesterol levels, or the weight loss drug orlistat than it is to a stop-smoking clinic - and this is part of the underlying reason councils argued it was the responsibility of the NHS to fund it.
But the other reason is that councils simply have not got the money.
The funding they get for public health - currently £3bn a year across England - is being cut, leading to local authorities having to carefully balance the merits of sexual health clinics against, say, weight-loss programmes.
And even if the decision by the High Court on Tuesday that the NHS can fund the treatment is upheld - NHS England is appealing against it - there is no guarantee the money will be found from its own £100bn-plus budget.
Prep will have to go into the mix along with a host of other new treatments the NHS is being asked to fund this year.
NHS England considered 22 new treatments and services that required additional funding on cost and effectiveness grounds.
So far just nine have been considered a high enough priority for spending, including a new type of radiotherapy, robotic surgery for kidney cancer and a novel way of carrying out obesity surgery on children.
Funding for another nine is on hold and will now be reviewed again alongside Prep (if required).
Certainly a strong case could and will be made for the HIV treatment. But at an estimated cost of between £10m to £20m a year, the fact that condoms provide a cheaper alternative to prevention will also be taken into account alongside the cases that can be made for the other treatments.
This is why if you speak to anyone involved in these sort of decisions they will say they're really tough - and as the years go by they will just get tougher.
Read more from Nick
Follow Nick on Twitter


A website has been ordered to remove a design for a 3D-printed model of the "Left Shark" dancer from the Super Bowl half-time show.

Lawyers for singer Katy Perry contacted Fernando Sosa, who had sold the design via an online directory of blueprints.
Left Shark became a viral hit after appearing to forget its steps during a routine with the 30-year-old artist.
3D-printing is becoming an increasing headache for companies trying to protect their intellectual property.
Falling costs of 3D printers, coupled with a growing community of model designers, means many small products can be made to a relatively high quality.
In a letter, the lawyers said Perry had not consented to the use of the shark, which was being sold through Shapeways.com.
"Your unauthorised display and sale of this product infringes our client's exclusive rights," read the letter, posted on Instagram by Mr Sosa.
Mr Sosa was selling the design for $24.99 (Â£16). After the item was removed by Shapeways, Mr Sosa submitted the design to a different site, Thingiverse, and offered it free-of-charge.
On the site, Mr Sosa wrote: "Apparently sharks, palm trees and beach balls are all now copyrighted... anyways I'm making this available to everyone.
"Now you can 3D print your very own Left Shark. Just make sure you download this file ASAP since just in case it's taken down."
Intellectual property lawyer Dai Davis told the BBC he expects disputes like this to become more common, and that industry must adapt to facilitate demand.
"In the same way copyright is difficult to protect in music because of the way the internet has allowed piracy sites, in the same way you already have lots of sites popping up which will increasingly allow unlawful copies of design rights [for objects]."
He suggested that companies would perhaps be wiser to offer their own official 3D-printed designs, rather than putting effort into removing designs by others.
The man inside one the shark costumes, professional dancer Scott Myrick, said of the performance: "The visibility was terrible. I ran into a palm tree but the camera missed it."
Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC


A pub where a drunken customer died while the bar manager went out to get food has lost its licence.

The man died at the Gunmakers Arms, in Aston, Birmingham, on 10 December.
He had been drinking heavily and was sprayed with water to sober up and then placed on the floor, unconscious, before the manager left to get food.
A coroner's inquest later ruled the customer died from acute ethyl alcohol intoxication and a pre-existing heart condition.
The inquest heard the customer, who has not been named, had been in the pub since about 18:00 GMT on 9 December, drinking cider and spirits.
At about 23:30 GMT he fell asleep in a chair. He was still asleep at 00:30 GMT when the manager and another customer decided to get some food.
When they returned, the man was cold and was moved next to a radiator and an ambulance was called when he did not come round.
Reviewing the pub's licence, Birmingham City Council's Licensing Committee said he had consumed "an excessive amount of alcohol, directly from a bottle of Jack Daniels in one go, in circumstances when there had been a clear management failing in prohibiting any such action from arising in the first place".
A number of non-duty paid bottles of spirits were also on display and there was evidence spirits had been decanted from some bottles to others on display on the optics, the committee said.
Councillor Lynda Clinton, chair of the committee, said it was "entirely appropriate" to revoke the premises' licence given concerns raised by West Midlands Police and Birmingham Trading Standards.


Sudan beat neighbours South Sudan in a penalty shootout to reach the semi-finals of the Cecafa Cup in Ethiopia.

The match ended 0-0 - just as it did when the sides when in the group stage last week - and, with no extra time played in the competition, penalty kicks were required to determine a winner.
Goalkeeper Akram Elhadi Salim was Sudan's hero, saving the very first effort from Eric Johana and then going on to score the final kick to give his side a 5-3 victory.
Sudan will next face Rwanda, who also need a penalty shootout to advance.
The defending champions were held to a goalless draw by Kenya but emerged victorious 5-3 after spot-kicks.
Uganda and Ethiopia meet in the other semi-final.


Formed in 1949 to counter the threat of post-war communist expansion as the Soviet Union sought to extend its influence in Europe, Nato - the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation - is the world's most powerful regional defence alliance.

It has traditionally stated its general aim as being to "safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilisation" of its members by promoting "stability and well-being in the North Atlantic area".
Members agree that an armed attack against one shall be considered an attack against them all, and that they will come to the aid of one another.
Profile compiled by BBC Monitoring
Originally consisting of 12 countries, the organisation expanded to include Greece and Turkey in 1952 and West Germany in 1955. However, then, as now, the alliance was militarily dominated by the United States.
In 1955 the Soviet Union created a counter-alliance called the Warsaw Pact, which dissolved after the break-up of the USSR in 1991.
The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland became the first former Warsaw Pact countries to gain Nato membership in 1999.
The next historic step came in 2004 when Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, republics of the USSR until its collapse in 1991, along with Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania were welcomed as Nato members at a ceremony in Washington.
Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia have joined Nato's Partnership for Peace programme - a first step towards membership. At a summit in Bucharest in early April 2008, NATO countries invited Albania and Croatia to join on schedule.
Greece vetoed Macedonia's application, but the alliance agreed that the country would be invited when it settles its dispute with Greece over its name. The International Court of Justice ruled in 2012 that Greece had been wrong to veto the application. This opens the way to a new Macedonian bid.
Nato was set up in the post-World War II atmosphere of anxiety, largely to block Soviet expansion into Europe. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and subsequent demise of the Warsaw Pact, therefore, left Nato with no obvious purpose.
Since then Nato has used its defensive role to justify a more proactive approach to "out of area" activities - arguing that instability in any part of Europe would constitute a threat to its members.
Thus, at the end of 1995 it organised its first ever multinational Implementation Force (Ifor), under a United Nations mandate to implement the military aspects of the Bosnian peace agreement.
In 1999 the alliance launched an 11-week campaign of air strikes against Yugoslavia to push Serb forces out of Kosovo. The strikes were the largest military operation ever undertaken by Nato, and the first time it had used force against a sovereign state without UN approval. The Nato peacekeeping force remains in Kosovo, although it has been scaled down from 16,000 to about 6,000 by 2012.
In 2003 Nato took its operations outside Europe for the first time when it assumed strategic command of the UN-mandated peacekeeping force in and immediately around the Afghan capital, Kabul.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Nato embarked on a series of steps designed to build new relationships with former Warsaw Pact countries and particularly with Russia, which was profoundly suspicious of the alliance's plans to expand eastwards.
In 1994 Nato offered former Warsaw Pact members limited associations in the form of the Partnership for Peace programme, allowing them to participate in information sharing, joint exercises and peacekeeping operations.
But this simply appeared to confirm Russian fears that Nato posed a creeping threat to its security.
The Nato-Russia Permanent Joint Council was established in May 1997 to give Russia a consultative role in discussion of matters of mutual interest. While Moscow was given a voice, it rarely felt that it was really listened to.
Russia's fears intensified when in 1999 the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland became the first former Soviet bloc states to join Nato, bringing the alliance's borders 400 miles closer to the Russian frontier.
The 11 September 2001 attacks on targets in the US were a pivotal moment for Nato. The US did not involve the alliance in the international military campaign that followed, even though Secretary-General George Robertson quickly invoked Article Five of the Nato constitution declaring an attack on one member to be an attack on all.
Russia's supportive reaction following the attacks proved to be the catalyst for a thaw in relations with Moscow. The establishment of the Nato-Russia Council was agreed in May 2002. This body gives Russia an equal role with the Nato countries in decision-making on policy to counter terrorism and other security threats.
However, the relationship with Russia continued to be difficult. Russia was unhappy that the Nato expansion of early 2004 brought the alliance to its borders. Relations took a marked turn for the worse after the brief Russo-Georgian war of August 2008, when Nato announced that cooperation would be suspended until Moscow pulled all its troops out of Georgia.
Relations improved after Barack Obama assumed the US presidency in January 2009, and Nato announced in March 2009 that it would be resuming high-level contacts with Russia.
However, relations took a turn for the worse in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine and was accused of supporting separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine. The developments appeared to give Nato, which some described as a Cold War relic, new relevance.
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the Ukraine crisis "reminds us just how important Nato is. The idea of collective defence has become more important given how Russia is using force to change borders in Europe."
Disputes between Germany, France and the US over the 2003 invasion of Iraq caused one of the worst crises in Nato history. The alliance itself played no part in the invasion, although most member countries did. It later assisted in training Iraqi security forces.
Nato has since shaped a new role for itself. It took command of the international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan in 2003 as part of a growing awareness of the global terrorist threat, and set up a 9,000-strong rapid reaction force for swift deployment to trouble spots anywhere in the world.
However, the reluctance of many Nato governments to supply reinforcements for the Afghan mission raised questions about the alliance's ability to sustain such large-scale operations.
At a key summit held in Lisbon in November 2010 the alliance adopted a new "strategic concept" or mission statement that pledged it to cut costs while prioritising defence against new emerging threats, such as cyber attacks.
Nato allies also agreed to deploy a missile defence system to cover all of the territory of its European members, complementing US plans for a missile defence shield.
And agreement was secured on moving towards Afghan control of internal security, which is due to begin in July 2011 and envisages full Afghan control by the end of 2014.
The imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya in March 2011 posed a tricky problem for the alliance. Although countries such as Britain and the US were keen for Nato to play a major role in heading the operation, some Arab governments were initially uneasy at the prospect of Nato command.
Following a period of disagreement and confusion, Nato agreed to take on the responsibility of enforcing the no-fly zone, which proved crucial in defeating pro-Gaddafi forces in October.


A new five-a-side pitch has been unveiled in Cardiff to create a "lasting legacy" after the Champions League Final.

Juventus face Real Madrid in Saturday's sell-out game at Cardiff's renamed National Stadium of Wales.
Grange Gardens in Grangetown was chosen for the pitch by UEFA, Cardiff council and the Football Association of Wales.
Wales legend Ian Rush praised the facility, saying it would help get more kids into football.
The 2017 UEFA Champions League final ambassador said it was important to have facilities in the inner city to give young people the "best chance possible".
He added: "Somewhere like this you go in with a positive, but where you've got muddy pitches and all that, you go in with a negative."
Rush said the next big football superstar could come from the area, adding: "We all came from places like this but unfortunately we didn't have these facilities."


Prime Minister Theresa May has been accused by Labour and trade unions of "watering down" plans to tackle corporate excess.

Under government reforms, the UK's biggest firms will have to reveal how much more their chief executives are paid compared with the average worker.
Companies will also be encouraged to represent workers' voices on boards.
But unions attacked the plans as "feeble" and Labour said the prime minister had backtracked on promises.
The government has released measures aimed at increasing boardroom transparency in publicly listed companies.
Business Secretary Greg Clark said the changes would make firms "more accountable to their employees and shareholders".
The new corporate governance laws, which are due to come into effect by June 2018, will force some 900 publicly listed companies to reveal the pay ratio between bosses and workers.
The Conservatives had promised in their manifesto that executive pay should be approved by an annual vote of shareholders.
However, the new measures instead propose that those public companies who face a shareholder revolt on pay will be named on a register overseen by the Investment Association.
BBC business editor Simon Jack said the government had watered down plans in the face of business lobbying, but also pragmatic and legal problems.
At the weekend, Theresa May attacked firms who hand bosses excessive pay "as the unacceptable face of capitalism".
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, she said the excesses of some chief executives was "damaging the social fabric of our country".
Businesses will also have to ensure that staff of listed companies are better represented at board level, either by allowing workers to nominate a director, creating an employee advisory council or assigning a non-executive director to represent the workforce.
This requirement will be included in the UK Corporate Governance Code, which operates on a "comply or explain" basis.
Mrs May had initially promised to force companies to have an employee representative on the board, during her bid to become Conservative Party leader last July.
However, she backtracked in November and said businesses would not be mandated to implement the move.
Labour accused the government of "watering down" an original promise to increase workers' voice to a lone representative on the board of directors or a separate employee advisory council.
"Each of these will be easily outvoted or ignored," said Rebecca Long-Bailey, Labour's shadow business secretary.
TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said the government's reforms were "feeble".
"Just a year ago the prime minister repeatedly promised fundamental reform of business and that's because there was real public concern about boardroom greed, about tax avoidance and exploitative work practices," she told the BBC.
"I am afraid that the government has bottled it in the face of business lobbying and that doesn't bode well for really tackling some of these big problems," she added.
Vince Cable, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: "The overblown rhetoric from Theresa May is completely at odds with the weakness of the new rules."
While the majority of the new measures will only apply to publicly-listed companies, the government has asked the Financial Reporting Council, the City watchdog, to draw up a voluntary set of corporate governance principles for large private companies.
It follows the collapse of BHS last year which left 11,000 people out of a job and the company's pension schemes in a perilous state.
The department store chain was sold by Sir Philip Green to a former bankrupt, Dominic Chappell, for Â£1 in 2015.
Commenting of the corporate governance reforms, Paul Drechsler, president of the CBI business lobby group, said: "Companies take this seriously and look forward to working closely with the government to ensure the UK maintains its reputation as a global leader in this field and as a primary location for international investment.
"The CBI is very clear that the unacceptable behaviour of a few firms does not reflect the high standards and responsible behaviour of the vast majority of companies."
It is no surprise that today's package of reforms to the way Britain's companies are run has fallen short of the crackdown on fat cat behaviour promised by Theresa May last year.
The watering-down can has been used liberally since she initially promised workers on boards and binding shareholder votes on executive pay.
The size of the climbdown is arguably as much to do with the scale of the original ambition as with the feebleness of the final proposals.
The Tory attempt to shake up the way corporate Britain is run hit several obstacles.
Lobbying by the business community was to be expected, but there are some pragmatic and legal problems as well.
Read Simon's blog here.


The price of crossing a Pembrokeshire bridge is set to stay the same following a review.

The Cleddau Bridge costs 75p per car to cross between Pembroke Dock and Neyland.
Pembrokeshire council considered whether to keep the tolls as they are, abolish them, raise them or reduce them - but voted to maintain the current costs.
Councillors also said it had accumulated a surplus of £11.2m.
The way the council manages the tolls has previously been brought under review after a complaint to the Wales Audit Office.


A special forces veteran has been convicted of setting his Rottweiler dog on a man and stabbing him with a fork.

Robert Moffat had his dog attack John Lamont after the pair got into an argument at a flat in Crieff on 23 May.
Police arrived to find Norton the Rottweiler "tearing at a piece of flesh hanging off" Mr Lamont's leg. He was left in hospital for a week and was scarred for life.
Moffat was found guilty of assault by a jury and will be sentenced next month.
Perth Sheriff Court heard that the two men, both aged 51, had been drinking together in the flat prior to the attack.
Moffat had previously dated Mr Lamont's sister, and a row broke out after the ex-soldier made comments about her.
Mr Lamont said: "He was talking about my sister, and we can't be having that.
"He just went mad. He was skelping me on the head. He stabbed me with a fork, he went for my left eye.
"I was screaming at him to stop. His dog, a big Rottweiler, was there. It was hanging off the back of my leg.
"Everything happened that fast. I looked at my legs - everything was ripped off me and I was covered in blood."
Mr Lamont's sister Frances, 55, told the court that Moffat phoned her during the attack.
She said: "I answered my phone to be told, 'can you come and get your brother because if I get him out to the street I'm going to kill him'.
"I could hear him shouting for the dog to attack.
"There was a lot of screaming and shouting and the dog was going really, really mad. The dog was under orders to do what it was doing, no doubt."
Police sergeant Samantha Greshon told the trial that she arrived at the scene to find the dog licking Mr Lamont's leg and tearing at a piece of flesh hanging off above his foot.
A jury found Moffat guilty of assault, and sentence was deferred for preparation of reports.


For Sky's chief executive it was "the biggest reimagining of Sky in our history", for its head of new products it was "an entirely new way to enjoy all the TV you love across all the screens in your life."

The satellite broadcaster was certainly not underplaying the importance of the Sky Q service at a glitzy launch this morning. But does a product which combines the power of satellite broadcasting with the flexibility of on-demand TV over the internet really put Sky ahead of the game - or is it playing catch-up?
Sky Q is intended to be the successor to the Sky+ box, which the company says is Britain's most successful set-top box. Those who sign up to the premium service will get the new Silver  box, along with a touch-sensitive remote control. They can also get mini-boxes, connected over wifi rather than satellite, allowing them to watch in rooms around the home, and viewing as many as four different programmes on different screens.
And they will be able to take their recorded programmes with them on tablets or smartphones to watch wherever they like. Coupled with the promise of next generation UHD (or 4K) content, to be introduced later in 2016, Sky is telling its more than 12 million customers that they will be future-proofed with a state-of-the-art product that will evolve.
What it isn't telling them is how much Sky Q will cost when it becomes available early next year, but we can be sure that the aim is to get them spending more. The average customer spends £47 per month on Sky, and those with top-end packages plus a broadband connection can easily spend upwards of £80 a month. Those kind of customers will now be invited to break the £100 per month barrier.
But this comes against a background of changing TV habits, particularly amongst the young. Those aged between 16 and 24 are watching less TV and much of what they are viewing is on phones or tablets and is mainly made up of online services like YouTube or Twitch.
Meanwhile, early technology adopters are discovering that they can get a lot of content without ever signing up to a satellite or cable subscription. Services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Sky's own Now TV, coupled with devices like Amazon Fire, Google's Chromecast or Apple TV allow users to create their own bespoke TV bundles. Much online TV content can also be streamed - and in some cases downloaded - to smartphones or tablets.
So with just a little effort, you can replicate most of the features of the Sky Q service at a much lower price, and without committing to a long-term contract. In the United States this kind of behaviour is called cord-cutting and is causing deep anxiety amongst the cable operators and traditional broadcasters.
Sky Q, then, will struggle to live up to the hype at its launch. Or maybe not. What it still has is a stranglehold on exclusive content, principally football, coupled with a great track record in introducing new viewing technology - if we ignore 3D TV.
The other factor is that the vast majority of viewers still look for as simple a TV experience as possible rather than wanting to fiddle around with new gadgets. So it's a fair bet that Sky will usher plenty of them smoothly, gently - and very profitably - into this new internet-connected TV era.


Sunderland chief executive Margaret Byrne has resigned following the Adam Johnson child abuse case.

Johnson, 28, faces four to 10 years in jail after being found guilty of sexual activity with a 15-year-old girl.
The Premier League club has been criticised for letting the England winger play after his arrest.
Byrne, chief executive since 2011, said that decision "was a serious mistake", with the club adding: "We are so very sorry for this."
In a statement, Sunderland said Johnson's victim had been "very badly let down first and foremost" by the player and "his despicable actions", but also "by the club they support".
"Mr Johnson lied to the club; he also lied to our fans and they have every right to feel aggrieved by this," it added.
Media playback is not supported on this device
The club initially suspended him in March 2015 but lifted that ban after just 16 days.
He was eventually sacked on the eve of his trial last month, when he admitted grooming the girl and one charge of sexual activity.
In the intervening 10 months, he played 28 times for the Black Cats.
Byrne, who joined Sunderland in 2007, said in a statement: "Contrary to what has been suggested, I did not understand that Mr Johnson intended to change his plea at trial, or at all.
"I was astounded when he did plead guilty.
"I accept that Mr Johnson should not have been permitted to play again, irrespective of what he was going to plead.
"It was a serious error of judgement and I accept full responsibility for this."
Durham Police said Byrne was told on the day of Johnson's arrest - 2 March, 2015 - that he had allegedly messaged and kissed the schoolgirl.
Byrne did not address this in her statement but did say she saw a note in May 2015 that recorded "that Mr Johnson had kissed the victim and communicated with her".
"I did not share this information with anybody, including the board of Sunderland AFC," she added.
During his trial, Johnson, who has played 12 times for England, also claimed the club knew he had kissed the girl.
But the club has "strongly" denied claims it knew he planned to admit any of the charges before his court case began in Bradford.
BBC sports editor Dan Roan:
Margaret Byrne may have enjoyed a meteoric rise in the male-dominated world of the Premier League, but her fateful decision to allow Adam Johnson to resume his playing career last year made her downfall inevitable.
Last week, the £600,000-a-year executive went to ground, hoping the storm would subside, but that strategy, along with an evasive club statement following Johnson's trial, merely fanned the flames of crisis.
Byrne may not have been a household name, but she was one of the game's most powerful and well-connected women, and given her background as a lawyer, her mistake will perhaps come as a surprise.
However, her judgement has come under scrutiny before, the handling of the controversy surrounding the politics of former Sunderland manager Paolo di Canio in 2013 also heavily criticised.
The club and its elusive American owner Ellis Short will now hope her departure allows a line to be drawn, but Sunderland's reputation has been damaged, and questions over its conduct remain.
Media playback is not supported on this device


Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes insists he is "not that fussed" who the Dons face in their Europa League second qualifying round tie this month.

McInnes' men will be at home first to either Siroki Brijeg or Ordabasy, with the latter trailing 2-0 after the first leg of the first qualifying round tie.
But the Pittodrie boss does not feel the Kazakh side are out of it.
"They're capable of turning that round, but whoever we play, we look forward to it," said McInnes.
"I still don't think the tie's dead because I think Ordabasy have shown that they're a very good side.
"I thought, looking at both teams prior to the game, that maybe Ordabasy were the stronger side and the Bosnians, obviously, were in pre-season stage - similar to ourselves.
"What was clear was the performance from the Bosnians was very strong. I thought it was a fantastic performance.
"You have to just take what's thrown at you and deal with it, but we look forward to it nonetheless."
In 2015, Aberdeen were knocked out by Kazakh side Kairat at the third qualifying round stage of the competition.
"I'm really not that fussed," said McInnes when asked about his preference for travelling to either Bosnia and Herzegovina or Kazakhstan for the 20 July second leg after the first leg at Pittodrie on 13 July.
"It was a concern the last time because of the amount of hours in the flight, not getting back in.
"We were straight into Tannadice for the game [against Dundee United] on the Sunday, really.
"This time round, if we have to go to Kazakhstan, we come back to a pre-season friendly at Brechin, so there's not the same importance there.
"I actually don't mind who we get."


Global temperatures in 2015 were the warmest on record, according to data published by meteorologists in the UK and US.

The Met Office figures show that 2015 was 0.75C warmer than the long-term average between 1961-1990.
US data suggests that 2015 "shattered" the temperature record by the widest margin ever recorded.
Experts say the record temperatures were due to a combination of El Niño and human-induced warming.
Data produced by the US space agency (Nasa) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) show that 2015 "shattered" the previous record set in 2014 by 0.13C.
According to Noaa, the increase in temperature over land and ocean surfaces between 2014 and 2015 was the largest margin by which the record has been broken.
The fact that 2015 was going to break records had been heavily trailed by research agencies all over the world.
The Met Office predicted that 2015 would be between 0.52 and 0.76 above the long-term average. The actual temperature came in near the top end of that forecast.
Our warming world and El Nino
"Looking ahead, 2016 looks like it's also going to be another warm year and that's associated with the fact that human influence on the climate through greenhouse gas emissions has pushed us into new territory," said Dr Peter Stott from the British meteorological organisation's Hadley research centre.
"We're much warmer than we were and then we've got the continuing effects of El Niño in the Pacific Ocean as well."
US experts agreed that the key reasons for 2015's record figures were a long-term trend of warming, mainly caused by the burning of fossil fuels, combined with the El Niño weather event.
"The reason that 2015 has not just broken the record but has blown past it is because we are seeing a long-term temperature trend interact with the strongest El Niño of our generation," said Prof Katharine Hayhoe, director of the climate science centre at Texas Tech University.
"What we have this year is the long-term rate of change with an extra spike of El Niño on top," she told BBC News.
2015 also was the first full year to break the 1C barrier above pre-industrial levels - a key benchmark for warming. Politicians from all over the world meeting in Paris last December promised to keep the global rise in temperatures "well below 2 degrees, in a bid to avoid dangerous climate change.
Much of the warming has happened in the past 35 years, says Nasa, with 15 of the 16 warmest years on record occurring since 2001.
According to Noaa, 2015 is the fourth time an annual global temperature has been set this century. 2015 also saw record high temperatures for 10 months, with five months showing the highest departure from the average of any month on record.
And Dr Thomas Karl, who directs the administration's National Centers for Environmental Information, said current conditions would likely lead to 2016 being as warm as - if not warmer than - 2015.
"In December and recent months in the autumn, records were broken by a substantial margin - much stronger than what we had seen earlier in the year. And it's going to be very difficult for that not to continue into at least the first part of next year because, in particular, the ocean temperatures are so warm," Dr Karl explained.
Many parts of the world have experienced unusual weather patterns throughout 2015, which experts believe are in line with their expectations of the impacts of warming.  There have been severe droughts in parts of Africa, in India and Pakistan, while flooding hit many parts of Europe and the US later in the year.
"The end of 2015 was very exceptional in many ways. Here in the UK we had both the wettest and the warmest December in our records going back to 1910, but also globally," said Dr Stott.
"We saw very warm temperatures in Siberia and Northern Russia and on the east coast of North America as well.
"Part of that globally is associated with El Niño, but if we step back we can also see weather events that are consistent with an on-going pattern of a warmer climate with a greater risk of heatwaves and droughts."
Climate sceptics had made much of the fact that the increase in global temperatures seemed to stall around 1998. Researchers say the latest figures underscore the fact that the hiatus is over.
"The idea of a pause in warming in the scientific community has been roundly refuted," said Prof Hayhoe.
"We know that climate change is measured over 20-30 years at least, and it's measured over that timeframe specifically because we have natural variability. When we look over 20-30 years and longer climate timescales, we see that global warming continues unabated."
This point was echoed by Dr Gavin Schmidt, from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, which oversees the Nasa data record.
"The reason why this is such a warm record year is because of the long-term warming trend, and there is no evidence that that warming trend has slowed, paused, or hiatused at any point in the last few decades," he told reporters.
Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc.


Dan Evans is in Britain's Davis Cup squad, alongside Andy Murray, for next week's quarter-final against Italy.

Captain Leon Smith will decide whether British number two Evans or James Ward will fill the second singles slot.
Evans is in good form, having reached his first ATP Tour semi-final last month at the Zagreb Indoors.
"James Ward and Dan Evans may not know who will be asked to fill the second singles spot until next Thursday. They have just begun a four-day training camp on the National Tennis Centre's covered outdoor clay courts and will fly to Naples on Saturday to continue their preparations.
"Ward's brilliant win over Sam Querrey in the first round in San Diego has not been forgotten. He is more comfortable on clay, but Evans gave us a timely reminder of his talents with a run to the semi-finals of the ATP event in Zagreb.
"Ross Hutchins could yet be drafted into the team. It's tough on GB's number one doubles player Dom Inglot, but wonderful to see Hutchins involved just nine months after completing a gruelling course of chemotherapy."
Colin Fleming has been named as Murray's doubles partner, while Ross Hutchins will travel to Naples as a reserve for the tie.
"The number two singles spot is open," said Smith. "Both Dan and James have had good moments this year. That's why I want to see how they perform over the next 10 days of training."
Evans, ranked 127 in the world, played in the victories over Russia and Croatia last year, winning one of his three live singles rubbers.
The 23-year-old also made a breakthrough by reaching the third round of the US Open in September.
He was left out of the Davis Cup team that beat the United States last month but in February became the first British man, aside from Murray, to reach an ATP semi-final since Ward in 2011.
Smith's team reached the last eight for the first time in 28 years when they beat the United States in February. It was their first win over the Americans since 1935.
The tie takes place on clay from 4-6 April and will feature Italy's top two players, Fabio Fognini and Andreas Seppi. They are ranked 14th and 33rd respectively and both men favour clay.
"It will be a good challenge," said Murray. "They have some very good clay-court players with a passionate crowd behind them.
"It will be a tough weekend and the games will be tight, but it's great playing in big matches like this in the World Group."
Murray announced last week that he has  after two years together, and Smith has been among the names linked to the vacant position.
"It's obviously very flattering, but the most important thing for Andy is just to take time, think about what he wants to do and what he needs with his team," said Smith.
"What I would say is that he already has a very, very good team in place. People often forget the work that Dani Vallverdu does - maybe because it's a little bit under the radar - but he's a very good coach in his own right and he'll be able to work with Andy as a head coach.
"Whether it's in the short term or the long term, he could do that, but if Andy feels he needs to bring another person in, so be it."


Teenage Hampshire pace bowler Brad Wheal is in Scotland's 15-man squad for their upcoming tour of Hong Kong.

The Scots open their tour with an Intercontinental Cup match from 21-24 January, before one-day internationals on 26 and 28 January.
They then play two Twenty20 internationals on 30 and 31 January in the lead-up to the ICC World Twenty20 in India, which begins on 8 March.
"Hong Kong are going to be tough opponents," said coach Grant Bradburn.
"We know them well and respect them as a strong fellow associate nation.
"As a squad this Scotland team are determined to continue showing a growing strength in our performances in all three formats of the game.
"We have had some precious time together reflecting on 2015 and planning ahead for the first quarter of 2016. I am hugely impressed with the skills within this squad and the desire to continually improve.
"The players have embraced the variety of skill development in the off season which has included boxing, pilates and hot yoga to compliment specific skill enhancement".
South Africa-born Wheal, 19, who has a Scottish mother, took seven wickets as a Scotland XI beat Marylebone Cricket Club in August.
Sussex batsman Matt Machan returns to the squad after missing Scotland's successful World T20 Qualifier campaign in July.
Gavin Main misses the Hong Kong tour after electing to play in New Zealand early next year while Ruaidhri Smith has exams in January and also misses out, but both are available for selection for the World T20.
Scotland squad for Hong Kong: Preston Mommsen (capt), Alasdair Evans, Bradley Wheal, Calum MacLeod, Con de Lange, George Munsey, Josh Davey, Kyle Coetzer, Mark Watt, Matt Machan, Matthew Cross, Michael Leask, Richie Berrington, Rob Taylor, Safyaan Sharif.


Montenegro's chief special prosecutor has said "nationalists from Russia" were behind an attempt to assassinate the PM and carry out a coup.

Milivoje Katnic said the plot involved killing pro-Western PM Milo Djukanovic with a professional long-distance sharpshooter.
The plotters are accused of planning to break into parliament and bring a pro-Russian government to power.
There is no evidence the Russian state was involved.
About 20 people were arrested on Montenegro's election day on 16 October and were initially identified as Serbian paramilitaries.
They are now known to include Serbian and Montenegrin citizens, 14 of whom remain in custody.
"We don't have any evidence that the state of Russia is involved in any sense... but we have evidence that two nationalists from Russia were organisers," Mr Katnic said.
He said his counterpart in Serbia had those people "under its supervision" and prevented the plot from going ahead.
"Those persons are not on the territory of Serbia anymore. I don't know where they are now, in Russia or somewhere else," he said.
After the mass arrest in October, Mr Djukanovic said around â‚¬125,000 ($138:000; Â£111,000) had been found as part of the alleged plot, along with uniforms.
Since splitting from Serbia in 2006, Montenegro has forged close ties with the EU and Nato, both of which it aims to join.
Mr Djukanovic's election bid had presented the vote as a choice between the West or becoming a "Russian colony".
The country is widely expected to join Nato in early 2017, despite strong opposition from Russia.
Mr Katnic said the alleged coup plot was designed to prevent that from happening, along with disrupting closer ties with Europe.
Ahead of the election, Mr Djukanovic had accused some opposition groups of receiving Russian funding. In return, they have accused Mr Djukanovic of corruption and cronyism, which he denies.
Mr Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists won the October election, but did not achieve the overall majority he had hoped would give him a mandate for closer ties to the West.
Many Montenegrins are unhappy that Mr Djukanovic is taking the country into Nato.
They remain angry that Nato bombed Serbia and Montenegro in 1999 as part of a strategy to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians in Serbia's then southern province of Kosovo.
Montenegro, which has a population of some 630,000, has in recent years seen an influx of Russian money, homebuyers and tourists.


The bombs, as one Laotian described it, "fell like rain", US President Barack Obama said Tuesday on a visit to Laos, a first for any sitting US president.

"Given our history here, I believe that the United States has a moral obligation to help Laos heal," he said.
He referred to America's secret and devastating bombing of Laos during the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 70s.
Some $90m (Â£68m) will be spent over three years for the removal of cluster bombs and other unexploded ordnance.
That compares to $100m spent in the last 20 years.
President Obama described Laos as the most heavily bombed nation in history. Eight bombs a minute were dropped on average during the Vietnam war between 1964 and 1973 - more than the amount used during the whole of World War II.
The US flew 580,344 bombing missions over Laos, dropping 260m bombs - equating to 2m tons of ordnance, with many targets in the south and north struck time and again.
Most devices dropped were anti-personnel cluster bombs. An estimated 30% of these munitions did not detonate.
Ten of the 18 Laotian provinces have been described as "severely contaminated" by unexploded ordnance (UXO).
Mine-clearing agencies estimate that about 288m cluster munitions and about 75m unexploded bombs were left across Laos after the war ended.
Cluster bombs scatter explosives across a wide area and often fail to detonate on impact.
They pose a significant threat to civilians because of both their impact at the time of use and their deadly legacy.
Launched from the ground or dropped from the air, cluster munitions consist of containers that open and disperse sub-munitions indiscriminately over a wide area.
Many explosive sub-munitions, also known as bomblets, fail to detonate as designed, becoming landmines that kill and maim indiscriminately.
They are difficult to locate and remove, posing a danger to civilians long after conflicts end.
Children are particularly at ris, as they can be attracted to the bombs' toy-like appearance.
The Convention on Cluster Munitions bans the stockpiling, use and transfer of virtually all existing cluster bombs, and also provides for the clearing up of unexploded munitions.
It has been adopted by 108 states, but not the US which, according to some estimates, spent as much on clean-up efforts in Laos between 1995 and 2013 as it spent in three days of bombing during the war.
Laos is likely to ask for an extension to its commitment to get rid of UXO when Convention member states next meet in August 2020.
The number of casualties from air-dropped explosive devices - mostly cluster munitions  - in Laos since 1964 is estimated by the  Landmine and Clustering Munition Monitor to be around 50,000 people. Of these about 29,000 people were killed and 21,000 injured. The overwhelming majority were civilians.
Today only a handful of people are killed and injured, the figures show.
But the threat posed by UXO stops villagers from getting to their farms and renders vast tracts of agricultural land useless until they have been cleared of munitions.
The president's announcement has been widely welcomed by aid agencies working to address the UXO problem in Laos, which include the Halo Trust, the Mines Advisory Group, Norwegian People's Aid, UXO Laos and Handicap International.
"Before the president's announcement I feared that the UXO operation in Laos would take hundreds of years," Mines Advisory Group country director Simon Rea told the BBC from Vientiane. "Now I am optimistic this can be reduced to decades."
"The president's announcement is extremely good news for us and for poor families in rural areas who lives are still blighted by UXO.
Likewise Halo Trust CEO James Cowan said the president's announcement will have a profound effect on the people of Laos.
"It will help them live and farm in safety on their land, as well as creating opportunities for development and infrastructure," he said.
"Explosive remnants of war have blighted their lives for far too long. It is a momentous step in Laos's journey towards freedom from the deadly debris of war."
"Today more than ever we are getting a much better grasp of the scale of the contamination," Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) Senior Advocacy and Research Advisor Lucy Pinches told the BBC.
"We are using survey triangulation data to place contaminated land into blocks or boxes which can then be systematically cleared of mines."
Aid agencies have also gained access to Pentagon bombing records so that they can identify which areas of land - mostly the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the south and the Lao communist party headquarters in the north - were bombed and likely to contain unexploded bombs.
"More partnerships in the last couple of years among international clearance NGOs has greatly helped in pushing this process forward," NPA Laos Country Director Jonas Zachrisson told the BBC.
But at the same time he cautions that "much of the country remains unsurveyed with limited data regarding the extent, scope and nature of the problem".
President Obama is the first US president to visit Laos and has adopted a noticeably conciliatory approach towards his hosts. He said that the US bombings had destroyed "villages and entire valleys, killing countless civilians".
His approach has been welcomed by Laotian President Bounnhang Vorachit as a way of enhancing mutual trust between the two countries after the devastating war.
The president in return has promised the government will step up its efforts to locate and return US servicemen missing in the war.