Swansea City's new American owners have revealed they are in talks with Swansea council about expanding the club's Liberty Stadium home.

Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan led a consortium which bought a 68% controlling stake in the Swans in July.
The council-owned ground's capacity of 21,000 is the second smallest in the Premier League.
"That is one of the things that is top of our list," Levien told BBC Wales Sport.
"We just came from a meeting having that discussion about what's the best opportunity for us to grow the stadium, so more of our fans have the opportunity to witness the incredible action live.
"We are going to spend some time really figuring out what is the right path for us to take.
"There's a real laser focus on having a great fan experience and, if we're going to improve the fan experience, we want to do it for more fans.
"Getting more people in this building also helps us with our competitiveness. We think that gives us a competitive edge when other clubs come here and it's something of a hostile atmosphere."
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Swansea are initially hopeful of expanding the Liberty Stadium's capacity to 33,000, with long-term aspirations of seeing the ground hold up to 40,000.
Chairman Huw Jenkins said in July the club would revisit expansion plans which had been shelved in December 2015 after negotiations to buy the ground from Swansea council had stalled.
Now Levien and Kaplan, who will attend the Swans' first home match of the season against Hull on Saturday, have resumed discussions with the council.
The Liberty Stadium is also home to the Ospreys, and Swansea's new owners are eager to keep the rugby side involved in negotiations.
"I think it's been a good relationship and we intend to keep it that way," said Kaplan.
"We've developed a relationship with some of the key people there and we think it's going to be an important dialogue for us to have, along with the council, in figuring out how we go about doing an expansion here.
"There's going to have to be good communication, dialogue, some study and everyone working together with a mutual goal."
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Billionaire Mike Ashley has dismissed claims he owes a finance expert £14m and said their conversations were "drink banter", a court has heard.

The Newcastle United owner is being sued by Jeffrey Blue at London's High Court.
Mr Blue said he was promised £15m if he managed to increase Sports Direct's share price to £8, but that he only received £1m.
But Mr Ashley said their meetings were drink-fuelled "banter".
Mr Blue says Mr Ashley, who runs Sports Direct, did not stick to a commercial agreement.
But in a written statement, the sportswear tycoon said: "I can't believe that [Mr Blue] is now trying to take me for £14m off the back of some drink banter that he is seeking to engineer into something more."
Mr Justice Leggatt has heard that the dispute between Mr Blue and Mr Ashley relates to a conversation in a London pub called the Horse & Groom in 2013.
Mr Blue came under attack from Mr Ashley's lawyers as he gave evidence during the second day of the hearing.
Mike Ashley 'vomited into fireplace at pub meeting'
David Cavender QC, who leads Mr Ashley's legal team, accused Mr Blue of "making up evidence" and said the claim was an "opportunistic try-on".
Mr Cavender also said Mr Ashley "fairly" said he could not recall details of conversations in the Horse & Groom, "particularly in the light of the amount of drinking".
"He does recall 'that there was a lot of banter and bravado'.
"He does not recall any discussion about whether Mr Blue would be paid a sum of money if the share price reached £8 a share."
Mr Ashley is due to give evidence on Wednesday.
The hearing continues.


An Indian boy found in Bangladesh six years after going missing from Delhi, has been reunited with his family, India's foreign ministry has said.

Indian officials brought Sonu, 13, to Delhi from Dhaka on Thursday after a Bangladeshi court allowed him to fly back home.
On Tuesday, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed his DNA had matched with his mother Mumtaz Begum.
Ms Swaraj added that Sonu had been kidnapped from the Indian capital.
Two women, accused of abducting the boy from Delhi, are facing a criminal investigation in Bangladesh.
Ms Begum told BBC Bengali that "she was happy to be reunited with her son" and she felt like "celebrating Eid today".
Bangladeshi national Jamal Ibn Musa had discovered the boy, who was being made to work as a servant. He alerted police to his whereabouts, and eventually traced his family to India.
"They [the alleged abductors] used to torture the boy and keep him busy with hard work around the day at my neighbour's house. I informed the police about it around three years ago," he told Bangladeshi newspaper Daily Star.
He added that he told the local police about the boy's situation but they "kept mum even after visiting the house".
He said he was finally able to rescue Sonu in December and produce him before a court.
The court sent the boy to a children's welfare home after which Mr Musa started the process of tracing his family in India.
He decided to travel to Delhi on 14 May to search for "a vague address" that the boy had given him.
After a few days, he tracked down Sonu's parents in Delhi's Seema Puri area. "His parents were so happy to hear the news of their missing son," he said.
Ms Begum said that Mr Musa was an "angel".
"I can't thank him enough. He is a great man," she said.
Ms Swaraj also expressed gratitude towards "those who looked after our young citizen in Bangladesh".


Play was stopped at an Australian darts competition when rioting fans in fancy dress brawled and threw chairs.

Dutchman Michael 'Mighty Mike' van Gerwen was playing Australia's Simon 'The Wizard' Whitlock in an invitational tournament at the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne when chaos broke out.
The pair - among the top-ranked players on the Professional Darts Corporation circuit - were halted when a boisterous crowd took to throwing chairs, tossing tables and grappling in groups.
Images show a man dressed as Batman's sidekick Robin wrestling with an English knight, while security guards try to calm the situation down.
Other pictures show men in Hawaiian shirts and also a gang of Oompa Loompas throwing furniture.
Police later arrived on the scene but not before the entire seating area had been wrecked by the marauding crowd.


More resources are needed to stop migrants trying to reach the UK on boats or lives will be lost, a former border force chief inspector has said.

A group of 20 people - including 18 Albanian migrants and two children - were rescued from an inflatable boat off the coast of Kent on Sunday.
Two British men, aged 35 and 33, have been charged with immigration offences.
Ex-inspector John Vine said there was an "equal chance" of migrants drowning in the Channel as in the Mediterranean.
The UK coastguard said it was called just before midnight on Saturday to an incident off the coastal village of Dymchurch.
Those on board the boat reportedly alerted their families in Calais after their inflatable boat started taking in water.
A Home Office spokesman confirmed a woman and two children were among those on the boat. He said a second vessel - linked to the incident - was also discovered on the beach at Dymchurch.
The two British men have been remanded in custody and are due to appear at Medway Magistrates Court later.
Concerns have since been raised that sea tragedies, similar to those seen on the voyage to Turkey, Greece or Italy, could occur in the English Channel.
Mr Vine, who was chief inspector until 2014, said: "We have seen the tragedies that have occurred in the Mediterranean.
"I am not a nautical person but I would have thought crossing the Channel - with all the hazards in terms of cross-Channel traffic as well as the weather and the sea conditions - are going to mean there is an equal chance of people losing their lives unless this is stopped."
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the threat of migrants coming to the UK on ships "wasn't a major priority" when he raised concerns with the government in the past.
"Clearly if this is now the start of something new, then really that needs to be reassessed and resources need to be put in," he added.
Border Force operates a fleet of five cutters.
One is currently deployed in the Aegean Sea, between Greece and Turkey. There are four stationed in UK waters, with three in operation at any one time, the Home Office said.
In February 2015, Border Force assessed decided to "furlough" two of the five cutters, meaning two  would left in dock with skeleton maintenance staff - saving Â£3.5m.
By Simon Jones, BBC correspondent
Many people living along the Kent coast are shocked, but not surprised at what's happened.
The Channel is a huge stretch of water to patrol - and the authorities are often relying on tip-offs to try to catch those responsible.
Some residents are asking how many migrants are managing to get through without being detected.
The fear is that with the recent security clampdown at the Port of Calais and Eurotunnel, more and more migrants will attempt to cross the Channel on small boats, putting their lives at risk.
At the Port of Dover, the boat from which the migrants were rescued is still being painstakingly examined.
It would have been a tight fit to get 20 people on board, crammed into the small craft in the busiest shipping lane in the world.
It comes as Lord West, former head of the Royal Navy, told the Daily Mail it was a "complete mess" that three Border Force vessels had been left to patrol the UK's coastline.
"We are taking a calculated risk with our own territorial waters.
"Already we have seen these illegal immigrants and I don't believe there aren't clever traffickers using the smaller ports to send them and I'm sure terrorists are aware of the route too."
UKIP Leader Nigel Farage said it was "essential that a clear message is sent that no migrant arriving on our shores by boat is allowed leave to remain".
"We have all seen the horrors of the Mediterranean, with thousands crossing and hundreds dying, we cannot allow that to happen off the shores of Kent and Sussex."
However, Damian Collins, MP for Folkestone and Hythe, said it was "too early to say whether this is a new trend".
He told BBC Radio 5 live it was wrong to say the UK's coastline was "undefended", saying the Channel was "probably the most monitored stretch of water in the world".
Immigration Minister James Brokenshire this week said government investment over the last six years has "left us with one of the most secure borders in the world".
Rescuers said a helicopter from nearby Lydd and two lifeboats from Dungeness and Folkestone were sent to the incident, off Dymchurch.
At about 02:00 BST on Sunday, a rigid-hulled inflatable boat, known as a "rhib", with 20 people on board was found.
After being rescued, the group were handed over to the UK Border Force and taken to Dover.
The incident comes after 17 men, thought to be Albanian migrants, were detained when a catamaran arrived at Chichester Marina in West Sussex on Tuesday, along with a 55-year-old British man wanted on suspicion of murder in Spain.
The Briton, who was the subject of a European Arrest Warrant, was detained on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration and the 17 men were held on suspicion of entering the UK illegally.
Also last month, two Iranian men were found floating in a dinghy in the Channel.


Society has become "supremely arrogant" in ignoring the importance of sleep, leading researchers have told the BBC's Day of the Body Clock.

Scientists from Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Manchester and Surrey universities warn cutting sleep is leading to "serious health problems".
They say people and governments need to take the problem seriously.
Cancer, heart disease, type-2 diabetes, infections and obesity have all been linked to reduced sleep.
The body clock drives huge changes in the human body.
It alters alertness, mood, physical strength and even the risk of a heart attack in a daily rhythm.
It stems from our evolutionary past when we were active in the day and resting at night.
But scientists have warned that modern life and 24-hour society mean many people are now "living against" their body clocks with damaging consequences for health and wellbeing.
Prof Russell Foster, at the University of Oxford, said people were getting between one and two hours less sleep a night than 60 years ago.
He said: "We are the supremely arrogant species; we feel we can abandon four billion years of evolution and ignore the fact that we have evolved under a light-dark cycle.
"What we do as a species, perhaps uniquely, is override the clock. And long-term acting against the clock can lead to serious health problems."
He says this is an issue affecting the whole of society, not just shift workers.
Prof Foster said that this was an acute problem in teenagers and he had met children who sleep by popping their parent's sleeping tablets in the evening and then downing three Red Bulls in the morning.
Emerging evidence suggests modern technology is now keeping us up later into the night and cutting sleep.
"Light is the most powerful synchroniser of your internal biological clock," Prof Charles Czeisler, from Harvard University, told the BBC Day of the Body Clock.
He said energy efficient light bulbs as well as smartphones, tablets and computers had high levels of light in the blue end of the spectrum which is "right in the sweet spot" for disrupting the body clock.
"Light exposure, especially short wavelength blue-ish light in the evening, will reset our circadian rhythms to a later hour, postponing the release of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin and making it more difficult for us to get up in the morning.
"It's a big concern that we're being exposed to much more light, sleeping less and, as a consequence, may suffer from many chronic diseases."
Life for the Griffiths family in Rhyl, north Wales, is nothing short of hectic.
Parents Steven and Sam share the same job in the ambulance service. One works 06:30-18:30 when the other comes into work 18:30-06:30.
Throw in a 16-year-old, a 12-year-old, kickboxing classes, cycling and the fact they work in Liverpool, which is an hour away, and there's not much free time in the day.
Steven says: "In a perfect world I'd rather have more sleep, but life now doesn't let you have that much sleep.
"The kids have activities, we want to exercise and you want to cram  all of that in.
"I could do with more sleep."
Pioneering genetic research is now uncovering how living life against the clock is damaging our health.
About 10% of human DNA has a 24-hour pattern of activity, which is behind all the behavioural and physiological changes in the body.
But studies have shown rhythm can be disrupted by short sleep durations or shift work.
Dr Simon Archer, who conducted the studies at the University of Surrey, said there was a "large impact" on how the body ran.
"These are all fundamental biological pathways that can be underlying links to some of the negative health outcomes that we see such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and potentially cancer in people who don't get enough sleep or do shift work," he said.
Experiments show people can become pre-diabetic after a few weeks of shift work.
Dr Akhilesh Reddy, from the University of Cambridge, said the body clock influences every biological process in the human body and the health consequences of living against the clock were "pretty clear cut", particularly in breast cancer.
He said: "Try to live more rhythmically, in tune with the environment and not have too much bright light before bedtime because it will affect the clock and sleep."
Prof Andrew Loudon, from the University of Manchester, said: "The problems caused by living against the body clock may be less sexy than the countless 'this or that causes cancer stories' it is none-the-less a major problem for society."
"You might not notice any short-term changes in your health following circadian disruption, but over a long period of time, the consequences could be quite severe.
"Governments need to take this seriously, starting perhaps with reviewing the health consequences of shift work, and society and legislators needs to take this on board."
Do you want to change your sleep pattern? Sleep expert Professor Russell Foster will be answering your questions from 1430 GMT . Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk


A lightning strike has hit a hospital's maternity unit, causing disruption to its communication systems.

The nine-floor building, part of Ipswich Hospital, was hit on Tuesday evening.
Just before 19:00 GMT, Hospital chief executive Nick Hulme tweeted that a "massive clap of thunder and lightning has struck the building".
A hospital spokesman said patient care had not been affected but the unit's bleeper system was down.
Mr Hulme said everything was "safe" but there may be disruption for a while.
Hospital co-ordinator Karen Lough said the maternity unit was "fully operational" and the contingency plans had worked.
"We are using phones and radio communication to replace our bleeper system, but patient care has not been affected," she said.


A trio of rare Sumatran tigers cubs have been born at Chester Zoo.

The tigers, classed by conservationists as critically endangered, were born to eight-year-old tigress Kirana on 2 January after a 105-day pregnancy.
Sumatran tigers are found only on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra. They are the smallest of all tigers and also have the narrowest stripes.
Tim Rowlands, curator of mammals at Chester Zoo, said he was "thrilled" with the "special arrivals".
He said: "These tiny triplets are now part of a safety net against the population in the wild becoming extinct.
"That to me is incredibly humbling."
With their mother keeping a close eye on her cubs, it will not be possible to ascertain their sex for some time.
Mr Rowlands added: "We were first alerted to them when we heard tiny squeaks coming from their den.
"Initially we weren't sure about how many she had had - we just kept seeing flashes of tiny balls of fluff - but we've since spotted that there are three."
It is the third time Sumatran tiger cubs have been born at Chester Zoo, with Kirana producing litters in Oct 2011 and in June 2013.
"It's still early days but Kirana is an experienced mum and she's keeping her cubs very well protected. She's doing everything we would hope at this stage," said Mr Rowlands.
Sumatran tiger facts
Sumatran tigers are found in patches of forest on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia.
The species is classed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as critically endangered in the wild.
They are faced with a high threat of extinction due to widespread habitat loss and poaching for their body parts which are used in traditional medicine.
There are 300-400 Sumatran tigers in the wild with about 200-250 in captivity in zoos around the world.
Sumatran tigers are the smallest of all tiger species.
Their stripes are narrower and closer together than those of all other tiger species.
Source: Chester Zoo


A council which wants to spend £33m on development including new offices, retail space and a library near Bath is inviting local people to see its plans.

Conservative-run Bath and North East Somerset Council is holding a presentation of initial concept pictures of the redevelopment.
Banes recently agreed it had to save £2.6m from its £351m budget in 2010-11.
It also approved plans to spend £200m over five years in projects, including £33m in Keynsham town centre.
The presentation is being held on 22 February at the Key Centre in Keynsham.
A council spokesman asked that people who want to attend give the authority notice in advance.


A charity that provides emergency food banks says the number of people using them in Scotland more than doubled last year.

The Trussell Trust said 14,318 people were helped during 2012-13, up from 5,726 the previous year.
It said almost a third of these cases were children.
There are currently more than 300 food banks throughout the UK, providing a minimum of three days of emergency food for those in financial crisis.
The charity said people come to them for reasons ranging from redundancy to receiving an unexpected bill on a low income.
Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) said the increase illustrated the "devastating impact" of the UK government's welfare cuts.
Susan McPhee, head of policy at CAS, said: "These figures are appalling but sadly they are not surprising. We've seen similar trends in the CAB (Citizens Advice Bureau) service.
"Last year Scottish CAB advisers dealt with 2,500 cases of people who we referred to emergency support - which includes food banks and other urgent charity assistance.
"This was double the number of such referrals the previous year.
She added: "Our evidence shows that the main reason why people find themselves in these crisis positions is a sudden unexpected loss of income.
"In the majority of cases this can be traced to a problem in the benefit system: either they are having their benefits cut because of the welfare reforms, or there has been a delay in receiving a payment due to processing problems."
Judith Robertson, head of Oxfam Scotland, said: "These shocking figures show that a perfect storm of spiralling living costs, lack of decent, secure jobs and benefit changes are making it impossible for many people to feed themselves or their families.
"It's clear there is a massive hole in the safety net when so many more people are being forced to rely on emergency food handouts."


Former tennis world number one Maria Sharapova has revealed she failed a drugs test at the Australian Open.

She tested positive for meldonium, a substance she says she has been taking since 2006 for health issues.
The substance was not banned until the 1st of January 2016, Sharapova says she didn't know the rules had changed.
"I did fail the test and take full responsibility for it," said Sharapova.
"I made a huge mistake," she said. "I have let my fans down and let the sport down that I have been playing since the age of four, that I love so deeply."
Top sports stars have to give samples of urine (their wee) to be tested for any substances which could give them an unfair advantage when they compete.
Sharapova gave a sample when she was playing at the Australian Open in Melbourne and a banned substance called meldonium was found.
She admits she has been taking the drug for the last ten years but says it is for health problems she has.
It is a medicine meant for people with a heart problem called angina but athletes like it because it helps their endurance and ability to recover from big efforts.
It is on the banned list now because the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) started seeing it in lots of athlete's samples and found it does improve performance.
It is thought that hundreds of athletes have been using it and there are a lot more cases like this to follow.
Sharapova could ask for the test results to be allowed under rules which let athletes take drugs if it is for medical reasons.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) said the five-time Grand Slam champion would be provisionally suspended from 12 March.
She could be banned from playing tennis for up to five years.
Whatever happens, Sharapova says she hopes to be able to return to tennis in the future.
"I know that with this I face consequences and I don't want to end my career this way. I really hope to be given another chance to play this game."


Gateshead have signed striker Macaulay Langstaff from Northern League Division One side Billingham Synthonia on a one-and-a-half year deal.

The Tynesiders trialled the 20-year-old forward in a friendly against Kilmarnock, having scored 31 goals in 46 games for Synners.
Langstaff will return to Synthonia for the remainder of the season.
"My first goal in the summer will be to break into the squad," Langstaff told the club website.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.


Proposals for charter renewal may be delayed until after the EU referendum in June, reports suggest.

A Westminster source told the Guardian the chances of proposed legislation being unveiled after 23 June were about "80%".
In the Commons on Thursday, Culture Secretary John Whittingdale said he intended to publish the white paper "as soon as is possible".
BBC Trust chair Rona Fairhead said she hoped "we don't have too long to wait".
Delays look likely following the huge public response to last summer's green paper, which drew 190,000 responses to the consultation on the BBC's future.
A spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said they had read all the consultation responses and were currently looking at evidence and responses from other independent reviews on the BBC's future.
The white paper - which sets out the government's legislative proposals regarding the funding and future of the BBC - was originally intended for publication "in the spring", but turning around all the information and creating a draft ahead of local elections in May may be tight.
There is only a short window after the local elections before a political purdah (a period of time when government activity is restricted) is imposed ahead of the EU referendum in June.
There are also concerns over the impact of publication in the run up to the referendum, given the amount of media interest the white paper is likely to provoke.
A spokeswoman for the BBC Trust said publication was "in the gift of the government".
Speaking earlier this week at the Oxford Media Convention, Ms Fairhead said: "I hope we don't have to wait too long for a white paper because I am very conscious of the amount of work that will still need to be done after that - to agree the detail of a new Charter and a plan to implement any changes.
"For the time being, Charter Review hangs over the BBC: A cloud of uncertainty and unease.
"I dearly hope that cloud will have blown over by the end of this year, but that will require some clear decisions to be taken, and quickly."


Middlesbrough maintained their push for automatic promotion from the Championship with a narrow win against Preston North End.

Albert Adomah's first-half strike was enough to stretch Boro's winning league run to four games and edge them four points clear of third-placed Brighton.
David Nugent had chances to add to the lead, but Preston made life tough for the home side with dogged defence.
North End find themselves 12 points off the top six with five games to play.
Burnley's 1-0 home win against Leeds in the early kick-off ensured Aitor Karanka's outfit could not go top, with one point now separating the two sides.
Despite a formidable home record and a return to form since Spaniard Karanka missed the Charlton game to consider his future at the Riverside, Preston were able to frustrate the Teessiders in the first-half.
There was tangible anxiety around the Riverside before Adomah finally cracked the tension just after the half-hour mark with a shot from the right of the box.
Nugent and Grant Leadbitter had good chances to add to Boro's tally either side of the break but Simon Grayson's 10th-placed Preston stayed in the contest.
Visiting defender Marnick Vermijl might have added further concern had his fiercely struck effort not been directed at goalkeeper Dimi Konstantopoulos.
There was a scuffle between the two coaching teams late on, but Boro kept their lead intact to nudge closer to promotion and secure a 21st clean sheet of the season.
Middlesbrough boss Aitor Karanka:
"It is important to win at this time of the season. Now we have our game in hand but we cannot think we have the three points in our pocket already. Every point is gold.
"We don't want to be in the Championship next season. At the beginning of the season. the aim was to get in the play-offs.
"With the experience we have had from last season, with six games to go, we are there but now we have to forget the play-offs and promotion and just concentrate on the next game.
"The key was the crowd. Sometimes, when you don't feel their support, you are going down but, with them behind us, the team is confident. We are more than together."
Preston manager Simon Grayson:
"We are hugely disappointed that we haven't got a result. We had four players out from the other night.
"We didn't have a full bench but we created them problems and not many sides can say that about that when they come here.
"We really played well and, but for some misses and good saves, we could have got something out of the game.
"You could see the relief for everyone from Middlesbrough at the final whistle. We have some big games to be still involved in. We want to finish as high as we can."


The US sitcom Roseanne is set for a revival, ABC network bosses have confirmed after competing with Netflix to restart the show two decades after it ended.

Most of its original cast will return for next year's eight-episode revival.
It becomes one of a slate of TV series being revived, including Will & Grace, Twin Peaks, The X Files, 24, Prison Break and The Gilmore Girls.
Roseanne aired for nine seasons in the late 1980s and through the 1990s.
Original cast members Roseanne Barr (Roseanne), John Goodman (Dan), Sara Gilbert (Darlene), Laurie Metcalf (Jackie), Michael Fishman (D.J.) and Lecy Goranson (Becky) have all been confirmed.
But Johnny Galecki, who played David, is busy with his role as Dr Leonard Hofstadter in the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory.
Roseanne depicted a normal American family, the Conners, led by Roseanne in the fictional town of Lanford, Illinois.
The sitcom won many awards and its final episode drew nearly 17 million viewers when it aired in 1997.
"The Conners' joys and struggles are as relevant and hilarious today as they were then, and there's really no one better to comment on our modern America than Roseanne," ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey wrote in a statement.
On Twitter, though, opinions were divided.


Scotland's pro-independence daily newspaper is to publish six days a week from now on.

The National, which was launched after last year's Scottish independence referendum, had previously been available from Monday to Friday.
It printed its first Saturday edition a week ago, after the general election.
The paper's editor, Richard Walker, said the response had been so good they had decided to continue with the weekend edition.
He said the management team behind The National had certain expectations when it was launched, and the paper had exceeded those.
Mr Walker, who also edits the Sunday Herald, said: "For now, The National will be printed every Saturday as long as there is a public demand for it.
"Although people also get their news from the internet and from other sources there's still a clear demand for newspapers.
"And there's a particular demand for a newspaper like the National which looks at things through a certain prism, which in our case is a support for independence which is not a view which is expressed in any other newspaper in Scotland, apart from the Sunday Herald."


A former guard at an Australian youth detention centre has admitted filming himself asking teenage inmates for oral sex.

Conan Zamolo's testimony came during a royal commission inquiry into youth detention in the Northern Territory.
The commission was launched last year after photos showing inmates being strip-searched and placed in a spit hood drew widespread condemnation.
Mr Zamolo said his requests for oral sex were "a joke".
"I was actually just going to say goodnight to them because I was leaving shift," Mr Zamolo said on Monday.
"I knew they'd take it as a joke, or I just assumed they would take it as a joke."
Mr Zamolo also admitted to urging another inmate to eat faeces, and to filming a boy urinating.
"At the time I didn't think it was inappropriate, but now I see how inappropriate it is," he said.
He claimed he had a good relationship with the detainees.
The incidents happened at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre, where Mr Zamolo worked from 2012 to 2014.
The Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory follows widespread condemnation of the treatment of detainees at Don Dale in 2014 and 2015.
In 2015, Amnesty International described the regime at the centre as "institutionalised brutality", with teenagers being held in solitary confinement with no access to light or water for long periods.


US President-elect Donald Trump has said he is open to leaving intact key parts of President Barack Obama's healthcare bill.

Mr Trump, who has pledged to repeal the 2010 law, said he will keep the ban on insurers denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.
He told the Wall Street Journal that he also favoured allowing young adults to be insured on their parents' policies.
"I like those very much," Mr Trump said of the two pillars of the bill.
It was his meeting with Mr Obama on Thursday that had made him reconsider his calls for an all-out replacement of the Affordable Care Act, he told the newspaper.
Asked whether he would implement a campaign promise to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate his defeated Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server while secretary of state, Mr Trump said: "It's not something I've given a lot of thought, because I want to solve healthcare, jobs, border control, tax reform."
Meanwhile, protesters angered by Mr Trump's election gathered in several US cities for a third night on Friday. Thousands took to the streets of Miami, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, voicing anger at the president-elect's comments about immigrants, Muslims and women.
Police in Portland are investigating the shooting and wounding of a protester on a bridge where anti-Trump demonstrators were marching. Officers had earlier used stun grenades to disperse a crowd of hundreds of people in the city centre.
In a separate interview with CBS, Mr Trump said the parts of Mr Obama's healthcare bill he was "going to try to keep" were "the strongest assets".
He said that while the bill would be repealed and replaced, the changes would provide Americans with "great healthcare for much less money".
He made the statement during an interview with the 60 Minutes programme, which is due to air on Sunday.
Also on Friday Mr Trump put Vice-President-elect Mike Pence in charge of his transition team, replacing New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
"Repeal and replace" - with emphasis on the former over the latter - has been the Republican mantra when it comes to Barack Obama's healthcare reform for the past six years. Candidate Donald Trump echoed this when he labelled the programme a "disaster" and promised something much better if he were elected president.
Just days after the US public gave Mr Trump the keys to the Oval Office, however, he said there were parts of Mr Obama's signature legislative achievement worth keeping.
The challenge for the president-elect is that the Obamacare features he praises - such as its mandate that insurers cover pre-existing medical conditions - are made possible by portions of the law he has condemned, like requiring all Americans to obtain insurance.
Keeping the law's carrots while abandoning its sticks could prove difficult.
Complicating the matter is that a "revise and reform" effort may not fly with Mr Trump's ardent supporters and the cadre of arch-conservative politicians in Congress, who want to tear up the law "root and branch".
Mr Trump often broke with Republican orthodoxy while campaigning and didn't pay a political price. He may learn that as president he won't get far without his party establishment's help.
During the election campaign, Mr Trump said the government-run health insurance marketplace was "a total disaster" and "a catastrophe".
"Obamacare is just blowing up," he said only last month, while promising his own plan would deliver "great healthcare at a fraction of the cost".
While running for president, Mr Trump did not offer much detail on what he envisaged would be Obamacare's replacement.
The Republican's plan included tax-deductible health savings accounts and allowing insurers to sell coverage across state lines.
His apparent change of heart on Friday comes amid a surge in applications to join the plan from Americans possibly fearful it is about to be overturned.
More than 100,000 applicants snapped up Obamacare health insurance on the day after Tuesday's election, this year's biggest sign-up, the Obama administration announced.
About 22 million Americans would be without insurance if the law was repealed.
Congressional Republicans have voted more than 50 times to undo the law.
Though the Republicans have maintained control of the Senate, they cannot repeal the Affordable Care Act in its entirety because under Senate rules, the Democratic minority remain in a position to block the move.
The Republicans could, however, starve parts of the bill of funding through a budgetary process called reconciliation.
The law has not been without its difficulties.
Last month, the Obama administration said the average cost of medical coverage under the bill was expected to rise by 25% next year for those Americans who do not qualify for subsidies.
And about one in five consumers would only be able to pick plans from a single insurer, it added.
Former President Bill Clinton last month called the unsubsidised portion of the law "the craziest thing in the world".
In the US - unlike in many other Western countries - private companies, rather than the government, provide health insurance for most citizens.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration has suspended its efforts to win congressional approval for a Pacific free-trade deal before Mr Trump succeeds him in January.
The deal covers mostly agricultural products and involves 12 countries around the Pacific, but not China.
Officials said that after eight years of negotiations the fate of the deal, known as the Trans Pacific Partnership, was in the hands of the next administration.
Mr Trump has criticised the accord, describing it as a disaster which would send more jobs overseas.
BBC business correspondent Joe Lynam says a collapse of the agreement would be likely to increase Chinese dominance of the region and damage America's global reputation.


A cyclist who was killed in a collision with a car on the A62 in West Yorkshire has been named by police.

Andrew Wilsea, 41, died following a crash with a Rover 45 at about 18:40 BST on Tuesday near to a waste management site on Gelderd Road, Leeds.
Detectives have released an image of two cars whose drivers they want to speak to in relation to the incident.
A 29-year-old man arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving has been released on police bail.
Det Sgt Carole Greaves said: "From studying footage we believe that the blue vehicle was travelling behind the Rover 45 prior to it losing control and the black vehicle was heading towards it.
"I believe that the drivers of both vehicles will have key information to assist me with my investigation."


Health checks offered to millions of people over 40 are a waste of time, says the UK's leading GP.

Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of GPs, says the government is promoting its NHS Health Check programme "against good evidence".
Her comments come after The Times newspaper published a letter from Danish researchers criticising the programme.
The Nordic Cochrane Centre group found health MoTs did not reduce deaths.
In England, people aged 40-74 are offered a free health check.
The initiative, launched in 2009, is designed to spot conditions such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes by looking for silent risk factors such as high blood pressure and cholesterol.
Ministers have said the scheme could save 650 lives a year.
But Danish researchers are questioning the policy and say health checks have no proven benefits.
Their review, published in October 2012, looked at health checks offered in a number of countries, including some pilot trials in the UK a decade or more ago, though not the post-2009 programme.
It concluded that general health checks failed to benefit patients and could instead cause them unnecessary worry and treatment.
Dr Gerada of the RCGP shares these concerns.
She said: "Governments seem to be promoting this against good evidence.
"They [health checks] are not based on good evidence. They are pulling in an awful lot of people who have nothing wrong with them. And the very people you would want to be dragging in do not attend."
The NHS estimates, each year, the programme could:
Source: Public Health England
She said the money involved would be better spent on targeted intervention.
"We should be focusing on the hard-to-reach groups instead and policies like plain packaging for cigarettes and minimum pricing for alcohol."
Barbara Young, chief executive of Diabetes UK, defended the programme saying: "Far from being useless, there is good evidence that, if properly implemented, it could prevent thousands of cases of Type 2 diabetes a year, as well as having a positive impact for heart disease, kidney disease and stroke.
"And while the Â£300 million it costs to run might sound like a lot of money, diabetes and other chronic conditions are expensive to treat. This means that once you factor in the savings in healthcare costs, the NHS Health Check is actually expected to save the NHS about Â£132 million per year."
The Department of Health says the NHS Health Check programme is based on expert guidance that is continually reviewed.
A spokeswoman for Public Health England said the existing relevant evidence, together with operational experience accruing on the ground, was "compelling support for the programme".
She added: "We are establishing an Expert Clinical and Scientific Advisory Panel that will provide oversight of the NHS Health Check programme.
"This panel will be responsible for reviewing emerging evidence and research needs. It will also promote future research, development and evaluation of this programme."
When the Danish research was published in 2012, the NHS Health Check sent out an eBulletin warning that the Cochrane conclusions had little if any relevance to the NHS programme.
The Cochrane authors responded rebutting the criticism and asked to have their reply published alongside. They say this was denied.


An image of seven more potential Hillsborough witnesses has been released by the police team providing new evidence for investigators.

The picture released by Operation Resolve of people caught up in the disaster on 15 April 1989 comes after three previous witness appeals.
Pictures of 59 people have already been released, with 28 identified so far.
Ninety six Liverpool FC fans died following the crush at the FA Cup semi-final at the Hillsborough stadium.
The appeal was launched at the request of coroner Sir John Goldring and the victims' families.
Investigators urged people to heed warnings and advice issued by the coroner and the office of the Attorney General about not passing comment on the appeal or any other aspect of the disaster on social media and forums.
Images of all those yet to be traced are shown on the Operation Resolve website.
The fresh inquests being held in Warrington, Cheshire, are due to continue on 1 June.


More than 1,000 chickens were killed when the lorry transporting them crashed into a safety barrier on the M62 in Greater Manchester.

The lorry was carrying 6,800 chickens when it crashed on the eastbound carriageway between junctions 11 and 12 at about 04:00 BST.
About 1,500 birds were killed, North West Motorway police said.
The majority of the chickens died from the impact of the crash but some were hit by cars, police added.
The driver of the lorry was uninjured.
Michael Clarke, from the Highways Agency, said about 2,000 chickens "escaped on to the carriageway" and had to be recaptured.
"We drafted in as much manpower as we could from across the north west, and we had help from the police, the emergency services and the RSPCA," he said.
He said the incident was "unusual" in terms of the sheer number of birds involved.
"The more adventurous ones did manage to go quite far - I would suspect there are a handful still in adjacent fields," he added.
The agency is assessing damage caused to safety barriers.
Diversions were put in place around the exit for Birchwood and the Eccles Interchange with the M60.


Former Conservative chancellor Ken Clarke is to stand again to be an MP in the 8 June general election.

Mr Clarke, who has represented Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire since 1970, had suggested he would step down in 2020 after 50 years as an MP.
But with an early poll confirmed by MPs, his office confirmed the 76-year-old would stand again.
Mr Clarke, a staunch Remain supporter, is Father of the House - an honour bestowed on the longest-serving MP.
Speaking in June 2016 to China Daily, Mr Clarke said: "I have told the officers of my constituency association that once we have finished the boundary changes they had better start choosing my successor.
"I will not stand again. This is my last Parliament."
However, a general election will take place sooner than expected after MPs gave the go-ahead to Theresa May's request for an early poll.
And Mr Clarke's office confirmed: "He's putting himself forward to be the Conservative candidate for Rushcliffe in June."


I have plenty of experience of how tight and tense play-off matches for major finals can be, and I am not expecting anything different when the Republic of Ireland play Bosnia-Herzegovina for a place at Euro 2016.

Martin O'Neill's side struggled for goals in qualifying - after beating Georgia 2-1 in their first match in Group D, Gibraltar were the only team against whom they scored more than once in the same game - but that would not be a concern for me if I were in the squad for these matches.
When I look back at my international career with the Republic over the past 20 years or so, even when we were on good form and playing well, we would rarely go out and dominate teams.
We would hardly ever put more than two goals past anyone unless it was one of the lesser nations and, against the stronger teams, the games were always close.
That is still the reality of international football for the Republic at the level we are at - to get results against the top sides we have to stay strong defensively, keep ourselves in the game and then take our chances.
It will be the same against Bosnia. O'Neill has had the core of his team decimated by injuries and suspensions but a draw or even a narrow defeat on Friday would keep the tie alive for Monday's second leg in Dublin, when he will hopefully have some key players back.
When you look through Bosnia's squad, it is easy to find yourself looking at the clubs they play for, like Lazio and Roma, before thinking about the players themselves and the overall strength of the team.
That certainly seems to have happened with some Republic fans I have spoken to, who do not seem too confident about our chances when they compare both likely starting line-ups.
It is true that Bosnia have some talented players but I played against a lot of big names in my international career and I never let their reputations scare me.
I always told myself they were no better me. Even if they played for a bigger club than me, they just had different opportunities that had come their way, and I knew who they played for would not have any bearing on how I got on against them once the game started.
Hopefully the Republic players think the same way. They need to remember that, as a unit, they are capable of winning this tie.
That is exactly what happened against Germany in qualifying, and beating the world champions should give them the belief that they can beat Bosnia too.
Bosnia-Herzegovina (4-3-3): Begovic (Chelsea); Mujdza (Freiburg), Spahic (Hamburg), Sunjic (Stuttgart), Zukanovic (Sampdoria); Pjanic (Roma), Hadzic (Sturm Graz), Sahilovic (Guizhou); Lulic (Lazio), Ibisevic (Hertha Berlin), Dzeko (Roma)
Republic of Ireland (4-1-2-3): Randolph (West Ham; Coleman (Everton), Keogh (Derby), Clark (Aston Villa), Brady (Norwich); Whelan (Stoke); McCarthy (Everton), Hendrick (Derby); McClean (West Brom), Murphy (Ipswich), Hoolahan (Norwich)
Stoke forward Jon Walters, who is suspended for the first leg, has probably been the Republic's best player during the qualifying campaign. He has definitely been their most consistent performer.
But it is Sunderland centre-half John O'Shea who I think will be missed the most in Zenica, simply because he usually organises the team and helps it keep its shape.
O'Shea is not just the captain of the side, he is very much its voice on the pitch and my biggest worry for the first leg is how much experience we are lacking, with goalkeeper Shay Given also out injured.
I am still hopeful O'Shea will be fit to play in the second leg once he has served his suspension and, along with Walters and Shane Long, could return to tip the tie in the Republic's balance.
Playing the second leg at home is an advantage anyway, but it would be even more of a boost knowing that some key players will be back, so the main aim from the first leg has to be just to stay in the tie.
I understand why Edin Dzeko is talked about as Bosnia's main threat, because he scored most of their goals in qualifying.
But it is Dzeko's Roma team-mate Miralem Pjanic who I see as their real danger man. He is one of the best players in Europe and he is in terrific form - he has seven goals and six assists already for his club this season.
Pjanic will cause problems with his free-kicks when he is near enough to goal but his passing ability means he is good enough to dictate the game in open play too.
He is the player the Republic need to stop in this tie, and I would imagine Glenn Whelan will be asked to do it.
That battle could be crucial but I see the Republic having opportunities in Zenica too.
Bosnia centre-half Emir Spahic is an accomplished footballer but he is 35 now and, if we can get Shane Long fit for the second game in Dublin, his pace will cause him problems at the back when we look to break.
I am sure manager Martin O'Neill will know all about that, and look to target Bosnia's other little weaknesses from an organisational point of view.
The key to a good result for the Republic could be how well they defend Bosnia's set-plays, because I think we will get chances from dead balls too - and they could even decide who makes it to France.
Kevin Kilbane was speaking to BBC Sport's Chris Bevan.


Edinburgh Airport has announced plans to further expand its retail offering this year, leading to about 100 new jobs.

The news comes as the airport continues to redevelop its airside retail space.
In the past year it has added 20 outlets, resulting in nearly 200 new jobs.
New retailers added in 2016 included JD Sports, Next, Fatface, Krispy Kreme, Michael Kors and the Tartan Weaving Mill.
A number of outlets have also been refitted or seen additional units added to existing brands.
Refits planned for 2017 include retailers Hugo Boss, Scottish Fine gifts and WH Smith.
At least two new units are also in the pipeline, the airport said.
Airport chief executive Gordon Dewar said: "2016 has been an incredible year for Edinburgh Airport and the expansion of the retail side of the business is a key part of our success.
"Edinburgh Airport's growth in the non-aero market allows us to be competitive and attract more new airlines and more new routes in and out of Scotland's capital.
"This strategy has not only seen passenger number grow to record levels - we are on course for 12 million this year - it benefits airlines too.
"It is good for us, good for our customers and ultimately - with the creation of more jobs and enhanced connectivity from the nation's capital city - it is good for Scotland."


The grey seal population is having a good year, with record numbers being born along the Northern Ireland coast.

Strangford in County Down, which is one of the areas where pups are counted, saw 107 recorded this year.
And places like the Copeland Islands, off the County Down coast, are also reporting good numbers.
The seal is the top predator in inshore waters and a strong population is taken as an indicator of the health of the surrounding ecosystem.
The Department of the Environment's marine division monitors the seal population every year, drawing on help from volunteers and wildlife charities.
Stephen Foster is one of those in charge of the work.
"It certainly seems to have been a good season, and with the weather having been so good for the last few weeks they haven't been hit by storms," he said.
"That means there've been good conditions for the mothers to come ashore to feed them and help them grow."
The pups are only on shore for a matter of weeks.
During this time they must put on about 2kg (4lb 6oz) of weight a day.
The mothers do not feed during this time, spending all their time at sea foraging for food and protecting their pups.
They can lose about 4kg (8lb 13oz) a day while that is happening.
After four weeks, the pups lose their fluffy white coat and have to take to sea to fend for themselves.
It will take six years for the males to develop. The females take three years to reach full maturity.
They will then return to their breeding grounds to have their own pups.
Grey seals are a protected species.
The monitoring statistics are fed back to Europe to ensure Northern Ireland is living up to its protection responsibilities.


A man who was found with serious stab wounds at a house where a woman was discovered dead has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

Police were called to an address in Ellis Road, Crowthorne, Berkshire, shortly before 23:30 BST on Sunday.
The woman, aged in her 50s, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her next of kin have been informed.
The arrested man, who is in his mid-50s, is said to be in a critical condition.
Det Ch Insp Ailsa Kent, from Thames Valley Police, said: "Although we are in the early stages of conducting inquiries, this is thought to have been an isolated incident and it is believed the victim was known to the offender."
Officers are conducting inquiries in the Ellis Road area.


A strike by conductors on the Southern rail network will still go ahead next week after the RMT was barred from ongoing talks, the union has said.

On Tuesday, the train drivers' union Aslef suspended three days of strikes next week for the talks to take place.
The RMT was due to strike next Monday and has said this will still go ahead.
RMT chief Mick Cash said the union wanted access to the same talks as Aslef. Southern said it was happy to have formal talks with the RMT.
"RMT demands again today that this union be given access to exactly the same talks process in our Southern rail disputes as has been brokered for our sister union by the TUC," Mr Cash said.
"We would remind all parties that not only is RMT a recognised drivers' union on Southern, but that it is also our guards members who have made huge personal sacrifices in the long fight for passenger safety."
He said the notion that a deal could be done that "leaves those Southern guards out in the cold" was ludicrous.
Southern rail strikes: Commuters' tales of 'hell'
How bad have Southern rail services got?
Why is there a Southern rail strike?
A spokesman for Southern said: "The talks that are now taking place under the auspices of the TUC are as a result of a suggestion by Aslef, which we welcomed and accepted in order to find a way to end their drivers' dispute.
"As we have stated, we are happy to have formal talks with the RMT too when they're ready to do so, and lines of communication with them are open."
He said in the meantime, the company asked the RMT to follow Aslef's lead and suspend Monday's action.
Aslef went into talks with Southern on Wednesday at the TUC. The discussions are still in progress.
The RMT, which represents conductors and 12 drivers, has been involved in industrial action since last April.
The union's 12 driver members still plan to take action on 24, 25 and 27 January even though Aslef drivers have suspended their strikes on those days.
Southern issued guidance which said the RMT had 12 driver members out of 1,000 who worked on the network.
The company has said it will be able to run more than 70% of its trains during Monday's RMT strike.


Northern Ireland's first minister has said she is sorry that the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme "did not contain cost control measures".

She also said there were  "fundamental flaws in its design."
Arlene Foster told MLAs: "This is the deepest political regret of my time in this house."
"As minister, I accept responsibility for the work of the department during my time at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment."
Arlene Foster was speaking in the chamber to DUP MLAs, only after all the other assembly members left in protest.
"Once again, and for avoidance of doubt, I believe it is right and proper that I answer to this assembly for my role in the RHI scheme," she said.
"Not for one moment do I seek to shirk or avoid that responsibility, but if we are to learn lessons from this entire experience, it is essential that we know exactly where things went wrong."
She told the assembly: "I can also confirm that the DUP party officers took no interest or role in the question of the RHI.
"Therefore, regardless of what, if anything, was said in relation to the role of the party, no-one had any authority to instruct the Deti minister to do anything.
"I would add that there is no evidence whatsoever of Mr (Jonathan) Bell raising any concerns with the first minister if he felt that he was being pressurised.
"Let me make it absolutely clear, any suggestion that the enterprise minister was instructed to delay the changes to the RHI scheme is totally without foundation. "
The first minster then turned to allegations made to BBC Northern Ireland's Stephen Nolan last week by Jonathan Bell.
Mrs Foster said "The former Deti minister claims that he made a decision to amend the RHI scheme, but that he was overruled by special advisors.
"Since last week, I have specifically investigated this claim.
"The evidence is clear. The only decision taken by the minister was in early September to amend the scheme in November.
"The minister was not subsequently overruled by special advisors and I am clear that whatever representations may have been made by anyone on this issue, it was not not being done with the authority of the party.
"I understand from Minister (Simon) Hamilton that the permanent secretary recalls being told at the time that some in the party wanted the scheme kept open.
"He was unaware of the source of this suggestion, but believes it may have been based on the erroneous but widespread view at the time that because the scheme was AME funded that it was possible to maximise take-up without creating a problem.
"I have checked and confirmed that no minister made any such request or took any interest in the decision taken in September 2015.
"The DUP party officers took no interest in this issue and gave no instructions. It is therefore clear that whatever the belief, the DUP did not ask the Deti minister to extend the scheme."
Mrs Foster also confirmed that plans to recoup some of the RHI money are being worked on and she said she supported an independent investigation.
She told the assembly: "I also want to make it clear that I support the need for an independent investigation, free from partisan political interference, to establish the facts around the RHI scheme.
"I believe that the conclusions of any investigation must be made public and that any investigation must be conducted speedily to assist in the process of building public confidence.
"I have been working to reach agreement with officials and others on the precise details of such an investigation over the last number of days.
"I hope that this can be resolved in the next few days."
She added: "Minister Hamilton plans to make a statement to the assembly as soon as possible in the New Year.  The hope and intent is to reduce significantly the cost of the scheme to the executive's budget, but the details are still subject to considerable further work. "


Developers say they are pulling out of a £60m scheme to redevelop a former supermarket site in Newport over claims of vandalism and violence.

The Fear Group was planning to build 600 student flats at the old Sainsbury's site on Shaftesbury Street.
Following a large fire at the location on Wednesday evening, the firm told BBC Wales it would now sell the land.
Fire investigators have confirmed the blaze was started deliberately.
Speaking to BBC Radio Wales, the company's director Stephen Fear said they were pulling out of the project because of threats and attacks "from yobs".
He also cited delays over the demolition of the former Sainsbury's supermarket as a reason for the sale.
He told the Good Evening Wales programme that there had been numerous problems in the last few months.
Mr Fear said vandals and thieves had already caused nearly a million pounds worth of damage to the site before the arson attack overnight.
"I was threatened on site by seven young people.  My son was threatened by a drug addict who was in a canopy under the building-  this guy threatened him with a needle.
"We're sick and tired of it.  With the threats and with the apparent lawlessness in this part of Newport, we've just come to the decision that this is a job for someone else and not us."
He said they would move investment to where it was "perhaps more welcome".
Council leaders in the city said they hoped to discuss the matter with Mr Fear "to enable this much anticipated and important regeneration scheme to proceed".
"I am disappointed to hear that the Fear Group has reached this decision," said the council leader, Debbie Wilcox.
"We have worked with, and are continuing to work with, developers on extremely successful projects.
"There is a lot of potential in the city and we know there are people who want to invest in Newport."


Ards Borough Council have voted to start a formal consultation into the closure of the Exploris aquarium in Portaferry.

The council said the decision was taken due to a lack of response from the Northern Ireland Executive to a request for funding made six months ago.
Ards deputy mayor Philip Smith said the facility was costing rate payers £500,000 per year.
He said it was up to the executive to "save Exploris".
The deputy mayor added that the council was not "giving up" on the aquarium, but could no longer pass on the cost to rate payers.
The future of the aquarium has been in doubt since September 2013, when a deal for a private firm to take over the facility fell through.
At a meeting on Wednesday night, Ards Borough Council voted in favour of starting a consultation process and equality impact assessment into the possible closure of the facility.
Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster, Mr Smith said that Environment Minister Mark H Durkan had agreed in principal to provide £120,000 per year towards Exploris' seal sanctuary.
He also said the council had asked the executive for £914,000 in December 2013 for "much needed refurbishment" to the facility, but had not yet received a response.
The deputy mayor said: "They asked for a business case that we've produced at nearly £40,000. They asked for a business plan that we've produced. They asked for amendments to those plans at extra cost that we also produced.
"We've postponed our decision on Exploris three times now to give the executive more time and I think the question we have to ask is, are the executive taking this seriously or are they just playing with us."
He added: "As councillors we have responsibilities to our ratepayers. We cannot continue to leach money in such a way for the next year.
"So we really need to make a decision, but we want the executive to support us."
Ards councillor Kellie Armstrong, from the Alliance Party, said she was "disappointed" by the council's decision.
"The decision to begin proceedings has taken place before the executive has had time to consider Ards Borough Council's business case," she added.
A statement from the Department of Environment said: "The minister has been tireless in his support of Exploris. He has provided funding up to £120,000 per year for the seal sanctuary.
"His department has also worked very closely with the council to produce a business case, which he believes could provide the basis for central government support.
"He has recommended the business case to his executive colleagues and awaits a decision."


Membership of the EU is vital to Scottish jobs and the economy, Nicola Sturgeon is due to tell an audience in Brussels later this week.

The first minister will state the Scottish government's commitment to Europe.
She will reiterate her call for a "double lock" on membership to prevent Scotland being forced out of the EU against its will in the referendum.
David Cameron has vowed to stage a vote on EU membership by the end of 2017.
Ms Sturgeon's speech in the European Policy Centre to an audience of policy makers and institution representatives will be her first in the EU capital.
She will also highlight the Scottish jobs linked to EU trade and the economic and cultural contributions made in Scotland by people born elsewhere in the EU.
The first minister is expected to say: "I firmly believe that membership of Europe is in Scotland's best interests - and have done for all of my adult life.
"We value Scotland's place in Europe, and the benefits it brings in terms of jobs and investment - with more than 300,000 Scottish jobs estimated to be associated with our exports to the European Union.
"Perhaps most fundamentally of all, the freedom to travel, study and work across Europe has brought major benefits to Scotland. At present there are 171,000 people from elsewhere in the European Union who live and work in Scotland.
"They contribute hugely to the diversity of our culture, the prosperity of our economy, and the strength of our society."
She will add: "Polls in Scotland consistently show strong support for EU membership. That is why we will propose a 'double lock', meaning that exit from the European Union would only be possible if all UK nations agreed. That way Scotland couldn't be forced out of the European Union against our will."
Speaking to business leaders in Edinburgh last week, Ms Sturgeon reiterated her opposition to the Tories' in-out referendum on UK membership of the EU, and said her Government would "work to protect Scotland's interests".
During a speech in Glasgow on Saturday, Scottish Labour leader candidate Kezia Dugdale called for EU nationals who have made the UK their home to allowed to vote in the referendum on Europe.
Earlier this week, No 10 said citizens from most EU countries living in the UK would not get a vote.
The SNP has also said it is "absolutely vital" the referendum on Europe is as inclusive as possible.


Reducing food waste and changing the way people consume calories will help deliver a sustainable food system and reduce emissions, a study suggests.

The global demand for food could more than double by the middle of the century, yet an estimated one third of produce is lost or wasted each year.
By cutting this waste will help food security and reducing agriculture's climate burden, the researchers added.
The findings appear in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
As the global human population is set to reach in excess of nine billion people by the middle of this century, up from the current seven billion, the importance of reducing food loss and waste in order to deliver food security is well documented.
However, a team of scientists have also considered what steps need to be taken to tackle food production's contribution to global carbon emissions.
Prof Jurgen Kropp from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany, one of the study's co-authors said that previous studies had highlighted that "agriculture was playing an increasingly important role when it came to carbon dioxide emissions".
"We have worldwide lifestyle changes where people are moving towards a meat-rich diet and we need more food, of course," he told BBC News.
"The more rich a country becomes, there is a move towards more meat-rich diets and, of course, more calorie-rich diets.
"For one calorie of meat, you have to utilise one to eight calories of cereal. It is an inefficient form of food production," he observed.
"On the other hand, rich countries are wasting more food. A lot of the food we are producing at the moment, we do not see on our plates."
Prof Kropp added that this trend was projected to have a considerable impact on the global carbon budget by the middle of the 21st Century.
They calculated that about 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture could be traced back to food waste by 2050.
However, the team examined past datasets and used future scenarios to identify pathways that could deliver improvements in food security and CO2 emissions.
The team observed: "The global food requirement changed from 2,300 [calories per person each day] to 2,400 [calories per person each day] during the past 50 years, while the food surplus grew from 310 [calories per person each day] to 510 [calories per person each day]."
Over the same period, the team found that greenhouse gas emissions associated with food surplus increased from 130 million tones of CO2 equivalent per year to 530 million tonnes - an increase of more than 300%.
Future scenarios did not make comfortable reading. They calculated that emissions associated with the food wasted may "increase tremendously" to up to 2.5 giga-tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year.
Prof Kropp added: "As many emerging economies like China or India are projected to rapidly increase their food waste as a consequence of changing lifestyle, increasing welfare and dietary habits towards a larger share of animal-based products, this could over proportionally increase greenhouse-gas emissions associated with food waste [while] undermining efforts for an ambitious climate protection.
"Avoiding food loss could pose a leverage to various challenges at once, reducing environmental impacts of agriculture, saving resources used in food production, and enhance local, regional, and global food security."
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National League Eastleigh have signed defender Connor Essam and striker Mikael Mandron ahead of next season.

Essam, 23, joins from Leyton Orient on a one-year deal, having previously been on loan at Dover last season.
French-born Mandron, 21, has agreed a two-year deal with the Spitfires having been released by Sunderland.
He made seven appearances during a loan spell with Hartlepool last season, scoring in an FA Cup second-round replay win against Salford City.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.


An investigation into allegations of physical abuse of vulnerable boys at a residential school in Devon centres on restraint methods used by staff, the BBC understands.

Chelfham Mill School, near Barnstaple, which is privately run, has been closed by the regulator Ofsted.
A former student told the BBC he was forced to wear pyjamas all day when he broke the rules.
The school said it was committed to supporting the investigation.
It added it expected to stay shut for at least six weeks, but detectives have told the BBC their investigation is likely to take several months.
BBC South West's Home Affairs correspondent, Simon Hall, said: "Detectives say they're looking at recent claims of excessive restraint, along with some dating back several years.
"Officers told me a number of allegations had been made by pupils against a small number of members of staff."
One former student told the BBC that boys were "often restrained, and with some force", but they did not complain as they expected it.
He said "the humiliations were much worse" than being restrained and "pupils sometimes had to wear pyjamas all day, walking around school and at lessons", as one punishment if they misbehaved.
Another former pupil said: "It was like a prison for children. I can assure you the abuse is real. It happened to me and I still suffer from it now."
A team of detectives will be examining the school's records of forcible restraint of pupils, and interviewing them, along with staff.
More than 40 boys, aged seven to 18, with emotional and behavioural problems, study at Chelfham Mill.
The principal of the school, Katy Roberts, told the BBC: "I can assure you I am committed to supporting the investigation process."
In a statement, Devon and Cornwall Police said officers were "working closely with partner organisations including social services as this investigation takes place".


Wasps missed the chance to go top of the Premiership as a Danny Cipriani error helped hand Gloucester their first home league win of the season.

Gloucester led 10-5 at the break, James Hook converting Richard Hibbard's try, while Thomas Young went over for Wasps.
Jimmy Gopperth kicked Wasps ahead before Mark Atkinson punished Cipriani for a poor attempted clearance.
Young crossed again, but Matt Scott, Charlie Sharples and Henry Purdy sealed a bonus-point win for Gloucester.
The Cherry and Whites, beaten at home in four previous outings at Kingsholm this term, looked the more assured throughout against a high-flying Wasps side who could have moved to the summit with victory.
Welsh hooker Hibbard helped create the first sight of the sticks for Hook to score and the forward crashed over for the hosts' first try after Young drove over for the visitors.
Gopperth landed a pair of kicks to edge Dai Young's Coventry-based side ahead again, but Atkinson made the most of a flat Cipriani kick that was charged down and which the England fly-half failed to atone for on the rebound.
Scott reached over to put Gloucester 24-11 up, with Young going in again for Wasps and Cipriani almost creating a third for the visitors before Sharples raced over and Purdy completed the much-needed win.
Gloucester boss David Humphreys: "We knew how we wanted to play as we've had three weeks to prepare for it. The half-backs executed the plan magnificently with our defence outstanding and we competed very well throughout.
"Fifteen of our last 16 games have been decided by less than 10 points so we've been close in the past with our only poor performance against Newcastle, so to win today was very important.
"Our Anglo-Welsh Cup win over Saracens a fortnight ago was a huge result for us as it gave the youngsters confidence and Kingsholm was buzzing more than on any occasion this season."
Wasps director of rugby Dai Young: "The result is disappointing but if anything the performance is more disappointing as we were second best in most departments.
"Gloucester haven't had a lot of luck this season, being on the wrong end of some close games. They are a good team so I have been wary of this game all week.
"We were pretty loose, our set-piece creaked and we lacked accuracy as we lost two scrums and two line-outs in attacking positions.
"We had an opportunity to fire some shots but we didn't take them. We still may have got a bonus point but we certainly didn't deserve any more than that."
Gloucester: Hook; Sharples, Scott, Atkinson, Purdy; Burns, Heinz (capt); McAllister, Hibbard, Afoa, Savage, Galarza, Ludlow, Rowan, Morgan.
Replacements: Matu'u, Thomas, Hohneck, Latta, Kvesic, Braley, Protheroe, Thorley.
Wasps: Miller; Wade, Eastmond, Gopperth, Bassett; Cipriani, Robson; Mullan (capt), Taylor, Swainston, Symons, Myall, Gaskell, Young, Thompson.
Replacements: Cruse, Bristow, Moore, Rowlands, Johnson, Simpson, Halai, Leiua.
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He is the billionaire who wants to go broke within his own lifetime, by giving his all his money away.

Chuck Feeney is an Irish American philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years losing a fortune - but all in the name of charity.
The 83-year-old businessman made his money selling luxury duty free goods to travellers across the world, but he rejects the trappings of wealth himself.
He does not own a home or a car, and famously wears a watch that was bought for just $15 (Â£9).
Mr Feeney is the founder of The Atlantic Philanthropies, an international organisation set up to distribute his fortune to good causes and projects that he supports around the world.
Since he set it up in 1982, his foundation has made grants totalling $6.5bn (Â£3.9bn).
His money has supported projects in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, United States, Australia, Bermuda, South Africa and Vietnam.
The foundation's main areas of interest are health, education, reconciliation and human rights.
Mr Feeney traces his family history back to County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, where his grandmother was brought up close to the village of Kinawley.
The entrepreneur has a particular interest in supporting universities on both sides of the Irish border.
In 2012, Forbes magazine described him as "the man who arguably has done more for Ireland than anyone since Saint Patrick".
His philosophy of 'giving while living' has inspired other billionaire businessmen, such as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett.
However, Mr Feeney is not as well known as some of his biggest and richest fans, possibly because for the first 15 years of his philanthropic mission, he donated money in secret.
He emerged from anonymity in 1997, and since then he has promoted the idea that people who have amassed great wealth should use their money for "a greater good".
Known for his frugal lifestyle, the billionaire is a self-made man who sprang from humble beginnings.
Charles F Feeney was born to Irish-American parents in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1931 - during the Great Depression.
His mother worked as a hospital nurse and his father was an insurance underwriter.
He showed entrepreneurial skills from an early age, selling Christmas cards door-to-door when he was just 10 years old.
As a teenager, he enlisted in the US air force and served with Signals Intelligence during the Korean War.
He took advantage of a US government education programme for veterans and became the first member of his family to go to college.
After his graduation from Cornell University in New York, he started his own business selling goods to US troops stationed in Europe.
That business model evolved into Duty Free Shoppers (DFS), the company he co-founded with Robert Miller in 1960.
DFS Group now employs more than 9,000 people and describes itself as "the world's leading luxury travel retailer" with billions in sales.
However, the man whose life's mission has been to die broke and live trying has turned duty free profits into a duty to give all his profits away.
"I had one idea that never changed in my mind - that you should use your wealth to help people," he said in a 2007 biography.
The Atlantic Philanthropies is continuing to distribute Mr Feeney's "entire endowment", with the aim of "bringing about lasting changes in the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people".
The organisation is due to be wound up in 2020, when he will be 89.


An exhibit displaying some of the "most beautiful books that man has ever made" has opened in Edinburgh.

Book Beautiful, at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, includes texts from the earliest days of print in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Curators said the collection shows how books can be more than things to read and become works of art.
The books include the 1545 edition of Francesco Colonna's La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilo.
There is also William Morris's 1896 edition of The Works Of Geoffrey Chaucer.
Also on show is the earliest printed book in the National Library's collection, the Biblia pauperum, which features engravings of biblical scenes and was printed in the Netherlands around 1460.
Alongside this is the last great private press book of the 20th century, the Pennyroyal Caxton Press Bible, printed in the United States.
It features a series of biblical engravings which took the artist, Barry Moser, four years to complete.
Rare books curator James Mitchell, who selected the books for the display, said: "By conceiving the book as a unified whole in which format, page design, type, illustration, binding and paper all work together harmoniously, the people who worked with private presses designed books which were to be read slowly, appreciated and treasured.
"At their best, they produced works which transcended their medium to become works of art.
"These are all books that have been carefully planned, meticulously designed and hand crafted with precise detailing applied to all aspects of the printing process.
"Some are masterpieces of design and the product of years of painstaking attention to detail. They are no less than some of the most beautiful books that man has ever made."
The Book Beautiful display is open to the public, with free entry, until 13 March.


Chris Ashton scored a hat-trick as Saracens prepared for next weekend's European Champions Cup final by comfortably beating Worcester.

Andy Symonds and Cooper Vuna both went over for the hosts, either side of Neil de Kock's try for the league leaders.
Two tries from Ashton and Samuela Vunisa gave the visitors a 29-14 lead at the break.
Ashton and Ben Ransom touched down after half-time before Vuna claimed his second of the match.
As well as playing in the final of European rugby's elite competition against French Top 14 side Racing 92 in Lyon on 14 May, Saracens must now also prepare for a Premiership semi-final against Leicester Tigers.
Worcester, who have finished 10th in the table, are to follow in Sarries' footsteps by moving from playing on grass to an artificial pitch from the start of next season.
Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall:
"We've led the Premiership for three out of the last four seasons. To get 80 points, without our internationals (who were) away for such a long period is a tremendous achievement, but the best is yet to come as we have a young squad.
"Last week we played poorly in the first half against Newcastle but we were impressive today."
Worcester Warriors director of rugby Dean Ryan:
"They are an outstanding side - we struggled with their power and we need to increase depth in our squad if we are going to improve.
"For the 15 minutes before half-time we were nowhere near, we struggled with our kicking game and kept feeding Alex Goode and we never laid a hand on him.
"It's a stark reminder of the top and where we are. We have to bring more power into our squad."
Warriors: Pennell; Heem, Symons, Mills, Vuna; Heathcote, Baldwin; Leleimalefaga, Annett, Schonert, O'Callaghan, Sanderson, Betty, Kirwan, Dowson (capt).
Replacements: Bregvadze, Bower, Johnston, Hewitt, Cox, Mulchrone, Lamb, Grove.
Saracens: Goode; Ashton, Bosch, Tompkins, Wyles; Hodgson (capt), de Kock; Barrington, George, Du Plessis, Kruis, Hamilton, Wray, Brown, Vunisa.
Replacements: Saunders, Lamositele, Figallo, Smith, Fraser, Spencer, Streather, Ransom.


A man has been charged with murder after a body was found in a woodland stream in Surrey.

Local man, Joe McMinn, 28, was discovered in an area known as Devil's Den, near Goodwyns housing estate in Dorking, in the early hours of Easter Monday.
Richard Taylor, 21, of no fixed address, is due to appear at Guildford Magistrates Court later.
A post-mortem found Mr McMinn died of multiple stab wounds.


(Closed): Wall Street finished lower following the announcement by US drugs giant Pfizer that it would merge with Botox-maker Allergan.

Shares of Pfizer fell 2.6% after announcing the $160bn (Â£106bn) record takeover that will allow the company to avoid high US corporate taxes.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%, or 31 points, to 17,792.6 points.
The S&P 500 ended 0.1%, or 2.6 points, lower at 2,086.59 points, while the Nasdaq was almost flat at 5,102.4.
Stephen Massocca, chief investment officer of Wedbush Equity Management, said: "We had a very large rally last week and it's not surprising to see the market correct after that."
Disappointment in the Pfizer/Allergan deal was driven by lower-than-expected savings estimates, along with regulatory hurdles and a possible delay in Pfizer's plan to split into two companies, analysts said.
Shares in Tyson Foods jumped 10.2% after reporting an 88% rise in fourth-quarter profits to $258m. Tyson also predicted another record year in 2016.
Amazon shares added 1.6% after announcing additional holiday sales on electronics, toys, and kitchen appliances.
Among the fallers, GameStop shed 4.2% after the video game retailer reported lower third-quarter sales and cut its full-year forecast.
Video games maker Electronic Arts closed 4.8% lower.
US markets will be closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday, and hold a shortened trading session on Friday.


Sheridan Smith is to star in a TV drama about the disappearance of schoolgirl Shannon Matthews.

Shannon was nine years old when she disappeared in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, in February 2008.
She was found 24 days later under a bed at Michael Donovan's nearby home after a police operation costing Â£3.2m.
Donovan and Shannon's mother Karen Matthews were later jailed for eight years for kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.
Smith will star as Julie, a member of a Dewsbury residents and tenants association supporting the search to find Shannon.
"The themes of faith and trust in human nature, and the way the whole community came together, really inspired me," said Smith.
The programme plans to focus on the spirit and determination of a group of women who brought the community together to try to find Shannon, according to the BBC.
The abduction of Shannon is not to be portrayed in the film and Karen Matthews is not the central character.
She disappeared after a swimming trip with her school on 19 February 2008.
Twenty-four days later she was found alive under a bed in Batley Carr, less than a mile from her home.
This is how events unfolded
The trial at Leeds Crown Court heard her mother and Donovan kept Shannon "drugged, subdued and hidden from the public" so they could claim Â£50,000 in reward money.
Neil McKay, the writer, said: "This drama tells a story of people pulling together for the sake of a child".
Filming is due to start in spring by ITV Studios for BBC One.


Defending champion Gary Anderson is into the PDC World Darts Championship quarter-finals after beating Benito van de Pas 4-2 in a high class match.

Scotland's Anderson averaged 107.68 - the highest in the tournament so far - compared to his Dutch opponent's 102.3.
The pair also threw 20 180s in total at London's Alexandra Palace.
Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld, seeded 12th, beat fifth seed Adrian Lewis 4-3 in a pulsating match between two former champions to reach the last eight.
Lewis - beaten by Anderson in last year's final - led 3-2 against Van Barneveld before the 2007 champion hit back.
Earlier in the second round, third seed Peter Wright comprehensively beat Wales' Jamie Lewis 4-0.
The Scot dropped just one leg in the match with a checkout percentage of 75%.
In the other round two matches, Belgium's Kim Huybrechts beat Germany's Max Hopp 4-0. Sixth seed James Wade beat fellow Englishman Steve Beaton 4-1 and the Netherlands' 10th seed Jelle Klaasen beat Northern Ireland's Brendan Dolan 4-0.


More than 50 firefighters have tackled a moor fire in North Yorkshire.

The fire service was alerted to the incident at Cropton, near Pickering, at 1500 BST.
About 150 acres (0.6km-sq) of moorland have been destroyed with eight fire crews needed to tackle the fire when it was at its strongest.
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said there had been a spate of similar fires in the area recently. No one was hurt in the incident.


Former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

A spokesman for the musician said: "He is undergoing treatment and is expected to make a full recovery as it was caught in the early stages."
Born William Perks in Lewisham, London, the star was a member of the Stones from 1962 until 1993.
Since then, he has recorded and toured with his own band, Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings.
The 79-year-old was pictured last weekend at the wedding of Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall.
In a statement, his family  "asked for their privacy during this time."
Wyman joined the Stones in 1962, replacing bassist Dick Taylor, who went on to play with Pretty Things.
According to legend, he was favoured by the Stones because he owned his own amplifier.
At 25, he was the oldest member of the group by several years, but struck up a rapport with the rest of the group, in particular drummer Charlie Watts. Between them, they would provide the solid, rhythmical backing that underpinned Mick Jagger and Keith Richards' theatrical performances.
His subtle-but-intricate bass lines powered songs like Paint It, Black, 19th Nervous Breakdown and Gimme Shelter.
The musician also claims credit for writing the classic guitar riff on Jumpin' Jack Flash.
In his autobiography, Stone Alone, Wyman wrote: "I was just messing about at the piano and started doing this riff, da-daw, da-da-daw, da-da-daw, then Brian played a bit of guitar and Charlie was doing a rhythm. Mick and Keith came in and said, 'Hey, that sounded really good, what is it?'"
However, he never got to play bass on the track, with Keith Richards laying down the guitar parts while Wyman played organ.
Unkindly branded "the boring one" during the band's heyday, Wyman inadvertently became the band's unofficial archivist, keeping extensive scrapbooks filled with photos, lyrics and memorabilia that documented the band's meteoric rise to fame.
"Playing with the Stones there was always such a lot of pressure," he told the Telegraph in 2008. "The next album or single always had to be the best, or at least sell more.
"When we got together to play it was a great moment. Working with Charlie [Watts] was fantastic, and we're still really close. But when I toured with the Stones it would take a month to practise all these songs we'd been playing for 30 years."
The musician also courted controversy in the 1980s, when he married 18-year-old model Mandy Smith.
Wyman, who was 52 at the time, reportedly began dating Smith when she was 14. In recent years, as the Jimmy Savile scandal unfolded, he approached police to ask whether they wanted to question him about their relationship.
"I went to the police and I went to the public prosecutor and said, 'Do you want to talk to me? Do you want to meet up with me, or anything like that?' and I got a message back, 'No,'" he said. "I was totally open about it."
Wyman last played with the Stones at the band's 50th anniversary shows at the O2 Arena in 2012.
However, he said he would not be interested in rejoining the group on a permanent basis because he has "better things to do".
"I left the Stones because their music really annoyed me, so why should I go listen to their music?" he told the German newspaper Bild in 1998.
"When you're a Rolling Stone, you do nothing but Stones music. My life is more exciting since I'm not one."


An Argentine ex-minister has said that almost $9m (Â£6.9m) he had tried to hide in a convent had come from politics.

But in his first comments since his arrest, Jose Lopez, who was a minister under Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, gave no further details.
The cash was found after nuns told police a man was throwing bags into their compound.
The story has enthralled Argentina, which has been gripped by several corruption scandals.
At the time of his arrest, Buenos Aires provincial security chief Cristian Ritondo said Mr Lopez "was caught red-handed with six bags, a suitcase and a weapon and he was later identified as a Public Works Minister Jose Lopez from the previous government".
Mr Lopez was found to be in a disorientated and emotional state and police have not been able to interview him since then.
He has been receiving psychiatric treatment while in prison.
Mr Lopez told the judge that when he had recovered his "psychiatric and physical strength" he would give evidence about how the millions of dollars had come to be kept in his home.
Mr Lopez is being investigated for "illegal enrichment" under the Kirchner administration.


Former Premier League player Richard Chaplow has been suspended for two matches for verbally abusing openly gay opponent Robbie Rogers.

Rogers, 29, said he was subjected to a repeated "gay slur" during a match between his LA Galaxy II team and Chaplow's Orange County Blues.
Chaplow, who was also fined, admitted he had used "profane language".
But the former West Brom and Southampton player added: "I am being wrongfully linked to homophobic slurs."
Orange County said they "pursued the investigation vigorously" but found "no compelling evidence" to back up the allegation from US international and ex-Leeds United United midfielder Rodgers.
United Soccer League (USL) president Jake Edwards said: "We cannot, nor will we, condone any language that is counter to the values we have instilled throughout the USL."
Rogers, making his return from injury in Saturday's game, said he had not heard another "gay slur" in four years since returning to the MLS.
He said he spent the journey home from the match "wishing I had punched or head-butted" the player, who he did not name.
Chaplow joined US third-tier side Orange County in July.
He said the last 72 hours had been "dark and stressful", adding: "I have a family member that is part of the LGBT community. I fully understand the weight and pressures it brings.
"I would like to sincerely apologise to anyone who was offended by the profane language I used on the pitch in response to what I felt was an overreaction to a tackle. This was obviously not the correct way to represent myself or the club."
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England's Laura Massaro was beaten by France's Camille Serme in a five-game Tournament of Champions final.

World number five Massaro, 33, led after three games in New York but went down 13-11 8-11 4-11 11-3 11-7 as Serme added to her 2016 US Open title.
"I went out there in the fourth like I was going into a boxing ring," said world number four Serme, 27. "I had to fight because I felt tired and flat."
Egypt's Karim Abdel Gawad beat France's Gregory Gaultier in the men's final.
Gawad, 25, came from a game down to win 6-11 11-6 12-10 11-6 in Grand Central Terminal and secure a third consecutive major title.
Serme and Gawad are both first-time winners of the event, which first took place in 1930.
Massaro is yet to win the tournament, having also finished runner-up to Nicol David in 2014.


Three new crew members have arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) after launching from Kazakhstan.

The Soyuz rocket carrying Fyodor Yurchikhin, Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano lifted away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 02:31 local time on Wednesday (20:31 GMT Tuesday).
Russian Yurchikhin and American Nyberg have both been into space before. Italian Parmitano is a first-timer.
They arrived at the orbiting platform five hours and 46 minutes later.
Their Soyuz capsule was using a new flight profile that dramatically reduces the rendezvous time from the traditional two days.
It is technically more difficult and requires some very precise orbital adjustments, but it is deemed to be easier on the crew because it means they do not have to spend so long inside their cramped vehicle.
Leak and pressure checks were conducted following docking at the station, with a hatch opening at 04:14 GMT.
The trio, whose designation is Expedition 36, were greeted with hugs and smiles by the three individuals already on the ISS - Russians Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin, and American Chris Cassidy.
The new crew members will be given a week of light duties in which to acclimatise to their weightless surroundings. Work will then begin in earnest.
Luca Parmitano's participation in this expedition is particularly notable.
At 36, he is the youngest person to get a long-duration (six months) stay on the station.  He is also the first of the European Space Agency's (Esa) new intake of astronauts to get a flight assignment.
Selected in 2009, the former fighter pilot has a packed schedule ahead of him.
ISS crews are now completing about 70 hours a week of science, conducting experiments that exploit the unique microgravity environment on the platform.
Parmitano has a package of specific European activities to work through, which cover fields as diverse as fluid physics and materials science.
The Italian will see all of the vehicles now used to service the station come and go during his time in orbit, including possibly the new Cygnus freighter which is made in part in the Italian city of Turin.
He is also scheduled to make two spacewalks to work on the exterior of the platform.
"I've dreamt of doing that. Being an astronaut is about walking in space. For me, they are one and the same thing," he told BBC News.
One of the spacewalks will help prepare the ISS for the arrival of Russia's big science laboratory, which will grow the 420-tonne complex still further.
The lab will come up with Europe's major robotic contribution to the platform - a large arm that is able to move around the station to conduct work wherever it is needed.
Born in the Sicilian town of Paterno, Parmitano expects to bring a strong Italian flavour to his stay in orbit - literally. Italian chefs have prepared a range of special astronaut foods for him, including lasagne and risotto.
These will be delivered to the ISS in the coming weeks on the European robotic freighter Albert Einstein.
Fyodor Yurchikhin, Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano are due back on Earth on 10 November.
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos