Premier League top scorer Jamie Vardy scored twice as Leicester came from 2-0 down to draw at Southampton.

Jose Fonte's first goal for 18 months gave the hosts the lead, glancing in a header from Dusan Tadic's corner.
Virgil van Dijk earlier saw a header cleared off the line, but he doubled the lead with a close-range prod.
Vardy headed the Foxes back into the match, before blasting home his ninth of the season in injury time to keep the Foxes in fifth.
Relive the match action here
All the Premier League action and reaction
Not judging by their second-half display.
The Foxes have scored in every Premier League match this season and, sparked into life by the half-time introduction of forwards Riyad Mahrez and Nathan Dyer, they earned an unlikely point with a stunning final 45 minutes.
Southampton were in complete control at half-time but, helped by the trickery of Mahrez and the clinical finishing of Vardy, the Foxes again showed they should never be ruled out.
The draw is the seventh point Leicester have earned from a losing position this season.
It would be very hard to leave the Leicester and England striker at home in the summer on this form.
The 28-year-old, who was playing for Fleetwood in League Two in 2012, became just the fourth Englishman to score in six consecutive Premier League matches this century when he headed home to give the Foxes hope after the break.
Before he hammered in a late equaliser, the striker shot over from close range and was a constant threat for Leicester after the break.
Vardy, already in the England squad, is playing with a double fracture to his wrist, but looks determined to push his international cause with the likes of Liverpool's Danny Ings and Daniel Sturridge struggling with injury.
He now has three more goals than any of his Premier League rivals.
Media playback is not supported on this device
The introduction of Leicester substitutes Mahrez and Dyer at the start of the second half changed the pattern of the game.
Algerian Mahrez has been a key player for the Foxes this season and the forward proved so again, creating chance after chance playing just behind striker Vardy.
It was his pass that created the equaliser while Swansea City loanee Dyer also made a big impact on the wing, crossing for Vardy's opener.
Southampton should have had the game out of sight, with Sadio Mane delaying after rounding goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel when 2-0 up, but the hosts tired as the match wore on with all 10 of their starting outfield players involved in international duty in the past week.
Southampton boss Ronald Koeman on BBC Sport: "It was a difficult game. Defensively we did well in the first half and we scored from set pieces.
"But I expected a difficult second half because we know one of Leicester's strengths is unbelievable spirit and we have to be more clever.
Media playback is not supported on this device
"They deserved at least one point. They did two good changes after half-time. Mahrez created difficulties for us."
Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri on BBC Sport: "We have fantastic spirit. We believe everything could be possible.
"We created a lot of chances. It is important to have good players on the bench and I have very good players who can change the match.
"Jamie Vardy is very important for us. I believe in this team. When we are desperate we make more, more and more."
It doesn't get any easier for Southampton as they face a trip to Liverpool for Jurgen Klopp's first home match in charge of the Reds. Leicester entertain Crystal Palace looking to maintain their top five spot.
More follows.


International GCSEs in English and maths will be axed from school league tables from 2017, with other subjects to follow in 2018, it has emerged.

The change is part of the government's overhaul of the exam system in England.
New GCSEs in maths and English, which feature little or no coursework and exams after two years, will be introduced in September 2015.
The 2017 league tables will include only the new qualifications - IGCSEs, which are unchanged, will not count.
Currently, both IGCSEs and GCSEs count in the league tables.
Ministers are understood to have made the change as IGCSEs generally do not share the same construction as the government's reformed qualifications - in terms of the amount of coursework and the timing of exams.
English and maths GCSEs are key qualifications for schools as they are judged on their results in these subjects.
New GCSEs in other subjects, such as science, history and geography are due to be introduced in 2016, with the first exams taken in 2018.
IGCSEs in these subjects are likewise due to be dropped from the 2018 rankings.
IGCSEs could be reintroduced at a later date if changes were made to ensure they were of a similar design to the new GCSEs.
The measure has drawn a qualified welcome from head teachers.
Brian Lightman, of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: "It is important that all qualifications that count in performance tables have an equal level of challenge, and we support moves to ensure that this will be the case in future."
However Mr Lightman said news of the changes to the status of IGCSEs in England had emerged "very late in the day".
"The position of IGCSEs should have been carefully planned and thought through much earlier as part of the government's overall approach to qualification reform," he said.
"This failure to develop an overall vision and work out the consequences in advance is leading to real difficulty in schools."
He said schools "which, in all good faith, had planned to continue using IGCSE qualifications", would have to reconsider those plans.
"It also has serious consequences for young people," he said.
"Parents and young people are finding it difficult to make sense of these contradictory and piecemeal changes."
IGCSEs have long been favoured by private schools, but there has been a surge in the number of state schools using IGCSEs after the government decided to drop the speaking and listening element of English GCSE from the overall grade and report it separately.
Some schools enter pupils for both qualifications in the same subject.


Algeria crashed out of the Africa Cup of Nations at the group stage after failing to win a single game in Gabon.

They were held to a 2-2 draw by Group B winners Senegal in a match they had to win to have any chance of avoiding an embarrassing early exit.
Islam Slimani scored both their goals, a two-yard volley and a scuffed effort that wrong-footed Algeria's goalkeeper.
But Senegal twice equalised, Papakouly Diop and then Moussa Sow both firing in efforts from the edge of the area.
Algeria went into the tournament as one of the favourites for the trophy but leave with their reputation damaged by three underwhelming performances.
After being held to a shock draw by Zimbabwe in their opener and then beaten by neighbours Tunisia, who booked their quarter-finals with a 4-2 win over Zimbabwe on Monday, Algeria have had a tournament to forget.
Their misery was compounded at the last by the fact they were held by Senegal's second-string side, which featured 10 changes from their last game.
Senegal coach Aliou Cisse had taken the opportunity to rest his first-choice players given the Teranga Lions had already won the group ahead of their final fixture.
And Cisse will be pleased by the resilience of his reserves who fought back to hold their own against a full-strength Algeria and ensure Senegal ended the group stage unbeaten.
Algeria might have signed off with a win but Slimani missed a chance to grab his hat-trick and a modicum of consolation when he shot wide when clean though.
Senegal will play Cameroon in the quarter-finals on Saturday.
Match ends, Senegal 2, Algeria 2.
Second Half ends, Senegal 2, Algeria 2.
Corner,  Algeria. Conceded by Saliou Ciss.
Yacine Brahimi (Algeria) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Idrissa Gueye (Senegal).
Substitution, Senegal. Keita replaces Moussa Konate.
Foul by Faouzi Ghoulam (Algeria).
Famara Diedhiou (Senegal) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Attempt missed. Adlène Guédioura (Algeria) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Delay in match Khadim N'Diaye (Senegal) because of an injury.
Attempt missed. Riyad Mahrez (Algeria) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Rachid Ghezzal.
Foul by Aissa Mandi (Algeria).
Famara Diedhiou (Senegal) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Corner,  Algeria. Conceded by Zargo Toure.
Attempt saved. Mohamed Diamé (Senegal) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Attempt blocked. Moussa Sow (Senegal) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Mohamed Diamé.
Substitution, Algeria. Rachid Ghezzal replaces Sofiane Hanni.
Corner,  Algeria. Conceded by Idrissa Gueye.
Offside, Algeria. Liassine Cadamuro tries a through ball, but Faouzi Ghoulam is caught offside.
Offside, Senegal. Khadim N'Diaye tries a through ball, but Famara Diedhiou is caught offside.
Substitution, Algeria. Baghdad Boundjah replaces Islam Slimani.
Substitution, Senegal. Idrissa Gueye replaces Papa Alioune Ndiaye.
Foul by Faouzi Ghoulam (Algeria).
Famara Diedhiou (Senegal) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt missed. Islam Slimani (Algeria) right footed shot from the right side of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Sofiane Hanni.
Offside, Senegal. Papa Alioune Ndiaye tries a through ball, but Moussa Konate is caught offside.
Attempt saved. Sofiane Hanni (Algeria) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Adlène Guédioura.
Famara Diedhiou (Senegal) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Aissa Mandi (Algeria) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Famara Diedhiou (Senegal).
Riyad Mahrez (Algeria) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Saliou Ciss (Senegal).
Corner,  Senegal. Conceded by Aissa Mandi.
Foul by Yacine Brahimi (Algeria).
Saliou Ciss (Senegal) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Substitution, Senegal. Famara Diedhiou replaces Kara.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Delay in match Khadim N'Diaye (Senegal) because of an injury.
Foul by Islam Slimani (Algeria).


Matt Crooks headed a late winner as Scunthorpe edged a pulsating contest with Bradford.

The midfielder stole into the box to nod in from a right-wing corner in the 83rd minute to complete an impressive turnaround for the Iron, who had trailed 2-1 at the break.
Scunthorpe opened the scoring in the third minute, when the Bantams allowed Ivan Toney the time and space to smash the ball home at the far post.
The visitors, though, turned the game on its head in the space of two minutes, with Kevin Toner heading in from a free-kick with 14 minutes gone and Alex Jones finding the bottom corner moments later.
Toney produced a clever bicycle kick from the corner of the six-yard box to lob the home side on to level terms three minutes after the restart, before Crooks gave his side the lead.
A see-saw contest almost took a final twist in stoppage time but City hit the bar from a corner, ensuring the Iron claimed the points.
Match report supplied by the Press Association.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Match ends, Scunthorpe United 3, Bradford City 2.
Second Half ends, Scunthorpe United 3, Bradford City 2.
Corner,  Bradford City. Conceded by David Mirfin.
Attempt blocked. James Meredith (Bradford City) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Attempt missed. Charlie Wyke (Bradford City) right footed shot from the centre of the box is high and wide to the right.
Matt Crooks (Scunthorpe United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Romain Vincelot (Bradford City) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Matt Crooks (Scunthorpe United).
Corner,  Bradford City. Conceded by David Mirfin.
Attempt blocked. James Meredith (Bradford City) header from the centre of the box is blocked.
Corner,  Bradford City. Conceded by Jordan Clarke.
Attempt blocked. Daniel Devine (Bradford City) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked.
Attempt saved. James Meredith (Bradford City) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal.
Foul by Matt Crooks (Scunthorpe United).
Romain Vincelot (Bradford City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, Scunthorpe United. Craig Davies replaces Ivan Toney.
Attempt missed. Timothee Dieng (Bradford City) header from the left side of the six yard box is high and wide to the left.
Attempt missed. Matt Crooks (Scunthorpe United) right footed shot from the centre of the box is high and wide to the left.
Substitution, Scunthorpe United. Scott Wiseman replaces Hakeeb Adelakun.
Attempt saved. Mark Marshall (Bradford City) right footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the bottom right corner.
Foul by Matt Crooks (Scunthorpe United).
James Meredith (Bradford City) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Goal!  Scunthorpe United 3, Bradford City 2. Matt Crooks (Scunthorpe United) header from the centre of the box to the high centre of the goal. Assisted by Josh Morris with a cross following a corner.
Corner,  Scunthorpe United. Conceded by Kevin Toner.
Attempt saved. Ivan Toney (Scunthorpe United) right footed shot from the right side of the six yard box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Attempt saved. Tony McMahon (Bradford City) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Foul by Stephen Dawson (Scunthorpe United).
Tony McMahon (Bradford City) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt missed. Kevin Toner (Bradford City) header from the right side of the six yard box is close, but misses to the right following a set piece situation.
Substitution, Bradford City. Daniel Devine replaces Billy Clarke.
Substitution, Bradford City. Jordy Hiwula-Mayifuila replaces Alex Jones.
Foul by Jordan Clarke (Scunthorpe United).
Mark Marshall (Bradford City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Substitution, Scunthorpe United. David Mirfin replaces Charlie Goode because of an injury.
Delay in match Charlie Goode (Scunthorpe United) because of an injury.
Attempt saved. Charlie Wyke (Bradford City) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner.
Foul by Tony McMahon (Bradford City).
Josh Morris (Scunthorpe United) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt saved. Timothee Dieng (Bradford City) header from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal.


Logistics, averting the bottlenecks, co-ordinating the efforts of governments and aid organisations big and small - they quickly become the preoccupations of those overseeing disaster relief operations, like the one following the Nepal earthquake now.

The large-scale sudden disasters of recent decades have taken place amid rapid change in global communications and the development of more systematic strategies for responding to such emergencies.
But, as I have seen covering a number of earthquakes in different parts of the world, each disaster tests the response in new ways.
The urgent appeals from Nepal's government for more helicopters for the rescue and relief operations echo an impassioned appeal made a few days after the devastating earthquake in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and north-west Pakistan in October 2005.
I was among the journalists covering the visit of the then UN emergency relief co-ordinator, Jan Egeland, to the main city in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Muzaffarabad.
The 7.6-magnitude earthquake six days earlier had caused massive damage in the city and elsewhere smaller towns and villages had been wiped out.
As in Nepal today, landslides had compounded the impact of the earthquake and blocked and destroyed roads in the mountainous terrain.
As Mr Egeland assessed the progress of the relief operations that day, it was already estimated that at least 23,000 people were dead. Eventually, the disaster was to claim about 80,000 lives.
He told us at the end of the visit that he had never witnessed such devastation before. He called it "a complete nightmare".
Identifying the biggest challenge as reaching outlying areas, Mr Egeland called for a rapid tripling of the number of helicopters - and said that he did not believe or accept that this would be impossible.
At the same time, the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, talked about the threat of "a second massive wave of death" if efforts were not stepped up.
It was hardly an exaggeration, with the onset of winter imminent.
Increasing numbers of helicopters were committed to the relief operation. Some of the crucial heavy lifting was carried out by military helicopters brought in from neighbouring Afghanistan.
Despite this and all the other efforts that were being made to get aid out to the more isolated communities, 18 days after the earthquake Pakistan's then Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, appealed to survivors to try to make their own way down to valleys and to larger centres if they could.
In India in January 2001, a 7.7-magnitude quake flattened towns and villages in the Kutch region of Gujarat and also brought down multi-storey buildings in Gujarat's state capital, Ahmedabad.
That disaster claimed around 20,000 lives.
Among the many structures destroyed in Bhuj, the main town in Kutch and near the earthquake's epicentre, were historic buildings, as in Kathmandu today.
The narrow streets and alleyways of Bhuj's oldest quarter were piled so high with rubble and debris that it made the task of search and rescue teams all the harder - though some people were pulled out after several days.
But there was a factor in the Gujarat earthquake response that often gets little attention in the way we perceive disasters and relief operations.
India tends to handle its own natural disasters where possible rather than immediately appeal for outside aid, and its civil society organisations and ordinary citizens will invariably respond spontaneously.
After first seeing the impact of the earthquake in Ahmedabad - and watching friends and neighbours joining rescuers in trying to dig into the ruins of the collapsed apartment blocks - we navigated our way around the gaping cracks in the road to Bhuj.
Already people were turning up from far away in packed cars and pickups and just dropping off food, water and clothing, sometimes leaving it literally by the roadside.
In the earthquake in Haiti in January 2010 the challenge was not just the enormity of it but the deadly blow that it struck to the administration of the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.
More than 200,000 people were killed, according to the Haiti government, and huge numbers were made homeless.
More than half of the government and administrative buildings in the capital, Port-au-Prince, were destroyed or damaged, one civil servant in four in the capital died, and the headquarters of the UN mission collapsed.
Communications and air and port access were disrupted. Delays in distributing aid became a growing problem and led to protests.
In that disaster, the military of several nations played a key role in overcoming the bottlenecks.
Within a few days, the American carrier, USS Carl Vinson, arrived with 600,000 emergency food rations and other supplies.
A hospital ship was sent too. And at stadiums and other distribution points I watched as helicopters ferried aid back and forth.
Whether in response to earthquakes or hurricanes, cyclones or typhoons or floods or other natural disasters, humanitarian assistance has become much more professionalised and structured.
Compare with 1978, when I covered my first earthquake in Tabas in eastern Iran.
The 7.4-magnitude quake killed more than 15,000 people, and one eyewitness said that the town of collapsed mud-walled and brick houses had "turned into a graveyard".
We were just a handful of journalists flown in some 48 hours after the earthquake by the Iranian air force, and flown out again a few hours later with the plane full of the injured and homeless.
The handling of the earthquake fuelled discontent with the Shah's government, with the Iranian revolution just a year away, but international attention seemed to wane rapidly.
The complex challenges of responding to the Nepal earthquake continue under intense scrutiny. And that is before work begins on the ambition with every such disaster today - to "build back better".


A prisoner who got damages after his cell light went out for 40 minutes has won the latest round of a legal battle.

Kevin Manley was awarded £3,750 after a judge ruled operators of the privately-owned Parc Prison in Bridgend failed to restore power in a reasonable time.
Now a High Court judge has dismissed an appeal by owner G4S.
Manley, who has mobility problems after a hip replacement, tripped and banged his head on a cupboard while the light was out, the court heard.
G4S disputed the claim it had breached a duty to ensure he was "reasonably safe" in his cell.
Judge Neil Bidder first heard the case at Cardiff County Court last year.
He concluded power should have been restored in 20 minutes at most - but heard Manley's cell had been in darkness for nearly twice that on 4 January 2013.
He ruled G4S's breach of a duty of care caused Manley an injury.
Mr Justice Lewis analysed the case at a High Court hearing in Cardiff in July and dismissed G4S's appeal in a written ruling published on Friday.
The judge did not say why Manley was in jail or give his age.


Two teenagers have been charged in connection with flares set off at Carlisle United's FA Cup game with Everton in January.

Flares were set off before kick-off outside the club's Brunton Park stadium and later inside the ground, one of which was thrown into the crowd.
Cumbria Police said the two males were charged with a public order offence and bailed until 6 April.
The 31 January fourth round tie ended with a 3-0 win for Everton.
A force spokesman added that an 18-year-old man remained on bail in relation to alleged racist chanting at the same game.


Senior councillors in Dumfries have pledged to find a compromise solution to the Whitesands flooding problem.

More than 5,500 people signed a petition against plans to build a five-metre embankment along the waterfront.
However, the council has admitted that there will never be a consensus on any flood protection proposal.
A report to a meeting of Dumfries and Galloway Council's environment committee next week will attempt to find a way forward.
What's happening in Scotland? Keep in touch through our live page.
Chairman Colin Smyth said: "What we are now able to do is focus on what I think is the biggest issue as far as the public is concerned. In the draft proposal, the height of the embankment and the walls were simply too high and the public did not support that.
"What we now need to do is make sure that we find a solution that deals with the flooding, regenerates the Whitesands, solves the car parking issues, but also reduces the height of any proposed flood protection scheme."
Water from the River Nith regularly spills over into the Whitesands, flooding a major town centre car park and nearby business premises.
Campaigners against the Â£15m proposal to build an embankment claimed it would have a detrimental effect on the town's main beauty spots.
They also raised concerns that the move would lead to the loss of about 200 waterfront car parking spaces.
David Slater, a local businessman who has been one of the project's most vocal objectors, said: "However many other consultations they do now, public opinion will not change at this stage.
"It will be interesting to see how they can agree with the public to reduce the height of the bunds. There has to be better ideas because we can't put that in our town."
Earlier this year MSPs called for the row over the flood protection plans to be brought to a "positive conclusion".


Arsenal striker Yaya Sanogo is set to leave the club on loan during the January transfer window.

The 21-year-old France youth international joined as a free agent in 2013 after his contract expired at French side Auxerre.
But he has scored only one goal in 19 appearances, eight of them starts.
Sanogo is likely to be sent to another Premier League club rather than moving overseas.
Arsenal are keen for the 6ft 4ins forward to get more game time and build confidence.
His chances have been limited by the return to fitness of Olivier Giroud, while Gunners manager Arsene Wenger also has Danny Welbeck, Lukas Podolski, Theo Walcott, Alexis Sanchez and Chuba Akpom at his disposal in attack.


Dave Whelan has resigned from his position as chairman of Championship side Wigan Athletic.

The 78-year-old will stay as owner but his grandson, 23-year-old David Sharpe, will oversee the running of the club.
Whelan took over at Wigan in February 1995 and oversaw their rise from the fourth tier to the Premier League.
He was banned from football-related activity for six weeks and fined £50,000 in December for making racist comments after accepting an FA charge.
Whelan apologised but denied the remarks he made during a newspaper interview were racist and, prior to his punishment being announced, had stated that he would resign as Wigan chairman if he was "found guilty of being a racist".
The FA Disciplinary Commission said it was "satisfied" Whelan "is not a racist" and did not intend to cause offence by his comments.
Sharpe, who was appointed as a director in December, will be formally confirmed as Wigan chairman in the near future.
Whelan's reign as chairman ends with Wigan 23rd in the Championship and nine points from safety with 12 league games to play, but his impact on the club during his 20 years at the helm has largely been a successful one.
Wigan were bottom of the fourth tier of English football when Whelan purchased the club, but they won three promotions over the next decade to reach the top flight for the first time in their history.
The Latics spent eight consecutive seasons in the Premier League between 2005 and 2013 and lifted their first major trophy, the FA Cup, three days before they were relegated from the top division.
As well as their success on the pitch, Whelan also funded the construction of a new 25,000 all-seater stadium, which opened in 1999 at a cost of around £30m.
"The time has now come to hand over the reins," he said in a club statement.
"I am approaching 80 years old and spend an increasingly long time abroad, and cannot make it to games. It is a decision I have been mulling over for some years and I believe David is now ready.
"Contrary to some suggestions, there are no plans to sell the club, which will remain in family hands and I have every confidence that David, along with chief executive Jonathan Jackson, will lead us forwards with wisdom."
Everton manager Roberto Martinez, who led Wigan to FA Cup victory in 2013 during his four-year stint as Latics boss, said it was "a shock" to hear Whelan had stepped down.
In his media conference ahead of Everton's Premier League game at Stoke on Wednesday, the Spaniard said: "I have been privileged to see first-hand how a successful and driven football man has given so much to the town and has created an incredible example for football.
"Any professional football club could have the dream of playing in the Premier League and winning a major trophy and he showed the way to do that. It is a great football story and I am sure it will inspire many generations to come."


The family of a student killed in a car crash paid tribute to the "inspiring" 24-year-old who "had so many dreams".

Elisha Clarke, from Derwent Road, Thatcham, in Berkshire died on 22 May following the crash on the A303 near Andover, Hampshire, on 12 May.
In a statement her family said they were "heartbroken at the loss" of "lovely Elisha".
Ms Clarke had been a passenger in one of the cars and was reading accounting and finance in Winchester.
Police are still investigating the cause of the crash.
Her family said: "Elisha had so many dreams, she was attending university and was passing with firsts.
"She wanted to travel the world and see the beauty that lies there. She is so loved by her parents, sister, nieces and her many friends and family.
"She inspired people to be the best they can be. Her friends weep for their fallen sister but Elisha has a new adventure to find.
"Elisha will be young and beautiful forever and never forgotten".


British scientists are working on a ground-breaking project to monitor penguin life in the Antarctic.

25 January 2016 Last updated at 07:22 GMT
By setting up remote cameras, they've managed to capture the entire year in the Antarctic, which has revealed some of the threats the penguins face.
BBC science reporter Victoria Gill, travelled to the Antarctic, where she was given access to the research sites.
The project to count penguins is being run by Penguin Lifelines.


Carlisle manager Keith Curle says he is willing to speak to fans in the town about his managerial decisions.

The Cumbrians slipped to their third straight defeat on Saturday, losing 2-0 at Plymouth, but are still in the League Two automatic promotion places.
"Anyone in Carlisle that has got any concerns, any wishes, any desires - ring up the football club, make an appointment," said the 53-year-old.
"Come and speak to me, I'm not going to hide away from it."
After defeats by Argyle, Cheltenham and promotion rivals Portsmouth in their previous three games, Curle's men have fallen 11 points behind league leaders Doncaster.
If fifth-placed Pompey win at Crawley on Tuesday, Carlisle will fall out of the top three for the first time since 1 October.
"There's a lot of good work that's gone on at the football club," Curle, who joined in 2014, told BBC Radio Cumbria. "At the minute we are exceeding expectations.
"I will not see that dismantled because a few people don't like what I'm doing, or don't understand what I'm trying to do.
"If anybody has got a complaint, if anyone wants to come and have a rational conversation about why I'm doing this, and why I'm doing that... I will speak to you, I will come and meet you.
"If there's a group of you, I'll come and speak to all of you. I've got nothing to hide."


Nasa has released spectacular new images of Jupiter taken by its Juno probe.

The pictures show the north and south poles of the gas giant - images that no previous mission has managed to show in such detail.
Juno took the images last weekend as it made its first close pass of the planet since it went into orbit in July.
Naz spoke to space scientist Dr Jonathan Nichols from the University of Leicester, who is a member of the Juno mission's science team.
He told Newsround: "We're learning about the formation of Jupiter and that's really important for the formation of the Solar System as a whole."
Juno's quest is to investigate the secrets of the Solar System by finding out more about its biggest planet - Jupiter.
The spacecraft is currently flying around Jupiter on a course that takes 53 days to complete.


Former BBC Radio 1 DJ Chris Denning has been rearrested by detectives from the Operation Yewtree inquiry into allegations of sexual offences.

The 72-year-old, who has not been named by police, was arrested in east London and bailed until October.
He was originally arrested on June 3 on suspicion of sexual offences and later released on bail.
Mr Denning was one of the original Radio 1 team when the station was launched in 1967.
He also worked as a music producer for The Beatles, helped launch the careers of the Bay City Rollers and Gary Glitter and ran his own music and video production business.
The Metropolitan Police investigation, Operation Yewtree, was launched in the wake of sexual offence allegations against ex-TV presenter and Radio 1 DJ Jimmy Savile.
The operation has a number of strands. One is looking specifically at the actions of Savile, and the second at allegations of sexual offences against "Savile and others".
Mr Denning's arrest falls within a third strand, relating to allegations against suspects unconnected to the Savile investigation.


A care worker was caught slamming the head of a 77-year-old woman with dementia into a chair on secret CCTV installed by her family.

Betty Boylan's relatives put a camera in her room at Bupa's Perry Locks home in Birmingham after they found bruises on her, a court heard.
Bina Begum, 49, was given a 12-month community order after admitting ill treating and neglecting Mrs Boylan.
Bupa said she had been dismissed and her actions were "unacceptable".
Read more news for Birmingham and the Black Country
Noreen Ashraf, prosecuting, told Birmingham Magistrates' Court Mrs Boylan was "left slumped in her chair with significant leaning to her side" on 15 September.
She said: "The complainant does want to move her arm. The defendant forces her arm and pushes her back into the chair.
"The complainant cries out. She slams her head back into the chair with significant force to cause the chair to rock."
Mrs Boylan's daughter, Bernadette Jarvis, said: "To a vulnerable person as well who can't say anything, there's just no words to explain what she's done to be quite honest."
The family also captured images of deodorant being sprayed in the woman's face, which is under investigation.
West Midlands Police said a 43-year-old woman had been voluntarily interviewed "in connection with an assault on a 77-year-old woman in a care home" and inquiries were ongoing.
Bupa Care Services director of quality Vivienne Birch said the apparent actions "of these individuals are unacceptable".
She said they were "immediately removed" from the home and they had since been formally dismissed.
"We were shocked and saddened by the footage. We're deeply sorry this happened and the distress it has caused Mrs Boylan's family.
"We're proud of the care our staff provide and do not tolerate behaviour like this at any of our homes."
The family had other images of a male patient in Mrs Boylan's room.
In response, the Bupa Care Services director of quality said: "Our night staff found the resident sitting in the wrong bedroom while doing their regular checks and he was safely taken back to his room.
"He had only been at the home for a few days and was confused by his surroundings."
Begum, of Teddington Grove, Perry Barr, who admitted wilful ill treatment and neglect, said she accepted her actions were "reckless rather than intentional or deliberate" in a letter read out in court.
She was also ordered to carry out 40 hours of unpaid work and fined £270.
Nazia Jan, defending, said Begum was "very, very remorseful".
She said: "It's cost her her chosen career... This act was completely out of character, blemished her good character and caused her unquantifiable distress."


Mercedes will not reveal the identity of world champion Nico Rosberg's replacement until the new year.

The German announced his retirement last month - five days after winning his first world title and despite signing a new two-year deal in July.
Mercedes have the problem of finding a team-mate for Lewis Hamilton when all leading drivers are signed elsewhere.
They want to sign Williams' Valtteri Bottas but have so far not been able to negotiate a deal for the Finn.
Media playback is not supported on this device
A Mercedes spokesman said the team would not reveal any decision before 3 January - and added that did not mean there would be an announcement on that date.
BBC Sport revealed on Sunday that Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff had offered Williams a 10m euro (£8.4m) reduction in their engine bill in return for releasing Bottas from his 2017 contract with Williams.
The team were also given the option of running Mercedes reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein, although this was not a requirement of the deal.
Williams have rejected that first offer but negotiations are continuing and Wolff is expected to make an improved offer.
Williams are aware that Mercedes have money available because they no longer have to spend Rosberg's $22m (£17.6m) salary over the next two years.
The team did admit on Thursday that they would consider letting Bottas leave "if an experienced, credible alternative was available".
One difficulty for Williams is that their contract with sponsor Martini, the drinks giant, requires at least one driver over 25 for promotional reasons.
Their other driver, the Canadian rookie Lance Stroll, is only 18, while Wehrlein is 22.
In a separate development, Mercedes are expected to lose their technical boss Paddy Lowe, who earned about £3m in 2015 and 2016, to Williams. He is set to be replaced by former Ferrari technical director James Allison, but for a lower amount of money.
Media playback is not supported on this device
One option for Williams is to negotiate much bigger financial recompense from Mercedes - perhaps their entire 17m euro (£14.2m) engine fee - and then promote reserve driver Paul di Resta.
The 30-year-old Scot has three seasons of F1 experience with the Force India team.
Di Resta last raced in F1 in 2013, when he beat team-mate Adrian Sutil. In 2012, he scored 46 points to the 63 of team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, who is starting in 2017 a new deal with the factory Renault team.
However, the team do not consider this an option.
The French newspaper L'Equipe reported on Thursday that Williams were in talks about a return for Brazilian Felipe Massa, who retired at the end of the 2016 season after three years with the team.
A senior source says that option was briefly discussed but has been dismissed. However, BBC Sport understands talks are ongoing and it remains a possibility should Bottas leave.
Mercedes are reluctant to promote Wehrlein because they feel he lacks the experience to guarantee scoring the regular big points they will need to defend their constructors' title.
There are also questions over whether the German, who has one season's experience in F1 with Manor in 2016, has shown he has the ability to deserve a race-winning seat.
Their other young driver, Frenchman Esteban Ocon, is committed to Force India in 2017 and with only nine races under his belt has even less experience than Wehrlein.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Wolff is also said to have made tentative approaches to Red Bull concerning the availability of Spaniard Carlos Sainz, who is contracted to race for the drinks company's junior team Toro Rosso for a third year in 2017.
Sources say Red Bull are entertaining these conversations, but it is considered unlikely that owner Dietrich Mateschitz would release the 22-year-old.
Insiders say the Austrian billionaire has a long-standing personal enmity towards Mercedes, and it is only just over a year since he believed he had agreed a deal to secure Mercedes engines for Red Bull, only for Wolff and Mercedes to refuse to supply them.
And Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has ruled out selling Sainz to Mercedes.
"Why would we do that?" Horner told BBC Sport. "Carlos has done a great job. He is a Red Bull driver. We have invested in him to get him into F1 and they are all on long-term contracts so it wouldn't make any sense to feed one of your main opponents with one of your assets."


Welsh children have contacted ChildLine to express concerns about their exposure to pornography.

The charity's offices in Cardiff and Prestatyn received separate calls from boys who were worried about the effect pornography was having on them.
ChildLine has launched a campaign to tackle what it calls the "shocking" number of 12 to 13-year-olds afraid they are "addicted to porn".
One of the Welsh youngsters said pornography made him feel "perverted".
The children's counselling charity - which is calling its campaign the Fight Against Porn Zombies - said a UK-wide poll of 700 children showed that one in five had seen pornographic images that shocked or upset them.
One boy who spoke with a counsellor at the charity's Cardiff base said: "I've started to view girls a bit differently recently and it's making me worried.
"I would like to get married in the future but I'm scared it might never happen if I carry on thinking about girls the way I do."
Another youngster who contacted the Prestatyn office said: "I can't help looking at girls in a sexual way and I think it's because I watch a lot of porn."
Des Mannion, NSPCC national head of service for Wales, said: "Children of all ages today have easy access to a wide range of pornography and if we as a society shy away from talking about this issue, then we are failing the thousands of young people it is affecting."


UK prices for generic cancer drugs have risen sharply in the past five years, restricting their use in treating NHS patients, research from the European Cancer Congress has found.

Drugs such as tamoxifen and bulsufan are now 10 times more expensive despite no longer being under patent.
The British Generic Manufacturers Association said trusts often paid much less than the list price.
The Department for Health said it has plans to cut generic drug costs.
The UK researchers said NHS negotiations with drug companies were failing to contain costs, and getting access to cheaper drugs would allow more people to be treated with more modern medicines.
They estimated that the cost of these price rises to the NHS in England was around £380m a year - which only included community-based prescribing, not hospital prescribing.
Drugs start off being on-patent, and their high prices allow pharmaceutical companies to profit from their investments in research and development.
After patents have expired and generic versions are sold, the theory is that drug prices should fall close to the cost of production.
However, because of high drug prices, the NHS is often not able to approve some new cancer drugs for use.
New treatments then have to be rationed.
Dr Andrew Hill, senior research fellow in pharmacology and therapeutics at the University of Liverpool, and Melissa Barber from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, collected prices on medicines available on the NHS for their presentation at the cancer conference.
They discovered that busulfan, which is used to treat leukaemia, cost 21p per tablet in 2011 and £2.61 in 2016.
Tamoxifen, used to treat breast cancer, cost 10p per tablet in 2011 and £1.21 in 2016.
Of 89 cancer medicines looked at in the analysis, 21 showed price rises from 2011 to 2016 - with 17 of those classified as generic.
Fourteen generic cancer drugs showed price rises of more than 100%.
And compared with prices for the same drugs in India, the UK drugs were roughly 20 times more expensive.
Dr Hill said he was surprised to find several companies had consistently raised the prices of cancer treatment.
"We have found that some companies take over the supply of some generic cancer medicines and then raise the price progressively," he said.
He said this was "worrying", particularly when the Cancer Drugs Fund is under pressure from high prices.
But Warwick Smith, director-general of the British Generic Manufacturers Association, said the actual prices paid by hospitals were usually much lower than the list prices.
He said the tendered price paid by hospitals for tamoxifen 10mg tablets is £4.85 for a pack of 30, or 16p per tablet.
"Generic competition in the oncology market has produced very significant savings for the NHS and generated access for patients to medicines such as tamoxifen which can be used to reduce the risk of breast cancer and not just to treat it.
"In the case of generic medicines used in hospitals, it is important to distinguish between the actual price paid by trusts and the much higher list prices often quoted."
The Health Services Medical Supplies (Costs) Bill, currently going through Parliament, is designed to allow the NHS to regulate prices in the future.
As a result of the bill, companies found to be raising prices with no clear justification will be referred to the Competition and Markets Authority, and could face fines.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "We will continue to work closely with the pharmaceutical sector to make a success of these new measures, and all the money saved will be invested in the NHS to help provide the highest quality of care for patients."
Other European countries have taken similar measures.
In Spain and Italy, failure to accept the high prices demanded for some generic treatments has led to warnings from companies that they could stop their supply.
"At a time when cancer patients are living longer and better lives due to effective treatments, this situation is particularly worrying," Dr Hill said.


Germany midfielder Ilkay Gundogan is set to miss Euro 2016 after dislocating a kneecap in training.

The Borussia Dortmund player has been strongly linked with a move to Manchester City this summer, when Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola will take over at Etihad Stadium.
On Friday, Dortmund tweeted the player had suffered a serious injury.
Gundogan, 25, injured his back in 2013 and has also had several knee problems.
He has featured 25 times for Dortmund in the Bundesliga this season and played in four Euro 2016 qualifiers, scoring the winner in September's 3-2 victory over Scotland at Hampden Park.


Last week's attacks on Paris will not influence the city's chances of hosting the 2024 Olympic Games, IOC president Thomas Bach has said.

Multiple attacks in the French capital on Friday killed 129 people.
The 2024 Olympic hosts will be named in 2017 and Bach said: "IOC members know terrorism is not a French or a Parisian problem, it is a global challenge."
On Sunday, Euro 2016 organiser Jacques Lambert said next year's tournament in France should not be cancelled.
Rome, Hamburg, Budapest and Los Angeles are also bidding for the 2024 Games.
Asked whether Friday's attacks could influence the vote, Bach told French sports daily L'Equipe: "No, the IOC members have a lot of experience.
"We are talking about the Olympic Games that will be held in nine years and terrorism is global, it is not just about a country or a city.
"It does not only concern sports but all the big events and the whole society."
He added: "You cannot concede victory to the terrorists.
"We must be united and firm, especially with the Olympic Games."


A man who killed his girlfriend in her home has been sentenced to seven years in prison.

Hussein Abu, 37, of Whitechapel Road, east London, pleaded guilty to manslaughter at the Old Bailey.
Sannah Javid, 26, of Frank Slater House, Green Lane, Ilford, was taken to King George Hospital on 2 December 2014 after officers were called to her flat. She died the next day.
Abu admitted manslaughter on 21 May, halfway through his trial.
The court heard that at the time of her death Ms Sannah had been in a turbulent relationship with Abu for a number of years but by the time of her death the pair were living apart, police said.
On the evening she was killed, officers said Abu was at Ms Sannah's home and initially told them she had collapsed while sitting on her bed, but he later changed his story twice
Det Ch Insp Tim Duffield said: "The police investigation exposed Hussein Abu as a violent and controlling man, a person who, after attacking his partner, was prepared to lie in an effort to escape justice.
"Abu had ample opportunity to admit his guilt earlier but chose to put Sannah's family through the further ordeal of a criminal trial.
"I can only hope today's outcome helps her family begin to come to terms with their loss."


A 22-year-old soldier whose bravery on a World War One battlefield saw him awarded a Victoria Cross has been honoured by his home city a century after his gallantry.

Cpl Samuel Meekosha from Bradford was with others in an isolated trench near Ypres that was heavily shelled.
Many were killed or injured and others buried as a result of the bombardment.
A memorial stone has been unveiled to the soldier who dug the buried men out in full view of the enemy.
On Thursday, exactly 100 years to the day that Cpl Meekosha took command during a bombardment by the Yser River near Ypres during WW1, the Lord Mayor of Bradford and the Lord Mayor's chaplain led the ceremony at Norfolk Gardens.
City officials said on 19 November 1915, Cpl Meekosha was with a platoon of about 20 NCOs and men holding an isolated trench.
A council spokesman said: "During a very heavy bombardment, six of the platoon were killed, seven were wounded and the rest were more or less buried.
"As there were no senior NCOs left in action Cpl Meekosha took command, sent for help and in spite of more big shells falling within 20 yards of him, he continued to dig out the wounded and buried men in full view of and in close range of the enemy.
"His outstanding bravery was recognised by being awarded the Victoria Cross."


Forecasters have warned of "extensive" thunderstorms and "torrential downpours" over north and mid Wales after temperatures soared.

The Met Office said bouts of rain - heavy and thundery at times - could break out on Wednesday, including lightning and a chance of hail.
It comes as Cardiff recorded its hottest June day in 22 years with temperatures hitting 31C (88F).
Other places around Wales reached 30C (86F).
BBC Wales meteorologist Derek Brockway said among them were Porthmadog in Gwynedd and Llanfairfechan in Conwy county.
Lansadwrn on Anglesey hit 29.4C, beating the previous high of 29.2C in 1992.
The heatwave has seen five days of sizzling temperatures across the UK.
A high of 34.4C was recorded at Heathrow on Wednesday, making it the country's hottest June day in 41 years.
However, the weather is set to change, with a warning storms and heavy rain could lead to localised flooding and disruption to power supplies.
The warning is in place from 03:00 BST on Wednesday until 06:00 on Thursday.
But forecasters added many places would likely see little or no impact and parts of the warning area would see dry and sunny weather through most of Wednesday.


Portugal's newspapers are jubilant after the national football team wins its first international trophy, while the French press come to terms with their loss.

"We are champions," cries Portugal's top-selling tabloid Correio da Manha on its front page, with a picture of Ronaldo holding the cup.
"Portugal wins despite everything and everyone," the paper adds.
Sports paper O Jogo proclaims the team the "Eternals", while sports newspaper A Bola hails the "Pride of Portugal" on its front page.
"Ronaldo told me I'd score the winning goal," says Eder, the only goal-scorer. "The Portuguese people deserve this," he tells online sports paper Maisfutebol.
"It's ours!" runs the front-page headline in Jornal de Noticias. It praises Eder's "history-making missile" in the 109th minute, and adds that Ronaldo - who went off injured after 20 minutes - "lifted a cup made of effort and tears".
On the inside pages, former Portugal coach Luis Filipe Scolari describes the win as "rescuing the lost title of 2004", when his team went down to a shock defeat by Greece in Lisbon.
Publico declares 10 July the "Day of Portugal", adding: "Portugal left for the games saddled with the loser tag, and returns victorious."
French sports daily L'Equipe sums up the gloomy mood with the headline "Crushed". "During a sad final, France succumbs to Portugal," it says.
For Liberation the "Blues" (the French team's nickname) were beaten by Portuguese "realism".
Regional daily La Depeche du Midi finds the defeat "Too cruel", while La Voix du Nord speaks of a "Broken dream".
Playing on the opening words of the refrain of the Marseillaise - "Aux armes, citoyens" ("To arms, citizens") - La Voix du Nord's match report instead calls the French "to tears" ("Aux larmes").
"It was beautiful, it was sad, it's over," says Le Monde. It believes the final was both just - handing Portugal its long-awaited first international trophy - and unjust, because France deserved to win as much as Portugal.
L'Humanite evokes the feeling of hope disappointed with the ironic headline "Thank you for the moment."
The title of prominent journalist Valerie Trierweiler's angry memoir of her relationship and break-up with President Francois Hollande, the phrase has become a byword for bitter regret.
But Le Figaro's commentator Yves Threard looks on the bright side, declaring that getting to the final is "a great success all the same".
"France needs to dry its tears as it has every reason to be proud," he adds.
Elsewhere, Russian papers focus on Ronaldo's personal triumph, with Sport Express branding him "King of Europe!".
Sovetsky Sport highlights Ronaldo's injury. "He would certainly have rescheduled this injury for any other match," it says. "He would have gladly missed all of next season."
German tabloid Bild headlines its  front page story "Tears and triumph", while Sueddeutsche Zeitung  notes Portugal's "salvation" by Eder's goal.
Spain's sports paper Marca tells the Iberian neighbours: "Portugal, it's no longer a dream: It's real."
BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring  on Twitter and Facebook.


All schools in Nigeria have been ordered to remain shut until 13 October as part of measures to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.

The new academic year was due to start on Monday.
But the education minister ordered the closures to allow staff to be trained on how to handle suspected Ebola cases.
Five people have died of Ebola in Nigeria. The West Africa outbreak has centred on Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, killing more than 1,400 people.
It is the largest ever outbreak and has infected an estimated 2,615 people. About half of those infected have died.
"The postponement of the schools' resumption by the federal government is a good move but the extension is too long. I can't imagine my two kids wasting six more weeks at home. Two to three weeks would have been enough for all that."
Mixed reaction to Nigeria schools closure
It spread to Nigeria - Africa's most populous country - in July, when a man infected with Ebola flew from Liberia to Lagos.
The head of the African Development Bank (AFDB), Donald Kaberuka, has called on airline companies to restart their services to the worst-affected countries.
Several African countries and airlines have banned flights to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone despite World Health Organization (WHO) advice that travel bans do not work.
Air France has now announced it is suspending flights to Sierra Leone from Thursday, following a request by the French government.
The virus is not airborne and is spread between humans through direct contact with infected bodily fluids.
"It is very important that as you combat Ebola, we also continue to ensure that ordinary economic activity is not disputed," Mr Kaberuka told BBC Africa on a visit to Sierra Leone.
The Nigerian government says it hopes its efforts to contain the virus are working, as there is only one confirmed case of Ebola remaining.
"All state ministries of education are to immediately organise and ensure that at least two staff in each school, both private and public, are trained by appropriate health workers," said Education Minister Ibrahim Shekarau.
Mr Kaberuka said the AFDB had signed an agreement with the WHO to quickly release $60m (Â£36m) of funds to help with the immediate fight against Ebola.
He described the situation as "cataclysmic" as many health workers were being infected with Ebola.
"It is decimating the health sector," he said.
"There are many other diseases right now not being attended to because Ebola has overstretched the capacity of the health sector."
On Tuesday, the WHO said the "unprecedented" number of doctors and nurses infected was due to a shortage of protective equipment and staff.
Only one or two doctors are available for 100,000 patients in some of the affected countries.
The bank chief said after the Ebola emergency was over, it was important that these countries health systems were strengthened, which the AFDB could do through budget support.
Meanwhile, a WHO epidemiologist from Senegal who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone has been flown to Hamburg in Germany for treatment.
He had been working at an Ebola testing centre in Kailahun, one of the worst-affected districts in eastern Sierra Leone which is currently under blockade.
The WHO says the laboratory in Kailahun has been temporarily closed.
There have been 392 Ebola deaths in Sierra Leone, according to the latest UN figures released on 22 August.


Scotland has scored another first in space.

A rocket from the Hebrides missile range in the Western Isles has become the first vehicle to be launched into space from UK soil.
But the achievement almost went unnoticed.
It happened in October during an international military exercise in the Atlantic.
The aim of At Sea Demonstration 15 was to test the ability of warships to defend themselves against incoming missiles.
One of the those incoming target missiles was an American Terrier-Orion two-stage rocket which was launched from the Hebrides missile range in the Western Isles.
Playing the part of a ballistic missile, it soared high over the North Atlantic, so becoming the first space vehicle to lift-off from UK soil and leave the Earth's atmosphere.
Until now every UK space shot has had to go abroad to be launched.
It was an exercise which achieved several firsts in military technology.  But this milestone passed almost unmarked. The point was to stop the missile coming down, not watch it go up.
What's more the Terrier-Orion will never appear in a museum because it was blown to bits over the Atlantic by the US Navy's guided missile destroyer USS Ross.
For Dr Malcolm Macdonald, of Strathclyde University and director of the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications, the milestone has brought particular pleasure, not least that it was launched from the Hebrides Range.
"Probably the least-heralded event of 2015 is that an object was sent into space from the UK," he says.
"Also, that's where my family croft was, according to our family history.
"It'd be great to see some real spacecraft going up into orbit from Scotland."
That may happen next. The news emerged as six sites are vying to become the UK's first commercial spaceport, four of them in Scotland.
A conference organised by the Royal Aeronautical Society is hearing from six sites hoping to be the chosen by the UK as a spaceport.
They are the airports at Prestwick, Campbeltown and Stornoway, the former RAF base at Leuchars in Fife, Newquay airport in Cornwall and Llanbedr airport in the Snowdonia National Park.
Here the emphasis will be on horizontal launches, such as those achieved by the Virgin Galactic project.
There's more to that than space tourism. Virgin Galactic are preparing to test a launcher which could put small satellites into orbit from a Boeing 747.
And former Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn says the tourism spin-offs are not to be sniffed at.
"People will come to see space launches," he says.
"Would somebody go to Machrihanish to see a rocket launch?
"Well, people go to Cape Canaveral to see rockets launched.
"They even go to Roswell, New Mexico, to see a plastic alien because they're so interested in space."
It is worth bearing in mind that Scotland is pretty good at this space business already. It's reckoned our space industry already supports five and a half thousand, mostly highly-skilled, jobs.
In 2014, Ukube-1 became the first Scottish-built satellite to go into orbit.
Does today's news mean the Hebrides Missile Range could host a space launch site?
QuinetiQ, who run it for the UK Ministry of Defence, say they have no plans to use it as a commercial spaceport.
But they do stress they have the expertise to support a spaceport anywhere in the UK.
And a feasibility study is under way for a commercial vertical launch facility near Tongue in Sutherland.
Could Scotland boldly go? We already have.


For some people the most obvious sign that the UK has left the EU will be the front cover of our passports, which will no longer have to bear the words "European Union".

31 March 2017 Last updated at 14:51 BST
There have been calls to go back to the dark blue cover of old but an online design magazine is running a competition to see if there are any other ideas out there.
Adam Fleming reports for the Daily Politics.


Senegal's Lamine Diack will formally end his 16-year reign at the helm of athletics' governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), on 31 August.

He will hand over the baton to Lord Coe of Britain, who will become only the sixth man to lead the IAAF in its 103-year history.
Diack, now 82, was vice-president when his predecessor Primo Nebiolo died of a heart attack in 1999. After becoming acting president, he went on to stand unopposed in four subsequent elections.
A former long jumper whose 1960 Olympic dreams were dashed by injury, he has been involved in athletics for most of his life - but what is his legacy as IAAF president?
Unfortunately, his departure could not have come at a worse time, given that he leaves an organisation fighting for credibility in the face of incessant doping allegations.
Earlier this month, German broadcaster ARD and the UK's Sunday Times newspaper claimed that between 2001 and 2012, a third of medals in endurance events at the Olympics and World Championships were won by athletes who recorded suspicious blood tests.
On Monday, the IAAF was then forced to deny it had vetoed publication of a report that suggested that 29% to 34% of athletes at the 2011 World Championships had knowingly doped.
So it spoke volumes when one of the first pledges made by Coe upon his election was to protect clean athletes and rebuild trust by maintaining a "zero tolerance to the abuse of doping in my sport".
Nonetheless, Diack has preferred to focus on the positives when questioned on his legacy in recent weeks.
His proudest achievement appears to be vastly improving the IAAF's finances, so building on the presidency of Nebiolo, whose at-times controversial reign coincided with the establishment of the biennial world championships and a lucrative grand prix circuit.
"Long-term financial security ... is the greatest gift I can pass on to my successor as president," he told AFP in an interview this week.
Another area that will please the Senegalese is his success in making athletics universal, which wasn't the case when he joined the IAAF in the 1970s.
The first World Championships, in 1983, attracted 154 countries, whereas 207 nations will be in Beijing for Saturday's showpiece event.
The grand prix have also grown, morphing into the Golden League (1998-2009) before becoming the Diamond League five years ago - with the stated aim of taking athletics outside Europe, with Asia, the Middle East and the US all on the list of venues.
Interestingly, Diack did admit to the lack of a proper bidding process when the IAAF largely bypassed convention in April by awarding the 2021 World Championships to the US for the first time.
"Blame it on an old president on the eve of his departure who wanted to give this opportunity to the United States," said a man who has long wanted to spread athletics in the US.
That aside, and to its great credit, the IAAF has been ahead of other sports bodies in terms of paying out equal prize money, but critics have questioned the Diamond League's ability to transcend athletics.
Among the laudable creations under Diack are the relatively simple, such as the Kids' Athletics initiative (which reached 1.5 million children across 100 territories in the first six years of its existence), to the very complicated, namely the war on doping.
Ironically, the IAAF has often been at the forefront of the war on drugs.
The organisation was one of the first sports bodies to implement the Athletes Biological Passport, as well as the storing of blood samples to use for re-analysis in future years (when the science has caught up with the cheats).
But these anti-doping actions have now been used against the IAAF and Diack, who has given the allegations short shrift (despite admitting to a 'crisis' in the past) and highlighted a host of initiatives instead.
But as the questions abound about the way in which the IAAF publicises its findings or doesn't - for the critics who say the IAAF fears it would damage the sport by so doing - Diack is seen as the man who has allowed the stench to come about on his watch.
Not that the former mayor of Dakar sees it that way of course, believing his sport is handling the problem.
"I have said on many occasions that when the day comes where we no longer can believe what we see, then sport is dead," he was quoted as saying this week.
The problem for Diack as he leaves the highest position in athletics is that too many believe that day has already arrived in his beloved sport.


Two unofficial traffic calming mannequins placed close to where a toddler died after being hit by a car have been removed by council officials.

The dummies were metres from where Harlow Edwards was knocked down and killed in Coupar Angus last October.
Residents said the mannequins caused motorists to slow down, but drivers were now breaking the 30mph speed limit following their removal.
Perth and Kinross Council said any "unauthorised signage" was illegal.
Two-year-old Harlow was killed and her six-year-old brother and 17-year-old sister were seriously injured after being struck on the A94 Forfar Road at Larghan Park.
Jimmy Harris installed the mannequins with another local resident last week.
He said: "How can they say a safety measure like that is distracting when it was actually having an impact on reducing the speed of the cars?
"There are signs up and down the street, business signs.
"They've put a big metal horse up in Coupar Angus and that's distracting."
Mr Harris said vehicles regularly drove at speeds of up to 60mph on the road.
He said: "After the accident they slowed down a wee bit but now they're picking up speed again."
Local resident Blair MacDonald said: "They were so effective, it was unbelievable.
"I can't get my head round why they would want to take down something that was actually having an impact.
"It is just crazy, the speeds you see people going up and down that road."
Perth & Kinross Council said it was consulting local elected members and community councils in relation to traffic calming measures.
Councillor John Kellas, enterprise & infrastructure convener, said the first part of the changes, involving an extension of the school-time 20mph limit on Forfar Road and an extension of the 30mph on Coupar Angus Road, would go before councillors on 8 March.
He said: "The council is aware that individuals have placed additional material at the side of the road to discourage speeding.
"Although the council appreciates that this has been done with the best of intentions, it is illegal for any unauthorised signage to be erected at the side of the road as they may distract drivers and could jeopardise any enforcement action taken by Police Scotland."


The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset has been put on sale at a price of $599 (£410).

Pre-orders for the CV1 version of the headset are now officially open and the device can be bought via the Oculus website.
Anyone ordering the headset now should have it shipped to them in March, said the Facebook-owned firm.
Reaction on social media was swift, with some saying the final price was far higher than they expected it to be.
The arrival of the headset has been long-awaited since it first appeared on the Kickstarter crowdfunding site in 2012.
The Rift is the first of two mainstream VR devices set to be launched in 2016. Rival HTC is to release the consumer versions of its Vive headset in April.
The move was timed to coincide with the CES tech show in Las Vegas, where Oculus is demoing its headset.
Prior to the announcement, comments by Oculus executives suggested that the device would be in the "same ballpark" as the $350 cost of earlier developer versions of the Rift. In Europe, the cost is 699 euros and £499 in the UK. The prices do not include shipping costs and might also not include local taxes. Initially, the CV1 is available in 20 countries.
Customers are limited to buying one headset each. Bundled with the headset are the Eve: Valkyrie and Lucky's Tale video games as well as a movement-tracking sensor, cables, a media remote and an Xbox One controller.
In late 2015, Oculus announced that special controllers that let people interact more easily with virtual worlds would be delayed until the third quarter of 2016. No guidance has been given on how much these controllers will cost.
Analyst Piers Harding-Rolls from IHS Technology said although the price was high it might not hit sales because of who was looking to buy it.
"Early adopting PC gamers are likely to be less price sensitive," he said. "This is the type of audience that spends $400-$500 every other year on graphics cards and large amounts on games."
He added: "We do not expect PlayStation VR to launch at this high a price point, which gives Sony a chance to establish a lead in this opening phase of consumer VR."
By contrast, many expect the HTC Vive headset to cost more than the CV1 Rift.
Oculus founder Palmer Luckey apologised for misleading customers over the price of the Rift during a Q&A session on the Reddit social news site.
"My answer was ill-prepared, and mentally, I was contrasting $349 with $1,500, not our internal estimate that hovered close to $599 - that is why I said it was in roughly the same ballpark," he wrote.
"Our biggest failing was assuming we had been clear enough about setting expectations."
On social media others pointed out that anyone who put down cash for a development version of the Rift headset when it launched on Kickstarter had now got a bargain, as the firm has promised to give these backers a headset free.
A survey out earlier this week suggested many who are tempted to buy the VR headset will have to upgrade their home computer to satisfy its computational requirements.
The study, backed by graphics chip-maker Nvidia, suggested only 1% of PCs worldwide had the CPU horsepower to give people a smooth VR experience.
Read more of our CES articles and follow the BBC team covering the show on Twitter.


Former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis has been cleared of conspiracy to hack voicemails.

He had accused the Metropolitan Police of being "extraordinarily vindictive" in their investigation, saying the case caused him "irreparable harm".
Mr Wallis, 64, from London, was not accused of hacking phones, but prosecutors alleged he "knew" it was happening and "agreed" to it.
An Old Bailey jury cleared him after four days of deliberations.
Mr Wallis broke down in tears as he was cleared of conspiring to illegally intercept voicemails between January 2003 and August 2006, the time he had been editor Andy Coulson's right-hand-man.
After the verdict, he tweeted: "Thanks so so much to all those who stood by me - so grateful #StillStanding."
Mr Wallis is the last of the journalists from the now-defunct Sunday tabloid to face legal action over the hacking it deployed in the hunt for exclusive stories.
Analysis: BBC home affairs reporter Gaetan Portal
The verdict in the Neil Wallis case marks the end of the last outstanding News of the World "phone-hacking" trial.
It's the best part of a decade since Â£100k-a-year phone-hacker Glenn Mulcaire and royal editor Clive Goodman were jailed. Since then we have seen senior journalists, editors and executives face justice and the secrets of celebrities, politicians and royalty re-examined, in excruciating detail, in open court.
We also learned about some of the secrets of the tabloid newsroom. The illicit, painful love affair between Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson was revealed. Emails sent by Mrs Brooks pointed to her close relationship with Tony Blair.
We saw how those in charge of a 168-year-old newspaper indulged in "dark arts" and illegal newsgathering on an "industrial scale" and how their disastrous conduct led to the Sunday tabloid's demise and lit the touch paper for a massive police investigation into illegal payments to public officials.
So, is this the end of the phone hacking saga? Maybe. Journalists at Mirror Group Newspapers also hacked phones to get the next scoop, but it remains to be seen if any of them will be charged. There is also the possibility of corporate charges against the News of the World's former owners.
NoW phone-hacking scandal
Nine former News of the World journalists have been convicted of phone-hacking since the scandal first came to light: Coulson, ex-royal editor Clive Goodman, ex-chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck, ex-investigations editor Greg Miskiw, ex-features editor Jules Stenson, ex-news editor Ian Edmondson, ex-deputy news editor James Weatherup, ex-reporter Dan Evans and Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator.
From golden couple to co-defendants
"Driven to brink of breakdown" by hacking
Why did case take so long to crack?


The headless body of a Rohingya Muslim man has been discovered days after he spoke with reporters about unrest in Myanmar's Rakhine state, officials say.

The body of the 41-year-old was found floating in a river on Friday.
His family raised concerns on Wednesday after he spoke to Burmese journalists about attacks on security forces.
Police said they were still investigating. The area has been under lockdown for more than two months since militants attacked border posts.
During a rare media tour of the area, the man spoke to reporters about army repression and said local villagers had been involved in attacks, the BBC has learned.
Rakhine state is home to Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya minority, one of the world's most persecuted minority groups.
Amnesty International has accused Burmese security forces of rape, murder, and torture.
Myanmar's military has denied accounts of atrocities and says it is conducting anti-terrorist raids in Rakhine.
Troops took control of the dangerous and remote region bordering Bangladesh after armed men raided police posts, killing nine officers, in October.
The government of Myanmar, also known as Burma, says it is conducting counter-terrorism operations in the region but has denied reports of atrocities.
Most of the displaced Rohingya have fled across the border into Bangladesh.
The estimated one million Muslim Rohingya are seen by many in mainly Buddhist Myanmar as illegal migrants from Bangladesh. They are denied citizenship by the government despite many having lived there for generations.
Communal violence in Rakhine state in 2012 left scores dead and displaced more than 100,000 people, with many Rohingya still remaining in decrepit camps.
They face widespread discrimination and mistreatment.
Hundreds of thousands of undocumented Rohingya are estimated to live in Bangladesh, having left Myanmar over decades.


At least one of 43 Mexican students who went missing in Guerrero state has been identified from charred remains, an official says.

A family member of one of the students, Alexander Mora, confirmed that the remains identified were his.
The relative said the family had received the information from a team of forensic experts.
The students were allegedly seized by local police in the town of Iguala in September and given to a criminal gang.
Prosecutors say the gang killed them and burned their bodies at a rubbish dump near the town of Cocula before scattered their ashes in a river.
The students' disappearance has triggered widespread protests across Mexico against corruption and violence.
Another demonstration was held on Saturday in Mexico City at which parents of students spoke about the identification.
"If [the government] thinks that, because one of our boys' DNA was identified, we will sit and cry, we want to tell them that they're wrong," Felipe de la Cruz, father of a missing student, told the crowd.
"We will keep fighting until we find the other 42."
The unrest has seen President Enrique Pena Nieto's popularity rating drop to its lowest point since he took office two years ago.
In response, he has submitted a package of reforms to Congress that include replacing all 1,800 municipal police forces with state-level units.
The students had travelled from a teacher training college in Ayotzinapa to Iguala to protest against what they said were discriminatory employment practices for teachers which favour urban students over rural ones.
Police opened fire on the students, who were in buses travelling back from Iguala to their college. Three of them were killed and three more people in nearby vehicles also died.
A busload of the students tried to flee but were chased by municipal officers who then took them to the local police station.
Some of the officers, who have since been arrested, told investigators they then handed the students over to a drug gang called Guerreros Unidos (United Warriors).
Iguala Mayor Jose Luis Abarca and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda were arrested in the beginning of November in Mexico City.
Mexican officials accused Mr Abarca of ordering police to confront the students to prevent them from disrupting a public speech given by his wife.
More than 70 other people have been arrested in connection with the disappearances.


Britain's Will Bayley won the world para table tennis championship with a 3-2 victory over world number one Maksym Nikolenko in Beijing.

The gold medal adds to the European title the 26-year-old claimed in 2011.
Bayley was born with arthrogryposis, a rare congenital disorder that affected all four of his limbs, and competes in the class seven category.
He won a high-profile silver medal at London 2012 after an emotional final defeat by Germany's Jochen Wollmert.
Bayley, from Poole in Dorset, said it was a special moment to beat Nikolenko.
"The tournament was very difficult for me. I had many tough matches," Bayley told BBC South Today.
"The final was unbelievable, it's one of the best matches I've ever played and it was special to win the match.
"There wasn't a lot between us but I gave everything and put my heart and soul into the match. Luckily for me it worked. It's the best match of my career."
There were also silver medals for Bayley's team-mates Rob Davies and Sue Gilroy in their singles events.
Former rugby player Davies lost 3-1 to Korean Changho Lee in the Class 1 final while Gilroy was beaten 3-0 by Chinese world number two Miao Zhang.
"I wanted the gold but I'm happy to get silver although I don't feel it at the moment," said Davies. "It was good to get to the final - there are so many good players here and I had a tough draw with some players that are awkward for me to play against so I was quite glad to come through those.
"You've got to take one match at a time and I just wish I had played a bit better in the final and finished it off with a bang."
Gilroy had put in a huge effort to beat Serbian world number one Borislava Peric-Rankovic 3-2 in the semi-final but could not repeat her heroics in the final
"I'm really disappointed in how I played but I've just got to be proud of how well I've played this week," she said.
"I think the semi-final was my final really - I think it has been so long coming that it was quite overwhelming. I really wanted to play the Chinese girl and I was so up for it but on the table I just didn't play so I'm bitterly disappointed in that and quite deflated now. But I've got to take the positives from it."


Aviation regulators have cleared the safe use of mobile devices during take-off and landing for US airlines.

US carriers are expected to let passengers use smartphones, tablets, and e-book readers from gate to gate by the end of the year.
Internet connections for email, web surfing, and downloading will be prohibited below 10,000 feet.
Cellular voice calls will remain banned because of the possibility of radio interference with flight equipment.
The changes to US regulations mean passengers will be able to read e-books, play games, and watch videos for the duration of domestic and international flights.
Airlines will need to perform safety checks before changing their current policies on device use.
Carriers must show the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that they can handle the effects that mobile devices have on flight instruments and avionics, and they must assess risks such as stowage problems.
US airline Delta said it had submitted a plan to the regulator, and expected to let customers on domestic flights use personal electronic devices as early as 1 November.
The relaxation of rules for US carriers may have a knock-on effect for UK airlines, a spokesman for the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) told the BBC.
UK regulators will study how the FAA rules can be applied to UK airlines.


Derbyshire batsman Billy Godleman hit a third successive Championship century as they set Kent a target of 329 on day three at the County Ground.

He followed his first-innings 108 with 105 not out, including a six and 11 fours, and shared a stand of 114 with Chesney Hughes (50).
Wayne Madsen weighed in with 43 before he was bowled by Ivan Thomas (2-68).
The hosts eventually declared on 234-5 following a rain delay, and Kent progressed to 30-0 by the close.
Godleman's fine knock was only the fifth time a Derbyshire batsman has hit three centuries in successive innings and the first since Kim Barnett in 1990.
His half-century took 80 balls and he moved carefully to three figures with a single off spinner James Tredwell.
The teams were forced to take an early tea at 15.15 BST because of bad light rain and Derbyshire opted to declare when play resumed two and a half hours later, but they were unable to separate Daniel Bell-Drummond (18 not out) and Rob Key (11) before stumps.


Saudi Arabia has arrested 10 more suspects in what it says is a spy ring linked to Iran, state media report.

Those detained include eight Saudis, a Turk, and a Lebanese citizen. Eighteen people were arrested in the same case in March.
Saudi Arabia, which is predominantly Sunni Muslim, has recently repeatedly found itself at odds with Iran, an overwhelmingly Shia Muslim nation.
Iran has denied any involvement in spying in Saudi Arabia.
Those arrested in March included an Iranian, a Lebanese and 16 Saudis. The Lebanese suspect has subsequently been released, officials said.
Shortly after their detention, the Saudi authorities said the suspects were gathering information about installations and vital areas, and were linked to Iranian intelligence services.
Saudi Arabia's Shia minority is concentrated in the country's eastern province, and community leaders there were quoted by Reuters news agency as saying all the Saudi suspects detained in March were Shia.
Tensions between Riyadh and Tehran deepened in 2011 when Saudi Arabia deployed troops to the Gulf island kingdom of Bahrain to help crush an uprising there.


Barcelona have exercised a buy-back clause to re-sign midfielder Denis Suarez from Villarreal.

Suarez, 22, has signed a four-year contract with an option of extending it for a further year after the Spanish champions agreed to pay a £2.73m fee.
Former Manchester City player Suarez, who now has a £42.04m buyout clause, will have a medical on Tuesday with the move set to be confirmed on Wednesday.
The Spain international helped Villarreal to fourth place last season.


Author George RR Martin's epic science fiction story series Wild Cards is to be developed for TV following the success of Game of Thrones.

The 22 volumes imagine a scenario in which an alien virus spread across the Earth after World War Two.
Most humans are wiped out, some are left deformed and 1% gain superpowers, which they may use for good or evil.
The TV rights have been bought by Universal Cable Productions, which was behind shows like Psych and Mr Robot.
"Development will begin immediately on what we hope will be the first of several interlocking series," Martin wrote.
The author has enlisted more than 30 writers to join him in contributing to the Wild Cards anthologies, graphic novels and games since the series began in 1986.
"Most of all it is a universe, as large and diverse and exciting as the comic book universes of Marvel and DC (though somewhat grittier, and considerably more realistic and more consistent), with an enormous cast of characters both major and minor," Martin wrote.
"There are thousands of stories to be told in the world of the Wild Cards."
Martin will not work on the series himself because he has an exclusive development deal with HBO, but will hand it over to Wild Cards assistant editor and writer Melinda Snodgrass and former DC Comics and Syfy Films writer and producer Gregory Noveck.
"They know and love the Wild Cards universe almost as well as I do, and I think they will do a terrific job," Martin said. "Wish them luck."
Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram, or email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.


British researchers are now routinely mapping a great swathe of Earth's surface, looking for the subtle warping that ultimately leads to quakes.

The team is processing satellite images to show how rocks in a belt that stretches from Europe's Alps to China are slowly accumulating strain.
Movements on the scale of just millimetres per year are being sought.
The new maps are being made available to help researchers produce more robust assessments of seismic hazard.
The kind of change they are trying to chart is not noticeable in the everyday human sense, but over time will put faults under such pressure that they eventually rupture - often with catastrophic consequences.
"We may well discover regions that have very small strain rates that we have not been able to detect before," said Dr Richard Walters.
"And that may well tell us that earthquakes are more likely in some areas that traditionally have been thought of as being completely stable and not at risk of having earthquakes at all."
Dr Walters is affiliated to the UK Centre for Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics (COMET).
He announced the start of the new service here in San Francisco, at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
Key to the UK scientists' work is the high performance of the EU's new Sentinel-1 radar satellites.
This pair of spacecraft repeatedly and rapidly image the surface of the globe, throwing their data to the ground using a high-speed laser link. And by comparing whole stacks of their pictures in a technique known as interferometry, the COMET group can begin to see the very slow bending and buckling that occurs in the crust as a result of shifting tectonic plates.
To initiate the service, the researchers are concentrating on the Alpine-Himalayan seismic belt.
This is the sector where most of the deaths arising from big earthquakes occur.
In time, however, the mapping exercise will be extended to cover all major seismic hazard zones, including the rim of the Pacific basin - the so-called "ring of fire", where large tremors are also a regular occurrence.
To be really effective, the team's maps need to be sensitive to movements of about 1mm per year over 100km.
The system is not quite there yet, but as the Sentinels gather more and more images, the desired standard should be realised.
As a proof of principle - and to give an example of what the new system can do - the COMET group showed off its maps of Turkey at AGU.
These capture the 20-25mm/year westwards march of the Anatolian plateau relative to Eurasia.
The focus of interest is how tectonic strain is building up along the North and East Anatolian Faults - the trigger points for so many damaging quakes in the past.
Prof Tim Wright, the director of COMET, said one of the breakthroughs that had made the new service possible was simply the prodigious volumes of data the Sentinel satellite system could now feed to the ground.
"To give you an example, in just one year of Sentinel operation there are 156 terabytes of data; whereas the entire 10-year archive of Envisat (a previous European radar satellite) has just 24TB.
"And we now process the data from the Sentinels automatically within a few hours of getting it."
Dr Walters added: "This is a big data project. We've had funding from the UK's Natural Environment Research Council to build a big data-processing facility, to take these data from the European Space Agency, which they provide for free, and make useful geophysical measurements.
"We then serve that to the community. We put the data out there not just for us to analyse and think about seismic hazards, but for scientists all over the world to use."
The "Looking inside the Continents from Space" project has just sent live a website where all the processed maps can be accessed.
COMET is also working on a very similar system that would allow scientists to track the behaviour of volcanoes. The Sentinels will also see their slow developing bulges of magma that may precede eruptions.
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos


Up to four in 10 further education and sixth-form colleges in England could close if the government presses ahead with savings, says Labour.

College budgets are not protected and might be vulnerable to cuts in the 2015 Spending Review, says the party.
The analysis comes as further education members of the University and College Union strike over pay.
The government says it is determined young people should have funding to "enjoy high-quality courses".
Chancellor George Osborne has asked government departments to come up with savings plans for 25% and 40% of their budget ahead of the Spending Review on 25 November.
Labour commissioned researchers at the House of Commons library to model the effect of a 25% cut on college budgets.
The researchers used last year's budgets, updated to this year's prices, to calculate that savings of 25% would amount to £1.625bn from a total budget of £6.5bn.
Almost three-quarters of the money goes to further education colleges, so if the cut fell proportionally FE colleges would lose £1.173bn and sixth-form colleges £451m overall, say the researchers.
According to the calculations this could mean the closure of 80 FE colleges and 56 sixth-form colleges - a total of 136 or 40% of the 335 colleges, says Labour.
Shadow education secretary Lucy Powell said the government was "putting post-16 education on a cliff edge, harming opportunities for the next generation and holding our young people and our country back".
"It is simply not possible to build a 21st-Century economy on falling investment in education," Ms Powell argued, saying Labour would have protected the whole education budget from cuts.
James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, called the analysis "deeply worrying".
It "confirms our fears that some sixth-form colleges could be wiped from the educational map after the Spending Review.
"Funding for 16- to 19-year-olds, already significantly lower than for younger students, has been cut three times since 2011 and it seems certain that further reductions will be made next year."
FE college staff, striking over a pay freeze, say they have suffered a real-terms cut of more than 17% over five years.
University and College Union general secretary Sally Hunt said she feared for the future of the sector.
"Colleges need stable investment to continue to help people of all backgrounds fulfil their potential," she said.
The Association of Colleges said the pay freeze reflected "stringent financial circumstances in the sector".
Colleges "simply cannot take more cuts", said chief executive Martin Doel.
Mr Doel urged the government to fund post-16 education at the same level as education for younger students, "to ensure adult skills training does not become a thing of the past".
The government announced area-based reviews of post-16 education and training in the summer, aiming to streamline spending.
"We need to move towards fewer, larger, more resilient and efficient colleges," wrote Skills Minister Nick Boles in guidance.
A Department for Education spokesman did not directly address Labour's figures but reiterated that the government was "reforming further education to give employers and local authorities a greater say over how and what young people are taught so that training meets local labour market needs, while ensuring the best return on investment for public funding".
"We are determined that post-16 providers have the resources they need to ensure young people in further education can enjoy high quality courses."


Actors Emma Thompson, Ken Stott and Sharon Rooney were among the winners at the Bafta Scotland awards in Glasgow.

The Legend of Barney Thomson, directed by Robert Carlyle, who also stars in the film, won two awards - including best film.
And Glaswegian Bill Paterson won a special award for outstanding contribution to film and television.
The 70-year-old has appeared in dozens of hit films and TV shows including The Killing Fields and Auf Wiedersehen Pet.
Paterson, who stars in the soon-to-be-released Dad's Army remake, said he was "thrilled" to receive the award.
Speaking on the red carpet, he said: "It's great but the added burden is that you can't pretend you don't have something ready to say, so it's swings and roundabouts.
"But I'm absolutely thrilled, it's beyond a fantastic honour because it's from the people I've worked among for decades."
When asked for his highlights in Scottish TV and film this year, Paterson joked that he was eyeing up a role in BBC Scotland police comedy Scot Squad.
"I love Scot Squad, I think it's just fantastic," he said.
"I don't often burst out laughing watching contemporary comedy in the way that I used to but this makes me do it. It's great and if there's a part in Scot Squad then I'm ready."
Former Taggart and Pirates Of The Caribbean actor Alex Norton said: "I think it's the most wonderful thing and richly deserved. I'm obviously consumed by jealousy but I can't think of anyone who deserves it more."
The Legend Of Barney Thomson won the feature film award and best actress in a film for Emma Thompson.
Sharon Rooney won the best TV actress award for My Mad Fat Diary, while Ken Stott took the equivalent male award for his performance in The Missing. David Elliot was named best actor in a film for Kajaki.
Jude MacLaverty, director of Bafta Scotland, said: "It has been a wonderful evening and this year's winners highlight the diversity of international and national projects choosing Scotland as a filming destination and the rich seam of Scottish talent working throughout the UK.
"We offer our warmest congratulations to all our worthy winners."
Who won the awards?
Outstanding contribution to film and TV - Bill Paterson
Outstanding contribution to broadcasting - Dorothy Byrne
Outstanding contribution to craft award - David Balfour
Film actor - David Elliot, for "Kajaki: The True Story"
Television actor - Ken Stott for "The Missing"
Film actress - Emma Thompson for "The Legend of Barney Thomson"
Television actress - Sharon Rooney for "My Mad Fat Diary"
Animation - "Stems", Ainslie Henderson, Poppy Acroyd, Michael Hughes, Will Anderson
Children's programme - "The Dog Ate my Homework", production team, BBC Scotland/CBBC
Comedy/entertainment - "Mrs Brown's Boys", Brendan O'Carroll, Stephen McCrum, Ben Kellett, Martin Delany- BBC Scotland/BBC One
Current affairs - Low Pay Britain (Dispatches), Richard Cookson, Nicole Kleeman, Morland Sanders - Firecrest Films/Channel 4
Director film/television - Donald Coutts for "Katie Morag"
Factual series - "Being Sixteen in 2014", Natalie Moss, Jude Suggett, Andrew Lockyer, Matt Pinder- BBC Scotland/BBC Two Scotland
Feature film - "The Legend of Barney Thomson",  John G. Lenic, Brian Coffey, Kaleena Kiff, Robert Carlyle - Sigma Films/Trinity Works Entertainment/Icon Film Distribution
Features/factual entertainment - "It was Alright in the 70s", production team Objective Scotland/Channel 4
Game - "Distant Star: Revenant Fleet", by Blazing Griffin
Short film - Mining Poems or Odes, Callum Rice, Jack Cocker of Scottish Documentary Institute
Single documentary - "The Bridge: Fifty Years Across the Forth", production team TVI Vision/BBC One Scotland
Television drama - "Glasgow Girls", Brian Welsh, Colin Barr, Kate Cook - Minnow Films/BBC Three
Writer film/television - Gregory Burke for '71


Harlequins and Gloucester shared 10 tries in an epic 39-39 Premiership draw at Twickenham.

The lead exchanged hands on several occasions before Harlequins fly-half Nick Evans missed a last-minute drop-goal to win the game for the hosts.
A crowd of more than 70,000 enjoyed a feast of points and four tries before half-time as Gloucester led 17-15.
Quins' Ross Chisholm and Gloucester's Harry Trinder both scored twice, while Rob Cook grabbed the pick of the tries.
Both sides go away with a bonus point but neither were able to get the decisive score on a day which saw England captain Chris Robshaw return to Twickenham for the first time since his team's disappointing World Cup campaign came to a premature end.
In a side-plot to the main event, England winger Jonny May limped off for Gloucester in the second half with an apparent knee injury.
Jeremy Thrush scored the opening try for the visitors after seven minutes before Gloucester open-side flanker Matt Kvesic, who produced a man-of-the-match performance, played a pivotal role in his side's second try, scored by fly-half James Hook.
The Wales international then saw his fellow countryman Jamie Roberts inspire a Harlequins comeback on his first Premiership start for the club.
Marland Yarde and Danny Care crossed in the first half for Conor O'Shea's men to put them back in contention.
Trinder extended Gloucester's lead after the break with his first try before four action-filled second-half minutes produced three tries.
Two went Harlequins' way, through Nick Easter and Chisholm, and then Trinder ran in his second, but pulled a hamstring in the process.
Greig Laidlaw's penalty and Cook's dazzling run through the Harlequins defence seemed to make the win safe for Gloucester.
But Evans kicked the home side to within a converted try and replacement Chisholm raced over once more to level it up again.
Evans attempted a last-gasp drop-goal to win it, but his kick drifted just wide to the right.
Harlequins: Brown; Yarde, Lowe, Roberts, Visser; Evans, Care (capt); Marler, Ward, Collier, Horwill, Matthews, Robshaw, Clifford, Easter.
Replacements: Buchanan, Lambert, Sinckler, Merrick, Wallace, Dickson, Botica, Chisholm.
Gloucester: Cook; Sharples, Meakes, Twelvetrees, May; Hook, Laidlaw (capt); McAllister, Hibbard, Afoa, Thrush, Galarza, Kalamafoni, Kvesic, Morgan.
Replacements: Dawidiuk, Murphy, Doran-Jones, Savage, Rowan, Heinz, Burns, Trinder.
For the latest rugby union news follow @bbcrugbyunion on Twitter.