BBC Two's Horizon programme on the Secret Life of the Cat and our accompanying interactive feature prompted an enormous response from viewers and website readers.

The Horizon team - aided by the Royal Veterinary College and Lincoln and Bristol Universities - tracked dozens of cats using specially-designed GPS collar devices and tiny "cat cams" as part of one of the largest ever research projects into domestic cat behaviour.
The experiment's results - broadcast last week - revealed how cats appeared to be timesharing territory to avoid confrontation with neighbouring felines. The study also suggested cats were becoming increasingly domesticated, visiting each other's houses rather than roaming large distances and hunting.
Here, readers tell the stories of their own cats' antics.
You don't need GPS and cameras to know what your cat gets up to when you have a cat like Clive. He is a wanderer and appears to have no fear. He has only been kept by us because of a collar which not only gives his name, address and telephone number but a message stating "Get me home". So for the past four years, I have spent much of my time collecting him or having him delivered home.
He is infamous in our neighbourhood. The schoolchildren love him and the dogs in the park are totally baffled by him. I have collected him from over 100 locations, both residential and commercial. He has visited and been collected from the vets, the nursery, the school, the station a-mile-and-a-half away, various pubs, shops - including Tesco and Costa - the petrol station, the park, the fair, puppy training classes, the dog show, the leisure centre, to name but a few.
He has come home with coloured feet (after an encounter with teenagers) and has been responsible for a broken arm (a little boy learning to ride a bike got overexcited to see him) and for a referee having to stop a football match in the park. He has also been found in my daughter's maths class (to the children's delight), attended drill at the cadets and set off a security scare in middle of the night at the local flower show tent.
Our black cat Scamp went missing - one of a pair of inseparable brothers. A neighbour said they saw a black cat jump into the back of a delivery lorry. We contacted the delivery company and the driver said that a black cat flew out, past his ear, at his next stop - Chipping Norton (50 miles away) - and ran off into gardens.
We spent long evenings and weekends in Chipping Norton searching for him, but eventually and very sadly gave him up for lost. A week or so later, he trots in through our cat flap apparently none the worse for wear. We can never be certain that he made that journey, but it's heart-warming to think that he did.
Nimbus is the adored cat of my daughter and he came to stay with his cousins, my four cats and two dogs (as he has done in the past many times) whilst his parents left for a week in England. We live around 9km apart.  Two days into his stay, Nimbus decided that he no longer liked collective life, and our female Maine Coon, Dixie, was giving him grief. He disappeared.
Three days of printing and distributing posters and photos, calling him and rattling the "munchie" tin came to no avail. I had to break the news to my daughter before she returned home - a cold frosty reception awaited me at the airport.
Next morning, as [my daughter] was eating breakfast, crying into her cornflakes, the cat flap went and in walked Nimbus. He'd been away for six days. He washed himself, ate a bowl of cat nuts and settled down to sleep for three days. His journey had to have taken him across a river, a stream and four main busy roads.
In 1986 we moved from London to Billericay bringing with us our two cats Penny and Henry. Penny had found Henry as an almost dead young cat and brought him home to us to care for. He proved a real character and, after settling into our new home, Henry quickly became a dominant male in the area.
His strangest habit was to leave the house in summertime, walk to the nearest main road and get on the bus. This was no ordinary bus, however, but a circular route that started and ended at Henry's stop. Between circuits, the drivers used to open the door, check for lost property and generally make sure everything was OK before starting their next run. At that point, Henry would board, taking a seat at the back and getting to know the passengers during the route.
When he had [done] the [route] a couple of times he would then disembark, and wend his way home! No-one seemed to mind, but the drivers used to try and get him off. Most people said to leave him as he knew where he was. When we still lived in London he used to follow me to work and sit under my desk as I worked at the local solicitors. He was much missed when he eventually passed at the grand old age of 20.
Our cat, Bramble, would pack his bags and disappear for the same week every single year... without fail! This often coincided with the family holiday, so we did wonder whether he was going in hunt of us. He died six years ago at the ripe old age of 18 and where he went each summer will always remain a mystery!
Our cat George, an 11-year old Siamese cross Devon Rex, doesn't venture far but he does constantly seek out company. We have a gym down the road where he visits regularly, entering the aerobic classes and weights room. He also comes back smelling of perfume and occasionally has lipstick on him.
We came outside our house one night to see him in "conversation" with two other cats - no fighting just sitting on the fence. The two other cats disappeared as soon as we were seen. He also appears to seek out kittens in the immediate area for playing with.
Our cat Amber is a rescue cat and she likes to come along when we walk the dog. She follows behind on the street and hides behind lampposts when you turn around. Then they play together in the park.
We know she goes quite a way as we often get calls from people (she has a tag) and have to go and pick her up in the car. One time, the local school called me as she wouldn't leave the playground and was "distracting" the kids.
The furthest she ever travelled was a mile away, crossing a busy road at some point. Fortunately, a cat lover found her and phoned us. She is also fearless and once biffed a Rottweiler on the nose. He retreated.
Paddy, nearly three, very pale Siamese, roams, hunts and regularly fights. Loves being with me. Very curious.  Sufficiently so that he travelled on an empty furniture truck from home, via a delivery to Chesham Bois [Bucks], overnight stop in High Wycombe, to arrive 48 hours later in Liskeard [Cornwall].
The removal van was checked by the driver at the stopover in High Wycombe and I was told Paddy was definitely not with them.  But the following morning I received a message saying a skinny white cat was found running around their yard in Liskeard.  They finally caught him and he was kept in a packing box in the office and fed turkey steak until he was taken to a local cattery to prevent further escape.  I was hugely relieved as he does spend every evening at my side when I'm home.
Paddy was eventually rescued by a lovely friend of my daughter's, Lyndon Ogbourne from Emmerdale, who bravely drove to Liskeard and back, to bring a very noisy Paddy home. A knight in shining armour!
Where I lived previously, Tiggy used to visit my neighbour's house through an upstairs window and drink the milk out of her Teasmade in the bedroom. How Tiggy found out about it, I don't know.  It was only my neighbour waking one night and seeing her that they found out. She never visited them normally.
My cat Rosie went outside one sunny afternoon and returned three months later. On the day she went missing it was a very sunny day (for Scotland) and there were lots of people out on the street - BBQs, garden parties etc. I think she got scared and ran away. I looked for her and asked the neighbours to keep an eye out. She was reported missing to the SSPCA and I gave her details to the local vets.
Three months later I got a call from the SSPCA saying my cat had been found! She actually wasn't that far away, but had based herself in one of the more posh areas of the town! I brought her home and she came in and curled up on the sofa like nothing had happened. I had to de-flea the whole house.
Watch Horizon's Secret Life of the Cat on BBC iPlayer until Wednesday 17 July.
Compiled by Lucy Rodgers.


An angler died when he took his fishing boat out to sea alone for the first time, an inquest heard.

Chris Newton, 57, was fishing off the coast at Cadgwith, Cornwall, in December 2013 when he went overboard.
Sam James, the co-owner of the boat, believes the Coastguard should have called on the search and rescue helicopter earlier in the operation.
The Coastguard said all of the correct procedures had been followed. A jury returned a verdict of accidental death.
Mr Newton left Cadgwith on his vessel, the Amy Jane, at about 12:30 GMT on 4 December. He was expected to return five hours later.
The inquest in Truro heard Mr James became increasingly anxious when he failed to return and called the Coastguard at 18:51 GMT.
Falmouth Coastguard alerted the Lizard lifeboat, coastal rescue teams and all vessels in the area.
The survey vessel, Triad, found Mr Newton in the water at 19:51 GMT. A helicopter was called and arrived at 20:08 GMT.
Mr Newton was taken by helicopter to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro but went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at 21:10 GMT.
The inquest heard Mr Newton, a former director of environment for the States of Jersey, had been out on the 3.9m (13ft) boat with Mr James several times but never alone.
Giving evidence, Mr James said he thought "a helicopter would have been tasked immediately" when he reported the missing boat.
James Instance, Falmouth Coastguard rescue centre manager, said they were initially dealing with "a vessel overdue".
He said as soon as it was known a man was in the water the rescue helicopter was alerted and sent to the scene.
John McCorquodale, inspector with the Marine Accident Investigation Branch, told the inquest it was impossible to say for certain what had led to Mr Newton's death.
He said: "The boat was steered from a standing position.
"If Chris had removed his hand from the tiller to do something in the main part of the boat it is possible that the engine could have moved suddenly, causing the boat to veer sharply off course and throw him overboard."
Mr Newton was wearing a lifejacket but did not have a personal location beacon (PLB) or VHF radio.
A jury of nine people returned the verdict of accidental death.


Six men and two women have died in a crash involving a minibus and two lorries on the M1 near Milton Keynes.

All of those who died were travelling in the minibus, which was from the Nottingham area.
A five-year-old girl, a woman and a man are being treated in hospital with life-threatening injuries, while another woman has serious injuries.
The two lorry drivers have been arrested, one of them on suspicion of driving while over the alcohol limit.
Both men are being questioned on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and are in police custody.
The crash happened on the southbound M1 at Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire just before 03:15 BST.
South Central Ambulance Service said those injured in the collision were taken to hospitals in Milton Keynes, Coventry and Birmingham.
Police said some of those involved in the collision were visiting the UK from India.
The vehicles were all travelling in the same direction between junctions 15 and 14, police said.
Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire and Rescue Service said it had sent six crews as well as three search and rescue vehicles to the scene.
Firefighters used hydraulic equipment to release three people from a vehicle.
Thames Valley Police said the two lorry drivers, one aged 31 and from Worcestershire, the other aged 53 from Stoke-on-Trent, were being questioned.
The 31-year-old man was detained on suspicion of one count of causing death by dangerous driving and one count of driving a motor vehicle when above the legal alcohol limit.
Pictures appear to show extensive damage to the lorries involved - a FedEx vehicle and one belonging to AIM Logistics.
Ismail Elmagdoub, director of AIM Logistics, based in Evesham, Worcestershire, said: "One of our vehicles was involved in a serious incident on the M1 southbound, junction 14 this morning at approximately 3am.
"We would like to express our deepest sympathy to the families who have lost loved ones and also those whom have been injured at this very sad time.
"Road safety and compliance is of the utmost importance to AIM Logistics and we are continuing to assist the police as much as possible with their inquiries."
The road was closed for several hours while investigation work took place.


A picture of a hamster 'wearing' spectacles has been named the winner in the junior section of a pet photography contest.

The picture, taken by Charlotte, who's 14 and from Colchester in Essex, shows Pip the hamster on some books looking very studious!
Charlotte said: "She was originally the school hamster, but lives with me and my family in her retirement.
"To make my image I decided to gather some school textbooks and glasses to put Pip behind.
"I thought this was the best way to express her characteristics, as she is quite an intelligent hamster."
The charity PetSavers who run the competition each year, say they've had more entries this time than ever before.


Great Britain gained a record 56 medals as Paralympic champion David Weir won his fourth gold at the IPC Athletics European Championships.

The team won five medals in the final session in Italy to surpass their total of 52, achieved two years ago.
Weir held off a late fightback from Russia's Aleksei Bychenok to win the T54 1500m in three minutes 18.50 seconds, 0.03secs ahead of his rival.
"The time was quite slow for me but I was all right," Weir said afterwards.
"I knew I had it covered. Heinz Frei broke early and I wasn't expecting that. With 500m to go, I didn't know whether to go behind Aleksei Bychenok or go round.
"I made the decision to go around him in case he had nothing else in the tank. I had to go the long way round but it was a good race."
On the final day's action, the British women's T35-38 4x100m relay team produced one of the finest performances of the championships on their way to gold, setting a world record of 51.63 seconds.
The quartet of Olivia Breen, Maria Lyle, Georgie Hermitage and Sophie Hahn made a series of confident handovers to regain the relay title from Russia, who won two years ago.
Four-time European gold medallist Hermitage, who set her third world record of the week, said: "I enjoyed the bend. It may not have been the smoothest of changeovers by me and Maria but we have a great relationship and it is something we can work on.
"We still broke a world record and you could see that there is so much to come. Whatever happens, we are going to be formidable."
Isaac Towers completed the full set of medals with gold in the T34 800m final. Towers held off the experienced Henry Manni of Finland in the final 400m to secure a championship record time of 1:44.67.
"It is good to know I can mix it with the best and is a very good marker as we go into the last few weeks before Rio," said Towers.
In the same race, Ben Rowlings earned his second bronze medal of the week by finishing with a time of 1:49.14.
It was agony for Laura Sugar in the T44 100m final, as she had to settle for a silver medal after being edged out in the last 80m by T44 world number one Irmgard Bensusan.


A dry dock at Kishorn in the north west Highlands is to be used for the first time in 23 years.

The facility was built to help with the construction of the North Sea oil and gas industry's Ninian Central Platform in the 1970s.
The dry dock was last used for the construction of supports for the Skye Bridge. These were moved out of Kishorn to Skye in 1994.
The dock will now to be used for the Kincardine Offshore Windfarm project.
Once constructed, the renewable energy scheme will be one of the world's largest floating offshore wind farms.
The 50MW eight-turbine wind farm will be constructed nine miles (15km) south east of Aberdeen.
The Scottish government has said that, once operational, it will have the capacity to power the equivalent of almost 56,000 homes.
The dry dock is part of the Kishorn Yard, which was developed in the 1970s as a manufacturing and fabrication yard for oil platforms.
Between 1975 and 1987, it was owned by Howard Doris Ltd and in 1977 more than 3,000 people were employed at the site.
There was not enough accommodation for so many workers in this part of the north west Highlands coast so two retired cruise ships, Rangatira and the Odysseus, were brought in to accommodate them.
The yard was used in the construction of the North Sea oil and gas industry's massive Ninian Central Platform in the late 1970s.
This structure weighed 600,000 tonnes once completed, making it the largest man-made moveable object at the time. Seven tugs were required to tow it from Loch Kishorn to its North Sea site.
The dry dock was last used in the 1990s for the making of two caissons to support the Skye Bridge.
Two hundred jobs are to be created at Kishorn in Wester Ross where large concrete substructures for the turbines are to be made.
The dry dock is one of the largest in Europe and the new work will involve materials from a nearby quarry operated by Leith's.
Carlos Barat, director of the wind farm project, said: "This is a significant development for the people of Kishorn and will directly lead to the creation of up to 200 much-needed jobs in the area.
"We are proud that we are able to support local business as we progress towards bringing this important development forward.
"Today's agreement to use Kishorn dry dock will herald a new era for offshore renewables and, of course, for this area as the terrific potential this facility offers the country is realised."
Simon Russell, a director of Kishorn Port Limited, said: "The combination of Leith's on-site quarry at Kishorn with one of the largest dry docks in western Europe makes the yard an ideal location for manufacturing large concrete structures.
"This, combined with the expertise of Ferguson Transport and Shipping in operating and managing the port, will breathe new life into an area that has suffered for many years from a lack of commercial investment."
Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy Paul Wheelhouse, who visited Kishorn on Friday, said: "I am delighted to be here in Kishorn today to witness the signing of the exclusivity agreement between Kishorn Port Ltd and the team developing the Kincardine Offshore wind farm - a key, newly consented floating offshore windfarm.
"This agreement paves the way for work to begin at Kishorn dry dock constructing the Kincardine Floating Offshore Windfarm, which will produce enough electricity to power almost 56,000 homes."
Highlands and Islands Enterprise has invested Â£158,932 in the Â£450,000 costs of upgrading the dry dock in readiness for new contracts.
HIE's area manager for Skye, Lochaber and Wester Ross, Robert Muir, said: "It is great to see Kishorn coming to life again.
"The dock has huge potential, not just for renewables, but for oil and gas and aquaculture too.
"The site will provide valuable rural jobs and contribute to both economic and community growth, and wider competitiveness of the region. We very much welcome this milestone today."


What kind of candidate, a few months ahead of elections, takes it on himself to offend a list of people that includes judges and lawyers, immigrants and Muslims, footballers and intellectuals, political allies as well as enemies, the intelligence community and his ex-girlfriend too?

The answer is Francois Hollande.
In a collection of interviews just published by two Le Monde journalists, the French president unburdens himself, in astonishingly cavalier style, of a series of revealing jibes:
There's more. Presidential predecessor and Republican candidate Nicolas Sarkozy is a "crude mini-De Gaulle" and a "Duracell rabbit". The Greens are a "cynical pain in the butt" and left-wing rebels are a "crowd of idiots".
And, on a personal note, ex-partner Valerie Trierweiler was a traitor because she lied about his famous "toothless" quote about the poor.
Perhaps most damaging of all, not a jibe but a revelation: the admission that he personally ordered the assassination of four enemies of the state, presumably militants in the Middle East. The secret services must be fuming.
Friends in the Socialist Party, still hoping Mr Hollande might have a decent shot at a second term in April, are flabbergasted at the president's verbal carelessness. They fear it has already undermined his nascent campaign.
Others are more blunt. For more than one commentator, the book - called appropriately A President Should Not Say That - is little less than an act of "political suicide".
"How do you manage to turn your camp into a field of ruins, fill your friends with despair and your enemies with rejoicing,  and weaken your own position just a little bit more?" asked Le Monde.
"Francois Hollande has found the recipe."
The interviews, 60 in all, were accumulated over the last five years by Gerard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme.
The president received them regularly at the Elysee Palace and they chatted. The journalists made no secret of their intention of writing a book, and Mr Hollande agreed to their condition of no copy-vetting.
In his defence, it has been argued that the controversial comments were made a long time ago - and it is easy to take things out of context.
All he was trying to do, plead the president's dwindling band of loyalists, was keep his promise of being a "normal" president by opening his doors, as well as his thoughts, to the press.
But, off the record, many Socialists are exasperated by what they see as a kind of narcissistic self-indulgence on the part of their leader.
What psychological impulse can it be, they ask, that made him spend so much time baring himself to journalists? How could he have been so naive?
More from Hugh:
With the book selling out in shops across Paris, the damage is already visible.
In a poll, 78% of those surveyed said it was a mistake for Mr Hollande to give the interviews. An even greater figure, 86%, said they did not want him to run for a second term.
Until now Mr Hollande has kept his career options open.
A Socialist primary will be held in January, and the president will announce if he is a candidate only after the centre-right holds its primary next month.
The consensus until this week was that the president would indeed run again, despite record unpopularity and the failure of his solemn vow to bring down unemployment.
The argument, as ever with Mr Hollande, is that only a bridge-builder like himself can bring together the two competing wings of the Socialists. The existence of rival candidates - Arnaud Montebourg on the left, Emmanuel Macron on the right - tends to reinforce that case.
But now more and more people in the party are pondering whether the president might not be an outright liability.
"It's bewildering. I lack the words to say what I think: something between a hammer-blow to the head, and the straw that broke the camel's back," one Socialist MP told Le Monde after reading extracts from the book.
"Imagine burying your grandmother when she is still alive; that's roughly the ambience at party HQ," said another.
The president's unguarded quips have already led to a series of angry rejoinders from his targets.
Magistrates said they were "stupefied" by his criticism, and the Union of Professional Football Players said: "Sorry to disappoint you, but not all of us are thick."
Mr Hollande's ex-partner Valerie Trierweiler sent out a tweet to contradict his denial that he had mockingly called the poor "toothless".  In the book Mr Hollande says that her original accusation to that effect, made after the pair had split, was an "odious act of treachery".
For many commentators, the interviews are symptomatic of his original mistake when he defined himself as a "normal" president in contrast with the frantic "hyper-president" Nicolas Sarkozy.
As political scientist Gerard Grunberg pointed out, in such abnormal times, France was not looking for a normal president.


Carlisle United have agreed a one-year deal with striker Jabo Ibehre, with a view to a further 12 months.

Ibehre, 32, left Colchester United at the end of last season after loan spells at Oldham and Barnsley, three of his eight professional clubs.
His most profitable spell came with Leyton Orient, for whom he scored 41 goals in 243 appearances.
"Jabo will give us a focal point," Cumbrians boss Keith Curle told the club website.
"I've said before that we have needed more attacking options. He's a good, solid professional."


The leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Mike Nesbitt, has announced that his party will go into opposition at Stormont.

He told the new assembly at its first sitting that the move "heralds a new era for devolved politics at Stormont".
Mr Nesbitt added: "Let battle commence."
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said his party has not decided yet whether it would go into opposition or government.
Earlier, Mr Nesbitt said his party's decision was a "big, bold step forward to normal democracy".
The UUP's 16 assembly members unanimously agreed on the decision to enter opposition.
He said: "We had two tests which would determine whether we went back into the executive.
"The first was whether it was a progressive programme, and it's clear we won't have the answer for that perhaps until the end of the year.
"The second test was whether the DUP and Sinn Féin were going to allow a sort of collective spirit in terms of delivery.
"And in our short discussions over the last two days, it's very clear the DUP and Sinn Féin are going to retain ownership of the programme for government and what's going to be published is motherhood and apple pie.
"We're not really interested in discussing what type of apples go in the pie. Our concerns run a lot deeper than that.
"So, both tests have been failed. We add in the fact that the chief constable says that nothing has changed in terms of the security situations since last October.
"So, on that basis, we're out."
Mr Nesbitt added that opposition would be stronger and there would be a "more honest" executive if the SDLP and Alliance Party joined the UUP in opposition.
He said that he had not talked with the SDLP yet but "would welcome a discussion with Colum at this point".
Mr Eastwood said his party would decide on whether to go into opposition until after talks over a programme for government had finished.
"We're not focused on big announcements. We're focused on working hard to get a programme of government we can sign up to," he said.
"There's been many negotiations over the last number of years and we've always stuck in to the end.
"We wait until all the negotiation is done and then make a decision. That's the right way to do a negotiation."
He added: "We have a job to do, because now we're the only party holding the DUP and Sinn Féin's feet to the fire to achieve a proper progressive programme for government."
Alliance party leader David Ford congratulated Mr Nesbitt on the "soundbite of the day".
"Some of us recognise that government is a bit more substantial than the soundbite of the day" he said.
Martin McGuinness said he was "deeply disappointed" that the UUP had decided to go into opposition.
"I do think that rather than it be seen as leadership, it will be seen as a lack of leadership," he said.
"It will be seen as a lack of the Ulster Unionist Party's ability to accept the democratically expressed wishes of the people who have charged the DUP and Sinn Féin to lead this administration forward."
He added: "We now wait with considerable interest to see if the SDLP are going to stand by the principles of the Good Friday Agreement."


Wales' players are determined to ensure Euro 2016 is the beginning of their journey at major finals, not the end.

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After a 58-year failure to qualify for a major tournament, Wales reached the semi-finals in France where they were defeated by Portugal.
Fans say Wales' heroics have changed football in the country forever and Chris Coleman's side now aim to reach the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
"We can keep this momentum going," Liverpool midfielder Joe Allen said.
"We are all very proud of what we have done and hope this is the benchmark and that we can look forward to more future success."
Wales began the tournament as one of the outsiders but caused a shock by topping Group B, finishing above England despite losing to their neighbours.
They then edged past Northern Ireland in the last 16 before upsetting a highly regarded Belgium side 3-1 in the last eight.
Their return to Cardiff on Friday saw thousands of fans line the streets to greet a squad that has captured the imagination of the public in an often rugby-obsessed nation.
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Wales begin their World Cup qualifying campaign at home to Moldova on 5 September with Austria, Serbia, the Republic of Ireland and Georgia the other nations standing between Coleman's players and another major finals.
Captain Ashley Williams wants Wales to top their Euro 2016 efforts in Russia.
"We've said to ourselves on the bus, imagine if we had won the tournament. Because looking at the streets, it feels like we have.
"After the Russia World Cup hopefully it will be the same again, but with a trophy."
Wales' talisman Gareth Bale, the world's most expensive footballer, says he could never have imagined as a child that Wales could reach the semi-finals of a major tournament.
"Growing up, maybe not, maybe I didn't dream this was possible," he told BBC Radio Wales Sport.
"It has been the dream of many and we have fulfilled that potential."
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Allen feels Wales have age on their side as they look to qualify for a first World Cup since 1958, when they reached the last eight.
"I definitely feel we have more to give, we are still a young team, we all still have our prime to come and hopefully we can keep this confidence up and keep on growing as a team," he said.
Reading defender Chris Gunter is confident the squad can take their performances to another level.
"I don't think there is any way we won't build on this and will let this go," he said.
"Because these are the foundations for what we want to do for the next number of years and we won't be able to not use this experience and the momentum we now have.
"We need to start the next campaign well, soon this will be in the distant past, so we need to enjoy it while we can."
Who were the best players of Euro 16? Pick your XI using our team selector.


Train operators have said there will be no extra trains back to south Wales after the Rugby World Cup clash between Wales and England at Twickenham.

Wales fans hoping to travel home after Saturday's game said they would be left stranded if they relied on the train.
The last service from Paddington is at 22:00 BST - just 30 minutes after the game is due to finish.
Great Western Railway said the closure of Severn Tunnel for engineering work prevented them putting on more trains.
Meanwhile passengers may face delays travelling to London, after Arriva Trains Wales confirmed delays between Cardiff and Newport due to a cable theft.
Wales and England face each other at Twickenham at 20:00 BST in what is expected to be the most explosive contest of the World Cup so far, as both sides aim to bolster their quarter-final chances.
GWR said less than 2% of match tickets had been sold to fans in Wales - with most staying overnight.
"Given the particularly late kick off and with a journey time from Twickenham to a GWR station of at least an hour - meaning the earliest train to some destinations in south Wales would not arrive until at least 02:00 - most fans from Wales are likely to choose to travel by alternative means, or stay overnight," an official for the train operator said.
"No amount of additional trains would change the fact that the Severn Tunnel is closed, and we are not able to run any more trains through it to get to Wales than we already are.
"The train timetable following the game has been published well in advance and the majority of customers will have planned their return from the match accordingly."
GWR said its plans were also based on match ticket data provided by Rugby World Cup, which said less than 2% of match tickets have been sold in Wales.
Train travel arrangements for the game is the latest in a series of complaints that have marred the start of the tournament, following overcrowding problems at Cardiff Central after the Ireland v Canada game.
It prompted Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb to tell train operators to "fix it".
GWR also had to apologise after fans faced long delays following the Scotland v Japan game in Gloucester and Australia's match against Fiji in Cardiff.
The issues have also seen the Welsh economy minister Edwina Hart intervene to warn train operators that "they've got to get their act in order".
She told assembly members: "I don't very often agree with the secretary of state for Wales, but I do agree with him on this occasion and what he says: 'Can't they just get on with it and actually sort it out?'
However, with five more Rugby World Cup matches still to be played at the Millennium Stadium - including two quarter finals - Cardiff council dismissed any suggestion that delays experienced by rugby fans painted the city in a poor light.
"The positive benefits for the city massively outweigh the negatives - it's a good thing for the city," insisted a spokesman.
Moving tens of thousands of people in and out of the city centre always "poses some challenges" he added, which was why the council had established areas such as fan zones, to ease pressure on the road and rail network, by persuading people to stagger their journeys home.
The council said it was continuing to liaise with rail and bus operators for the upcoming games, with the possibility of increasing capacity for one of two sold-out park-and-ride facilities in the city.


A man has been charged with the kidnap, rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman.

The Metropolitan Police said the 33-year-old had also been charged with the rape, attempted murder and kidnap of a woman in her 20s.
Another man, 28, has been charged with the kidnap of both women.
The teenager's body was found at an address in Coombe Lane West, in Kingston Upon Thames, on Wednesday night, three hours after she had been reported missing, police said.
The second woman had earlier been treated for stab or slash wounds at a south London hospital.
Police had visited the women's addresses in Sutton and Merton following a concerned call about their safety at about 17:00 BST on Wednesday.
The teenager's name has not yet been released, but her next of kin have been informed.
A post-mortem examination revealed the cause of death was a neck wound.
The two men, who have not been named by police, will appear at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court on Monday.


Martyn Margetson has been appointed England goalkeeping coach.

Margetson, 44, was part of Wales manager Chris Coleman's backroom staff at the 2016 European Championship and worked with England boss Sam Allardyce at West Ham.
He will combine his international duties with his role as goalkeeping coach at Cardiff City.
"This is a great opportunity and I am excited to be working alongside Sam again," he said.
"I know what he can bring to a squad and also to the coaching staff."
Margetson takes over from Dave Watson as Allardyce reshuffles his backroom staff.


A "near miss" between a passenger jet and a drone has prompted warnings about safe use of the hobby aircraft.

An Airbus A320's wing passed 6m (20ft) below a drone hovering at Heathrow, said the Civil Aviation Authority.
It said drone pilots would face prosecution if they put the safety of other aircraft at risk.
News about the mid-air encounter comes only days after a Lufthansa jet nearly collided with a drone on the approach to Warsaw's international airport.
The CAA said it had recorded six other incidents between May 2014 and March 2015 at airports around the UK in which drones and piloted craft almost collided.
"Drone users must understand that when taking to the skies they are entering one of the busiest areas of airspace in the world," said Tim Johnson, director of policy at the CAA, in a statement.
Drone owners must be aware of the rules and regulations surrounding the flying of their craft, he said.
Recklessly endangering an aircraft is a criminal offence, said Mr Johnson, and those convicted could face a five-year jail sentence.
The authority has issued a set of safety guidelines which, it said, should help ensure drone flights do not impinge on other aircraft.
The "dronecode" says recreational drone owners should always keep their craft within their line of sight, about 500m (1,640ft), and must not fly higher than 122m. In some of the near-collisions, drones were flying at heights of about 2,000ft, it said.
The code also says that drones carrying cameras must stay at least 50m away from people, vehicles and structures and must not approach a large group of people closer than 150m.
It urged owners to exercise common sense when flying their craft and to avoid the congested airspace around airports.
"Drone operators need to put safety at the forefront of their minds when flying though, and ensure there is no conflict with commercial manned traffic," said Stephen Landells from the British Airline Pilots Association.


An inert US Hellfire missile sent to Europe for a training exercise was wrongly shipped on to Cuba, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The incident in 2014 could have led to a serious loss of military technology, officials told the paper.
US officials have since been trying to get Cuba to return the missile, which did not contain explosives.
Investigators are unclear if the incident was an error or the result of espionage, the paper says.
A US official "with knowledge of the situation", who was not authorised to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity, confirmed the report's veracity to The Associated Press.
The Hellfire is a laser-guided missile that can be deployed from an attack helicopter or an unmanned drone.
Quoting sources close to the investigation, the Wall Street Journal said that the missile had been shipped to Spain in early 2014 to be used in a Nato training exercise.
It was then taken through Spain and Germany and eventually to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris where it was to be shipped back to Florida.
However, it was instead loaded on to an Air France flight to the Cuban capital, Havana.
US officials are worried that Cuba could share the advanced technology inside the missile with countries such as North Korea, China or Russia, the paper adds.
The US and Cuba, once Cold War foes, restored diplomatic relations in July last year.


James Holmes, convicted on 24 counts of murder for shooting 12 people dead at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado, was considered a quiet young man before the attack.

The 27-year-old - also convicted on multiple counts of attempted murder - had been studying for a PhD in neuroscience at the University of Colorado at Denver, although he was about to quit.
"He basically was socially awkward, but not to the degree that would warrant suspicion of mass murder or any atrocity of this magnitude," said Billy Kromka, a research assistant at a lab where he spent several months.
The FBI said he had no significant criminal record - local police said he had a speeding ticket from 2011 - and no links to terrorism.
As well as killing 12 people, he had injured 70 others when he slipped into a midnight screening of Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, armed with a semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun and a pistol on 20 July, 2012.
The prosecution said he was listening to loud techno music on headphones during the assault "to block out the screams" as he opened fire.
He was born on 13 December, 1987 in San Diego County, California, where he spent at least part of his childhood.
In 2006, he graduated from Westview High School in the upmarket district of Torrey Highlands, where his parents still live. A yearbook showed he had played football for the school's junior varsity, or "B" team.
A former classmate, Breanna Hath, said Holmes was extremely quiet, "really sweet, shy" and "didn't have any creepy vibe about him at all".
"There were no real girls he was involved with," she told the Washington Post. "It seemed he was really into a video game group that hung out together."
Intellectually gifted, Holmes won a scholarship to study at the University of California at Riverside, where he gained a bachelor's degree in neuroscience in 2010.
"He had the capability to do anything he wanted academically," Timothy White, the university's chancellor, told reporters.
After graduation Holmes returned to San Diego, where he is said to have struggled to find a job. Eventually, he got part-time work at McDonald's.
In June 2011, he enrolled in the doctoral programme at the University of Colorado at Denver and moved into an apartment building near the Anschutz Medical Campus in the eastern suburb of Aurora.
In his application to rent the apartment, he described himself as "quiet and easy-going", according to the Denver Post.
Gabriel Macias, another resident who works at a nearby factory, said Holmes was "always wearing camouflage pants and a hat".
"We did not know him well because he talked to nobody. He was always locked up behind his door," he told the AFP news agency.
Lab colleague Billy Kromka said he had been one of the quieter people, and had spent much of his time occupied with his computer, often participating in online role-playing games.
By the spring of 2012, Holmes had begun to struggle with his studies and failed a key exam.
He was also the patient of Dr Lynne Fenton, a university psychiatrist, whom he sent a notebook days before the attack.
The notebook never reached Dr Fenton, but US media reports have said it included drawings of a violent attack.
Prosecutors have said the doctor-patient relationship ended in June, weeks before the shooting.
His defence lawyers claimed he was mentally ill and one schizophrenia expert testified he was psychotic and legally insane.
But two state-appointed doctors found otherwise.
Holmes' university supervisors had planned to give him remedial instruction, an unnamed faculty member told the Washington Post, but he instead decided to end his studies in early June. The university confirmed he had been "in the process of withdrawing".
In the 60 days leading up to the cinema attack, he legally bought four weapons at local gun shops - an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, two .40-calibre Glock handguns and a 12-gauge Remington shotgun.
Chief Dan Oates of Aurora police said he had also purchased more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition on the internet, including 3,000 rounds for the rifle, 3,000 for the Glocks and 300 for the shotgun.
The month before the attack, the owner of a gun range rejected Mr Holmes' application after hearing a "bizarre - guttural, freakish" message on his voicemail.
On 20 July, the suspect was arrested in the car park of the Aurora multiplex cinema where the shootings were carried out.
He was in possession of several firearms, and surrendered without incident.
Mr Holmes' hair had been dyed red in an apparent reference to the Joker, a Batman villain.
He had booby-trapped his apartment with explosive chemical and incendiary devices linked by wires, intended to distract emergency responders from the cinema shooting.
The devices were later defused by a police bomb squad.


Xherdan Shaqiri and Glen Johnson are not expected to be fit to return for Stoke on Saturday.

However, Ramadan Sobhi is available following the completion of the Africa Cup of Nations.
Luka Milivojevic is available for Crystal Palace after securing a visa, while Mamadou Sakho could also make his debut for the club.
Fellow new signing Jeffrey Schlupp is in contention after a hamstring strain but Scott Dann is injured.
John Motson: "Only goal difference is keeping Crystal Palace off the foot of the table. Their league position can't get much worse but you have to wonder when, or if, it will improve.
"Under Alan Pardew and now Sam Allarydce, Palace have only won seven of their last 45 league fixtures - losing 27.
"One of those wins was a 4-1 thumping of Stoke in September but the current bad run started after another victory against the Potters, at the bet365 Stadium in December 2015.
"Can they emulate that win? Well, mid-table Stoke have only won twice in 10 games but a point might be viewed as a step in the right direction for Palace."
Stoke City manager Mark Hughes: "The game will be difficult for us because clearly Palace had a poor performance and result last time out, and you would imagine without a doubt there will be a reaction from them.
"They are struggling a little bit for form and in a bad place - but actually I view it as probably the worst result for us because you know they will be better than they were last week.
"We have to be ready and make sure that we impose our game on them, and not vice versa."
Crystal Palace manager Sam Allardyce on last week's 4-0 home defeat by Sunderland: "By the end of Sunday morning it was all clear what we'd been through and how we'd let ourselves down.
"It is something we don't want to do again, I don't want to bring them in at seven o'clock in the morning just to get it out of the way but hopefully it has had the desired effect.
"Last Saturday at home, it was like a hot knife through butter as they say, we were wide open and had no defensive solidarity so we have got to get back to knowing what gets us out of the position we are in."
Stoke did not create many chances in their defeat at West Brom last week but they always cause teams problems at home, which is bad news for Palace.
Prediction: 2-1
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November's Black Friday sales failed to boost turnover at UK stores according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and accountants KPMG.

Sales in November at stores open for more than a year fell 0.4% from the same month in 2014.
The BRC/KPMG survey found shoppers held back in the hope of big discounts on Black Friday, 28 November.
But in the event, many retailers did not make the discounts that shoppers had been hoping for.
David McCorquodale, head of retail at KPMG, said: "November's relatively flat sales figures are a reality check for the retail sector with consumers holding off for a Black Friday bargain pitted against retailers determined to hold onto their hard-earned margins.
"Despite the hype around Black Friday, there was minimal loosening of the family purse strings compared to last year."
Total sales across all stores increased by just 0.7%, compared with a rise of 2.2% last year.
However, online sales of non-food item outperformed, up 11.8% on last year.
Black Friday produced the expected spike in sales, with trading up 25% compared with the beginning of the month. Sales in furniture, and large and small electrical appliances, were higher than last year.
However, the BRC said an increase in "omni-channel" shopping, with consumers using a mix of online and in-store purchases. made it hard to know how and when people would spend their money in the crucial Christmas shopping period.
Helen Dickinson, BRC chief executive, said: "As consumers and retailers continue to adapt to the changing patterns of omni-channel shopping, where the lines between channels become less and less relevant, this build-up to Christmas is one of the hardest to read in years.
"The conversion of people's higher disposable income into retail sales shouldn't be taken for granted."


Bertha - thought to be the world's oldest hippopotamus in captivity - has died in the Philippines, aged 65.

The hippo was longest-serving resident of Manila Zoo, and staff say she was there, aged seven, when it opened in 1959.
Her age cannot be independently verified as the zoo has no paperwork on her origins.
However, the typical life span of a hippo is between 40 and 50 years.
"Bertha was among the pioneer animals here," zoo director James Dichaves told AFP news agency.
The zoo said she enjoyed a diet of grass, fruit and bread.
Its oldest resident is now Mali, a 43-year-old Asian elephant.
Earlier this year, animal rights activists launched a petition calling for Mali to be transferred to a wildlife sanctuary in Thailand.


A sculpture outside Skegness rail station is to reopen to the public 21 months after it was closed when a boy on a bike was injured trying to ride over it.

The wave design artwork was part of a Â£720,000 scheme to create a plaza outside the station.
A new statue of the Jolly Fisherman, the resort's mascot, is also being installed.
The sculpture was cordoned off in February 2012 after the accident.
Lincolnshire County Council now plans to install metal studs on the artwork to deter people from using it as a "playground".
But John Byford, from East Lindsey District Council, questioned why it had taken so long for the work to be done.
He said: "Tens of thousands of people still arrived by train to Skegness and that first impression counts.
"We have to have it right for them and it's not been right for nearly two years."
Colin Davie, from Lincolnshire County Council, conceded: "Quite honestly it's health and safety gone mad - this should have been sorted out a long time ago - but I'm pleased we've now got a solution."
The county has apologised for the delay and is coinciding the work with the installation of a new version of the Jolly Fisherman.
The mascot first appeared on a 1908 railway poster advertising the Lincolnshire coastal resort.


Former England international Nicky Shorey has been appointed as a coach by League Two strugglers Stevenage.

The 35-year-old, who played twice for his country, will join Darren Sarll's backroom team as Stevenage look to move up from 20th place.
The former Reading, West Bromwich Albion and Portsmouth left-back made more than 460 career appearances.
He featured for National League South side Hungerford Town this season, having left Colchester in the summer.


Militants in a rebel-held area of northern Syria have abducted two bishops travelling from the Turkish border back to the city of Aleppo.

The kidnapping was reported by Syrian state media and confirmed by a member of the official opposition leadership.
Yohanna Ibrahim is head of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Aleppo and Boulos Yaziji leads the Greek Orthodox Church in the city.
They are the most senior Christian clerics caught up directly in the war.
It was not immediately clear who had kidnapped them.
Christians made up about 10% of the mainly Sunni Muslim country's population before the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began just over two years ago.
According to the UN, at least 70,000 people have been killed overall in the civil war and more than one million are now living as refugees in neighbouring countries.
State TV announced that an "armed terrorist group" had kidnapped the two bishops as they carried out "humanitarian work in Aleppo countryside".
Abdulahad Steifo, a Syriac member of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, said the men had been kidnapped on the road to Aleppo from the rebel-held Bab al-Hawa crossing, which is close to the Turkish town of Reyhanli.
Asked who was behind their abduction, he said: "All probabilities are open."
Christian residents of Aleppo, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP news agency that gunmen had killed the bishops' driver.
In an interview with BBC Arabic's Saeed Shehada a week ago, Bishop Ibrahim said he was optimistic about the future of Christians in Syria:
"There is no persecution of Christians and there is no single plan to kill Christians. Everyone respects Christians. Bullets are random and not targeting the Christians because they are Christians," he said.


Two late tries gave Sale victory over Bath and moved the Sharks into the Premiership's top six.

Sale, unbeaten at home in the top flight since April 2015, were 17-9 ahead at half-time through Vadim Cobilas and Will Addison tries.
George Ford's boot brought Bath's only points of the half, but Semesa Rokoduguni crossed and Ford kicked again to draw them level.
However, David Seymour and Mark Easter gave the hosts a bonus-point win.
There was concern towards the end of the game at the AJ Bell Stadium for Bath and England centre Kyle Eastmond, though, who received lengthy treatment after a tackle by Will Addison and was eventually taken off on a stretcher.
Victory for Sale moved them to within eight points of Leicester in the final play-off spot, and also meant that third-placed Exeter Chiefs are still yet to be confirmed as top-four finishers.
Sale were on the scoreboard early as prop Cobilas found a gap from five metres out, before Addison took advantage of neat overlapping play to touch down his fourth Premiership try of the season.
But Ford's boot kept his side within touching distance and, after having an 80-metre solo first-half try ruled out for a deliberate knock-on, Rokoduguni finished off a flowing Bath move.
Ford's penalty soon drew the visitors level, but he then missed an easy kick to put them ahead, while opposite number Danny Cipriani also scuppered two attempts for three points.
But, after sustained pressure and with Bath down to 14 men after lock Dominic Day's sin-binning, Seymour finished from a maul and Easter added gloss to the scoreline as the clock ticked towards 80 minutes.
Sale director of rugby Steve Diamond:
"If we win our last three games we'll get there (European Champions Cup qualification). We know where we're at, we know how good we are and we just have to keep building the team.
"Bath proved what a good side they are today and it went down to the wire.
"It was 17-17 for a long time and it was error-strewn from us in the second half having struggled with a bit of ill-discipline, but we managed to get a bit of field position in the last 10 minutes."
Bath coach Neal Hatley:
"We put ourselves in a position to win the game and we're really disappointed we didn't make the most of those opportunities.
"At 17-17 we felt that we had real control of the game. From a set-piece point of view, I thought we were well in control and we just didn't make the most of it."
On Kyle Eastmond's injury: "He took a heavy shot so the good news is that he's up and moving around.
"He seems in good spirits in the changing rooms and we'll look after him over the next day or so just to make sure we know exactly where he is."
Sale: Haley; Addison, James, Tuitupou (capt), Edwards; Cipriani, Stringer; Lewis-Roberts, Taylor, Cobilas, Evans, Ostrikov, Neild, Ioane, Easter.
Replacements: Briggs, Harrison, Mujati, Mills, Seymour, Mitchell, Ford, Brady.
Bath: Priestland; Rokoduguni, Joseph, Devoto, Banahan; Ford (capt), Cook; Catt, Webber, Thomas, Day, Attwood, Garvey, Mercer, Houston.
Replacements: Dunn, Auterac, Wilson, Ewels, Denton, Mafi, Homer, Eastmond.
For the latest rugby union news follow @bbcrugbyunion on Twitter.


Leinster crushed a spirited Ulster by a record Heineken Cup final-winning margin to become the first side to win three titles in four years.

Sean O'Brien and Cian Healy tries put Leinster 14-6 up at half-time, Ruan Pienaar landing two penalties in reply.
A penalty try on the resumption put the defending champions 21-6 ahead before Dan Tuohy's try gave Ulster hope.
But late scores from replacements Heinke van der Merwe and Sean Cronin set a new final record of five tries.
Leinster became only the second team, after Leicester a decade ago, to successfully defend the Heineken Cup, and the second after Toulouse to win more than two European titles.
While the French giants remain the benchmark with four European crowns, Leinster's 100% record in their three finals and the style in which they have won them has already seen them acclaimed in some quarters as the best Heineken Cup team ever.
In front of a record final crowd of 81,744, their leading lights shone. Rob Kearney was his usual immaculate self under the high ball, Brian O'Driscoll produced several sumptuous offloads including a pearler in the build-up to the second try, and O'Brien was hugely influential.
Ulster, the first of the Irish provinces to win the trophy 13 years ago, started strongly. Centre Darren Cave jinked through a hole in midfield, John Afoa and Stephen Ferris carried strongly, and Pienaar calmly stroked home the first points after seven minutes.
But Leinster started to weave their patterns and launch their off-loading game, and the first try arrived in the 13th minute after they won a turnover on the Ulster 22.
Referee Nigel Owens had already signalled a penalty but the powerful O'Brien sensed an opening and slipped through Tom Court's tackle from close range.
After a lengthy consultation, the television match official ruled the flanker had managed to get just enough downward pressure on the ball, and Sexton's conversion made it 7-3, before he dragged a subsequent penalty attempt wide.
Ulster, expected to play a territorial kicking game, seemed intent on showing it was not just Leinster who could trip the light fantastic.
"We've worked hard in the last 10 months and today was the day where we had to for go it and thankfully we got the win.  It's a strong squad and we really want to kick on. Every time we put on a blue shirt there's an energy around us"
Leinster's man of the match Sean O'Brien
A series of off-loads from their forwards - Pedrie Wannenburg, Rory Best, Afoa and Chris Henry in a sparkling move - almost saw full-back Stefan Terblanche worked over in the left corner.
Leinster immediately broke out into Ulster territory, where Eoin Reddan appeared unsure whether he had the pace to get to the line and was held short in the right corner, before O'Driscoll's offload almost put Isa Nacewa over on the left corner.
The legendary centre, who had keyhole surgery on his knee only eight days ago, showed his genius after 31 minutes though, a delicious offload out the back of his hand to the charging O'Brien leading to the second try.
O'Brien weaved around one tackler before being stopped a metre short, but prop Healy - who scored the decisive try in Leinster's semi-final win over Clermont, twisted over out of Andrew Trimble's tackle to score, and Sexton added the extras.
At 14-3 down with nearly 50 minutes to play, things looked ominous for Ulster.
They did fashion a half-chance before half-time only for fly-half Paddy Jackson to go it alone a few metres out with two men outside him. The 20-year-old then showed his inexperience again by fluffing a simple drop-goal attempt inside the Leinster 22.
"Ulster attacked from everywhere and were competitive and fierce but they've come up against one of the great European teams playing an incredible style of rugby. I'm not sure anyone could have lived with Leinster today."
The underdogs needed something before the interval, and Pienaar provided it with a beautifully-struck penalty from several metres inside his own half to bring the first half to a close.
Any thoughts of an Ulster comeback quickly evaporated on the resumption. A thumping tackle from Nacewa on Cave was a statement of intent, and they were ruthless in exploiting Jackson's naivety.
The youngster kicked out on the full from just in front of his own 22 to hand Leinster an attacking platform, his last act before being replaced by Ian Humphreys.
The champions duly built up a head of steam from the line-out and when Trimble dived in to bring down the maul rumbling to the Ulster line, referee Owens had no hesitation in awarding a penalty try.
Sexton's conversion gave Leinster a 15-point cushion, which remained the case after Pienaar and Sexton exchanged penalties in quick succession.
With 24 minutes left and 24-9 down, Ulster passed up the chance of an easy three points in front of the posts in favour of a scrum.  It looked a questionable decision, even more so when Wannenburg's speculative blind pass behind him went forward.
Humphreys then went solo with numbers outside him as another chance went begging. But Ulster kept plugging away, none more so than the admirable Afoa. Their persistence paid off as Paddy Wallace worked some room and popped up a pass for lock Tuohy to dive over in the left corner.
Pienaar missed his first kick of the day to keep it a 10-point game, and Leinster roused themselves to win a penalty that Sexton slotted to keep them in a comfort zone.
He added another to seal victory with six minutes left after Terblanche was sin-binned for a tip tackle on Leinster replacement hooker Cronin.
There was still time for replacement prop Van der Merwe to go over for the fourth try, equalling Brive's record of four tries - and their 19-point winning margin - in the 1997 final.
Fergus McFadden missed the conversion, but when another length-of-the-field move saw Cronin sprint in, it was a fitting way for Leinster to seal their place in Heineken history.
Leinster: R Kearney, F McFadden, B O'Driscoll, G D'Arcy, I Nacewa, J Sexton, E Reddan; C Healy, R Strauss, M Ross, L Cullen (capt), B Thorn, K McLaughlin, S O'Brien, J Heaslip.
Replacements: S Cronin (for Strauss, 67), H Van der Merwe (for Healy, 62), N White (for Ross, 69), D Toner (for Cullen, 58), S Jennings (for McLaughlin, 62), I Boss (for Reddan, 74), I Madigan (for Sexton,74), D Kearney (blood for O'Driscoll, 67-73).
Ulster: S Terblanche, A Trimble, D Cave, P Wallace, C Gilroy, P Jackson, R Pienaar; T Court, R Best, J Afoa, J Muller (capt), D Tuohy, S Ferris, C Henry, P Wannenburg.
Replacements: N Brady (for Brady, 77), P McAllister (for Court, 75), D Fitzpatrick (for Afoa, 74), L Stevenson (for Tuohy, 77), W Faloon (for Henry, 67), P Marshall (for Humphreys, 70), I Humphreys (for Jackson, 46), A D'Arcy (for Cave, 77.
Yellow card: Terblanche (73)
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Attendance: 81,744


A man has been charged with murder over the death of a disabled man whose body was found in Wrexham.

Nicholas Anthony Churton, 67, was found dead at an address in Crescent Close at about 08:20 BST on Monday.
North Wales Police said Jordan Davidson will appear before magistrates in the town on Saturday.
The 25-year-old also faces three charges of robbery, two of burglary and offences against police officers.


The stars of the entertainment and fashion worlds are descending on New York for the annual Met Gala.

Each year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art ball - the biggest night of New York's social calendar - has a different costume theme, and this time round, will be honouring Japanese fashion legend Rei Kawakubo.
The fundraising gala kicks off a special exhibition on the avant-garde designer at the museum.
The reclusive 74-year old is known for pushing boundaries, blurring the lines between art and fashion. With her Comme des Garcons label, she has over the past decades built a global fashion empire.
Celebrated in the fashion press, Kawakubo is described as a "trailblazer" by Harper's Bazaar or "the ultimate renegade designer" by GQ, making audiences "question everything they know about conventional clothes".
"Rei Kawakubo was part of a movement of Japanese designers in the late 1980s where they subverted everything that was popular in fashion," Sharon Lim, former editor of Elle Asia, told the BBC.
"Japanese designers at the time were famous for not glorifying the human form - they were kind of punk because they destroyed any notions of the traditional female form."
With a reputation of breaking with tradition and convention, Rei Kawakubo is considered by many to be more of an artist than a designer - a distinction that she herself, though, has described as "immaterial".
"What I've only ever been interested in are clothes that one has never seen before, that are completely new, and how in what way they can be expressed," she says in the notes to the Met exhibition.
"Is that called fashion? I don't know the answer."
The exhibition, titled Art of the In-Between, will open on 4 May and sets out to show Kawakubo's "ability to challenge conventional notions of beauty, good taste, and fashionability".
According to exhibition curator Andrew Bolton, "she has influenced a whole generation, not only of designers but also artists and architects through her practice".
"She forces you to rethink notions of beauty, notions of the body, notions of fashion, notions of wearability - breaking down these barriers by creating hybrid identities."
As with many haute couture creations, Ms Kawakubo's designs often stray so far from conventional fashion concepts that they'd be hard to imagine in a setting other than a fashion show runway.
But by building her company as a multi-tier brand, she has managed to have both a runway collection and also several other in-house brands to cover a wider range of designs and price levels.
Kawakubo's rise to the top of the fashion avant-garde has been an unusual one, starting out in Japan far from the limelight of the global fashion capital Paris.
Rather than training in fashion or design, she studied fine arts and the history of aesthetics in both Asian and Western art.
Moving into fashion and design as an outsider, she founded Comme des Garcons in the early 1970s in Japan.
After she began to be featured in French fashion shows, she expanded to Paris and eventually worldwide.
Proving herself to be not just a designer but also a savvy businesswoman, she turned her firm into a global fashion empire. Recently, she has also launched the upscale global retail chain Dover Street Market.
Herself a rather reclusive figure, she rarely gives interviews and tries to avoid public attention.
The exhibition of her work is the Met's first exhibition of a living fashion designer for more than 30 years.
According to Bolton, the last one - a 1983 retrospective of Yves Saint Laurent - was criticised for what people saw as commercialism not fit for the hallowed halls of an arts museum.
Over time though, he says in the exhibition catalogue, "the status of fashion has changed, both in the art world and within the museum".
Sharon Lim agrees that Kawakubo's work can be seen as art, describing it as "architectural, with an incredible technique when it comes to silhouettes, draping and fit".
"She also tends to keep taking apart traditional notions of fashion," Ms Lim explains. "It takes a while to understand what she does and very often what she presents is very ugly - but in a strange way there is an allure to her clothing."


Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is to speak at the Durham Miner's Gala for the second year running, with organisers hoping he will do so as prime minister.

In 2016 rebel Labour MPs who called for Mr Corbyn to quit were denied access to the platform of the traditional gathering known as the "Big Meeting".
The gala, which is in its 133rd year, is one of the largest trade union gatherings in Europe.
Mr Corbyn's speech last year was the first by a Labour leader since 2012.
The event features banners, brass bands marching through Durham City, speeches and a huge funfair.
Alan Cummings, secretary of the Durham Miners' Association, said: "Jeremy has spoken at the gala on numerous occasions over the years as a backbench MP, a Labour leadership candidate and as Labour leader.
"This summer we hope he will address the gala as Labour prime minister.
"Jeremy has described the Big Meeting as the greatest demonstration of working class culture in Britain, and we are very pleased that once again he has accepted our invitation to speak."
The gala takes place on 8 July.


The former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has been charged with taking bribes in a property scandal.

The allegations relate to Mr Olmert's time as Jerusalem mayor in the 1990s.
Mr Olmert, who resigned as prime minister in 2009, has already been charged in three unrelated corruption cases. He denies any wrongdoing.
The latest charges concern the construction of a luxury residential complex in Jerusalem called Holyland which is built on a prominent hilltop.
Prosecutors claim that millions of dollars changed hands illegally to facilitate a series of property deals.
Jerusalem's planning laws were altered to enable the complex to be built. The project's developers have also been charged in the case.
Haaretz newspaper describes the case as one of the largest corruption scandals in Israel's history.
The former prime minister denies any wrongdoing and has called the investigation a "witch hunt".
Mr Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 - 2003, then became a minister in the Israeli cabinet. He took over as prime minister in 2006 after Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke.
His three-year premiership was dogged by corruption allegations, and he eventually agreed to stand down.
Mr Olmert has pleaded not guilty in the separate proceedings against him, in which he is accused of taking cash for favours and double-billing for overseas trips.


The Downing Street constitutional declaration - as it will become known - marks the start of what potentially could be massive constitutional change.

In particular, the prime minister has promised to give English MPs a greater say over legislation that affects England. He made clear this would cover the same issues over which Scotland will have greater control - tax, spending and welfare. And the changes will be agreed at the same pace with draft legislation by January.
But David Cameron did not spell out the detail, leaving a policy vacuum that will now be filled by Conservative MPs and an army of constitutional experts and think tanks. Everything from a full English parliament to complicated plans for English grand committees will be discussed.
The risk for the PM is that he loses control of this debate.
The politics of this, though, are clear. Mr Cameron has presented a huge challenge to Labour. Ed Miliband now faces the prospect of being forced to accept a diminution of power for Labour MPs in Scotland.
If he wins the next election, he could find it hard to get much of his programme through. The Labour leader may hope to move the debate on to other issues at his party conference next week. But it will be hard to shake off talk of what must now be called once again "the English question".
The other issue is the speed of this process. The prime minister has announced constitutional reform at a breakneck pace. And yet there is disagreement between the parties over the substantial detail. And who knows what all those constitutional experts in the House of Lords will do to oppose what many there see as rushed reform.
The danger for all the Westminster parties is that they have made a solemn vow to the people of Scotland to give greater powers to Holyrood. If they live up to that vow, then potentially this process could be a catalyst for massive constitutional change that helps to fix what many see as Britain's broken politics.
But if they fail to honour that vow because of disagreement over the English question, they risk the greatest breach of public trust that would tarnish Westminster's name forever.


Snow gates are to be fitted on parts of an exposed road between South Yorkshire and Greater Manchester in a bid to stop drivers using the route in bad weather.

The gates will be installed on the A628 Woodhead Pass at Flouch roundabout near Penistone and east of the junction with the A6024 near Woodhead Reservoir.
Electronic signs to warn drivers the road ahead is closed will also be fitted, the Highways Agency said.
Work begins on the gates this week and is expected to be completed by April.
Costing Â£250,000, the gates and signs will be operated manually by the police in conjunction with the Highways Agency.
The warning signs will be sited on the east and westbound approaches to the A628 at Mottram roundabout in Greater Manchester and at the Flouch and Westwood roundabouts in South Yorkshire.
Sujad Hussain, Highways Agency project manager, said the aim of the gates and signs was not to close the Woodhead Pass more frequently.
"Weather conditions and driver safety will continue to dictate when, or if, this happens," he said.
"What we are trying to do is ensure that drivers already on the route have more warning of what's ahead and have more time to take alternative strategic routes."
Anthony Ashton, South Yorkshire Police's traffic management officer, said the gates would free police resources during bad weather as officers would no longer have to be present at points where the Woodhead Pass was closed.
"The gates will also reduce the length of route that has to be closed, making it easier to maintain access to local businesses and residential properties in the area," Mr Ashton added.


A 27-year-old woman, questioned after a newborn baby was found dead in bag, has been released on bail.

The body was found in Hinckley, Leicestershire, on Sunday morning.
The woman, who lives in the county, was arrested on suspicion of concealing a birth and in connection with the death.
Leicestershire Police said an initial post-mortem examination had been completed but further tests were required to determine how the baby died.
The force has yet to say whether the child was a boy or girl.


About 25 beds remain closed for a second day at Altnagelvin Hospital in Londonderry due to a vomiting bug and staff shortages.

The Western Health Trust has said there is unlikely to be any change before the weekend.
Staff shortages at the trust have been described by senior management as "worrying".
Speaking to the BBC, the trust's Medical Director Dermot Hughes revealed they are currently 125 nurses short.
"It is an ongoing pressure both in nursing and in medicine. We struggle to recruit to the full amount," he said.
"We have 3,000 nurses and currently are around 125 short.
"We have gone internationally to recruit and we will have a cohort of new nurses in September but there is a problem over the summertime."
The Director of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) described the system as "falling apart".
Janice Smyth said the recruitment problem could have been avoided if people had listened to warnings from the RCN.
"I think it is a crisis yes and I think we are seeing it in the Western Health Trust first and others to come unless we do something about it.
"If we had done work force planning properly and if people had listened to the warning that the RCN has given this could have been prevented.
"We have been saying for some time that our system is unsustainable and is starting to fall apart."
The Western Trust also said delayed discharges among patients was adding to the problem.
That means, due to a lack of home care packages being available in the community, patients are having to remain unnecessarily in hospital.
At present, no other health trust is reporting being affected by the vomiting bug that has closed beds at Altnagelvin.
Increased infection prevention and control measures have been put in place and all non-urgent routine procedures will be cancelled.


A man accused of not recognising the murders of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica as genocide has been elected the town's first Serb mayor since 1999.

Mladen Grujicic, who acknowledges the killings took place, won 54.4% of the vote, triggering alarm and calls for a recount among the Muslim population.
Srebrenica was a Muslim-majority town before the war, but is now 55% Serb and 45% Bosniak (Muslim).
The July 1995 slaughter has been deemed genocide by two international courts.
Speaking to AFP before the vote, Mr Grujicic said "the crime against the Muslims took place" but like most Serbs refused to recognise it as genocide, saying: "I leave (it to) competent institutions to qualify it."
Outgoing Muslim mayor Camil Durakovic refused to concede defeat, crying foul and pledging to lodge a complaint.
But Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik said their candidate won, adding that chemistry teacher Mr Grujicic would lead a  politics of "reality in Srebrenica" and would respect everyone, Beta news agency reported.
Hatidza Mehmedovic, who lost her husband and two sons and heads a survivors' organisation, said Mr Grujicic "could not run" the town "because his idols are war criminals such as Radovan Karadzic", the Serbs' political leader during Bosnia's brutal 1992-1995 civil war who is serving a 40-year jail term.
"I do not fear for myself. They killed me a long time ago with my sons," she added.
"But I do fear for the young ones who have children and who are trying to rebuild something in Srebrenica, first of all trust."


The Queen is to open the new £44m Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (Cubric) next month.

The royal visit on 7 June will include a look at Europe's most powerful brain scanner, of which there is only one other in the world at Harvard University in the United States.
It will allow scientists to look at how brains work in minute detail.
The Maindy Park building, finished a year ago, will bring together four hi-tech scanners under one roof.
The centre will concentrate on research to hopefully understand more about the causes of conditions like dementia, multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia.
The Connectom scanner is six times more powerful than a conventional hospital MRI scanner and has been described as the "Hubble space telescope of neuroscience".
It will allow researchers to study brain cells only 1000th of a millimetre across.
Using a conventional scanner has been described as looking at a galaxy through a telescope and seeing a blur.
Vice-Chancellor Prof Colin Riordan said the university was "honoured" to welcome The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh to open the centre.
"This will be a fitting occasion for a facility that is not only significant for the university but for Wales, the UK and Europe," he said.
"The research here has the potential to unlock some of the secrets of the brain and significantly contribute towards treatments for neurological and psychiatric conditions."
Prof Derek Jones, centre director, said: "This is the culmination of a huge amount of hard work by many people over several years and I would like to thank everyone who played their part in creating this remarkable facility.
"The combination of the very best staff in their field and some of the most powerful scanners in the world has the potential for breakthroughs that could make a real difference to people's lives around the world."
The royal couple will be invited to view brain imaging procedures and pupils from a local school will take part in activities to illustrate the power of the brain.
A specially-commissioned sculpture created by PhD student Gemma Williams from the University's School of Psychology will also be unveiled.
Cubric will be four times larger than the university's existing brain research imaging facilities.


New discoveries about ash clouds could help predict where planes can safely fly following volcanic eruptions, Edinburgh researchers have said.

Experts have studied ash grains taken from Icelandic eruptions to compare satellite-based measurements of ash clouds with ash deposits on the ground.
It is hoped it will help methods of mapping ash concentration to identify where it is safe to fly in eruptions.
Flights were cancelled in 2010 and 2011 following volcanic activity in Iceland.
Dr John Stevenson, of Edinburgh University's school of GeoSciences, who led the study, said: "Mapping volcanic ash clouds and their risk to aircraft is hard.
"Large regions of airspace can be contaminated by particles that are invisible to the naked eye.
"Combining the expertise of volcanologists and atmospheric scientists should help improve forecasts."
Researchers studied volcanic ash recovered in the UK from the recent Eyjafjallajokull and Grimsvotn eruptions in Iceland, as well as prehistoric samples from peat bogs in Scotland, Ireland and Yorkshire.
Another sample, from an 1875 eruption, had been in a museum for 140 years.
They hoped to understand the range of sizes of grains and how far they had travelled.
Ash grains were found to be much larger than typically estimated by satellites, while calculations showed that even moderately sized eruptions could disperse large grains as far as the UK.
The group also used computer models to simulate how clouds of various ash particle sizes would appear to satellite sensors. They found that sensors can under-estimate the size of larger particles.
The study, published in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, was carried out with the Met Office, Leeds University and Iceland University.
It was supported by the Scottish government and Marie Curie Actions via the Royal Society of Edinburgh.


Three men have been arrested on suspicion of firearms offences after a car was stopped on the A1M near Chester-le-street in County Durham.

Police received reports of a disturbance in the Wardley area of Gateshead on Wednesday evening.
A southbound section of the motorway near Chester-le-Street was closed while police interception took place.
A vehicle was stopped and three men aged 54, 43 and 41 were arrested on suspicion of firearms-related offences.
All three have been released on bail.


Ruan Pienaar will miss Ulster's Pro12 game against Edinburgh on Friday but his prospects of being fit for the Heineken Cup quarter-final against Saracens on 5 April appear good.

Pienaar sustained a shoulder injury late in Ulster's win over the Scarlets last Friday night.
He appeared in some discomfort after the match but the expectation is that he will be fit for the European game.
Callum Black is a doubt for Friday's game because of an ankle injury.
Prop Black was carried off in the first half of the win over the Scarlets after suffering an ankle injury and will under undergo a MRI scan later this week.
Pienaar is a hugely important player for Mark Anscombe's squad and the word suggesting that he should be fit for the Heineken Cup quarter-final will ease the concern of Ulster supporters.
Meanwhile, Ulster management backroom trio Neil Doak, Jonny Bell and Niall Malone have agreed one-year contract extensions with the province.
This follows Mark Anscombe's new Ulster deal last month.
Doak is Anscombe's assistant while Bell is defence coach with Malone fulfilling the roles of skills coach and analyst.
Ulster won all six of their Heineken Cup pool games for the first time in the province's history this season and have won 11 out of 15 Pro12 games.
Anscombe's side boasts the best defensive record of any side in the Heineken Cup this season, having conceded just 20 tries in 21 matches.


Two historians who were instrumental in the discovery of Richard III's remains have both become MBEs as part of the Queen's Birthday Honours.

Research by Philippa Langley and John Ashdown-Hill led to the monarch's skeleton being discovered beneath a car park in Leicester in 2012.
In March, the last Plantagenet king was re-buried at Leicester Cathedral.
Mrs Langley said she felt "honoured" while Mr Ashdown-Hill said he was "amazed".
The pair contributed research and funding to the Looking For Richard Project, which resulted in his remains being exhumed in 2012.
Mrs Langley said: "It was an epic battle to get the tarmac cut in Leicester.
"Everybody thought the king's remains had been thrown in the river, or the church was under buildings and a road.
"The Looking For Richard Project succeeded against all the odds and informed history."
Richard's remains were identified when DNA from his body matched those of distant living relatives.
Mr Ashdown-Hill said: "The project fascinated me enormously, but it was a very stressful time.
"I was amazed when I got the letter from the Cabinet Office.
"I was particularly impressed by the wording of the citation, because it specifically focused on the finding and identification of Richard III, which I'm very happy about."
Leicester City Council said the discovery of the king had generated about Â£60m for the local economy.


Ten people have been killed in overnight fighting between Islamist militants and soldiers in the north of Egypt's Sinai peninsula, officials say.

At least seven civilians died when mortars struck the home of a Bedouin family in the village of Negah Shabana, near the border with the Gaza Strip.
It is not clear whether the shells were fired by the militants or troops.
In recent weeks, Egypt's military has stepped up its operation against Islamists in the region.
It is creating a 1km (0.6-mile) deep buffer zone along the border with Gaza by demolishing houses and destroying underground tunnels it says have been used to smuggle weapons from the Palestinian enclave.
The move has displaced more than 1,000 families in the Egyptian town of Rafah and severed an economic lifeline for many Palestinians.
A state of emergency was also declared in North Sinai after 33 security personnel were killed in a suicide bomb attack in the regional capital el-Arish on 24 October.
A night-time curfew has since been imposed, police and army patrols have been increased and additional checkpoints have been set up.
Sinai-based militants have stepped up attacks on soldiers and police since the military overthrew President Mohammed Morsi last year.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, a jihadist group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq and Syria, has released a video purporting to show it was behind the attack on 24 October.
It has called on Egyptians to rebel against President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, the former military chief who led the crackdown on Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood has said it rejects violence.


Jack Lisowski said he found it difficult to keep focus after bowing out of the UK Championship against a player ranked 32 places below him.

Lisowski, the world number 48, led 3-1 against David Grace.
However, Grace dominated a scrappy third-round match at the York Barbican following the mid-session interval.
"It was the same as last year; I won my first two games in the hall and it's totally different playing in the main arena," the Gloucester potter said.
He added: "The tables are more reactive. There is a lot more going on and I was struggling to concentrate."
Lisowski, who beat Zak Surety in the first round and then saw off former world champion Graeme Dott by a 6-5 margin in round two, had no complaints about his defeat, but was "gutted".
"We sort of dragged each other down," the 24-year-old added.
"It wasn't a very high-standard game. Dave played better than me in the last section of the game, so good luck to him.
"When I am playing well, my game is looking like it is maturing, so I still think I can do some good stuff this season.
"There are a lot of positives for the rest of the season but I am just gutted with how today went."


A man facing charges over a gun attack, in which the victim was shot several times, has had his bail conditions changed so he can go to a pop concert.

Patrick Joseph O'Neill is due to stand trial later this year over the shooting in Ardoyne, north Belfast, in November 2010. He denies the charges.
On Tuesday, he applied for a relaxation in his bail conditions so he could attend a Madness concert on 20 August.
A Belfast Crown Court judge agreed to extend his curfew for one night only.
The ruling means Mr O'Neill, of no fixed address, will be able to stay out until midnight on 20 August to attend the gig, which is part of the Belsonic music festival in Belfast.
Making the application, Mr O'Neill's defence barrister said his client had obeyed all of the conditions imposed on him since he was released on bail, including observing a curfew from 20:00 BST to 06:00 BST.
Mr O'Neill, 41, denies charges including wounding with intent, and possession of a Glock pistol with intent.


RAF jets were scrambled on Wednesday after two Russian military aircraft were seen off the Cornwall coast, the Ministry of Defence has said.

The Russian Bear bombers did not enter sovereign airspace, it said.
On the same day, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon warned that Russia's President Putin posed a "real and present danger" to three Baltic states.
Prime Minister David Cameron said the Russian action should not be dignified with "too much of a response".
He added: "I think what this episode demonstrates is that we do have the fast jets, the pilots, the systems in place to protect the UK.
"I suspect the Russians were trying to make some sort of a point."
BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins said the appearance of Russian aircraft near the UK coast was a show of strength from the Russians, and such incidents were carried out with political intent because they would be reported on.
Our correspondent said it was part of a trend which had seen Russian aircraft flying close to UK airspace, and there had also been similar incidents in Europe.
It comes amid increased concerns over Russian involvement in the Ukraine conflict and suggestions of Russian President Vladimir Putin's potential future interference in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
A ceasefire deal between government and pro-Russian rebel separatists in Ukraine was reached a week ago.
But shelling has continued in several parts of eastern Ukraine, including in the region's biggest city, Donetsk, on Thursday - and battles around the strategic town of Debaltseve have seen the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops.
Russia has denied helping the separatists, but it has been accused repeatedly of sending weapons and troops and using propaganda to inflame tensions.
And Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin has labelled Ukraine's call for the deployment of UN peacekeepers in eastern Ukraine as a destructive move.
Mr Cameron has said rebels in eastern Ukraine are using Russian military hardware, and that Mr Putin must understand there would be "economic and financial consequences for many years to come" if he did not change his behaviour.
Speaking to journalists from the Times and Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, Mr Fallon said the increase in Russian defence spending was "clearly worrying" and that he was also "worried about Putin".
"They are modernising their conventional forces, they are modernising their nuclear forces and they are testing Nato, so we need to respond."
Mr Fallon also said the prospect of a new Cold War was "warming up".
"You have tanks and armour rolling across the Ukrainian border and you have an Estonian border guard who has been captured and not yet still returned."
He also said Russia was likely to use covert tactics such as those he said it had used to annex Crimea and during the current Ukraine conflict.
Mr Putin had also flown two other bombers "down the English Channel two weeks ago", Mr Fallon added.
"It's the first time since the height of the Cold War, it's the first time that's happened."
Jonathan Marcus, BBC defence and diplomatic correspondent
The comments from Defence Secretary Michael Fallon are an indication of a fundamental shift in the Nato perception of the crisis in Ukraine.
Nato governments clearly believe that what began as a localised Ukraine problem that strained ties with Moscow has now become a Russia problem, and a Russia problem that is likely to persist for some time.
Ukraine is thus seen as a manifestation of a much broader policy shift on the part of the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mr Fallon's belief that there is indeed a potential threat to Nato territory - in particular the Baltic Republics - is widely shared; hence Nato's desire to underline in the most emphatic terms that its security guarantees to its members will be honoured in full.
Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Mr Fallon's comments went "beyond diplomatic ethics" and used "unacceptable terminology".
He also said Russia would "find a way to respond".
According to the Department for Transport, there was no record of disruption to civil aviation as a result of the bombers' presence on Wednesday.
The Russian defence ministry said in a statement on its Facebook site on Thursday afternoon that two Tu-95MS "Bear" strategic bombers based at Engels air base in southern Russia had carried out "airspace patrol missions" "over neutral waters in the Barents and Norwegian seas and the Atlantic Ocean".
The flight lasted more than 20 hours.
"The long-range aviation planes were escorted by Typhoon planes of the RAF. The flight was carried out in strict accordance with international rules for use of airspace over neutral waters, without violation of the borders of other states."
The MoD said: "RAF Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon fighter aircraft were launched [on Wednesday] after Russian aircraft were identified flying close to UK airspace.
"The Russian planes were escorted by the RAF until they were out of the UK area of interest. At no time did the Russian military aircraft cross into UK sovereign airspace."
A similar incident occurred in January, when the UK Foreign Office said two Russian Tu-95 Bear H bombers flying near UK airspace had caused "disruption to civil aviation" and were also escorted by RAF jets while near UK airspace.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the latest incident demonstrated the "heightened tension with Russia", adding "we should remain vigilant at all times".


There are plenty of vehicle manufacturers at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, and they all have roughly the same message - it is time to shake up the industry.

No-one took that message more seriously than Volkswagen, a company mired in scandal over how it measured its emissions, and, when he took the stage at CES, chief executive Dr Herbert Diess was keen to apologise once again.
He said a "new and better Volkswagen" was being built that would concentrate on creating a future without noise, congestion, emissions or accidents.
He wanted to build cars that "make people happy", which is perhaps unsurprising given recent events.
Key to that would be electric, connected vehicles, Dr Diess said, showing off a concept van that harked back to the glory days of VW's iconic Camper, which  he described as "the embodiment of peace, hope and happiness".
The BUDD-e four-wheel drive electric minivan could go into production within the next decade, Dr Diess said.
But it has been designed to show off a range of technologies:
The Verge described it as a "groovy, far-out vision of the future".
But CNet asked who would want a car that could "open the front door of your house, spy on your kids and potentially accept packages".
Car manufacturers have been exhibiting at CES since 2007 - but, this year, there seems to be a fresh determination to merge automotive and technology.
The event launching the much-hyped car from mysterious Chinese-backed Faraday Future was one of CES's most anticipated and best attended.
In a hard-to-find car park off the Las Vegas strip, the Batmobile-like vehicle was unveiled in a manner previously reserved for shiny gadgets.
"We want to be a technology company rather than an automotive company," senior vice-president Nick Sampson told the audience.
"Apple transformed the phone industry nine years ago, and that is what we at Faraday Future are seeking to do - to redefine the world of mobility."
That is a lofty ambition, and many doubt whether the company can achieve it. But it has had rapid growth since it launched 18 months ago.
It already employs 750 people and intends to add 4,500 more when it builds its first manufacturing plant in Las Vegas later this year.
But it was strange that, in a launch claiming to be about redefining mobility, the car remained static throughout.
In his keynote speech at CES, Ford chief executive Mark Fields said megacities with populations of 10 million or more, and a growing global middle class, were also contributing to the need to drastically rethink mobility "to make people's lives better".
There were some 800 million parking spaces in the US - but, in cities such as San Francisco, only 14% of people searching for a spot found one straight away.
And those cars driving around slowly looking for parking spaces accounted for 30% of urban congestion.
But Ford is not being entirely altruistic - it is keen to grab a share of the $5.4 trillion transportation service industry, with its own car-sharing and car-rental schemes.
Ford was the first automotive company to take to the CES stage, in 2007, when it joined Microsoft for a keynote.
This year, there was speculation it would announce a tie-up with Google.
But that did not happen - perhaps it plans to reverse roles and invite Google to the Detroit motor show later this month, where some experts predict it will announce the partnership.
Ford did, however, announce a tie-up with technology company Amazon, using its voice-activated speaker Echo to enhance communication between homes and cars - allowing motorists to open their garage before they arrive home, or turn the lights off from the car.
It also announced a novel partnership with the United Nations to find a way for cars and drones to communicate with each other, initially to help improve the response to natural disasters.
And it revealed it would be expanding its fleet of fully autonomous cars to 30, with a new licence to test them in California - which, by coincidence, is the home of Google.
During its press launch, Toyota concentrated on its $1bn investment the Toyota Research Institute.
Led by ex-Darpa project manager Dr Gill Pratt, the artificial intelligence research lab will have close ties with Stanford and MIT and Facebook's head of AI Yann LeCun as an adviser.
It will concentrate on teaching autonomous vehicles to respond to unexpected events, such as cargo falling out of a van travelling in front.
John Curran, an analyst with consultancy company Accenture, said: "A consensus is forming among auto experts that driverless technology will reach widespread adoption by 2030. For these vehicles, car companies will focus on driver security and safety."


Police searching for a missing university student have said they are "extremely concerned" for her welfare.

Caroline Everest, 18, was last seen by friends at the Corporation nightclub in Milton Street, Sheffield, in the early hours of Sunday.
The Sheffield Hallam University student has not been heard from since and did not turn up for work or a family dinner later that day.
Officers described this behaviour as "extremely out of character".
She is described as 5ft 6in (1.6m) tall, of slim build and was wearing her long, dark hair in a ponytail.
She was wearing a black dress with a black cardigan and was carrying a black handbag with a cream strap.
Supt James Abdy said: "We are carrying out extensive inquiries to find Caroline, including reviewing CCTV, conducting searches and speaking to friends, family and associates.
"We are appealing for help from the public as we are extremely concerned for Caroline's welfare and would urge anyone with information about her whereabouts to get in touch."