Scientists are uncovering evidence that short periods of fasting, if properly controlled, could achieve a number of health benefits, as well as potentially helping the overweight, as Michael Mosley discovered.

I'd always thought of fasting as something unpleasant, with no obvious long term benefits. So when I was asked to make a documentary that would involve me going without food, I was not keen as I was sure I would not enjoy it.
But the Horizon editor assured me there was great new science and that I might see some dramatic improvements to my body. So, of course, I said, "yes".
I am not strong-willed enough to diet over the long term, but I am extremely interested in the reasons why eating less might lead to increased life span, particularly as scientists think it may be possible to get the benefits without the pain.
How you age is powerfully shaped by your genes. But there's not much you can do about that.
Calorie restriction, eating well but not much, is one of the few things that has been shown to extend life expectancy, at least in animals. We've known since the 1930s that mice put on a low-calorie, nutrient-rich diet live far longer. There is mounting evidence that the same is true in monkeys.
The world record for extending life expectancy in a mammal is held by a new type of mouse which can expect to live an extra 40%, equivalent to a human living to 120 or even longer.
It has been genetically engineered so its body produces very low levels of a growth hormone called IGF-1, high levels of which seem to lead to accelerated ageing and age-related diseases, while low levels are protective.
A similar, but natural, genetic mutation has been found in humans with Laron syndrome, a rare condition that affects fewer than 350 people worldwide. The very low levels of IGF-1 their bodies produce means they are short, but this also seems to protect them against cancer and diabetes, two common age-related diseases.
The IGF-1 hormone (insulin-like growth factor) is one of the drivers which keep our bodies in go-go mode, with cells driven to reproduce. This is fine when you are growing, but not so good later in life.
There is now evidence suggesting that IGF-1 levels can be lowered by what you eat. Studies on calorie restrictors suggest that eating less helps, but it is not enough
As well as cutting calories you have to cut your protein intake. Not entirely - that would be a very bad idea. It's about sticking to recommended guidelines, something most of us fail to do.
The reason seems to be that when our bodies no longer have access to food they switch from "growth mode" to "repair mode".
As levels of the IGF-1 hormone drop, a number of repair genes appear to get switched on according to ongoing research by Professor Valter Longo of the University of Southern California.
One area of current research into diet is Alternate Day fasting (ADF), involving eating what you want one day, then a very restricted diet (fewer than 600 calories) the next, and most surprisingly, it does not seem to matter that much what you eat on non-fast days.
Dr Krista Varady of the University of Illinois at Chicago carried out an eight-week trial comparing two groups of overweight patients on ADF.
"If you were sticking to your fast days, then in terms of cardiovascular disease risk, it didn't seem to matter if you were eating a high-fat or low-fat diet on your feed (non-fast) days," she said.
I decided I couldn't manage ADF, it was just too impractical. Instead I did an easier version, the so-called 5:2 diet. As the name implies you eat normally 5 days a week, then two days a week you eat 500 calories if you are a woman, or 600 calories, if you are a man.
There are no firm rules because so far there have been few proper human trials. I found that I could get through my fast days best if I had a light breakfast (scrambled eggs, thin slice of ham, lots of black tea, adding up to about 300 calories), lots of water and herbal tea during the day, then a light dinner (grilled fish with lots of vegetables) at night.
Source: BBC health
How to make your lifestyle more healthy
On my feed days I ate what I normally do and felt no need to gorge.
I stuck to this diet for 5 weeks, during which time I lost nearly a stone and my blood markers, like IGF-1, glucose and cholesterol, improved. If I can sustain that, it will greatly reduce my risk of contracting age-related diseases like cancer and diabetes.
Current medical opinion is that the benefits of fasting are unproven and until there are more human studies it's better to eat at least 2000 calories a day. If you really want to fast then you should do it in a proper clinic or under medical supervision, because there are many people, such as pregnant women or diabetics on medication, for whom it could be dangerous.
I was closely monitored throughout and found the 5:2 surprisingly easy. I will almost certainly continue doing it, albeit less often. Fasting, like eating, is best done in moderation.
Michael Mosley presents Horizon: Eat, Fast and Live Longer on BBC Two at 21:00 BST on Monday 6 August. Watch online afterwards via iPlayer (UK only) or browse Horizon clips at the above link.


Photographs by Aurelie Marrier d'Unienville

Situated off the coast of Tanzania, the island of Zanzibar features many examples of Swahili architecture.
However, after years of neglect, many of the buildings are crumbling.
Now, a small group of local artisans is fighting to bring back the traditional skills and knowledge needed to preserve these buildings.
Stone Town, the historical part of Zanzibar's capital, was listed as a cultural World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) in 2000.
However, its buildings have been affected by a growing population, increased traffic and the tropical climate of the island.
The use of concrete for repairs, instead of traditional sand and lime mortar, has exacerbated the decline of many buildings such as the palace of Mtoni.
Students of the Zanzibar Built Heritage Job Creation project, which aims to resurrect the traditional skills needed to restore the buildings, have been trained in carpentry and masonry.
Omar Yussuf Abdallah, 38, says: "This training will give me a salary and help my life.
"It will help me to teach others how to protect our culture and Stone Town's doors."
A mix of old lime-washed, coralline ragstone and more modern, concrete buildings, Stone Town's skyline now has a more certain future.


A pig known for sniffing out winners in sporting events has predicted his hometown club to win the Championship play-offs semi-final.

Marcus the Mystic, a micro pig from Heage, backed Derby County to beat Hull City on Saturday by choosing a plate of apples with a Rams badge.
The pig has previously chosen winners in the Wimbledon tennis men's finals and the 2014 Fifa World Cup.
"He has an absolutely 100% success rate," owner Juliette Stevens said.
"Mystic Marcus has so far never ever been wrong in his predictions of top sporting events, including Wimbledon and the football World Cup and Derby County not going up last year," she added.
His predictions also included Manchester United beating Derby in the FA Cup this year.
She added: "He has a lovely chilled out personality and has produced some lovely piglets."
When facing a challenge set by Radio Derby to choose a plate of apples with either a Hull or Derby County badge, he went directly to the Rams dish.
Ms Stevens said: "I am so proud of that boy. I hope he's got it right."
She said she has also considered training one of her 19 pigs to appear on ITV's Britain's Got Talent.
During the World Cup Finals in Germany in 2010, an octopus named Paul correctly predicted the winners of eight matches, including the eventual winner Spain.


Lord Ashcroft has given up his non-dom tax status to stay in the Lords, it has been confirmed.

The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act requires peers and MPs to be tax resident and domiciled in order to remain in Parliament.
Lord Ashcroft, a Conservative deputy chairman, revealed in March he was a non-dom so did not have to pay UK taxes on most of his overseas earnings.
Five peers are now known to have quit the Lords seats to keep non-dom status.
The latest to announce the move is architect Lord Foster, who was ennobled in 1999.
The others are Conservatives  Lord Bagri, Lord McAlpine and Lord Laidlaw of Rothiemay, and cross-bencher Baroness Dunn.
The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act passed through Parliament earlier this year with cross-party support.
A three-month period during which peers could instead permanently exclude themselves from the Lords expires on Wednesday.
Labour donor Lord Paul has, like Lord Ashcroft, said he will give up his non-dom status to keep his seat.


Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says a "roadmap" will be prepared to end fighting between troops and pro-Russian separatists in the east.

He was speaking after holding his first direct talks on the crisis with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Belarus.
Mr Putin said Russia would assist a dialogue, but stopping the fighting was a matter for Ukraine itself.
Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of arming the rebels, a claim repeatedly denied by the Kremlin.
"A roadmap will be prepared in order to achieve, as soon as possible, a ceasefire regime which absolutely must be bilateral in character," Mr Poroshenko said after two hours of talks with Mr Putin in the Belarusian capital, Minsk.
Earlier this year, Mr Poroshenko declared a unilateral ceasefire but accused the rebels of not following suit.
Prior to their one-to-one meeting, the two leaders also took part in discussions with the EU's top diplomat Catherine Ashton.
The summit came after 10 Russian soldiers were seized in Ukraine's east.
More than 2,000 people have died in fighting between Ukrainian forces and separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk.
The two regions declared independence from Kiev following Russia's annexation of the southern Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in March.
In a statement on his website after the talks, Mr Poroshenko added: "Our main goal is peace. We are demanding decisive actions which will bring peace on Ukrainian soil."
"The logic of a peace plan was after all supported by all the heads of state without exception."
Meanwhile, President Putin said at a news conference that "Russia, for its part, will do everything to support this peace process if it starts".
But he stressed that it was up to the government in Kiev and separatist leaders in the east to work out conditions for a truce.
The two leaders reportedly agreed to hold further consultations between Ukraine's and Russia's border guard agencies.
Before the face-to-face meeting there were doubts that such talks would even go ahead, the BBC's Duncan Crawford in Minsk reports. The pair last met briefly in June at the D-Day commemorations.
Mr Poroshenko has repeatedly insisted that the only way to end the bloodshed and stabilise the region is by establishing effective border controls.
The meeting came as part of a summit taking place under the auspices of the Moscow-led Eurasian Customs Union, which also includes Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Baroness Ashton described the multilateral discussions held earlier on Tuesday as "positive".
"There was a sense in which the onus was on everyone to see if they could do their best to try to resolve this," she said.
"We called for a ceasefire linked to the proper management of borders, the importance of ensuring that humanitarian support reached people in the proper manner in full line with international law, and of course the political process".
The EU, along with the US, has imposed sanctions on Russia for failing to rein in the separatists.
Earlier, Ukraine said its military had captured 10 Russian paratroopers near the village of Dzerkalne, near the Russian border.
A Russian defence ministry source told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti the soldiers crossed the border "by accident".
The source also said some 500 Ukrainian servicemen had crossed the border at various times, adding: "We did not give much publicity to that. We just returned all those willing to return to Ukrainian territory at safe places."
But Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said: "This wasn't a mistake, but a special mission they were carrying out."
Ukraine's media that carried the interviews quoted one man, named as Sgt Andrei Generalov, as saying: "Stop sending in our boys. Why? This is not our war. And if we weren't here, none of this would have happened."
Russia has repeatedly denied Ukrainian and Western accusations that it is supporting the rebels.
On Monday, Ukraine said an armoured column had crossed the border into south-eastern Ukraine, sparking clashes near Novoazovsk.
Mr Lysenko said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces had destroyed 12 armoured infantry carriers there. He said 12 Ukrainian military personnel had been killed in the past 24 hours.
He added that four border guards had been killed by fire from Russian Mi-24 helicopters.


Three people have died in a car crash while chasing a suspected tornado in a remote part of west Texas.

The accident happened when a driver went through a stop sign at a rural crossroads and crashed into an oncoming vehicle.
Kelley Williamson, 57, Randy Yarnall, 55, and Corbin Lee Jaeger, 25, all died instantly, according to police.
Officials say a tornado warning was in effect at the time of the crash, but it's unclear what role weather played.
Heavy rain was reported at the time of the crash and officials are investigating.
Nearby, in Oklahoma, a truck driver was killed when high winds pushed his trailer off of the interstate.
Forecasters have confirmed wind gusts of up to 95mph (152kph) near Oklahoma city, where the crash occurred.
The storms brought tennis ball-sized hail and powerful winds, but there were no reports of widespread damage in either state.
The storms are expected to move eastward on Thursday, threatening millions of people in Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, Texas and Louisiana.
Williamson and Yarnall had been contractors for the Weather Channel TV network, and were featured on the show Storm Wranglers which aired in October.
"Kelley and Randy were beloved members of the weather community," the company said in a statement.
"We are saddened by this loss and our deepest sympathies go out to the families and loved ones of all involved."
Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt John Gonzalez said the accident occurred around 15:30 local time near the town of Spur when an SUV driven by Williamson slammed into a Jeep driven by Jaegar.
Other storm chasers in the area took to social media to post condolences.
Three storm chasers died in 2013, pursuing a storm that had killed 13 people in Oklahoma City.


Kelsey Anderson might describe herself as a "WAG", but there is more to being a tennis player's partner than maintaining your game face when the camera pans your way.

The American married Kevin Anderson, now the world number 14, in 2011 after meeting the South African at the University of Illinois, and has been travelling full-time on the tennis tour for three years.
It meant giving up an accountancy career in Chicago, a matter of days after being promoted.
"I think that option is always out there but for now I'm just a tour wife, which is a little bit demeaning in a way, but I think I play a pretty big role on Kevin's team.
"I don't let it bother me too much if people call me a WAG [Wives and Girlfriends]. I just kind of embrace it. If you can't beat them, join them."
On Monday in New York, Anderson will take her seat at Flushing Meadows to watch her husband play Andy Murray, with the Scot's wife Kim in the opposite corner.
"I know exactly how she feels sitting there," says Anderson.
"It's tense and it's stressful and it's impossible to ignore those feelings. As much as sometimes we try, it boils over."
Kelsey Anderson began charting life on the tour in a blog last month and it has already proved quite a hit, with Murray describing one effort as "absolutely fantastic" and husband Kevin saying other players have "really enjoyed it".
Whether it is dealing with the regular defeats that tennis players suffer, coping with long-distance relationships, or describing the best and worst laundry, food and transport on offer, the blog details the hours spent away from the world's centre courts.
"I feel like the wives and girlfriends don't get a whole lot of exposure beyond what we look like from the players' box," she says.
"I'm really proud and excited to be giving a voice to some of the other women who commit their lives to travelling with their partners."
Anderson estimates that she is one of three wives or girlfriends on the men's ATP Tour who travel to every tournament with their partner.
Earlier in his career, her husband would often share a room with his coach to keep costs down, and her decision to join the travelling team was not without consequence.
"Fortunately, when I started travelling with him he was ranked about 30, 35, so he's gone up and we can justify the cost of me being around," she says.
"It was a big decision, though. Not only was I giving up my career and earning potential, we had to start getting an extra hotel room every week, we had to start paying for extra flights, extra food.
"It's not insignificant and I think it it really is part of the reason why certain people don't come to every tournament - they just can't justify the cost."
Those costs can begin to mount up pretty quickly - Anderson estimates that they spent between $40,000 (£26,000) and $50,000 (£33,000) on air fares last year, and approximately $1,000 (£700) to $2,000 (£1,400) a week on hotel rooms.
"If you've got a team with you, you've really got to be earning money to cover your expenses," says Anderson.
She deals with the business side of Kevin's career and so is responsible for booking those plane tickets, with the air miles and deals proving invaluable to make sure his 6ft 8in frame arrives ready for competition.
That can often mean Kevin heading to business class while his wife sits at the less glamorous end of the plane - at least on the way to tournaments.
"It's just not worth the risk of him showing up having pinched his neck because he's sleeping funny on the airplane," she says.
"My job, and the job of the rest of the support staff, is to take as much pressure off Kevin as we can, so that all he has to do theoretically is show up and play."
Her husband won £898,765 in prize money last year, but only reached his career-high ranking this summer at the age of 29, having turned professional in 2007.
"Of course the guys at the top have great endorsements but Kevin's from South Africa; he doesn't have a federation funding him," she adds.
"He's paid his own way every dime of his career, he's built it on his own merits, and it makes me really proud of him. He's managed it all really smartly. He's treated it as a business from day one as a pro."
Despite the hours spent in airports, restaurants, gyms and hotel rooms, the focus remains on what happens out on court.
That is when Kelsey Anderson and the rest of the team have to play their part from the sidelines.
"Sometimes we'll say something like, 'stay committed'. That's a trigger word for him and he knows in his mind, when we say 'committed' he has a thought process and a target associated with that, so just the one word is significant.
"He does give me feedback and we appreciate it because we want to do the best we can, within the rules obviously, because we're not allowed to coach, or say anything specific from the sidelines."
Kim Murray, a veteran of 10 years in the world's player boxes, will be going through a similar routine on Monday.
The then-future Mrs Murray became caught in a media storm at this year's Australian Open after images of her swearing went viral, prompting her to respond by wearing a 'parental advisory explicit content' t-shirt at the next match.
"It's so tense and so emotional, I completely understand how that type of stuff happens," says Anderson.
"I think it was unlucky for her. I think she's a lovely girl and I don't think that's reflective of her character or her values.
"[The t-shirt] was the perfect response, I loved it. It showed her sense of humour and it was great."
Anderson admits she gets very nervous when watching - "truly, on the inside I'm dying" - but hopes to stay on the road for as long as her husband is competing.
"It's been an absolute pleasure to watch and to experience all of it and it's been so fun," she says.
"I can't even explain how proud it makes me to have seen the development and really know how hard he works, and how much he earned where he is right now."


A man who stockpiled explosive substances to "defend the UK from an attack by Isis" has been found guilty of three criminal offences.

Roger Smith was concerned about an attack similar to that on fusilier Lee Rigby in London in 2014, Nottingham Crown Court was told.
The 46-year-old was found guilty of two counts of having explosive substances at his home in Clifton in Nottingham.
He was also found guilty of having a document for terrorist purposes.
That charge related to a copy of the Anarchy Cookbook Version 2000, a guide to making bombs based on The Anarchist Cookbook.
Jurors heard that police first became aware of Smith in June 2014 because of a dispute with his neighbours concerning hedges and garden fires.
PCSO Matthew Holden said he had several dealings with the defendant, who openly told him he had a compound bow and a set of three knives.
He told jurors Smith was concerned about "a terrorist attack or Islamic attack similar to the Lee Rigby attack", said "Islam was at war with the West" and "believed a citizen should have the right to bear arms".
Police searched Mr Smith's home on 21 October 2015 and found gunpowder and large amounts of chemicals that could be used to make explosives along with a copy of the Anarchy Cookbook Version 2000.
In his police interview, Smith said he made the gunpowder to entertain his young relatives by lighting it in the garden.
He claimed he had the other chemicals for legitimate purposes and had the weapons because he was a "survivalist" who liked to shoot arrows in his garden.
Smith bought a second copy of the Anarchy Cookbook from Amazon while awaiting trial which he said was to use as evidence for his defence.
He was charged with an extra offence for making that purchase but the jury cleared him.
He is due to be sentenced on 16 December.


The billionaire co-founder of struggling Chinese technology giant LeEco has had personal assets frozen by a Shanghai court, state media reports.

Assets worth a combined 1.24bn yuan ($183m; Â£141m) belonging to Jia Yueting, his wife, and three affiliates have reportedly been blocked.
The ruling follows LeEco's failure to pay interest due on bank loans taken out to fund its smartphone business.
Neither Mr Jia nor the company has commented on the reports.
LeEco was for a while known as the Netflix of China, a company that streamed content and eventually started making its own original material.
But it then drew comparison with the likes of Apple and Tesla when it began branching out into hardware, including a smart TV, phones and electric cars.
LeEco started selling devices in the US at the tail end of last year, but is now facing a cash crunch and has been forced to slash costs, including making job cuts.
Mr Jia, who resigned as chief executive in May but retains his position as chairman, recently admitted to shareholders that its financial problems were "more severe than we expected".
In April, a $2bn deal to buy consumer electronics-maker Vizio was called off because of "regulatory headwinds".
Meanwhile LeEco's smartphone unit, Coolpad, has further delayed its 2016 financial results because of audit issues. The company's unaudited results from May suggest it lost $542m last year.
Coolpad shares listed in Hong Kong have been suspended from trade for three months.
The news of the court freeze on some of LeEco's assets was welcomed by Philip G Chiu, CEO of US-based marketing firm Beyond Media Global.
He took LeEco business LeTV to court over debts of $1m but claims that it still owes his firm around $100,000.
"LeTV has still not paid all their debt to our company," he told the BBC.


The former Luxembourg Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, has taken charge of the European Commission, despite UK opposition.

He got a solid majority among MEPs in a secret ballot - 422 votes - and the support of 26 out of 28 EU governments.
But British MEPs in particular - the UK Independence Party and the Conservatives - were vocal in their opposition to him.
Mr Juncker, 59, based his claim to the EU's top job on being the Spitzenkandidat (lead candidate) of the centre-right European People's Party, which won the May elections.
His election is seen as a triumph for the European Parliament, which pioneered the Spitzenkandidat procedure. It was an effort to make the European elections more relevant to voters and give the EU more of a "human face".
But UK Prime Minister David Cameron said the parliament had usurped the right of government leaders to choose the EU's top executive. In the past that choice was made behind closed doors, and by unanimity, without a formal vote.
Mr Juncker is a controversial figure, as a leading advocate of deeper EU integration, and is often called a "federalist".
A veteran of Brussels deal-making, he headed the powerful Eurogroup - the eurozone finance ministers - at the height of the eurozone crisis, when crucial decisions were taken about austerity and bailout conditions.
In a speech setting out his agenda for the EU on 15 July he stressed that the euro "protects Europe" and he praised former Commission president Jacques Delors, the man credited with launching the single currency.
Mr Juncker was prime minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013 and one of the architects of the euro.
But according to Pierre Leyers, financial editor of the daily Luxemburger Wort, it is misleading to call him a "federalist". "He wants deeper integration, but not a European superstate," he told the BBC.
Mr Leyers argues that coming from a tiny country has enhanced Mr Juncker's influence in the EU, odd though that may seem to people unfamiliar with Brussels politics.
Luxembourg was a founding member of the community which became the EU and, sandwiched between France and Germany, "it had no choice but to try to be on good terms with its neighbours", Mr Leyers said. "So some Luxembourg politicians were always good negotiators and diplomats, to get France and Germany together."
The drive for post-war reconciliation shaped Mr Juncker's political views.
Early in his political career he worked for Prime Minister Pierre Werner, who helped to forge the Franco-German bond at the heart of the European project.
Mr Werner came up with a plan for monetary union which was later developed by Jacques Delors.
Mr Juncker went on to become one of the world's longest-serving democratically elected leaders.
But some of his past remarks have raised eyebrows, suggesting a less than firm commitment to democracy.
Ahead of the French vote on the European Constitution in 2005 he said: "If it's a Yes, we will say 'on we go', and if it's a No we will say 'we continue'".
And in 2011 he said "monetary policy is a serious issue - we should discuss this in secret, in the Eurogroup... I am for secret, dark debates".
His greatest EU challenge has been shoring up the eurozone since the 2008 financial crash, when Greece's colossal debts, and those of other struggling eurozone countries, threatened the very survival of the single currency.
In a high-profile TV debate on 15 May Mr Juncker said he had worked "night and day" to rescue Greece.
According to Mr Leyers, at the height of the crisis he was working 14 hours a day and that took a toll on his health. He is a heavy smoker.
He is by far the most popular politician in Luxembourg, added the journalist at the Grand Duchy's leading daily.
In the TV debate, Mr Juncker said it was now time for the EU to "replace debt by ideas" and achieve a digital single market, while ensuring "minimum social standards for workers".
He also called for an EU-US free trade treaty. The negotiations are controversial, amid widespread European anxiety about powerful US corporations.
Mr Juncker is a strong advocate of a European "solidarity" union - an EU that strives to raise living standards in its poorest regions and sectors.
He has not explained how an EU-US free trade deal might impact on EU social protection policies, which currently cost the EU many billions through support for farmers and projects to help poor communities.
He claimed that such a deal would give each European an extra 545 euros (Â£443; $742) - an exaggeration, according to a fact check by Eurovision, which hosted the debate.
He has also defended the Common Agricultural Policy, saying agriculture employs about 30 million Europeans. But the UK government is among the many critics who say the CAP is wasteful and want more of the EU budget spent on digital technologies, research and investment in small businesses.
Mats Persson, director of the Open Europe think-tank, says Mr Juncker is associated with the EU of the 1980s and 1990s, echoing a criticism attributed to Prime Minister Cameron.
After an election that saw a surge in support for Eurosceptic parties, that connection with past EU policies may be a disadvantage, Mr Persson told the BBC.
However, Mr Juncker is not vague about the political risks of taking tough economic decisions. He once said, "We all know what to do, we just don't know how to get re-elected after we've done it."


A second man has been charged with murdering an 18-year-old who was killed in a drive-by shooting.

Kenichi Phillips was shot while sitting in a car in the Ladywood area of Birmingham on 17 March.
Dean Silvera, 37, from Perry Barr, has been remanded in custody to appear at Birmingham Magistrate's Court on Thursday.
It follows the arrest of a 17-year-old boy who was charged with murder last month, West Midlands Police said.
More on this and other Birmingham stories
A 22-year-old man who was arrested on suspicion of murder the day after the shooting, remains on bail.


It may be two words but "democracy sausage" has been deemed tasty enough to be Australia's word of the year.

The Australian National Dictionary Centre enshrined the term for a popular election-day staple as its word of 2016 on Wednesday.
So what is a democracy sausage?
It refers to a barbecued sausage that is typically served on a slice of bread with tomato sauce, and often onion, at polling booths around the country.
Although sausages have long featured on Australia's election days, the term was first recorded in 2012 and rose to greater prominence at July's federal poll.
Source: Australian National Dictionary Centre
Amanda Laugesen, director of the Australian National Dictionary Centre, said the term democracy sausage gained traction through the eight-week election campaign, considered long by Australian standards.
"Perhaps that was evidence that people were not as inspired by the policies on both sides of politics," she told the BBC.
Other food and drink choices also made the shortlist.
Smashed avo, a menu staple at many Australian brunch spots, became the subject of a national debate after a newspaper columnist suggested that young people should give up eating at cafes and instead buy a house.
And the shoey, an unorthodox sporting celebration, was popularised by Australian driver Daniel Riccardio who downed champagne from his racing boot several times from atop the Formula One podium.
"They all say something about the rise of social media in terms of shaping our language," Dr Laugesen said.
"Perhaps also the millennials having something to do with shaping social, political and cultural discourse - particularly with the smashed avo or the shoey."
Following the US election and Brexit vote, Oxford Dictionaries chose "post-truth" as its international word of the year.
It said the adjective, associated with the rising influence of emotional appeals in shaping public opinion, could become "one of the defining words of our time".


Thousands of hospital bed days could be saved if occupational therapists were used more to help patients, a report has said.

The College of Occupational Therapists said such action could cut avoidable admissions and delayed discharge.
A pilot service in a Cardiff hospital saved more than 15,000 bed days in a year, saving almost Â£1m in cash terms.
Health Secretary Vaughan Gething said occupational therapists could help with the changes needed in healthcare.
They offer advice and provide people with help to maintain their independence.
The report said research has found by using occupational therapists more, patients could be discharged on the same day as an assessment or within three days.
Ruth Crowder, Wales policy officer for the College of Occupational Therapists (COT), said health and care services were under "considerable financial pressure".
She added: "We don't want people to be in hospital if they don't need to be there.
"Ideally, we would have occupational therapists in with A&E and out with paramedics and stop them [patients] going into hospital if they don't need to medically so they are able to be independent.
"If we don't get them at the right time, they are more ill and less able to do things.
"The added bonus is it's saving significant amounts of money and bed days and freeing up resources to deal with other people."
A frail older persons' assessment and liaison (Fopal) team at Cardiff's University Hospital of Wales emergency department assessment unit was launched in 2012.
It is the only one of its kind in Wales and it prioritises those who could be discharged the same day as an assessment.
Source: Reducing Pressure on Hospitals report
The year-long Reducing Pressure on Hospitals study by the college has highlighted key points it believes health boards and local authorities should adopt regarding occupational therapists (OTs).
Dr Alan Rees, vice president of the Royal College of Physicians Wales, welcomed the report saying the Welsh NHS needed to "break down barriers and invest in more integration of health and social care".
Older People's Commissioner Sarah Rochira added: "At a time where resources across our health and social care services continue to be limited, occupational therapists have a vital role to play in supporting older people to maintain and regain their independence."
Mr Gething, who will deliver a speech at the launch of the report on Wednesday, said: "Occupational therapists are one of the key health and social care professionals across health, social care and housing that can help achieve the changes that are needed.
"This report clearly shows the innovative ways they are delivering services which help people avoid unnecessary admission to hospital, reduce the time they stay in hospital and ensure they have a successful and safe discharge back home."


A 70-year-old woman has died and three people have been seriously injured in a car crash in Caerphilly county.

Gwent Police was called to the collision involving two cars on the A4048 at Markham near Blackwood just after 10:30 GMT on Thursday.
A male driver and female passenger were taken to Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil where she later died.
Two women travelling in the second car were taken to Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport.
Wales Air Ambulance and three ambulances also attended.
The road remains closed and diversions are in place.


Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez has reassured supporters he will remain at St James' Park to maintain the bid for an immediate Premier League return.

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The Magpies boss was frustrated after Wednesday's 2-2 draw with QPR and the lack of January additions to the squad for the second half of the season.
It was reported that the Spaniard's future was uncertain at Newcastle, who are second in the Championship.
"I will not leave, I will not quit," Benitez told BBC Newcastle.
"I want to get promoted with this team and to do well. I will put all my effort into that. I say thank you to the fans, I will continue giving everything to ensure the players, staff and fans are pushing in the same direction."
Newcastle have been short of cover over the past two months because of injuries to Dwight Gayle, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Isaac Hayden and Vurnon Anita, the absence of players at the African Cup of Nations, plus the suspension of Jonjo Shelvey earlier in the season.
Benitez was keen to bring in extra depth to a squad which was strengthened in the summer with the arrival of Gayle, DeAndre Yedlin and Matt Ritchie.
Bids were made to bring Crystal Palace winger Andros Townsend back to Tyneside, but those were rejected.
"The window has finished, we have to concentrate on the future," Benitez said. "We have a group of players who did very well in the first part of the season and we have to have confidence they will do well in the second part of the season."
Benitez was named Newcastle manager in March 2016 following the sacking of Steve McClaren. But the former Liverpool, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Valencia boss was unable to prevent their relegation from the top flight last term.
Newcastle remain on course for promotion from the Championship with 59 points from 28 games, only one point behind leaders Brighton.
"The club, the city and the fans, we have made the same mistake in the past," Benitez added. "Everyone was blaming each other and we lost the focus.
"We have to stick together and have a target which is promotion and a target to achieve. Afterwards we can analyse the mistakes or what we have done well."


Racing 92 will face Leicester in the Champions Cup semi-finals after beating reigning champions Toulon in a tense last eight meeting.

The French Top 14 sides were level on 77 minutes after Charles Ollivan cancelled out Juan Imoff's opening try for Parisians Racing in the first half.
But a late Maxime Machenaud penalty edged Racing in front and they held on to defeat the three-time champions.
Racing will play Leicester in the last four in Nottingham on 24 April.
Tigers joined fellow Premiership sides Saracens and Wasps in the semis after beating Stade Francais 41-13 on Sunday.
Racing, who sit one place and two points above Toulon in the French league, were kicked in front by former New Zealand fly-half Dan Carter, and Imoff put them 10-0 up when he intercepted a loose ball and ran 40 metres to touch down.
But Ollivan went over in reply after a sensational break from Josua Tuisova, and a conversion and penalty from Pellissie brought Toulon level at the break.
Carter, the all-time leading points scorer in Test history, suffered a leg injury and although he stayed on the field, France scrum-half Machenaud took over kicking duties and landed two penalties before Pelissie levelled matters once again.
Delon Armitage and Machenaud both missed chances in the final 10 minutes, as the windy conditions sent long-range penalties wide.
But Machenaud was handed another chance and his 20-metre penalty sent Racing through and ended Toulon's three-year reign as champions of Europe.
Racing 92: Dulin; Rokocoko, Goosen, Dumoulin, Imhoff; Carter, Machenaud; Ben Arous, Szarzewski, Ducalcon, Charteris, Van Der Merwe, Lauret, Le Roux, Masoe.
Replacements: Andreu for Dumoulin (10), Castrogiovanni for Ducalcon (69), Carizza for Van Der Merwe (57), Nyanga for Lauret (69).
Not Used: Chat, Vartanov, Phillips, Tales.
Toulon: D Armitage; Tuiosva, Mermoz, Nonu, O'Connor; Giteau, Pelissie; Fresia, Guirado, Saulo, Gorgodze, Taofifenua, J Smith, Ollivon, Vermeulen.
Replacements: Bastareaud for Mermoz (74), Taylor for Giteau (61), Escande for Pelissie (74), Chiocci for Fresia (44), Orioli for Guirado (64), Chilachava for Saulo (41), Lassale for J Smith (64), S Armitage for Ollivon (41).
Ref: Wayne Barnes (RFU).


The captain of the FlyDubai jet which crashed in Russia last Saturday was due to leave the airline, citing fatigue, colleagues say.

The Boeing 737-800 crash in Rostov-on-Don killed all 62 people on board, including seven crew.
Pilots speaking anonymously to the BBC say fatigue was a contributory factor in the accident - claims FlyDubai says relate to "confidential information".
One pilot reported previously falling asleep at the controls from exhaustion.
"We are unable to disclose confidential information relating to our employees," a FlyDubai spokesperson said.
"It is important, not least out of respect for the families involved, that we do not speculate about the circumstances of this tragic accident, whilst the independent investigating authorities carry out their work."
The pilots who spoke to the BBC say their colleagues are at "significant and obvious risk" from fatigue. One of the sources has already resigned and another says he will quit.
Poor visibility and high winds are being considered as the cause of the accident, which occurred after the passenger jet missed the runway as it attempted to land.
Reports say the plane abandoned its initial attempt to land and circled for two hours before crashing at the second attempt.
The three FlyDubai staff members said that the captain, Cypriot Aristos Sokratous, had already resigned and was serving out his three-month notice, stating fatigue and lifestyle as his main reasons for leaving.
"This crash was very close to home," a FlyDubai pilot told the BBC. "I don't want to speculate on what caused the crash, but I think that fatigue must have been a contributory factor. I'm also not surprised it happened.
"Crew are overworked and suffering from fatigue. It is a significant risk.
"Staff are going from night to day shifts without enough rest in between. I would say 50% of the airline's workforce are suffering from acute fatigue.
"I raised it with a senior member of staff at the airline who said 'we don't have a fatigue issue at FlyDubai'."
Air disasters timeline
Pilot fatigue has long been stated as a concern in the airline industry. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has previously proposed setting limits on the duration that pilots can fly.
"The attitude among crew before this crash was that it's a case of when, not if, there would be an accident," one of the pilots said.
"We were asking 'do we have to lose an aircraft' for things to change? So staff, while shocked, are not surprised.
"The writing was on the wall. Most crews are running on empty anyway. Everyone is tired.
"I am worried, but I wanted to speak out. Why should people have to lose their lives?
"Approximately 25 pilots out of 600 have resigned since the beginning of the year. From my understanding, most have cited fatigue, rosters and quality of life."
Another pilot who spoke to the BBC said he and colleagues had also raised the issue of fatigue with the airline's management and he had admitted falling asleep on the flight deck on one occasion due to exhaustion. He said he is going to resign from the airline.
"The degradation in performance is noticeable," the second pilot said.
"I have fallen asleep at the controls due to fatigue. I also didn't have full mental capabilities on approach, which is incredibly serious.
"I admitted it and raised it with senior staff but nothing was done about it.
"More of the travelling public should be questioning what's going on at the front of the airplane and should know more about the welfare of the people flying the plane.
"I am resigning because of constant fatigue. I am going to give my notice in the next couple of weeks."
In a further statement the airline said: "For FlyDubai the safety and welfare of our flight crew and cabin crew is of primary importance. The whole aviation industry is heavily regulated.
"We strictly follow authorised flying duty time regulations in compiling duty rosters, with special attention paid to the variables which affect our crews including report times, previous duty and the number of days off.
"If a member of flight crew feels that, for whatever reason, they have not been able to get enough rest before starting a shift, our Safety Management Systems (SMS), encourages pilots to declare themselves unfit to fly."
Fatigue has been linked to a number of previous high profile aviation incidents. It was listed among the causes of a TransAsia flight which crashed in a heavy storm on Taiwan's Penghu island July 2014, leaving 48 dead.
It was also cited as causing a pilot to send an Air Canada passenger plane into a dive over the North Atlantic in 2011, injuring 16 people.
Officials say the cockpit voice and data recorders recovered from the crash scene have been badly damaged and are unlikely to reveal much data.
FlyDubai is a low cost carrier airline, which launched in 2009. It has a hub in Dubai and operates flights to some 90 destinations.


An investigation has started after an explosion on a train in the Russian city of St Petersburg.

Fourteen people died and another 49 were injured on Monday afternoon.
St Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia.
The explosion happened as the train travelled between two underground stations.
The driver continued to the next stop, which allowed passengers to be helped more easily by emergency services. His actions have been praised as helping to save further lives.
Russia's emergency services quickly arrived on the scene and took people to hospital.
The St Petersburg metro system was shut down and three days of mourning were declared.
Another device was found at a different metro station, but was safely defused.
The Russian government has said it is introducing extra security measures.
Details are still coming out about who was behind the bomb.
The Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, has described the explosion as a "terrorist act", but officials say they are investigating all other possibilities too.
So far, no group has said it carried out the attack.
Russian authorities have said they have identified a suspect, who is thought to have also died in the explosion.
The Russian President Vladimir Putin was in St Petersburg - his home city - when the blast happened.
He visited the scene on Monday evening and laid flowers at a makeshift shrine.
People lit candles and placed flowers at the entrance to the metro station following the incident.
A service was held at a chapel in Russia's capital city Moscow, with prayers for those affected by the blast.
Many world leaders have condemned the attack.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May said she had written to President Putin to offer her condolences.
"I'm very clear, as the people of the UK were after the attack in London, that we will prevail. The terrorists will not win."
The White House said US President Donald Trump had spoken to Mr Putin by phone and offered "full support" in bringing those responsible to justice.
It's important to remember that things like this are still extremely rare - that is why they're in the news.
If you're feeling worried then it's best to talk to someone you trust, like a parent or teacher.
There's more advice here on what to do if you're upset by the news.


Westminster's "palace of enchantments" will be given an LGBTI gleam this weekend - lit up in the colours of the rainbow flag to mark both Pride Week and also the 50th anniversary of the Act of Parliament which legalised gay sex.

The decision was taken by Commons Speaker John Bercow and the Lord Speaker, Lord Fowler, who explained their thinking in their first-ever joint interview, for Radio 4's Today in Parliament.
Legalisation, in 1967, was the product of a ten-year parliamentary campaign to follow-up the 1957 Wolfenden Report which had recommended the decriminalisation of consenting male homosexual sex.
There had been gathering pressure and determined resistance as the issue surfaced repeatedly in Parliament, with furious internal argument within the two main parties.
My favourite moment was a question put by the Conservative former Lord Chancellor, Lord Kilmuir, who asked "are your Lordships going to pass a bill that would make it lawful for two senior officers of police to go to bed together?"
The Conservative MP Humphrey Berkeley brought in a bill for reform, but lost his seat in the 1966 general election. He was not reselected, and was told that his local party could tolerate him being for either homosexual law reform or the abolition of hanging, but not both.
The torch was passed to the Labour MP, Leo Abse, who won approval for a ten-minute rule bill in July 1966, by 244 votes to 100. Abse had the support of the new Home Secretary, Roy Jenkins, who battled in Cabinet to persuade reluctant colleagues to give government support to the Bill.
Opponents thought it was the product of middle class liberalism and would alienate Labour's working-class base, but the government did eventually crucial provide extra debating time in the Commons, when Abse's private members bill faced a filibuster.
The necessary 100 MPs needed to force votes at regular intervals in the debate was mustered, and at 5.50am on the morning of July 4, 1966, the Bill passed its Third Reading by 99 votes to 14, after a 20-hour sitting.
Legalisation was presented in an apologetic way - a measure to end the criminalisation of unfortunates - and not a "vote of confidence in homosexuality".
The age of consent was set at 21, and despite attempts to lower it by, among others, the Conservative Edwina Currie, it remained at that age until 2000.
Even after legalisation, the personal consequences for MPs and others in the public eye of being outed were still devastating.
There were cases like that of Maureen Colquhoun, a Labour MP elected in Northampton in 1974, who brought in bills on abortion, gender balance and the protection of prostitutes.
Her relationship with another woman was revealed in the Daily Mail. She defeated two attempts to deselect her, and she was forced to campaign for re-election in 1979, with some party members refusing to support her because of her private life, rather than her politics. She lost.
Perhaps the most high profile example was that of someone who never actually made it into Parliament, Peter Tatchell, the Labour candidate in the 1983 Bermondsey by-election, whose homosexuality became an election issue.
In an interview on Radio 4's Today in Parliament on Friday, Joanna Cherry, the gay SNP MP, said the level of "hate filled homophobia" he faced deterred her from any idea of a career in politics - although she would have liked (at that time) to be a Labour MP.
Labour's Chris Smith, a future Culture Secretary, was the first MP to come out as gay, in 1984.
And there was also legislation, like Section 28 of the 1988 Local Government Act, which said local councils could not "intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship".
No prosecution was ever brought under Section 28, but it had considerable impact on, for example, lesbian, gay and bisexual support groups in schools and colleges. It was repealed in 2000.
In recent years the battles have tended to be on legislation designed to be anti-discriminatory, first the creation of Civil Partnerships, then the legislation to allow same-sex couples to marry, and most recently the "Turing Bill" to pardon gay men convicted for offences that would not be considered crimes today.
Today, Speaker Bercow's coat of arms features LGBT colours. And for Norman Fowler, the Lord Speaker, his experience as health secretary in the 1980s, when AIDS emerged as a major public health issue, it brought the issue for discrimination against gay people into focus.
Both wanted Parliament to pay its respects to the LGBT community and to show solidarity.
"We have gone in half a century from the criminalisation of one type of love to almost complete legal equality," Mr Bercow said.
Lord Fowler said the lighting of one of the most famous buildings in the world would be a symbol to people who were being persecuted.


Striker Daniel Sturridge says Liverpool are stronger this season despite an unconvincing start to life without last year's top scorer Luis Suarez.

The Reds required a 79th-minute winner by Sturridge to overcome a determined Southampton side 2-1 at Anfield.
Asked if Liverpool are a better team following the departure of Suarez, Sturridge said: "I think so, with the players we've brought in.
"No disrespect - he's a great player and will be missed - but we move on."
Uruguay forward Suarez, who moved to Barcelona for £75m, scored 31 times in 33 top-flight appearances as the Reds finished runners-up last season.
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers revealed that the 27-year-old sent him a text on the morning of the Southampton game wishing him and the team good luck.
"His heart will always be with Liverpool," added Rodgers.
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Liverpool have signed eight players since the end of last season at a cost of £101m, with one of those - striker Divock Origi - loaned back to Lille.
Three of those new additions - Javier Manquillo, Dejan Lovren and Rickie Lambert - featured against Southampton, the latter coming on as a substitute against his former club.
Rodgers, who is hoping to further strengthen his squad before the transfer window closes in two weeks, admitted his side are "by no means the finished article" but believes they can mount another title challenge without Suarez.
"Our ambitions have to be bigger than one player," added Rodgers. "We're bigger than any one player, I still think we need a striker so we'll search through until the end of the window for that.
"I don't think anyone has given us hope of getting in the top four. We loved the challenge last season and that is what we look to recreate."
Meanwhile, Southampton boss Ronald Koeman also believes his side is stronger despite a summer of upheaval.
The Saints lost manager Mauricio Pochettino as well as a host of key players including Lambert, Adam Lallana and Lovren to Liverpool.
"The rumours were that we would be worse than last season, but I don't agree with that," Koeman, speaking to BBC Sport, said. "The performance was very good and it gives the boys a lot of confidence.
"We need one or two players more, a winger. The club is working hard."


Lancashire wicketkeeper Alex Davies says his maiden first-class century was reward for his hard work during the winter after a long-term injury.

The 22-year-old scored an unbeaten 140 as the Red Rose drew their opening County Championship match at Essex.
He had spent 11 months out of the game with a knee problem that required an operation last season.
"There were a couple of dark moments during that time," Davies told BBC Radio Lancashire.
"You have to stay positive and have belief in your own ability, belief that you will get back fit and you will get back playing.
"It was tough to watch Lancashire last season and see people move ahead of me, but I had that belief deep down.
"This (first century) was really amazing and it's good to get it off my back really. I've had a lot of chances in the past and not quite got over the line."


Ebola persists in the semen of male survivors much longer than previously thought, a study shows.

The report in the New England Journal of Medicine found two-thirds of men had Ebola in their semen up to six months after infection, and a quarter after nine.
A separate study, in the same journal, reports Ebola being spread through sex with a survivor six months after their symptoms had started.
Men who have survived Ebola are being encouraged to wear condoms.
Previous outbreaks of Ebola had shown the virus was present in semen for 82 days after the onset of symptoms.
However, with huge numbers of Ebola-survivors now in West Africa, there is concern about how long the virus persists and if that poses a threat.
One study, led by the US Army Medical Research Institute, documents the first "evidence of sexual transmission of Ebola virus".
The researchers analysed the genetic code of the virus in a man's semen and the blood of his female partner in Liberia and showed it was "consistent with direct transmission".
The analysis reported "infective Ebola virus" was in the man's semen for at least 179 days after the onset of symptoms.
Meanwhile, a team in Sierra Leone tracked a 93 male survivors and found traces of Ebola virus in the semen of:
The virus was not detected in the only man tested 10 months after symptoms started.
The doctors report concluded: "We do not yet have data on the extent to which positivity [on the test] is associated with virus infectivity".
The men will continue to be followed up and samples are being taken to determine if the virus is live.
The World Health Organization said sexual transmission was "rare" and pointed to areas of Sierra Leone that have very high numbers of survivors and yet have had no recurrences.
Margaret Chan, the director general of the WHO, told the BBC there was still doubt about what a positive test result meant.
She said: "Does it mean they are still infectious or are they just fragments? We don't have the definitive evidence yet.
"The degree of uncertainty is worrying, that's why we need to take precautionary measures, so we advise survivors to take protection through contraception."
Prof David Heymann, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "Condoms should be used as a precautionary measure until better understanding is gained through long-term study.
"This must be done in a way that prevents discrimination, and sociologists must work with health promotion teams and community leaders, as well as survivor groups, so that language is understandable and not offensive.
"Past outbreaks have not been reignited by survivors, but numbers have been small, and no sexual transmission was recorded prior to the current outbreaks."
According to the WHO, sexual transmission of the Ebola virus from females to males is less probable, but theoretically possible.
Follow James on Twitter.


On Friday, voters in the Republic of Ireland will go to the polls with all the indications that no party will come close to getting an overall majority.

However, Sinn Féin is expected to do well in the vote, regardless of the likely hung parliament (Dáil).
Dublin Bay South is a four-seat constituency that is largely, but not wholly, middle-class.
If it were summer, it could be described as a leafy suburb, but one festooned with election posters.
It is where you would expect someone with a family background in Fianna Fáil - the largest opposition party and a once-dominant force in Irish politics - to be a candidate.
Chris Andrews is the grandson of a founding member of Fianna Fáil, the son of former Fianna Fáil member of parliament (Teachta Dála) and a nephew of David Andrews (who was minister for foreign affairs at the time of the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement).
But this one-time Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) fell out with his party and is now - in what may be a sign of changing times - standing for Sinn Féin.
"Sinn Féin, for me, takes sides and in politics today we have to take sides," he says.
"Sinn Féin is taking the side of low and middle income families and that, for me, was probably the strongest attraction for joining."
Jim O'Callaghan, the current Fianna Fáil candidate, is a barrister and a brother of the RTÉ broadcaster, Miriam O'Callaghan.
The once dominant party is hoping to regain many of the seats it lost in the last election - its worst general election performance in its history, with voters punishing it for the European Union and International Monetary Fund bailout.
Mr O'Callaghan says that while Sinn Féin may have pulled a bit of a stroke in their candidate selection, it is not one that will work, as both men believe they are in a fight with Labour for the last seat.
"People who supported Fianna Fáil are coming back to us," says Mr O'Callaghan.
"I think a lot of people regard the fact that Sinn Féin have engaged a former Fianna Fáil TD as quite opportunistic for both Sinn Féin and Chris Andrews.
"So, I don't see either middle-class or working-class people going in their droves to Sinn Féin."
Next door to Dublin Bay South is the four-seat Dublin South Central constituency.
It is a much more working-class and left-wing area, where Sinn Féin hopes that Councillor Máire Devine, a psychiatric nurse, will join Aengus Ó Snodaigh in the next Dáil.
But, in a crowded battleground, she is having to look over her shoulder at more left-wing candidates and parties.
Canvassing outside a school as parents collect their children, she says:  "Our unique selling point is that we can prove that we can govern.
"We govern in the north and we've done that very successfully.
"And, as a left-wing party, I want myself and Aengus returned in this constituency to work as a team. Teamwork works."
It is expected that People Before Profit - which also organises in Northern Ireland - will be fighting with Sinn Féin for the last seat.
From a Dublin republican family, its candidate Brid Smith says she would not go into coalition with any right-wing party, something she believes Sinn Féin is not completely ruling out.
And while she accepts that Gerry Adams' party is left-of-centre, she says she has fundamental differences with Sinn Féin .
"In the north, where they are in government, they are imposing austerity measures," Ms Smith says.
"Letting go public sector workers, closing schools, etc. And there is a real contradiction between what they say down here and what they do up there."
Sinn Féin had 14 seats in the last Dáil.  It is widely believed they will come close to doubling that in the next one.
But even with that, in the centenary of the 1916 Rising, few expect the party to be in government by Easter 2016.
Nevertheless, barring unforeseen surprises, it should still be a good election for Mr Adams and his party.


A girl who was obsessed with serial killers and school shootings has been found guilty of attempting to murder her best friend at their school.

She lured her victim to a quiet area at the Hampshire school by promising her a gift before stabbing her in the chest, Winchester Crown Court heard.
The attacker, who cannot be named for legal reasons but was then aged 14, was influenced by an interest in murderers.
She had also plotted to kill her mother and brother, her trial was told.
The defendant will be sentenced at a later date and the judge has ordered a pre-sentence psychiatric report.
The girl turned up to school on 25 April wearing a bandana and with her mouth cut to resemble the Joker from the Batman film The Dark Knight, the jury heard.
Prosecutor James Newton-Price said she told her 15-year-old victim she had a present for her, and said to her friend: "Close your eyes and put your hands out."
However, the victim opened her eyes a little and saw her friend lunge at her with a knife.
The court heard the attacked girl stepped back and, although the knife went through her blazer and shirt, she only suffered a superficial puncture wound to the chest, near her heart.
Her attacker also sent her a message saying she did not care "if they blamed it on The Joker or Columbine, they didn't inspire me, they motivated me", she added.
In police interviews read to jurors, the defendant said she had based a fashion GCSE project on US serial killers Ted Bundy and Richard "Nightcrawler" Ramirez because she thought it was "cool and edgy".
She had also researched the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in the US and the Anders Breivik killings in Norway in 2011 to gain "more insight into their whole case", the court heard.
She carried out further research about the position of the heart and the fatality of stab wounds in the early hours leading up the attack, the jury was told.
The girl also admitted she had compiled a "kill list" of potential victims, including other pupils, as well as her mother and brother.
However, she told the court her plans for a school massacre were "not serious" and she did not understand her own motives.
She said she felt compelled to attack her friend, adding: "A very big part of me was disgusted at what I was thinking.
"I didn't feel very much in control of what I was doing.
"I didn't want to, I felt I had to, I felt that within myself."
Previously the court was told the girl bore a grudge against her victim, who she believed had set up fake Instagram and Tumblr accounts in her name.
At the start of the trial she pleaded guilty to having a bladed weapon on school premises and unlawful wounding.
She said she had carried out the stabbing because: "I had a driving force to hurt someone. I was scared of losing face. I intended to stab her."
However she denied intending to kill or cause serious harm.


A US freelance photographer who has been held in Syria for almost four years has been released, the State Department said.

Kevin Patrick Dawes, 33, was abducted in 2012 as he entered Syria.
US officials told the Washington Post that the Syrian government never acknowledged detaining Mr Dawes, but they believe the government or an affiliated group was holding him.
The State Department said Mr Dawes was turned over to Russian authorities.
The Russia government has been backing the government of President Bashar al-Assad amid a civil war, which is now in its sixth year.
The Czech government, which represents US diplomatic interests in Syria, helped secure his release.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said the US is working with the Czech officials to free Austin Tice and other missing or detained Americans in Syria.
Mr Tice, a journalist, disappeared in August 2012 while working in Syria. He appeared blindfolded in a video a month after his abduction but has not been heard from since.


Two County Londonderry brothers facing bankruptcy owe their creditors up to £213m, the High Court has been told.

Property developers Michael and John Taggart are offering a settlement where they would repay less than 1p for every pound they owe.
That arrangement, known as an  Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA), would allow them to avoid bankruptcy.
The brothers' house-building business collapsed in 2008. Their creditors will vote on the IVA proposal next month.
In December 2015, the brothers lost a long-running legal battle with the Ulster Bank.


The Liberal Democrats need to build alliances with centre-left "progressives" to defeat the Conservatives, Lord Ashdown has said, saying the party cannot do it alone.

The ex-Lib Dem leader said the party should be at the heart of a wider movement for progressive politics.
He also said the Lib Dems should be exploiting new technologies to connect with a broader audience.
The party had been "dawdling behind" the technological revolution, he said.
Speaking at a fringe meeting at the party's conference in Brighton, Lord Ashdown said the party needed to re-establish itself after its 2015 general election defeat - which saw the party reduced to just eight MPs - and show that it was once again a "rising force" in politics.
He was "utterly confident" the party could recover, "but to what purpose?"
He said it was "not good enough" just to want to remove the Conservatives from power, and their ambition should be to put a "progressive government" in place.
But he added: "Can you do that alone? No... You have to reach out to others."
"If you are going to overturn this government for something better you have to build a relationship beyond the Liberal Democrats to give this country an alternative modern progressive government."
One way to do this, he argued, was by taking advantage of new technologies, such as social media, to reach out to a broader audience and engage people who are interested in politics but not necessarily political parties.
But he said the Lib Dems were "dawdling behind" the technological revolution, in contrast to UKIP, the Greens and Momentum - the Jeremy Corbyn-supporting pressure group - which he said had tapped in to its potential.
Lord Ashdown said he believed there was an appetite for a "people's movement" to be at the "service of the progressive centre left" - and he said this was what the cross-party More United Project, that he helped to set up, was designed to achieve.
He said it had attracted 38,000 members in six weeks and predicted its membership would hit 100,000 in a year.
"There isn't a people's movement serving the progressive forces of British politics. More United is designed to be that.
"It's designed to be for people who believe what we believe and want to make a difference."
He said its principles were entirely compatible with Lib Dem values, and its intention was to support candidates representing the centre-left of politics in about 50 parliamentary constituencies.
But he stressed that it was not a political party, likening it instead to the National Lottery, "picking and investing in winners".
Its members should be seen as "assets" to the party, not a "threat", he added, saying he was "utterly confident" the movement would "benefit" the Lib Dems.
However, he said it wasn't enough for the Lib Dems to boost their numbers in the Commons if the Conservatives remained in power.
"If you can assemble a wider movement around the Liberal Democrats, in which we are the fulcrum that can deliver progressive government to the country, that's victory.
"Thirty seats, with the largest party the Tory party, is I'm afraid not a victory that's good enough for me."


Soldiers from across the world are taking part in a week-long training exercise in Gwynedd from Saturday.

Reservists will protect Llanbedr Airfield and the Trawsfynydd decommissioned nuclear power station from simulated attack from patrols from Malaysia, Japan, Ireland and the US.
The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) said it was the most ambitious exercise it had ever conducted.
It will be the largest UK ground-based air defence concentration since 2003.
For many of the nations taking part, this will be the first time they will have trained in the UK.


Scotland international Sean Lamont is determined to earn a new contract at Glasgow Warriors.

Lamont, who will be 34 next month, is keen to extend his stay at the Pro12 champions, with his current deal due to expire at the end of the season.
When asked about his future, Lamont said: "I've asked for another year.
"I've got to earn and deserve another year, so I'll do whatever I need to do; if not then it will be boots up, but I'm sure there can be another year."
Lamont is second only to Chris Paterson in the list of most-capped Scotland players, having represented his country in 101 Tests.
Despite a professional career spanning 15 years, he feels he still has more to give.
"I've put in some good speed times and I'm fastest in the squad at the moment, believe it or not," Lamont commented.
"Physically I feel great, I still love rugby and want to keep going. On my side of things give me another four years, but it's the powers that be who will decide.
"I love the club, they are a great bunch of guys and I suppose hanging around with the young boys keeps me on my toes."
Warriors head to Wales to face Scarlets on Saturday in their next European Champions Cup match.
When the teams met at Scotstoun last weekend Glasgow enjoyed a comfortable 43-6 victory, with powerful wing Taqele Naiyaravoro stealing the show with a hat-trick of tries.
Lamont is certain the Welsh side will want to keep a special eye on the Fiji-born Australia winger this time around.
"They can watch all they want - but they've got to try and stop him," said Lamont.
"He's an absolute wrecking ball. It's nice to see him come into form and he's settled in well.
"He's only 23 and if he wants any help from me I'll do anything I can. But there's not much coaching needing done on that side of things going forward."
Glasgow sit third in Pool 3 with five points from their two games so far, having previously lost to Northampton Saints.
And following their success in winning the Pro12 last season they are eager to make their mark on the European scene.
"It's about another performance," added Lamont. "We need to get another bonus point ideally to help us qualify for the first time - that's the big one for us.
"Having won the league last year we want to go one step further this time by doubling up in the league and getting a European title as well."


Scottish isles have made it on to a TripAdvisor list of the UK's best islands for travellers compiled from tourists' reviews.

Skye has been placed third, Arran seventh, mainland Orkney eighth and isles of Lewis and Harris joint ninth.
Jersey, a British Crown Dependency, was rated by TripAdvisor as the UK's top island followed by the Isle of Wight.
The list is compiled annually and suggests the best islands in the UK, Europe and other regions and the world.
Jersey has also made it on to the European top 10, but the Scottish islands have not.
Last year, Arran was fourth on the UK list, Skye fifth, mainland Orkney sixth and Lewis and Harris were joint eighth.
This year's UK top 10 have been listed as:
The various lists are based on the millions of reviews and opinions from TripAdvisor travellers across the world.
The company said the winners were determined by using an algorithm that takes into account 12 months' worth of reviews and ratings for hotels, restaurants and attractions.


A North Sea oil platform remains out of operation after a natural gas leak was discovered on Saturday.

Marathon Oil, the Texas-based operators of the Brae Alpha platform, said it was not safe to continue work until investigations were completed.
The installation was shut down at about 16:35 on Boxing Day. No-one was injured in the incident.
A spokesman said the situation was being investigated and the relevant authorities had been notified.
The Brae Alpha Platform is located about 155 miles (248km) north east of Aberdeen.


There is a danger of ministers being "hobbled" ahead of the EU referendum unless so-called "purdah" rules are relaxed, the country's top civil servant has said.

Sir Jeremy Heywood also warned the government could face legal challenges.
Ministers want to change the law so traditional pre-election restrictions on the civil service do not apply ahead of the referendum.
Some Eurosceptic Conservative MPs are unhappy at the change.
They say it will allow the government to use its resources to influence the outcome of the referendum, promised by 2016, in the weeks leading up to the vote.
In an appearance before the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee, Sir Jeremy said "very worrying" legal advice suggested ministers could be subject to legal action unless they "tread very carefully" in EU discussions.
He added: "The sharpest case would be where a minister is negotiating on a highly contentious issue which everybody in this committee would agree was vital to the UK national interest, and felt hobbled by being unable to make any points about the importance of this to the referendum and so on, at precisely the moment when the whole of the British media and body politic is focused on that question."


A 96-year-old woman is preparing to return to Scotland from Australia after a visa wrangle.

Christina Grant's family, who live in New South Wales, flew her to Australia following the death of her son and carer, Robert, in February 2015.
Her family believed they had met the requirements of her visa, which expires later this month.
Immigration officials said they had been working with the family and made no arrangements to remove Mrs Grant.
However, the grandmother's family told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme that they had not found Australia's immigration department helpful and had gone to specialists for assistance.
They could apply for a new visa but were told that this could take 30 years to resolve.
The Grant family had hoped that because of her age and state of her heath that her situation might be treated a special case.
Mrs Grant's surviving son Allan and his wife Diane believe they have done everything to meet the rules of her visa after she moved to live with them in Australia.
Mrs Grant is booked on a flight back to the UK on 26 July, the date her visitor visa expires.
Her family told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme that the alternatives were the possibility of deportation or "years of limbo" while trying to obtain a new visa.
Mrs Grant, who is partially sighted and has dementia, was living near Grantown on Spey in the Highlands.
Her son Robert had been helping to look after her.
Because of the state of her health, Allan and Diane asked her to move to Australia and live with them.
They applied for a visa for her to come to Australia.
A condition of her visa was that she had to depart Australia once every 12 months but could return.
Concerned that Mrs Grant was not fit enough to fly out of Australia to meet this requirement, her family booked her on a cruise to Vanuatu, a group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean.
They believed that this trip would meet the visa requirements.
However, after the cruise the Grants were told by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection that the visa rules had not been met.
Diane told Good Morning Scotland that immigration specialists had told the family that applying for a new visa could take up to 30 years to come through.
They are now preparing to fly with Mrs Grant back to Scotland.
Diane said: "We will have to help her find a home over there.
"We have our own life here in Australia and, while I don't want to live there, Mum wants to live here."
The Grants have highlighted their case in an effort to alert other families that may find themselves in the same situation.
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection said all visitors to Australia must hold a valid visa for the duration of their stay and comply with the conditions of that visa.
A spokesperson said: "The department is familiar with Ms Grant's case and is not making any arrangements to remove her from Australia.
"The tourist stream visitor visa is normally valid for stays of up to 12 months and, as with all visitor visas, is designed to facilitate temporary visits to Australia rather than long-term stays or residence.
"Conscious of her circumstances, the department has been working with Ms Grant to resolve her visa status, since her visitor visa expired.
"Ms Grant has no current visa applications with the department."


Residents in a County Fermanagh village have expressed anger at the "heartless act" of a driver who killed five cygnets.

The cygnets and their mother had recently become a familiar sight around Lisnarick, outside Irvinestown.
Pat Masterson, who lives in Lisnarick, photographed the swans shortly before they were killed on Tuesday evening.
"When I saw their mother walking them along the road, all in line, I stopped to take a picture," said Ms Masterson.
"They've  visited our farm every day over the last few weeks so I've photographed them before, but I thought that the way the wee cygnets were following their mother was just so lovely I had to stop and watch.
"I still can't believe that they were run over so soon after."
Enniskillen-based vet Kevin Leonard, who happened to be passing moments after the birds were killed, said he was shocked by what he saw.
"The five of them were just lying in a row behind the mother, who was injured as well.
"Four of them were dead and the fifth was so badly mangled I had to put it down with an injection.
"The sixth one only had minor injuries, so I gave it an anti-biotic cream and guided it into a nearby field alongside its mother.
"It was actually quite an upsetting sight. I can't believe whoever killed them just drove on."
Paul Hoy, who had also stopped when he saw the dead swans, assisted the vet in moving them to safety.
He said he was "disgusted" by what he saw.
"A girl who was there said she saw the car running them down and driving on.
"We're all wondering how this could have been an accident - it's a 30mph speed limit there and it wasn't dark so the swans were very visible.
"If you can't see six swans on the road, what are the chances you'll see a child?
As native wild birds, swans enjoy statutory protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and it is an offence to intentionally injure, take or kill a wild swan.
The act similarly protects the eggs and nests of swans.
It is an offence to take or possess the egg of a wild mute swan, or to damage or destroy the nest of a mute swan whilst in use or being built.
The RSPB said anyone who witnesses an offence against swans or other wildlife should contact their police Wildlife Liaison Officer through their local police station.


Friday 29 July marks the last day that users can get a free upgrade to the Windows 10 operating system.

Those who do not take advantage of the offer will have to pay for it, with the home edition costing $120 (Â£91) and the professional edition $200 (Â£151).
Eligible devices include tablets and PCs running Windows 7 or newer.
Microsoft has been criticised for heavy-handed tactics in promoting the upgrade.
In May, the software giant was accused of a "nasty trick" when it changed the pop-up box encouraging users to upgrade so that clicking to shut it down meant the upgrade was scheduled rather than rejected.
A Californian woman successfully sued the firm after she claimed that an automatic Windows 10 update left her computer unusable.
In June, Microsoft said that is was going to offer "clearer options" for users considering the upgrade.
To date, around 300 million devices worldwide have upgraded to, or are using, Windows 10.
Most experts agree that upgrading should bring benefits to users.
Windows 10 offers access to Cortana, Microsoft's virtual assistant - the first major operating system to offer this feature.
The virtual assistant can find restaurants and create calendar events and also syncs with the Cortana app on any phone.
The system is designed to look the same on laptops, phones and tablets, and has a new browser called Edge.
Most agree that the operating system is easier to use and a vast improvement on Windows 8, which was heavily criticised.
It has the same tile-based system used by Windows phones - and reintroduces the Start Menu, which was missing from the previous operating system.
The update requires quite a bit of free disc space to install, so some may need to uninstall space-hogging programs.
Microsoft has published a list of the most common upgrade and installation issues and advice to try to fix the problem.
Annette Jump, an analyst with research firm Gartner, said there were pros and cons to upgrading.
"Consumers can continue to stay current on Windows going forward, as Microsoft is looking to deliver Windows more as a service in future,"
She also listed improved security as a reason to upgrade but warned it may not be worth it for all: "If you have an old PC - older than three years - you will likely have very low specs on the device and will not be able to benefit from many new features."


Twenty-five of the EU's 27 member states have signed a landmark treaty to co-ordinate their budget policies and impose penalties on rule-breakers - the "fiscal compact".

The Czech Republic and the UK opted out of the legally binding treaty.
In December EU leaders, desperate to avoid a re-run of the 2007-2008 credit crunch, sought an accord involving all 27 states - the 17 in the euro and 10 outside the euro.
But after lengthy talks a UK veto meant that the others agreed to a separate eurozone pact.It is called a "treaty"but under EU law it is an inter-governmental agreement, not yet written into the EU treaties.
It is aimed at restoring confidence in the euro. To do that, EU governments - including the UK - agree that much closer budget co-ordination is needed in the eurozone.
The UK will not be bound by the pact, but it has been an observer at the negotiations on it.
Since this is not a full-blown EU-wide treaty it should be possible to adopt it quickly, without time-consuming debates in national parliaments or referendums.
The plan is for it to enter into force on 1 January next year, if at least 12 eurozone countries have ratified it.
The key points are:
UK Prime Minister David Cameron objected to proposals for financial service regulations that would affect the City of London. He also said there were insufficient safeguards for the future workings of the EU single market. After he was denied an opt-out, he rejected the deal.
The use of EU institutions to police the new treaty is also controversial for the UK government.
In December Mr Cameron said the European Court of Justice and the European Commission could only carry out policies applying to all 27 EU states.
Now he says he will not block the use of EU institutions in the new mechanism, even though he has "legal concerns". He promised to watch the treaty's development "like a hawk".
Mr Cameron told MPs in Westminster that the treaty "does not have the force of EU law for us, nor for EU institutions... that protection remains".
Some prominent politicians in his own party have questioned his position on the new treaty, voicing fears that the UK opt-out may be undermined.
Opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband mocked Mr Cameron's veto, saying he had "secured absolutely no protections at all" for the UK.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas said questions over some of the treaty's text and uncertainty over its ratification at home had prevented him from committing to it. But he did not rule out that the Czechs could sign up to it later.
The Czech Republic is not yet in the euro and has not set a date for joining.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus, a Eurosceptic, does not want to sign the new treaty. But he will step down in March next year, so he may not be a block to Czech ratification.
Having wielded the UK's veto Mr Cameron has spoken of a multi-speed EU.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has also openly talked about a two-speed Europe emerging, but other EU leaders have played down the idea.
Mr Sarkozy was referring to further enlargement of the EU. The next countries to join would need time to catch up, so they would be less integrated than the eurozone, he suggested.
Even before the new pact was sealed the eurozone had agreed to hold separate summits, in addition to the summits of all 27. A two-tier or two-speed Europe now looks more likely than ever.
Only the UK and Denmark have clear opt-outs from the euro. The other eight member states not yet in the euro are treaty-bound to adopt it.
In practice countries in the EU already move at different speeds, on many different issues.
But in the huge area of budget policy - including co-ordination on taxes - the UK could eventually end up isolated in the EU. And that could lead to numerous legal challenges.
The credibility of the euro is at stake. There have been plenty of "crunch" EU summits in the past two years focused on tackling the debt crisis plaguing Europe. Yet the crisis has deepened, threatening to turn economic malaise into a general recession.
There are no quick fixes for the underlying problem - the fact that the currency union, launched in 1999, lashed together countries with very different economies.
The rules for keeping balanced budgets were broken, creating instability. Investors lost confidence in the value of some countries' debt, traded as sovereign bonds.
When Greece, Ireland and Portugal could no longer afford the interest rates charged by lenders they had to be bailed out by the EU and International Monetary Fund to prevent default.
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel said the only way to prevent such a crisis happening again was to enshrine the budget rules in EU treaties. That way there would be a mechanism in primary EU law to impose stiff penalties on countries that overshot the agreed deficit limits.
Mrs Merkel wants other eurozone countries to copy Germany's budget discipline, so that their borrowing is kept under control. France's President Nicolas Sarkozy has echoed her.
Germany and Spain have written budget prudence into their constitutions, and now there is pressure to extend that to all the eurozone countries.
Another key issue is the role of the European Central Bank.
Many politicians and analysts say the ECB ought to act as a lender of last resort - a bigger remit than was envisaged when the euro was launched.
In December the ECB acted to ease the crisis by providing nearly 500bn euros in three-year loans to eurozone banks on generous terms.
The ECB provided 530bn euros in another injection of liquidity on 29 February this year.


A shake-up of the exams system makes it all the more important for teenagers to think carefully about their A-level choices, leading universities say.

Sixth-formers now have fewer chances to try a subject at AS-level before committing to taking the full A-level.
This means their subject choices carry more weight, according to the Russell Group, which represents 24 research-intense UK institutions.
The warning came as the group published its updated Informed Choices guide.
The guidance gives students and schools advice on the subjects and subject combinations that are most useful for courses offered by Russell Group universities.
"Up to 15% fewer students are taking AS-levels after changes mean they no longer count toward A-level grades," the Russell Group said.
"Students therefore may have less opportunity to try a subject before taking it to A-level and their choices now bear more weight."
Director general of the group, Dr Wendy Piatt, said: "We are wholeheartedly committed to ensuring our doors are wide open to talented and able students from all backgrounds, but our universities can't offer places to those who do not apply or do not have the right grades in the right subjects.
"Too often, students disadvantage themselves by choosing a combination of subjects at A-level that will not equip them with the appropriate skills and knowledge for their preferred university course.
"Subject choice at GCSE and A-level or equivalent affects everyone's options for degree courses, so we make sure that the most useful and relevant information is available to students everywhere, through Informed Choices."
In April, the consumer group Which? said too many university applicants realised too late that they had chosen the wrong subjects at age 16.
The consumer group surveyed more than 1,000 UK 18- and 19-year-old university applicants and found almost a third (28%)  said they wished they had chosen different subjects and 41% wished they had considered which subjects would be of most use.
Under a major overhaul, AS-levels have been decoupled from A-levels to form a standalone qualification.
New tougher two-year A-level courses, with exams at the end, are being introduced over a three-year period.


I'm proud of the fact I'm through to another Grand Slam final and have another opportunity to win the biggest title in tennis.

Someone said to me recently, "You've been in so many Slam finals but you've only won two" - but all I can do is keep trying to get myself in position to win again.
I'm not scared to fail. It's not like after losing a couple of those Grand Slam finals I thought, "I don't fancy this any more". It has been difficult to get over some tough losses but I've kept working hard, training hard, believing in myself and trying to improve. I've tried to get help from loads of different people and coaches.
After another tough loss at the French Open, I've given myself another opportunity, and I am proud of that, big time. Hopefully I'll get over the line on Sunday.
Experiencing the Wimbledon fortnight as a parent has been different because now I have a family to get home to.
For the first time ever, tennis is probably more of a distraction from my home life than the other way around.
Beforehand, in the build-up to a Slam final, I'd always just be thinking about that match. I don't feel like that just now - I'm just looking forward to the next time I see Sophia and Kim.
Sophia's already watched a bit of tennis with Kim at home over these last couple of weeks and maybe when she's older she'll want to come and see me play.
I would like that; it would be nice for me in a selfish way. I'm sure she won't be that interested but it gives me a little bit of extra motivation to keep going when I get a bit older.
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This will be my first Grand Slam final without Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic on the other side of the net, but I don't think being the more experienced player will make much difference to my approach.
I just have to make sure I prepare as well as possible, and that's where my team play such an important part.
For Matt Little, my fitness trainer, it's about making sure I'm warmed up properly for practices and obviously the match, and that I don't pick up any niggles before the final.
My physio, Shane Annun, is responsible for helping my body recover as best as possible and keeping me loose.
Jamie Delgado and Ivan Lendl are responsible for the tennis side, so we'll speak a little about Friday's match and then the gameplan for Sunday.
Saturday will be a short practice but every little thing you can work on can make a difference. Then we'll talk again on Sunday before the match.
Their roles are clear but it can be easy to miss things at this stage, so it's just about everyone taking care of all the details.
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There's no doubt Milos Raonic will be a very tough final opponent, after all he beat Roger Federer on Centre Court to get there.
Milos returns well and is good off the ground, but it's pretty obvious that he has one of the best serves out there, so my returning will be key.
I've always been a good returner since my junior days - I don't know why that was. I didn't practise it loads when I was at the academy in Spain, but when I got on the ATP Tour it's something I dedicated a lot of time to.
I remember the third match I ever played on the tour was against the American Taylor Dent at Queen's Club. He had a huge serve but I handled it well and won the match.
It's not just by chance that I'm good at returning. I've practised it a lot and still work on it all the time to make sure it's good.
However well I return, opportunities will probably be few and far between on Sunday and I need to be ruthless. That's something I speak to Ivan about it.
It's not as though none of my other coaches wanted me to do that, but it's something he's always made me aware of and been conscious of.
Taking my chances and not letting up on opponents is something I did well when we worked together in the past, and we've started pretty well this time around.
Let's hope I can finish the job on Sunday.
Andy Murray was talking to BBC Sport's Piers Newbery.


One of five prominent Russians blacklisted by the US has slammed it as a last act of "spite" before Barack Obama cedes power to Donald Trump.

Lawmaker Andrei Lugovoi, one of two suspects in the poisoning of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006, said he was baffled by the move.
Mr Trump, who assumes the presidency on 20 January, has vowed to restore closer ties with Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had hope ties would improve "soon".
Thirty-five Russian diplomats have been expelled from US soil over allegations that Russia ran a hacking campaign to influence the American presidential elections.
Russia has dismissed the claims as a "witch-hunt".
Russia 'tired' of US hacking 'witch-hunt'
Trump blasts 'fools' who oppose good Russian ties
US officials say the sanctions announced on Monday are not related to the hacking but come under the 2012 Magnitsky law, designed to punish human rights violators, which bans travel to the United States and freezes all assets there.
The two men wanted in the UK for Litvinenko's murder, Mr Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, are among them.
Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia's Investigative Committee, is also on the list. He oversaw the investigation into Sergei Magnitsky's arrest and death in police custody and concluded that no crime had been committed.
He has previously said inclusion on the Magnitsky list "would be a great honour".
The others are the former head of the Universal Savings Bank Gennady Plaksin, and former investigative agency official, Stanislav Gordiyevsky.
But on Tuesday Mr Lugovoi said he was "perplexed".
"I think that [President] Obama is now rushing before handing over his prerogatives to harm and spite Russia in any way he can, and this has led to absurd things," he was quoted as saying by Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
Mr Peskov told journalists in Moscow that the sanctions were "additional steps towards the artificial degradation of our relations".
He declined to comment on whether Russia would retaliate.
On the legacy of the Obama administration, Mr Peskov said: "We can only express deep disappointment that it was in Mr Obama's second term that we saw a period of unprecedented and prolonged degradation in our bilateral relations.
"We are convinced that this does not meet our interests, or those of Washington. We think it's a shame that it happened. At the same time, we still hope that one way or another it will be possible to reach a more positive trajectory for relations with America soon."
Litvinenko died after drinking tea laced with a rare radioactive substance at a hotel in London.
Both Mr Lugovoi and Mr Kovtun deny any involvement in the killing, and efforts to extradite the men to the UK have failed.


England's Glen Durrant secured his first BDO World Darts Championships title with victory over Dutchman Danny Noppert.

The 46-year-old number one seed defeated his 26-year-old opponent 7-3 in Sunday's final at Lakeside.
Noppert, seeded third, led 2-1 before Teessider Durrant came back strongly.
"In 1989, I watched a match between Eric Bristow and Jocky Wilson that inspired me to pick up a set of darts," Durrant told Channel 4.
"Now, thanks to hard work, determination and Teesside steel, I am world champion."
On Saturday, England's Lisa Ashton won her third women's title, beating Australian Corrine Hammond 3-0 in the final.