Two former Barclays traders have been acquitted by a jury of conspiring to rig Libor, which is used to set interest rates.

Ryan Reich, a 35-year-old American, and Greek national Stylianos Contogoulas, 45, were both freed in unanimous verdicts.
It was their second trial on a charge of conspiracy to defraud.
The first jury to hear their case failed to reach a verdict in July 2016, although four colleagues were jailed.
Jay Merchant was sentenced to six-and-a-half years, Peter Johnson and Jonathan Mathew were each jailed for four years, while Alex Pabon received two years and nine months. All four worked for Barclays.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) had accused Mr Reich and Mr Contogoulas of plotting with other Barclays staff between June 2005 and September 2007 to rig Libor.
Libor - the London interbank offered rate - plays a key role in the global financial system by setting a benchmark for rates on about $450 trillion of financial contracts and loans worldwide.
Libor: what is it and why does it matter?
In a statement issued by his lawyer, Roland Ellis, Mr Contogoulas thanked the jury after what he described as a "trying ordeal for the past seven years".
"He has consistently maintained his innocence of any crime and is gratified that today's verdict has vindicated him," Mr Ellis said.
"The decision by the SFO to seek a retrial of my client after the jury had failed to reach a verdict following a four-month trial in 2016 was regrettable. We made strong representations to them that it was not in the public interest to do so and that the prospects of a conviction were slim," the lawyer continued.
"Unfortunately they chose not to accede to those representations. The speed with which the jury reached their verdicts today would suggest that those representations had considerable merit."
SFO prosecutor Emma Deacon declined to comment. The SFO noted the acquittals in a brief statement.
Mr Reich said he was "relieved and delighted" to have been acquitted.
"This trial was the first time that any jury has actually been asked to consider whether as a matter of fact any trader deliberately broke the rules or caused false Libors to be submitted. They rapidly rejected the SFO's case," he said.
"There can be little doubt that, had the juries been properly directed in earlier trials, acquittals would similarly have resulted."
Mr Reich's lawyers said the jury heard evidence from senior managers at Barclays, who accepted that between 2005 and 2007 communications with the Libor submitter were permitted which created conflicts of interest, and that there was insufficient clarity and training as to what was and was not allowed.
"It is of real concern that the SFO has chosen to pursue Mr Reich and other junior traders for conduct that was widespread, tolerated and encouraged by senior figures in the industry at the time," they said.
The jury found both defendants not guilty within hours of being sent to consider their verdict.
Jonathan Pickworth, a lawyer at White & Case, which was not involved in the case, said the speedy acquittal "tells us all we need to know about what the jury thought of the prosecution case".
During the trial, the SFO's only banking industry expert admitted he had broken court rules by sending texts and emails to contacts, while giving evidence in court, to check he was answering basic questions correctly.
The Libor rigging scandal erupted in 2012, when Barclays was the first bank to be prosecuted with a Â£290m fine, which sparked the resignation of chief executive Bob Diamond.
Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS, Deutsche Bank and broker Icap were also heavily fined for attempting to manipulate the rate.
In August 2015, Tom Hayes became the first individual to be convicted in the Libor scandal and was sentenced to 14 years in prison - later reduced to 11 years.
Six other traders - Darrell Read, Noel Cryan, Danny Wilkinson, Colin Goodman, James Gilmour and Terry Farr - were accused of aiding Hayes but were found not guilty in January 2016.
Thursday's verdicts mark an end to the SFO's current Libor trials.
It has also charged five men and one woman with conspiracy to defraud in connection with an investigation into the setting of Euribor, a Brussels-based euro benchmark.
The six, who deny wrongdoing, are due to stand trial in September.


Money raised from selling Swansea's civic centre will be used to fund "ambitious plans" to redevelop the city centre, the council leader has said.

The building, which opened in 1982, will be put up for sale in January.
Rob Stewart told BBC Wales the 14-acre site is "extremely valuable" and should be used for something other than council buildings.
Experts have been brought in to help shape the future of the city centre which is in need of redevelopment.
The council is expected to reveal further plans for the city's redevelopment soon.
But in the mean time Mr Stewart has decided to move the council's cabinet and senior management from there to the Guildhall while there are also plans to create space in the city centre for office staff.
"It's essential we get the core body of the workers we have in the city centre because that helps with the footfall and helps us with the business case for the redevelopment of the city itself," he said.
"We're keen to make sure the people of Swansea get the best value in terms of not only a cash receipt for the site but what actually goes there afterwards.
"I certainly want to make sure we get some iconic buildings on the seafront there.
"I've never believed that council buildings should be on the seafront on one of the most valuable bits of real estate."
Liberal Democrat councillor Christopher Holley, leader of the opposition on Swansea Council, has called the decision to sell the civic centre and relocate members of staff to the Guildhall "foolish".
He added: "Considering that there's reorganisation and the fact we don't know if we're going to be part of Neath Port Talbot all in all currently doing this is maybe the wrong thing to do."


A video has surfaced online showing staff at a Chinese bank being publicly spanked for poor performance during a training session, sparking outrage.

The video, first posted by the People's Daily, shows a trainer asking eight employees why they did not "exceed themselves" at training.
He then spanks them with what looks like a stick. Reports say he later also cut and shaved their hair.
Two executives at the bank have been suspended.
The incident took place at a training session for more than 200 employees at Changzhi Zhangze Rural Commercial Bank in northern China on Saturday.
The trainer, Jiang Yang, has issued an apology, saying the spanking was "a training model I have tried for years" and had not been instigated by executives at the bank.
The video, which first surfaced on Monday, appears to have been taken by someone in the audience on a smartphone.
Mr Jiang is seen reprimanding eight bank employees on stage, asking them why they received the lowest scores in a training exercise.
The employees give answers including "I did not exceed myself", "I did not co-ordinate with my team" and "I lacked courage".
Mr Jiang then says "get your butts ready" and proceeds to spank them with what appears to be a thick piece of wood.
It shows at least four rounds of spanking, with one woman recoiling each time, apparently in pain.
At one point, that women places her hands over her behind, but is told to "take your hand off".
The spanking was followed by a "hair cutting punishment", a statement (in Chinese) by the Changzhi local government said.
Chinese media reports said the men had their heads shaved, while the women had their hair cut.
According to the statement, the Shanxi Rural Credit Co-operatives Union, which regulates the bank, has set up a group to investigate the incident.
The bank's chairman and deputy governor had been suspended for "failing to strictly check the content of the course", the regulator said, while the bank would help the employees seek compensation from the training company.
Mr Jiang has issued a video apology, and said the spanking had "nothing to do" with the leaders at the bank. Such rumours "had severely harmed his clients and the leaders" at the bank, he added.
People online have been expressing outrage over the treatment of staff.
"Since when does beating employees become a way of raising performance?" one user asked on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblog used in China.
Another user said he was dissatisfied because he felt Mr Jiang had focused on apologising to the banking executives.
"In his video apology, he kept emphasising that he had hurt the leadership at Changzhi Zhangze Rural Commercial Bank! He spanked the employees, but apologised to the leadership? What sort of logic is this?"


The Greek people don't seem desperately grateful for the 240bn euros in bailouts they've had from the eurozone and IMF - and here is one way of seeing why.

The country's economic crisis was caused in large part because its government had taken on excessive debts.
So at the time the crisis began in earnest, at the end of 2009, its debts as a share of GDP were 127% of GDP or national income - and rose the following year to 146% of GDP.
As a condition of the official rescues, significant public spending cuts and austerity were imposed on Greece. And that had quite an impact on economic activity.
The country was already in recession following the 2008 financial crisis. But since 2010, and thanks in large part to austerity imposed by Brussels, GDP has shrunk a further 19%.
GDP per head, perhaps a better measure of the hardship imposed on Greeks, has fallen 22% since the onset of the 2008 debacle.
So austerity has certainly hurt. But has it worked to get Greece's debts down?
To the contrary, Greek debt as a share of GDP has soared to 176% of GDP, as of the end of September 2014.
Now it has fallen a bit in absolute terms. Greek public sector debt was 265bn euros in 2008, 330bn euros in 2010 and was 316bn in September of last year.
But it is debt as a share of GDP or national income which determines affordability. And on that important measure, Greece's debt problem is worse today than it was when it was rescued.
To state the obvious, it is the collapse in the economy which has done the damage. And although Greece started to grow again last year, at the current annual growth rate of 1.6% (which may not be sustained) it would take longer than a generation to reduce national debt to a manageable level.
Little wonder therefore that a party - Syriza - campaigning to end austerity and write off debts, has enjoyed an overwhelming victory in the general election.
That it appears to be two seats short of a clear majority in the Athens parliament should not disguise the clear message sent by Greek people to Brussels.
Or perhaps it would be more apt to talk of the message being sent to Berlin - since it is Germany which has been the big eurozone country most wedded to the economic orthodoxy that there's no gain without austerity pain.
As for investors. there are two reasons why Syriza's victory is significant.
First, and as I've mentioned, its leader Alexis Tsipras has a clear mandate to negotiate an easing of austerity imposed by Brussels and the IMF, and a write-off of at least some of the country's massive public sector debts.
At the moment, he and his colleagues are stressing that they want to negotiate and are sending out emollient signals. But the Germans are saying that the deal done with Greece in the rescue is the deal that holds.
So compromise may prove impossible - Greece rudely ripped from or bolting from the eurozone is not an impossibility,
The second reason the victory is significant is that younger anti-austerity parties are on the march all over Europe, and are doing especially well in France and Spain.
If Syriza were to win its negotiations with the rest of the eurozone these other anti-austerity parties would look more credible to voters. The victory of protectionist, nationalising Marine le Pen in France's presidential election would be an interesting test of markets' sangfroid (ahem).
And if Syriza were to lose in talks with Brussels and Berlin, and the final rupture of Greece from the euro were to take place, investors might well pull their savings from any eurozone country where nationalists are in the ascendant.
So why aren't investors in a state of frenzied panic? Why have the euro and stock markets bounced a bit this morning? One slightly implausible explanation is that investors believe the eurozone would actually be stronger without Greece, so long as no other big country followed it out the door.
More likely is that they believe reason will prevail, and Berlin will sanction a write-off of Greece's excessive debts.
Here is the important point: outside of Germany it is almost impossible to find an economist or central banker who believed that the previous reconstruction of Greek debt was ever going to work.
So just maybe, after Greeks have made a colossal and some would say pointless economic sacrifice, Germany will allow a rescue that permits the country a fighting chance of crawling out from beneath its colossal debts.


A woman who suffered burns to 96% of her body in a crash in France has won a seven-figure settlement.

14 October 2016 Last updated at 12:39 BST
Catrin Pugh, was on her way back from a ski season in the French Alps when the coach she was travelling in crashed and burst into flames.
The 22-year-old, from Rossett, Wrexham, was given a one in 1,000 chance of survival, spent three months in a coma and has had 200 operations since the French Alps crash in 2013.
She told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I remember being on fire, and having to have the flames stamped out – my skin was charred, and I thought I was going to die. I refused to close my eyes because I was afraid I wouldn’t wake up again.”
The settlement was reached with the owner of the coach firm.


Hillary Clinton has attacked her main rival Bernie Sanders over US gun laws at the Democratic presidential debate.

When asked if the Vermont senator was strong on gun control, she said, "No, not at all," before vowing to go after the makers of guns used in shootings.
Mr Sanders also attacked Mrs Clinton, saying her support for a no-fly zone in Syria would create "serious problems".
His rallies have drawn big crowds and he has challenged Mrs Clinton's frontrunner status in some key states.
Ghattas: Sanders is a star but Clinton's the winner
Five key moments of the debate
Mrs Clinton names her enemies
Full transcript of debate
Mrs Clinton and Mr Sanders dominated the debate. The three other candidates on stage in Las Vegas - former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, former Virginia Senator Jim Webb and former Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee - struggled to make headway.
The two main candidates were sharply divided over gun laws, in the wake of a mass shooting at a college campus in Oregon.
When Mrs Clinton said her rival was not tough enough, she was referring to him voting in 2005 for a measure to give gun manufacturers immunity from lawsuits by shooting victims.
The two also argued over the merits of capitalism.
Mr Sanders called for a "political revolution", arguing that "Congress does not regulate Wall Street. Wall Street regulates Congress".
But when he suggested that the US should look to Nordic countries because of "what they have accomplished for their working people", Mrs Clinton responded: "We are not Denmark. I love Denmark. We are the United States of America.
"I'm a progressive, but I'm a progressive who likes to get things done," she said.
"Whereas much of the pre-debate punditry had focused on Clinton's apparent vulnerabilities, she was on offense for the bulk of the two-hour encounter, especially in the crucial opening minutes." Niall Strange, The Hill
"The Democratic front-runner showed renewed energy and comfort on a presidential debate stage where she, but none of the others, had been before." Shane Goldmacher, Politico
Mrs Clinton's "experience and self-assurance... put her in command as she and her four lesser-known rivals for the Democratic nomination stood side by side for the first time". Karen Tumulty, Washington Post
Vice-President Joe Biden is still considering a run for the White House and did not make a last-minute entry on to the stage, as his supporters hoped.
Mrs Clinton has seen her support wane amid questions about her use of a private email account when she served as US secretary of state, a move she now calls a mistake.
However, she was unfazed during the debate when Mr Chafee questioned her credibility, refusing to respond when invited.
There were five candidates on stage, but it was the Hillary and Bernie show. And if he emerged a star, she was the definite winner.
This was a key moment for Mrs Clinton, an opportunity to silence critics of her campaign, reassure Democrats worried about her viability, a time to show her passion and connect with voters on a national stage.
She started off with a somewhat stilted, fact-filled introduction, which was a reminder she is usually better at the prose of governing than the poetry of running. But she warmed up steadily during the debate and delivered a series of good repartees.
And her overall performance appeared even stronger because of the odd assortment of rivals she faced: less experienced candidates who also understood that gratuitous shots against a member of the Democratic family would do little to advance their own campaign and nothing to serve their common cause of keeping the White House in the hands of a Democrat.
Read more from Kim Ghattas
Who are the men challenging Mrs Clinton?
The candidates tried to distinguish their debate from those of the Republicans, where candidates took a tougher stance on immigration and spent more time discussing social issues such as abortion and gay marriage.
Mr O'Malley used his 90-second closing speech to say the Republican debates were lessons in intolerance.
Republican candidates took to Twitter to offer reactions. Jeb Bush said Mrs Clinton had "just told you she has no interest in changing direction. I sure will." Frontrunner Donald Trump said he found the debate "a little sad!", and that candidates appeared "very scripted".
Fifteen Republicans are vying to be the party's White House nominee in 2016.
Iowa will be the first state to hold primaries in February. By next summer, each party will have a presidential nominee.
Votes will finally be cast in November 2016.


Private postal business Whistl - formerly known as TNT - has suspended delivery services and is consulting 2,000 workers about redundancy.

The company delivers post to households in London, Liverpool and Manchester.
The move follows a decision last month by potential investment partner LDC not to fund its expansion plans.
Whistl will continue to provide a postal service but will revert back to using the Royal Mail for the "final mile".
Last month, LDC, a division of of Lloyds Banking Group, decided against investing in Whistl because of "ongoing changes in UK postal market dynamics and the complexity of the regulatory landscape".
At the time, Whistl said it would hold back from expansion but planned to continue its existing service.
Whistl said: "Following the announcement from LDC that it would not proceed with the proposed investment... to fund further rollout of E2E [end-to-end] we have now commenced an extensive review of the viability and potential for the rollout of an e2e postal delivery service in the UK."
Whistl said it would begin consultations with employees affected by the suspension of the end-to-end service, and with their union representatives.
Royal Mail has complained in the past that competitors such as Whistl operate at an unfair advantage because they do not have to provide delivery to the whole country for a single price.
Whistl changed its name from TNT last year as part of a 2011 separation agreement with its former owners.
It began delivering in West London in April 2012, later rolling out its end-to-end service in Manchester and Liverpool.


On Friday the US congress voted to place limits on expense accounts allotted to former presidents.

These accounts cover travel, staff and office costs.
The new bill caps spending at $200,000 (Â£154,381) and reduces it further if the former president has made over $400,000 in a year.
The bill's authors said most ex-presidents did not need support from taxpayers since they make millions in book deals and speaking fees.
"Upon leaving office, most presidents go on to make millions of dollars and are not in need of taxpayer subsidies," said the authors of the bill, Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah, in a joint statement.
In 2014 US taxpayers covered $3.5m in expenses for the four living US presidents.
This included $1.3m for George W. Bush and $950,000 for Bill Clinton both of which were mostly for office costs.
Under the new plan, that allowance would be cut by a dollar for every dollar of outside income above $400,000.
The changes do not affect costs for security.
The bill also sets pensions for presidents at $200,000 a year and $100,000 for spouses if they outlive the former president.
The bill cleared a voice vote (where representatives literally say 'yes' or 'no') in the House of Representatives and has been sent to President Obama to sign.


South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has been admitted to hospital for tests, his office has announced.

"Yesterday President Zuma was advised to rest following a demanding election," a statement said. Doctors were satisfied with his condition.
Mr Zuma, 72, was sworn in for a second term on 24 May following the African National Congress election victory.
His cabinet has to tackle worsening economic problems with unemployment at nearly 25%, analysts say.


Daeth oddeutu pedair mil o bobl i glwb rygbi Aberystwyth ddydd Sul ar gyfer diwrnod arbennig i gofio y diweddar Eifion Gwynne.

Yn ystod prynhawn bu nifer o arwyr y byd rygbi yn chwarae mewn gêm i gofio amdano.
Roedd tîm Eifion Gwynne XV yn chwarae yn erbyn Arwyr Cymru XV. Doedd y sgôr ddim yn bwysig ond yr Arwyr a enillodd o ddeg pwynt gan sicrhau 55 pwynt.
Gyda'r nos bu Meic Stevens yn canu  a chafodd ocsiwn ei chynnal. Ymhlith y pethau ar werth roedd crysau wedi eu harwyddo gan dimau'r Gleision, Y Dreigiau, Y Gweilch ac esgidiau Justin Tupiric.
Bu farw Eifion Gwynne, 41 oed,  o Aberystwyth yn Sbaen ar 22 o Hydref wedi iddo gael ei daro gan gar. Roedd e wedi teithio i Malaga er mwyn mynd i angladd tad ffrind.
Roedd Eifion yn drydanwr poblogaidd yn Aberystwyth ac yn un o gyn-chwaraewyr timau Llanymddyfri ac Aberystwyth.
Chwaraewyr o dimau Aberystwyth a Llanymddyfri fu'n chwarae yn nhîm Eifion Gwynne brynhawn Sul ac ymhlith arwyr y tîm arall roedd Lee Byrne, Gareth Cooper, John Davies a Dafydd Jones.
Mae Eifion yn gadael gwraig Nia a thri o blant Mabli, Modlen ac Idris. Roedd e hefyd yn frawd i naw o frodyr a chwiorydd ac yn fab i Anne a'r diweddar David.
"Mae pawb yn tŷ ni yn edrych mlaen yn fawr iawn at Ddiwrnod Dadi! Byse Eifion wrth ei fodd!", meddai Nia mewn neges ar y cyfryngau cymdeithasol cyn y digwyddiad.
Efallai nad yw'n syndod bod y canwr Meic Stevens yno gan fod Eifion a Nia yn hoff o'i ganeuon. Cafodd un o ganeuon Meic Stevens 'Y brawd houdini' ei chwarae ar ddiwedd angladd Eifion.
Bydd yr elw a wneir o'r diwrnod yn mynd at Gronfa Goffa Eifion Gwynne.
Does dim penderfyniad, hyd yn hyn, ond y bwrid yw gwario'r arian ar gofeb barhaol i Eifion ar y cae rygbi yn Aberystwyth.


A motorist has been caught driving too fast over a bridge every hour of every day, on average, since speed cameras were introduced, figures reveal.

Information obtained by the BBC reveals almost 8,500 offences were recorded on the Orwell Bridge in Ipswich within a year.
A 60mph speed limit was introduced on the stretch of the A14 in April 2016 and the cameras went live in July.
In August last year, one driver averaged 113mph across the bridge.
Suffolk Police's response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request said one vehicle was caught speeding 12 times.
The minimum penalty for speeding is a £100 fine plus three points.
The average speed cameras on the Orwell Bridge have potentially generated fines of up to £850,000.
The cameras cover the A14 from Nacton to Wherstead.
A total of 8,498 vehicles were caught exceeding the speed limit, between 1 July 2016 and 1 July 2017.
About 80,000 vehicles cross the Orwell Bridge each day, according to Highways England data.
A Suffolk police spokeswoman said: "As the difference of a few miles per hour can mean the difference between life and death, we would urge all drivers to adhere to the limit on the road they are driving on."
Suffolk Police said 513 vehicles were caught exceeding the speed limit on the Orwell Bridge on more than one occasion.
In May, Vasile Cuica, 20, of Highfield Road, Felixstowe, was banned from driving for six months after it emerged he had exceeded the speed limit 11 times.
Average speed cameras on the M32 in Bristol caught 6,048 drivers in 15 days. Stretches of the M1, M25 and M6 catch more than 1,000 a week.


A father accused of murdering his six-year-old daughter was "completely devoted" to her and had never been violent, her mother told a jury.

Ben Butler denies causing catastrophic head injuries to Ellie Butler.
"He was completely devoted, completely in love with the fact that he was a dad," Mr Butler's partner, Jennie Gray, told the Old Bailey.
"All you're hearing is some horror story like our house was some house of horrors. And that is just not true."
Mr Butler, 36, denies murdering Ellie in a "violent rage", insisting she fell off a stool while playing a game in her bedroom at their home in Sutton, south-west London, in October 2013.
The prosecution claims Ellie died after suffering skull fractures from being thrown against a wall or hit with a heavy blunt weapon.
The court has heard he was previously convicted for shaking Ellie as a baby, although this was later quashed on appeal.
The couple then won a High Court judgement to have Ellie returned to their care in 2012.
The court has been shown hundreds of text messages between Mr Butler and Ms Gray in which he is abusive and uses violent language.
Ms Gray, also 36, said the texts came across as "harsher than they were" and that his "bark is definitely worse than his bite".
She told jurors he used to threaten her but they were empty threats.
"He would say I'll maim you, I'll get you, and I would sit there in my room and say 'yeah of course you will treacle'."
She added: "I'm not afraid of Ben Butler. He does not scare me. I never felt like that. We were both very, very bad to each other. But I didn't feel threatened."
She said he was an "amazing" parent and their behaviour was "very happy, very united" in front of Ellie.
Ms Gray, a graphic designer, said Mr Butler had supported her decision to have Ellie after they were both "shocked" to learn she had become pregnant in 2006.
Following a traumatic birth, Ms Gray said he had visited Ellie daily once she had left the hospital with her.
In February 2007, Ms Gray said when she dropped Ellie off with Mr Butler, he said: "Cor, she's pale, isn't she?"
Later, Mr Butler's friend phoned Ms Gray to tell her to get to the hospital.
During this phone call, she could hear Mr Butler screaming that Ellie was not breathing, Ms Gray told the court.
At the hospital, they were told that Ellie had been "violently shaken", she said.
Ellie was then taken to another hospital but not before "many mistakes" had been made by the hospital, where staff "misdiagnosed" her, Ms Gray said.
She said she "went to pieces" after Ellie was taken into care, and turned to alcohol before Mr Butler helped her to survive.
Ms Gray has admitted perverting the course of justice in the wake of Ellie's death but denies child cruelty over an untreated broken shoulder.
The trial continues.


A new production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Sunset Boulevard has received a positive response from critics.

Hollywood actress Glenn Close stars in the musical, which opened on Monday evening at London's Coliseum theatre.
Writing in The Guardian, Michael Billington said the new production had given the show "a new lease of life".
"Close delivers the big lines not with a camp flourish but as if they were sincerely felt," he said.
Billington noted that the show had "none of the epic scale of the original London production" but added this was to the producers' credit: "Sometimes semi-staged is better than the luxurious grandeur of an elephantine West End musical."
Glenn Close is reprising the role of Norma Desmond, a character she first played in Los Angeles in 1993. She won a Tony award for her Broadway performance in 1995.
Holly Williams from theatre website WhatsOnStage said: "It might be 20 years since she bagged a Tony in this part, but I wouldn't bet against her scooping a few shiny new gongs this time round."
However, some critics did note that Close's voice occasionally struggled with the higher notes.
"[Close's] vocal instrument may not be as sharp as it once was, but she brings an utterly ferocious intensity to the part and the songs," Mark Shenton wrote in his review for The Stage.
Time Out also had some criticisms of the production: "Like many later Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, Sunset Boulevard is not brilliant."
Andrzej Lukowski added that "69-year-old Close is definitely a bit old to play 50-year-old silent movie star Norma Desmond".
Rod McPhee, writing in The Daily Mirror, said Close "masterfully belts out the show's biggest numbers, and earned rapturous applause as a result. Her first musical in London's West End proves that she's far from a fading star."
Sunset Boulevard tells the story of a Hollywood writer named Joe (played in the new production by Michael Xavier), who is being chased by mob creditors.
Joe seeks refuge in a Los Angeles mansion, only to discover it is already being inhabited by Norma Desmond, a wealthy but forgotten silent movie star.
Culture minister Ed Vaizey attended Monday evening's performance, tweeting: "Absolutely wonderful. Glenn Close gives the performance of a lifetime. One of the best things I have seen."
Speaking to the BBC after she came off stage on Monday evening, Close said: "Norma Desmond is one of the best parts ever written for a woman."
"It's a phenomenal show, it's such an exciting journey and it has been the best adventure. I feel so lucky. I am on such an emotional high, I've never had this kind of response."


Russian President Vladimir Putin says the country's Paralympics ban is "outside the bounds of law, morality and humanity".

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) suspended Russia from the Rio Games starting on 7 September because of state-sponsored doping.
Putin said the ruling was "cynical" and "humiliates those who take such decisions".
Only Russian track and field athletes were banned from the Olympics.
Putin, speaking at an award ceremony for Russian Olympians at the Kremlin, said the country would hold special competitions for banned Paralympic athletes, with the winners awarded the same prizes as in Rio.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russian Paralympians had taken "collective responsibility for an unproven crime".


Russian football does not have a doping problem, and claims that suggest otherwise are "made-up news", says 2018 World Cup chief Alexey Sorokin.

Media playback is not supported on this device
Fifa has confirmed it is investigating whether Russian players benefited from the state-sponsored doping programme outlined by the McLaren report in 2016.
Football's world governing body has refused to say whether the members of Russia's 2014 World Cup squad are among the 1,000 athletes implicated by the report - though the Mail on Sunday has said they are.
Fifa did say all players tested at the tournament, including the full Russian squad, returned negative samples.
Sorokin, who chairs the local organising committee for next year's World Cup in Russia, said that meant it was "very bizarre" for media reports to "focus on things from the past".
"Despite the allegations there are clear-cut test results," he added. "That is the most important thing.
"We don't consider this to be a serious matter and it's very strange that it's in the papers."
However, the World Anti-Doping Agency, which commissioned the McLaren report, has acknowledged physical evidence of Russia's doping required to punish those responsible - such as positive samples - may be difficult to find.
That is partly because the system Russia developed included a "disappearing positive" method that involved swapping samples known to be positive with clean ones.
The McLaren report said this system was used across at least 30 sports, including football, and that more than 1,000 athletes potentially benefited between 2011 and 2015.
It said the system was used to "corrupt the London 2012 Olympics on an unprecedented scale", while further techniques, including positive samples being secretly removed from anti-doping labs through "mouse holes" drilled by spies, were perfected at the Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi in 2014.
The report's findings were based on forensic evidence and witness testimony, including that of a doctor who used to work within that system, Grigory Rodchenkov.
Sorokin described its conclusions as "speculation that has appeared on the basis of an incredible witness".
He added: "If there are facts, let's discuss facts. If there are no facts, let's discuss football."


US President Barack Obama and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull have discussed the "tumour" of Islamic State (IS) extremism in talks at the White House.

Mr Turnbull arrived in Washington after meeting Australian troops in Iraq and Afghanistan over the weekend.
Australia is the second-largest contributor of military forces in the fight against the IS group.
It recently declined a request from the US to increase its troop deployment.
As they went into talks in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Mr Obama said they would discuss "how we can strengthen our co-operation both in Syria and Iraq but also countering violent extremism globally".
"Australia will be a very important partner in that process."
The trip is Mr Turnbull's first official visit to Washington since taking office in September.
"The prosperity of the world and security of the world was founded on the peace and order in the Asia Pacific... underwritten by the United States and its allies," Mr Turnbull said.


Chinese drone maker DJI is offering up to one million yuan (£112,000) for information about drones that disrupted scores of flights at a Chinese airport.

On four days this month - 14, 17, 18 and 21 - drones were blamed for stranding thousands of passengers at Chengdu Shuangliu International.
Chinese reports said they caused 60 flight interruptions on 21 April alone.
One expert said it showed how difficult it is to combat unsafe drone flights.
Initially, it was reported that a reward of 10,000 yuan (£1,124) had been offered by the local public security bureau for information about unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) flown near to the transport hub.
However, DJI is now proposing a much bigger bounty.
In a press release in Chinese, the firm said that flying drones so close to an airport was a serious threat to public safety - and also damaged the UAV industry's image.
Members of the public have until 31 December to make a report to local authorities.
The bounty was a sign that the firm was taking the potential impact on its reputation seriously, suggested Prof David Dunn at the University of Birmingham.
"Clearly they're concerned about their brand image, given how much they dominate the drone market," he told the BBC.
Prof Dunn pointed out that using on-board software to restrict where drones can fly - known as geofencing, which DJI uses in its drones - was not always successful.
"There seems to be an inability to deal with the potential drone threat to air traffic - other than through extraordinary measures like this reward," he said.


A former aide to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges over a traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge, a major access route to New York City.

David Wildstein admitted he played a part in shutting down one of the busiest crossings in the United States in September 2013.
The gridlock was allegedly engineered to punish a Democratic mayor who did not endorse the governor's re-election.
Mr Christie has denied any involvement.
Bill Baroni, former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New Jersey and Bridget Kelly, a former deputy chief of staff to Mr Christie, were also charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
According to the charging document, Mr Wildstein, Ms Kelly and Mr Baroni conspired to punish the mayor of the New Jersey suburb Fort Lee for refusing to support Mr Christie's re-election bid.
They are alleged to have shut down two lanes of traffic on the bridge on the first day of school to maximise the congestion. Commuters were stuck in traffic for hours over four mornings.
Both Mr Baroni and Ms Kelly have denied the charges.
Mr Wildstein, a former senior official at the agency that operates the bridge, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy in a court in Newark on Friday.
He could be jailed for up to 15 years, although his guilty plea may be taken into account in sentencing. His lawyer Alan Zegas said his client "deeply regretted" his involvement in the incident.
Mr Zegas also claimed that "evidence exists" to prove that Mr Christie was aware of the lane closures while they were occurring.
However, the governor again rejected the allegations.
"Today's charges make clear that what I've said from day one is true," he said. "I had no knowledge or involvement in the planning or execution of this act."
The US prosecutor for New Jersey, Paul Fishman, said there were no plans to charge anyone else in connection with the scheme.
Mr Christie was once a favourite for the Republican presidential nomination, but has seen his popularity dip in recent months.


Wayne Routledge struck twice as Swansea City comfortably beat Charlotte Independence in the opening game of their pre-season tour to the United States at Ramblewood Stadium.

Oliver McBurnie began the rout with a 25-yard shot in the opening period.
Routledge's brace came after the break and Kenji Gorre finished off the win against a team who play in the United States' third tier.
New Swans defender Mike van der Hoorn made his debut after joining from Ajax.
Swansea face Richmond Kickers at Virginia on Sunday.
Charlotte Independence 0-4 Swansea City,
Richmond Kickers, Saturday, 16 July 00.00 BST (City Stadium, Virginia)
Bristol Rovers, Saturday, 23 July 15:00 BST (Memorial Stadium)
Swindon Town, Wednesday, 27 July BST 19:45 BST (County Ground)
Wolverhampton Wanderers, Saturday, 30 July 15:00 BST (Molineux)
Stade Rennais, Saturday, 6 August 15:00 BST (Liberty Stadium)
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Vital care services for older and disabled people in England remain at risk - despite government attempts to protect the sector, care leaders say.

Last month, George Osborne announced plans he said would lead to an above-inflation rise in care budgets.
But council chiefs, NHS managers and care bosses have cast doubt on those claims in a letter to the chancellor.
It warns his plans would leave a funding gap and put vulnerable people at risk - denied by the government.
Care services, including care homes and services that provide help in people's home for tasks such as washing and dressing, are overseen by local councils.
Only the poorest get help - those with assets of over £23,250 have to pay the full cost of their care.
Over the past few years, the numbers getting help have fallen as councils have struggled to cope with cuts to their budgets.
But in last month's spending review, Mr Osborne said he was protecting social care budgets by allowing local authorities to raise council tax by 2% and increasing the amount of money available for the Better Care Fund, a joint pot of money used by councils and the NHS to support care services.
He said this - coupled with other changes - would mean care budgets would rise, adding the NHS could not "function effectively without good social care".
But now those involved in providing care services are questioning those claims.
The letter - signed by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, the Care Provider Alliance, which represents agencies providing care, and the NHS Confederation - is effectively the sector's response to the plans.
It points out that the amount of money council tax brings in varies greatly, with local authorities in poorer areas worse off.
Meanwhile, the extra £1.5bn of Better Care Fund money, which is on top of the £5.3bn currently being invested, will not kick-in until 2019.
On top of this, local government is seeing two of its main funding streams - the income it gets from the central government grant and business rates - fall by 24% in real terms this Parliament, the Local Government Association says.
Together these account for about a third of council funding.
Ray James, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said the result was that councils would struggle to maintain care spending at its current level, never mind increase it.
"Councils have tried to prioritise funding for social care ahead of other services. But its ability to do that seems to have come to an end, so I think we will struggle to put much more into social care," he said.
"If that happens, services will be put at risk. We have an ageing population which is increasing demand and have to cope with the introduction of National Living Wage.
"Without action, we will see care homes close and vulnerable people not getting care."
But a spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said councils had enough for care services.
He said the Better Care Fund money coupled with the council tax precept meant there would be another £3.5bn a year in the system by the end of the Parliament.
He added this package should "ensure councils can support older and vulnerable people in their area".
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Exactly five years after the "flash crash" suddenly wiped nearly a trillion dollars from the markets, the US authorities are largely pointing at one man - a 36-year-old trader from Hounslow in west London.

But could one man really be responsible for the single biggest upheaval to trading in a decade?
Becoming a financial master of the universe, manipulating markets across the globe, wiping a trillion dollars off US stock markets and making yourself millions, may seem a tall order.
But according to allegations from no less an authority than the FBI, you don't have to travel to the City in a pinstripe suit at 6am and slick your hair back like Michael Douglas.
You can stay at home in your parents' suburban semi in Hounslow, even in your mid-thirties; wear a worn-out grey jogging top and bottoms; hang out in your bedroom and tinker on a computer.
You can get up at noon and crash out at 4am.
Get yourself a seat on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange - there's no need to travel to Chicago: it's all done remotely. Place bets on which way the S&P 500 index of shares in leading US companies is going to go - by trading contracts based on the future value of the index.
If you want the market to go down, place orders to sell stuff you don't actually own and never intend to sell. Your object is to influence the market - without actually trading.
Contracts change hands when the price at which they are offered is the cheapest on the market. To make sure your trades never go through, you make sure the price you offer to sell at is just a little bit above the cheapest price on the market.
Other traders, looking at the market's order book, see far more sell orders than buy orders. Fearing that the selling pressure will drag down the price, they sell - or their automated trading software does - and the price falls.
When it does so, you can make money, for example by placing a real order to buy.
According to the FBI's allegations, Navinder Singh Sarao, known as Nav to his friends and neighbours, did this on such a scale and to such lucrative effect that over four years he made $40m (£27m).
And humiliatingly for the regulatory authorities, the Chicago Futures Trading Commission in the US and the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK, he was allegedly able to evade any regulation and bat off regulators' inquiries for more than five years.
In late April 2010, Navinder Singh Sarao established a new company on the Caribbean island of Nevis, Nav Sarao Milking Markets Limited - though it had little to do with the dairy industry. The FBI claims it was part of a tax avoidance strategy.
On May 6 2010, exactly five years ago, argues the FBI, Mr Sarao used a computer programme or algorithm to create a huge number of sell orders between 11.17am and 1.40pm.
The FBI claims his sell orders were equivalent to the entire amount of "buy" orders placed by every other market participant. Minutes later came financial panic.
Between 1.41pm and 1.44pm the S&P plunged 3% then in just 15 seconds it dropped another 1.7%. Within minutes the S&P dropped 6%, far quicker than during previous crashes, before bouncing back up.
The above, however, is only the FBI's view. Beyond what has been said in court by his lawyers - that his arrest was a "bolt from the blue" - we still know very little of his side of the story.
Mr Sarao has been bailed on condition he places £5m as security. So far he hasn't come up with it. He is contesting the US attempt to extradite him.
Fellow traders find the FBI's allegations hard to believe. If his computer programme or algorithm was switched off at 1.40pm on May 6, how come the big falls on the market took place after that point?
Could just one man at home really cause such havoc in the markets?
Before setting up his own trading company at his parents' house, Mr Sarao graduated from Brunel University and worked for five years at the Woking offices of the commodities and futures traders, Futex.
Futex says there were no incidents of any impropriety during his time with the firm. It also says he never used an algorithm to trade, instead using old-style "point and click".
According to Futex boss Paulo Rossi, he was "very bright, very diligent, willing to take on risk - and he did take on risk." But he can't credit the idea that Mr Sarao could manipulate the whole Chicago futures market and cause an international financial panic.
"He was unusual in that he wasn't interested in money in order to spend the money. He was interested in purely focusing on growing his trading account," Mr Rossi told Bloomberg.
Experts on the "flash crash" originally blamed the Kansas-based investment fund Waddell and Read, for trying to offload $4.1bn of futures contracts - a sell order so large it swamped the available buyers and allowed prices to go into free-fall.
Professor Maureen O'Hara at Cornell University, who was on the Flash Crash Commission that investigated the incident, resists the new alternative theory that blames it on one man.
"You can get a world where at the moment you have 100 sellers and you don't have 100 buyers. That price will fall off a cliff not because the underlying asset is worth less but because there is temporarily illiquidity.
"What you don't want to happen in a market is for prices to fall just because of that temporary imbalance."
She says that, far from being the work of one man, those temporary bouts of illiquidity are behind the flash crash of 2010 - and several "mini flash crashes" since.
You also get a different picture if you talk to people who know Mr Sarao. One boyhood companion and neighbour, Anil Puri, describes him as "a nice guy, fun to be with, sociable". But he's also surprised he could be accused of anything like manipulating markets in Chicago.
Another family friend, Rupinder Kesar told the BBC she was so shocked she hadn't been able to go to work the following day and was still trying to understand what has happened.
In fairness, the US authorities don't quite blame Mr Sarao alone for the flash crash, which briefly wiped a trillion dollars off US markets on 6 May. But they do allege he contributed to it, by creating a big imbalance in the market between buy and sell orders.
And they claim that on that one day he made $879,000 (£582,000). They also quote an email where Mr Sarao asserts that he made the majority of his money in just 20 days of trading.
If he behaved as the FBI alleges, then Mr Sarao may have evaded detection for years with embarrassing ease. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange told him on the day of the crash that "all orders…are expected to be entered into in good faith for the purpose of executing bona fide transactions".
After the crash he was allowed to continue trading. On 29 May 2014 he was asked about his sell orders and cancellations by the Financial Conduct Authority but told the regulator he was "an old school point-and-click prop trader". And he was still trading just a month ago.
The real importance of the FBI's allegations is less what they may say about Nav Sarao, and more what this says about how open to possible manipulation, in this age of automated trading software, the futures market has become.


The mayor of Cannes in France has banned full-body swimsuits, or "burkinis", from the French city's beaches.

David Lisnar issued the ordinance on the grounds that burkinis, which are popular with Muslim women, "could risk disrupting public order while France was the target of terrorist attacks".
He also said burkinis were a "symbol of Islamic extremism" which are "not respectful of [the] good morals and secularism" upon which the French state was founded.
Muslim women from around the world have been quick to react to news of the ban.
"This is just an Islamophobic attack on Muslim women in Cannes," Aysha Ziauddin, who lives in Norfolk, told the BBC.
"The burkini allows me the freedom to swim and go on the beach, and I don't feel I am compromising my beliefs for that.
"No-one has ever told me to wear it - it's my own choice.
"How is a woman on a beach swimming in a wetsuit with her head covered a symbol of Islamic extremism?
"Even Nigella Lawson wore one!"
"I own a burkini and I love it," Sabrina Akram told the BBC. She grew up in Pakistan, and now lives in the US state of Massachusetts.
"I am a practising Muslim, and I believe there should be a choice," she said.
"I honestly don't like exposing my body in public, and I like to work fashion into my preferences on how I wish to clothe myself.
"A big part of being in a modern society, part of living in freedom, is allowing people to live their life how they want to live it.
"By putting forward this ban [the mayor of Cannes] is infringing upon a human's basic right to live how they wish to.
"It's not the responsibility of a public servant to dictate how I choose to cover my body."
"I don't have a burkini, but I do swim wearing a headscarf, tracksuit bottoms and long T-shirt," Kerry Amr told the BBC.
Kerry, who lives in the town of Telford in the west of England, converted to Islam eight years ago, and although she chooses not to wear a burkini, she believes women should be free to choose what to wear when they go to the beach.
"I think [the ban is] slightly ridiculous," she said.
"In Victorian times swimmers would wear long baggy trousers, full tops and swimming caps and no-one blinked an eye!
"I fail to see how a woman wishing to cover her body with a particular style of costume whilst swimming can possibly be a symbol of Islamic extremism.
"I accept that there are some horrendously psychotic people out there proclaiming to be fighting on behalf of one group or another.
"However, what a woman chooses to wear on a public beach is not going to make the slightest bit of difference, and just hands ammunition to those who want to... recruit to their twisted ideology."
Maryam Ouiles, from Gloucester, told the BBC she wears the burkini so she can play with her children at the pool and at the beach.
"I think it's outrageous that you would effectively be asked to uncover some flesh or leave," she said.
"When did it become a crime to cover yourself?
"People are always complaining that Muslims should integrate more, but when we join you for a swim that's not right either.
"Why is it necessary for us to show off our bodies when we don't want to?"
By Daniel Avis, BBC's UGC and Social News team


First Minister Carwyn Jones has defended Labour's record in government in Wales ahead of the party's conference in Brighton.

Mr Jones, speaking on BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement, said the economy was buoyant and unemployment was falling.
He added that standards in education were on the rise and the NHS was improving.
"We've seen the best figures for inward investment for 30 years," Mr Jones said.
"We're seeing new confidence in our young people, unemployment is coming down, economic activity is increasing, education standards are going up, the health service is improving and this in the background of a 10% cut to our own budget from the UK government."
The autumn conference comes at a key time for the Labour Party, under the new leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.
It also comes ahead of elections for the Welsh assembly in May 2016.
"Our opponents will accuse us of having run out of steam," said the first minister.
"What we will do is show people that we have new ideas, that we have new ways of taking Wales forward, that we believe in Wales particularly and that we're really ready and up for governing for five years beyond this."


The partner of Bobbi Kristina Brown has been ordered by a US judge to pay $36m (Â£29m) in a wrongful death case, her estate's lawyers have said.

The daughter of pop star Whitney Houston, Brown was found unresponsive in a bath in her Atlanta home in 2015.
Her family accused her partner Nick Gordon of plying her with a "toxic mixture" before putting her face down in the water.
Mr Gordon has not been criminally charged in connection with her death.
But he was found liable in September following a default judgment in a civil case because he failed to appear in court.
He did not appear at the civil hearing, nor did he appoint a lawyer, but his legal representatives have previously described the allegations as baseless.
Brown was in a coma for six months before dying in a hospice aged 22 in July 2015 as a result of immersion in water and drug intoxication, according to medical records.
A post-mortem report was unable to determine whether death was due to intentional or accidental causes.
She died in similar circumstances to her mother - one of the world's best-selling music artists - who also died in a bathtub in 2012 with heart disease and cocaine use listed as contributing factors.
Her estate had been seeking at least $40m from Gordon in its wrongful death lawsuit against him, which was filed in October 2015.
Mr Gordon was accused of assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and transferring money from Brown's account into his own without authorisation.
In a statement after Thursday's court order one of the lawyers acting for her family said that "Bobbi suffered such horrific pain and degradation at the hands of Nick Gordon".
"[He was] the man she loved and trusted. No one should suffer the way she did and the judge sent a strong message in the award of punitive damages that this despicable behaviour is inexcusable and will not be tolerated," Glenda Hatchett was quoted by Atlanta Alive as saying.
Brown's father, the R&B singer Bobby Brown, contended his daughter had a major career ahead of her in the entertainment industry before her untimely death.
He said in a statement after Thursday's ruling that he was pleased with the judgment and called on prosecutors to file criminal charges.
"I do know Mr Gordon will be unable to slander my daughter's name in the future or obtain any benefits from the use of Krissy's name," NBC News quoted him as saying.
Brown was the only daughter of Houston and Bobby Brown.
Houston took in Gordon at age 12. He lived with the family for years before he and Bobbi Kristina Brown began a romantic relationship.


Afghan opium cultivation has reached a record level, with more than 200,000 hectares planted with the poppy for the first time, the United Nations says.

The UNODC report said the harvest was 36% up on last year, and if fully realised would outstrip global demand.
Most of the rise was in Helmand province, where British troops are preparing to withdraw.
One of the main reasons the UK sent troops to Helmand was to cut opium production.
The head of the UN office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Kabul, Jean-Luc Lemahieu, said that production was likely to rise again next year, amid uncertainty over the withdrawal of most foreign troops and the presidential election.
He said that the illegal economy was taking over in importance from legitimate business, and that prices remained high since there was a ready availability of cash in Afghanistan because of aid.
"As long as we think that we can have short-term, fast solutions for the counter-narcotics, we are continued to be doomed to fail," he added.
Mr Lemahieu said there had been some recent successes, including the arrest of leading figures in the drugs industry, but it could take 10-15 years to deal with Afghanistan's opium crisis, even if policies improved.
The report said the total area planted with poppies rose from 154,000 to 209,000 hectares, while potential production rose by 49% to 5,500 tonnes, more than the current global demand.
Half of the cultivation area is in Helmand province.
By David LoynBBC News, Islam Qala, near Afghan-Iran border
The consequences of Afghanistan's huge opium production have had an effect across society here. There are believed to be more than a million opium and heroin addicts - one of the largest levels in the world - taking advantage of plentiful supplies.
The amount of land given over to opium in 2013 was 209,000 hectares. The potential production from that is estimated to be more than annual global demand, according to the head of the UN office for Drugs and Crime in Kabul, Jean-Luc Lemahieu.
After rising sharply in the years after the Taliban successfully stopped production, the harvest last peaked in 2007 and is expected to continue rising.
Mr Lemahieu said that the rise since 2010 was caused principally by what he called a "hot political market" - uncertainty over the process of transition from US control. That uncertainty will continue with the end of foreign combat operations and the presidential election next year.
Meanwhile two northern provinces which had previously been declared poppy-free - Faryab and Balkh - lost that status.
The report called for an integrated, comprehensive response to the problem.
"If the drug problem is not taken more seriously by aid, development and security actors, the virus of opium will further reduce the resistance of its host, already suffering from dangerously low immune levels due to fragmentation, conflict, patronage, corruption and impunity," it said.
But the report said there were some encouraging signs, with police tripling their effectiveness to capture "well over 10%" of production and a growth in services set up to tackle addiction.
The findings of the latest report reverse a decline in production last year attributed to bad weather and disease.
However, cultivation has been rising yearly since 2010 despite government efforts to eradicate the crop.
More farmers have been trying to grow the poppy as the price of opium has been rising.
Afghanistan produces more than 90% of the world's opium.


US scientists say they have solved the riddle of why a collection of balancing rocks near the San Andreas fault has never been toppled by earthquakes.

Their decade-long study concludes that quakes can stop or "jump" due to interactions between the San Andreas and the neighbouring San Jacinto fault.
Models show that these interactions sent the biggest vibrations around the rock stacks, leaving them intact.
But the connected nature of the faults has implications for quake planning.
The study of precariously balanced rocks was begun in the 1990s by Jim Brune, now an emeritus professor at the University of Nevada and a co-author of the new paper.
"He realised that [these rocks] could be a check on seismic hazard maps, and give long-term indications of ground shaking," said the study's lead author Prof Lisa Grant Ludwig, from the University of California, Irvine.
"They are kind of natural seismoscopes - but you have to read them indirectly.
"They don't tell you an earthquake happened, they tell you 'an earthquake strong enough to knock me down did not happen'."
Generally, balancing rocks are not seen within 15km of major faults. But 10 years ago Prof Brune and his colleagues found two sizeable collections of such stones just 7-10km from the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults, in the San Bernardino mountains of California.
In the new study, due to be published in the journal Seismological Research Letters, these rocks were carefully catalogued and measured.
Importantly, the team calculated how much force it would take to tip each of the rocks over.
"There are two methods of doing that, one of which is actually trying to tip the thing," Prof Ludwig said. This meant some nerve-wracking fieldwork, gently pushing the rocks until there was some movement, but not actually tipping them over.
"If my mother had known I was doing that, she would not have been happy," Prof Ludwig confessed. "You never want to be on the downhill side when you tip it."
The second method, for rocks too dangerous or difficult to tip, was "photomodelling": using views from multiple angles to build a 3D model of the balanced stone and calculate its centre of gravity, mass, and so on.
Both these methods, along with some "shake table" simulation experiments, showed that the rocks should have fallen over during quakes as recent as 1812 and 1857.
But various measures can tell us exactly how long the stones have perched in their places - and it is millennia, not centuries.
"One of my former postdocs did an age study of one of the rocks. And it'd been in that position about 18,000 years," said Prof Ludwig.
So how did these precarious rocks withstand the tens or hundreds of earthquakes that shook the region during that time?
"The inescapable conclusion was that the ground motions had to be lower than you would expect from typical earthquakes on the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults," Prof Ludwig explained.
The team's best explanation for that surprisingly small ground movement - and one supported by computer modelling of big earthquakes - is an interaction between the two faults.
"The San Andreas and San Jacinto faults come very close together; they're only about 2km apart. And it's been well established, through other earthquakes and modelling studies, that a rupture can jump across [a gap like that]. It's what's called a stepover.
"What if the rupture jumped across, or alternatively, stopped at this junction, or started at this junction? All three of those cases would produce lower ground shaking in the area where we found the rocks."
It is crucial to consider the faults together, Prof Ludwig said - not just to explain the baffling, balancing rocks, but also in order to plan safely for future earthquakes.
"These are really networks of fractures in the earth. Just because we give them different names doesn't mean that they behave independently."
Dr Lucy Jones is a long-serving seismologist and a science adviser for risk reduction at the US Geological Survey. She said the paper would have "pretty significant implications" for earthquake planning in California.
In particular, Dr Jones said the findings might impact the "ShakeOut scenario" - in which she and others modelled a major San Andreas quake, to support safety drills and procedures.
"I think that this study actually makes the particular ShakeOut scenario less likely, but I'm not sure it means that we're definitely going to get less ground motion," Dr Jones told the BBC.
"It isn't a clear-cut answer as to whether we'll be better off or worse off.  We're going to need time to look at the permutations."
Looking beyond individual quakes, Dr Jones said the new study fits into a "pretty well accepted picture" that in the long-term, seismic activity is gradually shifting from the southern stretch of the San Andreas fault across to the younger San Jacinto fault.
"This study is a really cool piece of evidence that maybe the jump is a little further along than we assumed," she said.
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The world's governments will not meet their internationally-agreed target of curbing the loss of species and nature by 2010, a major study has confirmed.

Virtually all species and ecosystems show continued decline, while pressures on nature are increasing, it concludes.
Published in the journal Science, the study confirms what conservationists have known for several years.
The 2010 target was adopted in 2002, but the scientists behind this study say implementation has been "woeful".
"Our analysis shows that governments have failed to deliver on the commitments they made in 2002," said research leader Stuart Butchart, from the UN Environment Programme's World Conservation Monitoring Centre (Unep-WCMC) and BirdLife International.
"Biodiversity is still being lost as fast as ever, and we have made little headway in reducing the pressures on species, habitats and ecosystems."
Unep chief scientist Joseph Alcamo added: "Since 1970, we have reduced animal populations by 30%, the area of mangroves and seagrasses by 20% and the  coverage of living corals by 40%.
"These losses are clearly unsustainable."
The study combined more than 30 indicators of how species and ecosystems are changing.
Richard Black's Earth Watch blog
These encompass plants and animals from land and sea.
Very few of the indicators gave any hint that biodiversity loss was decreasing at all.
Meanwhile, measures of threat - such as loss of habitat, climate change and colonisation by harmful non-native species - were virtually all increasing.
Policies to restrict the threats to biodiversity are simply not up to the job, the authors argue.
"Although nations have put in place some significant policies to slow biodiversity declines, these have been woefully inadequate, and the gap between the  pressures on biodiversity and the responses is getting ever wider," said Dr Butchart.
While about 12% of land is now under some kind of protection, not all of it is effectively managed.
And less than 1% of the world's oceans is protected.
Conservationists hope that laying the sheer scale of the issue before governments will induce them to take tougher steps in the near future.
"We can no longer use the excuse that we don't know enough about the loss of diversity of life on our planet," said Jean-Christophe Vie, deputy head of the Species Programme at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
"The role of governments is paramount; but the magnitude and rate of loss of biodiversity means that everyone, from individuals to businesses, must act now to save all life on Earth before we reach breaking point."
Governments will review their failure to meet the 2010 target, and probably set new ones, at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) summit in Nagoya, Japan, in October.
New targets are likely to be directed at stemming the threats to biodiversity, such as unsustainable agriculture, pollution and the growing scale of cities and transport networks.
"World leaders faced the economic crisis head on," noted Simon Stuart, head of IUCN's Species Survival Commission.
"We need that same level of investment and commitment for the environment."
Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk


People with a non-O blood group have a slightly increased risk of heart attack and stroke, research suggests.

Scientists say it could be because higher levels of a blood-clotting protein are present in people with A, B and AB blood.
The findings could help doctors better understand who is at risk of developing heart disease, the researchers said.
But a heart charity said people should focus on giving up smoking and eating healthily to reduce their risk.
The research, presented at the European Society of Cardiology congress, analysed studies involving 1.3m people.
It found that 15 in 1,000 people with a non-O blood group suffered a heart attack, compared to 14 in 1,000 people with blood group O.
Although the increase in risk was small, when applied to a whole population the numbers become more important.
Previous research found that people with the rarest blood group - AB - were the most vulnerable, being 23% more likely to suffer heart disease.
The most common blood group in the UK is O, which 48% of the population have.
There are a number of factors which can increase the risk of heart disease, such as smoking, being overweight and leading an unhealthy lifestyle.
These are all things we can do something about - unlike our blood group.
Which group you belong to is determined by the genes inherited from both parents.
Study author Tessa Kole, from the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands, said more research was needed to work out the cause of the increased cardiovascular risk in people with a non-O blood group.
And she said looking at the risk for each individual blood group would help.
She said: "In future, blood group should be considered in risk assessment for cardiovascular prevention, together with cholesterol, age, sex and systolic blood pressure."
People with blood group A - who are known to have higher cholesterol - may need a lower treatment threshold for high blood pressure, for example.
The analysis looked at coronary events in more than 770,000 people with a non-O blood group and more than 510,000 people with an O blood group.
Around 1.5% in the first group and 1.4% in the second experienced a heart attack or angina.
They also looked at cardiovascular events in 708,000 people with non-O blood and 476,000 with O blood, which affected 2.5% and 2.3% of each group respectively.
When the researchers looked at fatal heart events, they found no major difference in risk between the O and non-O blood groups.
Dr Mike Knapton, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said the findings would not have a large impact on the current guidelines used to assess someone's risk of a heart attack.
"Most of a person's risk estimation is determined by age, genetics (family history and ethnicity) and other modifiable risk factors including diet, weight, level of physical activity, smoking, blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes.
"People with a non-O blood group type - AO, BO and AB - need to take the same steps as anyone wanting to reduce their CVD risk.
"That includes taking sensible steps to improve their diet, weight, level of physical activity and not smoking, and where needed, manage blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes."


More than 139,000 people have now signed an online petition calling for Britain's first world heavyweight champion boxer, Tyson Fury, to be taken off the list of people nominated for this years' BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2015 award.

He became the first British champion for six years when he beat Wladimir Klitschko on points after a fight in Dusseldorf.
He is unbeaten in 25 fights.
18 of those victories coming via knockout.
But some people are upset he's been nominated for a SPOTY award after some of his comments about women and homosexuality.
The boxer responded to the criticism and said: "Tyson Fury loves his fellow humans. He doesn't hate anybody."
In another interview he said '' I'm not sexist.''
The BBC says it won't take him off the list because it says the award is about what athletes have achieved in their sport.


For a speech about whether the US should remain a party to the Paris climate accord, Donald Trump's Rose Garden address on Thursday didn't have a whole lot of discussion about, you know, the climate.

There was plenty of talk about jobs and the US economy. He offered more than a few expressions of concern over whether other nations were being given an unfair advantage over the US. And then there was that lengthy opening plug for his presidential accomplishments that had nothing to do with the environment whatsoever.
At one point the president made a somewhat oblique reference to current climate science, asserting that even if all nations hit their self-set, non-mandatory greenhouse gas emissions targets under the Paris agreement, it would only result in a reduction of 0.2 degrees in average global temperatures by the year 2100. (The researchers who conducted the study said the number he cited was outdated and misrepresented.)
Mr Trump's relative silence on the matter has left reporters wondering whether the president still stands by earlier comments - and tweets - expressing serious scepticism about the whether climate change is real.
Does he still believe it's a Chinese plot to make the US less competitive, as he tweeted in November 2012? Or that it is a money-making "hoax", as he said during a December 2015 campaign rally?"
He's occasionally backed away from such sweeping denunciations. During the first presidential debate with Hillary Clinton, he denied having ever blamed the Chinese. In a New York Times interview shortly after his election victory, he said he thinks there's "some connectivity" between human activity and climate change.
After Mr Trump announced his Paris agreement withdrawal, reporters posed the almost-too-obvious question once again to White House aides tasked with selling the move to the public. Does the president believe human activity contributes to climate change?
They asked about it during an on-background session with two administration officials on Thursday afternoon. They asked White House advisor Kellyanne Conway during a television appearance Friday morning. They asked Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt during his press conference on Friday afternoon.
Time and time again the answer was some variation of "I don't know", "I can't say" or "that's not relevant".
"We focused on one key issue," Mr Pruitt said during one of the multiple times he was pressed on his boss's views. "Was Paris good or bad for the country?"
On Tuesday Press Secretary Sean Spicer had said he didn't know the president's thoughts about climate change because he hadn't asked him. On Friday he was asked whether he had since had a chance to speak to the president.
"I have not had the opportunity to do that," Spicer replied.
The rest of the press conference was an extended parlour game to try to get the press secretary to slip and perhaps inadvertently shed some light on Mr Trump's views - to no avail.
It's clear at this point that the administration has no interest in clarifying Mr Trump's position on climate change. But why?
Confusion can often be a politician's ally. The embattled president needs his core supporters to stick with him through what could be a rough road ahead. Those who don't believe climate change is real can look at the president's past comments as proof their man still stands with them without anyone having to explicitly say so.
That allows the president to insist that he is willing to do something to address climate change - "renegotiating" the Paris accord, perhaps - without saying climate change is a problem. It allows him tell the majority of Americans who believe climate change is a real global threat that he is trying to address their concerns.
It allows administration surrogates like Mr Pruitt to tout that the US has lowered its carbon output without acknowledging the only reason this would be a noteworthy accomplishment - human activity affects the global climate.
It's a fine line to walk for even the most dextrous of White House communications teams - let alone one that has to be concerned that the next time the president is asked the question, there's no telling what he might say.


The US space agency (Nasa) says its Juno probe is on course to go into orbit around the Planet Jupiter.

The satellite is described as healthy and ready for what scientists concede will be a risky manoeuvre.
Juno has to execute a precise rocket firing to slow itself sufficiently to get captured by the giant world's gravity.
If it succeeds, researchers should get their best ever view of what lies beneath Jupiter's stormy clouds.
The 35-minute orbit insertion burn - timed to to start at 03:18 GMT (04:18 BST) on Tuesday - is sure to jangle the nerves of everyone here in mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California.
If the engine fails to fire at the right time or for an insufficient period, this $1.1bn (Â£800m) venture will simply fly straight past Jupiter and into the oblivion of deep space.
Juno will not have its main dish pointed at Earth during the braking procedure, so the mission team will have to follow events via a series of simple tones sent back through the probe's low-gain antenna.
Rick Nybakken, Juno's project manager, said the probe had to thread itself on to a very accurate trajectory to achieve its goal.
"What we're targeting is a space that's tens of km wide. We're going to hit that within 1.2 seconds after a journey of [2.8 billion km]. That tells you just how good our navigation team is," he told reporters.
"We need to get into orbit tonight and I'm very confident we will."
The scientists must sit on their hands, though. The event is so far away, radio messages take 48 minutes to cross the vastness of space. Juno has to do everything on its own.
Assuming everything goes to plan, Juno's mission is to look down on the giant world to work out what it is made from and how it is put together.
We should finally discover whether it has a solid core or if its gas merely compresses to an ever denser state all the way to the centre.
We should also gain new insights on the famous Great Red Spot - the colossal storm that has raged on Jupiter for hundreds of years. Juno will tell us how deep its roots go.
The principal investigator is Scott Bolton from the Southwest Research Institute in Texas.
He says he cannot wait to get started: "It is the king of our Solar System. This is it; more massive than all the other planets and everything else in our Solar System combined (other than the Sun)," he said.
"Its zones and belts, its Great Red Spot, its incredible turbulent atmosphere - we've known it for many, many years. It's a gorgeous planet but what Juno is about is looking beneath that surface. We've got to go down and look at what's inside."
But as enticing as the science is, what worries team-members is the intense radiation around Jupiter, which could upset Juno's electronics, now or in the coming months.
This radiation is a consequence of Jupiter's mighty magnetic field, which whips particles to near light-speed.
Experts have designed Juno's orbit such that it avoids dipping into the most hazardous regions that surround the planet.
Engineers have also put sensitive electronics for the probe's instruments and control systems inside a thick-walled titanium box.
Even so, some equipment, such as the visible camera, is expected to fail before a formal end to the mission is called in early 2018.
JPL engineer Heidi Becker said the success of Juno was going to depend absolutely on the protection it receives from its "suit of armour".
"[Without it], Juno would be experiencing a radiation dose of over 20 million rads, which is like a human undergoing 100 million dental X-rays in a little over a year," she explained.
But it is only by getting in close to Jupiter - a little under 5,000km above the cloudtops on occasions - that Juno can acquire the data it seeks.
The satellite is equipped with nine instruments designed to study Jupiter's spectacular auroras and to look through the planet's many obscuring layers.
A key quest is to determine the abundance of water in the atmosphere - an indicator of how much oxygen was present in Jupiter's region of the Solar System when it formed, and perhaps a tell-tale of any migration it may have made from its original formation location.
The uncertainty over the presence of a solid core should be resolved with the aid of very precise gravity measurements.
Scientists have models for how they think the centre of Jupiter behaves, but there is no way they can test the physics in an Earth lab.
"The atmospheric pressure at Earth is about one bar; at the centre of Jupiter it is 80 million bar," explained mission team-member Fran Bagenal from the University of Colorado. "That's like a thousand elephants, one on top of the other, with the bottom elephant standing on a stiletto."
The orbit insertion burn on Tuesday will put Juno in a large ellipse around the planet that takes just over 53 days to complete. A second burn in mid-October will tighten the orbit to just 14 days. It is then that the science can really start.
Nasa plans to run the mission through to February 2018.
Juno will be commanded to end operations by ditching itself in the atmosphere of the planet.
This ensures there is no possibility of the probe crashing into and contaminating Jupiter's large moons, at least one of which, Europa, is considered to have the potential to host microbial life.
There will be updates on Juno's orbit insertion across BBC News, and the BBC Sky At Night programme will run a special programme dedicated to the mission on Sunday 10 July at 20:30 BST, on BBC Four.
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos


A group of Ballymena school children have missed out on a trip to Poland after airline Easyjet cancelled their flights.

More than 40 history pupils from Slemish College had been planning the trip for over a year.
However, when they arrived at the airport at 05:00 BST on Sunday morning, they found their flight was cancelled.
Easyjet said the cancellation was because of air traffic control restrictions and weather conditions.
History teacher Paula McHugh said Easyjet did offer alternative arrangements, but none were suitable.
"The only option they could come up with was to fly part of the group to Malaga, then to Madrid, then to Krakow which would be a 16-hour journey.
"They couldn't accommodate the whole group so this just wasn't an option," she said.
The group, who have been studying the Holocaust, were supposed to be meeting a survivor as well as visiting the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp during their tour of Poland, which was due to end on Wednesday.
Slemish College pupil Julia Millar, 15, was one of those who missed out.
She said: "I feel devastated and we don't really know what to do. We could have been in Poland but instead we're in Ballymena.
"We were told about this trip at the start of the year and we couldn't wait, we were really excited about it.
"Some people have already given away their uniforms to charity because they thought, that because we were going away, school would be over when we got back."
Curtis McIlhagga, also 15, was disappointed too.
"Meeting someone like a Holocaust survivor, like we were meant to today, would have really brought history alive for us."
"Friends of mine have been to Auschwitz and they say while it's not good to see, it's something that's very informative and we know, our generation, that we can't go back to something like that."
In a statement to the BBC, Easyjet said the flights had been cancelled due to air traffic control restrictions and weather conditions across Europe over the weekend.
The airline said: "The crew for this flight had been delayed on previous flights and could not operate this flight as it would exceed their legal operating hours.
"We did everything possible and explored all options to find alternative flights for all passengers. We would like to sincerely apologise that no other flights were available until this coming Tuesday and the group will not be able to travel.
"All passengers who did not travel are entitled to a full fare refund and an additional â‚¬250 per passenger in compensation."


Motherwell assistant manager Stephen Robinson has extended his contract at Fir Park until May 2017.

The 41-year-old had joined the club in February 2015 when Ian Baraclough was manager but remained once Mark McGhee succeeded him in October.
McGhee told his club website: "Stephen is an excellent assistant and an excellent coach.
"It became clear to me very quickly when I joined the club that we had someone of real talent and integrity."
Northern Irishman Robinson, the former Bournemouth and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder, is also on the coaching set-up with his national team and will be with them at the Euro 2016 finals in France this summer.
"He's very well respected in the game," said McGhee.
Robinson had helped Baraclough's side retain their place in the Scottish Premiership after defeating Rangers in last season's play-off final.
However, after a poor start to the present season, the Englishman was replaced and Well have gone on to secure a top-six finish this season under McGhee.
Robinson said he was delighted to extend his contract to coincide with the Scots'.
"I've really enjoyed my time at Fir Park," he added.
"There have been some challenges, but it's a pleasure to work for the club and the people around the place have been brilliant.
"We changed the manager back in the autumn and that always brings some uncertainty, but I cannot speak highly enough of Mark and we enjoy a very good relationship.
"On the park, making the top-six has been an excellent achievement."


Jess Varnish says she spoke out against British Cycling technical director Shane Sutton with the hope of changing attitudes at the organisation.

The 25-year-old, recently dropped from the Great Britain team, alleged that Sutton made sexist comments and told her to "go and have a baby".
"I want to change the culture and their treatment of women," she said.
"I hope by shining a light and sharing my experiences, the relevant people can investigate and make changes."
UK Sport, which funds British Cycling's elite performance programmes, said it had been in contact with British Cycling to ensure the allegations were investigated.
"We take allegations of sexism extremely seriously,"  it said. "As a recipient of funding, British Cycling should assure us this will be dealt with fairly, swiftly and transparently.
"We expect the highest levels of professionalism from athletes and staff and have zero tolerance to sexist behaviour."
Varnish has been been invited to meet the equalities officer of British Cycling to discuss her concerns.
A British Cycling spokesman said: "A gold medal is valued by us, no matter who wins it and we are equally proud of all our Olympic and world champions."
He added that medals won by the Great Britain cycling team are "testament firstly to the dedication and talent of our riders" but also a "tribute to a significant investment in passion, commitment and resources by our performance staff".
Sutton, 58, denies any wrongdoing and says British Cycling did not renew her contract because her times had slowed over the past three years.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Varnish added: "I remain open to sharing my experiences with both British Cycling and/or UK Sport, and will happily engage with any investigations into the comments that Shane Sutton has made to me, and other riders."
The Worcestershire-born rider also said she would like to compete for Britain again, adding that she was not too old and "not a waste of UK Sport's money".
Earlier, Olympic champions Victoria Pendleton and Nicole Cooke both criticised British Cycling following Varnish's claims.
"I know exactly how miserable they made me," two-time Olympic gold medallist Pendleton told the Daily Telegraph.
"I never really felt I had the same respect as my male team-mates."
Cooke, the 2008 Olympic road race champion, told the Guardian: "I have my own experiences of Shane and sympathise with Jess.
"Speak out and your dreams will be destroyed and years of hard work wasted. Or put up with it and hope."
"I spoke out from the age of 19 and I know what happens."
Olympic gold medallist Joanna Rowsell Shand said on Monday that she was "surprised" at Varnish's claims of sexism.


Mexico's federal police chief, Enrique Galindo, has been sacked following allegations police killed at least 22 suspected members of a drugs cartel.

The killings are thought to have taken place last year on a ranch in the western state of Michoacan last year.
President Enrique Pena Nieto said he had dismissed Mr Galindo to allow for a transparent investigation.
Earlier this month Mexico's National Human Rights Commission accused police of tampering with evidence.
Michoacan: Mexico's failed state?
One police officer and 42 suspects were killed in the raid on a ranch in Tanhuato in May last year.
Officers said they had returned fire in self-defence but the high death toll aroused suspicions.
The human rights commission report accused police of planting guns on some suspects and moving bodies to bolster the official version that all the deaths occurred during a gun battle.
Mr Galindo and National Security Commissioner Renato Sales have denied anyone was summarily killed and insisted officers used necessary force against highly armed criminals.
Police used a Black Hawk helicopter during the operation, reportedly firing some 4,000 rounds into the ranch, known as the Rancho del Sol, during the initial assault.
The helicopter itself was hit by gunfire, investigators found.
In its report (in Spanish; warning: contains graphic images), the CNDH asserts that:
Michoacan has become one of Mexico's most violent states because of the rivalry between cartels.


A former rugby player barred from sport for trafficking has continued to produce and supply anabolic steroids.

Ex-Swansea RFC hooker Dean Colclough was banned in 2014 by UK Anti-Doping.
But an investigation by BBC Wales' Week In Week Out found that he had been producing and supplying a product called M1T through his online business Dragon Nutrition.
Mr Colclough insisted he had not knowingly broken any laws and said he had now sold the business.
The anabolic steroids are illegal to produce or supply and were being sold as dietary supplements.
Week In Week Out investigated Dragon Nutrition as part of a wider programme examining the UK sports supplement industry that is now worth over Â£350m per year and has more than doubled in size over five years.
The programme purchased M1T, known as a prohormone, through a third party retailer recommended on Dragon Nutrition's website.
Prohormones have the same effects on the body as steroids and can have potentially dangerous side effects.
Nick Wojeck from the UK Anti-doping agency said: "Basically, prohormones are the same as steroids so they will either have an effect on the body as soon as you ingest it or they will slightly be converted in the body and act as a steroid.
"So on the internet the use of these names are at all intents and purposes are all steroids."
The Home Office investigated M1T and concluded it was a Class C drug, illegal to produce or supply.
Samples of M1T were sent to the Drug Control Centre at King's College London for analysis.
Dr Chris Walker tested the substance and concluded that, based on its chemical structure, it would be controlled as a Class C drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act and Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 Schedule 4 Part 2.
Rugby player Tom Morgan once tried a prohormone supplement, not fully realising what it was.
"When I first took them I got strong gains off them at the start, when I came back from a major leg break injury it did help me get my muscle back quick but I also had a lot of side effects off them like bad kidney, spotty back and I got a bit aggressive which I didn't like so I stopped taking them," he said.
Sports supplements claim to help athletes improve their performance but are coming under increased scrutiny after several cases of failed drugs tests because of them.
Welsh athletes Rhys Williams and Gareth Warburton were recently given four and six month bans.
They had both unknowingly taken a supplement contaminated with an anabolic steroid.
Former WBO world cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli said a failed drugs test and a six-month ban in 2012 due to a supplement was a huge blow to his career, as well as his reputation.
The boxer said he took a fat burning supplement which contained a banned substance, methylhexaneamine, that was not clearly labelled.
"I've always thought of myself as a straight cut guy never cut any corners and for me to then be labelled as a drugs cheat - it was the end of the world for me," he said.
Sport supplement expert Ron Maughan from the University of Loughborough said it was not unusual for supplements to contain ingredients that were not labelled.
He said: "There's clear evidence that some otherwise ineffective products are being manipulated to include effective ingredients without those products being declared on the label."
Mathew Richardson, who manufactures high protein cookies from his factory in Blackwood, admitted there were products and companies who gave the industry a bad name, but insisted they were becoming fewer.
He said: "I don't think there's very many of them left now and the simplest thing to be sure of that is to go into a high street retailer or go online for the big brands and those people they put their test certificates online they get tested on that all the time."
Week in Week Out, BBC One Wales, 22:40 GMT, Tuesday 3 March.


National League side Braintree Town have re-signed Ipswich Town forward Monty Patterson on loan until the end of the season.

The New Zealand international played six times on loan at the Iron earlier this term, scoring his only goal in the 7-0 win over Eastbourne in the FA Cup.
Patterson, 20, has moved to Cressing Road on a deal which includes a 24-hour recall clause.
He could play for Braintree against North Ferriby on Saturday.


Premiership club Gloucester have named former South Africa lock Johan Ackermann as their new head coach ahead of the 2017-18 season.

The 46-year-old coach of the Johannesburg-based Lions Super Rugby side is to replace Laurie Fisher, who left the Cherry and Whites in March.
Ackermann, who won 13 Springboks caps, will work as number two to director of rugby David Humphreys.
Gloucester are eighth in the top flight with four league matches remaining.
Interim head coach Jonny Bell - who was promoted from defence coach after Fisher's departure - will remain in the role until the end of the season.
Ackermann will arrive at Kingsholm following the conclusion of the 2017 Super Rugby campaign this summer.
"We're all delighted that Johan has agreed to become the next head coach," director of rugby David Humphreys told the club website.
"He is one of the top coaching talents in world rugby, and it's a significant coup for the club to recruit someone of his calibre.
"When we first spoke to Johan, we were struck by the enthusiasm and energy he displayed to take up the challenge at Gloucester but, once we had met with him, we knew he was the person we wanted to take the club forward.
"We were particularly impressed by his proven ability to take a team that has under-performed, and turned them into Championship contenders. Their year-on-year progression has been impressive and they are continuing that upward trend this season."
Ackermann, who retired from playing in 2008, was named South African Coach of the Year in 2014, 2015 and 2016, having led the Lions to promotion back into Super Rugby in 2013.
"It was a hard decision," he told supersport.com at a Lions press conference on Monday. "It wasn't easy, it wasn't a one-day thing. It took a long time.
"It was a rugby decision to get better as a coach and hopefully experience something different. Hopefully it will enhance me as a coach. That was the main reason for it."
BBC rugby union reporter Chris Jones
Ackermann is the latest to take on the head coach hot-seat at Kingsholm, and comes to England with a big reputation, having led the Lions to the Super Rugby final last year.
Director of rugby David Humphreys has cited Ackermann's ability to turn around an under-performing outfit, which he will have to do with the Cherry and Whites, who continue to flounder in lower-table Premiership mediocrity.


Defender Jamie McCombe has left League Two side Stevenage by mutual consent.

The 33-year-old has made 16 appearances for Teddy Sheringham's strugglers since joining in the summer.
McCombe, who left Doncaster after playing 59 games over three years before moving to Stevenage, last played on 16 January in the 3-2 defeat by promotion contenders Plymouth.
He becomes the second Stevenage player to leave by mutual consent in two days, after fellow defender Mark Hughes.