UK drug policies have come under attack from ministers within the coalition government, with senior Liberal Democrats saying current rules are "nonsensical" and arguing for a "smarter approach" to the problem.

They point to a Home Office report which suggests "no apparent correlation" between the "toughness" of a country's drug laws and the level of drug use - but a Tory MP said the Lib Dems had "hijacked" the report for political gain.
Under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, illegal drugs are divided into Class A, B and C. Penalties are most severe for Class A drugs like crack cocaine and heroin, and least severe for Class C drugs like khat and anabolic steroids.
Producing or supplying a Class A drug can be punished with life imprisonment, while there is a 14-year maximum term for Class B and C.
Possession is treated less severely, with maximum sentences of seven, five and two years for Class A, B and C respectively. Warnings and on-the-spot fines are sometimes given for possession of drugs.
The NHS has a range of services for drug users. For people arrested, many police forces and local authorities aim to "identify and work with drug-misusing offenders as early as possible".
This process includes drug testing, assessment by drug workers and treatment - or "further legal action where drug users don't want to engage". Offenders can also be given help with life skills, education and training, employment, drug treatment and housing.
The government said funding for these interventions stopped in April 2013, with local authorities and police commissioners "responsible for deciding whether to continue funding interventions in their own area".
Lib Dem Home Office minister Norman Baker, who signed the foreword of the report along with Home Secretary Theresa May, said jailing people for "a matter of weeks" for possession of Class B or C drugs was a "nonsensical approach". The Lib Dems want drug use to be treated as a health problem rather than a criminal matter.
Think tank Transform, which campaigns for drug policy reform, said prohibition "creates a lucrative and violent criminal market" and drove resources away from healthcare and towards "ineffective law enforcement".
MPs debated drugs policy earlier, after more than 130,000 people signed a petition calling the government to adopt an "evidence-based approach" to deciding on its drugs policy.
Downing Street said its approach was based on evidence and was "not going to change".
"Our drugs strategy is working and there is a long-term downward trend in drug misuse in the UK," it said.
Tory MP Michael Ellis said the Lib Dems had "hijacked" the Home Office report on drugs policies overseas and were "spinning it" for political reasons.
Under current UK laws, drugs are only illegal if they are specifically banned. The term "legal high" refers to a non-banned substance thought to have effects similar to those of illegal drugs like cocaine or cannabis.
When legal highs are made illegal, manufacturers can avoid the law by tweaking the chemical compound and creating a new substance.
The government is now considering legislation similar to that introduced in the Irish Republic four years ago which bans the sale of all "psychoactive" substances but exempts some, such as alcohol and tobacco.


The final decision on expanding aviation capacity was always going to be far more to do with politics than economics.

And to understand why, it is worth remembering a pledge made by David Cameron in 2009, with "no ifs or buts".
There would be no new runway at Heathrow, Mr Cameron said.
Deciding that it is time to overturn that pledge would certainly be a difficult one for the Prime Minister to swallow.
And those close to him say that Mr Cameron is well aware of the need for politicians to "keep their promises".
Even if the public aren't always convinced that they do.
Sir Howard has provided some limited wriggle room.
He has said that a second runway at Gatwick is a "credible" and "feasible" option.
But he does make it clear that it would provide nowhere near the economic benefit of a third runway at Heathrow.
The political battle is likely to be long and bloody.
Heathrow certainly has some big political beasts who are sympathetic. George Osborne - ever focused on the UK's "long term economic plan" - is certainly one.
The chancellor was instrumental in putting aviation expansion back on the political agenda after the 2010 election.
And he briefed the Cabinet yesterday on the importance of maintaining the UK's hub airport capacity. Code, some think, for Heathrow, the UK's only hub airport.
Another sympathetic to expansion west of London is thought to be Sajid Javid, the Business Secretary.
Business leaders are already queuing up to back Heathrow, with John Cridland of the CBI saying he wants to see diggers in the ground by 2020.
Ranged against are the high profile political double-act of Boris Johnson, the London Mayor, and Zac Goldsmith, the MP for Richmond Park near Heathrow, who is likely to be the next Conservative candidate to become mayor of London.
Other local MPs, including the international development secretary, Justine Greening, are also firm opponents.
Local residents groups have already launched legal actions against the Commission and are sure to make their feelings known.
Those against Heathrow expansion will scour Sir Howard's report to argue that Gatwick is still a deliverable option.
Certainly fewer houses will be demolished and there will be fewer environmental and noise effects if a second runway is built south of London.
But Sir Howard is clear, arguing that Heathrow is the better option economically.
Whether Mr Cameron can ever bring himself to agree, we should know by the end of the year.


Less than 24 hours after the worst terrorist attack in Manchester's history, its people came together to remember the 22 victims who went to enjoy one of the city's favourite pastimes - going to a gig - but never came home.

Basked in early evening sunshine, the mood in Albert Square was sombre but strong. Manchester is a city of glorious, rebellious positivity and thousands were here to make that point in front of the cameras of the world's press.
While some had come to simply pay their respects to those killed and injured by an appalling act, others also wanted to stand firm in the face of horror.
"Love over hate, that's the message," said one woman, finishing off a poster of support, while in another corner of the square, the Manchester Sikh Community handed out free drinks, a gesture to "help the city at a time when things are bad".
As the Town Hall bells chimed six, the throng fell silent - ready, respectful, resilient - so that only the leaves could be heard blowing through the trees.
The silence held for a full five minutes before the Lord Mayor Eddy Newman began to speak.
His was a message of thanks for the emergency services and defiance in the face in the terrorism, words that were met with cheers and loud applause.
He was followed by others with equally unbending speeches.
The Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Rev David Walker, spoke of the city's unerring belief in diversity and unity and said those who would seek to destroy such things were "the very few, but we are the many, we are Manchester".
The victims of the attack, he said, were now "Manchester too", regardless of where they came from.
Greater Manchester Police's Chief Constable Ian Hopkins echoed those words and added the stories of those who came together in the aftermath; of the doctors who came in when they were off shift, the communities who opened their doors to the displaced and the emergency crews who worked tirelessly through the night.
And after the speeches and an impeccably observed minute of silence, an moment of release, as the thousands gathered broke into a chant of the city's name.
But shining out from the midst of it all was poet Tony Walsh's reading of his ode to Manchester, This Is The Place, that captured the moment best.
A run-through of what and why the city is so special, it was met with cheers and a simple ending which summed up the feelings of all those in the square.
"Choose love, Manchester", he said, to an enormous ovation.


At least 19 Ethiopian children held captive by an armed South Sudanese group for nearly a month have been freed, Ethiopian state media reports.

The 19 were freed following mediation by South Sudan's government, it adds.
This is the first group to be released since about 125 children were abducted in the cross-border raid.
Members of the Murle community carried out the attack. They have previously been accused of stealing livestock and children to raise as their own.
More than 200 people from the rival Nuer community in Ethiopia's western Gambella province were killed in the 15 April raid.
Ethiopian forces crossed into South Sudan, encircling villages where the children were held.
However, the children were freed without any fighting after South Sudanese officials entered into negotiations with the abductors, the Ethiopian News Agency reports.
Negotiations would continue to free all the children, it reports.
"The children must be rescued and be reunited with their families. The cattle that was taken should also be handed over to the right owners," South Sudan's ambassador to Ethiopia, James Pitia Morgan, is quoted as saying.
Ethiopia shares a long border with South Sudan and cross-border raids involving the Murle and Nuer communities are not uncommon.
However, the scale of the 15 April shocked many people in both countries, and led to protests in Ethiopia's Gambella region with parents demanding greater protection for their children.
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said "primitive and destructive forces" carried out the raid.


Bristol City ended a three-game losing run in the Championship with an impressive win over Ipswich Town.

Lee Tomlin's penalty lit up a quiet first period after Tammy Abraham was brought down in the box by Ipswich keeper Bartosz Bialkowski.
David McGoldrick almost levelled the scores soon after half-time, but his low shot was pushed on to the post by Ipswich goalkeeper Frank Fielding.
Luke Freeman sealed the win with a spectacular volley from 25 yards.
The victory was just a second in eight league games for City and lifted the Robins up to 11th in the table, while Town drop to 16th.
Aden Flint felt he should have had a second penalty for City as he went down in the box five minutes after the first spot-kick, but referee Stuart Attwell waved away his protests.
Abraham had a chance to double the lead just before the break, but the 12-goal Chelsea loanee headed over the impressive Tomlin's cross.
After McGoldrick hit the post, Freeman came up with a goal of the season contender as he smashed home a left-foot volley from far outside the box into the bottom corner for his first goal at Ashton Gate.
Bristol City boss Lee Johnson:
"It was a sensational goal. It is a really difficult skill to get the ball to dip from the position Luke struck it.
"It was a really steady and professional team display, almost like an away performance. We have had to come from behind so often, but today we got ourselves in front and looked really solid.
"We haven't got what we deserved from recent games. Now we are three points off the play-offs and looking up the table again."
Ipswich Town manager Mick McCarthy:
"The difference between the teams was a penalty and a worldie. They started well, but we got to grips with that.
"We were on top when an unbelievable flying bomb hit the top corner of our net for the second goal. It was absolutely unstoppable.
"I have no complaints about our display. We need to be more effective in the final third, but other than that I felt we competed well against a good side."
Match ends, Bristol City 2, Ipswich Town 0.
Second Half ends, Bristol City 2, Ipswich Town 0.
Substitution, Bristol City. Gary O'Neil replaces Korey Smith because of an injury.
Offside, Bristol City. Josh Brownhill tries a through ball, but Tammy Abraham is caught offside.
Substitution, Bristol City. Bobby Reid replaces Lee Tomlin.
Attempt saved. Freddie Sears (Ipswich Town) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Cole Skuse.
Jonathan Williams (Ipswich Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Korey Smith (Bristol City).
Substitution, Bristol City. Josh Brownhill replaces Luke Freeman.
Attempt missed. David McGoldrick (Ipswich Town) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Leon Best.
Foul by Cole Skuse (Ipswich Town).
Marlon Pack (Bristol City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Adam Webster (Ipswich Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Tammy Abraham (Bristol City).
Attempt missed. Lee Tomlin (Bristol City) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right.
Offside, Ipswich Town. David McGoldrick tries a through ball, but Freddie Sears is caught offside.
Offside, Ipswich Town. Leon Best tries a through ball, but David McGoldrick is caught offside.
Attempt saved. Tammy Abraham (Bristol City) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Luke Freeman.
Substitution, Ipswich Town. Jonathan Williams replaces Tom Lawrence.
Goal!  Bristol City 2, Ipswich Town 0. Luke Freeman (Bristol City) left footed shot from outside the box to the top left corner following a set piece situation.
Foul by Christophe Berra (Ipswich Town).
Aaron Wilbraham (Bristol City) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Attempt missed. Luke Freeman (Bristol City) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Hördur Bjorgvin Magnusson with a cross.
Substitution, Ipswich Town. Freddie Sears replaces Grant Ward.
Substitution, Ipswich Town. Leon Best replaces Luke Varney.
Foul by Luke Varney (Ipswich Town).
Adam Matthews (Bristol City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Corner,  Bristol City. Conceded by Jonas Knudsen.
Attempt blocked. Hördur Bjorgvin Magnusson (Bristol City) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Foul by Christophe Berra (Ipswich Town).
Tammy Abraham (Bristol City) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Cole Skuse (Ipswich Town).
Korey Smith (Bristol City) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt missed. Marlon Pack (Bristol City) right footed shot from more than 35 yards misses to the right.
Foul by Marlon Pack (Bristol City).
Grant Ward (Ipswich Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Aaron Wilbraham (Bristol City) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Christophe Berra (Ipswich Town).
Attempt saved. David McGoldrick (Ipswich Town) right footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Cole Skuse with a through ball.
Hand ball by Luke Varney (Ipswich Town).


The governor of California has declared a state-wide drought, urging residents to conserve water in what could be the state's driest year on record.

The declaration by Governor Jerry Brown also means farmers will receive aid and more firefighters will be employed.
Mr Brown faced pressure to declare the drought as the state's largest reservoirs are at record low levels.
The dry conditions have been blamed for a wildfire that destroyed five homes north-east of Los Angeles on Thursday.
In a press conference on Friday, Mr Brown called on residents to cut back "at least 20%" on their water usage but said the move was voluntary.
"We can't make it rain, but we can be much better prepared for the terrible consequences that California's drought now threatens," Mr Brown said in a statement.
He added the declaration was a way to focus Californians on how serious the drought conditions were.
"We are in a unprecedented, very serious situation that people should pause and reflect on how dependent we are on the rain, nature and each other," he said on CNN.
Previous extremely dry years led to catastrophic wildfire seasons in California in 2003 and 2007.
"People say that the fire season is starting early, but I guess you could say it never ended," Tom Scott, a natural resources specialist with the University of California told the Associated Press news agency.
"If you live in the backcountry, come July you probably should be thinking about putting your valuables in storage."
Farmers in the US largest farm state were already being hit hard.
"I am a fifth-generation cattle rancher, and it has never been this bad ever in my lifetime," said Kevin Kester, 58.
His family's records show the area's previous worst drought was in the 1890s.


The security services in Germany are scrambling to track down and arrest far-right fugitives and Germany's federal and state interior ministers have announced they are taking concrete steps towards banning the country's far right National Democratic Party, the NPD.

This comes after a public outcry following revelations in November that a neo-Nazi cell had apparently been able to go on a nationwide spree of racially motivated murders over several years, under the noses of the German intelligence services.
The group of three are being held responsible for the deaths of eight Turkish and one Greek immigrant between 2000 and 2006, as well as a German policewoman in 2007.
Yet the existence of the group, dubbed the Zwickau cell after the name of the town where they spent most of their time in hiding, only came to light in November when two of its members died in an apparent joint suicide or murder-suicide and the third handed herself in to the authorities.
The NPD has been linked to the group, though the allegations have yet to be accepted in a court of law.
The trio had made a DVD in which they boasted of the killings and said they had acted to serve the German nation and its people, describing themselves as the National Socialist Underground - echoing the national socialism (Nazism) of Hitler's Germany.
The story of the killers has dominated headlines in Germany for months now and given rise to one of the biggest scandals in post-war Germany.
It turns out intelligence agencies had had the group under surveillance for years, and even found a bomb-making factory in their garage back in 1998.
So why were the trio not stopped earlier? Why were they allowed to disappear and then stay underground? And why was it that security services blamed the murders on the Turkish mafia at the time? A right-wing motive was never investigated.
The failures have prompted some to ask whether there is more than incompetence to blame, whether Germany's police and security services contain elements sympathetic to the far right - an accusation the institutions vehemently deny.
A parliamentary inquiry is currently under way into their activities, and Newsnight has seen a secret internal report revealing serious blunders by law enforcement agencies.
When we spoke to Peter Altmaier, a senior official in Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrat party, he admitted that mistakes had been made:
"You have to know Germany is a federal state, and competencies are shared and divided between federal and state levels... and because we have drawn the lessons from the Nazi dictatorship, we have very limited powers of police and security institutions.
"There have been hints and indications of right-wing extremism that were not taken seriously enough, and therefore we have put this very high on the political agenda."
Another question that now worries many Germans is just how big a threat the far right poses.
Human rights groups say more than 180 people have been killed in right-wing attacks in Germany over the last 20 years.
Neo-Nazis have murdered more people in post-war Germany than any other single group, including Islamists and the far left. But this is not yet reflected in official data.
Could it be that Germany's sensitivity to its history has made it want to play down modern-day right wing extremism?
"Martin", a former neo-Nazi leader who asked to be quoted anonymously for fear of revenge attacks, was an active member of the far right for 11 years. He has now left the movement and encourages others to do so through an organisation called Exit.
Martin told us the revelations about the Zwickau cell should have come as no surprise to the authorities:
"The militant scene has always said we need people who are willing and able and trained in case it comes to civil war, and neo-Nazi propaganda always talks about civil war. The scene is armed. It's military.
"Weapons training is carried out in secret. In the Arab world, for example, with freedom movements there. The right-wing scene sees itself as a freedom movement."
There is a growing collection of secretive far-right groups in Germany which call themselves the "Free Forces".
Intelligence services say this is the fastest-spreading section of Germany's far-right movement.
They say the cliche of the neo-Nazi being a boot-wearing, young, unemployed male skinhead is out of date. Nowadays you cannot always tell who is a neo-Nazi and who is not.
The Free Forces are attracting a new crowd, including students and middle-class professionals. Germans speak of a new generation of Kravattennazis, literally "Tie Nazis", as opposed to the traditional Stiefelnazis, or "Boot Nazis".
They use modern forms of protest and are harnessing social media.
Take The Immortals, for example - anti-globalisation, anti-capitalist and anti-democratic, they warn of the impending extinction of the German people and call for a Germany for the Germans.
Hard for the authorities to catch, they use text messaging to organise spontaneous night-time demonstrations across the country, especially in university towns.
The protesters wear black cloaks and white masks, reminiscent of the hacker-anarchists Anonymous, to hide their identity. After 15 minutes on the street, they are gone.
"The leadership is always trying to attract members of the so-called upper classes and students who, one day, can act as lawyers or doctors for the far right," Martin explained.
"It's all done very quietly, out of the public eye. You would never imagine that some of those people would support the movement and they may deny their affiliation in public, but they are very much part of the scene."
"You can't describe the far right as a fringe group any more. All parts of German society are found in it."
But what exactly do they want?
Far-right activists are camera-shy. They say they are hounded by police and hemmed in by post-war German laws which make it illegal to question the Holocaust and demonstrate public appreciation of Nazi Germany, leading to a number of far-right groups being shut down and their members prosecuted.
We visited Berlin's best-known neo-Nazi pub, The Executioner, to see if we could tempt the punters there to talk.
Most people in the dimly lit, windowless establishment eyed us with suspicion and distaste, but after a couple of "Himla'' cocktails, Uwe Dreisch, the former head of a now-banned neo-Nazi group, sat down with us and said:
"Who are we? We are nationalists. We care deeply about our fatherland. We don't like the state that exists here right now in Germany. We want to rebuild our country for our citizens, the German people.
"We want to protect our culture, our country, our religion. In Britain, you're also proud of your country, but here I, as a German, am a second-class citizen. This is because we live with eternal war guilt here in Germany. Others get preferential treatment, not us Germans.
"Those outside here who say this pub is full of evil Nazis, how would they know? They're afraid to talk to us. They just try to ban us."
What many lawmakers in Germany say they do not like is that the far right rejects the German constitution and the Federal German Republic.
Supporters of the far right want a new order in Germany, but while they live under the current system, some are establishing what they call "national liberated zones", dotted across the country.
The most famous example is Jamel, a village in northern Germany which has been largely taken over by the far right.
In the middle of the village is a brightly painted Nazi-style mural in which a traditionally dressed German mother cradles her baby, surrounded by her other children.
Also painted there is a proclamation that Jamel is free, social and national.
We spoke to Udo Pastoers, number two in the NPD, the legal political wing of the far right, and the leader of the party's elected representatives in the regional parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the area in which Jamel sits.
Mr Pastoers was keen to discuss the NPD's current campaign calling for more indigenous Germans to have children.
He showed me a campaign poster emblazoned with the phrase "German children need our country. Stop the German people dying out" in which two beautiful blonde parents frolic at a sandy water's edge with their blonde and beaming children.
Mr Pastoers said the birth-rate in Germany was far too low and that women should "reproduce" more, so that Germany could still deserve the name Germany.
"Imagine a country called Germany that is filled only with Africans, Arabs, Asians. Biology is our priority," he said.
The NPD does not do very well in the polls. Still, it has elected representatives in two of out of Germany's 16 regional parliaments.
Mr Pastoers told us the party was virtually gagged by the German authorities. If they really could speak openly, he said, a huge chunk of the German electorate would support them.
The NPD insists the stigma of being associated with the far right in modern Germany means that people who would like to vote for it do not dare to.
In an attempt to boost its numbers, the party is currently concentrating on social issues, taking advantage of widespread unease caused by the global economic crisis.
They and the wider far-right movement run youth centres and football clubs, and offer welfare advice and family outings for those short of cash.
Former neo-Nazi Martin, who spoke of close links between the NPD and extremist groups like the one he used to lead, said the party's social card was insincere.
"They can't win over all parts of society with anti-Semitic and Nazi rhetoric. The welfare debate touches most people these days, but it is fake.
"One well-known neo-Nazi activist said: 'We'll make sure to be where people are suffering most, where they are shouting for help... Eventually we'll have them where we want them.'''
Germany's far right is a minority movement but one the country's authorities cannot afford to ignore.


The Christmas tree that will take centre stage during Cardiff's festive celebrations will be an artificial "structure" made in China.

Cardiff council was criticised for not having a tree up in time for the Christmas lights switch-on on Thursday.
The authority said it had leased a pre-decorated 40m (131ft) tall "tree-shaped structure" for the next three years.
It will not go up until 25 November as it is being shipped from China.
In a statement, the council said the Christmas tree, covered in golden baubles, should be a "spectacular addition to Cardiff's Christmas offering".
The tree, on a three-year lease from UK-based company MK Illuminations, will arrive with all the decorations pre-attached.
Last year, insurance company Admiral sponsored the main tree outside Cardiff Castle, which was up in time for the city's Step Into Christmas event.


Two British teenagers have "apologised unreservedly" for "picking up items without thinking" from the former Auschwitz death camp, their Cambridge school says.

The Perse School says the 17-year-old boys "attempted to keep some items which they had found on the ground".
They were detained at the site on Monday and released with suspended prison sentences on Tuesday.
The school said the pupils had been fined about Â£170.
A spokesman for the school said they had been given a year's probation, suspended for three years.
Headmaster Ed Elliott said: "There will be a full and thorough investigation into what occurred. I want to hear directly from the boys as to what led them to take these items.
"I want to ensure that all necessary lessons are learnt. The opportunity to be able to visit Holocaust sites carries with it the duty to treat those sites with the utmost respect and sensitivity."
The teenagers were charged with unlawfully possessing items of special cultural importance, which carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.
The BBC's Adam Easton in Warsaw said that, as with similar cases in the past, the boys were given suspended sentences and released.
"Incidents like this happen about once or twice a year, museum staff said, despite the fact notices warn visitors not to pick anything up."
Guards at the Auschwitz-Birkenau site, which is now a museum, saw the pupils picking up items from the ground near a building where Nazi German guards had stored prisoners' confiscated belongings.
Our correspondent said the grassy area once housed the storerooms where the belongings of Jews sent to the gas chambers were kept.
"When police searched the pair they found buttons, a rusted hair clipper, and fragments of spoons and glass," he added.
The independent Perse School said the boys, who were on a history trip to Poland, were being supported by the deputy head and had co-operated fully with the Polish authorities.
A spokesman said: "We understand they have explained that they picked up the items without thinking, and they have apologised unreservedly for the offence they have given, and expressed real remorse for their action".
The headmaster had previously apologised for "any thoughtless and offensive behaviour by these two pupils."
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Education Trust, said: "Every single artefact found at Auschwitz-Birkenau tells a story of the more than a million people who were ruthlessly murdered by the Nazis there and this incident serves to show why our work is crucial now more than ever.
"We have a duty to educate the next generation to prevent ignorance and hate, and in over 15 years of organising for thousands of British teenagers to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, we have never known of such an incident."
The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum was founded in 1947 and has more than 80,000 British visitors each year.
Curators say some visitors try to take artefacts as souvenirs.
In 2010, a Swedish man was jailed for plotting the theft of the "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work sets you free") sign from the entry gate of the Auschwitz site.
Auschwitz-Birkenau, located near the city of Krakow in southern Poland, was the largest camp established by the Germans during the Second World War.
Some 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed there between 1940 and 1945, when Soviet troops liberated it.
Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp
Life in the city of Auschwitz


Qualifying as a solicitor or barrister in the UK takes years of study, but imagine doing some of that in a foreign language?

For lawyers in Guernsey, who want to become advocates at the Royal Court, three months studying French law and old Norman law - in France - is obligatory.
It is a tradition that harks back to the Channel Islands' Norman past, but is now being questioned.
Some lawyers doubt whether leaving Guernsey to study in the French city of Caen is still necessary.
Guernsey law differs from English law largely because of the Bailiwick's Norman heritage.
The Channel Islands were owned by the Duchy of Normandy, and passed to the English Crown when William the Conqueror became King of England in 1066.
In an arrangement between Caen University and the Guernsey Bar, signed in 1956 - but part of a tradition dating back centuries - island advocates travel to the French university to study.
Guernsey advocates perform roles that barristers and solicitors would perform in England.
But a review led by the island's most senior judge, the Bailiff Sir Richard Collas, is looking into whether today's lawyers still need to spend time in France as full-time students, which critics say is disruptive to work and family life.
The course is run in French, which can be a challenge for Guernsey lawyers who do not speak the language.
Deputy chairman of the Guernsey Bar Council, Simon Howitt, said: "Opinions differ greatly as to whether or not it's a good thing to continue it, or a bad thing.
"I think a lot of people think there's some use to it, particularly if you do re-jig the syllabus a bit to make it a bit more relevant... in the past there has been criticism that some of the subjects covered are really not at all relevant."
Guernsey law has its roots in Norman customary law rather than English common law.
Mr Howitt said Norman law was becoming less applicable in Guernsey, as the island now tended to follow "the English model".
Sam Steel studied law at University College London, trained to be barrister, and recently took the course in Caen. He is now an advocate specialising in criminal defence.
"I had a fantastic experience. I tried to immerse myself in the culture and lifestyle.
"I had hired a French law tutor in the months beforehand which helped a great deal.
"My barrister friends in London were envious that I had to spend three months training in Caen, but the exams were challenging.
"I believe this training element should continue. Although the course content doesn't directly assist with my areas of specialism I left Caen with an invaluable connection to and understanding of Guernsey's unique legal history."
Neighbouring Jersey, meanwhile, removed the Caen requirement for its advocates in the 1990s.
Jean-Marie Renouf, a Jersey advocate, said many prospective advocates had work and family commitments and so moving to France for several months could be disruptive.
"And for the employers of those lawyers financially there seems to me to be a likelihood of a hit whilst these people are away from work, their clients, the billing and so forth."
Mr Renouf said Norman customary law was still an important part of Jersey legal training, but that it was all now taught in the island.
He said that advocates who could not speak French would have found studying in Caen "a pretty taxing experience".
While in the French city, Guernsey lawyers study Norman customary law, Norman institutions and some French contract law.
Students take an oral exam at the end of the three months to obtain the certificate.
Course director at Caen, Sophie Poirey, confirmed aspects of Norman law had disappeared in Guernsey, but said it was still a relevant course for lawyers and hoped it would continue.
"I've met Sir Richard, Guernsey's Bailiff, on many occasions about this.
"He came here two years ago here to Caen to meet the law faculty and showed he was keen for the Guernsey Bar to continue sending students to Caen," she said.
However Ms Poirey said discussions were taking place about adapting the course so it could continue in the future.
The Bailiff's office said there was no update on the progress of the review, but chairman of the Bar Council, advocate Mark Dunster, said there had been talks about the course being primarily delivered in Guernsey, with lecturers either visiting the island or teaching via video conference.


The public tram system in the Irish capital is facing a 10th day of shutdown as part of the long-running dispute over drivers' pay.

Strike action will force up to 90,000 potential passengers on Dublin's Luas to make alternative travel plans.
Four more strikes are planned for later this month and there is no sign of an end to the dispute.
Luas operator Transdev said it has been fined almost 1m euros (Â£790,250) for not providing services on strike days.
But the company added that when the non-payment of wages and the 6.5% bonus are offset, it has lost about 400,000 euros (Â£316,000).
Transdev's chief executive Gerry Madden said the company and the drivers were still too far apart to begin talks, with the drivers seeking an increase of about 23% and the company offering about 13%.
One source on the drivers' side of the row has said there is a possibility of up to four 48-hour stoppages in June.
But they have stopped short of delivering on their threat to ballot for an all-out indefinite strike.


Olympic gold medallist George Nash has announced his retirement from rowing to take up a role as an engineer.

Nash, 27, was a member of Britain's men's coxless four that won gold in Rio, securing Britain's fifth consecutive Olympic title in the event.
The three-time world champion claimed Olympic bronze four years ago alongside Will Satch in the men's pair.
"I'd like to thank everyone that supported me," said Nash. "I'm going to take a different tack professionally."
He said he would miss working with the "most dedicated, driven and dogged athletes, coaches and support staff in the world".
He added: "I'll miss exploring the limits of fatigue and laughing about it with the lads. I'll miss lining up next to the best rowers in the world and sharing that infectious, nervous energy on the start line.
"And of course I'll miss all those times I got to cross the finish line first."
Find out how to get into rowing with our special guide.


A Dutch navy helicopter crew have been shown on Libyan state TV after being captured while attempting to evacuate two foreign citizens.

The TV showed the three-strong crew, their Lynx helicopter and weapons, saying they had entered Libyan air space "in breach of international law".
Dutch officials say the helicopter was captured on Sunday near Sirte while trying to fly out two Europeans.
Talks are under way to free the crew, who are two men and one woman.
They had landed near Sirte, a port city in central Libya under the control of government forces, to carry out a "consular evacuation", the Dutch defence ministry said.
An armed Libyan unit captured them along with the two evacuees - a Dutch national and another, unidentified European - who were later released by the Libyan authorities and left the country.
The Dutch defence ministry has been in contact with the crew who were "doing well under the circumstances", a Dutch spokesman said on Thursday.
They had flown into Libya from the Dutch warship Tromp, which is anchored off the coast.
Footage shown by Libyan TV, which cannot be verified, shows the three crew members sitting in an office with Libyans and sipping canned drinks.
A helicopter with Dutch naval markings can be seen parked on sand as gunmen cheer and wave their weapons around it.
When a heavy machine gun and belt of bullets are displayed, an on-screen caption in Arabic says: "According to the [Saudi-backed] broadcaster al-Arabiya, this helicopter was sent to rescue people, but we can see something else here.
"The helicopter flew into Libyan airspace and landed in Sirte without any permission from the authorities and this is in violation of international law."
Assault rifles, dollar notes, notebooks, pistols, mobile phones, bullets and ammunition, military-fatigue body armour, inflatable life jackets and a Sony digital camera are also shown off in the video.
Radio Netherlands Worldwide reports that the Dutch national whose evacuation the crew had been trying to complete was handed over to the Dutch embassy and is now back in the Netherlands.
He had been working for the Dutch engineering company Royal Haskoning.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said news of the crew's capture had been kept quiet initially to assist the talks on their release.
"It is terrible for the crew of the Lynx helicopter," he said.
"Everything is being done to make sure the crew get home."
The Tromp, which was initially to have taken part in an anti-piracy operation off Somalia, headed for the Libyan coast on 24 February.
Initial reports talked of "marines" being captured but an official statement posted later on the defence ministry's website describes the captives as a naval helicopter crew.
The port city of Sirte is considered the main remaining stronghold of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in the centre of the country, as he struggles with a spreading revolt against his rule.


The Gambia's leader Yahya Jammeh is to step down and leave the country, officials involved in negotiations say.

West African mediators spent several hours with Mr Jammeh on Friday, negotiating his future.
The motorcade carrying the presidents of Guinea and Mauritania has left the official residence, but they are not thought to have left the country.
Mr Jammeh was defeated in December's election and his successor Adama Barrow has been inaugurated.
A tweet from an account believed to belong to the new president, saying that Mr Jammeh had agreed to step down and go into exile, has since been deleted.
But Mai Fatty, a senior aide to the new president, told the BBC's Umaru Fofana that Mr Jammeh had agreed to step down.
News agency AFP reported that Mr Jammeh had agreed in principle to go but that the terms of his departure were still being finalised.
Mr Barrow told Gambians who had fled the country that they now had "the liberty to return home".
"The rule of fear has been vanished from The Gambia for good," he said in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.
Mr Barrow has been in neighbouring Senegal for days. He was sworn in at the Gambian embassy there on Thursday.
West African nations, including Senegal, have deployed troops in The Gambia - threatening to drive Mr Jammeh out of office by force.
Mr Barrow's legitimacy as president has been recognised internationally, after he won last month's elections.
Mr Jammeh was given an ultimatum to leave office or be forced out by UN-backed troops, which expired at 16:00 GMT on Friday.
The deadline was set by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), a regional grouping backed by the United Nations.
The man who once said he would rule The Gambia for a billion years is finally leaving.
He is thought to have been offered an amnesty deal, so that he will not face charges of human rights abuses.
He had wanted to stay in The Gambia but this was not negotiable.
There have been suggestions he may now go to Guinea, although he has been offered asylum in Nigeria and it is thought Morocco has done the same.
Mr Jammeh's term expired at midnight on Wednesday - but, while still president, he engineered a parliamentary vote to extend his presidency. As Mr Barrow has already been sworn in, the country could be said to have two presidents at the same time.
Ecowas said that its forces, from Senegal and other West African countries, had encountered no resistance after entering The Gambia.
After first accepting defeat in the election he reversed his position and said he would not step down. He declared a 90-day state of emergency, blaming irregularities in the electoral process.
The electoral commission accepted that some of its early results had contained errors but said they would not have affected Mr Barrow's win.
Mr Jammeh had said he would stay in office until new elections were held.


The violence and murder of a protester in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend has been attributed to far-right elements that descended on the city to demonstrate against the proposed removal of a statue of Confederate war hero Robert E Lee.

President Donald Trump drew widespread criticism on Saturday when he said that there was violence on "many sides" in Charlottesville and initially neglected to explicitly censure the white supremacists who organised the rally.
On Monday, he bowed to pressure to castigate the KKK, white supremacists and neo-nazis.
But many conservatives say blame should be shared by Antifa, a loosely affiliated group of far-left protesters.
Critics argue the media tends to excuse violence by Antifa militants just because they are fighting white supremacists and their odious ideology.
What exactly is Antifa?
The social causes of Antifa  (short for anti-fascist or Anti-Fascist action) are easily identifiable as left-leaning.
Most members oppose all forms of racism and sexism, and strongly oppose what they see as the nationalist, anti-immigration and anti-Muslim policies that Mr Trump has enacted.
However, as their name indicates, Antifa focuses more on fighting far-right ideology than encouraging pro-left policy.
Unlike the mainstream left, they do not seek to gain power through traditional channels - winning elections and passing bills into law.
Antifa is anti-government and anti-capitalist, and their methodologies are often perceived as more closely aligned with anarchists than the mainstream left.
Antifa does not shy away from militant protest methods, including the destruction of property and sometimes physical violence.
They were present at the 2017 Berkeley protests of far-right speaker Milo Yiannopoulos and at violent protests against Donald Trump's inauguration; they were also present at Charlottesville.
Much like the far-right, Antifa members around the world comprise a patchwork of groups, though the most active appear to be based in the US, the UK (under the name Anti-Fascist Action) and Germany (Antifaschistische Aktion).
The German movement was founded in 1932 to provide a militant far-left group to counter the fast-rising Nazi party.
They were disbanded in 1933 after Hitler took control of parliament and resurrected in the 1980s as a response to neo-Nazism after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
President Trump's election seems to have been something of a touchstone for the Antifa movement, which has links with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and various anarchist groups.
According to James Anderson, one of a group of people who run the popular anti-fascist and anarchist news site, It's Going Down, interest has spiked since Mr Trump's election.
The It's Going Down website, which received around 300 hits daily in 2015, now garners between 10-20,000 hits a day.
Since the events in Charlottesville on Saturday, the It's Going Down Twitter handle has gained 2,000 new followers.
While interest may have spiked since Mr Trump's election, it is all but impossible to quantify how many people are active members of Antifa.
Much like the far-right, chapters of Antifa are loosely connected and highly secretive, and organise mostly on message boards such as Reddit and over social networks like Twitter and Facebook.
Antifa has become a popular topic for right-leaning websites and among conservative pundits.
Fox News commentator and conservative speaker Erick Erickson says in The Resurgent, a conservative blog, that "Antifa and the white supremacists are two sides of a common coin. The people dead in Charlottesville died because of one neo-Nazi, but there were dozen [sic] of people left bleeding in the streets because of Antifa".
Meanwhile, a change.org petition lobbying Mr Trump to declare Antifa a domestic terror organisation has garnered nearly 100,000 supporters.
While Antifa has gained relatively little attention in the mainstream media, that may soon change.
According to Mr Anderson, the events in Charlottesville over the weekend represent a "sea change" in how Antifa is perceived.
"This is a huge turning point and vindication for our movement," he said.
"We are working with Black Lives Matter, local clergy, this is not a movement that wants to be a lone group of militants," he said.
"This is about popular power. Sometimes that looks controversial - but this is a broad movement, and we are looking to engage a wide variety of people."


There is a script which seemingly all eurozone leaders are urged to learn, which is that if the currency union is in the grips of crisis, no solution can or should be found till markets and economy are on the verge of a heart attack.

So it is playing out again, as Greece has struggled to secure adequate loans from its eurozone and International Monetary Fund (IMF) creditors to avoid the disaster of failing to keep up its payments to the IMF.
For months the government, led by Alexis Tsipras, failed to convince these creditors he was taking appropriate and adequate steps to balance Greece's books.
With almost no time left before a de facto default - and, more frighteningly perhaps, with a Greek banking system on the brink of total collapse because savers had lost all confidence that a rescue for their state could be found - Mr Tsipras has come up with a plan that his fellow eurozone leaders see, at last, as the basis for a deal.
So subject to technical talks - on raised taxes for businesses and the wealthy; higher pension contributions; and selective increases in VAT - an actual deal to release life-saving additional loans for Greece may be reached at the end of the week.
But, as per the normal cliched eurozone script, the drama will go on for months.
First, existentially important talks on providing relief to Greece on its excessive debts is to be deferred for negotiation in coming months.
Second, the flight of savings and deposits from Greek banks has been so great that they have almost exhausted the assets or collateral in their possession that is available to swap for life-saving loans from the Bank of Greece and European Central Bank.
So unless Greeks can be persuaded to start retrieving their cash from under their mattresses to deposit in banks, Greek banks will remain perilously close to collapse - and will struggle to provide the finance that the sick Greek economy so desperately needs.


The Army has been called in to support efforts to protect parts of Cumbria amid fears of further flooding.

Troops have been helping put out sandbags in preparation and flood defence gates have been closed in Cockermouth, Carlisle and Keswick.
Heavy rainfall in the area is feeding already-swollen rivers and saturated ground.
Cumbria has suffered severe flooding three times this month.
There are more than 60 flood warnings in place in England and Wales - meaning flooding is expected and immediate action is required - mostly in northern England.
More than 100 flood alerts - flooding is possible, be prepared - have also been issued.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has issued five flood alerts, including Tayside, where there are also eight higher-level flood warnings.
Rain was expected to spread across northern England and push northwards into Scotland through the course of Christmas Day.
On Boxing Day, rain will continue over much of Scotland, northern England and north Wales.
Forecasters warn the heaviest and most persistent rain is likely to be over north-west Wales and north-west England - 60 to 80mm (2in-3in) is expected, possibly 120mm (5in) over hills.
The Met Office has issued an amber warning for rain - meaning "be prepared" - for Cumbria on Saturday, and also for parts of Lancashire.
An Environment Agency spokesman said: "Cumbria is the area most at risk from further river and surface water flooding later today and tonight, with parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire also at risk.
"There is also the potential for some flooding along parts of the River Severn in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and Worcestershire over the weekend and into Monday."
Cumbria Police is urging motorists to drive only if "absolutely necessary" tonight because of heavy rain.
People can access information from council websites and the Environment Agency Floodline.
The agency is also operating a phone line - 0345 988 1188 - which will be staffed rather than offering recorded information.
The Ministry of Defence said one company from 2nd Battalion Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (2LANCS), based at Weeton Barracks near Preston, had been deployed to help build flood defences in Warwick Bridge, Braithwaite and Appleby, early on Friday morning.
As well as the Army, the Environment Agency has 700 staff on stand-by to help people.
It has transported over two kilometres of temporary flood barriers and more than 20 extra pumps to the north of England and teams of workers have been out checking and maintaining flood defences, clearing blockages in watercourses and monitoring water levels.
Eight centres opened across Cumbria to put on Christmas lunch for those who have been flooded out of their homes or do not have the facilities to cook.
Residents also described receiving donations to help them enjoy the holiday.
Morag Little, whose house in Carlisle has been flooded twice, said despite the problems she and her family had faced, they would still be enjoying Christmas dinner together.
"We got donated a full Christmas dinner... we've got the turkey, the Brussels sprouts, we've got the lot."
Cumbria has already recorded the wettest December since records began in 1910.
Thousands of properties were affected when Storm Desmond brought a record amount of rainfall to Cumbria during the weekend of 5-6 December.
Four days later, further rain led to more flooding, and some parts of the county were inundated for a third time in a month on Tuesday after another deluge.
About 40 bridges and roads remain damaged or closed in the area.
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said: "Even at Christmas our Armed Forces are keeping us safe. Once again they are responding to the Cumbria floods with a level of commitment that is to be applauded."
Lt Peter Coates, who was among a group of soldiers working in Braithwaite near Keswick, said: "People have been really happy to see us. They've given us little snacks. They're just glad we're getting on with the task.
"If it does flood people need to be prepared. Peoples' lives potentially, as well as their property, can be at risk so whatever we can do to help we will do to help."
Environment Secretary Liz Truss, who chaired a conference call of the government's emergency committee Cobra on Friday, said:  "Our priority continues to be protecting lives, protecting homes and protecting businesses.
"I would like to pay tribute to the tireless work of front-line staff over the last month and the resilience of those communities affected, which I have seen first-hand.
"This has been a very difficult time for all involved, especially people flooded out of their homes at Christmas for which I have enormous sympathy."
Cumbria Police tweeted: "Keep up to date with weather/flood warnings & follow: @MetOfficeUK & @EnvAgencyNW & visit link for update on roads: http://buzz.mw/ba9aa_n"
Cluanie Inn in Inverness was where the most rain fell overnight from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day, with 19.8mm (0.78in) recorded in the 12-hour period to 05:00 GMT, the Met Office said.
This follows strong winds brought by Storm Eva to north-western parts of the UK in the early hours of Christmas Eve morning.
However, its impact was more keenly felt in Ireland where more than 2,000 homes and businesses were left without electricity on Christmas Eve.
Live flood warnings from the Environment Agency and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
View the flood map by tapping on the image below
Tap here for up-to-date flood information.


More research is needed in to a disease that killed 30 dogs in 18 months, veterinary experts have said.

According to research in the British Medical Journal, the cause was suspected to be Alabama rot, which causes skin lesions and kidney failure.
But it is still not known where it came from and how it started.
Possible cases of Alabama rot were identified in 71 dogs across England between November 2012 and March 2014.
Dogs from Northamptonshire, Yorkshire, Dorset, Shropshire, Surrey, Cornwall, Worcestershire, County Durham and Monmouthshire displayed symptoms.
The disease is known to affect dogs in the USA and has only occasionally been seen outside the country.
This is the first report of a series of cases in England.
Researchers identified 30 possible cases of Alabama rot, including in five English springer spaniels, four flat-coated retrievers and two border collies.
They were from multiple locations but 10 had been in the New Forest in Hampshire shortly before becoming unwell.
Most developed skin lesions and others developed tiredness, loss of appetite, vomiting and fever.
Researchers said acute kidney injury in these dogs was caused by damage to the small blood vessels in the organs.
They concluded it was unclear whether this was an emerging disease or one that was previously present but unrecognised.
The report states: "Continued detailed evaluation will enhance the understanding of the disease and will hopefully help to identify possible triggers."


New figures show that the usage of animals in UK labs is continuing at an almost identical rate to recent years.

4.14 million procedures were conducted in 2015, the Home Office announced on Wednesday, compared to 4.12 million in 2013 - the most relevant comparison.
Because of changes to the counting system, the total of 3.87 million recorded for 2014 was "artificially low" according to a spokesman.
Around half the "procedures" were GM animals, mostly mice, being born.
Thus, the total number of actual experimental procedures was 2.08 million.
For only the second time, the annual Home Office report categorised those experiments into five groups: "sub-threshold" (13%), "non-recovery" (6%), "mild" (51%), "moderate" (24%) and "severe" (6%).
This system is based on a 2010 European Directive, which was enshrined in UK law in 2013.
Experts said the implications of Brexit for these regulations were unclear.
"A lot of British scientists put a massive amount of effort into the directive," said Prof Roger Lemon, a neuroscientist at University College London.
"I'm still hopeful that even after Brexit there will be a lot of interaction between ourselves and our European counterparts, as we've seen in the short time since the vote.
"But obviously it does change things, in terms of the legislative dream that we had, that we would have a level playing field of procedures right across Europe. That has been dealt a very severe blow."
The chief inspector of the Home Office's Animals in Science Regulations Unit, Sue Houlton, said things were unlikely to change significantly within the UK.
"I think the UK public are going to be behind keeping something pretty similar to what we've got," she told the BBC.
"It remains uncertain how all of the legislation that we have in this country that stems from various European directives will actually be managed, in detail, as we go forward.
"[But] in the UK we hold animal welfare very dear, and I rather think that the fundamentals will not shift."
In the total procedure count for 2015, some 61% involved mice, followed by 14% fish and 12% rats.
Well under 1% - amounting to 3,600 procedures - involved primates. This was an increase of 380 procedures from 2013.
This was decried as a "shocking" increase by the campaign group Cruelty Free International.
"The UK should be leading the way in reducing animal testing, yet we remain one of the world's largest users of animals in experiments," said chief executive Michelle Thew.
"We strongly urge the Government not to forget animals in laboratories, and to use Brexit as an opportunity to make a real impact in reducing the numbers of animals used in tests."
In fact, Brexit may influence these numbers entirely separately from any regulatory changes.
Dr Sarah Bailey is a pharmacologist at the University of Bath. Asked about the long-term trend in animal experiments, and whether the plateau seen in recent years would continue, she said:
"I should think it will either stay the same or go down, depending on the economic situation and the funding available for basic science.
"One of the big factors is the European Medicines Agency - whether they choose to stay in London or whether they relocate. The knock-on consequences for drug companies and drug development in the UK, as a consequence of that, could be potentially serious."
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Marcel Hug of Switzerland won the men's wheelchair race at the London Marathon as Britain's Paralympic champion David Weir finished third.

Hug, who triumphed in Boston last week, claimed his second London title in one hour 35 minutes 19 seconds.
The 30-year-old beat Australian Kurt Fearnley and six-time London winner Weir in a sprint finish on The Mall.
Tatyana McFadden, 27, of the USA won the women's race for a fourth consecutive year in 1:44:14.
Paralympic gold medallist McFadden, also the Boston champion, was pushed all the way by runner-up Manuela Schar of Switzerland, who finished one second behind. Wakako Tsuchida of Japan was third.
"Each year it's going to get tougher and tougher with athletes getting faster," McFadden told BBC Radio 5 live.
"I was a little nervous towards the end but I found the will and the drive within."
Britain's Shelly Woods retired for a second consecutive year with a puncture.
The event doubles as the IPC Athletics Marathon World Cup, and is the second race in the Abbott World Marathon Majors series.
Weir first won the London Marathon in 2002, adding five more titles over a 10-year period to share the record with Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson with six victories.
Six-time Paralympic champion Weir - nicknamed the 'Weirwolf' - finished second on home soil in 2014 and 2015 and was beaten into third on Sunday in a thrilling finish.
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Hug, who suffered a puncture in last year's race, led a five-man pack into the final turn and maintained his position, with Fearnley one second behind and Weir a further second back.
"It's the media that hype it up so much. I don't think too much about it," Weir, 36, told BBC Radio 5 live.
"This is my 16th year in a row, I think. To get six victories and be in the top three a number of years is not bad going. I've got to applaud myself for that and not get beaten up about the seven.
"If it comes, it comes and if it doesn't, it doesn't. I'm happy with what I've done in my career, but I'm not saying I'm going to retire.
"I still feel I have more to give and I'll be back next year."
The IPC Athletics Marathon World Cup brings together international calibre wheelchair racers as well as athletes with disabilities including visual impairment and limb impairments.
China's Jin Zheng set a world record in the T11/12 category - for athletes with visual impairment - while Brazil's Aniceto dos Santos warmed up for his home Paralympics with victory in the T13 category, which serves athletes with basic visual impairment.


Testosterone may be one of the reasons why men are more prone to heart attacks than women, according to new research.

Edinburgh University scientists examined the effects of testosterone on blood vessel tissue and found it triggered the production of hard deposits or calcification.
The deposits "powerfully" predict the chance of death or major problems due to heart disease, they said.
During the study mice had testosterone receptors removed.
The mice then produced fewer hard deposits as they could no longer respond to the hormone.
Calcification causes blood vessels to harden and thicken, making the heart work harder to pump blood around the body.
It can also affect the valves of the heart, preventing them opening and shutting properly.
The authors said their findings suggested testosterone played a role in calcification and the discovery may lead to new treatments to prevent heart disease.
Researchers also examined blood vessel and valve tissue from people with heart disease.
They found tissue cells containing the hard bone-like deposits also carried the testosterone receptor.
This further suggested that testosterone may trigger calcification, they said.
At least 119,000 men are admitted to hospital every year suffering a heart attack, compared to 69,000 women.
Dr Vicky MacRae, from the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute, said: "Calcification is particularly difficult to treat, as the biological processes behind the disease are similar to those used by our body to make and repair bone.
"By finding this link between testosterone and calcification we may have discovered a new way of treating this disease and also reducing heart disease.
"This is a new pathway that hasn't really been examined before in the formation of calcification in the cardiac tissue.
"We hope that by understanding in more detail the pathways that are contributing to this, we may be able to work out therapies in future that may be able to target it and prevent calcification from happening, because at the moment there is no real therapy available to stop these calcium deposits from forming in blood vessels and heart valves."
Prof  Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: "The role of male sex hormones in the control of vascular calcification is poorly understood.
"This study, in cells taken from mice and human tissue, provides new evidence that testosterone can increase calcification.
"But significantly more research is needed to understand whether the results have implications for patients with heart disease or those taking androgen (testosterone) replacement therapy."
Funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.


A mystery explosion in a town close to the Libyan capital Tripoli has killed at least 25 people, apparently after a dispute at a shop escalated.

The blast took place in Garabulli after clashes between locals and militia fighters from the city of Misrata.
Officials initially said a munitions store had exploded but one resident told the BBC a lorry loaded with fireworks had exploded.
In fighting further east, in Sirte, at least 30 pro-government fighters died.
They were killed in fighting with militants from the so-called Islamic State group.
Garabulli is about 50km (30 miles) east of Tripoli and 140km west of Misrata.
A BBC producer close to the scene in Garabulli said the coastal road was completely blocked and he could hear sounds of gunfire from a distance.
A mix of armed civilians and local militias from the coastal town were manning checkpoints on the edge of the town along the coastal road.
Cars trying to pass through were being searched but it was not clear for what.
The situation is very tense, says Rana Jawad, the BBC's North Africa correspondent.
The Garabulli resident who spoke to the BBC said the entire affair had started after a fighter from a Misrata militia purchased items at a grocery store and allegedly refused to pay for them.
The owner of the shop allegedly shot and killed him and then there was a retaliatory attack against the store by the militia.
The shop was burnt down and so was the owner's family home nearby.
Armed residents protested over the attack and the presence of the militia in the town.
It was then that a store nearby that had some depot, or lorry laden with fireworks for sale, exploded.
The resident's account could not be independently verified or backed by a second source in Garabulli.
"The number of casualties is rising and we are working hard to transfer them to nearest hospitals," Mohamed Assayed, a local official, was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.


Britain's Mark Cavendish finished second as Peter Sagan won a sprint finish to retain his title at the Road World Championships in Doha.

Media playback is not supported on this device
Slovakia's Sagan, 26, beat 2011 champion Cavendish after a 257.5km (160 miles) race as Belgian Tom Boonen, who won the 2005 title, came third.
Cavendish had followed Sagan but his sprint was checked when he was caught behind Australia's Michael Matthews.
"I am just disappointed I messed up tactically," Cavendish told BBC Sport.
"I came with so much speed and power. I wanted to be on Peter's wheel. I knew the Norwegians would hit out early into the headwind and I knew Sagan would just get the right wheel and I could float off him.
"I told Adam (Blythe) to come with a few hundred metres to go and when he came alongside, it spread everyone and everyone jumped and I had nowhere to go.
"The hard thing was losing Luke Rowe to a puncture which would have given us three in the front and he would have been valuable at the end. I am just going to have to settle for another second this year."
Cavendish's podium finish rounds off a year that has seen the 31-year-old win four stages of the Tour de France, the madison track world title with Sir Bradley Wiggins and his first ever Olympic medal, with silver in the omnium.
Crosswinds in the desert split the peloton with 172km to go but Cavendish and fellow Briton Adam Blythe, who eventually finished 12th, managed to stay in the main group.
Fancied names caught out included German sprinters Marcel Kittel and Andre Greipel and France's Nacer Bouhanni, who could not close the gap and they knew their races were over a long way from the finish line.
Five Belgian riders, including Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet made it into the front group and they were able to dictate the tactics as they tried to set up Boonen for the win.
However, Sagan, who in July won the points jersey at the Tour de France for the fifth successive year, timed his sprint for the line to perfection.
"I don't believe it, I'm still in shock, " said Sagan. "I'm very happy because in the crosswinds I was the last to make it into the lead group.
"It felt a bit like a headwind at the finish so I had to go from a long way back in the sprint."
1. Peter Sagan (Svk)   5hrs 40mins 43secs
2.  Mark Cavendish (GB)   Same time
3.  Tom Boonen (Bel)
4.  Michael Matthews (Aus)
5.  Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita)
6.  Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor)
7.  Alexander Kristoff (Nor)
8.  William Bonnet (Fra)
9.  Niki Terpstra (Ned)
10. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel)


Water has been restored to about 120 homes that were affected by a burst water main in Southampton.

Southern Water said Brownhill Way, where the fault happened, had now reopened after it flooded between the M271 and the A3057.
The company said homes were left without water or with low pressure because of the burst main.
It said one hotel was still being affected and was being supplied with water by a tanker.
A spokesman said there had been reports of water discolouration by customers, but this was not uncommon.
"This is caused by harmless iron oxide deposits which collect on the inside of water mains and are stirred up during a disruption.
"If affected, customers are advised to run their taps for a couple of minutes and the water, which is safe to drink, should run clear," he said.


Hassan al-Turabi, the Sudanese opposition leader who helped bring President Omar al-Bashir to power, has died at 84 in the capital Khartoum.

A hospital source told AFP news agency he had suffered a heart attack.
Mr Turabi was a key ally of Mr Bashir when he took power in a coup in 1989 but they fell out a decade later.
He was one of the most divisive figures in the country's turbulent history, says the BBC's former Sudan correspondent, James Copnall.
For the first decade of Mr Bashir's rule, Mr Turabi was the de facto leader of the country, and his influence spread beyond Sudan's borders.
His death was announced by state TV, which described him as a "well-known Islamic thinker", and was confirmed by his party.
During his years of ascendancy, he promoted a radical version of Islamism, with sharia, or Islamic, law applied strictly,
Osama bin Laden accepted an invitation to live in Sudan, and the civil war against the largely non-Muslim southern Sudanese was intensified.
The Sudanese security services were accused of numerous human rights abuses against dissidents. Large numbers of Sudanese fled the country.
One, a Karate black belt, attacked Mr Turabi in the Canadian capital Ottawa in 1992, leaving him in a coma, but Mr Turabi survived.
In 1999, he lost a power struggle with Mr Bashir and subsequently founded an opposition party but spent much of the next decade in prison.
In March 2014, the two men had their first public meeting in years, with Mr Turabi visiting President Bashir at his guest house.
Born in Kassala in eastern Sudan, the son of a local imam, Mr Turabi moved to Khartoum to study law before completing his studies in London and Paris.
He joined Sudan's Muslim Brotherhood and rose to national prominence in the 1964 revolution which overthrew General Ibrahim Abboud.
A widely read man with a high-pitched giggle, Mr Turabi was famous for his comprehensive - some would say rambling - interviews, our correspondent says.
Mr Turabi advocated the rights of women and democracy within Islam, and saw himself as a moderate reformer - but he presided over perhaps the most brutal period in Sudan's history, James Copnall adds.


England captain Alastair Cook played an influential role in the decision to end Kevin Pietersen's international career.

Cook was part of a three-man panel who met the batsman on Monday and told him of their decision.
Although some members of the England dressing room have no issues with Pietersen, the BBC has learned that Cook felt the 33-year-old's departure was in the best interests of the team.
Pietersen scored 8,181 runs at an average of 47 in 104 Tests for England.
"Pietersen has always had the contradictory air of permanent impermanence in the England set-up. He looked different to those around him, played shots no-one else ever had. With his deeds on the pitch and demands off it, he was a man apart."
Read Tom Fordyce on Kevin Pietersen
Cook, who succeeded Andrew Strauss as captain in August 2012, brought Pietersen back into the England fold after he had been dropped for sending provocative text messages to South Africa players.
But following England's disastrous 5-0 Ashes whitewash in Australia, during which Pietersen was criticised for repeatedly falling to reckless shots, the captain wants to mould a new team with a new culture for the next five years.
Pietersen was summoned to a meeting on Monday with Cook, new England and Wales Cricket Board managing director Paul Downton and chairman of selectors James Whitaker at the Danubius Hotel near Lord's.
That was followed on Tuesday by a separate meeting involving Pietersen's agent Adam Wheatley, Professional Cricketers' Association chief executive Angus Porter and Downton to discuss the severance terms of his 12-month central contract that was signed in October.
On Tuesday evening, the ECB sent out an official press release in which Downton, who had the final say on Pietersen's departure, stated: "The time is right to rebuild not only the team but also the team ethic."
Pietersen, meanwhile, feels he was not given a clear explanation for his sacking despite asking Downton and Whittaker for justification during the brief meeting.
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BBC Sport has been told that he is angered by stories of stand-up arguments with Cook and rumours of his alienation from the team.
He admits to occasionally turning up late for meetings and feeling frustrated by England's overly analytical approach, but points to his support for younger players and work with tail-end batsmen as examples of his commitment to the cause.
Although there is no written condition that Pietersen will never be allowed to play for England again, it is believed to be highly unlikely that he could ever be recalled.
Indeed, whoever is chosen to replace Andy Flower as England team director is likely to be informed that the South Africa-born batsman is not available for selection.
The decision to jettison England's highest international run-scorer has been questioned by former captain Michael Vaughan.
Vaughan, who captained Pietersen in the 2005 Ashes success, wants the ECB to explain their decision.
"I really do think the ECB and the people involved have to give us the reason exactly why they got rid of Kevin Pietersen," he told BBC Radio 5 live.
"You hear of rumours that he's been a nuisance around the dressing room but it was only last week that Graeme Swann, who's been in that dressing room for the last few years with Kevin Pietersen, said 'yep, in 2012 and the South Africa series, the textgate story, he was a problem, but once they reintegrated him he's been fine, he's had a great attitude'.
"Then England get rid of him on apparently cricketing reasons and that's the guy that scored more runs than anybody else in the Ashes series. It's a sad day for cricket."
Vaughan believes that Flower's replacement should have been the one to make the decision about Pietersen and that the batsman has been punished for speaking his mind in team meetings.
"A new director of cricket will be appointed in April and won't have the opportunity to pick a star player," he added. "They should be making those decisions on their own.
"Kevin will speak his mind. If there's an issue within the side he will go straight to the coach and say these are the things we need to sort out and maybe Andy Flower didn't like what KP was saying and that's why they've got rid of him."
However, another former England great Geoffrey Boycott does not agree and believes Pietersen's batting at times set a bad example to his younger team-mates.
"We all remember his wonderful innings, but what about the daft things and the stupid shots?" he said.
"That has an effect on the dressing room and young players. How do you tell young players to play responsibly? It stops you from building discipline.
"You can be an individual within the team but you cannot just be an individual. He has said this is how I play, take it or leave it. Well they've taken it for long enough and now they've said thank you very much, we will leave it."


Freetown is a city squeezing itself into the small space between the mountains and the sea, in a country with the highest annual rainfall in Africa.

In August - the height of the rainy season - an average of 539.9mm falls on Sierra Leone's capital.
So it comes as no surprise that Freetown is a city used to flooding.
But Monday's rain brought with it a disaster which left hundreds dead, and will no doubt be followed by finger-pointing and blame shifting.
Was it simply the effects of climate change and geography, or something more avoidable?
"Yes, the floods and mudslide were caused by nature. But they could have been avoided or at least mitigated," the BBC's Umaru Fofana wrote on his Facebook page.
"If we hurt the environment, the environment will fight back. If we fail to plan, we plan to fail. It's that simple."
Freetown was first established in the late 1700s, a home for freed slaves from the US and UK.
Its position was chosen not for what was on land, however, but what the sea could offer: the world's third largest natural harbour.
As a result, Freetown ended up in an area of heavily-forested mountains, which has not been accommodating for a growing population - currently around the million mark.
"It is the highest density of people I have ever seen," said Olivia Acland, a freelance journalist based in Freetown. "The amount of people when you walk through the streets, and the traffic. There are just people everywhere."
Many of those people live in the city's informal settlements, of which there are more than 60, according to Slum Dwellers International.
Here, tiny tin homes packed with large families can be seen squeezed on the banks of rivers, the sides of mountains, on the edge of the sea.
But, says Jamie Hitchen, of the Africa Research Institute, it is not just the city's poorest residents who are building their homes in areas which are contributing to the flooding risk.
Some of the city's wealthier residents are also responsible for the deforestation destabilising the soil, tempted higher into the hills by the cooler air and impressive views of the Peninsula Forest area, near to where the mudslide occurred.
"It is happening at both levels," Mr Hitchen said. "Unfortunately, the impact [of disasters] is on the poorer residents."
The government is aware of the problem - and how it might increase as the effects of climate change begin to take hold.
Two years ago, Mohamed Bah, deputy director of Sierra Leone's Environment Protection Agency (EPA), warned "irresponsible actions taken on the hills will affect the city greatly".
"Until we stop dumping waste into drainages, until we stop clearing the trees, we will always face severe consequences of climate change," he told Sierra Leone's Standard Times Newspaper.
And yet, Mr Hitchen feels there is a lack of political will to deal with the issue head on.
"The ideas have been put forward, the failure has been in terms of political action," he said.
Mr Hitchen added: "There is technically a moratorium on building in the area of the Peninsula Forest. That is there in writing, but not in any kind of enforcement."
Abdulai Baraytay, a spokesperson for Sierra Leone's president, told the BBC's Newsday programme the EPA had spoken to residents about the danger two weeks earlier, and tried to put some trees in - but said they had been chased away.
Mr Baraytay also pointed to earlier attempts to move people out of harm's way. After the last major flooding in 2015, Sierra Leone's government did make an effort to move people living in one settlement to somewhere safer and more spacious on the outskirts of the city.
"But they rented [the homes] out and came back to the slum," he said.
Mr Hitchen had a different view on why they returned: to find work.
"They provided houses, but they did not connect them to the grid - they did not connect them to jobs," Mr Hitchen said.
There is another problem contributing to the flooding: the rubbish blocking the drains.
"There is no clearing of waste, the drains fill up. Everyone is saying it's not our responsibility," Mr Hitchen said.
"But even if they addressed the issue of waste collection, there is nowhere for it to go. Both Freetown's dump sites should have been closed in 2009."
But despite the unique challenges of Freetown. this is not just a problem in Sierra Leone.
The 2009 Unjust Water report found examples of worsening floods in Ghana, Uganda, Mozambique and Kenya.
It was generally, the report concluded, caused by "the growing occupation of floodplains, increased runoff from hard surfaces, inadequate waste management and silted up drainage" - all factors said to contribute to the problem in Freetown.
Professor Ian Douglas, co-author of the report and University of Manchester professor, told the BBC: "You have several related problems about vulnerability relating to informal settlements.
"One, people can only find vacant land to build their shelters in dangerous places, like river flood plains,
"Two, urban development up stream increases the rate at which the water rushes down in to the flood plain, exacerbating the danger by excavating in to hillsides.
"Three, encroachment on the flood plan by municipal works and major developments leads to the waters being left with narrow spaces to flow through, therefore flowing more quickly and with more energy to pick up debris."
When it comes to flooding then. climate change is simply another contributing factor.


Five of the world's largest banks are to pay fines totalling $5.7bn (£3.6bn) for charges including manipulating the foreign exchange market.

Four of the banks - JPMorgan, Barclays, Citigroup and RBS - have agreed to plead guilty to US criminal charges.
The fifth, UBS, will plead guilty to rigging benchmark interest rates.
Barclays was fined the most, $2.4bn, as it did not join other banks in November to settle investigations by UK, US and Swiss regulators.
Barclays is also sacking eight employees involved in the scheme.
US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said that "almost every day" for five years from 2007, currency traders used a private electronic chat room to manipulate exchange rates.
Their actions harmed "countless consumers, investors and institutions around the world", she said.
Separately, the Federal Reserve fined a sixth bank, Bank of America, $205m over foreign exchange-rigging. All the other banks were fined by both the Department of Justice and the Federal Reserve.
Regulators said that between 2008 and 2012, several traders formed a cartel and used chat rooms to manipulate prices in their favour.
One Barclays trader who was invited to join the cartel was told: "Mess up and sleep with one eye open at night."
Several strategies were used to manipulate prices and a common scheme was to influence prices around the daily fixing of currency levels.
A daily exchange rate fix is held to help businesses and investors value their multi-currency assets and liabilities.
Until February, this happened every day in the 30 seconds before and after 16:00 in London and the result is known as the 4pm fix, or just the fix.
In a scheme known as "building ammo", a single trader would amass a large position in a currency and, just before or during the fix, would exit that position.
Other members of the cartel would be aware of the plan and would be able to profit.
"They engaged in a brazen 'heads I win, tails you lose' scheme to rip off their clients," said New York State superintendent of financial services Benjamin Lawsky.
The fines break a number of records. The criminal fines of more than $2.5bn are the largest set of anti-trust fines obtained by the Department of Justice.
The £284m fine imposed on Barclays by Britain's Financial Conduct Authority was a record by the regulator.
Meanwhile, the $925m fine imposed on Citigroup by the Department of Justice was the biggest penalty for breaking the Sherman Act, which covers competition law.
The guilty pleas from the banks are seen as highly significant as banks have settled previous investigations without an admission of guilt.
The Attorney General warned that further wrongdoing would be taken extremely seriously: "The Department of Justice will not hesitate to file criminal charges for financial institutions that reoffend.
"Banks that cannot or will not clean up their act need to understand - it will be enforced."
If anyone in the City thought that the latest multi-billion pound fines for the banks meant that they were now out of the regulatory woods, they should think again.
The New York State Department of Financial Services is still investigating Barclays, for example, over other aspects of the foreign exchange market including electronic trading.
Barclays is also being investigated in the UK over its Qatari fund raising during the financial crisis and in America over the operation of its "dark pool" electronic trading business.
Other allegations include manipulating the energy markets in California and the US precious metal market.
For the Royal Bank of Scotland it is not a much rosier picture. The bank is facing a class action from major investors over whether it gave the correct information to the market during the financial crisis and is also facing an investigation into its mortgage business in the US.
Civil legal actions on foreign exchange manipulation are also in the offing for both banks.
It looks like the major global banks are going to face many more "we deeply regret this behaviour" days ahead.
Royal Bank of Scotland will pay fines totalling $669m (£430m) - $395m to the Department of Justice and $274m to the Federal Reserve - to resolve the investigations.
Ross McEwan, chief executive of RBS, said: "The serious misconduct that lies at the heart of today's announcements has no place in the bank that I am building.
"Pleading guilty for such wrongdoing is another stark reminder of how badly this bank lost its way and how important it is for us to regain trust."
Antony Jenkins, Barclays chief executive, said: "The misconduct at the core of these investigations is wholly incompatible with Barclays' purpose and values and we deeply regret that it occurred.
"I share the frustration of shareholders and colleagues that some individuals have once more brought our company and industry into disrepute."
Shares in Barclays gained 3.4% and RBS rose 1.8%.
The fines are "much lower than expected," said Chirantan Barua, an analyst at Bernstein Research in London. "No retroactive massive Libor fine for Barclays is a big positive, as is no reopening of the NPA (non-prosecution agreement).
"The fine came in £270m better than we expected for RBS, £850m better in the case of Barclays," he said.


A new water safety campaign aimed at keeping people and their pets safe on the Welsh coast has been launched.

It comes after more than 218 dogs were rescued in the five years from 2011 to 2015 - about 68% of all animals rescued over the period.
Among them was Staffie cross Blodwen who was swept 70m (230ft) out to sea in Burry Port, Carmarthenshire.
"Water safety never used to be a major consideration," admitted her owner Jan Godfrey-Coles.
She said she regularly walks on the beach and Blodwen loves splashing in and out of the water, but on this occasion strong currents got hold of her.
Seeing her pet unable to swim to shore, Ms Godfrey-Coles called the coastguard and minutes later Burry Port lifeboat came to Blodwen's rescue.
She said "panic set in" when she saw Blodwen her drifting out to sea.
"I thought I was going to lose her."
Praising Blodwen's rescuers, she added: "I can't thank them enough. Not only did they save Blodwen but their presence also prevented me from trying to swim out to her and potentially putting myself at risk".
Alun Wells from Burry Port RNLI, who are working with Vets4Pets on the campaign, said Ms Godfrey-Cole did what they encourage any dog walker to do if their animal gets into difficulty in or near the sea.
"It can be tempting for dog walkers to enter the water and attempt to rescue their beloved animals, but by doing so they can put themselves in serious danger," he said.


Donald Trump's past tweets about taxes are drawing fresh scrutiny after the New York Times reported he paid no taxes for nearly two decades having declared losses approaching $1bn.

The Republican presidential candidate has used his Twitter megaphone in recent years to wag a finger at everyone from Barack Obama to Amazon boss Jeff Bezos on paying their fair share.


Wolves are to appeal against the red card given to goalkeeper Carl Ikeme in Saturday's 3-1 controversial Championship defeat at Norwich.

Ikeme, 30, was sent off after pushing Wes Hoolahan in the chest, but the club have been advised it is normally considered only a yellow-card offence.
Wolves are hoping Ikeme will be cleared to play in Saturday's FA Cup fourth-round tie against Liverpool at Anfield.
"If it's feasible to win, then we'll try," boss Paul Lambert told BBC WM.
"Next week is a massive game for everyone at the club."
Norwich manager Alex Neil told BBC Sport after Saturday's game: "I don't think the goalkeeper should have responded in the manner that he did and deservedly got his red card.
"Wes has got the penalty and turned around to carry on the game. That was unprofessional from the goalkeeper and he obviously got his punishment."
Ikeme had never been sent off before, having received only three yellow cards in his previous 264 career appearances.
He posted on Twitter: "Apologise if anyone feels let down but this one is hard to take.
"Been mulling over whether to say anything or not . . . It's hard not to be frustrated when someone blatantly dives to win a penalty."


Three al-Jazeera journalists convicted in Egypt of "spreading false news" have been sentenced to three years in prison at their retrial in Cairo.

Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed were led away from court after the verdict.
Australian Peter Greste was deported back to Australia earlier this year and was on trial again in absentia.
The three are accused of aiding the banned Muslim Brotherhood group but they strenuously deny the allegations.
The three journalists were originally sentenced in July 2014, with Mr Greste and Mr Fahmy receiving seven years and Mr Mohamed getting 10 years.
But their convictions were overturned in January this year and they were freed in February to await retrial.
Giving the verdict on Saturday, judge Hassan Farid said the three men were not registered journalists and had been operating from a Cairo hotel without a licence.
He handed three-year sentences to Mr Greste and Mr Fahmy but gave Mr Mohamed an additional six months.
Reaction: Peter Greste speaks to the BBC
It is unclear how long Mr Fahmy and Mr Mohamed will now serve. They were in prison for about a year before being freed.
Lawyers for the three journalists are expected to appeal against the decision.
The BBC's Lyse Doucet, who was in the court, said the verdict came as a shock to a room packed full of Egyptian and foreign journalists.
The expectation was that the journalists would be found guilty, she adds, but that they would be given a lesser sentence and be allowed to walk free.
Mr Greste said in a tweet that he was "shocked" and "outraged" while Al-Jazeera said the verdict was "yet another deliberate attack on press freedom".
Outside the courtroom, Mr Fahmy's lawyer, Amal Clooney, called on Egypt's President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi to issue a pardon to the journalists.
"The verdict today sends a very dangerous message in Egypt," she told reporters. "It sends a message that journalists can be locked up for simply doing their job, for telling the truth and reporting the news."
She said she would push for her client, who has given up his Egyptian citizenship, to be deported to Canada.


A five-year-old Oklahoma girl has made history by becoming the youngest person ever to qualify for the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Edith Fuller correctly spelled "jnana" to beat more than 50 contestants in the Scripps Green Country Regional Spelling Bee in Tulsa.
She also cracked the words Panglossian, Baedeker, nisei and Croesus.
The young spelling master will head to Washington in May to compete with other children across the country.
Here are the words Edith aced on her way to glory:
Jnana is a Sanskrit word for "knowledge" in Indian philosophy and religion.
Panglossian describes someone who is excessively optimistic, regardless of circumstances.
Baedeker is a guidebook, originating from the series of travel guidebooks by German publisher Karl Baedeker.
Nisei is an American or Canadian whose parents were immigrants from Japan.
Croesus is a very wealthy person. Croesus was the last king of Lydia (c560 - 546 BC) famed for his wealth.
Sarsaparilla is a tropical American climbing plant, or a sweet drink flavoured with the root of this plant.
The National Spelling Bee is open to contestants who have not finished the eighth grade. There is no minimum age to compete.
"I feel thankful," she said after winning the regional competition on Saturday.
Edith, who is home-schooled, faced off against competitors from primary and middle schools throughout northeast Oklahoma.
"It's fun to share her with everyone," said Annie Fuller, her mother.
"I knew she'd be a novelty, so I'm proud she held her own."
Girl statue and Wall Street bull face off
Annie Fuller told the Tulsa World the family realised their daughter's potential last summer while quizzing her spelling skills.
Edith correctly spelled "restaurant" without having been taught the word.
"We knew there was something special there," Annie Fuller said.
Akash Vukoti, six, was last year's youngest contestant at the National Spelling Bee.
He was eliminated after misspelling the word "bacteriolytic" in the early rounds of the contest.


Wales have named Harlequins centre Jamie Roberts to lead a 32-man squad containing 13 uncapped players on their summer tour.

Roberts, 30, has been capped 91 times but dropped out of first-choice favour with Wales in 2016-17.
They face Tonga in Auckland on 16 June and Samoa in Apia a week later.
Wales will be missing 12 leading players - including captain Alun Wyn Jones - who will tour with the British and Irish Lions in New Zealand.
With Warren Gatland as Lions boss and Rob Howley an assistant, regular forwards coach Robin McBryde will be in charge of Wales for the two Tests.
The uncapped forwards who could face Tonga and Samoa are Seb Davies, Adam Beard, Ryan Elias, Ollie Griffiths, Wyn Jones, Rory Thornton and Thomas Young.
The uncapped backs are Aled Davies, Keelan Giles, Owen Williams, Rhun Williams and Tomos Williams.
There are no places for scrum-half Lloyd Williams, fly-half Rhys Patchell or flanker James Davies but Josh Navidi and Gareth Anscombe are recalled.
Wales are also without injured prop Gethin Jenkins and lock Luke Charteris.
With Jonathan Davies heading to New Zealand with the Lions, 2009 and 2013 Lions tourist Roberts has a chance to shine in midfield and as tour leader.
Roberts admitted his "disappointment" at missing out on Lions selection, but was "immensely honoured" to be asked to lead Wales.
"I'm as disappointed as any player to miss out on it (Lions), but you mope around for about a day, dust yourself off and you get back to training hard and playing and trying to play your best and that motivation will always be there.
"But the focus now is on Wales, winning two games and best preparing this group as much as possible."
Roberts added: "It's a proud moment for myself, but more importantly my family and a position of responsibility that I will take huge pride in."
Cardiff Blues' Seb Davies and Beard and Thornton, of Ospreys are locks, Scarlets' Elias is a hooker and team-mate Wyn Jones a prop.
Young, of Wasps, and Newport Gwent Dragons' Griffiths are open-side flankers who will battle to fill the void left by Lions captain Sam Warburton and Justin Tipuric.
Tomos Williams, of Blues and Scarlets' Aled Davies will challenge another Scarlet, Gareth Davies, at scrum-half.
Leicester's Gloucester-bound Owen Williams can play fly-half and centre while wing Giles, of Ospreys, and Blues' Rhun Williams will vie for back-three spots.
Wales will face Tonga at Eden Park in Auckland on Friday, 16 June as part of a double-header also featuring New Zealand.
Wales explained in March that the contest had been moved to Auckland due to concerns over playing conditions.
The tourists will face Tonga at 06:30 BST, with the All Blacks taking on Samoa at 09:00 at the same venue.
The double-header will also provide Wales with an opportunity to observe the second opponents of their two-Test tour, with McBryde's men flying to Apia, Samoa to take on Samoa a week later on Friday, 23 June.
Forwards: Scott Baldwin (Ospreys), Jake Ball (Scarlets), Adam Beard (Ospreys), Kristian Dacey (Cardiff Blues), Seb Davies (Cardiff Blues), Ryan Elias (Scarlets), Rob Evans (Scarlets), Tomas Francis (Exeter Chiefs), Ollie Griffiths (Newport Gwent Dragons), Cory Hill (Newport Gwent Dragons), Ellis Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), Wyn Jones (Scarlets), James King (Ospreys), Samson Lee (Scarlets), Josh Navidi (Cardiff Blues), Nicky Smith (Ospreys), Rory Thornton (Ospreys), Thomas Young (Wasps).
Backs: Cory Allen (Cardiff Blues), Gareth Anscombe (Cardiff Blues), Alex Cuthbert (Cardiff Blues), Aled Davies (Scarlets), Gareth Davies (Scarlets), Sam Davies (Ospreys), Steff Evans (Scarlets), Keelan Giles (Ospreys), Tyler Morgan (Newport Gwent Dragons), Jamie Roberts (captain, Harlequins), Owen Williams (Leicester Tigers), Rhun Williams (Cardiff Blues), Scott Williams (Scarlets), Tomos Williams (Cardiff Blues).