Coronavirus doctor's diary: The Yorkshire cemetery struggling to keep up with burials

Summary: Bradford's main Muslim cemetery has been struggling to keep up with burials as the second wave of the pandemic has gathered pace. It will take some medical detective work to determine the cause of this increase in deaths, says Dr John Wright of Bradford Royal Infirmary, but multi-generational homes could be a factor.

My friend Zulfi Karim called me on Friday with news about a sharp surge in deaths within Bradford's Muslim community. "We've got three shifts of gravediggers and bereavement support people working from six in the morning until 10pm, preparing graves. In the last 10 days we've had 38 burials, which would be the figure we'd normally have in a bad winter month," he said. "As fast as we're digging the graves we're filling them up with dead bodies. It's really really concerning, and my staff are getting to the stage where we're at full capacity. We're having to bring in a construction company to see if we can find new methods to design and prepare for digging a grave." By Saturday the figure had risen to 44. Zulfi is the chairman of Bradford's Council of Mosques and the head of the Muslim Bereavement Service. He's attended every funeral, while also coping with long Covid himself. "From a personal point of view I've never seen anything like it," he told me. "I never thought I'd experience this here in the UK in a non-war situation." In the Muslim tradition, a person should be buried within 24 hours of death, but Zulfi says it hasn't always been possible to keep up. It's going to take some work to fully understand what is going on. According to the Office for National Statistics, Bradford is currently seeing about 100 deaths per week (from all causes), up from 60 or 70 in the summer, but this isn't especially surprising; we expect this number to increase with the onset of winter. In the hospital, Covid-19 admission rates have surpassed the first peak in April, but the good news is that mortality remains considerably lower - less than a quarter of the rate in spring - as we have become experts in caring for and treating Covid patients. The average length of stay at Bradford Royal Infirmary has more than halved - from 13 days to six. Zulfi's hunch is that cases of Covid-19 may be going undiagnosed and that more people are dying from it at home than the statistics show. Back in February when the pandemic was hurtling towards us from the other side of the world, we watched how it devastated Italy and Spain and predicted that Bradford would also be badly hit. The city has a high population density and overcrowded housing, but also shares with Italy and Spain a pattern of multi-generational family homes. One of the notable features in modelling population spread of infectious diseases is that the young have many more daily contacts than the old. The return to school and university in September will have increased these contacts and the resulting viral transmission, but the importance of maintaining education far outweighed the clinical risk from the virus. In cities like Bradford where school children and students (who often also live at home) were mixing with grandparents, this risk equation was always going to be different than in cities with fewer multi-generational homes. We now have a much clearer understanding about the variables that increase the risk of death from Covid - including ethnicity, gender and co-morbidities - but age is by far the greatest factor. And when grandparents share a house with young people, this heightens the risk. Over the last couple of weeks I have been hearing of more and more personal tragedies that illustrate this problem. Gulsoom Akhtar says her father, Akhtar Zaman, appeared at first to have an ordinary cold, but was later diagnosed with Covid-19 and taken to hospital on his GP's advice, with suspected pneumonia. He was soon placed in intensive care, and died five days later, on 3 November. He was buried the following day. "It's absolutely awful how many people are dying. My dad was only 63. He'd had an angina attack several years ago but he was well and he had nine beautiful kids. I was just so overwhelmed and shocked," says Gulsoom, a neighbourhood engagement worker, part of whose job is to spread information about Covid-19. "Our youngest brother is only 17. We are all devastated and my mum has lost her best friend after 35 years of marriage." Amjad Pervez and his wife did their best to isolate on the third floor of their house, but continued to have some contact with their daughter, a university student, and with their school-age grandchildren. Amjad became ill with Covid in mid-October. "In the second wave the children are getting Covid and not showing symptoms and particularly in the Asian community, where you have three generations living together, it doesn't work in our favour," he says. Amjad's mother, Hazran, was living with one of his brothers, in another multi-generational household. Later she moved to stay in the home of a third brother, where no-one was ill, and she could be better isolated. Nonetheless, the woman whom Amjad describes as "fiercely independent" and "a fountain of wisdom" began to show symptoms of Covid and was taken to hospital on Monday. She died on Tuesday evening and was buried the following day. "I think people know now about the number of deaths, and people are scared witless, and they're being really careful about social distancing. People are petrified," says Amjad, owner of the Seafresh/Adams food retailing and cash-and-carry group. "I've lived in Bradford since 1969, I've grown up here, my business is here and my social network is huge. I've never in my life seen our community under so much mental stress and so scared." Shadim Hussain, the father of four girls, had also taken measures to protect his parents, but somehow his mother became infected and was taken into hospital on Thursday. With pre-existing health problems, including chronic pulmonary obstructive disease, she deteriorated quickly, and Shadim was called to the hospital that evening. "I could see it looked really difficult for Mum and instinctively we're taught as Muslims to say a prayer - there's a special prayer that I said with Mum and she repeated it after me. I could see her lips were still moving and I sensed she knew I was there," says Shadim, the founder of a fostering recruitment and training organisation, My Foster Family. She died that night and was buried on Friday. "In the morning we picked up the body and we did the bathing of the body. By midday we got the body prepared for burial and our slot at the cemetery was at 7pm that night," says Shadim. "It was in the dark and there was something special about it - it felt quite peaceful. I got a call from Zulfi and he said, 'Whatever you need just let me know.' It was like having an army of people around, who wanted to help us." As we observed the two-minute silence on Remembrance Day the UK was becoming the first country in Europe to surpass 50,000 deaths from Covid-19. There will be no Last Post bugle call for these fallen souls. The vaccines against coronavirus cannot come soon enough. Front-line diary Prof John Wright, a doctor and epidemiologist, is head of the Bradford Institute for Health Research, and a veteran of cholera, HIV and Ebola epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa. He is writing this diary for BBC News and recording from the hospital wards for BBC Radio. Follow @docjohnwright and radio producer @SueM1tchell on Twitter

ब्रैडफोर्ड का मुख्य मुस्लिम कब्रिस्तान दफनाने के लिए संघर्ष कर रहा है क्योंकि महामारी की दूसरी लहर ने गति पकड़ ली है। ब्रैडफोर्ड रॉयल इन्फर्मरी के डॉ. जॉन राइट कहते हैं कि मौतों में इस वृद्धि का कारण निर्धारित करने के लिए कुछ चिकित्सा जासूसी कार्य करना होगा, लेकिन बहु-पीढ़ी के घर एक कारक हो सकते हैं।


Death threats to Jaffna lawyers

Summary: Judicial affairs were disrupted on Wednesday as lawyers in the northern Sri Lankan district of Jaffna did not report to work as a protest.

Jaffna Bar Association (JBA) said a group has made death threats to lawyers asking for Rs. One million from each lawyer as ransom. The association said the lawyers will not report back to work until police provide proper protection to their members. Chief Justice Sarath Silva has informed the lawyers that a special arrangement was made to protect the lawyers in the district. However, the JBA said, they would not report to work until the details are known about the said special arrangement.

बुधवार को न्यायिक मामले बाधित हो गए क्योंकि उत्तरी श्रीलंकाई जिले जाफना में वकील विरोध के रूप में काम करने के लिए नहीं आए।


Police attacked with own incapacitant spray on M40

Summary: Two police officers were attacked with their own incapacitant spray, bitten and had their heads stamped on when they stopped a vehicle on the M40.

The attack happened between junction 8 and 9 in Oxfordshire on Thursday. Thames Valley Police said a man had been charged with two counts of assault. Morgan Culshaw, 25, of no fixed abode, appeared at Oxford Magistrates on Saturday and is due before Oxford Crown Court on 24 September. He is also accused of one count of theft, one count of possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, one count of dangerous driving, one count of failing to provide a sample, and one count of using a motor vehicle without insurance.

जब उन्होंने एम40 पर एक वाहन रोका तो दो पुलिस अधिकारियों पर उनके अपने अक्षम स्प्रे से हमला किया गया, उन्हें काटा गया और उनके सिर पर मुहर लगा दी गई।


Trump launches fresh attack on Apple over privacy

Summary: US President Donald Trump has launched a fresh attack on Apple.

He tweeted that the company was refusing to unlock iPhones "used by killers, drug dealers and other violent criminal elements". On Monday US Attorney General William Barr accused Apple of not being helpful in an inquiry into a shooting that is being treated as a terrorist act. It is the latest in a series of clashes between the White House and technology giants over access to data. Mr Trump accused Apple of refusing to co-operate with investigators despite his administration helping the company on trade and other issues. The president's comments came a day after Mr Barr said Apple had failed to provide "substantive assistance" to unlock two iPhones in an investigation into a fatal shooting at a naval base in Pensacola, Florida. Three US sailors were killed when a Saudi trainee at the base opened fire on 6 December. Apple said it rejected the claim that it had failed to help officials in their investigation. "Our responses to their many requests since the attack have been timely, thorough and are ongoing," it said in a statement. This is not the first time Apple has clashed with the US justice department. After a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California in 2015, in which 14 people were killed and 22 others were seriously injured, Apple refused to help gain access to the gunman's iPhone. The US government ended up paying another company a reported $1m (£770,000) to develop software to get around the device's encryption. The disputes highlight the ongoing disagreement between the technology industry and law enforcement agencies around the world. On one side encryption plays a crucial role in protecting people's privacy, on the other it can cause major issues for criminal investigators.

अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति डोनाल्ड ट्रंप ने एप्पल पर एक बार फिर हमला बोला है।


Is your Carpetright store closing?

Summary: A full list of the stores Carpetright plans to close:

Ayr Ballymena Bangor (County Down) Barnsley Beckton Belfast - Newtownabbey Bicester Birmingham Stechford Blackwood Bodmin Borehamwood Burgess Hill Burnley Bury Caerphilly Catford Coleraine Dudley East Grinstead Edinburgh - Leith Exeter Exmouth Falkirk Folkestone Fraserburgh Glasgow - Great Western Road Glasgow - Parkhead Forge Gloucester Great Yarmouth Greenock Guildford Hamilton - Carpetright Hamilton - Sleepright Harrogate Hayes Hitchin Honiton Huddersfield Inverness - Merkinch Kidderminster Kings Lynn Launceston Leeds - Birstall Leeds - Hunslet Lewes Lichfield Lincoln Livingston Llanelli Londonderry Luton Maidenhead Neath Oldham Putney Reading - Oxford Road Redhill Renfrew Scarborough Scunthorpe Sheffield - Meadowhall South Shields St Austell St Helens Stafford Stanmore Stratford-upon-Avon Streatham Common Strood Sunderland - Castletown Telford Thanet Thornton Heath - Carpetright & Sleepright Tiverton Wakefield - Cathedral Wakefield - Westgate (Storeys) Walsall Warminster Wigan - Robin Park Wishaw York - Foss Island

कारपेट्राइट जिन दुकानों को बंद करने की योजना बना रहा है, उनकी पूरी सूचीः


South Cumbria bin collections studied in detail

Summary: Bin collections in south Cumbria are due to change following a project to "optimise" collection rounds.

A study for South Lakeland District Council examined details, including types of wagons, the lengths of routes, and the width of streets. It also took into account how many right turns vehicles made, as these cause them to be delayed at junctions. The council said the £35,000 cost of the research would be offset by savings of £40,000 a year. Changes, which include different collection days for 65% of households, will come into effect in the autumn.

दक्षिण कुम्ब्रिया में बिन संग्रह संग्रह दौर को "अनुकूलित" करने के लिए एक परियोजना के बाद परिवर्तन के कारण हैं।


Long Mynd gorse fire 'deliberate'

Summary: A large gorse fire on a hillside on Tuesday was deliberately started, Shropshire Fire and Rescue has said.

Crews were called to Long Mynd, near Church Stretton, just before 16:30 GMT. Some 50 firefighters from Church Stretton, Craven Arms, Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, and Telford used hoses and beaters to extinguish the fire. Station manager Guy Williams said an investigation had revealed it was deliberately started and had now been referred to the police. He said fires in the open were rare at this time of year and several points had been identified where fires were started on the hill. Shropshire Fire and Rescue said the low temperatures had helped them put the fire out.

श्रॉपशायर फायर एंड रेस्क्यू ने कहा है कि मंगलवार को एक पहाड़ी पर एक बड़ी आग जानबूझकर शुरू की गई थी।


Could Commons defeat yet prove to be a benefit to PM?

Summary: It's hard to know where to start sometimes.

Laura KuenssbergPolitical editor@bbclaurakon Twitter The pace and gravity of events in Westminster this week is both monumental and dizzying. A prime minister has lost his wafer of a majority. MPs from across the spectrum are making their own history, by collaborating to sabotage the central part of Downing Street's strategy and change the law themselves. The two main party leaders both believe that band of rebels will succeed and, if they do, they agree that the country should get a chance to decide who is in charge. And the prime minister and Tory leader is reshaping his party - the product of first a threat, then a punishment, to some of its best known names - even ejecting the grandson of Winston Churchill. This rapid escalation is the outburst of conflict that's been brewing since Boris Johnson moved into No 10. It was unlikely ever to be sustainable for him to govern as a prime minster intent on keeping the option of leaving the EU without a deal, in the face of a Parliament with a majority set against that. Some close to the prime minister believe that from this crisis comes an opportunity - to close the unfinished business of the referendum result in 2016, with the Tory party at last being the bearers of a crystal-clear message on Brexit. It's a measure of how upside down the political norms are - that the prime minister losing his first vote in office is considered by some of his allies as a benefit. But that carries tremendous risk too - decisiveness may be perceived by many voters as arrogance or aggression. The collateral damage or gains from these moves is unknown. The only certainty, perhaps, is that nothing will stay the same.

कभी-कभी यह जानना मुश्किल होता है कि कहाँ से शुरू करना है।


Why Donald Trump attacks the media

Summary: When President Donald Trump first called the media "enemy of the people" last year, it elicited outrage. Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake said it was an example of an "unprecedented" and "unwarranted" White House assault on the free press.

By Anthony ZurcherNorth America reporter The second, third and fourth times Mr Trump used the phrase, it barely merited a shrug. Such is the unique talent of this president - an ability to take an action or opinion that once seemed outrageous and turn it into a new kind of normal. Even if the line doesn't generate headlines anymore, however, journalists still take note. And when a newsroom in Maryland was sprayed with bullets just a few weeks ago, the perils of the profession - even in an established Western democracy, and with or without the president's instigation - were put in stark relief. New York Times publisher AG Sulzberger clearly wanted to drive this point home in his previously secret meeting with Mr Trump nine days ago. The message, however, may not have been received. In his Sunday morning tweet, the president appears to assert that it's the media's fault that he has decided to label them "enemies of the American people". For Mr Trump, then, this kind of language - if it is a problem - is a problem for the media, not him, to fix. The irony, of course, is that Mr Trump cites New York Times reports about details of Robert Mueller's Russia investigation that are based on anonymous sources. On Friday, he referred to the special counsel looking at his tweets - a bit of information drawn directly from a Times article. Whenever the Times runs a story about his administration with similar sourcing, however, it's "fake news". And this gets to the heart of the matter. The president wants positive news coverage for himself and critical coverage of his adversaries. "Fake news", "enemy of the people" and all the other media-bashing is simply a means to achieving that goal. In sport, the strategy is called "working the referee". It's the same idea in politics - but the stakes are much higher. There's more to it than that, however. Mr Trump doesn't just want the referee's "calls" to go his way. His goal is to question the reliability the referee entirely. And it's working - at least among the president's most loyal supporters. In a recent CBS News poll, 91% of "strong supporters" of the president's said they trust Mr Trump to provide them with accurate information. Only 11% said the same thing about the "mainstream media", while 63% said they trusted their own "friends and family". The president's war of words with the media has contributed to a base of support that is, effectively, invulnerable to negative news. The question now is whether that base is enough to prevail in the upcoming mid-term congressional elections and, eventually, carry him to re-election victory in 2020. It is, at the very least, a good place to start - and a reason why the president may stick to his current course, in spite of Mr Sulzberger's words of caution.

जब राष्ट्रपति डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प ने पिछले साल पहली बार मीडिया को "लोगों का दुश्मन" कहा था, तो इसने आक्रोश पैदा किया था। एरिजोना रिपब्लिकन सीनेटर जेफ फ्लेक ने कहा कि यह स्वतंत्र प्रेस पर व्हाइट हाउस के "अभूतपूर्व" और "अनुचित" हमले का एक उदाहरण था।


Can royal couple outfox the paparazzi?

Summary: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have begun their honeymoon at a destination widely reported to be in the Seychelles. But having tried to keep the location secret, can they still avoid the attentions of the paparazzi?

By Tom de CastellaBBC News Magazine There is near insatiable demand across the world for pictures of the royal couple. And there will be paparazzi who will be desperate to get long-lens shots of William and Catherine on the beach during their honeymoon. The Palace has asked for the couple to be left alone, with the privacy debate having intensified in recent days after the publication of five-year-old photos of them on a yacht off Ibiza, prompting an appeal to the Press Complaints Commission. A month before the yacht pictures, Carole and Pippa Middleton also complained informally to the PCC that they'd been harassed by snappers on mopeds. Secrecy has shrouded William and Catherine's honeymoon plans but speculation that they are in the Seychelles appears to have been confirmed by the tourist board there. Which of the 115 islands in the Seychelles archipelago they are on is not clear. But with only four of them privately owned, it may not take the paparazzi long to track them down. Already the German property mogul Farhad Vladi has been quoted in a Hamburg paper saying that the couple are renting North Island, which he owns. The royal couple and their aides will have made careful efforts to keep their honeymoon under wraps. "It's unfortunate when you're the hottest couple in the world, there's a huge demand for pictures and stories," says the Sun's Royal photographer Arthur Edwards. But he believes that Prince William is capable of keeping their honeymoon bolthole private. "William is an old hand at dodging photographers. And if anyone invades their privacy they're not going to take it lying down, they'll fight back." Only three people will have known where they were heading, Edwards guesses - and the Queen and Prince Harry might not have been part of the privileged triumvirate. "William is media savvie. He keeps things to himself, Catherine and his private secretary." Gentlemen's agreement The prince will be determined to avoid a repeat of the pattern in which his mother Diana had her privacy repeatedly breached, Edwards says. "He's a clever guy, he'll do it his way. He won't let what happened to his mother happen to his wife." In any case a number of British papers appear to have a gentlemen's agreement with the Royal Family, vowing not to publish any honeymoon pictures that have not been officially released by St James's Palace. Mark Borkowski, founder and head of Borkowski PR, believes that after giving the media what they want at the wedding, including two kisses on the balcony and the Aston Martin moment, the press will reward them with peace and quiet. The way the duchess's wedding dress was kept under wraps before the big day suggests the royal household are good at keeping secrets. A couple of publications guessed it would be Sarah Burton, but the design itself was successfully concealed. And Katie Nicholl, royal editor of the Mail on Sunday, says that William and Catherine have a strong record in keeping their plans secret. Not only was there the stag do - which no-one found out about until later - but their engagement in Kenya last year was kept hush-hush. There are a range of tactics they might employ for keeping out prying eyes, she says. Hotels can be booked under false names, "intricate" flight plans make them hard to follow and any destination would be recced by their security team. They would want to stay on a private island as it allows the local navy to stop paparazzi getting to shore, she says. The gentlemen's agreement should see British newspapers behave, but there are two groups who won't play ball, Borkowski warns. "If there's a bounty on their heads, it doesn't stop rogue foreign photo agencies. And now that everyone's got a camera on their phones it's hard to avoid pictures even in remote places." But fellow PR man Max Clifford says that attempting to keep complete secrecy would be an own goal for the honeymoon couple. Not only do the media need royal stories to sell papers, Buckingham Palace needs the media to help rebrand the monarchy, he believes. "They need the support of the media. These youngsters are the future of the monarchy, they had a tremendously successful wedding and they need to keep the momentum going." For Clifford there is an easy solution that would suit both parties. A few days into the honeymoon, they should give over two or three hours for the media to get the pictures they want. "That's the way it should be done. 'Thank you, you've got your pictures now leave us alone.'" It would give the press something, allow the Royals to keep control of the images, and ensure that the couple's privacy is respected for the rest of the holiday. Such a compromise used to be a regular part of skiing holidays in Klosters. In exchange for being left in peace on the slopes, Prince Charles and his sons would pose for the assembled press corps in an organised session. But Nicholl, who wrote The Making of a Royal Romance, disagrees. "I think a photocall is very unlikely. They want to be left in peace, this is the last holiday they'll have in total seclusion."

ड्यूक और डचेस ऑफ कैम्ब्रिज ने अपने हनीमून की शुरुआत एक ऐसे गंतव्य पर की है जो व्यापक रूप से सेशेल्स में बताया जाता है। लेकिन स्थान को गुप्त रखने की कोशिश करने के बाद, क्या वे अभी भी पपराज़ी के ध्यान से बच सकते हैं?


Missed this week's entertainment news?

Summary: In a week where a royal got engaged, Katie Hopkins lost her job and yet more celebrities got caught up in the sexual harassment scandal, it was easy to miss some of the other entertainment and arts stories that made the news. Here's a round-up, in case you missed them.

The news of Prince Harry's engagement to actress Meghan Markle made headlines around the world. It also drew congratulatory messages from Markle's co-stars on US legal series Suits. Patrick J Adams, pictured above with Markle in 2012, said Harry was "a lucky man", while Sarah Rafferty (right) sent "wishes for every blessing". As further announcements about the royal engagement and wedding were made, the creator of Suits revealed it was decided to write Markle's character out of the TV series a year ago. "Collectively with the writers, we decided to take a gamble that these two people were in love and it was going to work out," Aaron Korsh told Radio 4's Today programme. Proof that pop stars are getting younger and younger arrived this week in BBC Music's Sound of 2018 longlist, a list of 16 up-and-coming acts that included the youngest nominee to date. US pop singer Billie Eilish, 15, was one of three teenagers on the list, selected by a panel of 173 critics, broadcasters and other music experts. Opponents of so-called Hollywood "whitewashing" had reason to celebrate this week when the Disney studio revealed it had cast an Asian actress to star in its upcoming remake of Mulan. China's Liu Yifei will play the famous Chinese heroine in a live-action version of the 1998 animated film, which will be directed by New Zealander Niki Caro. The announcement of the nominations for the 2018 Grammy Awards saw Jay Z (right) lead the way with eight, including one in the album of the year category. But many were surprised to see Ed Sheeran (left) left out of the main categories, with ÷ [Divide] missing out on a best album nod. Susan Calman's decision to unfollow the official Strictly Come Dancing Twitter account prompted some to speculate she was disenchanted with the programme. The Scottish comedian, pictured above with dance partner Kevin Clifton, responded by saying she was merely "sad about leaving the show and didn't want to get even sadder". Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt took to social media this week to alert fans to a "pervy dude" he said had been impersonating him online. The actor accused the imposter of "hitting on" his female fans and promised to "punch [him] in the GD mouth" should their paths ever cross. Pop star Rihanna took to social media herself this week to shoot down a fan's request to consider using a trans woman to promote her Fenty Beauty make-up range. "I don't go around doing trans castings," she tweeted back. "I don't think it's fair that a trans woman, or man, be used as a convenient marketing tool." Jennifer Lawrence revealed this week that she had a strategy to avoid receiving unwanted attention in public places - becoming "incredibly rude". "That's kind of like my only way of defending myself," said the actress in a filmed interview with comic Adam Sandler. Fans of Charlie Brooker's annual Wipe will have to do without their slice of satire this Christmas, as Brooker is just too busy to assemble his survey of the year's events. The Black Mirror creator revealed this week that he "ran out of road" and had not found the time to put together a 2017 edition. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

एक सप्ताह में जब एक शाही की सगाई हो गई, केटी हॉपकिंस ने अपनी नौकरी खो दी और फिर भी अधिक हस्तियां यौन उत्पीड़न घोटाले में फंस गईं, कुछ अन्य मनोरंजन और कला की कहानियों को याद करना आसान था जिन्होंने खबर बनाई। यहाँ एक राउंड-अप है, यदि आप उन्हें याद करते हैं।


Covid: Scots children should stay at home at Halloween

Summary: The Scottish government has told children to stay at home this Halloween.

In guidance issued a week ahead of 31 October, people have been told guising (going door-to-door) and parties are not encouraged. Instead, people have been asked to have safe Halloween celebrations at home. It comes as clinical director Jason Leitch suggested to the BBC that the central belt could be put into tier three restrictions. The Halloween move was announced on the Scottish government's Parent Club website. Deputy First Minister John Swinney said allowing children to go guising to neighbours this year would increase the risk of the spread of Covid-19. "Under the current restrictions it is not possible to meet up indoors or in large groups outdoors, so the safest thing to do this year is to stay at home," he said. "I know guising is a big part of Halloween and children will be sad to miss out, but as door-to-door guising brings an additional and avoidable risk of spreading the virus, our clear advice for families is to avoid it. "Children can still get dressed up and share jokes with their families, and our Parent Club guidance has lots of fun and creative ideas for families to enjoy a safe celebration at home." 'Not safe right now' Scots have also been told not to hold large gatherings in their gardens for Bonfire Night due to the cancellation of organised events. Mr Swinney said it was vital the public adhered to the rules on meeting up with other households to stop transmission of the virus. "We know that some people may consider using fireworks in their back gardens," he said. "If you do plan on using fireworks this Bonfire Night, please do so responsibly and safely. "Adapting alternative celebrations and sticking to the rules in place can go a huge way to ensuring everyone's safety." The announcement of the guidance follows comments by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Thursday, who said it was "not safe" for guising to be allowed this year, due to Covid-19. At the coronavirus briefing, she said: "It's not safe right now to do these things as normal, and it would not be fair of me or right of me to say otherwise. "To parents, to children; think of ways you can celebrate in a way that is safe and doesn't have children or others coming into unnecessary contact with others." On Friday, the first minister announced that Scotland would be entering a new five-level system of coronavirus restrictions from 2 November.. Prof Leitch told BBC Breakfast on Saturday that preparations were being made to decide which level of restrictions each area of Scotland would be placed in. He said: "There is a meeting later today with a small team of analysts, advisers, who will look at the early stages of what that allocation might look like. Then there will be conversations with local government, conversations with central government, with the first minister and deputy first minister about where that goes. "But roughly speaking, the central belt Glasgow, Edinburgh, Ayrshire and Arran, that strip across the middle, where 3.5m of Scots live, that would be tier three and roughly, north and south of that - tier two." 'Could have been gentler' Talking about comments he made about being prepared for a "digital Christmas" earlier this week, Prof Leitch said he may have been too harsh. He said he was trying to be "realistic" but to also encourage people that "what we do now matters for eight weeks from now". He said: "Realistic looks like some kind of family Christmas but it will depend how well we get the numbers down. "I could have perhaps been gentler in my use of the phrase digital Christmas but I just mean you won't be flying to visit relatives probably, you may not have large multi-household gatherings in your home. You won't be having six families but you may well be allowed to have two or three families if that is allowed. "Nobody can cancel Christmas, not even the national clinical director for Scotland. It's happening, it is just to make it as safe as we possibly can."

स्कॉटिश सरकार ने बच्चों को इस हैलोवीन पर घर पर रहने के लिए कहा है।


Coronavirus briefing: UK shutdown tactics under scrutiny and global latest

Summary: If you want to get this briefing by email, sign up here

By Victoria KingBBC News Note of optimism in the UK It's more than a week since unprecedented curbs were imposed on everyday freedoms in the UK, and the country's chief scientific adviser has said there are early signs the measures are making a difference. Deaths rose to 1,408 on Monday, but Sir Patrick Vallance said the number of additional patients being seen by the NHS each day was "stable" - potentially a positive indication. However, enforcing social distancing measures is proving controversial and some police forces have received criticism for the steps they've taken, especially around people taking what are deemed to be unnecessary journeys. Police have been issued with guidance telling them to take a "consistent" approach and emphasising the importance of professionalism. One of Britain's most senior officers has told the Daily Telegraph the police must preserve "the trust and confidence of the public". Here's a reminder of the rules we're all meant to be following. In other news, the government has launched what it calls an "unprecedented" operation to repatriate tens of thousands of Britons stranded abroad by the pandemic. Read our advice on what to do if that's you or one of your loved ones. Families with children eligible for free school meals in England will also be able to claim weekly shopping vouchers while classrooms are out of bounds. That's on top of the food parcels the government is providing to the most vulnerable. Find out more about efforts to keep the nation fed. Worldwide latest Italy is the world's hardest hit country in terms of number of deaths. It has extended its extremely strict lockdown until Easter but there is some hope as the country reports a declining infection rate. Similar hopes are also being expressed in Spain. Elsewhere in Europe, Germany has reported a significant jump in cases, while Russia has also begun a lockdown of 12 million citizens in Moscow. The BBC's Gavin Lee has been on a road trip in Europe's Schengen area to see how much the virus has affected freedom of movement on a continent so proud of its open borders. The US has the most reported cases of the pandemic, but President Trump has insisted the country will be in "very good shape" in terms of medical equipment by the time the outbreak peaks. New York is the worst hit place in America and the state's governor says the scale of deaths there is "staggering". Hear one nurse in New York describe her struggles on the virus front line, while these graphs show what could be in store for the US. Follow all the latest updates from around the world via our live page. Get news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning Firms struggling Sector by economic sector, the pandemic is causing great difficulties. Restaurant chain Carluccio's and rent-to-own firm Brighthouse both went to the wall on Monday. Growers of plants, trees and shrubs say they're facing ruin due to the closure of 2,000 garden centres and nurseries. The four companies that manage ground operations at UK airports, Swissport, WFS, Dnata and Menzies, have also warned they are close to collapse, putting up to 25,000 jobs at risk. At the same time, pressure is growing on companies to improve protections for staff who fear they're being put at risk in the workplace. Employees at Amazon and at an online clothing warehouse are among those unhappy. 'I'm in coronavirus lockdown with my abuser' By Megha Mohan, BBC gender and identity correspondent While much of the world is on coronavirus lockdown, aid agencies have warned that domestic abuse care is as "urgent as healthcare". In the UK, calls to the national abuse hotline went up by 65% this weekend, according to domestic abuse commissioner Nicole Jacobs. And the UN has warned that women in poorer countries and smaller homes will have fewer ways to report abuse. The BBC has spoken to two women, in India and the US, who are currently under lockdown with men who have abused them. Read the full article One thing not to miss today The good that can come out of an upside-down world Listen up In the Coronavirus Newscast, the team chew over the latest update on the UK situation. And for some escapism, BBC Radio 5 Live's Must Watch team review the big new TV and streaming shows. What the papers say There is much discussion about the use of police powers to enforce the UK's lockdown. The Guardian says "preventive measures should stop short of public shaming of individuals - particularly on social media platforms". The Sun thinks "a few idiots deserve fines for blatantly flouting the restrictions - but a few officious cops need reining in too". The Daily Telegraph calls the powers "draconian", but says there have been examples of the public behaving in a thoughtless and even reckless way - such as the driver stopped while out playing Pokemon Go. Elsewhere, the Metro says there's been a surge in reports of abuse directed at nurses and paramedics. The Daily Express calls for tougher sentences for those responsible. "Give Them All A Medal" demands the Daily Mirror - it's pushing for the heroism of NHS staff to be recognised with a form of campaign medal. From elsewhere What will the world be like after coronavirus? Four possible futures (The Conversation) The populated nation where social distancing can be impossible (CNN) The routines that keep us sane (The Atlantic) This artist created coronavirus travel posters and now people want to buy them (Buzzfeed) Sign up for a morning briefing direct to your phone Need something different? Rapper Nipsey Hussle was murdered in March 2019, causing widespread shock and sadness. A year on, are we any closer to knowing who killed him? BBC Three's Ben Zand set out to unravel the mystery. Elsewhere, scientists say a simple blood test can check for more than 50 types of cancer, often before any signs or symptoms - read more. And with a lot of us having more time on our hands than usual, check out BBC Culture's review of the best books of 2020 so far.

यदि आप ईमेल द्वारा यह जानकारी प्राप्त करना चाहते हैं, तो यहां साइन अप करें


Boardroom diversity is a must for firms, executives say

Summary: A study on boardroom gender equality in the UK has been published.

The report, by Lord Davies, does not recommend quotas or legislation, but sets out less rigid targets to get more women into the higher ranks of the corporate world. Here, three businesswomen set out what they think needs to improve to begin to redress the balance. Moira Benigson, CEO of The MBS Group, executive search consultancy I'm always amazed to meet women leaders who, despite having a successful career, are not able to play the political game as well as men. They tend to believe that just doing a good job should be enough. In 25 years as a headhunter, I have seen women fail to manage their progression, and therefore their promotion, by not being as pro-active within their career, as men. When they see their ambitions fail to materialise they may develop a "fear of flying" and choose to stay in roles that are well below their capability rather than going for the challenge of being at the top. I believe that corporate rules need to change. Regardless of the talk about equality, many boards continue to stick to old hiring patterns and prefer to hire people that they are familiar with - they hire in their own image. This perpetuates a lack of diversity that could, ultimately, damage their business. It is this attitude which needs changing, and if it doesn't then boards could be faced with enforced regulations such as the quota system. This has happened in South Africa, where legislation has been effective in ensuring that there is a quota of black directors on company boards. Business will only reflect and serve the needs of the society we live in if we push chairmen to change their hiring criteria and hire more women onto their boards. If we don't steer the thinking of board members to realise the potential of such hires, then, indeed pressure must be applied and legislation will have to be considered. I have also seen many talented women leaders opt out of corporate life and take the entrepreneurial route to great success. For these women, running their own business means that that they can achieve a better balance between work and family, without the restriction of corporate rules. There is a lot of talk about the glass ceiling, but women can break through the barriers and go all the way to the top. As leadership expert Rebecca Shambaugh puts it: "It might not always be the glass ceiling, but the sticky floor" that is partly to blame. Liz Field, CEO of the Financial Skills Partnership Companies operating in the financial services sector have a particularly poor reputation when it comes to females in boardrooms. We know there are fewer women than men at senior levels across the industry and the image of our sector is that it is male dominated. The reality might be different in some cases and we know that diversity programmes, women's networks and flexible working have been widely introduced in the industry. But perception is all and it could be damaging our ability to attract and retain key talent that we need for growth and competitiveness. When it comes to looking at top jobs, women are far more likely to rule out jobs even if they have little or no experience in only some aspects. That could be a lack of confidence or realism, but generally men will go for the top job regardless of whether they have all the relevant experience. I myself have looked at jobs in the past and thought I could do it standing on my head, but have not submitted the application form because I thought the odds would be stacked against me, because I did not tick all the right boxes. There has been a lot of talk about gender diversity over the past few months. Even the EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said in September that she would consider calling for quotas requiring businesses to hire more women and wants to see 30% women directors on boards by 2015 and 40% by 2020. A key argument for greater board diversity is that it increases a firm's competitive advantage relative to those with less diversity. Given that women now have a major influence on purchase decisions it makes good business sense to increase diversity, particularly in those functions that are the profit-making parts of the business. The Financial Skills Partnership will be driving up employer ambition in this respect. There is a lot to do and there are some fundamentals that do need to be addressed. Employers should look at diversity to improve their businesses and not because they have been told to. Carmen Watson, Managing Director of Pertemps Recruitment Partnership When I had my daughter, Rebecca, my company offered a five-year window where they kept my job open, and it was a huge confidence booster. The gesture sent out a very positive and morale-boosting message to all the female employees inside and outside the business. There should be more situations that mirror mine. That was many years ago and today I feel companies still have a long way to go. My daughter is now 21 and I wonder if she will have to face the same challenges I faced in my ascent up the corporate ladder. Companies need to be more flexible in how they recruit, develop and manage their top talent. If they create the right infrastructure they can then develop and hold on to their star performers. I don't feel that boardroom quotas are the solution. Quotas are not inherently good because both men and women need to feel that the women have earned their way to the top. It is counterproductive if women are put on boards just to fill quotas, as the impact they will have on major company decisions to help shape company policy will be diminished. That said, businesses should be held accountable for setting targets which are achievable and realistic for the marketplace in which they are operating. They then need to create frameworks and infrastructures which will help nurture and develop top female talent. Although women make up half of the population and more than half of university graduates, they remain woefully under-represented at board level. What is needed is cultural change, which fosters the leadership development of women in middle management, not quotas, ratios or tokenism. Flexibility allows firms to set targets that reflect the realities of their marketplace, and is more effective. The real solution lies within companies, shareholders, the government and the recruitment profession working together to deliver the changes that will help women to achieve these board-level positions. Businesses which have diverse boardrooms are more empowered to serve diverse markets across a wide variety of sectors. Boardroom diversity is no longer an option but a critical part of the growth strategy of many businesses in order to remain competitive both in the UK and abroad. Amanda Jobbins, Cisco vice president of European technology and corporate marketing The issue of quotas to compel UK business to increase the number of female directors on their boards in line with similar initiatives in Norway, France and Spain can only have a positive effect in my view. Over the last 10 years in the UK, Directorships held by women in the FTSE 100 have increased from 5.8% to 12.5% according to a study by Cranfield, however, at this rate the Equality and Human Rights Commission estimates that it will take 73 years before equal numbers of women and men are in the FTSE 100 Boardrooms. Traditionally, many women in senior positions have opposed quotas on the grounds that we should achieve seniority on the basis of our own merits, and while I wholly agree all roles should be appointed on merit, it's the definition of merit that needs changing. At Cisco in the UK we already have 40% of our UK board comprised of females and we are driving many diversity initiatives across the company. A key issue is that the behavioral and mind set change required. To change business recruiting and promotional trajectories to ensure companies have women at senior levels in the company, is simply going to take too long and there are many reasons, not least the ethical reason, to speed up that progress. Quotas will achieve that acceleration." Helena Morrissey, Chief Executive of Newton Investment Management and Founder of The 30% Club People sometimes assume that I'm in favour of quotas to increase the proportion of women in the boardroom. They're wrong. I strongly believe that quotas are demeaning to women, make no business sense and can backfire. As long as there are quotas, people will always be able to question whether a woman was appointed on merit or just because she is female. I really wouldn't want to be appointed to a board under those circumstances. It is much better to achieve a better gender balance on boards through real commitment and voluntary actions. It is true that the pace of change in recent years has been glacial and I am pleased that the Davies report will require companies to indicate what steps they are taking to achieve real progress towards achieving a better gender balance at senior levels of companies over the next few years. The 30% Club aims to catalyse achieve real underlying change from the top. Its members are company chairmen who have expressed their commitment both to the goal of 30% female representation on their own boards over the next five years and are doing something about it. Since the Club launched just last November, two of our founding Chairmen, Sir Roger Carr of Centrica and Sir Win Bischoff of Lloyds Banking Group have both appointed additional women to their boards. They are doing this because they believe its good for business, not as a sop to women or because they have been forced to through legislation. The more women join boards, the more they can demonstrate that they can add real value to an organization - not only in terms of bringing a new perspective to the table, but also in terms of boosting a company's bottom line. Research by Mckinseys shows that on key financial metrics, including return on equity, companies around the world with 30% or more women on their board perform significantly better. Intuitively, too, having a broader range of experiences, characters and styles on a board means less risk of 'group think' and greater likelihood that critical decisions are robustly challenged. We know we can't solve the problem of female under-representation overnight, but we are confident that we can make a significant difference to the make-up of boardrooms through concerted voluntary action. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and are not held by the BBC unless specifically stated.

ब्रिटेन में बोर्डरूम लैंगिक समानता पर एक अध्ययन प्रकाशित किया गया है।


Man in court Newcastle-under-Lyme retirement flat attack

Summary: A man has appeared in court charged with attempted murder over an attack on a 77-year-old.

The male victim suffered head injuries at the sheltered housing complex, Gloucester Grange, in Clayton, Newcastle-under-Lyme, early on Sunday. Simba Muguti, 27, of Seabridge Lane, Newcastle-under-Lyme, appeared at North Staffordshire Justice Centre. He was also charged with two counts of aggravated burglary and one count of carrying an offensive weapon. He was remanded in custody to appear at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on 19 November.

77 वर्षीय एक व्यक्ति पर हमला करने के आरोप में हत्या के प्रयास के आरोप में एक व्यक्ति अदालत में पेश हुआ है।


SpaceX tests launch abort system

Summary: SpaceX has put its Dragon astronaut capsule through a practice abort.

By Jonathan AmosBBC Science Correspondent The demonstration simulated what would happen to the crewship in the event of a rocket failure on the launch pad. Wednesday's test was conducted at Cape Canaveral in Florida, and saw a test vehicle - carrying no humans, only a dummy - hurled skywards by a set of powerful in-built thrusters. The Dragon ship was propelled to a safe distance, lowering itself softly into the Atlantic via three parachutes. SpaceX expects to start launching astronauts in 2017. It is one of two companies that have been contracted by the US space agency (Nasa) to develop vehicles to ferry people to and from the International Space Station (ISS). The other firm is Boeing. Both have to demonstrate effective launch escape technologies for their rockets and capsules to receive certification. Only with the necessary assurance will Nasa permit its astronauts to climb aboard. SpaceX has elected to use a so-called pusher system on the Dragon. Eight SuperDraco thrusters have been integrated into the side of the ship, and these fired in tandem for just over five seconds at the start of the test to hurl the ship up and to the east of the Cape. Once the thrusters' burn was completed, the vessel continued to coast upwards for about 15 more seconds. It then dropped its trunk (a structural, aerodynamic collar), and headed downwards, deploying first a couple of drogue chutes to stabilise itself, before putting out three main canopies to make the ocean splashdown. From beginning to end, the flight lasted just under 100 seconds, with the Dragon travelling just off-shore. And although the early indications are that the Dragon might not have achieved quite the velocities anticipated, it certainly stepped through all of its flight phases successfully. The capsule's only passenger was a dummy, but engineers will be able to describe the experience humans would have had from all the sensor data that was gathered. One consequence would have been high g-forces - several times the acceleration due to gravity. Tough, but something for which astronauts are well trained. Traditionally, abort systems have used a tower placed atop the capsule to pull it clear in the event of a rocket failure. The American Mercury and Apollo programmes used this arrangement, as do the current Russian Soyuz and Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft. A downside of these "tractor" mechanisms is that they need to be detached prior to a capsule reaching orbit. A pusher system, on the other hand, because it is integrated into the vehicle itself, does not need to be ejected. This means it can provide an emergency separation throughout the rocket's entire ascent phase. Boeing, too, has designed a pusher system into its forthcoming CST-100 capsule. "It's the more sophisticated, modern approach. And in my opinion it's also the safer approach to launch escape," Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX's vice-president of mission assurance, told reporters before the test. And Jon Cowart, from Nasa's commercial crew programme office, had added: "We see no inherent problem with doing it this way. It's innovative and that's really part of the whole reason we're doing commercial crew. Let's learn to do business a new way." SpaceX has chosen the configuration also because it plans eventually to bring all Dragon capsules back to land at the end of a mission. Instead of the parachute-assisted ocean splashdown, the craft will make a propulsive, precision return to a spaceport using their powerful in-built SuperDraco thrusters. SpaceX intends to try an in-flight abort later in the year. This would see the same procedure again but carried out a minute or two into the flight of one of the company's Falcon rockets. It would tell engineers how well the system copes when it is pushing up against a wall of on-rushing air as the rocket heads to orbit. Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

स्पेसएक्स ने अपने ड्रैगन अंतरिक्ष यात्री कैप्सूल को एक अभ्यास गर्भपात के माध्यम से रखा है।


Donald Trump's highly personal style of diplomacy

Summary: Donald Trump began his presidency as a reluctant traveller but he seems to be getting a taste for it. After his squabbles with the G7 in Canada and his bromance with Kim Jong-un in Singapore, the US president will in a few weeks' time once more venture forth onto the world stage.

James LandaleDiplomatic correspondent@BBCJLandaleon Twitter This time Air Force One will descend on Brussels for the four-yearly summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. And in many European capitals, ministers are already biting their nails. They know they will once again be urged by Mr Trump to spend more on their own defence. But what is worrying them more is the fear that Nato will be the next multilateral international organisation to be subject to the president's diplomatic fire and fury. Last weekend the G7 summit was dominated by Mr Trump's decision to impose trade tariffs on his allies, a divisive act that meant the meeting ended in acrimony. The president signed up to the final communiqué and then withdrew his support, criticising his Canadian host with insulting tweets from Air Force One. And now he has taken the extraordinary step of using this transatlantic trade dispute to cast doubt on his support for Europe's collective defence. "We protect Europe (which is good) at great financial loss, and then get unfairly clobbered on Trade," he tweeted. "Change is coming!" So what might that change be? Well, from the G7 in Canada and the North Korea/US summit in Singapore, we have a clearer perspective of the diplomacy of Donald J Trump. Mr Trump appears to treat most diplomatic problems as he does a business deal. He picks a fight, he escalates it, and then he tries to do a deal. By turns he threatens and he charms, pushing the brinkmanship as far as he can. Thus the sudden announcement that the Singapore summit was to be cancelled and then the equally fast decision to reinstate it. Much of his diplomacy involves personal attacks, such as mocking the North Korean president as "rocket man". He told Fox News this was deliberate: "I think without the rhetoric we wouldn't have been here." Mr Trump's diplomacy also includes the unexpected moments. He likes to surprise his interlocutors as much as his own staff and allies. The initial offer of a summit to the North Koreans came from nowhere. The decision to suspend joint military exercises with the South Koreans came as news to the South Koreans. This diplomacy is all about him: it is instinctive, intuitive, driven by how he feels on the day. Mr Trump said he would know "in the first minute" if President Kim was up for a deal. His is also the diplomacy of the showman: the photo opportunities, the handshakes, the walks in the park. In Singapore, Mr Trump even got his staff to make a celebratory film previewing the summit in the portentous tones of a movie trailer. This is a diplomat who writes his own scripts, raising expectations with seemingly absurd hyperbole and then marking his own homework. After the Singapore summit, Mr Trump tweeted, "there is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea", which came as news to the Japanese and South Koreans. Ah, yes, those tweets: short but not always sweet. Twitter is the vehicle through which Mr Trump largely communicates, a medium he controls without having to bother with State Department diplomats shaping the language. The substance of Mr Trump's diplomacy is as distinctive as the style. At its heart seems to be a rejection of multilateralism. He appears to believe that the US is no longer able to project its power through multilateral institutions like the G7 or the United Nations. He arrived late for the G7 and left early, hardly bothering to hide his impatience. Instead Mr Trump prefers the simplicity of the one-on-one deal, the bilateral discussion between like-minded leaders, the balancing of national interest and power. Mr Trump's diplomacy is not as unique as some might think. He is not the only leader in the world today whose instinct is more national than international. Nor is he the first president to rely on personal chemistry to seal a deal. Think Reagan and Gorbachev in the 1980s. Think Nixon and Mao in the 1970s. Mr Trump is also not the first leader to adopt a foreign policy that plays deliberately to his domestic political base, fulfilling his campaign promises to abandon the Iran nuclear deal and impose tariffs on Chinese steel. So Mr Trump's diplomacy is not unique, but nor is it without risk. At times he seems to act without planning the next steps. In part, this reflects his impulsive character. It also reflects a State Department that is severely understaffed. This was most apparent when the president withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal. The European powers asked the White House what the next move would be from the US. And answer came there none. There was no Plan B to try to seek a new deal with Iran. The fury in Europe was very real. The problem with deals based on Mr Trump's gut instinct is that they may not always be right. There are risks in a diplomacy that is deeply personal. Relations between nations are not just expressed by how well the leaders get on. They are based also on state-to-state engagement, the institutional links and shared values and experience that live on long beyond any individual terms of office. His focus on America's narrow economic and security interests has echoes of the traditional isolationism that dominated US thinking through parts of the 19th and 20th centuries. The German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said in a speech this week: "The Atlantic has become wider under President Trump. His policy of isolationism has left a giant vacuum around the world." Some see in Mr Trump's diplomacy a blurring of distinctions between allies and enemies, a sense that the world is instead full of countries that one chooses to deal with or not. The contrast between Mr Trump's praise for a North Korean dictator with an appalling human rights record and his insults for a traditional ally such as Canada could not be clearer. When asked on Fox News about all the bad things Mr Kim had done, Mr Trump was dismissive: "Yeah, but so have a lot of other people done some really bad things." So this is the diplomacy of President Trump. It is a diplomacy that has got the US and North Korea talking rather than threatening one another with nuclear war; a diplomacy that asks questions of a global internationalism that many believe failed the people of Syria; a diplomacy that surprises, and makes the geopolitical weather. But it is also a diplomacy that seems to divide as much as it unites, a diplomacy that challenges a rules-based international order that many believe constrained the destructive nationalism of the 20th century and brought peace to billions of people. Next stop, the Nato summit in July.

डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प ने अपने राष्ट्रपति पद की शुरुआत एक अनिच्छुक यात्री के रूप में की थी, लेकिन ऐसा लगता है कि उन्हें इसका स्वाद मिल रहा है। कनाडा में जी7 के साथ अपने झगड़ों और सिंगापुर में किम जोंग-उन के साथ अपनी दोस्ती के बाद, अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति कुछ हफ्तों में एक बार फिर विश्व मंच पर उतरेंगे।


Review of Guernsey's government to go ahead

Summary: A special committee will be formed to review the structure of Guernsey's government after the agreement of States members.

Deputies voted 41-1 for the review that will be conducted after the election in April. The committee of six will be headed by the chief minister and include two non-States members. It is due to report back in 2014 with firm recommendations for any reform it deems necessary.

राज्यों के सदस्यों की सहमति के बाद ग्वेर्नसे की सरकार की संरचना की समीक्षा के लिए एक विशेष समिति का गठन किया जाएगा।


Are spoof Twitter accounts at risk?

Summary: Twitter - a place where you can start a spoof account and have a bit of fun while being sure your anonymity will be preserved, right? Wrong. The case of @unstevedorkland shows that nobody can be that confident that they can mock a powerful organisation and get away with it.

Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter The Twitter account in question is a somewhat crude - to some eyes offensive - exercise designed to mock Steve Auckland, the Chief Executive of Northcliffe Media, a regional newspaper business owned by the Daily Mail group. Last week the blogger Guido Fawkes revealed that Northcliffe had taken legal action to try to force Twitter to unmask whoever was behind the account - and yesterday he followed up with news that the user had been warned his or her details would be handed over on 1 August. Guido's verdict was that the individual in question was being "hung out to dry by a billion dollar US company." And indeed it seemed that Twitter had caved in under pressure from the Northcliffe assault. But a closer look shows that Twitter has done what it does with all court orders - complied with the law while alerting those affected. Just as it did when the US authorities sought details of people connected with Wikileaks, or a British local authority tried to unmask an allegedly libellous account, the social network has informed "@unstevedorkland" about the progress of the legal action. In all such cases, Twitter believes it has to comply with a ruling from courts in its Californian home, but give those targeted the information they need to get a lawyer and defend themselves. What's more, the person behind the @unstevedorkland account contacted my colleague Dave Lee to reveal that Twitter had suggested that the civil liberties group the Electronic Freedom Frontier might help in the case. Still, this is really sobering for anyone who thinks their anonymity is safe on the servers of a giant corporation based in a land where free speech is supposedly guaranteed by the First Amendment. The American courts, it seems, are fairly welcoming to those seeking to unmask people they accuse of doing them harm. Two other spoof Twitter accounts come to mind. @Queen_UK purports to be our monarch, and portrays Her Majesty quite affectionately as a gin-swilling granny with a mischievous take on the world. Typical tweet - "One would report that one is enjoying an olympic sized gin, but one doesn't have the necessary sponsorship rights." Then there is our own dear The Killing Station (@killingstation), an account set up in tribute to Television Centre's very fine BBC staff catering facility, the Filling Station. It mocks both the food on offer and prominent BBC correspondents. Here's a typical offering: "What's so bleedin' special about our Special Correspondents? Apart from the fact that they never say please or thank you. Never. Ever. Rude." All good fun - but what if Buckingham Palace or the BBC decided that they were not amused, that these spoof accounts were in fact offensive and constituted harassment of staff? Then both organisations could go to court in California and have a good chance of forcing Twitter to unmask the people behind @Queen_UK or @killingstation. Which brings us back to Northcliffe Media. A spokeswoman for the company told me that the legal action was not a sense of humour failure but an attempt to protect staff from a stream of offensive remarks which constituted the kind of harassment no employer would tolerate. If the tweets were really that offensive, I am not clear why Northcliffe did not take the matter to the police in the UK, who have investigated similar matters, rather than resort to the American courts. And if the account was really masquerading as someone else, then the company could have asked Twitter to take it down. If Northcliffe Media hoped to make the problem go away, then the strategy has failed. Before the legal action @unstevedorkland had just 150 followers. Now 850 people are reading the account's tweets and the case is attracting global attention. The Daily Mail group, which owns Northcliffe, has a very clever online operation which is winning big audiences around the world for a diet of celebrity news and gossip - but this is one story which it did not want to take off.

ट्विटर-एक ऐसी जगह जहाँ आप एक नकली खाता शुरू कर सकते हैं और यह सुनिश्चित करते हुए थोड़ा मज़ा ले सकते हैं कि आपकी गुमनामी बरकरार रखी जाएगी, है ना? गलत। @unstevedorkland के मामले से पता चलता है कि कोई भी इतना आश्वस्त नहीं हो सकता है कि वे एक शक्तिशाली संगठन का मजाक उड़ा सकते हैं और उससे बच सकते हैं।


India monsoon floods kill 34 in Uttarakhand

Summary: Rescuers are searching for bodies in the debris of destroyed homes in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand where 34 people have been killed by heavy monsoon rains.

The downpours which started on Thursday triggered landslides and flash floods. Many rivers were running above the danger mark, officials said. And 23 workers of the state-run Assi Ganga hydro-electric project, who went missing on Saturday after a cloudburst, have been declared dead. The men went missing in the Uttarkashi district. Members of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and state police have joined the rescue effort in the state where hundreds of homes have been washed away and more than 2,000 have taken shelter in relief camps. Torrential rains have also hit the nearby Indian state of Himachal Pradesh and parts of the Jammu region in Indian-administered Kashmir, officials said.

बचावकर्मी उत्तरी भारतीय राज्य उत्तराखंड में नष्ट हुए घरों के मलबे में शवों की तलाश कर रहे हैं, जहां भारी मानसूनी बारिश से 34 लोगों की मौत हो गई है।


The women scientists who took India into space

Summary: Two years ago, as Indian scientists successfully put a satellite into orbit around Mars, a photograph that went viral showed women dressed in gorgeous saris with flowers in their hair celebrating at the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) in the southern city of Bangalore.

It was reported that the ecstatic women were scientists and the photograph challenged the stereotype that rocket science in India was a male preserve. Isro later clarified that the celebrating women were administrative staff, but it went on to add that there indeed were several women scientists who had worked on the mission and were in the control room at the time of the launch. The BBC's Geeta Pandey recently travelled to Bangalore to meet some of the women who have taken India into space. Ritu Karidhal, Deputy Operations Director, Mars Orbiter Mission As a little girl growing up in the northern Indian city of Lucknow, Ms Karidhal was an avid sky watcher who "used to wonder about the size of the moon, why it increases and decreases. I wanted to know what lay behind the dark spaces". A student of science who loved physics and maths, she scoured the daily newspapers for information about Nasa and Isro projects, collected news clippings, and read every little detail about anything related to space science. After getting her postgraduate degree, "I applied for a job at Isro and that's how I became a space scientist", she says. It's now been 18 years and Ms Karidhal has worked on several projects at Isro, including the prestigious Mars mission, which has thrust her and her colleagues into the limelight. The mission began in April 2012 and the scientists only had 18 months to capture Mars. "It was a very small window, so the big challenge was to realise the project in that time. We had no heritage of interplanetary missions, so we had a lot to do in that short period." Why is Bangalore stuck in traffic jams? Why India's Mars mission is so cheap - and thrilling Did Clinton win more votes than any white man in history? Although women scientists were part of the mission right from the time of conception, Ms Karidhal says its success was due to the team effort. "We used to sit with the engineers, everyone would brainstorm, irrespective of the time, we often worked the weekends. A mother of two young children, Ms Karidhal says it was not easy to maintain a work-life balance but "I got the support I needed from my family, my husband and my siblings". "At the time, my son was 11 and my daughter was five. We had to multi-task, manage time better, but I think that even when I was exhausted at work, I'd go home and see my children and spend time enjoying with them, and I'd feel better and they would also like it." It's often said that "men are from Mars while women are from Venus" but following the success of the Mars mission, many dubbed India's women scientists the "women from Mars". "I am a woman from earth, an Indian woman who got an amazing opportunity," Ms Karidhal says. "Mars mission was an achievement, but we need to do a lot more. The country needs a lot more from us so that the benefit reaches the last man." And who better than women scientists to do that? Nandini Harinath, Deputy Operations Director, Mars Orbiter Mission Ms Harinath's first exposure to science was Star Trek on television. "My mother is a maths teacher and my father is an engineer with a great liking for physics and as a family we were all so fond of Star Trek and science fiction and we would sit together and watch it on TV." Of course, at the time, she never thought of becoming a space scientist and for her, Isro "just happened". "It was the first job I applied for and I got through. It's been 20 years now and there's been no looking back." Being part of the Mars mission was a high point of her life. "It was very important for India, not just for Isro. It's put us on a different pedestal, foreign countries are looking at us for collaborations and the importance and attention we got was justified. "It was also the first time Isro allowed the public to look at what was happening inside, we were on social media, we had our own Facebook page, and the world took notice. "I feel proud of our achievement. Sometimes, I feel honoured and flattered, but sometimes I'm also embarrassed," she says, laughing. "But now the way people look at you, it's very different. People recognise you for being a scientist. And I'm enjoying it thoroughly." Ms Harinath says she takes "immense pride" in Mangalyan and was "really thrilled" to see it's photograph on the new 2,000 rupee notes. But it was not an easy assignment and the work days were long. In the beginning, the scientists worked about 10 hours a day, but as the launch date came closer, it went up to 12 to 14 hours. "During the launch, I don't think we went home at all. We'd come in the morning, spend the day and night, probably go home for a short time the next afternoon to eat and sleep for a few hours and come back. But for an important mission like that which is time bound, we needed to work like that. "We spent many sleepless nights. We encountered lots of problems as we progressed, in the design as well as in the mission. But it was coming up with quick solutions, innovation that was brought in that was key." To make matters worse, her daughter's crucial school leaving exams fell right in the middle of the mission. "Those few months were very demanding at work and at home. It looked like a race at the time. I'd wake up at 4am with my daughter to give her company while she studied. But now, we look back on that time with fondness. She did extremely well in her exams, scoring 100 in maths. Today, she's in medical school and is doing really well so I think it was all worth the effort." I ask if we can call her the "woman from Mars". "I want to be grounded to earth. It's important to remain so, to bring out the best in a person," she says. "The Mars mission was a huge achievement, but that's past now. We need to look into the future, to see what more we can do. We have the entire cosmic neighbourhood waiting to be explored. There are so many planets, so it's time to venture out." Anuradha TK, Geosat Programme Director at Isro Satellite Centre For this senior-most woman officer at Isro, the sky is the limit - she specialises in sending communication satellites into space that sit at least 36,000km from the earth's centre. The scientist who has worked with Isro for the past 34 years first thought about space when she was nine. "It was the Apollo launch, when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. We had no television in those days, so I heard about it from my parents and teachers. It really ignited the imagination. I wrote a poem on a man landing on the moon in Kannada, my native language." Considered a role model by other women scientists at Isro, Ms Anuradha disagrees that women and science don't gel. "I never liked subjects where I needed to remember a lot and science looked logical to me. I don't believe that Indian girls think science is not meant for them and I think maths is their favourite subject." When she joined Isro in 1982, there were only a few women and even fewer in its engineering department. "In my batch, five-six women engineers joined Isro. We stood out and everyone knew us. Today, more than 20-25% of Isro's over 16,000 employees are women and we no longer feel special," she laughs. At Isro, she says, gender is not an issue and the recruitment and promotional policies are all dependent on "what we know and what we contribute". "Sometimes I say that I forget that I'm a woman here. You don't get any special treatment because you're a woman, you're also not discriminated against because you're a woman. You're treated as an equal here." She laughs at the suggestion that her colleagues consider her an inspiration, but agrees that having more women in workplace can be a motivating factor for other women. "Once girls see that there are lots of women in the space programme, they also get motivated, they think if she can do it, so can they." Although the numbers of women staff has been consistently growing at Isro, it is still way below the halfway mark. That's because "we are still carrying cultural loads on our backs and many women think their priorities lie elsewhere, at home", she says. Her advice to women who want to be rocket scientists is simple: "make arrangements". "Once I had made up my mind that I needed a purposeful career where my passion lay, I created a good set up at home. My husband and my parents-in-law were always cooperative, so I didn't have to worry much about my children. "And I owe my success to the arrangements I made. You have to give something to get something. But life is like that. So when there was work to do, when I was needed at the office, I was here, working with passion. And when there was an absolute need for me to be at home, I was there." Geeta Pandey recently spent ten days working on a series of stories in Bangalore. This is her second report.

दो साल पहले, जब भारतीय वैज्ञानिकों ने मंगल ग्रह के चारों ओर सफलतापूर्वक एक उपग्रह को स्थापित किया, तो वायरल हुई एक तस्वीर में महिलाओं को सुंदर साड़ियों में अपने बालों में फूलों के साथ दक्षिणी शहर बैंगलोर में भारतीय अंतरिक्ष अनुसंधान संगठन (इसरो) में जश्न मनाते हुए दिखाया गया था।


Ardern and Bhutto: Two different pregnancies in power

Summary: Now that New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has hit world headlines by becoming only the second elected head of government to give birth in office, attention has naturally been drawn to the first such leader - Pakistan's late two-time Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

By M Ilyas KhanBBC News, Islamabad And there are some interesting coincidences here. Ms Ardern's baby girl was delivered on 21 June - the very day Bhutto was born 65 five years earlier, in 1953. Also, Ms Ardern is 37, as was Bhutto when she gave birth to her daughter Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari on 25 January 1990. In a tweet on Thursday, Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari congratulated Ms Ardern. Bhutto had been in office for just over a year, while Ms Ardern has been in power just under a year. But that's where the similarities end. Ms Ardern announced her pregnancy a good six months before her expected delivery date. She has also taken six weeks' maternity leave and passed her duties to her deputy. Bhutto kept her pregnancy secret and returned to work as soon as her doctor would allow. Not only was the country not told about her pregnancy, even colleagues were kept in the dark. "None of us in the cabinet virtually knew that this prime minister was about to deliver a baby," Javed Jabbar, a member of her cabinet, later told the BBC. "And then lo-and-behold suddenly we learn that she has not only gone and delivered democracy, she's also delivered a baby." Bhutto was in stormy political waters at the time. When Bakhtawar was born, a military-funded right-wing alliance was besieging her government. She had just survived a no-confidence vote, triggered by some of Pakistan's former ISI intelligence officials. They had tried to buy off Bhutto's supporters in parliament. And she was struggling to build support to undo the discretionary powers of the president to sack an elected government. The ISI operation, codenamed Midnight Jackal, was revealed, and the move failed, but Bhutto couldn't undo the presidential powers. So when she became pregnant she did not go public with the news and did not take maternity leave. In fact, she had a quick Caesarean section performed by her gynaecologist and returned to work soon afterwards. "The next day I was back on the job, reading government papers and signing government files," Bhutto later wrote. "Only later did I learn that I was the only head of government in recorded history actually to give birth while in office. "It was a defining moment, especially for young women, proving that a woman could work and have a baby in the highest and most challenging leadership positions." 'Motherhood, domesticity and glamour' The dangers inherent in Pakistani politics, unlike those of New Zealand, can be gauged from the fact that months after Bakhtawar's birth, then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan used his powers to dismiss her government. And a centrally rigged election paved the way for a rival alliance to come to power later that year. Opposition leader Syeda Abida Hussain had called Bhutto "greedy" and accused her of wanting to have "motherhood, domesticity and glamour" rather than serving her country. Bhutto's other two children were born in similar conditions, shrouded in secrecy. In May 1988, military ruler Gen Zia sacked the government and announced elections for November that year. Bhutto was then pregnant with her first child, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. It is widely held that Gen Zia announced elections for November because intelligence reports said Bhutto would then be in the last months of her pregnancy and therefore unable to conduct an effective campaign. But the news of Bilawal's birth hit the headlines in September, sending a wave of excitement on the election scene. It was said that Bhutto had deliberately spread wrong information about when her delivery was due. You may also like:

अब जब न्यूजीलैंड की प्रधान मंत्री जैसिंडा अर्डर्न कार्यालय में जन्म देने वाली सरकार की केवल दूसरी निर्वाचित प्रमुख बनकर दुनिया की सुर्खियों में आ गई हैं, तो स्वाभाविक रूप से इस तरह के पहले नेता-पाकिस्तान की दिवंगत दो बार की प्रधान मंत्री बेनजीर भुट्टो की ओर ध्यान आकर्षित किया गया है।


Nato boosts Baltic force, but local leaders want more

Summary: There has been an American invasion of a former Soviet Airbase in the middle of Lithuania. They are, of course, invited guests - more than 100 US Air Force personnel, along with F-15 fighter jets and a Nato early-warning radar plane with its characteristic mushroom-shaped dish on top.

By Jonathan BealeDefence correspondent, BBC News These days, residents of the nearby town of Siauliai are more worried about uninvited guests from the east. And in fellow former Soviet state Ukraine, they have just seen their worst fears confirmed. Lithuania's Defence Minister Juozas Olekas does not describe it as a new Cold War. To him, he says, "it feels hot and very near", adding that Nato must to do more to stop what he calls "this aggression". Warplanes from the Russian Federation already fly close to nervous Baltic states. Their arrival is often unannounced and invisible to civil air traffic controllers. The Russian air force rarely submits flight plans or "squawks" communication signals while in the air. Sometimes it can seem as if they were carrying out a combat mission, though they're not technically breaking any rules. The warplanes avoid Nato airspace, following a narrow corridor over the Baltic Sea. Sometimes they turn towards Kaliningrad - the small Russian enclave between Lithuania and Poland, now joined by Crimea as a Russian-controlled quirk of the map. At Nato's Combined Air Operations Centre, deep in the countryside of northern Germany, they pool the resources of all the alliance's military radar to track the Russian activity. The base in Uedem is surrounded by wire and patrolled by guards with dogs. We are taken past bunkers covered by grass, before being given a rare glimpse inside one of the operations rooms. More than a dozen staff in different Nato camouflage uniforms and speaking a variety of accents are closely monitoring computerised maps showing scores of white dots. Here they can track every single plane flying in area stretching from the Alps in the south right to the northern tip of Norway. Gp Capt Stephen Richards of the UK's RAF is the air operations commander at Uedem. He tells me that over the years they have seen a gradual increase in war plane activity, consistent with what he calls "Russian ambition" - and President Vladimir Putin's increased defence spending. Now they are spotted virtually every week. Asked if he is worried by it, he says he is not, but adds "we need to be aware". From Uedem they can scramble fighter jets right across northern Europe. Back in Lithuania, an alarm sounds at the F 15 fighters' temporary home - pilots aim to be in the air within fifteen minutes. They're here because the small Baltic states, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, lack sufficient aircraft to police their own skies. So Nato's wealthier members take turns doing it for them. Normally they send four jets, but this time the US has sent ten F-15s. And suddenly there have been offers of more planes from half a dozen countries, including the UK, Denmark and France. Lt Col Lendy Reneger, US Air Force commander at the base in Lithuania, says the alliance's response to recent events has been "swift and strong". He says there's no more powerful message than showing "air superiority", though he carefully avoids naming Russia. He also declines to answer when I ask him if he or his pilots have spotted any Russian warplanes up close during their patrols. "I can't comment on the specifics of the operation," he says. Nato is keen to stress that, in a nervous post-9/11 world, air policing is as much about investigating suspicious civilian aircraft as it is about facing off against old enemies. And, up in the air, the F-15s show us how they would deal with an unidentified plane. From a Lithuanian transport plane we watch as two of the US fighters pull up alongside and signal for us to land. For this exercise they have been joined by two Swedish Grippen fighters. The Swedish Air Force was embarrassed last year when they failed to scramble when a Russian bomber flew close to their coast. It was Easter and they were on leave. They do not want to be caught napping again. The Baltic states, on the other hand, have always been quick to identify threats from their eastern neighbour. Maj Gen Edvardas Mazeikis, the head of the Lithuanian air force, says "of course we feel threatened," before adding that it is not yet "the enemy at our gate". He thinks Nato's response to the crisis has been correct, but his defence minister wants more. Juozas Olekas says Nato should have a permanent presence, including ground troops, in the Baltic states. But therein lies a dilemma for the alliance's leaders. Would more reassurance for its smallest members be a catalyst for another Cold War?

लिथुआनिया के बीच में एक पूर्व सोवियत एयरबेस पर अमेरिकी आक्रमण हुआ है। वे, निश्चित रूप से, आमंत्रित अतिथि हैं-100 से अधिक अमेरिकी वायु सेना के कर्मी, एफ-15 लड़ाकू विमानों और एक नाटो पूर्व-चेतावनी रडार विमान के साथ इसके विशिष्ट मशरूम के आकार के व्यंजन के साथ।


The end of Yahoo: Why Verizon spent big

Summary: Yahoo was the first website I ever visited. My Dad took me and my brother to an internet cafe in central London, and there it was - an exciting portal to the world wide web. Without it we'd have been completely lost.

Dave LeeNorth America technology reporter That hand-holding portal was at one point worth a staggering $125bn. Today, it was sold for $4.83bn (£3.7bn) to US mobile network Verizon. That's a remarkable amount of money for a company whose name has become shorthand for online businesses falling from grace. Last quarter, Yahoo lost $440m. It may have made its name by helping us make sense of the web, but it's long been clear that other companies do that job far better, and make much more money doing it. But Verizon won't care about that. They want eyeballs. Bums on seats. People through the door… and on that measure, Yahoo delivers. Collectively, around a billion people flow through Yahoo's sprawl of web properties at least once a month. Verizon is now likely to merge Yahoo with AOL, the company it bought last year for $4.4bn. A Yahoo-AOL pairing has been expected for years. The companies are like two high school friends who everyone knew would eventually get together, but only when the time was right. Or maybe when they were both a bit desperate. Anyway, Verizon's strategy in marrying the companies is to create a massive content network of well-respected web properties. Sites like Huffington Post, Engadget, Yahoo Finance and TechCrunch will now all deliver advertising for Verizon, advertising that can be more effectively targeted given what Verizon knows about its mobile customers. It will help Verizon compete with Google and Facebook, who are way out in front when it comes to market domination of online advertising. But such is the size of the industry, being in third place would be extremely lucrative for Verizon. That's what this deal is all about, and that's why Yahoo commanded such a big price tag even though it has dropped off most people's radars in recent years. Yahoo couldn't do it alone - it simply doesn't have enough data on its one billion or so monthly users to target and personalise ads in the way Google and Facebook can. More Mayer The deal has concluded a four-month selling process that caught the attention of many interested parties, including rival phone network AT&T and, to many people's surprise, the Daily Mail. Many expected the deal to see Marissa Mayer's rollercoaster tenure as Yahoo's boss come to an end. She could have reportedly taken a $55m severance payment, but even that extremely pleasant send off did not tempt her to leave a company that she declared her love for in an email detailing the deal. But there's no doubt she'll be wishing her time at Yahoo had been a more successful one. It was a rocky road - her appointment in 2012 was enthusiastically welcomed, not only due to her formidable past at Google, but also as her ability to act as a flag-bearer for women running big companies in Silicon Valley. For that reason, her time at Yahoo may have had added scrutiny, but her time at the company has been unquestionably disappointing on many levels. Big acquisitions - like Tumblr, for $1bn - simply didn't bring in enough extra revenue. And the site's big gamble in trying to become a news organisation never hit the level of success Mayer presumably envisioned. Even with the help of the highly-respected US anchor Katie Couric, and scooping of "traditional" media big names such as David Pogue from the New York Times, the amount of traffic going to Yahoo's original content hasn't come close to justifying the cost of bringing in the big talent. Responsibility for that lies squarely at Mayer's feet, and it all led to the bizarre situation where she was working hard to put herself out of a job by pushing through Yahoo's sale. On this final task, she'll will perhaps be commended. It's not often a major tech acquisition takes place so publicly, with boardroom discussions seeping out of the walls and into the press regularly. But it seems the process was effective in pushing up Yahoo's share price and moving Verizon to pay an extra $1.8bn on its opening bid. We'll hear more concrete details from Verizon in due course. It may keep using the highly recognisable Yahoo brand, it may not. Regardless, Yahoo as a company is finished - and everybody saw it coming. Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC and on Facebook

याहू पहली वेबसाइट थी जहाँ मैं गया था। मेरे पिता मुझे और मेरे भाई को मध्य लंदन में एक इंटरनेट कैफे में ले गए, और वहाँ यह था-वर्ल्ड वाइड वेब के लिए एक रोमांचक पोर्टल। इसके बिना हम पूरी तरह से खो गए होते।


Adventurer Sarah Outen takes on the world

Summary: Adventurer Sarah Outen started her latest expedition in April 2011 aiming to "loop the planet" using only a kayak, bike and ocean rowing boat. Almost half-way through her challenge three years later, what keeps her going?

By Eric SimpsonBBC News Ms Outen's face wrinkles into a grin and she tries to suppress a laugh as she sums up what drives her. "I'm stubborn," she says in a matter-of-fact voice. Her kayaking partner Justine Curgenven, who has accompanied her on two short kayaking legs - first across the English Channel and again from Russia to Japan - agrees with Outen's self-analysis. "She has the stamina and perseverance of 20 oxen and a positive can-do attitude that has me laughing at the direst situation," Ms Curgenven says. The pair have just started the next leg of the trek that Ms Outen now calls her "massive beast" which will take them 1,400 miles (2,250km) along the Aleutian Island chain in a daunting kayaking adventure. Ms Curgenven lists a few of the challenges as "strong currents, raging tides, relentless winds, thick fog, long crossings, rocky landings, unchartered waters and hundreds of miles with no people". Ms Outen estimates her entire trek - which has already taken her through deserts and tundra - will total more than 7,500 nautical miles (8,630 miles/13,888km) before it is finished. Finger puppet Ms Outen, 28, proposed to her partner Oxfordshire farmer Lucy Allen by satellite phone during her 150-day crossing of the Pacific last year. She did not get a chance to celebrate with her fiancée in person until she arrived in England several months later - where she rested up for the next stage of her trek. She had mixed emotions as she prepared to leave England for the next challenge in late April. She tweeted: "That wonderful heady feeling of 'part-wired, part-tired, part-stoked, part-emotional' as we wait for our flight." Six months earlier, she was alone in her rowing boat, Happy Socks, in the middle of the Pacific with her only companion - a knitted finger puppet called Chimpy. He, she says, represents her own "inner self" - or the impulsive part of her personality. The long stretches of her trip that she spends alone present another daunting set of challenges that Ms Outen must tackle. At times, shouting and calling out loud to her family and friends and trying to focus on "positive thoughts" were "very powerful" ways to help her through the dark days, she says. The underlying motivation for the round-the world challenge, which will take her across Canada and the North Atlantic before she lands back in England sometime in 2015, is certainly not "fortune". She says she will not make any money directly from her trip - even the fees she gets for speaking engagements will go to pay for expenses - adding "there is a good chance that a loan will be taken out at some point". But she clearly feels invigorated by her ocean treks. Back in 2007, she had already rowed across the Indian Ocean from Australia to Mauritiusto raise money for arthritis research after the death of her father. After witnessing his struggle with poor health, she wrote in her 2011 book, A Dip in the Ocean: "Life is too short to wait and health too precious to waste". She is also driven by a desire to inspire children to explore the world - not necessarily by rowing the Atlantic like her but perhaps by simply exploring the countryside where they live. One of her goals after completing the "London2London: Via the World" challenge is to train as a teacher and establish a centre with her fiancée "to help children connect with nature". Ms Outen, who grew up in Rutland but now lives in Oxfordshire, said she faced some demons at the end of her Pacific crossing. That came as she set a record as the first woman to row singlehandedly across the Pacific from Japan to Alaska. "I came off the Pacific Ocean pretty exhausted," she says. "I was carrying a few infections by the end of the row and after two weeks over there - I came back to the UK and spent four days in hospital. "I was really excited when they said it wasn't blood clots - and that it was pneumonia." But she did question her ability to carry on as her allergies were "all over the place" and her immune system was under strain from months of intense physical activity. And the adventurer is aware of the sacrifices she will need to make - she has already missed her brother's wedding and will miss the birth of her first nephew or niece. But she has decided to return to her dream and take on the Aleutian Islands before biking across Canada and the US with the goal of raising as much as she can for her four main charities: CoppaFeel!, Jubilee Sailing Trust, MND (Motor Neurone Disease) Association and WaterAid. In a section of her online blog in early-2014, she said: "For a while lately it had all felt a bit much and I questioned whether it was all worth it." She added: "The challenges of late and the painful thought of leaving my fiancée Lucy again are just hurdles to find a way round - not reasons to call it a day". And Ms Allen is quite clear why she thinks her partner is attracted to adventure. "She loves nature, wildlife, the excitement, the unknown, the 'what's next round the corner', the people, places and being in wild untouched places and sharing her journey," she said. And Ms Allen hopes to join her partner for a few months during the overland stage in North America - if she can get time off from farming.

एडवेंचरर सारा आउटन ने अप्रैल 2011 में अपना नवीनतम अभियान शुरू किया जिसका उद्देश्य केवल एक कयाक, बाइक और समुद्री नौकायन नाव का उपयोग करके "ग्रह को घुमाना" था। तीन साल बाद अपनी चुनौती से लगभग आधे रास्ते पर, वह क्या है जो उसे आगे बढ़ाता है?