Covid in Scotland: I'm over 80 and waiting for my vaccine

Summary: Scottish ministers say they are on track to vaccinate all the country's over-80s by early next month - but despite the assurances it is an anxious time for elderly people and their loved ones.

Malcolm Murray is 83 and he should be in line to get a first dose of the Covid vaccine before the end of the first week in February. But he has not yet had a call from his local GP surgery in Edinburgh and he's worried he may have a long wait to get the jab. The surgery has said it will be in touch to arrange an appointment but he said: "I got the impression it wouldn't be anytime soon". A total of 13% of over 80s had received their first dose by last weekend. To meet the Scottish government's revised target, another 234,000 people in that age bracket will have to be vaccinated by 5 February - the equivalent of 70,000 people a week. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Friday that management figures show 34% of over 80s in Scotland had received their first dose. BMA Scotland says the "ambitious" target is achievable if GPs get adequate vaccine supplies. The Scottish government remains "very confident" it can meet the deadline providing the supplies are available. Ms Sturgeon insists the strategy of vaccinating care home residents first - in line with the advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation - is the best way of protecting the most vulnerable. Focus has now switched from vaccinating care home residents, where about 90% have received their first dose to the over-80s in the community. However, the Scottish Conservatives have criticised the rollout, claiming doses are sitting in "depots and collection points" rather than being injected into people's arms. 'Dependent on supplies' Mr Murray said that when he first contacted his surgery in the west of the capital, he was told he was in a group due to receive his vaccine before 31 March. "I thought this was odd," he said. "Nicola Sturgeon has just announced a date for my age group that was a lot earlier." When he contacted the practice again, he was told they had started vaccinations "but when I'd get seen was dependent on supplies". "They said they'll get in touch when they're ready for my vaccination but I got the impression it wouldn't be anytime soon," he said. "And speaking to other people I know in my position, I can't see it being finished by the start of February." BBC Scotland also spoke to the daughter of a 92-year-old woman in East Kilbride who has had no notification from her doctor about the vaccine. Wishing to remain anonymous, she said: "My mum is 92 but she is housebound so she is still waiting for her vaccine. "I understand that the logistics of delivering the vaccine to people in their own homes is more involved but if she was given a date it would be helpful. "She is on the shielding list and I haven't seen her since last March. "She waits by the phone and for the postman every day hoping to hear something. She is worried she has been missed." Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross told BBC Scotland he had been contacted by GPs ready to roll-out the vaccine but they do not have the doses available. "There are hundreds of thousands of vaccines available in Scotland and they're not getting into people's arms at the moment," he said. "They are sitting in depots and collection points and we know there are GP surgeries that they are ready to vaccinate but they don't have the supply. Dr Andrew Buist, who chairs the Scottish general practitioners committee at the BMA, said the over-80s vaccination target could be met "as long as we have improved reliability in vaccine supply". "GPs stand ready to roll this vaccine out to their patients in the priority groups, but can only do it if they have adequate supplies of the vaccine," he added. "There have been encouraging promises on supplies reaching GP practices over the next few weeks from the Scottish government - we now need to make sure that matches the picture on the ground and in surgeries across the country. "We all knew this wouldn't be an easy task, but by working with health boards and the Scottish government on supply, I remain confident we can deliver it." Speaking at Thursday's coronavirus briefing, Deputy First Minister John Swinney said that the government was "very confident" the mechanisms were in place to meet the 5 February deadline "providing the supplies come through to us". He went on to say the government would be happy to engage in further discussions to ensure the supply of the vaccine is as "smooth as it can possibly be". Use the form below to send us your questions and we could be in touch. In some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read the terms and conditions. Your contact info I am over 16 years old I accept the Terms of Service If you are reading this page on the BBC News app, you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question on this topic.

स्कॉटिश मंत्रियों का कहना है कि वे अगले महीने की शुरुआत तक देश के सभी 80 से अधिक उम्र के लोगों का टीकाकरण करने की राह पर हैं-लेकिन आश्वासन के बावजूद यह बुजुर्गों और उनके प्रियजनों के लिए एक चिंता का समय है।


Long running curse of bovine TB in countryside

Summary: It is a curse, lurking in our countryside.

By Steffan MessengerBBC Wales Environment Correspondent For decades, bovine TB has been ruining livelihoods in rural Wales, leading to the slaughter of tens of thousands of cattle. It has also been responsible for a fraught and sometimes bitter war of words between campaigners about how best to tackle the threat it poses. That debate looks set to resurface on Tuesday as the Welsh Government announces a "refreshed approach" to combating the disease. It promises to target different areas of Wales and use the "most appropriate and effective" control measures. Farming leaders want to see the inclusion of a badger cull in the new plans, a move fiercely opposed by wildlife groups. As part of the Welsh Government's most recent TB eradication programme, farmers face regular testing and restrictions on moving their cattle. Since it was launched in 2008, there has been a 37% reduction in incidents of bovine TB. But the issue is concentrated, with far higher incidence levels in west Wales and along the border with England. And a sharp rise in the number of cattle being killed in recent years has caused alarm in farming circles. In the year to July, 9,492 cows were lost to TB - a trend increasing since 2013. The Welsh Government said this was as a result of stricter and more sensitive testing regimes. Farming unions say it is pointless to keep killing cattle without tackling the "reservoir of infection" in badgers. The issue of whether to initiate a cull has been one of the longest running sagas in the history of the Welsh Assembly. Plans were abandoned in 2012 in favour of a five-year project to vaccinate badgers in north Pembrokeshire. But that is now on hold due to a global shortage of the TB jab. The need for "robust action" to eradicate the disease is all the more urgent given the UK's vote to leave the EU, according to both the Farmers' Union of Wales (FUW) and NFU Cymru. Their argument is that post-Brexit trade deals relating to Welsh meat could be put at risk without sought after "TB free" status. In England and Northern Ireland, badger culls are taking place in areas badly affected by TB, while Scotland has been free of the infection since 2009. Alan Davies, FUW managing director, said there were big expectations within the industry for Welsh Government to deliver a badger cull. "The farmers of Wales will be expecting to hear something really positive. "We've had an absolute vacuum in the last 10 months since the cancellation of the vaccination programme - so now there's real expectation that there will be a practical programme for improving the situation. "But more than that there is an urgent need to address the situation as the state of TB in Wales could be a real threat to negotiations with Europe post-Brexit. "I don't want our members to feel like they're being let down by politicians when the messages have been so clear for a very long time and a very new, significant threat is on the table that really does in my opinion justify a significant shift in policy." Opponents of culling argue there is no evidence it is effective. Prof Rosie Woodroffe, from the Zoological Society of London, said the Welsh Government had taken "a leadership role within Britain in using scientific evidence in developing their TB control polices". "They've done a fantastic job and are the envy of England in cracking down on cattle-to-cattle transmission, which is estimated to be responsible for 94% of new TB cases," she said. "I know that there is pressure to cull badgers in Wales, but I think that would be a retrograde step." A recent study by Prof Woodroffe and her team at several sites in Cornwall suggested the disease spread to cows after they came into contact with infected faeces and urine, rather than directly with badgers. The findings, she claims, have big implications for how farmers manage the environment on their land. "Bovine TB is a massive, chronic problem for farmers, causing real suffering. The reason why we're at this relatively early stage in trying to understand how it's transmitted is down to the technology," she said. "The new work we're doing trying to look for bacteria in the environment is only made available due to modern techniques. Hopefully, this new dawn of research methods will help us solve an age-old problem and hopefully make things better for farmers." TB TIMELINE 2002 - Mounting concern about TB in cattle, with 127 cases confirmed by May, compared to 150 during the whole of 2000. 2005 - Legal responsibility for animal health and welfare is devolved from Westminster to the Welsh Government. The first chief veterinary officer for Wales - Prof Christianne Glossop - is appointed. 2006 - The principal legislation for TB in Wales comes into force. Mandatory pre-movement cattle testing is introduced. 2008 - The TB eradication programme is launched with the aim of eradicating bovine TB in Wales. A target badger cull is announced by the then coalition government between Plaid Cymru and Labour. 2009 - Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones reveals the cull will take place in a TB hotspot in west Wales - the intensive action area (ITA). She tells the Assembly bovine TB is "out of control" in Wales. 2010 - The cull is quashed in the Court of Appeal because the terms of the cull order apply to the whole of Wales when the evidence of a consultation only supported a cull in the intensive area. 2011 - The newly-elected Labour government puts the idea of a cull on hold and commissions a review of the science. 2012 - The Welsh Government drops plans for a cull - announcing a five-year badger vaccination project in the ITA in south West Wales. Farming unions attack "a cowardly betrayal" while the RSPCA said it was "delighted and relieved". 2015 - The vaccination trial in Pembrokeshire is suspended due to a global shortage of the TB jab. 2016 - Prof Glossop tells BBC Wales bovine TB is "single biggest problem" facing animal health and welfare in a generation. Farming unions renew calls for badger cull.

यह एक अभिशाप है, जो हमारे ग्रामीण इलाकों में छिपा हुआ है।


Channel Tunnel workers suffer carbon monoxide poisoning

Summary: Nineteen workers have suffered carbon monoxide poisoning while working overnight in the Channel Tunnel, with one of them in a serious condition, French officials have said.

The incident happened as some 60 workers were changing rail tracks on the line between Calais, France, and Folkestone, UK. A welder was taken ill in the early hours of Sunday and carbon monoxide poisoning was later diagnosed. Tunnel traffic was unaffected. Eighteen other workers have also been taken ill. They were sent to local French hospitals to give them "the time needed to remove the carbon monoxide from their system", an official said, adding their condition was not a cause for concern. The 41 other workers went home. An investigation has been launched into the cause of the incident.

फ्रांसीसी अधिकारियों ने कहा है कि चैनल टनल में रात भर काम करते हुए उन्नीस श्रमिकों को कार्बन मोनोऑक्साइड विषाक्तता का सामना करना पड़ा है, जिनमें से एक की हालत गंभीर है।


What is China doing to tackle its air pollution?

Summary: The air in much of China is so bad the government has repeatedly declared "war" on it. The enemy are tiny particulates which spew forth from countless cars, coal-fired power stations and steel plants to create a dense, putty-coloured smog.

Beijing recently issued its first pollution 'red alert', closing schools, factories and construction sites, and ordering half of all private cars off the road. But these measures were only temporary. In a country where millions of people still look to industrialisation to lift them from poverty, what can China do to clear the air for good? Four experts talk to the BBC World Service Inquiry programme. Dr Jim Zhang: Frustrating that Olympic gains have been lost Dr Jim Zhang, is a professor of global environmental health at Duke University and works in the US and China. "You can definitely smell the pollution. Your eyes itch, you cough. It's like a very rich, dense soup when the pollution levels are very high: thousands of chemicals, gases that are irritants, carcinogens. "We have particles that have a diameter smaller than a virus. Human hair is very big compared to these. The larger ones will be deposited into the lung - that's the biggest worry. But recent scientific evidence shows that when the particles are small enough they go into the bloodstream, they can go directly into the brain. "It's very hard to get data to show whether the pollution is going to have a long-lasting effect, like a cancer, but there is a reason to believe that, because the pollution soup contains chemicals which can induce cancer. "It's very frustrating to see pollution get worse after the huge effort which went into cleaning up the air in Beijing for the Olympics. "I did several studies demonstrating that if you do a temporary intervention to bring the air pollution down, [and] measure cardiovascular and respiratory health indicators in young healthy people, all those indicators significantly improve. "Women whose pregnancy was during those eight weeks of improved air quality got babies with a significantly higher birth weight, and we have a large database to show that in general if your birth weight is higher, your later life is healthier. "In 2008 the air quality data was considered a state secret. The government was in a denial stage for years until 2013 when those huge episodes happened, and then they started to say 'This is real now'. Because of [prioritising] economic interest over public health interest, the way they implement the existing air quality regulations is very inefficient. "Although it's now getting much better - the urgency is there - it's still very challenging." Hongjun Zhan: Legislation is better; enforcement is still weak Hongjun Zhan used to write China's air pollution laws and now works for a US law firm advising foreign companies operating in China. "Back in the late 1980s, people didn't really think about air issues at that time. The pressure [to get the legislation right] was not big at all. "From the late 1980s to, let's say, the year 2000, just about a dozen years, that air quality has been getting worse and worse. "In many situations, industry discharges pollutants without meeting standards. And very often they are not penalised by the enforcement officers. "The law drafters today are doing a much better job than I did. The environmental laws today are more aggressive: [more] detailed, accurate, and comprehensive than the law I wrote. "Enforcement is still not good enough. It is slightly better, but it's still far from where it should be." Li Yan: 'Red alerts' represent real progress Li Yan is the voice of Greenpeace in China. "Actually what's happening in China right now is quite positive. [The red alert] is a sign of progress in government's understanding of how they should react and respond to these extreme conditions. "Not only is it responding to 20 million Beijingers' demand for clean air, it's also setting a precedent for many other Chinese cities to follow. "After the 'airpocalypse' in 2011/2012, the central government responded with a National Air Pollution Action Plan. At the core of that is a scheme to cut back coal use in the big metropolitan regions. "Beijing's extreme pollution and the 'red alert' are connected to China's addiction to coal burning, and it's very energy intensive way of industrial growth. Coal burning is the biggest single source of air pollution in China, and burning of coal, has for the first time in this century declined in 2014 compared to 2013. "That's a very significant thing. As a result air quality in the major cities like Beijing and regions in the Yangtze River Delta has seen improvements. "Greenpeace has been capturing the government-released hour-by-hour data of 190 cities, and only 15% of them have seen an increase of their readings, and all the rest of them are more or less improved. "We're seeing renewable energy picking up and taking larger share of total power use in China, and then it's actually already eating up the market space of coal. "New coal power plants are still being proposed and still being invested [in] by local government and state-owned enterprises as if it was still the good old days. However I doubt there will be enough demand to support them, and they will very likely become idle plants." Mun Ho: Economic slowdown is complicating anti-pollution efforts Mun Ho is an economist at the Harvard University China project, specialising in Chinese environmental policies, and is a visiting scholar at Resources for the Future in Washington, DC. "The Chinese system is very decentralised: the provincial and local city authorities have a lot of power. And it is not a simple matter of the central government in Beijing pressing a button and all the laws are enforced. "All the city environmental protection bureaus are in charge of enforcing [pollution] laws, and you can imagine there is a wide range of enforcement standards across the country. "For the past 30 years, the main criteria of promotion other than maintaining security, is economic growth, the competition to bring jobs and growth. "We should align incentives so that the environmental officials have the incentive to enforce the rules throughout the system, not just the central government. "The unexpected economic slowdown and the prolonged global recession has been a new challenge. It is complicating efforts to convince people to put in costly pollution equipment and to think about energy-saving technologies. "China is officially growing at about 7%, but that hides quite a big range of experience. In some places - in the 'rust belts' - growth has really decelerated, perhaps even to 2%. "The priority obviously then is to prevent layoffs and factory shutdowns. They have to worry about social stability if there is high unemployment. "The issue really is spending a bigger part of the government's budget on pollution control equipment. Governments today are rich enough that this is no longer such a very big issue. We are not talking about building houses versus building pollution control equipment. This is no longer the stark choice facing China today." The Inquiry is broadcast on the BBC World Service on Tuesdays from 12:05 GMT. Listen online or download the podcast.

चीन के अधिकांश हिस्सों में हवा इतनी खराब है कि सरकार ने बार-बार उस पर "युद्ध" की घोषणा की है। दुश्मन छोटे कण हैं जो अनगिनत कारों, कोयले से चलने वाले बिजली स्टेशनों और इस्पात संयंत्रों से निकलकर घने, काले रंग का धुंध पैदा करते हैं।


Indian farmers fume at $430m cost of Gujarat statue

Summary: On 31 October India will unveil the world's tallest statue, which has cost hundreds of millions of dollars. BBC Gujarati's Roxy Gagdekar spoke to local farmers who say they are aghast that the government has spent so much money on it while they struggle to make ends meet.

For years Vijendra Tadvi, a 39-year-old farmer in the western state of Gujarat, has been struggling to find water to irrigate his three acres (1.2 hectares) of farmland. He grows chilli, corn and groundnuts. Like millions of farmers across India, he relies on monsoon rains to water his crops. or he pumps out groundwater, which supports 80% of the rural water supply and farm irrigation. But long dry summers followed by erratic rains have led to frequent drought and shrunk the incomes of farmers like Mr Tadvi. So in 2015, Mr Tadvi found a job as a driver on a construction site to supplement his income. The Gujarat state government was building a 182m (600ft) high statue, billed as the tallest in the world. The bronze-clad tribute to Indian independence leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel cost 29.9bn rupees (£330m; $430m). And Gujarat's government is reported to have paid more than half of that amount. The remainder came from the federal government or public donations. "Instead of spending money on a giant statue, the government should have used it for farmers in the district," Mr Tadvi said, adding that farmers in the area still lack basic irrigation facilities. The statue is complete and Mr Tadvi has found more work as a driver on construction sites. But he is still unimpressed by the government's largesse. The "statue of unity", as it is known, is the centrepiece of a sprawling memorial to Patel. A formidable nationalist leader, he was born in Gujarat and went on to become independent India's first interior minister and deputy prime minister under Jawaharlal Nehru. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is also from Gujarat, commissioned the statue when he was the state's chief minister in 2010. In recent years, Mr Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has embraced Patel in an attempt to claim his legacy - and they have accused the opposition Congress party of sidelining him to benefit Nehru's descendants, three of whom have served as prime ministers. Congress ruled India for 49 of its 71 years as an independent nation. The plan for Patel's memorial includes a three-star hotel, a museum and a research centre that will focus on subjects "close to his heart" - such as "good governance" and "agriculture development". All of this is about 10km (6.2 miles) from Mr Tadvi's village, Nana Pipaliya, in the largely poor, rural and tribal Narmada district. Many of its households continue to live in hunger, primary school enrolment has been falling and malnourishment persists, according to a report published in 2016 by the state government. But the government believes the memorial will boost the district's economy, as they expect about 2.5 million annual visitors. "It will lead to employment opportunities for locals and will also increase tourism in the area," said Sandeep Kumar, a senior official involved with the project. Locals are sceptical. "We want to ask the government: why can't they fund a project to support farmers and improve their standard of life?" said Lakhan, a tribal activist who only goes by his first name. "We were promised water for irrigation but the situation remains the same." Nana Pipaliya is in what is known as a "command area" of a nearby dam - lands that are supposed to receive water from a designated irrigation project. But, Mr Tadvi said, he and other farmers were still deprived of water. "I grow only one crop per year, while people with irrigation facilities grow up to three crops annually," said Bhola Tadvi, a farmer who relies solely on rainwater for irrigation. According to the 2011 census, some 85% of the district's working population is engaged in agriculture, a sector which is dominated by small farmers who own two to four acres of land. District officials told BBC Gujarati that the government was committed to ensuring that water was made available to them. Lakhan said thousands of farmers were struggling to access water for irrigation. Half of India's population works on farms, but farming contributes only 15% to the country's GDP. In fact, agriculture growth in India has dwindled to 1.2%. Farms employ a lot of people but produce too little, and tens of thousands of farmers struggle to repay crop loans taken from banks and money lenders. Earlier this year, farmers in the neighbouring state of Maharashtra staged a massive protest demanding a waiver on the repayment of loans and better prices for their crops. In 2017, farmers from drought-affected districts in the southern state of Tamil Nadu brandished human skulls and a held live mice between their teeth to draw attention to their plight. Here in the shadow of Patel's statue, farmers have resorted to stealing water. They say they can see the water passing by their farms through a canal that transports it from the dam, but it's illegal to divert the water so they are forced to steal it. One of the farmers said he had laid a pipe underground from the canal to his farm, adding that nearly all farmers in the area did this to survive. "We don't have any option but to take the water illegally as there are no sources of water left for us."

31 अक्टूबर को भारत दुनिया की सबसे ऊँची प्रतिमा का अनावरण करेगा, जिसकी लागत लाखों डॉलर है। बीबीसी गुजराती के रॉक्सी गागड़ेकर ने स्थानीय किसानों से बात की, जो कहते हैं कि वे इस बात से हैरान हैं कि सरकार ने इस पर इतना पैसा खर्च किया है, जबकि वे अपनी जरूरतें पूरी करने के लिए संघर्ष कर रहे हैं।


UKIP cancels Welsh autumn conference in Swansea

Summary: UKIP has cancelled its Welsh autumn conference in Swansea in a fortnight.

The party said the event was not needed following a decision to hold the main UK conference in Llandudno next spring. UKIP leader Nigel Farage is still due to visit Swansea on 23 October, as part of his Say No to EU tour. A ticket website said the conference was cancelled due to a lack of sales, but a UKIP official said the message was incorrect and caused by an administrative error.

यूकेआईपी ने स्वानसी में अपने वेल्श शरद सम्मेलन को एक पखवाड़े में रद्द कर दिया है।


What progress has India's economy made in the past five years?

Summary: "You'll find the airport has changed dramatically, you'll be able to book a taxi using an app on your phone, and you'll see a real spring in the step of many people in India now - people are charged with optimism," one Indian businessman said when I asked what had changed in the five years I'd been away from a city that, in many ways, had been my second home.

Karishma VaswaniAsia business correspondent@KarishmaBBCon Twitter Mumbai - or Bombay - has always held a mythical place in my family's history. It was here that my migrant Sindhi grandparents first came to, after they fled post-partition Pakistan, in search for a better life for their children. And it was to Mumbai that I came in 2006 to report for the BBC on the fast-growing economy. The India that I saw then was in the midst of an unprecedented boom. Growth rates were soaring, the outsourcing sector had helped to lift the monthly salaries of young Indians to levels their parents wouldn't have seen in a year, and Indian companies such as Tata were going global, buying up assets abroad. Optimism at the chai-walla One of the places I reported from frequently was the Bombay Stock Exchange. The main share index, the Sensex, hit a record 10,000 points within the first few months of my arrival. When it reached 20,000 points in 2007 newspaper headlines at the time shrieked that India had finally hit the major league, as foreign funds rushed to invest in fast-growing companies. Today when I visited the exchange, the Sensex had closed just under 28,000 points - respectable but hardly dazzling. The topic of conversation for investors hanging out at the local chai-walla outside the Bombay Stock Exchange was very much the financial turmoil that has infected world markets of late. The optimism of many of them took me by surprise. "I think India will be able to withstand this and come out of it even better," said 26-year-old Preeti, a self-proclaimed avid investor. "My father has always told us to buy when the markets are down, and that's what I'm doing." "When there's a sale at the supermarket, what do you do?" asked one mutual fund trader. "You rush to buy your rice and cooking oil don't you? Well that's what you should be doing now - India's stock markets won't be down for long." 2009 sweet spot That's a refrain I've heard over and over in my time here in Mumbai over the last couple of days - and not just with regards to the stock market. "India's economy isn't immune to the slowdown in China, but is more resilient than some of the other countries in the region," India's central bank governor Raghuram Rajan told me. "Based on what I've seen so far there's no strong reason to believe we're on the verge of another crisis." When I left Mumbai in 2009 to take on a posting in Jakarta for the BBC, India was still in what many said was a sweet spot. The Congress-led coalition had just been voted back in for a second term because of strong economic growth, defying expectations of an electoral loss. But a series of corruption scandals and increasing disenchantment with that government saw Manmohan Singh - the man once known as the father of Indian reform for his dream budget in 1991 that opened up the doors to the Indian economy - replaced last year by the populist pro-business politician from Gujarat, Narendra Modi. Now though there are concerns about how quickly the new prime minister can deliver on some of his economic promises. 'Small steps, not big bangs' Critics have said essential economic reforms - such as making it easier for businesses to buy land to build factories on - failed to pass through the last parliamentary session because of political opposition. But some businessmen appear to be willing to give Mr Modi another chance. One is Leo Puri, the managing director of UTI Asset Management: "I think the process of reforms in India is one of incremental steps instead of big bangs. "I think there was a dramatic expectation of how much the new government would be able to achieve. Even in the 1991 reforms, they happened incrementally and over time before they started to have an effect." 1991 reforms A number of reforms were initiated in 1991 which aimed to liberalise India's economy. These included: As a result, after growing by only 0.8% in 1991-92, India's economy grew by 5.1% in 1992-93. It is true that economic growth in India is starting to pick up. The government says economic growth is 7% but is aiming for higher growth of 8%. If it achieves that, it could grow faster than China - at a time when the world is looking for a new driver of global growth. Must act fast But it is also true that some parts of the real economy have yet to feel that growth. Some economists question India's growth figures, saying that economic indicators like credit and capital growth have yet to show similar gains. And many Indians say they're not feeling the effects of that growth in their wages or bank accounts. And then there's the weather - the monsoon is also a big factor in how well the Indian economy does. Although agriculture only makes up 17% of the economy, roughly half of the Indian population makes a living through farming, and the monsoon is a key factor in whether rural demand picks up or not. The reality is that India is unlikely to replace China as a main driver of global growth - depending on how you measure it, its economy is only a quarter or a fifth of the size of China's. And regardless of China's current problems, it's also unlikely to completely disappear from the radar of investors. After all it's still a huge manufacturing and trading base and a massive market. There's no doubt that the slowdown in China provides India with opportunities to expand, but it also means that India must act fast to exploit the advantage.

"आप देखेंगे कि हवाई अड्डा नाटकीय रूप से बदल गया है, आप अपने फोन पर एक ऐप का उपयोग करके एक टैक्सी बुक कर सकेंगे, और आप अब भारत में कई लोगों के कदमों में एक वास्तविक वसंत देखेंगे-लोग आशावाद से भरे हुए हैं", एक भारतीय व्यवसायी ने कहा जब मैंने पूछा कि पांच वर्षों में क्या बदल गया था जब मैं एक ऐसे शहर से दूर था जो कई मायनों में मेरा दूसरा घर था।


Ebola crisis: Liberia bounces back

Summary: If you thought Liberia was dying, think again.

By Mark DoyleBBC News, Liberia Yes, the Ebola epidemic was a disaster. Its terrible effects are still present - especially among the poorest in society. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said in her recent State of the Nation address that the disease had "threatened our very existence". Nearly 4,000 Liberians died from the outbreak. But now, thanks to Liberians changing their behaviour, and a massive international aid effort, there are only six confirmed cases of Ebola left in the country. Scouting for trade If it were not for the prominent posters exhorting people to believe "Ebola Is Real!", and glimpses of mostly empty Ebola treatment centres behind high walls, the casual visitor to the capital, Monrovia, would think everything was normal. Bustling markets and chaotic traffic are back. Almost every second shop in Monrovia seems to be a building supplier or hardware business. Their mainly Lebanese or Indian managers have returned, once again sitting in their doorways, scouting for trade. If bags of cement and scaffolding poles are being bought, it means construction could soon be back up to speed. But while commerce appears to be normalising, life for many Liberians is still badly affected. Quite scary The ruins of the long-abandoned Ducor Palace Hotel offer a panoramic view across the capital. I visited this place once in the early 1980s when it was the focal point of Liberian high society. Back then, dinner suits and evening gowns were almost compulsory at the Ducor. Now the place is a mouldering heap of concrete. The climb up the stairs - with all the handrails long-ago looted - was quite scary. But from the rooftop of the old hotel I was rewarded with a clear view of the vast slum that is the Monrovia city district of West Point - a sea of low shops and homes covered in rusting zinc roofs. This community of 80,000 souls has only one government school, the Nathaniel Massaquoi Elementary and Junior High. Right up to the end of last week it had been planned that all schools would re-open on Monday 2 February, after nearly nine months of enforced closure. Schools, like hospitals, were places where infection spread so the government closed them all down. The principal at the Nathaniel Massaquoi school, Momoh Mason, had been hoping that the government would provide him with the resources to reopen to pupils. But the Nathaniel Massaquoi is an especially sad place. It was used as an Ebola holding centre at the height of the epidemic. Local residents reacted violently to the transformation of their school into, as they saw it, a highly infectious dumping ground for the dying. Huge investments They attacked it, looting the generator and destroying furniture. Mr Mason spoke of a lack of resources - books, desks and a lick of paint. But a major reason why the school lies abandoned is the stigma it now suffers because of Ebola. "There is fear," he said, "this place is somehow still associated with Ebola and some people are not yet sure about it, especially as the authorities haven't helped me clean the place up". The reopening of all other schools, including those unaffected by Ebola, has also been delayed by at least two weeks. The authorities said some did not yet have buckets of chlorinated water for hand-washing and thermometers for checking against cases of fever. Before Ebola hit, Liberia was one of the poorest countries in the world. It still is. But it is important to remember that in the late 1990s and early 2000s Liberia registered impressive economic growth rates of 8% - 10% - per annum. I have not been here for several years, and in the interim a number of large international investments, including iron ore mines and several large hotels, have come on stream. Impressively resilient To borrow the economists' phrase, it is obvious that the benefit from these investments rarely "trickles down" to the poor. But the car-owning middle class is clearly growing. The rush hour traffic jams in Monrovia are horrendous. Despite Ebola, Liberia is not without hope - it may sound a bit of a cliche, but Liberians really are impressively resilient. They have to be because they suffered over a decade of blood diamond and tribal wars in the 1990s and 2000s. Successive governments and waves of aid workers here have often disappointed them. For me, one man I met symbolised the "can do" Liberian attitude. Slight in stature and naturally modest, Dr Stephen Kennedy is the top Liberian involved in a historic US-financed Ebola vaccine trial. The vaccine trial Dr Kennedy is spearheading has the potential, at least, to stop the nightmare suffered by Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea from ever re-occurring anywhere in the world. Dr Kennedy's intellectual capacity is obvious. But the way he describes his role in the first ever trial is also very human and intensely emotional "I feel so excited," he told me. "This is something that I have dreamed of - to help my country make a major contribution to international public health." Ebola virus disease (EVD) Why Ebola is so dangerous The basics: What you need to know

अगर आपको लगता है कि लाइबेरिया मर रहा है, तो फिर से सोचें।


Coronavirus: Cut negatives capture the isolation of lockdown

Summary: During the coronavirus crisis, many photographers have been taking socially distant pictures of their neighbours or images of the unusually empty streets where they live. For some though it is not about recording the seen world, it is about creating an image that captures their own experiences of the past few months. Here photographer Aletheia Casey talks about her series To Dance With Shadows.

A dog howls in the distance. A bird lies dead on the pavement. The sound of a passing train echoing through the unpolluted air seems louder now. There is a silence, an emptiness, and a solitude that I have never experienced before in the city. The world seems to have been thrown into a quiet chaos, and the future suddenly feels messy and uncertain. The flowers in my kitchen, long dead, still sit in their vase. When I arranged them, florists, like everything else, were still open. I touch the transparent, delicate petals; a reminder of the fragility of human life. The trees outside have burst into new life, in contrast to the near empty streets below them. In the absence of people, pigeons and foxes have reclaimed the streets. A single masked figure walks by, the only visible reminder that life is all but normal. I find respite from the anxiety of the situation by making photographic work. I cut into my negatives, damaging and distorting them; overlaying my own grief and fear onto the images. I manipulate and disfigure the photographs to reflect the way in which the future seems distorted and dark with shadows. As time passes I rework images of scenes captured when life was predictable and the future more certain. I dissect and scratch the images, separating and isolating the pieces of negatives, the lonely splinters of cut film now sitting apart from one another, disconnected, much as I now feel disconnected from many of those that I love. I overlay the fragments of the cut negatives on top of ink paintings that my young son and I made together while his school was closed and I was his main companion. The ink from the paintings slowly stains the film, and as it dries and cracks it seems to resemble a virus under the microscope, spreading and infecting. Loneliness creeps in under my living room door. It is an unwelcome guest, but I allow it in to sit with me while I work, a silent companion. My own rhythmic breathing becomes a calming background to the production of these images. Outside my window, a fragile cherry tree is aflame with delicate blossoms. Several days later, the flowers have fallen to the ground as if in defeat, making the pavement resemble the aftermath of a lost fight. All photographs courtesy Aletheia Casey, with text by Aletheia Casey and Ben Smith.

कोरोनावायरस संकट के दौरान, कई फोटोग्राफर अपने पड़ोसियों की सामाजिक रूप से दूर की तस्वीरें या असामान्य रूप से खाली सड़कों की तस्वीरें ले रहे हैं जहां वे रहते हैं। कुछ लोगों के लिए हालांकि यह देखी गई दुनिया को रिकॉर्ड करने के बारे में नहीं है, यह एक ऐसी छवि बनाने के बारे में है जो पिछले कुछ महीनों के अपने अनुभवों को कैद करती है। यहाँ फोटोग्राफर एलेथिया केसी अपनी श्रृंखला टू डांस विद शैडोज़ के बारे में बात करती है।


What’s the point of Scotland’s proposed new landmark?

Summary: Hmm, how to describe it? A pin cushion? A nail bomb in mid-explosion? A starburst? A thistle maybe? Maybe. Or - and I think this might be the one - a hedgehog caught in a net? Whatever, it's difficult: trying to work out just what it is that is depicted with Scotland's proposed new landmark.

Will GompertzArts editor@WillGompertzBBCon Twitter The spiky beastie does have one very clear point. And that is to be big. It will be at least 55m (180ft) high and 40m (131ft) across. Once built it will be placed in a field alongside the bridge where the M6 motorway turns into the M74 and England turns into Scotland. It is intended as an iconic welcome. The current welcome is almost ironic - in that there barely is one. Driving between Scotland and England at the moment is like playing tennis without any court markings; you never quite know when you are in and when you are out. The X of the Scottish Saltire that marks the spot is a modest road sign easily missed because a) it's quite small and you are going quite fast b) you're gaming, sleeping / tuning the radio and possibly driving too or c) it has been obscured by one of the other five million vehicles that go up and down that stretch of road every year. And that won't do. The good folk of Dumfries and Galloway say they want to give people driving across the border (the landmark is primarily intended for cars travelling south to north) a hearty welcome to Scotland. And what better way to do that than produce a giant piece of eye-catching, attention-grabbing, in-yer-face public art: a slug of visual Red Bull for the weary driver. They've seen what the Angel of the North has done for the North of England. They've seen how its enormous arms have gathered tourists from hundreds of miles into the warm bosom of Gateshead. And they've seen that once there, how those tourists have spent their cash on everything and anything. And they've thought: we'll have a bit of that. According to the notes provided by the Gretna Landmark Trust (the group behind the new landmark) Anthony Gormley's Angel of the North "paid for itself within a month." In terms of global marketing that is. Which is what the new landmark at Gretna is really about: more honey pot than "hello honey". You know why Grenta Green is famous. Three-quarters of a million people rock up there every year, many with marriage on their mind. It is a Caledonian Vegas. The town has the only high street I've ever walked along where there are more flower shops than estate agents. Watching the ant-like stream of soon-to-be or newly-weds march in and out the The Blacksmiths Shop is like taking a short course in anthropology. The proposed landmark would be a new photo-op for the snappy couples, while giving the town a chance to be famous for something other than nuptials. It is a branding exercise for the area as well as for Scotland. It is art and propaganda. Like Tatlin's eponymous Tower (1919-21), which the Russian Constructivist designed to be the HQ for global communism, this new structure is an artistic creation that wants to support and please the state. It's the work of a dapper American and an ambitious Sri Lankan. Charles Jencks is a land artist who moved from America to Dumfries and Galloway, who is now a "key part of the region" says the blurb. He is responsible for the landmark's swirling, earth plinth. Cecil Balmomd is a revered engineer who has helped produce some of Anish Kapoor's monumental pieces. He now wants to "do a Brian Eno" - and become an artist. It is his spiky metal design. Balmond describes the proposed landmark (working title: Star of Caledonia) as a "contemporary symbol of a confident, creative Scotland". Designed to communicate "Scotland's power of invention". In these days of devolvement it is a chance to assert Scottish National identity: a reading of the house rules before you enter. The designers say the structure communicates the energy, modernity and inventiveness of the Scots. It's a long way from the identity Sir Walter Scott is held responsible for creating: that of a Romantic nation, full of industrious people who wear tartan and stare out meaningfully at their picturesque landscape. It is also long way from being built. The proposal has not yet been given planning permission or the £3m needed to realise the vision. It could end up like Tatlin's Tower and never be built. That's beginning to look like it might be the case with Mark Wallinger's White Horse proposal for Ebbsfleet in Kent. The idea is to have the Gretna Landmark ready for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014. I hope they make it. I do like a staging post or something to spot on a long journey. And I'd enjoy the inevitable conversation with any fellow passengers. Is it a contemporary folly? Should they have spent the money on a youth centre (as one local told me) in Gretna? What's Scottish about it? What's the point of it? And stuff. And after we have talked that through, we could then all agree that it is a lot better than all those smurf-like creatures that pop-up along the roadside when drive through France.

हम्म, इसका वर्णन कैसे करें? एक पिन तकिया? मध्य विस्फोट में एक नाखून बम? एक स्टारबर्स्ट? शायद एक थीस्ल? या-और मुझे लगता है कि यह एक हो सकता है-एक हेजहोग एक जाल में पकड़ा गया? जो भी हो, यह मुश्किल हैः यह पता लगाने की कोशिश करना कि यह क्या है जो स्कॉटलैंड के प्रस्तावित नए लैंडमार्क के साथ दर्शाया गया है।


A possible future for British foreign policy?

Summary: Jeremy Hunt celebrated his appointment as secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs this week. But he might not have been quite so happy to spend his first day in office hosting a summit about an issue as complex as the western Balkans. Yet, at a high level reception to mark the end of the conference, Mr Hunt was given a few pointers about how to shape British foreign policy in the coming years.

James LandaleDiplomatic correspondent@BBCJLandaleon Twitter Standing in the gardens of Clarence House, glass in hand, I was just a few feet from Chancellor Angela Merkel, of Germany, and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, of Greece. Lurking nearby was UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, her new foreign secretary, and a gaggle of other cabinet ministers. The Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, was just behind me. And mingling in the crowd were six other prime ministers from the western Balkans with their own ministers and ambassadors. The Prince of Wales, our host, was steadily working the garden, a quiet word here, a joke there. Officials, diplomats and a solitary journalist (me) made up the rest of the numbers. The Sun was dipping in the west, the London traffic a distant hubbub and all seemed well in the world. I tell you this not as some shameless exercise in diplomatic name-dropping. This is the sort of event I go to - I am the diplomatic correspondent of the BBC. No, I want to tell you about this reception, one that marked the end of the western Balkans summit in London, for what happened next. For the Prince of Wales then stepped up to a small podium and began to give a speech. I expected the usual pleasantries and platitudes. I could not have been more wrong. 'Practical, difficult action' For the prince delivered a short but powerful homily on the importance of reconciliation. And significantly he spoke from the heart, citing his own experience following the murder of his great uncle, Lord Mountbatten, at the hands of the IRA in August 1979. "Reconciliation is not simply a theoretical abstract concept," he said. "It is, of course, a matter of practical, difficult action, painful choices, and hard, but essential, compromise. "Blame, distrust and hatred are natural, instinctive responses to decades, even centuries, of conflict and injustice - but they do not help us to change course. That requires the really difficult business of forgiveness, understanding and, if I may say so, tremendous courage and enlightened leadership. "I know this because very nearly 40 years ago, my great uncle, Lord Mountbatten, was murdered in a terrible bomb attack. "Ever since that fateful day, I have been determined to pursue the long, hard road to lasting reconciliation. "We can, of course, never forget the wrongs of the past, which must always inform the choices we make about the future. But they cannot be allowed to limit our horizons or to constrain the opportunity to which future generations aspire." He said meaningful reconciliation in the western Balkans was the only way of ensuring that the region's children did not endure the agonies of the generations before them. "Much progress has been made in this regard over recent years," he said, "But much much more needs to be done." 'Global Britain' He was speaking to an audience all too aware that this week marks the 23rd anniversary of the massacre of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at the hands of Bosnia Serb forces in the town of Srebrenica, the worst mass killing on European soil since World War Two. It was a powerful and effective speech. And it struck me that perhaps here, on this lawn, as the heat of the day slowly dissipated, I had seen a small example of what British foreign policy could become after Brexit. The government currently espouses what it calls a "global Britain" foreign policy. This was a phrase designed to convince the world that Brexit would not mean Britain withdrawing from the world. But few claim to know what it means in practice. It has been dismissed as a slogan in pursuit of a policy. Yet at this reception we had an example of several things that Britain can bring to the party. First, the UK has strong convening power, the ability to bring all these leaders together. Who else but the Prince of Wales could persuade Angela Merkel's office that she should spend another hour of her day in the UK at a reception such as this? Who else could lecture a group of heads of government about reconciliation but a future monarch who had suffered personally from the violence of conflict? There was a tough message here: the six Balkan leaders needed to do more. Second, politicians talk breezily of British values but here, at this reception and this summit, was the UK urging six relatively new nations to embrace the value of the rule of law, the importance of justice, the prosperity that can come from stability, the advantages of multilateralism and so on. UK national interest We often presume these are universally acknowledged: they are not. Third, this was foreign policy with real edge. Warm words and cold drinks might sound at the fluffier end of diplomacy - but it is in the direct UK national interest for the western Balkans to remain stable. Parts of the region are riven with ethnic tension, many of the governments are weak, and corruption and organised crime is rife. It is not just that the UK and the rest of Europe wish to prevent a repeat of the conflicts that tore this region apart in the 1990s. There is also a threat closer to home. Many of the drugs and weapons that are used on Britain's streets originate in the western Balkans. Now, we should not overstate all this. The Prince of Wales is not about to become our de facto foreign secretary. And if "global Britain" is to mean anything, then the government will have to provide answers to the big foreign policy questions of the age: the UK's future attitude to a politically unstable Europe, an independent-minded United States, a rising China, the challenge of global migration and Islamist terrorism and so on. But perhaps here on this lawn, in this heady summer of sporting success and political uncertainty, there was a small cameo performance of what one day British foreign policy could become.

जेरेमी हंट ने इस सप्ताह विदेश और राष्ट्रमंडल मामलों के राज्य सचिव के रूप में अपनी नियुक्ति का जश्न मनाया। लेकिन वे पश्चिमी बाल्कन जैसे जटिल मुद्दे पर एक शिखर सम्मेलन की मेजबानी करते हुए कार्यालय में अपना पहला दिन बिताने के लिए उतने खुश नहीं थे। फिर भी, सम्मेलन के अंत को चिह्नित करने के लिए एक उच्च स्तरीय स्वागत में, श्री हंट को आने वाले वर्षों में ब्रिटिश विदेश नीति को कैसे आकार दिया जाए, इसके बारे में कुछ संकेत दिए गए थे।


London analogue TV signal to be switched off

Summary: The analogue television signal in London is being switched off.

BBC One, ITV1, Channel Four and Channel Five stopped transmitting on analogue overnight. The BBC Two signal was stopped earlier this month. It means people will need to convert televisions to receive the digital signal and Freeview viewers also need to retune. An estimated 12 million viewers are affected in the London area, but most homes have already switched to digital. Roadshows have taken place throughout the city to help people who are yet to make the change. Advice points, run by volunteers, are also available in local communities and there is a hotline for people who want information. To mark the switchover the Crystal Palace transmitter, in south London, will be lit up on Wednesday night with 200,000 watts of energy efficient lighting at a ceremony attended by Sir David Attenborough and DJ Chris Evans. Television broadcasts in London have come from the tower since 1956.

लंदन में एनालॉग टेलीविजन सिग्नल बंद किया जा रहा है।


German firms grapple with UK poll result

Summary: It's a strange day when German business leaders - hardly known for their Bolshevism - are tentatively raising their glasses to toast a favourable election result for a left-wing, pro-borrowing, high-spending candidate.

By Joe MillerBBC News And yet that is what many boardrooms from Berlin to Baden Wurttemberg will be doing this morning, however discreetly, after Jeremy Corbyn outperformed expectations and ate into the Conservative Party's majority. The reason for this embrace, simply, is the single market. Initially, there had been little-to-no interest in the UK election in German business circles. Most, like the polls, assumed a comprehensive win for Theresa May, and the size of her majority was seen as being of negligible consequence to the direction of Brexit negotiations. As one chief executive of a German-based multinational put it: "A weak or strong UK government still really has no negotiation power in the Brexit. The EU will still set the agenda and terms." Indeed, many firms, especially those in the Mittelstand - Germany's small and medium-sized businesses that often have close links to the UK - had been working on the assumption of a so-called "hard Brexit" for months. Quite a few mentioned that they were courting other growing EU export markets - Poland, for example. But as the polls began to narrow, there was a last minute scurry to understand what a Jeremy Corbyn-led approach to Brexit would be - with some privately concluding that the chances of keeping Britain in the single market might be higher under Mr Corbyn, even as they disagreed with many parts of his economic platform. What seemed like a last ditch effort by the head of the BDA, the German Employers Association, to find a solution that would enable the UK government to negotiate some form of single market access after Brexit, suddenly didn't seem as far-fetched. This morning, Ingo Kramer, the BDA's president, wasted no time in declaring that the UK election results showed "nationalism and anti-EU rhetoric" could not lead to majorities, before adding, somewhat triumphantly: "We can only hope that more realism and pragmatism will now be injected into the Brexit negotiations." Jorg Kramer, Commerzbank's chief economist, reacted with similar cheer, saying Thursday's result was a "vote against a hard Brexit". The head of the BDI, Dieter Kempf, said a "hard Brexit" had been voted out, and that it was time for the UK government to " de-escalate its rhetoric". The Dax share index in Frankfurt rose by almost 1%. Yet the reaction has not been unanimously favourable. Some, including the quietly influential VDMA - which represents German engineering firms, said they feared a hung parliament or minority government would derail negotiations for months, or kick them into the long grass, leading to far greater uncertainty. "The unclear political situation after the elections in the UK will make the Brexit negotiations even more difficult," said Thilo Brodtmann, VDMA's chief executive. Mr Brodtmann added that the result was "bad news" for German mechanical engineering firms, who export 7.3bn euros worth to the UK every year, and that there was now an increased risk of no agreement being reached by the 2019 deadline. Martin Wansleben, who leads the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce, or DIHK, struck a similarly downbeat tone. The lack of a clear majority had led to an increase of uncertainty in the German economy, he said, and the "road map for Brexit negotiations is now obsolete". A handful of small business owners, whose trade links with the UK are less vital, suggested a swift and smooth Brexit resolution remained paramount, as the act itself had long been priced in, whether hard or soft. But regardless of the reaction, one thing seems certain. German interest in the intricacies of the UK parliamentary system has never been this high.

यह एक अजीब दिन है जब जर्मन व्यापारिक नेता-जो शायद ही अपने बोल्शेविज्म के लिए जाने जाते हैं-एक वामपंथी, उधार समर्थक, अधिक खर्च करने वाले उम्मीदवार के लिए एक अनुकूल चुनाव परिणाम का आनंद लेने के लिए अस्थायी रूप से अपना चश्मा उठा रहे हैं।


A-level results in 2018: 'All the hard work has paid off'

Summary: A-level students across Wales opened their all-important results envelopes on Thursday to find out whether their hard work had paid off. But how does it feel? And what is next? These young people explain: Rhys Henry, 19, from Neath and Wales Under-20 squad member

Got two Bs and an A which earned him a place to study history at Swansea University For Wales Under-20 and Ospreys prop Rhys Henry, results day brought good news after a lot of juggling. "I'm just really happy that all the hard work has paid off," he said. The 19-year old Neath Port Talbot College student had his mind on rugby for most of the summer, training with his club team, the Ospreys. But he is aware that he needs to be prepared for life after rugby, too. "As much as I want to play rugby professionally and earn a living from it, it's not a guarantee," he said. When exam time came around he was busy representing his country as a member of the Wales Under-20s squad. "We went out to the south of France for the Junior World Cup and it clashed with four of my exams out there. We played Japan on the Thursday and I had my first exam on the Wednesday so that was tough, having to come from an exam room and then switching on really for a game," he added. Being organised and having good relationships with the people he works with had been key to achieving his grades, he said. He planned ahead with lecturers and coaches to be able to sit all his exams. Good communication had also helped him deal with clashes between training and studying. He made sacrifices too, giving up a cap for Wales to sit one of his exams. "It had to be done," he added. Shoruk Nekeb, 18, Cardiff Shoruk Nekeb has wanted to be an architect ever since she was a girl growing up in Libya. The 18-year-old, who now lives in Riverside in Cardiff, has secured the next step towards her dream career after she achieved five A-levels at at Fitzalan High School. But she said it was a difficult journey. "It was the worst year of my life, but it was worth it. It was a big shock and unexpected," she said. She will study architecture at Cardiff University this September. It is a long way from the Arabic TV programme she watched growing up in Libya, which inspired her to consider architecture. "There was a girl wearing a construction helmet over her head scarf on the TV - it really stuck with me because I didn't think girls could do that," she said. When Shoruk and her family moved to Cardiff eight year ago, it developed into an interest in the environment and sustainable buildings. "Often I'd come into school with handfuls of litter I would see whilst walking in," she said. The most painful part of A-levels were the exams for Shoruk. "I'm thrilled but still reminding myself to feel human," she reflected. Ashna Anil, 18, from Cardiff The 18 year old said: "I'm thrilled and relieved." "I think all the support from friends, family and my teachers was really key to my success. "There was a slow build up of revision that came to a big crescendo." She is going to study medicine at Cardiff University in September. For her, a career in medicine was something she has been really interested in. "I didn't want a purely academic career and with medicine there is that part which is hands on," she added.

वेल्स के ए-स्तर के छात्रों ने गुरुवार को अपने सभी महत्वपूर्ण परिणाम लिफाफों को यह पता लगाने के लिए खोला कि क्या उनकी कड़ी मेहनत का फल मिला है। लेकिन यह कैसा लगता है? और आगे क्या है? ये युवा लोग बताते हैंः नीथ और वेल्स अंडर-20 टीम के सदस्य 19 वर्षीय रीस हेनरी।


Aberdeen city polling cards contain 'Scotalnd' error

Summary: Aberdeen City Council has said it did not plan to reprint thousands of polling cards which contain a prominent spelling error.

The cards, for the Scottish parliamentary election on 5 May, spell Scotland as "Scotalnd". The error was not spotted until the official notification started to be delivered to voters in the city. The authority said it accepted the mistake was "disappointing and embarrassing". A spokeswoman for the Returning officer said: "This is a very disappointing, and of course, a very embarrassing proofing error. "The 175,000 poll cards distributed will not be replaced as this unfortunate spelling mistake in no way invalidates the poll cards." Related Internet Links Aberdeen City Council

एबरडीन सिटी काउंसिल ने कहा है कि उसने हजारों मतदान पत्रों को फिर से छापने की योजना नहीं बनाई है जिसमें एक प्रमुख वर्तनी त्रुटि है।


Warwick researchers bid to revolutionise coronavirus testing

Summary: Getting a test to see if you currently have coronavirus isn't very pleasant. You need to stick a cotton swab far enough down your throat you'll likely gag and then attempt to poke your brains out via your nose.

David Gregory-KumarScience, Environment & Rural Affairs Correspondent The nasal swab in particular looks so distressing we debated if we could even film one for a recent report. Then you have to wait for your samples to be sent to the lab, tested and the result to be sent back to you. A rapid response would be getting the final result in 12 hours, but it could take even longer. Now a team at the University of Warwick say they have created a test for coronavirus that works just like a pregnancy test. No need for medical staff or labs and with a clear result in about five minutes. At the moment they've been using nasal swab samples to test it, but they are confident it could work with a saliva sample. Nify chemistry This test is so similar to a pregnancy test that the team purchased real pregnancy tests online, stripped out the insides and used the plastic cases for their prototypes. Behind the test is some really nifty chemistry. Rather than directly detect the virus or antibodies the test instead uses sugars. These grab on to the virus as it moves along a test strip. In the lab it takes about five minutes for the test to show a visible line indicating the sugars have detected coronavirus and you have a positive result. Off to 14 days isolation with you. Ok now some important caveats. Work on coronavirus is moving very quickly right across science. While this work has produced a scientific paper, which I've read, it hasn't yet been reviewed and published. This approach is all very, very new. When it comes to the accuracy of the test the team are confident they can detect the virus, but it's still too early to say how well it will do in the real world. Controlling the disease One reason for talking to a reporter at such an early stage is to see if this new test can work on a much larger scale and for that you need to attract the attention of a manufacturer. But if it works it will be a really useful tool in our struggle to control this disease. Imagine a suspected outbreak of coronavirus on a cruise ship. Whereas now you have to send out a medical team for testing and gear up a lab to generate the results, you could instead just send a bag of 600 disposable plastic tests that anyone could use and get a result while they waited. Or you could test everyone flying from an airport. Even better for developing countries this is a cheap alternative to existing expensive high-tech testing. And it would also mean a trip to a Covid-19 car park testing station could become much faster and much less invasively unpleasant. Your nose will thank the researchers.

यह देखने के लिए कि क्या आपको वर्तमान में कोरोनावायरस है, एक परीक्षण कराना बहुत सुखद नहीं है। आपको अपने गले के नीचे एक सूती फाहे को चिपकाने की आवश्यकता है जिससे आप संभवतः मुंह बंद कर सकते हैं और फिर अपने दिमाग को अपनी नाक के माध्यम से बाहर निकालने का प्रयास कर सकते हैं।


Jose Eduardo dos Santos: Angola's shy president

Summary: In power for 33 years, despite having never been formally elected, Angola's President Jose Eduardo dos Santos is Africa's second-longest serving head of state - trailing Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo by just one month.

By Louise RedversLuanda At home he has a firm grip on all aspects of government, is the head of the armed forces and responsible for appointing senior judges. Overseas, as president of one of Africa's major oil producers he has positioned himself as a regional wise man, receiving weekly visits from various African leaders, and has developed strong links with China, as well as Brazil and the United States. The 70 year old is never criticised by the country's state media organs, and the remaining few private newspapers that have not been bought up by government ministers and which dare challenge his actions are hit with lawsuits. He is now hoping to win a new five-year mandate when his country holds parliamentary elections on Friday under a new constitution that elects the president from the top of the winning party list. Analysts say the election is as much a referendum on Mr dos Santos, who celebrated his birthday on the campaign trail this week, and his record as president as it is about appointing a new National Assembly. For many Angolans who have endured decades of war and disruption, the president is their one continuity, his face beaming out from T-shirts, posters and framed photographs that hang on walls across the country. As well as steering his county from one-party Marxist rule into a liberalised free-market economy - now one of the fastest-growing in the world thanks to oil - he is hailed for ending Angola's 27-year civil conflict, albeit militarily, and for keeping the country at peace for the last decade. Under his leadership Angola has risen from the ashes of war to become sub-Saharan Africa's third-largest economy, after South Africa and Nigeria, and a magnet for foreign investment. But while Mr dos Santos' long stay in office represents stability to his trading partners, one of the largest of which is now China, for some Angolans, particularly the younger generation, the president has outstayed his welcome. Scripted speeches In March 2011 a group of musicians inspired by the fall of the Tunisian and Egyptian presidents started a wave of street protests to call for Mr dos Santos to resign. Wearing T-shirts emblazoned with "32 e muito" (32 years is a lot) the youngsters accused their president of being a dictator clinging unfairly to power and said not enough of the country's vast oil resources is being shared out among the people. Their cause has been furthered by Angolan journalist and anti-corruption campaigner Rafael Marques de Morais who has published several reports alleging the involvement of members of Mr dos Santos' family and his close political circle have been involved in reportedly corrupt business deals. Clearly rattled by the new wave of dissent against him, and events in North Africa, the president has hit back at his critics, publicly denying he is a dictator and explaining he too once lived in poverty and that he shares people's frustrations. The 2012 election campaign has been focused on making Mr Dos Santos appear more appealing to younger Angolans, whom he has addressed directly at all his rallies, promising more university places and job opportunities. His previously internet-phobic party, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), has launched a new website featuring campaign jingles and videos and it runs online media conferences. Gone are the president's stiff suits and silent public appearances. He is now more likely to be seen in a colourful shirt and baseball cap, offering plenty of bright smiles for the camera. His party call him the "candidato do povo" - the people's candidate - and has used his nickname "Zedu" - a shortening of his first names Jose Eduardo - on posters and billboards which use soft colours to try and soften his appeal. Nonetheless, unlike other political leaders photographed mingling with voters on the back of motorbikes, Mr dos Santos still travels with a large blue-light and military entourage that can shut down parts of the already congested capital Luanda for hours. And while trips outside his luxurious pink palace are becoming more frequent, he always sticks to a scripted speech - and where possible shuns direct interaction with journalists. Key to success It has been more than five years since Mr dos Santos took part in a foreign media interview and he rarely attends regional summits of groups like the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) or the African Union (AU), sending ministers in his place. Analysts say Mr dos Santos' avoidance of the limelight is key to his success because has been able to keep his enemies guessing and he has carefully kept internal rivals at bay. "Against all odds, he has remained in power since 1979, overcoming challenges of war, elections and at the same time displaying a highly refined political craftsmanship," said Alex Vines, director of Africa Studies at London think tank Chatham House. Although not considered old for an African president, it is understood Mr dos Santos is looking for a way to step down in the not too distant future. Earlier this year he appointed Manuel Vicente, his trusted friend and former boss of the state oil firm Sonangol, as minister of state for economic co-ordination and his vice-presidential candidate. This sent the rumour mill into overdrive that the oilman could become Angola's next president. "Mr dos Santos is starting to think about stepping down but he will want to ensure his political future is protected first," said Paula Roque, an Angola expert at the University of Oxford. "He is fearful of being treated like the late Zambian President Frederick Chiluba, who stepped down from office and was then taken to court on corruption charges." While criticism of Mr dos Santos is growing among small sections of urban Angolans, who are increasingly turning to the internet and social media as an alternative to the heavily censored mainstream media, he still plenty of support. "I do agree our president has been in power for a long time, but if you think about it, we have only been at peace for 10 years so he's not had much chance to govern," said Henrique Pedro, 25, a bank worker from Luanda. "For me, he is the best person and the most experienced." Schoolteacher Manuel da Conceicao, 34, told the BBC: "I think the Angolan context is different. We have only had multi-party democracy since 1991 and we had a very long war after that... I don't think we really have the conditions for a change right now. "What we definitely don't want is to see our president forced from power violently like how it happened in Libya or Egypt. "When the time comes, we want a peaceful and dignified transition. Angola does not want any more war," she said. Fond of music and football, the president is married to Ana Paula dos Santos, who is 18 years his junior, and has several children. His eldest daughter Isabel dos Santos is regularly cited as one of the most influential businesswomen in Portugal, where she holds shares in energy, telecomms and financial companies.

33 वर्षों तक सत्ता में रहने के बावजूद, औपचारिक रूप से कभी निर्वाचित नहीं होने के बावजूद, अंगोला के राष्ट्रपति जोस एडुआर्डो डॉस सैंटोस अफ्रीका के दूसरे सबसे लंबे समय तक सेवा करने वाले राज्य प्रमुख हैं-इक्वेटोरियल गिनी के टिओडोरो ओबियांग न्गुएमा मबासोगो से सिर्फ एक महीने पीछे हैं।


NI state papers: Paisley wanted 'Pope and King Billy' painting

Summary: During the term of the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1983 the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, requested that a controversial picture depicting "King Billy and the Pope" should be displayed in his room at Stormont, newly released state papers reveal.

By Eamon PhoenixHistorian The large oil painting by the Dutch artist, Pieter van der Meulen, perhaps wrongly entitled The Entry Of King William To Ireland, had been acquired by the Unionist government in the 1930s and placed in the Great Hall of Stormont. The painting caused some concern among MPs because in one corner, above King William III, was a "Popish" figure with a papal tiara, apparently bestowing a Benediction. However, in May 1933 it was attacked by a party of Scottish loyalists. Before the sergeant at arms could intervene, Glasgow councillor Charles Forrest threw a pot of red paint at the painting while a colleague, Mrs Radcliffe from the Scottish Protestant League, stabbed the canvas with a knife. Apart from the paint stains, the main damage was to the figure of the Duke of Schomberg's horse! By the 1980s the painting was hanging in the Public Record Office in Belfast's Balmoral Avenue. In May 1983 the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) learned that Dr Paisley was the "prime mover" in a request to have the painting returned to Stormont after 50 years. On 3 May 1983 H Coote, an official at the Stormont central secretariat, informed a colleague: "Seemingly, Mr Paisley is keen to have it in his room at Stormont." Coote felt that Dr Paisley should have his wish as "the mere fact of it displayed in Mr Paisley's room would accord the picture an acceptability which it may not have heretofore enjoyed". He added: "I would have thought the painting, depicting as it does, the Pope and King William III, had a decided ecumenical flavour and was scarcely likely to be embraced as a true 'Orange' work of art." He felt that it "would be more trouble than it was worth to refuse Dr Paisley's request". The controversial painting now hangs outside the office of the Speaker of the NI Assembly, Donegal man William Hay, at Stormont.

1983 में उत्तरी आयरलैंड विधानसभा के कार्यकाल के दौरान डीयूपी नेता, रेव इयान पैस्ले ने अनुरोध किया कि स्टॉर्मोंट में उनके कमरे में "किंग बिली और पोप" को दर्शाने वाली एक विवादास्पद तस्वीर प्रदर्शित की जानी चाहिए, नए जारी किए गए राज्य पत्रों से पता चलता है।


Brits abroad: Photos of expats in Spain

Summary: There are about five million British expats living and working abroad, with the popular destinations being Australia, Spain and the US. Figures from 2011 suggest that about 3,000 British citizens every week move away from the UK on a long-term basis.

Phil CoomesPicture editor Photographer Charlie Clift decided to track down a few of those and headed to Spain to meet those living on the Mediterranean coast. "Immigrants are so often spoken about in terms of statistics or stereotypes," he told me. "I want people to understand the variety within a group showing how different each person can be. "I thought it would be interesting not to focus on immigrants coming into the UK in the way that much of the British media does, but to look the other way, and focus on British people who are immigrants themselves in other countries. "Some could not speak Spanish and hardly integrated with the locals, whilst others had married Spanish people and educated their children in local schools. I found a common thread of Britishness running through each and every one of my subjects, but beyond that they varied hugely." Here are a few from the series so far and you can see more on Charlie Clift's Brits Abroad website.

विदेशों में रहने और काम करने वाले लगभग 50 लाख ब्रिटिश प्रवासी हैं, जिनमें से लोकप्रिय गंतव्य ऑस्ट्रेलिया, स्पेन और अमेरिका हैं। 2011 के आंकड़े बताते हैं कि हर हफ्ते लगभग 3,000 ब्रिटिश नागरिक दीर्घकालिक आधार पर ब्रिटेन से दूर चले जाते हैं।


Send in the clowns ....and the loonies ....and the fruitcakes.

Summary: Those David Cameron once insulted - but now says he respects - have given him and the Conservatives a bloody nose. Indeed, all the leaders of the big political parties are nursing wounds after so many chose to vote for "none of the above".

Nick RobinsonPolitical editor This has been a very English anti-establishment revolt. After all, its leader Nigel Farage is an ex public schoolboy from Kent, the son of a stockbroker who also worked in the City of London. However, like Boris Johnson or Alex Salmond he has found a way to reach those parts of the electorate others cannot reach. No-one can know how durable his success will be but this election will kill the widespread assumption that UKIP is more a pressure group than a party... that it matters only in European elections... that it is merely a temporary home for disgruntled Tories. The immediate effect will be to add pressure on the prime minister to sound and act like the sort of Conservative his activists want him to be - tougher on immigration, Europe and crime. Longer term, today's results leave the next general election intriguingly open - a split vote on the right of politics might allow Ed Miliband to become prime minister with barely more than third of votes. Equally, the fact that Labour are not attracting many of those who are rejecting the Coalition means that its demise is far from guaranteed. The people have spoken. Now it's time for the political classes to try to work out what on earth they meant.

जिन डेविड कैमरन ने कभी उनका अपमान किया था-लेकिन अब वे कहते हैं कि वे उनका सम्मान करते हैं-उन्होंने उन्हें और कंज़र्वेटिव्स को एक खूनी नाक दे दी है। वास्तव में, बड़े राजनीतिक दलों के सभी नेताओं को घाव हो रहे हैं क्योंकि कई लोगों ने "उपरोक्त में से किसी को भी नहीं" के लिए मतदान करने का फैसला किया है।


Coronavirus doctor's diary: Study shows one-in-three children have rarely been leaving the house

Summary: A new study indicates that only a third of children in Bradford had sufficient exercise in the first lockdown, last spring - and that a similar proportion were rarely leaving the home. Dr John Wright, of Bradford Royal Infirmary, says this is contributing to a different kind of health crisis, one that began long before the pandemic, but risks becoming worse because of it.

The Born in Bradford research project, monitoring the health of 13,500 children born in the city between 2007 and 2010, provides a great opportunity to track changes in their behaviour. Last spring nearly 1,000 of them, aged nine to 13, took part in a survey, telling researchers how much exercise they were getting in lockdown, and the data (a pre-print of which can be seen here) is alarming. About two-thirds of the children had taken part in an earlier survey, enabling us to compare their behaviour before and after lockdown. Of this sub-group, 69% had been getting the recommended daily average of at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity before lockdown, but once it began, only 29% - less than half - met that target. And when people fill in questionnaires, they are likely to overestimate physical activity rather than underestimate it. Children from poorer and ethnic minority backgrounds (and there is a big overlap between the two groups in Bradford) were particularly likely to be getting insufficient exercise. In fact, the survey shows that far too many children were rarely leaving the house. Overall, 30% of the nearly 1,000 participants reported that they had normally stayed at home, or in their garden or yard, in the previous seven days, but there were significant differences depending on ethnic background: among children of Pakistani heritage the figure was 40%, while among White British children it was 16%. (Most children in Bradford belong to one of these two groups.) Before lockdown all children were leaving the house to go to school, and would benefit from some physical exercise both in class and during breaks from lessons. During lockdown a surprising number were confined to the space between four walls, and their garden if they had one. This year of the virus has been a throwback to the infectious giants that bestrode the world before the advent of antibiotics, vaccines and public health measures. It has been a harsh reminder of the ever-present risk of new communicable diseases, and a lesson in the consequences of complacency. But the Born in Bradford research reminds us that there is another malicious pandemic that we must turn our attention to, one that causes far more deaths than Covid ever will. Less visible than Covid, but hiding in plain sight, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, cancer and mental ill-health are the modern epidemics. While we have been like children playing Sunday football chasing after the Covid ball, we have left this particular goal wide open. Covid has been a complicated problem, but with public health measures, testing and vaccines it has been solvable. Luckily, it has an easily identifiable cause, the infamous spiked virus. Non-communicable diseases, by contrast, are complex problems that arise from multiple and interacting factors that are often unknown. They are shaped by the houses we live in, the neighbourhoods we play in, the food we eat, the shops we visit, the schools we learn in and the jobs we work at. Physical activity is a good illustration of this complex problem. We all know that it is an important ingredient in keeping our bodies and minds fit. Efforts to promote more active behaviour have generally borne encouraging results, as evidenced by the number of gyms that have sprung up in recent years, sales of fitbits and the popularity of Joe Wicks. The limitation on focusing on individual behaviour, however, is that it potentially widens inequalities. The comfortably off give up smoking, buy fitbits and eat kale. The poorer have less choice. 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. Telling children and families to go out and take more exercise is all well and good if they have a nice garden or live near a park. If you live near busy roads, without a garden or safe place to exercise, then you are going to be reluctant to let your children go out to play, and thus the seeds of NCDs are sown. Two boys from an Afghan family, Mehdi and Maseh, aged 11 and nine, say they have rarely been going out to play in the latest lockdown - the only real exception being when it was snowing. "In the weekends we sometimes play video games together - we love playing computer games - and then we probably will watch TV," says Mehdi. "We did go to the park at the start of the Covid but both our footballs are busted. There's a park but it's a long walk away, so we don't go. We'd go out and play with friends but because of Covid we don't see them and so we just stay in." Fortunately, their parents do at least send them to Bradford's Arise Sunday education support group, where learning club tutor Shamsa Aslam organises exercise sessions, as well as educational activities. Emily, 13, from nearby Leeds, does a lot of sport when she goes to school - football and badminton - but doesn't have the equipment to play at home. She also used to go for runs during her school lunch hour but has now stopped. "I was doing skateboarding but there have been some attacks and so it's not very safe round here," she says. She does at least get some walks with members of her family. For those who used to take part in team sports, lockdown has taken away a big part of their lives. Dawood Nasir used to play 10 hours of basketball a week at the Mandela Centre in Leeds until the pandemic stopped him. For a while he carried alone, but then gave up. "I'd go in my back garden and start dribbling and I'd go to the park but there would be no one there," he says. "I just lost all my motivation." Daniel Bingham, who led the Born in Bradford research on physical activity, wants to see measures to get young people exercising again once lockdown is over. But he says that by itself is not enough, because even before the pandemic there was a problem. Figures for England as a whole in 2018/19 showed that 53% of children were not getting the recommended daily average of at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise. (Again, this is likely to be an underestimate, as young people may overstate how active they have been when asked to remember what they have done in the last week.) "Our research shows that Covid has made a bad problem worse," Daniel says. "But how do we make things better? This should be a wake-up call to really ask how we can change our society to be more active." And the research has also shone a light on the need to pay particular attention to children from ethnic minorities, he argues. "If they're starting at a different level from the majority white British children, what extra resource and support do they need to be able to do more physical activity?" There is a lot to learn from the vigour of how we have tackled Covid that we could replicate for NCDs. In particular, it would be helpful if the urgency of public health policy and legislation that has so effectively tackled the virus were transferred to tackle inequalities, urban planning, overcrowded houses, lack of parks, unsafe roads for active travel, poor education and pressures from industry to consume junk food and alcohol. Follow @docjohnwright, radio producer @SueM1tchell on Twitter Listen to My Name is... with Hamza Malik, Dawood Nasir's basketball coach from the Mandela Centre in Leeds, at 11:00 on Monday 1 March on BBC Radio 4 - or catch up later online The programme also features Claire and Westen, youth and community workers from Youthpoint, at the Leeds Cardigan Centre, who have been delivering fruit to the young people who would normally attend their sport and youth sessions.

एक नए अध्ययन से संकेत मिलता है कि ब्रैडफोर्ड में केवल एक तिहाई बच्चों ने पिछले वसंत में पहले लॉकडाउन में पर्याप्त व्यायाम किया था-और यह कि इसी तरह का अनुपात शायद ही कभी घर से बाहर निकल रहा था। ब्रैडफोर्ड रॉयल इन्फर्मरी के डॉ. जॉन राइट का कहना है कि यह एक अलग तरह के स्वास्थ्य संकट में योगदान दे रहा है, जो महामारी से बहुत पहले शुरू हुआ था, लेकिन इसके कारण बदतर होने का जोखिम है।


Hull Dane Park Road murder suspects arrested

Summary: Two women and a man have been arrested over the death of a man in Hull.

Rolandas Poskus, 52, was found dead on a grassed area on Dane Park Road on Friday, prompting police to launch a murder inquiry. The women, aged 42 and 18, and a 23-year-old man were arrested in connection with the Lithuanian national's death. Humberside Police said Mr Poskus's family, who are in Lithuania, have been informed of his death. The force has appealed for witnesses to come forward.

हल में एक पुरुष की मौत के मामले में दो महिलाओं और एक पुरुष को गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


Isis defector speaks of life inside brutal jihadist group

Summary: An "Islamic caliphate" has been declared in the Middle East and the group behind it, Isis, has now rebranded itself simply "the Islamic State". Panorama has spoken to a defector about life inside the feared jihadist group.

By Paul WoodBBC Panorama Isis is not an organisation it is easy to leave. We met a man who had - and he was terrified of the consequences. "The brutality of Isis terrifies everyone," he said. "My family, my cousins, my siblings are all still there. I fear for them. If they can't reach me, they will reach my family." He was nervous, agreeing to record an interview only after several hours of discussion, over customary tiny glasses of scalding hot, sweet tea. He would talk to us only if we would not reveal his identity. He wrapped himself in a keffiyeh for our camera and we promised not to use his name. He summed up the jihadists' tactics like this: "If you're against me, then you'll be killed. If you're with me, you work with me. You submit to my will and obey me, under my power in all matters." 'Heart impassioned' There are few accounts of how Isis works. That is no surprise when Isis says it will detain as spies any foreign journalists who enter its territory. So we travelled to Turkey's border with Syria to meet the defector. The border is a hinterland of safe houses and supply lines for the rebels in the Syrian uprising. Turkey has made clear that Isis is no longer welcome here, so it is possible to meet people who have sought refuge from the Islamic State. The defector had initially joined an Islamist brigade of the Free Syrian Army to fight the Assad regime. He joined Isis when his whole tribe pledged allegiance to the group - and because he believed in creating an Islamic state. His first orders, as an Isis fighter, were to attend a course on Sharia, or Islamic law. "Not the principles of Islam, the principles of the Islamic State. So they teach you the Islam they want," he said. "It appeals to the heart and not to the mind, so that your heart becomes impassioned with their words. This is the first stage. The second stage is military exercises, military training." He explained that Isis had learned the lessons from Iraq in the early days on the anti-American insurgency. Then, it alienated the Sunni population. In Syria, the defector said, Isis tried to do things differently as it entered each new town. "In the beginning Isis used goodness with the population in order to attract the people and they provided them with what they needed in order to attract them quickly, because they suffered so much under Bashar and his regime," he said. "Once Isis succeeded in attracting people they changed dramatically, from being good to being cruel and harsh. You're either with me or against me! There is nothing in between." Sharia law In all the towns and villages it controls, Isis has implemented its very conservative version of Sharia. Rules on appearance are strictly enforced: a beard for men, the full veil for women, this is required for the whole population. "Anything that contradicts their beliefs is forbidden. Anyone who follows what they reject is an apostate and must be killed," the defector said. Our producer met one woman who had fled with her husband and children to Turkey from Raqqa in Syria. She said an Isis fighter policing the streets had threatened her after she had accidentally shown one centimetre of her trousers. "I was wearing it [abaya, or cloak] but I just forgot to lift it up, that's while I was getting out of the car. I don't know how he saw me, I really don't know. And he was Egyptian, unfortunately. He is not a Syrian worrying about a woman from his nation." The defector said it was a deliberate Isis strategy to use outsiders to police the towns it took over. "The Islamic State have brought in people from other countries, different nationalities who are quite young in age so that they can brainwash or indoctrinate them with their Isis ideology," he said. "And so they control the areas, not through the local people but with their own forces and their own men whom they prepare for this task." The jihadists of Isis wish to go back to what they see as a more pure form of Islam from the time of the Prophet and his companions. They believe in a literal interpretation of the Koran. The lslamic State's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has now proclaimed himself "Caliph", a descendant of Muhammad and of his tribe. He has demanded that all Muslims, everywhere, swear loyalty to him -a ruling condemned by other religious scholars around the region. But Baghdadi is also spoken of as a cunning tactician. Some reports from Mosul, for instance, speak of confidence-building measures. Security barriers have been torn down to open roads, electricity lines restored, municipal salaries paid… if this does not work, Isis can rely on the whip and the sword, as it has done many times in the past. Panorama: Isis: Terror in Iraq is broadcast on BBC One at 20:30 BST on Monday, 14 July.

मध्य पूर्व में एक "इस्लामी खलीफा" घोषित किया गया है और इसके पीछे के समूह, आईएसआईएस ने अब खुद को केवल "इस्लामिक स्टेट" का नाम दिया है। पैनोरमा ने डरावने जिहादी समूह के अंदर जीवन के बारे में एक दलबदलू से बात की है।