Can Trump's Syria policy end the 'Forever Wars'?

Summary: "We learned when America retreats, chaos often follows." This assertion was made by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his recent speech in Cairo. But the remark did little to resolve the uncertainty among Washington's friends and allies in the region. Are US troops in Syria staying or going? If staying, for how long? And if going, when?

Jonathan MarcusDiplomatic correspondent@Diplo1on Twitter Mr Pompeo's speech was a broader attempt to re-set US policy in the region and to give some sort of coherence after days of mixed messages. But taking a leaf from his boss in the White House, Mr Pompeo spent a good deal of his time castigating the Obama administration's approach and contrasting it with the apparent progress made on Mr Trump's watch. But there were some significant elements missing in Mr Pompeo's remarks. There was no mention of human rights in Egypt or Saudi Arabia. Indeed there was only the briefest of mentions to Saudi Arabia at all, a country that surely should loom large in US policy. The Yemen crisis got only a passing comment; divisions amongst the Gulf countries were papered over; and Mr Trump's much heralded peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians was not touched on at all. The emphasis was on Washington's friends and allies in the region doing more. The US would seemingly work behind the scenes - Mr Pompeo noting that "in Syria the US will use diplomacy and work with our partners to expel every last Iranian boot". Containing Iran and its widening sphere of influence seems to be the central goal of US policy, but beyond economic sanctions there seems no real strategy to achieve this aim. The issue is not the presence or otherwise of some 2,000 US troops on the ground in Syria. It is how their presence or withdrawal serves wider US policy goals. The whole story of President Trump's decision to announce the Syria pullout says a good deal about his own approach to the region. It speaks volumes too about how his administration works. National Security Adviser John Bolton's subsequent efforts to turn this into a conditions-based withdrawal is the sort of input that should surely have been there prior to the initial announcement. The response from many of the Washington pundits and think-tank experts was predictable and uncompromising. Op-eds and blog posts spoke of the betrayal of Washington's Kurdish allies; they suggested that Moscow's influence in the region would only rise; and that a vacuum was being created from which the only beneficiary would be Iran. All this may be to one extent or another correct. But there is a deeper problem here, and it goes to the heart of the Trump approach and his antipathy towards military entanglements overseas. 'No grand strategy' A small number of pundits have condemned the president's approach to policy-making and his apparent lack of a strategic sense, but they have nonetheless welcomed his withdrawal decision. In part, their argument is to question what some 2,000 US troops can really achieve in Syria. They sympathise with Mr Trump's gut sense. The president, though frustrated by the efforts of some of his advisers, is finally acting to at least to scale-down, if not to end, the so-called Forever War against Islamic extremism. That war began in Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. But it quickly moved to Iraq and then more recently to Syria. As the scope of the war widened, the US had to face up to some of the consequences of earlier policy decisions. Iran's regional prominence, for example, is a direct outgrowth of the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime in Baghdad, which provided a strategic counter-weight to Tehran. While the focus has been on President Trump's Syria decision, he has similarly called for a significant US troop withdrawal in Afghanistan. It is suggested that about 7,000 - roughly half the force - could be pulled out. Here, too, the pundits and think-tankers divide along familiar lines, with a minority questioning the basis of the continuing US deployment; stressing the futility of building up a coherent national government whose writ extends across the country; and ultimately doubtful of the logic behind staying to fight a war that neither side can win. My aim here is not to suggest who is right and wrong. But President Trump's instinct suggests that Americans are tired of the Forever Wars, and to this extent he has a point. Where this should leave US policy in Afghanistan or indeed the wider Middle East is another matter. As it so often is, Mr Trump's fundamental compass is that of his supporters back home. He does not really do grand strategy. He sees international relations in transactional terms - perhaps one of the reasons he seems to prefer dealing with authoritarian rulers rather than say Washington's often critical Nato allies. The problem is that, viewed from many foreign capitals, the US is indeed - to use Mr Pompeo's word - seen as being in retreat. A resurgent Russia and a rising China are making much of the running. The Trump presidency has been unable to translate the slogan "America First" into a coherent approach to the wider world. International agreements are overturned; the liberal order established by the US itself is questioned. "America First" indeed risks leaving considerable chaos in Mr Trump's wake.

"हमें पता चला कि जब अमेरिका पीछे हटता है, तो अराजकता अक्सर होती है।" यह दावा अमेरिकी विदेश मंत्री माइक पोम्पिओ ने काहिरा में अपने हालिया भाषण के दौरान किया था। लेकिन इस टिप्पणी ने क्षेत्र में वाशिंगटन के दोस्तों और सहयोगियों के बीच अनिश्चितता को दूर करने में बहुत कम मदद की। क्या सीरिया में अमेरिकी सैनिक रह रहे हैं या जा रहे हैं? अगर रहते हैं, तो कितने समय के लिए? और अगर जा रहे हैं, तो कब?


D-Day: Discovering the father I never knew

Summary: Lt Den Brotheridge was the first allied soldier killed in combat on D-Day. When he left to go to war, his wife was eight months pregnant with their first child. Yet it took his daughter 40 years to discover her father's role in one of D-Day's most famous operations.

By Richard SpaldingSouth Today At 22:40 on Monday 5 June 1944, six wooden gliders carrying 181 men from the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry swept into the sky from Tarrant Rushton airfield in Dorset. Towed by Halifax bombers, they were heading for two small bridges over the River Orne and Caen Canal in Normandy. The aim of the operation, codenamed 'Deadstick', was to land the gliders near the bridges and capture them from the Germans. Holding the bridges would prevent German tanks getting to the beaches where allied troops would land the following morning. In one of the gliders was Lt Brotheridge. A talented footballer and cricketer, he had signed up at the beginning of the war and been promoted from the ranks to become an officer. He and his wife Maggie had married four years earlier and she was at home in Smethwick, in the West Midlands, heavily pregnant with their first child. At 00:16 on D-Day the gliders crash landed just yards from the bridge at Benouville, now called Pegasus Bridge. The men of Lt Brotheridge's 25 platoon stormed across the bridge. There was a short, sharp firefight with the Germans and the bridge was taken. But, as Lt Brotheridge went back and forth across the bridge, a German machine gun opened up again and he was hit in the back of the neck. He died a short while later without regaining consciousness. Just 19 days later Maggie gave birth to a baby girl and named her Margaret. Now living in Honiton, Devon, she is approaching her 70th birthday. She said: "I knew he had died in the war. My mother remarried when I was four and she didn't talk about it. When my mother married again my grandparents [Lt Brotheridge's parents] didn't like it. "I went to see them twice but they didn't connect so I didn't know any of that family at all. My mother never talked about them for whatever reason known to her. I can't blame anybody, it's just circumstances isn't it?" It was not until the 40th anniversary of D-Day in 1984 that Margaret discovered what had happened to her father. "I found out just before I was 40. I opened up the paper and there was this big picture of my father's group and it had 'Brotheridge' on it and I said 'Oh my, just look at this.'" With the help of surviving members of her father's unit, Margaret was able to piece together what had happened to him. "He was very much a person of the people, he wasn't a typical officer," she said. "I met his batman [officer's servant] who was an absolutely lovely man and he talked about him being very likeable. He said he often thought he would get told off because he [Lt Brotheridge] would polish his own boots. "He would sit and talk to his men about football. I wouldn't ever have wanted him to pull rank. "They respected him and they would follow him. A couple of men I met said they would have followed him to the death and that's the best thing you would like to hear." Very few of the men who took part in Operation Deadstick are still alive. One is Pte Frank Bourlet who was on the same glider as Den Brotheridge. Now 91 and living in Hampshire, he told the BBC: "He seemed a very, very nice chap. He didn't use his rank a great deal. You felt comfortable with him, that was the main thing." Mr Bourlet was close to Lt Brotheridge during the attack on the bridge. He said: "He was up on the corner shouting 'Come on 25! - Come on 25!' That's the last words he ever said. "We were very upset amongst ourselves. Everybody was upset. To miss Danny, so out of the blue, you just couldn't take it in." When her mother died, Margaret found her father's medals in a box. She has no children of her own and has given the medals to The Royal Green Jackets Museum in Winchester so that something of his sacrifice will remain. She said: "He's a symbol of all of them really. He was recommended for the Military Cross but because he died too soon it had to be rescinded - ridiculous isn't it?"

लेफ्टिनेंट डेन ब्रेरिज डी-डे पर लड़ाई में मारे गए पहले सहयोगी सैनिक थे। जब वे युद्ध में जाने के लिए रवाना हुए, तो उनकी पत्नी अपने पहले बच्चे के साथ आठ महीने की गर्भवती थी। फिर भी उनकी बेटी को डी-डे के सबसे प्रसिद्ध अभियानों में से एक में अपने पिता की भूमिका का पता लगाने में 40 साल लग गए।


Viewpoint: How happiness changes with age

Summary: When it comes to happiness, it seems that the young and the old have the secret. And it turns out what's true for humans is also true for our primate cousins, explains neuroscientist Tali Sharot.

How does happiness change with age? Most people assume that as children we live a carefree existence, then we go through the miserable confusion of teenage years ("Who am I?") but regain happiness once we figure it all out and settle down, only to then grow grumpy and lonely with every additional wrinkle and grey hair. Well, this is utterly wrong. It turns out that happiness is indeed high in youth, but declines steadily hitting rock bottom in our mid-40s - midlife crisis, anyone? Then, miraculously, our sense of happiness takes a turn for the better, increasing as we grow older. This U-shape pattern of happiness over the life span (high during youth and old age, low during midlife) has been observed across the globe, from Switzerland to Ecuador, Romania to China. All in all, it has been documented in more than 70 countries, in surveys of more than 500,000 people in both developing and developed countries. How can we explain these counter-intuitive findings? Does it have something to do with juggling kids and careers in our 30s and 40s? Apparently not. Even after accounting for the presence of kids in the household the U-shape pattern of happiness remains. Perhaps the pattern is due to generational differences? As studies did not follow the same individuals throughout life, but rather different individuals of different ages, it could be that teenagers and the elderly are happier than the middle-aged because they were born during better times. But this is not the case. Controlling for "cohort effects" does not seem to affect the U-shape pattern. It also persists when other demographic factors are accounted for, including marital status, education, employment status, and income. Then, just last month, a group led by Prof Andrew Oswald from the University of Warwick, reported that happiness of our evolutionary cousins - the great apes - also follows a U-shape pattern throughout life. Of course we cannot ask apes to rate their life satisfaction on a scale from one to 10. But the well-being of 508 apes was estimated by asking their human care-givers to assess it. Apes, like humans, were less happy during midlife than when younger or older. The existence of a midlife crisis in the great ape strengthens the notion that the pattern of happiness throughout life is not due to socioeconomic factors. This leaves two likely explanations. Firstly, "the survival of the happiest" - happiness is known to be related to longevity. Put simply, the happier live longer, while the pessimistic die prematurely, possibly because the latter experience more stress, which impacts on health negatively. Therefore, the elderly individuals who remain for scientists to test should be happier than the average 30- or 40-year-olds. But this only explains the latter half of the U-shape. Secondly, the U-shape could arise in both humans and apes because of similar age-related changes in brain structures that influence happiness. One part of our brain which changes considerably both throughout the first two decades of our life, and as we move into old age, is the frontal lobe. Our frontal lobes mature well into our mid-20s and then start deteriorating as early as 45. This means that as we develop, we slowly increase some frontal-lobe function, which we then lose later in life. One such function is our ability to learn from bad news. My colleagues and I have found that people tend to discount the relevance of undesirable information to themselves (such as news that alcohol is bad for your liver) but readily adopt good news (being told that red wine is good for the heart). So when smokers see warning signs on cigarette packets they think: "Yes, smoking kills - but mostly it kills the other guy." At the same when we hear the housing market is going up we think: "The value of my house is going to double!" Using brain imaging techniques we discovered that the tendency to discount bad news is related to how well regions of the frontal lobe are coding unexpected negative information. Now, you may think that discounting bad news can get people into trouble - for example, causing us to smoke more and save less. There is some truth to this, but it is also good for our mental health. Our research shows that the successful incorporation of bad news is related to depression. Discounting bad news, as most of us do, presumably allows us to keep a rosy view of the future, and while this view is not necessarily realistic it does keep us happy. But the tendency to discount bad news also follows a U-shape pattern over our lifespan. Kids, teenagers and the elderly discount unwanted information more than middle age individuals. The developmental change in the frontal lobes appears to be mirrored by our ability to learn from bad news, which in turn could drive age-related differences in happiness. So happiness may come at a price - a reduced ability to take into account unwanted information. In essence, this means that we may need to re-frame health and safety campaigns, especially those targeted at the young and the elderly. Instead of, or in addition to, labelling a packet of cigarettes with the words "SMOKING KILLS", we may want to print "80% of people who try to quit smoking succeed". And instead of highlighting the risks of skin cancer on a bottle of sun lotion, how about highlighting the sun cream's benefits (fewer wrinkles, healthier-looking skin)? Will fewer people reach for another cigarette when we focus on social norms? Will more people protect their skin from UV rays when we emphasise the positive? Each case needs to be tested. But given that we now know that people tend to respond to warnings with "It's unlikely to happen to me" and to the possibility of a glorious future with "Why not me?" there is reason to believe this may be so. Tali Sharot is the author of The Optimism Bias and The Science of Optimism, of which this is an adapted extract You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook

जब खुशी की बात आती है, तो ऐसा लगता है कि युवा और बूढ़े दोनों के पास रहस्य है। और यह पता चलता है कि जो मनुष्यों के लिए सच है वह हमारे प्राइमेट चचेरे भाइयों के लिए भी सच है, तंत्रिका विज्ञानी ताली शारोट बताते हैं।


Q&A: The NHS shake-up

Summary: The government is overhauling the way the NHS in England works.

Under the plans, GPs and other clinicians will be given much more responsibility for spending the budget in England, while greater competition with the private sector will be encouraged. It has been dubbed one of the most radical plans in the history of the health service - and has certainly proved controversial. Ministers even had to take the unprecedented step of putting the plans on hold last spring after criticisms from MPs and health unions. After carrying out a "listening exercise" they agreed to make changes, but this has still not been enough to appease critics. A host of health groups have recently said they totally oppose the plans - and these include some royal colleges which set professional standards as well as the major unions representing doctors, nurses and midwives. The bill gained Royal Assent in March 2012, more than 14 months after first being tabled in the House of Commons.

सरकार इंग्लैंड में एन. एच. एस. के काम करने के तरीके में बदलाव कर रही है।


Towie celeb high street 'shouting from same hymn sheet'

Summary: The high street faced unprecedented strain when the coronavirus lockdown came into force. Exactly a month after shops started reopening, BBC News spoke to businesses in Brentwood, Essex, to find out what it is like now.

By Zoe ApplegateBBC News It pays to be beautiful in Brentwood. The home of reality TV show The Only Way is Essex, the High Street has a grooming and pampering service for every part of the face, body - and pet. But during lockdown, the shutters were down at these and other so-called "non-essential services". Has business picked up again since lockdown was eased? Anneliese Sid, 29, owner of The Greenhouse plant shop, opened her business just eight weeks before the lockdown. She said it gave her time to focus on her social media strategy and build her brand in the area. Her social media followers now total 5,000 - a five-fold increase since the start of the lockdown and Ms Sid said there had been an influx of customers post-lockdown keen to visit her store as a result. "We could recommend what plants could go in what rooms and by the end of the lockdown people were dying to get down here and see the shop," she said. "It gave us the time to offer a bespoke service and we really enjoyed doing that." She said the next challenge would be to implement shoppers wearing compulsory facemasks as about 90% of her customers currently did not. "We're happy to go with the guidelines and we've been rigorous with everything else," she said. She also saw the lockdown as an opportunity to work closely with other businesses. "We just came together and shouted from the same hymn sheet about each other. You may also like: "We also did click-and-collect with other businesses in Brentwood so customers could order a book and pick it up from here as well as a plant." Jamie Burton, 26, has also just opened his dog grooming business, Pet Spa Essex, after taking on his shop premises a year ago. "It required a lot of building work, then when it was time to open we went into lockdown," he said. However, he remained upbeat and is convinced he's made the right decision to branch out on his own after eight years in the industry working both at Harrods and with one of the country's top dog groomers. "It is always scary opening anyway, but I was confident. I have won lots of awards and I knew there was a niche in Brentwood for someone like me. "I've been dog grooming since I left school so I had built a good foundation and it was the right time." Mr Burton said footfall since the easing of lockdown had not returned to previous levels, but he believed his business would keep busy due to its nature and his investment in the building. "Dogs will always need grooming," he said. "Unlike having your hair cut, a dog has to have its hair cut because it grows into their eyes, they gets mats in their pads. "It's an Instagram-able shop, but you can't just have a good-looking salon as you have to be good at what you do too." Just off the High Street amid a cluster of independent shops lining Crown Street is the Chicken and Frog bookshop, which relocated there in January. Natasha Radford, 46, opened the specialist children's shop almost eight years ago and said the fact she also offered tuition helped it to "weather the massive drop in book sales" during the lockdown. "We had always wanted to be in Crown Street and so we pounced on it, but obviously the timing wasn't ideal," she said. "Luckily we've got the two strands to the shop and have been incredibly busy. "I was a teacher for 20 years... so I decided to put the two together. You have to make your shop part of the community as people can buy the same products elsewhere for a couple of pounds less, so you have to offer them something else." With people now venturing out, she said her week-on-week book sales had increased, which she attributed in part to customer loyalty engendered through free in-store workshops and running online storytelling sessions and book clubs. "Before the lockdown business was going up-and-up-and up, so I just hope it continues in that vein," said Mrs Radford. "There had been a shift to local shops and I feel the lockdown has compounded that feeling of 'if you don't use it you'll lose it'." Brentwood Borough Council chief executive Jonathan Stephenson said it had stepped in to help businesses by giving millions of pounds in emergency grants. It has also implemented a range of measures including providing free parking for those working in essential shops, running retail recovery workshops and handing out 500 coronavirus information packs. "We have distributed over £17m in Covid grants to 1,300 Brentwood businesses," he said. "The feedback from businesses has been highly complimentary for the range of support we have offered." As for Mr Burton, he's hoping the dual power of social media and being located in a place well-known for its celebrity pulling power might also give his salon a further boost. "I've just had a very famous singer book an appointment for her dog," he said. "She has 7.5m followers on social media and I'm hoping if I do a good job she might tag me!" Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk

जब कोरोनावायरस लॉकडाउन लागू हुआ तो हाई स्ट्रीट को अभूतपूर्व तनाव का सामना करना पड़ा। दुकानें फिर से खुलने के ठीक एक महीने बाद, बीबीसी न्यूज़ ने ब्रेंटवुड, एसेक्स में व्यवसायों से बात की ताकि यह पता लगाया जा सके कि अब यह कैसा है।


Coronavirus Catch-up: Send in your questions

Summary: On Tuesday night's Coronavirus Catch-up, Dr Eddie O'Neill, the product manager for the StopCovidNI contact tracing application, answers your questions.

So what do you want to know? Get in touch with us using the form below. Watch Coronavirus Catch-up live on Tuesday night at 19:00 GMT here on the BBC News NI website, the BBC iPlayer or the BBC News NI Facebook page. Your contact info Please don't publish my name 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.

मंगलवार की रात के कोरोनावायरस कैच-अप पर, डॉ. एडी ओ 'नील, स्टॉपकोविडएनआई संपर्क अनुरेखण अनुप्रयोग के उत्पाद प्रबंधक, आपके प्रश्नों का उत्तर देते हैं।


A country in love with injections and drips

Summary: In Cambodia almost anyone who sees a doctor or goes to hospital, is given an injection or put on an intravenous drip. This is what patients want, and what medical staff give them - it has become part of the healthcare routine. But it has serious, sometimes tragic, effects.

By John MurphyBBC News, Cambodia Mom Hing is chewing as he talks. The abbot of a Buddhist temple, he is sitting on the floor in his orange robes. He's been receiving gifts of food, drink and some money from worshippers in the village of Roka. In exchange, he gives them a blessing. But this 82-year-old monk is HIV-positive, and he's certain how that came about. "Since I came to this village in 1994, I've been having injections from a medical doctor who was trained in a refugee camp. And I got HIV-Aids from him - I only got injections from him." The man he's talking about was the village "doctor" for two-and-a-half decades - an unqualified, unlicensed doctor. Earlier this month he was given a 25-year prison sentence for manslaughter, accused of reusing needles and syringes. Yet Mom Hing bears no malice. "Let it be - life and death are normal things," he says. "I'm not worried about myself at all. I'm getting older. What I'm concerned about is the young." Tragically, more than 270 people in and around Roka - a population that numbers in the hundreds rather than thousands - have tested positive for HIV. Ten are reported to have already died from Aids. Lap Hoy, a 51-year-old grandmother, says she went to the village doctor when she had a cold and a fever. She is now HIV-positive and so are four other members of her family, who were also given injections by the doctor. "My grandchild got infected, her mother got infected and I, her grandmother, also got infected," she says. Lap Hoy says she doesn't want the doctor to ever to return. Her son-in-law, lying in a hammock, is more forthright. "If he ever came back, he wouldn't have any chance of survival," he says. Find out more Listen to Cambodia: Trust Me, I'm not a Doctor on Crossing Continents on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday 17 December, or catch up later online. The mass outbreak shocked a country which, with substantial help from foreign donors and NGOs, has made good progress over the last decade in reducing HIV levels. It also prompted the Cambodian government to announce a clampdown on unlicensed health workers. But are the unlicensed doctors, midwives and pharmacies really the problem? A Westerner, who has worked in Cambodia's health sector for many years says there is a general lack of knowledge about infection control throughout the country's healthcare system. "I would say there are many more Rokas in Cambodia," she says. The practices are so poor that it's inevitable. I don't think there's a difference between licensed and unlicensed doctors. I think what we saw in this case was a breach of infection control practices [and] doctors working in the government sector get very little training - if any - in infection control." Part of the problem is the fascination many Cambodians have with injections and intravenous drips. Driving from the capital Phnom Penh, towards Roka, in the west of the country, I regularly saw people on IV drips - and not just on IV drips but also on motorbikes. These were mobile IV drips. I stopped one motorbike, which had three people on it. The passenger at the back was holding up a stick, at the end of which, covered in a black plastic bag, was a bottle of IV fluid. The plastic tube leading from the bottle was injected into the right arm of the man sitting in the middle. He said he'd been diagnosed with malaria by a private doctor and that he had liver disease and intestinal problems. He also felt weak. The IV drip, he said, was "cooling" his body down and giving him more energy. "There are a lot of people who have IV drips on motorbikes," he said. "I'm poor, I'm not rich, I don't have a car to drive, so I have a drip on a motorbike." The Western doctor, who prefers to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions, says demand for IV drips in Cambodia is immense. "It's not just in the village. Everybody who goes to hospital gets an IV because they think it's important and the doctors and nurses think it's important. "I think IVs and injections are given for spurious reasons. And they can be harmful. If you walk into a hospital, pretty close to every patient will have an IV. They'll just get them, you know, ad infinitum, until they leave the hospital." In theory, hospitals are the only institutions allowed to give injections. Local health clinics are forbidden from doing so. But this helps to push patients into the hands of the unlicensed doctors. "A mother brings her child to the clinic and says, 'OK physician, just give my child an injection,'" says Vong Tu, who trained as a nurse and is director of the Tuol Ampil health centre in Kompong Speu Province, south-west of Phnom Penh. "And I say, 'No, I can't give that to you, it's impossible.' Then the mother goes to the unlicensed doctor and simply says, 'Just one injection, one IV drip.' And the unlicensed doctor gives her what she wants." He says people take their children to private, unlicensed doctors to get IV drips or injections even when they only have a "normal fever". Ten minutes' drive from the health centre, lives "Dr Chin", an unlicensed doctor, who says he learned his skills from Vietnamese doctors after being recruited by the Khmer Rouge 40 years ago. War was raging and he dealt with malaria and dengue fever, while also patching up wounded soldiers. "My training was in the forest. It was all based on experience and reality," he says. As he goes on his medical rounds, weaving through the rice fields on his motorbike, it's clear that Chin is both popular and busy despite the government's intention to stop unlicensed doctors from practising. He's cheaper than the official hospitals and clinics, he lets his patients pay in instalments, and he's available day or night. He also gives his patients plenty of injections and IV drips. One woman says her husband had an operation in hospital to remove a tumour, and doctors gave him just five days to live. She credits Chin with keeping him alive for the last eight months. When I visited, the husband was attached to an IV drip, with yellow liquid in the bottle, which Chin said included painkillers and antibiotics. I spent about half a day with Chin. Despite his assurances that he never reuses needles, I wasn't wholly convinced by his infection control practices. He didn't wash his hands, or wear surgical gloves. I had my suspicions about a loose needle he kept in a silver metal box, which he used to fill the syringe with medicine from a bottle, before returning it to the box. And I had doubts about how sterile his cotton swabs were. I took my concerns to the Western doctor who quickly pointed out that no needle should ever be reused, whether it's to inject directly into a patient or to draw up the medicine. "Of course, things are only problems if you recognise them as problems," the doctor warned. "Many Khmer do not see these problems - for example antibiotic resistance [and] infection control breaches. "People blame this HIV outbreak [in Roka] on an unlicensed practitioner. But it could be many practitioners, licensed or unlicensed, working for the government or not, who have bad practices which can end up with Hepatitis B, or Hep C, or HIV. If you aren't aware of the problems then it's harder to fix them." Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

कंबोडिया में लगभग हर कोई जो डॉक्टर को देखता है या अस्पताल जाता है, उसे एक इंजेक्शन दिया जाता है या एक अंतःशिरा ड्रिप पर रखा जाता है। यही मरीज चाहते हैं, और जो चिकित्सा कर्मचारी उन्हें देते हैं-यह स्वास्थ्य सेवा दिनचर्या का हिस्सा बन गया है। लेकिन इसके गंभीर, कभी-कभी दुखद, प्रभाव होते हैं।


Sir David Attenborough to make climate change plea in Edinburgh

Summary: The naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough is to travel to Edinburgh to make an impassioned plea for urgent action to protect biodiversity and fight climate change.

Sir David will address charity workers at Edinburgh University's McEwan Hall on Wednesday 11 March. He will be the guest of honour at the People's Postcode Lottery annual charity gala in the capital. Last year, George and Amal Clooney attended the event. They received a Postcode Hero award in recognition of their work to protect human rights. Clara Govier, managing director at the People's Postcode Lottery, said: "Over the decades, Sir David has inspired generations of us to safeguard biodiversity and protect the planet. "We are delighted he will be joining us in Edinburgh early next year, Sir David's message is more important than ever."

प्रकृतिवादी और प्रसारक सर डेविड एटनबरो जैव विविधता की रक्षा करने और जलवायु परिवर्तन से लड़ने के लिए तत्काल कार्रवाई के लिए एक भावपूर्ण अनुरोध करने के लिए एडिनबर्ग की यात्रा करने वाले हैं।


Ocado sales hit by warehouse fire

Summary: Ocado's revenue grew by 11.2% in the 13 weeks to 13 March compared with the same period last year, although the online food retailer's income was hit by a fire in its warehouse in February.

It brought in £404m during the period, but the fire in its Andover base had a 1.2% impact on its sales. The firm had more orders per week, but their average size was slightly lower. Last month, Ocado announced a deal with Marks & Spencer to give the department store its first home delivery service. It will start in September 2020 at the latest, once Ocado's current deal with Waitrose has expired. 'Temporary setback' More than 30,000 orders - 10% of Ocado's capacity - were processed at the Andover warehouse, which was on fire for four days. Chief executive Tim Steiner said: "The fire has been a setback, but it will only be a temporary one. "Our teams have been working hard to minimise any disruption to our customers and we will build a state-of-the-art replacement facility that reflects all the innovations and improvements we have made since Andover opened in November 2016." Ocado also said that the initial investigation into the causes of the fire did not suggest there was any risk relating to its model, which relies on robotic warehouse machines to pack orders. Meanwhile, a temporary delivery outpost is being set up in Andover and capacity at another customer fulfilment centre in Erith is being increased faster than planned to cope with the disruption. Ocado is selling the operating system to other retailers and there was concern it could affect the other parts of its business. Mr Steiner said that with the Marks & Spencer deal, he felt that "Ocado Retail has never been in a stronger position". He added: "We are looking forward to the future with excitement and determination." Sophie Lund-Yates, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "Today's announcement leaves no doubt Ocado has its eyes firmly on the future, with the group letting investors know last month's warehouse fire will be nothing more than a temporary setback. "The first quarter has gone about as well as can be expected and it's looking more and more like Ocado will make it over this bump in the road."

ओकाडो का राजस्व पिछले साल की इसी अवधि की तुलना में 13 सप्ताह में 13 मार्च तक बढ़ गया, हालांकि ऑनलाइन खाद्य खुदरा विक्रेता की आय फरवरी में उसके गोदाम में आग लगने से प्रभावित हुई थी।


Passenger numbers rise 5% at Robin Hood Airport

Summary: Passenger numbers at Doncaster's Robin Hood Airport increased by 5% in 2010, despite problems caused by heavy snow and the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud.

The airport said there were 895,136 travellers in 2010 compared with 851,355 people the previous year. Its managers said the rise was "fantastic news". The airport closed for five days in December because of snow and ice. It also had to introduce no-fly zones in April and May due to the ash cloud. Airport director Mike Morton said: "This is fantastic news, especially given the difficulties we faced in the travel industry in 2010. "The severe weather conditions at the beginning and end of the year and the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland had a major impact on travel in and out of the UK. "Despite this, we saw more passengers taking off and landing in Doncaster."

भारी बर्फबारी और आइसलैंड के ज्वालामुखीय राख के बादल के कारण होने वाली समस्याओं के बावजूद, 2010 में डॉनकास्टर के रॉबिन हुड हवाई अड्डे पर यात्रियों की संख्या में 5 प्रतिशत की वृद्धि हुई।


Quad Gods: The world-class gamers who play with their mouths

Summary: Chris Scott was falling towards the ground above Long Island, New York, when he realised that something was wrong.

By Ant AdeaneBBC News An experienced skydiving instructor with around 6,000 jumps behind him, this should have just been another day at work. Strapped to Scott's chest was a tandem jumper named Gary Messina, for whom the jump was an annual birthday tradition. But when the men reached an altitude of 175ft, the parachute that had been slowing their descent suddenly collapsed. It had most likely been caught by a dust devil, a small unpredictable tornado that is the bane of skydivers, as it forms in the same clear conditions that are perfect for their sport. Messina, a prison officer who was due to turn 26 the next day, died on impact with the ground. Remarkably, Scott survived, although he soon blacked out. "I remember staring at the ground - and that was it," he later told reporters. He was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital. When he woke up 11 days later it was early August 2014 and doctors told him he had broken his neck. He was paralysed from the shoulders down and lucky to be alive. "I was a light beam away from death," he said. Scott went to a specialist rehabilitation centre in Atlanta, Georgia, before moving back to New York to live in the same apartment building as his family. He used a mouth-operated joystick to move his wheelchair and regularly went to Mount Sinai Hospital in East Harlem to work on his rehabilitation. It was there that he met Dr David Putrino in March 2019. In his role as the director of rehabilitation innovation at Mount Sinai, Putrino explored different ways of improving patient health. He used training methods associated with high-performance athletes, as well as technological solutions like virtual reality. The pair met at a time when Scott was struggling to cope. He missed being part of a team and felt a lack of purpose in his day-to-day life. Putrino had been recommended as someone who might be able to help. "We sat there staring at each other in silence for a little while," says Putrino. "And then I was like: 'Well, what do you like to do?'" Scott replied that he loved playing video games against others. Putrino was surprised. "That was me being naive at that point," he says, "because I'd never seen competitive gaming from someone as severely paralysed as Chris." They loaded a basketball game called NBA 2K into a PlayStation 4 at the hospital. Scott's backpack hung from his wheelchair and he asked Putrino to reach inside and fetch a device for him. The device had a mouthpiece with a joystick and different sensors that could be sucked on or blown into. This was Scott's QuadStick and it helped him to play video games using his mouth. Putrino mounted the QuadStick on to the wheelchair so that it lined up with Scott's mouth. Then they began to play. Scott moved the joystick with his lips. He could control the basketball players, making them pirouette, leap and throw, by puffing and sipping on the holes. "It was just incredibly dextrous and skilled," says Putrino. "And all of a sudden he was kicking my ass at NBA 2K." The experience gave them an idea. They were both familiar with the growing industry of e-sports where gamers competed against each other in tournaments. What if they could use Scott's video game skill and Putrino's expertise in high-performance training as the basis for an e-sports team with other quadriplegic players? Scott sent out a message to other patients at Mount Sinai to gauge interest. "This was the big test, because we weren't sure whether anyone would reply," says Putrino. But they didn't have to wait long to hear back. "People contacted us immediately and they were saying: 'We want a piece of this.'" Blake Hunt was one of those who got in touch. He had played video games since he was a child. "I remember playing Nintendo with my brothers," he says. Whoever came in first place had bragging rights for the day. A talented American football player, Hunt was 17 when he broke his neck during a match for his high-school team. "I couldn't really figure out a way to be competitive once I got hurt," he says. "That's where I got a lot of my enjoyment in life from. So I struggled with my identity for a while." After the accident Hunt couldn't move his legs, but he was able to move his arms and wrists. Without full use of his hands, however, he couldn't find a way to play the video games he'd always enjoyed. "One day I got really angry, and I decided to game by any means possible," says Hunt. Although he couldn't move each finger individually, he could make his hand close by pulling back his wrist. By flexing his wrist back and forth, he discovered he could press the buttons and move the joystick of a specially-designed controller. The first game he played was Call of Duty: Black Ops - a shooting game with a zombie mode that Hunt particularly enjoyed. Then he began playing American football on Madden NFL. It was a revelation. "That's when I realised that I can still be as competitive as anybody," he says. Shortly after their call-out, Scott and Putrino held a meeting where they set out their vision for an e-sports team that could compete at the highest level. Hunt was one of those in attendance. Soon a group of eight people with paraplegia and quadriplegia were meeting up regularly to practice. "And from there it kind of skyrocketed," says Hunt. One of the first video games they played together online was League of Legends, a gladiatorial game where two teams battle each other in a fantasy setting. It is a game that relies on teamwork and, as they played, the different playing styles and characteristics of each team member came to the fore. Sergio Acevedo was a laid-back, calming personality, while Richard Jacobs was lively, animated and often spoke in the third person as he played: "Good job, Rich!" Hunt could sometimes be heard singing at points of particular tension. Some of the team played by pressing pads with the side of their heads, while others manipulated controllers with their arms. They found that playing together they were a formidable outfit. "Individually we had a hard time winning sometimes," says Hunt. "But when we all came together, it was very hard to beat us." Nyree Stevens was another who responded to the initial call-out. Thirty years old and a keen artist, she uses her mouth to paint portraits of her friends. She was injured by a stray bullet on a night out with friends in Harlem when she was 18. "It was a gunshot wound to the neck," she says. "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time." Video games have become an important part of her life. "It helps me get my independence back to be able to play," she says. When she joined the team, she was the only woman. "You know what boys are like with their games," she says. "They live for gaming. But I'm getting up there with them." Often the people that they played online - and beat - were non-disabled. Sometimes their opponents didn't know who they were playing. "People don't know," says Hunt. "And it's very liberating to beat them. That's part of the fun." But with the growth in popularity of streaming platforms like Twitch, often gamers can see each other. Nyree Stevens enjoys it when her opponents can see her. "A lot of people wouldn't think that the person on the other side of the avatar is beating them by playing with their mouth," she says. "So that's totally cool." Practice paid off. By the summer of 2019, the team were ready to begin playing in competitions where prize money and greater prestige would be up for grabs. On the cusp of their first tournament in late July 2019, they held another team meeting. Afterwards, Putrino remembers being with Scott as he left Mount Sinai for the day. "He stopped his chair and looked over his shoulder to ask me: 'Do you really think we can do this? Can we really pull this off?'" Putrino told him that to get as far as they had they were already winning. Scott smiled and rode his chair out of the hospital. A few days later, there was terrible news. Scott had died from a chest infection. "It was a shock to all of us," says Hunt. "It's still hard to deal with. We don't really discuss it too much." "That was a big blow," says Putrino. But he adds that for many disabled people, health is fragile. "You just never know what's going to happen." The team got together and resolved to continue what Scott had started. Their team name would be the Quad Gods. "We call ourselves the Quad Gods because in our minds we're all gods of our own lifestyle," says Hunt. They each came up with different alter egos. Hunt chose Shango. "He's an African God of thunder, and when I bring the pain, I bring the thunder." Richard Jacobs chose Zeus. Nyree Stevens chose SittinPrettii. In the first competitive tournament they played in there were 99 teams, and the Quad Gods were hoping to finish in the top half. They came fourth. They began playing in - and winning - more tournaments online, finding particular success with the popular fighting game Fortnite. As stories about their team spread among the gaming community, funding opportunities came their way. They received money to buy equipment and to launch as a legitimate e-sports team. The New Jersey Nets basketball team donated a gaming space. The Quad Gods began looking around for a full-time coach. Their next goal is to place highly at a range of different e-sports World Championships next year. The Olympic Committee are strongly considering e-sports for the 2024 Olympics and, by securing a world ranking, the Quad Gods hope to qualify. For the team, the benefits of competitive gaming have been considerable. "When we do things we enjoy, it releases stress," says Hunt. "Stress is a killer in its own right. In that way gaming has been therapeutic. I've been in the chair since I was 17. I'm now 31. In many ways gaming has saved my life." "None of us would be together if it weren't for Chris showing up to my lab one day and saying 'Hey, I got to do something,'" says Putrino, known affectionately as "the Quadfather" by the team. The Quad Gods logo was painted by the laid-back Sergio Acevedo, who, like Nyree Stevens, paints with his mouth. It is of a wheelchair being held aloft by wings. "Chris will always be our captain," says Hunt. "He's our guardian angel and the wings embody that." For more stories about video games and disability, listen to Unplayable: Disability and the Gaming Revolution You may also be interested in: "I was 19 years old and didn't know how I would even begin to think of my body without my legs," writes Kat Hawkins. "I remember thinking: 'I'm not going to be able to walk, let alone dance.'" 'I thought dancers had to have two arms and two legs'

क्रिस स्कॉट लॉन्ग आइलैंड, न्यूयॉर्क के ऊपर जमीन की ओर गिर रहे थे, जब उन्हें एहसास हुआ कि कुछ गड़बड़ है।


NHS Grampian reports: Key points

Summary: Three reports into health care in the north-east of Scotland have highlighted "extremely serious" issues and "make stark reading" for NHS Grampian.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) conducted a review of Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and also an unannounced inspection of services for older people in acute hospitals in the NHS Grampian region. A separate review from the Royal College of Surgeons looked at General Surgery. ABERDEEN ROYAL INFIRMARY Leadership and culture Governance and accountability Staff governance CARE FOR OLDER PEOPLE IN ACUTE HOSPITALS Treating older people with compassion, dignity and respect Discharge Staffing Documentation GENERAL SURGERY SERVICE REVIEW

स्कॉटलैंड के उत्तर-पूर्व में स्वास्थ्य देखभाल की तीन रिपोर्टों ने "बेहद गंभीर" मुद्दों पर प्रकाश डाला है और एन. एच. एस. ग्रैम्पियन के लिए "स्पष्ट अध्ययन" किया है।


EU referendum: Did 1975 predictions come true?

Summary: Britain voted by a margin of two-to-one to stay in the European Economic Community, as the EU was then known, in a 1975 referendum. How many of the things the defeated Out campaign were warning about have come true?

By Brian WheelerPolitical reporter Through the looking glass Welcome to the 1975 European referendum - a mirror image of the one being fought today. Today the Conservative government is deeply divided over the big question. In 1975, it was the Labour government. Prime Minister Harold Wilson had come back from Brussels with what he claimed was a better deal for Britain (sound familiar?) and was leading the In campaign. But Labour's left, led by Tony Benn (and including a then-unknown Jeremy Corbyn), hated the Common Market, seeing it as a "capitalist club" that would erode British democracy and destroy jobs. The Conservatives - including their new leader Margaret Thatcher - were, almost to a man and woman, enthusiastic cheerleaders for staying in "Europe" on free trade grounds, after taking us into it two years earlier. Like now, big business backed Britain's membership - but so did the tabloid press, with The Sun famously declaring in an editorial "we are all Europeans now". So who was right? Running our own affairs A common complaint from those who voted to remain in the EEC in 1975 is that they were hoodwinked - they thought they were voting for a trading arrangement but ended up with a bossy "superstate". This is not entirely true. Sovereignty - the ability to run our own affairs - was very much an issue in the 1975 referendum. Enoch Powell, the maverick right wing Tory who had just become an Ulster Unionist MP, and left wing Labour cabinet minister Tony Benn - the loudest voices in the Out campaign - talked endlessly about it. In its leaflet to voters, the Out campaign warned that the Common Market "sets out by stages to merge Britain with France, Germany, Italy and other countries into a single nation," in which Britain would be a "mere province". The In campaign openly acknowledged that being a member of the EEC involved "pooling" sovereignty with the eight other nations who were members at the time. But it said Britain could not go it alone in the modern world and it assured voters that British traditions and way of life were not under threat. The In campaign also stressed that all the big decisions in Europe would be subject to a prime ministerial veto - something that no longer holds true 41 years later - and that there was no need for Community-wide laws apart from for a "few commercial and industrial purposes". Today's Leave campaigners would take issue with that "few". Enoch Powell was asked to explain why the British people had ignored his warnings about giving up the power to determine laws, as it became clear that his side had lost. "It is a thing so incredible to them that I am not inclined to blame them overmuch," he told the BBC. The price of butter With inflation running at 24% (CPI inflation is currently 0.3%), rising food prices were a huge issue for voters in 1975. Some blamed the recent introduction of decimal coins. Others blamed the parlous state of British industry. The Out campaign blamed the Common Market, which through the Common Agricultural Policy, forced Britain to buy food from other member states and, to give one much quoted example, banned the import of cheap butter from New Zealand. "The price of butter has to be almost doubled by 1978 if we stay in," warned the Out campaign in its leaflet. In fact, the price of butter quadrupled by 1978, although debate continued to rage about whether the Common Market was entirely to blame for that. Food mountains The In campaign raised the spectre of food security in 1975, warning that "Britain as a country which cannot feed itself, will be safer in the Community which is almost self-sufficient in food. Otherwise we may find ourselves standing at the end of a world food queue". In fact, there were huge surpluses of food being sold off at knockdown prices by the EEC itself. Subsidies to farmers had produced "butter mountains," "beef mountains" and "wine lakes". The surplus food was, as the Out campaign pointed out, being destroyed or sold off to Russia "at prices well below what the housewife in the Common Market has to pay". We don't hear much about European "butter mountains" these days. The EU is taking action to end the "dumping" of cheap food on African nations, where it has damaged local farmers, although everyone - including the Remain camp - still thinks the Common Agricultural Policy is in need of further reform. The UK is, however, heavily dependent on other EU member states for food. UK food production is below 60% of consumption and particularly reliant on imports for fruit and many vegetables, according to the National Farmers Union, which backs a Remain vote. UKIP points to a 2008 Defra report which suggests Britain could, at a pinch, become self-sufficient if had to. Jobs and trade Out campaigner Tony Benn claimed Britain's membership of the EEC had cost 500,000 British jobs in just two years. He blamed rising unemployment on the growing trade deficit between Britain and the rest of the EEC. We were importing far more stuff from European countries than we were exporting to them. (Britain has continued to run a trade deficit with the rest of the EU, and it hit a record high this year, thanks in part to a stronger pound.) The In campaign said Mr Benn had effectively plucked the jobs figure out of thin air and the real cause of rising unemployment was the global slump and rampant inflation, which was well above levels in the rest of Europe. They warned that leaving the EU would be potentially "disastrous" for British industry as it would block access to a market of what was then 250 million people. In an echo of the arguments being made today, the 1975 In campaign said that even if Britain was able to negotiate a free trade deal with the EEC it "would have to accept many Community rules" without having any say in how they are made. Lurking behind this debate was the growing feeling that Britain - crippled by strikes, power cuts and inflation - was just about finished as a country. "Since the national decline of Britain became fully apparent after the war there has never been a rational alternative to a European base for the redevelopment of Britain," the pro-EU Times argued in an editorial. Out campaigners argued the only way to save Britain was to get out of the EU, but the British public in 1975 were not convinced. The Commonwealth Britain had only just given up its empire in 1975, so there was much anxiety about what would happen to the country's links with its former colonies. Britain had to cut most of its trade links with the Commonwealth nations and replace them with trade deals with the EEC. This prompted the Out campaign to claim that Britain would effectively cease to be a member of the Commonwealth. The In campaign said the leaders of the Commonwealth nations all wanted Britain to remain in the EU and assured voters that the Queen would "continue to be head of the Commonwealth". This issue has resurfaced in the current campaign, with Leave campaigners saying Britain would be able to strike its own trade deals with Commonwealth nations, although some economists have suggested that may result in something close to the status quo, as the EU already has deals with the majority of former British colonies. What no one saw coming The fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent admittance of former Communist bloc states, such as Poland and the Czech Republic, into the European Union would have seemed an extremely far-fetched proposition in 1975. The Cold War and the Soviet Union were seemingly immovable facts of life back then. The In campaign even declared in its leaflet that "some want a Communist Britain - part of the Soviet bloc". The Common Market was sold to voters as a bulwark against Soviet aggression, in much the same way as today's Remain campaign claims Vladimir Putin would celebrate a British Leave vote. Immigration was not an issue The other dog that didn't bark in 1975 was immigration. It was barely mentioned at all during the campaign. This was due, in part, to the fact that there were still limits on workers from other member states. Full EU "free movement" did not kick in until after the 1992 Maastricht Treaty was signed. But the idea that people would want to come to a depressed, economically stagnant Britain in large numbers would have seemed fanciful at best in 1975. The growth of emigration was more of a concern. So what lessons can we draw from 1975? Perhaps the biggest lesson is that although some of the things the Out campaign were warning about, particularly on sovereignty, have come to pass - and the In campaign will claim Britain's membership has delivered the peace, stability and prosperity their kipper-tied forebears had promised - it is best to take confident predictions about what might happen in the future, from either side, with a large pinch of salt.

ब्रिटेन ने 1975 के जनमत संग्रह में यूरोपीय आर्थिक समुदाय में बने रहने के लिए दो-से-एक के अंतर से मतदान किया, जैसा कि यूरोपीय संघ को तब जाना जाता था। जिन चीजों के बारे में पराजित अभियान चेतावनी दे रहा था, उनमें से कितनी चीजें सच हो गई हैं?


I felt my life was over when I saw my damaged face

Summary: When Seria Hogg was knocked off her bike by a hit-and-run driver, she was left with deep cuts to her face, a broken and collapsed cheekbone, four missing teeth and a damaged tongue.

By Angie BrownBBC Scotland News It took a year of dental work and three operations to reconstruct her face, but she has been left with mental as well as physical scars. The 49-year-old from Penicuik in Midlothian said she first realised the extent of her injuries when her 19-year-old son visited her in hospital and cried when he saw her face. When she was given a mirror and saw the damage for herself, she said she was "absolutely horrified". "My face was maybe twice the size it should have been because there were so many stitches. I sobbed as I couldn't bear to look at myself," she said. "I tried to be so strong for my family despite feeling like my life was over." Children were visibly scared by her face and adults would stare, the mother-of-three said. "It was a terrible time," she said. "I wasn't offered any counselling by the NHS or told about any organisations who could help me. "A year went by of attending appointments, going to work and all the while I was completely unravelling and it culminated in me having a breakdown." Seria had been cycling in Edinburgh when she was knocked down by a disqualified driver in April 2009. He was later fined £600 for dangerous driving. "I can't remember anything about the accident and when I regained consciousness I was inside an MRI scanner. It was scary and I didn't know where I was," she said. "They then sewed all my face up. I asked how many stitches I had and they said there were so many they couldn't count." A bone had to be cemented in her jaw and she had to go for three hours to the dentist every week for more than a year. She said: "The repairs were so traumatic and the drilling so painful and it caused me to keep refocussing on the accident." She had an operation on her nose, another for titanium plates to be fitted and a third using cartilage from her ear to repair her face. "I had just started coming into my own as a woman and feeling confident when this happened and suddenly I felt like my life was over, it was a really hard thing to deal with," she said. "I felt I couldn't look at people or they would be scared or disgusted. I overcame it initially by pretending but really I was falling apart and then a year later I had a breakdown. "I grew my hair that was very short in a bid to cover my scars but it was in the middle of my face and I just couldn't hide it." Browsing the internet five years after the collision, she came across free counselling charity Changing Faces, for people who had suffered "visible differences" to their faces. "I wish I had known about this charity at the time because my facial injuries really affected my mental health," she said. "If I had known about the charity sooner I would have been able to get help sooner and maybe I wouldn't have had a breakdown." Eleven years later Seria still is unable to feel one side of her face, which means she cannot smile. Now she plans to cycle from Land's End to John o' Groats solo in a bid to raise money for Changing Faces. "I decided that the driver had already impacted my life so much that I wasn't going to let him take my love for cycling away," she said. "It still does upset me as it was such an awful time so I will use the time on my own on the bike to process my accident and focus on how much has changed since then." Catherine Deakin, Changing Faces director of fundraising, says: "Seria's fantastic cycling challenge will help us keep open the UK's only free counselling service for people with visible differences who need more help to cope." She sets off on her cycle on 18 September.

जब सेरिया हॉग को एक हिट-एंड-रन ड्राइवर ने उसकी बाइक से टक्कर मार दी, तो उसके चेहरे पर गहरे घाव हो गए, एक टूटी हुई और ढह गई गाल की हड्डी, चार लापता दांत और एक क्षतिग्रस्त जीभ थी।


Grateful Dead's signature guitar could be yours at auction

Summary: It's more than 20 years since Jerry Garcia died ending the glory years of the Grateful Dead, one of the most popular rock bands to date. These days some ardent fans (or "Deadheads") will pay top prices for the right piece of band memorabilia. But now, possibly the ultimate Garcia artefact is coming to auction in New York - his favourite guitar, nicknamed Wolf. And a single charity is to benefit.

By Vincent DowdArts reporter, BBC News Officially the Grateful Dead had no leader. But from the band's origins in 1965 to his death 30 years later, Garcia was the best known member of a group which still evokes the excitement of American counterculture in the 1960s. As well as '60s psychedelia, the group's albums show the influence of jazz, bluegrass, mainstream pop and even their early days as a jug band. But when they toured it was the lengthy jam sessions fans loved - and central to those was the Garcia guitar sound. Devoted Deadheads identify five classic guitars which Garcia played at different times: Alligator, Rosebud, Lightning Bolt, Tiger and Wolf. The last two were auctioned together in 2002 and made more than $1.5m (£1.2m). Now Wolf is back at the same auction house to benefit the advocacy group the Southern Poverty Law Center. Arlan Ettinger runs Guernsey's auction house in New York which is handling this month's sale. Guernsey's specialises in the unusual. "I've loved having a pioneering sale of John F Kennedy memorabilia or jazz artefacts," says Ettinger. "But selling Tiger and Wolf the first time round was a huge thrill because real fans are amazingly passionate about the Grateful Dead. It's like they've become the ultimate rock icon of '60s America and all that excitement and the passion that went with it." Tiger was bought in 2002 by the hugely wealthy Jim Irsay, who owns the National Football League (NFL) team the Indianapolis Colts. Wolf went for more than $700,000 (£543,000) to Dan Pritzker, whose family founded the Hyatt hotel chain. Ettinger remembers there had already been a lot of press interest in who owned the guitars. "They were consigned to Guernsey's by the man who made them - the luthier [guitar maker] Doug Irwin. In his will Jerry had bequeathed the guitars back to Doug but the band members challenged that legally. Times had been tough for Doug Irwin and he had at times been homeless. "Everyone was saying they were worth maybe $25,000 (£19,000) or $50,000 (£39,000) apiece. But we built a big auction of Grateful Dead material around them and we proved they were worth a lot more. The auction was at the ultra-hip disco Studio 54 in Manhattan which made it pretty special. "So I was surprised and delighted when Dan Pritzker got back in contact to say all these years later he wants to auction Wolf again for charity. Dan is intent that every dollar of the hammer price should go to the Law Center and we've agreed to that. "Given what it sold for in 2002 and given how great a cause this is, we're hoping the Center will get more than $1.5m (£1.2m) from the sale this month." Wolf 'accident' The Southern Poverty Law Center was founded in Alabama in 1971 to focus on civil rights. Ettinger thinks Garcia would be delighted to see it benefit from the sale of Wolf. "Southern Poverty has fought racism and hate groups and neo-Nazis through the courts. So I thought it was a noble thing for Dan Pritzker to do. It's a pure gift with no tax write-off and there's no seller's commission for us. "Dan told me he was deeply troubled by the direction our new government is taking. He wanted to take some proactive steps to do something important and good with the money the auction will raise." The guitar's Wolf association came about almost by accident: it wasn't something Irwin included when he made the instrument. Garcia stuck a cartoon wolf on the guitar as a joke. At one point the instrument went back to Irwin for repairs and he decided to incorporate the cartoon wolf more permanently. Ettinger thinks only the most obsessive Deadheads can identify exactly which guitar Garcia played in each recording. "But the Wolf design means you can often pick out that exact instrument at a particular concert in photographs and film footage. "There is so much interest still in Jerry and the band. There's a new Martin Scorsese six-part TV series about them: I think that will tell us about the world they lived in, not just about their music. "It's funny when you think of the guitar as just wood and strips of metal and wire strings. But it takes people back to very important moments in their lives. It's been around since 1973 so it's fantastic that all these years later it will do so much good in the world." The guitar will be auctioned at Guernsey's in New York on 31 May. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

जेरी गार्सिया की मृत्यु को 20 साल से भी अधिक समय हो गया है और अब तक के सबसे लोकप्रिय रॉक बैंडों में से एक, ग्रेटफुल डेड के गौरवशाली वर्षों का अंत हो गया है। इन दिनों कुछ उत्साही प्रशंसक (या "डेडहेड्स") बैंड की यादगार वस्तुओं के सही टुकड़े के लिए शीर्ष मूल्य का भुगतान करेंगे। लेकिन अब, संभवतः अंतिम गार्सिया कलाकृति न्यूयॉर्क में नीलामी के लिए आ रही है-उनका पसंदीदा गिटार, जिसका उपनाम वुल्फ है। और एक ही दान लाभ के लिए है।


Superfast computer technology to be piloted in Highlands

Summary: Superfast computer technology is to be piloted in the Highlands.

The project, to create a high performance computing (HPC) network, involves Fujitsu, Highland Council and business group Energy North. A hub in the Highlands will be linked up to computer clusters in other parts of the UK and the rest of the world. Those involved said the HPC would be able to handle huge amounts of data and do tasks in minutes that normally take days to complete. Fujitsu, which has bases in Inverness and Alness, along with Highland Council and Energy North will run the trial for four months. Energy North is a trade group with more than 200 members in the oil and gas, renewable energy and nuclear industries. The Highland system will use a portal to connect initially to a HPC cluster in Wales and later to a pilot scheme in Northern Ireland. It will also connect to Fujitsu operations at Hayes in Middlesex, the base for the Laboratories of Europe, a global network of research facilities in Europe, Japan and the US. The HPC will allow companies in the Highlands to be able to link into computer technology previously unavailable. 'Pioneering project' The Welsh HPC network, which connects six universities, as well as private sector companies, is capable of doing 320 trillion operations every second. The Scottish pilot is also linked to efforts to create a Highland Science Skills Academy. Drew Hendry, leader of Highland Council, said: "HPC opens up a new world of potential for the business and research community in the Highlands and beyond. "It will put the region at the forefront of the HPC revolution in Scotland by providing access to unprecedented computing power to help develop products and processes that will benefit the wider economy. "It fits perfectly with our plans to develop a Highland Science Skills Academy and together these pioneering developments could benefit people for generations to come." Jim Brophy, Fujitsu's client director, described the HPC pilot as a "pioneering project". Ian Couper, chief executive of Energy North, said: "Using HPC could bring vast rewards to the industry and help grow the Highlands' reputation as a leader in energy research and development - something we are working with the industry to achieve through the Energy North Oil and Gas Taskforce." Related Internet Links Energy North Fujitsu Highland Council

हाईलैंड्स में सुपरफास्ट कंप्यूटर तकनीक का संचालन किया जाना है।


A9 Perth to Inverness design work details released

Summary: New details have been released on three contracts worth up to £60m each for the design of new dual carriageway on the A9 between Perth and Inverness.

Transport Scotland said the contracts cover Birnam to Glen Garry, Glen Garry to Dalraddy and Dalraddy to Inverness. The work forms part of a £3bn Scottish government project to dual the road completely between the two cities. The construction work involving 80 miles (128.7km) is scheduled to be completed in 2025. A previous announcement on the design contracts worth between £40m and £60m did not include details on the sections of road to be covered.

पर्थ और इनवर्नेस के बीच ए9 पर नए दोहरे कैरिजवे के डिजाइन के लिए 60 मिलियन पाउंड तक के तीन अनुबंधों पर नए विवरण जारी किए गए हैं।


Istanbul mayoral vote: Is ‘disastrous’ loss beginning of Erdogan’s end?

Summary: As the scale of Ekrem Imamoglu's victory became clear, his supporters thronged his election headquarters. Lining the street outside was a row of cameras. Among them: Turkey's state broadcaster TRT, heavily under the thumb of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

By Mark LowenBBC Turkey correspondent, Istanbul A woman approached, waving her Turkish flag bearing the face of Mr Imamoglu at the TRT cameraman. "Now are you going to film us?", she cried, "we're here, now show we are!" It encapsulated the feeling of an opposition that has been stifled for years, all the organs of the Turkish state controlled by Turkey's powerful, polarising leader. Finally, the other side of this country feels as though the hand that has covered its mouth has been unclasped. Rarely is a local election of such national importance. But Mr Erdogan has built his political career over twenty-five years on a sense of victory and an aura of invincibility. He was born in Istanbul, he ran it as mayor and it propelled him to power first as Prime Minister in 2003 and then President eleven years later. He has towered over an opposition that long been hopelessly divided. And he has thrived on seeming unchallengeable. Accruing ever more power through the devotion of his pious, conservative supporters, he has transformed Turkey economically and socially, every area from media to construction filled with loyalists who backed him in return for favours. A 'disastrous miscalculation' When his AK Party (AKP) lost Istanbul in March this year by a sliver - just 13,000 votes - the electoral board was widely seen as buckling under the government's pressure for a re-run, based on dubious claim of irregularities. "Whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey", said the country's omnipotent President, assuming this was once again a gamble he would win. It was a disastrous miscalculation. Mr Imamoglu won by a landslide - the largest in a mayoral election here in 35 years. Conservative areas of the city - Fatih (Istanbul's pious heart by the Blue Mosque), Tuzla (the constituency of the government candidate Binali Yildrim) and Uskudar (where President Erdogan himself lives) all backed Mr Imamoglu. How did he achieve it? The answer is in one word, plastered over his posters: umut (hope). The AKP called him everything they could think of: terrorist, coup-supporter, fraud, Greek, even equating him with the Egyptian autocrat President Sisi, an arch rival of President Erdogan. He rebuffed the smears with smiles. Vowing to embrace his opponents, he has pushed his message of an inclusive Turkey and a greener, fairer Istanbul, freed of the corruption and nepotism that have built up over 25 years of conservative rule. During the 18 days when he ran the city after the last vote before it was annulled, his team uncovered a deficit of almost $4bn (£3.1bn), largely due to state tenders linked to President Erdogan's family. His victory could have a seismic impact here. Is this the beginning of the end for Erdogan? The opposition finally feels it's capable of winning - and will channel that through to the next national elections. Those are, for now, due in 2023 but are widely expected to come earlier after the AKP's crushing defeat. Vultures are already circling, with Mr Erdogan's predecessor as President preparing to launch a breakaway party, as is a former Prime Minister. That will bleed support from the President's now-declining voter base. As Mr Erdogan's authoritarianism has grown, his inner circle has shrunk. He does not have an obvious heir - his son-in-law, the current Finance Minister, has little of his charisma. The party he founded and has built up could be crippled without him. Whispers will now grow louder about the beginning of President Erdogan's end. But even if it comes - and nobody here underestimates his ability to bounce back - unpicking a quarter of a century of Erdoganism would take far longer. Turkish society has been battered over recent years, the country plummeting in indexes of press freedom, judicial independence and human rights. But the one thing the opposition clung on to for dear life was free elections. They partied late into the night here, celebrating victory - but also the fact that there is still life in Turkish democracy.

जैसे ही एक्रेम इमामोग्लू की जीत का पैमाना स्पष्ट हुआ, उनके समर्थकों ने उनके चुनाव मुख्यालय में भीड़ लगा दी। बाहर सड़क पर कैमरों की कतार लगी हुई थी। उनमें सेः तुर्की का राज्य प्रसारक टी. आर. टी., राष्ट्रपति रेसेप तैयप एर्दोगन के अंगूठे के नीचे भारी था।


Who will help rebuild the city of Raqqa?

Summary: It's a year since the Syrian city of Raqqa was freed from the grip of the group known as Islamic State. Evidence of the brutal battle to dislodge the extremists is visible everywhere you look. But the fear of the people who've returned to this broken city is that the rest of the world is now walking away.

By Jonathan BealeDefence correspondent, BBC News, Raqqa, Syria Raqqa is still a rubble city. The chaos is ultimately the creation of IS. But the devastation was also caused by thousands and thousands of coalition airstrikes. It took more than five months of intensive bombing to dislodge the extremists from their de facto capital. Mostly dropped from US warplanes but British ones too. Yet neither Britain nor America appears willing so far to take responsibility for repairing the damage they caused. Despite the devastation, many families who fled the fighting have now returned. Some shops have re-opened. Traffic runs past the rubble piled high on the side of the streets. But they are now asking who will rebuild their shattered city? We were driven around Raqqa by US special forces in unmarked armoured 4x4 vehicles. Some children waved at the convoy as we passed. The US commander in the front seat, who we can't identify, told me: "There's still a tonne of goodwill." The danger is that any goodwill will evaporate the longer their needs go unmet. We were taken to meet Raqqa's Civil Council which has a long list of concerns that need to be addressed. Much of the city is still without essential services such as running water and electricity. None of Raqqa's destroyed bridges, essential for the movement of goods and people, has been repaired. The main hospital where IS made their last stand still lies in ruins. Council member Layla Moustaffa says: "We're concerned about how long it's taking for the international community to respond." She likens Raqqa to a sick man in urgent need of medical attention. Ammar Jabor, another council member, says he believes "everyone who contributed to the destruction of the city should help rebuild it". When I ask who, he replies: "I'm asking the USA and the UK to rebuild this beautiful city." America and Britain may have contributed to the devastation. But both have stated they won't get involved directly in efforts to rebuild those areas of Syria that have been destroyed by the war until there's a UN-backed peace process for the whole country. That doesn't look like happening anytime soon. Instead the US and a handful of other nations say they're focusing their efforts on "stabilisation". Patrick Connell, a senior US State Department official on the ground, says that means denying the extremists the "fertile ground they can recruit from". There are still IS sleeper cells operating in the city. The US says it's already spent more than $8bn (£6bn) on humanitarian assistance right across Syria. Britain, the second-largest bilateral donor, has committed £2.7bn. In Raqqa itself, some of that money has been spent on clearing some of the thousands of explosive devices left behind by the extremists, and providing food, medical supplies and education. But these efforts have stopped short of reconstruction. Even that limited help is now in doubt. Raqqa's fear of being forgotten has been heightened by a decision by the Trump administration to cut more than $200m (£150m) earmarked for Syria's stabilisation. US officials say it's being done to force other nations to do more. Patrick Connell says it's a signal from the president "that the burden needs to be shared". The US says a handful of other nations have already pledged contributions that will help ensure that work will continue. But Raqqa still needs more support and it's the children of Raqqa whose futures will suffer without it. Our US military minders took us to a school which is helping young children who've suffered the emotional and physical scars of the war. The pupils included a girl who'd been forced to marry an IS fighter at the age of 11 and who'd then been divorced at 13 after she was injured. Sitting in a classroom, two young boys who'd lost limbs were enthusiastically learning the alphabet. Both are among the victims of the thousands of explosive devices left behind by the extremists. The State Department official overseeing the programme told us they were giving them the opportunity to learn and play that they were denied under IS. But the US funding for this programme will run out by the end of the year. The US is keen to remind the rest of the world that, even if it's cutting its funding, it's not turning its back on north-east Syria. There are still 2,000 US troops on the ground helping the Syrian Democratic Forces clear the last pocket of IS territory in the region. The US says they will stay until they ensure the "enduring defeat of IS". Maj Gen Pat Roberson, the US special operations commander on the ground, believes America is already "fulfilling its responsibility by ridding Syria of IS". He says the rest of the world now needs to help out, too. The people of Raqqa are trying their best to rebuild the city. At the city's sports stadium, which was used by IS as a prison and execution centre, we witnessed signs of reconstruction. Some of the work was being carried out by the same men who were brutally held in captivity by the extremists. But on their own, they are just scratching the surface. It will take billions and billions of dollars to repair the damage of the war. Ahead of the invasion of Iraq in 2003 the then US Secretary of State Colin Powell warned President George W Bush "you break it, you own it". But so far no-one seems willing to apply that rule to the reconstruction of Raqqa.

सीरियाई शहर रक्का को इस्लामिक स्टेट के रूप में जाने वाले समूह की पकड़ से मुक्त हुए एक साल हो गया है। चरमपंथियों को हटाने के लिए क्रूर लड़ाई का सबूत आप जहां भी देखते हैं, दिखाई देता है। लेकिन इस टूटे हुए शहर में लौटने वाले लोगों का डर यह है कि बाकी दुनिया अब दूर जा रही है।


Louth crash: Keith Lennon pleads guilty over three deaths

Summary: A 21-year-old man has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of three people from Northern Ireland following a car crash in County Louth.

Keith Lennon, of Forest Park, Dromintee, County Armagh, appeared at Drogheda Circuit Court on Tuesday. Bryan Magill, from Newry, County Armagh, and Mary and Kevin Faxton, from Bessbrook, in County Armagh, died in the two-vehicle crash on 29 February. It happened on the N1 at Carrickarnon, Ravensdale, Dundalk. The court heard Lennon wanted to surrender his bail as an acknowledgement of the serious wrongs committed. Judge Patrick Quinn adjourned the case to January and remanded Lennon in custody to appear by video-link.

एक 21 वर्षीय व्यक्ति ने काउंटी लूथ में एक कार दुर्घटना के बाद उत्तरी आयरलैंड के तीन लोगों की हत्या का दोषी ठहराया है।


S4C's future funding debated by MPs

Summary: MPs have debated how Welsh language TV channel S4C should be funded in the future, as its grant from UK ministers continues to shrink.

The grant is being cut from £6.7m to £5m by 2020, but most of S4C's funding now comes from the BBC licence fee. The debate, in the Commons, was led Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire Conservative MP Simon Hart. In December, Broadcasting Minister Ed Vaizey said S4C was well funded, with a "guaranteed income" of £90m a year.

सांसदों ने इस बात पर बहस की है कि भविष्य में वेल्श भाषा के टीवी चैनल एस4सी को कैसे वित्त पोषित किया जाना चाहिए, क्योंकि ब्रिटेन के मंत्रियों से इसका अनुदान लगातार कम हो रहा है।


Zuma's missed opportunity to sell South Africa

Summary: This was, surely, a moment for some salesmanship.

Andrew HardingAfrica correspondent@BBCAndrewHon Twitter After the most damaging months that South Africa's economy has experienced in two decades - with foreign investment and confidence shrinking alarmingly (and perhaps excessively) following the Marikana killings and subsequent industrial unrest - President Jacob Zuma had come to address the world's media at a televised breakfast meeting in Johannesburg. Mr Zuma walked into a room bristling - if that is possible - with silence and scepticism. Perhaps we should draw a polite curtain over the president's opening remarks. Mr Zuma has always struggled to deliver written speeches - excusable perhaps given that English is his second language, and his education was curtailed by the fight against apartheid - but the dreary listing of the African National Congress's achievements since 1994 and a handful of bland generalisations about industrial relations hardly seemed calibrated for the occasion. An opportunity to generate some positive headlines abroad was sleepily squandered. Tipping point? Then came the more feisty question-and-answer session. But again, rather than selling his vision of the way forward for South Africa, Mr Zuma chose to focus almost exclusively on his trademark tactic - wounded defensiveness. Those who were criticising South Africa, were simply misunderstanding it: The "mishap of Marikana" was a "surprise to everyone", he said, but it did not represent a "tipping point" for the country - coming close to contradicting his vice-president and rival Kgalema Motlanthe - and it is "wrong to exaggerate" or call the situation "a crisis". Strikes, he pointed out quite reasonably, were a by-product of democracy. As for the corruption and infighting within the ruling ANC, Mr Zuma again suggested that outsiders were missing the point. His administration had done more than any other to fight corruption, and the infighting was a healthy sign of the ANC's democratic processes at work. In the past, Mr Zuma has urged the public to stop blaming the legacy of apartheid for all of modern South Africa's ills. But today he seemed to begin most answers with a history lesson and a plea for his country's special status. Overall it was an unsurprisingly uninspiring performance - defensive, short on details or any new policy initiatives; the performance, you might say, of a chairman rather than a leader. But Mr Zuma's central point - that South Africa is not in a state of crisis - has a certain inconvenient truth to it. I say "inconvenient" truth because, like the old story about the frog in the pot of water that does not notice he is in danger, South Africa seems to have learned to live with its problems - an unwieldy political alliance between the ANC, trade unions and the Communist Party, massive corruption, a collapsing education system, inequality, a shrinking tax base and expanding welfare system and some of the most protective labour laws in the world. And so, instead of being confronted with a sudden crisis that prompts real change, South Africa appears to be drifting - sustained by an expanding middle class and buoyant local economy - while the water in the pot keeps getting steadily hotter. I am not a pessimist. South Africa remains an extraordinary country with huge mineral reserves, a history of proving the sceptics wrong, plenty of achievements to boast of, and the potential to transform itself. But it is hard to live here and not feel the keen absence of a charismatic leader - someone to pull the country behind him, or her. Perhaps it is worth ending with what sounded like a presidential Freudian slip, as Mr Zuma was chatting to journalists after his main remarks. South Africa's government was an unwieldy ship to steer, he suggested, "You cannot change direction overnight. It's like the Titanic."

यह निश्चित रूप से कुछ बिक्री कौशल के लिए एक क्षण था।


Woman dies and two seriously injured in Lincolnshire crash

Summary: A woman in her 70s has been killed and two other people have been seriously injured in a car crash in Lincolnshire.

Police said the woman was driving a red Suzuki which collided with another car on the B1397 London Road in Kirton at about 21:40 BST on Saturday. A male passenger in the Suzuki and the man driving the other car were both taken to hospital with serious injuries. The road was closed overnight and police have appealed for witnesses.

लिंकनशायर में एक कार दुर्घटना में 70 की उम्र की एक महिला की मौत हो गई है और दो अन्य लोग गंभीर रूप से घायल हो गए हैं।


Will Guyana soon be the richest country in the world?

Summary: South America's second poorest nation is bracing for an oil boom that could catapult it to the top of the continent's rich list - and beyond. But can Guyana avoid the so-called oil curse and ensure that its newfound riches benefit all Guyanese?

By Simon MaybinAssignment, BBC World Service "Many people still do not get how big this is," then-US Ambassador to Guyana Perry Holloway told a reception in the capital, Georgetown, last November. "Come 2025, GDP will go up by 300% to 1,000%. This is gigantic. You will be the richest country in the hemisphere and potentially the richest country in the world." It may sound far-fetched, but with a population of around 750,000, in per capita terms, Guyana's wealth is set to skyrocket. ExxonMobil, the main operator in Guyana, says it has discovered more than 5.5 billion barrels' worth of oil beneath the country's waters in the Atlantic Ocean. 'Oil curse' The money would certainly be welcome. This former British colony - the only English-speaking country in South America - has high rates of unemployment and poverty. But history carries a warning for Guyana. The discovery of big oil in other developing nations has exacerbated existing corruption, leading to the new oil wealth being squandered and stolen. It has become known as the oil curse. You may also be interested in: In Guyana, "corruption is rampant," says Troy Thomas, the head of the local chapter of global anti-corruption NGO Transparency International. He says he is "very worried" about the oil curse. A political crisis in recent months has been seen by some as an early sign of the curse's effects. After the governing coalition lost a no-confidence vote in December, rather than call elections it challenged the vote in the courts. That has led to protests. "All we're asking for is for the government to respect our constitution," a demonstrator tells me, standing on the road outside Guyana's ministry of the presidency. "They just want to remain in power and control the oil money," she adds. The legal battle has continued and this week the Caribbean Court of Justice is hearing the latest appeal in the case. Betting on education "We've seen the experiences in other countries," says Vincent Adams, the new head of Guyana's Environmental Protection Agency, who worked for three decades at the US Department of Energy. "They got all this oil wealth and a lot of those countries are now worse off than before oil." For Mr Adams, there is one key to avoiding that trap: "Education, education, education is the foundation. It's the best investment that this country or any country can make." He is leading a push to revamp the faculty of engineering at the University of Guyana, the country's biggest higher education provider. But preparing young Guyanese for the lucrative new industry has not been straightforward. "Unfortunately for us, we don't have right now labs for a petroleum engineering programme," says Elena Trim, the dean of the faculty. It has also been a challenge attracting academic talent with the relevant expertise. "Our salaries are not that high," she says with an ironic chuckle. "So people are applying to the University of Guyana and when we tell them our salary level, they actually don't want to take the offer." Nonetheless, even at this early stage, Guyana's oil industry has already been taking on the faculty's graduates from other engineering specialisms. Two years ago, 10 were given jobs. Last year, the same company asked for 20 more. "Now they [are] taking our students like hotcakes," says Ms Trim. Scepticism abounds In Sophia, one of Georgetown's poorest neighbourhoods, there is less optimism. Some of the self-built houses and shacks only got access to electricity and running water this century. "Quite frankly, in this community, it's close to 10% of the city's population who live here, but 10% of the city's resources are not being spent in here," Colin Marks tells me at the youth centre he set up. That helps to explain the scepticism about how far the benefits of oil will spread. "Most people are sensitive to it. Because there's more negativity on what it could do for Guyana than positivity. And that's happening because what is happening at the political level. I mean, you're hearing about what happened in Guinea, what happened in Nigeria - Venezuela's next door, you know. So people are very, very sensitive, and not too sure." "In a grassroots community like this, people just want know that if there is money in oil, we want a share of it. We want to benefit from it." Listen to Simon Maybin's report, Guyana - bracing for the oil boom, on Assignment on the BBC World Service or on the BBC Sounds app.

दक्षिण अमेरिका का दूसरा सबसे गरीब देश एक तेल उछाल के लिए तैयार है जो इसे महाद्वीप की समृद्ध सूची में शीर्ष पर ले जा सकता है-और उससे आगे। लेकिन क्या गुयाना तथाकथित तेल अभिशाप से बच सकता है और यह सुनिश्चित कर सकता है कि इसकी नई संपत्ति से सभी गुयाना लोगों को लाभ हो?