Ex-players' families demand study into football and dementia

Summary: The news that former Celtic captain Billy McNeill is suffering from dementia has sparked more debate about whether footballers damage their brains when they repeatedly head the ball. The McNeill family say they don't know if the player's condition is definitely linked to the sport - but they want to see more research done. Now, the relatives of two footballers who played for Kilmarnock FC in the 1960s have called on the football authorities to pay more attention to the issue.

The story of Kilmarnock FC's 1964-1965 squad has gone down in club legend. It was the year the team won the Scottish League Championship on the last day of the season, with a 2-0 victory over Hearts. The winning goal in the final match - a header - was scored by Davie Sneddon. The player's son, David Sneddon, said he knew of five members of that team who went on to develop Parkinson's Disease, dementia - or both. That includes his 80-year-old father who was diagnosed with vascular dementia about five years ago. Training headers "We can see every day that his memory is getting really, really bad," he said. "Dad didn't head the ball much during the game, but during training they headed the ball a lot." Sneddon went onto manage Kilmarnock, but winning the league would have been difficult to beat as a career highlight. "They were a great team in 1965", his son told the BBC. "They had Frank [Beattie] who was the centre half. He obviously died from Parkinson's and dementia. "And you have Jackie McInally who died last year. He was unwell as well with that same sort of illness. "Jim Mcfadzean was part of the squad and he had Parkinson's as well. Joe Mason who was another squad member - he's currently in a home at the moment and he doesn't keep very well." Beattie was the captain of Kilmarnock in 1965 and spent his entire playing career at the club. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's when he was 65 years old, and with dementia a few years later. According to the Alzheimer's Society, one in six people over the age of 80 has dementia - but far fewer develop it in their 60s or 70s. Beattie died in 2009 aged 76 and his widow Betty says she is convinced his condition was linked to football. "When he was diagnosed with Parkinson's, the doctor said right from the beginning the Parkinson's was due to heading the ball," she told BBC Scotland. "He used to say he could believe it was with heading the ball." Brain function Mrs Beattie said that her husband had wanted to remain independent even as his condition worsened, but would often get lost on walks. "He was quite independent wanting to go out on his own so you got that you put his name in his pocket just in case," she added. There is a growing body of anecdotal evidence of the link between heading footballs and dementia - but precious little science. Last year, a study by the University of Stirling showed that repeatedly heading a football could significantly affect a player's brain function and memory for 24 hours. And Alzheimer Scotland has just announced that it intends to hold a "football and dementia summit" with key researchers and representatives from Scottish football. The Scottish FA has pointed to its work producing the world's first consensus guidelines on concussion management. The body also said it would work with partners at the UK and world level to examine current scientific evidence on whether heading the ball caused brain injuries. Neuropathologist Dr Willie Stewart, who co-authored the Stirling study, said: "The science is way behind current public concern and the anecdotes we're seeing coming through from tragic case examples. "The reality is we have very little science to link the act of heading to any long term problems. "What we know is that in a small number of former footballers, when we've looked at their brains, we find a pathology in their brains that we've seen in people who have been exposed to brain injury in the past." That includes boxers, rugby players and American footballers, he said. Dr Stewart, from the University of Glasgow, told the BBC a "concerted effort" from sport and the research community was now needed - starting with a study about the incidence of dementia among former footballers. "That's something in Scotland we could do reasonably easily if we could just identify the population of former footballers and look at that against the data we have," he said. "If we do that and find that the incidence of dementia is no different then I think we can relax a bit and begin to take a step back and think more rationally about it. "If however, as the anecdotes and the fears would suggest, the incidence of dementia is higher then I think we need to pursue quite aggressively what the link is there. What's causing that increased risk?" Amateur players Mr Sneddon and Mrs Beattie can name former footballers at other clubs who they know developed dementia at a younger age than normally expected. And both agree that the footballing authorities need to be doing more. "They're ignoring it to be quite honest. I don't think they realise just how many footballers are suffering at the moment," Mr Sneddon said. "Not just professional players. There's a lot of amateur players who'll be suffering as well and you won't hear about them."

यह खबर कि पूर्व सेल्टिक कप्तान बिली मैकनील डिमेंशिया से पीड़ित हैं, ने इस बारे में अधिक बहस छेड़ दी है कि क्या फुटबॉलर बार-बार गेंद का सिर उठाने पर उनके दिमाग को नुकसान पहुंचाते हैं। मैकनील परिवार का कहना है कि उन्हें नहीं पता कि खिलाड़ी की स्थिति निश्चित रूप से खेल से जुड़ी है या नहीं-लेकिन वे और अधिक शोध करना चाहते हैं। अब, 1960 के दशक में किल्मरनॉक एफसी के लिए खेलने वाले दो फुटबॉलरों के रिश्तेदारों ने फुटबॉल अधिकारियों से इस मुद्दे पर अधिक ध्यान देने का आह्वान किया है।


Police issue River Witham behaviour warning

Summary: Young people acting irresponsibly along a stretch of the River Witham in Lincolnshire have been given a police warning.

It follows complaints from boat owners about incidents of anti-social behaviour in the Boston area. Officers said there were increasing concerns for the safety of teenagers who may also be entering the water after consuming alcohol. Police foot patrols will be increased in the area to help tackle the problem. Insp Phil Clark said: "The behaviour of this predominantly adolescent group interferes with the legitimate use of the waterways by boat owners and they should be aware that their actions may result in prosecution".

लिंकनशायर में विथम नदी के एक हिस्से में गैर-जिम्मेदाराना तरीके से काम करने वाले युवाओं को पुलिस की चेतावनी दी गई है।


Richard Oland: A millionaire, a murder and a mystery killer

Summary: Dennis Oland has been cleared of bludgeoning his millionaire father to death. For nearly a decade, the case turned one of the wealthiest families in the Canadian province of New Brunswick into the cast of a real-life soap opera.

By Robin Levinson-KingBBC News, New Brunswick, Canada Richard Oland was found face-down in a pool of his own blood on the morning of 7 July, 2011. He was 69 years old. Forensic evidence suggests he was killed the evening before by 45 sharp and blunt blows to the head, neck and limbs. He was still wearing his Rolex watch, but his mobile phone, as well as the murder weapon, disappeared. Two years later, his son Dennis Oland, now 51, was charged with second-degree murder. In 2015, he was convicted by 12 jurors of killing his father. But that was just the beginning. Along the way, he won an appeal, appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada, and had a mistrial. His case captivated the community of Saint John, New Brunswick, who followed the twists and turns of the case closely. "It's a bad soap opera - Days of Our Lives makes more sense," says taxi-driver Paul Savoie, who knows the rumours of Saint John almost as well as he knows its roads. It was Richard's mistress who was the first to notice that something was amiss. For the past eight years, married realtor Diana Sedlacek had been having an affair with the tycoon. The relationship was, by most accounts, an open secret and when he didn't pick-up the phone for their nightly chat, she called his wife Connie to ask her where he was. Connie became a key figure in the case, as she steadfastly stood by her son, contrasting his "gentle" and "caring" ways with her deceased husband's propensity for picking fights with his family. "Dick Oland was an extremely prominent Saint Johner, that does not say that he was a well-liked Saint Johner from everything that I've heard," says Saint John criminal lawyer David Lutz. "People are concerned about whether or not poor Dennis is going to be convicted, as opposed to poor Dick." The Olands weren't just rich - they were one of a handful of dynasties who had for the past century controlled the economy in the province like the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts had once controlled New York City. At the top of that hierarchy is the Irvings, who own a vast network of petrol stations, oil refineries, shipping docks and paper mills in the province and beyond. Next would be the McCains, who run the ubiquitous frozen food company. Third or fourth on the list of New Brunswick dynasties would be the Olands, whose matriarch Susannah Oland founded Moosehead Brewery in Saint John 1867. Today it is the largest Canadian-owned brewery, and the Olands have repeatedly turned down offers to sell it to international companies. That commitment to staying local has earned the Olands a lot of goodwill in the city of Saint John, which has shrunk from a population of about 90,000 in the 1970s to under 70,000 in accordance with the decline of major industries such as shipping and ship-building. But the family's local profile has also made them an easy target for gossip, especially as the trial revealed details about the family's inner workings, its feuds and its finances. "People felt 'oh here's that poor little rich guy'," says local history professor Greg Marquis. Growing up in Saint John, Marquis was an altar boy at the same church as the wealthy Olands, although he did not move in the same elite circles. He has since gone on to write two books about the case, and says Dennis's many trials have polarised the city along class lines. When he was convicted during the first trial in 2015, Marquis says many of Dennis's defenders felt he was the victim of a kind of reverse-class bias. "Some people felt it was a blue-collar jury having their vengeance on an elite defendant," he says. At the time of his death, Richard was worth an estimated C$37m ($28m, £22m) - and he didn't hide it. He raced yachts, was heavily involved in high-profile local philanthropic projects, and lived on a secluded estate not far from his son Dennis. But while the two were physically close, and indeed Dennis was named one of the executors to his will, they often clashed. "He just barks and barks and barks," he said during an interview with police shortly after his father died. One Christmas in particular, he remembers his father screaming at him because he let the flame on a rum cake blow out before the dessert reached the table. "He could do things that could be hurtful." Strife between father and sons seemed to run in the Oland family. Richard's father Philip Oland, had been a strict disciplinarian who valued the family's legacy over its inner harmony. When he chose Richard's older brother Derek to take over as president of the brewery in 1981, it left an irreparable rift between the two brothers. Richard spent most of the 1990s battling his brother in court for control of the company, and the two were on cool terms at the time of his death. Despite his personal wealth, Richard could be stingy with those close to him - prosecutors say Connie was kept on a $2,000-a-month allowance, and expected to provide her husband with receipts of her purchases. Meanwhile, he was having a new yacht built in Spain just a couple of years after he had purchased his "old" one. He was willing to shell out cash to keep things in the family however. When Dennis nearly lost his house in his divorce, his father gave him a $538,000 loan. That loan became a key piece of evidence for the prosecution, who said in court that Dennis murdered his father over money. The truth was Dennis, a financial adviser, was deep in debt. He had maxed out a $163,000 line of credit and a $27,000-limit credit card. The day before his father was killed, Dennis's monthly cheque to cover the interest on the loan bounced. But Dennis told the court money troubles didn't worry him. "It's stuff we always did and it was a continuation of that." Lutz, a former vice chair of the Canadian Council of Criminal Defence Lawyers, estimates Dennis's legal defence is the most expensive murder defence in Canadian history. Just days before Justice Terrence Morrison was due to deliver his sentence, the accused was calmly mowing the front lawn of his Rothesay estate. Wearing a T-shirt and shorts and riding a lawnmower, an observer might be forgiven for thinking Dennis was more concerned about the height of his grass than the impending decision. On Friday, that decision was given. In a courtroom packed with friends and family, media and local onlookers, Justice Terrence Morrison pronounced Dennis Oland not guilty of murdering his father. Though his decision exonerated Dennis, it did so with an asterisk. "There is much to implicate Dennis Oland in this crime," Justice Morrison said. "But more than suspicion is needed in order to convict someone of murder - probability is not enough." The prosecution didn't have a murder weapon, a clear time of death or significant DNA evidence to tie Dennis to the crime. A few bloodstains matching Richard's DNA were found on Dennis's brown Hugo Boss sportcoat, but no blood was found in his car or on his shoes His legal team says no other suspects were found because police had tunnel vision when they investigated him. He was the last person known to see his father alive. If the judge's not-guilty verdict was not a resounding endorsement of innocence, it will have to do. "In this case there are too many missing puzzle pieces," Justice Morrison says. We know that on the night Richard died, Dennis stopped by his father's uptown Saint John office to talk about family history. Then Dennis got in his Volkswagen Golf and drove off towards his mansion located in the toney neighbourhood of Rothesay. On the way, he made a stop at a nearby wharf. Sitting on the edge of the dock, he must have looked as if he was in a moment of philosophical introspection. But what he thought about is still anyone's guess.

डेनिस ओलैंड को अपने करोड़पति पिता की पीट-पीटकर हत्या करने से मुक्त कर दिया गया है। लगभग एक दशक तक, इस मामले ने कनाडा के न्यू ब्रंसविक प्रांत के सबसे धनी परिवारों में से एक को एक वास्तविक जीवन के सोप ओपेरा के कलाकारों में बदल दिया।


E.On Corsbie Moor wind farm decision appeal lodged

Summary: An appeal has been lodged against a council decision to reject plans for a Borders wind farm which have twice been reduced in size.

E.On originally proposed 21 turbines at Corsbie Moor near Westruther. However, that number was reduced to 12 and then further cut to just nine after the company "considered all the views from the local community". Scottish Borders Council rejected the scheme in September but an appeal has now been lodged against that decision. Council officials said walkers using the Southern Upland Way would have experienced "adverse cumulative impact" if the nine new turbines were added to existing schemes. E.On said the project had been "carefully redesigned" to produce "a significant amount of renewable energy using a smaller number of turbines".

सीमा पवन फार्म के लिए योजनाओं को अस्वीकार करने के परिषद के फैसले के खिलाफ एक अपील दायर की गई है, जिसका आकार दो बार कम किया गया है।


Do urban rap videos glamorise violence?

Summary: Urban rap videos should be closely monitored and even removed from online platforms such as YouTube to save lives, officials say. The BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme met the rappers and directors who say they are just describing their lives.

By Andy JonesVictoria Derbyshire programme A rapper performs in front of a Lamborghini for a music video, not in a swanky studio but in the car park of some flats in east London. As the engine revs, concerned residents peek out of the windows. Others get closer to the action. S-Rose, who changed his name from Scumz, used to be involved in gangs and has spent time in prison. The car and location are intended to reflect his transformation. "I can't rap about anything positive because I haven't seen more of that life yet, but I'm going to rap about what I've been through and actually let it change other people. That's the only way I can express myself really," he says. Filming the video is Pacman, who as well as producing online music videos runs his own YouTube platform, which profiles up-and-coming rappers. He has previously worked with gangs, but he wanted to show another side of his work, the young music stars who want to make an impact online. Some of his videos have as many as 2.8 million views. 'Bring to the table' He started off filming some videos for friends, but his services are now in demand across London. This is about more than just filming each other with camera phones. Pacman uses drone cameras, top of the range visuals and hires all sorts of gadgets to make each video look as good as possible. "It's about them broadcasting themselves showing what they've got to offer and what they bring to the table. Everyone wants good exposure at a high standard and that's what I'm offering to them." Although he says he is careful to stay out of any rivalries, his video shoots are not always drama-free. "I've been filming people and seen people pull out some serious weapons. I've seen guys get shot but that's always a personal issue, it's never to do with me so I'm not particularly scared but obviously to a normal civilian or bystander it is going to be a serious situation," he says. 'Causing tensions' Without mentioning any specific content, the mayor of London's office says it is not targeting general rap and music videos but wants online outlets to do more to remove quickly those that include extreme graphic content. Sophie Linden, the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, said: "Gangs are using YouTube to make very specific threats and intimidation and harassment and sometimes incite violence." She said some videos could look "fairly innocuous" to people who were not in gangs but the police were experts at spotting things in films that were causing tensions. YouTube rap videos were cited in the murder of Marcel Addai, 18, who was killed after a chain of video exchanges between gangs in London erupted into violence. His four murderers were sentenced to a combined 97 years in prison. The Met Police says there has been an increase in videos glamorising gang violence and since the beginning of the year, seven of the 16 videos it has flagged have been removed. Harsh reality Although they might rap about it in their videos, none of the people the BBC spoke to condones violence and they all say they are not members of any gangs. Pacman says he knows where to draw the line in his videos. "If you film anything that is too graphic or seriously targets an individual or community or anything that is seriously controversial, YouTube just take it down," he says. "If it is within reason, then fair enough - but if someone is just rapping and it isn't violent or doesn't attack anyone, it is unfair for that person to try to have their content removed." Pacman says people make assumptions and need to be shown that the videos he shoots represent people doing something constructive and trying to build a business. We also watch him film a video for a rapper called J Gang, in Brixton. Pacman lets off a purple smoke bomb behind the artist, who is busy delivering his new track, Choices, all about avoiding bad decisions in life, and suddenly curious locals are gathered around to watch the impromptu music scene. "I've got a lot of music talking about the streets. People like to see the negative side of everything. I help the homeless, I help youths that are doing crime, in a way that telling them it is not good to do the crime, try to get them into football. There are all types of things that can get them into legitimate things," J Gang says. He says rapping about drugs and guns does not glamorise the lifestyle but reflects the "harsh reality of living an illegal life". "It's not a good way to live. Obviously people die, people doing drugs - a lot of things come of it. So you can see the light to it but there's also a dark to it. It's me trying to talk to the people and make them understand it's not all glamorous it's not all nice," he says. Watch the Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel.

अधिकारियों का कहना है कि शहरी रैप वीडियो की बारीकी से निगरानी की जानी चाहिए और यहां तक कि जीवन बचाने के लिए यूट्यूब जैसे ऑनलाइन प्लेटफार्मों से हटा दिया जाना चाहिए। बीबीसी के विक्टोरिया डर्बीशायर कार्यक्रम ने रैपर्स और निर्देशकों से मुलाकात की जो कहते हैं कि वे सिर्फ अपने जीवन का वर्णन कर रहे हैं।


Robocrop: Growing barley with robots and drones

Summary: A team at Harper Adams University are trying to grow and then harvest a field of barley using only robots and drones. If they succeed it will be a world first and we're following their progress.

David Gregory-KumarScience, Environment & Rural Affairs Correspondent Last time we watched as the team from Harper Adams started to prepare for this year long experiment. They were using a small robot, not much bigger than a toy car, to refine the steering system they wanted to use. But at that point they were still waiting on their tractor to be delivered and couldn't find a suitable combine harvester. Since then things have moved on pretty quickly with triumphs and also some sleepless nights. Huge achievement A tractor was sourced and fitted with the team's self-driving technology. The Hands Free Hectare team - Kit Franklin, Jonathan Gill and Martin Abell - have managed to spray off the weeds on their field and then successfully plant the barley using a compact seed drill that was actually designed for use in vineyards. The hectare itself is now surrounded by a safety fence and only the machines are allowed inside. Well, that's the theory. In practise the safety system on the robot tractor has proved a bit over zealous. It has shut the tractor engine down on a couple of occasions which meant the team had to go into the field to restart the machine. To avoid even this limited access to the field in the future it's hoped to get a remote starter for the tractor. Nevertheless all this is a huge achievement. It is extraordinary to watch a tractor happily rolling a field of barley with no one at the wheel. It's one of the points of this experiment to show you don't need to spend millions on bespoke cutting-edge tech to do all this but that you can instead grow and harvest a cereal crop using affordable, off-the-shelf parts and software. Of course the team now have a growing crop to worry about. For a team who has spent a lot of time focussed on machinery this is a whole new headache. They've got some high-tech solutions to familiar farming problems, using drones to keep hungry pigeons away for example. But soon they'll have to work out how to get pictures and samples from the centre of the hectare for the agronomist to study... all using robots and drones of course. Making beer It has been a bit of a scramble but now the team have the seed in the ground and a few weeks to focus on their next really big mechanical challenge. And that's to fit their driving system to the combine harvester they've managed to source. And at the end of all this the hope is to use the barley to make beer. Which I am heavily hinting should borrow a brilliant idea from our office and be labelled "Robocrop".

हार्पर एडम्स विश्वविद्यालय की एक टीम केवल रोबोट और ड्रोन का उपयोग करके जौ के खेत को उगाने और फिर कटाई करने की कोशिश कर रही है। अगर वे सफल होते हैं तो यह दुनिया में सबसे पहले होगा और हम उनकी प्रगति का अनुसरण कर रहे हैं।


Lockdown review: What are the risks of schools, pubs and shops reopening?

Summary: The Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced a "roadmap" to lift England's lockdown restrictions in stages - starting with the reopening of schools. Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said there will be a "progressive easing" of its rules.

By Ben ButcherBBC Reality Check Over the course of the past year, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has advised the authorities on the pandemic, assessing the risks of transmission of coronavirus in many areas of daily life. This advice looks at how closing or opening certain sectors could affect its spread - although with varying degrees of confidence, as the precise impact of each measure is difficult to assess. Scientists are still trying to understand the full impact of the vaccines and the new variants of coronavirus. These have not been factored in yet in the assessments from Sage, which have been publicly released. We have looked at what they say about the risks in a number of areas. Schools Sage has said (with "moderate confidence") that schools have a "moderate" impact on transmission. The phased opening of schools has already started in Wales and Scotland. In England, the prime minister says all schools will reopen on March 8. But the role schools have played in the spread of the virus is not clear-cut. One report from Sage notes, perhaps unsurprisingly, that cases were highest among children when schools fully reopened in September 2020. There is no clear evidence that schools are the driving force behind broader community spikes. "It is difficult to quantify the size of this effect and it remains difficult to quantify the level of transmission taking place specifically within schools compared to other settings," Sage reported in November. Its evidence suggests that primary school children are "less susceptible to infection than adults," but the risk increases among older children. Sage concluded that closing secondary schools was "more effective" than closing primary schools due to this. In fact, some recent research from the University of Warwick concludes that there is no hard evidence that primary schools spread the virus. When announcing the reopening of schools in Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: "The key risk in reopening schools is not transmission of the virus within schools; instead, the risk comes from the increased contact that the reopening might spark among the wider adult population." This could include parents gathering at the school gates, or people returning to work. All recent Sage documents agree that the risk of serious illness to children is very small compared to adults over 60. Outdoor gatherings Sage has said (with "high confidence") that outdoor gatherings have a low impact on transmission. Wales is relaxing its outdoor rules and small outdoor gatherings will be allowed in England from March 29 and in Scotland from March 15. Currently, you are only able to exercise outdoors with one other person. Sage has long been confident that small outdoor gatherings have a lower impact on transmission because coronavirus "does not persist in well-ventilated outdoor areas for long" and the virus's "survival on surfaces is reduced under UV light [the sun]". But despite being considered low-risk, the virus is still able to spread outdoors. This is why when a lot of people had the virus in January, the government stopped gatherings outside. And, as ever, the closer you are to someone - for example, standing close to them and chatting - the higher the chance of droplets passing between you. So social distancing measures will still be encouraged. Non-essential retail Sage has said (with "low-moderate" confidence) that retail has a low impact on transmission. Most non-essential retail, such as clothes stores, is due to reopen in England from April 12 - at the earliest. People in Scotland will need to wait until at least the end of April for this. Before the first lockdown was lifted, Sage recommended that "opening non-essential retail safely would require a significant effort to ensure that environments are appropriate to minimise transmission (for example social distancing and hygiene measures, ventilation)". This follows the idea that contacts between people are more dangerous indoors as particles in the air are replaced less slowly with clean air. Sage estimated that opening non-essential retail such as clothes shops would see a 10% increase in indoor contacts between people. This is why when shops reopened we saw crowd control, one-way systems and designated spaces for people to queue. Sage thinks that in general non-essential retail is "low risk" when these measures are in place and masks are worn. But once again, if coronavirus is already highly prevalent in a community as it was in December, these "low risk" actions can become riskier as more people have the virus to begin with. Pubs and restaurants Sage has said (with "moderate confidence") that hospitality has a moderate impact on transmission. Without restrictions, the hospitality sector can see people from different households mixing indoors for long periods of time. Throughout the pandemic, Sage has said: Sage has also noted that alcohol can have an impact on people following social distancing measures. Because of these risks, hospitality is being opened up in stages. On April 12 - at the earliest - customers in England will be able to drink or eat outside. "Allowing customers to sit outside only [is] likely to be much lower risk," Sage reports. This will be followed by groups being allowed to meet indoors as early as May 17. Another restriction previously implemented in England was a 10pm closure for hospitality, but as Reality Check has previously reported, the evidence-base for this was minimal. This curfew has now been scrapped. People will need to wait until at least the end of April for hospitality to open in Scotland. Holiday homes and rentals Sage has not issued specific advice on the risk of transmission in this sector. Self-catering accommodation or holiday lets will be allowed from April 12, a full month before other types of holiday accommodation. This hasn't been announced in Scotland. In the past, Sage has briefly mentioned the need for greater understanding of "travel patterns and existing levels of seeding (or spreading from one region to another)" before making conclusions on restricting travel between UK nations and between regions within them. Last year, Reality Check looked at whether large gatherings of tourists on Bournemouth beach had an impact on case numbers, but found no evidence of it leading to a spike. What claims do you want BBC Reality Check to investigate? Get in touch Read more from Reality Check

प्रधान मंत्री बोरिस जॉनसन ने इंग्लैंड के लॉकडाउन प्रतिबंधों को चरणों में हटाने के लिए एक "रोडमैप" की घोषणा की है-स्कूलों को फिर से खोलने के साथ। स्कॉटलैंड के प्रथम मंत्री निकोला स्टर्जन ने कहा है कि इसके नियमों में "प्रगतिशील ढील" दी जाएगी।


Picture perfect? How Instagram changed the food we eat

Summary: For some diners, a meal out cannot start without first taking a photograph of the meal and sharing it on social media. But can how a restaurant's food appears on a mobile phone screen make a difference to its profits?

By Sarah LeeBBC News A few years ago, choosing a restaurant was simple. A friend would recommend it, or you would read about its good reviews in the paper. Now the internet is awash with Instagram posts or foodie blogs praising the latest hot restaurant where you live. People's timelines are filled with sharp, bright images of rainbow bagels, "freak shakes" or technicoloured smoothie bowls. Some chefs and restaurateurs have adjusted their menus to produce meals that look good on a smartphone camera. Teddy Robinson, a creative director for London café-bar chain Grind, has spent five years making the company as "Instagramable" and savvy as possible. "The most interesting thing is that people are just more aware than ever of what the food looks like," he said. "Before Instagram, the only way you'd see what a restaurant's food looked like would be by looking at their own photos, or if they had them printed on menus - I know, the horror - but now it's often how you're introduced to a restaurant. "It's a refreshing change to see the food put front and centre like this, and it's definitely one of the things that's allowed independents to get a leg up on the chains on Instagram." Menus and interiors have also been redesigned for Instagram. "Last year we replaced every table in the company with white marble, just because it looks good on Instagram." Lifestyle blogger Angie Silver has noticed the growing trend. "Nowadays, dishes are created especially for Instagram," she said. "Bright colours, unusual and unique dishes work well hence the rise of rainbow bagels, freak shakes and unicorn ice-cream." "A bowl of cereal or slice of toast isn't exciting enough. "An Instagram friendly breakfast will be smashed avocado, a mouth-watering stack of pancakes or a brightly coloured smoothie bowl." The trend reached a new peak recently when one London business launched a "Selfieccino" - a cappuccino with your face imprinted on it - using a printer that scans the selfie on to the froth of the drink. "For us, today's dining experience is no longer just about having great food and drink," said Ehab Shouly, director of the Tea Terrace on Oxford Street, where the beverage is served. "It's all about creating unique experiences that our customers can document on Instagram and social media. "Millennials today form more than 50% of our customer base and we have to give them what they want. Today's customers want great food, great service and great photos." Elsewhere in London, the Fox Under The Hill pub in Shooters Hill is offering customers the chance to "upgrade" their Christmas dinner with glitter gravy. The gravy, developed for "Generation Instagram", gives the traditional dinner that extra dazzle, says general manager Ashish Patel. Fine dining is still largely resisting the trend, however. "There is a growing number of people who will judge food based solely on a photo, which is a little crazy," said James Lowe, head chef and owner of Lyle's in east London. "It's led to chefs doing what I call 'cooking for pictures' - which is where someone will put a dish together without any concern for whether or not is actually tastes good, just as long as the aesthetic is right. "The most important thing with any dish is how it tastes. However, one aspect of building a great dish is, undeniably, how it looks - and if something looks good and is photogenic it could be said to be 'grammable'. But it's not just wacky cuisine becoming a social media craze. Interior design also plays an important role in seducing the "happy snappers". The Tower Bridge restaurant Coppa Club said it had phenomenal success with its "dine in an igloo" concept on Instagram, with photo-loving folk quickly filling up bookings for the riverside huts. "I think with any social media platform it forces businesses to be more original," says Coppa brand manager Lucy Watson. "Instagram is a much more visual experience than what we've seen previously and it's important to have engaging and consistent content." But other restaurants are looking to stand out from the crowd by rejecting the insta-food trend entirely. Darren Yates, runs Japanese deli Auradaz in Leamington Spa, has banned diners from using mobile phones in his restaurant. "When people come out to eat these days, they put phones or tablets on the table, and it's rude", Mr Yates said, "If you're coming out to eat it's about conversation and breaking bread, not about social media."

कुछ खाने वालों के लिए, भोजन की शुरुआत पहले भोजन की तस्वीर लिए बिना और उसे सोशल मीडिया पर साझा किए बिना नहीं हो सकती है। लेकिन क्या एक रेस्तरां का भोजन मोबाइल फोन की स्क्रीन पर दिखाई देने से उसके मुनाफे में फर्क पड़ सकता है?


Ballymoney: Three charged with attempted murder over assault

Summary: Three men have been been charged with attempted murder following an assault in Ballymoney at the weekend.

A man in his 30s was injured in the attack at the back of the Joey Dunlop Leisure Centre on the Garryduff Road on Sunday night. The victim, who had a head injury, was found on a pathway, close to football pitches. The three men charged, aged 54, 28, and 24, will appear via videolink at Coleraine Magistrates on Friday. The 24-year-old also faces two charges of making threats to kill.

सप्ताहांत में बालीमनी में एक हमले के बाद तीन लोगों पर हत्या के प्रयास का आरोप लगाया गया है।


Brazil's Guarani-Kaiowa tribe allege genocide over land disputes

Summary: Genocide is an emotive and powerful accusation to make against anyone but it is exactly what some indigenous leaders in Brazil say is happening to their people because of their government's ignorance, if not its compliance.

By Wyre DaviesSouth America correspondent For the past week hundreds of members of the Guarani-Kaiowa tribe have been mourning the death of a 24-year-old man, Semiao Vilhalva. He was killed - shot in the face - during an invasion, or re-occupation, of three farms in the western state of Mato Grosso do Sul. I looked on as elderly members of the tribe chanted tributes in their native tongue and led mourners across fields they say have belonged to their people for centuries - long before their present white so-called owners arrived, cut down the trees and populated the area with cattle. Semiao was buried on this land, now occupied by the Guarani but also claimed as legally theirs by several influential and powerful farming families here in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Guarani men showed me the very spot, on the bank of a small river, where Semiao was shot and died. The gunman, say my guides, was a hired "pistoleiro" brought in by the farmers to intimidate and scare off the Guarani. But, if anything, the murder of their young leader has made these indigenous people even more resolute to remain. "This is a deliberate policy of genocide. It's a long legal process designed to kill our people, slowly but surely," says Guarani elder Tunico Benites. He goes on: "Our rights are being violated and we don't have even the basic conditions to survive. So we have no choice but to occupy, to retake our lands - otherwise we can't survive as a people." One of those farmers whose land is claimed by the Guarani, under a legal ruling dating back to 2005, is Roseli Ruiz. She is also the chairwoman of the local farmers' syndicate, or union, and is completely mistrustful of the way the dispute has been reported in the international media. In her office in the rural town of Antonio Joao, Roseli Ruiz dismisses any suggestion that farmers had a hand in the death of Semiao. Arguing that that there was no obvious gunshot wound on his body (in contrast to a video I was shown which suggested otherwise) the combative Ms Ruiz offered an explanation that the Indians themselves brought someone who had died earlier, and presented it as a murder, just to discredit the farmers and advance their claims to the land. Roseli Ruiz paints a picture of a hitherto mutually beneficial relationship between indigenous and farmer. "I was known as Roseli of the Indians," she cries. "I took them to hospital if they were ill and even built them a school." It was a relationship that, according to Roseli, only started to deteriorate when the Guarani began to pursue claims to the land - claims which she insists are baseless. Ranchers have long been part of Brazil's drive for development - deep into the interior of the country and into conflict with indigenous people. While some farmers have taken their cattle and moved on from the disputed land, others are refusing to move. Gino Ferreira, like many farmers, has legal titles to his fazenda - or farm. He blames the government for doing nothing while an inevitable conflict loomed. "This is my family's land," says Gino. "If the Indians arrive and take it over what do you think I'm going to do? Lose all I've worked for?" He too, dismisses any allegations that farmers had a hand in the death of the Guarani leader, Semiao. "We're not bandits and we don't hire gunmen," says the 50-year-old farmer. He goes on, "There are political reasons why they to try and make us look bad but none of it is true." But the Guarani's reputation for dogged determination and their struggle has attracted attention beyond this rugged border region between Brazil and Paraguay. Survival International, one of several pressure groups to criticise the hitherto unexplained death of the tribe's leader said, "What is particularly harrowing about this murder is that the Guarani knew their reoccupation was likely to end in bloodshed." The mood among the Guarani is militant. As other Brazilians this week celebrated their independence day, the land's original inhabitants mourned what they had lost. For now the Brazilian army is doing a good job of keeping the two sides apart - preventing new land invasions and more retribution. Occupying these 10,000 hectares the Guarani may have succeeded in recovering some of what was historically theirs. But it has come at a high price and their lives are still burdened by poverty and discrimination.

नरसंहार किसी के भी खिलाफ एक भावनात्मक और शक्तिशाली आरोप है, लेकिन ब्राजील में कुछ स्वदेशी नेताओं का कहना है कि उनकी सरकार की अज्ञानता के कारण उनके लोगों के साथ ऐसा हो रहा है, यदि इसका पालन नहीं किया गया है।


Train delays: Cable theft disrupts Walsall rail services

Summary: Rail services were disrupted after thieves stole signalling cables.

The overnight theft of 100 yards (91m) of cable, between Walsall and Rugeley Trent Valley, was noticed at the start of services on Saturday. Services were disrupted until the afternoon with passengers having to use replacement buses in the meantime. A Network Rail spokesman said thieves risk serious injury or death and their actions can cost the taxpayer a lot of money in repairs and compensation. "We continually seek to develop ways to protect the network from thieves and work with the British Transport Police to prosecute anyone caught carrying out metal thefts," they said.

चोरों द्वारा सिग्नल केबलों को चुराने के बाद रेल सेवाएं बाधित हो गईं।


Are we sacrificing taste for looks and availability?

Summary: The sweet flavour of tomatoes has been accidentally bred out of mass-produced varieties that ripen at the same time, scientists have found. But in order to be able to buy "perfect" produce year-round, are consumers missing out on something else?

By Anna-Louise Taylor BBC Food "I happen to like green tomatoes, when they are ripe, like green zebra, (which has a) beautiful flavour," says Chris Smith of Pennard Plants, a nursery in Somerset. But he says most people do not like them, "because people eat with their eyes". "You look at a green tomato and then in your own mind it's not ripe - and so therefore you don't think it has the flavour," Mr Smith says. Consumers typically "match more rounded forms... with sweet tastes", according to research in Flavour journal, and it is this inbuilt predilection for buying ripe fruit and vegetables that has helped shape the global fresh produce markets, where crops are harvested and stored weeks ahead of their sale in shops. The UK's homegrown fruit and vegetable market is worth £1.8bn, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), but its figures show vegetables worth £1.9bn (excluding mushrooms and potatoes) and fruit worth £2.4bn are also imported each year. In order to achieve large-quantity crops that ripen simultaneously, certain varieties have become exceedingly popular with growers, to the detriment of others. In the US, more than 15m tonnes of tomatoes are harvested each year. US researchers have found that the breeding process to produce tomatoes that can be harvested at the same time and turn an even shade of red, has inadvertently turned off a key gene during photosynthesis which produces sugars in commercial varieties . This reduction in sugar "compromises the flavour", the study in the journal Science found. "Now that we know, some of the qualities that people value in heirloom tomatoes can be made available in other types of tomatoes, farmers can have access to more varieties... that produce well and and also have desirable colour and flavour traits," says lead author Ann Powell, a biochemist from the University of California, Davis. Heirloom fruit and veg varieties are celebrated by gardeners as having strong, distinctive flavours. They had been forced to the margins in recent decades by EU rules, like the introduction of an expensive seed registration process. But last year rules were relaxed, and Victorian varieties are once again being grown. "It didn't matter if the skins were thin, it didn't matter if the plants were large, or the fruit was large or not regular shaped - they (the Victorians) were worried about the flavour and not anything else," says Chris Smith. Some supermarkets are now selling heritage tomatoes "as taste is becoming much more of an issue" says Tom Sharples from Dobie Seeds in Devon. However the EU still dictates the size and shape of produce that can be sold, and for some, their look doesn't quite fit. Tom Sharples says skins still need to be thicker for transportation to avoid bruising, and so major producers have breeding programmes under way to develop the perfect hybrid. But it's not just flavour and looks that consumers are concerned with. One recent study in Appetite journal found the second most important factor in purchasing specific fresh produce like cherries was shelf life, after price. Tom Sharples says: "The home gardener just wants the taste, and of course a reasonable yield, and the supermarkets want the shelf life." To get it right, scientific studies in to the time fruit and vegetables should be put in to cold storage are needed. Research in to the cold storage of avocados found nutritional compounds and antioxidant activity in early harvested fruit that had been in storage for 35 days was much higher than it was in late harvested fruit stored for 21 days. It concluded that avocados could be harvested earlier for economic benefits without losing nutritional value. However a study of grapefruit harvesting shows the date they are picked has a clear influence on decay, with 30.7% of fruit picked before flowering rotting, but only 5.5% rotting if picked during full bloom. It concluded growers should harvest grapefruit after flowering, but not too late, and to store them at 10C (50F). Meanwhile, the difference of a week in harvesting time for kiwi-fruit stored for six months had a clear difference on their nutritional value. Vitamin C and carotenoids were higher in fruits gathered first, but these were reduced after six months in cold storage. However fruits harvested a week later actually seemed to "improve their quality after a long storage". Tom Sharples agrees the scientific techniques that have been developed, like pre-chilling on the fields can maintain more vitamins. "If you take something like spinach for instance, you can lose 70% of vitamins within seven hours of harvest," he says. While science remains focused on commercial crops, gardeners hope there we will soon see more old varieties crossed with modern hybrids, that have the flavour but are more disease resistant. Because as Chris Smith says: "We are now so worried about the transportation of fruit and vegetables... they are not bred for flavour anymore."

वैज्ञानिकों ने पाया है कि टमाटर का मीठा स्वाद गलती से बड़े पैमाने पर उत्पादित किस्मों से पैदा हुआ है जो एक ही समय में पकते हैं। लेकिन साल भर "सही" उपज खरीदने में सक्षम होने के लिए, क्या उपभोक्ता कुछ और खो रहे हैं?


What are the limits to parliamentary free speech?

Summary: When the Labour peer, Lord Hain, used parliamentary privilege to name Sir Philip Green as the businessman at the centre of a legal action about harassment, did he open a parliamentary Pandora's Box?

Mark D'ArcyParliamentary correspondent The ancient right of parliamentary privilege gives MPs and peers unrestricted free speech in their debating chambers - this enables them to name names without any fear of being dragged before the courts and sued for defamation. It is, potentially, a powerful tool for righting wrongs, but, as they say in teen epics, with great power, comes great responsibility. And there are some in Westminster who now fear an epidemic of social media-driven injunction busting in Parliament. This week, I attended a meeting convened by a newish think-tank, the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law, where an audience mostly composed of senior lawyers, judges and constitutional scholars, thought Lord Hain's actions an outrage. "It cannot be right," thundered superlawyer Lord Pannick, that any parliamentarian could simply set aside the rulings of a court and name a name that it had ordered should not be disclosed. Worse still, it might reveal details of a live court case, so breaking both the injunction and the sub judice rule, under which parliamentarians do not discuss actions before the courts. Rare events So should this right be curtailed in some way? The first point to make is that these events are fairly rare. The last few years have seen a handful of cases, mostly involving the former Lib Dem MP, John Hemming, who in March 2011, used parliamentary privilege to reveal the existence of a super-injunction granted to former Royal Bank of Scotland chief Fred Goodwin and later mentioned Ryan Giggs as the footballer whose name was protected by another injunction. The clerks of the Commons and Lords are kept aware of live court cases, so that they can alert the chair to prevent breaches - sometimes they will be forewarned; perhaps the MP or peer concerned will have attempted to put down a question or an EDM and been blocked from doing so. But if not, they have to react pretty rapidly, or the name will be uttered, and broadcast live on BBC Parliament, and thence released into the wilds of the twittersphere, in a matter of seconds. This kind of thing could become a problem. There have been legal challenges to the use of parliamentary privilege in the European Court of Human Rights, but the ECHR has thus far always upheld the right of freedom of speech within a parliament; but there is also the implication that if a parliament fails to police the actions of members effectively, then the court might begin to look at this differently. Were Sir Philip to bring an action saying Lord Hain had infringed his right to a fair trial, under Article 6 of the European Declaration, the result would be a rather interesting case. How, then, might the Commons and the Lords deal with MPs or peers set on breaking the terms of an injunction, to name some name? The current rules advise against such actions unless the parliamentarian in question "thinks it right". This is not exactly a high bar. Peers are also supposed to act "on their honour". One suggestion on toughening up this system, made at the Bingham Centre meeting, was that an MP or peer contemplating breaking an injunction should discuss the idea with the Speaker or Lord Speaker, and could be open to some kind of disciplinary action if they went against their advice. They would then have the chance to justify their action, perhaps before a committee, or maybe even the whole House. And at the end of the process there would have to be the possibility of a significant sanction - including suspension or expulsion. Whether MPs or peers would be prepared to accept such a restriction, and vote through the rule changes needed to underpin it, is another question.

जब लेबर पीयर, लॉर्ड हेन ने उत्पीड़न के बारे में कानूनी कार्रवाई के केंद्र में सर फिलिप ग्रीन को व्यवसायी के रूप में नामित करने के लिए संसदीय विशेषाधिकार का उपयोग किया, तो क्या उन्होंने एक संसदीय पेंडोरा बॉक्स खोला?


Police probe Kingswells Co-op ATM raid

Summary: Police are at the scene of an ATM raid at a Co-op store on the outskirts of Aberdeen.

Officers were called to the Kingswells store in the early hours of Monday morning. The incident, which left the ATM badly damaged, took place at about 01:00. Police Scotland Det Ch Insp Alex Dowall said it had still to be established if any money was taken, and they were keeping an open mind as to it being connected to other incidents.

पुलिस एबरडीन के बाहरी इलाके में एक सहकारी दुकान पर एटीएम छापे के स्थल पर है।


India's on a digital sprint that is leaving millions behind

Summary: India has more than 630 million internet subscribers. But for every Indian who has access to the internet, there is at least one who does not and that person is most likely living in a rural area. Smriti Parsheera writes on the country's continuing digital divide.

There is an exuberance around India's digital story. The country is home to the world's second-largest internet user base, consisting of more than 630 million subscribers. That is more than the total population of the US, the United Kingdom, Russia and South Africa put together. It also has the cheapest mobile data prices, which has allowed a large population to use the internet just in the last four years. Besides the size of the pie, data consumption is also on the rise. The average internet user now consumes more than 9GB of data per month. That translates to watching 16 hours of video a month compared to just 15 minutes in 2015. Other positive trends include a competitive e-commerce market, a booming video streaming industry and a choice of affordable devices. Rural population66% Internet density 25.3% Urban population34% Internet density97.9% At the government's end, electronic governance, mobile health and digital finance are at the heart of many policy discussions. All of this excitement is, however, surrounded by the sobering reality of India's continuing digital divide. This refers to the gap between those who have access to the internet and other digital technologies and those who do not. The divide is shaped both by the availability of internet services in different regions and the ability of individuals to tap into those services. A person's location, income, gender, education, language, and age are some of the factors that define their access. As per data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the country has an internet density of 48.4. This represents the number of internet subscribers per 100 people in the population. Even though 66% of the country's population lives in its villages, rural internet density is just 25.3. In comparison, urban areas have a significantly higher density of 97.9. This means that for every Indian who has access to the internet, there is at least one who does not and that person is most likely living in a rural area. We see stark variations in the access levels across the country's 28 states and nine union territories. States like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in the north and Orissa in the east are known to perform poorly on human development indicators, and they also fare badly in internet use density. The availability of internet infrastructure is also affected by geographic conditions. For instance, the remote mountainous areas of Himachal Pradesh, sparsely populated deserts of Rajasthan and dense forests in Madhya Pradesh face greater digital exclusion. It so happens that many of these remote locations are also home to India's tribal and marginalised communities. Poor connectivity can therefore unwittingly end up perpetuating existing disadvantages. Gender is another important factor that shapes digital access. Only 16% of Indian women were found to be using mobile and internet services, a 2019 report from the GSMA, a body which represents mobile operators, said. On a comparative scale, women were 56% less likely to use mobile internet than men. This situation stems from a mix of economic, social and cultural factors placed against the backdrop of a deeply patriarchal setup. On the economic front, while data access charges have gone down drastically, the cost of internet-enabled handsets is still a barrier for many households. The financial dependence of women and their lower position in the household pecking order naturally reduces the likelihood of them owning such devices. Besides ownership, lower literacy rates and digital awareness among women are some of the other limitations. Many of these factors also contribute to reduced access among the elderly population. Digital empowerment is known to create greater awareness and independence, which may be perceived by some as a threat to the established social order. This thinking has manifested itself in several reports about some village-level community bodies imposing restrictions on the use of mobile phones and social media by women, particularly younger women. Finally, when it comes to the educated classes, the issue shifts from that of basic access to the chronic under-representation of women in various ways. From online spaces to research labs to meeting rooms, India mirrors the global trend of digital technologies continuing to remain the primary domain of men. The Indian government has not been immune to these problems. One of its flagship programmes, the Digital India project, identifies universal access to mobile connectivity as one of its main pillars. The government is trying to achieve this by providing broadband connectivity to the country's 250,000 village councils. This project has been in effect from 2011 but so far a little less than half of that target has been achieved. The number of locations where the completion of the work has led to functional internet is even lower. The government's National Digital Communications Policy acknowledges that much more effort is needed on this front. It speaks about the need to bring connectivity to all under served areas and identifies specific groups, like marginalised communities, women and persons with disabilities that merit specific attention. The policy also lays emphasis on solving last-mile connectivity issues in both urban and rural areas, through the use of public Wi-Fi infrastructure. The policy discourse is clearly moving in the right direction. From broad claims about the need for universal access, it has evolved to recognise some specific factors, like location, gender, and marginalisation, that shape the digital divide. What India needs next is for policymakers to undertake a rigorous data-driven exercise to measure which factors are causing what level of exclusion and the reasons behind it. Only when we fully understand the beast of India's digital divide can we design targeted solutions to tame it. Smriti Parsheera is a Delhi-based technology policy researcher

भारत में 63 करोड़ से अधिक इंटरनेट ग्राहक हैं। लेकिन हर भारतीय के लिए जिसकी इंटरनेट तक पहुंच है, कम से कम एक ऐसा व्यक्ति है जो ऐसा नहीं करता है और वह व्यक्ति संभवतः ग्रामीण क्षेत्र में रहता है। स्मृति पारशीरा ने देश के निरंतर डिजिटल विभाजन पर लिखा है।


Bradford police officer faces rape and sex assault charges

Summary: A police sergeant has been charged with rape and sexual assault and is due to appear in court later this month, police have said.

Sgt Ben Lister, of West Yorkshire Police, will appear at Bradford Magistrates' Court on 24 March. He has been suspended from the force, West Yorkshire Police said. A force spokesman said: "A West Yorkshire Police officer has been charged with one count of rape and one count of sexual assault." Sgt Lister was based at the force's Bradford District, police added. Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk. Related Internet Links West Yorkshire Police HM Courts & Tribunals Service

पुलिस ने कहा है कि एक पुलिस सार्जेंट पर बलात्कार और यौन उत्पीड़न का आरोप लगाया गया है और वह इस महीने के अंत में अदालत में पेश होने वाला है।


Ewan Morrison: King of the swingers is happy to settle down

Summary: Ewan Morrison has in the past been called a "purveyor of erudite filth". The award-winning Scottish novelist admits he used to live a life as "extreme" as the characters in his books but he claims he is finally trying to live in the "normal world".

By Steven BrocklehurstBBC Scotland news website Morrison is a hugely successful author who has written four much-lauded novels as well as other critically acclaimed works such as last year's Tales From a Mall, but he says he finds it very hard to believe that people like or appreciate him. He says: "I find it so hard to accept that in the last few years I have given up alcohol and put myself in therapy because I have to grapple with my belonging in the normal world. I find it upsetting that I'm here and I'm doing well." 'Incapacitating stutter' Now 46, Morrison puts his inability to fit in down to his childhood in Caithness, where his hippy parents struggled to live the Utopian cultural life they had fled to the far north to build. His father David was the local librarian and ran the Wick festival of poetry, folk and jazz which attracted cultural giants such as Norman MacCaig and Iain Crichton Smith but often failed to find audiences to match. "My father hit the bottle when he realised the festival would not work. It was this big 60s dream, one that ruined our family economics," Morrison says. "Watching your parents fail is pretty crushing." In his 30s, he says, he had to deal with "severe anger and rage" against his "irresponsible" parents who tried to live outside the real world but abandoned their son to deal with the bullies from the tough working-class town who made his life a misery. Morrison told BBC Scotland's Stark Talk: "I had an incapacitating stutter where I could not say my own name from the age of about nine to 13. "I was systematically bullied for about three or four years to the point where I gave in and just accepted it would be a daily phenomena." Morrison says he was kicked in the head, forced to eat dirt, stripped and on one occasion he remembers having to stand with his mouth open while the bullies attempted to spit into it from a distance. He says he used to long for the day when the nearby Dounreay nuclear power station would blow up and the entire community would be destroyed. The teenage Morrison found some kind of relief in making figures from modelling clay. "On a bad day I would literally crush a Plasticine model and kill someone," he says. His self-confidence grew through his talent for art and he went on to Glasgow School of Art, which he says was "a wonderful place for freaks". He was a good artist but too impatient, always moving on to the next thing like a "butterfly". At first he was a portrait painter, then changed to photography and he graduated making art documentaries. One of his novels, Menage, sees his protagonists learning how to express their art. Morrison says: "One of the pieces in the book was my actual graduation piece where I slapped about a good friend of mine. "He's now a really successful artist living in Finland by the name of Charles Sanderson and he sat still for an hour while I slapped him and my friends kissed him and that became a portrait." Love triangle Menage, as the name suggests, features a love triangle, and it is not only Morrison novel in which explicit sex is a feature. It was his first book, a collection of short stories called The Last Book That You Read, which had him dubbed a "Scottish purveyor erudite filth" by Arena magazine. A couple of years later his first novel, Swung, told of the swinging scene in Glasgow, a lifestyle choice with multiple sex partners, into which Morrison delved after his marriage broke down. He says he "cracked up" in New York at the turn of the millennium when a film project he had been working on for two years collapsed. His "dangerous, alcohol-fuelled behaviour" resulted in him losing his wife, his two children and his home. "I went nuts," says Morrison. "I had so much resting on wanting to make this film in America to show that I could stand on my own two feet, put all my past behind me, almost start again in another world. "When all that fell through I was stuck back in Scotland. I felt I was stuck in this place I had so desperately wanted to escape from." Back in Glasgow, he turned to writing and in order to get material for his books, he lived "more extremely" than he would have done other wise, examining the swinging scene by spending a "year in perverse". "I think most people who are involved in swinging are troubled," he says. Happy-ending However, in its defence he says swinging "demystifies" the rituals around sex and crosses cultural and class boundaries. In 2006 when he met his future wife, Swung was still in draft form and he gave it to her to read. He says his now-wife, who was a lesbian for 10 years, was not really afraid of the content. "If anything I think she might have thought it was too bourgeois and heterosexual, " he says. Morrison's 2008 novel Distance tells of two people clinging on to a long-distance relationship. The male character Tom is unstable, volatile, suicidal, needy, feels inadequate, and he is an alcoholic. "All my characters are a bit of me but pushed to limits so there was part of me that was all those things," Morrison says. "I probably made the mistake of digging as darkly as I could into the rot inside myself for that book." Like the characters in Distance, Morrison and his American wife Emily conducted a long-distance relationship for two years before she eventually moved to the UK. Morrison says it has resulted in a happy-ending which he could not have dared to write in his novel. So, is Morrison finally happy? He says: "I used to wonder why I hated Henri Matisse when I was in art school and I think it was because Matisse was happy. "I think I would like to be a bit more like Matisse in future, more calm and self-assured and to create things which are not just about being screwed up." Stark Talk is on BBC Radio Scotland on Tuesday 20 May at 13:30.

इवान मॉरिसन को अतीत में "विद्वतापूर्ण गंदगी का संरक्षक" कहा जाता रहा है। पुरस्कार विजेता स्कॉटिश उपन्यासकार ने स्वीकार किया कि वह अपनी पुस्तकों के पात्रों की तरह "चरम" जीवन जीते थे, लेकिन उनका दावा है कि वे अंततः "सामान्य दुनिया" में रहने की कोशिश कर रहे हैं।


Forces memorial arboretum plant royal wedding tree

Summary: A wedding-cake-shaped tree has been planted at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire to celebrate the royal wedding.

Prince William marries his university sweetheart Kate Middleton on Friday. Gulf War veteran Major General Patrick Cordingley planted a Cornus Controversa or Wedding Cake tree on Tuesday. The Major General is leading an £8m fundraising appeal, of which Prince William is a patron, for a memorial hall at the Alrewas remembrance site. Related Internet Links The National Memorial Arboretum

शाही शादी का जश्न मनाने के लिए स्टैफोर्डशायर में राष्ट्रीय स्मारक अर्बोरेटम में शादी के केक के आकार का पेड़ लगाया गया है।


Thomas McCabe: On-the-run NI murderer arrested

Summary: A convicted murderer who has been on the run for more than two years has been arrested by gardaí (Irish police).

Thomas McCabe, 56, was released from prison on licence and had been "unlawfully at large" since it was revoked in January 2018 following several breaches. He had been imprisoned for killing a teenager in London. In June, a reward of up to £5,000 was offered by the Crimestoppers charity for information leading to his arrest. In a statement on Wednesday night, the PSNI thanked members of the public who responded to the appeals for information.

दो साल से अधिक समय से फरार चल रहे एक दोषी हत्यारे को गार्डाई (आयरिश पुलिस) द्वारा गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


What is Scotland's attitude to immigration?

Summary: Immigration may not be as hot a topic as it was, but post-Brexit, there are big questions about the numbers of people allowed into the country, and under which rules Scotland has a consensus political approach, though public views on the issue are close to those in England and Wales There is a case being made for Holyrood to have the right to issue its own visas and work permits, to meet Scottish recruitment and demographic needs

Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland Immigration has dropped down the list of voter priorities. They may think as they did about it, but not as strongly. It's not the same priority. That may be because immigration numbers have dropped since the Brexit referendum. It may be because voters expect Brexit to ensure an end to the free movement of EU citizens in and out of the UK. Or perhaps the post-Brexit referendum discussion of immigration has raised the public's understanding of the importance of non-British nationals to running public services. In Scotland, the debate about immigration plays differently. Since the middle of last decade, there has been cross-party consensus at Holyrood that immigration is an important part of the answer to Scotland's demographic challenge. Without new blood, Scotland's workforce will age, and it would become more difficult to support public services for those in retirement. That consensus began when Labour's Jack McConnell was first minister, and the SNP has enthusiastically made the case for immigration since it took office in 2007. Retaining free movement and recruitment of EU nationals is one of its main reasons for supporting continued EU membership. Aussie rules Public opinion does not follow Holyrood's consensus. Scottish attitudes to immigrants' impact on the economy and on British culture were found to be very similar to those in England and Wales, in the most recent social attitudes survey. While more than 40% of Scots surveyed thought immigration was good for both the economy and for culture, 17% thought it bad for the economy and 20% undermining of culture. Asked in two YouGov polls in 2017 if there are too many or too few immigrants in Scotland, there were very similar results: 37% saying "too many", 40% saying "about right" and 10% saying immigration is too low. Immigration policy comes under Westminster control. Since 2010, there has been a drive (unsuccessfully) to cut net immigration numbers, much of it driven by Theresa May as home secretary and then prime minister. There have been some moves to relax that approach under Boris Johnson, but the precise direction of Conservative is yet to become clear. In a BBC interview with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, it was also unclear whether he wants immigration up or down. Business and universities are pressing for a post-Brexit migration policy to be sufficiently flexible that they can recruit the workers they need, at specialist level and at other levels of skill. Some sectors are dependent on temporary migrant workers, led by farming. EU nationals form a large part of other sector's permanent workforces, from finance in the City of London to fish processing. The NHS is also highly dependent on foreign nationals to fill vacancies, while many British-trained health professionals choose to work overseas. There has been criticism of a Conservative government plan to limit immigration to those coming to jobs paying above £30,000. But the points-based system, drawing on Australian experience and being developed by the Home Office, is one that could win more support, depending on how the points are applied. Rural challenge Expert advisers to the Scottish government reckon that the current UK government policy would see immigration fall to between 30% and 50% of recent levels. Population would continue to grow, but more slowly, while the workforce would shrink. The group pointed to a particular concern if post-Brexit immigration means fewer people from overseas settling in rural areas and islands, which are particularly vulnerable to declining population. Lower average pay in these areas would make it harder to attract incomers who could reach the immigration pay threshold. It also suggested that would bias immigration in favour of men, and the policy could lead to a wider range of different nationalities, and shorter stays in the country. The big immigration question for Scotland, while in the UK, is whether it could and should have its own migration powers - being able to grant residency and work rights to foreign nationals, on condition that they work only in Scotland. A version of that applies in Australia, where state governments can issue work permits. It is argued that it would be harder to make it work in a smaller country, and could let migrants into England by the back door. But there has been increasing traction for the idea, particularly as businesses have felt frustrated by the Theresa May approach to cutting numbers. It has been suggested also for north-east England and for the City of London.,

आप्रवासन भले ही उतना गर्म विषय न हो जितना कि यह था, लेकिन ब्रेक्सिट के बाद, देश में अनुमति प्राप्त लोगों की संख्या के बारे में बड़े सवाल हैं, और जिनके नियमों के तहत स्कॉटलैंड का एक सर्वसम्मत राजनीतिक दृष्टिकोण है, हालांकि इस मुद्दे पर सार्वजनिक विचार इंग्लैंड और वेल्स के लोगों के करीब हैं।


Could council budget cuts lead to a rise in vermin?

Summary: Record spring rainfall has led to warnings that rats may have been flushed out of overflowing sewer systems and hunting around for new lodgings. BBC Panorama has been investigating whether the squeeze on council budgets could be affecting our ability to keep ahead of the vermin population.

Last year in the UK, a survey by the industry found that local council pest controllers made roughly 300,000 rat-related visits to people's homes. There is no official statistic to measure the rat population, but councils are also being routinely called out to grapple with the return of the bed-bug to Britain - after being all but eradicated half a century ago - as well as the ever-present cockroach. And they are feeling the pressure. Over the past two years, amid tightening budgets, 29 councils have pulled out of the pest control business entirely and others have started to charge for their services. Councils are obliged to keep their own land free of rats and mice and have some powers to intervene to make private landowners do the same, but they are not legally required to provide a pest control service. In Stevenage, the council has introduced a £47 charge for pest control, which initially resulted in a 50% drop in rat-related calls, although those numbers have begun to recover. DIY dangers Chris Woodard of the council's pest control team said that when faced with the one-time charge, people were giving more thought to tackling the problem on their own: "I think people just thought, 'oh, we'll try to deal with that ourselves and we'll go out and buy some poison for a few pounds'." But he warned that the DIY route can be dangerous. "Most people I see putting it down do it in a totally inappropriate manner, thereby poisoning wildlife and doing themselves some harm," he said. Private companies are often the choice for domestic pest problems, but Simon Forrester of the British Pest Control Association said even competitively-priced private firms are sometimes beyond the reach of the most vulnerable. "Local authorities are the safety net for society, and many people who can't afford pest control need to find some sort of support, they're often the ones who have the worst pest problems near and in where they live." Graham Jukes of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health said he believes cutbacks will lead to more problems with pests. "Resources to actually deal with the problem around the country are actually diminishing and so I believe the problem is getting worse," he said, adding, "populations will increase... damage and the potential loss of wellbeing will increase as well." Council fees 'lazy' But that view is countered by private contractors such as David Channon, of Microbee Ltd. He said in areas where private pest controllers have taken over, infestations have not gone up. "There hasn't been a sudden collapse in confidence or a sudden outbreak of pests in any of the locations that have had private contractors," said Mr Channon. But Chris Woodard from Stevenage said the view from the front line is that budget-cutting by councils will lead to pest populations increasing. "As far as public health pests go, they will be out of control… none of this is measurable quickly, it'll be a long term approach, if something is going to happen over the next three, five, maybe 10 years." A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said pest control was a matter for individual councils and that given the amount of overall budget spending that goes to local councils, they have to play a part in spending cuts. He added: "There are many ways for councils to make sensible savings rather than the lazy option of introducing charges. Councils can protect front-line services through better procurement, greater transparency and sharing back office services." Mr Jukes also thinks there is also a wider issue of co-ordination among the varying government departments or agencies that have an interest in public health, particularly with regard to pest control. "The question is, are they being co-ordinated in any shape or form and my view is no, they're not." Panorama: Rats, traps, bugs and cutbacks, BBC Two, Monday, 6 August at 20:30 BST then available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer.

वसंत ऋतु में रिकॉर्ड बारिश ने चेतावनी दी है कि हो सकता है कि सीवर प्रणालियों से चूहों को बाहर निकाल दिया गया हो और नए आवासों की तलाश की जा रही हो। बीबीसी पैनोरमा इस बात की जांच कर रहा है कि क्या परिषद के बजट पर दबाव कीटों की आबादी से आगे रहने की हमारी क्षमता को प्रभावित कर सकता है।


Crawley: Guns found during raid on house

Summary: Bomb disposal experts were called to a house in West Sussex after police found a number of guns during a search.

Sussex Police say they conducted a firearms warrant at a property in Hastings Road, Crawley, on Thursday 14 May. Specialist teams were seen to carry away a number of weapons. Police say no arrests have been made and an investigation continues. A spokesman said there was no threat to the public.

तलाशी के दौरान पुलिस को कई बंदूकें मिलने के बाद बम निरोधक विशेषज्ञों को वेस्ट ससेक्स के एक घर में बुलाया गया।


Apple iPhone X: The internet reacts

Summary: When Apple chief Tim Cook declared the iPhone X "the biggest leap forward since the first iPhone" at his latest launch extravaganza, you couldn't help but wonder if he was referring to its features or its price.

By Leo KelionTechnology desk editor With the top-end model costing £1,149, customers are paying a premium to swap their fingerprint sensor for a facial scanner and the ability to make an animated monkey or poo emoji copy their bemused looks. In opting to refer to the model as "ten" rather than "x", the firm has also thrown its naming convention into a bit of confusion - will there ever be an iPhone 9 - or indeed IX? Of course, that's a problem for another day. And the internet has had plenty else to chew over in the meantime... Cnet The two biggest questions for me focus on the iPhone X's most daring design change, ditching the home button. Will it actually make the phone more convenient to use? And will using your face to unlock the phone benefit you, or is it just a workaround? The Verge The iPhone X may be the most powerful iPhone ever, but compared to almost any other Android flagships, it's hard to pick out a category where it leads the pack - at least on paper when comparing raw specifications. But if Apple has shown one thing time and again with every iPhone generation, it's that optimisation of hardware and software matter just as much - if not more. Wall Street Journal The iPhone X's new design - a 5.8in, edge-to-edge display -has raised hopes that it can reverse Apple's fortunes in China, where sales have fallen six straight quarters. Chinese consumers are more influenced by a phone's appearance than consumers in other markets, and Apple had kept the same appearance for three years. Bloomberg A $1,000 iPhone could add as much as 6% to Apple's 2018 earnings per share... but that depends on the iPhone X being a hit, and there's more competition from lower-cost Chinese competitors such as Huawei and Xiaomi, which timed the introduction of their new phones around Apple's launch to attract customers who may be deterred by the iPhone X's price. Slashgear Apple has crafted a stunning new flagship. In a time when existing iPhones were starting to look a little - dare I say - pedestrian in comparison to what Samsung, LG, and others were doing in hardware, the iPhone X has accelerated through and can spar with the best of them. Engadget What did bother me a little more than expected were the bezels that run around the screen... Given that Apple's competition has done an incredible job trimming the cruft from around their displays, I can't help but feel that the iPhone X's design doesn't have the same kind of impact as, say, the Essential or Samsung's recent Galaxys. Wired The very notion of using your face as the key to your digital secrets presents some fundamental problems... It's very hard to hide your face from someone who wants to coerce you to unlock your phone, like a mugger, a customs agent, or a policeman who has just arrested you. In some cases, criminal suspects in the US can invoke the Fifth Amendment protections from self-incrimination to refuse to give up their phone's passcode. That same protection doesn't apply to your face. Financial Times All the focus today was on the innovations in the X.But it all made the new 8 look like a rather boring, "plain old" iPhone - and the price for that has just gone up $50 as well. Techcrunch The X is the best iPhone, no questions, and it's quickly jumped to the top of the best phones, period. Yeah, it's going to cost you, but you already knew that. Twitter: "I gaze into the iPhone and the iPhone gazes back at me" - Nietzsche. @ericasadun I'm not sure how the iPhone X face recognition will distinguish between me with make-up and without make-up. Because the difference is real. @kandeejohnson So if you were sleeping and your girl picks the iPhone X and puts it in your face, it just unlocks it yeah? Lol. Thanks Apple. But no, thanks. @DrOlufunmilayo I think the leaks spoiled the iPhone X keynote, but Apple also didn't do enough to show why augmented reality matters. @tomwarren The choice is simple: The iPhone X or 363 coffees. @joshtgoossen Releasing the iPhoneX and 8 at the same time is strange, surely those who get the 8 will feel they've not got the latest iPhone. @Mr_Iconic The iPhone X is over a thousand dollars but I get to make myself into a poop emoji, so ya, it's worth it. @donaldcookie Facebook iPhone X has facial recognition. It'll look at your face and tell you that you can't afford it. - Abhimanyu Singh Face ID seems like an over-engineered fix that they were forced to include because they couldn't integrate a fingerprint scanner into the screen - Nick Farina How on earth can they justify the same price in $s as in £s... utterly shameful! I won't be buying on that basis alone. - Darren Taylor They made the 8 almost identical to the 7 so people would have to spend the extra money for the X. And I'm sure I'll buy one even though I know what they did. - Patrick Michael Google has just been given a gift. Apple could have really done something that would have caused Android fans angst today. It did not. Instead, we're looking toward the Pixel 2 launch in October with renewed interest. - Robert Scoble Reddit Apple isn't the first in facial recognition (by a long shot) but they will without a doubt make facial recognition competitive by making it better. This is how they always work. - Leprecon The lack of any fingerprint reader could cause problems for people who either cover their face for religious or professional reasons as well as for blind people. Really hoping Apple thought about these issues. - danius353 The iPhone home button was what made it look like a iPhone. The little round button was so iconic. Now the iPhone X looks like any other phone really especially if you put a case on it. - Ihavefallen X2? XS? What are they going to call the next one? - Alteran195

जब एप्पल के प्रमुख टिम कुक ने अपने नवीनतम लॉन्च समारोह में आईफोन एक्स को "पहले आईफोन के बाद से सबसे बड़ी छलांग" घोषित किया, तो आप आश्चर्यचकित हुए कि क्या वह इसकी विशेषताओं या इसकी कीमत का उल्लेख कर रहे थे।


Scarborough: The enduring appeal of the English seaside

Summary: The Englishperson's lack of interest in the national seaside is so dire calls have been made for a special "tsar" to be appointed to deal with our apathy. But no matter how the issue is tackled, are we really going to flock to the grey, windswept expanses of gritty sand to frolic in icy brown ankle-deep water?

By Bethan BellBBC News Perhaps a leaf can be taken from Scarborough's book - it's one of the few domestic beach resorts bucking the national trend and actually attracting holidaymakers and day trippers. So what does it have to offer? Scarborough is a place of two halves. The south has a funfair and arena - the Sun Court - for an orchestra to put on open-air concerts. The north is quieter in terms of attractions, but has a wilder, more rugged feel and is popular with surfers. Clinging to the cliffs above the North Sea on England's east coast, the town was enormously popular in the 19th Century for those seeking spa cures. Out and about with holidaymakers around England Now, although the wide sweeping beaches are still beautiful and the harbour bustling and picturesque, any residual glamour has faded. It's hard to imagine well-to-do Victorian ladies demurely taking the waters. Beachfront shops sell confectionery in shapes which could be described by some as "saucy" and others as "smutty". Some are so explicit they're covered in bubble wrap or only stocked on the top shelf. BB guns are displayed alongside buckets and spades, and giant games arcades and a casino dominate the main road between the South and North Bay. But alongside the more salacious elements, there are traditional activities. Donkey rides are available - so long as you're aged 12 and under and weigh seven stone or less. End-of-the-pier entertainments - such as The Billy Pearce Laughter Show - are "here all season", and dressed crab is sold from kiosks along the front. It's a proper seaside resort. First thing in the morning street-sweepers remove the traces of late-night revelry, making the town feel clean and new. Dog-walkers briskly follow their charges, throwing tennis balls into the surf. The fishing fleet comes in and cafes and stalls bustle into life. As soon as the sun falters from behind the clouds, the beach fills up with barely-clad children digging holes and squealing. Some admire fish-heads left on the sands after a day's catch has been hauled in. Parents in jeans and anoraks huddle behind wind-breaks. Teenage girls take the least opportunity to pose in bikinis, their male counterparts making the most of the view. Older couples, wrapped up warmly, gingerly paddle. There's an open-air theatre and a castle that overlooks the bay. There are modern attractions too, such as the newly-opened water park, and a sea life centre. Flamingo Land is not far away. The Tour de Yorkshire cycle race sped through here, and a sea festival has been held. But despite these newfangled introductions, there's an air of stepping back in time. The hotels are unfashionable yet most are fully booked for the summer season. According to Visit Scarborough, the majority of tourists come for the day, although there has also been a rise in overnight stays - the average is between two and three nights. Stag and hen parties drive up the numbers - and the popularity of anatomical confectionery. The soon-to-be-wed emerge mid-morning, drinking coffee and heading for the funfair. Sara Jones is a bride-to-be. She says she picked Scarborough for her pre-wedding celebration because "it's relatively cheap and fun". "We're mainly here just to have a good time," she says. "Have a drink, go on the beach and go clubbing at night. "I wasn't after anywhere to have a grown-up time, just a place to let our hair down". The appreciation of Scarborough's lack of refinement is echoed by many other visitors. At lunchtime Pat and Dave Gammon, both in their 70s, sit on the harbour wall eating chips. They say they enjoy the old-fashioned atmosphere of a traditional seaside holiday. "We like walking along the promenade and the cliff gardens," says Mr Gammon. "Yesterday we went to watch the orchestra play and had a coffee. Then later fish and chips or whatever - although I was accosted by a seagull which stole my crabstick," he adds, somewhat ruefully, while his wife rolls her eyes. "He's being going on about that crabstick all day," she good-humouredly grumbles. Although the vast majority of adult holidaying visitors are Britons, some overseas tourists also make their way here. Carla and Luise are two friends in their 30s from Austria, who are staying in York. In the late afternoon they plod up the steps from the beach to the town, looking weary. They're heading back to their car. Carla says Scarborough "is fun. It is not nice, but it is fun", while Luise says she preferred Whitby, which is just along the coast. In the early evening, school-age children, many local, roam the seafront and arcades before gathering in McDonald's. Zoe, who lives in Scarborough, says "it's an all right place to be, I suppose. Kind of boring. I like it when it's proper summer and people are around all night. "In the winter I pretty much know everyone around here. But in the summer we get the exchange school kids and that. That's more interesting, when they're about." The people she mentions are usually on a trip to learn the language at the Scarborough International School of English. One of them, Giulia, says she likes the town because "it's alive". A fair proportion of people staying at one of the hotels are couples with young children. Jason Philips and Jodie White have a three-year-old daughter, Scarlett, and another on the way. Ms White is too far advanced in her pregnancy to fly and Scarlett gets bored on long journeys, the couple say. They decided on Scarborough because they wanted to visit somewhere "with a holiday feeling". What's Scarlett's favourite thing about the trip? Mr Philips laughs resignedly: "She likes pressing the buttons of the lift in the hotel and loves the tram down to the beach. We've been up and down on it three times now. "In the end we told her it was closed." Near the harbour, where their three dogs are sniffing at the stacked-up lobster pots, Sue and Michael Chandler, from Leicestershire, are having sundowners. They've been visiting Scarborough annually for 20 years and believe its star is rising. "It's getting really busy again," Mr Chandler says. "It's not as busy as after the financial crash in 2008, mind you. "I'm expecting it to pick right up after the whole Brexit business. "Not that we came because of that, we just like it here. We like being able to bring the dogs. I think they like the way it smells." The couple, along with Mitzi, Bruno and Pie, saunter off to their B&B. As the day draws to a close, the character of Scarborough begins to change. The die-hards on the beach pack up their flasks and wind-breaks, the young children and their adults wend their ways back to the hotels - sandy, sticky hands clutching helium balloons and soft toys won by granddad at the grabber machine. The music from the games arcades increases in volume, as Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston howl at the world. The pavement is coloured with pulsating red lights - now a runway for people dressed up for a night on the town. Jade, 18, is one of a pack of young women who've emerged from a budget hotel. She's on holiday with three of her friends - their mums wouldn't let them go abroad and Scarborough was a compromise. It's the first time any of the girls have been away without adults. All four are wearing enormous grins, tiny shorts, high heels, and vest tops. It's drizzling but they don't seem to have noticed. "We're having an awesome time," Jade says. "We're here for a week, just hanging about. We met some lads at the fair earlier, probably going to meet up again later, like. "It's a bit of fun, nothing serious. We're here just to have a laugh. We're all staying in the same room, it's crazy but we're having the best time ever." Jade's friend Millie says the four of them plan to go abroad next year "for a bit of sun". "And hot foreign boys," Jade adds, while the others giggle and agree. Would they ever come back to Scarborough? "Yeah - let's come back for our 40th birthdays," Millie laughingly suggests, as if 40 was an age far too distant to comprehend. The group totters off to town. Later, in the early hours of the morning, Jack and Tom stagger back along the main street of the town, looking slightly worse for wear. They've had a good time, they say, and "lots of beer". Then, over the next half hour, the town goes quiet once more - until the street-sweepers, dog-walkers and cafes begin their daily cycle, ready to do it all again. Perhaps Ms White has it in a nutshell. Scarborough, unashamedly old-fashioned and unsophisticated, is a place where you feel like you're on holiday. There's sand, sea, donkeys, fish and chips, arcades, candyfloss and a funfair. Everyone, regardless of age or interests, appears out to have a good time. It seems everyone is with someone - it's rare to spot people alone, unless they're queuing for ice-creams or waiting for their family to clamber off the Ferris wheel. Maybe that determination to enjoy life is the reason Scarborough remains so popular.

राष्ट्रीय समुद्र तट में अंग्रेजों की रुचि की कमी इतनी गंभीर है कि हमारी उदासीनता से निपटने के लिए एक विशेष "ज़ार" नियुक्त करने के लिए कॉल किए गए हैं। लेकिन इस मुद्दे से कैसे निपटा जाए, क्या हम वास्तव में बर्फीले भूरे रंग के टखने-गहरे पानी में मस्ती करने के लिए धूसर, हवा से भरी रेत की ओर बढ़ेंगे?


Arrest after woman found dead in Cotswold village

Summary: A man has been arrested after a woman was found dead at a house in a Cotswold village.

The woman, in her 40s, was found dead in Great Rissington, near Bourton-on-the-Water, at about 11:35 GMT on Sunday. Police were called to the scene by the ambulance service and say they are treating her death as "unexplained". A man in his 40s has been arrested in connection with the woman's death and is in police custody.

कॉट्सवोल्ड गाँव के एक घर में एक महिला के मृत पाए जाने के बाद एक व्यक्ति को गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


Birmingham-to-Redditch rail line power failure investigated

Summary: Trees touching overhead power cables after being weighted down with snow caused major disruption on rail services out of Birmingham.

London Midland said services to Redditch are running again with delays. A replacement bus between Redditch and Longbridge, had been running. Trains between Birmingham and Hereford were delayed by up to an hour, Network Rail said. Engineers have cut back branches on the trees, to remove the problem. "The weight of the snow has loosened some trees and brought branches closer to the rail line," a spokesman said. Engineers also removed ice from power cables in a tunnel.

बर्फ गिरने के बाद बिजली के तारों को छूने वाले पेड़ों के कारण बर्मिंघम से बाहर रेल सेवाओं में भारी व्यवधान पैदा हो गया।