Flowerboys and the appeal of 'soft masculinity' in South Korea

Summary: A man wearing make-up on the street may elicit unwelcome glares, questions about his masculinity and even his sexuality. But in South Korea, ideas about how to look good as a man are changing attitudes and influencing the world, as the BBC's Saira Asher reports.

When the BBC posted a video about the make-up routine of a 16-year-old YouTuber in Seoul on Facebook, the reactions ranged from intrigued to downright vitriolic. Some assumed this meant he was gay, while others admonished him for his choice saying "real men don't wear make-up". There were, of course, those that argued for his freedom to live life however he pleased and against the "fragile masculinities" on show. But Kim Seung-hwan is used to it. He says he's been called gay by some Koreans online for as long as he's been doing make-up tutorials. When asked about whether he thought he looked feminine after he put on make-up, he was confused by the question as if he had never even thought about it. "No I don't. I do not think about this being a girly look," he says. "It's about looking good." Inside a male beauty salon For those uncomfortable with men who wear make-up, the scene at a high-end salon for men in Seoul's Gangnam district would have been quite something. But it points to an important shift in cultural expectations. Senior make-up artist Han Hyun-jae expertly applies foundation, eyeliner and lipstick on a man. He chooses from an array of products and brands that will be familiar to most women, and goes in for the final touches of what he calls the K-pop (short for Korean pop) look . It's a scene that repeats itself day after day. Packs of confident young men saunter into the salon and then leave with perfect skin and hair. Many of them are singers or actors on their way to promotional events. One man is there for his wedding make-up, a common practice for men in South Korea. He chooses to get red lips for his special day. "We make their complexion cleaner, eyebrows darker, contour their faces and draw out their masculinity in a way they can't do themselves," says Mr Han. He says men come in wanting to look like their favourite K-pop idols. In the last few years, K-pop bands and Korean dramas have become the major influence on young people in the country and last year K-pop broke into the mainstream US and UK music scenes. "I think Korea is a trailblazer in men's beauty culture, definitely in Asia at the moment, if not the world," says Joanna Elfving-Hwang from the University of Western Australia, who has done extensive research on beauty and image in South Korea. "The way they (K-pop stars) play with masculinity, what it means to be a beautiful man in a heterosexual or non-heterosexual way, it opens up possibilities for men on the street and eventually makes it more acceptable." This doesn't mean every man in Seoul walks around with a full face of make-up. But in young and fashionable neighbourhoods like Myeong-dong it's common to see men walking around with foundation or BB cream (blemish balm) - a moisturiser and light foundation hybrid. More importantly it has allowed for a much looser interpretation of what's acceptable for men when it comes to beauty. And some young Korean men are unapologetic about the drive to enhance their look. From tough guy to pretty boy That wasn't always the case. In the 1980s and 90s the salaryman was the prevailing male aesthetic. Suits, luxury watches and a traditional strong male look were the norm. Korea has mandatory national service and that moulded and defined what men thought would look appealing. "In the 80s and 90s, men in Korean pop content were largely portrayed as tough guys in gangster and detective films, and rebellious young men in some TV dramas," says Sun Jung, the author of Korean Masculinities and Transcultural Consumption. But all that changed in the mid-1990s when music group Seo Taeji and The Boys came onto the scene, says Prof Elfving-Hwang. They used rap, rock and techno influences and incorporated English language into their music. They kick-started fan culture which has now become a major force in the music industry, she says. Then followed the big entertainment companies churning out K-pop girl bands and boy bands, and their influence has been like nothing before it. "Compared to the 80s and 90s, now there are a lot more soft masculinities - pretty boy images and gentle male images - represented in media, and consumers welcome and widely consume them," says Dr Sun Jung. They came to be known as Khonminam - combining the words for flower and a beautiful man. She says it takes inspiration from similar concepts in Japan of bishonen or beautiful boys and Shojo manga - girls comics. But it's not feminine. "I think the phenomenon should rather be explained through the notion of hybrid or versatile masculinity - soft yet manly at the same time - which is different from effeminised," says Dr Jung. She cites Song Joong-ki, the star of hugely popular Korean drama "Descendants of the Sun" as the embodiment of this. He may be a khonminam in his look, but as a special forces captain in the military he is also a tough guy. Descendants of the Sun and other Korean dramas have helped spread the South Korean look around Asia and now the world. And that means the ways to achieve that look are in demand. Male idols are plastered on billboards in Seoul hawking products like face masks and moisturisers. Companies are actively hiring men to sell women make-up products. Their fandom in places like China, Thailand and Singapore is not to be dismissed either. Huge crowds show up to their performances and product launches. "Men in China and South East Asia tend to think that Korean men are the typical beauty," says Lee Gung-min, a consultant to South Korean beauty companies. "That is having a huge impact on male consumers in Asia." Korean beauty boom Beyond Asia, brand Korea is starting to sell well in the US and Europe. Walmart and Sephora now have K-beauty (Korean beauty) brands on their shelves and beauty bloggers are spouting the virtues of the 10-step K-beauty routine for glowing skin. American and European make-up enthusiasts are fast becoming acquainted with brands that were previously only popular in Asia like TonyMoly, Innisfree and Etude House. Most interestingly, established beauty brands are making their own versions of products that originated in South Korea - like Clinique, Lancome and L'oreal introducing cushion compacts. The drive for the perfect face has undoubtedly also contributed to a well reported rise in cosmetic surgeries in South Korea to achieve the desired jawline or nose. But it also stems from a deeply ingrained preoccupation with how you present yourself to others. That's a common sentiment across Seoul. People here really care about how they look and how they come off to the world - both men and women. You can't walk a few steps without coming across a cosmetics or skincare shop with a salesperson outside trying to lure you in with a free face mask, and companies are definitely capitalising on that self-care culture to sell products. But men are now as much at the receiving end of that drive - or perhaps pressure - for self enhancement that women have felt for generations. All images copyright.

सड़क पर मेकअप पहनने वाला व्यक्ति अवांछित चकाचौंध, अपनी मर्दानगी और यहां तक कि अपनी कामुकता के बारे में सवाल उठा सकता है। लेकिन दक्षिण कोरिया में, एक आदमी के रूप में अच्छा दिखने के बारे में विचार दृष्टिकोण बदल रहे हैं और दुनिया को प्रभावित कर रहे हैं, जैसा कि बीबीसी की सायरा आशेर रिपोर्ट करती हैं।


Karl Lagerfeld: The life of a design icon in pictures

Summary: Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld has died, aged 85, in Paris.

He was one of the world's most iconic designers, at the heart of not one, not two, but three fashion houses. Karl Lagerfeld had been at the creative helm of Chanel since 1983 and had been designing for Fendi since 1965. He also designed collections for his own brand. Lagerfeld was born Karl Otto Lagerfeldt in pre-war Germany. He changed his name because he believed Lagerfeld sounded "more commercial". The designer emigrated to Paris as a teenager, and became a design assistant for Pierre Balmain. He began his career with Chanel in 1983, a decade after Coco Chanel died. In 1984 he launched his own name label. He cut a striking figure wearing a distinctive ensemble of crisp white, high-collared shirts with black tailored jacket and jeans, punctuated with a tie, shades, fingerless gloves and black boots. As a designer he transformed the fortunes of Chanel, one of the leading names in high fashion. In 2018 Chanel become the first luxury fashion house in the world to stop using exotic animal skins, like snake, crocodile, lizard and stingray. "We did it because it's in the air, but it's not an air people imposed to us," Mr Lagerfeld said. He argued "there was not much fur" in Chanel's work to begin with. German model Claudia Schiffer and English model Kate Moss though displayed fur creations designed by Karl Lagerfeld for the Fall-Winter ready-to-wear collection of Chanel in Paris. Lagerfeld also transformed the catwalk. For the Chanel AW14 show in Paris it became a high-end supermarket. In 2016 Chanel staged its show in the Cuban capital Havana - the first international fashion show since the 1959 communist revolution, shown in the two images below. World celebrities gathered at a leafy promenade that was turned into a catwalk for the firm's Cruise collection, even though Chanel goods are not sold in Cuba. Celebrities - including actor Vin Diesel and supermodel Gisele Bundchen - attended the show at Havana's Prado promenade to see Lagerfeld displaying the new collection. Lagerfeld said the line was inspired by Cuba's "cultural richness". The designer had been unwell for several weeks, and had missed a number of fashion shows. All images copyright

फैशन डिजाइनर कार्ल लेजरफेल्ड का 85 वर्ष की आयु में पेरिस में निधन हो गया है।


WannaCry and the malware hall of fame

Summary: 2017 has been a bumper year for malware outbreaks. We had the WannaCry worm causing havoc around the world for days, followed most recently by the Petya outbreak. But they are not the first to spread so far, so fast. The history of technology and the net has been regularly punctuated by outbreaks and infections.

By Mark WardTechnology correspondent, BBC News The Morris worm In 1988, just as the internet was starting to catch on, computer science student Robert T Morris was curious about just how big it had grown. He wrote a small program that travelled around, logging the servers it visited. Bugs in his code made it scan the net very aggressively so every server ended up running multiple copies of the worm. Each copy used up a little bit of processing power so the servers gradually slowed to a halt. The scanning traffic clogged the net making it almost unusable. It took days to clean up the infection. Mr Morris was caught and found guilty of computer fraud and was fined $10,050 (£7,785). These days, he is a computer scientist at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The Morris worm has one strange parallel with WannaCry. Mr Morris was the son of the NSA's chief scientist and the WannaCry worm is based on code stolen from the NSA. ILOVEYOU In May 2000, millions of Windows users found endless copies of an email bearing the subject line ILOVEYOU in their inboxes. It spread so far and so fast thanks to the booby-trapped file attached to it. Opening the file fired up the small program it contained which sent a copy of the same message to all the addresses found in a victim's address book. It was also helped to spread because all those messages appeared to come from someone a recipient knew. And the subject line made people curious too. ILOVEYOU rattled around the world for almost two weeks racking up more than 50 million infections. High-profile victims included the CIA, Pentagon and UK Parliament. Philippine students Reonel Ramones and Onel de Guzman were found to be the creators of ILOVEYOU. They escaped prosecution because there were no computer misuse laws in the Philippines at that time. Code Red Active in July 2001 and named after the fizzy pop being drunk by the researchers who found it, this worm targeted web servers running Microsoft IIS software. It caused severe disruption and many websites, small businesses and larger firms were knocked offline for a while. No-one has ever been named as Code Red's creator although on servers it compromised it displayed a message suggesting it originated in China. Like Wannacry, Code Red exploited a known bug and caught out servers that had not been updated with a patch. SQL Slammer This worm emerged in January 2003 and was so virulent that it is believed to have slowed down traffic across the entire net as it spread. Slammer was a tiny program, roughly 376 bytes, that did little more than create random net addresses and then send itself to those places. If it hit a machine running a vulnerable version of Microsoft's SQL server, that machine got infected and then started spraying out more copies seeking more victims. The slowdown was caused by net routers struggling to cope with the massive amounts of traffic Slammer generated while seeking out new hosts. Again, a patch was available for the bug it exploited but many people had not applied it despite it being available for six months. MyDoom This Windows email worm from January 2004 is believed to hold the current record for spreading fastest - hardly surprising given that it was reputedly created by professional spammers. It worked so well thanks to a clever bit of social engineering. The email bearing the worm was designed to look like an error message. This fiction was aided by the message's attachment which purported to hold a copy of the email that did not arrive. Opening the attachment kicked off the malicious code that re-sent the same message to everyone in a victim's address book. Conficker November 2008 saw the arrival of this virulent worm which hit up to 15 million servers running Microsoft software. It ran rampant and caught out hospitals, governments, the armed forces and many businesses. The outbreak was so bad that Microsoft offered a $250,000 reward for any information leading to the identification of the worm's creator. No-one has ever been identified as its originator. A patch closing the loophole it exploited was released by Microsoft about a month after it appeared. Even today, 10 years on, data traffic generated by machines infected with Conficker regularly turn up.

2017 मैलवेयर के प्रकोप के लिए एक बम्पर वर्ष रहा है। हमारे पास कई दिनों तक दुनिया भर में तबाही मचाने वाला वानाक्राई कृमि था, जिसके बाद हाल ही में पेट्या का प्रकोप हुआ। लेकिन वे अब तक इतनी तेजी से फैलने वाले पहले व्यक्ति नहीं हैं। प्रौद्योगिकी और जाल का इतिहास नियमित रूप से प्रकोपों और संक्रमणों से विरामित रहा है।


The British girl who went to meet her death row pen pal

Summary: Twenty-one-year-old Lorna Fitzpatrick has been writing to her American penfriend since she was 11. There's nothing particularly unusual in that - except he's a convicted murderer awaiting execution in Louisiana.

By Francesca WilliamsBBC News Casual references to visiting a pen pal on death row can bring conversations to a grinding halt. One time, when she was working at a children's camp, Lorna spotted a shop selling the kind of American sweets a prison bus driver had shared with her. "Does anyone want a Now and Later?" she had asked the other staff. "I had them on the bus to death row." "You had them on the WHAT to WHAT?" they replied, astonished. Lorna knows her situation is eyebrow-raising. But, sitting in her mother's kitchen, with one foot pulled up on the chair, arms around her knee, she seems kind and sensible - not someone likely to make friends with a man on death row out of a sense of rebellion or the desire to shock. "I'm not saying it's not weird," says Lorna, who is from Newcastle in the north east of England. "It is weird - but really nice." It was awkward, though, when her penfriend sent a note to her boyfriend saying: "You better look after her - I'm on death row, so I know people." "He didn't mean it. I thought it was really funny," she says. "My boyfriend didn't find it that funny." The writer of this note, Bobby Lee Hampton, grew up in Louisiana in America's Deep South, one of six children. His mother was only just pregnant when his father was shot dead. By the age of 12 Hampton was in trouble. Shoplifting came first, followed quickly by battery. Then, in his 20s, aggravated assault, armed robbery, inciting riot. He was 25 when in 1995 he and two cousins robbed a liquor store in his home city of Shreveport, in the state's north west. Hampton was convicted of the first-degree murder of a member of staff called Russell Coleman and sentenced to death. Mr Coleman's sister later revealed that the family's distress was, for her, complicated by a firm opposition to the death penalty. Conflicting witness statements, and the absence of one witness at trial, led to an appeal. It was rejected, but a problem facing the state authorities had the effect of putting Hampton's execution on hold anyway: the required cocktail of lethal drugs was proving almost impossible to obtain. Increasingly reluctant to allow their products to be used to carry out the death penalty, pharmaceutical companies were taking legal action to stop this from happening. Hampton is part of a class-action lawsuit claiming the state's method of execution is unconstitutional. Meanwhile, he writes. That he writes to Lorna is thanks to a church event in the English cathedral city of Durham. Her mother, Brid, took the family to hear Sister Helen Prejean, a noted opponent of the death penalty and the author of Dead Man Walking. Her message: all humans are capable of redemption. "We are all better than the worst thing we have ever done," says Brid, a committed Catholic. "Obviously that's quite a complex message to get across to a child who's 11 or 12." But she felt it was an important lesson which, if you believe in, you should be prepared to put into practice. So Brid signed up with the charity LifeLines, which arranges penfriends for people on death row, and started writing to Hampton. Little notes added by Lorna gradually grew into letters of her own. "When he wrote back she shared the letters with me - I don't know what I would have done if she hadn't," Brid says. "I would probably have asked to see them but I didn't have to. I'm not minimising the fact that it's a serious thing to do, but I didn't think it was dangerous." According to Lorna, the only thing her mother was worried about was people thinking Lorna had romance in mind. The 21-year-old says she's "very quick" to make it clear she doesn't. Lorna is busier now, having just finished a degree in computer science but, in the early years, she would write a letter a week, a little nervous of upsetting Hampton with tales of freedom. Now they write about anything and everything - what's going in their lives, what has made them happy or sad, their families, the future. Hampton keeps the letters. "I reread them to remind myself someone cares about me," he says. "That strengthens my faith and hope; the thought of knowing that they care about me and that they are not judgemental toward me. Their visits mean the world to me." He will also phone - which can be something of a communal experience. "He calls me Missy Moo and he'd be like, 'Oh, Missy Moo's on the phone'," she says. "All the other guys in the row would be like, 'Hey Missy Moo', screaming from their cells." Hampton has now been in prison for nearly a quarter of a century. Over the past decade Lorna has taught him about emojis and hashtags - "he doesn't really get them" - and explained cultural innovations like Netflix and Spotify. "He's like a time-warp of a man," she says. Tucked in a bend in the Mississippi River, Louisiana State Penitentiary is the largest maximum-security prison in the US. It houses more than 6,000 prisoners and nearly 2,000 staff and, covering 28 sq miles (73 sq km), it is bigger than Durham and Newcastle city centres put together. Known by the name of the old slave plantation on which it sits - Angola - it's like its own town. There's a farm, staff housing, a post office, a church, cemetery and golf course. For children born to prison warden parents living on site, there used to be a school. The prison even has its own museum and a gift shop selling "Angola Gated Community" mugs and "Been to the Pen!" pencils. Lorna's first visit to the prison in 2012 was her idea. Her family had a holiday planned to Philadelphia and she suggested the 1,300-mile detour. The prison authorities thought it was "really lovely" they had come all the way from England. She is complimentary about the "really nice" staff but surprised it did not seem to cross their minds her family might be opposed to the death penalty. Brid remembers the automatic entrance gates that trap you, briefly, between two chain-link fences as one swings shut before the other one opens - an experience she describes as "seriously freaky". They were searched and X-rayed and inspected by a sniffer dog the 14-year-old Lorna was disappointed not to be allowed to stroke. Then it was on to a prison bus for the half-hour ride to Hampton's block. "We were the only white people on the bus - and the only people to get off at death row," Lorna says. "Even amongst all these people who're going to visit their family who were in prison, we could feel the judgement." The first visit was non-contact - "like you see in the films" - with a glass partition and phones on either side. In a few weeks, on what will be their third trip, Lorna's family will be allowed three contact visits, all of them together in the same room with Hampton, eating, playing cards, talking. Hugging is permitted at the beginning and the end. You might also like: Neither Lorna nor her mother has looked up Hampton on the internet. Nor has Lorna read his case file. But, she sighs, the first thing everyone asks is: "What did he do?" "It's the whole opposite of the point," she says. "The reason we write to Bobby is because he's much more than whatever he's in prison for. Bobby doesn't deny being in that convenience store. Bobby had a gun and he was robbing someone. But I think actually prison's been a really reformative experience. "I wouldn't have old Bobby come to stay in my house. Old Bobby wouldn't be my friend. "But new, current Bobby? "Yeah."

21 वर्षीय लोर्ना फिट्ज़पैट्रिक 11 साल की उम्र से अपनी अमेरिकी प्रेमिका को लिख रही है। इसमें कुछ भी विशेष रूप से असामान्य नहीं है-सिवाय इसके कि वह एक दोषी हत्यारा है जो लुइसियाना में फांसी की प्रतीक्षा कर रहा है।


WW2: Survivors' tales of covered up disaster

Summary: On 28 April, 1944, four German E-Boats opened fire on a convoy of eight US ships that were making their way to Lyme Bay on England's south coast in a practice exercise ahead of the D-Day landings.

By Claire JonesBBC News The disaster that followed - in which about 800 servicemen lost their lives - was deemed by US top brass to be so grave they ordered a complete information blackout. Now a British millionaire is planning to restore one of those German E-Boats in honour of those who lost their lives. Here are the accounts of US survivors and the German captain who opened fire on that fateful night. US sailor Steve Sadlon - Survivor of LST 507 "Burn to death on the ship or freeze to death in the sea" - that was the conundrum Steve Sadlon, a radio operator on board US Landing Ship Tank LST 507 was faced with when a torpedo struck in the middle of the night. "All hell was breaking loose," he said. "Fire was everywhere, ammunition as well as gas cans were exploding. We had nothing, we were a floating, burning hull of a ship." After weighing up his options, he decided to take his chances in the sea. "We had to escape the burning oil. There were hundreds of guys all around us in the water screaming for help. There were dead bodies floating everywhere. We got past the burning water, the dead, and the people yelling for help. "I floated by this officer who told me to save my breath and stop screaming for help like the rest of them because nobody is going to help us." Hypothermia kicked in and he woke up on board another landing craft, LST 515. After leaving hospital two weeks later, he was reassigned to LST 500, a ship that was one of the first on Utah Beach on D-Day. "In comparison to the E-Boat attack, Utah Beach was a walk in the park," he said. "I found out years later that the captain of LST 515 disobeyed orders, returned to where the ships went down and picked up survivors. If it wasn't for that captain, John Doyle, I wouldn't be here today." Steve Sadlon has since passed away. US Officer Ensign Douglas Harlander - Survivor of LST 531 Just 15 minutes after the assault on LST 507 an attack began on another landing craft - LST 531. As the craft received its second and fatal blow, it began turning over to its starboard side. It would only stay afloat for another six minutes. A surviving officer on board, Ensign Douglas Harlander, now 94, had little time to decide what to do. "We were dead in the water," he said. "We were completely loaded with trucks, vehicles, tanks, and all of them were loaded with fuel to the hilt and it was an immediate mass of fire. "I realised saving the ship was futile so I turned my attention to trying to save the men. "The ship was sinking and fast turning over and I was the last man over the port side. "As I was walking on the outside of the ship's hull, it sank beneath me. I dove off and got away as fast as I could to avoid being dragged under by the suction of the ship's descent." But as the night progressed, many of his comrades disappeared below the waves. "They slipped away as they became unconscious. At about 6am you even wished you could be picked up by the Germans because the men were falling off like flies," he said. The survivors were rescued at about 07:00 by the British ship HMS Onslow. The exercise that killed so many American servicemen was considered by US top brass to be such a disaster that it was immediately covered up. Any survivor who revealed the truth would face a court martial, they warned. "In the coming weeks I came to realize that the ordeal I survived was not to be officially acknowledged by the Navy or the United States or British governments," said Mr Harlander. "The report was classified to prevent damaging the morale of the D-Day soldiers who had to travel through those same waters to reach their destination on 6 June, 1944. "The sad part of the whole thing is that the surviving family members didn't know for so many years what had happened to those missing. "They were told only that they were missing in action or killed in action. I estimate that at least two-thirds of those on board never made it off the ship and today their remains rest at the bottom of the English Channel." Mr Harlander was the sole surviving officer of LST 531. Following Exercise Tiger, he became a dentist and still lives in Frederic, Wisconsin. Kapitan zur Zee Gunther Rabe - the German captain Forty years after the attack, in a letter dated 19 December 1983, the German commander of E-Boat S-130 gave his account of what happened to US Navy Doctor Eugene Eckstam. Kapitan Gunther Rabe said the "chance discovery" of the US training mission came during a routine journey from his base in Cherbourg, France, to the Lyme Bay area. "We knew that during April 1944 there was constant traffic on the route off the south coast of Great Britain as we met with increasing resistance from a rapidly growing number of gun-boats, launches and other escorts," he wrote. "After a while, we happened to get visual contact with a convoy of LSTs, lined up in a rather long line and from our position we did not see any escorts. "The shadows were clearly to be seen in a south-easterly direction. We approached in good distance at comparatively high speed in order to come in a favourable position for torpedo attack. "My boat fired two torpedoes at about 2.05am. As there were many more ships in the area we could not attempt to close in to look for survivors. "For a man who went through the longer part of his life in the meantime, today these events look very much different. "I think we, in our generation, have to do everything possible to prevent that governments repeat the same mistakes again." The restoration The ship that claimed the American lives is currently to be found in a shed in a Cornish seaside village. Entrepreneur Kevin Wheatcroft bought the craft - the last surviving German schnellboot S-130 - for £1 in 2009 and plans to restore it back to its 1943 configuration and performance. He said the boat's restoration was "an acknowledgement of its sinister past and an apology for what it did". "The first mission, under my control, will be back to Lyme Bay and we will torpedo the same number of poppies out of the boat as the amount of people who died there," he said. Kevin Wheatcroft The S-130 boat had a range of up to 700 miles and a crew of 35 and was used as a fast-attack craft for mine-laying. After the war, the vessel was returned to the German navy and used to train sailors in underwater weaponry before being decommissioned in 1991. It later served as a houseboat before being brought to Britain where it fell into disrepair. Mr Wheatcroft said he believed it would cost £5m to restore the boat and he expected the project to take up to five years. In order to restore the ship, Mr Wheatcroft acquired the salvage rights on three sunken schnellboots off the Danish coast to use for parts. Once it is finished, the vessel will become a floating museum and visitor attraction. He said he would like to one day see the boat on the River Thames as a constant reminder of the bloodshed of World War Two. "It's an icon of the sea, a killing machine of an era no-one will ever forget. I never lose sight I'm dealing with a killing machine. "I've had 90-year-old veterans crying, touching and patting the boat - it's one of the most emotional things I've ever seen. "The last time they saw it they were fighting for their life, it's what was responsible for their friends' deaths. "If this thing could talk it could tell a million stories." Laurie Bolton - Host of Exercise Tiger reunion tours Since 2003, there have been a number of reunions of Exercise Tiger veterans arranged by the niece of Sgt Louis Archer Bolton, who was killed on board one of the landing craft. She said she knew very little about his death until she watched a documentary about World War Two and began looking into the background to the disaster. "I contacted one of the veterans who survived on board LST 531 and he told me what happened on that night," said Ms Bolton, from Kingsburg, California. She discovered her uncle was in the tank deck on board that craft when it took a direct hit by two torpedoes. His body was never recovered. "In 2003, I began hosting reunions, brought over some veterans and family members for the 60th Anniversary in 2004, the 65th anniversary in 2009, and a final journey with veterans for the 70th anniversary year," she said. "It has been very rewarding to meet these men and their families and has helped with the feelings of loss in losing an uncle I never knew." One of the most emotional aspects of each reunion has been visits to the hulk of the S-130 kept by Mr Wheatcroft. John Casner, 88, from Summerville, South Carolina, returned to Slapton Sands, the beach of Lyme Bay, and the E-Boat restoration site in 2013. "I was glad to come back to Slapton Sands to pay tribute at the tank memorial and participate in the commemoration," he said. "That was when I became emotional. I was very surprised at how big the the E-Boat was, it seems like I should have seen it at the time of the attack." Nathan Resnick, now aged 90, was onboard LST 511 during the attack. He had not told his wife about the exercise for 50 years because it was "such a painful memory" but visited Slapton Sands and the E-Boat in 2009. "The E-Boat was an eye-opener because I never thought of it as so big and powerful," he said. "It was a mammoth, lethal weapon. I think it's good the German E-Boat is being restored because it will be a valuable piece of history for future generations."

28 अप्रैल, 1944 को, चार जर्मन ई-नौकाओं ने आठ अमेरिकी जहाजों के काफिले पर गोलीबारी की, जो डी-डे लैंडिंग से पहले एक अभ्यास अभ्यास में इंग्लैंड के दक्षिणी तट पर लाइम बे की ओर जा रहे थे।


Aadhaar: 'Leak' in world's biggest database worries Indians

Summary: Indian officials in charge of a controversial biometric identity scheme have filed a police complaint after a report that citizens' personal details were being sold for as little as 500 rupees ($7.8;£5.8) online.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) wants a probe into "unauthorised access" to its database. But it said biometric data was safe. The Tribune newspaper claimed that it bought user details via an "agent" advertising his services on WhatsApp. The report is the latest revelation against the UIDAI biometric system known as Aadhaar, which means foundation. It said that once it paid the "agent", its reporters were given a username and password that allowed them to enter any Aadhaar number into the UIDAI website and get access to user information including name, address, photo, phone number and email address. The report added that payment of a further 300 rupees provided "software" that allowed them to print out any Aadhaar card for which they had the number. The UIDAI says the breach seems to be a misuse of a grievance redressal scheme that allowed Aadhaar agents to rectify issues like a change in address and wrong spelling of a person's name. However, it added that the scheme did not grant access to people's biometric details. The revelations in the report made headlines in India, with many on social media expressing concern over the security of their personal data. Aadhaar started out as a voluntary programme to help tackle benefit fraud, but recently it has been made mandatory for access to welfare schemes. Critics have repeatedly warned that the scheme puts personal information at risk" and have criticised government efforts to compulsorily link it to bank accounts and mobile phone numbers. The government has always insisted that the biometric data is "safe and secure in encrypted form", and anybody found guilty of leaking data can be jailed and fined. A case challenging its mandatory linking to schemes and bank accounts is pending before the country's Supreme Court.

एक विवादास्पद बायोमेट्रिक पहचान योजना के प्रभारी भारतीय अधिकारियों ने एक रिपोर्ट के बाद पुलिस शिकायत दर्ज की है कि नागरिकों के व्यक्तिगत विवरण 500 रुपये ($7.8; £5.8) ऑनलाइन बेचे जा रहे थे।


100 Women 2014: From conflict zones to the classroom

Summary: BBC journalists Shaimaa Khalil and Rupa Jha hosted the inaugural 100 Women event in October 2013. On the eve of the second event, they look back at the past year and pick out their highlights from this year's coverage.

Shaimaa Khalil, Islamabad correspondent, BBC News "Misha, why did you take off your hijab?" Misha is the nickname my five-year-old niece Danya has chosen for me. The hijab she is referring to is the headscarf I no longer wear. She asked the question on the day I was visiting my mum and my sister and making my first appearance to family without the hijab. How do you explain an important decision like that to a child without getting into complicated discussions about religion, tradition and social pressures? "Choice, Doodi," I finally said. "Remember when your mum said you can choose what you wear to go out? You can choose your friends. I chose to not wear the hijab any more." The discussion went on for a while and I realised I was no longer talking to my niece about how I looked, but about something much more profound. Last year's 100 Women season ended with Messages to my granddaughter, a video montage filmed on the day of the BBC's event. There were many inspiring messages Mine would be what I told my niece that day - the importance of choice. 'Just like her' One hundred remarkable women from around the world came together in 2013 under one roof and started many discussions, some of which are still ongoing. I'm now based in Pakistan as the BBC's correspondent. A few weeks ago I was at a girl's school when Malala Yousafzai, the education activist who was shot by the Taliban, won the Nobel Peace Prize. A 12-year-old student told me: "When I see her on TV, I just want to be like her." It was a great achievement for the young activist, but for girls education is still a struggle, sometimes one of life and death - not just in Pakistan but in many countries. And women's bravery carries on well past school age. Some are in the battlefield as we speak. In Iraqi Kurdistan I met a group of Pershmerga, female fighters who have picked up arms and joined their male colleagues on the frontline to fight Islamic State militants. Mother-of-two Awas Tawfiq told me: "I am not afraid. I know I will be defending my land. I am very excited to go." This year 100 Women is returning to the BBC. There are many stories of courageous women we want to share with you: stories from the home, the classroom, and from work or conflict zones. I can't wait for the discussions to start. Rupa Jha, BBC Hindi, Delhi When I heard the news in India on the morning of 27 May, I thought - so what is new? How many more stories am I going to hear of violence against women? This time, two young teenage girls were reportedly brutally gang-raped and then hanged in Uttar Pradesh as they wandered around in the dark because there were no toilets in their village. It disturbed me, but it disturbed me more because the story seemed so normal, so routine - something I had become completely used to. But then came the video, and the image of two tiny bodies wearing bright orange and green traditional clothes, dangling from the branches of a big, peaceful tree. 'Forced outside' For me, that became the defining image of India this year. There was outrage - and the world noticed. Reports since have said there was no rape, but the situation reported at the time is a real problem in India. Around 600 million people in the country are forced to defecate outside. The UN has reported it is common for females in this situation to be harassed, physically assaulted and raped. Following this case, new Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced every school should have separate toilets for girls and that building toilets should take priority over building temples. I just hope this does not end up being another case of political rhetoric. I look forward to India truly taking such a basic issue seriously and spending proper money on it. Meanwhile, for this year's 100 Women, I am really excited about one project that focuses on another basic necessity. We will be seeing and hearing about the lives of women in conflict zones through their struggle to provide meals for the family. It will symbolise the way women struggle to keep the family intact and functioning, even under the most extreme conditions and bring a human face to a story that can otherwise be rather one-dimensional.

बी. बी. सी. पत्रकार शैमा खलील और रूपा झा ने अक्टूबर 2013 में उद्घाटन 100 महिला कार्यक्रम की मेजबानी की। दूसरे कार्यक्रम की पूर्व संध्या पर, वे पिछले वर्ष को पीछे मुड़कर देखते हैं और इस वर्ष के कवरेज से अपने मुख्य आकर्षण चुनते हैं।


Freddie Hussey death: Man charged with manslaughter

Summary: A man has appeared in court charged with manslaughter and causing death by dangerous driving following the death of a three-year-old boy in Bristol.

Freddie Hussey died in hospital after being hit by a Land Rover pulling a trailer, on Hastings Road, Bedminster, on 27 January. Tony Davies, 37, of Hallen, appeared at Bristol magistrates and is due before the city's crown court, next month. He was granted unconditional bail until the hearing on 4 September. Mr Davies is also charged with using a motor vehicle or trailer in a condition likely to cause danger of injury.

ब्रिस्टल में तीन साल के लड़के की मौत के बाद एक व्यक्ति पर हत्या और खतरनाक तरीके से गाड़ी चलाने के आरोप में अदालत में पेश किया गया है।


Coronavirus: Isle of Man death toll rises to 24

Summary: The Isle of Man has confirmed its first coronavirus-related death in nearly two weeks, taking the island's toll to 24, Health Minister David Ashford said.

Until now, there had been no Covid-19 death announcements since 4 May. The latest death "was related to Abbotswood" care home and came at the Noble's Hospital site, Mr Ashford said. Twenty of the 24 deaths on the island have been linked to the nursing home in Ballasalla, which had its licence suspended in April. The total number of people to test positive for the virus now stands at 334 after two new cases were confirmed on Friday.

स्वास्थ्य मंत्री डेविड एशफोर्ड ने कहा कि आइल ऑफ मैन ने लगभग दो सप्ताह में अपनी पहली कोरोनावायरस से संबंधित मौत की पुष्टि की है, जिससे द्वीप की संख्या 24 हो गई है।


Man charged over park stabbing in Hebden Bridge

Summary: An 18-year-old has been charged with assault after a man was stabbed in a West Yorkshire park.

The victim, 20, was taken to hospital by air ambulance with serious injuries following the attack in Calder Holmes Park, Hebden Bridge on Saturday. Samuel Smith, of Elm Bank, Bradford Road, Cleckheaton, is due to appear at Bradford Magistrates' Court later. A 19-year-old man who was also arrested in connection with the incident has been released on police bail. More on this and other West Yorkshire stories

वेस्ट यॉर्कशायर पार्क में एक व्यक्ति पर चाकू से हमला करने के बाद एक 18 वर्षीय युवक पर हमला करने का आरोप लगाया गया है।


Breakdown man killed fixing car in Nottinghamshire named

Summary: An RAC recovery worker who died when he was hit by a car while repairing a vehicle in Nottinghamshire has been named as David Stokes.

The 33-year-old man died at the scene on the A617 in Rainworth at about 19:20 BST on 15 June. Nottinghamshire Police said it is appealing for any witnesses or motorists with dashcam footage of the collision to come forward. No arrests have been confirmed by the force. Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.

नॉटिंघमशायर में एक वाहन की मरम्मत के दौरान एक कार की चपेट में आने से मरने वाले आर. ए. सी. रिकवरी कर्मचारी का नाम डेविड स्टोक्स है।


What is next for Prince Harry?

Summary: We know what Prince Harry's giving up.

Peter HuntDiplomatic and royal correspondent@BBCPeterHunton Twitter We don't yet know what will fill the considerable void that the absence of a military career will leave in his life. It's no surprise that Harry describes quitting the army as a "really tough decision". He's cherished doing a job which he was given on merit - and not because he's a prince. It's a job which, when he was in Afghanistan, included targeting and killing Taliban fighters. In the coming months, as he undertakes voluntary work in Africa and the UK, he'll have to decide how to occupy himself in the years that lie ahead. He's rejected, for now, the option of becoming a full-time senior royal. Officials will be hoping he embraces something which fulfils him and which doesn't give him time to once again be cast as a party prince. It's little wonder Harry himself talks of being at a crossroads.

हम जानते हैं कि प्रिंस हैरी क्या छोड़ रहा है।


Cambridgeshire and Suffolk consider fire service merger

Summary: Suffolk's fire authority has agreed to look at the joint business case for a full merger with Cambridgeshire.

The two fire services already share a control room in Cambridgeshire. Suffolk County Council has now decided to look at the financial implications of either merging, or having more collaboration while remaining separate. Both fire authorities said they were facing 12% budget cuts over four years, but no final decision would be made without public consultations.

सफ़ोक के अग्निशमन प्राधिकरण ने कैम्ब्रिजशायर के साथ पूर्ण विलय के लिए संयुक्त व्यापार मामले को देखने पर सहमति व्यक्त की है।


More than 100 diners flee Spanish restaurant without paying

Summary: Some 120 diners celebrating a baptism at a restaurant in a north-western Spanish town all fled the restaurant at once without paying, the owner said.

The diners, who had paid a deposit of 900 euros ($950; £770), left the El Carmen restaurant in Bembibre as dessert was due to be served, Antonio Rodriguez said. "It happened in the space of a minute," he said. "It was something they had planned and they left in a stampede." They owe 2,000 euros more, he added. Mr Rodriguez gave police the details on the reservation but said he held out little hope of being repaid. Police told El Pais newspaper they had not yet been able to contact any of the diners, who are not thought to be Spaniards. The diners had consumed starters, a main course and 30 bottles of various alcoholic drinks, he said, adding that it was the first time in 35 years of working in the restaurant trade that he had seen seen anything comparable.

मालिक ने कहा कि उत्तर-पश्चिमी स्पेन के एक शहर में एक रेस्तरां में बपतिस्मा का जश्न मनाते हुए लगभग 120 लोग बिना पैसे दिए तुरंत रेस्तरां से भाग गए।


Kenya: Will radical Islam ruin Mombasa's charms?

Summary: Community leaders on Kenya's coast are warning that Islamic extremism is on the rise. The killing in August of a Muslim cleric was followed by days of deadly riots in the city of Mombasa, from where the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse reports on a region caught between economic deprivation and religious fundamentalism.

We met Yusuf Mohamed in an obscure back street of Mombasa. As the mosques filled up for Friday prayers, we discussed the topic the whole neighbourhood was talking about: The recent drive-by assassination of Sheikh Aboud Rogo Mohammed. The preacher had been driving north of the city. A vehicle pulled up alongside his car. A gunman - or gunmen - shot him dead at close range. Mr Rogo's wife was in the car with him. She was injured, but survived. "They killed him as an animal, not as a human being," Mr Mohamed said. Nervous In his 20s, and like many young men in the city of Mombasa, Mr Mohamed is unemployed. Sometimes he prays at the Masjid Musa, the mosque where Mr Rogo used to preach. He said people in the neighbourhood were nervous. "Today it is Mr Aboud Rogo. Tomorrow it might be me," he explained. People here say it is not the first time "troublesome" Muslims have been targeted. Aboud Rogo was certainly troublesome. He urged his followers to take up arms against Kenyan government forces fighting in Somalia. His name appeared on a US and UN sanctions list, accused of providing "financial, material, logistical or technical support to al-Shabab", the Somali militant group aligned to al-Qaeda. No-one has admitted to killing the cleric, but many in Mombasa believe he was assassinated at the behest of the Kenyan government. Some believe the Americans were behind the assassination - allegations both governments have denied - but that belief is fuelling radicalism. City with two faces "I think jihad is very slowly gaining more and more credence amongst the youth," says Hussein Khalid, a lawyer at the non-governmental organisation Muslims For Human Rights (Muhuri), based in Mombasa. "We have seen it happening. We have seen youth leaving their families, leaving their communities and joining militias on their way to Somalia." Mr Khalid says tensions between the Muslim community and the security services are one reason for the rise in jihadist sentiment. But he believes there is a deeper underlying cause. "Look at the youth within the coastal region - there is no employment whatsoever," he says. "Look at infrastructure - again our region lags behind. "If you look at the road network in this region - it is amongst the poorest in the country. Mombasa is a city with two faces. For hundreds of years this palm-fringed coastal paradise has been a meeting place for civilizations, a place where traders from across the world, both Muslim and Christian, have prospered. But Mombasa is also a city of entrenched poverty: A place where chronic under investment and high unemployment leave many struggling simply to stay alive. At the market in the Old Town, stalls are piled high with produce - locally grown fruits and vegetables sit next to imported spices. But outside, men are picking their way through a vast mound of rubbish. One squats down, eating long-discarded chunks of food as he seeks out barely edible morsels. There is widespread support here for a movement known as the MRC, or Mombasa Republican Council, a separatist movement that advocates autonomy for Kenya's coastal region. Its leaders argue that the coast and its people see little economic benefit from the region's trading ports and tourist industry. The organisation was banned in 2010, but the order was overturned in court earlier this year. The MRC draws its support from both the Muslim and the Christian communities. But recent unrest is threatening to pull people apart. Beach business In a mixed neighbourhood known as Kisauni, the Sunday service at the Presbyterian Church of East Africa now features an armed security presence. Half a dozen officers in camouflage fatigues mingle with the congregation dressed up in their Sunday best. During the riots, a mob of Muslim youths looted the church and tried to burn it down. "Actually, they were looking for the pastor," says Beatrice Mburire, one of the worshippers. "They wanted revenge on another preacher - a Christian preacher," she added referring to the earlier killing of the Muslim cleric. Outside the city centre, long, white beaches stretch as far as the eye can see. The coastline is dotted with hotels and resorts. The Ministry of Tourism says the number of people visiting Kenya was up by 3% in the first six months of this year, compared to 2011. But that was before the recent riots, and the modest rise is not reflected on the beaches. Vendors selling carvings and trinkets say they are much less busy than usual at this time of year. "Business is very poor now," said Charles Mwandiko, who has been hawking carved elephants and hippos on Mombasa's beaches for a decade. He blamed al-Shabab and the recent bombing of churches. It is almost always local people, not tourists, who are the victims of violence on Kenya's coast. But every time there is a riot or a killing, more and more foreign visitors choose to stay away. And so the region is caught in a downward economic spiral, with potentially dangerous consequences.

केन्या के तट पर समुदाय के नेता चेतावनी दे रहे हैं कि इस्लामी चरमपंथ बढ़ रहा है। अगस्त में एक मुस्लिम मौलवी की हत्या के बाद मोम्बासा शहर में कई दिनों तक घातक दंगे हुए, जहाँ से बीबीसी के गैब्रियल गेटहाउस ने आर्थिक अभाव और धार्मिक कट्टरपंथ के बीच एक क्षेत्र पर रिपोर्ट की।


Lebanon in crosshairs as Saudi-Iran tensions soar

Summary: The Middle East is entering what many analysts see as a dangerous new phase. With the Islamic State group on the brink of defeat, the long-simmering rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran threatens to boil over, with Lebanon in the crosshairs.

By Martin PatienceBBC News, Beirut It was a resignation like no other and it is still sending shockwaves through the region. The Lebanese Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, unexpectedly quit last weekend. He made his announcement not from Lebanon but in Saudi Arabia, the country that acts as his political backer. Many Lebanese believe he was pushed into the decision by Riyadh. It is still not clear when, or if, Mr Hariri will return home. The spectacle of the missing prime minister is being seen as part of the wider regional struggle between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and Shia-dominated Iran. For now, Lebanon is uncomfortably centre stage - it is after all where proxy wars have been fought in the past. Iran backs the Shia movement Hezbollah here. Its supporters believe Mr Hariri's resignation was orchestrated by the Saudis in order to weaken their influence in the country. Hezbollah has been accused of operating a "state within a state". Its armed wing is more powerful than the Lebanese army and it leads a bloc which dominates the cabinet. On Thursday, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies further ratcheted up the pressure by urging their citizens to leave Lebanon, sending a clear signal of a toughening up of its policy towards the country. "The Americans, the Saudis, the Israelis are all trying to prevent Hezbollah from maximising its gains from the wars in Syria and Iraq," says Hassan Ileik, an editor at the pro-Hezbollah newspaper, Al Akhbar. "What is happening in Yemen is also related to the Lebanon situation. Hezbollah and its allies have achieved enormous success. But they're now facing huge pressure because of this." Saudi Arabia has accused Hezbollah of firing an Iranian-made missile at it from Yemen, where Riyadh says Iran is also equipping Shia rebels it is leading a long war against. Iran denies the claim. Basem Shabb is a Lebanese parliamentarian from Mr Hariri's political bloc. He says that the influence of Iran and its allies need to be checked. "As the situation in Syria comes to an end the regime has the upper hand," he says. "Iran and Hezbollah are seeking dividends in Lebanon for the role they played in Syria." "Because this has a regional dimension the solution is not going to come from within Lebanon. The more powerful actors who are interested in stability will need to intervene with the local players to help us maintain stability." 'On the brink' Meddling in Lebanon's affairs by great powers is nothing new. But the fear is a misstep now could trigger something far graver. "In the last few decades, we've never been so close to the precipice," warns Maha Yahya, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center think-tank. "The threat of a regional war has never been this real where a conflict would involve a variety of different countries." And that is why what happens in Lebanon matters to us all. The so-called Islamic State group is all but defeated. What is happening now though - the growing rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran - could be even more dangerous for the region and beyond.

मध्य पूर्व में प्रवेश कर रहा है जिसे कई विश्लेषक एक खतरनाक नए चरण के रूप में देख रहे हैं। इस्लामिक स्टेट समूह के हार के कगार पर होने के साथ, सऊदी अरब और ईरान के बीच लंबे समय से चल रही प्रतिद्वंद्विता के खत्म होने का खतरा है, जिसमें लेबनान भी शामिल है।


Stockton Council installs Teesside's first Asian mayor

Summary: The first Asian mayor has been appointed on Teesside.

Mohammed Javed has been installed at a virtual meeting of Stockton Council, becoming the first black, Asian and ethnic minority (BAME) man in the borough to hold the ceremonial post. Councillors were told Mr Javed is also the first Asian mayor in the north-east of England. He became Stockton's first Asian councillor in 2007. Labour council leader Bob Cook said his nomination was "history in the making". His appointment was "going some way to ensuring community cohesion within the borough goes forward", he said. Mr Javed said he was "very proud". "The borough has many multicultural communities and I'm looking forward to working with them to ensure everyone has equal opportunity to improve their lives," he said. Working 'tirelessly' Councillors were told Mr Javed's family had been forced off their land during the partition of India in 1947. He moved to Karachi, in Pakistan, to take his A-levels before relocating to Abu Dhabi, where he worked to put his brother - now a Middlesbrough GP - through medical school. Mr Javed later worked for the NHS in England, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said. Labour councillor Louise Baldock said he was "determined that education was the way out of poverty and the limitations of life in the village, and was prepared to work as hard as it took". He had worked "tirelessly" in his Parkfield and Oxbridge ward and would do the same as mayor, she said. Mr Javed replaced Conservative councillor Lynn Hall in the post. Kevin Faulks, of the Ingleby Barwick Independent Society, has been chosen as deputy mayor. Follow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.

टीसाइड पर पहले एशियाई महापौर की नियुक्ति की गई है।


Great Train Robbery: How Bruce Reynolds became a writer

Summary: It's nearly 50 years since the heist which became known as the Great Train Robbery. Novelist Jake Arnott got to know Bruce Reynolds - the leader of the gang - towards the end of his life.

At 3am on 8 August 1963, the night mail train from Glasgow to Euston was stopped in Buckinghamshire by a gang of thieves. They broke into the High Value Package coach and made off with 120 mailbags stuffed with £2.6m in used banknotes (something in the region of £41m in today's money). The raid soon became known as the Great Train Robbery and 50 years on it still occupies a unique place in the history of British crime. The gang carried no firearms, although the train driver was coshed in the melee - an act of violence that the leader of the gang, Bruce Reynolds, always expressed regret for, right up until his final interview. I knew Bruce, and though he may be remembered for his life of crime, it was as a man of letters that he always impressed me. His memoir, The Autobiography of a Thief, is an exceptional book, not simply because of the extraordinary life it documents but because it's so well written. And in person he had an artful way with words. When we first met, at a book reading 13 years ago, I was struck by his wit and erudition and by that literary knack of hoisting just the right allusion to illuminate a story. Standing on Bridego Bridge awaiting his greatest coup, he saw himself as Lawrence of Arabia on the Hejaz railway, his ear to the ground listening for the oncoming train. Calling on a tradition of adventurism he also conjured: "Visions of Drake and his motley crew at Panama, of Max, my old cell mate who had continually exhorted me: 'You've got to sack a city.'" I remember Bruce quoting William Burroughs, whose art manifesto "Les voleurs" declared: "Steal everything in sight, everything belongs to the inspired and dedicated thief." He cut something of a Burroughsian figure himself. Gaunt and elegant with a laconic and deadpan delivery, a southern drawl to his voice - albeit of Battersea rather than St Louis. He was the true literary outlaw. Bruce could evoke the glamour and excitement of crime as well as the heavy costs his way of life incurred. His descriptions of the haute couture of an elite villain were so vivid that I was reminded of Daisy Buchanan bursting into tears at the beauty of Gatsby's shirts in F Scott Fitzgerald's great American novel. But he was direct and honest about his own failings and vulnerabilities, and never flinched from describing the ill effects of his activities on himself and those around him. His life and works were the perfect illustration of the old Spanish proverb: "Take what you want, then pay for it." Born in 1931 in South London, Bruce had an unsettled childhood that was further disrupted by wartime evacuation. He left school at 14 and, having failed his eyesight test to join the Royal Navy, decided that he wanted to be a foreign correspondent. He even found the confidence to apply in person to Northcliffe House, home of the Daily Mail and Evening News. He ended up as a messenger boy and then in the accounts department. He longed for adventure but reasoned that he was unlikely to find it in an honest living. So, unfortunately, he applied his intelligence and ingenuity to larceny, graduating from petty theft to more and more serious crimes. By the time he organised his most famous heist Bruce had become a major league villain and had created a character for himself out of his aspirations. Renting a villa in the south of France, driving fast cars and wearing exquisitely tailored clothes, he sought not just the trappings of wealth, but the sense of culture and entitlement that went with it. "I was the image that I created," he said of that time. The Great Train Robbery took place in 1963, the "annus mirabilis" of Larkin's poem, "between the end of the Chatterley ban and the Beatles first LP" and right on the crest of a nascent social revolution. It was also the year of the Profumo scandal and a sense that the new permissive society would need its ne plus ultra. The robbers had stolen the Queen's money, there was a feeling that the Establishment had been given a bloody nose and it duly lashed out. In the first trial, gang members were given 30-year sentences at a time when there was no parole system. Bruce evaded capture for five years and went on the run, living the high life in Mexico with his wife Angela and young son Nick until the money ran out. Then he took the extremely risky decision to come back to England to plan another coup. The tenacious Scotland Yard detective Tommy Butler finally caught up with him in Torquay in 1968. Bruce was characteristically cavalier on his arrest, remarking: "C'est la vie, Tom." Long-term imprisonment took its toll, however. The dull horror of incarceration, the pain of readjusting to the outside after a long sentence. He struggled to maintain and develop a strong relationship with his son Nick. And though their marriage broke down when he was in prison, Angela and Bruce were eventually reconciled. When she fell ill he committed himself to caring for her until her death in 2010. And he became a writer. His own life was like a novel, but what was astonishing was his ability to set it down so clearly. I believe that it was his love of words and his ability to use them that really set him free. Self-reflective, philosophical, for want of a better word, rehabilitated. When he came to my book launch a year ago we talked of the looming 50th anniversary of the Great Train Robbery. He told me: "A lot of people are going to want to talk to me but I'm feeling a bit Greta Garbo about the whole thing, to tell you the truth." I wasn't sure he would agree to an interview. When he came to the studio this January he was a little frail, he'd had a hard winter. But in front of the microphone he really went to work with his inimitable style. He talked for two hours. It was his final testament. At the end he said: "I got what I wanted out of life, what I considered a good life. I wanted to live a life like Hemingway. When I was in Mexico the people I knew were bullfighters and motor racing drivers. But when you're in the position where you can do anything it no longer has the same attraction. "You realise it's all tinsel to a degree. I only ever wanted to live in a place that I felt comfortable in, which, ironically I suppose, is about the size of a cell." Radio 4's Archive On 4: The Crime of the Century is broadcast on 13 July, 20:00 BST You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook .

डकैती को लगभग 50 साल हो चुके हैं जिसे महान ट्रेन डकैती के रूप में जाना जाने लगा। उपन्यासकार जेक अर्नॉट अपने जीवन के अंत में गिरोह के नेता ब्रूस रेनॉल्ड्स से मिले।


Nato's crisis of trust in Afghanistan

Summary: The man blamed for killing two Nato officials inside the Afghan interior ministry at the weekend should never have been given security clearance, the BBC has learned. A catalogue of security blunders led to the shootings and his escape. There are now real concerns for the future of the relationship between Nato and its Afghan security partners, Bilal Sarwary reports from Kabul.

The shootings are the latest in a long list of incidents in whichmembers of the Afghan security forces have turned their arms on coalition troops. Officials feel powerless to stop them despite elaborate security mechanisms that are supposed to be in place. Concern about the issue among US and Nato officials has now become so great that trust between them and Afghan security and military officials is at an all-time low. Many fear the long term strategic relationship between the two sides could be affected. The interior ministry documents show that Abdul Saboor was sacked twice by police because on one occasion he got into a scuffle with his colleagues and another time he displayed violent behaviour. But still he was able to get security clearance when he was re-hired by the police for a third time to work as an interior ministry driver. Irretrievable breakdown "He should never have been a police intelligence officer," a frustrated Western military official posted in Afghanistan said. "He should have never got the security clearance." Occurrences in which Afghans turn their weapons on their Western counterparts happen on an almost weekly basis - shortly before the incident at the interior ministry, two US soldiers were shot and killed by an Afghan National Army soldier during protests at a Nato base in eastern Nangarhar province. And on Thursday two more US soldiers were shot dead in the south of the country - Nato said one of the men was dressed in Afghan army uniform. In fact, more than 70 Nato troops have been killed by Afghan colleagues in recent years, leading to what some diplomats say is an irretrievable breakdown of trust between the two sides. Although Nato's Afghan commander Gen John Allen said he would still be willing to walk, unarmed, into the Kabul interior ministry, few coalition troops on the ground have such confidence in their Afghan colleagues - some of whom continue to receive Taliban propaganda on their mobile telephones. The stark fact is that Nato troops are now nervous and twitchy whenever they are with their Afghan counterparts, and an investigation conducted by the BBC into what led to the interior ministry shootings on Saturday clearly explains why. Interior ministry paperwork seen by the BBC suggests that the recruitment and vetting of personnel for the Afghan army and security forces is so deeply flawed that any effort to improve it is bound to be a time-consuming and painstaking process. Western officials and their Afghan counterparts are in despair over how easily Abdul Saboor was able to bypass security in what was supposed to be a high security building and carry out the killings - apparently in retaliation to the burning of copies of the Koran by US soldiers. ''There are a number of serious security flaws," a senior officer of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), told the BBC. "The first thing you do when such an incident happens is lock down the building and detain everyone, including eyewitnesses. But no such drill was carried out in this case." This allowed the killer to jump three security cordons surrounding the ministry, he said. As if this was not worrying enough in itself, the incident also graphically exposed serious lapses in the vetting process of Afghan soldiers and policemen. Much revolves around the recruitment process itself - many prospective employees have fake identities, fake references and fake signatures. That begs the question, how many more Abdul Saboors might there be out there? Violent behaviour The documents seen by the BBC are hardly reassuring. They show that Abdul Saboor was twice fired from the Afghan National Police for "misconduct". "How on earth then did he succeed in gaining entry to the intelligence wing of the police?" asked an investigating officer. "Who gave him security clearance to be deployed at such a sensitive spot with his record?" That is a question that is likely to go unanswered - there is currently a blame game between different governments ministries as to who is responsible. Some of Abdul Saboor's relatives believe that there may be a peculiarly Afghan answer to this question, linked to patronage and corruption. They say that he succeeded in winning the trust and backing of former Minister Hanif Atmaar after returning from religious school in Pakistan in 2007 to work in the ministry as a tea boy. Interior ministry sources say that two of Mr Atmaar's top aides acted as his guarantors when he expressed a desire to develop his career and join the police. Mr Atmaar denied having anything to do with Abdul Saboor, who he said was sacked after only four months at the ministry. He says that the priority now is to find out who re-employed him and who gave him such high security clearance. Such informal arrangements - often with employees whose records are never properly checked - are commonplace in government ministries and other public offices. Western diplomats say the problem can only be sorted out once long term problems such as patronage, corruption, personal connections and nepotism are addressed. They say that a turf war between the NDS - the country's main spy agency - and the defence ministry also needs to be resolved. In another peculiarly Afghan dimension to the Abdul Saboor case, Western and Afghan officials say Shiren Agha, the commander in charge of interior ministry security, was responsible for his recruitment. Officials say that Mr Agha is related to Interior Minister Bismillah Khan by marriage. But Sediq Sediqi, a spokesman for the interior ministry, told the BBC there was no relationship between Shiren Agha and Mr Khan. Although Abdul Saboor worked only as a bodyguard and driver for Mr Agha, he was still allowed entry into the most sensitive installations at the interior ministry, where night raids, counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics operations are planned and controlled. "As painful as it might be, it is a reality that a combination of time-honoured problems and serious mistakes allowed Saboor to get into the ministry," a Western diplomat said. "It is a pattern that is being depressingly repeated across the country."

बीबीसी को पता चला है कि सप्ताहांत में अफगान आंतरिक मंत्रालय के अंदर दो नाटो अधिकारियों की हत्या के लिए दोषी व्यक्ति को कभी भी सुरक्षा मंजूरी नहीं दी जानी चाहिए थी। सुरक्षा गलतियों की एक सूची गोलीबारी और उसके भागने का कारण बनी। अब नाटो और उसके अफगान सुरक्षा भागीदारों के बीच संबंधों के भविष्य के लिए वास्तविक चिंताएं हैं, बिलाल सरवरी काबुल से रिपोर्ट करते हैं।


Same sex marriage proposals split opinion in the Isle of Man

Summary: Plans to legalise same-sex marriage on the Isle of Man have split public opinion, according to the results of a recent consultation.

The survey, launched in October, had 176 responses - 76 were opposed, 90 were supportive and 10 were neutral. The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill is based on the same legal framework introduced in England last year. It would enable couples on the island to marry in a civil ceremony or subject to agreement, in a religious ceremony. The act was introduced in England and Wales on 29 March 2014. The law change triggered a rush of couples vying to be the first to tie the knot. It is thought that the bill will now be introduced to Tynwald for debate in the coming year.

हाल के एक परामर्श के परिणामों के अनुसार, आइल ऑफ मैन पर समलैंगिक विवाह को वैध बनाने की योजनाओं ने जनता की राय को विभाजित कर दिया है।


Newry firm First Derivatives' profits up 27%

Summary: The half year results of one of Northern Ireland's few publicly listed companies, First Derivatives, show profit before tax up 27% at £4.6m.

By Clodagh RiceBusiness Reporter, BBC News NI That compares to £3.7m for the same period last year. The Newry-based financial technology firm saw revenue rise 44% to £53.8m for the six months to the end of August First Derivatives has bought a number of other firms over the last year, including ActivateClients and Affinity systems. They employ more than 1,500 people around the world.

उत्तरी आयरलैंड की कुछ सार्वजनिक रूप से सूचीबद्ध कंपनियों में से एक, फर्स्ट डेरिवेटिव्स के आधे साल के परिणाम, कर से पहले लाभ को 27 प्रतिशत बढ़कर 4.6 करोड़ पाउंड पर दर्शाते हैं।


£750k loan scheme for Llanelli town centre buildings

Summary: Up to £750,000 is being made available to help bring empty and derelict buildings in a Carmarthenshire town back into use.

Carmarthenshire council will be making loans available to eligible applicants who wish to regenerate properties and redundant development sites in Llanelli town centre. Interest free loans from £25,000 are on offer, repayable over five years. It is hoped they will improve the vibrancy of Llanelli town centre. Cllr Emlyn Dole, leader of the council and chair of the Llanelli Town Centre Taskforce, said it was a good opportunity for businesses, landlords and developers to kick-start regeneration projects for the benefit of the town.

कार्मार्थेनशायर शहर में खाली और जर्जर इमारतों को फिर से उपयोग में लाने में मदद के लिए £750,000 तक उपलब्ध कराया जा रहा है।


Grenfell Tower: Council worker charged with fraud

Summary: A council worker accused of taking money intended for victims of the Grenfell Tower disaster has been charged with fraud.

Jenny McDonagh, 39, is alleged to have obtained the cash "while being neither a survivor or bereaved family member", Scotland Yard said. The Kensington and Chelsea Council employee was charged with four offences, including money laundering. She is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court later. Ms McDonagh, of Abbey Wood, south-east London, was charged with two counts of fraud by abuse of position, one count of theft by employee and one count of money laundering. A fire ripped through the tower block in June 2017, leaving 72 people dead.

ग्रेनफेल टावर आपदा के पीड़ितों के लिए धन लेने के आरोप में एक परिषद कार्यकर्ता पर धोखाधड़ी का आरोप लगाया गया है।


How life has changed for Delhi rape victim's family

Summary: A 23-year-old Indian student was fatally gang-raped inside a bus in the capital, Delhi last December. The attack caused international outrage and prompted India to introduce stringent anti-rape laws. A court sentenced her attackers to death this September. The BBC's Soutik Biswas met the family of the victim to find out how life had changed for them after her death.

Her father had returned home tetchy and tired after a gruelling 16-hour working day at Delhi's international airport on the night of 16 December 2012. He received a call from a breathless policeman an hour before midnight that his daughter had met with an accident and had been taken to hospital. An hour later, doctors told him she had been gang raped on a moving bus by a group of men. Two weeks later, she died in a hospital in Singapore. Wake up India, she's dead, screamed a newspaper headline, as India exploded in anger and outrage. Life had changed in an instant for the woman's family. 'Poverty was better' A year on from the attack, the family has moved into a two-room apartment gifted by the government in a thriving suburb of Delhi. It's dank and the stairwell lights often don't work at night, but it's still a vast improvement over their crumbling brick home in a tumble-down neighbourhood where monsoon rains flooded the rooms. The private company that runs the city's international airport has provided the 54-year-old father with a new job making entry passes with regular hours and a wage of 20,000 rupees ($326; £200) a month. It's a far cry from his backbreaking job handling baggage at the airport: he would work double shifts for a paltry 6,620 rupees ($107; £66) a month. The family's two sons, aged 21 and 17 - their sister was the eldest at 23 when she died - now go to an upmarket engineering college and a prominent city school, their fees paid by the government. The elder son is studying to become a computer scientist; the younger one is planning to become a doctor. Then there's the unrelenting public gaze: the parents have been on primetime TV news and have attended award ceremonies to remember their dead daughter, and everybody in the neighbourhood knows that the "victim's family" lives here. Strewn around the sparse apartment, there's evidence of modest prosperity: a small TV on a rickety table, a cheap washing machine, a gas cylinder, a new water heater in the bathroom. "But sometimes I feel," the father tells me, "poverty was better for us. We slept well. We were happier. Today, we have everything, but yet nothing. Without our daughter our world has turned colourless". "You know, I used to say, my daughter is the engine of the family. All of us were like bogies [carriages] yoked to the engine." In his cream trousers and striped brown sweater, the father sits on a plastic chair, his head hunched, his eyes gazing at the floor. He has calloused hands of a man who has done hard manual labour: first, as a worker in a small factory making pressure cookers and then a overworked baggage loader. Public gaze He has worked hard to get his children educated, doing double shifts, selling a small plot of family land for 200,000 rupees ($3,224; £1,995) to enable his daughter to enrol in a four-year physiotherapy course which she had completed. His phone keeps ringing incessantly, usually from journalists wanting to visit the family. His 46-year-old wife, the victim's mother, is wearing a bright pink chiffon sari and staring vacantly at a noisy media scrum building up at the door. The younger son fidgets with his phone on the verandah outside. A pale winter sun struggles to creep into the cold room. They have brought a few of her possessions to their new home. Her favourite pink doll is one. "Let's keep my daughter on the bed with us for the picture," the mother tells the photographer. A couple of her books on neurology and neuroscience and human anatomy, both photocopied because the family couldn't afford to buy the expensive originals, have made it to the new apartment. But most of her belongings, her brother says, lie packed in a trunk in the old house, where an aunt stays - "her clothes, her notes, her dreams". It's understandable. Grief doesn't make living easy. Grief arrives in paroxysms that make the mother break out in cold sweats at night when she thinks of what her daughter went through at the hands of her attackers. "I begin choking sometimes," she says. Grief arrives in waves every Sunday when she breaks down and cries because it is a day the family enjoyed most together, but also the fateful day she went to see her first English movie - Life of Pi - with a friend and never returned home. "Sundays are the hardest. I feel she's moving around us," her mother says. She says she doesn't step out of the house much, and hasn't bought anything for herself since her daughter's death. Sleeplessness has made her sick. An ear infection needed minor surgery, but she's still suffering. 'A dream' All that the family is really left with are her memories, the good and the bad. And a dream. Her mother says she remembers how her daughter would talk the night away with her father and her brothers about their hopes for the future. They remember her final hours in the intensive care unit after doctors gave up hope: her brother says the family stood around her bed as "her heart beat slowed, the alarm bells went ringing and the monitors flat-lined". Her father says he has a dream often. "She comes in one dream, you know," he says, his eyes gleaming suddenly, looking at me. "We are in a hotel in a town to see her. She visits us. She stands near me and asks me whether I need money. I tell her, I don't need any money, just take care of your brothers. And then she vanishes. "She would always tell me not to worry about money. That she would take care of the family." That is what poverty does to you, the father says. Think about money all the time. Think about whether you have enough money in your pocket to take your daughter's body home. "When I went to the hospital on the night of 16 December with a friend the doctors told me my daughter would not possibly live beyond a couple of hours. My first thought was how will I take her body home?" he says. "Between the two of us we had 1,000 rupees ($16; £9). Would it be enough to pay for the medicines and the ambulance? She survived the night. Next day a politician came and paid me 25,000 rupees ($405; £250). I felt better. At least I had the money to take her body home if she died. This is what poverty does to you." On the first anniversary of her death, the family will hold a small memorial service. They also plan to launch a trust with donations to feed and educate poor children, to begin with. "We just want to keep her memory alive as long as it's possible. I know one day people will forget her. But they will remember her death led to changes - changes in the anti-rape laws, a change in consciousness," her father says. "Women are speaking up against harassment and violence now. There is some fear of the law. "That is my daughter's contribution, isn't it?"

पिछले दिसंबर में राजधानी दिल्ली में एक बस के अंदर एक 23 वर्षीय भारतीय छात्रा के साथ सामूहिक बलात्कार किया गया था। इस हमले ने अंतर्राष्ट्रीय आक्रोश पैदा कर दिया और भारत को बलात्कार विरोधी कड़े कानून लागू करने के लिए प्रेरित किया। एक अदालत ने इस सितंबर में उसके हमलावरों को मौत की सजा सुनाई। बीबीसी के सौतिक बिस्वास ने यह पता लगाने के लिए पीड़ित के परिवार से मुलाकात की कि उसकी मृत्यु के बाद उनके लिए जीवन कैसे बदल गया था।


How inequality limits reproductive rights in Latin America

Summary: Catholicism and conservatism go hand in hand in Latin America.

By Katy WatsonBBC News, Mexico City It is a region where the family is sacred and laws are made with that in mind. But for many, those family ideals have been tested by the recent news that a 10-year-old girl in Paraguay was denied an abortion after allegedly being raped by her stepfather. Under Paraguayan law, abortion is illegal unless the mother's life is in danger. In this case, it was ruled that the 10-year-old's life was not in danger. It is a ruling that has been heavily criticised by the United Nations' Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights which said that the country had failed to protect the girl. According to the World Health Organisation, the main causes of death in adolescent girls in developing countries are pregnancy-related complications and childbirth. Deadly restrictions Paraguay is not the only country in Latin America that restricts abortion. In five countries abortion is outlawed completely and heavy restrictions such as those in Paraguay are in place across the region. But this is not just an issue of competing liberal norms and conservative values. It is mainly about inequality in a region where the gulf between rich and poor remains huge. To access abortions, you either have to have the money to pay for illegal procedures or the funds to fly out of the country. Bleak prospects For the women who cannot afford that, the reality is far bleaker. One doctor told me of a case in Central America where a woman put caustic soda inside her vagina. It did not end her pregnancy, instead, she was so badly burned, she had to have a caesarean. And these women still risk facing the legal consequences of what they do once they recover. Erika Guevaras-Rosa is the Americas director for Amnesty International. She says strict abortion laws in Latin America criminalise poverty. It is a view that is shared by several doctors I spoke to in El Salvador. Money talks In fact, they could not name any cases of women who had been jail on abortion charges after attending a private hospital. The reality is that if a woman pays for a service and knows her doctor, she can get the treatment she asks for. But for those with no money for private care it is a different story. They often face discrimination when they should be getting support. The fate of the 10-year-old girl in Paraguay is not unique. There are many more across the region, such as the 11-year-old girl known only as "Belen" who became pregnant by her mother's partner in Chile two years ago. Her story also stirred debate. Small steps But Monica Arango from the non-profit advocacy group Center for Reproductive Rights says there are huge differences between Central and South America. In her opinion, small steps are being made in South America to recognise women's rights. Earlier this year, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet announced a plan to legalise abortion in cases of rape or when there is a threat to the mother's or the baby's life. Ms Arango says Brazil and Argentina have also made small changes to their laws in recent months. But she says Central America is a place where it is dangerous to be a woman of reproductive age. During a recent visit to El Salvador, I met women who had lost their babies towards the end of their pregnancies. Despite the fact they said they never aborted, their circumstances were viewed as suspicious. Abortion is completely banned there and the consequences for those who are seen to be breaking the law are tough. Some women I met had been locked up for as many as 40 years on abortion charges. Without fail, the women I spoke to came from poor backgrounds; some were single mothers and many of them had been raped. Some did not know they were pregnant and miscarried; others suffered complications at the end of their pregnancy and could not get help quick enough. 'Neglected and judged' This is a major problem. Many women from poorer backgrounds have problems accessing health services during their pregnancies. It means they are not properly monitored and cannot always talk to doctors when necessary, or are afraid to do so. One doctor in El Salvador told me that her pregnant friend called her in a panic one morning because she was bleeding. Asked why she had not sought help earlier, the single mother with no money for private treatment just replied: "Are you crazy?". She was scared that doctors at public hospitals would assume she was "just another single woman trying to abort her baby". Such is the conservatism in places like El Salvador, it is not unheard of for single women to ask a male friend along to hospital to make it look like they are an upstanding couple. As long as the Catholic Church remains strong, easing restrictions on abortion will remain a struggle and only those with the financial means will have the option to buy their way out of their predicament - an option which remains closed to many in this part of the world.

लैटिन अमेरिका में कैथोलिक धर्म और रूढ़िवाद साथ-साथ चलते हैं।


Election 2017: Living in Boston - the UK's most anti-EU town

Summary: Boston is Britain's unofficial Brexit capital and is being targeted by UKIP leader Paul Nuttall in the general election. So how do the Europeans who sought a new life in the Fens feel in the run-up to the 8 June poll?

Hana Rafajova: 'Terrible uncertainty' "Most of us feel unwanted here," said Hana Rafajova, a translator who moved to Lincolnshire from the Czech Republic more than a decade ago. "Many of us have developed depressions and anxiety since the referendum," the 37-year-old mother-of-one said. "Brexit created a terrible uncertainty for us. Most of us were shocked at first, confused about what to do." Ms Rafajova said some of her friends had already left and many more were now considering their future. "If it was just me, I would have gone back to the Czech Republic a long time ago," she said. But she said she needed to consider her 10-year-old son, who was born in the UK. She said she would "rather suffer the 'you are not one of us' feeling" than see her son go through it. Some of those closest to Ms Rafajova, including her partner Paul, voted to leave the EU. She told Australian current affairs programme Dateline she felt betrayed when she found out. "My first thought was 'does he realise he is in a relationship with a European woman who will be affected by his vote?'" For his part, her partner said he did not think about the impact of voting leave, and that there was now no guarantee that people already in the UK could stay. He said he did so because of what he perceived as increased pressure on local services. Damian Bemben: 'Grown up together' Damian Bemben, 19, is a Polish migrant who came to the town with his family 12 years ago. He is now studying computer science at university in Sheffield. He said Boston took "a step backwards" after the EU referendum with the "hateful voices emboldened by the Brexit result". He said it was also "no longer a certainty" that EU nationals currently working in the UK would be allowed to stay. Mr Bemben said an English Defence League (EDL) march in the town in October unsettled many migrants and stirred up ill feeling. "It resulted in a lot of hate being spewed and, as an immigrant myself, when I hear EDL members shouting 'get the immigrants out', it does not make me feel safe." However, he said the majority of young people in Boston did not have a problem with integration as they had all grown up together, and did not judge people on the basis of where they were from originally. Dimitrina Moskova: 'Hanging together' Dimitrina Moskova, who runs D and F Bulgarian Food in the town, said she was surprised at the result of the EU referendum, but had not experienced any negativity since. "I used to work with English people a lot in the factories and I never felt bad feelings," she said. "We were usually hanging together in the breaks, so I was surprised when the town had the highest vote to leave the European Union." Mrs Moskova, who started running the shop about two months ago, said: "Most of the people who come in our shop are English and they are happy to see us here. She said the UKIP leader's intention to stand in the general election had "probably made some migrant workers feel unwelcome" but it would not, in her opinion, change anything. "Living in Boston has been a good experience for me," she said. Piotr Przytula: 'Friendly and tolerant' Piotr Przytula moved to Boston 12 years ago from Slupsk in northern Poland with his wife Aga and their son Dawid, who is now 16. He spent eight years working in a factory before starting his own business selling stationery. Mr Przytula said that following the Brexit result some people were afraid and had already chosen to leave. He said he was worried about the impact Britain leaving the European Union would have on the economy, and that migrants would be blamed for "increased austerity" and cuts to public services, which he believed would follow. "The majority of British people in Boston are friendly and tolerant," said Mr Przytula. "Many of my friends and colleagues who voted for Brexit say they have nothing against immigrants in general, [but are] overwhelmed by the scale of immigration." However, he believed the level would naturally fall as the UK would become less attractive to workers from other EU countries. He said in his experience, due to the weaker pound, only Romanian and Bulgarian workers were now coming to the town. Boston profile Read more about the Boston & Skegness constituency The candidates standing in Boston and Skegness are: Mike Gilbert (Blue Revolution), Paul Kenny (Labour), Paul Nuttall (UKIP), Victoria Percival (Green Party). Philip Smith (Liberal Democrats), Matt Warman (Conservative).

बोस्टन ब्रिटेन की अनौपचारिक ब्रेक्सिट राजधानी है और आम चुनाव में यूकेआईपी नेता पॉल नटल द्वारा निशाना बनाया जा रहा है। तो 8 जून के चुनाव से पहले फ़ेंस में एक नया जीवन चाहने वाले यूरोपीय लोग कैसा महसूस करते हैं?


Introducing the new Children's Laureate

Summary: The new Children's Laureate is Malorie Blackman - the bestselling author of the Noughts & Crosses series for teenage readers.

Will GompertzArts editor@WillGompertzBBCon Twitter Blackman, 51, who takes over from Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson, is the eighth writer to become laureate. Previous Children's Laureates include Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson and Quentin Blake. Here is my report on her.

नए बाल पुरस्कार विजेता मालोरी ब्लैकमैन हैं-जो किशोर पाठकों के लिए नॉट्स एंड क्रॉस श्रृंखला की सबसे अधिक बिकने वाली लेखिका हैं।


Trump Kim summit: Missed chance to discuss human rights, says defector

Summary: In the late 1990s, Grace Jo was still a child in rural North Korea when her dark black hair turned yellow. "I was so malnourished," she said, "we would spend days without having anything to eat". One of her two brothers, the youngest, had already died of starvation; the other, weak, could barely walk.

By Hugo BachegaBBC News, Washington DC Her eldest sister had left the family in search of food and had never come back. Her father had also died, Ms Jo said, after being arrested and then tortured as he returned from China where he had gone to buy rice. The only hope for those still alive to survive, her mother thought, was to escape. From their north-eastern province of North Hamgyong, Ms Jo, then aged seven, her mother and another sister, Jinhye, 10, walked for three days on unpaved roads and through mountains, until they reached the Tumen River and crossed into China. Once there, they lived underground, fearful of being caught - China, North Korea's main ally, has a strict policy of sending defectors back. During that time, they learned that Ms Jo's five-year-old brother, who had been unable to travel and so stayed behind, had also died. "We tried many ways to stay in China," she said. But in 2001, three years after arriving, they were found out, jailed and returned. Back in North Korea, Ms Jo's mother was sent to a forced labour camp while the girls were put in an orphanage, where they also had to work. Eight months later, as the two children were being transferred to a different shelter, they managed to escape. Their mother had already been released and, shortly after, the three were back together. In 2002, they managed to flee North Korea for a second time. Ms Jo's mother bribed some border guards but, two years later, they were caught again and sent back. "We thought we would die in prison. We didn't have any hope." But, while in China, they had started working with an American-Korean pastor to protect North Korean defectors. Now, it was them who needed help. So in 2006, he paid some $10,000 (£7,500) in bribes to the North's secret police to free the family. "Money talks in North Korea," Ms Jo said, and four months later they were released. For a third time, they escaped to China and, in 2008, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) settled them as refugees in the United States. Ten years later, Ms Jo, who is now a college student in Maryland, would watch something she thought impossible unfold: the leaders of the US and North Korea shaking hands. Just months before, Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un had been exchanging insults and threats of war. Now, both were holding unprecedented talks in Singapore. Watching as the two leaders sat alongside each other, Grace Jo felt doubtful that ordinary North Koreans, struggling under tight sanctions imposed on the country over its nuclear and weapons tests, would see any benefits. "It's a strategy" said Ms Jo, who is now one of the leaders of North Korean Refugees in the United States (NKinUSA), an organisation founded by her sister to help other defectors. "If he [Mr Kim] wants to get money, he needs to get rid of the sanctions. Then money will come into North Korea and he will keep his regime alive." Many analysts already see the summit as a victory for Mr Kim, who runs a totalitarian regime with extreme censorship and forced labour camps. North Koreans can be jailed for almost anything, activists say, and there are between 80,000 and 120,000 people in prisons across the country, according to a report by the US State Department. The economy is also strictly controlled and the government funnels money into its missile and nuclear programme - the focus of the talks - despite widespread shortages of basic necessities. "I feel very sorry that human rights are not being discussed," said Ms Jo. "We can't separate the nuclear issue from human rights issues. They developed nuclear arms while people were dying of starvation, others in prisons." At the time when Ms Jo made her first escape, North Korea was facing a severe famine, which killed hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of people. When she was five, she said, she was so hungry that she ate six newborn mice that her mother boiled after finding them under some stones next to the family's house. The situation in the isolated country has improved since then, but the North continues to face significant shortages of food, and an estimated 41% of the total population of 25 million are undernourished, according to the UN. Meanwhile the country's elite enjoy relatively comfortable lives in the capital, Pyongyang. "I hope this [meeting] will bring change," said Ms Jo, "open North Korea to the world and allow people to have a free life."

1990 के दशक के अंत में, ग्रेस जो अभी भी ग्रामीण उत्तर कोरिया में एक बच्ची थी जब उसके काले बाल पीले हो गए थे। "मैं बहुत कुपोषित थी", उसने कहा, "हम बिना कुछ खाए कई दिन बिताते थे।" उसके दो भाइयों में से एक, सबसे छोटा, पहले ही भूख से मर चुका था; दूसरा, कमजोर, मुश्किल से चल सकता था।