Vacant seat fresh election call by Powys council

Summary: A fresh attempt is being made to elect a county councillor for a ward in Powys where no-one wanted to stand.

The rural seat of Yscir, near Brecon, remained vacant at last Thursday's local elections as Gillian Thomas stepped down after 27 years' service. Nominations open next Tuesday and close on 25 May. If more than one candidate comes forward, the poll will take place on 22 June. Around a fifth of the 73 seats on Powys council were uncontested. Elections for one seat in Ceredigion and three seats in Merthyr Tydfil were postponed until 8 June due to the deaths of candidates.

पॉव्स में एक वार्ड के लिए एक काउंटी पार्षद चुनने का एक नया प्रयास किया जा रहा है जहां कोई भी खड़ा नहीं होना चाहता था।


True-life treasure hunt that turned into a comic book

Summary: When Spanish civil servants got wind that someone was sweeping up the priceless treasure of a 200-year-old frigate from the ocean floor, it triggered a real-life escapade full of naval pursuits and secret airlifts - like something from a comic book adventure.

By James BadcockMadrid And that is what it has now become, after one of those suit-and-tie sleuths convinced Spain's best-known graphic novelist that together they should tell the tale of the modern-day treasure hunt. In 1804, a British fleet opened fire on the Spanish ship Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, causing the death of 250 people of the 300 on board – and the loss of half a million silver and gold coins. That incident became known as Battle of Cape Santa Maria and led to Spain declaring war on Britain. Within a year came the Battle of Trafalgar and the defeat of the Spanish and French fleet. How a sea battle became a court battle Two centuries later, US firm Odyssey Marine Exploration announced it had made the largest discovery of underwater treasure in history - but would not reveal the name or location of the shipwreck. The deep-ocean exploration company used robotic rovers to suck 17 tons of treasure from the seabed – before spiriting it away to Florida on a secret flight out of Gibraltar under the Spanish authorities' noses in 2007. "With the coordinates that the Navy handed us, it hasn't taken us too long to find the site. Let's get going, lower Triton!" "Triton descending - to 200m... 850m... 930m... 1010... 1015... sea-bed" "There's nothing there" "Turn 45 degrees east. A bit more to the left... slowly." "Wait! Stop - here it is, we've got it." It would take five years for a team of Spanish civil servants to wrest back the treasure, which now sits in a museum in Cartagena on the south-east coast. But the story of how they got it back is itself quite a tale. Guillermo Corral, a career diplomat who was working in Spain's culture ministry in 2007, felt his experience of the legal fight had potential as an adventure story, so he contacted graphic novelist Paco Roca. Mr Roca soon saw parallels with classic comic-book sagas such as Tintin and Corto Maltese, and the two men wrote The Treasure of the Black Swan, in reference to the codename that Odyssey gave the shipwreck before the Spanish authorities worked out that it was in reality the Mercedes. "We have a boat we know nothing about, that may or may not be Spanish.... and an immense treasure that has been outside Spain for weeks, almost certainly in the US. And you are suggesting that we do exactly what, Alex?" "I was fascinated by the historical aspect. The attack on the Mercedes triggered war between the British and Spaniards and the entry into Spain of Napoleon's army," Mr Roca told the BBC in an interview. Most shipwrecks tend to be spread over large areas. But the Mercedes exploded in spectacular fashion when a British cannonball pierced the ship's gunpowder magazine, causing the ship to sink very quickly. That meant its treasure of Spanish escudos and pieces of eight reached the seabed in one very specific spot. Mr Roca claims he did not intend to create a story of comic-book goodies versus baddies. But he admits that he and Mr Corral were "critical of the company's manner of extracting the treasure, using a kind of giant vacuum cleaner and destroying the wreck site, which is also a marine cemetery". "That's the difference between a real archaeologist and a treasure hunter: one is moved by the history; the other the economic aspect," he said. In real life, the dispute went to a court in Tampa, an appeal in Florida, and eventually all the way to the US Supreme Court. But the graphic novel doesn't take place in a courtroom. "They're coming..." A story of long-lost treasure "I can't believe it ... we've got it, we've got it." How fact was turned into fiction The book depicts a cloak-and-dagger pursuit of information to work out where and how Odyssey was sweeping the ocean for treasure. But in the fictionalised version the exploration company is called Ithaca. Other details are changed too. In the comic book the ship's GPS is switched off to confuse Spanish authorities, who later use a stolen copy of Gibraltar airport manifests to work out where the company is flying planes to and from. So where does the truth end and fiction take over? "That's for each reader to decide for themselves," says his co-writer, Guillermo Corral. "What I can say is this: everything is the truth. And if it isn't? Well, it could have been."

जब स्पेनिश सिविल सेवकों को खबर मिली कि कोई समुद्र के तल से 200 साल पुराने युद्धपोत के अमूल्य खजाने को झाड़ रहा है, तो इसने नौसेना की खोज और गुप्त एयरलिफ्ट से भरा एक वास्तविक जीवन पलायन शुरू कर दिया-जैसे कि एक कॉमिक बुक एडवेंचर से कुछ।


India Covid-19: Bollywood faces biggest box office test as cinemas open

Summary: Cinemas have reopened in India after a seven month-long break forced by Covid-19. But with barely any new films being made and the pandemic still raging, lockdown losses will haunt its comeback, reports the BBC's Krutika Pathi.

"Cinemas have got the brunt. We were the first to shut down and we will be the last to reopen," Alok Tandon, the CEO of multiplex chain Inox, told the BBC last month. Many of India's nearly 10,000 cinema halls closed in March, just as coronavirus cases had started to appear and even before the government imposed a lockdown. India continues to reopen, despite having the second-highest caseload in the world. On Thursday, just as film theatres in several states welcomed customers, India's health ministry confirmed 680 deaths in the last 24 hours, its lowest in nearly three months. Daily averages of case numbers have also dipped in recent weeks, but experts say any slowdown must be greeted with caution. After a long summer with no movies on the big screen, opening up cinemas is largely a symbolic and "feel-good move", says Rakesh Jariwala, a media and entertainment analyst. "The thinking is hopeful - like the idiom goes, build a city and people will come," he adds. But watching a movie in a cinema won't be the same, at least in the foreseeable future. There will be no eager crowds or long queues at the ticket counter as social distancing is enforced. Names and phone numbers will be collected at the entrance for contact tracing. And no hall will run full as seating is capped at 50%. Even popcorn will be sterilised under UV rays for eight minutes, reported local media. But the biggest blow is the lack of new material - for months, cinemas watched helplessly from the sidelines as streaming platforms snapped up Bollywood movies that were willing to opt for an online release. This leaves cinemas with no option but to re-release older titles, including those from 2018. The problem, according to film critic Saibal Chatterjee, starts there. "People aren't dying to go back and watch old films - why would we spend our money and take a risk? Who would go with their family and potentially expose them?" But studios remain reluctant to let go of new films just yet. "It's a vicious circle - people won't come unless a big blockbuster releases, but producers won't release a big movie unless people come," Komal Nahta, a film and trade analyst, says. On Thursday, movie theatres in India struggled to attract customers with many running shows for small audiences, reported the Associated Press. India's thriving south Indian film industry hasn't been spared either - releases of upcoming Tamil and Telugu films have been delayed after a halt in shooting. A similar parallel can be drawn overseas too, where a popular American movie chain recently announced that it would temporarily close hundreds of locations in the US and UK due to a lack of blockbusters to screen. As of now, two big Bollywood extravaganzas have held out - Sooryavanshi, an action-packed police spectacle steered by superstar Akshay Kumar, is set to release in early 2021, while '83, a tribute to India's cricket World Cup victory in 1983, is due to have a Christmas showing. There are rumours that a sequel to a 2005 hit, Bunty Aur Babli, will release in mid-November, just in time for the Hindu festival of Diwali, often celebrated by both fireworks and a blockbuster. The industry is banking on such releases to draw customers and ramp up sales. But it might not be enough to recoup their eye-watering losses - now pegged at around $1.2bn (£930m). "It's going to be a very long-drawn process," adds Mr Nahta. "In the short term, they're only staring at losses." But first, cinemas have to rebuild confidence and dispel fears. "This is a dry run - there are no new movies but it's a chance to lay the groundwork, enforce all the measures and hope that cinemas don't see cases," says Mr Chatterjee. Multiplex owners have said they will implement every precaution. But other public spaces that are back in action, such as restaurants or gyms, have seen low footfall. Owners are hoping that India's reputation as a movie-obsessed country, one which sold just over a billion tickets in 2019 and produces the most movies in the world, might help tide things over until new releases trickle in. And even though streaming is growing in popularity in India, experts say cinemas may do well in smaller cities and towns where streaming services are nascent and Covid-19 case numbers are fewer. "Movie-going runs in the blood of this nation," Vikram Malhotra, CEO of Abundantia Entertainment, says. "This is the classic Indian middle class activity - the day out with family." But "from a purely epidemiologist's perspective, this is the wrong time to open," says virologist Dr Jacob John. Cinemas are at greater risk than other public spaces of becoming breeding grounds for the virus. "There's not much ventilation, the air is recycled by air conditioners and since it's dark, no-one will really check if everyone is wearing a mask," he adds. Just because the doors have reopened, doesn't mean they can't close again, with experts fearing that even a single case within cinema halls could prompt a shutdown. "For the first time, the health of the film industry will not be governed by the content, but by the health of the public," says Mr Nahta.

कोविड-19 के कारण मजबूर होकर सात महीने के लंबे ब्रेक के बाद भारत में सिनेमाघर फिर से खुल गए हैं। लेकिन मुश्किल से कोई नई फिल्म बनाई जा रही है और महामारी अभी भी बढ़ रही है, बीबीसी की कृतिका पाथी की रिपोर्ट के अनुसार, लॉकडाउन के नुकसान इसकी वापसी को परेशान करेंगे।


The art of a President Trump state visit

Summary: A current family fad is playing that word-association game in which you respond to the previous player's word with a relatable one of your own, eg me: "Annoying." Son: "Dad." Wife: "Bald eagle."

Will GompertzArts editor@WillGompertzBBCon Twitter And so on. We've played a lot recently, such that I've started to react to the daily news in a similarly tangential way, where related but seemingly random thoughts pop into my head over and above more conspicuous concerns. For instance, while everybody else was discussing the significance of a potential state visit to the UK by President Trump, I had two immediate thoughts in my mind: No need to dwell on point one. One look at the photographs of Donald Trump's Manhattan Penthouse in Trump Tower confirms George IV's extravagant tastes and those of the current US President are simpatico. The art question is harder (should that be his choice of gift). As potentially treacherous presents go, giving a work of art to someone you don't know is right up there with buying underwear for a work colleague or deodorant for your mother-in-law: the likelihood of causing offence and/or embarrassment is high. Taste in art is a hard one to call, as the well-meaning Germans found out in 2015, when they attempted to combine their penchant for modernist expressionism with Her Majesty's passion for horses and family life. It fell to President Joachim Gauck to present the painting by Nicole Leidenfrost to the Queen during her fifth state visit to Germany. The president stood proudly to the side of the easel on which the painting rested. It depicted the Queen as an eight-year-old girl sitting on a blue horse while her father, George VI, held its reins. Mr Gauck smiled enthusiastically, made a gesture with his left arm in a magician's "ta-da" sort of way, and invited the British monarch to inspect the splendid piece. The Queen's response was, shall we say, muted. She looked over to the Duke of Edinburgh with a bemused smile on her face and a question in her eye that appeared to be asking if this was a practical joke. Her husband leant in to look at the picture, held his position, and said nothing, leaving his wife with the task of filling the awkward silence. "It's a strange colour for a horse," she said. The German president laughed charmingly but unconvincingly, as did others in attendance. "And that's supposed to be my father, is it?" Her Majesty enquired. That hurt. But Mr Gauck remained calm and courteous and duly confirmed the figure on the left was meant to be her father. "Don't you recognise him?" asked Prince Philip encouragingly. "No," replied the Queen. The chances of President Trump trotting off in the same direction and opting for a German expressionist aesthetic are slim. This is a man who once described a painting by Chris Ofili featuring the Virgin Mary amid cut-up backsides from pornographic magazines as "degenerate," which is a loaded word to choose to describe an artwork, as it was so infamously used by the Nazis to describe Jewish and German expressionist paintings, which they exhibited and mocked in the 1937 Degenerate Art show. Art deco is out too, even though the American president is a New Yorker and has therefore spent his life surrounded by some the greatest examples of it in it the world. My grounds for this assertion go back to an incident in 1980 when he was about to demolish the Bonwit Teller Department Store on Manhattan's 5th Avenue in order to build Trump Tower. Before the wrecking balls swung into action, he was asked by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to save the art deco bas-reliefs on the building's facade. Newspaper reports from the time claim he said he would, but then he did not - later explaining to the press (having allegedly taken on the persona of an invented PR man called John Barron - a surname he would later give his son as a Christian name) there were too many health and safety issues to overcome. As for modern art, I think I can confidently say the president is not a huge fan on the whole. In his book Art of the Deal, he said: "I've always felt a lot of modern art is a con." This could explain why he missed out on what would have been a great art deal in 1981, when he rejected Andy Warhol's series of Trump Tower screen-prints the artist had made for him on spec (Warhol said: "Mr Trump was very upset that it wasn't colour coordinated.") I think baroque could be his thing. It has everything he seems to like. It is big, sweeping, grand, historic and tumultuous. It has the Louis XIV kitschy campness he goes for. Better still, it is dramatic. President Trump is a showman; he understands the power of the spectacle. It is no surprise to me that he flirted with a career as a Broadway producer in his early 20s, and perfectly possible that he considers his work in property development as a more lucrative form of theatre, with his enormous buildings providing the set for urban dramas to unfold in and around. So, a baroque offering that is all about scale and showmanship - I suppose he could revisit his onetime collaboration with the Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli, whose colossal statue of Christopher Columbus he planned to make the totemic landmark of his West Side Yards development in New York. He told the New Yorker magazine in that "it's got $40m [£30m] worth of bronze in it" and the artist was "major and legit". Most importantly perhaps, it was 6ft (1.8m) taller then the Statue of Liberty, itself a whopping work of art that was given to American by the French as a state gift. In the end, New York rejected Tsereteli's statue, so did Boston and Miami. It was finally erected in Puerto Rico last year. But that took years, and Donald Trump may have only months before his visit. So, what to do? Maybe he could pop round to Jeff Koons's studio in New York. Here is a contemporary American artist in touch with his baroque side, who has even exhibited at Versailles, and whose artistic vision is to "communicate with the masses" - a populist manifesto I imagine to be close to the president's heart. What's more, he makes massive sculptures and loves dogs nearly as much as the Queen. Proof for which can be found in his famous 40ft (12m) high plant-encrusted sculpture of a West Highland terrier puppy (1992), which he could reconceive in 2017 for the Queen as a 50ft (15m) high corgi that would take pride of place at the front of Buckingham Palace. Job done. Alternatively, the president could scale back on this ambitious plan and ask Koons to make a corgi doorstop instead. It might not generate the same amount of column inches, but at least it should receive a warmer welcome than the unfortunate blue horse.

एक वर्तमान पारिवारिक सनक वह शब्द-संयोजन खेल खेल रहा है जिसमें आप पिछले खिलाड़ी के शब्द का जवाब अपने स्वयं के एक संबंधित शब्द के साथ देते हैं, जैसे किः "परेशान करने वाला". बेटाः "डैडी". पत्नीः "बाल्ड ईगल"।


What is it like to survive a hit-and-run?

Summary: Hit-and-run crashes quite often happen in an instant - the consequence of speeding, drink-driving or simply carelessness. But the damage to those injured in these often fleeting situations can last a lifetime. Three people describe what it's like to survive a hit-and-run.

By Hayley WestcottBBC News 'It was hard to feel grateful to be alive' Jack Martindale was walking home in the early hours of New Year's Day in 2010 when a car mounted the kerb and drove into him and his two friends. Carrie Maclaren, 20, from Barnet, north London, died at the scene and Chelsea Cannon, 19, also from Barnet, died after three months in a coma. Jack, now 30, was also in a three-month coma. His skull was shattered into 30 pieces and surgeons painstakingly reassembled the fragments of bone, fusing his head together with nine titanium plates. The crash, on the North Circular Road in Enfield, was described by police as one of the worst accidents they had seen. The driver, Shamail Ali Syed - who fled the scene - was jailed for seven years. "We were having a good time," says Jack, from Islington. "We got to Arnos Grove underground station and we were on the walk back. We bought a frozen pizza from a petrol station - I know this because I've been told - and then we were hit. But I don't really remember this. "I was pretty poorly. It was incredibly bleak." After months of surgery and rehabilitation, Jack eventually returned to the University of York to complete his English degree. "I got my 2:1 in 2013 which, to be fair, I would have always been happy to get," he says. "Of course what happened is always with you to a degree but that was a good closing element to it. I ended what I was doing at the time." Since then, Jack has written a book about what happened which he described as " therapeutically cathartic, a release". Aside from dealing with his own life-changing injuries, Jack also had to come to terms with losing two of his closest friends. "You live with it don't you? That's all I can ever say," he says. "It is what it is. You never will forget it. Because of how poorly and how injured I was, it was hard for me to feel grateful at the time to be alive. It was a double-edged sword. "I'm so, so lucky to be where I am now and living life in a good way but I'm not really lucky when you think I was 21, just walking home on New Year's Day. No-one is invincible, that's one thing it certainly taught me. "I'm certainly moving forward. I just started a new job with the Single Homeless Project, which definitely shows a different side of life." 'It's made me more anxious' Medical student Josh Dey was thrown off his bike in a hit-and-run crash in London in April. The 23-year-old was on his way home when a car veered on to the wrong side of Swain's Lane in Highgate and sent him flying into the air. He was left with a bleed on the brain, ligament damage to his knee, and a broken nose and toe. The man who caused the crash - 29-year-old Sean Fagan - fled the scene and was jailed for 20 months after he admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving. "The head injury, that removed all memory of what happened," says Josh. "It's just made me more anxious in general. Not just going on the roads but everything - I walk faster for example, I heat up a lot [like a hot flush]. "It's just very weird physiological signs of anxiety. I just feel very fatigued as well, which I think is as a result of the head injury itself." Josh was hoping to recover in time to take his medical exams at University College London in the summer but he "wasn't in the right state" and is redoing the year. He lives close to the scene of the crash, which he described as still "raw, very recent". Cycling was a big part of Josh's life but the anxiety he now feels about getting back on his bike is outweighing his desire to ride again. "It was something I really valued," he said. "I've been cycling ever since secondary school. I was in a cycling club, a cycling society. If I didn't have the bike as a stress relief option or leisure activity, I don't think I would have survived through medical school the way I did. "It was central, the most important thing." You might also be interested in 'An e-bike changed my life' The homeless teen who studied by candlelight 'Did I inherit loneliness from my mum?' 'Abhorrent crime' The number of recorded hit-and-run crashes in England and Wales rose by 45% in four years, according to a Freedom of Information request in 2018. Research by the University of Leicester into the psychological factors that influence why people commit a hit-and-run found a culture of people leaving the scene of a collision because they believed it wasn't "serious enough" or was too "trivial". Driving without insurance, drink-driving and other crimes or faults the driver wants to hide, were other factors. Currently, hit-and-run drivers face a maximum sentence of six months where there is no other evidence of careless or dangerous driving, but road safety charity Brake wants the government to increase the maximum sentence as a deterrent. "Fleeing the scene of a crash and potentially leaving someone to die in the middle of the road is an abhorrent crime," a spokesman said. The Ministry of Justice said hit-and-run drivers who injure or kill can face charges far more serious than just failing to stop. "We have committed to changing the law so that drivers who kill can receive life sentences, up from the current maximum of 14 years," a spokesman said. 'I thought I was a goner' Ash Dixon, from Plymouth, was only travelling 300 yards (275m) between his home and his girlfriend's house when he was knocked off his motorcycle on 7 September. "It was about 9pm and the conditions were dark. A car turned into the road right in front of me with no indication or lights. I hit my brakes immediately and went over the handlebars on impact and into the window and over the vehicle. "I thought I was a goner; there's someone keeping me alive up there." Ash sustained two broken ribs, internal chest bruising, a "big hole" in his left leg which required surgery and 15 stitches in his right leg. The person responsible for the crash, which Ash said has "affected me mentally", has still not come forward. "When I'm riding and I see a car waiting to turn, it is always in the back of my head. I slow right down even more after knowing what can happen from hitting the car at just 30mph. "I feel I am a lot more aware and that any driver could do this at any time to anyone. I just hope if it does happen to anyone else, the driver would come forward and hand themselves in."

हिट-एंड-रन दुर्घटनाएँ अक्सर एक पल में होती हैं-तेज गति, शराब पीकर गाड़ी चलाने या बस लापरवाही का परिणाम। लेकिन इन अक्सर क्षणभंगुर स्थितियों में घायल लोगों को नुकसान जीवन भर रह सकता है। तीन लोग बताते हैं कि हिट-एंड-रन से बचना कैसा होता है।


Donna Nook Nature Reserve sees record seal births

Summary: A record number of seals have been born at a nature reserve.

Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, which manages the Donna Nook reserve, said 1,926 pups were born and it expected another 30 before the end of the season. In 2011 and 2013, dozens of youngsters died when tidal surges hit the coast but the colony has otherwise enjoyed growth every year. The reserve now attracts about 70,000 visitors annually. The trust said the first pup was born on 24 October, beating the first arrival of 2015 by one day. In 2015, some 1,889 seals were born at the nature reserve, continuing the colony's growth since the 1970s. It said the year on year increase was down to many of the seals coming back to the same place they were born when they are ready to give birth. More on this and other local stories from across Lincolnshire The seals spend most of the year at sea or on distant sandbanks but in November and December they come ashore to give birth. After suckling their pups for two to three weeks, the seals abandon the young, mate again ready for the following year and then head out to sea again. Eventually, starvation drives the young seals into the water in the hunt for food. Related Internet Links Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust

एक प्राकृतिक अभयारण्य में रिकॉर्ड संख्या में मुहरों का जन्म हुआ है।


Rajapaksa triumphs in final count

Summary: Final results from Sri Lanka’s general election confirm that President Mahinda’s Rajapaksa’s governing coalition has secured the biggest landslide victory seen in the country since 1977, although on the lowest turnout since independence.

The results came after repolling in two parts of the country which were hit by violence and thuggery on election day two weeks ago. Tamil vote Mr Rajapaksa’s broad coalition has won a thumping 144 seats in a parliament of 225. The traditional main opposition party is reduced to almost a rump with only 60. Only two other groups won seats. Parts of the Tamil-dominated north and east fell to an alliance seen as a proxy for the defeated Tamil Tigers. Party of the defeated and now jailed presidential candidate, Sarath Fonseka, has seven MPs including General Fonseka himself. Miracle of Asia He may or may not be permitted to take his oath in parliament on Thursday. There’s little doubt that the president, who was himself re-elected in January, scored so well because he’s seen as the man who last year rid the country of Tiger separatist violence with an all-out military victory. For that he’s hugely popular, especially among the rural Sinhalese majority. The pragmatically inclined leader says that through economic development he’ll make Sri Lanka into the “miracle of Asia”. Human Rights He now has vast powers until at least 2016; if he can encourage just six opposition legislators to defect, he’ll have a two-thirds majority which will help him change the constitution. A newspaper, the Sunday Times, said the country also expects him to maintain standards on media freedom and accommodating dissent. Human rights campaigners say there are blemishes in that regard. A new report by an international media group places Sri Lanka fourth among countries in which it says journalists are killed and governments fail to solve the crimes.

श्रीलंका के आम चुनाव के अंतिम परिणाम इस बात की पुष्टि करते हैं कि राष्ट्रपति महिंदा राजपक्षे के शासी गठबंधन ने 1977 के बाद से देश में देखी गई सबसे बड़ी भारी जीत हासिल की है, हालांकि स्वतंत्रता के बाद से सबसे कम मतदान हुआ है।


100 Women: The scientists championing their indigenous ancestors' discoveries

Summary: Indigenous peoples around the world have understood the stars, tides and local ecosystems for hundreds of years but experts say their insights have often been overlooked . Now some female scientists are striving to highlight their achievements and collect the scientific heritage of their communities before it disappears.

By Mary Halton100 Women From Australia to Canada, detailed scientific knowledge of the natural world has been handed down through generations via stories and oral tradition. But this information is rarely formalised or even distributed beyond small communities. And its significance within the wider culture of science goes largely unacknowledged, argues Australian astronomer Karlie Noon. Many textbooks will attribute discoveries to specific Western scientists, "and yet we have physical evidence that contrasts that". Ms Noon graduated from the University of Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia with a joint degree in maths and physics, and has since set about documenting the scientific knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The Yolngu people, she notes, knew that the tides varied depending on the phases of the moon. Her own people, the Kamilaroi, have a rich astronomical heritage, which Karlie did not encounter until her early 20s. The knowledge she has now collected shows a keen understanding of meteorology. A moon halo - a bright ring visible around the moon when there are ice crystals in the air - was used by indigenous peoples all over Australia as a weather predictor. Oral tradition tells of counting the number of stars between the moon and the halo, to indicate how much rain there would be. Fewer visible stars meant greater precipitation, which, Karlie agrees, would tally with the presence of more water vapour in the air. Variable stars, whose brightness fluctuates over periods that can range from 100 - 200 years, are also described in stories. What is 100 Women? BBC 100 Women names 100 influential and inspirational women around the world every year. This week marks 150 years since the birth of Marie Curie and we are celebrating women in science all week. Join us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and let us know about your favourite scientists on #100Women Karlie notes that being able to pick up these changes through generations, and without the aid of visual magnification, means that these peoples were "amazing observers and astronomers". The Maori peoples of Aotearoa [New Zealand] also had a detailed knowledge of astronomy, says Ocean Mercier, a senior lecturer at Victoria University in Wellington. Their knowledge was quite localised, to the extent that names for the stars could differ even between iwi, or tribes. Descended from the Polynesian voyagers who travelled to the islands of Aotearoa, Maori scientific knowledge also has a rich tradition in wayfinding, or navigating by sea. "The Earth itself was the compass," Dr Mercier notes. "The ocean gave the signs for wayfinding." Stories tell of wayfinders travelling as far south as Antarctica, encountering "white rocks coming out of the sea". Unlike the history of Western science, the role of women as knowledge keepers has always been highly valued in Maori society, says Dr Mercier. Though there were and still are gendered roles when it comes to particular branches of knowledge, this has the flexibility to vary between iwi, and women play a vital part in the oral tradition, she says. In Chad's nomadic Mbororo community, women have not traditionally held positions of power or influence. However Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim has been in the habit of defying convention since she was a child. Her mother faced a fierce backlash for educating her children, sending "even the girl" to school. Now just 10% the size it was in the 1960s, the country's largest body of water, Lake Chad, is a vital resource for people from Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria. It has diminished vastly in Ms Ibrahim's lifetime and the seasons on which her people depend to care for their cattle are changing rapidly. "We used to have three seasons - the rainy season, the cold season and then the dry season. Now we do not have a cold season. The rainy season has become very short," she explains. Seeing the impact of climate change, which disproportionately affects women and children, who must walk farther and farther to fetch water, Hindou took matters into her own hands. She initiated a 3D mapping project, combining modern technology and the traditional scientific knowledge of her people. Using indigenous understanding of the local landscape, water resources and plant life, a physical model of Baibokoum, a region in the south of Chad, has been created. This demonstrates to local authorities how well the Mbororo understand their environment, and involves them in planning for its future. Ms Ibrahim also campaigns internationally on behalf of her people, highlighting the risk of conflict that climate change is creating in nomadic societies because they are being forced to move into new areas in search of pasture. She has become a leader in her own community, and hopes to inspire more women to do so. "When they hear... what a little indigenous girl coming from the communities has done… maybe it can give them more courage to fight for women's rights." Ms Noon and Dr Mercier are both passionate about encouraging indigenous people, and specifically women, to participate in the world of mainstream science. Though indigenous interest in science subjects is high in Australia, and much is being done to improve access, Ms Noon observes that this has not yet translated to a representative enrolment rate at university. Dr Mercier is hopeful that Western science and traditional knowledge will find a balance. "Every culture has a science. So it's really important for the indigenous voice to be there."

दुनिया भर के स्वदेशी लोगों ने सैकड़ों वर्षों से सितारों, ज्वार-भाटा और स्थानीय पारिस्थितिकी तंत्र को समझा है, लेकिन विशेषज्ञों का कहना है कि उनकी अंतर्दृष्टि को अक्सर नजरअंदाज कर दिया गया है। अब कुछ महिला वैज्ञानिक उनकी उपलब्धियों को उजागर करने और उनके गायब होने से पहले अपने समुदायों की वैज्ञानिक विरासत को इकट्ठा करने का प्रयास कर रही हैं।


'When did Carwyn Jones know about Carl Sargeant claims?'

Summary: "What did the President know and when did he know it?"

By Vaughan RoderickBBC Welsh Affairs Editor Those of you who remember the Watergate scandal, or who have read about it in the history books, will know that Richard Nixon's failure to answer that question was central to his downfall. Although I don't want to compare the situation of Carwyn Jones and Nixon too much, the first minister faces a quite similar question. What did he know about allegations of misconduct against Carl Sargeant - and when? In a television interview two days ago, the day before the death of the ex-cabinet secretary, Carwyn Jones insisted that the first time he heard of the allegations was last week. This is what he told ITV Cymru Wales' political editor Adrian Masters. Adrian Masters: "So you knew at the beginning of the week, you had not heard any hint of these allegations before then? Carwyn Jones: "No, they were drawn to my attention at the beginning of the week". That is quite clear, but this is the problem: multiple sources from more than one party have told me that Carwyn Jones has discussed allegations of misconduct with Carl Sargeant once before, and had received an explanation of the incident. The same sources also suggest the allegation was one of those that the first minister had asked the party to investigate following his sacking. If so, the response of Carwyn Jones to the question of Adrian Masters was misleading to say the least. Are the sources right? The simple answer is I don't know. But Carwyn Jones knows the truth and he should answer the question as soon as possible. In the meantime, true or not, rumours spread and the first minister's support erodes. This blog was originally published at Cymru Fyw here.

राष्ट्रपति को क्या पता था और उन्हें यह कब पता चला?


Centrica submits plans for Barrow biomass plant

Summary: Energy firm Centrica is pressing ahead with plans for a biomass power station in Cumbria, despite a 13,000-name petition against the move.

The company wants to demolish its existing Roosecote plant, near Barrow, and build a larger biomass facility. The proposal has been opposed by campaigners concerned about emissions from the wood-burning plant. Centrica has now submitted an application to the national Planning Inspectorate for England and Wales. The station would produce up to 80MW of electricity, which Centrica claims would be enough to power about 125,000 homes. It would be fuelled by waste and harvested wood from the UK and abroad. The inspectorate, the government agency responsible for examining applications for major infrastructure projects, is expected to announce a decision on whether the plans can go ahead on 31 July.

ऊर्जा कंपनी सेंट्रिका इस कदम के खिलाफ 13,000 नाम की याचिका के बावजूद कंब्रिया में एक बायोमास पावर स्टेशन की योजना के साथ आगे बढ़ रही है।


A year of weather extremes for Northern Ireland

Summary: It has been a remarkable year for Northern Ireland weather.

By Barra BestBBC Weather We endured the coldest spring for more than three decades, we finally enjoyed a barbecue summer, and winter storms battered the coast. Winter hit hard in mid-January when snow led to power cuts for thousands, it delayed and cancelled flights and provided the first big test of winter for gritters. Speaking on the day the snow hit, Colin Sykes from the Roads Service said: "We've had more than 300 staff and 132 gritters on standby. "We have been gritting all this morning and today, and we expect to grit all through this evening and night." The bigger snow event hit two months later in March which, incidentally, was the coldest March in 50 years. It provided postcard scenery and lots of fun, but it also caused devastation for sheep and cattle farmers who lost thousands of animals to the elements. Army helicopters were drafted in to deliver food to livestock. "Farmers are nothing if not resilient and with the help of the government's fallen stock and fodder transport schemes many began to rebuild their businesses," Harry Sinclair, president of the Ulster Farmer's Union said. "Fortunately, the weather for the rest of 2013 was much kinder to farmers. The good summer weather and mild autumn/winter has meant that harvests have been good, fodder stocks replenished, slurry spread and livestock were out in many fields well into November. "For the most part farmers are ending 2013 on a high and are hoping that 2014 brings with it good weather." Emergency services were also used to deliver food and medical supplies to homes in the countryside that were cut-off by the snow. "We've had people who haven't been able to get their medication, so we've been arranging to have that delivered," PSNI officer Alison Ferguson said in March. "We've also used the helicopters in the most inaccessible areas to try to get supplies to those homes." Mediterranean temperatures It was in July that the weather went from one extreme to another, with the summer heat-wave most people had been waiting for. For two weeks we basked in temperatures normally recorded around the Mediterranean. At one point, temperatures soared to 30.1C - that is just below the all-time record high of 30.8C set at Shaws Bridge in Belfast on 12 July 1983. "We come from the south of Italy," one visitor enjoying the sunshine in Belfast's Botanic Gardens said. "It's usually very warm like here now, it's great." The warm spell lasted for more than two weeks, putting many European hot-spots in the shade. But the heat sparked thunderstorms which caused flooding for some. "I heard noise coming from the front door and lo and behold the water was coming in the front and coming in the back," Sandra McCloy, whose home was affected, said. "It got deeper and deeper - it was incredible. Within the space of a few minutes it was flooded all over the house." Several months passed before the winter storms struck in December. Winds with gusts more than 80 miles per hour battered the coast. They brought down power lines and trees and caused damage to buildings. In west Belfast, part of a shop collapsed on the Grosvenor Road. "It sounded like a car going into the wall," said shop worker Theresa McAllister. "I'm still shocked, I haven't stopped shaking. I can't believe it." The extremes in the weather during the year caused health concerns and challenges for some agencies in Northern Ireland. Dr Anne Wilson from the Public Health Agency said: "With many homes left without electricity and some people cut off by snow drifts, this raised many public health issues, such as the need to keep warm and the increased risk of carbon monoxide poisoning due to faulty boilers or chimneys and flues being blocked. "Soon afterwards, we were hit with a summer heat wave. In Northern Ireland we are not used to high temperatures and this meant many people were not prepared. We offered advice on reducing the risk of skin cancer by covering up and using sun cream, and urged people to keep hydrated and stay cool. "Now we are in winter, other public health issues come to the fore, such as helping people to look after their mental health. During the dark, cold winter months, we can become sedentary and isolated, so the PHA encourages people to keep active, socialise, and talk to someone if they are feeling down." Questions now surround the weather of 2014 and what it'll bring. Unfortunately it is quite simply impossible to predict so far in advance.

उत्तरी आयरलैंड के मौसम के लिए यह एक उल्लेखनीय वर्ष रहा है।


Roadshow to raise awareness of organ donation changes

Summary: A roadshow to raise awareness about changes to the organ donation system in Wales begins on Monday.

Teams of people, some of whom have been affected by organ donation, will visit 21 supermarkets over five days. They will provide information about Wales becoming the first UK country to introduce a soft opt-out system for organ donation, and encourage people to speak to loved ones about the changes. The new system will come into effect on 1 December. Between 10 and 14 August the roadshow will visit: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

वेल्स में अंग दान प्रणाली में बदलाव के बारे में जागरूकता बढ़ाने के लिए एक रोड शो सोमवार से शुरू हो रहा है।


Fonseka 'on hunger strike'

Summary: The wife of Sri Lanka's detained former army chief, Sarath Fonseka, says he will refuse to eat from Sunday to protest at being denied access to a telephone.

Anoma Fonseka said her husband was prevented from speaking to his daughters, who are currently overseas. Sri Lanka military spokesman Maj Gen Prasad Samarasinghe said there was no obligation to provide General Fonseka with a telephone. The general is in military custody, accused of plotting to overthrow the government. He denies the allegation.

श्रीलंका के हिरासत में लिए गए पूर्व सेना प्रमुख शरत फोंसेका की पत्नी का कहना है कि वह टेलीफोन तक पहुंच से वंचित होने के विरोध में रविवार से खाने से इनकार कर देंगे।


Children seriously injured in A19 North Yorkshire crash

Summary: Two young children were seriously injured when the car they were travelling in left a main road in the early hours of Friday.

The children, aged three and five, were trapped in a Skoda Rapid, as were a man and woman, after it came off the A19 in North Yorkshire. The accident happened near the A67 Crathorne junction at about 03:00 BST, police said. The children were taken to James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough. North Yorkshire Police said the northbound lane of the A19 was closed for several hours as emergency crews worked at the scene. Officers want to speak to anyone who saw the Skoda Rapid car.

शुक्रवार के शुरुआती घंटों में दो छोटे बच्चे गंभीर रूप से घायल हो गए जब वे जिस कार में यात्रा कर रहे थे, वह मुख्य सड़क पर चली गई।


Bank of Ireland to pay first dividend since crisis

Summary: Bank of Ireland has reported profit before tax of 852m euros (£724m) last year - down 18% from £1bn euros in 2016.

It reported 11% growth in lending and a 41% increase in mortgages. The bank says its Northern Ireland business is performing in line with their business objectives. The group is also proposing to pay an 11.5 cents-a-share dividend in its first dividend since before the financial crisis. In her first set of results as group chief executive, Francesca McDonagh said: "All trading divisions are profitable and have contributed to an underlying profit of 1,078 million euros for the year."

बैंक ऑफ आयरलैंड ने पिछले साल 852 मिलियन यूरो (724 मिलियन पाउंड) के कर से पहले लाभ की सूचना दी है-जो 2016 में 1 बिलियन यूरो से 18 प्रतिशत कम है।


Wild woods: Scotland's unusual forests

Summary: A recent spate of monster sightings on the shores of Loch Ness have been blamed on dead wood from Urquhart Bay Wood. The Woodland Trust, which manages the site near Drumnadrochit, said tree trunks and broken branches were washed into the loch by the two rivers that coursed through there.

Described as "Nessie's spawning ground", Urquhart Bay Wood is among some of Scotland's more unusual wooded places. Here are some more: Dundreggan The forest is on Trees for Life's 10,000-acre (4,046 ha) Dundreggan Estate in Glen Moriston. According to the conservation charity, the name Dundreggan is derived from Gaelic's Dul Drea-gain - the Dragon's Haugh. The forest holds a "lost world" of rare and endangered spiders, ants and flies. Surveys of the woods have uncovered a range of invertebrates, including strawberry spiders, azure hawker dragonflies, juniper shield bugs and blood red slave making ants. The land includes some of the last stands of ancient Caledonian Forest. Trees for Life said strawberry spider, scientific name araneus alsine, has only been recorded seven times in Scotland prior to it being found at Dundreggan. Two rare sawflies, prisiphora borea and monoctenus juniperi, have also been identified and are among the UK's rarest invertebrates. Among the leading entomologists to enter this "dragons' lair" have included the appropriately named Guy Knight. Culbin Forest Managed by Forestry Commission Scotland, the trees at Culbin on the coast of the Moray Firth near Brodie hide a secret past. In the distant past, Culbin was known as the Granary of Moray, where several farms and crofts produced grain crops for the local and wider area. There was also a handful of small fishing communities on the coast, including the original site of the village of Findhorn. Much of the land was controlled by the Barony of Moray. In 1694 came the Great Sand Drift. The destructive natural event forced people from their homes and farms and transformed a once fertile, grain-growing area into a desert. According to folklore, 16 farms and the laird's big house were engulfed by wind-blown sand in a single night. However, historians suggest sand dunes in the area had been shifting since the year 1100, before the most damaging events came between 1670 and 1695. The worst of the sandstorms occurred during a period of extreme weather dubbed the Little Ice Age. It lasted 70 years from 1645 to 1715 and featured The Great Frost, which froze the River Thames in London for days. Today, the ruined estate and its farms and croft houses remain buried under sand planted with trees. The first trees, Scots pine, were planted in the 1850s. Dead Man's Wood This is a small wooded area close to Auldearn near Nairn. It was named Dead Man's Wood following 1645's Battle of Auldearn. The clash marked a major victory for Scottish Royalists over a Covenanter army, and local legend tells of some of the casualties being buried near to where the wood is today. A dovecot marks the site of the battle. Scotland's rainforest The Taynish peninsula is home to one of the largest areas of ancient woodland in Knapdale, an area of Argyll well-known for hosting the Scottish Beaver Trial. Oaks in the woodland are descendants of trees that survived the last ice age in southern Britain. Scientists describe the climate of Taynish as "oceanic", meaning that it is mild and moist because of the Gulf Stream offshore. Plantlife thrives in the humid, wet conditions and the woodland is often referred to as Scotland's rainforest. There are about 500 species of lichen and more than 300 varieties of flowering plants, including a rare orchid.

लोच नेस के तटों पर राक्षसों को देखने की हाल की घटनाओं के लिए उर्कहार्ट बे वुड की मृत लकड़ी को जिम्मेदार ठहराया गया है। वुडलैंड ट्रस्ट, जो ड्रुमनाड्रोचित के पास साइट का प्रबंधन करता है, ने कहा कि पेड़ की चड्डी और टूटी हुई शाखाओं को दो नदियों द्वारा लोच में बहा दिया गया था जो वहाँ से बहती थीं।


Identifying gender when you're blind

Summary: It is sometimes difficult to determine somebody's gender by sight but what if you're blind and only have their voice to go on? Mike Lambert, who is totally blind, describes a recent experience and how he resolved an awkward situation.

By Mike LambertGuest blogger I have a day off work to attend a course on equality and diversity. Not being familiar with the venue, I allow bags of time to get lost and arrive ridiculously early. The trainer gets me a coffee and seats me at a table with three other early-birds. The woman to my right is in the admin section at Cambridge, the man opposite is head of plumbing at a Welsh college, and the man to my left teaches media psychology somewhere in the Midlands. I've never heard of media psychology and ask a few questions about it. The man's halfway through telling me about his work, when the trainer interrupts. The course is about to begin. To get to know one another, we're to interview the person sitting next to us, then introduce them to the whole group. I'm put into a pair with the media psychologist and realise I don't know his name. He can see my name-badge, but I can't see his. I point out my difficulty - glad for an excuse to mention my disability - and he tells me his name is "Nina". Nina? I must have misheard. Maybe it's short for some male name I don't know? I decide my confusion doesn't matter and listen on. Nina's describing the formation of an LGBT group at work, and this leads us into a discussion about gender identity. So, maybe that's it, maybe Nina's transgender. Although, just because a person's interested in LGBT issues, doesn't mean they're LGBT. Maybe, I'm just making a lazy assumption, to dispel my discomfort. Because, in truth, I'm starting to feel uncomfortable. As a blind person, I'm used to dealing with a lot of additional uncertainty, but this not knowing if I'm talking to a man or a woman is something new and disconcerting. I listen hard to Nina's voice. There's something soft and tentative about it - but the pitch is unmistakeably male. Interviews done, I sit back and listen as people on the far side of the room start introducing their partners. I mentally review what I've found out about Nina, feeling increasingly nervous as my turn approaches. I tell myself that any concerns I have about Nina's gender are a thing of little consequence. The whole point of the day is equality and diversity, and I shouldn't get so hung-up trying to slot people into neat pigeon-holes. And then, I'm struck by a horrifying thought. How am I going to get through more than a couple of sentences without committing myself to he or she, his or hers? I can't keep saying, "Nina does this", "Nina does that". It would soon sound ridiculous. It's no good thinking I can just float along in glorious uncertainty - this matter of pronouns will be my undoing! It's almost my turn and I'm in a state of near panic! Just before it's my time to speak, I lean across the table and ask Nina, "which pronoun do you prefer?" "She", Nina replies very nonchalantly. Later, over mid-morning coffee, Nina finds me. "I liked your question about pronouns", she says. "I've sometimes had that happen on the phone. I mean, people not being sure. But, let me tell you - if you could see me, you'd be in absolutely no doubt." We both laugh and resume our conversation about our work and the course. At the end of the afternoon, I ask if anyone's walking back to the station and if I can take an arm. Nina offers and, as we exit the carpeted building onto the street, I immediately catch the click of her heels. Neither of us expected this encounter, but, with a little honesty and humour, I think it's turned out to be a valuable and thought-provoking experience for both of us. Listen again to Mike Lambert on Radio 4's In Touch. For more Disability News, follow BBC Ouch on Twitter and Facebook, and subscribe to the weekly podcast.

कभी-कभी दृष्टि से किसी के लिंग का निर्धारण करना मुश्किल होता है, लेकिन क्या होगा यदि आप अंधे हैं और केवल उनकी आवाज है? माइक लैम्बर्ट, जो पूरी तरह से अंधे हैं, हाल के एक अनुभव का वर्णन करते हैं और बताते हैं कि उन्होंने एक अजीब स्थिति को कैसे हल किया।


Christine Blasey Ford's testimony through the eyes of a survivor

Summary: Reactions to the testimony by Dr Christine Blasey Ford have split. Some see her as a hero, others as a political pawn. What writer Liz Spikol saw was a fellow sexual assault survivor describing the worst day of her life.

I was raped at 17. Most days now, I only think about it once or twice. But some days are harder. Days like yesterday, when Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, testified in Washington, DC. I was at work, in an ice-cold conference room, sitting alone, watching Ford on one screen while I worked on another. I could barely breathe watching as she struggled to maintain her composure in an antagonistic environment where she was expected to re-live one of the hardest days of her life. While Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley dithered about procedure, and Democrats indulged in personal grandstanding that ate up precious minutes, I was watching her. It pained me to see her obvious anxiety. The way she'd tilt her head sometimes like it was too heavy for her neck. The way she eked out a smile and was carefully solicitous, like a good girl should be. Maybe other people saw a woman answering questions. I saw struggle, pain, a tightrope walk. I know that walk, too. To give you some context, I was a happy kid before it happened. I grew up in a two-parent home in my beloved hometown of Philadelphia, went to schools I loved, won a slew of academic awards and spoke at my high school graduation. I went to the prom with my extremely nice long-time boyfriend, who lived around the corner. I got into my first-choice college and was headed there with my best friend. We were about to begin the rest of our lives. Then I went to the Dominican Republic for a language-immersion programme and moved in with a local family. A few weeks after I got there, one of the men in the house raped me. Afterwards, he was apologetic. "You raped me," I said to him. "I know," he said. "I'm sorry." Still, I was overwhelmed with shame and a feeling that I had done something terrible, something unforgivable. I felt dirty and broken. I told only one person, a fellow American classmate. He wanted to tell our teachers but I swore him to secrecy. I didn't want them to know I was so bad. What followed was a spiral of shame and nightmares and hallucinations and rages. When I returned to the US, the PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) got worse. My parents didn't understand what happened. They'd put their somewhat goofy, chatty, cheerful child on a plane and got back a sullen teenager who barely spoke. I spent my 20s in and out of psychiatric hospitals, on dozens of medications. My mental illness came to define me. I was unable to work, and living off of Social Security disability. Slowly, gradually, I crawled out of my hole. It took years of work but I did eventually recover. I live a full life now, with gainful employment and a very cute dog. But the trauma is still with me in so many ways. The rape changed my life entirely. It's the stone in your shoe you can never remove. Although I wrote a column for 10 years about mental health, I've only recently spoken publicly about the event that triggered my years in the wilderness. I wrote about it once in 2003 and then, after #MeToo, I felt emboldened and obliged to come forward again. It has seemed a matter of urgency to explain why women don't always report immediately. I'm trying to get out there so people understand the survivor perspective better. But like any survivor of trauma, speaking about the experience is not easy to do. When I talk about my rape publicly, I have to do something I did when I was being attacked - dissociate. I leave my body, thinking I'll come back later when there's less danger. I hear a voice saying the words, and I know they're my words, but it's not safe, it's not safe. When I come back, it feels as if I'm being punished for my disclosures just as I thought I would be when I was 17 and afraid to tell. After I talk about it, I spend days in a kind of limbo, here and not-here, crying one minute, laughing the next. I lie in bed, thinking, "I'm broken. Why am I still broken?" So yes, re-living traumatic experience comes at a price. Veterans, survivors of natural disasters and mass shootings, victims of childhood sexual abuse - anyone who speaks out about what happened knows that price. Christine Blasey Ford knows this too - or if she didn't, she knows it now. I hope she has a good support system. The circus going on around her seemed especially ridiculous knowing the kind of pain she was in, the effort she was making. The GOP had flown in a token woman to ask Blasey Ford questions, a gesture that proved, once again, that the all-male rank of Republicans see women as symbols rather than human beings. Meanwhile, every second that went by while some politician thanked Blasey Ford - so that he'd have a clip for his next campaign ad - she was hurting. When I watched Senator Richard Blumenthal's chin quiver as he proclaimed himself thankful, I just felt angry. The male prerogative of it all: We approve. We thank you. And now we're going to keep talking and signalling our solidarity for minute after minute while you sit there dying. If either side really valued her contribution and respected her pain, they would have let her get the hell out of there and go home. Sitting upright in that room was a huge accomplishment. Waiting through all the partisan blather was heroic. Yesterday was an incomparably hard day for me and for so many women who watched the proceedings not as outsiders, but as participants. We were up there with her, feeling the seconds tick by as if our lives were at stake. We'll need a few days to recover. Go easy on us. Go easy on her. It is a bumpy road we travel, and the potholes are treacherous. Author Liz Spikol is a Philadelphia-based writer and editor.

डॉ. क्रिस्टीन ब्लेसी फोर्ड की गवाही पर प्रतिक्रियाएँ विभाजित हो गई हैं। कुछ लोग उन्हें एक नायक के रूप में देखते हैं, अन्य लोग एक राजनीतिक मोहरे के रूप में। लेखक लिज़ स्पिकोल ने जो देखा वह एक साथी यौन उत्पीड़न उत्तरजीवी था जिसने अपने जीवन के सबसे बुरे दिन का वर्णन किया।


Littlemore Oxford attempted murder: Two men arrested

Summary: Two men have been arrested following a shooting in Oxford.

At about 11.15 GMT on Thursday a man in his 20s was shot in the leg in Cowley Road, Littlemore. He was taken to hospital with serious injuries to his abdomen and the back of his legs, Thames Valley Police said. As part of an investigation into attempted murder two men from Oxford, aged 26 and 33, have been arrested on suspicion of possession of a firearm and intent to supply class A drugs. The victim's injuries are not thought to be life-threatening, police said. 'Covid-19 measures' Investigating officer Det Insp James Mather said: "This was a serious incident and has left a man very badly injured. "We are in the very early stages of this investigation and believe people have information that could help us." He added: "This is a serious incident and although measures are in place to protect officers from Covid-19, we are attending and will continue to thoroughly investigate incidents such as these, despite these unprecedented times." Police have appealed for any witnesses, or people with CCTV or dash-cam footage around the area of Cowley Road and Newman Road, to come forward.

ऑक्सफोर्ड में गोलीबारी के बाद दो लोगों को गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


Covid in Scotland: Is vaccination cutting the death rate?

Summary: First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says that falling Covid-19 deaths in care homes and among the oldest Scots is the first "hard evidence" the vaccination programme is working. So, can this drop in deaths be attributed to the vaccine?

By Christopher SleightBBC Scotland news Vaccination coverage among the elderly is good First, it's worth looking at the progress made in vaccinating the oldest people in Scotland. And in short, progress has been good. All residents in care homes for older people have now been vaccinated with a first dose - more than 30,000 people - according to Scottish government figures. First doses for this group were completed last week, with the bulk of the vaccinations being done in late December and the first half of January. Using Public Health Scotland data, we can also see how many people in each age group have been vaccinated. The Scottish government is vaccinating groups of people in line with the priorities set out by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, so older people have been first in line for the jab. Care home deaths have started to fall Neither the Pfizer nor Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine have an immediate effect. The jabs will take two to three weeks to provide some level of protection, with maximum protection following administration of the second dose several weeks later. Because of that, an instant drop in care home deaths would not be expected. However, the latest National Records of Scotland data shows that Covid deaths in care homes are falling as a proportion of the total number of deaths. In the week beginning 28 December, 33% of all Covid deaths were in care homes. This figure has fallen every week since and last week reached 13%. There were 42 Covid-19 deaths in care homes between 8 and 14 February, out of a total of 323 deaths. Deaths among the oldest age group are falling at a faster rate Using NRS data, we can also see the number of deaths in each age group. Looking at the older age groups only, there are rises across all ages from late December, with a marked decline in deaths in the oldest age group towards the end of January. The NRS counts all death certificates that mention Covid-19 and weekly deaths seem to have risen to a peak in mid-January. Since then, weekly deaths have fallen by about 29% overall, whereas deaths in the 85+ age group have seen a 45% cut. What's happening in England? BBC News analysis, using data from England only also suggests the vaccine is starting to push the numbers down. Coronavirus deaths are falling faster for vaccinated than unvaccinated groups. On average, deaths of over-80s fell by 53% between 28 January and 11 February, compared with 44% for under-80s. What about the lockdown? At this stage, it's difficult to say for certain if the data shows "hard evidence" that the vaccination programme is working. Referring to the English figures this week, Prof Chris Whitty, the UK's chief medical adviser, said: "The earliest indications would imply there is some effect. "But I think it's too early to put a number on that. We would expect to see some evidence that is strong enough to put into the public domain in the next few weeks." Scotland's national clinical director, Prof Jason Leitch, strikes a similar note of caution. "The care homes data is really good. It's the first signs that the vaccination is doing in the wild, what it did in the trials," he told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland. "It's a little bit too early to say that's going to happen across all ages and all populations. So we have to be cautious." The vaccine effect The suppression of the virus by the current lockdown will undoubtedly be having an effect on the number of deaths. As the number of cases goes down, so the number of hospital admissions and deaths will fall. This is exactly what happened in the spring, when deaths reached very low levels following the restrictions introduced in March. Since most of Scotland has been in full lockdown since the beginning of January - with a corresponding cut in case numbers - it is hard to disentangle this from the vaccine effect. But the marked fall in care home deaths and in the over-85 age groups is encouraging, and as in England, gives some indication the vaccination programme is working.

प्रथम मंत्री निकोला स्टर्जन का कहना है कि देखभाल गृहों में और सबसे पुराने स्कॉट्स में कोविड-19 से होने वाली मौतों में गिरावट पहला "ठोस सबूत" है जो टीकाकरण कार्यक्रम काम कर रहा है। तो, क्या मौतों में इस गिरावट को टीके के लिए जिम्मेदार ठहराया जा सकता है?


India floods: A journey through Uttarakhand's flooded landscape

Summary: Devastating floods in India's mountainous state of Uttarakhand damaged roads and destroyed buildings frustrating the efforts of relief workers. The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder took a journey into the mountains and found ghost towns and abandoned homes.

As we drive into the mountains it begins to rain, hard, just as it has for much of the past week. We are on the main highway leading from Rishikesh, in the foothills of the Himalayas, to Rudraprayag town and beyond to the Hindu temple towns of Kedarnath and Badrinath. The Ganges river snakes alongside - its normally crystal blue waters are completely muddy because of sediments from the floods and landslides further up. Usually this highway is a busy one, filled with buses carrying pilgrims either on their way to the Hindu shrines or back from their spiritual journey. But for the most part now, there is hardly any traffic. It is easy to see why. The road has been damaged in places and is so narrow in parts that only one vehicle can pass at a time. At Devprayag, where the Alakananda and Bhagirathi rivers meet to form the Ganges, part of the highway has been washed away. Workers are busy trying to rebuild it. Ghost town A few hours into our drive and the first real impact of the floods becomes apparent. Just outside the town of Srinagar, we drive into a settlement that is completely buried in the mud. The tops of a few houses are visible and a few cars stick out from the sand that has been left behind after the flood waters retreated. It is eerily silent, like a ghost town. I finally meet a young man who is from a neighbouring village. "There used to be 70 houses here," he tells me. "Most of them were washed away." I walk into what used to be the local polytechnic. Its various buildings - the library, the science block, the hostel - are all covered with mud almost up to the roof. I peer into the window of what was clearly a classroom on the second floor - it is now at the level of my knees and I can see the ceiling fans inside. The rest of it is completely covered with earth and muck. I find the college principal, Sanjeev Kumar, deep in conversation with a few officials as they survey the damage. "It rained for 60 straight hours because of which the Alakananda, which flows alongside, broke its banks and we were flooded," he says. "Everything here was under 30 feet of water. The students rushed out of their hostel, leaving everything behind. Now there's nothing left. Their clothes, books, our equipment - all gone." We press on and join a convoy of trucks carrying relief material heading up. Just outside Rudraprayag we come to a grinding halt. It is soon obvious why. Frustrating wait Ahead of us, a 50-metre section of the road is missing. It has caved in because of a landslide. Some 200 vehicles are stranded at both ends as bulldozers try and clear an alternate path. It is a frustrating wait especially for a group of volunteers who have come from Delhi with several truckloads of critical supplies. "We are carrying biscuits, water and medicines," one of the volunteers - all dressed in bright red t-shirts - tells me. "We're headed for Badrinath, we've heard there are many people there who need our help." They have already spent three hours waiting and it is not clear how much longer it will take. Up ahead, the road to Badrinath is clear. But the highway to Kedarnath, the worst affected area, is completely blocked. The only way to get there is to trek through the thickly wooded mountains. Or from the air. Up above us, an Indian air force helicopter flies past in one of several hundred missions in what has been the country's largest ever rescue operation. Among those brought down is a group of Westerners who had come here for a spiritual retreat on the banks of the Ganges. "We woke up to the news that the bridge leading to our ashram over the river had been swept away," says Vishaal Kishore, who was born in Essex, in the UK. "We realise now how incredibly lucky we are to have got out." The local villagers were the first to come to their aid. "These people had lost everything, their homes, their belongings," Mr Kishore says. "Yet they found time to cook food for us and cut a path through the mountain to help us out." Most of those stranded in the mountains, mostly Hindu pilgrims and tourists, have now been evacuated. But the focus is now shifting, as it must, to those left behind - villages and local communities which have been completely destroyed. It could take months before their homes and their lives are rebuilt.

भारत के पहाड़ी राज्य उत्तराखंड में विनाशकारी बाढ़ ने सड़कों को क्षतिग्रस्त कर दिया और इमारतों को नष्ट कर दिया जिससे राहत कार्यकर्ताओं के प्रयास विफल हो गए। बीबीसी के संजय मजूमदार ने पहाड़ों की यात्रा की और भूतिया शहरों और परित्यक्त घरों को पाया।


Banned Georgian sex manual reveals strange beliefs

Summary: A 300-year-old "secrets of sex" manual banned for its shocking content is due to be sold at auction next month. Dating back to 1720, Aristotle's Masterpiece Completed In Two Parts, The First Containing the Secrets of Generation, offers a range of advice.

Here are a few tips from which the Georgians were lucky enough to benefit. Don't lie with beasts The manual - with the added power of illustrative woodcuts - warns women that if they "generate with animals" they run the risk of giving birth to monsters. One picture shows a man sporting an impressive tail; another shows a child being born with feathers and a single, clawed leg. The bird-child was apparently born in Italy in 1512 and it was all the fault of the mother, who was "filthy and corrupt". Stare at your husband It is a little-known fact that the way a child looks depends entirely on its mother's imagination. The book claims "if women cast their eyes on ill-shaped bodies, the force of imagination could produce a child with a hairy lip, wry mouth or great blubber-lips". How to avoid this? During sex women should "earnestly look upon the man and fix her mind upon him". Then the child will resemble its father - who hopefully does not have blubbery, hairy or "wry" lips. Eat the right things Men wanting to "make their seed abound" should focus their diet on a combination of root vegetables and songbirds. A long list of recommended foods to aid men's sexual function includes eggs, sparrows, blackbirds, gnat snappers, thrushes, partridges, parsnips, young pigeons, ginger and turnips. Women, who as a gender are at risk of sexual indulgence - or "venery" - should avoid eating "hard, fat things and spices" because such comestibles cause the body to become more heated. Another solution is for a maiden to simply get married - and when their venery is met by "the enjoyment of their husbands, they become more gay and lively". Don't rush off Here's a word of advice for Mr Right. "When they have done what nature can require, a man must have a care he does not part too soon from the embraces of his wife". After all, it's only polite. Employ gender selection Want a girl? After sex, a prospective mother should lie on her left. For a boy, she should lie on her right. Meanwhile, "the fittest time for the procreation of male children is when the sun is in Leo and moon in Virgo, Scorpio or Sagittarius". To beget a female however, the book says "the best time is when the Moon is in the wane, in Libra or Aquarius". Remember men come first The book talks of men being "the wonder of the world, to whom all things are subordinate" and "his seed should be seen as a divine gift abundantly endued with vital spirit". It romantically states: "Without doubt, the uniting of hearts in holy wedlock is of all conditions the happiest, for then a man has a second self to whom he can unravel his thoughts as well as a sweet companion in his labour". And what right-minded woman wouldn't want to be considered her man's "second self"? The book will be sold on 27 March at Hansons Auctioneers, Heage Lane, Etwall, Derbyshire. It has an estimated value of about £120.

अपनी चौंकाने वाली सामग्री के लिए प्रतिबंधित 300 साल पुरानी "सीक्रेट्स ऑफ सेक्स" पुस्तिका अगले महीने नीलामी में बेची जाने वाली है। 1720 में तैयार की गई अरस्तू की उत्कृष्ट कृति, द फर्स्ट कंटेनिंग द सीक्रेट्स ऑफ जेनरेशन, कई तरह की सलाह देती है।


Darfield: Suspected grenade find prompts evacuation

Summary: Houses have been evacuated after a suspected grenade was found in South Yorkshire, according to police.

Officers were called to an address on Cliff Road in Darfield, near Barnsley, at 15:20 GMT, said South Yorkshire Police. A cordon has been put in place and people living nearby have been asked to leave their homes as a precautionary measure, said the force. The road is currently closed and motorists are asked to avoid the area. More stories from Yorkshire Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.

पुलिस के अनुसार, दक्षिण यॉर्कशायर में एक संदिग्ध ग्रेनेड मिलने के बाद घरों को खाली करा लिया गया है।


West Bridgford murder inquiry: Men charged after body found

Summary: Two men have been charged with murder following the discovery of a man's body.

The body was found at a property on Epperstone Court in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire on Sunday afternoon, police said. Charles Fraser, 57, of Epperstone Court and Malcolm Jeffs, 54, of no fixed address are due to appear at Nottingham Magistrates Court on Wednesday. Nottinghamshire Police said a third person was also arrested. Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk

एक व्यक्ति का शव मिलने के बाद दो लोगों पर हत्या का आरोप लगाया गया है।


BBC Woman's Hour 2014 Power List: The game-changers

Summary: Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4 has announced its Power List for 2014, naming those it judges to be the UK's 10 most important women. The programme elected a panel to pick the top 10 "game-changers" - women who have fought for what they believe in, and have dedicated their time to making a difference to the lives of those around them. So who are they?

By Ed RamBBC News 1. Doreen Lawrence Topping the list, Doreen Lawrence, Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, OBE, is an anti-racism campaigner and Labour peer. After her son Stephen Lawrence was murdered in a racist attack in south-east London in 1993, she and Stephen's father Neville founded the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust to promote a positive community legacy in their son's name. Since Stephen's death, she has worked tirelessly to expose racism and help other victims of racist crime. She campaigned for a wide-ranging judicial inquiry which eventually concluded that the Metropolitan Police was "institutionally racist". She has been selected to sit on panels within the Home Office and the Police Service. Doreen Lawrence is also a member of both the board and the council of the organisation Liberty and patron of the charity Stop Hate UK. 2. Julie Bailey Julie Bailey is a campaigner and founder of Cure the NHS. Bailey set up this group after the death of her mother Bella at Stafford Hospital in 2007. Appalled at what her mother had been through, she campaigned and exposed the failings at Stafford Hospital on behalf of other relatives of patients who had died there. Her whistleblowing led to a public inquiry by Robert Francis QC, which uncovered cases of neglect and abuse. Her work resulted in new rules and regulations being introduced into the NHS, designed to ensure higher standards of care. Julie Bailey faced online abuse and last year said she had been forced to sell her cafe and move away from Stafford. 3. Professor Nazneen Rahman Professor Nazneen Rahman is a geneticist and doctor specialising in cancer and disease gene recovery. Prof Rahman has had significant impact in the fight against cancer. She is head of the Division of Genetics and Epidemiology at the Institute of Cancer Research and head of the Cancer Genetics Clinical Unit at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. In her research role, Prof Rahman leads two groups, working to identify genes that predispose people to develop breast or childhood cancers. Thousands of families throughout the UK are participating in her research, which has been highly successful in identifying new genes and genetic mechanisms which cause cancer. 4. Carmel McConnell Carmel McConnell is founder of the charity Magic Breakfast and a life-long social activist. She was chosen for her battle to promote equality and fight deprivation. Magic Breakfast has delivered more than 6 million breakfasts to children at more than 200 primary schools, many in socially disadvantaged areas. It was while researching her first book, Change Activist, that Carmel McConnell became aware of the problem of children arriving at school too hungry to learn. She re-mortgaged her home to start the charity and founded the social enterprise Magic Outcomes in 2003 to help the neediest primary schools through better community and business partnerships. 5. Julie Bentley Julie Bentley has been chief executive of Girlguiding UK (The Guide Association) since 2012. It is one of the biggest organisations for girls and young women in the UK, with more than half a million members. She made waves when - days after her appointment - she described Girlguiding as the "ultimate feminist organisation". Bentley oversaw the decision by Guides to support the No More Page 3 Campaign, and is behind its latest #BeBodyConfident campaign, focusing on low self-esteem and tackling what it describes as a body image crisis. Last year, Girlguiding dropped its historical allegiance to God and country, under Bentley's watch. She has also worked for substance misuse charity ARP and was chairwoman of the Greater London Association of Alcohol Services. 6. Nimco Ali and Leyla Hussein (jointly) Jointly listed, Leyla Hussein and Nimco Ali are leading voices in the campaign against female genital mutilation (FGM). Both are co-founders of Daughters of Eve - a not-for-profit organisation which works to protect the health rights of young girls from communities which practise FGM - and Nimco Ali is also the director. Hussein trained as a psychotherapist and has a background as a youth outreach worker. She is also chief executive of Hawa's Haven, a collective of Somali women campaigners and community activists raising awareness about gender-based violence in Somali communities in the UK and the Horn of Africa. Ali studied at Bristol University and worked as a civil servant, independent training consultant and women's rights activist for several years. She has written widely about FGM and violence against women and girls within the black and minority ethnic communities in the UK. 7. Dido Harding Dido Harding is chief executive of the telecommunications company, TalkTalk Group, one of the UK's largest internet providers. She has called for action from the government on internet pornography and suicide sites. She has supported moves to automatically block internet pornography and the creation of pre-ticked porn filtering in broadband packages. Following this, she turned her focus to suicide websites, telling education ministers: "Suicide is more important to parents than porn, so why mandate [filters against] porn and not suicide?" TalkTalk has said suicide is the subject matter most commonly blocked by customers who use its content filtering software - followed by self-harm, pornography, weapons and violence. 8. Francesca Martinez Francesca Martinez is a comedian, actress and disability campaigner who has cerebral palsy. Martinez has dedicated her life to changing the way disabled people are treated in society. She spent a year campaigning to get the 100,000 signatures required to trigger a parliamentary debate on welfare reform and its impact on disabled people. It called for an assessment of the cumulative impact of the government's welfare reforms on sick and disabled people and demanded an immediate end to the work capability assessment (WCA) - the test that determines fitness for work. In an interview with the Guardian she said: "It seems we're living in a country at the moment where if you do get sick or if you do become disabled, not only have you got to deal with those challenges but you have to deal with the fact that the vital safety net that society provided for many decades is being eroded." 9. Laura Bates Laura Bates is a journalist and the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, a collection of more than 10,000 women's daily experiences of gender inequality. She started the project in 2012 after finding it difficult to speak out about sexism. By December 2013 the site had 50,000 entries, including thousands from girls under the age of 18. Bates was inspired by observing the behaviour of young girls while she was a nanny, whose female role models were based only on their appearance. Everyday Sexism successfully campaigned for the removal of a mobile app, aimed at girls, to use plastic surgery to make a game character "slim and beautiful". The group said the app promoted a poor perspective about body image to those of a young age. 10. Caitlin Moran Caitlin Moran is a broadcaster, TV critic and columnist at the Times. Her books and journalism have aimed to change the tone of the debate around feminism, making it relevant to a new generation of teenagers and adults. Fusing her writings with pop culture and raw humour, her best-seller How to be a Woman for many signalled the dawn of a new wave of feminism. A prolific Twitter user, last August she organised a boycott of the site in protest at its perceived failure to deal adequately with offensive content posted on the Twitter feeds of public figures. She is touring the UK this summer to coincide with the release of her new book How to Build a Girl, which she has described as "the only novel so far in existence with an entire chapter about cystitis." How to listen to Woman's Hour: BBC Radio 4: Weekdays at 10:00 and Saturdays at 16:00 Listen online or download the podcast.

बीबीसी रेडियो 4 पर वुमन्स आवर ने 2014 के लिए अपनी शक्ति सूची की घोषणा की है, जिसमें उन लोगों को नामित किया गया है जिन्हें वह ब्रिटेन की 10 सबसे महत्वपूर्ण महिलाओं के रूप में चुनती है। कार्यक्रम ने शीर्ष 10 "गेम-चेंजर्स" को चुनने के लिए एक पैनल का चुनाव किया-ऐसी महिलाएं जिन्होंने अपने विश्वास के लिए लड़ाई लड़ी है, और अपना समय अपने आसपास के लोगों के जीवन में बदलाव लाने के लिए समर्पित किया है। तो वे कौन हैं?


Chapeltown death: Man arrested on suspicion of murder

Summary: A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a body was found in a house in Sheffield.

The male victim was found in Steven Close, Chapeltown, at about 00:30 BST. A man in his 50s has been arrested on suspicion of murder and was being held in custody ahead of questioning, South Yorkshire Police said. A cordon has been put in place around the property while police continue to carry out enquiries. Yorkshire breaking news: Police rescue dogs from 'blazing hot' car; Tree protesters receive injunction warnings

शेफील्ड में एक घर में एक शव मिलने के बाद हत्या के संदेह में एक व्यक्ति को गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


Park Geun-hye: South Korea puts an end to business as usual

Summary: On the evening of the decision to remove South Korea's President Park Geun-hye, Seoul felt - and sounded - like a political rally. Tannoy announcements boomed across the rooftops, with protesters screaming their delight at the highest pitch. The atmosphere was emotionally charged.

By Stephen EvansBBC News, Seoul Earlier in the day, conservative supporters of Ms Park clashed with police, rocking a bus back and forth to try to turn it over. Officers just about managed to keep the vehicle upright by counter-pulling on a rope like a tug of war. At smaller demonstrations held in support of the impeached president, protesters shouted that they wanted the military to intervene and declare martial law. But the military did what militaries are meant to do in democracies and stayed out of politics. It was announced later in the day that pictures of the president (who is commander-in-chief) had been taken down in barracks. An end to 'business as usual' Ms Park is the first sitting president to be pushed out of office for corruption. She is not, however, the first president to be found guilty of a crime. Every president except one in the thirty years of the democratic era has been besmirched by strong evidence of illegal financial dealings. Only one has not - but his sons were convicted of bribery. So the ousting of Ms Park is a change in South Korean ways - a president has been confronted and defeated by a court. In the past, many heads of the big conglomerates have also been convicted of serious financial crime - but the habit has been for the president to then pardon them. It remains to be seen if things will be different this time. Read more: The de facto head of Samsung, Lee Jae-yong , is on trial for a string of corruption charges including bribery. His father was twice convicted of corruption but then pardoned. The younger Mr Lee is being held during his trial and, unlike his father, may receive a prison sentence. So there has been a change in the way things are done. Much of the pressure has come from massive demonstrations every Saturday night. The common sentiment is that business as usual in South Korea has to change. Change brought about by anger As more and more revelations of shady deals between Ms Park, her best friend Choi Soon-sil, and the company's most powerful men have emerged, anger has risen. Even before her ousting, Ms Park's approval ratings were at rock bottom, though that did not mean that everybody, or even perhaps a majority, wanted her kicked out of office. There was also a view that she might have been a poor president and she might have been corrupt - but that her corruptions were minor compared with those of previous presidents. And so this common argument ran, with only a year left in power, why not let her see out her time without the ultimate disgrace? A louder argument was that her hands were dirty and she should be punished in the same way that ordinary citizens would. What happens next? There is a broader consequence to the removal of Ms Park. An election will be held within 60 days and the polls indicate a move to the left. A left-of-centre government would be much more in favour of an accommodation with North Korea. It would not be happy with the current deployment of US anti-missile batteries on South Korean soil. Ms Park was stripped of the presidency the moment the chief justice announced the decision of the Constitutional Court, but she was allowed to spend her final night in the Blue House, the presidential palace. It is not clear if she has simply defied the authorities by telling them she is not moving out until she is ready to do so - something her opponents say would be characteristically arrogant. The Blue House is like home to her. It is where she grew up as the daughter of the military general who seized power to become president in 1961. A destructive friendship Park Chung-hee, the father she adored, was also the father to modern South Korea. He decided to industrialise, and dictated that the country's business leaders should do the job for him - a foretaste of the nexus of business and politics which was to undo his daughter. So, think of Ms Park in the presidential palace on her last night, alone with her past. Her mother was assassinated and Ms Park took over on her father's arm as the president's First Lady. Then her father was assassinated by his head of security and she forged her own political career. It lasted until the night of 10 March 2017. She is now Citizen Park - and ordinary citizens can face trial for crimes in ordinary courts. They also face jail. Ms Park never married or had children - she was married to the country, according to her supporters. For 40 years, she came to rely on her mentor, Ms Choi - to over-rely, it transpires. Ms Choi, who is also charged with corruption, was allegedly the recipient of the millions donated by conglomerates in return for favours provided by the president. It is a friendship which has destroyed both of them. Are things changing? Friday's court ruling has split a country, but it is a triumph for democracy.

दक्षिण कोरिया के राष्ट्रपति पार्क ग्यून-हे को हटाने के फैसले की शाम को सियोल ने महसूस किया-और आवाज़ सुनाई दी-एक राजनीतिक रैली की तरह। तन्नोय की घोषणाएँ छतों पर फैल गईं, जिसमें प्रदर्शनकारी सबसे ऊँची पिच पर अपनी खुशी के नारे लगा रहे थे। माहौल भावनात्मक रूप से उत्तेजित था।


Art in 2018: Check out Frida Kahlo's wardrobe and Michael Jackson On The Wall

Summary: From celebrity closet gazing, through to fanfare openings and reopenings, surreal theatricality, Parisian delights and Michael Jackson, there is much on offer from the arts world to fill your diary from spring to winter this coming year.

By Will GompertzArts editor People's wardrobes and what they chose to keep in them is their business. Unless they are very famous, when they become our business. Or, good business, in the case of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). Based in London's South Kensington area, the V&A - one of the UK's leading arts venues - has become a celebrity closet specialist. It did very well with an exhibition of David Bowie's outfits in 2013, followed in 2015 by another dedicated to the fashion designer Alexander McQueen. The next popular icon to get the museum's blockbuster frock treatment is the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, in its summer show: Frida Kahlo's Wardrobe (16 June - 4 November). The wardrobe in question had been sealed for 50 years at her home - The Blue House (La Casa Azul) - in Mexico City. This was on the instruction of her husband, the muralist Diego Rivera, when Kahlo died aged 47 in 1954. More art highlights for 2018 In 2004 some curators dared to sneak a peak only to discover to their delight a rainbow-coloured treasure trove of goodies inspired by the late painter's love of Mexican folk-art. There were examples of her trademark "Tehuana" frocks, hand-made accessories, love letters, head-dresses, and assorted decorated plaster corsets and prosthetic limbs that the long-suffering artist wore having contracted polio as a child and then being crushed in a streetcar crash as a teenager. This is the first time the collection has travelled outside Mexico and will make just about as perfect a subject for a summer show as you'll ever likely to get. Photo renaissance The Hayward Gallery on London's Southbank has only been closed for a comparatively short time. It shows off its refurbished concrete galleries with its first major UK retrospective of Andreas Gursky's monumental photographs (25 January - 22 April). Like Kahlo, the German photographer dropped out of vogue for a while, but this show will help re-establish him as an important and insightful documenter of life in the wealthy West. The wonderful Kettle's Yard in Cambridge has been closed for a much longer two-and-a-half years for its makeover treatment. It will re-open with new four-floor education wing on 10 February and an installation by the British-Bangladeshi artist Rana Begum. Ragnar Kjartansson is another contemporary artist presenting an enticing show in 2018. He has emerged in recent years from Iceland's hipster scene to become the darling of both the art world and art lovers with his surreal, theatrical artworks. French flair Kjartansson was unlucky not to win the prestigious Cardiff-based art prize Artes Mundi in 2014, with his mesmerising multi-screen video installation, The Visitors (after Abba's 1981 album). He returns to Wales, to the National Museum Cardiff with a new performance piece (co-commissioned with Artes Mundi). It is called The Sky In The Room after a 60s Italian song Il Cielo In Una Stanza, which will be played by a revolving roster of organists. It sounds odd. It will be odd. And probably worth a visit (3 February - 11 March). Good news if you are looking for an excuse to go to Paris, there are at least two additional reasons for a trip to the City of Lights this spring. The first is to check-out Rem Koolhaas's re-modelling of Galeries Lafayette historic building on 9 Rue du Platre into an vertical, versatile "curatorial machine". It is due to open to the public on 10 March. Nineteen days later comes an exhibition that will have painters the world over rushing to the Louvre. For the first time since the 1963, the grand museum is mounting a major Eugene Delacroix show, with more than 180 works from his early salon days to his mystical late works. Do. Not. Miss. Paris is coming to London in April in the rugged shape of Auguste Rodin's sculptures. The British Museum is presenting an exhibition of the Frenchman's work (26 April - 29 July) alongside pieces from ancient Greece that inspired him, in particular work by Phidias who carved the sculptures on the Parthenon. Rodin used to visit the British Museum to sketch them and seek inspiration. If sculpture is your thing the Yorkshire Sculpture Park has a summer treat for you. From the 26 May onwards, it will be hosting the UK's most extensive exhibition of Giuseppe Penone's work. There can be few better places on the planet to enjoy the Italian's nature-inspired sculptures. The following month the National Portrait Gallery in London is offering something completely different. Michael Jackson: On The Wall (28 June - 21 October) marks what would have been the late singer's 60th birthday and features artworks made in response to the man and his music - Andy Warhol, Grayson Perry, and Kehinde Wiley to name but three. One sure-fire big event in the second half of the year will be the opening of the V&A Dundee on the banks of the river Tay. Designed by the Japanese architects Kengo Kuma & Associates, the £80m statement building will place international design in a Scottish context: Charles Rennie Macintosh meets Coco Chanel. It looks fantastic. As does the Scottish National Gallery's Rembrandt exhibition (7 July - 14 October), which looks at the Dutch master's work and how public opinion towards it has changed. It is one of hundreds of exhibitions to look forward to in 2018. There are far too many to mention. But hopefully here, with those already inked into my diary, you will have been inspired to venture out to one or two yourself. Happy New Year. 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सेलेब्रिटी क्लोसेट टकटकी से लेकर धूमधाम से खुलने और फिर से खुलने, असली नाटकीयता, पेरिसियन डिलाइट्स और माइकल जैक्सन तक, इस आने वाले वर्ष में वसंत से लेकर सर्दियों तक आपकी डायरी को भरने के लिए कला जगत से बहुत कुछ उपलब्ध है।