Usher reflects on 18 years at the top

Summary: With a career spanning two decades and sales in excess of 45 million records, Usher is one of the most successful singers in the world, but as his new album reveals, he is still seeking contentment.

By Mark SavageBBC News entertainment reporter "Evolve or evaporate". It is one of Usher's favourite phrases; a mission statement that has shaped his career, from gospel choir-boy to R&B sex object. He has been in the public eye since he was 14, making one of his first TV appearances as "one to watch" on the Oprah Winfrey show, alongside Venus Williams and Katherine Heigl. "Isn't that incredible?" he asks, "she did a really good job predicting that." "I was living as a dreamer then, but I'm living the dream now. It happened. It happened as a result of hard work." The star is in a reflective mood as he releases his seventh studio album, Looking 4 Myself. "I listened to all of my old albums before making this one," he says. "I put storyboards up right around me as I was writing, and I found different points of my life when I felt true passion, and I wrote about all of that." Lyrically, that means battling some big demons. On Sins Of My Father, the 33-year-old talks about how his father abandoned him as a child and the knock-on effect that has had on his own relationships. "I don't deserve the debt that came with my birth," he sings on the track. Elsewhere, the star addresses the fall-out of his divorce from Tameka Foster, the mother of his two children. "I lost an incredible relationship because I had a passion and it was music," he says. Even a track like Numb, which appears to be an archetypal forget-your-worries party anthem, has deeper roots. Usher says the song is about an attempt to "help someone who couldn't help themselves", a situation that left him stressed out and numb. "I almost killed myself trying to help this person," he says. "In the end, I went, 'man I don't care any more, I'm letting it go'. "As a result I felt free for the first time." Soulful If the lyrics find Usher dwelling on his past, the music propels him into the future. Never known for his humility, Usher has called his new sound "highly-anticipated" and "revolutionary". He has even compared himself, remarkably, to Picasso in his blue period. In truth, minds will probably remain unblown. Usher's sonic reinvention is hardly a million miles away from Ne-Yo, or Rihanna, or any of the other R&B artists who have incorporated euphoric house beats on their recent hits. "It may sound similar to other things, but the difference is the essence of soul in it," he says. "Max Martin [Britney Spears' producer] and David Guetta were the two people who made me understand how using dance music in this way, by putting soulful melodies on top of it, could work. "That's not what you get from listening to other dance records." When the singer does push at the edges of modern R&B, he produces some of the album's best songs. Climax - the looping, claustrophobic debut single - features Usher's most death-defying falsetto to date. And the album's cheeky opening track reworks a Billy Joel hook as a rasping synth riff. "That song was a classic," Usher beams, breaking unprompted into Uptown Girl's chorus. "I use it as a song that will bring everyone together, feeling good. It speaks to a very wide demographic, both old and young, and we made it fun. He says the idea to "borrow" Joel's 1983 single came from producer will.i.am. "It was silly," he says, "but Will's approach is always that way - 'don't take it too serious, have a good time, joke on it'." Dance moves Looking 4 Myself was launched with a one-off show at London's Hammersmith Apollo on Monday. Taking to the stage in a tangerine leather jacket and tartan trousers, Usher ran through two decades of hits, proudly declaring: "18 years, y'all". The gig something of a homecoming. Usher last played the venue at the start of his recording career, after scoring his first ever number one in the UK. "It felt incredible to be received outside America," he says. "In those days there was no online, so having a hit record abroad was a big deal and a number one record was a big, big deal." Monday's concert was streamed live online, and the stage was decorated with tweets from fans watching the show all around the world. They ranged from the mundane ("Go on Usher") to the depressingly mundane ("Usheerrrrrr! Bayyybeeeee!"). The audience inside the venue was infinitely more fascinating. Not only did they know every word to every song, but many could replicate the intricate, limb-popping dance routines. "I saw that, yeah," grins Usher. "I have a motivated fan. A fan that wants to move, that likes to dance. Nine times out of 10, they will work out listening to my music." "When I'm performing, I actually have microphones in the audience so I can hear what they're saying and get their feedback." You have to wonder what Usher heard through his earpiece during the concerts slower numbers, which triggered a tsunami of snogging. Has he ever been told his music is responsible for babies being conceived? "I've heard that a couple of times," he says with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, "and I certainly know of one... my son." Looking 4 Myself is out now on RCA

दो दशकों के करियर और 45 मिलियन से अधिक रिकॉर्ड की बिक्री के साथ, अशर दुनिया के सबसे सफल गायकों में से एक हैं, लेकिन जैसा कि उनके नए एल्बम से पता चलता है, वह अभी भी संतुष्टि की तलाश में हैं।


Wrexham crash: Woman dies days after car hits house

Summary: A woman who was left in a critical condition after her car crashed into a house in north Wales has died.

The crash involving a silver Vauxhall Zafira, happened on the A539 at Overton in Wrexham on Wednesday at 19:30 GMT, North Wales Police said. The woman, who has been named as 36-year-old Adrianna Dereszewicz, from Ellesmere, Shropshire, had been airlifted to hospital in Stoke. Police said she died on Friday and have appealed for witnesses to come forward.

उत्तरी वेल्स में एक घर में अपनी कार के दुर्घटनाग्रस्त होने के बाद गंभीर स्थिति में रह गई एक महिला की मौत हो गई है।


Rail strike: What does a train guard do?

Summary: Rail staff from three firms across England are striking in a dispute over plans to make train doors driver-only-operated. Rail companies have said this would mean a guard is no longer needed to ensure the doors are closed. But is this all that a guard does?

The role of the guard has been at the heart of the dispute which has hit Southern commuters for much of the past year and has now spread to Merseyrail and Northern services. The rail companies, backed by the government, are keen to move towards driver-only-operated trains which they say would improve efficiency. But the RMT union says the plans would lead to an unacceptable reduction in passenger safety. It says the guard - also known as conductor or train manager, depending on their employer - performs a much wider safety role than merely ensuring the doors are closed before the train departs. Sean McGowan, RMT organiser for the North, said guards currently had to be competent in 35 areas, including evacuation of a train, what to do in the case of fire or derailment, and how to cope with a number of technical failures. They also have to know the route, so they are aware of and avoid live tracks and can safely lead passengers across rails should there be a need to disembark. Every two years guards must sit a stringent written exam as well as take a verbal test. Day-to-day duties of a guard Source: National Careers Service at gov.co.uk Former guard Craig Johnston said: "The guards are there to take care of the train, which includes making sure carriages are clean and safe. "The driver is away from it all, concentrating on driving the train, so guards look after the train and protect it. "We put a stop to anti-social behaviour, make sure the train is secure and offer help and advice. "Although we don't carry out first aid ourselves, the fact we're aboard a train means we can make sure the appropriate help is called for people needing it in medical emergencies." The RMT claims driver-only-operated trains would dispense with guards and replace them with less qualified staff selling tickets, teas and coffees. It says this poses a risk to passenger safety, as they would be unable to help in an emergency. However, the train companies deny this and claim the second staff member on board the train would receive "appropriate" training. Paul Plummer, from the Rail Delivery Group - the body that represents train operating companies - said: "They will have appropriate training, but if they're not opening the door they will not need the same level of training." He suggested the new arrangement would be good for customer safety, as train staff would be able to "focus entirely on passengers".

इंग्लैंड भर में तीन फर्मों के रेल कर्मचारी ट्रेन के दरवाजों को केवल चालक-संचालित बनाने की योजना पर विवाद में हड़ताल कर रहे हैं। रेल कंपनियों ने कहा है कि इसका मतलब यह होगा कि अब यह सुनिश्चित करने के लिए एक गार्ड की आवश्यकता नहीं है कि दरवाजे बंद हैं। लेकिन क्या यह सब एक गार्ड करता है?


Redthread: Helping young people to escape violent lives

Summary: Alone with her child in a filthy hostel after fleeing another abusive relationship, 19-year-old Charlotte turned to self-harm in a desperate cry for help. It led to a chance meeting with a stranger who would help to transform her life.

By Clare LissamanBBC News Online Charlotte was at her lowest ebb. A victim of sexual abuse from the age of 13, she'd turned to a man she met at 17 whom she hoped would look after her, but he quickly became controlling. "He used to say nasty things, he used to smash things in front of me. "He used to intimidate me, used to basically try and make me do things I didn't want to do. Try and control me - like you can't wear make-up, you have to wear this." Scared for her child's safety, she plucked up the courage to leave. They moved into a hostel but it was so dirty she could only bear it for a couple nights. "There was no-one who I could turn to and I just thought… what have I got to live for?" When it was discovered she had self-harmed, Charlotte was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QE) in Birmingham. This proved a major turning point. Medics pulled curtains around an emergency department bay, making the young mother and her child a cubicle for the night. And as they slept, the nurse in charge went looking for help on Charlotte's behalf. She spoke to Jodie Berry from the new Redthread youth work team, which operates at the QE and another Birmingham hospital, Heartlands. Warm, compassionate, and a youth worker in the West Midlands for 16 years, Jodie said she "knew what to ask" when she went to see Charlotte at 7am. "At this point I had a lovely young lady with a beautiful child with nowhere safe to go to," she said. "For me it is about empowering, and the first thing I did was listen to what she had to say and give her a voice." Jodie said it was important to ask "what do you want to happen?" and help make this possible. Charlotte couldn't believe she'd met someone who wanted to hear what she had to say. "All day Jodie was supporting me, and I told her my background story and why I felt so low, and she could understand where I was coming from," she said. "It was just nice to have someone there to talk to about stuff that I can't tell other people." Jodie initially focused on Charlotte's basic needs: childminding so she could go for a shower and buying a few meals. She then fought for her to get decent accommodation through social services and made sure she was not "put to the bottom of the pile" in getting mental health support. Jodie has also arranged for her to meet other parents who need a wider support network. "She just changed my life - sometimes I feel like she's my mum," said Charlotte. "I can depend on her like a mother figure. "If she doesn't come around, she calls me every week or every few days to see how I am." Charlotte's child is also happier, and the teenager she was "proud" to have got into a routine and to provide "proper" food. "I am just trying to be a good parent. "I just feel like a whole different person. Whereas months ago, I wouldn't even class myself as human." The Redthread youth team are in Birmingham as part of an expansion of the charity's Youth Violence Intervention Programme, which runs at four London major trauma centres. Alarmed by the prevalence in her home city of youth violence - including knife and gun crime - Dr Katie Wright, clinical lead for the children's emergency department at Heartlands, helped set up the pilot. Researchers will be examining the three-year pilot's impact in the city and at Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre, where it launched last spring. The aim is to reach out to patients aged 11 to 25, who are often alone in hospital and in "intense crisis". Those involved in the scheme describe this as a "reachable" moment, when they hope to begin to steer young people towards a safer future. The team in Birmingham started in August and worked with 175 young people in its first five months. These include 21-year-old David, who ended up in intensive case after being stabbed in the shoulder. He struggled with substance abuse, had a history of criminal behaviour and had been assaulted several times over the previous year. With a Redthread worker's help, he gained the confidence and strength to "break the cycle of violence" he had become embroiled in. He landed a place on a training course to help find a job and is getting help through a drugs counselling service. Last year data showed there were 2,850 knife-related offences in the West Midlands force area - 19% higher than in the previous year. Indeed, the recent stabbing deaths and knife attacks in Birmingham only serve to reinforce the need for the charity's work. But Dr Wright said that while knife crime was currently in the headlines, it was "only a drop in the ocean" in terms of the problems seen in hospital daily, including domestic abuse, sexual violence and exploitation. She said the "motivated, committed" Redthread team had slotted in easily alongside trauma medics. "It's like a box of puppies has arrived in the department," she said. "They are engaging with young people, are really supportive and bring new energy." The doctor says hospital workers often deal with the knock-on effects of adverse childhood events, such as domestic violence and parents' drug and alcohol use. "All of our cities and towns have lost tribes of adolescents who need support," she said. She added there was "no easy solution" to Birmingham's "wave of youth violence", which was very complex. But she said Redthread, particularly through its follow-up work in communities, was already "changing the lives of some of our young people". "This is working." Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, and sign up for local news updates direct to your phone.

एक और अपमानजनक रिश्ते से भागने के बाद एक गंदे छात्रावास में अपने बच्चे के साथ अकेले, 19 वर्षीय शार्लोट मदद के लिए एक हताश रोते हुए खुद को नुकसान पहुँचाने लगी। इससे एक अजनबी से मिलने का मौका मिला जो उसके जीवन को बदलने में मदद करेगा।


Transgender 13-year-old Zoey having therapy

Summary: The hit comedy series Transparent, which tells the story of a 70-year-old dad transitioning into a woman, has picked up two Golden Globe awards and shone a spotlight on the lives of transgender people.

By Regan MorrisBBC News, Los Angeles With more realistic portrayals of transgender characters, Hollywood may be helping society accept transgender people - even transgender children. A growing number of children are using prescription puberty blockers so that they can stop unwanted changes in their bodies like breasts or facial hair. It's a fairly new treatment and a controversial one. Critics say blocking puberty is tantamount to child abuse and that children should be counselled to accept the bodies into which they were born. But parents of children with severe gender identity disorder and the doctors who treat them say doing nothing can be harmful and that allowing children to go through puberty in the "wrong gender" can result in severe depression and suicide. "When I was little I always said I'm a girl. I look like a girl. My heart is a girl heart," says 13-year-old Zoey, who was born a boy but who now identifies as a girl. Her doctor blocked her puberty and then prescribed cross-sex hormones to allow her to develop as a female. "When I got older, I hid it so I would be accepted at schools, which was the hardest time of my life because I had to act like somebody that I was not." Zoey started identifying as a female from a very young age. As a toddler, she used to ask her mother, why "God make a mistake" and gave her the wrong body. The puberty suppressors Zoey and others take are reversible and FDA-approved because they have been used for decades in children going through premature puberty. But for children with gender dysphoria, or gender identity disorder, the blockers are being started anywhere from age nine to 17. The drugs are credited with buying the children time so they can figure out if they really do want to live as a different gender. Teenagers can then take cross-sex hormones to help them physically develop into the opposite gender. Doctors have only been using the blockers in transgender children since the late 1990s when Dutch doctors started the practice. Zoey's doctor, Dr Johanna Olson, director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Childrens' Hospital in Los Angeles, first started using them in 2007. "Of course there are fears around side-effects," says Dr Olson. She says one of her first patients was a 12-year-old who had been menstruating for two years and attempted suicide every time a period arrived. "So that's obviously a huge part of the balance. I'm going to lose this kid before we have enough data to say 'yes this is a safe intervention on 12 and 13 year olds,' the kid might kill himself," says Dr Olson. Transgender problems •41% of transgender people in US have attempted suicide (1.5% for general population) •Four-times more likely to live in extreme poverty •Double the rate of unemployment •Nearly 80% report harassment while in school •One-fifth have experienced homelessness Source: National LGBTQ Taskforce A big debate in the medical community is when to start blockers and cross-sex hormone therapy. Dr Kenneth Zucker, a gender identity specialist at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, says his clinic typically waits until patients are 16 before prescribing hormones to allow people to develop into the opposite gender. But his clinic has used puberty blockers on children as young as 10, depending on when they start puberty. Both Dr Olson and Dr Zucker say they've had very few reports of regret from their patients who have received the puberty blockers. But Dr Zucker says he conducted one study which showed more than 80% of children who came to his clinic and were not treated with hormone blockers were content in their biological gender by the time they were 22. "There is debate on how low one should go in starting hormonal treatment to suppress puberty," he told the BBC. "I think where it's going to get interesting in this field in the next 10 years is that, at least in some quarters, there's now a much more permissive approach toward supporting cross-sex hormone therapy and even surgery and the question is going to be, 'is the more permissive approach going to correlate with more regrets or more dissatisfaction?'" Some transgender children buy illegal medication on the internet to try and treat themselves, often with dire consequences. The Hollywood treatment Is this a golden age in Hollywood for the transgender community? The TV series Transparent picked up two Golden Globe awards and best actor winner Eddie Redmayne, tipped to win an Oscar for playing Stephen Hawking, will next be playing a transgender woman on the big screen. Transgender characters have long been portrayed by Hollywood as prostitutes, victims or villains, but with TV shows like Glee and Orange is The New Black, as well as Amazon's new hit Transparent, Hollywood is showcasing the lives of transgender people like never before. That means audiences are becoming acquainted with some unique issues faced by trans people - like safe access to bathrooms and hormone therapy. "It's unprecedented in the sense that until 10 years ago if there was a trans character in a film or on TV they were either a problem or a criminal," says Jack Halberstam, a gender studies professor at the University of Southern California. "This humanisation of transgender people is clearly new." Before receiving puberty blockers, children must undergo mental health evaluations, strict medical screenings and counselling. Dr Olson says the best results come with starting hormone blockers at the first signs of puberty. This is made more complicated by the fact that children are going through puberty at younger ages. Some critics say the rising number of transgender children is due to liberal, urban parents going too far with kids who might just be experimenting with conventions. The reality is that the internet has probably done the most to bring about the rise in transgender children, with families from all walks of life finding each other and swapping stories about their children who appear to be going through a phase that seemingly never ends. Zoey's mother Ofelia is a working class, Hispanic, single mother-of-three who knew nothing about transgender people until her toddler son started saying: "I am a girl." Now she's an outspoken advocate for transgender rights. "I feel it's silly they would think I'm egging on a child to go through this. If you understood how difficult it is for them to transition, to be accepted amongst their peers, the struggles they have to go through, the pain they have to go through," Ofelia said. "This is who my daughter is - this makes sense… for me and my family this works. She is happy. She is in school. She is learning. There's nothing different about her. She is just transgender - that is it." Because of the growing awareness about transgender people, doctors say their clinics have been inundated with patients over the last few years. The American Medical Association issued guidelines to help doctors. Transgender adults who cannot easily pass as their gender identity have higher rates of suicide, are more likely to be murdered, and often face discrimination in the workplace. "There's no reward for being trans, no reward. There's a lifetime of medication, giving up your fertility, it is more challenging to do life when you're trans," says Dr Olson, pointing out that for people who decide to transition it feels like the only option they have to live as their authentic selves. "The trans experience is remarkable - to walk in both genders - that is so rare. Let's celebrate that, not just tolerate it. We have something to learn from trans people."

हिट कॉमेडी सीरीज़ ट्रांसपेरेंट, जो एक 70 वर्षीय पिता के महिला बनने की कहानी बताती है, ने दो गोल्डन ग्लोब पुरस्कार जीते हैं और ट्रांसजेंडर लोगों के जीवन पर प्रकाश डाला है।


Farewell to an independent-minded MP

Summary: So. Farewell. Then. Douglas Carswell.

Mark D'ArcyParliamentary correspondent The independent MP for Clacton will not be contesting the seat he won in the Conservative interest in 2005, then held in a by-election, and General Election on behalf of UKIP. And so ends one of the more remarkable - and effective - parliamentary careers of the 21st Century. I've just been interviewing him for BBC Radio 4's Today in Parliament (you can hear the result on Friday night at 11.30pm) and he does a happy riff on Enoch Powell's oft-quoted remark that all political careers end in failure. Despite his odyssey across the political landscape, he does not believe that can be said of him; his great goal was Brexit, and Britain has now voted Leave. "Job done," he says. But that is not his only footprint in the Westminster sand. As a newly-minted, and until then, barely visible backbencher, he led the Commons uprising that toppled Speaker Michael Martin, over his handling of the expenses scandal. And it is hard to understate how much sheer bottle was required to do that. That is the point about Carswell - he has the rare combination of strong views and the courage to express them and the tactical streetsmarts to make them happen. It may not make him many friends, but - like or loath his aims - it makes things happen. More than a eurosceptic He was never a mere eurosceptic, having entered Parliament committed to getting Britain out of the EU - he once remarked that the only job he wanted in government was to be the last-ever minister for Europe. And he was soon one of the key figures in the band of backbench rebels who harried David Cameron and the Coalition with a series of Commons manoeuvres designed to pressure his leadership into a referendum commitment. He also became one of its most articulate public voices - not least because he was capable of making the case in accessible language which often seemed beyond many of the old guard Maastricht rebels. He also says he is not really a Tory - challenging establishments, he says, is so central to his politics that he could not sit comfortably on the Conservative backbenches, were he invited to return the the fold. He was part of an awkward-squad political cell with people like his close ally Mark Reckless and two major Vote Leave figures, Matthew Elliott and Dominic Cummings, which pushed for radical policies (check out Cummings' record as special advisor to Michael Gove as education secretary) and had been plotting strategy to get Britain out. Carswell's 2014 defection to UKIP turns out to have been more strategic than people realised at the time. He was not merely a disaffected politician seeking a new home, he was out to shape what he (rightly) believed was an inevitable referendum on Britain's EU membership - and his key aim was to be sure that his new party did not dominate the Leave campaign. He points out that in his speech announcing his switch, he talked about the need for a liberal radical narrative to promote Brexit, and warned that Leave could not win if it campaigned with a "nativist" face. In effect, he joined a party to sideline its leader from a national campaign. And he succeeded. But in the process relations with UKIP colleagues became toxic, and eventually, he walked. Never a natural team-player, his new book, Rebel: How to Overthrow the Emerging Oligarchy attacks the clubbable Tea-Room chumocracy of the House of Commons. He probably won't miss it, and it probably won't miss him…. His parting shot is a ringing endorsement of Theresa May as a prime minister converted to his vision of Brexit, and capable of delivering it. He says he did not want to continue in Parliament, never sought the Conservative nomination for his seat, and even contemplated announcing that he would stand down the day after the EU referendum. The snap election triggered this week simply brought forward a two-year exit strategy, which would have unfolded in 2019, if the current Parliament had been allowed its full five-year lifespan. Whatever view is taken of Carswell's policies, his parliamentary career deserves some study - not least because it shows how an effective political campaigner can use Parliament and the new campaigning possibilities afforded by social media, to bring real change. I will be talking to Douglas Carswell about his new book on BBC Parliament's BOOKtalk at 8.45pm on Saturday, and the program will be repeated on Sunday evening.

तो. अलविदा. फिर. डगलस कार्सवेल।


Africa's modernist enigma

Summary: Last year, more people fled to Europe from Eritrea than any other African nation. The government in Asmara has recently been accused of crimes against humanity, but when Mary Harper was given rare access to the country she was surprised by what she found.

By Mary HarperBBC News, Asmara, Eritrea I push back the thick, deep red velvet curtains and find myself in complete darkness. Drops of rain come through the ceiling, and hit the floor - hard. Someone turns on a switch. A dim, flickering bulb does its best to light up the place - I am inside a huge cinema. Slowly, I make out elegant shapes on the walls - leaping antelopes, pineapples and dancing maidens. On the floor, in front of the screen, stand white pillars topped with the heads of lions. I hear a tap, tap, tap behind me. A very old man in red trousers, a white shirt and black jacket approaches: "I have worked here in Cinema Impero for more than 40 years," he says. "We have seats for 1,800 people." He takes me out to the foyer, which seems to be a sort of hangout for the disabled people of Asmara. A man in a wheelchair, a blind child and a woman bent over on two wooden sticks cluster around a giant black projector. Others order drinks from the bar, its polished wooden shelves neatly stacked with glasses, their stems brightly coloured. Film posters on the wall advertise La Dolce Vita and An African Affair. It is as though some kind of magic powder has been sprinkled on Asmara, freezing in time its clean-lined 1930s architecture. Eritrea used to be an Italian colony and its capital, known as Africa's La Piccola Roma or Little Rome, has been described as one of the world's finest collections of modernist buildings. This year, Eritrea submitted a request to Unesco for Asmara to be declared a World Heritage Site. I'm told the young country's first and only president, Isaias Afwerki, has ordered central Asmara to stay as it is, as a kind of museum to modernism. This makes it starkly different from most other African capitals, where a thoughtless rush of construction in recent years has resulted in a chaotic mishmash of skyscrapers, apartment blocks and building sites. There is not much building going on in the centre of Asmara but construction is under way on the outskirts of the city - it doesn't interfere with the skyline or the wide elegant boulevards lined with date palms, though. The modernist buildings are fading and crumbling at the edges. Most are still being used, although not the Fiat Tagliero garage, designed by the Italian architect Giuseppe Pettazzi in the 1930s. It looks like a futuristic plane, its concrete cantilevered wings stretching out with no supports. Mary Harper's Eritrea in pictures View a gallery of Mary Harper's images from Eritrea here Also from Mary Harper: Has Eritrea's migration problem been exaggerated? Fiat 600s from the 1950s and 1960s buzz past along with a lilac VW Beetle, a horse and cart, Toyota Land Cruisers and yellow taxis. Two men in wheelchairs propel themselves along at great speed - with the help of ski poles. Cyclists whizz past in bright shiny lycra - cycling is another legacy from the Italian colonial period, and Eritreans are starting to make quite a splash on the international circuit. Last year, the Eritrean cyclist, Daniel Teklehaimanot, became the first African to wear the King of the Mountains jersey in the Tour de France. Old men sit in pavement cafes, sipping espressos. The wide awnings and design of the buildings make it look more like Rome or Paris than an African city. They swap war stories - tales from the trenches when they fought and won a 30-year conflict with Ethiopia. Images of young, wild-haired independence fighters are painted on the walls of many buildings, including a traditional bowling alley, which doubles up as a pool hall. But behind all this charm lurks something else. As in the darkness of Cinema Impero, details only start to emerge once you spend time looking, listening and waiting. There are hardly any police visible on the streets. But people tell me there are informants everywhere. I meet Eritreans who have been in obligatory national service for more than a decade. Between 10% and 20% of conscripts are in the military, according to the government. The rest, it says, have civilian roles in areas such as teaching, healthcare, state-owned companies and government departments. "I have been serving for 15 years," says one man in a market. "I supplement the low pay by selling spices in my spare time." Some say they feel trapped in national service and want to leave the country. Others want to push for change from within. But then again, I meet people who have returned from a comfortable life abroad to live and work in Eritrea. One young woman who grew up in Sweden asks, "Why does the outside world hate Eritrea? Why are we called the North Korea of Africa? What can I do to change that?" She says she has no regrets about leaving her well-paid job in Stockholm. "Eritrea is peaceful, it is safe and there is no violent Islamist extremism. Of course there are challenges, but this is home." It is very difficult to work out what's going on. Human rights groups say there are thousands of political prisoners, tortured and kept in underground cells and shipping containers. A United Nations Commission of Inquiry says crimes against humanity, including murder, rape and enslavement, have been committed ever since Eritrea became independent 25 years ago - and it has called on the UN Security Council to refer Eritrea to the International Criminal Court. The government officially denies these charges, although ministers tell me there are 30 or 40 political prisoners. They say most of them are politicians, military men and journalists who "committed acts of treason" after the 1998-2000 border war with Ethiopia. Some are known as the "G15", a group of senior officials who wrote an open letter to President Afwerki in 2001, criticising him for postponing elections and failing to implement the constitution. The government says torture is banned and denies prisoners are kept underground. One official said if anyone was caught torturing a prisoner, he or she would be severely punished. I read reports that say Eritreans are afraid to think, let alone speak. Yet almost everyone I meet is happy to talk, even with an aggressive TV camera and big fluffy microphone pushed in their faces. And I am not accompanied by a minder. This is very different from some other authoritarian African countries I have worked in. In Sudan, I had a government official by my side all the time, and was locked up for a day after I asked soldiers which country their weapons came from. In other countries, plain-clothes security agents have raced up to me on motorbikes as soon as I started interviewing people in public, carting me off to the police station regardless of the fact I have a permit to work as a journalist. In Eritrea, I am asked to show my permit from time to time, but am never prevented from working. I meet Germans from the Leipzig Philharmonic Orchestra who have come to perform as part of Eritrea's 25th anniversary of independence. They tell me they were warned not to come here because the country is dangerous, a sort of giant slave camp. Yet they delight in how safe they feel, how clean Asmara is, how friendly its people are. The musicians play in Cinema Asmara, which was originally built as an opera house in the 1920s. The crowd claps and cheers as they perform Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, waltzes and polkas by Johann Strauss, and Eritrea's national anthem. I start to feel I am going to have to empty my mind and start all over again if I am even going to begin to understand this country. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

पिछले साल, किसी भी अन्य अफ्रीकी देश की तुलना में अधिक लोग इरिट्रिया से यूरोप भाग गए। असमारा में सरकार पर हाल ही में मानवता के खिलाफ अपराधों का आरोप लगाया गया है, लेकिन जब मैरी हार्पर को देश में दुर्लभ पहुंच दी गई तो उन्होंने जो पाया उससे वह हैरान रह गईं।


Parents urged to join Dumfries 'learning town' debate

Summary: Parents in Dumfries are being urged to attend a series of meetings designed to gather public opinion on the shape of education in the town.

Consultation is under way which could see the creation of a single school for all S4 to S6 pupils. One presentation was staged this week at St Andrew's Primary. Future events open to the public will take place at Troqueer Primary, Lincluden Primary, Heathhall Primary and the Cairndale Hotel. The full presentation is also available to download online via the council website.

डमफ्रीज में माता-पिता से आग्रह किया जा रहा है कि वे शहर में शिक्षा के आकार पर जनता की राय जुटाने के लिए बनाई गई बैठकों की एक श्रृंखला में भाग लें।


Hinkley C: Is steep price a good deal for British or Chinese?

Summary: Go to the wholesale electricity market today and a unit of electricity, measured in mega watt hours, will cost you around £45. To build Hinkley C nuclear power station, Chinese and French energy firms have been guaranteed £92.50 per mega watt hour.

By Dave HarveyBusiness Correspondent, BBC West Any market trader can tell you that's a fairly steep price. A seasoned, impartial energy market analyst Henry Edwardes-Evans puts it like this: "The market would never have built this project, not based on the price of the wholesale electricity market." So why do British ministers insist the price they are paying is such good value? Mr Edwardes-Evans, an analyst at Platts Energy Consultants, points out that this deal is driven by politics, not business. Ministers here worry that the UK relies too heavily on fossil fuels, often controlled by volatile foreign countries, imported coal, oil from the Middle East or Russian gas. In the second quarter of 2015, 50.7% of all electricity in the UK came from coal and gas. Ain't no sunshine The UK is making more electricity from wind, solar and hydro than ever before. This year, 25.3% came from so-called renewables, up from 16.7% a year earlier. "But the wind does not always blow, and the sun does not always shine," Dr Heather Wyman-Pain, an energy analyst at the University of Bath said. It's the most common objection to renewables, and also the most telling. She goes on: "We need something to rely on when the renewables are not generating, when it's dark. And nuclear is the best option for that." She explains the nuclear option as a kind of fixed rate mortgage. Yes, on today's prices, Hinkley Point's electricity looks expensive. But it is guaranteed for 60 years, whatever happens to the Middle East, to Russia, to the global climate. This one plant will produce 7% of the UK's total energy needs. If it works, three more projects are planned, for Anglesey, Suffolk, and Oldbury on the Severn just north of Bristol. "We are paying for certainty", Dr Wyman Pain explains, with a grim smile. Others wonder who is getting the real guarantee. "The only guarantees are guaranteed profits to the French and Chinese companies," says Dr Mike Hannis, who studies the ethics of international energy deals at Bath Spa University. They too have taken a fixed price bet, a 35-year guaranteed income stream. And Dr Hannis believes the money could have been better spent. "If you spent £25bn on new wind and solar schemes, and the storage technology that is coming on stream, you would make far more electricity than Hinkley will generate." Today, British ministers are smiling. They have secured a £24bn power plant without spending a pound of taxpayers' money. They believe they have paved the way for a new generation of nuclear plants that will, in time, supply a quarter of all our power needs. And they've become what George Osborne calls "China's best business partner". Others worry that UK households will be paying twice the going rate for nuclear power, feeding guaranteed profits to French and Chinese state owned firms, and allowing foreign powers to control our infrastructure at the same time. A good deal? This one is not a business calculation, but a political judgement.

आज थोक बिजली बाजार में जाएँ और मेगा वाट घंटे में मापी जाने वाली बिजली की एक इकाई पर आपको लगभग £45 खर्च होंगे। हिंकले सी परमाणु ऊर्जा केंद्र बनाने के लिए, चीनी और फ्रांसीसी ऊर्जा कंपनियों को प्रति मेगा वाट घंटे £ 92.50 की गारंटी दी गई है।


Obama, Congress and the next Federal Reserve chair

Summary: It was always going to be peculiarly challenging to get a majority of US Senators to confirm Larry Summers as the next head of the US Federal Reserve. I am in Washington this week, and what is most surprising to people here is that the Summers' candidacy lasted as long as it did.

Stephanie FlandersFormer economics editor One lesson is that President Obama really, really, wants "one of his guys" to run the Fed (and yes, the people who fit this description are all guys). We don't yet know whether he has given up on that goal. Another conclusion you could draw is that when it comes to the financial system, many Senate Democrats are happier fighting the last war than worrying about the next one. Janet Yellen was quicker to see the seeds of the 2008-9 financial crisis being planted than Larry Summers was. But today, the financial imbalances that worry people most are the ones coming from the super-loose policies of the Federal Reserve. When it comes to those policies, it is Yellen - not Summers - who seems to be the true believer. True, Summers' enemies on Capitol Hill are a broad church. Some Democrats have hated him ever since a politically incorrect memo about the environment was written in his name while he was chief economist at the World Bank. Financial crisis But what seems to have damaged him most in his bid for the Fed is his association with the liberalisation of US financial markets when he was working for President Clinton, including the moves to free up investment banking and the trade in derivatives. (Full information: I was working for him at the US Treasury when this was happening.) Summers' enemies say these reforms helped pave the way for the financial crisis, by allowing enormous imbalances to build up in the under-regulated parts of the system, including the market for credit derivatives. The then Fed Chair, Alan Greenspan, had argued strongly that the investors in these parts of the market could be trusted to look after their own interests. He was wrong, and the Clinton Treasury is fully implicated in that mistake. By contrast, Janet Yellen has a record as someone who sounded the financial alarm relatively early. That makes her a much more popular choice in the president's party. She is also very well qualified for the job. Even the academic heavyweights who came down on Summers' side have said that she would also be a strong choice. President Obama knows all that. He also knows if he doesn't appoint Yellen, he will seem to have gone out of his way not to appoint the first woman in this crucial job. Even fans of Summers might be uncomfortable with that. So, global investors might be right to think that Janet Yellen as chairman is now a sure thing. They are probably also right to consider her the more "dove-ish" choice. Though Summers has been tight-lipped about monetary policy since the start of the crisis, Yellen seems to have fewer reservations about the Fed continuing to have a super-loose policy stance - with or without "tapering". She is also more of a true believer when it comes to the value of forward guidance. Plan C As I mentioned at the start, that does not necessarily make her the safe choice right now, at a time when many worry about the distortions building up in the financial system as a result of all this cheap liquidity. But, President Obama may be less worried about that side to Janet Yellen than the simple fact that he does not know her. Whatever the truth, he cannot be entirely comfortable with her as Fed chair or he would have have nominated her already. The word is that Mr Obama tried quite hard to persuade Mr Bernanke to stay in the job. He also tried to get former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to put his hat in the ring. It is probably too late, now, for the president to revisit these options. It may also be too late for him to appoint his "own man". But having lost Summers, I can't help thinking Mr Obama will spend some time looking for a Plan C.

अमेरिकी फेडरल रिजर्व के अगले प्रमुख के रूप में लैरी समर्स की पुष्टि करने के लिए अमेरिकी सीनेटरों का बहुमत प्राप्त करना हमेशा विशेष रूप से चुनौतीपूर्ण होने वाला था। मैं इस सप्ताह वाशिंगटन में हूं, और यहां के लोगों के लिए सबसे आश्चर्यजनक बात यह है कि समर की उम्मीदवारी लंबे समय तक चली।


Crazy for Cortinas: The 80s cars targeted by thieves

Summary: They were the cars in every driveway, as symbolic of the 1980s as big hair, yuppies and Duran Duran. But now the once ubiquitous Cortinas, Escorts and Novas are sought after. So much so that they are increasingly being targeted by organised criminals.

By Bethan BellBBC News It is big business - a couple of vinyl seat covers for a Cortina can sell for £300, while an Escort door can go for £500. Other than retro-fitting alarms and immobilisers, demand is such that there is little owners can do to protect their vehicles. Classic car collector and motorway police officer Alan Colman goes as far as to compare the spare parts industry to the drugs trade. "You need parts for a restoration and get them from an internet auction site," he says. "You pick them up from an 'Aladdin's cave' of rare parts at good prices. "You think it's downright dodgy and the seller is cagey about the origins of those parts. What do you do? After all, it could be your parts they are selling one day. "Just like the drugs market, if the supply of buyers dries up then the thefts diminish." Dave Bailey, a spare parts dealer from Gloucestershire, said he buys cars at auction whole and breaks them himself to sell on, "easily tripling" his profit. But he admitted there are some people in the trade who turn a blind eye to where their parts come from, and it is that willingness to "sort of wink at jacked goods" which fuels the black market. Is there a solution to the problem? Mr Bailey thinks not. "It's second-hand car parts. There's no registry or anything like that. It's up to the buyer - if you think it's dodgy, it probably is. But you don't have to buy it. "And of course there's a risk to the seller - I've known lads fined or even jailed for selling parts they've got by unconventional means, if you know what I'm saying." The victims of the black market are people like Martin Isitt. His pride and joy, a red Mk5 Cortina Crusader was taken from the driveway outside his home in Chatham, Kent, on New Year's Eve. "It's like I lost a part of me," said Mr Isitt, who had spent the past three years working on it. The car, which had no battery and was missing bumpers and a Ford badge, was reportedly seen on the back of a pick-up truck. Bob and Tracy Tobin were similarly distraught when their Cortina disappeared from outside their home in Kent. Mr Tobin rescued the car 30 years ago after hearing a friend was planning to send it to a scrapyard. Mrs Tobin said her husband was "absolutely devastated" at the theft. If going to the effort of arranging a truck to steal a car sounds extreme, it is nothing out of the ordinary, according to Neil Armstrong who runs Stolen Oldskool Fords - a group dedicated to publicising the theft of, and finding, Fords from the 1970s and 80s. The models only fetched a few hundred pounds as recently as a decade ago but are increasingly popular with thieves. When Mr Armstrong set up the group in 2008, just 15 thefts were reported to him. Last year there were 34. Thieves are going to increasingly extreme lengths to steal the cars. A Mk1 Ford Escort Mexico was taken from a garage in south London in 2008 after thieves removed tiles from a garage roof, cut the roofing felt, dropped someone inside who removed the steering lock from the car and opened the garage door. A recent government report found that, although newer cars make up a far higher proportion of stolen vehicles than older cars, vehicles made in the 1980s were still proportionally more likely to be stolen. "I've heard theories they might be being stolen for banger racing or parts, but I suspect it's all about the resale value," says Dr Ken German, a former police officer and rally driver. "Enthusiasts and collectors will pay thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of pounds, for a nice example." One attraction of targeting 1970s and 80s cars is their lack of sophisticated security. "No cars had alarms or immobilisers back then, unless they were fitted after-market. So they are easy to steal by anyone with a coat-hanger and a screwdriver," says Tom Bell, owner of a Mk2 Golf. Perhaps most importantly, however, these cars evoke a nostalgia for the earliest "hot hatches", which allowed speed freaks to go from 0 to 60 in 12 seconds without the expense of buying a sports car. Now, the children of the 1980s have grown up and can recreate their - or their dad's - youth with their own Cortina or early Golf. The cars are fast and fun to drive, relatively economical and easy for amateur mechanics to tinker with. But with a roaring black market spare parts trade, the cars of the 1980s are becoming increasingly rare on the streets, and increasingly popular on the car thief's to-do list.

वे 1980 के दशक के प्रतीक के रूप में बड़े बाल, युप्पी और डुरान डुरान के रूप में हर ड्राइववे में कारें थीं। लेकिन अब एक समय में सर्वव्यापी कोर्टिनास, एस्कॉर्ट्स और नोवास की मांग की जाती है। इतना कि संगठित अपराधियों द्वारा उन्हें तेजी से निशाना बनाया जा रहा है।


Dumfries and Galloway forest and woodland blaze enters third day

Summary: Firefighters are continuing to tackle an extensive forest and moorland blaze which broke out in Dumfries and Galloway on Thursday afternoon.

Six appliances and a helicopter are currently at the scene of the 1km-long fire, near the village of Mossdale. At its peak, nine fire appliances and a helicopter were involved along with forestry and estate workers. A Scottish Fire and Rescue spokeswoman said crews were expected to remain at the scene for the rest of the day. The incident is the latest in a series of wildfires to have broken out across the country. Scottish Fire and Rescue has warned there is a continued risk of wildfires across Scotland this weekend due to dry weather.

दमकलकर्मी गुरुवार दोपहर डमफ्रीज और गैलोवे में लगी एक व्यापक जंगल और मूरलैंड आग से निपटने के लिए लगातार प्रयास कर रहे हैं।


Can anyone build a hit game?

Summary: These days, you don't need a huge team and a massive budget to develop a hit video game - anyone can do it for virtually nothing from their bedroom. True? Well, not quite - but as Arran Langmead told me when I visited the tiny Southampton flat which doubles as his games studio, the playing field has certainly been levelled.

Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter We've decided to follow Arran's progress for BBC Tech Tent to see what it takes to build a game and reach a global audience. He has reached a crucial stage in the development of Bears Can't Drift, a kart-racing game which he hopes to launch for both the Sony Playstation Network and the Steam games store over the next couple of months. He has been working on it on and off for a couple of years, and very intensely for the last nine months. The game looks very sophisticated despite the fact that he lacks one key skill that we are often told is essential if you want to make it in the games industry. "I'm not a coder by trade," he told me. Arran has a degree in computer games and lectures in the subject at Solent University, but he has never been confident about programming. He did work with a programmer on an early version of the game but when money ran out, he had to decide whether he could carry on. Then he decided to try Unreal Engine 4, a sophisticated software platform for games development. It gives users a visual scripting language, which to my untrained eye looked like a souped-up version of the children's coding tool Scratch."I'm kind of cheating," he says. "But it's like standing on the shoulders of giants." The platform gives you templates - a first-person shooter, a racing game - and then you start building your own worlds. Unreal Engine used to cost huge sums to license, but it is now free for smaller developers. Its new business model involves taking 5% of the revenue from games built with it. And it even hands out grants to some developers - Arran Langmead got a fat cheque with no conditions attached. So that is how the playing field is levelled. Arran still needs to bring his vision, his artistic sensibility, and his sheer ambition to this project but he is using the same tools as the industry giants. There is however one difference which could mean Bears Can't Drift will sink without trace when he starts asking people to pay for it later this year. "I can build the game, but I can't get the press," he says. With so many games - many of quite a high standard - fighting for attention, the big marketing budgets of the major players become all the more important. Arran is hoping that he can attract the attention of gaming celebrities who can now make or break a title just by playing it. His game will retail for around £10, around a quarter of what a major console title would cost. He reckons he needs to sell 10,000 or so to call it a success - and pay for the thousands of hours of work he has put into it. Whatever happens, he has no regrets about immersing himself in building Bears Don't Drift. "It's the nearest thing you'll get to a God complex," he told me as I was leaving. "Everything that happens in that world is your creation." We will be keeping in touch with Arran to see what happens next in his world. You can listen to Tech Tent on Fridays on the BBC World Service at 16:00 BST or listen afterwards on the iPlayer

इन दिनों, आपको एक सफल वीडियो गेम विकसित करने के लिए एक बड़ी टीम और एक बड़े बजट की आवश्यकता नहीं है-कोई भी इसे अपने शयनकक्ष से लगभग बिना किसी खर्च के कर सकता है। सच? ठीक है, बिल्कुल नहीं-लेकिन जैसा कि अरान लैंगमीड ने मुझे तब बताया जब मैं छोटे से साउथेम्प्टन फ्लैट में गया था जो उनके खेल स्टूडियो के रूप में दोगुना हो जाता है, खेल का मैदान निश्चित रूप से समतल हो गया है।


Novartis to sell off part of Horsham site

Summary: Pharmaceutical giant Novartis is to sell off part of its site in Horsham, West Sussex, for housing.

It will also explore the potential to reuse some of the land off Parsonage Road as a science or business park. Earlier this year, the firm confirmed that it would cease research operations at the site by the end of June. It followed a global review of research locations that will affect nearly 500 jobs.

फार्मास्युटिकल दिग्गज नोवार्टिस वेस्ट ससेक्स के होर्शम में अपनी साइट का एक हिस्सा आवास के लिए बेचने जा रहा है।


Should we give every homeless person a home?

Summary: The Canadian city of Medicine Hat recently became the first city to end homelessness thanks to a surprisingly simple idea: giving every person living on the streets a home with no strings attached.

Unlike many other homelessness initiatives, the so-called "Housing First" approach doesn't require homeless people to make steps towards solving other issues like alcoholism, mental health problems or drug addiction before they get accommodation. Four experts talk to the BBC World Service Inquiry programme about how and why the approach works and some of its limitations. Sam Tsemberis: The light bulb moment Dr Sam Tsemberis is a clinical psychologist who founded Pathways to Housing in New York City in 1992, and developed the Housing First model. "In the 1980s I was working at Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital on the east side of Manhattan, and I walked about 30 blocks to work. "I began to walk past people that I recognised, people I had treated when I was working on the inpatient service at the hospital. They had gotten discharged, and were on the street, sometimes literally in the pyjamas that they had been discharged with from the hospital. It was quite disturbing. "Many of them told me over and over again, 'I need a place to stay, a simple, decent, affordable place of my own like I had before I became homeless'. "People had to participate in psychiatric treatment or be clean and sober in order to get housing. That was a precondition. And curing addiction or curing mental illness is still something we don't know how to do, and that was exactly what was being asked of people. It was an impossible hurdle to jump over. "We began to do something that no-one had really done before, which was to take people on the street and offer them a place to live, no conditions other than sign the lease and pay your rent. "The other breakthrough was to offer normal housing. We rented housing from community landlords on the open market, and people lived in apartments with families, older people, younger people, students, people of all types, including some people who had just the day before been homeless, but were homeless no longer. "In that first year we had 50 people. The rule-of-thumb in most treatment programmes is a third do better, a third do worse and a third stay the same. "At the end of the first year 84% were still housed: 84% of people who had been on the street for years. We knew we were onto something very important. "At first it was misunderstood, and I think people were very uncomfortable because they thought of it as enabling something that should be earned, but if you back up from moral judgments, homeless people are already suffering and providing them with a house actually gets us much closer to the goal that we all want. "We all want people off the streets and living a productive, meaningful life. This is just a much quicker, more effective and cost-saving way of getting to exactly that goal." Philip Mangano: The conversion Former music executive Philip Mangano was inspired to start helping homeless people after watching a film about St Francis of Assisi. He left his job to volunteer at his local church. Twenty years later he was appointed President George W Bush's homelessness czar, where he came across Sam Tsemberis' work. "We had some very good research that indicated that a certain portion [20%] of homeless people were experiencing what was termed 'chronic' homelessness; they were homeless for a year or more and had a disability or concurring disabilities. So as a policy decision in Washington, we decided that we would focus specifically on that population of homeless people. "I heard about a guy in New York who was placing people directly into housing off the streets and frankly, I was completely agnostic that that could be done, but I thought if that works, we better know about it. "He took me to a number of people that had been housed, and it looked as though Sam had uncovered something that was in a blind spot for the entire issue for a quarter of a century. So I was interested in the tangible aspects of it, but I really wanted to look at the data. Was there confirming data and research that indicated that this approach worked? Yes there was. So I was a convert to Housing First. "One of the key questions became how can we possibly afford housing for all these people? "How much did homeless people cost when they were randomly ricocheting through very expensive health and law enforcement systems, the emergency room of the hospital, police interventions, court costs, and incarceration costs? How much did that cost, versus how much did it cost for people when they were placed in housing? "Every single study we did revealed that it was less costly to provide the housing and the services than it was to have those people randomly ricocheting in expensive health and law enforcement systems. "So you could spend up to $150,000 (£103,000) enabling a person to be homeless because you're not providing them with the solution. Or you could invest up to $25,000 (£17,000) and people would be in housing, stable, secure and safe [with] hardly any police interventions or utilisation of emergency rooms. You didn't need to be Warren Buffet to figure out which of those was the better investment. "More than 1,000 communities got involved from around the United States, and we set the goal that we could end chronic homelessness - the homelessness of the most vulnerable, the most disabled, the most likely to die on the street. We could end that form of homelessness in our country in 10 years. "We saw in the first five years about a 40% decrease in chronic homelessness around the country. Some cities achieved 67-70% decreases. "But at this point, right now, I can think of only a couple of cities in the country that have actually ended chronic homelessness. The recession hit; administrations changed. Some of the attention got dissipated. That led to resources being dissipated. You didn't have that same concentration and so you didn't have the same outcomes and results. Dr Josh Bamberger: Trouble in the Tenderloin Dr Josh Bamberger is the former medical director of housing, San Francisco, and implemented Housing First in the city, providing homes to more than 10,000 homeless people, mainly in an area called the Tenderloin. "Like every other city in the United States, we had a ten-year plan to end homelessness and, as I'm sure you're aware, homelessness still exists in San Francisco. "It's disappointing that it doesn't really feel like there's been much shift in the number of people who are lying on the streets in the Tenderloin, which is the inner-city portion of San Francisco, in 15 years. "The Tenderloin is a densely-populated area. They're small apartments, 300 square feet, sometimes the bathrooms are down the hall. There are probably 1,000 or 1,500 of these buildings with 150 small apartments in them. It's loud, there's a lot of activity going on and there's a lot of drug dealing that goes on in the streets, "I think if you're struggling with sobriety and people are offering you drugs and alcohol on a regular basis, it's harder to make progress. "In San Francisco, we are in this very challenging conundrum where the cost to rent an apartment is beyond the means of low-income people. The average cost of a studio apartment in San Francisco is something like $2,500 a month (£1,700) and if you're getting benefits from the government, the most you can make is about $950 (£650) a month, so that's a huge gap that is never going to be overcome. "We housed the wrong people. When you have such great demand for limited resources, then you need to be very exact and very courageous in only offering housing to the people who need it the most. We used our very limited local resources for people who are just low-income. We didn't focus on the highest users of the healthcare system first. "What we should have done from the beginning is only offered housing to the 20% of people who are chronically homeless, and then used that opportunity to disclose that the government isn't investing in expanding the affordable housing sector adequately." Jamie Rogers: Miracle in Medicine Hat Jamie Rogers ran the Housing First programme in the Canadian city of Medicine Hat, which has eradicated all homelessness, defined as meaning no-one will have to sleep rough for more than 10 days before they have access to stable housing. "Medicine Hat is in South Eastern Alberta, a community of about 63,000 people. It's a very family-focused community. "I first heard about Housing First from a trip that I took to Toronto. I have to be really honest: I was probably one of the biggest sceptics that it would actually work. "Since April 2009, this community has collectively housed 1,013 individuals; 705 adults and 308 children. "We take an extremely targeted approach to look at those that are in greatest need or closest to death, which typically are those who are chronically homeless, and are living in places that are unfit for human habitation. "We did not have to build housing per se. We have a very limited number of units strictly for housing the homeless. What we do very well is build relationships with landlords and property management and communities, and use market housing. "[Initially] landlords were extremely sceptical. They were worried about bed bugs, increased violence and drug dealing, so we worked really hard to present factual information about who we actually serve. And we've seen progress. We have 175 different landlord and property management companies on board with us and we now have landlords calling us. "If you ended up on the streets of Medicine Hat tonight, you could spend one night in the shelter and be speaking to a worker within three days. And you could be on a wait list for a house as quick as tomorrow. "Rather than just introducing programmes like Housing First, we have restructured our entire system approach to ending homelessness. "We take the stance that people are worthy of a home and it is a fundamental human right to have shelter and a roof over one's head. Of course it is recovery-oriented, and we help and support people in making different choices in their life, but we don't withhold housing because of who they choose to be. "Housing First works. I cannot say it enough: it absolutely works." The Inquiry is broadcast on the BBC World Service on Tuesdays from 12:05 GMT. Listen online or download the podcast.

कनाडा का शहर मेडिसिन हैट हाल ही में एक आश्चर्यजनक रूप से सरल विचार की बदौलत बेघरता को समाप्त करने वाला पहला शहर बन गयाः सड़कों पर रहने वाले प्रत्येक व्यक्ति को बिना किसी तार के एक घर देना।


Dubai and other countries' laws which trip up travellers

Summary: The case of the British woman facing jail in Dubai for calling her ex-husband's new wife a "horse" on Facebook is a stark reminder of the rules that can apply when you're abroad.

Londoner Laleh Shahravesh, 55, was arrested at a Dubai airport after flying there to attend her former husband's funeral. She faces prosecution over two Facebook comments she posted on pictures of her husband remarrying in 2016. This case might be on the extreme end, but it's worth knowing the local laws and customs before travelling. In the past the government's Foreign and Commonwealth Office have encouraged people to do proper research. It said celebrity holiday snaps are inspiring us to take trips further afield where there are often unusual rules in place. Here are our top tips for staying safe. Don't step on money in Thailand The lese-majeste law is a very old rule which states that it's a serious offence to insult any image of the Thai royal family. As the ruling monarch appears on the banknotes, it's actually a criminal act to step on it and you could end up in jail. No chewing gum Equally offensive in Thailand is throwing gum on the floor. There's a £400 fine or possibly jail if you don't pay up. It's a similar story in Singapore where, by law, chewing gum - all except the dental and nicotine kind - can't be bought or sold. No swimming costumes in the city In Barcelona, it was made illegal to wear swimwear anywhere in public away from the beach in 2011. It was after local people campaigned that there were too many scantily-clad tourists walking around the city. You could see yourself fined around £100 if you flout this rule. Don't pee in the sea Don't relieve yourself in the ocean in Portugal. It's against the law and even though it's unclear how this can be enforced you should stick to the toilets. Check your medicines In Japan, due to strict anti-stimulant drug laws, something you've innocently packed to help with your cold could be banned. Pseudoephedrine is in things like Sudafed and Vicks inhalers and they're prohibited in the country. Be careful when you enter the country as you might be stopped and have them confiscated. Budgie smugglers If you're heading to France, make sure you leave your swim shorts at home - most swimming pools have a Speedo only rule. It's apparently for hygiene reasons and although it doesn't carry a penalty, you won't be allowed in without them. (Okay this isn't a law but it's still good to know!) Stick to the rules and, hopefully, you won't be one of hundreds of Britons who are arrested abroad each year. Recent stats suggest Spain, the United Arab Emirates, France, Thailand and the US are the top five places where the UK government provided help for the 829 people arrested in the year up to April 2017. How to get help If you do find yourself in trouble though you should ask that the local British embassy or consulate are notified (the local authorities must do this). Ask family or friends to contact the local British consulate or the Global Casework team at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London. Staff there will do what they can to help you, but they can't get you out of jail or help pay for a lawyer. They can, however, contact you in prison and inform your family and friends that you've been arrested. "If you're taken the most important thing is that you don't sign a confession," says Radha Stirling the Founder and CEO of the campaign group, Detained in Dubai. "What they will say is if you sign this we will let you out and they never do. "It's often a fabricated charge, so don't sign anything that you don't understand or can't read - it's the most dangerous, it's the number one thing." Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 every weekday on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra - if you miss us you can listen back here.

अपने पूर्व पति की नई पत्नी को फेसबुक पर "घोड़ा" कहने के लिए दुबई में जेल का सामना कर रही ब्रिटिश महिला का मामला उन नियमों की याद दिलाता है जो विदेश में होने पर लागू हो सकते हैं।


Ken MacQuarrie report: Summary of findings

Summary: The BBC has released a summary of the findings of Ken MacQuarrie regarding Newsnight's 2 November broadcast on child abuse allegations in Wales and the actions being taken by the BBC. Here is the document in full:

Set out below is a summary of actions being taken by the BBC Executive Board regarding the 2 November edition of Newsnight. We have also set out a summary of the findings from BBC Scotland Director, Ken MacQuarrie, who was asked to investigate the circumstances and editorial failings around the programme. The report from Mr MacQuarrie below is a summary of his findings. The full report will be used to inform disciplinary proceedings, which will begin immediately. The BBC will release the full report, subject to any legal redactions, following the completion of disciplinary actions. The failings identified by Mr MacQuarrie are unacceptable, and the Executive Board is taking clear and decisive action, as set out below, to restore public trust in the BBC's journalism. The Executive Board thanks Mr MacQuarrie for undertaking his report quickly. The actions are being taken by the Executive Board and have been reported to the BBC Trust. ACTIONS Having received the report, the Executive Board have put in place the following actions with immediate effect:- 1. (In order) to address the lack of clarity around the senior editorial chain of command, a decision has been taken to re-establish a single management to deal with all output, Savile-related or otherwise, as announced earlier today. 2. (In order) to address the pressure on the Newsnight team, Karen O'Connor has agreed to take on the role of Acting Editor of Newsnight. 3. We will now embark on a disciplinary process where appropriate. Clearly we will not discuss the details of these individual cases. 4. We will as a matter of urgency fill the current vacancy for a non-executive director of the BBC with a senior external figure with a proven track record of overseeing journalism. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS: KEN MACQUARRIE On 9 November Ken MacQuarrie was asked to speak to those involved to identify what had happened on the Newsnight report into child abuse into children's homes in Wales. Over Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 November he spoke to the key individuals involved in the broadcast and he is submitting a full report of his findings to the Executive Board. Set out below is a summary of his understanding of the background to the Newsnight item and the reasons it was broadcast. Background: On Friday 2 November 2012 Newsnight broadcast a report on historical allegations dating from the 1970s and 1980s of child abuse at children's homes in Wales. The programme claimed to reveal that two victims had alleged that a leading Conservative politician from the Thatcher era had been among their abusers. The politician was not named in the report. The report was the result of a collaboration with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ), an organisation based at City University which works with media organisations on investigative stories. The BIJ has worked on a number of occasions in the past with BBC outlets, including Newsnight. Earlier on the day of the broadcast, various names were mentioned extensively on social media and other internet forums. Speculation as to the identity of the politician referred to in the programme was intense. On Friday 9 November, and following press reports that the politician in question might have been the victim of mistaken identity, Lord McAlpine, former treasurer and deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, issued a statement denying his involvement and setting out his intention to take legal action. Later that day, the first victim issued a statement to the effect that the person he described as "the individual concerned" was not the person he had previously identified as Lord McAlpine and apologised to Lord McAlpine and his family. That evening, Newsnight broadcast a statement apologising unreservedly for having broadcast the original report and announcing various further actions. During the period since the investigation into allegations surrounding Jimmy Savile began, an editorial sign off process in News had been put in place to provide separation between "business as usual" stories and "Savile-related" stories. A separate editorial chain of command was established for all Savile-related material. KEY FINDINGS The key findings identified in the report are as follows:- Nature of the Story This was a highly complex story that went from commission to transmission within a short period (Sunday, 28 October - Friday, 2 November) Editorial Management of Newsnight The Newsnight editorial management structure had been seriously weakened since the editor stood aside and one of the deputy editors left the organisation. The editorial leadership of the team was under very considerable pressure. Editorial Approval It was not clear whether this story was regarded as Savile-related or not, or when that decision was made and communicated: A clear decision on this does not appear to have been taken until lunchtime on Friday 2 November. As a consequence there was ambiguity around who was taking the ultimate editorial responsibility for the Newsnight report, particularly in the days leading up to the day of transmission. Basic Journalistic Checks During the editorial decision-making process, some of the basic journalistic checks were not completed. Specifically, identification was not confirmed by photograph with the first victim. The second victim could not be traced in order to provide up to date corroboration. Legal advice was sought. No right of reply was offered to the unnamed individual at the centre of the allegation. Final Editorial Sign Off There was a different understanding by the key parties about where the responsibility lay for the final editorial sign off for the story on the day.

बी. बी. सी. ने वेल्स में बाल शोषण के आरोपों और बी. बी. सी. द्वारा की जा रही कार्रवाइयों पर न्यूज़नाइट के 2 नवंबर के प्रसारण के संबंध में केन मैकक्वेरी के निष्कर्षों का सारांश जारी किया है। यहाँ पूरा दस्तावेज़ हैः


US immigration: The suffocated youth unafraid of a perilous journey

Summary: It is easy to spot which families in the tiny Guatemalan village of Nueva Esperanza have relatives in the United States. Several ostentatious and brightly coloured houses, paid for with remittances, stand out from the rest of the rudimentary mud-brick shacks in the hamlet.

By Will GrantBBC News, Nueva Esperanza, Guatemala For Anderson Antulio, who lived in the latter, the extravagant homes were a daily reminder of the potential prize in leaving his impoverished community. He was just 16, one of the tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors who attempt the treacherous journey every year. Now, however, Anderson has returned to Guatemala in the worst possible way. His remains were flown back from Mexico in a casket draped in the Guatemalan flag, one of 16 migrants murdered in northern Mexico, just kilometres from the US border, in January. The group were shot and their bodies set alight. A dozen state police officers have been arrested in connection with the grisly attack. As his family observed the traditional nine days of mourning, local indigenous women sang prayers for his soul in the dirt-floored home he shared with his parents and eight brothers and sisters. His father, Marco Antulio, was still coming to terms with the decision to allow his eldest child to travel on his own but insists he was powerless to stop the boy from pursuing a better life. "I knew I shouldn't let him go but nor could I tie him to the bed," he told me stoically. "Every single young person has the right to a life, has the right to pack their bags, to try to fulfil their dreams." Marco Antulio said he understood that some might consider it irresponsible to let a minor travel alone but that people did not know the pressures they were under to survive. Anderson planned to return in five or six years, having sent money for the family to build a decent home. "As a father, you have to look at which is the most viable option so they have a better life. So that they don't live the same as you," he said. The sad truth is that Anderson's grim end in northern Mexico will not dissuade other teenagers in his community from attempting the same trip - not even in his own family. Emerson, 14, says he plans to finish his older brother's journey to the US one day. "I want to leave," he said, "because working the land here we only make around 50 quetzales ($6) a day and that doesn't go far." As we walk around the family's tiny parcel of land, the dry earth crunches beneath our feet. In the surrounding fields, there are a few cultivations of maize and vegetables but the region has suffered from near-constant drought in recent years and the locals have stripped the hillsides of timber for firewood. It worsens the effects of climate change and makes the soils even less productive. Little wonder young people like Emerson see no other choice than to borrow the money for a people-smuggler, or "coyote", and attempt the journey north. Softly spoken and sensitive, he concedes he is too young to be considering such a dangerous trek. "I know I'm still a teenager but if I don't go, I'll have to work in the fields like my father where there isn't always work every day. Sometimes just two or three days a week." Eleven of those murdered in Mexico came from just one town, Comitancillo, a short drive away from Nueva Esperanza. Mayan families run the stalls in its cobbled marketplace, selling fruit, grains or counterfeit sportswear and used toys. Work opportunities in the town are scarce. The town's mayor, Hector López, admits that his resources do not stretch to providing proper education or employment programmes. "The only professional degree available here is in teaching," he explains. Even those students are not guaranteed a job at the end of it. "It's suffocating the youth. Their families take out a loan so they can study but afterwards there are no teaching places available and they return to the fields." Meanwhile any child with aspirations of becoming an engineer, doctor, architect or social worker is hoping in vain. More than half the town's 45,000 young people will end up taking their chances on the road, despite the obvious dangers. After the migrants from Comitancillo were murdered en route, another 40 left the following week. Young people face a stark choice, says the mayor. "There's no point me telling them, 'Hey, when you get there you'll be washing plates and sleeping in a fleapit.' They're not thinking about that. All they think about is getting together enough money to send to their families." The migrants, he said, see just two options. "Reach their destination or die trying."

यह पता लगाना आसान है कि ग्वाटेमाला के छोटे से गाँव नुएवा एस्पेरान्ज़ा में किन परिवारों के रिश्तेदार संयुक्त राज्य अमेरिका में हैं। कई दिखावटी और चमकीले रंग के घर, जो प्रेषण के साथ भुगतान किए जाते हैं, बस्ती के बाकी प्राथमिक मिट्टी-ईंटों की झोपड़ियों से अलग हैं।


RHI crisis: Who's who in heating scheme scandal?

Summary: The botched Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme was set up to encourage uptake of eco-friendly heat systems over the use of fossil fuels.

But its overgenerous offer of subsidies meant it threatened to cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds. The fallout from the debacle contributed to the collapse of Northern Ireland's power-sharing government. BBC News NI looks at those who found themselves in the spotlight. Arlene Foster, the minister Northern Ireland's first minister Arlene Foster headed the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (Deti) when the RHI scheme was designed. She left to go to the Department of Finance, just as the scale of the financial crisis was coming into focus. Mrs Foster claimed she was ill-served by officials who didn't keep her in the loop about scheme flaws and was let down by her Spad (Special Adviser) who did not read technical reports. She has described RHI as her "deepest political regret". When the scale of the scandal emerged in December 2016, there were widespread calls for her to resign. When she gave evidence to the RHI Inquiry, Mrs Foster said she was "accountable but not responsible" for actions of her special adviser. Andrew Crawford, adviser A son of a farmer from Beragh in County Tyrone, Andrew Crawford was the trusted adviser to Arlene Foster during much of her time as a Stormont minister. He was named by senior civil servant Andrew McCormick in January 2016 as the adviser who exerted influence to keep the scheme open. Mr Crawford resigned as a DUP ministerial adviser shortly afterwards, insisting he had "acted with complete integrity". He sent confidential papers about the RHI scheme to family and to Moy Park. Mr Crawford claimed the DUP had tried to "pin the blame" for the RHI scandal on him when it erupted in the winter of 2015-16. Timothy Johnston, adviser Timothy Johnston has long been regarded as the primary behind-the-scenes influence in the DUP. He was accused of directing a delay in cost controls, which he denied. As an adviser to Arlene Foster, he was paid the maximum salary allowed for the job - £91,809. But he said when it came to RHI he couldn't tell the difference between "a tariff and a chestnut". Tim Cairns, adviser Tim Cairns was Jonathan Bell's adviser at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (Deti) in 2015 and 2016. Mr Cairns claimed he was directed by Timothy Johnston to work with Andrew Crawford for the latest possible date for cost controls. He said he was told the party had to demonstrate it had done all it could to protect the interests of claimants on the scheme. Mr Cairns' time as a DUP adviser ended in May 2016. CEPA, the consultants Energy consultants Cambridge Economic Policy Associates were paid £100,000 by the Enterprise Department to help design RHI. They missed the fact that their final report on tariff design recommended subsidies that were higher than the fuel cost - the so-called "burn-to-earn" at the heart of the debacle. David Sterling, permanent secretary Now the interim head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, David Sterling was the senior official at Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, when RHI was designed and opened in 2012. However, he left in 2014 before the crisis emerged. Mr Sterling denied trying to "duck responsibility" for his role in the RHI scheme's set-up, but publicly apologised for the scandal at the inquiry. His oversight of RHI design and operation was questioned. Mr Sterling's admission that the civil service did not take minutes of ministerial meetings to frustrate Freedom of Information disclosures caused controversy. Fiona Hepper, head of Energy Division in Enterprise Department Fiona Hepper was the head of the energy division at Deti at the time of the RHI scheme and advised then minister Arlene Foster. She was a civil servant with 30 years experience, but was not a specialist in energy. She briefed Arlene Foster on the RHI scheme design and denied the DUP leader's claims important information was withheld or downplayed. It emerged there were no written records of a number of important meetings on RHI. Ms Hepper conceded there was an over-reliance on consultants and described the failure to identify scheme flaws as a matter of "profound personal and professional regret". Peter Hutchinson, junior official Peter Hutchinson was a junior civil servant and a non-specialist who ran RHI day to day from its design until 2014. He testified in February 2018 that many lessons needed to be learned from the scheme and suggested it would have benefited from better project management and more skilled staff. The inquiry heard that Mr Hutchinson and a part-time colleague, Joanne McCutcheon, were allowed to leave their posts at about the same time, which inquiry counsel Donal Lunny said left "an experience void". Mr Hutchinson left a 14-page handover note for his bosses and his successors. Its significance was overlooked. Andrew McCormick, permanent secretary As the permanent secretary at the Department for the Economy, formerly Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Dr Andrew McCormick was in charge during the collapse of the scheme. Appearing before Stormont's Public Accounts Committee, he said a whistleblower flagged concerns with the scheme two years before its closure, but officials did not believe her. He accepted that the civil service had been made to look "leaden-footed and slow-witted" by aspects of the scandal. Jonathan Bell, minister Jonathan Bell was a DUP MLA and Stormont's enterprise minister during the period that the RHI scheme did the most damage to the public purse. A flood of applications in the autumn of 2015 meant a commitment to hundreds of millions of pounds in payments. But in an explosive interview with the BBC's Stephen Nolan Show in December 2016, Mr Bell claimed there had been a DUP conspiracy to keep the scheme open. He was subsequently suspended by the DUP and ultimately left politics. During his appearance at the RHI Inquiry in September 2018, he claimed he had been a victim of a "massive smear campaign" by the DUP. Biomass industry, installers and scheme participants The industry latched on immediately to the lucrative nature of RHI. It used advertising slogans like "burn-to-earn" and "cash-for-ash" to promote the scheme and denied claims that there had been a conspiracy of silence. During the 2015 spike, the industry was so busy that one installer cancelled a family holiday while another had a customer who air freighted a boiler from Europe to beat the subsidy cut deadline and avail of lucrative tariffs. Moy Park, chicken company It was a major employer whose supplier farmers drove much of the demand for RHI. It denied the scheme had been a backhanded subsidy, but had to accept there had been an indirect financial benefit. Not only did bird productivity improve, but Moy Park saved on heating costs paid to farmers, who topped them up from their healthy RHI income. It benefited from confidential information shared by Andrew Crawford and officials from the Enterprise Department. Janette O'Hagan, whistleblower The owner of an energy efficiency business, Ms O'Hagan emailed Arlene Foster to highlight abuse of the scheme but the warning was overlooked. She met officials to raise concerns, but she was not believed. She told the inquiry she was surprised that firms did not put radiators on their outside walls as they could make a profit from that. Ofgem (Office of Gas and Electricity Markets) It managed RHI for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment. But joint oversight structures were not set up and Ofgem's inspection rate was low - just 31 boilers - because Deti did not have money for any more. Ofgem resisted sharing detailed information with the department about RHI owners as it was concerned it might breach data laws. That made it hard to identify patterns of high heat use. John Robinson, adviser In June 2016, he was appointed a special adviser to the then economy minister, Simon Hamilton, who succeeded Jonathan Bell. Mr Robinson was named in the Northern Ireland Assembly as being one of two DUP advisers with "extensive interests in the poultry industry". At the time, Mr Robinson said his family farm had chicken houses that were not part of the RHI scheme but did not mention his father-in-law had two RHI boilers. He said he did not discuss the RHI scheme with his father-in-law. He later stepped aside from any future involvement in the RHI scheme. Simon Hamilton, minister Mr Hamilton held the health, finance and economy portfolios, the latter replacing enterprise. He was caught up in the controversy over the fallout from the RHI scheme in late 2016. Mr Hamilton acquiesced in a DUP plan to leak private emails to divert media attention from party colleague Andrew Crawford, and onto Mr Hamilton's own civil servants who'd been briefing the industry about tariff changes. He accepted it had not been his "finest hour". Mr Hamilton has now quit politics. Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, minister The former finance minister who set up the inquiry and the only member of Sinn Féin who gave evidence in person. He revealed that Sinn Féin had circumvented laws meant to exclude anyone with a conviction working as a political adviser or Spad. His evidence about the process for appointing his own Spad was later contradicted by a woman he said he had considered. It also emerged that he had been communicating with senior republicans about proposals to close the scheme though, he said, he was advising them of his decisions, not asking their permission. He was criticised by the inquiry chair for the manner in which he and then Economy minister Simon Hamilton had handled the scheme closure. Sir Patrick likened them to two "alleycats" circling each other for a scrap rather than co-operating to save the public purse. Stuart Wightman, civil servant He headed up RHI as the scheme careered towards collapse. He inappropriately shared information in the summer of 2015 with the biomass industry and Moy Park ahead of a public announcement on tariff changes for the autumn. Mr Wightman said he had done it to avoid legal action, that he had recorded his actions and didn't think it had contributed to the application spike.

जीवाश्म ईंधन के उपयोग पर पर्यावरण के अनुकूल ताप प्रणालियों के उपयोग को प्रोत्साहित करने के लिए असफल नवीकरणीय ताप प्रोत्साहन (आर. एच. आई.) योजना की स्थापना की गई थी।


Syria ceasefire: Pentagon disquiet over US-Russia air war plan

Summary: It is very early days in the Syrian ceasefire but if the agreement holds, then it could usher in an extraordinary joint air campaign by US and Russian warplanes against so-called Islamic state (IS) and other radical groups linked to al-Qaeda.

By Jonathan MarcusDefence and diplomatic correspondent Few details of the US-Russia agreement have been given but, at some point, after a week of an effective ceasefire, US and Russian military teams are to meet to begin to chart how they would establish a joint implementation cell to co-ordinate air strikes. Such a concerted air campaign between the two Cold War rivals is unprecedented. Given the tensions between them over Ukraine, where US and other Western troops are helping to train the Ukrainian military, they are hardly allies. The question is, do they have enough in common in Syria to make this arrangement work? In reality it may never happen. The Obama administration is deeply divided over the US-Russia accord. Secretary of State John Kerry has been determined to go the extra mile to try to bring some measure of respite to the millions caught up in the Syria crisis. Privately, it is said that even he is not optimistic about the deal. But the Pentagon and US Defence Secretary Ash Carter are deeply sceptical. They have to analyse the practical implications of any concerted air campaign and they do not like what they see. Different tactics There are practical, strategic and legal problems to contend with. For a start any combined air campaign will require an exchange of intelligence information about targets. The Pentagon is especially concerned not to reveal any details of its intelligence-gathering capabilities. The Russian and US air forces have displayed a totally different tactical approach in their parallel air wars over Syria. The US (and other Western air forces) tend to drop almost exclusively precision-guided munitions at point targets, reducing the risk of civilian casualties. Russian warplanes, in contrast, tend to bomb from higher altitude using "dumb" (that is unguided) bombs. Up till now the US has frequently condemned Russian bombing tactics as indiscriminate. How is it now going to join in a combined air campaign with the self-same Russian air force? This is especially problematic because as the battle shifts ever closer to an assault on Raqqa - de facto the IS capital - then much of the targeting will increasingly be urban in nature with a growing risk of civilian deaths. Distinguishing the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front from other militias (some of which are US-backed) is another problem. Nusra - it has now re-named itself Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and claims to have broken all ties with al-Qaeda - is one of the more capable militias on the ground and many other groups have formed shifting alliances with it. They are now supposed to sever all ties and separate their forces. But is this likely to happen? And will the Russians make the same distinctions that US target planners might make? Question of trust Then there is the strategic goal of any air campaign. If it is to sweep IS out of Raqqa then who exactly is going to move in on the ground? This raises all sorts of questions for both Moscow and Washington, with the latter having to worry not least about Turkish-Kurdish rivalries. But there is a general problem that, as IS control over territory diminishes, many other fighting groups on the ground may be encouraged to take advantage of the new situation and this may place additional burdens on the fragile ceasefire. Underpinning any joint operation is the question of trust - and there is little of that between the US and the Russians. They have been exchanging some information already so as to "deconflict", as the military term has it, their respective air operations over Syria. In a nutshell this means that they should avoid coming into contact in the air and that the Russians should not strike any US-linked groups, especially those who have US special forces advisers operating alongside them. Areas of control around Aleppo

सीरियाई युद्धविराम में यह बहुत शुरुआती दिन हैं, लेकिन अगर समझौता होता है, तो यह तथाकथित इस्लामिक स्टेट (आईएस) और अल-कायदा से जुड़े अन्य कट्टरपंथी समूहों के खिलाफ अमेरिका और रूसी युद्धक विमानों द्वारा एक असाधारण संयुक्त हवाई अभियान की शुरुआत कर सकता है।


Keith Livingston given first hare coursing Asbo

Summary: A man caught hare coursing in East and Midlothian has received the first Anti Social Behaviour Order (Asbo) for the crime in Scotland.

Keith Livingston, 54, was also fined £150 for two offences under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Friday. The conditions of the Asbo prevent him from entering land with a dog or with other people with a dog for 18 months. Livingston was arrested near Pathhead, Midlothian in October 2014. PC Jamie Hood, of Police Scotland, said: "Hare coursing is a crime that has no consideration for wildlife or the impact on people who legitimately make a living from the land. "People involved in this activity can also be involved in other criminal activity. "This sentence should serve as a serious deterrent to anyone involved in hare coursing in Scotland."

ईस्ट और मिडलोथियन में खरगोश को पकड़ने वाले एक व्यक्ति को स्कॉटलैंड में अपराध के लिए पहला एंटी सोशल बिहेवियर ऑर्डर (ए. एस. बी. ओ.) मिला है।