Birmingham celebrates Commonwealth Games-hosting win

Summary: Birmingham has been officially announced as the host for the 2022 Commonwealth Games. It has been a rocky road, with the second city facing competition from Liverpool and then having to wait for the announcement after the Commonwealth Games Federation said it needed clarification on a number of issues.

By Monica RimmerBBC News A bitter five-month long bin dispute, costing the council £6m, and recent criticism from Communities Secretary Sajid Javid, who said the Labour-administered city council was badly run, may not have helped. So can the Brummies pull it off? It seems Birmingham is continuing the growth that has seen a bid to be Channel 4's new headquarters, the location for the 2018 Gymnastics World Cup and hosting a controversial 100-mile Velo bike race. The city council's campaign was based on Birmingham being the "heart of the UK" and "soul of the Commonwealth". And now it will stage the £750m showpiece, billed as being the most expensive sports event in Britain since the London 2012 Olympics. There was also excitement amongst the city's sporting talent, delighted at the promise of a home crowd. Coventry running legend David Moorcroft, a former 5,000-metre world record holder and ex-head of UK Athletics, thinks the Games are a bonus not just for Birmingham but the wider area. "I think it's fantastic for Birmingham and it's fantastic for the whole of the West Midlands," he said. "There's so much more than just sport involved in the Commonwealth Games, it connects with the diverse communities that [make up] Birmingham. "It'll be a great celebration. Birmingham has a good reputation at putting on big sporting events and it does them really well. It's something for loads of young aspiring athletes from the West Midlands to take part in." Duncan McKay, editor of Inside the Games, said Birmingham already had a lot of plans in place. He said: "It's a fantastic city: it's got a very diverse population that encapsulates the Commonwealth. It has many of the facilities already, albeit some of it like Alexander Stadium needs a revamp, but it has the infrastructure. "I think it's going to be a great occasion for the city and it will really benefit from it in the long term." A legacy for Birmingham Evie Tomlinson, 18, a dairy farmer from Leicestershire visiting Birmingham for the day, said: "It's not an area that has a lot of publicity... it's such a good thing for them." Ms Tomlinson said it could be "the biggest legacy for Birmingham". Can Birmingham handle it? However Michael Haile, 46, an economist who works in Birmingham, said: "I'm not sure if they can handle the infrastructure. If you go around Birmingham there are quite a few places that need doing up. I'm not sure they'd be able to handle it. "If I remember rightly, London had a really hard time pulling together the Olympics, so I'm not sure if Birmingham would have the necessary skill sets and funds. That would be my doubt, but for the city it's great." 'More people involved in sport' James Harris, 25, from Stourport, Worcestershire, a hockey coach, said: "It's brilliant, it'd get more people involved in the sports. It's just great for the city as a whole. "We went to the Olympics, that was brilliant. It'd just be good to get people down, loads of people can get into the sport by watching. "Especially with the hockey, there's nowhere really that has a massive event, you normally have to travel quite far. We had a big [surge of interest] from the Olympics so if they do well here, it'll help even more." 'The Glasgow effect' Gary Dixon, 56, who commutes from Telford to Birmingham each day for work, said: "I think it's a brilliant thing for Birmingham. Birmingham's having some inward invest at the moment, which is raising the profile. "It did very well for Glasgow, the Olympic games did brilliantly for London, they redeveloped a lot of areas, I'm hoping the Commonwealth Games will have the same effect here." Birmingham has a track record of delivering large international sporting events, recently hosting the ICC Champions Trophy and The Ashes at Edgbaston, Rugby World Cup fixtures at Villa Park, Diamond League athletics meetings at Alexander Stadium and the Aegon Classic tennis championships at Edgbaston Priory Club. There was also the Birmingham Marathon and Velo Birmingham. The council says it has 95% of competition venues already in place, with the only new-build required being the Sandwell Aquatics Centre, which will host swimming and diving events. Alexander Stadium will be expanded to host the athletics events and ceremonies, and it is hoped that Perry Barr, a suburban area in north Birmingham, will be transformed in the same way that east Manchester was revitalised by hosting the Games the last time they were staged in England in 2002. And while Birmingham has won the bid, it will be sharing the glory with other locations across the region. Victoria Park in Leamington Spa is the home of Bowls England and the English National Bowls Championships, so will aptly serve as the venue for lawn bowls and para lawn bowls. Part of the Ricoh Arena in the newly-crowned City of Culture 2021, Coventry will host netball matches, while Sandwell, just a stone's throw away from Birmingham in the Black Country, will host aquatic events in a newly-built arena. It may have failed at a bid to host the Olympics in 1992, but Birmingham appears to be fast becoming the go-to hosting city for major sports events. Additional reporting by Alpha Ceesay.

बर्मिंघम को आधिकारिक तौर पर 2022 राष्ट्रमंडल खेलों के लिए मेजबान के रूप में घोषित किया गया है। यह एक कठिन रास्ता रहा है, दूसरे शहर को लिवरपूल से प्रतिस्पर्धा का सामना करना पड़ रहा है और फिर राष्ट्रमंडल खेल महासंघ के कहने के बाद घोषणा का इंतजार करना पड़ रहा है कि उसे कई मुद्दों पर स्पष्टीकरण की आवश्यकता है।


Grimsby unexplained house death treated as murder

Summary: The death of a man at house in North East Lincolnshire is being treated as murder, police have said.

Peter Craven, 46, died of serious head injuries after being found in Oxford Street, Grimsby, just before midnight on Wednesday. Two men have been arrested over his death. A 35-year-old man was detained on Friday lunchtime, while a 47-year-old man was held on Thursday. Both remain in custody. Officer said Mr Craven's family had been informed of his death and were receiving support from specially trained officers.

पुलिस ने कहा है कि पूर्वोत्तर लिंकनशायर में घर पर एक व्यक्ति की मौत को हत्या माना जा रहा है।


Guernsey adopts 'open skies' after years of regulation

Summary: Guernsey's government has agreed a new "open skies" policy, meaning airlines will no longer need an air transport licence to fly to and from the island.

There are still two protected routes which will still require licences, with Alderney and Gatwick being classified as "lifeline routes". There are only four airlines operating in and out of Guernsey, one of which has suspended flights until September. The decision was voted through by 22 votes to 14. More on this and other Guernsey stories Licensing has previously been strictly regulated to preserve valuable landing slots at UK airports as well as ensuring service levels.

ग्वेर्नसे की सरकार ने एक नई "खुले आसमान" नीति पर सहमति व्यक्त की है, जिसका अर्थ है कि एयरलाइनों को अब द्वीप से आने-जाने के लिए हवाई परिवहन लाइसेंस की आवश्यकता नहीं होगी।


A9 upgrade preliminary contracts awarded

Summary: The first steps to design new dual carriageway on the A9 between Perth and Inverness have been announced.

The Scottish government has awarded two major contracts to engineering and environmental assessment consultants. Work to dual the A9 all the way between the two cities is due to be completed by 2025. Halcrow will carry out preliminary environmental assessment work and Jacobs will then provide preliminary engineering work.

पर्थ और इनवर्नेस के बीच ए9 पर नए दोहरे कैरिजवे को डिजाइन करने के लिए पहले कदमों की घोषणा की गई है।


Rubislaw Quarry in Aberdeen could become diving centre

Summary: The owners of one of Europe's largest man-made holes are considering opening it as Scotland's first commercial deep-water inland diving centre.

The Rubislaw Quarry, which has been credited with giving Aberdeen its Granite City name, was sold to Sandy Whyte and Hugh Black last summer. The quarry was closed 40 years ago and is now 140m deep with water. A team of divers recently surveyed the quarry and have said they believe it would make an ideal diving centre site. The group dived 105m and found some rusting quarry equipment. The owners have said they would consider the diving venture proposal. After buying the five-acre quarry Mr Whyte and Mr Black said they wanted to explore ways of sharing with the public the beauty of the landmark.

यूरोप के सबसे बड़े मानव निर्मित गड्ढों में से एक के मालिक इसे स्कॉटलैंड के पहले वाणिज्यिक गहरे पानी के अंतर्देशीय गोताखोरी केंद्र के रूप में खोलने पर विचार कर रहे हैं।


Looking back at the birth of The Beatles

Summary: Promoter Sam Leach staged more than 40 Beatles gigs in 1961 and '62. He also wanted to manage the group - but says they chose Brian Epstein over him after a mix-up with a newspaper advert for a gig in Aldershot meant only 18 people turned up.

The band went on to take the charts by storm after releasing their debut single Love Me Do exactly 50 years ago. "The advert didn't go in and we only got 18 people," Leach says. "On the way back the next day, The Beatles decided to go with Brian instead of me because they thought that cock-up wouldn't have happened with him. "When we came back from Aldershot, they asked me to come down and see them. I went down to the Grapes [pub in Liverpool] and when I walked in they looked a bit sheepish. "I knew something was wrong and they said 'Sam, we've got this millionaire who wants to manage us. I know we've got a handshake agreement with you but he's a millionaire.' "I was a bit annoyed but they asked me to go and see Brian and give them my opinion of him. I went to see him the next day in his office and I realised he was genuine, he's got plenty of money, that that should be all they need. "I thought I might stay in touch with The Beatles and get them to record for my record label. But on the way back to the Grapes, I thought, 'why should I tell them the truth?' I'll just say to them 'He's no good for you'. "When I walked into the Grapes, they looked at me so trustingly that I couldn't tell a lie. I said, 'I think you'll make it with him - remember me when you're famous.' "I've no regrets at all. I did my part. I was an important stepping stone and even in 200 years time I'll still be getting talked about thanks to the Beatles. I've been quite lucky. "When they came back to Liverpool for the Hard Day's Night premiere [in 1964], Brian sent me three tickets and I was outside. There were a million people lining the streets and as they were getting nearer to the Odeon, where the premiere was, I could hear the roar getting louder and louder. That's when I suddenly realised just how big they'd become. "It would have been hard to think that it would still be that big 50 years later. Even George Harrison didn't think it would last six months. "Until they did Sgt Pepper, I wouldn't have believed it would have lasted this long. The Beatles will still be talked about in 200 years time, I'm quite sure of that. There'll never be another band like it." On seeing The Beatles for the first time in January 1961: "The first time I saw them, I realised how good they were. They were the best rock band on the planet at that time and I told them so. I said 'One day you'll be as big as Elvis'. John Lennon laughed and said 'We've got a right nutter here, Paul'." On his Operation Big Beat gigs in New Brighton in November 1961: "I got 4,100 people the first night and 4,600 the next one. They are still Beatles UK attendance records. I'm quite proud of that. They were absolutely wild. The crowd were absolutely hysterical. "All the bands were good but The Beatles absolutely took the roof off. You only had to look at them to realise how big they were going to go. They had such charisma on stage. I'm very happy to have been part of that." On his engagement party in March 1962: "During the party, John was in the kitchen with this girl and he was rolling eggs down her bird's nest hairstyle and they were breaking on the floor. A dozen eggs, a total mess in the kitchen, and my mother-in-law really got angry with him and told him off. "He apologised and she made him wipe it up. The party lasted 24 hours and as he went, he put his arms around me and said 'Sam, that was the best party I've ever been to'. And as he went away, I slipped a raw egg into his pocket."

प्रवर्तक सैम लीच ने 1961 और '62 में बीटल्स के 40 से अधिक कार्यक्रमों का मंचन किया। वह भी समूह का प्रबंधन करना चाहते थे-लेकिन कहते हैं कि उन्होंने एल्डरशॉट में एक कार्यक्रम के लिए एक समाचार पत्र के विज्ञापन के साथ मिश्रण के बाद ब्रायन एपस्टीन को चुना, जिसका मतलब था कि केवल 18 लोग आए।


Evans Cycles' Martlesham store reopens after lease dispute

Summary: An Evans Cycles store has reopened after it temporarily closed when the building was reclaimed by its landlord in a dispute over its lease.

The store in Martlesham Heath, near Ipswich, was closed for a week after a "notice of forfeiture" was put up. The note said the landlord LondonMetric Saturn "peaceably re-entered" the building "in accordance with the landlord's power under the lease". Evans's owner Frasers Group has been approached by the BBC for comment. The lawyers representing LondonMetric Saturn said they did not wish to make any comment. It is understood the shop reopened on 8 December. The Martlesham Heath store is understood to have been the only one affected. Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk

एक इवांस साइकिल स्टोर अस्थायी रूप से बंद होने के बाद फिर से खुल गया है जब इमारत को उसके मकान मालिक द्वारा पट्टे पर विवाद में पुनः प्राप्त किया गया था।


Terror raids in Midlands over 'extremist activity'

Summary: Police have carried out a series of anti-terror raids across the Midlands amid concerns about "extremist activity" and "fraud".

West Midlands Police counter terrorism unit searched a number of addresses in Birmingham, Coventry and Leicester on Tuesday. The special operations unit of East Midlands police was also deployed. The searches followed allegations of extremist activity in India and fraud offences, police said. No-one has yet been arrested.

पुलिस ने "चरमपंथी गतिविधि" और "धोखाधड़ी" के बारे में चिंताओं के बीच मिडलैंड्स में आतंकवाद विरोधी छापों की एक श्रृंखला को अंजाम दिया है।


Carney: UK interest rate rise on agenda despite China woes

Summary: The decision on when to raise interest rates is still likely be at the top of the Bank of England's agenda at the turn of the year, the governor said this afternoon - even though he acknowledged that China's economic slowdown means the world's second biggest economy is likely to be a drag on growth in the whole world.

Robert PestonEconomics editor Mark Carney, speaking at the annual Jackson Hole convention in the US of central bankers and economists, said: "The prospect of sustained momentum in the UK economy and the gradual firming of underlying inflationary pressures will likely put the decision as to when to start the process of gradual monetary policy normalisation [or interest rate rises] into sharper relief at the turn of this year." Which is another way of saying that he stands by the economic timetable for possibly raising rates that he set out in Lincoln Cathedral on 16 July. He was giving his first response to the rout in shares on the Shanghai stock market over the past few days - a rout which for a couple of days infected stock markets all over the world. Mr Carney said an interest rate rise was by no means inevitable in the opening months of 2016. But he wanted to dampen speculation that "developments in China" have changed "the process of rate increases from limited and gradual to infinitesimal and inert". What the Bank of England has to weigh up, he said, was whether domestic demand - spending by British consumers, investing by British investors - was strong enough to offset the potential for further "material slowing of growth in China and more broadly in non-Japan Asia", coupled with the deflationary impact of falling currencies of China and other emerging markets. Although Wall Street and European stock markets have since recovered from last week's shocks, central bankers and economists are concerned that a pronounced deceleration of growth in China is having a big negative impact on other emerging market economies, and therefore on the prosperity of the world as a whole. There has therefore been widespread speculation that the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England would delay the first rises in interest rates since the great crash of 2008 in the US and UK. Mr Carney made clear that the decision on whether to increase the so-called Bank Rate - the interest rate set by the Bank of England - by 0.25% from 0.5% would depend on economic data between now and then. But he was making the significant point that he did not believe that last week's China shock made it inevitable that there would be a material delay in interest rate rises. In that sense he appeared to echo what the vice chairman of the Fed, Stanley Fischer, said yesterday about the possible course of US interest rates - when he said that a rise in US rates could still happen in September. All that said, Mr Carney and Mr Fischer - although influential - have only one vote each on the interest rate decision, and not all their colleagues will be as sanguine as them that it is sensible to keep open the option of early interest rate rises, in view of the weakening in the global economy.

ब्याज दरों को कब बढ़ाया जाए, इस पर निर्णय अभी भी वर्ष के अंत में बैंक ऑफ इंग्लैंड के एजेंडे के शीर्ष पर होने की संभावना है, गवर्नर ने आज दोपहर कहा-भले ही उन्होंने स्वीकार किया कि चीन की आर्थिक मंदी का मतलब है कि दुनिया की दूसरी सबसे बड़ी अर्थव्यवस्था पूरी दुनिया में विकास पर एक खिंचाव होने की संभावना है।


Argo: The true story behind Ben Affleck's Globe-winning film

Summary: Ben Affleck's film Argo tells the bizarre story of how in 1980 the CIA - with Canadian help - sprang a group of Americans from Iran after they escaped a US embassy overrun by protestors. The film, which has received seven Oscar nominations including one for best picture, is based on real-life events. But how much of it is fiction?

By Vincent DowdBBC World Service When Mark Lijek took Tehran as his first posting in the US foreign service, he knew he wasn't opting for an easy life. "I was asked to volunteer in October 1978 and things in Iran were already pretty bad," he explains. "There were violent demonstrations on the streets and it wasn't at all clear the Shah could survive. Then in January he abdicated and left the country." Mark did a six-month course in Farsi before arriving in Iran in the summer of 1979, followed by his wife. Cora Lijek wasn't a foreign service official but was given a contract because the embassy urgently needed Farsi speakers. The couple couldn't have guessed how quickly they would find themselves in extraordinary circumstances. The US embassy in Tehran consisted of 26 acres surrounded by more than a mile of wall, with only 13 marines to protect it. Not long before Mark's arrival it had been overrun by anti-American protestors who had left after a few hours. So when demonstrators again broke in, early on 4 November 1979, Mark initially assumed the same thing might happen. "Mainly the protest was because America had chosen to admit the Shah for medical treatment. The consular building, where Cora and I worked, was at least five minutes from the main chancery building and had its own door onto the street. "The people who broke in forgot about us or initially didn't much care." Mark Lijek, now retired, is impressed with how Ben Affleck stages the taking of the US embassy in Argo, a sequence filmed partly in Istanbul and partly on location in California. "It was almost the first time I'd thought deeply about what it must have been like for the 50 or so Americans in the main building," he tells the BBC. "Those scenes were quite difficult to watch." It is after the six Americans slip away from the embassy that Argo becomes a masterclass in reshaping reality into a Hollywood hit. The screenplay has the escapees - Mark and Cora Lijek, Bob Anders, Lee Schatz and Joe and Kathy Stafford - settling down to enforced cohabitation at the residence of the Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor. In reality, after several nights - including one spent in the UK residential compound - the group was split between the Taylor house and the home of another Canadian official, John Sheardown. Mark Lijek says he can see why Argo makes the switch. "That group dynamic builds the tension, I suppose, and makes it seem more dramatic when there's disagreement. 'Books and Scrabble' "However, it's not true we could never go outside. John Sheardown's house had an interior courtyard with a garden and we could walk there freely. "But it is true we had little to do except read books and play Scrabble. We drank quite a lot too." The screenplay ratchets up the tension when an Iranian maid at the Canadian ambassador's residence guesses who his guests are. "Kathy Stafford, who was at the ambassador's, calls that a composite character," continues Lijek. "I think some Iranian employees probably did work out who the Staffords were, but it was a highly theoretical risk." The central element of the story sounds incredible but is in fact true. The CIA cooked up a plan to spirit the six out of the country on a scheduled flight from Tehran's Mehrabad airport, masquerading as Canadians working on a non-existent science-fiction film. Mark Lijek recalls that, of the group, he was the most immediately enthusiastic. "I thought it had the right amount of pizzazz. Who but film-makers would be crazy enough to come to Tehran in the middle of a revolution? I had no problem pretending to be in the movie industry." The truth - which Argo artfully obscures - is that the cover story was never tested and in some ways proved irrelevant to the escape. There is a sequence in the film where the six go on a location scout in Tehran to create the impression they are movie people. According to Mark, the scene is total fiction. "We could never have done that. Our story was to be that the Canadian ambassador had strongly advised us not to scout for locations because of instability on the streets. Phoney documents "If asked, we were going to say we were leaving Iran to return when it was safer. But no one ever asked!" In retrospect, Mark Lijek thinks the value of the cover story was to give the escapees the confidence to get through the ordeal at the airport. Argo's final scenes are superbly tense, as the six make it onto the plane by the skin of their teeth. The CIA had given them false departure documents for which, of course, there were no matching arrival forms. The big climax is a heart-pounding chase down the runway as gun-toting members of the Revolutionary Guard try to stop them taking off. "Absolutely none of that happened," says Mark. "It's true there could have been problems with documentation - it was our biggest vulnerability. "But the Agency had done its homework and knew the Iranian border authorities habitually made no attempt to reconcile documents. "Fortunately for us, there were very few Revolutionary Guards about. It's why we turned up for a flight at 5.30 in the morning; even they weren't zealous enough to be there that early. "The truth is the immigration officers barely looked at us and we were processed out in the regular way. We got on the flight to Zurich and then we were taken to the US ambassador's residence in Berne. It was that straightforward." The six were meant to live in Florida under assumed names until the release of other embassy personnel held hostage in Tehran, which came in January 1981. But the plan was dropped when reports of the escape appeared in newspapers. In 1981, a TV movie called Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper told the story minus the CIA's involvement. The agency didn't admit its role until 1997. Mark says it came as a relief when he could finally talk openly about the events in Iran. He's a fan of Argo and takes a wryly amused view of how it burnishes the truth to dramatic effect. Of course, Mark is wise to the ways of film-makers. Back in the 1980s, he was briefly in movies himself.

बेन एफ्लेक की फिल्म आर्गो इस विचित्र कहानी को बताती है कि कैसे 1980 में सी. आई. ए.-कनाडा की मदद से-प्रदर्शनकारियों द्वारा अमेरिकी दूतावास से बचने के बाद ईरान से अमेरिकियों के एक समूह को उकसाया। यह फिल्म, जिसे सर्वश्रेष्ठ फिल्म के लिए एक सहित सात ऑस्कर नामांकन प्राप्त हुए हैं, वास्तविक जीवन की घटनाओं पर आधारित है। लेकिन इसमें से कितना काल्पनिक है?


Fracking protest divides Balcombe village

Summary: For this sleepy village a summer of protest beckons.

By Nick TarverBBC News Balcombe, in West Sussex, has found itself at the heart of a debate over hydraulic fracturing - known as fracking. Test drilling is due to begin for oil exploration by energy company Caudrilla, however, there are worries locally this will lead to the search for shale gas. Protesters, police and journalists have descended in their hundreds as lorries drive in and out of the site delivering equipment. So how have the villagers responded to the test drilling? And do the protests, which could last through August and into September, have the support of the village? 'Standing up against it' Balcombe has 2,000 residents, one village store, a pub and several small shops. It is also now home to a drilling company and a large group of impassioned protesters. This was not always the case. Three weeks ago Balcombe resident Louisa Delpy stood alone with two others outside the gates of the site. She said: "We couldn't imagine the protest would be like this now - I thought I was an individual standing up against it." Speaking at the camp outside the drilling site, which is a 15-minute walk from the village, she said the village was "united" against the drilling but added that Balcombe was "very conservative". 'Nimbyism' Unsurprisingly, support for the protest is unanimous down at the camp. However, up in the village, despite it being festooned with placards and posters protesting against the drilling, there is also opposition to the protest. Michael Dutton, who has lived in the village since 1948, said: "It's all 'nimbyism' along with professional protesters - they're very disruptive. "I would prefer we get our oil from Balcombe than the Middle East or Russia." And Balcombe resident Jacky Hall said the protesters were "primarily outsiders". "They're not fracking - why don't they [the protesters] wait until they've done the exploratory drilling? "People used to drive through the village and say, 'oh it's a lovely village'. Now they talk about the protesters." 'Don't like outsiders' So far there have been dozens of arrests since police started to move protesters away from the gates. Cuadrilla, which had hoped to begin drilling last week but has been thwarted by the protesters, would need fresh permission from the Environment Agency to carry out shale gas exploration. Kathryn McWhirter, who is from the village and an active member of the protest camp, said she believes support for the drilling among villagers is minimal. "It's a very conservative village and there's a small element who are against the protests," she said. "They don't like outsiders and they don't like a fuss being made." However, with permission to drill currently due to end on 28 September, it is likely protest camp will remain over the summer with the "fuss" set to continue.

इस नींद में डूबे गाँव के लिए विरोध की गर्मी का संकेत मिलता है।


A1 in North Yorkshire closed for bridge demolition

Summary: The A1 in North Yorkshire will be closed in both directions for 34 hours from 20:00 GMT on Saturday to enable a road bridge to be demolished.

The Highways Agency said the closure was from junction 51 (Leeming Bar) to Scotch Corner until 06:00 on Monday. The demolition of Fort Bridge, Catterick, is part of the £380m upgrade of a 12-mile (19.3km) stretch of the A1 between Leeming Bar and Barton. The existing dual carriageway is being replaced with a three-lane motorway. The Highways Agency said the closure was "essential". It said there would be diversions, but warned drivers of delays at peak times.

उत्तरी यॉर्कशायर में ए1 को शनिवार को 20:00 जी. एम. टी. से 34 घंटे के लिए दोनों दिशाओं में बंद कर दिया जाएगा ताकि एक सड़क पुल को ध्वस्त किया जा सके।


Rick Perry: Texan twang in 2016 Republican nomination battle

Summary: It's been seven years since George W Bush and his fellow Texans left the US political stage, but that doesn't mean the Lone Star State is out of the presidential game. If anything, the 2016 Republican nomination battle will have an even more distinct - if unexpected - Texas twang.

Anthony ZurcherNorth America reporter@awzurcheron Twitter Visitors to the George W Bush Presidential Library in Dallas, Texas are greeted with a quote from the former president shortly after entering the main exhibit hall. "My background leaves more than an accent, it leaves an outlook," reads an inscription on the wall. "Optimistic. Impatient with pretence. Confident that people can chart their own course." For many the former president is the embodiment of the Texas political stereotype. Plain-spoken, frontier-style conservatism leavened heavily with the rhetoric of self-reliance and a swagger that borders on arrogance ("In Texas we call that walking," Mr Bush once famously said). But there's more to modern Texas politics, made clear by the diverse range of candidates with strong state ties currently vying for the Republican presidential nomination. "There is something about our personalities - we are very colourful people, and we tend to get attention put on us," says Abby Livingston of the Texas Tribune. "So there are no shortage of characters from the state of Texas who elicit national attention." If Texas is the beating heart of the Republican Party, however, that cast of characters is pulling it in different directions - a reflection of the battle over the very identity of modern conservatism in the US. Among the candidates, Rick Perry, who announced his presidential bid on Thursday, probably looks and sounds the most like the cowboy hat-wearing Texan of Hollywood central casting. He took over the governorship when Mr Bush became president in 2001 and held the office for a record-setting 14 years. Unlike his predecessor, however, the fifth-generation Texan is no "compassionate conservative". His stump speech boasts of his state's long record of economic growth combined with tough talk on foreign policy. Call him the flag-waving, tax-cutting conservative. Next is Texas Senator Ted Cruz, the darling of the grass-roots Tea Party base that has roiled the Republican party over the past few years. The Ivy League educated son of a Cuban immigrant rose to power by besting his party's establishment pick for the Senate, and he's made a name for himself with an aggressive embrace of conservative orthodoxy. He represents the insurgent, uncompromising Republican, who views moderation even in his own party as a lack of moral strength. "Since he became a senator, every single officeholder in the state is looking over their shoulder wondering if the next Ted Cruz is running against them in a Republican primary," Livingston says. "He has terrified everyone." Although Senator Rand Paul hails from Kentucky, he's the son of former Texas Congressman Ron Paul, was raised in the Houston area and went to college at Baylor University in Waco. Like Mr Cruz, he's made his name railing against the Republican establishment - but his embrace of small government, civil liberties and a more modest foreign policy is a world away from his fellow senator's fire-and-brimstone politics. The Kentucky senator is the libertarian conservative. And then there's Jeb Bush. Much has been made of the pending Sunshine State showdown between Florida's former governor and one of its current senators, Marco Rubio. But Mr Bush is just as much a part of the battle over Texan hearts, souls and pocketbooks as any - and his ties run deep. Mr Bush was born in the oil town of Midland, went to college at the University of Texas and worked in Houston. Both his father and presidential brother call Texas home, and his son, George P Bush, is the state's land commissioner. Label him what you will - the establishment conservative, the dynasty conservative - Mr Bush harkens back to the kind of Republican who used to firmly control Texas. He's pro-business and pro-immigration, with less interest in divisive social issues. If you want to cast an even broader Texas net, that's not all. Former Hewlett Packard head Carly Fiorina was born in Austin and still has family in Texas. While her natural base is the Silicon Valley of California, Texas has a vibrant high-tech industry with its own issues and interests in the conservative movement - including a heavy emphasis on science education, low taxes and regulation, and a steady supply of immigration visas for skilled workers. And Mike Huckabee, former governor of neighbouring Arkansas, spent two years studying in a Fort Worth seminary. He's the evangelical conservative that has long made uneasy peace with the party's pro-business faction. So what is it about Texas that has made it such a key player in this year's presidential race? Is it merely happenstance, combined with the state's population and wealth? Perhaps. But other large states, such as California, don't seem to consistently produce presidential aspirants the way the Lone Star State has. "Texas is a pretty big part of the conversation by virtue of just how conservative the state is, just how much money is here and just how big it is," says James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas. "It's hard for people not to look at Texas and see something of a model or at least a laboratory of some sorts." More than that, however, Livingston says Texas politics creates ties that bind. She points, for instance, to a friend of Rand Paul's dating back to the 1970s who stepped down as head of the Texas Republican Party in January to work for his campaign. "If you're just around in Texas long enough, you're going to meet people who will help you be successful - donors, political talent, that kind of thing," she says. "It's such a pivotal place in the Republican world that just having ties, being from here, living here - you're going to have some advantages." Even on the Democratic side, candidates can't ignore Texas. At the same time Mr Perry was preparing to launch his candidacy in Dallas, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was swinging through the city for a $2,700 (£1,750) per person fundraising dinner. Her state ties go back to 1972, when she and her husband worked in Austin on George McGovern's presidential campaign. Texas's influence - on Republican politics, at least - is more than just a discussion of dollars and ideology, however. The state's primary is scheduled for 1 March - relatively early in the nomination calendar. According to Henson, that's going to encourage a lot of candidates to try to land a share of the state Richard Nixon once called "the big enchilada". "If you're somebody from Texas, you really try everything you can do to stay in until that date, if only to get some delegates to bargain with," he says. "It's an expensive proposition, but if you run a campaign on the cheap it makes sense to hang around." So get ready to see a lot of Texas - and Texans - over the coming months of the presidential campaign, even if it comes from places and people you don't normally associate with the state. "It's like in Texas, there's different accents," Livingston says. "Most people don't realise that." An East Texas accent is decidedly different than one from West Texas, she says - just like the distinct strains of Texas conservative politics. "Obviously we have an image, we have a stereotype, and when you look at us from the outside we all look like cowboys who ride horses to work. But it also is a very, very diverse state. The Jeb Bush strain is very different from the Rand Paul strain, which is very different from Rick Perry and Ted Cruz. They all seem to wear cowboy boots, though, especially when they're in the state." And they all want to bring their particular bit of Texas with them to the White House in 2016, boots and all. All photos used in composites are courtesy of Getty Images

जॉर्ज डब्ल्यू बुश और उनके साथी टेक्सस को अमेरिकी राजनीतिक मंच छोड़ते हुए सात साल हो गए हैं, लेकिन इसका मतलब यह नहीं है कि लोन स्टार राज्य राष्ट्रपति पद के खेल से बाहर हो गया है। अगर कुछ भी हो, तो 2016 की रिपब्लिकन नामांकन लड़ाई में और भी अधिक विशिष्ट-यदि अप्रत्याशित-टेक्सास ट्वांग होगा।


Islamic State: The UK's gap between rhetoric and reality

Summary: The rhetoric is certainly getting tougher.

By Jonathan BealeDefence correspondent, BBC News David Cameron has recently labelled the group known as Islamic State (IS) as "one of the biggest threats our world has faced". He's described the extremists as a "death cult" and the need to confront them as the "fight of our generation". In a recent speech, the Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, called it "the new Battle of Britain" against "a fascist enemy". That's the rhetoric. Now the reality. In 1940, in the real Battle of Britain, the RAF had hundreds of aircraft to defend the nation from a potential Nazi invasion. Against IS, the RAF has been relying on eight Tornado jets flying from Cyprus. It has also been using 10 Reaper unmanned aircraft or drones to carry out surveillance and air strike missions. Together the Reapers and Tornados have flown more than 1,100 combat missions over Iraq and carried out more than 250 air strikes. In total the US-led coalition has conducted nearly 8,000 air attacks. 'Incoherent' strategy So while Mr Fallon is keen to point out that the UK is the second largest national contributor to the military campaign, it's still dwarfed by the US effort. In the words of the former chairman of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee, Rory Stewart, the UK's contribution is "modest" at best. His successor, the Conservative MP Julian Lewis, has been more critical. He has described the UK strategy against IS as "incoherent". Mr Lewis has accused the prime minister of making policy "on the hoof" and made clear the government will need a proper strategy if it expects his backing to expand the air strikes to Syria. So is he right? If the UK strategy is incoherent, then so is that of the US. After all, the British contribution is just a reflection of what America is and isn't doing. Reaper drones: RAF information on Reaper drones Both countries are prisoners of their past - their largely unsuccessful previous interventions in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The over-riding strategy appears to be not to get dragged into another long war in the Middle East. So that means a limit to "boots on the ground". The US has about 3,000 trainers in Iraq. The UK has a total of 135 in the north helping the Kurdish Peshmerga forces. An 'infidel' enemy The former Chief of the Defence Staff, Lord Richards, recently argued that the West needed "tens of thousands" of trainers on the ground if it wanted to make a difference. Like Mr Lewis, he thinks the current strategy isn't working. Earlier this month he told the BBC that the West's efforts against IS were "woefully insufficient". While it is still possible that the US and the UK could increase the presence of military trainers, the chances of either of them putting combat "boots on the ground" are slim to non-existent. Many argue it would play into the hands of the extremists who would be bolstered in fighting an "infidel" enemy. That leaves it largely to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's army, Syrian rebels and Kurdish forces to do the fighting on the ground. The West has made clear it won't help the Syrian regime while Mr Assad remains in power. Training "moderate" Syrian rebels is not going according to plan. The US Defence Secretary, Ash Carter, has admitted that so far America has trained just 60 Syrian fighters. Turkey joins fight As for relying on the Kurds, that's just become more complicated. Turkey may have finally joined the fight against IS. But it appears to be more enthusiastic in targeting its old enemy, the Kurdish separatist group, the PKK. The PKK have been allies to both the Iraqi and Syrian Kurds. Turkey's actions might end up weakening one of the more effective fighting forces. So what more might the UK do next? The government is now contemplating widening its air strikes to include targets in Syria, subject to parliamentary approval. The RAF is already carrying out surveillance missions over Syria and could easily switch to strike missions if and when the order comes. But it would probably still be with the same limited number of aircraft. At the end of the Cold War, the RAF had more than 30 front-line squadrons; today it has just seven. Speaking last month, the Chief of the Defence Staff, Gen Sir Nick Houghton, warned that the RAF was already "at the very limits" of its fast jet availability, with the ageing Tornados mounting daily strike missions in Iraq and the more modern Typhoons regularly called upon to intercept Russian warplanes near UK airspace and in the Baltics. Absent from the fight As it did with Libya, the RAF could send some Typhoons to back up the Tornados at Akrotiri in Cyprus, but the Typhoon still has a limited ground attack capability. It's also important to note that most US and UK warplanes have been returning to base from their missions without firing their weapons. Air power may have limited IS's ability to move, but you still need an effective army to secure and hold the ground. And at the moment that army is absent from the fight. Lord Richards recently told the BBC: "If you want to get rid of them [IS] we need to effectively get on a war footing." While the government's words suggest that is now the case, its actions do not.

बयानबाजी निश्चित रूप से कठिन होती जा रही है।


Mongolian teenage girl grapples for a future in sumo

Summary: Mongolian wrestlers have dominated the Japanese sumo scene for years and Bum-Erdene Tuvshinjargal is keen to follow in their footsteps. As a girl, that means challenging centuries of tradition, but that's another fight she's ready to take on. She spoke to journalist Erin Craig at her home in Ulan Bator.

On one side of the ring squats a formidable, heavyset wrestler, the traditional mawashi wound around his waist. On the other is Bum-Erdene Tuvshinjargal, her loincloth wrapped over black spandex. The competitors wait, stare, then cannon toward each other. They hit in the centre, straining in a slow dance of raw power. Then Tuvshinjargal explodes forward, muscling her opponent out of the ring. She gives a rare, brief smile as she walks off the mat. "You can't be scared," says the 17 year old sumo world champion. "If you're scared you won't win." As a child, Tuvshinjargal watched sumo on TV with her grandparents, never dreaming she would be a wrestler herself. She later took up judo, and in 2015 her instructor suggested trying sumo at a competition the following month. That competition turned out to be the Junior Sumo World Championships. Tuvshinjargal came home with a bronze medal. Last year she went back for the gold. Her coach, Gankhyag Naranbat, thinks this is just the beginning. As a former rikishi - a professional sumo wrestler - and World Games gold medallist, he knows what to look for in a competitor. "I think she will be more than three times world champion, heavyweight category," he predicts. That would break a world record - one established only last year by Tuvshinjargal's teammate, Khishigdorj Sunjidmaa. Pushing the rice paper ceiling But no matter how many records she breaks, Tuvshinjargal's career is approaching the rice paper ceiling. In sumo, only men can go pro. Professional sumo is only practiced in Japan where rikishi participate in six annual Grand Tournaments. Sumo began as a religious ceremony and the sport remains deeply ritualistic. Tradition forbids women even entering the ring. But women have competed at the amateur level since the mid-1990s when Olympic aspirations convinced the sport to go "co-ed". Sumo still hasn't made the Olympics but after 12 World Championships women have become an integral part of landscape. Unlike many female wrestlers, Tuvshinjargal comes from a country where sumo is incredibly popular. Mongolian rikishi have dominated professional sumo for years; just this month Mongolian superstar Hakuho broke the world record for total career wins. Wrestling has always been important to Mongolian culture, as one of the legendary Three Manly Sports, and many boys learn sumo alongside traditional wrestling. According to Naranbat, Mongolians fundamentally changed sumo by bringing in moves from traditional wrestling. While sumo matches can be over in seconds, Mongolian wrestling isn't limited by a ring and requires more time and strategy. "Before Mongolian wrestlers sumo was only pushing," says Naranbat. "That's why Mongolian wrestlers are high level." Forging a future But amateur sumo isn't covered in the Mongolian media, leaving female wrestlers permanently in the dark. People are often surprised to learn they exist. They're even more surprised to see what these women can do. "They think that when I'm on this mat I looks like a beast." Tuvshinjargal acknowledges. "But when I step out of this building, I'm just a girl." And like most people her age she is thinking about the future. After graduating from high school last June, she has been busy applying to universities and considering careers. Most of all, she wants to forge a path as a female wrestler. "I have given my heart to sumo," she says. "I want to pursue it to the highest level." It's unclear whether she could make it a career, as amateurs don't usually receive sponsorships. The Mongolian government gives monetary awards to medal winners but with only one major international competition a year even a gold medal isn't enough to live on. She would love to combine her other passion - acting - with athletics, like her favourite movie star Jackie Chan. That's not unprecedented - Mongolian sumo champion Ulambayar Byambajav has appeared on several TV programmes. Or she could blaze new territory and become the country's first female sumo coach. A champion - if allowed to be Like many of her teammates, Tuvshinjargal can rely on a supportive family. Her grandparents enjoy experiencing sumo through her instead of the TV and their walls are covered in pictures of Tuvshinjargal in her mawashi. The 2018 World Championship will be Tuvshinjargal's last match in the junior division unless she outperforms the older women to earn a place in the adult division. She already competed on the Mongolian National Women's Team during 2016 World Championships, which placed second overall. After that, her eyes are on the 2021 World Games and maybe, someday, the Olympics. Naranbat is quietly confident in his student's ability. After all, she is already strong enough to beat men. Once she masters the strategy, there will be no stopping her. And if the rules changed, if women were allowed to go pro, would Tuvshinjargal have the ability to make it? "Yes," he says. "She would be a champion."

मंगोलियाई पहलवान वर्षों से जापानी सूमो दृश्य पर हावी रहे हैं और बम-एर्डेन तुवशिनजारगल उनके नक्शेकदम पर चलने के लिए उत्सुक हैं। एक लड़की के रूप में, इसका मतलब सदियों की परंपरा को चुनौती देना है, लेकिन यह एक और लड़ाई है जिसे वह लेने के लिए तैयार है। उन्होंने उलान बाटोर में अपने घर पर पत्रकार एरिन क्रेग से बात की।


Pakistan's bewildering array of militants

Summary: The sacking of Pakistani Taliban (TTP) spokesman Shahidullah Shahid for supporting Islamic State is the latest sign of divisions in an already fragmented militant movement. Over the years Pakistan's insurgents have spawned a bewildering array of splinter groups and factions, reports M Ilyas Khan.

Shahidullah Shahid, as he was known, was the third TTP spokesman to part company with the leadership in recent months. Before him, Azam Tariq left with the Mehsud faction of Khan Said Sajna that quit the TTP in May. Another predecessor, Ehsanullah Ehsan, became the chief spokesman for a group of Mohmand tribesmen that goes by the name Jamaat-e-Ahrar. This splintering of the TTP shows that like any other social entity, large and geographically inclusive militant groups also contain sub-groups. Back in September when the spokesman of the Pakistani army blamed an unknown group of militants - the al-Shura - for carrying out the October 2012 attack on education activist Malala Yousafzai, few eyebrows were raised. After nearly 35 years of conflict involving non-state actors, Pakistanis are used to insurgent groups breaking from the herd to launch an attack which grabs the headlines, often under one of those spiritually inspiring names from the Islamic texts. In most cases, they disappear from the scene just as quickly. The trend started in the post-9/11 period, when elements within the militant network that were uprooted from Afghanistan started to hit targets in Pakistan. These groups comprised fighters from the Pakistani tribal militants, the Punjabi Taliban, Central Asians, Arab fighters and militants from East Asia. Most of them gravitated towards the umbrella militant alliance called the TTP which was formed in 2007. The earliest such group to make headlines was Harkatul Mujahideen al-Almi, which was blamed for a string of attacks in Karachi in 2002, including an assassination attempt on then President Pervez Musharraf, the bombing of the Sheraton hotel and a car bomb explosion outside the US consulate. The group's name was similar to that of a major Kashmir-focused Punjabi Taliban group, but the addition of a suffix - al-Almi, or international - appeared to give it wider scope. It faded away soon afterwards and has not been heard of since. In 2004, a group calling itself Jundullah surfaced with an audacious ambush of the Karachi Corps commander. Then it took an eight-year sabbatical. Soon after it re-emerged it seemed to fall out with the TTP over who carried out the 2013 killing of nine foreign climbers on Nanga Parbat. Jundullah claimed the credit for itself, but the TTP said a specially established unit called Jundul Hafsa had done it. Police in Karachi have blamed some recent attacks on Jundullah, but the group itself has made no comment. As for Jundul Hafsa, it has turned out to be another one-hit wonder, at least so far. Other short-lived groups include the Asian Tigers and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Almi (LeJA), another group with a familiar name but a differentiating suffix. Both were briefly in the news during the spring of 2010. Apparently, the Asian Tigers claimed that they had captured two former ISI officials and a British journalist of Pakistani origin. Later, one of the ISI men was beheaded for "spying". Some weeks after the killing, there were reports of a series of attacks in North Waziristan in which two top leaders of the Asian Tigers were said to have been gunned down by someone calling himself the chief of LeJA. This man himself was killed along with two others by unknown gunmen two months later. The killers left a note written on a TTP letterhead accusing the dead men of kidnapping former ISI officials who "during their active service had been kind to Taliban". Make of all that what you will - it's not straightforward. More recently, the group calling itself Jamaat-e-Ahrar (JA) has broken away from the TTP. It is not clear if JA is some kind of successor to a TTP-linked group called Ahrarul Hind, which represented those elements within the TTP who believe in the "final battle for India" in which, according to them, a Muslim victory was foretold by Prophet Mohammad. The recent launching of al-Qaeda's South Asia wing is seen by many as a continuation of this strand of militant thought. All these groups seem to have grown from a common source - the Afghan mujahideen of the 1980s and their Arab and non-Arab allies who later morphed into al-Qaeda and the TTP. This process was born in the shadows of a military regime that ruled Pakistan during the 1980s and hosted a seven-party alliance of Afghan mujahideen - called the Peshawar Seven - to destabilise Kabul under Soviet occupation. The regime's ideological tilt created room for fundamentalist groups to dominate the Afghan jihad, ultimately giving rise to the Taliban movement in 1994. By 1996, when Taliban had captured Kabul and put an end to the Afghan civil war, the Arab Wahhabi groups and Salafists who had earlier left for Africa, the Caucasus and the Balkans began to pour back into the Pakistan-Afghanistan region, thereby completing the toxic mix that has characterised local militancy in the region. Since 9/11, the number and numerical strength of these groups has multiplied, and many of them have Pakistan - an ally in the US-led "war on terror" - near the top of their hit-list. Earlier this year, Pakistan's interior minister Chaudhry Nisar told parliament the main TTP movement included more than 35 groups. Later, a security policy document listed around 60 groups that successive Pakistani governments had proscribed since the late 1990s. But there are dozens of others - all vying for limelight and funds. Most of them have local interests. They are natives of the areas under their control, and tend to organise into regional groups to form territorial entities. They are often named after their top commander or their area of operation, such as the Mullah Nazir group, or the Mohmand Taliban. Others have broader ideological aims. They mostly comprise fighters from Punjab province with a background in the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) which exists to wipe out Shia Muslims. These fighters have links with al-Qaeda and its affiliates, especially the TTP and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). They move in and out of larger groups either due to tactical or operational reasons, ideological considerations or internal group rivalries. Many shine for brief periods, then fade away only to re-emerge in new avatars.

इस्लामिक स्टेट का समर्थन करने के लिए पाकिस्तानी तालिबान (टी. टी. पी.) के प्रवक्ता शाहिदुल्ला शाहिद की बर्खास्तगी पहले से ही खंडित आतंकवादी आंदोलन में विभाजन का नवीनतम संकेत है। एम इलियास खान की रिपोर्ट के अनुसार, वर्षों से पाकिस्तान के विद्रोहियों ने अलग-अलग समूहों और गुटों की एक विस्मयकारी श्रृंखला को जन्म दिया है।


Workers taken off Shell's Brent Alpha platform after container incident

Summary: More than 50 workers are being taken off a North Sea oil platform following an accident which left a container close to subsea pipelines.

The incident happened just before 18:00 on Sunday on Shell's Brent Alpha, 115 miles north east of Lerwick. The container was being winched to a standby vessel at the time. It remains attached to a crane by rope and has been secured to prevent it sinking onto the seabed. No-one was injured. A total of 54 people were expected to leave the platform on Monday, with 28 remaining on board. Shell said the Brent Alpha and Bravo platforms were already shut down as part of ongoing maintenance. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has been informed.

एक दुर्घटना के बाद उत्तरी सागर के तेल प्लेटफॉर्म से 50 से अधिक श्रमिकों को हटाया जा रहा है, जो एक कंटेनर को उपसागर पाइपलाइनों के पास छोड़ गया था।


Penrith pedestrian crash driver, 90, dies

Summary: A 90-year old man, whose car hit and seriously injured a pedestrian, has died.

The man's silver Mercedes mounted the pavement in Market Square, Penrith on Monday afternoon, crashing into two cars and a woman in her 50s. The woman is in a critical but stable condition in hospital with life-changing injuries, Cumbria Police said. The man, from Penrith, was taken to hospital after the crash and died in the early hours of the morning. Police are appealing for witnesses who may have dashcam footage of what happened.

एक 90 वर्षीय व्यक्ति, जिसकी कार ने एक पैदल यात्री को टक्कर मार दी और गंभीर रूप से घायल कर दिया, की मृत्यु हो गई है।


Imlonely: How a YouTube music channel became a mental health hub

Summary: Among the thousands of music channels on YouTube there is one like no other. Imlonely started as a musical diary for one person but became a mental health community providing support to thousands of young people going through their toughest times.

By Drew Miller HyndmanBBC Ouch "What I'd name them actually is family," says Hunter, of the people who follow his imlonely YouTube channel. "They feel like they're part of something." Hunter, 23, from Wales, has anxiety and started to remix popular tracks and upload them to his channel depending on how he felt at the time. "I just started it as a mood board for myself," he says. "My taste in music has always been based on feeling rather than genre." But what started as a "hobby" rapidly grew. His mixes started to accumulate millions of views and hundreds of thousands of people subscribed to his channel, mostly aged between 13 and 24. Sometimes his tracks created a relaxed mood like his mix of Best Part by Daniel Caesar while his Ariana Grande mix was uplifting - it was viewed seven million times. People started to comment on his videos about how the songs resonated with them, sharing how they felt, and providing support to each other. Almost by accident Hunter had created a space for members to be open about their feelings and mental health. Just clicking on a video reveals a string of supportive comments: "It gets better", "You are amazing", "Keep going". You don't have to scroll far to see who they're talking to. People share their struggles openly: "Is it just me who is all happy during the day but, when night comes, you let all of your emotion out? I'm crying every night at the moment and I don't know why." Another reads: "I stayed up all night overthinking and beating myself up with no control over it but this [Imlonely] helped me calm down and focus." One of those who turned to Imlonely is Monica, an 18-year-old student from the Philippines, who visited Imlonely for the music but says it got her through one of the toughest periods of her life. "The community really helped me a lot, especially during 2019. That really was the worst year of my life, so my mental health was so unstable around that time." At the beginning of 2019, Monica's little sister was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease and needed a transplant, which improved her health for a short time. Soon after, however, her sister's health deteriorated and Monica had to administer dialysis and commit hours every day to her sister's care. "I barely got sleep, barely got time for myself since I had to do so many things. One of the only things I could do though was listen to music. "That's probably why the channel really helped me a lot. I couldn't forget the countless nights I had when I was awake at 03:00-04:00 running errands to buy medicine, listening to Imlonely's YouTube videos. It brought comfort to me." At the end of 2019, Monica's sister passed away, leaving Monica "at the lowest of my lows". But the channel continued to be a source of comfort and she now says she wants to be happy for her sister. "I'm really happy to say that the channel has really helped me a lot. It brought me comfort and happiness around the time when I was so depressed and helpless. I've also realised that in the littlest things, one can truly be happy, so I'm glad that I found the channel." Hunter knows from the statistics YouTube provides that he has a young audience, and he thinks this is what has brought so many people together. "A lot of people don't have anyone to talk to at home or school," he says. "They'll vent about problems they're having with friends or parents. Personally, if I had something like that, back when I was younger, I feel like I wouldn't have had anywhere near as many problems as I did with feeling anxious and not talking about it." Dr John Naslund, an instructor in global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School, has researched peer-to-peer support on social media and studied groups similar to Imlonely. "One of the first studies I did was to look at the comments posted on these types of YouTube videos, to break down some of the misconceptions that it's entirely a negative environment, actually, there's really, really positive energy on these groups." He says interactions like these can help "destigmatise" mental health and that for many people "going online and finding stories of other people who've had similar experiences can be incredibly validating and inspiring". These experiences are echoed by Morgan, a 17-year-old student from the UK, who came for the music but was drawn in by a community she identified with. "I kinda (sic) fell down the rabbit hole of reading the comment section and realised there are so many people out there that I can relate to and those who encourage positivity. The comment section just has a nice vibe, it's comfortable, I guess? Like home." Listening to the music helped her stay calm and have a "healthier mindset" but the comments left by the community helped show her other people were going through similar experiences. "It opened my eyes a bit more and helped me distinguish between reality and my overthinking as well, because sometimes I assume everything is the worst it can be and my life is a shambles but then I realise it's not so bad after all and what I feel is more common than I thought. "I'm not alone." Spending time online talking to people about her experiences also encouraged Morgan to open up to some of her friends outside of the channel. While Imlonely began life as an outlet for one person to express themselves it has become a global community of support. For more disability news, follow BBC Ouch on Twitter and Facebook and subscribe to the weekly podcast on BBC Sounds. Related Internet Links imlonely - YouTube

यूट्यूब पर हजारों संगीत चैनलों में से एक ऐसा है जो किसी और की तरह नहीं है। इमलोनली ने एक व्यक्ति के लिए एक संगीत डायरी के रूप में शुरुआत की, लेकिन एक मानसिक स्वास्थ्य समुदाय बन गया जो अपने सबसे कठिन समय से गुजर रहे हजारों युवाओं को सहायता प्रदान कर रहा था।


Hilbre Islands: Walkers trapped by tides rescued

Summary: Thirty-one people, including nine children, were rescued after getting stranded by tides off the Wirral coast.

Wirral Coastguard said West Kirby Lifeboat had to make multiple trips to the Hilbre Islands as people were cut off by incoming tides over the weekend. Two dogs also had to be rescued by crews, it added. The coastguard urged walkers to check tide times before setting off for the Hilbre Islands after the record number of rescues over 48 hours. Made up of three tidal islands - Little Eye, Middle Eye and Hilbre Island - they are an important site for bird watchers and offer panoramic views across the River Dee estuary to North Wales and Wirral coastlines.

विर्रल तट पर ज्वार-भाटा में फंसे होने के बाद नौ बच्चों सहित इकतीस लोगों को बचाया गया।


'Goosebumps' for Invictus Games captain Mark 'Dot' Perkins

Summary: Serviceman Mark "Dot" Perkins was seriously injured in Kenya 18 years ago when his vehicle rolled over after spinning out of control on oil. He survived but two of his colleagues died. The accident brought to an end his career in the Army as a corporal with the Royal Signals. After going through some struggles, he retrained to become a physiotherapist and one of his clients inspired him to take part in the Invictus Games - an international event created by Prince Harry, for wounded, injured or sick armed services personnel to take part in sports. And this weekend, Mark, from Cardiff, will lead Team UK out at the 2018 Games in Sydney. Here is his story.

The Invictus Games is something you don't really want to be eligible to compete in but I got injured in 2000. I was on exercise in Kenya. We had to travel across Kenya. It was a long 15-hour drive and just near the end our vehicle hit some oil and spun out of control. The vehicle rolled over and landed on three of us, and I was the only survivor. It was hard enough dealing with my survival guilt but on top of that I had my hip replaced on numerous occasions and I've damaged all the nerve in my leg so I can't feel from my knee below. I had to learn to walk again numerous times and I also had to think about a new career as I lost my Army career. I retrained as a physiotherapist and I rehab injured soldiers - one of them was who I saw [taking part] in the 2016 Invictus Games. It's come full circle for me that someone I've helped recover has helped inspire me to go on to further my recovery as well. 'Lost a part of me' My life was very active and very fun and then it was all taken away overnight. It was a real hard one to understand and to take on board really, which for me was the biggest loss. Then to remove myself from the military once my medical discharge came through, I lost all of my group of friends as well, not just my career. I felt I'd lost part of me and I did turn to drink as an answer to overcoming the pain I was in and overcoming the social situation that I'd lost. That's where my journey started off and then I concentrated on my new career. To see a person that I had rehabed in the 2016 Invictus Games was a huge success and a heart-warming feeling that I'd succeeded in my job. It was that light bulb moment that he caused me to think that I should be putting myself forward. The Invictus Games is a very unique environment. Elite sport creates a hero by one result but to go to the Invictus Games, everyone is a hero. We've all done something unique to get there and sadly something has gone a little bit awry. To find out I got into the team was phenomenal. It's a massive thing for my memories, for my future and for my family. That's what Invictus is about. It's about me and my team representing the UK and having my family there to support. To find out I've been elected to be captain, I had goosebumps from head to toe. Whether we've got physical scars or the intangible burden of mental illness, they are our scars as well, but that's our medals. So we're going to be going to the opening ceremony with our Union Jacks [on our tops] and our medals shown proudly. That's going to be huge, that's going to be quite emotional. Some people are going to be overwhelmed by it because we're not used to going out in front of crowds. We're used to going out in front of colleagues, comrades and doing the job. Doing the job professionally and doing the job to the best of our ability. Now we're going to be asked to do something outside our comfort zone and this is what's made it so exciting for everyone. We're enjoying being outside our comfort zones. During the build-up to Invictus, especially last year, I had a real struggle with thinking about the two that didn't make it that day. I messaged the ladies, the widows, that I was going for the captaincy and one of them came back with 'do it for yourself and for those who can't'. To read that was completely overwhelming. The other one said 'tell the story, that's how our boys get remembered' and it's completely true. When I read those messages you think 'that's the reason I'm doing this'.

सैनिक मार्क "डॉट" पर्किन्स 18 साल पहले केन्या में गंभीर रूप से घायल हो गए थे जब उनका वाहन तेल पर नियंत्रण से बाहर होने के बाद पलट गया था। वह बच गए लेकिन उनके दो सहयोगियों की मौत हो गई। दुर्घटना ने रॉयल सिग्नल्स के साथ एक शारीरिक के रूप में सेना में उनके करियर को समाप्त कर दिया। कुछ संघर्षों से गुजरने के बाद, उन्होंने एक फिजियोथेरेपिस्ट बनने के लिए फिर से प्रशिक्षण लिया और उनके एक ग्राहक ने उन्हें इनविक्टस गेम्स में भाग लेने के लिए प्रेरित किया-प्रिंस हैरी द्वारा बनाया गया एक अंतरराष्ट्रीय कार्यक्रम, घायल, घायल या बीमार सशस्त्र सेवा कर्मियों के लिए खेल में भाग लेने के लिए। और इस सप्ताह के अंत में, कार्डिफ के मार्क, सिडनी में 2018 खेलों में टीम यूके का नेतृत्व करेंगे। यहाँ उनकी कहानी है।


Man arrested for drug-driving at 100mph on A11

Summary: A man has been arrested after he was stopped for driving at 100mph (160km/h) and tested positive for cocaine and cannabis.

The driver was followed by officers on the A11 at Mildenhall, Suffolk, on Wednesday night. Norfolk and Suffolk roads police said the man's two-year-old child and partner were in the car. The arrest happened in the final hours of Suffolk Police's annual Christmas drink- and drug-driving campaign. Before the incident Suffolk Police said eight people started the new year in custody after being arrested for drink-and drug-driving offences. Related Internet Links Suffolk Constabulary

100 मील प्रति घंटे (160 किमी/घंटा) की रफ्तार से गाड़ी चलाने के लिए रोके जाने और कोकीन और भांग के लिए सकारात्मक परीक्षण के बाद एक व्यक्ति को गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


When will US interest rates rise again?

Summary: Perhaps the playwright Samuel Beckett was a secret economist.

By Andrew WalkerBBC World Service economics correspondent We are about to enjoy (!) the next act in the absurdist drama "Waiting for the Fed" (to raise interest rates again). Truth be told, we can be fairly sure how this scene will play out. Once again no increase in rates. Perhaps Godot will turn up first. The Fed is holding a policy making meeting and an interest rate rise is in theory at least on the agenda. Janet Yellen, the Fed Chair, and her colleagues would like to get rates back to more normal levels. The Fed currently aims to keep its main policy rate (the rates banks offer to lend to each other overnight) within a range of 0.25% to 0.5%. They raised it to that level in December last year, from practically zero where it had been since the depth of the financial crisis. But nobody expects they will hike rates at this meeting, largely because of the very weak performance of the jobs market in May. The number in employment rose by only 38,000, the fewest since September 2010. Because the US population is growing, the number of people with jobs has to rise by more than that just to keep pace. Employment growth in April was better, but still not all that strong. It's true that the unemployment rate fell markedly in May, to 4.7% from 5%. But this was due to a decline in the number of people looking for work. They are counted as "not in the labour force" rather than unemployed, even if they would like to have a job. In a recent speech, Ms Yellen described the May jobs report as disappointing and concerning. She did, however, manage to find one encouraging thing; a faster increase in average hourly earnings. After a long period in which the economic recovery has failed to have much of a favourable impact on pay it was, she said, "a welcome indication that wage growth may finally be picking up". Inflation is another factor that encourages the Fed to feel it has no need to rush the next rate rise. The latest figure for the inflation measure the Fed prefers was 1.1% in April, compared with its 2% target. One bad month? That it is so low reflects some transitory factors, including the strength of the dollar (which makes imported goods cheaper) and the decline in energy prices over the last two years. But in time, those factors cease to have a direct impact, so Ms Yellen expects inflation to move back towards 2%. She also said that it's important not to attach too much significance to a single monthly jobs report. In short, a good report next month could bring interest rate rises a lot closer. So while investors think the date of the next rate increase has gone further into the future as a result of the May jobs data, the Fed is always ready to change its plans if new figures change the picture. Long term picture Looking at the US economy from a longer term perspective, it is a remarkable state of affairs that we should have rates still so close to record lows in a recovery that has been underway for several years. The US economy started to grow again in the second half of 2009. Since then it has expanded in 25 out of 27 quarters. The production of goods and services, GDP, is 10% higher than the pre-recession peak, and it's 15% up from the low it reached during the downturn. There has, however, been a slowdown in the growth of productivity in the US, which pre-dates the recession. The labour market has also gained strength despite May's disappointment. The unemployment rate is now 4.7%, compared to 10% in October 2009. The number of people with jobs has increased by 14 million from its low point in the aftermath of the financial crisis. But the US has not managed to get back to pre-crisis levels for the percentage of the working age population with jobs. The latest figure is just below 59%. In 2006 it was more than 63%. Some of the decline is due to long term factors. The US population is ageing; many of the baby boomer generation are retiring. More young people are taking post-secondary education. The recession and its lingering after effects also had an impact. The Bureau of Labor Statistics in the US publishes figures on the number of people who want to work but haven't looked in the last four weeks, and for people working part-time who would like longer hours. A long way This group, plus those who are officially classified as unemployed, add up to what is sometimes called "slack in the labour market"; people who want to work but aren't. The numbers have declined markedly over the last few years, although one of the concerning things about the May report was a reversal on one aspect; there were more people wanting longer hours. Nonetheless Ms Yellen said in her recent speech: "I believe we are now close to eliminating the slack that has weighed on the labour market since the recession". The US economy has come a long way from the panic of late 2008. The Fed's interest rate policy has started the journey back to normality. But it will be very slow. And the US can't be considered immune to turbulence that might hit the global economy.

शायद नाटककार सैमुअल बेकेट एक गुप्त अर्थशास्त्री थे।


Jersey pension to go up by £3.64 per week

Summary: Jersey's state pension is to go up by £3.64 per week from October, according to the social security minister.

Senator Francis Le Gresley said the government had agreed to a new way of working out the pension rate to tie it in to cost-of-living changes. He said: "We either use the pensioners' RPI index, which was 1.6%, or the midpoint between that and average earnings index, which was 2.2%." The weekly pension will be increased by 1.9% to £193.40. There are more than 14,000 people of retirement age in Jersey. The age people can collect a state pension in Jersey is 65.

सामाजिक सुरक्षा मंत्री के अनुसार, अक्टूबर से जर्सी की राज्य पेंशन में प्रति सप्ताह 3.64 पाउंड की वृद्धि होगी।


The mystery of the stolen Klimt

Summary: Nearly 20 years ago a valuable portrait was stolen, in bizarre circumstances, from a gallery in the northern Italian city of Piacenza. Until recently there appeared to be little prospect of it ever being recovered - but then police received some perplexing new information, and they now think it will be back in the city within weeks or months.

By Max ParadisoPiacenza Carabiniere Sgt Maj Salvatore Cavallaro was on a ladder looking out on to the roof of Piacenza's Ricci-Oddi gallery through a partially open skylight. "It doesn't fit," he shouted to his colleagues below, as he compared the size of a heavy gilded frame on the roof beside the skylight with the narrow opening. "No way the thief could have fished the painting from up here." You could just about imagine that a thief on the roof had hooked the frame on a line, and pulled it up to the ceiling - but that would have been no use. This was clearly not the exit through which the portrait by the Viennese turn-of-the-century artist Gustav Klimt had left the building. So why, on 22 February 1997, was the frame on the roof? Ten months earlier the Portrait of a Lady had been involved in a drama of a different kind, thanks to a sharp-eyed 18-year-old art student, Claudia Maga. While flipping through The Complete works of Gustav Klimt she had noticed a strong resemblance between The Lady and another Klimt painting, Portrait of a Young Lady, that had not been seen since 1912. "The Young Lady had a scarf and a hat but they both had in common the same glance over the left shoulder, the same smile and the same beauty spot on the left cheek," Maga says. She had photocopied and enlarged the two small photographs in the book, had drawn the profile of the Young Lady on tracing paper and put it on top of The Lady. "And that was it," she says. "The Lady was concealing another portrait beneath it, the only double portrait Klimt has ever painted." Maga got the gallery's former director, Ferdinando Arisi, interested in her theory. A few weeks later he picked her up from art school, drove her to the gallery, and removed the portrait from its frame. Wrapping it in brown paper they headed for the local hospital, where sure enough a series of X-rays revealed the dim shadow of the earlier work beneath the surface. The story behind the painting was the next surprise. Klimt had fallen madly in love with a young girl from Vienna, it was said, who had quickly become his muse. Then, when she suddenly died, he painted over her portrait to forget the pain of his loss. Piacenza was in ecstasy. A special exhibition was arranged to show off the painting in a new location close to the city hall. At the same time, the gallery was to be renovated, and many paintings started to be packed and moved into storage. Workers were coming and going. And when the Klimt itself went missing, no-one immediately realised. The gallery staff assumed it had been removed deliberately as part of the preparations for the new exhibition. "Then we received a phone call from the gallery," Sergeant Cavallaro says. "They muttered, 'We can't find The Lady.'" When he arrived on the scene, he says, "The doors of the gallery were open, people were going in and out, and the security system was switched off." Faced with the mysterious theft and no leads, the police were stumped. They asked a notorious local art thief for advice, but even he was unable to put them on the right track. Little progress had been made when, on 1 April 1997, border police intercepted a package on the Italian/French frontier at Ventimiglia. It was addressed to the former Italian PM Bettino Craxi, who was at the time hiding from the law in Hammamet, Tunisia. When they opened it, they found a Klimt. Stefano Fugazza the then director of the Ricci-Oddi gallery thought it was an April Fool's joke, but Arisi, his predecessor, was optimistic and keen to get to Ventimiglia straight away. "We drove madly to Ventimiglia," Fugazza writes in his diaries, "but the only thing we came back with was a speeding ticket." The painting looked convincing, but the smell of the oil paint was fresh. It wasn't the original, it was a high-quality forgery. There is another strange paragraph in Fugazza's diary. Days before the painting disappeared, he writes, he had contemplated the idea of talking to the carabinieri and, with their permission, pretending that the portrait had been stolen, in order to draw more attention to the forthcoming exhibition. "But now The Lady has gone for good," he adds, "and damned be the day I even thought of such a foolish and childish thing." Soon afterwards Cavallaro was assigned to other work and the case was closed. It remained closed until 2013, when the carabinieri made a fresh attempt to identify a fragment of a fingerprint found on the frame - in vain, as it turned out. But last summer a local journalist arranged a meeting between the new carabiniere investigator, Col Luca Pietranera, and an art thief he had got to know in one of Piacenza's many bars. And the thief turned out to be a mine of information. The thief told the colonel that he was the man the original investigators had asked for advice, back in February 1997, as they searched for the perpetrator of the theft. He then confessed that he was, in fact, the man who had carried out the theft and left the gilded frame on the roof as a coup de theatre. Then he explained that what he had stolen that day was in fact a copy. So what had happened to the real painting? "Oh well, I stole it months before anybody had noticed," the now elderly thief proudly tells me, when we meet in a cafe in Piacenza. A few months after the discovery of the double Klimt, around November 1996, he just walked into the gallery and replaced the original with a copy, he says. "Nobody blinked, nobody noticed. It was an easy and carefully planned inside job." He is now helping the carabinieri with their inquiries into a number of crimes, in return for immunity from prosecution. But why was it necessary to steal the copy, I ask the chain-smoking thief. This was done, he says, to hide the fact that it was a copy. The special exhibition would doubtless have brought Klimt experts from far and wide, one of whom would surely have spotted it was a fake - and this might have been disastrous for the gallery insider who had assisted with the theft. But the thief's most startling claim is that the painting will be returned by the 20th anniversary of the theft (or more accurately, the theft of the copy). In other words, by February next year. How he can know this is unclear. After all, by his own account, the painting was long ago sold by a dealer for a large quantity of cash and cocaine. But he confidently makes this prediction - and the carabinieri say he may well be correct. They are currently in contact with police in another European country where the painting is thought to be held in a private collection. The only thing they are not completely sure of is whether the painting they are now on the trail of is the original, or a copy. This, they say, they will only be able to confirm when they have it in their hands. Where are the copies? Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.

लगभग 20 साल पहले उत्तरी इटली के शहर पियाकेंज़ा की एक गैलरी से एक मूल्यवान चित्र चोरी हो गया था, विचित्र परिस्थितियों में। हाल तक इसके बरामद होने की संभावना बहुत कम थी-लेकिन फिर पुलिस को कुछ हैरान करने वाली नई जानकारी मिली, और अब उन्हें लगता है कि यह हफ्तों या महीनों के भीतर शहर में वापस आ जाएगा।


Man's death at Erdington home 'no longer suspicious'

Summary: The death of a man who was found at his home is no longer being treated as suspicious, police have said.

A 65-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder after the body of the 50-year-old was found on Kingsbury Road, Erdington, on Tuesday evening, Following a post mortem examination on Thursday, detectives said they believed the man had died as a result of head injuries. The arrested man will face no further action, West Midlands Police said. Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, and sign up for local news updates direct to your phone. Related Internet Links West Midlands Police

पुलिस ने कहा है कि अपने घर पर पाए गए एक व्यक्ति की मौत को अब संदिग्ध नहीं माना जा रहा है।


Fifty shades of publishing

Summary: I'm off to Edinburgh's Book Festival, as I write. It's 30 years old and the biggest of around 40 such bookfests around Scotland, stretching through the year and from Shetland to Wigtown, Scotland's national book town.

Douglas FraserBusiness and economy editor, Scotland They have been a big success in bringing authors and readers together, and showing the appetite for public debate on the issues tackled in books and beyond. Making that link is one of the key ways of selling books these days. The once solitary life of an author is now more often on the road, promoting and building audience for the next book. That's also one of the ways bookshops are fighting off the cut-throat cut-price battle with online retailers. Author events give readers an authentic experience. Bookshops are adding coffee and scones too, from which the margins are rather healthier than for the average paperback these days. Tricky time That much I've learned from researching this week's Business Scotland programme. Bookselling and book publishing are probably the sector that's faced the biggest impact from the challenge of technology. It was the first one to face the rivalry of Amazon for printed book sales. That was just as the industry came off the "net book agreement", which had long ensured that books in Britain could not be sold for less than the cover price. Allied to that has been the arrival of the downloaded e-book, in which Amazon has again been a key player, via its Kindle. Oh yes, and there's been a recession too. It's been a tricky time in the book trade, taking advantage of the opportunities from technology, while facing unprecedented challenges from it. Boddice-ripper Demonstrating the opportunities, EL James found, in publishing Fifty Shades of Grey, that you can by-pass reluctant publishers, fire up your boddice-ripper on free or very cheap software, and go straight to the customer. Her success has spawned a vast number of imitations, many erotic, and many not. Research recently showed these wannabes are mainly women and mainly over 40. Somehow, that much comes as no surprise. And hearing from Adrian Searle, publisher of Freight Books in Glasgow, a recent start-up that spun out from his graphic design firm, there's a world of difference between those unsolicited offerings by people who have trained in creative writing, and those who have not. He says there's also a job to be done by such publishers in letting hopeful first-time authors down gently. The job of the publisher is part-psychological counsellor. These manuscripts are not just commodities: they are the stuff of dreams, and of souls. Adrian, incidentally, argues that new publishers have to be born digital and born global. He defines himself as an English-language publisher rather than a Scottish one. Currency of quality So there are more titles than ever being published, even though self-publishing removes the publishers' role in quality control. And the cheapness of e-books has expanded the number of books being sold, though often very cheaply, with free offers of tantalising opening chapters, or daily deals for well under £1. That's great for expanding readership. It's not so good for maintaining the currency of quality writing. It's reckoned that only around 4% of published authors actually make their living out of it, and that's getting more difficult as these e-prices plummet. Phillip Jones, editor of The Bookseller, told me that e-book sales now account for around 20% of the total, though it's a much bigger share of crime, sci-fi and romantic fiction. Erotic fiction is probably over 50% downloaded. But even with the unpacking of so many tablets and e-readers last Christmas, Jones says the industry's a bit surprised that it hasn't seen as much growth as expected this year in areas where the printed book remains strong; non-fiction, literary fiction and children's. Finding niches Indeed, the resilience of printed children's books explains one response from booksellers; attract the kids in, and the parents and grandparents with them might be cajoled into buying something for themselves too. The two sides of the new technology ledger - opportunity and challenge - also extend to smaller operators finding niches. Waterstones, the last remaining national book chain, continues to struggle against Amazon, with yet more shop managers being shed. But indie shops can exploit those niches and reach the world. Adrian Turpin, director of the Wigtown Book Festival, pointed out that the 20 or so book-related businesses in the south-west booktown, don't have to rely on passing trade through the winter months when they can do their second-hand book sales online. Anyway, I'm nearly in Edinburgh's Waverley station, bracing myself for the Fringe-time assault of leaflet distributors. I'll leave you to listen to lots more about the publishing industry on the Business Scotland programme, either via BBC iPlayer or by free download.

मैं एडिनबर्ग के पुस्तक महोत्सव में जा रहा हूँ, जैसा कि मैं लिख रहा हूँ। यह 30 साल पुराना है और स्कॉटलैंड के आसपास लगभग 40 ऐसे पुस्तक समारोहों में से सबसे बड़ा है, जो पूरे वर्ष शेटलैंड से स्कॉटलैंड के राष्ट्रीय पुस्तक शहर विगटाउन तक फैला हुआ है।


New 20 mph speed limit introduced in Bath and North East Somerset

Summary: A 20mph speed limit is to be introduced across all residential areas in part of Somerset.

Bath and North East Somerset Council plans to introduce the £500,000 scheme across its area within two years. Following a short consultation process in each location, signs will be erected and roads marked. The limit will be introduced first in parts of Bath and larger towns in the area, followed by smaller towns and villages. The scheme is already in force in places including Lancashire, Oxford, Portsmouth, Liverpool, Manchester and various London boroughs.

समरसेट के हिस्से में सभी आवासीय क्षेत्रों में 20 मील प्रति घंटे की गति सीमा लागू की जानी है।


Putin's Olympic steamroller in Sochi

Summary: As you step off the plane at Adler-Sochi airport, you are immediately aware that you are in one of the biggest construction sites in the world. The airport itself is being completely renovated. Outside, near the drop-off area, giant Olympic rings are under construction.

By Daniel SandfordBBC News, Sochi From the airport, you can head north on the 40km (25-mile) drive into the mountains, up a once-beautiful valley now dominated by a half-built new highway and railway. Or you can head south to the coast, to the enormous Olympic Park built next to the Black Sea, where huge trucks and cranes are omnipresent. This is already officially the most expensive Olympics ever. The estimated $50bn (£32bn; 37bn euros) budget is more than the Beijing Olympics, three times the London summer Olympics, and 25 times the last Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The Russian taxpayer is meeting much of the bill, but parts of it are being paid by the "oligarchs", the country's wealthiest men. For example Russia's 14th-richest man, Oleg Deripaska, has paid for the airport and the new port built to bring in the construction materials. Vladimir Potanin, the fourth-richest, has built a brand new ski resort - from scratch - in a quiet valley in the Caucasus mountains. Vladimir Potanin made his billions in nickel, but has become well known for his philanthropy in recent years, supporting the arts and sport. But the $2bn he has spent constructing Rosa Khutor puts everything else into the shade. 'Legacy issue' As he showed off the resort (he is an accomplished skier) his enthusiasm was clear. He said the idea had first come to him more than 10 years ago. "We were skiing with President [Vladimir] Putin in Austria," he explained, "and there was talk that it would be good to have such resorts in Russia." At first the proposal was just to build a world-class ski resort, but then came the successful bid for the Winter Olympics. The budget grew from $300m to $2bn. He admitted that he might not get much return on his investment. "It's more a question of legacy," he said. "For my colleagues, I also think it is mostly the payback issue because we talk a lot in Russia about the question of whether it is fair or not that we have a lot of rich people. "It's not possible to change it overnight by paying some kind of fine or whatever. I think that the rich people have to work more for the country. And that's how they can change their image from somebody who is just rich to somebody who is doing something good for the country. Of course it is a payback, a legacy issue." But he did add that he was hoping to get some of the money back from the government. "With the hosting of the Olympics of course, the resort - Rosa Khutor - bears a lot of expenses which are not commercial and when and if these expenses are covered, the project is profitable," he said. Olympics 'hell' The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics is something of a personal project for President Putin, which perhaps explains the extraordinary no-expenses-spared policy that has allowed the budget to rocket past even Beijing. But part of the reason is also the lack of pre-existing facilities. There was no ski resort, no ski jump, no bobsled track, no skating rink and no railway or sizeable road joining the beachside Olympic Park,that will host the skating events, to the mountain areas, that will host the skiing and sliding events. But what has been created is something unique. A men's downhill ski-run with a view of the sea, and a collection of skating rinks set among the palm trees of a Black Sea resort. It has not been without pain, though. Lyudmila Yakovenko and her husband and two sons used to live in a house by the beach but the home was demolished to make way for the Olympic Park. Now they live in a scruffy rented garage with blankets hung across the door to keep them warm, and one room upstairs. "We lived on the beach," she said. "We had our own backyard, a garden, flowers. We could see the sea from our windows. We grew up on the beach. Now our kids are growing up, and we hoped that their lives would be the same. But it all changed. They took away our family home, they took everything. "My older son keeps asking me: 'Why are we living like this?' and I say: 'Because of the Olympics'." She claims she has been compensated for only half the value of her old home. On a hillside with a view of the Olympic Park, Tatiana Skiba surveyed the ruins of her home. She and her husband and son and daughter moved there 18 years ago, and lived in a wooden house while they built an impressive new one. But one night they were woken up by what seemed to be an earthquake. The house was shifting ominously under their bed. When they went outside they realised the whole hillside was on the move. It turned out that further up the hill there was an illegal dump where vast amounts of concrete and rubble from the Olympics site had been tipped. Her old house is a wreck, and her new one leans dramatically to one side. "If this hadn't happened, I might have enjoyed the Olympics," she said. "But now the Olympics is hell for me and for everyone who lives along this street. It is hell and we feel very bitter towards the government. Even if it is prestigious for the country to host the Games it is a calamity, a real calamity." This winter, athletes have been flooding to Sochi for a series of test events. They can see the disruption, and feel for the residents. But they also understand that next year's Games could be something special. Elise Christie, the short track speed skater who is one of Britain's best medal hopes in 2014, has just secured her World Cup victory in Sochi and is looking forward to the Games "I think it will be one of the best ones," she predicted. "Just now it maybe doesn't looks like it's ready, but that is because they are building everything from scratch."

जैसे ही आप एडलर-सोची हवाई अड्डे पर विमान से उतरते हैं, आपको तुरंत पता चलता है कि आप दुनिया के सबसे बड़े निर्माण स्थलों में से एक में हैं। हवाई अड्डे का पूरी तरह से नवीनीकरण किया जा रहा है। बाहर, ड्रॉप-ऑफ क्षेत्र के पास, विशाल ओलंपिक रिंग निर्माणाधीन हैं।


The Drums to continue as 'three-piece'

Summary: The Drums have said they'll continue as a three-piece after the departure of guitarist Adam Kessler.

A statement from the Brooklyn-based band said they were "sad" at the split and that they have been "distressed by recent events". It added: "Despite recent reports, we haven't replaced anyone." The Drums, who are currently on tour in the US, added that they have begun work on the follow-up to this year's self-titled debut album.

ड्रम ने कहा है कि वे गिटारवादक एडम केसलर के जाने के बाद तीन टुकड़ों के रूप में जारी रखेंगे।


Ramadan: Muslims fast under coronavirus lockdowns

Summary: Millions of Muslims around the world have found different ways to celebrate Ramadan this year, as restrictions imposed by countries to curb the spread of the coronavirus have closed mosques and banned gatherings.

This is when the world's 1.8 billion Muslims abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex from dawn to dusk. Families and friends usually gather to break the fast and many attend prayers. This year, however, people are having to mark the holy month at home instead. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and it started on or around Thursday. In parts of the world particularly hard hit by the virus, this year's celebrations are tinged with sadness. Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound has been closed to worshippers since mid-March and will not open during Ramadan. Even Islam's holiest site in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, has been affected by the pandemic. All images subject to copyright.

दुनिया भर के लाखों मुसलमानों ने इस साल रमजान मनाने के अलग-अलग तरीके खोजे हैं, क्योंकि कोरोनावायरस के प्रसार को रोकने के लिए देशों द्वारा लगाए गए प्रतिबंधों ने मस्जिदों को बंद कर दिया है और सभाओं पर प्रतिबंध लगा दिया है।


Devon and Cornwall flood alert as rain sweeps in

Summary: People living near a number of Devon and Cornwall rivers are being warned about flooding on Sunday night with heavy rain expected over the counties.

The Met Office is forecasting up to 3in (80mm) of rain for parts of the South West over the next 48 hours. The Environment Agency said the Teign, Dart, Exe, Otter, Axe and Torridge rivers could be affected by the rain. The Yealm, Tamar and Tavy rivers might also start to rise, the agency has warned. The Environment Agency said: "Significant disruption, including disruption to travel and flooding of properties and communities, is possible. "Strong winds will increase the risk of flooding as wind-blown debris has the potential to block watercourses and drains."

कई डेवोन और कॉर्नवाल नदियों के पास रहने वाले लोगों को रविवार की रात को बाढ़ के बारे में चेतावनी दी जा रही है और काउंटी में भारी बारिश होने की उम्मीद है।