Slave markets found on Instagram and other apps

Summary: Drive around the streets of Kuwait and you won't see these women. They are behind closed doors, deprived of their basic rights, unable to leave and at risk of being sold to the highest bidder.

By Owen Pinnell & Jess KellyBBC News Arabic But pick up a smartphone and you can scroll through thousands of their pictures, categorised by race, and available to buy for a few thousand dollars. An undercover investigation by BBC News Arabic has found that domestic workers are being illegally bought and sold online in a booming black market. Some of the trade has been carried out on Facebook-owned Instagram, where posts have been promoted via algorithm-boosted hashtags, and sales negotiated via private messages. Other listings have been promoted in apps approved and provided by Google Play and Apple's App Store, as well as the e-commerce platforms' own websites. "What they are doing is promoting an online slave market," said Urmila Bhoola, the UN special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery. "If Google, Apple, Facebook or any other companies are hosting apps like these, they have to be held accountable." After being alerted to the issue, Facebook said it had banned one of the hashtags involved. Google and Apple said they were working with app developers to prevent illegal activity. The illegal sales are a clear breach of the US tech firms' rules for app developers and users. However, the BBC has found there are many related listings still active on Instagram, and other apps available via Apple and Google. Slave market Nine out of 10 Kuwaiti homes have a domestic worker - they come from some of the poorest parts of the world to the Gulf, aiming to make enough money to support their family at home. Posing as a couple newly arrived in Kuwait, the BBC Arabic undercover team spoke to 57 app users and visited more than a dozen people who were trying to sell them their domestic worker via a popular commodity app called 4Sale. The sellers almost all advocated confiscating the women's passports, confining them to the house, denying them any time off and giving them little or no access to a phone. The 4Sale app allowed you to filter by race, with different price brackets clearly on offer, according to category. "African worker, clean and smiley," said one listing. Another: "Nepalese who dares to ask for a day off." When speaking to the sellers, the undercover team frequently heard racist language. "Indians are the dirtiest," said one, describing a woman being advertised. Human rights violated The team were urged by app users, who acted as if they were the "owners" of these women, to deny them other basic human rights, such as giving them a "day or a minute or a second" off. One man, a policeman, looking to offload his worker said: "Trust me she's very nice, she laughs and has a smiley face. Even if you keep her up till 5am she won't complain." He told the BBC team how domestic workers were used as a commodity. "You will find someone buying a maid for 600 KD ($2,000), and selling her on for 1,000 KD ($3,300)," he said. He suggested how the BBC team should treat her: "The passport, don't give it to her. You're her sponsor. Why would you give her her passport?" In one case, the BBC team was offered a 16-year-old girl. It has called her Fatou to protect her real name. Fatou had been trafficked from Guinea in West Africa and had been employed as a domestic worker in Kuwait for six months, when the BBC discovered her. Kuwait's laws say that domestic workers must be over 21. Her seller's sales pitch included the facts that she had given Fatou no time off, her passport and phone had been taken away, and she had not allowed her to leave the house alone - all of which are illegal in Kuwait. Sponsor's permission "This is the quintessential example of modern slavery," said Ms Bhoola. "Here we see a child being sold and traded like chattel, like a piece of property." In most places in the Gulf, domestic workers are brought into the country by agencies and then officially registered with the government. Potential employers pay the agencies a fee and become the official sponsor of the domestic worker. Under what is known as the Kafala system, a domestic worker cannot change or quit her job, nor leave the country without her sponsor's permission. In 2015, Kuwait introduced some of the most wide-ranging laws to help protect domestic workers. But the law was not popular with everyone. Apps including 4Sale and Instagram enable employers to sell the sponsorship of their domestic workers to other employers, for a profit. This bypasses the agencies, and creates an unregulated black market which leaves women more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. This online slave market is not just happening in Kuwait. In Saudi Arabia, the investigation found hundreds of women being sold on Haraj, another popular commodity app. There were hundreds more on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. 'Real hell' The BBC team travelled to Guinea to try to contact the family of Fatou, the child they had discovered being offered for sale in Kuwait. Every year hundreds of women are trafficked from here to the Gulf as domestic workers. "Kuwait is really a hell," said one former maid, who recalled being made to sleep in the same place as cows by the woman who employed her. "Kuwaiti houses are very bad," said another. "No sleep, no food, nothing." Fatou was found by the Kuwaiti authorities and taken to the government-run shelter for domestic workers. Two days later she was deported back to Guinea for being a minor. She told the BBC about her experience working in three households during her nine months in Kuwait: "They used to shout at me and call me an animal. It hurt, it made me sad, but there was nothing I could do." Now she is back at school in Conakry, where the BBC visited her. "I am so happy," she said. "Even now, talking about it, I'm still happy. My life is better now. I feel like I'm coming back from slavery." Hashtag removed The Kuwaiti government says it is "at war with this kind of behaviour" and insisted the apps would be "heavily scrutinised". To date, no significant action has been taken against the platforms. And there has not been any legal action against the woman who tried to sell Fatou. The seller has not responded to the BBC's request for comment. Since the BBC team contacted the apps and tech companies about their findings, 4Sale has removed the domestic worker section of its platform. Facebook said it had banned the Arabic hashtag "خادمات للتنازل#" - which translates as "#maidsfortransfer". "We will continue to work with law enforcement, expert organisations and industry to prevent this behaviour on our platforms," added a Facebook spokesman. There was no comment from the Saudi commodity app, Haraj. Google said it was "deeply troubled by the allegations". "We have asked BBC to share additional details so we can conduct a more in-depth investigation," it added. "We are working to ensure that the app developers put in place the necessary safeguards to prevent individuals from conducting this activity on their online marketplaces." Apple said it "strictly prohibited" the promotion of human trafficking and child exploitation in apps made available on its marketplace. "App developers are responsible for policing the user-generated content on their platforms," it said. "We work with developers to take immediate corrective actions whenever we find any issues and, in extreme cases, we will remove the app from the Store. "We also work with developers to report any illegalities to local law enforcement authorities." The firms continue to distribute the 4Sale and Haraj apps, however, on the basis that their primary purpose is to sell legitimate goods and services. 4Sale may have tackled the problem, but at the time of publication, hundreds of domestic workers were still being traded on Haraj, Instagram and other apps which the BBC has seen.

कुवैत की सड़कों पर गाड़ी चलाएँ और आप इन महिलाओं को नहीं देखेंगे। वे बंद दरवाजों के पीछे हैं, अपने बुनियादी अधिकारों से वंचित हैं, जाने में असमर्थ हैं और सबसे अधिक बोली लगाने वाले को बेचे जाने का खतरा है।


By Sean CoughlanEducation correspondent This is the question that's been chosen by the BBC News audience - and it is a very immediate concern for hundreds of thousands of families wrestling with university application forms. Of course, on the idealistic side of things, what really matters is that someone is following a course that they really like and in a place that suits their needs. But there are thornier worries about the cost of university and how much degrees are worth after graduation. The evidence suggests that going to university remains a good investment. Organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have tracked whether the rising number of students will erode the benefits in the jobs market. So far it seems that the graduates have kept their advantage. A changing jobs market has generated more opportunities for graduates and people who went to university are likely to be earning more and are less likely to be unemployed. Why Sean wrote this: We asked readers to send in their questions about university education. The favourite which you selected was this question from Kirsty: "Does it really matter which university you study at?" Kirsty has three daughters, one currently at university, another planning to go and a third looking to university in the future, so as she says "It's a question we're currently trying to answer. "Some universities are going to charge higher fees, does this mean we can compare by price? But then will a degree in mathematics from a more expensive university be different in any way? Will future opportunities really depend on the university we choose? "It seems the more we've tried to answer this question the more questions arise." Take a look at some of the other questions you've wanted us to answer Women in particular are likely to benefit economically from being graduates, with a big advantage in earnings compared with women without degrees. But the next question is whether all universities will deliver similar rewards. There are all kinds of social rewards and intellectual pleasures of university life, which cannot be chopped up and counted. But the financial rewards can be measured and they vary significantly between different universities. Earning power The Institute for Fiscal Studies, Cambridge University, Harvard University and the Institute of Education, UCL published research on graduate earnings in England earlier this year. It analysed the incomes of 260,000 graduates and showed a very wide spectrum of likely earnings. At the top was a cluster of universities, headed by the London School of Economics, Oxford and Cambridge. In these three institutions, 10% of their male graduates had earnings above £100,000 a decade after leaving university. The LSE was the only place where 10% of female graduates were also in this top earning bracket. There is an earnings pecking order - with about another 30 or so universities, not identified by name, where 10% of graduates are earning above £60,000. And at the bottom, there are some more awkward figures. There are 23 universities where male graduates are likely to end up earning less than non-graduates - and there are nine universities where that is also the case for women. But there is another important factor cutting across this - the differences between subjects. Healthy income Students taking courses such as medicine, economics, law and maths are likely to be earning much more than the average graduate. And artists are really going to be struggling in their garrets, as graduates from creative arts courses are likely to be earning less than the average non-graduate. The combination of these two factors is going to decide the likely financial benefits - the university and choice of subject. But researchers highlight some other questions muddying the waters. Students do not enter university unshaped by what went before. How much of higher earnings in later life might be linked to coming from high-income parents, rather than anything to do with higher education? A key finding of the income research was that graduates from wealthy families ended up earning more than than those from poorer families, even if they studied the same course at the same university. But there is no escaping the growing sense of stratification in the university sector and differences in status. Status symbols Belonging to the Russell Group has become a kind of self-conferred status symbol for its membership. Although this might sound venerable, it has only existed since the mid-1990s and began life as a group of heads of universities with medical schools, who met at London's Russell Hotel. But it has sharpened a sense of difference. University rankings have also become very influential, further encouraging the idea of a hierarchy of quality. Even if academics are sceptical about the reliability of such rankings, they will be scrutinised by students applying to university and it becomes almost self-fulfilling. The appetite for such rankings also reflects the growing numbers of students going to university - and the need to distinguish between different types of degree. University-blind admissions Young people are now more likely to get a degree than they were to get five good O-levels in the early 1980s. And where once it would have been a success to get into any university, it is now increasingly a question of which university. But if this sounds like a growing polarisation, with top earnings and status clustering around a few elite institutions, there is something of a backlash from employers. A succession of big graduate employers have moved towards hiring students in a way that masks which university and school they attended. This might be presented as advancing the cause of social mobility - but it is also about the self-interest of companies. Speaking privately, employers will say if they're fighting for business in diverse, inner-city communities, they do not want to send in a line-up of Oxbridge clones. But for teenagers struggling with application forms for university, how are they meant to choose between similar sounding institutions? They might say that all degrees are equal, but some are more equal than others. Join the conversation - find us on Facebook

"क्या यह वास्तव में मायने रखता है कि आप किस विश्वविद्यालय में पढ़ते हैं?"


Assisted dying debate: Tony Nicklinson in his own words

Summary: Tony Nicklinson was left paralysed and with locked-in syndrome by a stroke seven years ago. The 58-year-old wants a doctor to be able to lawfully end his life. A four-day hearing into his case is being heard at the High Court. Here Mr Nicklinson, from Wiltshire, explains why he wants to change the current law on murder and euthanasia.

By Caroline Le MarechalBBC News, Bristol I have locked-in syndrome and it makes my life a living nightmare. I cannot speak and I am also paralysed below the neck, which means I need someone to do everything for me. For example, 90% of itches have to be endured because by the time someone comes to scratch it and I have laboriously explained where it is, the itch has gone. Now I just put up with them. Or there is the screaming frustration of wanting to make a point but knowing that the only way I can express my opinion, by the board or computer, are useless in normal conversation. Another example is having your teeth cleaned by someone else. It is a horrible experience and I doubt you would want it done more than once a day. I could go on. 'Murder law' However, all these things are physical and arguably one can learn to live with them. What I find impossible to live with is the knowledge that, unlike you, I have no way out - suicide - when this life gets too much to bear. I do not say these things to get your sympathy but to get justice. It cannot be acceptable in 21st Century Britain that I am denied the right to take my own life just because I am physically handicapped. Assisted dying is a controversial issue which aims to help people to die who are physically unable to take their own life or who can take their own life but want help to do so. I must declare an interest because I am unable to take my own life. I require amendment to the murder law to make it lawful in certain circumstances for one person to take another's life (euthanasia) and [this] is the substance of my imminent court hearing. Despite moments of gloom at the enormity of my task, I am kept going by the fundamental injustice of my circumstances and the need for change so that others won't have to endure such indignities if they don't want to. We are all individuals and each person deserves an individual solution to his particular circumstances. A one-size-fits-all solution of better care and more of it, such as opponents advocate, is clearly not the answer. The option of assisted dying should be available. It is astonishing that in 1969 we could put a man on the Moon yet in 2012 we still cannot devise adequate rules governing assisted dying. 'Apocalyptic future' Many opponents of assisted dying object because they think it is wrong to take your own or another's life. Recently I asked such people if there was anything I could say to make them change their mind. They both replied there wasn't. I even suggested to one some safeguards for his approval or otherwise. He totally ignored the question. Clearly any discussion with them is a complete waste of time. Much has been said about the part care plays in assisted dying and the argument is essentially that better care and more of it will expunge all thoughts of taking one's own life. This was said of me on a prestigious national radio programme back in February. I invited the speaker to visit so that she could tell me to my face what I am missing. So far all she has come up with is a number of excuses not to visit. Draw your own conclusions. The only argument used by the opponents that I can see is to paint an apocalyptic picture of the future if assisted dying is legalised. They often use Holland as the way it would be in the UK, with 10 and 12-year-olds asking for and getting help to die and old people being killed without them asking for it. All this and more is apparently done with the blessing of the population and with the authorities turning a blind eye to this orgy of unlawful killing. Curiously these opponents fail to explain why we should adopt a flawed system instead of learning from their mistakes. One aspect of the opponents' argument that makes my blood boil is the twisting of facts in order to scare ordinary people. This is illustrated by the following story. 'Mobile euthanasia vans' Last week an opponent told me in a dark, conspiratorial voice that in Holland they even had mobile euthanasia vans supposedly touring neighbourhoods looking to drum up business like an ice cream van. The truth is that the Dutch do indeed have such vans. They are mobile offices and are necessary because there are only so many doctors licensed to conduct assisted dying, so they go where requested to save elderly patients from having to travel to a clinic. Not quite the sinister purpose opponents would have you believe. In short, don't take anything an opponent might say at face value - they can't be trusted. For most people the debate is often remote from ordinary lives but for me, the debate on assisted dying is truly a matter of (an unhappy) life and (a pain-free) death. The next stroke could affect you or a loved one; would you be happy to end up like me?

टोनी निक्लिंसन सात साल पहले एक स्ट्रोक से लकवाग्रस्त हो गए थे और लॉक-इन सिंड्रोम से पीड़ित थे। 58 वर्षीय व्यक्ति चाहते हैं कि एक डॉक्टर उनके जीवन को कानूनी रूप से समाप्त करने में सक्षम हो। उनके मामले की चार दिवसीय सुनवाई उच्च न्यायालय में हो रही है। यहां विल्टशायर के श्री निक्लिंसन बताते हैं कि वह हत्या और इच्छामृत्यु पर वर्तमान कानून को क्यों बदलना चाहते हैं।


Delhi rapist says victim shouldn't have fought back

Summary: In 2012 an Indian student was violently raped on a moving bus in Delhi and died of horrific internal injuries. Leslee Udwin spoke to one of the rapists on death row while spending two years making a film about the case. She came away shocked by India's treatment of women - but inspired by those seeking change.

The horrifying details of the rape had led me to expect deranged monsters. Psychopaths. The truth was far more chilling. These were ordinary, apparently normal and certainly unremarkable men. On 16 December 2012, the 23-year-old woman had been to see a film, the Life of Pi, with a male friend. At 8.30pm they boarded an off-duty bus, with six men on board, five adults and a juvenile. The men beat the friend and each raped the woman in turn, before assaulting her viciously with an iron instrument. Mukesh Singh, the driver of the bus, described to me every detail of what happened during and after the incident. While prosecutors say the men took turns to drive the bus, and all took part in the rape, Singh says he stayed at the wheel throughout. Along with three of the other attackers, Singh is now appealing against his death sentence. In 16 hours of interviews, Singh showed no remorse and kept expressing bewilderment that such a fuss was being made about this rape, when everyone was at it. "A decent girl won't roam around at nine o'clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy," he said. "Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20% of girls are good." People "had a right to teach them a lesson" he suggested - and he said the woman should have put up with it. "When being raped, she shouldn't fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they'd have dropped her off after 'doing her', and only hit the boy," he said. Chillingly, he went on: "The death penalty will make things even more dangerous for girls. Now when they rape, they won't leave the girl like we did. They will kill her. Before, they would rape and say, 'Leave her, she won't tell anyone.' Now when they rape, especially the criminal types, they will just kill the girl. Death." I had the long and shocking list of injuries the young woman had sustained, read out to him. I tried, really hard, to search for a glimmer of regret. There was none. It would be easier to process this heinous crime if the perpetrators were monsters, and just the rotten apples in the barrel, aberrant in nature. Perhaps then, those of us who believe that capital punishment serves a purpose, and I am not among them, could wring their hands in relief when they hang. For me the truth couldn't be further from this - and perhaps their hanging will even mask the real problem, which is that these men are not the disease, they are the symptoms. My encounter with Singh and four other rapists left me feeling like my soul had been dipped in tar, and there were no cleaning agents in the world that could remove the indelible stain. One of the men I interviewed, Gaurav, had raped a five-year-old girl. I spent three hours filming his interview as he recounted in explicit detail how he had muffled her screams with his big hand. He was sitting throughout the interview and had a half-smile playing on his lips throughout - his nervousness in the presence of a camera, perhaps. At one point I asked him to tell me how tall she was. He stood up, and with his eerie half-smile indicated a height around his knees. When I asked him how he could cross the line from imagining what he wanted to do, to actually doing it - given her height, her eyes, her screams - he looked at me as though I was crazy for even asking the question and said: "She was beggar girl. Her life was of no value." These offences against women and girls are a part of the story, but the full story starts with a girl not being as welcome as a boy, from birth. When sweets are distributed at the birth of a boy, not of a girl. When the boy child is nourished more than the girl, when a girl's movements are restricted and her freedoms and choices are curtailed, when she is sent as a domestic slave to her husband's home… If a girl is accorded no value, if a girl is worth less than a boy, then it stands to reason there will be men who believe they can do what they like with them. I spoke to two lawyers who had defended the murderers of the 23-year-old student at their trial, and what they said was extremely revealing. "In our society, we never allow our girls to come out from the house after 6:30 or 7:30 or 8:30 in the evening with any unknown person," said one of the lawyers, ML Sharma. "You are talking about man and woman as friends. Sorry, that doesn't have any place in our society. We have the best culture. In our culture, there is no place for a woman." The other lawyer, AP Singh, had said in a previous televised interview: "If my daughter or sister engaged in pre-marital activities and disgraced herself and allowed herself to lose face and character by doing such things, I would most certainly take this sort of sister or daughter to my farmhouse, and in front of my entire family, I would put petrol on her and set her alight." He did not disown that comment when I put it to him. "This is my stand," he said. "I still today stand on that reply." Gender-inequality is the primary tumour and rape, trafficking, child marriage, female foeticide, honour killings and so on, are the metastases. And in India the problem is not lack of laws - after all, India is a democracy and a civilised, rapidly developing country. The problem is implementation of them. Article 14 of the Indian Constitution confers absolute equal rights on women. The giving of dowry is a legal offence, but many families maintain the custom nonetheless. Until and unless the mindset changes, the cancer will thrive and continue to spread. But what compelled me to leave my family and go to Delhi to make this film was not the rape itself, nor the horror of it. It was what followed. Starting on the day after the rape, and for over a month, ordinary men and women came out on to the streets of India's cities in unprecedented numbers to protest. They braved a freezing December and a ferocious government crackdown of water cannons, baton charges, and teargas shells. Their courage and determination to be heard was extraordinarily inspiring. There was something momentous about their presence and perseverance - reminiscent to me of the crowds that had thronged Tahrir Square in Cairo - a gathering of civil society that demanded a conversation that was long overdue. It occurred to me that, for all its appalling record of violence against women and relentless rapes, here was India leading the world by example. I couldn't recall another country, in my lifetime, standing up with such tenacity for women, for me. And I knew at once that I simply had to use whatever talents and skills I had, to amplify their cries of "enough is enough!" which were reverberating across the whole world. As is often the case with extremely challenging endeavours where the human stakes are high, the main struggle for me was the emotional and psychological toll the work imposed. When you look into the blackest recesses of the human heart, you cannot but be depressed and deeply disappointed. I woke one morning on the shoot, wet from head to toe, bathed in sweat and fear and my heart knocking against my ribcage. This was a panic attack. I phoned home thinking my husband would answer, but my 13-year-old daughter, Maya, did. She immediately sensed I was in trouble. And when I told her, in tears, that I was coming home because this was too big for me, the mountain was just too high to scale, she said: "Mummy, you can't come home because I and my generation of girls is relying on you." What carried me through, apart from Maya, was what had inspired me in the first place: the new-thinkers, especially among the youth, in India who want change and are clamouring for it. And I am absolutely optimistic that we are now on the cusp of change. India's Daughter will be broadcast on Storyville on BBC Four on Sunday 8 March at 22:00 GMT. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

2012 में दिल्ली में चलती बस में एक भारतीय छात्रा के साथ हिंसक बलात्कार किया गया था और भयानक आंतरिक चोटों से उसकी मौत हो गई थी। लेस्ली उडविन ने मामले के बारे में एक फिल्म बनाने में दो साल बिताते हुए मौत की सजा पाए बलात्कारियों में से एक से बात की। वह महिलाओं के साथ भारत के व्यवहार से हैरान थी-लेकिन बदलाव की मांग करने वालों से प्रेरित थी।


Yemen conflict: How my country has changed

Summary: It is two years since the start of the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen in support of the government ousted by Houthi rebels. In that time, thousands of civilians have been killed, parts of the country devastated and Yemen left teetering on the brink of famine. Here the BBC's Yemen-born Mai Noman, who has returned to her homeland to film short documentaries, reflects on what has become of her country.

It's been over two years since I was last here. The only place I call home. A lot has happened and much has changed. It's hard to keep my feelings in check. Beside the physical destruction, memories of what once was are buried under the heavy weight of emotional rubble. As a Yemeni journalist working in international news, I have had to monitor every twist and turn of the civil war in my country, even when I wanted to look away. Truthfully, the thought of coming face-to-face with the new reality shaped by the furious conflict in Yemen has terrified me. But living through the war from outside Yemen was isolating. As we make our way to the capital, Sanaa, on a rugged 10-hour car journey from Aden, I think back to the number of times I quietly broke down after hearing news coming out of Yemen. Working in a newsroom, this happened often. This trip takes me from the south to the north - two parts of a country divided by more than mere miles. In simple terms, the south is under government control, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, and the north is controlled by the Houthi rebels. But the reality is more complicated. Same city I've imagined arriving back home hundreds of times in the last few years. But on the day I was totally unprepared for what I found. Unlike the southern city of Aden, where life seems to be at a standstill, waiting in fearful anticipation of more fighting, Sanaa - apart from the obvious damage - appears the same as ever. I can feel the rain approaching. After London that should make me shudder, but it somehow feels welcoming. The jagged mountains which encompass the city slowly fill with clouds transforming the sky into a splendid portrait of misted rocky peaks. All at once telling me I'm home. There are more restaurants in town than I recall, and many are over-flowing with people. For a moment I forget there's a war raging across the country. But then Sanaa can be deceptive. I feel exhausted by the time we arrive at my cousin Mona's house. I knock on the door in a typical Yemeni manner - very determinedly. Mona's youngest child, Abdullah, opens the door to greet me. It's quite quiet here. A minute later I hear Mona making her way down the narrow stairs at the back of the house. We embrace with joy. She holds my face to see what's changed. "You're still you," she says. A lot kinder than comments I receive later about how my hair is too short or the few extra pounds I've gained. No answers Mona is just as beautiful but her voice has changed, she's gone through a lot in the last few years. Three years ago she lost her father suddenly. She had been very close to him and facing life without him, amid ongoing uncertainty, is hard. "He was the biggest support I had," she tells me, breaking down in tears. Life hasn't been kind to her and the war has now brought with it seemingly endless questions. Would her family be able to leave if it had to? Is it better to be stuck inside surrounded by conflict, or outside separated from relatives and friends? Are Mona's children safe at school or sleeping in their beds? How many more funerals will she have to attend? I have no answers. Even with the most difficult issues I face in my own life, the choices are never so bleak. Our lives have become more different than ever. Over the course of three weeks in Yemen, I reconnect with old acquaintances and hear stories of separation, loss and incredible examples of the tight bonds that keep a community together. But something else weighs heavily on my heart. There is one place I wasn't able to visit. Ruined lives It's the place where I was born and where a more utopian notion of Yemen was engraved in my mind. My grandmother's house in Taiz. But sadly my grandmother is no longer with us and Taiz today is unrecognisable, sitting as it does on the frontline of the conflict. I wonder if I'd even know the house. The fighting on the ground is brutal, the bombardment by the Saudi-led coalition is relentless and the siege on the city by the Houthis continues. It's painful trying to accept the way things have become, one where precious memories have no place among the hardship of this grinding conflict. To me, Taiz is where the heart of home is, and there's nothing harder than losing one's home. When I set off for Yemen it was with a mixture of dread and trepidation at what I might find after years of bombardment and fighting. On arriving I fell into a false sense of relief that the people were still here; home was, in some form, still here. In the days which followed though, it became clear that war damage isn't just the craters and the bombed out buildings. It is the suffering of a population watching helplessly as their lives are being torn apart. Thinking of the time I spent fearing what I'd find when I returned home, I know that regardless of the pain of seeing my country at war, the sense of longing to be part of Yemen, for good or bad, will always draw me back.

हाउती विद्रोहियों द्वारा बेदखल की गई सरकार के समर्थन में यमन में सऊदी के नेतृत्व में सैन्य अभियान की शुरुआत को दो साल हो चुके हैं। उस समय में, हजारों नागरिक मारे गए हैं, देश के कुछ हिस्से तबाह हो गए हैं और यमन अकाल के कगार पर पहुंच गया है। यहाँ बीबीसी की यमन में जन्मी माई नोमान, जो लघु वृत्तचित्र फिल्माने के लिए अपनी मातृभूमि लौट आई है, अपने देश के क्या हुआ है, इस पर प्रतिबिंबित करती है।


Woman dies after being knocked down in Torquay

Summary: A driver is being questioned over the death of a pedestrian who was knocked down.

The woman, who has not been named, was struck by the vehicle in Torquay, Devon, at about 23:15 on Friday. She was taken to Torbay Hospital, but was pronounced dead just after midnight. Devon and Cornwall Police, who have appealed for witnesses to the accident on Torbay Road, said the driver of the vehicle involved is being questioned.

एक पैदल यात्री की मौत के मामले में एक चालक से पूछताछ की जा रही है।


Who’s really who on Facebook?

Summary: We all know what a wonderful aid the internet can be to communication and debate. Sadly, we are becoming aware of how often spiteful anonymous comments can poison the well of web conversations. But now there's something of a fightback - and the social networks where many of these conversations happen will be under growing pressure to do more to protect vulnerable users.

Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter On Monday's Today programme, Nicola Brooke described in moving detail how she had been bullied on Facebook - and had fought back by getting a court order forcing the social network to identify the anonymous people who had mounted a vicious campaign of abuse. What struck me was that Facebook and other social networks had once appeared to offer the promise of a more civilised online communication precisely because they were places where people were who they said they were. Unlike web forums where bilious commenters express themselves in ways they would never dream of doing without the shield of anonymity, social networks like Facebook and Twitter should be more polite because you have to be who you say you are. But that no longer appears to be the case. Facebook now has 900 million active users but it seems quite a large proportion of them are not "real" people. (In its IPO document, the company says false or duplicate accounts probably make up 5-6% of its users, although it admits that this is a very rough estimate and may not be accurate.) When you sign up to join the social network, you are taken to a "Statement of Rights and Responsibilities" which includes this: "Facebook users provide their real names and information, and we need your help to keep it that way." It goes on to say that you must: But what is clear is that all of these rules - which appear essential to maintaining the network's reputation as a safe and civilised place - are being flouted with regularity. Anyone who has children will know the pressure to allow them to join Facebook before they are 13 - "everybody on school is on it already!" And a good number of adults are setting up accounts for newborn babies - and are inevitably being less than frank about their own dates of birth. So what is Facebook doing about this? The company says it does not actively police its users to make sure they are not breaking the rules - that would be impossible given the scale of the network - but relies on others reporting abuse. On each user's timeline you are able to go to a reporting screen where you can either block them or report that "This timeline is pretending to be someone or is fake." When the network receives complaints, it says it is reasonably evident when an account is breaking the rules on anonymity. Obvious clues include a user who has started several accounts using the same email address, or who has had lots of friend requests rejected. But Facebook won't reveal how many accounts it has suspended over the past year, so it is difficult to know exactly how well the system is working. Perhaps we all need to be more active in reporting abuse on networks like this. And maybe networks like Facebook need to be more active in policing their own rules. But here's another thought. Unless you're living in an oppressive state, or have reason to fear for your own safety if your identity is revealed, is there any real justification in hiding behind a false name online? In all sorts of online communities - from YouTube to political blogs to technology forums - you can find angry people saying outrageous things. Wouldn't it be healthier if we all started ignoring those who aren't prepared to say what they think in their own names?

हम सभी जानते हैं कि संचार और बहस के लिए इंटरनेट कितनी अद्भुत सहायता कर सकता है। दुख की बात है कि हम इस बात से अवगत हो रहे हैं कि कितनी बार द्वेषपूर्ण गुमनाम टिप्पणियां वेब वार्तालाप के कुएं को जहर दे सकती हैं। लेकिन अब एक लड़ाई का कुछ है-और सामाजिक नेटवर्क जहां इनमें से कई बातचीत होती हैं, उन पर कमजोर उपयोगकर्ताओं की सुरक्षा के लिए और अधिक करने का दबाव बढ़ रहा है।


Body found at Occumster confirmed as missing man Stefan Sutherland

Summary: A body found on a shoreline last Tuesday has been confirmed as that of 25-year-old Caithness man Stefan Sutherland.

The discovery was made by a member of the public on the shoreline near Occumster. Police, members of a mountain rescue team and search dogs had been involved in a search for Mr Sutherland. He had been reported missing from Lybster on 6 September.

पिछले मंगलवार को एक तटरेखा पर पाए गए एक शव की पुष्टि 25 वर्षीय कैथनेस मैन स्टीफन सदरलैंड के रूप में हुई है।


200 at Pembrokeshire sixth form changes meeting

Summary: More than 200 people have attended a meeting against plans to take away sixth form provision in Pembrokeshire.

Proposals as part of secondary school reorganisation include replacing post-16 education with a new sixth form centre at Pembrokeshire College. Pembrokeshire council are to consult on the plans but parents and students fear a lack of continuity could be harmful to the prospects of some pupils. The meeting was held on Monday in Sir Thomas Picton School, Haverfordwest. In January, about 300 protesters gathered at an extraordinary meeting at county hall where plans to close five schools in Pembrokeshire were discussed.

पेम्ब्रोकेशायर में छठे रूप के प्रावधान को हटाने की योजना के खिलाफ एक बैठक में 200 से अधिक लोगों ने भाग लिया है।


Uganda's Yoweri Museveni overcomes Bobi Wine challenge - for now

Summary: The keenly contested Ugandan election that saw the country's long-standing leader defeat a former pop star was not without drama but has it heralded any change? The BBC's Patience Atuhaire reports from the capital, Kampala.

It was billed by some as an election like no other - a 38-year-old musician raised in a Kampala slum was challenging a man who first became president 35 years ago. When Robert Kyagulanyi, better known by his stage name Bobi Wine, first launched his presidential bid, some in President Yoweri Museveni's ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) dismissed the threat. They said he was only popular in the capital, but then he kept drawing crowds even in far-flung corners of the country. Then, as a government minister commented, it was claimed that the excitement around him was simply because he was a celebrity. But it felt like more than that. Tech savvy and accessible, Bobi Wine used social media to call on young Ugandans - the majority of the population - to work with him towards "a new Uganda". And they lapped it up. Or so it seemed. Social media is not votes The authorities certainly appeared rattled. As the campaigning reached a crescendo, the tear gas, live bullets and arrests meted out to Bobi Wine and his supporters made it clear that the powers that be were leaving nothing to chance. The NRM relied on incumbency and the full force of the state. Bobi Wine the performer, not Robert Kyagulanyi the politician, was the person on the campaign trail. He worked the crowds - who gathered despite coronavirus concerns - into a frenzy with the "people power, our power" chant, complete with the arm-waving. But what he wanted to do with that power was rarely fleshed out at the rallies. Even on the few occasions when the security forces took a break from harassing him, he hardly ever spoke about the issues in his manifesto. In fact, covering this election was reduced to reporting the violence the opposition were subjected to, rather than the agenda the candidates were presenting to the electorate. But the "people power" fire that Bobi Wine had lit among Ugandans seemed to burn all the way to the ballot box and then fizzle out. Official figures, which the opposition alleged had been tampered with, would later show that the large rallies and social media popularity did not necessarily translate into a majority of votes. Bobi Wine got a respectable 35%, but this was nearly the same percentage won by the top losing candidate, Kizza Besigye, in 2016. And then, like Dr Besigye, Bobi Wine was confined to his home by security forces. The aftermath of the election had a familiar feel to it. Before this, the morning of the vote - when opposition optimists still dreamed of another future - was misty and chilly, quite uncharacteristic for a Kampala January. 'What's the hold up?' I arrived at a polling area in Nsambya, at the southern end of the city by 07:30, to find huddled groups of voters talking in muted tones. The large sports field comprised five polling stations. The voting materials had arrived but the casting of ballots was yet to start. As the queues grew longer, tempers rose with the warming temperatures. A young man shouted out what everyone must have been thinking: "We arrived here at 6am! What is holding us up?" Several others grumbled, some hurling insults at the polling officials. Either his outspokenness paid off, or the officials just wanted to get rid of him. When voting finally begun, two hours late, he was moved to the front of the line. I crossed the city to another large polling area in Nansana, on the northern side, where voting was delayed until 10:00. With queues as long as the eye could see, I could read the agitation on people's faces. "I arrived here and was told this is not my rightful polling station. When I went the other side, I was sent back here. I'm waiting. My friend had a voter location slip, but her name is not in the register. She got discouraged and left," said Fatuma Namuleme. I recalled similar queues here in 2016, rivulets of sweat running down the faces of voters standing in the mid-morning sun, waiting for materials to arrive. I remembered heavily armed soldiers disembarking from lorries to take charge of an increasingly tense situation. On that day, the voting process in Kampala was so marred by the late delivery of materials that there were protests in some areas and voting had to be pushed to the next day. But this time, there were only a couple of baton-wielding policemen ensuring the lines were orderly. With an internet blackout and limited access to information from other parts of the capital and the countryside, voting day felt like an anti-climax. As updates from the Electoral Commission streamed in, it became quite clear from early on where the poll result was headed - five more years for Mr Museveni. Despite the long queues witnessed in Kampala, only 57% of over 18 million registered voters cast their ballots, 10 percentage points lower than the last election. The president's winning percentage has also been steadily declining in the last three elections; from 68% in 2011, to 60.6% in 2016 and 58.6% this year. And the opposition has kept a hold on Kampala and much of the central region. Ministers lose their seats Bobi Wine's newly formed National Unity Platform (NUP) party won most of the parliamentary seats in central region and will have a total of 56 MPs out of more than 500, making it the largest opposition party in parliament. The NUP has become a home for younger, energetic politicians looking for fresh alliances who could shake things up. The 2021 election left the same man at the top, but knocked several bricks out of the political house he has built over three decades. Twenty-five members of cabinet, including Vice-President Edward Ssekandi, lost their parliamentary seats. And if this election showed us anything, it is that Ugandans do not suffer turncoats. Among those who were voted out are opposition-turned-NRM members who quickly earned themselves ministerial posts upon switching sides. In his victory speech, Mr Museveni nodded to the need to improve healthcare and education and promised to boost agriculture and manufacturing. He also lashed out at politicians who put their interests before those of the masses. As for the NUP, its leaders are determined to go to court to challenge the result. But that may be a struggle as Lina Zedriga, the party's vice-president for the northern region, said that its polling agents who had evidence of vote rigging have either been arrested or have gone missing. 'Not losing hope' Nevertheless, she is patient. "We will stay as long as we want change," she said. "For as long as we want the true reflection of the will of the people of Uganda, we will remain resolved. We have waited for 30-something years. We are not losing hope at all." The determination to hold on to hope will depend on whether the youth that Bobi Wine has fired up will be prepared to put themselves in harm's way. Otherwise, the pattern of the last three decades will be repeated, with Mr Museveni and the NRM maintaining their stranglehold on power.

युगांडा का चुनाव, जिसमें देश के लंबे समय से नेता रहे नेता ने एक पूर्व पॉप स्टार को हराया था, बिना किसी नाटक के नहीं था, लेकिन क्या इसने किसी बदलाव की शुरुआत की है? राजधानी कंपाला से बीबीसी का धैर्य अतूहेयर रिपोर्ट करता है।


George W Bush exhibits his paintings of world leaders

Summary: On Saturday, former US President George W Bush, who has said he is admittedly "not a great painter", opens a public exhibit of his works - more than 24 portraits of world leaders he met while president. The BBC's Nick Bryant has a preview of the gallery.

By Nick BryantBBC News, Dallas For a president long criticised for seeing things only in black and white, the exhibition of George W Bush's art at his presidential library in Dallas comes as something of a revelation. Delicate brushwork has replaced his famed swagger. He presents himself as a wholly different kind of Texas oilman. With each new brushstroke he seems also to be softening his public image. George W Bush told his art teacher, whom he meets on a weekly basis, to unleash the ex-president's inner Rembrandt, and the results are now on public display: a deeply personal gallery of world leaders, focusing on the art of personal diplomacy. His vantage point, of course, is unique: the cockpit of the presidency - or, at least, his recollection of those tumultuous White House years. So there is more to them than canvas, paints and brushes. Another key ingredient is personal chemistry. His portrait of Tony Blair, which is bereft of the former British prime minister's trademark toothy smile, was intended to portray compassion, strength and reliability. His Angela Merkel shows a more cheery side to the German chancellor than her sometimes grumpy public persona projects. And maybe his Dalai Lama reveals more about the former president himself, as he enters a more contemplative and cloistered phase of his life. In art, he appears to locate an inner serenity. But perhaps the most eagerly anticipated portrait is that of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. During their first meeting, in Slovenia in 2001, Mr Bush came close to claiming he could read the former KGB spymaster like a book. "I looked the man in the eye," he famously said. "I was able to get a sense of his soul." But here he is rendered as a poker-faced Putin, more enigmatic and unreadable. There's a coldness to the portrait of a leader whom Mr Bush referred to privately as "Pootie Poot". Mr Bush, or "43" as he signs each canvas, reckons this to be his finest work. Perhaps the most unflattering portrait is that of the former Pakistan president, General Pervez Musharraf, a leader who liked to think of himself as a dashing former paratrooper rather than the tired and bloated figure represented here. The extravagant bouffant, of which the general was justifiably proud, does not even make it into frame. Maybe this is a form of artistic revenge. After all, when it came to fighting al-Qaeda and hunting down Osama Bin Laden, the Bush administration always suspected Islamabad of playing a double game: accepting American military aid but of not doing enough to flush out the mastermind of 9/11. Nor is the outgoing Afghan president Hamid Karzai portrayed in a complimentary light. This, again, was a fraught relationship. Making these kinds of extrapolations is part of the fun of this exhibition. Far from being declarative, it can be interpreted in so many different ways. So is it possible to read into this work a subtle dig at the man who succeeded him as president? George W Bush says his portraits would not have been possible had he not invested so much time in personal diplomacy. He got to know the family details of international leaders - those useful conversation points. Many of them, like Tony Blair and the former Australian prime minister John Howard, were invited into the inner sanctum of his Texan ranch. Barack Obama's approach is noticeably less chummy. He is often criticised as being more aloof and of not investing enough effort in working on the personal chemistry that can reap diplomatic dividends. For those of us who covered the Bush presidency, from the golf rounds to the mountain-bike riding, from the brush clearing to that Top Gun moment in the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad, his newfound hobby is an improbable departure. But he paints every day, gets a lesson every week and says his inspiration came from his great hero Sir Winston Churchill. Those who interacted closely with Mr Bush during his White House years reckon he was unrecognisable from the two-dimensional figure who lent himself to such easy caricature. Certainly, his artwork has added an extra and unexpected side.

शनिवार को, पूर्व अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति जॉर्ज डब्ल्यू बुश, जिन्होंने कहा है कि वे "एक महान चित्रकार नहीं हैं", अपने कार्यों की एक सार्वजनिक प्रदर्शनी का उद्घाटन करते हैं-विश्व नेताओं के 24 से अधिक चित्र जिनसे वे राष्ट्रपति रहते हुए मिले थे। बीबीसी के निक ब्रायंट के पास गैलरी का पूर्वावलोकन है।


Thurnscoe shooting: Man, 32, in attempted murder arrest

Summary: A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to murder a 69-year-old who was shot in the arm.

The victim was wounded in Westfield Crescent in Thurnscoe, Barnsley, on Wednesday evening. A 32-year-old man arrested on suspicion of attempted murder remains in custody, South Yorkshire Police said. Det Ch Insp Paul Murphy said officers believed it was a "targeted attack", but patrols in the area would be stepped up. Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.

69 वर्षीय बुजुर्ग की हत्या का प्रयास करने के संदेह में एक व्यक्ति को गिरफ्तार किया गया है, जिसे हाथ में गोली लगी थी।


MP Karuna: 'travesty of justice'

Summary: Amnesty International (AI) has described the appointment of Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP) leader Vinayagamurthy Muralitharan, widely known as Karuna, to the Sri Lankan parliament as a travesty of justice.

Karuna who broke away from the Tamil Tigers in 2004 was sworn in as an MP on Tuesday after being appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA). The newly sworn MP has committed "war crimes and crimes against humanity including child recruitment," said AI in a statement issued from London. It called upon the Sri Lankan state to promptly investigate allegations including "torture committed after March 2004 when Colonel Karuna is believed to have allied himself with the state armed forces". AI researcher on Sri Lanka, Yolanda Foster told BBC Sandeshaya that opposition parties should publicly review his case and seek judicial remedy against the appointment. All major political parties, who boycotted the swearing in ceremony on Tuesday, have protested the appointment for various reasons. "Immoral" Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has filed a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition against the appointment calling it "immoral". It says that the UPFA has no right to appoint an MP to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of JVP MP Wasantha Samarasinghe. The JVP has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the UPFA in the 2004 parliamentary election which saw the alliance win a majority. "According to the Memorandum, vacancies in the parliament should be filled by the party which the MP belongs to," JVP spokesman Vijitha Herath told the BBC Sinhala service. Opposition and United National Party (UNP) leader, Ranil Wickramasinghe told journalists in Colombo that Karuna is not qualified to be a parliamentarian. "Recruiting children" Karuna has served a prison sentence in UK, the UNP leader said, and also accused of killing hundreds of policemen in the east while being a senior leader of the LTTE. The opposition leader was referring to 600 policemen allegedly killed on Karuna's orders in 1991. The leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP -Mahajana Wing), Mangala Samaraweera, said that the opposition leader should be applauded for creating a split within the LTTE during the peace talks. TMVP is yet to hand over weapons and accused of recruiting children for combat, he added.

एमनेस्टी इंटरनेशनल (ए. आई.) ने तमिल मक्कल विदुथलाई पुलिगल (टी. एम. वी. पी.) के नेता विनयगमूर्ति मुरलीधरन, जिन्हें करुणा के नाम से जाना जाता है, की श्रीलंका की संसद में नियुक्ति को न्याय का उपहास बताया है।


Sperm race funds rare New Zealand bird's survival

Summary: Conservationists in New Zealand have come up with a novel way of raising money for one of the country's lesser-known endangered bird species - by holding a race to see which male stitchbird, or hihi, has the fastest sperm.

By News from Elsewhere......as found by BBC Monitoring The Great Hihi Sperm Race will pit samples from birds collected from four different hihi colonies, and donors can place a ten NZ dollar (US$7.30; £5.15) bet on which of the 128 samples swims the fastest, New Zealand Herald reports. Correct guesses win prizes donated by sponsors, and monies raised will help fund conservation work supporting remaining hihi colonies. It's the idea of Dr Helen Taylor and her colleagues at the University of Otago, who study inbreeding in small populations of bird species through the medium of sperm quality. Endangered species such as the hihi experience lower genetic diversity and risk infertility altogether, she told Newstalk ZB radio. "The numbers are reasonably low and we know that they've have these drastic reductions in population size which can lead to issues with their genetics, and can increase problems like inbreeding," she said. Weird idea Confessing that the sperm race is a "weird idea", she nonetheless thinks it ideal to raise awareness of the hihi, which relies on human intervention to help it thrive in unfamiliar habitats, including nest boxes and supplementary feeding. If the appeal's form guide for the birds ("His head feathers resemble Trump's comb over, but don't let that put you off") is anything to go by, the organisers are playing this race for laughs, but, as Dr Taylor says, it's to raise much-need money for a species that is overlooked for funding. "One minute you're planning out how you're going to secure a permanent position and a Prime Minister's Science Prize, the next you're encouraging people to bet on bird sperm races," she says. Reporting by Alistair Coleman Next story: Tajik ministry's book tells women how to dress Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.

न्यूजीलैंड में संरक्षणवादियों ने देश की कम ज्ञात लुप्तप्राय पक्षी प्रजातियों में से एक के लिए धन जुटाने का एक नया तरीका निकाला है-यह देखने के लिए एक दौड़ आयोजित करके कि किस पुरुष सिलाई पक्षी, या हिही में सबसे तेज़ शुक्राणु है।


Nelly Furtado pens Spanish album

Summary: Nelly Furtado is to release her first non-English language album.

By Greg CochraneNewsbeat music reporter Mi Plan, the Canadian singer's fourth solo album, is sung entirely in Spanish and will be released on 14 September. Released on the same day, the first single will be Manos Al Aire (Hands In The Air). In a statement Furtado said: "After 10 years recording in English, I hit a wall. I felt this was the moment to make the dream." Featured artists The daughter of Portuguese parents, Furtado has also enlisted the help of notable artists for the 11-track release including Grammy Award winning artist Juan Luis Guerra, Alejandro Fernandez and Julieta Venegas. Mi Plan is the follow up to Furtado's 2006 album Loose. Furtado has sold over 15 million albums worldwide since releasing debut Whoa, Nelly! in 2000.

नेली फर्टाडो अपना पहला गैर-अंग्रेजी भाषा एल्बम जारी करने वाली हैं।


Plans for Isle of Man TT 'Snoozebox' hotel approved

Summary: Plans to create a portable hotel to help meet demand for accommodation during TT week have been approved by the Isle of Man government.

The Snoozebox will be situated in Noble's Park in Douglas. The temporary pod-like construction is already used at venues such as the Silverstone races. A tourism spokesman said permission was for 260 rooms - potentially 520 beds. The island's registered accommodation is already full for the 2012 races. The Isle of Man government is also appealing for more local residents to open their homes to TT fans in TT week. In 2011, more than 700 homeowners on the island let rooms to TT tourists, with 2,858 beds being taken up during June's races.

टी. टी. सप्ताह के दौरान आवास की मांग को पूरा करने में मदद करने के लिए एक पोर्टेबल होटल बनाने की योजना को आइल ऑफ मैन सरकार द्वारा मंजूरी दी गई है।


Why British steel is in crisis

Summary: The British steel industry is in crisis. Tata Steel yesterday became the third company to announce job losses in recent weeks and it seems that as many as one in six of the remaining 30,000 steel jobs could now go. A sector that weathered the global recession of 2008 and 2009 is struggling amid a weak global recovery.

Duncan WeldonNewsnight economics correspondent@Duncanweldonon Twitter The steel industry's problems are global. Yesterday as Tata Steel announced its UK job cuts, South Korean giant Posco (the world's fifth largest steel producer) reported its biggest quarterly loss in five years. And state-owned Chinese steel trader Sinosteel missed an interest payment due on its debts. Global steel processing has halved since 2011 amid a general rout in the price of commodities. And its value has fallen by a third since the turn of the year, reaching a price last seen during the depths of the recession in early 2009. The World Steel Association (WSA) now forecasts that global steel demand will contract by 1.7% this year, largely driven by a drop in Chinese demand. China drove the industry It's difficult to overstate the importance of China to steelmakers. China's rapid industrialisation has driven global metals demand for a generation. In 2013 it represented almost half of global steel usage. According to the WSA global steel usage rose from 1,220 million tonnes in 2007 to 1,430 million tonnes in 2013. During that same period, Chinese steel use rose by 280 million tonnes. In other words China was responsible for more than 100% of the global increase in steel demand in the last seven years. By comparison steel usage in Europe over the same time frame fell by about 30%. Whether you believe the official figures or not, it is clear that China's economy has slowed. And it is also clear that the most steel-intense parts of that economy - things like construction and capital investment - have slowed more sharply. China is left with a steel industry plagued by over-capacity and, rather than cutting production and jobs, state-owned companies are reacting by exporting that excess steel to international markets at prices which many firms simply can't match. Hence the charge of "dumping" - or selling at subsidised (and unfair prices) to, in effect, "steal" global demand. When it comes to steel, China has effectively transformed from the industry's biggest customer to its deadliest competitor. The WSA, in its most recent update, was in an understandably gloomy mood. The best days for steel - for the short- to medium-term at least - appear to be behind it. The chairman of the World Steel Economics Committee noted that "it is clear that the steel industry has, for the time being, reached the end of a major growth cycle which was based on the rapid economic development of China." The ending of that growth cycle leaves the industry stuck with excess capacity and - short of a new major industrialisation cycle emerging somewhere in the world - for prices to return to a level consistent with a profitable steel industry, global capacity will have to fall. That's the process playing out in the UK at the moment. Is the UK powerless? None of which though means that the UK steel industry has to bear the brunt of a global restructuring. I was in Scunthorpe yesterday as Tata announced job losses. Both management and the trade unions were singing from the same hymn sheet, talking of the need for what they called "a level playing field", not so much with China as with their European peers. Both point to high energy costs in the UK - driven by both green taxes and our energy mix (French nuclear power for example being much cheaper) and to UK business rates being higher than those on the continent. It's worth noting that, while the UK does have a lower rate of corporation tax than much of Europe, corporation tax is paid only on profits and a lower tax on profits isn't much help to an industry that is making losses. There's also a sense that European Union rules disallowing state aid (effectively subsiding national companies) are employed far more stringently in the UK than in, say, Germany or France. If Tata's steelworks had been in Stuttgart or Strasbourg rather than Scunthorpe, they might have enjoyed more direct government support. Whatever policy the UK government adopted, the steel industry would be suffering right now. Without strong Chinese demand the price of steel was always set to fall. The addition of Chinese competition for export markets is a further headache. But the government isn't entirely powerless either. While the global steel industry is set to cut back production, the extent to which the UK carries its share of the burden is something policy can influence.

ब्रिटिश इस्पात उद्योग संकट में है। टाटा स्टील कल हाल के हफ्तों में नौकरी खोने की घोषणा करने वाली तीसरी कंपनी बन गई और ऐसा लगता है कि शेष 30,000 इस्पात नौकरियों में से छह में से एक अब जा सकती है। 2008 और 2009 की वैश्विक मंदी का सामना करने वाला एक क्षेत्र कमजोर वैश्विक सुधार के बीच संघर्ष कर रहा है।


Number of women firefighters increasing in Staffordshire

Summary: "There's no justifiable reason why in the future the gender of a person would come into the role of a firefighter," said Diane Dunlevey, the equality and diversity manager for Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS).

Of the 907 firefighters currently employed in Staffordshire, 56 are women, which equates to about 6.2%, above the national average of 4.1% for fire services, according to the Department for Communities and Local Government. Fourteen women joined the county's service in 2011. Twenty years earlier the fire service had two, then swelling the ranks to three. And some women have moved up the career ladder at the service, with seven currently deployed as crew managers, one now a station manager and another an area manager. The latter is Becci Bryant, who joined a different service after graduating from university, but later moved to Staffordshire. Dispelling myths She said as a young recuit in 1992 she had found it hard initially and that had been problems with attitudes from some male colleagues, as well as the public's perception. She said many of her female peers "experienced bullying" but that things had changed over the years. "We've become more enlightened as a sector and society," Ms Bryant said. SFRS recently stepped up its recruitment of female firefighters by getting teenage girls aged between 14 and 16 in Cannock to write and record a promotional DVD that is being supported by the county council. According to Ms Dunlevey, the aim was to dispel many of the myths. She said: "The research told us that young people start to make their decisions about their future when they're around 14 or 15 years old. "It was suggested that [girls] never thought about being a firefighter." Like the percentage of women in the service, the numbers of ethnic minorities is also increasing on a national scale. Across England 50,943 people were employed as firefighters in 2011 of whom 3.2% were from ethnic minorities. In 2002 that figure was 1.5%. Ms Bryant said she believed Staffordshire was quite "forward thinking" in trying to increase both sets of numbers. "We've spent a lot of time recruiting ethnic minorities and have overcome hurdles in the realms of what a woman can do," the area manager said, adding that 20 years had been too long to increase the numbers of female firefighters in the county from three to 56. However, a 50-50 split between men and women in the service is unlikely any time soon, Ms Dunlevey said. "I don't see any reason why it couldn't be that way," she said. "But I do still think that we've got a long way to go."

स्टैफोर्डशायर फायर एंड रेस्क्यू सर्विस (एस. एफ. आर. एस.) के समानता और विविधता प्रबंधक डायने डनलेवी ने कहा, "भविष्य में किसी व्यक्ति का लिंग अग्निशामक की भूमिका में आने का कोई उचित कारण नहीं है।


How is a life worth £12,980?

Summary: Trinity Mirror's chief executive recently questioned how compensation for phone hacking could come close to the amount awarded for deaths caused by wrongdoing. How can compensation for things as different as bereavement and lost privacy be calculated?

By Tom HeydenBBC News Magazine Phone hacking victims Sadie Frost and Paul Gascoigne were recently awarded £260,250 and £188,250 respectively from Trinity Mirror. A number of other notable victims also received damages. The newspaper group's chief executive Simon Fox compared the sums with the £350,000 each received by Neil Shepherd and Sharon Wood, whose two children died because of a faulty boiler on a Thomas Cook holiday in Corfu. Each parent effectively received £175,000 per child from the Greek hotel directly responsible. "Is it right that for hacking infringements someone should get close to that?" Fox queried. It is not the first time there's been controversy over the scale of compensation. Twenty years ago Elton John won £350,000 from the Sunday Mirror for a libellous story about his diet. Upon reducing the payment to £75,000, a judge said: "It is, in our view, offensive to public opinion, and rightly so, that a defamation plaintiff should recover damages for injury to reputation greater… than if that same plaintiff had been rendered [disabled]." One might expect a death - if the fault of someone else - to fetch the highest compensation of all. But that's not the case. Massive injury payouts make the news fairly regularly. In 2012, a 17-year-old victim of a serious car crash was awarded £23m. That same year a teaching assistant won more than £800,000 after tripping over a wheelchair. But injury compensation can reach such big figures because of a combination of ongoing medical costs and the curtailing of a normal working life. Death compensation can often be much lower. This week the family of a 79-year-old woman who died because of "inadequate" medical care were awarded £4,000 compensation. If it's a case of negligence, insurers and lawyers are the ones who typically thrash out the final amount. With criminal violence it's the state that pays. In England and Wales's compensation law, lawyers and judges refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG), which lists a range of suggested sums according to body part and severity. It can be as low as £1,100-£2,255 if the victim suffers "immediate unconsciousness" - or at least shortly after injury - and dies within one week. It rises the longer someone stays alive. The suggested figure is £6,820 if that same person were to die within six weeks instead of one. "From a health point of view it's obviously better to survive, of course it is," explains Carlos Lopez, director of clinical negligence at Vincents Solicitors. "But the law recognises that if you survive, your suffering goes on longer." Compensation is fundamentally about reimbursing the losses of the living - whether physical, psychological or financial. The Fatal Accidents Act 1976 establishes three main elements of death compensation - bereavement, funeral expenses and dependency. Dependency covers money the family would have received from the victim had they survived. Bereavement damages compensate families for their pain and suffering. English and Welsh law values that pain at a maximum of £12,980 - and it's only applicable to very few cases. Partners of the deceased can claim. So can parents - but only if the child was an unmarried minor. If the child was "illegitimate", only the mother is legally bereaved. Siblings or children are not usually entitled to bereavement damages at all, explains Lynsey Furley, a solicitor at Bridge McFarland Solicitors. But often neither bereavement nor dependency applies. And it wouldn't matter how much at fault the guilty or negligent person had been, explains Lopez. Gross negligence may lead to criminal proceedings, but it will not increase the compensation in civil claims, he says. Nor does it matter much whether it's the fault of an incompetent doctor, a reckless driver, or a useless architect - compensation calculations are largely the same. "A lot of families do get frustrated because they've seen all these massive awards in the media for relatively minor injuries," says Furley, "and - compared to losing a loved one - they wonder why they don't get as much." In Scottish law, under the Damages Act 2011, there is instead no statutory limit on bereavement damages - and more family members are entitled to claim. Victims of violent crime - in England, Scotland or Wales - are also treated slightly differently in terms of eligibility and bereavement sums, as compensation is instead handled by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA). There's an upper limit of £500,000. But to get anywhere close to an award like that, the bereaved person needs to rely on a claim of lost income. The starting point in the calculations is the victim's annual salary - for instance, £20,000. That £20,000 is then multiplied by a number reflecting many factors, explains Lopez, including the age at death, the profession, and the expected retirement age. Social background and gender are also included because they affect both predicted income and life expectancy, Lopez says. But had a victim survived, they would have spent a portion of their earnings on themselves. So a reduction is made to the amount. Victims of non-fatal accidents undergo a similar analysis of their loss of future earnings. A top concert pianist who loses a finger would receive far more than if a call centre worker was to suffer the same injury. Not only would the pianist's salary be higher to begin with but it's more likely to permanently impede their job. They would also receive damages for the emotional impact. The JCG catalogues a cost for almost every injury imaginable. These are used in combination with precedents from earlier cases. A survivor may also need ongoing medical care, continued transport to hospital, or require adaptations to their houses - all of which are included. Most cases - fatal or not - are settled rather than going to court, Lopez says. "It's about negotiation, there is no exact science." Last year, £40,000 was the sum negotiated with the parents of nine-year-old Raychel Ferguson, who died in 2001 after an appendix operation. Her mother branded the figure an "insult", but said her legal team had advised against going to trial because they risked receiving only bereavement damages. In stark contrast, £40,000 was the amount awarded for one newspaper article written using hacked information. But the phone hacking claims did go to trial. The Mirror was looking to pay between £10,000 and £40,000 in compensation. The victims were asking for between £250,000 and about £1m. Mr Justice Mann delivered the judgements. The previous record privacy payout had been £60,000 to Max Mosley in 2008, after a News of the World story on his sex life. The phone hacking judgements are the first time in privacy law that a judge has sought to establish a comprehensive method for assessing the various damages of privacy invasion, says Steven Heffer, a partner at Collyer Bristow. There are few precedents. "Privacy is a developing law that's really only taken off in the last 10-20 years." Sadie Frost described her experience as "a living hell". Paul Gascoigne told the court how it had "ruined his life" and left him scared to use the phone for a decade. But emotional "injury" was only part of the equation. Mr Justice Mann widened the compensation to include damages for the loss of privacy itself, as well as a sum for the "damage to dignity or standing". Trinity Mirror has labelled the judge's decision as "fundamentally flawed because the basis used for calculating damages is incorrect". The victims were further compensated for every article found to have been written using hacked information - with awards ranging from £750 to £40,000 for a single article. One example reads: "This article represents a serious intrusion into Miss Frost's personal relationships and mental health, including a reference to self-harm… Some very private messages must have been listened to… It attracts compensation of £25,000." Frost submitted 31 articles in her case. The duration and extent of privacy invasion - in Frost's case four-and-a-half years - was another consideration, with a starting point of £10,000 for every year of "serious" hacking. "What this decision reflects is the fact that it was repeated acts of infringement and the severity of what they did that led to such high rewards," says Jenny Afia, a specialist in privacy law at Schillings. "The general point for both privacy and libel is it's an art, not a science. The distress [of phone hacking] is extreme paranoia - thinking that it's your closest friends and family who are selling stories to the papers about you." Mr Justice Mann found the impact on Frost to be "severe", noting how she'd tried to extract confidentiality agreements from friends and family - such was the level of her distrust. "But how do you quantify that?" Afia says. "Nobody has a very good answer." More from the Magazine The US and UK offer compensation to veterans for the loss of limbs and for other serious injuries during wartime. How are those rates determined? Who determines a foot's worth? (May 2014) Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

ट्रिनिटी मिरर के मुख्य कार्यकारी ने हाल ही में सवाल किया कि फोन हैकिंग के लिए मुआवजा गलत काम के कारण होने वाली मौतों के लिए दी गई राशि के करीब कैसे आ सकता है। शोक और गुम हुई गोपनीयता जैसी अलग-अलग चीजों के लिए मुआवजे की गणना कैसे की जा सकती है?


Who would you put in a cabinet of ex-politicians?

Summary: These days politicians seem to rush for the exit when they lose power (or lose hope of power) rather than bouncing back Churchill-style to lead the country, or staying around to provide a wise word to their successors. So what could a cabinet look like now, made up entirely of those who stepped down voluntarily from the House of Commons?

By Alex HuntBBC News Here, just for fun, is one possible line-up - you can send us your suggestions via the postform at the bottom of the page. Prime Minister: Sir John Major Given that there are four ex-prime ministers in this cabinet of all the (past) talents, the most unifying figure to lead them is the man who was Conservative Prime Minister from 1990 to 1997. He's used to having a more glamorous deputy - Michael Heseltine - and he's shown himself more than willing to have his enemies in his cabinet. Chancellor: Gordon Brown He spent 10 years at the Treasury in Tony Blair's New Labour government, with the economy growing nicely. But the recession that followed means there'll be no fate-tempting talk of abolishing "boom and bust". He's used to being at odds with the man next door - few would bet against Major being prompted to resign and hold a "back me or sack me" vote. Foreign Secretary: William Hague The one-time teenage Conservative conference darling led the party to a second big defeat at the 2001 general election. But he bounced back under David Cameron's leadership, becoming a respected figure on the international stage under the coalition government. His campaigning with Angelina Jolie, warm words about Hillary Clinton - and backing of Remain in the EU referendum - suggests that his world view will sit well with Messrs Major and Brown. Education: Tony Blair He might take some persuading to take on such a role and it could ruffle a few feathers among the current Department for Education staff. But he won his two landslide Labour victories in 1997 and 2001 on his domestic programme, which most famously was vocalised as "education, education, education". It seems unlikely he'd back a new generation of grammar schools but his foundation has some links to free schools and he has never been one to oppose faith schools. Health: Virginia Bottomley A chance to return to the role she held during the early John Major years before she moved on to the culture brief (hence the BBC Children in Need photocall above). There's some tough competition from fellow former health secretaries in this cabinet. But with her post-politics career as a top City headhunter - and champion of women on boards - there should be decent recruitment of NHS executives. Home Secretary: Michael Howard This would be a second remarkable comeback for Lord Howard who 13 years ago came from the then wilderness to become Conservative leader. His 1990s spell as home secretary is still remembered for the "prison works" message that proved popular with the public. His cameo in the referendum campaign showed that on Brexit he was thinking what a majority of British voters were thinking. Defence: John Reid Seen as one of the core Blairites, this would be a return to the job of defence secretary which he held for a year from 2005 before moving to home secretary and standing down when Gordon Brown became prime minister a year later. There's scope for football-related puns thanks to his post-Commons role as Celtic FC chairman. Deputy PM: David Cameron Too soon for a swift return to No 10 but as deputy PM he could be back at the heart of power in a low-key manner, helping to steer this new Major government's agenda. As hardworking as he was as PM, he was never afraid of chillaxing and this looks like the perfect job to allow that combo of a high-status role and the chance to hit a few tennis balls each day or spend a long weekend surfside in Cornwall. Work and Pensions Secretary: David Blunkett It's a job he's done before and given his past belief in the abilities of big computer systems, could he be the man to wrestle with the introduction of Universal Credit? He'll need all his past Home Office experience in this role too as talk turns towards a possible work permit scheme for those from elsewhere in the EU coming to the UK. Expect scepticism if any academics project low (13,000?) demand for the permits. Transport Secretary: Michael Portillo This would've been a surprise suggestion back in the 1990s but the once thrusting Thatcherite appears to have spent much of the past few years - apart from his Thursday night appointment on the This Week sofa - travelling by train with a camera crew in tow. The danger is that only picturesque rail routes will be favoured but Heathrow will hope to persuade him of their third runway case. As someone once said, who dares wins. International Development: Andrew Lansley There was a case for the man who revamped the NHS in England after the 2010 election to go back to the role to finish off the job, but that would be unnecessarily controversial for a John Major appointment, so international development it is. A role in which of course there is still a huge health element. Culture Secretary: Louise Mensch The most difficult thing might be persuading the novelist-turned-politician to move back to London. But she certainly seems to have been keeping up with UK political developments and her pop culture knowledge and her new and old media contacts, plus interest in all things digital, makes her a decent choice. As long as she's allowed to continue tweeting without Whitehall restrictions. Environment Secretary: Ann Widdecombe Probably best known for a triumphant turn on Strictly Come Dancing and her time as a Home Office minister during the "prison works" years of the John Major government in the 1990s, she is a committed animal lover but also says she is "not a slave to science" when it comes to climate change - there could be some lively debates over the cabinet table. Communities and Local Government: Hazel Blears Back to the future for the Blairite ex-Salford MP. That Respect agenda - Asbos and zero tolerance - was a part of the New Labour era that governments before and since have more or less agreed with. There could be some lively arguments over the merits of identity cards too... Business Secretary: Peter Mandelson They say football managers should never go back to a job they've had before - but this isn't football and it'd probably be worth it to see how the former European Commissioner approaches the role in the wake of the Brexit vote. What about the rest? As this is a fantasy cabinet it does not include all the roles, such as chief whip and leader of the Commons. For the nations' portfolios how about a solidly New Labour line-up? Peter Hain resuming his role as Welsh Secretary while Alistair Darling, pictured above with the then SNP leader Alex Salmond in 2014, is asked by a slightly mischievous John Major to build bridges after his referendum role as Scotland Secretary. Meanwhile, ever aware of the threat of a challenge, the PM decides that Northern Ireland is the perfect place for the still-young-and-hungry David Miliband to get his feet back on the UK political ladder. Here's a selection of your responses: Prime Minister: Lord Carrington, DPM: John Major, Lord Chancellor: Louise Mensch, Chancellor: Peter Mandelson, Foreign Secretary: William Hague, Home Secretary: Alan Johnson, Health Secretary: Margaret Beckett, Defence Secretary: George Robertson, Business Secretary: Michael Heseltine, Education Secretary: William Hague, Culture Secretary: Estelle Morris, International Development: Peter Hain, Welsh Secretary: Neil Kinnock, Scottish Secretary: Malcolm Rifkind, Chief Whip: Norman Tebbit - Nathan A cabinet of all the talents would need to be filled with experienced hands and irreverent wits not afraid to speak their minds. John Major as PM would pair well with Ken Clarke as Chancellor, along with Douglas Hurd at the Foreign Office. Michael Heseltine as Home Secretary would lead a sensible domestic policy, while Lord Carrington's wealth of experience in defence and NATO makes him ideal for the MoD. Gillian Shephard for Work & Pensions would complement the skill of Virginia Bottomley at Education. Lady Amos at DfID is a natural fit given her time at the UN, and Malcolm Rifkind can expertly navigate Scottish affairs. Tony Blair in Northern Ireland can crack on in the cozy confines of Hillsborough Castle, no less. Mandelson leading the Lords and Ian Lang running the Commons would provide the much needed charm and avuncular good looks getting on with organising government business - Anthony Chris Patten embodied the cross-party modern liberal tradition that seems to run through your other selections, 90% of which I agree with, especially the choice of both PM and Chancellor - Andy Lord Michael Heseltine. Ex Deputy-PM, longtime very senior cabinet minister, with decades experience with commercial business, as well as political business/defence briefs... exactly what is required now. Independently wealthy, therefore beholden to no-one, for favour/advancement - FM Gordon Brown as chancellor, I should coco! He raided the pension funds, hence all the problems with them. I would suggest Tony Blair as a tea boy, he couldn't do a great deal of damage there - Mike There has to be room for Ken Clarke. Liked by the public, good communicator, affable personality but very intelligent with a fierce legal brain. Probably as Justice Secretary although could do anything - Jonathan I think that Kenneth Clarke was the best chancellor the country has had in the last 30 years or so. He was a pragmatist who sought to improve the country's financial position. Whereas Gordon Brown was merely a man driven by an out-dated socialist ideology - Malvern (editor's note, Ken Clark didn't qualify for our list as he is still active in the House of Commons) Wrong question. It should be Are politicians starting too young. Portillo has mellowed and would now be an asset back in parliament - Richard William Hague is a great loss to this country in many ways.... apart from Churchill I do not think we have anyone who I would want back - Betty Prime Minister: Clement Attlee, Deputy Prime Minister: Alistair Darling, Foreign Secretary: Ernest Bevin, Home Secretary: Douglas Hurd, Chancellor of the Exchequer: Roy Jenkins, Chief Secretary to the Treasury: Norman Lamont, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry: Barbara Castle, Secretary of State for Defence: Earl Alexander of Tunis, Secretary of State for Health: Mo Mowlem, Secretary of State for Justice: Bob Marshall-Andrews, Secretary of State for Education: RA Butler, Secretary of State for Transport: Michael Portillo, Secretary of State for Farming and Rural Development: Fred Peart, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: Harold Macmillan, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government: Bessie Braddock - Chris A cabinet of still living ex-MPs who during their careers lost their seats in general elections in cabinet/ shadow cabinet briefs they once held: PM: Michael Portillo, Chancellor: Ed Balls, Chief Secretary to the Treasury: Danny Alexander, Foreign Secretary: Douglas Alexander, Home Secretary: Jacqui Smith, Business Secretary: Vince Cable, Trade Secretary: Lord Ian Laing, Culture Secretary: David Mellor, Environment Secretary: Ed Davey, Defence Secretary: Jim Murphy, Education Secretary: Charles Clarke, Health secretary: Lord William Waldegrave, Scottish Secretary: Lord Michael Forsyth, Northern Ireland Secretary: David Trimble, Welsh Secretary: Lord Michael Ancram, Leader of the House: Baroness Ann Taylor Work and Pensions Secretary: Tony Newton, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster: Roger Freeman, International Development: Baroness Lynda Chalker, DPM (Chairman): Lord Chris Patten - David Lembit Opik - Minister without Portfolio - Geoff Follow Alex Hunt on Twitter @ialexhunt BBC Politics News and Daily Politics are on Facebook

इन दिनों राजनेता देश का नेतृत्व करने के लिए चर्चिल-शैली को वापस उछालने या अपने उत्तराधिकारियों को एक बुद्धिमान शब्द प्रदान करने के लिए इधर-उधर रहने के बजाय सत्ता खोने (या सत्ता की उम्मीद खोने) पर बाहर निकलने के लिए जल्दबाजी करते प्रतीत होते हैं। तो अब एक मंत्रिमंडल कैसा दिख सकता है, जो पूरी तरह से उन लोगों से बना है जिन्होंने हाउस ऑफ कॉमन्स से स्वेच्छा से इस्तीफा दे दिया था?


Titanic teenager Samuel Scott gets headstone

Summary: A teenager thought to have been the first victim of the Titanic has finally been given a headstone on his grave.

Samuel Scott, 15, fractured his skull whilst working on the ship in 1910. His body has since lain in an unmarked grave in Belfast City Cemetery. However, a new headstone was unveiled there on Saturday as part of the Feile an Phobail festival. A new children's book, Spirit Of The Titanic, used the teenager as its main character. The book, published earlier this year, follows the boy's ghost as it haunts the decks of the ship during its voyage.

एक किशोर जिसे टाइटैनिक का पहला शिकार माना जाता है, उसे आखिरकार उसकी कब्र पर एक पत्थर दिया गया है।


Woman dies in two-car crash near Chiverton Cross

Summary: A woman has died and two people have been injured in a two-car crash.

The collision happened on the B3277 near Chiverton Cross in Cornwall at about 13:30 BST. Police said the female driver of one of the cars died at the scene. The other driver sustained serious leg injuries and was taken to hospital with a passenger, who was not seriously hurt. Officers have closed the road between Sevenmilestone and Chiverton Cross while they investigate.

दो कारों की टक्कर में एक महिला की मौत हो गई और दो लोग घायल हो गए।


Senior Conservative steps down from Senedd

Summary: Tory Senedd member Angela Burns has said she will step down from the Welsh Parliament at next May's election.

The member for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire was first elected in 2007 and is her party's health spokeswoman in Cardiff Bay. "All good things must come to an end and it's now time for a fresh challenge and new experiences," she said. Conservative Senedd leader Paul Davies said she "made a highly significant contribution to Welsh political life". This was "especially so" with her speaking for the party on health "during this pandemic", he said, "and she will carry on making very valuable contributions for the rest of her time as a member".

टोरी सेनेड की सदस्य एंजेला बर्न्स ने कहा है कि वह अगले मई के चुनाव में वेल्श संसद से इस्तीफा दे देंगी।


Fifa Women's World Cup: Five ways women's football beats men's

Summary: The widespread coverage and high drama of the Fifa Women's World Cup has sparked football fever across the UK, with a record-breaking 6.9 million people watching England's most recent clash. There were still far more people watching men's World Cup matches, with 26.5 million viewers tuning in to see England knocked out last year. But there are some ways women's football is hitting the back of the net - while the male strand of the sometimes-beautiful game bounces disappointingly off the crossbar.

By Alice EvansBBC News 1. Value for money For the men's World Cup last summer, your pockets had to be bulging with Russian roubles if you wanted a chance to see football come home (or not) with your own eyes. The best seats in the house for the France v Croatia men's final cost an eye-watering 66,000 roubles (£824.44). But don't despair. If you don't have a spare 800 quid jangling around, it's still possible for you to go to a World Cup final. The most expensive seats in the women's final at the Stade de Lyon on 7 July are more than 10 times cheaper than in the men's tournament at £75.12 (84EUR). At the Women's World Cup in France this year, you can actually watch a game for as little as £8.05 (9EUR). C'est magnifique, non? This pricing imbalance manifests itself in merchandise, too. Perhaps to Nike's credit, the official shirts of the men's and women's World Cups both cost £89.95. However, while it is free to add the name of a Lioness to the women's shirt, it costs £13 to splash names such as Kane, Rashford or Vardy across your shoulders. Nike hasn't responded to a request for clarification on why this is the case. 2. More goals The stats speak for themselves on this one. For a start, Brazilian women's forward Marta is the all-time World Cup top scorer for both men and women, with 17 goals to her name across 19 matches. So far in this year's tournament the women have scored 2.69 goals per game - just edging out the men, who scored 2.64 goals per game in last year's World Cup. The women are even further ahead in the top leagues. Over the last three seasons of the Women's Super League there were 3.05 goals per match, compared with a measly 2.76 goals in the men's top tournament, the Premier League. 3. Women stick to the rules We're not saying women are angels on the pitch (in fact, Cameroon were described as quite the opposite when they played England on Sunday). But they break the rules less often than men do. Fifa didn't provide stats for bookings in World Cup games, but we did manage to pull some together from data provided by Opta Sports for the FA, which runs England's top league games. It turns out, in the 2018-19 season, Premier League players (men) were three times more likely than players in the Women's Super League to be sent off in matches. Men were also handed yellow cards twice as often. Over the last three seasons, there were 3,777 yellow cards given to Premier League players - a rate of 3.3 per game - compared with 399 given to Women's Super League players (1.5 per game). Janie Frampton, who has refereed both men's and women's international matches in her 30-year career, said the "streak of cheating" that so many top male players express is in part down to "far too much money and far too many big egos". However, the data from the Football Association (FA) also suggests the amount of yellow cards given for fouls per women's match is creeping up. It went from 1.3 per game in 2016-17 to 1.5 in the following year and 1.6 last season. Frampton believes an increase in rule-breaking is inevitable as women's football becomes more popular. "The women's game is becoming far more professional, and by that happening, the skill factor, the determination and challenge of the game is getting much higher," she said. "Women's football has become far more important, and that's going to bring the more competitive edge, which is going to bring tougher challenges and more cards," she added. So if the upward trend continues, it won't be long until the women are making Zinedine Zidane's head-butt look like an Eskimo kiss. Only kidding. There's no way you can make that infamous moment look any less brutal. 4. Global competition Men's World Cup winners have only ever come from eight countries across two continents - Europe and South America. There have been four times as many men's World Cups as women's, but the women's tournament has already produced four countries as winners from North America, Europe and Asia. The greater number of teams with a genuine chance to lift that treasured golden trophy arguably makes the women's game all the more exciting. 5. LGBT+ support It's a widely accepted shame that there is not one openly gay footballer in the Premier League. In 1990, former England Under-21 international Justin Fashanu was the first professional footballer in Britain to come out as gay. The ex-Aston Villa midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger, who came out following his retirement in 2014, said there is a "long way to go" before men come out while playing in a top league. By contrast, the women's game is considered far more inclusive. When ex-England player Casey Stoney spoke out about being gay for the first time just months after Hitzlsperger, she said homosexuality was more accepted in the women's game. And West Ham United women's captain Gilly Flaherty said last season: "Everyone has accepted me for who I am. Women's football is a sport where a player can be openly gay and no one acts any differently towards you because of it, which is a great thing." The better levels of tolerance and acceptance in the women's game could be partly thanks to pioneer, Lily Parr. The 6ft chain-smoker - whose wages from Dick, Kerr Ladies FC, were reputedly supplemented by packets of Woodbine cigarettes - was gay, although some dispute how open she was about this. Parr paved the way for English women's footballing success and was the first woman to feature in the National Football Museum's Hall of Fame. Are England women better than men? In the last three Women's World Cups, England came third once and got into the final eight twice. The men finished fourth in 2018, were knocked out of the group stages in 2014 and made the final 16 in 2010. The stats behind these results show an almost identical track record. In 2018 England men scored 12 goals in seven matches, while the women scored 10 in seven matches in the 2015 tournament. Both teams received a total of eight yellow cards. The men conceded eight goals while the women conceded seven. It might be too tough to call which is the better team for now, but the women have everything to prove when they face Norway in the quarter-finals on Thursday. Watch this space - perhaps we'll be singing "three Lionesses on a shirt" and naming train stations after Phil Neville before the summer's over.

फीफा महिला विश्व कप के व्यापक कवरेज और उच्च नाटक ने पूरे ब्रिटेन में फुटबॉल बुखार को जन्म दिया है, जिसमें रिकॉर्ड तोड़ 69 लाख लोगों ने इंग्लैंड के सबसे हालिया संघर्ष को देखा है। पुरुषों के विश्व कप मैचों को अभी भी कहीं अधिक लोग देख रहे थे, जिसमें 26.5 लाख दर्शक पिछले साल इंग्लैंड को नॉकआउट होते देखने के लिए ट्यून कर रहे थे। लेकिन कुछ तरीके हैं जिनसे महिला फुटबॉल नेट के पीछे से टकरा रहा है-जबकि कभी-कभी सुंदर खेल का पुरुष स्ट्रैंड क्रॉसबार से निराशाजनक रूप से उछलता है।