Viewpoint: Does PNG back Australia's asylum deal?

Summary: Australia is to send its asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea where those found to be refugees will be resettled. But, reports Jo Chandler, the policy shift has sparked concern and some anger in the new host nation.

Effrey Dademo is a lawyer, activist and unblinkered critic of the unhappier goings-on in her homeland of Papua New Guinea. Five years ago she stuck her neck out to expose them by founding the influential online lobby community ActNOW!, its mission to "build a better PNG". She is also a proud citizen, cherishing her country's vibrant traditions - it has more than 800 languages - and defending its wild, resource-rich landscapes from (mostly) foreign land-grabbers. Like many of her country-folk, she is disturbed - and deeply offended - by the implications of Australia's new hard-line asylum-seekers strategy. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's "PNG Solution", unveiled on 19 July, aimed to defuse a defining domestic political crisis ahead of the national election, now called for 7 September. Effective immediately, the strategy sets out to deter asylum seekers from boarding boats to Australia by promising them a new life in PNG instead - a fate worse than staying at home, apparently. All genuine refugees identified in the next 12 months - most of them passing through PNG's expanded Manus Island processing facility - would be resettled in PNG at Australia's expense, Mr Rudd told Australian voters. PNG's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has been more equivocal in explaining the deal to his riled constituency in recent days. Nothing, he insists, is "written in stone", and terms would be adapted as needs be to protect PNG interests. Ms Dademo is appalled at the commentary that Australia's "rude and discourteous" tactic has unleashed in the international media - "labelling this country as a 'hellhole', 'crime-ridden', 'impoverished' - it is simply not true". PNG's frenetic and fiercely patriotic social media commentators were preoccupied for days debating "impoverishment" - by whose values was it measured; what account did it take of connections to clan, land, tradition? Nonetheless the material poverty which the majority of Papua New Guinea's seven million-plus people endure is explicit. A paper published by the Lowy Institute in 2009 estimated that about one million people live in extreme poverty, on less than $50 (£32) a year, with limited or no access to cash income, health and education services, markets, transport and food security. Many more have insufficient or poor services. Some 85% live in rural and remote villages, surviving on their gardens; an increasing number occupy crowded urban settlements - many internally displaced by tribal or domestic violence, with no state welfare to support them. The health system is woeful and impossibly burdened by epidemic tuberculosis. The maternal death rate - 733 per 100,000 births - is among the highest in the world. Roads are few and decayed; classrooms are crowded; traditional social safeguards are eroded by rollercoaster social change, and law and justice systems are too weak to stem the consequent violence. Even employed people - teachers, health workers, civil servants - struggle to find habitable housing. "If we don't consider the already fragile state of things in-country, we're setting ourselves for disaster - although in this case, I think Australia has set us up for disaster," says Ms Dademo. "Where do these people [refugees] live?" she asks. "Our PM was definitely sleeping when Timor-Leste rejected [former Prime Minister Julia] Gillard's use of them as the regional solution a while back. They were right. There was no proper consultation." 'Questionable handling' The themes she identifies - lack of courtesy, of capacity and of consultation - resonate as the key concerns of opinion leaders and citizens caught up in the national conversation on the issue. "We are an open, accepting and largely decent society and resent the suggestion that a sojourn here is something which should be portrayed as dangerous," says Lawrence Stephens, the chair of Transparency International PNG, and like Ms Dademo an activist with few illusions about PNG's problems. Legality is another concern. A PNG opposition effort to challenge the Manus Island facility in the Supreme Court - arguing it violates a constitutional guarantee of personal liberty - stalled on a technicality but is likely to be upheld, says lawyer and prominent political commentator Deni ToKunai. Mr O'Neill has signalled that parliament will amend the constitution to allow the deal - the latest in a series of amendments that have effectively fortified the O'Neill leadership with more than four years left to run, Mr ToKunai says. "He's really been very smart about the whole thing… it's 90% impossible for a vote of no confidence to be put against him." Meanwhile MPs "are being bombarded about this - people are writing to them, asking what the hell is going on". The PNG Catholic Bishops - who have the largest congregations in the 96% Christian nation - have issued a joint statement condemning the plan as "unwise" and warning that PNG has been enlisted as "an accomplice in a very questionable handling of a human tragedy". "While Papua New Guineans are not lacking in compassion for those in need, this country [unlike Australia which is a stable and thriving nation of immigrants] does not have the capacity at this time in its history to welcome a sizeable influx of refugees and provide for their immediate needs and a reasonable hope for a new and prosperous beginning." Last Friday several hundred university students were turned back by armed police when they attempted to march on the Australian High Commission to protest against the deal - despite one of the sweeteners from Canberra being a windfall to reform higher education. Student leaders say it undermines PNG's sovereignty. They now hope to get a permit to regroup and rally churches and civil society groups to join them. 'Immense pressure' Despite both the PNG national newspapers appearing to have lost interest in the topic, Mr ToKunai describes a kind of slow-burn hysteria building around the deal - "everyone is talking about it". Inflaming the situation was confusion over the discrepancies between what was being said in Australia and PNG. Australian reports say the number of refugees to be settled is uncapped - and "but that's not what we're hearing here from our prime minister". "On both sides of Torres Strait it is a really big issue, and our government has been under an immense amount of pressure," says Mr ToKunai. "I can't see PNG accepting more than 3,000 in total to be resettled. We may accept more than that to be processed [on Manus Island], but that is only a temporary issue." Another festering sensitivity relates to the more than 9,000 West Papuan refugees living in PNG, many of them for more than 30 years, who are unable to access citizenship and many services or work legally . The notion that a new intake of foreign refugees would get better treatment - because the Australian government is bankrolling their requirements under international law - than their long-suffering Melanesian brothers and sisters would distress many Papua New Guineans, Mr ToKunai says. "Very few people have found out about that yet. And when they do, they will think it is very unfair." Jo Chandler is an award-winning freelance journalist with more than 20 years experience at The Age newspaper in Melbourne. She has travelled extensively in Papua New Guinea.

ऑस्ट्रेलिया अपने शरण चाहने वालों को पापुआ न्यू गिनी भेजने वाला है जहाँ शरणार्थी पाए जाने वालों को फिर से बसाया जाएगा। लेकिन, जो चांडलर की रिपोर्ट के अनुसार, नीति में बदलाव ने नए मेजबान देश में चिंता और कुछ गुस्से को जन्म दिया है।


Northern Ireland ceasefires: 25 years of imperfect peace

Summary: On 31 August 1994, the IRA called its first ceasefire - the beginning of the end of a violent campaign that had already stretched into its third decade. By October that year loyalist paramilitaries had followed suit. Brian Rowan was a BBC NI correspondent at the time and 25 years on, he asks how much progress has been made?

By Brian RowanAuthor and former BBC NI security correspondent When we first read the ceasefire statements in 1994, could we have predicted the political and legacy wars of today - the latter being the long fight for the truth about the years of conflict? Add to this the battle that is Brexit. In the hope of 1994, is this what we expected? Twenty-five years later, the political landscape and conversations are changing - and the ceasefires are but a moment in history. With the wisdom of hindsight, we know they were the beginnings of an imperfect peace - not an end. There were other phases of murder; new threats posed by the many and various types of dissident IRA. Those threats have again been evident in recent times. The current security and intelligence assessment is that all of the organisations that were part of the conflict or "Troubles" period continue to exist in some shape or form; some more obvious than others. They did not disappear in the peace. The ceasefire statements of 1994 seemed to offer so much more - firstly, in August, the IRA declared a "complete cessation of military operations". Then, in October, the response came from the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC), an umbrella group for loyalist paramilitaries, which included the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Red Hand Commando. At a news conference in Belfast, the former UVF leader Gusty Spence read a statement saying that they would cease "all operational hostilities". After the slaughter of two-and-a-half decades, which had claimed more than 3,500 lives, at last there was a moment to dream and to hope. Working then as a BBC correspondent, I was called to a meeting on the morning of 31 August, where a woman read this IRA statement to me. And, the night before the announcement by the CLMC, I met senior loyalists and was given a statement by the former UVF leader Gusty Spence pointing to an "unprecedented press conference" the following morning. The stage was being set for a new day. Now, to mark the 25th anniversary of those ceasefires, I have conducted a range of interviews; assessing the worth of 1994 through the lens of 2019. 'The war was over' Jake Mac Siacais - son-in-law of the late IRA leader Brian Keenan - was twice jailed in the period spanning the mid-1970s through to the early 1980s. Inside the Maze Prison in 1981, he wrote and delivered the oration for the hunger striker Bobby Sands; reading it from a cell he shared at that time with the IRA jail leader Brendan McFarlane. Today, Mac Siacais is a prominent figure in the Irish language community and director of a project developing the Gaeltacht Quarter in Belfast. He has deep background knowledge of the internal republican debate which led to the IRA ceasefire. Looking back, he says that a different approach should have been taken by republicans: "The war was over and we should have said the war was over." The former prisoner also believes that the IRA leadership should have given an order for its arms to be "permanently dumped". He means that the weapons should have been buried by the IRA itself and not subjected to a protracted negotiation over decommissioning in which an international commission supervised the arms being put beyond use. The IRA became a bargaining chip in those decommissioning arguments and in the post-Good Friday Agreement manoeuvres for a new government at Stormont. The Mac Siacais argument will be viewed as a narrow republican one. Any political agreement was always going to include the demand for illegal weapons to be destroyed. Irish identity In the here-and-now, politics has moved beyond the decommissioning issue, but there are new arguments which brought about the collapse of the power-sharing government at Stormont in January 2017. Those disputes, including the demand for an Irish language act, still divide the big two parties - the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin. I asked Mac Siacais if there could be a restoration of the political institutions without such an act? "Well, of course there can be, but there shouldn't be," he replied. He added: "It isn't about an Irish language act. It's about the ability or inability of unionists and the northern state to recognise or make explicit the recognition of the legitimacy of an Irish identity, which, when we think of it, was at the heart of the entire conflict." Is the union safe? Retired Church of Ireland Archbishop Lord Eames played a key background role in the events that led to the loyalist ceasefire announcement, including speaking to then Prime Minister John Major and Taoiseach Albert Reynolds. Loyalists had given the churchman a set of conditions which, if met, would allow their ceasefire to be announced first. This is the document - not published at the time, but obtained later. Events on the ground - the targeting and killing of prominent loyalists - meant the initiative was derailed. When the ceasefire was eventually announced, it was delivered in the firm belief that the union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland was safe. 'Danger signs' Twenty-five years on, Lord Eames believes that the looming prospect of Brexit is changing dynamics across the islands and old certainties are being eroded. Surveying today's bleak political landscape, he told me: "I'm praying that the spirit of the ceasefire days could possibly infiltrate political life today." I asked him if the union was still safe in 2019. "I would like to say it is, but I believe that there are danger signs which I think we all need to be conscious of." The frame of the political debate in Northern Ireland is widening. No longer is it just about devolution at Stormont or direct rule from Westminster, but what a "new Ireland" might look like and how it might embrace unionists. Lord Eames said: "New thinking is welcome. You don't have to surrender your principles or the principles you have been brought up on to simply grasp new ideas. "I'd like to know a bit more about what is meant by the 'new Ireland', but I can see possibilities." Legacy war A decade ago in 2009, Lord Eames helped to produce the first report aimed at establishing a process to address the questions from the conflict period. His team proposed the setting up of a Legacy Commission and, most controversially, a £12,000 payment to the relatives of all those killed in the conflict. But 10 years on, the waiting for such a process continues and we are watching a legacy war - a fight for the past in which the trenches are being dug deeper. The Stormont House Agreement of 2014, which included proposals for a new Historical Investigations Unit (HIU), has resulted in further disagreement. Truth recovery Tommy Quigley watches the debate around legacy with keen interest. He is a former IRA life sentence prisoner who is still on licence following his release. His brother Jimmy, who was also an IRA member, was shot dead by the Army in Belfast in 1972. The Quigley family is still searching for answers about the circumstances of the killing. Tommy Quigley believes that a legacy process is needed where people are willing to come forward - and that can only happen with an amnesty. "I don't see why anyone from any background would come forward and give evidence or give information if they thought they were going to be prosecuted, or even if there was a chance that they were going to be prosecuted," he said. Disappearing knowledge In the waiting for some resolution of the past, memory is dying out. The IRA leaders Martin McGuinness, Brian Keenan and Kevin McKenna are no longer with us. Nor are the unionist leaders of the ceasefire period - James Molyneaux and Ian Paisley. Some who played key interlocutor roles, including the priest Father Alec Reid, the Presbyterian minister the Rev Roy Magee and businessman Brendan Duddy, who for decades was a back channel link between the British Government and the IRA leadership, are dead. So too the taoiseach (Irish prime minister) in the ceasefire period Albert Reynolds and the then Northern Ireland Secretary of State Sir Patrick Mayhew. Four of the seven men who sat at the top table when the loyalist ceasefire was announced - Gusty Spence, Jim McDonald, David Ervine and William 'Plum' Smith are dead. Information, knowledge, memory - all now lie buried in the peace. The widows Ervine and Smith were themselves both former prisoners, who went on to play key roles in persuading the paramilitaries to call a ceasefire and to allow their representatives to enter the negotiations that brought about the Good Friday Agreement. I have been speaking to their widows Jeanette Ervine and Liz Smith about the past and how it fits into the present; specifically about historical investigations continuing 25 years after the ceasefires. Jeanette Ervine said: "I can feel for the victims of the Troubles, but I don't think that bringing somebody back to prison is going to do any good. "These people are already hurting and I don't think that will salve that." She added: "That was part of the Good Friday Agreement - the prisoners would be released...there wasn't a clause to say when they're 60 or 70-years-old we're going to come back and convict them and put them back in there for end of their day." Ed Spence, nephew of Gusty Spence, who read the loyalist ceasefire statement in 1994, said that the late UVF leader would be very saddened at the lack of progress since. He said his uncle saw the ceasefires as "the start of the finish of the war". "25 years on, we are still at it," said Ed Spence. An unfinished peace The ceasefires of 1994 seem such a long time ago. They changed this place. Many lives were saved. Every day, the so-called peace walls are visited and photographed. They are a statement of continuing division and a reminder of an unfinished peace. The scars of conflict are an open wound. Politics has not been able to cement its place in the peace. There is no certainty about the future of Stormont and seemingly endless political negotiations continue. It is much easier to analyse the past than to predict the future. Where will we be 25 years from now?

31 अगस्त 1994 को, आई. आर. ए. ने अपना पहला युद्धविराम घोषित किया-एक हिंसक अभियान के अंत की शुरुआत जो पहले ही अपने तीसरे दशक में फैल चुका था। उस वर्ष अक्टूबर तक वफादार अर्धसैनिक बलों ने इसका पालन कर लिया था। ब्रायन रोवन उस समय बी. बी. सी. एन. आई. के संवाददाता थे और 25 साल बाद, वे पूछते हैं कि कितनी प्रगति हुई है?


Indian brands reckon with a new challenge: hate

Summary: The increasing power of social media, where outrage easily gathers pace, is forcing Indian brands to reckon with a new challenge: the politics of hate. BBC's Nikhil Inamdar and Aparna Alluri report.

Indian CEO Rajiv Bajaj made headlines earlier this month when he said his company would no longer advertise on media outlets that were a source of "hate-mongering" or "toxicity". Mr Bajaj - who runs Bajaj Auto, India's biggest motorcycle manufacturer - was speaking to CNBC-TV18 in the wake of a police investigation into three TV news channels who were accused of manipulating ratings and spreading fake news. Reports said Mr Bajaj's company had blacklisted three TV news channels, though he has not named any publicly. Days later, Parle-G, India's biggest biscuit maker, said it had decided not to advertise on channels that "broadcast toxic content". A senior executive said they were looking to send "a clear signal to all the news channels that they better change their content". These brands are household names. It is something of a surprise they have chosen to speak up - Indian companies typically shy away from public stances, unlike in the West where big businesses have recently come out in support of progressive causes like LGBTQ rights, or spoken out against hate speech and racism. But Indian brands may soon have to start rethinking this strategy. In recent months, ratings for a section of TV news media soared amid the frenzied coverage that followed the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput. But they also drew flak for their shrill, sensationalist and often defamatory reporting - from accusing Rajput's girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty of driving him to suicide to airing images of his body to speculating on wild theories about the couple's personal lives. Much of this coverage was spurred by troubling Twitter trends and trolls, which led to a backlash. "We've taken cognisance of this issue, and periodically review our media plan," the marketing head of another top auto manufacturer told the BBC. "This is a turning point and budgets are anyways being redirected from traditional media towards digital platforms." Other consumer brands, such as dairy giant Amul, which spends 40-50% of its advertising budget on news channels, and grocery chain owner Future Group have said they are worried about the growing negativity and aggression on some platforms. Ad expenditure on news channels has dipped in recent years, partly due to an economic slowdown. But experts say increasing concern over "brand safety" is also a reason. "Brands just don't want to be seen sponsoring, or even tacitly condoning, content that their consumers might find abhorrent," says veteran media consultant Paritosh Joshi. "But this isn't an altruistic or socially enlightened view. It's purely a business decision. Brands want to be known by the company they keep." Growing activism by media watchdogs like Newslaundry, who've sought to hold brands accountable for funding vitriolic content, has played a part too, Mr Joshi adds. "For toxic news to be shown the door, advertisers have to take a stand - spend by principle, spend on principle," says Suparna Singh, senior executive at news broadcaster NDTV. But actively supporting certain causes or ideas rather than just denouncing others is far trickier, Mr Joshi says. So while October began with leading companies seemingly taking a stand against toxic trends, it ended on quite the opposite note. A touching 43-second ad, showing a Muslim family throwing a baby shower for their Hindu daughter-in-law, sparked a rightwing backlash that was shockingly swift and effective - Tanishq, the prominent jewellery brand withdrew their ad, citing staff safety and "hurt sentiments". Tanishq executives declined to be interviewed by the BBC, but the trolling included physical threats and the names of some of the company's employees were circulated online. "I didn't expect that the employees would get trolled or get threats," says Azaz Ul Haque, chief creative officer at the ad firm Mullen Lintas and a former employee of Tanishq's parent company, Titan. "When you start threatening a company as big as the Tatas… That was pretty surprising." Tanishq is owned by the Tata group, one of India's biggest conglomerates, and many had expected them to brave the storm. But the trolls summoned the bogey of "love jihad", a popular rightwing conspiracy theory that accuses Muslim men of seducing Hindu women to convert them. "Nothing works as well for Hindu nationalism as love jihad. If there are two things they care deeply about - it's to keep Muslims down and control women," says author Snigdha Poonam, who has written extensively on what drives young, polarised Indians. But she also cautions against believing this is necessarily the majority view: "There's only a section that's going online and it's those voices that we are seeing amplified and validated by the top leadership." As examples, many point to the polarising, even anti-Muslim, rhetoric that has become the new normal, often echoed by members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata party. "The events are different, the triggers are different, the patterns are the same," Ms Poonam says. To be fair, the Tanishq ad also got a lot of support - ad associations said there was a need to strengthen and safeguard the fundamental right to express and several people on and off social media vowed to buy jewellery from the brand as a show of solidarity. "The love on social media has been more than the hate," Amit Akali, who made the ad, said in a recent interview. It was "organic and unprogrammed", he added, unlike the trolling which is known to be driven by bots and other fake accounts. Mr Akali said he expected the ad to spark conversations, not controversy: "This is the reality of many of our lives. I am a Hindu-Sikh, married to a Parsi." And that's what he wanted to bring to the ad which was part of a larger campaign called Ekatvam, or unity, about coming together during tough times, he added. Tanishq is no stranger to bold ads and has been known for progressive campaigns. Mr Haque and others who work in advertising told the BBC that a campaign of this size would have been cleared by top executives. But it appears that no-one saw this coming. The decision to pull the ad has also sparked criticism, with one journalist calling Ratan Tata, the 82-year-old former chairman of the Tata group, spineless on Twitter. But "advertising is politics", wrote columnist Santosh Desai, saying that companies needed to "wake up to this reality". And in today's India, interfaith marriages are deeply political. They have never been the norm but they aren't unheard of either. In fact, the row saw several interfaith couples speaking out in support of the ad, a sign of how many people it spoke to. "That's the beauty of this country," says Mr Haque, himself a Muslim married to a Hindu. "It's not just about interfaith marriage. Every meal I eat is interfaith. Every memory of mine is interfaith."

सोशल मीडिया की बढ़ती शक्ति, जहां आक्रोश आसानी से गति पकड़ लेता है, भारतीय ब्रांडों को एक नई चुनौती का सामना करने के लिए मजबूर कर रही हैः नफरत की राजनीति। बीबीसी के निखिल इनामदार और अपर्णा अल्लूरी की रिपोर्ट।


'Trojan Horse' storm breaking over Birmingham's schools

Summary: The storm is breaking over Birmingham's schools.

Chris CookPolicy editor, BBC Newsnight Officials now expect Ofsted, the education inspectorate, to put some of the city's schools into "special measures" - changing their leadership - after it ordered fresh inspections into 21 of them. This process - one of four investigations - follows the publication of the so-called Trojan Horse document. This was a letter, now widely assumed to be a forgery, claiming to detail a plot by Muslim conservatives to Islamicise secular state schools. The Ofsted reports will be released soon, but probably not this week. We know that 16 schools were given only brief inspections (so-called "section 8s" in the jargon) and five schools were given full-blown inspections ("section 5s"). The schools that received full inspections are expected to go into "special measures", meaning there will be a change in the school's leadership. This will be most spectacular at Park View and Oldknow, academies that were rated as "outstanding" in 2012 and 2013 respectively. Socially conservative The other two schools taken over by the Park View Educational Trust will follow them. Park View has previously rejected the allegations of extremism that it faces. Some schools who got a section 8 will also be given a hard time. There might be further consequences when the Department for Education publishes its report on the issue. For Ofsted, the issue in these schools is that they are socially conservative, perhaps too much so for schools that are not designated faith schools, and some have odd management practices. The effect, Ofsted fears, is to create an atmosphere where extremism might flourish. Newsnight has previously covered some examples of what that can look like. Clique of governors The Ofsted results also support the notion that this is really about a clique of governors. The leaders of four of the schools expected to go into special measures are good friends, who speak a lot via WhatsApp, the mobile messaging app. The idea that there is no wider conspiracy has support: people working in counter-extremism in Birmingham also do not think there is an acute broader problem in the city. So this chapter of the story may be closing. But there is a big structural issue worth considering: why do so many of the parents support the schools so much? The English school system's most important regulator is the attention of parents. Why, in this case, do they disagree with the authorities? Witch-hunt fear Partly, it is because some of these schools have been getting strong results. Partly, it is because there is fear of a witch-hunt - and the discourse around this reminds Muslims that they are not treated like people of other faiths. Discussion of social conservatism among Jews or Catholics does not lead to talk of terrorism. But it is also surely because Muslim parents do not have access to the same kind of state-funded faith education as parents of other creeds. There are about 50 secondary schools in England whose catchment areas, weighted properly, are majority Muslim. Of these, 17 are in Birmingham, 11 are in Bradford and six are in London's Tower Hamlets. At none of the schools is the catchment above 90% Muslim. But parental choice means the Muslim intake of the schools sometimes runs a bit higher. At the last school census, however, there were only eight officially designated Muslim state secondaries. There are more than 300 Catholic secondaries. No choice So, for parents who want an education that reflects their own religion, an Islamicised comprehensive school might seem like a neat option. With a growing Muslim population, this is an issue that will not go away. Ofsted has no choice but to try to resecularise these schools. But one idea in the ether is that we should open more Muslim faith schools. That would require a bold secretary of state, willing to defend the growth of faith schooling. It would also mean that schools would probably be more segregated by background. There are also practical problems arising from the fact that there is no cardinal or archbishop who can oversee the schools. But, on the other hand, once you accept that certain schools are Islamic schools, you can then think about constructing a governing body with proper representation and management processes to prevent the problems in Birmingham. That outcome seems implausible. But remember that parents are the first line of defence for the school system. And, at the moment, lots of them do not think lines in the sand drawn in Whitehall about the role of religion in our schools are worth defending.

बर्मिंघम के स्कूलों पर तूफान टूट रहा है।


What does disputed Paracel island look like?

Summary: The largest island in the disputed Paracel archipelago in the South China Sea is now believed to host surface-to-air missiles.

Known as Woody island by most, it is occupied by China, which calls it Yongxing. It is also claimed by Vietnam, which calls it Phu Lam, as well as by Taiwan. Reports of the presence of missiles on the island have added to concerns about the militarisation of the South China Sea. Here is what we know about Woody Island. China has controlled it for a long time There are people living on it It's not the only source of tensions between neighbours

माना जाता है कि दक्षिण चीन सागर में विवादित पैरासेल द्वीपसमूह का सबसे बड़ा द्वीप अब सतह से हवा में मार करने वाली मिसाइलों की मेजबानी करता है।


‘It’s on you’ if you don’t get vaccinated – Tory MP Mark Harper

Summary: People who refuse the coronavirus vaccine should not feature in the government's calculations about lifting restrictions, according to the leader of a group of Conservative MPs who are campaigning for an early end to the lockdown in England.

By Adam FlemingBBC News Political Correspondent Mark Harper, who chairs the Covid Recovery group of backbench Tories, told the BBC's Newscast podcast that the rest of the population should not be held back by those who choose not to get a jab. "You can't say 'I'm not going to take the vaccine, but I need everybody else to change their lives to protect me,'" he said. "I'm afraid that risk you run - it's on you. It's not on everybody else." He said take-up of the vaccine had been high so far and the injections should not be mandatory. The former Home Office minister made the comments after the government confirmed earlier this week that two million people in the priority groups for vaccination in England had not come forward or had not been reached. 'Complex evaluation' The number of people unprotected had to be taken into account when planning policies, according to Professor Adam Finn, who advises the government as a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation. "Moves towards lifting restrictions will depend on levels of population immunity to the variants of the virus circulating at the time," he said. "This will be influenced by multiple factors including the proportion of people who have received vaccine and the duration of protection following vaccination or infection. "It's a complex evaluation and we are all in this together." About 70 Conservative MPs belong to Mr Harper's Covid Recovery group, which is enough to defeat the government on a vote in Parliament if the opposition also opposes the motion. He called for all coronavirus-related legal restrictions on activities to be repealed and replaced with non-binding advice once the most vulnerable groups in the population had been vaccinated, which the government aims to do by the end of April. "At that point, I don't think you can justify legal restrictions at all," he told Newscast. The Coronavirus Recovery Group will seek to influence ministers next week, as they study data on the impact of the vaccination programme on transmission of the virus around the country. ahead of the prime minister' announcement of plans to gradually lift lockdown. Around the BBC Newscast - Meet the Covid Recovery Group... - BBC Sounds

इंग्लैंड में लॉकडाउन को जल्द से जल्द समाप्त करने के लिए अभियान चला रहे कंजर्वेटिव सांसदों के एक समूह के नेता के अनुसार, जो लोग कोरोनावायरस वैक्सीन से इनकार करते हैं, उन्हें प्रतिबंध हटाने के बारे में सरकार की गणना में शामिल नहीं होना चाहिए।


#AintNoCinderella: Why Indian women are posting midnight photos

Summary: Women in India have been posting photographs of themselves enjoying a night out on social media in response to a politician who said a woman who was chased in her car by two men "should not have gone out so late at night".

By Geeta PandeyBBC, Delhi Varnika Kundu, who works as a DJ in the northern city of Chandigarh, was returning home on Friday night when she was allegedly chased by the men, one of whom was Vikas Barala, the son of a prominent politician from India's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). On Wednesday, Mr Barala was arrested - police say he stands accused of "stalking, drink-driving and attempt to kidnap". Ms Kundu said she was "chased and almost kidnapped" and that she was "not lying raped and murdered in a ditch somewhere" only because police quickly responded to her distress call and rescued her. After she wrote a Facebook post about her ordeal which went viral, senior BJP politician in Haryana state Ramveer Bhatti blamed Ms Kundu for what happened to her. "The girl should not have gone out at 12 in the night," he told the CNN-News18 television channel. "Why was she driving so late in the night? The atmosphere is not right. We need to take care of ourselves." Mr Bhatti then went on to tell The Times of India that "parents must take care of their children. They shouldn't allow them to roam at night. Children should come home on time, why stay out at night?" This "victim shaming" didn't go down well, and soon women began posting photos of themselves out at night under the hashtag #AintNoCinderella. The campaign was launched by Divya Spandana, head of the opposition Congress party's social media cell who is a popular film actress from the southern state of Karnataka and often goes by her screen name Ramya. "Why shouldn't women go out after midnight? I'm asking people like Mr Bhatti who are they to set curfew hours for us? I want to ask him who is he to question us? This is such a regressive mindset," Ms Spandana told the BBC. She started out by sending a message to some women on her WhatsApp group on Monday evening. "Ladies, how often have you heard something regressive like this from the mouth of a 'leader' who doesn't know much better? I'll answer: too often," the message said. "This time they're telling us when we can and cannot go out of the our houses. This has to STOP" she added. Then, she posted an image of herself on Twitter and invited other women to do the same. The campaign soon caught on and hundreds of women have since posted photographs on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram challenging patriarchal mindsets that always blame women. Among the first to post a midnight selfie was Sharmistha Mukherjee, Congress party leader and daughter of former Indian president Pranab Mukherjee: Many others followed up, often with defiant messages: When journalist Palak Sharma posted her image, sipping a drink and winking at the camera, she got loads of messages appreciating her "bold stand": "But in the last two days, I've received lots of threats too. I've been called a whore, a slut," she told the BBC. "Think about it - I'm a journalist, I work for the government-run media, I'm no pushover and I'm being threatened for my tweet," she said. "But I'm not afraid," Ms Sharma added. "Nothing is going to stop us, no amount of naysayers can frighten us. We aren't Cinderellas, we don't have to be home at midnight." With more and more women joining the campaign, it seems many others are refusing to be intimidated too.

भारत में महिलाएं एक राजनेता के जवाब में सोशल मीडिया पर एक रात का आनंद लेते हुए अपनी तस्वीरें पोस्ट कर रही हैं, जिसने कहा था कि एक महिला जिसका दो पुरुषों द्वारा उसकी कार में पीछा किया गया था, उसे "इतनी देर रात बाहर नहीं जाना चाहिए था"।


Alexander Monson Kenyan inquest adjourned for 10 weeks

Summary: A Kenyan inquest into the death of the son of an English lord has been adjourned to give the family time to study police statements.

Alexander Monson, 28, was arrested in Diani on suspicion of possessing cannabis in May 2012 and died in police custody. Kenyan Police have denied any involvement in his death. The inquest in Mombasa was adjourned until 27 April to allow closer study of the documents. Mr Monson was heir to his family's Burton estate in Lincolnshire. An independent pathologist hired by his family found he died from a head injury. The family was originally told he died of a drugs overdose. The family lawyer said they had been kept in the dark about the findings of three separate investigations into his death.

एक अंग्रेज स्वामी के बेटे की मौत की केन्याई जांच को पुलिस के बयानों का अध्ययन करने के लिए परिवार को समय देने के लिए स्थगित कर दिया गया है।


Big Issue celebrates 200 million sales

Summary: The Big Issue is marking 200 million sales since its launch in 1991.

Launched by John Bird in 1991, the magazine has become a leading campaigner on issues surrounding poverty and homelessness. It has partnered with street artist Ben Eine to celebrate the milestone with three collectors' edition covers. Editor Paul McNamee said the Big Issue was "a print title that is putting on sales as others decline." Official vendors buy the magazine for £1 and sell it for £2.50 - using the revenue as a means to earn a living. It was formed in London and is a leading campaigner for the homeless as well as people in vulnerable and insecure housing situations who make up the army of sellers around the country and internationally. To mark its milestone, Mr McNamee also selected some of the magazine's most memorable covers. After David Bowie's death, the magazine ran an archive interview Jarvis Cocker had conducted with him as a tribute to the late star(man). Mr McNamee said photographer Louise Haywood-Schiefer had "just minutes" to grab this portrait of the Dalai Lama. "Brilliantly she caught both his massive personality and the fame that comes with that and a rarely seen impishness. It's a great photo," he said. The Street Cat named Bob found fame alongside his owner, busker and Big Issue seller James Bowen. Bob became the subject of several best-selling books and Mr Bowen went on to become a charity advocate "We were joined for this edition by Trudie Styler as guest editor," Mr McNamee said. "She asked if we'd like to see Robert Downey Jnr in a tabard posing as a Big Issue vendor. We said, yes please! And Trudie sorted it. It's a great, strange collection of people in that edition." The magazine has a number of international editions. This cover, from Japan, features renowned artist Yayoi Kusama. The first edition resembled a newspaper, and had a cover price of 50p. This photo of Sgt Rick Clements was taken by rock star Bryan Adams, and used by the magazine to mark the centenary of the outbreak of WW1. "It was a very proud moment when it was named Magazine Cover of The Year by PPA - the Oscars of the British magazine industry," Mr McNamee said. Artist Ben Eine has created three special "celebration" covers to mark 200 million sales.

द बिग इश्यू ने 1991 में अपनी शुरुआत के बाद से 20 करोड़ की बिक्री दर्ज की है।


Lisa Duffy battles to lead UKIP

Summary: In the wake of the Brexit vote we're seeing the summer of leadership campaigns. A political realignment is key to UKIP, which to all intents and purposes has achieved its goal and could shut up shop and walk away.

Deborah McGurranPolitical editor, East of England Instead, along with Labour and the Green Party, UKIP is going through a leadership contest. For a party forged to force a referendum and pull us out of Europe, the challenges, now that has been achieved, are obvious. What next for the hundred plus councillors in this region, for its three MEPs and for the only UKIP MP? Clacton MP, Douglas Carswell, has told us he is not going to publicly endorse any of the candidates, but is still stirring the pot over the former leader, Nigel Farage, whom he says was not always easy to work with. Mr Carswell hopes with good will and trust all that will change in the future. Those are sentiments that have seemed in short supply in the contest so far, as three members of UKIP's National Executive quit after one of the favourites to take over as leader was kept off the ballot paper. While Mr Carswell is going to keep his own council, East of England MEP Patrick O'Flynn has pinned his colours to the mast and is backing Cambridgeshire councillor Lisa Duffy for the top job. "Lisa is a fantastic organiser, she's got an unrivalled commitment to UKIP... she personifies a grassroots approach and I think that will stand UKIP in very good stead, post the EU, in winning first-past-the-post elections in Britain," he told me. 'Prison is punishment' Lisa herself has outlined the kind of policies she would like to see. "The biggest policy for me is law and order... being tough on crime. Sentences meaning what they are, if you get five years, you serve five years... People need to understand the prison is punishment, not a holiday camp," she said. "But also we need to be the party of the NHS. We have to make sure it is the national service, not the world health service... it needs the investment and the time. It needs developing doctors and nurses from this country, as well as taking experts from around the world." Ms Duffy says she is setting out a positive vision for Muslims in our country, but doesn't step back from the argument over wearing the burka in public. "We want to make sure that face coverings and that includes hoodies, crash helmets and balaclavas are not worn in areas of high security - public areas. What people do in their own home is entirely up to them, but it you are in a court, in an airport lobby or in areas such as banks, they need to be able to see your face." UKIP's new vision This is part of what UKIP calls a new softer approach. "We have been really hard line on immigration and we've been hard line about coming out of the EU. Now is about a softer message," said Lisa Duffy. "It is about showing the electorate we have a wide range of policies and good ideas to suit the working man. That will make us have more than one MP in Westminster. We will be electable," she pledged. Patrick O'Flynn agreed: "She [Lisa Duffy] is exactly the sort of person we need for the next phase of UKIP, post Nigel Farage. We don't want an imitation Nigel Farage." We will know in September whether her particular brand of UKIP wins out, but there's no doubt the party will change, said Mr O'Flynn. "The party needs reform. It has a choice. Does it go back to being a dry libertarian ultra-Thatcherite party that wants to cut taxes for the rich and turn a blind eye to tax avoidance by corporations? "Or should it be a more blue collar, proper working people party, in the centre ground, fully supporting the NHS and taking corporate tax avoidance more seriously, and focussing its tax cutting offer on ordinary working people?" He agreed that whenever there's a leadership contest, there's a battle for the hearts and minds of the party. "People get to set out their stall. You get rival camps, rival visions of the future." For UKIP, a lot depends on which view wins.

ब्रेक्सिट वोट के बाद हम नेतृत्व अभियानों की गर्मियों को देख रहे हैं। एक राजनीतिक पुनर्गठन यूकेआईपी के लिए महत्वपूर्ण है, जिसने सभी इरादों और उद्देश्यों के लिए अपना लक्ष्य हासिल कर लिया है और खरीदारी बंद कर सकते हैं और चले जा सकते हैं।


Visit Jersey needs 'turnaround specialist', director says

Summary: A "turnaround specialist" is needed to head up the new tourism group Visit Jersey, its director has said.

Kevin Keen, Visit Jersey's transition director, said a chief executive would soon be in charge with an aim to attract more visitors. Visit Jersey will be independent of the government and replace the current department, Jersey Tourism. Kevin Keen, Visit Jersey's transition director, said it was close to choosing a preferred candidate.

इसके निदेशक ने कहा है कि नए पर्यटन समूह विजिट जर्सी का नेतृत्व करने के लिए एक "टर्नअराउंड विशेषज्ञ" की आवश्यकता है।


Kennet and Avon canal closed after lock is damaged

Summary: Part of the Caen Hill section of the Kennet and Avon Canal in Wiltshire has been closed after a boat damaged a pair of lock gates.

A spokesman for British Waterways said the gates were damaged beyond repair. Replacing them could take up to two weeks. The stretch of water is closed between locks 22 and 24. The flight of 29 locks over a 2m (3.2km) stretch of the canal near Devizes helps raise barges 237ft (72m). A £500,000 gate refurbishment programme is under way. It will see 16 new gates installed. The damaged gates were part of that refurbishment but will now be replaced earlier than scheduled. Visitors to the tourist attraction can still use the tow path, which remains open. Related Internet Links British Waterways

विल्टशायर में केनेट और एवन नहर के केन हिल खंड के एक हिस्से को एक नाव द्वारा ताला फाटकों की एक जोड़ी को क्षतिग्रस्त करने के बाद बंद कर दिया गया है।


Middlesbrough pharmacist Mitesh Patel denies murdering wife

Summary: A pharmacist has denied murdering his wife at their Middlesbrough home.

Mitesh Patel, 37, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Jessica Patel when he appeared via videolink at Teesside Crown Court. Mrs Patel, 34, who ran the Roman Road Pharmacy in Middlesbrough with her husband, was found dead at the couple's home on The Avenue in May. Mr Patel was remanded in custody until his trial, which is due to start in November.

एक फार्मासिस्ट ने अपने मिडल्सब्रो घर में अपनी पत्नी की हत्या से इनकार किया है।


Jonestown: Guyana ponders massacre site's future

Summary: It's hard to believe that Jonestown ever existed.

By Sarah GraingerBBC News, Guyana The patch of rainforest in remote northern Guyana where Jim Jones moved his People's Temple in the 1970s has been almost entirely reclaimed by the jungle. Locals say if you search long enough, you can still find remnants of a tractor used for transport and agriculture and a filing cabinet that would have kept documents about the community. The metal drums in which Jones mixed cyanide and fruit punch in preparation for the mass murder-suicide which took place at the site 33 years ago are also still in place. "We should make sure it's not forgotten by the young people. They should know what can happen," says 80-year-old Wilfred Jupiter, a labourer who helped clear the land and build Jonestown in the 1970s. Guyana is still the undeveloped backwater that first attracted the self-appointed Reverend Jim Jones. A former British colonial outpost in South America, its tropical location has done little for its tourist industry. It lacks the turquoise waters and white sandy beaches of nearby Caribbean islands. But some Guyanese would like to see the notoriety it gained through its connection with Jones converted into tourist dollars. Carlton Daniels is the former postmaster in Port Kaituma, a scrappy mining town close to the old Jonestown compound. He's one of the few residents who remembers what happened there. "Bringing in some tourist dollars could be good for development. There's a lot of gold mining right now, but minerals don't last for ever," he says. 'Most horrific scene' Guyana unwittingly became the focus of media attention when Jones leased land there in 1974 to set up a branch of his People's Temple. In Jones' native United States, the cult had garnered criticism; some members had defected. English-speaking and largely undeveloped, Guyana offered a place for Jones to set up a commune away from prying eyes. Cult members built a school, a pavilion and cottages, growing what food they could in the tropical heat. But the critics' worst fears were realised on 18 November 1978. After escaped cult members complained that the organisation was being run like a prison camp, US Congressman Leo Ryan visited Jonestown to try to help some residents to leave. As they got ready to board a plane at a nearby airstrip, some of Jones' security guards opened fire. Ryan was killed, along with four others. "It was the most horrific scene, and it hasn't left me yet," says Gerry Gouveia. As a young pilot in the military, he was one of the first on the scene. "The priority was to evacuate the wounded from the airstrip and then we went back for the bodies, but we still had no idea about what was happening in Jonestown itself." After the shootings at the airstrip, Jones had gathered the remaining residents of the People's Temple and made them drink punch laced with cyanide. Many "drank the Kool-Aid" but others were shot or had their throats cut. Jones himself was found shot dead. A total of 918 people died, all of them US citizens. In memory The compound was reclaimed by the jungle while Guyana dropped out of the headlines. Now, some Guyanese would like to see Jonestown redeveloped as a way of bringing much-needed income to the local area and putting this forgotten country on the tourism map. "What we need to do is attract people to come to Guyana, whether that attraction is Jonestown or Kaieteur Falls or birding or ecotourism or cricket, to see what a wonderful country Guyana has turned out to be," says Mr Gouveia, who now runs his own airline and tour company. The country erected a plaque at the site two years ago that reads "In Memory of the Victims of the Jonestown Tragedy". Events are sometimes held on 18 November to commemorate the tragedy, although this year the anniversary is overshadowed by upcoming presidential elections. But the authorities in Guyana acknowledge that much more could be done. "It's possible to recreate something to give people a walk-through experience, to show the videos and literature, to put up a museum of Jonestown," says Indranauth Haralsingh, director of the Guyanese tourism authority. "There could be targeted marketing first to the US and then elsewhere." Other nations have shown that it's possible to commemorate atrocities with compassion and provide the opportunity for tourists to reflect on past events. At the former concentration camp at Auschwitz, visitors can tread the same path as those who were about to enter the gas chambers. In Kigali, a memorial centre remembers the Rwandan genocide, a tragedy less than 20 years old. But Guyana's government is wary of marrying the country's public image inextricably to Jonestown. "We don't want to bring back the association with Jonestown and tragedy," Mr Haralsingh says. "So it's not our priority." Advocates for a memorial centre at Jonestown face one huge hurdle - the remote location of the site. Like much of Guyana's interior, there are no paved roads and few flights into this section of the rainforest. Jonestown will likely be left deep in the jungle.

यह विश्वास करना मुश्किल है कि जॉनस्टाउन कभी अस्तित्व में था।


Daily and Sunday Politics manifesto tracker: Housing

Summary: Welcome to the Daily and Sunday Politics manifesto tracker. As the name suggests, it tracks the progress the government is making - or not - in achieving the promises made by the Conservatives in their 2015 general election manifesto and major policy announcements.

The traffic light scorecard above shows the current status of all of the policies. The tracker will be updated over the course of this parliament. The tracker has been broken down into policy areas, which can be explored by clicking on each of the links below. Manifesto tracker by theme This section deals with housing. This is a devolved area: read more. HOUSING Extend the Right to Buy to Housing Association tenants - Manifesto, page 51 Deliver 275,000 additional affordable homes by 2020 - Manifesto, page 52 Build 200,000 quality Starter Homes over the course of the next Parliament, reserved for first-time buyers under 40 and sold at 20 per cent below the market price - Manifesto, page 52 Continue the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee until the start of 2017, and the Help to Buy equity loan until at least 2020 - Manifesto, page 52 Ensure that 90 per cent of suitable brownfield sites have planning permission for housing by 2020 - Manifesto, page 52 Aim at least to double the number of custom-built and self-built homes by 2020 - Manifesto, page 52

डेली एंड संडे पॉलिटिक्स मेनिफेस्टो ट्रैकर में आपका स्वागत है। जैसा कि नाम से पता चलता है, यह 2015 के आम चुनाव घोषणापत्र और प्रमुख नीतिगत घोषणाओं में कंजर्वेटिवों द्वारा किए गए वादों को पूरा करने में सरकार की प्रगति-या नहीं-पर नज़र रखता है।


How Australia's A$49bn internet network came to be ridiculed

Summary: In 1872, rugged, frontier Australia was lauded for overcoming the tyranny of distance to connect itself to the world via the "bush telegraph", a two-year project stringing 3,200km (2,000 miles) of wire through the outback that became part of the nation's folklore.

By Trevor MarshallseaSydney By contrast today, while striving to be seen as an "innovation nation", Australia stands condemned, even ridiculed, for its latest drive for connectivity: a modern, fast internet network. Three letters - NBN - have come to strike dread into the minds of consumers, with the National Broadband Network symbolising for many a template in how not to do things. Given Australia's large size and sparse population density of three people per square kilometre, the NBN is the country's largest ever infrastructure project. The total budget sits at A$49bn (£29bn; $38bn). Of that budget, around 35% must be spent connecting the final 10% of users, including wiring to remote areas, erecting many of the required 2,600 wireless towers and, most expensively, putting two satellites in the sky. This week, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called the NBN a mistake and a "calamitous train wreck" by a previous Labor government. Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hit back by saying the project's issues "lie all on your head" - meaning the current conservative government. The escalating blame game, the NBN's slow roll-out, and a switch to inferior technology midstream have combined with other factors to leave Australians frequently asking the question: Why is our internet so slow? In 2013, Australia ranked 30th for average internet speeds. The NBN was meant to improve that, but the most recent standings ranked Australia 50th. The State of the Internet survey by US internet firm Akamai put Australia - with an average of 11.1 Mbps (megabits per second) - behind countries including Kenya, Hungary and Russia. And while it promotes itself as part of go-ahead Asia, Australia sits only eighth in the region, behind neighbours such as Thailand (21st overall) and New Zealand (27th). Some comparisons are misleading. Only 1.75% of Kenyan homes have fixed-line internet, compared with 90% in Australia. For many, particularly inner-city Australians on the best NBN technology, fixed-line speeds are adequate, particularly if you pay more. But there's no escaping Australia has been overtaken by many countries on the internet table. What's worse is that with many of those connected to the NBN reporting no improvement over old ADSL connections, of the homes equipped to take the new service, only 40% have chosen to do so. In business, and international competitiveness, the fears are perhaps more serious. "Going lower in ranking is alarming, and just not acceptable," says University of Sydney academic Dr Tooran Alizadeh, who has researched the NBN extensively and, like others, worries Australia's best minds will be lost to countries with better technology. "Australia wants to be in the first 10 or so economies in the world. Obviously if you want to do that your internet access cannot be ranked 50th." The history In 2007, Mr Rudd announced 98% of Australian homes would be on the NBN by 2020. It was a breathtakingly ambitious idea. It was also, according to critics, backed by inadequate research into logistics and costs, initially put at A$15bn. The natural starting point was Australia's oldest telecom company, Telstra. Elsewhere, countries like New Zealand simply used the infrastructure already laid by their major telecom company to install fast internet cabling. But Telstra, halfway privatised at the time, clashed with regulators over how it might onsell broadband access to its competitors, and so pulled out of the running to build the network. Eventually, the government announced it would simply start a whole new semi-autonomous company from scratch. Called the NBN, it would set up the infrastructure to connect Australians with state-of-the-art fibre optic cables to their homes, selling bandwidth wholesale to retailers. Progress was slow, sporadic, and expensive. With Australia's preference for underground wiring, often concrete driveways would have to be dug up and relaid. Costs thus blew out for connecting houses from an envisaged average of A$4,400 to, in some cases, more than A$20,000, an NBN spokesman says. Complaints soon arose over why some regions were connected before others, with schools and hospitals, for example, getting very unequal standards of internet quality. Accusations of government pork-barrelling, however, were wide of the mark. "The government just wanted progress, so it became a matter of which places were easiest and quickest to connect," one source with intimate knowledge of the subject told the BBC. "Often this came down to issues like basic geology - where was the rock easiest to drill through?" After the conservative government attained power in 2013, the NBN struck more upheaval, with copper wire ordered for the final stretches of connection, surrounding neighbourhood broadband nodes. This presents a slower connection to the twice-as-expensive fibre optics. It also means residents, say 400 metres from the node, will have slower internet than a neighbour a few doors away. Critics also charge it's a false saving, since copper wire needs replacing far earlier than fibre optics. Complaints and competition Then came the NBN's high pricing to retailers, who buy limited supply to pass on to consumers, which leaves so many Australians staring in frustration while buffering or, worse still, service drop-outs occurring each peak hour. "NBN has worked hard to bring the cost of bandwidth down but we cannot fill the pipes ourselves - it is up to the retailers to make sure that they are buying enough capacity to deliver a good quality of service," an NBN spokesman told the BBC. Yet another complication is the number of retailers - 180 - making it hard for the NBN to police quality control for end users. "We've had huge problems getting our house connected to the footpath node," says Matt Grant, a factory manager in suburban St Clair, just 39km from central Sydney. "But when I complained to the retailer, they told me to talk to the NBN. When I talked to the NBN, they sent me back to the retailer." He was eventually connected, but said "it's no better than we had with ADSL, especially in peak times". Last week, Australia's Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman revealed there had been a 159% increase in NBN-related complaints in the last financial year. NBN chief executive Bill Morrow told the Australian Broadcasting Corp this week that it "turns [his] stomach" that some customers were being left behind, but he placed blame on retailers, and said the government would ultimately decide when to replace copper connections. He also noted increasing competition from mobile broadband technology. "Look, it is a competitive environment, but I just want to repeat we are doing everything we can to ensure the NBN delivers a great service," he said. The network says it's still on target to have 98% of homes connected by 2020, but Australia's internet malaise will still take some solving. There's hope of improvement, but not until base prices can come down as the NBN gradually recoups its massive expenditure. And despite the political finger-pointing, Mr Turnbull's government insists the network will be "fit for purpose". "Australia needs a 21st Century broadband network and this is not being delivered," said Laurie Patton, executive director of consumer advocacy group Internet Australia. "The way we're heading now, whoever is in office in 2020 will have to deal with our biggest ever national infrastructure debacle."

1872 में, ऊबड़-खाबड़, सीमावर्ती ऑस्ट्रेलिया को "बुश टेलीग्राफ" के माध्यम से दुनिया से खुद को जोड़ने के लिए दूरी के अत्याचार पर काबू पाने के लिए सराहा गया था, एक दो साल की परियोजना जो आउटबैक के माध्यम से 3,200 किमी (2,000 मील) तार की डोर बनाती है जो देश की लोककथाओं का हिस्सा बन गई।


What is it like to live near a party house?

Summary: The fatal shooting this week at a house in Surrey took place at a house hired out for a pool party. But what exactly is the law surrounding party houses and what is it like for those living nearby?

By Laurence CawleyBBC News In less than a minute, you can book a party house near Manchester for a three-night weekend for just under £4,000. You would be limited to 20 people. But for an extra £100 per guest, you can stretch that number up to 26 people. And if that property does not tickle your fancy, there are plenty of others to choose from and plenty of companies willing to hire them out. People wanting to hire out a house for a party - surely that's not too dissimilar to a holiday let? Or is it? "Yes", says Karen Edwards, who lives in a mews in Brighton where one in eight properties are party houses. The nearest party house to her is next door but one. "It has been an absolute nightmare," she said. "I sleep with earplugs in every single weekend." Each of the three-bedroom party houses in Southdown Mews, she says, will have between 12 and 15 people staying there during the let. It is a similar story further along the coast in Dorset. For Poole MP Robert Syms, the party house issue was serious enough to be raised in Westminster. In a parliamentary statement on the matter, he recounted naked butlers turning up to hen parties, "blow-up dolls bought from a sex shop" being put up in gardens and "prostitutes being delivered well into the night". He also reported: "Loud bass music thumping day and night, car doors banging through the night, taxis coming and going at all hours, bottles thrown into our garden." Neighbours dealt with the issue, he said, by "barricading themselves into their homes" or, in one case, buying a caravan to visit at weekends for a decent night's sleep. So what can residents do to tackle a party house? According to Brighton and Hove Council, private prosecutions over noise nuisance and environmental health are possible but require independent evidence to support them, meaning it is "not a simple process". It is also difficult to bring a case against a houseful of guests because "you cannot prove who is making the noise". However, councils and the police do have powers to close a house under anti-social behaviour laws, if they believe the use of the premises has resulted in, or might result in, nuisance to members of the public. If the nuisance continues, the closure can be extended for up to six months. Such closure orders have been used to deal with parties in private premises across England including Bacup in Lancashire, Headingley in Leeds and Gosport in Hampshire. In Brighton, the local fire service reckons there are about 300 party houses. However, the council believes the problem is worse than the records indicate as homeowners may be deterred from making a complaint because they are legally obliged to declare noise issues when selling their property. Faced with mounting complaints, the Borough of Poole has used planning law to take action against one property, on the grounds using it as a party house constituted a material change of use. In a second case a noise abatement notice was served. However, Brighton and Hove City Council has decided that, rather than taking a Draconian approach to party houses, it should seek to engage the party house sector. It has set up a system of voluntary self-regulation with the groups running the houses. In 2014, the Brighton and Hove Holiday Rental Association (BHRA) was set up. Its homepage invites anybody "currently experiencing excessive noise disturbance" to report it. Has it made a difference? Ms Edwards said: "Things are improving. "Noise is the main problem. It used to be every single weekend - it was so stressful. It is now once every few weeks."

सरे में एक घर में इस सप्ताह घातक गोलीबारी एक पूल पार्टी के लिए किराए पर लिए गए घर में हुई। लेकिन पार्टी के घरों के आसपास वास्तव में क्या कानून है और आस-पास रहने वालों के लिए यह कैसा है?


Turkey election: Expats play decisive role in Erdogan vote

Summary: Eyebrows furrowed, feet hesitantly tapping, the Turkish choir of Berlin gets to grips with a new piece of music. They've been singing songs of heartbreak and history here for more than 30 years. Men and women for whom two countries, Germany and Turkey, will always feel like home. They are among the 1.4 million people of Turkish heritage eligible to vote in Germany in an election that will decide the future of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

By Jenny HillBBC Berlin correspondent Officially the choir doesn't do politics and has no affiliation or associations but, when the singing stops, election talk flows as freely as the tea from the Turkish samovar steaming in the corner. "Erdogan's been in power for 16 years now and we're sick of him," says one man. "For me it's about freedom of press, democracy, the oppression by the state. We are sick of that. We want him gone." Last week, before the polls here closed, many queued outside the Turkish consulate in Berlin. Cars parked at crazy angles, jammed into every available space as more arrived. Turkey's expats and the vote Security guards checked passports and performed desultory pat-downs before waving people inside to vote in an election which is really all about one man. "Recep Tayyip Erdogan!" exclaimed one man, beaming excitedly when I asked for whom he'd voted. "He's been in power for 16 years and he does everything for us!" If re-elected Mr Erdogan will assume far greater powers that come into force as a result of a constitutional referendum last year. In that vote in April 2017, 63% of German Turks supported him - although only half of those eligible to vote are thought to have done so. "Everyone calls him a dictator," says ardent Erdogan supporter Erkan. "But if he was a dictator do you think other parties would even have a voice?" A woman further along the road sees democracy as Turkey's biggest election issue: "Everything that goes wrong in Turkey really worries me. Erdogan did his duty in the first two terms but then he just failed." Who are Erdogan's main challengers? If Mr Erdogan fails to secure 50% + 1 vote on 24 June, a run-off follows on 8 July. It has been several years since the German authorities allowed President Erdogan to campaign on German soil. There were protests in Cologne in 2016 when the constitutional court stopped a planned rally by video link. And Turkish-German relations are rarely, if ever, serene. The government in Ankara has likened the German authorities to Nazis. It has locked up German citizens, including journalist Deniz Yücel, who was held for more than a year without charge. In March, the German government said that four citizens were still in Turkish custody. Berlin has threatened sanctions and issued travel warnings. A German comedian published a satirical poem mocking Mr Erdogan which infuriated the Turkish government. But, despite the many diplomatic storms, the countries are still bound together: by an EU migrant deal, of which Chancellor Angela Merkel was the main architect, and by the sheer size of the Turkish diaspora. Some four million Turks live in Germany, the largest community outside Turkey. The anticipated election tirades against Mrs Merkel and the so-called EU elites that have characterised other Turkish elections in recent years are this time comparatively muted. But this election is rather different because of Turkey's faltering economy, argues Oezguer Oezvatan, a research fellow at the Berlin Institute for Integration and Migration Research. "I would say that [President Erdogan] can count on Turkish votes in Germany because we see that generally those people have socially conservative attitudes," he says. And yet he believes the opposition's campaign focus on rising inflation in Turkey may have an effect. For many of the singers in the Turkish choir in Berlin, there is a sense that something might be shifting back in Turkey. "'In the future there'll be lots of very open-minded young people in Turkey who have a long-term perspective," one woman tells me. "Turkey may have a few years of difficult times ahead but in the future it will be better."

भौंहें लाल हो जाती हैं, पैर हिचकिचाते हैं, बर्लिन की तुर्की गाना बजाने वाली मंडली एक नए संगीत के साथ पकड़ लेती है। वे 30 से अधिक वर्षों से यहां दिल टूटने और इतिहास के गीत गा रहे हैं। पुरुष और महिलाएं जिनके लिए दो देश, जर्मनी और तुर्की, हमेशा घर की तरह महसूस करेंगे। वे उन तुर्की विरासत के 14 लाख लोगों में से हैं जो जर्मनी में एक चुनाव में मतदान करने के योग्य हैं जो राष्ट्रपति रेसेप तैयप एर्दोगन के भविष्य का फैसला करेगा।


Should we be recording our phone calls?

Summary: New services that enable consumers and small businesses to record telephone calls, store them to "the cloud" and then read transcripts or carry out key-word searches of the audio database, are potentially revolutionising the way we treat the spoken word.

By Matthew WallBusiness reporter, BBC News Skype - the internet voice, video and text messaging giant - offers its customers a number of call recording apps from companies such as Amolto, Callnote and PrettyMay. Appetite for the service is clearly strong, as several such apps top the company's download charts. And Apple's iTunes store features an app, CallRec.me by MotionApps, allowing iPhone and iPad users to record and transcribe their phone conversations. But one award-winning UK startup, Calltrunk, is attracting particular attention for enabling its customers to record phone conversations made from any phone, anywhere, and make keyword searches of the audio database stored on its servers. Calltrunk hopes its ARGOsearch software will do for voice calls what Google did for text and image search. Searching high and low The company has won three technology awards for the way its search engine indexes time-stamped keywords from audio files, then adds meta-data to create a richer search experience. Cindy Provost, 46, from Leominster, Massachusetts, a US Air Force professor of aerospace studies and commander of reserve officer training at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, uses Calltrunk on her iPhone and computer to replay messages and conversations with her nephews. "We move around a lot because we're in the military, so I don't get to see my family as often as I would like," she says. "Conversations with my nephews are really important to me. In fact, being able to listen to them again really helped me get through a recent bout of breast cancer treatment." Cindy also has two grandmothers, one aged 100 and the other turning 100 soon. "I've already taken to recording their oral history when I see them in person," she says, "but as they're three hours' drive away, I'm going to start recording their telephone conversations as well using the voice recording service." Calltrunk can record and store conversations made via any phone - fixed line or mobile - and has currently amassed more than 20,000 customers worldwide after just over a year of operation. Skype customers can record all their calls for $5 (£3.13) a month, otherwise calls routed via its service cost about 13 cents a minute. The search engine software shows users how often chosen keywords appear in a conversation and where in the timeline. Of course, there is nothing new about voice recording per se - call centres and helplines have been recording customer conversations for years "for training purposes", and financial institutions now have to record mobile phone calls as well for compliance reasons. The two biggest players in the US are Nice Systems and Verint Systems, both specialising in the collection and analysis of voice, video and text for surveillance purposes. Most of their clients are big businesses, however, and as disruptive technologies like Calltrunk's come along there is increasing pressure to reduce costs. This could be one reason why the two companies are reportedly in merger talks - a deal that could have antitrust regulators crawling all over it. Small packages But while big business is well served, there has been little around for consumers and small businesses. Richard Newton, Calltrunk's marketing director, says: "Companies record us, so why shouldn't we record them? If there's a dispute, they hold all the cards. We wanted to put power back into the hands of the consumer". But he argues the appeal of the service is much broader than a mere rebalancing of power for the purposes of dispute resolution. These days, wearable sensors, such as Fitbit and Nike fuel bands, record our movements and sleep patterns; digital photos uploaded to social networking sites record key moments in our lives; Livescribe pens translate our handwriting into digital text; and closed-circuit television cameras monitor us on the streets. "We see recording spoken conversations as just the next part of this journey," Mr Newton says. "ARGOsearch will help people turn hundreds of thousands of hours of unstructured conversational data into something useful and valuable." But James Barford, telecoms analyst at Enders Analysis, warns that consumers may need some convincing before voice recording goes mainstream. "There are clear applications for this technology in certain industries, particularly financial services, but it stretches the imagination as to how useful this may be for consumers at large. "Mobile phone call minutes actually dropped 2% in the final quarter of 2012, as people are communicating more by email, text, Twitter and Facebook these days. "But I'm heartened that there is innovation going on in this sector given that voice technology has largely stood still over the last ten years." Erik Snider, director of corporate communications at NICE Systems, says the company is not currently considering extending their recording and analysis services to consumers. "We're all in favour of empowering the consumer, but at the moment they can already demand to have any recorded phone call played back to them, so the question is what would be the business case of offering a consumer call-recording service?" he says. "The regulations in the area of consumer protection are always changing and complex, so one of our focuses remains on providing solutions to enterprises which help them remain compliant with these regulations." Calltrunk certainly isn't focusing on the consumer market alone, and has a few global investment banks among its clients as well. One of the reasons it recently secured nearly £2m in investment funding was the potential to outsource the ARGOsearch programme to big corporates. Is it legal? Another potential issue is consumer concern or confusion over the legality of recording voice calls. Calltrunk maintains that when recording conversations for private purposes - as long as that recording is not shared with a third party - only one person needs to be aware of, and consent to, the recording. Anthony Lee, data protection and privacy expert at law firm Bircham Dyson Bell, agrees, but only up to a point. "This does not apply if you want to use a third party, such as a cloud service-provider, to store recordings, particularly if sensitive personal data is involved, or if the recording is to be stored on servers which are located outside of the European Economic Area," he says. "The informed consent and, sometimes, the explicit consent of the individual or individuals concerned, will typically be required. It will be interesting to see the practice which emerges here." Calltrunk disagrees and believes the law is analogous to that covering email, which, technically speaking, requires the consent of the sender before you can forward it. Practically no-one does this. What is certain is that the law differs considerably from country to country. In the UK, Canada, and some states in the US, this so-called 'one party consent' is adequate (but businesses in the UK must tell people that calls are being recorded). In 15 states of the US, however, all parties involved need to have consented. This is also the case in Australia. In other words, before recording anything it is important to check what the legal situation is where you live. Voice recognition and phones have had a troubled relationship over the years. The technology can struggle to cope with background noise and some regional accents, resulting in accuracy rates too low to make services acceptable to a mass audience. Apple's Siri voice recognition application, powered by Nuance, has certainly taken things to the next level, but there is still a long way to go. Calltrunk's word indexation accuracy is around 80%. So a personalised Google for voice calls may still be a little way off, but there is no doubt new technologies could make us think differently about our phone conversations. Next stop a Wikipedia for the spoken word?

नई सेवाएं जो उपभोक्ताओं और छोटे व्यवसायों को टेलीफोन कॉल रिकॉर्ड करने, उन्हें "क्लाउड" में संग्रहीत करने और फिर प्रतिलेखों को पढ़ने या ऑडियो डेटाबेस की मुख्य-शब्द खोज करने में सक्षम बनाती हैं, संभावित रूप से बोले गए शब्द के साथ हमारे व्यवहार के तरीके में क्रांति ला रही हैं।


Isle of Man funeral held for 'voice of Tynwald' Ian Cannell

Summary: The funeral is being held for a popular Manx broadcaster who was known as the "voice of Tynwald".

Ian Cannell CBE died aged 83 on 17 June after a long-term illness. Mr Cannell, who was the first official TT commentator for Manx Radio, also commentated on the annual Tynwald ceremony for more than half a century. President of Tynwald Steve Rodan said his "dignified, fluent and informed commentary" had "illuminated proceedings" for 52 years. Mr Cannell was made CBE in 2004 for his work with the Royal British Legion. His funeral will be held on Wednesday afternoon in Peel Methodist Church.

अंतिम संस्कार एक लोकप्रिय मैनक्स प्रसारक के लिए किया जा रहा है जिसे "वॉयस ऑफ टिनवाल्ड" के रूप में जाना जाता था।


Durham shopping centre cinema plan after £12m takeover

Summary: A Durham shopping centre which had been in administration has been bought for £11.85m by a London-based company.

The Gates Shopping Centre in Durham city, which includes retail units, residential properties and parking, has been bought by Clearbell Capital LLP. The new owners hope to build a cinema, new restaurants and student accommodation at the site, as well as managing the existing complex. The company said it hoped it would "improve the offering" to the area.

एक डरहम खरीदारी केंद्र जो प्रशासन में था, लंदन स्थित एक कंपनी द्वारा £ 11.85m में खरीदा गया है।


Free wi-fi installed along Barry Island seafront

Summary: Free public access wi-fi has been installed along Barry Island seafront.

Vale of Glamorgan council said it was believed to be the first resort in Wales to offer the beach service. Local business have provided access points to make the service possible. The council said it was trying to "boost digital inclusion" across the area with internet access also provided at council buildings and libraries.

बैरी द्वीप के समुद्र तट पर मुफ्त सार्वजनिक पहुंच वाई-फाई स्थापित किया गया है।


Mexican economic plan aims to cut migration to the US

Summary: While Donald Trump remains steadfast in his plan to build a wall along the US-Mexican border, Mexico's new president wants fewer of his countrymen and women to feel the need to emigrate in the first place.

By Ann DeslandesBusiness reporter, Tijuana, Mexico To help achieve this, Andrés Manuel López Obrador has started a new initiative to boost the economies of towns and cities along the Mexican side of the border. The hope is that businesses will grow and employ more people, increasing prosperity. But what are the details of the new "zona libre" or free zone scheme, and will it work? It is noon at the Hotel La Villa de Zaragoza in downtown Tijuana, the Mexican city directly across the border from California's San Diego. Chef Gerardo Santos Gonzales and waitress Patricia Olvera Martinez are swinging into their well-practised lunch service routine. He is dry frying some oregano in a pan over a gas flame, while she takes the first orders in the restaurant. The freshly made salsas and corn tortillas are ready to go. "The new zona libre should help people here get jobs," says Gerardo. "It could transform the lives of Mexicans here... and yes, some will not feel the need to look for work in the US." The free zone scheme was introduced last month after President López Obrador announced it at the end of last year. Running the entire length of the 3,180km (1,954 mile) US-Mexican border, and 25km wide, the sales tax inside the area has been halved from 16% to 8%. At the same time, income taxes have been cut from 30% to 20%, and the minimum wage has been doubled to 176.20 pesos ($9.24; £7.12) per day. In addition, fuel prices in the zone have been reduced to the same level as in the US. President López Obrador, who is left-wing, hopes that in addition to reducing emigration to the US, the initiative will encourage more American companies to invest in Mexican firms, and therefore boost cross-border trade ties. "It is a very important project for winning investment, creating jobs, and taking advantage of the economic strength of the US," he said. Adrián Valdés, a young businessman in Tijuana, says he is hopeful that the scheme will indeed give companies in the border area a boost. "Right now we import many finished goods, and we're not producing to our potential," he says. Mr Valdés, who runs his own business advising companies on how to reduce their environmental impact, adds that it is vital that more knowledge, talent and production is kept on the Mexican side of the border. The free zone scheme follows after a new trade deal between Mexico, the US and Canada was signed in November. Nikia Clarke, from the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, says that the new initiative by the Mexican government brings "additional clarity about cross-border production in the US/Mexico relationship". However she cautions that it is as yet unclear "how the increase in the minimum wage will impact the bottom line of a lot of firms that are operating south of the border who might have gone there for cost reasons, or, whether the income tax cut will temper that". At any rate, Ms Clarke says that "good strong economic development along the border region is good for Mexico - so in the long run it probably does help with some of the migration challenges, and in that way it's good for the US too". Among the wider Mexican business community there is also concern about the doubling of the minimum wage within the border zone. Carlos Castañeda leads the local chamber of commerce, or "Canaco" in Ciudad Juarez, which is across the Rio Grande river from the Texan city of El Paso. He is fearful that the salary issue will now become "a struggle between a business and its employees". Other Mexican business leaders have expressed concern that companies in other parts of the country will relocate to the border area, harming the area that they leave behind. Back at the Hotel La Villa de Zaragoza waitress Patricia says the reduction in the rate of sales tax will be particularly helpful. "Being able to buy most things more cheaply will make life easier," she says. Global Trade More from the BBC's series taking an international perspective on trade: She also hopes that the scheme will create work for members of the so-called migrant caravan - migrants from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador who have arrived in Tijuana and other border towns and cities with the hope of entering the US. Patricia says they are very welcome to stay in Tijuana if they are willing to work and contribute to its economy. Whether the free zone is successful remains to be seen, but it is too late for some of Patricia and chef Gerardo's respective children. Both say that they have kids who moved - legally - to the US in search of a better life.

जबकि डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प अमेरिका-मेक्सिको सीमा पर एक दीवार बनाने की अपनी योजना पर अडिग हैं, मेक्सिको के नए राष्ट्रपति चाहते हैं कि उनके देशवासियों और महिलाओं में से कम लोग पहले स्थान पर प्रवास करने की आवश्यकता महसूस करें।


Cuba and the United States' thawing relations

Summary: After a battle of wills lasting more than 50 years, the ideological struggle between Cuba and the United States looks set to be entering its final phase.

With the first formal talks taking place, diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus takes a closer look at the journey the two countries have taken to reach this point, and what barriers may still lie ahead. Archive footage from British Pathe. If you are unable to watch, here are the links included in this interactive video.

50 साल से अधिक समय तक चली वसीयतों की लड़ाई के बाद, क्यूबा और संयुक्त राज्य अमेरिका के बीच वैचारिक संघर्ष अपने अंतिम चरण में प्रवेश करने के लिए तैयार है।


Life in an Indian Maoist jungle camp

Summary: Thousands of people have been killed in the bloody Maoist insurgency across swathes of central and eastern India. The BBC's Suvojit Bagchi, who was granted unprecedented access to a Maoist camp in the depths of the Chhattisgarh jungle, describes the rebels' precarious life.

After eight hours of walking in dense forest, in the early evening we entered a narrow, barren stretch of land hemmed in by hillocks. At the far end stood a few blue and yellow tents. Somji, one of the men who collected me between a small town in south Chhattisgarh and the thick central Indian forest, picked up speed as we approached. A tall man standing guard with a rifle flung over his shoulder whistled and people started rushing towards us. In under a minute, the camp members stood in formation and began singing a welcome song. Each member in the queue raised their fist to whisper "lal salaam" - "red salute". Mostly aged between 15 and 30 years old, the men and women in the camp wore rubber sandals, olive green battle fatigues and carried guns of various makes. India's Maoist rebels say they are fighting for the rights of indigenous tribespeople and the rural poor. But the battle has been brutal: they frequently launch deadly attacks on India's security forces and those thought to support them. In April 2010 Chhattisgarh was the site of the bloodiest Maoist attack yet on the security forces - 75 troops were killed. Paramilitary forces also launched attacks on tribal communities to restrict Maoist activities. Camp security Maoist platoons normally set up their camps in a semi-circle with one tent in the centre - the "headquarter". Every time a camp is set up, the commander conducts a roll-call and updates camp members about their responsibilities if they come under attack. Akash, 18, was in charge of my security at the first camp. He also gave me a few lessons in self defence. He slept for about four hours each night: two hours were spent guarding the camp from under a mohua tree in drenching rain. Nonetheless, he never failed to wake me up early for my walks through several kilometres of rain-sodden forest. Though the purpose of these walks was to take me to villages and camps in the Maoist-controlled Dandakaranya forest, I learned the rebels walked long distances every few days for their own safety. "If we stay in a place for long, chances are that information of our stay will get out and we will get encircled." The constant movement, he told me, also helps them gather information about the whereabouts of security forces from villagers. The relationship with villagers in areas they control is generally positive, but not always. Maoist will kill suspected informers and that has the potential to create a climate of fear. But they are also aware that harming ordinary villagers will simply erode their support base. But this is a highly polarised area. In areas controlled by the paramilitary units there is little support for the Maoists - and villagers who display such sympathies have uncertain fates. Camp routine On days when we were not moving camp, I would rest on my makeshift bed of a plastic sheet, and watch the "comrade-soldiers" swinging their guns to instructions being shouted out by a platoon commander. Ganita, 18 and a deft hand with a rifle, also gave me a detailed account of their daily chores. Maoists participate in "community service", she said, such as helping elderly farmers, digging village wells and providing basic health care to locals. This week Ganita was assigned to kitchen work. Her kitchen was spread under one tent. Breakfast was limited to rice cooked with turmeric and ground nuts, while both lunch and dinner were just lentil soup and rice. However, during my stay, frog, wild boar and monitor lizard meat were served a few times. Evenings were dedicated to the study of party literature. Published by the publicity wing of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), the writings highlighted party strategy and criticised the Indian state. They have about 12 magazines and the main one is published in the local tribal language, Gondi. Each camp had one or two solar-powered car batteries that were used to power LED lamps that lit tents at night. A couple of times each week, everybody assembled for a singing session in one of the plastic tents. Local Gondi tunes were fused with revolutionary lyrics and hymns were sung to the memory of martyrs. The singing session would end with the BBC's Hindi news bulletin on the radio - its future is in doubt because of spending cuts. "This is our only source of objective information," Maoist spokesperson in south Chhattisgarh, Gudsa Usendi, told me. Films When there were no sing-songs, films would be played on a laptop late into the night. One film that was repeatedly screened was Do Bigha Zameen or Two Acres of Land, made in 1953 about the plight of a small farmer in Nehru's India. Another popular film was The Axis of War which includes a depiction of Mao's long march. Interestingly, Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon is a roaring hit among the young cadres. The guerrillas often invited locals to join their late-night soirees when they stayed near villages. Most villagers had never seen a film before the Maoists showed them one. "Families finish dinner early and come here to watch the late-night show whenever there is one," said one villager. At the end of the day, I would lie down with up to a dozen guerrillas in one of the cramped tents. As I drifted off to sleep, I couldn't help thinking how the peace of the night - despite the snoring of sleeping rebels and the buzzing of countless mosquitoes - belied the dangers that surrounded us.

मध्य और पूर्वी भारत के कई हिस्सों में खूनी माओवादी विद्रोह में हजारों लोग मारे गए हैं। बीबीसी के सुवोजीत बागची, जिन्हें छत्तीसगढ़ के जंगल की गहराई में एक माओवादी शिविर तक अभूतपूर्व पहुंच प्रदान की गई थी, विद्रोहियों के अनिश्चित जीवन का वर्णन करते हैं।