RHI inquiry: Bell pushed nuclear button on green scheme, says Arlene Foster

Summary: The DUP leader has said Jonathan Bell's BBC interview about a flawed green energy scheme directly led to the collapse of the NI assembly.

By Jayne McCormackBBC News NI Political Reporter Arlene Foster was giving evidence to the Renewable Heat Incentive inquiry. She was in charge of energy matters for NI when the scheme was set up in 2012, while Mr Bell was enterprise minister between 2015 and 2016. Overgenerous subsidies meant costs grew and left taxpayers with a £490m bill. On Tuesday, Mrs Foster told the inquiry that Mr Bell - who was her successor as enterprise minister - had pressed a "nuclear button" by going public with claims that DUP special advisers delayed his plans to close down the controversial scheme. He gave an interview to the BBC's Stephen Nolan show in December 2016, in which he also alleged the advisers secretly tried to "cleanse the record" of references to Mrs Foster. 'Paranoia' Mrs Foster told the inquiry that "paranoia set in with Jonathan" after a BBC Spotlight programme revealed the scheme's overspend, and Mr Bell felt the party was trying to blame him for the debacle. However she said that was not the case, but it was all in Mr Bell's own mind. Mr Bell has since told the inquiry that after he went public about RHI, he became the victim of a "massive smear campaign" orchestrated by the DUP. Mrs Foster, who was Northern Ireland's first minister in December 2016, said he had caused such a reaction with his allegations, some of them "very confused" and that he "had to take what was coming to him". She set out how assembly and executive officials had agreed a plan to deal with cost controls, but that when Mr Bell spoke to the BBC, that plan went "out the window". "We were then on a trajectory to the assembly and executive collapsing," she added. Pressed further on that, she said Mr Bell had "taken a route with Stephen Nolan which caused the downfall of the executive". The weeks that followed saw Sinn Féin, the DUP's then partner in government, demand Mrs Foster stand aside as first minister until an investigation into the scheme was completed. She refused to do so, and on 9 January 2017, the late Martin McGuinness resigned as deputy first minister, which led to a snap assembly election. More than a year and a half later, talks deadlines have failed and the Northern Ireland assembly remains in limbo. 'Great regret' Earlier on Tuesday, Mrs Foster said it is a "great regret" to her that she did not sack Jonathan Bell as enterprise minister when she became first minister in 2016. Mr Bell replaced her as enterprise minister in May 2015. The RHI inquiry has heard evidence from a number of witnesses that he was unsuitable for the job. 'Hero-worshipped' Asked why she had not replaced him when she took over the party reins, Mrs Foster said an assembly election campaign was looming and that removing him at that time could have raised political questions over his suitability as a candidate for the party. Mrs Foster said there was a general view in the party that Mr Bell should not remain in post, but she said other party officials asked: "How much harm can he do in three months?" She also claimed there was a concern he could "go in inverted commas 'rogue' if he was replaced as a minister" when Mrs Foster replaced Peter Robinson. Mrs Foster said Mr Bell never accepted her leadership, nor did he take his responsibilities seriously and she claimed he acted as if he was "to be served, rather than serve". She said he "hero-worshipped" Mr Robinson and when he retired, it showed in Mr Bell's behaviour. "I take full responsibility for my actions as first minister and the decision to keep him in post until the election was over," she added. Earlier on Tuesday, Mrs Foster was challenged to explain why she forgot about a meeting in which she was told of problems with the RHI scheme. The meeting happened in early June 2015 after Mrs Foster became finance minister. She told the public inquiry - which was set up to investigate the scheme's failings in January 2017 - the warning was the first time she had been made aware of possible problems. Who is Arlene Foster? Northern Ireland's former first minister headed up the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (Deti) when the RHI scheme was designed in 2012. Crucial controls to limit the scheme's cost were not introduced, something she has since said is her "deepest political regret". But Mrs Foster - who spent six months as finance minister from June 2015 before being elevated to party leader and first minister - fiercely contested claims by Jonathan Bell, her party colleague and successor as enterprise minister, that she ordered him to keep the scheme open. In the wake of his allegations, she faced calls to step aside to allow a judge-led public inquiry into the scheme. Her time as first minister was brought to an abrupt end when the late Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin resigned as deputy first minister, forcing an election last March. She remains DUP leader, but there has been no return to Stormont for almost 600 days, due to the ongoing impasse between her party and Sinn Féin. 'Dropped the ball' Mrs Foster said she was told about the issues by former DUP special adviser (Spad) Timothy Cairns, who was then working in the enterprise department. He told Mrs Foster that officials in enterprise had "dropped the ball" and failed to ensure the proper approvals were in place for spending on RHI. Mrs Foster said she had "no clear recollection" of the meeting, although she did not dispute that it happened. She said she had conflated the meeting in early June, with another later that month where Mr Cairns had asked for help from Mrs Foster's ministerial adviser Andrew Crawford, who had just spent seven years in enterprise. Inquiry chairman Sir Patrick Coghlin asked why she had no recollection of the early June meeting. She said she did not believe it had been presented to her as a "big issue". Sir Patrick said: "If someone comes along and tells you that a scheme which had developed under your bailiwick is in difficulties to the extent that the department has dropped the ball, one might have thought, you would have thought that was quite important." Mrs Foster said she could not explain why she had forgotten about the meeting, but added she had many matters to deal with in her role as finance minister. Also on Tuesday, Mrs Foster conceded there was "room for improvement" in how unelected special advisers (Spads) are appointed by political parties at Stormont. The inquiry has already heard claims that the DUP had its own practice of appointing advisers to ministers, which directly went against the ministerial code that states ministers are supposed to choose who they want to advise them. 'Transparency' Mr Bell had claimed he would not have chosen Timothy Cairns as his Spad, but he signed a pre-written letter drafted by the party confirming he was choosing Mr Cairns. Mrs Foster told the inquiry she acknowledged the need for improvement, but said it had to come "across the board" from all political parties at Stormont. Sir Patrick said it seemed to him that there had been a common approach by the parties that there was "an act and a mandatory code, but no-one pays a great deal of attention to it". Mrs Foster said she could understand the panel's "frustration" about the code, but said there had been legislative changes throughout the past 10 years to how advisers were appointed. "Should there be more, yes I think there probably should, in terms of transparency," she added. In addition to Mrs Foster, three senior DUP officials will also be giving evidence to the inquiry this week: 'Big question' On Tuesday, the DUP leader also said she understood why the conduct of her former closest adviser - Andrew Crawford - was a matter of huge concern for the RHI inquiry. He was her most senior adviser in the finance department in summer 2015, as the scheme's costs were rocketing. At that time, he was engaged in conversations with the poultry industry, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the scheme. She said she knew Mr Crawford was having discussions with others in the party about energy issues but not specifically about RHI cost controls. But her evidence is that she never asked him for details and he did not provide it. The inquiry has heard how Mr Crawford had a series of engagements with fellow DUP adviser Timothy Cairns about potential cuts in subsidies for businesses on the scheme - many of them poultry farms. Mr Crawford predicted a huge spike in applications - something which later occurred putting the scheme hugely over-budget. He also offered anecdotal evidence that empty poultry sheds were being heated to maximise subsidy returns, and suggested a scheme change that would have ensured poultry farmers maintained their potential income from the scheme even after it was amended. Inquiry panellist Keith MacLean said not only had Mr Crawford been giving "bad advice", but was suggesting something that worked against efforts to control the scheme spend. Mrs Foster said he never raised allegations of scheme abuse, or the potential of an applications spike with her. She told the inquiry she now believed both of those issues should have been raised with her as finance minister, both because of the alleged abuse and the potential impact of spending commitments on public finances. Dr MacLean said it was not hard to see why the inquiry was concerned about the calibre of people being appointed as Spads. He said: "It gives us a big question as to what on earth was your Spad doing in this involvement without your knowledge?" "I accept that," Mrs Foster said. The inquiry has also heard evidence Mr Crawford sent confidential government documents to family members who were RHI claimants. 'Accountable but not responsible' The documents warned them about the plans to introduce cost controls to remove the lucrative subsidies. Inquiry counsel David Scoffield asked Mrs Foster that if the panel finds Mr Crawford breached standards, to what degree she holds some responsibility for his actions as his former minister. Mrs Foster said she was accountable for Mr Crawford's behaviour, as she was for all her departmental officials. But she said she failed to see how she could "be responsible for that breach", if a special adviser acted outside the rules. "If he had committed a criminal offence as a Spad, I don't see how the panel would be asking me to be responsible for that," she said. "I'm accountable but I'm not responsible."

डीयूपी नेता ने कहा है कि एक त्रुटिपूर्ण हरित ऊर्जा योजना के बारे में जोनाथन बेल के बीबीसी साक्षात्कार ने सीधे एनआई विधानसभा के पतन का कारण बना।


Scott's Antarctic diet: Stewed penguin and champagne

Summary: A century ago Robert Falcon Scott and his men perished on their return from the South Pole. But what did they eat as they explored one of the harshest places on earth - and did their diet contribute to their deaths?

By Joseph CoulsonBBC News They endured months of freezing temperatures and exhausting sledge-pulling, but life for the men of the Terra Nova expedition was not without comfort, at least not in their wooden hut at Cape Evans. The smell of fresh bread and rhubarb pie was a common feature of life there. Seal meat - curried, fried, or in soup - was another constant, and it was popular. "We never tire of our dish and exclamations can be heard every night," Captain Scott wrote in his diary. They only had what they had brought with them or could catch, and so needed to improvise. The expedition naturalist Edward Wilson tried cooking with penguin blubber, but the flavour of penguin, "like very bad sardine oil", did not appeal to everyone. On special occasions, meals ran to several courses. Salted almonds, turtle soup, roast beef, stewed penguin breast in red currant jelly, crystallised ginger, and champagne all featured on such menus. Sledging rations Away from the hut it was a different story. The ponies and dog teams had struggled with the conditions - and on their final journey the men had to pull their own sledges. Georgina Cronin, of the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, believes "they underestimated the calories needed for man-hauling in Antarctica - this is partly why they suffered so much." Their rations consisted of pemmican (ground meat mixed with fat), and biscuits baked by one of the expedition's commercial sponsors. The men took turns to prepare hoosh - a stew made from pemmican and biscuits, with the addition of arrowroot and raisins for variety. They believed a high level of protein was needed for the exercise they were doing, but nutritionists now know this was not the case. "Their high-protein diet was probably not good for them," said Dr Mike Stroud, a polar veteran and expert in nutrition. So what should they have been eating? "Carbohydrate is needed for blood sugar levels, but you want the most energy for the least weight, so in modern times there has been a move to a high-fat diet," Dr Stroud added. Rations are now based on cereals, freeze-dried meals, and chocolate bars. Man-hauling a sledge demands an intake of around 6,000 to 7,000 calories a day, and figures as high as 11,000 have been recorded. But one foodstuff that has not changed in 100 years of polar exploration is butter. With twice the calories of the same weight of carbohydrate, butter and other fats can make up 60% of a polar explorer's diet, double the normal recommendation. "My team mate had chocolate butter to add to meals. Cheese was good, I added cheese to muesli," said Blue Peter's Helen Skelton, who reached the Pole earlier this year. "You have to eat as much as you can, whenever you can - the advice I was given was to eat before you are hungry and drink before you are thirsty," she added. Pints of lime In 1912, getting enough vitamins was difficult for Scott and his men. It was known that a restricted diet could cause bleeding gums and tooth loss - scurvy. Scurvy is now understood to be caused by a lack of vitamin C, found in fruit, vegetables, and some meats. To stave it off, the Terra Nova ship took 1,000 pints of lime juice to Antarctica. Meat from ponies slaughtered en route also helped. Today, fruit and vegetables are taken to Antarctica by air, but away from base fresh food remains a rarity. "Oh, to have something fresh - I even dreamt about apples," Helen Skelton wrote in her blog . Ultimately, Scott and his men did not fully appreciate the nutritional demands they put on themselves. Ration amounts were based on trial and error and at 4,500 calories a day fell well short of what was needed. Food came to dominate their conversation. Hunger was with them even during sleep. "They dreamt constantly about food," said Sara Wheeler, polar expert and author. "Some of them got to eat it, and some woke up just as they were spooning steak and kidney pie into their mouths." Dr Stroud estimates that on the ill-fated journey to the South Pole the men had a deficit of 3,000 calories a day. That would have meant each man lost 25kg of body weight by the time they got there. The last minute decision to add a fifth man to a journey originally planned for four put extra pressure on food rations. "You don't just lose fat, you lose muscle as well. You can't keep warm," said Dr Stroud, who himself experienced starvation when he crossed Antarctica with Sir Ranulph Fiennes in 1992. "By the time they reached the Ross Ice Shelf, they would have been emaciated." Vitamin levels - low at the start - would have dropped further. They had been collecting supplies from depots laid in advance but before they reached one of the last ones, supplies ran out. They died soon after. So was insufficient food to blame for their fate? "They didn't make it for a combination of reasons," said Elin Simonsson, a curator at the Natural History Museum in London. "Unexpected cold, blizzards and sand-like ice slowed them down. Food rations ran out quicker than they could have predicted. "They had planned according to what they knew, and there is a limit to how much food you can pack on a sledge."

एक सदी पहले दक्षिण ध्रुव से लौटने पर रॉबर्ट फाल्कन स्कॉट और उनके लोग मारे गए थे। लेकिन जब उन्होंने पृथ्वी पर सबसे कठिन स्थानों में से एक की खोज की तो उन्होंने क्या खाया-और क्या उनके आहार ने उनकी मृत्यु में योगदान दिया?


Companies that gain from the Japanese quake

Summary: If stock markets do not like uncertainty, one would have imagined that the uncertain fate of a nuclear reactor in partial meltdown 220 km from the world's third largest stock market would have scared it witless.

By Jamie RobertsonPresenter, BBC World News But the immediate collapse of the market after the triple disasters of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear fall out was in fact followed by an optimistic bounce. There are sound reasons for this, much of them to do with the certainty of reconstruction. Leading the optimists are the firms that look likely to do the heavy lifting: Sumitomo Osaka Cement and Taiheiyo Cement rose 17% during March. Equipment makers Komatsu, Mitsubishi and Kawasaki gained 10-12%. Similar gains were seen in Oki Electric Cable, Showa Holdings and Totaku Electric. All these company stand to benefit from the rebuilding of the electricity infrastructure. Looming energy shortages But the continuing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has two very destructive aspects. The first is the obvious danger of continuing radiation leaks. The second is the closing of 11 nuclear power stations (there are 54 in total in Japan) and the part closure of several refineries resulting is a reduction in energy supply of over 10%. This in turn is hampering the reconstruction process, as factories grind along at severely reduced capacity, hampered by power outages. For Seijiro Takeshita, director of Mizuho Financial Group this is crucial. "At the moment the energy supply is just short of demand and we can just cope, but in the summer the demand will rise by as much as 50, 60 even 70% and then we will be in real difficulty," he says. Shipping gas However unpalatable it may seem, one man's disaster is another man's opportunity. Oil and coal will make up half the shortfall, but the remaining 50% is expected to come from Liquified Natural Gas, and the share prices of LNG producers have reflected that. In Japan itself Showa Shell shares rose 13% in March. Woodside Petroleum of Australia gained 14% after the quake. BG in the UK saw its shares rise 7%. And shipping LNG is getting expensive with capacity at close on 100%. One analyst estimates rises in LNG shipping rates of around 60-70% by the year end. LNG tankers are technically more complex to build than oil ones and almost twice the cost; any new orders will not be delivered for some four years or so. Shares in LNG shippers Golar rose 26% in Oslo in March. Rivals Exmar and Teekay gained 15% and 6% respectively. Solar panels Even for those companies unable to export directly to shore up the Japanese electricity sector, there are benefits. Russia's gas pipelines head largely westwards to Europe and its most lucrative export market slumped after the 2008 financial crisis as Europe's economies contracted and consumers switched to cheaper alternative supplies. Now, Russia is negotiating extra sales westwards to make up for the European supplies that are heading east. And for those fans of alternative energy, solar related companies are on the up too. Showa Shell, as well as capitalising on fossil fuel needs, has developed the technology for manufacturing next-generation CIS thin-film solar panels. Sharp and Kyocera both make solar cells and electronics and despite sharp falls after the disaster have recovered all their losses (the Nikkei recovered about a half its original falls by the end of March). Nuclear shares And it seems in the face of nuclear disaster, worries about global warming take a back seat. The Bloomberg American Coal Index, which charts the biggest coal companies in the US, has risen 14% since the day before the earthquake. Nuclear energy shares have surprisingly not been as badly affected as might have been thought. Certainly, Tokyo Electric shares have fallen by over three quarters and the company is now expected to be nationalised. Only two months ago, the World Nuclear Association was cheerfully predicting a 40% increase in Japan's nuclear capacity by 2017. That is unthinkable now. However, shares in US utilities such as Exelon and Progress are holding up. Shares in GE, which designed the Fukushima plant, fell just 3-4% from their pre-crisis price. 'Huge problems' But the most far-reaching effect of the disaster is the damage to supply chains for Japanese, and the rest of the world's, manufacturing industries. "We have become over-infected with optimism and faith in natural Japanese resilience," Sejeiro Takeshita explains. "But there are two things that will stop us from recovering as fast as people hope. One is the electricity shortage, and the other is the cutting of the flow side - the distribution networks - in the areas affected by the disaster. "We have prided ourselves on our just-in-time processes and not holding too much inventory. We have even got good risk management to cope with disasters - but really only disasters that last 72, or 84 hours. "On this scale, where the flow cycle is truncated so severely, we have huge problems." Devastating impacts That is why it is not just production at car companies such as Toyota and Honda that is spluttering along like a truck with a faulty fuel line. Ford is partly closing its Genk production facility because of a shortage of Japanese parts. GM is having problems sourcing supplies for its vehicles. Honda has halved its output in the UK. More shortages are expected to develop in the coming weeks particularly for high volume manufacturers such as Nokia. As Sejeiro Takeshita points out, if a component company in Japan has, say, a 50% market share for some small component, production halts can have devastating impacts on the end product. It could well create competitive advantages for companies outside the Japanese supply chain. The effects of this disaster are only beginning to unfold.

यदि शेयर बाजार अनिश्चितता पसंद नहीं करते हैं, तो किसी ने कल्पना की होगी कि दुनिया के तीसरे सबसे बड़े शेयर बाजार से 220 किमी दूर आंशिक रूप से पिघलने वाले परमाणु रिएक्टर के अनिश्चित भाग्य ने इसे मूर्खतापूर्ण तरीके से डरा दिया होगा।


Jihadist shadow hangs over Georgia's Pankisi Gorge

Summary: "This is one of our classrooms; it's very Dickensian," says Vladimir Lozinski as he ushers me into a narrow room with five or six tables and a blackboard. The children rise up as we enter.

By Rayhan DemytrieBBC News, Pankisi Gorge Mr Lozinski helped set up the Roddy Scott Foundation English language school in the Pankisi Gorge, in north-eastern Georgia, in 2008. The foundation is named after a British journalist killed in the mountains nearby in 2002 while documenting the Russian-Chechen war. "Pankisi was a pretty wrecked and forgotten place in many ways. The only thing this valley was famous for is the Chechen fighters that fought the Russians over the mountains," he says. "Even for the Georgian government it was a 'no-go' area: you would have been kidnapped. They cleaned them out eventually." These days, the Pankisi Gorge has won greater notoriety as the home of Omar Shishani, a senior commander of so-called Islamic State (IS). The US says he was killed last month in north-eastern Syria although his death was not confirmed by IS. Shishani was a former officer in the Georgian army. His real name was Tarkhan Batirashvili and his father still lives in the valley. He is thought to have inspired dozen of young men from Pankisi to join the fight in Syria. A former imam in the village of Jokolo in the Pankisi Gorge was jailed for 14 years in Georgia in February for helping recruit young men for IS. Aiup Bochashvili's co-defendants were also given lengthy prison terms. More on this story: IS commander Shishani 'killed in US strike' Georgia's Chechen jihadist Woman who swapped home for the Pankisi Gorge At the local community centre I met a woman who had recently learned of her 25-year-old son's death in Syria. Her hands were folded across her chest, her eyes red from crying. Although reluctant to give an interview, she told me that her son left the valley five years ago; she had been to visit him in Syria twice, and she had even brought him a wife from Pankisi. Sleepy village In the village of Duisi, a dirt road leads to Khadori hydro power plant, built by a Chinese company in 2004. It was the last time local men had regular work here, says Lia Margoshvili, Pankisi resident and a school manager at the Roddy Scott foundation. "We have lots of problems with unemployment, there is no work, there is no money," she says. A single new building stands out in Duisi. It is a mosque. "In the past few years mosques have appeared in every village in Pankisi," says Ms Margoshvili. "They opened Arabic language courses at mosques and kids go and learn Arabic, but nobody knows where the money is coming from." The majority of Pankisi's 10,000 population are Kist Muslims, an ethnic group of Chechen or Ingush origin who settled in Georgia two centuries ago. Despite 200 years of common history, people here feel marginalised from the rest of the country, says Shorena Khongushvili, editor at the recently established community radio station RadioWay. "We have 12 villages here. These are traditional people. This is a society that usually feels separated from the outside world," she says. "The Syria thing became very popular. We don't want Pankisi to keep this image, we want it to be more open." The Georgian government does not have a strategy for dealing with Saudi theological interpretations of Islam popular in Pankisi, according to Arabic studies professor Giorgi Lobjanidze. He has translated the Koran into the Georgian language and takes part in seminars here. "If we had an opportunity to create a university of Islamic theology and teach it in Georgian here, it would have been great to educate these people about Islam without the third parties." At the Roddy Scott Foundation I enter an older class of teenage girls with Vladimir Lozinski. Most are wearing hijabs. "Do you listen to music? Who has a favourite singer?" Vladimir asks. The class is silent until the teacher responds: "Vlad, according to their religion they don't listen to music," she says. This revelation seems to unsettle Vladimir. "They should be listening to music because it's good for their soul. This thing that's creeping in. They are kids, they've got to have fun." The Georgian government is also concerned about the rise of fundamentalist Islam in Pankisi. As part of a drive to integrate the valley into wider Georgian society it has started a recruitment drive to encourage young men to join the military. In January, Georgia's President Giorgi Margvelashvili made a high-profile visit to Pankisi along with the US ambassador. It was seen as a public rebuttal to a statement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that jihadist training camps existed in Pankisi. "Things are changing slowly," says Lia Margoshvili. "The authorities have finally realised that if they keep neglecting Pankisi - it will become a much bigger headache for them in future."

"यह हमारी कक्षाओं में से एक है; यह बहुत डिकेंसियन है", व्लादिमीर लोज़िंस्की ने कहा जब वह मुझे एक संकीर्ण कमरे में ले जाता है जिसमें पाँच या छह टेबल और एक ब्लैकबोर्ड होता है। जैसे ही हम प्रवेश करते हैं बच्चे उठ जाते हैं।


Singer Jessie J in hospital with a 'serve virus'

Summary: Singer Jessie J, who recently scored a top 30 hit with her debut track Do It Like A Dude, has been admitted to hospital with a "severe virus".

The Essex newcomer has been forced to postpone her biggest headline gig to date at London's Scala (7 December). Writing to her followers on Twitter, J thanked fans for their support saying: "I am very weak and in hospital resting." Her record company has asked fans to hold on to their tickets. A scheduled show set to take place at Brighton's Coalition on 11 December currently remains unaffected. This week the 22-year-old singer was included on the BBC's Sound Of 2011 long-list, tipping next year's most exciting new musical talent.

गायक जेसी जे, जिन्होंने हाल ही में अपने पहले ट्रैक डू इट लाइक ए ड्यूड के साथ शीर्ष 30 हिट बनाए, को "गंभीर वायरस" के साथ अस्पताल में भर्ती कराया गया है।


Noura Hussein: 'Hoping for a miracle to stop our daughter being hanged'

Summary: The parents of a Sudanese teenager who was sentenced to death after killing her husband - whom she accuses of raping her - have denied reports that they've disowned her. In an exclusive interview with the BBC, her father also says he never imagined that making her marry her cousin would have such terrible consequences.

By Mohamed OsmanBBC Arabic, Khartoum Update 26 June: The appeal court has cancelled Noura Hussein's death sentence - she will now face five years in jail Noura Hussein sobbed uncontrollably when she saw her mother earlier this month. It was the first time she had been visited by her family, since she was jailed one year ago. Through the tears, the 19-year-old told her mother that she had originally planned to kill herself, after being raped by her husband. "She hated herself after he raped her," says Noura's mother, Zainab Ahmed. "She had got a knife ready to take her own life if he touched her again." But in the heat of the moment - when he did touch her again - she stabbed her husband instead. It was self-defence, her mother insists. When Noura was sentenced last month an online campaign, #JusticeforNoura, spread across the world. Supermodel Naomi Campbell and actress Emma Watson were among celebrities who joined activists in condemning the death sentence and demanding that the conviction be overturned. And when Amnesty International urged supporters to email Sudan's Justice Minister asking him to intervene, the volume of messages forced him to get a new email address. It was only when her mother visited her in the harsh conditions of the Omdurman Women's Prison that Noura discovered about this tide of support in the outside world. For now, her own world is defined by the walls of the prison, where all inmates live in one large yard. "There are no roofs so most of the women have to use sheets to keep the sun off them," Justice Africa's Sudan co-ordinator, Hafiz Mohammed, has said. Noura remains in the shackles that she has been wearing since her arrest. While she looked healthy, her mother says, her spirit appeared broken. The second of eight children, Noura Hussein, grew up in the village of al-Bager, 40km (25 miles) south of Khartoum. It's a dusty place, surrounded by sandy, rocky hillocks, not far from the River Nile. The bright colours of the fruit and vegetables laid out on patterned cloths on the floor of the local market provide rare bursts of colour piercing the mostly brown and barren landscape. Zainab Ahmed says her daughter was always a quiet girl, and an intelligent one. "She had ambitions," Zainab says. "Noura dreamed of studying law at university and eventually becoming a lecturer." Their extended family had left the conflict-ridden region of Darfur to move to al-Bager when Noura was a child. They didn't have much money, but Noura's father's business - a small hardware shop which sold tools and oil - meant that Noura could enjoy an education. This was what made her happiest. But in 2015 Noura's 32-year-old cousin, Abdulrahman Mohamed Hammad, proposed to her. She was 16. Her mother says her daughter didn't initially appear upset by the idea but asked to be allowed to continue her education. She also asked for the marriage to be delayed until her mother, who was pregnant, had given birth. But family pressure began to mount, notably from her own father, Hussein. "Many young girls in the area were getting pregnant and having illegitimate children," says Hussein. Hussein says he didn't want her to suffer a similar fate and end up without a husband. While she took part in the initial marriage ceremony it became clear that Noura's opposition to the idea was increasing. She ran away to her aunt in Sinnar, a city 350km away, and remained with her for two days. She was persuaded to come back home on the understanding that the marriage would never be completed. In fact, once she arrived back the ceremony was completed, but she wasn't required to live with her husband. For the next two years she remained at her family home. When Abdulrahman visited, she would tell him outright that she didn't want to be married to him. However, family elders began to insist that Noura and her husband formalise the relationship and behave like a legally married couple. In their close community it is the elders who make all key decisions. Honour and family respect are the most important values of the culture. Her father Hussein says he saw no good reason for his daughter to keep refusing the union. The family had been patient for years. Under pressure, Noura agreed to move in with Abdulrahman in April 2017. According to a first-hand account obtained by CNN, Noura says that she resisted her husband's sexual advances for the first week they lived together. She cried. She refused to eat. When Abdulrahman slept she attempted to leave the flat, but it was locked. On the ninth day, Abdulrahman arrived at their flat with some relatives, who tore at her clothes and held her down while he raped her, according to the CNN report. The following day Abdulrahman tried again. This time Noura reached for the knife she told her mother she would use to kill herself. Noura's account says that in the tussle her hand was cut and Abdulrahman bit her shoulder. It then jumps to Noura running to her parents' home, holding a bloody knife. Hussein and his wife were terrified when they saw their daughter standing in front of them clutching the murder weapon. "I killed my husband after he raped me," she told them, holding out the knife. "I then understood the seriousness of the situation," says Hussein. Knowing Abdulrahman's family, he was in no doubt they would want revenge. Noura's whole family was now under threat, he says, so he made a decision to take them all to the police station. He did this to protect them, not, as has been reported, to turn her in and abandon her. But Noura was arrested and charged with premeditated murder. Her family went home to appeal to the elders to make a deal with Abdulrahman's family. They refused, instead insisting that Hussein and Zainab must no longer see Noura if they wanted to protect their other children. When their house and business premises were set on fire and burned down, Hussein and Zainab agreed. However, the intimidation persisted and the couple took their children and fled. A court in Omdurman, Sudan's second largest city, later found Noura Hussein guilty of premeditated murder, and last month - when her husband's family refused the option of monetary compensation - it officially sentenced her to death by hanging. Noura's lawyers are appealing against the sentence, and seeking a pardon. The verdict is expected within days. Hussein says he has not seen his daughter since that night, because of the threat to harm him and his other children if he does. "I also want to see my daughter and visit her in prison and raise her spirits, but I am unable to do so," he says. He has talked with her on the phone, though, and says she assured him that she was in good health. Zainab Ahmed says she is hopeful of a last minute miracle for her daughter. She likes to imagine that family elders will intervene and convince Abdulrahman's family to ask the courts to repeal the death penalty. Amnesty International thinks this is a vain hope. "At this stage this seems highly unlikely. Had they done this during the sentencing they could have requested mitigation. At this stage a family would have no say in a judicial decision," says Dr Joan Nyanyuki, Amnesty's director for East Africa. However international pressure may work, she says. "When we called for people to email Sudan's Justice Minister demanding Noura's pardon, he had to shut down his email address within two weeks. It had an impact. If people emailed the Sudanese embassies in their respective countries demanding her release, that would make an immense difference." She adds: "There are hundreds of thousands of Nouras that we haven't heard of, in forced marriages being raped. This fight is also for them." Noura's parents now live in a village far away from al-Bager. They say that their marriage is still strong and they are supporting each other and their children through the ordeal. But Noura's fate haunts them. "No-one wants a miserable life for their daughter," says Hussein. "I did not expect things to reach this degree. "We are hoping God will rescue her." Additional reporting by Megha Mohan Illustrations by Katie Horwich You may also be interested in: 'I killed my rapist when he came back for my sister' (October 2016) And other stories from BBC Arabic's Shame series, exploring the impact of smartphones and social media on traditional societies: 'I refused to be shamed for having a female body' How a Bangladeshi rape survivor was shamed on Facebook 'My husband filmed me in the bedroom' The Whatsapp suicide - new tech and old crimes in India Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.

एक सूडानी किशोरी के माता-पिता, जिसे अपने पति की हत्या करने के बाद मौत की सजा सुनाई गई थी-जिस पर उसने बलात्कार का आरोप लगाया था-ने उन रिपोर्टों का खंडन किया है कि उन्होंने उसे अस्वीकार कर दिया है। बीबीसी के साथ एक विशेष साक्षात्कार में, उसके पिता ने यह भी कहा कि उन्होंने कभी नहीं सोचा था कि उसे अपने चचेरे भाई से शादी करने से इतने भयानक परिणाम होंगे।


Autism: 'Sending my son to Scotland will kill him and me'

Summary: "People with autism can be very violent and aggressive, but parents don't say anything because they are scared they will be taken away," Jill Grange says. "They don't trust the care system and they are right not to." Faced with autistic son Matthew, 20, being sent to an accommodation in Scotland, he is now with her in Bridgend. She called for more help to stop families "falling apart" from the strain.

My blood pressure shot up and I told them: "If you send him away, it will kill him and it will kill me too." After 20 years of trying to find Matthew a suitable home, this is when I realised he had to be with me. It was the only way because residential units are institutions, based on fear of whether it will work. This would be about love. Matthew was born in Cardiff, but when he was six weeks old, we moved to Saudi Arabia, where I taught in an international school. He seemed fine until 18 months to two years when he started limiting his food choices and had some sensory processing differences, such as he never liked light touch. It was when I had a second birthday party for him and he wasn't interested in anyone but me, I realised something was wrong. At three, his speech was gone. It was then I brought him home to be assessed and a child psychiatrist said: "He's autistic and probably has been like it since birth. "Here's a leaflet." Teaching English, there are standard measures where you can test ability for speaking, writing and reading, regardless of the person's native language. I thought it would be the same for autism and they would tell me where Matthew is on the spectrum because people can vary from very articulate with a high IQ to non-verbal. But to get a diagnosis tells you nothing about their function and how they perceive the world. You find not much is known. That was 20 years ago and not much has changed now. At six, Matthew was screaming all the time, and the GP wouldn't come and see him. I found a bio-medical team in Hemel Hempstead which advised giving him natural supplements because his discomfort came from his body struggling to de-tox things properly. You couldn't get this information on the NHS. Matthew didn't settle in primary school and his best placement was in a moderate learning difficulties unit. But routine is very important and when a different person was with him every day, upsetting this, I decided to home school him. A big thing is communication - idioms such as "it's raining cats and dogs" and "he kicked the bucket" make no sense and you have to think about what you say. People with autism also practice echolalia - Matthew, for example, loved Life of Brian, and would repeat phrases from it in everyday life. At comprehensive age, he went full-time to a special school, where he was doing fine until his epilepsy started at 13. When he had a seizure, he would become aggressive, trying to grab people and they would lock Matthew in the central courtyard. This extreme behaviour was linked to sensory overload and anxiety but no specialist seemed able to tie it all together. He also couldn't cope going to school and then into a separate respite provision and he trashed his bedroom. A specialist said Matthew was hearing voices, but he was using echolalia to calm himself. I had to Google "autism, puberty, seizures" to find out what was happening. At 17, he moved into a new care setting, but when he came home on weekends, he would go berserk and have a meltdown because of the change. It went on and I had to call the police because the social worker wouldn't do anything. He then stayed there seven days a week for three years - I visited every day but because the staff turnover was so big, care really varied and there were times he was really unhappy. A placement closer to home was found but he was incarcerated as there was nobody to take him out. Matthew wasn't always fed, he was left lying in a wet bed, it was a nightmare time. I didn't sleep for over a year, the stress was terrible. Nobody understands autism. They think there's nothing going on upstairs, but those with it are incredibly bright and they don't want to be sat in a care home watching people play bingo. I called for Matthew to have a bespoke placement - this was when I was told the closest available was in Scotland or the north of England. They don't realise how cruel they can be. Matthew was becoming more and more insular, a care home was traumatic and was doing him no favours, so I decided I could do a lot better at home. Services are stretched and it seems like there is no capacity for autism. But it doesn't go away and the burden and hard work falls on parents because you don't want them to spend their lives in day rooms staring at walls. We are having to pick up the pieces and relationships are breaking down or families are giving up work and taking huge drops in wages because of the strain. Nobody says sorry and it has left me emotionally traumatised. I think care packages tailored around young adults living at home are the future. Six months in and it is working. Because I am determined but also because it is based on love.

जिल ग्रेंज कहती हैं, "ऑटिज्म वाले लोग बहुत हिंसक और आक्रामक हो सकते हैं, लेकिन माता-पिता कुछ नहीं कहते क्योंकि उन्हें डर है कि उन्हें ले जाया जाएगा।" जिल ग्रेंज कहती हैं, "उन्हें देखभाल प्रणाली पर भरोसा नहीं है और वे ऐसा नहीं कर सकते।" स्कॉटलैंड में एक आवास में भेजे जा रहे 20 वर्षीय ऑटिस्टिक बेटे मैथ्यू का सामना करते हुए, वह अब ब्रिजेंड में उसके साथ है। उसने तनाव से परिवारों को "टूटने" से रोकने के लिए और अधिक मदद मांगी।


Twenty eight football fans guilty of disorder at Grimsby Town match

Summary: Twenty-eight men have pleaded guilty to affray and violent disorder offences after trouble at a football match in which two police officers were injured.

Glasses, bottles and other items were thrown during a pre-season friendly game between Grimsby Town and Sheffield United at Blundell Park in July 2016. Three men pleaded guilty at Hull Crown Court earlier. The rest pleaded guilty at Grimsby Crown Court on 20 February. Sentencing is expected to take place between 3-6 October. More on this and other North East Lincolnshire stories

अट्ठाईस लोगों ने एक फुटबॉल मैच में परेशानी के बाद झगड़ा और हिंसक अव्यवस्था के अपराधों के लिए दोषी ठहराया है जिसमें दो पुलिस अधिकारी घायल हो गए थे।


Norwich prisoner Warren Fernandez was found hanged

Summary: A drink driver jailed for killing a father-of-three in a car crash in Norfolk was found hanged in his prison cell, an inquest has heard.

Warren Fernandez, 45, of Bradwell, near Gorleston, Norfolk, was found dead in his cell at HMP Norwich on Friday. He was jailed in November 2008 after he admitted causing the death of Andrew Mackay, 38, by driving dangerously. Norfolk Coroner William Armstrong, who adjourned the inquest, heard the cause of death was asphyxia. At Fernandez's sentencing hearing, Norwich Crown Court heard his BMW had spun into the path of a Ford Escort being driven by Mr Mackay on the A12 at Hopton in Norfolk in April 2008. Mr Mackay's partner and three children, aged 14, 10 and two, were also injured and spent four nights in hospital. Witnesses told the court Fernandez was driving like an "idiot" at speeds of about 100mph moments before the impact.

नॉरफ़ॉक में एक कार दुर्घटना में तीन बच्चों के पिता की हत्या के लिए जेल में बंद एक शराब चालक को उसकी जेल की कोठरी में फांसी पर लटका हुआ पाया गया।


Frankfest to fund Frank Sidebottom statue

Summary: Rock veterans The Fall and singer Badly Drawn Boy are to headline Frankfest, a gig to raise money to build a statue of comic character Frank Sidebottom.

Known for his over-sized papier-mache head, Sidebottom was the alter ego of entertainer Chris Sievey, who died in June 2010. Friends are trying to raise £60,000 to install a life-size bronze statue in Timperley, Manchester, where he lived. Frankfest will be held at the Jabez Clegg venue in Manchester on 31 March. "The demise of Frank, when Chris died, was incredibly sad," said Sievey's friend and statue campaign chairman Neil Taylor. "We're trying to get a fitting tribute."

रॉक दिग्गजों द फॉल और गायक बैडली ड्रॉन बॉय को फ्रैंकफेस्ट शीर्षक देना है, जो हास्य चरित्र फ्रैंक साइडबॉटम की प्रतिमा बनाने के लिए धन जुटाने के लिए एक कार्यक्रम है।


Guernsey UK tax transparency agreement 'nearly finalised'

Summary: A new tax information agreement between the UK and Guernsey is close to being finalised, according to Guernsey's Chief Minister.

Deputy Peter Harwood said the document would see more information about non-domiciled UK residents' tax affairs exchanges between the jurisdictions. He said it would serve to help improve transparency and reduce international tax evasion. The move would be similar to recent agreements made with the United States.

ग्वेर्नसे के मुख्यमंत्री के अनुसार, ब्रिटेन और ग्वेर्नसे के बीच एक नए कर सूचना समझौते को अंतिम रूप दिए जाने के करीब है।


The surprise Christmas show for an audience of one

Summary: There's a buzz of activity in this normally quiet Dundee cul-de-sac; actors scurry to their places, props are pushed into place, and neighbours gather, shuffling their feet to keep the winter chill at bay.

By Graeme OgstonBBC Scotland Tayside and Central reporter Dundee Rep Ensemble are ready for their first Christmas show of the year - not to a packed auditorium, but to just one special audience member. George McPherson, who is 102 years old, was nominated for a theatrical treat by his neighbours, who say he is "loved by the whole street". George is delighted by the show, a potted version of A Christmas Carol - the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future swirling around the street over the course of 15 minutes. "I'm speechless," he says. "I never expected anything like this, it's absolutely wonderful." This is the first Dundee Rep Present, a series of four performances by the ensemble and the Scottish Dance Theatre for seven individuals, put forward by their friends and families. If performers can't take to the stage this Christmas, the theatre reckoned, why not take the stage to the audience? Andrew Panton, Dundee Rep's artistic director, says: "Present really reminds us of the vitality and the spark of live theatre and allows us to shine a light in these really dark times. "It's a really counterintuitive thing to close your theatre and to say to people, don't come. "Because what we spend our lives doing is trying to welcome as many different kinds of people from as many different backgrounds. "But that's what we had to do." Undeterred, the theatre put together a collection of festive online and community events, in addition to the surprise performances, to maintain its strong links with the Dundee public. Mr Panton said the theatre was "inundated" with nominations for Present. He said: "It was quite a difficult and sometimes harrowing experience going through these submissions. "There's a lot of people who have been through a lot of things this year, and many who would not want to live this year again." Ensemble member Emily Winter said she had been "excited and nervous" before the performance, which she described as "such a lovely project to be part of". She said: "It's a little bit heart-breaking that we're not on stage doing what we normally do, we're all missing it dreadfully. "But at the same time, I think this is such a great idea and it's important to be doing something live." Ms Winter, who wrote an online murder mystery series performed by the ensemble this year, said nothing could beat "face-to-face, in-the-flesh drama." She said: "We have such a great, supportive audience in Dundee and everyone's had a really hard year, so to be able to give even just a little bit back is really important." Back in the cul-de-sac, George is given three cheers by his neighbours before being taken back into the warmth of his home. Neighbour Laorag Hunter said: "George looks out for everybody, he takes an interest in all our lives and it was just nice to do something for him." She said the show had not just been a special surprise for George, but a "great opportunity for everyone to connect". "We haven't been seeing each other, the days are shorter, people haven't been going out so much," she said. "It was really nice to be together and laughing and engaging and enjoying something together. "It lifted everybody's spirits. We'll talk about this every year from now on."

इस सामान्य रूप से शांत डंडी कुल-डी-सैक में गतिविधि की एक चर्चा होती है; अभिनेता अपने स्थानों पर दौड़ते हैं, प्रॉप्स को जगह पर धकेल दिया जाता है, और पड़ोसी इकट्ठा होते हैं, सर्दियों की ठंड को दूर रखने के लिए अपने पैरों को हिलाते हैं।


Zimbabwe in 10 numbers

Summary: Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe resigned last year after almost four decades in power. Now, the country is approaching its first post-Mugabe election, with his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa and MDC Alliance candidate Nelson Chamisa the two front-runners in a field of 23 candidates.

Here are 10 numbers that will help you understand how the country got to where it is now. 2 = the tally of leaders in the last 38 years Robert Mugabe, who led the country's liberation movement, was in power from independence in 1980 until he was ousted in November last year at the age of 93. His years in office, first as prime minister until the switch to a presidential system in 1987, were marked by economic turmoil and the crushing of dissent. Emmerson Mnangagwa is his successor - nicknamed the "crocodile" because of political cunning. Once a Mugabe loyalist, he promises to revive the shattered economy and hopes to win elections on 30 July to legitimise his presidency. 231 million % = inflation in July 2008 Zimbabwe's economy has struggled since a controversial land reform programme was introduced in 2000. The programme that saw white-owned farms redistributed to landless black Zimbabweans - and those with good political connections - led to sharp falls in production. As the country's central bank printed money to try to get out of the crisis, rampant inflation took hold. Although the World Bank does not have figures for 2008 and 2009, numbers from Zimbabwe's central bank showed annual inflation reached 231 million % in July 2008. Officials gave up reporting monthly statistics when it peaked at just under 80 billion % in mid-November 2008. The country was forced to abandon its own currency a year later at a rate of Z$35 quadrillion to US$1. More on post-Mugabe Zimbabwe: $16.3bn = GDP in 2016 The political and economic crises between 2000 and 2008 nearly halved Zimbabwe's GDP - the biggest contraction in a peacetime economy, according to the World Bank. A brief period of recovery between 2009 and 2012 has now faltered and the economy faces serious challenges, says the World Bank. Growth has slowed sharply from an average 8% from 2009 to 2012, caused by shifts in trade and a series of major droughts. Mr Mugabe always blamed Zimbabwe's economic problems on a plot by Western countries, led by the UK, to oust him because of his seizure of white-owned farms. 74% = the population living on less than $5.50 a day The country's political and economic crises have resulted in high poverty rates. The hard years between 2000 and 2008 saw poverty rates increase to more than 72%, according to the World Bank. It also left a fifth of the population in extreme poverty. Extreme poverty, estimated to have fallen from 2009 to 2014, is now projected to have risen again substantially. About 27% of children under the age of five suffer stunted growth, with 9% severely stunted because of poor nutrition, the 2015 Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey report revealed. But poverty in Zimbabwe is still lower than in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, where about 41% of the population were living on less than $1.90 a day in 2013, World Bank data suggests. 90% = one estimate of the unemployment rate Estimates of the country's unemployment levels vary wildly. The World Bank's modelled estimates, based on International Labour Organisation data, puts the figure as low as 5% in 2016, while Zimbabwe's biggest trade union claimed the jobless rate was as high as 90% last year. However, the World Bank's definition only covers those actively seeking work. Many of those not counted may not seek a job despite wanting one because they "view job opportunities as limited, or because they have restricted labour mobility, or face discrimination, or structural, social or cultural barriers". The CIA World Factbook estimates the rate was 95% in 2009, but says current figures are not known. 89% = adult literacy rate Thanks to large investments in education since independence, Zimbabwe has one of the highest adult literacy rates in Africa, with 89% of the adult population literate, according to World Bank data from 2014. Globally, the literacy rate stood at 86% in 2016, while in sub-Saharan Africa it was 64%. Almost all women and men aged 15-49 have had at least some primary education, according to the 2015 Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey. More than 70% of people aged 15-49 have also attended secondary school. 13.5% = the adult prevalence rate of HIV/Aids Zimbabwe has the sixth highest HIV prevalence rate in sub-Saharan Africa, with 1.3 million people living with HIV in 2016, according to UNAids. However, after a peak in 1997, rates are declining. According to the UN, this is a result of successful campaigns encouraging condom use as well as programmes preventing the transmission of infection from mother to child. Treatment and support services have also improved. 61 = the life expectancy at birth Life expectancy fell in the 1990s, with the HIV/Aids epidemic a major killer. It dropped from a high of just under 61 years in 1986 to 44.1 years in 2003. It is now steadily improving again, but with unemployment and poverty endemic and HIV/Aids rates still high, it remained at just 60 in 2015, according to World Bank data. 81 = the number of mobile subscriptions per 100 people Mobile devices are the leading communication tool for Zimbabweans. But while most have a mobile phone, only 43% of households have a radio, 37% have a television and 10% have a computer, according to the 2015 Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey. 16.7 million = the current population After a growth spurt after independence in 1980, a decline in birth rates and a rise in death rates saw population growth slide downwards. With high outward migration rates also high, the population has not recovered its post-independence growth. Written and produced by Lucy Rodgers.

जिम्बाब्वे के राष्ट्रपति रॉबर्ट मुगाबे ने लगभग चार दशकों तक सत्ता में रहने के बाद पिछले साल इस्तीफा दे दिया था। अब देश मुगाबे के बाद अपने पहले चुनाव की ओर बढ़ रहा है, जिसमें उनके उत्तराधिकारी इमर्सन मनांगाग्वा और एम. डी. सी. गठबंधन के उम्मीदवार नेल्सन चामिसा 23 उम्मीदवारों के क्षेत्र में सबसे आगे हैं।


Luring Australian nurses to Aberdeen hailed success

Summary: A recruitment drive to bring nurses to the north east of Scotland from Australia has been hailed as a success.

NHS Grampian spent £20,000 last year to send a delegation down under to sell the idea of a move to both qualified and student nurses. It has now been revealed 49 have now been offered jobs. And up to 114 more newly-qualified nurses could also move after finishing their training period.

ऑस्ट्रेलिया से नर्सों को स्कॉटलैंड के उत्तर पूर्व में लाने के लिए एक भर्ती अभियान को सफलता के रूप में सराहा गया है।


Tour de France Grand Depart diary

Summary: With the world's biggest bike race starting in Leeds on 5 July, BBC Yorkshire's Tour de France correspondent Matt Slater rounds up the best of the gossip, opinion and stories, on and off the bike, and also tries to explain some of cycling's unique lingo. TOP STORIES

Ride for life Is cycling long distances the secret to a long life? I don't know, but the BBC's health correspondent Fergus Walsh has followed Yorkshire riding great Brian Robinson up Cragg Vale in a bid to find out. Full story: BBC News Where no cars go Kirklees Council has bitten the bullet first and announced the full horror, sorry, scale of the road closure programme for its section of stage two. Waiting restrictions will be imposed on the key roads from 1900 on Friday, a full 40 hours before the race passes by. That means residents and visitors will not be allowed to park their cars on those roads, while access to Holme Moss will be reserved for those with residential permits and emergency vehicles from the same time. Full story: The Huddersfield Daily Examiner It's your moneyI'm after Baby Olympic-style volunteer programme? Check. 100-day cultural festival? Check. Charge for tickets to the usually-free opening ceremony? Check. And now, for Yorkshire's latest Grand Depart innovation, the Tour de France merchandise pop-up shop, coming to a retail space near you soon. Sheffield's Meadowhall shopping dome gets one on Friday. Full story: The Star CYCLING ROUND-UP Last week, when Colombian Rigoberto Uran won stage 12's time trial by almost a minute and a half, I thought we had found our Giro d'Italia 2014 champion. Sure, I thought others might go better than him when the race reached the steep stuff, but Uran is a fine climber himself and at that point had a three-and-a-half-minute lead on the man most thought would provide his toughest challenge, Nairo Quintana. That should be plenty, I thought. What do I know? The warning signs were there over a great weekend of racing in the mountains, where Quintana beat his compatriot on Saturday and Sunday to take back almost a minute, but that was a mere warm-up for Tuesday's assault on the Giro's Queen stage, 136km of brutal climbing in freezing conditions. Quintana, the only man to trouble Chris Froome at Le Tour last year, attacked on the 2,758m-high Passo dello Stelvio, and stretched his lead with a fearless and skilful descent. Should that have been the case, though? With heavy rain falling, it seemed to some watching at home that the race had been neutralised on the way down the Stelvio - i.e. the riders had been told to stop racing until it was safe enough to start again. The official Giro feed even tweeted as much, only to send a correction soon after. That did not stop Quintana, though, who continued to stretch his lead on the final climb, dropping his fellow attackers Ryder Hesjedal and Pierre Rolland. Uran would eventually cross the line at Val Martello in ninth place, more than four minutes behind, and he is now one minute and 41 seconds behind Quintana. Nobody is going to take the pink jersey from him….are they? TWEET OF THE DAY "Wrong communication: no neutralization for the descent from the Passo dello Stelvio. Sorry for the wrong information." The official Giro d'Italia twitter feed (@giroditalia) gets its ducks in a row after a dramatic and controversial passage over a snowbound Stelvio. A TO Z OF LE TOUR P is for… Palmares - After the scraps we have had to dine on with N and O, P could be for pay dirt or plethora. A rider's palmares is his own personal roll of honour, a list of all his or her wins. This is a good one to drop into conversation if you are trying to affect a cycling hipster air this summer. Parcours - Ditto this beauty, as it is the preferred term for "route". Peloton - The literal translation from the French is "little ball" or "platoon", but in cycling circles this means the main bunch/field/pack, although it can also refer to professional riders in general, no matter where they are on the road. Why do they ride in these big groups, you ask? Simple aerodynamics: you can save a lot of energy riding in the peloton. Pistard - French for track rider, as in cycling on a "piste". This can often be said in a slightly condescending manner, as most road cyclists think pistards are cossetted individuals who do not ride very far, very well or in actual weather. British riders like Sir Bradley Wiggins have often been sneered at in this way, which must make winning road races feel so much better. Poursuivant - French for "pursuing", this word conjures up all manner of medieval skulduggery for me, but in cycling terms refers to riders who are not leading - tete de la course - but are not in the peloton either. Ideally you want to be a poursuivant who has jumped clear of the pack in hot pursuit of the breakaway, as opposed to somebody jettisoned by the breakaway and soon to be swept up by the bunch. Puncheur - This refers to the type of rider who can do a bit of everything but particularly likes short, nasty, "punchy" climbs, as opposed to long drags up mountains. This rider loves the steep hills of the one-day classics in the spring, but is too muscular for the Alps and Pyrenees. Former world champion Philippe Gilbert is a well-known puncheur - in fact, commentators sometimes refer to rolling hills as Gilbert climbs - as is the Slovakian all-rounder Peter Sagan, although he is not quite as explosive uphill. The stage from York to Sheffield on 6 July looks ideal for a puncheur. TODAY'S TOUR TRIVIA This nugget comes from the prolific cycling scribe Richard Moore's latest, "Etape: The Untold Stories of the Tour de France's Defining Stages". The year was 1994, the place central Lille, the Boardman was Chris. It was the opening day of the Tour, a 7.2km prologue (a short time trial), and it was his debut. Boardman was already a big star back home, thanks to his Olympic gold on the track at Barcelona 1992, a feat he backed up in 1993 by claiming the record for riding the furthest distance in one hour. But that also was on the track. Could he mix it with the "giants of the road"? We did not have to wait long for an answer. The man from the Wirral overtook the rider who had started one minute before - a Frenchman who had belittled his exploits in the velodrome - on his way to a blistering time of seven minutes and 49 seconds, 15 seconds faster than the mighty Miguel Indurain, making him only the second British rider to wear the leader's yellow jersey. His average speed was 55kph, still a Tour record.

5 जुलाई को लीड्स में शुरू होने वाली दुनिया की सबसे बड़ी बाइक दौड़ के साथ, बीबीसी यॉर्कशायर के टूर डी फ्रांस संवाददाता मैट स्लेटर बाइक के अंदर और बाहर गपशप, राय और कहानियों का सबसे अच्छा दौर पेश करते हैं, और साइकिल चलाने की कुछ अनूठी भाषा को समझाने की भी कोशिश करते हैं।


Election alerts for Wales

Summary: If you have the app but have landed on this page

Thanks for your interest in our Wales Election alerts. 1. You may need to update your app to the latest version, which you can do here on the Android Play Store or here on the iOS App Store. 2. Make sure you are opted in for notifications - you can check this in your device settings. 3. Open the app, go the search page and type "Wales politics". Tap through to the section and then open any story. Click on the link about election notifications. If you do not already have the BBC News app 1. Download the BBC News app here on the Android Play Store or here on the iOS App Store. 2. Make sure you opt in for notifications when installing the app - you can also check this later in your device settings. 3. Open the app, go the search page and type "Wales politics". Tap through to the section and then open any story. Click on the link about election notifications. Unfortunately, this feature is only available to UK app users.

यदि आपके पास ऐप है लेकिन आप इस पृष्ठ पर आ गए हैं


Last coal shipment leaves River Tyne

Summary: What is thought to be the last shipment of coal from the North East of England has left the River Tyne. Extracted in County Durham, the 12,000-tonne load, bound for Belgium, raises questions for those who once worked deep down the pits, and for the next generation looking to a cleaner future.

By Chris RobinsonBBC News, Newcastle The fact that coal was still being exported from the Tyne came as something of a surprise to former colliery mechanic Billy Middleton. Now aged 79, he started work when he was 15 at County Durham's Wheatley Hill Colliery, before moving on to Thornley and then nearby Easington. "I'm more shocked than anything, I didn't even know," the former blacksmith said. "All of our collieries closed, a lot of men took it badly. If they find out there's coal coming from the Durham coalfields going to Belgium, they won't be happy with that. "As far as I'm concerned 1994 was the end of it all. It was an end of an era, as simple as that." Billy keeps his heritage alive at Durham Mining Museum, based at Spennymoor Town Hall. It features an online archive of its coal mining past and he was interviewed about his work for a documentary. "My fondest memory?" he chuckled. "I loved every minute of it, there was something different every day. "When I was in the shaft you only worked six-hour shifts, it was a dangerous job, it was a cold, dirty job. "It was a pleasure to go to work, all the lads used to get together and the camaraderie was fantastic." 'Everyone hated Thatcher' The year 1993 signalled the end for County Durham's collieries. In 2005, Ellington Colliery, in Northumberland, was the last to close in the North East. However coal has continued to be extracted from open cast mines, albeit on a much smaller scale. This last shipment came from Fieldhouse, near Rainton Meadows, where 500,000 tonnes of coal has been mined between 2018 and 2020 by Durham-based Hargreaves (UK) Services. It now wants to move into low-carbon fuel. "I was proud as punch that I was a mechanic at the collieries, I would never have packed it in, I would have been there until I was 65 but unfortunately when the collieries closed, I had to pack it in just like everybody else," Billy said. He remembers the strikes of the 1980s, and even the mention of the name Margaret Thatcher is still very raw. "Everyone helped each other, at the end of the day we got through it, it was tough for us but we got through it," he said. "She [Thatcher] was hysterical, she was absolutely disgraceful. When you saw what was happening in Yorkshire, that was absolutely awful. "I remember when she died, there was a do on at Easington, everyone thought it was just like a centenary day but it wasn't. Everyone hated that woman for what she did." Billy left Easington Colliery before it closed in 1993. He was 46 years old. Still living in the former pit village of Thornley, he remembered how clean the area became. "We have a lot of green belts now, there's no smoke, no muck flying about, you could put your washing on the line, no more arthritis," he said. "A lot of people said it was a good thing when the pits closed but at the end of the day, this was our heritage. "We get all the children in from the schools to the museum and they don't even know what a piece of coal looks like." For student Abel Harvie-Clark, from Newcastle, the last shipment leaving the North East offers a chance for change. "I guess it is symbolic, I guess I'm happy it's the last one," the 19-year-old said. "I'm not happy that it's still going, I wish the last one was the one before it and the one before that." Last year Abel, who is also a member of the UK Student Climate Network, joined a campaign against plans for an opencast coal mine on greenbelt land at Dewley Hill, near Throckley in Newcastle. It was rejected by the city council in December as not being "environmentally acceptable". Durham-based The Banks Group, which said it would create jobs, is still considering whether to appeal. "People are still digging up coal which seems crazy because we are aware of how damaging it is," Abel said. "They are living in a world where climate change isn't a thing." Abel said that while jobs were important, it was "a sad situation" where those being offered were "so polluting and dangerous for the whole world". He highlighted how offshore wind farms could bring "huge opportunities" in terms of "good employment" to the North East, as well as energy. "Even though people often reply to that saying we need coal to make steel that's not true, there are ways of making steel without coal, using hydrogen for example," he said. "People are proud of their mining history but people in the North East do want to be part of new technology, not the old ones." He has discussed the region's coal mining past with his fellow campaigners, saying: "We are totally proud of the North East's history with coal, but also we don't want to glorify that in a way in which people sort of idolise it and romanticise it, I don't think that's at all part of it. It wasn't easy. "The proudest thing about the history of mining is probably the miners' strikes and the communities that built up around it, rather than the coal itself. "I think we are quite happy to keep it in the past really, there are much better industries, especially green industry, that we would much rather embrace in the future." Follow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk. Related Internet Links Durham Miners' Association Durham Mining Museum

जिसे इंग्लैंड के उत्तर पूर्व से कोयले का अंतिम शिपमेंट माना जाता है, वह टाइन नदी से निकल गया है। काउंटी डरहम में निकाला गया, 12,000 टन का भार, बेल्जियम के लिए बाध्य, उन लोगों के लिए सवाल उठाता है जो कभी गड्ढों में गहराई से काम करते थे, और अगली पीढ़ी के लिए एक स्वच्छ भविष्य की तलाश में थे।


Rare Chinese vase used as door-stop in Birmingham home auctioned for £650,000

Summary: An 18th Century Chinese vase that was used as a door-stop at a house by a Birmingham family has been sold for £650,000 at auction.

Hansons believe the vase was made during the reign of Emperor Qianlong between 1735 and 1799. It had been valued at £300,000-£500,000 before the auction in Derby. The seller inherited the vase from a great aunt who acquired it during her life in Cornwall in the 1920s, it is believed. Charles Hanson, of Hansons, said earlier: "We've had significant interest across China and Taiwan and Hong Kong. We've had buyers fly in from these regions to view the vase. "We've had telephones lines booked and it's just quite remarkable."

18वीं शताब्दी का एक चीनी फूलदान जिसे बर्मिंघम परिवार द्वारा एक घर में दरवाजे के लिए इस्तेमाल किया गया था, नीलामी में 650,000 पाउंड में बेचा गया है।


Thatcham crash: Woman denies causing death of motorcyclist

Summary: A woman has denied causing the death of a teenage motorcyclist who died three days after his 18th birthday.

Harry Broad was 17 when his Yamaha motorbike was in collision with a Mercedes car at a junction in Thatcham, Berkshire, on 21 January last year. Mr Broad, from Swindon, died in hospital on 26 January, police said. Christina Carroll, 62, of Thatcham, denies one count of causing death by careless driving and faces trial at Reading Crown Court in August.

एक महिला ने एक किशोर मोटरसाइकिल सवार की मौत के कारण से इनकार किया है, जिसकी मृत्यु उसके 18वें जन्मदिन के तीन दिन बाद हुई थी।


EDL leader Stephen Lennon faces Blackburn assault charge

Summary: The founder of the English Defence League (EDL) has been charged with assault following an altercation at a rally in Lancashire.

Stephen Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, was arrested in connection with a brawl at the EDL demonstration in Blackburn on 2 April. On Wednesday, he was charged with one count of common assault. Mr Lennon, 28, of Layham Drive, Luton, is due to appear at Blackburn Magistrates' Court on 24 June.

इंग्लिश डिफेंस लीग (ईडीएल) के संस्थापक पर लंकाशायर में एक रैली में विवाद के बाद हमले का आरोप लगाया गया है।


Hands on with India's £3 smartphone

Summary: Earlier this year, Indian company Ringing Bells said it was about to put a smartphone on the market costing less than $4 (£3). As the company says the first 200,000 handsets are ready to be shipped, the BBC's Shilpa Kannan in Delhi tries one out and asks if people are right to be sceptical.

Getting your hands on the world's "cheapest smartphone" is not easy. Freedom 251 is an Android phone advertised by Ringing Bells at 251 rupees (£2.77). In the hand, it feels somewhat like Apple's iPhone 5. And, surprisingly for its price, its specifications are quite impressive: There are two models, one black, one white. As I handle the handset, it seems to work like a basic smartphone. But it is hard to really test its capabilities, as it has very few applications, covering only basic tasks, such as: At the demo, the company told me the final model would be made available for scrutiny only after 30 June. Later, on Tuesday afternoon, it said that date had been delayed until 7 July. Some people are worried. Questions are being asked about whether the company will be able to deliver the millions of handsets it says it can. One member of the Indian parliament, Kirit Somaiya, has even suggested a "huge scam" is being perpetrated, while the head of the Indian Cellular Association has said the sale seemed to be "a joke or a scam". Mohit Goel, the founder and chief executive of Ringing Bells, denies the allegations of fraud. His family has been in the dry fruits business for decades, and he says it was a desire to be part of the digital India dream that drove him to the idea of a cheap handset. There is no denying the demand for such a product. India is the world's second-largest mobile phone market, with one billion subscribers - many have joined those ranks thanks to other low-cost - but not this low - smartphones. But is the Freedom 251 too good to be true? I first managed to get my hands on one of the handsets when the company first launched the product, in February this year. More than 70 million people had registered online, and the company's website had crashed. But the device given out to me and other journalists was actually a Chinese-made phone. Its brand name - Adcom - had been covered up with white paint on the front, and a sticker hid it on the rear. And, oddly, the icons of the phone's apps looked liked those of an iPhone, despite it being an Android device. This led to a furore as people protested outside the company headquarters, and there were multiple inquires by the police, tax authorities and the enforcement directorate. Ringing Bells then refunded the deposits it had taken from more than 30,000 people via the internet. The new handset is definitely a different model. The most obvious change is that it now has three buttons below its display, rather than just one. So, where is Ringing Bells making these phones, as it has yet to build factories? Mr Goel says his company is importing "knocked-down parts" from Taiwan and assembling them in Haridwar in northern India. But once it makes enough money, he adds, the company wants to manufacture all the parts in India. The phone costs about 1,180 rupees to make, and Ringing Bells claims to subsidise it via tie-ups with some of the apps that will be pre-installed. Mr Goel says the business will still lose about 150 rupees on each phone and hopes the government will step in with subsidies. About 200,000 handsets are said to be ready to send to customers. Ringing Bells also plans to sell other more expensive handsets - ranging in price up to about $100 (£75) - at a profit. But, with just over a week to go until Freedom 251's launch, critics remain unconvinced. "I find it difficult to believe that any sort of phone can be manufactured for 251 rupees, so it's difficult to see what kind of business model they have," says Pranav Dixit, a tech expert at the news site Factor Daily. "More importantly, the founders don't have a technology background." Update: The original version of this story said the Freedom 251 phone would launch on 30 June. After publication, Mr Goel told the BBC the launch had been delayed until 7 July, and the article was amended to reflect this.

इस साल की शुरुआत में, भारतीय कंपनी रिंगिंग बेल्स ने कहा कि वह $4 (£3) से कम कीमत का एक स्मार्टफोन बाजार में उतारने वाली है। जैसा कि कंपनी का कहना है कि पहले 200,000 हैंडसेट भेजे जाने के लिए तैयार हैं, दिल्ली में बीबीसी की शिल्पा कन्नन एक कोशिश करती है और पूछती है कि क्या लोगों का संदेह करना सही है।


Women entrepreneurs: Starting out in your forties

Summary: "Timing is everything," says entrepreneur Raquel Johnson.

By Lindsay BakerBusiness reporter, BBC "By the time you're 40 years old, you've learned a great deal, both professionally and personally, and made a lot of mistakes. And I think respect comes with age - people take you more seriously." It certainly worked for Johnson. It was as she was turning 40 that she set up the San Francisco-based product design company, Coupage, with her engineer husband. Business has been booming ever since. She is not alone, it seems. Many women entrepreneurs are waiting for the right moment, and are starting their businesses in their forties or beyond - as a second or even third career - having bided their time until they are absolutely ready. Having worked in product design and then in advertising, Raquel Johnson realised that she did not want to return to the corporate world after she had her younger daughter. It was challenging walking away from the "sure thing" of a steady salary, she says, but she also found it liberating. She has found her "true passion," she says. "Even the stress I feel now is more enjoyable," she explains cheerfully. "It motivates me and pushes me forward." Starting small, the business was run from home and was self-funded at first. "[When you are older] there is more opportunity for some savings to have accumulated," points out Johnson. "You don't have to take out large loans or search for funders right away." Having started with a prototype for a device to integrate an iPod into a car, Coupage has grown steadily, bringing ideas to life in the fields of audio, energy, cars and Apple-related products. 'Keep going' "Once you reach your forties you have the confidence to follow your own path," says the US-born businesswoman, Karen Scofield, who set up her company when she was 46. A sense of humour is also important, she adds with a smile. In the early days, she had to run her firm, London-based fashion brand Lucza, single-handedly. It was all down to her, from technology mishaps and admin dramas to sudden, urgent errands, like dashing out to the shop to buy a copier cartridge. "Humour was definitely needed on that day," she laughs. All of which is a far cry from her previous career as a television executive in New York, working for a smooth-running corporate machine. When she moved to London with her husband and started a family, it was time to think again. But the skills she had learnt in TV - time and people management, organisation, as well as research and analysis - were highly transferable, she says: Some things, however, she is doing very differently from her old workplace. Her leadership style at Lucza is "inclusive," she says. "But the main difference is, now you are the boss, the final decision maker, which can be daunting. "You decide what is best and you must make these decisions with confidence." It is something she relishes. So what advice would Karen Scofield give to other entrepreneurs when the going gets tough? "You have to push yourself forward, set your own deadlines and keep going." The hard work and "long nights" have been worth it, she says. The Lucza brand has been increasing year-on-year sales and its pieces are worn by high-profile women such as Samantha Cameron, wife of the British Prime Minister. She loves that her daughters see her doing something "new and scary," and adds, "I do think it's incredibly important that women support other women, however and whenever possible." She praises The Next Women, an organisation which connects women entrepreneurs via networking events and conducts "pitch events" to prepare female entrepreneurs for fundraising pitches. Raquel Johnson found Women 2.0, which champions female tech entrepreneurs, an invaluable support New groups are increasingly popping up such as the fledgling UK-based organisation My Next Day Job, which is collaborating with Prime, the Prince's Initiative for Mature Enterprise. Changing attitudes Whatever the support, however, taking this path more than half way through your working life takes confidence and bravery. Sarah Weck of Hidden Springs Maple - a maple syrup farm, retail website and wholesale business - was emboldened by the opportunities she saw in the market. It was too good to miss. "Having worked in Silicon Valley I saw how retail was changing, but when I was still in my thirties the market would not have been ready for my business," she says. The maple syrup farming business had been in her husband's family for more than 50 years, but it was Weck who, at the age of 42, decided to combine old-style Vermont with high-tech California, and sell their syrup online. She now runs the whole operation, from bookkeeping and marketing, to payroll and even scooping ice cream at the farm shop. Her hard work has paid off - the company now has 10 employees, and sales are doubling each year. And how does gender fit in? There are barriers, she concedes. "As a woman, you have to make people take you seriously. Men are more prevalent in business, and women have to work at changing the image of business to be gender neutral." But, she adds, bias can be overcome. "I've watched people shift attitudes," she says. In the early days she was overcharged for supplies, until she proved she had researched the supply-and-demand economics for that particular season. "I'm not sure a man would have had to prove himself in the way I did." As for her age, Weck sees it as a definite advantage. She draws on skills she learnt in her previous two careers (she was an English teacher and then a technical writer for a software company), such as leadership and attention to detail. "I know myself and my strengths and limitations so much better than I did in my twenties and thirties." Never a better time than in your forties, seems to be the consensus. As Raquel Johnson of Coupage puts it: "Being comfortable in my skin has helped me be much more successful now than when I was younger and more unsure of myself. Recognising when the time is right, and seizing the opportunity is absolutely key to success."

उद्यमी राक्वेल जॉनसन कहते हैं, "समय ही सब कुछ है।"


Where are the missing 90-year-olds?

Summary: Thousands of elderly people are missing. The last UK census found far fewer people in their 90s than expected, and the same thing happened in the US with people over 100. Could this be an early sign that gains in life expectancy made in recent decades will not be repeated in future?

By Ruth AlexanderBBC News We've seen amazing improvements in life expectancy over the past few decades. Six years have been added to global average life expectancy at birth, over the past two decades. Much of this increase has been down to improvements in child mortality in low- and middle- income countries. But in countries like the UK, post-retirement life expectancy has also increased rapidly. "Life expectancy of a man aged 65 has increased from 14 years in the early 1980s to 21 years now - so that's a 50% jump in just three decades," says Richard Willets, director of longevity at insurance company Partnership. Which is why, when the 2011 census was published, he went straight to the statistics about elderly populations. And there the data revealed a surprise. "There were 30,000 fewer people aged in their 90s than previously believed," he says - 429,000 instead of 457,000. "That was about 15% fewer men; 5% fewer females. There were also fewer centenarians than previously believed - the number of female centenarians was [out] by about 10%." Something similar has happened in the United States. A projection made in 2004 suggested that by 2010, there would be around 114,000 people aged 100 or over, Willets says. But, in reality, the 2010 census counted less than half that number. Where have they all gone? Sadly, they've already died. They just didn't live as long as statisticians had predicted. Between censuses, annual population estimates are made by taking the numbers from the last census (which are, in part, estimates), and applying mortality tables, information from registered deaths and immigration data. None of that information is perfect. So the further you get from the census year, the fuzzier the numbers become. And because the numbers of people aged 90 and above are so small, any small estimation errors in how many people have died result in large discrepancies between the estimated number of people still alive - and the actual number. "When I looked into why this may have happened, it quickly became apparent that the previous estimates of the number of people alive at different ages was subject to considerable uncertainty because of the approach that's taken to produce those estimates," says Willets, who has written about his discovery in The Actuary. In other words, the mortality and life expectancy calculations actuaries and statisticians rely on have been too optimistic. Willets expects to see some revisions made in the light of his find. "I think it's not inconceivable that we move from a situation where we're adding an extra year of life expectancy in retirement every three or maybe four years, to one where it takes five, six, seven, eight years, perhaps, to add that extra year of life expectancy," he says. This would break an incredible long-running trend for the world's richest countries. "Life expectancy has been increasing in the past in countries doing well by 2.5 years per decade, three months per year, which is really quite remarkable - six hours per day," according to Professor James Vaupel, director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Germany, who's been tracking it. This trend has been constant over the past 200 years - but for changing reasons. First, child and maternal mortality started improving, then, in the second half of the 20th Century, smoking rates began to drop. "The last couple of years on that graph, there is a possible slowdown," says Colin Mathers a senior scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO) says. "But it's hard to tell - we need a few more years of data to see. It's possible that some of the reductions - particularly in cardiovascular disease associated with reductions in smoking, in control of blood pressure particularly - have reached a saturation point. "In Australia or California, for example, smoking rates are quite low - they could go lower, but it might not have much more impact on death rates. Perhaps control of cholesterol or blood sugar might kick in and start to further improve life expectancy. On the other hand, we're seeing increasing levels of obesity and less exercising at population level." But the expert view is that the story of fast-increasing life expectancy certainly isn't over for the world's low- and middle- income countries. In fact, it's probably just beginning. Over the past two decades, substantial improvements have been made to health in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the eastern Mediterranean region in particular, Mathers says. Life expectancy at birth in Asia has increased by about seven years since 1990. India, China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia are all stand-out countries. Average life expectancy at birth has also increased by seven years in Eastern Mediterranean countries. "In some of the poorest countries we are seeing reductions in child and maternal death rates and these are contributing to improvements in life expectancy," Mathers says. "In some of the middle income countries, and countries which are developing very fast like China and some of the South American countries, we're seeing improvements in living conditions and medical care which are starting to contribute to very substantial reductions in adult mortality rates as well." Africa is also a success story: life expectancy at birth has increased by six years from 50 years to 56 years in the short period, 1990-2011. But these averages hide individual tales of tragedy at a country level: going against this trend, there are a number of African countries where life expectancy has fallen over the same period, largely due to HIV/Aids. "In South Africa, for example, over the past 20 years, life expectancy has decreased by five years, almost entirely due to the HIV epidemic. And in Zimbabwe also, life expectancy has decreased by six years," Mathers says. "In Nigeria on the other hand, life expectancy was much lower in 1990, at 46 years - there were very high levels of child, and adult, mortality. And that has improved to 53 years. So that's a seven-year increase for Nigeria, compared to a five-year decrease for South Africa." But Nigerian life expectancy is still five years lower than that in South Africa, he points out. 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हजारों बुजुर्ग लोग लापता हैं। ब्रिटेन की पिछली जनगणना में 90 के दशक में उम्मीद से कहीं कम लोग पाए गए थे, और अमेरिका में 100 से अधिक लोगों के साथ भी ऐसा ही हुआ था। क्या यह एक प्रारंभिक संकेत हो सकता है कि हाल के दशकों में जीवन प्रत्याशा में हुई वृद्धि भविष्य में दोहराई नहीं जाएगी?


Holly Roe: Trial of parents accused over baby death collapses

Summary: The trial of parents accused of being responsible for the death of their baby has collapsed.

The Lewes Crown Court jury, sitting at Hove Crown Court, has been discharged. Tiffany Tate, 22, and Michael Roe, 33, will face a retrial over the death of their eight-week-old daughter Holly Roe. Holly was pronounced dead by paramedics at her home in Crowborough, East Sussex, in September 2018. Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.

अपने बच्चे की मौत के लिए जिम्मेदार होने का आरोप लगाने वाले माता-पिता का मुकदमा ध्वस्त हो गया है।


Further unrelated charge for Libby Squire disappearance suspect

Summary: A man arrested in connection with the disappearance of Hull student Libby Squire has appeared in court charged with a further unrelated offence.

Pawel Relowicz, of Raglan Street, Hull, denied a single charge of voyeurism when he appeared at Hull Crown Court. The allegation dates to February 2018. The 24-year-old also denies 12 other offences including burglary and outraging public decency. A new trial date has been set for 12 August at Sheffield Crown Court. He has been remanded in custody and no application for bail was made. Mr Relowicz was arrested on suspicion of abduction on 6 February in connection with Miss Squire's disappearance, he has not been charged but police previously said he "remains under investigation". The charges Related Internet Links HM Courts Service

हल छात्र लिब्बी स्क्वायर के लापता होने के संबंध में गिरफ्तार एक व्यक्ति एक और असंबंधित अपराध के आरोप में अदालत में पेश हुआ है।


Coronavirus: Are you being served, safely?

Summary: Grocery shopping is going online rapidly. New data shows retailers with convenience stores have picked up a lot of the additional spend in person. Without bars and restaurants, off-sales are sharply up, and so is frozen food. The future of non-food shopping In Scotland lacks company or the personal touch, and could feature more queuing, making appointments, and restricted ability to try on clothes or shoes.

Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland The nation's shopping basket has changed, and the shopping experience is about to change a lot more. We've got data published today showing that online grocery sales doubled in the month from mid-April to mid-May, when compared with the same period last year. If more slots had been available, it might have been more than the 13% of grocery spend that new figure represented. But the addition of delivery slots was no mean logistical feat for the retailers, when they were preparing for 6% per annum growth to slow down over the next few years. The Britain-wide figures, from the Nielsen data company, show the number of households buying their groceries online was up from 4.8m to 7.9m. Spending in shops was up, too, but by 7%. A lot of that reflects the inability to spend money in restaurants or bars. So off-sales of alcohol were up 32% and frozen food was up 31%. Health and beauty fell 19%. The big gainers among the major retailers was led by Iceland, with sales up 24%, and the Co-op doing well with lots of local stores. That convenience store option also explains why Tesco put on sales by 12%, while Asda, without small format shops, rose at only half that rate. Marks & Spencer was up 3%, but having much of its food sold in railway stations, petrol stations and motorway services, there wasn't much footfall. An orderly queue In all these cases, we're already used to having to queue to get in, with numbers in each store limited, and then being steered round shops with a lot of signage to tell us to keep our distance. Till staff are behind screens, and you're encouraged to go cashless. Such measures are being extended to the experience in non-food shops, when they are eventually allowed to open in Scotland. That's due to happen on 15 June in England, but there's still no date for Scotland, beyond the imminent reopening of garden centres. The Scottish government published guidelines on Tuesday on what to expect and how to prepare when the time comes, both for retailers and for shoppers. Retail was the first of "around 14" sector guidelines being published, along with manufacturing. Construction is soon to follow. They address additional considerations for non-grocery shopping. If you're going to a shopping centre, numbers will be limited in the centre as well as individual outlets inside it, so there could be queues at both, and the shopping centre management is being told to manage queuing for both. Some shops may choose to issue numbered tickets for you to visit, or to book appointments. Those bookings won't be for a make-up demonstration or beauty treatment, because they won't be allowed for the foreseeable future. In bigger shops, where where it's possible, exits and entrances may be designated to move people through a shop and reduce so-called pinch-points. And if it's too busy, you're advised to come back later. There will be lots more cleaning, particularly where customers and staff are touching, say, hand rails. Lifts, as in elevators, will be only for essential use. Staggered If clothes or shoes are tried on, they're to be put aside, separate from other stock. Likewise for returned items. You won't be shopping with anyone else for advice or reassurance, so you're going to have to decide if those shoes are right for you or not. And, in general, you're advised to shop as little as possible, to use online ordering and home delivery where and when you can - to plan your shop, with a list, so that you get what you need to last a while, and limit the number of trips. Also, wear a face covering, but you'll have to remove it if asked for proof of age. Much of the advice is for employers to safeguard their staff, with advice to stagger shifts so that workers don't all arrive and leave at once. Likewise for taking breaks, with some time in the fresh air recommended. There's a strong emphasis across the retail and manufacturing guidelines on working with staff and trade unions, to get consent and buy-in for changes being introduced. And there's enforcement. The Health and Safety Executive, local authorities and Police Scotland have signed up to a joint approach to ensuring the rules are observed, using new powers for the long arm of the law to reach into the workplace as never before.

किराने की खरीदारी तेजी से ऑनलाइन हो रही है। नए आंकड़ों से पता चलता है कि सुविधा स्टोर वाले खुदरा विक्रेताओं ने व्यक्तिगत रूप से बहुत अधिक अतिरिक्त खर्च उठाया है। बार और रेस्तरां के बिना, ऑफ-सेल तेजी से बढ़ रहे हैं, और साथ ही जमे हुए भोजन भी। स्कॉटलैंड में गैर-खाद्य खरीदारी के भविष्य में कंपनी या व्यक्तिगत स्पर्श का अभाव है, और इसमें अधिक कतार, नियुक्ति करने और कपड़े या जूते पहनने की सीमित क्षमता हो सकती है।