Somerset floods crisis: How the story unfolded

Summary: Large parts of the Somerset Levels spent much of the winter of 2013-14 under water. Villages were isolated, homes evacuated, the farming community in disarray and the bad weather relentless. BBC News looks at how the area's flooding crisis unfolded.

Not-so-happy Christmas (24-31 December) South West England is battered by storms. High winds and heavy rain cause power outages, road closures and widespread travel disruption, with hundreds of weather-related emergencies, including motorists getting stuck in flood water. The Environment Agency warns of flooding on the Somerset Levels and alarm bells ring for the Local Government Association which urges people to look online for details of emergency accommodation in case they are forced out of their homes by rising water levels. New year, same story (3-4 January) It is not long before rising flood water triggers the first large-scale response, with the RSPCA leading a rescue of cattle and horses from a farm on the Somerset Levels. Two boats, normally used by the fire service in Norfolk for river rescues, are also sent to Somerset as water cuts off all major roads into Yeovil and submerges thousands of acres of the Levels. Leaving home (6-7 January) A fortnight after the storms began, residential properties are now being evacuated. Anne-Marie Simpson was rescued from her North Curry home via a window and into a boat. She said she was "keen to get away" after 13 days living off supplies. "The scale of the flooding has taken us by surprise," she added. Nine miles away in Muchelney, the BBC's Andrew Plant reports on residents using a canoe to make a mile-long paddle from their house to nearby Huish Episcopi, to pick up supplies. The village has been cut off since 3 January. Crisis talks (15-22 January) A "rallying call" is issued to the government during talks held between Defra Minister Dan Rogerson, the Environment Agency, local council representatives and voluntary groups. Bridgwater MP Ian Liddell-Grainger joins the growing campaign, telling parliament the situation is "unacceptable" and accusing the Environment Agency of neglecting the rivers. Major incident (24-25 January) Concern locally peaks and a "major incident" is declared by two councils - Somerset County and Sedgemoor District - in a bid to mobilise extra support. This includes a request to the armed forces to consider helping villagers who have been cut off. Meanwhile, tonnes of equipment have been brought in by the Environment Agency, which says it is carrying out its "biggest pumping operation ever" on the Somerset Levels. An inspector calls (27 January) Flood water has covered parts of the Levels for a month when, during the government's first official visit to the area, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson is confronted by angry residents lambasting a failure to dredge the rivers. The National Farmers Union also weighs in describing scenes of "utter despair", with farmers battling the significant cost of having 11,500 hectares (28,420 acres) inundated by about 65 million cubic metres of water. Military mission (29-31 January) A few days later and Mr Paterson offers military help and specialist amphibious vehicles to help affected areas. However, the initial offer is refused with Somerset County Council saying the fire service is currently meeting all needs. The military remains on stand-by. Meanwhile, Prime Minister David Cameron announces rivers in Somerset will be dredged once all flood water has drained off the Levels and river banks are safe. A royal show (4 February) Royalty arrives. The Prince of Wales is escorted through the floods by boat, and tractor and trailer, to meet residents and farmers around Muchelney. It is a "tragedy", he says, that nothing has happened for so long and he "feels very sorry" for those affected. Warnings intensify (5-6 February) The picture is getting worse. Two severe flood warnings are issued for parts of the Somerset Levels, signifying a danger to life, around East Lyng, Burrowbridge, Saltmoor and North Moor. Residents of Fordgate, North Moor and Moorland are advised to evacuate with the council estimating up to 150 properties could be affected. A call is made to the military, and a number of Royal Marines from 40 Commando are deployed to help reinforce flood defences in Burrowbridge. Political punches (7-9 February) Latest flood visitors include the Prime Minister and Environment Agency chairman. David Cameron again states that everything possible would be done, but Lord Smith is the target of residents' calls to resign for "letting everyone down". The spotlight turns back to Moorland where, in the middle of the night, rescue crews knock on doors urging villagers to evacuate saying temporary flood defences had been breached. Back in London and Communities Secretary Eric Pickles says the government "made a mistake" by not dredging and may have relied too much on Environment Agency advice. The Environment Secretary is unhappy with this complaining "in the strongest possible terms" to the prime minister who has to step in and urge unity. Pump up the volume (13-16 Feb) In an attempt to get more water moving, and more quickly, the Environment Agency imports 13 high-capacity pumps from the Netherlands. It is hoped they will clear 7.3 million tonnes of water each day from the levels, however after just three days they are turned off because of damage caused to the bank of the River Parrett by the volume of water being discharged. Talk of the recovery (20-21 Feb) Is the water finally beginning to go down? The Environment Agency is planning for a recovery and says dredging on "key stretches" of the rivers Tone and Parrett could begin next month. On the downside though, experts have said it could take up to two years before the farmland fully recovers from the flooding. According to agronomists, the standing water is making the ground toxic. The 20-year plan (5-6 March) Dredging, a tidal barrage and more permanent pumping sites are included in the 20-year draft plan which could cost £100m. Prime Minster David Cameron has said "money is no object" but only time will tell. Drying highways (13-14 March) After almost three months, the water level has receded and the A361 between East Lyng and Burrowbridge has reopened to all traffic. That meant Hubert Zajaczkowski, a 21-year-old apprentice at AgustaWestland in Yeovil, was able to reclaim his ruined car which he abandoned in floodwater on Christmas Eve. The submerged vehicle became one of the most familiar sights during the coverage of the flooding.

समरसेट स्तरों के बड़े हिस्से ने 2013-14 की सर्दियों का अधिकांश समय पानी के नीचे बिताया। गाँवों को अलग-थलग कर दिया गया था, घरों को खाली कर दिया गया था, कृषक समुदाय अव्यवस्थित था और खराब मौसम लगातार था। बीबीसी समाचार यह देखता है कि क्षेत्र का बाढ़ संकट कैसे सामने आया।


Air Force One seen over Sheffield on secret journey

Summary: The US president's aircraft was spotted by an aviation enthusiast as it flew over the UK on its secret trip to visit troops in Iraq.

Alan Meloy photographed Air Force One in the skies above Sheffield on 26 December. The plane carrying Donald Trump and the First Lady left Washington in total secrecy in the dead of night. After Mr Meloy's picture was shared on social media people began to track the flight online. Mr Meloy said he was "amazed" at the response to his photograph, which has seen him contacted by three US TV networks. He said he captured the image purely by chance as he photographed aircraft from the front step of his house. "It was a lovely sunny morning," he said. "I looked up and as soon as I saw it I thought, 'that's shiny'. It was in a clear blue sky and perfectly lit."

अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति के विमान को एक विमानन उत्साही ने देखा जब वह इराक में सैनिकों से मिलने के लिए अपनी गुप्त यात्रा पर ब्रिटेन के ऊपर से उड़ान भर रहा था।


Channel Islands opt-out plan for phone contracts

Summary: An opt-out plan for phone contracts will protect customers from changes to their contracts, according to the Channel Islands regulator.

Under the plans customers could break fixed-term contracts if the terms, services or prices change. Regulator Michael Byrne said it would make mobile, broadband and fixed-line contracts more transparent. The islands' four phone companies have all asked for the cost of any handset subsidy to be considered. The proposals, which are subject to a consultation running until 1 May, would see changes to the licence conditions for the four operators - Sure, JT, Newtel and Airtel Vodafone - from 1 June.

चैनल आइलैंड्स नियामक के अनुसार, फोन अनुबंधों के लिए एक ऑप्ट-आउट योजना ग्राहकों को उनके अनुबंधों में परिवर्तन से बचाएगी।


Jersey reef wildlife disturbance sparks boat user warning

Summary: Birds' nests have been deliberately destroyed and seals and dolphins disturbed around Jersey's offshore reefs, the States has said.

Visitors from boats have also built bonfires and cleared vegetation on Les Minquiers - a group of islands and rocks to the south of Jersey. The States is urging boat owners and visitors to respect Jersey's wildlife laws and the "fragile environment". Dozens of people from France and Jersey visit the reefs each summer. Dr Paul Chambers from the Environment Department said the reefs were "ecologically important". The States said that between March and August the main islands were home to nesting seabirds and it was an offence to disturb them. Then in autumn large numbers of migrating birds are dependent on the vegetation on the reefs for shelter and food.

राज्यों ने कहा है कि पक्षियों के घोंसलों को जानबूझकर नष्ट कर दिया गया है और जर्सी की अपतटीय चट्टानों के आसपास मुहरों और डॉल्फ़िन को परेशान किया गया है।


Before the Moon: the early exploits of Neil Armstrong

Summary: Neil Armstrong will be forever known as the first person to walk on the Moon. But less well known are his early exploits as a test pilot. Armstrong risked life and limb in a variety of experimental vehicles before he became an astronaut - a career that very nearly didn't happen.

By Amy Shira TeitelAuthor, Breaking the Chains of Gravity In the centre of a large, bright hangar at California's Edwards Air Force Base was a large cross made of two iron girders balanced on a universal truck joint. Six thrusters on the ends of the cross's limbs shot spurts of compressed nitrogen every time Neil Armstrong, sitting in a makeshift cockpit on the cross's forward end, moved the control stick in his left hand. It might not have looked it in 1956, but this barebones simulator was the future Moonwalker's first step into space. Armstrong's love affair with aviation began when he was six years old and skipped Sunday school to take an airplane ride with his father. Inspired, Armstrong devoured books and magazines about flying, built model airplanes, and eventually earned his private pilot's licence at 16 before he even learned to drive. In 1947, he began his formal training, enrolling at Purdue University, Indiana, in a four year engineering programme in exchange for three years of service with the US Navy. It was an interesting time for aviation. Just a month after Armstrong started college, US Air Force pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the rocket-powered Bell X-1. It seemed to Armstrong that he was entering aviation too late; the aircraft he'd fallen in love with growing up were being replaced by rocket-powered designs, and there were no new records to break. But it was exactly the opposite. The advent of rocket-powered flight opened a new era of flying where aviators had to be both pilots and engineers testing experimental aircraft in real-time in the sky. And the best place for this new breed of pilot-engineer was the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), America's leading body for aviation research. Degree in hand and three years flying in the Korean war under his belt, Armstrong arrived at the NACA's High Speed Flight Station at Edwards Air Force Base in 1955. He joined four other pilots flying anything from bombers to experimental rocket planes to futuristic simulators. The simulators included the Iron Cross. Traditional airplanes have flight control surfaces; ailerons, rudders, and elevators move a plane by pushing against the air as it flies. But a rocket plane flying above the atmosphere has no air for these surfaces to push against. Instead, they used reaction controls, small jets of compressed gas that nudge the airplane in a near-void to maintain its orientation. It was a kind of flying Armstrong needed to learn. He was training to reach the fringes of space in the X-15. The X-15 was a joint NACA-Air Force vehicle incepted not long before Armstrong arrived at Edwards to answer questions about how a man would fare flying hypersonically — faster than Mach 5 or five times the speed of sound — at altitudes so high that landing would be a close comparison to returning from orbit. Just 15m (50ft) long with a 7m (23ft) wingspan, the X-15 was launched from underneath the wing of a B-52 bomber so it could conserve all its fuel for either a high altitude or a high speed run. Armstrong only flew seven missions in the X-15, reaching a top speed of Mach 5.74 and a peak altitude of 63km (39.2 miles). He didn't reach space — the cutoff of space was set at 80km (50 miles) — but he was already on his way there. In the early 1960s, the Air Force's next step after the X-15 was to fly in space in a vehicle eventually called Dyna-Soar. Another joint program with the NACA that was transferred to Nasa when it was established in 1958, Dyna-Soar was a flat-bottomed, roughly triangular-shaped glider designed to launch vertically atop a Titan missile. It would circle the Earth before firing its engines against its direction of travel to start its fall back through the Earth's atmosphere. From there, the pilot would land it like a regular airplane on a runway. And Armstrong was one pilot selected to fly it into space, but first he had to figure out how to save himself and his fellow astronauts from an exploding launch vehicle. In launch configuration, the Dyna-Soar glider was oriented with its nose up, meaning that if the pilot ejected he would be expelled laterally and his parachute wouldn't have time to open before he hit the ground. The better option, Armstrong saw, was to use Dyna-Soar's aerodynamics. He reasoned that if the glider's engines could launch it away from an exploding rocket, any skilled pilot would be able to land it safely. Theory in hand, Armstrong put it to the test. In a Douglas 5FD Skylancer fighter jet modified so that its aerodynamics mimicked the Dyna-Soar's, he flew it low over the desert terrain until he reached a square painted on the ground to represent a launch pad. At that moment, he pulled the aircraft's nose up to begin a steep climb to about 2,130m (7,000ft), which was roughly the altitude that the Dyna-Soar's engines would carry it to. From there, he did what any pilot would naturally do: he pulled the plane over in a loop and rolled it upright before making a smooth unpowered landing on a strip drawn on the desert floor to represent a runway. It was a manoeuvre Armstrong later said he was happy he never had to fly in a real Dyna-Soar. Both the X-15 and the Dyna-Soar dealt with technologies ahead of their times, but neither was the most experimental programme Armstrong was involved in while at Edwards. In the early 1960s, Nasa was keen to move away from ending orbital spaceflights with splashdowns in the ocean; astronauts were accomplished pilots who didn't need an armada of Navy ships to pull them out of the water. The space agency was researching using a paraglider wing to land the second-generation Gemini spacecraft on a runway at the end of its missions. This novel landing system caught the attention of Milt Thompson, another test pilot at Edwards who eventually convinced Armstrong to help him build a homemade test vehicle. More from Science & Environment Armstrong's simple yet brilliant refrain about small steps and giant leaps - its intonation betraying such acute awareness of the historic nature of the moment - remains forever etched into the minds of a generation who witnessed the moon landings first hand. Neil Armstrong: 'Diffident' emissary of humankind The pilots' self-guided project was eventually approved as an official programme to spare either man dying in their own creation. With input from others at Edwards, the pair eventually built a barebones paraglider research vehicle called the Parasev. It took to the skies in 1961 with Thompson in the cockpit towed behind Armstrong in a small airplane, and though the Paresev proved paraglider landings were feasible the system was never implemented. Though Edwards had been Armstrong's ideal workplace when he arrived in 1955, things changed in April 1962 when Nasa announced it would be selecting a second group of astronauts. The agency received 253 applications by the 1 June deadline, and a week later Armstrong's was quietly added to the list; a simulation expert from Edwards was so convinced of Armstrong's potential as an astronaut that he added the late application to the pile before the Nasa selection committee's first meeting. After a series of gruelling medical and psychological tests, Armstrong was selected on 17 September. It was fortuitous timing. Dyna-Soar, Armstrong's previous ticket to space, was fast falling behind schedule and any Air Force space program was looking increasingly unlikely to leave the ground. As one of Nasa's "New Nine" astronauts, Armstrong was firmly on the path to space. Amy Shira Teitel is the author of "Breaking the Chains of Gravity," which tells the story of America's nascent space programme before Nasa's creation. Selected Sources: James Hansen, First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong. Simon & Schuster, New York. 2005. Robert Godwin ed. X-15: The NASA Mission Reports. Apogee, Burlington. 2000. Robert Godwin ed. Dyna-Soar: Hypersonic Strategic Weapon System. Apogee, Burlington. 2003. Richard P Hallion. On the Frontier: Flight Research at Dryden, 1946-1981. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington. 1984.

नील आर्मस्ट्रांग हमेशा चंद्रमा पर चलने वाले पहले व्यक्ति के रूप में जाने जाएंगे। लेकिन एक परीक्षण पायलट के रूप में उनके शुरुआती कारनामों को कम जाना जाता है। आर्मस्ट्रांग ने अंतरिक्ष यात्री बनने से पहले विभिन्न प्रयोगात्मक वाहनों में जीवन और अंगों को जोखिम में डाला-एक ऐसा करियर जो लगभग नहीं हुआ।


Sarbjit Kaur death: Husband charged with wife's murder

Summary: A man has been charged with murdering his 38-year-old wife who was found dead in their home.

The asphyxiated body of Sarbjit Kaur was discovered in Rookery Lane, Penn in Wolverhampton, on 16 February. Her businessman husband Gurpreet Singh, 42, was charged on Wednesday evening and is due to appear before magistrates in Birmingham on Thursday. Det Ch Insp Chris Mallett from West Midlands Police said Mrs Kaur's death "shocked the community". Related Internet Links West Midlands Police

एक व्यक्ति पर अपनी 38 वर्षीय पत्नी की हत्या का आरोप लगाया गया है, जो उनके घर में मृत पाई गई थी।


Viewpoint: Changing the way the internet is governed is risky

Summary: Governance is the establishment and enforcement of norms, rules and decision-making procedures. It is not the "law" as such, but rather a structure by which everyone agrees to abide, which can be captured locally by specific laws.

By Prof Alan WoodwardDepartment of Computing, University of Surrey One of the most successful examples we have of governance on a global scale is that which affects international waters, where a United Nations agency called the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) handles the treaties and conventions defining how everyone must behave. For the reason I'll come to shortly, I recently began asking people: "Who do you think should govern the internet?" Most have replied that the internet should not be governed at all; it's fine as it is, and any suggestion that a UN agency might adopt the role provokes snorts of derision. I find myself having to explain that the internet is already governed, even though most think it is not. US control It's important to realise that without governance the internet could not function. Consider something as simple as web names and addresses. In order to avoid two different web sites having the same name, there is an organisation called the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), which decides on who may use a name, although this is delegated down to regional organisations. At present, the governance of the internet is effectively done by multiple stakeholders. What is less well appreciated is that the final approval on much of what is decided by these organisations is formally within the gift of the United States Department of Commerce. This fact has remained relatively low profile as the Department of Commerce adopted an arms-length relationship with the stakeholder organisations. However, the formality of the power structure was thrown into stark relief when the US government under George W Bush intervened directly on the subject of .xxx domain names, and then moved responsibility for certain naming from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (Iana) to Icann. The fact that the US government ultimately "controls" the internet is something that many find an anachronism when the internet is a global phenomenon, and one which many countries' economies are becoming increasingly reliant upon. UN intervention Not surprising then that there is a growing movement to transfer governance of the internet to a body that is not under the control of any one nation. Also, not surprisingly, different nations are introducing their own agendas. During a UN summit in 2003 in Geneva, the subject was hotly debated, but the US refused to relinquish control of the Root Zone file, which is basically the key to governing the internet. So entrenched were the positions that the then UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, formed the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG). The idea was that WGIG would report on a solution acceptable to all but would move governance to an international body. I doubt anyone will be surprised when I tell you that the debate has continued ever since, and the objective of coming to some conclusion in 2006 looks no more likely six years on. This has led to a great deal of frustration amongst the non-US political blocs, and 2012 looks like the year when the most powerful intend to bring the mater to a head. Power struggle The Russians, closely followed by the Chinese, are pushing for the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), another UN agency, to be given responsibility for internet governance. It looks increasingly likely that Russia and others will attempt to use an ITU conference in December 2012 to wrest as much control as possible from the US. I suspect the final outcome will be a classic compromise where the US retains control of some key aspects. Whilst I agree that governance of the internet should not remain with any one government, I find the idea of a UN agency being responsible daunting. The UN IMO has been a success in enabling everything from free flow of shipping to providing a focus for fighting piracy, but the speed at which UN organisations converge on an agreement can be described only as glacial. The internet requires altogether different timescales. A great advantage of the current governance structure is that it supports rapid developments, provided that the US Department of Commerce remains at arm's length. Innovative internet The internet has now reached a size where it tends to develop more like a living organism, and whatever governance structure is agreed needs to accommodate this. Rather like a town planner putting down grass, watching where people chose to walk and then paving the pavements, internet governance needs to help the internet evolve rather than dictate how it must develop. The one area in which this does not necessarily work is security. So, all those who spend their time railing against any regulation of the internet should perhaps consider not "if" the internet should be governed, but "who" should govern it. It's happening, and what we really need to avoid is establishing something that will stifle the innovation that has made the internet such an exciting environment. Alan Woodward is a visiting professor at the University of Surrey's department of computing. He has worked for the UK government and still provides advice on issues including cybersecurity, covert communications and forensic computing.

शासन मानदंडों, नियमों और निर्णय लेने की प्रक्रियाओं की स्थापना और प्रवर्तन है। यह "कानून" नहीं है, बल्कि एक ऐसी संरचना है जिसके द्वारा हर कोई पालन करने के लिए सहमत होता है, जिसे स्थानीय रूप से विशिष्ट कानूनों द्वारा लिया जा सकता है।


Erykah Badu fined for nude video shoot

Summary: US soul singer Erykah Badu has paid a $500 (£322) fine and will serve six months' probation for stripping naked on a Dallas street for a music video.

The 39-year-old ended filming by re-enacting the moment when President John F Kennedy was shot dead in 1963 in the city. The Grammy award-winning singer was charged with disorderly conduct when tourists and visitors complained. A spokeswoman for the singer did not immediately comment. In March, the star performed a walking striptease as part of the video for Window Seat, before falling to the ground as if she has been shot. The filming took place at Dealey Plaza, the location where President Kennedy was assassinated. In April, Sgt Mitchell said that "people calling from all across the country to express their concern" about the making of the video. A Dallas city spokesman confirmed that Badu had paid the fine.

अमेरिकी आत्मा गायक एरिका बाडू ने 500 डॉलर (322 पाउंड) का जुर्माना लगाया है और एक संगीत वीडियो के लिए डलास सड़क पर नग्न कपड़े उतारने के लिए छह महीने की परिवीक्षा की सेवा करेंगे।


Coronavirus: The first aider who became a Nightingale volunteer

Summary: Hundreds of thousands of people volunteered to help the NHS in various ways as the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic became clear. One of them was shipping science student Mary Strutt, who never dreamed that signing up to the first aid society during fresher's week would lead to her working at the UK's first emergency field hospital.

By Toby WadeyBBC News Online "It was a lot to take in when I first entered the ward - there was constant beeping from all the machines, the PPE was strange to wear and you could tell the patients were not very well at all," said Ms Strutt. "Whilst I was prepared, it was nothing like I had imagined." The final-year University of Southampton student was already an experienced first aider for St John Ambulance, helping at public events such as football matches, marathons and festivals. But her previous work was fundamentally different to duties in a hospital environment - especially one where the patients were so sick - and Ms Strutt admitted she felt apprehensive and nervous. The 22-year-old, from Buxton in Derbyshire, had been eager to help the NHS and applied to volunteer via St John Ambulance, filling out a form detailing her experience and willingness to travel. She did not hesitate when she was invited to come to the Nightingale hospital in London's newly converted ExCel Centre. "I got the confirmation late on Friday night that I'd be at the Nightingale on Monday," she said. Ms Strutt remembered messaging her mum and sister with the news as she began preparing to spend a month away from the house she shared with three other engineering students. Upon arriving in London, she was put up in a nearby hotel with other volunteers and NHS staff before undergoing two days of intensive training to get her prepared. Ms Strutt was soon tasked with looking after patients who had just come off ventilators, taking basic observations, restocking equipment trolleys and most importantly, she says, talking to them. "I would tell them about the weather, the leaves coming out on trees and my daily walks on my days off," she said. "I absolutely loved it - I wouldn't like it when the new shift would come on because it meant I had to say my goodbyes to the patients." Most of her shifts ran overnight between 23:30 and 09:30, leaving her feeling exhausted - but she said the support network from other volunteers and staff helped her through. She said her month at the hospital, which has since been mothballed after a decline in intensive care demand for Covid-19 patients, has helped reaffirm her ambition to explore career opportunities in healthcare rather than in ship engineering. "The whole experience has taught me a lot and has really changed my perspective on life," Ms Strutt said. "Whilst before this experience I was questioning if I would retrain as a healthcare professional, I am now certain that this is what I want to do."

जैसे ही कोरोनावायरस महामारी की गंभीरता स्पष्ट हुई, लाखों लोगों ने विभिन्न तरीकों से एन. एच. एस. की मदद करने के लिए स्वेच्छा से काम किया। उनमें से एक शिपिंग विज्ञान की छात्रा मैरी स्ट्रट थी, जिसने कभी सपने में भी नहीं सोचा था कि फ्रेशर सप्ताह के दौरान प्राथमिक चिकित्सा सोसायटी में साइन अप करने से वह यू. के. के पहले आपातकालीन फील्ड अस्पताल में काम करने के लिए प्रेरित होगी।


Bill Bratton to advise at UK gang conference

Summary: Bill Bratton, the so-called US supercop, will be in the UK this week advising the British government on how he dealt with gangs in LA - advice David Cameron's government sought in the wake of the summer riots.

By Laura TrevelyanBBC News, in New York Policing legends don't come much bigger than Bill Bratton. "Finally, We're Winning the War Against Crime," declared Time Magazine in 1996, featuring Bratton on the cover when he was commissioner of the New York Police Department. When he ran the LAPD, crime and murder rates plummeted. Now Bill Bratton is coming to Britain - and not as head of the Metropolitan Police Force, despite mid-summer press speculation that he was David Cameron's preferred candidate for the job. This quietly spoken, anglophile 63-year-old, whose Boston accent hasn't been smothered by years in New York and LA, will be in the UK for a week advising the government on dealing with gangs. In the aftermath of the summer's riots in England, the home secretary, Theresa May, said more had to be done to tackle gang culture - something Bratton knows a thing or two about after his tenure in LA, where there are 400 gangs. "I'd like to be able to offer whatever I can to help the British government as they move forward with their efforts to mitigate what could be a growing problem if it's not stopped," Bratton says, sitting in his spacious Manhattan office which displays, among many other awards, the CBE he received for promoting transatlantic police cooperation. Bratton is now chairman of Kroll, where he advises companies and governments on their security. The veteran police chief will tour British cities with gang problems and then attend a Home Office conference on the subject on Thursday. "What we're trying to do is share ideas that have worked here as it relates to gangs and see if they'll work in the British environment. I think many of them would," says Bratton, who has strong views on what doesn't work. "You cannot arrest your way out of the gang problem," he insists. "The most significant tool the police have, the most intimidating tool, is the ability to arrest. Gangs in this country are multi-generational - and a focus largely on arrest tactics alone clearly did not work, gangs got larger, violence that gangs committed increased." So what did work? Community policing "The good news is that over the last few years we have identified a lot of things that will reduce gang violence," he says. "Gang injunctions - that's the use of civil law to prohibit the gathering of gangs and gang members in certain locations and at certain times. "Gang interventionists have become a very useful tool for the LAPD. These are former gang members trying to turn their lives around, the police have begun to work very closely with them. They are very effective in reducing gang violence, a lot of which is usually retaliation for other gang violence." Bratton is also a strong believer in community policing. When he took over the NYPD, the police had lost touch with the public. "The failed philosophies of the 70s and 80s really believed the police could not do much to prevent crime, our role was to respond to crime that had already occurred," he explains. "Community policing is the philosophy that saved America in the 1990s, I truly believe it," Bratton expands. "It's about partnership, the police working with the community, focussing on the problems that are creating fear and disorder and prioritising them." The mere suggestion of Bratton as head of the Met provoked hostility from some leading British police officials. Sir Hugh Orde, president of ACPO , said it was "stupid" to reach across the Atlantic since America's policing style and gun culture was so different from Britain's. Clearly irked, Bratton told the Financial Times this remark diminished Orde's credibility. On the eve of his visit to Britain, Bratton is in diplomat mode, careful to pay homage to Sir Robert Peel, father of modern British policing. "The Brits created the idea of preventive policing - Peel was with the idea that the British bobby in his uniform, by his presence in the neighbourhood, his awareness of who's who, would prevent crime." As he watched the UK riots unfold this summer, Bratton was struck by the timing. 'Sense of belonging' "The good news for Britain is that this occurred this year rather than next year. "It was so spontaneous, so unexpected, that if it had occurred during the middle of the Olympics, with the police being focussed on crowd control and terrorism related issues, the ability to respond to something of this magnitude would have been very problematic." Bratton believes the learning experience of dealing with flashmobs and social media will help Britain's police plan for every eventuality as they prepare to police the Olympics. As he prepares to cross the Atlantic, the cop who tamed the rotten Apple reflects on how Britain is half a generation behind the US in experience when it comes to dealing with gangs. In a fragile global economy, he can't see gang membership declining any time soon. "Kids join gangs to have a sense of belonging, to have a sense of being cared for - things that normally other activities in society provide, school, a job, good family life. "When those things are not in place kids are going to naturally gravitate to where they can find that and, unfortunately, gangs offer that to them."

बिल ब्रैटन, तथाकथित अमेरिकी सुपरकॉप, इस सप्ताह यूके में होंगे और ब्रिटिश सरकार को सलाह देंगे कि उन्होंने एलए में गिरोहों से कैसे निपटा-गर्मियों के दंगों के मद्देनजर डेविड कैमरन की सरकार ने सलाह मांगी।


Scottish independence: Police examine online JK Rowling abuse

Summary: Police in Scotland are examining an allegation of "online criminality" against Harry Potter author JK Rowling.

Rowling was a target of abuse on social media after backing the Scottish independence pro-union campaign Better Together. Police Scotland confirmed they were considering a report of online crime in relation to the writer. Scotland's senior prosecutor said those responsible for "grossly offensive" messages would be prosecuted.

स्कॉटलैंड में पुलिस हैरी पॉटर की लेखिका जे. के. रोलिंग के खिलाफ "ऑनलाइन आपराधिकता" के आरोप की जांच कर रही है।


Transgender girl says it was change sex or die

Summary: One week she went to school dressed as a boy, the next she returned in a dress. Ellen was one of the first primary school children to transition in the UK. But her story runs far deeper than simply wearing the right clothes. For her, transitioning was a matter of life or death.

By Hannah RichardsonBBC News education and social affairs reporter "For a young boy, I was always flamboyant, I don't want to use the word camp, but... camp. I think people around me just thought I was going to grow up a very sensitive and interesting gay young man. And that's what I thought too, for a really long time. School was the main point where I really found it hard to deal with life because at home I could be my complete self. If I wanted to dress up, I just dressed up, and my family didn't have any qualms about it." Other young people began to notice a difference and were very vocal about it. "I was branded as the weird, queer, gay boy in my school. Internally, I think I did know that I wasn't just gay, but at the age of five you don't really know how to express those feelings. It was constant bullying every day, and it was people telling me I was different from them, and that I should be isolated. A balance of that, mixed with my own thoughts telling me, 'well if I am not this... 'I definitely don't feel right in my body right now, and there's something in my brain that's not correlating... what do I need to do to find out who I am?' I realised that dressing up and living a different life was when I was happiest. It would get to a point when I would come home from school and I would have my whole mini-wardrobe of girl clothes. I would come back from school and hang out in a dress." She soon realised dressing in girls' clothes wasn't just child's play. It was the way she wanted and needed to live. "Inside the house I just got to be me. I could be Ellen. Outside the house, I was the angry and sad boy who showed almost no positive traits. I would still have to wake up every day and be tormented walking to school. I remember saying to my mum, like: 'what can I be when I am older?' And my mum said, 'you can be anything that you want to be.' My face lit up, apparently, and I said; 'Oh can I be a girl? Full time?' And my mum said; 'Oh no, no, no don't be silly,' just brushing it off, because that was the unknown at the time, trans wasn't a big thing in the media at the time. But living my sad version of me definitely took its toll. I became very depressed, I was refusing to leave the house, I was having scary panic attacks at the tiniest of things, that I couldn't really explain. I attempted to take my own life at the age of seven, and I came very close to really harming myself. I was confused, I just wanted everything to end, I wanted everything to be peaceful. I felt it was easier for me not to be a burden for everyone and have all my problems become everyone else's." It was at this crisis point that Ellen's parents realised they had to do something to try to help their son. They researched the issue and discovered the condition gender dysphoria. "They sat me down and they told me what they had read online, and I was like; 'That's everything that I've been feeling inside, but haven't been able to articulate'. The fact that I wasn't showering or bathing because I didn't ever want to be fully exposed. My self-esteem issues, and the fact that playing a girl wasn't playing a girl in my head - it was me being my true self. They started to look into it and they found a charity called Mermaids. This was 10 years ago and they were the biggest lifeline. I honestly believe that if I had continued going the way I was going, then I wouldn't necessarily be here, because I wouldn't have been able to keep on living the lie I was living. After a lot of thought and research, my parents decided to have a conversation with me about letting me socially transition. This is where I would go to school one day as a boy and the next as a girl, and I could change my name, and I could be the child I was inside the house and bring her outside. This was an incredibly scary decision for me to make, and for my entire family - they were concerned for my safety and my happiness." The family began preparing for the moment of truth. "My parents spoke a lot with my school, I was in primary school and I was about 11, and my school was actually quite accepting. But it was a very new thing - they didn't have any resources or training. They allowed me to take a week off to get prepared and mentally ready, and then I went in as a girl. It was the scariest day of my life, my mum said I didn't have to do it, that there was absolutely no pressure. I was like: 'No I have to do this,' there was no question that I had to do this. So the last months of primary school I got to go to school as a girl. I was almost branded the youngest transsexual in Britain because at the time I was the youngest to socially transition - to go to school as a boy and then go to school as a girl. It sparked media interest because it was more of a novelty. We'd kind of heard about trans people - what the media thought of trans people you know... grisly men dressed up in dresses and it was a freakish thing - a lot of people thought it was a fetish, you know about sexuality, and people got very confused about the two. It was very weird to suddenly have a child do this." Ellen and her family soon became the centre of a media circus and she found herself on tabloid front pages before reaching secondary school. "At secondary school, I had a few friends. I had legally changed my name and I was living as a female. It was an OK transition from primary school. The only downfall was the new pupils, because almost every one from my old primary school went to my secondary school, so they knew that I was trans. As soon as I went to secondary school I dismissed any rumours. It was like: 'No I am not trans, I am a girl.' So it sparked loads of rumours and it started me being isolated again. School became a place where I felt like I had to avoid it again, because people were constantly taunting me again. It got to a point when I couldn't be in school any more. I was admitted as an inpatient in a psychiatric hospital, I'd had many suicide attempts." This, and further intrusive and inaccurate media reports, sparked another mental health crisis. Ellen left school and spent a year in a psychiatric ward. But a few weeks ago, aged 20, she came out as transgender on YouTube. "I had an operation that was incredibly life-changing for me at the age of 18. It was the beginning of me saying: 'I am an adult now.' I think I am trying to let go of the paranoia. I had always had that fear that someone would find out my secret. Looking behind my back in case someone's going to out me. It kind of got to the point where: 'This is who I am, This is what I've been through. But it doesn't define me.' I am still a human being with interests and creativity. I am more than my story."

एक सप्ताह वह एक लड़के के रूप में कपड़े पहनकर स्कूल गई, अगली बार वह एक पोशाक में लौटी। एलेन ब्रिटेन में संक्रमण करने वाले पहले प्राथमिक विद्यालय के बच्चों में से एक थी। लेकिन उसकी कहानी केवल सही कपड़े पहनने से कहीं अधिक गहरी है। उसके लिए, संक्रमण जीवन या मृत्यु का मामला था।


Kabul bomb: The hell of losing loved ones in Afghanistan

Summary: BBC driver Mohammed Nazir was among scores of victims of Wednesday's bombing in Kabul's secure central zone. As Afghanistan mourns those killed, the editor of the BBC's Afghan service Waheed Massoud, remembers a friend and colleague caught up in an all too familiar scenario.

I woke to a phone call telling me that "a BBC minibus" had been caught up in the Kabul truck bomb attack. But we did not know for sure how bad it was, and how many of our colleagues were hurt. As things stand at least 90 were killed, but this toll will undoubtedly rise with hundreds injured. The immediate feeling was so familiar: a racing heart beat and a thousand simultaneous thoughts going through my head. My heart felt heavier. I felt it was sinking down to my feet. I desperately made phone calls any way I could - through Viber, WhatsApp, Facebook, and my mobile - but to no avail. The whole network was down, another indication that something horrendous had happened. I was torn between hope and fear. Fearing the loss of another dear one and hoping that all would be fine. It is devastating when fear wins over hope; I soon found out that one dear colleague, Mohammed Nazir, our driver, had been killed and four other colleagues wounded. The truck bomb exploded close to Kabul's "Green Zone", the most secure place in the heart of the city protected by guards, blast walls and security boom gates. It killed and wounded dozens of people. I can imagine what Nazir's family, his wife and children, were going through as they were waiting for news from BBC colleagues who were searching hospitals and morgues to find him. As they prayed for good news, they too were battling fears and hopes. And they are not the only ones. The friends and family of the hundreds of victims of today's attack, like those of Mohammed Nazir, will have had the same experience. Mohammed Nazir was young. He was the father of three children and the only breadwinner in his family. He had a gentle smile and a warm personality. I knew Nazir for years and I worked with him most days of the week. BBC journalists, support staff and visitors remember him as an honest and reliable person. Most colleagues deploying from Kabul to dangerous provinces would prefer to go with Nazir. The irony is he survived decades of war, conflict and hostile environments but was killed by a bomb in the most secure diplomatic enclave in the heart of Kabul. Many BBC colleagues find it hard to believe that the smiling face that drove them to work this morning will be buried by the end of the same day. The thought that he is no longer with us is hanging over everyone. We think of his children, his wife and extended family and how they will survive without him in a country that does not have a welfare system. At least Nazir's family will receive financial support from the BBC. But what will happen to those of the others killed and wounded? The attack today not only took lives, and caused injury. It also in an instant changed the future for hundreds of families. Soon, the carnage of today will linger only as another casualty figure from yet another attack. Life will carry on. But what happened here in Kabul is simply a reflection of what Afghanistan has been experiencing over the past 38 years in various different forms and guises. The early post-2001 years were a brief period of hope when many believed the country would finally be able to breathe a sigh of relief from constant chaos. But it did not last long. Today, Afghanistan is as much a battleground for proxy wars and regional arm wrestling as it was decades ago, with ordinary Afghans feeling like victims of an unchosen fate. Although Nato military boots on the ground are present to provide training and support to the Afghan security forces and the government, the situation has not improved. The insurgents enjoy similar covert support today from regional players. As Wednesday's devastating events proved, security, even in the most protected areas, is fragile. Vulnerabilities in the security forces, or the sophistication of the insurgent groups, or both, could be to blame . But for the public the situation represents one continuous, and lifelong, nightmare.

बीबीसी ड्राइवर मोहम्मद नज़ीर काबुल के सुरक्षित मध्य क्षेत्र में बुधवार की बमबारी के पीड़ितों में से एक था। जैसे ही अफगानिस्तान मारे गए लोगों का शोक मना रहा है, बीबीसी की अफगान सेवा के संपादक वाहिद मसूद, एक बहुत ही परिचित परिदृश्य में पकड़े गए एक दोस्त और सहयोगी को याद करते हैं।


Will the Budget scale back spending cuts?

Summary: In the light of Ed Balls's speech today, which claims that the Tories would cut public spending by a further £70bn if they were to win the general election, I need to slightly amend my judgement that next week's Budget is bound to be the dullest on record.

Robert PestonEconomics editor Because Balls's analysis has nudged me to remember that there is one big policy judgement that George Osborne and David Cameron have to make between now and Budget day on March 18 - which is whether to stick to the plan outlined in December's autumn statement to generate an overall budget surplus of £23.1bn in 2019-20. Colossal sum This really matters, because it is the Tories' pledge that they will stick to the "fiscal aggregates" of that Autumn Statement, which include that £23.1bn surplus, which means that the cuts they would have to make are so much bigger than a Labour government would have to do. The point is that Labour has promised only to balance the current budget - ignoring investment - by the end of the next parliament. That would give Labour £50bn more to spend than the Tories every year from then on - which is a colossal sum, equivalent to half the annual budget of NHS England. But here is the thing. The Tories' more general fiscal policy is to generate a budget surplus in all normal years. So in theory they could revise their fiscal plans for the next parliament and simply go for a miniscule surplus by 2019-20. One consequence would be they would have to find £23bn less in cuts. 'Rule' Even so, there would be a sizeable difference between the cuts the Tories would have to find and those required by a Labour government. As a minimum, Labour would have £27bn odd more to spend every year than the Tories - because of its "rule" allowing it to borrow to finance investment. In practice, given the prime minister's desire for personal tax cuts, a Tory government would probably have to find around £40bn more cuts than Labour. And although cuts on that magnitude would not be painless or easy, the Institute for Fiscal Studies calculates that the current government has already announced and legislated for tax increases and cuts to welfare spending that should deliver a third of these savings. Wiggle room? To be clear, finding a bit less than £30bn of additional spending cuts, as a Tory government would have to do, would be challenging - in that departments have endured years of squeeze already, and welfare savings are notoriously hard to deliver. But Ed Balls's central argument today that it would be completely impossible for a Tory government to protect health spending is probably not quite as watertight as he implies.

आज एड बॉल्स के भाषण के आलोक में, जो दावा करता है कि टोरी सार्वजनिक खर्च में और 70 बिलियन पाउंड की कटौती करेंगे यदि वे आम चुनाव जीतते हैं, तो मुझे अपने फैसले में थोड़ा संशोधन करने की आवश्यकता है कि अगले सप्ताह का बजट रिकॉर्ड पर सबसे नीरस होना तय है।


Man found dead in Brighton city centre building named

Summary: A man whose body was found in a building in the centre of Brighton has been named as 24-year-old Billy Henham.

Mr Henham, from Henfield in West Sussex, was found in a building in North Street at 16:30 GMT on Thursday. Police say they particularly want to speak to anyone who saw him after about 18:00 on New Year's Eve. An 18-year-old man from Greenwich, a 16-year-old boy of no fixed address, and a 26-year-old man from Hove have all been arrested, Sussex Police said. Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.

एक व्यक्ति जिसका शव ब्राइटन के केंद्र में एक इमारत में मिला था, उसका नाम 24 वर्षीय बिली हेनहम है।


How can we store more energy from the sun and the wind?

Summary: It could be a scene from a science fiction movie.

By Daniel ThomasBusiness reporter Deep in the Nevada desert, thousands of mirrors arrayed in concentric circles face the sky, lit up by the sun. All this reflected sunshine is directed to the top of a 640 ft (195m) tower standing in their midst. It's an innovative power plant generating electricity, but not in a way you might expect. And it can carry on doing so even after the sun goes down. How? The concentrated light heats up liquid salt pumped to the top of the tower - the temperature reaches 566C (1,050F) - and this heat is then used to make steam to power an electricity generator in another part of the plant. "The issue with solar traditionally is it is an intermittent power source - you can only produce electricity when the sun is shining," explains Kevin Smith, whose company Solar Reserve built the Crescent Dunes plant. "But because we store the energy as heat, we can reliably produce electricity 24 hours a day, just like a conventional gas fired power station." Growing market The plant is one of a raft of sustainable energy storage solutions trying to address renewable energy's Achilles heel: its variability - ignoring tidal power's constancy. If we could store the electricity that sun and wind produce, we could tap into those stores when production dips. And this is the only way we're going to mount an effective challenge to the dominance of fossil fuels, experts say. Yes, tidal power is renewable and constant, but as yet, we haven't found commercially viable ways of tapping into it. Storage methods currently being used around the world include batteries, flywheels, geothermal plants, compressed air and hydrogen - even ice. But the the most popular method is hydro power - water pumped to the top of a mountain and then released to power turbines at the bottom. According to research company Navigant, global energy storage installations are going to rise from about 1,750 megawatts (MW) in 2016 to nearly 11,000 MW by 2020. "We are moving away from very large conventional power stations that produce electricity which is sent through the grid to consumers, to a system where power is produced in a much more distributed way," says IHS's Sam Wilkinson. "So storage is obviously a major focus, because it allows you to compensate for and correct for a lot of that fluctuating generation that comes from renewables." Power to the people Our homes are increasingly being used for energy storage as well. Tesla's Powerwall, announced earlier this year, is just one of a crop of new storage batteries designed for domestic use. The US electric car manufacturer points out that the average household uses more electricity in the morning and evening than during the day, when solar energy is plentiful. So its battery charges during the day from solar roof panels, then powers the home in the evening. "Without a home battery, excess solar energy is often sold to the power company and purchased back in the evening [at a higher price]," Tesla argues. "The mismatch adds demand on power plants and increases carbon emissions," it adds. The same principle is being applied at a new housing development in Hoog Dalem, the Netherlands - part of the Universal Smart Energy Framework project being rolled out by a consortium of companies, including ABB, IBM and Stedin. Solar-panelled homes are equipped with batteries to store the energy produced during the day for use when the sun goes down. Used in conjunction with smart meters - which help businesses and domestic users manage electricity use more efficiently - home batteries could revolutionise the way we consume energy, proponents argue. 'Three tennis courts' Larger battery plants such as Smarter Network Storage (SNS) in Leighton Buzzard, UK, are also likely to play a big role. The plant comprises 50,000 lithium-ion battery cells, across a site the size of three tennis courts. It can store enough energy to power 1,100 typical UK homes for a day during times of average demand. Nick Heyward, who manages the UK Power Networks project, explains that our electricity grids need to balance supply and demand at all times, but they are struggling to cope as more wind and solar power comes online. "One solution could be to add capacity to the existing grid, but that could be very expensive and disruptive," he says. "And then you have the problem of energy curtailment - where wind and solar plants are switched off when there isn't much demand, which is a waste." Storage systems like SNS offer the ability to export energy to the grid at times of high demand, and keep it in reserve when demand is low. Mr Heyward believes that if such plants were replicated across the UK, it could unlock more than £600m ($895m) of benefits annually by 2040. Green but unclean? But environmentalists are concerned that many of the constituents in the conventional battery, such as cobalt and nickel, are pollutants. So the race is on to find cleaner alternatives. Aquion's saltwater and manganese oxide battery is made from more sustainable materials than the typical lithium-ion battery, tolerates more charge and discharge cycles, costs less, and doesn't catch fire, the company maintains. Ambri, meanwhile, has developed a liquid metal battery, which it says is low-cost and emissions free. It also says its liquid electrodes are stronger than the solid ones found in common batteries, and thus less susceptible to failure. While such innovations may be welcome, the fact remains that the US still derives the vast majority of its electrical storage from pumped hydro - which is not one of the most efficient energy storage technologies. The number of projects in the pipeline bodes well, says the Energy Storage Association, but we are still a long way from the storage levels we need. One big impediment is regulation - or lack of it. Governments around the world are only now beginning to respond to this new energy landscape. Follow Technology of Business editor @matthew_wall on Twitter

यह किसी साइंस फिक्शन फिल्म का दृश्य हो सकता है।


Jersey airport is given listed building status

Summary: The 1937-built white arrivals building at Jersey Airport has been awarded a Grade Two heritage listing.

But the listing is at odds with the airport authorities who have applied to demolish it. They have cited a requirement to comply with current safety standards. The Planning Minister Deputy Rob Duhamel will decide on the application to demolish the building at a meeting on 24 February.

जर्सी हवाई अड्डे पर 1937 में निर्मित श्वेत आगमन भवन को श्रेणी दो विरासत सूची से सम्मानित किया गया है।


Coronavirus: UK considers virus-tracing app to ease lockdown

Summary: A coronavirus app that alerts people if they have recently been in contact with someone testing positive for the virus "could play a critical role" in limiting lockdowns, scientists advising the government have said.

By Leo KelionTechnology desk editor The location-tracking tech would enable a week's worth of manual detective work to be done in an instant, they say. But the academics say no-one should be forced to enrol - at least initially. UK health chiefs have confirmed they are exploring the idea. "NHSX is looking at whether app-based solutions might be helpful in tracking and managing coronavirus, and we have assembled expertise from inside and outside the organisation to do this as rapidly as possible," said the tech-focused division's chief Matthew Gould. Instant alerts The study by the team at the University of Oxford's Big Data Institute and Nuffield Department of Medicine was published in the journal Science. It proposes that an app would record people's GPS location data as they move about their daily lives. This would be supplemented by users scanning QR (quick response) codes posted to public amenities in places where a GPS signal is inadequate, as well as Bluetooth signals. If a person starts feeling ill, it is suggested they use the app to request a home test. And if it comes back positive for Covid-19, then an instant signal would be sent to everyone they had been in close contact with over recent days. Those people would be advised to self-isolate for a fortnight, but would not be told who had triggered the warning. In addition, the test subject's workplace and their transport providers could be told to carry out a decontamination clean-up. "The constrictions that we're currently under place [many people] under severe strain," said the paper's co-lead Prof Christophe Fraser. "Therefore if you have the ability with a bit more information and the use of an app to relax a lockdown, that could provide very substantial and direct benefits. "Also I think a substantial number of lives can be saved." To encourage take-up, it is suggested the app also acts as a hub for coronavirus-related health services and serves as a means to request food and medicine deliveries. The academics note that similar smartphone software has already been deployed in China. It was also voluntary there, but users were allowed to go into public spaces or on public transport only if they had installed it. One of the ethics specialists involved in the Oxford study said he did not think similar arrangements would be appropriate in the UK, but added that private enterprises might still impose restrictions. "My favourite restaurant might ask me to show that I was low-risk before allowing me into a crowded place, and I think that would be a perfectly reasonable price to pay for this step towards returning to normal life," Prof Michael Parker told the BBC. He added that employers might also be justified in requiring staff to use the app if they worked "in an old people's home, with vulnerable groups or [were based] in very crowded places". And while he said that the general public should not be compelled to use the app to begin with, he did not rule this out if the majority failed to do so. "The key question is - does it require everyone to do it for it to be effective?" Prof Parker explained. "It's not essential that everyone does... but perhaps a high proportion of the population needs to. "This is a really unusual situation where lives are at risk, so there is a case to be made to make at least some actions compulsory - but there would need to be a really clear case for that and careful oversight." Extended range The paper adds that the app could be updated to tackle the pandemic more aggressively if required. For example, it says, the stay-at-home alerts could be expanded to second or even third-degree contacts. And while the paper advocates the app being used in conjunction with home tests, Prof Fraser said his team was currently exploring whether it would still be effective if it relied on people using a questionnaire or 111 helpline advisers to diagnose the condition. He acknowledged some people might be wary of using the service, but hoped they would do so to "save a lot of lives". "We already have tracking apps on our phones for more trivial tasks - the reason we have live traffic information is because we allow the people that provide the mapping service to track us," he said. "What we're suggesting here is essentially sharing anonymised information [to] put to good use." We know that the UK is preparing to roll out its own contact-tracing app and this paper by scientists who are close to the government reinforces what a vital role it could play. But it also shows why it may be a while before any app is rolled out. A key part of making the process by which people are informed that they have been in contact with someone infected with Covid-19 is the availability of testing. With only 11,000 tests a day available right now, most people who installed an app might find it of little use if they developed mild symptoms of the virus. Without a confirmed diagnosis, nothing would happen. The other concern is privacy. With the government wary of being seen as Big Brother, the app would need to convince users it wouldn't allow them to be spied on for ever more. Singapore's TraceTogether, which has been praised by privacy experts for collecting a bare minimum of data, could provide a template for the NHS app. Rather than constantly tracking people, it uses Bluetooth to record your proximity to other app users so that they can be alerted if you later test positive for the virus. But while the government will almost certainly make use of the app optional, the concern is that it could become essential for anyone wanting to return to normal life. What, for instance, is to stop pubs and restaurants demanding to see evidence of your Covid status before allowing you in? When the app does emerge, there will be a major marketing exercise behind it to convince as many people as possible to install it. It will only be effective if a good proportion of the population are persuaded that it will help the UK beat the virus - and let them leave home and get back to work.

सरकार को सलाह देने वाले वैज्ञानिकों ने कहा है कि एक कोरोनावायरस ऐप जो लोगों को सचेत करता है कि क्या वे हाल ही में वायरस के लिए सकारात्मक परीक्षण करने वाले किसी व्यक्ति के संपर्क में रहे हैं, लॉकडाउन को सीमित करने में "महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका निभा सकते हैं"।


The Pi Store opens

Summary: Another landmark today for what must be one of 2012's most successful new technology products, the Raspberry Pi. You've seen Apple's App Store, Google Play and Amazon and Windows online shops for apps? Well, now there is a Pi Store .

Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter The people behind the ultra-cheap computer have decided to harness all that geek enthusiasm sparked since the Raspberry Pi's launch in February and create a one-stop shop where anyone can share games, applications and tools developed for the computer. Eben Upton, the former Cambridge computing academic who came up with the idea for an affordable device that would encourage a new generation to get coding, has just blogged about the new store. He says he hopes it "will provide young people with a way to share their creations with a wider audience, and maybe to make a little pocket money along the way". If that does happen, it will also provide useful evidence that the Raspberry Pi is reaching the audience at which it was originally targeted. Interest in the device has far exceeded expectations - the team thought originally that they might get 10,000 out this year, but I'm told more than 750,000 are now in the hands of users around the world. One user has compiled a map charting the Pi's global spread. But my suspicion is that the main buyers so far have been 40-somethings who look back with nostalgia to their teenage years messing about with a BBC Micro or a ZX Spectrum. When I spoke to Mr Upton this morning, he confirmed that this was pretty accurate - "there's a strong bias towards adults who are computer literate" - but said that was changing a bit. "Schools that are lucky enough to have an enthusiastic ICT teacher - or even a physics teacher - have been getting them." But he accepts that the Raspberry Pi foundation, having successfully launched the hardware, now needs to focus on its original educational objective. The uncased device and the lack of much educational support is intimidating for teachers who are not particularly techie. There are big plans to change that in 2013. "The intent is to have something that can go into a generic classroom environment," he said. By the time Raspberry Pi celebrates its first anniversary at the end of February, more than a million will have been sold - an amazing achievement for what has been a shoestring operation dependent on voluntary efforts and the enthusiasm of the community. The next step is to build a more professional organisation which can fulfil the original vision - to transform the way children use and understand computers.

2012 के सबसे सफल नए प्रौद्योगिकी उत्पादों में से एक के लिए आज एक और मील का पत्थर, रास्पबेरी पाई। आपने ऐप्पल के ऐप स्टोर, गूगल प्ले और अमेज़ॅन और ऐप्स के लिए विंडोज ऑनलाइन दुकानें देखी हैं? ठीक है, अब एक पाई स्टोर है।


Migrant tragedy: Anatomy of a shipwreck

Summary: An unprecedented operation by the Italian Navy is under way off the coast of Libya to recover the wreck of a migrant boat that sank in April last year - leading to the deaths of up to 700 migrants, the largest single loss of life in the Mediterranean in decades.

By Julian MiglieriniBBC News, Catania Only 28 people survived the sinking on the night of 18 April - among them, a 27 year old Tunisian man who is currently facing trial in the Sicilian port town of Catania, accused by prosecutors of being the skipper of the migrant boat and part of a network of Libyan smugglers. Mohammed Ali Malek faces charges of multiple manslaughter, human trafficking and irresponsible sailing of the boat. Prosecutors have asked for an 18-year jail sentence. In an exchange of letters with BBC News from his jail in Catania, Mohammed Ali Malek claims that he is innocent, not the captain but just another migrant who paid 2,250 Libyan dinars ($1,600) to get on the boat that would take him to Italy, where he had lived in the past. But court documents show that all the other survivors - including a Syrian man also under arrest and accused of being second-in-command - told officials that not only was Mohammed Ali Malek captain of the boat, but that his lack of sailing skills had caused the tragic collision with a Portuguese ship that had come to its rescue. Few concrete details are known about the exact dynamics of the accident - so what do we know now about how this overcrowded migrant boat ended up in the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea? The boat's journey started, like so many others, on the beaches near Garabulli, in Libya. The migrants, most of them sub-Saharan Africans fleeing from poverty and conflict in their home countries and further violence in Libya, were being held at an illegal centre near the coast. From there they were taken in small groups by dinghy to a wooden fishing boat anchored off the coast, where they amassed on the deck and inside the hull. The 27m-long (90ft) boat is thought to have been carrying more than 800 migrants. Mohammed Ali Malek was one of those operating the dinghies, survivors told Italian prosecutors. As soon as the fishing boat was packed with migrants, he took the helm and brandished a wooden stick to coerce migrants to follow his orders, they said. Distress call The boat set off at the crack of dawn on 18 April. According to the survivors, it quickly became evident that he had little experience commanding a boat. They claim he did not know how to read a compass and that he asked for help from the migrants huddled on the deck. Hasan Ksan, a Bangladeshi survivor, said that the captain had used a satellite phone several times to communicate with his colleagues back onshore in Libya - and that he was armed with a gun. The boat continued its journey for several hours - and by mid-afternoon, the captain of the boat followed what by now is the regular procedure for migrant boats making the long crossing. Once in international waters, he placed a distress call with the Italian coast guard in Rome and asked for rescue. Abdullah Ambrousi was the commander of the King Jacob, an enormous Portuguese container ship that was sailing nearby. He received a call from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome, asking him to change course and attend to the fishing boat in distress. He did, and after around two hours, the radar on his ship detected the presence of a vessel in its vicinity. But it was so small, and it was so dark, that it was impossible to see anything with the naked eye. The King Jacob started heading towards the signal and Capt Ambrousi ordered his crew to switch on one of boat's headlights. Now he could see it - a wooden, rickety and extremely overcrowded fishing boat. Inside the hull of the boat was Ousmane Gano, a 31-year old migrant from Senegal. The migrants on the upper deck of the vessel told those amassed inside that they could see "a big ship" that had come to their rescue, he explained. "They asked us not to move to keep the boat stable." Sank within minutes Capt Ambrousi told Italian investigators that he steered the King Jacob to avoid collision, but that whoever was sailing the migrant boat continued to do so erratically, as if trying to "follow" the King Jacob's sudden change of route. He then insists that he ordered his crew to switch off the King Jacob's engines to avoid a collision. But from the bridge, he saw tragedy unfolding before his eyes. The fishing boat started to sail at slow speed towards the King Jacob - but then, Capt Ambrousi said, it suddenly increased its pace. The small vessel's bow rammed the King Jacob's port side, and then its starboard side scratched against the huge merchant ship. The fishing boat manoeuvred as if sailing backwards - but started to lose balance possibly because of the agitation among the panicked migrants who could see what was happening. It started to capsize, and in less than five minutes, Capt Ambrousi told investigators, the fishing vessel had sunk. Mohammed Ali Malek's timeline of the events that night is not entirely different from what other survivors narrate - but in his account, the "role" of captain is played by "an African man" he cannot identify because "he maybe died in the sinking". He admits in his letters that the two vessels crashed into each other, although in his account it was the King Jacob that hit the small boat. And he alleges that the migrant boat lost balance because "the big blades of the propeller [of the King Jacob] created big waves that capsized our ship and we all fell into the sea". Mohammed Ali Malek sent BBC News a drawing showing his version of how events unfolded - but prosecutors in Catania have no doubt that he is to blame for the crash. His "naive, careless and negligent" sailing of the migrant boat caused the collision, reads his formal accusation, which highlights that the accounts of the crew of the King Jacob and the survivors match almost completely, and that the marks left on the King Jacob's port side also confirm this account. Mr Malek and his lawyer, Massimo Ferrante, made a formal request to include the recordings of the King Jacob's black box as evidence in the trial - the tribunal refused their request, mainly because the recording had been erased with time. Survivors, including Mr Malek, describe the complete chaos that followed the capsizing of the ship. In his letter, he told BBC News how he climbed on to fishing nets and described the scene. "From there I could see many people at sea, shouting for Allah, who sadly then died", he wrote. One of Mr Malek's letters to the BBC "I'm neither a criminal nor a murderer. I thank God that I'm alive after saving myself from death which many people on the boat faced and started reciting the Koran as they were drowning" Letter from Catania prison, May 2016 Interviewed by UK-based research group Forensic Oceanography, a Sierra Leonean survivor told how, once he was safe on the deck of the King Jacob, he could see his friends swimming for their lives, trying to hold on to ropes that had been thrown to save them. An Italian Coast Guard vessel and several other commercial ships rerouted to the scene joined the recovery effort - but only 28 people were saved. The number of dead is still uncertain - so far, 171 bodies have been recovered. Italian authorities fear that, once the wreck of the boat has been examined at port, the total death toll from the event could reach up to 700. Meanwhile, Mohammed Ali Malek awaits the next hearing of his trial in Catania. "To the relatives of the victims I would say that all the accusations against me are influenced by the statements from the other survivors," he wrote in one of his letters. He insisted that he had been accused because he was the only Tunisian on board, and that his alleged deputy Mahmud Bikhit, who is also on trial, was unfairly accusing him of being the captain. "I'm neither a criminal nor a murderer," wrote Mohammed Ali Malek. "I thank God that I'm alive after saving myself from death which many people on the boat faced and started reciting the Quran as they were drowning." Many believe that the criminal charges against him are only a part of the picture when trying to understand how such a massive loss of life could happen in the Mediterranean. In their report Death by Rescue, researchers Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani claim that the lack of a proper search and rescue operation off the coast of Libya put lives an peril - and was a crucial factor in determining the fate of the migrant boat. A few months before the accident, Italy had suspended Mare Nostrum, its wide-ranging operation in the stretch of sea between Sicily and North Africa. Operation Triton, managed by the EU's border agency Frontex, replaced it. Triton's area of coverage was much more limited in scope, which meant that commercial ships travelling in the area - like the King Jacob - were called upon more often to assist migrant boats in trouble. These merchant ships, the researchers write, were "unfit to carry out the large-scale and particularly dangerous rescue operations involving migrants", and that the burden on them was "excessive". Migrant shipwrecks Jan 2014 - April 2016 The April 2015 sinking, together with another one a few days earlier which left a smaller number of victims, marked a turning point in the EU's management of the migrant crisis. The reach of search and rescue operations was extended, while a separate mission was launched to fight smugglers at sea, with mixed results. Meanwhile, relatives of the hundreds who died that April night will find consolation in the fact that they finally may be able to bury their loved ones, thanks to Italian efforts to identify all bodies. When announcing the plan last year, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said that these people were pursuing "freedom", and giving them a proper burial was a gesture of "humanity". Web production by Christine Jeavans

पिछले साल अप्रैल में डूबने वाली एक प्रवासी नाव के मलबे को बरामद करने के लिए इतालवी नौसेना द्वारा लीबिया के तट पर एक अभूतपूर्व अभियान चल रहा है-जिसमें 700 प्रवासियों की मौत हो गई, जो भूमध्य सागर में दशकों में सबसे बड़ी एकल जानहानि है।


West Midlands Police chief constable Chris Sims reappointed

Summary: Chris Sims has been reappointed as Chief Constable of West Midlands Police for a further three years.

His re-appointment means that he will the force's top job until the end of May 2017. The decision was announced by West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Bob Jones. Mr Sims took up the post in 2009. In 2010 he received the Queen's Policing Medal for distinguished service in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. The 54-year-old, who began his policing career in 1980, said he was "delighted at this great honour". The force currently has a workforce of around 13,500 staff.

क्रिस सिम्स को अगले तीन वर्षों के लिए वेस्ट मिडलैंड्स पुलिस के मुख्य कांस्टेबल के रूप में फिर से नियुक्त किया गया है।


Guernsey pays tribute to Jewish deportees

Summary: Islanders have paid tribute to three Jewish women who died at Auschwitz after being deported from Guernsey during World War II.

The Holocaust Memorial Day service at midday marked 66 years since the camp in Poland was liberated. Held at the holocaust memorial the service remembered Marianne Grunfeld, Theresa Steiner and Auguste Spitz. Reverend Andrew Sharp, who led the service, said: "It was a sorrowful occasion in Guernsey's history." All three women were deported to France on 21 April 1942, nearly two years after Guernsey had been occupied by the German military forces.

द्वीपवासियों ने द्वितीय विश्व युद्ध के दौरान ग्वेर्नसे से निर्वासित होने के बाद ऑशविट्ज़ में मारे गए तीन यहूदी महिलाओं को श्रद्धांजलि दी है।


Gregory Campbell supports Robinson's attendance of GAA match

Summary: First Minister Peter Robinson has attended his first Gaelic football match.

The DUP leader was a guest of the Ulster Council for the final of the Dr McKenna Cup between Derry and Tyrone in Armagh on Saturday night. DUP MP Gregory Campbell welcomed the "symbolic gesture" of Mr Robinson attending the game. Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness was also at the game. Mr Robinson got a "warm reception", he said. He said that Mr Robinson's attendance was evidence of his "inclusive approach" and was "another little piece of history". "Peter got a very warm reception from everyone he met at the game. It was wonderful to have him there," Mr McGuinness added. Mr Campbell told Good Morning Ulster that he would not have accepted an invitation to attend the game but did admit the first minister going was progress. "I think these issues are more about gestures. This is about symbolism and a gesture," he said. "I think if it is offered in that context and received in that context then I would not quibble about it. "The GAA has been travelling in the right direction for some time now." 'Moving forward' But the East Londonderry MP believes there is still more work to be done by the organisation. "There are issues that are still outstanding, there are still grounds, there are still clubs named after IRA terrorists that obviously have to be changed," he said. "In a modern democracy where people are taking part in a purely sporting environment you wouldn't name your ground or a competition after, for example, one of the bombers from Gibraltar." The DUP's deputy leader Nigel Dodds said the first minister's attendance showed how Northern Ireland had progressed. "It doesn't in any way compromise Peter Robinson's political principals or the political principals of the DUP," he said. "It demonstrates a very clear message and signal to people that we are moving forward in Northern Ireland, and moving forward together." During the Troubles, many unionists mistrusted the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), which banned members of the security forces from being members. That rule was lifted 11 years ago. BBC Northern Ireland sports reporter Mark Sidebottom said that Mr Robinson had taken his seat just after the throw-in. He added that security was low-key for the first minister's visit and that his attendance caused "barely a ripple" among the crowd. Four years ago, Mr Robinson's party colleague Edwin Poots was the first DUP politician to attend a GAA game in an official capacity when he also went to a Dr McKenna Cup game. And last year, the Queen went to the headquarters of the GAA, Croke Park in Dublin, during her historic first visit to Ireland.

प्रथम मंत्री पीटर रॉबिन्सन ने अपने पहले गेलिक फुटबॉल मैच में भाग लिया है।


'Resettle in HSZ': Court

Summary: The judiciary in Sri Lanka has ordered the government to take measures to resettle thousands of displaced as a result of establishing High Security Zones (HSZ).

The Supreme Court ordered the government to initially resettle 7456 families in HSZs in Palaly after considering a petition by Jaffna district parliamentarian Mavai Senadhirajah and another displaced. However Chief Justice Sarath N Silva said it is essential that the district authorities seek advice from Defence authorities before starting resettlement. Jaffna District Secretary was advised to give priority to those who are currently in government-run refugee camps. The government representative in the district, K Ganesh, was ordered to consult the security establishment and identify suitable areas for resettlement and provide a report to the courts on 24 July. The Supreme Court added that the resettlement should be gradual process.

श्रीलंका में न्यायपालिका ने सरकार को उच्च सुरक्षा क्षेत्र (एचएसजेड) की स्थापना के परिणामस्वरूप हजारों विस्थापितों को फिर से बसाने के लिए उपाय करने का आदेश दिया है।


New steam carriage delivered to Snowdon Mountain Railway

Summary: A new £150,000 steam carriage has been lifted into place by crane at Snowdon Mountain Railway.

The Mountain Goat, which is based on one of the original chassis from 1895, was delivered to Gwynedd from Derbyshire where it was built. It follows the Snowdon Lily, a similar carriage which was introduced in 2013. The Mountain Goat arrived at Llanberis station on Wednesday morning.

स्नोडन माउंटेन रेलवे में क्रेन द्वारा एक नई 150,000 पाउंड की भाप गाड़ी को उठाया गया है।


Belladrum: 'How we grew a music festival in the Highlands'

Summary: Over the last 15 years, Belladrum has grown from a small one-day event to become one of Scotland's biggest music festivals. Other festivals have fallen by the wayside in recent years - so why has this Highland gathering thrived?

The Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival was the brainchild of Joe Gibbs, the owner of the Belladrum Estate near Beauly. It started small in 2004 as a one-day event with tickets for just 2,000 people. "When Joe asked me about starting a festival I said it would never work," says Pete Campbell, who has been a member of the organising team since day one. But the first festival exceeded expectations. It was a sell-out. "That was quite an achievement for a first-time event in the Highlands," says Rob Ellen, who has helped with booking acts and publicising Belladrum since 2004. "I don't think it had ever been done before." Bella, as the festival is affectionately known, continued to be run as a small festival in the following years. It then moved to a two-day format, and became a three-day event in 2015. This year's festival, which gets under way on Thursday, will attract a 20,000-capacity crowd, about 14,000 of whom will be camping. But as Bella has grown, some other Scottish festivals have struggled in recent years. This year Electric Fields tried to switch from a rural location in southern Scotland to Glasgow, before being cancelled. The organisers of T in the Park admitted this year that it had "run its course", with their focus now on the TRNSMT event in Glasgow. It also attracts big-name acts over a three-day festival, but without the camping element of T in the Park. In the Highlands, RockNess last took place in 2013 and Loopallu will take place for the last time later this year. Joe Gibbs said there had been occasions when he feared that Belladrum might not make it. "There were many times in the first five years when we were physically and mentally exhausted, pushing hard to make it work," he says. "There were times we were terrified of losing a lot of money." It had been a huge challenge competing for acts with bigger festivals backed by multinational companies. "But over the years we have built up a reputation and there are acts that come to us now asking to be on the line-up," he says. "Running a festival is like growing an oak tree. "Oak trees take a long time to grow, but their roots are deep. Bella's foundations are secure." Event manager Lesley Strang, who has worked at the festival since year one, says the secret of its success is that organisers never forget the core audience - those who live in the Highlands. "Bella's tag line is 'Homegrown in the Highlands'," she says. "It's got a Highland attitude - a bit laid back and not corporate. "We benefit from having a core audience. These are people who came in the early years when they were in their 20s and are now in their 30s and coming here with their own young families." Dougie Brown attended the first Belladrum in 2004 when he was in his 20s and was looking for something new. The following year he got a job in the festival's box office handing out wristbands, and has worked his way up to become event producer. Bella is ingrained in Dougie's life. He married wife Liz at the festival's Temple building and their children, Louis and Faye, have grown up with the event. New generations have also joined the "family" which is involved in running the festival. Andy Venters, who has worked at the festival since 2006, says: "My favourite thing about Bella is seeing my three boys, who came with me as kids to help in the early years, become part of the site team in their own right." Amy Atkinson, who worked at her first Bella in 2006, now takes holidays from her day job to work as the festival's artist liaison manager. "We have each grown with the festival, and the festival has grown with us," she says. Last year, music promoter Kilimanjaro Group bought over Belladrum. It had previously been involved with booking headline acts over the previous decade. Boss Stuart Galbraith says: "The festival has a very broad appeal with everything from children's entertainment through to late night drum and bass. "We just like what Joe and the team have been evolving, and that is a perfect festival run by Highlanders for Highlanders." There will be live coverage of Belladrum on BBC ALBA, hosted by presenters Fiona MacKenzie and Niall Iain MacDonald, from Thursday. Festival highlights will be available on the BBC Scotland channel on Friday and Saturday nights, and on the iPlayer.

पिछले 15 वर्षों में, बेलाड्रम एक छोटे से एक दिवसीय कार्यक्रम से स्कॉटलैंड के सबसे बड़े संगीत समारोहों में से एक बन गया है। हाल के वर्षों में अन्य त्योहारों में गिरावट आई है-तो यह हाईलैंड सभा क्यों पनपी है?


Cave rescue: The dramatic mission to save boys in pictures

Summary: It was the good news the world had been waiting for: the first of the boys trapped in a cave in Thailand had been brought to safety.

The operation to save the children and their football coach from the flooded cave began on Sunday, with four members rescued and taken to hospital. On Monday, the operation to free the remaining nine will resume. Here are some pictures of the dramatic mission captivating Thailand and the world.

यह एक अच्छी खबर थी जिसका दुनिया इंतजार कर रही थीः थाईलैंड की एक गुफा में फंसे लड़कों में से पहले लड़के को सुरक्षित लाया गया था।


The candid moments caught in the ladies' loos

Summary: It's a well-known fact that women take longer in public toilets than men. It's partly because it is more than just a place to use the loo - it is often where women chat, bond, fix their make-up and their problems.

By Julia BrysonBBC News Samantha Jagger has been documenting these candid moments between friends and strangers for almost 10 years. Instead of staging "Insta-perfect" shots, she uses a battered 35mm point-and-shoot camera small enough to fit in her handbag. Her photographs, taken chiefly in toilets in pubs and clubs in Manchester and Leeds, are about to go on show as part of an exhibition called Loosen Up. "I've been taking photos on film since I was in my teens, but it wasn't until last year when I was looking through them I realised how many are snapped in loos," says Samantha, 25. "It got me thinking about gaggles of girls coming together in toilets - breaking up, making up, gearing up. It all happens in that space and I find it completely fascinating. "It's this I wanted to capture and tell different stories about my friends' escapades." In that time, freelance journalist Samantha has seen "shoulders getting wet from tears, the dumping of girls and guys, pep talks, sympathy smiles, knickers in bins and flooded sinks". "One of my favourite memories was walking out of a loo and a girl was stood on her own making her face move around with with the [air from the] hand drier. "She thought she was alone so she jumped out of her skin. We had a right laugh and became mates." Audio recordings will be played at the exhibition of some of the women involved, in which they share their stories of what happened within the four walls of the WC. One is Charly Downes, 25, from Birmingham, who was photographed with her head over the toilet on a night out in January. You might also be interested in What I learned when I stopped shaving 'I tattooed my face so I couldn't get a normal job' Landing a Specials gig from a viral photo "I was with a friend of Sam's called Hamble, it was only the second time I'd met her. "I had a few too many to drink and as [girls] do, you take you trip to the toilet together, and Hamble held my hair back while I was being sick." Samantha, who is originally from York and now lives in Manchester, said she likes the medium of film because it's "raw". "In a world where editing and filtering your life is rife, I snap that moment and that's it. "It's become a weirdly integral part of my nights out now. My mates roll their eyes now when I go in armed with a camera. "When I say I'm doing a project about toilets to people I don't know, there's usually a long pause. Then I explain the concept and I'm grateful to say people have been on board with the idea. "There have been some photographs I'm going to have to see about putting in the exhibition… I'll see if I'm allowed." Loosen Up will be held at The Brickworks at Barton Arcade Basement, Manchester, from May.

यह एक सर्वविदित तथ्य है कि महिलाओं को सार्वजनिक शौचालयों में पुरुषों की तुलना में अधिक समय लगता है। यह आंशिक रूप से इसलिए है क्योंकि यह केवल शौचालय का उपयोग करने के लिए एक जगह से अधिक है-यह अक्सर वह जगह है जहाँ महिलाएं बातचीत करती हैं, बंधन बनाती हैं, अपना मेकअप और अपनी समस्याओं को ठीक करती हैं।