Belgium divided on euthanasia for children

Summary: Belgium legalised the right to euthanasia for adults in 2002. Now the Senate has voted to extend the law to children who are terminally ill, and suffering unbearable physical pain. Supporters believe this would be a logical move. Opponents say it is insanity.

By Linda PresslyBBC Radio 4, Belgium An incurably sick child, a request to die, a lethal injection. For many people this is an unimaginable, nightmare scenario. Most of us will not experience the cruel reality of seeing a child's health deteriorate as a result of a terminal illness. But some Belgian paediatricians who have say children should be allowed to ask to end their lives, if they cannot be relieved of their physical symptoms. "Rarely - but it happens - there are children we try to treat but there is nothing we can do to make them better. Those children must have the right to decide about their own end of life," says Dr Gerlant van Berlaer, a paediatrician at UZ Hospital Brussels. He and 16 other Belgian paediatricians signed an open letter in November petitioning senators to vote for the child euthanasia bill. "We are not playing God - these are lives that will end anyway," argues Van Berlaer. "Their natural end might be miserable or very painful or horrifying, and they might have seen a lot of friends in institutions or hospitals die of the same disease. And if they say, 'I don't want to die this way, I want to do it my way,' and that is the only thing we can do for them as doctors, I think we should be able to do it." Under the draft bill, passed in the Senate last month by 50 votes to 17, children must understand what euthanasia is, and their parents and medical teams have to approve the child's request to die. In the Netherlands, Belgium's northern neighbour, euthanasia is legal for children over the age of 12, if they have the consent of their parents. But if the Belgian bill is passed in the lower house of parliament, Belgium will be the first nation in the world to lift all age restrictions. Philippe Mahoux, leader of the Socialist group in the Senate and sponsor of the bill, has described it as "the ultimate gesture of humanity". "The scandal is that children will die from disease," he says. "The scandal is not to try and avoid the pain of the children in that situation." A senator who voted against the bill, Christian Democrat Els Van Hoof, thinks it is based on a misplaced idea of self-determination - that everyone has the right to make decisions not only about how they live, but also about how they die. She disagrees, and fought successfully, with a group of other senators, to restrict the scope of the bill to children with terminal illness suffering unbearable physical pain. "In the beginning they presented a law that included mentally ill children," she says. "During the debate, supporters of euthanasia talked about children with anorexia, children who are tired of life - so how far does it go?" In the case of adult euthanasia, she fears a "slippery slope" is already in evidence. The 2002 law governing euthanasia allows adults to choose to end their lives, if they: But two cases of euthanasia that hit the headlines in Belgium and internationally in 2013 left Van Hoof deeply troubled. In January, the press reported on the deaths of identical twins of 45 who were deaf. Marc and Eddy Verbessem asked for euthanasia after finding out that they would go blind as a result of a genetic disorder - they feared they would no longer be able to live independently. The death of Nathan Verhelst, a female-to-male transsexual, came nine months later. He asked to die after a series of failed sex-change operations. Els Van Hoof has been advised by a lawyer that the twins probably did meet the criteria, as they had a serious illness. But the case of Nathan Verhelst still worries her. It was Dr Wim Distelmans, an oncologist and palliative care specialist and professor at Brussels university VUB, who sanctioned the euthanasia of all three, on the grounds of psychological suffering. He is also the co-chair of the Euthanasia Commission, a panel of doctors, lawyers and interested parties that oversees the law - which, critics note, has not asked prosecutors to examine any of the 6,945 registered deaths by euthanasia in Belgium between 2002 and 2012. All cases are deemed to have been carried out within the law. On 20 April 2012, Tom Mortier, a chemistry lecturer, got a message to call a Brussels hospital. His mother was dead. Godelieva De Troyer was 64 and had been suffering from depression. She had sent her son an email three months before she died telling him she had asked for euthanasia, but he did not think doctors would allow it. He is enraged. He does not accept the argument that his mother had a "right to die". "From my perspective this is not a law for patients, it's a law for doctors so they won't be prosecuted," Mortier says. "Performing euthanasia is unethical. It's killing your patients, and now they're promoting it as the ultimate form of love. What have we become here in Belgium? I don't understand it…" And his reaction to the Senate vote on children and euthanasia? "It's insanity." Dr Marleen Renard, an oncologist responsible for paediatric palliative care at the University Hospital of Leuven, believes there is no need to legislate for child euthanasia, as there are already ways to end the suffering of a dying child. "If we can't treat the pain, then we can sedate children. And if we see that the situation is really inhumane, we can go to our Ethics Committee and ask for permission to end life. But we have to have the consensus of a lot of people to do that." For Renard, the critical point is that in her experience, children do not ask to die. "I've seen a lot of young adolescents with very severe pain and symptoms. They always had some hope for the next day. I've never had one who told me, 'I can't do it any more, please stop it.' They don't want to die. They want to live." But Dr Gerlant van Berlaer thinks that perhaps children do not ask to die because it is not legal. "Whenever a child dies in hospital, the other children will talk among themselves," he says. "Often a child will not talk to you directly, but the other children will say, 'We have been discussing it and some of us think we should end our lives another way, different to the way we've seen our friends die.' Once the law changes, they will be able to ask us directly." Are children really mature enough to make an end-of-life decision? Van Berlaer believes the experience of terminally ill children who spend most of their time with adults often makes them old beyond their years. Feike van den Oever, a volunteer on the children's oncology ward at the University Hospital of Leuven, agrees children gain maturity when seriously ill. His son Laurens was eight when he died of cancer. "From the conversations we had with him, you could see how a child starts thinking in a way that is not proper for his age," he says. "Children try to understand what is going on. Does that mean they gain competence to decide or request that kind of solution [euthanasia]? No. Not in my view." No-one can tell how many children might ask to die if Belgium's euthanasia bill for children becomes law. For adults, the number of requests has increased year on year since 2002. About 80% of those who choose euthanasia have cancer. "Those cancer patients who die of euthanasia, statistically as a group, live longer than those who die naturally," says Dr Jan Bernheim one of Belgium's early advocates for euthanasia, a pioneer of palliative care, and an oncologist. "Why? Because when it's been agreed that he or she will be able to ask for euthanasia, that reassures people. They know they are going to die well." Spared this anxiety, he says, their illness tends to proceed less quickly. Bernheim supports the move to extend the right to die to children, and has administered lethal injections to adult patients who asked for euthanasia. "Suffering trumps all other considerations," he says. "And the way these people die is very ceremonial, and often has some emotional beauty. Whereas, the patient who dies after two or three days of rattling, twitching and grunting, that's terrible…" The death of a child is a tragedy. But should Belgian children have the right to ask to end their lives? Parliament is expected to decide early this year. Linda Pressly's report on the right-to-die debate can be heard on BBC Radio 4 at 20:00 on Thursday, or afterwards on the iPlayer Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

बेल्जियम ने 2002 में वयस्कों के लिए इच्छामृत्यु के अधिकार को वैध बना दिया। अब सीनेट ने उन बच्चों के लिए कानून का विस्तार करने के लिए मतदान किया है जो अंतिम रूप से बीमार हैं, और असहनीय शारीरिक दर्द से पीड़ित हैं। समर्थकों का मानना है कि यह एक तार्किक कदम होगा। विरोधियों का कहना है कि यह पागलपन है।


Man charged with murder after body found in Bolton

Summary: A man has been charged with murdering a 29-year-old woman who went missing a week ago.

Maggie Smythe was last seen at her Bolton home on 26 January, Greater Manchester Police said. Detectives believe they found her body nearby on Friday but formal identification is yet to take place. Christopher Taylor, 39, of Greenroyd Avenue, Bolton, has been charged with her murder. He is due to appear at Bolton Magistrates' Court on Monday. A 29-year-old man who was also arrested on suspicion of murder has been released while inquiries continue.

एक आदमी पर एक सप्ताह पहले लापता हुई 29 वर्षीय महिला की हत्या का आरोप लगाया गया है।


Is there such a thing as 'the world's best chef'?

Summary: Last week the death of chef Benoit Violier was widely reported - and in many headlines he was hailed as the "world's best chef", his restaurant as "the best in the world". But there is no agreement on how to rank chefs and restaurants and the award of "best" titles is a matter of hot dispute.

By Hannah SanderBBC News In the past it used to be very simple. First came intense training to master French haute cuisine techniques, then a series of apprenticeships in Paris under the world's best chefs, all of whom were themselves classically trained. Finally, a chef was ready to add a personal touch to the French repertoire and launch a new restaurant under his or her own name. The world's culinary aristocracy was then recorded in the Michelin Guide, with the best restaurants earning one, two, or exceptionally three stars. Today, only 26 of the world's 111 three-star restaurants are in France - which shows how much the rest of the world has come on, in the opinion of Michelin's secret army of gourmet inspectors - but France still leads the field by a long way. Except that in 2002 a British magazine, Restaurant, introduced a new measure of success - the World's 50 Best Restaurants. This ranks restaurants in order, something Michelin never attempted, and it quickly became enormously influential. When Denmark's Noma was named number one restaurant in the world in 2011, it received 1,000 reservation requests within a few hours. Last year's number one restaurant - El Celler de Can Roca in Spain - hired staff simply to turn down reservations. But, controversially, in the 13-year history of the competition, a French restaurant has never been placed first or second, and last year no French restaurants even made it into the top 10. "Classical food is ignored by those on the panel. It is obvious that they prefer trendy modernist cooking," says restaurant critic Andy Hayler. "They tend to get very excited about the latest fad or the latest fashion. There are no classical restaurants near the top of the list." Certainly, the restaurants most feted by the 50 Best tend to have strayed a long way from many French haute cuisine traditions. "At Noma in Copenhagen my prep involved a ridiculous amount of precise carrot whittling, plus making emulsions out of freshly cut grass, and the dreaded 'veal fibres' (separating individual fibres of cooked veal)," says Sam Bray, who has worked in top restaurants around the world. Another task involved "keeping the moss plates alive", and going deep into the woods to collect rare moss. Some young chefs had to look under rocks for ants, Bray says, and then smear themselves with honey until the insects were running all over the bodies and could be scraped into barrels. This allowed the restaurant to serve live ants on top of beef tartare, jumbo shrimps or a dollop of creme fraiche. The 50 Best has also saluted restaurants such as Central in Peru, number four on this year's list, where head chef Virgilio Martinez divides his menu into categories based on the altitude at which food has been grown. One dish is a caviar-like bacterium found only in Peruvian mountains after rain. Then there is D.O.M. in Sao Paolo, where celebrity chef Alex Atala disappears into the Amazon in search of ingredients such as priprioca root, long thought inedible and used to make cosmetics rather than food. If France dominates the world of Michelin three-star restaurants, Spain ranked in 2015 as the culinary powerhouse of the 50 Best, with seven restaurants on the list - more than any other country. So by what measure was Benoit Violier reckoned to be the best chef in the world? His Restaurant de l'Hotel de Ville Crissier has not featured in the 50 Best list for the last three years and achieved its highest ranking in 2010, at number 14. Enter the "objectively delicious, deliciously objective" La Liste - supported by France's tourism board and launched in 2015, it was widely assumed, as a French riposte to the 50 Best. The annual unveiling of the new French Michelin Guide has been hosted by the French Foreign Ministry for the last two years - part of a French government bid to preserve the country's position as the world's culinary capital, and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was also on hand present the awards at the La Liste ceremony in December. Restaurants from 48 countries were considered and the La Liste panel warned French chefs that there would be no patriotic bias. Nevertheless, the highest accolade went to the French-born Violier and his restaurant near Lausanne. There is some overlap between the French view of the world and that of the 50 Best. Twenty of the world's 111 Michelin three-star restaurants appear in 2015's 50 Best (and five make it into the top 10). By the same token, 91 three-starred restaurants do not make it into the 50 Best. There has been some animosity. Three French food writers started a petition called "Occupy 50 Best", reeling off a series of complaints about the voting system. This was signed by a number of star French chefs, such as Joel Robuchon of L'Atelier Saint Germain de Joel Robuchon, who boycotted last year's 50 Best awards ceremony. Perhaps friction is inevitable when one restaurant is ranked against another, and one country's cuisine appears to be valued more or less highly than another's. William Sitwell, editor of the Waitrose Good Food Magazine, thinks the whole idea of a world's best restaurant is ludicrous. "Best restaurant for whom? On what criteria?" he asks. "I don't think you can have a single 'best' place." There is also a fine line, he says, between the best and the worst, as "the concept encourages a certain type of restaurateur to overcomplicate and overcharge the customer". Some might argue that most of the "best" restaurants overcomplicate and overcharge. As it's often been said, there is no accounting for taste. How the rankings work World's 50 Best: Michelin Guide: La Liste: Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

पिछले सप्ताह शेफ बेनोइट वायलियर की मृत्यु की व्यापक रूप से सूचना दी गई थी-और कई सुर्खियों में उन्हें "दुनिया के सर्वश्रेष्ठ शेफ" के रूप में सराहा गया था, उनके रेस्तरां को "दुनिया में सर्वश्रेष्ठ" के रूप में सराहा गया था। लेकिन शेफ और रेस्तरां को कैसे रैंक दिया जाए इस पर कोई सहमति नहीं है और "सर्वश्रेष्ठ" खिताब का पुरस्कार गर्म विवाद का विषय है।


Light aircraft made emergency landing at Jersey airport

Summary: A light aircraft flying from Alderney to Jersey had to make an emergency landing on Thursday.

The pilot reported an undercarriage fault at 1705 GMT on Thursday, 24 February. The emergency services were called to the scene but the aircraft landed safely and taxied off the runway. There were no injuries to the pilot or passenger on board the aircraft and Jersey's airport and runway remained open throughout.

एल्डर्नी से जर्सी के लिए उड़ान भरने वाले एक हल्के विमान को गुरुवार को आपातकालीन लैंडिंग करनी पड़ी।


Rapid diagnostic test promises end to leprosy torment

Summary: Leprosy is one of the classic scourges of ancient times. But it's far from being consigned to history - with over 200,000 new cases reported each year. Although it's easily treated with antibiotics, people living in remote communities often go undiagnosed and are left with permanent damage. Now a new, cheap test - "the cost of one ice-cream" - could help doctors to stop the disease in its tracks.

Celio Marques was 16 years old when he first noticed pain and weakness in his hands and feet. He was showing the early signs of leprosy but was treated for rheumatism for three years, allowing the disease to spread. When the correct diagnosis finally came at the age of 20, Marques thought his life was over. "Back then, the doctor told me - you have a disease that kills, that makes your limbs fall off. You have to go away. I was desperate and tried to kill myself. But then I learned what the disease really is and how to treat it." Thirty years have passed and Mr Marques, who lives in Rio de Janeiro, is fully cured of the disease. But he's had to learn to live with the damage caused by the late diagnosis. His fingers are permanently bent inwards and he has reduced movement in his hands and feet. He lost his eyebrows and his ears are swollen. Early diagnosis would have brought a very different outcome. A modern day problem After India, Brazil has the second highest number of leprosy infections in the world, accounting for 90% of cases in Latin America. Dr Francisco Reis Viana, who has been treating leprosy at the Curupaiti Hospital in Rio for the past 30 years, says that finding all of those infected is still a huge challenge. "The situation in Brazil is grave. The country has 30,000 new cases each year and it's difficult to contain because the disease is spread out and it's hard to diagnose and treat everyone," he told BBC reporter Julia Carneiro. "Because of the long incubation period, people can transmit the disease to others for years before knowing they have it." As most of the infections happen in poor and often remote areas, the task of spotting and treating the disease early becomes even harder. But now there's new hope for diagnosing leprosy before it infects others and causes physical damage. A laboratory in Rio, OrangeLife, has just introduced a test - similar to a pregnancy test - that uses a drop of blood to diagnose leprosy in around 10 minutes. Marco Collovati, president of OrangeLife, says each test will cost less than a dollar - "just the cost of one ice-cream": "The rapid test allows us to detect the disease early, before the patient has lesions to the nerves and deformations," he says. "This is a real revolution after more than 3,000 years of a disease which has caused so much stigma, suffering and prejudice." New test looks promising Collovati says the rapid test is easy to use in the field and has "huge potential" to reach remote areas where getting a diagnosis is currently very difficult. "It can be taken anywhere. It doesn't need to be refrigerated and can be used by any health agent with very basic training. All it takes a prick to the finger," he says. The test - half the size of a credit card - takes one drop of blood and a reactive strip inside detects antibodies produced against the infection. Just like a pregnancy test, it is two lines for a positive result and one line if it is negative. With an accuracy of approximately 90%, it will detect most cases of early-stage leprosy. For the remaining 10%, says Mr Collovati, patients produce too few antibodies to be detected. The Brazilian government is going to test the product in two of the worst affected parts of the country later this year, before adopting it more widely. Celio Marques, whose life was changed so radically by leprosy, is hopeful that the new test will help others find treatment without the suffering and damage he has had to endure. Five years after his diagnosis he discovered he had been fired from his job in construction - regarded as an invalid. He then met people suffering from similar problems at an organisation in Rio which helps people with leprosy. Today, he does voluntary work there, helping other people understand what the disease is and how to treat it. "Treating the disease today is easy. The problem is when it causes damage. If I could have known about it earlier, I wouldn't have these marks," he says. Leprosy is a disease that has terrified people since biblical times - the hope now is to make it a thing of the past.

कुष्ठ रोग प्राचीन काल के उत्कृष्ट रोगों में से एक है। लेकिन यह इतिहास में दर्ज होने से बहुत दूर है-हर साल 200,000 से अधिक नए मामले सामने आते हैं। हालांकि इसका आसानी से एंटीबायोटिक दवाओं से इलाज किया जाता है, लेकिन दूरदराज के समुदायों में रहने वाले लोगों को अक्सर निदान नहीं किया जाता है और उन्हें स्थायी नुकसान होता है। अब एक नया, सस्ता परीक्षण-"एक आइसक्रीम की कीमत"-डॉक्टरों को बीमारी को रोकने में मदद कर सकता है।


Romford death: Teen guilty over Jordan Douherty murder

Summary: A 17-year-old boy has been found guilty of the murder of a 15-year-old drill rapper.

Jordan Douherty, from Grays, Essex, was beaten and stabbed during three separate attacks outside Clockhouse Community Centre in Romford after leaving a birthday party on 23 June. He died of a stab wound to the heart. Two other boys, aged 16 and 17, were found guilty of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm. Sentencing will take place in 2019.

एक 17 वर्षीय लड़के को 15 वर्षीय ड्रिल रैपर की हत्या का दोषी पाया गया है।


Sali Hughes: I met the woman who trolled me online

Summary: A few weeks ago, in a chilly London plaza, I met a woman called Becky*. The smart, affluent-looking, 30-something mum smiled warmly as she approached me. We'd never met before. But until fairly recently, Becky had been trolling me online.

By Sali HughesJournalist & broadcaster Imagine if a group of strangers spent up to 16 hours a day feasting over nasty and imagined details about your personal life and family, telling livelihood-endangering lies about your job. That happened, and still happens, to me and many others on what's known as a "dragging" or "trashing" site. If you search my name you'll find I'm a journalist. You'll see my posts about beauty and lifestyle all over Twitter and Instagram. But when Becky searched my name, alongside a cosmetic procedure, a link to the "trashing" site had come up as a result. The lies about my personal and professional life spanned pages; talking about my children, my marriage and my mother who'd recently died of cancer. False rumours and hurtful insults The site is an online forum, dedicated to trashing the lives and reputations of people with a social media presence. About a year ago, the insults, hurtful conspiracy theories and speculation migrated from that forum to a beauty industry gossip site. A false rumour appeared, albeit briefly, suggesting that I had an undeclared financial relationship with a major brand. I decided I had to act. I posted a video on Instagram, talking about the ceaseless trolling I - along with many others - had received on the site, how it threatened my livelihood, affected my mental health and hurt deeply those I love. Having watched that video, Becky stopped posting. A few months later, she wrote to me. And that eventually led us to meet, shivering, outside a cafe in Victoria, where she had agreed to be interviewed for an edition of File on 4 I was making about my experience of online abuse. In her email to me, Becky had acknowledged there was "a lot of projection going on". And when we met, she spoke about how issues in her personal life had fed into what she wrote. "I think what you see of influencers, people on the internet, media personalities is potentially only 40 seconds of content a day. It's very easy to fill in with your own narrative. "For me specifically, I can say 100% what was going on in my own life is reflected in what I posted… it was nothing really to do with the content creator. It was what I filled in." But while my name may have been on the posts, were the contributors like Becky really talking about me? The Sali Hughes that was being denigrated there was not one I would recognise. Scant facts would be extrapolated into large fictions. Competition to come up with the juiciest speculation would lead to nonsense being accepted as fact, then more speculation built on top of that, until the person at the centre of the abuse seemed to be a fictional character with my name. Impossible to win When I met Becky outside the cafe I could tell we both felt nervous, and her voice broke as she told me she's a "normal person". "I am. I'm a nice mum. I'm a good friend," she insisted. "I've been back to what I wrote, it was so nasty and I thought: how was I so blind to how thoroughly unpleasant I was being? Just knowing that I was any way involved makes me feel really upset at the thought of that." One of the most upsetting aspects is that once targeted, it is impossible to not be found wanting - it simply isn't possible to win. Put your kids in social media posts and you're exploiting them and invading their privacy. Choose not to, as I do, and you're clearly never with them, always palming them off on others, marrying the love of your life merely to nab a free nanny. Post too often and you're a narcissist, post too little and you're lazy. Ignoring allegations is to tacitly plead guilty and put an entire career at risk, confronting them head on is to amplify them, play for attention and waste your time "when you should be looking after your kids" (one of their comments on my Instagram at the time). Part of the problem with getting trolls to understand the impact of their abuse is often they convince themselves - and each other - that they're the good guys, cutting through dishonest posts with the sword of truth. "Oh, absolutely 100%," says Becky. "I think, you know, particularly with (commercial) partnerships, people are there saying: oh, you know, people are getting paid tons of money behind the scenes, not declaring ads properly." There's a strict code of conduct and failing to declare paid-for posts online is something that needs to be effectively policed. But that's the job of the Advertising Standards Authority - to whom anyone can report behaviour that breaks the rules - and there's a process in place that gives those accused a right of reply. After I made my video, I received dozens of messages from people telling me they were now on medication or in therapy as a result of the treatment they'd received on the same site. Somebody else told me they'd developed agoraphobia, another that she'd even had suicidal thoughts. Paranoia is evidently a common effect in victims, thanks to the anonymity afforded to online trolls. I found myself feeling scared to go out because I didn't know who might be watching me. Despite it all, I respected Becky's bravery and honesty in speaking to me. But if we're speaking of honesty, the truth is my sympathy was limited. Because Becky, albeit having escaped the world of online abuse that had sucked her in, still represented to me something deeply painful, unfair and ultimately mystifying. Why would people devote so much of their time insulting and lying about someone they don't even know? If they don't like me - which of course is absolutely fine - why didn't they just unfollow me? "It was a way of me trying to solve my own problems," reflected Becky. "It's actually nothing to do with you." Before leaving, she shrugged and added: "It doesn't make sense to me either". Sali's story is on File on 4, Tuesday 6 October 2000 BST on BBC Radio 4 and afterwards on BBC Sounds. *real name has been changed.

कुछ हफ्ते पहले, लंदन के एक ठंडे प्लाजा में, मैं बेकी * नामक एक महिला से मिला था। होशियार, संपन्न दिखने वाली, 30-कुछ माँ गर्मजोशी से मुस्कुरा रही थी क्योंकि वह मेरे पास आई थी। हम पहले कभी नहीं मिले थे। लेकिन हाल ही में, बेकी मुझे ऑनलाइन ट्रॉल कर रही थी।


Philippines Troll Patrol: The woman taking on trolls on their own turf

Summary: The Philippines is playing a key role in the wave of disinformation sweeping the world. So-called troll farms are being used to create multiple fake social media accounts that post political propaganda and attack critics. But a group of people calling themselves the Troll Patrol are trying to use their own tactics against them, as the BBC's Howard Johnson reports.

In 2016, Gina - not her real name - and others, watched with alarm as a group of Catholic schoolgirls in the Philippines came under attack from online trolls. The girls had been filmed and photographed standing on a street in the capital Manila in their uniforms, chanting: "Marcos is no hero! Marcos is no hero!" They were angry that former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos had just been buried in a nearby hero's cemetery with military honours. In the 21 years he ruled, billions of dollars of public money went missing while thousands were arrested and tortured for opposing his regime. But his family have remained both politically influential and popular and are closely aligned to the current President Rodrigo Duterte. Within hours of the photos being posted on the school's Facebook page, and then widely reshared, comments began to appear defending the Marcos legacy and attacking the girls' actions. Some of them were from genuine accounts, but many were from pro-government trolls using fake accounts. "If Marcos is no hero, I would say most of you are no virgins and that's the trend of young girls nowadays," said one. There were also rape threats. "We're talking about kids here. Nobody was doing anything about it," says Gina. "We realised that we should beat them at their own game." Gina and a group of equally-concerned individuals, who would go on to be known as the "Troll Patrol", took action. Much like the trolls, the group began creating fake Facebook accounts - Facebook doesn't require photo ID proof of identity - so they could defend the girls without risking personal attacks themselves. They created scores of accounts whose posts were designed to counter the narrative of the online pro-government bullies through logic and reasoning. Night-after-night the group would log into Facebook scanning for threatening posts or abusive behaviour and begin posting their counter-comments. "We realised that if [opponents] feel that you are part of the group that actually opposes the views of government, people would never listen to you," says Gina. "You have to make them feel that you are actually part of their circle who just happened to have a change of opinion. You can educate the people and at the same time you can say whatever you wanted to be able to protect the people who were being cyber-bullied." Within a week the controversy over the protest began to die down, but the problem of trolling has far from gone away in the Philippines. And it's not just used to support President Duterte and those aligned with him, it's also used to silence critics. Journalists, human rights defenders and politicians have all reported receiving systematic abuse and death threats. I too have received threats online for my reporting, saying I would be "hunted down" and "beaten". One comment read "watch your back", accompanied by a skull and crossbones emoji. Many of the most ardent trolls are supporters of the president - they call themselves DDS (Diehard Duterte Supporters), a play on the lettering of the Davao Death Squad, an execution squad, which according to the United Nations, killed more than 1,000 people in the city in the southern Philippines while Duterte was its mayor. Mr Duterte has even admitted paying people to promote him or defend him on social media, though he insisted he only did so during his successful 2016 election campaign. According to Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) undersecretary Jose Joel Sy Egco, the government has never used paid-for "keyboard warriors" to attack critics while Mr Duterte has been in office. Mr Egco told the BBC that online troll threats come from a "myriad of sources", which could include "somebody's neighbours" to "any local official you had a brush with recently". There have been reports in the Philippine media about "troll farms" - centres where people are allegedly paid to write abusive comments on peoples' social media accounts. I asked Mr Egco what the government had done to investigate these claims: "If you're asking us, if you're asking me as a government official here, I am definitely against any such practice, if there's any at all." I hadn't asked Mr Egco if the government was behind the troll farms, but he went on to elaborate: "In government, we are very diligent in spending our budget and we don't have budgets for those kind of things. Maybe some people did that in the past and maybe some people are still doing it right now, but definitely I tell you, in all honesty, and I swear to God, I myself do not believe in such." Mr Egco said that his team had received "a lot of complaints" by media workers about cyber-harassment and cyber-bullying and that the department had investigated the cases but had run into a brick-wall when social media companies refused to disclose information on the people posting the comments. Facebook wouldn't confirm whether it had any plans to make it harder for people to set up fake accounts, but a spokesperson said the company was "committed to removing content that violates our policies, disrupting coordinated inauthentic networks, and limiting the spread of misinformation". This week the company took down two networks based in the Philippines and China for violating their policy on "foreign or government interference." The networks, which included more than 200 accounts, targeted Filipino Facebook users with, among other things, content supportive of President Rodrigo Duterte. Despite the online abuse, I have never been threatened in real life in the Philippines. But online troll behaviour can precede deadly outcomes. Recently two human rights defenders, who had been repeatedly trolled and threatened online were killed within a week of each other. On 10 August, unidentified assailants killed peasant leader Randall Echanis, 72, inside his home in Quezon City, in Metro Manila. Then on August 17 unidentified gunmen fatally shot Zara Alvarez, a legal worker for the human rights group Karapatan. The group says 13 of their activists have been killed in the past four years. Within minutes of Ms Alvarez's killing, another member of Karapatan, Clarizza Singson, received a message on Facebook warning that she "would be next." The group say they are the repeated targets of "red-tagging," in which the authorities and online trolls label them as Communists, linking them to the country's decades-old Communist insurgency. And rights groups fear a newly passed Anti-Terrorism Act could weaponise the troll's posts. The law allows for the detention of 'terrorist' suspects for up to 24 days without charge. An Anti-Terror Council, made up of Duterte appointees, has the power to designate people as suspected terrorists, subject to surveillance for 60 days and arrest, based on mere accusations. Supporters of the law say it is needed to bolster efforts against ongoing armed insurgencies mainly in the south of the Philippines. But rights group Amnesty International says even the mildest government critics can be labelled terrorists, based on accusations thrown online by anonymous pro-government trolls. "In the prevailing climate of impunity, a law so vague on the definition of 'terrorism' can only worsen attacks against human rights defenders," said Nicholas Bequelin, AI's Asia-Pacific Regional Director. Gina says she and the Troll Patrol make no apologies for adopting similar tactics to get their message across. "We justify [our] actions because they are all part of free speech, which we really hold in high regard," says Gina. "It would have been easy to report the pro-government accounts. But honestly, let them say whatever they want to say. Bad speech can only be fought by better speech. I don't really believe in censure." And with more Filipinos expressing free speech, Gina believes the need for the Troll Patrol is diminishing. "Nowadays, we no longer hide under these personas," says Gina. "We still speak out against abuses whether by the administration or the opposition. But this time, we speak as ourselves."

फिलीपींस दुनिया भर में फैली गलत सूचना की लहर में एक महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका निभा रहा है। तथाकथित ट्रॉल फार्मों का उपयोग कई नकली सोशल मीडिया खाते बनाने के लिए किया जा रहा है जो राजनीतिक प्रचार पोस्ट करते हैं और आलोचकों पर हमला करते हैं। लेकिन खुद को ट्रॉल पेट्रोल कहने वाले लोगों का एक समूह उनके खिलाफ अपनी रणनीति का उपयोग करने की कोशिश कर रहा है, जैसा कि बीबीसी के हॉवर्ड जॉनसन ने बताया है।


France train shooting: What we know

Summary: French President Francois Hollande has announced the award of the country's highest award - the Legion d'honneur - to six passengers who tackled a suspected radical Islamist on board a train travelling from Amsterdam to Paris.

Here's what we know about what happened. How it started The drama took place on board a high-speed train travelling from Amsterdam to Paris, via Brussels, on Friday afternoon. The journey was apparently uneventful until the train, operated by Thalys, reached Oignies in northern France, having just crossed from Belgium. French prosecutor Francois Molins said a French passenger in carriage 12 who was trying to access a toilet cubicle was faced with an individual who emerged from the cubicle "bare-chested, wearing a backpack on his chest and carrying a rifle slung across his shoulder". Mr Molins said the man was also in possession of an automatic pistol, nine cartridge clips, a bottle of petrol and a box-cutter. The unnamed French passenger tried to overpower the man. Seeing the struggle, 51-year-old French-American passenger Mark Moogalian also tried to intervene. But the gunmen fired several shots and Mr Moogalian was hit in the neck. How the gunman was subdued Three American friends on a tour of Europe - off-duty military servicemen Spencer Stone and Alek Skarlatos, and Anthony Sadler - were also in the first class carriage. They had initially been unable to find their first class reservations and had moved to this carriage to get a better internet connection. They were all sleeping when the commotion woke them. Seeing the suspect had freed himself from the Frenchman who first tackled him, the Americans charged the gunman. "Alek just yells, 'Spencer, go!' And Spencer runs down the aisle," Mr Sadler said. "Spencer makes first contact, he tackles the guy, Alek wrestles the gun away from him, and the gunman pulls out a box cutter and slices Spencer a few times." Mr Stone was slashed in the neck and eyebrow with the box-cutter and had a thumb almost sliced off. Mr Stone held the suspect in a chokehold and Mr Skarlatos hit him in the head with the butt of one of the weapons. The three men tied him up with the help of British businessman Chris Norman. Mr Stone - despite having sustained injuries himself - then went to the aid of Mr Moogalian, who was losing blood. Mr Stone said: "I just stuck two of my fingers in the hole, found what I thought to be the artery, pushed down and the bleeding stopped. I just said 'Thank God' and held that position until the paramedics got there." Mr Hollande said Mr Stone had "probably saved Mr Moogalian's life". Meanwhile, the train staff alerted authorities as to what had happened. As the train slowed down and passed through Henin Beaumont station, several frightened passengers broke the windows and escaped the train, according to Mr Molins. The gunman was held until he could be arrested at Arras station. Who is the gunman? The suspect was named as Ayoub El-Khazzani, a 25-year-old Moroccan. Investigators say Mr Khazzani was born on 3 September 1989 in Tetouan in Morocco and lived in the Spanish city of Algeciras. They say he frequently attended the city's Takwa mosque, "known for its radical preaching", according to Mr Molins, and for which his brother was the treasurer. Mr Molins said he had been convicted of several offences in Spain, including drug trafficking and traffic offence, and has been given at least two prison sentences. According to Mr Molins, Mr Khazzani had travelled through several European countries in recent years. Mr Molins said Mr Khazzani had returned to Europe from Turkey in June 2015. Prosecutors believe his presence in Turkey may indicate he went to war-torn Syria. Mr Molins said he had also spent "five to seven months" living in the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers in 2014, during which time he had worked for a mobile phone company for two months. The suspect was flagged up to France by the Spanish authorities in February 2014 as affiliated to a radical Islamist movement. Mr Khazzani says he was left homeless after his identity documents were stolen. In the last six months, he says he travelled to Spain, Andorra, Belgium, Austria, Germany and France, but denies travelling to Turkey or Syria, according to his lawyer. Mr Khazzani apparently did "not understand why this story has become so inflated," his lawyer told Le Parisien newspaper (in French). "He said he wanted to extract money from the passengers on this Thalys train and nothing else. He denies any terrorist intent to his actions. This is almost laughable, he says." The lawyer added that Mr Khazzani said he had found the rifle and Luger gun he used in the attack in a suitcase left in a park, near the Brussels station where he used to sleep. Mr Molins said that this had been Mr Khazzani's initial version of events under questioning but that his explanation had grown less and less lucid and that he eventually stopped speaking to investigators at all. He said that analysis of Mr Khazzani's phone revealed he had watched a YouTube audio file whilst already on the Thalys train "in which an individual called on the faithful to fight and take up arms in the name of the Prophet". Mr Khazzani's father, Mohamed el-Khazzani, told the Daily Telegraph in Algeciras, Spain, that his son was a "good boy" interested in "football and fishing". He later told El Mundo: "They are saying Ayoub is a terrorist but I simply can't believe it. Why would he want to kill anyone? It makes no sense. The only terrorism he is guilty of is terrorism for bread; he doesn't have enough money to feed himself properly." Train staff French actor Jean-Hugues Anglade, who injured his hand as he tried to activate the train's alarm, told Paris Match (in French) that members of staff ran through his carriage (next to carriage 12 where the melee took place) to the guards' van at the end of the train. They opened the door with a special key and locked themselves in, he alleged. "We shouted for the staff to let us in, we yelled 'open!'", he said. "There was no response." However Agnes Ogier, the boss of Thalys, denied Mr Anglade's allegations, saying train staff "fulfilled their duties". One member of staff found himself under fire and took five or six passengers with him into the baggage car, where he sounded the alarm, she said. Mr Hollande praised the actions of the staff when handing the Legion d'honneur to four of the passengers.

फ्रांस के राष्ट्रपति फ्रांस्वा ओलांद ने एम्स्टर्डम से पेरिस की यात्रा करने वाली ट्रेन में एक संदिग्ध कट्टरपंथी इस्लामवादी से निपटने वाले छह यात्रियों को देश के सर्वोच्च पुरस्कार-लीजन डी 'ऑनर-से सम्मानित करने की घोषणा की है।


London attack: What people saw

Summary: Seven people have been killed and 48 people wounded - some critically - in an attack on London Bridge and the Borough Market area. Saturday evening's events were captured in hundreds of videos and eyewitness accounts.

Shortly after 22:00 BST there were reports of a white van driving at 50mph (80kmh) along London Bridge, eyewitnesses said the van mounted the pavement and hit five or six people. The van then crashed near the Barrowboy and Banker pub. Eyewitness Eric saw three men get out of the white van. He said: "[They] ran towards the people that they nearly ran over. "I thought oh maybe they're worried about them and trying to comfort them because obviously [I thought] it's an accident. "[But] they literally just started kicking them, punching them, they took out knives and then they just, it was a rampage really. "You could hear people screaming, they were getting stabbed." The attackers then went into Borough Market, where they began stabbing people outside bars and restaurants. An eyewitness, Gerard Vowls, 47, said: "They ran up and started stabbing this girl, three of them. I was defenceless, I couldn't do anything. "They were running up going 'this is for Allah' and they stabbed this girl 10 or 15 times." Gerard said he threw glasses, bottles, tables and chairs to try to stop them. Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live Richard - who was in a restaurant watching the attack unfold - said Gerard had done "a heroic thing", "putting our safety over his, which was remarkable". Minutes after the first 999 call police swarmed the area. James Yates posted a video of officers entering a basement bar on Southwark Street, where they told customers to "get down". On the other side of Borough Market, Brendan was in the Wright Brothers restaurant with his girlfriend. He said: "All of a sudden there was a lot of commotion, within seconds it was obvious that something big was happening. "I grabbed my girlfriend and hid behind the bar in the restaurant. We could hear gunfire and explosions. "There were people running out of the bar across the road. Then a guy ran across the road up to me with a massive knife. "He stared at me realising he wasn't getting in." Photographer Gabriele Sciotto was in Borough Market at the time, and pictured a wounded suspect on the floor. He said: "He's holding a bomb on the chest, he's bleeding from the left arm. "The policeman you can see there in the picture was still pointing the gun at him." Police have now said these belts were hoax devices. Kumi de Costa was in a taxi while the attack was developing. She said: "The cab driver turned into the market and we got stuck right in the middle of the shooting. We were in a one-way street and couldn't turn around. "There were loads of shots being fired. Two people were on the floor behind the church with two or three people leaning over them. "A couple of times we had to lie down on the floor of the cab because of the shooting around us." One couple heard screaming and running at Borough Market, but thought that it was a group of revellers. But shortly afterwards they saw casualties. "We ran, we saw some chefs in a smoking area behind a [hotel] and I came up to them and said 'there's been a terror attack, let's lock these doors and get people in [the hotel]," the man said. Dozens of people were locked into the hotel and went up to the third floor. They stayed until an alarm went off and the hotel was evacuated. Liam, who lives above the Southwark Tavern in Borough Market, told BBC Radio 5 Live, said: "I definitely heard this young guy try and get the attention of the ambulance saying 'my friend's been stabbed and he's in the pub'." He also said that another man was walking around, covered in blood in a "dazed" state, asking the emergency services for help, Tyson Oladokun, who was on London Bridge immediately after the attack, said: "I saw a man lying in the road being cradled by another man. "I think I saw someone that had been stabbed and other people who I think had died."

लंदन ब्रिज और बरो मार्केट क्षेत्र पर एक हमले में सात लोग मारे गए और 48 लोग घायल हो गए-कुछ गंभीर रूप से-शनिवार शाम की घटनाओं को सैकड़ों वीडियो और प्रत्यक्षदर्शी खातों में कैद किया गया था।


Channel Island ferry relocated to Poole 'for time being'

Summary: A ferry which connects Dorset to the Channel Islands will continue to sail from Poole "until further notice", its operator has said.

Condor Ferries relocated the sailings from Weymouth in February while repairs were carried out on a ferry berth. The operator previously said it hoped to resume normal services at Weymouth at the end of March. Weymouth and Portland Borough Council said interim remedial works to the berth had been unsuccessful. Condor said passengers with existing bookings would be notified in writing of changes to their journeys and services would continue to sail from Poole throughout the summer.

डोरसेट को चैनल द्वीप समूह से जोड़ने वाली एक नौका पूले से "अगली सूचना तक" चलती रहेगी, इसके संचालक ने कहा है।


Arts Council of Wales chair search continues

Summary: The job of chairing the Arts Council of Wales will be re-advertised, after two of the three shortlisted candidates for the £44,000-a-year post pulled out.

The closing date was in July, but no interviews took place. Prof Dai Smith ends his third three-year-term of office on 31 March. The Welsh government said it was still on target to have a new chair by April, but felt strongly the public would want to see a proper competition for the role. "Our decision re-opens the opportunity for people with the right attributes and experience to apply," a spokesman said. "This is good for democracy, good for openness and transparency and will be good for the future of the Arts Council. "We think the public will respect our decision in these circumstances." The post was advertised offering a salary of £43,810 for a minimum 10 days' work a month.

44, 000 पाउंड प्रति वर्ष के पद के लिए चुने गए तीन उम्मीदवारों में से दो के हटने के बाद वेल्स की कला परिषद की अध्यक्षता करने की नौकरी का फिर से विज्ञापन किया जाएगा।


Why water war has broken out in India's Silicon Valley

Summary: Violence has broken out in India's technology hub Bangalore in Karnataka state over a long-running dispute about water. Protesters are angry at a Supreme Court ruling ordering Karnataka to share water from the Cauvery river with neighbouring Tamil Nadu. TS Sudhir reports on the latest crisis.

On Monday afternoon, a school bus was stopped in the Banashankari area in southern Bangalore. Three drunk men got into the bus and asked aloud: "Which child belongs to Karnataka and and which child belongs to Tamil Nadu?'' The 15-odd students, aged between 10 and 14, were stunned. Their school had asked them to leave early because the situation was tense, with violence and arson breaking out in many parts of the city. "Luckily the driver handled it tactfully. He told the intruders that everyone was a native of Bangalore and that their families supported Karnataka on [water sharing with] Cauvery,'' said a parent, not wanting to be identified. Battle for access By dusk, dark smoke had filled the Bangalore skies. Some 35 buses had been set on fire by protesters, just because the buses belonged to a travel agency whose owner is Tamil. Is India facing its worst-ever water crisis? India to 'divert rivers' to tackle drought Earlier this month India's Supreme Court ruled that Karnataka must release 12,000 cubic feet of water per second to Tamil Nadu from the Cauvery river until 20 September. Both states say they urgently need the water for irrigation and a battle about access to it has raged for decades. India's water war Karnataka says water levels in the Cauvery have declined because of insufficient rainfall - 42% of the 3,598 irrigation tanks in the state are dry - and that it cannot therefore share water with Tamil Nadu. So Tamil Nadu went to the top court demanding 50,000 cubic feet of water per second. When the Supreme Court on 2 September asked Karnataka to "live and let live", the state softened and offered to release 10,000 cubic feet of water per second to Tamil Nadu every day for five days. On 5 September however, the top court ordered Karnataka to release 15,000 cubic feet of water per second for 10 days. This ruling was later modified to 12,000 cubic feet of water per second until 20 September. This would mean that nearly a quarter of the water now available in the Cauvery basin will flow into Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu says it badly needs the river water for irrigation. Drought-hit Karnataka argues that most of the river water is now needed for drinking water supplies in Bangalore and some other cities, leaving no water for irrigation at all. But even farmers in Tamil Nadu are unhappy with their share. P Ayyakannu, president of the local South Indian Rivers Interlinking Farmers Association, called it "akin to giving pigeon feed to an elephant". Rising violence Feeling let down by the top court's order, Karnataka is boiling. The main city of Bangalore is the worst affected: the violence in the technology hub forced the closure of many offices and much of the public transport system. Police have imposed an emergency law that prohibits public gatherings, and more than 15,000 officers have been deployed across the city. One person was killed when police opened fire on protesters on Monday evening. Buses and trucks bearing Tamil Nadu number plates have been attacked and set on fire. Schools and colleges are closing early and many businesses are shut. A group of activists belonging to a fringe pro-Karnataka group assaulted an engineering student because he had ridiculed Kannada film stars for supporting the strike on Friday, by posting memes on Facebook. The student was hunted down and forced to apologise. Across the border, in Tamil Nadu, petrol bombs were hurled at a popular restaurant owned by a resident of Karnataka in Chennai while the driver of a vehicle with Karnataka number plates was slapped and ordered to say "Cauvery belongs to Tamil Nadu". The latest violence brings back memories of the anti-Tamil riots in Bangalore in 1991 over the same issue. Then, some 200,000 Tamils were reported to have left the city, after incidents of violence and arson targeting them. There was a proposal in 2013 to set up a panel comprising representatives from the two warring states to resolve disputes over river water sharing. But successive governments have dragged their feet on this, and the two leaders - Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah and his counterpart in Tamil Nadu, Jayaram Jayalalitha - have not reached out to each other to resolve the crisis. And with Delhi reduced to being a reluctant referee, the onus has fallen on the Supreme Court to crack the whip.

कर्नाटक राज्य में लंबे समय से चल रहे पानी के विवाद को लेकर भारत के प्रौद्योगिकी केंद्र बैंगलोर में हिंसा भड़क गई है। कर्नाटक को पड़ोसी राज्य तमिलनाडु के साथ कावेरी नदी का पानी साझा करने का आदेश देने वाले उच्चतम न्यायालय के फैसले से प्रदर्शनकारी नाराज हैं। टी. एस. सुधीर नवीनतम संकट पर रिपोर्ट करते हैं।


Ashdown Forest fire under investigation

Summary: The cause of a fire which affected about 70 acres (28 hectares) in Ashdown Forest in East Sussex on Sunday is being investigated.

At its height, more than 100 firefighters from stations across the county were on the scene tackling the blaze in the Kings Standing area. The fire broke out at about 13:45 BST and roads in the area were closed off. The fire service said no-one was injured and by just after 17:00 the blaze had been contained. Adrian Brown, from East Sussex Fire and Rescue, said: "This fire has devastated a large area of heathland and natural habitat, which is of importance for nesting birds. "In this dry weather we'd like to again remind members of the public to take care in the countryside. "This is the second fire we have had to attend in Ashdown Forest this weekend."

ईस्ट ससेक्स के एशडाउन वन में रविवार को लगभग 70 एकड़ (28 हेक्टेयर) में लगी आग के कारण की जांच की जा रही है।


Grace period granted for Wrexham pizza takeaway pick-ups

Summary: Motorists have been granted a 20-minute period of grace to collect takeaways at a shopping centre following claims of "unfair" fines.

Some said they received £90 fines due to automatic number plate recognition cameras at the pay-and-display car park in Island Green, Wrexham. A newly-erected sign now says fines for short stays will be reimbursed. More than 1,800 people had joined a protest group on Facebook urging motorists to boycott the car park. Wrexham council leader Mark Prichard said the situation was "completely unfair" and contacted Euro Car Parks. The company has been asked for a comment.

"अनुचित" जुर्माने के दावों के बाद वाहन चालकों को एक शॉपिंग सेंटर में सामान लेने के लिए 20 मिनट की छूट दी गई है।


Ukraine far-right accused of 'witch hunt' over children's book

Summary: Ukrainian writer Larysa Denysenko says she is the victim of a "21st century witch hunt" after having to withdraw from a literary festival in the city of Lviv where she was to discuss her children's book featuring same-sex parents.

By News from Elsewhere......as found by BBC Monitoring She told the Dzerkalo Tyzhnya newspaper that the city authorities received a letter from 15 radical nationalist groups warning of "having to take all possible measures" to halt the session about the book Maya and Her Mummies at the high-profile Publishers' Forum, because it was "destructive propaganda for non-traditional values". The Forum printed a scan of the letter on its website, and said it had received other threats on social media as well. Ms Denysenko said that neither the Forum nor the police were able to guarantee security at the presentation, due to take place in a children's library, so she agreed to cancel the event out of a "sense of personal responsibility for children's safety". She added that accusations of propaganda were nonsense, as the book argued for the primacy of love and tolerance, not for one sort of family arrangement or another. "I get the impression that these people haven't read the book. And what are 'standard values' in a country where so many single mothers have to raise children on their own?" she said. The Lviv newspaper Vysokyy Zamok agreed, saying the book told 17 stories about children from ethnic minority backgrounds, or coping with parents working abroad and other family difficulties, but it was "just one story about a child with two mummies that, it seems, has caused all this hard-right hysteria". Ms Denysenko, a UN Goodwill Ambassador who campaigns for children's rights, wrote on her Facebook page that "these ultra-nationalist groups and churches are portraying me as a 21st century witch". Her page is full of expressions of support from members of the public, who say the book's message is one of tolerance and acceptance, and deplore attempts to silence the writer as "diktat". 'Nail in the coffin' But there have been hostile comments elsewhere on social media, overwhelmingly focused on the same-sex issue. One critic said "such books should be burned", and another dubbed it a "nail in the coffin of the Ukrainian family". Such is the furore over threats to the Forum, not to mention calls for the police to investigate, that one of the letter signatories, Yuriy Dadak, of the Spirit of the Nation group, has hastened to assure reporters that nationalist groups would carry out "no acts of provocation". But the chairman of the Publishers' Forum, Oleksandra Koval, told Vysoky Zamok that "all points of view can be made at the Forum" and denounced the far-right threats as "signs of totalitarianism". She also called on the police to provide additional protection to the Forum, which will be discussing other controversial questions including Ukrainian-Polish and Ukrainian-Jewish relations. It is possible that the far right threats will only serve to make Maya and Her Mummies more popular, as expressions of support have appeared on social media from Deputy Prime Minister Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsidze and other major public figures. In addition, the publishers have made the book freely available to download. Reporting by Martin Morgan Next story: New Zealand police enlist school in cannabis crackdown Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.

यूक्रेनी लेखिका लारिसा डेनिसेन्को का कहना है कि वह ल्वीव शहर में एक साहित्यिक उत्सव से हटने के बाद "21वीं सदी के चुड़ैल शिकार" की शिकार हो गई हैं, जहां उन्हें समलैंगिक माता-पिता की विशेषता वाली अपने बच्चों की पुस्तक पर चर्चा करनी थी।


10 things to know about The Chuckle Brothers as they return to TV

Summary: The TV legends that are the Chuckle Brothers are to get their own Saturday tea time show, almost a decade after ChuckleVision ended.

Chuckle Time will be on Channel 5, who describe it as an hour-long "family friendly clip show". It will mix sketches performed by Paul and Barry with videos of "fails, flops and funnies" uploaded by viewers. The pair, both now in their 70s, have been children's TV fixtures since the 1980s. There will be 12 episodes in the new series and no transmission date has yet been announced. 10 things you (probably) don't know about the Chuckle Brothers: Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

टीवी के दिग्गज जो चकले ब्रदर्स हैं, उन्हें चकलेविजन के समाप्त होने के लगभग एक दशक बाद अपना खुद का सैटरडे टी टाइम शो मिलना है।


Chicken fingers: Trying out the KFC nail polish

Summary: US fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken has taken its motto of "finger lickin' good" food to a literal extreme by debuting edible nail polishes in Hong Kong this week. The BBC's Juliana Liu tried it out.

Fried chicken-flavoured polish in fun, fashionable shades? It sounded too good to be true. And it was. Sort of. The polish was delivered to our office in couture-quality packaging in KFC's red and white corporate colours. The product itself was housed in half-ounce square bottles emblazoned with the slogan "It's Finger Lickin Good". So far, so good. But the colours seemed off. Fair is fowl The "Hot & Spicy" flavour came in a trendy burnt orange shade similar to Tabasco hot sauce. But the "Original Recipe" was a dirty olive green colour with black specks - a far cry from the advertised nude shade. On closer examination, we found both bottles had expired a few days ago. The green shade had clearly oxidised. That makes sense because both are entirely made of edible ingredients: spice blends suspended in starch, with vegetable gum added so they stick to your finger nails for a day or so, according to a spokeswoman at Ogilvy & Mather Hong Kong, the advertising agency behind the polishes. With no preservatives, each batch - made by spice company McCormick in Singapore - must be refrigerated and lasts for only five days. Oh, and the instructions clearly state each bottle is good for one-time use only, presumably, because the ingredients are perishable. The taste test The spokeswoman assured me the expired polishes were not harmful, so my BBC Chinese colleague Grace Tsoi and I decided to taste them. The spicy flavour tasted almost exactly like the paste used in KFC's hot & spicy chicken. It definitely lingered on the tongue, but we couldn't detect any fried chicken flavour. It was same for original recipe polish: nice balance of spice accented by black pepper, but again, no chicken. What about their performance as nail polish? The orange shade was thick but performed well, with minimal drag on the nail surface. The colour, though, was extremely transparent and not true to bottle. Not even two coats would get me there. The green shade dragged quite a bit. After it settled down, it clumped in an unappetising way. Major polish fail. 'Not elegant to lick fingers' The two flavours have been promoted heavily by KFC Hong Kong on social media, but aren't available to the general public. "At the moment, we're not mass producing it," said the spokeswoman. "We are only giving previews to the media to test the market reaction." When Grace polled people on Hong Kong's busy streets, she got a wide variety of responses. "I don't think that eating nail polish is a good idea. I don't think it's elegant behaviour for women to lick their fingers," said Crystal Zhu, a 27-year-old tourist from mainland China. Lily Wong from Hong Kong said she'd love to try it. "It is an innovative idea," said the 17 year-old. "I have never heard of anything like this before… It will be fun to paint nails with my friends." "Some people on a diet may use it," said Twinkle Leung, an 18-year-old student, who believes the nail polish may help quell cravings for fried chicken. Ogilvy said the concept was being floated in Hong Kong because its local team came up with the idea. And Hong Kong customers seem more enamoured by limited-time offerings, rather than the two stalwart flavours embodied by the polishes. Judging by the response on social media, the promotion is working, even if the polishes aren't entirely what has been advertised. Many have expressed incredulity and curiosity, while others were repulsed. "So gross," said Facebook user Crystal Lou, while another called Brian Fung suggested a friend try it "so you can taste (fried chicken) while being a vegetarian." Additional reporting by Grace Tsoi

अमेरिकी फास्ट फूड श्रृंखला केंटकी फ्राइड चिकन ने इस सप्ताह हांगकांग में खाद्य नेल पॉलिश की शुरुआत करके "फिंगर लिकिन गुड" भोजन के अपने आदर्श वाक्य को शाब्दिक चरम पर ले लिया है। बीबीसी की जूलियाना लियू ने इसे आजमाया।


Lincoln man Ben John in court over terrorism offences

Summary: An alleged far-right extremist has appeared in court accused of possessing documents on combat, homemade weapons and explosives.

Ben John, 20, appeared at the Old Bailey charged with seven counts of having a record likely to be useful to a terrorist on or before 7 January. Mr John, of Addison Drive, Lincoln, spoke only to confirm his name and was granted conditional bail. He is next due to appear at Nottingham Crown Court on 12 March. A preliminary trial date has been set for 2 August. More news from across Lincolnshire Follow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.

एक कथित धुर दक्षिणपंथी चरमपंथी युद्ध, घर में बने हथियारों और विस्फोटकों पर दस्तावेज रखने के आरोप में अदालत में पेश हुआ है।


Inside Wakefield Cathedral at Christmas

Summary: Christmas has been celebrated at a church on the site of Wakefield Cathedral for more than 1,000 years. It is situated in the heart of the West Yorkshire city, advertised by its soaring 247ft (75m) spire. BBC News went to see what goes on inside the building in the run-up to Christmas.

"This is a church where everybody is welcome," reads a small notice as you enter the main door at the west end of the building. One of the first people visitors meet is a volunteer greeter, like Tessa, who has been welcoming people for four years. "I often stand near the front door... A lot of people ask me questions but some ask to see a priest and I help them. "It's a very welcoming building and it is nice to see so much going on." Inside the Grade I-listed building, which is open 365 days a year, Christmas trees are twinkling and rehearsals are under way for a lunchtime concert and a later carol service. It is a hive of activity with school children coming and going. The cathedral has about 100,000 visitors annually and has a target that everyone who lives in the Wakefield district will come in at least once a year. Neil Holland, the building's chief operating officer, said: "It's an ancient building and things always need doing, in the last six years we've spent £7m on restoration. "Our staff numbers are quite small by Durham, York or St Paul's standard, we couldn't function without our volunteers in roles like greeters, bell ringers or choir chaperones." Visitors wander around the cathedral, many craning their necks to take in the details of the roof or the dominating rood screen. But others come in to find peace and reflection. "Worship is the core of our mission, it's our purpose," said the Dean of Wakefield Cathedral, the Reverend Canon Simon Cowling. At least two services are held at the cathedral every day. 'Thinking time' Mr Holland said: "We still want everybody to be able to find space for stillness here." One visitor, who gave her name as Pat, said: "I came in to light a candle for my husband, it's 28 years now. "I find peace… I come in every Tuesday or Friday and I've enjoyed listening to the children rehearsing today." A short distance away Gareth Price was sitting in a chair. "I have come in for the contemplation and thinking time," he said. "Sitting here works somewhat and I don't know whether it's saying it to someone else. "It's a very busy place, I'd miss it if it wasn't here." Richard Wainwright, a verger at Wakefield, has worked at the cathedral for 20 years. "It's never boring... always something to do especially when there's a lot of visitors like at this time of year." He added: "Today we have put 700 chairs out. I've seen every kind of event here - fashion shows, murder mysteries, film nights, concerts and pantomimes." Mr Wainwright, who is one of three people responsible for opening and closing the cathedral each day, said they are the first in and the last out. "There is a totally different atmosphere as the lights go out at the end of a day." Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.

वेकफील्ड कैथेड्रल के स्थल पर एक चर्च में क्रिसमस 1,000 से अधिक वर्षों से मनाया जा रहा है। यह वेस्ट यॉर्कशायर शहर के केंद्र में स्थित है, जिसका विज्ञापन इसके 247 फीट (75 मीटर) ऊँचे शिखर द्वारा किया गया है। बीबीसी समाचार यह देखने के लिए गया कि क्रिसमस से पहले इमारत के अंदर क्या चल रहा है।


Torbay child services boss leaves after health scare

Summary: The director of children's services in Torbay has resigned from her post after what she has described as a "serious health scare".

Carol Tozer has not been at work for the last few weeks. In a statement, she said that she has been ill and had noted with "increasing concern" speculation about her whereabouts. She said that, because of the circumstances, she decided it was time to leave the unitary authority. Her deputy, Richard Williams, has been appointed acting director of the department. Carol Tozer was in charge of adult social care in Cornwall from 2003 until 2008.

टोरबे में बाल सेवाओं के निदेशक ने अपने पद से इस्तीफा दे दिया है, जिसे उन्होंने "गंभीर स्वास्थ्य भय" के रूप में वर्णित किया है।


#BBCtrending: Poles #EatApples to annoy Putin

Summary: An apple a day keeps the doctor away. And over the past day there's been a surge of people eating apples in Poland - but not for medical reasons. Poles have been posting images of apples on social media as a way of protesting against Russia.

By BBC Trending What's popular and why On Wednesday, Russia announced a ban on some fruit and vegetable imports - including apples - from Poland "for sanitary reasons". Polish food producers say the ban is politically motivated as a response to EU sanctions, a claim Russia denies. In response, Poles have been showing their support for local farmers by campaigning on social media. It started on Twitter when the journalist Grzegorz Nawacki shared an image of himself eating an apple and used the hashtag #jedzjabłka, which means "eat apples". "It's the most hurtful thing that could happen to Polish farmers. Over half of apples produced in Poland annually are exported to Russia." says Nawacki. "I thought the best way to help them would be to start eating more apples and drinking more cider. That way some of the apples will get consumed and people will show solidarity with farmers." The hashtags #jedzjabłka and #EatApples began trending on Twitter and within hours the humble Polish apple had become an internet meme. A Facebook page called Eat Apples to Annoy Putin is gathering some of the most popular parody pictures and has so far been liked almost 17,000 times. The campaign has made national news headlines in Poland and the country's agriculture minister is among a number of politicians who've joined the campaign. One of the country's largest supermarket chains, POLOmarket, has also been actively endorsing the hashtag on its Facebook and Twitter pages. A special promotion on its website says, "POLOmarket joins the nationwide #jedzjabłka campaign to popularise the consumption of this great national fruit" and it features recipes where apples are a key ingredient. "I didn't expect it to become so big," Nawacki told BBC Trending. "Perhaps consumers realise they can shape and influence the reality." Anger is growing in Europe over Russia's alleged relationship with Ukrainian rebels. The latest round of EU sanctions on Russia have been described as the toughest since the Cold War. Polish food producers have interpreted Russia's measures on Polish exports as the Kremlin hitting back. There are also reports that Russia may extend restrictions on food imports to the rest of the EU. Reporting by Anne-Marie Tomchak You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending All our stories are at bbc.com/trending

एक सेब एक दिन डॉक्टर को दूर रखता है। और पिछले कुछ दिनों से पोलैंड में सेब खाने वाले लोगों की संख्या में वृद्धि हुई है-लेकिन चिकित्सा कारणों से नहीं। डंडे रूस के खिलाफ विरोध करने के तरीके के रूप में सोशल मीडिया पर सेब की तस्वीरें पोस्ट कर रहे हैं।


South Asians in the US: The other 'Dreamers' facing uncertain future

Summary: Many young people who qualified for protection from deportation under an Obama-era scheme are now fearful for the future. While much of the focus has been on Hispanics affected, there's a large group from another part of the world.

By Brajesh UpadhyayBBC News, Washington Nayim Islam vividly remembers the morning he woke up to the sound of his wailing mother. She had just received a call from back home in Bangladesh. Her father, who she hadn't seen for 18 years, had died. It was Islam's first year in college and a moment he calls "a turning point" in his life. Years before, when he was a child, the family had made a tough choice. They arrived in the US under visitor visas and stayed on as undocumented immigrants. It was a one-way ticket with the hope for a better future. But it also meant living with constant fear of being deported. As he grew up, Islam says he remembers "feeling very guilty after realising that all her sacrifice may not amount to anything". "Without documents, I still won't be able to achieve that American Dream my parents had for us." That moment of feeling "helpless and powerless" as his mother mourned, he says, propelled him to come out of the shadows. He graduated with a degree in biology but decided to become a full-time community organiser. That, too, was made possible because of an Obama-era programme - Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or Daca - that allowed nearly 700,000 immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children to stay and work legally. In September, President Trump rescinded the programme and has asked Congress to provide a solution by 5 March. Early in January, however, a federal judge in San Francisco ordered the government to resume accepting renewals for Daca and work authorisations. The administration has now appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling. Those who benefitted from the programme are faced with uncertainty. While the majority of the Daca recipients, sometimes known as "Dreamers", are from Latin American countries, there's also a significant number from other parts of the world, including thousands from south Asia. According to data from the US government, at least 2,640 Daca recipients are from India, 1,340 are from Pakistan, and 490 are from Bangladesh. In most cases, the children came with their parents on a visitors visa. The actual numbers of undocumented south Asians are estimated to be higher, as stigma attached with illegal status within the community and fear of sharing family information may have lowered the number of Daca applications. Shahzeb Leghari was 13 when he moved to New York with his mother and younger brother from Pakistan. His mother had a flourishing business in Lahore, running a boutique and a salon, but decided to leave to escape a rough marriage. In New York, she worked as a store clerk while he did odd jobs after school in restaurants for $5 an hour. Leghari recalls being "stopped and frisked" many times in his neighbourhood - a controversial practice where police would detain, question and sometime search civilians without a warrant. For Leghari, it carried the extra worry of being deported and separated from his family. "It was New York, a so-called sanctuary city. But my heart would be pounding when they searched my bag," he says. "Just one guy had to say - he's a threat - and I would be back in Pakistan." Things changed after Daca, even though it took him 15 months to get approval because of "extensive background checks". Over the years, the average approval time has been anywhere between three and six months. "If I had to speculate, I feel it took much longer than usual because I was a Muslim and a Pakistani," he says. He had graduated as a biology major from the City College of New York, but had no hopes of continuing his education in the sciences because of his immigration status. Even if he managed to pay thousands of dollars for a higher degree, there would be no professional job without legal papers. Daca brought the promise of some financial aid and "on-the-book" jobs. Now he hopes to pursue a career in medicine. While preparing for his medical college admissions test, he also works in a pharmacy, drives for Uber and finds time for community organising. Like Leghari, more south Asian immigrants are taking part in activism. He says now his family joins him at events, including visiting Washington, DC to participate in protests outside the White House. But there are many in the community who struggle with English, don't know that despite being undocumented, they have certain rights. And then there's the social stigma. "Recently, one of my friend's parents were deported to Bangladesh, but he did not let us raise it with authorities fearing that everyone in [the neighbourhood] would get to know that they were undocumented," says Leghari. There's a fear the news will reach back home and the family would be ridiculed and looked down upon by the society where they were considered a success for living in the US. Nayim Islam now works full-time for Desis Rising Up and Moving (Drum), an organisation that focuses on immigrant rights in the South Asian community in New York City. He says there is a growing realisation among the community that if they do not raise their voice, nobody will do it for them. "We tend to focus a lot on politics back home, but not on the politics where we are building our lives," he says. Under Daca, undocumented south Asians did not feel as vulnerable as they used to be, but President Trump's order has put that sense of freedom at risk. Many families are also worried once the security of Daca is lost, they will be exposed and the administration could launch a massive crackdown with information on extended families. "We don't have a choice but to fight,'' says Islam. "We have to remember even Daca wasn't given to us without a fight." A recent poll found that 83% of Americans and 67% of Republicans support continuing the Daca programme. There is also strong support from large corporations for a legislative solution. Many Republicans who support Daca beneficiaries also want stringent immigration laws paired with it. But Islam says programmes that save young immigrants from deportation but puts their undocumented parents in danger is not a solution he's going to fight for. "How can I say that I will accept the path of citizenship in exchange for my parents being deported?"

ओबामा-युग की योजना के तहत निर्वासन से सुरक्षा के लिए अर्हता प्राप्त करने वाले कई युवा अब भविष्य के लिए भयभीत हैं। जबकि अधिकांश ध्यान प्रभावित हिस्पैनिकों पर रहा है, दुनिया के दूसरे हिस्से से एक बड़ा समूह है।


Man arrested with 30 phones in cycling shorts after rock gig

Summary: Dutch police got to the bottom of mobile phone thefts at a rock concert when they found a man with 30 mobiles in his cycling shorts.

The suspected pickpocket is a 34-year-old man, believed to be in a roving gang of thieves, police say. He was stopped after rock fans alerted police, who then blocked the exits. Extra police went to the Sum 41 concert in Amsterdam-Zuidoost after a tip-off from Belgian police. Fifty mobiles had been stolen at a Sum 41 gig in Antwerp. It is not yet clear if the suspect - a Romanian national - had accomplices at the Canadian band's Amsterdam concert, which took place on 21 January. You might also like:

डच पुलिस एक रॉक कॉन्सर्ट में मोबाइल फोन की चोरी की तह तक पहुंच गई जब उन्हें साइकिल चलाने वाले शॉर्ट्स में 30 मोबाइल वाला एक आदमी मिला।


Cardiff's organic waste to be processed in Gloucester

Summary: Organic waste generated in Cardiff will be sent to Gloucester for treatment, it has been announced.

Cardiff Council says 628 tonnes of carbon dioxide will be saved by sending waste to a site in Gloucester rather than Derbyshire. Cardiff does not have processing capabilities for organic waste. Councillor Margaret Jones said: "I am delighted this contract will enable us to make further CO2 reductions when compared to landfill." The contract awarded to New Earth Solutions will run for a minimum of one year, with the option of extensions adding up to a further three years.

कार्डिफ में उत्पन्न जैविक कचरे को उपचार के लिए ग्लूसेस्टर भेजा जाएगा, यह घोषणा की गई है।


Plymouth road collapses after water main bursts

Summary: A road has collapsed after a burst water main caused heavy flooding in part of Plymouth.

The burst, in the Melville Road area of the city, has seen the streets closed between Alexandra and Cambridge roads near the Ford Primary School. A "significant" amount of water was running downhill, Devon and Cornwall Police said. South West Water said it was "hoping to restore water supplies as soon as possible".

प्लाईमाउथ के एक हिस्से में पानी के मुख्य फटने के कारण भारी बाढ़ आने से एक सड़क ढह गई है।


Ophelia: Crane to lift storm-wrecked Milford lock gate

Summary: A marina lock gate torn from its hinges by the remains of Hurricane Ophelia on 16 October will be removed from the water and assessed for damage.

Repairs on the 80 tonne gate in Milford Marina are under way after it was left floating in the marina entrance. The Pembrokeshire coast had been battered by winds of up to 90mph. Around a dozen boats had been trapped in the docks before the gate was tugged away by the Svitzer Gelliswick. The Port of Milford Haven said the gate was taken to the J Wall on 1 November, where it will be winched from the dock by a 500-tonne crane. The gate will then be checked for damage and any important repairs made. A barge is scheduled to tow the gate back into place in several weeks' time.

16 अक्टूबर को तूफान ओफेलिया के अवशेषों द्वारा एक मरीना लॉक गेट को पानी से हटा दिया जाएगा और नुकसान का आकलन किया जाएगा।


Radford shooting: Attempted murder charge dropped

Summary: The case against a man charged with attempted murder over a shooting has been discontinued, it has been confirmed.

A teenager suffered chest and hand injuries in the attack in Radford, Nottingham, on 29 June. Kieron Saunders, 30, of Cardale Road, Nottingham, had also been charged with possession of a firearm with intent. The Crown Prosecution Service said no evidence was offered at a hearing at Nottingham Crown Court on 6 March. A spokesman for the CPS said a review of defence submissions had led to the decision there was "no realistic prospect of conviction". Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.

गोली चलाने पर हत्या के प्रयास के आरोप में एक व्यक्ति के खिलाफ मामला बंद कर दिया गया है, इसकी पुष्टि की गई है।


Cyclist dies in hit-and-run crash in Darlaston

Summary: A cyclist has died after a hit-and-run collision in the West Midlands.

Emergency services were called to Midland Road, Darlaston, Walsall, at about 03:20 GMT on Wednesday. West Midlands Police said a man had suffered a serious head injury after being knocked off his bike by a car. The force said the driver then left the scene and investigations to trace them are ongoing. The A462 Midland Road remains closed between Empress Way and The Green.

वेस्ट मिडलैंड्स में हिट-एंड-रन टक्कर के बाद एक साइकिल चालक की मौत हो गई है।


How fragile is the 2014 recovery?

Summary: So, for the avoidance of doubt, I hate this time of year - largely because of the convention, in the media, in business, in the City, that it is time to take stock and make predictions for the coming year.

Robert PestonEconomics editor Is it that those extra glasses of festive vino are supposed to improve powers of foresight? Or is there some magic in Christmas and Hanukkah that means whatever I was thinking two weeks earlier about what's happening in the world is changed in some mystical way? Bonkers. Unfortunately it is the expected bonkers. So here goes. First point. The economic recovery we've witnessed in almost all the developed and big economies this autumn will continue through most of 2014, and in some cases - including the UK's - may gain momentum. The "flows" in the global economy - temporarily at least - are not as strong a brake on growth as they were: the pace of tax rises and spending cuts has slowed almost everywhere; consumers are more confident, largely because there haven't been any truly hideous shocks for almost two years; and businesses are a bit more confident. And, of course, central banks have continued to create free money and cheap credit as if there is no tomorrow - to offset the intractable reluctance of commercial banks and financial institutions to create credit. Hey presto, this is the jolliest Yule for six years. And if you don't want to spoil the festive mood, stop reading now. Second point. The big structural flaws in most economies, and the global economy, are not mended, so - unless this coming year's more benign economic conditions are exploited to accelerate the remediation - the recovery could very easily start to peter out towards the end of 2014. Or to put it another way, the "stock" problem - excessive debts in Europe, Japan and (to a lesser extent) the US - is still with us. The lack of competitiveness of many western economies, the UK, France, even the US, has not been fixed. And because of the endemic weakness of the richer economies, China remains dangerously dependent on mind-bogglingly excessive, debt-fuelled investment to generate the rapid growth perceived necessary by its government (and one January treat for you - ha ha - will be a film I've made for BBC2 on whether the Chinese economic miracle is about to expire). To be clear, in a globalised world, we are all in this together. And the long-term sustainability of growth in both West and East would require two analogous changes: a greater willingness of Chinese people to consume, and an increased desire on our part to save, or cultural revolutions that would be the work of decades. The way I see all this, as you know (you really do, or you haven't been paying attention), is that there is far too much debt in the world, and far too little equity, because a) most rich economies have an extraordinary propensity to consume, b) our banks, till recently, fed this consumption with the frenzied provision of credit, c) we buy far more from the rest of the world than we sell to it, because our tradeable sector - especially in manufacturing - is too small. On this view, America's much more rapid recovery than Europe's is no mystery: it is because the debts of American households have fallen fairly rapidly since the 2008 global calamity; and because the notorious or celebrated fracking has made America much less dependent on expensive imported energy. Only France, with its vast nuclear generators, has relatively cheap energy within the EU. Importantly, European banks and insurers are - generally - weak, not capable of supplying vital credit to households and businesses (this is less of a problem in the UK). And the putative solution, a comprehensive "asset quality review" by the European Central Bank over the coming year, may for a time make banks more risk averse and reluctant to lend, so as to minimise the amount of expensive capital they may be forced to raise to fix their historic imprudence. Also, and to state the bleedin' obvious, European member states persist in maintaining the conceit that monetary union requires only very limited political and fiscal union. So, for example, a recently announced plan to tackle the problem of banks that are too big to fail, an agreement on new rules for limiting the impact on taxpayers when they do fail, keeps all the residual burden of rescuing banks on the home country's exchequer. With no explicit sharing of costs and risks by eurozone countries, the finances of the weaker economies - Spain, Italy, inter alia - will remain dangerously stretched. In those circumstances, of banks' viability in extremis resting on the questionable solvency of their home countries' governments, there is little prospect of banks in the weaker economies being able to borrow from markets cheaply or easily - in that the risks of banks' creditors losing money remain non-trivial. That in turn means that the weaker banks will remain unhealthily hooked on cheap funding from the European Central Bank, and will continue to find it hard to finance any fledgling economic recovery. Which I could have condensed by saying "plus ca change..." Hey presto: Europe is still flatlining, and America is growing at 3% per annum, or maybe a bit more. All of which creates something of a puzzle: why on earth is Britain growing at an almost identical pace to America, and pulling away from our confrere across the Channel? Yes, household debts in the UK have fallen relative to income, though not in absolute terms, and they remain high (140% of available income, more than £1.5 trillion). But, we don't have cheap energy (I didn't need to remind you of that, did I?). Also the gap between what we sell to the rest of the world and what we buy from it has actually been widening. And business investment has increased only very slightly. Or to put it another way, why are British consumers (is that you, by the way?) saving less and spending again? I wrote a bit about all this recently. But, silly me, I forgot quite an important stimulus - which has nothing to do with the Chancellor, or the Bank of England. You might call it a leaving present from the now defunct Financial Services Authority, because it was the decision in April 2011 of the FSA's then chief executive Hector Sants to force the banks to pay restitution for mis-selling PPI credit insurance. At the time the FSA estimated this would lead to the banks forking out "just" £4bn. This was a wild under-estimate. It is now clear the banks will be handing more than £16bn to their customers, which represents a boost to consumers' balances of around 1% of GDP. Since around three quarters of this PPI cash has been handed out over the past 18 months, this is probably the single biggest contributor to the revival of consumer spending. The banks' sins of the past transformed into a current virtue, thanks to the intermediation of the regulator. Wunderbar, surely. It's coming to an end of course (although the spam texts and cold calls from the dratted claims firms would make you think otherwise). Which is why it really matters that businesses, with their tails up a bit, become less risk averse and start investing. As it happens, the business leaders to whom I chat are remarkably bullish right now. And although this is hideously unscientific and "intuitive", my sense is that there are some legs to this recovery, for all the drag of a lamentable trade performance. So what's the biggest challenge or risk for 2014? It is the probable phasing out of money and cheap-debt creation by the US and UK central banks (there is no chance of that happening in the eurozone). Will the economies in the US and UK have achieved adequate lift-off velocity to withstand the choking off of the fuel of exceptional monetary stimulus? Gawd only knows, because this is genuinely uncharted territory. If you pressed me, I would say I doubt it, but I could be wrong (as if you doubted that).

इसलिए, संदेह से बचने के लिए, मैं वर्ष के इस समय से नफरत करता हूं-मुख्य रूप से सम्मेलन के कारण, मीडिया में, व्यवसाय में, शहर में, कि यह स्टॉक लेने और आने वाले वर्ष के लिए भविष्यवाणियां करने का समय है।


Carmarthen: Drone appeal in coastal search for missing walker

Summary: Police involved in a major search for a missing walker on the Carmarthenshire coast are looking for a person flying a drone in the area when she disappeared.

Susan Smith was last seen at 13:30 GMT on Saturday near the Carmarthen Bay Holiday Village in Kidwelly. Five Coastguard teams, a helicopter, RNLI lifeboats and a mountain rescue team are helping Dyfed-Powys Police with the search for Ms Smith. Officers want a person flying a drone in the area on Saturday to call them. "We have been made aware that someone was flying a drone in the area and we would ask that person to contact police as soon as possible," said Sgt Jess Jones. Officers said Ms Smith - who is described as about 5ft 2ins tall, petite and with blonde hair - was known to walk along the beach to St Ishmaels and Ferryside. Police believe she was wearing black jeans, a black fleece and navy and grey walking boots when she was last seen on Saturday afternoon.

कार्मार्थेनशायर तट पर एक लापता वॉकर की एक बड़ी खोज में शामिल पुलिस उस क्षेत्र में एक ड्रोन उड़ाने वाले व्यक्ति की तलाश कर रही है जब वह गायब हो गई थी।