Profile: Who are Nigeria's Ansaru Islamists?

Summary: Nigeria's militant Islamist group Ansaru has proved to be a formidable threat during its short existence, using dynamite to penetrate heavily-fortified compounds and taking foreigners hostage - seven of whom it said it had killed on Saturday.

By Farouk ChothiaBBC Africa Ansaru was formed in January 2012, though it rose to prominence only about six months later through the release of a video in which it vowed to attack Westerners in defence of Muslims worldwide. "For the first time, we are glad to announce to the public the formation of this group that has genuine basis," said a statement issued by the group in January 2012 and quoted in local media. "We will have [a] dispassionate look into everything, to encourage what is good and see to its spread and to discourage evil and try to eliminate it." Its full Arabic name, Jama'atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan, means: "Vanguards for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa". This suggests that it has a wider regional agenda, with the UK listing Ansaru as a "terrorist group" linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Just two months after it was formed, the UK said the militant group had killed a Briton and an Italian taken hostage in the north-western state of Sokoto after a failed attempt to rescue them. Then in December 2012, it abducted French national Francis Colump, 63, following an attack on a well-guarded compound in the northern town of Rimi, about 25km (15 miles) from Katsina city. About 30 Ansaru gunmen used dynamite to force their way into the compound, seizing Mr Colump who, officials, said, was working on a wind power project. It carried out a similar attack in February 2013, capturing seven foreign nationals from a housing compound owned by the Lebanese construction company Setraco. It said the attack was to avenge "transgressions" by European nations in Mali and Afghanistan, where Western forces are battling Islamist insurgents. On Saturday, it released a video saying it had killed the "Christian" hostages because the UK and Nigerian forces were planning an operation to rescue them - an allegation the UK denied. 'Lost dignity of Muslims' It has also carried out attacks on Nigerian targets. In January 2013, Ansaru said it had carried out an attack which killed two Nigerian soldiers as they prepared to deploy to Mali. The group said it targeted the troops because the Nigerian military was joining the French-led military campaign to "demolish the Islamic empire of Mali". French journal Jeune Afrique-L'Intelligent says Ansaru is led by the little-known Abu Ussamata al-Ansary. It quoted a statement by him as saying that the Nigerian government was "incapable of defending Muslims in inter-religious violence with Christians". The group also said it was fighting to reclaim "the lost dignity of Muslims of black Africa" and the creation of an Islamic caliphate from Niger to Cameroon and northern Nigeria. Analysts believe it is an off-shoot of Boko Haram, which launched an insurgency in 2009 to create an Islamic state in Nigeria, rather than across the region. "To some, the sect headed by Ansary is seen as one that will compliment the 'struggle' by the Boko Haram sect under Imam Abubakar Shekau but to many it is an indication that all is not well with the leadership of the Boko Haram sect and that there has been conflict about its ideology and its understanding of Islam," wrote journalist Tukur Mamu in Nigeria's Desert Herald newspaper last year. "Hence, the decision to form a new group." According to Nigeria's Standard newspaper, Ansaru has denounced Boko Haram's style of operation as "inhuman to the Muslim ummah [nation]", an apparent reference to killing of innocent Nigerians - Christian and Muslim - through bombings and assassinations. "Islam forbids killing of innocent people, including non-Muslims. This is our belief and we stand for it," Mr al-Ansary said in the video released last year. But Mr al-Ansary added that non-Muslims can be killed "in self-defence or if they attack Muslims", which seems to explain the killing of Nigerian soldiers to be deployed to Mali. However, analysts say it does not justify the killing of civilian hostages - unless Ansaru holds them accountable for the actions of Western governments in countries such as Mali, Iraq and Afghanistan. Analysts believe that Nigeria's government will find it more difficult to end the Islamist insurgency now that two groups are operating. The government is said to be working with counter-terrorism experts from several countries - including the US and UK - in an attempt to neutralise the threat posed by Boko Haram and Ansaru, amid fears that they could worsen instability across West and central Africa.

नाइजीरिया का उग्रवादी इस्लामी समूह अंसारू अपने अल्प अस्तित्व के दौरान एक दुर्जेय खतरा साबित हुआ है, जिसमें डायनामाइट का उपयोग करके भारी किलेबंदी वाले परिसरों में प्रवेश किया गया है और विदेशियों को बंधक बना लिया गया है-जिनमें से सात को उसने शनिवार को मार डाला था।


EU concerned on kidnappings

Summary: The European Union has expressed concern over reports that relatives of three Tamil parliamentarians have been kidnapped. In a statement, the European Union condemned the abductions and called for the release of the hostages.

On Wednesday, a member of parliament for the Tamil national Alliance, Suresh Premachandran, said relatives of three of his parliamentary colleagues had been abducted in three different incidents in the North. Premachandran alleged that the three members of parliament, all of whom belong to the Tamil National Alliance, were under pressure not to vote against the government's budget on Friday. Speaking to Sandeshaya the spokesman of the British High Commission in Colombo, John Cully said that the European Union urges any one with influence over the kidnapers to act urgently to secure the release of the victims unharmed

यूरोपीय संघ ने तीन तमिल सांसदों के रिश्तेदारों के अपहरण की खबरों पर चिंता व्यक्त की है। एक बयान में, यूरोपीय संघ ने अपहरण की निंदा की और बंधकों की रिहाई का आह्वान किया।


Bulgaria 'smashes fake passport scam'

Summary: Prosecutors in Bulgaria say they have smashed a passport scam which saw thousands fraudulently acquire Bulgarian citizenship - and with it, the right to travel and work throughout the European Union.

More than 20 people have been arrested, including officials. Applicants are said to have paid up to $5,690 (£4,445) for fake certificates of Bulgarian origin. Police have raided the offices of the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad. Staff at the agency were allegedly involved in selling fake certificates to buyers in nearby non-EU countries. Many of the false applications are believed to have come from states with sizeable ethnic Bulgarian minorities, including Moldova, Macedonia and Ukraine. Some reports suggest the agency was issuing about 30 dubious certificates a week. Prosecutors say they are investigating the agency's work on counts including bribe-taking, forgery and abuse of office.

बुल्गारिया में अभियोजकों का कहना है कि उन्होंने एक पासपोर्ट घोटाले को तोड़ दिया है जिसमें हजारों लोगों ने धोखाधड़ी से बुल्गारियाई नागरिकता प्राप्त की-और इसके साथ, पूरे यूरोपीय संघ में यात्रा करने और काम करने का अधिकार।


How France is falling out of love with hunting

Summary: The French are renowned as enthusiastic hunters. The country even has a political party called Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Tradition. But, as John Laurenson reports, each new generation has a greater aversion to harming animals.

In a wood near the village of Hanches, 50 miles west of Paris, it's so quiet you can hear the rain dripping off the trees. "I like to hear all the noise in the forest. I think I am like an animal, like a prehistoric man. It's in my nature," whispers Mathieu Andro, a 38-year-old agronomy researcher with a rifle. Strung along this forest path are seven other hunters. And soon we start to hear the strange yelps of six more who, with a couple of dogs, are beating their way towards the line. There's a scuffling in the bushes and a deer darts out of the wood, stands there for a moment and bounds on. Andro swears, fumbles for his hunting horn, gives the two-blast signal for a roe and swears again. Even if he'd had time to get a shot in, the angle was too risky, he explains. If he'd taken a shot, he might have hit the next hunter in the line. But still it's annoying. He had already missed a stag the previous week. It was a pretty amazing experience though, he says, tracking it for three hours. "I was so close I could smell him." Mathieu Andro is one of the approximately one million hunters (1,246,000 according to the French Hunting Federation, 960,000 according to anti-hunting pressure groups) that make France the biggest hunting country in Europe. But every year for as long as anyone can remember the number gets smaller. Thirty years ago there were roughly twice as many. This is partly due to the decline of animals to hunt. "I've been hunting since I was 16. I'm 64 now. I can remember when there were 120 of us. Now we're 28," says Bernard Poirier, president of the Hanches hunters' association. "It's because of intensive farming," he says. "They've killed most of the small game (hare, partridge, pheasant, woodcock) grubbing up hedgerows and creating the massive fields we have now. The hare eat the pellets the farmers put down for the slugs and die and the partridges are mangled in their machines." France's deer and wild boar populations, on the other hand, are on the rise. There are so many of the latter - rooting around in crops, ramming Renault Scenics - that hunters are allowed to shoot pretty much as many as they like. Sometimes, the authorities even step in to shoot a few more. At about 10am, after succeeding in shooting precisely nothing, the Hanches hunt takes a break. There are no labels on the jars of pâtés or the bottles of wine they open up. Everything's made by the hunters themselves or their friends. I get talking to a mechanic, a school canteen cook, a bus driver and a chip stand-owner and hear about another reason for the decline of the French hunter - the cost. There's the price of the gun, the bullets and cartridges and the clothes that make you look like you've walked in from a war zone, the licence and the fee for every animal you kill (up to 300 euros for a stag). The National Federation of Hunters gives me a further reason for the disruption of hunting - people moving from the country to the towns and, more generally, from place to place. Bernard Poirier, meanwhile, says young people can't be bothered to get up early and tramp around the wet fields but prefer to fiddle around with their mobile phones. Whatever the cause, an old French tradition is under threat. French schoolchildren, taking a first stab at grown-up reading, often have a go at My Father's Glory by one of France's best-loved novelists, Marcel Pagnol. The "glory" in question is a brace of rock partridges. Guy de Maupassant wrote enthusiastically about hunting too. So did Albert Camus. All would have been keenly aware that the common people's right to hunt was the first won from the nobility by the French Revolution. Find out more Listen to John Laurenson's report for the World Tonight on the BBC iPlayer But now it's the opponents of hunting who are on the rise. In front of the Senate, the upper house of the French parliament, where a few dozen protesters are chanting "No hunting, no hunting!" I meet François Darlot, president of France Without Hunting, a pressure group that hopes that France will follow the lead of the canton of Geneva, in Switzerland, which banned hunting back in 1974. "Things have changed a lot since my father's day," Darlot says. "He was a farmer and a hunter at a time - about 50 years ago - when France had two-and-half million hunters. "The main reason for the decline is that our values have changed. We have so much more sensibility now when it comes to the animal world." On my next outing with the Hanches hunters, a small group this time, we walk over a field of wet rapeseed looking for small game. One of the younger hunters, Christophe Potier, is the first Frenchman I've seen in a good long while who wears a beret. His dog puts up a partridge. He aims, fires and brings it down. It struggles on the ground for a moment before his dog finishes it off and brings it to its master. A beautiful bird. Still warm. One of the things Christophe's hunting friend Mathieu had told me in that wood the previous day was that, a generation or two ago, French country dwellers were able to kill a chicken without thinking twice about it. Not any more - many now are too squeamish. But Christophe is more old-school. And he's got plans for his partridge. "I'm going to pluck it and cook it," he says. "Roast it probably. With mushrooms." Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.

फ्रांसीसी उत्साही शिकारियों के रूप में प्रसिद्ध हैं। देश में शिकार, मछली पकड़ना, प्रकृति, परंपरा नामक एक राजनीतिक दल भी है। लेकिन, जैसा कि जॉन लॉरेनसन बताते हैं, हर नई पीढ़ी को जानवरों को नुकसान पहुँचाने से अधिक नफरत है।


Ingoldmells death: CCTV of Buzz Bar fight witness released

Summary: Detectives have released a picture of man they want to trace as part of a murder investigation at a seaside resort.

Caroline Fisher, 52, from Eastwood in Nottinghamshire, died in hospital after a fight outside Buzz Bar on Sea Lane in Ingoldmells, Lincolnshire, on 20 July. Lincolnshire Police said the man may have witnessed the incident that led to her death. The force said he may have also been a victim of an assault himself. A 30-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man from South Yorkshire arrested on suspicion of murder have been bailed.

जासूसों ने एक व्यक्ति की तस्वीर जारी की है जिसका वे समुद्र तटीय रिसॉर्ट में हत्या की जांच के हिस्से के रूप में पता लगाना चाहते हैं।


Covid vaccine in South Africa: Behind the slow rollout

Summary: South Africa was swift to impose a strict lockdown and rigorous testing at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but its vaccination programme can best be described as stuttering - despite it having the worst mortality figures on the African continent.

By Pumza FihlaniBBC News, Johannesburg In January, the country appeared to be finally out of the blocks - and faster than other African countries when it came to getting hold of the vaccines - but the rollout has since faltered. With only 0.5% of the population vaccinated, South Africa lags behind the likes of Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Botswana. The government has had to push back its target of injecting 40 million South Africans, about two-thirds of the population, by December to next March. And with winter fast approaching there are concerns about a third wave of coronavirus infections - particularly as not all frontline health workers have yet had a jab. Critics say that had officials planned better, millions of South Africans - instead of just 300,000 - would be vaccinated by now. Last year, the government talked tough about how seriously it was taking the virus and how closely it was following the science. Yet when it came time to securing vaccines, the country seemed to rely on getting them through the global Covax scheme. The idea behind the initiative was to pool resources to support the development of vaccines with a view to ensure that all countries received a fair supply of effective vaccines. But wealthier nations have seemingly stymied its effectiveness by doing deals with manufacturers guaranteeing themselves a supply meaning Covax has struggled to obtain enough doses. AstraZeneca vaccines rejected Covax aside, South Africa's vaccine programme had other problems. The country eventually secured a deal in January to buy the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India, paying more than double the amount charged to the European Union. Then in February a study in South Africa involving some 2,000 people found that the vaccine offered "minimal protection" against mild and moderate cases of the coronavirus variant that is most common in the country. As a result, the vaccine programme was put on hold, and South Africa sold its one million doses to the African Union. Prof Shabir Madhi, who led the AstraZeneca trials in South Africa, said the sale was a mistake, as the vaccines already acquired should have been used for high-risk people. "The AstraZeneca will still protect against severe disease, even if it didn't protect against mild and moderate case," local media quoted him as saying. "Selling our AstraZeneca vaccines was a miscalculation by our government; one that has set us back by several months in terms of our vaccination rollout." In February the country did become the first in the world to administer the single-dose Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine after studies showed it had a higher protection rate against the South African variant than other jabs. Johnson & Johnson delay It was issued before its licence was granted as part of a trial, known as the Sisonke study, to vaccinate heath workers Though this too hit a hurdle early in April when the US Food and Drug Administration suspended it after it found six people had developed a rare blood clot after having the vaccine. South Africa followed suit, saying it needed time to consult local health experts on how to procced. The suspension was lifted later in the month, yet unlike the US, South Africa had not had the luxury of changing to another vaccine during the J&J suspension. "The lesson here is to truly consider the benefit-risk ratio before taking such a decision," the Businesstech website quotes Prof Madhi as saying. It is a sentiment shared by Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa from the South African Medical Association, an advocacy organisation for doctors. More on South Africa's Covid crisis: "At the time of the US decision we had our own data from more than 200,000 health workers who were part of the Sisonke trial," he told the BBC. "What the government should have done was look at that data first and see whether there had been any reports of a similar problem instead of simply copying and pasting what the US were doing and stopping the trial abruptly." 'Delays create suspicion' Dr Mzukwa is concerned that the way the J&J issue was handled may contribute to vaccine hesitancy. "It may cause more suspicion now. The government will need to make a concerted effort to assure communities, in their own language, that the vaccine is safe to take. If they don't, we may find ourselves facing vaccine hesitancy and we can't afford that in vulnerable communities." And some do have the jitters, like Johannesburg-based insurance salesman Langa Mavuso, who told the BBC he would not get the injection unless it became mandatory, despite the World Health Organization saying the vaccines are safe, with some experiencing only mild side effects. "I personally don't want to be the first to get the vaccine. What if there are irreversible problems?" Even physiotherapist Donna Dudley, whose family has a history of blood clots, is nervous but may get the injection to protect her patients. For Johannesburg estate agent Eniel Noeth it all comes down to safety: "I'm happy about the delays because I believe that testing still continues during this time and hopefully when improvements have been made to the vaccines." Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize denies that the pauses were an overreaction and rejects accusations that the vaccination programme has been haphazard. And he does not foresee further delays, recently announcing that the country had now secured a total of 51 million jabs from various manufacturers to be delivered in tranches during the course of the year: The vaccinations will then be done in three phases: But for some, the plan is just too slow. Reality Check: "Hundreds of people come in and out of the shop every day. Yes we take measures to protect ourselves but I want the vaccine so I'm sure I've done everything to protect my family," Thembeka Mnisi, a retail store manager and mother of two, told the BBC. Prof Thumbi Ndung'u, deputy director of the African Health Research Institute, says there is an urgency in light of new waves and mutations. "We need to be vaccinating people at a much faster rate than we are doing currently," he told the BBC. "It is important that our government learns some lessons from other countries such as India on how devastating this virus can be." Around the BBC Africa Today podcasts

दक्षिण अफ्रीका ने कोरोनावायरस महामारी की शुरुआत में एक सख्त लॉकडाउन और कठोर परीक्षण लागू करने में तेजी दिखाई थी, लेकिन अफ्रीकी महाद्वीप पर सबसे खराब मृत्यु दर होने के बावजूद इसके टीकाकरण कार्यक्रम को हकलाने के रूप में वर्णित किया जा सकता है।


Why the UK has a high child death rate

Summary: The UK has one of the most advanced health systems in the world, but one of worst child mortality rates in Western Europe. In this week's Scrubbing Up, Dr Ingrid Wolfe of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and lead author of a report published this week entitled 'Why Children Die' examines why the UK is lagging behind its European counterparts and suggests what we should be doing about it.

By Dr Ingrid WolfeRoyal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Around 6,000 children and young people die a year in the UK. Over two-thirds of these are aged under five, and the majority are under the age of one. These statistics alone don't tell us much. However, by looking at where the UK sits compared to other European countries, we get a much clearer picture of how well we're actually performing. Lagging behind A paper published this week in the Lancet reveals that the UK is bottom of the Western European league table when it comes to child mortality rates of under-fives. We have higher rates than countries including Cyprus, Greece, Spain and Portugal and are more in-line with Poland and Serbia than with the high performing countries such as Iceland, Sweden and Germany. Even if you don't compare the UK to other individual countries and instead look at the Western European average, the number of under-fives deaths is around 25% higher in the UK. Perhaps even more worryingly, despite overall child mortality rates declining in the UK, the rate of improvement is slower than other Western European countries. The Lancet paper shows that by 2030 we'll still be lagging behind other European countries. So we know for a fact that we are performing badly and we're not improving quickly enough. But why is the UK lagging behind? Is it the healthcare system and quality of care our children receive, or are there lifestyle factors at play? What is it that makes other countries better than us? In reality, it's a combination of factors; but just because the causes are complex that shouldn't stop us looking for solutions. No coincidence This week the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health launched a report - Why Children Die - that dug deeper into what it is children die from and which of these deaths can be prevented. Our overarching conclusion was that risk of child death disproportionally affects poorer families. When you compare Britain to the rest of Europe, we are one of the most unequal societies, with a growing gap between rich and poor. It is no coincidence that our child mortality rates are also the worst. Our analysis of the causes of child deaths shows many deaths in under-fives are due to risky behaviours (such as smoking) during pregnancy, which is more common among women who are socially disadvantaged. Drinking during pregnancy is another risk factor, as is children being around second-hand smoke and unsafe sleeping - all of which can contribute to premature death. So what do we want to see? The focus has to be on reducing the growing gap between rich and poor - put simply, countries that spend more on social protection have lower child mortality rates. Stark message Social protection means things like helping poor families to make sure they have safe secure housing, enough healthy food to eat, and money to buy shoes for their children. But we also need to focus on improving health of mothers, preventing babies being born too early, and making sure all healthcare professionals who look after babies are better trained to spot early when a child may become seriously ill and act quickly. Our report 'Why Children Die' recommends: •Withdrawing the new cap on welfare spending and implementing a safety net so that the rising living costs do not hit families with the lowest incomes •Action across the health system to promote smoking cessation in pregnancy and before •Targeted awareness campaigns for safe sleeping to prevent sudden infant death syndrome •Better training for healthcare staff: All frontline health professionals involved in the acute assessment of children and young people should be confident and competent to recognise a sick child and know what to do about it. The messages are stark; living in an unequal society raises the risk of children dying. It's time to put piecemeal policies aside and bring the UK up to standard of the best when it comes to the health of our children.

ब्रिटेन में दुनिया की सबसे उन्नत स्वास्थ्य प्रणालियों में से एक है, लेकिन पश्चिमी यूरोप में सबसे खराब बाल मृत्यु दर में से एक है। इस सप्ताह के स्क्रबिंग अप में, रॉयल कॉलेज ऑफ पीडियाट्रिक्स एंड चाइल्ड हेल्थ के डॉ. इंग्रिड वोल्फ और इस सप्ताह प्रकाशित एक रिपोर्ट के प्रमुख लेखक 'क्यों बच्चे मरते हैं' इस बात की जांच करते हैं कि ब्रिटेन अपने यूरोपीय समकक्षों से पीछे क्यों है और सुझाव देता है कि हमें इसके बारे में क्या करना चाहिए।


Strabane: Two men charged over aggravated burglary

Summary: Two men have been charged in relation to an aggravated burglary in Strabane, County Tyrone, on Sunday.

Police received reports of two men forcing entry to a house in Ballycolman estate and attacking two occupants with a hammer and stealing a car. The men, aged 22 and 24, will appear before Strabane Magistrates' Court on Tuesday. They face charges including grievous bodily harm, aggravated burglary with intent to steal and criminal damage.

रविवार को स्ट्राबाने, काउंटी टायरोन में एक गंभीर चोरी के संबंध में दो लोगों पर आरोप लगाया गया है।


Skelmersdale fire attack: Two attempted murder arrests

Summary: Two men have been arrested on suspicion of attempting to kill a man who was doused in a flammable liquid and set on fire as he answered the door of his home.

The 48-year-old was targeted in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, in the early hours of Thursday. Two men aged 32 and 35, were held on suspicion of wounding, attempted murder and arson with intent to endanger life. The two arrested men, from Liverpool and Skelmersdale, remain in custody. The victim suffered serious burns and remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital, police said. Related Internet Links Lancashire Police

एक व्यक्ति को मारने की कोशिश करने के संदेह में दो लोगों को गिरफ्तार किया गया है, जिसे एक ज्वलनशील तरल में डाल दिया गया था और आग लगा दी गई थी क्योंकि वह अपने घर का दरवाजा खोल रहा था।


Kimchi: South Korea's efforts to boost its national dish

Summary: Korea's sour and spicy national dish, kimchi, has begun popping up in supermarkets and on restaurant menus in Europe and the US. Even America's First Lady Michelle Obama has shared her recipe. And the government is hoping it will spearhead a drive to promote Korean food overseas.

By Lucy WilliamsonBBC News, Seoul Standing in her well-equipped kimchi laboratory, her coral lipstick bright against her white lab coat, Kim Soon-ja directs a team of research assistants in their latest project. Giant flasks of pink and yellow kimchi stock tower over the work-table, as they test salt levels in a petri-dish of spicy gloop. Mrs Kim is South Korea's kimchi Grand Master, and a secret weapon in expanding the appeal of the country's national dish. "I started to experiment with kimchi recipes when I was a child," she said. "I couldn't imagine my life without it." Few Koreans could. Kimchi, traditionally made with cabbage, is seen as synonymous with national culture, credited with fighting off infections, the respiratory illness SARS and even cancer. The annual Korean ritual of making it has recently been listed as by the UN cultural organisation Unesco as an Intangible Cultural Heritage. Quite a lot for a humble dish of fermented vegetables. "Kimchi is symbolic of Korea," said Dr Park Chae-lin of the World Kimchi Institute in Gwangju. "One can see it on every meal table throughout the day." "And because [Koreans have] been exposed to it from such a young age, there's a feeling of nostalgia for it when they get older: the flavour of their mother's kimchi. It's part of the identity of Koreans." So why is Mrs Kim tinkering around with a national icon? The answer lies many thousands of miles away - in the factories of China and the restaurants of the West. Kimchi has already started to appear on upscale London menus. New pop-up snack stalls are offering kimchi-topped burgers or Korean-flavoured tacos to the city's cosmopolitan lunchtime crowd. This new visibility is partly the result of South Korea's growing cultural prominence, and partly the fruit of a long-running government campaign to promote Korean food overseas. "Ever since Korea hosted the Olympics in 1988," says Dr Park, "there was a strong drive to introduce kimchi to the world, as a food that represented Korea." "But there was also a hesitation back then; a lack of confidence about whether people would really like it, or would be put off by the garlic smell." Kimchi is traditionally made by adding a paste of chilli, garlic and fish sauce to salted cabbage, and allowing it to ferment - sometimes for several months, or even years. It has a distinctive sharp-sour smell and a robust, spicy flavour, which varies between each batch, and each family recipe. Korea may be more confident now, but the old recipes, says Mrs Kim, are still considered too spicy and too "aromatic" for modern global tastes. "Foreigners don't like it too spicy. Even Korean children don't like it too strong these days." "These pink and yellow liquids are my new patented kimchi mixtures," she said. "They're less spicy, less salty and they have no smell at all." This year, the government is due to invest almost $9m (£5.5m) in R&D into Korean traditional foods, with kimchi at the forefront of that campaign. There is another $34 million (£21m) available for improving manufacturing facilities. But then there are strong reasons, aside from cultural diplomacy, why the government might be keen to promote its national icon overseas. China competition For all South Korea's pride in kimchi, its trade statistics reveal a different story: that South Korea is a net importer of its national dish. In 2012, the country imported almost eight times the amount of kimchi it exported, with most of those imports coming from China. Kimchi produced there is cheaper, but few Koreans know they're eating it, because Chinese-made kimchi doesn't appear on supermarket shelves here: sales staff say that customers would not buy it. Instead, it ends up in the catering industry, where it's hidden from view. Worried by China's growing role as a kimchi producer, the South Korean government is planning to tighten rules on restaurants this year, insisting they list the origin of their ingredients prominently for customers to see. "We need to raise awareness of the true value of Korean national kimchi" said Lee Yong-jik, deputy director at the Ministry of Agriculture's kimchi department. Many Koreans, like him, insist that national geography is crucial to kimchi's alleged anti-bacterial properties. "The ingredients are really important," Mrs Kim explained in her kimchi lab, "not to mention the water, the temperature and also the humidity." "It's Korea where those elements exist, so the kimchi made in Korea is full of very healthy enzymes. In China, the ingredients are different, and the environment is different as well, so you don't get the same enzymes. Korean kimchi and Chinese kimchi are two totally different things." Perhaps the ultimate irony in all this is that, as government investment and global interest in their national dish grows, Koreans themselves are eating less of it. "Domestic consumption has dropped dramatically," says Dr Park of the World Kimchi Institute. "People rarely have all three meals at home these days, they're trying to eat less salty foods, and there's more choice available. Western foods are becoming much more common, even at home, and people don't tend to eat kimchi with spaghetti." The government has noticed the trend too - and wants to reverse it. "We're trying to educate people," said Mr Lee of the Agriculture Ministry. "To get them accustomed to Korean food, starting from childhood; hold training courses, and make it fun for families." With increasing competition from overseas producers, and declining consumption at home, kimchi, as one prominent politician put it, "is going through an ordeal as harsh as a Korean winter". But its place on Western menus also offers South Korea the chance to reinvent its iconic, home-spun dish. Mrs Kim's formula for foreigners may end up working quite well at home.

कोरिया का खट्टा और मसालेदार राष्ट्रीय व्यंजन, किमची, यूरोप और अमेरिका में सुपरमार्केट और रेस्तरां मेनू में उभरना शुरू हो गया है। यहां तक कि अमेरिका की प्रथम महिला मिशेल ओबामा ने भी अपनी रेसिपी साझा की है। और सरकार उम्मीद कर रही है कि वह कोरियाई भोजन को विदेशों में बढ़ावा देने के लिए एक अभियान का नेतृत्व करेगी।


In pictures: Life in Chechnya

Summary: An exhibition of photographs by Davide Monteleone, winner of the fourth Carmignac Gestion Photojournalism Award, has opened in London. The Italian's project, Spasibo, documents life in the southern Russian republic of Chechnya, focusing on the social, political and economic situation.

Surrounded on nearly all sides by Russian territory, Chechnya also shares a remote border with Georgia, high in the Caucasus mountains. Rich in oil, Chechnya's economy and infrastructure were reduced to ruins by years of war between local separatists and Russian forces, combined with armed banditry and organised crime. Monteleone became an editorial photographer for the Contrasto agency in 2000. The following year, he moved to Moscow as a correspondent and now pursues long-term personal projects. He says: "Even though I come from the tradition of documentary photography, my goal is not only to inform, but to create images that are the interpretation of an idea. I want the audience of my work to get curious about the subject of my research and to start investigating themselves." Monteleone travelled to Chechnya in late 2013 through to April 2014 to produce this project. Wrestling practice in Grozny's central gym takes place under portraits of Akhmad Kadyrov, Vladimir Putin and Ramzan Kadyrov. Mr Kadyrov is the son of assassinated President Akhmad Kadyrov and a dominant figure in Chechen politics. He was nominated for the Chechen presidency by Russian President Vladimir Putin in spring 2007 and approved almost unanimously by the Chechen parliament. "A group of pro-Kadyrov activists in the main city square for the 10th anniversary celebration of Constitution Day. In the background, the Central Mosque and the Grozny-City skyscrapers, the main symbol of the reconstruction of Grozny and Chechnya thanks to the efforts of President Kadyrov and money from Moscow," says Monteleone. Security forces attend the same event. In the background, the five gleaming Grozny-City Towers. "A group of men leaving the Akhmad Kadyrov Mosque, officially known as The Heart of Chechnya, after the Friday prayer. Islam, so long suppressed here, is now heavily promoted," says Monteleone. "A girl praying in the only official female madrassa in Chechnya and in Russia. This is one of the oldest madrassas, where girls and women can study the Islamic religion," Monteleone adds. "There is little left of the Orthodox religion in Chechnya. Most of its Russian Christian minority fled in the early 1990s, during the creation of Dzhokhar Dudayev's independent Chechen state." "Rada, age 14, trying on a wedding dress designed by her sister, on board a bus during the rehearsal for the shooting of a movie on Chechen deportation." Spasibo, an exhibition of photographs by Davide Monteleone, fourth laureate of the Carmignac Gestion Photojournalism Award, runs 11 October - 3 November 2014, at the Saatchi Gallery, London.

चौथे कारमिग्नाक गेस्टियन फोटो पत्रकारिता पुरस्कार के विजेता डेविड मोंटेलियोन की तस्वीरों की एक प्रदर्शनी लंदन में शुरू हुई है। इतालवी परियोजना, स्पासिबो, सामाजिक, राजनीतिक और आर्थिक स्थिति पर ध्यान केंद्रित करते हुए, दक्षिणी रूसी गणराज्य चेचन्या में जीवन का दस्तावेजीकरण करती है।


Tips on how to limit excessive screen time

Summary: New guidance from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) has stopped short of recommending specific limits on screen time, saying there is little evidence that it is harmful. But some parents have told the BBC they are frustrated by the advice and England's children's commissioner has said parents need more support.

By Laurel IvesBBC Health Andy, whose son is 14, contacted the BBC to say he was disappointed by the advice. "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that screen time is damaging school performance and sports performance and dangerously addictive. "I have had to restrict my son's screen time to a Friday after school and a Saturday, due to lack of focus at school. His default was to head straight to the Xbox (which I would certainly classify as screen time... it is just a game after all which most boys are engaging in across all devices). "After some grumbling, he has settled in and we have seen an improvement in school performance. "I coach the under-15 football team and it is very clear, even with a 14:00 kick-off on a Sunday, who has been up all night on some form of screen." Anne Longfield, the children's commissioner, believes guidance is sorely needed by parents. "The fact that there isn't enough evidence doesn't mean we shouldn't have a view and try to work out what's best to do. Children are getting screens earlier, the average age to get a smartphone is now nine. Parents tell me that it is the one thing that drives them mad, causes huge rows, and they don't know what to do about it. "Parents are worried their kids will be socially damaged if they don't give them a phone, so they're in a tough spot." Is your family's screen time out of control? The RCPCH said there was no good evidence yet that time in front of a screen is definitely "toxic" to health, although they did publish a list of questions families can ask to assess whether screen use is affecting their children negatively. The questions are: So if parents feel like screen time is having an adverse impact on their children's life, what should they do? Set boundaries Last year, Anne Longfield published the Digital 5 A Day campaign, which encouraged the whole family to have a healthy digital lifestyle, including parents. "It can't be that parents have their phones in their hand the whole time. It works best if the whole family can look into a healthy digital way of life." Anne Longfield's tips for managing screen time include: Ms Longfield is now calling on the government to put digital emotional resilience into schools in Years 6 and 7. She is also calling for tech companies to be more "robust and have a duty of care for their users". Prioritise sleep Dr Richard Graham is a child and adolescent psychiatrist. In 2010, he launched the UK's first Technology Addiction Service for young people, and is on the board of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety. He recommends that clients adopt the American Academy of Pediatrics family media plan, which allows a family to set limits together. "This plan helps a family to look at the sort of media you are going to access, rather than restriction without explanation. "There is good stuff online, which can make us feel well and healthy. A funny filter on Snapchat for example, can lift a child's mood. But there is also toxic content, and also the fact that screen time can disrupt important and necessary things like sleep, exercise and conversation." His tips include: 'A focus on appearance can lead to unhappiness' Dr Tara Porter, a clinical psychologist specialising in child and adolescent mental health, says she is concerned about screen use as a clinician and a parent. "Girls are being sucked into drama at a younger age, things said face-to-face are often less hurtful than things said in the online echo chamber, which can be escalated," she says. "A focus on the best appearance can also lead to dissatisfaction and unhappiness." Her tips include: Use tech to limit screen time Concerned parents have a bewildering array of options to choose from when seeking to manage how much time their children spend on screens. Some home routers and security packages allow parents to set time limits for devices and monitor and police what can be seen online. Some can be used to impose time limits but these can be very blunt tools. Most game consoles and computers include tools that can restrict how long the particular gadget is used for. Finally, there are apps and other tools from Apple, Google, Facebook and others that can monitor how much time is spent on various programmes. Some let parents set hard limits so net access, apps or machines are locked at specific times. A non-profit organisation Child Net has a guide that gives advice and links for concerned parents.

रॉयल कॉलेज ऑफ पीडियाट्रिक्स एंड चाइल्ड हेल्थ (आर. सी. पी. सी. एच.) के नए मार्गदर्शन ने स्क्रीन समय पर विशिष्ट सीमाओं की सिफारिश करना बंद कर दिया है, यह कहते हुए कि इसके हानिकारक होने के बहुत कम सबूत हैं। लेकिन कुछ माता-पिता ने बी. बी. सी. को बताया है कि वे सलाह से निराश हैं और इंग्लैंड के बच्चों के आयुक्त ने कहा है कि माता-पिता को अधिक समर्थन की आवश्यकता है।


Coping with the loss of a pet

Summary: Reports in the media say the Queen has been left "heartbroken" by the loss of her corgi Willow , who famously appeared in a film with Daniel Craig's James Bond during the London Olympics' opening ceremony.

By Lucy WebsterBBC News Pets are members of the family, and it can feel like a huge loss when they pass away. So how can you cope if this happens, and what support is out there if you need a little help doing so? Alessandra had to explain to her son Ethan, who has autism, that his support dog Cocoa had died suddenly from eating sweets at a family friend's house. "It tore our life apart," says Alessandra. Cocoa had helped Ethan learn to walk, to go outside in busy London, and to cope with separation from his mum. And on some occasions she saved his life, Alessandra says, by sensing he was about to have a seizure. She described the loss as "devastating, life changing". "For myself as a single parent, she was my reason to get out and talk to people. She was a therapy dog when my son was at school. She was an angel and touched so many lives." Alessandra knew it would be very difficult to explain to Ethan what had happened, as he has limited comprehension. While Ethan was at school, she found a statue of a sleeping dog. "I left it in the place where Cocoa always slept. When he came back I explained that 'Cocoa is now sleeping with angels'. That really helped." Tips for coping Kiran Singh, a mindfulness, wellbeing and relationship life coach, sets out three ways to help yourself deal with the loss of a pet: Talk through it - The best thing you can do is find people you can talk to about your pet. Reach out to others who have lost pets. Check out online message boards, pet loss hotlines, and pet loss support groups. Find a support group — many veterinary schools have them. Look after yourself - The stress of losing a pet can quickly deplete your energy and emotional reserves. Looking after your physical and emotional needs will help you to get through this difficult time. Eat a healthy diet and get plenty of sleep. Exercise - Pets help many older adults to stay active and playful, which can boost your immune system and increase your energy. It's important to keep up your activity levels after the loss of your pet. Check with your doctor before starting an exercise programme and then find an activity that you enjoy. 'Special bond' The Blue Cross, a leading UK pet charity, offers support to people whose pets have died. It emphasises that mourning for a pet can be an unexpectedly hard time: "Feelings of despair, loneliness and even depression can be overwhelming," it says on its website. It says: "There may also be a strong sense of guilt and self-doubt, particularly when a decision has been taken to euthanase or rehome a pet. "These feelings are normal and a testimony to the special bond between people and their pets." The charity offers support because, it says, "we often hear that friends, family members or colleagues don't quite understand the upset that losing a pet can bring, and grieving for a pet can be a very lonely experience." Bereaved owners can submit an online form, or call or text the Blue Cross, to get support from a fully trained team. For Naomi Timperley, the key to dealing with losing her cats has been to bond with new animals. "My way of coping emotionally has been to get cats who have looked similar to the previous cats." This means she has had a succession of black and white cats - from Ludwig, Dave and Rolo to new kitten Winnie. "This has helped me with the grieving process. I will never forget any of my cats."

मीडिया की रिपोर्टों में कहा गया है कि महारानी अपने कॉर्गि विलो के निधन से "दुखी" रह गई हैं, जो लंदन ओलंपिक के उद्घाटन समारोह के दौरान डैनियल क्रेग के जेम्स बॉन्ड के साथ एक फिल्म में दिखाई दिए थे।


The life of Longbridge: A transition from boom to bust

Summary: Ten years ago mass car production at Longbridge plant in Birmingham came to an end. Before that though the factory, which Herbert Austin set up in 1906, survived World Wars One and Two. It also fought off post-war economic depression and the emergence of the motor industry abroad. It also recovered from strike action, mergers and take-overs and drops in its share value.

By Bethan BellBBC News Herbert Austin resigned from his job at car-maker Wolseley in 1905, in order to set up his own firm - the Austin Motor Company. He had already found a site he wanted for his factory, and in 1906 he bought buildings and land at Longbridge. He sold 23 cars that year, with a turnover of £4,772. Also in 1906 In 1908, Austin, along with Frank Kayser of Kayser, Ellison and Company, and Harvey du Cros of the Dunlop Rubber Company formed a private limited liability company. Turnover shot up to £19,744 and 254 cars sold. At the time, other manufacturers were making six-cylinder engines. Determined to stay with the competition, Austin added two cylinders to his 40hp model. Also in 1908 A smaller, cheaper car went into production in 1909 - the Austin 15. It was unusual in that the driver sat centrally and above the engine. The 15 continued in production until 1919. By 1910, nearly 1,000 workers were employed at Longbridge and a night shift was introduced. Also in 1910 The advent of World War One saw the company produce munitions, including 8 million shells, 2,000 aircraft and 2,000 trucks and lorries. The factory expanded and to accommodate workers, Austin established a village for his employees - bungalows with at least seven bedrooms and houses with 12, which were used dormitory-style. Also in 1914 Accounts for 1920-21 showed the company suffered in the post-war years. Austin's ordinary shares plunged in value. In an attempt at recovery, the Austin 7 was created. The new model was exhibited at the 1922 Olympia Motor Show. With a price of £25, many more people were able to afford to buy a car. The factory expanded in 1926 to cover 62 acres. Also in 1922 In 1936, Sir Herbert Austin was elevated to the peerage, taking the title of Lord Austin of Longbridge. He died in 1941. World War Two saw the plant produce more than half a million jerry cans and helmets, as well as suspension units for tanks. Also in 1941 Austin and Morris (Nuffield) Motors merged to form the British Motor Corporation in 1952. The brainchild of car designer Sir Alec Issigonis, the Morris Mini Minor seized the imagination of the public. In 1968, the British Motor Company was taken over by Leyland to become the British Leyland Motor Company. Also in 1968 The Austin Allegro, with its square steering wheel, was launched in 1971. It became popular despite problems including the fact the boot lid was too small for the boot aperture and windscreens would pop out. Launched in 1980, the Mini Metro brought the restoration of the Austin name to a British Leyland car. Also in 1980 In 1986, Austin Rover became known as the Rover Group and the car lost its Austin badge in 1987. The Rover Metro became the Rover 100, which it remained until it ceased production in 1997. The Rover Group was sold to British Aerospace in 1988, to BMW in 1994, and to the Phoenix Consortium in 2000. The new company went into administration in 2005. It was announced 6,000 people would be made redundant. Eventually bought by China's largest vehicle manufacturer, SAIC, a 60-acre site now employs about 400 people, where cars built in China are assembled. Anniversaries source: BBC Archives

दस साल पहले बर्मिंघम में लॉन्गब्रिज संयंत्र में बड़े पैमाने पर कार का उत्पादन समाप्त हो गया था। इससे पहले 1906 में हर्बर्ट ऑस्टिन द्वारा स्थापित कारखाना प्रथम और द्वितीय विश्व युद्ध से बच गया था। इसने युद्ध के बाद के आर्थिक अवसाद और विदेशों में मोटर उद्योग के उदय से भी लड़ाई लड़ी। यह हड़ताल कार्रवाई, विलय और अधिग्रहण से भी उबर गया और इसके शेयर मूल्य में गिरावट आई।


M25 shut in Surrey after crash

Summary: The M25 in Surrey has reopened after traffic delays built up for several miles following a collision involving two vehicles.

The crash happened between junction 11 at Chertsey and junction 10 at Wisley at about 07:30 GMT on Monday. Long traffic delays built up as both carriageways were closed to allow an air ambulance to land. All clockwise lanes reopened at 08:05 GMT, with three anticlockwise lanes opening at 09:10 GMT. At the height of the delays traffic built up anticlockwise as far as junction 16 with the M40. Traffic was redirected away from the motorway at junction 11 but several miles of trapped traffic had to wait to be released.

दो वाहनों की टक्कर के बाद कई मील तक यातायात में देरी के बाद सरे में एम25 फिर से खुल गया है।


Is there a link between Scotland's exclusion rates and knife crime?

Summary: A spate of knife crime in England has been linked to an increase in the number of young people excluded from school. But in Scotland - where just five pupils were permanently removed from the classroom in 2017 - knife violence has fallen.

By Nichola RutherfordBBC Scotland News Why has Scotland's school exclusion rate dropped - and has it had a real impact on crime? How many children are excluded from school in Scotland? Official statistics show that more than 18,000 children were temporarily removed from their classroom in 2016/17. Just five young people were excluded permanently or "removed from the register". Exclusions of all kinds have dropped by 59% since 2006/07, when 44,794 children were suspended from school - 248 of them on a permanent basis. The statistics relate to publicly-funded local authority schools in Scotland, not grant-aided or independent schools, or early-learning and childcare establishments. However in England Department for Education figures show that permanent exclusions increased by 56% between 2013/14 and 2016/17. The number of permanent exclusions across all state-funded primary, secondary and special schools stood at 7,720 in 2016/17. Why has there been a drop in exclusions in Scotland? Young people in Scotland can only be excluded from school in the most extreme circumstances. And councils are duty-bound to provide a school education to all excluded pupils - whether that is in another local school, a school in a different education authority, or at an alternative location to school. A spokeswoman for the Scottish government said: "We are committed to ensuring that all children and young people get the support that they need to reach their full learning potential with a focus on prevention and early intervention. "Pupils are not 'removed from the roll' in Scotland and we expect children continue to receive an education while excluded, either at another school or alternative location." She added: "Our approach to knife crime, also focusing on early intervention and prevention with young people, is recognised across the UK and internationally as making a real difference in keeping people safer." How do schools deal with difficult students? For many young people facing exclusion, their behaviour has been a "cry for help". Meg Thomas, who works with schools in Glasgow and North Lanarkshire, said pupils can be communicating stress they are experiencing at home. If they are excluded and sent back home, they return to that stressful place. It can also put them at risk of sexual and criminal exploitation. Ms Thomas works for Includem, a third-sector organisation that supports young people in challenging circumstances. She said that when students are at risk of exclusion, Includem often join meetings which are held with social workers, health staff, police officers. They try to uncover the root of the difficult behaviour, to help the young person understand the consequences of their actions and their own emotions. She may discover that they have experienced trauma, witnessed domestic abuse or they undiagnosed health problems. And it allows the school to understand how they can best help the student - without resorting to exclusion. Ms Thomas says it is a system which works but Includem currently only works in a small number of Scottish local authority areas. "We need to stop getting kids excluded because we know it mean they stop entering the criminal justice system," she said. "If we put the money in the right place at the right time, it will have long term cost savings across Scotland." Is there a link between school exclusions and knife crime? Research by Edinburgh University academics has found that young people who were excluded from school were much more likely to be end up in the criminal justice system and prison. But Prof Susan McVie, one of the authors of the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime, said the link with knife crime was less clear. "There is a connection in the sense that people who are excluded from school are more likely to be involved in carrying weapons," she said. They found that young people who carried weapons were twice as likely to be excluded from school as those who did not carry weapons. "But when we looked at a whole raft of factors that might impact on whether people carried weapons, school exclusion actually turned out to be quite marginal," Prof McVie added. "It wasn't the most important thing in terms of explaining people's behaviour." She said young people who self-harmed were more likely to carry weapons, as were those who were poorly supervised by their parents and those who felt socially-marginalised in their communities. Although there has been a reduction in violent crime in Scotland and school exclusions, she said it was very difficult to prove a causal connection. And she suggested that Scotland's experience proved there was not one single solution to the apparent surge in knife crime in England. "We have seen big reductions in violent crime in parts of Scotland where it was very, very high," she said. "But it's worth also saying we've seen big reductions in violence where it wasn't very high. It not just what was done in Glasgow around the violence reduction unit that has been effective, there's a whole raft of things, of which reducing school exclusion was one. "But better education, better youth work, better employment opportunities for young people - there's a whole raft of things and there's no one single solution."

इंग्लैंड में चाकू से होने वाले अपराध को स्कूल से बाहर किए गए युवाओं की संख्या में वृद्धि से जोड़ा गया है। लेकिन स्कॉटलैंड में-जहां 2017 में केवल पांच छात्रों को स्थायी रूप से कक्षा से हटा दिया गया था-चाकू से होने वाली हिंसा में कमी आई है।


First Milk jobs at risk in Haverfordwest and Aspatria

Summary: A total of 30 jobs are under threat at two First Milk creameries in Pembrokeshire and the Lake District.

Bosses said the move was part of an efficiency drive, with 10 posts set to go in Haverfordwest and 20 at its plant in Aspatria, Cumbria. "We recognise that the impact of these proposed changes is significant for the people affected and we are committed to treating people with respect and consideration," said a spokesman. A staff consultation starts this week.

पेम्ब्रोकेशायर और लेक डिस्ट्रिक्ट में दो फर्स्ट मिल्क क्रीमरीज में कुल 30 नौकरियां खतरे में हैं।


Pedestrian dies in Weymouth lorry crash

Summary: A pedestrian has died after being knocked down by a lorry in Weymouth.

Dorset Police said the crash happened shortly before 10:00 GMT on Lynch Lane in the town. The pedestrian, a woman aged in her 50s and from Weymouth, died at the scene. The lorry driver was unhurt. The road was closed for a time while investigation work was carried out. Police have appealed for information from witnesses or anyone who has dashcam footage.

वेमाउथ में एक लॉरी की चपेट में आने से एक पैदल यात्री की मौत हो गई है।


Otter found dead in fishing gear in loch near Aviemore

Summary: An otter has been found dead in the Cairngorms in what police said appeared to be old, discarded fishing gear.

The animal, an adult male, was found in the small loch near Aviemore on 9 August. Otters are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. Local police wildlife officer PC Gary Dunlop said it was an "unfortunate incident". He said: "Although the net is old it was still in a condition to cause the death of this animal." The officer added: "We would ask anyone visiting a loch in the area to respect the countryside and take away whatever they bring with them, including disposable food containers. "Local landowners have been contacted, made aware of the incident and fully support this message." Related Internet Links Police Scotland

केयर्नगोर्म्स में एक ऊदबिलाव मृत पाया गया है, जिसे पुलिस ने पुराना, फेंका हुआ मछली पकड़ने का सामान बताया है।


Finding God in the anguish of violence

Summary: As violence has intensified in Indian-administered Kashmir, people have been flocking to the region's fabled Sufi shrines in search of solace. Sameer Yasir speaks to photographer Azan Shah, who has been documenting the anguish of the devotees.

Bakhti Begam is a regular at Khanqah-e-Moula, a Muslim Sufi shrine located on the banks of river Jhelum, which careens through the heart of Srinagar city. She arrives quietly, holding a framed photograph of her missing son in a torn plastic bag. She places it on the stairs leading to the sanctum sanctorum and prays to be united with him. "Please listen to me, my peer [saint]. I am broken, my peer," the 75-year-old cries with folded hands. Her son, Manzoor Ahmad Wani, who was 25 at the time, disappeared on 22 December, 2001, a few days after he got married. Bakhti Begam regularly makes the 80km (50-mile) trip to the shrine from her home. But her prayers are yet to be answered. "I have come from far away, my peer. Please give me my Manzoor. I will sleep peacefully after 17 years," she laments. Bakhti Begam is just one of the many characters featured in the works of photographer Azan Shah. Mr Shah came into the limelight when his pictures were published in a book called Witness along with a number of other photojournalists who have worked in the state during decades of conflict. The book was among the 10 best photo books of 2017 chosen by the New York Times. Separatists have waged a violent campaign against Indian rule in Muslim-majority Kashmir since 1989. The region remains a subject of bitter dispute between India and Pakistan, who have fought two of their three wars over it. India has long accused Pakistan of fuelling the unrest, a charge Islamabad denies. The insurgency, which had begun to wane since the late 1990s, intensified in 2016 after forces shot dead popular militant leader Burhan Wani. Human rights organisations estimate that about 100,000 people have died as a result of the violence since the 1980s, many of them civilians. As a result, fear dominates the streets and few venture out after dusk. Many find salvation in Sufi shrines to heal the wounds of war - not just in Srinagar, but even in remote areas of the region. Like Bakhti Begam, there are thousands of Kashmiris, particularly women, for whom Sufi shrines have long been places of hope. Many of them, psychiatrists say, show symptoms of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Maroofa Ramzan is among them. Every week she meets a psychiatrist at Srinagar's Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital. Her mental health has worsened in recent years after the death of her son. In the darkness, she claims to hear the voice of her son, Abir Ahmad, laughing and talking. He was shot dead by the army in 2010 during a protest. After consulting the doctor, Maroofa Ramzan takes a bus to the Dastgeer Sahib, a 200-year-old shrine. "He is alive, isn't he," she asks the Sufi saint at the shrine. Then, after some time, she slowly moves towards the gate and waits for the bus that will take her home. A survey by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in 2016 found nearly 1.8 million people, translating to roughly 45% of the population in Indian-administered Kashmir, suffering from similar symptoms. Azan Shah's pictures of devotees to Sufi shrines, all of whom have their own stories of pain and loss because of the violence in Kashmir, are intentionally blurred, shaky or tilted to give a sense of chaos and uncertainty in the moment. Mr Shah says he tries to capture the unflinching faith of thousands of devotees who converge at these shrines. "I prefer a tilted angle because it creates a psychological uneasiness. Things feel off-kilter, unsteady and unusual," he says, adding that he tries to convey the fact that "you can't control peoples' emotions". "People find a mediator between God and themselves in these shrines," says Showkat Hussain, a professor of Islamic Studies at the Islamic University of Science and Technology, who has written on mysticism in Kashmir. Arshad Hussain, a leading psychiatrist based in the region, adds that in Kashmir, these spiritual spaces serve as institutions of distress alleviation. "They started in times when there was no institution [to help] or redressal mechanism. Then it became a culture. People with sickness and domestic issues would end up in shrines with their pleas. "In the current situation, after a conflict, many distressed women after paying me a visit end up in these shrines. They feel better talking about distress in spiritual spaces than to an individual." All photographs by Azaan Shah

जैसे-जैसे भारत प्रशासित कश्मीर में हिंसा बढ़ी है, लोग सांत्वना की तलाश में क्षेत्र के काल्पनिक सूफी मंदिरों की ओर बढ़ रहे हैं। समीर यासिर फोटोग्राफर अजान शाह से बात करता है, जो भक्तों की पीड़ा का दस्तावेजीकरण कर रहा है।


Jo Milne: Ear implant woman helps Bangladesh kids

Summary: Two years ago Jo Milne became an internet sensation when footage of her hearing for the first time appeared on YouTube. Since then she has rekindled a long-lost friendship, enlisted the support of 1970s pop group The Osmonds and travelled to Bangladesh to help hundreds of deaf children.

By Julie CushBBC News More than 10m people shared the moment when Jo Milne, who was born deaf, heard for the first time at the age of 39. She had been fitted with cochlear implants and the footage of her tears of joy on hearing a nurse read to her went viral. Amid the flood of well-wishers was a long-lost friend - Amina Khan. Jo had known her since she was 11 but, when Amina married at 16 and moved away to Bangladesh, the pair lost touch. They had formed a close bond because they were both "different", Amina said. Her family was the only Asian one on their Gateshead estate and Jo was deaf. "It was a special bond because we were different and there was a little bit of bullying going on," she said. "It was always a warm and friendly place, but there were some spiteful kids. "But we were so close we didn't even realise. We were in our own little world." They had plans for their future, too. "As we were growing up we always used to say to each other that one day we would try to help the poor children of Bangladesh," said Amina. Support for the pair's plans came from an unlikely source - The Osmonds, six brothers from Utah who formed a band with the intention of making money for their deaf elder brothers. Members of the band had seen Jo's video and were so moved they got in touch to ask her to be an ambassador for their charity, the Hearing Fund UK. Two years later she turned to them for the contacts she needed to transform a vague childhood promise into reality. Jo said 5% of children in Bangladesh - 1.2m - are deaf. The plan was to fit 500 of them with hearing aids in the space of two days. Simply boosting sound, aids are a more basic solution than the cochlear implants Jo had fitted - electronic devices that replace the function of the damaged inner ear, sending sound signals to the brain. Jo travelled to Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh where Amina lives, to film the life-changing clinics. The "hustle and bustle" of one of the most congested cities in the world was a shock to Jo's newly revived sense of hearing. "I was looking this way and that - I've never known so much traffic, so many people," she said. As the day of the first clinic dawned, the queue outside grew longer and longer. Despite being highly planned with lots of volunteers, the sheer number of people needing help meant families waiting for hours in the intense Dhaka heat. For hearing aids to be fitted, the ears need to be perfectly clean so many of the youngsters had to have theirs cleaned before moulds were made. Once the aid was fitted the volume was gradually turned up to reach the right level. "Watching their eyes light up, they are all reacting differently to hearing sound," Jo said. "Some having a quiet reaction others crying. Watching them turning from left to right reacting to sound is amazing." The hearing aids worked for most, but not all, of the children. Rokaya Begum, whose two sons and daughter had them fitted, said: "My children can hear me and have conversations - it doesn't get much better." Sixteen-year-old Morium said she could hear the pigeons. "They sound good," she said. Her mother said it would mean she could get an education and job and be able to look after her parents. To eventually see their dream of helping children in her home country come true had been "a very emotional journey" for them both, Amina said. "I couldn't have done it alone," Jo said. "There were so many children involved." The hearing aids "had broken down all those isolating barriers," she said. For Jo, the chance to see the children's reactions is priceless. Despite regaining her hearing, her disorder - Usher syndrome - means she is now losing her sight. She compares her diminishing vision to looking at the world "through a letterbox". "It was a thought provoking visit - being deaf is a very isolating condition anyway," she added. "The stigma surrounding deafness is a world-wide issue. "But there are thousands and thousands of children like Morium. "At the end of the day it is a hearing world and hearing aids have enabled me to be a part of it. "This has been a humbling experience, but it's not over - there are so many more children that I want to reach." The Gift of Hearing will be shown at 19:30 GMT on 29 July on BBC One in the North East and Cumbria, and at 23:05 BST on 4 August on BBC Two nationwide.

दो साल पहले जो मिल्ने इंटरनेट सनसनी बन गईं जब पहली बार यूट्यूब पर उनकी सुनने की फुटेज दिखाई दी। तब से उन्होंने लंबे समय से खोई हुई दोस्ती को फिर से जगाया है, 1970 के दशक के पॉप समूह द ओसमंड्स का समर्थन प्राप्त किया है और सैकड़ों बधिर बच्चों की मदद करने के लिए बांग्लादेश की यात्रा की है।


Northern Ireland and the 'brain drain'

Summary: It used to be known as the "brain drain".

By Tara MillsBBC Newsline The phenomenon during the Troubles whereby Northern Ireland's brightest and best students would leave to study elsewhere and never return. Now, with more than 600 days without a government and Brexit fast approaching, are students who study elsewhere in the UK and the Republic of Ireland less likely to settle back in Northern Ireland? I travelled to Liverpool to ask students from home for their views on the political stalemate. Katherine Parke, from Londonderry, has been in Liverpool since 2012. "I came here to get out of my comfort zone and to broaden the horizons a bit," she said. 'Stuck in the past' A politics student, who is currently completing a master's degree, would the ongoing failure of Stormont influence where she settles in the future? "It would be the opposite," she said. "It would have a sort of a galvanising effect. I've come here and had all these opportunities." That's not how Lucy Buller sees it. Originally from Holywood in County Down, she is in her first year studying Geography. "I just feel Northern Ireland is stuck in the past and stuck in such an old traditional way and we can't move out of that," she said. "We can't think about the future because we're so stuck in the past." 'Lack of opportunities' For other students, the lack of an executive to push forward an economic programme was the biggest issue. Asa Mallon, from Lisburn, feels that's where the shame should be felt by politicians. "If they're not looking after us and creating jobs for us then that's the real tragedy," he said. Jacob Hussein was born in Birmingham, but moved to the Shankill area of Belfast with his mum and dad at the age of two. His dad is Pakistani and his mum considers herself to be British Asian: "I'm the son of a first-generation migrant and my dad came to Belfast for the opportunities and now as a young person I'm leaving because of the lack of opportunities." 'Progressive place' Prof Peter Shirlow is from Lisburn and lectured at Queen's University for years. He's now heading up the Centre for Irish Studies at Liverpool University. He attended the same university in the 1980s. "Back then students came here to study to take those skills and talents back home, but I now get the impression that's not the case," he said. "They come here, they feel more comfortable here, they sense that this is a very progressive place and that it's a place you'd get a higher paid job and the availability of work as well. "I get a sense now that the people who come here are very rooted and they sense this is the place they want to be." Prof Shirlow feels the last 10 years in particular in Northern Ireland will influence today's undergraduates in Liverpool. "This a comfortable place to live," he said. "We don't have the legacy of the conflict, we don't have the proxy war about victims, no suspended parliament, no questions about RHI and that is one thing you do get with young people - they're fed up with the constant reference to the past." Over in the department of electrical engineering and electronics, Belfast native Prof Alan Marshall believes students in Liverpool are much better placed for job opportunities. "The range of opportunities for ICT-type students is much wider and broader than Northern Ireland from the automotive industry, to the aerospace industry, the defence industry, the security industry, the opportunities are much, much wider," he said. The verdict from the students is clear - ultimately it's the economic climate, rather than the political one, which will influence their decision on where to call home. For the full story, watch BBC Newsline on Wednesday 9 October at 18:30 BST.

इसे "ब्रेन ड्रेन" के रूप में जाना जाता था।


Training for trains: Railway towns bid for HS2 college

Summary: Costing around £20 million, it would be England's first new Further Education College for 20 years. Training the next generation of railway engineers for the age of the high-speed train, it could open in as little as three years' time.

Patrick BurnsPolitical editor, Midlands It would unveil new horizons for specialists in rail construction and environmental studies. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills says the college would have "cutting-edge technology and use state-of-the-art equipment" providing training courses for the "specific needs" of the project which is expected to generate more than 2,000 apprenticeships. Sounds great. But where exactly would it be? I understand several towns and cities are lining-up with an assortment of rival claims: Manchester Already a major player in further and higher education, with a top Russell Group university, the city would be close to the middle of the entire system if and when the network between London and Scotland is completed. Crewe The ultimate railway town is backed by, among others, the record producer Pete Waterman. Thirty years ago he pioneered the Railway Heritage Trust, based in the town, to preserve the skills of the railway era. Derby Although not due to be on a high-speed line itself, the long-time home of train-making embraces a cluster of over 100 rail or rail-related businesses, the largest in Europe say the Derby and Derbyshire Rail Forum. Each of the above will no doubt find staunch advocates among my esteemed counterparts in their respective regions. Because this is where I concentrate on the claims of the other city expected to go into the hat: Birmingham The driving force behind the city's charm offensive is the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership. The Midlands' biggest LEP includes not just the conurbation itself but also large areas of South and East Staffordshire and North Worcestershire. They are hoping nine FE colleges from Burton-upon-Trent to Kidderminster will be able to join a consortium capable of delivering a truly collegiate approach to turning the government's vision into reality. The University of Birmingham's Centre for Railway Research and Education is also at the forefront of high-speed rail research. But the idea has had a mixed reception from educationalists. The Association of Teachers and Lecturers says: "The government should be helping FE Colleges to provide engineering and requisite skills. The need for an HS2 college may show there should be a review of how vocational education and training fit into wider industrial policy and skills development. The government seem to think inventing new schools and colleges is the answer to everything." The other big concern raised by opponents of high-speed rail is that far from bringing in the promised jobs and investment, HS2 is costing the Midlands dear already. Jerry Marshall, whose home at Burton Green in Warwickshire is on the route of the proposed line, sees HS2 as an extraordinarily expensive way of creating jobs. 'Cost thousands of jobs?' Take for example the plans drawn up by HS2 Ltd, the company charged with delivering Phase 1. They envisage the main HS2 maintenance depot would be on a site adjoining the former LDV Van factory at Washwood Heath in Birmingham, an area which is currently struggling with unemployment rates among the highest in the UK. The local Labour MP Liam Byrne says the HS2 depot could cost thousands of jobs because it would scupper alternative proposals for a high-tech business park in the same area which Birmingham's Labour-controlled city council hope would create 6,500 well-paid jobs. So could the idea of the maintenance depot and an HS2 college in the same area yet turn out to be a marriage made in heaven? Or in hell? This will be our main talking point on this week's Sunday Politics Midlands when I will be joined in the studio by the aforementioned Jerry Marshall and by two of our leading MPs: As Shadow Education Secretary, the Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central Tristram Hunt could be responsible for overseeing the training of the high-speed rail engineers of the future. And the Conservative MP for Wolverhampton South West, Paul Uppal is in the Prime Minister's inner circle as a member of the Downing Street Policy Board. I hope you will join me too at 11:00 on Sunday morning on BBC One Midlands.

लगभग 20 मिलियन पाउंड की लागत से, यह 20 वर्षों के लिए इंग्लैंड का पहला नया अतिरिक्त शिक्षा कॉलेज होगा। उच्च गति वाली ट्रेन की उम्र के लिए रेलवे इंजीनियरों की अगली पीढ़ी को प्रशिक्षित करते हुए, यह कम से कम तीन साल के समय में खुल सकता है।


Strong winds disrupt Isle of Man ferry crossings

Summary: High winds in the Irish Sea are continuing to cause disruption to Isle of Man Steam Packet ferry crossings.

The 08:00 GMT Douglas to Birkenhead sailing and 14:00 GMT Birkenhead to Douglas crossing have both been cancelled due to the weather. Sunday's services to and from Douglas are to be diverted from Birkenhead to Heysham with a coach transfer for foot passengers to Liverpool. Further details can be obtained from the Isle of Man Steam Packet website. A Friday evening and early Saturday sailing were both also cancelled.

आयरिश सागर में तेज हवाओं के कारण आइल ऑफ मैन स्टीम पैकेट फेरी क्रॉसिंग में व्यवधान पैदा हो रहा है।


Margate murder inquiry: Man charged over death of woman

Summary: A man has been charged with murder after the death of a woman, Kent Police said.

Officers were called to an address in Godwin Road, in the Cliftonville area of Margate, just before 11:00 GMT on Thursday, where they found the woman, who had been "fatally injured", police said. Abdelaziz El Msseyah, 57, of Godwin Road has been charged with murder. He is due to appear at Folkestone Magistrates' Court later. Related Internet Links HM Courts Service

केंट पुलिस ने कहा कि एक महिला की मौत के बाद एक व्यक्ति पर हत्या का आरोप लगाया गया है।


Rising bond yields: a cause for concern?

Summary: Across the world the cost of government borrowing is rising. The yield (or interest rate) on a 10-year UK government bond (the debt issued by the UK government) has risen from around 1.6% a month ago to 2.0% today.

Duncan WeldonNewsnight economics correspondent@Duncanweldonon Twitter In Germany the move has been even more dramatic - from around 0.05% to 0.7%. These sorts of moves are being seen in the US, Japan, Australia, Thailand, India and just about any other country one chooses to name. The yield on bonds moves inversely to the price (so has the price increases the interest rate falls and vice versa). In other words, the price action of recent days has been a sharp fall in the price of government bonds. This could have huge implications for the price of other financial assets, for the interest rates faced by firms and households and, potentially, a negative impact on the real economy. The bond market, especially the market for highly-rated, safe government debt is often regarded as sleepy place. In contrast to the high octane worlds of share and currency trading, it's a market which (it is usually assumed) takes a longer-term and more considered view. The kinds of moves that have taken place over the last few weeks - and picked up pace today - are highly unusual. All things being equal, sovereign bond prices should be counter-cyclical, they should move in the opposite direction to the wider economy. In theory, when the economy is weak and expected to remain weak then the market will assume that short-term interest rates are set to remain low or be cut. That is good for bond prices which will remain high or rise, pushing down the yield. If the economy is strengthening, then the markets should assume that short term interest rates are likely to rise, that would push the price of bonds down and the yield up. Investors would start to switch out of bonds and into assets that perform better in a growing economy - such as stocks or commodities. Is the 'bond bubble' over? But that all relies on "all things being equal" and they rarely are. So, while a gradual rise in bond yields (and fall in prices) could usually be taken as sign that an economic recovery is being entrenched, the pace of the move in recent days suggests that this benign scenario may not play out. Two factors are sitting behind the move. First, by almost any conventional metric, sovereign bonds across much of the world (and especially in the eurozone) look to be seriously overvalued. There's been talk of a "bond bubble" and, if there is one, it seems to be in the early stages of popping. A month ago, when the German 10-year bond yielded only 0.05% (and the price of the bond was high) then anyone buying those bonds was either betting that the economic prospects for Europe were so abysmal that interest rates would be held low for a decade or, and perhaps more likely, they thought they would be able to find someone else to sell the bonds to in the future for an even higher price. They might be overpaying but hoped they could find someone else who would overpay by even more. This overvaluation has left bonds vulnerable to a sell-off. Second, for months there have been worrying signs that liquidity in the bond markets has been drying up. It has become harder and harder to buy or sell bonds without moving the price. Liquidity link This is due partially to tightened financial regulation, which has made the big banks less happy to hold large portfolios of bonds and act as "market makers" (buying and selling to provide liquidity) and partially as the supply of safe government bonds has fallen as government deficits have come down across the developed world and central banks (through quantitative easing) have bought up bonds and effectively taken them out of the market. In recent moves, this lack of liquidity has helped explain some of the scale of the price rises - in an illiquid market a relatively small pick-up in buyers can push prices higher. Today that lack of liquidity is contributing to the large falls. Overvaluation and the lack of liquidity are the ultimate drivers of today's moves. The swing factor prompting the sell-off is still being debated but one likely candidate is a change in the market's expectations of inflation. Go back a few months and the view that the West faced a period of very low inflation - or even outright deflation (falling prices) - was near consensus. In that environment, interest rates would remain low and bond prices high. Academic rates discussion? But with the price of oil spiking since January and measures of inflation in the UK, US and the eurozone looking to be turning a corner and showing signs of picking up, that view is becoming less common. It may be that the market calms down in the coming hours and days. A gradual rise in yields as inflation picked up and growth became more entrenched (especially in the eurozone) would be something to welcome. But the fear is that yields had become lower than the actual fundamental state of the global economy warranted. They may now swing the other way. Back in December, several newspapers made a big deal of UK mortgage rates hitting historic lows. If the yield on UK government debt spikes higher, that will not last for long. Borrowing costs across the economy will rise. For much of the last year there has been an earnest discussion on when the Bank of England or the Federal Reserve will start to raise rates, but this could soon become academic. Whatever the level of short-term rates, the market-determined (and more important) level of longer term borrowing costs could rise. Managing the process of returning interest rates from record low to more "normal" levels was always going to be a challenging task for central banks. If the price moves of the last few days continue then it may be taken out of their hands.

दुनिया भर में सरकारी ऋण की लागत बढ़ रही है। 10 साल के यू. के. सरकारी बांड (यू. के. सरकार द्वारा जारी ऋण) पर उपज (या ब्याज दर) एक महीने पहले के लगभग 1.6% से बढ़कर आज 2.0% हो गई है।


Limavady: Residents back home as alert declared a hoax

Summary: A number of people who had to leave their homes in Limavady due to a security alert have been allowed to return.

The alert began following the discovery of a suspicious object in the Mount Eden area on Thursday afternoon. It was examined by Army bomb experts and declared an "elaborate hoax", the Police Service of Northern Ireland said. Residents were allowed to return to their homes shortly after 20:00 GMT.

सुरक्षा अलर्ट के कारण लिमावड़ी में अपने घर छोड़ने वाले कई लोगों को लौटने की अनुमति दी गई है।


Wickerman Festival: Music fans descend on site

Summary: Thousands of music fans are heading to south west Scotland as the annual Wickerman Festival gets under way.

The event, at East Kirkcarswell near Dundrennan on Friday and Saturday, will see acts including Del Amitri and Dizzee Rascal perform. It is the 13th edition of the Dumfries and Galloway festival. Other acts involved this year include the likes of Shed Seven, The Feeling, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, The Zombies and Big Country. The festival will conclude, as is its tradition, with the burning of a giant wicker figure.

हजारों संगीत प्रशंसक दक्षिण पश्चिम स्कॉटलैंड की ओर बढ़ रहे हैं क्योंकि वार्षिक विकरमैन महोत्सव चल रहा है।


China makes 500 doomsday cult arrests

Summary: Chinese police have arrested more than 500 members of a doomsday cult for spreading rumours about the imminent end of the world, state media say.

At least 400 followers of the Almighty God Christian group were detained in western Qinghai province in recent days. Dozens more were held elsewhere. In Henan province, six officials have been sacked after a knife attack by a suspected doomsday cult disciple wounded more than 20 children. The attack sparked widespread anger. The officials sacked had handled the incident improperly, state media said. A number of people around the world believe that an apocalypse will take place on Friday 21 December, as the Mayan "Long Count" Calendar ends a 5,200-year cycle. China's state news agency Xinhua describes the Almighty God Christian group as a cult, saying it was established in 1990 in Henan.

चीनी पुलिस ने दुनिया के आसन्न अंत के बारे में अफवाह फैलाने के लिए कयामत के दिन पंथ के 500 से अधिक सदस्यों को गिरफ्तार किया है।


A nightmare on repeat - India is running out of oxygen again

Summary: Twenty-five families in India's capital Delhi woke up to the news on Friday morning that someone they loved had died in the city's Sir Ganga Ram hospital, reportedly because coronavirus patients could not get enough oxygen.

By Janhavee MooleBBC Marathi The hospital's medical director said a severe shortfall had slowed the flow of oxygen to 25 of the sickest patients, who needed a high pressure, stable supply. The tragedy came at the end of a week where several major hospitals in Delhi have repeatedly come close to running out of oxygen, which can help patients with the virus who need support with their breathing stay alive. On Tuesday, it took a desperate public plea from the chief minister and an intervention from the high court for the Indian central government to organise a late night refill. An oxygen tanker eventually arrived at Sir Ganga Ram hospital on Friday morning, shortly after a dire warning that 60 more patients were on the verge of death. But India's rising wave of cases is pushing its healthcare system to the brink - from the country's richest cities to its remotest corners. A battle for breath Maharashtra and Gujarat in the west, Haryana in the north, and Madhya Pradesh in central India are all facing an oxygen shortage. In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, some hospitals have put "oxygen out of stock" boards outside, and in the state capital Lucknow hospitals have asked patients to move elsewhere. Smaller hospitals and nursing homes in Delhi are doing the same. Desperate relatives in several cities are lining up outside oxygen refilling centres. One plant in the southern city of Hyderabad hired bouncers to manage the crowd. Many stricken with coronavirus are dying while they wait. Hospitals are struggling to accommodate breathless patients, or even keep alive those who were lucky enough to find a bed. Social media feeds and WhatsApp groups are full of frantic pleas for oxygen cylinders. For a week, India has been reliving this nightmare on repeat, waiting for the terrifying moment when there is no oxygen left at all. For anyone who has watched the pandemic unfold here - from doctors to officials to journalists - this feels like déjà vu. Seven months ago, the country had grappled with a similar oxygen shortage amid a rapid surge in case numbers. But this time, it's much worse. Typically, healthcare facilities consume about 15% of oxygen supply, leaving the rest for industrial use. But amid India's second wave nearly 90% of the country's oxygen supply - 7,500 metric tonnes daily - is being diverted for medical use, according to Rajesh Bhushan, a senior health official. That's nearly three times higher than was consumed every day at the peak of the first wave in mid-September last year. Then, India was adding about 90,000 cases daily. Just two weeks ago, in early April, the single-day spike was around 144,000. Now, the daily caseload has more than doubled to well more than 300,000. "The situation is so bad that we had to treat some patients in a cardiac ambulance for 12 hours until they could get an ICU bed," said Dr Siddheshwar Shinde, who runs a Covid hospital in Pune, a western district with India's second-highest active caseload and third-highest death toll from the virus. Last week, when there were no ventilators left, Dr Shinde began moving patients to other cities - unheard of in Pune, where patients usually arrive from nearby districts seeking treatment. The state of Maharashtra, where Pune is located, is among the worst-affected parts of India, and currently accounts for more than a third of active cases. The state is producing about 1,200 metric tonnes of oxygen daily but all of it is already being used for Covid patients. And demand is rising along with cases, and outstripping supply. It shows no signs of letting up. "Usually hospitals like ours were able to have enough oxygen supply. But in the past fortnight, keeping people breathing has become a task. Patients as young as 22 need oxygen support," said Dr Shinde. Doctors and epidemiologists believe the deluge of cases is delaying tests and consultation, leading to many people being admitted to hospital when their condition is severe. So the demand for high-flow oxygen - and therefore more oxygen - is higher than it was during the last wave. "Nobody knows when this is going to end," Dr Shinde said. "I think even the government did not foresee this." A scramble to find supply Some governments did. The southern state of Kerala increased supply by monitoring demand closely and planning for a rise in cases. Kerala now has surplus oxygen that it is sending to other states. But Delhi and some other states do not have their own oxygen plants and are relying on imports. The Supreme Court has weighed in, asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration for a national Covid plan that addresses the oxygen crunch. The federal health ministry had invited bids for new oxygen plants in October last year - more than eight months after the beginning of pandemic in India. Of the 162 that were sanctioned, only 33 have been installed so far - 59 will be installed by the end of April and another 80 by the end of May, the ministry has said. The scramble to increase supply points to the lack of any emergency plan. Liquid oxygen, pale blue and extremely cold, with a temperature of around -183C, is a cryogenic gas that can only be stored and transported in special cylinders and tankers. About 500 factories in India extract and purify oxygen from air and send it to hospitals in liquid form. Most of it is supplied through tankers. Major hospitals usually have their own tank where oxygen is stored and then piped directly to beds. Smaller and temporary hospitals rely on steel and aluminium cylinders. Oxygen tankers often queue outside a plant for hours and it takes about two hours to fill one tanker. It takes several hours more for these tankers to travel to various towns within or across states. The tankers also have to follow a specific speed limit - no more than 25mph (40km/h) - and they often don't travel in the night to avoid accidents. The head of one of India's biggest oxygen suppliers has said part of the struggle has been getting oxygen from eastern India, where supply in industrial states such as Orissa and Jharkhand is high, to western or northern India such as Maharashtra or Delhi, where cases are rising fast. And the demand for oxygen at individual facilities is unpredictable, making it difficult to gauge a hospital's requirement and adequately get supply where it is needed. "Not every patient needs the same amount of oxygen for the same duration. How many patients need oxygen changes by hour in a hospital," said Dr Om Shrivastav, an infectious diseases expert at a Mumbai hospital. "We are taking all the care we can. But I've not seen anything like this. I think nobody here has." Too little, too late Before the crunch of the oxygen crisis, the federal government was already facing criticism for allowing election rallies and a massive Hindu festival, and failing to expand the vaccination drive quickly enough. Critics have accused various state governments of doing too little to prepare for the devastating second wave now washing through the county. Doctors and virologists who spoke to the BBC said the oxygen shortfall was more a symptom than a cause of the crisis - effective safety protocols and strong public messaging could have kept more people at home, and the virus at bay. But a sharp drop in cases by January lulled the country into a false sense of safety, they said, creating the conditions for a terrible second wave. Mr Modi's government has now started an "oxygen express", with trains carrying tankers to wherever there is demand, and the Indian Air Force is airlifting oxygen from military bases. They are also mulling plans to import 50,000 metric tonnes of of liquid oxygen. "We have been telling authorities that we are willing to increase our capacity, but we need financial aid for that," said Rajabhau Shinde, who runs a small oxygen plant in Maharashtra. "Nobody said anything and now suddenly, hospitals and doctors are pleading for more cylinders," he said. "This should not have happened. As the saying goes, dig the well before you're thirsty. But we didn't do that." Have you been affected by any of the issues raised in this story? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways: Your contact info I am over 16 years old I accept the Terms of Service In some cases a selection of your comments and questions will be published, displaying your name and location as you provide it unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. 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भारत की राजधानी दिल्ली में पँचिश परिवार शुक्रवार की सुबह इस खबर से जाग गए कि शहर के सर गंगा राम अस्पताल में उनके किसी प्रिय व्यक्ति की मृत्यु हो गई है, कथित तौर पर क्योंकि कोरोनावायरस रोगियों को पर्याप्त ऑक्सीजन नहीं मिल सकी थी।