Election blind dates: Georgia Toffolo and Jack Monroe

Summary: What happens when two strong-minded individuals from opposite sides of the political debate sit down for dinner? To find out, the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme has organised a series of election blind dates for the general election campaign.

By Emma Ailes and John HarrisonBBC Victoria Derbyshire programme Made in Chelsea star Toff, real name Georgia Toffolo, says she had a privileged background and is a Conservative Party member. Political campaigner and food blogger Jack Monroe, who at one time was unemployed and unable to afford food, has been a member of several parties, including the Labour Party. They went into the meal without knowing who they would be meeting. But did they get on? Jack Monroe Describe yourself: I'm Jack Monroe, aged 29, and I'm a food writer and political commentator. Background: I used to be a 999 call-handler. I got pregnant with my son, and when I went back to work I couldn't work the shift patterns any more. I ended up in a shoddy personal situation - I didn't eat for three days in a row to feed my child. I started to write about being a single mum on the dole and it seemed to strike a chord with people. Then I got offered a recipe book deal and life went stratospheric. Political beliefs: I've been a member of the Labour Party on and off for the past few years, about six or seven years, eight maybe. I've also been a member of the Green Party at that time. I'm also a member of the Women's Equality Party and the National Health Action party. How was your date?: I think it went well. It was nice to meet Georgia and talk to her and try to understand her point of view a bit more. First impression: I have seen Made in Chelsea, but not for a couple of years. I thought she was fun, she was very, very nice. I was surprised at how young she was because she seemed quite firm in her beliefs, she seemed very politically aware. What did you agree on?: Her most convincing argument, the one I agreed with, was about national security. She was quite strong about armed police and how there is a rise in that and how we all have to adjust to it and and the reasoning behind that. What did you disagree on?: I found some of her views on welfare difficult to listen to as someone who had quite a difficult time on benefits. To hear her saying, 'Oh the Conservatives are taking money from people who don't need it', and you're like, 'No they're not, they're taking money from people like me'. Best thing: I thought she was really, really friendly and just very nice and she was very good at listening. She asked lots of questions and she just genuinely seems like a warm, friendly human being. Worst thing: I did find her views on fox hunting quite difficult to swallow. Did you change her mind?: We both seemed to have shifted slightly closer to the centre by the end of lunch. I don't think she'll be going home and telling all her friends to vote for Jeremy Corbyn but I'd like to think that we've both given each other something to think about. Did she change your mind?: I think my views are quite strongly held. I wouldn't say that she'd drastically changed my mind about anything but it certainly put a human face to some of the things that I consider to be more radical Conservative beliefs. Second date: I'd love to see her again. Genuinely would. I thought she was fun, I thought she was engaging. I think I'd have a much more interesting life with her in it. Find out more Watch the Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 BST on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel. Thursday's election blind date will be classicist Prof Mary Beard and nightclub owner Peter Stringfellow. Toff Describe yourself: My name is Georgia Toffolo, I'm 22, best known for being on a TV programme called Made in Chelsea and I really love politics. Background: I'm very lucky I went to a nice school and I live in a very lovely part of London. Political beliefs: I'm a member of the Conservative Party and I have been for about eight years now. I believe that the traditions of our country should be upheld and I'm a real advocate of business. I can't comprehend why someone my age would support the Labour Party. How was your date?: I actually enjoyed it so much and I'm a bit surprised because for someone that has different views to me, it was amazing. She could tell me why I was wrong, which is so good, and it's actually kind of made me think a little bit more about where I stand. It hasn't changed my political ideology, but maybe a little bit more understanding of people who have had hard times. First impressions: She was very different to me. Not the stereotypical Labour voter. What did you agree on?: I actually agreed with her a lot on our views on national security. We also agreed on LGBT rights, which is fantastic. What did you disagree on?: The thing that angered me the most is our differing views on tax. I just cannot comprehend how anyone could have her views on taxation. The lower the better. Did you win any arguments?: I think I did convince her a little bit because when we looked at our political spectrum again she moved a little bit more centre. Best part: Jeremy Corbyn-bashing. It's my favourite activity. Awkward moments: I found the most awkward part talking about benefits, because she had some fantastic points, but I believe what I believe in. But some of her arguments were quite deep ones where it threw me a bit, because what can you say when someone says, "Oh you know I was starving for three days"? Could you be friends?: I actually think we could be friends. I hope we stay in touch, I had such a lovely time. I need to get the next lunch. Watch more election blind dates Find out what happened when ex-UKIP leader Nigel Farage went on a date with journalist - and Boris Johnson's sister - Rachel Johnson.

क्या होता है जब राजनीतिक बहस के विपरीत पक्षों के दो मजबूत दिमाग वाले व्यक्ति रात के खाने के लिए बैठते हैं? यह पता लगाने के लिए, बीबीसी के विक्टोरिया डर्बीशायर कार्यक्रम ने आम चुनाव अभियान के लिए चुनाव ब्लाइंड तिथियों की एक श्रृंखला का आयोजन किया है।


Eurovision 2018: What these six UK entrants know now

Summary: The Eurovision Song Contest is almost upon us and the UK's entrant SuRie will already be limbering up in Lisbon ahead of Saturday's grand final.

By Lucy ToddEntertainment reporter Some of the UK's former competitors have spoken about their Eurovision experience and what their favourite memories from the show were - even if the vote wasn't kind to them. So, who looks back with bittersweet feelings? Who were the most competitive countries and which competitor had Simon Cowell on their team? BBC News spoke to six of the UK's previous Eurovision acts and found out what advice they would give to SuRie. 1. Lucie Jones Lucie Jones was last year's UK entry, coming a respectable 15th out of the 26 countries which competed in the final. She first entered our lives in 2009, after making it to live shows on The X Factor where she came eighth. She sang Never Give Up On You and says she was "amazed" at how supportive the Eurovision fans are. How do you look back on your Eurovision time? I had a great time, it was very full-on. I did it while I was performing in Rent. I was doing eight shows a week, and then trying to fit in rehearsals and preparation for Eurovision as well. It was a crazy time, but I look back now and love that I did it. Who took the competition most seriously? At the end of the show, I had a big bag of glitter and was throwing it over everyone. Everyone took it really well - except Greece. She didn't take the glitter very well at all, because she thought she was going to win. She thought I was making fun of her and didn't take it in the spirit in which I meant it. Anything you'd have done differently? My only regret would be to take EVEN more pictures! Such a fun experience. I absolutely loved it. Any advice for SuRie? Relax and have fun. Trust that the audience will enjoy it if you enjoy it! 2. Blue Blue already had a huge chart-topping career including collaborations with the likes of Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Lil' Kim. The boyband used their 2011 Eurovision appearance as a comeback after having been on hiatus for seven years. Blue's song I Can came in 11th place at Eurovision - which hasn't been bettered by the UK since. Antony Costa from the band says that despite Blue's back catalogue, it's Eurovision that still garners the greatest interest... How do you look back on your Eurovision time? I look back with fond and still exciting memories and as a band it was probably the hardest we have ever worked. Everything was unpredictable and yet so exciting at the same time. What was the best thing about doing it? The fact that you had so many other countries all doing the same thing, with the same goal and wanting to win the same prize. That level of competition is incredible! How nerve-wracking was it? 125 million people watching your every move. Need I say more? Favourite memory? The moment we got 12 points from Bulgaria. That kind of blew us away, we had never even been to Bulgaria and yet who knew, the Bulgarians were fans of Blue! What was the reaction back in the UK? The reaction was positive all around, and for us as band it led into two new albums (Roulette and Colours) and another five years of non-stop global touring, as well as TV shows and a whole bunch of other stuff. Advice for SuRie? I would simply say to SuRie enjoy every moment. Try and take it all in because it goes by so quickly and be proud of the achievement you have reached and just know the country is behind you (and I will definitely be watching). 3. Sonia Liverpool pop sensation Sonia had enjoyed huge fame and success before she performed at Eurovision in 1993. She sang Better the Devil You Know and came second (back in the days when the UK still did OK in this kind of thing) - but says she was "gutted" about missing out on the top spot... How do you look back on your Eurovision time? I had a marvellous time, I was so chuffed that the BBC chose me and asked me to take part. It was something I loved as a kid. I remember watching Making Your Mind Up by Bucks Fizz - I thought it was great. I was only 10 years old at the time, but it had a real lasting impression on me. How has the contest changed since you competed? Ours wasn't on the spectacular level it is now. It was much more basically staged. I appeared on Terry Wogan's Saturday night programme over a number of different weeks to showcase all the different songs which were options for Eurovision. All the music industry people and all these high level BBC executives picked out these eight songs as possibilities. Simon Cowell was among those involved, I was signed to him at the time. Did Eurovision attract a different calibre of songwriter / performer back then? There has always been a lot of interest in Eurovision from famous songwriters. Pete Waterman wrote one, as did Andrew Lloyd Webber. Songwriters have always been really interested in competing as it's a great stepping stone to getting your song heard by a massive audience. But it seems so difficult now, because we never come anywhere in the competition, which is such a shame because a lot of it seems so political. Were you happy with your result? At the time I was completely devastated because I came so close to winning. If I'd have come 10th, I don't think I'd have minded so much. Looking back now though, second is fantastic! Advice for SuRie? Stay focussed - she's a pro, so she's no stranger to a stage. Go for it and enjoy. 4. Joe Woolford (of Joe and Jake) Joe and Jake competed for the UK in 2016, a year after they had both participated in the fourth series of The Voice. The duo came third from bottom - in 24th place. Don't worry though Joe, it matched the previous year's result, so You're Not Alone... How do you look back on your Eurovision time? It's crazy that I did it. It's the biggest singing competition in the world and we were lucky enough to perform and represent the UK. How many A-list celebrities can say they've performed in front of 250 million people? Getting the chance to do it was just fantastic. Were you happy with your result? We were really devastated when we came 24th. Gutted is the only word to describe it. So we just got on the wine and tried to enjoy the rest of the Eurovision parties and take our minds off it. I'd love to go back and try again. It was such an experience and the audience was immense. What impact did the voting changes have in your year? The televoting was a bit of a shock, to be honest (in 2016 Eurovision changed the voting format so the jury vote and televote were awarded separately). In the jury vote we didn't do too badly - we got 12 points from Malta fairly early on, and some of the other countries awarded us points too. So it was looking OK, but then the televotes got added to the scores and we were just annihilated. I think changing the voting system worked - it just didn't work in my favour. It's a good thing though - it's all about entertainment at the end of the day. Which country took the competition most seriously? Sweden got very hyped up, and a lot of the other artists took it VERY seriously. Russia spent millions on everything and trying to make their performance stand out. Advice for SuRie? It's the perfect Eurovision song, but I can't see it winning. My advice to SuRie would be to remember to remember. It's so easy to go up on there and just go for it, and then forget it all. 5. Andy Abraham Andy first came to our attention after coming runner up to Shayne Ward in the second ever series of The X Factor. He travelled to Belgrade in 2008 to compete in the Eurovision song contest, but came last place. Perhaps this explains why he has "mixed feelings" about his time in the competition. How do you look back on your Eurovision time? I have mixed feelings, I love the competition and how historic it is but it needs a overhaul in regards to the voting system. I wish the competition was fair for every country with no bloc voting. Favourite memory? I have three, performing my song Even If to millions, working with the legend Terry Wogan, and getting the thumbs up from Jean Paul Gaultier. Who took the competition most seriously? I can't remember specific countries but I do remember (I think Azerbaijan) when we had all the entertainers at an event, they had about 30 paparazzi chasing them, then I heard the paps were paid as a PR stunt. Advice for SuRie? My advice to SuRie is enjoy the experience, and don't have too much expectation on where you end up. 6. Nicki French After her UK chart success in 1995, Nicki French performed at Eurovision in 2000. She says it took a long time to get over what was, at that point, the UK's worst ever placing. What was the best thing about doing Eurovision? The show itself. And having make-up people, cameras and stylists all around you. I'd love to be able to re-do it and relive it - it was just the best experience. I would do it again in a heartbeat. All the vocals have to be live on the night. People laugh at it, but there's no other show where everything has to be absolutely live. Considering it's live TV, it's amazing more stuff doesn't go wrong. How nerve-wracking was it? The year we did it, it was the first time the internet was streaming it, so we were told there was up to a billion people watching! I was so nervous, pacing around backstage, but when I walked on stage it felt like a dream. Favourite memory? Backstage, there were just curtains to partition each dressing room area. I'd gone to our UK area, and I could hear someone next door singing our song, playing it on guitar. It was the German entry, Stefan Raab, just sat singing my song - I was really touched. What did you make of your result? I came 16th out of 24 which was the worst we'd done ever at that point. It meant so much to me and took me some time to get over it. Everyone was really kind, telling us we shouldn't have been so low. I felt the performance had gone well - we watched it when we got back and still didn't know what had gone wrong. It followed on from the British beef crisis - so I don't know if it had something to do with that, but it was painful - you really feel like you let the country down. Who took the competition most seriously? The one who really takes it very seriously and goes hell for leather is Sweden. The Eurovision final is the most watched programme in Sweden, I believe. Russia definitely like to go for it too. Advice for SuRie? When you get out there, you can't prepare for it. It's unlike anything you've ever done before. I'd been on stage in front of 50,000 people before and I still wasn't prepared. Just savour the moment, because it is gone in a flash. It's the most enjoyable thing to do. I'm sure she'll be fine though.

यूरोविज़न गीत प्रतियोगिता लगभग हम पर है और ब्रिटेन की प्रवेश करने वाली सूरी शनिवार के भव्य फाइनल से पहले ही लिस्बन में सुस्त हो जाएगी।


Work starts on £200,000 play area in Bury St Edmunds

Summary: Work on a £200,000 scheme to improve a play area in Abbey Gardens, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, is due to start this week.

The work will see about 90% of the existing play equipment, some of which dates back to the 1950s, replaced. There will be new swings, a treehouse, ropes, wood, sand and water. There will also be a temporary canopied structure which can be used for various events and activities, said a St Edmundsbury Council spokeswoman.

एबी गार्डन, बरी सेंट एडमंड्स, सफ़ोक में एक खेल क्षेत्र में सुधार के लिए 200,000 पाउंड की योजना पर काम इस सप्ताह शुरू होने वाला है।


GCSE results: Trends explained

Summary: A massive boost for single-science subjects is offset by a continued decline in French and German, while the gender gap widens slightly - a look at the trends emerging from the 2010 GCSE results.

Rise in single sciences A government drive to resurrect dwindling numbers of entries in chemistry, biology and physics from the late 1990s has yielded massive growth in the past few years. Numbers have doubled since 2007, but still only 16% of students take triple science. The push follows concerns that the combined science courses, which squeezed all three subjects into one or two GCSE options, did not prepare students properly for A-level and beyond. The Labour government set a target that 90% of schools should offer triple science. In early 2010, it was estimated that 70% of state schools offered it - though in 2009 only 32% entered pupils in single-science GCSEs. Schools describing themselves as having a science specialism have only recently become obliged to offer triple science. Meanwhile, a wave of competitions and events have attempted to interest pupils. And the courses themselves have been updated to make them more engaging, challenging and related to current scientific issues in the media such as climate change. What were previously "double" and "single" award science have been revamped into "science" and "additional science" - with the latter designed to be more academic and challenging. The Campaign for Science and Engineering says there are still problems, particularly shortages of suitable teachers - 25% of schools do not have a specialist physics teacher, for example. "The increase is fantastic," said its assistant director, Hilary Leevers, "but the figures have risen because they started in such a low place". The number of students taking French and German this year are both just more than half the number in 1999. AQA exam board head Andrew Hall said this year's drop of 5.9% had pushed French out of the top 10 subjects "for the first time in living memory". It continues a steady decline since 2004, when it stopped being compulsory for 14-year-olds to take a language. Ziggy Liaquat, managing director of the Edexcel exam board, said the decrease in languages was "disappointing". "There is a conversation to be had about how we do make languages more engaging, more interesting, more relevant for young people," he said. But John Dunford, head of the Association of School and College Leaders, said pupils were avoiding languages because they are harder than other GCSEs. "The pressure on young people to pass means they do not want to do harder subjects," he said. CILT, the national centre for language learning, agreed with this analysis, saying the trend was "less to do with student disaffection" and more to do with "performance table pressures". It said the system was "letting down" young people by allowing them to opt out of languages. Spanish has bucked the trend, however, with a slight increase. And there has been a rise over the past decade in students studying a range of other languages spoken in the UK. It is assumed that the majority of the growing numbers of students taking languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Polish and Urdu have some personal connection to the language - and many will already be fluent in it. Boys continue to lag behind girls in most subjects, a trend of more than two decades. The gender gap was at its widest in the early 2000s for A*-Cs, and in the middle of the decade for A*-As. Explanations for the gap vary, although it is widely thought that girls perform better than boys in continued assessment and coursework. Other reasons given for the gap in GCSE performance are maturity and motivation. However, a higher percentage of boys get A and A* grades in economics and additional maths than of girls. Boys also pulled ahead of girls at these top grades in maths last year, and in physics at A grade - and managed to maintain the edge in both in 2010. Northern Ireland's teenagers consistently bag a higher proportion of top grades than those in England and Wales. Northern Ireland still has a system of selective schools, where pupils are tested at the age of 11, with the brighter ones going on to grammar schools. In Wales, however, the percentage of entries gaining A*-C grades has slipped from being higher than in the rest of the UK, to lagging 2.6 percentage points behind. One suggested reason is a funding gap, with the National Union of Teachers saying £500 less is spent per pupil in Wales than in England. There is also speculation that more pupils in Wales, where there are no school league tables, may be entered for exams they might not perform well in, in comparison to elsewhere. Across the UK regions, south-east England and south-west England tend to perform the best at grades A and C, but in the past two years the north-east England and London have shown the most improvement. Some subjects confound popular perceptions. While many assume the UK is becoming more secular, the number of entries in religious studies has risen for the twelfth year running. The subject is now in the top ten most popular subjects, with entries increasing more than 60% since 1999. The Church of England believes "young people are clamouring for a deeper understanding of religious perspectives on issues of the day and how moral and ethical questions are considered by the major faiths". Exam boards have rejected claims by the Campaign for Real Education that the GCSE is "pathetically easy". Grades in religious studies are fairly similar to history, ICT, geography - although the percentage of good grades in a subject does not necessarily indicate how hard or easy it is. One reason for the rise may be that it is compulsory for schools to provide some form of religious studies education for students, so some schools and students may decide that they want the time and effort it takes to count towards a GCSE. Conversely, the iPod generation has continued to turn its back on information and communications technology (ICT), with the number of entries dropping by nearly a third over the past decade. Exam boards suggest the drop in the last couple of years may be because, with more students taking triple science, ICT is often abandoned to enable students to keep more breadth in their choices. But this does not explain the longer-term trend. The Royal Society has suggested that courses are "poorly conceived" and the way the subject is taught "turns off" pupils.

एकल-विज्ञान विषयों के लिए एक बड़े पैमाने पर बढ़ावा फ्रेंच और जर्मन में निरंतर गिरावट से ऑफसेट होता है, जबकि लिंग अंतर थोड़ा बढ़ता है-2010 जीसीएसई परिणामों से उभरने वाले रुझानों पर एक नज़र।


The 'brushing' scam that's behind mystery parcels

Summary: If you've ever received a parcel from a shopping platform that you didn't order, and nobody you know seems to have bought it for you, you might have been caught up in a "brushing" scam.

By Zoe KleinmanTechnology reporter, BBC News It has hit the headlines after thousands of Americans received unsolicited packets of seeds in the mail, but it is not new. It's an illicit way for sellers to get reviews for their products. And it doesn't mean your account has been hacked. Here's an example of how it works: let's say I set myself up as a seller on Amazon, for my product, Kleinman Candles, which cost £2 each. I then set up a load of fake accounts, and I find random names and addresses either from publicly available information or from a leaked database that's doing the rounds from a previous data breach. I order Kleinman Candles from my fake accounts and have them delivered to the addresses I have found, with no information about where they have been sent from. I then leave positive reviews for Kleinman Candles from each fake account - which has genuinely made a purchase. Glowing reviews This way my candle shop page gets filled with glowing reviews (sorry), my sales figures give me an algorithmic popularity boost as a credible merchant - and nobody knows that the only person buying and reviewing my candles is myself. It tends to happen with low-cost products, including cheap electronics. It's more a case of fake marketing than cyber-crime, but "brushing" and fake reviews are against Amazon's policies. Campaign group Which? advises that you inform the platform if sent any unsolicited goods. It first investigated the practice in 2018, and found that in some cases, the people affected had been victims of data breaches elsewhere, meaning at least some of their personal data was available in unexpected places. "It's an old fashioned scam - making people believe in something is a way of getting them to buy," said Prof Alan Woodward, a cyber-security expert at Surrey University. "Like it or not, we do all look at the reviews, even though we are getting more savvy about it, and if it says it's from a verified purchaser, we're less likely to think twice." Can you keep it? According to Citizens' Advice, if an item is addressed to you, there has been no previous contact with the company, and it arrives out of the blue, then you can keep it. However anything which arrives by mistake - either delivered to the wrong address, or a duplicate of some goods you have already received - has to go back.

यदि आपको कभी किसी खरीदारी मंच से एक पार्सल प्राप्त हुआ है जिसे आपने ऑर्डर नहीं किया है, और ऐसा लगता है कि आपके जानने वाले किसी ने भी इसे आपके लिए नहीं खरीदा है, तो हो सकता है कि आप एक "ब्रशिंग" घोटाले में फंस गए हों।


Firefighters tackle large recycling blaze at Red Lodge

Summary: Firefighters spent the night tackling flames at a recycling centre after 70 tonnes of waste caught alight.

Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service was called to The Carrops at Red Lodge just after 21:30 BST on Thursday. Eight fire engines, with crews from Leiston, Bury St Edmunds and Newmarket, were sent to the scene. The fire service said crews had to surround the fire, which was on a locked, site before they could get access and get closer to it. Firefighters remain at the scene.

अग्निशामकों ने 70 टन कचरा जलने के बाद एक पुनर्चक्रण केंद्र में आग की लपटों से निपटने में रात बिताई।


Police investigate Yarm Town Council 'assault'

Summary: Police are investigating allegations a woman was thrown down stairs at a town council meeting.

Cleveland Police said it had received reports a woman had been assaulted at Yarm Town Hall on Tuesday evening and had to go to hospital. Town council chairwoman Lyn Casey confirmed the meeting had been suspended during an incident. However, she rejected allegations a woman had been pushed, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

पुलिस इन आरोपों की जांच कर रही है कि नगर परिषद की बैठक में एक महिला को सीढ़ियों से नीचे फेंक दिया गया था।


Letter from Africa: Snapping at the heels of Zimbabwe's 'crocodile'

Summary: In our series of letters from Africa, journalist-turned-barrister Brian Hungwe takes a look at a crowded field ahead of presidential polls in Zimbabwe, and the ugly face of violence that has just come to grip the electoral playing field.

Zimbabweans have got used to holding elections under a cloud of fear over the past few decades, and so the blast which tore through a rally on Saturday came as an unwelcome reminder. President Emmerson Mnangagwa says the incident at a rally in the second city Bulawayo, which appears to have been a bomb attack, was an attempt by his enemies to assassinate him. It's difficult to know where the blame lies at this stage, but a cloud of angst now hangs above a country heading into an unpredictable election which up until now had been marked by a lack of animosity, violence and anger. But that was not the only difference to an election which has already been generating huge domestic and regional interest. Eclectic mix of candidates For the first time in years, ballot papers will be absent of the two men who dominated politics in the southern African state for the past two decades. Robert Mugabe, who had planned to stand again at the age of 94, was ousted as president in dramatic fashion in November. Within three months of his unceremonious removal, his long-term rival, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai - a man who had been beaten and imprisoned numerous times during his career for daring to challenge Mr Mugabe - died aged 65. Their absence does not mean there will be a lack of candidates vying for the top spot, however. There are now more than 120 political parties registered and, this time around, there are likely to be 23 candidates to choose from on the ballot - making it the longest in Zimbabwe's history. As a result, Zimbabweans have been enjoying the novelty of getting to know the eclectic mix of contenders. Mr Mugabe, who many suspect had once hoped to hand over power to his wife, appears to be backing a new party, the National Patriotic Front (NPF). But its leader Ambrose Mutinhiri, a close ally of the former president, is unlikely to get the required 50% plus one vote to win outright with such a crowded field. Queuing for chicken Unlike many of the candidates, the retired brigadier general seems a little shy of social media, only sending his first tweet in March, followed shortly by two others and no others since. His Facebook looks similarly bare. On the other hand, Mr Mnangagwa, Mr Mugabe's successor and the ruling Zanu-PF party's candidate, has fully embraced Twitter and Facebook - with his supporters also trying to show that he is truly a man of the people after posting photos of him standing in a queue to buy some fast-food chicken last week. Despite having his back to the camera, it is easy to tell where Mr Mnangagwa is -these days he is never seen anywhere without his trademark scarf in the colours of the Zimbabwean flag. Another candidate, Tendai Peter Munyanduri, has taken food to heart, promising in his manifesto to provide a balanced diet for every Zimbabwean, including egg, bacon and milk for every breakfast. A few of the millions of Zimbabweans in the diaspora have also returned to try their luck - or perhaps relaunch their careers - including musician and sculptor Bryn Mteki and one of a handful of female candidates, Melbah Dzapasi. Nkosana Moyo, infamous for faxing his resignation as a cabinet minister to Mr Mugabe after fleeing Zimbabwe, is also on the ticket. Brian Hungwe: "Zimbabweans have been enjoying the novelty of getting to know the eclectic mix of contenders" However, the 75-year-old Mr Mnangagwa's main rival is likely to be MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa, who is 35 years his junior. His blips and blunders during the campaign so far have been entertaining voters - particularly the claims of bringing bullet trains to Zimbabwe, meetings with US President Trump and crafting Rwanda's ICT policy, which have been denied by US and Rwandan officials. But he is ebullient and his youthfulness has ignited the youthful generation, which occupies a significant chunk of the electoral base. With such a long list to choose from, Zimbabweans may well be heading for an unpredictable election. But while we may joke about how the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission will manage to print the ballot, what this list really tells us is how feared Mr Mugabe was during his 37-year rule when few people had the courage to enter politics. More Letters from Africa Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica

अफ्रीका से हमारे पत्रों की श्रृंखला में, पत्रकार से बैरिस्टर बने ब्रायन हंगवे ने जिम्बाब्वे में राष्ट्रपति चुनाव से पहले एक भीड़-भाड़ वाले मैदान और चुनावी खेल के मैदान में हिंसा के बदसूरत चेहरे पर एक नज़र डाली है।


'My husband hired a hitman to kill me - but I forgive him'

Summary: When Nancy Shore drove home from church one day in August 2012 a hitman was waiting for her with a gun. She survived, but was stunned to learn, from her hospital bed, who police accused of paying to have her killed.

By Lucy WallisBBC World Service "We really had an awesome marriage," says 57-year-old Nancy Shore. "Obviously, you go through your ups and downs. I mean we weren't perfect, we had our issues from time to time and we always worked through those." Nancy married Frank Howard in 1983 and they raised three children together in Carrollton, Texas. "He was very kind, gentle, loving. He was very involved with our children," she says. "He coached soccer teams when they were little kids - we went to all of their soccer games. And some of them [did] musical theatre." The couple sang in the choir at their local church and held Bible study meetings for the youth group in their family home. But when their children grew up, Frank began to travel more for his work as an accountant. Nancy began to feel more isolated. "I was a stay-at-home mom and that was my job, and once they started leaving it was getting hard for me," says Nancy. "And then he started getting more busy with work and I guess you would say it felt like we were growing, in distance, apart." Frank was away on what Nancy thought was another business trip on the evening of 18 August 2012. She had attended a baptism at her church and after stopping to get a takeaway, she drove back home. "I drove into my garage and suddenly there was a man with his arm around my neck and a gun to my head," says Nancy. He demanded her handbag. Nancy managed to wrestle herself away and turned to face her attacker, who was wearing a black baseball cap. Terrified, she accidentally handed him the bag of takeaway food. "He demanded my purse a third time with expletives," says Nancy. "I was close enough to him to shove my purse into his chest and when I did I cried out, 'Jesus save me!' and he immediately shot me in the head and I went down." Nancy lay unconscious on the floor while her assailant ran off, taking the handbag but leaving her car, which he could easily have stolen. When she recovered consciousness, Nancy could barely breathe and was in excruciating pain. The bullet had gone through her head and lodged in her right lung. "When I came to I thought you're going to die, and then that's when God spoke to me and said, 'Get up.' He gave me the physical strength to get up," says Nancy. Her mobile phone was in her stolen handbag so she crawled to the car and pressed a button designed to summon an emergency rescue service. When this didn't work, Nancy made a huge effort and staggered into the house. Here she caught her reflection in a mirror for the first time. "I looked at myself and all I could see was blood from my eye down to my beautiful purple shirt," says Nancy. "At that point I didn't realise that I had lost my left eye." Struggling for breath, she managed to call the emergency services, screaming "Help me, help me!" She told them where she was and provided a description of her attacker. She then miraculously walked to the front door to wait for the paramedics' arrival. A policeman at the scene contacted Nancy's children who phoned their father Frank. "He began weeping and being beside himself, as one daughter described it," says Nancy. "And he was out of control trying to get to my rescue." Once Frank was able to fly back home, he visited his wife at the hospital. Nancy says her daughter described to her how he fell to the floor before he first saw her, such was his distress. Yet as the police began to investigate, they found some shocking data on Frank's mobile phone, including photographs and text messages from another woman. Frank had been with her at the time of the attack, and not on a business trip. The affair had been going on for three years. Find out more When Nancy was strong enough to leave intensive care she received a phone call from Frank via the hospital phone confessing to his adultery. "I just completely began weeping," says Nancy. "He actually was weeping so hard that I could barely even understand him talking, to tell me what had happened." Frank came to visit Nancy at the hospital several more times after that call, but there was more devastating news to come. While she was still recovering from surgery and undergoing further tests, the police told Nancy they had arrested a man in connection with the attack - John Franklin Howard, Nancy's husband, known to everyone as Frank. For several years, Frank had been paying a gang of criminals to murder his wife. "It was heartbreaking," says Nancy. "I can remember even after an eye surgery just weeping and weeping and my mother had to come in and say, 'Stop, you can't cry like that, your eye has got to heal,' and, 'You can't be letting your head hang down like that.'" The criminals had been exploiting Frank, continually demanding more and more money. He was also spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on his girlfriend. So Frank had started to embezzle money from one of his wealthy clients - possibly more than $30m. Nancy does not know why Frank wanted her killed. But she believes it's because he knew she would never agree to a divorce. "I had made that vow to the Lord that I was not going to divorce him," says Nancy. "So he began getting involved with [another woman], the next thing you know he's embezzling money because he's trying to show her that he's this rich man, and I think before long he was in over his head. He really had no option but to have me shot." At Frank's trial, the jury took only two hours to find him guilty of attempted capital murder. He was sentenced to life in prison and will have to serve 30 years before he will be considered for parole. By then he will be about 85 years old. In fact Nancy did divorce her husband - before the trial - but if he had been acquitted she would have been willing to rebuild their relationship and remarry him, she says. So the guilty verdict came as a "kick in the stomach". "It's because I still loved him at the time, and you know I have to say I still love him, not in a romantic love, but in a love that he's the father of my children, and there's always going to be a love there," Nancy says. Her children were convinced their father had been wrongly convicted. "He was continually telling them that he was innocent," says Nancy. "That he had nothing to do with this, and he was a great husband and father until the time he wasn't. So I can totally understand why my children believe this." After the verdict she and her children left the courtroom separately. It was a month before they began to make contact again. Despite everything she has been through, Nancy has been able to forgive her husband - and even offered him forgiveness via her victim impact statement at the trial. "I have forgiven him," says Nancy. "The Bible says that if we don't forgive those who have harmed us then we are unable to be forgiven and I couldn't afford not to forgive him because I couldn't live with bitterness." Nancy has not seen or heard from Frank since he went to prison. Although she has thought about visiting him, for now she is keeping her distance. But there is one question that preys on her mind, and that she would ask him if she could. "What happened to the marriage?" says Nancy. "What in the world even caused him to want to go astray and find another woman? I know the shooting should be the most devastating part of it, but that has been the most devastating part." Nancy's recovery has astonished doctors. She has had numerous operations to rebuild her face and eye socket and now has a prosthetic eye. She also has a full-time job working as a legal assistant in a law firm. "I still have the bullet in my lung, but I had lost the use of my right arm and hand and I now am able to use it and I type," says Nancy. She says she "vigorously" celebrates every birthday she has had since the shooting and still experiences joy singing in the church choir. Nearly six years after the horror of the attack on her doorstep, she is moving on. "I'm able to be thankful once again for how God has saved my life and the healing that's happening in my children's lives, it's awesome," she says. "I'm excruciatingly happy." Listen to Nancy Shore speaking to Outlook on the BBC World Service Nancy's story is told in the book, The Shooting of Nancy Howard: A Journey Back to Shore Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.

अगस्त 2012 में जब नैन्सी शोर एक दिन चर्च से घर चली गई तो एक हिटमैन बंदूक के साथ उसका इंतजार कर रहा था। वह बच गई, लेकिन अपने अस्पताल के बिस्तर से यह जानकर दंग रह गई कि पुलिस ने उसे मारने के लिए पैसे देने का आरोप लगाया।


Tax and spend: What are experts saying about Scottish figures?

Summary: Economic experts have their assessment of the latest Scottish figures on taxation and spending. The statistics appear in the annual report of Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) , which is seen as a guide to the health of Scotland's public finances.

John McLaren, Centre for Public Policy for Regions (CPPR) 'Good, but not definitive' "The latest information contained within the report was much as had been suspected. "Scotland's fiscal balance worsened considerably between 2011-12 and the latest year 2012-13, going from a deficit of £4.6 billion to one of £8.6 billion. "This was due in the main to a large decline in North Sea tax revenues, which fell by over 40%. "As around 90% of UK North Sea revenues are allotted to Scotland, based on a geographic share, this means that Scotland's fiscal balance relative to the UK has also worsened. In 2011-12, Scotland had a relatively better fiscal balance than the UK, when measured as a percentage of GDP and in terms of per head of population. In 2012-13, that position has reversed and the UK is in a slightly better position. Over the last five years, the two countries have averaged similar fiscal balances. "While Gers gives as good a picture as we have of Scotland's finances, it is not definitive. On North Sea tax revenues in particular the waters are muddied by a lack of certainty. "For example, Her Majesty's Revenues and Custom, HMRC, have estimated a different tax share from the North Sea for Scotland. HMRC and Scottish Government statisticians are currently liaising to try and rectify this variance. "GERS gives us a useful insight into past fiscal balances but is not of great use for understanding the future position. "North Sea revenues are highly erratic, caused by price and production fluctuations; Scotland's geographic share of North Sea tax revenues fell from £7.5bn in 2010-11, rose to £10 bn in 2011-12, but fell again to £5.6 bn in 2012-13. So, whilst GERS 2014 offers an insight, far more analysis of the future is needed given the erratic nature of this key income stream." Alex Kemp, University of Aberdeen 'Investment activity linked to Scottish sector' "The oil and gas estimates for the Scottish shares of oil and gas production and tax revenues reflect modelling undertaken by myself and Linda Stephen at the University of Aberdeen. "The UK Continental Shelf was divided between the Scottish sector and the rest of the UK on the basis of the median line principle. A large financial model incorporating all the complex tax terms currently in place was applied to a large field database incorporating all the currently producing fields and those sanctioned but not yet in production. "The figures for production of oil, gas, and total hydrocarbon production (including NGLs), and field development, operating and decommissioning costs were then calculated for the Scottish and rest of UK sectors. To estimate tax revenues allowance has also to be made for exploration and appraisal costs, loan interest, R&D costs and non-field specific (but deductible) overheads. "Total exploration and appraisal costs for the UKCS were allocated between Scotland and the rest of the UK on the respective numbers of wells in the two sectors, and the wells in the Scottish sector were calculated to be much more expensive than those in the rest of the UK sector. The allocation of loan interest and R&D costs was based on the percentage of total field development costs in the Scottish sector compared to the rest of the UK. Overhead costs were allocated according to the percentage of total operating costs in the Scottish sector compared to the rest of the UK sector. All the modelling was undertaken on a calendar year basis. "The results for aggregate production, expenditures, and tax revenues were checked and confirmed for consistency with published data for the UKCS. "The results indicate that the Scottish share of total oil production has been in the range 96%-97% over the past few years. The Scottish share of gas production has fallen from 61% in 2009 to 48% in 2012. "The significant downtime in some fields in the Scottish sector in 2012 was a key factor. The consequence is that the Scottish share of total hydrocarbon production has fallen from 82% in 2009 to 76% in 2012. "As a further consequence of this, plus the higher cost inflation in the Scottish sector compared to the rest of the UK, the Scottish share of tax revenues has fallen from its historic peak of 96% in 2009 to 84% in 2012. "Future production and tax revenues in the two sectors will reflect the fruits of the current investment boom and future oil and gas prices. A very high proportion of current investment activity relates to the Scottish sector." Tony Mackay, Mackay Consultants 'Scottish budget deficit will worsen' "The annual Gers publication is always of great interest to economists like me because it contains a lot of very interesting and useful statistics which I use frequently throughout the year. Unfortunately it has become increasingly politicised in recent years, to the annoyance of my economist friends in the Scottish government. This latest Gers report is no exception, not surprisingly given the independence referendum in September. "It estimates total public sector spending in Scotland in the 2012-13 financial year at £65.2bn. Public sector revenue, excluding North Sea oil and gas, is estimated at £47.6bn, implying a deficit of £17.6bn. "If North Sea revenues are included on the assumption that about 90% are from oil and gas fields in Scottish waters, they rise to about £53.1bn. However, that still leaves a deficit of about £12bn in 2012-13. That is obviously very embarrassing for the SNP government. "There can be no doubt that public sector spending per person is higher in Scotland than the UK average and that has long been the case. There are two main reasons for that. Firstly, the large geographical area means that the costs of providing schools, roads and many other public services are more expensive, particularly in rural areas like the Highlands and Islands. "Secondly, the historical dominance of the Labour Party of many local authorities resulted in higher-than-average public spending. That trend has continued at the Scottish level under the current SNP government. "The critical issue is clearly the North Sea oil and gas tax revenues. These have been very high in recent years because of high oil prices, with Brent crude trading at over $100 per barrel. However, the Gers report states that these fell by -41.5% between 2011-12 and 2012-13. "I am very surprised at the magnitude of that fall. However, UK oil production is currently declining at about -10% per year, although there may be a temporary increase until about 2017 because of new fields being developed in the West of Shetland area. The long term trend is undoubtedly downwards. "Further, operating and development costs in the North Sea have risen substantially, which implies lower tax revenues, and there is the added complication of the costs of decommissioning fields such as Brent and Murchison when they cease production. Those costs can be set against the oil industry's tax bills. "The obvious conclusion from the latest Gers report for any objective economist is that the Scottish budget deficit will worsen over the next decade." Roger Cook, The Scotland Institute 'Expenditure broadly similar to last year' "Overall, revenues in Scotland are similar to last year. If North Sea oil is excluded, Scotland accounts for 8.2% of the UK total, and is estimated to be £47.6bn compared to £46.3bn in 2011/12. However, if oil is included (on a geographical basis), then estimated revenues in Scotland have fallen from £56.9bn (9.9% of the UK total) to £53.1bn (9.1% of UK total), a significant drop of £3.8bn. "Expenditure is also broadly similar to last year having increased from £64.5bn (9.3%) to £65.2bn (9.3%). "The estimated Scottish share of the budget deficit can be calculated in three ways: as a share of GDP without oil; as a share of GDP with oil allocated on a per capita basis; or, as a geographical share. Each of these gives different answers: •Deficit (no oil) has increased slightly from£14.0bn to £14.2bn (11.2% of GDP) •Deficit (per capita oil allocation) has increased from £13bn to £13.6bn (10.6%) •Deficit (geographical oil allocation) has increased substantially from £3.4bn to £8.6bn (5.9%) "The overall UK deficit has worsened from -£88.6bn to -£91.9bn. "The obvious change, compared to 2012/13, is in terms of estimated revenues from North Sea oil especially as the geographic basis is the best estimate of the financial situation of an independent Scotland. The drop in income is related to "a combination of unplanned production stoppages at several large gas fields and higher levels of maintenance activity in the North Sea. "Secondly, capital investment in the North Sea has risen in recent years."

आर्थिक विशेषज्ञों ने कराधान और खर्च पर नवीनतम स्कॉटिश आंकड़ों का मूल्यांकन किया है। ये आंकड़े सरकारी व्यय और राजस्व स्कॉटलैंड (जीईआरएस) की वार्षिक रिपोर्ट में दिखाई देते हैं, जिसे स्कॉटलैंड के सार्वजनिक वित्त के स्वास्थ्य के लिए एक मार्गदर्शक के रूप में देखा जाता है।


Chancellor's Budget is announced

Summary: The Chancellor George Osborne has announced his Budget.

Mr Osborne has announced that the 50p top rate of income tax will be cut to 45p from April 2013. He said the rate, paid on earnings over £150,000, damaged competitiveness and raised a third of the £3bn expected. The tax free personal allowance will be raised to £9,205. Mr Osborne believes this will give low and middle earners an extra £220 a year. Child benefit will also now be removed gradually for those earning more than £50,000. Mr Osborne had planned to axe it where one parent earned over £43,000, but he has decided that it will be phased out when someone in a household has an income of more than £50,000. It will fall by 1% for every £100 earned over £50,000. Only those earning more than £60,000 will lose the benefit entirely.

चांसलर जॉर्ज ओसबोर्न ने अपने बजट की घोषणा की है।


Edinburgh financial technology firm sold in £144m deal

Summary: One of Scotland's leading financial technology firms is being bought over in a deal that values the firm at £144m.

Nucleus Financial provides a software platform to 800 small and medium-scale financial adviser firms. It is being bought by the James Hay Group, which specialises in providing technology in the pensions industry. Nucleus, led by chief executive David Ferguson. is based in Edinburgh with nearly 400 employees. Richard Rowney, chief executive of the James Hay Group, said: "We admire much about Nucleus and the skills within its team, and look forward to working with them to better serve the growing needs of advisers."

स्कॉटलैंड की प्रमुख वित्तीय प्रौद्योगिकी फर्मों में से एक को एक सौदे में खरीदा जा रहा है जो फर्म का मूल्य £144 मिलियन है।


Was Lumley campaign good for Gurkhas?

Summary: Two years ago actress Joanna Lumley helped Gurkhas who retired before 1997 win the right to settle in the UK. Gurkha welfare groups and the Home office estimate that about 8,000 former soldiers and their families have since moved to Britain. But many have struggled in the UK, as the BBC's Alastair Lawson reports.

Nowhere can the influx of Gurkhas into Britain be more clearly seen than in the British military town of Aldershot. The local authority estimates that one in 10 of the town's 90,000 residents comes from Nepal - many as a direct result of the campaign Ms Lumley helped lead. If the British Gurkha Welfare Society (BGWS) is to be believed, Joanna Lumley's campaign has been a disaster, resulting in thousands of elderly and infirm Gurkha pensioners - most unable to speak English - living in poor accommodation and relying on state handouts to survive. The actress herself has broken a strictly-observed silence over criticisms of her campaign to release a statement to the BBC. "Our campaign had moral right on our side," the statement said, "and the vast majority of the British public wanted the government to amend the law to allow Gurkhas to settle in the UK. "Debts of honour are not easy to translate or quantify into pounds and pence, and some MPs have criticised our campaign for not considering the potential financial impact on the exchequer. Yet the government did consider this at the time, and decided that our campaign arguments vanquished the issues of pure cost." Ms Lumley's supporters insist that her campaign successfully reversed decades of discrimination against older Gurkhas who fought for the British army yet were denied the right to retire in the UK. But the BGWS argues that it would be far more cost-effective if retired Gurkhas were paid better pensions and encouraged to stay in Nepal rather than pursue the more expensive option of emigrating to the UK to take advantage of state pensions, housing benefit and free health care. The organisation says that from the outset its campaign has been different from that waged by Ms Lumley and her supporters - it argued that fair pensions and the right of former Gurkhas to retire in the UK were equally important, whereas the emphasis of her campaign was on resettlement rights. About 25,000 Gurkhas who retired before 1997 still get only about a third of the amount of pension received by their British and Commonwealth former comrades, despite winning the right to live in Britain. In 2007, the pension rules were changed to give Gurkha soldiers who retired after 1997 equal pension rights with other UK service personnel. The Ministry of Defence has argued that pre-1997 pensions are tailored for Gurkhas retiring in Nepal, where it is cheaper to live and most people have no pension at all. 'Terrible quality of life' In May 2009 the British government announced that all Gurkhas who retired before 1997 with four or more years service in the British army would be allowed to settle in the UK along with their wives and children. Joanna Lumley had argued that it was only fair to give them the same retirement rights as Gurkhas who retired after 1997 - who are automatically granted leave to remain in the UK. BGWS General Secretary Chhatra Rai says that between 60% and 70% of those who have arrived in the UK as a result of her campaign are not eligible for a Gurkha military pension and will instead rely on UK state pensions and housing benefits to survive. He argues that each entrant costs the state on average £600-700 ($980-$1,150) in benefits a month. Equalising pensions would cost a fraction of what it does to settle retired Gurkhas in the UK, the BGWS estimates. "The quality of life for many of these people is terrible," Mr Rai said. "Many cannot speak English and because they are old and frail they often find it difficult to get out and mix with the community." Much of Mr Rai's concern about the "massive influx" of Gurkha veterans and their families into the Aldershot area is echoed by Gerald Howarth, the MP who represents the local authority, Rushmoor, where many have settled. He argues that their arrival has resulted in a "very real additional financial burden" on Rushmoor and its services - including council housing, doctors' practices and schools. "Action needs to be taken to limit any further numbers coming to Rushmoor," Mr Howarth told the BBC. "Given the respect and affection in which Gurkhas are held across the UK, I have proposed to the prime minister that other local authorities should be encouraged to extend the offer of assistance to would-be migrants in their areas." Mr Howarth - who in the past has been highly critical of Ms Lumley's campaign - said that it was important that those Gurkhas thinking of coming to retire in the UK "are painted a very clear picture" of what they can expect when they arrive. "I think it extremely unfair on them if they are not given that clear picture, especially when it comes to the lack of social housing and the lack of jobs for those who do not speak English." 'Not an option' But Gurkha Justice Campaign (GJC) joint leader Martin Howe says that Ms Lumley's campaign was and continues to be "a fantastic success story". The GJC was at the forefront of the campaign two years ago to allow all retired Gurkhas the right to live in the UK. Spearheading that campaign was former Gurkha Ragprasad Purja, who celebrated victory with Ms Lumley in 2009. "We died for this country and we are entitled to come and live here and claim benefits for the sacrifices we have made," he told the BBC. "We will forever be grateful to Joanna Lumley for what she has done." Mr Howe acknowledges that "there will always be some retired Gurkhas who have slipped through the net and found life in the UK to be a struggle". "But it's very important that after serving this country they and their families now have the right to take advantage of its health care and education facilities," he said. Mr Howe said that GJC figures showed that 3,000 retired Gurkhas and 5,000 of their dependants had come to the UK as a result of Ms Lumley's campaign. He said that giving retired Gurkhas better pensions "was not an option" because the British defence ministry "had fought tooth and nail" not to allow this in several court cases over the past decade. He also dismissed predictions that thousands more Gurkha pensioners would descend on the UK. "Two years ago there were government predictions that as many as 150,000 could come to Britain - but then as now such estimates have proved to be inaccurate and blatant scaremongering." Joanna Lumley's statement reinforces her belief that the campaign has been a success. "It was a wonderful moment in our democratic history, where a public desire for justice turned into a massive campaign that changed government policy in the face of strong resistance from the Ministry of Defence."

दो साल पहले अभिनेत्री जोआना लुमले ने 1997 से पहले सेवानिवृत्त हुए गोरखाओं को ब्रिटेन में बसने का अधिकार दिलाने में मदद की थी। गोरखा कल्याण समूहों और गृह कार्यालय का अनुमान है कि लगभग 8,000 पूर्व सैनिक और उनके परिवार तब से ब्रिटेन चले गए हैं। लेकिन कई ने ब्रिटेन में संघर्ष किया है, जैसा कि बीबीसी के एलिस्टेयर लॉसन ने बताया है।


Man found dead in Highbridge garden

Summary: A man has been found dead in a garden in Somerset.

Police were called to the home in Edithmead Lane in Highbridge on Thursday afternoon because of "concerns over a man's welfare". Officer's found the victim's body and arrested a 44-year-old man on suspicion of murder. A cordon is in place at the scene and there will be a "significant police presence in the area over the coming days", police said. Det Ch Insp Mark Almond added: "We've informed the victim's next of kin and will be giving them as much support as they need." Related Internet Links Avon and Somerset Police

समरसेट के एक बगीचे में एक व्यक्ति मृत पाया गया है।


Morgan Tsvangirai: Former prime minister returns to Zimbabwe

Summary: As Zimbabwe's military held its President, Robert Mugabe, under house arrest, and tensions ran high in a nation that had only ever known one leader, a figure from the country's recent past touched down in the capital Harare.

Former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai - who stood against President Mugabe in 2013 but lost in a landslide, an election Mr Tsvangirai alleges was rigged - flew in from South Africa, reportedly to take part in negotiations over the country's future. Mr Mugabe has been detained by the military at his home, in a move that has all the hallmarks of a coup. Mr Tsvangirai has called for the president to stand down, a call that has so far gone unheeded. In the mid 2000s, Mr Tsvangirai was the symbol of resistance to Mr Mugabe's ageing, repressive regime. A former mineworker and trade union chief, he founded the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 2000 and challenged for the presidency in 2008. He gained the most votes, but, according to official results, not enough to win outright. Before the second round was held in June, Mr Mugabe's security forces carried out a campaign of violence against opposition supporters, and Mr Tsvangirai withdrew. Mr Mugabe was declared the winner, but international outrage over allegations of violence and vote-rigging led to a power sharing agreement in which Mr Tsvangirai would serve as prime minister. After months of tortuous negotiations, while the economy collapsed, he was sworn in in February 2009. The story in full A charismatic public speaker, Mr Tsvangirai is also a brave man who routinely ran the risk of arrest or assassination to challenge Mr Mugabe's regime. As the leader of the opposition, he was brutally assaulted, charged with treason, and labelled a traitor. He has reportedly survived three assassination attempts, including one in 1997 in which he was nearly forced out of the window of his 10th-storey office. In 2007 he was arrested and beaten by police for taking part in a prayer meeting which they said was illegal. One person was said to have been killed in the raid, and shocking pictures emerged of a bloodied Mr Tsvangirai. Mr Mugabe said at the time that he "deserved" the beating for disobeying police orders. In 2013, Mr Tsvangirai challenged Mr Mugabe for the presidency and lost in a landslide, despite being widely regarded as the favourite. International observers, including the US and UK authorities, expressed concerns about the legitimacy of the incumbent's 61% share of the vote. Critics of Mr Tsvangirai said he should have been able, as prime minister, to prevent electoral fraud. His image was also tarnished by a complicated personal life following the death of his first wife, Susan, in a car crash soon after he became prime minister, in which he was injured. Two women went to court to try to block his marriage to Elizabeth Macheka, 35, in September 2012. The court agreed that he had already wed one of them in a traditional ceremony, so he was obliged to marry Ms Macheka in a "customary" union which recognises polygamy. Bizarrely, all three of the women had close family links to members of Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, lending credence to suggestions that he was the victim of dirty tricks. Humble beginnings The eldest of nine children, Mr Tsvangirai left school while a teenager to help support his parents. He has also had a large family - fathering six children with Ms Macheka. He left school early to seek work and in 1974 took work at a mine. Mr Mugabe would later take to calling Mr Tsvangirai "ignoramus" because of his humble background and lack of education. After working as plant foreman at the Bindura Nickel Mine for 10 years, he rose through the union ranks and in 1988 he was elected secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). As the nation's economy declined and workers' living standards plummeted in the 1990s, the ZCTU took an increasingly political role. When Mr Mugabe tried to raise income tax to pay pensions for veterans of the 1970s war of independence, a ZCTU-organised nationwide strike forced him to back down. In apparent revenge for his part in defeating Mr Mugabe and the war veterans, a group of men burst into Mr Tsvangirai's office, hit him on the head with a metal bar and attempted to throw him out of his 10th floor office window. It would come to be a foretaste of the war veterans' campaign of violence ahead of elections in 2000 and 2002, which led to the deaths of more than 100 MDC supporters. Contradictions Buoyed by its initial victory, the ZCTU held further strikes against the government's economic mismanagement, but Mr Mugabe stood firm and after intense debate, the ZCTU helped establish the MDC in September 1999. Its nationwide structures were crucial in helping the young party campaign for the June 2000 parliamentary elections, in which it won 57 seats - then the best opposition showing in Zimbabwe's history. Mr Mugabe characterised the MDC as a puppet of white farmers and the UK government, despite its foundations in the country's black working class. Many white farmers had financially supported and campaigned for the MDC. The state-controlled media used to regularly remind voters that Mr Tsvangirai did not participate in the guerrilla war against white minority rule. As a former miner and unionist, his heart is social democratic - roughly in the middle of Zimbabwe's deep economic and political divide. He has in the past blamed Zimbabwe's economic woes on the IMF's structural adjustment programme, calling the IMF "devils". But many in his party are industrialists who believe in the power of the free market, while Mr Mugabe and his allies see the world through socialist eyes. Branded a traitor Just before the 2002 presidential elections, a mysterious videotape emerged, allegedly showing Mr Tsvangirai discussing how to assassinate Mr Mugabe using a Canadian consultancy firm, Dickens and Madson. The head of the consultancy, Ari Ben-Menashe, used to work as a lobbyist for the Zimbabwe government and, in the tape, he appears to call Mr Tsvangirai "stupid" for even speaking to him, let alone allegedly discussing an assassination plot. Mr Tsvangirai was eventually acquitted of treason, but for 20 months the possibility of a death sentence hung over his head. He was charged with treason for a third time in 2003, after calling for mass protests to oust Mr Mugabe - protests which fizzled out under the force of police truncheons. Despite his image as a freedom fighter, some of Mr Tsvangirai's closest allies have accused him of behaving like a dictator on occasion. He overruled a decision by the MDC leadership to take part in elections for the Senate in 2005 and ordered a boycott. This led to a split in the party and another blow to his chances of toppling Mr Mugabe. He has also been accused of being impulsive, and at the same time too passive during his tenure as prime minister. He once said that his strategy to unseat Mr Mugabe was to wait while the president mismanaged the economy to such an extent that he would be forced out of office. After he lost in 2013, it seemed unlikely the world would ever find out how Mr Tsvangirai would take to being a leader, but that may be about to change.

जैसे ही जिम्बाब्वे की सेना ने अपने राष्ट्रपति, रॉबर्ट मुगाबे को नजरबंद कर दिया, और एक ऐसे राष्ट्र में तनाव बढ़ गया जो केवल एक नेता को जानता था, देश के हाल के अतीत का एक आंकड़ा राजधानी हरारे में छू गया।


M1 Dunstable crash: Lorry driver admits causing Zahid Ahmed's death

Summary: A lorry driver has admitted causing the death of a teenager and seriously injuring four other people on the M1.

Zahid Ahmed, 19, died in a two-vehicle crash at junction 11A near Dunstable, Bedfordshire, on 1 December. Wojciech Bukowski, 65, of Travertine Close, Houghton Regis, near Dunstable admitted causing death by dangerous driving. He also admitted four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. He was remanded for sentence on 1 June. Bukowski appeared at Luton Crown Court via a video link from Wormwood Scrubs prison and spoke through a Polish interpreter.

एक लॉरी चालक ने स्वीकार किया है कि एम1 पर एक किशोर की मौत हो गई और चार अन्य लोग गंभीर रूप से घायल हो गए।


Self-service kiosks for Isle of Man Post Office

Summary: The Isle of Man post office is introducing self-service kiosks at one of its shops to try to reduce queuing times.

The Pay and Post kiosks, have been installed at the Regent Street Post Office in Douglas. Customers will be able to weigh, stamp and pay for packages and pay bills on the new touch-screen machines. The machines are undergoing on-site testing and are expected to be up and running in August. Marty Quine, of the Isle of Man Post Office, said: "Queuing times have always been a significant issue especially at peak times. "The introduction of these kiosks will provide customers with a quick and efficient service and will see transactions completed within a matter of seconds."

आइल ऑफ मैन डाकघर कतार के समय को कम करने की कोशिश करने के लिए अपनी एक दुकान पर स्व-सेवा कियोस्क शुरू कर रहा है।


No easy way to defeat Islamic State

Summary: We were warned by Western political leaders that the war against the ultra-extremists of so-called Islamic State (IS) would be a long one. It is becoming increasingly clear their caution was fully justified.

By James RobbinsDiplomatic correspondent Britain's Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, now draws a rather startling parallel with a much larger war, the Second World War, against a far larger fascist organisation, the Nazis. He reminded an audience in London earlier this week that it took almost five years from the British retreat at Dunkirk in 1940 to final Allied victory in Europe and the fall of Berlin in 1945. His message: Be patient. So is the present war being won, however slowly? On the ground, of course, it is being fought overwhelmingly by the people of those countries where IS has seized territory. Still, the task of degrading its fighting capability so substantially that the IS threat can be radically diminished relies on outside support from key military powers. The international campaign is being fought on at least two fronts, in Iraq and in Syria, (although Britain is only involved in Iraq). It is not being fought on another important front, in Libya, where IS has extended its hold around the town of Sirte, exploiting the vulnerability of a non-functioning state which is being dismembered by hundreds of rival militias. In all three countries, the anti-IS coalition faces huge political obstacles making the struggle even harder. The Iraq front At the very least, the current anti-IS strategy is not delivering the sort of results which might be expected from a combination of foreign airpower and efforts to strengthen the Iraqi army. The continuing reliance of Iraq's Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, on Iranian-backed Shia militias to regain lost territory comes at a heavy political price, undermining hopes of national reconciliation efforts. Al-Abadi complains that it is the international coalition which is not doing enough, failing to give him more arms and ammunition, but Western governments who had lost all faith in his predecessor, Nouri Al-Maliki, now privately question his successor's will to win too. Reliance on Shia militias is steadily alienating still further the Sunni tribes of Iraq who have to be persuaded that there is a tolerable future for them in a far less sectarian state. Whatever the condition of the military campaign against IS in Iraq, the wider political struggle to produce a more "inclusive" Iraq, which is sensitive to the substantial Sunni minority as well as the Shia majority, is certainly not being won. So watch for more Western pressure on the Iraqi government, as well as the deployment of more US military trainers. Expect also a significant expansion of Britain's military contribution too, at least a doubling of the number of British military trainers. That would deliver to David Cameron the additional benefit of being seen by Washington as a firmer "first friend". Britain would be supplying real additional military muscle to counter the dismissive view in the Obama administration of "Shrinking Britain". However much British ministers protest that the charge is unfounded, it is a derogatory phrase taking hold at very senior levels in the US. The Syria front The condition of Syria is far more worrying. There, IS fighters continue to exploit the deadlocked civil war. They do suffer some reverses, but so far IS can still keep open corridors to the Turkish border. That allows more radicalised recruits from Europe to reach them and join the ranks. At its simplest, the political obstacle in Syria remains the extraordinary tenacity of the Assad regime in Damascus. Weakening him still further relies to a large extent on persuading his backers - Iran and Russia - to withdraw support. A Western breakthrough in relations with Iran which would flow from any nuclear deal could be the beginning of a game-changer. Talking President Putin into withdrawing all support for President Assad looks more farfetched. The Western case remains that Moscow shares the same concerns over extremism running amok over vast swathes of the Middle East and North Africa. But Russia's isolation over what Western government call land grabs in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine makes dialogue with Moscow very difficult. Still, the key powers in the West are determined to keep lines open to the Kremlin. Chancellor Merkel talks to Mr Putin regularly. Last month, John Kerry flew to Sochi to see the Russian leader. Next, watch for a possible re-engagement by David Cameron, perhaps a face to face meeting with Mr Putin before the end of the year. The aim would be to try to increase dialogue despite the particularly poisoned relations between London and Moscow. The Libya front In Libya, the single greatest problem facing the key powers is that there is no functioning government to encourage and to bolster. The collapse of Libya has allowed people smuggling of desperate migrants to flourish too. This really is ungoverned space, and so far UN-led efforts to mediate and to help establish a government of national unity are way short of fulfilment. Of course, the tide can be turned against IS eventually. The territory it controls, or where it has substantial influence, can be fragmented, but the present political background is making that task very hard.

हमें पश्चिमी राजनीतिक नेताओं द्वारा चेतावनी दी गई थी कि तथाकथित इस्लामिक स्टेट (आईएस) के चरमपंथियों के खिलाफ युद्ध लंबा होगा। यह स्पष्ट होता जा रहा है कि उनकी सावधानी पूरी तरह से उचित थी।


Captain Tom Moore: How will coronavirus fundraising be spent?

Summary: What began as a 99-year-old Army veteran walking laps of his garden for charity has evolved into a story that has captured the hearts of a nation desperate for positive news during the coronavirus pandemic.

By Phil Shepka & Katy LewisBBC News Capt Tom Moore's initial hopes of raising £1,000 by lapping his Bedfordshire garden 100 times before his 100th birthday seem like a distant memory, with the total now surpassing a staggering £30m. The fund continues to rise and has been earmarked for the NHS. What will happen to the money? What is NHS Charities Together? Having recently been treated for a broken hip and skin cancer, Capt Tom was inspired to walk the 2.5km (1.6 miles) around his home garden with the aid of a frame to raise money for NHS Charities Together. Capt Tom himself said he set about raising the money "for the sake of the nurses and the NHS we have, because they are doing such a magnificent job". The umbrella organisation supports more than 140 member health service charities, which are typically linked to specific hospitals or NHS trusts. Many of the funds donated to NHS Charities Together are then disseminated to charities to use at a local level - and that's where the kind of money raised by Capt Tom will be spent. Donations since the pandemic started have been used to help set up wellbeing spaces in hospitals. These include sleep pods, reclining chairs and so-called "wobble rooms" - areas where staff have a safe space to release emotions after a traumatic experience, such as losing a patient. Wellbeing packs including everyday items such as porridge, tea or hand cream have also been given to staff, which one charity member said was "like a hug in a box". The money has also helped pay for electronic tablets that allow patients who are in isolation in hospital to have contact with their friends and family. In the long term, the funds will be used in planning to allow people to leave hospital quicker and safely, and also provide mental health support for staff and volunteers involved in dealing with the pandemic. Chairman Ian Lush said: "It's extraordinary to see the amount of money and the outpouring of goodwill towards the NHS and towards all the NHS charities, who will take good care with the money that he's raising." Will JustGiving earn from this? When Capt Tom finished his 100th lap live on BBC Breakfast, his JustGiving fundraising page temporarily crashed. His current total is the largest raised in a single campaign on the site, and the company itself has become one of more than 900,000 donors, giving £100,000. In March 2019 the website abolished its 5% mandatory platform fee from donations, replacing it instead with a voluntary contribution model. When donating, people are asked if they would like to make a contribution, starting at 10%, and they must opt out of this amount if they do not wish to pay it. In a statement a spokeswoman said: "This model provides donors with choice and transparency, as well as allowing JustGiving to maintain the technology that keeps our site running 24/7, provide top-notch customer service and give everyone the best experience on JustGiving." She added that 97% of all monies raised would go to NHS Charities Together, as with any other fundraiser on the donation site. For an online card transaction paid in pounds on JustGiving, 1.9% on each donation plus 20p is deducted. Other currencies are subject to a 2.9% plus 20p deduction. A significant proportion of this is understood to go to card companies but JustGiving also receives a proportion, which is used towards operating costs. JustGiving was unable to provide a figure for how much money had been generated by transaction fees and contributions. Who is Capt Tom? Tom Moore was born in Keighley, West Yorkshire, on 30 April 1920. He attended Keighley Grammar School before training as a civil engineer and enlisting in the Army during World War Two. He rose to captain and served in India and Myanmar, then known as Burma. He will celebrate his 100th birthday on 30 April and while his initial plans were scuppered by coronavirus, he said the national outpouring of love and support for him was "a party enough for me". Where does Capt Tom live? For the past 12 years Capt Tom has lived with his family - daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore and grandchildren Benji and Georgia - at a house in Marston Moretaine, a small Bedfordshire village. His name has been added to a list of the village's most notable people on Wikipedia, where he stands alongside a former speaker of the House of Commons, two cricketers and a man who lost an arm at the Battle of Waterloo. And his fame is spreading, with people from all over the country seeking to wish him well ahead of his birthday at the end April. Village postmaster Bill Chandi said hundreds of birthday cards had been arriving. What has been the reaction? Capt Tom's daughter Hannah called her father a "beacon of hope in dark times". "I think we all need something like this to believe in and it's for such an amazing cause," she said. Former F1 champion Damon Hill congratulated him on the "brilliant idea and for pulling it off", while current champion Lewis Hamilton called him a "total inspiration". Capt Tom's story brings some solace during a global pandemic. The director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called the feat an "extraordinary act of solidarity". Capt Tom's efforts have even raised the attention of royalty, with the Duke of Cambridge calling him a "one-man fundraising machine". Actor Tom Hardy, who played a Spitfire pilot in the World War Two film Dunkirk, is one of the high profile names calling for Capt Tom to be knighted among a series of supportive Instagram posts. And with more than half a million people backing a petition to the Honours Committee calling for a knighthood, could his heroic achievement be given a royal seal? Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk

99 वर्षीय सेना के पूर्व सैनिक के दान के लिए अपने बगीचे में चक्कर लगाने के रूप में जो शुरू हुआ, वह एक ऐसी कहानी में विकसित हुआ है जिसने कोरोनावायरस महामारी के दौरान सकारात्मक खबरों के लिए बेताब राष्ट्र के दिलों पर कब्जा कर लिया है।


Death at HMP Berwyn in Wrexham 'likely' due to drug Spice

Summary: The death of a prisoner at HMP Berwyn in Wrexham was likely to have been caused by the use of the drug Spice, an inquest has heard.

Luke Jones, 22, from Blaenau Ffestiniog in Gwynedd, was found dead at the prison on Saturday 31 March. The coroner David Pojur told the inquest at Ruthin the provisional cause of death given by the pathologist was an acute cardiac event linked to the use of the drug. The inquest was adjourned. Mr Pojur, coroner for North Wales East and Central, told the hearing Mr Jones was taken to Wrexham Maelor hospital after being found unresponsive in his cell. Further toxicology tests are being carried out and an investigation will be held by the Prisons and Probation Service, he added. At the time, North Wales Police said the death at the £250m category C jail was not being treated as suspicious.

एक जांच में पता चला है कि रेक्सम में एच. एम. पी. बर्विन में एक कैदी की मौत संभवतः स्पाइस दवा के उपयोग के कारण हुई थी।


Tracking the toxic air that's killing millions

Summary: The air we breathe is killing us.

By Mark SmithTechnology of Business reporter The World Health Organisation (WHO) says air pollution causes the death of seven million people a year and accounts for a third of fatalities from stroke, lung cancer and heart disease, with more than 90% of children breathing toxic air every day. Until we tackle the root causes of air pollution - burning fossil fuels mainly - we can at least learn where and when it is likely to be at its most dangerous. And this is where the data collected by tens of thousands of air quality sensors and analysed in real time by machine learning algorithms could help. London was once nicknamed "The Big Smoke" in its coal-burning industrial heyday. Now it is traffic pollution that's smothering the UK's capital with "filthy, toxic air", according to mayor Sadiq Khan. This pollution contributes to more than 9,000 deaths a year, medical experts have estimated. The Alan Turing Institute, a research centre specialising in data science and artificial intelligence (AI), has been developing a programme that can sift through vast quantities of real time data from more than 1,200 remote sensors across the Greater London area. This data is combined with other information about the weather, traffic flows, construction activity and street "canyons" - roads surrounded by high buildings where toxic air cannot easily dissipate. All this is analysed to produce a model predicting where the most polluted parts of the city will be over the next 48 hours, with hyper-local hour-by-hour estimates. Theo Damoulas, the institute's deputy director of data centric engineering, says the team's algorithms will be able to identify running and cycling routes that minimise exposure to air pollution, for example. "To take an informed decision you first need to be properly and accurately informed," he says. "Transforming data into information and knowledge is a crucial step... to mitigate air pollution." Sub-Saharan Africa has been particularly badly affected by air pollution, much of it caused by the use of polluting fuels for domestic heating and cooking. The WHO report found that every single child under five is exposed to unsafe levels. When it compiled satellite data on pollution last year, environmental lobby group Greenpeace found South Africa was home to the worst nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution hotspots in the world. And the World Bank estimates air pollution kills around 20,000 people annually in South Africa. IBM's Green Horizons project, currently being trialled in Johannesburg, is tracking various pollutants, including ozone, NO2, sulphur dioxide and particulates, by analysing historical and real-time data from thousands of sources. IBM claims the system provides "granular, high-accuracy forecasting" of what the city's air pollution will look like the following day. This means the authorities can issue public health warnings well in advance and apply corrective measures - increasing congestion charges, for example, or temporarily closing certain roads. Commuters will be made aware of the places to avoid and when. More Technology of Business "There are many aspects that influence the quality of air and can quickly change it in a few hours," explains Tapiwa Chiwewe, manager of advanced and applied AI for IBM Research, Africa. "The production and discharge of pollutants, chemical reactions between reactive gases and aerosols, removal processes such as rain and displacement on surfaces, and transport and dispersal of pollutants by winds." Despite all the variables, IBM says that during tests the tech has been able to predict ozone levels for several regions with accuracy rates of between 63-79%. "Ideally, this dashboard could be used to warn the public of a particularly heavy pollution day or pinpoint where heavy polluters are located so they can be fined or shut down," says Mr Chiwewe. The team hopes it will soon be able to predict pollution levels over a seven-day period. Polluted air is a global problem. Wisconsin-based tech start-up Understory started life building solar-powered monitoring stations to gather weather data for the agriculture and insurance sectors. Now it is deploying the tech to tackle air pollution. Its monitoring network of 500 stations can process up to 125,000 sensor measurements a second, the company says, combining them with historical data to identify toxic hotspots in real-time within a 50 x 50m (164 x 164ft) grid. The software provides a picture of the region's air quality, including temperature, wind, humidity, pressure, rainfall, and solar radiation, and will even take passing aeroplanes or local traffic jams into account. Understory's system is currently operational in Dallas, but is due to be rolled out in 10 US cities this year. "City leaders can manage a morning's commute by changing tolls and traffic patterns in a way that mitigates the cumulative pollution and allows for all community members to get to work on time," says Understory chief executive Alex Kubicek. "Last December our network in Dallas identified a wind pattern that gridlocked air over a major highway and airport," he adds. "This wind pattern trapped the unclean air over residential areas just to the south, where the community experienced a large amount of nitrogen oxide (NO) in the air for an extended period." The NO cloud was hit by solar radiation so ozone formed, he says, creating an especially dangerous heavy smog over the neighbourhood. Once authorities are armed with this kind of foreknowledge they can plan accordingly, Understory believes. But of course, monitoring and forecasting may help us to avoid and deal with the most dangerous toxic smogs, but it doesn't tackle the root cause of the problem: burning fossil fuels and belching pollutants from industrial processes into the air. "To understand and act against toxic air properly everywhere we need to be able to measure pollution better," says Jenny Bates, clean air campaigner at environmental lobby group Friends of the Earth. "And technology such as AI shows promise in providing us with more information about the levels of pollution in the air we breathe. "But good information is only the start. We must focus on dealing with air pollution at the source, to stop it presenting a risk to our health." That is as much a political issue and as technological one. Follow Technology of Business editor Matthew Wall on Twitter and Facebook

हम जिस हवा में सांस लेते हैं, वह हमें मार रही है।


Nazi art trove raises host of legal questions

Summary: It is a treasure trove of artistic delight - but also now a Pandora's box of legal questions. The discovery of an art collection to excite any gallery curator has also opened a host of legal controversies.

By Stephen EvansBBC News, Munich Art connoisseurs relish the thought of a Chagall which was previously unknown, or of masterworks by Picasso, Renoir, Matisse, Canaletto, Max Beckmann, Albrecht Duerer and others once thought destroyed. But the descendants of those robbed by the Nazis - and their lawyers - may question ownership. Questions abound. Who owns the work now? What crime may have been committed (apart from the obvious and monstrous one of the original theft of the paintings from their original rightful owners)? Where will the works now go? Law at the time The matter is complicated because Hildebrand Gurlitt, the German art dealer who acquired the paintings in the 1930s and 1940s, may well have come by them within the law at the time. He was not the one who looted Jewish homes but simply the dealer to whom the Nazis gave the works to try to sell, or who bought some of the works himself. In fact, he was part Jewish himself. That means that the son Cornelius Gurlitt, who kept the 1,406 works to himself in his apartment in a quiet and well-heeled part of Munich, may not have been breaking the law. He and his mother simply kept the work owned by his father when the dealer died. Remember, the discovery of the art came because of an investigation about tax and customs duty. The investigator in the press conference said that he and the authorities had questioned the son and were not planning more questions. They did not know where he was, though they did indicate that they knew how to contact him. This indicates that they do not suspect him of any major crime. Grey area The collection itself divides into two categories. There are those paintings described by the Nazis as "degenerate" because they were painted by Jews or because they had content the Nazis didn't like - too decadent and "modern". And there are older works looted by the Nazis when they occupied countries, particularly France. This part includes works by Renoir, for example, and other French masters. The works taken from the walls of German galleries in 1938 because the Nazis felt they were inappropriate were done so within the laws of the time, so lawyers say that it will be very difficult for anyone to argue that they now have entitlement. But any works simply looted from Jewish homes may be easier for the descendants to recover. There is, though, a grey area over works sold by Jews who were fleeing for their lives, if the fugitives sold those works at prices way below their normal market value. If the dealer bought them legally but at a knock-down price, their legal status would be a matter of much dispute. Lost and found On top of that, there is a controversial 30-year limit in Germany on claims by the descendants of those robbed of their paintings. And, obviously, 30 years from 1945 means that the latest claims were eligible only until 1975. If you think a painting stolen from your ancestors may be in the trove, it will not be easy to find out. The investigators have decided not to put the works online. It would be for you to contact them with your query. Some things, though, are clear. More than 1,000 works of art once thought lost are now found. And also some works of art which nobody even knew existed now do exist. But this tranche of newly found paintings is only a fraction of those looted by the Nazis and later scattered among various collections or lost. How many of them lie in some drawer in a darkened room in a lonely recluse's home, waiting to see the light of day?

यह कलात्मक आनंद का खजाना है-लेकिन अब कानूनी प्रश्नों का एक पेंडोरा बॉक्स भी है। किसी भी गैलरी क्यूरेटर को उत्तेजित करने के लिए एक कला संग्रह की खोज ने कई कानूनी विवादों को भी खोल दिया है।