The changing role of a Northern Ireland GP

Summary: Dr Grainne Doran qualified as a GP 25 years ago.

By Marie-Louise ConnollyBBC News NI Health Correspondent Speaking from her surgery in Bangor Health Centre, Dr Doran told the BBC while she loves her job, her role has dramatically changed since she saw her first patient back in the early 1990s. "The job I came into compared to what I do now is very, very different," she said. "Everything from the environment where we work, to the amount of patients, to the variety and severity of conditions, the complexity of disease presented to us, and from the demands made on us is just huge." 'Stress levels' Dr Doran usually arrives at the practice around 8am. From her small consulting room she said she is there to serve the patients, but increasingly the lists are growing, as are the stress levels to perform her job to the best of her ability. "To say I am very busy would be the best way to sum it up - I know I am really busy when I don't have adequate enough time to see my patients well," she said. "It's then I feel stressed and that is happening increasingly. There may have been one or two days a week when I felt I was losing control, but that is happening every day." When I met Dr Doran she told me that while she works part-time, she rarely leaves on time and usually has to work in the evening at home. "Whenever I came into medicine I had a lot more time to see each patient, but back then we had a lot less we could actually do for them," she said. "Nowadays the amount of investigation available and the amount and range of medication available is a lot greater and that all requires more time. Yes, we can do a lot more for patients, but we need more time to do it." Dr Doran said that in the past, more patients had to be sent to day clinics at hospitals for investigations, but that is now done in the practice or at a health centre. She said that while that is progress, it adds more pressure onto the already fragile system. "The administration and the paper end of things is huge," she said. "In my normal day, between seeing patients and doing paper work, reading results, writing letters, forwarding on for consultations - while I may be seeing patients for around four hours, all the paper work has to be done as well. "So while I am part-time and should leave at 1pm, I normally stay on for another two hours, go home to the children and then work again in the evenings. "So I turn the computer on when the kids go to bed then I remote access the paper system from my study and work for another two hours." According to Dr Doran, opening longer hours isn't the answer - the system instead needs more doctors, in fact another 400 in the next five years.

डॉ. ग्रेन डोरन ने 25 साल पहले जीपी के रूप में योग्यता प्राप्त की थी।


East Midlands Trains strikes called off after talks

Summary: Two planned strikes by drivers at East Midlands Trains have been called off after "constructive" talks aimed at resolving a row over pensions.

Members of the Aslef union were due to take industrial action on Saturday and Monday. The union said talks had been held with the company which it hoped would lead to a satisfactory conclusion to the dispute. The drivers have previously taken six days of strike action. Aslef members oppose East Midlands Trains' plans to reduce both its own and staff contributions to its pension fund from July. The firm said the change would leave drivers £500 a year better off without affecting pension benefits but the union called the move reckless. Managing director, David Horne, said: "This is a positive and welcome step by Aslef and means we can run our full service for passengers."

पेंशन पर विवाद को हल करने के उद्देश्य से "रचनात्मक" बातचीत के बाद ईस्ट मिडलैंड्स ट्रेनों में चालकों द्वारा की गई दो नियोजित हड़तालों को रद्द कर दिया गया है।


‘Vale ended our lives’: Broken Brumadinho a year after dam collapse

Summary: The friendship between Josiana Resende and Natalia de Oliveira is one born out of loss - they got to know each other after the dam collapsed at the Corrego do Feijao mine exactly a year ago, killing both their sisters.

By Katy WatsonBBC South America correspondent, Brumadinho, Brazil Natalia's sister Lecilda and Josiana's sister Juju were great friends. Lecilda introduced Juju to her husband and she was bridesmaid at the wedding. Now the bond has extended to the surviving sisters. Natalia and Josiana's friendship is also born out of a shared cause - finding their sisters' bodies. Of the 270 people who died, they and nine others are still missing. No closure "We re-live what happened on the 25th every day," says Josiana. "The fact that we can't say goodbye doesn't give us any closure - we can't move on. Time has stood still for us." This past year has been hard on Juju's dad Geraldo too. He's wearing a T-shirt with a picture of his daughter and her twin boys Geraldo Augusto and Antonio Augusto. The photo was taken at one of their monthly milestones - Geraldo can't remember if they were eight or nine months at the time but she loved celebrating each and every month. She died shortly afterwards. The boys are the reason the family keeps going. "When a father cries, it's such a deep pain," Geraldo says between tears. "Those people at Vale ended our lives, we lost the will to live. I have thoughts that I shouldn't talk about. I just want my daughter to come back - but I know it's not going to happen." Devastated landscape When the mud and mining waste barrelled through a valley near the town of Brumadinho on 25 January 2019, it wiped out everything in its wake. Now, there's a void in the hillside where the dam used to be. And below it, for nearly 10km (six miles), a lunar landscape of dark mud, with water collecting in the crevasses. It's rainy season in Brumadinho. The showers last for days at this time of year. But despite the rain, the firefighters keep working in the dam zone. "It's a massive area, we're talking 10km from where the dam broke to the final part where it met the Rio Paraopeba. And it's a perimeter of 32km," says firefighter Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Constantino. "Now it's rainy season, access is difficult for our people and for our machines but our job is to find those missing 11 victims." The clean-up The dam collapse in Brumadinho was one of Brazil's worst environmental disasters. Forests were destroyed and rivers polluted, so it's a big job to relocate the mud to a safer place and return this area to its previous state. "We've got 2,500 people working here and we're hoping to get rid of all the waste from the dam within five years," says Rogerio Galvao who is in charge of the clean-up operation for Vale, who owned the dam. "But that depends on the progress of firefighters, with their search and recovery efforts." Vale cannot move any mud without seeking the permission of the firefighters who are looking for the missing. Anger and frustration There is a great deal of anger towards Vale. The murder and environmental charges handed out to 16 employees, the mining company and its auditor Tuv Sud this week have come as welcome news to many here. "They knew that this could happen, I'd been saying it for years," says João Vitor Xavier, a politician in the state assembly of Minas Gerais, where Brumadinho is located. "They knew people could die but they prioritised profits." João Vitor is part of the Energy Commission in Minas Gerais which tried to pass a bill improving mine safety before the disaster. Finally, in the wake of Brumadinho, the bill was passed. "The legislation that we got through insists on much stricter regulations from now on, companies have to dismantle mines like Brumadinho but that's like messing with a ticking time bomb," he says. "The very act of dismantling them is risky." Held responsible When the murder charges were announced by state prosecutors, Vale responded, saying it was "perplexed" by the accusations they intended to kill those who died but insists it is cooperating with the investigation. "We understand people need to be punished," says Marcelo Klein, the Director of Recovery and Development at Vale. Of the murder charges though, he was more hesitant. "We can't accept that the justices believed we deliberately took actions, or didn't take actions, to intentionally kill people." The charges have gone right to the very top. The former boss of Vale, Fabio Schvartsman, who stepped down in the wake of the dam collapse, is one of the accused. "Prosecutors together with the police looked at the evidence for a year and that evidence pointed to the president's involvement in the crimes that happened that day," says state prosecutor Andressa de Oliveira Lanchotti. "It's not a strategic choice. They are facts and according to Brazilian law, he has to be held responsible for those acts." A year on from that terrible day, many people are very open about who they blame for what happened - but it does little in helping a community so broken and so hurt, to pick up the pieces.

जोसियाना रेसेंडे और नतालिया डी ओलिवेरा के बीच दोस्ती नुकसान से पैदा हुई है-वे एक-दूसरे को ठीक एक साल पहले कोर्रेगो डो फीजाओ खदान में बांध गिरने के बाद जानते हैं, जिसमें उनकी दोनों बहनों की मौत हो गई थी।


Birmingham prison officer Richard Stack jailed for drug smuggling

Summary: A prison officer has been jailed after admitting smuggling drugs and psychoactive substances into a jail.

Richard Stack, from Kingstanding, "abused his position" at HMP Birmingham, West Midlands Police said. The 35-year-old pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis, steroids and a psychoactive substance with intent to supply and conveying mobile phone memory sticks into prison. He was jailed at Birmingham Crown Court for 21 months. Stack, of Kingstanding Road, was detained at the prison in Winson Green on 21 June after avoiding a search of all staff returning from their lunch breaks, police had previously said.

एक जेल अधिकारी को जेल में ड्रग्स और साइकोएक्टिव पदार्थों की तस्करी स्वीकार करने के बाद जेल भेज दिया गया है।


Joseph Kony campaign under fire

Summary: It is always hard to criticise good intentions. And yet...

Andrew HardingAfrica correspondent@BBCAndrewHon Twitter The extraordinarily sudden success, if that is the right word, of the social media campaign by three American advocacy groups aimed at shining a big spotlight on the notorious Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony has prompted some scathing reactions from plenty of well-informed quarters. I will link to some of them below, but here is an outline, each introduced with a relevant tweet, of what strike me as the main arguments being made against the film and the campaign. There are plenty of forthright arguments against all these points - and the relative success of a social-media driven campaign like Stop Malaria shows that the established aid industry can often benefit from a good shake-up. The organisation leading the StopKony campaign issued a response on its website to these points, and it must be stressed that the group has been pushing the White House on this issue for some time. There are many blogs that elaborate on the wider issues at play, like Michael Deibert's on the Huffington Post that tackles the Ugandan government's errors, and the Unmuted blog that focuses on the disempowerment of Ugandans. And there are other critiques of Invisible Children itself, like Michael Wilkerson's piece on the Foreign Policy website. And a UN forum has even chipped in with an opinion piece. As for my own view, let me not dwell on the merits of the film itself. It's slickly made and has clearly struck a chord with its intended audience - people who knew nothing about the LRA or, consequently, Uganda. The more immediate question is: will all the fuss it has generated make a positive difference? The campaigners behind it have written a detailed and well-reasoned letter to President Obama outlining various demands. If, as a result of the campaign, the US takes further steps to ensure Joseph Kony is brought to justice, then I would consider it a success. At the same time, there are broader issues at stake here, and I do share the concerns articulated in some of the blogs and tweets above, particularly when it comes to the importance of African governments, leaders, institutions and individuals taking control and responsibility. The outside world has a role to play, but it is patronising and above all cripplingly counter-productive to believe we have all the answers.

अच्छे इरादों की आलोचना करना हमेशा मुश्किल होता है। और फिर भी...


Christmas Jumper Day: Who wins, retailers or charity?

Summary: It is almost impossible to avoid Christmas jumpers during the festive season. From luxury cashmere knits, to sweatshirts with "Banta Claus" printed on them, there seems to be a jumper for all budgets and tastes.

But not everyone will be aware that festive knitwear now has its own slot in the Yuletide calendar - Christmas Jumper Day - which this year is on Friday 14 December. It sees tens of thousands of schools and workplaces take part in the annual event, in which people wear a festive pullover to work, schools, or just to the pub. Now, woollies at Christmas are nothing new - remember Mark Darcy's reindeer jumper in 2001's Bridget Jones's Diary? - but they began to grow in popularity during the early 2010s. Some say that was partly due to Danish drama The Killing, whose lead character wore Nordic-patterned jumpers. Since then, it's become a big market in the UK, with shops selling them for anything between less than a tenner to more than £100. Many people will be taking part in Christmas Jumper Day run by Save the Children, which urges participants to wear their "daftest woollies" and donate £2 each. But with the cheapest shop-bought jumper costing at least five times that - who is the real winner, the retailers or the charity? Charity Save the Children says the "ongoing popularity of the humble festive sweater" is partly why their campaign has been so successful. Launched in 2012, the event has grown every year since, the charity says. It said the annual event has raised £17m for children living in poverty in the UK and elsewhere in the world. In 2017, more than five million people took part, including 13,000 schools and nurseries and 45,000 offices, the charity said. Last year's event raised £4.4m and the charity is aiming to top that this year. Save the Children says it often partners with retailers. This year it has teamed up with fashion brand Selfish Mother and online giant Amazon - which is donating 20% of the net purchase price of Christmas jumpers sold - and stresses that shoppers do not necessarily need to buy a new jumper every year to take part. "Everyone who signs up to take part receives a fundraising pack which includes fun, creative ideas to turn an ordinary sweater into a fabulously festive knit," the charity says. The retailers This year, the number of Christmas jumpers on shelves by 22 November was up 17% in family retailers compared with 2017, say analysts WGSN. George at Asda - which retail analytics firm Edited reported was one of 2018's top stockists by the start of November - said it started selling festive jumpers about a decade ago when "a lot of people were making them themselves rather than buying them". It has bought more than ever before this year. The store will sell an estimated 300,000 men's and 350,000 women's Christmas jumpers. Although it did not disclose profits, its cheapest sweater for adults is priced at £10. Meanwhile, Matalan's chief operating officer Greg Pateras said the firm has seen sales rise by 15% year-on-year, suggesting they "remain a big shopping trend". But it's not a completely positive picture for shops. WGSN says many stores are increasingly finding themselves left with more stock than they can sell, partly as consumers prefer to "buy less but better". "We can't deny the fact that customers are more conscious about consumerism, sustainability, overproduction etc, and items like novelty Christmas jumpers perhaps don't sit so well within this new sentiment," said Sara Gaspar, senior data analyst at WGSN. And more than double the number of Christmas jumpers are being sold at a discounted price compared with last year, indicating profit margins will have suffered. The issue of waste is on the mind of shopper Sarah Millard, 38, a company director from Sussex. "I also think of an environmental perspective. These things are never going to be well-made, they are not going to be reused or recycled," she said. Sarah believes that festive jumpers - like the pressure to fork out on a costume at Halloween - seem to have become be a "bit of a money-making" venture. "It's another thing we have to do towards the end of term," she said. "It is expensive for something you are going to wear only once, especially for children, as next year it wouldn't fit." She adds: "You feel you should do it, you don't want your child to be the only one without a jumper." The winner? So who does win, the charity or the retailer? It is a debate which has also been raised on internet forum Mumsnet, where a range of opinions were expressed. "Charity days are fine, but £10-20 on tat that's not actually going to a charity is ridiculous," one person said. Another mother asked: "Am I the only parent to think that this benefits shops far more than charities?" While others were in full support. "I love Christmas jumpers and unashamedly wear them all year round," one person wrote. Save the Children says while it encourages people to buy new jumpers from its retail partners it is not essential to purchase the latest Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer sweatshirt in order to support Christmas Jumper Day. And, while it isn't necessary to buy a new sweater every year, the charity believes the outlay is worthwhile. Every jumper really can help save children's lives and ultimately help them thrive, it says.

त्योहारों के मौसम में क्रिसमस पर कूदने वालों से बचना लगभग असंभव है। लग्जरी कश्मीरी बुनाई से लेकर उन पर "बंता क्लॉज़" मुद्रित स्वेटशर्ट तक, सभी बजट और स्वाद के लिए एक जम्पर प्रतीत होता है।


Under the flight path, the landscape of Heathrow

Summary: London Mayor Boris Johnson has announced that a new city with 190,000 homes and thousands of jobs could be created if the capital's hub airport moves from Heathrow in west London to a new airport in the Thames Estuary. The Airports Commission will rule on the Estuary option later this year.

Phil CoomesPicture editor Photographer Dan Norwood who completed a Masters in Photojournalism from Westminster University last year has been working on a project entitled, Heathrow Villages, in which he explores the area around the current airport. "I think this is a fascinating subject as it addresses important issues relating to pollution, global warming and our predilection for air travel," says Norwood. "Against this backdrop are communities with rich agricultural histories threatened with destruction." He has produced a newspaper of the work, including maps showing the areas of possible development and a translation of one of the meetings between Heathrow Airport Limited and residents from the Harmondsworth and Sipson Residents Association. A nice addition is the occasional black line through the text to represent times when an aircraft passed overhead drowning out the speakers during the debate. Norwood wanted to take what he calls a sideways glance at the issues, and to avoid the obvious press approach. He worked on film for the aesthetics and what he describes as the slow way of working it enforces. Here's a selection of the work. You can see more of Dan Norwood's work on his website.

लंदन के मेयर बोरिस जॉनसन ने घोषणा की है कि अगर राजधानी का केंद्र हवाई अड्डा पश्चिम लंदन के हीथ्रो से थेम्स मुहाने में एक नए हवाई अड्डे पर स्थानांतरित हो जाता है तो 190,000 घरों और हजारों नौकरियों के साथ एक नया शहर बनाया जा सकता है। हवाई अड्डा आयोग इस साल के अंत में मुहाने के विकल्प पर फैसला करेगा।


How immigration changed Boston, Lincolnshire

Summary: Tuesday's Newsnight is coming from Boston, Lincolnshire. Our show will be broadcast from St Botolph's Church. Its vast tree trunk-like tower is a major landmark - known to locals, rather ungraciously, as The Stump. But, sadly, we're not there for the architecture.

Chris CookPolicy editor, Newsnight Boston is one of the most extreme examples in Britain of a town affected by recent EU immigration. The 2011 census found that around 13% of the town was born elsewhere in the EU - largely East European migrants who arrived after 2004. Some of the effects of migration are only really observable when you go to places where the local economy has been so thoroughly transformed. For example, the Boston story underlines the academic finding that there is no evidence that EU immigration is linked to higher unemployment. Broadly, mobile people do not go where there are no good jobs. In the jargon, "displacement" is not a problem. And they will sometimes allow structural changes in the local economy that allow employment to rise. That fits the Boston story. Unemployment in the town is well below the national average - 4.4% of economically active people, as against 5.2% nationally. The town is booming, despite having absorbed a huge rise in the number of potential workers in a relatively short time. These workers have also enabled an enormous change in the local economy to take place with relative ease and remarkably quickly. Local economic transformation Boston was a sleepy farming town. Growers used to bring in transient workers for the brief harvest periods. Paul Gleeson, a Labour councillor in the borough, says it used to be Irish workers in previous centuries. More recently, men from local cities would arrive in white vans at 04:00, work through the morning and then disappear in the early afternoon. More from Newsnight: What would Brexit mean for immigration? A Newsnight special from Boston The big questions on the EU referendum But Mr Gleeson says the local economy has diversified and now creates work all year round, which means they can sustain a lot more jobs - and so need a lot more permanent residents. He says: "There's more harvesting going on throughout the year. And - more importantly - those vegetables are processed in Boston - wrapped and bar-coded for supermarket." Food grown elsewhere in Europe is even brought to Boston to be processed. There are major issues, though. Nationally, economists find immigration leads to an increase in average wages. The effects, though, are not even. The rise is driven by the fact that people in the top half see their wages grow faster. Those at the very bottom see their wages grow more slowly. It is important to stress that these effects are very small at a national level - just a few pennies an hour either way. Those effects, however, can be turbocharged in sectors or places where there have been major inflows. Boston is one such place: the extreme levels of immigration means the effects are all much bigger. The town's businesses have created an unusual number of jobs and richer local people have done very well - but the squeeze on the poorer end is more extreme. You can see that in the local pay statistics. Boston has always been a low-pay town. But it is now an exceptionally low-paid place. The average hourly wage nationally is £13.33. Across the East Midlands, it is £12.26. In Boston, it is £9.13. On a weekly basis, full-time earnings are more than £100 a week less than the national average. Congestion problems There is also a problem with local housing. Because some workers come temporarily, they do not mind housing themselves poorly for a spell. So 10 single workers may each pay £60 a week to share what was a three-bedroom house, netting the landlords £600 a week. That means a gross rental income from the house of perhaps £30,000 a year. That is much more than local families can afford for those houses - and the housing supply has simply not kept up with demand. Local rents in Boston are actually much higher than in Nottingham despite wages being lower. This is a major problem within the town and has become a major cause of frustration. People living next door to these multiple-occupied homes are also not happy. Walking around Boston, it's also evident that it's a young place - people attracted by hard agricultural work will tend not to be older. But immigrants tend to be young anyway. According to the Annual Population Survey, more than half of the Polish-born adults living in Britain are aged 25-35. And concentrations of young people create their own issues - especially on a Friday night. While young adults tend not to use the NHS much, they do have children. Around 11% of children born in the UK in 2014 had one parent who was an EU migrant. Around half of those had two EU migrant parents. In Boston, the authorities have responded to a sudden rise in demand for children's services - from keeping maternity wards open through to funding more school places. Adrian Reed, head of a local school chain, says his schools get £1,000 per head from the public purse for new arrivals with language problems. He said: "In our trust, we have built a team of 10 people with a variety of languages - Polish, Portuguese, etc. They will be in the classroom supporting children... More importantly they support parents." Boston has been transformed by the expansion of the European Union to the east. The pretty little town is energetic and bustling, but is visibly not the same place as it was. A UKIP councillor Viven Edge, told us that Boston had lost some of its "Lincolnshireness". For places like Boston, the European question is bigger than for most. What would Brexit mean for immigration? Catch up on Newsnight's special from Boston here

मंगलवार की न्यूज़नाइट बोस्टन, लिंकनशायर से आ रही है। हमारा शो सेंट बॉटॉल्फ़ चर्च से प्रसारित किया जाएगा। इसका विशाल पेड़ के तने जैसा मीनार एक प्रमुख स्थलचिह्न है-स्थानीय लोगों के लिए, बल्कि अपमानजनक रूप से, द स्टंप के रूप में जाना जाता है। लेकिन, दुख की बात है कि हम वहाँ वास्तुकला के लिए नहीं हैं।


Guernsey minister abused over cancer block

Summary: A Guernsey minister has received abuse from the public after he opposed switching money from his budget to bowel cancer screening.

Culture and Leisure Minister Mike O'Hara argued against diverting £250,000 from preserving museum artefacts to bowel cancer screening. He said money for the screenings should come from the larger health budget. Mr O'Hara said he had received four telephone calls abusing him for his stand. He said: "You just would not believe how difficult it has been. "You do not expect to pick up the phone and have people shouting at you 'I hope you die of bowel cancer.' "It has upset me a great deal. I have found it very hard."

ग्वेर्नसे के एक मंत्री को जनता से दुर्व्यवहार का सामना करना पड़ा है क्योंकि उन्होंने अपने बजट से कैंसर की जांच के लिए पैसे बदलने का विरोध किया था।


Who are the UK's foreign workers?

Summary: On New Year's Day, construction worker Victor Spiresau was greeted by politicians, reporters and photographers at Luton Airport - the first Romanian immigrant to arrive in Britain after the controversial lifting of employment controls on Romania and Bulgaria.

Mark EastonHome editor@BBCMarkEastonon Twitter Victor became the reluctant symbol of what many predicted would be a vast wave of East Europeans flocking to the UK. MPs and newspapers warned of a "flood" of hundreds of thousands of poor Romanians and Bulgarians who would strain our welfare system and public services. It was an argument that played directly into anxieties about immigration and the influence of the EU. But today's figures, the first official estimate of workers from Romania and Bulgaria since the transitional employment restrictions were removed on the so-called A2 countries in January, suggest there has been no flood. If anything, the reverse. There were an estimated 144,000 Romanian and Bulgarian workers in the UK at the end of 2013. Now the respected Labour Force Survey puts the figure at 140,000 at the end of March - 4,000 fewer people from A2 countries estimated to be working here since controls were lifted. The figure is still 29,000 higher than the number estimated for the same period last year, but that rise occurred while employment restrictions were still in place. The argument that lifting them would lead to huge extra numbers coming here from Romania and Bulgaria is not reflected in official figures. However, the numbers do demonstrate a long-term rise in workers from the A2 countries coming to the UK. Back in 2001, the Labour Force Survey estimated there were only around 6,000 citizens from those countries employed in Britain. Numbers grew steadily as the former communist states developed closer relationships with the West, and after they were invited to join the European Union in 2007, 100,000 more Romanian and Bulgarian workers came in just six years, despite "transitional" employment controls. But today's figures are a reflection of a wider phenomenon. There has been a significant increase in the number of workers from many other EU countries coming to Britain in recent months, notably the A8 countries including Poland, the Czech Republic and Latvia. The first three months of this year saw a jump of 74,000 in the number of workers from those eight accession countries compared with the last quarter of 2013. Year-on-year, the increase is 115,000 - one of the highest increases seen since Poles first started coming to the UK in large numbers in 2004. Overall, the number of workers from elsewhere in the EU has risen 168,000 in the past year - mobile labour attracted by the impressive employment situation in the UK. Here, of course, is the real issue. People will tend to move to places that offer better prospects, and within the European Union that freedom is enshrined in the EU Treaty. "Freedom of movement in Europe is one of the central achievements of the European integration process and one of the most important and visible benefits of the European Union for its citizens," the Home Secretary Theresa May stated in a letter last year. "We are fully committed to the common European right to the freedom of movement. We will always welcome Union citizens who move to another EU country to work." However, the UK is not alone in questioning the impact this freedom can have on welfare and public services, particularly for a country that outperforms other parts of the EU economically. The government is tightening up access to some benefits for EU citizens where permissible, and looking to renegotiate the rules still further. The letter signed by Mrs May was sent to the President of the European Council for Justice and Home Affairs jointly with representatives from Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. Among richer and more economically stable countries within the EU, there is a shared concern that positive headlines about financial success are matched by troublesome headlines about immigration. Today's Labour Force Survey figures show that the UK's employment rate has risen to probably its highest ever level among domestic workers - 72.8%, marginally higher than the figure for non-UK citizens (69.5%). While the number of foreign-born citizens working here has risen 178,000 in the past year, the number of UK citizens in employment is up 563,000. A remarkable 400,000 fewer people are claiming unemployment benefits in the UK compared with a year ago - a massive 26.4% drop. It is impressive numbers like these that explain why workers in many other EU countries think Britain might be a good place to look for a job.

नए साल के दिन, निर्माण श्रमिक विक्टर स्पिरेसो का ल्यूटन हवाई अड्डे पर राजनेताओं, संवाददाताओं और फोटोग्राफरों द्वारा स्वागत किया गया-रोमानिया और बुल्गारिया पर रोजगार नियंत्रण के विवादास्पद उठाने के बाद ब्रिटेन पहुंचने वाले पहले रोमानियाई अप्रवासी।


UN secretary-general: The other New York race

Summary: As the hoopla of the presidential campaign comes to New York, featuring the political all-stars seeking to become the world's most powerful leader, another race is also under way in the city - a contest of the largely obscure.

Nick BryantNew York correspondent It involves candidates hoping to become the world's most prominent diplomat. At the stroke of midnight on 31 December, as the glitter ball in Times Square makes its annual descent, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is due to end his term in office. The manoeuvring to succeed him - at present it is too genteel to describe it as a fight - is now moving into higher gear. Just as Campaign 2016 could end up with the election of the first female US president, there's a strong possibility that the next head of the UN will become the organisation's first female secretary-general. This week, for the first time in the 70-year history of the UN, the declared candidates will take part in public hustings. This is a radical departure for an organisation that rivals the Vatican in the shadowy secrecy of its executive recruitment process, with its monochrome backrooms hosting the UN equivalent of the papal conclave in the Sistine Chapel. Those who have so far put their names forward, half of them women, will face two hours of questioning from member states. To support their applications, they've also been asked to post their curricula vitae online and to compose a 2,000-word vision statement articulating how they would run an organisation with 30 separate agencies, funds and programmes and 40,000 staff, not to mention 193 member states. Eastern Europe to prevail? What has long been a ridiculously closeted and opaque process is being made more inclusive and transparent. The aim is to turn it into something bearing at least some resemblance to a regular interview process, a far cry from the stealth selection procedure that produced Mr Ban. When the South Korean was jockeying for the job, he shied away from campaigning inside the UN headquarters he would soon end up running. Eight candidates have so far declared and most are from Eastern Europe. Under an unwritten rule of regional rotation, a diplomatic version of "Buggins' turn", this geographical bloc is next in line to fill the vacancy. To a global audience, most of the candidates are "need-to-Google" figures. Who are the candidates so far? Top row (from left): Bottom row (from left): More information on the candidates and the selection procedure is available on the UN's website Wild card The field is expected to grow. Kristalina Georgieva, a Bulgarian who is a vice-president of the European Commission, might yet be persuaded to run and may well be Mr Ban's preferred choice. In a move that boosted her UN profile, he selected the former World Bank official to co-chair a panel looking into the funding of humanitarian aid. However, the Bulgarian government is backing Ms Bokova, who heads the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), and Ms Georgieva herself has indicated that she intends to pay "full attention" for the time being to her EU responsibilities. Kevin Rudd, the former Australian Prime Minister, has long made the UN secretary-general's job the target of his immense personal ambition. Then there is the wild card. Many diplomats would like to see German Chancellor Angela Merkel throw her giant-sized hat in the ring. More of a general than a secretary, Mrs Merkel is precisely the kind of big hitter that many UN watchers believe the organisation desperately needs after the more timid leadership style of Mr Ban. Power of the P5 For all the attempts to modernise the process it could never be described as democratic. Nowhere near. Under the selection procedure, the 15-member Security Council recommends a single candidate for the 193-member General Assembly to essentially rubber stamp. Thus, the power still resides with the permanent five members of the Security Council - China, France, Russia, the UK and US - which can all veto candidates. The US, for instance, vetoed Boutros Boutros-Ghali, when the Egyptian sought a second five-year term. Though the hustings may be held in public, the next UN secretary-general will be the candidate who emerges from backroom bargaining, mainly involving the US and Russia. What's more important than the candidates' CVs, then, is whether at any stage of their careers they have displeased the permanent "P5" members. This is a headache for Ms Bokova, who as head of Unesco, admitted the Palestinians into the organisation, against the express wishes of the US, which retaliated by cutting off funding. She is also seen as Moscow's preferred choice, which means the US is almost certain to block her. As for her fellow Bulgarian, Ms Georgieva could pay a price for the EU's sanctions against Russia. Others fail what's been called the "testicular test". General v secretary Despite the new-found openness of the process, UN reformers had been lobbying for more sweeping changes to the selection process. The 1 for 7 Billion campaign, an umbrella group bringing together NGOs from all over the world, has urged the Security Council to recommend two candidates to the General Assembly, something the P5 veto-wielders would never sanction. They would also prefer to see the new secretary-general appointed to a single seven-year term, rather than the present practice of serving two five-year terms. Again, that will not happen. So despite calls for a strong figurehead for the UN - that general rather than secretary idea - the present system means that compromise candidates inevitably emerge, who are not necessarily the most able but the least objectionable to the P5 countries. Rather than a big name, the UN could easily end up with a leader little known outside diplomatic circles, a new secretary-general whom most of the world will have to Google.

जैसे ही राष्ट्रपति अभियान का हूपला न्यूयॉर्क में आता है, जिसमें दुनिया के सबसे शक्तिशाली नेता बनने की मांग करने वाले राजनीतिक सभी सितारे शामिल होते हैं, शहर में एक और दौड़ भी चल रही है-बड़े पैमाने पर अस्पष्ट की प्रतियोगिता।


How well did the 7/7 emergency services respond?

Summary: One of the key questions at the heart of the 7 July inquests is whether the emergency services could have responded faster and better. The London Assembly had already reported that poor communications and a lack of basic medical supplies hampered the rescue operation. So what else has the inquests learned? The hearings have focused on a number of key areas including: The ambulance service The fire fighters The police Overall command and control

By Dominic CascianiBBC News home affairs correspondent LONDON AMBULANCE SERVICE There was a delay of 52 minutes in getting ambulances to Tavistock Square, the scene of the bus attack where 13 people died. Crews were only sent to the bus attack after reports of a second blast at 1040 - a controlled explosion of a suspicious package. Jessica Ashford, the first paramedic to reach Tavistock Square, had in fact been despatched to Russell Square. She said the scene was devastating, with parts of bodies strewn across the road. Mrs Ashford alerted control at 0957 BST, performed a quick reconnaissance - and called again at 1005 demanding back-up. The delays at Tavistock Square followed a separate half-hour delay in sending teams to Russell Square underground station, where 26 people died, the greatest loss of life. Graeme Baxter was the first paramedic into the tunnel at Edgware Road. He called for eight more ambulances - but also told the inquests that he was frustrated to learn that crews from two stations nearby were not despatched. Overall, only half of 201 London ambulances which were available on the day were sent to the attack scenes. Crews who were stationed nearby were held back in case there were more attacks - and some of them were watching the events unfold on television. At the same time, controllers were struggling to identify free ambulances to ferry the wounded to hospital. They eventually called on neighbouring ambulance services and volunteers to help at the scenes. Helicopter Emergency Medical Service paramedic Lee Parker wrote in a debrief form that he found these decisions inexplicable. "Due to the number of casualties involved, we had to utilise various medical staff who ended up creating more work," he wrote. "They did not understand triage and/or major incident procedures. Other medical staff should be kept as far away as possible from these incidents." Jason Killens, deputy director of operations at the London Ambulance Service (LAS), told the inquests that it had been the "right decision on the day" to hold back some crews. But in the closing days of the inquests, the coroner heard about "organised chaos" and shortcomings at the ambulance service's disaster control room at Waterloo. Two people who were designated to crucial roles in the unfolding events were not trained for "Gold Command" events - the procedures used across the emergency services to co-ordinate the massive effort needed in a potential crisis. Only one member of staff was logging all the emergency calls - and she was not a trained typist capable of doing it at speed. Others were writing down important information on scraps of paper. The employee in charge of the control room's white board could not reach more than halfway up it. Staff brought into the disaster control room could not get to work immediately because ambulance service systems did not allow them to be logged into two computers at the same time. Meanwhile, crews that had been despatched were not getting messages back to controllers because radio channels were blocked. In other evidence, Coroner Lady Justice Hallett heard that the ambulance service had switched from using pagers to mobiles to transmit alerts. Keith Grimmett, an officer in the LAS emergency planning unit, argued that pagers were more reliable in a disaster situation. During 7/7, the capital's mobile network became overloaded with many people finding it impossible to make calls. The service began using pagers again a week after the attacks. Mr Killens accepted that the government's review of events was wrong when it had stated that rescue operations had not been hampered by poor communications. LONDON FIRE BRIGADE One of the key issues that emerged from evidence relating to firefighters was their own safety rules. One group of firefighters said they could not enter the tunnel at Aldgate because they had not received official confirmation that the live electric rail had been turned off. One police officer stood on the rail to prove that it was no longer live - but the crew insisted they still needed word from London Underground managers. Four other firefighters had already gone into the train. The first crew reached King's Cross station at 0913 - but did not go to the scene until a second crew arrived at 0942. That was because their communication protocols demanded having a back-up teams available. One police officer reported seeing firefighters waiting on the escalator for colleagues to arrive, as the walking wounded began to emerge from a tunnel. The inquests heard that over at Edgware Road, Assistant Divisional Officer Alan Davies, then head of Paddington fire station, refused to allow his men into the tunnel because of the possibility of a dirty bomb. Mr Davies told the inquests that his training had been to expect a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) incident and he could not risk flooding the tunnel with personnel until the situation was clearer. He accepted that evidence showed that police officers and paramedics went into the tunnel before specialist officers had chance to establish whether or not there was a CBRN risk. Meanwhile, there were also tensions between the services operating amid the chaos at Aldgate. One paramedic said he encountered hostility from firefighters who did not understand that his role was to assess the situation and report back before doing anything else. THE POLICE The police had been switching to a new digital communications system - but at the time of the attacks, they still could not use their radios underground. At one stage, the emergency services were using runners to get information from tunnels to the ticket halls. In September 2003, London's emergency services staged a massive training exercise to test their ability to cope with a chemical attack on an underground station. That exercise concluded that none of the radio systems were adequate. Some of these problems dated back to the horrific King's Cross fire of 1987. Sir Desmond Fennell's report into that disaster made a string of recommendations including ensuring that communications worked underground - and that the emergency services and London Underground workers could all talk to each other on the same system. But 18 years later, the Tube's system was still not fully compatible with the three services. The London Underground's system has been updated since 2005. MANAGEMENT JARGON A succession of senior figures from across the capital's emergency services have appeared before Lady Justice Hallett - but on the final day of the inquests, she told them to use plain English, rather than refer to things like the "Conference Demountable Unit from the Management Resource Unit". "Management jargon is taking over organisations," said Lady Justice Hallett. "When it comes to something like a major incident, people do not understand what the other person is. "All you senior people from these organisations are allowing yourselves to be taken over by management jargon... You people at the top need to say 'We have to communicate with other people and we communicate with plain English'." "I am sorry if that sounded like a rant but everybody who has been here for the last few months will know I have been building up to it."

7 जुलाई की जाँच के केंद्र में प्रमुख प्रश्नों में से एक यह है कि क्या आपातकालीन सेवाएँ तेजी से और बेहतर प्रतिक्रिया दे सकती थीं। लंदन असेंबली ने पहले ही बताया था कि खराब संचार और बुनियादी चिकित्सा आपूर्ति की कमी ने बचाव अभियान में बाधा उत्पन्न की है। तो पूछताछ से और क्या पता चला है? सुनवाई ने कई प्रमुख क्षेत्रों पर ध्यान केंद्रित किया है जिनमें शामिल हैंः एम्बुलेंस सेवा अग्निशामक पुलिस समग्र कमान और नियंत्रण।


Ron Cousins: The Bible pages murder still baffling police

Summary: The body of 78-year-old Ron Cousins was found splattered in white paint - and stuffed in his mouth were pages of his own Bible. The devout Christian and popular member of the community had been throttled and stabbed in his own home. Nearly a quarter of a century on from the murder, police are still struggling to find his killer.

By Chris Flynn and Jodie HalfordBBC News Early on a spring morning in April 1994, water could be heard splashing out of an overflow pipe at the back of one of the narrow terraced houses in the old Moulsham area of Chelmsford. The neighbours weren't sure whether to disturb the home's owner, an elderly gentleman known to many in the town for his kind, friendly nature. But the running water - and the fact his curtains were still drawn - was a strange enough sign for them to check in on him. The back door was open, so Paul and Phyllis Nestor walked in. They were met with a house that had been wrecked - rooms had been overturned, and the bath was overflowing from a still-running tap. In the living room, a body lay on the floor covered in paint. A red-raw ligature mark could be seen around the man's neck and there were stab wounds to his back, neck and chest. A kitchen knife - oddly, not the murder weapon - rested on his torso. Leaves torn from the Bible were shoved in his mouth. But £700 in cash, apparently hidden in the oven, remained untouched. The question has baffled police for 25 years: Why would anyone want to kill Ron Cousins - a man who had been committed to God and welcoming to all? "I used to go and see him and he'd have all sorts of strangers in," recalled his nephew, David Ketley. "I'd tell my mother and say, 'Ron's got some people round there and I don't know who they are. He's got to be careful because one day something might happen to him'." The former milkman had spent almost his whole life in the quiet market town of Chelmsford - born in the same two-up, two-down he died in. It was there he frequently put a temporary roof over the heads of vagrants and the homeless. Ken and Jacqui Powell had worked with Ron in younger years, during his time at the Crompton Parkinson electrical factory. "He came to our wedding, and later he was our son's godfather. He used to take the boys when they were small. He was a very friendly man," said Mrs Powell. "He just knew everyone. I think he was probably one of the most well-known people in Chelmsford." Apart from his time in India during World War Two, Ron never moved out of Anchor Street, where had grown up with three siblings, who eventually moved to have families of their own. Religion had always played a big part in his life, from early days at Sunday school to his regular visits to Christchurch United Reformed Church, Elim Church and the Salvation Army. When their mother died, he lived alone, and sought solace from friends at various churches. Journalist Amanda Stocks said Ron's death profoundly shook the town. "I think everybody was very shocked at the time. We put it on the front page of both the Weekly News and the Evening Gazette. "[Chelmsford] was a very sort of carefree, safe place - it probably changed the way that we went about our daily lives. "I've been in this industry 28 years and this one sticks in my mind the most, because it was so bizarre and so shocking." In the weeks after the murder, Essex Police spoke to hundreds of people. "We looked at where the paint came from - was it in his home already? Was there significance behind that, like was the person a painter or decorator?" said Det Insp Stuart Truss. "The Bible pages also play a significant part in our investigation - but I can't go into detail about what they contained." The detective confirmed the force still has the pages, but refused to reveal any details whatsoever about the text they contained "for operational reasons". A neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, told the BBC he had seen the paint in Ron's house previously. Investigating Ron's murder was made more difficult by the "relatively lonely existence" he had led, the detective said. But he was nevertheless well-known, and his tendency to open his home to strangers meant there would have been "quite a large pool of potential suspects", according to Birmingham City University professor, Elizabeth Yardley. "Many people will talk about psychopaths when we talk about this kind of murder," said the criminologist. "Looking at the murder itself, there was an awful lot more violence and abuse than was needed to end the victim's life. "This was somebody who didn't just want to kill Ron; they wanted to utterly destroy him." You might also be interested in What happened to Carole Packman? Corrie Mckeague: The mystery of the airman who disappeared - BBC News 'He took the train to London and was never seen again' Police spoke to everyone whose fingerprints had been identified in the house. The day after the body was found, officers questioned two people - a 16-year-old boy and a 32-year-old man. Neither were charged with the murder, but the latter was convicted of burgling Ron six weeks before he was killed. Later that year, a Crimewatch appeal with a detailed reconstruction of the day of the murder prompted more than 40 calls, and a £5,000 reward for information was put up. But by April 1996, two years on from Ron's death, there was just one officer working on the case. Three further arrests were made in 2005, but all the suspects were released without charge. Despite the lack of police progress, the pensioner's relatives, colleagues and friends have never given up hope of a breakthrough. David's wife, Wendy Ketley, said she has at times been "quite excited" about advancements in DNA testing, believing new technology could finally provide the family with closure. Given that Essex Police still has the evidence recovered from Ron's house, potential new links to suspects could still be found, said Dr Denise Syndercombe Court. "Twenty-four years ago, you would have to have a bloodstain that you can see quite easily," said the professor in forensic genetics at Kings College. "Now we can analyse a handful of cells that you couldn't see even under a microscope [back then]." The professor said in Ron's case, the Bible pages stuffed into his mouth could prove to have the DNA on them of whoever killed him. "They might not have left any blood; they might not have been injured themselves. "So typically you're looking for things that they might have handled, things they might have touched." But, she said, detectives might struggle to match the DNA to whoever might have committed the crime unless they were on the national database. Essex Police said its cold case team still regularly reviews the investigation - the force sent evidence for DNA testing using new methods as recently as November. The cold case team says it has now received the results but they generated no new leads. Det Insp Truss said there are a number of people who have not been ruled out of the investigation, but would not be drawn on names. However, a teacher at Chelmsford Prison remembers one such name being put forward by an inmate during a discussion about the effect of crime on victims and their families. "I mentioned the case of Ron Cousins," recalls the teacher, who does not wish to be named. "That's what caused the outburst of this chap who said, 'I know who did it' and said the name Brian Cutts." The BBC understands Mr Cutts, who was a former inmate and has now died, remains a suspect. But there are other ends yet to be tied up. The force would not say whether any link has ever been found between Ron's murder and an attack in nearby Tolleshunt D'Arcy, in which canon Eric Turner, 82, was kicked, gagged and tied up in an attempted robbery five days after the killing. Police said they "could not see anything that links the clergyman attack to the Ronald Cousins case". The Crimewatch appeal honed in on a man seen by witnesses outside Ron's front door on the day of the murder. A passer-by recalled seeing a figure with "longish hair and a cream-type bomber jacket and deck shoes, but a bit on the scruffy side". Det Insp Truss said he could not establish if the man had ever been identified, and could find no further records of the person. The BBC approached several of the detectives involved in the case but none were willing to be interviewed. Still hoping for answers is the Reverend Geoffrey Roper, a former minister at Christchurch United Reformed Church, where Ron was a regular. He described the murder as "so bizarre" and "so sick". "The person who did it must have had a very disturbed relationship with God, with religion, with faith. "In some ways it's sad and disturbing to bring these things up again, but it's right to keep a case open. "And it's right that people should know murder will out." To hear more about the Ron Cousins case, visit BBC Essex.

78 वर्षीय रॉन कजिन्स का शव सफेद रंग में बिखरा हुआ पाया गया-और उसके मुंह में उसकी अपनी बाइबिल के पन्ने भरे हुए थे। धर्मनिष्ठ ईसाई और समुदाय के लोकप्रिय सदस्य का उसके ही घर में गला घोंटा गया था और चाकू मारा गया था। हत्या के लगभग एक चौथाई सदी बाद, पुलिस अभी भी उसके हत्यारे को खोजने के लिए संघर्ष कर रही है।


Canadian 'send drugs' Twitter user fired from job

Summary: A Canadian oil-change shop employee has been fired after police saw his tweet apparently seeking a marijuana delivery - and replied.

The Twitter user asked on the social network whether a dealer could bring drugs to his Toronto-area shop, as he needed "a spliff or two" to finish his shift. York police retweeted the request and declared: "Awesome! Can we come too?" The shop, Mr Lube, told CBC News an employee was later sacked. The profile on the Twitter feed was later changed to read "My tweets are NOT serious by any means", before the feed was deleted. Mr Lube thanked the police force on the social media platform and added: "The matter has now been handled."

कनाडाई तेल-विनिमय की दुकान के एक कर्मचारी को पुलिस द्वारा मारिजुआना की डिलीवरी की मांग करने वाले उसके ट्वीट को देखने के बाद निकाल दिया गया है-और जवाब दिया गया है।


Woman seriously hurt in Christchurch house fire

Summary: A woman has been taken to hospital in a serious condition after a house fire in Dorset.

Firefighters and ambulance crews were called to the property in Purewell in Christchurch shortly after 13:00 GMT. Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service said the fire was in the ground floor living room of a terraced house. Purewell was closed to traffic while fire crews dealt with the blaze. An investigation is being carried out into the cause.

डोरसेट में एक घर में आग लगने के बाद एक महिला को गंभीर हालत में अस्पताल ले जाया गया है।


Snow: Showers bring disruption to England and Scotland

Summary: Heavy snow has hit north-east England and the Scottish Borders, causing school closures and disruption on the roads.

Schools across County Durham have closed and there was major congestion on the A1 in North Yorkshire and A19 between Sunderland and Hartlepool. A number of roads in Cumbria were also said to be impassable, while at least 35 schools in the county were closed. Amid the disruption, photographers captured snowy scenes of the wintry landscape. .

उत्तर-पूर्वी इंग्लैंड और स्कॉटिश सीमाओं पर भारी बर्फबारी हुई है, जिससे स्कूल बंद हो गए हैं और सड़कों पर व्यवधान पैदा हो गया है।


Could psychedelic drug ayahuasca have health benefits?

Summary: It is one of the strongest psychedelic drugs in the world, and its use has been spreading from South America to Europe. Many experts say ayahuasca is dangerous, and it is illegal in the UK, but one doctor says it should be researched as a treatment for mental health issues.

By Simon MundieVictoria Derbyshire programme After undergoing traditional therapy over a number of years, Jonathan Gold found out about ayahuasca online, reading that it "could be like 10 years of therapy in one night". He travelled to a rural part of the Netherlands for a ceremony where he drank a very small amount the drug, resulting in a "trip" that lasted about eight hours. "The ceremony is like this epic, eight-hour journey, it really is a journey," he tells the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme. "It was like night and day... a dramatic change that I would notice on a daily basis. If we say my self-esteem before the ceremony was at 10%, after the ceremony it was 90-100%. It really was that dramatic." Experts, however, believe taking drugs at retreats is dangerous. Harry Shapiro, director of the online drug information service DrugWise, says: "People are naively going off and taking a very strong drug." Some people have had terrifying experiences and violent reactions. And Mr Shapiro says: "There is no support there if it goes wrong." Backpackers' drug Ayahuasca is a potent hallucinogenic brew that has been used by shamans, or healers, in the Amazon for centuries for medical and spiritual purposes. Many backpackers have taken it while in South America over the past few decades, but there are now growing number of ayahuasca ceremonies being conducted in Europe. Ayahuasca, also known as yage, is a blend of two plants - the ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) and a shrub called chacruna (Psychotria viridis), which contains the hallucinogenic drug dimethyltryptamine (DMT). DMT - and therefore ayahuasca - is illegal in the UK, the US and many other countries. It could have serious implications for anybody who has a history of mental health problems, warns the Talk To Frank website. It says the drug could also be responsible for triggering issues in those who are predisposed to mental health problems but unaware of the fact. When David Rees and his friend Sam took the drug in 2014, Sam spent the whole experience laughing. "On the surface he was cool, had his act together, all he did was talk about what a great time he had. There was no sign anything was wrong," David says. But he believes Sam had opened Pandora's box by taking the drug. "It brought to the surface things he'd been carrying his whole life and he didn't have the support to deal with it and integrate this emotion into his life. And I think that's why he decided to kill himself," he says. Despite such dangers, one addiction psychiatrist and psychopharmacology researcher is calling for ayahuasca to be investigated as a possible treatment for conditions such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - under strict controls. "If we can show it works and can be used safely, it's absolutely ethical we develop it for medicine," says Dr Ben Sessa - who is not advocating taking the drug on a retreat. "We need to find a way to make these as safe as possible because to throw the baby out with the bathwater and say they have no uses unless they're 100% safe is just not good science." Spirituality Dr Bia Labate, one of the world's leading ayahuasca experts, agrees there is lots of potential and anecdotal evidence for its use in medicine. "There are currently 80 subjects in a clinical trial in Brazil looking at its impact on people with depression - it's very rigorous and very promising. In Brazil it has helped people with depression who have been resistant to other treatments," she says. But she adds that medicinal benefits are not the drug's only "mission". "There is a cultural, religious and spiritual use, which is the most important thing. A path for people interested in personal growth and spirituality, and that's where I think it has the strongest appeal". Dr Christos Dimitriou, a consultant psychiatrist who specialises in depression and PTSD, says the most important thing is for people in distress to be assessed by professionals and given a tailored treatment plan, not try to solve it themselves on a retreat. He says ayahuasca still needs "huge amounts" of research. "There is a lot of work being done with MDMA [methylenedioxymethamphetamine] for PTSD and ketamine for depression. It's a long process before something is ready that a doctor can use with confidence in specific amounts. We are light years away from ayahuasca being in that category." 'Naively experimenting' Harry Shapiro from DrugWise says he is most concerned about people taking the drug at retreats in Europe - as there is no guarantee they won't have a bad experience. "Proper clinical trials to see if there is a genuine medical benefit are fine. These proper cultural ceremonies are fine. But I am doubtful whether this kind of drug tourism is a good idea. There's no support there if it goes wrong," he says. "People are naively going off and taking a very strong drug. You should do your research before you head off to a weekend retreat in the country and start experimenting." Watch the Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel.

यह दुनिया की सबसे मजबूत साइकेडेलिक दवाओं में से एक है, और इसका उपयोग दक्षिण अमेरिका से यूरोप तक फैल रहा है। कई विशेषज्ञों का कहना है कि अयाहुआस्का खतरनाक है, और यह यूके में अवैध है, लेकिन एक डॉक्टर का कहना है कि इसे मानसिक स्वास्थ्य के मुद्दों के इलाज के रूप में शोध किया जाना चाहिए।


Anglesey council nappy bin age limit plans scrapped

Summary: Plans to ban parents from using a new nappy collection service on Anglesey if their children are older than three have been scrapped.

It follows a backlash from families were also told they must provide birth certificates to show they are eligible. Anglesey council said on Thursday changes had been made meaning parents would not have to provide a copy. Children up to the age of four, rather than three, will now be eligible for the service. Applications for older children will be considered on a case-by-case basis. From October, black bins in the county will be collected every three weeks, but the new service means parents do not have to wait more than a fortnight to dispose of youngsters' nappies.

यदि उनके बच्चे तीन साल से बड़े हैं तो माता-पिता को एंग्लेसी पर एक नई नैपी संग्रह सेवा का उपयोग करने से प्रतिबंधित करने की योजना को रद्द कर दिया गया है।


Alabama election pits Trump against his base

Summary: A Republican Senate primary in Alabama is twisting Donald Trump and his party in knots and turning the president's supporters against each other.

Anthony ZurcherNorth America reporter@awzurcheron Twitter Mr Trump has put his power and reputation on the line for the kind of Washington insider he used to rail against - a former corporate lobbyist who was appointed to the Senate by a governor who subsequently resigned in disgrace, no less. Meanwhile erstwhile White House aides, rabble-rousing former Trump surrogates and even a member of the president's own Cabinet are lining up behind an upstart insurgent who almost no one in Washington wants to see roaming the halls of the Senate. The senator and the judge The president's man is Luther Strange, the former Alabama attorney general named to the seat Jeff Sessions vacated when he became US attorney general earlier this year. Despite his Dickensian name and remarkably tall stature (6 feet, 9 inches), Mr Strange is an otherwise unremarkable politician, reserved in manner and unenthusiastic on the stump - a replacement-level senator from a reliably conservative state. For an incumbent with his party's support, that's usually good enough to ensure a smooth nomination. Not this time, however. With just a day left before a run-off vote for the Republican nomination, Mr Strange trails in opinion polls to Roy Moore, a man who has been called many things, but unremarkable and unenthusiastic are not among them. The former Alabama chief justice and tireless evangelical firebrand once lost his job on the state's Supreme Court because he refused to obey a federal order to remove a massive sculpture of the biblical Ten Commandments from his courthouse. He was elected by the people of Alabama to the court again, then was suspended - and subsequently resigned - for failing to enforce the US Supreme Court's 2015 ruling legalising gay marriage. Mr Moore is a lawyer who says the laws of man are superseded by those of God; a politician campaigning to make life miserable for politicians in Washington. Judge Moore and Senator Strange, a political odd couple if there ever were one, held an unusual, unmoderated hour-long debate in the state capital of Montgomery on Thursday night, and within minutes the gist of their campaigns was clear. Mr Strange found a way every five minutes to note he had the backing of Mr Trump - who packed tens of thousands of supporters into a southern Alabama football stadium in August 2015. The senator positioned himself as the experienced hand who could help enact Mr Trump's agenda. Mr Moore, on the other hand, was all fire and brimstone. He opened with a warning about the threat of "transgender troops in our bathrooms" - and went on from there. "I want to see virtue and morality return to our country," he said. "Crime, corruption, immorality, abortion, sodomy, sexual perversion sweep our land." When Mr Moore did talk about Mr Trump, it was to suggest that the president was being misled into supporting a man who was a rubber stamp for the hated powers in Washington. A president 'sabotaged' This is the conundrum at the heart of the Alabama special election. Why is Mr Trump fighting on the side of the Washington establishment? Why, in particular, is he making league with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who the president - and many Alabama conservatives - hold most responsible for legislative failings in Congress this year? The question perplexed Mr Moore's supporters at a post-debate rally just a handful of blocks away from Thursday night's debate site in Montgomery. As a sign held up by Mobile resident Chu Green put it: "Mr President and Mr VP I love you, but you are WRONG! America needs Judge Moore." "Judge and Trump, to me, are hand in hand," said Boyd Wainwright, a registered nurse from nearby Prattville. "It's a no-brainer." Janet Oglesby, a retiree from Mobile, said the president is an "honourable" man who is being sabotaged by the members of his own party and even his own administration who are telling him to support Mr Strange. "I think that someone gave him advice that they knew would hurt him," she says. The crowd's angst gave way to joy upon arrival of Mr Moore's campaign bus, carrying an assortment of political celebrities from the fringes of power. Siran Stacy, a former star running back for the Alabama Crimson Tide college football team, lashed out at the hundreds of thousands of dollars Mr McConnell and Washington-based groups have poured into Alabama to support the Strange campaign. "We're not going to allow any outside influences to tell us who we ought to see in the Senate," he said. "We don't mind you coming to our house. You can come down, and we can fix you some grits and scramble some eggs, but don't tell us how to run our house." Former White House aide Sebastian Gorka - introduced as the "rock star" behind the president's best speeches - cast Mr Moore as the true keeper of Mr Trump's anti-establishment flame. "Let's remember what we all did in November," he said. "We elected a man who I worked for, who had never ever held political office or senior military rank. Why? Because the political establishment on the left and the right have betrayed us for too long." And finally, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin drove the point home, accusing the establishment of trying to "hijack" the Trump presidency. "On Tuesday, you get to tell them, 'Hey, our movement isn't over, and it's not slowing down," she said. Several days later Moore would host another rally, with Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson, recently ousted Trump senior adviser Steve Bannon and former UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage. As Mr Strange quipped during their debate, Mr Moore's advocates look like "the unemployment line at the White House". Then again, they also look a lot like the vanguard of Trump's political revolution. A Moore rally - its enthusiastic crowds, its homemade signs, its unscripted political edginess - looks a lot like a small-scale Trump event. The Trump bump Of course, if Mr Moore's campaign get-togethers seemed like ersatz Trump circa 2016, on Friday night Mr Strange had the real thing - a packed, 10,000 seat arena of adoring, Make America Great Again hat-wearing supporters there to hear the president's in-person pitch for the senator. Sort of. In a speech that lasted nearly an hour and a half, the president said Mr Strange "works hard" and "shares our agenda". He said he's backing the senator because, unlike some other politicians, he never asked for anything in exchange for his support. In true Trump fashion, however, the praise was sometimes backhanded. He noted - as he had in earlier tweets - that Mr Strange had been trailing badly in the polls and only "pulled even" after the president's endorsement. And, perhaps most concerning for the embattled senator, he said that if Mr Moore wins, he'd come back to Alabama and campaign "like hell" for him. That line will be welcome news to the pro-Moore supporters, including those who had gathered outside the Huntsville venue to show support for their man. Peter Grove, a retiree from Cloverdale, said he didn't think Mr Trump cared whether Mr Moore or Mr Strange won - he was just endorsing the incumbent (whom he called "Lucifer Strange") to collect some political capital. Eva Dastrow, a recent high-school graduate now working at a Christian ministry, said many in the Trump crowd were telling her they were pro-Moore and just there to see the president. "Moore has proven to Alabama and the nation that he'll stand on God's word," she said. After the rally, the verdict was mixed. Kenny Minyar said he was on the fence, but Mr Strange's loyalty to the president won him over. Melissa Hotz, on the other hand, said she came into the evening "all for Moore". Did the president change her mind? She shook her head and smiled. According to a Cygnal Political poll released on Monday, 31% of Alabamans were more likely to vote for Mr Strange based on the president's endorsement, while 30% were less likely. Overall, Mr Moore led the senator 52% to 41%. Holding his nose and voting If there's any hope for Mr Strange it won't come from opinion surveys, which paint an increasingly dark picture. Or from the sometimes conflicted thousands who flocked to the arena in Huntsville, Alabama, to hear the president speak. Or from the millions of dollars in anti-Moore advertising that have saturated the Alabama airwaves for months. The senator's fate, rather, could be decided by the kind of folks having lunch in Charlie's Place, in Selma, Alabama, on Friday afternoon. Just a block from the Edmund Pettis Bridge, where a violent clash between police and anti-segregation protesters became a rallying cry for the 1960s civil rights movement, diners munched on burgers and fried green tomatoes and largely avoided discussing state politics, which owner Charlie Morgan called "a mess". When pressed, most of the customers said they were reluctantly going to vote for Mr Strange. "I'm going to hold my nose and do it," said James McNeill, a lawyer who went to school with Mr Moore and wants nothing to do with him. Cullen Wiggins, a chemical company sales executive, said he was also going to opt for Mr Strange - but would cast a ballot for Democrat Doug Jones in December. He said Mr Strange is corrupt but "Moore is crazy". And that's how Mr Strange might win. Mr Moore has enthusiasm on his side but if enough Alabama Republicans object to his extreme evangelical politics, they could opt for the more traditional pick. The key will be getting those less-than-inspired Alabama Republicans to the polls. That's where an organised get-out-the-vote effort comes in - something the Strange campaign has more than enough funds to pull off. Even the best outreach programmes can only do so much to inspire lethargic voters, however. Emily Rogers said she had received a robo-call from presidential daughter-in-law Lara Trump - but it did nothing to convince her to head to the polls for Mr Strange. In fact, she admitted, she still didn't even know when the vote takes place. Signs of a coming storm On Friday night, Mr Trump expressed his doubts about whether he was doing the right thing by coming down to Alabama to push for Mr Strange. He said he "might have made a mistake" and fretted that if Mr Strange were to lose on Tuesday, the media would say the president had failed to "pull his candidate across the line". If the president is a bit concerned, however, others in Washington are downright scared. Mr Moore's success raises the possibility that while Republican Party loyalists have sought a means to work with the president, the forces that swept him to power could be beyond even Mr Trump's control. If an upstart judge can take down a sitting senator with a wealth of resources at his disposal, is anyone in the establishment safe? If Trump's stardom can't pump voltage into Mr Strange's campaign, what will protect Republican members of Congress from a bloodbath in next year's mid-term elections? For some, the possibility that the recent conservative populist revolt is a storm that has not yet been spent is their greatest fear. For those on the outside, however - the ones who are rallying around an upstart judge in the heart of Dixie - a bigger, stronger tempest to come is their dearest wish. And the sooner the president returns to the fold, the better.

अलबामा में एक रिपब्लिकन सीनेट प्राइमरी डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प और उनकी पार्टी को जोड़-तोड़ कर रहा है और राष्ट्रपति के समर्थकों को एक-दूसरे के खिलाफ कर रहा है।


Trowbridge meat factory makeover approved by planners

Summary: Plans to redevelop a derelict meat factory in Wiltshire have been given the go-ahead by planners.

The Bowyers meat processing factory in Trowbridge has been derelict since the company moved out six years ago. Last year developer Prorsus wanted to build a cinema complex, supermarket and restaurants but the application was refused by Wiltshire Council. The new application has dropped the cinema plans and instead includes leisure facilities and other shops.

विल्टशायर में एक परित्यक्त मांस कारखाने को पुनर्विकास करने की योजना को योजनाकारों द्वारा आगे बढ़ाया गया है।


Unhealthy Britain: nation's five big killers

Summary: The UK needs a "call to action" to tackle ill health says England Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt after a major study has found that Britain has fallen behind many Western countries on progress in managing preventable diseases.

By Michelle RobertsHealth editor, BBC News online Five big killers - heart disease, stroke, cancer, lung and liver disease - account for more than 150,000 deaths a year among under-75s in England alone and the Department of Health estimates 30,000 of these are entirely avoidable. Heart disease Coronary Heart Disease is the biggest killer, causing almost 74,000 deaths each year in the UK. That's about 200 people dying every day. More than a quarter of the deaths occur in people who are younger than 75 and experts say the majority are preventable. Smoking, being overweight and having high blood pressure are all risk factors. About one in three adults in England and Scotland have high blood pressure and nearly half of them are not receiving treatment for the condition, says the British Heart Foundation. Mr Hunt says all people between 40 and 74 should be offered a health check once every five years to look for things like high blood pressure. Between April 2011 and March 2012 only 2% of those eligible in England actually had a health check. Out of nearly 16 million people eligible, about 425,000 were offered a check and 211,000 took up the offer. Respiratory diseases The two main ones are asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). England has one of the highest rates of asthma prevalence in the world. Figures from GP registers in 2008 suggested that about 6% of the English population has asthma. And more than three million people in England are living with COPD. This lung disease kills about 23,000 people a year in the UK. The most important cause of COPD is smoking, but about 15% of cases are work-related, triggered by exposure to fumes, chemicals and dusts at work. Premature deaths from COPD in the UK was almost twice as high as the European average in 2008 and premature mortality for asthma was more than 1.5 times higher. To close this gap, Mr Hunt wants to cut smoking rates and improve the care people with COPD receive, focusing on early identification, diagnosis and intervention. The disease is one of the most common causes of emergency admission to hospital and is expensive in terms of acute hospital care. It costs nearly 10 times more to treat severe COPD than the mild disease. Stroke Stroke is the third leading cause of death in England each year and the leading cause of disability. More than 150,000 people have a stroke every year in the UK but, according to The Stroke Association, up to 10,000 of these could be prevented if more people were aware of the symptoms and sought out emergency treatment. Symptoms can include facial weakness, speech problems and pins and needles down one side of the body. Mr Hunt says a major challenge is getting all parts of the country to meet the performance levels of the best. For example, if all patients suffering from a mini stroke (transient ischaemic attack or TIA) were treated as rapidly as those treated in the top 25% of hospitals, 540 strokes would be avoided each year, which in turn would save the NHS £4.5m a year. Cancer The illness has become so common that today one in 30 people living in the UK either has cancer or is in remission. By 2030 it is estimated that three million people in England will have had some form of cancer. Survival rates are improving in the UK. Inroads have been made in improving outcomes for some of the most common cancers. More men are now surviving prostate and bowel cancer and women with breast cancer have a better outlook than ever before. But the UK still lags behind other European countries in terms of cancer survival. Cancer Research UK says part of the problem is unhealthy lifestyles. It is estimated that about a third of cancers are caused by smoking, diet, alcohol and obesity. And many cancers are detected too late. Although there are national screening programmes for certain cancers, like breast and cervical, public awareness of symptoms and the need to seek help early is still too low. Another issue is access to treatment. Waiting times to see a doctor for speedy diagnosis and treatment have come down. But the provision of certain types of cancer investigations and treatments across the UK is variable and some groups of society, like the very old, can miss out. Liver disease The Chief Medical Officer of England, Prof Dame Sally Davies, highlighted liver disease as an issue in her annual report. It is the only major cause of mortality and morbidity that is on the increase in England while it is decreasing among European peers. Between 2000 and 2009, deaths from chronic liver disease and cirrhosis in the under 65s in England increased by about 20% while they fell by the same amount in most EU countries. And all three major causes of liver disease - obesity, undiagnosed infection, and, increasingly, harmful drinking - are preventable. More than a third of men and over a quarter of women regularly exceed the government recommended level of alcohol intake - three to four units of alcohol a day for men and two to three units for women. The government in England is currently considering whether to set a minimum unit price for alcohol to deter problem drinking and cut alcohol-related illness. Dame Sally called for investment in prevention, early diagnosis and effective treatment.

इंग्लैंड के स्वास्थ्य सचिव जेरेमी हंट का कहना है कि ब्रिटेन को खराब स्वास्थ्य से निपटने के लिए "कॉल टू एक्शन" की आवश्यकता है, क्योंकि एक बड़े अध्ययन में पाया गया है कि रोकथाम योग्य बीमारियों के प्रबंधन में प्रगति में ब्रिटेन कई पश्चिमी देशों से पीछे रह गया है।


Catford care home resident accused of murdering woman

Summary: A man has appeared in court accused of murdering a 93-year-old woman with a walking stick at a care home.

Eileen Dean died in hospital on Monday after she was assaulted at the home on Canadian Avenue in Catford, south-east London. Fellow resident 62-year-old Alexander Rawson appeared at the Old Bailey earlier. Mr Rawson was remanded in custody to next appear at the same court on 25 March. Related Internet Links HM Courts & Tribunals Service

एक देखभाल गृह में 93 वर्षीय महिला की छड़ी से हत्या करने के आरोप में एक व्यक्ति अदालत में पेश हुआ है।


X Factor boy band JLS to release 3D movie in cinemas

Summary: Former X Factor boy band JLS are to release their first 3D concert movie which will be screened in cinemas across the UK on Friday 3 June.

Eyes Wide Open was filmed during a date at London's O2 Arena in January. The film promises to show "never seen before" interviews and backstage footage of the group. Marvin Humes, from the band said: "It's another JLS first. Making a movie has always been on our wish list and now we've accomplished that goal." Tickets for the screenings go on sale on Friday 1 April. Marvin Humes added: "We want our fans to see another side to us, a more intimate side, proper fly on the wall camera stuff." The foursome's second album, Outta This World, has sold more than half a million copies since it was released in autumn 2011.

पूर्व एक्स फैक्टर बॉय बैंड जे. एल. एस. अपनी पहली 3डी कॉन्सर्ट फिल्म रिलीज़ करने वाला है जो शुक्रवार 3 जून को पूरे यू. के. के सिनेमाघरों में दिखाई जाएगी।


Windrush: Who exactly was on board?

Summary: The British troopship HMT Empire Windrush anchored at Tilbury Docks, Essex, on 21 June 1948 carrying hundreds of passengers from the Caribbean hoping for a new life in Britain - alongside hundreds from elsewhere. Who were they?

By Lucy Rodgers & Maryam AhmedBBC News June 2020: To mark this year's Windrush Day, on 22 June, we have retrieved this article from our archives. The former passenger liner's journey up the Thames on that misty June day is now regarded as the symbolic starting point of a wave of Caribbean migration between 1948 and 1971 known as the "Windrush generation". Many were enticed to cross the Atlantic by job opportunities amid the UK's post-war labour shortage. But, despite living and working in the UK for decades, it emerged last year that some of the families of these Windrush migrants have been threatened with deportation, denied access to NHS treatment, benefits and pensions and stripped of their jobs. The UK government was forced to apologise and offered compensation for anyone who had "suffered loss". Who was on board the Windrush in 1948? The ship - which dropped anchor on 21 June and released its travellers a day later - was carrying 1,027 passengers, including two stowaways, according to BBC analysis of the ship's records kept by the National Archives. Alongside those travelling from the Caribbean for work, there were also Polish nationals displaced by World War Two, members of the RAF and people from Britain. Passenger Lucile Harris, who settled in Britain from the Caribbean, recalled her arrival in Tilbury in an interview with the BBC in 1998 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Windrush sailing. "It was a lovely day, beautiful, and they [family] were all at the dock waiting for me... I was very excited." According to the ship's passenger lists, more than half of the 1,027 listed official passengers on board (539) gave their last country of residence as Jamaica, while 139 said Bermuda and 119 stated England. There were also people from Mexico, Scotland, Gibraltar, Burma and Wales. According to Nicholas Boston of the City University of New York, those who gave Mexico as their last country of residence were a group of Polish refugees - mainly women and children - who had been offered permanent residence in Britain. Overall, 802 passengers gave their last country of residence as somewhere in the Caribbean. Many of them had paid £28 (about £1,000 today) to travel to Britain in response to job adverts in local newspapers. Among them were John Hazel, 21, a boxer, Harold Wilmot, 32, a case maker and John Richards, 22, a carpenter, seen here in a photograph taken on arrival - alongside their records from the National Archives passenger list. Mr Richards, interviewed by the BBC in 1998, was, like many others, shocked to discover the difference between the "mother country" he had seen in books and the reality he was confronted with. "I know a lot about Britain from school days but it was a different picture from that one, when you came face to face with the facts. It was two different things," he said. "They tell you it is the 'mother country', you're all welcome, you all British. When you come here you realise you're a foreigner and that's all there is to it." According to the ship's records, most of the Windrush's passengers got on in Jamaica, but others also joined the vessel in Trinidad, Tampico and Bermuda. As many of the eyewitness accounts have stated since, the majority of the people on board were men. There were 684 males over the age of 12, alongside 257 females of the same age. There were also 86 children aged 12 and under. The listed occupations on the passenger lists give some indication of the wide range of skills that were on offer. Among those arriving from the Caribbean were mechanics, carpenters, tailors, engineers, welders and musicians. According to the RAF, dozens of the Caribbean passengers were also RAF airmen returning from leave or veterans re-joining the service. A future Mayor of Southwark, Sam King, who had served in England with the wartime RAF, was among them. Also among the Caribbean passengers was a hatter, a retired judge, a potter, a barrister, two hairdressers, two actresses, two piano repairers, two missionaries, three boxers, five artists and six painters. The most noted occupation, though, was "HD" - or "housing domestic" - meaning a housewife, servant or cleaner. There were 172 overall on board - 96 from the Caribbean. Among the boxing hopefuls on board were Charles Smith, 21, a welder and boxer, Vernon "Boy" Solas, 18, mechanic and boxer, and boxing manager Mortimer Martin, 31, who was also a welder, captured in this photograph on arrival. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most popular destination recorded by passengers from the Caribbean was London - 296 people gave the city as their planned place of residence. Interestingly, 109 passengers didn't give any address, perhaps indicating they had no fixed plan on arrival. A number of other passengers planned to go to Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester and Plymouth. Those that had nowhere to stay were temporarily housed in a former air raid shelter at Clapham South underground station. Newspaper reports from the time state how those at the shelter went on to find jobs through the nearest Labour Exchanges (Job Centres), one of which was in Coldharbour Lane, Brixton. Many then moved into rented houses and rooms in the Brixton and Clapham areas, working for employers such as the National Health Service or London Transport. From here, large Caribbean communities developed, contributing to the political, social and musical life of Britain ever since. What was the Windrush like? The ship - full name HMT Empire Windrush - was originally a German passenger liner given to the UK as war reparation in 1945. First called Monte Rosa, it was converted to a troopship and renamed HMT Empire Windrush in 1947. Oswald "Columbus" Denniston, who was the first of the Windrush passengers to get a job according to the Daily Express at the time, told the BBC in 1998 that the atmosphere on the ship was "jolly". "We had two or three bands - calypso singers. And Jamaican people are happy-go-lucky people. When you have more than six you have a party." On leaving the ship on 22 June, the then 35-year-old began work the same day handing out rations at the shelter in Clapham where the Windrush passengers were staying. Mr Denniston, who died in 2000 aged 86, went on to settle in Brixton, where he worked as a street trader. "Many of us thought we would come here to get a better education and to stay for about five years," he said. "But then some of us have ended staying for 50." As for the ship itself, it made its final voyage in 1954, catching fire and sinking in the Mediterranean Sea with the loss of four members of crew. All of its passengers were saved. This article was first published on 27 April 2018

ब्रिटिश सैन्य जहाज एच. एम. टी. एम्पायर विंडरश ने 21 जून 1948 को टिलबरी डॉक्स, एसेक्स में लंगर डाला, जिसमें कैरिबियन के सैकड़ों यात्री ब्रिटेन में एक नए जीवन की उम्मीद कर रहे थे-साथ ही सैकड़ों अन्य जगहों से आए थे। वे कौन थे?


Coronavirus: Indonesia grapples with fear of a hidden virus surge

Summary: Indonesia - one of the worlds most populous and far-flung nations - only just closed its borders, but experts fear this came too late. As the BBC's Resty Woro Yuniar and Aghnia Adzkia report, its healthcare system will not be able to cope amid warnings that official figures mask the true scale of virus cases.

It may have only registered its first coronavirus case in March but now Indonesia is second only to China for coronavirus deaths in Asia. Among the dead are at least 12 health workers, including two doctors in their 30s. Novita Purwanti and her fellow nurses, at a public health centre in Bandung, West Java, are all too aware of this. They pooled funds to buy raincoats and two medical goggles to share. "We disinfected the raincoats so that we can use them again, while we're waiting for the protective kits from the health agency to arrive," she explains. "I can't buy a N95 mask, it's too expensive and they are hard to find." She is on the frontline in the fight against coronavirus that is feared to be widespread and under the radar in the world's largest archipelago. "I'm stressed. I can't sleep. I always touch patients, despite not knowing for sure whether they're carriers or not," nurse Novita, a mother of two young children, says. A study by the London-based Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases released last week estimates that as few as 2% of Indonesia's coronavirus infections have been reported. That would bring the true number to more than 89,000 but a serious lack of testing, as with many other nations, means we will never be sure. Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has said people should be buried with their bodies wrapped in plastic, even if they haven't tested positive. "Maybe some of them have not been tested. Or maybe some had been tested but the results have not come back," he said. Children are also among the growing death toll in Indonesia, according to the Paediatric Society. "We are having to try and keep track ourselves," says Dr Aman Pulungan the group's president. "We know of at least four child deaths. The youngest was 3 years old." Archipelago woes Indonesia's size and remoteness, puts it in a position that very few other nations face. It is made up of some 17,000 islands and islets and even in good times its healthcare system is poor, particularly in remote areas. On average there is just one hospital bed per 1,000 people in Indonesia according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). China has four times as many, while South Korea has 11 times more hospital beds. In 2017, the WHO found Indonesia had four doctors per 10,000 people. Italy had 10 times more, on a per capita basis. South Korea has six times more doctors. Indonesia's decentralised system of government and messy bureaucracy also means rolling out one healthcare message or policy is challenging. It also has one of the lowest health expenditures in the region. It was just five weeks ago that Indonesia's officials were fiercely rejecting suggestions that infections were spreading undetected. They were slow to even stop direct flights from Wuhan, China to the holiday island of Bali. The country's Health Minister, Terawan Agus Putranto, said it was "insulting" to suggest cases were not being detected and argued that Indonesia had not yet recorded a single case "all because of prayers". Other officials suggested it was because of the country's subtropical climate. Weeks later, the picture is very different. Last month, President Joko Widodo admitted the government had filtered information about the spread of the virus saying "we don't want to make the public panic, we don't want to cause unrest in the society". Now that they have closed borders, they are also proposing to allow regional governments to impose lockdowns, something many have been demanding. Jakarta's threat In particular there are growing calls for a lockdown in Jakarta to try and prevent a further exodus of people as jobs are lost, when the Muslim-majority nation celebrates the end of the fasting month in May. For now, Jakarta is the epicentre of the pandemic in Indonesia, but in recent weeks thousands of people have travelled from the capital to their homes in other parts of the country, raising the threat of infections multiplying all over the nation. But President Joko Widodo stopped short of doing that this week, saying instead, in a televised address, that social distancing rules would be implemented more firmly. "We still want to keep economic activity alive, but everyone has to practice social distancing, physical distancing that's the most important thing," he said. But the reality is that being able to social distance is a luxury, with many people living in densely-populated neighbourhoods, or kampungs, where extended families live closely together. Schools and entertainment spots have been closed in the Indonesian capital for about two weeks, normally bustling malls are deserted and the roads quieter than usual. But public transport is still busy as the vast majority of people can't work from home. Remote healthcare system can't cope The remotest region of Papua, where the healthcare system is the weakest, has already closed its borders to non-residents. "Our data is clear, we are not ready to face this pandemic," Silwanus Sumule, head of the Covid-19 task force in Papua, said. He says 70 percent of hospital beds in Papua are already occupied. "What can we do if people develop symptoms here? It is already difficult treating our own residents." Of the 202 isolation rooms available in Papua, only two meet the WHO standard. Health experts say greater protection to those on the frontline is a critical need right now. "If we don't protect them, doctors and nurses will die, many of them will drop dead," warns Zubairi Djoerban, the head of the Covid-19 task force at Indonesian Doctors' Association. In state and private hospitals in the capital Jakarta, there are similar stories of severe shortages of protective gear leaving doctors to buy their own or improvise with raincoats. "It's very likely that we will experience what has happened in Italy where 9.5 percent of infected Covid-19 patients are healthcare staff. But, if our preparation is worse than Italy, the number could be higher." Ninuk, a 37-year-old nurse, told her husband that she believed she had caught the coronavirus, shortly before Indonesia officially announced its first case. "I got the virus. Do you think I can still survive?" she asked her husband, Arul. "I told her to calm down. I said it was in the hands of Allah. I could only lift up her spirits," he says. She died on 12 March, alone in a hospital bed. Arul said his wife didn't wear protective equipment for Covid-19 at the government-run hospital in central Jakarta where she had worked for the last 12 years. He says his late wife told him "I lived to care for those I loved and died doing that." Additional reporting by Callistasia Wijaya, Yuli Saputra and Rebecca Henschke.

इंडोनेशिया-दुनिया के सबसे अधिक आबादी वाले और दूर-दराज के देशों में से एक-ने अभी-अभी अपनी सीमाओं को बंद किया है, लेकिन विशेषज्ञों को डर है कि यह बहुत देर से आया है। जैसा कि बीबीसी के रेस्टी वोरो यूनियर और अघनिया एडज़किया की रिपोर्ट में कहा गया है, इसकी स्वास्थ्य सेवा प्रणाली उन चेतावनियों के बीच सामना करने में सक्षम नहीं होगी जो आधिकारिक आंकड़े वायरस के मामलों के वास्तविक पैमाने को छुपाते हैं।