Analysis: Army 2020 plan coherent but risky

Summary: Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has unveiled details of plans to restructure the Army by 2020, saying it will become a "forward-looking, modern fighting machine" as its number of regular soldiers is cut by 20,000. But what are the implications?

By Jonathan MarcusBBC defence and diplomatic correspondent For all the confident predictions from Defence Secretary Philip Hammond and senior generals about the capabilities of what is being dubbed "Army 2020", the restructuring is prompted in large part by economics. As Mr Hammond himself put it: "We inherited a force that could not be sustained." With combat operations due to end in Afghanistan in 2014, an opportunity has been seized to try to make a virtue of the financial pressures to restructure the force in a more logical way that, commanders believe, will still deliver the combat power the country needs. First the cuts - five infantry battalions, two armoured regiments and 10 equivalents drawn from supporting units like artillery, engineers and the Army Air Corps. It's always cuts to the infantry battalions in particular that are the most controversial and the most painful, given long-standing regimental histories and traditions that have been carried forward down the centuries. The Green Howards, for example, whose traditions are now borne by the 2nd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment - among the battalions to be axed - was formed in 1688 and survived any kind of amalgamation until as recently as 2006. Ministers insist that the decisions on which battalions are to go were made after an exhaustive study of recruiting data; demographic predictions; and wider considerations about the overall footprint of the military. But of course politics intervenes and nowhere more so than in Scotland where a number of infantry battalions have problems recruiting up to their full strength. Only one Scottish battalion though is to go - many analysts believe this is an attempt by a London-based government to placate Scottish opinion as the controversial issue of devolution looms. Overly ambitious? Where Army 2020 is most ambitious in its approach - critics might argue overly ambitious - is in the place that it ascribes to the reserves. The Territorial Army is to be expanded significantly - doubled in size to 30,000 and given training and equipment on a par with the regulars. As Philip Hammond put it, the reserves will no longer be "an add on to the Army, but a vital integrated component of the Army". All well and good, but analysts stress that while individual reservists have performed creditably on operations, a glance at Britain's longer military history suggests this has not been one of the strongest elements of the British military tradition. Army 2020 will require little short of a revolution in the way reserves are recruited, organised and deployed. Huge questions remain about how so many new reservists will be recruited. How will employers be encouraged to release key individuals for lengthy periods of duty? And can the Army reach out to key sections of the community - ethnic minorities for example - without whom these ambitious reserve targets may not be achievable? When the Army fully returns from Germany by 2020, the bulk of the British military will be based at home for the first time in generations. All of this will mean changing its geographic footprint - new bases will be needed, especially if regular and reserve units are to be twinned. This clearly will have significant costs. Budget issues will continue to dog Army 2020 as they have dogged its predecessors. A better equipped reserve and better training standards will require funding. Modernising the equipment of the main fighting units for the reaction forces will cost too. Mr Hammond clearly believes that he has headroom in the budget to do all this. But defence spending is still going to have to comply with the prevailing economic climate. The new Army structure - on paper at least - looks coherent. It makes the best of the financial constraints to set out a new force for the unpredictable world facing the military post-Afghanistan. But some of its most novel features - its reliance upon reserves for example - are among its most risky. One leading defence commentator described it as "a one-shot force" meaning that decisions on the circumstances of its deployment will have to be very carefully taken to ensure that its capabilities meet the challenges it faces. The implication being that Army 2020 will have very little left in the locker.

रक्षा सचिव फिलिप हैमंड ने 2020 तक सेना के पुनर्गठन की योजनाओं के विवरण का खुलासा करते हुए कहा है कि यह एक "दूरदर्शी, आधुनिक लड़ाकू मशीन" बन जाएगी क्योंकि इसके नियमित सैनिकों की संख्या में 20,000 की कटौती की गई है। लेकिन इसके क्या निहितार्थ हैं?


Countdown to Brexit: How to divide food sold to the EU

Summary: Here's a Brexit recipe: lamb with grapes and lemon.

By Andrew WalkerBBC World Service economics correspondent I haven't tried it, but the recipe does exist and it looks delicious in the pictures I've seen. It also gives us the ingredients for looking at one of the food issues that comes up as the UK prepares to leave the European Union. All of them are covered by a trade arrangement that most people have spent their lives blissfully unaware of. It goes by the name of "tariff rate quotas". Now what on Earth does that mean? When countries import goods, including foods, they often impose a tariff, a tax that is applied only to traded goods. The UK does not currently have its own national tariffs. They are set by the EU for all member nations. Countries and blocs of countries such as the EU, that are members of the World Trade Organization, have made commitments to the others that the tariffs will not exceed certain levels. Many countries have agreed to import a certain quantity of some goods at a lower or even zero tariff, as a negotiated compromise between the interests of: That quantity of goods that gets in on the lower tax rate is called a tariff rate quota. It is a bread and butter dish on the trade negotiating menu, routine enough to have its own acronym, which is TRQ. TRQs are often used for farm products. The EU has about 100, negotiated at the WTO on behalf of all member states, which currently have an impact on the UK. All three of our ingredients have a TRQ for imports into the EU. In the case of lamb, 280,340 tonnes a year can be imported at a reduced tariff. There's a quota for table grapes of 1,500 tonnes, and for lemons it's 10,000 tonnes. So how does Brexit come into this picture? The UK and the remainder of the EU have to work out how to divide the existing TRQs. The EU doesn't want to take the existing TRQs for the 28 states and use them for the remaining 27, because each EU country may end up importing more food on the low tariffs, therefore creating tougher competition for EU farmers. Unlike on many other Brexit issues the UK and the EU actually agreed, and told the other WTO members, in a letter, that they wanted to divide the TRQs in line with recent trade flows. That would mean, for example, the UK taking a large share of the quota for lamb because comparatively the UK has been importing more lamb than the other EU countries. But the proposal was met with a raspberry by several countries, including the United States, Canada and New Zealand. Although the UK-EU proposal would give the same total TRQs as today, they would lose flexibility. As things stand, if the price of lamb fell in the UK, they could divert some or all of it to other parts of the EU. After Brexit, that would not be possible. The other WTO countries feel they should be compensated. One option could be a higher combined TRQ in order to maintain the same commercial benefit they currently enjoy. In other words, they see Brexit as an opportunity to negotiate better access for their goods to Europe. There is another option. In some cases, the UK could decide to remove the tariffs altogether. Now, some economists think we should do that anyway with all tariffs, that Brexit is a glorious opportunity for unilateral free trade. This seems politically unlikely for products where there are UK producers. In our recipe, lamb is a case in point. Unrestricted tariff free access for lamb from anywhere in the world would be a problem for many British lamb producers. With lemons, that is not an issue. We are not citrus producers. There are British table grapes. It's not a big industry, but it is a new one so that might need some consultation with producer and consumer groups too. There's another complication: cross-Channel trade. British farmers can now automatically sell, for example, their lamb to France tariff free. The same applies to French cheese sold in the UK. Depending on what sort of deal there is, that might not be true after Brexit. So will the UK and the EU get some share of each other's TRQs? That's another thing to be negotiated. Read more from Reality Check Follow us on Twitter

यहाँ एक ब्रेक्सिट नुस्खा हैः अंगूर और नींबू के साथ भेड़ का बच्चा।


Former Port Erin marine lab site proposal submitted

Summary: A planning application has been submitted to develop the former Marine Biological Station in Port Erin, which has been derelict since 2006.

Sea Breezes Publications Ltd has applied for approval in principle to convert the building into a marine interpretation centre. Proposal includes a cafe, dive centre, offices for marine related businesses and a 20-bedroom hotel. The proposal also includes parking and some landscaping works. Officials said the application is "pending consideration". Several old buildings which formed part of the 120-year-old Marine Biological Station were pulled down, following its closure. During its history, the facility built up a reputation as an impressive research base, with many of its graduates going on to gain international recognition.

पोर्ट एरिन में पूर्व समुद्री जैविक स्टेशन को विकसित करने के लिए एक योजना आवेदन प्रस्तुत किया गया है, जो 2006 से रद्द कर दिया गया है।


Man charged over armed police incident in Elgin

Summary: A 27-year-old man has been charged after armed police officers were called to a disturbance in Elgin.

An area around Findhorn Court in the Moray town was cordoned off for several hours on Wednesday evening. Police Scotland said it was "contained" incident, and that no-one was injured. The man is due to appear at Inverness Sheriff Court on Friday.

एल्गिन में सशस्त्र पुलिस अधिकारियों को अशांति के लिए बुलाए जाने के बाद एक 27 वर्षीय व्यक्ति पर आरोप लगाया गया है।


Welsh local elections 2017: Councillors reveal all

Summary: With a basic salary of just £13,800 and being at the beck and call of the public 24/7, who would want to be a local councillor?

By Nicola BryanBBC News Yet, on 4 May, many will put themselves forward for one of the 1,254 seats up for grabs in Wales. But what does your local councillor really think of their job, colleagues and the public they serve? When offered the chance to speak anonymously, and these councillors and former councillors agreed to spill all. Some details have been changed to protect the anonymity of the interviewees. The safe seat councillor who has served for decades 'A lot of people want to be a councillor just because it looks good' "It's true, you get phone calls at very inappropriate times and sometimes I'd like to stick that phone where the sun don't shine. Some of the questions you get asked are ridiculous but, nevertheless, they expect you to know the answer. But there's also a lot of satisfaction when you're able to help someone. I've spent this morning dealing with the bus companies and it looks I'm getting somewhere so it's been a good day. One year we had a Christmas tree blow down and I was there on Christmas Day and Boxing Day trying to sort it out. I was thinking: "What am I doing this for?" Financially, forget it, you're way out of pocket. Unfortunately a lot of people want to be a councillor just because it looks good but they're not interested in doing any of the work. People are always telling me there are too many councillors and we don't need them, and they're probably quite right. On the other hand, a lot of us are there because we want to help and get involved. I get a lot of satisfaction out of it. But I'm single and retired and I have time on my hands. Yesterday I had a phone call from a lady asking if I could trace someone who left the village many years ago. I was able to help her and she was absolutely delighted. There seems to be more and more paperwork as the years go by. A lot of it could be avoided and a lot of it is job creation to be honest with you. I don't get nervous on election night anymore. It wouldn't really bother me if I was deselected. It wouldn't be the end of world. I'd probably give a sigh of relief. " The disillusioned councillor who quit 'The male chauvinism was like nothing I'd ever seen before' "I worked in a very male-dominated industry before becoming a councillor so I was used to dealing with male egos. Despite this, the male chauvinism I encountered at the council was like nothing I'd ever seen before. The personal insults I received wouldn't be tolerated in any other working environment. I'm not the only woman who resigned and I know of other women who did so for similar reasons. I used to dread going into meetings. Some women councillors aren't as vocal as their male colleagues. I think they're afraid to speak out because of the culture of bullying. I had no other choice but to resign. I always thought that politics might be a dirty business but it was far worse than I could have imagined. Anybody with any personal integrity would find it an uphill battle. I did find the ward work really rewarding. You've got to really fight sometimes but I enjoyed that. I like talking to people. There was a family who were going to be evicted so I went to court with them and we won. If I hadn't achieved anything else that would have made it worthwhile. The vast majority of the people I spoke to were only too grateful for the help that you gave them and I enjoyed even the small wins. There was one occasion when I was threatened by a resident at a surgery all because they thought someone had carried out building work without planning permission. After that my partner used to come with me to keep an eye on me at my surgery. Other women councillors I knew had a terrible time on social media. I'm really sad how it turned out and still feel disillusioned by the whole thing." The councillor who quit the party to go independent 'Politics is a dirty, stinking world' "Within weeks of being elected people were approaching me about all sorts of trivial matters. Some of these matters had been going on for eight years and I was able to set up a meeting and get the problem sorted almost straight away. What on Earth had been going on for eight years? What has shocked me is that 90% of people that I help don't even bother to say thank you. I'm not doing it for the thanks but I find it staggering. Then there's the political side which is a dirty, stinking world. I despise politicians quite frankly. I carry on because instead of shouting at the TV now I can challenge these people in the council chamber. But I'm more furious now than I was before I became a councillor. The quality of so many councillors is so low it's nothing short of frightening. You wouldn't let them run a paper stand and they're handling multi-million pound budgets. There's an utter lack of accountability for senior officers' actions. I'm staggered by the level of dishonesty. I see them lying to councillors and committees. There's moral corruption and no accountability. And there's so much wasting of rate payer's money. Every month I get three or four invites asking me to events with free alcohol and food for councillors and their hangers-on. It's absolutely outrageous and I've refused every single invite. I resigned from my party and became an independent because it is as morally corrupt as every other party and I couldn't stand to be in the same room as my party leader." The 30-something optimist 'Politics is a vehicle for change' "I came back from university, one of my parents was ill and I needed something to keep me busy. There was a lack of facilities for children in my area and nothing was getting done about it, so I decided to run as a councillor. Once I was a town councillor I got the council to match fund the park with £25,000. It was a huge confidence boost and finally the kids had somewhere to go. Being a councillor is gruelling and fast-paced. When I went into it I thought I'd be mostly championing local people but there's a broader strategic role and I also need to be a robust opposition councillor. I'm not downbeat on politics because it's a vehicle for change. Politics matters. Sometimes us councillors don't understand the power and the role that we've got. The cabinet are often very remote from the areas they're making decisions about. Part of our challenge is making them aware of that. I love the individual contact I have with constituents. It's great when you can help them out of a hole they're in, such as accessing a food bank. It's a rewarding job and I love what I do and would never change it. I feel a huge weight on my shoulders and don't want to let people down. My constituents have access to me 24/7. It takes a while to adjust to that. I've been called at two in the morning by a lady who was going to court the next day over not paying her bills. She was so upset and I just wished she'd contacted me weeks earlier so I could have stopped it getting to that stage. Being a councillor is a full time job yet you can't live off the wage so you have to work another job, hence the reason most councillors in my area are retired, white men. I think we need to make it more attractive, part of the solution could be paying more." The never-give-up candidate 'I want to get face-to-face with people' "I've stood in all political elections (local, general, by-elections and as a European candidate) for the past 25 years but haven't been successful yet. I'm not party motivated but I'm interested in making money for charity and local causes. I think in local elections the candidates should be from the area and aware of local issues. The problem is most candidates have to stick to set party doctrine and its not clear what they've done as individuals. There's a lot of cronyism in politics, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. It needs a wind of change. No wonder the public are apathetic with all that squabbling amongst each other and leadership problems. The public thinks: "Why should I bother?" People look on me as a joke but I've been raising money for 25 years. If I was a councillor I wouldn't want to go to planning application meetings, I want to get face-to-face with people. And there's so much litter around here that doesn't get picked up so I'm going to get my own team together. I'm not answerable to anyone as an independent, I am who I am. Politicians are after their own interest, half of them." The about-to-retire councillor 'Being a leading member of your community is very humbling' "I was first elected 30 years ago after losing on three previous occasions. Finally coming through as a party of opposition was incredible. When the result was announced the supporters were dancing and singing. Then reality set in. On my first visit to the civic centre, I was blanked by the ruling party members and had a testy first meeting with the chief exec. I learned quickly that to do your job as a councillor you must read everything that comes your way and learn the protocols. The best thing about being a councillor is that it opens doors to organisations who can be of help to you in serving your constituents. I always got a kick out of being able to help my people and always strove to do my best by them, but of course you can't win them all. I always think an honest attempt is sometimes just as good as a success. I am proud that during my tenure I never claimed expenses or allowances but financed myself through my normal employment. Being a councillor is hard work and you are available to your constituents at all hours and in all places. Being a leading member of your community is a very humbling experience. Yes, council meetings can be boring and long-winded but if you concentrate on winning your battles you can produce results for your constituents and local area. Looking back, would I do it again? Yes, of course I would."

केवल 13,800 पाउंड के मूल वेतन के साथ और जनता के आह्वान पर होने के कारण, कौन स्थानीय पार्षद बनना चाहेगा?


Farm produce price protest at County Antrim supermarket depot

Summary: Around 50 people are protesting outside a supermarket depot in County Antrim, calling for a fair price for farm produce.

It is understood a number of tractors and farm vehicles are parked at the entrance to the Lidl regional distribution centre near Nutts Corner. There have been several protests by farmers about the slump in milk prices in recent weeks. These have been held across the UK. Earlier on Tuesday, Northern Ireland Agriculture Minister Michelle O'Neill met Environment Secretary Liz Truss in London to seek support in lobbying the European Union over the dairy crisis.

लगभग 50 लोग काउंटी एंट्रिम में एक सुपरमार्केट डिपो के बाहर विरोध प्रदर्शन कर रहे हैं, जो कृषि उपज के लिए उचित मूल्य की मांग कर रहे हैं।


Lav in a cold climate: 'Free range toileting' etiquette

Summary: The "pristine environment" of Scotland's wild hills and mountains are occasionally fouled by human waste. Public conveniences are not in great supply on most Munros. What should you do if you need the toilet in the great outdoors?

By Steven McKenzieBBC Scotland Highlands and Islands reporter Earlier this winter, an experienced mountaineer could barely contain his anger at narrowly avoiding a pile of human excrement on his walk up Coire Ardair in the Highlands. Later, in a blog, he wrote: "Right next to the path, not even 10 metres away behind a boulder or tree where it might be discreetly hidden. No, close enough so that you might accidentally tread in it." The mountaineer said whoever was responsible could easily have gone to a public loo just 20 minutes walk away. He even uploaded an image of this toilet along with a photograph of Coire Ardair and its nearby Munro, Creag Meagaidh. "This is a toilet," he captioned the public loo image. "This is not a toilet" he wrote below the photograph of the coire. But what should people do if they get caught short in the great outdoors when a WC is not within reach? It is a matter organisations such as Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and the Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS) have tackled. They warn that public and animal health is threatened by irresponsible toileting because the waste could contaminate drinking water. People can be put at risk to a cocktail of nasty pathogens, they say, such as cryptosporidium, campylobacter, aeromonas, e.coli O157 and giardia. A spokeswoman at SNH says: "If you need to urinate, do so at least 30 metres from open water or rivers and streams. "If you need to defecate, do so as far away as possible from buildings, from open water or rivers and streams, and from any farm animals." She adds: "Bury faeces in a shallow hole and replace the turf." The MCofS offers guidance in its leaflet Where to "Go" in the Great Outdoors. It recommends taking home toilet paper in containers and cleaning hands using gels. The council asks that people don't "go" near paths, huts, bothies and never in caves. It suggests carrying a small trowel to make the task of digging a hole to bury waste easier. And the leaflet adds: "When digging a hole is absolutely impossible and you are in a very remote place, spread excrement thinly or arrange rocks such that air can circulate. Avoid just putting a rock on top as it slows decomposition." Snow White Facility Five years ago, the Cairngorms Ranger Service launched the Cairngorm Poo Project following a boom in snow-holing, the digging of cave-like shelters into deep snow where walkers can spend a night or two on a hillside. Ranger Nic Bullivant said snow-holing had traditionally been a life-saving skill learned by mountain guides, rescue teams, walkers and military personnel to protect themselves in bad weather. "Now snow-holing has become a more recreational activity," he says. "The Cairngorms has earned a reputation, not quite correctly, as the place in Scotland where the snow is deep enough to do it." However, waste being left behind by some in two areas of the Cairngorms raised concerns about possibility of streams flowing into the River Nethy and Loch Avon Basin. The Poo Project, since renamed the Snow White Facility, provides walkers with biodegradable bags and plastic containers to keep them in. Coming off the hill, the bags and their contents are dumped down the Poo Chute at the CairnGorm Mountain ski centre car park. The containers go into disinfectant before getting a further wash so they can be reused by others. CairnGorm Mountain has a licence from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency to handle waste in this way. Mr Bullivant says the scheme has been a huge success in encouraging responsible "free range toileting". David Gibson, of the MCofS, said he was aware of the Coire Ardair complaint but could not recall similar incidents at other locations in recent years. He added: "This doesn't mean that the issue does not exist, but that it isn't reported or perhaps not even spotted. "Anything that assists in spreading the word about 'where to go' properly helps to encourage and educate good practice."

स्कॉटलैंड की जंगली पहाड़ियों और पहाड़ों का "प्राचीन वातावरण" कभी-कभी मानव कचरे से दूषित हो जाता है। अधिकांश मुनरो में सार्वजनिक सुविधाओं की बहुत अधिक आपूर्ति नहीं होती है। अगर आपको बाहर शौचालय की आवश्यकता है तो आपको क्या करना चाहिए?


What will happen if BBC funds free licences?

Summary: When the government suggested the BBC might take on the funding of TV licences for the over-75s in 2010, a substantial majority of the BBC's then-trustees threatened to resign and the idea was dropped.

By Nick HighamCorrespondent But the BBC Trust is on the way out: its current chair has called for its abolition; such a threat might be rather less effective today. Nevertheless, the arguments against the move now are the same as they were then, even if this time the government is apparently offering a sweetener. An effective cut of £650m or one-fifth in the BBC's budget would almost certainly mean cuts in services - all of BBC Three and BBC Four, all digital radio, possibly local radio and parts of World Service radio, according to one former trustee. Why should licence fee payers have to put up with a poorer service because of a policy first introduced by a Labour Government? Is it right that licence fees handed over to pay for TV and radio programmes should end up instead subsidising sometimes wealthy pensioners? Sir Christopher Bland, a former chairman of the BBC Governors, called the move "the worst form of dodgy Whitehall accounting". He told the World this Weekend on Radio 4: "If the government thinks that over 75-year-olds need free licence fees then fine, that's government policy, not BBC policy. "And of course, rather subtly and unattractively, it draws the BBC closer to becoming an arm of government, which has always been something that the BBC and government have resisted." But the sweetener being offered by the chancellor has its attractions. Last week the BBC revealed that its licence fee revenue was down by £150m a year because so many people no longer watch live television (for which you have to have a TV licence) and simply watch catch-up programmes on the iPlayer (for which a licence is unnecessary). Mr Osborne seems to be offering a deal, perhaps to be announced in the Budget: a commitment to change the law so that iPlayer viewers also have to pay the licence fee. It won't raise anything like enough to make up for that lost £650m but it would be a sign that the government is serious about protecting the BBC's long-term future in a world of rapidly changing technology. And from the chancellor's point of view, offloading the over-75s' licence fee onto the BBC is a nifty bit of political footwork. It goes a long way towards the government's target of cutting £12bn from the benefits bill. And if in due course a potentially unpopular decision is taken to scrap it, or to means test it so that wealthier pensioners no longer benefit, it'll be the BBC not the government that gets the opprobrium.

जब सरकार ने सुझाव दिया कि बी. बी. सी. 2010 में 75 से अधिक उम्र के लोगों के लिए टी. वी. लाइसेंस का वित्तपोषण कर सकता है, तो बी. बी. सी. के तत्कालीन न्यासियों के एक बड़े बहुमत ने इस्तीफा देने की धमकी दी और इस विचार को हटा दिया गया।


Child bereavement: A brother's promise to help 'forgotten grievers'

Summary: When Callum Fairhurst hugged his 14-year-old brother Liam for the last time, he made him two promises: to live a great life and to help others. As the 10th anniversary of Liam's death approaches, Callum has founded a new website that aims to answer the very questions he couldn't ask as a grieving 12-year-old.

By Orla MooreBBC News Callum Fairhurst still remembers every detail of 30 June 2009, the day his big brother Liam died. "I was 12. I remember what I was watching on TV, what I did before, what I did after, how I was told," he says. "I didn't quite realise what was going on, when the community nurses came down I just knew. We were eating dinner at the table. "I just knew that was the last time I'd see him. That is so vivid in my memory. The days and weeks after were more of a blur." Liam had been diagnosed with synovial sarcoma, a rare soft tissue cancer, in July 2005, aged 10. In the four years that followed, he refused to accept his condition was terminal, and embarked on a remarkable campaign, raising £340,000 during his lifetime, and a further £7m after his death. Callum, from Soham, Cambridgeshire, says that in life - and death - his brother continues to inspire him. "I remember kissing him and I just felt something. Although he wasn't conscious, he couldn't respond, there was something there," he said. "Afterwards I was scared, emotional, hiding it. Looking back, I think I was protecting myself. "People were supportive in that they'd come up and hug me. But there was no formal support. I received counselling sessions but in a way I felt forced into it, months after I needed to." Some friends would innocently say the wrong thing, people knew him only as "Liam's brother", and the extent of direct support was a "sympathetic pat on the shoulder", he says. "I wanted to know if it was OK to be happy. I wasn't suicidal, I wasn't depressed, but I was struggling. I had awful nightmares, but other times I was absolutely fine. "Liam was dead, but I felt bad for getting on with it." Callum plunged his energy into fundraising, like his brother, cycling more than 17,000 miles (27,350km) round the world in 2015-16, and completing a tuk-tuk trip around 27 European countries last year. He is now in the final year of an International Development and Politics degree at the University of East Anglia. He spoke to other bereaved children to gather a cache of particular questions they had when they lost a sibling, from younger ones asking what death actually means, or 'Why are mummy and daddy being different?', to teenagers' dilemmas with drinking or drugs. The result is a bright new online forum called Sibling Support, created by Callum with a pool of professionals and teenagers with first-hand experience. It includes details of how to create memory boxes, and the plan is to install an instant message function which children can use anonymously. You may also be interested in: Ann Rowland, of Child Bereavement UK, says children bereaved of a sibling face particular challenges. "It can be a loss that is felt keenly at every major life event for the rest of their lives, or the realisation at an early age of the 'fragility of life'," she says. "The child who died can be 'put on a pedestal', where only positive things are remembered, and remaining siblings can feel overlooked and that they are 'second-best'. Parents can also become overprotective of remaining children, impacting on their independence." She says there remains a "real gap" in online support for bereaved siblings. "This website - created by bereaved siblings for bereaved siblings - will help to decrease the sense of isolation felt by many." Child deaths in numbers Source: YouGov for Child Bereavement UK "The key point is informal support," Callum says. "It could be as simple as a teacher with a five-year-old who has questions. Lots of children don't understand what death means: that she cannot eat, drink or sleep; she also can't feel any pain; she'll not wake up". Siblings, who he describes as "the forgotten grievers", can read other personal stories, and there are animations explaining the grieving process. Anne Streather, of Cambridge-based bereavement charity Stars, says young people often experience all the negative effects of grief without the mechanisms to cope. "They can become isolated and alone, unable to concentrate at school, vulnerable to mental health issues, like self-harm and eating disorders," she says. "Children don't understand why they feel the way they do and think no one else understands them either. They're scared." About 180 bereaved children from across Cambridgeshire were referred to Stars last year, and in January 2019 alone referrals doubled from 20 to more than 40. "Children often need to be reassured that their behaviour in grief is normal - that it will pass," Ms Streather adds. "Informal support like this puts the needs of the child first." 'I was so confused when my brother died' 'I still miss Harry. I'm proud of him - and I think he'd be proud of me.' Jessica Mould, 15, from Milton Keynes, lost her twin brother Harry in 2009 at the age of five. "I'll always remember we had a High School Musical party for our fifth birthday, and we went to the cinema and danced down the front with our friends," she says. "It was wonderful. Every time I look through photos and videos they take me back to the moment, and that's when the feelings hit me. "It sounds weird, but I wasn't upset when he died, just so confused. I thought he'd come back; I had no concept of death at all. Nowadays I get upset because he was so young; I wonder what he'd be like now. I still think of him as a five-year-old. "My parents were so caring and kind afterwards. I know now they would have protected me. We went to bereavement groups but they were so far away. There was nothing local, which made it quite difficult. "Teenagers are not very good at showing their emotions, so no matter how hard it is, share how you feel to other people - it's a relief. You will come across people who don't understand - but in the long term it's good to talk." Callum admits that the milestones he reached, like "becoming older than Liam", going to sixth-form college and leaving home for university, hit him harder than the early days after his brother's death. "When I'm asked 'How many brothers or sisters do you have?' - you could be on a date, you could be in a classroom - I'm not going to ignore the fact that I have a brother, or that he died. "The 12-year-old me grieved a lot better than I did two years ago. Time doesn't heal, it just helps you deal."

जब कैलम फेयरहर्स्ट ने अपने 14 वर्षीय भाई लियाम को आखिरी बार गले लगाया, तो उसने उससे दो वादे किएः एक महान जीवन जीने और दूसरों की मदद करने के लिए। जैसे-जैसे लियाम की मृत्यु की 10वीं वर्षगांठ नजदीक आ रही है, कैलम ने एक नई वेबसाइट की स्थापना की है जिसका उद्देश्य उन प्रश्नों का उत्तर देना है जो वह 12 वर्षीय दुखी के रूप में नहीं पूछ सकता था।


In pictures: Holme Fen Spitfire unearthed

Summary: Experts have begun examining and cataloguing parts of a Spitfire excavated from a field in Cambridgeshire.

The plane crashed in Holme Fen during a 300mph (483km/h) training mission in November 1940, killing 20-year-old Pilot Officer Harold Penketh. Experts from Oxford Archaeology East and Cranfield University have spent five days recovering the plane. Its parts will be preserved and put on public display. Here is the story of the excavation, told in photographs:

विशेषज्ञों ने कैम्ब्रिजशायर के एक खेत से खुदाई की गई स्पिटफायर के कुछ हिस्सों की जांच और सूची बनाना शुरू कर दिया है।


Walls, floors and rocks: England and its swastikas

Summary: Swastika. The word is a potent one. For more than one billion Hindus it means "wellbeing" and good fortune. For others, the cross with arms bent at right angles will forever symbolise Nazism. Yet England is seemingly awash with swastikas. Why?

By Laurence CawleyBBC News It comes from the Sanskrit "svastika" and means "good to be", yet the word swastika - and perhaps even more the symbol which represents it - is very often taken to mean something very different. So much so, in fact, that when a member of the public recently asked Essex County Council why it allowed swastika motifs to be carved into its HQ building during the 1930s, some demanded the symbols be removed. The case is a perfect demonstration of the seismic shift in the swastika's reputation in the West as a result of its use by Nazi Germany. Why did Adolf Hitler and the Nazis seize the swastika? The Nazi party formally adopted the swastika - which it called the Hakenkreuz (hooked cross) - in 1920. Dr Malcolm Quinn, of the University of Arts London, says the party picked up on the symbol's association with the Aryans, who some intellectuals of the time believed had invaded India in the distant past. They considered the early Aryans of India to be the prototypical white invaders and the cultural ancestors of the German people. "What Hitler did," says Dr Quinn, "was to add the swastika symbol (of a conquering 'race') to the colours of Bismarck's flag and Germany was rebranded as a nation whose central mission was conquest and colonisation. "The Nazis created a new history for themselves. Within decades the swastika had been ripped from its Indian roots." But the swastika - or at least the shape to which the word refers - predates Hitler by thousands of years. Dr Jessica Frazier, of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, told the BBC swastikas had been found in China, Japan, Mongolia, the ancient Mediterranean, among native Americans and, of course, the British Isles. "Its (the swastika's) original meaning is an enigma," she said. "Perhaps it is just an elegant geometry which has an instinctive appeal across the world." The earliest swastikas might have had some religious or astronomical meaning. Then again, they might not. One of those earliest "swastikas" is the Swastika Stone which sits proudly on the edge of Ilkley Moor in West Yorkshire. The carving is thought to be early Bronze Age dating back to about 2,000 BC. Now heavily eroded from the surface of the grit stone outcrop on which it sits, the design features a grooved swastika with a number of circular hollows. The name Swastika Stone, as the Yorkshire-based archaeologist Dave Weldrake explains, is a Victorian invention. And a successful invention at that. It pulls in the tourists not because it is the most elaborate carving on the moor but because of its name. Mr Weldrake said it was most likely a religious carving. "But there's no written record," he said. "It is one of many carved rocks in the area which vary from the really simple to the highly elaborate. "There is another one which looks partially on the way to being a swastika and there are others with ladder patterns. Part of the problem with interpretation is you don't know how they looked at the time." Jump forward a few thousand years and the swastika motif reappears in England in thriving abundance. Not on rocky outcrops now, but on buildings. Many of these motifs, says Dr Quinn, arrived in England as a result of Britain's colonisation of India during the 18th Century. The British author Rudyard Kipling, who was strongly influenced by Indian culture, had a swastika on the dust jackets of all his books until the rise of Nazism. Other swastika-based designs, including the Essex County Council building swastikas mentioned above, were most likely inspired by Greek patterns. Whatever their derivation, without knowing the intention of the architects who included such designs on churches, government buildings, banks and railway stations, referring to them as swastikas is problematic. By and large, says Dr Quinn, they are "decorative motifs that happen to use the same symmetry group as the swastika symbol". And they mostly predate Nazi Germany. Shaunaka Rishi Das, director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, says: "Most Western people when they see it (the swastika), they see Nazi Germany. "But you have to understand that here's a tradition that is ancient and the Germans borrow it from a different culture and misuse it over less than two decades and it develops an internationally bad reputation." Mr Rishi Das told how he himself once lived in a house in Belfast which had a tiled swastika on a wash-room floor. "It somehow survived the fact that American officers were billeted there during the war," he said. "The daughter of the man who built the house, a well known architect of his time, told me the symbol was a Celtic one." That house, he said, later became a Krishna Temple. Although single swastika motifs - such as one found on cottages pictured below in Aylsham, Norfolk - are not rare, it is far more common to find swastikas used in repeating patterns. Examples include those on the The Royal Academy of Arts building at Burlington House and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in King Charles Street, London. As Mr Rishi Das found in Belfast, walls are far from the only surfaces to carry the swastika. Floors carry them too. The Natwest branch in Bolton's Derby Street, for example, has two swastikas on its floors. When asked to remove them in 2006, the bank pointed out that the building was built in 1927 when the swastika was commonly used in architecture. The request to remove them was turned down. The floor of The Painted Hall of the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich also features a swastika design. And then there is this red, white and black swastika design outside the barriers to the District Line service at the Upminster Bridge tube station in Hornchurch, east London. Could the swastika motif ever stage a comeback in western architectural design? Dr Quinn said he was not aware of any building other than temples created since World War Two in England featuring swastikas. And while the swastika design may well be used in Hindu architecture, its future use on public buildings seems unlikely.

स्वस्तिक। यह शब्द एक शक्तिशाली शब्द है। एक अरब से अधिक हिंदुओं के लिए इसका अर्थ है "कल्याण" और सौभाग्य। दूसरों के लिए, सही कोण पर झुकने वाली बाहों वाला क्रूस हमेशा नाज़ीवाद का प्रतीक रहेगा। फिर भी इंग्लैंड स्वस्तिकों से भरा हुआ प्रतीत होता है। क्यों?


Is 'killer robot' warfare closer than we think?

Summary: More than 100 of the world's top robotics experts wrote a letter to the United Nations recently calling for a ban on the development of "killer robots" and warning of a new arms race. But are their fears really justified?

By Mark SmithTechnology of Business reporter Entire regiments of unmanned tanks; drones that can spot an insurgent in a crowd of civilians; and weapons controlled by computerised "brains" that learn like we do, are all among the "smart" tech being unleashed by an arms industry many believe is now entering a "third revolution in warfare". "In every sphere of the battlefield - in the air, on the sea, under the sea or on the land - the military around the world are now demonstrating prototype autonomous weapons," says Toby Walsh, professor of artificial intelligence at Sydney's New South Wales University. "New technologies like deep learning are helping drive this revolution. The tech space is clearly leading the charge, and the military is playing catch-up." One reported breakthrough giving killer machine opponents sleepless nights is Kalashnikov's "neural net" combat module. It features a 7.62mm machine gun and a camera attached to a computer system that its makers claim can make its own targeting judgements without any human control. According to Russia's state-run Tass news agency it uses "neural network technologies that enable it to identify targets and make decisions". Unlike a conventional computer that uses pre-programmed instructions to tackle a specific but limited range of predictable possibilities, a neural network is designed to learn from previous examples then adapt to circumstances it may not have encountered before. And it is this supposed ability to make its own decisions that is worrying to many. "If weapons are using neural networks and advanced artificial intelligence then we wouldn't necessarily know the basis on which they made the decision to attack - and that's very dangerous," says Andrew Nanson, chief technology officer at defence specialist Ultra Electronics. But he remains sceptical about some of the claims arms manufacturers are making. Automated defence systems can already make decisions based on an analysis of a threat - the shape, size, speed and trajectory of an incoming missile, for example - and choose an appropriate response much faster than humans can. But what happens when such systems encounter something they have no experience of, but are still given the freedom to act using a "best guess" approach? Mistakes could be disastrous - the killing of innocent civilians; the destruction of non-military targets; "friendly fire" attacks on your own side. And this is what many experts fear, not that AI will become too smart - taking over the world like the Skynet supercomputer from the Terminator films - but that it's too stupid. "The current problems are not with super-intelligent robots but with pretty dumb ones that cannot flexibly discriminate between civilian targets and military targets except in very narrowly contained settings," says Noel Sharkey, professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at Sheffield University. Despite such concerns, Kalashnikov's latest products are not the only autonomous and semi-autonomous weapons being trialled in Russia. The Uran-9 is an unmanned ground combat vehicle and features a machine gun and 30mm cannon. It can be remotely controlled at distances of up to 10km. More Technology of Business And the diminutive Platform-M combat robot boasts automated targeting and can operate in extremes of heat and cold. Meanwhile the Armata T-14 "super tank" has an autonomous turret that designer Andrei Terlikov claims will pave the way for fully autonomous tanks on the battlefield. Manufacturer Uralvagonzavod also didn't respond to BBC requests for an interview, but Prof Sharkey - who is a member of pressure group The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots - is wary of its potential. "The T-14 is years ahead of the West, and the idea of thousands of autonomous T-14s sitting on the border with Europe does not bear thinking about," he says. And it's not just Russia developing such weapons. Last summer, the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) equipped an ordinary surveillance drone with advanced AI designed to discern between civilians and insurgents during a test over a replica Middle Eastern village in Massachusetts. And Samsung's SGR-A1 sentry gun, capable of firing autonomously, has been deployed along the South Korean side of the Korean Demilitarised Zone. The UK's Taranis drone - which is roughly the size of a Red Arrow Hawk fighter jet - is being developed by BAE Systems. It is designed to carry a myriad of weapons long distances and will have "elements" of full autonomy, BAE says. At sea, the USA's Sea Hunter autonomous warship is designed to operate for extended periods at sea without a single crew member, and to even guide itself in and out of port. All the Western arms manufacturers contacted by the BBC, including Boeing's Phantom Works, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, refused to co-operate with this feature, an indication perhaps of the controversial nature of this technology. But could autonomous military technology also be used simply as support for human military operations? Roland Sonnenberg, head of defence at consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, says combat simulation, logistics, threat analysis and back office functions are the more mundane - but equally important - aspects of warfare that robots and AI could perform. "The benefits that AI has to offer are only useful if they can be applied effectively in the real world and will only be broadly adopted if companies, consumers and society trust the technology and take a responsible approach," he says. And some argue that autonomous weapons could actually reduce the number of human casualties. But Elizabeth Quintana, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, disagrees. "Deploying robotic systems might be more attractive to politicians because there would be fewer body bags coming home. "My view is that war is an inherently human activity and that if you wage war from a distance at another group or country, they will find a way to hurt you at home because that is the only way that they can retaliate." The prospect of autonomous weapons systems inadvertently leading to an escalation in domestic terrorism or cyber-warfare is perhaps another reason to treat this new tech with caution.

दुनिया के 100 से अधिक शीर्ष रोबोटिक्स विशेषज्ञों ने हाल ही में संयुक्त राष्ट्र को एक पत्र लिखकर "किलर रोबोट" के विकास पर प्रतिबंध लगाने और हथियारों की एक नई दौड़ की चेतावनी दी है। लेकिन क्या उनका डर वास्तव में उचित है?


Seven deaths are linked to fake ecstasy tablets, police say

Summary: The deaths of seven young people in the west of Scotland are linked to a batch of fake ecstasy drugs, Police Scotland has confirmed.

An 18-year-old woman from Alexandria in West Dunbartonshire died on Tuesday morning after taking the tablets. Six others from Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Ayrshire have died during the past two months after taking pills with a Rolex crown stamped on them. It is understood the pills contain a dangerous chemical called PMA. It is known to cause extremely high temperatures, hallucinations and convulsions.

पुलिस स्कॉटलैंड ने पुष्टि की है कि स्कॉटलैंड के पश्चिम में सात युवाओं की मौत नकली परमानंद दवाओं के एक समूह से जुड़ी है।


Outrage as Iranian wrestler 'forced' to lose match

Summary: Iranians are calling foul on social media after an Iranian wrestler appeared to deliberately lose a match on Saturday to avoid facing an Israeli opponent in the 86kg category of the Senior U23 World Championship in Poland.

By Georgina RannardBBC UGC and Social News Although leading 3-2 in the fourth minute, freestyle wrestler Alireza Karimi-Machiani crashed out of his match against Russia's Alikhan Zhabrailov after appearing to receive instructions to lose, rather than face Israel's Uri Kalashnikov in the next round. Iran does not recognise the state of Israel and forbids its athletes from competing against Israelis at international sports events. Iranians reacted with outrage on social media, sharing footage of the match. In one clip, a man's voice, suspected by observers to be Karimi-Machiani's trainer, can be heard saying "lose Alireza", as the Iranian is winning. The trainer then stops the match to speak privately with the wrestler who then returns to lose the match 3-14. You might also like: More than 5,000 tweets were sent following the match with hashtags which translate as #lose_alireza, #I_am_telling_you_to_lose, and #you_must_lose. "I feel that Alireza Karimi's trainer intentionally shouted 'Alireza lose', 'you need to lose', 'you must lose'. This was a sign for us to see the dirty people behind the curtain of his defeat. We needed to see how the dirty politics of a group of dirty people caused your efforts to be blown away with the wind," one Twitter user @persianhuman commented. It's not the first time the region's politics have clashed with sport: At the 2016 Olympic Games, Lebanese athletes refused to share a bus with the Israel team. Also in the Rio Games, Egyptian Islam El Shehaby was booed by the crowd after refusing to shake hands with Israeli opponent Os Sasson. But in August this year, two Iranian footballers disregarded the ban by playing against Israeli opposition for their Greek football teams. After his defeat, Karimi-Machiani, who won a bronze medal in the 2015 World Championships, posted a video on Instagram of him walking through a city at night listening to a song by Iranian singer Dariush Eqbali singing, "Silence is the last stronghold; you cannot take away our right". More than 6,000 people commented on the post. Most were sympathetic, but some criticised the wrestler for not challenging the order to lose the match. "I am very sad for this clip and injustice against our champion. Death to the dictator!" replied @davod.ahmadi23. "You were wrong, Karimi. You accepted defeat without imposing any cost against the main reasons behind your defeat. You just became their pawn," @gh_shahraki commented. Zhabrailov went on to beat Kalashnikov in the quarter-finals before winning the tournament, although Kalashnikov eventually took bronze following a repechage round. Additional reporting by BBC Monitoring

पोलैंड में सीनियर अंडर 23 विश्व चैम्पियनशिप के 86 किग्रा वर्ग में एक ईरानी पहलवान के जानबूझकर एक इजरायली प्रतिद्वंद्वी का सामना करने से बचने के लिए शनिवार को एक मैच हारने के बाद ईरानी सोशल मीडिया पर फाउल कर रहे हैं।


Paris attacks: London's French community reacts

Summary: London is home to up to 300,000 French people, making the UK capital arguably one of the world's largest French cities. How have they reacted to Friday's terror attacks in Paris which left at least 129 people dead and hundreds wounded?

By Sitala PeekBBC News "The French are very vocal, they need to express themselves and share the confusion and pain," says Pascal Grierson, the CEO of French Radio London - a dedicated French language broadcaster for expats. The station's core audience is the thousands of French citizens living in London who are now so numerous, former president Nicolas Sarkozy dubbed it the sixth largest French city in the world. "We've been monitoring our social media channels and there's a couple of dominant themes coming out," Mr Grierson says. "The main one is, 'why is it France that has been targeted?' "In comparison to the Charlie Hebdo attacks, this feels more random and ended up killing people of their own proclaimed faith. "The French have a very tense relationship with the Muslim community in France anyway. What underlies all of this is the attackers' attempt to destabilise our relationship further with the French-Arab community. "On social media people have been telling us they want the fascist right wing to rise because then Daesh [the so-called Islamic State group] will have a proper fight on their hands." Marine Le Pen's far-right Front National party is predicted to gain seats in France's regional elections in December and earlier she called for an "immediate halt" to France accepting any more refugees in the wake of the Paris attacks. President Francois Hollande has ordered air strikes on Isis targets in Syria in response to the multiple attacks in Paris. "Up until the air raids started last night, people were calling for some sort of retaliation," says Mr Grierson. "French people are relieved by that. "What we haven't seen yet is the French Arab perspective on this. I have heard some Muslims in this country [UK] talk about how they feel but I think French Arabs in France are keeping their heads down at the moment, largely, except to join in condemning these attacks. "So many are good people and non-radicalised, but they have a big PR problem and they are going to need to work on that." Wali Deruwara identifies himself as a French Arab. The 18-year-old of Malian descent has a job in a French cafe in South Kensington but comes from Paris's suburbs. "It's normal for people to be scared of Paris after this," he says. But "it's not right" they should blame migrants, he continues. "There were black people that died in these attacks, it's not just white people," he said. "It happened very close to where I used to live, next to the Place de Voges," a 48-year-old French mother called Virgine tells me. She now lives with her family in Fulham, south-west London, but used to live in the 3rd arrondissement close to where the attacks happened in the 11th arrondissement. "When I saw the pictures on the news, I recognised all the places I used to shop and eat and go out. "I have friends that were in the Bataclan concert hall. Some of them were wounded but not killed, thankfully. It took some time for them to get any news through to us from the hospital." She was struck by a sense of helplessness, increased by her physical separation from her home country. "That's why I felt I had to take my children and go down to Trafalgar Square, just to feel like I was doing something." Thousands attended an impromptu vigil held in Trafalgar Square on Saturday night organised by Theo Rampal, a restaurant manager from Marseille who lives in Surrey Quays, south-east London. "I did it to support our families. We are not able to go back to France in this moment, we are not doctors, but this is one way that we could feel like we were helping them from far away." He estimates at least 6,000 people attended the event. "My cousin was in a nightclub behind the Bataclan. She went outside for some reason and saw people shooting into the hall. "She was confused at first because she didn't understand what was happening then she found a hiding place until police told her it was safe to come out after about five hours, but she heard the screams and was so upset. "I don't know whether what we did in Trafalgar Square helped at all, but I hope so, to let them know we are thinking of them all," he says. "I got the breaking news of the attacks on my phone and instantly started texting my friends and everyone I knew out there. It took a while for some people to text me back. I waited for about 24 hours not knowing if they were OK or not. It was awful," says Alice, an 18-year-old humanities student at University College London. She lives with her parents in Notting Hill, west London, and has friends in Paris and relatives who live in Bolougne Billancourt in the west of the city. "No-one I knew was badly hurt but friends of mine have lost people and its hurts me the same as if I knew them. It could have been any one of us - they were just people at a concert or going out for dinner, just going about their normal lives. That's what is so scary about it. "One of my cousins lives in that area and was in an apartment above the cafe that people were being shot in and heard everything. "I just really want to go back to Paris to see my family, even though I know they are safe. I have grown up in London but at a time like this I just want to be with everyone so that we are all together. "That's why I went to Trafalgar Square, I just had to be with other people to share what we are all going through." The streets around the Lycee in South Kensington were deserted at the weekend she says and there was a large police presence around the building. Pupils were told not to hang about outside the French Institute or the school during break time. "This situation is just going to get worse," a French pastry chef tells me. Joachim Prat, 31, lives in Clapham and runs a patisserie in South Kensington. He says there is no point in mass gatherings to show solidarity. "Don't get me wrong, I think it's crazy what has happened. But it won't make any difference if we stand in a square together and hold a flag in fraternity. What will it change this solidarity? Bombing won't help either. You don't stop these people hating you by bombing them." Surdad Kargoli, 44, from South Kensington, originally comes from Baghdad and settled in Ivy-sur-Seine, a suburb in south-east Paris many years ago. "I think people know there is a difference between Muslims and what these people are who did this in Paris," he says. "It's become like a disease, people are being infected with this violence and hatred. I am scared about what is going to happen to France in future generations, if we are raising people who can do this to their country, because it's their country as well in some cases. "I sat up until three in the morning watching it unfold. I was just shocked and surprised. You ask yourself so many questions about how this happened and in the end you finish no better off with no more answers."

लंदन 300,000 तक फ्रांसीसी लोगों का घर है, जो ब्रिटेन की राजधानी को यकीनन दुनिया के सबसे बड़े फ्रांसीसी शहरों में से एक बनाता है। उन्होंने पेरिस में शुक्रवार के आतंकवादी हमलों पर क्या प्रतिक्रिया दी है जिसमें कम से कम 129 लोग मारे गए और सैकड़ों घायल हो गए?


Safety checks after gas leak shuts down Brae Alpha oil platform

Summary: A North Sea oil platform remains out of operation after a natural gas leak was discovered on Saturday.

Marathon Oil, the Texas-based operators of the Brae Alpha platform, said it was not safe to continue work until investigations were completed. The installation was shut down at about 16:35 on Boxing Day. No-one was injured in the incident. A spokesman said the situation was being investigated and the relevant authorities had been notified. The Brae Alpha Platform is located about 155 miles (248km) north east of Aberdeen.

शनिवार को प्राकृतिक गैस के रिसाव का पता चलने के बाद उत्तरी सागर का एक तेल प्लेटफॉर्म परिचालन से बाहर है।


What is Bitcoin?

Summary: The value of digital currency Bitcoin is making headlines again.

By Dan Macadam & Daniele Palumbo Business reporters Amid volatile trade in November and December, it hit a peak of more than $17,000 at one point - a staggering rise, given that it started the year at $1,000. So what exactly is Bitcoin, and what's behind the buying frenzy? What is Bitcoin? There are two key traits of Bitcoin: it is digital and it is seen as an alternative currency. Unlike the notes or coins in your pocket, it largely exists online. Although there are some specialist ATMs which issue bitcoins, it may be best to think of them as being more like virtual tokens. And secondly, Bitcoin is not printed by governments or traditional banks. That means it is "not legal tender, you can't pay your taxes or use it to settle debts", says Dr Garrick Hileman of the Judge Business School at University of Cambridge. Bitcoins are created through a complex process known as "mining", and then monitored by a network of computers across the world. There's a steady stream of about 3,600 new bitcoins a day - with about 16.5 million now in circulation. However, like all currencies its value is determined by how much people are willing to buy and sell it for. Why has it gone up so much this year? No one is entirely sure. Some say it's a classic economic bubble: frenzied investors paying far more for an asset than it's worth for fear of missing out. They put it in the same bracket as the mania for Dutch tulip bulbs in the 1630s or internet companies in the dot.com boom. Others point to the growing prospect of Bitcoin crossing over into the financial mainstream. "Speculation is a big part of this, but there are signs of growing use," says Dr Hileman. He says there were between three and six million people around the world actively using crypto-currency in April. "Today it's probably closer to 10 to 20 million, so it's a very quickly growing user base," he says. That's the equivalent of a population the size of the Netherlands or Chile. There has also been a boost by some large financial institutions, like the owner of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, getting into the space, he adds. How do people buy Bitcoin? There are now thousands of different crypto-currencies, but Bitcoin is still the best-known. To receive a bitcoin a user must have a Bitcoin address - a string of 27 to 34 letters and numbers. This acts as a kind of virtual postbox to and from which the bitcoins are sent. There is no registry linking real names to addresses, which helps some Bitcoin users to protect their anonymity. Bitcoin wallets store the addresses and are used to manage savings. They operate like privately-run bank accounts - with the proviso that if the data is lost, so are the bitcoins owned. Increasingly, users are often asked for ID to open a wallet. The rules underpinning Bitcoin say that only 21 million bitcoins can be created - and that figure is getting ever nearer. It is unclear what will happen to the value of bitcoins when that limit is reached. Can they use bitcoins to buy things? The anonymity afforded by digital currencies has attracted people wanting to make illegal purchases on the internet. However, a small but growing number of recognised businesses now allow customers to buy goods and services with Bitcoin. They range from multinational firms like Microsoft and travel booking site Expedia, through to small businesses using it as something of a novelty, such as a sushi restaurant in Cambridge or an art gallery in London. It is not the same as established currencies, like the US dollar, which can be used across the world to buy a coffee or pay for a hotel room. A 900% rise in one year for a traditional currency would have major repercussions for consumers' spending power and the businesses that accept it. But many Bitcoin owners don't use it to buy things. "The vast majority of users - I would estimate upwards of 80% or 90% - get into the space for investment reasons," says Dr Hileman. "So you see the term 'crypto-asset' being used to describe Bitcoin more than 'crypto-currency' these days." What concerns do regulators have? At the moment Bitcoin is largely unregulated, says Bradley Rice, an expert in financial regulation at the law firm Ashurst. It has been widely used on the dark web, which cannot be accessed via a normal internet browser without using a workaround. There are also concerns about its volatility. The chart below compares Bitcoin to the pound and euro. All the values start at 100 to compare the currencies more clearly. Because of Bitcoin's much faster growth, the chart uses a different approach on the y-axis where the smaller the gap, the faster the increase. China and South Korea have serious worries. They have banned the launch of new virtual currencies via so-called "initial coin offerings" - where companies or individuals issue their own digital currencies for investors to buy - and have been shutting down exchanges on which they are traded. The UK's Financial Conduct Authority warned investors in September they could lose all their money if they buy digital currencies issued by firms, known as "initial coin offerings". But the underlying technology of Bitcoin is regarded by some major financial institutions as bullet-proof. "That's potentially why financial regulators [in Europe] are adopting largely a 'wait and see' approach," says Mr Rice. Is it all a bubble? There is no shortage of financial journalists or experts saying Bitcoin's surge is a bubble. "There may be good reasons for buying bitcoin," an article in The Economist said recently. "But the dominant reason at the moment is that it is rising in price." Bitcoin has doubled in value in the space of a month - which has led some to argue it is too volatile to be seen as a currency, and warned that a crash is inevitable. However, Bitcoin has been "declared dead" a few times already, says Dr Hileman. "It's shown some resilience and bounced back from some near-death experiences," he says. At the same time, many would agree this is "very bubbly", and he predicts we may see a "spectacular crash again in the not-too-distant future". "So hang on tight if you are a holder of these currencies," he concludes.

डिजिटल मुद्रा बिटक्वाइन का मूल्य फिर से सुर्खियां बटोर रहा है।


Colwyn Bay: One treated for smoke inhalation after flat fire

Summary: Firefighters were tackling a flat fire in Conwy on Wednesday evening.

North Wales Fire and Rescue Service were called to Rivieres Avenue, Colwyn Bay at about 20:40 GMT. One person was treated by paramedics for smoke inhalation, but their injuries were not thought to be serious, the service said. People were asked to avoid the area while the incident was dealt with. An investigation will be carried out at the scene.

दमकलकर्मी बुधवार शाम को कॉनवी में एक सपाट आग पर काबू पा रहे थे।


The 'real' threat to Russia’s former doping mastermind

Summary: The former mastermind of Russian sports doping, Grigory Rodchenkov, gave an interview to the BBC this week with his veiled face in the dark shadow of a wide-brimmed straw hat. Now in hiding in the US, after revealing all to the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), it's a potentially life-saving precaution. Matt Majendie explains why.

Only a small handful of people are aware of the current whereabouts of Dr Grigory Rodchenkov. Not even his lawyer, Jim Walden, knows his address in hiding. But Russian officials are keen to find out. When the US expelled 60 Russian diplomats, in protest at the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in March 2018, Walden says he was informed some had been closing in on his client. "What we learned from the bureau [FBI] was that three of the Russians that were expelled were people that had been placed here by the Kremlin to try to find Dr Rodchenkov. We actually saw pictures of those individuals. So, the threat to Dr Rodchenkov is real." Head of the Moscow drug-testing laboratory, Rodchenkov was the architect of Russian doping at London 2012 and at the winter games in Sochi two years later. But when a Wada-instigated investigation in 2015 revealed the covering up of failed tests at his lab and the hasty destruction of 1,417 samples, he fled to the USA. Then, as recounted in the Oscar-winning documentary, Icarus, he became a high-level whistleblower, confessing all. To some Russians, this makes him a traitor. President Vladimir Putin has mused that he is "under the control of American special services", as well as describing him as "an imbecile with obvious problems". But for now, Rodchenkov has lived to tell the tale. As Walden puts it: "He has lived multiple lives in one body. It's really incredible the way by dint of good relationships, luck and a degree of cunning he has somehow survived against all odds." Rodchenkov's career in Russian doping labs appeared to have come to an end in 2011 when he was arrested and accused of drug trafficking along with his sister, Marina. Ordered to plead guilty in the case, he instead made a gruesome and botched attempt to take his own life. He was then incarcerated in a series of psychiatric institutions and given a series of "psychotropic drugs", according to Walden, who says his life was saved by a simple invitation from London. On paper, he was still laboratory chief for the Sochi Games in 2014, so he was invited to join London 2012 testing chief David Cowan at the Harlow laboratory for the 2012 Games. It was an intelligence-gathering opportunity that couldn't be missed and the invitation was for him alone, so he was released and officially cleared of all charges. Cowan wasn't happy about it - like many, he had suspicions about his Russian colleagues - but it was out of his control. "Because he was a member of the IOC medical commission, the laboratory was required to give him information on what was going on," he said. "He was entitled to see anything." At this stage, the drug of choice used by many Russian athletes was oral turinabol, a drug created as part of another state-sponsored doping programme in East Germany during the 1970s. Already by the time of his lab visit, Rodchenkov knew Russians would, most likely, wholesale be caught, not at the Games themselves but through subsequent retrospective testing with a new ground-breaking test coming out for long-term metabolites. And the reason he knew this was that he had discovered the test and published his findings in 2011, despite the fact he knew it could prove costly to Russians in the future. Why he did this remains a mystery. And they were caught. Of the 140 athletes to have been disqualified from London 2012, more than a third are Russian. It's still possible that more will be announced before 6 August, exactly eight years on since the end of the London games. After that, no more retesting can take place. But in 2012, Rodchenkov already was moving to a new drugs regimen, famously known as the Duchess cocktail, containing three anabolic steroids - oxandrolone, metenolone and trenbolone, a drug used to enhance growth in farm animals. As yet, none of them are detectable using the long-term metabolite tests. At the Sochi winter games, the cocktail was taken with alcohol to aid absorption - Chivas whisky for men, vermouth for women - and swilled around the mouth before being spat out. The drugs entered the body through the cells of the cheek. If before the Russian doping machine had relied on giving athletes drugs during training, this time the Duchess cocktail was taken during the games too. As described in the documentary, Icarus, the Russians' dirty urine samples were passed out of the Wada lab through a hole in the wall and swapped for clean samples that entered the lab via the same route. The key to it was a technique the Russian security service, the FSB, had developed to open supposedly tamper-proof bottles with thin pieces of metal. It was cheating on an Olympic scale, and the hosts, to Putin's delight, topped the medal table with 33 medals. Rodchenkov - who had been jailed only three years earlier - was awarded by the Russian government with the Order of Friendship. But the golden moment was shortlived. The house of cards started collapsing thanks to Russian whistleblowers, a German TV investigation in December 2014, and a subsequent Wada investigation, which in 2015 formally accused Russia of state-sponsored doping. In the weeks after the publication of the Wada report, Rodchenkov says he was tipped off by a friend working at the Kremlin that his life was in danger so he packed his bags, kissed his wife and children goodbye and relocated to the US. He then co-operated with further investigations, including one by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren which detailed the Russian cheating at Sochi, and ultimately led to the ban on Russian track and field athletes and weightlifters from the Rio games. In the years since, 28 athletes banned as a result of Rodchenkov's testimony have had their bans overturned at the Court for Arbitration in Sport on grounds of insufficient evidence, but there is little sign of Russia cleaning up its act. In December, it was banned from all major sporting events for four years for tampering with laboratory data. Russia's appeal against that ruling in November could shed more light on the contents of the lab's database, potentially providing further evidence to corroborate Rodchenkov's allegations. Had Rodchenkov stayed in Russia, Walden says he knows how the story would have played out. In the space of two weeks in 2016, not long after his client's departure, two former heads of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada), Vyacheslav Sinev and Nikita Kamaev, both died in suspicious circumstances. According to Walden, the threat to Rodchenkov's life remains serious even after the expulsion of the Russian diplomats. "As long as Vladimir Putin is presiding over the current Russian gangster state, there is no relief for Dr Rodchenkov," Walden says. "He literally has to look over his shoulder and be careful at every step of the way." Margarita Pakhnotskaya, who was brought into Rusada as its deputy director general to, as she puts it, "restore the functionality and image" of the organisation, is confident the Russian anti-doping system is now fit for purpose but admits more needs to be done to restore its reputation around the world. "My motto in life is 'Deeds Not Words,'" she says. "People can judge. But Rusada is absolutely different… it's another story, different people, different processes. I feel that we are moving the right way." And as for Rodchenkov himself, does he come out as a villain or hero from the whole saga? "Well he was a villain in the system as it was being practised at the time," says Wada founding president, Dick Pound. "He's now revealed it all at considerable personal expense and will live with apprehension for the rest of his life about efforts on the part of Russia to find him and either get him back to Russia or some other solution. And I don't know if it makes him a hero, it certainly makes him courageous." Rodchenkov makes no secret of having taken drugs himself during his career as an athlete. Former Wada president John Fahey once told me a story about touring the London lab with Rodchenkov. As they passed a photograph of three runners, including the young Rodchenkov, the Russian scientist tapped on each individual saying, "Doper, doper, doper." And as for his own side of the story, his tell-all book, The Rodchenkov Affair, hit the shelves this week. Listen to Bloodsport, the story of systematic doping at London 2012 and Sochi 2014, on BBC Sounds You may also be interested in: Fearing for her safety, Russian 800m runner Yuliya Stepanova fled her country after she revealed the dirty secrets of doping in Russian athletics. She has been called the greatest whistleblower in the history of sport but what do people think of the athlete in her homeland? What do Russians think of doping whistleblower Yulia Stepanova? (December 2016)

रूसी खेल डोपिंग के पूर्व मास्टरमाइंड, ग्रिगोरी रोडचेंकोव ने इस सप्ताह बी. बी. सी. को एक साक्षात्कार दिया, जिसमें उन्होंने एक चौड़े कांटेदार भूसे की टोपी की काली छाया में अपना चेहरा ढक रखा था। अब अमेरिका में छिपे हुए, विश्व डोपिंग रोधी एजेंसी (वाडा) को सब कुछ बताने के बाद, यह एक संभावित जीवन रक्षक सावधानी है। मैट मैजेंडी बताते हैं कि क्यों।


Why do some people think the pyramids were grain stores?

Summary: US presidential hopeful Ben Carson has attracted attention and some ridicule this week for saying Egypt's pyramids were built to store grain. As most schoolchildren know, they were actually tombs for pharaohs. But where did the granary idea come from, and would it even have worked?

By Vanessa BarfordBBC News, Washington DC Egyptian history isn't something American presidential candidates are usually quizzed about on the campaign trail, but this week Republican Ben Carson faced a barrage of questions after it emerged he believed the pyramids were built by the Biblical figure Joseph for storing grain. This was revealed on Wednesday when Buzzfeed published a video of Carson addressing students at a Michigan university affiliated with his Seventh-day Adventist Church 17 years ago. But the famed neurosurgeon, currently the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, told inquisitive journalists that his views had not changed. So where does this granary theory come from? In the Old Testament, Joseph is sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers, where he later interprets a pharaoh's dreams and helps the Egyptians survive a seven-year famine - by storing grain. There is no mention of pyramids in the Bible's version of the story but in the Middle Ages people started to write them into the story. "If you go to St Mark's cathedral in Venice, there's a medieval depiction showing people using the three great pyramids of Giza as granaries in Joseph's story," says John Darnell, a professor of Egyptology at Yale University. "If you didn't have access to the structures, the idea had some currency." The belief was also popularised by Saint Gregory of Tours, a sixth century Frankish bishop, who wrote: "They are wide at the base and narrow at the top in order that the wheat might be cast into them through a tiny opening, and these granaries are to be seen to the present day." The Book of John Mandeville, a popular 14th Century travel memoir, also referred to "Joseph's Granaries, which he had made to store the wheat for hard times". But Darnell says the idea began to fall out of favour during the Renaissance, when people made more detailed studies of the pyramids. "Now of course we know the pyramids were burial chambers - albeit just one element of far greater complexes. The architectural predecessors and descendants of pyramids, their internal passageways and the function of their spaces can be traced right through the period into the new Kingdom of Egypt," he says. The story of Joseph is supposedly set in the time of Egypt's Middle Kingdom, Darnell points out, which is centuries after the pyramids of Giza were built. Egyptologists have also questioned other aspects of Carson's pyramid theory. Whatever held Joseph's grain "would have to be something awfully big if you stop and think about it", he said in his 1998 lecture. He added: "And when you look at the way that the pyramids are made, with many chambers that are hermetically sealed, they'd have to be that way for various reasons." His argument appears to have been that the chambers were hermetically sealed to preserve grain. But Darnell rejects this logic. "The major internal element of the pyramids is stone and brick - there wouldn't be much space for grain, and it would be huge waste of power and engineering," he says. "Plus we know ancient granaries tended to beehive-shaped and quite small. It wouldn't make sense to build gigantic monumental granaries - it would take ages to grain in, and smother everyone when it poured out." Egyptologist James Allen of Brown University agrees. "There's no way in the world an ounce of grain would be stored in a structure like that," he says. "It would be totally impractical. It's like saying the Tower of London was built as a granary store." This is only one of a number of comments from Carson that have taken some Americans aback. Others include his suggestion that being gay is a choice, that Muslims aren't qualified to seek the US presidency, and President Barack Obama's healthcare reform was "the worst thing" since slavery . However, none of these statements appears to have affected his poll rating. Darnell argues that the pyramid theory is "somewhat surprising and scary", coming from a leading contender for the presidency, but he also sees this as an opportunity. "Egyptology isn't known as being a major topic in politics. But we are actually facing some remarkably similar situations to then - a jockeying for power and influence in the world, a rising power in what is now Turkey, a political and military vacuum in what is now coastal Syria and Lebanon," he says. "If candidates would take a closer look at ancient Egypt… it might contribute to how they approach problems today, and that would make me very happy."

अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति पद के उम्मीदवार बेन कार्सन ने इस सप्ताह यह कहने के लिए ध्यान आकर्षित किया है कि मिस्र के पिरामिड अनाज के भंडारण के लिए बनाए गए थे। जैसा कि अधिकांश स्कूली बच्चे जानते हैं, वे वास्तव में राजाओं के लिए मकबरे थे। लेकिन अनाज भंडार का विचार कहाँ से आया, और क्या यह काम भी करता?


'There was no hope': Treatable disease often mistaken for Alzheimer's

Summary: When John Searle started to fall down and lose his memory, he thought it was the early signs of dementia. But it turns out he has a rare - and often undiagnosed - condition called normal pressure hydrocephalus. The good news is it's treatable.

By Robin Levinson-KingBBC News, Toronto A few years ago, John Searle thought his life as he knew it was over. His body had slowly stopped working. He had trouble walking, he was falling down, he had bad short-term memory and, at 69, he was incontinent. It was a pattern of decline the retired Canadian engineer from Brantford, Ontario was all too familiar with. His own sister had died of Alzheimer's in her 50s. His father had died of dementia in his early 80s. So he began to start planning for a future he would not be able to participate in. "You kind of wonder where you're going. You start thinking, is this it?" he says. Doctors could not give him a definitive diagnosis, which only infuriated the retired engineer more. Parkinson's treatment had no effect, he didn't have Alzheimer's but something was clearly not right. By 2018, he needed a wheelchair to go outside, and a walking frame inside his own home. "There was no hope, I was sitting in the window watching life go by." "He was angry - he was beyond angry," his wife Barbara chimes in. "There were nights when I was laying in bed thinking maybe I'll have to sell the house... because I had to do everything." But that changed when he met Dr Alfonso Fasano, a neurologist at the Movement Disorders Clinic at Toronto Western Hospital, who diagnosed him with a condition called normal pressure hydrocephalus, or NPH. The disorder is caused when excess cerebrospinal fluid accumulates in the brain's ventricles, which are the communication centre of the mind. This build-up of fluid can cause movement difficulties, memory and cognition problems and incontinence - symptoms that are also often associated with more common degenerative illnesses, like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's or dementia. Hydrocephalus Canada estimates that at least 1 in 200 Canadians over the age of 55, or more than 57,000 people, have NPH. In the US, the Hydrocephalus Association estimates that 700,000 Americans are afflicted, but that only about 20% of people living with the condition been correctly diagnosed. "NPH is a condition that is not well understood yet," says Dr Fasano. Untreated, people may wind up in a nursing home, or die from complications. "That's what we don't want to see, people just dismissed," he says. Mr Searle first heard about NPH when he saw a specialist to treat migraine headaches in 2003. An MRI revealed some fluid in his brain's ventricles, but because he had none of the telltale symptoms, he was not diagnosed. In 2014, after several years of experiencing symptoms like memory loss and mobility difficulty, doctors did a lumbar puncture to drain some fluid from his brain to see if his symptoms improved, a common test for NPH. Because Mr Searle's symptoms did not improve, his doctors determined NPH must not be the culprit. Eight years after 2010, when he first noticed the mobility issues and with his health rapidly deteriorating, he met Dr Fasano and agreed to try the test again. This time, his wife Barbara noticed small improvements - so small that even her husband did not notice them. "He wouldn't believe it," she said. "It was almost like 'if I believe it and they're wrong, it will be too big a disappointment.'" Dr Fasano suggested they insert a shunt into his brain to drain the fluid, the front-line treatment for NPH, with a high success rate according to recent studies. Shunt surgery can have serious complications and is not recommended for everyone with the condition. More than a year later, and Mr Searle says he is beginning to get his life back. His gait has improved as well as his memory. He regularly works out with a personal trainer at the gym and goes on walks to help build his strength back up. "The operation is only 50% of it, the rest is your mindset," he says. Although he still does not have his drivers licence, Mr Searle and his wife have started to travel again. They went to Florida last winter, and they're planning trips to Las Vegas and Jamaica. Barbara says the biggest change is her husband's mood: "The apathy that plagued him is gone. He's his cheery self again." Dr Fasano says since Mr Searle's story was shared with the media, the clinic has been overwhelmed with requests from patients who believe they have been misdiagnosed and have NPH. Although misdiagnosis of NPH is a very real problem, Dr Fasano warns that most people who have been diagnosed with Parkinson's or Alzheimer's have the correct diagnosis - especially if they've been seen by a neurologist. Up to 3% of the population over the age of 65 may have NPH, according to a recent study from Japan. The World Health Organisation estimates dementia, including Alzheimer's, affects between 5-8% of the population over 60. "This is a disease that is probably more common than we think it is, and this is a disease that can be treated very well, with a huge dramatic change of quality of life for these people," says the doctor. "At the same time, people are now believing that if they have Parkinson's, they were misdiagnosed. "They all hope the doctor was wrong."

जब जॉन सियरले गिरने लगे और अपनी याददाश्त खोने लगे, तो उन्होंने सोचा कि यह मनोभ्रंश के शुरुआती संकेत थे। लेकिन यह पता चला कि उन्हें एक दुर्लभ-और अक्सर अज्ञात-स्थिति है जिसे सामान्य दबाव हाइड्रोसेफलस कहा जाता है। अच्छी खबर यह है कि इसका इलाज किया जा सकता है।


Who's the Hindu hardliner running India's most populous state?

Summary: Yogi Adityanath has dominated headlines in India since his appointment as leader of the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh. A saffron-robed Hindu priest, he is a highly controversial figure who is loved and hated in equal measure, as the BBC's Geeta Pandey reports.

At the weekend, Yogi, as he is widely known, returned to a hero's welcome to the temple town of Gorakhpur for the first time since he was sworn in as chief minister on 19 March. Overnight, the town turned saffron, the colour of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). All roads leading to Gorakhnath temple were decorated with party flags, marigold flowers and orange balloons. The smiling new leader, 44, looked down from massive hoardings and posters on buildings, and mannequins outside shops even sported bright saffron outfits. At a college run by the temple, thousands of people waited for hours to see him. Speakers praised his vision and leadership. "Some people walk in others' footsteps, some make footsteps for others to walk in," said one. A brilliant orator, Yogi Adityanath has been elected MP for Gorakhpur five times since 1998 and the crowds there worship him. Many tell me he's a "reincarnation of the gods, a God himself". But he is also a very controversial leader who has often been in the news for the wrong reasons. Critics describe him as India's most divisive and abusive politician who used his election rallies to whip up anti-Muslim hysteria. And some of the statements attributed to him - and his supporters - have been widely condemned. He accused Muslim men of indulging in a "love jihad" to seduce Hindu women and convert them, he claimed that Mother Teresa wanted to Christianise India, he called for a Donald Trump-style travel ban on Muslims in India and compared Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan to Pakistan-based militant Hafiz Saeed. At one point, he shared a stage with a supporter who said that when Yogi Adityanath came to power, Muslims would no longer have the right to vote and that supporters would rape dead Muslim women. His campaign promises included "anti-Romeo squads" to "prevent harassment of Hindu women" and he listed protecting cows and shutting down illegal slaughterhouses as his top priorities. Religious Hindus revere cows and slaughtering them is illegal in large parts of India, including Uttar Pradesh. In 2015, a Muslim man was lynched by a Hindu mob which alleged that he had stored beef at home. Yogi Adityanath also faces criminal charges. He has been accused of attempted murder, criminal intimidation and rioting in relation to a clash that took place in 1999. And in 2007, he spent 11 days in jail for making inflammatory speeches. No wonder then that his surprise elevation has alarmed many in India and around the world, with many expressing concerns that the state's 40 million Muslims will not have an easy time under his watch. In an editorial, The Guardian called it a "victory for anti-Muslim bigotry" and the New York Times said Mr Modi was trying to "humour Hindu extremists". The paper called the move "a shocking rebuke to religious minorities". Respected Indian columnist Pratap Bhanu Mehta called it an "odious and ominous" development. Why Uttar Pradesh (UP) matters And the negative publicity has continued since he became chief minister. The "anti-Romeo squads" have been accused of harassing and intimidating courting couples in cities and towns, and the authorities have been criticised for forcing abattoirs to shut down, mostly on flimsy grounds. The press in Gorakhpur, however, has been more complimentary, revelling in the "grand victory" of their hero. "Local newspapers are writing in great detail about his amazing memory skills, they say he can remember names of thousands of people. Some are talking about how he communicates directly with his 500 cows, monkeys, dogs and birds," says senior Gorakhpur journalist Kumar Harsh. "For people here, he's a celebrity. He's the chief priest and head of the temple management, which also runs a hospital and colleges. He is very hardworking and is immensely popular with the people," he adds. The son of a forest ranger, Yogi Adityanath was born in 1972 in Garhwal (which was then in Uttar Pradesh but is now in Uttarakhand state) and was named Ajay Singh Bisht. A maths graduate, he moved to Gorakhpur in November 1993 and three months later was appointed heir to Mahant Avaidyanath, the temple's chief priest and an influential Hindu politician. A vegetarian, he has taken a vow of lifelong celibacy. Dwarika Tiwari is his deputy at the temple and has worked closely with him since his arrival in Gorakhpur. "He's very intelligent, bright and hard-working, he's efficient, he respects everyone whatever their caste, creed or religion, he respects women and loves children." Mr Tiwari concedes he has weaknesses - a tendency for plain speaking and a quick temper. When I point out the anti-Muslim statements during the campaign, the criminal charges and the fact that he was briefly jailed, Mr Tiwari brushes them aside as "malicious propaganda" and "conspiracy" from his political rivals. "Muslims respect him equally. They also come to us to resolve their disputes," he says. Just outside the temple gates, Muslim shopkeepers insist they are not unduly worried over the appointment. Cloth merchant Feroz Ahmad says he, in fact, voted for the BJP and now hopes that Yogi Adityanath will bring much-needed development to this backward town. I ask him what he makes of his rabble-rousing, anti-Muslim statements. "All politicians say such things to win elections," he says. "Some of his supporters are troublemakers who do wrong things. But now that he's in power, it will all stop." So can it all be dismissed as mere rhetoric, something he indulged in just to win the election? Sharat Pradhan, senior journalist in the state capital, Lucknow, says "ever since he's been named chief minister, he's been conducting himself very responsibly". "In his first days in power, he's been careful. He's shown a lot of restraint. He's trying to be inclusive, he's even inducted a Muslim into his cabinet." He has also been trying an image makeover - paying a surprise visit to a police station one day, visiting an acid attack victim in hospital the next. He has also refrained from commenting on the contentious issue of the Ram temple in Ayodhya despite it being promised in the BJP election manifesto. "But the worry is with the fringe elements among his supporters. With his rabble rousing, he's freed the genie from the bottle, now the question is can he control it?" asks Mr Pradhan. That is precisely what Yogi Adityanath attempted to do when he took the stage in Gorakhpur at the weekend, appealing to his boisterous supporters to behave. "The prime minister has given me a huge responsibility, to ensure that development reaches the last man. I assure you no-one will be ignored, irrespective of their caste, creed or religion," he said. "And I need your help to succeed." Success, Mr Pradhan says, will depend on whether he can ensure the first six months of his rule are trouble-free. Then he can build his future. "At present Mr Modi is number one in the party, the others are number nine. There's no-one in between. Yogi Adityanath can be number two. "He's young. Age is on his side. By the time he turns 60, Mr Modi will be 80. And he will be ready to take him on. He's the BJP's tomorrow."

राजनीतिक रूप से महत्वपूर्ण राज्य उत्तर प्रदेश के नेता के रूप में अपनी नियुक्ति के बाद से योगी आदित्यनाथ भारत में सुर्खियों में रहे हैं। एक भगवाधारी हिंदू पुजारी, वह एक अत्यधिक विवादास्पद व्यक्ति हैं, जिन्हें बीबीसी की गीता पांडे की रिपोर्ट के अनुसार समान रूप से प्यार और नफरत की जाती है।