Fessenheim: Splitting the atomic world

Summary: The Rhine Canal is placid in the afternoon sun.

By Richard BlackEnvironment correspondent, BBC News, Fessenheim Barges saunter by, insects buzz, and the occasional bird makes a foray from the marshier banks of the Rhine itself, a kilometre away. But the tranquil ambience is misleading. Here lies a new fault line, one that spans much more of the globe than Europe; the line that marks the division between nuclear and anti-nuclear ambitions. The centre of the issue is Fessenheim nuclear power station, whose twin reactors, reflected in the water's still surface, are the oldest in France. French safety regulators have just recommended that one of the reactors can continue to operate for another decade, and a similar recommendation on the other is expected later in the year. On the other side of the Rhine is Germany, which decided earlier this year, in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan, to phase out nuclear power within that same decade. German local authorities, and many citizens nearby, want Fessenheim closed too and are angry that they have no say in the matter, despite the fact that the station sits just 1.5km from their border. Switzerland, 40km further south, wants the same thing. Both see a future powered by Sun and wind, not the atom. As the world decides which path to take in the aftermath of Fukushima, you could not find anywhere on the planet where the nuclear divide looms so large. Fessenheim has always been controversial. Even before its completion in 1976, protests ran long and loud in France, as well as its neighbours. Campaigners lived in a pylon for nine months; they also set up a pirate radio station broadcasting anti-nuclear information, using a portable transmitter carried from place to place in the hills nearby to avoid detection. Since its opening, however, the station has had no significant accidents. So why not conclude that it is safe? "Fukushima also worked safely for 30 years," responds Axel Mayer, who leads the branch of environmental group Bund in nearby Freiburg, known as the ecological capital of Germany. "But now, after Fukushima, we see things differently; and if we have an accident in Fessenheim, the radioactive water won't go into the ocean, it'll go into the Rhine, and then it's not a problem of the area, it's a problem of Europe." In part, opposition to the ageing station is based on the general arguments against nuclear power; the danger of weapons proliferation, the lack of a solution to waste disposal, and so on. But there are some aspects of Fessenheim that make it a particular target. In 1356, a major earthquake destroyed the city of Basel, just over the Swiss border. This is a geologically complex area, and the cause of the Basel quake has not been precisely pinned down; but the design requirements for Fessenheim did not specify that it must resist an event of similar magnitude nearby. In fact, its concrete base is one of the thinnest of all European nuclear stations - a point picked up by the French regulators, who insist it must be strengthened in order to gain the extra decade of operating life. In addition, it lies below the level of the canal water, and there are fears about flooding if the levee were damaged - fears that to some campaigners resonate with echoes of Fukushima. But not to Fabienne Stich, the mayor of Fessenheim town. "We sought expert evaluations," she says. "Ecologists and anti-nuclear campaigners say the dam might break - fine, it could - but if that happened, the water would drain onto the plain and it wouldn't be a great wave over the power station like in Japan - that's not possible." Carbon concerns The French government argues that the nuclear industry is good for the country economically, generating employment and exports along with clean, reliable electricity. Nuclear fission produces about 80% of French electricity, and companies with big stakes in the industry such as EDF and Areva are mainly state-owned. Locally, the Fessenheim power station is obviously important economically, employing 700 people, many of whom are highly skilled. I spoke to a few residents in the local pharmacy, where they must come every four years to pick up supplies of iodine tablets in case of a radioactive release. The general view was that the station was OK with them - nothing serious had happened. "How else are we going to get our electricity?" was a point frequently made. It is made also by Jerome Stiebel, a medical physicist from the University of Strasbourg in France and a member of the organisation EFN - Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy. "I think nuclear power is ultimately the least dirty option," he says. "If you look at Germany that wants to abandon nuclear power, or at the Swiss, what are they going to do? "They're going to replace it with gas and coal, and put tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere." For all its environmental credentials, Germany uses fossil fuels for about two-thirds of its electricity generation - three times as much as France - and is building new plants burning coal and gas. Since closing eight nuclear stations earlier this year, it has been importing more electricity from France and the Czech Republic via the cables that tie the European grid together - and that is largely nuclear electricity. The eventual German ambition is to replace all of it with renewables, and the policy's architects believe phasing out nukes with speed and certainty is the way to advance the renewables vision. "The renewable energy community has argued that what is needed is a rapid phase-out, because then it's clear that money needs to be invested in a new grid infrastructure, in building offshore wind parks," argues Miranda Schreurs, director of the Environmental Policy Research Centre at the Free University of Berlin. "As long as those nuclear plants are allowed to run, it leaves the door open to a change of policy towards further extensions to their lifetime or perhaps eventually a build-out of nuclear power, which makes it difficult for investors to say 'OK, I know now where I'm going to put my investment - into renewables'." But Ralf Gueldner of energy giant E.on, president of the nuclear trade body Foratom, says that is wrong. "The plan in Germany was to have some 35% of power produced by renewables by 2020," he recalls. "But who's going to invest? Where does the money come from? "Part of it should come from revenues out of the operation of the nuclear power plants; so the question is, will there now be enough money available to invest in renewables?" Breaking the 'wall' As things stand, the Franco-German energy divide is starker than ever before, with each embarking on very different trajectories. In France, some observers believe Germany is heading down an expensive blind alley and will revisit the nuclear question at some point. But others believe it is showing the way forward for the world by ending the nuclear age; and the campaigners who are opposing Fessenheim by what they describe as "the methods of Gandhi" are determined to change French national policy. "France is putting all its hopes into the nuclear industry, it boasts of being the leading manufacturer of nuclear power stations, and it's so well established at the industrial and political levels that we're under the yoke of the nuclear lobby," says Claude Maillet. "I use this image comparing it to the Berlin wall - we're up against a wall of French nuclear power, and each citizen, each activist, should pick up a tool and strike the wall of nuclear power, and we'll be able to bring it down." You can hear more about Fessenheim, the European microcosm of the global nuclear divide, in Atomic States on the BBC World Service

राइन नहर दोपहर की धूप में शांत होती है।


Mohammed Haroon Zeb: Eight men deny conspiring to commit murder

Summary: Eight men have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to murder a father-of-four fatally shot in the Black Country.

Mohammed Haroon Zeb, 39, died in hospital after being found with serious injuries on Queens Cross, Dudley, on 31 January. Four men pleaded not guilty at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday after four others entered similar pleas on 19 March. They were all remanded in custody ahead of a trial starting in October. The eight men, all from Dudley, are are charged with conspiracy to commit murder and possessing a firearm. They are: Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk Related Internet Links HM Courts & Tribunals Service

ब्लैक कंट्री में चार बच्चों के पिता की घातक रूप से गोली मारकर हत्या करने की साजिश रचने के लिए आठ लोगों ने दोषी नहीं होने का अनुरोध किया है।


The greening of black gold

Summary: Oil exporters are eager to stabilise or push up its price, against the slump in demand from the pandemic and growing pressure for more efficient or lower energy use. Beyond the short term, the industry isn't just dealing with the familiar boom and bust cycle, but growing pressure for a permanent shift to far lower carbon emissions. It's eager to shape that future and remain part of it. In the UK, the move to hydrogen power, along with carbon capture, offer an opportunity to the industry to redirect its engineering expertise. Government has to provide the skills and training base, but how much more does it have to do to shape industries, when BiFab - Scotland's best hope for steel fabrication for offshore wind power - can't win any contracts and has now gone into administration?

Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland This isn't just any business cycle for the oil industry. As its major exporters in Opec plus Russia convene this week to decide how best to sustain the price above 40 US dollars, it's not just Covid-19 that's caused the tectonic plates to shift underneath them, and nor will vaccines make the challenge go away. Climate change, and the political and consumer pressure resulting from it, is forcing much of the industry to think hard about its future and to act. Exxon Mobil this week joined other fossil fuel majors, including Shell, BP and Chevron, in writing down the value of reserves on a colossal scale: around $80bn between them. The American-based ones are much slower to commit future investment funds to renewable energy, but BP and Shell are eager to redefine themselves. That revaluing follows a sharp and chaotic drop in the oil price last spring, when Opec-plus-Russia failed to agree a production cut in line with the global demand slump due to the pandemic and lockdown. They later agreed a cut of around 8%. Most have observed their self-denying commitments, and the cut has worked for them. The price of a barrel of Brent crude has recovered since spring, and stabilised. With optimism about vaccines and more demand out of China, it now sits close to $50. But that's more than 25% down this year, and the dollar has been weakening. Gas has also been priced low, with demand from fuel-burning industry slowing up. Supply has been boosted by new pipelines, and shipments of liquified hydrocarbons. America's fracking industry can ramp up production quickly, but it's boom and bust in the Texas and Dakota scrublands. When the price drops, it's also the producing "basin" where companies fail. Exxon's $17bn to $20bn write-down reflects a wildly optimistic gamble 10 years ago. 'Keep it in the ground' That's nothing new to oil, with its breezy confidence that bust surely turns back to boom. Black gold always finds a way back, because it has been inextricably linked with economic growth and prosperity. Until now. It is now being shunned by some institutional investors, and banks tread warily in dealings with it. Even in Norway, awash with wealth from oil and gas, its gigantic trust fund is no longer backing other countries and foreign companies to keep it pumping. Environment policy is heading in the same direction, with pressure to reduce subsidies and tax breaks. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a London-based left-leaning think tank, has published a report today urging UK and Scottish governments to keep oil and gas in the ground. It wants to see a reversal of the policy of "maximum economic recovery", and chief executives rewarded on the basis of their environmental performance. This comes with a social message, to soften the economic blow. While it notes that many of the jobs are outside Scotland, 10% of Aberdeen jobs are reckoned to be directly oil-dependent, and 5% in Aberdeenshire. So IPPR offers a plan to avoid managed decline, instead making this a managed transition, somehow achieved with the consent of workers and communities. As a slogan, "managed transition rather than decline" chimes with industry efforts. As governments in the UK are signing up to ever more ambitious targets for achieving net zero on climate changing emissions, the oil and gas sector is trying to respond with its own plans. Oil and Gas UK, which represents it, this week produced its annual economic impact report. In the past, it's been an impressive listing of jobs, investment, production by the millions of barrels per day, and economic impact to benefit us all. This year, it reads more like a plea for understanding, patience and help with the transition to lower-carbon energy. It wants to slash its own burning of carbons in the process of producing lots more of them, reaching net zero by 2050. That's made easier by quite a lot of decline expected by then, and also if it can deploy offshore floating wind turbines to power its production platforms. It argues that even the toughest targets for reducing carbon emissions would still require some oil and lots of gas to supply 46% of global energy needs 20 years from now. Hydrogen power If there's to be a big transition to hydrogen - though not yet commercially viable, but in demonstration phase on buses and trains - some will be split from water molecules by wind power. But once wind has replaced nuclear power, and met the demands of battery-driven transport, there will still be a need for gas to create "blue hydrogen" rather than the green, wind-driven variety, converting water to hydrogen at plants along the North Sea coast. Allied to that, the gas grid network is trialling the use of the current pipe network to carry hydrogen in a trial project in east Fife. Hydrogen can be 10% of the mix with North Sea gas and without any changes to pipework or boilers: that mix alone can cut emissions significantly. Meanwhile, in a separate desktop exercise, the east of Scotland is being scoped out for such conversion. That depends on capturing gas's carbon emissions and storing them under the seabed - an expensive and complex technology that has had a number of false dawns and inconsistent UK government policy. Oil and Gas UK reckons that more than £2bn has to be spent to get the industry going in the next decade, and that's just for transport and infrastructure. By 2050, it thinks there will be a need to capture and store annually the equivalent of half the carbon dioxide created by Britain's domestic heating boilers in 2019. That's going to take engineering know-how, and a knowledge of rock structures under the North Sea will surely help. So the industry is trying to persuade policy makers and the public that it is key to making this happen. The Acorn project, centred on the St Fergus gas terminal in Aberdeenshire, is the lead prospect for showing how. It was begun two years ago, is scheduled for final investment gateway in a year and to be in operation in 2023. Having set out its stall on this last year, Oil and Gas UK is seeking also to lead and educate its own members - exploration drillers, producers, oilfield services and the long and varied supply chain - into recognition that they have to make radicals changes, if they haven't already begun. The sector body is currently negotiating one of those "deals" which have come to characterise Whitehall policy as a series of transactions. Industry ambition for the North Sea Transition Deal is very large. Oil and Gas UK estimates that the investment needed to achieve government targets on the energy transition are roughly 2% of total national output, or Gross Domestic Product. That comes to around £50bn a year, sustained for the next 30 years. IPPR points out that such investment should come with a lot of jobs - 1.6m across the UK, including 134,000 in Scotland - and that it is governments' task to ensure training and skills are up to the task. BiFab or bust? The scale of government intervention in the private sector economy is a hot topic in EU-UK post-Brexit talk, and in Downing Street, where the departed Dominic Cummings appeared to have persuaded the prime minister to back far more intervention than usual for Conservatives. And in Holyrood? That's a question left hanging by the absence of any clear policy on the symbolic great hope for manufacturing tied to offshore renewable power. BiFab, which has now gone into administration, has been denied the financial guarantee the Scottish government promised and then withdrew. So its three fabrication yards remain mothballed, and scores of jackets for seabed installation are being built in China, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates. Economy Secretary Fiona Hyslop says she is barred from offering subsidy of the sort that a commercial firm would or could not offer, and the Scottish government's partner in keeping BiFab afloat, Canadian engineering firm DF Barnes, is being blamed by her for a lack of investment. It seems odd, at least, that there is a need to be bound by European state aid rules less than a month from full economic Brexit. And it lost the SNP two votes at Holyrood on Wednesday. But leave that aside for now, because there's a more fundamental question: why Scottish yards are not internationally competitive in the first place: and what is being done about that?

तेल निर्यातक महामारी से मांग में गिरावट और अधिक कुशल या कम ऊर्जा उपयोग के लिए बढ़ते दबाव के खिलाफ अपनी कीमत को स्थिर करने या बढ़ाने के लिए उत्सुक हैं। अल्पावधि के अलावा, उद्योग न केवल परिचित उछाल और बस्ट चक्र से निपट रहा है, बल्कि कम कार्बन उत्सर्जन की ओर स्थायी बदलाव के लिए बढ़ते दबाव से भी निपट रहा है। यह उस भविष्य को आकार देने और इसका हिस्सा बने रहने के लिए उत्सुक है। ब्रिटेन में, कार्बन ग्रहण के साथ-साथ हाइड्रोजन ऊर्जा की ओर कदम, उद्योग को अपनी इंजीनियरिंग विशेषज्ञता को पुनर्निर्देशित करने का अवसर प्रदान करता है। सरकार को कौशल और प्रशिक्षण आधार प्रदान करना पड़ता है, लेकिन उद्योगों को आकार देने के लिए उसे और कितना करना पड़ता है, जब बायफैब-अपतटीय पवन ऊर्जा के लिए इस्पात निर्माण के लिए स्कॉटलैंड की सबसे अच्छी उम्मीद-कोई अनुबंध नहीं जीत सकती है और अब प्रशासन में चली गई है?


Connor Lyons death: Cole Jarvis appears in Hull Crown Court

Summary: A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of a 17-year-old boy who was found dead on the banks of the River Hull in East Yorkshire.

Connor Lyons' body was discovered on an embankment near Ennerdale on Tuesday. Cole Jarvis, 21, of Stroud Crescent West, Hull, appeared via a video link at Hull Crown Court where he was remanded in custody. No plea was entered and Mr Jarvis will next appear in court on 12 April, with his trial set for 12 September. Follow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk. Related Internet Links HM Courts Service

ईस्ट यॉर्कशायर में हल नदी के तट पर मृत पाए गए एक 17 वर्षीय लड़के की हत्या के आरोप में एक व्यक्ति अदालत में पेश हुआ है।


Coronavirus: Why hasn't the UK listed loss of smell as a symptom of Covid-19?

Summary: Government advisers have been considering since March whether to include loss of smell among the criteria for deciding whether someone has Covid-19. Evidence that it is one of the symptoms is already strong and some scientists argue this is now an urgent step, as the lockdown is eased.

By Kirstie BrewerBBC Stories At first Dan, 23, dismissed his stuffy nose as hay fever, but when he couldn't taste his beans on toast, he began to worry he had come down with Covid-19. "I thought something must be up so just to check I poured myself a strong glass of orange squash," says Dan, who works as a respiratory physiotherapist at a West Midlands hospital. "I just couldn't taste that at all." He tried inhaling a nasal decongestant made with eucalyptus oil and menthol, but couldn't smell that either. Dan worried that if he did have Covid-19, going into work might have serious consequences. But when he called the NHS helpline, 111, he was told there was no problem as he didn't have a cough or a high temperature. "They were obviously reading off a script and they said, 'You're good to go back to work,' which I felt a bit funny about," Dan says. "To have suddenly lost my sense of smell and taste when I work with some patients who have coronavirus felt like too much of a coincidence." Ignoring this advice, he began self-isolating, as did the rest of his family, including his mum, a podiatrist whose clients include vulnerable elderly people, and his sister, an intensive care nurse at a children's hospital. Meanwhile Dan's manager arranged a coronavirus test for him - and a few days later it came back positive. "Based on government advice alone, I would have been back at work, going from patient to patient and potentially giving them coronavirus," says Dan. That was in April, just after the Easter bank holiday, but the advice from 111 and on the NHS website remains the same today. The website mentions only two symptoms, a high temperature and a new continuous cough. This is frustrating for Ear Nose and Throat consultant Prof Claire Hopkins, president of the British Rhinological Society, who has been arguing for eight weeks that people suddenly losing their sense of smell should be told to self-isolate. She accepts that when she first gave this advice to Public Health England on 19 March - later published as a joint press release with Prof Nirmal Kumar, president of the ENT surgeons' professional body, ENT UK - the evidence for loss of smell being a symptom of Covid-19 was anecdotal, but she now argues that it is "robust". At first there were signs that Hopkins might be succeeding in getting her point across. Loss of taste or loss of smell? On 30 March, the government's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said at the government's daily briefing that loss of taste and smell "does seem to be a feature of this, from what people are reporting, and it is obviously something that people should take into account as they think about their symptoms". At the briefing on 3 April, deputy chief medical officer Prof Jonathan Van-Tam said that experts did not at that stage think loss of smell and taste needed to be part of the "case definition" - the set of criteria used to determine whether someone has the disease - but that the government's advisory group on new and emerging respiratory virus threats (Nervtag) had been asked to look into the question. In the nearly six weeks since then, though, while the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization have both joined France in adding the loss of smell and taste to their official lists of Covid symptoms, the UK has held back. Throughout this period, Claire Hopkins has been among those updating Nervtag on data that she and medical colleagues from a range of countries have been collecting. First results from the King's College coronavirus tracker app, published on 1 April, found that 59% of users testing positive for Covid-19 reported loss of smell or taste. The latest research from the same team, produced in collaboration with partners in Massachusetts and Nottingham and published in Nature Medicine, found that 65% of the more than 7,000 users of the app who had tested positive for Covid-19 reported loss of smell and taste, compared with just over a fifth of those who tested negative. This, the authors say, suggests that loss of smell - anosmia - is a stronger predictor of Covid-19 than fever. Where to get help Hopkins herself has been working with teams of doctors in Italy, France, Belgium, and Spain measuring the ability to smell of thousands of patients with known Covid-19 infection, and has concluded that sudden loss of smell, when not accompanied by other symptoms such as a blocked nose or a head injury, is in fact the best predictor of infection. "We've been able to show that in groups of patients that have lost their sense of smell without any other symptoms, there's a greater than 95% chance it is due to Covid-19 at the moment," she says. By contrast, fever is not a good marker, Hopkins argues, because many things can cause a fever, and this symptom is only present in about 40% of patients with Covid-19. By focusing only on fever and a continuous cough, she argues, citing published papers, the NHS will only catch 50% to 60% of cases. Hopkins has also been involved with the Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research, which has published results from a survey of more than 4,000 patients diagnosed with Covid-19, who reported on average an 80% drop in ability to smell and a 69% drop in ability to taste. All these results suggest to Hopkins that key workers who have continued working during the lockdown despite losing the sense of smell have probably been contributing to the spread of the virus. "There are a significant number of essential workers, who got in contact and told me that, because they don't meet the criteria, their employers have told them that they still have to go to work," she says. "For example somebody who's involved in food delivery, potentially delivering food to vulnerable groups, is still having to go out despite having very recently lost his sense of smell, and almost certainly having Covid-19." As the lockdown eases, this group of people will grow, Hopkins says, unless the 111 helpline changes its criteria. "I can still put in my symptoms into NHS 111 and claim to have muscle ache, fatigue, loss of smell, diarrhoea [all recognised as symptoms of Covid-19 by the WHO] and be told that I don't have coronavirus," says Hopkins. "I think that is now actually, clinically, negligence." Prof Peter Horby, director of the epidemic diseases research group at the University of Oxford, who chairs Nervtag, told the BBC it was important to find the cluster of symptoms that most reliably identifies Covid-19 cases at an early stage of the illness, but also distinguishes it from other respiratory infections, so as to avoid large numbers of false-positive cases in the winter. "Anosmia is certainly in the mix for a revision of the case definition," he said. He later added that he expected it to be included as a symptom in future iterations of the app being piloted on the Isle of Wight. Nervtag member Dr Ben Killingley, a consultant at University College London Hospital, commented that loss of smell was a "definitely a symptom" of Covid-19 but the question was "whether the positive predictive value of the symptom is high enough to warrant its inclusion in a case definition". He added: "Whether the symptom is included in the symptom/contact tracing app will give you a clue, though this remains in development." Another member of the advisory group, Prof Andrew Hayward, director of the UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, commented: "All I can really say is that Nervtag have recently provided scientific advice on this and it is being considered by the Department of Health and Social Care and other bodies, so I would expect an announcement about case definitions soon." A DHSC press officer told the BBC: "Symptoms of Covid-19, including loss of smell and taste, have remained under constant review by an expert scientific group. At all times during this global pandemic we have been guided by the evidence, taking the right steps at the right time to deliver a strategy designed to protect the NHS and save lives." As for Dan, he regularly tested his taste buds by eating salt and vinegar crisps, and noticed a gradual improvement. "After five days I could tell they were salt and vinegar but it wasn't normal at all," he says. His sense of smell is taking longer to return. "When I'm cooking and putting garlic in a pan and everyone says, 'Ooh, that garlic smells nice,' it takes me a little bit longer to get that smell," he says. He's very glad his boss acted decisively to get him tested. "It was credit to them, to be fair, because they spotted the signs early," he says. "And I know that other places might not have arranged testing, and I would still have been treating patients." Update 19 May 2020: The original version of this story quoted Prof Peter Horby saying that anosmia was a symptom included in the contact tracing app being tested on the Isle of Wight. He later clarified that he expected it to be included in future iterations of the app. You may also be interested in: Double Olympic gold medallist James Cracknell says he is unable to smell or taste very much due to a brain injury. What is life like without these senses? Taste and smell: What is it like to live without them? (2013)

सरकारी सलाहकार मार्च से विचार कर रहे हैं कि क्या किसी को कोविड-19 है या नहीं, यह तय करने के लिए मानदंडों में गंध की कमी को शामिल किया जाए। साक्ष्य कि यह लक्षणों में से एक है, पहले से ही मजबूत है और कुछ वैज्ञानिकों का तर्क है कि यह अब एक तत्काल कदम है, क्योंकि लॉकडाउन में ढील दी गई है।


HMP Lindholme Prison officer remanded over drugs charge

Summary: A prison officer has been remanded in custody charged with trying to bring drugs into a jail.

Victoria Sked, 26, of Station Road, Stainforth, near Doncaster, has been charged with conveying Class B drugs into HMP Lindholme in South Yorkshire. Ms Sked was also charged with bringing a prohibited article intending it to go to a prisoner. Police were called to the prison after Ms Sked was stopped and a search found mobile phones and suspected drugs. She was remanded into custody by Doncaster Magistrates' Court and will next appear at Sheffield Crown Court on 19 September.

जेल में मादक पदार्थ लाने की कोशिश करने के आरोप में एक जेल अधिकारी को हिरासत में भेज दिया गया है।


Anne Kirkbride: Coronation Street star's life of drama

Summary: When Anne Kirkbride got the role as Deirdre Hunt in Coronation Street at the age of 17, it was only supposed to be for one episode. But she was to stay for 42 years and become one of the best-loved stars on British TV.

Kirkbride, who has died at the age of 60, was at the centre of some of the soap's biggest storylines. But she was uncomfortable with fame and, in real life, struggled with illness and depression. On screen, instantly recognisable with her trademark glasses, Deirdre was the wife and mother who gathered public goodwill as she navigated domestic drama after domestic drama. Viewers were so engrossed in her trials and tribulations that, after she became entwined in a love triangle with Ken and Mike in 1983, an update was relayed on the scoreboard during half-time at a Manchester United match. And when she was wrongfully imprisoned in 1998, then-Prime Minister Tony Blair jokingly promised to review the case and newspapers distributed "Free Deirdre" stickers and T-shirts. It all began when Kirkbride, who had been an actress and assistant stage manager at Oldham Rep, landed a role in a one-off Granada TV comedy-drama in 1972. Coronation Street producers spotted her and recruited her for the soap, which had been an ITV mainstay for 12 years and was actively looking for new, young female characters to complement the likes of Ena Sharples, Minnie Caldwell, Annie Walker, Hilda Ogden and the recently married Elsie Howard. In her first episode, she was a customer in the Rovers Return, and she later returned as builder Ray Langton's feisty secretary. She went on to become his wife - the first of Deirdre's four marriages. It ended when Deirdre dramatically decided at the last moment not to emigrate to Holland with Ray and their baby daughter Tracy. Ken Barlow came next for the now single mother. Weatherfield's first couple wed in the same week as Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1981, and were not far behind in the TV ratings. Deirdre's drama reached a climax two years later when she had an affair with Mike Baldwin. The storyline provided the soap with one of its landmark scenes when Ken, played by William Roache, grabbed Deirdre by the throat. In order to make her reaction realistic, Roache deliberately did not prepare Kirkbride for the viciousness of his attack. "Bill Roache suddenly had me by the throat and up against the wall and I was literally fighting to get away from him," the actress said. When Deirdre announced she was staying with Ken, messages flashed up on the Old Trafford scoreboard when Manchester United played Arsenal, reading "Ken and Deirdre reunited!" and "Ken 1 - Mike 0!" But soap life never ran smoothly for the residents of 1 Coronation Street and Deirdre divorced Ken seven years later after his affair with his secretary Wendy Crozier. She found happiness - or so she thought - after marrying Moroccan waiter Samir Rachid after meeting him on an African holiday. But after Samir was mugged and died, Deirdre got together with conman Jon Lindsay, who framed her for fraud. Her subsequent trial and imprisonment in 1998 incensed viewers and led to the high-profile "Free the Weatherfield One" campaign. Deirdre reunited with Ken the following year and the couple remarried in 2005. In real life, Kirkbride married another of her Corrie co-stars. She met David Beckett after he appeared as an odd-job man who saved Deirdre's daughter Tracy from a chip pan fire in 1991. Kirkbride said she enjoyed acting but was less comfortable with the fame it brought. "I'm not very good at being a star, I don't handle it very well. I'm really a quiet, private person," she said. 'Frightening' depression Personal trauma visited Kirkbride when, at the age of 39, the actress found a lump on her neck on the day of her mother's funeral in 1993. It turned out to be non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a form of cancer, which required several months away from the soap. It was treatable and she got the all-clear. But she later spoke about the depression that afflicted her in the subsequent years. "It was worse than the cancer in a way, because that was going to be over," she said. "I knew that was bad, but I knew at the end of it I was going to be better. But this, this was just so frightening." On screen, Deirdre and Ken remained together - with a few ups and downs - and Kirkbride was one of the cast members who supported William Roache when he went on trial for rape in 2014. Roache was "always a perfect gentleman", she told the court. He was cleared. On the 40th anniversary of her arrival on the soap in 2012, the actress spoke about her fondness for her co-stars but also the "punishing" and "soul-destroying" filming schedule. She said she might have become a cleaner if she had not got her big break in acting - and revealed how she even occasionally cleaned the Granada toilets to relieve the boredom between scenes. Asked about her acting career by the Daily Mirror in 2001, she said: "Sometimes I think I should have made more of an effort to get out and do other stuff, but then again I've never been terribly ambitious. "I've never had any desire to chase this part or that, or do Shakespeare. So coming into the Street was perfect for me. "Although it's only one part, you get to play a fantastic range of emotions, from comedy to tragedy to everyday stuff."

जब एनी किर्कब्राइड को 17 साल की उम्र में कोरोनेशन स्ट्रीट में डीयर्ड्रे हंट की भूमिका मिली, तो यह केवल एक एपिसोड के लिए होनी थी। लेकिन उन्हें 42 साल तक रहना था और ब्रिटिश टीवी पर सबसे पसंदीदा सितारों में से एक बनना था।


What one piece of tech would transform your working life?

Summary: What one piece of technology would most improve your working life?

By Jessica BownTechnology of Business reporter Chances are it wouldn't be a glove. But car workers in Germany are now using smart gloves that not only save time but prevent accidents as well. It is an example of how tech-enhanced humans are fighting back against the seemingly unstoppable rise of the robots. At BMW's spare parts plant in Dingolfing, for example, which employs around 17,500 people, hand-held barcode readers have been replaced by gloves that scan objects when you put your thumb and forefinger together. The data is sent wirelessly to a central computer. The hi-tech gloves allow workers to keep hold of items with both hands while scanning more quickly. While this may only save a few seconds each time, BMW reckons it adds up to 4,000 work minutes, or 66 hours, a day. Formally launched in November, ProGlove's "plug and play" Mark glove is fitted with an integrated scanner and battery with enough charge to last an eight-hour shift. It costs €1,300 (£1,095; 1,350). Other companies using the glove include rival car makers Audi and Skoda, and precision engineering firm Festo. "The access point is connected to a company's existing system via USB or a normal serial connector, meaning the glove can be deployed with no integration expense," says ProGlove chief executive Thomas Kirchner. Giving business a lift In the US, sick leave costs employers $226bn (£182bn) a year, while in the UK over the last 12 months firms lost more than £4bn on leave related to minor ailments. Lifting-related injuries alone cost US businesses more than $70bn last year. After flu, back pain is the main cause of absenteeism. New York-based tech company Kinetic is trying to address this issue with a belt-mounted device that senses workers' posture when lifting and gives them feedback when the position could be improved - by bending the knees more, for example. Managers can see all the collected data on a dedicated web page, helping them to spot areas for improvement. The Kinetic system also gives advice on how workplaces could be redesigned to reduce potentially dangerous practices. The system has recently been piloted at Crane Worldwide Logistics' distribution facility in Texas, where it helped reduce the number of potentially damaging lifts performed by workers each day by 84%, the company says. Heads-up Such wearables are helping humans give robots a run for their money. For example, aircraft manufacturer Boeing has been piloting a version of Google Glass, the search giant's augmented reality eyewear, to help technicians wire up its planes. These highly complex webs of wires - known as harnesses - have to be connected up according to a road map that technicians refer to on a laptop or tablet. But now they can read the instructions on the head-mounted display, thanks to a specially developed app called APX Skylight, leaving their hands free to carry on snipping the wires to length and connecting them up. Boeing says the pilot saw assembly times reduced by 25%, and crucially, the number of errors fell, too. And in the mining industry - one of the most dangerous in the world - technology is helping to keep miners safe and improve production. For example, Canadian company Maestro Mine Ventilation has developed an award-winning digital gas sensor that is more accurate than traditional sensors. By constantly monitoring the quality of the air, the build-up of dangerous gases can be spotted earlier and fresh air pumped to those areas. This can also save on electricity as the fans can be operated only when needed rather than all the time. Wellbeing It's not just physical injury that can lead to absenteeism - stress and illness are prime culprits in the workplace. IT giant Oracle claims its absenteeism costs have plunged by $1m as a result of wellbeing interventions such as stress workshops. US health insurer Humana believes its Goal Guru health and wellbeing app can increase productivity by improving employees' overall fitness. The "digital coach" app gathers data from multiple fitness trackers and mobile health apps and sets challenges that staff can take part in individually or collectively - from push-ups to mountain treks. Competition between teams - and even heckling - is actively encouraged. "Goal Guru is not just about the number of steps you have done or what you have eaten," vice president of wellness Kristine Mullen tells the BBC. "It includes tasks designed to reduce financial stress and improve emotional wellbeing as well as physical condition, all while creating a spirit of competition and fun within the employee community." The app, which is currently only available to US companies but should soon be worldwide, costs from $1 to $1.50 per employee per month for a business with 100 employees, she says. "Our research indicates that employers are now happy to spend twice as much as that because they understand the effect a cohesive employee community has on their bottom line," Ms Mullen says. So whether it's smart gloves, clever belts or motivational software, technology is helping to make us healthier and more productive at work. And with robots stalking our jobs, that's probably just as well. Follow Technology of Business editor Matthew Wall on Twitter and Facebook Click here for more Technology of Business features

तकनीक का कौन सा एक टुकड़ा आपके कामकाजी जीवन में सबसे अधिक सुधार करेगा?


Why do people take pictures at crash scenes?

Summary: Fatal accidents and disasters are, unfortunately, nothing new. What is new is people coming across these scenes and taking out their smartphones to photograph the dead. People can lose their jobs, reputation and even liberty over it. So what makes them do it?

By John NewtonBBC News At the end of November, a police officer was sacked for showing his colleagues footage from the aftermath of a fatal crash between a motorbike and lorry. Andrew Parry transferred the images from his body cam to his mobile phone and played it to peers, who reported him to bosses. Staffordshire Police said his actions amounted to "disrespect" and he had betrayed his "responsibilities" to the deceased. One might expect more of a police officer, but such acts are not uncommon. There were similar incidents throughout last year, although in these police criticised the public rather than one of their own. In August, a 30-year-old woman was killed in a crash in Derbyshire. This time, photos of the scene were not only taken but posted on Facebook. Police described the images as distressing. The same term was used for onlookers' photos of a crash which killed six in Birmingham just over a year ago. These pictures were circulated on social media too. After inquests in May, a victim's family slammed those responsible for the images, saying they had lost their humanity and robbed the dead of dignity. Had they lost their humanity? Was there some missing filter; a moral compass gone awry? And can the dead, once photographed, be a victim beyond the circumstances which claimed their life? Dr Lasana Harris, an associate professor in experimental psychology at University College London, has researched the behaviour of people at emergency scenes. He has a theory on why people reach for their phones - it's not so much what goes through their minds, it's what doesn't. "We live in a culture where [photography on phones] is what people do; it's normative behaviour." Dr Harris thinks the recording of the dead or the injured is accordingly "mindless" - people pull out their phones automatically, for scenes "good, bad or indifferent". But can such actions be explained away so easily? Omega Mwaikambo took photos of a body recovered from one of the UK's highest profile disasters - the Grenfell Tower fire. His explanation to BBC Newsnight seems to underscore the very mindlessness Dr Harris explores. Using an iPad, he began photographing - at a distance - a plastic-wrapped corpse in the courtyard at his nearby flat. Then he lifted the sheet to take close-ups. The reasons, he said, eluded him. Mr Mwaikambo then posted pictures of the body on Facebook. "God knows what I was thinking in my head. It just happened. No explanation. Why would anybody do such a thing?" You might also be interested in Can a fugitive remain on the run forever? The city with no homeless on its streets Why are Iranians crossing the Channel in dinghies? Images of crash scenes taken by professional photographers for use in the news rarely feature bodies, though broadcasters will occasionally choose to show the dead in the context of some stories. The reports come with warnings and the displayed images are brief and rarely graphic. Should outlets then share their reports on social media, the tweets and posts do not feature the pictures. That is in contrast to the online sharers whose grim imagery is presented starkly and at a fixed point, leaving those who stumble across it no choice in whether they see it. Dr Harris thinks this type of sharing - in a culture of ubiquitous tech - is another act of mindlessness. "Often we're just running on autopilot and we're not thinking - and that's why it doesn't seem intrusive to those doing it." Notions of privacy might seem straightforward, but the concept is arguably muddied once applied to photos taken after death. Can a body be said to have had its privacy invaded? The law's view on this is simple - it is concerned with protecting the public from what it deems indecent, rather than protecting those who have died. And it means that while the photography is not prohibited per se, the sharing of distressing imagery can be. It is the convergence of indecency and distribution the law dislikes. In the case of Mr Mwaikambo, he was sentenced to three months in prison after pleading guilty to breaching the 2003 Communications Act by posting offensive images on social media. The first count involved two photos and a video of the body bag, the second related to five photos of the person therein. In the case of the Derbyshire crash, police made an arrest on suspicion of offences under the associated Malicious Communications Act, although there have been no charges. PC Parry - whose actions did not involve a social media component - was convicted of misconduct in a public office, for which he was given a suspended 12-month prison sentence. But should the "unthinking" photographer have an explanation for sharing such imagery? "If you were to press people, I think they'd say they were helping," posits Dr Harris. "We know that if something is made public, it has the power to change opinion, and so some people may think they're fulfilling that purpose." But some may argue it is the opposite of helping, because filming in a crisis is nothing like practical assistance. In fact, Dr Harris points out, it's non-intervention: "You're less likely to help if you're fiddling with your phone." He believes this is where the issue starts to merge with the so-called bystander effect - the name given to incidents in which a group ignores a needy person, because, psychologists say, they fear other bystanders judging intervention. According to the theory, people assume that if no-one else is acting, there's no need to. And taking cues from each other, the larger the crowd, the greater the chance of inaction. These elements seem to feature in an "air rage" incident on a Ryanair flight in October. One passenger began racially abusing another in a row over seats - an exchange filmed and posted on Facebook by fellow passenger David Lawrence, who said onlookers were "frozen". The footage shows a man eventually intervening. But Mr Lawrence suggested his more passive approach had its own usefulness - his post went viral, and thus he helped "the world know" the victim's story. "If I had stepped in I don't think you would have seen the footage that I captured," he told the BBC. There can even be real-time benefits to such filming, believes Jackie Zammuto, a project manager at Brooklyn-based Witness. The organisation teaches people how to shoot video on phones to document injustice. She told BBC Radio 4's The Digital Human that by filming, and being seen to film, tension can sometimes be defused and attacks deescalated, despite a lack of physical intervention. But can it help at a crash where someone is seriously hurt or worse? It's hard to imagine how onlookers helped by filming a bruised and shocked police officer after a crash in Coventry. Dr Harris thinks for graver scenes, saying a photo can help is an act of self-deception by those who regret their actions. "You can come up with explanations - 'I was documenting' - to preserve the belief you're a good person," he says. "You find ways to save your moral selves. But it's an afterthought, to later justify their behaviour. Again, in the moment, I don't think they are thinking." Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, and sign up for local news updates direct to your phone.

दुर्भाग्य से, घातक दुर्घटनाएँ और आपदाएँ कोई नई बात नहीं हैं। इसमें नया क्या है कि लोग इन दृश्यों में आते हैं और मृतकों की तस्वीरें लेने के लिए अपने स्मार्टफोन निकालते हैं। लोग अपनी नौकरी, प्रतिष्ठा और यहाँ तक कि स्वतंत्रता भी खो सकते हैं। तो फिर वे ऐसा क्यों करते हैं?


Flybmi won't be the last airline failure, say analysts

Summary: In two short sentences, Flybmi's announcement that it had collapsed summed up the airline industry's woes: fuel costs, green taxes, Brexit uncertainty, falling passenger numbers. It might have added fierce competition, but that is probably a statement of the obvious.

By Russell HottenBusiness reporter, BBC News Several European airlines have folded or hit financial trouble during the past two years. Britain's Monarch collapsed in October 2017, while Germany's Germania filed for insolvency earlier this month. Air Berlin and Alitalia went bust, although the latter was propped up by the Italian government. Primera, Cobalt, Azurair Germany, Small Planet Airlines and SkyWork may not be household names, but all succumbed to the market turbulence sweeping across the sector. UK regional airline Flybe came close to folding and put itself up for sale. And last month Norwegian Air Shuttle was forced to seek an emergency cash injection, putting a question mark over its promise to revolutionise budget long-haul travel. Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary may be prone to a bit of hyperbole, but when he warned this month that the industry would see more bankruptcies no one doubted him. "Winter is the worst time of year for airlines," says Ascend Consultancy analyst Peter Morris. "If you can get through the winter there's a chance of getting summer bookings." So why are so many airlines failing? Travel expert Simon Calder went to the heart of the problem when he told the BBC that the airline industry's problem is: "There are simply too many seats and not enough people." But the reasons for this are many and complex. The growth of airlines in Europe, mainly budget carriers, came on the back of deregulation and an explosion of route networks. Using new and cost-efficient aircraft operators started new services. If one route failed, they tried another. Flexibility was key. According to the International Air Transport Association, the number of flights in Europe has risen more than 40% compared with a decade ago. At the same time, though, fares have fallen, squeezing margins and reducing financial room for manoeuvre. This expansion has not insulated the industry from wider shocks, such as economic slowdown, rising oil prices, and unfavourable exchange rates - the depreciation of sterling has made it more expensive for Britons to go abroad. And there are unexpected extra costs - from traffic control strikes, maintenance bills, bad weather (remember the Beast from the East) and passenger compensation. New EU passenger compensation rules were, said Wizz Air boss József Váradi, becoming a real burden on airlines. He cited this, along with fuel costs, as the two biggest squeezes on airline profitability. Oil prices rose and slumped in 2018, and since the start of the year have been on their way back up. Fuel costs have been cited as a factor in almost all the problems reported by airlines in the last couple of years. Flybmi also highlighted another extra cost that did damage - emissions taxes. Tim Jeans, a former managing director of Monarch and chairman of Newquay Cornwall Airport, agrees that it is becoming a serious issue for the whole industry. "Carbon costs are a creeping cost for all airlines," he told the BBC. "The fees you need to pay to carry out your flying are going up all the time, and they are now quite a material cost." He thinks many airlines have not fully budgeted for this rise. "It certainly looks like that is the case with Flybmi," he said. There's also the issue of Brexit. Critics say it has become convenient for UK companies to blame uncertainty around Britain leaving the EU for their problems. But for any UK airline - from Flybmi to British Airways - the potential unravelling of Europe's open skies agreement that has existed for decades is a real worry, Mr Jeans says. It will certainly hinder the ability of some airlines to do deals and offer services if there is uncertainty about their freedom to fly across Europe, he said. Mr Morris says problems at International Consolidated Airlines (IAG) underline how Brexit is worrying the major carriers. To retain its operating licence in Europe, IAG, which owns British Airways and Iberia, must show it is more than 50%-owned and controlled by EU investors. So, IAG is capping non-EU investment - except for UK shareholders, who will be counted as part of the EU even after Brexit. It's an example, says Mr Morris, of "how even the big boys might have some problems with the aviation environment". Will there be more airline failures? "Yes, I think definitely," says Mr Morris. Airlines that are particularly vulnerable are the smaller carriers squeezed between the major players like BA and Lufthansa, and the big low-cost carriers like Ryanair and Easyjet, Mr Morris says. The former have economies of scale and a presence at major hub airports like Heathrow. The latter operate larger, more efficient aircraft and more regular services, so have lower per-seat costs. It means both sectors can better withstand shocks. Mr Jeans agree. "Flybmi's demise is a perfect example of just how difficult it is to make money in that middle ground," he says.

दो छोटे वाक्यों में, फ्लाईबीमी की घोषणा कि यह ध्वस्त हो गया था, ने एयरलाइन उद्योग की परेशानियों का सारांश दियाः ईंधन की लागत, हरित कर, ब्रेक्सिट अनिश्चितता, यात्रियों की संख्या में गिरावट। इसने भयंकर प्रतिस्पर्धा को जोड़ा होगा, लेकिन यह शायद स्पष्ट रूप से एक बयान है।


Eleven face redundancy at Plymouth Airport

Summary: Eleven people are facing redundancy at Plymouth City Airport.

The cuts are a result of airline Air Southwest ending its London-Gatwick route earlier this year, the airport said. A range of roles are to be affected, including staff involved in fire-fighting, security, cleaning and refuelling aircraft. A consultation period had started with affected staff, the airport said. It employs 58 people in total. Air Southwest ended the Gatwick route, which went via Newquay, in January as new owner Humberside-based Eastern Airways was seeking to cut costs. The airline blamed falling passenger numbers and high landing fees at Gatwick for the cut. The city has had an operational airport at its current location since 1925.

प्लाईमाउथ सिटी हवाई अड्डे पर ग्यारह लोगों को अतिरेक का सामना करना पड़ रहा है।


Freedom of Diss for Royal Anglian Regiment before parade

Summary: The Royal Anglian Regiment has been given the freedom of the Norfolk town of Diss.

After a ceremony at Diss Town Hall, about 150 troops and band members marched from the Chapel Street junction to Market Place for an inspection. The group then continued on their parade to St Nicholas Street for a reception in the Corn Hall. Graham Minshull, the mayor of Diss, said: "It is a great honour to be awarding the freedom of the town."

रॉयल एंग्लियन रेजिमेंट को नॉरफ़ॉक शहर डिस की स्वतंत्रता दी गई है।


Bournemouth beach huts fire: Man released on bail

Summary: A man who was arrested after three beach huts were destroyed in a blaze and 31 others were broken into has been released on bail.

The fire broke out at Mudeford Sandbank near Hengistbury Head in Dorset, in the early hours of Saturday. The man, aged 19 and from Christchurch, was arrested on suspicion of arson and burglary. A 15-year-old boy from Bournemouth, arrested on the same charges, was previously released on bail. The beach site boasts some of the most expensive beach huts in the UK - one hut previously sold for £275,000. Dorset Police is appealing for any witnesses to get in touch. The force said anyone who owned an affected beach hut and had not yet been contacted by either BCP Council or Dorset Police should also get in touch. Related Internet Links Dorset Police

एक व्यक्ति जिसे एक आग में तीन समुद्र तट झोपड़ियों को नष्ट करने और 31 अन्य को तोड़ने के बाद गिरफ्तार किया गया था, उसे जमानत पर रिहा कर दिया गया है।


Are our street names sexist?

Summary: A tiny proportion of streets in Rome are named after women, while nearly half are named after men - and it is a similar story in other major cities around the world. Outrageous sexism, a simple fact of history, or both?

By Mark BosworthBBC World Service Place your finger on a street map and it's far more likely to land on a road named after a man than one named after a woman. You may not have given it much thought, but Maria Pia Ercolini has. The geography teacher in Rome says her city's landscape is dominated by men and wants that to change. It all began when she wrote a cultural guide to Rome, celebrating the role of women in the city's history. "During the research I realised that you never see traces of women. History just cancelled the women - they're not here," she says. Ercolini and a team of 26 women painstakingly went through every one of Rome's 16,550 streets to determine the gender balance. They found that 7,575 (45.7%) of the city's streets were named after men and just 580 (3.5%) were named after women. "That's proof of the discrimination," she says. "Men made the history - the known history. In Italy it is very strong because we have so many [male] saints and religious people like the Pope. Religion is so full of men." Of Rome's eight main streets, two are named after men - the Via Cavour, referring to Camillo Cavour, a leader of Italy's 19th Century unification struggle, and Via Giulia, named after "Fearsome" Pope Julius II. The other six are named after inanimate things, from the Via del Corso, which alludes to a medieval horse race, to the Via Sacra, so-called because it passes key religious sites in the ancient Roman Forum. Local authorities, which have the final say over street names, are now being urged to redress the balance. Ercolini has set up the Toponomastica femminile Facebook group , as a rallying point for her campaign, and 2,600 people have signed up as members. "We don't want to re-name streets. That would be very unpopular," she explains. "We want new streets in Rome to be named after women. There are lots of new developments around the city." Ercolini and her team have studied other Italian cities, from Florence to Milan, and found a similar pattern. Inspired by the Italian project, a group of women in Spain surveyed Madrid's streets. It fared a bit better than Rome, with nearly 7% of streets named after women, and 27% after men. Work has begun on Paris, and while the data has not been fully analysed, Ercolini estimates that a street there is around five times more likely to be named after a man than a woman. To the best of her knowledge no country has a gender-based street naming policy. But some regional authorities are beginning to address the issue - including Afghanistan's only province with a female governor, Bamiyan, where a whole new town is being built. London taxi driver Tina Kiddell estimates that something like twice as many streets in London are named after men than women. She describes herself as "a woman in a man's world" and has an in-depth knowledge of the city, after driving people around it for 24 years. When not behind the wheel, she spends much of her spare time poring over a copy of The London Encyclopaedia, a comprehensive reference book of more than 1,000 pages. "Every single road has got a story. For example, Gower Street was named in 1790 after a lady called Lady Gertrude Leveson-Gower, who married the fourth Duke of Bedford," she says. "And you have Bedford Square at the end of Gower Street - so there's your little story about a family marrying together and having the two names in one area where they had houses and owned land." Kiddell is proud of her city's history and the stories behind it and is not bothered by London's somewhat male-dominated street map. "When the streets were named, women were subservient to men. Whether that was right or wrong at that time, it was the way it was," she says. "Women have only been recognised as something worth noting in the latter years. You can't change history." But Julia Long from the London Feminist Network says the women in Rome are absolutely right to question the status quo. "I would love to see a similar project taken up in London. It would play a big part in ensuring that women feel recognised and valued in our city," she says. Long is concerned about the impact this has on the self-esteem of women and girls. She also thinks it gives men an inflated sense of entitlement and self-worth. "Street names are a very important form of recognition. They are a way of immortalising a person, and of holding in high esteem their achievements. "The message conveyed by the naming of such a disproportionate number of streets after men is that men are of more value and importance than women," she argues. Ercolini's project is starting to gain political backing. The wife of the Mayor of Rome, Isabella Rauti, has said the shortage of streets named after women reflects "centuries of discrimination". On International Women's Day last month, Toponomastica femminile launched a campaign to get three pedestrian walkways in public parks named after women. The president of Rome's 15th district has agreed to dedicate two parks to Elena Cornaro Piscopia, the first woman to earn a doctorate, and Laura Bassi, the first woman to officially teach at a European university. Ercolini says the president of the second district is also interested. "It's having a big effect," she says. "I've fought all my life to get recognition for women so this is a big symbol for us. I'm happy, it's satisfying." Maria Pia Ercolini spoke to Newshour on the BBC World Service.

रोम में सड़कों के एक छोटे से हिस्से का नाम महिलाओं के नाम पर रखा गया है, जबकि लगभग आधे का नाम पुरुषों के नाम पर रखा गया है-और यह दुनिया भर के अन्य प्रमुख शहरों में एक समान कहानी है। अपमानजनक लिंगवाद, इतिहास का एक सरल तथ्य, या दोनों?


Did council officials give wrong advice over Marischal Square row?

Summary: For two weeks, Aberdeen City Council finance convenor Willie Young's declaration stood: "Abandoning the (Marischal Square) project would mean the council tax payer requiring to repay the developers over £100m in cancellation fees".

By Steven DuffBBC Scotland reporter It came as protests grew over the scale of the project, amid fears it would block the view of the historic Marischal College and Provost Skene House. However, on Monday, BBC Scotland revealed there were no cancellation fees for the £107m project between Aberdeen City Council and Muse Developments. That begged the question why, on 11 January, did Mr Young say there was? Mr Young was unrepentant. He told BBC Radio Scotland: "I absolutely stand by that because at the time that was said it was my understanding that we, the council, were still the owners of the property." 'It's unfortunate' It was pointed out that ownership had transferred to Muse Developments at the end of last year, and before he made his statement about cancellation fees. He added: "It's unfortunate when I said that I wasn't in possession of all of the facts. As far as I'm concerned having spoken to our officers that was exactly the position that I was advised." So did Aberdeen City Council officers - the accountants and finance experts employed by the authority - wrongly advise Councillor Young? Privately, BBC Scotland understands officials are not at all happy with his claim that he was acting on their advice. But officially, and despite repeated attempts for a comment on that specific issue, this was the only response from Aberdeen City Council. "The city would potentially lose out to the tune of more than £100m if the scheme were not to proceed. "The city will receive £10m for the site - £1m now and a further £9m on completion in two years, an equal share of the development profit, the difference between the lease cost to Aviva and the income generated by the development for 35 years and the value of the development in 35 years' time. "Sums are also available for works to upgrade Provost Skene's House, Broad Street and to create the gardens and other public areas within the scheme." 'Pass the buck' The SNP group leader on Aberdeen City Council, Callum McCaig, said: "I don't know why he can stand by an assertion that has been proven to be completely and utterly wrong. "The response from Councillor Young is as always to pass the buck. This time he is passing it on to council officers who are completely blameless. "I have no doubts that Councillor Young was explained in some detail the consequences of cancelling Marischal Square, it's just when he opened his mouth to regurgitate it, he got it completely and utterly wrong." Ian Yuill, leader of the Lib Dem group on the authority, said: "It's Councillor Young's job to check the facts and he should just man-up and admit that."

दो सप्ताह के लिए, एबरडीन सिटी काउंसिल के वित्त संयोजक विली यंग की घोषणा थीः "(मारिस्चल स्क्वायर) परियोजना को छोड़ने का मतलब होगा कि परिषद के कर दाता को डेवलपर्स को रद्दीकरण शुल्क में £100 मिलियन से अधिक का भुगतान करने की आवश्यकता होगी।"


Jersey election 2014: St Helier results

Summary: Click below to see the results from your parish or district.

Main Page, Grouville, St Brelade, St Clement, St John, St Lawrence, St Martin, St Mary, St Ouen, St Peter, St Saviour and Trinity.

अपने पैरिश या जिले के परिणाम देखने के लिए नीचे क्लिक करें।


JVP on wrong footing - NFF

Summary: The failure of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) at the east provincial council election was due to choosing class struggle rather than going against imperialism, says a former senior leader of the party.

The general secretary of the newly formed political party National Freedom Front, the Former politburo member of JVP, Nanadna Gunathilake told BBC Sandeshaya that doors of his new party are open for 'all patriots'. "It is a critical issue to contemplate on why people are keeping away from the JVP", he said. He says the Jathika Nidahas Peramuna (National Freedom Front), the new political party of the JVP breakaway group, will not work with affiliation to any party but work closely towards common goals. The breakaway group consists of former JVP propaganda secretary, MP Wimal Weerawansa and ten other JVP MPs. Gunathilleke said that he was instrumental in the internal struggle of the JVP which developed even before the presidential election held in 2005. The inaugural convention of the NFF is to be held on wednesday. MP Gunathilaka handed over the documents to the Election Commissioner to form a new political party on Monday.

पार्टी के एक पूर्व वरिष्ठ नेता का कहना है कि पूर्वी प्रांतीय परिषद के चुनाव में जनता विमुक्ति पेरामुना (जे. वी. पी.) की विफलता साम्राज्यवाद के खिलाफ जाने के बजाय वर्ग संघर्ष को चुनने के कारण थी।


Ryanair agrees to buy Boeing 737 planes worth $10.4bn

Summary: The Irish low cost airline, Ryanair, has agreed an order valued at $10.4bn (£6.4bn) to buy 100 planes from American aerospace company Boeing, with an option to buy a further 100 later.

The order is for Boeing's more fuel efficient 737 MAX 200 aircraft. Ryanair has not disclosed what it will be paying, but airlines are rarely charged the full price on large orders. If Ryanair completes the order for all 200 aircraft the order would be worth $21bn at officially listed prices. 'Improved efficiencies' "It's going to change the game for low-fare air travel," Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said at a news conference. Ryanair plans to use the jets to expand its business in Europe. "I hope it will hasten a new era of price wars in Europe over the next 10 years," he said. Boeing markets its 737 MAX 200 as offering lower operating costs. The planes will contain 8 more seats than Ryanair's existing fleet does, with the total capacity of the plane totalling 197. In a statement Boeing's chief executive, Ray Conner said: "The 737 MAX 200 is the perfect fit for Ryanair, providing improved efficiencies, 20% lower emissions, increased revenues and a high level of passenger comfort." Since Boeing launched its 737 MAX programme in 2011 it has won 2,219 orders.

आयरिश कम लागत वाली एयरलाइन, रयानएयर, अमेरिकी एयरोस्पेस कंपनी बोइंग से 100 विमान खरीदने के लिए $10.4bn (£ 6.4bn) के मूल्य के एक आदेश पर सहमत हो गई है, जिसमें बाद में 100 और खरीदने का विकल्प है।


Tories take on Labour in Cardiff Bay

Summary: Last year they gave it a miss. This year they gave it some welly. The Welsh Conservative conference was less short and sweet than brief and brutal. This was a one day conference packed with ministerial speeches that left the faithful in little doubt as to what they must now do: get out there and beat Labour at the General Election.

Betsan PowysFormer political editor, Wales "That vote" urged Francis Maude "is just a year and week away!" He must have seen the look of panic on his audience's faces (including mine) before adjusting it to two years and a week. But next year or the year after, his message was the same : it's tough, it's bracing on the doorsteps but boy, you've got to persuade people that letting Labour sort this out would be a disaster. So what's the plan? It's almost as though the penny's dropped in Number Ten. Imagine the moment: "There IS an alternative - it's Ed 'n Ed." "Can you IMAGINE it?" "Well can voters imagine it, that's the point!" "What WOULD health and education and business development look like in Labour hands? Hang on a minute ..." Suddenly, markedly, the Welsh Government is in the firing line, or "Labour in Cardiff Bay" as the Prime Minister labelled them. We've heard the attacks during PMQs before now. Take Wednesday's PMQs as the most recent example. But on Saturday, the boot went in again, and again, and again. Before breakfast, Carwyn Jones' government had been called Stalinists. By elevenses, David Cameron had added to the list: "The thing is: their whole government reads like a soap opera. They've got an Education Minister who admits they've taken 'their eye off the ball'. A Business Minister who admits she's a fan of Karl Marx. Wales needed the A-Team, instead they got The Muppet Show. But while they're messing it up, we're sorting it out. Backing the hardworking people of Wales." By tea time they were Muppets who "sit on their lazy arses" - or so the Welsh party leader Andrew RT Davies colourfully put it. And when I describe him as Welsh party leader rather than leader of the Conservative group in the National Assembly, I do so with Mr Cameron's blessing, I think. Tory kremlinologists - read into that what you will. Ministers had been briefed with a list of what Central Office would headline 'Labour failures' in Wales. Statistics on health specifically - ambulance urgent call-out targets, urgent cancer treatment targets, A+E targets - all missed and all regarded as fertile ground for attack by the Conservatives. Interestingly, the Liberal Democrats at their conference seemed to have decided against letting Nick Clegg loose on Labour's record in Wales. He took on Cameron and Miliband. Carwyn Jones was left to Kirsty Williams. So how will Labour respond? If you're the Welsh Government you blame the UK Government for slashing your budget in the first place. If you're the Shadow Welsh Secretary, you point out forcefully that Labour used to put over the odds into health in Wales, until George Osborne's cuts forced them to make tough choices. But when the PM has used Wales as a weapon against Labour in PMQs, Ed Miliband has not directly defended it. He's preferred to turn the spotlight back onto the UK Government's record. If the attacks continue next week, next month and the month after that - will Mr Miliband find he starts to come under pressure to start sticking up for Carwyn Jones and his cabinet rather than turning the other cheek? What else did we learn? That the Welsh leadership still feels it has to tell the party that devolution is here to stay. It must, as a colleague suggested, now almost be part of the housekeeping list at Welsh conference. Fire exits are here, here and here, and oh, please don't re-ignite the battles of 1997. Those who voted for Andrew RT Davies in the hope he'd turn back the Tory clock will have listened with a sinking feeling. "Devolution cannot be simply put back into the bottle. I believe we have reached our "Clause IV" moment. We cannot and should not go back to 1997 ... If we want to win in 2016, we need to roll up our sleeves, taking tough decisions and fighting the battles the people of Wales want us to fight, not the fights of 1997". Got it? He must surely be hoping they have now.

पिछले साल उन्होंने इसे छोड़ दिया। इस साल उन्होंने इसे कुछ अच्छी तरह से दिया। वेल्श कंजर्वेटिव सम्मेलन संक्षिप्त और क्रूर की तुलना में कम छोटा और मीठा था। यह मंत्रिस्तरीय भाषणों से भरा एक दिवसीय सम्मेलन था जिसने वफादार लोगों को थोड़ा संदेह में छोड़ दिया कि उन्हें अब क्या करना चाहिएः वहाँ से बाहर निकलें और आम चुनाव में लेबर को हरा दें।


Why is cycling so popular in the Netherlands?

Summary: There are more bicycles than residents in The Netherlands and in cities like Amsterdam and The Hague up to 70% of all journeys are made by bike. The BBC's Hague correspondent, Anna Holligan, who rides an omafiets - or "granny style" - bike complete with wicker basket and pedal-back brakes, examines what made everyone get back in the saddle.

The 70s velo-rution Before World War II, journeys in the Netherlands were predominantly made by bike, but in the 1950s and 1960s, as car ownership rocketed, this changed. As in many countries in Europe, roads became increasingly congested and cyclists were squeezed to the kerb. The jump in car numbers caused a huge rise in the number of deaths on the roads. In 1971 more than 3,000 people were killed by motor vehicles, 450 of them children. In response a social movement demanding safer cycling conditions for children was formed. Called Stop de Kindermoord (Stop the Child Murder), it took its name from the headline of an article written by journalist Vic Langenhoff whose own child had been killed in a road accident. The Dutch faith in the reliability and sustainability of the motor vehicle was also shaken by the Middle East oil crisis of 1973, when oil-producing countries stopped exports to the US and Western Europe. These twin pressures helped to persuade the Dutch government to invest in improved cycling infrastructure and Dutch urban planners started to diverge from the car-centric road-building policies being pursued throughout the urbanising West. Path to glory To make cycling safer and more inviting the Dutch have built a vast network of cycle paths. These are clearly marked, have smooth surfaces, separate signs and lights for those on two wheels, and wide enough to allow side-by-side cycling and overtaking. In many cities the paths are completely segregated from motorised traffic. Sometimes, where space is scant and both must share, you can see signs showing an image of a cyclist with a car behind accompanied by the words 'Bike Street: Cars are guests'. At roundabouts, too, it is those using pedal power who have priority. You can cycle around a roundabout while cars (almost always) wait patiently for you to pass. The idea that "the bike is right" is such an alien concept for tourists on bikes that many often find it difficult to navigate roads and junctions at first. Early adopters Even before they can walk, Dutch children are immersed in a world of cycling. As babies and toddlers they travel in special seats on "bakfiets", or cargo bikes. These seats are often equipped with canopies to protect the children from the elements, and some parents have been known to spend a small fortune doing up their machines. As the children grow up they take to their own bikes, something made easier and safer by the discrete cycle lanes being wide enough for children to ride alongside an accompanying adult. And, as young people aren't allowed to drive unsupervised until they are 18, cycling offers Dutch teenagers an alternative form of freedom. The state also plays a part in teaching too, with cycling proficiency lessons a compulsory part of the Dutch school curriculum. All schools have places to park bikes and at some schools 90% of pupils cycle to class. Behind the bike sheds In the university city of Groningen, a cyclists' dream even by Dutch standards, the central train station has underground parking for 10,000 bikes. Cyclists are accommodated in the way motorists are elsewhere, with electronic counters at the entrance registering how many spaces are available. Bike parking facilities are ubiquitous in The Netherlands - outside schools, office buildings and shops. In return you are expected to only lock up your bike in designated spots - if you chain your bike in the wrong place you could find that it is removed and impounded, and that you will have to hand over 25 euros to get it back. At home, even people who live in flats without special bike storage facilities can expect to be allowed to leave their bikes in a communal hallway. In the 16th Century, houses in Amsterdam were taxed according to their width, a measure residents countered by building tall, narrow houses. So hallways get filled with bikes - but so many people cycle, no-one really minds, and just clambers past. It's not about your ride Cycling is so common that I have been rebuked for asking people whether they are cyclists or not. "We aren't cyclists, we're just Dutch," comes the response. The bike is an integral part of everyday life rather than a specialist's accessory or a symbol of a minority lifestyle, so Dutch people don't concern themselves with having the very latest model of bike or hi-tech gadgets. They regard their bikes as trusty companions in life's adventures. In that kind of relationship it is longevity that counts - so the older, the better. It's not uncommon to hear a bike coming up behind you with the mudguard rattling against the wheel. If anything, having a tatty, battered old bike affords more status as it attests to a long and lasting love. No lycra, no sweat The famously flat Dutch terrain, combined with densely-populated areas, mean that most journeys are of short duration and not too difficult to complete. Few Dutch people don lycra to get out on their bike, preferring to ride to work, the shops or the pub in whatever clothes they think appropriate for their final destination. Of course, the cycle paths lend themselves to sauntering along in summer dresses in a way a death-defying, white-knuckle ride in rush-hour traffic does not. It is also partly because of this that people don't need showers at work to be able to commute by bike - it's a no-sweat experience. Dutch people also tend to go helmet-free because they are protected by the cycle-centric rules of the roads and the way infrastructure is designed. If you see someone wearing a cycling helmet in The Netherlands, the chances are they're a tourist or a professional. I bought a helmet for my ride to the UK reporting for BBC Newsnight on the differences between cycling in The Netherlands and the UK. My local bike shop had just one on display, which the shop assistant said had been there "a few months or maybe a year". Right not might The fact that everyone cycles, or knows someone who does, means that drivers are more sympathetic to cyclists when they have to share space on the roads. In turn, the cyclists are expected to respect and obey the rules of the road. You may be fined for riding recklessly, in the wrong place or jumping red lights. Police (often on bikes) will issue a 60-euro ticket if you are caught without lights at night, and you will have to shell out even more if any of the mandatory bike reflectors - of which there are many under Dutch law - are missing. Accidents do still happen of course, but in the event of a collision involving a cyclist, insurers refer to Article 185 of the Dutch Road Safety Code which deals with something called "strict liability". It is often mistakenly interpreted as a law that establishes guilt. What it essentially means is the driver will usually be expected to cover at least 50% of the financial costs to the cyclist and their bike. When out on the road, Dutch cyclists feel powerful and protected, making the whole experience much more enjoyable. There are dangers on the roads, but very rarely do they involve heavy goods vehicles, poorly designed junctions or dangerous drivers. You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook

नीदरलैंड के निवासियों की तुलना में अधिक साइकिलें हैं और एम्स्टर्डम और द हेग जैसे शहरों में सभी यात्राओं का 70 प्रतिशत तक साइकिल से किया जाता है। बीबीसी की हेग संवाददाता, एना हॉलिगन, जो एक ओमाफिएट्स-या "दादी शैली"-विकर टोकरी और पेडल-बैक ब्रेक के साथ पूरी बाइक चलाती हैं, जांच करती हैं कि किस बात ने सभी को काठी में वापस लाने के लिए प्रेरित किया।


Boxing Day dippers brave North Sea at Seaburn and Tynemouth

Summary: Thousands of people braved the cold North Sea for Boxing Day dips across the North East despite high winds.

One of the biggest was at Seaburn beach in Sunderland where about 1,000 hardy souls took to the water. Organisers Sunderland Lions Club urged dippers to don fancy dress and blow the Christmas cobwebs away by raising money for charity. There were similar scenes in Redcar in Teesside and Longsands in Tynemouth despite warnings of high winds. RNLI lifeboat crews made sure dippers were safe at the 50th Boxing Day Dip at Redcar Esplanade organised by the Redcar Rotary Club.

तेज़ हवाओं के बावजूद उत्तर पूर्व में बॉक्सिंग डे डुबकी के लिए हजारों लोगों ने ठंडे उत्तरी सागर का सामना किया।


South Africa elections: Are crime rates rising?

Summary: South Africa is a country notorious for high levels of crime.

By Reality Check teamBBC News All the main parties agree it is a problem. The governing ANC - in power since 1994 - is frank about the situation. Its manifesto - published ahead of the general election on 8 May - says that drugs, violence and gang activity "are wreaking havoc in many communities". "Gender-based violence has reached crisis proportions," it also states. In its manifesto for the last election in 2014, the ANC had promised: "We will work to further reduce levels of crime, specifically contact crime like murder, rape and grievous bodily harm." So has any progress been made since then? Is crime getting worse? Since 2014, official data shows a general decrease in all crime - with a slight uptick in the most recent year. This is from the Victims of Crime Survey, based on extensive interviews carried out annually by the government's statistics authority. This is the case with both household crime, which includes burglary and vehicle theft, and individual crime - violent and non-violent crime experienced by a person such as robbery and sexual assault. But what about most the serious crimes like murder? South Africa had the fifth highest murder rate in the world in 2015, according to data compiled by the UN. Since the last election, the number of murders has continued to rise each year. Murder rates are regarded as a reliable, well-documented crime statistic. There were just over 20,300 murders last year, over 3,000 more than in 2014. An upward trend began in 2012 and last year had the highest number in 15 years. Also, there has been a drop in the number of murder cases solved or concluded because there was no case to answer. Analysts say there has been a fall in the effectiveness of the police - despite an increase in funding. "The capacity of the police has declined dramatically," says Gareth Newham, crime expert at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS Africa). Corruption has weakened the country's crime-fighting capacity, a government-initiated commission of inquiry heard in April this year. The ANC says it is cracking down on what is called "state capture," attempts by private interests to influence public institutions in their favour. Where is murder worst? Incidences of murder vary across South Africa's nine provinces, and the factors driving killings can be heavily localised. Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, the most populous regions, both have the highest number of murders. These regions have cities with areas that are prone to crime because of high levels of poverty and inadequate policing. The South African Cities Network, an organisation that promotes urban development, published a report this year showing that murder is more prevalent in the country's cities, with Cape Town being the worst. Their report notes gang violence and the supply of illegal arms as being factors in the rising murder rate. What about sex crimes? In early 2019, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called rape and sexual assault in the country a "national crisis". The official numbers we have show that reported rapes were at just over 40,000 in 2018. That is down from when the ANC won in 2014 election, but the number of cases has gone up from 2017. But rape statistics are often considered unreliable. It is difficult to know the true extent because for a variety of reasons, many rapes go unreported. Grievous bodily harm has steadily decreased since the last election, following a long-term trend in previous years. But these figures could likewise underestimate the true extent, as victims of assault will not always report it to the police. Read more from Reality Check Send us your questions Follow us on Twitter

दक्षिण अफ्रीका उच्च स्तर के अपराध के लिए कुख्यात देश है।


One Direction set to release two new books this year

Summary: One Direction have announced that they will release two books in 2014.

The group have signed a deal with HarperCollins to publish an official autobiography and One Direction: The Official Annual 2015 this year. Since releasing their first book in 2011, One Direction have sold three million copies worldwide across all formats. Their most recent book, Where We Are: Our Band, Our Story, spent five weeks at the top of the UK top selling list. One Direction's first full joint autobiography, which will be released in September, will chart the former X Factor group's rise to stardom. According to HarperCollins: "Fans will discover how the boys have really felt over the last few years and their hopes and ambitions for the future. "The One Direction official autobiography will offer an incredible insight and intimacy to the band as never before and will bring fans even closer to Harry, Niall, Liam, Louis and Zayn." Publishing director Natalie Jerome said: "The boys are an absolute pleasure to work with and always strive to deliver more to their fans. "It's a hugely exciting departure from the books we've published with them so far and there's a lot we're going to be doing that will make this an extra special experience for their loyal and devoted fans." One Direction: The Official Annual 2015, set to be released in August, will contain photos, interviews and behind-the-scenes stories. In December, One Direction's third album, Midnight Memories, entered the US Billboard 200 at number one making them the only group to have their first three albums top the chart in their opening week. The album also went to number one in the UK and is the fastest-selling album for two years. This year the band embark on their Where We Are world tour, which includes dates in London, Manchester and Edinburgh. Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter

वन डायरेक्शन ने घोषणा की है कि वे 2014 में दो पुस्तकों का विमोचन करेंगे।


Rapid sale of 10% of Lloyds mooted

Summary: The Treasury has received approaches from a series of sovereign wealth funds and private-equity businesses to buy around 10% of Lloyds, either just before or simultaneous with a more conventional placing of shares with investment institutions, I have learned.

Robert PestonEconomics editor Sources close to the Chancellor tell me George Osborne hasn't ruled out such a deal, which could be worth around £5bn, but would only do it if persuaded that the transaction represents conspicuous value for money for the taxpayer. "There is a Gordon Brown`s gold issue here," said a source, referring to the criticism that dogged the former chancellor Gordon Brown that he sold too much of Britain's gold reserves too cheaply. The Treasury is therefore looking for any buyer of the stake to pay a premium to the market price, which at the time of writing is 66p. "Based on today's price, if someone offered 70p, we'd have to be interested" said a source. 'Rip off' However another source said some of the bidders wanted a discount to the market price. Also a large number of them did not want to buy the shares as shares, but wanted them repackaged into convertible bonds, similar to the method Barclays used to raise money from the Middle East after the crash of 2008. "It would be a mistake to sell the shares in the form of bonds or in any way than in their plain vanilla form" said another source. "Anything that looks like complicated financial engineering would raise suspicions that the Treasury is being ripped off, and those suspicions would probably be right." Another adviser to Mr Osborne said: "If we do a deal with one of these sovereign wealth or private equity firms, we need complete transparency on what we are selling and the price. Most of those buyers don't like that transparency. They are looking for a bargain, and want to hide the true commercial nature of the transaction through a complex structure." Quick If in the end a deal can be reached with a powerful state investor, such as the sovereign wealth funds of Norway or Singapore, or with a consortium of private equity investors, such as those put together in other contexts by Corsair, it could happen relatively quickly. Sources have told me that such a transaction could take place not long after the summer - but would not give odds on it actually happening. In his Mansion House speech to the City last month, the Chancellor gave the green light to the first stage of the privatisation of the Treasury's 39% stake in Lloyds, signalling that it would be initiated by a large placing of shares with mainstream investment institutions rather than retail investors, probably before the end of the year - so long as Lloyds' share price continues to rise.

मुझे पता चला है कि ट्रेजरी को सॉवरेन वेल्थ फंड और निजी-इक्विटी व्यवसायों की एक श्रृंखला से लॉयड्स का लगभग 10 प्रतिशत खरीदने के लिए दृष्टिकोण प्राप्त हुआ है, या तो निवेश संस्थानों के साथ शेयरों की अधिक पारंपरिक स्थापना से ठीक पहले या साथ में।


Kent PCC Ann Barnes in car crash insurance investigation

Summary: Kent's Police and Crime Commissioner is being investigated over whether she was legally insured to drive when she was involved in a car crash.

The accident, on 16 September involving Ann Barnes's Mercedes, was referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) by her own office. Her vehicle collided with another car and hit a tree in Princes Road, Dartford. Nobody was seriously hurt. The investigation will be overseen by IPCC Commissioner Cindy Butts. The accident was referred to the police watchdog on 26 September. "Following an assessment it has been decided that an independent IPCC investigation is necessary to determine whether Ann Barnes may have committed a criminal offence," the commission said in a statement. A spokeswoman for Mrs Barnes said neither she nor her office would be making any comment. She said: "It's an IPCC investigation."

केंट की पुलिस और अपराध आयुक्त की जाँच की जा रही है कि क्या उसे गाड़ी चलाने के लिए कानूनी रूप से बीमा कराया गया था जब वह एक कार दुर्घटना में शामिल थी।


Rae Morris: 'I gave Zane Lowe a blank CD'

Summary: Blackpool born singer-songwriter Rae Morris's association with BBC Introducing goes back to 2011, when, at the age of just 20, she played at the Reading Festival after attracting the attention of a local BBC Radio presenter.

By Kev GeogheganMusic News LIVE reporter She has since released a debut album, Unguarded, which entered the UK Top 10, and is due to release her second album Someone Out There early next year. Rae is one of 10 artists handpicked to mark BBC Introducing's decade of showcasing the best unsigned, self-signed and emerging musical talent in the UK. We spoke to her ahead of her solo headline show at the Islington Academy in north London. You're playing Brixton Academy, it's an iconic London venue. Have you played there before? I have, just once, supporting Bombay Bicycle Club a few years ago and it was absolutely amazing. It's such a crazy venue, just a big building that feels a bit overwhelming but I'm looking forward to it. Where do you feel most comfortable? Big or small venues? It's got that similar kind of scale and the balcony is amazing because you can see people but I really love the big ones, there's a mystery that you can kind of take on board and be more of an elusive character whereas if it's intimate you've got to really engage with people, the big ones are fun. Can you remember the first time you came on to the radar of BBC Introducing? I'm from Blackpool and I guess Radio Lancashire was my local radio and I remember a guy called Sean McGinty from BBC Introducing put me on the radio pretty much straight away. I'd put tracks on MySpace and then I remember going into the building to do my first live show with him and just being so nervous but absolutely loving it. Then he put me forward to do this BBC Introducing master class at Abbey Road and I came down to that with my mum and dad. I remember making some demo CDs and managing to give one to (former Radio 1 DJ) Zane Lowe and realising that there was nothing on it when I got home. That was kind of unfortunate but it worked out in the end. [He probably thought] 'This is really avant garde, just nothing.' I don't know whether he listened to it but I was so sad when I got back home and realised. Is one of BBC Introducing's strengths that it isn't centralised in London and local stations across the country have their own branches? Absolutely, that's what's amazing about it, particularly coming from somewhere as small as Blackpool. It was really tricky to get your music out there in a big way and now the internet is better but it's just a brilliant way to bring everyone together and compile new amazing music together. How much space did it give you to hone your craft? There's a massive pressure to be perfect straight away, to be the finished article and Introducing allows you to think, 'I have this potential but you're going to watch me grow and be there with me for the journey.' I definitely have lots of lovely fans that come to gigs who have been there since the very beginning and remember hearing me on Radio Lancashire back in the day. Can you remember what you performed on that first session? Yes, I'm going to play one of those songs tonight, they're still part of my set. One of my first songs was called Wait A While and a song called For You, that was on my first record and they were the ones that I wrote in Blackpool in my shed and they're still around which is nice. Any of the other bands playing tonight that you've played with before? George Ezra I've played with quite a lot, he supported me on one of my first tours and we played the smallest venue in Bath and there's a picture of us on that day and even the fact he was supporting me is amazing because that's the kind of journey you go through on BBC Introducing and as artists you grow and experience things together as a community. Everything Everything did a remix for me, which is amazing and I love Slaves, I'm so excited about seeing them, I don't know them but I think they're wicked. Is it about paying it forward and supporting new artists coming up? It's so important and it's something that you could forget about if you're super busy and I understand when people get massive, the pressure they come under. But just last night in Leeds, we had a girl called Lucy Whittaker who was BBC Introducing track of the week on Radio 1 and that was just great that she was with us. I played a festival a couple of years ago with Tori Amos and she wrote me this little note before the gig. She didn't need to do it but it was really special and it made me realise you should always do that because it means a lot to younger people. What was in the note? It was a festival in Norway and she was headlining and she wrote a little card just saying, 'Hi Rae, good luck, have an amazing gig, love Tori' and she got me a beautiful scarf that I will dig out for winter that I wear every year. It was really lovely and she didn't need to do it, it was really thoughtful. I don't have it framed but I keep it by my bed. Rae's album is due out in Spring 2018. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

ब्लैकपूल में जन्मी गायिका-गीतकार राय मॉरिस का बी. बी. सी. इंट्रोड्यूसिंग के साथ जुड़ाव 2011 में वापस चला गया, जब, सिर्फ 20 साल की उम्र में, उन्होंने एक स्थानीय बी. बी. सी. रेडियो प्रस्तुतकर्ता का ध्यान आकर्षित करने के बाद रीडिंग फेस्टिवल में खेला।