Tech Tent - Facebook and Google’s hardware challenge

Summary: They've built two of the world's most powerful and wealthy businesses on the back of their software expertise but this week Facebook and Google unveiled hardware products. On Tech Tent we ask whether the two Silicon Valley giants can persuade consumers to pay for devices when they are used to getting their services for free.

Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter When Facebook unveiled its Portal video chat screen, whose camera follows you around the room, the first reaction of many people - including me - was "Really?!" If you've read Dave Eggers' novel The Circle about a social media business which wants its users to share everything about their lives - "sharing is caring" - Portal will sound like the ultimate realisation of that nightmare vision. Coming so soon after Facebook's latest data breach, it might seem the worst possible time to launch what is, in effect, a listening and viewing device for the home. But Andrew Bosworth, the executive running Facebook's hardware division, tells us the company understands the challenge: "From the very beginning we knew that [when] introducing a new product category into people's homes you have to put privacy first." He points to the cover for the camera when it is not in use, and to the fact that any data is processed locally on the device, rather than being sent off to Facebook's servers. Pressed on whether Portal users will end up seeing marketing messages he insists that isn't part of the plan: "We have no plans to add advertising to this and we have no ambition to make money on this piece of hardware right now." Which kind of begs the question - what is it for? Will the kind of people who currently use Skype or Apple's FaceTime to keep in touch with family and friends really want a separate screen that does much less than a smartphone or tablet? Patrick Spence, chief executive of smart speaker firm Sonos, is dubious. "People are getting a bit of screen fatigue," he tells us, believing that we are looking for something that makes our TVs, tablets and phones talk to each other better rather than adding yet another screen. Similar questions about privacy and usability hovered over the week's other hardware launch. Fresh from shutting down its social network Google+ after discovering a security vulnerability, the search giant unveiled its latest Pixel smartphones and the Google Home hub. This takes the Google Home smart speaker and gives it a screen but, unlike Facebook's Portal, no camera. And once more the company looks to be playing catch-up with Amazon, whose Echo Show and Spot devices have been out for a while. Perhaps more important to Google as a vehicle to show off its Android platform is the latest version of its Pixel smartphone. The first two won rave reviews, in particular for the camera, but negligible sales - by one measure it has got under 0.2% of the smartphone market. Now the Pixel 3 promises even better photos, but apart from an ugly notch on the XL model, it will look like any other smartphone to the casual observer - yet it has a price tag which puts it at the luxury end of the market. So don't be surprised if, yet again, the Pixel ends up as an also-ran in the smartphone stakes. Google has always had a dilemma - it wants to show it can make a compelling device but has to be careful not to antagonise giants like Samsung and Huawei which are vital for the health of the Android platform. Setting the right price, dealing with a global supply chain, getting the right marketing messages to customers are all essential skills for firms making consumer devices - not so much in building a search engine or a social network. Both Facebook and Google are finding that hardware is, well, hard.

उन्होंने अपनी सॉफ्टवेयर विशेषज्ञता के आधार पर दुनिया के दो सबसे शक्तिशाली और समृद्ध व्यवसायों का निर्माण किया है, लेकिन इस सप्ताह फेसबुक और गूगल ने हार्डवेयर उत्पादों का अनावरण किया है। टेक टेंट पर हम पूछते हैं कि क्या सिलिकॉन वैली के दो दिग्गज उपभोक्ताओं को उपकरणों के लिए भुगतान करने के लिए राजी कर सकते हैं जब वे अपनी सेवाओं को मुफ्त में प्राप्त करने के आदी हैं।


Israel-Palestinians: Old grievances fuel new fighting

Summary: The latest round of violence between Israelis and Palestinians is happening because the long and unresolved conflict between the two sides has once again been left to fester. It is an open wound in the heart of the Middle East and it is why violent face-to-face confrontations have escalated into rocket-firing, air strikes and death.

By Jeremy BowenBBC Middle East editor Just because the conflict has fallen out of international headlines in recent years does not mean that it has ended. The issues do not change, neither does the hatred and bitterness that not years but generations of trouble and killing have engendered. For more than a century, Jews and Arabs have struggled to be the masters of the land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. Israel has inflicted a series of crushing defeats on the Palestinians since it became independent in 1948, but it still cannot win. While the conflict goes on neither side can be secure. The one certainty is that every few years, at least, there will be a serious and violent crisis. The pattern over the past 15 years or so has often involved confrontation across the wire separating Gaza from Israel. This time there has been a reminder that events in Jerusalem and its holy sites have an unmatched capacity to ignite violence. The city's sanctity for Christians, Jews and Muslims is not just a religious matter. The Jewish and Muslim holy places are national symbols too. Geographically they are, literally, a stone's throw apart. The Holy Sepulchre church is close by, on the other side of an Israeli checkpoint, venerated by Palestinian Christians. The triggers included threats to evict Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah. It is a Palestinian neighbourhood outside the walls of the Old City, with land and property claimed by Jewish settler groups in the Israeli courts. That was more than a dispute over a handful of homes. It comes after years of successive Israeli governments pursuing the strategic objective of making Jerusalem more Jewish. Big settlements for Jews were built on occupied land to ring the city, breaking international law. In recent years the government and settler groups have worked to settle Jewish Israelis in Palestinian areas near the walled Old City on a house-by-house basis. Added to that in the past few weeks was heavy-handed Israeli policing of Palestinians during Ramadan, culminating with the use of CS gas and stun grenades inside al-Aqsa mosque, the holiest place for Muslims after Mecca and Medina. Hamas took the unusual step for them of issuing an ultimatum to Israel to remove its forces from the al-Aqsa compound and from Sheikh Jarrah, and then fired rockets at Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted that "the terrorist organisations in Gaza crossed a red line... Israel will respond with great force". Another combination of events could have ended up the same way. Violent events will happen again and again while the conflict is left unresolved. I was asked by a BBC presenter on Monday, as the crisis was escalating, when was the last time I found any sense of hope in Jerusalem that the two sides would find a way to co-exist in peace. I lived in Jerusalem from 1995 to 2000 and have been back since many, many times. Finding an answer was difficult. At the high point of the Oslo peace process in the 1990s there was a brief moment of hope but only residents of Jerusalem who are the wrong side of 40 years old or so will have much of a memory of how it felt. Leaders on both sides have been fighting their own domestic political battles, concentrating on safeguarding their own positions, when the biggest issue for any Palestinian or Israeli leader should be making peace. That challenge has not been addressed seriously for years. Some new ideas have emerged. Two respected think tanks, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the US/Middle East Project have just released a joint report arguing that the first priority should be equal rights and equal security for both Palestinians and Israelis. It says the United States should support "full equality and enfranchisement for all those residing in the territory under Israeli control; it will not endorse two separate and unequal systems". New thinking is good. This week though old realities, familiar rhetoric and the latest inevitable eruption of a century-long conflict are drowning everything else out.

इजरायलियों और फिलिस्तीनियों के बीच हिंसा का नवीनतम दौर हो रहा है क्योंकि दोनों पक्षों के बीच लंबे और अनसुलझे संघर्ष को एक बार फिर बढ़ने के लिए छोड़ दिया गया है। यह मध्य पूर्व के दिल में एक खुला घाव है और यही कारण है कि हिंसक आमने-सामने की झड़पें रॉकेट-फायरिंग, हवाई हमलों और मौतों में बढ़ गई हैं।


'She is beautiful but she is Indian': The student who became a Welsh bard at 19

Summary: An Indian student won acclaim in Wales as a bard and became the first woman to get a law degree from University College London. And although racial prejudice brought a heartbreaking end to a three-year relationship she never went home, writes Andrew Whitehead.

Dorothy Bonarjee was Indian by birth, English by upbringing, French by marriage - and Welsh at heart. To put it another way, she was the perpetual outsider, sometimes by chance, and at other times by choice. Even the moment of her greatest achievement in 1914 - winning one of Wales's most prestigious cultural prizes while still a teenager - is notable above all because she was so obviously not Welsh. In India, Dorothy Bonarjee and her family stood apart, by class, culture and religion. They were upper-caste Bengali brahmins, but Dorothy spent her childhood living a simple life on the family estate hundreds of miles away from Bengal in Rampur, near India's border with Nepal. They were also Christians - her grandfather served as a Scottish pastor in Calcutta (now Kolkata) after being converted by celebrated Scottish missionary Alexander Duff. Dorothy's life changed utterly in 1904 when - along with her brothers, Bertie and Neil - she was sent to London for her schooling. She was just 10 years old. Dorothy's parents - both of whom had spent time in Britain - wanted their children to be, like them, part of the "England returned" who were increasingly running India on behalf of the imperial power. Among the Indian elite, this British experience had "something of the snob value of a peerage in Great Britain," one of the Bonarjee clan remarked. A photograph survives of the three young Bonarjees at about the time they arrived in London. Dorothy looks demure in a white dress with a black ribbon in her hair. Bertie, her older brother, is in a suit and tie. It's a statement of how English they had become - even though the world around would always see them as Indian. Dorothy's father was a barrister as well as a landowner. She was probably closer to her mother, who was a strong advocate of girls' education. Both daughter and mother were active supporters in Britain of votes for women. And thanks to her mother, Dorothy had a privilege rare in either Britain or India a century ago - she was going to get an education just as good as her brothers. "At the time of the First World War, there were about a thousand Indian students at British universities," says Dr Sumita Mukherjee at the University of Bristol, who has written a book about "England returned" Indians. "Around 50 to 70 of these would have been women." In 1912, Dorothy Bonarjee joined this select group. The family had expected Dorothy to go to the University of London. But according to family folklore, she found London too "snobbish" and so opted instead for the University College of Wales in the largely Welsh-speaking seaside town of Aberystwyth. "Where the hell is that?!" her father is said to have exclaimed. But Dorothy got her way. And her brother Bertie also enrolled there - in part to serve as his sister's chaperone. Dorothy's decision may well have been shaped by the progressive reputation of the college. "A major foundational principle for the establishment of the University College at Aberystwyth was that all religious persuasions and cultural backgrounds were welcome," says Dr Susan Davies, an archivist and historian at what is now Aberystwyth University. And the college, the oldest of three forming the University of Wales at that time, also had an impressive record in gender equality. By the time Dorothy arrived there, approaching half the students were women, a much higher proportion than at most British universities at this time. By the time of her graduation ceremony in 1916 - when many of the men were fighting in Flanders and France - women were in a clear majority. Dorothy was clearly a popular student, taking a prominent role in the literary and debating society and helping edit the college journal. Her big moment came in February 1914 at the college's annual Eisteddfod, a pageant and celebration of Welsh culture in which writers and musicians competed for prizes. While this was not as prestigious as the national Eisteddfod, it was a major cultural event in the country's Welsh-speaking heartlands. Entrants for the main competition, poetry in the traditional Welsh style, had a chance to win an imposing hand-carved oak chair. All poems were submitted under pseudonyms. A Welsh newspaper, the Cambria Daily Leader, reported on its front page under the headline Hindu Lady Chaired the "remarkable" scenes when the winner was announced: The highest place was awarded to 'Shita', for an ode written in English, and described as an excellent and highly dramatic treatment of the subject... Miss Bonarjee received a deafening ovation when she stood up and revealed herself as 'Shita'. She was led up to the throne... The 'chairing' ceremony then proceeded amidst great enthusiasm. Dorothy's parents were present to see their 19-year-old daughter's success. Her father was prevailed upon to address the crowd, thanking them for the way they had "received a successful competitor of a different race and country". If India had given birth to a poet, he declared, Wales had educated her and given her an opportunity to develop her poetic instincts. Dorothy Bonarjee was the first foreign student and the first woman to triumph at the college Eisteddfod. This was a landmark achievement - the first woman to win the chair at the national Eisteddfod came as recently as 2001. Emboldened by her success, she contributed poems to journals including The Welsh Outlook, a monthly magazine reflecting and encouraging Welsh cultural nationalism. Even after she left Wales, she continued to publish there. "She loved the Welsh," says her niece Sheela Bonarjee. "She couldn't speak Welsh - so she was always an outsider in that sense. But they did accept her." However, Dorothy endured heartbreak at Aberystwyth as well as acclaim. Sheela Bonarjee still has the battered black exercise book in which her aunt collated her verse. Alongside one of the poems, Dorothy jotted down a note: "Written at the age of 22 when a Welsh student after 3 years of secret engagement dropped me because his parents said 'She is very beautiful and intelligent but she is Indian.'" "It destroyed her. She was distraught," Sheela says, recalling the confidences her aunt shared about that failed romance. "There's a poem of hers that shows the loss of that boyfriend." That poem is called Renunciation: So I must give thee up - not with the glow Of those who losing much yet rather gain. But losing all. Did never martyr go Along the bleeding road of useless pain? Did never one held prisoner by a creed, Obsessed by stern heroic ghosts, made dumb By those who answered duty to his need, With faithless loathing feet to his fate come? Dorothy had got used to being the outsider but there could be a painful price to pay for being different. Her younger brother, Neil, later studied at Oxford - and came across a wall of prejudice there. "Indians in general, it must be said, along with other coloured races were not popular in the University," he wrote. His English fellow students "had something which I had not, namely an Empire. They possessed, while I only belonged." Dorothy was undaunted. From Aberystwyth, she and Bertie returned to London where both took a second degree course. Again, she was a trailblazer - the first woman student at University College London to be awarded a law degree. The family then expected the youngsters to return and make their lives and careers in India. Her brothers dutifully got on the boat. Dorothy rebelled. She was caught between different cultures and social values. She was free-spirited and committed to women's equality - not someone who would easily consent to a marriage arranged by her family in India. So she eloped with a French artist, Paul Surtel. Her father was furious; her mother seems to have been more understanding. The couple married in 1921, and settled in the south of France. While Surtel gained distinction as a painter, his wife largely retreated from public view. They had two children, one of whom died in infancy, but by the mid-1930s the marriage was over. "Nothing is more wearing morally," Dorothy commented, "than a weak husband." Her family pleaded with her to return to India. Once again she refused - a decision she seems later to have regretted. Her father eventually bought her a small vineyard at Gonferon in Provence to serve as both home and livelihood. Money was tight. This was not the life of ease she might have hoped for. She never remarried. Sheela Bonarjee followed in her aunt's footsteps from India to London in the 1950s, and made several visits to the south of France. She remembers her "Auntie Dorf" as elegant, confident and unconventional. In some ways she was very French, Sheela recalls. "She had wine with every meal, which for me as an Indian was very strange and at times I wondered why I was so sleepy all day." But she spoke French with a pronounced accent. Dorothy Bonarjee kept in touch with her Welsh friends all her life. In her old age, she paid a pilgrimage to her old university. "I went with her to Aberystwyth - that must have been in her 80s," Sheela Bonarjee recalls of a trip more than 40 years ago. "It was an important visit for her - to have her memories." She now has the distinction of a place in the Dictionary of Welsh Biography, the only person of Indian origin among almost 5,000 entries. It's written by Dr Beth Jenkins of the University of Essex. "Dorothy certainly embraced Welsh national culture," she argues, "and contributed significantly to it during her time in Aberystwyth." Dorothy lived to almost 90. But she never set foot in India again after leaving as a young girl. The Indian side of her remained important, though. On high days and holidays she would delight her French neighbours by dressing up in a sari. But she was in many ways more French, more English, perhaps even more Welsh, than she was Indian. And everywhere, she was always the outsider. You may also be interested in: When a health emergency prompted Nathan Romburgh and his sisters to look into their family history, decades after the end of apartheid, they uncovered a closely guarded secret that made them question their own identity. Separated at birth: Was my mother given away because she looked white?

एक भारतीय छात्रा ने वेल्स में एक बार्ड के रूप में प्रशंसा प्राप्त की और यूनिवर्सिटी कॉलेज लंदन से कानून की डिग्री प्राप्त करने वाली पहली महिला बन गई। और हालांकि नस्लीय पूर्वाग्रह ने तीन साल के रिश्ते का दिल दहला देने वाला अंत कर दिया, लेकिन वह कभी घर नहीं गई, एंड्रयू व्हाइटहेड लिखते हैं।


Thai cave: Artists' huge mural honours rescue heroes

Summary: A giant mural entitled The Heroes has been created in Chiang Rai, Thailand, to honour the rescue operation that saved 12 young footballers and their coach, who were trapped in a cave for over a fortnight.

The artwork was created by a team of local artists, and prominently features Saman Gunan (seen below), the former Thai Navy SEAL diver who died helping the rescue operation to save the Wild Boars soccer team. The mural is being displayed at Art Bridge, a private gallery in northern Thailand, as part of an exhibition dedicated to the successful rescue operation. Also featured is a statue of Saman Gunan, with the 12 boys and their football coach represented by a wild boar and piglets at his feet. The boys and their football coach became trapped in the Tham Luang cave on 23 June, and were discovered by rescue divers 4km (2.5 miles) from the cave mouth on 2 July. The last of them were finally rescued on 10 July. The mural features some of the rescuers who played major roles in getting the trapped team out alive, including British diver Rick Stanton, seen below. Stanton and fellow British diver John Volanthen (below), were first to reach the boys and their coach after they had been trapped for nine days. Mr Stanton told reporters: "This was completely uncharted, unprecedented territory and nothing like this has been done. So, of course there were doubts." On his return to the UK, Mr Volanthen told reporters: "We were very relieved that they were all alive but I think at that point we realised the enormity of the situation and that's perhaps why it took a while to get them all out." British diver Vern Unsworth, below, also features on the mural. Fortunately for the rescue effort, Mr Unsworth had explored the Tham Luang cave complex extensively, and lives nearby. In pictures: Thai artists' huge mural of cave rescue heroes Another British diver on the mural (below) is Robert Charles Harper, who has been caving since 1968. Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn, the head of the rescue mission, is also featured - complete with a distinctive cap. Addressing the future of the cave complex, Mr Narongsak said: "The area will become a living museum, to show how the operation unfolded. "An interactive database will be set up. It will become another major attraction for Thailand." .

एक पखवाड़े से अधिक समय से गुफा में फंसे 12 युवा फुटबॉलरों और उनके कोच को बचाने के बचाव अभियान के सम्मान में थाईलैंड के चियांग राय में द हीरोज नामक एक विशाल भित्ति चित्र बनाया गया है।


Grenfell Tower: What happened

Summary: The fire which destroyed Grenfell Tower in June 2017 was one of the UK's worst modern disasters.

Just before 01:00 on 14 June, fire broke out in the kitchen of a fourth floor flat at the 23 storey tower block in North Kensington, West London. Within minutes, the fire had raced up the exterior of the building and then spread to all four sides. By 03:00, most of the upper floors were well alight. Seventy-two people died. Here is how events unfolded that night. This page was originally published in 2017 and has been updated as further details have emerged from official reports. It contains graphic images of the fire. What happened on the night? How the fire started The fire began "in or around" a Hotpoint fridge-freezer in flat 16 on the fourth floor, according to a provisional report by Dr Niamh Nic Daéid, director of the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science at Dundee University. Her report contains extracts from a witness statement by flat occupant Behailu Kebede, who described being woken by the sound of a smoke alarm. He went into the kitchen and saw smoke in the area of the fridge-freezer and near the kitchen window. Mr Kebede immediately called the fire brigade, which logged the call at 00:54. Four fire engines were sent to the scene, the first arriving at 00:59. The first fire crew entered the flat at 01:07 - an approximate timing taken from a thermal imaging camera. They initially searched the bedrooms and did not enter the kitchen until 01:14. In the kitchen, firefighter Daniel Brown described seeing an "isolated curtain of flame from about 2-3 feet in the air to the ceiling". Thermal images captured by the fire crew appear to show that "hot fire gases and flames had spread across the window space". As the fire crew dealt with the fire in the fridge-freezer, their thermal images also appear to show falling embers outside the kitchen window. Mobile phone images taken by Mr Kebede from outside Grenfell Tower approximately 11 minutes after his first 999 call show an orange glow of flames around the kitchen window, and later a fire burning more intensely in the area of the window filler panel and extractor fan. Subsequent photos by Mr Kebede suggest that the "fire was continuing to develop and grow", Dr Nic Daéid reports, by 01:09 becoming "external to the building". Although the timings provided are approximate, it appears that the fire had spread to the cladding before the firefighters had entered the kitchen. Dr Nic Daéid's provisional report also identifies "unknown materials" stored between the freezer and wall which "may have become involved in the fire in the early stages of its development". Among these materials was an item described as an "electric cooking device" or "large hot plate". In another report, fire expert Professor Luke Bisby expressed his view that the likely reason for the fire spreading beyond the kitchen was that flame and hot gases penetrated the internal window frame. How the fire spread From the fourth floor, the fire spread rapidly upwards and across the eastern side of the building. From there, it spread across the north face of the tower. Mobile phone videos show the blaze reaching the top floor on the east side of Grenfell Tower by about 01:26, less than 30 minutes after firefighters had arrived. In a report to the Grenfell Public Inquiry, fire safety engineer Dr Barbara Lane identified the fire spreading vertically up the tower columns, and "laterally along the cladding above and below the window lines (and) the panels between windows." The fire had spread to the north side of the tower by 01:42, Dr Lane recorded. At 01:52, the fire also began travelling across the eastern side towards the south in the other direction. At 02:06, London Fire Brigade declared the fire a "major incident". At this point, some 40 fire engines were either at or en route to the scene. Grenfell Tower had a 'stay put' fire policy - essentially, the building design would contain a fire in a single flat for as long as it took fire crews to bring it under control. So on the night, many residents were told to remain in their flats by the emergency services, only to become trapped as the fire blazed out of control and thick poisonous smoke spread up the single narrow stairwell. Dr Lane said that the stay put policy had "substantially failed" by 01:26 - less than 30 minutes after the first firefighters were at the scene. Some people ignored the stay put advice and made it down the stairs to safety. A total of 65 people were rescued from the building by firefighters. But in desperation, other residents went upwards and sought refuge in flats of friends and neighbours on the upper floors. Twenty-four people died on the top floor of the tower block. By 02:10, multiple internal fires could be seen burning inside the building. At 02:22 fire had spread to the south side of the tower and by 02:30 it was reported that the eastern side of the building was "fully involved in fire". The stay put advice was finally abandoned at 02:47, when the incident commander gave the order to "advise people to make efforts to leave the building." Counsel to the Grenfell inquiry Richard Millet QC told the 4 June 2018 hearing that 144 people managed to evacuate before 01:38, but only 36 after the stay put guidance was abandoned. By 02:51, the fire had reached the western side. At this point, some 63 flats were on fire and more than 100 people remained in the building. At 04:30 the whole building was engulfed, with more than 100 flats on fire. The blaze did not burn itself out until 01:14 BST on Thursday - 24 hours later. What caused the fire to spread so quickly? The most significant part of the renovation of Grenfell Tower was the addition of external cladding. This consisted of aluminium sheets bonded to a central plastic (polyethylene) core. In his report to the public inquiry, Professor Luke Bisby said evidence "strongly supports" the theory that the polyethylene material in the cladding was the primary cause of the fire's spread. "The ACM (aluminium composite material) product on Grenfell Tower incorporates a highly combustible polyethylene polymer filler which melts, drips, and flows at elevated temperature. The polyethylene filler material is expected to release large amounts of energy during combustion". His report also suggests that vertical cavities within the cladding structure played a role in the spread of the fire, as did the insulation, although evidence was inconclusive. A number of other flammable materials, including a polyurethane polymer foam insulation board which pre-dated the refurbishment were also present and may have contributed, Prof. Bisby found. In her report, fire expert Dr Barbara Lane identifies combustible materials used in the refurbishment of the tower's windows as another factor in allowing the fire to spread. The Grenfell Inquiry has also heard that the building's smoke extraction system was not working, and that firefighters experienced problems with the water supply because there was no 'wet riser' - a water-filled pipe running up the building to be used in the event of fire. Giving evidence to the inquiry, Dr Lane said exposed gas pipes installed in 2016 were another contributory factor, while none of the flat doors met current fire resistance standards. Work done on the lifts in 2005 and 2012-16 left them unfit for evacuating vulnerable residents and aiding the emergency response, Dr Lane said. Who were the victims? The final death toll from the blaze is now recorded as 72 people. They include six members of the Choucair Family and five members of the Hashim Family, who lived on the 22nd floor. Five members of the El-Wahabi family died on the 21st floor. The youngest victim was six-month old baby Leena Belkadi, who died in her mother's arms as she tried to escape. Other young victims included Jeremiah Deen, 2, Isaac Paulos, 5, Hania Hassan, 5, and her sister Fethia, 3, and twelve-year olds Biruk Haftom and Jessica Urbano-Ramirez. The oldest victim is believed to be 84-year-old Sheila from the 16th floor, who had lived in Grenfell Tower for 34 years. Baby Logan Gomes, who was stillborn in hospital on 14 June the morning after the fire, is also included in the toll. The final victim was Maria Del Pilar Burton, who suffered from serious long-term health issues, and died in hospital in January 2018. What kind of building was Grenfell Tower? Grenfell Tower was part of the Lancaster West Estate, a social housing complex of almost 1,000 homes. The tower was built in the 1970s, but recently renovated. An £8.6m refurbishment - part of a wider transformation of the estate - was completed by Rydon Construction in May 2016. Work included new exterior cladding, replacement windows and a communal heating system. The bottom four floors were also remodelled, creating seven additional homes and improvements to communal facilities. There were 129 flats across 21 residential floors and three levels of mixed use. The tower was managed by the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) on behalf of the council. How is the fire and its causes being investigated? After the fire a massive search and recovery operation led by the Met, City of London and British Transport Police began immediately. Specially trained officers thoroughly searched every single flat, examining some 15.5 tonnes of debris on each floor, helped by forensic anthropologists, archaeologists and forensic dentists or odontologists. The Met Police are looking into offences including manslaughter, corporate manslaughter, misconduct in public office and breaches of fire safety regulations in relation to the fire. The force has already gathered 31 million documents and 2,500 physical exhibits. Some 1,144 witnesses have given statements and 383 companies are part of the investigation. A public inquiry, ordered by former Prime Minister Theresa May, is under way. Lawyers representing survivors and relatives of the victims began giving evidence in December 2017. Phase one of the inquiry, which examined what happened on the night, was released in October 2019 and found 'systemic failures' in London Fire Brigade's response. Phase two, which will look at the building's refurbishment and external cladding, is due to begin in January 2020. Produced by the Visual Journalism team

जून 2017 में ग्रेनफेल टावर को नष्ट करने वाली आग ब्रिटेन की सबसे खराब आधुनिक आपदाओं में से एक थी।


Why are millions of Indian women dropping out of work?

Summary: Why are millions of women dropping out of work in India?

Soutik BiswasIndia correspondent The numbers are stark - for the first time in India's recent history, not only was there a decline in the female labour participation rate, but also a shrinking of the total number of women in the workforce. Using data gleaned from successive rounds of National Sample Survey Organisation and census data, a team of researchers from World Bank have attempted to find out why this is happening. "These are significant matters of concern. As India poises itself to increase economic growth and foster development, it is necessary to ensure that its labour force becomes fully inclusive of women," says the study, authored by Luis A Andres, Basab Dasgupta, George Joseph, Vinoj Abraham and Maria Correia. So what accounts for the unprecedented and puzzling drop in women's participation in the workforce - at a time when India's economy has grown at a steady pace? Predictable social norms are attributed to women quitting work in India: marriage, motherhood, vexed gender relations and biases, and patriarchy. But they may not be the only reasons. Marriage, for example, does affect the rate of participation of women in the workforce. But in villages, the workforce participation rate of married women has been found to be higher than that of unmarried women - whereas in the cities, the situation is reversed. Significantly, rising aspirations and relative prosperity may be actually responsible for putting a large cohort of women out of work in India. Remember, the largest drop has been in the villages. After calculating the labour force participation rates and educational participation rates (young women in schools) the researchers believe that one plausible explanation for the drop in the participation rate among rural girls and women aged 15-24 is the recent expansion of secondary education and rapidly changing social norms leading to "more working age young females opting to continue their education rather than join the labour force early". The study says there has been a "larger response to income changes among the poor, rather than the wealthy, by sending children to school". Also, casual workers - mainly women - drop out of the workforce when wages increased for regular earners - mainly men - leading to the stabilisation of family incomes. "Improved stability in family income can be understood as a disincentive for female household members to join the labour force," says the study. "This largely resonates with the existing literature, which suggests that with rising household income levels, women in rural India withdraw from paid labour and engage in status production at home." But dropping or opting out of the workforce to go to school and get an education may not ensure that these women will eventually go to work. After studying the relationship with the female labour participation rate and levels of educational achievements, the researchers found that having a high school-level education was "not found to be an incentive for women" to work. The lowest rate of participation is among those who had secured school and high school education in the cities and villages. And the rate is actually highest among illiterates and college graduates. But there has been a general drop in the rate in recent years, indicating that irrespective of educational attainments, "the incentive for women to participate in the workforce has declined over this period". Read also To be sure, India has a poor record of female participation in the workforce: the International Labour Organisation ranked it 121 out of 131 countries in 2013, one of the lowest in the world. Also, India is not an outlier when it comes to women dropping out of the workforce. Between 2004 and 2012, the female labour force participation rate in China dropped from 68% to 64%, but the participation rate remains very high compared with India. In neighbouring Sri Lanka, for example, the participation rate has dropped, but only by 2%. "India stands out because of a such a sharp decline within such a short period. In levels, it is very low in international rankings now," the researchers told me. Clearly women need better and more suitable job opportunities, outside agriculture. Rural labour markets need to offer jobs that are acceptable and attractive to women and their families. The World Bank study suggests that gains will not be realised unless social norms around women's - and men's - work also change: "Strategies to communicate the importance of women's work should take into account the roles of women, husbands and in-laws." Also, as another study says, the "ongoing decrease in the availability of farm-based work, has led to women focusing on economic activities within their households". Should home-based workers then be counted as members of the labour force?

भारत में लाखों महिलाएं काम क्यों छोड़ रही हैं?


India election 2019: Are fears of a mass hack credible?

Summary: With 800 million voters and nearly 2,000 political parties taking part, India's elections are a staggeringly challenging exercise. And at the heart of the credibility of these complex elections is the robustness and integrity of the vote count.

Soutik BiswasIndia correspondent For decades voting was blighted by the capture of polling stations and stuffing of ballot boxes by mobs hired by political parties. All this changed with the introduction of the electronic voting machines at the turn of the century. However, from time to time, doubts have been raised about the machines. Parties, usually on the losing side, have often cavalierly alleged that the machines can be hacked into and ballots rigged. With national elections looming in the summer, such doubts have emerged again. Last week, India's election authorities rejected claims by a US-based technologist who said the machines were hacked during the 2014 general elections in which Narendra Modi's right-wing BJP party swept to power. But credible concerns about the technology used in the machines have persisted. There have been at least seven challenges in the courts but India's election authorities have steadfastly defended the machines as tamper-proof. Each of India's 1.6 million voting machines record a maximum of 2,000 votes (the number of registered voters at any given polling booth does not exceed 1,500) and 64 candidates. The locally-made machines run on batteries and can be used in areas without electricity. The software was designed by a group of engineers at a state-run electronics firm, and authorities insist that the machines and their records are not accessible to anyone outside this group. Voters cast their ballots by pressing a button on the machine. Another button allows poll officials to stop the machine from recording more votes - this is used at the end of polling or if anybody tries to forcibly enter a polling station with the intention of casting fraudulent votes. To prevent anyone tampering with the unit that holds the voting information, it is sealed with old-fashioned wax, supplemented by a secure strip from the election commission and a serial number. The voting machines have so far been used in three federal and 113 state elections. They save time: results from machines in a single parliamentary seat are available within three to five hours, down from 40 hours when ballots were counted manually. The machines have also eliminated "invalid" votes and led to huge cost savings. Research has shown that the voting machines have significantly reduced electoral fraud and human error and been generally beneficial for India's democracy. Using data from state elections, researchers Sisir Debnath, Mudit Kapoor and Shamika Ravi studied the impact of the voting machines in a 2017 research paper. They found that the machines had significantly reduced electoral fraud, helped the poor and the weak to come out and vote, and made elections more competitive. They also found e-voting had led to a decline in the vote shares of incumbent parties. India's election authorities have steadfastly maintained that the voting machines cannot be tampered with, and physical tampering is easily detectable. From time to time, these claims have been contested. Eight years ago, University of Michigan scientists connected a home-made device to a machine and were able to change results by sending text messages from a mobile phone. Indian authorities rubbished the claim, saying that even getting hold of machines to tamper with would very difficult. Experts like Dhiraj Sinha of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) believe that hacking tens of thousands of voting machines on a mass scale would require lots of money, involve both those who make the machines and authorities - in this case India's election commission - and require the use of a very small receiver circuit with an efficient antenna "which would remain invisible to the human eye". To enable wireless hacking, he says, the machine would need to have a radio receiver containing an electronic circuit and an antenna. Authorities claim the Indian machines do not have such a circuit element. In short, carrying out a mass hack would be next to impossible. Some 33 countries use some form of electronic voting. The integrity of the machines has been questioned in some of them. Machines used in the 2017 elections in Venezuela allegedly inflated the actual turnout by at least a million votes, a claim rejected by the government. Argentina's politicians rejected plans for e-voting in the same year, raising concerns over ballot secrecy and manipulation of results. A partial recount of votes was carried out in parliamentary elections in Iraq in 2018, following reports of technical glitches in electronic machines. Last December, e-voting machines became a source of contention in presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo amid reports they had not been thoroughly tested. In the US, where voting machines were introduced some 15 years ago - there is now about 35,000 of them in use - there have been concerns over machines with no back-up paper trail misreading the vote. Machines used to tally results and programme voting machines were found be to be carrying software allowing remote access to system administrators. "My general opinion is that we should get as much technology out of the process as possible," Duncan Buell, a professor of computer science at the University of South Carolina who has been studying e-voting systems, told me. "Software is very hard to get right, and with an intent to have votes not be identified with voters, there is no good way to verify that things have worked as intended." However things may be moving in the right direction in India in efforts to make elections more transparent and trustworthy. Five years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that all machines should be equipped with printers producing voter-verifiable paper audit trails. When a vote is cast, a paper slip is printed containing the serial number, name and symbol of the candidate and remains exposed through a transparent window for seven seconds. After this, this slip automatically gets cut and falls into a sealed drop box. Authorities have decided to tally the paper trail slips and compare them with the electronic result provided by the machine in at least 5% of booths in assembly seats. And since a full manual paper trail tally could be prohibitively expensive and time consuming, researchers have offered risk-limiting audits which could provide "high confidence in Indian election results." For the moment, former election chief SY Quraishi believes the paper trail should put to rest all doubts in the minds of voters and political parties. Since 2015, all state polls have been held using paper trails. In these elections paper slips generated by some 1,500 machines were counted and tallied with the votes in the voting machines. "There was not one mismatch," he said.

80 करोड़ मतदाताओं और लगभग 2,000 राजनीतिक दलों के भाग लेने के साथ, भारत के चुनाव एक चौंका देने वाली चुनौतीपूर्ण कवायद है। और इन जटिल चुनावों की विश्वसनीयता के केंद्र में मतों की गिनती की मजबूती और अखंडता है।


Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival opens

Summary: The 16th Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival has opened.

Held on the Belladrum Estate near Beauly, it is the Highlands' biggest music event with capacity for 20,000 people. This year's headline acts include Elbow, Chvrches, Lewis Capaldi and Tom Odell. Singer Jess Glynne is to bring the festival to a close on Saturday night.

16वां बेलाड्रम टार्टन हार्ट फेस्टिवल शुरू हो गया है।


The global philosopher: Who should pay for climate change?

Summary: Most climate scientists think the world is getting warmer and that humans are at least in part responsible. Almost every country in the world has pledged to make efforts to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere in order to prevent dangerous "interference with the climate system". But exactly how to do this raises interesting questions about fairness.

To discuss them, we put Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel in a state-of-the-art digital studio - connected to 60 people in 30 countries. Here producer David Edmonds outlines three key puzzles. Who is responsible? We have been pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in ever increasing quantities since the industrial revolution. Some countries in the developed world are, of course, responsible for the bulk of this. Since 1850 the US and the nations which are now the EU have been responsible for more than 50% of the world's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. So shouldn't they pay to fix the problem? The inhabitants of The Maldives - made up of more than 1,200 islands, most of which are no more than one metre above sea level - are already feeling the effects of climate change. They are victims. But they didn't cause the problem. Should those countries with historical responsibility for emissions be obliged to compensate The Maldives? The old industrialised world might respond that for much of the period since the 1850s nobody knew about man-made global warming. Does that mitigate its responsibility? And why should the current generation be punished for the crimes of its forebears? Is that really fair? Then there's the question of who's polluting now - when we do know the damage it's doing. China belts out more CO2 than the United States, and the gap between the two is expected to grow as China continues to develop. So perhaps it is China, not the United States, which should bear the greatest burden? Or, yet another possibility, surely the fairest solution would be a per capita arrangement? China now emits more than the US because its population is four times the size. But on average, each Chinese citizen is much poorer than each American, and with a much smaller environmental footprint. These are the sorts of questions which have dogged global climate change summits. And you can see why. Is carbon trading a good idea? One brilliantly innovative way to deal with global warming emissions is carbon trading. Here, broadly, is the idea. Countries (or states, or companies), are given an allowance to emit a certain amount of the gases that cause climate change - CO2 for example. If a country wants to go beyond its allowance, it can buy the right to emit from other countries, which will compensate by cutting their emissions. If this market-based system works as it's supposed to, it's an efficient and cost-effective way of cutting overall emissions. Emissions can be trimmed in countries where it's cheap to do so, rather than in countries where it's expensive and difficult. But even if the market is effective, is its use appropriate? Some have compared carbon trading to the Roman Catholic medieval practice of allowing individuals to pay money to reduce punishment for a sin. A tongue-in-cheek website - cheatneutral.com - allows people who are sexually unfaithful to their partners to "offset" their cheating by "finding someone else to be faithful and NOT cheat". Is that really what we're doing when we trade carbon? If it works, does it matter? Should we consume less anyway? Technology is advancing at breakneck speed. Suppose there were technological fixes for climate change and ecological damage. In other words, suppose that we didn't need to worry about how much we consumed. In this future world, we can carry on munching and guzzling and buying more and more at no environmental cost. We can fly more, watch bigger televisions, generally own more stuff. Would this be an unqualified good? To some this would be a utopia. To others, and they include Pope Francis, it would not. What's required, he wrote in a recent encyclical, is a complete revolution in our attitude towards the environment. We shouldn't regard the environment as of mere instrumental value. We should consider it with awe and wonder. "If we approach nature and the environment without this openness to awe and wonder… our attitude will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on [our] immediate needs." If the Pope's right, then a scientific answer to climate change might, in one way, be a cause of regret. It would deprive us of the incentive to change our mindset, to readjust our relationship to the countryside and wildlife. Find out more The Global Philosopher: Should the rich world pay for climate change? is on Radio 4 at 09:00 on Thursday 28 July. You can listen later online or watch the debate here. These three issues hardly exhaust the philosophy of climate change and the environment. There are all sorts of other issues. We might ask ourselves whether, as individuals, we have any responsibility for the future, since the impact any one of us can have is negligible. We might wonder whether our obligation to people yet unborn is less important than our obligation to those already alive. These are all tough questions, questions which are essentially philosophical in nature. But they're also questions we need to address, discuss and resolve, if we're to deal with climate change and its consequences. Step forward, the Global Philosopher… Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

अधिकांश जलवायु वैज्ञानिकों का मानना है कि दुनिया गर्म हो रही है और मनुष्य कम से कम कुछ हद तक जिम्मेदार हैं। दुनिया के लगभग हर देश ने वातावरण में ग्रीनहाउस गैस की सांद्रता को स्थिर करने के लिए प्रयास करने का संकल्प लिया है ताकि खतरनाक "जलवायु प्रणाली में हस्तक्षेप" को रोका जा सके। लेकिन वास्तव में यह कैसे किया जाए, यह निष्पक्षता के बारे में दिलचस्प सवाल उठाता है।


Police investigating four possible drug deaths in Belfast

Summary: Police are investigating four possible drug-related deaths in Belfast.

By Kevin SharkeyBBC News NI All four people lost their lives during the Christmas holidays. Det Supt Bobby Singleton said: "The loss of a loved one is devastating for a family whatever the time of year but especially over the holiday period and our thoughts are first and foremost with those affected by these tragic deaths." He also appealed to the public for help to bring drug dealers to justice. "While the cause of death is not definitively known in any of the four deaths in Belfast, the use of illicit drugs along with prescription drugs may be a factor," said Mr Singleton. "The vast majority of drug-related deaths in Northern Ireland occur when someone has taken more than one substance including alcohol." He added: "We are committed to restricting the availability of illicit drugs in our communities and have had significant success throughout 2018. "If you see or know of anyone who is dealing drugs in your local area, contact your local police."

पुलिस बेलफास्ट में नशीली दवाओं से संबंधित चार संभावित मौतों की जांच कर रही है।


Canada election: First week begins with a crash

Summary: Candidates have been on the campaign trail for a week and all the federal leaders have kicked off their campaigns with appeals to people's pocketbooks, announcing policies related to housing, childcare, household savings, parental benefits, and taxes.

Cost of living and affordability are top issues for Canadian voters this campaign. But other topics have also emerged as dominant issues, including the contentious secularism bill passed by Quebec earlier this year. Where do leaders stand on Bill 21? It was one of the first questions launched at Liberal leader Justin Trudeau this week, and subsequently all other leaders have had to come up with their response: What should be done about Bill 21? The controversial legislation, which was passed by the province of Quebec in June, bars civil servants in positions of "authority" from wearing religious symbols at work like judges, police officers, teachers and other public figures. Critics say it is discriminatory, will make it more difficult for religious minorities to integrate into Quebec society, and that it unfairly targets Muslim women. But many Quebecers support the controversial law, which puts all political leaders in a sticky spot, since the province - with 78 of the 338 seats in the House of Commons - will be a crucial battleground this election. To varying degrees, all the federal leaders have spoken out against the legislation though the Bloc Quebecois, a federal sovereignist party that only runs candidates in Quebec, support the bill. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, a practising Sikh who wears a turban, has called his own presence in Quebec an "act of defiance" against the bill. But despite critical words, party leaders say they will let court battles launched in Quebec against the bill play out - keeping their hands out of Quebec's affairs. Mr Trudeau has gone the furthest in his statements on Bill 21, saying last week he wouldn't "close the door on intervening" down the road. Why hesitate? If Mr Trudeau takes too strong a stance against the law, he could alienate some Quebec voters. Trudeau's campaign plane mishap The election got off the a flying start even if Mr Trudeau's plane was grounded by a scraped wing on the first day of the campaign. It was not unprecedented in Canadian election history - something similar happened to Mr Trudeau's father, former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 39 years ago. Empty podium Liberal leader Justin Trudeau did not attend the first leaders debate of the election, hosted by Maclean's / CityTV last Thursday,. His absence was marked by an empty podium. Candidate switcheroo With the Green party nipping at the heels of the New Democrats (NDP) in the polls, there is a clear rivalry emerging between the two left-leaning parties. The latest in their tit-for-tat saga is that the NDP has recruited Éric Ferland, a former a former head of the Green Party in Quebec, to run against Pierre Nantel, who quit the NDP to join the Greens in August. Shortly after he quit, the provincial Green Party leader of New Brunswick said 14 NDP provincial candidates were switching to the Green Party because they were unhappy with Mr Singh's federal leadership. Many who were initially named as part of the exodus said the claim was not true, which led federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May to accuse the federal NDP of using "strong-arm tactics" to get those candidates back in the fold. Will the real Maxime Bernier please stand up? MP Maxime Bernier made quite the splash when he quit the Conservative Party to form the right-wing People's Party of Canda last year. Now, the Rhinoceros Party, a fringe satirical - but real - federal party plans to field a candidate to run against him named... Maxime Bernier. The Rhinoceros Party's Mr Bernier says he would make a vasectomy mandatory for men over the age of 16 so that "Canada will be a world leader in the fight against climate change". Reuters noted in their piece on the candidate that PPC's Bernier does not believe in climate change.

उम्मीदवार एक सप्ताह से अभियान की राह पर हैं और सभी संघीय नेताओं ने लोगों की पॉकेटबुक से अपील करते हुए, आवास, बच्चों की देखभाल, घरेलू बचत, माता-पिता के लाभ और करों से संबंधित नीतियों की घोषणा करते हुए अपने अभियानों की शुरुआत की है।


Grooming tips from the man with the longest moustache

Summary: Ram Singh Chauhan of India is the proud owner of the world's longest moustache, officially recorded by Guinness World Records as 4.29m (14ft) long. But what is the secret of his success? Here he offers five tips.

By Rupa Jha and Bethan JinkinsonBBC World Service 1. Start growing early - as soon as you can. Chauhan, now 54, started growing his moustache in 1970 - facial hair grows fastest in one's youth, he says. "As you grow old your hormones grow weak, so the speed slows down." And, of course, he has never cut it, "apart from trimming around the lip area". Steve Parsons of the British-based Handlebar Club seconds this advice, as a young man's facial hair is more durable than that of an elderly man. "As moustache hair goes white it starts to become more brittle and is more likely break off," says Parsons. 2. Groom it well. Chauhan spends an hour every day cleaning and combing his moustache. "I massage it and oil it regularly and I wash it every 10 days which takes a long time," he says. "My wife helps me." He uses a coconut-based hair oil. Parsons, who himself sports an elaborate handlebar moustache, recommends leave-in conditioner as an antidote for troublesome split ends. "You can also use pomades or beeswax but that requires a good wash to get it out. Our advice? Dip it in beer on a regular basis," he says. Rod Littlewood, vice-president of the World Beard and Moustache Association, says it's best for the moustachioed to avoid eating some food in public. "Candy floss is a horror!" 3. Get your family on side. Chauhan's wife Asha says they used to fight over his moustache in the early years. "He used to take a long time to get ready, to wash and also people used to stare at him," she says. She didn't feel comfortable. But later, as he started getting recognition for his long moustache, she started to like it and to respect his commitment. Now, she says, the moustache is like a part of the family and she shares his pride in it. Parsons, meanwhile, admits that his wife is not the greatest fan of his lip furniture, but he has a good riposte: "I always say kissing a man without a moustache is like drinking champagne without the bubbles." 4. Endure any discomfort. Chauhan says life is not easy with such a long moustache. When it was shorter, he used to wrap it around his ears. Now it's longer, he wraps it around his neck. Sleeping can be uncomfortable but he says there's no gain without pain and he wouldn't want it any other way. "I am special with my moustache, and I have never dreamt of being without it." The Movember charity, which encourages men to grow their moustaches in November to raise awareness of men's health issues, acknowledges that new moustaches can be itchy when they start growing. Movember co-founder JC advises men to ignore the itch and be brave. "Remind yourself that other men have endured worse in the past. Surely you can stand a little face tickle from your mo?" 5. Don't be a slave to fashion. When he was younger, Chauhan says, moustaches were very much in vogue in his home country. He earned a lot of respect from fellow students at college, but finds the youth of today have little interest in facial hair. "My own son doesn't have one," he says regretfully. But in the UK, the Handlebar Club says it has noticed a resurgence in bewhiskered men. The popularity of Movember, which last year inspired more than 850,000 men in 14 countries to grow a moustache, is definitely a factor, says Parsons. "We used to attract the older gentlemen but recently our membership has got younger. At our last AGM we had lots of men in their 20s and 30s." Ram Singh Chauhan was interviewed for the BBC World Service programme Outlook.

भारत के राम सिंह चौहान दुनिया की सबसे लंबी मूंछ के गर्वित मालिक हैं, जिसे आधिकारिक तौर पर गिनीज वर्ल्ड रिकॉर्ड्स द्वारा 4.29m (14 फीट) लंबी के रूप में दर्ज किया गया है। लेकिन उनकी सफलता का रहस्य क्या है? यहाँ वे पाँच सुझाव देते हैं।


Margaret Thatcher: View from the entertainment world

Summary: Figures from the arts and entertainment world have given their reaction to the death of Baroness Thatcher who has died at the age of 87 following a stroke.

The former Prime Minister was famously played by Meryl Streep who won an Oscar for her performance in The Iron Lady. In a statement, Streep called her "a figure of awe for her personal strength and grit". Artist Richard Stone, who painted her on several occasions, said: "Her kindness is my abiding memory of her." Here are a selection of reactions. Meryl Streep, actress Margaret Thatcher was a pioneer, willingly or unwillingly, for the role of women in politics. It is hard to imagine a part of our current history that has not been affected by measures she put forward in the UK at the end of the 20th Century. Her hard-nosed fiscal measures took a toll on the poor, and her hands-off approach to financial regulation led to great wealth for others. There is an argument that her steadfast, almost emotional loyalty to the pound sterling has helped the UK weather the storms of European monetary uncertainty. But to me she was a figure of awe for her personal strength and grit. To have come up, legitimately, through the ranks of the British political system, class bound and gender phobic as it was, in the time that she did and the way that she did, was a formidable achievement. To have won it, not because she inherited position as the daughter of a great man, or the widow of an important man, but by dint of her own striving. To have withstood the special hatred and ridicule, unprecedented in my opinion, levelled in our time at a public figure who was not a mass murderer; and to have managed to keep her convictions attached to fervent ideals and ideas - wrongheaded or misguided as we might see them now - without corruption, I see that as evidence of some kind of greatness, worthy for the argument of history to settle. To have given women and girls around the world reason to supplant fantasies of being princesses with a different dream: the real-life option of leading their nation; this was groundbreaking and admirable. I was honoured to try to imagine her late life journey after power; but I have only a glancing understanding of what her many struggles were, and how she managed to sail through to the other side. I wish to convey my respectful condolences to her family and many friends. Speaking to the BBC last year, Nallon said: "I used to do a question and answer with the audience - I had no act, I just dressed as Thatcher and went out to take questions. So, the difficulty, once I'd got the voice, was to know everything about her. If I went on Mastermind, [she] would be my specialist subject. I think with Thatcher, you either loved her or hated her. She was either a figure of fun or an iconic hero but the truth is always more complicated. Looking back now, perhaps her legacy is Tony Blair rather than David Cameron. The fact that nobody dismantled politically what she achieved. I painted Lady Thatcher six times. Her kindness is my abiding memory of her, and her thoughtfulness. She was lovely and she was also the perfect sitter, that's what comes out. Sittings were at her home, at her office in the House of Lords and in my studio. My wife is brilliant at keeping an archive - she's pulled out some notes I made about painting her. She last sat for me in 2009 for the official Downing Street portrait commissioned by Gordon Brown, as well as a portrait for the Reagan Presidential Library in California. Here is what I wrote: "I do hope that the light in here is alright for you," inquired Lady Thatcher, extending a hand to greet me. She listened attentively while I explained how I hoped the sittings would progress. It was clear she wanted to give of her best and be a good sitter. With some minor adjustments to the room, a comfortable chair was positioned to allow the light to fall gently across her face. Coffee was summoned and the first of many enjoyable sittings began. For me it was the beginning of a new adventure. Margaret Thatcher had been such an influential Prime Minster, much revered by my family and an inspiration to many of my generation. Her reputation was well-known, as was her appearance from countless photographs and caricatures. I started work on the portrait a few days after meeting her for the first time. Not just wanting to record a superficial likeness, I needed to capture something of the strength and determination that a nation has always attributed to her. The trademark blue suit, the ubiquitous handbag not far from her side and the perfect coiffure succinctly enshrined the public perception of the country's first lady prime minister. . With a ramrod-straight back and hands neatly clasped in her lap, we gradually broke into conversation. There was talk of the Brighton Bombing, the Falklands War, her friendship with Ronald Reagan and most surprisingly, traditional home cooking. Memories of the Falklands took an emotional turn with a catch in her voice recalling the lists of casualties which brought the reality of the conflict fought far away back home. Recollections of the SAS invasion strategy were graphically illustrated over the tea table with the cups and saucers, sugar bowl, milk jug and teapot used as landmarks to describe the scene. At times the conversation was vigorous with robust opinions expressed, giving me moments to see the fire still behind the eyes. Although each sitting would be an hour and a half in length, time would fly as I flung paint on the canvas. Often oblivious to an agitated secretary wanting to draw things to a close, our time together would regularly over-run. On many occasions when I was tired from the intense concentration, I would be invited to stay on for a drink to relax and continue our conversation. After time, there emerged a softer, more tender aspect to the Iron Lady. She would ask questions and listen carefully to my considered responses. It was at moments such as these, that I was able to see a more sensitive side that I felt was necessary to allude to in the portrait. There emerged a different woman with a kindness, a good humour and indeed a gentleness that was not revealed in the painting. Although the picture was practically finished, I was about ready to start all over again, as I now felt I knew her as she really was. Whilst I had invited Lady Thatcher to view the work as it evolved, she made it clear that she would prefer to see it only on completion. When the work was finished, she stood quietly contemplating her image, placing a hand up to her pearl necklace and considering her words carefully. She remarked: "It is how one would like to be remembered." I've just gone back to stand-up after 17 years and I start the routine which mentions her, so I'm going to have to change it now, which is annoying. It won't necessarily work anymore - I've been inconvenienced massively. She was a gift for comedians and she helped my career. There was a large educated audience out there that hated her, so you could get an easy ride just shouting: "Thatcher - what a bastard" for 20 minutes. She was such a polarising figure that it provided a great opportunity. She was humourless as well. She represented a lot of things I suppose the target audience hated. I think she was a pretty bad thing really. It's not to say that certain structural changes - you know the things that were going to change about Britain were going to change anyway - but they could have been done perhaps with a different individual in a less vindictive, ham-fisted clumsy way. She made a conscious decision to run down manufacturing and concentrate on two areas which were arms manufacture and financial services - I wonder in some ways if having financial services and arms manufacturing at the core of your country kind of corrupts you morally, you know it's kind of like robbing people or killing them. It's not very healthy is it really. This idea that she was a great reformer in a sense she was a great destroyer. She wasn't a reformer. Thatcher is remembered as The Iron Lady only because she possessed completely negative traits such as persistent stubbornness and a determined refusal to listen to others. Every move she made was charged by negativity; she destroyed the British manufacturing industry, she hated the miners, she hated the arts, she hated the Irish Freedom Fighters and allowed them to die, she hated the English poor and did nothing at all to help them, she hated Greenpeace and environmental protectionists, she was the only European political leader who opposed a ban on the Ivory Trade, she had no wit and no warmth and even her own Cabinet booted her out. She gave the order to blow up The Belgrano [during the Falklands War] even though it was outside of the Malvinas Exclusion Zone - and was sailing AWAY from the islands. When the young Argentinean boys aboard The Belgrano had suffered a most appalling and unjust death, Thatcher gave the thumbs up sign for the British press. Iron? No. Barbaric? Yes. She hated feminists even though it was largely due to the progression of the women's movement that the British people allowed themselves to accept that a prime minister could actually be female. But because of Thatcher, there will never again be another woman in power in British politics, and rather than opening that particular door for other women, she closed it. Thatcher will only be fondly remembered by sentimentalists who did not suffer under her leadership, but the majority of British working people have forgotten her already, and the people of Argentina will be celebrating her death. As a matter of recorded fact, Thatcher was a terror without an atom of humanity. Morgan is the writer of The Audience, the play starring Dame Helen Mirren which imagines the private meetings between Queen Elizabeth II and her prime ministers during her 60-year reign. After introducing himself to the audience at the Gielgud Theatre on the evening of 8 April, just before the show began, Morgan said: "Today one of the great figures of post-war British political life and the longest serving prime minister of the 20th Century, and therefore the participant of the greatest number of the audiences with the queen, died. I just wanted to mark that occasion this evening with you all of you." Was in the air when the news came in about Margaret Thatcher. Such a force in Britain through my university days through to my 30s. Initially I think she was quite difficult for cartoonists to get a handle on… visually it takes them a while to get a character and what they stand for. I'm waiting to see what anti-Thatcher Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell's going to do this week because this will be the last hurrah of Margaret Thatcher. I'm sure he'll make a special effort in whatever he does. She was probably the first prime minister to have such a conscious sense of how the media were portraying her and really worked on that to make herself more attractive to the public.

कला और मनोरंजन जगत के आंकड़ों ने बैरोनेस थैचर की मृत्यु पर अपनी प्रतिक्रिया दी है, जिनकी स्ट्रोक के बाद 87 वर्ष की आयु में मृत्यु हो गई है।


Beyond the walls: Inside Fort George

Summary: Fort George, an imposing 18th century artillery fortification near Inverness, is expected to stop functioning as a working barracks by 2032, BBC Scotland understands. What currently goes on behind its imposing walls?

By Steven McKenzieBBC Scotland Highlands and Islands reporter It is summer-time, and on a parade ground inside Fort George a soldier from the Crimean War is standing next to an ice cream van, tucking into a Cornetto. Elsewhere, Roman legionnaires, chainmail-clad knights, Jacobite fighters and government Redcoats mingle with young families and overseas tourists who have poured over a draw bridge into the fortification. In an arena, the crowd is entertained by demonstrations of Viking raids and infantry drills from hundreds of years ago. The re-enactors and the visitors are there for Celebration of the Centuries, an event held as part of the fort's role as a historic visitor attraction managed by Historic Environment Scotland. But the eagle-eyed among the visitors to the celebration of Scotland's military past will have spotted the red hackle on the headwear of serving members of the Black Watch (3 SCOTS), the battalion that also uses Fort George as a base. The fort has had an active military role going back almost 250 years. Fort George was built on the southern shores of the Inner Moray Firth at Ardersier, near Inverness, on the orders of King George II following the Battle of Culloden in 1746. It was a symbol of the Crown and was given the resources to crack down on fresh Jacobite rebellions, or risings. The fort had capacity for a garrison of 1,600 infantrymen with access to numerous cannon, muskets, pikes and swords. The magazine could hold 2,500 gunpowder barrels and there were also provision stores and a brew house. Sheep riots But the huge building project - costing £1bn to complete in today's money - brought financial benefits to some of those living in the very communities it was built to suppress. Tradesmen, merchants and shopkeepers supplied the fort during its construction and then the troops following its completion in 1769. While not used in anger against a Jacobite rising, Fort George did play a part in dealing with unrest during the Highland Clearances. In the summer of 1792, the Ross-shire Sheep Riots flared up as families evicted from lands in Ross-shire and Sutherland to make way for large-scale sheep production took action against the new farmers, shepherds and their landlords. By early August, a band of protesters had rounded up 6,000 sheep and driven them south to Beauly, near Inverness. Soldiers of the 42nd Regiment, better known as the Black Watch, were sent from Fort George to arrest the sheep drivers. Two of those arrested were later banished from Scotland for the rest of their lives. Fort George would go on to provide a base for armed forces personnel training for D-Day during World War Two. The fortification was used as a base for tank troops and their armoured vehicles. The tanks would run on the roads from Fort George to Burghead in Moray for training on beaches there. Saddam Hussein Soldiers who served in those units told of the lumbering tanks accidentally ripping out farmers' roadside fence posts during the runs to from the exercises. The troops always reinstated the posts after their training. Today, the fort provides a base for battalions of the British Army. As well as the Black Watch, these have included the 1st Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment. While the Royal Irish were at Fort George a large painting of the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, a souvenir from the battalion's tour of duty of Iraq, dominated a wall on the stairs to the sergeants' mess. The fort also hosts the Highland Military Tattoo and houses the museum collections of the Seaforth Highlanders, The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders and the Queen's Own Highlanders (Seaforth and Camerons). In 2011, actor Hugh Grant launched a public appeal to help raise £3m to redevelop the museum. Grant's grandfather, Col James Murray Grant, from Inverness, was a Seaforth Highlander and depot commander at the fort during World War Two. The actor's father, Capt James Murray Grant, also served with a Highlands regiment. With the planned withdrawal of the Army within the next 16 years, Fort George as a whole looks destined to become a museum piece.

बीबीसी स्कॉटलैंड समझता है कि फोर्ट जॉर्ज, इनवर्नेस के पास 18वीं शताब्दी का एक प्रभावशाली तोपखाने का किला, 2032 तक एक काम करने वाले बैरक के रूप में काम करना बंद कर देगा। वर्तमान में इसकी भव्य दीवारों के पीछे क्या चल रहा है?


Profile: Jean-Pierre Bemba, DR Congo's ex-rebel and vice-president

Summary: Jean-Pierre Bemba had an extremely privileged childhood in one of the world's poorest countries but this did not saved him from being convicted of war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague - although that has now been overturned.

Mr Bemba spent his youth between the Belgian and Congolese capitals - Brussels and Kinshasa - and the small remote town of Gbadolite in northern Democratic Republic of Congo known as "Versailles in the Jungle". This was the home and last refuge of the late Congolese leader Mobutu Sese Seko. Mr Bemba's father, the successful businessman Bemba Saolona, was very close to the former dictator. But for him business was all that really mattered. When Laurent Kabila's rebel force overthrew Mobutu and marched into Kinshasa in May 1997, Saolona was briefly appointed a finance minister in the new regime. Difficult relationship Father and son, however, have not always seen eye to eye. Mr Bemba, who at a very young age lost his mother and has had difficult relations with his father and step-mothers, explicitly criticised his father's acquaintance with Mr Kabila in his book The Choice of Freedom. A great admirer of controversial French businessman Bernard Tapie and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the young Bemba sought other father figures. Perhaps his greatest influence was Mobutu himself, who employed him at the age of 30 as his personal assistant in the early 1990s. Jean-Pierre Bemba Another person central to his roundabout journey to becoming DR Congo's vice-president was Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. As the government battled Rwanda-backed rebel groups in eastern DR Congo, Mr Museveni helped Mr Bemba open up a new front. He supplied troops, equipment and training when Mr Bemba launched his rebel group, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), in 1998. In only a few months, the MLC managed to capture northern DR Congo. The military pressure he put on Mr Kabila's government eventually led to a peace deal that became the basis of a power-sharing government. As a rebel leader, Mr Bemba was named one of four vice-presidents. After he laid down his arms in 2003, Mr Bemba was sworn in back home as vice-president in charge of finance in the interim administration. He became increasingly influential, gaining the support of a number of historic political figures in DR Congo, and stood for the country's presidency in 2006 - against Laurent Kabila's son, Joseph. But he was ultimately deserted by many allies who blamed his "oversized ego" for withdrawing their support. He managed to take the incumbent to a second round, polling especially well in western DR Congo, including the capital, Kinshasa, where many see the Swahili-speaking Kabilas as foreigners. He claimed the run-off was rigged and was accused of refusing to disarm his militia and of unleashing violence in Kinshasa. Mr Bemba has always denied the charges. Reign of terror He was then accused of treason after his bodyguards and the army clashed in Kinshasa in March 2007. He fled to his childhood retreat of Belgium but this time it was no safe haven. He was arrested in May 2008 in Brussels and handed over to the ICC two months later. A characteristic Mr Bemba shares with his father the knack of making money. He holds an MBA from a prestigious business school in Brussels and kept his economic activities running throughout the war: looking after family-owned coffee plantations and wood factories. Former allies claim most of Mr Bemba's fortune comes from gifts from African leaders such as former Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi. Whatever the source, by the end of the war, the rebel-turned-politician had accrued enough wealth to buy a helicopter and several planes, which he sometimes likes to pilot himself. He has also invested in DR Congo's aviation business. He also became involved in external conflict, asked in 2002 by then Central African Republic Ange-Felix Patasse to put down a coup attempt. It was the ensuing reign of terror, allegedly involving looting, civilian killings and mass rape of hundreds of women by MLC fighters, which led the ICC to file charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against him as the group's leader. In one case, three generations of the same family were gang-raped while their relatives were forced to watch. His lawyers said the fighters were no longer under his command after they crossed the border. This was initially dismissed by the judges who said he retained "effective command and control" over the troops. He was sentenced to 18 years in jail. His conviction marked several milestones for the ICC. It was the first time the court had focused on rape as a weapon of war, and the first time a suspect had been convicted for crimes committed by others under his command. But the ICC overturned the conviction for war crimes and crimes against humanity in June 2018, after he had spent almost a decade in jail. The appeals chamber, in a 3-2 majority ruling, said he could not be held responsible for the actions of his fighters. He will not be immediately released from prison after he lost a separate appeal against a conviction of bribing witnesses to give false testimony during the trial. Read more on DR Congo

जीन-पियरे बेम्बा का बचपन दुनिया के सबसे गरीब देशों में से एक में बेहद विशेषाधिकार प्राप्त था, लेकिन इसने उन्हें हेग में अंतर्राष्ट्रीय आपराधिक न्यायालय (आईसीसी) में युद्ध अपराधों के लिए दोषी ठहराए जाने से नहीं बचाया-हालांकि अब इसे उलट दिया गया है।


Black squirrels' slow scamper to dominate

Summary: The plight of the disappearing red squirrel is being highlighted in events dedicated to the native British species. But its tormenter, the American grey squirrel, is itself being slowly overwhelmed in parts of the country by the little-known black squirrel.

By Megan LaneBBC News Magazine When Alison Thomas first saw a black squirrel dart in front of her car, she nearly swerved off the road in surprise. That was in July 2003, and as a biologist, she found this strange creature a beguiling research topic - not least to disprove the family joke that she'd imagined it. "I decided to start my own investigations and discovered, to my great relief and to the chagrin of my family, that squirrels can indeed sometimes be black and that there is a rapidly expanding population of black squirrels in Cambridgeshire," says Dr Thomas, of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge. The black squirrel is of the same species as the grey bushy-tailed creatures familiar from park and woodland walks. Its dark coat is the result of a naturally occurring mutation of the gene that governs fur pigmentation. Other than colour, black squirrels have the same size, behaviour and habitat as greys. "It's the same specific mutation found in the black squirrels of North America. The chances of that same mutation occurring by chance in the UK, and separately in the United States, is tiny. "This shows that at some point, black squirrels were brought into this country from North America." The first recorded sighting of a black squirrel was in 1912 on the outskirts of Letchworth. It's thought that, like grey squirrels, a handful of black-furred specimens were imported for a private zoo and then escaped or were released. "People speculate that it was the Duke of Bedford who imported black squirrels, but I've been unable to confirm that - even with the help of the family's archivists," says Dr Thomas. It took another 30 years before black squirrels were spotted on the south-west borders of Cambridgeshire. Today they are found in a ribbon across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. In some hot-spots, blacks now outnumber greys, making up an estimated three-quarters of the squirrel population in villages such as Girton in Cambridgeshire. "They're not found anywhere else in the UK. But people have reported seeing black versions of red squirrels - a different species, remember - on the Isle of Skye," says Dr Thomas. Amateur photographer Simon George, of Henlow in Bedfordshire, has been documenting the comings and goings of a black squirrel in his back garden for several years. "We more or less adopted her, and called her Coffee. She would come if you called her and ate out of our hands; she loved Waitrose finest walnuts. She had a litter of six last summer and survived the snow of last winter, but we have not seen her, or any other squirrel, since March." In his area, too, black squirrels have largely replaced greys - he speculates that this is because they're bigger. But Dr Thomas says any differences in size or behaviour are probably down to age. "Blacks and greys are the same species. Any differences people notice are likely to be age-related." The rise of the black is the biggest change in squirrel demographics since the native reds almost disappeared 50 years ago from large parts of England. This is not because black squirrels compete with greys in the way that greys compete with reds (the larger greys eat more, and carry a pox that is deadly to reds), but because the gene for black fur is dominant, just like the gene for brown eyes is dominant over blue in humans. "Two grey squirrels cannot produce black-furred offspring, just as blue-eyed parents cannot have a brown-eyed baby," says Dr Thomas. "You need to have a black-furred parent to produce black offspring." As wildlife watchers gear up for the Wildlife Trusts' population count for Red Squirrel Week, or for the start of the BBC's Autumnwatch on Thursday, Dr Thomas has a fond hope. "I'd like there to be a count of how many black squirrels there are now. We're so programmed to expect grey squirrels that it's a shock when you first see a black one - it's startling and interesting." Around the BBC Nature UK, home of Autumnwatch Squirrel clips and info on BBC Wildlife Finder Related Internet Links Red Squirrel Week Flickr: BBC Autumnwatch group

लुप्त होती लाल गिलहरी की दुर्दशा को देशी ब्रिटिश प्रजातियों को समर्पित कार्यक्रमों में उजागर किया जा रहा है। लेकिन इसकी पीड़ित, अमेरिकी ग्रे गिलहरी, धीरे-धीरे देश के कुछ हिस्सों में कम ज्ञात काली गिलहरी से अभिभूत हो रही है।


Online guide for disabled access to Morriston Hospital

Summary: Disabled people going to a Swansea hospital will be able to find their way around before they even leave home thanks to a new online guide.

Morriston has become the first hospital in Wales to sign up to DisabledGo, which provides information such as where lifts and disabled toilets are. Details of ramps, car parks and hearing systems are also given. Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board said there were plans to extend the service to its other sites. Brendan Campbell, a member of the health board's Disability Reference Group, said: "I come here on my own. I'm a wheelchair user and I drive my own car. "But if I wasn't sure what the hospital was like I'd bring somebody with me. "Well, if you look at the DisabledGo site you can work it out and you might decide you can go there on your own with no problem."

स्वानसी अस्पताल जाने वाले विकलांग लोग एक नई ऑनलाइन गाइड की बदौलत घर से निकलने से पहले अपना रास्ता खोज सकेंगे।


The painstaking task of naming Grenfell's victims

Summary: Relatives of those who died in the Grenfell Tower tragedy are angry at the time it's taking to recover and name victims. But police and forensic science experts say the process of identifying severely fire-damaged remains is a highly complicated one - and it will take some time before families can know the fate of their loved ones.

By Joanna JollyBBC News On Tuesday night, tempers flared in a closed-door meeting as survivors of the Grenfell Tower disaster demanded to know why the police and coroner weren't able to give out more details about those still missing. So far, 21 people have been formally identified as having died in the fire and their families informed. But police believe at least 80 were killed. Met Police Commander Stuart Cundy has said there have been a total of 87 "recoveries" but, due to "catastrophic damage" inside the building, that did not mean 87 people. Some residents suspect the figure could be even higher, and the slow pace of progress has fuelled fears of a cover-up. The distress and frustration felt by survivors as a result of the delay is understandable, especially given that police have said the final death toll will not be known until the end of the year. But experts in the specialised field of victim identification say this fire is a particularly challenging disaster and, that despite fears that the job is not being done properly, the UK has one of the best identification systems in the world. "We need to make sure by scientific means," says the UK's Disaster Victim Identification Co-ordinator, Det Supt Alan Crawford. "That's why it takes longer to get identification, but then and only then, when we are 100% certain, do we tell the family." Scotland Yard says all "visible human remains" have now been removed from the building. Specially trained officers and forensic anthropologists will continue to sift through more than 15 tonnes of debris on each floor by hand in the hope of finding other human material. Disaster victim identification (DVI) is a police discipline that has developed out of lessons learnt from dealing with incidents of mass casualties around the world. Every airplane crash, terrorist bombing and natural disaster adds to the collective sum of knowledge around issues - such as where to locate a temporary mortuary, how to collect and categorise fragmented remains and what the most accurate method is to identify them. The practice is regulated internationally according to Interpol standards, adhered to by 197 countries. In the UK, a pivotal moment in disaster victim identification came after the 1989 Marchioness boat tragedy in the Thames, in which 51 people died. Eleven years after the Marchioness sank, a public inquiry was ordered to look into the work of the coroner after relatives complained they were kept in the dark, prevented from seeing bodies and that the hands of some victims had been removed unnecessarily for fingerprinting. "The inquiry made a number of recommendations, principles we hold true now," says Det Supt Crawford. "Avoid misidentification at all costs, treat the deceased with respect and dignity, be open and honest with families at all times and give as much information as we can." In the UK, there are now around 2,000 police officers throughout the country who have volunteered for specialist DVI training in addition to their normal duties. They can be called on at any moment. "We're up there in relation to being one of the best in the world at what we do," says Det Supt Crawford. "We lead a lot of countries and they seek our advice." When a disaster like Grenfell Tower happens, there are two distinct strands to the process of identifying victims. One is gathering as much information as possible about potential victims from relatives, and friends, including collecting medical and dental records. On the morning of the Grenfell Tower fire, the number for a Casualty Bureau phone line was given out the media. Members of the public who called in were asked a number of specially scripted questions designed to prioritise those with information about potential victims. Those deemed likely to know someone caught up in the fire were allocated a family liaison officer who logged details about the missing person onto an official Interpol form. The other strand of identification involves collecting information from the bodies themselves. This work is led by a senior identification manager (SIM), who appoints a scene evidence recovery manager, or SERM, who in turn oversees the work of DVI-trained body recovery teams. These teams log every detail before moving them to a designated mortuary. "At that time, we don't know who we are recovering so it's really important we recover the body or human remains in a dignified manner," says Det Supt Crawford. "We need to make sure it's photographed, there's a continuity of evidence, there's a forensic preservation and all the way through that process from body recover to being lodged at the mortuary is done to a judicial standard." When bodies are brought into the mortuary, experts try to identify them according to standards set by Interpol. This means identification must be made using dental records, fingerprints or DNA. Medical implants that carry serial numbers such as pacemakers or hip replacements can be used as secondary identifiers, as can scars, marks and tattoos. Visual identification by relatives is not used because this is regarded as unreliable. Nor is the discovery of property on a body, such as bag or purse. Det Supt Crawford cites a 2006 case in the US where five college students were killed in a minibus crash. One family was told their daughter had died, after her body was identified from the bag she was found with. In fact, she had survived and was heavily bandaged in intensive care being watched over by another family whose daughter had been killed in the crash. It was several weeks before the mistake was discovered. In the case of Grenfell Tower, there are several factors complicating this identification process. The first is that the fire is what's referred to as an "open" disaster. A "closed" disaster is a situation such as a plane crash, in which a manifest exists of all the passengers and crew. In such a case, identification is a relatively straightforward case of matching the dental records of those on board with the victims. Open disasters are more difficult. Here, investigators might have an idea of who was present, but do not know conclusively, making it hard to collect references for DNA, fingerprints or dental records. Although the police have a list of those missing and presumed dead from the fire, they still have no information on the inhabitants of 23 out of the 129 flats in the building. The Metropolitan Police says it is working with the Red Cross and community groups to spread their message of an amnesty for illegal immigrants, as well as those illegally sub-letting, so more potential victims can be identified. The intensity of the fire also poses an immense challenge to forensic experts. The Westminster coroner, Dr Fiona Wilcox, is reported to have described the scene inside the burnt-out tower block as "apocalyptic". Dr Denise Syndercombe-Court is a forensic scientist at Kings College London who works with the Metropolitan Police. She says experts will have to rely on new, sensitive techniques to analyse the remains. It's a slow and painstaking procedure. "In some cases, these bodies are so badly damaged by the heat - terrific heat temperatures - we literally will have fragments of bones," she says. "We'll work on providing strategies for what material is suitable for what analysis technique." Knowing where the remains have been found is a key part of solving the identification puzzle. That is why it is so important for the DVI-trained body teams to log every detail before the body is moved. "There's no point analysing material if you have no idea where it came from," says Dr Syndercombe-Court. When the World Trade Center towers collapsed on 9/11, human remains were fragmented and mingled in among the debris of the buildings. As a result, 40% of the victims have still not been identified. If DNA can be extracted, it then needs to be matched with that of potential victims. Here again, the ferocity of the fire poses additional challenges as surrogate samples of DNA, such as from personal items or toothbrushes, will have also been destroyed. Because many of the victims were immigrants, investigators may need to work with police forces in other countries to collect DNA from at least two family members - all of which takes time. The process can also take a huge emotional toll on those carrying it out. Forensic scientist Prof Peter Vanezis is a veteran of identification investigations, including working on mass graves in the Balkans. "There were some people who weren't very keen on being counselled," he says of his time in Kosovo. "They were the ones who were really affected because they thought they were being very macho by not worrying about these things, but they do get to you." Det Supt Crawford says that officers who volunteer for DVI-duties are monitored and offered counselling because of the traumatic nature of the work. It's only when the coroner is satisfied that the information provided about the missing person from relatives, dental and medical records matches that taken from the remains that a formal identification can be made. This can be an extremely slow process. "There might be an awareness of how long it takes if one sits down and thinks about it in the cool light of day," says Prof Peter Vanezis, who was part of the team who identified the final Kings Cross fire victim, 20 years after the disaster. "But when you're dealing with relatives who are bereaved or waiting to find out what happened, frustration comes along very quickly." Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.

ग्रेनफेल टावर त्रासदी में मारे गए लोगों के रिश्तेदार उस समय गुस्से में हैं जब उन्हें ठीक होने और पीड़ितों के नाम बताने में समय लग रहा है। लेकिन पुलिस और फोरेंसिक विज्ञान विशेषज्ञों का कहना है कि आग से गंभीर रूप से क्षतिग्रस्त अवशेषों की पहचान करने की प्रक्रिया बहुत जटिल है-और परिवारों को अपने प्रियजनों के भाग्य का पता लगाने में कुछ समय लगेगा।


Haudagain roundabout work in Aberdeen 'to take two years'

Summary: Work to tackle the traffic blackspot at Aberdeen's Haudagain roundabout is expected to take about two years, it has been announced.

The junction at the bottom of Anderson Drive is a notorious bottleneck. It is hoped work will be ready after the Aberdeen bypass is completed by winter 2017. Transport Minister Derek Mackay said: "Today's news will I'm sure be met with jubilation and relief in equal measure by road users across the region." Mr Mackay said: "With work on Haudagain now in sight, the kind of congestion seen daily at Haudagain will before long be a thing of the past." Members of the public are getting the chance to assess the proposed design. Exhibitions will be held at the Lord Provost Henry E Rae Community Centre in Manor Avenue on Wednesday from 12:00 to 19:00 and Thursday from 10:00 to 18:00.

एबरडीन के हौडागैन गोल चक्कर में यातायात ब्लैकस्पॉट से निपटने के काम में लगभग दो साल लगने की उम्मीद है, यह घोषणा की गई है।