A country where toilets are a sign of hope

Summary: War, corruption and poverty have dogged the Democratic Republic of Congo, and it is widely believed that its incumbent president will cancel this year's presidential elections. But despite the instability this could bring, Mary-Ann Ochota met a community who remain surprisingly upbeat.

Bawili Amisi is a slim woman, lean and strong. As she stirs cassava flour to make the Congolese staple fufu, a greyish sticky dough eaten at every meal, I can see the sinews in her arms standing taut. When she calls the family to eat, everyone assembles without delay. Children don't mess about with their food here. They eat and they are grateful. I'm in South Kivu, at the eastern edge of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bawili's village, Mwandiga Trois, sits near the western shore of Lake Tanganyika. It's a beautiful region - verdant hills and rich soils offer the chance of two full harvests a year. The shimmering lake teems with fine, fresh fish. No-one should go hungry here. In fact Congo should be one of the most prosperous countries in Africa. It doesn't just offer agricultural promise, it also has more than a thousand precious minerals. There's copper, diamonds, gold, uranium and coltan, used in every mobile phone in the world. And yet Congo's people are some of the world's poorest. Congo's leaders have been corrupt, cruel tyrants. The current president, Joseph Kabila, oversees a kleptocratic elite, with little interest in uniting, or even running, the country. Mining profits drain overseas or into deep back pockets. There is no rule of law. In every measure of human development - safety, food security, access to water, healthcare, education - the DRC scrapes along the bottom of world rankings. The people are on their own. Bawili's story is quintessentially Congolese. In 1998, her husband was shot when rebels attacked their village. She fled with her children to Tanzania, to spend a decade in an overcrowded refugee camp. In 2008, she was among thousands forcibly repatriated to Congo. It wasn't yet safe back home, but Tanzania was closing the camps. The village Bawili and her family were sent to was new - a patch of forest allocated for "returnees", dislocated strangers from all over Congo. There was no clean water supply, no sanitation, no school and no support. Find out more "It was very difficult," Bawili smiles, almost apologetically, "but I started growing some crops and built the house." She gestures to the neat mud-brick hut we're sitting next to, with corrugated tin shutters on the windows and a bright cloth covering the doorway. "I was too weak to dig a latrine, and I couldn't afford to pay someone to help me. I felt helpless because I couldn't protect my children. It was just me." Bawili's daughter Ebinda can't remember leaving Congo. But she remembers coming back, aged 14. Some months later, she was bitten by a snake on the way back from the bushes which the family used as a lavatory. There was no anti-venom available and the toxins damaged her heart and nervous system. She still suffers now. A year later, Ebinda was spotted by a group of men, again on her way out of the bushes. She became pregnant as a result of the gang rape. Her child, now a sweet, malnourished six-year-old, leans shyly against his mother's legs, peeking up at me. The first few years of international intervention here were all about "visibility". Schools and wells are still branded with rusting signs declaring which major donor built what. But now a new approach is taking hold - the emphasis is on invisible aid, helping a community grow its own capacity for development, seeding change that will outlive the funding, and move with people who are still at risk of displacement. Bawili's the president of the village Community Health Club, an initiative that trains locals to learn and share skills in hygiene, nutrition and childcare. Simple things that can save lives. She and her fellow club members meet under a tree every Sunday morning, taking turns to talk about their work and how to encourage their neighbours. Over the past few months, pit latrines have been dug across the village, including at Bawili's house. The club has composed a jaunty song to teach everyone about hand-washing and hygiene. They start and finish each meeting with a rousing chorus of "Maendeleo! Mbele!", "Development! Forward!" The hope in the village is hard to square with what these people have endured. And as so often in Congo, dark clouds are massing. It's widely believed this year's presidential elections will be cancelled by Joseph Kabila so he can stay in power. If they are, I'm told, "there will be war again". It'll start in the capital, Kinshasa, then spread countrywide. And if Congolese history is any teacher, civilians will again be targeted - enslaved, tortured, raped, starved and displaced. The community of Mwandiga Trois have no means to protect themselves from that. But somehow Bawili has hope. She has new skills, a new latrine, and steely determination that she can face whatever the future holds. Development. Forward. More from the Magazine The billions of pounds Congo's minerals have generated have brought nothing but misery and death to the very people who live on top of them, while enriching a microscopic elite and their foreign backers, and underpinning our technological revolution in the developed world, writes historian Dan Snow. The Congo is a land far away, yet our histories are so closely linked. We have thrived from a lopsided relationship, yet we are utterly blind to it. The price of that myopia has been human suffering on an unimaginable scale. Read more: DR Congo: Cursed by its natural wealth Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

युद्ध, भ्रष्टाचार और गरीबी ने कांगो लोकतांत्रिक गणराज्य को परेशान कर दिया है, और यह व्यापक रूप से माना जाता है कि इसके निवर्तमान राष्ट्रपति इस साल के राष्ट्रपति चुनावों को रद्द कर देंगे। लेकिन अस्थिरता के बावजूद, मैरी-एन ओचोटा एक ऐसे समुदाय से मिलीं जो आश्चर्यजनक रूप से उत्साहित हैं।


iZettle and the modernisation of money

Summary: Wednesday could see another important step towards the modernisation of money. iZettle, a device that allows small traders to take credit card payments, is arriving in the UK after a successful rollout in other markets. But a failure by big payment firms to agree common standards on how we use these mobile money systems could mean the whole idea fails to fly.

Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter iZettle is a small card-reader that plugs into iPhones, iPads and a number of Android smartphones or tablets. It is designed for use by any small trader who can't afford the infrastructure needed to take credit card payments. You hand over your card to the stallholder - or plumber or window-cleaner - it is swiped through the device, and then you sign for your purchase. The merchant pays a commission of 2.75% a transaction, and the consumer gets to use their plastic rather than cash in new places. I tried it out at a launch event and it worked pretty smoothly. A scented candle manufacturer told me she had been using a trial device for some months, and had found it was an excellent way of taking payments at craft fairs. iZettle was launched in Sweden a year ago, and according to the co-founder Jacob de Geer, it is now used by more than 75,000 small businesses and individuals in six countries. In Sweden, he told journalists at the launch, 700 blacksmiths are using the device. "It's bringing new merchants to the table. My ambition is to democratise card payments." The big question in the UK, though, is whether consumers will fancy the idea of having their cards swiped into this device. And here there's a hitch. There are big names backing iZettle including the mobile operator EE, and the payments firms Mastercard and American Express. But the other major force in the card industry, Visa, is an investor in a much bigger player in the mobile payments area. Square, started by the Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, is making rapid progress in the United States market and is now valued at something over $3bn. And what people couldn't help noticing at the iZettle launch event was that paying with Visa was a lot harder than with other cards. Whereas with Mastercard or American Express the consumer just presents their card and signs, Visa users had to hand over their phone numbers and tap in security details on their own phones. It seems that Visa is not too keen on the "chip 'n' signature" security that iZettle uses, even though the Swedish company says it has a lower fraud rate than for chip and pin transactions. When I asked Visa about the issue, the company sent me this statement: "We're continuing to work with iZettle to develop a fully Visa Europe compliant mobile point of sale solution." The trouble is that any kind of friction in a mobile payments system is annoying and will lead many to conclude they are better off sticking with cash. There are now lots of different mobile payment technologies from all sorts of companies, but they all seem to have different ways of verifying who customers are. But with little evidence of any great enthusiasm for mobile money - unless it makes life easier - surely it is time for the payments industry to get its act together and agree some common standards.

बुधवार को धन के आधुनिकीकरण की दिशा में एक और महत्वपूर्ण कदम देखा जा सकता है. आईजेटल, एक उपकरण जो छोटे व्यापारियों को क्रेडिट कार्ड भुगतान लेने की अनुमति देता है, अन्य बाजारों में सफल रोलआउट के बाद यूके में आ रहा है। लेकिन बड़ी भुगतान फर्मों द्वारा इन मोबाइल मुद्रा प्रणालियों का उपयोग करने के सामान्य मानकों पर सहमत होने में विफलता का मतलब हो सकता है कि पूरा विचार उड़ान भरने में विफल रहा।


Somerset flood water levels drop after sluice gate opens

Summary: A sluice gate which diverts water out of the River Parrett has been partially opened in an attempt to clear flood water from the Somerset Levels.

The Environment Agency said opening the gate at Monksleaze had allowed pumping to begin on Currymoor to drain the moors around East Lyng. An agency spokesman said water levels had dropped by up to 30cm in places as a result of opening the gate. He added the situation was being monitored carefully. "We have people on the ground observing and if we see any deterioration we will be closing the system down," said spokesman Andy Gardiner. Once the sluice gate is opened, water is sent down the Sowey River and from there it goes into the King's Sedgemoor Drain and into the sea.

समरसेट स्तर से बाढ़ के पानी को साफ करने के प्रयास में पैरेट नदी से पानी को बाहर निकालने वाला एक स्लुइस गेट आंशिक रूप से खोल दिया गया है।


Northampton baby death: Police probe as six-month-old dies

Summary: A police investigation has been launched after the death of a six-month-old baby.

Officers were called to Chalcombe Avenue in the Kingsthorpe area of Northampton on Wednesday evening. The child was pronounced dead at the scene, despite the efforts of paramedics. Northamptonshire Police said two people were "helping with inquiries", and they were not seeking anyone else in connection with the investigation.

छह महीने के बच्चे की मौत के बाद पुलिस जांच शुरू कर दी गई है।


New image of planned Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre released

Summary: A fresh image of a planned new Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre has been released ahead of a series of public consultations .

Henry Boot Developments is behind plans for a replacement for the existing Bridge of Don-based AECC, to be built at a site at Bucksburn. The first Jesmond Centre consultation is on Thursday from noon to 20:00. Friday's at the Beacon Centre is during the same hours. Saturday's Aberdeen Art Gallery event is until 17:00 from noon. Comments are being sought in advance of a planning application being submitted. The deadline for initial comments will be 27 June, before further consultation events being held in September.

सार्वजनिक परामर्शों की एक श्रृंखला से पहले एक नियोजित नए एबरडीन प्रदर्शनी और सम्मेलन केंद्र की एक नई छवि जारी की गई है।


Colwyn Bay pier: Judge backs Conwy council ownership

Summary: The former owner of Colwyn Bay's 112-year-old pier has failed in his attempt to regain control from Conwy council, which wants to develop it.

Steve Hunt, who was made bankrupt in 2008 in a dispute over unpaid council tax, claimed that ownership should revert to him after three years. But a judge at Cardiff County Court rejected the claim. Conwy council announced in March that it had taken over the rundown, Grade II-listed Victorian pier. In April the Heritage Lottery Fund turned down the authority's application for a £4.9m grant to restore the pier. The council claimed ownership of the landmark after the Welsh government acquired it from the Crown Estate. A separate hearing, involving a claim on the pier by Mr Hunt's mother, is due to be held later in the year. Conwy council said it would be inappropriate to comment before the matter is concluded.

कोल्विन बे के 112 साल पुराने घाट के पूर्व मालिक कॉनवी परिषद से नियंत्रण हासिल करने के अपने प्रयास में विफल रहे हैं, जो इसे विकसित करना चाहती है।


Sars: The people who risked their lives to stop the virus

Summary: Ten years ago, the world was in the grip of a panic over an outbreak of a mysterious illness - Sars. The virus killed hundreds - and infected thousands more - but its impact would have been far more devastating had it not been for the bravery of a handful of doctors and nurses.

Kevin FongDoctor and broadcaster "It was like a nightmare - each morning you arrived and more people were sick." In 2003, Dr Olivier Cattin was working at the French hospital in Hanoi, in the north of Vietnam. "We got to the Friday and there was only one nurse left on our ward who was able to treat the other nurses, and this nurse was also sick." One day at the end of February that year, a Chinese-American man, Johnny Chen, had arrived with what appeared to be a bad case of flu. Within days, nearly 40 people at the hospital had fallen ill, including a number of the staff. Seven would go on to die. This was the site where the deadly disease - later named severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) - would come to the attention of the world. It was highly contagious, and often deadly. More than 8,000 people around the world were infected, and more than 770 died. But this is a story about people not statistics. The closer you get to the story of Sars, the more overwhelmed you become by the experience, and the heroism, of those who stood on the frontline. War is a metaphor that we often use in relation to the fight against disease. But it is rarely more apt than in the case of Sars. At the French hospital in Hanoi, panic set in as the doctors reviewed the X-rays of all those who had fallen ill. They knew they were facing something very serious and highly unusual. "All the chest X-rays were abnormal and... were similar to Johnny Chen. We had a panic attack. We were all thinking that they were are all going to die," says Cattin. "One by one, we saw the X-rays and there was a big silence because we could not talk… We didn't know what was going on. It was very, very scary." The virus had a highly unusual pattern of transmission. Its peak of infectivity occurred late in the course of the disease when its victims were at their most unwell and usually in hospital care. Because of this, the worst cases clustered in a few hospital wards and intensive care units in a handful of major cities. And within these, the virus spread like wildfire. When Johnny Chen and some of the first medical staff to care for him all died, they began to understand what they were facing and the risk it posed to the world outside. Full in this knowledge, they took the incredible step of locking themselves in, quarantining themselves away from the city to protect it and their country. "I've never met such amazing doctors and nurses as I did in North Vietnam," says Cattin. "I lost five colleagues, they were friends. We're the survivors of this outbreak." Another survivor is Dr Le Thi Quyen Mai, head of virology at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi. "I am very, very lucky," she says. As news of the deadly virus spread through her institute, most of her colleagues fled, fearing for their lives. She stayed, despite having a three-year-old daughter at home. Why? "Just a duty," she says simply. In those early days, when events threatened to spiral out of control, perhaps their most important single asset in the fight against this outbreak was Carlo Urbani, an Italian expert on infectious diseases who was working for the World Health Organization (WHO) in Hanoi. Urbani felt he could not stay in the office as a paper-pushing bureaucrat. As a doctor, he had to help. It was Urbani who took samples from the patients for analysis - at great personal risk - and who first alerted the world to the crisis. After working tirelessly in the French hospital for several weeks, he was urged to take a break. And it was then that he discovered he too had contracted Sars. "I knew he was getting sicker and sicker," says his eldest son Tommaso Urbani, who was 15 at the time. "But I hoped from deep down in my heart that he could make it because he was my father. And I saw him as a strong person, a strong doctor and thought he was invincible or something like that. So I never thought that he could die." But Carlo Urbani did die, two weeks after developing the illness. Ten years on, Tommaso says he's proud of the sacrifice his father made. "I am sure that if he could go back in time, my father would do exactly the same things. I'm happy for what he did because he saved a lot of lives." But although the story of Sars started in Hanoi, it didn't end there. Johnny Chen, the first patient to arrive in Vietnam suffering with the virus, was an international businessman who had arrived from abroad. And so the trail of Sars lead away from Vietnam back to its original point of explosion - Hong Kong - where Chen had stayed shortly before. "There were two dozen of my colleagues sitting in the same room, everybody was shaking and running a high fever, many were coughing," says Prof Joseph Sung who was head of the Prince of Wales' medical faculty at the time, and was effectively the man in charge of this unfolding disaster. "That was the beginning of the nightmare, because from that day on, every day we saw more and more people developing the same illness." Sung divided his team into two groups. One would care for the other patients in the hospital, and the second team - the "dirty team" as they called it - would undertake the dangerous job of treating these patients, and risking infection themselves. Anyone with young children was given an exemption from the "dirty team". But those who were single, and those whose children were grown up, were encouraged to step forward. Not only did volunteers step forward - they kept on coming during the weeks that followed. "I needed a continuous supply of manpower to go in. And I was very touched by the fact that after we exhausted everybody in the medical department, surgeons, orthopaedics people, gynaecologists, even ophthalmologists came to help us." Sung himself ended up spending three months inside the hospital. In Toronto, half a world away from the East Asian locations where Sars first arose, the virus took them completely by surprise. At the Scarborough Grace hospital, a single patient, arriving unwell with what initially looked like a severe pneumonia, went on to infect dozens of staff. Many were transferred to an old tuberculosis hospital on the outskirts of Toronto for quarantine and treatment. And as in Hanoi and Hong Kong, there were those who chose to flee and those who turned up for work one day and stayed - without returning home - for weeks. "I wrote a note to my children," says Monica Avendano, a physician and specialist in respiratory diseases at Toronto's West Park Healthcare Centre, who was one of those who decided to stay. "I said: 'I've been exposed, I might get infected, this might kill me and if it does, don't cry too much. I did it because I'm a physician and I'm a doctor and my duty is to look after sick people.'" Dr Avendano did survive, but the experience of Sars in Toronto was nothing if not terrifying for those involved. Bruce England was a paramedic on duty in Toronto during the early days of the Sars outbreak and, having attended a patient with a chest infection, found himself falling ill. For him, and many others affected by the Sars outbreak in Toronto, the effects of that experience are still being felt today. Ten years on Bruce still experiences weakness and difficulty with his breathing. "I had Sars. It's left a lasting impact on me and my life. So did I survive it? Maybe not, it's still there for me," he says. By the summer of 2003 the chain of human-to-human transmission had been broken. Doctors had come to understand when the most contagious times were for anyone infected and what precautions to take to avoid passing it on. But what happened in Hong Kong, Vietnam and Toronto could so easily have happened in London, New York or any destination reachable by plane. The vectors of this virus were not rats on ships but aircraft travelling at hundreds of miles an hour across the globe. The reason that this is an important story to tell and to continue to retell is because of how narrowly disaster was averted. And I now think that the margins were much narrower than we ever realised. Kevin Fong was reporting for a two-part BBC World Service documentary Sacrifice: The Story of Sars. Part 2 airs on Sunday at 14:06 GMT (15:06 UK time). You can also listen to part 1 and part 2 online.

दस साल पहले, दुनिया एक रहस्यमय बीमारी-सार्स के प्रकोप से दहशत की चपेट में थी। वायरस ने सैकड़ों लोगों की जान ले ली-और हजारों लोगों को संक्रमित किया-लेकिन इसका प्रभाव कहीं अधिक विनाशकारी होता अगर यह मुट्ठी भर डॉक्टरों और नर्सों की बहादुरी के लिए नहीं होता।


Nottinghamshire college students hurt by ceiling tiles

Summary: A Nottinghamshire College will not open on Friday after two students were hurt by falling plasterboard ceiling tiles.

The students from West Nottinghamshire College in Mansfield needed treatment for minor cuts on Thursday. Neither were taken to hospital but principal Asha Kemkha decided to close the Derby Road campus as a "precautionary measure". Students with exams should report to the college as normal and the nursery will remain open. In a statement, the principal said: "We will be undertaking a thorough assessment of the situation over the weekend and will be making a further announcement... on Sunday 12 September." All other college campuses remain open as usual.

एक नॉटिंघमशायर कॉलेज शुक्रवार को नहीं खुलेगा क्योंकि प्लास्टरबोर्ड की छत की टाइल्स गिरने से दो छात्र घायल हो गए थे।


Covid: Ghost-hunters stopped in Mumbles due to rule break

Summary: People on a ghost hunt about 60 miles (96km) away from home have been fined by police for breaking lockdown rules.

Covid fines were issued to four people who drove from Cwmbran in Torfaen to Mumbles, Swansea, to "ghost hunt and view castles". A car was also seized due to the driver having no insurance and a provisional licence. Current lockdown rules in Wales say you can only travel when essential. Reporting the incident, South Wales Police tweeted it would be a "long walk home" for offenders.

घर से लगभग 60 मील (96 किमी) दूर भूत का शिकार करने वाले लोगों पर पुलिस ने लॉकडाउन के नियमों को तोड़ने के लिए जुर्माना लगाया है।


Bloodhound Diary: It's rocket science

Summary: A British team is developing a car that will be capable of reaching 1,000mph (1,610km/h). Powered by a rocket bolted to a Eurofighter-Typhoon jet engine, the vehicle will first mount an assault on the world land speed record (763mph; 1,228km/h). Bloodhound will be run on Hakskeen Pan in Northern Cape, South Africa, in 2016. Wing Commander Andy Green, the current world land-speed record holder, is writing a diary for BBC News about his experiences working on the Bloodhound project and the team's efforts to inspire national interest in science and engineering.

By Andy GreenWorld Land Speed Record Holder I'm regularly asked whether Project Bloodhound is going to develop any new technology that will be used in the future. My answer is always "I hope not". Bloodhound is not aiming to develop new engineering; we are aiming to develop new engineers. New technology is difficult and expensive to produce, and we have to assume that it's unreliable until it's been properly tested and developed. Proven "off the shelf" technology is always a better choice, especially for a small fast-moving (!) project like a Land Speed Record. Bloodhound is using existing technology in new ways, in order to bring science and technology to life for the next generation of engineers. However, that's not quite true for Bloodhound's rocket programme. The education/inspiration role is still the essential part of what we do, including for the rocket programme, but I'll come back to that later. The problem with the rocket programme is that we do appear to be in the "developing future technology" business, whether we like it or not. The good news is that we seem to be rather good at it. Frist, a brief summary of why we're developing a rocket. We need some form of rocket system in order to reach 1000+ mph, as jet engines alone won't be enough - after all, we're trying to go faster than any jet fighter has ever been at ground level, so we're above the design speed of any known jet engine. Hence, we need a rocket, but what type? Solid rockets (like very large fireworks) can't easily be controlled or shut down, so they are not a favourite of mine. Liquid rockets (the sort used for "normal" space rocket launches) work by mixing two very excitable liquids together and trying to control the very angry reaction it causes. Liquid rockets are very powerful, but the liquids are not nice to use (or to carry in large quantities in the car with me) so once again this is not ideal. Hence our choice was for a hybrid rocket system. The solid fuel "grain" (basically a long tube with a hole down the centre) is made from a synthetic rubber called HTPB, while concentrated hydrogen peroxide, known as "high-test" peroxide (or HTP for short) gives us a fairly well-behaved oxidiser. These make for a safe payload in rocketry terms. The rubber fuel is, well, just rubber. In dilute form, hydrogen peroxide can be used for a number of things including hair bleach - hence the term "peroxide blonde" - and as long as the concentrated HTP is kept cool and clean, it also behaves itself nicely. These chemicals are certainly a whole lot more friendly than liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen, various solid fuel "explosives", etc., that other rockets use. The tricky bit in a hybrid rocket is pumping the HTP oxidiser into the fuel grain at high pressure and then managing the burning process (known as "regression") of the rubber fuel grain, once the hybrid reaction (very high temperature burning rubber) starts to generate the thrust. This is the system that the Bloodhound team has been developing, in conjunction with our rocket partner Nammo. Bloodhound's rocket pump has been produced in-house. Starting with a 1960s design from the British rocket programme (which also used HTP all those years ago), we've used modern computer modelling and specialist manufacturing processes to produce the most efficient HTP pump ever made. The pump still needs over 500hp to drive 800 litres (approximately one tonne) of HTP, at 75 Bar (1,100psi), into the rocket in just 20 seconds, which is why we've got Jaguar's 5 litre supercharged V8 engine as a pump motor. Add a whole series of valves, electronic sensors and computer controls, plus flushing and purging systems, and you've got a complicated (but safe) rocket system (summarised in this rocket animation video, which is worth watching just for the Elbow soundtrack). The Bloodhound team delivered its first full-scale firing back in 2012, working with the Falcon Project to test our first prototype. With that background knowledge, we then made some big changes to the design, using several smaller rockets as an alternative to one large one. Two years later, Nammo fired the first of the revised rocket designs intended for use in the car. Two years might sound like a long time, but for rocket development, that's virtually overnight. This rapid-prototyping approach is grabbing people's attention in the rocket world. We're using some components (like the Jaguar V8) that are too heavy for a flight system like a space rocket, but Bloodhound's approach is getting things done quickly and cheaply - just what a Land Speed Record team needs. So much for the rocket system in the car. If you add in the requirement to set a World Land Speed Record, then things get even more difficult. We'll be operating the rocket out in the middle of a desert, not in a specialist rocket facility, so we'll need a lot of support equipment for servicing, fuelling, HTP storage and so on. The FIA regulations require the car to do two runs, in opposite directions, within one hour. Instead of days to prepare the rocket for another firing, we've got to replace the fuel grain, reload a tonne of HTP, replace the car's coolant, reset all the systems, and get all that done in about 30-40 min. This is a classic blend of aerospace and motorsport technologies: a racing pit stop for a hybrid rocket. To deliver this race-capable rocket system in the desert, we are preparing some specialist support vehicles and equipment. These are being delivered in the same short period of time. I've only just found out that this support equipment is regarded as so innovative that one of our rocket support team is writing his post-graduate thesis on its development. Like it or not, we really are developing new technologies and new ways of doing things. Bloodhound's use of HTP is also generating a lot of interest. We've set up our own test laboratory to check that all the key materials in the car are HTP compatible. That includes the Alpinestars fire-proof overalls, boots, gloves etc, that I'll be wearing to drive Bloodhound (the suit was absolutely fine, by the way, but the boots needed a bit of modification - the leather bits were reactive). They even tested my flame-resistant underwear! Alpinestars uses a natural fibre called "Lenzing FR", made from trees (yes, I know that sounds wrong, but apparently my underwear really is made with Beechwood fibres). I was sure that anything from a tree would react furiously with HTP. Shows how much I know: the flame-proof "wooden" underwear is also very HTP-resistant. Sadly, this robs me of the chance to say "that run was so fast that my underwear nearly caught fire", as the team now knows that this can't happen. HTP is also a very "green" fuel. It's non-toxic, relatively easy to store and use, and produces the cleanest decomposition products imaginable - water and oxygen. We've been approached by a range of people, from the space industry to universities, seeking advice on using it. I don't know if HTP is going to find its way into everyday vehicles any time soon (storage and handling does require some care), but it's a really interesting option for an alternative fuel source - so who knows? We are trying to avoid using too much "new" technology for Bloodhound, but as you can see, we do have to develop some to get us to 1,000mph. The new technology does come with one big advantage - as Bloodhound is an "Engineering Adventure" designed to bring technology to life, it gives us an even better story to tell. As well as developing our own rocket technology on the car, we're seeing more and more schools taking part in the Bloodhound Model Rocket Car Challenge. Ever fancied getting your name into the Guinness Book of World Records? Here's one exciting way to do it. Don't wait too long, though; the competition is getting more intense every day. Interest in the Model Rocket Car Challenge goes much wider than just UK schools. Over the week of the Brazilian Grand Prix, we had a small team out in Sao Paolo, helping the UK Government to promote the very best of British innovation and technology (Project Bloodhound!). We were also there to support Brazil's huge interest in the Rocket Car Challenge, which is going country-wide in Brazil. The teams from the SENAI academy seemed to get the hang of it really quickly - subject to ratification, they have already set a world record in the 50-metre category. Well done them! Another great result in Brazil was signing up our newest Bloodhound Ambassador, the Brazilian F1 racing legend Emerson Fittipaldi, who was recruited by our Rocket Challenge manager, Jas Thandi. Having this level of support for the Brazilian education campaign will make a big difference. Thank you, Emerson. As a final thought, the Bloodhound rocket programme has forced us to change the way we talk about things. We can't use the phrase "it's not rocket science" anymore, because Bloodhound is the ultimate Engineering Adventure. It really is rocket science.

एक ब्रिटिश टीम एक ऐसी कार विकसित कर रही है जो 1,000 मील प्रति घंटे (1,610 किमी/घंटा) तक पहुंचने में सक्षम होगी। एक यूरोफाइटर-टाइफून जेट इंजन को बोल्ट किए गए रॉकेट द्वारा संचालित, वाहन पहले विश्व भूमि गति रिकॉर्ड (763 मील प्रति घंटे; 1,228 किमी/घंटा) पर हमला करेगा। ब्लडहाउंड 2016 में उत्तरी केप, दक्षिण अफ्रीका में हक्सकीन पैन पर चलाया जाएगा। विंग कमांडर एंडी ग्रीन, वर्तमान विश्व भूमि-गति रिकॉर्ड धारक, ब्लडहाउंड परियोजना पर काम करने के अपने अनुभवों और विज्ञान और इंजीनियरिंग में राष्ट्रीय हित को प्रेरित करने के लिए टीम के प्रयासों के बारे में बीबीसी न्यूज के लिए एक डायरी लिख रहे हैं।


A new monster from the deep

Summary: A vast new oil field in the North Sea has come on stream, drawing on new technology for greater efficiency and far greater profits. Its estimated benefit to the government over five decades is estimated at £80 billion. The Norwegian government, that is. So why has Norway done so much better out of North Sea oil? Some luck, some choices, keeping work in-country - above all, being an investor as well as levying tax.

Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland The Kraken awoke. Mariner is heavy, but making headway. Clair Ridge is full of gas, and no relation to Sophie, the political interviewer. They are all very large oil and gas fields in the North Sea, which drove the investment boom at the start of this decade, and now represent a large share of Britain's hydrocarbon output, as older fields rapidly deplete. But less than 20km (12 miles) across the sea boundary and 90km (56 miles) west of Stavanger, Johan Sverdrup is the daddy of the new North Sea. He was the man who fathered modern Norwegian parliamentary government in the 1880s. More recently, after its discovery in 2010, his name was given to a humongous offshore oil field. On 5 October, it began production. It's hard to overstate the bonanza it has brought to Norway's industry and finances, and it's being presented by Equinor, its operator, as a model of how to do offshore energy in the 21st century. It all makes for quite a contrast with Britain, where world-leading cultural institutions, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, were this week ending sponsorship from oil companies BP and Shell. We're in a period of tension between the amazing achievements of offshore engineers to unlock access to fossil fuels on which we continue to depend, at the same time as pushing for an end to that dependence and a shunning of the oil majors. Footprint The numbers for Johan Sverdrup are colossal. At peak production of 660,000 barrels per day, it will build up to a third of Norway's output. The field contains 2.7 billion barrels. The cost of developing it was £7.5bn (US$9.2bn), and getting to first oil has taken only four years from approving the project. It has come on stream two months ahead of schedule. And being developed during a downturn for the industry, it successfully stripped out nearly a third of the anticipated costs. A few factors that are particularly noteworthy: Major investor The comparison with the benefit to the UK from recent oil developments is stark. Offshore oil and gas taxation has risen above £1bn per year, but it is not expected to rise much more in the current market and with current profits. Extraction of oil and gas from mature UK fields is getting more expensive and therefore less profitable. Developing deep sea fields west of Shetland, along with technical challenges around high pressure and high temperature, has meant the Treasury to provide bigger tax incentives. Norway has built up a vast oil fund, from which it draws a modest amount in earnings each year. To do so, it has foregone the lower tax that other oil producers, including the UK, have handed to their populace. Compared with Britain, it has been lucky in tax revenue terms, in that fields have been larger and typically more profitable. Over the four decades of production, the UK's oil and gas profile has tended towards maximum output at times when prices and profits have been low. Not so in Norway. But the big difference is that the Norwegian state has been a major investor. The UK government was, until the Thatcher government sold its stakes. Some of Oslo's investment has been through its 67% stake in Equinor, known until last year as Statoil. That company owns 43% of Johan Sverdrup, as well as operating it. Net government cash flows from petroleum activities 1971-2019 (SDFI: state's direct financial interest) The field was discovered in 2010, with the first successful drill by Lundin Petroleum, a third of which is owned by a Swedish-Canadian family, based in Geneva. Equinor is the second biggest shareholder. Petoro has a 17% stake. It is the company that manages the Norwegian government's direct stake in 34 producing fields, with licences for a third of Norway's oil and gas reserves. Last year, it paid £10.6bn into the Norwegian state oil fund. The Oslo government's stake in Equinor brought in £1.3bn in dividends to the government, there was a £600m revenue from environmental tax, and the main tax on offshore oil and gas brought a further £10bn. The budget for this year is for more of the same. With Johan Sverdrup now onstream, that flow of kroners is set to stay strong for years to come.

उत्तरी सागर में एक विशाल नया तेल क्षेत्र प्रवाह में आ गया है, जो अधिक दक्षता और कहीं अधिक लाभ के लिए नई तकनीक को आकर्षित कर रहा है। पांच दशकों में सरकार को इसका अनुमानित लाभ 80 अरब पाउंड होने का अनुमान है। नॉर्वे की सरकार, यानी। तो नॉर्वे ने उत्तरी सागर के तेल से इतना बेहतर क्यों किया है? कुछ भाग्य, कुछ विकल्प, देश में काम रखना-सबसे बढ़कर, एक निवेशक होने के साथ-साथ कर लगाने के रूप में।


Bolivia governing party challenges Morales' term limit

Summary: Lawmakers from Bolivia's governing Movement Towards Socialism party (MAS) have asked the Constitutional Court to allow President Evo Morales to run for a fourth term, despite the constitution preventing him from doing so.

The move comes a year and a half after Bolivians voted against changing the constitution to remove term limits. At the time, Mr Morales said he would respect the referendum results. Mr Morales has been in power since January 2006. Evo Morales in office January 2006: Starts first term as president January 2009: Bolivians approve new constitution in a referendum December 2009: Mr Morales wins second term by a landslide in early presidential election April 2013: Constitutional court rules Mr Morales can stand in the 2014 election despite the 2009 constitution limiting presidents to two consecutive terms. The court argues that his first term should not count because it took place before the constitution came into force October 2014: Morales wins third term in office February 2016: Bolivians vote in a referendum against lifting presidential term limits September 2017: Governing party lawmakers ask the constitutional court to scrap term limits Lawmakers from the governing party and two from the Democratic Unity party backed the request to declare the articles on term limits in the constitution "inapplicable". They argued that imposing term limits conflicted with the constitutional right of every Bolivian to "participate freely in the formation, exercise and control of political power". They also want term limits for other political posts such as governors, mayors and lawmakers to be scrapped. The constitutional court has 15 days to accept or reject the request, and another 45 to come to a decision. If Mr Morales were to be allowed to run again in 2019 and if he were to win, he would be in power until 2025. Many Bolivians who voted "no" in the 2016 referendum on term limits said they did not want to see Mr Morales in power for 19 years. While Mr Morales said at the time that he would respect the outcome of the referendum, he has since stated that he believes the result was down to a "dirty war" launched against him. Allegations surfaced shortly before the referendum accusing Mr Morales of using his influence to favour a Chinese construction firm in Bolivia, which he denied.

बोलिविया की सत्तारूढ़ मूवमेंट टुवर्ड्स सोशलिज्म पार्टी (एमएएस) के सांसदों ने संवैधानिक न्यायालय से राष्ट्रपति इवो मोरालेस को चौथे कार्यकाल के लिए चुनाव लड़ने की अनुमति देने के लिए कहा है, भले ही संविधान ने उन्हें ऐसा करने से रोक दिया हो।


Historian MP casts doubt on Owain Glyndwr parliament

Summary: Was Owain Glyndwr's parliament a myth?

David CornockParliamentary correspondent, Wales Rhondda Labour MP Chris Bryant, doyen of parliamentary historians, think so. As part of the BBC's "Democracy Day" I appeared alongside Mr Bryant on a two-hour programme looking at democracy within and beyond the UK. My role was to summarise developments in Welsh governance through the ages. I mentioned Owain Glyndwr in passing. Chris Bryant took the earliest opportunity to correct me: "David Cornock said that Owain Glyndwr held a parliament. He didn't. That is complete myth. "The only person who ever referred to it anywhere near contemporaneously was Geoffrey of Monmouth and he said he pretended to hold a parliament. Actually, if he gathered anybody he gathered a few barons." Compared to James Blunt, I got off lightly, but then I did go to a comprehensive school. The Geoffrey of Monmouth reference may though have come as a surprise to some people, not least because Geoffrey of Monmouth lived three centuries before Glyndwr's day. A contrite Mr Bryant later realised he had got things wrong and gracefully corrected his own mistake on twitter. "An apology. I corrected @davidcornock but I was wrong. It wasn't Geoffrey of Monmouth but Adam of Usk who wrote about Owain Glyndwr." Aside from the reference to Geoffrey of Monmouth, was Chris Bryant right? Was the Glyndwr parliament a myth? Is the Owain Glyndwr industry under threat? Let me know what you think. You can watch the programme again on BBC Parliament tomorrow at 8pm. If you can't wait until then, why not watch on the BBC iplayer here?

क्या ओवेन ग्लैंडवर की संसद एक मिथक थी?


Kohima: Britain's 'forgotten' battle that changed the course of WWII

Summary: Captain Robin Rowland was 22 when his regiment was deployed to the north-eastern Indian town of Kohima. It was May 1944, and a small group of British-Indian soldiers was under assault by an entire division of Japanese forces.

By Anbarasan EthirajanBBC News Capt Rowland, now 99, vividly remembers approaching the town, following a trail of devastation to the front line. "We saw abandoned trenches and destroyed villages, and as we moved forward the smell of death was everywhere," he said. The young captain was a member of the Punjab regiment of the British Indian army, on his way to help relieve 1,500 of his fellow soldiers who had spent weeks resisting 10 times their number in Japanese forces. Cut off by the Japanese, the allied forces were depending solely on supplies by air, and very few believed they could withstand the relentless onslaught. Japan's soldiers had marched to Kohima through what was then Burma - their aim to invade India. The Japanese had already routed the British in Burma, but no-one expected them to successfully negotiate the mosquito-infested jungle hills and fast-flowing streams en route to Kohima, the capital of Nagaland, and Imphal, the capital of Manipur state in India. When they did, the British-Indian troops tasked with defending the two towns were surrounded by more than 15,000 Japanese soldiers. They fought for weeks to prevent the Japanese moving through and capturing the strategic city of Dimapur, which could have opened the routes to the plains of Assam. Few believed the defenders could prevail. The Japanese soldiers came in "wave after wave, night after night", recalled Capt Rowland. The fighting was brutal and the British-Indian forces were confined to Garrison Hill, which overlooked Kohima. At one point the fighting descended into hand-to-hand combat, with only a tennis court separating the two sides dug in on the hill. The besieged British-Indian soldiers held on until the reinforcements arrived. After three months, by June 1944, with more than 7,000 casualties and almost no food supplies left, the Japanese division retreated and returned to Burma, despite orders from above to stay and fight. "It was a terrific resistance by 1,500 British-Indian troops," Capt Rowland said. "If the Japanese had taken Garrison Hill, they would have gone to Dimapur." The British-Indian forces were ordered to pursue the retreating Japanese and Robin Rowland was among the pursuers. Some of the Japanese soldiers died of cholera, typhoid and malaria, but by far the greater number perished due to starvation as they ran out of supplies. According to military historian Robert Lyman, the battle "changed the course of the Second World War in Asia". "The Japanese invasion of India, of which the battle of Kohima was a significant part, was [their] first major defeat in the Far East," he told the BBC. But, although it was a turning point, the battle in north-east India never captured the public imagination in the way that D-Day, Waterloo or other battles in Europe and North Africa had. It has often been described as "the forgotten war". People in Britain were simply too far away for it to register as much, according to Bob Cook, the head of the Kohima Museum in the city of York. "The Germans were just across 22 miles of water from Britain," he said. "The thing that most concerned people of this country was the imminent threat of German invasion." But there have been some attempts to teach people about the Battle of Kohima and Imphal. In 2013, it was voted as Britain's greatest battle after a debate at the National Army Museum in London, a surprise winner over the likes of D-Day and Waterloo. Robert Lyman made the case for Kohima. "Great things were at stake in a war with the toughest enemy any British army has had to fight," he said in his speech. But there has hardly been any attempt in the sub-continent to highlight the importance of the battle, in which thousands of Commonwealth and Indian soldiers - including men from modern-day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh - lost their lives. One reason was the British partition of India soon after, according to Charles Chasie, a historian based in Kohima in Nagaland. "One of the reasons I think was that India's leaders were too busy dealing with the effects of transition and partition initially," he said. "The British had decided to leave in a hurry before things got too complicated and out of hand on the sub-continent." The battle of Kohima was seen more as a colonial war, while the post-war discourse focused more on the Indian independence struggle led by the Indian leader, Mahatma Gandhi. In addition to the regular British-Indian army, thousands of people from the Naga ethnic community fought alongside the British and provided valuable intelligence in the conflict. Their in-depth knowledge of the mountainous territory was of great help to the British. Today, only a dozen or so Nagas who lived through the battle of Kohima are still alive. Sosangtemba Ao, is one of them. He was among those enlisted by the British Army to cut the Burma road. "The Japanese bombers were flying every day dropping explosives. The sound was deafening and there was smoke after each attack. It was distressing," recalled Mr Ao. He worked alongside the British for two months for pay of one rupee per day. He still has a lot of admiration for the fighting ability of the Japanese soldiers, he said. "The Japanese army was highly motivated. Their soldiers did not fear death. For them, fighting for the emperor was divine. When they were asked to surrender, they would become suicide attackers." A documentary about the battle, Memories of a Forgotten War, was released online recently to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Japanese surrender. Several years ago producer Subimal Bhattacharjee and the crew travelled to Japan for a commemoration. "When the Japanese and the British veterans of Kohima met, they hugged each other and started crying," he said. "These were the soldiers who had fired at each other, but still they showed a special bond. It was spontaneous and we didn't expect it." For the Japanese, it was a humiliating defeat, and Japanese veterans rarely talk about their experience in Kohima. "None of the Japanese food was left," said one, Wajima Koichiro, who was interviewed for the documentary. "It was a losing game and then we withdrew." The ethnic Nagas, who aided the British and suffered huge casualties, also continued to suffer. They had hoped that the British would recognise them as a separate Naga nation during the handover of power, and not as part of India. But they were "sorely disappointed", said historian Charles Chasie, and many blamed them for the thousands of Nagas who were killed in subsequent conflicts with the Indian government and army. Over the years, the families of those killed at Kohima and Imphal, especially from Britain and Japan, have travelled to the two war cemeteries there to pay respects to their ancestors. Capt Rowland went back to Kohima with his son in 2002 at the invitation of the Indian Punjab regiment. He stood in front of Garrison Hill, where he and his fellow soldiers had resisted the waves of Japanese fighters 58 years earlier. "It brought back many memories," said Capt Rowland, remembering how a group of 1,500 men had stood against the might of the entire Japanese 31st division. "It was a great military achievement." Before leaving Kohima, Capt Rowland and his son stopped to lay a wreath at the base of the rough stone war memorial on Garrison Hill. As he put the wreath in place, he remembered eight fellow soldiers he had known who were lost. He knew the battle had not entered the public imagination in the way more famous battles had, but those who were there would never forget. "It was a great tribute to the resilience of human nature," he said.

कैप्टन रॉबिन रोलैंड 22 वर्ष के थे जब उनकी रेजिमेंट को उत्तर-पूर्वी भारतीय शहर कोहिमा में तैनात किया गया था। यह मई 1944 था, और ब्रिटिश-भारतीय सैनिकों के एक छोटे समूह पर जापानी बलों के एक पूरे विभाग द्वारा हमला किया गया था।


Coronavirus: Air India pilots 'at risk of infection' on rescue flights

Summary: India's national carrier Air India has been praised for flying a number of flights to rescue Indians stranded in coronavirus-affected countries. Now, a group of pilots have alleged their safety was compromised - a charge the airline denies.

By Vikas PandeyBBC News, Delhi Air India's fleet has long been used by the government to help Indians in crisis. This has included everything from delivering relief materials during natural calamities to airlifting citizens from Middle Eastern countries during the 2011 Arab Spring. But this time, as Covid-19 sweeps across the world, crew members have made several allegations about serious shortcomings with regards to ensuring the safety of crew and passengers on recent rescue flights. In a letter seen by the BBC, the Executive Pilots Association, a body that represents senior long-haul pilots of the airline, says they have been given "flimsy" pieces of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that "tear and disintegrate easily on rescue flights". The letter, which has been sent to the airline and the aviation ministry, adds that "disinfection processes [for aircraft] are short of international industry best practices". "These inadequacies compound the chances of viral exposure and equipment contamination and may even lead to community transmissions of Covid-19 within crew members, passengers and the public at large," the letter states. The Indian Pilots' Guild, which also represents Air India's long-haul pilots, has written to the ministry citing similar concerns. The BBC has seen this letter as well. A senior pilot, who did not wish to be identified, told the BBC it is not that the crew "doesn't want to work in these testing times for the country". "All we are asking is that proper safety procedures should be followed. If we don't have the right PPE and disinfection processes, we are risking the safety of everybody on the plane, our family, and residents of the buildings where we live," he said. "We are being compared to soldiers and that is very humbling. But you have to give the right gear to your soldiers." An Air India spokesperson acknowledged the letters and said: "Air India is proud of its crew." "Our crew has shown tremendous strength, integrity and dedication. All possible measures have been taken towards their health and safety. Best available PPE are procured for our crew," he told the BBC. 'Quarantine violations' The pilot also added that in some cases the norm of following 14-day quarantine period for everybody returning from abroad was not applied to crew members. The BBC is aware of at least one case where a pilot who returned from a Covid-19-affected country was asked to fly again within seven days. The spokesperson denied these allegations, saying that "all crew having done international flights have been home quarantined". "They have been advised to self-isolate should they develop any symptoms and report immediately. We are following all government quarantine guidelines," he added. The two letters add that the crew do not have any specific Covid-19-related insurance policies and don't have medical teams to examine them when they return from international flights. "Medical teams all over India are now being covered under a government scheme, although surprisingly air crew are not," the letters say. The pilot added that "we are not comparing ourselves to medical staff - they really are the frontline soldiers". "But we are also risking our lives, and an insurance will just give us some peace of mind," he said. The association has also highlighted the issue of unpaid allowances to the crew. "Our flying-related allowances, comprising 70% of our total emoluments, remain unpaid since January 2020. This is grossly unfair," the letter says. The pilot added that this went against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's request to employers not to withhold or cut wages in this time of crisis. "I will repeat again that we do not mind serving the nation, but we need our pay to be protected. We need to be able to look after our families," he said. The airline spokesperson said that "all salaries have been paid and efforts are on to clear some pending dues", but pilots say the withheld allowances are around 70% of their total earnings. Air India has been saddled with massive debts and several efforts to sell it have failed. However despite this, the airline is in the midst of planning a massive operation to evacuate foreigners in India at great cost. The passengers will be collected from several major Indian cities and flown to Frankfurt, but Air India will not be bringing back any Indian citizens who may still be stuck in Europe. The pilot said "it's commendable that Air India is helping those in need" but asked why Indians could not be on the return flights as the planes would be flying home empty. "I want to stress that we will not stop flying rescue and supply missions at any cost. We just want to be heard," another pilot told the BBC. "Otherwise it feels like we are alone in this battle when the need is for all of us to work together and look after each other."

कोरोना वायरस प्रभावित देशों में फंसे भारतीयों को बचाने के लिए कई उड़ानें उड़ाने के लिए भारत की राष्ट्रीय वाहक एयर इंडिया की प्रशंसा की गई है। अब, पायलटों के एक समूह ने आरोप लगाया है कि उनकी सुरक्षा से समझौता किया गया था-एक आरोप जिसे एयरलाइन नकारती है।


How much does NHS Wales spend?

Summary: So how much does the NHS Wales spend?

By Sarah DickinsBBC Wales economics correspondent In 2011/12, £6,379m was spent on health in Wales. The seven local health boards spent the biggest chunk. They are responsible for both funding and providing NHS services in their geographical area. In the 2011/12 financial year, they were given £6,013m by the Welsh government to do that. NHS finances - the workforce As we can see from the pie chart above, most of the money is spent on staff - the various grades of nurses, doctors, consultants and administrative teams. In 2013 there were the equivalent of 72,393 full-time jobs in the NHS in Wales. This was an increase of 391 (0.5%) on the previous year. The biggest increases were in medical and dental staff - a rise of 2.8% compared with 2012. The table below shows the changes in staffing levels over a five-year period to 2013. Excluding GPs and dentists, there are the equivalent of 36,312 people working full time in NHS Wales. What is significant is the reduction in the number of managers and senior managers since 2009. In particular, a 28.5% reduction in senior staff. Here you can also see a breakdown of local health board staff in your area. NHS finances - spending money locally Primary healthcare in Wales has an annual budget of £1,347m. That pays for GPs, their teams of nurses and administrative support as well as prescribed drugs, pharmacies and other services. The proportion spent on each service varies for each health board. Case study: Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University health board Let's look how, for instance, the health board covering Bridgend, Neath Port Talbot and Swansea spends its money. As well looking after local hospitals, it has £232.7m to spend on primary healthcare alone and we can show how that breaks down. The largest amount goes on prescribed drugs and appliances, followed by general medical services - which covers GPs and their staff. There is much discussion about patients' access to local doctors. In Wales there are broadly six GPs for every 10,000 people, similar to England and Northern Ireland. But in Scotland, it is notably higher with eight per 10,000 (Stats Wales/House of Commons Library, 2013). What do illnesses cost to treat? The debate about spending priorities in healthcare is a very complicated one and individual spending categories cannot really be looked at in isolation. Even if we had not been rocked by the global financial crisis of 2008 and the policies of austerity that followed, the health service would still have had to consider its priorities. Costs for services and pharmaceuticals would have increased as would patient demands and population growth. The fact that we are still trying to recover from a recession - and have increasing social pressures - heightens discussion about the health service we want for the future.

तो एनएचएस वेल्स कितना खर्च करता है?


Why MS Dhoni's place in cricket history is assured

Summary: Mahendra Singh Dhoni has stepped down as India's limited-overs captain ahead of the upcoming one-day international series against England. Wisden India editor Suresh Menon looks at what made the wicketkeeper-batsman one of the calmest cricketers in history.

Dhoni was not only a calm captain himself, he was the cause for calmness in others. He smiled, he showed displeasure, he chatted to bowlers, but while his immediate message was clear, no one could bet on what his thinking was. To catch the cricket fraternity by surprise twice in two years - first while quitting Test cricket, and now when relinquishing captaincy in one-day internationals - is no mean feat. Dhoni read the one-day game better than he did Test cricket, and was India's finest captain in the shorter formats. He led India to victory in three tournaments - World Twenty20 (2007), World Cup (2011) and Champions Trophy (2013) - so the record matched his reputation. He tended to let the longer game drift occasionally, and seemed to feel the pressure of not losing his early Tests, something that might have rendered him more defensive once the streak was broken. The shorter formats were different. He could experiment, even gamble, trusting his finely honed sense of time and place to bring him success. When he handed the ball to rookie Joginder Sharma in the final of the inaugural World T20 a decade ago, there might have been a collective gasp around the country. Yet Sharma claimed the last Pakistan wicket, and as an unintended consequence, the face of cricket was changed forever. The IPL was born, as India, Twenty20 deniers became Twenty20 obsessed. Dhoni, one of the greatest finishers in the modern game, got his timing right once again, pre-empting the inevitable media speculation about his future following the sustained successes of Test skipper Virat Kohli. Fitness not a problem The only question to be answered, of course, was whether Dhoni saw himself in the 2019 World Cup team. He would be 39 then, but fitness was unlikely to be the problem. The concern was over the fact that given that India's fixture list is heavy on Test cricket, he might feel rusty with bat in hand. Already in recent matches, his legendary finishing abilities had let him down occasionally, and there were few chances to get match fit. This meant that he could not afford failure, and had to make an impact every time he went out to bat. Youngsters like wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant were beginning to look match-ready. It was thus a pragmatic call, to give up the captaincy, focus on batting and try to rediscover the freedom and form that made him one of the greats. For Dhoni is nothing if not practical. Not for him the romance and layered philosophy of the game; he was simple without being simplistic, straightforward without being naive, and knows his mind best. These qualities served him well as captain, they serve him well as a person. The long chat he had with the chairman of selectors, MSK Prasad, during the semi-final of the ongoing domestic Ranji Trophy tournament might have convinced him. Perhaps the decision to step down as the one-day captain was made before the chat. Dhoni's place in history is assured, and not just as a player and captain. He was leader of a talented group of players which emerged from non-traditional areas. There was a historical inevitability about this. India's early captains were the local royals. Then came those who worked for the royals like Lala Amarnath and Vijay Hazare. Then came the middle-class salary-earning city-bred captains (Gulabrai Ramchand,Nari Contractor, Ajit Wadekar), with Tiger Pataudi the exception in the 1960s. Dhoni's arrival was a testimony to the reach of televised cricket. Youngsters had been fired by the 1983 World Cup win by Kapil Dev's India. Suddenly towns like Bharuch, Aligarh, Jalandhar, Palarivattom, Quilon, Rae Bareilly, Khorda and Kodagu began producing international cricketers. Dhoni was eight when Sachin Tendulkar made his debut, yet within months of playing under Dhoni, the senior man was saying, "I am delighted at the way Dhoni conducts himself. He is a balanced guy with a sharp brain. His approach is clear and uncomplicated." So clear and uncomplicated that when his immediate predecessor Anil Kumble retired, Dhoni carried him off the field on his shoulders. In Indian cricket, no captain is a hero to his vice-captain, and this must rate as one of the great sights on a cricket field. 'A fluke' The simple was best demonstrated when he asked spinner Amit Mishra to bowl the last over on the second day of the Mohali Test against Australia in 2008, and the bowler dismissed Michael Clarke. At the press conference later, Dhoni, praised for his acumen, confessed, "It was a fluke." He was to say later, "I want a team that can stand before an advancing truck." It was a captaincy mantra that he followed, and which saw India rise to the top in both Test and ODI rankings. Whether Dhoni was bowing to the inevitable by giving up the captaincy, or merely anticipating the future by a fortnight, the fact remains that once again he goes out on his own terms. He led in 199 matches, winning 110, a figure second only to Allan Border's 165. His 41 wins in Twenty20 are the best by any captain. The transition, as in Test cricket, will be smooth. Virat Kohli is ready, willing and able. He has said he learnt much under Dhoni, and as he prepares to put together the team for 2019, the younger man has enough time to figure out whether the older fits into his scheme of things. But currently, Dhoni the batsman is a certainty. Suresh Menon is the Editor of Wisden India Cricketers' Almanack

महेंद्र सिंह धोनी ने इंग्लैंड के खिलाफ आगामी एक दिवसीय अंतरराष्ट्रीय श्रृंखला से पहले भारत के सीमित ओवरों के कप्तान के रूप में पद छोड़ दिया है। विजडन इंडिया के संपादक सुरेश मेनन ने देखा कि किस बात ने इस विकेटकीपर-बल्लेबाज को इतिहास के सबसे शांत क्रिकेटरों में से एक बना दिया।


100 Welsh Government phones and laptops 'lost or stolen'

Summary: It has cost nearly £14,000 to replace phones and laptops lost or stolen from Welsh Government employees since 2012, new figures have shown.

A Freedom of Information response shows 80 phones were lost and 11 stolen along with six laptops. In total, these were worth £13,000 with it costing £13,900 to replace them. A Welsh Government spokesman said the number lost in any one of the years represented less than 1% of devices issued. "When a member of staff reports an item of electronic equipment missing or stolen, they are referred for disciplinary action if reasonable care for the device has not been taken," he said. Incidents include items taken after being left outside secured government properties, falling out of pockets or bags, taken during home burglaries, car break-ins and street robberies.

नए आंकड़ों से पता चलता है कि 2012 से वेल्श सरकार के कर्मचारियों से खोए हुए या चोरी हुए फोन और लैपटॉप को बदलने में लगभग 14,000 पाउंड का खर्च आया है।


Royal Liverpool Hospital: Work on stalled £335m project resumes

Summary: Work to finish the building of Royal Liverpool Hospital has resumed.

Construction of the already delayed £335m, 646-bed hospital - due to have opened in March 2017 - was halted in February after Carillion's collapse. New contractors Laing O'Rourke have started to clear the site ahead of the resumption of building work. It is now estimated the hospital will be ready to open by the end of 2020. Trust chief executive Aidan Kehoe said it had been "a turbulent 11 months". "We are looking forward to the New Year with fresh optimism," he added. "With Laing O'Rourke and others in place, more contractors to follow in the coming months, and work returning to the site, our staff are now refocusing their attention on our plans for moving in." From 3 December "early work will begin to gather pace and continue over the next four months", according to the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust. That initial work will include the completion of a security room to monitor CCTV throughout the new hospital building, along with modification to the ventilation system in the anaesthetic rooms in theatres. The completion of an energy-saving lighting system, meaning lights will switch off automatically in unoccupied rooms, will also be completed by February, the Trust added. Work to replace unsafe cladding installed by Carillion, and repairing beams in other parts of the structure, will also take place in the next two years. The Trust is also working with Laing O'Rourke on a procurement process involving about 140 contractors who were already employed on the site prior to Carillion's collapse. "Having all these contracts in place will help facilitate a swifter restart of construction," the Trust said. The hospital was originally funded under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) where companies provide money for new hospitals and then charge annual fees. But NHS bosses announced last moth that and public money would instead be used to complete the work. In February, Carillion filed for compulsory liquidation with debts of about £1.5bn and local MPs called on the government to intervene. Birkenhead MP Frank Field described the incomplete hospital as a "creaking monument to… greed" following a damning report into the "rotten corporate culture" at Carillion.

रॉयल लिवरपूल अस्पताल के निर्माण को पूरा करने का काम फिर से शुरू हो गया है।


Has Yemen war handed Aden to jihadists?

Summary: Unseen by most of the world, the once tranquil port of Aden is being steadily infiltrated by jihadists from both al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP) and the so-called Islamic State (IS).

By Frank GardnerBBC security correspondent They are not in charge of the city, the military forces of the UAE are. But in the last few days disturbing reports have emerged of the summary executions of prisoners by the jihadists, along with their black flags hoisted onto public buildings. The war in Yemen, now in its sixth month, has effectively offered the jihadists a backdoor entry into the country's second most important city and a major Indian Ocean port. "The jihadists have been taking advantage of the chaos in Aden to infiltrate the city," says Aimen Deen, a Dubai-based consultant and former jihadist himself. Nigel Inkster, the director of transnational threats at the London think-tank IISS and a former director of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, concurs. "AQAP are a very opportunistic organisation," he says. "What has happened in Aden has created an opportunity and given them scope to expand there and in certain parts of the country." So what exactly has happened in Aden? Very bad things in recent weeks is the answer. For 128 years, the Indian Ocean port of Aden and the adjoining hinterland was a British protectorate and later a crown colony. As recently as the 1960s, cruise ships were dropping off passengers to shop in its teeming markets as they refuelled on the long voyage between Southampton and the Far East. It was one of the busiest ports and harbours in the world. After a violent independence campaign, Aden became the capital of the Marxist People's Democratic Republic of Yemen from 1967 to 1990. Russian sailors strolled around town, office women wore Western skirts and there was even a local brewery. Then followed unification with North Yemen and a brief and ultimately unsuccessful attempt by the South to split away in 1994. When I interviewed the country's strongman, President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in 2000, he told me his greatest achievement had been uniting the two Yemens, North and South. Aden But today Yemen is in chaos. Pushed out by the Arab Spring protests of 2011, President Saleh left office, but not Yemen. A sore loser, he conspired to wreck Yemen's transition to a peaceful democracy, forming an alliance in 2014 with the same Houthi rebels he had fought several wars against. In September 2014, the rebels advanced on the capital, Sanaa, from their northern stronghold. By January 2015, they had the president, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, under house arrest. By March, they had seized almost the whole of the western half of the country, driving the government into exile and capturing Aden. Who is fighting whom in Yemen? Houthis - The Zaidi Shia Muslim rebels from the north overran Sanaa last year and then expanded their control. They want to replace Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, whose government they say is corrupt. The US alleges Iran is providing military assistance to the rebels. Ali Abdullah Saleh - Military units loyal to the former president - forced to hand over power in 2011 after mass protests - are fighting alongside the Houthis. Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi - The president fled abroad in March as the rebels advanced on Aden, where he had taken refuge in February. Sunni Muslim tribesmen and Southern separatists have formed militia to fight the rebels. Saudi-led coalition - A US-backed coalition of nine, mostly Sunni Arab states, says it is seeking to "defend the legitimate government" of Mr Hadi. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - AQAP opposes both the Houthis and President Hadi. A rival affiliate of Islamic State has also recently emerged. Human Rights Watch report on Yemen Yemen's giant neighbour, Saudi Arabia, suspected the hand of Iran was behind the rebels, who are Shia, and launched a devastating air war to push them back and force them to sue for peace. It has largely worked, but at a cost. The rebels are now in full retreat, but over 4,000 people have been killed in the fighting, at least half of them civilians. The once quiet, torpid streets of Aden have been battered by mortar fire, snipers and artillery. As part of the Saudi-led coalition, the UAE landed an entire armoured brigade there to reinforce the Yemeni loyalists fighting the rebels. French-built Leclerc tanks of the UAE army have been in action north of the city. But in Aden itself there has been something of a power vacuum with almost no effective policing or security - just the sort of situation the jihadists like to exploit. As far back as February, when the Houthis were advancing into Aden, IS declared a new province, a "wilaya" of Aden and Lahej. After launching an attack on Houthi rebels on 18 July, they reportedly executed seven of their captives in the district known as Crater. Now, in a new report on the mistreatment of prisoners by both sides, Human Rights Watch cites reports that on 23 August, IS dressed a number of Houthi prisoners in orange jumpsuits, placed them in a boat which was then towed out into the harbour. Reportedly watched by local residents of Aden, the boat carrying the prisoners was then blown up, killing those on board, the report says. Yemen is no stranger to violence. In the last four years, it has witnessed some horrific suicide bombings, mostly in Sanaa. For now, it seems that the jihadists of AQAP and IS have largely put aside their differences to fight their common enemy, the Shia Houthi rebels. Ironically, they are being aided by air strikes from the very countries - Saudi Arabia and the UAE - who normally oppose them. But their apparent infiltration into what was once one of the most important ports on the Indian Ocean gives them a base they could only have dreamed of before this war began.

दुनिया के अधिकांश हिस्सों द्वारा अनदेखे, कभी अदन के शांत बंदरगाह में अरब प्रायद्वीप में अल-कायदा (एक्यूएपी) और तथाकथित इस्लामिक स्टेट (आईएस) दोनों के जिहादियों द्वारा लगातार घुसपैठ की जा रही है।


'I've been stared at in disbelief when I introduce myself'

Summary: For the past five years BBC News has invited entrepreneurs to share their advice in a video series called CEO Secrets. Here, four black business founders who have been guests discuss how they feel their skin colour has affected the way they navigate the business world.

By Dougal ShawCEO Secrets series producer Ojoma Idegwu - I have to clarify I am who I 'claim' to be Ojoma, 37, is the founder of Dear Curves, a fashion label for plus-size women. She used to work on the shop floor in Topshop, but eventually took the plunge of starting her own fashion business. I must start off by making very clear how immensely proud I am of the colour of my skin. Having said that, I am all too aware of the challenges it presents. Being a black entrepreneur in the UK for me means, in most instances, I have to work twice as hard to be in the same space as, and get the same opportunity as, my white colleagues. I'm genuinely made to feel like I have to prove myself again and again. I’m dealing with consistent micro-aggressions, back-handed compliments from some white, key decision-makers in the fashion industry. And people say: “Oh Ojoma, I’m only joking, don’t take it so seriously!” I’ve been stared at in disbelief [at business events], when I introduce myself as the owner of Dear Curves. From their reaction you can tell they didn't expect to see a black person. It’s almost like people are saying, "Did she miss the exit?" I'm often asked again, as if to clarify I am who I "claim" to be! It can end up with them walking away in embarrassment. I wish there were more female fashion entrepreneur role models, to boost confidence. Recently we had the protest for racial equality in the US, and rightly so. So we had a lot of big businesses coming out making wonderful pledges, publicly preaching about how they would create space for black and minority-owned businesses. These brands publicly ask you to send them a copy of your lookbook, but privately, they send you an email, talking about how "I'm not a right fit for their platform". The key problem with this is I'd not even sent them a copy of my lookbook yet! This is what black-owned businesses like mine deal with. I'm tired of being used as a tool to publicly show how diverse these brands intend to be, but in reality they don't mean any of the things they declare. Jamal Edwards - I used to feel like the outsider but the internet has made things easier Jamal, 29, founded the online media company SBTV in 2007 in west London. It grew out of YouTube, with an emphasis on discovering new music artists, including Ed Sheeran and Dave. He was awarded an MBE in the 2015 New Year Honours list. I personally feel like the democratic nature of the internet has meant that the opinions and ideologies of the so-called gatekeepers - who are mainly white - are null and void. It’s made it a lot easier for people like me, who are of Afro-Caribbean descent, to prosper. This has broken down a lot of barriers and increased the access to opportunities that may have not been readily available to me before the YouTube era. When I first started I had work experience at MTV and the BBC and I always remember feeling a sense of nervousness going in to work because it felt like I was the outsider. I quickly learnt to overcome these problems, but I don’t think it should be a feeling an aspiring young professional should face. Although I have had many successes I have faced many challenges. For example, there came a point in my business where I felt like I hit a glass ceiling. It became clear that I was not being taken seriously due to my appearance because I didn't dress or look like your generic executive. I have always looked at it as a matter of strategy to debunk these micro-aggressions that were the cause of these barriers. It became apparent that I had to hire a senior white male executive to balance things out and to aid in breaking through the glass ceiling I was faced with. Since then we have built a great partnership and we work extremely well together. As time has passed it's inspiring to see all the black executives championing change. I definitely think there has been change, even if it has been small. This has led to other entrepreneurs coming through and making a name for themselves. It’s refreshing to see people that look like me, that have often been overlooked, and had to work harder than their white contemporaries, be taken seriously and reap the fruits of their labour. Gerald Manu - An investor told me to ask black people for money instead Gerald, 22, is the founder of Devacci, a street fashion label he created while still at school in Croydon, south London. Building a business from scratch is never easy. Building a business from the ground up as a black entrepreneur is 100 times harder. This is especially true in my area: fashion and technology, where there are few black entrepreneur role models. The Black Lives Matter movement really matters to me because I believe in equality in every aspect of life. Black people like myself have been treated unfairly and it is time for a change. I have experienced countless hardships as a black entrepreneur. My worst experience was fundraising. I had come across an angel investor who agreed to schedule a meeting with me. The meeting only lasted about 20 minutes. The majority of the meeting was the angel investor brutally criticising my business plan without any positive feedback, but that wasn’t the worst part. He made a comment saying: “I know that if I give you this money, you will most likely blow it all on an expensive lifestyle or spend it recklessly. Why don’t you go ask other black, influential, wealthy people in the UK for the money instead?” I was shocked and disgusted by those comments. My ego was crushed at that moment. It was one of the worst days of my life. But I did not let it get me down, I used those comments as fuel to pursue my dreams with Devacci. I hope there will be more diversity when it comes to venture capitalist funding for businesses, because I know I am not the only one facing this type of racial discrimination. Being a black entrepreneur trying to secure angel investment or venture capital for your business is basically almost impossible and that is something that needs to change. Kike Oniwinde - There are not enough black people in senior leadership positions Kike, 27, is the founder of BYP Network, which works with businesses like Facebook, Sky and Netflix. It has been called ‘the black LinkedIn’, creating networking opportunities primarily for black people. When I started my business back in 2016, it was partly inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and the realisation that there was a lack of black representation in corporations. I felt like the media only represents black people in a negative way: it’s about knife crime, or it showcases us as entertainers in sports and music only. This led to the motivation to "change the black narrative" by connecting black professionals around the globe for role model visibility, job and business opportunities and economic empowerment. Here we are in 2020, and the same motivations still persist. There are not enough black people in senior leadership positions here in the UK, we still face prejudice, micro-aggressions, racism and closed doors. Race is something I think about daily, mainly because my business is focused on black attainment, but also because the glaring differences of how we are treated is constant. As a black female founder, access to investment is statistically near-impossible. In Europe, €13bn (£11.6bn) a year funding is spent on predominantly white, male founding companies to innovate the future. This capital is barely accessible to black founders. Only 1% of companies invested in are black-owned. Only 0.2% of companies invested in have a black, female founder. I have been fortunate to raise investment, but it’s about access for all black founders, not just the few. Venture capital firms should be held accountable for the lack of investment in black founders. We have barely seen statements of solidarity or even acknowledgement of the current climate. As an entrepreneur, I believe the wider public should be more informed about the venture capital world so that more people can hold them accountable, not just the elite few. Myself and other black founders ask them to: Black lives matter in all facets of life, whether when questioned by police, interviewing for a job, or seeking investment. As a black female founder, I am aware that others see me as a role model, the very representation I was searching for. So it’s part of my duty to ensure doors can be opened for others that look like me. If you would like to suggest an inspiring entrepreneur for CEO Secrets you can contact series producer Dougal Shaw

पिछले पाँच वर्षों से बी. बी. सी. न्यूज़ ने उद्यमियों को सी. ई. ओ. सीक्रेट्स नामक एक वीडियो श्रृंखला में अपनी सलाह साझा करने के लिए आमंत्रित किया है। यहाँ, चार अश्वेत व्यवसाय संस्थापक, जो अतिथि रहे हैं, चर्चा करते हैं कि वे कैसे महसूस करते हैं कि उनकी त्वचा के रंग ने उनके व्यापार जगत में जाने के तरीके को प्रभावित किया है।


No foreign travel for SB and Amara Piyaseeli

Summary: The Colombo Magistrate ruled that former ministers SB Dissanayake and Amara Piyaseeli Rathnayake and six others should refrain from leavening the island .

The Magistrate made this ruling after looking into chargers made by the police on misuse of funds allocated for "Samurdhi" projects. Approximately rupees three million had been allocated for two projects by then Samurdhi Affairs minister SB Dissanayake on the request of Women's Affairs minister Amara Piyaseeli Rathnayake. Investigating police officers told the courts that there were no such projects in the relevant areas. The officials of the non-governmental organizations who are said to have received the funds also have been charged. The Magistrate informed the police that if they intend to arrest the suspects they should seek the attorney generals advice before doing so.

कोलंबो मजिस्ट्रेट ने फैसला सुनाया कि पूर्व मंत्री एस. बी. दिसानायके और अमारा पियासीली रथनायके और छह अन्य को द्वीप छोड़ने से बचना चाहिए।


Plaid MP would back 'issue-by-issue' deal with Labour

Summary: How many parties does it take to form a government?

David CornockParliamentary correspondent, Wales The answer next May could be more than two. UKIP's rise and the SNP surge have helped make the election the most unpredictable in living memory (a phrase you may hear again in the next 146 days). Neither of the two largest parties looks capable of winning a majority and the third largest party may have insufficient seats to hold the balance of power on its own. Alternatively, could one of the larger parties choose to govern as a minority administration, by striking a deal or pact with another (non-Lib Dem party)? Well, it could happen. Which is where the SNP come in. Former SNP leader (and future backbencher?) Alex Salmond told last night's BBC Newsnight he "would be very surprised if people weren't looking at this kaleidoscope potential of a parliament and not seeing how legitimate political ambitions can be pursued. "Incidentally, this is entirely proper - this is what politics is about, that's why people vote. And that's why I'm saying that for first time in many years people in Scotland can vote with the reasonable expectation that we might actually have a decisive influence on legislation in the next Parliament, and that is all to the good." The one stumbling block to a deal with Labour could be the SNP's self-denying ordinance on votes on English issues. It would clearly limit their value to a Miliband administration without a majority. So presenter Kirsty Wark asked if he would vote on education and NHS legislation in England in a deal with Labour. Alex Salmond: "One of things I learned in that experience minority government in Scotland is it's probably wise if you're in that position of an opposition party not to reveal too many of your cards in advance. The people who played their cards best were the ones who didn't play them face up. So if you forgive me I won't go into too much detail on tactics." He agreed with Wark that it isn't difficult "with parliamentary ingenuity" to make a bill relevant to Scotland So where does that leave Plaid Cymru, who form a joint parliamentary party with the SNP at Westminster? Plaid's parliamentary leader Elfyn Llwyd told me in an interview for the next Sunday Politics: "We've always worked with the SNP. We are looking at these things even now because it is inevitable it will be a hung parliament and it's a question of who's going to be doing what. It's an interesting situation and I believe that we will be players in it." The SNP shopping list appears to involve the scrapping of Trident (and presumably the continuation of the Barnett formula). What would Plaid Cymru want (apart from the end of the Barnett formula)?. Elfyn Llwyd: "Greater powers to the Welsh assembly, clearly; moving on taxation without a referendum, ensuring that we address the Barnett problem now without any further ado. There are many things that we could be talking about, but I think, potentially, it's an important situation and potentially we could do a lot of good for Wales by entering into an issue-by-issue understanding with a Labour government and I for one would fully endorse that." Plaid leader Leanne Wood, new SNP leader (and First Minister) Nicola Sturgeon and Green Party leader Natalie Bennett will hold talks on Monday in London to discuss their strategy for the coming months.

सरकार बनाने के लिए कितने दलों की आवश्यकता होती है?


Why your washing machine is a security risk

Summary: "Hello! Do you need any help, sir?"

By Mark WardTechnology correspondent, BBC News "No thanks, I'm just browsing." This is a lie. I am not just browsing. I am trying to make a smart washing machine on display in this electronics store cough up its deepest secrets. On this model, that means I need to simultaneously press a couple of buttons on the control panel to jog it into a mode that shows how it connects to wi-fi. But I need to hold the buttons down for five seconds or so and every time I do that a hovering salesman or woman comes over and I have to abandon the attempt. Maybe there is a better way to plumb the secrets of smart devices. I'm curious about the security on these gadgets as I've just bought a washing machine that can communicate its well-being via an app. More and more domestic gadgets that, since their creation, have been as isolationist as North Korea are now becoming decidedly verbose. And they do most of their chatting via apps. With home routers regularly getting enrolled into scams, I'm wondering if smart washing machines, ovens, tumble dryers and fridges will be next. App attack "Get hold of the .apk," said Mark Schloesser, a senior researcher at security company Rapid7 when I asked him about ways to investigate the security, or otherwise, of these gadgets. By .apk he means the Android file for the app. The relatively open nature of Google's Android means it is possible to download an app and decompile it to reveal its innards. This I do. And soon after, I realise that all my years of tinkering with computers and software have not accidentally turned me into a competent reverse engineer. I can see how the code breaks down into functions but the opaque nature of the language in which it is written, Java, defeated my attempts to understand which bit did what. Mr Schloesser reassured me that this kind of static analysis was difficult for everyone. "Java has a big standard library and a big amount of tools to choose from," he said. "In addition, on Android you have the whole Google SDK [software developers' kit] at your disposal." Also, he said, there was no set way that developers lay out the code inside an app. "It will be pretty much arbitrary. The structure is not standard," he said. Given that, I let another professional, Stephen Tomkinson, of security company NCC Group, also have a look. From what he saw, the app in question is a bit of a mess. It has code in it to serve both washing machines and air conditioners. It has hardcoded passwords and communicated with a servicing and maintenance system in a way that might be insecure. 'Flaky' The best way to see if the app, and by implication, the washing machine can be turned against its owners is to spy on the traffic that flows between the two and which they send out over the net to the service centre or head office. Daniel O'Connor did just that with his Samsung air conditioner, which can be controlled over wi-fi via a smartphone or laptop. He started to look at the traffic because soon after he installed it he lost the ability to control it via anything but a smartphone. "It was flaky and it was not clear why," he told the BBC. "That drew my attention, and led me to start figuring out how the heck this was working." By looking at the data passing over his home wi-fi network from the device he found that it was regularly sending updates about itself to a service website run by Samsung. He noticed it was sending back unique identifiers for his device and seemed to communicate whether he wanted it to or not. Mr O'Connor figured out the problem that made his air conditioner only talk to a smartphone, and it kicked off an effort to develop more ways to communicate with these smart devices. He is not alone. There are a growing number of projects run by amateurs and start-ups keen to make their software act as a central co-ordinator for devices that will be the "things" in the future Internet of Things. Many of the early IoT devices only talk to products from the same manufacturer. Without a central controller, the fear is that our homes will be populated by several internets of different things, making them a nightmare to control. Data lost Even though I do not have a smart washing machine I found a man that did - Dan Cuthbert, an analyst at security firm company. Even better, he has been looking at the apps used to control it and other gadgets, such as a tumble dryer, to see how easy they are to subvert. His investigations suggests that the app-based control system is something of an afterthought and few companies seem to have spent the money needed to ensure the apps are secure. He said analysis shows that code inside some of the apps has been borrowed from other places and, worryingly, they use some technologies, such as UPnP, known to have exploitable vulnerabilities. Right now though, he admits, the danger posed by these devices is largely theoretical. However, he said, that might soon change. "If you look at two or five years down the line there's a big push to have lots of internet-enabled devices," he said. "You start with the utility devices such as washing machines and fridges. Then it moves to other gadgets - and once you start doing that, there's the issue of data leakage." By having all those devices merrily connecting and swapping data it might get much easier for cyberthieves to grab information they can use to get at much more saleable data. Attackers could use an insecure fridge as a pivot to get at your laptop or tablet where login IDs, credit card numbers and other identifiers are located. A home full of smart devices will be gathering data on its occupants and that information is going to become very useful and valuable, he said. Already social media sites profit from the data people surrender as they post updates. Actual data about lifestyles was likely to be a juicy target for all kinds of firms, he said. "As a consumer I want to know what these devices are doing," he said. "I think I have a right."

"हैलो, सर, क्या आपको किसी मदद की ज़रूरत है?"


When 40% revenue growth isn’t enough

Summary: Alibaba, the world's largest e-commerce firm, has reported annual revenue growth of 40% in its debut report since its record-breaking share flotation. That would be impressive for most companies, but the $4.2bn earned fell short of analysts' expectations of $4.4bn.

Linda YuehChief business correspondent However, earnings per share beat consensus forecasts at 81 cents versus 75 cents, and the margin on earnings rose to 58% from 50.5%. Alibaba says that gross merchandise sales volumes rose by 49% with active buyers up 45% from a year earlier on its Chinese retail sites. Notably, mobile transactions now account for 42% of Alibaba's business, more than doubling from a year ago when it was 20%. The company says that active mobile users have nearly doubled to 265 million from 136 million a year ago. Those would seem to be impressive figures, but Alibaba shares fell as much as 8% in pre-market trading on the missed revenues. A rare public dispute with the Chinese regulator may also be casting a shadow on the company. The SAIC, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, in a white paper said that Alibaba's biggest e-commerce platforms not only sold fakes, but that the company turned a blind eye to counterfeit goods, and accused Alibaba of "misconduct". Alibaba says it is combating counterfeit goods sold by vendors on its various websites. The SAIC said that this discussion with Alibaba over its practices occurred two months before its Initial Public Offering (IPO), but the regulator has only brought it to light now. Well, sort of, since the report has since been taken down from the SAIC's website. The spat with the SAIC may reveal the Chinese government using one of its most prominent companies to set an example to showcase its commitment to crack down and protect intellectual property rights, an ongoing area of dissatisfaction expressed by foreign firms in particular and increasingly by Chinese ones. In any case, Alibaba's share price has come under some pressure as a result over the past two days - dropping some 4% yesterday when the SAIC report was released. Still, at about $90, it is still considerably above the IPO price of $68 from last September. What Alibaba is now experiencing is what other listed firms regularly face - the need to meet market expectations and address bad news, particularly on the regulatory front.

दुनिया की सबसे बड़ी ई-कॉमर्स कंपनी अलीबाबा ने अपनी पहली रिपोर्ट में अपने रिकॉर्ड-ब्रेकिंग शेयर फ्लोटेशन के बाद से 40 प्रतिशत की वार्षिक राजस्व वृद्धि दर्ज की है। यह अधिकांश कंपनियों के लिए प्रभावशाली होगा, लेकिन $4.2bn की कमाई विश्लेषकों की $4.4bn की उम्मीदों से कम हो गई।


Cumbria charities and trust open £50,000 health hub

Summary: A new £50,000 health hub has been opened in Cumbria.

The Gateway Centre at Gillingate in Kendal, was built after receiving £50,000 of funding from Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. The centre brings together five local charities and the trust under one roof to offer health advice to residents. Lord Lieutenant Claire Hensman, who opened the centre, said it was a "wonderful opportunity" for the community to "work together". The centre is one of 16 projects in the county that has shared £500,000 worth of funding from the trust.

कुम्ब्रिया में 50,000 पाउंड का एक नया स्वास्थ्य केंद्र खोला गया है।