Press views: Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig in Betrayal

Summary: Married actors Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig and fellow British star Rafe Spall were applauded by a star-studded audience at the opening night of their performance in the Broadway revival of Harold Pinter's play, Betrayal. Steven Spielberg and Bruce Springsteen were among those watching and tickets for the new adaptation are reportedly changing hands for thousands of dollars on the black market.

Pinter's 1978 play was inspired by the playwright's extramarital affair with BBC television presenter Joan Bakewell. Craig plays the cuckolded Robert, while Weisz is Emma, the wife who betrays him with his best friend (Spall). The play is directed by Mike Nichols. David Cote - The Guardian The compact, rugged Craig hasn't shrunken from years behind the camera: he projects himself fully and muscularly to the back stalls. Craig even enlivened vastly inferior material when last he was on the Great White Way, in the 2009 police melodrama A Steady Rain. And he's not emoting in a vacuum: Weisz and Spall have charisma to spare, not to mention keen sexual chemistry for their Kilburn flat trysts. So the design is lovely, the cast is appealing and the play itself, while of its time, is not essentially dated. It's simply that nobody gets the tone. Read the full review here Tom Teodorczuk - The Independent Although this production never catches its breath to reveal the slow-burning ashes of the past that the play usually makes vivid, knockout performances from both Craig and Weisz render it a Betrayal on fire. Nichols's crude and chaotic depiction of the love triangle is powerfully compelling theatre - enhanced, one feels, by the real-life frisson supplied by the onstage sparring of Weisz and Craig. Read the full review here Marilyn Stasio - Variety Anyone who shelled out the big bucks to see James Bond in the flesh will get more than they bargained for in Mike Nichols' impeccable revival of Betrayal. They'll be getting a powerful performance from Daniel Craig, a movie star who still has his stage legs. Rachel Weisz, Craig's wife in the real world, and Rafe Spall, both superb, claim much of the stage time as the adulterous lovers in this enigmatic 1978 play that Harold Pinter based on one of his own extramarital affairs. But it's the smouldering Craig, as the cuckolded husband, whose brooding presence is overpowering. Read the full review here Matt Wolf - The Telegraph Craig, who occupies the most explosive point on the play's libidinous triangle, easily comes off the best, playing Robert, the publisher whose wife, Emma (Weisz), is revealed to have had a seven-year affair with his great friend, Jerry (Spall), who was best man at the couple's wedding - a rather cartoonish best man on this evidence, given that Spall plays the gathering ache of the text largely for laughs. (There's also a hint that these Oxbridge contemporaries, plied with enough drink, might well become more than simply friends.) Across nine scenes and as many years, Pinter rewinds events to conclude with the telling physical act that launched the affair, a small yet impulsive gesture here replaced by the sight of Jerry and Emma all but devouring one another: overstatement where less would be more, and sexier, too. Read the full review here David Rooney - Hollywood Reporter Craig, last seen on Broadway opposite Hugh Jackman in 2009's A Steady Rain, showed his dynamic stage chops even in a mediocre play. With a jewel like this one, he's magnificent... watching Craig and Weisz - an offstage husband and wife - explore the unique capacity of a married couple for mutual cruelty adds another fascinating layer. In her Broadway debut, Weisz makes her character's pain incandescent. Her Emma is an unhappy beauty who can be emotionally transparent one minute, brittle and unreadable the next. The actress brings a deliberate stilted, somewhat tremulous quality to the performance that is perfect for Pinter; her line readings suggest Emma's awareness that any ill-chosen word might detonate a bomb. Like her male co-stars, Weisz leaves her character's motivations open to interpretation, which makes this production of Betrayal keep playing out in your head days after seeing it. Read the full review here Ben Brantley - New York Times This is a sexed-up Betrayal, which is not the same as a sexy Betrayal. All those contradictory, fleeting, haunting shades of thought that you expect to see playing on the features of Pinter's characters are nowhere in evidence. Instead, Robert, Emma and Jerry make up the rowdiest, most extroverted sexual triangle since Liza Minnelli, Burt Reynolds and Gene Hackman caterwauled their way through the ill-fated film Lucky Lady in 1975. And I can safely say that this production has the highest decibel level of any version I have encountered. I suppose you could conceivably argue, generously, that with volume comes clarification. Certainly, the abiding Neanderthal aspects of manhood - a subtext in Pinter's power plays - have seldom been more violently rendered than they are in Mr Craig's shouted fulminations, Mr Spall's flustered stammerings or even in Ms Weisz's good-ole-gal heartiness. But it does make it hard to believe that these people could ever possibly deceive one another, when their faces keep reading like large-print telegrams. Read the full review here Charles McNulty - Los Angeles Times One of the play's best scenes, set in an Italian restaurant in which Robert takes out his frustration on Jerry by blowing up at the waiter (Stephen DeRosa), strongly implies that Robert is more heartbroken over Jerry than Emma. Craig exposes the sadness beneath Robert's displaced anger while Spall throws into relief Jerry's self-protective bewilderment. Nichols takes risks with his interpretation but maintains the necessary ambiguity of the situation. His production would have been stronger, however, if he had allowed Weisz's Emma to play hardball with the boys. Kristin Scott Thomas would have given Craig and Spall a real match. But this Betrayal is a decidedly male affair, and Craig and Spall live up to the expectations that have surrounded this most anticipated production of the New York fall season. Whether the work justifies such exorbitant ticket prices is another story. Read the full review here Elysa Gardner - USA Today Too often, this Betrayal seems to make the same statement as its marketing campaign. We're reminded that we are watching great thea-tuh, staged by a prestigious company, rather than being titillated or moved by the longing and anguish and bile that courses through the play's triangle. Weisz's Emma can be earthy to the point of seeming blowsy, giggling and wiping her nose between sips of booze. Yet somehow the performance seems studied - that of an elegant actress showing us a cultured but tempestuous woman with her guard down. She has one wonderful, crushing scene with Craig, when Robert essentially shames his wife into a confession; cowering and crying out, Weisz conveys despair, rather than just projecting it. Craig is crisp and robust throughout, deftly illustrating Robert's capacity for menace, and he and Spall have some witty fun with the festering rivalry between the two buddies. But at length, their exchanges - while absorbing enough for those who enjoy watching educated Brits struggle with their feelings - never really draw blood. Read the full review here Richard Zoglan - Time Director Mike Nichols keeps the mood sombre and the pace deliberate, leaving plenty of room for those famous Pinter pauses. In truth, the mystery and menace are relatively muted for Pinter, and there's a certain safeness in hiring Nichols, Broadway's most bankable director, to direct a couple of movie stars in what is probably the playwright's most conventional and crowd-pleasing drama. Yet Craig and Weisz are excellent, Spall even better, and it's a sleek, taut and spellbinding evening. Read the full review here Thom Geier - Entertainment Weekly Director Mike Nichols' handsome, well-staged production is not your typical crowd-pleaser. Those seeking a more traditional star turn might want to scan the orchestra section before the curtain goes up. (The night I attended, the audience included Javier Bardem, Bette Midler, Glenn Close, and Oprah Winfrey.) Perhaps because Pinter's backwards structure forces him to seed each scene with clues to his puzzle-like plot, there's an off-putting guardedness to the main trio. They regard their emotions from a safe distance, as if with hands safely tucked into pockets. Unable to engage with each other, they may prove a challenge for audiences to embrace as well. Read the full review here

विवाहित अभिनेता राचेल वेज़ और डेनियल क्रेग और साथी ब्रिटिश स्टार राफे स्पैल को हैरोल्ड पिंटर के नाटक, बिट्रेयल के ब्रॉडवे पुनरुद्धार में उनके प्रदर्शन की शुरुआती रात में सितारों से भरे दर्शकों द्वारा सराहा गया। स्टीवन स्पीलबर्ग और ब्रूस स्प्रिंगस्टीन देखने वालों में से थे और नए रूपांतरण के लिए टिकट कथित तौर पर काले बाजार में हजारों डॉलर में हाथ बदल रहे हैं।


Libya's government holed up in a 1970s hotel

Summary: Three years after Western military intervention helped topple Col Muammar Gaddafi, many believe Libya is rapidly turning into a failed state. There are two rival governments, and the parliament elected in June has been forced to flee from hostile militias - to a grey concrete 1970s hotel near the Egyptian border.

By Tim Whewell BBC News, Tobruk They've been chosen to rule a vast country that holds Africa's biggest oil reserves. They represent the democratic future of a land the world helped free from tyranny. But three years after the fall of Gaddafi, Libya's new members of parliament can't get on with the job. They're trapped in a grey, concrete hotel in a remote port 1,000km (620 miles) from the capital, Tripoli - fighting a lonely battle, they believe, against the forces of militant Islamism. Tobruk, a town of about 120,000 people on the far-eastern edge of Libya, is now one of the last toeholds of the internationally-recognised authorities. Militias attacked Tripoli in July, forcing the newly-elected parliament to flee. The legal government was even forced to hire a Greek car ferry which moored in Tobruk harbour to house officials, activists and their families. They had fled death-threats in their hometowns. "It hasn't been the easiest of parliaments to establish," admits MP Salah Sohbi. Elected for Zintan in the west of Libya, he's a mild-mannered man in a neat grey suit who used to work at the British cultural centre in Tripoli. He and his family had to be smuggled out of Tripoli in late July to escape the militias. He took refuge in the mountains, and was later flown to Tobruk. But his story's not the most dramatic. "We have one of our colleagues, her son was shot twice," he says. "Another, her father was kidnapped. Another, he had four rockets launched into the middle of his house with his whole family in it. We have a colleague whose car was hit by a grenade. There's nothing that can happen, that didn't happen to us." Now he and the other MPs spend their days pacing the overblown 1970s lobby with its huge cream leather armchairs, or drinking endless cups of coffee by the pool overlooking the Mediterranean. Late into the night they hold parliamentary sessions in the hotel's conference hall. But it feels as though they're in denial - wrangling bitterly over new laws and government appointments for a country in chaos. Their parliament and government are the only ones recognised as legitimate by the UN, but within Libya they control none of the three key cities: Meanwhile Derna, the next town along the coast from Tobruk, has declared itself an Islamic caliphate. It's a no-go zone for any government official. It's all a far cry from the triumph of the revolution three years ago, when Gaddafi was eventually overthrown after a Western-led bombing campaign to protect the revolutionaries. The French and British leaders, Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron, were cheered by jubilant crowds when they visited Benghazi in September 2011. "You showed the courage of lions - and we salute your courage," Cameron said. But those lions - Libya's revolutionary militias - failed to disband. Since then, they've wrought havoc in the country, regularly besieging parliament, occupying ministries, once even kidnapping the prime minister. Some militias fight largely for the interests of their own town or region. But some are allied to Islamist political groups including the Muslim Brotherhood. The current crisis was triggered when Islamists lost the elections in June, and militias from Misrata and other towns moved in to besiege the capital. The old parliament says it refuses to recognise the new one because there's been no formal hand-over ceremony. But with Tripoli and Benghazi controlled by the militias, a hand-over's hardly possible. "Everybody sang the values of the revolution, but no-one ever sat down and discussed what these values were, and I think this is where we lost a trick," the new MP Salah Sohbi says. "Some countries backed the Muslim Brotherhood because they thought these guys are OK, they're Islamists but they are moderate Islamists who have shown a clear distance from the Jihadists. And that is where the mistake happened." The Tobruk-based parliament has labelled its Tripoli rivals as "terrorists". It's a charge that angers them. "We are still safeguarding all the principles of the 17 February Revolution (that overthrew Gaddafi)," says Omar al-Hassi, the prime minister appointed by the old Tripoli parliament. He says he opposes the Tobruk authorities because they include some officials and politicians who once served Gaddafi. But al-Hassi admits his forces in Benghazi are allied to jihadi groups including Ansar al-Sharia, listed by the US as a terror organisation - it took part in the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi in 2012 in which the ambassador, Christopher Stevens, was killed. "There are two forces there now. Some are Ansar al-Sharia - and some are revolutionaries from 2011," he says. "They fought together then, and they're fighting together now." That apparent alliance worries not just the new MPs in Tobruk, but also many ordinary Libyans. Fares Labedi is a young oil engineer who believed the revolution would bring freedom and new jobs to a country where he and many of his friends were unemployed. Today, he's still jobless - and he thinks life was better in some ways under Gaddafi, when at least there was security. "I am not thinking about a job. I am thinking about being safe," he says. "If I want to go from Tobruk to Benghazi, I have to think 100 times. Jihadists are distributed all over Libya. They will catch me because I am from Tobruk." His brother Fakhri has a job at an oil plant at Ras Lanuf, more than 500km west of Tobruk, but he won't return there because he fears he could be kidnapped on the way there and even beheaded. Libya is splitting, he says: "One part with the army and police, and other part with the Islamic groups… Maybe we will fight those groups forever." The Libyan conflict has already become in part an international proxy war between competing power blocs in the Middle East. Diplomats say two anti-Islamist states, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, have given military backing to the Tobruk-based authorities. Qatar and Sudan, on the other side, are accused by the elected authorities of backing the Islamist rebels - though they deny it. Foreign diplomats have been trying to broker peace talks between the two sides - and some believe a conflict that's rooted at least partly in Libyan tribal and regional feuds can eventually be solved by compromise. More from the Magazine "The police station on the other side of the road was set on fire. The policemen climbed on to the roof, which was the same height as my apartment building. I stared at them across the street and they stared back at me. "I had no power and no water. The food I had left over was gone in a day or two. I rationed the little water I had for four or five days, then it was gone. So I started drinking out of the toilet." Alex Owumi: 'I played basketball for Gaddafi' But the MP Salah Sohbi, like most of his colleagues in Tobruk, is simply demanding that the Tripoli forces hand over their weapons and surrender. If they're not defeated, he believes, the whole world faces an extremist threat in Libya even greater than the one from Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq. "Let's look at the worst case scenario," he says, as we gaze out across the sparkling Mediterranean from the cramped hotel room that doubles as his parliamentary office. "If the Islamic militants take over Libya one day, what will happen? It's two hours (across the sea) from here to Italy, Crete can be seen from here on a clear evening… If someone has the means to deliver rockets, the means to deliver destruction to Europe, they can do it from this side if they have control." In small, isolated Tobruk, they believe the West must be blind not to see that danger. Western diplomats are trying to broker peace talks in Libya - but there's been little progress yet. And Western governments, now preoccupied with Syria and Iraq, aren't keen on further military involvement in the country. The strategic black hole that's opening up on the southern shores of the Mediterranean is unlikely to be filled with a working state any time soon. You can listen to Libya: Last Stand Against Jihad on the Assignment programme on the BBC World Service this Thursday, or watch it on Our World on the BBC News Channel on Saturday or Sunday, or on BBC World Friday-Sunday. You can also catch up on the BBC iPlayer. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

पश्चिमी सैन्य हस्तक्षेप के तीन साल बाद कर्नल मुअम्मर गद्दाफी को अपदस्थ करने में मदद मिली, कई लोगों का मानना है कि लीबिया तेजी से एक असफल राज्य में बदल रहा है। दो प्रतिद्वंद्वी सरकारें हैं, और जून में चुनी गई संसद शत्रुतापूर्ण मिलिशिया से भागने के लिए मजबूर हो गई है-मिस्र की सीमा के पास एक ग्रे कंक्रीट 1970 के दशक के होटल में।


China landslide: Stories of survival in Shenzhen

Summary: More than 70 people remain missing in the deadly Shenzhen landslide that took place in China on Sunday while more than 900 were evacuated. A number of survivors have related accounts of their brushes with death to local media. These are some of their stories.

The bosses who saved the lives of 115 workers Factory boss Huang Yongqing was in downtown Shenzhen on Sunday morning when he received a panicky phone call. It was from a manager describing intense tremors at their plant in the Guangming New District. "The moment I got the call, all I said was one word: "Evacuate!'," he told Shenzhen newspaper Jingbao. Ten minutes later, the landslide's immense wave of soil had reached their plant, Shenzhen Ouleideng Technology, crushing some of their walls. By that time all 115 employees at work that day had fled, Mr Huang said. Administrative manager Yan Limin took charge of the evacuation, organising the workers and doing a headcount before leading them to safety. She told Guangzhou-based Xinxi Daily newspaper: "The building started shaking very severely, I could hear a blast coming from below, we all thought it was an earthquake." 'An unstoppable tide' Worker Xia Shaohua was heading towards his dormitory, where his family also lived, when he heard loud rumbles akin to "car engines starting up", reported Beijing News. He noticed that soil was starting to tumble from the peak of a hill a few hundred metres away, producing a thick cloud of grey dust, "like smoke rising from a chimney". The 50-year-old, who used to live in a mountainous region, sensed something was wrong and immediately called his son, telling him: "There's going to be a landslide, run away quickly." He told Beijing News that by this time the soil was an unstoppable tide, rolling down the hill "like the waters of the Yellow River". Minutes later the landslide occurred, sending plumes of earth shooting in the air, and burying the buildings below. But his phone call saved his family, including his son, daughter-in-law and grandchild. The man searching for 16 relatives and friends Another survivor who was not so lucky was He Weiming, who ran a rubbish sorting and recycling company out of his home. The 36-year-old and his younger brother are now looking for their missing relatives, including their parents, wives and children, their younger sister and her family, and five colleagues. Early on Sunday morning, the two brothers had headed out from their house, which was located about a kilometre from the large mound of earth and construction debris. "We drove out to collect rubbish at 07:40, and everything was fine at home. Then we returned at 11:40 and our house was buried in mud. It was a four-metre high metal structure but we couldn't even see the roof," Mr He told the Global Times. "I've made more than 40 phone calls. Not a single one got through. At first it was because nobody picked up, now the phones appear to have been switched off," he said.

चीन में रविवार को हुए घातक शेनझेन भूस्खलन में 70 से अधिक लोग लापता हैं, जबकि 900 से अधिक लोगों को निकाला गया है। कई जीवित बचे लोगों ने स्थानीय मीडिया से अपने ब्रश को मौत से जोड़ा है। ये उनकी कुछ कहानियाँ हैं।


Mahinda Rajapaksa: Return of Sri Lanka's wartime strongman

Summary: Mahinda Rajapaksa, who dominated Sri Lankan politics as president for a decade, is now vying for power again - this time as prime minister. In a move opponents are calling unconstitutional, the island's parliament has been dissolved and fresh elections scheduled for January. Many now fear the return of a man accused of presiding over serious human rights abuses, as Charles Haviland reports.

Rajapaksa has charm and charisma in abundance. I met him for the first time in 2010, in the early stages of a five-year stint as the BBC's Sri Lanka correspondent. I and my colleagues had turned up at his rural home totally unannounced. We were greeted by his son - and heir-apparent - Namal and were ushered in to meet the powerful leader, who was relaxing in his front room. We chatted at length. We were served tea. At no point did Mahinda Rajapaksa check the time, or imply we should leave. At later meetings, usually in a crowd of journalists, it was the same story. He would pat the seat next to his one. "Come and talk," he would say. That charm, combined with his oratorical skills and his folksy appeal to the Sinhalese masses, gave him, and still give him, huge popularity among the Sinhala people who make up about three-quarters of the island's population. Some composed songs and poems calling him a king. And his winning of the war against the Tamil Tigers (LTTE), the ethnic minority separatists who had waged a violent campaign for decades, sealed that popularity. He had done a good thing, wrote an admirer on a news website, for liquidating the LTTE who had killed civilians "through indiscriminate shooting, hacking and blowing up buses, trains, shopping malls etc". The problem is that winning that war was a supreme case of the end being used to justify the means. So for all the cheering crowds in Colombo streets at the war's end in May 2009, there was an equal number of people, mostly Tamils, silently mourning. They had lost infants, elderly parents, spouses and siblings as the army battered the last small pocket of land held by the LTTE - which, it is important to stress, would not let them leave. They had seen their homes razed to the ground. They had seen their loved ones, conscripted by the LTTE, then forcibly "disappeared" after surrendering to Mr Rajapaksa's government forces. Or they had themselves been maimed. I will never forget a young woman working in a small shop in the former LTTE stronghold Kilinochchi three years after the war's end. When I cautiously raised the subject of the war she quietly emerged from behind the counter and delicately moved parts of her sari to show us a shrapnel wound. There were the accounts, too, of surrendering LTTE forces being killed even while waving white flags, or after being taken into custody. The video evidence of this that emerged at and after the war's closing stages was compelling, despite the government's strenuous denials. In September 2018 came an admission from the horse's mouth. SB Dissanayake, who had served as Mr Rajapaksa's higher education minister, publicly said that many LTTE rebels were killed in army custody. He singled out one example, Thambiraja Thurairajasingham, an LTTE military commander widely known as Colonel Ramesh. Mr Dissanayake said Ramesh had phoned him to give notice of his impending surrender. "Ramesh surrendered, and Ramesh was killed," the ex-minister told a Sinhala-language news conference, smiling. I remember similar creepy smiles from the defence spokesman at the time, Keheliya Rambukwella, commenting on the undisclosed fate of a (Sinhalese) satirical journalist who had disappeared in 2010. It was a cause for banter between him and his ministry colleague - who smiled and indeed laughed in front of the press, many of whom also laughed in seeming agreement. For me, covering the war's aftermath, disappearances were perhaps the most haunting of the rights violations - the very large number of disappearances among ex-rebels and Tamil civilians in the north, but people also vanishing in Colombo, the city I called home. I met Shiromani and her infant at their Colombo home just weeks after the disappearance of her businessman husband, whose court case against the police for alleged torture in jail was about to be heard. That was six years ago. She is still awaiting news. Many others similarly vanished. At that time, a newspaper reported a senior police officer as saying they had "plenty of white vans" to bring to anti-government street protests. Such vans are still notorious as the instrument of alleged state-sponsored abductors. Since the people of Sri Lanka voted out Mahinda Rajapaksa and his allies in presidential and parliamentary elections in 2015, progress on human rights has been frustratingly slow. Some Tamil and other campaigners say little or nothing has changed. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the prime minister recently sacked by his erstwhile ally, President Maithripala Sirisena, but who says he remains the rightful PM, has in the past crudely brushed aside concerns over disappearances. Last year Mr Sirisena dashed hopes that alleged war crimes would be investigated by saying he would "not allow anyone in the world to touch" any military chief or "war hero" - shorthand for the overwhelmingly Sinhalese army. Their coalition has reneged on its earlier promise to set up a court to scrutinise the conduct of the war. And although it has released quite a lot of mainly Tamil-owned land in the north that the military had occupied for years, that process has been piecemeal, often grudging, and frequently involved properties being wilfully destroyed and villagers remaining destitute. On the other hand, the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government has set up an Office for Missing Persons, created by parliament to establish the truth of the fate of thousands of people, including both civilians and combatants, from the war period and beyond. Other new mechanisms include an office for war reparations and another on reconciliation. The national human rights commission was made fully independent, and the climate for speech and media freedom and the right to demonstrate notably relaxed. With Mr Sirisena now trying to reinstate Mr Rajapaksa, some of these things are slipping away. The same Mr Rambukwella who laughed at the disappearance of a journalist is now back as minister for the media, while there are reports of escalating threats against civil society activists. In September 2015, unveiling a hard-hitting report on Sri Lanka, the UN's human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said it laid bare grave crimes committed by both sides, including indiscriminate shelling, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, harrowing accounts of torture and sexual violence, and the forced recruitment of children. He called for a special court, including foreign judges, to investigate. With Mahinda Rajapaksa now the president's preferred choice for prime minister - through means that experts say are unconstitutional - the prospect of any such court being set up within Sri Lanka now looks more distant than ever.

महिंदा राजपक्षे, जो एक दशक तक राष्ट्रपति के रूप में श्रीलंका की राजनीति पर हावी रहे, अब फिर से सत्ता के लिए लड़ रहे हैं-इस बार प्रधान मंत्री के रूप में। एक कदम में विरोधी असंवैधानिक कह रहे हैं, द्वीप की संसद को भंग कर दिया गया है और जनवरी के लिए नए चुनाव निर्धारित किए गए हैं। चार्ल्स हैविलैंड की रिपोर्ट के अनुसार, अब कई लोगों को गंभीर मानवाधिकारों के हनन की अध्यक्षता करने के आरोपी व्यक्ति की वापसी का डर है।


Is cycling getting more dangerous?

Summary: After cycling champion Bradley Wiggins and British cycling head coach Shane Sutton were caught up in collisions with cars within hours of each other, how sure can cyclists be that they are safe on Britain's roads? And what can they do to protect themselves?

By Gerry Holt & Alex Morrison BBC News Just hours apart, two high-profile cyclists experienced first hand the dangerous side of the sport they love. Reports came in on Wednesday night that Bradley Wiggins, the Olympic gold medallist and Tour de France winner, had been involved in a crash near a petrol station near Wigan, Lancashire. He suffered bruising. And on Thursday came the news that Shane Sutton, the GB cycling head coach, had bleeding on the brain after a bike crash in the Manchester suburb of Levenshulme. He is still in hospital. BBC sports news correspondent Dan Roan says it is "astonishing" that the pair suffered the same fate in separate incidents within hours of each other. And cycling fans agree - many have taken to Twitter in the past 24 hours to describe their shock that two cyclists at the top of their game could be left in hospital. Although this was undoubtedly an unfortunate coincidence, the incidents suggest that even the most experienced cyclists are not immune to the dangers of Britain's roads. But just how dangerous is cycling? And is it becoming less safe? 'Not pleasant' John Meudell, South East representative for CTC, the national cycling charity, says: "Cycling has become more dangerous because of the number of vehicles on the road - it has become more intimidating because motorists give you less and less room. "One thing it isn't these days is pleasant." Figures from the Department for Transport (DfT) show that last year 107 cyclists were killed on British roads. In 2010, that figure was 111. It is likely most were male, the DfT says. But since 2004, the figures show a gradual decline in the number of fatalities, which would suggest that the roads are becoming a safer place for those on two wheels. However, a look at the figures for deaths and injuries combined paints a slightly different picture. Although that figure hovered at about 16,000 between 2004 and 2008, since then it has steadily risen. Last year it was 19,215 - 2,030 more than in 2010. And, according to figures collated by the Times - which has run a high-profile cycle safety campaign since one of its reporters was hit by a lorry and left in a coma - 104 cyclists have been killed so far this year. It is a figure the DfT cannot confirm but the newspaper says that this year's death toll looks set to overtake last year's. Mr Meudell, who lives in Dorking, Surrey, and has been cycling for 50 years, says he believes a lack of interest "at all levels of government" has caused the roads to become increasingly dangerous. "It is complacency on the part of the highways establishment," he says. "Despite all the statements that they are improving, they are doing the opposite. The only way we are going to have progress is to have an independent inspectorate of roads like they have in America." 'Sorry, I didn't see you' Roger Geffen, campaigns and policies director at the same charity, is concerned about a different type of complacency - among drivers. "We see this sort of attitude that when drivers hit cyclists or indeed pedestrians... that it's just somehow an accident, it's somehow carelessness," he says. "The legal system doesn't adequately respond. I know so many cases - whether it's eight-year-olds, 80-year-olds, champions, children, whatever - cyclists of all ages and backgrounds and all levels of skill, being hit by drivers who then sort of say, 'Sorry mate, I didn't see you'." He says the courts treat it as such and drivers "get slapped wrists". "We shouldn't be accepting that sort of attitude," he says. However, cyclists can also be to blame, sometimes by breaking the law. The Institute of Advanced Motorists found that 57% of cyclists had jumped a red light at least once, with 14% doing it regularly or sometimes, in an online poll of 1,600 people earlier this year. It found the main reason given was because it was safer to get ahead of other traffic but more than half of those polled (54%) also felt cyclists needed to improve their behaviour. Brian MacDowall, spokesman for the Association of British Drivers, says safety depends on respect and responsibility on the part of all road users. "Putting blame on one type of road user will not help make the roads safer," says Mr MacDowall, himself an avid cycling fan. Former British cyclist Michael Hutchinson, now a journalist at Cycling Weekly, highlights a different approach. "There have been suggestions that perhaps the driving test could include not only more instruction on cyclists but perhaps even a cycling module where new drivers have to pass a cycling test before they're allowed to drive a car," he says. According to CTC, the national cycling charity, which quotes figures from the 2001 census, 43% of the population own or have access to a bicycle, while about 750,000 use a bike to get to work. However, these figures are no doubt much higher now. Kaya Burgess, who is leading the Times's Cities Fit for Cycling campaign, is in no doubt that much more needs to be done to keep cyclists safe. "It's awful that it takes such high-profile accidents for cycling safety to be so high up the agenda, but what we are calling for is that the roads in Britain just need to be improved for cyclists," he says. He says that until this happens we will only see more incidents. Road Safety Minister Stephen Hammond says cycle safety is "very much at the heart of transport policy". "The government is fully committed to encouraging cycling and improving safety and recently launched the first THINK! cyclist campaign," he says. "We have also invested £30m to tackle dangerous junctions for cyclists and are giving more than £1bn to councils to design solutions appropriate to their local transport challenges, including improving their road infrastructure to encourage cycling. "We have also made it simpler for councils to put in place 20mph limits and install mirrors to improve the visibility of cyclists at junctions. We will continue to work with our partners, including British Cycling, to do everything possible to encourage cycling and improve safety."

साइक्लिंग चैंपियन ब्रैडली विगिन्स और ब्रिटिश साइक्लिंग के मुख्य कोच शेन सटन के एक-दूसरे के घंटों के भीतर कारों के साथ टक्कर में फंस जाने के बाद, साइकिल चालक कैसे सुनिश्चित हो सकते हैं कि वे ब्रिटेन की सड़कों पर सुरक्षित हैं? और वे खुद को बचाने के लिए क्या कर सकते हैं?


Spending Review: Q&A - what does it mean?

Summary: Chancellor George Osborne has announced the government's Spending Review.

It outlines the government's spending plans for the next four years. It includes extensive spending cuts, which are designed to repair the public sector finances, and cut borrowing.

चांसलर जॉर्ज ओसबोर्न ने सरकार की व्यय समीक्षा की घोषणा की है।


Why Kim and Kanye meeting Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was controversial

Summary: Kanye West is in East Africa at the moment recording new music.

But, along with his wife Kim Kardashian, he also took the opportunity to meet the president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni. The couple gave Mr Museveni a pair of Yeezy trainers - and even signed them (he asked if they were for playing football with). But who is the 74-year-old leader, and why was it controversial for Kim and Kanye to meet him? It all comes back to Trump Mr Museveni is the second president Kanye has met in a week, after he spoke to Donald Trump on Thursday. "It is an odd meeting," says Dr Jonathan Fisher, who is an expert in African politics at the University of Birmingham. "But President Museveni is known to be quite savvy with the media," he says. Dr Fisher thinks that meeting with Kim and Kanye is a way for Mr Museveni to put himself on Donald Trump's radar - after all, we know Kanye and Trump get on. The benefits to Uganda could come in the form of military training, arms and development money from the US if Mr Museveni gets in Trump's good books. 'Not a safe place for LGBT people' "Uganda is a dangerous place to be a gay person," says Dr Fisher. That's also the case for other countries in the region but, in 2013, anti-homosexuality laws were toughened in Uganda. Some MPs wanted to make homosexuality punishable by death. "It luckily became more focused on life imprisonment, and that was eventually passed and signed by the president." The law also means you can go to prison for not reporting gay people to the authorities. In the name of democracy President Museveni has been in power for 32 years. In 1986, his National Resistance Movement took over the government, saying it wanted to introduce democracy to Uganda. Instead, he banned political parties and said that anyone could run for office on their own. But more than three decades later, he's still in power - and it doesn't look like he's going anywhere. "There's been quite a violent response to opposition increasingly," says Dr Fisher. He says that recently there's been "state security forces beating up opposition candidates, dispersing rallies". President Museveni has also changed the constitution in ways which have helped him stay in power. He abolished a two-term president limit in 2005 so that he could run (and win) again. And last year, he got rid of the age-limit for presidential candidates, which allows him to run again in the next few years. What came out of the meeting We're not entirely sure why Kim and Kanye met Mr Museveni - or who instigated the meeting. We do know that the president gave Kanye the Ugandan name "Kanyesigye", which means "I trust", and Kim was named "Kemigisha", which means "the one with blessings from God". People magazine reported that Mr Museveni asked Kim what her job was, to which she politely replied that she had a reality show with her family. We also know that Kanye said he "intends to put up a world class tourism school", according to Mr Museveni. According to TMZ, Ye even said the school was going to be like "like Jurassic Park", and that he wants to make the country thrive "like Wakanda". Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 every weekday on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra - if you miss us you can listen back here.

कान्ये वेस्ट इस समय पूर्वी अफ्रीका में नया संगीत रिकॉर्ड कर रहे हैं।


Trump in Iraq: Seals, secrets, selfies, squabbles

Summary: Donald Trump's unannounced Christmas visit to US troops in Iraq succeeded as a morale-boosting exercise, judging from the standing ovation the president got. Equally, and perhaps predictably, the trip had its controversial moments - and his legendary attachment to social media had something to do with it.

Recognition: 'We're no longer the suckers' Mr Trump travelled to al-Asad airbase, west of Baghdad, to thank armed forces personnel for what they had achieved in Iraq against Islamic State (IS), the Sunni Muslim militant group, during his tenure as commander-in-chief: "Two years ago when I became president they were a very dominant group, today they're not so dominant any more. Great job." "We're no longer the suckers, folks," he said. "We're respected again as a nation." Mr Trump was accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump on the first trip of his presidency to a war zone. The couple walked amid troops, posing for selfies and signing autographs. More than 5,000 US troops remain in Iraq to train and advise local forces, who are fighting what remains of IS following a string a victories last year. Exposure: Did smiling Navy Seals know the whole world would see their faces? Shortly after he left Iraqi airspace, Mr Trump proudly shared a video of what he'd been up to during the visit. But it didn't take long for eagle-eyed watchers to point out something it seemed Mr Trump and his team might have missed. It appears that those in the video include an elite US Navy Seal team, according to Newsweek. A team, the magazine pointed out, which would usually have their identities protected. Malcolm Nance, a former US Navy intelligence specialist, told the magazine it would be a very unusual decision to picture them so clearly while on duty because, if any of them were captured, "there would be no denying who you are and what you do". Mr Trump also took a selfie with US Navy Lt Cmdr Kyu Lee, who told him he was with Seal Team Five - a fact later reported by the pool of reporters travelling with the president. The White House has not commented on why they decided against taking such precautions, as some of his predecessors did. Fiction: What was the pay rise figure? The president also announced that he had secured a sizable pay increase for troops. Some of his advisers had suggested 2, 3 or 4%, he said, adding that he had made clear that this was not enough: "I said: 'No. Make it 10%. Make it more than 10%.' Because it's been a long time, it's been more than 10 years." But as a number of US commentators noted, armed forces personnel have in fact received a pay rise in each of the past 10 years. The increase for 2019, approved by Congress and signed by the president in August, will be 2.6%. It is the largest rise for troops since 2010, but not significantly more than last year's 2.4%. Secret's out: Trump's plane tracked Any trip by a US president has to be planned down to the last detail, to make sure there are no holes in the security arrangements. A trip to an active war zone has to be planned with special care - and secretly. Mr Trump was apparently very happy, regaling reporters with tales of how they had travelled with the windows closed and lights off so as not to attract any attention. But unfortunately, when you are in arguably the world's most recognisable aircraft, the chance of being spotted is always high. And on this occasion, Alan Meloy captured a perfect image of the plane soaring over Sheffield, UK, on Boxing Day. From there, Twitter sleuths and plane enthusiasts began to track the aircraft as it made its way across Europe and to Iraq, with a number of people guessing where it was headed. Mr Trump is, of course, not the only president to travel on Air Force One on a secret visit to a warzone. His predecessors have done so. However, the fact it was quite so easy to follow what the president was doing had more than a few people concerned. "Sources telling me Trump's on his way to visit troops - possibly in Iraq. Better late than never," tweeted Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "But also a bit troubling that so many folks seem to already know about this if it hasn't happened already. #OpSec anyone?" Friction: Iraqi host not too pleased President Trump was due to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi during the trip but the talks were cancelled over what Mr Mahdi's office called "disagreements" over organisation. Iraqi MPs told Reuters news agency that Mr Trump had asked for the meeting to take place at the al-Asad military base, an offer declined by the prime minister. When asked if he had had concerns about the visit, Mr Trump told reporters: "Absolutely. I had concerns for the institution of the presidency - not for myself, personally. I had concerns for the first lady, I will tell you." Mr Mahdi's office said US officials had given Iraq advance notice of the presidential visit, but powerful local figures clearly took umbrage. Sabah al-Saadi, who leads the Shia Muslim parliamentary bloc Islah, called it a "blatant violation of Iraq's sovereignty". Qais al-Khazali, commander of Asaib Ahl al-Haqq, Iraq's most powerful Shia Muslim militia, also objected to the trip. He warned in a tweet that parliament would respond to the visit by "forcing the US troops to leave Iraq".

इराक में अमेरिकी सैनिकों के लिए डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प की अघोषित क्रिसमस यात्रा एक मनोबल बढ़ाने वाले अभ्यास के रूप में सफल रही, राष्ट्रपति को खड़े होकर दिए गए अभिवादन को देखते हुए। समान रूप से, और शायद अनुमानित रूप से, यात्रा के अपने विवादास्पद क्षण थे-और सोशल मीडिया के साथ उनके पौराणिक लगाव का इससे कुछ लेना-देना था।


Flu jab call after outbreak at hospital in Cardiff

Summary: Staff have been urged to have flu jabs after wards were closed following an outbreak at Cardiff's University Hospital of Wales.

Several patients have shown symptoms and the closures are aimed to stop the infection from spreading. Cardiff and Vale health board said by the end of December 2016, 47.8% of staff had received jabs. Executive director of nursing Ruth Walker said it was "disappointing" there were some areas with low uptake.

कार्डिफ के यूनिवर्सिटी हॉस्पिटल ऑफ वेल्स में एक प्रकोप के बाद वार्ड बंद होने के बाद कर्मचारियों से फ्लू के टीके लगाने का आग्रह किया गया है।


Russia meteor eyewitness: 'Something like the sun fell'

Summary: One person likened the event to the sun falling to Earth, another described the aftermath in his city as akin to a war zone - such was the impact of a meteor strike on people in Russia's Ural mountains region.

Sergei Serskov, who lives and works in the city of Chelyabinsk, was in his office at about 09:20 (03:20 GMT) when he was startled by a bright flash through the window. "I looked out the window and saw a huge line of smoke, like you get from a plane but many times bigger," he told BBC News. "A few minutes later the window suddenly came open and there was a huge explosion, followed by lots of little explosions. It felt like a war zone and it lasted about 20 to 30 minutes." As a result of the blast, windows were smashed across the city, where the temperature for Friday night is forecast to dip to minus 14C. Many people took their children out of school, and hospitals were also affected, Mr Serskov said. He added that his company, which is in the construction sector, would be helping to re-glaze the city of 1.1 million. 'Scared to death' Messages posted on Twitter, and rounded up by Russian news website lenta.ru, convey the shock felt locally. "I was scared to death when a bright flash went off," wrote one female user. "Ran to Mummy and we got an awful jolt, like an earthquake. The cat was so frightened it was scrabbling at the radiator." A schoolchild wrote: "We're sitting in geometry, minding our own business. Then this flash has us all glued to the window! Alien invasion?" In Yekaterinburg, a city 200km (125 miles) north of Chelyabinsk, the leader of rock band Smysloviye Gallyutsinatsii (Sonic Hallucinations) shared his impressions in a post on social media. "I was smoking outside the door when I looked up at the sky and suddenly the sky lit up with a bright light and something that looked like the sun fell somewhere to the south of Yekaterinburg," wrote Sergei Bobunets, quoted by AFP news agency.

एक व्यक्ति ने इस घटना की तुलना पृथ्वी पर गिरने वाले सूरज से की, दूसरे ने अपने शहर में होने वाले परिणाम को युद्ध क्षेत्र के समान बताया-रूस के यूराल पर्वत क्षेत्र में लोगों पर उल्कापिंड के हमले का ऐसा प्रभाव था।


'I get you're transgender, but what's up with your face?'

Summary: Called feminine by some people, and "fish face" by others due to her facial difference, it took Stef Sanjati a while to realise why she felt so uncomfortable in her own skin. Stef - now a trans woman - shares her story with Lucy Edwards.

By Lucy EdwardsBBC News, Ouch Fans of YouTube vlogs may already be familiar with 22-year-old Stef Sanjati, known for her make-up tutorials - a popular theme on the video site. She has over half a million subscribers known as her Breadsquad, a name born from a running joke involving baguettes and how great bread is. As a child, Stef was diagnosed with a genetic condition which has caused her to be deaf in her left ear, have bone mutations on her face, very blue eyes which appear further apart than on an average person, and pigmentation of hair and skin - a collection of symptoms known as Waardenburg syndrome. Though she looked different from her peers, it was never something she worried about until she started getting bullied at school. "Fish face, frog face or any aquatic animal that has wide spread eyes," became the go-to insults for the then male teenager. "I remember when I was learning to draw faces in art class they would tell me 'put one finger-space between the eyes' and I was always, like - that's not my face, that's not true... for me it's two and a half." As well as being called unkind names because of her face, Stef was also bullied for not being very masculine. "I had this moment when I was a kid when this bully was picking on me for being a little bit feminine. He was insinuating that I was a scary homosexual." Being a feminine boy with a non-standard face led her to struggle with identity and appearance throughout her school years - she knew she was different but couldn't work out exactly why. Growing up in a small town in Southern Ontario, Canada, she says there were no resources to help her explore her "true self". At that point the web, where she now thrives, wasn't the seemingly endless and diverse source of information it now is. Knowing little about gender identity, she figured she must be gay and so "came out" in ninth grade at the age of 13 - and lost all her male friends as a result. "The first day of the second semester of ninth grade, I went to sit next to my best friend in my science class and he told me - he looked me dead in the eye with a stone face - he said 'If you sit next to me I will kill you'." Stef describes herself as a "ball of self-loathing" at this time, and "hated" everything about herself. "I couldn't look in the mirror without hyperventilating. I kind of just withdrew from the community and from my peers." She felt abandoned, isolated and confused and so turned to her computer as a "digital escape". "I pretty much took my life and moved it from the small town I grew up in and onto the internet." While online, she played a lot of games that were very different to real life. She says: "I plunged myself into fantasy worlds, where there were people with faces like mine and people that were a little gender divergent - and it was cool." Stef got into social media because it was a place where she could express herself away from the bullies. But, despite trying hard, reality kept seeping in. Still identifying as a young man, though not feeling it, she felt isolated and, when she reached college, she adopted what she calls a "hyper masculine image" by growing a beard and wearing blazers. But it didn't make her feel better. "That is when I ended up falling back into the femininity. That's when I realised this has to mean something and I had to do some research," she says. Part of Stef's self-exploration was facing the discomfort, or dysphoria, she had with her body. But it was only when her mind wandered onto matters of parenthood that she started to realise the problem. Stef found herself asking "Why am I so uncomfortable with the word father or dad though I want to be a parent so badly?" She says that it was in realising she wanted to be a mother, not a father, that made her appreciate that all her discomfort was about gender. "Then I realised I was transgender. Then I understood what I needed for myself to be truly happy." It was at this point she started to document her transition to becoming female on her YouTube channel. After making videos about it for a while, Stef began to get a different type of question - not about gender, but "what happened to your face?" She responded with a video called My face: Waardenburg syndrome. It went viral and presently has over eight million views. Stef believes the syndrome hadn't been represented in media before she created the video, and it also got her noticed. "I'm very grateful for that video," she says. "It gave me my audience." Stef continues to be a role model for people struggling with appearance and gender. One fan comments: "I've been watching since you came out, and it's so buck-wild to see you through your transition and become happier and excited about your progress. I can't wait until I go on HRT so I can start feeling more like myself too." Stef uploads every week on her YouTube channel where she tells her Breadsquad to "embrace" who they are, and gives updates on her next surgery. Viewers hear a lot about her self-exploration. In hindsight, she says, the difficulties she had with her appearance were never about those syndrome traits she was born with - she still has eyes which are slightly further apart than other people and she has a white stripe of hair at the front of her head. She says it was about her gender and the way puberty affected her face - and that was what her facial-feminisation surgery addressed, not her impairment, as she has come to love the other-worldly look she has. "I was very specific with my surgeon to not alter any of my Waardenburg syndrome features." Listen to Lucy Edwards interview with Stef on the BBC's Ouch podcast.

स्टेफ संजाटी को यह समझने में कुछ समय लगा कि वह अपनी त्वचा में इतना असहज क्यों महसूस करती है। स्टेफ-अब एक ट्रांस महिला-लुसी एडवर्ड्स के साथ अपनी कहानी साझा करती है।


Driver dies following crash on A9 near Berriedale Braes

Summary: The driver of an HGV that crashed on the A9 near the Berriedale Braes late on Thursday night has died.

The 41-year-old man has not been named by police at this stage. The incident delayed the delivery of Scottish independence referendum vote ballot boxes from the far north to a count in Dingwall. The crash happened at about 23:18 and closed the road for several hours. One lane of the A9 at the scene of the accident has reopened. Some ballot boxes from polling places in the far north were taken to Dingwall by a long diversion via Melvich. The Highland Council declaration at 08:15 was the last to be made. Related Internet Links Police Scotland

गुरुवार देर रात बेरीडेल ब्रेज़ के पास ए9 पर दुर्घटनाग्रस्त हुए एचजीवी के चालक की मृत्यु हो गई है।


Game of Thrones: How the women of Westeros took centre stage

Summary: Say what you will about the plotlines, but there was no denying that the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones belonged to the women of Westeros.

By Heather Chen & Grace TsoiBBC News, Westeros Sure, there were major issues with many character arcs, but it was clear the hugely popular TV show's final moments were all about its dynamic female cast. From Daenerys Targaryen to Lyanna Mormont, women took centre stage while the men took a back seat. All good things must come to an end, with the show's final episode airing in the US on 19 May and the following day in the UK. But before we bid goodbye to Game of Thrones, let's take a look back at the historic female moments that changed the history of Westeros. Warning: The night is dark and full of spoilers. If you haven't caught up with the show, it's best you look away. Otherwise, read on. Long May She Reign (fire and blood) As the saying goes: "Every time a Targaryen is born, the gods toss a coin in the air and the world holds its breath to see how it will land." The fandom held high hopes for Daenerys Targaryen to build and establish a new world order. But after experiencing betrayal and multiple losses, things took a dramatic turn for the grieving dragon queen. She wasted no time in destroying the capital King's Landing with dragon fire, despite the city's desperate surrender. Fan reaction to Daenerys's murder spree ranged from outrage to outright disappointment. "What she did to civilians was [equal to] genocide and crimes against humanity," tweeted lawyer Lim Wei Jiet. Another fan said: "Daenerys was the Breaker of Chains and I am disappointed in her." Author Melissa Silverstein lamented the demise of Daenerys's character arc. "For the entire series, she talked about her vision of leadership and how she wanted to be different from the men who came before her. But all that was thrown out the window when she spiralled into madness and destroyed King's Landing." So Daenerys has won the Iron Throne. But at what cost? The notion of a mad dragon queen has angered many but pop culture columnist and Targaryen supporter Stephanie Wilson highlighted the "double standards" in the show. "Male leaders like Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister have executed people and devised plans that led to thousands of deaths (The Battle of the Blackwater). The Baratheon brothers waged bloody wars for a shot at the throne," she said. "When Daenerys acted, she was deemed mad, power-hungry and violent." US actress, comic and writer Mindy Kaling added that she would have "done the same". But do heroines have to play the role of saviour all the time? Actress Emilia Clarke defended Daenerys and gave some insight into her character's mindset. "You could call it Targaryen craziness and give it names it doesn't deserve but it's just grief, it's hurt," she said. "It's so natural for a person to resort to anger and when you feel that much failure, disappointment, shame, hurt and lost love, there's only so much pain you can handle before you snap." While show runner David Benioff said solitude drove Daenerys to the brink of madness, Bristol-based psychotherapist Michelle Briggs noted the impact of factors like psychological trauma, witnessing deaths and loss of control. "Every time we judge a person and call him or her mad, we should also take a good look at the people and events who made them that way," she said. The lioness who never concerned herself with the opinions of sheep "Queen you shall be. Until there comes another; younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear." An eerie prophecy came true for the show's principal antagonist Cersei Lannister, who met her match and was dethroned by Daenerys Targaryen. Despite her desperate cling to power, the villainess queen "loses control". Actress Lena Headey summed it up. "Cersei was always destined to be alone. She's destroyed every good alliance, connection and love in her life. And until the very last minute, she was, as ever, in denial of what was actually happening," she said. During her reign it was hard to determine Cersei's impact over the Seven Kingdoms. But there was always something complex about it. Stephanie Wilson thinks Cersei was also a victim of the system she was raised in. "Cersei Lannister has harboured resentment over how the patriarchal system in Westeros has kept her from true power for so long, so on some levels, her finally becoming queen was kind of an empowering moment," she said. "She's a villain to the core but as far as antagonists go, she's been on par with men on the show and deserved a title to match the power she's fought so hard for. "But her ruthlessness and sadism still made it awkward to feel completely happy for her." Our condolences to the original Mad Queen. There were worse ways to go and now's a better time than ever to leave Westeros before it gets madder. The Lady of Winterfell: A true survivor Survivors aren't necessarily the strongest. Often, they are the smartest. This could not be truer about Sansa, the eldest Stark daughter who lost much of her innocence after witnessing the brutal execution of her father, and learned about the tragic deaths of her mother and brothers. Trauma, in whatever shape or form, impacts us. Unfortunately for Sansa, she continued to suffer greatly at the hands of men. Controversial scenes depicting domestic abuse and her marital rape at the hands of ex-husband Ramsay Bolton drew fury from fans. But Sansa refused to be weakened. She emerged stronger and to her fans, managed to live beyond what other characters on the show have experienced. But her arc ignited heated debate among sexual assault survivors, who argued that rape should not be used "as a plot device" to enhance or define female characters. Media lecturer Dr Stephanie Genz from Nottingham Trent University said it underlined a "sexist logic". "Women should not have to be abused and 'broken in' before they can acquire resilience or toughness," she told the BBC. US actress Jessica Chastain said Sansa's "prevailing strength was solely because of her and her alone". But despite being a fully-fledged Northern leader, opinions about the Lady of Winterfell remain divisive. Academic Dr Elizabeth Beaton thinks it could be connected to traditional concepts of masculinity and femininity. "Male heroes are typically depicted achieving their goals through action and passivity is often perceived as weakness," she said. "Sansa's understanding of power came as a survivor rather than as an aggressor." 'Fight like a girl' Think only men triumph in battle? Think again. Jon Snow may have always been tipped as the hero but in the epic, adrenaline-filled showdown between the living and the dead, it was his little sister (cousin) Arya Stark who killed one of the show's biggest baddies. "Fight like a girl? Yes please," said long-time fan Eileen Ng, who admitted she was expecting Jon to deliver the finishing blow. "After training as an assassin for years, Arya's performance was testament to how strong and dedicated women are. She deserved every minute of that victory." There may have been bigger men on the battlefield that night but among them was another undeniable female MVP [Most Valuable Player]. Viewers went wild and cheered for Lady Lyanna Mormont, who took down an opponent more than five times her size: a horrifying ice zombie giant. "The tiniest warrior proved she was a bigger hero than the grown men around her," wrote a fan on Facebook. Blogger Ani Bundel was full of praise for 16-year-old English actress Bella Ramsay, who portrayed the feisty young leader of Bear Island. "It was great casting on HBO's part," she said. "Lyanna Mormont stole every scene and when her time was up, she was awarded a David and Goliath ending." A female knight of the Seven Kingdoms Chivalry in the Seven Kingdoms isn't quite what you'd think. Female knights are virtually unheard of in Westeros, where misogyny and patriarchy thrive. But Brienne of Tarth and her female-centric arc proved to be a game changer in the show's final season when she received her knighthood from Kingslayer Jamie Lannister. "Brienne has always been more deserving than other knights on the show but she wasn't knighted because she's a woman. She always deserved to become one and gender should not come in the way of it," said Stephanie Wilson. Blogger Chloe Ketchum described the scene as one of the show's most emotional. "Brienne's journey has always been about accepting and staying true to yourself and seeing her buck traditional gender norms was great." The only thing this new knight did not need however, was fixing her virginity. "Her situation with Jamie was especially egregious," said Wilson. "Strong women are entitled to emotion but the show runners clearly exploited her vulnerability to propel the plot of a man." Red dead redemption Everybody loves a bad boy but what about a villainess? Melisandre is no antagonist but it is certainly fair to say many fans did not take kindly to her. She was, after all, responsible for the burning of a young child alive. Actress Carice van Houten even received death threats after that ghastly deed aired. "Firstly Melisandre is a witch so you could say that she was always set up to be hated," remarked Singapore-based feminist writer Wenny Yeo. "She was also definitely power-hungry and made bad mistakes but there are worse things one can do on a show like Game of Thrones." The controversial character has since redeemed herself in the eyes of fans when she came to the aid of the North. The Red Woman's failed prophecies were soon forgotten when her fire magic lit up the Dothraki armies and wooden trenches. Her motivational pep talk with Arya Stark was even credited with winning the great war. There's no denying she wrought a lot of pain but sometimes, fickle fans are the problem. Prolific author Stephen King said he'd loved the final series, adding: "There's been a lot of negativity about the windup, but I think it's just because people don't want ANY ending. But you know what they say: All good things..." Let's talk about sex Game of Thrones is no stranger to criticism. Ever since its start in 2011, the show has been widely criticised for perpetuating rape, sexual violence and objectifying women - amid accusations that it panders to male audiences. "From the unclothing of only women during many of the sex scenes to shots of naked female sex workers, the show has overwhelmingly shot its scenes through the male gaze," said Dr Beaton. Other critics believe the problem lies with the lack of female writers on the show, having seen only one woman director in the past eight years. But this changed with Arya Stark who brought another victory when she decided to lose her virginity, on her own terms. Fans applauded the young assassin for showcasing female empowerment. "Arya sleeping with Gendry Baratheon was one of the least offensive sex scenes in the show's entire history," wrote a fan on a Facebook thread. "It showed that it was okay and natural for young women to want to have sex." Dr Genz added that the encounter "was not a power move and was entirely consensual". "Arya's subsequent rejection of a marriage proposal from Gendry also indicated her refusal to be "domesticated". One small step for a young assassin, one giant leap for womankind in Westeros. Graphics by Davies Surya of the BBC's Visual Journalism team, with contributions by Mayuri Mei Lin in Jakarta. .

कथानक के बारे में आप क्या कहेंगे, लेकिन इस बात से इनकार नहीं किया जा सकता कि गेम ऑफ थ्रोन्स का आठवां और अंतिम सीज़न वेस्टरोस की महिलाओं का था।


Complex challenge of tackling impact of poverty on education

Summary: Scotland's largest teaching union, the EIS, is arguing that teachers need help to tackle the impact of poverty on children's education. Many teachers are concerned that there is little they can do about some of the issues they see in their classrooms.

By Jamie McIvorBBC Scotland education correspondent It is hard to say with absolute certainty that teachers are seeing more of the effects of poverty and disadvantage. The evidence of its day-to-day impact on schoolchildren is largely anecdotal and not formally recorded by councils or the government. However, the largest teachers union, the EIS, has been monitoring the issue since 2013 and believes the problem is worsening. Issues such as welfare changes, local unemployment black spots and zero-hours contracts are sometimes cited. Meanwhile the Scottish government's efforts to close the poverty-related attainment gap have put a fresh focus on the issue. According to the Child Poverty Action Group, almost one in four children in Scotland are living in poverty. Children are considered to be living in poverty if they live in households whose income is less than 60% of the median. According to the group's most recent figures, a two-parent family with two children of school age would be defined as being in poverty if they are living on less than £413 a week after housing costs. A narrow financial definition of poverty does not, of course, say anything about the love, care and nurturing a child receives at home however hard it may be to make ends meet. Nor is poverty and disadvantage confined to the poorest geographical areas of Scotland. This is not a straightforward issue - it is not simply about the cost of living on a low income or, for instance, helping a child in a house without books improve their reading. It is also about difficult issues which face society as a whole: for example social exclusion and intergenerational unemployment and poverty. There is also the issue of the "working poor" - a child may be living in poverty even though a parent is working. The Scottish government wants to drive up attainment in schools. The government is providing £750m over the course of this parliament to help schools in disadvantaged areas. Some of this money goes to councils - some to schools directly. Meanwhile, the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 places a duty on the Scottish government to work to eradicate child poverty by 2030. In schools, the things money has been spent on include extra staff or specialists, additional resources and new equipment or technology to make lessons more engaging. Many head teachers believe this money is making a difference. Money is also spent on schemes directly linked to the children's wellbeing. Clothing grant Looking at how to make lessons more engaging and relevant or helping to mitigate the direct impact of a low income on everyday life is, in some respects, a more straightforward challenge. For instance, a growing number of local authorities provide free meals over the holidays or take practical steps to ensure children who do not have a computer at home do not lose out. Last week the government announced that all Scottish councils would be offering a minimum school clothing grant of £100, helping to even out widespread variations in provision. But sometimes the challenge of the impact of poverty - and actual deprivation - is more complex. It may involve the impact of living in poor housing, hunger or living in an area which faces significant social problems. Perhaps poor behaviour or regular absenteeism may be the result of a child's difficult family circumstances? What if a parent is unable to ensure a child is up and ready for school on time? A child may even be helping to care for a close relative who is seriously ill. Holistic approach These can be difficult issues for policy-makers to actually solve because they are not simply about money or public spending. If the issue were merely an economic one, it could be pointed out that unemployment is low and that the minimum wage has risen substantially, although many children defined as being in poverty do have working parents and critics of the UK government remain concerned about changes to the welfare system. The Scottish government agrees that tackling poverty is a difficult issue which requires a holistic approach. Supporters of Scottish independence would also contend that some of the mechanisms to help are dealt with by Westminster. The Scottish government does, however, expect the education system to play its part. This notion isn't contentious. The worry for some teachers is that they are not simply trying to raise attainment - they may be seeing the impact of problems caused by things they can do little about themselves or are going beyond the call of duty to try to help.

स्कॉटलैंड का सबसे बड़ा शिक्षण संघ, ई. आई. एस. तर्क दे रहा है कि शिक्षकों को बच्चों की शिक्षा पर गरीबी के प्रभाव से निपटने के लिए मदद की आवश्यकता है। कई शिक्षकों को चिंता है कि वे अपनी कक्षाओं में देखे जाने वाले कुछ मुद्दों के बारे में बहुत कम कर सकते हैं।


Oscars: Selma writer tells his side of row with director

Summary: For years British screenwriter Paul Webb had tried to persuade Hollywood that a film about Dr Martin Luther King, President Lyndon B Johnson (LBJ) and the fight for black rights in 1960s America would be a hit. This weekend his film Selma is one of eight movies nominated at the Oscars in the best picture category.

By Vincent DowdArts reporter, BBC News The story focuses on the 1965 marches from the town of Selma in Alabama to the state capital Montgomery, protesting at the effective disenfranchisement of African Americans in the Deep South at that time. The film shows how crucial Dr King was to those marches and to the passing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act - legislation which President Johnson had thought could wait. The film's credits list Mr Webb as sole screenwriter but the director Ava DuVernay has been openly critical of the script she inherited and has said she rewrote the film extensively. Speaking out for the first time, Mr Webb has given the BBC his side of the story. When did you start to think about writing the story which ultimately became Selma? I wrote a draft of the film Lincoln for Steven Spielberg. The consultant was the American historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and I and my wife got to know her and her husband Dick. Many years before, Dick Goodwin had worked for President Johnson's administration and is famous for having written LBJ's famous speech on voting rights in 1965. Dick wrote it overnight when LBJ made a snap decision to call a joint session of Congress. He said he needed it to convince Congress the country needed the bill enacted very soon. And then Dick told me a story about Alabama's right-wing Governor George Wallace coming to lobby the president and how Johnson was a real force of nature with him. So I decided here was the story I wanted to tell. I started reading about the era and about Johnson. But I soon realised that the man who had made it necessary to pass the legislation so urgently was Martin Luther King. The story which needed telling was the Selma voting rights campaign, in which he was central. I read everything I could get my hands on about Martin Luther King but I knew I wanted to avoid making him a conventional, almost sublime heroic figure. Because Johnson was real and visceral and in a drama he would have wiped the floor with a character like that. King was flawed and he was complex and magnificent. Finally the thing which really captivated me about Dr King was the sheer moral and physical courage of the man. That man knew every time he got out of a car that someone could kill him. So it was always a film about the two men? As I started to get into it, King took over. He took centre stage and dominated with Johnson now pushed more to one side. Dr King has about 650 lines in my original script and Johnson has just over 400. That gives you some idea: it's Dr King's story. Johnson did say after the triumph of his speech to Congress that people will say Martin Luther King wrote that speech on the streets of Selma. And in my script he adds 'And they'd be right'. LBJ had the political nous and the realism to grasp that. Did anyone query if you as a Brit should be writing about such a hugely important slice of American history? Not at the time - but maybe it's become an issue now. When I started working on this with my producer Christian Colson, we were both relatively naive. But our naivety produced a script which Michael Mann wanted to be on board - and at different times Stephen Frears and Paul Haggis and Spike Lee. Every one of them hoped their reputation and enthusiasm would generate enough belief from the financiers but one by one they had to drop away. It went on for years. Eventually Ava DuVernay became attached as director. She has been blunt in the States in saying she rewrote much of the screenplay. How do you react to that? Those claims are highly exaggerated. Ava is someone I spent some time with and I like and admire her: she's a very talented woman. She has told the story very well though it's not quite the story she was given. There has been a controversy in the States regarding the depiction of President Johnson so I'll restrict my comments to that issue alone, as it's an issue we can be relatively objective about. Is the LBJ we see in the finished movie very different from the one you originally wrote about? Very. I feel Ava reduced Johnson in her depiction to a racist. And dramatically he's a bit of a punch-bag. The relationship that occurred between those two men was much, much more dynamic than that. The problem is with turning Johnson into someone who was against voting rights and against the Selma campaign. Certainly Johnson found the Selma campaign very difficult to handle - it made life uncomfortable for him and he wanted to deal with voting rights the following year (1966). He had a lot of social reforms on his desk which he wanted to get moving first and which were less contentious. Now Dr King wasn't in a position to oblige him: he was obligated to his own constituency. So these guys who'd been partners the year before on the 1964 Civil Rights act, which ended segregation, then came into conflict over Selma. But that is not to say Johnson was against the very idea of civil rights. He was passionate about voting rights. If you look at the movie now there is scene where Johnson is conspiring with J Edgar Hoover (Director of the FBI). As we all know, and as Johnson knew only too well, Hoover is a monster. What LBJ was trying to do in my script - and in reality - was put the leash on Hoover. Johnson was quite happy to keep tabs on people - he was a control freak who wanted to know what everybody was going to do next. But he wanted Hoover to use his power and organisation to protect Martin Luther King. By reducing Johnson that way in the film, you diminish Dr King at the same time and I think that's a great pity. Ava DuVernay has said she didn't want to make a film where white people are the the guardian angels of black Americans. She wanted a film where black people take hold of their own fate. Can you sympathise with that? No, because that isn't what happened. I know Ava has said she didn't want a white saviour movie but it never was a white saviour movie. It was about the courage and genius and leadership of Martin Luther King driving the most powerful man in the world into a corner. And Johnson just had to say, okay you win. It was Johnson's finest moment and King had driven him to that height. The movie kind of throws that away now. Despite all the tensions, do you remain proud of Selma as a film? Yes because the idea, the story, the structure and the principal characters remain fundamentally mine. And the film is out there: it's finally been made. I'm very happy about that.

वर्षों से ब्रिटिश पटकथा लेखक पॉल वेब ने हॉलीवुड को यह समझाने की कोशिश की थी कि डॉ. मार्टिन लूथर किंग, राष्ट्रपति लिंडन बी जॉनसन (एलबीजे) और 1960 के दशक में अमेरिका में अश्वेत अधिकारों के लिए लड़ाई के बारे में एक फिल्म हिट होगी। इस सप्ताह के अंत में उनकी फिल्म सेल्मा सर्वश्रेष्ठ चित्र श्रेणी में ऑस्कर में नामांकित आठ फिल्मों में से एक है।


Jersey injured seal pup rescued from St Ouen beach

Summary: An injured and underweight seal pup has been rescued after being spotted on a beach in Jersey.

Vets said the pup, which was found at St Ouen, had bite wounds to her back and risked death if left unattended. British Divers Marine Life Rescue took her to New Era Veterinary Hospital, who will send the animal to a specialist RSPCA rescue centre in the UK. Vet Peter Haworth said: "The bite marks showed she had been in some recent difficulty."

जर्सी के एक समुद्र तट पर देखे जाने के बाद एक घायल और कम वजन वाले सील पिल्ला को बचाया गया है।


Out with the old money, in with the new

Summary: There were crowd-pleasing giveaways in Rishi Sunak's summer splurge, but business was underwhelmed at the measures many desperately need to get through the short term. Some projects don't cross the border, giving the Scottish government the flexibility to do things differently. A cut in homes transaction tax, for instance, could be better deployed. But looking into the numbers, the Scottish government reckons most of the funding is already committed, and very little has resulted from the statement in genuinely new funds.

Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland Rishi Sunak has does it again - the fiscal magician who gives a bigger cut in VAT than the hospitality industry dared to expect. The chief executive of the Scottish Tourism Alliance could barely contain his delight. This was "hugely welcome, a "huge boost" and a "huge relief". Yet again, this giveaway Chancellor, was splurging, with £30bn in one summer statement. They'll be toasting him in pubs, even though booze still carries a 20% VAT rate, and in restaurants, where he's giving up to £10-per-head to enjoy a meal out - Monday to Wednesday, during August, children included, but not your drinks bill. Accountants will be toasting him too, as pubs now have three rates of VAT, including zero rating for cold, takeaway food. Rishi-burger While there was a welcome for much of what the Chancellor announced with this extraordinary summer statement for an extraordinary summer, business was underwhelmed. A £1,000 grant for retaining someone in a job from November to the end of January, having previously been on furlough, adds up to a big sum, if it reaches anywhere close to the nine million people who have been furloughed. Yet much of it will be spent on people who would remain in jobs anyway, so it's not much of an incentive for them, and not targeted. A cut in English and Northern Irish homes transaction tax, or stamp duty, might give some people the feeling that this is a good time to buy, but it's likely to raise the purchase price by roughly the amount of tax saved. The £10-per-head August meal voucher scheme could help some restaurants a bit, but it risks being merely a pricey "Rishi-burger" gimmick. The capital projects included in the Prime Minister's speech last week - almost all of them commitments made before the coronavirus crisis hit - were not topped up with additional sponduliks. And there wasn't anything to address the more urgent need of businesses, particularly small ones, which are burning through cash, through the grants they received many weeks ago, through the loans they've taken out, and many of which have had to spend more to prepare their workplaces or public spaces for infection control. Other priorities? Scotland gets the chance to go its own way on some of this. The additional E2000 apprenticeship grant, for instance, doesn't apply north of the border, so the Scottish government can choose whether that fits with its different training regime. The £5,000 grants for energy efficiency home improvement is also one that stops at the border, and Scottish finance secretary Kate Forbes decides if it's an idea worth borrowing. The cut in home transaction tax? That's devolved too, so no benefit to home buyers in Scotland, but high expectations from the property industry that it should be copied to boost activity in Scotland. Are there other priorities, with which to spend the £800m of extra funding that's coming the way of the Scottish Parliament, after today's Westminster statement? Fiendishly complex Better hold on there, because that money may not be as it seems. The Scottish government has looked at the money coming its way. Some £97m of it is already committed, as of Monday, to arts and culture. A large share of it is extra funding to help the NHS through its crisis. Likewise, it's already committed. Another portion is to fund additional emergency calls for personal protective equipment (PPE) in frontline public services. Ms Forbes claims that only £21m was announced anew as a result of Rishi Sunak's Wednesday statement. That's a long way short of £800m. The Treasury has told officials in St Andrew's House that those home improvement grants are not new money, but money shifted from another Whitehall budget. So no new funds there for Holyrood. The funds that could come from the stamp duty cut should result in an adjustment to the block grant for Holyrood, using the fiendishly complex fiscal framework. But that's not included, and not clear yet how much will be involved. Only the apprenticeship scheme seems to have new funds attached, and the Scottish government's take is that it doesn't stack up to being quite as big a deal as it might have sounded. Shiny new projects That Barnett formula, by paring new spending down to the minimum the Treasury thinks the devolved administrations deserve, is an excellent tell-tale sign of what's really behind a Chancellor's rhetoric. So, it seems many of the shiny new projects to boost the jobs plan are being funded from other projects that don't look so shiny any more, or simply don't need funding through the crisis. Kate Forbes addresses the Scottish Parliament on Thursday, with her response to the jobs plan. She will surely complain about the lack of funds and the lack of flexibility she had asked for. But if she wants to emulate Rishi Sunak with giveaways and spending programmes to help create jobs and stimulate the economy, she may have to burrow into other, existing Holyrood budgets. That may be no bad thing. Too much can be made of "new money", particularly by opposition politicians and those of us in the media, when it may not be necessary if old money can be better deployed. But making those choices is difficult.

ऋषि सुनक के ग्रीष्मकालीन खर्च में भीड़ को खुश करने वाले उपहार थे, लेकिन व्यवसाय उन उपायों से अभिभूत था जो कई लोगों को अल्पावधि में प्राप्त करने की सख्त आवश्यकता थी। कुछ परियोजनाएं सीमा पार नहीं करती हैं, जिससे स्कॉटिश सरकार को चीजों को अलग तरह से करने का लचीलापन मिलता है। उदाहरण के लिए, घरों के लेनदेन कर में कटौती, बेहतर तरीके से तैनात की जा सकती है। लेकिन संख्या को देखते हुए, स्कॉटिश सरकार का मानना है कि अधिकांश धन पहले से ही प्रतिबद्ध है, और वास्तव में नए धन में बयान के परिणामस्वरूप बहुत कम हुआ है।


Did India hide its first cases of Zika virus?

Summary: Did India conceal its first cases of the Zika virus?

Soutik BiswasIndia correspondent On Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said India's health ministry had confirmed three cases of the mosquito-borne virus from the city of Ahmedabad in western Gujarat state. Authorities in Gujarat said the cases were reported in a bustling neighbourhood between November 2016 and February 2017. The infection has been linked to severe birth defects in almost 30 countries. These include microcephaly, where babies are born with abnormally small heads and restricted brain development. Although the virus is mostly spread by mosquitoes, it can also be sexually transmitted. Even before the first official case of the Zika virus was registered in Nigeria, researchers concluded in a paper published in 1953 that "significant numbers" of people had been exposed to the virus in India. A total of 33 of the 196 people tested for the new disease had immunity. More than 60 years later, the three cases in India detailed in a statement by the UN health agency included two women, aged 22 and 34, and a 64-year-old man. The 34-year-old woman delivered a "clinically well baby" on 9 November 2016; the 22-year-old woman was tested positive for the virus in her 37th week of pregnancy. None of the three, according to reports, had travelled outside the country. "The two pregnant mothers have delivered healthy babies and the 64-year-old senior citizen has shown no complications at all," JN Singh, the senior-most bureaucrat in Gujarat, told reporters at the weekend. He also said the government "consciously did not go public with the cases" as the number of cases didn't rise. But there has been shock and consternation among many independent public health professionals and analysts on why the public was not informed of the cases immediately after they were detected. "This is unprecedented in India's public health history. It is also disturbing and raises a lot of ethical issues. You have to take the community into confidence. You can do it without spreading panic. That is the job of a sound public health policy," Rajib Dasgupta, a professor in the community medicine department at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, told me. For one, critics say, on 17 March, junior health minister Anupriya Patel, responding to a question in the parliament said, that "so far, only one-case of laboratory-positive Zika virus has been detected as part of a routine laboratory surveillance in January 2017". The government was lying, they said, because the third - and final - case had been detected in January. Robust protocol A health official, however, defended the minister, saying "while two cases were picked up in January for testing and the third in February, only one confirmed case had been detected while [the minister was] replying to the parliament". Nitpicking apart, many say it is surprising that the government decided to remain quiet for months about the first cases of a globally prevalent disease which is caused by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also carries the dengue and chikungunya viruses, both widely prevalent in India. They say it is surprising that the government, which gives regular public updates on dengue and chikungunya cases, decided to remain quiet about the Zika virus for months together. This when India has, by all accounts, a fairly robust public health response protocol to tackling Zika. A panel of top bureaucrats from different ministries regularly review the global situation on the virus. International airports and ports display information. Disease and vector control organisations help health officers monitor passenger arrivals at airports. Since last year, 25 laboratories across the country have been beefed up for testing. Three entomological - study of insects - laboratories are conducting Zika virus testing on mosquito samples. Kits that test all the three pathogens - zika, dengue and chikungunya - simultaneously, developed and provided by the US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are being used widely. More than 34,000 human samples and 12,647 mosquito samples have been tested for Zika. Of these, close to 500 mosquito samples were collected from the Bapunagar area in Ahmedabad, where three of the positive cases were eventually found. Microcephaly is being monitored from 55 sentinel sites - communities from where in-depth data is gathered. But when it came to the first cases, the government intriguingly kept it a secret from people, and even the local authorities, including the municipal commissioner and the mayor of the city. Interestingly, a senior medical officer of the local municipality told the news and current affairs website scroll.in that the federal Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had actually stepped up surveillance in the city in January and February as a part "of a national exercise to control malaria". 'No mention' "There was no mention of Zika virus or cases to us," the official said. A journalist from the website who visited the Bapunagar area where the cases had been detected reported that local people were angry that they were kept in the dark about the Zika virus. A local civic official, from the main opposition party Congress, wondered how could "the government not tell people that there is a new disease which is infecting people in the neighbourhood they live". The government sticks to its position that it did not feel the need for a public announcement since there were no increase in the number of cases after surveillance was stepped up in the city. But, as public health analysts say, local authorities should have been informed, so that they could have informed the local community and communicated it to the media. "Risk communication and mitigation are vital. It's a mosquito borne disease. There are no magic bullets for mosquito control," says Dr Dasgupta. So why did the government delay the announcement? The local media has been reporting that the BJP-ruled government in Gujarat - Prime Minister Narendra Modi's native state - kept the news a secret because the state was hosting a major international business summit in January to woo investments. The local government, of course, denies this. "This is an insult to the public health community and media. The local community needs to be informed [about the prevalence of the virus] to protect themselves, their women and children. Travel advisories need to be put out to alert foreign visitors," Vidya Krishnan, health and science editor with The Hindu newspaper told me. "The implications of not disclosing or delaying such information are scary. If India begins to conceal its disease burden and disease outbreaks, things can easily snowball out of control. It will lose face internationally," she adds. Remember when China was accused of "covering up" the full extent of its Sars outbreak in 2003? Where did Zika come from? It was first identified in monkeys in Uganda in 1947. The first human case was detected in Nigeria in 1954 and there have been further outbreaks in Africa, South East Asia and the Pacific Islands. Most were small and Zika has not previously been considered a major threat to human health. But in May 2015 it was reported in Brazil and since spread rapidly. In November 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that Zika will no longer be treated as an international medical emergency. However, it said the virus still posed a "significant and enduring" threat. Zika outbreak: What you need to know

क्या भारत ने जीका वायरस के अपने पहले मामले को छुपाया था?


Jobs lost with Aberdeen Journals shop closure

Summary: Ten jobs could be lost with the closure of the Aberdeen Journals shop in the city's Union Street, it has been announced.

Owners DC Thomson said its intention was to close its retail shop in March. The company said the shop was "no longer financially viable to sustain", placing about 10 positions at risk. A company spokesperson said: "We intend to work with our staff to ensure the best possible outcome for each individual." The statement added: "In the current economic climate our Aberdeen shop was becoming increasingly less viable so we're concentrating on what we do best."

यह घोषणा की गई है कि शहर के यूनियन स्ट्रीट में एबरडीन जर्नल्स की दुकान बंद होने से दस नौकरियां जा सकती हैं।


Swindon's new £15m car park opens to public

Summary: A new £15m multi-storey car park in Swindon, which will replace four others in the town centre, has opened to the public.

The 850-space facility is located on the Kimmerfields development at the site of the former central police station. It will replace the Carlton, Cheltenham Street, Queenstown and Wyvern car parks which are all due to close in 2014. The council hopes it will attract more shoppers and businesses to the town. The car park has 51 security cameras, a membership system and space indicators on each floor, which tell drivers if a particular floor is full before they reach it.

स्विंडन में एक नया 15 मिलियन पाउंड का बहुमंजिला कार पार्क, जो शहर के केंद्र में चार अन्य लोगों की जगह लेगा, जनता के लिए खोल दिया गया है।


Trump Kim summit: Stop romanticising a dictator, say North Korea artists

Summary: The once-elusive Kim Jong-un may be emerging as something of an international statesman, but North Korean artists in Seoul who personally suffered under his leadership tell the BBC's Heather Chen and Minji Lee that peace talks won't change a man they call a tyrant.

For several years, Song Byeok played an instrumental role in North Korea's propaganda machine. The painter from Hwanghae province was noticed by the ruling elite and chosen to be a state artist. Mr Song painted vivid, striking images showing anti-American and Japanese slogans, happy workers and of course, the Kim dynasty. "As a propaganda artist, you are expected to portray North Korea and its leaders as being the best in the world," says Mr Song, at his apartment in Seoul. "In North Korea, art can only be beautiful. The homeless do not exist and everyone is chubby as they are well-fed." This picture could not be further from the truth. Mr Song defected to South Korea in 2002, having survived a gulag where torture was a daily routine. "Being in a North Korean prison camp was so tough," he recalls, in between deep breaths. "You'd hear birds singing and see blue skies and it would make you want to die. So you can imagine how shocked I am to see Kim Jong-un being shown in a positive light." These memories are particularly difficult for Mr Song, as he sees Kim Jong-un become the new darling of the diplomatic scene, as a result of his highly-anticipated June meeting with US President Donald Trump. Instagram users can view a version of this story on our BBC News account. Watch the Insta story on BBC News and BBC News Korean. Leaders from several countries are rushing to have their moment with the man once shunned because of his nuclear weapons programme and dire human rights record. "So many have died at the hands of his regime yet people can say he is now humane," he says. "They are romanticising a dictator and glamourising his regime. This is all very wrong." In a sleepy part of Seoul's lively Gangnam district, lives another defector artist Choi Seong-guk. In his previous life, the Pyongyang native worked on state-commissioned cartoons about Western spies. "As someone who actually comes from North Korea, hearing praise about Kim Jong-un makes me really angry," he says. "The people who say these things have never actually seen North Koreans like me and my family, who have been tormented and beaten. [So they know nothing about] how miserable our lives have been." Now in his 30s and living in Seoul, Mr Choi was exiled from the prestigious North Korean capital and sent to a prison camp after being found guilty of selling duplicated copies of South Korean films. He made the decision to flee the country with his family in 2012. Like many other North Koreans abroad, he will be closely watching the Trump-Kim meeting. "What will make me angry will be seeing pictures of Kim parading around with global leaders. This will only fortify his image back in North Korea and will brainwash many people," he says. The 12 June summit in Singapore was called off once, after the two parties fell back into a war of words, but the plan was revived after an apparently conciliatory response from Pyongyang. But Mr Choi has reservations. "The world seems to think you can resolve Korea's problems just by having a conversation with Kim Jong-un and I am honestly quite taken aback by this notion," he says. "He is acting this way because he is on the brink of desperation and has nowhere to go." "Donald Trump leads the strongest, most powerful country in the world so he has a sense of duty to humanity. I believe he has a strategy but I hope he will not neglect North Koreans." When asked if he would like to return to a safe North Korea one day, the answer is an enthusiastic yes from Song Byeok. "Definitely. I want to hold an art exhibition in Pyongyang and show my fellow citizens [proof of] freedom of expression. That is my lifelong dream and I hope it will happen while I am still alive," he says. But like Choi Seong-guk, Mr Song has concerns about negotiating with Kim Jong-un. "Does Moon Jae-in really believe Kim will denuclearise North Korea?" he says, referencing the other historic meeting recently, between Mr Kim and South Korea's president. "His administration has not brought up the issue of human rights in North Korea either." But still, he holds out hope for his country and does not want the Trump-Kim summit to be "merely an event". "I hope the meeting between Trump and Kim will become a starting point for our country to fundamentally change," he says.

एक समय के मायावी किम जोंग-उन भले ही एक अंतरराष्ट्रीय राजनेता के रूप में उभर रहे हों, लेकिन सियोल में उत्तर कोरियाई कलाकार, जो व्यक्तिगत रूप से उनके नेतृत्व में पीड़ित थे, बीबीसी के हीथर चेन और मिंजी ली को बताते हैं कि शांति वार्ता उस व्यक्ति को नहीं बदलेगी जिसे वे तानाशाह कहते हैं।