IRA ceasefire 20 years on: The priest who brokered the peace

Summary: It is an iconic image, encapsulating the horror of the Troubles . Father Alec Reid kneels in a Belfast car park as he administers the last rites over the bloodied, near naked body of a British soldier.

By Peter CrutchleyBBC Knowledge & Learning Two British Army corporals had just been tortured and shot in broad daylight after driving into an IRA funeral. The violence in Northern Ireland seemed to have spiralled completely out of control. Yet the contents of a blood soaked envelope Fr Reid was carrying that day would set in motion a chain of events that led to an IRA ceasefire, and ultimately a lasting peace. Twenty years on from the IRA's ceasefire on 31 August 1994, veteran BBC journalist and author Peter Taylor has been reflecting on the part Fr Reid played in stopping the violence. "The role Fr Reid played in bringing about the peace process was absolutely critical. He was one of the real non-combatant, non-politician peacemakers. He was a remarkable man, who played a really important role historically," he said. Just how did a priest come to play such a crucial part in the peace process? Early days Father Reid was ordained as a priest of the Redemptorist Order of the Catholic Church in 1957. He moved to Clonard monastery in Belfast in 1961, where he would work for the next 40 years. Clonard is situated on one of Belfast's many sectarian fault lines and was right on the coalface when the violence began in Northern Ireland in 1969, with riots and shootings commonplace in the area. Engaging in dialogue While the violence intensified in Northern Ireland during the 1970s and 80s, Fr Reid was among those looking for a way to bring peace. In an interview for the BBC documentary 14 Days he explained what motivated him: "I used to say that I don't belong to any political party, but I represent the next person who is going to be killed in the troubles. The church has a moral obligation to get stuck in when people are suffering and to try and stop it." He felt it was imperative to bring nationalist and republican parties together and to get the IRA to renounce violence in favour of negotiation. It was a high risk strategy. It required John Hume, the leader of the nationalist SDLP, and a vocal proponent of non-violence, to engage with the republican party Sinn Féin, regarded as political pariahs at the time due to their links with the IRA. Peter Taylor believes the importance of Father Reid's role at this time cannot be over-estimated. "I think Fr Reid's role was enormous in liaising with John Hume and Gerry Adams to encourage the IRA to make the momentous steps that it eventually did," he said. "Fr Reid had to be trusted by all parties on the nationalist/republican side of the conflict." Fr Reid persuaded Hume to engage in secret talks with Adams, which initially took place at Clonard, with the priest acting as mediator. The two parties eventually began formal dialogue in January 1988. But the beginning of talks did not mean an end to the violence. 14 dark days In fact some of the worst days of the Troubles were still to come. During 14 days in March 1988, a sequence of traumatic events left Northern Ireland teetering on the edge of a dangerous precipice. The spiral of violence began on 6 March when three members of an IRA unit were shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar. As their funerals were taking place in Belfast's Milltown cemetery 10 days later, loyalist gunman Michael Stone launched a gun and grenade attack on mourners, killing three and wounding more than 50. Among Stone's victims was IRA member Kevin Brady. At his funeral three days later, two British Army corporals in civilian clothing, David Howes and Derek Wood, drove into the funeral cortege. Their car was immediately surrounded by a mob and the soldiers were overpowered. They were dragged away, stripped, beaten and taken to nearby waste ground where they were shot dead by the IRA. In attendance at the funeral, Fr Reid witnessed the fracas and attempted to intervene, even getting between the men after they had been forced to the ground and pleading with their attackers not to kill them. But the priest was warned that he could be shot and was himself dragged away. In the 14 Days documentary he described the scene and how he was deeply affected by their death: "I walked up to this area of waste ground. There was nobody else there, just the two bodies. I went up to the one nearest to me, and he seemed still to be breathing, so I tried to give him the kiss of life. I felt I had done my best to save them, but I had failed. I was very shocked. It was a tragedy." Blood soaked envelope Cameraman David Cairns captured Father Reid, with blood on his cheek. kneeling beside the corporal's body. This moment of compassion amidst the brutality was shown around the world. It wasn't until years later that people would learn that beneath his coat that day the priest was carrying an envelope which would bring hope in the midst of the despair. John Hume had suggested that both sides put their political solution for settling the conflict on paper and Fr Reid had collected Sinn Féin's position from Gerry Adams. He was still carrying it with him at the funeral. "I had held onto the letter but I had to change the envelope, as the blood of one of the soldiers was on it. I went to see John Hume in Derry that afternoon and gave him this paper from Gerry Adams." The letter helped enable the crucial first steps of the peace process and this period of violence intensified the resolve of Fr Reid and other church, community and political figures to achieve peace. Talks continued and Fr Reid would act as a go-between with the Irish government for the next decade. The British government also re-opened secret contacts with the IRA leadership that were first established in 1972. IRA ceasefire On 31 August 1994 the IRA declared a "complete cessation of military operations". This was the culmination of Fr Reid's hopes for the years of talks he had facilitated. This was a hugely important moment as it allowed Sinn Féin to be involved in all-party talks, which would pave the way for the historic 1998 Good Friday Agreement that brought nationalists and unionists in government together, in a power-sharing assembly. This agreement was eventually amended by the 2006 St Andrews Agreement, which saw former enemies Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness becoming Northern Ireland's first and deputy first ministers in 2007. Pilloried and praised During his later years, Fr Reid was also involved in peace efforts in the Basque region in Spain. In January 2003, he was awarded the Sabino Arana 2002 World Mirror prize in Bilbao, in recognition of his efforts at promoting peace and reconciliation. He was also one of the witnesses who confirmed the decommissioning of IRA weapons in 2005, which was a critical hurdle that needed to be overcome to keep Northern Ireland's fragile peace alive. His career was not without controversy. He angered unionists at a public meeting in 2005 when he likened the unionist treatment of Catholics in Northern Ireland in the past to the Nazis' treatment of the Jews. Fr Reid later apologised saying his remarks were made in the heat of the moment. On 22 November 2013 Fr Reid died in a Dublin hospital, with tributes flowing in from across the world, with the British Ministry of Defence acknowledging his efforts, saying: "Fr Alec Reid's intervention to administer last rites epitomised his faith and strength of conviction. His comfort was given amidst the enormous fears and tension on that terrible day in March 1988." Father Reid's legacy For Peter Taylor, there is a lingering regret regarding the priest. "Sadly he was one of the few people involved in making peace that I never got to know. At the time I was making the Provos series, he didn't want to talk and I respected that. I was very sorry that I couldn't persuade him," he said. While many people were involved in the lengthy process of bringing peace to Northern Ireland, journalist Brian Rowan assessed Fr Reid's legacy in the 14 Days documentary: "I think when the historians look back on 30 years of conflict here, and on the journey of war to peace, the story will not be told without the name of Alec Reid right in the middle of it all." Watch BBC Northern Ireland's documentary Ceasefire Around the BBC The IRA's journey to peace BBC History: The Troubles The Good Friday Agreement Watch: Ceasefire Related Internet Links On This Day: IRA ceasefire

यह एक प्रतिष्ठित छवि है, जो परेशानियों के भय को समाहित करती है। फादर एलेक रीड बेलफास्ट कार पार्क में घुटने टेकते हैं जब वे एक ब्रिटिश सैनिक के खून से लथपथ, नग्न शरीर के पास अंतिम संस्कार करते हैं।


Call the Midwife Christmas special: WW2 bomb causes chaos

Summary: The Call the Midwife Christmas special is already being dubbed a perennial favourite in the TV listings - up there with EastEnders and Doctor Who - so it may be surprising to find this will be only its second festive outing.

By Keily SmithBBC News entertainment reporter Based on Jennifer Worth's memoirs of her time as a nurse in 1950s London, the show - which is about to head into its third series - centres on life at the Nonnatus House order and the nuns and midwives who work side-by-side. Having already exhausted all of the late author's original stories, the drama is now being penned by series creator Heidi Thomas. The Christmas episode promises to be a tearful affair but avoids the shock value of last year's Downton Abbey Christmas special, which saw the death of one of its main characters, and led to accusations of sensationalism. "It's just a beautifully crafted story," says Helen George, who plays the glamorous yet feisty Trixie. "There is the emphasis on birth and birthing, but it is about relationships of the families and the community as well, which is so touching and emotive in its own essence there's no need to shove a death in for shock value." 'Wiped out' While the series has moved into the tail-end of the 1950s, the drama is played out to the backdrop of a country still recovering from World War Two, particularly in the Christmas episode. Jessica Raine, who plays lead character Jenny, says: "I think it is necessary as people tend to forget how long it took to get over the war, especially in the East End, because a lot of it was wiped out. It had such an effect on everyone's lives still." George adds: "Going into the next series, there are a few reflections of the war still so it still feels like a community and a world repairing itself, which we haven't really covered before. It's always spoken about but the emotional depth of it isn't really explored, but in the new series it is." Pam Ferris, who plays the no-nonsense Sister Evangelina, agrees the war still had a profound effect long after it ended. "For those of us naive of us to think the war ended in 1945, it's a lesson for all historians and people who don't know the war - its repercussions go on and fade slowly." The after-effects of war are also felt in other, more dramatic ways in the Christmas special, as the East End midwives come face-to-face with an unexploded World War Two bomb. The episode also tackles how the experience of women and birth began to change. "The fashion surrounding birth has already changed in the series. At first we were still saying things like 'Get into the correct position for birthing', now even men are creeping into the room," says Ferris, who played the matriarch in the early '90s comedy drama Darling Buds of May. "Of course I can imagine Sister Evangelina is going to fight a heavy rearguard action over that!" 'Absolutely filthy' Jenny Agutter, probably best known for her role in The Railway Children and who plays Sister Julienne, the sister in charge at Nonnatus House, says: "In the Christmas one you see the change in attitudes towards men coming in. "When we are filming I'm so fascinated when we talk about childbirth experiences - the men in the crew always want to talk about it more because they are there and present and part of it. What we are still showing is men not being part of this intimate women's world." And Ferris feels the show has a message the younger generation should take note of. "I hope the younger fans appreciate how things have moved on for women - that within living memory things were tougher, and to not throw away that liberty and freedom the vanguard of feminism and change have brought them," she says. Despite its gentle pace, the birthing scenes can be quite realistic. "We end up absolutely filthy. We use sticky blood that smells like Marmite," George says. Raine adds: "They use a condom filled with blood so whenever you see a gush of water coming out of the woman you have a real midwife standing above with a condom and she just releases it, so there are a lot of condoms lying around the set!" Miranda-factor Call the Midwife often has that feel-good Sunday evening tone to it, drawing in mums and dads, along with grans and granddads. But George insists they have a lot of younger fans. "It's usually 14-year-old girls that come up to us. I think the Miranda [Hart] fan base has spilled over into Call the Midwife." And like ITV's hugely successful period drama Downton Abbey, Call the Midwife is hugely popular in the US. "The last time we were in New York we had a Q&A with lots of fans of the show who were just crazy midwife fans. We felt like One Direction," says George. The cast know they will all be watching on Christmas Day, as their extended families will insist on it. "This is the first show I've been in [that] my husband has told me not to tell him what happens," says Ferris. Call The Midwife is on Christmas Day at 18:15 GMT.

कॉल द मिडवाइफ क्रिसमस स्पेशल को पहले से ही टीवी लिस्टिंग में एक बारहमासी पसंदीदा करार दिया जा रहा है-ईस्टएंडर्स और डॉक्टर हू के साथ-इसलिए यह जानकर आश्चर्य हो सकता है कि यह केवल इसका दूसरा उत्सव होगा।


David Mackay: The pilot who will fly to space

Summary: A Scottish pilot could be the first captain to fly tourists into space. David Mackay is the chief pilot for Virgin Galactic, which hopes to take commercial airline flights outside Earth's atmosphere within the next two years.

By Steven BrocklehurstBBC Scotland news website "I hope to be in space next year," says David Mackay. The 55-year-old has held a "lofty ambition" to be a spaceman since he was a child in the far north of Scotland in the 1960s. As a seven-year-old with a love of space and an interest in flying, influenced by fast jets which daily practised their low-flying manoeuvres over his home on the Sutherland coast, he noticed that most astronauts were former military test pilots. The young Mackay settled on this as a career path for fulfilling his dream. "Not long after I got my test pilot qualification I realised there was no manned space flight programme in the UK, and there was unlikely to be one," says Mackay. The Scot took a degree in Aeronautical Engineering at Glasgow University. He then joined the RAF and served for 16 years but by his late 30s his chances of space flight seemed very slim. Mackay moved into the world of commercial airliners with Virgin Atlantic in 1995. "Soon after I joined I drove into Heathrow and there was a model of the Space Shuttle in Virgin Atlantic colours and it said something typically Virgin like 'Today the Atlantic, Tomorrow the Moon'," he jokes. "I guess there was always a chance that something exciting might happen but obviously I did not believe we would be doing commercial space flight." Now, Mackay is the chief pilot for Virgin Galactic and if it successfully completes its tests, conducted in the Mojave Desert in the US, he could be the first pilot to fly tourists into space. Virgin announced at Farnborough Air Show in July it had taken deposits from 529 people who want to fly in space. These are people who will have to part with $200,000 (£128,000) before they board SpaceShipTwo. Mackay likens it to Charles Lindberg's first solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927. "That was a demonstration of what was possible," he says. "Shortly after that other people developed it and now it is possible for anybody to fly across the Atlantic. "This could be something similar. That first important step." So what will be involved? "The flight experience will be - to use the American term - 'truly awesome'," says Mackay. "There will be a three-day training course for the passengers because it will be so amazing that if you were to go in cold it could be mind-blowing." One major difference from the traditional image of space travel is that it will not be a vertical rocket launch. The spaceship will be taken to 47,000ft (14km) attached to a "mothership" which supplies pressurisation, air conditioning and electrical power to the spaceship until launch height. The climb to launch altitude takes about an hour and then the countdown begins. When the spaceship separates the passengers could get a "lightness in the stomach" as it falls away and then the rocket motor kicks in. The force of the rocket is about 3.5g - equivalent to the most powerful drag car racer - and it will last for a full minute. "We are launched horizontally, but immediately the motor starts burning so we pull up into the vertical," says Mackay. "You will see the sky go from blue to dark blue to black." When the motor shuts off the spaceship goes from a massive thrust into weightlessness. The passengers can then unstrap and float about in zero gravity. "Everybody I have seen do it so far ends up with a huge cheesy grin on their face," says Mackay. With the motor thrust off, the spaceship continues to go up into space where passengers will be able to see the curvature of the earth and the thin band of atmosphere above. When the spaceship reaches its "apogee", at about 360,000ft (110km), it starts to come back down. The re-entry force is even greater than leaving earth's atmosphere but the seats are in recline to help the passengers withstand forces up to 5g. When it gets back down to 70,000ft, the spaceship changes from the feather-shape it has adopted for the drop, back into a glider to make the landing. It sounds like an exhilarating flight. But is it safe? Successful landing Mackay says: "I am not going to pretend that flying a spaceship will be as safe as getting in a 747 with four engines for a flight across the Atlantic." But he says that as a test pilot he has to take tiny steps to make sure every risk is understood and reduced as much as possible. He says the fact that the spaceship is a glider means that it has a good chance of making a successful landing if the rocket boosters were to fail. According to Mackay, the mothership has flown more than 100 times and is "pretty much ironed out". The spaceship has flown 22 glide flights to ensure it can be landed successfully every time and the rocket motor has had about 30 firings. The next stage is to put the rocket on to the spaceship and start pointing it towards space. "We should do our first rocket powered flight early in 2013 - then we start to gradually build up, increasing the boost until we go higher and higher and eventually end up in space." Mackay says it has taken a long to time to get this close but the "lofty ambitions" of his seven-year-old self could be fulfilled. "I would say if you do have ambitions don't just wait around. Go out and make yourself as well-qualified as possible so you can take that rare opportunity when it comes along."

एक स्कॉटिश पायलट पर्यटकों को अंतरिक्ष में उड़ाने वाला पहला कप्तान हो सकता है। डेविड मैके वर्जिन गैलेक्टिक के मुख्य पायलट हैं, जो अगले दो वर्षों के भीतर पृथ्वी के वायुमंडल के बाहर वाणिज्यिक एयरलाइन उड़ानें लेने की उम्मीद करता है।


Slovenian woman's hand sawn off 'in insurance fraud'

Summary: Police in Slovenia have accused a woman of cutting off her hand with a circular saw - with the help of her family - to make a fraudulent insurance claim.

The 21-year-old and a relative have been detained and face up to eight years in prison if convicted. The suspects recently took out injury insurance, police say. The woman allegedly stood to gain about €400,000 (£340,000; $450,000) in compensation and monthly payments of about €3,000 from the policy. Four members of the family were initially detained earlier this year, but two were later released. Police say the group deliberately cut the woman's hand above the wrist at their home in the capital Ljubljana. Relatives took her to hospital, saying she had injured herself while sawing branches. Officials say the group left the severed hand behind rather than bring it to hospital, to ensure the disability was permanent. But the authorities recovered it in time to sew it back on.

स्लोवेनिया में पुलिस ने एक महिला पर धोखाधड़ी का बीमा दावा करने के लिए अपने परिवार की मदद से एक परिपत्र आरी से अपना हाथ काटने का आरोप लगाया है।


Why is Kim Jong-un always surrounded by people taking notes?

Summary: There's a newly released batch of photographs of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on a series of site visits. The dozens of photos all have one curious detail in common - the leader is surrounded by officials and generals making notes in identical notepads, writes Kathryn Westcott.

Magazine MonitorA collection of cultural artefacts In the photographs - from the country's official Central News Agency (KCNA) - Kim Jong-un observes a unit of women conducting a multiple-rocket launching drill. He strides around a fishery station. He gives a pilot on flight training a pep talk. He enjoys the facilities at a renovated youth camp. But who are those men meticulously taking notes? They're not journalists, but soldiers, party members or government officials, says Prof James Grayson, Korea expert at the University of Sheffield. What is happening is a demonstration of the leader's supposed power, knowledge, wisdom and concern, says Grayson. It's "on-the-spot guidance", something instigated by his grandfather Kim Il-sung in the 1950s. "It's part of the image of the great leader offering benevolent guidance," says Grayson. What might that guidance be? Well, if Kim's anything like his grandfather it could be practical advice. Very specific practical advice. After Kim Il-sung visited a fishery in 1976, KCNA published this: "Watching a truck at work, the president said that its bucket seemed to be small in comparison with its horsepower. He said the problem of carriage would be solved if the bucket was enlarged. Afterwards the truck's bucket capacity increased to two tons from 800 kg. As a result, 20 trucks were capable of carrying the load to be done by 50 trucks." Despite the fact that tablets are available in the country, paper notebooks remain the favoured medium. "These are pictures that will be broadcast on television and shown in the state media, so those who are there want to be seen recording Kim Jong-un's every word," says Grayson. "It's about presenting him as having broad knowledge - however, it's ridiculous, he can't possibly know about all of these different things. It's important, however, that the apparatchiks that surround him are seen to be hanging on his every word." According to Prof Steve Tsang, chair the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham, the note-takers will be writing extremely carefully. "They wouldn't want to write down anything that was, say, politically inaccurate, or it might come back to bite them." The notes are not usually published or available for the public to view, says Tsang. "If anything comes out of them, it would be via the propaganda department. Whether it was what was actually said, or is different to the guidance given at the time, doesn't matter. No-one will ever question it. If you were at the factory and the advice that was released wasn't quite what you had in your notebook - what are you going to do about it?" Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

उत्तर कोरियाई नेता किम जोंग-उन की साइट यात्राओं की एक श्रृंखला पर तस्वीरों का एक नया बैच जारी किया गया है। दर्जनों तस्वीरों में एक ही दिलचस्प विवरण है-नेता अधिकारियों और जनरलों से घिरा हुआ है जो समान नोटपैड में नोट्स बनाते हैं, कैथरीन वेस्टकोट लिखते हैं।


MGMT man gets movie role

Summary: MGMT's Ben Goldwasser has appeared alongside Norah Jones and a member of Yeasayer in a new feature film due out this autumn.

Goldwasser, keyboardist in the Brooklyn band, appears in Wah Do Dem a movie by directors Sam Fleischner and Ben Chace released on dvd on 26 October. Yeasayer bass player Ira Tuton Wolf has a part in the film, they also appear on the film's soundtrack alongside Santigold, MGMT, Bones and Suckers. The movie follows the story of a recently dumped Brooklyn skateboarder who travels on a cruise to Jamaica.

एम. जी. एम. टी. के बेन गोल्डवासर नोरा जोन्स और येसायर के एक सदस्य के साथ इस शरद ऋतु में आने वाली एक नई फीचर फिल्म में दिखाई दिए हैं।


EU's Mediterranean migrant crisis: Just a mess or cynical politics?

Summary: How easy it would be to bash out a righteous-sounding blog, slamming Italy's "far-right, anti-immigration, populist" deputy prime minister for bringing Europe's migration policy to its knees by cynically closing Italy's ports to the migrant rescue ship, Aquarius.

Katya AdlerEurope editor@BBCkatyaadleron Twitter But, like most easy-sounding explanations for complex situations, the description above is facile; the truth far more grey than black-and-white. Firstly, Europe's migration regulations have long been unfit for purpose. Think back to the height of the migrant crisis three years ago, when EU countries couldn't slam the door on their neighbours fast enough in order to avoid the influx of asylum seekers. And European solidarity hasn't progressed much since. The number of migrant arrivals is down on previous years - especially for Greece, now that there is a questionable agreement in place with Turkey to crack down on people smugglers, who largely focused on Syrians trying to escape their bloody conflict. But mass irregular migration to Europe is far from over. Italy has continued to receive boatloads of people for years, ever since its neighbour across the Mediterranean, Libya, was thrown into lawlessness following Muammar Gaddafi's demise in the wake of the British- and French-led Nato military intervention. Since then hundreds of thousands of people have arrived in Italy, the majority from African countries not at war. Under normal circumstances, most would be classed as economic migrants rather than refugees and eligible therefore for deportation, but the asylum process is lengthy and the terrible treatment suffered by migrants at the hands of Libyan gangs en route renders many cases more complex. Italy has overflowing migrant centres and those who manage to slip away from them have sought refuge in abandoned houses. Why Italy's Salvini has changed Europe's debate Many migrants don't want to be in Italy at all. Their goal is the richer north of Europe but France and Austria have blocked their path by keeping their borders with Italy firmly shut. While elsewhere along the Mediterranean coastline, France, Spain and Malta have purposefully looked the other way. That, claims Italy's powerful new interior minister, is how his country has ended up as the "refugee camp of Europe". And before you dismiss Matteo Salvini as an alt-right, anti-EU troublemaker and admirer-in-chief of President Donald Trump's brash and brutal style of politics (all allegations with quite some truth to them) consider this: It was the centre-left government of normally mild-mannered former Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni that first threatened to close Italy's ports to migrant rescue vessels not licensed by the Italian authorities. Mr Gentiloni implored other EU countries to open their doors, to share some of the burden of housing and processing irregular migrant arrivals, integrating migrants with successful asylum claims and arranging the return home of those not eligible to stay in Europe. No-one listened then. But they're certainly paying attention now. European leaders scoring points on migration Mr Salvini's social media crowing of "Victory!" as a result may be crass but his popularity at home, the huge success of his "Italians First!" slogan is far from a bolt from the blue. You saw this week the reaction of many Italian mayors wanting to help the migrants on board the Aquarius despite their government's antics. Most Italians don't want to turn their back on the destitute but their frustration has reached breaking point at being "abandoned by the EU" as they see it, to deal with what is in fact a pan-European problem. Matteo Salvini is a canny politician. A populist in the true sense of the word. He is always out and about in town squares and village festivals, listening carefully to Italians' concerns. "He knows that to get crowds of voters on your side, you need to identify a common enemy," Nicoletta Maggi told me. She's a political assistant who has known Mr Salvini since he was a teenager, when he was studying politics on paper and observing rallies in the street. "Salvini has changed the identity of this enemy over the years, as he moved from regional to national politics. Right now he's identified immigration and the EU as the winning focus. He knows how fed-up and angry Italians are." Italy's interior minister is far from the only European government figure scrambling to make political capital out of this latest chapter in the migrant crisis. Spain's new prime minister rushed to earn his stripes in Brussels by stepping into the painful stand-off between Italy and Malta over the Aquarius this week with a decision to open up the port at Valencia to the migrants instead. I expect Pedro Sánchez to want to cash in those political points at some later stage. But Spain cuts a lonely figure in a sea of EU countries besieged by anti-immigration sentiment: EU's struggle for united policy The bottom line, as Italy knows too well, is that there is a screaming absence in EU policy when it comes to a coherent, united and functioning plan to deal with irregular migration in the short and medium term. There is the underfunded and much derided long-term EU strategy for Africa - aimed at making life better over there so fewer people are tempted to make the risky journey over here. But as millions poured over EU borders back in 2015, the action that truly stemmed the flow was arguably nothing co-ordinated in Brussels, not even the shaky deal with Turkey. What really made the difference was a unilateral decision by Austria's audacious foreign minister Sebastian Kurz - now prime minister - to orchestrate the closure of the migrants' route through Europe to their target countries in the richer north. Fast forward three years and - once again without Brussels and outside the EU framework - the interior ministers of Austria (the country that currently holds the rotating EU presidency), Germany and Italy have announced they're forming their own "axis" of co-operation on security and migration. Meanwhile the Austrian and Danish prime ministers have been discussing their preferred plan to set up camps for processing asylum seekers outside the EU. The idea of external processing camps is not new of course. President Macron has spoken in favour of them in the past. Similar models, much criticised by NGOs and human rights campaigners, are employed by the US and Australia. Has the EU given Italy the nod on migrants? But as a result of Italy's antics this week, European leaders are being spurred into action, or are at least considering it far more seriously. As a decision-making bloc, the EU is famous for only ever making dramatic moves when proverbial backs are well and truly against the wall. That, for example, is why EU leaders, despite all their promises and handwringing during the height of the euro crisis are now - with the currency currently in a much happier state - dragging their feet over reforms. And so it is with irregular migration. EU leaders were happy to forget the crisis post the 2015 flood, leaving the frontline Mediterranean countries to mop up the rest of the mess. Call me cynical if you will, but I've noticed a fair few politically expedient elements colliding this week. The current European Commission team, headed by Jean-Claude Juncker, is coming to the end of its mandate and considering its legacy. The migrant crisis has made a mockery of EU unity these past years and fuelled the popularity of anti-EU, nationalist sentiment in many corners of the continent, not least in Italy - a founding EU country and not long ago one of the bloc's most enthusiastic members. I'm reminded of a conversation I had with a high-level European contact the night before Italy's new populist government was formed. He told me Brussels was preparing to work with the Eurosceptic politicians, helping them with issues like migration, he said, as long as they refrained from confronting EU institutions by messing with eurozone regulations, as they had previously threatened. Watching this week's posturing by the Italian government, using the lives of migrants as political footballs yet escaping censure from the powers that be in Brussels, I'm wondering if they received a nod, however imperceptible, to take this action. In order perhaps to alert the rest of Europe to the crisis - for the ostriches to take their heads out of the sand, as Spain's prime minister has put it - and finally co-ordinate coherent, responsibility-taking pan-European migration policies. That would suit Brussels as well as Italy, would it not? It would suit EU-linchpin Germany too. Angela Merkel has been at loggerheads with her tough-on-migration interior minister, Horst Seehofer, this week. She more than most EU leaders has been politically burnt by Europe's asymmetrical attitudes to irregular migration. After the Aquarius debacle, migration is assured a front-and-centre spot at a summit of EU leaders at the end of this month. If, even now, no common European solution is found, Angela Merkel has warned, the foundation of the European Union will be called into question.

इटली के बंदरगाहों को प्रवासी बचाव जहाज, कुंभ राशि के लिए सनकी रूप से बंद करके यूरोप की प्रवासन नीति को घुटनों पर लाने के लिए इटली के "दूर-दराज़, आप्रवासन विरोधी, लोकलुभावन" उप प्रधान मंत्री की आलोचना करते हुए एक धर्मी-ध्वनि वाले ब्लॉग को बाहर निकालना कितना आसान होगा।


Five things from Oxfordshire

Summary: Five stories from Oxfordshire which have been attracting attention this week.

1. Oxford neurosurgeon helps thousands overcome tremors A neurosurgeon has helped 2,000 patients control their tremors after implanting electrodes in their brains. Professor Tipu Aziz works at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and introduced the technique to Britain in the 1990s. He works with patients who have conditions such as Parkinson's, who can control their movements when the electrodes are turned on. 2. Martin Scorsese and Mary Beard receive Oxford degrees The Hollywood film maker Martin Scorsese and classics historian Mary Beard received honorary degrees from the University of Oxford. The pair were among seven recipients celebrated as part of the university's annual Encaenia ceremony. After the ceremony, Scorsese gave a talk to students about his six-decade long career in the film industry. And singer Katy Perry was also spotted attending the ceremony by the university's zoology department. 3. 'I'm a head teacher...and champion weightlifter' Paula Phillips is a primary school head teacher - and a champion weightlifter. She hasn't looked back since taking up the sport about 18 months ago. And her pupils think "it's quite cool," she says. 4. Oxford University centre promoted by Dubai government 'doesn't exist' The Oxford University Mohammed bin Rashid centre does not exist, the university has said. The Dubai government published a press release with a photo about the opening of the 'Mohammed bin Rashid Center for Future Research' at Oxford University. The photo included Dubai's minister of cabinet affairs and the future and minister for artificial intelligence. "We can confirm that there is no centre with this name at Oxford University," a university spokesman said. A spokesman for the The Dubai Future Foundation later said the announcement had been in good faith. 5. Britain's leading female flat horse racing trainer wins at Ascot Eve Johnson Houghton is Britain's leading female flat racehorse trainer. The Oxfordshire-based trainer had three horses running at this year's Royal Ascot. She ended up celebrating her first Royal Ascot win thanks to Accidental Agent.

ऑक्सफोर्डशायर की पाँच कहानियाँ जो इस सप्ताह ध्यान आकर्षित कर रही हैं।


Unlocking the secrets of the Elephant Man

Summary: The Elephant Man, Joseph Merrick, was an object of curiosity and ridicule throughout his life - studied, prodded and examined by the Victorian medical establishment. Now, 123 years after his death, scientists believe his bones contain secrets about his condition which could benefit medical science today.

By Andrew BomfordBBC Radio 4's PM programme Joseph Merrick began to develop abnormally from an early age, eventually being gawped at by Victorian circusgoers and examined by inquisitive doctors. The cause of his malformed head, curved spine, "lumpy" skin and overgrown right arm and hand has never been definitively explained. Ironically, it is the medical preservation of Merrick's skeleton that is now causing the greatest problems in unlocking his body's secrets. "The skeleton, which is well over a hundred years old now, is actually very clean," says Prof Richard Trembath, vice-principal for health at Queen Mary University of London, and the custodian of Merrick's body. "This represents a significant problem. On a number of occasions over the years the skeleton has been bleached during the preservation process. Bleach is not a good chemical to expose DNA to. It gives us an added problem in trying to extract sufficient quantities of DNA in order to undertake sequencing." The hope is, though, that DNA can be extracted which will determine once and for all exactly what genetic condition he suffered from. There have been several theories. For many years it was thought he had neurofibromatosis type 1, but in more recent years doctors have come to believe he had a condition known as Proteus Syndrome, or possibly a combination of both. A team of geneticists from Queen Mary University of London, King's College London, and the Natural History Museum are currently working on techniques to extract DNA from similar age bones which have also been bleached before beginning work on Merrick's skeleton. They are anxious to keep any further damage to the bones to a minimum. Bleach is sometimes used in labs to remove traces of DNA, so in many ways it is the worst possible thing to do to bones if the hope is to extract genetic information. The genetic condition of Richard III's remains - buried for hundreds of years below a car park in Leicester - is actually better than those of Merrick. His extreme deformity is obvious from his skeleton, but confined to parts of his body. His skull has large growths of bone at the front of his temple and on the right side. His right arm and hand is far bigger than his left, which appears normal, and his right femur (upper leg bone) is much bigger and thicker than the left. His spine is also badly curved, causing the whole body to be hunched. "When Merrick was being formed in his mother's womb it is highly likely that a genetic alteration occurred, but not until after the sperm and the egg had come together - probably at a stage when there were a number of cells, only some of which have gone on to contribute to his problems," says Trembath. The skeleton is kept under lock and key in a small museum in the medical school at the Royal London Hospital, and is not normally on public display. It is the same hospital where Merrick spent his later years as a friend and patient of the prominent Victorian surgeon Frederick Treves, and the place where he died at the age of 27 in April 1890. According to Treves, Merrick died from a dislocated neck when he lay down to sleep, due to the huge weight of his head. The team of geneticists extracting the DNA is being led by Dr Michael Simpson from King's College London. In his lab he has been working on segments of bone to develop new techniques for obtaining genetic information from badly bleached fragments. The team has been successful in obtaining DNA, but is still working on methods of "cleaning" the badly damaged DNA sufficiently to obtain a complete genetic sequence. This is important in order to see exactly where in Merrick's genetic code the mutations appear. To complicate matters further, Simpson believes the bones have also been waxed, which might also affect the DNA. "There will be some challenges," admits Simpson, in something of an understatement, "But with some further optimisation I am confident that we will be successful. We should have a good chance of sequencing his genome." The technique involves drilling out a small quantity of bone powder, treating it with detergents and enzymes to extract the protein, and then removing the DNA. When work starts on Merrick's skeleton, the intention is to make comparisons between the DNA in distorted bone areas and the DNA in normal bone. Two main areas have been identified for drilling - the inside of his skull and the root of one of his teeth. Apart from scientific curiosity in his medical condition, Trembath believes the results could help modern medical science and its knowledge of cell division. "This is very significant overgrowth of tissue," he says while examining the growths on the skull. "The understanding of the regulation of cell growth is one of the most fundamental things that we need to understand. It sits behind the development of tumours and we need to understand more about how tumours develop." He points out that Merrick himself was keen to help the Victorian doctors with their scientific investigation. More than a century on, the work continues. "I have a sense that he is an ever willing partner in trying to help us get there. This is one of the most extreme forms of overgrowth that has ever been seen, and so there is a unique opportunity to gain some fundamental insights into human biology, and Merrick knew he was sitting on that kind of information." Listen to Andrew Bomford's report on Radio 4's PM programme at 17:00 BST on 29 August You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook

एलिफेंट मैन, जोसेफ मेरिक, अपने पूरे जीवन में जिज्ञासा और उपहास का विषय थे-विक्टोरियन चिकित्सा प्रतिष्ठान द्वारा अध्ययन, प्रोत्साहन और जांच की गई। अब, उनकी मृत्यु के 123 साल बाद, वैज्ञानिकों का मानना है कि उनकी हड्डियों में उनकी स्थिति के बारे में रहस्य हैं जो आज के चिकित्सा विज्ञान को लाभान्वित कर सकते हैं।


Israel-Gaza: What the law says about the fighting

Summary: International law regulates the use of military force by states and the conduct of hostilities.

By Guglielmo VerdirameDepartment of War Studies, King’s College London As in virtually every modern conflict, there is intense debate on the legality of the actions of the two main sides involved here - Israel and Hamas. Self-defence As in previous operations in Gaza, Israel is likely to argue that its actions are justified under the right of self-defence. Enshrined in Article 51 of the UN Charter, the right of self-defence is a fundamental principle of international law. While aspects of this principle are disputed, it is universally agreed that a state can defend itself against an armed attack. There is some debate as to the intensity that an armed attack should reach before a state can lawfully resort to self-defence. Most international lawyers would agree that rockets launched against civilians that disrupt the social life of part of a country constitute an armed attack for the purposes of Article 51. However, the facts underlying self-defence are often in dispute. Parties to a conflict seldom agree on who is the attacker and who is the defender - and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts are no exception. In this case, critics of the Israeli position also advance two legal arguments. First, they argue that the right of self-defence is available only against another state, but not against a non-state entity like Gaza. State practice, especially since the attacks of 11 September 2001, militates against this interpretation of self-defence, but the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice has not settled this question. Secondly, the International Committee of the Red Cross, among others, considers Gaza is still subject to Israeli occupation because of the degree to which Israel exerts control over and around that territory. Israel maintains that it has not occupied Gaza since its withdrawal in 2005 and that a territory cannot be occupied without "boots on the ground". The right of self-defence is no blank cheque. International law allows states to defend themselves in the right circumstances, but only with force that is necessary and proportionate. A common misperception is that proportionality in self-defence means an eye for an eye, a rocket for a rocket, or a casualty for a casualty. This is not so: there is no place in international law for using force in revenge. In some cases, a necessary and proportionate response will entail the use of greater military force than was involved in the original attack; in other cases, it will be possible for a country to defend itself effectively with less force. The law of armed conflict The principle of self-defence belongs to the body of international law that regulates resort to force or "going to war" (often referred to by the Latin term jus ad bellum, that is, "law to war"). A separate category of international law regulates the conduct of hostilities once the conflict has started. It is known as the law of armed conflict (or the jus in bello that is "law in war"). The law of armed conflict applies only to situations that can be classified as armed conflicts, with different sets of rules governing international or non-international armed conflicts. The law of armed conflict applies regardless of the reasons that prompted a party to resort to force. Starting a war off on the "right" side of the law does not give a state more rights in the conduct of hostilities than its enemies. It is possible for a state that resorted to force lawfully to commit unlawful acts in the course of an armed conflict - and vice versa. The law of armed conflict includes detailed rules on different aspects of the conduct of hostilities (protection of civilians, treatments of prisoners of war, occupied territory, etc). All of these rules rest on the balancing of four key principles: humanity and military necessity, and distinction and proportionality. Humanity and military necessity The principle of humanity requires belligerents to avoid unnecessary suffering and cruelty. The counterweight to it is military necessity. The legal manual used by the British armed forces says that military necessity allows a state to use force, unless otherwise prohibited, which is "required in order to achieve the legitimate purpose of the conflict, namely the complete or partial submission of the enemy at the earliest possible moment and with the minimum expenditure of life and resources". The argument that the Israeli bombardments on Gaza are ineffective because they have always failed to stop rocket attacks may, in one sense, evidence the futility of the use of force in this context. But, from a military necessity angle, it may justify the use of greater force as is necessary to achieve the objective of averting the attacks. Of course, the fact that the law permits a certain action does not make it wise in a political, moral or strategic sense. In any event, military necessity cannot justify actions that are prohibited under specific rules (e.g. those applying to the protection of civilians and the choice of permissible targets) or that, more generally, result "in the infliction of suffering for the sake of suffering or for revenge" (in the words of the Lieber Code, one of the first codifications of the rules of armed conflict enacted by President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War). Distinction and proportionality A cornerstone in the law of armed conflict is the principle of distinction: parties to a conflict must distinguish between combatants and civilians at all times. Various specific rules flesh out the content of this principle. Attacks on civilians and civilian objects are always banned. Attacks may be conducted against combatants or non-combatants who directly participate in hostilities, and against military objectives. The principle of distinction also prohibits acts or threats of violence aimed at spreading terror among civilians, as well as attacks carried out with means which, by their nature, cannot target a specific military objective. The launching of missiles against southern Israel, for example, is said to breach distinction because of its inherently indiscriminate nature. But when does an object become a legitimate military target? International law defines military objectives as "objects which... make an effective contribution to military action... and whose total or partial destruction... offers a definite military advantage". Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tanks or Hamas rocket launchers are in this category. Problems arise with so-called dual-use targets, such as the Serbian TV station bombed by Nato during the 1999 Kosovo War. But the most difficult issues arise when a permissible military objective, such as a rocket launcher or an ammunition depot, lies in the proximity of civilians or civilian objects. Virtually every targeting decision in a densely populated area as Gaza will involve such situations. This is where the principle of proportionality also comes into play. While proportionality is an important concept in other areas of law, including human rights law, it has a distinctive meaning in the law of armed conflict. Whenever there is a risk of loss of civilian life or damage to civilian property, belligerents are required to balance the anticipated military advantage with the risks posed to civilians and their property. In some cases, this will mean - as the former president of the International Court of Justice, Judge Rosalyn Higgins, wrote in a judgment - that "even a legitimate target may not be attacked if the collateral civilian casualties would be disproportionate to the specific military gain from the attack". An attacker is also under a duty to call off an attack immediately if, in the course of it, it realises that civilians would face excessive risk. Any attacker targeting military objectives in densely populated areas will have to do everything feasible to verify the nature of the targets and avoid errors. The practice of dropping leaflets or calling residents before a bombing is presented by Israel as evidence of its efforts to comply with these rules, although critics reply that these methods are not always effective at preventing loss of life and that, even when they are, they cannot avoid the destruction of civilian property as well as the infliction of suffering and distress on civilians. Conversely, a frequent accusation levelled against Hamas is that it deliberately endangers its own civilians by placing military objectives in their midst. If true, this would doubtless be a serious breach of the laws of armed conflict, but it does not mitigate Israel's obligation to continue to take all necessary precautions to minimise loss of civilian life. All modern armed forces, including the Israel Defense Forces, have specialists on the law of armed conflict who are involved in the approval of targets. The legality of a particular targeting decision will often depend on the facts. Was there a genuine military objective? Was it possible in the circumstances to hit that target while avoiding any loss of civilian life? What did the attacker know or should have known? Establishing these facts during an armed conflict, or in its aftermath, is no easy feat. However, when the attacker deliberately targets civilians or civilian objects, there is no version of the facts capable of justifying his actions under the laws of armed conflict. Human Rights The International Court of Justice has repeatedly ruled that the application of human rights law does not cease in times of war, while also maintaining that the law of armed conflict is the special law that governs this area as it was developed specifically to address the unique challenges of war. What this means in practice is not always clear, particularly as regards targeting decisions. When it comes to the clashes in Arab villages in Israel, there is, however, no concurrent application of the law of armed conflict: whether the response of Israel's law enforcement and security forces is consistent with international law in those cases will depend exclusively on the application of human rights law. East Jerusalem is a more complex situation because, while Israel annexed it to its territory, it is still considered part of the occupied Palestinian territory by virtually everyone else, including the International Court of Justice which gave an Advisory Opinion in 2004 on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in Occupied Palestinian Territory . Last, but certainly not least, it must be remembered that the law of armed conflict can only mitigate the horrors of war. A war fought with a scrupulous observance of all the rules in the book - if there ever was one - would still be a scourge. Guglielmo Verdirame QC is a professor of International Law at the Department of War Studies and Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London

अंतर्राष्ट्रीय कानून राज्यों द्वारा सैन्य बल के उपयोग और शत्रुता के संचालन को नियंत्रित करता है।


Chinese leaders ponder a stable economic future

Summary: Chen Jian's spanners and air pump spill out onto the street.

By Martin PatienceBBC News, Beijing The repairman makes his living from fixing Beijing's bikes. His small roadside business is just one of thousands dotted throughout the capital. "It's harder to make money now because of inflation," he says, while fitting spokes on a wheel. "Things will improve and I believe the economy will continue to grow quickly." But China's leaders are not so confident. During the country's annual parliamentary session, which finishes on Wednesday, Premier Wen Jiabao lowered China's growth target this year to 7.5%, although most economists think it will be closer to 8%. It was not a huge surprise. As the world's largest exporter, China is being buffeted by a downturn in demand from its markets in Europe and elsewhere. But the figure of 7.5% was also a clear sign that China's leaders want officials to focus on more sustainable economic growth. Many economists are stressing that China needs to undertake fundamental reforms if it is to avoid serious economic problems in the future. 'Turning point' More than 30 years ago, China's leader Deng Xiaopeng carried out a series of reforms that opened up the country's economy, transforming it into the workshop of the world. But a World Bank Report says that China has reached "another turning point.... when a second strategic, and no less fundamental shift, is called for". Released ahead of the annual parliamentary session, the report was co-authored with a wide-range of senior Chinese officials. So what are China's leaders hoping to achieve? Well, at the moment, China's double-digit growth for the most of the last decade seems remarkable from the outside. But much of the recent growth has been created by an investment binge by the authorities which was a response to the global financial crisis that began in 2008. The country built new airports, roads, apartment and office blocks, which have transformed the cities and kept growth figures buoyant. But many economists question the worth of these projects. "You reach the point where you investments are no longer economically viable - you're actually throwing money away," says Michael Pettis, international finance professor at Peking University in Beijing. "Every single country that has followed this model has ended up with a serious debt problem." So China's leaders say they want to move away from this model. They want to see less reliance on investment and exports to drive growth - and more domestic consumption, which means Chinese consumers spending more. At the moment, China's household spending is small compared with other developing nations - and almost half that of the West. Social security But how do you boost spending? Well there are several ways. One way is to give higher wages to workers - if labourers have more money in their pockets, than they are likely to spend more. The Chinese authorities also realise that they need to improve social security. That means providing better healthcare and old-age provisions for workers. One of the problems in terms of domestic consumption is that the Chinese save large chunks of their salaries. Many save in case they need to pay a large medical bill, others for their retirement. With improved social security, the Chinese would feel more confident to spend more money. But none of this would come cheap. It will also require a fundamental shift in China's economic priorities. At the moment, savers in China actually subsidise corporations and investment-led projects because interest rates are low, making for cheap loans. The World Bank report recommends that China should reform its financial sector, making interest rates commercial. That would make loans to state-owned enterprises and other corporations more expensive, but it would give savers more money because of higher interest rates. The World Bank also recommends that state-owned enterprises should pay out bigger dividends to the government, which in turn could spend the money on social security. But the fear is that many of these companies have become so used to cheap loans they would struggle to cope if they had to pay more. Many could go bankrupt, leading to higher unemployment and potentially serious social unrest. So, when are we likely to see any major changes? With the forthcoming leadership change starting later this year, China's leaders are prioritising stability over anything else at the moment. "If you compare this government with others that came before, it's not very adventurous," says Dr Qian Liu of the Economist Intelligence Unit. "Any major reforms will only start in 2014 once the new generation of leaders are firmly in power."

चेन जियान के स्पैनर और एयर पंप सड़क पर फैल जाते हैं।


Review of Guernsey utilities regulation to cost £55,000

Summary: The cost of a review into the way Guernsey's Utility Regulation system operates has been estimated to be £55,000, the States has announced.

The review is already under way and is being carried out by the UK's Regulatory Policy Institute. Deputy Dave Jones led the calls for the review after concerns about competition in the electricity and postal sectors. The report on the appropriateness and effectiveness of the regulator is expected to be completed by November.

राज्यों ने घोषणा की है कि ग्वेर्नसे की उपयोगिता विनियमन प्रणाली के संचालन के तरीके की समीक्षा की लागत 55,000 पाउंड होने का अनुमान लगाया गया है।


Power restored to 1,000 homes in Berkshire amid high winds

Summary: Power has been restored to more than 1,000 homes in Berkshire after high winds damaged two wire connections.

Engineers managed to reconnect 1,150 properties in Pangbourne by about 21:00 GMT on Sunday after supplies were lost just after 11:00. Southern Electric said an earlier report that a falling tree had brought down a power line proved incorrect. An amber weather warning has been issued for southern England with hurricane-force winds expected.

तेज हवाओं से दो तार कनेक्शन क्षतिग्रस्त होने के बाद बर्कशायर में 1,000 से अधिक घरों में बिजली बहाल कर दी गई है।


Evidence of huge avalanche recorded in Cairngorms

Summary: The largest avalanche recorded by the Sportscotland Avalanche Information Service so far this season has been discovered in the Southern Cairngorms.

A member of staff at Glenshee Ski Centre alerted SAIS to the slide on Glas Tulaichean, a 3,448ft (1,051m) Munro. SAIS Southern Cairngorms said the full depth avalanche was filled with mud, rocks and large blocks of snow. Another large slide was recorded at Creag Meagaidh in February. The Sportscotland Avalanche Information Service (SAIS) provides avalanche hazard information reports for walkers, climbers and skiers from December to early April. The service covers hills and mountains in Lochaber, Glencoe, Creag Meagaidh, Southern Cairngorms, Northern Cairngorms and Torridon.

स्पोर्ट्सकोटलैंड हिमस्खलन सूचना सेवा द्वारा इस मौसम में अब तक दर्ज किए गए सबसे बड़े हिमस्खलन की खोज दक्षिणी केयर्नगोर्म्स में की गई है।


Third person charged with murder over teenager stab death

Summary: A third person has been charged with murder in connection with a teenager who was stabbed to death.

Lyrico Steede, 17, was chased and attacked in Stock Well, Bulwell, Nottinghamshire, on 13 February and died six days later. Kasharn Campbell, 19, from Bobbers Mill, is due to appear at Nottingham Magistrates' Court on Saturday. Two 17-year-old boys charged with murder on Thursday have been remanded in custody. A 17-year-old girl has also been charged with assisting an offender.

चाकू मारकर हत्या किए गए किशोर के संबंध में तीसरे व्यक्ति पर हत्या का आरोप लगाया गया है।


Lee Krasner: Will Gompertz reviews the 20th Century's unsung artist

Summary: Lee Krasner was in Paris when she received the call.

Will GompertzArts editor@WillGompertzBBCon Twitter It was sometime around midday on Sunday 12 August 1956. The American artist had never been to the French capital before, although she'd been inspired by others who had, namely Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Vincent van Gogh. She was not impressed by the Louvre, the scale of which she found overwhelming and the art "unbelievably bad". The news she was about to receive would be much, much worse. There had been an accident back home, she was told. Her husband, who had stayed at their East Hampton house on Long Island, New York state, while she went on her European adventure, had crashed his convertible car at 10pm the night before. There were two female passengers in the overturned vehicle. One had been killed, the other, Ruth Kligman, was OK. And then this: the driver, the man she had married 11 years earlier, the painter she had supported through all his artistic difficulties and battles with alcoholism, the one person on Earth with whom she truly connected, had not survived. Jackson Pollock was dead. When they first met, in the early 1940s, Krasner was considered the more accomplished artist. But ever since Mural (1943), Pollock's huge, ground-breaking, abstract painting, it had been her husband's work that garnered all the attention. The shadow his fame had cast over her own career as a significant player in post-war American Expressionism looked as if it would only grow longer with his death. And so it did. Jackson Pollock became a mythical figure: immortalised in Hans Namuth's photographs, romanticised as a troubled genius, and fought over by billionaires and institutions desperate for a signature piece. (It's amazing what dying will do for an artist's career.) Meanwhile, Lee Krasner went about her business as an artist, while also taking on the additional burden of looking after her deceased husband's estate. Legal tussles, legacy issues and authentication meant this was no easy task True, she was exhibited, but there tended to be a Jackson shaped elephant in the room. Either her work was seen in the context of his, or he wasn't mentioned at all. Neither approach was satisfactory. She remained in his shadow even after her death in 1984. That was 35 years ago. Now, at last, there is a confident, intelligent exhibition, presenting Lee Krasner in her rightful position as one of the most important painters of the 20th Century. There is no need for Jackson denial or comparison. His presence in her life is evident. It can be seen in material form in her collage Bald Eagle (1955), which contains paint splattered fragments of a Pollock picture. It can be felt, too… There is a small, dark room in this exhibition, in which hangs a series of four large paintings, inspired by Picasso's famous Les Demoiselles Avignon (1907). The first is ominously called Prophecy (1956). Krasner painted it in the summer of 1956 before her trip to Europe, when her husband's drinking was as bad as the state of their marriage. It is a bulbous, fleshy, awkward image: both anxious and hopeful, menacing and heavy. She said it "disturbed me enormously". A few weeks later, Pollock was dead. Krasner returned and immediately continued with the series, saying: "Painting is not separate from life. It is one. Do I want to live? My answer is yes - and I paint." The three subsequent works - Birth (1956), Embrace (1956), and Three in Two (1956) - are deeper, angrier, magnificent paintings. If you want to know what raw pain and loss feel like, spend a few minutes in this room. They are technically accomplished, complicated pictures, delivering an emotional charge that you won't quickly forget. Three in Two is like a Tarantino movie but without the humour. It is full of blood, gore and anger; a reflection on Pollock's fatal car crash perhaps, and the fact that there was a third person in their marriage - his lover, the sole survivor of the accident, Ruth Kligman. This room is the pivotal point of the exhibition. It is the apogee of Krasner's investigation into Cubist techniques and ideas, which started with her Nude Study from Life (1938), produced while she was a student of the German modernist Hans Hofmann. One glance at the wall on which this group of early drawings are exhibited and you will know why Hofmann said she was one of his finest students. She quickly moved into abstraction, producing a series of "Little Images" in the mid-1940s, including the excellent, Miro-like Abstract No. 2 (1946-48) and the blood red Untitled (c. 1948-49). There are misses among the hits, as you would expect from an artist who refused to settle on a single style, announcing rather grandly: "I am not to be trusted around my old work for any length of time." Her mid-1950s collages are a mixed bag. Burning Candles (1955) fails to settle as a composition and is strangely irritating to look at, while Blue Level (1955) is admirable for its bravado and risk-taking, but didn't do it for me. Unlike Bird Talk (1955) and the aforementioned Bald Eagle, both of which would be very welcome on one of my walls. As would any one of her giant abstract expressionist paintings from the mid-'60s. Unfortunately I don't live in a mansion or own a museum, or anywhere with the sort of wall space they'd need. But London's Barbican Art Gallery does, and they fill its central galleries, which, for once I am pleased to say, are pepped up with a little natural light. Here we see Krasner on an operatic scale, painting huge canvasses with looping strokes and a conductor's sense of rhythm. There is not a dud among them: painting after painting sings out from the walls in harmonious tones of red (Another Storm), orange (Courtship), green (Siren), or pink (Combat). Krasner said she liked jazz. You can not only see that in these paintings, you can hear it. Imagine seeing them alongside Kandinsky's series of Compositions - you'd need earmuffs! They are a wonderful way to end a wonderful show. Lee Krasner was full of colour and ideas and life, as is this exhibition. Do go and see it if you can. Recent reviews by Will Gompertz Follow Will Gompertz on Twitter

ली क्रैस्नर पेरिस में थीं जब उन्हें फोन आया।


'Find alternative routes' after Wrexham Road crash

Summary: Motorists were advised to "find alternative routes" following a two vehicle collision on the northbound A483 Wrexham Road on Friday morning.

One lane was closed leading to long queues following the crash at about 06:35 BST close to Pulford. The incident was between the B5102 at Rossett, Wrexham and the A55 Posthouse roundabout in Chester. Police used social media to appeal to drivers to "use alternative routes this morning if possible". Both vehicles have now been recovered and the road has fully reopened. Traffic monitors reported the route was back to normal by 09:00.

शुक्रवार की सुबह उत्तर की ओर जाने वाले ए483 रेक्सम रोड पर दो वाहनों की टक्कर के बाद मोटर चालकों को "वैकल्पिक मार्ग खोजने" की सलाह दी गई थी।


Darlington council to cut jobs and close arts centre

Summary: The closure of an arts centre, 115 job losses and scrapping of transport for faith schools are among a series of cuts agreed by Darlington councillors.

As part of the £11m cuts, there will also changes to library opening hours. The Labour-led authority is to close Darlington Arts Centre in July and put the building up for sale. However, after concerns were raised during a public consultation exercise, a proposed volunteer scheme for school crossing patrols has been dropped. Darlington Arts Centre is currently used by youth groups, comedy clubs, craft classes and dance groups. Darlington for Culture, which has campaigned against its closure, said it was "gutted" it would be going ahead. However, Darlington Council said that so long as the building remained in council ownership there would be an annual cost of about £40,000 for insurance, security and maintenance.

डार्लिंगटन पार्षदों द्वारा सहमत कटौती की एक श्रृंखला में एक कला केंद्र को बंद करना, 115 नौकरियों का नुकसान और धार्मिक विद्यालयों के लिए परिवहन को समाप्त करना शामिल हैं।


The future of the Yazidis in Iraq

Summary: As so-called Islamic State (IS) militants are driven out of Mosul, Paul Moss reports on the continuing plight of the Yazidis, the Iraqi religious group who the United Nations says has suffered more destruction than any other at IS hands.

By Paul MossThe World Tonight, Irbil First one of the Yazidi women started crying, then one of her friends. And then one of the visitors could be heard stifling a sob. We were listening as a group of Yazidis recounted the now horribly familiar story of how IS came to their homeland on Mount Sinjar in 2014, killing thousands and driving many thousands more into exile. "Some of our neighbours were running away, but before reaching the mountains, Islamic State gangs captured them and took them," one of the women said. "The men were killed, and the women and children taken. "So many died." The long road ahead None of these women wanted to give their name. The experience of two years ago has apparently left them with a deeply ingrained sense of fear - of other people, and of the future: "They might be able to drive Islamic State out of our area, but it would be very difficult for us to return to where we came from, because we're scared something might happen," one of the women said. "They might come back." The possibility of returning is on the minds of many Iraqis, as IS comes under sustained attack in Mosul and is defeated outright elsewhere. But even Yazidis not scared to go home would find it extremely difficult because the city of Sinjar and the villages that surround it have been so thoroughly destroyed. "From houses to roads to bridges, the area is razed to the ground," says Dara Yara, a minister in the Iraqi government, with responsibility for housing and construction. He makes no bones about the long time it will take before they can even start proper rebuilding in the Yazidi areas. "This kind of situation needs peace, stability. This is a long process," he says. No return For now, many Yazidis languish in refugee camps, contemplating another winter under canvas. Others have given up on the idea of returning home, and have sought asylum in Europe and North America. It is a trend that worries Luqman Suleiman, a teacher, who also takes people round the Yazidis' most holy temple, in the town of Lalish. "They want to go to Germany, to France, to Australia," he says. "There is no future for the Yazidis in Kurdistan." As far as Mr Suleiman is concerned, the problem is not a matter of houses and roads. What will ultimately dissuade Yazidis from returning to their homes and lives on Mount Sinjar, he says, is the fact their own neighbours helped IS. He is one of many Yazidis who insist that Sunni Muslims already living in Sinjar told IS who was Yazidi and who was not. "The people in the villages helped Islamic State kill the men, kill all the men, and take away the girls," he says. "How can people live again together?" The future No-one is sure how many Yazidi girls were taken away by IS, but a United Nations report suggested it was between 5,000 and 7,000, and that some, perhaps many, were being held as sexual slaves across the border in Syria, but also in Mosul. It is another thought that occupies the minds of Yazidis, as they watch Iraqi army tanks make their way through Mosul's streets. "They are there. Recently, one member escaped, but the others - we don't know," another Yazidi woman says, another who does not want to give her name, lest there be reprisals against members of her family still inside IS-held territory. She was speaking at a rehabilitation centre in Qadia refugee camp, run on behalf of a British charity, The Lotus Flower. Here, Yazidi women are taught various skills, including how to sew. The hope is that this may one day provide them with a source of income, but the manager running the project acknowledges that the main purpose is therapeutic. "We have to help them to be busy with something," says Vian Ahmed, "rather than thinking a lot about what happened to them, about what horrible memories they have." "Islamic State survivors tend to want to be alone. "We are helping them to get out, which will be a benefit to them, psychologically and socially." Of course, what would really benefit the Yazidis would be if they could get out of the refugee camps in which so many of them are living, and for those who want to, to have a chance to see again the villages in which they have lived for so many generations. But that remains a very distant prospect, if not an impossible one.

जैसे ही तथाकथित इस्लामिक स्टेट (आईएस) के आतंकवादियों को मोसुल से बाहर निकाला जाता है, पॉल मॉस इराकी धार्मिक समूह यज़ीदियों की निरंतर दुर्दशा पर रिपोर्ट करते हैं, जिनके बारे में संयुक्त राष्ट्र का कहना है कि उन्हें आईएस के हाथों किसी भी अन्य समूह की तुलना में अधिक विनाश का सामना करना पड़ा है।


Don Lock stabbing: Murder trial date set for accused

Summary: A trial date has been set for a man accused of murdering a pensioner who was stabbed to death after a car crash.

Don Lock, 79, was fatally stabbed on the A24 in Findon in West Sussex after his car collided with another vehicle on 16 July. Matthew Daley, 34, of St Elmo Road, Worthing, appeared via video-link at the Old Bailey in central London. He is due in court again in October. A provisional trial date has been set for 16 November at Lewes Crown Court. Mr Daley is also accused of possessing a knife in a public place. Cycling enthusiast Mr Lock had recently celebrated his 55th wedding anniversary with his wife Maureen and had also been given the all-clear from cancer.

कार दुर्घटना के बाद चाकू मारकर हत्या किए गए एक पेंशनभोगी की हत्या के आरोपी व्यक्ति के लिए मुकदमे की तारीख निर्धारित की गई है।


Where are England's 10 national parks?

Summary: England's first national park was created in 1951. Since then the list has grown to 10 areas which are protected because of their countryside, wildlife and cultural heritage.

Nearly 70 years on, Environment Secretary Michael Gove has announced he is launching a review to consider whether to expand England's network of parks as well as areas of outstanding natural beauty. So where are the country's 10 current national parks? England also has 34 areas of outstanding natural beauty - including the Chilterns, the Cotswolds and the Isle of Wight.

इंग्लैंड का पहला राष्ट्रीय उद्यान 1951 में बनाया गया था। तब से यह सूची 10 क्षेत्रों तक बढ़ गई है जो अपने ग्रामीण इलाकों, वन्यजीवों और सांस्कृतिक विरासत के कारण संरक्षित हैं।


The secret ingredient for a safer bike helmet: paper

Summary: Lying flat in the middle of the road doesn't usually inspire a eureka moment. But for one man, having a potentially serious bike accident got him thinking about a new future for helmet design.

By Anna LaceyBBC Health Check "I was riding my bike down a hill, wearing a helmet and a guy opened his car door," says Anirudha Surabhi, who lives in London. "I hit the door, did a couple of somersaults and fell straight on my head. My helmet was completely cracked, completely unusable." Luckily for him, Anirudha was able to walk away from the accident with whiplash and mild concussion. But the sight of his mangled helmet got the then design student thinking about new ways of protecting cyclists. His unusual solution was to substitute the standard polystyrene design with intricately engineered paper - a decision that's already proving to be a hit with bike-lovers. But how can paper be safer? And what else can it offer to the future of head protection? Feel the force "The danger with falling off your bike is that you subject your head to a dramatic change of speed in just a fraction of a second," says Jolyon Carroll, a safety researcher at the UK's Transport Research Laboratory. "When you hit the pavement your hard skull will stop or decelerate quickly. However, being a relatively soft organ, your brain tends to keep going. If you imagine dropping a blancmange onto a plate then you can see how bits at the back start compressing and piling up against other bits of brain at the front," he told the BBC. "It's this action that puts you at risk of injury - from breaking blood vessels to damaging brain tissue." The basic idea behind cycle helmets is to create a mini crumple zone - a bit like you'd find in a car - that absorbs some of the energy and gives your skull and brain more time to slow down before coming to a stop. Those extra few milliseconds can reduce the amount of compression in the brain and potentially make the difference between brain damage and a mild case of concussion. At the moment, the material used to protect us in a crash is polystyrene. But Anirudha Surabhi isn't convinced that it's the best choice for the job. Instead, he decided to look to the natural world for inspiration. "The animal that stood out was the woodpecker. It pecks at about ten times per second and every time it pecks it sustains the same amount of force as us crashing at 50 miles per hour," says Surabhi. "It's the only bird in the world where the skull and the beak are completely disjointed, and there's a soft corrugated cartilage in the middle that absorbs all the impact and stops it from getting a headache." Paper power In order to mimic the woodpecker's crumple zone, Anirudha turned to a cheap and easily accessible source - paper. He engineered it into a double-layer of honeycomb that could then be cut and constructed into a functioning helmet. "What you end up with is with tiny little airbags throughout the helmet," he says. "So when you have a crash, what these airbags do is they go pop, pop, pop, pop, pop - and they go all the way to the bottom, without the helmet cracking. That's what absorbs the energy. " The paper design has been tested to European standards, and when compared to a standard polystyrene helmet, the results are impressive. "If you crash at 15 miles per hour in a normal helmet, your head will be subjected to around 220G [G-force], whereas the new design absorbs more of the impact and means you experience around 70G instead," says Surabhi. To put that into context, international safety standards recognise that to avoid serious brain damage, a person must not be exposed to impact forces above 300G. This means that while a polystyrene helmet helps you to avoid fatal or serious head injury, the paper helmet will give your head more time to slow down and potentially lower the risk of even less serious injuries like concussion. A no-brainer? Anirudha's paper helmet is already in the shops and joins a growing range of innovative alternatives to the polystyrene model. He also has new ideas in the pipeline for his honeycomb design, including a flat-pack version suitable for cyclists using city bike hire schemes. Of course, debate still rages over whether helmets really help protect cyclists at all - with arguments ranging from the ineffectiveness of polystyrene to the mere act of wearing a helmet encouraging cyclists to take more risks and drivers to be less cautious. But an independent review by the Transport Research Laboratory in 2009 found that assuming they are worn correctly, cycle helmets should be effective at reducing the risk of head injury. As wearing cycle helmets is not compulsory in the UK, then the choice is down to the individual rider. But will that choice really stretch to paper helmets? "I think the public will accept it because if you think about it, stuntmen have been jumping onto cardboard boxes for decades, which are all made out of paper," says Anirudha Surabhi. "They risk their lives from five-storey buildings purely because they know that paper actually works."

सड़क के बीच में सपाट लेटना आम तौर पर एक यूरेका क्षण को प्रेरित नहीं करता है। लेकिन एक आदमी के लिए, संभावित रूप से गंभीर बाइक दुर्घटना ने उसे हेलमेट डिजाइन के लिए एक नए भविष्य के बारे में सोचने पर मजबूर कर दिया।


The Iranian opposition fighters who mustn't think about sex

Summary: For six years, Albania has been home to one of Iran's main opposition groups, the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, or MEK. But hundreds of members have walked out - some complaining about the organisation's rigid rules enforcing celibacy, and control over contact with family. Now, dozens languish in the Albanian capital, Tirana, unable to return to Iran or get on with their lives.

By Linda Pressly and Albana KasapiBBC News, Tirana "I didn't speak to my wife and son for over 37 years - they thought I'd died. But I told them, 'No, I'm alive, I'm living in Albania…' They cried." That first contact by phone with his family after so many years was difficult for Gholam Mirzai, too. He is 60, and absconded two years ago from the MEK's military-style encampment outside Tirana. Now he scrapes by in the city, full of regrets and accused by his former Mujahideen comrades of spying for their sworn enemy, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The MEK has a turbulent and bloody history. As Islamist-Marxist radicals, its members backed the 1979 Iranian revolution that toppled the Shah. But relations with a triumphant Ayatollah Khomeini soon soured. When the government cracked down hard, the Mujahideen had to run for their lives. Neighbouring Iraq offered sanctuary, and from their desert citadel during the Iran/Iraq war (1980-1988), the MEK fought on the side of Saddam Hussein against their homeland. Gholam Mirzai was serving in the Iranian military when he was captured by Saddam Hussein's forces at the start of that conflict. He spent eight years as a prisoner of war in Iraq. But in time, Iranian prisoners like Mirzai were encouraged to join forces with their compatriots. And that is what he did. Mirzai is now a "disassociate" - one of hundreds of former MEK members who have left the organisation since they moved to Albania. With the help of funds from family, some have paid people smugglers to take them elsewhere in Europe, and perhaps two have made it back to Iran. But dozens remain in Tirana, stateless and officially unable to work. Find out more So how did the battle-hardened members of the MEK - formerly a proscribed terrorist organisation in the United States and Europe - find their way to this corner of Europe? In 2003, the allied invasion of Iraq made life perilous for the MEK. The organisation's protector, Saddam Hussein, was suddenly gone, and the Mujahideen were repeatedly attacked - hundreds were killed and injured. Fearing an even worse humanitarian disaster, the Americans approached the Albanian government in 2013 and persuaded it to receive some 3,000 MEK members in Tirana. "We offered them shelter from attacks and abuse, and the possibility to lead a normal life in a country where they are not harassed, attacked or brutalised," says Lulzim Basha, leader of the Democratic Party, which was in government at the time, and is now in opposition. In Albania, politics are deeply polarised - everything is contested. But, almost uniquely, the presence of the MEK isn't - publicly, both governing and opposition parties support their Iranian guests. For the MEK, Albania was a completely new environment. Gholam Mirzai was astonished that even children had mobile phones. And because some of the Mujahideen were initially accommodated in apartment buildings on the edge of the capital, the organisation's grip on its members was looser than it had been previously. In Iraq, it had controlled every aspect of their lives, but here, temporarily, there was a chance to exercise a degree of freedom. "There was some rough ground behind the flats where the commanders told us we should take daily exercise," remembers Hassan Heyrany, another "disassociate". Heyrany and his colleagues used the cover of trees and bushes to sneak around to the internet cafe close by and make contact with their families. "When we were in Iraq, if you wanted to phone home, the MEK called you weak - we had no relationship with our families," he says. "But when we came to Tirana, we found the internet for personal use." Towards the end of 2017, though, the MEK moved out to new headquarters. The camp is built on a gently sloping hill in the Albanian countryside, about 30km (19 miles) from the capital. Behind the imposing, iron gates, there is an impressive marble arch topped with golden lions. A tree-lined boulevard runs up to a memorial dedicated to the thousands of people who have lost their lives in the MEK's struggle against the Iranian government. Uninvited journalists are not welcome here. But in July this year, thousands attended the MEK's Free Iran event at the camp. Politicians from around the globe, influential Albanians and people from the nearby village of Manze, joined thousands of MEK members and their leader, Maryam Rajavi, in the glitzy auditorium. US President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, addressed the crowd. "These are people who are dedicated to freedom," he said, referring to the uniformly dressed and gender-segregated MEK members present in the hall. "And if you think that's a cult, then there's something wrong with you," he added, bringing the house down. Powerful politicians like Giuliani support the MEK's goal of regime change in Iran. The movement's manifesto includes a commitment to human rights, gender equality and participatory democracy for Iran. But Hassan Heyrany does not buy it any more. Last year he left the MEK, rejecting what he saw as the leadership's oppressive control of his private life. Heyrany had joined the Mujahideen in his 20s, attracted by its commitment to political pluralism. "It was very attractive. But if you believe in democracy, you cannot suppress the soul of your members," he says. The nadir of Heyrany's life with the MEK was an evening meeting he was obliged to attend. "We had a little notebook, and if we had any sexual moments we should write them down. For example, 'Today, in the morning, I had an erection.'" Romantic relationships and marriage are prohibited by the MEK. It was not always like that - parents and their children used to join the Mujahideen. But after the bloody defeat of one MEK offensive by the Iranians, the leadership argued it had happened because the Mujahideen were distracted by personal relationships. Mass divorce followed. Children were sent away - often to foster homes in Europe - and single MEK members pledged to stay that way. In that notebook, Heyrany says they also had to write any personal daydreams. "For example, 'When I saw a baby on television, I had a feeling that I wished to have a child or a family of my own.'" And the Mujahideen had to read from their notebooks in front of their commander and comrades at the daily meeting. "That's very hard for a person," Heyrany says. Now he likens the MEK camp in Manze to Animal Farm, George Orwell's critique of the Stalinist era in the USSR. "It's a cult," he says simply. A diplomatic source in Tirana described the MEK as "a unique cultural group - not a cult, but cult-like." The BBC was not able to put any of this to the MEK, because the organisation refused to be interviewed. But in Albania, a nation that endured a punishing, closed, Communist regime for decades there is some sympathy for the MEK leadership's position - at least on the prohibition of personal relationships. "In extreme situations, you make extreme choices," says Diana Culi, a writer, women's activist and former MP for the governing Socialist Party. "They have vowed to fight all their lives for the liberation of their country from a totalitarian regime. Sometimes we have difficulty accepting strong belief in a cause. This is personal sacrifice, and it's a mentality I understand." Even so, some Albanians worry that the MEK's presence threatens national security. Two Iranian diplomats were expelled following allegations about violent plots against the Mujahideen, and the European Union has accused Tehran of being behind conspiracies to assassinate regime opponents, including MEK members, on Dutch, Danish and French soil. (The Iranian Embassy in Tirana declined the BBC's request for an interview.) A highly-placed source in the Socialist Party is also concerned that the intelligence services lack the capacity to monitor more than 2,500 MEK members with military training. "No-one with a brain would've accepted them here," he says. A diplomat says some of the "disassociates" are certainly working for Iran. Gholam Mirzai and Hassan Heyrany have themselves been accused by the MEK of being agents for Tehran. It is a charge they deny. Now both men are focused on the future. With help from family in Iran, Heyrany is opening a coffee shop, and he is dating an Albanian. At 40, he is younger than most of his fellow cadres and he remains optimistic. Gholam Mirzai's situation is more precarious. His health is not good - he walks with a limp after being caught in one of the bombardments of the MEK camp in Iraq - and he is short of money. He is tormented by the mistakes he has made in his life - and something he found out when he first got in touch with his family. When Mirzai left to go to war against Iraq in 1980, he had a one-month-old son. After the Iran/Iraq war ended, his wife and other members of his family came to the MEK camp in Iraq to look for Mirzai. But the MEK sent them away, and told him nothing about their visit. This 60-year-old man never knew he was a much-missed father and husband until he made that first call home after 37 years. "They didn't tell me that my family came searching for me in Iraq. They didn't tell me anything about my wife and son," he says. "All of these years I thought about my wife and son. Maybe they died in the war… I just didn't know." The son he has not seen in the flesh since he was a tiny baby is nearly 40 now. And Mirzai proudly displays a picture of this grown-up man on his WhatsApp id. But renewed contact has been painful too. "I was responsible for this situation - the separation. I can't sleep too much at night because I think about them. I'm always nervous, angry. I am ashamed of myself," Mirzai says. Shame is not easy to live with. And he has only one desire now. "I want to go back to Iran, to live with my wife and son. That is my wish." Gholam Mirzai has visited the Iranian Embassy in Tirana to ask for help, and his family have lobbied the authorities in Tehran. He has heard nothing. So he waits - without citizenship, without a passport, and dreaming of home. You may also be interested in: Few people give much thought to where what they wear beneath their clothes really comes from, and so it was for Elizabeth Gowing, until a visit to an underwear factory run by women in northern Albania. The mountain girls making bras for Europe's chests

छह वर्षों से, अल्बानिया ईरान के मुख्य विपक्षी समूहों में से एक, मुजाहिदीन-ए-खल्क या एम. ई. के. का घर रहा है। लेकिन सैकड़ों सदस्य बाहर चले गए हैं-कुछ ने संगठन के कठोर नियमों के बारे में शिकायत की है जो ब्रह्मचर्य को लागू करते हैं, और परिवार के साथ संपर्क पर नियंत्रण रखते हैं। अब, अल्बानिया की राजधानी तिराना में दर्जनों लोग ईरान लौटने या अपने जीवन के साथ आगे बढ़ने में असमर्थ हैं।


Slabs laid in £7m scheme involving Coventry's Broadgate

Summary: The first granite slabs have been laid as part of a £7m project which will transform a square in Coventry ahead of the 2012 Olympics.

The plans are for Broadgate to have more trees, a traffic-free zone and subways to be altered. Rising bollards will be provided at each end of Broadgate to ensure the safety of pedestrians while allowing access for emergency vehicles. The project has been expected to be completed by spring next year. The new square was being part funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the city council said. Councillor Linda Bigham, cabinet member for city development, said: "An event space in the centre of the city has been lacking and is just what we need. "We will now be able to offer the events and entertainment that the people of Coventry have been wanting."

पहला ग्रेनाइट स्लैब 7 मिलियन पाउंड की परियोजना के हिस्से के रूप में बिछाया गया है जो 2012 के ओलंपिक से पहले कोवेंट्री में एक वर्ग को बदल देगा।


Britain and Europe: A fresh new beginning?

Summary: The detail is buried in many pages of dense text. So for now, in the early moments of relief at getting to a Brexit deal, it's the tone that counts for more than the line-by-line analysis.

Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland Christmas Eve is the only night of the year when newspapers aren't published, leaving more space for political leaders and others to shape the narrative according to taste. From Boris Johnson, this was about triumph, with big claims of delivering on Brexiteers' expectations. He was unprepared for an obvious question - the first one asked - about what had been conceded. And he blundered into a plainly false claim that there will be no tariff barriers. After the experience of his capitulation last year on the trading relations with Northern Ireland - which he then flatly denied, and later set out to revoke, illegally - his mastery of the detail, or of uncomfortable realities, remains as suspect as ever. However, this was was also about friendship, and a new, positive relationship, speaking of the European project as a noble endeavour. From Brussels' point of view, Michel Barnier staked his claim for the defining soundbite to sum up the day's events: "The clock is no longer ticking". There, too, there's a reset, and a new start. No triumphalism, but regret - at the UK leaving, and regret at the elements of the deal that the British government was not willing to sign up to. That includes the Erasmus student exchange scheme - a symbol of Europe's notion of freedom, in contrast with Boris Johnson's, and one that probably plays better with young British people than it does with the Brexiteers. The message was also like the one at the end of a game show: "Let's see what you might have won", or: "Look at what the British have lost by leaving". The materials published immediately after the announcements included 25 advantages of being inside the European Union, about citizens' rights and travel, security, economic protections and co-operation. It showed in graphic terms that Britain retains only two of them - tariff free trade and visa-free travel, but only for 90 days at a time. As we knew all along, the outcome of this had to suit the Brexiteers, who have got a pretty hard version of Brexit, though not as hard as some might like. And it had to work for the Europeans, in making sure they stayed united, the benefits of being inside the club were clear, and the costs of leaving are also laid out clearly. From Emmanuel Macron in Paris, there was a different tone from the one at podiums in Brussels and London. He is heading into French presidential election season. "The unity and strength of Europe paid off," he said. "The agreement with the United Kingdom is essential to protect our citizens, our fishermen, our producers. We will make sure that this is the case". That final sentence carries a warning. The deal starts with no tariffs or quotas on goods. But it doesn't guarantee things stay that way. We only know fragments of the agreement for now, but it seems that both sides have opportunities to take infringements of the level playing field to arbitration, and to ask for the right to take retaliatory action. Boris Johnson illustrated this with the example of farm animal welfare. If Britain makes it more expensive to farm pigs, it can stop inbound pork from undercutting British farmers. But it's somewhat more likely that a deregulatory Conservative government is going to find the pressures and tensions are in the other direction, as the European Union raises its regulation of business, and meets a British refusal to align. That's where we get back into the possibility of tariffs or quotas. More negotiations And as ever, a deal on fish has not made that prospect go away. The two sides travelled a long way to get to a rise from around half of the UK waters' catch going to EU registered vessels, to a position in five years where the UK gets two-thirds. While the EU gave up more on the timescale it wanted, the UK gave up more on percentages of catch. It's long way from the expectations of Brexiteers, though some point out that any trade deal was bound to have a transition period, and the UK fleet doesn't yet have the capacity to take up new-found quota. Some £100m has been found to help it prepare for that. But after five years, "theoretically, anything is possible," said the prime minister. As a sovereign, independent coastal state, it seems the UK can force EU countries to negotiate access to UK waters. But theoretically, it's also possible that the EU can bring back the prospect of tariffs or quotas to reduce access to its markets. They are vital to British fishing effort already. And if UK vessels are to pick up all the quota of herring, whiting, sandeels, spratts, saithe, anglers and roughead grenadier that it can only sell in the European Union, it faces a consequent weakening of its negotiating position. In other words, the end of negotiations on Brexit look like the start of lots more negotiations, on lots more issues. As Switzerland finds, from outside the EU while ringed by it, the talks never end.

विवरण को गहन पाठ के कई पृष्ठों में दफनाया गया है। इसलिए अभी के लिए, ब्रेक्सिट सौदे पर पहुंचने के शुरुआती क्षणों में, यह वह स्वर है जो लाइन-दर-लाइन विश्लेषण से अधिक मायने रखता है।