Russian spy: Skripal case highlights UK's Russia dilemma

Summary: The mystery illness that has afflicted former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter has prompted UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to note that the case has "echoes" of the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned with radioactive material in London in 2006.

Jonathan MarcusDiplomatic correspondent@Diplo1on Twitter A British public inquiry concluded in 2016 that Russian agents had murdered Litvinenko and that Russian President Vladimir Putin himself "probably approved" the operation. Of course, we do not know yet the reason for the Skripals' mystery symptoms. The Russian Embassy in London has denied that their country has had any role. Mr Johnson has insisted that Britain will respond "robustly" if evidence of state involvement emerges, describing Russia as "in many respects a malign and disruptive force". If Russian involvement is found, the foreign secretary appeared to raise a question mark over England's participation in the World Cup, which will be held in Russia this summer. Though subsequently, British officials were at pains to stress he was referring to official representation rather than a boycott by the football team itself. But his remarks highlight the dilemma facing the UK government in dealing with Moscow. It has few diplomatic levers to pull. Relations are already frosty - a hang-over from the Litvinenko affair, compounded by serious differences over Russian policies in Ukraine and Syria, let alone Russia's more aggressive noises towards Nato countries in central and northern Europe. It is hard to see what further steps might be taken to encourage a shift in policy in the Kremlin and certainly not by the United Kingdom alone. Since the Litvinenko affair, British policy towards Russia has swung back and forth. Relations went into the freezer in the wake of the assassination, with diplomats expelled and intelligence co-operation halted. Distracted by Brexit? David Cameron's government introduced a partial thaw driven by a desire to maximise trade opportunities - perhaps a forerunner of the sorts of concerns that may loom much larger once the UK leaves the European Union. The Ukraine crisis though proved a major set-back with Britain at the forefront of calls for tough economic sanctions against Moscow. The outcome of the public inquiry into the Litvinenko affair only confirmed the government's suspicions of a direct official role in the killing. Progress towards a nuclear deal with Iran, in which Russia played a key role, helped to soften some criticism of the Kremlin, but Moscow's growing military role in Syria and its indiscriminate bombing campaign there worsened tensions again. Now Russia and the United States seem to be engaged in a mini-nuclear arms race again; tensions between Nato and Russia are growing; and the UK is in any case distracted by its plans to withdraw from the EU. Should this latest case raise credible suspicions of a Russian official role, London may struggle to find an effective response. Relations are already bad and everything that was done in response to the Litvinenko affair may have failed to fundamentally alter Russian behaviour.

पूर्व रूसी एजेंट सर्गेई स्क्रिपल और उनकी बेटी को पीड़ित करने वाली रहस्यमय बीमारी ने ब्रिटेन के विदेश सचिव बोरिस जॉनसन को यह नोट करने के लिए प्रेरित किया है कि यह मामला अलेक्जेंडर लित्विनेन्को की हत्या की "प्रतिध्वनि" है, जिसे 2006 में लंदन में रेडियोधर्मी सामग्री से जहर दिया गया था।


Abood Hamam: 'A picture can kill you or save your life'

Summary: For years Abood Hamam chronicled the war in Syria for news outlets all over the world without ever revealing his name - and despite being employed by different warring parties. He began as photographer to the presidential couple - Bashar and Asma al-Assad. Later he filmed Islamic State's victory parade. Now, finally, he's broken cover, to encourage exiles to return to his beloved hometown, Raqqa.

By Tim Whewell and Mohamad ChreytehBBC News Abood Hamam laughs when asked - as a professional studier of faces - to describe himself. His looks and his personality, he says, have been shaped by the war in his country that's already lasted nine years. "Whenever I look in the mirror, I'm astonished by how much white hair I have now," he says. "And it's all because of the war and the stress I've been living through." Abood is only 45. But he lives his life on a tightrope, in constant fear, risking everything to bring the truth of what's happening in Syria to the world. He's probably the only photojournalist to have worked under every major force in the conflict - the Assad dictatorship, the opposition Free Syrian Army, the rival Islamist groups Jabhat al-Nusra and Islamic State, and the Kurdish-controlled SDF. "A picture can kill you, just as a picture can save your life," he says. He feared his secretly taken photos of rebel attacks in Damascus, early in the uprising, would get him killed by the secret police, the Mukhabarat, if they found out what he was doing. At that stage the regime was keen to hide the rebels' growing military strength. And later, his camera skills may have helped keep him alive when the Islamic State (IS) needed him to record the military parade celebrating their takeover of his home city, Raqqa. Abood's remarkable story begins amid the rolling fields around Raqqa - the subject of many of his pictures - where his father was a farmer. "To be honest, the society I grew up in, and also my parents, they didn't really appreciate journalism or photographers. They would have preferred me to be a teacher or a lawyer," he says. "They thought photographers, it's just a silly job." But Abood became hooked when his elder brother gave him his first camera, a Russian-made Zenit. He graduated from the School of Photography in Damascus, and ended up, before the uprising of 2011, as head of photography at the state news agency, Sana, a propaganda arm of the government. Part of his job was to record the official comings and goings of President Bashar al-Assad and his wife, Asma. Despite the image she cultivated as a down-to-earth First Lady, eager to talk and listen to ordinary people, Abood says she and her husband never spoke to him in all the time he hovered around them with his camera. "On official missions we photographers were always accompanied by senior army and intelligence officers," he says. "I hated it, because you had to deal with them in a certain [respectful] way, and that's just not my character." When the mass street protests of 2011 turned into armed insurrection, Abood began to live a terrifying double life. By day he helped polish the regime's image with his official photos. By night and at dawn, he secretly recorded the opposition Free Syrian Army's attacks in the capital. He sent his pictures to international news agencies using a pseudonym, Nur Furat. Furat is the Arabic name for the River Euphrates which flows through Raqqa, where Abood likes to relax when he gets the chance - he calls the river his "therapist". Up till today, he says, the outlets that published his pictures don't know his real name. But soon, it became too dangerous to continue. "The memory stick that I sneaked in my pocket after covering these events that I wasn't allowed to cover, I always thought of as a bullet that would kill me if I was discovered," he says. In 2013, after Raqqa became the first provincial capital in Syria to fall to the rebels, Abood escaped from Damascus and returned home. He had defected. But life as a photojournalist there was no less risky. He feared the many rebel forces jostling for control of the city would suspect him of being a regime infiltrator. Then, in mid-2014, his position became more precarious still. "I saw cars and motorcycles roaming the streets with black flags. Someone approached me and said, 'This is the new Islamic caliphate.' And I didn't know what that meant. What was this caliphate?" When IS took over, most journalists fled. Abood, a former servant of the Assads, should have been in more danger than most. But he stayed - and went on working. Extraordinary footage discovered later in the mobile phone of a dead IS fighter shows him in a long beige galabiya gown filming at a road junction - the snapper snapped. But then Abood got an offer he couldn't refuse. IS asked him to film their victory parade, when captured military hardware decked in black flags rolled through the streets. His pictures were used in an IS propaganda video and sent to international agencies. Many more followed of life in the "caliphate", though Abood says he avoided public executions, even staying indoors on days they were held. "I never swore allegiance to IS and I never had to. I built a strategy to remain independent at all times." He escaped arrest he believes, because he had good contacts with tribal leaders in Raqqa who later joined IS. But in 2015, two IS enforcers knocked on his door and warned him he'd be in great danger if he carried on working. So later that year, he left Raqqa to report on the war elsewhere in northern Syria. He only returned in late 2017, after the bombing campaign by the US-led anti-IS coalition had freed the city from the terrorists - but largely reduced it to ruins. "On the first day I was silent. I had nothing to say," Abood says. "It wasn't me. On the second day, when I went out and started taking pictures, I started crying. I was roaming the streets and crying all the time." For months, he wandered endlessly through the wreckage of Raqqa, camera at the ready. He became, he says, the guardian of the city, getting to know every silent, shattered street, every broken family. The UN said 80% of the city was uninhabitable; 90% of its population had fled. Of all the sad pictures he took, the one that's affected him most shows a ruined block of flats, the walls mostly blown out, with a bright turquoise woman's dress hanging down from the edge of what was once a room. "I felt it was a huge invasion of privacy," he says. "Because this is normally a dress that a woman wears only inside the house. The family is no longer here, there is no more happiness here, and the dress is hanging alone. It made me stand and stare as the wind blew it left and right. I thought it was hanging like someone hangs on a rope, choking to death." Slowly, though, colour crept back into Abood's pictures as the city began to come back to life - the yellow and red signs of reopened shops, the swirling blue waters of the Euphrates dotted with bathers. Finally, he decided to come out of the shadows and showcase his photos - under his real name - on a Facebook page, Abood without Barriers. His mission: to encourage people to return. "It was a kind of shout in the face of all the bad things that happened to my city. My only goal was to show Raqqa citizens who are away, that you need to look at your city differently. I know that grey has been the colour of your city. But remember how Raqqa looks in other colours, love Raqqa again and think of coming back. If you look into my pictures, you always see, even with the most extremely sad and deadly pictures, something colourful, an element of life." The picture he's proudest of shows a girl in a bright dress smiling shyly as she holds out a plate of ripe, freshly picked plums. She's the daughter of a man who had moved to Saudi Arabia but returned to rejoin his family in Raqqa - and contributed to the rebuilding of a local school - after seeing Abood's pictures online. Others, too, he says, have come back because of his Facebook page. But now Abood himself is no longer in his beloved city, although he swore he'd never leave. Journalistic impulse sent him off to cover fighting in and around Turkish-controlled parts of northern Syria. And now he's scared to go home, for fear Raqqa's current masters, the Kurdish-dominated SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces), will suspect him of being a Turkish infiltrator. He's survived the most brutal forces, yet it's the one that freed Raqqa from extremists - alongside Western allies - that he now feels he can't risk working under. It's a reminder that, with his job, in Syria, fear never ends. "I can't think of any moment where I lived peacefully or happily in all this period. I remember, for example, how once I went filming after an air strike, and afterwards they told me my cousin was among the dead. I went back to my video, and saw his body there. "I'm now 45 years old and, because of the war, I didn't get married. I don't have a family. I don't have a wife. And it's really sad. "If I didn't have this camera, I would have carried a gun. I am against weapons, but I think that if I had got involved in the war just as a regular citizen, the impact of it would have been less on me. "I'll go on taking photos of what is happening in Syria, whether miserable or happy. I want everyone to see it. But if I had the choice, I'd take pictures of wildlife in a very peaceful area. I've always dreamed of going to Switzerland… I need the peace and calm." You may also be interested in: When Carly Clarke was diagnosed with cancer in 2012, she set out to photograph how she changed during what could have been the last days of her life. Seven years on, by cruel coincidence, she is at her brother's side, photographing him going through the same ordeal. Me, my brother, my camera... our cancer (December 2019)

आबूद हमाम ने वर्षों तक सीरिया में अपने नाम का खुलासा किए बिना दुनिया भर के समाचार आउटलेट्स के लिए युद्ध का वर्णन किया-और विभिन्न युद्धरत दलों द्वारा नियुक्त किए जाने के बावजूद। उन्होंने राष्ट्रपति दंपति-बशर और अस्मा अल-असद के लिए फोटोग्राफर के रूप में शुरुआत की। बाद में उन्होंने इस्लामिक स्टेट की विजय परेड का फिल्मांकन किया। अब, अंत में, उन्होंने निर्वासितों को अपने प्रिय गृहनगर, रक्का लौटने के लिए प्रोत्साहित करने के लिए कवर तोड़ दिया है।


Cayman National hack: Customer account details stolen

Summary: An international banking company which fell victim to a "data hack" has confirmed customers' names, addresses and account details were among the data stolen.

Cayman National Corporation said an "unauthorised third party" had accessed its Manx-based businesses on Sunday. The bank warned stolen details could be used for "fraudulent purposes" and said it would contact customers affected. Authorities on the island have launched an investigation into the attack. The Manx bank and trust company are subsidiaries of CNC, which is based in the Cayman Islands. Isle of Man Chief Minister Howard Quayle said he would be working with Manx authorities "to understand what happened and what lessons can be learned". The bank has created a dedicated support line for customers.

"डेटा हैक" का शिकार हुई एक अंतरराष्ट्रीय बैंकिंग कंपनी ने पुष्टि की है कि चोरी किए गए डेटा में ग्राहकों के नाम, पते और खाते का विवरण शामिल था।


Local elections 2019: Labour mayor elected in Mansfield

Summary: An election for mayor of Mansfield was held on 2 May 2019, the same day as local elections in 259 councils in England and Northern Ireland.

Andy Abrahams, the Labour candidate, won in the second round by just two votes. The vote went to a run-off after neither he nor second placed incumbent Kate Allsop, representing the Mansfield Indpendent Forum, won more than 50% of first preference votes. Explore full results or follow updates on our interactive map. Find out more about these elections.

मैन्सफील्ड के महापौर के लिए चुनाव 2 मई 2019 को आयोजित किया गया था, उसी दिन इंग्लैंड और उत्तरी आयरलैंड में 259 परिषदों में स्थानीय चुनाव हुए थे।


‘Men have always taken the glory': Why more women are becoming farmers

Summary: Hannah Jackson was helping a farmer get his sheep ready for a country show, when he told her to let "the lads down the road" groom the rams because they were "far too strong" for her.

By Harriet AgerholmBBC News The 27-year-old did not listen. "I went into the pen where there were these big male sheep, flipped one on its bum and started filing its feet," she says. "I'd stand shoulder-to-shoulder with any man." More and more women like Hannah, who now runs her own farm, are entering the male-dominated UK agriculture industry. About 17% of farmers are female, up from 7% in 2007-8, according to last year's Office for National Statistics' annual population survey. Hannah, who grew up in Wirral, near Liverpool, did not consider farming as a career until she witnessed a lamb being born while walking in the Lake District, aged 20. "I'd never seen anything like it," she says. "To watch the natural instincts of the lamb kicking and how well the mum was mothering was incredible." Around six years later, she runs a small farm in Cumbria with a flock of 120 sheep, while also looking after flocks on other nearby farms. "I lamb thousands of sheep every year now, but it's still just as awesome," she says. But it has not been easy. "I had people that wouldn't give me a chance when I originally came into farming: I had red hair, I was a proper Scouser, I'd never run a farm before, and I was female, so I had many different barriers that I was trying to overcome." Although women have always been involved in British farming, Hannah says in the past they have typically been in the background. Now, social media is allowing women a platform to "shout about it", she says. Hannah calls herself the "Red Shepherdess" - after her distinctive scarlet hair - and has nearly 25,000 followers on Twitter and 16,000 on Instagram. She also made a name for herself after becoming one of the first women to appear on Channel 4's reality show SAS: Who Dares Wins, in which ex-special forces soldiers put recruits through the SAS selection process. She says she does not shy away from manual labour on the farm. "The last thing I will do is get on my tractor," she says. "I'd literally rather shift it with my hands." Liz Haines, who works as a dairy farmer in north Shropshire, says potential female farmers should not be put off by the physical labour. The 30-year-old studied English at Oxford University and worked in publishing in London for several years, before deciding to take up farming with her husband. "I'm not naturally an outdoorsy person," she says. "I'm a bookworm, so it's been a massive shift for me. I've surprised myself by what I'm able to do." There is a negative perception in the UK that farming is not for academic people, she says. "Even my husband was told: 'You're a clever boy, you shouldn't go into farming.' "Actually, both of us have made far more money doing what we do with the dairy farming than we would have if we'd stayed in our respective careers." Farming has allowed her to continue working while looking after two small children, now aged one and three. When her children were babies, she carried on working with them in a sling. "I don't know if I could have done that with an office job," she says. "It's not really the accepted thing to take your baby to work with you." There have been downsides to having children while working on the farm, however. Her first son was born during calving season - "a crazy, hectic time of year" - and as a new mum, Liz had to monitor the calves on her laptop from her hospital bed. Young women are also proving they can farm in urban areas. Sinead Fenton, 28, has been growing vegetables and edible flowers side-by-side on a small plot in east London for more than a year. She says the "flower-led" growing technique encourages pollinators while reducing problems with pests. She says she developed a "really bad relationship" with food when she was a child and was anxious about trying anything new. "There's very clever marketing in the food system. It tells you our food is better than anything you can cook yourself, so put your trust in us and eat our product. "I was so used to food being packaged that I didn't really understand home-cooked food. It just felt safer to eat that stuff. I basically lived on a diet of hash browns, beans and dry pasta." But she became interested in food while working in Mongolia. "We were out in the desert and we had a goat. Then, one day, we didn't have a goat," she says. "That was the first time I faced what meat actually was, not just this thing that comes in packets in Tesco." At the time, Sinead - a geology graduate - was working in mining. "Working in an industry that was so unsustainable, I wanted to try and channel myself into something that was more sustainable and made a tangible change," she says. She says growing vegetables gave her a sense of purpose and she discovered a supportive network of female farmers who grow food in the capital. More women are following them into the UK farming industry. Female students now outnumber men almost 2:1 on agriculture and related higher education courses, making up 64% of the 2017-18 cohort, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency. Meanwhile, some 44% of agriculture, horticulture and animal care apprentices were women in 2017-18 - up from 39% in 2014-15, according to data from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Sinead says she is proud of what she has achieved since she began growing vegetables. "Although we've done it on small scale, we've done it really well. I feel big-headed or cocky saying that, but I'm learning to see my success." She pauses, then adds: "It's a strange thing to do that as a woman - right?" For more Focus on Farming content, visit our web page at www.bbc.co.uk/focusonfarming As part of our Focus on Farming week, we are looking for your pictures reflecting rural life. Send them to yourpics@bbc.co.uk .

हन्ना जैक्सन एक किसान को अपनी भेड़ को एक देशी शो के लिए तैयार करने में मदद कर रहा था, जब उसने उससे कहा कि "सड़क के नीचे के लड़कों" को मेढ़ों को तैयार करने दें क्योंकि वे उसके लिए "बहुत अधिक मजबूत" थे।


Kinnaird Close, Belfast: Man, 35, charged with double murder

Summary: A 35-year-old man has been charged with the murder of two people at a flat in north Belfast.

A 37-year-old woman, Frances Murray, and 47-year-old Joseph Dutton were found dead at the flat in Kinnaird Close at about 12:55 GMT on Monday. Their bodies were found after a report was made by a member of the public. The accused has been charged with two counts of murder and is expected to appear before Belfast Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

एक 35 वर्षीय व्यक्ति पर उत्तरी बेलफास्ट के एक फ्लैट में दो लोगों की हत्या का आरोप लगाया गया है।


Your stories: Volcano travel chaos

Summary: Chris Moyles is among thousands of people stuck around the world because of the closure of the UK's airspace. It's because of dangerous ash produced by Iceland's Eyjafjallajoekull volcano. The Radio 1 DJ has been in New York on holiday. Here are some of your stories of being stranded abroad.

The DJ: Radio 1's Chris Moyles I am stuck in New York City in the United States of America. It's a very, very surreal kind of pleasant nightmare. I came out here for a little week's holiday and I was due to fly back on Saturday night. I found out from Dominic (Byrne), who reads the news on our show. Dominic sent me a text saying, 'Have you got a few minutes to have a chat?' He told me he was in Majorca and he was telling me that a volcano had gone off and he couldn't get a flight back. Then it started to become apparent to us on Thursday that it was worse than we thought because nothing was flying in and out. Now I've run out of pants and socks. I've run out of deodorant so I've got to go and buy things. I'm going to have to get my pants and socks laundered at the hotel and get them to wash a few T-shirts and things. I'm going to see if I can get a studio in New York and work and still do the show from Tuesday morning (20 April). The rock star: Josh Franceschi from You Me At Six I'm in Portugal on holiday. We don't usually get a lot of holiday time off, so we were all looking forward to quick little breaks away. We were meant to be doing Radio 1's Live Lounge on Wednesday. We were meant to fly home yesterday and we're not flying home till Thursday but all the flights keep getting delayed or cancelled, so I'm guessing we're not going anywhere any time soon. Chris (Miller) is in Portugal with his girlfriend and the rest of the guys are at home getting rather frustrated because our single came out today (19 April) in the UK. I'm missing all our press for it. I was really looking forward to the Live Lounge. We had a really good cover set up. It's one of those situations where, rather than just relaxing, I've been constantly on email or phone trying to sort out how I'm getting home and what I'm having to cancel. The teacher: Nims Gribley from Dorset My name is Nims and I've been stuck in Lisbon since Thursday at an amazing hostel. I'm being told very little by airlines, the BBC has been a lifeline for news and updates, much quicker than the airports. Queues in the airports here are six hours plus. The insurance companies are no help. We're not being offered hotel accommodation or any other help. I've have had to contact friends here to get me and some other people I met to Caceres in Spain where we can hire a car for sensible money - not €1,000 (£882) a day! Then we have to get another hire car in France and then get to St Malo for a catamaran for Friday. I only paid normal money there too - £37.50. So all in all an adventure. My school has been brilliant. I'm not sure how many teachers have been stranded but I'm assuming it is lots and lots. The traveller: Benji Fawcett from Leeds We've been in Thailand for two weeks and we're supposed to be flying back to the UK tomorrow via Dubai. All we know is that the flight is cancelled and do not go to the airport. I've tried ringing but it's constantly engaged and the website says they won't be offering compensation as it's a natural disaster! We're now running low on cash and no one seems to know anything. I work in printing and there are only three of us there. My mate, me stuck in Thailand and another lad who happens to be stuck in Egypt. So work is affected too. Now we've been told the next available flight home is on 7 May. The bride-to-be: Hayley Gorringe from Brighton I am from Brighton and am a sales advisor. I was meant to be flying out next Monday morning to get married (26 April) but have been told I won't find out till next Wednesday or Thursday now. We are due to tie the knot the week after in the Dominican Republic (5 May). I have also asked what will happen if we don't get our flight out and been told we can change our dates or have a full refund, but we have had to pay for documents to get married that run out in two months time. There are also 10 of us that are meant to be going with our five-year-old son.

क्रिस मोयल्स उन हजारों लोगों में से हैं जो ब्रिटेन के हवाई क्षेत्र के बंद होने के कारण दुनिया भर में फंसे हुए हैं। यह आइसलैंड के आइजफ्जल्लाजोकुल ज्वालामुखी द्वारा उत्पादित खतरनाक राख के कारण है। रेडियो 1 डीजे छुट्टी पर न्यूयॉर्क में रहा है। यहाँ विदेश में फंसे होने की आपकी कुछ कहानियाँ हैं।


Coronavirus: Free Isle of Man postcards to 'send hope' to those isolating

Summary: A prepaid postcard being delivered to every household on the Isle of Man will enable people to "send some words of hope" to family and friends in isolation, the chairman of Isle of Man Post Office (IOMPO) has said.

The mailshot is designed to help people "stay connected" during the coronavirus pandemic, Julie Edge said. They were being distributed across the island this week, she added. The postcard can be sent to any address in the world free of charge. It features images from a recent set of stamps celebrating the efforts of key workers and volunteers. Mrs Edge said IOMPO had distributed the leaflets "so that people can stay connected and send some words of hope, love or thanks to friends or family who may be in isolation". It also features information about the Manx Solidarity Fund, which was set up to support those suffering financial hardship who do not qualify for government support. The charity's patron is the island's Lieutenant Governor Sir Richard Gozney. He said the initiative was "another example of people in the Isle of Man from different fields coming together to help those buffeted and bruised by the coronavirus crisis".

आइल ऑफ मैन डाकघर (आई. ओ. एम. पी. ओ.) के अध्यक्ष ने कहा है कि आइल ऑफ मैन पर हर घर में दिया जा रहा एक प्रीपेड पोस्टकार्ड लोगों को अलग-थलग परिवार और दोस्तों को "कुछ आशा के शब्द भेजने" में सक्षम बनाएगा।


At school with a guide dog

Summary: Three years ago, the Guide Dogs charity changed its rules so children with visual impairments could get assistance dogs. So what do pupils gain from a dog - and can this partnership work in a hectic school environment?

By Damon Rose BBC News, Ouch Hannah Burgess is 15. She attends Stantonbury Campus in Milton Keynes which, with almost 3,000 students, is the second largest comprehensive school in the UK. She has been taking her guide dog Rory into school since qualifying as a young handler two years ago. Previously she had used a white cane. "The first day [with Rory] was quite scary, I didn't know what to expect," she says. "I had only been out on training routes with him on streets - I didn't think he'd just flop on the floor and sleep for ages in my classes like he does. His first day at school showed me how good he was going to be." Everyone on campus seems to know Hannah's dog. Two young lads walk past pointedly singing the theme tune to Roary the Racing Car. "Now, I don't think he's a racing car, do you?" replies Gerry O'Neill, head of inclusion at the school. Hannah ignores it. "Most people have got over a dog being there now. I get a bit of grief but it's not too bad. Some people start screaming and run away because they think it's funny to. It gets better, then a new lot of year sevens come in September and I get it all over again. But it's OK." Hannah is not completely blind, but has albinism and associated nystagmus, which severely affects her focus. Rory helps locate kerbs, avoid lampposts and Hannah no longer mistakes staircases for slopes with the dog's help. And Rory has stopped her from walking out in front of many cars: "I put full trust in him." But he has also helped her to connect with those around her. "I actually have friends now," Hannah laughs. "He's given me confidence to go up and talk to people - he's a great conversation starter. "Before Rory I was friendly with people in school but I didn't ever want to go out. I wouldn't go to the cinema with them, for instance. I didn't want to be seen with my cane or holding my mum's arm." At break time, she has special dispensation to remain in one of the halls so Rory doesn't have to go on the noisy and crowded playground. Hannah's friends benefit from having a pal with a dog because they are also allowed to stay indoors at break with her so they can all hang out together, after Rory has been "spent" - guide dog lingo for a toilet stop. But, no matter how well trained, dogs will be dogs. "The first day I brought him here he was sick on the floor and my English teacher walked in it," says Hannah. "Also, I took him out to spend, there was fox poo on the floor, and he rolled in it and I had to go back into class with him." Her friends, all present, groaned at the memory. "I think people put up with it quite well actually," says Alice, also 15. O'Neill says he's never heard anybody say the dog shouldn't be at school but has helped advise on issues of safety. Rory doesn't attend science lessons, food practicals or PE lessons because they would give him "unfair distractions". "Most teachers are excited by the idea of a dog in class," says O'Neill. "There's a feeling that it adds something. And most teachers report that he calms the room." Any problems that arise tend to be easily surmountable. Graham Kensett, Coventry mobility team manager for Guide Dogs, has been involved in the organisation's projects with children and young people. He says teachers always worry that a dog may make pupils more excitable, but then find the opposite. But are all schools as welcoming of dogs as Hannah's school has been? Kensett says there have been challenges but the majority of schools have been willing to work with them to allow a dog in. "Children with allergies are sometimes raised as a concern but we have to encourage the school to make reasonable adjustments - maybe a dog could go into the admin office for that period. But allergies are fairly rare." In the past, school children weren't allowed guide dogs because it was felt that they were not mature enough to be in charge of an animal with routines such as feeding, walking, toileting important for its welfare. Hannah says a dog is a big responsibility, and she realised early on she'd need to sharpen up if she wanted to keep Rory. She believes it forced her to be more mature. "He keeps me in a routine, he keeps me from being late all the time, he keeps me from forgetting things. Because I have to do everything for him, it reminds me of doing things for myself." Twice a week Hannah goes to army cadets where she learns new skills, shoots at (enlarged) targets and teaches younger cadets to march - all whilst accompanied by her dog. On the last two Remembrance Sundays, Rory has paraded with his young owner down Newport Pagnell High Street. "He steps off on his left foot and he's always in time, so it looks really good," Hannah says. She would like to join the Army as her career, but with her sight loss that's not possible. So she wants to pursue her second love and qualify as a pastry chef. O'Neill is pleased at the outcome for Hannah and says that you have to look at the holistic effect of having a dog. "The difference he's made to Hannah's life outside of school has transformed her as a student. She's going to get better grades because she is a more self-confident young woman with self-esteem and social skills and that will translate into the quality of her work." Hannah is now out all the time, doing what she wants to be doing - things that a girl her age would normally do. "It's changed so much for me that my mum has recently given me the lecture about treating her house like a hotel." Her friends say they're so used to Hannah walking independently alongside them now that it can be easy to forget she sometimes needs a bit of help. "We've left her behind once or twice when she's not got Rory with her," says friend Megan, laughing. "And when we realise, we've gone 'OMG, we've lost the blind girl!'" Would your child benefit from an assistance dog at school? Or perhaps you suffered at school due to a lack of mobility or confidence? Email your story to ouch@bbc.co.uk You can follow Ouch on Twitter and on Facebook, and listen to our monthly talk show

तीन साल पहले, गाइड डॉग्स चैरिटी ने अपने नियमों को बदल दिया ताकि दृष्टिबाधित बच्चों को सहायता कुत्ते मिल सकें। तो छात्रों को कुत्ते से क्या लाभ होता है-और क्या यह साझेदारी स्कूल के व्यस्त वातावरण में काम कर सकती है?


An hour to catch the coding bug

Summary: Okay, 60 minutes and counting. Here we go.

By Mark WardTechnology correspondent, BBC News I've got an hour to convince my kids that programming is for them. Well, sort of. I'm putting my twin, 10-year-old boys, Toby and Callum, through the Hour of Code - a campaign that seeks to ignite an interest in programming - the part we're doing using specially created web-based exercises. The campaign, begun in the US, has landed in the UK where it also coincides with government calls for as many children as possible to get coding. Programming is being pushed because in an ever more technological world it can only be a good thing to give people a peep into what goes on behind the touch screen, cash point and website. The Hour of Code is supposed to be the start of that journey and I, like many other parents, feel it's one my children should be embarking on. I do feel like a clock somewhere is ticking and unless they get started with this essential skill they'll be left behind. "In the future kids are going to be doing programming," said Callum when I asked him why it was worth learning how to code. "We need to learn so we can do stuff with the computer otherwise it will be a blank page and never work." Zombie dance It's the getting started, for both parents and their offspring, that the Hour is intended to help with. I'm probably like most parents in that I have no significant qualification in computer science. All I can offer my boys is a lifetime of tinkering backed up over the past 18 months with online courses in Python, HTML, CSS, Javascript and the like. There's good precedents for the value of something like the Hour of Code. I've quizzed every chief technology officer (CTO), developer or IT worker I've met in the past couple of weeks about what got them started and every one knew exactly the moment they got it. Their eyes lit up as they talked about typing in code listings from magazines, working through every Dos command or designing their own blocky 8-bit game characters. And, finally, at the back of my mind are all those statistics about the shortages of skilled IT staff and my hope that if this works then their future career options will be much wider than they would be without this skill. So, no pressure, then. Yesterday morning, we gave it a go. I was keen for it to be fun rather than feel like school as there's nothing more likely to turn them off than for it to be sold as good for them. I think we struck the right note of informality - Cal did it in his onesie. It went OK, no, better than that. Pretty good. We worked through all the exercises getting angry birds to mash pigs and zombies to chomp sunflowers. The coding is done by dragging blocks representing different commands into a work area and building the blocks into a tower of coherent instructions. The block-building system is based on the Scratch programming language build by MIT's Mitch Resnick. The exercises start easy - just getting an angry bird to hop on to a pig. By the end we were using "If…, else" statements and loops to help a zombie navigate a tricky maze to reach the sunflower. This went down well with Callum. "Cool! It's scanning for a path," he said as the zombie worked its way towards the hapless flower. Mistakes were made, but we learned from them, we debated over which way to make the birds and zombies turn and the time went really fast. Toby was surprised to find that this counted as programming. "I thought coding was just a lot of people tapping in letter and numbers until they got it right," he said. Next steps And yet, I felt it was a bit too easy. I wanted to make the coding connection to real life more tangible. So, as we had about 15 minutes of our Hour of Code left, we went further. This time we used the MIT App Inventor to build a basic program that would run on the tablets they own. The app inventor uses the same "drag the block" method to build a program and following the instructions we had soon created an app that turned anything typed in text into speech. We got it working on Cal's tablet and soon they were getting that gadget to call out lots of phrases. Almost inevitably as they are 10 years old a lot of these phrases involved the words "willy" and "bum". But they had a lot of fun with it and it brought home to them how straight-forward coding can be. In just over an hour they went from being pretty much novices to creating an Android app - a basic one that trades on the expertise of the people that built the coding tools but it was an accomplishment nonetheless. Did they catch the coding bug as a result? Maybe, later in the day they were programming each other after one of their regular wrestling matches left Toby lying exhausted on the floor. Suddenly Cal called out commands such as "roll left" and Toby started obeying, even to the point of crashing into the sofa when too many roll commands were given. Then Toby had his turn and did the same, they even worked out that they had to compensate for the changes in left and right as they rolled. So, I think that hour started something. Both with them and with me. Building that Android app made me realise that it is straight-forward. That my lack of formal qualifications do not matter as much as I thought. And maybe that's the point of the hour. Making people realise that it is not scary and difficult. You just have to find an hour and give it a try. You can even do it in your onesie.

ठीक है, 60 मिनट और गिनती। यहाँ हम चलते हैं।


'Horrible' smell in Cardiff investigated by council

Summary: The cause of a "horrible" smell reported in parts of Cardiff city centre and Cardiff Bay has been investigated by Cardiff Council.

People in the Welsh capital took to social media on Tuesday to question the cause of the stench. Welsh Water said it "sent an inspector to investigate" and was satisfied the odour was not linked to its network. A spokesman for Cardiff Council said it had "contacted partners to ascertain the cause of the smell".

कार्डिफ शहर के केंद्र और कार्डिफ खाड़ी के कुछ हिस्सों में "भयानक" गंध के कारण की कार्डिफ परिषद द्वारा जांच की गई है।


Nesting season warning ahead of Isle of Man beach clean

Summary: Isle of Man residents, due to take part in a day of beach cleaning in the north of the island, have been warned to look out for nesting birds.

A volunteer group is due to meet on Sunday to clean up near the important nesting grounds at Smeale beach. Organiser, Bill Dale asked volunteers to be especially careful clearing rubbish from above the high water mark. He added: "A variety of seabirds are in the process of creating nests for the spring, despite the cold weather."

आइल ऑफ मैन के निवासियों को, द्वीप के उत्तर में समुद्र तट की सफाई के एक दिन में भाग लेने के कारण, घोंसले बनाने वाले पक्षियों पर ध्यान देने की चेतावनी दी गई है।


Venezuela recall referendum: Voters told to confirm identities

Summary: Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) has ruled that 1.3 million people who signed a petition for a referendum to oust President Nicolas Maduro will need to turn up at regional electoral offices to confirm their identity.

Voters will have five days from 20 June to have their signatures checked. The opposition says the CNE is working in tandem with government to slow down the process. It blames the government for the country's serious economic crisis. The petition was handed over to the electoral authorities on 2 May. The opposition said it had the signatures of 1.85 million voters backing a recall referendum, many more than the 197,000 needed at this initial stage. The CNE said there were 1.97 million signatures. Mr Maduro's government said there was widespread fraud in the process. It said the names of thousands of dead voters and children were on the petition, which has been confirmed by CNE President Tibisay Lucena. More than 600,000 signatures have been invalidated by the electoral bodies. The other voters who signed the petition will need to have their identities checked between 20 and 24 June. Opposition leader Henrique Capriles urged voters to get ready to comply with the CNE demand and go to government offices to have their identities checked later this month. Ms Lucena warned that the process would be immediately suspended until order was restored if there was "any act of violence, trouble or aggression".

वेनेजुएला की राष्ट्रीय चुनाव परिषद (सी. एन. ई.) ने फैसला सुनाया है कि राष्ट्रपति निकोलस मादुरो को हटाने के लिए एक जनमत संग्रह के लिए एक याचिका पर हस्ताक्षर करने वाले 13 लाख लोगों को अपनी पहचान की पुष्टि करने के लिए क्षेत्रीय चुनावी कार्यालयों में आने की आवश्यकता होगी।


Arson suspected in Lizard Peninsula gorse fires

Summary: Gorse fires on England's most southerly point are thought to have been started deliberately, firefighters say.

Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service was first called to the Lizard Peninsula on Monday night, returning to extinguish further blazes on Goonhilly Downs on Tuesday evening. The latest fires led to a road near Mullion Holiday Park being closed. The brigade tweeted that the "large majority" of gorse fires in the area were suspicious. Crews from five Cornwall stations were involved in tackling the blazes, which were extinguished by 21:15 GMT. Three blazes in the area in November were also thought to have been started deliberately.

अग्निशामकों का कहना है कि माना जाता है कि इंग्लैंड के सबसे दक्षिणी बिंदु पर गोर्स आग जानबूझकर शुरू की गई थी।


Seven Kings stabbing: Three killed after disturbance

Summary: Three men have died in a stabbing in east London.

Police said they were called at about 19:40 GMT on Sunday to reports of a disturbance in Elmstead Road in Seven Kings, Ilford. Three men, aged in their 20s or 30s, who were involved in a fight, were found by emergency services with stab injuries, the Metropolitan Police said. All three were pronounced dead at the scene. Two men, aged 29 and 39, have been arrested on suspicion of murder. Ch Supt Steve Clayman said a fight had broken out between two groups who were armed with knives, leaving three men fatally stabbed. "We can now say that two arrests have since been made, so there has been progress. "The parties are believed to be known to each other and the group are within the Sikh community," he added. Sabih Qureshi, who lives in the area, told the BBC he had seen seven or eight men "fighting each other" in the same place on Saturday, which he believed was "linked for sure". He said: "They were saying 'I will kill you', and the person was saying 'ok kill me'. For sure it was linked." After seeing the three "badly injured" men following the attack, Mr Qureshi said he and several others tried to help and give them CPR. The Ilford resident added that one of the men was already dead, while the other two were "not conscious" but breathing "just a little". "It was very violent. All the blood was in the street," he said. Louis O'Donoghoe described seeing "absolute chaos" after he had heard screaming and shouting outside his house. It was like something out of a movie, horrific," the 40-year-old scaffolder said. Formal identification of the victims is yet to take place. The stabbings bring the number of homicide investigations launched by the Met in 2020 to six. At the scene Greg Mckenzie, BBC London There has been a visible police presence here since Sunday night. Officers were called just before 20:00 to reports of a disturbance but when they arrived, they found three young men - all in close proximity to each other - with fatal stab wounds. At the end of one of the police cordons put in place you can just about make out the tops of the forensic tents - three dotted next to each other - which marks the exact spots where these individuals were pronounced dead. Despite the works of the emergency services, these men could not be saved. I've seen graphic video from a nearby resident that was filmed shortly after the incident showing pools of blood on the street. I've been speaking to some residents here this morning who say they have raised concerns to police over gangs congregating behind Seven King's train station, where they often drink and smoke cannabis. Road closures and an enhanced police presence will be seen in the Redbridge area. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan tweeted: "My thoughts are with their families and the local community at this dreadful time." He said extra police enforcement powers had been authorised for the whole of Redbridge borough until 08:00 on Monday. A forensic examination of the scene is under way and will continue on Monday, police said. Jas Athwal, leader of Redbridge Council, said: "An incident like this is unheard of within the Sikh community here in Redbridge. "I think tragically there are at least three families who are going to be in mourning and this is going to last a lifetime for the people left behind." He was critical of bloody footage shared on social media appearing to show the aftermath of the killings. "I think the first response should be 'What can we do to help?'. To put it on social media is not right."

पूर्वी लंदन में छुरा घोंपने से तीन लोगों की मौत हो गई है।


Brazil's truth commission faces delicate task

Summary: Brazil's Truth Commission, created to investigate human rights abuses committed during the country's military dictatorship, is set to meet for the first time on Wednesday amid criticism from both army officers and victims' relatives.

By Paulo CabralBBC Brasil, Sao Paulo Military rule spanned 21 years, from 1964 to 1985. More than 400 people were either killed or disappeared, while thousands were tortured. As the commission gathers for the first time, there is discomfort among some in Brazil's military over what they perceive as an attempt at revenge by an ideologically-biased government. President Dilma Rousseff was herself arrested and tortured during the dictatorship. "Of course there were terrible things that happened in this period but there were victims on both sides and they only want to tell one side of the story," says retired Vice Admiral Ricardo Antonio da Veiga Cabral, chairman of Rio de Janeiro's Navy Club. Since the military are barred from publicly expressing their views or organising unions, their social clubs - headed by retired high-ranking officers - are useful gauges of the mood among the armed forces. The Navy Club has designated seven of its members - "seven trusted officers", according to Vice Admiral Veiga Cabral - to form a "shadow commission" to counter whatever accusations may come their way. But the victims of the regime and their relatives are not happy either, because the commission will have powers to investigate human rights violations but not to punish perpetrators. Numbers vary, but official reports suggest that between 400 and 500 militants and civilians were killed by the military or simply disappeared. Amnesty law "We wanted a 'Truth, Memory and Justice' Commission. With the resources and powers given to the commission I doubt very much they will be able to come up with anything groundbreaking," says Victoria Grabois, president of Rio de Janeiro-based organisation Tortura Nunca Mais (Torture Never Again). Her father, Mauricio Grabois, a high-ranking Communist Party official, has been missing since 1973 when the army raided the guerrilla camp where he was based. The Brazilian government acknowledged in 1995 that the state was responsible for killings, disappearances and torture during military rule, but a 1979 Amnesty Law - recently upheld in a Supreme Court ruling - prevents any prosecutions. The recently appointed members of the commission are already making it clear that they, too, have neither the authority nor the intention to prosecute anybody. "We are not here to punish, that's not the job of any truth commission in the world," says commissioner Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, a Brazilian legal scholar who is also currently also the Chairman of UN's International Commission of Inquiry for Syria and former UN Special Rapporteur for Burma. "There have been more then 40 truth commissions in the world since the 1980s and we will benefit a lot from their experience," Mr Pinheiro told BBC Brasil. But the creation of the Brazilian Truth Commission has also highlighted the contrast with other Latin American countries - like Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and Peru - which have already gone through this process, and where in some cases there have been prosecutions and convictions. "It's fair to say that Brazil is late in respect to its Truth Commission but it's unfair to say that nothing has happened since Brazil returned to democracy in 1985," says Mr Pinheiro. "Brazil has even paid compensation to relatives of people who went missing. I don't think any other country has done this." Limited hope The Truth Commission will have two years to conclude its work but it is not yet clear if it will be able to make public any of the confidential military documents its members will be allowed to view. "I hope they will bring names and officially tell us who were people who committed those crimes but unfortunately I don't think this will happen.," says Mrs Grabois. She says she has not given up on finding out more about her father, now missing for almost 40 years, but admits she has lost hope of overcoming the 1979 Amnesty Law in order to secure a prosecution. "It's very hard. There have been some attempts to carry out prosecutions for kidnappings under common criminal law for but the courts have not yet accepted these either." Vice Admiral Veiga Cabral says there is disquiet among veterans over the risk of prosecutions. "This can grow like a snowball and we never know where it stops. An amnesty was granted for actions committed by both sides and that was an end to the matter." But Mr Pinheiro does not accept the view that there are two sides to the issue. "We have to make a complete, complex and honest investigation of the crimes that the state has already taken responsibility for. The side that matters is the side of the victims," he says. While there is little expectation in Brazil that somebody will ever be actually punished for crimes committed during the dictatorship, the new investigation may at least bring some closure for relatives.

देश की सैन्य तानाशाही के दौरान किए गए मानवाधिकारों के हनन की जांच के लिए बनाया गया ब्राजील का सत्य आयोग, सेना के अधिकारियों और पीड़ितों के रिश्तेदारों दोनों की आलोचना के बीच बुधवार को पहली बार मिलने वाला है।


Sri Lanka's war panel arouses strong emotions

Summary: Emotional people have flocked to testify before the Sri Lankan commission looking into the final years of the country's war. Many of those who bore witness in the former war zone said their close relatives had disappeared. Charles Haviland was granted rare access to the hearings in the north-western town of Mannar.

In a crowded room in a government building there was an agitated buzz of people talking Tamil. Men and women of all ages held up pictures for the camera - pictures of their missing sons and daughters, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters - with dates of disappearance: January 2008; April 2007. A man tried to organise things, telling them to get their sad case histories ready to submit. Raw emotions The people were clamouring to appear before the war commission, its fourth visit to the north. Before the commissioners arrived they unburdened themselves to us. A woman told us her son aged 17 disappeared eight years ago while tending goats. Perhaps he was taken by the Tamil Tigers (LTTE). He was later seen in an army detention camp but then vanished. An elderly man told us his son disappeared four years ago - the police had not been able to find him. Once they were testifying to the panel, raw emotions came through. A weeping mother, R Bhuwaneswari, clutched a bundle of victims' written testimonies as she addressed the team. Her 15-year-old daughter was forced to stay back by the Tigers as the family escaped the war zone. She was later seen in a government-run camp but is now missing. "Tell her to give the information to the commission secretary," the commission chairman and former attorney-general, CR de Silva, told the interpreter. "We'll try to trace her daughter." 'Nothing happens' But Ms Bhuwaneswari continued speaking. "They all say there's peace, but there's no peace," she cried, weeping. "We people don't have any happiness or freedom. We live with tears. We've reported our missing children to so many but nothing happens. You at least, please give us some good news. There are so many wives crying for their detained husbands. "If my daughter were here now she would have sat her O-level exams." Another woman, R Virginia Shanthi, said she and many others had been assaulted while their children were taken. Her son disappeared in 2007 on his way to a beer store in an area which she said was under navy control. "We hope you'll dry the tears of these mothers," she told the panel, breaking down. "We are hurt, both mentally and physically. We are becoming ill, thinking about our lost ones." Scores of others waited restlessly to testify but there was not time for many. They were asked to submit written details of their missing family members. Senior Catholic churchmen including the Bishop of Mannar, Rt Rev Rayappu Joseph, had already given a long submission criticising the government and military's actions in the north. He told the BBC he would have liked more time for people to unburden themselves. He wanted them to accept that their relatives were dead and try to get death certificates for them. At a later session the wife of the LTTE's former local commander, Anthony Rayappu, said she had seen him taken away by the army but there was now no clue of his whereabouts. Not independent At one of the Mannar hearings a soldier in uniform made witnesses nervous as he took photographs of them and the panel. His presence was brought to the attention of commission officials who asked him to go outside. The commission, which began hearings in August, was appointed by the president and is called the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). It is supposed to determine who was responsible for the failure of a 2002 ceasefire, suggest ways to prevent another war and foster reconciliation and to promote restitution for those affected. International human rights groups have refused to testify, complaining that it lacks a mandate to investigate alleged war crimes. They also say the panel members are too close to the government and therefore not independent. The government denies this. In May this year the LLRC is to give the president its final report, which may or may not be made public. All of its public hearings so far outside Colombo have been in Tamil-majority areas. But this month it will visit the Sinhalese-majority town of Anuradhapura, where 27 people were killed and 94 injured by an LTTE suicide bomber in 2008. Witnesses have given extremely diverse accounts. Bishop Joseph's team said it believed there were as many as 146,000 people still unaccounted for during the last phase of fighting - a figure higher than most other calculations. But last week Champika Ranawaka, a government minister from a Sinhalese nationalist party, the JHU, declared that only about 1,100 civilians were killed in the war's last three years. He said the ethnic majority had come out of the war worse than Tamils because Sinhalese people displaced from the north had never returned home.

देश के युद्ध के अंतिम वर्षों की जांच करने वाले श्रीलंकाई आयोग के सामने गवाही देने के लिए भावुक लोग उमड़ पड़े हैं। पूर्व युद्ध क्षेत्र में गवाह रखने वालों में से कई ने कहा कि उनके करीबी रिश्तेदार गायब हो गए थे। चार्ल्स हैविलैंड को उत्तर-पश्चिमी शहर मन्नार में सुनवाई के लिए दुर्लभ पहुंच प्रदान की गई थी।


Pink and Tings Tings play Hyde Park

Summary: Pink has been confirmed as the first headliner for next year's Wireless festival.

The American singer will top the bill at London's Hyde Park on Friday 2 July supported by The Ting Tings, who've spent much of 2009 recording their forthcoming second album in Berlin. Tickets for the gig go on sale at 9am on Friday 11 December. Returning for its sixth year, last year's Wireless festival was headlined by Kanye West and Basement Jaxx.

पिंक को अगले साल के वायरलेस उत्सव के लिए पहले हेडलाइनर के रूप में पुष्टि की गई है।


Ambulance questions at Jasmine Lapsley inquest

Summary: Questions about ambulance response times and medical treatment will be raised at a full inquest into the death of a six-year-old girl who apparently choked on a grape.

Jasmine Lapsley, of Liverpool, died last August while on a family holiday at Morfa Nefyn, Gwynedd. At a pre-inquest hearing at Caernarfon, coroner Nicola Jones said: "It will be a lengthy and complex inquest." She promised there would be a full investigation. She told Jasmine's parents: "Perhaps recommendations will be made for the future, depending on the outcome." There would doubtless be criticisms "but we don't deal in blame," she added. Paramedic experts, consultants and leading medical figures will be among the witnesses at the full inquest and there may be a jury. Jasmine was flown 20 miles to hospital in Bangor by an RAF helicopter and at the time the Welsh Ambulance Trust held an investigation into the ambulance response.

एम्बुलेंस प्रतिक्रिया समय और चिकित्सा उपचार के बारे में सवाल एक छह वर्षीय लड़की की मौत की पूरी जांच में उठाए जाएंगे, जो स्पष्ट रूप से एक अंगूर पर घुट गई थी।


CES 2017: Baidu launches digital assistant with screen

Summary: Chinese search giant Baidu has unveiled an AI digital assistant.

By Zoe KleinmanTechnology reporter, Las Vegas Xiaoyu Zaijia - or Little Fish - responds to voice commands using a combination of pictures, text and speech. Unlike many rival AIs it is dependant on a touchscreen It can answer questions, find local services, play music, make video calls and control smart home devices. Baidu Chief Scientist Andrew Ng said that artificial intelligence is "the new electricity". "AI has been growing steadily - every year our AI has been 50% better," he told the BBC at the CES tech show in Las Vegas. "Those of us on the inside feel the acceleration now but we have been feeling it for the last decade. "Just as 100 years ago the electrification of our society transformed industry after industry, I think AI tech has now reached that stage." Little Fish's hardware has been developed by Chinese robotics firm Ainemo Inc but uses Baidu's AI operating system DuerOS. More from CES 2017: Follow all our CES coverage at bbc.co.uk/ces2017 Existing digital assistants such as the Amazon's Alexa and Google Assistant are not screen-dependant but can be used by voice alone. Apple's Siri, however, continues to rely on a display to provide some of its information. Little Fish will launch initially in China in March 2017 and currently only recognises Chinese languages. Baidu has not yet set a price. "What we have seen so far in terms of digital assistants and smart speakers is very much first generation and it has all been about voice," said Geoff Blaber, tech analyst at CCS Insight. "I would certainly expect that over the next 12 months we will see the next iteration of assistants that do integrate a number of different ways of interacting with the device - not just video but also gesture control. "A richer variety of interaction methods helps bridge the gap in terms of the user experience. When they first start using one, a lot of users find it a steep learning curve."

चीनी सर्च दिग्गज बाइडू ने एक ए. आई. डिजिटल सहायक का अनावरण किया है।


Smoke clears on cigarette packaging debate

Summary: As the British government announces it will ask parliament to vote on legislation on plain packaging for cigarettes before the next general election, it's worth taking a look at Australia, where such laws were introduced in 2012.

Jon DonnisonSydney correspondent In Australia over the past two years there has been a fierce statistical battle between the tobacco industry and anti-smoking groups over whether plain packaging works. Aussie smokers have been picking up their cigarettes in bland brown packs, plastered with pictures of black tar-stained lungs, yellow rotting teeth and pink bulging tumours since December 2012. Since then the number-crunchers on either side of the debate have been putting out research to claim that it has either been a success or a failure. The tobacco industry generally says plain packaging hasn't reduced smoking. Well they would say that, wouldn't they. Anti-smoking groups say plain packaging has reduced smoking. Well they would say that, wouldn't they. So I'm going to stick my neck out. It appears to be working, but relatively slowly. Figures from Australia's Bureau of Statistics and the Department of Health show that by just about all measures cigarette smoking has decreased since plain packaging was introduced. These figures are comprehensive and worth reading all the way through. The bureau says expenditure on tobacco products fell by more than A$100m (£53m, $80m) between December 2012 and March 2014. The figures for the first quarter of 2014 were the lowest ever recorded. Research has shown a considerable increase in the number of people calling quit-smoking advice lines. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says smoking rates for people aged 14 and over fell from 15.1% to 12.8% between 2010 and 2013. For people aged 18 and over the figures dropped from 15.9% to 13.3%. Those figures include two years before plain packaging was introduced, however, and show a continued long-term trend of declining smoking rates prevalent in most developed countries. 'Stop new starters' Sometimes even the tobacco industry has acknowledged sales have fallen. "We've seen the market decline roughly 2% to 3%," said Imperial Tobacco's chief executive after the first six months of the plain packaging laws, before adding that the number "may be not as bad as we might have anticipated". Some within the tobacco industry argue the drop-off in sales is due to the fact that more people are buying black-market cigarettes as a result of the plain packaging laws. But it seems far more likely that the reason that people turn to black-market cigarettes is price - over the counter, it is roughly A$22 (£12) for a packet. It is fair to say that the decline in smoking rates seems relatively small. But anti-smoking researchers say they were never expecting a huge drop-off. They say little other than a massive increase in price, or a complete ban, would see a big drop. Those who are in favour of plain-packaging say the primary aim of the new laws was not to get existing smokers to quit, but to stop potential new smokers, especially the young, from taking up the habit. To judge how successful that has been will take longer to assess. But again it would seem odd if plain packaging hidden away in special cupboards in newsagents with no advertising or branding led to anything other than fewer young people taking up the habit. Across Australia you do of course still see plenty of people happily puffing away. But it does always look a bit awkward when you see well-dressed couples sitting outside the fancy bars and restaurants of Sydney and Melbourne with a "poo brown" packet of cigarettes featuring a picture of a cancerous colon on the table in front of them. It not quite Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall is it? And finally for those wondering, I am neither pro smoking or anti; neither pro plain packaging or against. But I think, looking past the propaganda, it's clear the figures show it works, at least to some extent. You have to ask the question: if plain packaging in Australia hadn't worked, why would the tobacco industry have fought so hard against it being introduced here and elsewhere?

जैसा कि ब्रिटिश सरकार घोषणा करती है कि वह संसद से अगले आम चुनाव से पहले सिगरेट के लिए सादे पैकेजिंग पर कानून पर मतदान करने के लिए कहेगी, यह ऑस्ट्रेलिया पर एक नज़र डालने लायक है, जहां इस तरह के कानून 2012 में पेश किए गए थे।


Plymouth A38 pedestrian knocked off flyover in crash

Summary: A man was seriously injured when a car hit him so hard on a flyover that he was knocked over railings and on to a dual carriageway below.

The victim was walking on Merafield Lane in Plympton near Plymouth when he was catapulted on to the A38. He landed on a bank about 30ft (9m) down from the bridge, close to lane one of the eastbound carriageway. The man suffered "serious head and leg injuries" and was taken to Derriford Hospital. The man driving the car was also injured and taken to the same hospital. Details of the injuries are not known. Forensic officers carried out investigations on the flyover, which has been reopened. Police have appealed for witnesses to get in touch with them. Related Internet Links Devon and Cornwall Police

एक व्यक्ति गंभीर रूप से घायल हो गया जब एक कार ने उसे फ्लाईओवर पर इतनी जोरदार टक्कर मार दी कि वह रेलिंग से टकरा गया और नीचे दोहरे कैरिजवे पर जा गिरा।


India student refuses to be 'anti-Pakistan' poster girl

Summary: The Twitter account of an unofficial Pakistani defence blog is suspended after it doctored an image of an Indian student to portray her as someone who hated her country. Indian media swiftly hailed it as a "victory" against Pakistani propaganda, but the student, Kawalpreet Kaur, says she is uncomfortable with this narrative.

What did the tweets say? The original tweet from Ms Kaur in June, featured her standing outside the 16 Century Jama Masjid in the capital Delhi, holding a placard that read: "I am a citizen of India and I stand with the secular values of our Constitution. I will write against communal mob lynching of Muslims in our country. #CitizensAgainstMobLynching." Ms Kaur told the BBC that she had taken the picture in June as part of nationwide protests titled "not in my name" against rising attacks on Muslims and Dalits (formerly untouchables) by vigilante groups seeking to protect cows, which are sacred to Hindus. The doctored image by Pakistan Defence saw the text on her sign changed to: "I am an Indian but I hate India, because India is a colonial entity that has occupied nations such as Nagas, Kashmiris, Manipuris, Hyderabad, Junagadh, Sikkim, Mizoram, Goa." The accompanying tweet read: "Indians are finally realising the truth; their country is actually a colonialist entity." Who are Pakistan Defence? Pakistan Defence, which describes itself as a "one stop resource for Pakistan defence, strategic affairs, security issues, world defence and military affairs" is not officially affiliated to the Pakistan government. However it is followed by many members of the military and Pakistani commentators and analysts believe it follows the agenda of the establishment. It is known for propagating extreme right-wing content, and has routinely targeted journalists and liberal voices in the country. It did not respond to requests by the BBC for comment. Even though its Twitter account has been suspended, Pakistan Defence is far from silenced. Its website is still active, as is its Facebook page, which has more than 8 million followers. And although Pakistan Defence is not an official blog of the government, many were quick to draw comparisons to an embarrassing instance in September when Pakistan's permanent representative to the United Nations, Maleeha Lodhi, held up a photograph as proof of "Indian brutality" in Kashmir. The image was really of a 17-year-old Palestinian girl, taken in Gaza in 2014 by award-winning photographer Heidi Levine. Ms Kaur said she was alerted to the doctored image of her by a friend some hours after it had been tweeted out by Pakistan Defence. "I saw that the handle was a verified account so I tweeted at them asking them to remove the tweet and apologise so that we could end the matter there. But they responded by retweeting my reply with the message that it was to alert Indians to what they have done with Kashmir, which was just absurd," she told the BBC. Ms Kaur then appealed to people to report the account to Twitter, a call which was taken up in both India and Pakistan. Many Pakistanis, she added, had defended her even before she saw the doctored image. The account was suspended on Saturday, creating headlines in Indian media outlets, many of whom mistakenly thought the account belonged to Pakistan's defence ministry. What does Ms Kaur say? Ms Kaur said she was relieved by the action, but had suddenly found herself the unwilling poster child for India's "triumph" against Pakistan. She made several appeals to people to not "make this an India-Pakistan war" and "sensationalise" the issue. "The last thing I want is to be used as a pawn for spreading anti-India and anti-Pakistan sentiments," she wrote in a Facebook post shortly after. What was more galling, she told the BBC, was the fact that the same picture had been doctored earlier by Indian right-wing groups. "I made a complaint to the cyber security cell but no one even bothered to respond. What does this say then? That it's only not alright for me to be targeted by Pakistani right-wing accounts, but when it happens in India it's ok?" She said that the coverage of the issue also ignored the fact that liberal voices in India were routinely targeted by government-affiliated right-wing organisations too. "So many people are trolled and even death threats are issued against them. So much so, that many people choose to self-censor rather than criticise the government. "I would like some accountability from my own country as well."

एक अनौपचारिक पाकिस्तानी रक्षा ब्लॉग के ट्विटर खाते को निलंबित कर दिया गया है क्योंकि इसमें एक भारतीय छात्रा की छवि के साथ छेड़छाड़ की गई है ताकि उसे किसी ऐसे व्यक्ति के रूप में चित्रित किया जा सके जो उसके देश से नफरत करता है। भारतीय मीडिया ने इसे पाकिस्तानी प्रचार के खिलाफ "जीत" के रूप में तुरंत सराहा, लेकिन छात्रा कवलप्रीत कौर का कहना है कि वह इस कथा से असहज है।


How Spanish flu epidemic devastated Wales in 1918

Summary: Gunner Ivor John Hiley had survived three years fighting in World War One in France but a month after Armistice Day he was back home - and dying of influenza.

By Steve DuffyBBC news His wife Maud, 28, and five-year-old daughter Molly died two weeks before on the same day, one at home in Sebastopol near Pontypool, the other in a nursing home. They were victims of a worldwide flu pandemic which in Wales alone would leave an official death toll of at least 8,750 but which is estimated to be as high as 11,400. Globally, 50m people lost their lives in 1918-19 in what became known as Spanish Flu. It could strike alarmingly quickly, leading to collapse and death within days or even hours. For some, symptoms included lungs with a blue-ish fluid and bleeding from the ears or nose. World War One played a factor in spreading the disease, as troops moved back and forth between their homes, bases and front line. Funeral notices of flu victims started to appear next to the names of those killed in action in local newspapers. But the full impact of the epidemic was missing in a media still consumed by the war, subject to censorship and taken by surprise. Ivor Hiley, 32, the son of a butcher from Barry, had managed a drapery business before the war. He had arrived at Newport railway station, on leave from the Royal Field Artillery, where he had been working in the ammunition supply lines in France. He had walked the eight miles (13km) home by midnight but reportedly by the morning was already showing signs of flu. He died on December 16. Both Maud and Molly had developed pneumonia while Ivor's complications included meningitis. Maud's brother also died in the outbreak while other family members were infected but survived. Council-appointed medical officers of health were at the vanguard of dealing with the outbreak on the ground. According to Monmouthshire medical officer Dr David Rocyn-Jones, the epidemic "spread with alarming rapidity". Dr Rocyn-Jones - a former doctor and colliery surgeon in Abertillery - said the infection generally attacked men working in the pits, followed by the mothers and older children "and finally the children attending the infant schools". But many soldiers died too. John Williams, 22, was a milkman before he spent nearly three years as a private in the transport section of the South Wales Borderers. He was given leave after contracting flu and came home to Cwmdare. He died the day before the end of the war. Miner Daniel Davies died two days after the end of the war while on home leave in Llandeilo, another veteran of the Royal Field Artillery. Spanish flu - could it happen again? Spanish flu: How it led some to murder and suicide The Cardiff and Rhondda experience Most deaths in Wales - as elsewhere - happened in the autumn. But in Rhondda, an outbreak in July cost 144 lives in the valley. Influenza was said to be "rampant" in Ferndale, with 1,300 miners laid low, along with 1,000 in Tylorstown. Sick miners were being carried away on ambulances "just as if there had been a big accident," according to one colliery agent. Dr John D Jenkins, the medical officer for health in the Rhondda, wrote: "Whole households were in many instances struck down and made dependent on the ministrations of neighbours...few families escaped and there was much suffering and sorrow." Indeed the intimacies of living in mining communities themselves - including being a good neighbour - contributed partly to the spread of the disease, according to Dr Jenkins. He lamented the "well intentional but ill-advised custom of neighbourly inter-visitation between the occupants of infected and unaffected houses". There was also the habit of spitting "still prevalent in most communities" - a by-product of working with coal. FLU FACTFILE In Cardiff, the worst of the epidemic started in October. Doctors were struggling to cope and some schools were closed. Undertakers were overwhelmed - there was even a shortage of coffins - with 37 funerals on one day in October and Army labour corps drafted in to dig graves. There were reports of bodies being transported in carts from the docks. One man was so delirious with fever, he fell to his death from his bedroom window. Peculiarly, the epidemic did not affect the very young or very old quite as much. Of the deaths in the city, 44% involved younger adults, aged 25 to 45. Older people are now believed to have gained more immunity from a similar infection during their lifetime. Annie Harding, 44, from Canton, had been widowed for 10 years and had five children. Already suffering from heart trouble, her death in November at her home in Railway Terrace - acute bronchitis appears on the death certificate - was one of many in the outbreak in the city. Her brother who lived nearby was at her bedside when she died and was himself feeling "not very grand". A letter from Annie's niece Sybella to her fiance serving in the Army survives in the Glamorgan Archives. She had no doubt it was the "terrible flu". "Dad went yesterday to order the funeral but will not be able even to [do that] before Friday and they are full up and at the undertakers they told him he would be lucky if he gets a chance then," she writes. "There are so many deaths just lately that they were unable to arrange funerals to cope with them". It appeared worse in the poorer and the more overcrowded parts of Cardiff. South Cardiff - which included the docks - had the highest death rate - 29.9 per 1,000. These stories might interest you: 'How I survived Spanish 'flu' How you could help stop a flu epidemic Why are some flu outbreaks worse than others? Out in the country Rural areas did not escape and indeed the highest death rate for the epidemic period in Wales was in Caernarvonshire in north west Wales. In Porthmadog, left with only two doctors due to the war, they were "overwhelmed" with work day and night. In Bangor, two local police officers died, while the infection spread among American servicemen at local camps. But the way the flu could have a devastating impact in even the smallest of communities was illustrated in the tight mining communities of the Ogmore and Garw valleys. In the last week of November, 57 people died. Translated into a death rate, this was the highest anywhere in England and Wales in any single week of the epidemic. Victims included four members of the same family within four days of each other in neighbouring farms near the village of Llangeinor in the Garw valley. Martha Richards, 30, died the same day as her father Morgan Rees; her mother died of shock and 'flu complications the day after Martha's husband Thomas also succumbed. A sister would die later that winter. The Glamorgan Gazette reported "despondency" with many deaths reported and "hundreds laid up". But other areas escaped comparatively lightly. Maesteg recorded "only" 50 deaths and Wales' lowest death rate at 2.1 per 1,000, and only 78 people died of flu in Barry, the second lowest death rate of anywhere in Wales. Could more have been done? Across Wales, precautionary leaflets were issued. The advice included avoiding sneezing and coughing to spread infection, to boil handkerchiefs, take to bed in a well-ventilated room and to avoid overcrowding or places of entertainment. This led to school closures and restrictions being placed on some cinemas and theatres. Epidemiologist Dr Meirion Evans, of Public Health Wales, says the 1918-19 experience "dwarfs things like the bubonic plaque or indeed more recent flu epidemics and pandemics throughout the 20th Century". The sheer scale of the flu's spread "way beyond the parameters of an normal flu season" and the speed of symptoms acting on a minority of patients would have taken the medical profession by surprise. "At the time, they didn't realise it was a viral infection," he said. "The theory current at the time was that it was bacterial infection. It was thought the main ways it spread was simply by respiratory droplets - so if you wore masks it would protect you from it. We've since learnt that actually in practice it probably spreads most efficiently on hands, people cough and sneeze and they get the virus onto their hands." Epidemics expert Dr Jonathan D Quick said something happened with the virus in its second wave to make it more deadly. "Two things have to happen for an epidemic like that - you need to have something that's very contagious - a virus that humans have no immunity to," he said. "So it was a totally new virus from the point of view of our immune system, so we were really susceptible." Dr Evans added: "But obviously things like overcrowding, soldiers in barracks, schoolchildren in dormitories, people going in and out of each other's houses, or looking after people who are sick as opposed to confining them in the bedroom to ensure there was as little direct contact as possible. Those are all factors and features in the spread of flu." Why did we seem to forget what happened? Estimates of how many died in Wales go beyond the "official" figure of 8,759, when the numbers who died from related conditions - like Annie Harding - or where influenza was a contributory factor are considered. The final figure is likely to have been at least 11,400. What was the impact on the many families affected, at a time when they were reeling from war? Catherine Taylor, from Cardiff, was 29 when she died in October 1918 leaving a daughter Kathleen and young son Thomas, five. Thomas's daughter Jan said they moved to live with relatives. "My dad, his sister and my grandfather lived with a maiden aunt," she said. "I don't remember my grandfather a lot but he wasn't full of fun," she said. "I think it was difficult. My father never talked about it. It wasn't easy for any of them. "Millions of people have never heard about the Spanish 'flu. I only know because my mother told me about it; it's sad but my dad never complained." Dr Niall Johnson, who has studied the history of the pandemic in detail, suggests reasons which might explain why influenza has slipped from the collective memory. "These include the fact that it was 'only' flu - particularly when contrasted with the trauma of the war; the common and banal nature of the disease; the low case fatality rate - most people survived; the timing that sees it conflated in the overall war experience, and so on," he said. "I think all these play a role. Much in life is complex and multi-factorial, rarely is there a single, simple explanation."

गनर आइवर जॉन हिली फ्रांस में प्रथम विश्व युद्ध में लड़ते हुए तीन साल तक जीवित रहे थे, लेकिन युद्धविराम दिवस के एक महीने बाद वे घर वापस आ गए थे-और इन्फ्लूएंजा से उनकी मृत्यु हो गई थी।


New Devon and Cornwall deputy police chief appointed

Summary: A new temporary deputy chief constable has been appointed by the Devon and Cornwall Police Authority.

David Zinzan was joining after being a commander in south-east London for the Metropolitan Police, the authority said. He takes over the post from Shaun Sawyer, who is currently temporary chief constable of Devon and Cornwall. Both men were in their new roles until a new police commissioner was elected in November, the force said.

डेवोन और कॉर्नवाल पुलिस प्राधिकरण द्वारा एक नए अस्थायी उप मुख्य कांस्टेबल की नियुक्ति की गई है।


Narendra Modi bombards Bollywood with democracy-loving tweets

Summary: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a prolific tweeter, but even by those standards he really upped the ante on Wednesday. He unleashed a barrage of tweets targeted at several prominent personalities. But the light-hearted tweets could well be part of a much more ambitious plan, says the BBC's Ayeshea Perera in Delhi.

The message was simple: use your influence to get more people to vote. But each tweet - posted roughly every two minutes for a full hour - was customised into a pert, motivational motto, depending on whom it was targeted at. So a tweet targeted at badminton players PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth read: "The core of badminton is the court and the core of democracy is the vote. Just like you smash records, do also inspire a record-breaking voter turnout. I request you to increase voter awareness and motivate youth to vote in large numbers." Another, aimed at politicians including - somewhat audaciously - his rival opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, talked about how a "high turnout augurs well for our democratic fabric". The political veterans would have no choice but to agree with such "sage words" - and maybe that's part of the plan. But his most creative tweets were reserved for film personalities - and he had clearly channelled his inner Bollywood before tweeting at them. So one tweet saw Mr Modi punning on the iconic tagline from the 2001 Bollywood blockbuster Kabhi Kushi Kabhie Gham: "It's all about loving your family." Tagging the two male leads of the film, Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan, as well as its director Karan Johar, the tweet finished with "it's all about loving your... democracy". Then it was on to Bollywood superstars Salman Khan and Aamir Khan, stars of the comedy blockbuster Andaz Apna Apna. Mr Modi asked them to motivate the youth in their own andaz (style) to strengthen apna (our) democracy and apna country. No fancy puns or wordplay - just good old fashioned replacing one word in a film title with the word "democracy". He also tweeted at several actresses, including Deepika Padukone and Anushka Sharma, but laid off the bantering tone, telling them gravely that "as renowned film personalities whose work is admired by many, I am sure their message will have a positive impact on our citizens". This is not the first time the prime minister has focused his attention on Bollywood. Over the past few months in particular, Mr Modi has taken pains to be seen with and around film stars - even though he has undeniable star power of his own with many in India.The above photograph, taken in January and shared on Instagram and Twitter by many of the celebrities in it, did that proverbial "breaking" of social media. And it's not just celebrity photo-ops. Two films featuring pro-government narratives were released this year, with a clear eye on the polls ahead. The Accidental Prime Minister, starring Anupam Kher, was a look back at the tenure of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, based on the memoirs of a staff member. Critic Uday Bhatia reviewed it for the Livemint website and called it an "unsubtle hit job", noting that "a film ostensibly about Manmohan Singh becomes a well-timed attack on the Gandhi family". Uri, a film about India's "surgical strikes" in neighbouring Pakistan in 2016 - when the government claimed it sent troops across the border to take out a militant camp - was much more successful. It was a definite box office hit, and a line from the movie "How is the josh?" ("How is the fighting spirit?") became a rallying cry in India as tensions with Pakistan rose in recent weeks. This isn't just about flying the flag for democracy. This is a clear tactic on the part of Mr Modi to appeal to young voters. In 2014 Mr Modi's Twitter feed was a powerful electoral weapon, a game changer for how politicians engaged on social media. This time around, he appears to be banking on the power of the silver screen. And yet again, it has worked.Unsurprisingly, it's now the hottest topic of social conversation. Each tweet has thousands of retweets and responses, and India has seen millions come online in the past four years - 140 million were added in 2018 alone, many of them young - so this really counts. "This is a phenomenal strategy. Can you imagine the amount of pressure on each of these people he has tagged to respond to him?" Akash Banerjee, a political satirist, told the BBC. "When the prime minister of the country tags you in a tweet and tells you to do your bit for democracy, it would be rather rude not to acknowledge him. So if you look at the tweet tree around these, there will be millions of impressions." And predictably, many of them have scrambled to reply. But beneath the banter, Mr Banerjee says the flurry of tweets is also quite telling. He once analysed 18,000 of Mr Modi's tweets spanning a period of four years before and four years after he became prime minister, and wrote a piece on the PM as a tweeter. But, he says, he has never seen volume on quite this scale before. "Modi is a street fighter. He is not someone to lay back on his laurels and wait, he will go hard for every vote. He knows that he has a tough fight ahead of him this election because regional parties, in particular, are moving in for the kill. So he is using whatever means are at his disposal. "Does it look desperate? Perhaps. But he is not going to let that stop him, he doesn't care what it looks like. He is focused on the kill."

भारतीय प्रधान मंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी एक शानदार ट्वीटर हैं, लेकिन इन मानकों के बावजूद उन्होंने वास्तव में बुधवार को कई प्रमुख हस्तियों को लक्षित करते हुए कई ट्वीट किए। लेकिन दिल्ली में बीबीसी की आयशिया परेरा का कहना है कि हल्के-फुल्के ट्वीट एक अधिक महत्वाकांक्षी योजना का हिस्सा हो सकते हैं।


IoM Food & Drink Festival 2015 attracts 7,000 people

Summary: Seven thousand people attended this year's Isle of Man Food & Drink Festival, organisers have confirmed.

The figure equalled the record turnout for the two-day celebration of Manx cooking and produce, and was an increase of 1,500 on last year. More than 55 exhibitors took part in the festival, which featured cookery demonstrations at the Villa Marina. Agriculture minister Richard Ronan said he was "delighted so many people took the opportunity to attend." He also said he was "pleased to hear business was booming for exhibitors". Festival-goers are encouraged to submit feedback online.

आयोजकों ने पुष्टि की है कि इस साल के आइल ऑफ मैन फूड एंड ड्रिंक फेस्टिवल में सात हजार लोगों ने भाग लिया।


Siege awakens ghosts of Algeria's 'dirty war'

Summary: The twin crises unfolding either side of the Sahara Desert in Mali and Algeria are closely interlinked - the Islamist groups in Mali have their roots in Algeria, while the kidnappers who have just struck in Algeria say they are acting in revenge for France's intervention against their allies to the south.

By Berny SebeColonial studies lecturer, University of Birmingham While some analysts have said it would have not been possible to plan and carry out such a complex operation in the few days since the French intervention in Mali, the well-connected Islamist groups who operate across the Sahara Desert are likely to have had sleeping cells, allied commandos in Algeria and beyond and local sympathisers ready to join in if any high-profile operation was decided. The hostage crisis on a BP oil base at Tigantourine in southern Algeria brings the issue of Islamist groups back to Algeria, where they developed in the early 1990s before the army routed them, forcing their relocation in Mali where ex-President Toumani Toure had the weakness to tolerate them. The Malian crisis is, to a large extent, the by-product of a conflict which has been mostly forgotten these days, but which cost the country between 70,000 and 150,000 lives during Algeria's so-called "dirty-war" (1991-2002). Algerians represent an overwhelming majority of the leadership of jihadist groups in northern Mali. Trained and first exposed to combat in Afghanistan during the war against Soviet invaders (with the blessing of Western supporters), they soon imported back their knowledge of guerrilla tactics and used it to fight the central government after the democratisation process was brutally halted in 1992, just between two election rounds. With the prospect of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) winning the elections on a religious-populist programme, the ruling National Liberation Front party, in power in a single-party system since independence, prevented the Islamists from gaining power legally. Though some Islamists remained legal, the clamp-down on their parties led to the quick development of armed groups which first managed to control some areas of the Algerian territory, before being gradually defeated at the price of a long and bloody conflict which left the civilian population so traumatised that it abstained from rising up when the rest of the Arab world was swept by revolutions in 2011 and 2012. Having been defeated militarily, the Islamist groups were forced to leave the resourceful maquis of northern Algeria, where camouflage had been relatively easy but insufficient to ensure their survival against a regular army increasingly on the offensive and committed to their eradication. They were gradually repelled towards the Saharan regions, until the army gained enough momentum, and knowledge of warfare in desert environments, to force them out of Algeria altogether. Natural target Most of them relocated in northern Mali, where they had the opportunity to create links of kinship by marrying local women, the dowries of whom could be paid easily with the money made out of the abduction of European travellers (for whom hefty ransoms were usually paid) or drug-trafficking. Well-integrated into the local social fabric, they also created synergies between their own agenda and the long-standing Tuareg problem, which has led to five uprisings so far in Mali and Niger since independence in the 1960s. Besides, there have been persistent reports that the Algerian secret services might have been happy to lend a helping hand to this relocation, which not only allowed them to eliminate the problem of armed Islamists at home, but also gave Western governments a constant reminder of the risk looming over the region, therefore propping up foreign support to the Algerian government, in spite of its limited democratic credentials. Sensing the inevitable side-effects of any military intervention in the Sahara, which had the potential to push back home the Islamist problem, the Algerian government has tried for a long time to promote a negotiated solution to the stalemate in northern Mali. However, one of their main partners in this strategy, the Tuareg-led Islamist group Ansar Dine, which they hoped to talk into leaving the coalition with terrorist groups AQIM (Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) and MUJAO (Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa) it had entered into, has betrayed them by taking part in the offensive against the Malian government. By breaking the fragile status quo prevailing since the spring of 2012, it triggered the current French-led military operation in an attempt to avoid a complete collapse in Bamako. By agreeing to open Algerian airspace to French fighter jets on their way to Mali, and to close its southern border, Algiers has unwillingly relapsed into an old war it knows only too well. Unable to confront the firepower of the modern weaponry of the French army, Islamist fighters have found a parade in guerrilla tactics and also by exporting the war to neighbouring countries as much as possible. Among them, Algeria is naturally a key target for historical, logistical and symbolic reasons. Historically, it is the cradle of armed Islamist struggle in North Africa. Logistically, it still counts sturdy sleeping cells which can be easily reactivated whenever necessary. Symbolically, striking a BP base-camp for oil workers sends a powerful message to the Algerian government, by threatening a vital national industry and defying the country's efforts to eradicate terrorism on its own territory. It is as if the old ghosts of the "dirty war" came back from the sands of Mali to haunt Algiers, bringing home the spectre of armed groups which it had taken the Algerian army a decade of great efforts to expel.

माली और अल्जीरिया में सहारा रेगिस्तान के दोनों ओर सामने आने वाले दोहरे संकट निकटता से जुड़े हुए हैं-माली में इस्लामी समूहों की जड़ें अल्जीरिया में हैं, जबकि अल्जीरिया में अभी-अभी हमला करने वाले अपहरणकर्ताओं का कहना है कि वे दक्षिण में अपने सहयोगियों के खिलाफ फ्रांस के हस्तक्षेप का बदला लेने के लिए काम कर रहे हैं।


Honorary degree for Sinden from University of Kent

Summary: Sir Donald Sinden, star of TV comedies Two's Company and Never the Twain, has received an honorary degree from the University of Kent.

The 87-year-old stage and screen actor has also performed Shakespeare and had leading roles in 1950s British films. The University of Kent awarded the degree to Sir Donald in a ceremony at Canterbury Cathedral. After receiving his degree, Plymouth-born Sir Donald said: "I thought they were joking. It's very flattering." He added: "I am suddenly to be made a doctor. I thought they were going to say 'he's going to be doctored', not quite the same thing." The University of Kent has also awarded BBC North America editor Mark Mardell with an honorary degree this week and science writer and broadcaster Dr Simon Singh collects one on Thursday.

टीवी कॉमेडी टूज कंपनी और नेवर द ट्वेन के स्टार सर डोनाल्ड सिंडेन को केंट विश्वविद्यालय से मानद उपाधि मिली है।