Strauss-Kahn: What went right and wrong?

Summary: Now that the charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn have been dropped, expect the blame game to begin in earnest. But the BBC's Laura Trevelyan in New York says some legal analysts believe the case showed the system worked as it should have.

"How could District Attorney Cyrus Vance have got it so wrong?" the critics will ask. Mr Strauss-Kahn's allies will doubtless claim that the now infamous shot of him doing the perp walk in handcuffs outside a New York police station cost him his job as IMF director and the chance to stand for president of France. And yet, a number of legal experts believe that the saga of Nafissatou Diallo versus Dominique Strauss-Kahn shows the system working as it should when faced with the serious accusation of sexual assault. After all, police did find forensic evidence of a sexual encounter of some kind between the hotel maid and the global financier. Diametrically opposed backgrounds It was a case of "she said, he said", where investigators and the prosecution had to unravel the competing accounts. James Cohen, a professor of law at Fordham University, predicts the prosecution will be accused of failing to investigate properly, bringing down an innocent man in the process. But he says the district attorney's office acted appropriately. "The system is supposed to get it right and it did get it right," he said. "There was a charge made and no reason not to accept it. "The defence raised the consensual sexual encounter issue, the [district attorney] investigated the background of the victim and found she had credibility issues. "So it's not a perfect process, but it worked as it's supposed to." Much has been made of the diametrically opposed backgrounds of Ms Diallo, a hotel maid from Guinea, bringing up her daughter in the Bronx borough of New York, and Mr Strauss-Kahn, the poised, wealthy politician and financier. The unravelling Yet after the clash of those two worlds in Manhattan's Sofitel Hotel on 14 May, Ms Diallo's claims of sexual assault were not ignored, even though her lawyer now says the former IMF dierctor's wealth and power intimidated the prosecution into dropping the charges. Police acted quickly to arrest Mr Strauss-Kahn just hours after the alleged encounter - but they would not have acted in such haste had he not been on a plane bound for France, says Linda Fairstein, the former head of the sex crimes unit in the Manhattan district attorney's office. "The French are our friends and allies; it shocked me that we had no extradition agreement with them on sexual cases," she said. "Remember Roman Polanski never came back. There was that history." Then there was Mr Strauss-Kahn's history as a womaniser to consider. "Mr Strauss-Kahn's reputation of someone who's sexually aggressive with women seemed consistent with someone who could do this," Prof Cohen said. Once the police had arrested Mr Strauss-Kahn, he was held in the infamous Ryker's Island jail, notorious for gang violence. The dishevelled, fraught-looking Mr Strauss-Kahn was paraded in front of the cameras, handcuffed, a move New York authorities defended as standard practice. Based on prosecutors' argument that the former jet-setting IMF boss was a flight risk, the judge set stringent bail conditions, placing Mr Strauss-Kahn under house arrest with an armed guard. He and his wife rented a townhouse in lower Manhattan after their original plan to move to a posh apartment block on the Upper East Side fell afoul of neighbours horrified by the hordes of camera crews. 'Damning information' Then, in late June the case began to unravel. The prosecution informed the defence of Ms Diallo's credibility issues - the results of its internal investigation. Ms Diallo had lied on her asylum application and tax forms, prosecutors said, and changed her account of what happened immediately after the alleged attack in the hotel room. US media reported that Ms Diallo had spoken to a man in jail about the possible benefits of bringing a case against Mr Strauss Kahn - her lawyers say the conversation in the Fulani language of Guinea was mistranslated. Subsequently, Mr Strauss-Kahn's bail conditions were lifted. So how did that happen? Given that the entire prosecution case would depend on a jury believing Ms Diallo's version of events, her credibility was key. A feeble, evasive witness would never withstand cross-examination by Mr Strauss-Kahn's crack legal team. The problems arose when prosecutors began looking at Ms Diallo's background. "You start to get records from the banks, from the authorities," said Ms Fairstein, the former sex crimes prosecutor. "You're doing this to support her at the trial. And instead of getting what you expect, you're getting inconsistency." 'Power inequity' Mr Kluger said that what fatally damaged Ms Diallo's credibility was a recorded phone call in which she appeared to discuss the financial benefits of pursuing a case against Mr Strauss-Kahn with her fiance, who was imprisoned on drug charges. "The fact that the witness may have some skeletons in her cupboard isn't necessarily unusual," he said. "It was the fact that there seemed to be a motive - that was the most damning piece of information. "The credibility of the victim is the most important thing and the [district attorney] has to make a judgment. It's embarrassing for them to have so misjudged." Although Prof Cohen believes the legal system worked as it's designed to, he notes the case yielded "very unfortunate consequences". "He lost the managing directorship of the IMF and might have lost the opportunity to be president of France," he said. Ms Fairstein fears the publicity surrounding the case could prove a setback for legitimate victims of sexual assault. "If people dismiss the maid and say she did it for the money, it will have a chilling effect on some rape victims," she said. But Mr Kluger said the case, from start to finish, showed everyone is equal in the eyes of the law. "Her allegations were taken seriously despite the power inequity between them," he said. "A system where the prosecutor brings charges, rather than make backroom deals or sweep things under the carpet, and then says I have questions about the case - that's how it's supposed to work."

अब जब डोमिनिक स्ट्रॉस-कान के खिलाफ आरोप हटा दिए गए हैं, तो उम्मीद है कि दोषारोपण का खेल गंभीरता से शुरू होगा। लेकिन न्यूयॉर्क में बीबीसी की लौरा ट्रेवेलियन का कहना है कि कुछ कानूनी विश्लेषकों का मानना है कि इस मामले से पता चलता है कि प्रणाली ने वैसा ही काम किया जैसा उसे करना चाहिए था।


Three in court over Cumbria car wash 'slavery'

Summary: Three men have appeared in court charged with conspiracy to commit modern slavery offences.

The offences are alleged to have taken place between 2016 and 2017 at two car washes in Carlisle and one in Penrith. Defrim Paci, 39, of Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, Jetmir Paci, 35, of Minimum Terrace, Chesterfield and Sitar Ali, 30, of Adelaide Street, Carlisle, entered no plea. Magistrates bailed them to appear at Carlisle Crown Court on 7 January.

आधुनिक गुलामी अपराधों को अंजाम देने की साजिश रचने के आरोप में तीन लोग अदालत में पेश हुए हैं।


Long NHS waits: My child flew to Turkey for op

Summary: "I was really sore. It was really painful. And I felt really drowsy and sick, and just wanted to go back to bed," says Megan, watching a video of her first steps after major spinal surgery.

By Sarah Bloch-BudzierBBC News Wearing pyjamas and fluffy slippers, she treads carefully, held up on either side by a Turkish nurse. Megan flew to Istanbul for private surgery late last year, having been told she faced long delays for an operation to fix the deformation of her spine, which was causing her problems breathing. When the healthcare trust in Belfast told her parents it would be at least a year before she could have the procedure, they felt they had no choice but to fundraise for treatment. Through the generosity of strangers, the money was raised - but surgery to insert four metal rods into her spine was painful and expensive, costing about £30,000. Just a few days after treatment, 14-year-old Megan had to board a plane home to Northern Ireland. "But I was so happy, because I just wanted it over and done with, and to get back on the road to recovery," she says. For her mother, Karen Fleming, though, the upset and uncertainty still plays on her mind. And she is angry on behalf of dozens of other children still waiting for similar treatment. "It's a shambles. It's a mess," she says. "It's no fault of the surgeons. It's no fault of the nurses. But it's awful. It's just seeing your child in pain every day, knowing that you can't help them. And the only way for a lot of families is to fundraise, or actually to remortgage your house." In Northern Ireland, targets say most patients should be seen within nine weeks and none should wait over 15 weeks. Curvature of the spine Just a few miles away from Megan's home in Carrickfergus, we visit 16-year-old Sophie Tanner in Belfast. She waited 20 months for the same operation, to correct curvature of the spine, before it was cancelled the day before surgery. Her parents were delighted when Sophie was then offered the procedure in Stanmore hospital, in Middlesex. It went well but took 14 hours instead of the eight it was supposed to. Nevertheless, the operation has taken the pressure off her heart and lungs and she has made a very good recovery. But Sophie's parents say having to wait as long as she did was unacceptable. "What most people in Northern Ireland want is the same treatment as the rest of the UK," says her father, Eddie. "We're part of the UK, so we think that the waiting lists should be similar. We pay taxes. We pay National Insurance. We would expect the powers to be to make sure that places are pretty equal." Surgeon: 'We have no choice' Spinal surgeon Niall Eames, in Belfast, says the health service is doing what it can to restructure itself and offer surgery faster. But in the short term he has no choice but to tell many children they need to expect long waits. "Telling a child that they can't have the operation when they need and want the operation - it's completely inappropriate," he says. "Obviously it's terrible for the patients. It's awful for them. But equally for the healthcare people involved in the caring, the managers, the nurses, the consultants, the staff - it's awful not being able to offer the treatment we know they require in a timely manner." New data from the Royal College of Surgeons shows the problem in Northern Ireland is getting worse. At the end of 2017, there were more than 14,000 patients waiting over a year for treatment, with more than 3,000 waiting over two years. In Northern Ireland that represents nearly one in 100 people. By comparison there are about 1,800 people waiting over a year for surgery in England. The Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Board, which runs the NHS, said: "The system is under huge pressure and the waiting times experienced by many patients continue to be unacceptable. "There simply isn't either the money or required staffing levels to sustain the current model of care." But the Department of Health in Northern Ireland said it had announced a £30 million investment in tackling hospital waiting lists in the current year. However, the money has not yet reached the frontline.

रीढ़ की हड्डी की बड़ी सर्जरी के बाद अपने पहले कदमों का एक वीडियो देखते हुए मेगन कहती हैं, "मुझे वास्तव में दर्द हो रहा था। यह वास्तव में दर्दनाक था। और मैं वास्तव में नींद और बीमार महसूस कर रही थी, और बस वापस बिस्तर पर जाना चाहती थी।"


Bristol Royal Hospital for Children: Luke Jenkins's parents want answers

Summary: The parents of a seven-year-old boy who died a week after heart surgery at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children in 2012 say they are still looking for answers - as the findings of a review into cardiac care at the hospital are published.

By Owain ClarkeBBC Wales health correspondent Luke Jenkins was a happy, lively child. More often than not, according to his parents, he had the "biggest smile on his face". "Nothing ever seemed to phase him," his father Stephen Jenkins told me at the family home in St Mellons, Cardiff. "You wouldn't have believed he had a health condition." But before he was even born in November 2004 doctors discovered Luke had a life-threatening heart condition. The family were told he would need three big heart operations to put things right. The first came when he was just three months old. Luke had been in and out of hospital frequently; so often, in fact, he'd developed a fascination with medicine. He liked to dress up as a doctor, had his own stethoscope and white coat, and never wanted to miss an episode of Casualty and Holby City on TV. He considered himself to be best friends with his cardiologist in Cardiff. In fact his mother, Faye Valentine, tells me he told her Luke had decided he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up so that he could help other children who were ill. But Luke never got the chance to realise his dream. A week before Easter 2012, Luke was admitted to Bristol Royal Hospital for Children for his final big heart operation. The hospital is the specialist centre for heart surgery for children from south Wales and the south west of England. The operation, his parents tell me, was a success. But they say they were worried when staff decided to transfer Luke from intensive care to a specialist ward - Ward 32 - less than 24 hours after surgery. After his previous operations, they say Luke had been kept in intensive care for several days. Over the coming days Luke's parents were worried about his recovery He was in a lot of pain, was bleeding from his chest and kept triggering medical alarms His parents flagged up their worries to staff - and wanted Luke to be re-admitted to intensive care. That did not happen. Luke's parents claim part of the problem was that the ward was understaffed, and Luke wasn't being properly monitored. They also complained of a lack of communication between different medical teams. By Good Friday, according to Mr Jenkins, his son woke and asked to see his mother, brother and two sisters. They were staying in accommodation in another part of the hospital By the time they arrived at his bed-side, Luke was screaming, clutching his chest. He fell unconscious. And the "crash" resuscitation team rushed in. His siblings looked on as Luke's chest was opened and the doctors tried to restart his heart. It took 43 minutes. The memory still haunts the entire family. Luke never regained consciousness and died in the early hours of Sunday morning. Ever since, the Jenkins family have sought find out what went wrong. Several investigations and reviews have been completed, others are ongoing. The Independent Review into Cardiac Services is just the latest. It concludes Luke's ward was often "under pressure" - and that "the nursing numbers would have fallen below the recommended levels on a reasonably frequent basis, and that there was a clear risk of harm as a result." The review endorses work being implemented to ensure safer staffing levels on wards caring for very ill children. So are Luke's parents satisfied? Not really. His mother Faye tells me: "It's all a bit wishy-washy and quite disappointing." The family are pinning their hopes that a forthcoming review by the Parliamentary ombudsman will provide more robust answers. They are also pursuing their own legal action. What is clear is the Jenkins family feel they have had to and continue to battle against a health system that is on the defensive and reluctant to admit mistakes. The latest review states the local NHS trusts approach to handling complaints, instead of resolving concerns, had at times led to "deepened suspicions and rifts". There are recommendations to strengthen complaints procedures. REVIEW RECOMMENDATIONS WHICH AFFECT WALES How parents got together after children's deaths But with each report and review the family say their personal grief comes flooding back - as Stephen Jenkins puts it - "it's like a punch in the stomach all over again". Robert Woolley, chief executive of University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation, said as the report was published it wanted to "say sorry, particularly to those parents where the review has found our care fell below acceptable standards". Welsh Health Secretary Vaughan Gething said they would ensure, where appropriate, any relevant recommendations from the review is incorporated into the Welsh heart disease delivery plan. "I appreciate this may be a difficult time for the Welsh families affected by this report," he said. "I want to reassure those families we will be working closely with the NHS in Wales to ensure any lessons are learnt and shared." The Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee's medical director Dr Siân Lewis added: "I want to reassure the families that, since we first became aware of the issues that led to this report, we have been working closely with University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust to address the issues raised." As for the Jenkins family, they say: "We just wanted them [the hospital] to say sorry - we just want to remember the happy times." The happy times spent in the company of Luke; the little boy who despite his own illness and frailties wanted more than anything to be a doctor, so that he could help others.

2012 में ब्रिस्टल रॉयल हॉस्पिटल फॉर चिल्ड्रन में दिल की सर्जरी के एक हफ्ते बाद मरने वाले सात साल के लड़के के माता-पिता का कहना है कि वे अभी भी जवाब ढूंढ रहे हैं-क्योंकि अस्पताल में दिल की देखभाल की समीक्षा के निष्कर्ष प्रकाशित हुए हैं।


Magna Park: Why MP objects to job creation

Summary: It's not a line you hear very often. MP doesn't want hundreds of new jobs in his constituency. That's true for the Conservative MP for South Leicestershire, Alberto Costa. It's a standpoint he's had to take after consulting the people who matter most to him - those who voted for him at the last election.

Tony RoePolitical editor, BBC East Midlands It's all over plans to double the size of the area covered by what is already the biggest distribution centre in Europe. Magna Park, sited on an old airfield near Lutterworth, is geographically in a very good place for companies like Asda, Argos and parcel distributors DHL in this online age. Magna is right next to the M1 and A5, that old Roman road which runs up the spine of the country. It's handy too for the M6 and M69. Plus, there's an international rail hub eight miles down the road in the Daventry district. Some call it the golden triangle. The expansion plans were revealed before the General Election. And the new Tory candidate, in what is a safe seat, went to visit Magna Park and said at the time that "any development must take into account the views of people living here". He urged those with an interest to contact him. And those views have indeed shaped his opinion. It's probably come as a surprise to business leaders. The East Midlands Chamber of Commerce wants to see Magna Park grow and bring with it 700 new jobs. Chris Hobson, its director of policy, said: "This is a real opportunity for the East Midlands. It will bring new jobs and businesses into the area, making the region a force for growth in the UK". Stand at any roundabout and road junction near Lutterworth and you'll see one of the things local people object to most about Magna Park. You can already hear the roar of the traffic thundering by on the nearby M1, but it's the lorries heading to the distribution centre which rumble around the town day and night. People are worried about an increasing number. They worry about the air pollution they bring and the traffic jams which often happen when shifts change at Magna. Malcolm Stringer has other concerns. He bought his home next to the A5 17 years ago. A place for him to retire. Sitting in his grounds you can see the white buildings of Magna Park in the far distance. If all the expansion plans are approved by Harborough District Council, the massive warehouses will come right up to the hedge at the bottom of his garden. He feels he would be trapped if planning permission is given as he'd be unable to sell up if he wanted to move away. Mr Stringer also questions why such big development of Magna Park is needed when there are already empty units on the existing distribution centre. The local county councillor, Rosita Page, said she feels economic development is only right if the need for it is established; in other words, if jobs are required, and she doesn't feel the case has been made to approve the plans. These are all the views Alberto Costa has been listening to and why he's taken the decision to object to the doubling of Magna Park. "It might be good for the nation as a whole, this development, but for my particular constituency there's a real risk that it will increase traffic to unacceptable levels," he said. And as for missing out on the jobs, he said: "Is it not better to put these parks where there is a genuine need for jobs? South Leicestershire has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the whole of the United Kingdom." The latest unemployment figures bear this out - 423 people on Jobseeker's Allowance, which is less than 1% of the working population. Like the lorries, this story will rumble along for a while yet and there will be a lot of noise too - expect demonstrations at the planning meetings and arguments to Government level at Westminster if the expansion is approved.

यह एक ऐसी पंक्ति नहीं है जिसे आप अक्सर सुनते हैं। सांसद अपने निर्वाचन क्षेत्र में सैकड़ों नई नौकरियां नहीं चाहते हैं। यह दक्षिण लीसेस्टरशायर के कंजर्वेटिव सांसद, अल्बर्टो कोस्टा के लिए सच है। यह एक ऐसा दृष्टिकोण है जिसे उन्हें उन लोगों से परामर्श करने के बाद लेना पड़ा है जो उनके लिए सबसे अधिक महत्वपूर्ण हैं-जिन्होंने पिछले चुनाव में उन्हें वोट दिया था।


Do Republican voters buy President Biden's message of unity?

Summary: President Joe Biden has finished his first full day in office.

He immediately took steps to undo several Trump-era policies with executive actions - including halting funding for the border wall and reversing the travel ban on majority Muslim countries. We asked Republicans on our voter panel how they feel that fits with the president's call for unity. Udayan is an engineer and conservative voter who thinks Donald Trump was the best American president ever. How did you feel about President Biden's first day? It was just like any other first day of an administration. It would have been much more fun if Trump was in the White House, but I wasn't upset. I take the view that both Trump and Biden are servants of the people - not crowned heads of state - and they do not hold any power over me. Therefore we move on with Biden as president as we moved on with Trump as president. What was your reaction to the president's executive orders? The mask mandate is utterly useless and merely forces people who work in federal facilities to wear a mask. Cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline is a bad idea, but it was foreseeable. The repeal of the travel ban was to be expected. I do not support a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants; that is an invitation to break into the country. All these executive orders are nothing unusual. It's one of the easiest ways to start making an impact when you are not sure of your position in the legislature. Has Biden shown he can unify the nation? I personally do not think so. The ideology he stands for is a bit too radical and I do not believe it's going to unify the country. I do not have very high expectations for this presidency. The US federal government should not be a "nanny" state. It's not there to love you. Donald Trump was a strong and ardent constitutionalist, and therefore one of the best presidents. He was not in the business of offering a helping hand in tough times because you're supposed to tough it out. Gabrielle is a Republican college student in Washington DC who refused to vote for Donald Trump. She wants to see both parties work together. How was the president's first day? It was painfully normal and kind of refreshing. It was definitely cool to see Mike Pence go to the inauguration. And it was a big deal - two weeks after the Capitol was attacked - to see the peaceful transition of power. Obviously I would love to have a Republican in control, but Biden's win is an opportunity for the Republican Party to look at itself in the mirror. What about the those executive orders? I don't think he did anything crazily drastic yesterday. I'm not opposed to the Paris climate agreement, but it's just a piece of paper; it fails to hold leading polluters, China and India, accountable. I have mixed feelings about suspending the Keystone XL pipeline. If we can get to a point where masks are no longer politicised, then a mask mandate is great, but it doesn't really do anything that has not already happened. A lot of the executive orders were just about symbolism. Can Biden unify the nation? I think there's potential for bipartisan agreements but one president cannot fix all the internal division that has been metastasising for about a decade. Unity is more about actions than words. After the Trump administration, a lot of people feel like they are not going to be heard anymore and that's something both parties need to address. The Republican Party needs to ask itself how it can show it is the party for blue-collar workers, Middle America and small business. The Democratic Party needs to ask how it has lost those groups and why so many people don't trust them. Rom is a Marine Corps veteran and Trump supporter who does not want to see his party go back to the way it was before Trump. How was Biden's first day? The one thing that stood out in my mind that he said was, "we have to come together and be unified". This is true, but how do you do it? I didn't see or hear him say anything that's going to unify us from the standpoint of a leader. From my perspective, he's pushing an agenda that does not reflect all Americans. What about those executive orders? I don't understand how giving a path to citizenship for 11 million illegals in the country is going to unify us. It's allowing people who have broken our laws to stay here and become citizens when they got here illegally. The problem with the Paris climate accord is that it doesn't hold China and India accountable. The WHO is a worthy organisation in general, but it had a major failure with regard to the pandemic, yet we are re-joining it willy-nilly without addressing the problems associated with it. Can Biden's unify the nation? Based on the past 24 hours, not at all. I think it's going to be a third Obama administration. If you're on the right, you feel like you have no voice anymore. The biggest thing President Biden could have said was it's not okay for "Big Tech" to shut down voices on the right because freedom of speech is one of this country's most cherished values. That one comment alone could have made people sit up and listen. I'm not one of those fringe people that say he's not my president or he was elected fraudulently. Democrats have the White House and both houses of Congress, and they've got two years to prove themselves. I'm going to sit back and see where the chips may fall. Eliana is a professional dancer and a big Trump supporter who is taking a step back from politics after his election defeat. How was Biden's first day? I was accepting of it. This is our new president, I'm excited for him and I hope he does a good job. I have completely lost all faith in the legitimacy of our elections - but once the Supreme Court pushed away all the cases, around the end of December, I thought it's more about coming together and doing what's best for all of us, rather than continuing to fight. After the Capitol, it made me more disheartened because politics is a show, it's like a theatre. What about those executive orders? If you want an honest answer, some of them are terrifying. It's the left's platform, but it is not a liberal platform. He's doing nothing to mend the gap between us. It's all so disappointing and terrifying. I feel like we're about to watch a huge economic collapse. Can Biden unify the nation? Not at all. If he hasn't unified the country in the 47 years he has been in politics, how in the world would he unify us now? Personally, I'm taking a step back when it comes to the national level of politics and keeping it local. I felt so isolated from friends I've had for years when they found out I was a Trump supporter. So I'm looking forward to bridging those gaps, but it's sad because politics should never get in the way of friendships. Reporting by Sam Cabral.

राष्ट्रपति जो बाइडन ने अपने कार्यकाल का पहला पूरा दिन पूरा कर लिया है।


Man hurt in nine vehicle crash on A96 at Huntly

Summary: A man has been injured in a crash involving nine vehicles on the A96 at Huntly in Aberdeenshire.

Four lorries, three cars and two vans were involved in the collision, between the Glens of Foudland and Colpy on the southbound carriageway. Most people involved were free from their vehicles by the time emergency services arrived, but a lorry driver was taken to hospital for treatment. The man's injuries were not thought to be life-threatening. The road was closed while three of the lorries and a diesel spill are recovered.

एबरडीनशायर के हंटली में ए96 पर नौ वाहनों की दुर्घटना में एक व्यक्ति घायल हो गया है।


Second murder arrest over Malvern Hills burning car body

Summary: A second man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a man was found in a burning car in the Malvern Hills.

Emergency services were called to the blaze in a lay-by on Ankerdine Road in Cotheridge, Worcestershire, on Saturday. The victim, in his 60s, was pronounced dead at the scene. A 27-year-old man arrested in connection with the man's death earlier is being held in custody. A 51-year-old man, arrested on suspicion of murder on Sunday also remains in custody, West Mercia Police said. Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk

मालवर्न हिल्स में एक व्यक्ति को जलती हुई कार में पाए जाने के बाद हत्या के संदेह में दूसरे व्यक्ति को गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


Ernesto Guevara: How my father inspired my Cuban motorcycle tours

Summary: On 9 October 1967, guerrilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara was executed in Bolivia. Fifty years on, the BBC's Will Grant takes a motorbike tour of Cuba with the leader's son and asks him about the pressures of living under his father's legacy.

By Will GrantCuba correspondent, BBC News At times, the family resemblance is uncanny. The stubbly beard, the unmistakable nose, the similarity extending down to a smouldering cigar clasped firmly between his forefingers. Beyond the physical attributes, the youngest son of Latin America's most recognisable revolutionary, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, has inherited another trait from his late father: his love of motorbikes. "I've always liked mechanics, speed, motorbikes, cars," said 52-year-old Ernesto, named after his father, over a cold drink in a Harley Davidson-themed bar in Havana. "As a child I was interested in repairing cars and bikes. I suppose it's something I picked up from my old man but wherever it's from, I love it." Despite the shared passion, the younger Guevara has taken a very different path in life: into tourism. He runs a motorbike tour company whose only link to Che is in the name, La Poderosa Tours after La Poderosa, the famous Norton 500cc on which his father crossed the Americas in the Motorcycle Diaries. La Poderosa Tours is a private company using foreign capital and works with several state-run Cuban companies. It is part of the wave of private enterprise permitted under rule changes by President Raul Castro in 2010, and a far cry from Ernesto's training as a lawyer. When I joined him on a recent tour, we headed out west, towards the tobacco-growing region of Pinar del Río. Heads turned on the streets of Havana as the fleet of Harley Davidsons swept out of the capital. The motorbike is proving an increasingly popular way to see the island. The tour group was a broad cross-section of nationalities including riders from the United States, China, Britain and Argentina. "Americans my age have never been able to come to Cuba and now we can," reflected amateur bike enthusiast Scott Rodgers from Massachusetts when we stopped for coffee. "I don't know long that is going to last so I thought I had to jump through this window while I could." Others were directly drawn to the link to Che, including Eduardo Lopez, a fellow Argentine. "Of course he is part of the attraction," Eduardo said. "Travelling the world by motorbike is my hobby but we specifically came on this tour because Che lived for years in my home town of Córdoba. So we feel a link to this myth, this figure." Despite the famous surname, Ernesto insists he is very much his own man. "I always try to not link things. Anything I've achieved I've done as Ernesto Guevara March - as myself, as a human being," said the son from Che's second marriage to Cuban Aleida March. "I do everything with a sense of responsibility. If it works out, then great. If not, fair enough." So far, it's a business philosophy that has served him well. Last year saw record numbers of tourists visit Cuba and business at La Poderosa Tours is brisk. He knows he has his critics though, particularly in Miami. It is often pointed out that after being born with such Marxist credentials, the younger Guevara has made a capitalist's career in tourism. It's not a charge that worries him, however. "It has nothing to do with whether it's socialist or capitalist," he argued with a hint of indignation in his voice. "It makes no sense to focus on that issue. For me, we're doing a good job, one that helps my country." Our tour carried on to a place synonymous with the darker side of his father's image, the Cabaña Fortress. It was here that after the revolutionaries took power, Che presided over the revolutionary trials of members of the ousted military government. Dozens were executed in what critics of the Cuban Revolution say was summary justice. Fifty years after his father's death, Ernesto still leaps to his defence insisting the trials were "normal". I pointed out that such a view will incense some families the other side of the Florida Straits. "The enemy can say what he likes. The people of Cuba know why it was done, how it was done, and above all in order to bring tranquillity to all Cuban society that they weren't going to pardon murderers of that kind," he said looking out across the bay to Havana. "So I'm very calm, my soul is at peace, and my father's soul is too." Ernesto readily admits it wasn't always easy growing up with a famous father - or rather, without one. Che Guevara was executed in Bolivia in 1967 when Ernesto was just two. "Of course, at school sometimes you'd be pointed out as 'Ernesto Guevara', but generally you were known as 'Ernesto Guevara March', which is the person you are. The son of both your father and your mother." And as the worldwide fascination with his iconic father shows no signs of slowing down, this has become a point the younger Ernesto is keen to stress. "Those who love me, love me for the person I am. Not just for the name Guevara."

9 अक्टूबर 1967 को, गुरिल्ला नेता अर्नेस्टो "चे" ग्वेरा को बोलीविया में फांसी दे दी गई। पचास साल बाद, बीबीसी के विल ग्रांट नेता के बेटे के साथ क्यूबा का एक मोटरबाइक दौरा करते हैं और उनसे अपने पिता की विरासत के तहत रहने के दबाव के बारे में पूछते हैं।


RAF St Athan becomes civilian airport

Summary: St Athan airfield has become a civilian airport after it was taken over by the Welsh Government and Cardiff Airport earlier.

For more than 80 years, the Vale of Glamorgan site has operated as an RAF base. It was announced last July that the change of hands would take place. It is hoped the venture, which includes the running of a business park, will create 2,000 jobs including 750 at a new Aston Martin factory. The transition is scheduled to take place over 10 years and will see the airfield regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority rather than the Military Aviation Authority of the Ministry of Defence. Transport Secretary Ken Skates said there were currently no plans to develop St Athan as a passenger airport but freight services might be a possibility.

वेल्श सरकार और कार्डिफ हवाई अड्डे द्वारा पहले अधिग्रहण किए जाने के बाद सेंट एथन हवाई अड्डा एक नागरिक हवाई अड्डा बन गया है।


Covid in Uttar Pradesh: Coronavirus overwhelms India's most populous state

Summary: India is reeling under a severe second wave of Covid-19 and many states are struggling to cope with the rising numbers. Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, is among the worst affected in the country and its people are suffering even as authorities insist the situation is under control, reports the BBC's Geeta Pandey.

Kanwal Jeet Singh's 58-year-old father Niranjan Pal Singh died on Friday in an ambulance while being ferried from one hospital to another. They had been turned away by four hospitals for a lack of beds. "It was a heart-wrenching day for me," he told me on the phone from his home in Kanpur city. "I believe if he had received treatment on time, he would have lived. But no-one helped us, the police, the health authorities or the government." With a total of 851,620 infections and 9,830 deaths since the pandemic began last year, Uttar Pradesh had not done too badly during the first wave that ravaged many other states. But the second wave has brought it to the brink. Authorities say the situation is under control. But disturbing images of overcrowded testing centres, hospitals turning away patients and funeral pyres burning round the clock at cremation grounds in the state capital, Lucknow, and other major cities such as Varanasi, Kanpur and Allahabad have made national headlines. With 240 million people, Uttar Pradesh is India's most populous state. Home to every sixth Indian, if it was a separate country, it would be the fifth largest by population in the world, just behind China, India, US and Indonesia - and bigger than Pakistan and Brazil. The state is also politically India's most important - it sends the largest number of MPs - 80 - to parliament, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi who, although from another state, contests from here. However, this political influence has brought it little development. The state has 191,000 active cases at the moment and thousands of new infections are being reported daily - though numbers are believed to be much higher - and this has put the state's creaky health infrastructure firmly in the spotlight. Among the sick are the state's Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, several of his cabinet colleagues, dozens of government officials and hundreds of doctors, nurses and other health workers. Over the past few days, I have spoken to dozens of people from across the state, and heard grim stories. Videos shared by a local journalist in Kanpur show a sick man lying on the ground in the parking lot of the government-run Lala Lajpat Rai hospital. A little distance away, an elderly man sits on a bench. They are both positive for Covid, but the hospital has no beds to accommodate them. Outside the government-run Kanshiram hospital, a young woman wept as she said that two hospitals had refused to admit her sick mother. "They're saying they have run out of beds. If you don't have a bed, put her on the floor, but at least give her some treatment. There are lots of patients like her. I've seen several people like me being turned away. "The chief minister says there are adequate beds, please show me where they are. Please treat my mother," she said, sobbing inconsolably. 'No-one came' The situation in the capital, Lucknow, is equally dire. Sushil Kumar Srivastava was photographed sitting in his car, strapped to an oxygen cylinder while his desperate family drove him from one hospital to another. By the time they found a bed for him, it was too late. When I called his son Ashish, he said he was too devastated to talk. "You know what's happened. I'm in no condition to talk," he said, his voice breaking. Retired judge Ramesh Chandra's handwritten note in Hindi, requesting help after the authorities failed to remove his wife's body from their home, was shared by hundreds of people on social media. "My wife and I are both corona positive. Since yesterday morning, I called the government helpline numbers at least 50 times, but no-one came to deliver any medicines or take us to hospital. "Because of the administration's laxity," he wrote, "my wife died this morning." Personally, it's come as no surprise to me that the state is struggling to deal with the coronavirus pandemic as it wreaks havoc on its people. For years, I have despaired at the poor medical facilities in the state - it's where my ancestral village is located and I know the struggles of finding a doctor or an ambulance even in normal times. With a raging pandemic, the struggles have become harder. In the holy city of Varanasi, which is also PM Modi's constituency, long-time resident Vimal Kapoor, whose 70-year-old mother Nirmala Kapoor died from Covid in a hospital last Thursday, described the situation as "bhayavah" - frightening. "I have seen too many people dying in ambulances. Hospitals are turning away patients because there are no beds, chemists have run out of essential Covid drugs, and oxygen is in short supply." Mr Kapoor said when he took his mother's body to the cremation ground, he encountered a "lashon ka dher" - a pile of bodies. The cost of wood for the pyre has gone up three times and the wait for a spot for cremation has risen from 15-20 minutes to five-six hours. "I have never seen anything like that before. Wherever you look, you see ambulances and bodies," he said. Stories of deaths and families devastated by Covid-19 abound as infections continue to gallop - on Sunday, the state recorded 30,596 new cases, it's highest-ever single-day tally. Even that, activists and opposition politicians say, does not give a true picture of the infection's spread. They accuse the state of keeping its case and death count low by not testing enough and not including data from private laboratories. And there seems merit in their claim. Many people I spoke to said either they had failed to get tested or their positive results had not been uploaded on the state government site. From Lucknow, 62-year-old Ajay Singh sent me his wife's positive test report which finds no mention in the state records. And neither Mr Singh who died in Kanpur, nor Mrs Kapoor's mother who perished in Varanasi, were included in the state's tally of pandemic casualties - their death certificates did not mention coronavirus as the cause of death. Indian media has also questioned the government data - with reports of a mismatch between the official number of deaths and the bodies at crematoriums in Lucknow and Varanasi. Anshuman Rai, director of Heritage Hospitals - a private group that runs medical collages and hospitals in the state - describes the situation as "extraordinary". "The reason why services are cracking is because too many health workers, including doctors, nurses, ward boys and lab technicians are falling sick. "At a time when we should be working 200%, we are not even able to do 100% because the health sector is totally manpower dependent." Critics, however, blame the state and the federal government for failing to anticipate the second wave. They say there was a lull between September and February when the health services and infrastructure could have been augmented, the state could have created oxygen banks and stocked up on medicines, but they squandered the opportunity. And with the virus spreading rapidly, things are unlikely to get better anytime soon. Charts and data analysis by Shadab Nazmi

भारत कोविड-19 की गंभीर दूसरी लहर से जूझ रहा है और कई राज्य बढ़ती संख्या से निपटने के लिए संघर्ष कर रहे हैं। भारत का सबसे अधिक आबादी वाला राज्य उत्तर प्रदेश देश में सबसे अधिक प्रभावित राज्यों में से एक है और इसके लोग पीड़ित हैं, जबकि अधिकारी स्थिति को नियंत्रण में रखने पर जोर दे रहे हैं।


Work starts on 800-home development at Ely, Cardiff

Summary: A £100m seven-year project to build 800 homes in Cardiff has begun.

The Tirion Group development at the 53 acre (21 hectares) former Arjo Wiggins paper mill site in Ely, is expected to create about 1,000 jobs during construction. It includes affordable and open-market houses, a village centre, footpaths and cycle ways. Civil engineering works will take 16 months.

कार्डिफ में 800 घरों के निर्माण के लिए 100 मिलियन पाउंड की सात साल की परियोजना शुरू हो गई है।


Tesco turns stale as competitors freshen up ideas

Summary: The troubles just keep on mounting for Tesco.

By Richard AndersonBusiness reporter, BBC News Stagnant sales, falling profits, boardroom turmoil, dodgy accounting and now its biggest loss in history. No wonder shoppers and investors alike are questioning what was, until recently, the undisputed king of UK retailing, revered as much for its gargantuan sales as its continual innovation. So where did it all go wrong? Innovation From humble beginnings selling army surplus food in the aftermath of the First World War, Tesco's stranglehold on the UK's food retailing sector began to tighten in the 1990s. It was one of the first major retailers to understand the power of loyalty cards - not just in boosting sales through discounts but in using vast amounts of customer data to help tailor individual shopping experiences. Tesco's Clubcard has since proved a blueprint for reward schemes countrywide. It was a pioneer both in introducing smaller convenience stores in towns and cities under the Express and Metro brands, and in differentiating own-label products with its Value and Finest ranges. Tesco was also at the forefront of online shopping, understanding the importance of home delivery in the internet age. In short, it "understood its customers and implemented this understanding on the shop floor," says Neil Saunders at retail research group Conlumino. "Its marketing was both clear and compelling." From snapping at the heels of Sainsbury's in the mid-1990s, Tesco's share of the market hit almost a third by 2006, almost twice that of its erstwhile rival. It was opening new stores in the UK at a rapid rate and embarking on a substantial overseas expansion plan that helped it become the world's third largest retailer. There was, it seemed, no stopping this retail leviathan bent on global domination. 'Startling decline' And yet things have turned sour remarkably quickly. Sales have been stagnant for the past four years while hefty profits have turned into significant losses. Last year, market share fell below 30% consistently for the first time in eight years. And despite a rally early this year, Tesco's share price is still down by more than 20% over the past 12 months. Investors would normally pile in to a blue riband stock after such a startling decline, but as Garry White, chief investment commentator at Charles Stanley stockbrokers, says, some City investors refer to Tesco as a 'value trap' - a bargain stock that fails to perform. Some reasons for the supermarket's dramatic fall from grace were outside the retailer's control, others less so. The financial crisis and subsequent recession focused consumers' minds on value and led to the rise of discount chains - primarily Germany's Aldi and Lidl - at the expense of the established UK supermarkets, primarily Tesco. At the same time, changes in shopping habits meant consumers were less willing to visit large out-of-town hypermarkets - the kind Tesco had invested heavily in - when they could get their groceries delivered at the click of a mouse. Perhaps more importantly, Tesco became "complacent", according to Mr Saunders. "It became a bit arrogant about its position, lost its customer focus and stopped innovating." He also argues the company became too focused on profit and stopped investing in stores and customer service. This lack of investment became all too obvious on the shop floor. Tesco also lost a lot of money, not to mention management time, on expensive overseas projects such as Fresh and Easy, its failed foray into the lucrative US market. Finally, the company seems to have lost its way - where once there was a clear vision and identity, now there is indecision and confusion. As Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at research group Kantar Worldpanel, says: "There has been no big innovation for a long time, while nobody knows what [the company] stands for." The appointment of marketeer Dave Lewis as chief executive following the short and ultimately unsuccessful reign of Philip Clarke recognised as much. "Tesco has a major brand problem and Mr Lewis understands brands," says Mr McKevitt. 'Radical solutions' But what can he do to help Tesco turn the tide in a retail landscape that has changed considerably since the chain's heyday? Not only is the market more fragmented and more competitive, but all grocery retailers have yet to find a way to make good money from online shoppers. Mr Clarke launched a £1bn turnaround plan that did little to convince investors. His successor will need to do more than throw money at the problem. "Radical solutions are needed," says Rahul Sharma, retail analyst at Neev Capital. "Tesco's predicament is similar to other major global retailers such as Walmart and Carrefour - it is wedded to its big stores. There are no easy answers." These stores are not just a major source of profits, he argues, but they are integral to the distribution of home-delivered goods. Simply selling off big stores is not, therefore, an easy solution. But whatever direction Tesco chooses to go, whether it be reinvigorating both the brand and its big stores, or becoming a more streamlined business focusing on smaller outlets, one thing is certain - it is unlikely to return to its former glory. "Tesco can be turned around, but it will take a few years," says Mr Saunders. "However it will never get back to where it was." For those critics of Tesco, who bemoan its role in ousting local retailers and paying farmers unsustainably low prices for their produce, this is perhaps no bad thing.

टेस्को के लिए परेशानी बढ़ती जा रही है।


Aberdeen bypass work gets under way with ground investigations

Summary: Preparatory work for the Aberdeen bypass has got under way.

The ground investigations, expected to take up to six months, will give potential bidders information needed to submit tenders for the contract. The 28-mile road was given the green light by Scottish ministers in 2009, but was delayed by legal action. Protesters lost their appeal to the Supreme Court last month. Previously predicted to cost £347m, that has risen to more than £650m. Transport Minister Keith Brown said: "We have already informed the construction industry tenders for the main works will be issued in spring next year." Aberdeen City Council leader Barney Crockett said: "I'm delighted to see that work is getting under way so quickly."

एबरडीन बाईपास के लिए तैयारी का काम चल रहा है।


Eating disorders: Patients with 'wrong weight' refused care

Summary: Eating disorders are complex and can affect anyone.

By Jayne McCubbinBBC Breakfast When Eliza Small started seriously restricting her eating two years ago, she was referred for specialist help. Her family had a history of eating disorders. But she was refused specialist outpatient mental health treatment because her body mass index (BMI) was too high. ''It made me feel like I wasn't good enough at my eating disorder," she said. "It made me feel like I would have to get better at it.'' Which she did. A family member eventually paid for her to have private treatment and she was diagnosed with atypical anorexia - all the symptoms but not the right weight. But what is the right weight? Prof Tim Kendall, England's most senior mental health adviser, says weight shouldn't come into it. ''If you leave an eating disorder until it's got to the point where, say with anorexia, they've lost say a third of their body weight, that has a lot of longer-term consequences which make it very difficult to treat, so it's wrong in my view to leave this until it's got very bad. "To be told you're not thin enough - it's almost an incitement to get worse. It's like someone going to their GP and being told - you drink one bottle of whisky a day right now? Come back when you drink two.'' Prof Kendall believes patient choice is important and community care has a much better chance of success. It should never be withdrawn, he says, and hospital treatment should be enforced only in the most extreme cases. Guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) state that on its own, BMI is an unreliable measure of an eating disorder. BBC Breakfast asked all 62 mental health trusts in England and Wales if they used BMI to decide who would qualify for outpatient eating disorder services. Of the 44 trusts which responded, one-third said they did. All said they used it along with other indicators - such as the speed of weight loss. Three trusts, however, said it was a primary measure. They were Derbyshire, Coventry and Kent and Medway. In some areas, patients might be refused access to services if their BMI was over 14. In others, like Kent and Medway, if it was over 17.5. Some trusts said they had a minimum threshold under which people might be refused outpatient services. This is what happened to Claire: ''The first thing they did was weigh me and tell me my BMI was too low. "I would have to go to hospital. I didn't want to, I'd had a bad experience before and I thought I was making good progress as an outpatient. So I was left to my own devices. "Everyone's eating-disorder experience is completely different, you can't put everybody in the same box - you have to listen to the person, to how they are feeling." Sarah Hodge, from Kent and Medway Partnership Trust eating disorder service, said they would rather not use it as a measure at all, but the problem was resources. ''You can have much more success when people have a higher BMI, they're much better able to engage with the therapy. But we just don't have the resources.'' The Department of Health says more funding is on the way: "We are investing £150m to develop community services in every area of the country for children and young people." Eating disorder guidelines from NICE are being redrafted. The hope is some of these concerns will be addressed when new guidelines are published later in the year." Eliza said: ''You wouldn't tell someone with cancer to come back when their condition had deteriorated, why tell someone with an eating disorder?" Eating disorders: Research from the eating disorders charity Beat suggests more than 725,000 people in the UK are affected by an eating disorder. The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence estimates around 11% of those affected by an eating disorder are male. The Health and Care Information Centre published figures in February 2014 showing an 8% rise in the number of inpatient hospital admissions in the 12 months to October 2013. It is estimated that around 40% of people with an eating disorder have bulimia, 10% anorexia, and the rest other conditions, such as binge-eating disorder. Many eating disorders develop during adolescence, but it is not at all unusual for people to develop eating disorders earlier or later in life. Source: Beat: Beating eating disorders. Fit and fat: Is BMI the best way to tell if you're healthy? Where are you on the global fat scale? Update 4 August 2016: This story has been amended to remove the Cumbria trust from the list of trusts using BMI as a primary indicator. Although it told the BBC that BMI was a primary indicator, the trust has since stressed that it is one of a number of criteria used after a diagnosis of anorexia.

भोजन संबंधी विकार जटिल होते हैं और किसी को भी प्रभावित कर सकते हैं।


Are we stigmatising Charlie Sheen?

Summary: The recent behaviour of actor Charlie Sheen has led to some - including US TV doctor Dr Drew Pinsky and a number of bloggers - to suggest he has bipolar disorder. In this week's Scrubbing Up column, mood disorders expert Dr Paul Keedwell suggests why many commentators tend to condemn or stigmatise celebrities who behave in this way.

VIEWPOINT By Dr Paul Keedwell, Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute at Cardiff University Charlie Sheen has been flying the flag for the alpha male and the spirit of adventure with more than a little wit and bravura; something that has led to intense speculation about his mental health. Whether or not Sheen does have a mental illness, the media coverage has told us important things about the way society sees mental health problems. Articles on Sheen's behaviour have ranged from the judgmental - decrying his hedonistic lifestyle - to the celebratory - he has a right to behave like this and we should stop psychologising. But there are also compassionate voices emerging: serious attempts to understand his behaviour. Only a psychiatrist who fully assesses an individual face-to-face and takes a history from all possible sources is well placed to come up with a diagnosis and consider treatment options for mental illness. Often more than one problem is identified, requiring a complex set of psychological, social and medical interventions. However, many doctors in the media, and mental health discussion forums, have drawn parallels between Sheen's behaviour and the signs and symptoms of bipolar disorder. These include increased rate of speech, speeding thoughts, increased sexual drive and reckless sexual behaviour, increased drug or alcohol misuse, profligate spending, irritability, thoughts of being especially powerful or gifted, thoughts rapidly jumping from one subject to another (known as "flight of ideas"), distractibility, paranoia, boundless energy and reduced need for sleep. 'A neat cause' Discussions around the subject of bipolar disorder have generally been a good thing, highlighting the difficulties inherent in both diagnosing the disorder in the context of a hedonistic culture and drug misuse, and the difficulties in persuading the sufferer to accept treatment when they are feeling so elated and expansive. However, it is worth considering the less charitable interpretations of Sheen's behaviour. For example, we might take the line that he has brought his problems on himself by making a bad moral choice. Drug use can certainly trigger and destabilise an underlying predisposition to mental illness. However, even if mental illness runs in the family, predicting which of us will become ill is difficult. To condemn someone with mental illness for using drugs is like condemning the smoker who has lung cancer. Also, the more considered commentators realise that mental illness can lead to excessive drug misuse, as well as the other way round. I believe that there are three basic motivations underlying such negative judgements. Firstly, they provide us with what we think is a neat cause for his mental imbalance - a lifestyle so extreme that we can distance ourselves from it, satisfy ourselves that what he is experiencing would never happen to us. Secondly, in judging him, we can all feel a bit better about our own transgressions. Finally, because we envy celebrity as much as we covet it, we have a morbid fascination with witnessing the downfall of those who we admired. Another angle from commentators is that Sheen's behaviour is merely on a spectrum of normality and that he should be free to express himself. The behaviour of someone with a mental health problem may be infectious and seductive: many of us are naturally attracted to someone who is happy, energetic, expansive and creative. We can all 'win' Superficially, behaviours expressed by individuals with a mental illness do not have a clear cut off from more common variation. Bipolar disorder, for example, merges into cyclothymia - the moody personality. This "bipolar spectrum" has expressed itself in our great poets, artists, scientists and novelists. At the sharp end, though, there is a real risk of suicide (over 500 times the average population risk) or death through excessive risk taking, not to mention the long term social consequences of marriage break up, career meltdown or a prison sentence. I once assessed a man in clinic who had rapidly descended from IT entrepreneur with a loving family to a divorced, unemployed ex-con living in a hostel in a deprived part of London, wondering how he could have been arrested two years earlier in a South London brothel, threatening a prostitute with a replica hand gun. Mental illness is still treated differently to medical disease, even though at the extremes the disorder it is no less biological, and no more controllable through human will alone. It can be remedied with a combination of medication, talking therapies and lifestyle changes. We still cannot speak its name, in the same way as we could not talk about having cancer just a few decades ago. Like cancer, mental illness is a common part of human life, especially as we get older, and it can affect us all, irrespective of lifestyle or background. Also like cancer, much mental illness is most effectively treated in its early stages. As the taboo of mental illness is broken down so people will present for help earlier, and society's burden of illness will come down: at this time we will all be finally "winning".

अभिनेता चार्ली शीन के हाल के व्यवहार ने कुछ लोगों को प्रेरित किया है-जिसमें अमेरिकी टीवी डॉक्टर डॉ. ड्रू पिंस्की और कई ब्लॉगर शामिल हैं-यह सुझाव देने के लिए कि उन्हें द्विध्रुवी विकार है। इस सप्ताह के स्क्रबिंग अप कॉलम में, मनोदशा विकार विशेषज्ञ डॉ. पॉल कीडवेल बताते हैं कि क्यों कई टिप्पणीकार इस तरह से व्यवहार करने वाली हस्तियों की निंदा या उन्हें कलंकित करते हैं।


Scarborough sea death man named as Andrew McGeown

Summary: A man from Scarborough who died after being swept out to sea has been named locally as Andrew Shaun McGeown.

Mr McGeown, who was in his 30s, had been walking his dog with a friend. North Yorkshire Police said he was reported in the sea at South Bay near the Spa at about 18:00 GMT on Sunday. He was recovered unconscious from the water about 40 minutes later, and taken to Scarborough District Hospital but was pronounced dead. Police said his friend was also taken to hospital suffering from shock and the effects of the cold, but was later discharged. The RNLI, Coastguard and air support from RAF Leconfield attended the scene.

स्कारबोरो के एक व्यक्ति, जिसकी समुद्र में बह जाने से मौत हो गई थी, का नाम स्थानीय रूप से एंड्रयू शॉन मैकगॉन रखा गया है।


Patent trolls: Tracking down the litigious invention owners

Summary: At a Mexican restaurant in Dallas, Texas, half a dozen lawyers are talking about patents. The conversation turns to the activities of the so-called trolls, and they compete for the craziest examples of the patents they use in lawsuits.

By Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent "It is the guy with this scanner patent," says one. "They claim that anyone who uses a scanner to scan documents, email the documents, owes them a royalty of $1,000 [£645] per employee." "There are a couple of different trolls who claim that they invented the technology behind wi-fi," says another," and they are suing all kinds of companies, bars, hotels, restaurants. Anyone who offers wi-fi, they are saying you owe them money." A third lawyer chimes in: "And then there's the peanut jelly sandwich patents..." These patent lawyers work mostly for defendants, but it is hard to find anyone who thinks America's patent system has not gone just a bit mad in recent years. Much of the blame is being placed at the doors of what are sometimes known as non-practising entities - or trolls, for those who do not like their work. "A patent troll is someone who buys patents and then sues people," explains Alan Schoenbaum, general counsel at the cloud computing firm Rackspace, which has been targeted by patent lawsuits. "Generally they are not inventors, they're entrepreneurs or finance people." Deep pockets Once, patent trolls were just a minor irritant for anyone launching a new product - not any more. "Our research has shown that in just five years the United States patent system has been turned on its head," says the University of California's Prof Robin Feldman, one of the authors of a major study into patent litigation. "The majority of patent lawsuits today are filed by entities that don't make any products, in other words in your terminology by patent trolls," she says. "Their business model is based on extracting money from those who do make products." Although some trolls develop their own patentable inventions in-house, most buy the technologies second-hand. Innovators and companies are often willing to sell their rights as it guarantees them cash for ideas that might otherwise remain obscure. It's not just the trolls who are keen - many recent tech takeovers have been driven by the desire to acquire patent libraries, perhaps most notably Google's $12.5bn purchase of Motorola Mobility in 2012. But the trolls are vilified because of the perception that their legal tactics are more likely to hold back innovation than spur it on. I set out to try to find some of these trolls and hear their side of the story. But first, I ask Alan Schoenbaum to describe their tactics. First step - get yourself equipped with a patent war chest: "The patents that they acquire are generally software patents. And they are very broadly written. They are very difficult to understand and oftentimes inscrutable." Then find companies to target, threatening them with extremely costly legal action unless they pay a licensing fee. "Defending a lawsuit is extremely expensive. It can range from as little as several hundred thousand dollars up to $5m or $6m to take it all the way through trial," he says. "They play on that fear that the defendant is going to spend a lot of money to defend itself and it is simply cheaper to pay them off." When they do reach a deal with their targets, there is almost always a non-disclosure agreement, and the whole process is so shrouded in secrecy that it is difficult to find out what is going on. Hide-and-seek Take the case which has seen a company called Uniloc suing a clutch of games developers, including the company behind the wildly popular Minecraft. One of the defendants is X-Plane, which makes flight simulation software, and its owner Austin Meyer was vocal in denouncing the lawsuit when it was launched last year. He wants to talk to me about the case - but explains that the lawyer representing him and other defendants thinks that unwise. So I decide to drop in on Uniloc's headquarters in a suburb north of Dallas to seek its side of the story. When I search a database of patent cases, Uniloc's name came up 85 times, so you might expect it to be a substantial business. That is not how it seems when I pitch up at Suite 380 in a modern office building. A very polite receptionist comes out of what appears to be a small office to tell me nobody is available. I fare even worse when I try to visit the global headquarters of Lodsys, a company that has launched dozens of lawsuits and sent letters demanding licence fees to British developers, including at least one teenager. Like a number of these companies, Lodsys keeps an office in Marshall, the small Texas town which has become a hotspot for patent litigation. But the Lodsys headquarters is one locked door along a corridor of apparently empty offices. There is a piece of paper on the door asking the postman to leave mail in the foyer, but no other sign of life. Talking troll Finally, though, I find someone who is willing to talk. Erich Spangenberg, has a company called IP Nav, described by Rackspace's Alan Schoenbaum as playing in the big league of trolls. His firm boasts that it has raised more than $700m so far in licensing fees for the patents it holds. His Dallas headquarters certainly spoke of a substantial business. The glass doors at reception are etched with the message: IP Nav Full Service Patent Monetization. Inside there are plenty of eager young staff at work, many of them physics graduates, according to Mr Spangenberg. In our half-hour interview, he is extremely robust in defending the ethics of his work, and combative when I try to suggest that he and his ilk may be harming innovation. Does it upset him to be called a troll? No, but he says the word has become meaningless: "Anyone who asserts a patent unless you're Google is apparently a troll. So I don't think it's descriptive, the accurate word is patent owner." He listens to my description of little companies being harassed by owners of bizarre patents with impatient scepticism. "There is anecdotal abuse in every industry," he replies. He paints himself as the champion of the little guy taking on the mighty corporations: "We don't push companies with less than $100m in revenue - it doesn't make sense economically." He tells me I have misunderstood what a patent is. Rather than being a defence for an invention, it is a property right defined in the US constitution - and just because you own one, that does not mean you have to make something with it. "Much like an architect can design a building but does not build it, a songwriter can compose a song but doesn't have to sing it, an inventor can get granted a patent and ultimately is not forced to practise it," he explains. As for his tactics, which can involve demanding a licence fee without revealing exactly which patent has been infringed until his target pays up, he is unrepentant. He cites his recent clashes with Rackspace: "If you send them a letter without requesting the confidentiality, they can immediately file a lawsuit down in San Antonio, which is exactly what they did recently." Mr Spangenberg is happy to admit that the patent monetisation business has been extremely lucrative for him - his $30m Dallas home is currently on the market. But even if it is legal, I put it to him, many people see it as unethical. "I don't understand the argument," he retorted. "Let's talk about who wants to promote innovation and who doesn't. Do you really believe that what Google wants is to eliminate the patent system to further promote innovation? Sorry, I don't believe it." And, referring to calls for reform, he goes on: "India and China are celebrating what we are doing to our patent system." Change may be in the air, as politicians right up to President Obama criticise the current patent system and attack the trolls. Even Mr Spangenberg concedes there do need to be some reforms - but in the meantime he is getting on with the serious and lucrative business of patent monetisation. Rory's documentary Patently Absurd will be broadcast at 20:00 BST on 20 August on BBC Radio 4.

टेक्सास के डलास में एक मैक्सिकन रेस्तरां में, आधा दर्जन वकील पेटेंट के बारे में बात कर रहे हैं। बातचीत तथाकथित ट्रॉलों की गतिविधियों की ओर मुड़ती है, और वे मुकदमों में उपयोग किए जाने वाले पेटेंट के सबसे अजीब उदाहरणों के लिए प्रतिस्पर्धा करते हैं।


Covid: Side-by-side in a London mosque - funerals and a food bank

Summary: A mosque in east London has closed for all communal prayer. Instead it is serving two purposes - providing funerals and feeding the local community. Michael Buchanan finds a team of volunteers there battling to deal with the pandemic.

The family shuffled quietly past a crate of milk cartons. They came through the small porch, towards the open coffin. Inside was a woman - a loved one - who died of Covid two days ago. The coffin sat feet away from tins and packets to be distributed by the local food bank. The milk was the latest delivery. It is impossible to capture the enormous consequences of the pandemic. But last Saturday lunchtime, this tragic image - one of grief and hardship coming together - came close, for me at least. Covid-19 has made extraordinary demands of so many different people, but what is currently happening at the Masjid Ibrahim and Islamic Centre in east London is truly remarkable. Situated on a busy road, with the noise of ambulance sirens regularly shattering its peaceful interior, the mosque has closed to communal prayer and is open for two other purposes - to provide a funeral service and a food bank to the local community. Both are inundated. "We've had so many bodies coming in. It's quite shocking. It's one after another after another. We've never had that situation before," says Sofia Bhatti. Alongside her friend, Tabassum Khokhar - known as Tabs - the pair are unheralded heroes. They volunteer to wash the bodies of Covid-positive women prior to burial. The practice, called Ghusl, is a sacred Islamic ritual and is usually performed by the deceased's relatives, who cleanse and shroud the body. But Covid restrictions mean families are currently denied that religious honour, so volunteers like Sofia and Tabs are taking on what they consider to be a privileged task. "We actually believe that when we are shrouding here, that God is shrouding the soul at the same time," says Tabs, standing by a coffin. By day, she works as a teaching support worker in a local school, so the PPE that the mosque provides - bodysuit, footwear, two sets of gloves, masks and visors - is crucial for her. "I make sure my PPE is secure because it's not just about me, it's about my family. I have an 81-year-old mother." The women are seeing first hand - and in graphic detail - the pressure the NHS is under. "Very often we see bodies coming in with a lot of medical equipment still attached to them," says Sofia. "Tubes and pipes and catheters still attached. So it makes our job a little bit harder." One of the women they washed during my visit had died in the ambulance, never actually reaching hospital. There are far more bodies than during the first peak and there is a larger age range. One day this week, the mosque was handling seven bodies. A few days earlier they said they'd processed 10 funerals, all arranged for free and paid for by donations. Before the pandemic, they'd handled two to three funerals a week. The two local hospital trusts in east London have each had more than 1,000 Covid deaths since the start of the pandemic. More have died at home. The borough of Newham, where the mosque sits, has suffered a disproportionate number of deaths. Home to the Olympic Park, the 2012 London games were meant to regenerate this area. Yet it retains high levels of poverty and overcrowded housing. Add in a diverse population, rich in south Asian culture, and large numbers of people who can't work from home and the virus has sadly ripped through its residents. Isfand Aslam said he's shocked by what's going on. His father, Mohammad, died on 3 January, a week after falling ill. His positive Covid test result arrived two days after his death. The 85-year-old was a committee member at the Masjid Ibrahim and despite his age had been in good health. "It took a week between him passing away and getting buried. Initially I was getting a lot of condolences from friends. But by the end of that week I am giving condolences to three friends because their fathers had passed away. It's now got to the stage where everybody we know knows somebody who has passed away." 'I have no money' The sheer number of deaths is impacting the area's main Muslim cemetery. Normally, the Gardens of Peace buries three to four people each day. They're currently carrying out an average of 15 funerals daily. Overall, they are about 50% busier than usual. They can no longer promise burials within 24 hours, as per Muslim custom. Despite this, there is still a concerning number of people in the local area who either don't think Covid is real or are resistant to taking a vaccine. There was anger among some community leaders before Christmas when it emerged the Bangladeshi High Commission in London held a cultural evening to celebrate its independence. Photos from the event, on 16 December, showed a group - including the High Commissioner herself - standing close together with no masks or social distancing. The High Commission said performers had been Covid tested and it had issued 10 videos in Bangla urging British-Bangladeshis to adhere to UK government guidance. To counter disinformation among its members, an imam at the Masjid Ibrahim, Mohammad Ammar, filmed a short video of himself being injected with the vaccine and urged his congregation to follow suit. Imam Ammar has actually been furloughed by the mosque as it focusses all its resources on battling the pandemic, including feeding its local community. The virus forced the mosque to open a food bank in March. It is still running 10 months on. On Monday night, I watched a steady stream of people gather in the gloom at the rear of the mosque to fill their bags. Most were collecting on behalf of a larger household, and the mosque says they're currently feeding 350 families each week, including students, refugees, people with no access to public funds and those who've lost income. Among those collecting food on Monday was Mohammad Rahman. A 42-year-old chef, he lost his job in an Indian restaurant three months ago. The married father of two boys - aged eight and six - told me he was already in rent arrears and struggling to pay his energy bills. "My son says 'where is the pizza'? But I have no money. He says '[can I have] chicken and chips'? But I have no money. The shops are open, but no money", he adds, taking his hands from his pockets. In normal times, the Masjid Ibrahim would attract about 1,100 worshippers over three floors for Friday prayers, and there has been some pressure on the leadership to reopen for communal worship. But Asim Uddin, chairman of the mosque, says now is not the time. "Prayers, yes, it's important. But right now what is the need? The need of the community is they want to be fed and they want a place where they can respectfully bury their loved ones. And the demand is overwhelming. Right now, it's better they stay home, and they can pray at home until the situation goes back to normal." Read more from Michael Michael Buchanan is the BBC's social affairs correspondent and has been reporting on the impact of the pandemic on communities in the UK. Last year, he visited the town of Pontypool to find out what impact coronavirus restrictions were having in Wales.

पूर्वी लंदन में एक मस्जिद सभी सांप्रदायिक प्रार्थनाओं के लिए बंद कर दी गई है। इसके बजाय यह दो उद्देश्यों की पूर्ति कर रही है-अंतिम संस्कार प्रदान करना और स्थानीय समुदाय को खाना खिलाना। माइकल बुकानन वहाँ स्वयंसेवकों की एक टीम को महामारी से निपटने के लिए संघर्ष करते हुए पाते हैं।


Adventurers in a class of their own

Summary: David Livingstone and Henry Stanley overcame poverty to become Victorian Britain's foremost explorers. Now adventuring seems to be the preserve of the rich and well to do. So are there any British explorers left who aren't posh?

By Jonathan MorrisBBC News "Let's face it, most of us don't go on adventures," says the broadcaster Andrew Collins. "The closest most people come is a gap year in a country with only intermittent wi-fi access. "So it's little wonder that those who slot into the "adventurer" category come from backgrounds where spare time is at less of a premium." He may have a point. The chief speaker at the Adventure Travel Show in London this weekend is Sir Ranulph Fiennes - also known as the 3rd Baronet of Banbury. Along with fellow Eton-educated Bear Grylls and former Tatler picture editor Ben Fogle, they are just three of the many posh boys known for doing adventurous things for TV, charity or both. But is it entirely due to privilege? "It seems more significant to me that TV adventurers often come from a military background," adds Collins. "Bruce Parry, Bear Grylls, Ray Mears - it's easy to make the leap from that lifestyle to strapping on some boots and heading off into the unknown. "Also, it's well known that public schools produce people with an overinflated sense of entitlement and confidence, both of which come in handy up a mountain." Among adventure sports, nothing has more of a tendency towards toffness than ocean rowing. Livingstone and Stanley The figure of the gentleman adventurer is, of course, nothing new. But for Livingstone and Stanley it was more about having the right stuff than the right accent, says historian Tim Jeal. Dr Livingstone came from a humble background and began work in a cotton mill aged 10. Yet, after becoming a missionary and being posted to Africa, he made his name as an explorer of much of the continent. Stanley, who also explored central Africa and famously found Livingstone there in 1871, grew up in a workhouse. "Grylls and Fiennes are all remarkable people, very tough and resilient and quite amazing in that way," says Mr Jeal. "But you can't see these people in the same light as Livingstone and Stanley, largely because Africa was like the back of the moon." Eton-educated Prince William cheered home his Harrow-educated friend Olly Hicks on his return from his solo crossing of the Atlantic in 2005. When Fogle rowed the Atlantic with Olympic medallist James Cracknell one year later, the latter dismissed the role poshness played, writing of Fogle: "Do not be fooled by the accent; competitiveness is not class based." Yet among the latest contenders to cross the Atlantic is another public schoolboy, Tom Rainey, last year's winner of a Young Brits award by "outfitters to the gentry" Jack Wills. The 23-year-old admits he has used his connections to fund his planned row across the Atlantic in May from New York to Salcombe, in Devon. Mr Rainey, who works in the oil industry, was able to put down a £20,000 deposit for the boat. He and friend Sam Coombs, 24, aim to be the youngest team to row from mainland USA to mainland UK. The trip will take three months and raise some £250,000 for the Brain Tumour Charity in memory of Mr Rainey's father who died from the disease. "I wrote hundreds of letters for sponsorship but they never really transpired," he says. "But we have family or friends connections with all our sponsors. "It is 100% who you know and everyone who has donated has been extremely friendly and generous." He believes public schools produce a disproportionately large number of adventure sportsmen because they encourage outdoor activities. "I think that's the difference. I did kayaking and Combined Cadet Force at school and all that stuff taught me how to enjoy being outdoors." But are there any "normal" folk treading a similar path? Despite how it might appear, there are. Edinburgh-based ocean-rowing veteran Leven Brown, 42, had to raise more than £84,000 to fund his first trans-Atlantic expedition. "I sold my house, car, I even sold my toaster, my DVDs, my Playstation, my furniture and we still didn't have enough money," he said. "I remember after I bought my boat, sleeping in a park bench in Newcastle because the last train connection had gone. "I thought it was just part of the journey. If you can't stand the idea of sleeping on a park bench perhaps you shouldn't row an ocean." Ann Daniels, who went to a comprehensive school in Bradford, was the first woman, along with expedition teammate Caroline Hamilton, to reach the north and south poles as part of all women teams. Her father was a door-to-door insurance salesman and her mother was a secretary at Marks & Spencer. "It doesn't matter how rich you were, what education you had, or what your background was when you are surviving from day to day," she says. "Become the 'you' who's normally hidden away behind the veneer of civilised society's rules and regulations." And for those hard of cash but seeking adventure, the best policy is to look for a bargain. Serial adventurer Alastair Humphreys, 38, who once dragged a homemade steel cart (filled with 300kg of supplies) for 1,000 miles through the so-called Empty Quarter of the Arabian Peninsula, went to public school but said there was nothing to stop anyone following in his footsteps. "I spent four years cycling round the world and spent less than £7,000," he says. "I walked across India coast-to-coast and that cost me £500 including the plane ticket, so these things can be cheap. "Rowing an ocean is expensive and that needs sponsors but you can do good things without much money."

डेविड लिविंगस्टोन और हेनरी स्टेनली ने गरीबी पर विजय प्राप्त की और विक्टोरियन ब्रिटेन के अग्रणी खोजकर्ता बन गए। अब ऐसा लगता है कि रोमांच अमीरों और अच्छे लोगों के लिए सुरक्षित है। तो क्या कोई ऐसे ब्रिटिश खोजकर्ता बचे हैं जो पॉश नहीं हैं?


Iran missile attack: Did Tehran intentionally avoid US casualties?

Summary: In the early hours of 8 January, Iran launched attacks on Iraqi bases housing US forces in retaliation for a US drone strike in Baghdad last Friday that killed a top Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani.

But despite furious warnings from Tehran that the US would pay a significant price for that killing - no-one was hurt by the retaliatory attack, according to US President Donald Trump. So did Iran intentionally avoid causing casualties? What did Iran and the US say? A statement from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said "tens of surface-to-surface missiles" were launched early on Wednesday "to crush the occupied air base of terrorist and aggressor army of the US in Al Asad", the hub for American military operations in western Iraq. Iran's Tasnim news agency, which is close to the IRGC, reported that Fateh-313 and Qiam missiles were used in the attack , and that US forces failed to intercept them because they were equipped with cluster warheads. The warheads also caused "tens of explosions" at Al Asad, it said. The US defence department said Iran launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles that targeted at least two Iraqi military bases - Al Asad and Irbil, in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region. Mr Trump said US forces suffered no casualties as a result of the Iranian missile attacks, and that the bases sustained "only minimal damage". In a televised statement, he credited "the precautions taken, the dispersal of forces, and an early warning system that worked very well", and declared: "Iran appears to be standing down." However, the US's top military officer, Army General Mark Milley, said he believed the attack was meant to be deadly. He said his "personal assessment" was that Iran "intended to cause structural damage, destroy vehicles and equipment and aircraft, and to kill personnel". What did the missiles actually hit? Iraq's military, which also reported no casualties, said the country was hit by 22 missiles between 01:45 and 02:15 on Wednesday (22:45-23:15 GMT on Tuesday). It said 17 missiles were fired towards Al Asad air base. Satellite photographs taken by the commercial company Planet Labs for the Middlebury Institute of International Studies showed what appeared to be at least five destroyed structures at Al Asad. David Schmerler, an analyst at the Middlebury Institute, told NPR: "Some of the locations struck look like the missiles hit dead centre." But it was clear that some of the weapons did not hit the bases. Two of the missiles aimed at Al Asad fell in the Hitan area, west of the town of Hit, and did not explode, according to the Iraqi military. Photos of the remnants of one of those missiles, including three large parts of its fuselage, subsequently emerged on social media. The Iraqi military said Iran fired five missiles towards Irbil air base, in the northern Kurdistan region. It did not say how many hit the base, but state TV reported that two missiles landed in the village of Sidan, 16km (10 miles) north-west of the city of Irbil, and that a third missile came down in the Bardah Rashsh area, about 47km north-west of Irbil. Journalists meanwhile photographed security forces retrieving debris from what they believed was the crater caused by the missile that hit Bardah Rashsh. Did Iran try to avoid US casualties? US and European government sources told Reuters news agency that they believed the Iranians had deliberately sought to minimise casualties and avoid hitting US facilities in order to prevent the crisis escalating out of control while still signalling their resolve. CNN journalist Jake Tapper quoted a Pentagon official as saying that Iran "deliberately chose targets that would not result in loss of life". The Washington Post reported that US officials said they knew by Tuesday afternoon that Iran intended to attack American targets in Iraq, although it was unclear which ones. An early warning came from intelligence sources as well as communications from Iraq that conveyed Iran's intentions to launch the strike, the paper said. David Martin, Pentagon correspondent for the BBC's US partner CBS, said a defence official told him the US was warned of the attack "multiple hours" before, giving plenty of time for troops to take shelter in bunkers. The source said this warning came from a combination of satellites and signals and communications intercepts - the same systems that watch for North Korean tests. But Mr Martin said he had not found anybody, including one very senior officer, who knew anything about a heads-up from the Iraqi prime minister. This official did not agree with speculation that Iran was aiming to miss. "Our movements saved American lives," the official told him. BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Marcus said: "Whether this was by design, or just due to shortcomings with the manufacture and accuracy of their missiles, as yet remains unclear. However, launching long range missiles against US bases is a risky way of making a point." He added: "Looking at the initial civilian satellite pictures of the impacts of the Iranian missiles at Al Asad air base, they appear to have destroyed several structures, so the lack of casualties could be as much by luck rather than design."

8 जनवरी के शुरुआती घंटों में, ईरान ने पिछले शुक्रवार को बगदाद में अमेरिकी ड्रोन हमले के प्रतिशोध में अमेरिकी बलों के इराकी ठिकानों पर हमले शुरू किए, जिसमें एक शीर्ष ईरानी जनरल कासिम सुलेमानी की मौत हो गई थी।