'Malaria killed my daughter, I'm protecting others now'

Summary: Three faded photographs of Ami as a toddler are Elhadj Diop's only tangible mementoes of his daughter. Yet she comes alive in the intensity of his voice, as he recounts her last two days of life.

By Alex Duval SmithBBC News, Thienaba Seck, Senegal Ami was 12 when she died from malaria on 10 October 1999. Since then Mr Diop, now 64, has channelled his grief into a unremitting campaign to banish malaria in his town of Thienaba Seck, about 150km (95 miles) from Senegal's capital, Dakar. He has given up his job, sold his belongings, walked hundreds of kilometres and convinced thousands of people - from politicians to village sanitation brigades - to play their part. He is one of the reasons why Senegal is on track, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), to be declared malaria-free by 2030. "At the time we had no idea what it was," says the former photographer, sitting in his yard under a tree. "She was vomiting. Her limbs ached. We took her to the clinic and to the traditional practitioner. "But only the wet cloths we wrapped around her burning body seemed to offer her relief. "On the second day, she seemed to have improved. She asked me to buy her some apples. I was holding the bag of apples when my sister phoned with the news." Thursday is sanitation day The same day as Ami's funeral, several other children were buried in Thienaba Seck, a town of 4,000 people. "They had died of the same illness. The day after, it was a young woman who had just had a baby. Ten days later, I lost my nephew to malaria." He quit his job. "Taking photographs for Unicef, I had learnt that fighting malaria requires community involvement. I convened information meetings at my house with elders from the area. "But of course I had to pay for their transport and give them a meal. So I sold my camera, my television set and all the electric fans in my house." Mr Diop goes round communities in his district, informing people about the importance of hanging a mosquito net over every bed, and the need for rigorous cleaning - in Thienaba Seck, every Thursday is sanitation day - to remove rubbish and stagnant water that attract the mosquitoes which spread malaria. "In 2014, I walked 412km. I made myself ill. That is when one of the donors gave me a car. It was very nice of them,'' he says, pointing at a battered white pick-up in his yard, ''but I can only occasionally afford to put fuel in it." Neighbourhood watch for cleanliness Mr Diop is not particularly interested in receiving aid money. "If it is offered I take it. But the donors have their own priorities. One day USAid and the Global Fund will leave Senegal and go elsewhere. If we depend on them, then what will we do?" he says. He has convinced the households in Tienaba Seck to contribute a small amount each week to a sanitation fund. He has set up a neighbourhood watch system, whereby people check on each other's cleanliness and report transgressors to a committee. Mr Diop has strategic allies, including Alou Niasse, the district nurse who took up his post in Thienaba Seck 20 years ago. "In those days we worked long hours - sometimes from 8am to 11pm," says the nurse. "Out of 100 people who walked into the health centre in the rainy season, 65 had malaria or were assumed to have it. "We had patients on drips all over the place, even in the yard," says Mr Niasse, aged 56. "People had no idea what malaria was or how to protect themselves. A lot of people died. Ami Diop was one of the most striking of them." Mr Niasse goes through his ledger: there have been no confirmed cases this year. "We get a few in the rainy season but they are mainly imported, by truck drivers who come from Dakar or from neighbouring countries, like Mali or Guinea." Malaria-free generation? He says there has been progress on many fronts: ''We have the instant tests now, so diagnosis has improved. "The government has introduced free treatment for under-fives. The medication has improved. But the biggest change is the community's level of understanding and its commitment to sanitation.'' This week, Mr Diop will make a speech about his experience before 3,000 eminent scientists, including two Nobel Prize winners, who are gathered in Dakar for the 7th Multilateral Initiative on Malaria conference. Among them will be Doudou Sene, the coordinator of Senegal's national programme to fight malaria - a government-funded body whose work far away from the Thienaba Seck community has helped the country make great strides towards eliminating the mosquito-borne parasite. "Senegal is at the forefront of genome research to develop ultra-sensitive instant diagnostic tests to detect even small traces of the parasite. "As a country, through public information, we have reduced mortality from malaria by 40% in the past 10 years, and morbidity [the number of cases of people falling ill] by 77%." But Senegal still has challenges ahead if it is to succeed - along with Algeria, Comoros, Madagascar, The Gambia and Zimbabwe - in meeting the 2030 deadline for eliminating malaria set by the WHO. Mr Sene says, "The hardest places are along our borders with Guinea and Mali - two countries that have made fewer strides. We still have high rates to beat in five out of Senegal's 14 regions." Back in Thienaba Seck, Elhadj Diop sits in his yard and lifts up his latest grandchild. She looks just like Ami. Thanks to his tireless efforts, six-month-old Rokaya has a real chance of taking all the love he gives her into adulthood, as a member, perhaps, of Senegal's first malaria-free generation.

एक छोटे बच्चे के रूप में अमी की तीन फीकी तस्वीरें एल्हादज डियोप की अपनी बेटी की एकमात्र मूर्त स्मृति हैं। फिर भी वह उसकी आवाज़ की तीव्रता में जीवित हो जाती है, क्योंकि वह अपने जीवन के अंतिम दो दिनों को याद करता है।


South Africa leaders ignore Marikana lessons at their peril

Summary: The landscape is airbrushed white and Mncedisi Paliso is clearing hailstones off his roof before they melt. Leave it too long and the water will seep through the holes in the corrugated iron roof, drenching the bed beneath.

By Karen AllenBBC News, Marikana An eerie silence haunts South Africa's Marikana mine. A ferocious hailstorm has forced protesters into their homes to contemplate the events of these past few weeks. "It's a strike about wages," Mr Paliso explains, but it's also about tackling grinding poverty and inequality. "Wages mean improving our lives… If you've got money, you can build a home and do things like look after your family." Mr Paliso and his family moved here from the Eastern Cape three years ago. The village they hail from buried its dead from the "Marikana massacre" just last week. There was little chance of employment back at home, so work at the vast platinum mine was the next best thing for the Paliso family. 'White capital' Mr Paliso, a man in his mid 40s, spends eight hours underground each day as a rock driller and, because he is a contract worker, earns less than his colleagues - 2,500 rand ($300; £190) a month - and no living allowance. He and his wife rely on that income plus a meagre government child grant to feed their two children. Their home is a painted blue "shack farm" with a goat and a couple of dogs outside. And a roof that leaks. They are under no illusion that the wage increase their union is demanding, (though badly needed) will provide a quick fix to their problems. "A lot of people say: 'We would rather kill than go back to what we were earning'," Mr Paliso says and he agrees with that, but ultimately he concedes it is a more complex problem. Observers have salivated at the thought of an "African Arab Spring" emerging from the Marikana dispute. But it's not happening. Unlike Libya or Syria, the new South Africa has a democratic tradition, and despite widespread frustrations at the slow pace of change, so far the protest action has been largely confined to the mining sector. But it is still a turning point, according to political analyst Eusebius McKaiser. "I don't think this has the spark to make it an Arab Spring, but this is the first event in post-apartheid South Africa since 1994 where you can't say there will be zero political fallout for the major factions within the ruling ANC alliance." While Julius Malema - the expelled leader of the ANC youth league - has said "white capital" is largely to blame for inequality in South Africa, Mr Paliso's wife Nomnikelo is more circumspect. She expresses a disappointment with the leaders of the ruling party - a party she once supported without question. "I think the government is ultimately responsible," she states bluntly. "They are in charge, they are the ones that should be blamed and I think it is their duty to improve our lives." But levelling South Africa's economic playing field is an enormous task - the statistics bear this out. According to the World Bank, the richest 10% of the population earns 58% of national income while those at the bottom, the poorest 50%, earn just 8%. Apartheid's cruel legacy is still being blamed up to a point, but so too are the elites that have shaped the new South Africa. "One of the most horrible things is that we are one of the most unequal societies in the Milky Way," argues Mr McKaiser. "Government has never really dealt with this. We've always hoped that it would deal with economic growth challenges, joblessness and poverty, and that inequalities would somehow fall into place as a consequence. What we are now seeing is a political challenge that comes with the injustice." Leadership failure The trade unions once carried the moral high ground to address the injustices of apartheid, but many have now been criticised for being "too close" to government and big business. This blocks the possibility of shaking up South Africa's labour laws to encourage businesses to flourish. President Jacob Zuma has been accused by all sides for failing to show the political courage to deal with this sensitive issue and for protecting vested interests within his own party. Meanwhile, figures like Mr Malema have a ready market in the disillusioned poor, who are ready to seize upon his every word. Nationalisation - his mantra - is the solution to South Africa's inequality problems. So where is the responsibility of the mine owners in all this? Shouldn't Lonmin, which is listed on both the Johannesburg and London Stock Exchanges, have seen this coming, given that workers' appalling conditions have persisted for years? Lonmin executive Abey Kgotle says: "People have chosen to use means that are out of the ordinary when it comes to collective bargaining. We have the Labour Relations Act but clearly people have acted outside that scope." The phrase that keeps coming up time and time again during commentary on the Marikana dispute, is leadership. Failure of leadership within business, within the trade unions and within a governing party that is trying to straddle both the political left and right. Collectively many argue, they have failed to address South Africa's very pressing problems of inequality. The miners may not be at the "bottom of the pile" in terms of pay, as many commentators have pointed out, but with 36% of South Africans having no job whatsoever or unions to argue their case, leaders ignore inequalities at their peril.

परिदृश्य एयरब्रश सफेद है और मुंसेडीसी पालिसो अपनी छत से ओलावृष्टि को पिघलने से पहले साफ कर रहा है। इसे बहुत लंबा छोड़ दें और पानी नालीदार लोहे की छत में छेद के माध्यम से रिस जाएगा, नीचे बिस्तर को भिगो देगा।


Prince Harry and Meghan: How the internet reacted to #Sussexit

Summary: Whether you're Team Harry and Meghan or find yourself feeling outraged that they reportedly DIDN'T TELL THE QUEEN FIRST, it's hard to ignore the hashtags and memes exploding on your timeline.

It's the story that almost everyone is talking about - the decision of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to step back as "senior" royals. And like with any hot topic these days, the internet is heavily involved - giving voice to both sides of the debate as well as providing some light relief. On Twitter there is some support for the decision by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. But among the positivity, some are questioning their decision and what it might involve. The Duke and Duchess have spoken about the different struggles they feel they've faced, including intrusion from the media. In October 2019, both Meghan and Harry began separate legal action against the press. But not everyone agrees that Meghan's had unfair treatment. It seems no other royal - including the Queen or Prince William - were consulted before the latest statement and Buckingham Palace is "disappointed". And just because we can all relate to how it feels when a family member drops a bombshell... here's a Gavin and Stacey clip. Some are even getting ideas about exiting from their own families... And, after Meghan and Harry mentioned wanting to achieve "financial independence", some have speculated about how that could work. With suggestions In October, Newsbeat spoke to Dr Richard Clay - a professor of Digital Cultures at Newcastle University who recently made a documentary about memes. He says internet jokes give an insight into how people think and feel about the big news stories of the day. "You get an upsurge in meme production when people are particularly intense about their feelings about what's going on at the time," Richard says. "It's a kind of steam valve that releases the pressure and the tension and allows people to calm down. That's what satirical humour has always done. "There's a huge body of evidence that's being produced daily worldwide that gives us an insight into what's going on right now." So if you find yourself getting a bit too caught up in all the royal drama then remember to scroll for some light relief. Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

चाहे आप टीम हैरी और मेघन हों या खुद को नाराज महसूस कर रहे हों कि उन्होंने कथित तौर पर रानी को पहले नहीं बताया, आपकी समयरेखा पर विस्फोट होने वाले हैशटैग और मीम्स को नजरअंदाज करना मुश्किल है।


'My father, the rapist': Hidden victims of Rwanda's genocide

Summary: A 24-year-old Rwandan whose mother was raped in the genocide tells the BBC how he came to learn of the circumstances of his birth. Their names have been changed because of the shame surrounding rape, which still exists to this day.

By Flora DruryBBC News Jean-Pierre says it was a form asking for his parents' names at the end of primary school which first made him question who exactly his father was. "I did not know him - I did not know his name," he says. Warning: Some people may find some of the content of this article upsetting Not having a father at home was not unusual: many other children may have been fatherless - more than 800,000 people were killed during the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. But they knew their father's name. He had heard the village whispers, and the names people would call him - but it would take years for him to finally learn the whole truth. The story, his mother Carine says firmly, "is not something to take at one time". "He had heard different information. He heard gossip. Everyone in the community knows I was raped. There was nothing I could do about it," she explains. "My son kept asking who his father was. But among 100 men or more who raped me, I could not tell the father." 'I couldn't run away' Exactly how many children were born as a result of rape during the 100-day massacre in 1994 is not known. Efforts are being made by the UN to end to conflict-related sexual violence - rape was used as a weapon of war from Syria to Colombia and from Democratic Republic of Congo to Myanmar last year. Survivors are sharing stories on social media using the hashtag #EndRapeinWar to mark the UN's day to eliminate sexual violence in war. But it is not easy for those involved to recall the events - even a quarter of a century later. Hearing Carine's story, it is clear why she waited until her son was old enough to hear the truth. She was about the same age as him the first time she was raped, one of hundreds of thousands mainly Tutsi women and girls believed to have been sexually assaulted by Hutu neighbours, militia and soldiers. The genocide had just begun, and she was still bleeding from two machete wounds on either side of her face - wounds which still make it hard to eat and speak today. Her assailants - people who had once been part of the same community - had dragged her to the edge of a pit where they were dumping the bodies of the men, women and children they had just systematically murdered in a school. But despite her wounds, despite the pain, Carine knew she did not want to die. She also knew she did not want to die when a group of soldiers sexually assaulted her with small trees and sticks just hours later, causing unimaginable damage. It was only when another group attacked her, biting her all over her body, she decided she no longer wanted to live. "Now I wanted to die soon. I wanted to die so many times." But her ordeal had only just begun: the hospital which tried to save her life was quickly overrun by Hutu militia. "I couldn't run away. I couldn't go because everything was broken," she says. "Whoever wanted to have sex with me could. If the perpetrators wanted to urinate, they could come and do it on me." More on the genocide: It was only when the hospital was liberated by the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front that Carine finally got the treatment she needed, and was allowed to return home to her village - weak, broken, bleeding, but alive. So when the doctors discovered she was pregnant, they were shocked. "I was asking what to do as the body was almost nothing - I could not imagine what was going to happen. "When the baby was born, I could not understand why. I could not believe the boy was from me. I was always thinking about what happened. After giving birth, I kept the baby - although I felt no love." 'Children abandoned' This story - or variations of it - has been told hundreds of times to children across Rwanda over the past 25 years, although rarely told openly. "Rape is taboo. In most cases, the shame goes to the women instead of the man," says Sam Munderere, chief executive of Survivors Fund (Surf) that coordinates the Foundation Rwanda programme, which offers educational and psychological support for mothers and their children born as a result of rape during the genocide. 6 April 1994President Habyarimana, a Hutu, killed in plane explosion Over 100 days Hutu extremists kill some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus 4 July 1994 Tutsi-led RPF rebels capture the capital Kigali Two million Hutus flee to Zaire, now DR Congo, fearing revenge attacks 93ringleaders indicted by a UN tribunal 12,000community courts try more than 1.2 million suspects In some cases, he explains, the stigma caused relatives to urge the mothers to abandon the children. In others, it caused the breakdown of their marriages. Where they could, the women kept it secret. As a result, many children only realised how they were conceived when, like Jean-Pierre, they tried to fill in the form. "The issue is now the mothers telling the children how they were born after the genocide. It was easy to simply say: 'Your father was killed during the genocide.' "But as kids grow up, they ask many questions, and the mother is sort of pushed to saying the truth." Over the years, Foundation Rwanda has helped mothers find the words to tell their stories over the years but the truth, Sam acknowledges, can cause a trauma of its own. "The effects can be long-term; the effects can go from generation to generation," he says, recounting the story of one young woman who was hiding the truth about her father from her new husband. It would, she said, harm her marriage if he knew. Then there was the mother who admitted she mistreated her daughter because she believed her naughty behaviour was due to "how she was born". And there are the many mothers who, like Carine, simply felt disconnected from their children, the lasting impact of which is yet to be fully realised. "They are consequences we would not think of," Mr Munderere points out. "The young people have their own challenges and we are doing our best to support them to be able to fit into society, to feel they are as good as any other young person in Rwanda." The trauma of bonding Carine finally told Jean-Pierre the whole story of his conception, and birth, when he was 19 or 20. He has, he says, accepted it. But still, he feels there is a hole in his life where a father should be. Somewhat surprisingly, he feels no hatred towards the man who attacked his mother - but then, Carine has also decided to forgive. "One of the things that made me most traumatised was thinking about them. When you forgive, you feel better," she says, matter of factly. "I have never been angry about him," Jean-Pierre adds. "Sometimes I think about him: when I meet with life challenges I feel that I would love having a father to help me solve these problems." He plans on training as a mechanic and one day having a family of his own. "I am planning to help my family as well," he says, although all that takes money - and money is something in short supply. As for Carine, she accessed counselling early, helping her bond with Jean-Pierre as he grew up: "I feel this is my kid now." Their closeness is easy to see as they sit on a step looking out over the rolling green hills from the door of their new home, bought with help from Surf. It sits just outside the village where she grew up - the village she ran from when her family tried to make her give Jean-Pierre up, the village where he was called names as a younger man. But now things are calm. They feel accepted by both the family and community. "They know I survived for a long time living with the trauma and I am happy here," she says. As for Jean-Pierre, he is full of pride for his mother and what she has achieved: "It is very hard to see but I was very happy with her progress. "The way she accepted what happened. The way she thinks about the future and the way forward."

रवांडा का एक 24 वर्षीय युवक, जिसकी मां के साथ नरसंहार में बलात्कार किया गया था, बीबीसी को बताता है कि उसे अपने जन्म की परिस्थितियों के बारे में कैसे पता चला। बलात्कार के आसपास की शर्म के कारण उनके नाम बदल दिए गए हैं, जो आज भी मौजूद है।


Deer and sheep 'trampling over' Ben Hope plant life

Summary: Fragile plant life growing near Scotland's most northerly Munro are being threatened by deer and sheep, according to a new report.

Ben Hope Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) includes the 927m (3,041ft) mountain it was named after. Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) commissioned an assessment of what effect deer, sheep and cattle have on the site's blanket bog and heath. The study suggests some areas were threatened by trampling. Grazing by the animals was not found to have as great an impact on Sphagnum moss and lichen. Certain areas of the SSSI in Sutherland were deemed to be under more pressure than others. An Gorm-choire was one of the areas reported to be at most risk. Deer and sheep were said to be damaging pools and water tracks, which were in turn reducing the spread and diversity of plant life. Related Internet Links SNH

एक नई रिपोर्ट के अनुसार, स्कॉटलैंड के सबसे उत्तरी मुनरो के पास उगने वाले नाजुक पौधों को हिरण और भेड़ से खतरा है।


BP announces two North Sea developments

Summary: Energy giant BP is to develop two new North Sea fields capable of producing up to 30,000 barrels of oil a day, the company has announced.

Alligin, west of Shetland, and Vorlich - in the central North Sea - are expected to come on stream in 2020. BP said investment in the fields would total about £420m. BP said Alligin and Vorlich would lead to "significant production gains" and further demonstrated a commitment to the North Sea. BP and Shell each hold 50% stakes in Alligin, while BP has 66% of Vorlich alongside Ithaca Energy's 34% share.

ऊर्जा की दिग्गज कंपनी बी. पी. एक दिन में 30,000 बैरल तेल का उत्पादन करने में सक्षम दो नए उत्तरी सागर क्षेत्रों को विकसित करने की घोषणा की है।


Quick-thinking mum helps 'save' husband and son off Anglesey

Summary: A father and his 13-year-old son have been rescued by a coastguard helicopter after their kayak overturned off the Anglesey coast.

The man's wife called 999 at 13:40 GMT after the pair failed to return from their trip off Lligwy Beach. They were spotted 20 minutes later by the Moelfre RNLI lifeboat on a nearby island, with their kayak floating offshore. They were taken by helicopter to hospital in Bangor with minor injuries. HM Coastguard Duty Controller Mat McInally said: "This incident could so easily have turned into a really tragic one and the first informant did absolutely the right thing to call the Coastguard when her husband and son did not get back on time. "Her quick thinking action undoubtedly helped save two lives today and we wish the two casualties a speedy recovery."

एक पिता और उनके 13 वर्षीय बेटे को एक तटरक्षक हेलीकॉप्टर द्वारा बचाया गया है, जब उनका कयाक एंग्लेसी तट पर पलट गया।


The Girl on the Train writer Paula Hawkins joins world's top-earning authors

Summary: British author Paula Hawkins, whose novel The Girl on the Train has become a major hit, has joined the list of the world's biggest-earning authors.

The London writer was the only new entry on the Forbes magazine list. She earned $10m (£7.5m) in the year from June 2015 thanks to global sales of 11 million and a film deal for The Girl on the Train, according to Forbes. That put her in ninth place. The top spot went to James Patterson for the third year running, with $95m (£71m). Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney was second, earning $19.5m (£14.7m), closely followed by Harry Potter creator JK Rowling on $19m (£14.3m). Forbes magazine's highest-paid authors 2016:

ब्रिटिश लेखिका पाउला हॉकिन्स, जिनका उपन्यास द गर्ल ऑन द ट्रेन एक बड़ी हिट बन गया है, दुनिया के सबसे ज्यादा कमाई करने वाले लेखकों की सूची में शामिल हो गई हैं।


Hip replacement device helps to halve recovery time

Summary: More than 76,000 people get new hips in England and Wales every year but many face long recovery periods of painful rehabilitation. One surgeon - and his engineer brother - have come up with a unique method to improve this routine operation.

By Anthony BartramBBC News James Wootton, an orthopaedic surgeon at the Wrexham Maelor Hospital in Wales, is one of only a few surgeons to use a different technique to help patients get back on their feet and out of hospital as fast as possible. The Direct Anterior Approach (DAA) technique means the replacement hip is fitted without cutting through muscle or tendons. It is regarded as less invasive but it can pose a number of practical and cost problems in theatre which has discouraged many surgeons from adopting this technique. "DAA surgery usually requires either a number of trained scrubbed assistants, sometimes trainee surgeons, or an expensive and cumbersome piece of equipment for manipulating and positioning the patients leg during the procedure," said Mr Wootton. With this in mind Mr Wootton set his engineer brother Malcolm a challenge 12 months ago to design a device which helps to fit the new hip at a fraction of the cost of current products. Malcolm Wootton, a Derbyshire-based engineer, who spent years designing equipment for the motorcycle industry, came up with the device called a Flote table which could fit any standard operating theatre. Over three years Mr Wootton has carried out more than 400 of these procedures. The Flote table has helped him refine his technique and halve the length of time his patients stay in hospital. During surgery the patient lies on his or her back and the foot is secured in a lightweight boot attachment. This allows the technician to move the leg easily and repeatedly, flexing the hip to the correct position so the surgeon can properly and accurately fix the new hip using X-ray. "I came at this with a completely blank page. My brother told me what he wanted the table to do, plus a few extras," said Malcolm Wootton. "What we have come up with can be packed away in a flight case and put in the back of my car. Everyone we have shown it to has been impressed, which is unheard of in this business," he added. Implant longevity "Using this device and this type of surgery my brother's average length of stay (for his patients) is roughly two days, so that is a potential saving of tens of thousands of bed days in hospital." "It's the whole package of reducing patients' length of stay, reducing their post-operative requirements for physiotherapy, there's no home adaptations, there's very little occupational therapy required and when managers, anaesthetists and surgeons see this I think they are likely to adopt it." Steve Cannon, the Royal College of Surgeon's spokesman on orthopaedics, said the biggest hurdle for the Wooton brothers was that so few surgeons use the DAA technique. Mr Cannon said practical problems in theatre such as the extra manpower required and the cost of cumbersome equipment have been major barriers for surgeons in the past, even resulting in some abandoning the technique after they'd been trained to use it. He said surgeons were more interested in the longevity of the implant and added there were still some question marks over the precision of the DAA technique. But the Woottons believe that aspect is covered with the Flote table's carbon fibre components which enable Mr Wootton to use x-ray as a guide. Pat Murtagh, an 83-year-old patient of Mr Wootton's, said he arrived for his surgery in tremendous pain, only able to shuffle a few feet with his arthritic hip using a zimmer frame. "You can hear my hip cracking every few steps," he said. "It's very important to keep active and not just sit around in the house all day like I've been doing for the last 18 months, which is why I'm here." The pensioner was seen again two hours after his operation, reporting his pain had dropped from 10 to a 2 on the pain scale and was up and walking on the ward later that day. He is now recovering well at home. Eight weeks after his surgery Raymond Root, a 58-year-old painter and decorator, was able to hop on a leg he couldn't walk on before. Mr Root, who suffered two years of pain which forced him to give up work, is now looking for a new job. "Going from not being able to walk at all and being in so much pain that you just can't think, to nothing, it is just amazing," he said.

इंग्लैंड और वेल्स में हर साल 76,000 से अधिक लोगों को नए कूल्ह मिलते हैं, लेकिन कई लोगों को लंबे समय तक दर्दनाक पुनर्वास का सामना करना पड़ता है। एक सर्जन-और उनके इंजीनियर भाई-इस नियमित ऑपरेशन को बेहतर बनाने के लिए एक अनूठी विधि लेकर आए हैं।


High-rise flats evacuated after candle sparks Christmas tree blaze

Summary: Thirty people were led to safety from high-rise flats at a Southampton quayside development after a candle set curtains and a Christmas tree alight.

The fire broke out in a flat on the seventh floor of the 12-storey building in Victoria Road, Woolston shortly after 20:30 GMT on Wednesday. Residents were led out of the building by fire crews. Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service said an 84-year-old woman was treated at the scene for minor burns to her hands. The service said residents who had to leave their homes have now been allowed to return. Related Internet Links Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service

एक मोमबत्ती सेट पर्दे और एक क्रिसमस ट्री को आग लगाने के बाद साउथेम्प्टन क्वेसाइड विकास में ऊंचे फ्लैटों से तीस लोगों को सुरक्षित स्थान पर ले जाया गया।


Wrexham prison set to accept inmates on 27 February

Summary: Wrexham's new prison will accept its first inmates on 27 February, the BBC understands.

The £212m category C "super-prison" HMP Berwyn can house 2,106 offenders, making it the largest in the UK. Work began on the site on the Wrexham Industrial Estate in May 2015 and recruitment has been under way for just over a year. The Ministry of Justice said the prison would open "at the end of February" but would not confirm an exact date.

बीबीसी समझता है कि रेक्सम की नई जेल 27 फरवरी को अपने पहले कैदियों को स्वीकार करेगी।


Why is the term 'romcom' used so negatively?

Summary: It's 20 years since one of the most successful romcoms ever - Four Weddings and a Funeral. But for many film buffs "romcom" is almost a dirty word, writes Yasmeen Khan.

(Spoiler alert: Plot details revealed below) The story of lovelorn posh boy Charles and his group of friends made an overnight star of lead Hugh Grant and propelled writer Richard Curtis into the big league. Its picturesque depictions of weddings in perfect country houses and lingering shots of London's South Bank remain a prism through which many non-Britons see the UK. And its effect on the whole genre of romantic comedy has been notable. It's a category of films that receives more than its fair share of disparagement, says Dr Deborah Jermyn, co-author of Falling in Love Again: Romantic Comedy in Contemporary Cinema. "There's definitely a stigma now - in recent years romcoms have become conflated with 'chick flicks' and the idea that it's gangs of women that go to see them - they're seen as throwaway films for a not particularly discerning audience." The shortened term "romcom", first recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary in 1971, carries implications of a film consciously targeted at women cinemagoers. It's the perception of this reductive targeting that makes many male and female viewers recoil. The term also represents a certain standard of film. The OED cites a review from 1997: "Consider whether you can cope with the wispy, uninspired, farcical fluff that this wet Hollywood romcom wafts at you." The commercial success of Four Weddings helped increase the volume, and harden the formula of the romcom. Boy meets girl in awkward circumstances, and boy - eventually - gets together with girl. "By the 1990s and 2000s, the studios started cranking the stuff out without any great quality control," says "romcom guru" Billy Mernit, story analyst at Universal Pictures and author of screenwriting book, Writing the Romantic Comedy. Classic films from decades past, films that contained both romance and comedy, are typically not burdened with the label. Take this line from a blog posting on Billy Wilder's The Apartment: "Don't confuse The Apartment for some Sunday afternoon romcom." The implication is clear - the term romcom designates formulaic mediocrity. Who refers to Woody Allen's Annie Hall as a romcom? The SparkNotes study guide says: "Though Annie Hall is a romantic comedy in many respects, it does not fit neatly into this genre." A Guardian review opines, "Annie Hall also virtually invented the relationship comedy in both movies and literature; it made possible the now degraded romcom genre." When a film is labelled romcom, certain assumptions and judgements start to creep in, says screenwriter Tess Morris, whose first movie Man Up, starring Simon Pegg, will be released next year. "The problem is that often everything gets lumped into the generic term 'romcom' and romcoms get an unfair bad press. But a lot of the time people don't realise they're watching a romcom - Sideways is a romcom, Shaun of the Dead is a hybrid romcom." When films avoid the perceived formula it helps them avoid the labelling. They might lack a traditional happy ending. Perhaps boy not getting girl or girl not getting boy. "The ones that challenge the expectations of the genre will always be winners - 500 Days of Summer doesn't end with 'boy gets girl'," says Jermyn. "Similarly, It's Complicated does something refreshing by having a portrayal of older people in love. It's smart comedy, together with great chemistry between Alec Baldwin and Meryl Streep. The same combination of chemistry, smart writing and engaging actors is also what makes When Harry Met Sally stand out - that and the memorable faked orgasm scene." Jermyn praises Groundhog Day. "It's a high concept romantic comedy - it's one where boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy loses girl, boy loses girl - ad infinitum." Ben Palmer, director of Man Up, thinks that anything that gets away from the idea that films containing romance can only be targeted at women is a good thing. "Often people expect romcoms to be for a largely female audience, but I think they are getting an increasingly broad appeal. The American romantic comedies - Bridesmaids, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, even Superbad - are a good example of why. They don't have that saccharine sweet quality." And the older romantic classics will continue to be widely enjoyed. "If you trace the genre back to the screwball comedies of the 1930s, they were watched and enjoyed by both sexes and held in a lot more critical esteem," says Jermyn. Mernit highlights The Lady Eve and Bringing Up Baby, both from the late 1930s/early 1940s, while describing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as the definitive modern romcom, but he believes that Four Weddings had a big impact on the genre. "The level of verbal humour, even the way the swearing is used in the opening scene, is great. In America, our so-called raunch-coms that are lowest common denominator in their sensibility and don't even depend on dialogue for their humour. They make Curtis look Shakespearean by comparison." And despite the brickbats aimed at romcoms, romance will continue to be a staple theme, argues Morris. "Everyone's got something to say about love and whether you should or shouldn't go on a date, it's a never-ending topic. People want to be made to feel good at the cinema - you don't want a film to preach to people about meeting somebody, but everyone does want to meet somebody and they're lying if they say that they don't." Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook.

यास्मीन खान लिखती हैं कि अब तक की सबसे सफल रोमांटिक फिल्मों में से एक-फोर वेडिंग्स एंड ए फ्यूनरल को 20 साल हो चुके हैं। लेकिन कई फिल्म प्रेमियों के लिए "रोमकोम" लगभग एक गंदा शब्द है।


How Africa has been frozen out of Libya peace efforts

Summary: With the world's major powers increasingly meddling in Libya, the African Union (AU) has found itself sidelined from initiatives aimed at ending the almost decade-long conflict in the oil-rich state.

By Farouk ChothiaBBC News The latest sign of Africa's loss of influence came as a flurry of high-level diplomatic activity took place in Istanbul, Moscow and Berlin to end a conflict that has raged since a popular uprising, backed by a Nato bombing campaign, led to the fall of Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011. "African capitals complain, with good reason, that Libya has become a toy of various powers," said Jalel Harchaoui, a Libya analyst at the Netherland-based Institute for International Relations think-tank. "The conflict is seen from a European, Persian Gulf and increasingly a Russian and Turkish vantage-point, ignoring the basic fact that Libya is an African country," he added. 'Western invaders' Expressing his frustration over the continent's marginalisation, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni told the BBC that the AU point-man on Libya, Congo-Brazzaville's President Denis Sassou Nguesso, was invited at the "last minute" to the 20 January Berlin summit hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel as "tokenism to show that Africa was also involved". "We should not have allowed Western countries to attack Libya [in 2011]. We could have intervened, even militarily. Africa could have intervened and taught those people a lesson," Mr Museveni said. "If Africa wants to chase the invaders, we can chase them. We defeated the Portuguese, the Boers," Mr Museveni said, referring to the Afrikaners who were in power in South Africa until 1994. But analysts say that while Africa has been sidelined by Western powers, it also has itself to blame. Mr Nguessa chairs an AU committee on Libya, which has held a series of meetings to resolve the crisis - the most recent of which was after the Berlin summit - but it has so far failed to achieve much. Gaddafi was well respected in the AU, which he financed heavily. He campaigned for pan-African unity, and gained popular appeal by attacking "imperialists". The popular uprising against him sent shockwaves across Africa, and there was a strong racially-tinged backlash against black Africans in Libya who were accused of being "mercenaries" trying to prop up Gaddafi. Tarek Megersi, a Libyan analyst with the UK-based European Council on Foreign Relations think-tank, said Mr Museveni's comments reflect that that some African leaders have not yet come to terms with Gaddafi's fall. "During the 2011 revolution, the AU was seen as a Gaddafi supporter and there was a negative view of it among Libyans. People felt it was bought off by Gaddafi. So, comments like Mr Museveni's cheapen Africa's potential role as a neutral mediator," he said. Yet there was a need for greater African involvement to end the conflict because the continent has suffered economically since the fall of Gaddafi, and the unrest in Libya has had serious knock-on effects further south. "One day, you had hundreds of millions of dollars flowing into Africa as investments by the Gaddafi regime. Then it dried up," Mr Megersi pointed out. "You also had remittances from migrants who came to work in Libya from countries such as Nigeria because salaries and the exchange rate were good. That also stopped." Mr Megersi said that worryingly, some African states had now become a recruiting ground for the belligerents in Libya. The latest example was reports that Sudanese men were duped into thinking they were accepting jobs offers as security guards in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), only to end up in the North African state to guard oil installations seized by the powerful Gen Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA), which is battling to seize control of the capital, Tripoli, from the UN-backed government. Libya has Africa's largest oil reserves and also has natural gas, creating huge foreign interest in the mostly desert nation along the Mediterranean Sea. The conflict has had a disastrous impact on the oil industry, with Gen Haftar's siege forcing the closure of oil fields and ports and knocking down production from about 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) to 262,000, according to Reuters news agency. Who is involved in Libya? The UAE and France are the general's main international allies, in his bid to seize power from the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), which is made up of different political groupings. "They [the UAE, Egypt and France] share the ideology of Haftar. They prefer a strict form of authoritarian rule," Mr Harchaoui told the BBC. "France, for instance, does not believe Libya is ready for a genuine, free democratic experiment. And like the UAE, it does not like political Islam, which is one of several pillars of the GNA." UAE and Franceare accused of backing Haftar with air strikes Russiais accused of deploying 200 mercenaries in support of Haftar Saudi Arabiais accused of funding Haftar Turkeyhas deployed troops to bolster UN-backed government Syrianmercenaries are accused of fighting for UN-backed government UShas carried out air strikes against Islamist militants Egypt, which sees itself more as part of the Arab world than Africa, has also sided with Gen Haftar. This is not surprising as President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi seized power in 2013 after overthrowing the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi, the first democratically elected president of Egypt. "Egypt supports Haftar politically, but it does not spend money on him. Others do that. Saudi Arabia has given him tens of millions of euros since March 2019 [when he launched an offensive to capture Tripoli]," Mr Harchaou said. Unrest in Libya spreads south The unrest in Libya has been widely blamed for leading to a flow of both weapons and Islamist fighters across the Sahara desert to countries such as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. Mr Harchaou added that France had tried to get its former African colonies to endorse Gen Haftar, but has faced resistance from Chad's President Idriss Déby, who commands a strong army and is a lynchpin in efforts to tackle militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) group and al-Qaeda in West Africa and the Sahel, a semi-arid region on the fringes of the Sahara desert. "Logically, Déby and Haftar should be in love with each other. But they are not," Mr Harchaou said. This is because Gen Haftar, part of Gaddafi's army at the time, led an invasion of Chad in the late 1980s. He was captured, and switched sides to collude with Chad's then-President Hissène Habré, then an ally of Mr Déby, and the US in a failed bid to overthrow Gaddafi. "Haftar never fulfilled the mission, and Déby never liked him. What Déby would like, however, now in 2020, is for Hatar to secure south-western Libya," Mr Harchaou said. "But that area is not Haftar's top priority because, despite the oil, it offers no money, no prestige, no power. He is interested in Tripoli." You may also be interested in: Along with Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, Chad believes it is vital to have a strong military force in south-western Libya to prevent the vast area with a porous border being used for attacks on their territory. "Until around 2018, the areas were used by jihadists as a resting place, to regroup, to buy weapons, and to then go and raise hell in northern Mali," Mr Harchaou said. "But the insurgency in the Sahel is now self-sustaining. Local unemployed youth join the jihadist groups. It is partly because of the mistakes of weak, often corrupt states in the region, and not because of Libya." African lessons for Libya Mr Mergesi said Africa's influence within Libya was weakened by the fact that some of its leading powers - including South Africa - were seen to be allied with the remnants of the Gaddafi regime. "There has always been a strong suspicion among Libyans that the man known as Gaddafi's accountant knew where Libya's assets and gold reserves were. He fled to South Africa, and liquidated the gold assets and funnelled the money to build a military force to come back to power in Libya," Mr Mergesi said. "African states also nationalised Libyan assets, like hotels, rather than handing them back to the Libyan Investment Authority," he added. This has tarnished the reputation of many African states in Libya, even though they could help play a vital role in ending the protracted conflict. "Africa is not playing to its strengths in Libya. Countries like South Africa and Sierra Leone came out of conflict, and achieved reconciliation. They can offer valuable lessons to Libyans who have more in common with Africa than Europe," Mr Mergesi said.

दुनिया की प्रमुख शक्तियों के लीबिया में तेजी से हस्तक्षेप करने के साथ, अफ्रीकी संघ (ए. यू.) ने तेल समृद्ध राज्य में लगभग एक दशक से चल रहे संघर्ष को समाप्त करने के उद्देश्य से की गई पहलों से खुद को दरकिनार कर लिया है।


Ebola outbreak: BBC podcast updates

Summary: The BBC is airing public health broadcasts in West Africa about the current Ebola outbreak - the world's deadliest to date.

Issued twice a week, the BBC Ebola updates cover the latest health advice as well as debunking myths and rumours, and combatting misinformation. You can download the episodes as a podcast here. The podcasts are uploaded on Wednesdays and Fridays.

बी. बी. सी. पश्चिम अफ्रीका में वर्तमान इबोला प्रकोप के बारे में सार्वजनिक स्वास्थ्य प्रसारण प्रसारित कर रहा है-जो दुनिया का अब तक का सबसे घातक है।


The awfulness - and awesomeness - of being short

Summary: For men, being tall is considered desirable, but Allan Mott, who is about 7in (18cm) shorter than the average Canadian man, has come to embrace his height - or lack of it.

Have you ever experienced being universally adored by members of the opposite sex? It happened to me whenever I was in the school playground. As soon as I appeared, the older girls would shriek in delight and chase me until I couldn't run any more. When they would catch me, I would get a big hug and a kiss on the cheek before being set free to play or chased by another fan. I was five and adorable - the tiniest child at Mee-Yah-Noh elementary school in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I looked more like a doll than a nursery student. Even at that age, I understood that it was being small that caused people to treat me differently. What I didn't know was that in just a year that treatment would quickly vanish and be replaced with something far less desirable. I went from being this adored kid, to just being the smallest boy in class. I had been outgoing, but then, due to playground bullying, I would go to help the librarian put books away during playtime. As it turns out, I peaked in my first year of school, which wasn't ideal. I only had the rest of my entire life to live. The truth is, genetically I never stood a chance. My mum was 4ft 11.5in (151cm) and my dad is 5ft 4in. Growing up, our paediatrician estimated that I might make it to 5ft 6in, maybe even 5ft 8in if I was lucky, which is not far off the Canadian average male height. But it turned out that the doctor was way off. I stopped growing soon after my 13th birthday. My lifelong summit turned out to be 5ft 2in (157cm), just four inches above the official medical classification of a dwarf or little person. In the years that have passed since then, I've come to two major conclusions about being a short man in Western society: 1. It's awful. 2. No-one wants to hear you complain about it. I tend to keep quiet on the subject. I've heard many people say to me, "Oh, come on! People don't treat you any differently because you're short!" (Every person who has ever said this to me has been at least 5ft 11in.) But I know the reality of what is means to be a short man in our society. There is as much discrimination about size as there is about gender, race, religion, etc. Once I looked up the list of chief executives of Fortune 500 companies. It's mostly men, with a smattering of women, and their average height is 6ft - and if that's the average, many are actually taller than that. It's not a secret that women earn less than men. What people should also know is that height is also a major factor in salary differences. According to Malcolm Gladwell's book, Blink, it is estimated that an inch of height is worth an extra $789 (£699) a year in salary. This means that a man who is 6ft tall, might earn $7,890 more a year than I would for the same job. Over the course of a 40-year career, that could amount to a difference of $315,600. When I read that I didn't even feel surprised. In my heart, I always knew it was true. Short men are taught by society to accept what is thrown at them. When I get a new job and they offer me a particular salary, my instinct is: "That's less than what I was expecting. Oh well, I guess I'll accept that." Maybe a taller guy has a greater sense of entitlement, and says: "Oh no, I need 10K more than that." Have you ever walked into a room and felt yourself evaluated and dismissed in a matter of seconds? Short men know that feeling very well. This is where disparaging terms like "Little Napoleon" come in, and the desire to succeed is dismissed as evidence of "short man syndrome". If a 6ft 2in guy stands up for himself, it's described as having self-confidence, but someone my height fighting to be heard is deemed insecure and needy. In a marketing job I had, I would be talked over in meetings. I'd make a suggestion, which would get ignored, and then a few minutes later, someone else would make the same suggestion. People responded "Oh yes, that's a good idea" to the second person. I found myself having to fight to make myself heard, but then I came across as pushy and annoying. No matter how good my points were, they were often ignored because it had already been decided that I had nothing worth contributing. I have watched many of my female colleagues and friends go through the same thing. While they think the discrimination they experience is strictly sexism, I often wonder how much of it is actually the result of sizeism? Sometimes I ask myself if I'm being insecure. "Maybe those people just treat everyone like that?" I think. However, there was one meeting that stood out. It was a brainstorming session and we were approaching a project with one line of thinking, and I suggested "Why don't we approach it from the opposite side?" The creative director responded by sharply telling me to be quiet. This silenced the room, and he realised that it was inappropriate. I really admire a colleague who stood up for me. "It's really hard to feel comfortable continuing this meeting when you basically just told Allan to shut up," she said pointedly. Having other people acknowledge it helped confirm my suspicions that he was treating me badly for no good reason. What about when it comes to dating? The reality is, as a short man you can expect eight out of 10 women to immediately dismiss you as a potential sexual partner at first sight. The chances are, the remaining two out of 10 will only give you a couple of minutes to make your case before making excuses. Whenever I say to my female friends that women don't like dating short men, they almost always say the same thing: "That's not true. I bet there are lots of women who love short men." "Have you ever dated one?" I ask. "Well, no…" they reply. "Would you?" An uncomfortable silence follows. According to Freakonomics, the bestselling book by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, short men are statistically less likely to receive responses from their online dating profiles than any other demographic group. The fact that I'm averaging one a year on my online dating profile means I'm actually breaking the odds through the sheer force of my amazing personality. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule that people love to bring up. "Women loved Prince and he was tiny!" I hear over and over again. Right, so all I have to do is go through life wearing eight-inch stiletto shoes, and be a musical genius who also happens to be the greatest live performer of his generation. I hear about guys who are shorter who are really uncomfortable around tall women. I think tall women go through a similar experience. I have tall female friends, who say all the time about guys they were dating: "He never let me wear heels," and "He was really self-conscious of people looking at us." Not me. If it turned out my soul mate was 6ft 2in, it wouldn't bother me in the slightest. Most people unconsciously associate height with strength, intelligence and dominance, and as a result, assume that taller people are better leaders than their shorter counterparts. I admit that sometimes I think I make life as a short man sound worse than it is. Would my life have been easier if I shot up an extra 6in during high school? Probably. But it's not like the life I've lived has been one of unremitting pain and misery. I am who I am because of my height. It's given me this willingness to take risks that I call my "Parachute syndrome". In a terrifying situation - even though I may be terrified, just like everyone else - my reaction is often: "Oh well, I'm standing at the door of this aeroplane - might as well jump out. What's the worst that could happen?" Once when I was starting a new job, the company held an all-staff meeting in Edmonton's Northlands Coliseum, a huge sporting and concert arena. There was a tradition that each new employee got lightly hazed [put through an initiation ceremony] when joining the company. Bruno Mars (3in taller than me) was going to be playing the venue, so we were told to sing one of his songs. On the stage, everyone murmured, "We're not gonna do that," and looked down, shuffling their feet. I had never heard a Bruno Mars song in my life, so I Googled some lyrics on my phone, and grabbed the microphone. I didn't know the tune, but I sang the chorus to Locked Out of Heaven to all these people I was about to work with. As I was willing to do that in front of everyone, the chief executive immediately knew me by first name. And I had the confidence to do that because I have this determination to transcend people's expectations of me. They might expect me to be quiet and hide, but actually I will jump out of the aeroplane. Hopefully my parachute works. It may also be because I am short that I am now a writer. I've already mentioned that short guys don't get taken seriously when they talk, so writing is a real chance for me to express myself and speak out. It's my one real skill. I started writing ghost stories, and although my books have never made it beyond the most obscure regional bestsellers lists, I often run into people who grew up reading them and it's always a special feeling. As I'm getting older, I think that I'm actually getting better-looking. A few years ago, I had a revelation: I had always thought that I was being funny by being self-deprecating but then I met a guy at a house party who told me, "I'm going to punch you if you make another negative comment about yourself." So I've decided that I'm going to make jokes about how awesome and handsome I am. The thing I found is that people like it when they laugh with me about something nice and positive. Society doesn't think I'm a handsome ideal, but I will keep asserting that I'm awesome anyway. Every selfie I put up on Instagram has a caption like: "Another handsome day!" or "Can you handle this much handsome?" I don't do self-deprecating any more. When I look back at some of my prouder achievements, I have to admit these might not have happened if I was just an average guy and not an awesome shrimp. Additional interviews by Elaine Chong

पुरुषों के लिए, लंबा होना वांछनीय माना जाता है, लेकिन एलन मोट, जो औसत कनाडाई पुरुष की तुलना में लगभग 7 इंच (18 सेमी) छोटा है, अपनी ऊंचाई-या इसकी कमी को गले लगाने के लिए आया है।


Foxconn International shares fall after huge loss

Summary: Shares of Foxconn International Holdings, the world's biggest contract mobile phone maker, have slumped more than 8% after a dismal earnings report.

FIH posted a net loss of $226m for the January to June period, compared to a loss of $18m a year earlier. The manufacturer blamed sluggish orders from key clients, such as Nokia. Global demand for mobile phones has slowed and prices of smartphones have come down. The company also blamed the slowing global economy. "Looking forward, challenging economic conditions around the world may continue to cast uncertainties in our business environment," the company said in its earnings report. "The management team remains cautious over the future handset market conditions in 2012." FIH's parent company, Foxconn Technology, helps assemble Apple iPhone and iPads. FIH does not assemble any Apple products.

दुनिया की सबसे बड़ी अनुबंध मोबाइल फोन निर्माता कंपनी फॉक्सकॉन इंटरनेशनल होल्डिंग्स के शेयरों में निराशाजनक आय के बाद 8 प्रतिशत से अधिक की गिरावट आई है।


Is Weibo on the way out?

Summary: China's internet watchdogs have threatened to enforce real-name registration before. But this time, they're adamant all Chinese citizens must provide their real names and identification numbers before using social media sites starting on 1 March.

By Celia HattonBBC News, Beijing Nicknames can be used on the sites, but only after users hand over their personal details to the government. The new rule will stifle one of the few venues for free speech in China, many fear. Specifically, real-name registration could hasten the slow death of Weibo, China's version of Twitter. Once the only place to find vibrant sources of debate on the Chinese internet, Weibo is quickly losing momentum. Fifty-six million people in China stopped using Weibo accounts last year, according to China's state internet regulator, registering a drop from 331 million accounts to 275 million accounts. Several internet companies operate Weibo services in China, though all function in a similar manner. Those with Weibo accounts don't seem to be using them very much. Ninety-four per cent of the messages on Weibo are generated by just 5% of its users, or 10 million people, according to one study published last April by the University of Hong Kong's Journalism and Media Studies Centre. The same study found that almost 60% of accounts had never posted a message. Scare campaign Part of that decline can be attributed to the rise of WeChat, a mobile messaging platform that allows users to send messages privately to their friends. WeChat's flashy graphics and constantly-evolving menu of services makes Weibo forums seem clunky and dated. WeChat's invitation-only format must also give government censors some relief: if Weibo can be viewed as a concert stadium, allowing any government critic to be heard in front of a large audience, WeChat is like a series of private karaoke rooms, where conversation is limited to a select few. It is much more difficult to gain a following on WeChat than Weibo. By extension, many attribute Weibo's demise to a scare campaign orchestrated by the Chinese authorities. In 2012, the government issued a long list of rules banning Weibo posts that "threatened national security, reputation or interests". The Weibo accounts of prominent government critics were also closed, igniting a campaign to clamp down on Weibo's most prominent users, known as the "Big Vs". Big V users are verified account holders, usually popular actors, writers or columnists, who attract millions of followers. At one time, it was a badge of honour to hold a Big V account. Now, the Big Vs must watch what they say. Hundreds of them have been detained by police, their accounts policed for comments questioning the government. One Big V, Charles Xue, was arrested for soliciting prostitutes, thought the Chinese state media made it clear that his role as a government critic on Weibo was a key reason he was targeted. "When Xi Jinping took the top job, I think he understood the power of the internet to shape discourse and to influence the populace so he set about making sure that he could keep it all under control," explains Charlie Smith, co-founder of FreeWeibo.com, a website that monitors content that is censored from Weibo. "Getting rid of the Big Vs was likely the killer blow for Weibo and set off a chain reaction of events. By ridding Weibo of these influential voices, from many different parts of society, he effectively silenced a generation that was starting to understand the power of the internet as a communication tool." 'Not sustainable' To be fair, many of the Big Vs still operate on Weibo, though most have veered away from the controversial topics they discussed regularly in the past. One Big V, columnist and writer Wang Xiaoshan, famously used Weibo to demand tighter food safety restrictions and address the imbalance of power between ordinary people in China and the seemingly omnipotent government authorities. "Everybody is talking about the 'Chinese dream'," he mused in 2012. "But I think that in China, to achieve that dream, you have to have a monthly income of 100,000 RMB (£10,000; $16,000) or you must be a government official. Otherwise, you have to immigrate to another country." Now, Mr Wang's comments are much more benign, featuring Hollywood movie reviews and repeated promotions for his online wine shop. Ordinary people have also been warned to tone down their Weibo activity, or make sure it is unremarkable. Users face up to three years in prison if any controversial post they write is viewed more than 5,000 times, or is forwarded more than 500 times. In one instance, a 16-year-old boy in China's western Gangsu province was arrested after writing on Weibo that "government officials shield one another". The state media made sure to use his case as an example to others. The onset of real-name registration will discourage more people from writing on Weibo. The loss of that forum for self expression is a short-sighted goal, according to FreeWeibo's Charlie Smith. "The authorities are sowing the seeds of discontent. If they continue with these types of crackdowns, and it looks like they will, that discontent will lead to dissent, in some places on the internet, but also in the streets. It's not a sustainable approach," Mr Smith says. It is possible Chinese authorities "believe that as long as people can continue to shop online, all will be okay. If that is what they believe, then they will be surprised when they find that this consumer generation wants to get their hands on things that money can't buy."

चीन के इंटरनेट निगरानीकर्ताओं ने पहले भी वास्तविक नाम पंजीकरण लागू करने की धमकी दी है। लेकिन इस बार, वे इस बात पर अड़े हैं कि सभी चीनी नागरिकों को 1 मार्च से शुरू होने वाली सोशल मीडिया साइटों का उपयोग करने से पहले अपना वास्तविक नाम और पहचान संख्या प्रदान करनी होगी।


Attempted murder charge after man hit by car in Erdington

Summary: A man has been charged with attempted murder after a 26-year-old man was struck by a car in Birmingham.

The victim remains in a serious but stable condition in hospital after he was hit on Hillaries Road in Erdington on 17 August. Ibrar Ali, from The Broadway in Perry Barr, appeared before Birmingham magistrates on Saturday. The 19-year-old was remanded in custody to appear at the city's crown court on 28 September. Midlands Live: Fire crews tackle factory blaze; Paradise Circus closes for tram extension

बर्मिंघम में एक कार द्वारा 26 वर्षीय व्यक्ति को टक्कर मारने के बाद एक व्यक्ति पर हत्या के प्रयास का आरोप लगाया गया है।


CES 2018: A clunky chat with Sophia the robot

Summary: Sophia the robot is a celebrity in its own right.

By Zoe KleinmanTechnology reporter, Las Vegas It has been on chat shows, given speeches and was even made a citizen of Saudi Arabia. Before I "met" Sophia, I was given a sheet of guidelines by the company behind it, Hanson Robotics. Don't talk to the robot about sex, religion or politics, it said. Ask direct questions and remember it is not a fortune teller - it can't tell you whether you'll be rich or find love. I wondered how many times it had been asked. Sophia is an eye-catching presence, completely bald with a silver back to its head and a curious animated face that is both expressive and not quite human. The mouth smiles, the eyes blink, it turns to look to the side. For my interview, Sophia's head - which is really the extent of the robotics - sits on a non-moving body shell, although the Hong Kong-based firm has just announced that it will be adding humanoid legs. In the hot, bare Las Vegas hotel room into which we are ushered, Sophia looks small and a little frail. Wires trail behind a screen that has been erected behind it, and a man with a laptop sits to her right. My "interview" with Sophia turns out to be a slightly awkward experience. Perhaps it is due to the crowded wi-fi, or my British accent suggests one of the team. But CES demonstrations are often clunky. More from CES 2018: I was expecting the chat to run in the form of a Q&A - with me asking the questions that I had to share beforehand, and Sophia answering them. However, Sophia also threw in some questions for me. When I asked it about digital assistants, it asked me which one I liked, although it didn't carry on the conversation after my reply. But then at the end something unusual happened. "I just remembered something I thought about," said Sophia, apropos of nothing. "Can you imagine living your life without a cell phone?" I suddenly had a sense of the future of robotics, where the machines do more than respond to commands - they instigate conversation. Of course it is very likely that Sophia was commanded to say that - just not by me - but the theatre of it was powerful nonetheless. Sophia's creator, Dr David Hanson, believes we are nearing a future where machines have minds. "I think that AI and robotics are in their infancy. My aspiration is to see them through a childhood to adult human level intelligence," he says. "It's unknown when machines are going to become truly self-aware. "My aspiration is that we achieve something like artificial general intelligence [where a machine can perform any intellectual task a human can] of the equivalent of a five-year-old child by 2025 or earlier." He believes robots like Sophia have applications in fields such as medical therapy and education, customer service and even as factory co-workers. And he thinks the so-called uncanny valley - a sense of unease people feel when something resembles a human but obviously is not one - can be overcome. "Many scientists and robotics engineers feel that because people might be freaked out by realistic human depictions we shouldn't go there, but computer graphics proved that's just not the case," he says. "For feature films, if you get it right, then people really respond, and the same is true for video games. What I found is that if we get it right then people really open up emotionally to robots. "With Sophia we have found that the emotional connection really opens up like we've never seen before."

सोफिया रोबोट अपने आप में एक मशहूर हस्ती है।


NI 100: BBC News NI marks a milestone in Irish history

Summary: "I appeal to all Irishmen to pause, to stretch out the hand of forbearance and conciliation, to forgive and to forget, and to join in making for the land which they love a new era of peace, contentment and goodwill."

These were the words of King George V on 22 June 1921, when he officially opened Northern Ireland's first parliament at Belfast City Hall. Just over six months earlier, on 23 December 1920, the passage of the Government of Ireland Act at Westminster officially introduced partition in Ireland by legislating for two new home rule parliaments on the island, in Belfast and Dublin. It was this law that pointed the way towards the establishment of a separate jurisdiction - Northern Ireland. At the time, the future of Northern Ireland - born as it was shortly after World War One and in the midst of the Irish War of Independence between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and British forces on the island - was extremely unclear. But, now 100 years on, Northern Ireland will mark its centenary, with events planned to look at its past, present and future. The anniversary is likely to reignite the debate on the partition of Ireland into Northern Ireland and the modern-day Republic of Ireland and how it has shaped life on the island. Likewise, here at BBC News NI, we'll be evaluating how Northern Ireland came to be and how decisions made 100 years ago reverberated across both the UK and the newly-created Irish Free State (later to be the Republic of Ireland). Across our digital output, on BBC Newsline and on BBC Radio Ulster, we'll bring you programmes, items and articles looking at the birth and evolution of Northern Ireland from its beginnings to the present day, as well as developments in London and Dublin. This week - which marks 100 years since the passage of the Government of Ireland Act - sees the beginning of that coverage, with more 100-year anniversaries to come in the coming months - whether that be opening of NI's first parliament, as mentioned above, or the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921, which established a 26-country Irish Free State and copper-fastened partition. From today, you'll be able to read about the events that led up to partition, the major players, the simmering sectarian tension that led to trouble in Londonderry and more. Throughout the year our online coverage will be carried under the tag NI 100 and displayed on the news page, so you can all check here for the latest coverage throughout the year. Explore how Northern Ireland was created a hundred years ago in the company of Tara Mills and Declan Harvey. Each week a different piece of the story is added. But this is not about 1921, it's about how we got to 2021. You can listen to the latest podcast, and catch-up on previous episodes here.

"मैं सभी आयरिश लोगों से रुकने, सहनशीलता और सुलह का हाथ बढ़ाने, क्षमा करने और भूलने और उस भूमि के निर्माण में शामिल होने की अपील करता हूं जिसे वे शांति, संतुष्टि और सद्भावना के एक नए युग से प्यार करते हैं।"


Gabrielle Giffords: Another milestone in recovery

Summary: The final launch of space shuttle Endeavour marked a milestone in the rehabilitation of Gabrielle Giffords, the congresswoman shot in the head in January, who watched in Florida as her astronaut husband commanded the shuttle.

Since January, the Arizona Democrat has been recuperating from a bullet wound to the head, sustained during a brutal assassination attempt near a grocery store in Tucson that killed six. The nation has watched Ms Giffords' recovery closely, noting each milestone on her path back to health. The very fact her medical team allowed her attendance at the delayed shuttle launch indicates the huge steps she has taken since a bullet travelled right through her and she was given a slim chance of survival. Just over four months later, the 41-year-old is said to be walking unaided, forming sentences and even playing Scrabble, but movement on her right side remains limited. The bullet wound was to her brain's left hemisphere, which controls speech and movement for the right side of the body. Seeing the launch was her personal goal and showed her "remarkable" progress, said doctors at TIRR Memorial Herrmann rehabilitation centre in Houston, Texas. Speaking to the Arizona Republic, Dr Dong Kim, a neurosurgeon working with Ms Giffords, said her progress is "maybe in the top 1% of patients in terms of how far she's come, and how quickly she's gotten there". Dr Kim remembers her condition on the day she was shot, when doctors were not sure she would survive. Indeed, false media reports circulated on that day that she had died. "For somebody with that kind of injury, we start with, 'Are they even going to come out of the coma?'" Dr Kim said. Statistically, only about 5% of people with similar injuries live. Not only did Ms Giffords pull through but she began talking about a month after the shooting, and is now speaking in short sentences, saying things like "I love you", and "thank you". According to her doctors it is difficult for her to form longer, spontaneous sentences. 'Ready to work' With serious brain injuries like hers, physical and speech recovery usually happen within nine to 12 months, says Dr Kim, but progress with regards to judgement and how well a patient can think can continue for years. Ms Giffords' husband Mark Kelly, Endeavour commander, has taken his wife's wedding ring into space with him, to give to her again when he returns. Speaking to CBS News, he said the congresswoman was anxious to get back to work. "She wants to get back to Tucson, back to her district, [she] wants to get back to Washington," he said. Her medical team has been optimistic about the possibility of her returning to public office, but says there is no definitive schedule at this point. That has not stopped some people talking about her possibly running for the Senate, so strong has been the outpouring of sympathy for her. There has even been polling to assess how well she might do in a hypothetical Arizona Senate race, with one by Public Policy Polling suggesting her popularity would be sky high with voters of all persuasions. But she still has a long way to go before that can happen. While optimistic about his wife's recovery, Mr Kelly is also realistic about her condition. "You know, it's difficult for her to walk," Mr Kelly told the Arizona Republic. "The communication skills are difficult, at this point." There have been no pictures released of Ms Giffords since the shooting, but reports says a scar is visible through her blonde hair, which she is now wearing short. She is scheduled to receive a cranial implant later this month to repair a section of her skull. The doctors treating Ms Giffords have tried to temper their upbeat progress reports, saying that recovery from a grave injury like the one she suffered must be understood in relative terms. "If somebody has a severe brain injury, are they ever going to be like they were before? The answer is no. They are never going to be the exact same person," said Dr Kim. Ms Giffords watched the launch, originally planned for 29 April but postponed due to technical problems, from a restricted area alongside other family members of the flight team.

स्पेस शटल एंडेवर के अंतिम प्रक्षेपण ने गैब्रिएल गिफोर्ड के पुनर्वास में एक मील का पत्थर चिह्नित किया, जनवरी में कांग्रेस की महिला के सिर में गोली लगी थी, जिन्होंने फ्लोरिडा में अपने अंतरिक्ष यात्री पति के शटल की कमान संभालते हुए देखा था।


Alesha MacPhail: The teenage killer caught by his mother's CCTV

Summary: "I've found the wee girl.... she's dead."

By Paul O'HareBBC Scotland Jorge Williams' voice trembled as he broke the devastating news to a 999 call handler. Less than half an hour had passed since he had answered a Facebook appeal to trace a missing six-year-old. It was one of the warmest summers on record and dozens of residents on the tranquil Isle of Bute took to the shoreline and streets. But the search ended abruptly at 08:54 when Mr Williams discovered Alesha's naked body in a wooded area near his home in Ardbeg. Detectives would later establish the child was abducted from her bed and carried to the lonely spot, less than a mile from her grandparents' flat in Rothesay. There, just days into her summer holiday, she was raped and murdered. A 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named because he is under 18, was found guilty of the crime. His conviction following a High Court trial in Glasgow would be the culmination of a police investigation which was helped in part by his own mother. It was just after 6am on 2 July and Calum MacPhail was getting ready for work. He noticed the door to his granddaughter's room was open then discovered she had vanished. Giving evidence during the nine-day trial, Mr MacPhail told the jury: "We searched under beds, in wardrobes, but there was no sign of her anywhere." Alesha had never been missing before and her scooter and bike were still in the garden. At 06:23 the child's grandmother, Angela King, dialled 999. The family alerted staff at the ferry port and locals, including the volunteer Bute Resilience Team, joined the search. 'We've found her' In an industrial estate near Glasgow Airport Police Scotland's Major Investigation Team was briefed on the case. Back on Bute Mr MacPhail became alarmed when he saw an ambulance speeding past with its blue light on. It came to a halt near the site of the old Kyles Hydropathic Hotel, which had been cordoned off. Ms King, 47, recalled a conversation with her partner in which he broke off to scream at officers: "If that's my granddaughter up there then I want to know." The family were advised to go to Rothesay Police Station for an update, and once inside they were told: "We've found her, but she has passed." Alesha was lying on her side when she was discovered by Mr Williams and the killer had made no attempt to conceal her body. It was later calculated that the walking distance from the flat to the spot could be covered in between 15 to 17 minutes. Pathologist Dr John Williams established the cause of death was significant pressure being applied to the face and neck. The expert also told the court Alesha had 117 injuries, some of which he described as "catastrophic". Crucially, the soles of Alesha's feet were clean, which indicated she had been carried to her death. Mother spoke to her son Detectives made a breakthrough just after midnight on 3 July from an unlikely source. The killer's mother had reviewed CCTV at the family home and spotted her son coming and going in the middle of the night. She believed he may have seen something and contacted the police. The mother quizzed her son and told the jury: "He was adamant he had nothing to do with it. "There was no way they would find his DNA because he had been nowhere near this little girl." In the course of the investigation the killer's phone was forensically examined and experts established he had carried out a Google search for "How do police find DNA?" Hours before Alesha was killed the boy had hosted a party for his friends which broke up at 00:30. At that point the accused was drunk and in a distressed state. To calm himself down he tried to buy cannabis but Alesha's father, whom he had obtained the drug from in the past, did not respond to his messages. At 01:54 the accused was spotted on CCTV leaving his family home. He went to the MacPhail's flat on Ardbeg Road and found that the key had been left in the lock. The killer entered the property and took Alesha out of bed without waking her or the four adults sleeping in rooms along the hall. The next footage of significance to the inquiry came from two houses on Marine Place. 'Might kill one day' Between 02:25 and 02:26 they captured a figure walking along the shoreline carrying something. The CCTV trail then went cold until 03:35 when the accused was filmed arriving home. Ten minutes later he left wearing a pair of shorts, no top and no shoes. He returned at 03:52 and then departed again six minutes later wearing a grey T-shirt, dark shorts, dark footwear and carrying a torch. The accused arrived home for the final time at 04:07. The teenager's friends told the court he had a "dark sense of humour". The jury also heard evidence about a private conversation he had had with a female friend in which he said he might kill one day for the "lifetime experience". A 16-year-old girl said he made the comment in a Facebook Messenger chat in 2017 after she started discussing a crime documentary. The same friend also said he contacted her just three hours after Alesha was found dead. DNA evidence She said: "During the conversation he started to get anxious and he said the police were going to blame it on him." In the hours after the body was found there was speculation about the crime on a Snapchat group the teenager was part of. During this time he produced a video in which he walked into his bathroom and then revealed his reflection in the mirror. It was accompanied by the caption: "Found the guy who done it." The court also heard the accused lifted weights and could bench press 50kg - more than double the 22kg Alesha weighed. In his defence, the 16-year-old claimed his DNA was planted at the crime scene, but the sheer volume of samples recovered left his astonishing alibi in tatters. Forensic scientist Stuart Bailey found the accused's profile on intimate swabs taken from Alesha and on the front of her neck The odds of it being from anyone else were more than one in a billion. Additional samples were recovered on the child's body and clothing. Mr Bailey said it was "highly unlikely" they had got there through anything other than direct contact. The accused was arrested at 5pm on 4 July and driven to Helen Street police station in Glasgow where he was formally charged with Alesha's murder. Despite what prosecutor Iain McSporran QC described as a "mountain of evidence" he compounded the family's agony by forcing them to endure a trial and blamed Alesha's father's girlfiend, Toni McLachlan, for the crime. Innocent person In a further twist, he agreed to testify and dismissed suggestions he was a "confident liar". The accused repeatedly denied he was responsible and told the court: "I have never met Alesha MacPhail." The most memorable exchange came after Mr McSporran suggested it would have been "extraordinarily wicked" for Ms McLachlan to have murdered her boyfriend's daughter. The accused, who appeared completely unfazed by the enormity of the charge facing him, said: "I agree." The QC then put it to the 16-year-old that the same description would apply to someone who alleged an innocent person was responsible for such a crime. The teenager locked eyes with the prosecutor across the courtroom and replied: "It would be evil."

"मुझे वह छोटी लड़की मिल गई है... वह मर चुकी है।"


Somerset floods: The Moorland villagers 'staying put'

Summary: During the early hours of Friday morning, rescue crews waded through Moorland on the Somerset Levels knocking on doors and urging villagers to evacuate. Temporary flood defences protecting the village had breached as water levels overnight rose by one metre (3.3ft). Owners of around 80 homes agreed but a handful of other residents chose to remain. Here, a few of them explain why.

Paul Clement, Moorland "I would say we are in the top 20% of houses that will flood last, and therefore in the top 20% of houses that will drain first. So we are going to dog it out and see if we can get through all this. We are currently moving anything that is valuable and sentimental upstairs and we are going to stay put. The fire brigade came in at 02:00 GMT to tell us flood defences had failed in the village. We may get away with it, we may not. It is quite tense but I am not scared." Jan MacEacharn, Moorland "I'm not going. I've got a horse and nowhere to put her. I don't know anybody around here. My friend from the nearby village has arrived with her pets. Where can I go? We're in a cottage and can't get our furniture upstairs. We were told by the Environment Agency staff that 'we've given up on Moorland, it's a lost cause'. We went down to Northmoor pumping station to try and get more sandbags to try and protect our house a little. Our village is mostly old people. We are still having to stick it out though. We have nowhere and no ability to move our horse to higher ground." Nick Ball, Moorland "We live on the edge of Moorland and the water is rising. We have got neighbours living with us with all their animals because they have been evacuated from their homes. All we can do is sandbag the whole place up and hope that things work out OK for us. There seems to be only a handful of people remaining. The people who do want to stay are determined to stay, including ourselves. Our property is not quite underwater but the water in the paddock has definitely risen six or seven inches during the night." Angela Greenway, Moorland "Luckily we are one of the higher properties in the village. Our house backs onto the river but it is well managed at the moment so we are quite safe - but we are probably cut off. I have just been down our road which has never flooded in the 11 years we have been here and it is flooded significantly. It is pretty grim but we are hanging on in here and we will stay until we really have to go. Obviously we won't put our lives at risk or the people who would have to rescue us. The fire brigade knocked at our door at 03:30 GMT this morning and told us to evacuate, which obviously was absolute panic. Not the nicest wake-up call. We have spoken to three or four neighbours and we have all said the same - if we know we are staying we will look after each other, that's all we can do at the moment." Jason Smithen, Burrowbridge "My parents live in Moorland. They've lived there since 1975 and on Wednesday they were flooded for the very first time. They are up to their knees in water. At their age they are just mentally and physically exhausted. I've never known anything like it. They are still there and they don't want to leave. They don't see the point in leaving if they can put a couple more sandbags to stop the floods getting into the kitchen, but the rest of the downstairs is completely flooded. I spoke to them yesterday and they just want to be there. If they go and stay somewhere else they will worry even more - that's their point of view basically."

शुक्रवार की सुबह के शुरुआती घंटों के दौरान, बचाव दल ने समरसेट स्तर पर मूरलैंड के माध्यम से दरवाजा खटखटाया और ग्रामीणों से खाली करने का आग्रह किया। रात भर पानी का स्तर एक मीटर (3.3ft) बढ़ने के कारण गाँव की रक्षा करने वाले अस्थायी बाढ़ सुरक्षा तंत्र टूट गए थे। लगभग 80 घरों के मालिक सहमत हुए लेकिन मुट्ठी भर अन्य निवासियों ने रहना चुना। यहाँ, उनमें से कुछ बताते हैं कि क्यों।


Coronavirus economy: 'I'm just looking for whatever I can get'

Summary: Young people are disproportionately affected by the economic impacts of coronavirus, several reports have found.

By Robin Levinson-KingBBC News, Toronto The UN has cautioned that the high rate of unemployment among young adults could mean "a lot of young people are going to be left behind". In the US, about a quarter of people between 16-25 were unemployed in May - which was about double the unemployment rate of other age groups. It's a myth that all young adults are supported by their parents, or only work part time. According to Statistics Canada, of the roughly 500,000 people between the ages of 15-24 who lost their jobs in April, about half were working full-time. Young women and minorities are particularly vulnerable, according to a report by the Brookings Institution. The BBC spoke with four young adults who are looking for work - this is what they say it's like to be in your 20s and unemployed during the pandemic. Name: Ross Mortimer Age: 26 Location: Toronto, Ontario Previous occupation: Opera singer, server What are you doing now? I've started babysitting. I go over in the morning four times a week. I'm trying to keep up with music as well, I had to rent a keyboard so I could practise in the house. I'm just trying to enjoy the summer. With music there's probably nothing that will make money until January, and I just have to accept that. How are you getting by? Before the pandemic, I was making at least twice as much money a month but my income varied. Now I know exactly how much money I'm going to have a month because I receive the government coronavirus stipend, and I can budget. I'm really afraid for September though, when my student loans will start up again (they were paused because of coronavirus). How's the job search going? There's no guarantee of any work next year at the Canadian Opera Company (COC). And they cancelled the fall - two out of six shows that season - with the possibility of the whole next season not happening. I'm kind of nervous to go back to restaurants right now because I think I'm not going to be able to find a job until they open inside, and then it's working inside with lots of exposure to people. What are your fears for the future? My main goal is music. So the restaurant, while I'm sad I've lost out of that income stream, I'm not overly concerned. But with music, that industry could be permanently affected. My biggest fear is probably arts organisations shutting down permanently. I just worry that culture in Canada is going to be not supported. I literally just graduated from my master's a year ago. I was getting jobs - I got the chorus job (at the COC) and I spent last summer in Italy singing. Now I'm doing nothing. How does your age affect your situation? There's so much less job security, but because I've basically grown up in that I'm not surprised. I'm used to having to look for odd jobs like babysitting, or going to paint somebody's wall. It doesn't feel totally crazy. I've never had a full time job with benefits available to me. Name: Zainab Mehdi Age: 22 Location: Toronto, Ontario Previous occupation: Recent graduate from McGill University with a BA in Psychology What were you planning to do this summer? This summer my plan was to stay in Montreal and research for a bit, because I was working for a behavioural neuroscience lab and we were working on a paper that was supposed to be sent for publishing in the next few months. McGill shut down on 13 March and the labs haven't really opened since. How are you getting by? I have been receiving the Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB) since May. It is only given for 16 weeks so my final month would be August. How have your plans changed? My lease was going to finish so I couldn't really stay in Montreal anymore. My family is in Pakistan so I'm staying with my friend in Toronto in her family home. I've switched over to look for more jobs in the business sector, under project management or market research. Academic research wasn't really an option, in the subject I was interested in, because it wasn't really essential. How is your job search going? I wouldn't say it's going well. The roles I'm looking for are entry level, there aren't many roles available and even when I do apply to applications they usually just say 'thanks for applying, but we're not going to proceed any further'. I've been trying to fill my time with learning some hard skills. I've been taking a course, and I've been interning for a construction company in project management, but it's part time. How has it been emotionally? I had to get used to the uncertainty. Any short-term goal or long-term goal just went out the window. So there was a lot of anxiety and stress there. There was a whole new world I didn't even understand that I was going into, and nobody else even understood it. I had to get used to the fact that I shouldn't have expectations anymore. When I did eventually get through that, it became easier. I tried making the most of the small things I was doing and recognising that I am doing a lot. It's not comparable to the pace I was doing before, but I can't really compare because it's not the same world. At the same time that you're dealing with a lot of uncertainty, you're still receiving news about a lot of loss. People are dying, there's so much grief. Name: Maxime Barret Age: 24 Location: Washington, DC Previous occupation: Stationary engineer, specialising in maintaining and repairing boilers and HVAC equipment, at a large hotel What are you doing now? I'm still currently employed but we got notice that the hotel may close as of 24 August. We were told when this whole thing started, we would be cut down to 32 hours. Then we were told the hotel would be closing down, and there would be a skeleton crew running the hotel. I was fortunate enough to be a part of that skeleton crew. But in June, we were told the hotel is closing and we all had to find new jobs. Now I don't know whether I should be looking for another job or not. How was it getting that news? I've been in that job for five years. It's the kind of job everyone puts their heart and soul into. Everyone felt like family there. It just kind of hurts getting a notice saying you don't have a job anymore. When I did trade school, I did an apprenticeship at that hotel. It was a four-year apprenticeship where you went to school at night and you learn on the job. That was really where I cut my teeth and learned the trade, which made it especially hard to leave it. How's your job search going? The job market is definitely not great. The hotel chain has a hiring freeze so it's hard finding a job moving from one hotel to the next, which means I lose all my benefits. I've applied to at least 30 jobs. I've probably had about six interviews, and I haven't heard back from many of them. It's been pretty tough. Before I was trying to apply for something that looked like a better job to go to, but now I'm just looking for whatever I can take. Running out of health insurance in a pandemic is not what you want to do. I am in a union - the union has really great insurance, but you have to find a job within the same union. But even the union gave is the advice of just take whatever you can get right now. How does your age affect your situation? It's good in some ways because in the blue-collar trades there's not a lot of young people. But in another sense, it's hard when you have everyone who's 20 years my senior with a lot more experience than me. Or managers who a lot of times look down on younger years, thinking if you don't have 30 years in the trade you don't know anything. Name: Katherine Fiallos Age: 22 Location: Montreal, Quebec Previous occupation: Recent graduate from McGill University with a BS in Microbiology and Immunology How's your job search going? I got an internship in Montreal just before the pandemic hit in global health, but it's just for this summer. For the long-term, I'm mostly looking for jobs in San Francisco, where I'm from, and Canada, where I went to school. I've applied to about 120-150 jobs online. About seven jobs postings were cancelled, which means they're no longer hiring, and I've gotten two interviews so far. The rest have just not gotten back to me. San Francisco is a hub of a lot of jobs and opportunities. You're used to people telling you to "come to San Francisco, there's all these tech and bio-tech companies" but going through the job-hunting process at this time, you can really feel the change in the economy. What does that feel like? It's frustrating. Once you start to go through months without hearing responses, you kind of feel like you're just not good enough. Even after all the efforts you've done, like getting internships and going through the four years of gruelling academic work, you just kind of feel like it's a waste. You have to tell yourself that it's not really you, it's part of the process - but it can really get to you. How are you getting by? I'm getting by with the money that my parents generously gave me to get through my last year of university and the summer while I do my internship in Montreal. I did get grant money for my summer research project which would be barely enough to pay for my rent and living expenses. Being honest, if my parents wouldn't have helped me out financially, I would probably be more stressed about my finances and about just living in general without a job. How has the pandemic changed your goals? The pandemic reminded me of the importance of public health. It was something I had considered briefly, but after the pandemic happened, I realised it's something really important and something I would want to get into. How does your age affect your situation? I never looked for a job before a pandemic, so it's hard for me to compare. In a way it is an advantage because young people are more sought out. If you're a young person with a bit of experience then it's probably more of an advantage, as opposed to a young person that has just graduated and needs to be trained, which is something companies are not always willing to do.

कई रिपोर्टों में पाया गया है कि युवा लोग कोरोना वायरस के आर्थिक प्रभावों से असमान रूप से प्रभावित हैं।