Marcelo: Real Madrid defender accused of tax fraud in Spain

Summary: Real Madrid star Marcelo has been accused by Spanish authorities of tax fraud totalling €490,000 (£436,000; $576,000).

The alleged irregularities are linked to the use of foreign firms to handle the earnings of his image rights, Madrid's public prosecutor says. The 29-year-old Brazilian player has yet to comment. He is the latest in a string of footballers to be pursued by the Spanish tax authorities. In the complaint, the public prosecutor said the defender, who joined Real Madrid in 2007, had used the tax structure seeking an "illegal fiscal benefit". The case dates back to 2013. Other footballers have been accused of tax fraud in Spain, including:

रियल मैड्रिड स्टार मार्सेलो पर स्पेनिश अधिकारियों द्वारा कुल €490,000 (£436,000; $576,000) की कर धोखाधड़ी का आरोप लगाया गया है।


Birmingham woman charged with terror offences

Summary: A woman from Birmingham has been charged with terrorism offences.

Aaminah Amatullah, from Livingstone Road, Handsworth, was arrested on 24 November as part of an investigation by counter terrorism police. The 38-year-old faces two counts of disseminating terrorist publications contrary to section 2 of the Terrorism Act 2006. Ms Amatullah is due to appear before Westminster Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, West Midlands Police said. Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk

बर्मिंघम की एक महिला पर आतंकवाद के अपराधों का आरोप लगाया गया है।


A look back at the 'debacle' of 1989's hostless Oscars

Summary: The 2019 Oscars are set to go ahead without a host for the first time since 1989. But there is perhaps a reason it has taken so long for it to happen again - as 1989's ceremony has gone down as one of the most embarrassing moments in Oscars history.

By Ben SutherlandBBC News Oscars reviewer It took a long time for the footage of that night to re-emerge. When it eventually popped up on YouTube, it attracted a million views in a day. Here's how it unfolded in real time: 0'01" Army Archerd, a greying columnist for Variety magazine, stands at the entrance to the Oscars and introduces Snow White (played by 22-year-old Eileen Bowman) - dressed exactly like the 1937 Disney depiction of the fairytale princess. Archerd tells her to "follow the Hollywood stars"- people in tights wearing massive sparkly polystyrene stars about their torso. 0'28" With a squeal like sped-up whalesong, Snow White enters from the back; she has to go down a long slope to the front, past actors, directors and producers who already look appalled. Snow White goes to greet some of them; they actively distance themselves as much as possible. None more than Michelle Pfeiffer - when Snow White goes to grab her hand, Pfeiffer pulls it away. This one movement signals to the watching world what the mood is in that theatre, just one minute in. 01'25" The song continues and Snow White tries to engage Tom Hanks, Sigourney Weaver, Dustin Hoffman and Glenn Close. All give her the same frozen smile and 1,000-mile stare of a combat veteran. 02'10" Snow White goes centre stage and the curtain lifts, revealing a set done to look like the Cocoanut Grove nightclub at its peak. Salsa music plays. California native Merv Griffin starts singing I've Got A Lovely Bunch Of Coconuts in a faux Cockney accent. Sitting at the tables of the "Grove" are a selection of veteran stars (Roy Rogers, Vincent Price, Cyd Charisse). One by one, they are taken away by dancing waiters in sequinned trousers. 04'57" Griffin introduces Snow White to her "blind date", Rob Lowe. Lowe looks like he already knows the next few minutes are going to cause grievous bodily harm to his career. 05'21" Lowe and Snow launch into a rewritten version of Proud Mary. Lowe hits a bum note on his first line and never recovers. "Rollin', rollin', keep the camera rollin'", they sing. Everyone else hopes that they will just shut the cameras off. Forever. 06'58" Three women wearing enormous coconuts on their heads enter. One, who has genuine singing talent, takes over from Snow White - which does wonders for the audio but throws Lowe's abilities into somewhat sharper relief. In the background, the tables stand and dance, lamps on their head. 07'37" The routine finishes. The camera cuts to the audience. It is perhaps just unfortunate that it finds Robert Downey Jr, whose face is an unmatched study in contempt. He gives all of three sarcastic handclaps. 08'11" A row of scarlet-clad ushers begin high-kicking to a backing song about the wonderful magic of cinema: "When you're down in the dumps / Try putting on Judy's red pumps." 09'45" Snow White's skirt swells into a 10-metre wide gold peacock-feather contraption, and she is wearing an outsized box office stand on - yes - her head. Hooray For Hollywood, the backing song trills. 10'12" Steps that hide Snow White are moved centre-stage. Her ordeal is over. Lily Tomlin steps out of the box office stand and starts to descend the steps. She loses her shoe on the way down. "I told them I'd be thrilled to do the Oscars if they could only come up with an entrance," she says. There is mild laughter. In the background, Lowe crawls down the steps to throw the missing shoe back to Tomlin. He throws it wide and it falls in the orchestra pit. Lowe flees the stage. "A billion and a half people just watched that," Tomlin adds. The longest 11 minutes in film history are over. Rob Lowe's response Last year Rob Lowe was asked about the "debacle" of 1989's Oscars by the New York Times. He said: "It's basically a show that nobody wants to do. It's really sad." Admitting he made a "huge mistake" by taking part, he added that there had been benefits to taking part. "In an era when staying in the conversation is as important as anything else, I for sure have gotten more money and acclaim out of being in that Oscar opening number than if I had won an Oscar." The other bad bit Later in the show there would be another big routine that flopped - Bob Hope and Lucille Ball introducing a 10-minute-long "stars of tomorrow" song-and-dance bit involving young actors mimicking Michael Jackson, sword-fighting and tap-dancing in MC Hammer-style trousers hoisted up to their throats. "The 61st Academy Awards ceremony began by creating the impression that there would never be a 62nd," wrote the New York Times's Janet Maslin. A man in trouble Hollywood producer Allan Carr - renowned for his lavish parties - had been selected as the ideal antidote to what had become a boring, staid show. He promised "the antithesis of tacky" and "the most beautiful Academy Awards of all time". The opening 12 minutes were based on a musical revue called Beach Blanket Babylon, which Carr had seen at a nightclub in San Francisco; Carr hired its creator Steve Silver to direct it. Sitting in the audience, Silver realised immediately how badly it had gone down. But Carr was oblivious until he found the usually supportive newspaper columnist Jeannie Williams in the press room. She told him it was "over the top" and questioned what Snow White was doing in the Cocoanut Grove. Academy's apology to Disney Carr knew he was in trouble. The morning after the Oscars - when normally a producer's phone would be ringing off the hook with congratulatory messages - there was silence at Carr's home. But two critical - in both senses - pieces of correspondence did follow. The first was from the Walt Disney Company. It was a legal case against the Academy for using their Snow White character without permission. The Academy went on to apologise for the "unauthorised use of Disney's copyrighted Snow White character" and for "unintentionally creating the impression that Disney had participated in or sanctioned the opening production number on the Academy Awards telecast". The other letter was from some 17 Hollywood figures - including Julie Andrews, Paul Newman, Billy Wilder, Sidney Lumet and former Academy president Gregory Peck - which denounced what happened at the Shrine as "demeaning" and "an embarrassment to both the Academy and the entire motion picture industry." Some of the signatories were people who had been regulars at Carr's parties. Change that lasts Carr, whose career highlights had included writing and producing credits for Grease, had his reputation in Hollywood dented. It never fully recovered and he died of liver cancer in 1999 at the age of 62. But amidst the criticism of the show, which was later described by Hollywood Reporter as "Oscar's biggest goof", Carr had reversed the decline in viewing figures; 42.7m watched across the US. (For context, that is 10m more than watched the 2018 ceremony). He had also made a number of changes that define the ceremony to this day. The phrase "and the winner is…" was replaced by "and the Oscar goes to…", which sounded less exclusionary. The arrival of the stars on the red carpet - which now has its own show - was given much greater prominence. And Bruce Vilanch, hired by Carr, remained the chief writer of the show over the next two decades. And indeed Vilanch's gags found their perfect voice in a certain Billy Crystal. Carr had selected him to deliver a monologue at the 1989 Oscars and it went so well that he was asked to be the full-time host for 1990. His first line? "Is that [applause] for me, or are you just glad I'm not Snow White?" Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk. Follow Ben on Twitter.

2019 का ऑस्कर समारोह 1989 के बाद पहली बार बिना किसी मेजबान के आयोजित होने के लिए तैयार है। लेकिन शायद एक कारण है कि इसे फिर से होने में इतना समय लगा है-क्योंकि 1989 का समारोह ऑस्कर इतिहास के सबसे शर्मनाक क्षणों में से एक के रूप में जाना जाता है।


Aberdeen Donside by-election: National Front selects Dave MacDonald

Summary: The National Front candidate for the Aberdeen Donside by-election has been named as Dave MacDonald.

The by-election, which will be held on Thursday 20 June, follows the death of the SNP MSP Brian Adam. Mr Adam died last month, aged 64, after a battle with cancer. Mr MacDonald is the National Front's Scottish organiser.

एबरडीन डॉन्साइड उपचुनाव के लिए नेशनल फ्रंट के उम्मीदवार को डेव मैकडोनाल्ड के रूप में नामित किया गया है।


Conner Marshall: Funeral for 'murdered' 18-year-old

Summary: Dozens of people have attended the funeral of an 18-year-old man who died after being attacked at a south Wales caravan park.

Conner Marshall, from Barry, was found at Trecco Bay Caravan Park, Porthcawl, last month but died in hospital four days later. A man has been charged with his murder. The service started at 11:00 BST at St Peter's Church on Mill Road, Dinas Powys. The family asked mourners to wear bright clothing.

साउथ वेल्स कारवां पार्क में हमले के बाद मारे गए एक 18 वर्षीय व्यक्ति के अंतिम संस्कार में दर्जनों लोग शामिल हुए हैं।


Why Kashmir's gun factories are shutting down

Summary: Indian-administered Kashmir used to be a thriving hub for factories that made guns for civilians. But as owning a gun has become increasingly difficult in the Muslim-dominated Kashmir Valley, the industry has been in a steady decline in recent years, writes the BBC's Geeta Pandey in Srinagar.

It's mid-morning on a weekday, but the Zaroo Gun Factory in the city's Rainawari area wears a deserted look. The machines are covered in dust, tools are lying unused and a couple of men sit around, waiting. Until 2012, the factory produced 540 single-barrel and double-barrel shotguns every year and each one of them was sold, says Nazir Ahmad Zaroo, one of the three owners of the factory. "But in 2013, we could sell only 29 guns. In the last three years, we have not been able to sell a single gun," he says bitterly. The guns were prized for their long butts made of walnut wood and many had leaves of Kashmir's famed Chinar trees carved on them. Their customers included buyers from within the valley, who bought guns for hunting or self-defence, and dealers from other states, including Delhi, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Today, an occasional old customer walks in, looking to get an old gun repaired. Mr Zaroo's family has been in the business since the "Mughal era" - he says his grandfather came to Kashmir from Pakistan before India's independence in 1947 at the invitation of the former ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh, for whom he made muzzle-loading guns. The present factory was set up in 1953 by Ghulam Ahmad Zaroo, Mr Zaroo's father. "In its heyday, we employed about two dozen people, many of them were local, but some came from faraway places," says manager Mohammad Shafi. "The factory was bustling with activity. "If you'd visited us then, we would have paid you no attention, but today we have all the time in the world." The Zaroo Gun Factory is among the only two manufacturing units that remain in the valley today - the other being Subhana and Sons. Before 1947, there were at least a dozen factories which employed hundreds of people. Over the years, most have shut down or shifted base to the state's Jammu region. And with that, all the market has shifted to Jammu too. "There are more than 30 gun factories in Jammu and their quotas have been increased massively," Subhana and Sons owner Zahoor Ahmed Ahangar told the BBC. "There are also hundreds of arms-dealers there, so buyers from other states of India no longer come to us, they all go to Jammu. We haven't sold any guns in the last two years." Kashmir's gun industry was banned for two years from 1989-91 when a violent insurgency began against Indian rule in the region. The ban was lifted in 1992, but traders say the number of guns they were allowed to produce was curtailed - Subhana saw its quota reduced to 300 guns from the earlier 700. Established in 1925, the factory initially made hunting arrows, swords and daggers. In 1942, it got a licence to make 12-bore shotguns and began manufacturing them. Now, unable to find any buyers, the factory-owners are contemplating shutting down. Mr Zaroo and Mr Ahangar say the authorities have not given any reason for why they are no longer issuing licences to local people. But, they feel that years of militancy and an unstable security environment in the region could be a reason behind the government's reluctance. Burhan Zaroo, son of Nazir Ahmad Zaroo, says that, in 2013, they petitioned the state's home ministry to save the industry, and were assured of help, but nothing came of it. "The fears of the security establishment are unfounded," he says. "Even at the peak of insurgency, the militants never bothered us. They are not interested in our obsolete guns. They have much more sophisticated weapons." Adds Mr Ahangar: "The authorities must start issuing licences to eligible people after verification, otherwise this industry will die. And that will be a shame."

श्रीनगर में बी. बी. सी. की गीता पांडे लिखती हैं कि भारत प्रशासित कश्मीर उन कारखानों के लिए एक संपन्न केंद्र हुआ करता था जो नागरिकों के लिए बंदूकें बनाते थे। लेकिन जैसे-जैसे मुस्लिम बहुल कश्मीर घाटी में बंदूक रखना मुश्किल होता जा रहा है, हाल के वर्षों में इस उद्योग में लगातार गिरावट आ रही है।


Isle of Man heroin seizure: Liverpool man charged

Summary: A man has been charged with drugs offences after police seized heroin with a street value of more than £4,000 in the Isle of Man.

Police arrested the 27-year-old man from Liverpool on Monday for possession with intent to supply a class A drug. The man together with a 38-year-old local woman was also charged with money laundering offences and will appear at Douglas courthouse later. Det Sgt Paul Holland said the heroin had a street value of £4,100.

आइल ऑफ मैन में पुलिस द्वारा 4,000 पाउंड से अधिक की सड़क मूल्य वाली हेरोइन जब्त करने के बाद एक व्यक्ति पर नशीली दवाओं के अपराधों का आरोप लगाया गया है।


Twelfth family event planned for Belfast City Hall grounds

Summary: Organisers of the annual Orange parade in Belfast on 12 July are seeking to use the grounds of the City Hall for a family event.

Orangefest, along with Chamber of Trade and Commerce, Taste of Ulster and Belfast Centre Managements, are planning an event with an emphasis on food, craft, dance, face painting and balloon modelling. The Festival of Fools would also be present in the streets with performances to reflect growing diversity in post-conflict Belfast. The aim is to bring at least 1,000 extra visitors to city centre, over and above the estimated 12,000 who normally attend to watch the parade. A large number of stores will be open. The council's strategic policy and resources committee has approved the use of City Hall grounds.

12 जुलाई को बेलफास्ट में वार्षिक ऑरेंज परेड के आयोजक एक पारिवारिक कार्यक्रम के लिए सिटी हॉल के मैदान का उपयोग करने की मांग कर रहे हैं।


Coronavirus in Senegal: Keeping Covid-19 at bay

Summary: Despite only having seven doctors for every 100,000 people, Senegal has been widely praised for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic. The BBC's Mayeni Jones and Naomi Scherbel-Ball look at how the country has managed to keep Covid-19 in check.

"When the first case came, we were very anxious and I was angry because it was an imported case," says Dr Khardiata Diallo, who co-ordinates the epidemic treatment centre at Fann Hospital in the capital, Dakar. "We worried that we lacked equipment, for the treatment of coronavirus there were just 12 beds with limited oxygen supplies for the whole country." That was in late February when a Frenchman had returned to Dakar from a skiing holiday with a fever, sore throat and headache. He was Senegal's first case of Covid-19, the second reported case in sub-Saharan Africa. Dr Diallo, who was part of the team that treated the country's single Ebola case during the West African outbreak of 2014 as well as other cholera outbreaks over the last 15 years, knew they needed to act quickly to contain the pandemic. Free 24-hour testing Her colleagues at the prestigious Institut Pasteur in the Dakar, which in February was one of just two laboratories in Africa that were able to test for coronavirus, trained staff from dozens of other countries on how to test. By April, 43 countries on the African continent were able to diagnose Covid-19 effectively. Today the lab in Dakar's central Plateau district has a 24-hour operation and testing has been expanded across the country. Tests for those with symptoms are free and results are released in eight hours. While there have been concerns over low testing rates across the continent, the Africa Centre for Disease Control is supporting countries to ramp up testing levels and there are hopes that cheap self-testing diagnostic kits could help that effort. The Institut Pasteur has been crucial to this effort, with its chief virologist Amadou Sall partnering with UK-based firm Mologic to develop two home test kits: Dr Sall says the manufacturing of the antibody test has already begun and they should be released in the coming weeks. It will work like a pregnancy test, costing close to $1 (£.80) with results in just 10 minutes. The home test that will show if someone currently has coronavirus has been delayed and is now being validated by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, but there are hopes it will still be out before the end of the year. Higher levels of testing should also help with early diagnosis. You may also be interested in: Ibrahima Diop, a 29-year-old telemarketer in Dakar, fell ill in April and was initially treated for malaria. It was only at the insistence of his mother, who worked at a hospital, that he was tested and diagnosed with coronavirus - along with 60 of his call centre colleagues. He was swiftly treated and released from hospital within a week - his case showed the need for people to seek tests in a country where symptoms can easily be confused with malaria, something the authorities have emphasised during their daily morning televised coronavirus briefings. Singing to defeat the virus A global Covid-19 response index by Foreign Policy magazine gave Senegal the highest possible score for its communication strategy - and top musicians too joined the effort to inform people. In April they clubbed together to release Daan Corona, meaning "Defeat coronavirus" in the local Wolof language. The song features famous Senegalese musician Youssou Ndour calling on people to stay at home and wash their hands. There are also colourful murals on the walls of Senegal's oldest university calling on students to share the right coronavirus prevention techniques with their classmates, rather than sharing coronavirus. Across the road, you can see the blue basins that have been set up for handwashing in some public areas. In the early days of the pandemic, preventive measures were put in place including a state of emergency, full school closure and a night-time curfew Restaurants, supermarkets and banks were quick to introduce temperature checks at their entrances. While that's now largely been relaxed, on Dakar's streets face masks are still obligatory, a rule that was introduced as early as April. Today all of Senegal's 14 regions are equipped to treat coronavirus patients and there are now just 26 patients remaining on ventilators across Senegal. In the acute coronavirus ward at Dakar's Fann hospital, Dr Oumar Kane monitors his last coronavirus patient dependent on a ventilator. The 58-year-old has been treated there for just over a week - he is diabetic. To minimise contact, cameras from the ward link up to a television screen outside. But back in March, when cases in Senegal first started to rise, Dr Kane remembers a very different situation. "The problem was we only had 10 beds with ventilators and there were moments when there was pressure on the list, which meant that we would receive calls asking for a bed and we couldn't receive the patient. "That demand continued for around three weeks, until other hospitals were equipped." The number of recorded daily cases has been broadly decreasing since mid-August. recorded Senegal, which has a population of 16 million, has only had 15,000 positive cases and just over 300 deaths. Its strategy for containing the virus has adapted and many patients with mild symptoms are now treated at home, with hospital staff monitoring their condition remotely and delivering medicine. Muslim pilgrimage challenge When international flights re-opened in July, there were concerns that there would be a spike in cases. Senegal, like many other African countries, has asked visitors to produce a negative Covid-19 certificate, dated no more than a week before travel. On arrival passengers have their temperature taken. So far, these measures seem to have worked, with low levels of imported cases. This week four million people are expected to attend the country's largest annual festival, the Grand Magal of Touba. It is a historic pilgrimage to Touba, which is 190km (120 miles) east of Dakar and is the spiritual home of the Muslim Mouride brotherhood. The pilgrims queue for hours on the city's streets to get to the Grand Mosque and to a mausoleum of the brotherhood's founder. While posters around the capital show the leader of the community calling on followers to wear face masks, gathering such a large number of worshippers in one place will be a crucial test as the country seeks to maintain the progress made so far.

प्रत्येक 100,000 लोगों पर केवल सात डॉक्टर होने के बावजूद, कोरोना वायरस महामारी से निपटने के लिए सेनेगल की व्यापक रूप से प्रशंसा की गई है। बीबीसी के मायेनी जोन्स और नाओमी शेरबेल-बॉल देखते हैं कि देश कैसे कोविड-19 को नियंत्रण में रखने में कामयाब रहा है।


Adoption parties bring children face to face with possible parents

Summary: Sixty children in care will get together for what's being billed as a giant party or play date on Saturday - but some of them know that when they leave they may have found what they most want in the world - parents or a new family of their own.

By Angela Harrison BBC News correspondent Aged from one to nearly eight, the children will get the chance to try out juggling and other circus skills in a 'Big Top day' aimed at being fun - with a purpose. Those who are said to be "old enough to understand" will know that some of the grown-ups chatting to them as they play games or do crafts want to adopt a child, with children as young as three or four being told what the day is all about. Activity days - sometimes dubbed Adoption parties - have attracted controversy, being described by some as cattle markets, or adoption speed-dating. They were run in the UK for a time from the mid-1970s, but have been held in the USA for more than 30 years. Now they have returned to the UK, with a pilot scheme involving nine local authorities and several adoption agencies. They are organised by the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) - in partnership with some councils and voluntary adoption agencies. The first event was in January 2011 and the fourth is this weekend. 'A fun event' Bridget Betts, who is in charge of the activity days for BAAF, says "matches" have been made for 23 out of the 120 children who have been to the three events held so far. "For most of the children who are attending, other traditional methods of family-finding have not worked, so these are children who would otherwise have not had a family," she said. Traditionally, people wanting to adopt would have been shown written profiles, pictures and videos of children. Because of the risk of giving a vulnerable child false hope or further disappointment, they often do not get to meet them until the adoption process is well advanced. Bridget Betts says the US experience convinced her of the worth of the events: "Statistics show adoption activity days are twice as effective as other ways of family-finding for children. "Adopters get to see children enjoying themselves, having fun and see them first as children without reading about all their problems. "The emphasis for the day is about fun for the children. They have a proper invitation for the day and at the end of the day they go home with a party bag." Match made For Alice and Mark (not their real names), the last such event, earlier this year, may have brought them their own family. "We did not go there thinking we were going to meet our kids; we thought we would see the kind of children who were waiting to be adopted," said Alice. "But almost the first children we saw... they were absolutely lovely... for some reason I thought 'These are our kids'." The couple say would-be adopters were encouraged to interact with the children, to talk to them and play with them but were told not to stay too long with anyone in case it raised their expectations. They say they enjoyed meeting the other children, but kept thinking about those two - and later went back to them. There was "chemistry" which they would not have been able to get through a paper profile of a child, they said. The couple are now in the process of trying to adopt the children. "It was fun; a huge party. They had a boat, archery, water cannon. And it was well structured - with staff everywhere, passively watching," said Mark. The party worked like this: They were teamed up with a social worker, while children had either their social worker, foster carer or another adult with them. If they saw children they were interested in meeting, their social worker would talk to the children's social worker and arrange it. Risk of rejection Adoption speed dating by proxy? Possibly. It is that "fast" aspect - and the potential danger of vulnerable, damaged children facing further hurt - that worries some people. Bridget Betts from BAAF says that is a danger everyone involved is all too aware of: "These are vulnerable children and the risk of rejection and being rejected again is quite high and for some of those children, social workers and their foster carers have had to support them afterwards. "What is good about this is is it has to directly involve the children; you can't do it behind their backs and they can see that the adults around them are doing everything they can to find a family for them." Voices have been raised against such days in the UK. Last year, Barnardo's chief executive Anne Marie Carrie, was critical of the idea on BBC Radio Four's Woman's Hour, saying "This is not Battersea Dogs Home. I am concerned about this aspect of beauty parades. "What happens when a child has been to 10 parties?" But are children's charities warming to this approach? The NSPCC's Tom Rahilly - head of looked-after children - says the events make sense as the next logical step on from looking at photos of children and forms - but they have to be carefully planned and delivered. "Adoption activity days are an opportunity for groups of prospective adopters and children waiting to be adopted together in person before any decisions have been made," he said. "They make the experience and potential much more real, particularly for prospective adopters who can live in a very theoretical world right up until the day they meet their new child for the first time." For writer Anne (not her real name), who adopted two young boys about eight years ago with her husband, the idea of meeting lots of children waiting to be adopted seems "awful". "It's an American idea and the parties have been criticised there for putting children on show, making it like an audition. Here, the idea has been to try to make sure that a match will work before introducing everyone. "We did not meet our children until we had been matched with them. "The first glimpse we had of them was when there was no pressure on either side - they didn't know we were watching them. We were told to go to a playground at a certain time and they were brought there with other kids to play. "We sat on a bench, reading a newspaper, feeling a bit furtive watching them, but it was nice to see them being themselves, calling to each other." Adoption targets Speeding up the adoption process and getting more children adopted has been made a priority by the government in England. Prime Minister David Cameron has said too few children are being given the chance of a finding the security of a stable permanent home. Councils are being more closely monitored and there are controversial new "adoption league tables". Only a small proportion of the 67,000 children in care in England are available to be adopted. Many go in and out of care as their family circumstances change, while arrangements might be made for others to be looked after by grandparents or other family members. There were 3,450 looked-after children adopted in the year ending 31 March 2012 - the highest figure since 2007. Adoption experts say children are much less likely to be adopted if they are older, with brothers or sisters or have disabilities. BAAF's Bridget Betts says the adoption activity days help to open the eyes of potential adopters to such children. "For adopters, it dispels the myths about children who are in care. Most adopters start out thinking 'I would like a pre-school child', but they might meet a seven-year-old," she said. "We had one little girl matched from the first day where every method of matching had failed. She had very complex needs and a lot of uncertainty about her future. Some adopters came who had not thought about adopting a child with additional needs - and she is now placed with them." Could such examples be winning over sceptics? In a statement this week, Barnardo's UK director of strategy Janet Grauberg, said: "Finding a loving and secure adoptive family for these children is critical. We welcome any approach that encourages prospective adoptive parents to consider again whether they could provide a home for an older child or a sibling group. "Of course, it is also vital that safeguards are in place to ensure the emotional safety of these children during such a vulnerable stage of their lives." Adoption activity day project manager Bridget Betts says she understands why some people react against the idea of the days. "For all parties who come it's a very emotional experience and everyone needs preparation and support," she said. "I find it quite overwhelming and a very emotional experience as a social worker with 30 years' experience - walking in to a room with 60 children who need adopting - and they are all beautiful children."

देखभाल में साठ बच्चे शनिवार को एक विशाल पार्टी या खेलने की तारीख के रूप में बिल किए जाने के लिए एक साथ मिलेंगे-लेकिन उनमें से कुछ जानते हैं कि जब वे चले जाते हैं तो उन्हें वह मिल सकता है जो वे दुनिया में सबसे अधिक चाहते हैं-माता-पिता या उनका अपना एक नया परिवार।


The hobbyists competing to make AI human

Summary: This weekend Steve Worswick will be pushing the boundaries of what it is to be human, attempting to fool a panel of judges into thinking they are chatting to another person while really they will be talking to a chatbot.

By Jane WakefieldTechnology reporter But Steve isn't an engineer at Apple or Amazon, he is a designer from Leeds and the AI he is hoping will pass the test - Mitsuku - is one you have probably never heard of. The competition he is taking part in, the Loebner Prize, is one of the only real-world Turing Tests but is also relatively obscure in the highly-hyped world of artificial intelligence - and not without controversy. This year could be the last time Steve competes - the sponsor Hugh Loebner, a millionaire inventor who made his fortune from brass fittings, died in 2016 so there is no longer funding for the prize. The competition sees four judges conducting a series of conversations with both humans and bots which they then score out of 100. 'Old ladies' Each bot is asked the same 20 questions, of varying degrees of complexity. At the same time, the same message is typed to a human, with the judge tasked with deciding which is which. Typically, winning bots only get a score of about 30 out of 100, with none ever reaching the heady heights of 70, which would - under Turing Test rules - be "human enough". The test was developed by mathematician Alan Turing in 1950 as a way of demonstrating a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour indistinguishable from a human. His paper proposed this could be tested via a series of conversations, one with a machine and one with a human. Each judge would have five minutes to talk to each machine and if more than 30% of the judges thought they were human, the machine passed the test. Under Loebner Prize rules, the conversations are 25 minutes long and the machine only wins if it fools at least half the judges. That has never happened. Instead the prize money goes to the machine that convinces the most judges. "It usually becomes apparent after the first few questions which is the bot," said Mr Worswick, who has 'won' four times. Since the Loebner Prize launched in 1991, it has had a range of partners - from the Cambridge Center for Behavioural Studies to the Science Museum and The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour (AISB) but it has failed to attract bigger players or those studying in the field. Noel Sharkey, computer scientist at Sheffield University and two-times judge at the event, is baffled as to why it has always been so low-key. "I am a little surprised, given the number of chatbots we are all experiencing in online customer services, that this is not a much bigger affair," he said. "It might be that the big tech companies don't like the idea of independent objective evaluation or maybe they are a bit worried about competing with one another." There could be truth in this. In 2013 someone unofficially entered Siri, Apple's virtual assistant, into the contest and it finished in 14th place. For two years, the competition was hosted in Mr Loebner's apartment but from 2014 to 2018 it took place at Bletchley Park where Alan Turing spent his wartime years as a codebreaker. Two side rooms were set aside for the competition but with no publicity given to it, the only people who stumbled upon it would be visitors to the code-breaking museum. "It was usually little old ladies on a day out who would much rather reminisce about the war than talk about conversational AI," said Mr Worswick. The lack of success of the competition among the AI community could just be a case of bad timing, thinks Prof Sharkey. "It started out really well in 1991 when there was still great interest in the Turing Test with all the great and good of AI on the programme panel," he said. "All the media turned up," he added, but things quickly turned sour "when the AI systems of the day were shown to be hopeless at the task". "After that it was sidelined and only small companies and hobbyists have taken it up." And Hugh Loebner himself may have put some people off, he thinks. "Loebner's eccentric personality did not help much. He was a very provocative man, quite blunt and said some very dumb things that annoyed a lot of people. Personally I was highly amused by him. He told me that the reason why he started the competition was that he just wanted to be famous," said Prof Sharkey. Mr Loebner also dedicated his time to fighting for the rights of sex workers and would often turn up to the competition with "young women on his arms," he added. Both the venue and the nature of the contest have changed this year, moving from Bletchley Park to Swansea University. There will no longer be a panel of judges. Instead, the chatbots will be judged by the public and there will be no human competitors. "No-one's quite sure how it will pan out," said Mr Worswick. The Loebner prize may now be on the verge of fading into obscurity. "I do not think that the Loebner prize has had a big impact on AI language processors because it has not had much take-up from the academic community and none from the big tech companies," said Prof Sharkey. He does, however, believe that the field, now fully revived and brimming with hype, could benefit from its own more high-profile test - one that Amazon, Google and Apple were prepared to take part in. "Perhaps they should take a lesson from the big car manufacturers competing in Formula One. Competitions like this can push the envelope of innovation and accelerate development," he said.

इस सप्ताह के अंत में स्टीव वॉर्सविक मानव होने की सीमाओं को आगे बढ़ाएंगे, न्यायाधीशों के एक पैनल को यह सोचकर मूर्ख बनाने का प्रयास करेंगे कि वे किसी अन्य व्यक्ति से बात कर रहे हैं जबकि वास्तव में वे एक चैटबॉट से बात कर रहे होंगे।


How Syria's ancient treasures are being smashed

Summary: Syria, graced with thousands of historic sites, is seeing its cultural heritage vandalised, looted and destroyed by war - but volunteers are doing what they can to document the damage and save the country's cultural identity from obliteration.

By Diana DarkeWriter on the Middle East They have taken many of the photographs below. In March the Syrian air force bombed the world's best preserved Crusader Castle, the 12th Century Krak des Chevaliers (above) in Homs province. Its strategic location - guarding the only corridor from Syria's interior to the coast as well as the entrance to Lebanon's Bekaa valley - guaranteed that it would be a fiercely contested stronghold in this war, just as it was for the Knights Hospitaller in Crusader times. The elegant Crusader cloister inside the castle bore an inscription carved in Latin: "Grace, wisdom and beauty you may enjoy but beware pride which alone can tarnish all the rest." The loggia became a ruined shell after MiG fighter jets were used to dislodge rebel fighters who had based themselves there. The Latin inscription has been blown to smithereens. In November a mortar shell, fired from rebel-held areas in the north-eastern suburbs of the capital, Damascus, struck the priceless mosaics on the facade of the 8th Century Great Mosque - the spiritual heart of the city. The mosaics depict visions of Paradise with fantastical buildings surrounded by trees and gardens - the Syrian authorities have since repaired the damage. Another shell fired the same month penetrated the western face of the perimeter wall of the Damascus Citadel, leaving a hole nearly one metre wide near the recently restored Throne Room. The stronghold served as headquarters, chief arsenal and supply centre for the great Muslim warlord Saladin, in his battles against the crusaders amongst others. Most of the citadel's 12 defensive towers and vast internal courtyard date from the 12th Century, though it continued to be used as a prison by the Syrian state under Hafez al-Assad as recently as 1985. Among the 2,000-year-old remains of the Roman oasis city of Palmyra, to the north-east, the army has dug a road and earth dykes, and installed multiple rocket launchers inside the camp of the emperor Diocletian. Shells have hit the columns of the ancient city's Temple of Bel (seen above before the bombardment), causing two of them to collapse. The temple is one of the most important religious buildings of its time in the Middle East - it represents a synthesis of Roman with Greco-Persian-Babylonian architecture. Many finely carved sculptures and blocks formerly stood inside the sanctuary, including a crowd scene with fully veiled women centuries before Islam. Whether they are still there, and still intact, is unknown. The distinctive Palmyra rose and acanthus leaf motifs directly influenced the 18th Century classical revival in England, and can still be seen on the ceilings of many British country homes. Syrian armed forces are also installed in the medieval Arab citadel of Ibn Ma'an overlooking the site (see photograph with tank above). Shells fired from this natural vantage point damage not only the ancient site, but also ancient olive, date and pomegranate plantations, destroying the livelihood of many local people. Syria's riches Further north, Aleppo's Great Mosque, founded in the early 8th Century, has come under heavy fire. Its 50m-tall Seljuk minaret, a masterpiece of elegance dating from 1095, was considered one of the most important monuments of medieval Syria. It was built in the grounds of the 6th Century Cathedral of St Helena - inside is the tomb of the Prophet Zachariah, father of John the Baptist (who is buried in Damascus). The minaret, whose height made it a useful rebel lookout and sniper position, collapsed as a result of shelling in March 2013. Its destruction is the equivalent to the loss of Big Ben from the London skyline. Archaeology students from Aleppo University have collected the fallen basalt and limestone blocks and put them in a safe place awaiting reconstruction when the war ends. Aleppo's souks, dating back in parts to the 13th Century, were considered the finest of any in the Middle East, with more than 12km of winding alleys. Not just a major tourist attraction, they represented the beating heart of the commercial city, founded in the 2nd Millennium BC. Free Syrian Army rebels established a headquarters in a bath-house near the old souk, making it a target for bombardment. In the shelling, an electricity sub-station caught fire and flames quickly spread, reducing the souk's wooden doors and wares to ash within hours. The livelihoods of over 35,000 people went up in smoke. Syria's third largest city after Aleppo and Damascus is Homs, home to most of the country's factories and oil refineries. Its strategic central location at the intersection of the country's road and rail networks ensured it would always be a fiercely contested city. The Old City of Homs suffered more aerial bombardment than any other city in Syria. Many ancient buildings, including several active churches and monasteries, were flattened. Umm Al-Zinnar Church boasted a relic from the belt of the Virgin Mary. As ancient Emessa, this was an important early Christian bishopric, and the Christian and Muslim populations were well integrated across the centuries, fighting side by side in the current war till the siege finally ended in May this year. Far to the south, the 2nd Century Roman amphitheatre of Bosra, once the capital of the Roman Province of Arabia, is concealed within a 13th Century fort not far from the Jordanian border. It has been occupied during the current fighting by army snipers and shabiha militia, its windows piled with sandbags, firing at rebel pockets in the Old Town of Bosra. The famous tells or archaeological mounds of Mesopotamia - rich repositories of man's earliest history once carefully dug by the likes of Agatha Christie's archaeologist husband Max Mallowan - are now systematically being plundered with heavy machinery to fill the coffers of Islamist militant group Isis. While some ancient artefacts are traded for weapons or cash, others that represent humans or animal gods are seen by Isis as heretical to Islam and destroyed. This photo of an 8th Century BC Assyrian statue excavated from Tell Ajajah, near Hasakah on the Khabour River, was taken in May. Isis has also bulldozed statues of lions along with Sufi and Shia shrines in the Raqqa province, the militant group's headquarters. Small scale illicit digging in these places and elsewhere has always been a problem, but now no-one is guarding them at all. While Iraq benefited from a UN resolution banning trade in its antiquities after the US invasion of 2003, Syria has been given no such protection. Unesco can only function inside Syria with the permission of the Syrian regime - a permission which has not been forthcoming. Groups of young Syrian academics, archaeologists and volunteers such as the Association for the Protection of Syrian Archaeology (APSA) are taking matters into their own hands. They are documenting the damage and protecting vulnerable sites wherever possible building physical barriers to shield them from shell damage and vandalism. This protective wall is being built in front of the 13th Century Halawiye Madrasa prayer niche in Aleppo. Diana Darke is the author of My House in Damascus, An Inside View of the Syrian Revolution. She wrote this piece with Syrian sculptor and archaeologist Zahed Taj-Eddin. Thanks to the Association for the Protection of Syrian Archaeology for photographs. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

हजारों ऐतिहासिक स्थलों से सुशोभित सीरिया अपनी सांस्कृतिक विरासत को युद्ध द्वारा नष्ट, लूटे गए और नष्ट होते देख रहा है-लेकिन स्वयंसेवक नुकसान का दस्तावेजीकरण करने और देश की सांस्कृतिक पहचान को मिटने से बचाने के लिए जो कुछ भी कर सकते हैं वह कर रहे हैं।


Profile: George Mitchell

Summary: George Mitchell is no stranger to troubled situations.

Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland, he also launched a Middle East peace initiative in 2001. In 2006 he investigated the use of steroids and other banned substances in Major League Baseball - his findings destroyed the reputations of some of the game's biggest players. Now he has stood down after two years confronting perhaps his biggest challenge - an effort to bring Israeli and Palestinian negotiators together for peace talks as US President Barack Obama's special envoy to the Middle East. Announcing Mr Mitchell's resignation, Mr Obama said the diplomat had taken on "the toughest job imaginable" and been a tireless advocate for peace. "His deep commitment to resolving conflict and advancing democracy has contributed immeasurably to the goal of two states living side by side in peace and security," Mr Obama said. Democratic favourite Mr Mitchell was born on 20 August 1933 in Waterville, Maine, the son of an Irish Catholic father who was a labourer and a Lebanese mother who worked in a factory. He worked from an early age to put himself through university and law school, eventually joining the US Army where he served in counter-intelligence in Berlin. At one time he dreamed of becoming mayor of his home town, but his career was to take him much further afield. He entered politics as a staff assistant to Maine Senator Ed Muskie, then practiced law, including working as US Attorney, the highest-ranking federal prosecutor in Maine. In 1980, he was appointed to fill Mr Muskie's seat, then was elected to two full terms. During the Iran-Contra affair in 1987, Mr Mitchell famously asked Oliver North to "remember that it is possible for an American to disagree with you on aid to the Contras and still love God, and still love this country, just as much as you do". Succinct and memorable remarks like these helped propel him into the national spotlight, and a year later he become the majority leader of the Senate. He was voted the "most respected" member of the Senate six years in a row. Seasoned diplomat Upon his retirement from the Senate in 1995, then-President Bill Clinton appointed him special envoy to Northern Ireland. He chaired all-party talks that led to a ceasefire by the IRA and set the scene for a reconciliation between the two sides that would have once been unimaginable. His skill in brokering an agreement, much of it done in secret, earned him a reputation as a shrewd negotiator and someone who could be trusted by both sides. Accepting his role as envoy to the Middle East, he said that his experience in Northern Ireland strengthened his conviction "that peace, no matter how difficult, could always be achieved". "Conflicts are created, conducted and sustained by human beings; they can be ended by human beings," he said. He left politics behind for a time in 2004 to become chairman at Walt Disney, after a bitter battle between its shareholders and former head Michael Eisner. But his investigation into the use of steroids in baseball in 2006 put him back in the political spotlight. His report, released in 2007, found widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs in the game and named some of its biggest and brightest stars. Veteran trouble-shooter Challenging vested interests and resolving intractable conflicts have been Mr Mitchell's speciality. In 2000, Mr Clinton asked him to lead a high-level commission on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In that role, he won respect for being tough with both sides. His final report recommended an end to Israeli settlement activity, and for Palestinians to prevent militant attacks and punish those responsible. His appointment as Mr Obama's Middle East peace envoy came in the wake of a three-week Israeli offensive against Hamas militants which left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead. Thirteen Israelis were killed. Speaking after accepting the appointment, Mr Mitchell said he did not "underestimate the difficulty" of his assignment. Mr Mitchell immediately began a programme of frequent travel to the region. He spent almost two years holding proximity talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, in which he acted as an intermediary between the two sides. His efforts culminated in September in a short round of direct, White House-brokered talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. But the negotiations quickly fell apart after Israel declined to extend a moratorium on construction of settlements in the occupied West Bank. Mr Mitchell was unable to push the two sides to restart the talks, and his travel to the region slowed significantly after December 2010. Following his resignation, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paid tribute to his efforts, saying: "As well as anyone in his generation, George understands the slow, hard work of diplomacy, the art of compromise and the indispensable role of American leadership in the world."

जॉर्ज मिशेल परेशान स्थितियों के लिए कोई अजनबी नहीं हैं।


Couple rescued from Holy Island causeway

Summary: Two people had to be rescued from a car after becoming stranded by the sea on a tidal causeway in Northumberland.

The rescue mission took place on the road that leads to the island of Lindisfarne - also called Holy Island - on Sunday afternoon. The couple were eventually saved by the coastguard and taken back to dry land. Northumbria Police said they were "safe and well" and the vehicle would remain on the causeway until it was safe to return. Warning signs at either end of the road urge drivers to check the tide times, which explain when it is safe to cross each day. The island is a popular tourist destination and wildlife haven and has a population of about 180. Related Internet Links Northumberland County Council

नॉर्थम्बरलैंड में ज्वारीय कॉजवे पर समुद्र में फंसने के बाद दो लोगों को एक कार से बचाना पड़ा।


Are you in your 30s and facing 'the swerve'?

Summary: On the morning of journalist Rachel Syme's 36th birthday, she took to Twitter to ask: "I feel like 33-38 is a really tough age for a lot of women I know; feels like so many big decisions and future plans have to be squeezed into this lil window; just me?

By Dhruti ShahBBC News "It's not just a baby decision which, yes, is huge in those years and looms over everything. It feels like all my friends this year are doing this huge re-evaluation of everything. It's a time of lurches and swerves." It turned out, that no, it was not just her. Instead, she had touched a nerve and was sent an avalanche of shared experiences and advice by a swathe of strangers from around the world who understood exactly how she felt. There were hundreds of responses, just under 1,000 retweets and 9,000 likes. Rachel told the BBC: "The messages, both private and public, just don't stop coming. "I felt like somewhere in my youth, I decided that 36 was my 'scary age' but now it feels like I'm here and while things are coalescing both in good ways professionally and personally, it's also in a scary way." She added that the people contacting her were "describing how they were 'going through the swerve' so that's what I'm now calling it". Rachel said she would look around and see her friends who were in the same age bracket all experiencing this "unspoken period of change" involving major life decisions. Some were new mums, others were breaking up with their long-term partners and others were moving across the country. "I feel like nobody talks to you about what it's like to be this age. We have the youth; spunk, energy, beauty, and there's so many things people feel like they must do - but where are the conversations about all of the big decisions we need to make?" Although the New Yorker hoped her vulnerability on Twitter would be a "generative exercise", she never expected it to spark such a global conversation. "I read so many articles about people who live with their parents for longer than before, while we also know our generation has such little job security," she said. She added that people take longer to settle down, live longer and have more choice. "Basically there is just so much going on." @TheKimClub responded on Twitter to say that Rachel's initial tweet was "correct", and described being in your 30s as "a mini-adolescence". The experiences people shared with Rachel were varied, with some feeling so passionate about this particular period in life they used strong language. "I opened up my direct messages especially and a lot of people told me intimate things. I felt honoured to be entrusted with their stories. About half of those who contacted me were not people who were already in my circles," she said. She said she has been trying to respond to everyone who contacted her or shared their story, but it has taken a significant amount of time to do this because of the attention her initial tweet received. But it is not only women in their 30s who have got in touch. Men and people who identify themselves as non-binary have acknowledged the stage as one either they or their partners are going through. Paul Busch thanked Rachel for her post and responded: "If men are reading, and listening, they can learn a lot about the women in their lives. I've been married for 40+ years and would have to admit I was oblivious as my wife went through this period. But I'll ask my daughters about it - they are 33 and 36." Many commented that they felt exhausted, while others agreed it was a time in which they could do anything they wanted. Heather Candon, who is 43, was one of those who responded to Rachel, tweeting: "For freak reasons I had to get my hips replaced right before my 35th birthday, which charted the course for the next few misadventures, including buying a motorcycle, moving to Spain to live and work (despite not speaking any Spanish), and a sexy French boyfriend in a seaside mansion." She told the BBC when she saw Rachel's tweet, she felt moved to respond: "My life and career were so swiftly sidelined by a medical event right at the stage (33-38) that Rachel describes as a time period when 'so many big decisions and future plans have to be squeezed into this little window'. "I welcome any opportunity for women to share the truth of our experiences; I believe the more we tell our individual stories, the more powerfully we can push back against the limiting myths that tell us what's common/acceptable/appropriate for us." As Rachel says in one of the tweets closing her thread: "I have dozens and dozens of messages from women who've changed jobs, changed partners, frozen eggs, had kids, didn't have kids, adopted, moved cities, cared for sick parents, completely started over. "Here's the big takeaway: you're not alone."

पत्रकार राचेल सिमे के 36वें जन्मदिन की सुबह, उन्होंने ट्विटर पर पूछाः "मुझे लगता है कि मुझे पता है कि बहुत सी महिलाओं के लिए 33-38 वास्तव में एक कठिन उम्र है; ऐसा लगता है कि इतने सारे बड़े निर्णय और भविष्य की योजनाओं को इस छोटी सी खिड़की में निचोड़ना होगा; बस मैं?


The alternative Brit Award nominations

Summary: This year's Brit Award nominations are announced in London later. The Brits honour the year's biggest and best stars, and all artists must have had a top 40 single or album in the UK to be eligible.

By Ian YoungsEntertainment reporter, BBC News But there are always a few gems that do not make the top 40 - the treats that have less commercial appeal, are not in step with fashion, get little promotion or get overlooked for some other reason. Here is an alternative list of artists who did not make the top 40 but could have found a wider audience in 2011. Best British female This R&B singer from Toxteth in Liverpool went to the Brit performing arts school. But it is across the Atlantic that her glossy sound has found success. Her debut solo album Late Nights & Early Mornings features a collaboration with Alicia Keys and has been nominated for two Grammy Awards. It went to number two in the US when it was released in March. Official site The seductive, offbeat vocal jazz on this Shropshire singer's second album Floreat was due to be released by EMI in 2008 - but got shelved when the major label was taken over. She finally wrestled back the rights and put it out last August. In a five-star review, The Independent on Sunday hailed its "unnervingly perfect vocals, lush yet off-centre arrangements [and] quirkily original songs". Official site / BBC Music review One of the venerated veterans of the English folk scene, Tabor released two acclaimed albums in 2011 - one solo, Ashore, inspired by the sea, and the other, Ragged Kingdom, recorded with The Oysterband, 21 years after their first collaboration. At times she comes across as PJ Harvey's long-lost folky mother and she has four nominations for next month's BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Official site / BBC Music review Best British male The Super Furry Animals frontman makes endearingly infectious oddpop that layers inventive melodies with sweet celestial sounds and lashings of strings and brass. In October, his third solo album Hotel Shampoo (about finding free toiletries in hotels on tour) won the inaugural Welsh Music Prize, the Welsh answer to the Mercury Prize. Official site / BBC Music review London dubstep DJ and producer Aaron Jerome marries the moodscapes of The xx and James Blake with sparkling, danceable electronica. His self-titled debut was named best artist album of 2011 by DJ Magazine, which described it as "the smartest album of the year", adding that it was "arguably as emotion-drenched and era-defining as Massive Attack's Blue Lines 20 years ago". Official site / BBC Music review The one-time new wave trailblazer and self-styled "Jesus of Cool" has found renewed respect as a stylish, sepia-toned crooner. The reflective retro ballads on his 13th solo album The Old Magic fit comfortably into a world where Richard Hawley is a star. "Like a fine wine, Nick Lowe continues to mature as a songwriter, at an age when others are withering on the vine," The Independent wrote. Official site / BBC Music review Best British group Amid a morass of mediocre indie bands, this enigmatic Mancunian quartet were among the only the ones aiming to take guitar pop somewhere different and coming halfway close to achieving it. It was in both Q and NME magazines' top 10 albums of the year lists, while their incomprehensible, impassioned yelping recently left TV host David Letterman bemused after an appearance on his show. Official site The album Diamond Mine was a collaboration between singer, songwriter and record label owner King Creosote and Hopkins, an electronic artist who has worked with Coldplay and Brian Eno. Described as a "romanticised version of a life lived in a Scottish coastal village", it combined simple folk melodies, atmospheric synth washes and stuttering beats and was nominated for last year's Mercury Prize. Official site / BBC Music review This band make refined, lyrical and highly tuneful songs, with their wistful and whimsical tone drawing comparisons with The Divine Comedy. Led by Londoner Nick Hemming, their 2009 debut album was nominated for two prestigious Ivor Novello songwriting awards and the follow-up Into the Murky Water proves they have the talent to sustain a fruitful career. Official site / BBC Music review Best international female The second album by the exhilarating Tune-Yards, aka America's Merrill Garbus, was near the top of many critics' end-of-year lists. She made her name with a DIY debut album recorded on a hand-held dictaphone in 2009. For the follow-up Whokill, she picks bits from genres including hip-hop, Afrobeat and alt-rock to make what Rolling Stone called "the year's most thrillingly weird record". Official site / BBC Music review Texan singer Annie Clark makes atmospheric avant garde pop, like Goldfrapp with bolder ideas. Her third solo album Strange Mercy is "is a flawless exercise in arty pop subversion", according to a five-star review in The Daily Telegraph, while another five-star write-up in The Observer praised her knack for a "memorable melody and a winning voice". Official site / BBC Music review This Malian singer has produced a debut album of beguiling, warm grooves with backing from such luminaries as Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones and Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen. Now based in Paris, she is involved with Blur singer Damon Albarn's new supergroup Rocket Juice and the Moon. Fatoumata Diawara on MySpace Best international male This Irish singer-songwriter delivers heartfelt songs with a fragile power and a twang of Americana. He crept into the UK top 40 on Sunday with a version of Steve Winwood's Higher Love, but the original songs on his debut album Early in the Morning, which earned him comparisons with Damien Rice and Bon Iver, show that his own material can shine. Official site A central figure in the Californian folk-rock scene, Wilson is an acoustic strummer for whom the hazy hippy days never ended. He is also a guitarist for Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne and Robbie Robertson's bands. Mojo magazine described his album Gentle Spirit, fourth on its list of the albums of 2011, as sounding "like sunlight slowly burning off the mist", while Uncut named him new artist of the year. Official site / BBC Music review This LA-based R&B singer has sung on Jay-Z and Kanye West's collaboration Watch The Throne, written songs for Beyonce and Justin Bieber and put out an acclaimed solo album Nostalgia, Ultra. That may well have made the top 40 if he had not released it himself for free online after getting frustrated at a lack of action from his record label. Frank Ocean on Tumblr Best international group With a euphoric, anthemic air and 80s-sized synths and drums, Hurry Up We're Dreaming, the sixth album by M83, narrowly missed the top 40. Led by French musician Anthony Gonzalez, the album was described as "horizon-spanning, unabashedly epic synth rock" by Pitchfork, the bible of music blogs, which ranked it as the third best of 2011. Official site / BBC Music review San Francisco group Girls were another rare example of a guitar band who just about fulfilled their ambitions in 2011. Mining several decades of rock history for inspiration, their second full album Father, Son, Holy Ghost ranges from simple, shining moments of melodic pop to thrilling, throbbing wig-outs. Dummy magazine said it was "one of the best rock records of our time". Girls on MySpace / BBC Music review On their 10th studio album Undun, the Philadelphia hip-hop crew tell the backwards story of a semi-fictional character who is sucked into a life of crime as he struggles to survive in the ugly city. The Los Angeles Times declared that it showed "a band at the top of its game continuing to forge new directions in hip-hop". Official site / BBC Music review Listen to a selection of songs by these artists in playlists on YouTube, Spotify (registration & application download required) or MySpace. This list is entirely subjective, frivolous and unscientific, and does not confer any accolade upon these artists on behalf of the BBC.

इस वर्ष के ब्रिट पुरस्कार नामांकनों की घोषणा बाद में लंदन में की जाती है। ब्रिटिश वर्ष के सबसे बड़े और सर्वश्रेष्ठ सितारों को सम्मानित करते हैं, और सभी कलाकारों के पास पात्र होने के लिए यूके में शीर्ष 40 एकल या एल्बम होना चाहिए।


Tour de France Grand Depart diary

Summary: With the world's biggest bike race starting in Leeds on 5 July, BBC Yorkshire's Tour de France correspondent Matt Slater rounds up the best of the gossip, opinion and stories, on and off the bike, and also tries to explain some of cycling's unique lingo. TOP STORIES

Do not let the stereotype of people who say what they like and like what they say put you off, they are a welcoming bunch in Yorkshire. They must be, they are even willing to change the names of their pubs to make you feel more at home. Otley's 19 pubs have translated their names into French for the Grand Depart period. Apparently, the West Yorkshire market town has previous in this regard, as they were all renamed "The Yorkshire Princess" when Kate Middleton married into the Windsor clan. I can see names like the Bar Du Nord (North Bar) and La Toison (The Fleece) sticking for a while, but I do not think Le Cheval et Marechal-ferrant (The Horse and Farrier) will linger. Full story: The Guardian In doing this gig I have learned that if I want common sense from Huddersfield I should look no further than the Andrew Jackson column. The Examiner's executive editor is in trenchant form today on the subject of Tour de France refuseniks. "What's yellow and annoying? No, not a budgie with an airhorn - I was actually thinking of some people's attitude towards the Tour." Jackson goes on to outline the pros and cons of staging the event, and hits the nail squarely on its tete when he says: "If it was somewhere else, we'd be moaning that we never get anything like this in Huddersfield. Well this time it's in Huddersfield." Full story: Huddersfield Examiner Having said how welcoming Yorkshire folk are, they do have limits. And I may be about to test those limits with the next item, but there is a spirit of fraternite in the air so I will try to sneak it past. Manchester's excellent Museum of Science and Industry - a family favourite of the diary's - is staging an exhibition called "Pedal Power" from 19 July to mark the 20 years of success British cycling has enjoyed since moving to the city's National Cycling Centre. It is free and you can be back in Yorkshire pretty sharpish afterwards. Full story: MOSI CYCLING ROUND-UP Two more teams have confirmed their line-ups for Leeds, and they are both significant in their own way. The first announcement came from the Dutch-based Belkin squad. The nine riders selected were all pretty much as expected - the Dutch duo Bauke Mollema and Laurens ten Dam will lead the team's general classification challenge, with Sep Vanmarcke perhaps fancying his chances on the cobbles of stage five - but the key issue for them is that they are riding under the pressure of needing to find a new title sponsor for next season. Or a new team. After a few up-and-down seasons and numerous name changes, Trek Factory Racing's future seems much more stable these days and they have certainly gone for continuity in their team selection. Having taken the ever-so modern approach of naming the first six riders on twitter overnight, they announced the final three on Wednesday afternoon. Those three were Luxembourg's finest Andy and Frank Schleck, and the popular German Jens Voigt. Of the Schleck brothers, the younger Andy's selection is perhaps more controversial as he has been in such miserable form since finishing second behind Cadel Evans in the 2011 Tour. He had come second the two previous Tours, too, but inherited the 2010 win when Alberto Contador was banned for doping. This looks like a last chance to rediscover that form. And for Voigt, well, this is his chance to say goodbye. The 42-year-old retires at the end of the season and this will be his 17th straight Tour, equalling the record. He will no doubt mark this feat by joining an early breakaway, and repeating this most days until Paris. TWEET OF THE DAY "Today is the day!! Tour de France or not! It will be decided today for my team, big meeting of our sports management." Voigt sums up the mood of many professional riders at the moment as he waited for news: will he go to the ball or not? TODAY'S TOUR TRIVIA In honour of Voigt, let us pay tribute to those lone riders who have escaped up the road and avoided recapture - it does happen, just not very often. The longest solo break in Tour history belongs to Albert Bourlon. On a stage from Carcassone to Luchon in 1947, the Frenchman rode on his own for 253km, finishing more than 16 minutes clear of the next rider. That is not the biggest winning margin, though. That honour belongs to Spain's Jose-Luis Viejo, who beat the pack by nearly 23 minutes in 1976. THE COUNTDOWN - 1O DAYS TO GO Just 10 days then until British cyclists can start trying to move the UK up from its current 10th place on the national leaderboard for yellow jerseys. So far, British riders have been given a maillot jaune to wear 39 times, four fewer than riders from Denmark. With Mark Cavendish desperate to don yellow on the Tour's second stage this year, and Chris Froome favourite to end up in it, Denmark's lead looks vulnerable. But there is a big gap to Germany in eighth - their riders have won 71 yellow jerseys.

5 जुलाई को लीड्स में शुरू होने वाली दुनिया की सबसे बड़ी बाइक दौड़ के साथ, बीबीसी यॉर्कशायर के टूर डी फ्रांस संवाददाता मैट स्लेटर बाइक के अंदर और बाहर गपशप, राय और कहानियों का सबसे अच्छा दौर पेश करते हैं, और साइकिल चलाने की कुछ अनूठी भाषा को समझाने की भी कोशिश करते हैं।


Baroness Thatcher's funeral: Sermon in full

Summary: The Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, has reminded the nation on the day of Margaret Thatcher's funeral, that it is "neither the time nor the place" to debate her legacy. The full text of his sermon follows.

After the storm of a life lived in the heat of political controversy, there is a great calm. The storm of conflicting opinions centres on the Mrs Thatcher who became a symbolic figure - even an "ism". Today the remains of the real Margaret Hilda Thatcher are here at her funeral service. Lying here, she is one of us, subject to the common destiny of all human beings. There is an important place for debating policies and legacy; for assessing the impact of political decisions on the everyday lives of individuals and communities. Parliament held a frank debate last week - but here and today is neither the time nor the place. This, at Lady Thatcher's personal request, is a funeral service, not a Memorial Service with the customary eulogies. At such a time, the parson should not aspire to the judgments which are proper to the politician; instead, this is a place for ordinary human compassion of the kind that is reconciling. It is also the place for the simple truths which transcend political debate. Above all it is the place for hope. But it must be difficult for those members of her family and close associates to recognise the wife, mother and grandmother in the mythological figure. Our hearts go out to Mark and Carol and their families, and also to those who cared for Lady Thatcher with such devotion in her last years. One thing that everyone has noted is the courtesy and personal kindness which she showed to those who worked for her, as well as her capacity to reach out to the young, and often also to those who were not, in the world's eyes, "important". The letter from a young boy early on in her time as Prime Minister is a typical example. Nine year old David wrote to say, "Last night when we were saying prayers, my daddy said everyone has done wrong things except Jesus. I said I don't think you have done bad things because you are the Prime Minister. Am I right or is my daddy?" Perhaps the most remarkable thing is that the PM replied in her own hand in a very straightforward letter which took the question seriously. "However good we try to be, we can never be as kind, gentle and wise as Jesus. There will be times when we do or say something we wish we hadn't done and we shall be sorry and try not to do it again…If you and I were to paint a picture, it wouldn't be as good as the picture of great artists. So our lives can't be as good as the life of Jesus." She was always reaching out and trying to help in typically uncoded terms. I was once sitting next to her at some City function. In the midst of describing how Hayek's Road to Serfdom had influenced her thinking, she suddenly grasped my wrist and said very emphatically, "Don't touch the duck pate, Bishop - it's very fattening." She described her own religious upbringing in a lecture she gave in the nearby church of St Lawrence Jewry. "We often went to church twice on Sundays, as well as on other occasions during the week… We were taught always to make up our own minds and never take the easy way of following the crowd." Her upbringing was in the Methodism to which this country owes a huge debt. When it was time to challenge the political and economic status quo in nineteenth century Britain, it was so often the Methodists who took the lead. The Tolpuddle Martyrs, for example, were led not by proto-Marxists but by Methodist lay preachers. Today's first lesson describes the struggle with the principalities and powers. Perseverance in struggle and the courage to be were characteristic of Margaret Thatcher. In a setting like this, in the presence of the leaders of the nation, it is easy to forget the immense hurdles she had to climb. Beginning in the upper floors of her father's grocer's shop in Grantham, through Oxford as a scientist and, later, as part of the team that invented Mr Whippy ice cream, she embarked upon a political career. By the time she entered Parliament in 1959 she was part of a cohort of only 4% of women in the House of Commons. She had experienced many rebuffs along the way, often on the short list for candidates only to be disqualified by prejudice against a woman - and, worse, a woman with children. She applied herself to her work with formidable energy and passion. But she continued to reflect on how faith and politics related to one another. In the Lawrence Jewry lecture she said that, "Christianity offers no easy solutions to political and economic issues. It teaches us that there is some evil in everyone and that it cannot be banished by sound policies and institutional reforms…We cannot achieve a compassionate society simply by passing new laws and appointing more staff to administer them." She was very aware that there are prior dispositions which are needed to make market economics and democratic institutions function well: the habits of truth-telling, mutual sympathy, and the capacity to co-operate. These dispositions are incubated and given power by our relationships. In her words, "the basic ties of the family are at the heart of our society and are the very nursery of civic virtue". Such moral and spiritual capital is accumulated over generations but can be easily eroded. Life is a struggle to make the right choices and to achieve liberation from dependence, whether material or psychological. This genuine independence is the essential pre-condition for living in an other-centred way, beyond ourselves. The word Margaret Thatcher used at St Lawrence Jewry was "interdependence". She referred to the Christian doctrine, "that we are all members one of another, expressed in the concept of the Church on earth as the Body of Christ. From this we learn our interdependence and the great truth that we do not achieve happiness or salvation in isolation from each other but as members of Society." Her later remark about there being no such thing as "society" has been misunderstood and refers to some impersonal entity to which we are tempted to surrender our independence. It is entirely right that in the Dean's bidding there was a reference to "the life-long companionship she enjoyed with Denis." As we all know, the manner of her leaving office was traumatic but the loss of Denis was a grievous blow indeed, and then there was a struggle with increasing debility from which she has now been liberated. The natural cycle leads inevitably to decay, but the dominant note of a Christian funeral service, after the sorrow and the memories, is hope. It is almost as perplexing to identify the "real me" in life as it is in death. The atoms that make up our bodies are changing all the time, through wear and tear, eating and drinking. We are atomically distinct from what we were when young. What unites Margaret Roberts of Grantham with Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven and constitutes her identity? The complex pattern of memories, aspirations and actions which make up a character were carried for a time by the atoms of her body, but we believe are also stored up in the Cloud of God's being. In faithful relationships, when two people live together, they grow around one another and the one becomes part of the other. We are given the freedom to be ourselves and, as human beings, to be drawn freely into an ever closer relationship with the divine nature. Everything which has turned to love in our lives will be stored up in the memory of God. First there is the struggle for freedom and independence and then the self-giving and the acceptance of interdependence. In the gospel passage read by the prime minister, Jesus says "I am the way, the truth, and the life". "I am" is the voice of the divine being. Jesus does not bring information or advice but embodies the reality of divine love. God so loved the world that he was generous: he did not intervene from the outside but gave himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ, and became one of us. What, in the end, makes our lives seem valuable after the storm and stress has passed and there is a great calm? The questions most frequently asked at such a time concern us all. How loving have I been? how faithful in personal relationships? Have I found joy within myself, or am I still looking for it in externals outside myself? Margaret Thatcher had a sense of this, which she expressed in her address to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland: "I leave you with the earnest hope that may we all come nearer to that other country whose 'ways are ways of gentleness and all her paths are peace'." TS Eliot, in the poem quoted in this service sheet, says, 'the communication Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.' In this Easter season Death is revealed, not as a full stop but as the way into another dimension of Life. As Eliot puts it: "What we call the beginning is often the end And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from." Rest eternal grant unto her, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon her.

लंदन के बिशप, रिचर्ड चार्टर्स ने मार्गरेट थैचर के अंतिम संस्कार के दिन राष्ट्र को याद दिलाया है कि यह उनकी विरासत पर बहस करने का "न तो समय है और न ही स्थान"। उनके उपदेश का पूरा पाठ इस प्रकार है।


Should shipwrecks be left alone?

Summary: It is 10 years since a deal to protect the world's thousands of shipwrecks, but the UK and several other major maritime powers are yet to ratify it. Should this underwater heritage be protected or is it acceptable to plunder?

By Chris SummersBBC News When a ship sinks and lives are lost, it is a tragedy for the families involved. For the relatives of the dead, the ship becomes an underwater grave but as the years pass the wreck can become a site of archaeological interest. In recent years technological innovations have allowed commercial archaeologists, decried by some as "treasure hunters", to reach wrecks far below the surface. The most famous of them all, the Titanic, is nearly three miles down and to get thereas film director James Cameron has shown,involves using "robot" divers which are prohibitively expensive - around $50,000 (£32,000) a day. Salvage firms are most interested in ships with cargoes of gold and silver, ceramics or other valuables. In November 2001, theUnesco Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritagewas finally adopted. But 10 years on, it still has not been ratified by the UK, France, Russia, China or the US, and commercial archaeologists continue to locate wrecks, remove their cargoes and sell them off. "The convention has not been ratified yet because of the issues it throws up about the cost of implementing and policing it," a spokesman for the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, says. "Discussions continue within government, but ratification is not currently seen as a priority." In September Britain's Department of Transport announced it had signed a deal withOdyssey Marine Explorationfor the salvage of 200 tonnes of silver, worth up to £150m, from the SS Gairsoppa, which was sunk by a German U-Boat in 1941. The British government will get 20% of whatever Odyssey recovers but Unesco says the deal broke the spirit of the convention. Robert Yorke, chairman of the Joint Nautical Archaeology Policy Committee, argues the real reason the government, and the Ministry of Defence in particular, are not ratifying the convention was because of a misplaced fear about the implications for British warships around the world. The internationally recognised concept of "sovereign immunity" means nations should not interfere with foreign warships. Under the Military Remains Act 1986,a number of British warships around the world are protected, including several ships sunk during the Falklands conflict. Also covered are several German U-boats in UK waters. There are an estimated three million wrecks on the seabed. Unesco believes attitudes to the exploration of wrecks are out of step with land archaeology. "The looting of the tombs of Tutankhamen is now considered unacceptable, so why is the looting of shipwrecks considered acceptable?" says Unesco's Tim Curtis. Caesar Bita is a Kenyan maritime archaeologist and an expert on ancient trade between China and Africa. He believes he is close to finding the remains of the legendary fleet of Zheng He. According to stories, a ship from the Chinese admiral's fleet is thought to have foundered off the coast of Kenya in the early 1400s. Bita says the wrecks could provide evidence of early contact between China and East Africa. "Shipwrecks are always under threat all over the world by people collecting material from the site and the situation in Kenya is not unique," he says. Sean Fisher, whose grandfather Mel discovered the treasure ship Nuestra Senora de Atocha off Florida, says he is not "ashamed to call himself a treasure hunter." "Purist archaeologists turn up their noses at us," he says. "But every artefact we find, whether it's a piece of pottery, a gold bar or a spike used in the rigging gets treated with exactly the same care. "Everybody loves gold and everybody has a bit of treasure hunter in them but for me the most exciting thing I ever found was a 400-year-old arquebus (hook gun). It was like bringing history back to life." But the idea that mass heritage is at risk is scaremongering, says Dr Sean Kingsley, a director of Wreck Watch International and a spokesman for Odyssey. "Sand dredging, offshore fishing, pipeline laying, scuba-diving trophy hunters and governments' failures to police these industries are the true greatest threats to the world's shipwrecks." He argues that the nations which have ratified the convention represent only 5% of the world's coastline. The convention only covers wrecks that are over 100 years old, which means the Titanic will only be covered from next year and ships from World War I and II have no protection. That is something which concerns naval veterans. Last month seven European naval associationswrote a letter to The Timesto protest at Dutch salvage firms who they said were "desecrating" the graves of three British warships, which were torpedoed off the Netherlands in 1914, in their search for scrap metal. But some wartime wrecks have been protected. The Polish Maritime Office recently placed a 500m diving exclusion zone around the wreck of the Wilhelm Gustloff, which sank in the Baltic in January 1945. The ship, packed with 10,000 German refugees from the Eastern Front, was sunk by a Soviet sub. Only 500 survived and it is the single largest death toll at sea. In 2006 Australian divers located the wreck of aJapanese mini-submarine, M24,three miles off Sydney.The sub, which is believed to contain the bodies of two young Japanese submariners, came to grief after taking part in an attack on Sydney harbour in 1942. The Australian authorities placed a similar 500m zone around the wreck, monitored by sensitive hydrophones, with a A$1.1m (£725,587) fine for anyone who interferes with the wreck. Maritime archaeologist Mark Wilde-Ramsing is unlikely to get to meet the relatives of those who died on the wreck he is exploring. The Queen Anne's Revenge was an English pirate ship commanded by Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, which sank off the coast of North Carolina in 1718. Many of theexhibits- including pistols, rum bottles, slave shackles and a surgeon's kit - are now on display at a museum in North Carolina but sadly Blackbeard's treasure was nowhere to be found. But the convention does not just apply to shipwrecks. It also covers archaeological sites which are now underwater, such asPort Royal in Jamaica,a former pirate harbour once described as the "wickedest city on Earth", as well as prehistoric sites in the North Sea, and the watersoff Alexandria, in Egypt. But if wrecks and ruins continue to fascinate, what is the best way to satisfy the public curiosity? In 1982 the Mary Rose, flagship of England's King Henry VIII, was raised from the Solent and next yeara £35m museum will open in Portsmouth. Some argue it would have been better, in hindsight, for the Mary Rose to have stayed on the seabed, because of the expensive chemical treatment needed to preserve the timbers. "It has created the myth that all shipwrecks are bottomless money pits and that hull and mass artefact recovery are best avoided," suggests Dr Kingsley. But Prof Jon Adams, head of maritime archaeology at the University of Southampton, strongly disagrees. "If it was falling to pieces and nobody came to see it I'd agree, but its conservation has been a highly successful research project in its own right and it is one of the most popular maritime museum in world with over 300,000 visitors a year," he says. Many experts believe the future is in underwater trails or virtual museums, where the wreck remains in situ and cameras relay real-time pictures to a museum on the surface. Australia is also home to a number of "underwater heritage trails", with plaques offering information for divers. In the Dominican Republic a "living museum" has been set up around the wrecks of two Spanish galleons which sank during a hurricane in 1724. The living museum was the idea of Prof Charles Beeker, of Indiana University. "We want people to come and visit but to take only pictures and leave only bubbles," he says. Prof Beeker, who has also discovered the wreck of Captain Kidd's pirate ship the Quedagh Merchant, said all divers had to be "sensitive" to the fact that wrecks are essentially graveyards and he criticised some who took the skulls of Japanese seamen from the many wrecks in Truk Lagoon in the Pacific. While it pushes in situ preservation, Unesco is hopeful several major countries, including Australia and France, might soon ratify the convention to give it more weight. Dr Kingsley is doubtful and says self-regulation is the best way forward: "The future is going to be an expensive and unimaginable journey, a challenge best met by sharing ideas, information and enlightened management, not by using the Unesco convention to slap parking tickets' on robots' windows." But Prof Adams says self-regulation does not work and added: "The Unesco convention represents best practice and is the only feasible way of protecting underwater cultural heritage in international waters."

दुनिया के हजारों जहाजों के टूटने की रक्षा के लिए एक समझौते को 10 साल हो चुके हैं, लेकिन ब्रिटेन और कई अन्य प्रमुख समुद्री शक्तियों ने अभी तक इसकी पुष्टि नहीं की है। क्या इस पानी के नीचे की विरासत को संरक्षित किया जाना चाहिए या लूटना स्वीकार्य है?


Twelve-mile diversion for Tal-y-Cafn bridge repair

Summary: Motorists are facing diversions of about 12 miles (19.3km) for five to six weeks as bridge repairs are carried out in Conwy county.

Conwy council is repairing the bridge at Tal-y-Cafn, which links the A470 to the western side of the River Conwy. The closest crossings of the river are at Conwy castle six miles (9.7km) north of the bridge, or at Llanrwst, seven miles (11.3km) south of the village. The council said the bridge needs "essential repairs". Work includes resurfacing, replacing joints and concrete and upgrading drainage.

मोटर चालकों को पांच से छह सप्ताह तक लगभग 12 मील (19.3km) के मोड़ का सामना करना पड़ रहा है क्योंकि कॉनवी काउंटी में पुल की मरम्मत की जा रही है।


Q&A: Thailand election

Summary: Thailand is holding parliamentary elections on 2 February amid anti-government protests which show no sign of subsiding. The government called the snap election to try to quell the unrest which has swept the capital and to confirm its mandate to govern.

Tensions are running high and there are fears that violence could break out at the polls. Why is the election atmosphere so tense? The poll is being held in a nation which is politically polarised. The demonstrators do not want the election to take place. These activists represent a segment of the urban affluent and middle classes, who have been holding rallies in the capital, occupying public buildings and ministries. The main opposition Democrat Party, which is allied to the protesters, is boycotting the election. On the other hand, the government's Pheu Thai Party has many supporters - sometimes referred to as "red shirts" - in the rural North, where the majority of voters live. Under various different names, the ruling party has won the last five elections. Thailand's recent history is marked by a string of coups, the latest one taking place in 2006. The army's support for the current government is uncertain, with the army chief recently making an ambivalent statement about whether or not another coup could take place. Why do the protesters oppose the prime minister? Protesters say Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is too much under the influence of her brother, the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is the main focus of their anger. Mr Thaksin lives in exile after being convicted of corruption by a Thai court. He was removed by the military in 2006. The protesters say the Shinawatra family is corrupt and therefore its electoral mandate is meaningless. Instead of an election, they want an unelected "people's council" to replace parliament and clean up Thai politics. Will this election make a difference? The splits that have divided Thai society for the past two decades will not be healed by this election. Ms Yingluck will almost certainly continue to receive overwhelming support from the north and east. The main opposition Democrats will continue to dominate in the south and in most parts of Bangkok. Even if the election passes off peacefully, it will return a parliament without the Democrats. Their persistent inability to win elections has left their supporters disenchanted with electoral politics, and desperate for another avenue of representation. They are likely to continue their support for the protesters. It is unclear how a stable government could emerge in such a situation. How has the campaign gone so far? The campaign has been operating under a state of emergency in Bangkok and the surrounding areas, called by the prime minister to contain potential violence. Advance voting at many polling stations on 26 January was obstructed by protesters who padlocked gates outside the venues. Some voters were harassed and intimidated when they tried to cast their ballots. A local protest leader was shot dead by unknown assailants. The day before the election, centres processing ballots became a flashpoint, particularly in Bangkok where a gun battle outside one of the centres wounded six people. How are other voters reacting to the situation? Some observers have argued that Thais are showing positive signs of a renewed interest in exercising their democratic rights. Pictures have been circulating on social media showing advance poll voters climbing over fences and walking through hostile crowds in a determined attempt to cast their ballot. A grassroots movement loosely titled "Respect my vote" has gathered momentum, after an activist disturbed a Democrat Party meeting by shouting this slogan which he had written on a placard. The incident, which has been widely viewed on YouTube, inspired rallies in other parts of Thailand, with people wearing white and calling for the election to go ahead. BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. For more reports from BBC Monitoring, click here. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.

थाईलैंड में 2 फरवरी को सरकार विरोधी प्रदर्शनों के बीच संसदीय चुनाव हो रहे हैं जो कम होने के कोई संकेत नहीं दिखा रहे हैं। सरकार ने राजधानी में फैली अशांति को शांत करने और शासन करने के अपने जनादेश की पुष्टि करने के लिए मध्यावधि चुनाव का आह्वान किया है।


Trump Kim summit: Handshake moment explained in pictures

Summary: US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have finally shaken hands. But nobody knew exactly how it would play out. Here we break down the images from an extraordinary morning to explain how each moment unfolded.

First of all, an (almost) empty stage The last finishing touches were made to the red carpet at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island with North Korean and US flags seen as a bold backdrop. It's safe to say that there has rarely if ever been a time when the North Korean and American flags flew side-by-side quite like this. It's a symbolic win for Kim, showing both players come together on equal terms. What you don't see in the picture is the media swarm on the other side of the photo, poised for that historic handshake. They enter: stage left, stage right Almost as if they had rehearsed this moment, Mr Trump entered from the right and Mr Kim from the left. Even before the two leaders were anywhere near each other, you can already see Mr Trump stretching out his hand - ready perhaps, to execute that famous grip he's known for. A firm 12-second handshake "Nice to meet you Mr President," were the words spoken by Mr Kim upon meeting Mr Trump. It was a firm handshake of equals pressed upon each other, but one that was significantly shorter than Mr Trump is used to, lasting only seconds instead of the uncomfortably long ones the US leader usually gives. On Mr Kim's part, the handshake is a lot less dramatic than the one the North Korean leader gave South Korean President Moon Jae-in just a month ago, where he gripped Mr Moon's hand and led him over to the North Korean side of the border. And then Mr Trump ushers Mr Kim off the red carpet. He's seen in many pictures physically guiding or moving Mr Kim along, projecting an image that he's in charge and in control. "Donald Trump placing his hand on Kim's back...[this] shows a bit of dominance," Manoj Vasudevan, a body language expert told BBC World News. "You can see Trump leads the way a lot." 'Fireside chat' photo opportunity The duo are seen here in a fireside chat setting before they made their way into their one-on-one meeting. The moment, as it played out, was slightly awkward, with Mr Kim seen staring at the ground and Mr Trump fidgeting with his hands. Unlike the South Korean summit there was no scheduled ritual, it was almost a series of staged tableaux. "Here they are sitting together, [but they aren't] making much eye contact," says Mr Vasudevan. "You can see Kim Jong-un changing his position a few times and Trump tapping his fingers, [a sign of being] uncomfortable. There's no outward appearance of close rapport." The awkwardness is understandable. Leading the way Here's Mr Trump and Mr Kim walking (with Mr Trump one step ahead) towards their one-on-one meeting which lasted for 40 minutes. For Mr Trump, he's likely to credit any success in these talks to his "maximum pressure campaign". For Mr Kim, gaining an audience with a sitting US leader could be seen as a victory in itself - something which neither his father or grandfather could achieve. More importantly, it's cemented his legitimacy as a world leader. A day of many handshakes Both at the end of the bilateral talks and when the leaders gave a joint statement to the press, they shook hands again - a number of times. Without a clear sense of what exactly they have agreed to, perhaps gestures of goodwill summed up the day best. Reporting by the BBC's Yvette Tan.

अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प और उत्तर कोरियाई नेता किम जोंग-उन ने आखिरकार हाथ मिलाया है। लेकिन किसी को नहीं पता था कि यह कैसे होगा। यहाँ हम एक असाधारण सुबह की तस्वीरों को तोड़ते हुए बताते हैं कि हर पल कैसे सामने आया।