Is Moscow falling out of love with Trump?

Summary: US President Donald Trump's widely anticipated first face-to-face meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin has come, but some in Moscow have been left disillusioned over the prospect of a sweetening of ties between Russia and the US, as the BBC's Steve Rosenberg reports.

In a Moscow art gallery, a pianist is performing America the Beautiful. The scene is surreal. Above me hangs a sculpture of enormous outstretched arms. To my right is what appears to be a tree of twisted arms and legs for branches. A humongous hand is growing out of the wall. Amongst these curious limbs stands a brand new statue, just unveiled. It depicts a handshake between the former US President Ronald Reagan and his Soviet counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev. Back in the 1980s, Mr Reagan and Mr Gorbachev overcame mutual suspicion to end the Cold War: an example which the organisers here hope Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will follow as they hold their first face-to-face meeting. "It's our message to them, that 'Guys, we are now reaching a very dangerous line. Very dangerous,'" explains Edward Lozansky, president of the American University in Moscow. "It's not even a red line. It's a double or triple red line. 'So you'd better do something.'" Those "red lines" run through Syria, Ukraine and the Korean peninsula; through America, too, where Russia stands accused of interfering in last year's US presidential election to the benefit of Mr Trump. "Of course, Putin is in a much better position," Edward Lozansky believes. "He formulates Russian foreign policy and the country backs him, giving him a free hand. Trump is much weaker. Every time he says he wants to improve relations with Russia, he's accused of being a Russian stooge or Kremlin surrogate." Change of tune Last month, the Russian government paper Rossiyskaya Gazeta concluded that "it's impossible to expect anything" from a Putin-Trump meeting, since "…the US administration has its hands and legs tied". This week the business daily Vedomosti suggested that "experts consider it an achievement the talks are happening at all". The anchor of Russian state TV's flagship News of the Week show, Dmitry Kiselev, said the most Russia could hope for from the bilateral meeting is that Putin and Trump "get to know each other and agree to meet again". The tone of the pro-Kremlin media has changed. A few months ago, Russian TV was showering America's president with compliments. Kiselev called him a "real man". More recently, though, the presenter described Mr Trump as "more dangerous" than Kim Jong-un of North Korea. Following Mr Trump's election victory, Russia was seized with Trumpomania: his portrait slapped on everything from golden iPhones to boxes of sugar cubes. But US-Russian relations haven't grown sweeter. And that has left some Russians feeling very sour. Kicked out by the Cossacks In a park in St Petersburg I meet a group of musical Cossacks. Dressed in full military uniforms, they sing a Cossack prayer, beseeching the Lord to bless the people and provide them with food, truth and freedom. Watching with me is local Cossack chief Andrey Polyakov. I first met Andrey last November. His community had been so excited by the prospect of a pro-Russia US president, it had made Mr Trump an honorary Cossack. Eight months on, Andrey's group has grown so disillusioned with its American 'colleague' that it has expelled Mr Trump from its ranks. "The US president has broken his promises. And a man must keep his word," Andrey tells me. "He said relations with Russia would improve, that he would reduce funding for Nato and that he would focus on domestic affairs. Instead, the US continues its aggressive foreign policy, for example in the Middle East." Of course, being kicked out of the Cossacks is the least of Mr Trump's problems. Of greater concern will be the numerous investigations back home into Russia's alleged links to the Trump team. Like minds? Whether it's replacing healthcare or building a wall on the Mexican border, from his Muslim travel ban to improving relations with Russia, Mr Trump is finding that election promises are easy to make, but difficult to keep. For all his pre-election talk of getting along with Moscow, the US President will struggle to strike a grand bargain with President Putin. And yet in terms of character, the two leaders have much in common and could well develop a personal rapport. They share a suspicion of the mainstream Western media and of liberal society, while both seem to eschew political correctness. Is that enough to forge a US-Russian partnership? Back at the art gallery, I meet someone who has experience in bringing east and west closer together. Suzanne Massie is an American writer who fell in love with the Russian people and Russian culture. As an adviser to Ronald Reagan, she was instrumental in changing his perception of the USSR as an evil empire. She would coach him before his meetings with Mr Gorbachev. Could Mr Trump be a new Reagan? "Reagan wanted to learn," Suzanne Massie tells me. "He was a deeply religious man with a very great moral compass." "And Donald Trump?" I ask. "Trump ought to curb his instant reactions. He's a man who doesn't have experience with all of this. I hope he can listen carefully to the Russian president and think of the good of, not only our people in the United States, but also the Russian people."

अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प की रूसी नेता व्लादिमीर पुतिन के साथ व्यापक रूप से प्रत्याशित पहली आमने-सामने की बैठक आ गई है, लेकिन मास्को में कुछ लोगों का रूस और अमेरिका के बीच संबंधों में मधुरता की संभावना से मोहभंग हो गया है, जैसा कि बीबीसी के स्टीव रोसेनबर्ग ने बताया है।


Easter treats: Will Gompertz reviews the best lockdown entertainment ★★★★★

Summary: When I was 11, my father gave an LP to me by a middle-aged American man called Bob Newhart. I'd never heard of the fella. But then I'd never heard of Louis Armstrong before Dad introduced me to his exuberant trumpet-playing when I was seven. Nor Frank Sinatra, whom I first listened to on a cassette in the old man's car when I was five. They turned out to be good. Dad was in credit.

Will GompertzArts editor@WillGompertzBBCon Twitter This was 1976. The year the Sex Pistols played the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester and the Ramones released their debut album. I could see from the record in my hand it wasn't that, but nor, thankfully, was it David Cassidy and The Partridge Family, which my sister played incessantly. Onto the turntable it went: The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart. Track one, side one - here we go. What? No strings? That's a departure. Perhaps Dad - a country doctor partial to a tweed suit - was edging towards a hipper minimalist sound. An MC introduces Newhart, followed by gentle applause, and then the main man takes the stage. He's not singing, he's not even playing an instrument. He's talking. About advertising. Specifically, about a conversation between Abraham Lincoln and his PR advisor. The audience is laughing. It's a comedy album! I hadn't known there was such a thing. Thanks Dad. Newhart is funny guy. His shtick is to play the straight man in an imagined conversation, the laughs are in the gaps your imagination fills - the other side of the call you don't hear leading to Newhart's responses, which become more and more surreal the longer the call goes on. What is so striking about hearing it again (there's a lot of Newhart material online), is not that how well it has aged, but that nobody I know of is doing anything like it at the moment. Not in comedy, at least. Elsewhere, the one-way conversation is all the rage in our lockdown age. Actors, musicians, and teachers are all generously giving performances and classes to unseen online audiences. As are curators, the pick of whom this week is the softly-spoken Till-Holger Borchert of the Musea Brugge in Belgium. He's inveigled his way into the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent to give us a tour of its fabulous Jan van Eyck exhibition, which was the must-see show this spring before coronavirus wrecked havoc. The professionally filmed private view with Mr Borchert as our personal guide is nearly as good as the real thing, with the added bonus of his knowledge about one of the greatest painters of all time - the Leonardo of the North - whose recently restored Ghent Altarpiece (painted partly with his brother Hubert) is the standout star of this show. The Lake District landscape is the star of The Great Mountain Sheep Gather, a beautiful documentary that's airing at 19:00 BST on BBC Four on Easter Monday. The setting is Scafell Pike, the tallest mountain in England, from which a herd of 500 sheep must be brought down for shearing by a foot-sore shepherd. We follow him up and then down again in a 100-minute observational film that has the courage to go at his pace, which is mighty slow. The voice of Maxine Peake is heard from time-to-time, reading the specifically commissioned poetry of Mark Pajak, making for an elegiac programme the like of which I haven't seen before, but would happily watch again. The scenery is spectacular. Having got into the slow, poetic zone, I'd recommend heading online to watch a film posted recently by the director and critic Mark Cousins in response to the bug. It's called 40 Days to Learn Film, which you do in his two-hour 15 minute passion project that is an utterly charming, highly informative history of film, structured like no other, in which Cousins hops across decades, cultures, and genres with agility of a sheep on Scafell Pike. It's brilliant. As is Jesus Christ Superstar, the 70s musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, which you can see for free this weekend on the newly-established YouTube channel, The Shows Must Go On. It's the 2012 cast with Tim Minchin and Mel C. And finally, given the time of year, a steer towards the English Touring Opera, which is presenting Bach's St John Passion, free-to-see on its YouTube channel at 16:00 on Easter Sunday. The intention had been to tour the production around the country and work with a range of players and choirs, but that's not possible now. Instead, we'll get to see and hear a hybrid production that consists of film from a recent show at the Hackney Empire in London, some rehearsal footage, and contribution from regional choirs that helps fully fill the soundscape. I think it's going to be wonderful. Happy Easter. Recent reviews by Will Gompertz Follow Will Gompertz on Twitter

जब मैं 11 साल का था, तब मेरे पिता ने मुझे बॉब न्यूहार्ट नामक एक अधेड़ उम्र के अमेरिकी व्यक्ति द्वारा एक एल. पी. दी थी। मैंने कभी भी उस व्यक्ति के बारे में नहीं सुना था। लेकिन तब मैंने लुई आर्मस्ट्रांग के बारे में कभी नहीं सुना था, जब तक कि मेरे पिता ने मुझे सात साल की उम्र में अपनी प्रफुल्लित तुरह बजाने से परिचित नहीं कराया था। न ही फ्रैंक सिनात्रा, जिन्हें मैंने पहली बार बूढ़े आदमी की कार में कैसेट पर सुना था जब मैं पांच साल का था। वे अच्छे निकले। पिता श्रेय में थे।


Hong Kong art display hiding political message cancelled

Summary: Over the past week, onlookers gazing across Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong might have caught an unusual sight: a series of seemingly random numbers snaking down the facade of the International Commerce Centre (ICC), the tallest skyscraper in the city.

By Juliana LiuHong Kong correspondent, BBC News But hidden inside the numbers was a very political message. A one-minute sequence of numbers was actually a creative piece of guerrilla protest art orchestrated by local pro-democracy artists Sampson Wong and Jason Lam. They represent the number of seconds counting down to 1 July 2047, when, in theory, any legal or political division between Hong Kong and the rest of China will disappear. Over the weekend the Hong Kong government-related body that commissioned the display abruptly cancelled it, citing "disrespect" on the part of the artists behind it. Embarrassingly for Hong Kong officials, the first day of the countdown coincided with the visit of Zhang Dejiang, the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit the city since the 2014 pro-democracy protests. Local media reported that an unprecedented security arrangement was in place during the three-day visit, with 8,000 police officers on patrol. Critics of the arrangements, including media and pro-democracy groups, accused the Hong Kong government of deliberating trying to shield Mr Zhang from any opposition voices. Political parties such as Demosisto and the League of Social Democrats used guerrilla tactics to get to close to the Chinese dignitary, without success. The ICC display was originally scheduled to run until 22 June. Since revealing the meaning behind the numbers last week, Mr Wong has been anticipating its cancellation. "We are under immense pressure now," he told me before the latest decision was announced. Mr Wong said the public display was approved by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council in late January, long before Mr Zhang's visit was announced. The council is a statutory body set up by the city government to promote artistic development in Hong Kong. Mr Wong said he had no idea the display would coincide with Mr Zhang's visit. "But what happens after 2047 is a seriously important question, and we want to draw attention to this problem. Time is running fast, and if we don't have solidarity and consensus about what this city's future should be like we may not be able to determine our fate. "We want to invite everyone to join together and create a consensus about Hong Kong's future," he said. The artist did not admit to deliberately misleading the council, but told me that the first five sequences of numbers in the countdown were random and held no specific meaning. Only the last one-minute sequence counting down to 2047 will be removed from Monday night onwards, according to the council and a spokesman for Sun Hung Kai Properties, the property developer in charge of the ICC. "We do believe in the freedom of artistic expression, and do support our artists," the council said in a statement. "Yet the disrespect demonstrated by Mr Sampson Wong and Mr Jason Lam, against the original agreement and understanding made with the curator and HKADC is jeopardising our profession and putting at risk any future possibility to work further in the public space." As for the artists, they said the work was never meant to be entirely political. "It is subtle and in a way poetic. It creates room for thinking. And we want people to be thinking," said Mr Wong. "We do understand if the message is taken down. As artists, yeah, we are doomed. I think a lot of people will not work with us in future. But I think this reflects the paranoia in the city." As Hong Kong heads into legislative elections this year and chief executive elections in 2017, greater public discussion about what happens after 2047 will no doubt emerge, even if the conversation is not happening on the city's tallest building.

पिछले एक सप्ताह में, हांगकांग में विक्टोरिया हार्बर को देख रहे दर्शकों ने एक असामान्य दृश्य देखा होगाः शहर की सबसे ऊंची गगनचुंबी इमारत, अंतर्राष्ट्रीय वाणिज्य केंद्र (आईसीसी) के अग्रभाग से यादृच्छिक संख्या की एक श्रृंखला।


First Welsh tax law for almost 800 years gets Royal Assent

Summary: Legislation on the Welsh replacement for stamp duty land tax - the first new Welsh tax law for almost 800 years - has entered the statute books.

The law, which has been given Royal Assent, establishes a new land transaction tax, which will replace stamp duty from April 2018. First Minister Carwyn Jones said the act was a "significant step" for devolution. Rates of the new tax are due to be announced by October this year. Assembly members approved the Land Transaction Tax and Anti-avoidance of Devolved Taxes (Wales) Bill earlier in the year. Stamp duty is paid when property or land is bought over a certain price. Officials previously said that the document was the longest piece of legislation Welsh ministers have produced.

स्टाम्प शुल्क भूमि कर के लिए वेल्श प्रतिस्थापन पर कानून-लगभग 800 वर्षों के लिए पहला नया वेल्श कर कानून-क़ानून की पुस्तकों में प्रवेश कर गया है।


Coronavirus: 'Losing my job pushed me to set up a business'

Summary: "It's almost been a blessing in disguise. I was stuck in the same role for a number of years, but now I can work for myself and hopefully secure a better future for my family," says Jay Lee.

By Lora JonesBusiness reporter, BBC News The 32-year-old from Surrey recently lost his job at a large UK bank as a mortgage adviser, where he also helped customers with fraud investigations. "Even when the pandemic started getting more serious, we were told not to worry about our contracts. We were given full reassurance that our jobs were safe." A couple of weeks into lockdown, a conference call was organised for the team who were all working from home. Jay says that by the end of that day, 40 of them had been told they would lose their jobs. New career move Jay then decided to take the plunge and set up a business, uAcademy, which offers online courses for aspiring mortgage advisers. "It's something I had been thinking about doing for a year or two, and this gave me a push to do it. I suddenly had a lot of free time, so I managed to set everything up and create the content in about two weeks." The business has got off to a solid start, he says. "There's a lot of interest in online learning at the moment. People want to learn new skills, maybe something to help them with a new career." While he's now generating enough income to cover bills and expenses, Jay recognises he's in a fortunate position. Of the 209 of his new students surveyed, Jay says that most had been furloughed or made redundant due to the pandemic. "Ideally, I hope that this is something I can take on for the future, which is great. But I do have really mixed feelings, and wish my colleagues weren't in this situation too." As large parts of the economy have been shut down to battle Covid-19, many workers, like Jay, have been laid off. More than 6.5 million jobs in total could be lost due to the economic fallout from the UK's coronavirus lockdown, one study by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex suggests. Millions of others at risk of redundancy have been furloughed, often on reduced pay, which is subsidised by the government. Emma Timberlake from Thurrock was one of those workers. When lockdown measures were introduced, her employer in the construction sector told her to stay at home. She is living with multiple sclerosis (MS), a neurological condition which prevents the immune system from working properly. She was furloughed, and later received a letter one day prior to the government's job retention scheme being extended. It said that she would be made redundant from her job as a sales administrator as of 30 June. "I'm absolutely devastated that I've lost not just a job, but a family," Emma says. "Colleagues that I would speak to on a daily basis have vanished from my life with one simple A4 piece of paper." Emma is now applying for a range of different jobs, from supermarket work to van driver positions. "To me, a job is a job and I'd rather sweep the streets than not be doing anything, but I do worry about who can guarantee my safety." In the meantime, she has had to rely on volunteer services for food deliveries. But she's also contributing to them herself while isolating. Over the past few weeks, she has taken part in a volunteer "buddy scheme", calling other people who are feeling lonely during lockdown. "Obviously, I am very disappointed. I adored my job. But I know we're going to come out of this so strong. If you can keep a positive mindset, it gets so much better." Olivia, 21, from Warwickshire is graduating from university this summer. Having completed her studies in law, she had travelling plans and a graduate job lined up in the aviation sector in the coming months. "I was so looking forward to starting, it was basically my dream to work with this particular company, utilising the degree I love," she says. But in April, Olivia was told the company no longer had a graduate position for her. She says they cited a lack of funding, and uncertainty around how to train people online. New research from The Prince's Trust suggests that Olivia isn't alone. In a survey of more than 1,000 young people, one in 10 said they have had the job or training they were about to start cancelled due to the impact of the coronavirus. Olivia has decided to carry on with her studies as a result. She plans to start a master's degree in aviation law later in the year. "I was incredibly disappointed, but believe that everything happens for a reason and a new door will be opened instead." For now, she's working 45 hours a week picking and packing online orders for a retailer. She says: "I'm trying to see this unfortunate circumstance as an opportunity to explore new paths. It's the perfect time to experiment."

जे ली कहते हैं, "यह लगभग एक आशीर्वाद है। मैं कई वर्षों से एक ही भूमिका में फंसा हुआ था, लेकिन अब मैं अपने लिए काम कर सकता हूं और उम्मीद है कि अपने परिवार के लिए एक बेहतर भविष्य सुरक्षित कर सकता हूं।"


The battle against 'sexist' sci-fi and fantasy book covers

Summary: Science fiction and fantasy novels routinely portray scantily clad woman on their covers - a device that draws the heterosexual male eye but may turn away women readers. Lynsea Garrison finds one fantasy author aiming to zap gender stereotypes.

Jim Hines straddles the remnants of a defeated alien species (a table), and clasps a pistol (a toy gun) as he triumphantly raises a cyborg's head (a toaster). Sometimes he fights battles alongside his romantic interest (a large teddy bear). But no matter the mission, Hines shows some flesh. Just because he is waging a war, it does not mean he cannot be alluring at the same time, right? Hines, a fantasy author, is posing like some of the female characters on science fiction and fantasy book covers he says objectify women. He gets into character by twisting his body into the same contorted positions as the female characters on the books. "The way women are portrayed is just so ridiculous, so often, you just stop seeing it," Hines says. "I think posing has made people see it again - you see how ridiculous it is when a 38-year-old fantasy writer is doing it." Since he started in January 2012, Hines' poses have become the most popular posts on his blog. So he launched a new series in December to raise money to fight Aicardi syndrome, a genetic disorder that mostly affects girls. The series has drawn more than 100,000 people to Hines' website and raised $15,405 (£9,623) for the cause. The project is one of the latest expressions of a growing conversation about the portrayal of women in science fiction and fantasy cover art. Tracy Hurley co-founded Prismatic Art Collection, a directory of artists who draw more diverse depictions of men and women in fantasy art, particularly for role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons. "Women are so often portrayed assuming that a stereotypical hetero male is going to be the person looking at the cover," says Hurley. "Male characters [are] powerful and strong, and women's sexuality will be emphasised. And why is that a problem? It's constraining for both men and women." Many science fiction and fantasy readers are disappointed to encounter everyday sexism in a medium that is supposed to offer an escape. Covers frequently exhibit women's bodies with revealing clothing unsuitable for combat, and fans argue that sexualising female characters sends a message to readers that women are sex objects. Hurley says her goal is not to ban attractive women from book covers but to encourage publishers to include a wider variety of female characters. "I worry about girls who don't see a character who looks like them and feel that science fiction and fantasy aren't for them," she says. Part of the challenge is that women have long been portrayed on book covers in the same manner - thin, white and conventionally attractive. The stories of Conan the Barbarian are largely credited with transforming fantasy art in the 1960s. These covers showcased muscled men and servile women, a style that artists replicated in subsequent decades. When Irene Gallo began working in the publishing industry in the 1990s, publishers were moving away from the women emblematic of the Conan covers. "Our sales people were saying that we want sexy women on covers, but we want them to be in active roles," says Gallo, now creative director of Tor Books. Covers are improving, but strong women in chainmail bikinis and tight clothing regularly appear in comics and subgenres such as urban fantasy and paranormal romance. While these women are supposed to be fighters, critics say they are drawn in a way that renders them powerless. "People think that if you give the girl a gun, suddenly she's a strong woman," said Silvia Moreno-Garcia, a fantasy writer. "But maybe she's still a sex object. We forget that the pose, the cropping, the way it's painted [all] tell a story. So if you have one element that says strength - like a gun - but everything else doesn't follow that, that's not the narrative you think you have." Gallo thinks part of the problem is that male artists greatly outnumber female artists in the industry. "You go to art school, and it's 50-50," Gallo said. "But professionally, it's overwhelmingly male. "This is an unfortunate fact of the industry. These artists grew up with comics and gaming, so it's easy to perpetuate these things without thinking them through." Marketing strategies may also be responsible for sexist covers. But the mantra that sex sells may not be accurate. According to 2012 data from publishing industry analysts Codex Group, less overtly explicit covers in fact have a wider appeal among general readers. Codex Chief Executive Officer Peter Hildick-Smith remains puzzled why science fiction and fantasy publishers sell sexualised covers. "My guess is that it has simply evolved as category convention, allowing book buyers to instantly know that a given books is in one of their preferred categories," he said. Hines, author of such titles as Libriomancer, The Mermaid's Madness and Goblin Quest, says many in the science fiction and fantasy community have not had to think about harmful messaging or sexism. While momentum is building, Hines does not think the industry is at a tipping point yet. And that means readers will likely see covers he says objectify women for a while. Hines is just trying to make sure his covers aren't among them. "My next book has a woman on the cover," Hines says. "And I told my publisher: 'if you put her into one of these spine-contorted poses, the entire internet is going to make fun of you.'" You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook

विज्ञान कथा और काल्पनिक उपन्यास नियमित रूप से अपने कवर पर कम कपड़े पहने महिला को चित्रित करते हैं-एक ऐसा उपकरण जो विषमलैंगिक पुरुष की नज़र खींचता है लेकिन महिला पाठकों को दूर कर सकता है। लिन्सी गैरीसन को एक काल्पनिक लेखक मिलता है जिसका उद्देश्य लिंग रूढ़िवादिता को दूर करना है।


Govt. to take action against Gen. Fonseka

Summary: The Sri Lankan defence secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa says that the government is considering taking action against the opposition presidential candidate and former army chief General Sarath Fonseka for allegedly divulging sensitive information to the public.

His comments came just a day after the incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa was announced the winner of the presidential elections. The defence secretary said he was angry with his former colleague in the army for speaking out in public. He said General Fonseka was wrong to suggest in a newspaper interview that the defence secretary had ordered the killings of senior Tamil rebels as they tried to surrender in the final stages of the conflict last May. General Fonseka later retracted his statement. He said his words were taken out of context. But in his BBC interview, Mr Rajapaksa said the retraction was not enough. "He had done many mistakes," said Mr. Rajapaksa. "He accused me of saying that I gave wrong orders. It came out in the newspapers. So taking action later on we will follow the procedures." The defence secretary said that Gen. Fonseka will not be arrested "because he was the opposition candidate." LTTE key suspect 'arrested' There's been no immediate response from General Fonseka, who maintains that he won the presidential election and that he will be appealing against the verdict. In his interview, the defence secretary also said they'd arrested the second in command of the Tamil Tiger organisation's overseas operations. He said the suspect, known as Rajan (alias Subramaniam Sivakumar) had been arrested in a south east asian nation and brought to Colombo on Thursday. The information regarding the suspect, he said, came from the Tamil Tiger leader, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, who is under arrest in Colombo. Mr Pathmanathan was arrested last August.

श्रीलंका के रक्षा सचिव गोताबाया राजपक्षे का कहना है कि सरकार कथित रूप से जनता को संवेदनशील जानकारी देने के लिए विपक्षी राष्ट्रपति पद के उम्मीदवार और पूर्व सेना प्रमुख जनरल शरत फोंसेका के खिलाफ कार्रवाई करने पर विचार कर रही है।


'Great progress' in London suburban rail plans

Summary: The final plans for Transport for London (TfL) to take over suburban rail services in the capital could be announced in April, mayor Boris Johnson has said.

The move would see TfL take over West Anglia and Southeastern London services. A recent report concluded there were "no barriers" to further rail devolution in the capital. Mr Johnson said "great progress" had been made in developing the plans. Currently, with the exception of the London Overground network, rail services into the capital are provided by several train operating companies, each with their own franchise agreement with central government. Mr Johnson said that bringing the services under TfL's control would simplify ticketing and bring savings of £100m to help fund improvements.

मेयर बोरिस जॉनसन ने कहा है कि राजधानी में उपनगरीय रेल सेवाओं को संभालने के लिए ट्रांसपोर्ट फॉर लंदन (टी. एफ. एल.) की अंतिम योजनाओं की घोषणा अप्रैल में की जा सकती है।


The growing importance of the night-time economy

Summary: It is 04:00 in central London's clubbing district, Soho. People are slowly streaming out of the clubs, some huddled in doorways waiting for taxis, others dancing on the kerb, merry and very loud.

By Faarea MasudBusiness reporter, BBC World Service The night-time economy is a growing part of the UK economy. Nationally, it is the UK's fifth-biggest industry, accounting for at least 8% of the UK's employment and annual revenues of £66bn, according to the Night Time Industries Association. In fact, the growth of that business activity at night-time prompted London's mayor to call upon the talents of TV presenter and performer Amy Lamé. She has been London's first "night czar" since 2016, and is in charge of the city between 18:00 and 06:00. "My role encompasses looking after the welfare and wellbeing of the 1.6 million people that are usually working in London. My biggest concern is the 190,000 that work for the National Health Service here in London every night," she says. "Then there's the 150,000 people who are working in professional services - that can involve anything from cleaning, to working for banks and financial services across the globe. "Third on the list in terms of numbers, are people that traditionally work in the night-time economy. So, bars, pubs and clubs, entertainment. Our economy during the day is growing 2% - while the economy at night is growing 2.2%," says Ms Lamé. Her team at the Greater London Assembly has conducted what they say is the most comprehensive research in the world in any capital regarding their night-time industry. They've now identified exactly what they think is the next big thing to plough money in to. "We're ensuring that London's grassroots live music venues are able to not just survive, but thrive. How much does Adele or Ed Sheeran bring to our economy? It's massive. Where did they start? Grassroots live music venues - and that is where the investment is," she says. But not everybody agrees with the virtues of 24/7 business. Tony Keith Jones owns two newsagents in the centre of Coventry in the post-industrial Midlands. He says local authorities are wrongly ignoring the biggest night-time concern of a small business like his - higher crime levels. "We have massive, massive stealing problems at night-time," he says. "The criminals like nicking off all the retailers in the city centre, and they get no punishment apart from a slap on the wrist. Unless you've been caught millions of times - police don't do anything about it." Statistically, some types of crimes do occur more frequently at night. A report by the London Assembly's police and crime committee back in 2016 found that "alcohol features in a higher proportion of crimes in London that occur at night than during the day", and that "areas with the most night-time violence with injury offences, tend to be those with a strong night-time economy". In the US, New York - the city that never sleeps - has appointed its own night-time mayor. Since 2018 Ariel Palitz has officially been the senior executive director of the Office of Nightlife at NYC. She comes from a night-time entertainment background, and Ms Palitz agrees about the challenges faced by night-time businesses. "I owned a nightclub in New York myself for 10 years. So I can tell you from personal experience - if it was easy, everyone would do it," she says. "The night-time economy in New York generates $35.1bn (£27bn) in economic activity, and nearly $700m in local tax revenue. The NYPD [the police department in New York] has come up with a new philosophy - implementing the mediation approach, rather than summons and enforcement techniques." Yet as with any economy, there are some questions about how this new economy is being built - and importantly who gets paid and who doesn't. "Night-time venues make a lot of money from unpaid labour, like mine," says Jenan Younis, a colorectal surgeon by day, and an unpaid comedienne by night. She performs at some of London's most famous comedy venues. "There must be something dark about my psyche, but I've always been a night-time worker. An entire industry like mine has burgeoned on unpaid labour - and we exist in the shadows. "Venue owners might be getting more and more money pumped in to them by local authority schemes - but is any of it going to give organic growth in the long run? How much of this is going back to the actual generators of this value? None," she argues. Yet underlying this is a long-term shift within the night-time economy, the fact some parts of the sector are in decline. Many cultural venues are rapidly disappearing. Across the UK, 44% of nightclubs shut between 2005-2015, and 25% of pubs closed from 2001-2016, says the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI). Alex Green from market research group IBS World gathers statistics from across the world, and says that in the UK nightclubs have been in decline for the past five years: "This is being caused by changing consumer preferences, patterns of drinking, police response, as well as social pressures, noise complaints and anti-social behaviour." Anecdotally, that makes sense. Back in Soho in the early morning, my fellow post-clubbers aren't showing themselves in the numbers I used to see a decade ago - perhaps I'm part of a cohort of disappearing hardcore night clubbers.

यह मध्य लंदन के क्लबिंग जिले, सोहो में है। लोग धीरे-धीरे क्लबों से बाहर निकल रहे हैं, कुछ दरवाजे पर टैक्सियों का इंतजार कर रहे हैं, अन्य लोग कर्ब पर नाच रहे हैं, आनंदित और बहुत जोर से।


Newport Welsh medium high school given go-ahead

Summary: The first Welsh-medium secondary school in Newport has been approved by councillors.

The multi-million pound plan for the site at Duffryn High School had been refused in February after Natural Resources Wales raised concerns about flood risks. The existing Duffryn High School site will be split, with the new Welsh-medium school built alongside it. A council report said the school would offer pupils "significant benefits".

न्यूपोर्ट में पहले वेल्श-माध्यम माध्यमिक विद्यालय को पार्षदों द्वारा अनुमोदित किया गया है।


Fawlty Towers John Cleese backs Torbay social distancing plea

Summary: Fawlty Towers legend John Cleese has joined in a call for social distancing in the seaside town where the comedy series was set.

Cleese tweeted: "Going forward if I see you too close to one another I shall lay down in-between. Social distance!" The tweet by Cleese who played hapless hotelier Basil Fawlty in the TV comedy, added "2 metres = 1 Basil Fawlty". Torbay Council responded: "Thanks we've been working hard to spread the message here in Torbay." And it added in another tweet: "But for some, the guidance was a little confusing." The council, in a Twitter string went on: "So we tried to think of a simple way to explain it... "And finally, we think we've got it right (thanks to you!)."

फॉल्टी टावर्स के दिग्गज जॉन क्लीज़ समुद्र तटीय शहर में सामाजिक दूरी के आह्वान में शामिल हुए हैं जहाँ कॉमेडी श्रृंखला सेट की गई थी।


Londonderry: Homes evacuated over security alert hoax

Summary: People in Articlave in County Londonderry were allowed to return home after police said the security alert was a "crude hoax".

A suspicious item was reported to have been found at Church Terrace on Thursday evening. Homes were evacuated and motorists were told to avoid the area during the alert. The PSNI said: "This was a crude hoax device that caused unnecessary disruption." It also thanked people for their patience during the incident.

काउंटी लंदनडेरी के आर्टिक्लेव में लोगों को घर लौटने की अनुमति दी गई जब पुलिस ने कहा कि सुरक्षा चेतावनी एक "झूठी अफवाह" थी।


Royal Navy to pay for HMS Victory upkeep

Summary: The Royal Navy has committed to funding the upkeep of HMS Victory - the warship on which Admiral Lord Nelson was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

The ship is on display in dry dock in Portsmouth as a museum and is one of the area's main tourist attractions. About £1.5m a year is spent by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on the maintenance of the vessel, the oldest commissioned warship in the world. The MoD is about to put a 10-year contract for the work out to tender. The Battle of Trafalgar reached its peak on 21 October 1805.

रॉयल नेवी ने एचएमएस विक्ट्री के रखरखाव के लिए धन देने के लिए प्रतिबद्ध किया है-वह युद्धपोत जिस पर एडमिरल लॉर्ड नेल्सन 1805 में ट्राफलगर की लड़ाई में मारे गए थे।


Luo Gang: Abducted, then reunited

Summary: In 1990, at the age of five, Luo Gang was kidnapped and sold to a family in another part of China. Unable to remember his parents' names or the village they lived in, he stood little chance of ever going home. But 23 years later he did.

By Richard HooperBBC World Service Luo Gang had waited a long time for this bowl of noodles. "Is it tasty?" his mother asks. "Do you want some chilli sauce or something?" "No, no. It's OK," he replies. Luo had been a small boy the last time he had eaten his mother's cooking. Now this simple meal marked a reunion that for so long had seemed impossible. "Don't think about it, just eat," his mother says as she dabs the tears that have begun to flow from her boy's eyes. Luo's father turns to address the crowd of well-wishers that have turned out for his son's homecoming. "Eating noodles on the first day back home will bring security and health," he says. "I hope everybody is safe and sound." The tender scene is the happy ending to a story that begins in 1990. Back then Luo was a schoolboy called Huang Jan, living in Yaojia Village, Sichuan Province. His father was a builder and his mother ran a shop. He had a younger brother. It was a modest but happy childhood - and he remembers well the day it changed. "I was going to kindergarten and there was a man and a woman," Luo says. "I thought they were friends of my father so I went with them. "I was transferred from car to car. Later on I was told I was in a mountainous area in Fujian province." The bewildered schoolboy had been taken to Sanming, 1,500 km (900 miles) away where life with a completely different family awaited him. Luo was given a new name and introduced to a new sister. He had become one of thousands of children abducted every year in China, very few of whom will ever return home. The country's one-child policy and lax adoption laws has fuelled an underground market for trafficked children. Earlier this year a police chief in Fujian claimed over 10,000 children had been trafficked in 2012 in his province alone. "I was very afraid, but I had been abducted and I had no choice," says Luo, who at first assumed living with this new family would be temporary. But when he realised there would be no reunion with his parents, Luo made the decision to start rehearsing his fading memories, determined that one day he would use them to find his way home. So each night as he lay in bed, Luo repeated what he could remember of his life before. How he and his brother used to play on an old stone bridge opposite their little house with a tiled roof. How he had once fallen off the bridge and hurt his back. That there were two streams outside and how they used to cross rice fields to get to school. "I was like a computer," Luo says. "I tried to keep my memories of family and the geographical surroundings - I didn't even really know my own name." Luo's new parents never explained why he had been taken before they died two years after his arrival. Nor did the "grandparents" who raised him after that. "I was angry about it but they treated me quite well," Luo says of the couple he affectionately now calls grandpa and grandma. It is likely that his adoptive parents had paid traffickers to deliver them a boy - he thinks for as little as 5,000 RMB (£500) - though today Luo is keen to avoid blaming them for their actions. Back in Sichuan, Luo's birth family had grown frantic. The local police made no progress with the case and his mother and father, Dai Jianfang and Huang Qingyong, took to handing out leaflets in neighbouring towns and placing newspaper adverts. But as the years passed and their savings dwindled, the distraught couple scaled back their search and adopted a girl. Luo, meanwhile, finished school and went on to complete national service with the fire brigade. Though he had settled in to his new life, his desire to be reunited with his birth family was growing stronger. "Fallen leaves will always find their way back to their roots," he says, reciting a Chinese idiom. He registered with a government website that had been set up to reunite abducted children and their families. "I hit many dead ends but I kept on," he says. In October 2012, when Luo was 27, he turned to a website called Baby Come Home, a volunteer-run forum where parents and abducted children share details of their cases. Luo posted details of everything he could remember - those memories that he had spent years rehearsing each night. "I was 110 cm high," he wrote. "I had big eyes. On my left hand there is a scar that I got from moving stones in a river." He did not know the name of the village but he thought that he might be from somewhere in Sichuan - as a teenager, he recalled, a neighbour once remarked that he had addressed her with a piece of Sichuan dialect. Luo posted a photo of himself which had been taken by his adoptive parents not long after his abduction. He added a description of the red sweater with a white swan motif that he had been wearing on the day he was snatched (he presumed this had been knitted by his mother). "I ate braised pork at home, with a bit of couscous or sorghum on top," he noted. "My house was built with tiles. Nothing special. The road was a tar road, newly built. Many trucks ran on it. It seemed like a main road. "There were small hills nearby. The river flowed towards the town. There was no rail near home, just that road." One of the bridges had been carried away by a flood, he thought. The site's volunteers quickly began to consider the clues. "In 1990, people from east of Sichuan Basin didn't grow couscous and sorghum," a volunteer suggested. "If there was a tar road, that means it wasn't a poor area," added another. "It must be a suburban area." Next, Luo posted a map of his village that he drew from memory. The bridges. The walk to school through the rice fields. He thought that the newly built tar road could have been a motorway. Over the following months, Luo's case was discussed on the forum and volunteers posted names of towns for him to consider. Even if he was correct in thinking he came from Sichuan province, that still left an area of nearly 500,000 sq km to consider - twice the size of the UK - and with a population of more than 80 million. But slowly the search was being narrowed. Records of heavy rainfall and areas affected by floods in the late 1980s were checked. Another volunteer looked up newspaper cuttings that had announced the construction of new roads. Then in March came Luo's first breakthrough. A motorway map from 1990 had been obtained. If Luo had indeed lived by a motorway, the volunteer reasoned, the search could be narrowed dramatically - the map showed that at the time there were only two motorways in the area. Luo zoomed in on the satellite imagery and began working his way down the route of the motorway. "Look into the rivers that flow to the town at 90 degrees," urged the volunteer. "And places where people grow rice and sweet potatoes." On 26 April, Luo's digital trek took him to Yaojia Village in Linshui County. It was here that he saw two bridges crossing a river with a distinctive turn. He found what could have been his old school. Opposite, where he remembered a building site, now stood a giant ceramics factory. Everything made sense. "My hands were shaking, I typed many things wrong," Luo says. "I could see the river and about 100m (330ft) from my house there was the main road." A volunteer from the website agreed to check out the area. "Yes," came the reply. "The building is still a school!" One of the bridges had also been damaged by a flood in 1989 - just as Luo had remembered. This discovery coincided with another extraordinary piece of news. A volunteer had checked the area for details of abducted children and a couple who had lost a child at the same time as Luo went missing had come forward. They said the boy had the nickname "Xiaodong" - Luo said he remembers being called by the name "Zhendong". "I told my adopted sister and she said it was best that I go and have a look without telling grandpa and grandma," Luo says. He was certain that he had found home and arranged to meet his parents as soon as possible. "I flew to Chongqing and at 09:20 on the morning of 9 May I met my parents. I was quite calm but my mum was really excited and she cried." The whole village turned out to meet their lost son. Firecrackers announced his arrival and tables for a lavish meal were laid in the street. A volunteer from Baby Come Home filmed the proceedings. "The stove is still here!" Luo is heard to say as he enters his old home. His brother Huang Chao asks if he remembers the water tank - "there used to be a cupboard on it," he prompts. "I often used a stool to climb up for the goodies stored up there!" replies Luo. "Do you remember, Xiaodong?" asks his maternal grandmother. "This was your home." The compelling footage found its way to a television station, and Luo's adoptive grandparents - unaware of the reunion - were watching back home. "They rang me up and they were quite sad," says Luo. "They said it's good that you've found your birthplace. Enjoy a few days, but come home soon. I spent eight days there and then returned to Fujian." "My father asked me to stay but I didn't agree at first, because I was waiting for the results of a DNA test. I was quite sure they were my parents but it's better to rely on the scientific tests to be certain." Today Luo, who has returned to live with his biological parents, is circumspect about his abduction. "I thought at first that it broke one family. Now I think it broke two families," he says. "My adoptive family raised me for 23 years. But my biological family are family. I don't have a paradox - I think of both of them as my homes and I will spend time with both." The reunion allows Luo to honour a promise he made to himself that he would only marry his girlfriend when he had found his birth parents. With a wedding planned for next year, both families are invited. Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

1990 में, पांच साल की उम्र में, लुओ गैंग का अपहरण कर लिया गया और चीन के दूसरे हिस्से में एक परिवार को बेच दिया गया। अपने माता-पिता के नाम या जिस गाँव में वे रहते थे, उसे याद नहीं था, उसके घर जाने की संभावना बहुत कम थी। लेकिन 23 साल बाद उसने ऐसा किया।


Gambian women fleeing female genital mutilation threat

Summary: Fear of female genital mutilation (FGM) is grounds for seeking asylum in the UK, but campaigners say that hundreds of women have had such applications rejected. Newsnight's Sue Lloyd-Roberts spoke to two women from The Gambia whose applications failed, and travelled to their home country to test their cases on the ground.

Fatima, a 23-year-old mother from The Gambia, was 10 years old when she was taken, along with about 200 other primary school children, out into the bush to be cut: "There are two people holding you and then they cut it in one go," she recalled. "And then you cry for the rest of the day. The pain is the worst. It is even more painful than giving birth and you have to live with it for the rest of your life." As an adult Fatima sought asylum in Britain to save her three-year-old daughter, who was born in the UK, from being mutilated too. The head of the family is an imam, she said, "so my daughter doesn't stand a chance. If we return to The Gambia she will be cut". The threat of FGM is recognised as a justification for claiming asylum in the UK. However, the UK Border Agency has rejected Fatima's claim. After three years, she has exhausted the appeals process and she and her daughter could be deported any day. I travelled to The Gambia to try to find out whether Fatima was telling the truth, making the one-hour drive south-east from the capital Banjul to her village, Sohm. I made the journey with Amie Bojang from Gamcotrap, a local NGO campaigning against female genital mutilation. On the way she explained that they have been successful in persuading about one third of communities in The Gambia to abandon FGM. However, she said that, due to lack of resources, there are many areas they have not yet reached, including Fatima's village. Health complications We found Fatima's mother in the family compound. She was welcoming but unequivocal: "If Fatima comes back, her daughter must be cut. If not, everyone will point at her and call her a 'sulima', an unclean girl." While in Sohm, the village head agreed to a meeting in which Ms Bojang spoke to locals about the health problems associated with FGM: children dying from loss of blood and infection, and death in childbirth - all problems which normally get blamed on witchcraft. They listened, which was a promising start, but Ms Bojang said it takes years for people to turn their back on what is a deeply entrenched practice. Not only has mutilation taken place for generations, it has also provided employment for generations of women. The Gambia has thousands of women circumcisers. Often they inherit the role from relatives, with expertise handed down within the family. Ms Bojang took me to the town of Janjanbureh on the north bank of the Gambia River to meet several of them. "We take pride in our work," Aja Babung Sidebah said. "We cut the girls and then we sew them up them so that no man can interfere with them, then, the day before their wedding, they come back to us so that we can cut a hole to allow for penetration." Lucrative role The cutters say they enjoy great respect because of their role and are well paid. "I get £2 per child cut plus a bag of rice and clothing," one said. Ms Sidebah admitted having cut girls from the UK: "I don't cut those who have one white, English parent. But, in the case of my daughter who is married to a Gambian there, I called her girls back here to cut them." However, she said she no longer works as a cutter having, thanks to a £100 grant from Gamcotrap, invested in a bakery instead. Another woman used a grant to set herself up as a goat herder with her own flock. Back in West London, I met a 40-year-old Gambian woman who fled to the UK in an attempt to avoid her inherited role as a cutter. Maimouna Jawo said that after her grandmother, who was a circumciser, died, her mother began training her in the family trade at the age of 16. One day she was required to hold her own blindfolded, five-year-old daughter on the ground while the girl's grandmother cut her. "She was screaming and calling 'Mum', but Mum is the one who is holding your legs and there is nothing Mum can do," she recalled. "I was shaking my head and tears were coming to my eyes and I said in my mind that whatever happens, I will never do this." Ms Jawo said that she kept her decision to herself, fearful of the consequences if anyone found out. She showed me gaps in her teeth which she said were the result of a beating by a group of older women, meted out when she showed distaste for the job. Reprisal fear Shortly afterwards she travelled to the UK for her brother's wedding and applied for asylum while there, but, as with Fatima, her application was rejected by the UK Border Agency and she is due to be sent back to The Gambia. Ms Jawo claims that she will be killed if she returns. When I visited her family's home in Wellingara village, her older sister had a similarly dim view of her prospects if she returned and refused to take up her role as a cutter: "Everywhere among black people we have our traditions and if you don't obey that tradition, something bad will happen to you," Kombeh Jawo said. "I am telling you, anything could happen to her." The hold such traditions have in The Gambia was made apparent when I met Muhammed Alhajie Lamin Touray, the country's most senior imam and president of the Islamic Council in The Gambia. "Apart from the religious reasons in favour of female genital mutilation, I have heard on reliable authority that the clitoris makes a woman itch, making her want to scratch all the time and that the clitoris makes water leak from her private parts," he said. To which I retorted, "I have had a clitoris for 60 years and this has never happened to me." "Then you are an exception among women!" he said, laughing. It was the laughing that I found most shocking. It was as if he was admitting to the absurdity of his position. Surely if he truly believes that the mutilation of young girls is ordained by God and is good for women, he would not laugh. Tribal ties Both Fatima and Maimouna Jawo have been advised by the UK Border Agency that they should return to The Gambia and simply relocate, but both say such a suggestion shows little understanding of the country, where tribe is paramount. "I shall not be safe because The Gambia is too small and they will know which tribe I come from," Fatima said. "I could only be a prostitute. A woman living alone is seen as a bad woman. I will not be part of the society. It will be difficult for my daughter to be married." "Gambia is a very small country. There is no where you can live in The Gambia where the people cannot get you from there," Maimouna Jawo said. When Newsnight approached the Home Office to comment on its report, a government spokesperson said: "The UK has a proud record of offering protection to those in genuine need and every asylum application is considered on its own merits. Female Genital Mutilation is child abuse and has no place in our society. We are working closely with frontline agencies to help prevent women and girls from becoming victims and the Director of Public Prosecutions to help secure convictions. "We also support overseas organisations who work to combat FGM, including funding a UN programme which has been working in Gambia since 2009. We are sending out a strong message - this practice is illegal and will not be tolerated." Sue Lloyd-Roberts' full report is on Newsnight on Tuesday 3 September 2013 at 10.30pm on BBC Two, or you can catch up afterwards on the BBC iPlayer and Newsnight website.

महिला जननांग विकृति (एफ. जी. एम.) का डर यू. के. में शरण लेने का आधार है, लेकिन प्रचारकों का कहना है कि सैकड़ों महिलाओं ने इस तरह के आवेदन खारिज कर दिए हैं। न्यूज़नाइट की सू लॉयड-रॉबर्ट्स ने द गाम्बिया की दो महिलाओं से बात की, जिनके आवेदन विफल रहे, और जमीनी स्तर पर अपने मामलों का परीक्षण करने के लिए अपने देश की यात्रा की।


M1 minibus crash: 'There is no life for me now'

Summary: Two lorry drivers - one twice over the legal alcohol limit and the other on a hands-free call - will be sentenced for causing the deaths of eight people on the M1. As the trial concludes, the wife and children of the minibus driver killed in the crash speak of their grief.

By Phil ShepkaBBC News On 25 August, Cyriac Joseph's evening started like many others had before. The 52-year-old driver was transporting a group of tourists in his minibus. Business had been good and Mr Joseph, known as Benny to his friends, was looking to acquire another coach for ABC Travels, the company he had set up in 2013. He lived in Sherwood, Nottingham, with his wife of 22 years, Ancy. The couple had two children; a son, Benson and a daughter, Benita. "People looked up to him," said Benson, now a first-year university student. "If they wanted to know something they would come to our house or they would call him up. I always saw my dad busy on the phone speaking to, advising someone, on any topic." The good-humoured Mr Joseph, once the president of Nottingham Malayalee Cultural Association, called everyone his friend, according to 16-year-old Benita. That all changed over the sweltering August Bank Holiday weekend. Mr Joseph was taking a group of 11 Indian visitors from Nottingham to London to catch a coach to Disneyland Paris. Shortly after 03:00 BST, he was on the M1 near Newport Pagnell when he came across the lorry of Ryszard Masierak, which was parked in the inside lane despite the hard shoulder being available. Mr Joseph pulled up his minibus with his hazard lights on waiting to go around the lorry, in which it transpired Masierak was sleeping. Behind him was David Wagstaff driving his Fed Ex lorry. Wagstaff had 250 yards - between nine and 11 seconds - to see the minibus. He did not. Wagstaff's lorry ploughed into the minibus without braking or swerving, forcing it underneath Masierak's vehicle. Eight of the 12 minibus occupants died. Five men and two women from India, whose ages ranged from their mid 20s to their early 60s, were killed, along with Mr Joseph. The four other people in the minibus - including a four-year-old girl left orphaned by the tragedy - spent weeks in hospital following the crash. The court heard Wagstaff, who had been speaking to his friend on the phone at the time of the crash, admitted to officers at the scene: "The collision is my fault. I hit the back of all of them." He later seemingly accepted his fate in hospital: "I know I'm going to prison, I have seen it happen enough." Wagstaff was cleared of causing death by dangerous driving but admitted eight counts of causing death by careless driving. Masierak, on the other hand, tried to fool the police by pretending not to be the driver. He was found sitting between the passenger and driver's seats. A taxi driver, Ali Alias, was one of the first on the scene and could smell alcohol on the Polish national. When he asked Masierak if he was OK, he responded, "Can I go?". Mathew John, a spokesman for the Joseph family, said they were upset by how AIM Logistics driver Masierak had conducted himself throughout the case. Mr John said: "Obviously these things could happen any time to anybody and sometimes when something happens, when something goes wrong, it's how you react to that. "Myself and Ancy were in the court every day. He lied about everything, so we feel angry, and he doesn't feel any sense of guilt or think he has done anything wrong even though his action has killed eight people." During the trial at Reading Crown Court, Masierak claimed he was a "careful driver", but the jury heard he had had a ticket for driving his lorry in the outside lane and for jumping a red light. He also admitted consuming alcohol but said this was not a factor in the accident. He claimed the reason he stopped his lorry was because he was sweating, felt weak and had a headache - something he did not mention at the police station after the crash. "Ryszard Masierak is a liar," said Oliver Saxby QC, when summing up for the prosecution. "He drove as dangerously as is possible. He was drunk. He was driving erratically and his driving fell far below the standard [of lawful driving]." After the verdicts, it was also revealed Masierak's professional driving licence had been revoked prior to the crash. While Masierak did not have a clean record, Wagstaff did. He had been a professional driver for 28 years, a job that he loved, according to his wife Patricia. Mrs Wagstaff told the court she first heard of the events at 03:15 when her "lovely, caring husband and a brilliant father" to their son, Peter, made a short call to tell her he had been involved in an accident and it was bad. "He sounded really flustered and said he would not be home soon," she said. Since the accident, Wagstaff, from Stoke-on-Trent, has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He told the court he has "vivid memories" of the bodies after the crash. He said he "cannot remember anything at all" about the collision and said what happened was down to a "lack of concentration". "Obviously there were a lot of other vehicles that managed to pass after Mr Masierak's lorry was there and that is because they paid attention on the road," said Mr John. "We understand that he put his hands up straight away, but we still think that, if he had managed to stop the lorry, the seriousness of the collision would have been much less. "So we feel sympathy for the family but we still feel angry." The impact of the crash is still keenly felt in the Joseph household. "I wish I had more time with him," said A-level student Benita. "It was hard and it still is but I'm grateful for my friends' support, my school and everyone. "And, I don't know how to put it into words, it's just you can never prepare for something like this but I'm trying my best - we all are. We're sticking together, we're going through this together." For Ancy, the pain is almost too raw to bear. "I loved him very much. He loved me. He was a very good husband - I lost everything," she said. "It's a big tragedy, a big loss. I'm empty now. [I have] nothing in my brain also. Everything is gone. "There is no life for me now. My life is finished."

दो लॉरी चालकों-एक को कानूनी शराब की सीमा से दो बार अधिक और दूसरे को हैंड्स-फ्री कॉल पर-एम1 पर आठ लोगों की मौत के लिए सजा सुनाई जाएगी। जैसे ही मुकदमा समाप्त होता है, दुर्घटना में मारे गए मिनी बस चालक की पत्नी और बच्चे अपने दुख के बारे में बात करते हैं।


Coronavirus: The manufacturers supplying the virus front line

Summary: There has been a huge response from manufacturing in Wales to the first minister's call for help to get vital supplies to healthcare workers on the front line of the pandemic. The Welsh Government said it had received more than 1,000 offers of help and is now working with 317 firms from across Wales.

By Sarah DickinsBBC Wales economics correspondent The manufacturer bringing back retired workers FSG Tool and Die in Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taff, has persuaded staff to work through their holidays and brought back retired workers to ensure it could provide essential supplies to the NHS. The company makes products including tools used on machines that cut air filters for face masks. Managing director Gareth Jenkins said: "When the rest of the world were on lockdown and effectively a national holiday, we were gearing up... "While people were disappearing home we were introducing the business continuity plan, getting people to remote work, splitting the week over three shifts, scrapping everyone's holidays, getting all the materials and supplies that we could. "If we don't do the day job then the shops will be empty, the NHS won't get fed, people in care homes won't get fed, and so on." The company, which employs 90 people, has introduced a night shift for the first time and Mr Jenkins even went around knocking the doors of retired workers asking them to return to work. He thinks Wales can learn from this crisis: "There is a lesson going forward here and that is having things made locally, particularly things that are very sensitive and are almost an issue of national security if you like. Why aren't we doing it in the UK? "Why do we need to bring it in from Turkey and China? I'm hoping when this is over that message will get across to everybody that a lot of the things we need to be made in the UK, we just lost the habit of doing it. " From making motorsport parts to inventing a visor Wyn Lewis from Crymych, Pembrokeshire, usually makes carbon fibre parts for the motorsport industry but when the coronavirus hit he designed a visor for NHS and care workers. He has recruited volunteers to help make them and so far they have finished 2,500 and sent them to hospitals, care homes and paramedics. He said his design uses a simple strap usually used to attach things onto pallets and a clear band of film that can be bought from any office suppliers. "They are literally stapled together... and then they are just cable tied at the end," he said. "You can make one of them in three to four minutes." He said the design was constantly being updated following feedback from front-line workers: "They get back to me and say 'do you mind trying to do something different with the design?' "The help has been amazing. We thought we wouldn't get the feedback, but it has been coming and it has been awesome." 'Making visors has become a family affair' Colin Lewis usually works for car dealership Gravells in Narberth, Pembrokeshire, as a master technician. But with non-essential retail closed he has found time to volunteer making visors for Composites Cymru from his home in Llandysilio, Powys. He said: "Not only have I been making them, my son has been making them, my nephew has been making them, my daughter has been making them. "There is a lot involved in making it but if you come together as a group - it has brought the family together to be honest. It has been a little bit of a family affair."

महामारी की अग्रिम पंक्ति में स्वास्थ्य कर्मियों को महत्वपूर्ण आपूर्ति प्राप्त करने में मदद के लिए प्रथम मंत्री के आह्वान पर वेल्स में विनिर्माण से भारी प्रतिक्रिया मिली है। वेल्श सरकार ने कहा कि उसे मदद के 1,000 से अधिक प्रस्ताव मिले थे और अब वह पूरे वेल्स से 317 फर्मों के साथ काम कर रही है।


Concern in Kashmir over police pellet guns

Summary: Fourteen-year-old Insha Mushtaq, a resident of Indian-administered south Kashmir, is convulsing in pain on a bed in the intensive care unit of a Srinagar hospital, as her mother Raziya Begum sits by helplessly.

By Aarabu Ahmad SultanSrinagar The girl's face is swollen and totally disfigured and doctors say her condition is critical. Miss Mushtaq was hit by a volley of "pellets" - tiny pieces of metal shrapnel - that have been used against civilian protesters by Indian security forces, since unrest began after the death of popular separatist militant Burhan Wani. Warning: Some readers may find the images below distressing "She was with other family members on the first floor of our home that evening," her father Mushtaq Ahmed Malik told the BBC. "I had gone to the mosque to pray. She peeped out of the window and a Central Reserve Police Force [CRPF] man fired pellets at her from a very short range." Both Ms Mushtaq's eyes have been severely damaged and Dr Tariq Qurashi, the head of ophthalmology at the hospital, told the BBC she would not regain her vision. "We have received around 117 such cases," he said, adding that while seven people had been blinded by pellets, another 40 had been discharged with less serious eye injuries. What are pellet guns? Pellet guns - a form of shotgun - were first used by the police as a non-lethal weapon to quell protests in Indian-administered Kashmir in 2010. They are usually used for hunting animals. The gun fires a cluster of small, round-shaped pellets, which resemble iron balls, with high velocity. A pellet gun cartridge can contain up to 500 such pellets. When the cartridge explodes, the pellets disperse in all directions. They are less lethal than bullets but can cause serious injuries, especially if they hit the eye. Doctors treating pellet gun wounds in Kashmir told the Indian Express newspaper they were seeing "sharp and more irregular-shaped pellets" which were causing "more damage" this time. The unrest in Kashmir this time has killed more than 40 people in the region and injured close to 1,800. The government imposed a strict curfew but crowds of mainly young people have defied orders across the region, taking to the streets in large numbers. Security forces have been accused of using disproportionate force against civilians, a charge the state government has vowed to investigate. They have fired bullets, tear gas, pepper gas and, of course, the "non-lethal" pellets at protesters. They are meant to follow Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) which calls for targeting legs in extreme volatile conditions. But more than 90% of those injured have received injuries above the waist. Rajeshwar Yadav, a spokesman for the CRPF in Kashmir, has insisted that officers have shown "maximum restraint" while dealing with protesters. "We use a special cartridge that has low impact and is non-lethal," Mr Yadav told the BBC. But many disagree. 'Warlike situation' "Government forces are deliberately aiming at chests and heads," one doctor told the BBC on condition of anonymity. "They seem to be aiming to kill." At the Srinagar hospital where Miss Mushtaq was being treated, tales of pain and agony abounded. A nurse was examining Shabir Ahmad Dar, 17. Doctors feared that he might lose vision in his right eye. In a bed close to him, Aamir Fayaz Ganai, 16, told the BBC, "I was on the way to my friend's home when something hit my eye very hard." Mr Ganai was one of the luckier ones, though, as doctors believed they could save the eye. A team of three eye specialists has also been sent to Srinagar from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), a leading Delhi hospital. Dr Sudarshan K Kumar, who led the team, said that the nature of the injuries was so severe that it was almost as if Kashmiri doctors were dealing with a "war-like situation". And the trauma does not stop there. Those who have to live with the impact of eye injuries and blindness often face financial hardship, trauma and depression. Many have to seek treatment outside Kashmir - expenses they cannot easily afford. And in most cases, the damage is irreversible. Like in the case of Aabid Mir, 15, who suffered severe eye injuries after being hit by pellets while returning home from the funeral of a militant. Mr Mir's family had to rely on donations to treat him. They eventually took him to a hospital in Amritsar in Punjab state. "His treatment cost us more than 200,000 rupees [$2,979; £2,245]," he told the BBC. Hayat Dar was completing the final year of his undergraduate degree in 2013 when he was hit by pellets. "I had to go through more than five vitreo-retinal surgeries," he said. "I was completely blind for more than a year before I regained slight vision in my left eye. I would often ask God to kill me. It's better to be dead than to live like that."

भारत प्रशासित दक्षिण कश्मीर की रहने वाली चौदह वर्षीय इंशा मुश्ताक श्रीनगर के एक अस्पताल की गहन देखभाल इकाई में बिस्तर पर दर्द से कांप रही है, क्योंकि उसकी माँ रजिया बेगम असहाय रूप से बैठी है।


Warrington man charged with murder of wheelchair user

Summary: A man has been charged with the murder of a wheelchair user who died after being attacked in a town centre.

Fifty-three-year-old Michael Mairs died three weeks after being attacked in Warrington on 6 October. Cheshire Police said Daniel Sharples, 37 and of Grisedale Avenue in the town, was remanded in custody at Liverpool Crown Court, ahead of a trial in May. The family of Mr Mairs said his death had had "a massive effect... on those who loved and knew him". "The last few months have been such a difficult time to try and come to terms with the loss of our father," they added in a statement.

एक व्यक्ति पर एक व्हीलचेयर उपयोगकर्ता की हत्या का आरोप लगाया गया है, जिसकी शहर के केंद्र में हमले के बाद मृत्यु हो गई थी।


Police probe after man dies at Bournemouth business park

Summary: The death of a man at a Bournemouth business park is being investigated by police.

They were called to the Central Business Park, off Southcote Road, by paramedics after a man was found in cardiac arrest shortly after 03:45 BST. The cause of the man's death has not yet been established, a Dorset Police spokesman said. An area of the business park remains cordoned off while investigations continue. The force said the man's identity has not yet been established.

बोर्नमाउथ बिजनेस पार्क में एक व्यक्ति की मौत की पुलिस द्वारा जांच की जा रही है।


Brexit: Can May still bring back her deal after Bercow statement?

Summary: Here is the relevant commandment from Erskine May aka the parliamentary bible: "A motion or an amendment which is the same, in substance, as a question which has been decided during a session, may not be brought forward again during that same session."

By Iain WatsonPolitical correspondent, BBC News So, how can the government get round this rather large obstacle and get another vote on Theresa May's deal? Change the rules... Well, first of all, rules are there to be changed. If MPs suspend or change the "standing orders" of Parliament, they could get the Brexit deal back on the agenda. But here the power would be in the hands of Parliament as a whole, and could not be done at the whim of government ministers. Change the offer... Secondly, the government could change the proposition on offer. The former Attorney General Dominic Grieve has suggested that something "substantially" different would be to ask Parliament to vote for the deal subject to a referendum. It may be argued too that moving the Brexit date from 29 March to a later date would be substantial enough if Mrs May tacks this on to her deal. But the Speaker can set a high bar here. In response to MPs' questions, he has hinted that simply coming up with new legal advice or clarifications wouldn't be substantial enough. Change the Parliament... So, already there is a focus on the word "session" in Erskine May. If MPs can't discuss the same thing in the same session of Parliament, why not simply start a new one? In the parlance, Parliament would be "prorogued" - in other words, the Queen would end the current session and a new one would begin soon after. But this strategy would be extremely controversial, and may even be resisted by Buckingham Palace if it appeared that the monarchy was being used in a politically contentious way.

यहाँ एर्स्किन मे उर्फ संसदीय बाइबिल की प्रासंगिक आज्ञा हैः "एक प्रस्ताव या एक संशोधन जो सार में, एक प्रश्न के रूप में, जो एक सत्र के दौरान तय किया गया है, उसी सत्र के दौरान फिर से आगे नहीं लाया जा सकता है।"


Will Binyavanga Wainaina change attitudes to gay Africans?

Summary: With internationally acclaimed Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina coming out, Africa's embattled gay rights movement finally has a public face around which to rally support for equality, writes BBC Africa's Farouk Chothia.

"What he has done is brilliant. He is admired and respected, and the only high-profile [black] African to come out," Nairobi-based gay rights activist Anthony Oluoch told the BBC. "He gives a different face to gay people, breaking the stereotype that they are effeminate, that they don't have jobs, that they are completely different." Mr Wainaina's decision to reveal his sexuality, in a short essay entitled "I am a homosexual, Mum", comes amid growing hostility towards gay people in several African states, despite threats by the UK and other Western powers to cut aid if anti-gay laws are not scrapped. "Western governments must learn to use soft power. Otherwise, they end up doing more harm," says UK-based Justice for Gay Africans campaign group co-ordinator Godwyns Onwuchekwa. "You can't tell African people you won't give them aid unless they do what you want them to do. They will tell you to go to hell. They have their pride." Nigeria is a microcosm of the continent with a large population of both devout Muslims and Christians. It is currently leading the campaign against gay people, tightening laws, carrying out arrests and allowing Islamic courts to punish homosexuals. 'Hateful yarn' For Mr Onwuchekwa, a Nigerian, this comes as no surprise, as opposition to gay rights is one of the few issues around which Nigerians, who are deeply split along religious lines, unite. "Politicians in Nigeria have to prove they are religious. If they want votes, they've got to go to church or mosque. That gives pastors [and imams] influence over their campaigns," Mr Onwuchekwa told the BBC. Defending the new legislation which bans same-sex marriages, gay groups and shows of same-sex public affection, Mr Jonathan's spokesman Reuben Abati said: "This is a law that is in line with the people's cultural and religious inclination. So it is a law that is a reflection of the beliefs and orientation of Nigerian people." South Africa-based gay rights activist Melanie Nathan argues that the US Christian evangelical movement is also shaping public debate, playing a key role in Uganda's parliament passing a new anti-gay bill in December, which makes it a crime not to report homosexuals to police and to talk about homosexuality without denouncing it. "When religious extremists... found that their war against homosexuality was floundering on home turf, they scrambled to capture a world ripe for scapegoating, using the Bible to spin their hateful yarn on African soil. Uganda became a target and they were successful," she blogged. "Their target included, not only the general Ugandan populace, but also the Ugandan politicians and Members of Parliament, who subscribed to their interpretations, that Gays are not fit to live 'because the Bible says so!' This trend has spread across the continent. And anti-gay laws have been passed, compliments U.S. Evangelicals." Several prominent US evangelical preachers have denied any links to the Ugandan bill. In any case, Mr Onwuchekwa says there is genuine opposition to gay rights within African churches. 'Unnatural' "If you look at the worldwide Anglican communion, the former head of the church in Nigeria, Peter Akinola, was at the forefront of the campaign against gay people. Churches in Africa may be getting support from the West, but so do LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] groups. It's part of the game," he told the BBC. Malawi's President Joyce Banda tried to buck the trend in 2012, promising to repeal laws which banned homosexual acts. But she dropped the idea after a backlash from the Malawi Council of Churches, a group of 24 influential Protestant churches. "Our stance has always been that this practice should be criminalised because it runs contrary to our Christian values," said the secretary-general of the Malawi Council of Churches, Reverend Osborne Joda-Mbewe. But rights groups have not given up, launching court action to declare Malawi's anti-gay laws unconstitutional and to secure the release of three men - Amon Champyuni, Mathews Bello and Mussa Chiwisi - imprisoned in 2011 for engaging in "unnatural acts". 'Enemies of faith' "As long as same-sex relationships are consensual and done in private, no-one has business to get bothered," said Gift Trapence, the executive director of the Centre for Development of People, one of the groups fighting the case in court. In a report published last year on attitudes towards gay people worldwide, the US-based Pew Research Center said hostility was strongest in "poorer countries with high levels of religiosity", while there was "greater acceptance in more secular and affluent countries". "Publics in Africa and in predominantly Muslim countries remain among the least accepting of homosexuality," it said, pointing out that its survey showed that 98% of Nigerians, 96% of Senegalese, Ghanaians and Ugandans and 90% of Kenyans were opposed to homosexuality. "Even in South Africa where, unlike in many other African countries, homosexual acts are legal and discrimination based on sexual orientation is unconstitutional, 61% say homosexuality should not be accepted by society, while just 32% say it should be accepted," the report said. This is despite the fact that South Africa's leading Christian clerics - including Archbishop Desmond Tutu - are vocal supporters of gay rights. "Anywhere where the humanity of people is undermined, anywhere where people are left in the dust, there we will find our cause," he said last year. But the liberal voice of South African clerics is drowned out by those elsewhere on the continent. Rejecting calls in 2012 for Kenya to legalise homosexuality, a local Anglican bishop, Julius Kalu, said "liberal teachings" about gay rights posed a bigger threat than some of the violence unleashed by militant Islamists. "The Church is at war with enemies of the faith," he said. "Our greatest fear as a church should not be the grenade attacks, but the new teachings like same-sex marriages." Mr Oluoch says the gay rights movement emerged in Africa following the collapse of repressive one-party rule in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 'A journey' "People began to realize that they have rights that are being denied to them just because of who they are and who they love. That gave rise to the gay rights groups," he says. However, no democratic government - except South Africa's - has repealed anti-gay laws. In fact, the opposite is happening, with politicians and religious leaders whipping up hostility against homosexuals. For Mr Oluoch, this is not surprising as the growing profile of gay groups is a "double-edged sword". "Once people are confronted by something they don't understand, the first instinct is fear and an obvious backlash," he says. "But with visibility comes understanding and the eradication of ignorance. Today I can go on TV and say I am gay and educate people about gay rights. I couldn't have done that in the past. The tide will eventually change for the better." The 43-year-old Mr Wainaina, who says he knew he was gay since the age of five, told the BBC that most people have reacted positively to his decision to come out and he would champion the rights of gay people in Africa. "It's probably the most popular thing I've ever written - and it is not fiction it is the truth," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme. "I come with love to this conversation... I'm interested in taking on the foaming dogma group," Mr Wainaina said. Mr Oluoch, a 26-year-old activist who works for the Kaleidoscope Trust rights group in Kenya, says he came out three years ago. "I had to since I would appear in the media talking about LGBT issues and thought it was the right time to come out. Some people changed their attitudes towards me but ultimately, the people who mattered are still in my life," he told the BBC. He says he hopes Mr Wainaina's decision will spur other high-profile Africans to come out. "But as I always say, coming out is a personal journey that one has to take and find a time that works best for them. There should be no pressure. In Binyavanga's case, it took more than 40 years."

बीबीसी अफ्रीका के फारूक चोथिया लिखते हैं कि अंतरराष्ट्रीय स्तर पर प्रशंसित केन्याई लेखक बिन्यावंगा वैनाइना के सामने आने के साथ, अफ्रीका के समलैंगिक अधिकार आंदोलन के पास आखिरकार एक सार्वजनिक चेहरा है जो समानता के लिए समर्थन जुटाने के लिए है।


Twitter in the spotlight

Summary: Right now, Twitter cannot seem to stay out of the headlines - and not in a good way. Whether it's the arrest of a teenager who abused the diver Tom Daley, the suspension of the account of a journalist who attacked NBC's Olympics coverage, or the attempt to unmask the person behind a spoof account mocking a newspaper executive, Twitter does seem to be on the back foot.

Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter Wednesday morning brings news that, strangely, may come as a relief to the Californian company. A lawyer acting for the person behind @unstevedorkland has filed a motion to quash the disclosure order obtained by Northcliffe Media, and that means Twitter will now not be handing over details of the account to the British regional newspaper group. To recap, Northcliffe had accused @unstevedorkland of impersonating its chief executive Steve Auckland, of sending out a stream of offensive tweets which amounted to harassment, and even of hacking into the company's computer systems. The account holder denied these allegations but until a pro bono lawyer stepped in to help, it looked as though Twitter would have no choice but to comply with the Californian court order and hand over the details on 1 August - today. The motion to quash the order, lodged by Frank Sommer, the lawyer now acting for the man behind @unstevedorkland, makes for interesting reading. Having come across the story first on the BBC News website, then on other sites, Mr Sommer says nobody could possibly be tricked into thinking the real Steve Auckland was tweeting: "I have been unable to find any website that lists this controversy in terms of someone being deceived that any of the Twitter usernames listed in the subpoena are anything other than a satire on Mr Auckland." In other words, Mr Sommer's case appears to be a defence of the right to satirise. It will get a full hearing in California on 2 September - if Northcliffe Media does not decide that the whole affair has got completely out of hand and it might be better to drop it quietly. Meanwhile, Twitter has now acted to hose down another big controversy. The journalist Guy Adams, whose Twitter account was suspended after he revealed the email address of an NBC executive, has been reinstated. And in a blogpost, Twitter issued an apology of sorts, admitting that it was wrong to alert NBC to the offending tweet: "We do not proactively report or remove content on behalf of other users no matter who they are. This behavior is not acceptable and undermines the trust our users have in us." It has to be said that many of those who supported Mr Adams still believe that publishing a corporate email address did not break the Twitter rule which says private information should not be disclosed. But in reinforcing the message that it is not Twitter's job to police its users messages on behalf of powerful organisations, the company will hope to win back some trust. Until recently, the site was, like Google, seen as a champion of free expression. Both Californian companies have found that the bigger you get, the more brightly the spotlight shines on any claim to moral superiority.

अभी, ट्विटर सुर्खियों से दूर नहीं रह सकता है-और अच्छे तरीके से नहीं। चाहे वह गोताखोर टॉम डेली के साथ दुर्व्यवहार करने वाले एक किशोर की गिरफ्तारी हो, एनबीसी के ओलंपिक कवरेज पर हमला करने वाले एक पत्रकार के खाते का निलंबन हो, या एक समाचार पत्र के कार्यकारी का मजाक उड़ाने वाले स्पूफ खाते के पीछे के व्यक्ति को बेनकाब करने का प्रयास हो, ट्विटर बैकफुट पर प्रतीत होता है।


German cable car collision leaves dozens stranded in mid-air

Summary: Dozens of people were left suspended in mid-air after a cable car hit a support pillar and came to a stop over the River Rhine in Germany.

Fire crews and rescue teams in Cologne used a crane to reach the 75 trapped passengers, some of them said to have been as high as 40m (130 ft). Pictures show children being lowered to the ground. No injuries were reported. All of the 32 cars believed to have been in operation at the time came to a halt when the incident occurred. The collision took place at around 15.30 (13:30 GMT). The incident is said to have been the result of one of the gondolas clipping a part of the support structure, bringing the entire cable transport system to a standstill. Get news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning

जर्मनी में राइन नदी के ऊपर एक केबल कार के समर्थन स्तंभ से टकराने और रुकने के बाद दर्जनों लोगों को बीच हवा में निलंबित कर दिया गया था।


Is Turkey's peace process with the Kurds collapsing?

Summary: The Kurdish rebel PKK's announcement that it is ending its withdrawal from Turkey casts doubt on a peace process that many had hoped was the best chance yet of ending a 30-year conflict. Mahmut Hamsici, of BBC Turkish, reports from PKK camps in northern Iraq.

By Mahmut HamsiciBBC Turkish, northern Iraq Devrim, a PKK fighter, joined the organisation in the mid-1990s. After a long period spent in the mountains of Turkey, she pulled back to Iraqi Kurdistan two months ago as part of the PKK's withdrawal from Turkish soil. The deserted mountains of Iraq's Behdinan region, running along Turkey's south-eastern border, are now home to PKK camps and groups of fighters like Devrim. After three decades and more than 40,000 deaths, a new peace process was launched in March. As part of this process, the PKK - regarded as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the EU and US - declared a ceasefire and started its withdrawal in May. 'No reciprocation' Speaking before the group announced the suspension of its withdrawal on Monday, Devrim expressed her frustrations. "We had mixed feelings while we were withdrawing. We had worries like: We are withdrawing but is the government sincere or not?" Devrim tells me. Her worries deepened, she said, when the government took no reciprocal steps, and instead accused the PKK of not withdrawing properly. In another part of Iraqi Kurdistan, in the Qandil mountains, considered the base of the PKK, the organisation's de facto leader Cemil Bayik says the process is sliding into collapse and accuses the Turkish government of failing to take steps of its own. "We released the prisoners in our hands without asking for anything in return. We declared a ceasefire without asking for anything in return. We took practical steps towards ending the war, and withdrawing from the north to the south. We completed the first phase of the process successfully," he complains. "However, when the time came for the Turkish state to take steps - that is in the second phase - the Turkish state did not take any steps and started making excuses." However, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan turns the blame back on the PKK. "The promises made to withdraw from Turkish soil have not been fulfilled. Only 20% have left Turkey, and they are mostly women, elderly people, children," he said recently. 'No mother tongue' On Monday Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag dismissed the rebels' move, and said Turkey would take its own moves towards peace. "Whatever the terror organisation does is up to them. But Turkey will do whatever needs to be done," he said. The government has said it is working on a package of democratic reforms, but it has not yet brought them to parliament. The PKK's Cemil Bayik defends the withdrawal, saying no date was set in the agreement for its completion. He also criticises the government's "democratisation package" - claiming that the government has prepared it without talking to the Kurdish side - and the failure to establish the Kurdish language as a Turkish "mother tongue". The PKK wants to see progress on a range of measures to maintain confidence in the peace process, including: an end to construction of new gendarmeries and dams in Kurdish areas; an improvement in the prison conditions of leader Abdullah Ocalan; and releasing thousands of imprisoned Kurdish politicians. Mr Bayik blames the government: "They are preparing for war, not peace. Indeed, they are preparing for a big war. We know this. They want to strike a big blow." He says Mr Erdogan's government is not committed to solving the Kurdish question, but simply "wants to gain time in order to win municipal elections and follow that up with wins in parliamentary and presidential elections". The PKK has suspended withdrawal but pledges to maintain a ceasefire for now. Pessimism spreading Turkish government officials, meanwhile, say the process continues and that it is the PKK creating tension. But pessimism is spreading. Selahattin Demirtas, leader of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, said their hopes for the process had decreased 90% since it started. As the process is based on talks between the imprisoned Ocalan and governmental officials, there is no third party, no public agreement, and the process is full of obscurities. But it seems clear that the process has hit a crisis. Back in the PKK camps in northern Iraq, PKK fighters are waiting to see what happens next. When asked if they are ready to start fighting again, they all answer the same. One, named Engin, says: "Of course. We are a military organisation... if we are not left any other solution, we are ready to fight." But, as his colleague Devrim says, there is still hope. "Hope exists until the last moment... Everything can change even in 24 hours." She said it just depended on the government making "a serious and sincere approach".

कुर्दिश विद्रोही पी. के. के. की यह घोषणा कि वह तुर्की से अपनी वापसी समाप्त कर रहा है, एक ऐसी शांति प्रक्रिया पर संदेह पैदा करती है जिसकी कई लोगों को उम्मीद थी कि 30 साल के संघर्ष को समाप्त करने का अब तक का सबसे अच्छा मौका था। बीबीसी तुर्की के महमूद हमसिची, उत्तरी इराक में पी. के. के. शिविरों से रिपोर्ट करते हैं।


Fonseka denies 'traitor' charges

Summary: The former armed forces chief in Sri Lanka, General Sarath Fonseka, has denied being a liar or committing treason in speaking of the possibility of war crimes having been committed on the island.

He was speaking to the BBC Sinhala service a day after the country’s defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa – once a close ally of the general – described him as a liar and threatened him with execution. He spoke to Chandana Keerthi Bandara of BBC Sandeshayaon the phone while attending parliament, which he can do since being elected as an MP two months ago. He said he was neither a liar nor a traitor. "How can it be? If I cover up, if I hush up things, if I don’t tell the truth fully I will become a traitor," he said. 'Throwing mud' Sarath Fonseka accused the defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, of “throwing mud” after Mr Rajapaksa told the BBC Hard Talk programme that the general was a liar and might be hanged for – as he put it - betraying the country. "If I know anything about war crimes my duty is to expose. That is what we are supposed to do as a responsible citizen, as a responsible ex-army officer, or as a responsible MP – we are not supposed to cover up anything," he added. That was in response to General Fonseka saying he’d be prepared to testify before any independent investigation of alleged breaches of humanitarian law during the state’s war against the Tamil Tigers – even though he himself was army commander at that time. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has meanwhile sought to clarify his remarks. He told a local news website that what he meant was that if the General was found guilty of treason, he could be sentenced to death. General Fonseka,who has been in military custody for four months, is currently undergoing two military trials and one civilian one but in none of them has he been charged with treason. Meanwhile about 150 of Sarath Fonseka’s supporters and relatives have held a candle-lit vigil to mark exactly four months since the government dragged him forcibly into detention.

श्रीलंका में पूर्व सशस्त्र बलों के प्रमुख, जनरल शरत फोंसेका ने द्वीप पर युद्ध अपराध होने की संभावना के बारे में बोलने में झूठे होने या राजद्रोह करने से इनकार किया है।