What can political donors learn from history?

Summary: A billionaire Las Vegas casino magnate has said he might donate $100m (£64m) to support Republican Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign. He joins history's long list of great - and ignominious - political money men.

By Daniel NasawBBC News Magazine, Washington Sheldon Adelson, who is worth an estimated $25bn, is almost single-handedly responsible for keeping Mr Gingrich's bid for the Republican nomination afloat, analysts say. He and his wife have already donated $10m to a nominally independent political fund that has bought adverts for the former House speaker's campaign. "What scares me is the continuation of the socialist-style economy we've been experiencing for almost four years," Mr Adelson told Forbes Magazine. "That scares me because the redistribution of wealth is the path to more socialism, and to more of the government controlling people's lives." Mr Adelson's big contributions place him among a new generation of US political money men freed to donate millions by recent Supreme Court decisions that overturned campaign finance restrictions. But he is part of a long tradition - stretching back into antiquity - of wealthy men who used their cash to buy political influence. Here are some lessons he could heed: Lesson 1: Patronage can yield profits Known to historian Plutarch as "the richest of the Romans", Marcus Crassus got even richer by staking Julius Caesar's military career and his later election as Roman consul. "We never would have heard of Caesar without Crassus," says Philip Freeman, chairman of the classics department at Luther College in the US state of Iowa and author of a recent biography of Caesar. Born in a household of relatively modest means, Crassus aligned himself with Roman dictator Sulla and grew rich by taking property Sulla had expropriated from his own political enemies. He made "the public calamities his greatest source of revenue", Plutarch wrote, and also made lots of money as a contract tax collector. In 61BC, Caesar was named to a military post in Spain, but his creditors sought to prevent him from leaving Rome. Crassus guaranteed his debts - to the sum of about $23m (£14.6m) in 2012 figures, by Prof Freeman's calculation. Two years later, Caesar ran for election as consul, the highest political office in the Roman republic. Crassus funded his campaign, which depended on officially condemned but widespread vote-buying, Freeman says. In return, Caesar pushed through legislation giving the contract tax collectors a break in the amount of money they had to return to the central government. "It's like if Mr Gingrich got to be president and passed a bill making casinos tax exempt - for his benefactor back in Las Vegas," says Prof Freeman. "It was a great financial play for Crassus purely in monetary terms." Lesson 2: Have an exit strategy Sir William de la Pole of Hull was a 14th-Century wine importer, wool merchant and financier who lent staggering sums of money to King Edward III to finance his lavish lifestyle and his wars in France and Scotland. "There's no doubt that Pole did acquire a great deal of wealth, and wealth brought him social status," says Jonathan Sumption, a historian and jurist who has written three volumes about The Hundred Years War. "His sons went on to become Earls of Suffolk, noblemen, which nobody would have accused William of being. You couldn't do much better than that. This was simply the normal way in which money was converted into status." Pole's involvement with the crown began in earnest in 1327, when he lent Edward III £2,001 (about £1.4m in today's money, according to Measuringworth.com, a calculator devised by economists at the University of Illinois at Chicago) to hire mercenaries to fight the Scots. In 1336-1337, Edward III sought to exploit the wool industry to finance the start of the Hundred Years War with France. Pole organised other wool growers into the Wool Company, in effect purchasing from Edward III the right to export wool on privileged terms, Mr Sumption says. Between June 1338 and October 1339, he lent the crown £111,000 (more than £86m in 2012 figures). For Pole himself, the story did not end well. Edward III grew resentful at his dependence on Pole and imprisoned him for two years. He was released because the king again needed his help raising money. Edward defaulted on his debts because the wars cost more than his tax revenue, Mr Sumption says, and Pole and his partners went bust. "Lending to the king was a mug's game," Mr Sumption says. "The problem was that if you didn't you were likely to be ruined anyway." Lesson 3: The stakes are high When Edward VI ascended to the throne in 1547 at the age nine, members of the Tudor court began jockeying for position and influence. Two of the top intriguers were his uncles Edward and Thomas Seymour. Edward Seymour managed to have himself declared Lord Protector of the Realm, Governor of the King's Person and later Duke of Somerset, making him the most powerful man in the court. But Thomas Seymour, who had been well placed under Henry VII, found himself increasingly frozen out. Among his several schemes to gain influence over the boy king, Seymour began supplying him with pocket money, telling him "you are a beggarly king, you have no money to play or to give". Edward VI, who had reportedly complained to Seymour that Somerset "deals very hardly with me and keeps me so straight that I cannot have money at my will", wanted the cash to pay for musicians in his court and to reward his personal servants, says John Cooper, a lecturer in early modern history at the University of York. Seymour gave the king £188 (about £70,400 in today's value), funnelled in part through Edward's personal servants and his tutor. "It's a political gamble that fails very dramatically," Mr Cooper says. When Somerset found out about that and other intrigues (Seymour also flirted with the teenaged Princess Elizabeth, whom he may have hoped to marry), he had him arrested and charged with treason. He was beheaded at the Tower of London. On hearing of his execution, Elizabeth said: "This day died a man with much wit, and very little judgment." Lesson 4: Be prepared to lose big Among the liberals incensed about the Vietnam war in the late 1960s and early 1970s was Stewart Mott, the black-sheep son of a wealthy Detroit car manufacturing family. Mott, who described himself as an "avant-garde philanthropist", donated more than $200,000 to the 1968 presidential campaign of Eugene McCarthy, and about $400,000 in 1972 to George McGovern, the Democratic challenger to President Richard Nixon, according to Mr Corrado, the campaign finance expert. His big contributions in part led Congress to enact strict limits on direct contributions to political campaigns that remain in effect to this day (though giving to independent committees are unlimited). "He identified with their politics, and whatever one means by progressive, he was it," says Victor Navasky, professor of journalism at Columbia University. "He cared about them, and he hoped to help them attain the White House." Despite Mott's seed money, Mr McGovern suffered one of the greatest political defeats in American history, winning only the state of Massachusetts and Washington DC. Mott's support for liberal candidates earned him a spot on Nixon's infamous enemies list. Nixon aide Chuck Colson listed him as "nothing but big money for radic-lib candidates".

एक अरबपति लास वेगास कैसिनो धनाढ्य ने कहा है कि वह रिपब्लिकन न्यूट गिंगरिच के राष्ट्रपति अभियान का समर्थन करने के लिए $100 मिलियन (£64 मिलियन) दान कर सकता है। वह इतिहास की महान-और अपमानजनक-राजनीतिक धन पुरुषों की लंबी सूची में शामिल हो गया है।


Thunderstorms and rain warning issued for north Wales

Summary: Heavy showers and thunderstorms could hit parts of north and mid Wales, the Met Office has said.

A weather warning has been issued for Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd, Wrexham and Powys, but downpours are likely to be scattered. The Met Office said it could lead to buildings being damaged by lightning strikes and loss of power, while driving conditions could be affected. The warning is in place until 19:00 BST.

मौसम कार्यालय ने कहा है कि उत्तर और मध्य वेल्स के कुछ हिस्सों में भारी बारिश और गरज के साथ बौछारें पड़ सकती हैं।


Eleven teenagers arrested in Grimsby after 'out of hand' party

Summary: Eleven teenagers have been arrested after a party got "out of hand" and damage was caused to vehicles and a mosque.

The party was being held in the Legsby Avenue area of Grimsby and officers were called at about 23:00 BST. Those arrested are between 16 and 17 years old, said police. Ch Insp Will Jenkins said the teenagers had been at a nearby house party and "shouldn't have been drinking in the first place".

एक पार्टी के "हाथ से निकल जाने" और वाहनों और एक मस्जिद को नुकसान पहुँचाने के बाद ग्यारह किशोरों को गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


Hertfordshire man held at Gatwick Airport under Terrorism Act

Summary: A man has been arrested at Gatwick Airport on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts.

The 44-year-old from Hertfordshire was detained at the West Sussex airport on Thursday after getting off a flight from Iraq, Scotland Yard said. He was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command under Section Five of the Terrorism Act. He was taken to a central London police station where he remains in custody. Live: More on this story and other news from Sussex

गैटविक हवाई अड्डे पर आतंकवादी कृत्यों की तैयारी करने के संदेह में एक व्यक्ति को गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


Edinburgh's little stone buildings hiding water secrets

Summary: Dotted around a suburb of Edinburgh are stone buildings akin to miniature electricity substations - but they don't house a network of wires. They are in fact home to what used to be a key water source for the capital.

By Angie BrownBBC Scotland, Edinburgh and East reporter These strange-looking stone structures have stood in the Comiston area of Edinburgh for more than 300 years. Built long before houses, garages, driveways and gardens, they are now integrated into the established residential landscape. But what were they for? The buildings covered vital spring water that bubbled up from the ground. Before this supply was used, Edinburgh residents could go many weeks without fresh drinking water. What was available wasn't safe - the Nor' Loch, which had flowed in the valley now occupied by Princes Street Gardens and the Waverley Station, carried typhoid and cholera. So in 1621 the Scottish Parliament passed an Act "to bring the sweet waters of the country to the centre of Edinburgh". That prompted the building of the "spring heads" which protected the natural drinking water from contamination. George Sinclare, a schoolmaster in Leith, discovered the springs. He had worked out that Comiston was 60ft higher than a proposed collecting tank at Castlehill, near the Edinburgh Castle Esplanade, meaning the water could travel by gravitation. There were 27 spring heads established on the estate and the first 10 were given the names of animals, including the hare, the peewit, the fox and the swan. Edinburgh town council paid £18 a year to The Lady of Comiston for the lease of the springs with the condition the Peewit Spring should be left for the use of farmers for their cattle. The estate owners of the Barony of Braid were also paid £1,000 to let the pipe pass through their grounds so the water could reach old Edinburgh. 'Unique piece of history' Each spring fed water to a collecting cistern called Comiston Spring House. This now listed building stands on Cockmylane - the path used by the author Robert Louis Stevenson to reach his house in nearby Swanston. Pipes from each spring poured into a tank inside Comiston Spring House which filtered the water of debris before it was piped to Edinburgh. The lead pipes were used up until 1820 when the town council replaced them with 5in cast iron pipes and the springs were decommissioned in 1945, but water still runs through them. Although they have no practical use now, they remain intact and are looked after by Scottish Water. Bill Elliot, from the water company, said: "The fact these spring heads are still standing - 340 years on - are testament to the people who designed and built them. Many people have no idea they are there and many who do have no clue of the history behind them. "In terms of the city's water history their existence is fascinating." Streets in the area have since been named after the springs, including Swan Spring Avenue, Fox Spring Crescent, Fox Spring Rise and Comiston Springs Avenue. John Mowat, 86, who has lived next door to the Fox Spring in Comiston View for 50 years said he had no idea the stone buildings had been part of Edinburgh's drinking water history. After peeking inside one, he said: "When I moved here from Orkney I wondered what it was and then I saw lots of them in the area. "To be one of the first people to see inside in modern times is very exciting and makes me feel nice to be living next door to such a unique piece of history." 'Like a Roman bath' John Begbie, 34, janitor at Pentland Primary School in Comiston, said two of the spring heads were on the next door site of the old Hunter's Tryst Primary School, which is now a wasteland. He said: "I used to play in this area growing up and we just took them for granted as part of the landscape. We knew they were to do with water but we didn't know all the history. We liked them and it's great to think we have such historic monuments in our area." Simon Johnston, 43, whose house backs on to Comiston Spring House, said he had "always wanted to look inside". And what was his reaction after taking a look? "I didn't expect there to be this big tank like a Roman bath inside as I thought it would just be the shell of the building. It has exceeded my expectations and is brilliant." Jojo, 12, who lives in a street nearby, said he walks past the Fox Spring every day on his way to school. He said: "I've always wondered what it was and what it looked like inside. It's very old and full of cobwebs and rust but I'm surprised how well it has stayed up because you would think all the water would make it crumble after all this time."

एडिनबर्ग के एक उपनगर के आसपास छोटी बिजली सबस्टेशनों के समान पत्थर की इमारतें हैं-लेकिन उनमें तारों का एक नेटवर्क नहीं है। वे वास्तव में राजधानी के लिए एक प्रमुख जल स्रोत हुआ करते थे।


October meeting on Inverness Beechwood campus plan

Summary: Councillors are to meet towards the end of October to consider planning permission for a new campus on the outskirts of Inverness.

It has been proposed to develop Beechwood as a base for the University of the Highlands and Islands and a research and business centre. Highland Council granted planning permission in principle in May 2011. A masterplan and design guidelines were submitted for approval, but a decision on them was delayed on Tuesday. Highland Council said Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey planning applications committee would hold the special meeting.

इनवर्नेस के बाहरी इलाके में एक नए परिसर के लिए अनुमति की योजना बनाने पर विचार करने के लिए पार्षद अक्टूबर के अंत में मिलने वाले हैं।


Brit Tom Holland is announced as the new Marvel Spider-Man

Summary: Another Brit has been announced as the new Spider-Man.

Tom Holland, who was in Wolf Hall and the stage musical Billy Elliot, has grabbed the lead in the franchise reboot. Marvel and Sony confirmed the news in a statement on their website. The 19-year-old takes over from Andrew Garfield for the new film, which is due out in July 2017. There had been speculation that a black Spider-Man would be chosen this time. In a statement, Marvel said: "The studios and producers were impressed by Holland's performances in The Impossible, Wolf Hall, and the upcoming In the Heart of the Sea, and by a series of complex screen tests." "For Spidey himself, we saw many terrific young actors, but Tom's screen tests were special." Ron Howard, who directed Tom Holland in his up-coming film In The Heart Of The Sea, says Holland will bring "heart and humour" to the role. "Tom's young, incredibly agile and fit. He's also very accessible and very relatable. "He's one of us and has tremendous skills as an actor." Howard, whose Hollywood films include Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind, told BBC Radio 5 live: "His years as Billy Elliot have served him well. "He does his own stunts, some really challenging ones. "He's very down to earth, very hard working and has great sense of fun." More from Newsbeat: Who is Tom Holland? Asked about the added pressure the new high-profile role will bring, Howard said: "Tom has a good sense of how the film industry works as a business. "He'll handle that pressure very well. "He's a great young talent and also has the attitude to maximise all of his potential and I'm very excited for him." Tom is first expected to make an appearance as Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War in order to properly introduce him into the Marvel film universe. Former Sony co-chairman Amy Pascal is producing along with Kevin Feige. Standalone Spider-Man films will follow. Sony has confirmed Pascal and Feige "will collaborate on a new creative direction for the Web-Slinger". Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram, Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube and you can now follow BBC_Newsbeat on Snapchat

एक और ब्रिट को नए स्पाइडर-मैन के रूप में घोषित किया गया है।


Damaged road closed in Stonehaven amid flood work

Summary: A road in Stonehaven has been closed after subsidence during flood prevention work.

Aberdeenshire Council said the A957 emergency closure was between Invercarron Cottage to the A92. Two neighbouring properties have been evacuated as a "precaution". The council said: "We are working with the Stonehaven Flood Protection Scheme contractor to establish the extent of the damage and to get the road reopened as soon as possible." Diversions are in place.

स्टोनहेवन में बाढ़ रोकथाम कार्य के दौरान भूस्खलन के बाद एक सड़क को बंद कर दिया गया है।


The wheels are in danger of coming off the car industry

Summary: March sales of new cars plummeted on last year's numbers, at a time when the industry needs to be selling at its top cruising speed. With showrooms closed, it didn't stand a chance. Seeing a way ahead for the market depends on many factors, including supply, demand, used car stocks, access to finance and handling the transition to electric cars. Obscured by the health crisis, Brexit talks continue by video-conference, and Europe's car manufacturers warn of "catastrophe" if ministers' lack of attention to those negotiations lead it towards a no-deal exit

Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland It shouldn't be any surprise that new car registrations plummeted last month. As consumers lost confidence and pulled back on commitments to buy, and then as showrooms were forced to close, the number dropped by 44% across the UK, and by 49% in Scotland. That was a drop of more than 200,000 cars compared with March 2019. In Scotland, the total nearly halved to 18,438. If that seems a lot, it's because March should be a very busy month for sales. It's one of two months when new plates are introduced - in this case "20" - and that brings a peak. It's when dealers need to be very busy. Small van sales were down by even more, dropping 53% since last year - arguably a more sensitive indicator of economic health. And having previously estimated that the number of new registrations might almost hold steady this year, at 1.7m vehicles, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders is estimating a full-year fall of 29% in 2020. Plug-in That follows on some bumper years. March 2017 saw more than twice as many UK registrations as last month. It's not an industry that invites sympathy, so long as it's allowed to get on with doing what it does very well. But it was already facing a set of difficult challenges. While geared to around half the market being diesel, and with Britain a big manufacturer of diesel car engines, that segment of the market has fallen precipitously due to polluting particulates, emissions scandals and growing restrictions on big engines through tax and urban low emission zones. The drop in new diesel registrations in March 2020 compared with March 2019 was 62%. That steep downward trend has been a feature of the market for years. Less than a fifth of new cars now are diesel. The range of alternatively-fuelled cars is expanding fast, from a low base. Hybrid petrol cars saw a mild decline last month, while plug-ins and plug-in hybrid were the only categories on the rise. At nearly 12,000 across the UK, plug-in electric was close to reaching one in every 20 new cars last month, and that is expected to rise fast. It's welcome in providing a greener future to the industry, but making the shift is a profound challenge to the industry to adjust, to get the right models to the market, and to have the right set of workshop skills to service them. And a pandemic in the midst of that is no help at all. It has meant Europe's auto industry finding, first, a struggle with supply chain disruption from Chinese factories that had not reopened after New Year. Then they face disruption to their staffing, due to ill-health, followed by an enforced shutdown. And with unemployment expected to rise, possibly very sharply, that will mean less money available to buy big-ticket items. Cash for clunkers Will people turn to the used car market instead? That's not easy to say. That market has also tanked, also because forecourts are closed. And if they're not shifting, that stock is costing business a lot of money. It's hard to price used cars until a number of factors become clearer in the new car market. To help stimulate the economy and help the sector in the last big crisis 11 years ago, Alistair Darling as Chancellor of the Exchequer poured public funds into a scrappage scheme - known in the US as "cash for clunkers". With lots of dirty old diesel engines on the road, this could be a way of reducing emissions and helping the industry. But if it has a wish list for helpful government measures, it's more likely the car makers would choose a delay to Brexit and then a good deal to secure the least friction to trade. 'Catastrophic' No, Brexit is not the top priority at the moment, but yes, it's still there, with negotiations curtailed to video-conferencing between UK and EU negotiating teams. April 6th brought a strongly-worded document from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (EAMA), pointing out that there's not much time left to strike a Brexit deal. Supply chains require one. And with battery technology, they are set to become more integrated. Britain does not have its own significant battery-making capacity. Its car makers need to import, and they want to do so without hindrance. EAMA director general Erik-Mark Huitema says that, in a good year, €54bn of cars are traded between the EU and UK. Within that trade are €14bn worth of parts crossing the North Sea and English Channel. "The clock is ticking for these complex negotiations, and we are very concerned that the time remaining under the transitional arrangement is insufficient, especially given the ongoing Covid-19 crisis," he warned. "The unintended consequence of this could be a no-deal scenario. In terms of tariffs alone, this would have a massive impact, with some €6bn being added to the cost of doing cross-Channel trade. "Such an outcome would be catastrophic to the automotive sector, and to the European economy in general. It should be avoided at all reasonable cost."

मार्च में नई कारों की बिक्री पिछले साल की संख्या पर गिर गई, ऐसे समय में जब उद्योग को अपनी शीर्ष क्रूजिंग गति से बिक्री करने की आवश्यकता थी। शोरूम बंद होने के साथ, यह एक मौका नहीं था। बाजार के लिए आगे का रास्ता देखना कई कारकों पर निर्भर करता है, जिसमें आपूर्ति, मांग, प्रयुक्त कार स्टॉक, वित्त तक पहुंच और इलेक्ट्रिक कारों में संक्रमण को संभालना शामिल है। स्वास्थ्य संकट से परेशान, ब्रेक्सिट वार्ता वीडियो-कॉन्फ्रेंस द्वारा जारी है, और यूरोप के कार निर्माताओं ने "तबाही" की चेतावनी दी है यदि मंत्रियों द्वारा उन वार्ताओं पर ध्यान न देने से यह बिना किसी सौदे के बाहर निकलने की ओर ले जाता है।


Dolphin sculptures on show around Aberdeen

Summary: Fifty brightly-painted dolphin sculptures have been installed at locations around Aberdeen as part of a summer arts project.

The life-sized fibre glass models will be in Aberdeen's parks, beach and city centre for 10 weeks before being auctioned for charity. Each is painted with a different theme, from Aberdeen football colours to wartime fighter planes. Artists have also based work on the oil industry and Northern Lights. The Wild Dolphins project has been organised by Wild in Art with the Archie foundation at the Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital and Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC). It will be on show until the end of August.

ग्रीष्मकालीन कला परियोजना के हिस्से के रूप में एबरडीन के आसपास के स्थानों पर पचास चमकीले रंगों वाली डॉल्फिन मूर्तियां स्थापित की गई हैं।


What Liberace reveals about the march of gay rights

Summary: A film tells the story of Liberace's relationship with his lover, but the flamboyant pianist stayed in the closet all his life. How did he maintain this fiction, and what does it say about America's rapidly changing attitude to gay rights?

By Jon KellyBBC News Magazine, Washington DC A handsome young valet helped Wladziu Valentino Liberace step from his chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce on to a stage shimmering with candelabra, and the man who called himself Mr Showmanship showed off his 16ft-long rhinestone-studded fox fur cape. "Well, look me over," he told the audience before sitting down to play his mirror-bedecked piano. "I didn't get dressed like this to go unnoticed." His grand entrance at New York's Radio City Music Hall in April 1984 was as cheerfully, flamboyantly camp as his fans had come to expect from his 50-year musical career. But until his death in 1987, Liberace insisted he was not gay. He staged relationships with women and repeatedly asserted his heterosexuality in interviews, once talking about his ideal female partner. He even famously took the Daily Mirror to court when it hinted otherwise. His fans - typically suburban middle-aged women - seemed happy enough to accept his story. Thousands were outraged during his brief engagement to a younger woman. It was a fiction. Behind The Candelabra, a forthcoming film starring Michael Douglas, tells the story of Liberace's long-standing relationship with his former chauffeur, played by Matt Damon. While modern audiences are familiar with a diverse range of gay and lesbian personalities, Liberace rose to prominence at a time when camp and homosexuality were commonly and erroneously seen as synonymous. He grew up in a conservative, working-class, Polish-Italian mid-western household, at a time when homosexuality was punishable by up to 10 years in prison in some US states. As a result, he had good cause to fear that exposure of his private self would almost certainly have meant the end of his career. But paradoxically, his camp, over-the-top performance style appears to have been key to his appeal to middle America. Shortly after his television programme, The Liberace Show, launched in 1952 he attracted up to 30 million viewers an episode. A decision by the pianist during the late 1950s to adopt sober Brooks Brothers suits and jettison the candelabra coincided with a sharp downturn in his popularity. His career bounced back after he adopted his Mr Showmanship persona during the early 1960s, declaring that "it was a shame to waste [his] mother-of-pearl trimmed suits". According to his biographer, Darden Asbury Pyron, Liberace carefully constructed every aspect of his image to maximise his public appeal, and that included allusions to his sexual orientation. "He always played around the edges of it, and that's part of the story of his success," says Pyron. "But the gay stuff is only one context for understanding Liberace. It's secondary to the fact he was a great performer, he was extremely fastidious about his presentation and he gave his audiences exactly what they wanted." More importantly, his performance style was constructed to be as non-threatening as possible. While camp, it was shorn of any suggestion that he might ever want to actually have sex. Kevin Kopelson, professor of English at the University of Iowa, who analysed the Liberace phenomenon in his book Beethoven's Kiss, compares the pianist's public persona to that of Michael Jackson. Both men, he says, portrayed themselves as childlike and innocent. "Liberace tried to come across as pre-sexual, non-sexual or asexual," says Kopelson. "He presented himself as a girly boy, not a gay man." It was not enough to prevent rumours circulating, however, and Liberace felt obliged to take legal action against publications which suggested he might be gay. Most famously, he sued the Daily Mirror over an innuendo-laden article by William Connor, who wrote under the pen-name Cassandra, which described the musician as "the pinnacle of masculine, feminine, and neuter... a deadly, winking, sniggering, snuggling, chromium-plated, scent-impregnated, luminous, quivering, giggling, fruit-flavoured, mincing, ice-covered heap of mother love". The Cassandra article might be considered too homophobic to be published in a national newspaper today, and the 1959 trial that followed reveals much about the very different social attitudes of the time - not least in the repeated use of the term "homosexualist" during the case. Under oath, Liberace testified that he was not gay and had never taken part in homosexual activity. The jury found in his favour, awarding damages of £8,000. "I don't think the trial either helped the cause of gay rights or hindered it," says Revel Barker, author of Crying All The Way To The Bank, which tells the story of the case. "People like my parents, who were big fans of Liberace, didn't really think of him as a homosexual before or after - they just thought he was a great performer." But the Cassandra trial, coupled with his repeated denials of his homosexuality, was one reason why sections of the fledgling gay rights movement increasingly viewed Liberace with antipathy. Aged 50 by the time the Stonewall riots kicked off the modern fight for gay and lesbian rights in the US, he displayed scant desire to demand recognition or equality for the community even though as time passed "he was living in a glass closet", according to Kopelson. Many younger activists, fighting to challenge stereotypes about their sexual orientation, resented the way he constructed a neutered, effeminate persona designed not to frighten or challenge the mainstream, argues Pyron. "Nothing about him speaks to a modern gay man," Pyron adds. "He's a political conservative, he goes to the Ronald Reagan White House - he's very sympathetic to the values of mid-western America." Despite his huge fame at the peak of his career, Liberace - unlike contemporaries like Elvis Presley or Frank Sinatra - has few dedicated followers today. In 2010 the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas closed its doors, although it is due to reopen at a new location in 2014. Likewise, says Kopelson, some modern gay men find it difficult to relate to him - in contrast, he says, with the actor Rock Hudson, another famous closeted celebrity of the era. Hudson's image as a ruggedly masculine romantic lead was far more significant in terms of challenging stereotypes and changing attitudes, the author argues. Still, Liberace's supporters say he can and should be remembered as a gay icon, nonetheless - not one that represents liberation, but a none-too-distant era when sexual minorities had to communicate via coded language and innuendo. And he continues to function as a marker of the limits of the entertainment industry's tolerance. Behind the Candelabra's director Steven Soderbergh provoked a fierce debate when he said he had to take the film to the cable station HBO because Hollywood's studios believed it was "too gay". Mr Showmanship, it appears, is still capable of kicking up a storm at the box office. You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook

एक फिल्म अपने प्रेमी के साथ लिबरेस के संबंधों की कहानी बताती है, लेकिन तेजतर्रार पियानोवादक जीवन भर कोठरी में रहे। उन्होंने इस कल्पना को कैसे बनाए रखा, और यह समलैंगिक अधिकारों के प्रति अमेरिका के तेजी से बदलते रवैये के बारे में क्या कहता है?


Theresa May's first 100 days: How she and past leaders shaped up

Summary: 21 October marks Theresa May's 100th day as prime minister and Conservative leader.

She was catapulted into power following David Cameron's resignation in the wake of the EU referendum and fittingly, the prime minister is spending the day in Brussels, at a summit of EU leaders. Brexit has been the defining theme of Mrs May's premiership so far. In her first statement as outside No 10, she coined the catchphrase "Brexit means Brexit", insisting that "we're going to make a success of it". Mrs May's transition from quiet Remainer to committed Leaver has set her apart from her predecessor, a theme that she has continued with returns to more traditional Conservative positions on immigration and grammar schools. Gone is the cosy relationship between prime minister and chancellor. George Osborne has gone, along with much of his economic policy including the commitment to a budget surplus by 2020. In its place, there are reports of cabinet splits over the nature of Brexit, with ministers torn between "hard" and "soft" varieties of Brexit - prioritising either membership of the single market or control over immigration. In managing this division, the Daily Telegraph writes that Mrs May "has been unafraid to stamp her personal authority on the Cabinet, applying firm leadership at a time when it was urgently needed". As the next 100 days of Theresa May's term as prime minister unfold, and the self-imposed deadline to trigger Article 50 approaches, we may see even more of Mrs May's personal authority in action. But how have other recent prime ministers and opposition leaders fared? DAVID CAMERON Not since Tony Blair had a new opposition leader enjoyed such positive media coverage. David Cameron's first 100 days as Tory leader, starting in December 2005, passed in a blur of headline grabbing activity. Previous Tory leaders had tried to project a more youthful image, or deliberately picked fights with the party's right wing, only to be met with disaster, but the media were hungry for a good news story about the Conservatives and "collaborated in portraying him as a winning guy in touch with the 21st century", noted Andrew Rawnsley, in The Observer. What happened next: Became Prime Minister in 2010 after forming coalition with Lib Dems. First 100 days: David Cameron Gordon Brown's first 100 days were close to perfect, in the view of most pundits - even those who had been highly critical of him in the past. "Confounding his critics and defying his own character, Gordon Brown has, in fewer than 100 days, proved to be a vote-winner," said Tom Bower in The Evening Standard. As the 100 days ended the newspapers were full of reports that Labour was preparing for a snap election although the Conservatives had started to close in the polls. What happened next: Decided at the last minute against a snap election, led Labour to defeat in 2010 election. First 100 days: Gordon Brown With a 17 point opinion poll lead over the Conservatives, and glowing plaudits from the press, everything was going swimmingly for Tony Blair as he reached his first 100 days as Labour leader in the autumn of 1994. Even a party conference defeat over scrapping Clause IV of the party's constitution - a battle he would go on to win the following year - and a shadow cabinet election which left many of Labour's old guard in place failed to dent his momentum. There was some sniping from the press about the high moral tone of his first conference speech, as he sought to contrast Labour with the "sleazy" Tories. What happened next: Won 1997, 2001 and 2005 elections before standing down in 2007. First 100 days: Tony Blair "Mr Major emerges from his hundred days the best-loved prime minister in living memory," wrote Peter Jenkins in The Independent in early 1991. The new Conservative prime minister was widely praised his for steady, statesmanlike handling of the Gulf conflict and the aftermath of the IRA's failed mortar attack on Downing Street. And while his first 100 days had not exactly been a blur of activity, the Conservatives had edged ahead in the opinion polls wiping out Labour's previous nine-point lead. What happened next: Pulled off surprise victory in 1992 election, but hammered in 1997. First 100 days: John Major The biggest complaint about Margaret Thatcher, 100 days after winning control of the Conservative Party in February 1975, was that she was too timid. In a scathing editorial, headlined The Lady Vanishes, The Sun said "she has been driving a growing number of Tory MPs to quiet despair by her half-heartedness about taking up a frontline position in the economic war". She was also attacked for declaring an effective truce with Labour during the referendum campaign on Britain's membership of the EEC. What happened next: Won 1979 election, prime minister until 1990. First 100 days: Margaret Thatcher "Sunny Jim" received an almost universal thumbs up from the press after 100 days as Labour leader and prime minister. Commentators praised his calming influence and straight talking approach. But with no working majority, his government was expected to be short-lived and speculation was rife about a snap election. It was widely expected Mr Callaghan would win, with Mrs Thatcher's Conservatives seen as weak and ineffective. What happened next: Lost 1979 election First 100 days: James Callaghan. He may not be loved by Tory activists or MPs but "he simply looks like a man who can do the job," noted Julia Hartley Brewer in the Sunday Express, in a piece marking Michael Howard's first 100 days as Conservative leader. There was a palpable sense of relief in the Conservative-supporting press about Mr Howard's business-like, disciplined leadership, after what was seen as the fiasco of the Duncan Smith years. But the opinion polls stubbornly refused to register the sort of lift-off in support needed if Mr Howard was going to win the 2005 election. What happened next: Stepped down after Tory defeat in 2005 election. First 100 days: Michael Howard With the Conservatives at a low ebb after their second successive election defeat, the right wing press did their best to focus on the positive as they ran a rule over the largely unknown Iain Duncan Smith's first 100 days as party leader. But there were also signs of the sort of personal criticism and sniping that would bring his leadership to a premature, and bitter, end. "The frog in his throat has a long way to go before it can hope to turn into prince," noted The Times, in a jointly authored piece by Mr Duncan Smith's future cabinet colleague Michael Gove and Tom Baldwin, Ed Miliband's newly-appointed communications chief. What happened next: Forced out as leader in November 2003. First 100 Days: Iain Duncan Smith The knives were out for William Hague from the moment he was elected Conservative leader in June 1997. In-fighting over Europe and sniping from the party's old guard, still reeling at the drubbing they had received at the polls, ensured he had one of the shortest honeymoon periods of any party leader in history. He did not help his cause by being pictured in a baseball cap on a trip to a theme park - an image that came to define his doomed attempt to rebrand the Conservatives as a more youthful force. What happened next: Quit as leader after defeat in 2001 election, now a Conservative peer in the House of Lords First 100 Days: William Hague Jeremy Corbyn spent much of his first 100 days battling his own party, despite having won almost 60% of votes cast in the election for Ed Miliband's successor. The veteran outsider had never before held office or a front bench position in parliament. He sparked controversy within his first two months when he was seen not singing the national anthem at a service to mark the anniversary of the Battle of Britain. He later faced rebellions over a Commons vote on military action in Syria, led by the then-shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn. What happened next: Benn triggered a wave of resignations from the shadow cabinet, setting in motion a second leadership election which Mr Corbyn won. Ed Miliband assumed the role of opposition leader after a dramatic campaign against his older brother David. His victory came as a surprise to some - the Guardian writing that even Miliband himself was "not thought to have plotted out winning." His political focus in his early days was on inequality, with policy proposals like the 'mansion tax', on homes worth more than £1 million, raising the top rate of income tax and restoring the lowest 10p tax rate. What happened next: Led Labour to defeat in 2015 election, retired to the backbenches. The press were in a restless mood as John Smith celebrated his first 100 days as Labour leader in the autumn of 1992. He was failing to land enough blows on a chaotic and divided Conservative government, most pundits reckoned. He was accused of "coasting" and of being "dangerously complacent". "Though there is no doubting his courage, both his boxing skill and his punching power are questionable," wrote Alan Watkins in The Observer. What happened next: Died in 1994. First 100 days: John Smith Could do better was the verdict of many pundits on Neil Kinnock's first 100 days as Labour leader, in late 1983. He was "a vast improvement on what went before," noted the Sunday Times, but, echoing a common complaint about the loquacious Welshman, he "talks too much when he has nothing to say". Hugo Young, in The Guardian, praised Mr Kinnock for steadying the Labour ship and claimed that what most pundits had seen as a negative, his lack of focus on policy detail, was a shrewd move. What happened next: Leader for nine years - but lost 1987 and 1992 elections. First 100 days: Neil Kinnock Michael Foot got off to a disastrous start as Labour leader, losing a battle with the unions over the selection of future leaders and failing to control the bitter war with the hard left that was threatening to tear the party apart. He was, arguably, in an impossible situation. But as he passed the 100 day mark, in early 1981, commentators were in no mood to spare his feelings. "There has been a kind of hectic feebleness about his every move which is beginning to awaken pity rather than anger," wrote his former newspaper, the Evening Standard, beneath the headline "Let's Admit It: Foot's a Disaster". What happened next: Labour suffered crushing defeat in 1983 election. First 100 days: Michael Foot

21 अक्टूबर को प्रधानमंत्री और रूढ़िवादी नेता के रूप में थेरेसा मे का 100वां दिन है।


Leicester lockdown: 'Shocked' residents prepare for new restrictions

Summary: Non-essential shops in Leicester have closed suddenly as the government imposed the first local lockdown in the UK. Pubs and restaurants hoping to reopen at the weekend also have to delay plans for at least two weeks, while schools will be shut for most pupils.

By Liam Barnes & David PittamBBC News, East Midlands Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the city had "10% of all positive cases in the country over the past week", while the city mayor Sir Peter Soulsby urged people to "stick together" as Leicester tackles a rise in confirmed coronavirus cases. Shoppers in the city centre had been enjoying a brief return to a sense of normality before the announcement and many were anticipating a visit to a pub or restaurant this weekend. The news that social plans have to be delayed was greeted with dismay but also a sense of inevitability. "Out of all the cities why here?" asked Achayla Carr-Brown, who said she had been left flabbergasted. "I was so excited to go shopping and sit down for food, go out for a drink, but I can't," she said. "It's upsetting, but in a sense it is better to be safe than sorry, prevention is better than the cure." Sophie Gill, a 22-year-old student nurse, said she had been keeping safe anyway so would not be too impacted by the new measures, but was frustrated at how little some people in Leicester had been following rules. "I didn't see any change in behaviour after they announced there had been a spike," she said. "People did not take it seriously, they got so close in shops. "[They] might not get ill themselves but they can pass it on to people they don't know." Nader Abouhun owns the Falafel Land takeaway in Leicester city centre. Despite the lockdown being a blow to businesses like his, which relies on passing trade, the 39-year-old supported the move. "I've been expecting it," he said. "I could see people were not respecting social distancing. "I'm always safe, but this news makes me nervous to come in to the city." Wayne Loydall works in a DIY store in the city centre, and said he had frequently seen people not following social distancing guidelines and "pushing by" others. "I can only speak for Leicester, but the amount of infections comes as no surprise," the 57-year-old said. "You are asked to marshal the store and when you ask some people to go down the one-way system, you get shouted at." However, Dharmesh Lakhani, who runs a restaurant in the Golden Mile area of Leicester, said he was "very disappointed" by extended lockdown measures, and questioned figures quoted by Mr Hancock. "[Leicester having 10% of new cases] seems like an astronomical number," he said. "Are we not doing testing in other cities? It just makes you wonder." With Leicester now set to follow different guidance from the rest of England, Mr Lakhani said extra effort was needed to reinforce the rules. "Are people being briefed in enough languages?," he asked. "We all know we have a fantastic, diverse city, but are the messages getting across?" Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.

लीसेस्टर में गैर-आवश्यक दुकानें अचानक बंद हो गई हैं क्योंकि सरकार ने यूके में पहला स्थानीय लॉकडाउन लगाया है। सप्ताहांत में फिर से खुलने की उम्मीद करने वाले पब और रेस्तरां को भी कम से कम दो सप्ताह के लिए योजनाओं में देरी करनी होगी, जबकि अधिकांश छात्रों के लिए स्कूल बंद रहेंगे।


Climate change: Polarstern leaves for 'biggest ever' Arctic expedition

Summary: The largest Arctic science expedition ever conceived is under way.

By Jonathan AmosBBC Science Correspondent The German Research Vessel Polarstern left port late on Friday for the far north where it intends to lock itself in the sea-ice and drift for an entire year. Hundreds of scientists will visit the ship in that time to use it as a base from which to study the climate. A large crowd gathered at the quayside in Tromsø, Norway, to see the vessel off. It is being accompanied on the first stage of its mission by the Russian icebreaker, the Akademik Federov. The pair will head to the Siberian sector of the Arctic ocean to find the most suitable place in the floes for the Polarstern to begin its drift. The MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) project is expected to cost about €130m (£120m/$150m). Its scale means it must be an international effort. RV Polarstern will also be supported by icebreakers from Sweden and China. In deep winter, when these vessels can't pierce the ice to reach the German ship, aeroplanes and long-range helicopters will deliver the supplies and relief teams. MOSAiC's objective is to study all aspects of the climate system in the Arctic. Instrument stations will be set up on the ice around the Polarstern, some of them up to 50km away. The ice, the ocean, the atmosphere, even the wildlife - all will be sampled. The year-long investigations are designed to give more certainty to the projections of future change. Prof Markus Rex from Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute in Potsdam is the expedition leader. He said the Arctic was currently warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet but that the climate models were highly uncertain as to how the temperature trends would develop in the coming decades. "We don't have any robust climate predictions for the Arctic and the reason is we don't understand the processes there very well," he explained. "That's because we were never able to observe them year round and certainly not in winter when the ice is at its thickest and we can't break it with our research vessels," he told BBC News. Embedding in the sea-ice will be done close to 85 degrees North and 130 degrees East. Precise positioning will be important. Modelling of the winds and currents suggests the ship should drift across the top of the planet, getting to within a couple of hundred km from the North Pole, before then being ejected from the frozen floes between northeast Greenland and Svalbard - the Fram Strait. But there is a critical point in this 2,500km journey where, if the ship meanders too far to the west, it could get pulled into the Beaufort Gyre - the great clockwise movement of water and ice in the Arctic. Once caught in this gyre, it would need a huge effort to escape. Something similar to MOSAiC has been tried before. The expedition has definite echoes of the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen's attempt in the 1890s to be the first person to reach the North Pole by drifting in a ship locked in ice. The Canadian Coast Guard vessel Des Groseilliers mounted a drift mission in the late 1990s which became known as Ice Station SHEBA. The Norwegian Polar Institute's Lance vessel undertook a drift expedition in 2015; as did the scientific schooner Tara, which traversed the frozen ocean - again, from Siberian waters to the Fram Strait - in 2006/7. But none of these previous ventures can be compared to the German mission for size and international input. The conditions faced by the scientists over the coming months will be harsh. For half the year the Sun will not rise above the horizon and temperatures will dip down to minus 45C. And the teams working on the ice will have to be on constant alert for predatory bears. "Various scientists have been trained on using night-vision goggles to stand guard for polar bears," said Prof Julienne Stroeve from University College London (UCL). "You can't ever go out on the ice without someone being there with a rifle. [The bears] could eventually smell the ship and if they get curious enough they'll come and check us out." Prof Stroeve is in the seven participating teams from the UK. She will join the Polarstern in mid-winter. Her experiments will assess the accuracy of the radar satellites that are used to map the thickness of the sea-ice from orbit. These spacecraft work by bouncing a microwave pulse off the floes, but there is some uncertainty over where exactly this reflection occurs in a column of snow and ice. If the UCL scientist's suspicions are confirmed during the MOSAiC cruise, it would have implications for our current assessment of the status of Arctic sea-ice. "It would be thinner than what we've been estimating so far," she told the BBC's Inside Science programme.

अब तक का सबसे बड़ा आर्कटिक विज्ञान अभियान चल रहा है।


Big girl's blouse: Johnson faces backlash over Corbyn jibe

Summary: Boris Johnson called Jeremy Corbyn a "great big girl's blouse" in Parliament on Wednesday. In response, a reporter tried to present the Labour leader with a pink floral shirt outside his home on Thursday morning. But where does the phrase come from and do critics have a point in branding it a sexist slur?

By Alice EvansBBC News On the Urban Dictionary the definition of a "big girl's blouse" is "a wimpy, emasculated and weak man" who complains too much. On Twitter, Mr Johnson has been called a "misogynistic womble" for using the "outdated" phrase - and has been accused of "diminishing political discourse with gendered bravado". Some members of the LGBT community have said the phrase was "more homophobic than straight-up sexist". But others felt the critics were "trying too hard to find mud to sling" and urged people to focus on "things that really matter" - such as resolving the Brexit impasse. According to Google Ngrams - which shows trends of phrases in a corpus of books as far back as the year 1800 - the phrase began to be used by the British in the 1970s. Historian and author Catherine Curzon said she believes the phrase garnered popularity after it was adopted by actor Hylda Baker in the sitcom Nearest and Dearest in the late 1960s. "I believe [Baker] said it to a man who was wimping out of something," Ms Curzon said. "It became a bit of a catchphrase... something that she'd trot out and she'd get a big laugh," she said. "Some of the things that were catchphrases, you probably wouldn't put in a modern comedy," Ms Curzon added. "I think it is sexist in that way anything associated with a girl is insulting by implication - such as 'you fight like a girl', or 'you run like a girl'." Dr Hannah Barham-Brown, a member of the Women's Equality Party, said Mr Johnson's comments were "emblematic of the fact that we've been systemically ignored throughout the Brexit debate". She drew attention to a study by Women for a People's Vote which suggested 90% of speaking time in three Parliamentary debates on Brexit had been taken up by men. "While the prime minister might just think 'big girl's blouse' is a funny jibe, and others may agree, I think actually it's symptomatic of a far darker, systematic ignoring of women," she said. Dr Barham-Brown has launched the hashtag #BigGirlsBlouse on Twitter to encourage people to share achievements they have made while wearing a "big girl's blouse". "We need to be calling comments like this out more," she said.

बोरिस जॉनसन ने बुधवार को संसद में जेरेमी कॉर्बिन को "महान बड़ी लड़की का ब्लाउज" कहा। इसके जवाब में, एक रिपोर्टर ने गुरुवार की सुबह लेबर नेता को उनके घर के बाहर गुलाबी फूलों की शर्ट के साथ पेश करने की कोशिश की। लेकिन यह वाक्यांश कहां से आया है और क्या आलोचकों का इसे सेक्सिस्ट अपशब्द कहने का कोई मतलब है?


The teenage Scot who plays the young Wonder Woman

Summary: Scottish-born teenager Lilly Aspell not only plays the young Wonder Woman but also performs most of her own stunts in the new film - firing arrows from horseback and leaping into the ocean from a high board.

While Gal Gadot stars as the grown-up heroine, Lilly, who is still only 13, plays the young Diana Prince for the second time in the new film Wonder Woman 1984, which has just been released for home streaming. Gadot is on record as saying she was impressed with young Lilly, calling her "the real deal". Lilly, who was born in Kilmarnock, where much of her family lives, is an accomplished horse-rider and showjumper. Her parents were professional jockeys and her uncle won the Grand National twice. The young star was more into horses than acting when she was spotted in London at the age of eight and asked to audition for a movie. At the time, Lilly was not told what the film was, it just had the codename "Nightingale". "I had never acted in my life," she told BBC Scotland's The Nine. "I was always so confident. They really liked that I could ride and was really active so I think that helped." Lilly appeared as the young Diana in the first Wonder Woman in 2017 and is now also in the sequel. The film's director Patty Jenkins wanted to use "minimal CGI" so Lilly prepared for the role with sword training, paddleboard flips and show-jumping. She says she enjoyed every minute of the filming, including doing the stunts. "I wasn't really scared," she says. "But I was like 'Oh my god this is really quite big'." Lilly says that because she played the same character as Gal Gadot, they didn't hang out on set as they often shot their scenes on different days. But she did spend time with the Hollywood star on days off, such as when they took a boat around Tenerife, where they were filming. "We were really close," Lilly says. "She is born for the role. She's amazing at it." Away from the film set, Lilly says she tries to get back to Kilmarnock when ever she can to visit her grandfather and her mother Donna's side of the family. "We wanted to go for Christmas but unfortunately Covid stopped that," she says. "I do get up there as much as I can because I love spending time with my family," she says. "My papa likes to go 'she is Wonder woman'. He's so proud." Lilly says that when she's at home, in the south-east of England, she gets up early every morning with her ponies so her visits to Ayrshire are a chance to "chill and relax". "People when they go to Hawaii, I go to Kilmarnock," she jokes. Lilly says she wants to continue acting and has already got films lined up as well as equestrian competitions with her ponies. If she could choose one film role, it would be would be a remake of National Velvet, the story of a 12-year-old, horse-crazy girl who wins a spirited gelding in a raffle and decides to train him for the Grand National. "It's always been a dream of mine," she says. Wonder Woman 1984 is available to stream on premium home video on demand in the UK from 13 January. A full interview with Lilly Aspell will be on BBC Scotland's The Nine on Wednesday evening.

स्कॉटलैंड में जन्मी किशोरी लिली एस्पेल ने न केवल युवा वंडर वुमन की भूमिका निभाई है, बल्कि नई फिल्म में अपने अधिकांश स्टंट भी किए हैं-घोड़े की पीठ से तीर चलाना और एक ऊँचे बोर्ड से समुद्र में कूदना।


Switzerland's farmers become landscape gardeners

Summary: UK farmers will no longer receive subsidies after Brexit but instead get payments for "public goods" such as planting meadows and boosting access to the countryside under proposals from Environment Secretary Michael Gove. No one is quite sure yet exactly how it will work. But one country, non-EU member Switzerland, already offers its farmers direct payments for looking after the landscape, as the BBC's Imogen Foulkes reports.

"We have apple, cherry, and quince," says Fritz Bernhard. "We make juice, and schnapps, but only for ourselves." His farm, located a few kilometres north of the Swiss capital Berne, is benefitting from a direct payments scheme. An orchard of fruit trees, all ancient species, brings much needed income for him and his family. But the fruit itself has no commercial value. Instead Fritz is being paid for biodiversity: these tree species would be extinct in Switzerland if they relied on market forces for their survival. Milk price plunges Fruit tree cultivation is one of the most common ways for Swiss farmers to boost their income nowadays. On the edge of his land, Fritz has also planted traditional chestnuts; these too command a payment. The European Union currently spends about €59bn (£51bn; $72bn) every year supporting its farmers. Swiss farmers, especially the dairy farmers, are as proud as any others of their ability to produce food. Without them, Switzerland would have starved during World War Two. Post-1945, the Swiss government rewarded its farmers by setting a very generous milk price, and by guaranteeing to buy every kilo of Emmentaler and Gruyère cheese produced. Globalisation forced an end to those policies. In the last 30 years, the price per litre for Swiss milk has dropped by half. Switzerland's farmers, most of whom work small, geographically difficult plots of land, have felt the chill wind of the global market, and realised they cannot compete. "Costs in Switzerland are very high," explains Beat Röösli of the Swiss Farmers' Union. Nevertheless he points out, no country wants to produce no food at all. "If we want to produce at least a part of the public consumption it's necessary to have public support of some kind." Under the Swiss scheme, farmers receive payments for looking after the land. "If we maintain a beautiful landscape, we can also request a salary, a certain remuneration for that," explains Mr Röösli. Tourists, he adds, expect to see a cultivated countryside in Switzerland. "If they want to see wilderness they go to Canada, they go to Russia." 'Paid to create a façade' Protecting the environment on a day-to-day basis is another key pillar of Switzerland's direct payments system. Fritz Bernhard's farm is next to a nature reserve, so an additional income generation for him is to look after it, and to keep its public paths clear. But he does still produce food: not milk like his forebears, but beef, which he sells directly to local butchers, and barley and malt for a local brewery. "We have a mixed farm, very typical in Switzerland now," he says. Fritz and his wife Monika derive 70% of their income from food production, and 30% from direct payments. This puts them at the more successful end of the Swiss food production business. But both are worried Switzerland may be getting the balance wrong. Monika has even wondered whether she will end up being paid to put geraniums on her windowsill. "Sometimes I feel we're being paid to create a façade," she says. "It's not motivating. I'd like the food we produce to be valued more." Generous system for a wealthy country Switzerland's consumers spend around 6% of their income on food. That is less than their European neighbours, even though their salaries are significantly higher. But other costs make huge inroads into the Swiss pay check - health insurance in particular. However much Swiss farmers might want their neighbours to pay more for food, the government seems to have concluded that is not likely. But the direct payments system, now costing over $3bn a year, does have the support of the majority of voters, because of its emphasis on "public goods". It is, says Mr Röösli, crucial for the survival of rural communities, especially those in the high Alps. "Without it [direct payments] most of the farms today would stop farming, especially those in the mountains" he says. "Today many of the farmers' turnover is 75% direct payments, and only 25% selling products. There is no survival only selling products." With the system, Switzerland now produces over half of all the food it eats. But in comparison with what the EU pays in agricultural subsidies, Swiss direct payments actually cost more. The UK's 200,000-plus farms receive just $3.4bn in subsides. Switzerland's 50,000 farms get over €2.3bn in direct payments. So could the Swiss system be a blueprint for UK farmers post-Brexit? Mr Röösli is not sure. "In Switzerland we're many people in a small country, we have good jobs, we have high salaries" he points out. "So you see people have money to invest in nice things like landscape. I'm not sure if in Great Britain people are so willing to spend their taxes for these public goods."

ब्रिटेन के किसानों को अब ब्रेक्सिट के बाद सब्सिडी नहीं मिलेगी, बल्कि इसके बजाय पर्यावरण सचिव माइकल गोव के प्रस्तावों के तहत घास के मैदान लगाने और ग्रामीण इलाकों तक पहुंच बढ़ाने जैसी "सार्वजनिक वस्तुओं" के लिए भुगतान प्राप्त होगा। कोई भी अभी तक पूरी तरह से निश्चित नहीं है कि यह कैसे काम करेगा। लेकिन एक देश, गैर-यूरोपीय संघ का सदस्य स्विट्जरलैंड, पहले से ही अपने किसानों को परिदृश्य की देखभाल के लिए सीधे भुगतान की पेशकश करता है, जैसा कि बीबीसी के इमोजेन फॉक्स की रिपोर्ट है।


£15k David Goode elf statue stolen in Crickhowell

Summary: A bronze statue of an elf worth £15,000 has been stolen from the grounds of a country house in Powys.

Dyfed-Powys Police said the figure was taken from the grounds of the house, near Crickhowell, between 10:00 BST and 20:00 on Thursday. The statue, known as The Drinker, was made by British sculptor David Goode and measures about 3ft 11in (120cm) in height. Police are appealing for information into the theft.

पाविस में एक ग्रामीण घर के मैदान से 15,000 पाउंड की एक एल्फ की कांस्य प्रतिमा चोरी हो गई है।


Stonehenge: Unesco condemns tunnel plan

Summary: Proposed changes to the A303 at Stonehenge would have an "adverse impact" on the "outstanding universal value" of the site, Unesco's World Heritage Committee has said.

At a meeting in Baku earlier, it confirmed its position as unchanged from its draft decision. Highways England finalised plans for a two-mile (3.2km) dual carriageway tunnel in January 2017. But the committee urged the UK government not to allow the upgrade. The busy A303 currently passes within a few hundred metres of the ancient monument in Wiltshire. Highways England has said a tunnel will cut congestion and improve journey times. The committee acknowledged improvements to the scheme but it said the route upgrade should not proceed "in its current form". Instead, it proposed longer tunnel sections, "which reduce further the impact on the cultural landscape". The tunnel, part of a £1.7bn upgrade of the Wiltshire road, aims to remove the "sight and sound of the road" as it passes the stone circle.

यूनेस्को की विश्व धरोहर समिति ने कहा है कि स्टोनहेंज में ए303 में प्रस्तावित परिवर्तनों का स्थल के "उत्कृष्ट सार्वभौमिक मूल्य" पर "प्रतिकूल प्रभाव" पड़ेगा।


Keiran McKandie named as teenage cyclist killed in crash

Summary: A teenage cyclist who was killed in a crash with a car in Moray has been named by police.

Keiran McKandie, who was 16 and from Elgin, died at the scene of the crash involving a white Volkswagen Golf on the B9010 Forres to Kellas Road. The road between Forres and Elgin was closed after the collision which happened just after 11:00 on Sunday, No-one in the car was injured. Officers have urged anyone who witnessed the crash to contact them.

मोरे में एक कार के साथ दुर्घटना में मारे गए एक किशोर साइकिल चालक का नाम पुलिस ने लिया है।


UN climate report: Key findings

Summary: A UN panel has released part one of its six-yearly update on the state of the Earth's climate. The much-anticipated report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that with 95% certainty, humans are the dominant cause of global warming since the 1950s. The BBC News website's science editor Paul Rincon breaks down some of the document's key findings.

Part one of the IPCC's fifth assessment report (AR5) on the Earth's climate opens with the message that we are seeing changes in the climate system unprecedented in records spanning hundreds of years. With this scene-setting out of the way, the report says the period from 1983-2012 in the Northern Hemisphere was likely the warmest 30-year period of the last 1,400 years. Each of the last three decades has got successively warmer, and these decades have all been warmer than any of the preceding decades since 1850. The combined average land and ocean surface data show a temperature rise of 0.85C over the period 1880-2012, the authors go on to say. In addition, it is "virtually certain" that the upper 700m of the Earth's oceans have warmed during the period from 1971 and 2010. The deep ocean, below 3,000m in depth, "likely" warmed between 1992 and 2005, says the report, with the largest effect observed in the Southern Ocean. The report says that the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have been losing mass, glaciers have continued to shrink, and Arctic sea-ice as well as Northern Hemisphere spring snow cover have continued to fall in extent. Sea level rise will proceed more quickly than it has done over the past 40 years. Global mean sea level rise for 2081−2100 is projected to be between 26cm (at the low end) and 82cm (at the high end), depending on the greenhouse emissions path this century. One of the key findings in the IPCC report is the attribution of more than half the increase in global surface temperatures from 1951-2010 to human activities, underlining the dominant role of fossil fuel burning as a driver for climate change. The atmospheric concentration of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) has increased by 40% since pre-industrial times. And the mean rates of rise in concentrations of CO2, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N20) in the last 100 years are "with very high confidence" unprecedented in the last 22,000 years, the authors say. Addressing the pause, or slow-down, in global temperature rise since 1998 had been described as "central" to this report. While acknowledging this hiatus, the final analysis downplays it and points out that this period began with a very hot El Nino year. El Nino is a cyclical weather and climatic pattern that affects the Pacific Ocean, but which has knock-on impacts for conditions felt over the rest of the globe. The report's authors ultimately conclude that 15 years is still not a long enough timescale to draw firm conclusions about the pause. Scientific studies on the slow-down have cited uptake of heat by the upper oceans as a possible cause, along with the properties of particulate matter in the atmosphere which can reflect solar energy back into space. But published research is still relatively sparse. A favourite of climate "sceptics", the Medieval Warm Period, is also referenced in the report. In some places this period, from 950-1250 AD, was comparable in its warming with the late 20th Century, but the report says this did not occur as coherently across seasons and regions as the current phase of warming. Climate sceptics have previously targeted the reliability of future projections based on computer simulations, or climate models. But those who work with such models will often cite the phrase: "All models are wrong, but some are useful". The IPCC says these simulations are indeed useful, faithfully reproducing long-term temperature trends, the rapid global warming in the second part of the 20th Century and the cooling observed following large volcanic eruptions. But there remain inconsistencies between observed changes in the climate system and the conditions simulated by computers. An obvious one is the slowdown in warming since 1998. The report says this could be due to unpredictable variability in the climate and over-sensitive responses to greenhouse gases in some climate models. The report adds that there has been improvement in the way these models simulate changes in continental rainfall patterns, but regional-scale rainfall is not well reproduced. Global surface temperature change for the end of the 21st Century is "likely" to exceed 1.5C relative to the period 1850-1900 for all but one of the greenhouse gas emissions scenarios proposed in the IPCC's computer climate simulations. The equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) - the response of the climate to a doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere - is likely to result in a change of between 1.5C and 4.5C. The lower bound of this range has fallen compared with the one the IPCC used in its last report, published in 2007. Six years ago, it found ECS to be 2.0C to 4.5C. But it is "virtually certain" that most places will see more hot and fewer cold temperature extremes as temperatures rise. And it is very likely that heat waves will occur more frequently, though occasional winter extremes will continue to occur. Limiting the global average temperature rise to 2C (above the pre-industrial average) is a commonly agreed means of avoiding "dangerous climate change". But a significant amount of the maximum quantity of CO2 that can be emitted while still keeping the mercury under 2C had already been released by 2011. However the data are sliced, the report says, the rationale for cutting greenhouse emissions is powerfully underlined. Some 15%-40% of released CO2 will remain in the atmosphere longer than 1,000 years after those emissions have ended, raising the prospect that some fraction of climate change will be irreversible. It is "virtually certain" that sea level rise will continue beyond 2100 and sustained warming above some unknown threshold would lead the Greenland Ice Sheet to melt in a millennium or more, causing a global mean sea level rise of up to 7m. The various methods and technologies proposed to counter climate change - a field known as geoengineering - have some potential, say the report's authors. But they also carry with them unintended side effects, and long-term consequences. Either way, limited scientific evaluation of these techniques prevented the panel from offering a more detailed assessment of them. Paul.Rincon-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter

संयुक्त राष्ट्र के एक पैनल ने पृथ्वी की जलवायु की स्थिति पर अपने छह-वर्षीय अद्यतन का पहला भाग जारी किया है। जलवायु परिवर्तन पर अंतर-सरकारी पैनल (आई. पी. सी. सी.) की बहुप्रतीक्षित रिपोर्ट में कहा गया है कि 95 प्रतिशत निश्चितता के साथ, 1950 के दशक से मानव ग्लोबल वार्मिंग का प्रमुख कारण हैं। बी. बी. सी. समाचार वेबसाइट के विज्ञान संपादक पॉल रिंकन दस्तावेज़ के कुछ प्रमुख निष्कर्षों को तोड़ते हैं।


Woman charged over calls to inmate before alleged escape

Summary: A woman has been charged with calling a prisoner on his illegal mobile phone in the days before before two inmates were allegedly sprung from a prison van.

Two men allegedly escaped custody in Salford on 30 April as the van made its way to court from a Merseyside jail. Sarah McCabe, 33, of New Cross Street, Salford, was arrested as part of the investigation into that incident. She is due to appear before Manchester Magistrates' Court on 22 August. A police spokesman said the charge related "to calls made and messages sent to an illegally possessed mobile telephone, which was capable of encouraging or assisting the commission of an either way offence contrary to the Prison Act 1952". He said the alleged offences took place between 22 March and 23 April. Ryan McDonald and Stevie McMullan have both been charged with escaping lawful custody over the alleged van incident.

एक महिला पर पिछले कुछ दिनों में एक कैदी को उसके अवैध मोबाइल फोन पर कॉल करने का आरोप लगाया गया है, इससे पहले दो कैदियों को कथित तौर पर एक जेल वैन से निकाला गया था।


Reality Check: What do we know about 100bn euro Brexit bill?

Summary: An estimate of the likely "divorce bill" for the UK to leave the EU has risen sharply from 60bn euro to 100bn euro (£50.7bn-£84.5bn), according to a report in the Financial Times on Wednesday. But how has this figure come about? What will the money be used for? And what happens if the UK decides not to pay? BBC Reality Check correspondent Chris Morris answers your questions on the EU Brexit bill.

By Chris MorrisBBC Reality Check correspondent Where does the 100bn euro estimate come from? The figure is just one of the many estimates - the highest so far - of the amount that the UK might have to pay when it leaves the EU. As yet, there are no official figures coming from either Brussels or the UK, although senior EU politicians have spoken publicly of a figure of about 60bn euro. Calculating a final total will involve detailed technical and legal negotiations. It is also likely to be the focus of a huge political row. The EU's draft negotiating directives, released on Wednesday, speak of a single financial settlement that "should be based on the principle that the United Kingdom must honour its share of the financing of all the obligations undertaken while it was a member of the Union". Will the financial settlement be itemised? The EU directives do begin to itemise what that means. The financial obligations, they say, should include the EU budget, the termination of UK membership of EU institutions such as the European Investment Bank and the European Central Bank, and the participation of the UK in specific funds and facilities related to union policies such as the European Development Fund and the Facility for Refugees in Turkey. Releasing the draft directives, the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said: "We are going to enter into rigorous and objective work, which in my mind must be indisputable." But there will be disputes over how much of all of this the UK is actually liable for. Dispute number one will be about how you calculate the overall total. If anything, the attitude of EU member states like Germany and France has hardened over recent weeks. Initially the European Commission recommended that the UK's share of EU assets should be subtracted from a final bill, but that is no longer the case. EU officials say this is because assets are owned by the EU as an entity, rather than by the individual member states. Dispute number two will be about what the UK share of the overall total should be. It could be about 12% (which is the average UK contribution to the EU budget over the last few years) but it could conceivably be as high as 15% based on the size of the UK's gross national income. What is a reasonable price to leave? It's impossible to say what that would be - it depends on your perspective. If compromise can be achieved, and if payment is spread over many years, the amounts involved may not be significant economically. But politically this debate will be dynamite. Why are we still paying? We are still paying because we are legally part of the EU until the end of the Article 50 negotiations - ie until 29 March 2019 (unless all EU countries agree they want more time to negotiate). As long as we are a member, we pay into the EU budget and that money is then used to pay for all sorts of projects, from infrastructure to art and conservation across the EU - including in the UK. If both parties agree on a transition phase to ease the passage from full membership to a new relationship in the future, some form of budget payments will continue after Brexit. Even after a transition is completed, we may well choose to pay money into the EU budget to take part in specific EU schemes, such as student exchanges and research projects. What if we pay nothing? Is there a legal requirement to pay? If we stopped paying at the moment, we would be breaking the law. So yes, there is a legal requirement. In the event of negotiations falling apart and no deal being done, we could - according to a House of Lords committee report - walk away without paying anything. But that would lead to legal disputes that could eventually end up in the International Court of Justice in The Hague. A legal case at the ICJ would be a messy and undesirable outcome for almost everyone. What will the money be used for by the EU? The EU will use the money for all its continuing projects. Here are the main current areas of EU spending. Click here for more detail of what falls into each category. The EU spending priorities might change when the bloc agrees a new long-term budget which will run from 2021 for seven years. What will the EU lose when the UK leaves? The EU will lose around 12% of the total that is paid every year into its budget. The figure is the average that the UK has paid over the past five years. But it will save some money too, because it would no longer pay for farmers or for other projects in the UK. On average, the UK pays around 10bn euro a year net into the EU budget. That is the amount that the EU will have to find elsewhere after Brexit. Alternatively, it will have to cut such an amount from its future spending plans. Will it cost us more to leave or stay? This will depend on the economy as a whole. The UK's EU budget contribution is very small compared with the amount of money at stake in sorting out a future trade relationship. So getting a good trade deal with the EU in the future is more important for the health of the UK economy than the size of the divorce settlement. In trying to analyse the cost, you also have to take account of timescale. In the short term, leaving could be much costlier than staying. But in the long run it will depend on how well the economy as a whole performs. Will there be an impact on UK trade deals with non-EU states? The negotiations about a financial settlement will have no impact on UK trade deals outside the EU. But Brexit itself will have a significant impact on such agreements. At the moment the UK does international trade deals as part of the EU - it is EU officials that negotiate them on our behalf. After Brexit, we will have to agree upon a new trading relationship with the remaining 27 EU countries. And we will have to negotiate our own separate trade deals with other countries around the world. The government hopes that the UK acting alone will more nimble, and more able to finalise deals quickly. Its critics say the UK will have less influence when it is no longer negotiating as part of a larger trading bloc. Read more on Reality Check

बुधवार को फाइनेंशियल टाइम्स की एक रिपोर्ट के अनुसार, ब्रिटेन के यूरोपीय संघ छोड़ने के लिए संभावित "तलाक बिल" का अनुमान 60 अरब यूरो (£ 50.7bn-£ 84.5bn) से तेजी से बढ़कर 100 अरब यूरो (£ 50.7bn-£ 84.5bn) हो गया है। लेकिन यह आंकड़ा कैसे आया है? धन का उपयोग किस लिए किया जाएगा? और अगर ब्रिटेन भुगतान नहीं करने का फैसला करता है तो क्या होगा? बीबीसी रियलिटी चेक संवाददाता क्रिस मॉरिस यूरोपीय संघ के ब्रेक्सिट बिल पर आपके प्रश्नों का उत्तर देते हैं।


Why Afghanistan is more dangerous than ever

Summary: Huge death tolls that would once have made headlines are becoming commonplace in Afghanistan, as the Taliban and other militant groups flex their muscles daily against a US-backed military struggling to cope.

There remains no clear end in sight for a war that has turned into a bloody stalemate, as the BBC World Service's Dawood Azami explains. Is the violence getting worse? Since the US-led invasion in 2001, Afghanistan has never been as insecure as it is now. The Taliban control more territory than at any point since the removal of their regime 17 years ago. The Afghan war has already become the longest war in US history. With the passage of time, the conflict has not only become more intense - it has also become more complicated. The attacks are becoming bigger, more frequent, more widespread and much deadlier. Both sides - the Taliban and the US/Nato-backed Afghan government - are trying to gain the upper hand. On 10 August, the Taliban entered Ghazni, a strategic provincial capital on a key highway south of Kabul, before the Afghan security forces supported by US advisors and air strikes pushed them back. On 15 May, the Taliban entered the capital of Farah province in western Afghanistan, close to the Iranian border. Many Taliban fighters are killed and injured as they are pushed back after attacks on provincial capitals, but such attacks have a huge propaganda value for the group and boost their morale and recruitment. The insurgents also take weapons and vehicles with them as they retreat. Many other towns and district centres remain under constant Taliban threat. Large parts of provinces like Helmand and Kandahar - where hundreds of US, UK and other foreign troops were killed - are now under Taliban control. Meanwhile, civilian casualties are at an unprecedented level. According to the UN, more than 10,000 civilians were killed or injured in 2017, and the number is expected to be even higher in 2018. Is the Trump strategy making any difference? It has been a year since President Trump unveiled a new strategy for Afghanistan, vowing that the US would "fight to win". The Trump administration has sought to put pressure on the Taliban in four ways to break the stalemate, roll back the group and eventually force them to sit down for talks with the Afghan government. But these efforts have largely failed: Counting the cost of Trump's air war in Afghanistan Why are more troops going to Afghanistan? What's driving the war? There are five major factors responsible for the intensification of the Afghanistan conflict. Can Afghan forces cope? Given the high frequency and spread of Taliban violence, the Afghan security forces are overstretched and, in some cases, overwhelmed. Afghan forces have been fighting hard to stop the Taliban's expansion. But their casualty rate remains alarmingly high and appears to be increasing. Questions have been raised about the lack of robust and inspiring leadership, the timely supply of logistics, and corruption. The bickering between political and government leaders in Kabul is also having a negative impact on the smooth running of the government and the security situation. The two factions who formed the National Unity Government (NUG) after the 2014 presidential election have not yet truly united. Despite being in power for four years, the government in Kabul remains internally divided on several issues. Can elections really be held? Parliamentary polls, which have already been delayed by more than three years, are scheduled for 20 October 2018. The increasing violence has fuelled speculation over whether the elections will be held on time. There are already concerns about widespread fraud and pre-poll manipulation. There are also questions about how representative the next parliament will be if polls are not conducted in many parts of the country due to violence and intimidation. Presidential elections, which are due to take place in April 2019, will be an even bigger challenge. If not handled properly, both elections will test the strength of government institutions and pose a big challenge for overall political stability in Afghanistan. What about peace talks? All sides now seem to be convinced that the conflict in Afghanistan cannot be solved by military means alone. A consensus is slowly building to start talks, with all parties saying that they want a negotiated settlement. A window of opportunity opened after an unprecedented three-day ceasefire in June, followed by a meeting between US officials and Taliban representatives in Qatar in July. This was the first time in seven years that the two sides met for face-to-face talks. They are scheduled to meet again soon. It is an acknowledgement that, despite the aggressive US military campaign, no one side can win the war. But there are still disagreements over the format, included the parties and framework for comprehensive peace negotiations. For meaningful progress to be made and trust to be built, compromise and flexibility will be required from all sides. The other major challenge is the co-operation of regional players. Peace in Afghanistan and the wider region can only be achieved through a multilateral mechanism involving the US as well as major regional players, including Pakistan, Russia, Iran, China, India and Saudi Arabia. But in the end, it will be the dialogue among Afghans themselves which will determine the political future of their war-torn Afghanistan.

अफगानिस्तान में मरने वालों की बड़ी संख्या जो कभी सुर्खियां बन गई होगी, आम बात हो गई है, क्योंकि तालिबान और अन्य आतंकवादी समूह सामना करने के लिए संघर्ष कर रही अमेरिकी समर्थित सेना के खिलाफ रोजाना अपनी ताकत झोंक रहे हैं।


Pakistani women's lives destroyed by acid attacks

Summary: Campaigners in Pakistan say cases of acid attacks are increasing in most areas, even though tougher penalties were introduced last year. An Oscar-winning Pakistani documentary has put the crime under the spotlight, but it is estimated that more than 150 women have acid thrown on them every year - usually by husbands or in-laws - and many never get justice. The BBC's Orla Guerin reports.

Her name is Shama, meaning "candle", and she says her husband burnt her flesh as if it was a candlewick. The young mother of four has just joined the ranks of Pakistani women doused in acid. She is scarred for life, with burns on 15% of her body. Her crime was her beauty. "My husband and I often had arguments in the house," she said, in her hospital bed. "On that day before going to sleep he said 'you take too much pride in your beauty'. Then in the middle of the night he threw acid on me, and ran away." When her husband fled, he took her mobile phone with him, so she could not call for help. Scorched cheeks Shama shows me a picture taken at a children's party four months ago. It is a snapshot of an attractive young woman, with immaculate make-up, wearing an orange outfit flecked with gold. Her hair is swept back to reveal dangling earrings. But acid has erased that confident, composed Shama. "I feel pain at what I was, and what I have become," she said, with tears coursing down her scorched cheeks. "All the colours have gone from my life. I feel like I'm a living corpse, even worse than a living corpse. I think I have no right to live." Shama now lies in Ward 10a of the burns unit in Nishtar Hospital in Multan in Pakistan's Punjab province. It is a monument to neglect. The plaster is peeling off the walls and there is a leaking pipe hanging from the ceiling. When patients need transfusions, their relatives are despatched to buy pints of blood. But the doctors here are expert at treating women disfigured by acid - they see one or two new victims every week. At morning rounds they gather at Shama's bed, asking if she is eating, and is keeping her burns covered with cream. They try to relieve her pain, but cannot ease her despair. "I can't say anything about the future," she says, "maybe I won't be alive. I will try - for my kids - to get back to how I was. I have to work to build a future for them. "If I can't I'll do what one or two other girls have done. "They killed themselves." Shunned victims Fakhra Younis, a former dancing girl in Karachi, was one such woman, who ended her life to escape suffering. It has been said of Fakhra that she died twice - once when she was drenched in acid 13 years ago, and again when she committed suicide in Italy last month. Before taking her own life, she had endured almost 40 rounds of surgery. Supporters say Fakhra had given up hope of getting justice. Her former husband, who comes from a powerful political family, was acquitted of the attack. He continues to protest his innocence. Fakhra's death made the headlines here, but activists say many victims are shunned and silenced. "Only about 10% of cases are getting to court," said Zohra Yusuf, the chair of Pakistan's Human Rights Commission. "Even in high-profile cases like Fakhra's there are poor prosecutions. Most of the time, victims can't get a case registered by police." Offenders now face a tougher sentence - between 14 years and life imprisonment - under a law passed last year. But most attackers still get off scott free, according to Marvi Memon, the former MP who sponsored the new law. "Even if he [the attacker] gets caught, he'll pay police off and he'll get away with it in most parts of Pakistan," she said. "It's the easiest way to punish a woman. You can just throw acid and destroy her entire life in one second." 'Multiple surgical procedures' Marvi Memon blames a lack of political will to implement the law. "It's very difficult to get the police to co-operate with the women," she said, "because they are under no pressure to do so." The government admits it needs to do more for acid victims, and says implementing the new law is a major challenge. "Passing the legislation was a first step," said Shahnaz Wazir Ali, a goverment adviser, "but how do cases get to trial speedily? That's the part we still need to work on. We need to sensitise the police, the lower courts and even the legal community." Back in Ward 10a, there's a new arrival. A woman named Maqsood is wheeled in, still wearing clothing eaten away by the acid. Beneath her cream shawl the skin on her face is singed and mottled, and her right eye is sealed shut. "My son-in-law came in the night, and threw acid on me," Maqsood said "after a small family dispute. He broke in through the roof. There was no power in our area, so we could not catch him." But he was caught later, and he at least is now in custody. A plastic surgeon, Dr Bilal Saeed, rushes to assess the new patient. He has treated hundreds of women like Maqsood in recent years. He admits to being depressed by his work. "On average we do multiple surgical and cosmetic procedures on these patients," he said. "But whatever we do, we are not getting their smile back." Many commit suicide, according to Dr Saeed, in spite of his best efforts. He says others are forced to return to the in-laws or husbands who attacked them because of social pressure or money problems. A few beds away, Shama's children come to visit, crowding around her bed. She reaches out a burnt arm to stroke their anxious faces, and asks for her youngest, Noor, to be placed on her chest. "Do pray for Mummy," she tells them, "ask God to make me get better quickly." Shama's husband remains at large. If he is ever caught she wants acid thrown on his face. "I want the severest punishment for him," she said. "That would make anyone think a thousand times before committing such a crime." As the children prepare to leave, Shama cannot hold back her tears. For their sake, she says she will try to keep going. But like Fakhra Younis before her, she is not expecting justice.

पाकिस्तान में अभियानकर्ताओं का कहना है कि अधिकांश क्षेत्रों में तेजाब हमलों के मामले बढ़ रहे हैं, भले ही पिछले साल कड़ी सजा दी गई थी। एक ऑस्कर विजेता पाकिस्तानी वृत्तचित्र ने अपराध को सुर्खियों में ला दिया है, लेकिन यह अनुमान लगाया गया है कि हर साल 150 से अधिक महिलाओं पर तेजाब फेंका जाता है-आमतौर पर पतियों या ससुराल वालों द्वारा-और कई को कभी न्याय नहीं मिलता है। बीबीसी की ओरला ग्यूरिन रिपोर्ट।


Nagorno-Karabakh: Helicopter downing threatens shaky truce

Summary: The shooting down of an Armenian helicopter on the ceasefire line - known as the Line of Contact that separates Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone - is the worst incident of its kind in more than 20 years of the truce that ended the war of the early 1990s.

By Thomas de WaalCarnegie Endowment for International Peace Three Armenians were killed, and the Azerbaijani officer who shot down the helicopter was given a medal for courage. It is a very disturbing development that follows a serious upsurge of fighting in the summer in which more than 20 soldiers were killed on both sides. The Azerbaijanis blame the Armenians for sending two helicopters to fly over their positions. The Armenians say the helicopter was on a routine training mission and posed no danger. A video taken from the Azerbaijani side shows a missile being fired and one of the two helicopters bursting into flames to shouts of excitement from the Azerbaijani soldiers. Revenge attack? There is no military logic to these attacks. A local commander can be responsible for small arms fire, but use of heavier weapons takes a decision from politicians higher up. These attacks are all about showing off your strength. The Azerbaijani side, the losing side in the conflict of 1991-94, has more of a reason to keep the ceasefire unstable so as to remind the world that the line cuts across the internationally recognised territory of Azerbaijan and that territories behind it lie under Armenian military control. However, although the Azerbaijani side is probably responsible for a greater quantity of ceasefire violations, the Armenians also like to demonstrate their power. This is what they did with a deadly three-pronged incursion into Azerbaijani positions on 31 July in which many Azerbaijanis died. It is possible that this shooting down is a revenge attack for that operation. Those with longer memories will recall that an Azerbaijani helicopter carrying officials and mediators was shot down by Armenians in November 1991 not far from where this latest incident happened, in one of the most controversial episodes of the war. 'Painful' response There is good reason to be worried. These incidents are an illustration of the increased militarisation of the Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire line over the last 20 years - the most militarised zone in Europe. Helicopters, attack aircraft and drones fill the skies while there is heavy artillery behind the lines, where up to 20,000 soldiers sit in World War One-style trenches. Azerbaijan, in particular, is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars of oil and gas revenues into buying heavy weapons. Meanwhile, the international presence is just as it was in 1994: only six monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) observe the ceasefire along a line of 100 miles (160km), plus the increasingly tense international border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The two presidents, Ilham Aliev and Serzh Sarkisian, recently resumed face-to-face talks and have met three times since August, most recently in Paris two weeks ago. That is good for the faltering negotiation process, but the mediators are pessimistic about any hopes of a breakthrough, especially given the background of the war in Ukraine that also divides Russia, one of the three negotiators, from France and the United States. This violence is a reminder that the two armies are always one step away from another war and that only their own calculation of what is in their best interests holds them back from starting one. There is every danger now of tit-for-tat retaliations, and the Armenians have already threatened a "painful" response to the downing of the helicopter.

युद्धविराम रेखा पर एक अर्मेनियाई हेलीकॉप्टर की शूटिंग-जिसे संपर्क रेखा के रूप में जाना जाता है जो नागोर्नो-काराबाख संघर्ष क्षेत्र में अर्मेनियाई और अज़रबैजानी बलों को अलग करती है-संघर्ष विराम के 20 से अधिक वर्षों में अपनी तरह की सबसे खराब घटना है जिसने 1990 के दशक की शुरुआत में युद्ध को समाप्त किया।