Cutting edge science used to ID natural pearls

Summary: Pearl dealers are turning to cutting edge science to help them distinguish between cultured pearls and the natural kind. Natural pearls continue to fetch high prices, but methods for culturing them have become so sophisticated that it is increasingly difficult to tell between them.

By Sylvia SmithBBC News, Bahrain As Ali Safar takes a pearl out of the X-ray machine, he looks carefully at it before passing the large luminescent bead to an analyst who scrutinises it through a microscope. The Directorate of Precious Metals and Gemstone Testing in Bahrain can produce crystal clear images but as Ali Safar says, detecting a cultured pearl is not straightforward. "Today we see cultured pearls that have virtually the same structure as a natural pearl," he explains. "The means of producing cultured pearls have become ever more sophisticated so as to mimic the real thing." Whereas in the past Bahraini pearl merchants such as the Al Mahmouds would have been able to spot a natural pearl just by looking at it, today's market is more complex. Making the distinction is important in Bahrain, where it is forbidden to trade in cultured pearls. But it is also a distinction that is challenging the Swiss Gemmological Institute (SSEF) and in particular its director Michael Krzemnicki who is called on by the major auction houses to provide certificates stating whether a pearl is natural or cultured along with additional information about shape, size, colour and hue. At the institute's laboratory headquarters in Basel all pearls undergo three weeks of increasing complex examination, inspected by a team of half a dozen experts using specially designed equipment to delve ever more deeply into the formation mechanism of each pearl that arrives. "The history of a piece of jewellery has always been of considerable interest," Michael Krzemnicki says. "In the case of pearls there are numerous elements that are significant when it comes to provenance. Technology is able to identify definitively the type of shell from which a natural pearl originates, whether a fresh water mollusc or a salt water wild oyster. But our latest testing methodology can reveal a lot more." Using methods such as UV-visible photo-spectrometry and micro-Raman spectroscopy, some of the more straightforward of the stringent tests now being applied to the dozens of strands of pearls, sets of earrings, bracelets, brooches and rings arriving at the institute each week. This provides sufficient information to satisfy most clients. Laurent Cartier, a project manager at the SSEF, says: "We can see whether a pearl has a nucleus indicating that a human-induced, artificial irritant introduced into the shell to stimulate the growth of a cultured pearl." But he points our that even a battery of enhanced visual examinations can be misled by some cultured pearls such as the Keshi. "The Keshi pearl has no nucleus but is nonetheless induced by human intervention," he explains. "We now have a special 3D tomography imaging machine that can enter the pearl layer-by-layer and so gets a far more distinct view." The institute is called on to certify old pearls that have been traded for over a hundred years and the research contributes to providing or confirming specific historical background. By the end of next year, says Michael Krzemnicki, a more precise instrument will be in use. "We have developed a new approach to radiography using an instrument made in collaboration with a Swiss academic research institution. It gives us enhanced, more detailed structures through scatter effect X-ray," he explains. With huge differences in value, attempts to pass off cultured pearls as natural pearls are not uncommon. This has forced international auction houses, who sell directly to investors with possibly only a limited knowledge of pearls, to provide one or more authenticity certificates from independent scientific bodies. But certification of colour, shape, size and hue is no longer enough for those who have a focus on the precise area where a pearl developed and its age. This has has led to the development of new methods that can pinpoint the type of oyster, a geographic location and a time scale. Joana Meyer who works as a researcher for the Department of Environmental System Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich has been able to genetically fingerprint a pearl. "For the first time we've been able to obtain DNA from a pearl and test it," she states. "We've developed a non-destructive technique - enlarging the already existing drill hole to obtain very fine particles - pearl powder - and then testing it." Some 10mg of drilled sample powder is sufficient to identify the oyster species. "DNA is well preserved in pearls even if they were harvested many years earlier and stored in a safe at normal temperatures over many years," she adds. This breakthrough makes it possible to identify whether a pearl originates in the Arabian Gulf or Australia. An important scientific discovery and one that also has financial implications for buyers and investors. "We can determine if it is a Basra pearl as they are known in the Gulf," says Joana. DNA testing has augmented what can be known about a pearl and its formation, but at present this additional information is not routinely made known by the SSEF. As Michael Krzemnicki says, consideration needs to be given to the way this is presented in a report. "Whatever our laboratory does in terms of science we always have to think carefully how we offer this as a service to clients," he told BBC News. He goes on to explain that the organisation's expertise and development of new technology will allow further identification - and that this may result in adjustments to prices for certain pearls. "As DNA fingerprinting becomes easier, it may be possible to say that a pearl comes not only from the Arabian Gulf but from a particular place in that area," he explains. "We have to consider what this will mean to the final customer."

मोती व्यापारी सुसंस्कृत मोती और प्राकृतिक प्रकार के बीच अंतर करने में मदद करने के लिए अत्याधुनिक विज्ञान की ओर रुख कर रहे हैं। प्राकृतिक मोतियों की कीमत लगातार बढ़ रही है, लेकिन उन्हें संवर्धित करने के तरीके इतने परिष्कृत हो गए हैं कि उनके बीच अंतर करना मुश्किल हो गया है।


Laszlo Csatary: Is Hungary's Nazi suspect worth pursuing?

Summary: Anti-fascist protesters and journalists are besieging the Budapest flat of Laszlo Csatary, 97-year-old former Hungarian police officer accused by Nazi-hunters of crimes against Jews in the Second World War.

By Nick ThorpeBBC News, Budapest Csatary was discovered by journalists from the British tabloid newspaper the Sun, but controversy surrounds his exact role in the city of Kosice, now in eastern Slovakia, which in 1944 was part of Hungary. Ephraim Zuroff, head of the Los Angeles-based Operation Last Chance, which tracks down former Nazis, accuses Mr Csatary of responsibility for the deportation of 15,700 Jews from the Kosice ghetto to the Auschwitz death camp in May 1944. But Hungarian researchers say the evidence against him is flimsy, and the likelihood of a successful prosecution small. "Csatary was a small fish. I could name 2,000 people responsible for worse crimes than he was," said Laszlo Karsai, Hungary's pre-eminent Holocaust historian, himself the son of a Holocaust survivor. "The money spent hunting down people like him would be better spent fighting the propaganda of those who so energetically deny the Holocaust today." Last year a Hungarian court found another alleged Hungarian war criminal, Sandor Kepiro, not guilty of crimes against Jews and Serbs in the Serbian city of Novi Sad in 1942. The cases show how hard it is to establish responsibility for atrocious crimes, 70 years after they took place. Sentenced to death The ghetto in Kosice, then known as Kassa, and part of Hungary, was the first to be established after Germany occupied Hungary in March 1944. One of the main aims of the occupation was to murder Hungary's 600,000 Jews. Hungarian police, gendarmes - rural police - and railway officials co-operated with German troops, sometimes enthusiastically, to carry out the deportations, although there were also cases of Hungarian officials helping Jews escape. Almost one in 10 of those who died in the Holocaust, and one in three killed at Auschwitz, was a Hungarian Jew. The particular horror in Hungary was that by 1944, Nazi Germany was already facing defeat. It became a race against time to murder as many Jews as possible before the war was finally lost. Immediately after the war, the Committee to Help the Deportees interviewed 5,000 Jewish survivors in Hungary. One witness from the Kosice ghetto, 18-year-old "F P", said of Csatary, "he hit whoever he found there with a dog-whip. On one occasion he ordered... every young girl to come and dig out thick wooden stakes from the ground with their bare hands. Even the SS soldiers were scandalised by this." Kosice was returned to Czechoslovakia in February 1945, and Laszlo Csatary was sentenced to death in absentia by the Czechoslovak Peoples' Tribunal in 1948. Although still legally valid, the verdict of the people's courts is regarded as dubious today, because of the strong political influence of the communist party on judges. Csatary moved to Canada as a refugee, and lived under a pseudonym until he was stripped of his Canadian citizenship in 1997. Then, according to Nazi hunters, he disappeared - until discovered by the British reporters last Sunday in a quiet residential district at the foot of Naphegy hill in Buda. The Hungarian authorities appear to have known his whereabouts since at least last October, when the chief prosecutor entrusted Tibor Zinner, a historian of law, to research his case in the Hungarian court archives. According to his report, delivered after a month's research, the only mention of Csatary came in the trial of his commander, Gyorgy Horvath, who was the deputy chief of police in Kosice in 1944. One witness also mentioned Csatary's particular cruelty. 'Circus act' Horvath was sentenced to death by the Hungarian People's Court in 1945 for the same crimes for which Csatary is now accused. This was commuted to life imprisonment by presidential decree in 1946. Of 400 death sentences issued by Hungarian Peoples' Courts for war crimes, 181 were carried out. "There are three possible ways forward now," Mr Zinner told the BBC. "To hand Csatary over to Slovakia, to ask Slovakia for any files they have and begin a trial against him in Hungary, or to allow nature to take its course. He is 97 after all." "I do not want in any way to defend crimes against humanity, which never expire, but what Zuroff is doing is simply a circus act - perhaps out of revenge that he didn't get a conviction in the Kepiro case." Mr Karsai believes the evidence against Csatary should be seriously reviewed, despite his criticism of the Nazi-hunters. The ghetto of Kosice existed for a month, and is unusually well-documented, both in the city archives in Kosice, and in the documentation of the Horvath case in Hungary. Another way forward would be to research Csatary's earlier war record - as a policeman in Kecskemet in 1941, in Subotica in 1942, and in Kosice from 1943 - Mr Karsai suggests. The Office of the Budapest Prosecutor has so far only issued a terse communique: that it is investigating the case.

फासीवाद विरोधी प्रदर्शनकारी और पत्रकार द्वितीय विश्व युद्ध में यहूदियों के खिलाफ अपराधों के नाजी-शिकारियों द्वारा आरोपित 97 वर्षीय पूर्व हंगेरियन पुलिस अधिकारी लास्लो सेटरी के बुडापेस्ट फ्लैट को घेर रहे हैं।


Is 'addiction' an excuse to overeat?

Summary: "Food addiction" is becoming a popular term to explain overeating. But in this Scrubbing Up, Professor John Blundell from the Institute of Psychological Sciences at the University of Leeds warns the term is being used far too freely.

By Prof John BlundellUniversity of Leeds Some have likened food addiction to drug addiction, and then used this term to associate it with overeating, and as a clinical explanation for the obesity epidemic, implicating millions of people. The use of the term food addiction is a step towards medicalisation and implies that normal human social behaviour is pathological. Forms of eating therefore become an illness. This attitude is not helpful and has huge implications for the way in which people view their own behaviour and their lives. The concept of food addiction comes from a combination of experimental data, anecdotal observations, scientific claims, personal opinions, deductions and beliefs. It is an over-simplification of a very complex set of behaviours. The existing evidence fails to define the precise characteristics of the actual foods concerned or the eating environment that underlies the assumed addiction risk. This is in contrast to drug addiction, where the molecule is identified and its pharmacological effect on the brain is characterised. Animal studies have shown changes to specific brain regions in those given a sugary diet - and human brain scans show activation of reward systems in the same part of the brain when sweet tastes are consumed. Therefore, it is not surprising that reward centres are activated when sweet foods are consumed, as we know that the reward circuits in the brain have been established through evolution as signalling systems that control our appetite. Many stimuli influence these areas of the brain and, in addition, there is an intrinsic drive to consume carbohydrate-rich foods to satisfy a basic metabolic need of the brain. Sweetness is a major signal for such foods but the science has not yet assessed this fully and much more work is needed before we could say that food is addictive. 'Just an excuse' Attributing food addiction as the single cause underlying the development of obesity, despite the existence of numerous other very plausible explanations, is unhelpful, particularly for those trying to live more healthy lives. I am concerned that many people may potentially latch on to the concept of food addiction as an excuse to explain their overeating - the premise that it's "not my fault" and therefore, "I can't help it". This removes the personal responsibility they should feel and could act on - and they infer that their eating is a form of disease. Food addiction may offer an appealing explanation for some people but the concept could seriously hinder an individual's capacity for personal control. Binge eating disorder does exist - but it is a rare clinical condition affecting fewer than 3% of obese people. Sufferers have a strong compulsion to eat, which persists alongside the sense of a loss of control. Addiction-like food behaviour may be a component of the severe and compulsive form of binge eating disorder. But this condition does not explain the huge rise in obesity we have seen across the population. Binge eating is not a key cause of obesity and, therefore, in the context of mass public health, is not a major concern. What we need is a calm and composed analysis of what the words food addiction really mean so that people can make informed deductions about the causes of their own behaviour. If you are concerned that you may have an eating disorder and would like to speak with someone about it, you could contact the charity beat on 08456341414.

"भोजन की लत" अधिक खाने की व्याख्या करने के लिए एक लोकप्रिय शब्द बनता जा रहा है। लेकिन इस स्क्रबिंग अप में, लीड्स विश्वविद्यालय में मनोवैज्ञानिक विज्ञान संस्थान के प्रोफेसर जॉन ब्लंडेल ने चेतावनी दी है कि इस शब्द का उपयोग बहुत अधिक स्वतंत्र रूप से किया जा रहा है।


Call for Guernsey States to invest in mental health

Summary: The head of a national mental health charity has urged Guernsey States not to cut back on mental health care as it prepares its future strategy.

Paul Farmer, chief executive of MIND, said investment in services was even more important during an economic downturn. Surveys have been sent to 3,000 households in Guernsey and Alderney as part of a consultation on the issue. Mr Farmer said: "There's never been a more important time to invest." He said: "We know about the impact of mental health on our society, we know about the impact on the economy in terms of lost days due to sickness around mental health. "There is a very strong economic case for investing significantly in mental health at this time and that might sound slightly counter intuitive given where public finances are, but we believe now is the time."

एक राष्ट्रीय मानसिक स्वास्थ्य दान के प्रमुख ने ग्वेर्नसे स्टेट्स से मानसिक स्वास्थ्य देखभाल में कटौती नहीं करने का आग्रह किया है क्योंकि यह अपनी भविष्य की रणनीति तैयार करता है।


Future tech: Smart fabrics and other forecasts

Summary: Technology keeps surprising us, both by how quickly it moves and how slowly it develops. Where are our flying cars? Where are our household robots? Innovations don't always evolve the way we think, but based on what we do know it is possible to make a few safe-bet prophecies. In the video above a group of tech insiders predict the future of apps, gesture controls and the giant gadget-makers. And in the article below we take a look at what comes next with the connected world, smart materials and robotics.

By Katia MoskvitchTechnology reporter, BBC News It seems like a perfect house. The building sounds the alarm every morning. It cooks the food, it keeps the floors clean. It repairs itself. The smart home was envisaged more than 60 years ago by science fiction author Ray Bradbury in his Martian Chronicles. His house had just one flaw: the family was long-dead while the house just carried on. Now the latest advances in technology are starting to bridge the gap between 21st century reality and Bradbury's fiction (minus the nuclear war). The internet of things, in which physical objects are connected to the web, will make our environment more intelligent than ever. In 2012 we saw smart thermostats tweak room temperatures to suit owners' habits; plants post to Twitter that they needed watering; and cars alert each other to traffic jams. This is just a tiny taste of what's to come, says Steve Lewis from Living PlanIT, a company aiming to make entire cities smart. "We are developing a city in Portugal that will ultimately deploy tens of millions of collaborating sensors in buildings, transportation, energy, water and waste systems, public lighting and a myriad of other sensors," he says. Similar efforts are underway in the UK, the Netherlands, China and Brazil, he adds. Already, more than half of all internet connections are used by "things", according to Gartner, a research consultancy. By 2020, there will be more than 30 billion things online, it suggests. Throw in better connectivity, with the roll-out of fast 4G mobile networks and better programming - thanks to HTML5, a clever code designed for web content - and we are heading to what some call the Internet of Everything. Unbreakable phones In our connected world of the future, size will continue to be a key technology driver. Advances in electronics and nanotechnology should make computers ever smaller, slimmer and multifunctional. Given the rate of innovation in computing and electronics, even IBM's predictions that "in five years, you will be able to reach out and touch through your phone" and "computers will have a sense of smell" shouldn't be too shocking. Researchers and electronic firms are also promising to change the very appearance of our mobile devices in the months to come. Samsung and LG have pledged to deliver gadgets with flexible displays as early as 2013 - making handsets, tablets, even possibly TVs bendy and virtually unbreakable. But advances in flexible electronics and new materials such as graphene mean more than just unfolding your phone to turn it into a tablet. Have you ever wanted to wear a cotton shirt instead of a heavy wool jacket in the winter? Gartner forecasts that flexible electronics will give rise to smart fabrics, making gloves and suits with built-in heaters a reality. There will also be ties "that can charge an electronic device [and] clothes with a built-in music player", predicts the company. And although such fabrics may be some time away, many firms are currently working on what is called wearable computing - making it possible to wrap a handset around your wrist, turning it into a bracelet that monitors your health all while displaying your Facebook messages. Flying high Robots will get smarter too, says Will Jackson, head of robotics firm Engineered Arts Limited. Granted, they are still far from the humanoid machines described by another science fiction writer, Isaac Asimov - capable of dreaming and getting people to fall in love with them. But they are becoming more intelligent. Drones are already able to take off, fly a mission and land without any human intervention, and a mechanical dog developed by the Pentagon can walk for 20 miles (32km) without a break and obey voice commands. Researchers in the US are also working on a shape-shifting device that uses magnets to mimic molecules that fold themselves into complex shapes. At the moment it is tiny and may not look like much, but in future it could form the basis for a real-life Transformer robot, autonomously reconfiguring itself to perform different tasks. There are also ongoing efforts to create intelligent machines for the home. So maybe one day soon, having a household robot bring you dinner as you're watching a 3D film on your connected-TV will become as commonplace as having a mobile phone.

प्रौद्योगिकी हमें आश्चर्यचकित करती है, दोनों इस बात से कि यह कितनी तेजी से चलती है और कितनी धीरे-धीरे विकसित होती है। हमारी उड़ने वाली कारें कहाँ हैं? हमारे घरेलू रोबोट कहाँ हैं? नवाचार हमेशा हमारे सोचने के तरीके से विकसित नहीं होते हैं, बल्कि हम जो जानते हैं उसके आधार पर कुछ सुरक्षित-दांव भविष्यवाणियाँ करना संभव है। तकनीक के अंदरूनी लोगों के एक समूह के ऊपर दिए गए वीडियो में ऐप्स, हाव-भाव नियंत्रण और विशाल गैजेट निर्माताओं के भविष्य की भविष्यवाणी की गई है। और नीचे दिए गए लेख में हम एक नज़र डालते हैं कि जुड़ी हुई दुनिया, स्मार्ट सामग्री और रोबोटिक्स के साथ आगे क्या आता है।


Aberdeen Christmas village event to return

Summary: Aberdeen's Christmas village is to return after being hailed a success in 2015.

Tens of thousands of people visited the attraction - including food stalls and entertainment - in Union Terrace over the festive period. Councillors approved £132,000 of funding for the event last night. About 15,000 people also watched the annual parade marking Aberdeen's Christmas lights being switched on. Related Internet Links Aberdeen City Council

एबरडीन का क्रिसमस गाँव 2015 में सफल होने के बाद लौटने वाला है।


New Cumbrian fire service unit to tackle chemical spills

Summary: A new partnership is being formed in Cumbria to protect the future of the county's wildlife from chemical spills.

Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service and the Environment Agency have joined forces to create an Environmental Protection Unit which will be based in Penrith. It will provide firefighters with equipment such as absorbent materials, booms and dams to tackle spillages. An Environment Agency spokesman said it will enable them to "act immediately" and minimise impact to the environment.

काउंटी के वन्यजीवों के भविष्य को रासायनिक रिसाव से बचाने के लिए कुम्ब्रिया में एक नई साझेदारी बनाई जा रही है।


South Belfast: Man charged over murder of woman

Summary: A 61-year-old man has been charged with murder in relation to the death of a woman at her home in South Belfast last year.

The 60-year-old woman died at the property on Windermere Road on 16 August 2020. The man is due to appear at Newtownards Magistrates' Court in County Down on Wednesday. As is normal procedure, all charges will be reviewed by the Public Prosecution Service (PPS.)

एक 61 वर्षीय व्यक्ति पर पिछले साल दक्षिण बेलफास्ट में एक महिला की उसके घर पर हुई मौत के संबंध में हत्या का आरोप लगाया गया है।


Alek Sigley: The Australian student released by North Korea

Summary: There were serious fears for his safety after Alek Sigley went missing in North Korea. But the 29-year-old, who once described himself as the only Australian in North Korea, has now safely left the country after being freed from detention.

Mr Sigley had been pursuing a master's degree in North Korean literature at Kim ll-sung University and running a tourism company in Pyongyang. But he was reported missing in late June after his family failed to hear from him for several days. His accounts on Instagram and Twitter - where he was typically active - had also gone quiet. The Australian government described his situation as a "very serious set of circumstances". Then on 4 July, more than a week after he was first reported missing, Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that Mr Sigley was "released and safe". His release came after the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang met with the North Korean government. Australia does not have a diplomatic presence in North Korea and conducts diplomacy through the Swedish embassy. It is still unclear why Mr Sigley, a fluent Korean speaker, was detained. A growing interest in North Korea According to an old blog post written by Mr Sigley on his tourism company website, his interest in East Asia started when he was a child. Born to an Australian sinologist father and a Chinese mother, he says he had "always been fascinated by socialism". After finishing high school, he left his hometown of Perth and went on an exchange to Japan before going on to study at Shanghai's Fudan University in China. It was during his time there that he was first introduced to North Korean students. He later began studying Korean and visited North Korea for the first time in 2012. A year later, he established his own Australia-based tour agency, Tongil Tours, which specialises in "educational tourism" to North Korea. He led the tours while finishing his undergraduate degree in Asian Studies and philosophy at the Australian National University. While at ANU, Mr Sigley says he "developed a strong interest in North Korean film and literature". He began looking into the possibility of attending Kim ll-sung University - one of the top universities in North Korea. He would spend almost the next two years trying to get in. In April of 2018, he finally got accepted and began his master's degree in North Korean literature. He was one of a handful of Western students in the country. In May last year he married his Japanese wife in Pyongyang. They met while he was a student in Shanghai and she had accompanied him on several trips to North Korea. His wife, who has been named as Yuka Morinaga, told Australia's News Corp that he had tried to connect with locals in North Korea during his time there. "He is always trying to demystify North Korea, unlike the typical Western media. He tries to understand the people there," she said. 'Steer clear of politically sensitive issues' Mr Sigley ran a blog on his company's website where he detailed life as a student in North Korea. Among some of his posts were restaurant reviews, his daily walk to class and attending a performance where North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was also present. Mr Sigley had said in the blog that he generally "steered clear of politically sensitive issues". "I'm not particularly interested in saying what has already been said a thousand times before about North Korea. I aim simply to present life in North Korea as I see and experience it."

उत्तर कोरिया में एलेक सिगले के लापता होने के बाद उनकी सुरक्षा के लिए गंभीर आशंकाएं थीं। लेकिन 29 वर्षीय, जो कभी खुद को उत्तर कोरिया में एकमात्र ऑस्ट्रेलियाई बताते थे, अब हिरासत से मुक्त होने के बाद सुरक्षित रूप से देश छोड़ चुके हैं।


What price Scottish independence?

Summary: Here is just one illustration of why assessing the economic impact of Scottish independence on Scotland and on the rest of the UK is so difficult - and why sterling has been weakening as the probability of Scots breaking away has increased.

Robert PestonEconomics editor On the one hand, it is very likely that a slug of Scotland's financial services industry will relocate to London if Scotland votes to separate from the UK (yes, I know many would say that would be good for the rest of the UK - bear with me please). As I have mentioned before, Royal Bank of Scotland would announce an intention to move its home to England as and when a yes vote is declared (and I have just had it re-confirmed that RBS has a contingency plan to emigrate south of the border). Uncertainty It would feel obliged to do that, because of the risk that those who lend to it would withdraw their funds over the many months of uncertainty about who would be its lender of last resort (or the provider of emergency finance in a crisis), about who would regulate it and about what impact Scotland's choice of currency would have on the bank's financial strength. The point is that lenders to banks, including ordinary depositors, have a choice about where to place their money. And many of them will take the view that there is no point leaving cash in RBS when there is a greater than average degree of uncertainty about that bank's long term prospects. It is not that independence would definitely be bad for RBS. It is simply that creditors don't like uncertainty. So RBS will knock that uncertainty on the head by turning itself into a rest-of-UK financial institution rather than a Scottish one. DUK, BUK, SUK? Now, as I've said, if RBS were to move to England, that would probably be seen to be good for the rest-of-UK's economy and also its balance of payments, and detrimental to Scotland. And before I move on, yes I too hate this "rest-of-UK" moniker, but surely saying England, Wales and Northern Ireland each time is even more cumbersome; so if independence does happen, will we be able to revert to UK for what remains, or perhaps we will become DUK for diminished UK, or BUK, for broken-up UK, or SUK, for smaller UK? Anyway, if other Scottish financial businesses were also to relocate southerly in a similar way - Standard Life has disclosed contingency plans to move at least some of its operations to England - that too would be seen to be positive for the UK minus Scotland. So why has sterling been dropping, if Scottish separation could strengthen the rest-of-UK economy? Well it is because if financial services travel in one direction, oil would travel in another. And it is much easier to see, in the short term at least, how the loss of oil to the rest of the UK would significantly worsen the balance of payments - whereas the positive impact of gaining RBS et al is much harder to judge. Better Here are some back of envelope sums I have done. Last year, the whole UK's current account deficit - the gap between the income it receives from the rest of the world and what it pays the rest of the world - was a high 4.4% of GDP. And this deficit reached a painful 5.7% of GDP in the last three months of 2013, which was its highest level since proper records started to be compiled in the 1950s. Now you might have expected this to lead to some kind of sterling crisis. It did not for a few reasons. First, the UK's underlying trade performance has been improving a bit. Second, a big cause of the growing deficit was a fall in income earned on assets we own abroad, especially in the eurozone - and there is an expectation (perhaps a naive one) than in time this income will bounce back. Third, the stock of assets owned by the UK in the rest of the world exceeds the value of what we owe the rest of the world, according to an analysis by the Bank of England. So in theory we can finance this current account deficit for some time, by selling assets (if need be). But what would happen to the current account deficit of the rest of the UK if an independent Scotland were to get 90% of oil and gas assets - which is the expected carve up were Scotland to break away? Not pretty Well I calculate the current account deficit for the rest of the UK in 2013 would have been 6.9% of rest-of-UK GDP (and for the avoidance of doubt, I have allocated to Scotland a proportionate share of the UK current-account deficit, before adjusting for the oil transfer). Now a current account deficit of 7% odd cannot be comfortably ignored for long, and it would have been hard for investors to shrug off. Doubts would have been fomented about the UK's ability to pay its way in the world and to finance its way of life. We might have seen an old-fashioned run on the pound. However that is to look backwards of course. And the whole UK balance of payments has been improving this year (a bit) while the value of oil exports has been been falling (also a bit). So the picture doesn't look quite so grim - though it is still far from pretty. Now in a world of perfect information, I would be able to tell you what the rest of the UK's balance of payments and current-account deficit would look like, adjusted for an increase in financial services revenues (from the migration of RBS and pals) and a decrease in oil exports. Sadly we live in a world of data imperfection. And of course there is yet another uncertainty, in that we don't know which other businesses would migrate north or south of the border, of their own free will, in the event of such a huge constitutional change. Fog What we do know (yes we do) is that investors don't like heightened degrees of ignorance about the economic outlook. And they demand a high price for their money when lending and investing in countries where the outlook is hidden by fog. So in a UK whose prospects are shrouded, sterling is likely to fall some more, and - the really irksome thing - the cost of capital for borrowers north and south of the border is likely to rise. Which would mean businesses would invest less and consumers would spend less for just as long as it was impossible to see the shape and strength of the rest of the UK's economy and that of Scotland. Such expensive uncertainty may persist for just a few days till September 19, the day after the vote, if the Scots were to vote to stay in the UK. In which case the damage to our prosperity would be transient and small. Steep price Or it could persist for 18 months or much longer, depending on how long it takes to negotiate the separation of the Scottish economy from the UK's. You don't need telling, I know, that the longer the uncertainties persist, the more prolonged the UK will suffer from an elevated cost of finance, and the greater the harm there will be to economic growth - both sides of the border. Or to put it another way, whatever the long term prospects for Scotland and the rest of the UK, both could pay a steep and immediate economic price, during the months and probably years it will take to firmly determine the distribution of assets north and south (and I haven't even got on to the further complications of determining how liabilities, such as the national debt , are shared).

यहाँ केवल एक उदाहरण दिया गया है कि स्कॉटलैंड और शेष यू. के. पर स्कॉटिश स्वतंत्रता के आर्थिक प्रभाव का आकलन करना इतना कठिन क्यों है-और क्यों स्टर्लिंग कमजोर हो रही है क्योंकि स्कॉट्स के टूटने की संभावना बढ़ गई है।


African food: The next gastronomic trend?

Summary: African food is widely available in London and Paris with their large African populations and historic ties to the continent. Peter Okwoche, a self-confessed gourmet and BBC presenter from Nigeria, has been finding out if it has a wider appeal.

Living in London, it is not too hard to sate my hunger for a taste of home as markets selling African food dot the city. There are also a lot of Nigerian restaurants, but they are mainly filled with Nigerians - other Africans may also be tucking in, but hardly any Europeans. London is a bustling cosmopolitan city where, according to Mayor Boris Johnson, more than 300 languages are spoken - that is at least 300 different cultures. But while cuisines from countries like China, India and Thailand have become very popular, the same cannot be said about African food. So why hasn't African gastronomy caught on? Perhaps in these days of healthy eating - a particular obsession of the European press - African food is seen as containing too much oil or carbohydrates or not enough protein. But London-based Ghanaian cook Fafa Gilbert, who teaches people how to make Africa food with a European twist on her YouTube channel, could not disagree more. An avid experimenter, she believes there are lots of healthy African food dishes that have a wide appeal. The whole ground floor of her home has been turned into a massive, elegant and modern kitchen. In one corner there is a computer where she writes down all the recipes that she comes up with. "This is where I feel truly feel free," she says. When we visit, she is making a dish called "yam croquette", which sounds more French than Ghanaian. The main ingredients of a croquette - a fried bread-crumbed roll served as delicacy or a fast food - are usually mashed potatoes and/or ground meat. Ms Gilbert replaces the potatoes with yams - and serves it with a light stew made with tomatoes and traditional Ghanaian seasoning. It is brilliant and my cameraman, who is English and has never tried any African food before, was immediately hooked. 'Mama Put' and the final culinary frontier For Nky Iweka, a computer scientist by training and long-time Londoner and foodie, it is important to actually see people savouring her creations. She trained as a computer scientist, but quit her job to pursue her dream: Introducing Nigerian cuisine to the rest of the world. Her plan is to open a Nigerian restaurant that will appeal to people of other cultures as well. Calling herself "the executive Mama Put" - after the colloquial name for food stall vendors in Nigeria - she now organises cookouts, inviting people of different nationalities to come and have a taste of her take on Nigerian food. And in all fairness, African food is beginning to get a reputation; Ms Iweka sees it is as "the final frontier of cuisine". So much so that when British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver came up with his own take on jollof rice, a traditional West African dish akin to a paella or risotto, he caused uproar in the West African online community for substituting some traditional ingredients with those easier to find in Europe. But there are those who argued that a famous cook acknowledging an African dish means the continent's cuisine is making inroads into Europe. Parisian first Loic Dable, a French cook with roots in Ivory Coast, could be a case in point. He has just opened a gourmet restaurant right in the middle of Paris's upmarket 16th arrondissement - a stone's throw from the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe. It is the first of its kind in a city notorious for its demanding and unforgiving eaters. Mr Dable, who cut his teeth at Paris's luxurious Georges V hotel, describes his food as an art and says the location was chosen because it complements his African food. His food did resemble an artwork more than your usual African dish. The scallops and baby carrots I had might seem more European than African, but the dish was garnished with a sweet baobab tree condiment. And this being haute cuisine, plates were not piled high at Cafe Dapper Loic Dable - a definite contrast with more traditional African restaurants. 'Number one within 11 months' But the real breakthrough for African cuisine seems to have come from the Horn of Africa. Within a year of opening, the small Eritrean Blue Nile cafe was ranked the top restaurant in London in November 2014 by review site TripAdvisor. "I use to have it as a sandwich bar and it was not doing very well. So we decided to change it to an Eritrean one," says Shewa Hagos, who runs the restaurant with her three sons. Its speciality now - like other Ethiopian and Eritrean eateries - is injera, a fried sourdough flatbread. Made from teff, a cereal which is very low in gluten, it is served with stews and curries and is usually eaten by hand. "I couldn't believe we were number one within 11 months… it was a very nice feeling," says Ms Shewa. Other popular foreign cuisines have evolved to cater for European palates - take tikka masala curry, which was invented in the UK. More European-based African cooks now seem to be trying to please a more diverse crowd. The Blue Nile website emphasises the gluten-free aspect of its menu and its "wide range of vegetarian dishes". "Last week, we had some costumers from Iceland and also from Sweden and different nationalities and it's nice," says Ms Shewa. BBC Africa is running a special week of radio and TV programmes about African food in Europe from 14-18 December.

अफ्रीकी भोजन लंदन और पेरिस में उनकी बड़ी अफ्रीकी आबादी और महाद्वीप के साथ ऐतिहासिक संबंधों के साथ व्यापक रूप से उपलब्ध है। पीटर ओकवोचे, एक आत्म-कबूल पेटू और नाइजीरिया के बीबीसी प्रस्तुतकर्ता, यह पता लगा रहे हैं कि क्या इसकी व्यापक अपील है।


Two-year-old seriously hurt in four-vehicle crash near Stoneykirk

Summary: A two-year-old girl is being treated for serious injuries following a crash involving four vehicles in the south-west of Scotland.

The child was hurt in the collision on the B7077 near Stoneykirk in Dumfries and Galloway at about 07:45. Police said she was being treated at Galloway Community Hospital in Stranraer for "serious but not life-threatening" injuries. A 64-year-old man was also seriously injured in the crash. And a man aged 23 was taken to hospital as a precaution. Police said the road was closed for five hours while inquiries were carried out.

स्कॉटलैंड के दक्षिण-पश्चिम में चार वाहनों की दुर्घटना में गंभीर रूप से घायल एक दो वर्षीय लड़की का इलाज किया जा रहा है।


'You changed me': Your letters for the BBC's Identity season

Summary: Are you a letter writer? As part of the BBC's Identity season, we'd like you to write a letter to the person, event, place or thing which has changed you.

Your letter could be published on the BBC News website, or it may be read by a celebrity or actor on Identity Live day on 18 April, when one of your letters and some written by notable figures on the subject of identity will be performed. If you would like your letter to be considered, here's what you have to do. Chose the subject of your letter - it could be someone who inspired you, an illness you conquered, an event, a chance meeting with someone or a place you will never forget. Your letter should be an explanation of how that person, place or object has changed your identity and who you are today. Once you have written your letter of no more than 300 words, email it to us, scan it or take a picture of it and send it to us, along with a photo of yourself, in one of the following ways:

क्या आप एक पत्र लेखक हैं? बी. बी. सी. के आइडेंटिटी सीज़न के हिस्से के रूप में, हम चाहेंगे कि आप उस व्यक्ति, घटना, स्थान या चीज़ को एक पत्र लिखें जिसने आपको बदल दिया है।


South Korea's K-Pop stars look for success in Australia

Summary: In music video Insomnia - the catchy hit by South Korean band JJCC - a boy dressed in a skinny black suit walks along a sandy path hand in hand with a girl. Although the sun is shining and the sky is blue, both sport umbrellas: one yellow, one orange.

By Clarissa Sebag-MontefioreSydney Those umbrellas made an appearance in Sydney earlier this year, when the seven-strong boy band played their debut Australian performance at arts hub Carriageworks alongside the more established Boyfriend for the Chinese New Year. In candy-hued choreography - wearing low-slung nineties-style cargo pants and baggy T-shirts, matched by bouncy coiffed hair - JJCC twirled their umbrellas in unison, creating the on-stage equivalent of a hyperactive rainbow. That in South Korea umbrellas are used not only to keep away the rain, but also as a shield from the rays of the sun is only one cultural difference that has made the Western market difficult to crack for Asian stars. Culture club Australia is economically tied to Asia and 6% of Australians (some 1. 22 million people) were born in Asia, according to the 2011 census. Culturally, however, Australia continues to look to Western Europe and America. "Western culture is dominant," states Johnny Au, Sydney-based editor-in-chief of website Hello Asia! America's status as a superpower, in particular, means "they project their culture across the world". This trickles down to pop: songs recycled across mainstream radio are overwhelmingly British, American or Australian. Sharing a common language is crucial. "It is quite hard not just for Asian but for any foreign music to make an impact on the charts," explains Au. "One of the last times was Macarena, after that it was Psy's Gangnam Style. It's a 10-year cycle." Top of the K-pop Conceived in South Korea in the 1990s as a Western-Asian hybrid, K-pop is now a multi-million dollar industry. Tens of dozens of highly manufactured boy and girl bands "debut" each year, most consigned to burn brightly for a few songs before fizzling into obscurity. Today K-pop is a driving force in the South Korean wave known as hallyu that has inundated Asia since the turn of this century. Korean soap operas, pop, and even film now challenge Hong Kong and Japan for their cultural domination and reach. But if hallyu is seemingly unstoppable in Asia, it has yet to make a significant mark in the West, which has largely eluded K-pop's tentacles. Only Psy's Gangnam Style has found mass chart success. The satirical tune, sung by a K-pop industry outsider who lampoons its tropes, became the first ever video online to reach one billion views when released in 2012. Today the number is over to 2.5 billion. Gangnam Style "is actually not the K-pop that we know and love," notes Jamaica dela Cruz, co-host of Australia's SBS PopAsia. "Western pop audiences, especially celebrities who tweeted Gangnam Style, just thought it was really funny - and that's not K-pop's intent. They want to be beautiful. But it pushed the K-pop that we do know into the limelight. It gave a window into Asian pop." Hit factory Still, Gangnam Style remains an anomaly. Despite spending two years in New York, for example, wildly popular K-pop band Wonder Girls failed to penetrate the American market. Yawning cultural differences play their part, with virtues prized in South Korea considered off-putting in the West. K-pop "idols" are micro-managed by record companies in South Korea, working punishing hours under so-called "slave contracts" that control everything from clothes to diet. Administering a "fan service" via social media and preserving a clean-cut image in an industry often labelled "bubblegum pop" is considered key to popularity; dabbling in drugs, drink or dating can end a career. By contrast boy-bands who make it big in the West, such as One Direction, peddle individuality and rock star behaviour, even if they too are carefully managed. "I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there is no way that a K-pop boy group will make it big in the States," journalist John Seabrook declared in The New Yorker in 2012 in his article Factory Girls. "Perhaps there is an audience of 10 to 12-year-old girls who could relate to these guys, but there's a yawning cultural divide between One Direction, say, and SHINee." K-pop's inability to break the West is not for want of trying. JJCC, founded in 2014 by martial arts star Jackie Chan, features both Korean-American and Chinese-Australian band members, a "very deliberate strategy to engage with fans in different areas," insists Au. "Our group was treated from the start to become global," confirms American-born JJCC member Eddy Oh. "We really want to have an impact like the Backstreet Boys." Hallyu hallelujah A niche foreign market does, of course, exist. KCON, America's largest Hallyu Festival held in Los Angeles and New York, catered to 75,000 people in 2015. Last year, Big Bang, one of K-pop's most successful bands, had sell-out concerts in Australia. Fan Emily Nunell, 19, who was introduced to K-pop by a Japanese friend in school, says she is attracted to the music because it is "something different". "It's an indie thing," agrees Au. "There's a cool factor and a community factor." Back at the JJCC gig, pop concert is merged with a live game show. JJCC do an on-stage Q&A, down a meat pie, and play charades with fans - acting out a crocodile, koala, and hopping kangaroo. And in a sign, perhaps, that even for ardent Aussie K-pop fans an entire set of Korean rap might be too much, the band performed as many Western covers as homegrown tracks.

संगीत वीडियो इनसोम्निया में-दक्षिण कोरियाई बैंड जेजेसीसी की आकर्षक हिट-एक पतला काला सूट पहने एक लड़का एक लड़की के साथ हाथ में रेतले रास्ते पर चलता है। हालाँकि सूरज चमक रहा है और आकाश नीला है, दोनों खेल की छाते हैंः एक पीला, एक नारंगी।


In profile: Piers Morgan

Summary: From celebrity columnist to newspaper editor to judging tap-dancing dogs, Piers Morgan has enjoyed a varied career. And, with the announcement that he will replace Larry King on US news network CNN, his transformation from Fleet Street hack to international TV star is complete. So what went right for Piers Morgan?

By Caroline BriggsBBC News entertainment reporter Within weeks of being sacked as editor of the Daily Mirror for publishing faked photos of British troops abusing Iraqi prisoners, Piers Morgan had signed a £1.2m book deal, promising to dish the dirt about his time in newspapers. It was a sign that he was not going to go quietly. Since then - mainly thanks to his friend Simon Cowell - Morgan has carved out a hugely successful TV career on both sides of the Atlantic. As a villainous judge on America's Got Talent and its British counterpart, Morgan's name is a household one. Self-satisfied, smug and arrogant are just some of the criticisms that have dogged Morgan since his days as a cub reporter, right through to his latest celebrity incarnation. He has called his celebrity status "ludicrous", yet freely admits: "I want to be in the papers". Rich and famous Born in 1965 in an East Sussex village, Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan was youngest of four children and the son of a meat distribution executive. He attended boarding school but later moved on to a comprehensive and sixth-form college. After school, he studied journalism at Harlow College and worked for local south London newspapers before being spotted by then-editor of The Sun, Kelvin MacKenzie. He was given his own showbiz column, Bizarre, where McKenzie encouraged Morgan to establish his trademark - pictures of himself with the rich and famous. Morgan was just 28 when he became editor of the News of the World in January 1994. Share scandal In November of the following year he became the youngest national daily newspaper editor when he moved to the Mirror. He steered the paper through some of the biggest stories of the late 1990s - the death of Princess Diana, Dunblane and New Labour - but he was frequently criticised for intrusive reporting, particularly in coverage of the Royal Family. The new millennium brought changes for Morgan and newspaper. Morgan made headlines in February 2000 when the Mirror became embroiled in a share dealing scandal after it emerged that a number of staff had bought shares tipped in its City Slickers column. He was rapped by the Press Complaints Commission, who ruled he had breached the newspaper industry's code of practice. After the terrorist attacks of 11 September, 2001, Morgan decided to change the focus of the Mirror to a more serious news agenda, which was reflected by the red top paper's broadsheet-style front page on 12 September. The Mirror took a strong anti-war stance in the build-up to the war in Iraq and won the Newspaper of the Year Award 2001. Legal costs Morgan famously battled supermodel Naomi Campbell in court after she won a breach of confidentiality claim against the Mirror, which had published pictures of her leaving drug addiction treatment in early 2001. The Appeal Court ordered her to pay the paper's £350,000 legal costs after overturning the High Court ruling, but that, too, was overturned by the Law Lords in May 2004 who reinstated the original decision and damages. Undeterred, Morgan proved he was prepared to take on anyone, even the then-prime minister's wife, Cherie Blair, claiming in 2002 that she had tried to get him sacked. The claim was denied by Downing Street. But it was Morgan's nod that led to the publication of photographs which allegedly showed British soldiers humiliating Iraqi prisoners of war in spring, 2004. He continued to insist the photographs were genuine even after the British army had claimed they were fakes. The stubborn stance was to be the editor's undoing. "I was frogmarched out," he said in an interview with The Times in April 2009. "It could have been done in a more dignified way, but it liberated me. "I would probably be dead by now, considering the pace I was going at." Since then, Morgan has been ever-present on TV screens, and has churned out several books. His ITV interview show, Life Stories, made the headlines earlier this year when Gordon Brown appeared close to tears as Morgan questioned him about his baby daughter, who died shortly after birth. Rumours of his move to CNN began circulating earlier this year. Morgan was unusually circumspect, telling Real Radio: "I can't actually talk about that yet, but there's a few things going on in America which I'm sure we'll know more about in a while." Confirming his appointment on Wednesday, CNN President Jon Klein said Morgan was "able to look at all aspects of the news with style and humour with an occasional good laugh in the process". And taking over one of the highest-profile talk shows in the US is bound to delight the former journalist. Asked by The Times why he wanted to be famous, he said: "Where do I start? The freebies, upgrades, best tables in restaurants. I did a 'real job' for 20 years. Now I do a bit of judging and interviewing. People treat me differently because I'm a celebrity. "I couldn't give a toss about intrusion. When I get chased by the paparazzi I chase them back. "I want to be in the papers."

सेलिब्रिटी कॉलमिस्ट से लेकर अखबार के संपादक से लेकर टैप-डांसिंग कुत्तों को जज करने तक, पियर्स मॉर्गन ने एक विविध करियर का आनंद लिया है। और, इस घोषणा के साथ कि वह अमेरिकी समाचार नेटवर्क सीएनएन पर लैरी किंग की जगह लेंगे, फ्लीट स्ट्रीट हैक से अंतर्राष्ट्रीय टीवी स्टार में उनका परिवर्तन पूरा हो गया है। तो पियर्स मॉर्गन के लिए क्या सही रहा?


Fitzwilliam Museum Chinese art theft: man bailed.

Summary: The fifth man to be arrested over the theft of Chinese art worth up to £40m from a Cambridge museum has been released on bail.

The 24-year-old, of Dartford, was arrested in Kent on Tuesday over the theft from the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge on 13 April. Chinese art from several dynasties was taken. He has been bailed until 21 June. Two men aged 28 and 25, and a 15-year-old boy have been charged with theft and conspiracy to commit burglary.

कैम्ब्रिज संग्रहालय से 40 मिलियन पाउंड तक की चीनी कला की चोरी के मामले में गिरफ्तार किए जाने वाले पांचवें व्यक्ति को जमानत पर रिहा कर दिया गया है।


Clint Eastwood brings Jersey Boys to the big screen

Summary: He is the four time Oscar-winning director known for powerful dramas including Million Dollar Baby, Unforgiven, Mystic River, Grand Torino and Letters from Iwo Jima. Jersey Boys is a Tony-award winning, feel-good Broadway musical about the band behind some of the most successful pop songs of the 20th century. So why did Clint Eastwood decide to make the movie version of The Four Seasons' story?

By Emma JonesEntertainment reporter, BBC News "I was mainly interested in how these four semi-delinquent juveniles who didn't grow up under the best of circumstances, made it big," replies Eastwood, who turned 84 in May. "They were actually working-class boys living on the periphery of the mob, pulling off petty crimes and even doing jail time. "Then the music set in and saved them - if it hadn't, Frankie Valli himself says he would have ended up dead in the back of a mobster's car trunk." The Four Seasons, whose original line up comprised of lead singer Valli, Bob Gaudio, Nick Massi and Tommy DeVito, were one of America's most successful bands between 1962 and 1970. The band had several million-selling singles including Sherry, Big Girls Don't Cry, Walk Like A Man, Dawn, Bye Bye Baby and Who Loves You. They were all sung in Valli's distinctive falsetto, which even became officially known as the "sound of Frankie Valli". After an acrimonious split with DeVito, leaving the band half a million dollars in debt, Valli went on to have a successful solo career, including a worldwide number one hit in 1978 with the title track from Grease. He recently celebrated his 80th birthday, and served as an executive producer on the movie. 'Not a musical' "The thing is, this is a Clint Eastwood movie, it just happens to have music in it," argues John Lloyd Young, who won a Tony Award for playing Valli on stage in New York and London, and who reprises the role in the film. "We really want to make sure that the audience knows that it is typical of Clint Eastwood, in its look, pace and style - it just happens to be Jersey Boys. "It's a dark, gritty film but just like in his other movies, like Unforgiven, his wicked sense of humour pops through in the middle of high drama. "People keep asking us, 'why has Clint Eastwood done a mainstream musical?' But he composes scores for his films, and many of his films, like Play Misty for Me, Honky Tonk Man and Bird are about music. "I also think that the story of Jersey Boys has themes he loves to explore - it's the story of common men who undergo a life-changing experience, and like in Mystic River, it's about working class boys who grow up together and then drift apart." Despite the re-iteration from the cast the film "is not the musical," Eastwood not only recorded most of the songs live on set, but breaks the so-called "fourth wall of film", with each member of the band narrating directly to camera. The director also places a set piece song-and-dance number at a strategic point in the movie, where audiences will get to see actor Christopher Walken dancing again after his famous Weapon of Choice video with Fatboy Slim, and in another musical role after 2007's Hairspray. Confessing he had never seen the musical Jersey Boys before agreeing to make the film, Eastwood went on to cast three out of the four main parts from the members of the Broadway stage show, saying "I don't want big stars - I just want the best actors." First movie trepidation Young, Michael Lomenda and Erich Bergen were all new to film and TV, with only Boardwalk Empire's Vincent Piazza having worked in the industry. "I actually think it was a smart idea for Mr Eastwood to do that," says Young. "He's known for doing quick 40-day shoots, for bringing in films in time and under budget, and what better way to do it then hire the guys who already know the show inside out? "That's not to say we didn't approach the shoot with trepidation. It's a first movie, and it's with him, who has decades of experience." "He's still producing a film a year," adds Bergen. "I remember sitting on the set in Los Angeles on the first day, and he sits down next to me. I'm thinking to myself, 'he's starting to get up there in age, could we really be in the last ever Clint Eastwood movie? "And then he says casually that he's just agreed to take over American Sniper next from Steven Spielberg. I'm thinking, do you ever take a break? He's unstoppable." Reviews for Jersey Boys have been mixed. While Time Magazine called it a "a turgid botch", the Radio Times placed it "somewhere in between a gangster flick and a big splashy song-and-dance show... with a catalogue of jukebox hits that will lift you off your seat". Trade newspaper Variety opined "it never fully decides what kind of movie it wants to be." Boys making good Eastwood though, believes the strength of the story is in the origins of the band in the working-class roots of 1950s New Jersey, of local boys making good. "When Frankie Valli started out, he took a lot of ridicule for his voice, and singing in that neighbourhood was tough. He says himself, that the only way out of his roots was to join the army and get killed, join the mob and get killed, or get famous. He took the third option." Valli is still performing today in his ninth decade, and with the success of the Broadway musical, the Four Seasons' music sales has now topped around 175 million globally, with Valli and Gaudio owning most of the recording catalogue. The film's cast say that if nothing else, the music will drown out the critics: "During the stage show, it was never the T-shirts or other merchandise that sold," remembers Lomenda. "It was always the CDs, and as we'd leave the parking lot we would hear all these songs - Sherry, Walk Like A Man, Working My Way Back To You - blaring out. "These songs are blue collar east coast of America and from a certain period of time, but for some reason, they still speak to the world." Jersey Boys is released in UK cinemas on June 20th.

वह चार बार के ऑस्कर विजेता निर्देशक हैं जिन्हें मिलियन डॉलर बेबी, अनफॉरगिवेन, मिस्टिक रिवर, ग्रैंड टोरिनो और लेटर्स फ्रॉम इवो जिमा सहित शक्तिशाली नाटकों के लिए जाना जाता है। जर्सी बॉयज़ 20 वीं शताब्दी के कुछ सबसे सफल पॉप गीतों के पीछे बैंड के बारे में एक टोनी-पुरस्कार विजेता, फील-गुड ब्रॉडवे संगीत है। तो फिर क्लिंट ईस्टवुड ने द फोर सीज़न की कहानी का फिल्म संस्करण बनाने का फैसला क्यों किया?


Arsonists burn Guildford Cathedral grounds

Summary: Arsonists who started a grass fire in the grounds of Guildford Cathedral could have endangered the lives of those living nearby, police have said.

The arsonists poured petrol on the grass, then set fire to it between 1900 BST and 2000 BST on Sunday. Surrey Fire and Rescue Service said that if they had arrived a few minutes later, the fire could easily have spread to nearby homes. "This was a despicable act," said Det Con James West. "It could very easily have endangered the lives of those living in the area. "The fire service said the fire could have spread to the nearby hedges and then onto the adjacent houses." Police are anxious to speak to anyone who was in the area at the time who may have seen the arsonists either before or after the incident.

पुलिस ने कहा है कि गिल्डफोर्ड कैथेड्रल के मैदान में घास में आग लगाने वाले आर्सोनिस्टों ने आस-पास रहने वालों के जीवन को खतरे में डाल दिया होगा।


Murder charge after man found injured in Slough dies

Summary: A man has been charged with the murder of a 36-year-old man found injured in Slough High Street on Christmas Day.

Phillip Deans, from the town, was found between the shops Contract Options and Peri Peri Chicken at about 02:20 GMT. He was taken to hospital but died the following day. A post-mortem examination held on Sunday found he died as a result of a head injury. Dawid Debski, 25, of Faraday Close, Slough, is set to appear at Reading Magistrates' Court on Monday. Thames Valley Police said Mr Deans' next of kin had been informed of his death and were being supported by specially trained officers.

क्रिसमस के दिन स्लॉ हाई स्ट्रीट में घायल पाए गए 36 वर्षीय व्यक्ति की हत्या का आरोप एक व्यक्ति पर लगाया गया है।


How can you be British without speaking English?

Summary: Across the UK there are people, who originate from outside Britain, who manage much of their lives without knowing English. But how is it possible to live on UK soil for decades - have your own shop, run a restaurant, or hold down a job - without knowing a word of the native language?

By Martha BuckleyBBC News Labour leader Ed Miliband says too little has been done to ensure immigrant communities are integrated into wider society and has called for more effort to be put in to ensure those settling here can speak English. So how easy is it to get by in the UK without it? Of course, there are large British communities that count Welsh, Scottish Gaelic or other indigenous languages as their mother tongues, but few are unable to understand English. How do migrants arriving with virtually no knowledge of the language cope? One of largest growing immigrant groups is the estimated 150,000-strong Romanian community, based largely in north and east London. Petru Clej, a Romanian interpreter working in London, says within these "standing communities" it's quite possible to live without English. "They settle here in groups. There are whole neighbourhoods filled with Romanians. They have their own shops, their own churches, all of them have Romanian satellite TV and they work together on construction sites. "I have encountered Romanians who have been here 10 years and don't speak a word of English. By and by they get along, though it's not a brilliant living. If they have children, they go to school, learn English and act as interpreters for the parents. So there's not always an incentive to learn." Officialdom There are certain fields where interpretation services are commonly provided. The criminal justice system, for example, provides translation for non-English speakers, as do social services and the medical profession. Some employers also provide translation at times to enable their staff to carry out their jobs. Employers in the construction industry often hire an interpreter to enable staff to sit safety exams which they need to take before they can operate machinery. And in areas with big eastern European communities, Mr Clej says schools are hiring teaching assistants who can speak certain languages to help children from non-English-speaking homes. Sudarshan Abrol is a retired head teacher, from Birmingham, who now works as a volunteer at the UK Asian Women's Centre in Birmingham. She encounters many people of Asian background who have been in the UK for years but never managed to learn English. "The younger generation tend to be able to speak English, which they have learned at school, but there is a generation of people now in their 50s and 60s who are still struggling to speak it," she says. "I have a lot of ladies coming to me now, their husbands are gone and they are on their own and they are finding it difficult to express themselves at the doctor's or if there is a problem at home. They don't know where to go. I always say, 'Why don't you just learn simple English?' "Some of them have picked up a few words, like 'What is your name?' and 'Who is your doctor? Where do you live?' or they remember the numbers of buses, which is important in case they get lost, but that's all they know." Ms Abrol has little sympathy, saying: "I personally believe if you come to this country you should learn English. Them not speaking English is costing this country a lot of money, translation costs a bomb. And if you go to the doctor's and you can't express what is wrong with you, then what do you expect from them?" Habib Rahman, of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, says people usually want to learn English and want to become integrated into British society. "Integration is very important. When people come here we want then to integrate as quickly as possible and not speaking English is a barrier to that. It's in their own interests to learn it so they have access to improved employment chances and education opportunities for themselves and their children." He says it can be hard for those who are not educated or even literate in their own language to learn English, particularly for some older people - but it is not impossible. "You see some people who have come at a later time of their life and when they go to the Post Office, they speak English. Not fluently perhaps but they speak English. Out of necessity, people will learn." But in some cases, he says we should "see with the eyes of compassion" and respect the human rights of older people to be able to live with their families, and not insist on their learning English.

पूरे यू. के. में ऐसे लोग हैं, जो ब्रिटेन के बाहर से आते हैं, जो अंग्रेजी जाने बिना अपने जीवन का अधिकांश समय बिताते हैं। लेकिन यू. के. की धरती पर दशकों तक रहना कैसे संभव है-अपनी खुद की दुकान रखना, रेस्तरां चलाना, या नौकरी करना-मूल भाषा का एक भी शब्द जाने बिना?


Malaysian business' labour dilemma

Summary: Business may seem brisk at the Abirami restaurant. Over the course of a day, chef Kanesan will roll out a couple of hundred roti canai, a Malaysian-Indian flat bread, to feed the steady stream of office workers and families.

By Jennifer PakBBC News, Kuala Lumpur He spends much of his 16-hour shift on his feet because the restaurant is short staffed. These are tough times for Indian eateries in Malaysia, who mainly rely on staff from India. Over the last year the Abirami restaurant chain has closed down five of its seven locations because of a shortage of foreign workers. Shanmuganathan Rajagopalan, the manager, says the immigration department has rejected many of their applications for more workers from India. The government has been under pressure to allow fewer low-skilled foreign workers into the country. These workers have been blamed for keeping wages low and hampering Malaysia's aspirations to become a high-income economy. Reducing numbers In its latest five-year economic plan, the government pledged to decrease its reliance on this migrant work force by making it more difficult and expensive for businesses to employ them. Many Indian restaurants say this is crippling their business. They recently asked the government to allow them to recruit 90,000 foreign workers, mainly from India. The Human Resources Ministry has said the government will only approve half that number, but that decision is still being reviewed. There is a resistance from union groups who say the jobs should go to locals, but employers say Malaysians do not want these jobs. Vediappan, 40, from India, is known as the "sweets master" at Abirami restaurant. He gets paid 1800 ringgit ($600; £372) a month because he was formally trained in school to make Indian desserts. It is an unusually high salary for a migrant worker, yet it is one that many Malaysians would find too small to survive on. Many would also struggle to put in as many hours as much as Vediappan, who works six days a week with few breaks in-between. It is difficult to hire Malaysians in the Indian restaurants because of the long working hours and low pay, according to Mr Shanmuganathan. "They also look down on this type of work," he adds. One of his staff, Selvam, 34, is ashamed to tell his family in India that he is working in a restaurant, but he has no intention of leaving Malaysia because he earns three times more than he would do working as a driver in his hometown. The money Selvam sends back home is enough to support his wife, parents and grandfather. Like many workers in the restaurant, he is the sole breadwinner in his family. "I have better opportunities here," he says. Protecting rights Reducing the reliance on cheap labour is not the only problem that the government is facing. There are hundreds of thousands more who have entered the country illegally. The United Nations Human Development Report in 2009 estimated that there were about 600,000 illegal migrants in Malaysia. Human rights activists estimate that the figure is much higher. Increasingly the government is under pressure to better protect the rights of migrant workers. In a scathing report released last year, Amnesty International found there was widespread exploitation of migrants in Malaysia. Foreign workers are covered by employment laws in principle. But the report found that there is a lack of effective enforcement and an over-dependence of foreign workers on their employers, which means migrants "have few or no safeguards against abuse". In most cases migrants do not get paid for a few months, sometimes years, says Irene Fernandez from the migrant rights group Tenaganita. When workers try to leave their employers, their work status is often cancelled and they become illegal in Malaysia, she says. If caught, the criminal penalties range from fines, imprisonment to caning. Ms Fernandez calls this system of control "a modern form of slavery." She has called for the government to set a minimum wage so that there is no discrimination between Malaysian and migrant workers. Policy concerns This tension between businesses and the government was identified by the National Economic Advisory Council. It stated that Malaysia has lacked a coherent policy on foreign workers since the 1990s. The council credits the influx of millions of migrants for helping to move Malaysia from a backwater economy dependent on tin and rubber, into a trading nation largely driven by cheap exports. Now, the government acknowledges that this low-cost labour pool has delayed investment in various sectors, leaving the country caught in the middle-income trap. But small restaurant operators, such as Mr Shanmuganathan, says restaurants should be exempt from restrictions of foreign workers because of their low profit margin. "You cannot do away with migrant workers altogether," says Mr Shanmuganathan. "Other industries may be able to shift to machines and innovate in other ways, but you cannot automate much in the restaurant business. "You still need people to go into the kitchen and cook."

अबीरामी रेस्तरां में व्यापार तेज लग सकता है। एक दिन के दौरान, शेफ गणेशन कार्यालय के कर्मचारियों और परिवारों की निरंतर धारा को खिलाने के लिए कुछ सौ रोटी कनई, एक मलेशियाई-भारतीय चपटी रोटी तैयार करेंगे।


The UK's current-account Achilles' heel

Summary: Whether the slowdown in growth in the rich West, led by the eurozone, and reinforced by a deceleration in China, will be permanent - as bond markets imply - or a phase, there will be significant implications for the UK.

Robert PestonEconomics editor As I mentioned last week, the Bank of England is now expected to defer any increase in its policy interest rate till at least next autumn. The reason is that the Bank will need to maintain momentum in household consumption, business investment and construction, in the expected absence of strong demand for British goods and services from abroad. Or to put it another way, domestic demand will become even more important to growth and making sure inflation does not fall too much further below its 2% target than it is today. But stimulating domestic demand at this stage of the recovery brings risks - especially because the UK has a record current account deficit, or gap between the income it receives from the rest of the world and what it pays the rest of the world. This deficit has now been more than 5% for three out of the last four quarters - and is wider than since records began in the 1950s. Now the main cause of this troublesome deficit, which means that the highly indebted UK is still shipping in debt from abroad, is a pronounced fall in the income on foreign investments. The Bank of England believes this drop in income is probably on assets held in the eurozone, and stems from the stagnation of that region. But it cannot be sure. Even so, the main factor behind the overall deficit recently has not been the UK's intractable deficit in trade of services and goods - since this has been narrowing a bit. Our trade performance has improved, though not enough to take us to balance. However, that narrowing looks unlikely to persist in coming weeks and months, if the Bank of England succeeds in maintaining strong-ish domestic demand for goods and services at a time of weak overseas demand. In these circumstances, the trade deficit would widen. And with Germany, Italy and France contracting or stagnating, the return on UK investments held there could fall further. So the current account deficit, already worryingly large, could widen even more. In those circumstances, the risk is of a sudden and precipitate fall in the value of sterling - what used to be called a sterling crisis - as investors panic about the ability of the UK to service rising indebtedness. That of course would bring the danger of a sharp rise in inflation, and would force the Bank of England to raise interest rates much sooner and by much more than it would like. You know what would follow from that - hundreds of thousands of households still burdened by huge debts accumulated during the boom years would struggle to keep up the payments. House prices would crash. So here is the good news (sort of). The Bank of England has been probing our banks, with a new round of so-called stress tests, whose results will be due in December (after the EU stress-test results due this weekend), to make sure they have enough capital to absorb losses generated by surging unemployment and a 35% fall in house prices (and a 30% fall in commercial property prices). Or to put it another way, the Bank's Financial Policy Committee has the heavy responsibility of limiting the damage to the banking system, and by extension to our prosperity, should the Monetary Policy Committee's duty to steer inflation close to 2% cause the formation of dangerous financial risks. Which simply tells you how far the UK is from being a balanced economy, free from serious probability of boom, and that other thing.

चाहे यूरोजोन के नेतृत्व में समृद्ध पश्चिम में विकास में मंदी, और चीन में मंदी से प्रबलित, स्थायी होगा-जैसा कि बांड बाजार इंगित करते हैं-या एक चरण, यूके के लिए महत्वपूर्ण प्रभाव होंगे।


XXXTentacion: Controversy rages after rapper's shooting death

Summary: The killing of US rapper XXXTentacion has set social media ablaze: vicious arguments have broken out about how to memorialise such a problematic figure, as fans pore over conspiracy theories about the perpetrator and even question if the rapper was killed at all.

By Kelly-Leigh CooperBBC News Florida police have confirmed the 20-year-old, born Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy, was shot dead on Monday. Despite this, fans are probing videos purporting to show him after the shooting. Posts online point out potential discrepancies in his facial tattoos and question the lack of visible blood, bullets and shattered glass in the footage. Some suggest his death was faked as part of an elaborate prank for a future video release. A video from several months ago of XXXTentacion denying his own death (after an apparent suicide prank on his own channel) has also re-circulated widely, leading to further confusion. Two other Florida-based rappers - Soldier Kidd and Soldier JoJo - have been forced to deny they were behind the murder. It was suggested by some that photographs and videos they had shared online alluded to his killing, and had been recorded close to the scene. One particularly scrutinised Instagram post by Soldier Kidd showed the pair posing in a car with a red mask. A similar mask was allegedly mentioned in a 911 dispatch sourced by entertainment news website TMZ after the Tuesday shooting. Both rappers have made posts explicitly denying involvement and offering their condolences since. What to remember? "If I'm gonna die, or ever be a sacrifice, I want to make sure that my life made at least 5 million kids happy - or they found some sort of answers or resolve in my life. Regardless of the negative around my name." These are the words of XXXTentacion himself in an Instagram story that seems to foreshadow his own death. Since Tuesday, social media have been torn on how to appropriately memorialise the young rapper. Fans say he should be remembered for his music but critics say his violence and criminality should define his legacy. This debate plagued, but ultimately did not really hinder, his career. He spent much of last two years in and out of jail or on house arrest. At the time of his death he was awaiting trial for beating and falsely imprisoning his former partner, Geneva Ayala, having already pled no contest to charges of home invasion robbery and aggravated battery with a firearm in a separate case. Some say his music soared to the top of the US charts because, not in spite, of his criminal record, having gained prominence over his cases. Capital Records signed him for a reported $6m (£4.5m) at the height of the controversies despite rumours of staff objections to the deal. Earlier this year his music was briefly blacklisted from Spotify's playlist system, alongside R Kelly's, under a policy against "hateful content and hateful conduct". The blacklisting was criticised as subjective. When New York Times journalist Joe Coscarelli approached XXXTentacion's team for a response, they simply responded with a list of other artists accused of abuse and violence who were not being impeded by the platform. The policy was reversed after industry giants threatened to pull their music. On Tuesday, after his death, Spotify were promoting XXXTentacion's music again alongside a tribute - leading to renewed criticism and accusations of hypocrisy and exploitation. Since his death, downloads of his albums have soared on Amazon, according to Forbes magazine. 'Not so damaging now' Music critic Craig Jenkins, who works at New York Magazine, has been attempting to shine a light on the problematic nature of some of contemporary rap's most controversial figures for some time now. Writing last year, he questioned the meteoric rise of stars like XXXTentacion, Tay-K and Kodak Black amid violent criminal charges. "A court case used to be an imposing obstacle for an artist's growth, a setback artists fought for their lives to overcome, but in 2017, assault and battery cases don't seem as damaging," he wrote. "In the same way that selling drugs sharpened Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg's bona fides in the '90s and getting shot nine times transformed 50 Cent from neighbourhood rabble-rouser into a spokesperson for the streets in the aughts, proof of a young rapper's reckless abandon now grows his legend and emboldens his authenticity." The art or the artist? Amid #MeToo and #TimesUp, fans of all entertainment forms are grappling over whether we can, or should, separate an artist's work from their personal controversies. Tarpley Hitt, from the Miami New Times, wrote a profile of XXXTentacion's career and controversies earlier this month. She asked the rapper what he thought of the controversy surrounding him. "He was so unapologetic about it when we talked - he was literally the opposite of apologetic," Hitt told the BBC. "It was weird - he was interested in bettering his image but he wasn't interested in owning his crime." XXXTentacion didn't give many interviews, preferring to interact with fans directly through social media. This often courted further controversy and conspiracies like the ones that have spread since his death. It also led to his accuser, Geneva Ayala, being harassed. She told Hitt this had forced her to leave her job and had led to a GoFundMe appeal for reconstructive surgery being shut down after fans trolled it with complaints. "The fans that sought out her to harass her, that to me is so indefensible, horrible and crazy," Hitt said, after interacting with several online. But she relates to the confusion felt by fans who are troubled by allegations while still enjoying his music. "I think that is really one of the trickiest things in pop culture right now," she said.

अमेरिकी रैपर XXXTentacion की हत्या ने सोशल मीडिया को आग लगा दी हैः इस तरह के एक समस्याग्रस्त व्यक्ति को कैसे याद किया जाए, इस बारे में द्वेषपूर्ण तर्क छिड़ गए हैं, क्योंकि प्रशंसक अपराधी के बारे में साजिश के सिद्धांतों पर सवाल उठाते हैं और यहां तक कि यह भी सवाल करते हैं कि क्या रैपर को मार दिया गया था।


Clifton Suspension Bridge to get new visitor centre

Summary: A new heritage and learning centre is to be created for Clifton Suspension Bridge as part of the 150th anniversary of the opening of the bridge.

The centre - featuring a large exhibition space - will sit next to new offices for the bridge master and staff replacing a temporary structure. It is part of an investment to modernise the bridge's facilities and is due to open before 8 December. The Grade 1 listed bridge spanning the Avon Gorge first opened in 1864. The 704ft (214m) bridge, which links Leigh Woods to Clifton was designed by the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel when he was 24.

पुल के उद्घाटन की 150वीं वर्षगांठ के हिस्से के रूप में क्लिफ्टन सस्पेंशन ब्रिज के लिए एक नया विरासत और शिक्षण केंद्र बनाया जाना है।


Paris officials investigate suspected anti-Semitic attack on schoolboy

Summary: An eight-year-old boy wearing a Jewish skullcap, or kippa, has been attacked in a suburb of the French capital, Paris, in what officials suspect is the latest case of anti-Semitic violence.

Two teenage suspects, who fled the scene, did not shout any insults or steal anything from the boy, who also wore a traditional Jewish belt. President Emmanuel Macron has condemned it as "an attack on the republic". France's Jewish community has voiced fears over rising anti-Semitism. The suspects - believed to be around 15 - were hidden behind rubbish bins and attacked the boy as he walked to a tutoring class on Monday evening in the northern suburb of Sarcelles, which has a large Jewish community, prosecutors said. They pushed the boy to the ground and beat him, they added. The boy was said to be well physically, but shocked. In condemning the attack, Mr Macron said on Twitter (in French) that "every time a citizen is attacked because of their age, appearance or religion, the whole republic is attacked". Also on Twitter, Israel's ambassador to France, Aliza Bin Noun, said she was "disgusted by the resurgence" of anti-Semitic violence. France has Europe's largest Jewish community and Jews have been targeted in several attacks in Paris in recent years:

फ्रांसीसी राजधानी पेरिस के एक उपनगर में यहूदी टोपी या किप्पा पहने एक आठ वर्षीय लड़के पर हमला किया गया है, जिस पर अधिकारियों को संदेह है कि यह यहूदी-विरोधी हिंसा का नवीनतम मामला है।


'Shoebox homes' become the UK norm

Summary: Britain's new-build homes are the smallest in Western Europe and many are too small for family life, says a new report by the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba). But what is living in a "shoebox house" like? And can small mean beautiful when it comes to your home?

By Julian JoyceBBC News Retired sisters Susan and Dorothy bought their newly-built three-bedroom house on a private estate in Devon four years ago. But they are already regretting their decision and are trying to sell up. Says Susan (not her real name): "We made a big mistake when we bought it. They call it a three-bedroom house - but really it's only big enough for two." The largest "double bedroom" is just 3.4m (11ft 2in) by 2.5m (8ft 2in), with barely enough room for a double bed. "It has a fitted wardrobe and I can just about squeeze in in a little chest of drawers," she adds. "But there's no room for even a little chair to hang my clothes on overnight." The other two bedrooms are even smaller and downstairs the picture is the same. Says Dorothy: "There is just a small kitchen and a lounge-diner which means that there isn't enough room for furniture or for space to eat and relax." The sisters sold their comparatively spacious two-bedroom house in Croydon to move to their current property - but found there was no room for many items of furniture, including their bookcases and scores of their cherished books, most of which ended up in charity shops. Susan describes the cramped conditions that she shares with her sister as "oppressive". "We are just on top of each other the whole time. We find we are arguing much more than we used to - simply because there's not the space to be get away from one another." They are not alone - Riba estimates the floor area of the average new three-bedroom home in the UK is 88 sq m (947 sq ft) - some 8 sq m (86 sq ft) short of its recommended space. Riba's survey of new-home buyers in 2009 found that more than half (58%) said there was not enough space for furniture they owned, or would like to own. Nearly 70% said there was not enough storage for their possessions. Families reported they did not have enough space to socialise, entertain guests or spend quiet time in private, with 34% of fully occupied households said they didn't have enough space to have friends over for dinner, and 48% saying they did not have enough space to entertain visitors at all. And houses are getting smaller. The average UK home - including older and new-build properties is 85 sq m and has 5.2 rooms - with an average area of 16.3 sq m per room. In comparison the average new home in the UK is 76 sq ms and has 4.8 rooms with an average area of 15.8 sq m per room. The Home Builders Federation, representing the biggest house builders in England and Wales, defends the policy of squeezing more properties into smaller and smaller spaces. "If you increase standards you're going to increase costs," says the federation's head of planning Andrew Whitaker. 'Clever design' "That's going to mean houses are going to become more expensive and we're already suffering from a lack of affordability for young people and first-time buyers." While Riba accepts that building larger houses may cost more, it challenges the housing industry's claim that building bigger will price many out of the market altogether. It quotes Greater London Authority (GLA) research that found that a 10% increase in the size of house did not lead to a 10% increase in costs for the developer. Riba says clever design and thoughtful planning means that even with a bigger floor space it was possible "in the majority of cases" to build the same number of houses. And it while it isn't arguing for nationwide one-size-fits-all policy, it does back standards recently laid down by the The Greater London Authority for homes built in the capital (see table). Riba also wants house builders to be more transparent about the size of their properties, so consumers have a clear and unambiguous choice when it comes to buying their homes. "Micro-build" architect Ric Frankland, from Manchester, challenges the notion that small means cramped with his range of tiny homes designed from his Dwelle. practice in Manchester. He says: "If the major house builders were to employ excellent designers - and more importantly give them the time they need to come up with good designs - small homes could be much more liveable-in." A typical "Dwelle.ing" has an open-plan feel, with bright and airy rooms, high ceilings, a clever use of sleeping platforms, and tall ceilings that maintain the illusion of space. They are also extremely energy efficient, Mr Frankland says. Appliances and staircases are cunningly squeezed into available space and walls are easily detachable, so home-owners can create an open-plan feel - or divide living space into more rooms if they choose. Says Mr Frankland: "I compare our houses to a modern car engine: the most possible parts fitted into the least possible space; but still working better than an old car engine." He maintains there are tips and tricks that the housing industry could easily follow - larger windows to open up cramped rooms, and higher ceilings. For example, current mass-produced housing uses the size of a standard sheet of plaster board - 2.4m - to determine ceiling height. In contrast Mr Frankland says his houses are based around what he terms "a design for living". "It means we start from the inside out. Rather than start with a floor plan, we ask ourselves what the house will be used for and how can we make it so people will want to live in it." He estimates that while his houses cost between 10 and 20% more than the mass-produced competition, the extra cost is partially offset over time by energy savings, and by the build-quality of the construction. His fellow house builders are due to come under the microscope soon with the launch of Riba's Future Homes Commission, which will gather evidence from the industry and consumers and make recommendations to improve housing standards. Riba Chief Executive Harry Rich says: "Our goal is to build homes in this country that match people's needs. At the moment we don't."

रॉयल इंस्टीट्यूट ऑफ ब्रिटिश आर्किटेक्ट्स (रिबा) की एक नई रिपोर्ट में कहा गया है कि ब्रिटेन के नवनिर्मित घर पश्चिमी यूरोप में सबसे छोटे हैं और कई पारिवारिक जीवन के लिए बहुत छोटे हैं। लेकिन "जूते के डिब्बे वाले घर" में रहने का क्या मतलब है? और जब आपके घर की बात आती है तो क्या छोटे का मतलब सुंदर हो सकता है?


Coronavirus: England's oddest events hit by the lockdown

Summary: The Easter and Spring Bank Holidays mark some of the oldest - and oddest - traditions in England's eclectic calendar. As the lockdown continues, here's a look at some of the more unusual events cancelled or postponed due to coronavirus.

By Jennifer MeierhansBBC News Bottle-kicking contest The Hallaton Bottle Kicking contest - a ferocious thousands-strong rugby scrum in Leicestershire - has been cancelled on Easter Monday. The tradition pits teams from Hallaton against neighbouring Medbourne to wrestle kegs of beer over the hills back to their respective village. "The rules are very simple - there aren't any rules," chairman Phil Allan told the BBC. "We do add… that there is no murder, no gouging or no riding on horseback with the bottle allowed… it is actually like a very ferocious rugby scrum." The event also involves the parading of a hare pie which is later "scrambled" or thrown into the crowd. Mr Allan urged loyal supporters and fans to stay safe and look forward to next year's event. Worm charming championships Blackawton International Festival of Worm Charming has been cancelled in South Devon on 9 May. "All worms are diligently practising social distancing. Therefore they have requested that they do not charm this year," the event's Facebook page said. Normally, about 100 teams of three compete to charm the greatest number of worms from their 1m (3ft) square patch of grass. But digging is banned. They are allowed to use their own liquid concoctions to tempt the mini beasts and favourites include water, beer, gravy and sugar. "People try to simulate the sound of rain to coax the worms out," said chairman Steve Thomas. "We've had everything from tapping on the ground to musical instruments and a team with a mobile phone in each corner of their patch blaring out noises." As part of the day Old Father Worm imparts his knowledge in the form of "cheats" and school children sing "cheers to the worm". NudeFest The UK's biggest naturist festival, NudeFest, has been rescheduled from July to the chillier month of September. It sees about 500 people bare all at a campsite near Langport in Somerset. Rachel Wieck, from NudeFest's management, team said: "We are a little bit disappointed because traditionally NudeFest is in June or July. "But we thought the logical step would be postpone to September. If people have been holed up for weeks or months and may be reluctant to travel abroad they might think 'let's take our clothes off and go to Somerset'." The week of activities is set to open with naked dodgems, and includes nude bingo, clay pigeon shooting and line dancing. Obby Oss Festival The biggest day in the calendar for the Cornish town of Padstow, the Obby Oss Festival, has been cancelled on 1 May. The centuries-old folk custom involves two hobby horse processions making their way around the town accompanied by dancers, drums and accordions. Masks and black frames adorn two horses - red for the Old Oss and blue for the Blue Ribbon Oss, also known as the Peace Oss. The dance continues all day long until, at midnight, the townsfolk join together to sing Padstow's unique May Song. "The Old Oss and Blue Ribbon Obby Oss parties jointly announce, with regret, that the Padstow May Day celebrations for this year will be cancelled and will return in 2021," Cornwall Live reported. World Egg Throwing Championships Swaton Vintage Day and World Egg Throwing Championships were due to be held in Lincolnshire on 28 June. But chairman, Charles champion broke the news of his "devastating decision" to cancel this year's show. The main event sees "tossers" and "catchers" standing 10m (33ft) apart and moving further away after each successful catch. Teams that drop or break their egg are eliminated and a final is held to crown the champion. The earliest recorded egg-throwing in Swaton took place in 1322. Shin-kicking contest An annual shin-kicking contest in the Cotswolds has been cancelled on 29 May, organisers said. The sport has taken place on Dover's Hill, near Chipping Campden, since 1612. Shin-kicking - which is the highlight of the "Olimpick Games" - involves competitors kicking each other after stuffing their trouser legs with straw. Competitors wear white coats, representing the traditional shepherd's smock, and steel toe caps are banned. They hold their opponent by the shoulders and repeatedly kick them in an attempt to throw them over. The judge, known as a Stickler, decides the winner on the best of three throws. Cheese rolling A world-famous cheese rolling race in Gloucestershire has also been cancelled. Hundreds of competitors trip and tumble 200 yards down the 1:2 gradient Cooper's Hill in Brockworth in a bid to snaffle a wheel of cheese. The unusual event has been celebrated for centuries and is thought to have its roots in a heathen festival to celebrate the return of spring. But a solitary cheese will still make the journey down Cooper's Hill, according to organisers. "In line with tradition a cheese will be rolled by the master of ceremony Jem Wakeman on the morning of the 25th," they posted on Facebook. However, the group warned people to stay safe by following government advice to stay at home. Maypole festival In West Yorkshire, organisers of the Barwick-in-Elmet Maypole festival have cancelled the triennial event. The tradition involves more than 100 people taking down what is one of England's tallest maypoles at 27m (90ft). The pole is lowered on Easter Monday, repainted and repaired, and raised again on Spring Bank Holiday Monday. Festivities are rounded off with a climber scaling the pole to spin the weather vane on top. "As a village we've experienced our share of tough times over the years, but rest assured we're certain we'll get through this and emerge to put on a fabulous Maypole Day next year," organisers posted on Facebook. 'The birdwatching Glastonbury' A major wildlife show, dubbed "the birdwatching Glastonbury" has been cancelled. Birdfair 2020, due to be held at the Rutland Water Nature Reserve in August, is a series of exhibitions, lectures and events promoting conservation. Organisers said the event, which attracted more than 24,000 people last year, had raised more than £5m over 31 years and cancelling was a "difficult decision". But they said they were exploring a digital event featuring some of the scheduled lectures and Birdfair 2021 was already being planned.

ईस्टर और स्प्रिंग बैंक की छुट्टियाँ इंग्लैंड के सारग्राही कैलेंडर में कुछ सबसे पुरानी-और सबसे अजीब-परंपराओं को चिह्नित करती हैं। जैसे-जैसे लॉकडाउन जारी है, यहाँ कोरोनावायरस के कारण रद्द या स्थगित की गई कुछ और असामान्य घटनाओं पर एक नज़र डालते हैं।