Prince Harry interviews: Key extracts

Summary: Interviews with Prince Harry conducted during his tour of Afghanistan as an Apache helicopter pilot with the Army have been broadcast. He talked, among other things, about his royal and military roles and the publication of secretly-taken pictures of him partying in Las Vegas.

Killing the enemy "Take a life to save a life. That's what we revolve around, I suppose. If there's people trying to do bad stuff to our guys, then we'll take them out of the game I suppose. It's not the reason I decided to do this job. The reason to do this job was to get back out here, and carry on with a job." Has he got a cushy job? "We're not at the sharp end because we're stuck in [Camp] Bastion but I know there is hopefully a minority of people that seem to think I've got a free pass, that I'm in this aircraft and therefore I'm as safe as houses... You don't get a free pass no matter who you are and if the Army didn't think they could get me out here, then they wouldn't have put me in here..." Does he feel pressure in the cockpit? "There's a lot of pressures, obviously, when we go and support the Americans or when we're escorting the Tricky [mobile hospital].... but essentially I think it's less stressful being up here than it is down there. We don't have to put on all the kit and walk around through the desert, sweating our balls off." Under attack "You presumably know what happened on my birthday? Well, it just so happened that it coincided with the, I think it was about 15 guys who attacked the base... this camp is in the middle of Afghanistan and it should be expected to be attacked at any point and the guys dealt with it really well and it was on my birthday so it was a bit of a reality check." Interest in helicopters "Our father flew, uncle's flown, all sorts of people have flown in my family - I wouldn't suggest that's where it's come from but it is great fun... I was given the opportunity in the end and I couldn't say no to it." Is Prince William jealous you are in Afghanistan? "I think there is a bit of jealousy - not just the fact that I get to fly this but obviously he'd love to be out here and I don't see why... he couldn't... no-one knows he's in the cockpit. Yes, he'd get shot at but you know, if the guys who are doing the same job as us are being shot at on the ground, I don't think there's anything wrong with us being shot at as well. Yeah, people back home have issues with that but we're not special - the guys out there are." Does it feel normal, being in Afghanistan? "For me it's not that normal, because I go into the cook house and everyone has a good old gawp and that's one thing that I dislike about being here, because there's plenty of guys in there that have never met me - and therefore probably look at me as being Prince Harry as opposed to Captain Wales, which is frustrating. But... it's as normal as it's going to get." Private life "I don't believe there is any such a thing as private life any more. I'm not going to sit here and whinge. Everybody knows about Twitter and the internet and stuff like that. Every single mobile phone has got a camera on it now. You can't move an inch without someone judging you, and I suppose that's just the way life goes." Vegas pictures "At the end of the day I probably let myself down, I let my family down, I let other people down. But at the end of the day I was in a private area and there should have been a certain amount of privacy that one should expect. Back home all my close friends rally round me and were great… but you know it was probably a classic example of me probably being too much Army and not enough prince." The press "No-one actually believes what they read. I certainly don't. Of course I read it. If there's a story and something's been written about me I want to know what's being said, but all it does is just upset me and anger me that people can get away with writing the stuff they do. Not just about me, but about everything and everybody." Duchess of Cambridge's pregnancy "Obviously I'm thrilled for both of them. It's about time. I can't wait to be an uncle... I just only hope that she and him, but mainly Catherine, hopefully she gets the necessary protection to allow her as a mother-to-be to enjoy the privacy.... I had a chat to them. I didn't send a letter of congratulation like most of the papers said." Royal v Army role "I will always be here for my grandmother, and whoever needs to send me abroad for whatever reason. I don't really have any plans. This was my main effort, to get back out to Afghanistan... As to how long I'm going to spend in the Army, who knows? I will continue to bounce between my army job and the other job... I've spent... six, almost seven years in [the] Army, and I only planned on spending three." Charity work "The last thing my brother, myself and also Catherine, the last thing we want to do is spread ourselves too thin across the ground. We want to be able to pack the punch when it's needed. I'll still stay patron to the charities that I've got. I've got the Walking With The Wounded South Pole venture coming up. Medically, if I can do that, that's perfect because I'd love to do it."

सेना के साथ अपाचे हेलीकॉप्टर पायलट के रूप में अफगानिस्तान के अपने दौरे के दौरान राजकुमार हैरी के साथ किए गए साक्षात्कार प्रसारित किए गए हैं। उन्होंने अन्य बातों के अलावा, अपनी शाही और सैन्य भूमिकाओं और लास वेगास में पार्टी करते हुए गुप्त रूप से ली गई तस्वीरों के प्रकाशन के बारे में बात की।


Security flaws found in smart tech

Summary: New research has highlighted security issues on four separate smart gadgets.

By Mark WardTechnology correspondent, BBC News A smart doorbell, a connected camera, a child's toy and a locator to help monitor children were all found to be vulnerable to straightforward attacks. The default passwords and bad security practices could have leaked data to attackers, said the research teams. However, all four firms have acted on the warnings, tightened up code and closed loopholes. "The problem with the Internet of Things these days is that everyone is becoming an IT shop whether they like it or not and whether they realise it or not," said Tod Beardsley, security research manager at Rapid7, who uncovered problems with two of the devices. While IoT device makers were writing code more confidently, few took the extra design steps to make sure the programming they put into smart devices was secure, the researchers found. Bad bear Mr Beardsley checked the security in two devices from separate firms: The way the bear communicated with the web was poorly configured, he found, so attackers could have interrogated it to find out more about its young owner, their family and home network. Similar problems were found with the HereO watch that could have let an attacker add themselves to a group of watches used by a family or other group. HereO's chief technology officer said his team fixed the flaw within four hours of being alerted to it. "We not only appreciate Rapid7's feedback, but also welcome and embrace the valuable support of the global IoT [internet of things] community in our relentless efforts to maintain a bar-none, zero-tolerance environment for the safety and security of our users," said Eli Shemesh. "As HereO at the time had yet to commercialise its GPS watches, at no point was any child at risk of any malicious activity." Separately, researchers at Context IS uncovered security issues with a Motorola Focus outdoor camera. If exploited, the lapses could allow a camera to be taken over and remotely controlled by an attacker and used as an entrance to infiltrate a network to which it was connected. Security experts at Pentest Partners also found problems with Ring - a smart doorbell fitted with a video camera that uses an app to beam video of callers to a phone. But by removing the cover of the gadget and pressing its set-up key it becomes possible to recover the key to the wi-fi network to which it is joined, found the security testing firm. All the security failings found by the researchers were reported to the respective firms and all have now been patched or fixed. Ken Munro from Pentest Partners said Era Home Security was "quick to respond" to the report of the bug. 'Mature' response Tod Beardsley from Rapid7 said getting the security bugs fixed in the two devices he studied was a "good and surprising outcome". "I was expecting the usual emotional response of, 'How dare you hack our stuff?' and 'What's your motivation?'" he told the BBC. "But both firms were very mature about it." He added that there were no reports of IoT devices being targeted by attackers as yet but security firms were keen to get product designers thinking about ways to secure their creations as soon as possible. Industry initiatives such as BuildItSecure.ly have been created that attempt to educate gadget makers about secure coding. "We are seeing the deployment of internet of things devices accelerate," he said, "but we can still get ahead of the curve and prevent some future disasters."

नए शोध ने चार अलग-अलग स्मार्ट उपकरणों पर सुरक्षा मुद्दों को उजागर किया है।


Can Hull build on its UK City of Culture status beyond 2017?

Summary: When Hull was announced as the UK's City of Culture for 2017, it triggered a wave of jibes about its cultural and socio-economic credentials. As the year draws to a close can the city build on its "one Hull of a year" and have the last laugh?

By Pritti MistryBBC News Hull is a city out on a limb, sandwiched between the end of a motorway and the North Sea. Until this year it was not generally thought of as a beacon of the arts, or as a tourist destination. Flick through the pages of the Lonely Planet's 2003 edition guidebook on Great Britain and you will find descriptions such as "a gruff no-nonsense feel" and "lacking in overt charm". But the latest edition strikes a different note, applauding new attractions such as The Ferens Art Gallery, the historic Old Town district and The Deep aquarium. "Hull's image has definitely changed," said David Else, travel writer for the tourism tome. "While Hull isn't quite topping 'must-visit' lists for England just yet, it's definitely seen an increased profile and offers more to visitors than it did a decade ago." Among those impressed by the city are American brothers Marko and Alex Ayling. Known online as the Vagabrothers, the travel vloggers made a video about Hull for their YouTube channel, which has nearly 500,000 subscribers. Alex confesses the pair had not previously heard of the city until they were invited by the Visit Britain tourism board. Unexpectedly, Marko compares Hull's transformation to the Spanish city of Bilbao - where Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum kick-started a cultural renaissance - and said it had a similar reputation and industrial aesthetic. "We didn't have any pre-conceptions when we visited," Alex added. "It wasn't, like, a bad place to visit. When we published the video there were a lot of comments like 'why would you visit Hull?' and I think as a traveller and a visitor we had a really fun time." In front of Hull Minster, a series of City of Culture robotic installations aptly titled 'Where Do We Go From Here?' stand proud. It is one of 2,000 or so events and activities that has drawn 3.5m visitors to the port this year. Across the road, 25-year-old Georgia Allenby sips on her coffee in the cafe next to the 15-bed apartment Hideout Hotel she opened back in August. She says it has since been fully booked nearly every weekend. "We've seen a massive increase in footfall just around the Old Town. "When we first acquired the property you'd maybe get a few people wander past each day but now there's a few each minute really." Ms Allenby believes too much has happened in the last year for its success to come to an abrupt halt. "It's going to carry on, it's not going to be a culture hangover next year. What City of Culture has done is get people here. "People have been staying one night, maybe two nights here and all of them are saying 'that's not long enough' and 'damn, I wish I could stay longer, I need to come back'. "So I think we will get repeat visitors coming back again and again in the future years." Echoing her enthusiasm is 58-year-old Jayne Yates, store manager of Yorkshire Linen. "It's been amazing. Footfall has increased. We've had visitors from out of town who've come to see the events and shopped and then decided to come back shopping again, which I think is absolutely fantastic for Hull." She added: "I've been the manager for Yorkshire Linen here for 17 years and this is the first year that we've had to take on any extra staff for the Christmas period, so I think that says it all, that we are getting more people through the door." But not every business in Hull shares the same sentiment. Standing opposite an empty department store in the heart of Hull's shopping area is 40-year-old independent retailer, Brookes Menswear. It faces the former BHS building emblazoned with "Welcome to Hull UK City of Culture 2017". Shift your eyes ground-level and your sight is met with rough sleepers in the doorway. Mark Harris, who took over Brookes 14 years ago, said the celebrations had not brought him any extra custom as many of the events were in the evenings and in a different area of the city. He added: "When the [Weeping Window] Poppies were here - they were located in our area - them months were pretty good. "But most of the events are on the other side of town - the Fruit market area - and that's quite a distance from us, as a retailer. "I think the people who's made money this year from the City of Culture are the food retailers and the hoteliers." He is holding on to the hope the city council will deliver on its proposal to improve the neighbouring Albion Square and Bond Street areas. The council's "£250m legacy plan" also includes the regeneration of a dock, refurbishment of the city's Maritime attractions and the continuation of the Culture Company to programme arts and cultural events. And it is that key word - 'legacy' - which is on every official's lips. Londonderry, in Northern Ireland, was the first UK City of Culture in 2013. Oonagh McGillion, director of legacy at Derry City & Strabane District Council, said the award brought in new tourism jobs and money from visitors. "You can tangibly see it in the streets," she said. "You can see more visitors, you can see more spend in the shops as a result of those increased visitors and you can see a private sector, which is much much more interested in investing in the city and investing in our key regeneration sites." Dominic Gibbons, managing director of Hull-based property developers Wykeland Group, said: "What's been fantastic is the level of collaboration. There's a feeling of 'one Hull', where you'll find cultural companies talking to private businesses, private businesses talking more to councils and the health services etc. "There's more discussion between the different sectors, which can drive the city forward. "I think the biggest part of the legacy that's been left by this year is probably being a more collaborative city, which I think is paramount to the future growth of the economy." However, one economist thinks differently. Paul Swinney, from think tank Centre for Cities, says while big cultural activities are "great for boosting civic pride" they "don't and won't change the economy" in the long term. "If we're thinking of this [City of Culture] being a tool to try improve the economies of places that aren't doing very well then actually that's not really what it's meant to do and it's not really designed to try and achieve that sort of thing. "I'm sure hoteliers and restaurateurs will definitely have had a positive impact. But what we have to think about in terms of the challenges facing cities like Hull is what are the barriers that are preventing businesses coming in to invest, particularly higher-skilled type businesses? "And I think the key challenge there is skills." When Liverpool became European Capital of Culture in 2008, visitor figures increased by 34% generating £754m for the local economy, which has "grown from £2bn to £4bn in the eight years after", said Phil Redmond, chairman of the UK City of Culture panel and the Institute of Cultural Capital. The Grange Hill, Brookside and Hollyoaks creator led Liverpool's Culture year and initiated the UK City of Culture scheme on the back of Liverpool's success. He believes putting on "big ticket, high exposure" events regularly will boost tourism and in turn, the economy. "Culture is the sum of everything we do. Culture is the sum of all our creativity. Culture lays the foundations to build the tourism industry. "If you put on a big event, if you put on a big attraction, you bring in hundreds of thousands of people into the city and it's the hundreds and thousands of people who bring the cash and cash is the real fuel of regeneration." But when the City of Culture curtain finally comes down, will the light shows, giant artworks and star-studded festivals be a catalyst for permanent change?

जब हल को 2017 के लिए यूके के संस्कृति शहर के रूप में घोषित किया गया था, तो इसने इसकी सांस्कृतिक और सामाजिक-आर्थिक साख के बारे में कटाक्ष की एक लहर शुरू कर दी। जैसे-जैसे वर्ष समाप्त हो रहा है, क्या शहर अपने "एक वर्ष के एक हल" पर निर्माण कर सकता है और अंतिम हंसी ले सकता है?


Red Arrows stage display over New York City

Summary: The Royal Air Force display team, the red Arrows, are on a tour of North America to promote the UK.

The 11-week, coast-to-coast itinerary takes in venues from Boston to Seattle and San Diego to Houston, the Ministry of Defence said. The tour will include air displays, flypasts of well-known landmarks and dozens of ground meetings. The team, based at RAF Scampton, near Lincoln, is to visit more than 25 cities across the continent. On Thursday, the team flew over famous landmarks in New York City, including the Statue of Liberty. .

रॉयल एयर फोर्स डिस्प्ले टीम, रेड एरो, यूके को बढ़ावा देने के लिए उत्तरी अमेरिका के दौरे पर है।


Bishop Peter Ball 'a sadistic, sexual predator'

Summary: Retired bishop Peter Ball - who has been jailed for 32 months after admitting abusing 18 young men across 20 years - was a sadistic sexual predator who groomed, controlled and abused his victims, one of whom ended up taking his own life.

Ball, 83, was part of the establishment of the Church of England, considered both powerful and deeply spiritual. He abused most of his victims while he lived in East Sussex and was serving as Bishop of Lewes - but would go on to carry on the abuse as Bishop of Gloucester. He admitted the abuse, which started in the 1970s and continued into the 80s and 90s, at the Old Bailey last month. 'Chose victims cleverly' Det Ch Insp Carwyn Hughes, of Sussex Police, said: "It took me by complete surprise that we ended up with so many people - it showed the extent of his offending. "He would strike upon the vulnerable whenever he had the opportunity to do so." The court heard Ball invited men to stay with him at his home to pursue religious interests in a monastic setting. Cliffe James, aged 19 at the time, explained how Ball groomed him over many months. "He prepared his victims and he chose them very cleverly - people who were vulnerable, unsure of their identities," Mr James said, after waiving his right to anonymity. "He was sadistic. He would beat me with a wooden clothes brush. I was bruised and would be in great pain for days." He explained Ball also insisted he shower naked in front of him, suggesting he needed to overcome his pride and humiliate himself, "following in the example of Christ and St Francis". Despite the years of abuse in Sussex, Ball was able to leave the diocese in 1992 to take up his post as the Bishop of Gloucester. 'Mind games' A year later however, then 16-year-old trainee monk Neil Todd prompted a police investigation, which led to Ball's resignation from the clergy. But Ball escaped with a police caution in 1993 for a single act of gross indecency against Mr Todd. Speaking from his home in Australia in 2012, Mr Todd described Ball as "not a very nice human being". "The worst of it was mental abuse," said Mr Todd. "Obviously there was a component of sexual abuse but basically it was mind games and controlling behaviour. "It stayed with me throughout my life's journey." He said it took many years to convince people he was telling the truth. Ultimately, after continuing to be haunted by his experiences, Mr Todd killed himself in 2012. Another victim, the Reverend Graham Sawyer, described how on a visit in the 1970s, Ball tried to take off his clothes and wanted an "act of commitment" from him if he was to be ordained. 'Cloak of spirituality' "The abuse started with very heavy suggestions that I remove my clothes and be completely naked in front of him," Mr Sawyer said. He said Ball was a "monster" who controlled him with a "cloak of spirituality". Ball was also in regular contact with Eastbourne vicar Reverend Roy Cotton, a convicted child abuser, who died in 2006. Phil Johnson was one of those Cotton abused. He also claims Ball abused him in front of Cotton - something that Ball denies. He said: "He was Roy Cotton's boss. It made me believe that everyone in the church knew about it and it made me completely powerless. "Because of that, I had to endure another seven years of abuse." The Church of England insists it is now a safe place and is carrying out an inquiry into Ball's activities. It has apologised to survivors of the abuse and paid tribute to "their bravery in coming forward and the long wait for justice that they have endured".

सेवानिवृत्त बिशप पीटर बॉल-जिसे 20 वर्षों में 18 युवाओं के साथ दुर्व्यवहार करने की बात स्वीकार करने के बाद 32 महीने के लिए जेल में डाल दिया गया है-एक परपीड़क यौन शिकारी था जिसने अपने पीड़ितों को तैयार किया, नियंत्रित किया और दुर्व्यवहार किया, जिनमें से एक ने अपनी जान ले ली।


Queen's Christmas message: The full text of the broadcast

Summary: Here in full is the text of the Queen's 2015 Christmas message.

At this time of year, few sights evoke more feelings of cheer and goodwill than the twinkling lights of a Christmas tree. The popularity of a tree at Christmas is due in part to my great-great grandparents, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. After this touching picture was published, many families wanted a Christmas tree of their own, and the custom soon spread. In 1949, I spent Christmas in Malta as a newly-married naval wife. We have returned to that island over the years, including last month for a meeting of Commonwealth leaders, and this year I met another group of leaders: The Queen's Young Leaders, an inspirational group, each of them a symbol of hope in their own Commonwealth communities. 'Losing a loved one' Gathering round the tree gives us a chance to think about the year ahead - I am looking forward to a busy 2016, though I have been warned I may have Happy Birthday sung to me more than once or twice. It also allows us to reflect on the year that has passed, as we think of those who are far away or no longer with us. Many people say the first Christmas after losing a loved one is particularly hard. But it's also a time to remember all that we have to be thankful for. It is true that the world has had to confront moments of darkness this year, but the Gospel of John contains a verse of great hope, often read at Christmas carol services: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it". One cause for thankfulness this summer was marking 70 years since the end of the Second World War. On VJ Day, we honoured the remaining veterans of that terrible conflict in the Far East, as well as remembering the thousands who never returned. The procession from Horse Guards Parade to Westminster Abbey must have been one of the slowest ever, because so many people wanted to say "thank you" to them. At the end of that war, the people of Oslo began sending an annual gift of a Christmas tree for Trafalgar Square. It has 500 light bulbs and is enjoyed not just by Christians but by people of all faiths, and of none. At the very top sits a bright star, to represent the Star of Bethlehem. 'Displaced and persecuted' The custom of topping a tree also goes back to Prince Albert's time. For his family's tree, he chose an angel, helping to remind us that the focus of the Christmas story is on one particular family. For Joseph and Mary, the circumstances of Jesus's birth - in a stable - were far from ideal, but worse was to come as the family was forced to flee the country. It's no surprise that such a human story still captures our imagination and continues to inspire all of us who are Christians, the world over. Despite being displaced and persecuted throughout his short life, Christ's unchanging message was not one of revenge or violence but simply that we should love one another. Although it is not an easy message to follow, we shouldn't be discouraged; rather, it inspires us to try harder: to be thankful for the people who bring love and happiness into our own lives, and to look for ways of spreading that love to others, whenever and wherever we can. One of the joys of living a long life is watching one's children, then grandchildren, then great-grandchildren, help decorate the Christmas tree. And this year my family has a new member to join in the fun. The customary decorations have changed little in the years since that picture of Victoria and Albert's tree first appeared, although of course electric lights have replaced the candles. There's an old saying that "it is better to light a candle than curse the darkness". There are millions of people lighting candles of hope in our world today. Christmas is a good time to be thankful for them, and for all that brings light to our lives. I wish you a very happy Christmas.

यहाँ महारानी के 2015 के क्रिसमस संदेश का पूरा पाठ है।


Dover berth demolition marks regeneration 'catalyst'

Summary: The old Seacat berth at the Port of Dover has begun to be demolished in what is described as the first stage of a project that will be "a catalyst for the regeneration of Dover".

The port said the work, at the former hovercraft berth, marks the start of the multi-million pound Dover Western Docks Revival project. A new cargo terminal will be built at the site in the next few years. The demolition is due to be completed by the end of the year. Tim Waggott, the port's chief executive, said: "This is a significant milestone as we continue regenerating the port."

डोवर बंदरगाह पर पुराने सीकैट बर्थ को ध्वस्त करना शुरू कर दिया गया है जिसे एक परियोजना के पहले चरण के रूप में वर्णित किया गया है जो "डोवर के पुनर्जनन के लिए एक उत्प्रेरक" होगा।


My uncle, Nelson Mandela and the Rivonia Trial

Summary: South Africa's Rivonia Trial, which saw Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid activists jailed, was a key moment in the country's struggle for freedom. Now, more than 50 years later, all of the roughly 300 hours of proceedings are available to listen to for the first time. The BBC's Gavin Fischer, who has a personal connection to the trial, looks at what the tapes can reveal.

The Rivonia Trial, lasting from October 1963 to June 1964, has been well documented as a pivotal point in the fight against the white minority government in South Africa. It brought Nelson Mandela to the world stage. His famous speech from the dock, declaring that freedom and equality was "an ideal for which I am prepared to die", became a rallying cry for black people under the apartheid regime, and set the young lawyer on a path to become the country's first democratically elected president 30 years later. It could have been very different. Mandela and his co-accused faced the death penalty for acts of sabotage against the state. It was my great-uncle, Bram Fischer, who led their defence team, and was part of saving their lives. He took great risks in getting involved, as he was also an anti-apartheid activist who could himself have been in the dock at the Rivonia Trial. More myth than man to me In fact, just a few years later, he too would be arrested and sentenced to life in prison. Seen as a traitor to his own white, Afrikaner people, he was badly mistreated and died while still in custody in 1975, before I was born. But by being given access to the newly digitised tapes from the Rivonia Trial, I have been able to go back to a time before tragedy overtook Bram's life. It's been my first chance to hear him speak. Polite to all he addresses, his calm tones are shot through with a seam of fierce authority. Eyes shut and headphones on, I listen. For the first time my great uncle, who has been more myth than man to me, starts to become real. The Rivonia Trial is itself now steeped in a kind of myth, part of the great story of South Africa's journey to freedom. The new recordings give the opportunity to hear some of the journey's most famous moments. There's the searing power of Mandela's speech, Walter Sisulu's impressive philosophical outwitting of the prosecutor, the defiant humour of Ahmed Kathrada and Denis Goldberg and Elias Motsoaledi's humble but striking detailing of the life of black people in South Africa: "I did what I did because I wanted to help my people in the struggle for equal rights. I felt very strongly about the laws which discriminated against my people and which caused poverty, ill health and misery for which they suffer," he told the court. Immersing myself in the recordings, I've been able to forget the historical significance of these moments and simply be overawed by them. Not knowing what the future held, these men didn't beg for clemency or deny their actions, they used the trial to highlight the injustice being perpetrated by the government. To hear them speak is a privilege. I have also found myself getting lost in some of the trial's more mundane moments: the background chatter, the scraping of chairs, the thuds and silences as the recording equipment is adjusted. I revel in it all as the sounds swell and fall, pulling me back to that time. Then, from the midst of the crackle and hiss of the recordings, come moments of startling resonance I never knew existed and which are rarely documented in the story of the Rivonia Trial. Thomas Mashifane was a state witness, tortured into giving evidence against the accused. He had worked at a farm called Liliesleaf in Johannesburg, which Mandela and others had used as a hideout. He knew nothing of their activities, and his testimony is filled with innocuous detail, irrelevant to the case. Yet, at its end, he speaks up, unprompted, about being beaten and humiliated by the police. I can't breathe for the horror of it. I want to shrink from what white people did back then; but I also want to run over and hug him for forcing the court to hear what really happened. When I get to that moment, I have to take my headphones off, I just cannot sit in that courtroom any more. Weeks later, I meet Mr Mashifane's daughter Elizabeth. She's kind, though her manner is distant, hardened in preparation for reliving her father's ordeal. But as I play her the tape, this strength seems to drain away. It's the first time she has ever heard this testimony. "It makes me feel like it happened yesterday," she tells me. As she listens, Elizabeth looks away from me, lost in her father's words. I try to fill the silence that follows, searching for something - anything - positive to say. I end up asking if she is proud of the fact that he spoke up. For a moment, her eyes turn back to me. "But did it make any difference?" she asks. No answer is necessary. Turning away again, she says more quietly: "None of them were treated like humans." Thwadi Makena was also a labourer at Liliesleaf, and the only one left alive today. When I meet him, he strikes me as a quiet, humble man. On the tapes, he recounts being beaten by the apartheid police: "They told me to undress, I did undress. They then were in a group… and told me to run round the table and each one I passed either kicked me or struck me with fists. "My right ear is still suffering the effects, and my one front tooth in my top jaw is still loose. I just wanted to know why I was assaulted like that, when I was not committing any offence." Yet, as I play him the recording, Mr Makena's thin face comes alive and he chuckles with delight. "I feel very excited to hear my voice after so many years. It's just so amazing - I can't believe it," he tells me. As with most of those I have spoken to, recalling details of the case turns Mr Makena's mood more sombre. He was held by police, made to feel like a criminal and says the impact it had remains to this day. "I tend to feel they might come back and say some new information has been revealed and [I] need to come and make some confession," he says. "That fear has always been there." Not an end, but a beginning While the recordings contain details which can bring back difficult memories, in playing them to those closest to the trial, I have found all have appreciated the chance to hear voices they thought lost forever. It is clear even short snippets of tape can help reclaim these stories from the dehumanising mass of the apartheid state. Laws may have changed since democracy was won, but grinding structural injustice remains a reality for so many South Africans. I too often lose these individuals' stories in an effort to find sense in the state of this country. The more tales of poverty I hear, the less I understand the cause or the solution. So these tapes have a lesson for me: don't become numb. Listening is at least a start. There is no chance to hear the verdicts of the trial. Those tapes haven't been found. Maybe we'll never hear the moments when the judge showed what little mercy he could find, in the law and in himself, sentencing all the accused to life in prison. Life, not death. Not an end, but a beginning. Maybe even the beginning of a new chapter in the country's history. But as the audio plays, that story is still in the future. The tapes fuzz and hiss and you can sense the tension of what might come to pass. In these moments, the Rivonia Trial feels not so much of the past, but of the present. As I listen, my great uncle is still alive and the people around me suffer, fight and survive, not knowing what their future holds.

दक्षिण अफ्रीका का रिवोनिया ट्रायल, जिसमें नेल्सन मंडेला और अन्य रंगभेद विरोधी कार्यकर्ताओं को जेल जाते देखा गया, देश के स्वतंत्रता संग्राम में एक महत्वपूर्ण क्षण था। अब, 50 से अधिक वर्षों के बाद, लगभग 300 घंटे की सभी कार्यवाही पहली बार सुनने के लिए उपलब्ध है। बीबीसी के गेविन फिशर, जिनका मुकदमे से व्यक्तिगत संबंध है, देखते हैं कि टेप क्या खुलासा कर सकते हैं।


Fear and defiance amid Syria ceasefire

Summary: UN monitors have arrived in Syria to oversee a shaky ceasefire but the guns have not fallen silent and people are fearful, as the BBC's Ian Pannell observed when he secretly visited the northern province of Idlib.

Ahmed Al-Aboud's body bears the scars of the struggle for change in Syria. He joined the Free Syrian Army but was detained at a checkpoint in Saraqib, Idlib province, three months ago. He says the government forces that captured him started by beating him, then they shot him and finally they set fire to his bleeding body and left him for dead. His face, body and arms are disfigured and he pulled his robe to one side to show two clear bullet marks. That he is alive is remarkable but we met the father of eight at a public protest in an area where government forces had been active just a few days ago. "I am not afraid, I will sacrifice my soul and my life to get rid of [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad," he says. His defiance is typical of the people we have met in Idlib. That does not mean they are not afraid. They have borne the brunt of a ferocious government assault that swept through Idlib from March into early April. A frail elderly man with piercing blue eyes, his head swaddled in a keffiyeh, wept openly as he talked about what he called "Bashar's army". Abdul Aziz slashed his hand across his throat in a cutting motion, saying: "They will kill all of us". We have travelled through villages and towns where buildings had been flattened and countless homes looted and burned. Those suspected of belonging to the rebel Free Syrian Army have been rounded up and killed, we are told. Activists have been detained and tortured and many innocent civilians have lost their lives, too, the rebels say. We have been shown mass graves and gruesome videos of corpses lain out for identification. An uneasy calm has settled over the province. Although the violence has subsided and many troops have returned to barracks, each day brings fresh allegations of government attacks. It is impossible to verify these reports but we have seen President Assad's forces operating in one town, accompanied by the intermittent sound of gunfire. It is a far from perfect ceasefire and the challenge for the UN monitors may not be just verifying but trying to persuade both sides to abide by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's six-point plan. There is little optimism in the areas we were able to visit that it will work. "We are Syrian people and our crime is to call for freedom," says Ahmed al-Aboud. He does not think the government will honour its pledges. As with everyone we met, there is a bitter sense that they have been abandoned by the world. Armed insurrection "The international community, the Arab League, Europe, America, they all disappointed us," he says. If there is an opportunity for the West to recast its image in the Arab world, it seems to be disappearing fast. Money has been pledged for non-military aid but in this part of the country the only evidence of any assistance on the ground is a few walkie-talkies. The armed insurrection may have proved no match for the overwhelming firepower of the government but the popular rebellion seems undiminished. The withdrawal of military forces in many parts has allowed people to take to the streets once again; gathering, chanting and singing in the name of freedom and the overthrow of a party and family that has ruled over them for generations. Herein lies the conundrum of Kofi Annan's plan. It calls for a political process to address the aspirations and concerns of the Syrian people. Yet the difference between what the opposition wants and what President Assad is prepared to agree to is greater than ever. The lasting effect of the violent assault in this area is to harden positions and make compromise almost unthinkable. We are unable to travel to pro-government areas but they do exist. Not all Syrians are enamoured with the Free Syrian Army and the crowds that gather to protest. Some fear they are part of an Islamist takeover, that hardline Sunni extremists want to seize power and establish a government that will not respect minorities. There is certainly a history of tension between the Sunni Muslims who live here and their Alawite rulers, a heterodox off-shoot of Shia Islam. Ahmed Al-Aboud's father was held in prison for more than 25 years, detained in a crackdown on suspected Islamists in this region in the early 1980s. We have heard the same thing from many others here; stories about their relatives, accused of being members of the Muslim Brotherhood, arrested, imprisoned and beaten. It has created a spirit of defiance in Idlib and a vow that this time will be different. Perhaps that explains their determination to resist, whatever the odds. If there is to be peace it must be made with people here and in Homs, Deraa and elsewhere. The violence unleashed by President Assad's men has only made that prospect more remote. Enforcing the peace will be hard for the UN but finding a lasting political settlement will test all of Mr Annan's diplomatic skills.

संयुक्त राष्ट्र के पर्यवेक्षक एक अस्थिर युद्धविराम की देखरेख के लिए सीरिया पहुंचे हैं, लेकिन बंदूकें चुप नहीं हुई हैं और लोग डरे हुए हैं, जैसा कि बीबीसी के इयान पैनेल ने देखा जब उन्होंने गुप्त रूप से उत्तरी प्रांत इदलिब का दौरा किया था।


Morgan car raffle to help Croome Court restoration

Summary: A classic sports car is to be raffled as part of efforts to raise £4.8m to restore a historic Worcestershire house.

The National Trust took over management of Croome Court in 2007 and said it hoped to restore it "back to its Georgian splendour". The Morgan Motor Company donated the car and tickets are being sold on open days at the home. The house is a tourist attraction after several decades in private hands. The house, the former home of the Earls of Coventry, was bought by Croome Heritage Trust in 2007. The National Trust said essential repairs included restoring all 85 windows and repairing staircases, guttering and external masonry. The raffle will be held next year.

एक ऐतिहासिक वॉरसेस्टरशायर घर को बहाल करने के लिए 4.8 करोड़ पाउंड जुटाने के प्रयासों के हिस्से के रूप में एक क्लासिक स्पोर्ट्स कार को तैयार किया जाना है।


Chief suspect in Litvinenko killing speaks out

Summary: With British Prime Minister David Cameron visiting Russia next week, the killing of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko in London five years ago is still a major thorn in relations, as the BBC's Daniel Sandford reports from the Kamchatka peninsula.

Andrei Lugovoi gently cast his fishing rod off the boat, letting the bait drop into North Pacific on a windless day. The backdrop was spectacular. Kamchatka's volcanoes glowered over the bay. The fish he caught looked like something from the Jurassic era. The former KGB bodyguard had taken time out from political campaigning to talk about the killing of Alexander Litvinenko, almost five years on. He suggested a third country should be brought in to re-investigate the murder in a Lockerbie-style attempt to break the diplomatic deadlock, and suggested MI6 - and even Litvinenko himself - were responsible for his death. Main suspect Mr Lugovoi remains Scotland Yard's main suspect in the murder. Britain's Crown Prosecution Service says there is sufficient evidence to charge him. As a result, he has not left the Russian Federation since November 2006, for fear of being extradited and put on trial. I spent the best part of two days with him on the edge of the Kamchatka peninsula, one of the great Russian wildernesses. He seemed relaxed, but clearly frustrated that his case remains the most serious impediment to British-Russian relations. "Are we going to fight about it for the next 100 years?" he asked. "We should be looking for a way out. And the ball is not in the Russian court, it is in the English court." He did not mean court in the legal sense. Radioactive poisoning David Cameron will want to talk about business and geopolitics with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, but he will have to press them again on sending Andrei Lugovoi for trial in Britain. Something they will have to refuse. Alexander Litvinenko - the man Andrei Lugovoi is accused of killing - died a slow and painful death. He was poisoned by the lethally radioactive isotope polonium-210. British police believe it was dropped in his tea at the Millennium Hotel in London. He was there with Andrei Lugovoi. Both had been in the KGB, but Alexander Litvinenko had become an outspoken critic of the Russian government and had recently become a British citizen I asked Mr Lugovoi what he thinks now about Litvinenko's death. "I only started thinking about it after a year, when the whole story subsided," he said. "There is no doubt that what happened was tragic. Those photographs of Litvinenko that were released were heart-rending. Whatever I thought about that man, death is always a bad thing." Strong evidence The evidence against Lugovoi appears strong. He was present at the crucial moment in the Millennium Hotel. Many of the other places he went to on that trip - the Emirates Stadium, the offices, even his aeroplane seat - tested positive for Polonium 210. He concedes that things look bad, but insists Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command has got the wrong man. "If you spin it in the right way… Well, there's Lugovoi, a former officer of the Russian special services. He comes over and meets another former special services officer who dies soon afterwards, and Polonium is found all over the place. It seems obvious," said Mr Lugovoi. "But it's not a fingerprint. It's impossible to say who left the Polonium." Scotland Yard will not say what other evidence they have against Mr Lugovoi. He insists he is a victim of Polonium contamination himself, and not a killer. Asked who he thinks murdered Alexander Litvinenko, he insisted that the British intelligence services were involved "in an active or passive way". "Litvinenko was an opportunist," he added. "We may presume that he was involved in the Polonium trade with the intention of staging an act of provocation or an act of terrorism. We can presume that he was handling Polonium without enough care and died as a result." Under English law it is impossible to libel someone who has died. Extradition refused When Scotland Yard detectives concluded their investigation, Britain made a formal request to Russia for Andrei Lugovoi to be extradited. The Russian government refused, saying it was against Russia's constitution to extradite its own citizens. Andrei Lugovoi is now a deputy in Russia's parliament, the Duma. He is a member of Vladimir Zhirinovsky's populist and right-wing Liberal Democratic Party. The chances of him being tried in Britain seem remoter than ever. But he understands that it is difficult for diplomatic relations between Russia and Britain to improve. He suggested a third country should get involved to break the deadlock. "In the famous Lockerbie case Britain passed a special law allowing the terrorists to be tried in the Netherlands," he said. "Listen guys, why don't we get a third country to conduct an independent investigation?" And then, on a boat thousands of miles from Moscow, he offered me a cup of tea - black and sweet, with a slice of lemon. It seemed churlish to refuse.

ब्रिटिश प्रधान मंत्री डेविड कैमरन के अगले सप्ताह रूस के दौरे के साथ, पांच साल पहले लंदन में पूर्व जासूस अलेक्जेंडर लित्विनेन्को की हत्या अभी भी संबंधों में एक बड़ा कांटा है, जैसा कि बीबीसी के डैनियल सैंडफोर्ड ने कामचटका प्रायद्वीप से रिपोर्ट किया है।


Jersey sees a rise in unemployment

Summary: The number of people registered as unemployed in Jersey but looking for work has risen according to the States.

June saw 1,110 people registered as out of work but seeking employment, compared with 1,060 people in May. The number of people registered as unemployed but looking for work last month was 150 more than in June 2009. The States said that since January the number of people seeking work had been "relatively stable" compared with rises seen in the latter half of 2009.

जर्सी में बेरोजगार के रूप में पंजीकृत लेकिन काम की तलाश करने वाले लोगों की संख्या राज्यों के अनुसार बढ़ी है।


Breathing poison in the world's most polluted city

Summary: Saharan dust, traffic fumes and smog from Europe may be clogging up London's air at present - and causing alarm in the newspapers - but in the world's most polluted city London's air would be considered unusually refreshing. That city is Delhi, the Indian capital, where air quality reports now make essential reading for anxious residents.

By Anu AnandBBC, Delhi In London last week, the most dangerous particles - PM 2.5 - hit a high of 57 - that's nearly six times recommended limits. Here in Delhi, we can only dream of such clean air. Our reading for these minute, carcinogenic particles, which penetrate the lungs, entering straight into the blood stream - is a staggering 215 - 21 times recommended limits. And that's better than it's been all winter. Until a few weeks ago, PM 2.5 levels rarely dipped below 300, which some here have described as an "air-pocalypse". Like the rest of the world, those of us in Delhi believed for years that Beijing was the world's most polluted city. But last May, the World Health Organization announced that our own air is nearly twice as toxic. The result, we're told, is permanent lung damage, and 1.3 million deaths annually. That makes air pollution, after heart disease, India's second biggest killer. And yet, it's only in the past two months as India's newspapers and television stations have begun to report the situation in detail that we've been gripped, like many others, with a sense of acute panic. It's a little bit like being told you're living next to an active volcano that might erupt at any moment. At first, we simply shut all our doors and windows and sealed up numerous gaps. No more seductively cool Delhi breezes could be allowed in. We began checking the air quality index obsessively. Then, we rushed out to buy pollution masks, riding around in our car looking like highway robbers. But our three-year-old wouldn't allow one anywhere near her face. Our son only wore his for a day, and only because I told him he looked like Spider-Man. Despite our alarm, many Delhi-ites reacted with disdain. "It's just dust from the desert," some insisted. "Nothing a little homeopathy can't solve," others said. But we weren't convinced. When we heard that certain potted plants improve indoor air quality, we rushed to the nursery to snap up areca palms, and a rather ugly, spiky plant with the unappealing moniker, mother-in-law's tongue. But on arrival, the bemused proprietor informed us that the American embassy had already purchased every last one. In any case, we calculated that to make a difference, we needed a minimum of 50 plants. "We could get rid of the sofa to make room for them," my husband offered. Instead, we borrowed an air pollution probe from a friend to work out what progress, if any, we'd made. Switching it on, our P-M 2.5 levels registered an off-the-charts 44,000. My husband scratched his head, consulting the manual. "This says 3,000 is hazardous." "It must be broken," I said. But it wasn't, so we had to call in the experts. One afternoon, a young man turned up with a small, free-standing air filter, specially modified for Delhi's dust. He pressed a button, which activated something called a "plasma cluster". After 20 minutes, the numbers on our air monitor began to drop... precipitously. My husband and I watched, mouth agape, as the readings went down from 44,000, to 20,000, then 11,000. Eventually, the probe settled around the 1,000 mark. That's still worryingly high by global standards... and that's only the air inside our home. There's nothing we can do about the air outside. The government has announced that it will install more air quality monitors in Delhi and that it will ban diesel-belching vehicles more than a decade old. But that's a drop in the ocean compared to India's pro-growth economic policies, which still rely heavily on subsidised, dirty diesel. The trouble is on many days, you can't see the pollution. Right now outside my window is an intensely blue sky filled with flocks of lime green parakeets and frangipani trees just beginning to unfurl their waxy, fragrant blossoms and I find myself wondering if it isn't perfectly OK to take my kids out to play football. But in the past few months, at least a dozen families we know have moved away, either to cleaner towns and cities, or outside of India. And although I'm still lulled by the reassurances of long-time residents - "Don't worry - it's nothing," they chide - I am beginning to wonder if it isn't time to think about moving too. Compared to Delhi right now, London and even Beijing are looking like pretty good options. How to listen to From Our Own Correspondent: BBC Radio 4: Saturdays at 11:30 BST Listen online or download the podcast. BBC World Service: At weekends - see World Service programme schedule or listen online. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

सहारन की धूल, यातायात का धुआं और यूरोप से निकलने वाली धुंध वर्तमान में लंदन की हवा को अवरुद्ध कर सकती है-और समाचार पत्रों में खतरे का कारण बन सकती है-लेकिन दुनिया के सबसे प्रदूषित शहर लंदन की हवा को असामान्य रूप से ताज़ा माना जाएगा। वह शहर दिल्ली है, जो भारतीय राजधानी है, जहाँ वायु गुणवत्ता रिपोर्ट अब चिंतित निवासियों के लिए पढ़ना आवश्यक बनाती है।


Refugee children on Lesbos helped to face fear of drowning

Summary: "I call it reconciliation," says Manuel Elviro. He is part of a Spanish volunteer group that felt compelled to act after seeing some of the dramatic drawings by children who survived the perilous sea crossing from Turkey to Greece. "There were monsters in the sea and people drowning."

By James BadcockMadrid The volunteers' task was to try to entice traumatised children on the island of Lesbos back into the sea to help them tackle their fears. As well as the terror of the crossing, the children had depicted the war zones they had fled and the filth of the refugee camps, rife with violence and sexual abuse. "Worst of all, they drew hopelessness," recalls Mr Elviro, a technology researcher from Spain's Balearic Islands University who volunteered for charity Proem-aid. "As I am from Mallorca, a Mediterranean man, I love my sea. It was like an affront. We had to do something." In 2016, some 173,000 people reached the Greek islands from Turkey. At one point, 2,000 migrants and refugees were reaching Lesbos every day and Proem-Aid says it saved about 50,000 lives. But an EU deal with Turkey last year has dramatically slowed that number to an average of up to 70 a day. The "pull factor" that some accuse NGOs of providing to migrants off the coast of Libya is not currently an issue on Lesbos. The period of relative calm gave the group more time to work with survivors in makeshift immigrant camps such as Pikpa, home to some of the most vulnerable individuals who have lost relatives or suffer disabilities. "Many of the children are from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and had never seen the sea before. It's a hostile environment for them," says Lara Lussón, a volunteer who left her native Madrid for Lesbos in January. 'Blue no good!' For Sahaar, 15, and her five-year-old brother Satria, their journey from Afghanistan to the gates of Europe ended in tragedy when their mother and two brothers aged eight and 12 were washed overboard. "Sahaar screamed every time she saw the water," says Manuel Elviro. "They were like koalas, clinging to us, saying 'Blue no good, blue no good'." "Now the danger is that they will get hypothermia because we can't get them out the water," he laughs. "Sahaar said 'I'm going to Turkey', and I had to grab her by the leg and pull her out." The volunteers work with about a dozen children at a time on spring and summer afternoons, when the water is warm. "They are not swimming lessons; it's not like a summer camp," he explains. Adam, a six-year-old Iraqi Kurd, arrived at Pikpa camp with an eye problem. His eyelids were glued together, possibly due to exposure to chemical munitions. "We took him to the water to relax him while his eyes were getting better." Does water therapy work? The best treatment for trauma is to confront it, argues Essam Daod, a child psychiatrist and co-founder of Humanity Crew, an NGO that addresses mental health issues among migrants in Greek camps. "Swimming gives them a sense of control where they had none and fear was the sole master," Dr Daod told Spanish website eldiario.es. Manuel Elviro tells the story of a Syrian boy who lost his entire family in a bombardment. "He told me: 'When I come with you to swim, that night I can sleep all right'." The idea has recently been extended to include some of the children's mothers. The man-free sessions, known as "women's own water" have benefited migrants like Fahtia, who arrived from Somalia with a new-born baby. Volunteers on trial The work of the Spanish charity off the shores of Lesbos is not without controversy. Three Proem-Aid volunteers will face jail terms of up to 10 years if a trial due next April upholds charges of people smuggling and possession of illegal weapons. Manuel Blanco, Julio Latorre and Enrique Rodríguez, all firefighters from Seville, were arrested by Greek coastguards in January 2016 on the waters off Lesbos as they were mounting a search-and-rescue mission for migrants. The Greek authorities consider that the knives the Spaniards were carrying constitute "illegal weapons". The volunteers argue the knives were the minimum blade length required to cut through ropes, nets or other material when rescuing people from the sea. Two Danish volunteers were arrested at the same time. A note on terminology: The BBC uses the term migrant to refer to all people on the move who have yet to complete the legal process of claiming asylum. This group includes people fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria, who are likely to be granted refugee status, as well as people who are seeking jobs and better lives, who governments are likely to rule are economic migrants.

"मैं इसे सुलह कहता हूँ", मैनुअल एल्विरो कहता है। वह एक स्पेनिश स्वयंसेवक समूह का हिस्सा है जो तुर्की से ग्रीस तक खतरनाक समुद्री पार से बचने वाले बच्चों के कुछ नाटकीय चित्रों को देखने के बाद कार्रवाई करने के लिए मजबूर था। "समुद्र में राक्षस थे और लोग डूब रहे थे।"


Search resumes for 13-year-old British boy missing in Channel

Summary: A search has resumed for a 13-year-old British boy who went missing in the sea off the northern coast of France.

It is believed the teenager had been with his two younger brothers when he got into difficulty in water off a beach in Boulogne-sur-Mer on Monday. The search was launched at about 18:00 BST on Monday and continued late into the night. The head of Boulogne lifeboat station said the boy had been in a channel not meant to used by swimmers. "At this time of the year for somebody in tip-top condition the temperature of the water indicates a maximum survival time of about two to two and a half hours," Gerard Barron added. The parents of the missing boy and the two others have been treated in hospital for shock, AFP news agency has reported.

फ्रांस के उत्तरी तट से समुद्र में लापता हुए 13 वर्षीय ब्रिटिश लड़के की तलाश फिर से शुरू हो गई है।


Who's afraid of the big bad rate rise?

Summary: Interest rate rise on the cards! Terrible news for homeowners!

By Andy VerityBBC economics correspondent A whole generation of mortgage borrowers who have never seen a rate rise are in for a shock. When they can't afford it, spending will be slashed. The slowdown will get worse. The economy will tank! That, at least, is the scary story. And here's why it seems like it may be true. The US central bank, the Federal Reserve, raised official interest rates from their post-crisis low last month, the first rise in nearly a decade. Historically, the UK tends to follow close behind. And British households, with their record unsecured borrowing and sizeable mortgages, are more vulnerable to rate rises than they are over there. Creeping up Scare yourself even more with a superficial look at the data. Households have debt worth 135% of their income according to the Bank of England. That may be less than the peak in 2008 but it's still well above the pre-crisis norm of around 105%. And it's creeping up again. Unsecured borrowing from credit cards to personal loans is above its pre-crisis level, at £11,800 per household, up £600, according to TUC analysis. Those who took out a mortgage since 2007 have never seen a rise in the Bank of England's base rate. And with the average mortgage charging interest of just 3.07%, even a rise of 0.25 percentage points would hurt. It would mean the amount needed to pay interest on the typical mortgage would rise by 8%. Savers' gain But delve a little deeper. Who exactly is going to be hit by the rate rise? "My killer fact," says interest rate rise drum-beater, and former rate-setter at the Bank of England, Andrew Sentance, "is the percentage of people who have a mortgage at all. "It's now at its lowest for years - only about 30%. And the percentage of households who own outright is much higher." Let's look at the picture in England where there's recent data from the English Housing Survey. It shows there are 14.3 million owner-occupied households. Among them are 7.4 million people, mostly in the older generations, who have no mortgage at all, so a rate rise won't harm them. In fact it is more likely to help because they tend to be net savers. They outnumber the 6.9 million (mostly younger) owners who are still paying mortgages. But it would be bad for that group, right? (Let's try and keep the scare story going). Certainly, for those who have stretched every financial sinew to buy recently in hotspots like London, the east of England or Kent. If they're paying 40% or more of their gross income on the mortgage, it might well hurt. Minority But they are a small minority. Only just over 1% of households are in that danger area, according to Bank of England data. And 90% of mortgage holders spend less than a fifth of their gross income on the mortgage. Not so unmanageable. "The 70% who do not have a mortgage are in the majority," Mr Sentence says. "Their interests are actually in having slower house price growth if they're renters, so they can all get on the housing ladder - or in having a better savings rate. It is odd that we have a policy that caters for a minority and not the majority." Last month, the Bank of England published an authoritative survey of more than 6,000 households carried out by NMG Consulting. It asked a scary question. How would you cope if interest rates rose by two percentage points immediately? The answer was that 31% of households would have to take action - like cutting spending, working longer or renegotiating the mortgage. But turn that on its head. 69% of households said they could cope with an immediate interest rate rise of two whole percentage points - without having to cut their spending at all. Unlikely Not very scary. And it gets even less so. More than half of mortgage holders have fixed rate mortgages. So only 2.9 million holders on variable rates might be affected. If 31% of them might have to cut spending, that's just 900,000 people. Less than one in 20 households. That 31% who might have to cut their spending wouldn't have to cut at all, says the NMG, if their wages grow, as projected, by 10% in the next four years. And this scenario of two percentage point rise looks in any case highly unlikely. The thousands of traders in the City who bet on interest rate rises via derivatives currently give the equivalent of 2-1 odds against a quarter-point rate rise any time in 2016, with most betting it won't happen until 2017. If their projections are right it will take three years to raise rates by one percentage point. So, for our personal finances, it's a case of nice scare: shame about the facts. Real interest rates Far scarier, perhaps, is the bigger picture. A powerful argument against raising interest rates is a startling but vital fact. They have already risen. No, you didn't miss it. As inflation has fallen to the floor (and sometimes below it), the real cost of money - real interest rates, shot up. From 2011 to 2014, because inflation was higher than interest rates, official interest rates were negative in real terms - a big incentive to encourage people and companies to borrow and banks to lend to stimulate the economy. Now they are positive. And the economy has been slowing down - growing by 2.1% in the year to September 2015 compared with 2.9% in the same period a year before. Unemployment may have dropped to 5.2%. But far from showing signs of taking off, inflation, currently 0.1%, has been bumping along the floor. Fragile China The EY Item Club's senior economic adviser Peter Spencer points to economic headwinds like the slowdown in China and the oil price drop. He says: "There's still a lot of downward pressure on prices. "One of the reasons the Bank's so keen to get interest rates up is so they have some ammunition if the economy runs into trouble again." While interest rate hawks like Mr Sentance point out that a rate rise now won't have an effect for 18 months, doves like the Bank of England's Andy Haldane fear it may choke off a fragile recovery, while signs of inflationary pressure are noticeable by their absence. "The economic aircraft appears to be losing speed on the runway," he says. "That is an awkward, indeed risky, time to be contemplating take-off." Scary for the economy, perhaps. But not for the vast majority of households.

कार्ड पर ब्याज दर में वृद्धि! मकान मालिकों के लिए भयानक खबर!


Sark residents invited to celebrate Carl Hester's Olympic gold

Summary: All the residents of Sark will be invited to a special vin d'honneur to welcome home Olympic gold medallist Carl Hester.

The event on Saturday will take place at the Island Hall from 14:00 BST. The dressage rider is due to be accompanied on his visit by teammate and protege Charlotte Dujardin, who also took the individual dressage gold. Lt Col Reg Guille, Sark's Seneschal, said he expected at least 150 of the 600-strong population to attend. He said the island was "still euphoric" over his success and "the island was buzzing with the idea that he's coming to Sark so soon after the event".

ओलंपिक स्वर्ण पदक विजेता कार्ल हेस्टर का घर में स्वागत करने के लिए सार्क के सभी निवासियों को एक विशेष विन डी 'ऑनर में आमंत्रित किया जाएगा।


Elephant tourism is 'fuelling cruelty'

Summary: Millions of people want selfies riding elephants, or washing them, or patting their trunks. But according to a study carried out by World Animal Protection (WAP) across Asia this is helping to fuel a rise in elephants captured from the wild and kept for entertainment. The number in Thailand has increased by almost a third over the last five years.

By Claire MarshallBBC Environment Correspondent WAP researchers assessed almost 3,000 elephants and found that more than three quarters were living in "severely cruel" conditions. Many were bound with chains less than 3m long and were forced to stand on concrete floors close to loud roads, crowds and music. Some 160 travel companies have already committed to stop selling tickets to or promoting venues offering elephant rides and shows. In 2016, TripAdvisor announced that it would end the sale of tickets for wildlife experiences where tourists come in to direct contact with wild animals, including elephant riding. Dr Jan Schmidt-Burbach, Global Wildlife and veterinary adviser at World Animal Protection (WAP), said: "The cruel trend of elephants used for rides and shows is growing - we want tourists to know that many of these elephants are taken from their mothers as babies, forced to endure harsh training and suffer poor living conditions throughout their life. "There is an urgent need for tourist education and regulation of wildlife tourist attractions worldwide. Venues that offer tourists a chance to watch elephants in genuine sanctuaries are beacons of hope that can encourage the urgently-needed shift in the captive elephant tourism industry." This research was carried out between November 2014 and May 2016 across all venues that could be identified in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Nepal and parts of India. After inspecting 220 venues and 3,000 elephants, they found only 200 to be living in acceptable captive conditions. These were where there was no direct interaction with people: no rides; no washing of the elephants; no circus tricks. According to the WAP report, Thailand uses roughly twice as many elephants in tourism as all the other countries combined. Over five years, the number of tourists visiting the country doubled to more than 30 million (2016 figure). The research found that 40% of tourists of the top nationalities visiting said they had been or were planning to ride an elephant, so captive elephants in Thailand gave rides to almost 13 million people last year. The vast majority of these elephants are captured from the wild. The WAP report says that harsh methods are used to get a wild elephant to carry a human on its back. The process starts soon after it is captured. It is often referred to as "breaking-in " or "crush". Their handlers - mahouts - are dependent on the animal for their livelihood. The report finds that mahouts also endure "unacceptable" living conditions and earn poor wages in many of the elephant camps. Asian elephants are considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). They are also on the CITES list of endangered species. According to a 2013 report from the monitoring network Traffic, many of the elephants used in the Thai tourist industry were captured in neighbouring Myanmar. It's estimated that each one can fetch up to $60,000. They are smuggled across the long and porous border. Here the capture of elephants is considered a serious threat to the country's wild population. Daniel Turner, Associate Director for Tourism at Born Free told the BBC: "Riding an elephant still features on many people's bucket list when visiting Asia and, more recently, Africa. While some may consider riding on top of the largest land mammal to be a cultural experience that holds an air of romance, few recognise that this practice actually significantly compromises the welfare of these magnificent animals and potentially places people at risk. "Riding or interacting with captive elephants, swimming with dolphins, walking with lions, or cuddling a tiger cub for a photo - these are just some of the many worrying tourism excursions and activities involving animals. All can impact on the welfare of the animals involved, and risk people's safety." The WAP report says that there are a small but growing number of venues where elephants are kept in more humane conditions. They call themselves "rescue centres" or "sanctuaries". In Thailand they are mostly in the north, near Chiang Mai. The report concludes that the way forward is to support and replicate these places - where people are kept far enough away just to observe. Thailand is also making moves to help improve the conditions of captive elephants. In 2016, it set up an elephant database, and has strengthened the policing of its border with Myanmar.

लाखों लोग हाथियों की सवारी करते हुए, या उन्हें धोते हुए, या अपनी चड्डी थपथपाते हुए सेल्फी लेना चाहते हैं। लेकिन पूरे एशिया में विश्व पशु संरक्षण (डब्ल्यू. ए. पी.) द्वारा किए गए एक अध्ययन के अनुसार यह जंगल से पकड़े गए और मनोरंजन के लिए रखे गए हाथियों की संख्या में वृद्धि करने में मदद कर रहा है। थाईलैंड में पिछले पांच वर्षों में संख्या में लगभग एक तिहाई की वृद्धि हुई है।


Jo Cox killing: Grief and disbelief in Birstall constituency

Summary: Caring, hard-working, dedicated to the people. The tributes continue to pour in for Jo Cox following her shocking killing. And on the streets of the area she served as a local MP, grief is palpable.

By Lauren PottsBBC News Birstall, a large village about five miles from Leeds, is in gridlock. On the approach to its centre, blockades warn of road closures ahead. The market place - often a hive of retail activity - is as packed as it would be on any other Friday, except today it is lined with the world's press. "We want Birstall to be famous, but not for this," says resident Ian Blaimers, 69. He and lifelong friend Brian Doyle, 72, are standing across the road from where the town's MP, Jo Cox, was shot and stabbed just 24 hours ago. "I had planned to go see her at 1pm," Mr Blaimers says. "At 12.30 I changed my mind. I thought, 'I'll see her another time'." He stares across the street, where police officers are carrying out a fingertip search outside the library. "If I hadn't changed my mind, I would've been in the middle of it." Blue police tape is wrapped in great loops around lampposts surrounding the square. Cameramen jostle for what limited space there is left to set up their tripods. "Depressed, is the word," says Mr Doyle. "We've lost someone special." Journalists outnumber the residents on Birstall's streets. Those who have come out are wary of the intrusion. "You're the third reporter to come up to me in the last five minutes," one lady says. She looks close to tears. "You expect this in big cities but not here. It's just a quiet, little place. "It's going to take a long time to recover from," she says before heading back inside the shop where she works. "It's not just shock it happened, it's shock it happened here," says Sarah Lyle, 44. She and her friend have just dropped their children off at nursery. They are just one of the many clusters of people gathering at the edges of the town to reflect on what's happened. "This is a small community, people think of this place as a village, and Jo was such a big figure in that." She shakes her head. "It's just so surreal." "The community is scared," adds Jessica Clarkson, 27. "I didn't want to send my kids to school today because it's on the estate where [the alleged attacker] lives." Her friend, Jodie Britton, 29, rocks her child's pushchair and nods at the media scrum. "We only voted Jo in a year ago, I think she was one of five people we could choose from - that's how much the community thought of her," she says. The baby drops a milk bottle on the floor and, as she leans to pick it up, she adds: "I really don't think people will get over it." Another resident, who did not want to be named, was possibly more shocked than anyone to hear how the mother-of-two was shot and stabbed on Thursday. He knows the suspect. "When his image came up on the screen me and my wife said, 'not in a million years'. Of all the people in Birstall that I know, he would've been at the bottom of the list." The 66-year-old has lived in the town his whole life and, for many years, across the road from suspect Tommy Mair. He describes him as shy, a loner, a "gentle, kind chap", a well-read man with whom he had talked politics and someone who never hinted at extremist views. A steady stream of people are walking towards the town centre clutching bouquets of flowers ready to be laid just yards from where Mrs Cox was killed. As helicopters thump overhead and police officers guard every corner, it would be easy to paint Birstall as a village shattered. But among the feelings of sadness and fear are those of resoluteness - a desire to come back stronger once the turmoil fades. Sonya Archer, 44, believes it is what Mrs Cox would have wanted most of all. "Everyone is devastated, but the positives need to come out of this, particularly because that's what she stood for. "She was a champion for communities and this will make us go from strength to strength. "We will move forward."

देखभाल करने वाला, मेहनती, लोगों के प्रति समर्पित। जो कॉक्स की चौंकाने वाली हत्या के बाद उनके लिए श्रद्धांजलि का सिलसिला जारी है। और क्षेत्र की सड़कों पर उन्होंने एक स्थानीय सांसद के रूप में कार्य किया, दुख स्पष्ट है।


Five unusual ways in which Indians use mobile phones

Summary: The mobile phone in India has many uses other than making calls and sending messages. For hundreds of millions of people, a mobile phone is sometimes the only piece of technology in their homes. This has led to unique uses for the phone in the country - the world's fastest growing market for mobile phones with 900 million subscribers. Here are five unusual Indian uses for the mobile phone.

By Tushar BanerjeeBBC Hindi, Delhi MISSED CALL Giving missed calls where the caller disconnects after a ring or two is hugely popular in India and is often used as a way to pass on "the message" without being charged for a call. Children and employees use the facility regularly to "communicate" with their parents or employers. Missed calls are also used extensively for marketing purposes. Some television channels offer a missed call service to viewers who wish to be alerted about specific show timings. The missed call is also popular in Africa, the Philippines, and Bangladesh, but in India, it has been converted into a business now estimated at over $100m (£60m). Delhi-based technology writer Prasanto K Roy says a start-up, ZipDial, lets over 100 companies such as Proctor & Gamble, Cadbury, Colgate and Disney allow customers to request a sample or service or give feedback, all via a missed call. The service is also being used for political recruitment. India's newest political party - Aam Aadmi Party (or Common Man Party) - which now rules Delhi, launched a membership drive earlier this month by urging citizens to give a missed call to their phone number. The AAP officers would then get in touch with the callers and get them formally enrolled into the party. The AAP claims it has added more than 700,000 people to the party through missed calls in less than a month. Because of poorly lit streets and frequent power outages, many pedestrians in India carry torches. So when Nokia offered the "torch" feature on its popular mobile handset, it became an instant hit and soon other manufacturers too jumped onto the bandwagon. Unbranded and cheap Chinese phones with LED flashlights began flying off the shelves. When smartphones entered the market, they gave up other popular features like FM radio, but retained the flashlight, placing them right next to the camera for easier access. With more than 200 FM stations, India offers a wide choice of FM station to listeners. But a majority consume radio content on devices that are not traditional radio sets. Millions of people use their mobile phones to listen to FM programmes and most of the low-end phones sold in the market now come with this feature. Many of those who have upgraded to smartphones, which do not have radio, use third-party apps like Tune-in to access FM stations. India's national radio broadcaster All India Radio has also introduced mobile apps to enable live radio streaming for smartphone users. Also, some non-governmental organisations, like CGNet Swara in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, are using mobiles as a tool to gather and broadcast news in remote tribal areas. Villagers call in to record a short news item and the NGO uploads these "citizen news" reports on its website. And those who want to listen to them can dial a public toll free number from their mobile phone to tune in. A couple of NGOs like Access Agriculture and Digital Green offer a call-in service to farmers and rural poor to listen to an audio version of videos. The NGOs help farmers create and share videos and lets them log in to view the videos. But since all of these services are available to those who have access to internet, what happens to others? Those who are in areas with poor internet connectivity? Well, they can still listen to the audio version of a video clip - all they need to do is call up a number, choose the video they want to hear and request a call-back. One of the most common uses of mobile camera in India is to scan or take photos of documents. For instance, those filling up forms for a bank loan or a government identity card may want to keep a copy of it. But as photocopier machines are not available at all places, how do they do it? They turn to mobiles. Students too use their mobiles to scan their study material and one can often spot them on Delhi Metro memorising notes displayed on their little screens.

भारत में मोबाइल फोन के कॉल करने और संदेश भेजने के अलावा कई उपयोग हैं। लाखों लोगों के लिए, मोबाइल फोन कभी-कभी उनके घरों में तकनीक का एकमात्र टुकड़ा होता है। इससे देश में फोन के लिए अद्वितीय उपयोग हुआ है-90 करोड़ ग्राहकों के साथ मोबाइल फोन के लिए दुनिया का सबसे तेजी से बढ़ता बाजार। यहाँ मोबाइल फोन के लिए पांच असामान्य भारतीय उपयोग हैं।


Protesting India farmers: 'We want what we were promised'

Summary: Tens of thousands of Indian farmers have spent days walking 160km (100 miles) to Mumbai to demand respite from loans, higher prices for their produce and rights to forest land. BBC Marathi's Janhavee Moole and Rahul Ransubhe spoke to some of them.

Subhash Kalu Gangode We are here to protest against the unfair policies adopted by the state government of Maharashtra with respect to farmers. I had borrowed 40,000 rupees (about $615; £444) under a "crop loan" [loans for farmers to buy fertilisers, seeds and other materials required for farming]. The state government announced in June 2017 that it was waiving loans to help farmers in debt. I completed all the paperwork that was required to get the waiver. But it is yet to come into effect. I have checked with the bank several times. I know I am eligible because the waiver applied to all loans up to 150,000 rupees. Chhayatai Gulhane I own an agricultural field that I'm cultivating on my own but the produce I grow is priced too low. It should be priced fairly. [One of the protesters' demands is that the government should pay them at least one-and-a-half times the cost of their crops.] I have borrowed more than 100,000 rupees from government-run banks. My family and I need those loans to be written off because nature has been cruel to us for the past few years. Sometimes it rains abruptly and sometimes the crops get infected and we cannot harvest much. My husband died six months ago and I have a large family to look after - sons, daughters-in-law, grandchildren. My sons are searching for jobs so they can help support the family. Ramesh Devram Lahare We [tribal farmers] are asking the government to grant us the forest land we have been cultivating. They promised us this land but are yet to transfer it to us. We are asking for five to six acres of land in each of our names. I have to look after my parents and my sister - cultivating farm land is my only means of livelihood.

हजारों भारतीय किसानों ने ऋण से राहत, अपनी उपज के लिए उच्च मूल्य और वन भूमि के अधिकार की मांग के लिए 160 किलोमीटर (100 मील) पैदल चलकर मुंबई तक दिन बिताए हैं। बीबीसी मराठी के जनहावी मूले और राहुल रणसुभे ने उनमें से कुछ से बात की।


How Qatar came to host the Taliban

Summary: After nearly 12 years of bloodshed in Afghanistan, long-awaited peace talks with the Taliban are set to begin. But why and how have these negotiations ended up taking place in the Gulf emirate of Qatar? The BBC World Service's Dawood Azami has this assessment from Doha.

Taliban representatives secretly arrived in Qatar about three years ago to talk to Western officials. They knew that the Americans in particular were eager to secure a peace deal that would allow Nato a dignified exit from Afghanistan and leave the country more stable and peaceful. In March 2012, the Taliban suspended initial talks with the US focused on prisoner exchanges. They wanted the release of five Taliban figures held at Guantanamo Bay in exchange for the freedom of US soldier Sgt Bowe Bergdahl, believed to have been held by the Taliban since 2009. But the number of Taliban representatives and their activities in Qatar have gradually increased. There are now more than 20 relatively high-ranking Taliban members who live here with their families. Over the past two years, they have sent representatives from Qatar to conferences on Afghanistan in Japan, France and Germany - most recently sending a delegation to Iran. Those in Qatar represent only the Taliban in Afghanistan, the main insurgent group led by Mullah Mohammed Omar. There are no representatives of the Pakistani Taliban. Shopping encounter Nearly all members of the Taliban office are said to have come to Qatar through Pakistan. A few have reportedly commuted between Qatar and Pakistan over the past two years. While in Doha, the Taliban have in general been careful about their activities and appearances. But it is not a big city and there are about 6,000 Afghan labourers and businessmen who live here. Several told me that they had occasionally seen Taliban representatives driving, walking the streets, or inside shopping centres and mosques. A diplomat from the Afghan embassy in Doha shared the story of an encounter he had had with a Taliban representative in a Doha shopping centre. "I approached a couple of children when I heard them speaking in Pashto," he said. "I recognised the man with the children, but when he avoided disclosing information about himself. I asked him: "Are you from the other side?' He blushed and simply left." The diplomat also said that like other Afghans, some Taliban visit the Afghan embassy to register the birth of a child or renew documents. "They live in Doha in comfortable homes all paid by the Qataris, who are generally nice people," Doha-based Afghan businessman Zadran Darwesh said. "A Taliban member once told me that he had seen war and fighting for 30 years but now wanted to live in a peaceful environment." For years, the Afghan government and its Western backers have been trying to contact the Taliban, but they did not have a known address. As a confidence-building measure, providing protection to those Taliban leaders participating in peace talks and finding them a permanent address became a priority for the US and the Afghan High Peace Council. The council was established after a 2010 Jirga - a council of tribal delegates - in Kabul, which was tasked with contacting the Taliban and convincing them to join the peace process. The Afghan government was keen on opening an office for the Taliban in Turkey or Saud Arabia, because it thought those countries were more influential and had a closer working relationship with Kabul. 'Cordial relations' But the Taliban's preferred venue was Qatar because they considered it a neutral location. They see Qatar as a country that has balanced relations with all sides and has a prestigious status in the Islamic world. The US was also happy with this option. Afghan officials say that President Hamid Karzai finally gave the green light to the office after receiving guarantees that it would maintain a low profile and work only as a venue for peace talks. The president did not want it to be used for other activities, such as the expansion of Taliban ties with the rest of the world, recruitment or fundraising. All the sides have their reasons to support talks in Qatar: Qatar was not one of the three countries - Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates - which recognised the Taliban regime in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001. But according to a former Taliban foreign ministry official, it did have "cordial" relations with the militants. After the Taliban regime was toppled, its leaders did not have a place of refuge. A few high-ranking figures sought asylum in Qatar, but their requests were quietly declined or ignored for a number of reasons, including because their names were on the UN/US sanction list, or they were wanted by the US. 'Arab Kissinger' However, some lower-ranking Taliban managed to travel to Qatar and other Gulf states, such as UAE and Saudi Arabia, as ordinary Afghan labourers and businessmen. They were neither high-ranking and nor well known, and could mix easily with the Afghan diaspora in the Gulf. About two years ago, the former Guantanamo prisoner and Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdual Salam Zaif, also moved from Kabul to Qatar with his family after his name was removed from the international sanctions list. Qatar, the tiny but wealthy Sunni Muslim Gulf state, has become famous for punching above its weight. It became a household name when it started the famous al-Jazeera television network. It also got involved in a number of international crises as a mediator - including the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region and the rift between the Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas. And it has been involved actively in the Arab Spring uprisings, supporting the armed rebellions in Libya and Syria. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Qatar's ambitious 61-year-old emir, is reported to be preparing to hand control of the wealthy Gulf state to his son, Crown Prince Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. He is well known for his diplomatic activism, with various media outlets calling him the "Arab Henry Kissinger". So the opening of the Taliban office has brought Qatar the international limelight it craves. The challenge is how to make this new hub for peace talks become a true success story.

अफगानिस्तान में लगभग 12 वर्षों के रक्तपात के बाद, तालिबान के साथ लंबे समय से प्रतीक्षित शांति वार्ता शुरू होने वाली है। लेकिन ये वार्ता कतर के खाड़ी अमीरात में क्यों और कैसे समाप्त हुई? बीबीसी विश्व सेवा के दाऊद आज़ामी ने दोहा से यह आकलन किया है।


Should a Belgian murderer be allowed euthanasia?

Summary: A murderer serving a life sentence in a Belgian jail, who asked to be allowed to die by lethal injection, was told in September that his wish would be granted. This week the Justice Ministry reversed that decision.

The case raises an interesting question - whether prisoners serving long jail terms should be allowed to choose medically assisted death. In Belgium, euthanasia is available for the terminally ill, and also for those who wish to end psychological suffering. Here three philosophers give their view on Frank Van den Bleeken's case, and whether he should be allowed to die. YES Rebecca Roache, lecturer in philosophy, Royal Holloway, University of London Should Van den Bleeken be allowed to escape his mental suffering by dying? Or is it right that, given his crimes, he should be forced to endure incarceration? There are arguments on both sides. On the one hand, Van den Bleeken has a very traumatic past and psychiatric problems so severe that he has been deemed not criminally responsible by a court, making him a good candidate—if anyone is—for euthanasia on the grounds of psychological suffering. On the other hand, some might argue that prison is not supposed to be enjoyable, and that it is inappropriate to allow prisoners an escape from their deserved suffering via euthanasia. There is, however, a strong argument for allowing Van den Bleeken to die as he wishes. If we view euthanasia as a type of medical treatment—as there is good reason to do, at least in Belgium, where it is implemented by medical professionals in response to medical problems—then Van den Bleeken should be treated like any free citizen. This is because prisoners, in any civilised country, are not denied access to medical treatment as part of their punishment. That Van den Bleeken has committed appalling crimes is a red herring: if his plea for euthanasia would be granted were he a free man, then it should be granted despite the crimes he has committed. Because of this, it was not appropriate for the justice minister to become involved and to overturn the decision to allow Van den Bleeken to die. Questions about whether an individual should be allowed access to medical treatments should not be answered by a justice minister, regardless of whether or not the individual in question is a criminal. NO Daniel Sokol, barrister and medical ethicist Allowing a prisoner, who is not terminally ill, to die by euthanasia has a whiff of the death penalty. Before his request for euthanasia, Van den Bleeken had asked to be treated in a specialised psychiatric centre in the Netherlands, a request that was initially turned down by the Belgian justice ministry. This suggests that he still hoped to get better - and as it turns out, the Belgian authorities now say they are arranging his transfer to the Dutch facility. The combination of his mental illness, the intense hardships of the environment at Merksplas prison where he has been held (and which was criticised by the European Court of Human Rights in an earlier case involving a mentally ill prisoner), and his request for treatment raises the troubling possibility that, rather than respecting his autonomy, allowing him to die would represent a form of abandonment. "Abandon away!" many might say, pointing to Van den Bleeken's rape and murder of a 19-year-old girl, Christiane Remacle, in 1989 and his rape of three further women, including an 11-year-old child, following his release from a prison psychiatric ward. The trail of misery he left behind remains for the victims and their loved ones. Remacle's sisters allegedly opposed euthanasia for Van den Bleeken, wanting him to "languish in prison" for the rest of his days. In Reflections on the Guillotine, the French philosopher Albert Camus told the story of his father, who woke early one morning to attend the public execution of a murderer who had slaughtered an entire family, including children. His father thought decapitation too mild a punishment. After the execution, he returned home, pale as a ghost, lay on the bed and vomited. Instead of satisfying his father's wish to see justice done, the execution had simply nauseated him. Camus wrote that "far from repairing the offence to society, the death penalty adds a new stain to the first". Allowing prisoners with severe mental illness to kill themselves by euthanasia, without offering adequate psychiatric support and treatment, represents a stain on civilised society. It cannot be described as voluntary euthanasia. If a prisoner with a gangrenous foot was left untreated, in unbearable pain, and asked for euthanasia, it would not be a free choice either. It would be borne out of necessity, with only a semblance of voluntariness. Van den Bleeken's case raises pressing questions about the level of psychiatric care in prisons, in Belgium and elsewhere. Are the psychiatric services adequate? Are they accessible? Is enough money invested in them? The case is not a one-off. After Van den Bleeken's request for euthanasia was approved in September, 15 other inmates made applications to be euthanised. MAYBE Victor Tadros, Professor of Criminal Law and Legal Theory, Warwick University Frank Van den Bleeken, it seems, wishes to be put to death because he believes that his alternative is to spend the rest of his life in prison, and this alternative is a fate worse than death. Should he be granted the right to die? I am not sure. Suppose that those who will otherwise suffer a fate worse than death generally have the right to die, if they so choose, but that it would normally be wrong to assist a person to die where they have a fate that is better than death. Suppose, also, that Van den Bleeken is sufficiently competent to make decisions for himself. We might nevertheless doubt whether spending the rest of his life in prison is, for Van den Bleeken, a fate worse than death. We might also doubt that his conditions couldn't be improved to make his fate better than death - perhaps his psychiatric treatment will achieve this? Van den Bleeken might believe that his fate will be worse than death even if he is given such treatment, though. Some may argue that if Van den Bleeken believes that his fate will be worse than death, it must be so. However, it is difficult for us to imagine how well or badly our lives will go, even when we know, broadly, what will happen to us. Van den Bleeken is no exception. Perhaps, though, Van den Bleeken's judgement should be decisive, even if it could be mistaken, either because it is most likely to be right, or because we should respect his judgement. Suppose that Van den Bleeken is right, or that we should respect his judgement even if it is wrong. Should he have the right to die? Some might believe that a fate worse than death is a proportionate punishment given the gravity of his crimes. Allowing him to die would then render his punishment too light. I find this hard to accept. The reason why he will most likely never be released is public protection, not because a fate worse than death is a proportionate punishment. Still, perhaps others - especially the victims and their families - have interests in him being kept alive. One reason that might be offered is that the victims, or their families, take satisfaction in his suffering. His death will reduce that satisfaction. Alternatively, and I think more plausibly, the victims and their families might have an interest in Van den Bleeken recognising the significance of the crimes that he has committed. Assuming that he has not done this already, he can do so only if he is kept alive. Could this be a decisive reason not to allow him to die? This idea seems more attractive, but I am not sure whether it is sufficient to deny him the right to die if his fate will indeed be worse than death if he is forced to stay alive.

बेल्जियम की जेल में आजीवन कारावास की सजा काट रहे एक हत्यारे, जिसने घातक इंजेक्शन से मरने की अनुमति मांगी थी, को सितंबर में बताया गया कि उसकी इच्छा पूरी हो जाएगी। इस सप्ताह न्याय मंत्रालय ने उस निर्णय को उलट दिया।