Mavericks to mainstream: The long campaign for Brexit

Summary: It used to be a fringe obsession ignored by the political mainstream.

By Brian WheelerPolitical reporter So how did Euroscepticism conquer Britain? The word "Eurosceptic" was not coined until the 1980s, to describe a rebellious band of Tory MPs, but hostility to closer European integration dates back decades. Britain voted overwhelmingly to remain in the European Economic Community in 1975, but never joined the currency or the passport-free area, and a substantial body of public opinion had always believed the country was better off out. They rarely had a voice at Westminster. The campaign to leave the European Union - via another referendum - took root outside of Parliament. It was pursued by mavericks, political outcasts and a fair few eccentrics. It was a long, and often thankless, battle - and it began before Britain had even joined. 1961 - The birth of Euroscepticism With World War II fresh in the memory, and the Empire rapidly disintegrating, Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan decided Britain's future lay in Europe. His, in the end unsuccessful, application to join the six nation European Economic Community enraged many in his party, who saw it as a betrayal of the Commonwealth nations, which were Britain's biggest trading partners at the time. Many in Labour viewed the EEC as a business-led Tory con trick. Both sides fretted about the loss of independence and status it would seem to entail. Most opponents of membership tended to be on the far left and right fringes, but there were big, mainstream voices in both the Labour and Tory parties that were also firmly against it. "I'm not very keen on the Common Market. After all, we beat Germany and we beat Italy and we saved France and Belgium and Holland. I never see why we should go crawling to them," said former Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee. The first substantial campaign against British membership - The Anti-Common Market League - was formed in June 1961, by a bunch of disgruntled Conservatives. It had broadened out into a cross-party effort by the following September, when it staged a mass anti-Common Market rally at London's Albert Hall. 1967 - Keep Britain Out Euroscepticism has always attracted colourful characters. Major Oliver Smedley was a decorated World War II veteran and pirate radio entrepreneur, who was cleared of murder in 1966 after he shot a business rival in a dispute over a transmitter. Maj Smedley, who quit the Liberal Party after being slow-handclapped at the party's conference, believed joining the "protectionist" EEC would lead to higher food prices and poverty. His Keep Britain Out campaign merged with the Anti-Common Market League in the late 1960s and is still going today, as Get Britain Out. 1973 - Britain goes in On 1 January 1973, Britain officially joined the EEC, at the third attempt. Opinion polls suggested the nation was divided over Tory Prime Minister Ted Heath's decision. Eurosceptics, on the left and right, stepped up their calls for a referendum. 1975 - 'Out of Europe and into the world' There was widespread disbelief in Eurosceptic circles when voters opted by 67% to 33% to stay in the Common Market, in the UK's first nationwide referendum. The vote had been called by Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson largely as a way to paper over the huge divisions in his party over Europe. Some polls suggested the unlikely alliance of Tony Benn, from the Labour left, and Enoch Powell, Ulster Unionist and former Tory, who emerged as the chief spokesmen for the No campaign, was a turn-off for voters. Whatever the case, the defeat was a body blow to the Eurosceptics. Many lean years followed, with poorly attended meetings, lost election deposits and pamphlets few read, even if polls suggested Britain was turning against the EEC. Labour campaigned to leave the EEC at the 1983 general election but went down to a heavy defeat and the Eurosceptics in its ranks were pushed to the margins. 1988 - 'A European super-state' Margaret Thatcher's Bruges speech was the moment Euroscepticism in the UK was reborn and it arguably set Britain on the path to Brexit. She had travelled to the Belgian city to fire a warning shot across the EEC's bows, over its ambitions to move beyond the single market to create a "social Europe", with new employment rights and regulations on business, as well as a single currency. It all smacked of socialism by the backdoor to Mrs Thatcher, rather than the free trade area she had enthusiastically championed in 1975. Britain's "destiny is in Europe", she stressed, but added: "We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at European level, with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels." It was a riposte to a speech Jacques Delors, president of the European Commission, had given to the Trades Union Congress 12 weeks earlier. Which brings us to... 1990 - Up Yours, Delors In 1975, Britain's best-selling newspaper, The Sun, had told its readers: "We are all Europeans now." In November 1990, it called on its front page for them to stick two fingers up to Jacques Delors - "Up, Yours Delors", said the headline - to "tell the French fool where to stuff his ECU" (the ECU was the forerunner of the euro). The rest of the right-wing tabloids were now just as Eurosceptic, if not as blunt. But calling for Britain to leave was still strictly off limits in the mainstream media and politics. 1991 - The birth of UKIP It began in a dusty office at the London School of Economics. European history lecturer Alan Sked founded the Anti-Federalist League to "prevent the UK becoming a province of a united European superstate". The tiny group, which included Nigel Farage among its early recruits, campaigned against the Maastricht Treaty, which would turn the EEC into the European Union, including a commitment to "ever closer union" and the free movement of people. The League soon changed its name to the more voter-friendly UK Independence Party and began calling for Britain's exit from the EU. But it was largely ignored, or ridiculed, by the media, and struggled to make an impact. Mr Sked, a former member of the Liberal Party, left in 1997, complaining that it had been taken over by right wingers and racists. 1993 - The Maastricht rebellion Conservative MPs fought a guerrilla war against their own government's support for the Maastricht Treaty. Some of the Maastricht rebels would go on to play leading roles in the 2016 Brexit campaign (before receiving knighthoods), including Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Sir Bill Cash and Sir Bernard Jenkin. But even the most Eurosceptic among them never spoke publicly about leaving the EU at this stage, preferring instead to talk about "reform" or, if they were in a daring mood, "fundamental reform". 1997 - Goldsmith weighs in The mercurial billionaire, and father of Conservative minister Zac, founded the Referendum Party to campaign for Britain to be given another say on Europe. He spent more than £7m on the party's 1997 general election campaign - including a glossy promotional video mailed to five million households - for a 2.6% share of the vote. 1999 - Farage goes to Brussels In many ways, Nigel Farage owes his political career to a Belgian mathematician. In 1878, Victor D'Hondt devised the system of proportional representation adopted by the UK in 1999 for elections to the European Parliament. UKIP and other smaller parties, like the Greens, had stood no chance under first-past-the-post. Suddenly the door to a seat in Brussels was open, and Mr Farage and two other UKIP candidates were first through it, despite receiving virtually no national media coverage for their campaign. "Brexit wouldn't have happened without proportional representation or, ironically, the European Parliament," Mr Farage told Channel 4 News this week. "It was actually getting elected to that place that gave us some kind of platform," he added, and UKIP used the "wherewithal" provided by the Brussels parliament to "build a UK political movement". The same year saw the arrival of Dominic Cummings, future mastermind of the Vote Leave campaign, on the Eurosceptic scene, as campaign director of anti-euro pressure group Business for Sterling. 2004 - The BBC sacks a daytime TV presenter UKIP was still struggling for public recognition and credibility when, out of nowhere, Robert Kilroy-Silk joined it. A household name, due to his long-running daytime talk show, Kilroy, he had been fired by the BBC over comments he'd made in a newspaper column. Mr Kilroy-Silk's brief UKIP adventure - and the massive injection of cash that came with it, from self-made Yorkshire millionaire Paul Sykes - helped the party to the best results in its history in the 2004 European elections, gaining 2.6 million votes. UKIP - and its call for a referendum on leaving the EU - were now on the political map. 2006 - 'Fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists' It's possible to track the rise of UKIP in insults directed at its members by Conservative leaders, as they tried in vain to stem the flow of supporters to Nigel Farage's "People's Army". In 2004, Michael Howard - who would go on to be a Brexit supporter - called them "extremists" and "cranks". Two years later David Cameron refused to apologise for labelling them "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists", handing UKIP a publicity coup and a rallying cry. 2011 - Tory MPs call for a referendum Some 81 Tory MPs defied Prime Minister David Cameron to vote in favour of an EU referendum in October 2011. Mr Cameron easily won the vote, with Labour support, but leaving the EU - as one of a range of options - was now firmly on the agenda at Westminster. Mr Cameron would announce plans for a referendum just under two years later. 2014 - UKIP runs riot Nigel Farage had finally found a way to turn the latent Euroscepticism in large sections of the British public into electoral gold, as concerns about the flow of migrants from new EU states were added to the traditional cry for freedom from bossy Brussels bureaucracy. UKIP seemed unstoppable in 2014. It topped the poll in the European elections, with a massive 3.8 million votes - and made further gains in local elections to consolidate the breakthrough it had made in 2012. Then Mr Farage turned up the heat on David Cameron by unveiling two Tory defectors, Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless, in quick succession, with the threat of more to come. 2016 - Johnson joins the Leave campaign David Cameron had been stunned by the number of Conservative MPs who had joined the Leave campaign, not realising the depth of Eurosceptic feeling in his party. But he had not expected Boris Johnson to join the cause. The official Leave campaign wanted nothing to do with Nigel Farage over fears he would scare off floating voters. Its recruitment of Mr Johnson - one of the biggest, and most popular, names in British politics - was a game changing moment. Euroscepticism had finally shaken off its reputation as an eccentric fringe movement. Recalling UKIP's early days in the European Parliament in 1999, at a farewell press conference in Brussels on Wednesday, Mr Farage said: "We were considered pretty odd. Perhaps we were, I don't know, certainly very eccentric. "And as those years went by I did begin to wonder whether I might become the patron saint of lost causes." But now, he added, "far from being a minority sport, Euroscepticism had become the mainstream, settled view in the United Kingdom".

यह राजनीतिक मुख्यधारा द्वारा नजरअंदाज किया जाने वाला एक मामूली जुनून हुआ करता था।


Are Kenya ranch invasions driven by drought or politics?

Summary: There's a standoff at Suyian Ranch.

By Alastair LeitheadLaikipia, Kenya For the past week traditional herdsmen have invaded the land, burned down the tourist lodge and brought in thousands of cattle to steal pasture. Now police reinforcements have arrived and from the overlooking escarpment are trying to decide how best to restore law and order. Suyian Soul tourist lodge - known locally as "Anne's Camp" - is overwhelmed with cattle picking through the charred remains of the looted buildings. "We don't allow people to just walk onto the land," said Anne Powys, whose family has lived on this 44,000 acre farm for more than 100 years and is used to making grazing deals with the neighbours. "We'd been talking to the local community for two months, but the young warriors who were driving the cattle came and said 'we don't want to speak to anyone, we're coming to take the grass, by force, so don't get in our way.' "We realised that it wasn't them but local politics had changed their minds and that was disappointing." The anti-stock theft police moved in, but in the confrontation a young man was killed, sparking an escalation - now the herdsmen have built cattle kraals and moved in. At sunrise on a clear day, the sharp peak of Mount Kenya frames the horizon. Giraffes, elephants and buffaloes are among the wildlife browsing the acacia bush. A parched savannah grassland rolls off far into the distance. Laikipia County is a vast but harsh place to raise cattle, needing careful management to avoid overgrazing. Tens of thousands of extra cattle belonging to Samburu, Pokot and Laikipiak Maasai pastoralists destroy the delicate balance, tearing through the landscape, consuming every piece of pasture and moving on. Approaching the squatters is difficult - we tried to speak to herdsmen but they are armed, and suspicious of our intentions they fired shots at our car. Other herdsmen we spoke to blame failed rains: "It's because of drought," said John Lapollei, who was illegally grazing his cattle on a nearby farm. "This is the only place there is pasture, the only place we can bring our cows," he said, aware it was against the law but willing to risk arrest by an under-resourced police force. The commercial farmers blame overgrazing and poor management for destroying previously fertile pasture. "It's not about drought. The reality is there are too many people and too much livestock and it's a global thing," said Anne Powys, who blames climate change for more extreme weather. A local politician has encouraged the herdsmen to take over the land using racially charged language - white Kenyans own most large farms. Elections are a few months away and politics here are tribal and ruthless. "It's not about white ranchers - it's about the whole community. There's a landscape of different peoples here who are suffering," said Anne Powys. Large ranches owned by black Kenyans and many smallholders have also been targeted. "People have been misused and told to go and destroy property - destroy the wildlife - try to destroy the livelihood of the place so you can take over." A little further north at a large watering hole on Mugie Ranch, where buffaloes and elephants usually drink and tourists come to visit, there are cows as far as the eye can see, and more on the way. "The damage occurring with the large number of stock at the moment is catastrophic," said Jamie Manual, who looks after the wildlife. "The land will be overgrazed and degraded and this will turn to a situation where we have a disaster on our hands. A lot of wildlife will die through starvation through a lack of grass in the conservancy," he said. The cattle make their way to the water around the carcass of an elephant killed in a clash with herdsmen. "We've had a lot of incidents now where wildlife has come into conflict with herders and it results in a gunshot, a spear or a poison arrow." It's a short drive to another carcass - a large bull elephant killed the day before - both have had their tusks removed. "In amongst them are people who target elephants for ivory. We have lost seven elephants, seven are wounded and we are expecting to uncover a lot of other carcasses," said Jamie Manual. At Suyian Ranch there's still uncertainty over how the invaders will be driven away and where they will go next. And it's not just here - other farms in the area have been hit. Maria Dodds at Kifuko farm is living under siege. Thousands of cattle are illegally occupying her land and many of her staff have fled after coming under fire on most days of the last three weeks. The farmers broadly praise the local police, but say they don't have the resources or the numbers to confront the heavily armed pastoralists and restore law and order. The national response has been slow, despite updated travel advice from the British High Commission about the clashes. Laikipia is one of Kenya's most popular tourist areas, and many business owners are afraid that if the pastoralists are not stopped, the violence could spread and the economy could be badly affected. Those already hit warn that unless the government takes decisive action, the land invasions will spread and the crisis deepen. Anne Powys hopes it can still be resolved through dialogue. "Even having lost my camp we are still willing to talk to our neighbours. We're going nowhere and neither are our community," she said.

सुयियान खेत में गतिरोध है।


EU referendum: The view from one family

Summary: With only a couple of weeks to go until the EU referendum on 23 June, people up and down the country will be discussing their opinions with their families. But being related to someone is no guarantee you will agree with them - on the referendum or anything else. BBC News spoke to three generations of one Manchester family about their different views on whether the UK should stay in the EU.

Maria and Raymond Dormer remember voting in the 1975 referendum about whether to leave or stay in what was then the European Economic Community. Now grandparents to eight children, they find themselves having to make a similar decision. Mrs Dormer is worried about the impact on jobs and the money coming into the UK from the EU. "If we come out, we are going to lose that," she says. "If we come out and - in five, eight or 10 years' time - we or the government think 'we should never have done that', we're not going to be allowed back in. "One of the things I'm concerned about [if the UK leaves the EU] is travelling, because at the moment we can travel quite freely around Europe. Also what concerns me is exports and imports - is it going to cost us more as the consumer, buying everyday things?" Her husband Raymond, who is retired after owning a small retail business, believes the UK should have a stronger voice in the EU and, like many, is worried about immigration. "We might end up with too many people in the country - can our National Health Service, our housing, our other services cope with this? "The whole thing is balancing up the good and bad and I think that's the problem at the moment - we don't know which way to go or whether we will benefit by a definite yes or no. Well, it's just not clear-cut." Their daughter Victoria Howarth is a single mother with five children. As a book-keeper, she is used to crunching figures and some of her reasons for wanting the UK to leave the EU are connected to finance. "The membership fee that we pay to be in Europe is so astronomical and I think it could be put to better use," she says. She wants the UK to "make our own business decisions" and have more direct negotiations with economic powers such as the US, China and India. She also says she hopes the UK will gain more border controls if it leaves the EU and is concerned about the country's standing. "[The EU] is not just the market, it's got its own flag, its own anthem. It'd be nice to see Britain - the little country that it is - stand on its own, be more than just a star on the flag. "We're becoming smaller and smaller regarding our voice - we stood very big. This is why my feeling is to leave." Her daughter Rebecca, 20, who is studying business management at university, believes the UK should stay in the EU. "From a student's point of view, being able to travel freely - that's all I've known. So I definitely wouldn't want to anything to jeopardise that. "You have the option to be an exchange student - fair enough, I'm not, but if I wanted to be, I could - so I'm looking at it from that perspective. "If we did go at it alone, does it mean we make our own laws, protect the borders better? I don't know because I don't actually know how much money we have to do all this." But not every member of the family gets to vote. Rebecca's 16-year-old brother Alex is two years below the minimum voting age but has views on what the UK should do and told the BBC he thinks younger people should have been allowed to cast a ballot as the referendum results will affect their future.

23 जून को यूरोपीय संघ के जनमत संग्रह तक केवल कुछ ही सप्ताह बाकी हैं, देश के ऊपर और नीचे के लोग अपने परिवारों के साथ अपनी राय पर चर्चा करेंगे। लेकिन किसी से संबंधित होने की कोई गारंटी नहीं है कि आप उनसे सहमत होंगे-जनमत संग्रह या किसी और चीज़ पर। बीबीसी न्यूज़ ने एक मैनचेस्टर परिवार की तीन पीढ़ियों से उनके अलग-अलग विचारों के बारे में बात की कि क्या ब्रिटेन को यूरोपीय संघ में रहना चाहिए।


Prince Harry and Meghan to move to Windsor Castle

Summary: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will move to their cottage in the grounds of Windsor Castle in preparation for the birth of their first child.

Harry and Meghan will move out of Kensington Palace into Frogmore Cottage in early 2019, the palace confirmed. The couple held their wedding reception for about 200 guests at Frogmore House, a 17th Century royal residence on the same estate as the cottage, in May. Kensington Palace said Windsor was a "very special place" for the couple. The Duchess of Sussex is due to give birth next spring. The couple have been living at Kensington Palace in London near Prince Harry's brother, William, the Duke of Cambridge and his family.

ड्यूक और डचेस ऑफ ससेक्स अपने पहले बच्चे के जन्म की तैयारी के लिए विंडसर कैसल के मैदान में अपनी झोपड़ी में चले जाएंगे।


Governor of Japan broadcaster NHK denies Nanjing massacre

Summary: A governor of Japan's public broadcaster, NHK, has denied that the Nanjing massacre took place, days after a row over Tokyo's use of war-time sex slaves engulfed the new NHK chief.

Naoki Hyakuta made his comments as he campaigned for a right-wing candidate in the Tokyo gubernatorial election. Mr Hyakuta, a prominent novelist, is one of 12 members of the NHK board of governors. He was picked by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for the role late last year. "In 1938, Chiang Kai-shek tried to publicise Japan's responsibility for the Nanking Massacre, but the nations of the world ignored him. Why? Because it never happened," the Asahi newspaper quoted Mr Hyakuta as saying. Atrocities were committed by all sides in wars and that there was no need to teach such things to Japanese children, he said. His comments came in a stump speech on Tokyo on 3 February, the paper said. Asked about the reports, Japan's top government spokesman declined to comment. "I'm aware of the reports, but I've learnt (expressing personal views) doesn't violate the Broadcast Law," Yoshihide Suga said. The law bans the governors from serving as officers in political parties but not from being members, and their political activities are otherwise not restricted. Mr Hyakuta's comments come days after the broadcaster's new head, Katsuto Momii, said that the Japanese military's use of sex slaves during World War Two was a practice common in any country at war. "Such women could be found in any nation that was at war, including France and Germany," he said, describing international anger as "puzzling". But he later apologised, saying: "It is my lack of discretion in that I didn't understand the various rules. I think it was very inappropriate that I made the comments at such places." China says up to 300,000 civilians and soldiers died in Nanjing over the winter of 1937-38 after the Japanese military entered the city. Some Japanese historians dispute these figures.

जापान के सार्वजनिक प्रसारक, एन. एच. के. के एक गवर्नर ने इस बात से इनकार किया है कि नानजिंग नरसंहार हुआ था, टोक्यो द्वारा युद्ध के समय यौन दासों के उपयोग पर एक विवाद के कुछ दिनों बाद नए एन. एच. के. प्रमुख को घेर लिया।


Is ex-warlord Charles Taylor pulling Liberia's election strings from prison?

Summary: Liberia's former President Charles Taylor is currently serving a 50-year sentence for war crimes in a prison in the British city of Durham. But is he using that as a base to interfere in the elections in his homeland next Tuesday?

By Charlotte AttwoodBBC Africa, Monrovia "If he was to come back today, I'd roll out the red carpet," said Justin Luther Cassell, a 32-year-old man sitting outside the Pray for Peace Business Centre in Gbartala, central Liberia. Gathered round on plastic chairs, drinking beer and discussing the forthcoming Liberian elections, the men here are clearly frustrated. This was Charles Taylor's rebel headquarters in the 1990s. The former military base may be crumbling, with buildings almost completely engulfed by the jungle, but Taylor's name is still as strong as ever in Bong county. More than five years since the former president was sentenced for war crimes committed in neighbouring Sierra Leone, people in his heartland are still harking back to the old days. "Even with the sound of the gun, life was better," said one frustrated young man, bemoaning the lack of basic necessities in the country. Football and politics In an unlikely alliance, former world footballer of the year George Weah, who is running on the presidential ballot for the third time, has chosen Taylor's ex-wife, Jewel Howard Taylor, as his deputy. Having historically been a staunch critic of Taylor and his National Patriotic Party (NPP), questions are being asked of the motives. The union between Mr Weah's Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) and the NPP came just before a phone call from the former warlord was broadcast to a gathering of his supporters on his birthday in January this year. The call was made from inside a high-security prison in Durham. He is heard saying that "this revolution is his life", he advises his people not to betray the party: "Go back to base and everything will be fine." Rodney Sieh, editor of Front Page Africa - the Liberian paper that published the call - said he was sure that Taylor knew that "he was speaking to an audience". Taylor wanted his people to know that he was still relevant, according to Mr Sieh. "He still wants his voice heard" in the Liberian political scene, he said. 'I'll be back' Mrs Howard Taylor has made her allegiance to her ex-husband clear. In an interview with local journalists outside a campaign rally, she said that the country needed to get back to the "agenda" outlined by Taylor when he was president. But she denied that he was influencing the 2017 elections. Taylor timeline Charles Taylor: Preacher, warlord, president Find out more about Liberia Speaking to the BBC after a friendly football game just outside the capital, Mr Weah admitted to taking a call from prison. But he rejected the idea that strings were being pulled. "Charles Taylor is not running the campaign for us," he said. Defending his choice of running mate he said simply: "People love her, she was the mother of this nation. "If Charles Taylor was campaigning for me, I think the world would be aware." But the world is aware of the alleged interference and it is concerned. Since news broke of the phone call, the US Congress passed a resolution that condemned any "external interference" in the poll and specifically any attempt by the convicted war criminal "to influence the elections from prison". The EU mission in Liberia has also made it clear that "Charles Taylor is serving a 50 year jail sentence and he is not coming back to Liberia". But if Taylor himself was to be believed when he left Liberia to be exiled in Nigeria on 11 August 2003, his intentions were clear. "God willing, I will be back," he said at a resignation ceremony in the capital. 'Sleepy Joe' Observers are concerned about meddling that could go beyond election day itself. Mr Sieh told the BBC that Mr Weah now has some of Taylor's closest aides around him. "He may not be here physically but he could influence a lot of things if one of these people are elected," the editor said. Mr Weah and Mrs Howard Taylor's main opponent is considered to be Vice-President Joseph Boakai - or "Sleepy Joe" as he is commonly known - because he is often caught napping at public events. The 73-year-old has served as vice-president under Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's first elected female president, for the past 12 years. But rumours of a rift between the two are rife. "A lot more needs to be achieved," he told us when we caught up with him on the campaign trail. "The Liberian people want to see development and someone who can unify them." Asked about his nickname he smiled and said he is "a dreamer", but whether he has the charisma and dynamism to captivate Liberia's youthful population, only the vote on 10 October will prove. They have 20 candidates to choose from. 'Tired of war' Although many commentators predict a second round between Mr Weah and Mr Boakai, former Coca-Cola executive Alexander Cummings, who came on to the scene 18 months ago, is fast becoming a serious contender. A candidate needs more than 50% of the vote for a first-round victory. According to Mr Sieh, with his door-to-door strategy, Mr Cummings has changed the way campaigns are carried out in Liberia and he might just make it to a run-off. But for most Liberians, the most important thing is peace. Hundreds of women across the country are fasting and praying for a peaceful election. Just opposite President Sirleaf's private residence, 44-year-old Bernice Freeman is one of more than 100 women gathered under a tent providing shade from the hot sun. "Every woman here has a very bitter past," she said with a determined look in her eye. "Some of us were raped several times, we are tired." The power of these women cannot be underestimated - this same group is credited with bringing an end to the conflict by forcing the warlords to engage in peace talks. Nobody here wants a return to those days.

लाइबेरिया के पूर्व राष्ट्रपति चार्ल्स टेलर वर्तमान में ब्रिटिश शहर डरहम की एक जेल में युद्ध अपराधों के लिए 50 साल की सजा काट रहे हैं। लेकिन क्या वह अगले मंगलवार को अपने देश में होने वाले चुनावों में हस्तक्षेप करने के लिए इसका उपयोग कर रहे हैं?


Guernsey midwives misconduct hearing put back

Summary: A hearing into claims of misconduct by three Guernsey midwives over the death of a baby in hospital has been adjourned.

The child - referred to as Baby A - was born in Guernsey on 30 January 2014 but died hours later. Three midwives at Princess Elizabeth Hospital face charges relating to the death of the unnamed baby. The Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing in London was adjourned until 6 February.

अस्पताल में एक बच्चे की मौत पर ग्वेर्नसे की तीन दाइयों द्वारा दुर्व्यवहार के दावों की सुनवाई स्थगित कर दी गई है।


Canada Lac-Megantic train blast media review

Summary: Six days after a runaway train packed with crude oil incinerated the heart of Lac-Megantic, residents of the picturesque town are coming to terms with the likely fact that 50 people died in the intense fireball.

Questions abound in regional and national media about how the derailing happened, and who is to blame. While it is still not clear what caused the oil-tanker train to barrel down the tracks unattended, most of Canada's six runaway train incidents since 2006 involved inadequate braking systems or procedures, national broadcaster CBC News reports. The disaster proves engineers should not work alone, argues Heather Mallick in the centre-left Toronto Star. Pointing out that Ottawa is cutting funding for Transport Canada by nearly a third, she says the trend to pare staffing to the minimum to save money on salaries carries a human cost. But in the rightist National Post, Andrew Coyne analyses the political side of the tragedy and warns of people trying to use the Lac-Megantic disaster to further their own agendas - particularly those blaming Conservative spending cuts. "Perhaps it is reasonable to require that trains not be left unattended, or not parked on an incline, or that signals or fail-safes be installed to catch any trains that do slip their moorings," he writes. "But whatever regulatory regime we come up with, it won't alter three fundamental facts: there are events you can't plan for; there are costs that aren't worth bearing; and the best regulations in the world only work if people follow them." 'High-calibre engineer' The centrist Toronto Globe and Mail profiles Edward Burkhardt, the chairman of Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MM&A)- the railway company at the centre of the Lac-Megantic controversy. He is a New York-born jazz lover who now lives in Kenilworth, Illinois. The veteran railroader's office doubles as the New Zealand honorary consul office - a post Mr Burkhardt has held since the mid-1990s after playing a major role in privatising that country's rail system. Across the border in Maine, the Bangor Daily News profiles 10 years of highs and lows for MM&A. Meanwhile, Montreal's La Presse says the driver of the train is "beside himself" after the disaster. Tom Harding, who has worked for MMA for several decades, is described by colleagues and friends as a "high-calibre engineer" and an "extremely competent man", says the newspaper.

कच्चे तेल से भरी एक भगोड़ी ट्रेन द्वारा लाक-मेगांटिक के दिल को जलाए जाने के छह दिन बाद, सुरम्य शहर के निवासी इस संभावित तथ्य से सहमत हो रहे हैं कि आग के तीव्र गोले में 50 लोगों की मौत हो गई थी।


UK MPs make rare trip to Russia amid freeze in relations

Summary: UK-Russian relations have been in the deep freeze for some time. The list of reasons is about as long as a Russian winter and includes Russia's annexation of Crimea, Western sanctions against Moscow, differences over Syria and the murder in London of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko.

By Steve RosenbergBBC News, Moscow UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has been outspoken in his criticism of Russia; Russian officials have been outspoken in their criticism of Philip Hammond. Touche. But is the UK government's approach to Russia the right one? In the deep freeze Last December the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee launched an inquiry into Foreign Office (FCO) "policy towards Russia and the broader UK-Russian bilateral relationship". It aims to explore the scope for co-operation with Moscow in areas of shared interests, to examine whether the FCO has the "necessary understanding of Russia's internal politics" and evaluate the state of economic ties between Moscow and London. This week five MPs from the Foreign Affairs Committee are on a fact-finding trip to Russia. They are meeting political figures, civil society and human rights groups, as well as British businessmen. We caught up with the group at the lower house of the Russian parliament, the Duma. They had been invited to a closed-door session with counterparts from the Duma's foreign affairs committee. This was a rare event: political contact between Moscow and London. "The purpose is to understand the Russian perspective," the committee chairman, Conservative MP Crispin Blunt, told me after the meeting. "The state of our relationship is so poor that one is seeking out areas of common ground, there's common interest in the fight against Islamic State. "But at the same time we also need to make sure we understand each other about the difficult issues, the things that have gone wrong in our relationship both in the last couple of years with respect to Ukraine, but also over two decades since the end of the Cold War." 'Flawed sanctions' High on the agenda is the economic relationship. So, is there a "common interest" on the part of Moscow and London to remove sanctions? Crispin Blunt told me that "the effectiveness and purpose" of Western sanctions against Russia "are something we're going to have a look at". Later, at a meeting in Moscow with British businessmen, his Conservative colleague Daniel Kawcynzski tweeted: "British companies telling me EU sanctions against Russia are ineffective and flawed". The head of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee, Alexei Pushkov, said the UK MPs had told him that Britain was suffering from Russian counter-sanctions. For example, British farmers were no longer able to sell their beef on the Russian market. "They asked me what can the UK do to improve the atmosphere between Russia and the West?" Mr Pushkov said. "My response to them was this: adopt a more moderate position on sanctions. Don't follow in the footsteps of those countries which use naked Russophobia to exercise influence in the Western alliance, like Poland and the Baltic States." The message from Moscow is clear: you scratch our backs by easing sanctions, and we'll scratch yours. With EU sanctions against Russia up for renewal next month, it is a message Moscow is pushing hard. "We are extremely interested in improving relations," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told me. "Russia has on many occasions demonstrated it is prepared to show flexibility. But this flexibility has its limits." In other words, there are key issues over which Moscow will not compromise for the sake of improved ties with the West: for example over the status of Crimea. Neither does the UK government seem prepared to "park" its political disagreements with Russia to boost economic relations. A fact-finding mission by MPs may reflect a desire by some for compromise. But it does not signal a change in Britain's official policy towards Russia.

ब्रिटेन-रूस संबंध कुछ समय से गहरे ठहराव में हैं। कारणों की सूची लगभग रूसी सर्दी तक है और इसमें रूस का क्रीमिया पर कब्जा, मास्को के खिलाफ पश्चिमी प्रतिबंध, सीरिया पर मतभेद और लंदन में पूर्व रूसी एजेंट अलेक्जेंडर लित्विनेन्को की हत्या शामिल है।


Ratko Mladic, the 'Butcher of Bosnia'

Summary: Ratko Mladic was the army general who became known as the "Butcher of Bosnia", who waged a brutal campaign during the Bosnian war and was jailed for life for directing his troops in the worst atrocities in post-war Europe.

By Joel GunterBBC News More than 20 years after he was first indicted by an international war crimes tribunal, and a year after the closing arguments in his case, Mladic appeared in court at The Hague on Wednesday to hear the verdict against him. In typical style, he railed against the judge and insulted the court and he was removed from the room. In his absence, he was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity. Seemingly ever-present on the front lines and respected by his soldiers as a man of courage, Mladic oversaw an army of 180,000 men during the Bosnian war of the 1990s. In 1992, Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) and Croats voted for independence in a referendum boycotted by Serbs. The country descended into war, Bosniaks and Croats on one side and Bosnian Serbs on the other. Along with the Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, Mladic came to symbolise a Serb campaign of ethnic cleansing that left tens of thousands dead and hundreds of thousands displaced. The worst and most enduring crimes pinned on the former army chief and his men were an unrelenting three-year siege of Sarajevo that claimed more than 10,000 lives, and the massacre at Srebrenica, where more than 7,000 Bosniak men and boys were slaughtered and dumped in mass graves. When the conflict came to an end in 1995, Mladic, facing an indictment for war crimes, went on the run. With considerable help, he evaded capture for 16 years, until May 2011 when police descended on an unassuming yellow brick house in the village of Lazarevo, north of Belgrade. Clad in black clothes and black masks, officers surrounded the house. Inside, Europe's most-wanted man - older in appearance than his 69 years and thinner than the bull-like general of his war days - was preparing to go for a walk in the garden. Ratko Mladic was ferocious in pursuit of what he saw as the destiny of the Serb nation. He saw the war as an opportunity to avenge five centuries of occupation by Muslim Turks. He would refer to Bosniaks as "Turks" in order to insult them. There may have also been an emotional root to his ruthlessness. In 1995, a year before the massacre at Srebrenica, his much-loved daughter Ana, a medical student, shot herself with his pistol - an act that, according to people close to him, hardened his character. Some believe she chose to die after learning of atrocities committed by forces under her father's command. Mladic was born in the south Bosnian village of Kalinovik. On his second birthday, in 1945, his father died fighting pro-Nazi Croatian Ustasha troops. He grew up in Tito's Yugoslavia and became a regular officer in the Yugoslav People's Army. A career soldier, he was said to inspire passionate devotion among his soldiers. When the country slid into war in 1991, Mladic was posted to lead the Yugoslav Army 9th Corps against Croatian forces at Knin. The following year he was appointed to lead a new Bosnian Serb army. As his gunners pounded the city of Sarajevo in early 1992, mercilessly killing civilians, he would yell "Burn their brains!" to encourage them, and "Shell them until they're on the edge of madness!" The siege laid waste to parts of central Sarajevo, hollowing out houses and charring cars. A long stretch of road leading into the city became known as "sniper's alley", after the Serb marksmen who would fire at anything that moved: car, man, woman or child. Massacre at Srebrenica The most horrific crime of which Mladic was convicted happened 80km (50 miles) north of Sarajevo, in a small salt-mining town whose name would become indelibly associated with the horror of that week. Srebrenica was a Bosniak enclave under UN protection, when in July 1995 Mladic's forces overran it and rounded up thousands of men and boys aged between 12 and 77. As the men were detained, Mladic was seen handing out sweets to Bosniak children in the main square. Hours later, in a field outside the town, his men began shooting. Over the next five days, more than 7,000 men and boys were executed, reportedly machine-gunned in groups of 10 before being buried by bulldozer in mass graves. It was the worst mass execution since the crimes of the Nazis. The war ended later that year. Hundreds of thousands of non-Serbs had been driven from their homes in an attempt to create an ethnically pure Serb state in Croatia and Bosnia. In late 1995, a UN war crimes tribunal indicted Mladic on two counts of genocide, for the Sarajevo siege and the Srebrenica massacre. Many other combatants, including Croats and Bosniaks, were also accused of war crimes. Mladic went on the run, but he didn't go far. Flight and arrest As a fugitive Mladic still enjoyed the open support and protection of the then-Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic. He returned to Belgrade, where he went untroubled to busy restaurants, football matches and horse races, escorted by bodyguards. But Milosevic's fall from power in 2000 and subsequent arrest put Mladic at risk. He spent the next decade moving through hideouts in Serbia, relying on a diminishing band of helpers. In October 2004, his former aides began surrendering to the war crimes tribunal, as Serbia came under intense international pressure to co-operate. When Karadzic was detained in Belgrade in July 2008, speculation grew that Mladic's arrest would follow. But it was not until 26 May 2011 that police units descended on Lazarevo and surrounded Mladic's yellow brick house. When the officers moved in, the man who had vowed to never be taken alive surrendered quietly, and the two loaded guns he kept for protection lay untouched. He was 69 and had already suffered a stroke, partly paralysing his right arm. "I could have killed 10 of you if I wanted, but I didn't want to," he reportedly told the officers. "You're just young men, doing your job." Brought to justice He finally went on trial in 2012, at The Hague, facing 11 charges including genocide. The court, anxious that he should not die before the end of the proceedings, scaled back the case against him. He was in poor health, and had difficulty moving, apparently due to a series of strokes. "I'm very old. Every day I'm more infirm and weaker," he told the court. Despite his frailty, Mladic was defiant in court. He sarcastically applauded the judges as they entered, and argued vociferously with them. Catching the eye of a Bosnian woman who had gestured rudely to him, he drew his finger across his throat. His 12-member defence team argued that their client was an honest, professional career soldier who successfully defended Bosnian Serbs from the threat of genocide. They said he was in Belgrade for meetings with international officials when most of the killings in Srebrenica took place, and that he had no means of communication with the men there. The prosecution did not disagree, but contended that he met senior deputies before leaving the town, and gave them the order to kill. The defendant branded the court proceedings "satanic". Fanatical and fearless, Mladic became a folk hero to many of those he led, and he remains a hero to many in his home village of Bozanovici, where a sign nailed to tree still reads "General Mladic Street". Two decades on from the war, in a courtroom at the Hague, he was diminished physically but not in temper. Just as in his other court appearances, he shouted and disrupted the court. But it did not matter. He was removed, and his sentence handed down in his absence.

रत्को म्लादिक सेना के जनरल थे जिन्हें "बोस्निया के कसाई" के रूप में जाना जाने लगा, जिन्होंने बोस्नियाई युद्ध के दौरान एक क्रूर अभियान चलाया और युद्ध के बाद के यूरोप में सबसे खराब अत्याचारों में अपने सैनिकों को निर्देशित करने के लिए उन्हें आजीवन कारावास की सजा सुनाई गई।


The women who are killing it in taxidermy

Summary: If you were asked to conjure up an image of a taxidermist, you could be forgiven for visualising a moustachioed man in Victorian hunting attire. Now, more than a century after the practice reached a peak of popularity, a new wave of female taxidermists aims to change people's perceptions about their profession.

By Charlie JonesBBC News 'I always have crows in my freezer' It started with a school trip to a museum. The dinosaur bones were boring and so were the fossils, but when it came to the dead mammals, six-year-old Hannah Debnam was hooked. "It freaked a lot of the other kids out but I was just staring at it all: the lion, the tiger, the articulated horse skeleton - I was just utterly amazed." Now aged 28, she is one of a growing number of young women who have made taxidermy their trade. "I spot dead animals when I'm driving and take them home. Instead of buying me flowers, my husband brings me dead things. "I can't stand the thought of these animals going to waste, rotting on the side of the road," she says. Mrs Debnam, who lives in Trimley St Mary, Suffolk, often posts on Facebook asking people to alert her to roadkill. She "always has crows" in her freezer, which are currently next to a polecat and a puppy that died from heart failure. She says she often gets emotional and has to walk away from her work and compose herself. It is also laborious work - a peacock takes up to two weeks to preserve - and she finds it tough because of her health. "I've got osteoarthritis, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and I'm in remission from cancer," Mrs Debnam says. "When your body is working against you, it's hard to believe in yourself, but it has made me more determined." Periods of bed rest are used to watch online tutorials to help her refine her techniques. "I've been through some dark times but taxidermy has got me through. It's so special, bringing these creatures back to life and making them beautiful again." 'It's not all old men in sheds' Polly Morgan - whose art made from dead animals has been bought by Charles Saatchi, Kate Moss and Courtney Love - is probably the best known British woman working in the industry. However, Emilie Woodford, who is on the committee of the Guild of UK Taxidermists, sees her as more of an artist than a traditional taxidermist. "I believe animals should be kept in their natural form, rather than being manipulated into pieces of art," Ms Woodford says. "I prefer to keep things as Mother Nature intended." The 28-year old, who lives in York, worked as a veterinary nurse before changing her career. "Wildlife was brought in and it was such a waste when it died; everything was lost forever," she says. She hopes the industry can be better understood in the future. "It's not all old men working in their sheds. Films like 101 Dalmatians and Paddington don't help because they portray taxidermists as these evil people, but I really hope we can change the public's opinion." 'It's about doing justice to an animal' Elle Kaye, who specialises in bird taxidermy, often gets messages on Instagram from girls who want to follow in her footsteps. When she teaches classes, the pupils are nearly always female. However, the 27-year-old, who lives in Hertfordshire, says she receives more online abuse than many of her contemporaries. She expected a backlash because of her choice of profession, but says she also gets judged for her appearance. "It shouldn't be about me, or about being a woman - the work should speak for itself - but that's the thing people pick up on. "I've spent hours trying to master my craft and then I get all these comments saying I look anaemic, I'm too skinny, too tanned, too young. "Then asking where my parents are from, what country I was born in, why I look a certain way, why I get my nails done when I work with dead animals all day. It's so frustrating." Taxidermy was a much more common practice in the Victorian era, when animals were hunted for the purpose of being stuffed. People often presume this is still the case, Ms Kaye says. "That's a big misconception. The word 'taxidermy' harbours some sort of ghost. I do two exhibitions a year and I just try and educate people and change their opinions. "The work is really hard. I wouldn't go through all of this - the time, the effort and exposing myself to the chemicals - if I hated animals. It's a real labour of love." Pet owners, specialist breeders and zookeepers send her their dead birds. She currently has five chest freezers full of owls, flamingos, parrots and peacocks. Ms Kaye says she has considered leaving taxidermy behind, but her devotion to conservation keeps her going. "It is incredibly demoralising when you work hard, and then are just cut down. It affects your confidence," she says. "My job is about doing justice to an animal and preserving it for future generations. I really want to inspire children to become biologists and vets. "The negativity gets me down but I just try and be the best taxidermist I can be."

यदि आपको किसी टैक्सीडर्मिस्ट की छवि बनाने के लिए कहा जाता है, तो आपको विक्टोरियन शिकार की पोशाक में मूंछ वाले व्यक्ति की कल्पना करने के लिए माफ किया जा सकता है। अब, इस प्रथा के लोकप्रियता के चरम पर पहुंचने के एक सदी से भी अधिक समय बाद, महिला टैक्सीडर्मिस्टों की एक नई लहर का उद्देश्य अपने पेशे के बारे में लोगों की धारणाओं को बदलना है।


In pictures: TRNSMT rocks Glasgow Green

Summary: Lewis Capaldi received a hero's welcome from a crowd of thousands of adoring fans at Glasgow's TRNSMT festival.

Days after being compared to Chewbacca by Oasis elder statesman Noel Gallagher, the Glasgow-born star walked out on stage wearing a mask of the loveable Wookie. Capaldi was a late addition to the festival's main stage line-up after Snow Patrol pulled out. To be asked to stand in for the popular indie group at his local festival, was a "dream come true" he told his audience. He was one of the biggest crowd-pullers on Glasgow Green at the weekend, where Aberdeenshire's Emeli Sande was also a late stand-in for Jess Glynne. All images are copyrighted.

ग्लासगो के टी. आर. एन. एस. एम. टी. उत्सव में हजारों प्रशंसकों की भीड़ ने लुईस कैपाल्डी का नायक के रूप में स्वागत किया।


Fontwell crash leaves one dead and two hurt as car hits tree

Summary: A man died and two other people were seriously injured when a car hit a tree and overturned in heavy rain.

The 23-year-old died at the scene of the crash on the A27 near Fontwell, Sussex, at about 23:30 BST on Saturday. The 26-year-old driver of the white Seat Leon and a passenger, aged 28, were taken to Royal Sussex County Hospital, police said. Officers are investigating and have urged anyone with dash cam footage of the crash to contact them.

भारी बारिश में एक कार के पेड़ से टकराने और पलट जाने से एक व्यक्ति की मौत हो गई और दो अन्य गंभीर रूप से घायल हो गए।


Darren Carley murder inquiry moves to Cinderford

Summary: A murder inquiry which began in 2002 when human remains were found on farmland in Lancashire has moved to Cinderford in Gloucestershire.

Darren Carley, 24, went missing from his home in Swindon in January 2002 but his body was not identified until 2017 thanks to advances in DNA testing. An address on Miners Walk is being searched, Lancashire Police said. In 2018 a man from Gloucestershire and a woman from Worcester were arrested on suspicion of murder but later released. A cordon around the property in Cinderford is likely to be in place for a number of days. The current occupants of the address are not linked to the investigation and temporary accommodation has been found for them, police said.

एक हत्या की जांच जो 2002 में शुरू हुई थी जब लंकाशायर में कृषि भूमि पर मानव अवशेष पाए गए थे, ग्लूस्टरशायर के सिंडरफोर्ड में स्थानांतरित हो गई है।


Tech entrepreneurs call for more government regulation

Summary: The tech community, once known for being insular and resistant to outside interference, is facing an existential crisis as its members have begun to break ranks and call for fundamental changes at global companies like Google and Facebook.

By Robin Levinson-KingBBC News, Toronto Roger McNamee has been a Silicon Valley insider since Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg was in nappies. The venture capitalist has built a name for himself as a big-thinking investor and a kind of sounding board for some of the valley's biggest names in the '80s and '90s, including Bill Gates. McNamee remembers this period in Silicon Valley fondly, recalling how people like Steve Jobs promoted a kind of "hippie-libertarianism" that believed in tech's ability to make the world a better place. But starting around the turn of the millennium, these Utopian goals began to be usurped by greed, he says. So he was slightly taken aback when he met Mr Zuckerberg in 2006, and the then-22-year-old impressed him with his sincere belief that Facebook could help connect people all over the world. "I wanted to believe they were different - and they really were different at the beginning," he told the BBC's Jane Wakefield. Now, not so much - according to Mr McNamee. Mr McNamee, who served as a mentor to Mr Zuckerberg for three years and was an early investor in the company, made headlines last year when he wrote a number of opinion pieces criticising Facebook for its role in the spread of misinformation in the lead-up to Brexit and the 2016 US presidential election. "All the internet platforms are deflecting criticism and leaving their users in peril," he wrote in the Guardian in January 2018, just months before the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke. Since then, he says, little has changed. "I don't believe there's anyone around [Mr Zuckerberg] who tells him what he needs to hear at this moment in time," he says. It's not just Facebook, he says. Companies like Google, Amazon and Apple have all neglected their civic duties in pursuit of bigger profits. From Cambridge Analytica's alleged election interference to YouTube's role in spreading footage of the Christchurch mosque attack, a number of industry insiders have expressed concern about how today's tech is impacting democracy. At the heart of the problem is search and social companies' reliance on advertising, which rewards content creators who shock and awe, says Mr McNamee. "We need to understand that the business model that is shared by all these internet platforms encourages the worst elements of society," he says. Former co-CEO of BlackBerry, Jim Balsillie, says he is "surprised" by the lack of ethics he sees at companies today. "We were aggressive, but we weren't immoral or amoral," he says. "How can you be a tool for genocide? How can you live with yourself?" Higher ethical standards It is not just the old guard that is demanding changes inside tech. Young employees at companies like Google and Amazon are staging protests and even quitting over issues like the treatment of women in the workplace and engineering ethics. When Jack Paulson quit his job as a senior engineer at Google in September 2018, due to the company's decision to enter the Chinese market, his resignation went viral. "I view our intent to capitulate to censorship and surveillance demands in exchange for access to the Chinese market as a forfeiture of our values and governmental negotiating position across the globe," his letter said. A year later, he told the BBC he feels a part of a worldwide movement of tech workers demanding higher ethical standards across the industry. "Making sure that people know there's others with similar backbone is critical if you want to help," he says. Paulson learned of Google's plans in China after tech news outlet the Intercept published a report leaking details of Google's Chinese search engine plans, Project Dragonfly, in August 2018. This summer, Karan Bhatia, Google's vice president of public policy, said Project Maven has been terminated. Google also agreed not to renew its contract with the Pentagon for Dragonfly. But Paulson says the company's handling of internal dissent, and the way it addressed employees' ethical concerns, leave much to be desired. When he asked management about their project with China, and the effect it could have on human rights activists, he says they told him "human rights organisations don't know anything. They don't work at the company, so we don't listen them". This kind of insider vs outsider mentality makes the tech industry resistant to criticism and change, he says. This lack of ethics is proof companies need to be regulated by the government, says Mr Balsillie, who was co-CEO at Blackberry from 1992-2012. Although it seems odd for a tech entrepreneur to call for more regulation, he says we need to have firm rules around things like data collection - and hefty fines for companies that break them. "I'm not against tech. I'm for tech, and I'm for entrepreneurship and I'm for capitalism, all the way," explains Mr Balsillie. "But ultimately the job of government is to regulate for the public good." But instead of regulation, he says governments have allowed companies to draft their own codes of conduct, courted them to build headquarters in their cities, and allowed them to use their citizens' data. He has been vocal in his opposition to Google parent-company Alphabet's plans to build a "smart city" on Toronto's waterfront, telling Toronto's city council the project was a "colonising experiment in surveillance capitalism attempting to bulldoze important urban, civic and political issues". You can hear more from Roger McNamee on The BBC World Service's Business Daily

तकनीकी समुदाय, जो कभी बाहरी हस्तक्षेप के लिए द्वीपीय और प्रतिरोधी होने के लिए जाना जाता था, एक अस्तित्वगत संकट का सामना कर रहा है क्योंकि इसके सदस्यों ने रैंक तोड़ना शुरू कर दिया है और गूगल और फेसबुक जैसी वैश्विक कंपनियों में मौलिक परिवर्तनों का आह्वान करना शुरू कर दिया है।


Police seize £300,000 drugs haul on A74(M) motorway

Summary: Drugs worth £300,000 have been seized by officers who stopped two cars in Dumfries and Galloway.

The first vehicle was stopped at about 11:10 on Saturday on the A74(M) northbound near Moffat. Police found drugs, believed to be cannabis, with a street value of up to £200,000. A further £100,000 of the drug was then found by police who stopped a second car shortly before 13:00 on the same road, near Johnstonebridge. A 35-year-old man and a 29-year-old man were arrested and charged in connection with the discoveries and have been remanded in custody pending court appearances.

डमफ्रीज और गैलोवे में दो कारों को रोकने वाले अधिकारियों द्वारा 300,000 पाउंड की नशीली दवाएं जब्त की गई हैं।


Jersey unemployment at 'lowest level' in over a year

Summary: Unemployment in Jersey has fallen to its lowest level in more than a year, official figures have shown.

The States said at the end of December 1,750 people were looking for work - the lowest total since October 2012. Long-term unemployment has also fallen. Unemployment figures reached a peak of more than 2,000 at the start of 2013. James Filleul, president of Jersey's Chamber of Commerce, said: "We are encouraged by the figures."

आधिकारिक आंकड़ों से पता चलता है कि जर्सी में बेरोजगारी एक साल से भी अधिक समय में अपने सबसे निचले स्तर पर आ गई है।


Man charged over pillion passenger death in Bilston

Summary: A man has been charged with causing the death of a motorbike pillion passenger following a crash involving a car.

A 20-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene of the collision on Bradley Lane in Bilston, Wolverhampton, on Wednesday. Nash Dupree Moseley, 22, of Slim Avenue, Wolverhampton has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving. He has been remanded ahead of appearing before magistrates in Walsall later. The family of the victim, who is yet to be formally named, is being supported by specialist officers, West Midlands Police said. Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, and sign up for local news updates direct to your phone. Related Internet Links West Midlands Ambulance Service

एक व्यक्ति पर कार से टकराने के बाद मोटरसाइकिल के पीछे बैठे यात्री की मौत का आरोप लगाया गया है।


Quiz: How do your morals compare?

Summary: Take our quiz and find out how in step you are with the morals and social views of the rest of the UK.

If you cannot see the quiz, click here. The quiz uses data from a survey, What We Think is Right and Wrong in 2019, commissioned by the BBC from Savanta ComRes. A representative sample of 3,655 the UK population aged 16 or over were surveyed between 16 and 28 May 2019. Data has been weighted by age, gender, region, ethnicity and faith.

हमारी प्रश्नोत्तरी लें और पता करें कि आप यूके के बाकी हिस्सों की नैतिकता और सामाजिक विचारों के साथ कैसे हैं।


London's population high: Top metropolis facts

Summary: London's population has hit 8.6m people, according to the Greater London Authority - and the last time it was that big was 76 years ago. The metropolis is already Europe's largest city and the 6th richest place on Earth. Here are some key facts about the capital.

By Duncan SmithBBC News 1. Fastest growing borough Tower Hamlets in east London is expected to see the fastest growth according to the Greater London Authority's (GLA) figures. Between 2015 and 2039 its population is forecast to grow by 101,000. Newham will see predicted growth of 91,000 between 2015 and 2039. Followed by Barnet which expects to see growth of 76,000 between 2015-2039. 2. Largest growth Hillingdon is the borough projected to see the largest growth. In 1939 there were 159,000 residents. By 2039 there will be 316,000 people living there - a rise of 82%. Havering closely follows with an increase of 80%. In 1939 there were 139,000 residents but by 2039 there will be 291,000 people living there. 3. Water, water everywhere To cope with 8.6m Londoners, Thames Water has 10,000 miles of pipes under the city and deals with 4.4bn litres of wastewater per day. The company reports that Londoners use 10% more water a day than anywhere else in the UK. London's sewerage network was built following a series of outbreaks of cholera that killed 40,000 people in the first half of the 19th Century - the Victorians believed the disease was contracted through airborne "miasma" due to sewage in the open air. The sewers overflow on a weekly basis, flushing 39m tonnes of raw sewage straight into the Thames each year. To cope with the growing population a £4.2bn, 15-mile (25km) long "super sewer" - officially known as the Thames Tideway Tunnel - should be operational by 2023. 4. Buses, trains and automobiles The capital's masses need to get around and London Underground set new historic records for passenger numbers at the end of last year - a record 4.725m in one day during November, beating the 4.5m recorded during the London 2012 Games. London's red buses are now dealing with 6.25m passenger journeys every day, the highest demand since the late 1950s according to Transport for London. Meanwhile the London Drivers Association reports there are 24,500 cabbies picking-up and dropping-off across the city. 5. The decline and rise of inner London The GLA figures show inner London's population dropped between the 1940s and late 1980s. In Westminster, the population stood at 347,000 in 1939 but fell to 172, 000 by 1988. In 2011 it increased again to 219,000. Tower Hamlets, meanwhile, fell from 419,000 in 1939 to 159,000 in 1988. However, by 2011 it had shot up again to 254,000. The overall inner London population was 4.4m in 1939, had declined to 2.5m by 1988 but returned to 3.2m by 2011. The post-1939 decline in London's population has been attributed in part to the Blitz and evacuations during World War 2, and the construction of new towns that followed. 6. London's packed classrooms London, unlike anywhere else in the country, is a graduate economy. According to the Office for National Statistics, 60% of the working-age population in inner London has a degree. In terms of the diversity of the population, more than 80% of children in inner London primary schools are from ethnic minorities and more than half do not speak English as a first language. 7. Slowest growth The City of London is in line for the slowest growth. Between 2015 and and 2039 its population is forecast to grow by 4,000 people. Richmond has the second slowest population increase, where the number of people is expected to expand by 15,000 between 2015 and 2039, while Sutton follows with a predicted 19,000 increase. 8. All squeezed in... The total area of London is 1,572 sq km (607 sq m) with a population density of 5,491 people per sq km. 9. Hatched and dispatched According to GLA figures there were 131,011 births in 2013 - that's 359 babies born each day. And during 2013, some 48,078 Londoners died - equivalent to 132 people passing away each day.

ग्रेटर लंदन अथॉरिटी के अनुसार, लंदन की आबादी 86 लाख लोगों को प्रभावित कर चुकी है-और पिछली बार यह 76 साल पहले इतनी बड़ी थी। यह महानगर पहले से ही यूरोप का सबसे बड़ा शहर और पृथ्वी पर छठा सबसे अमीर स्थान है। यहाँ राजधानी के बारे में कुछ प्रमुख तथ्य दिए गए हैं।


New £36m Cardiff high school in Caerau gets go-ahead

Summary: Plans for a new £36m high school in Cardiff serving 1,200 pupils have been backed by councillors.

Cardiff West Community High School will be built on the site of Glyn Derw High School, Caerau, and replace that and Michaelston Community College, Ely. The secondary school for ages 11-16 will also cater for 320 sixth form students. Cardiff council said the school was anticipated to open in February 2019. The school will also have facilities for community use, such as a 3G sports pitch.

कार्डिफ में 1,200 छात्रों की सेवा करने वाले एक नए 36 मिलियन पाउंड के हाई स्कूल की योजना का पार्षदों द्वारा समर्थन किया गया है।


Chawkbazar: The 400-year-old bustling heart of Dhaka

Summary: A deadly blaze has killed dozens of people in the historic district of Chawkbazar in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka. But as BBC Bengali's Rakib Hasnet reports, it is not the first time the area has seen tragedy.

It was on the banks of the Buriganga River during the Mughal dynasty, some 400 years ago, that Chawkbazar was established. It quickly became the main business hub of Dhaka. Until just a few decades ago, Chawkbazar, inside Old Dhaka, still had a reputation as the heart of the city. But as Dhaka grew bigger and bigger, becoming a sprawling urban metropolis, the importance of Chawkbazar as a commercial hub diminished. It remains popular, though. Today, Chawkbazar is a hub of businesses making and storing chemicals, perfume and plastic products, many ignoring a ban on the storage of chemical goods in residential buildings. A deadly fire in 2010 in another part of Old Dhaka killed 120 people. However, ground floors in residential buildings still serve as warehouses for chemicals, gas cylinders and plastic products. Chawkbazar is full of lanes so narrow that even passenger buses cannot get through. The streets are packed with rickshaws, small cars and people walking around during the day. Restaurants and different types of shops also fill up the densely populated part of the city. During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Chawkbazar - which is popular for various types of traditional food - turns into the main place for Iftar items - the meal which breaks the daily fast. Thousands of vendors peddle their goods on its streets, often filled with people waiting to get their fill of kebabs and different types of biryani - a popular rice dish. They compete for space with the hundreds of electrical, telephone and internet cables that hang on to its narrow lanes, posing another danger for the local people in Chawkbazar. Are you in the area? Did you witness the incident? Tell us about your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:

बांग्लादेश की राजधानी ढाका के ऐतिहासिक जिले चौकबाजार में एक घातक आग लगने से दर्जनों लोगों की मौत हो गई है। लेकिन जैसा कि बीबीसी बंगाली के रकीब हैस्नेट ने बताया है, यह पहली बार नहीं है जब इस क्षेत्र में त्रासदी हुई है।


Who What Why: How do you climb a smooth rock face?

Summary: Two men have free climbed the Dawn Wall of Yosemite's El Capitan rock formation, a feat no-one has ever managed before. The 3,000-foot (914m) sheer granite face is one of the most difficult climbs in the world and frighteningly smooth. How did they hold on?

Who, What, Why?The Magazine answers the questions behind the news "The holds are quite literally matchsticks on a vertical face," says Leo Houlding, a professional climber who has climbed El Capitan by a different route. "Your main point of contact when you are climbing is the tips of your fingers and obviously hanging on to tiny little holds with all your bodyweight, and all the power you can create, starts to shred your fingertips," Houlding says. "And after a week you have very little skin left." Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson, the two climbers who completed their epic climb on Wednesday, had been on the wall since 27 December - two-and-a-half weeks. They have both taken occasional rest days for the skin on their fingers to recover from what the climb's media manager John Long describes as "pulling down on razor sharp edges". This is why climbers "tend to use expensive skin care products" Houlding says. Friction is key to the whole endeavour. The rock face is not quite like a billiard ball, it has some cracks, lumps and rough edges. "We wear climbing shoes which are very tight-fitting high-friction rubber," Houlding says, "quite stiff so you can stand on tiny little edges and make your way up." Using headlamps to light their way, Caldwell and Jorgeson often climb at night when the temperature is cooler - this means their hands sweat less, and there is more friction between their rubber shoes and the granite. "Even in December or January in California it's still quite warm," says Houlding. "So they're climbing by night to try and find that little bit more friction." Free climbers don't use ropes to ascend a rock face, though Caldwell and Jorgeson have ropes to catch them if they fall - and to descend to their hanging "portaledges" when they've completed one or more of the 32 sections of the climb. These portaledges consist of a tent attached to an aluminium frame hanging from an anchor in the rock face. Even while resting inside, the men constantly wear harnesses, which are also tied to the anchor. "It looks hazardous, but it's really quite safe," says Houlding. "It's good fun. It's beautiful. California at this time of year is amazing." Reporting by Elle Metz Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

दो लोगों ने योसेमिटी की एल कैपिटन चट्टान के गठन की डॉन वॉल पर स्वतंत्र रूप से चढ़ाई की है, एक ऐसा कारनामा जो पहले कभी किसी ने नहीं किया है। 3,000 फुट (914 मीटर) का सरासर ग्रेनाइट चेहरा दुनिया की सबसे कठिन चढ़ाई में से एक है और भयानक रूप से चिकना है। उन्होंने कैसे पकड़ बनाई?


So how sick was the UK?

Summary: You may recall that the government, the BBC (that's me, that is) and all the media made a big fuss at the end of July about official statistics that showed Britain's ghastly economic depression - the period during which output or GDP was below its previous peak - had just ended.

Robert PestonEconomics editor I warned at the time that this was something of a fiction. And we've had confirmation this morning that in fact the output of the country was back to its pre-crash level at least nine months earlier. Well I say "in fact". But this assessment that we were not as mullered by the financial crisis as we thought is simply based on a new methodology - imported from the EU - for calculating GDP. And if you have had the dubious pleasure of having to take this stuff seriously for as long as I have, it is reasonable to fear that in a few years' time we will find that the current way of measuring these things will be replaced by yet another set of rules - which may show that we were either richer or poorer than we thought we were. And before I move on, I should point out that the current view that the depression ended in the third quarter of 2013 - and not the second quarter of 2014 - stems from revised figures for growth up to the end of 2012 and unrevised figures for 2013 and 2014. It is completely plausible that those 2013 and 2014 figures will also be shown to be an understatement (survey data suggests growth has been stronger - as the Bank of England has been saying). So even this latest view of how bad it's actually been may change before too long. Does it matter that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) now calculates that output declined "only" 6% at its peak in the great debacle of six years ago, rather than its previous estimate that the economy had shrunk more than 7%? Still pretty sick Should we be anything but pleased that the British economy is probably 2.7% bigger than it was in the first quarter of 2008, as opposed to the estimate of just a few weeks ago that it is just a fraction bigger? Isn't it fantastically good news that it now appears that the British economy has been performing a bit better than Germany's and way better than France's for some time, and only a bit worse than America's or Canada's? Of course it is great to learn that we were not as sick as we thought we were - although, for the avoidance of doubt, we were still pretty sick (this was still by a significant margin the most painful and longest lasting slump since the 1930s). But the big thing is that the official view of the health of our economy has an impact on the behaviour of businesses and consumers. Thus, if the oracle that is the ONS had made clear a year ago that the UK had been performing for a while significantly better than many competitor economies that might have encouraged British firms to invest more and overseas investors to put more of their cash in the UK. And that would have made all of us richer. Or to put it another way, the perception that we are doing well helps us to perform even better, to become richer. And of course the corollary also holds: if we are perceived to be in dire straights, no one wants to spend or invest, and we become poorer. So the official description of our economic performance can have a significant impact on the subsequent performance of the economy. For the avoidance of doubt, I am not claiming that we can magic ourselves richer simply by pretending that we are. But Keynes had a point when he said that animal spirits - how we feel about ourselves - has an impact on economic behaviour that determines our prosperity. To be clear, I am not trying to put the boot into the ONS. It has a difficult job to do, and in making its revisions is simply trying to provide more reliable information. But you may understand that I periodically feel a bit grumpy and bewildered in having to tell you one day that the UK has gathered - by analogy - four bronzes in the economic Olympics, and then a few weeks later learn that the medal haul was in fact significantly different and better.

आपको याद होगा कि सरकार, बी. बी. सी. (यानी मैं, यानी) और सभी मीडिया ने जुलाई के अंत में आधिकारिक आंकड़ों के बारे में एक बड़ा हंगामा किया था जो ब्रिटेन के भयानक आर्थिक अवसाद को दर्शाता था-वह अवधि जिसके दौरान उत्पादन या जी. डी. पी. अपने पिछले शिखर से नीचे था-अभी समाप्त हुआ था।


Rwanda genocide: Treating the trauma 26 years on

Summary: Warning: Some readers may find details in this article upsetting.

Photojournalist Chrystal Ding visited counselling sessions in Rwanda to document the ongoing treatment of those who survived the genocide of 1994. She spent two weeks in Rwanda taking portraits and landscape photos and collecting handwritten responses from participants in the sessions. In just 100 days in 1994, about 800,000 people were slaughtered by ethnic Hutu extremists. They were targeting members of the minority Tutsi community, as well as their political opponents, irrespective of their ethnic origin. "I was three years old in 1994, and so I was curious about what happened to survivors of a similar age to me," says Chrystal. "What does recovery from the Rwanda genocide look like now?" Sitting in on five sessions led by Rwandan counsellors, Chrystal heard many stories of horror as the participants recalled the trauma they had experienced as children. Many lost their parents and siblings. "As someone who lives with their own ongoing mental health difficulties, which I have to keep tabs on, this photography project has been hard," she says. "I don't think I could be prepared for how affecting it was - just to hear story after story of horrible things happening to people." Her photography project, entitled Yours is Going to Be Healed As Well, was funded by a bursary from the Rebecca Vassie Memorial Award, and is in association with Survivors Fund (Surf), the organisation which set up the counselling. "It struck me that one of the reasons people feel they can't talk about their experiences is that on a national level people do not say 'Tutsi' and 'Hutu'," Chrystal says. "The narrative is: 'We are all Rwandan', and it's 'one nation, one people'." Chrystal explains that another reason people feel inhibited from talking about their memories is because survivors and perpetrators returned to the same places after the genocide, to their villages and communities. "There is a lot of hurt on all sides… some of the Hutu may still hold on to extremist views based on ethnic divisions. Some may want to ask for forgiveness. On either side people are not clear who they can trust with their stories." Chrystal wondered if not being Rwandan would be an issue, when joining the counselling groups. "I asked Surf if it's going to be problematic having a Chinese-British person turning up and asking them to tell all these stories about the worst things that have ever happened to them. "[They] said actually it's easier me not being Rwandan, because I am clearly an outsider and there is no risk that what they said would be shared around the community in a way that would impact [on] their daily lives. "It's a strange case of it being harder to talk within your own community than it is to an outsider." One of the participants who shared her story was Patience*, 35, seen below. Patience was nine years old when the genocide happened in 1994. Her father hid her along with her siblings, but she was the only one to survive. She says she repeatedly hears the sound of them crying as they were murdered and the mental images of their bodies leave her unable to sleep. "I think she has a lot of anger," says Chrystal. "She has a house now. People say to her: 'Why do you not smile more, you have a very nice house, why are you not happy?' "She said: 'The reason I never smile is I have a lot of things I'm always thinking about, so my house is a small thing, and not enough to make me smile.'" Patience explained that she has suspicions about the involvement of a man in the community in the murder of her father. "She told one story about how this man used to walk around wearing her father's trousers and shoes. Her father has been missing since the genocide and no-one knows where his body is. "She would ask the man: 'Where did you get those shoes?' and the man would say: 'Oh your father must have left them in the church before he disappeared'. "So she went to the church and asked: 'Did my father leave his shoes?' They said he wasn't there at that time. "She is convinced this man killed her father and took the shoes from his body, and knows where he is buried and won't tell her. "There's a sense of unresolved anger." In the counselling sessions, the kind of psychiatric terminology heard in many other parts of the world is not used. "A lot of the symptoms they describe might be very similar to what we would classify as depression or PTSD. "In some ways I thought the way they talked about things was quite freeing. They would say things like: 'Who is responsible for your happiness, is it you or somebody else?' "[The participants] would talk about how they don't want to be alone when they are experiencing memories of the trauma, and they discussed how they should reach out to a neighbour when they need to. "The discussions boiled down to the concepts of their trauma, rather than the clinical terminology. They were talking about the same things, in terms of actual experience." Another participant who Chrystal met and photographed was Claudine*, 38, seen below. Claudine was 13 when she experienced the genocide. She has since struggled with mental health difficulties, and has had a number of children. "I visited her at home, and I can't overemphasise her sweetness. She just had this gentleness to her, which is more what you expect from a 13 or 14-year-old. [It was] this kind of delicacy and vulnerability, where you just want to do what you can to show her love." After a previous suicide attempt, Claudine is trying to rebuild her life with the counselling group. Chrystal says of Claudine: "When you've not completed school, and therefore are not able to support yourself, there is layer upon layer of vulnerability. "As I was visiting her house, she said she wanted to give me a photo of her with her son. "I asked if this was the only copy she had, and she said: 'Yeah yeah, it's a gift'. I said that if this is the only copy you have, then you must keep it. "She had a generosity of spirit and innocence." Some of the participants travel long distances to attend the counselling sessions, walking up to five hours to be there. An issue that Surf is trying to address is the need for childcare for the mothers who are forced to bring their babies and children with them. "You'd have these tiny children listening to stories about rape for a couple of hours every week, and that can't be good for them to be exposed to that," says Chrystal. However, those taking part feel the benefit of the counselling, including Patience, who told Chrystal that when she is telling her story, she feels "happy, and my heart feels good". Chrystal found that the project affected her personally. "I haven't stopped thinking about all of the people I met… they're incredible individuals. I still dream about Rwanda, and I suspect I'll be back at some point." *Names have been changed. Photos by Chrystal Ding. Interview by Matthew Tucker.

चेतावनीः कुछ पाठकों को इस लेख का विवरण परेशान करने वाला लग सकता है।


River Thames oil slick: Berkshire charity saves 68 swans

Summary: Berkshire charity Swan Lifeline has been involved in cleaning 68 swans after oil leaked into the River Thames between Eton Bridge and the leisure centre in Windsor on Monday.

The stretch of the river was sealed off so the Environment Agency could clean it up. The Queen's swan marker David Barber said there was a "lot of oil in the water". He was concerned the swans may have ingested some of the oil. "We don't know what damage there will be from that," he said. The agency will now look into how the oil was leaked into the River Thames. Last year a virus also killed more than 150 swans in the same stretch of the Thames.

सोमवार को विंडसर में ईटन ब्रिज और अवकाश केंद्र के बीच थेम्स नदी में तेल रिसाव के बाद बर्कशायर चैरिटी स्वान लाइफलाइन 68 हंसों की सफाई में शामिल है।


Man arrested after woman stabbed to death in Perry Barr

Summary: A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman was stabbed to death at a house in Birmingham.

The woman was found injured at a house in Pendragon Road, Perry Barr, at about 13:50 BST and died at the scene. A West Midlands Police spokesman said a 52-year-old man had been arrested and inquiries were continuing. Anyone with information has been asked to contact police via Live Chat at the force's website between 08:00 and midnight, or call 101 at any time.

बर्मिंघम में एक घर में एक महिला की चाकू मारकर हत्या करने के संदेह में एक व्यक्ति को गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


BBC Scotland's Aberdeen Harbour TV series starts

Summary: A new BBC One Scotland television documentary series about Aberdeen Harbour is set to get under way.

The first of six episodes of The Harbour start at 19:30, offering a taste of life on the waterfront and the characters who make it all work. The series is narrated by actor Denis Lawson, who starred in Local Hero, as well as the BBC's Bleak House. Aberdeen Harbour is one of Britain's oldest businesses and one of Europe's most modern ports.

एबरडीन हार्बर के बारे में एक नई बीबीसी वन स्कॉटलैंड टेलीविजन वृत्तचित्र श्रृंखला शुरू होने वाली है।


The evolution of those annoying online security tests

Summary: A free tutorial website, Duolingo, aims to translate the entire web with the help of people starting to learn a new language. It's a project born out of guilt from the man behind one of the most annoying features of web surfing - those online security checks involving random words.

By Stephanie HegartyBBC World Service Duolingo hopes to convince millions of people to work for free and thus translate all web content in a matter of years. It may sound like an ambitious plan but it's not the first time founder Luis von Ahn and his colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University have enlisted a global workforce to work for nothing. As a 22-year-old graduate student in 2000, von Ahn invented the Captcha - those distorted images of words and numbers used to sign in to ticketing and social media websites, among others, which users have to decipher to prove they are human. The software is used by more than 350,000 websites to prevent computer programs from attacking them with spam. In 2007, von Ahn realised that 200 million Captchas were being typed by people all over the world every day. "At first I felt really good about that because I thought, 'Look at the impact that I've had'," he says. "But then I starting feeling bad." Typing each Captcha takes about 10 seconds, he estimates. Multiply that by 200 million, and humanity as a whole is wasting about 500,000 hours on these security codes every day. He decided to put these hours to good use and devised ReCaptcha, a system that uses each human-typed response as both a security check and a means to digitise books one word at a time. At the same time the New York Times was digitising 156 years of its archive using a team of typists. Over a decade, the typists had transcribed 27 years of newspapers. The paper began using von Ahn's software and in 24 months had transcribed the remaining 129 years of archived newspapers. ReCaptcha was acquired by Google in 2009, and it is still used widely to tell humans and spamming programmes apart. But its translating software is exclusively available to Google's Books project to transcribe every book in the world. All of that doesn't detract from the fact that for most people, these security codes are nothing more than a frustrating waste of time. For those with dyslexia or sight problems, they can be a serious barrier to internet use. Dr Sue Fowler, at the Dyslexia Research Trust, says the codes only add to the trouble dyslexics have filling in web forms. "Even looking at it closely, I wouldn't know what to do with it," she says. There is an audio alternative, but these are even more confusing as most just sound like a flurry of noise. And the automated security codes are getting more and more difficult. Some of the latest manifestations can appear as a jumbled blur of letters, numbers and punctuation that is almost indecipherable. "As of a few months ago, if we showed someone a ReCaptcha they were successful at it about 93% of the time," says von Ahn, adding that once that drops to 75%, users give up on trying to access a site. Since selling ReCaptcha, von Ahn has teamed up with one of his graduate students, Severin Hacker, to create software that gives the user something in return for their time and effort. The answer is Duolingo, a site that gives free language tutorials and in exchange solicits aspiring linguists to translate sentences from the internet. At present, it only caters for English speakers looking to learn French, German or Spanish, and Spanish speakers who want to learn English. They start with very simple sentences and work up towards more complex ones, increasing their value as a translator as they progress. Human input is needed as although computers can translate individual words, they struggle to put these in context and construct sentences that make sense. "The computer always knows what each word can translate to, all the possibilities - that's just a bilingual dictionary. But the computer doesn't know that in this case, a word means girl, and in that case, it means daughter," says von Ahn. So when Duolingo presents the user with a sentence, it offers all the possible translations for each individual word. The user has to build the sentence, using their understanding of their native language. To weed out bad translations, the site asks users to rate each others' answers and chooses only the top-ranked solutions. After only a few weeks, users work on real sentences taken from creative commons websites. And the site has echoes of a computer game. Points are offered for each translation attempted; completing a round earns the user a shiny gold medal; and learners can follow each other, adding a competitive edge. But is Duolingo really able to teach people enough to reach fluency? Mickael Pointecourteau, an experienced language teacher who has used the software, has his doubts. "There are some mistakes in their translation from the very first level, which worries me for when users will get to a higher level," he says. "Four main skills must be taken into account when learning a new language - speak, listen, write, read. I doubt this kind of software prepares for that." Von Ahn, who grew up in Guatemala and is himself bilingual, argues that it will. "We've been doing a lot of tests and we can get you to the point where you are an intermediate speaker of a language, you can go to a country that speaks that language and you can get around," he says. "Of course in order to become bilingual you probably need to go to a particular country and live there for a few months, it takes that level of practice." For some people, Duolingo will be nothing more than a game or distraction from work, but von Ahn believes its potential goes far beyond that. "In the US and in the UK too, learning a language is more of a hobby. In South America you learn a language, particularly English, to make more money and to climb the social ladder." He hopes his software will offer that leg-up to some who can't otherwise afford it. Luis von Ahn will appear onThe Forum on the BBC World Serviceat 22:05 GMT (23:05 BST) on 23 June. Listen to the programme after it has broadcast here.

एक मुफ्त शिक्षण वेबसाइट, डुओलिंगो, का उद्देश्य लोगों की मदद से पूरी वेब का अनुवाद करना है जो एक नई भाषा सीखना शुरू कर रहे हैं। यह एक ऐसी परियोजना है जो वेब सर्फिंग की सबसे परेशान करने वाली विशेषताओं में से एक के पीछे आदमी के अपराधबोध से पैदा हुई है-वे ऑनलाइन सुरक्षा जांच जिसमें यादृच्छिक शब्द शामिल हैं।