Will Smith's Suicide Squad explores nature of 'evil'

Summary: "This is different from other superhero films," says Will Smith, star of the forthcoming film adaptation of DC Comics' Suicide Squad. "It's not about good versus evil. It's about bad versus evil."

By Emma JonesEntertainment reporter Suicide Squad, starring Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Viola Davis and Cara Delevingne, and directed by David Ayer has been given the tagline "Worst Heroes Ever". The film title refers to its protagonists being a bunch of ne'er do-well superheroes who are offered a chance to redeem themselves on a mission expected to end in certain death. Smith believes the film "is an exploration of the concept of redemption". "We all discussed it as a cast in rehearsals - where is the line between bad and evil?" he says. "You might do bad things for good reasons, or maybe even for fun. We decided that if you are bad, you are always redeemable. It's evil that isn't." David Ayer, the American-born director of films including Fury with Brad Pitt, and End of Watch with Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena, says he has been a fan of comic books since he was a child. "It was the chance to recreate a film that looked like a comic book that really made me want to direct this," says Ayer. "While every kid loves your Batman and your Superman, you can identify with the villains a bit more as you grow up, because they are a little more morally complex. So my challenge was how to make an audience fall in love with a whole cast of them." Smith's character of Deadshot is the leader of the group, which also includes Jared Leto as the Joker - previously portrayed by the late Heath Ledger in the Dark Knight series. Smith says "Deadshot is the leader, the emotional heart of the Squad - but all of them suffer from low self-esteem, otherwise they wouldn't have created these lives for themselves". "There's one part where Deadshot yearns for the life he could have had in the military, he has this what-if moment where he sees the path he could have taken very clearly. So audiences can see the choices that often make for a bad man or woman, what has driven them there. "Viewers should be rooting for them, when it becomes clear their mission is destined to fail, to make a right choice, to work together as a group." Australian actress Margot Robbie, most recently seen this summer in a new adaptation of Tarzan, signed up to the Squad, she recalls "when there was no script and no one else attached apart from David". She continues: "Something in my gut said, 'Yes, this is the one you should do' even though I had another project lined up." She plays Harley Quinn, the white-haired, baseball-bat-wielding cheerleader who was once a psychiatrist. Along with Cara Delevingne as the Enchantress, Karen Fukuhara as Katana and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, the tough commander who authorises the mission, the male to female ratio in the squad is more equal than in other superhero films, as Delevingne points out. "I always remember seeing the kind of comic book movies where women are the love interest or just a sidekick. "Of course, there are still more male characters but all the women are on a par with them, and they have the best lines. "Especially with Wonder Woman coming out next year, it's important to find and tell women's stories in this superhero world, because the films are just so popular with audiences." While DC Comics' earlier 2016 predecessor, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, was a critical - although not a commercial - flop, there are expectations in Hollywood that Suicide Squad could break August box office records. Both Ben Affleck's Batman as well as another Justice League character, Flash, are confirmed to have cameos in the film, as the franchise is built up ahead of the 2017 releases of Wonder Woman and Justice League. Robbie believes she could do "10 Suicide Squad movies if they wanted me to - we are a family now". "David Ayer got all of us together for weeks before filming started to rehearse and to thrash things out about our characters," she explains, "and so we ended up bonding off screen, we truly became a squad. We were joined at the hip," says Robbie. "David has this really interesting rehearsal period where he digs into your life, so the whole cast shares really deep stories about ourselves," adds Will Smith. "You just think he's being a nice guy, and then in the middle of filming, he throws your greatest childhood trauma at you and adds, 'The Joker did it'. It certainly gets you working. "He actually had to stop us being so cuddly with each other, because he would find us hanging out together in one trailer in between filming. He would say, 'You don't like each other until later on in the movie, stop it.' "But this cast bonded in a special way that isn't always the case, we all felt honoured and excited to be a part of it, and everyone checked their egos in at the doors. We definitely like each other, and I can tell you that doesn't always happen in movies." Suicide Squad is released in the UK on 5 August. Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram at bbcnewsents, or email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

डीसी कॉमिक्स के सुसाइड स्क्वाड के आगामी फिल्म रूपांतरण के स्टार विल स्मिथ कहते हैं, "यह अन्य सुपरहीरो फिल्मों से अलग है।" "यह अच्छे बनाम बुरे के बारे में नहीं है। यह बुरे बनाम बुरे के बारे में है।"


Cyclist killed in Christmas Day Scottish Borders crash

Summary: A cyclist has died after a crash in the Scottish Borders on Christmas morning.

Police said the 30-year-old man died at the scene of the accident, on the A6105 between Chirnside and Duns, after a collision with a blue Ford Focus. The crash happened at about 10:50 on Friday and police said inquiries into its cause were ongoing. They have appealed for witnesses to the crash or anyone with dash-cam footage of the area at the time to come forward.

क्रिसमस की सुबह स्कॉटिश बॉर्डर्स में एक दुर्घटना में एक साइकिल चालक की मौत हो गई है।


Somewhere Along the Line: An American road trip

Summary: Between 2011 and 2017, American photographer Joshua Dudley Greer travelled more than 100,000 miles on the US Highway network.

Rather than driving through quickly, Greer made the decision to slowly and deliberately dwell in these roadside spaces, looking for unforeseen moments of humour, pathos and humanity. The resulting project, entitled Somewhere Along the Line, shows an unexpected side to an infrastructure that forms an integral role in American society and culture. The work is currently being exhibited at the Pictura Gallery at the FAR Center for Contemporary Arts in Bloomington, Indiana, USA, until 30 November 2019. All photographs copyright of Joshua Dudley Greer

2011 और 2017 के बीच, अमेरिकी फोटोग्राफर जोशुआ डडली ग्रीर ने यूएस हाईवे नेटवर्क पर 100,000 मील से अधिक की यात्रा की।


Hadleigh Tesco battle: How people power saw off store giant

Summary: It is a battle that has been raging across the UK, but in one market town hostilities have come to an end - for now. Tesco has withdrawn its application to build a supermarket in Hadleigh, Suffolk, following a 26-year campaign against the proposed store by local people. But why is one market town claiming victory while others have failed?

By Jon WelchBBC News After Babergh District Council rejected its latest application, the supermarket chain said: "We respect the democratic planning process and have decided not to appeal against the committee's decision." Campaigners were jubilant. "I'm absolutely delighted," said Jan Byrne, who led the Hands Off Hadleigh campaign against Tesco. She added: "I think they didn't expect to be defeated in this silly little town." Her group opposed the supermarket on environmental and economic concerns, and are claiming victory against the chain where many others have failed. In October, Tesco opened a store in Sheringham, Norfolk, after a bitter 14-year fight. Their plans were opposed by a group called Scamrod - Sheringham Campaign Against Major Retail Overdevelopment. So why did Hadleigh's campaign get the result it was after while Sheringham's campaigners were disappointed? "The difference between us and Sheringham is that there, the waters got muddied," said Mrs Byrne. "They were prepared to accept Waitrose on another site but not Tesco." 'It was terrifying' Hadleigh's campaign was "low-key", she said. "It was Tesco in their suits and we little souls in our jeans. "It was just locals doing it until the very last application when we brought the professionals in. "At times, it was absolutely terrifying. You're hoping you don't say the wrong thing at the wrong time [and end] up in court." Campaigners raised £80,000, commissioning an economic study and a traffic survey and hiring a barrister. Until then, they had relied largely on their own efforts. "We had boxes of stuff from Tesco and we read every word of it," said Mrs Byrne. "We went through it with a fine-tooth comb." They visited towns cited by Tesco and conducted their own traffic counts in an attempt to show the impact of supermarkets on existing high streets. "We went to Tiptree, Saxmundham and Stow-on-the-Wold. We went to March and Wisbech," said Mrs Byrne. "We held marches and traffic counts. We had poster campaigns and a family picnic. Five- or six-hundred people turned out for a walk - and it turned out to be good fun." For other campaign groups looking to win planning battles, she has the following advice: "Read everything you can get your hands on. Do your own research. "I'm an ex-nurse. I know nothing about retail or traffic, but in every small town there are people with vast amounts of knowledge. "Use your local talent. It's your town - you know it better than anybody else." 'Hadleigh is special' Tesco has said it will discuss any future plans with the townsfolk, something that Chris Wade, chief executive of campaign group Action for Market Towns, believes is important. He said: "It does show the importance of listening to local opinion so that people are planning and getting involved in creating town centres that they want locally and for the future." He added: "There's an awful lot of emotion locally but it seems an awful lot of considered thought has gone into it. "Hadleigh is a special case. The size of the supermarket relative to the town centre was one of the issues and also, there are the existing supermarkets in and around the town." In a statement, Tesco said: "We own much of the property and are currently considering alternative options for the site. "We look forward to discussing this with the council and community." On the question of why it had decided to walk away from Hadleigh - and whether this was definitely the end for its plans for the town - Tesco declined to comment. But Mrs Byrne said: "Should they come back, we'll be waiting." Related Internet Links Babergh District Council Tesco Hadleigh Society Hadleigh Chamber of Commerce

यह एक ऐसी लड़ाई है जो पूरे ब्रिटेन में चल रही है, लेकिन एक बाजार शहर में शत्रुता समाप्त हो गई है-अभी के लिए। टेस्को ने स्थानीय लोगों द्वारा प्रस्तावित स्टोर के खिलाफ 26 साल के अभियान के बाद हैडले, सफ़ोक में एक सुपरमार्केट बनाने के लिए अपना आवेदन वापस ले लिया है। लेकिन एक बाजार शहर क्यों जीत का दावा कर रहा है जबकि अन्य विफल रहे हैं?


'African gangs' debate polarises Australia

Summary: Recent heated debate about crime in Melbourne has zeroed in on the city's African-Australian youth. But as Trevor Marshallsea writes, many believe their role has been unfairly exaggerated, with allegations officials are caught up in racist mischief-making.

Melbourne is a place of stunning architecture, celebrated laneways and tree-lined boulevards, of major cultural and sporting events. For a record seven straight years, it's been ranked the world's most liveable city by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Its four million inhabitants, according to the EIU survey, enjoy top-level healthcare, infrastructure and education. So why, then, would Australia's Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton this month say Melburnians were "scared to go out at restaurants" for fear of violence? And why would his conservative ally, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, voice his concerns about personal security for people in Victoria state's capital? For many months, and particularly in recent weeks, this reputedly serene city has witnessed sporadic eruptions of so-called gang violence involving youths. Many of those involved have been Australians of African descent. Police last week announced the establishment of a taskforce involving senior members of the African-Australian community to tackle youth crime. But this has led others to allege cynical, racist, mischief-making, saying the issue has been sensationalised by right-wing media, politicians and white nationalist groups. All of this has played out amid intense debate about what "gangs" are, and police insistence that crime in Melbourne is, in fact, falling. How the debate has arrived here The saga traces back to January 2015, when a group calling itself the "Apex gang" - whose members, many of African origin, had been linked to carjackings, assaults and burglaries - drew police attention after a fight with another group. In March 2016, police used pepper spray to dispel a large group of men and boys of African appearance who had gathered in the city's centre. A year later, police made 53 arrests after a larger brawl. Authorities moved to quell gang fears by declaring Apex was no longer an active group. But then last month trouble flared again, with a fight in a McDonald's involving some 60 youths of African appearance, a street riot after the trashing of an Airbnb house, and the assault of a police officer by a gang of youths, again of African appearance, after he'd made a minor shoplifting arrest. The incidents have dominated national news coverage, with another of Mr Turnbull's ministers, Greg Hunt, saying: "African gang crime in some areas in particular is out of control." The prime minister, meanwhile, blamed Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews for "growing gang violence and lawlessness". Mr Andrews vowed crime would not be tolerated, but rebuked Mr Turnbull for "having felt the need to rubbish Victoria Police, rubbish Melbourne, rubbish Victoria". The violent episodes have sparked anti-immigration calls from some corners. Comments such as "stop immigration until this mess is sorted" have littered Victoria Police's Facebook page. Amid such scrutiny, members of the African-Australian community have told of receiving death threats. "We saw a young person from an African community coaching young people and someone approached [and said] 'if you ever touch my child, we're going kill you'," said one community leader, Kot Monoah, last week. Interpreting labels and statistics Police have been reluctant to embolden crime-linked youths by labelling them as organised criminal gangs, saying they are more accurately street gangs. "What this is, it's young people coming together, networking through social media, coming together and engaging in criminal activity," the state's police chief, Graham Ashton, told reporters last week. Interpretations of crime data have fuelled the debate in different ways. Last October, a parliamentary inquiry on migrant settlement heard from Victoria's Crime Statistics Agency (VCSA) that around 1% of criminal offenders in the state were Sudanese-born, though Sudanese and South Sudanese communities comprised just 0.14% of the state's population. After Australians, the second-biggest group of offenders was people from New Zealand, who made up 2.3% of total offenders. Then came people born in India (1.3%) followed by those born in Vietnam (1.2%) and Sudan (1%). On charges of riot and affray, people born in Sudan comprised 6% of offenders. However, VCSA statistics showed a 4.8% drop in the total number of criminal incidents in Victoria in the 12 months to last September. People under 25 were responsible for 40% of crimes in 2015-16, down from at least 50% in 2007-08, according to separate data. 'Drumming up fear' Mr Monoah, a member of Victorian Police's new taskforce, said the issue had to be addressed in a responsible way, "without obviously mixing them with politics or without mixing them with any other messaging". Fellow community leader Richard Deng also criticised politicians for using the term "African gangs", saying: "The majority of these kids are born here, they're bloody Australian. Let's call them that way." Some social welfare workers say the situation has been wildly exaggerated, driven by the politics of fear. Anthony Kelly, the executive officer of Melbourne's Flemington and Kensington Community Legal Centre, in a region with a large migrant population, said the recent episodes "were not the only crimes occurring over December in Melbourne. Nor were they the worst". "But the attention they are receiving is extraordinary," he wrote in a website article. "Victoria does not have a youth crime wave - ethnic or not." Mr Kelly told the BBC one reason for the recent apparent upsurge in incidents was simply that Australia is in the middle of its lengthy summer school holiday break. Sadly, he said, the "over-the-top" media reportage had strengthened the arm of white nationalist groups, which had been active in writing to media outlets, politicians and police about the supposed threat of African communities. Victorian Council of Social Services deputy CEO Mary Sayers said portrayals of recent episodes as "part of a bigger wave of African crime" was "very destructive", and politically driven as a means to undermine the Victorian state government, which will contest an election in November. "It's actually drumming up this fear that if young African men are gathering, they're a gang. Young white people will get together in shopping centres, but they're not labelled as a gang," Ms Sayers told the BBC. What should happen next? With African youth leaders in Melbourne repeatedly blaming a small group of repeat offenders for most crimes attributed to their communities, Mr Kelly and Ms Sayers say more could be done to address risk factors that lead to crime, such as poverty, early school-leaving, drugs and alcohol, and lengthy involvement in child-protection systems. Victoria Police said the new taskforce would establish a more efficient channel for police to engage with African-Australian leaders, including advising how best to prevent youth crimes, and receiving information on emerging problem issues, and on any racial vilification incidents. Mr Ashton said police would maintain a "zero-tolerance" approach to youth offending, which he said was often the result of complex issues of social disadvantage and unemployment, rather than the work of organised gangs.

मेलबर्न में अपराध के बारे में हाल ही में गरमागरम बहस शहर के अफ्रीकी-ऑस्ट्रेलियाई युवाओं पर शून्य हो गई है। लेकिन जैसा कि ट्रेवर मार्शलसी लिखते हैं, कई लोगों का मानना है कि उनकी भूमिका को अनुचित रूप से बढ़ा-चढ़ाकर पेश किया गया है, जिसमें अधिकारियों पर नस्लवादी शरारत करने के आरोप लगाए गए हैं।


Thai park exposes corruption claims and murky politics

Summary: When the Thai army decided last November to use a plot of land it owns near the royal resort town of Hua Hin, to construct a park containing 14 metre-high bronze statues of seven past kings, it must have seemed an ideal way for the military to demonstrate its abiding loyalty to the monarchy.

By Jonathan HeadSouth East Asia correspondent A year later, Rajabhakti Park has become a millstone around the neck of the military government, and a symbol of how their efforts to promote the monarchy - at an awkward moment as Thailand faces its first royal succession in nearly 70 years - can go wrong. The project has been tarnished by allegations of corruption - a scourge General Prayuth promised to tackle when he seized power last year. Other government-backed ventures intended to showcase support for the monarchy have been similarly tainted. Not just by allegations of mismanaged funds, but also by the mysterious deaths in custody, or disappearances, of people who had been close to Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn. The monarchy is an acutely sensitive topic in Thailand, made all the more delicate by the severity of the lese majeste law which inhibits any public debate about the institution. The officially-sanctioned view of the monarchy is that it is loved and respected by all Thais, who support the law. In fact, there are Thais who take a different view, but who do not dare to express it publicly. From the moment it seized power last year, the military made protecting the monarchy from any kind of critical scrutiny a top priority. It ordered the police to be more rigorous in prosecuting anyone caught saying anything negative about the royal family. It insisted defendants be tried in military courts, and sometimes in secret. Around 100 people have been charged with lese majeste since the coup, and sentences have become harsher, with one young mother-of-two being given a 28-year sentence in August. At the same time, the military set about trying to burnish the public image of Prince Vajiralongkorn, in preparation for him to succeed the ailing King Bhumibol. The lese majeste law makes it impossible for anyone in Thailand to speak frankly about members of the royal family. The commonly-used way to describe the comparison between the heir and the King is that "he does not enjoy the same popularity as his father." In August, the government organised a mass bicycle ride in Bangkok, led by the Crown Prince and his eldest daughter, in honour of Queen Sirikit, who is also in poor health. It was the first time Thais had seen the 63-year-old prince in a relatively informal setting, smiling and looking trim in his cycling clothes. The event was deemed a success, and the government held another one on Friday to commemorate the King's birthday. Then in October three men were suddenly arrested and charged with lese majeste. One, a famous fortune-teller and television personality known as Mor Yong, had played a prominent role in organising the first Bike for Mom event. He and his two co-defendants, one of them an influential police officer responsible for countering anti-monarchy sentiment on the internet, were accused of abusing the Crown Prince's name to raise funds illicitly with products like t-shirts and badges linked to the bike rides. Mor Yong had posted photos of himself with prominent public figures on his Facebook page, as part of his promotional activities. Four days later, the government announced that the police major had hanged himself with his shirt in his cell. Two weeks after that, they announced that Mor Yong too had died in custody, from blood poisoning. There was no proper autopsy and both men's bodies were hurriedly cremated. At the same time the personal bodyguard of the Crown Prince disappeared. He has since been stripped of all his titles and accused of "gravely evil acts" against the monarchy. It is widely believed that he is dead. Two other senior military officers have also disappeared, and have since been charged with lese majeste. They have also been linked to alleged abuses in the funding of Rajabhakti Park, which was formally opened by the Crown Prince and his daughter in September. The government and the army have tried, and failed, to stem the tide of allegations surrounding the park. General Udomdej Sitabutr, who was army commander until October this year and oversaw the project, admitted that irregular commissions were demanded by middlemen for the foundries building the huge statues, which cost around $1 million each. But he said he had insisted the commissions were refunded, although he explained the foundries then donated those commissions to an army charity. There have been allegations of inflated prices paid for trees planted in the park too. And an initial denial that any government funds were used to build the park turned out to be untrue - around $2 million came from state coffers. The army announced its own investigation, and quickly concluded there was no corruption. There was a public outcry, so the Ministry of Defence has ordered another investigation. The police say they cannot investigate unless the military authorises them to do so. A government spokesman told the BBC that independent agencies would soon be allowed to scrutinise the accounts of the project, but could not say when. The government's opponents have jumped on the opportunity to illustrate what they say is hypocrisy on the part of the military in prosecuting former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra for alleged corruption under her administration, yet failing to clean up its own house. Student activists and leaders of the pro-Yingluck "red shirt" movement have tried to organise visits to the park, but have been stopped and detained by the army. The government has also charged some of those spreading negative information about the park with sedition, a serious offence which carries a penalty of up to seven years in prison. Few people outside the top ranks of the military can know what lies behind these disturbing developments. But they show that the men who seized power last year, despite their considerable power, have nevertheless been unable to prevent damaging allegations of wrongdoing being made about their own royal promotion projects. Nor have they been able yet to provide a convincing response to those allegations. Many people in Thailand believe the revelations indicate divisions at the top over how to handle the royal succession, and crucially, who has control over this historic transition.

जब थाई सेना ने पिछले नवंबर में हुवा हिन के शाही रिसॉर्ट शहर के पास अपनी स्वामित्व वाली भूमि का उपयोग करने का फैसला किया, तो सात पिछले राजाओं की 14 मीटर ऊंची कांस्य मूर्तियों वाले एक पार्क का निर्माण करने के लिए, यह सेना के लिए एक आदर्श तरीका प्रतीत हुआ होगा।


The miniature monkey that's a Christmas best-seller

Summary: Every Christmas there's one toy that causes holiday mayhem - a must-have that seems almost impossible for desperate parents to get their hands on. But what goes into making a global best-seller?

By Jessica MurphyBBC News, Toronto The stakes will be high for parents whose children have Fingerlings on their holiday wish-lists as they head into the final weekend before Christmas. The miniature chirping animatronic monkeys, inspired by the world's smallest primate - the pygmy marmoset - are one of this season's runaway hits and can be tough to find. WowWee, the Hong Kong-based Canadian company behind the robotic toy, says Fingerlings were the brainchild of brand manager Sydney Wiseman, who saw the tiny primates online on a viral social media post and recognised a toy in the making. WowWee's chief technical officer Davin Sufer says they knew they had a hit on their hands with the US launch of the interactive toy in August, after it was released in the UK and Canada in spring. "Because of the UK launch and the buzz on social, there was almost pent-up demand for it in the US," he says. "So when it hit the shelves there was this huge blast of sales. And it kept going." Fingerlings have now joined the ranks of Christmas crazes; from the 1983 Cabbage Patch Doll frenzy, the 1996 Tickle Me Elmo fever, to last year's Hatchimals mania. "At some point we realised it was going to be a great success, but we didn't understand the scope," he says. "Every week we hit new records." The decision to launch the toy early in the year allowed the firm to gauge the response before the holiday season began in earnest. It also sent young Youtube "influencers" banana pinatas filled with Fingerlings inside to create an online buzz. "We wanted to create an untraditional unboxing experience and have influencers 'unbash' the Fingerlings from the pinatas," says Mr Sufer. The little robot monkeys - there is also a sloth and a unicorn version - also earned spots on hot toy lists from major retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Toys R Us, and made the influential UK's Toy Retailers Association top 12 list this year. Richard Gottlieb, a toy industry commentator with Global Toy Expert, says getting a product on those lists is a "self-fulfilling prophecy" for a successful year. But he compares a real Christmas toy craze to "an act of nature". "It's just the right product at the right time. Something about it just grabs people at the right moment," he says. "If you're looking at a toy that's a frenzy toy and one that's not, it's just magic." Michelle Liem, toy industry analyst at market research firm NPD Group Canada, says a few elements go into making a top toy, from having an innovative new product to setting the right price point. A product with "shareable moments" can also help make it a social media success. Three of the products making waves this Christmas - Fingerlings, LOL Surprise and Hatchimals again - all have some of those components. Davin Sufer credits the Fingerlings success to "the perfect combination of play, look, functionality and price point". "Once we cracked the look and got the mechanism inside it, and we struck everything down to fit in this tiny little body, we knew we had something special," he says. Richard Gottlieb calls Fingerlings "just a really great combination of high-tech and high-touch". "It's cute and it's affordable and you can put it your pocket, bring it to school. That was always cool, the kids that had the toy in their pocket." Each Fingerling retails for $14.99 or £14.99 - a price that makes it accessible for many to give as a gift. But popularity comes with problems. First there were fake Fingerlings; in November, WowWee was granted a temporary restraining order against 165 counterfeiters. The firm also had to scale-up production to keep up with demand, and use more costly air freight to get the product to shops on time. Ms Liem says that a production crunch can be tough for firms to navigate. Orders are calculated on predictions made long before the Christmas rush for them to be shipped to stores in time. Being overly ambitious can mean being stuck with too much costly stock. "The swirl builds and builds and builds, so by the time the swirl is so big you know you have a hit on your hands, all of those decisions have already been made," she says. Davin Sufer also says Fingerlings success means there's pressure to recreate the success next year. He says they'll build on the "collectability" of the plaything and expand the cast of creatures and characters. Global Trade More from the BBC's series taking an international perspective on trade: Mr Gottlieb says dealing with success can be dangerous for firms, and that fads often fade away in about eight months. He points to Hatchimals, by Toronto toy maker Spin Master, as an "exception to the rule" that remains a top seller despite struggling with inventory challenges in 2016. "They ran into some problems with defectives, probably because there was a real hurry to get the product out the door and there was new technology involved with it," he says. "But yet they've done a really good job of sustaining interest in [the product]." Both WowWee and Spin Master have a track record of producing successful products, he says, and a toy craze always starts with a good product. "But with all your hopes and dreams you can't make that happen. It's the people speaking."

हर क्रिसमस पर एक खिलौना होता है जो छुट्टियों में तबाही का कारण बनता है-एक ऐसा खिलौना होना चाहिए जो हताश माता-पिता के लिए लगभग असंभव लगता है। लेकिन एक वैश्विक बेस्ट-सेलर बनाने में क्या जाता है?


Radio Caroline 50 years on: The man who pressed the 'on' button

Summary: It started with a welcome, a frequency number and a track by the Rolling Stones (Not Fade Away) . Radio Caroline launched 50 years ago from a ship moored off the Essex coast. But while much is known of the DJs who became household names, what of the man who put the station on air?

By Laurence CawleyBBC News "There are not many people in Sweden who can tell their grandchildren that they were a pirate." Ove Sjöström, now in his 70s, is one of the few who can. It was Mr Sjöström who got Radio Caroline ready and who, on Easter Sunday 1964, pressed the button to broadcast. Radio Caroline was an offshore unlicensed radio station which helped pave the way for modern commercial radio. Transmitting from international waters, Radio Caroline only became formally illegal in 1967. And with one flick of a finger, Mr Sjöström altered - or perhaps set - the course of UK radio history. His involvement with the station began when Ronan O'Rahilly, the founder of Radio Caroline, visited Sweden to see Radio Nord, a Swedish offshore commercial station anchored in waters off Stockholm. O'Rahilly learned of a talented young engineer who had done work on Nord. That man was Mr Sjöström, who was in Liberia when O'Rahilly had visited. Before Mr Sjöström left for Africa, he gave Alan Crawford "a lot of advice" for his project Radio Atlanta - Caroline's rival - but, he says, he was never paid. On his return to Sweden from Liberia, his mother, who did not speak a word of English, told him of a strange call from a foreigner. The caller in question was Mr O'Rahilly. Mr Sjöström said: "Ronan and I got on well from the start. He asked me if I could come over and help start up a pirate radio ship. And I said 'of course'." He first laid eyes on the Caroline ship - the 702-tonne former Danish passenger ferry Fredericia - when he arrived in Ireland. "I had to start from the beginning. We started to put in the transmitters and all the necessary things. The pieces came in and we put it together," he said. While in the Irish port of Greenore, the Caroline team carried out a test transmission. "I mean we had to be sure everything was working," he said. "It blocked out television reception. And you could see on the harbour lights that the lamps were blinking to the music. You could see the music in the lamps. "I think we did it for a couple of nights." The plan, he said, was always to station the ship off the Essex coast. He said: "One thing I never told anybody, when Atlanta came to about a kilometre away me and some other Swedes took out a lifeboat to Atlanta and told the crew there that we had been working on that ship. "They said to come aboard. What I did, because I was quite sore at Crawford and Atlanta, I went down to the transmitter room and cut off a couple of things so they would blow up the tubes. "That's why they didn't come on the air and that's why Radio Caroline didn't have to bother about the competition. That was my revenge." When the moment came to turn on the Radio Caroline transmitter there were "many people around". The big switch on - which happened on a calm sea - is a moment Mr Sjöström no longer remembers. "There was a big switch to operate the transmitters," he said. "I have a faint memory, but I'm not sure. "I was down in the transmitter room the whole time." After the switch-on, he walked around tentatively looking for sparks or signs of any problems. He remained with Caroline for nearly two years, working two months on the ship, one month at home in Sweden. His time with Caroline ended when his wife fell pregnant. Although no longer an offshore radio station, Radio Caroline continues to broadcast via satellite and over the internet. Asked whether he appreciated his own role in getting Radio Caroline on the airwaves, Mr Sjöström, who now splits his time between Sweden and the Caribbean, said: "Oh yes, and I loved it."

यह एक स्वागत, एक आवृत्ति संख्या और रोलिंग स्टोन्स (नॉट फेड अवे) द्वारा एक ट्रैक के साथ शुरू हुआ। रेडियो कैरोलिन 50 साल पहले एसेक्स तट पर एक जहाज से शुरू हुआ था। लेकिन डीजे के बारे में बहुत कुछ जाना जाता है जो घरेलू नाम बन गए, लेकिन उस व्यक्ति का क्या जिसने स्टेशन को प्रसारित किया?


Scott Rennie named as Scalloway death fisherman

Summary: A fisherman who died after falling overboard from a fishing boat off Shetland has been named.

Scott Rennie, 34, from Newton Stewart, had been on the Ballantrae-registered King Challenger when the incident happened west of Scalloway on Thursday. His crewmates managed to get him out of the water. A Coastguard rescue helicopter then transferred him to Gilbert Bain Hospital, but he could not be saved. An investigation is being held.

शेटलैंड के पास मछली पकड़ने वाली नाव से गिरकर मरने वाले एक मछुआरे का नाम लिया गया है।


Q&A: Circuit of Wales racetrack project in Ebbw Vale

Summary: We seem to have been going around in circles with the Circuit of Wales. It is six years since the plans were first announced and now, on the last lap of quite a bumpy ride, the project with a chequered history has been brought to a shuddering halt. What did it involve?

By Steve DuffyBBC news A development company would have spent £433m building a racing circuit and a "365-day leisure and business destination". This latterly included mountain bike trails, a BMX park, a live concert stage, indoor skiing and a four-star hotel near an economic blackspot - Ebbw Vale in Blaenau Gwent. The hope was for the creation of 6,000 jobs and 750,000 visitors a year. In addition, the site would also have housed a £100m technology and research park and a £30m redevelopment of nearby business units. Who was behind it? Heads of the Valleys Development Corporation (HoVDC) - which had already secured a contract to host the MotorGP until 2024 on the strength of it. Its head is Michael Carrick, of investment company Aventa, whose other project is a £300m cyber security and data campus in Cambridge. Chief executive Martin Whitaker has headed Ford's motor sports programme and has been manager of the Bahrain international circuit. Events and online sports channel Extreme came on board earlier this year, bringing more sports and activities to the project. It was also backed by private banker Kleinwort Benson - a financial adviser tasked with finding the £100m "last piece" funding from private investors. Insurance group Aviva was the main financial backer. Why has it taken so long? Planning permission was granted four years ago but there was a subsequent public inquiry, over the project taking over common land. An offer of 800 acres (323 hectares) of replacement land was made and the hurdle was overcome in November 2015. But the biggest delay has been over HoVDC wanting the Welsh Government to underwrite the project - provide a guarantee - and ministers and officials have been calculating the financial and political risk of this. How would underwriting have worked? It would have meant the Welsh Government would be there in the background - as a safety net - once the circuit was up and running. Back in April 2016, ministers refused to take 100% of the risk on this and asked to HoVDC to come back with a more balanced deal. The next offer of 75% of the risk was also deemed unacceptable. The company's latest proposal, given to ministers in February, involved the Welsh Government underwriting half of Aviva's private sector funding - £210m. It would have worked like this: Circuit of Wales would have carried the risk during the construction phase. But once the development opened in 2019, the Welsh Government would underwrite half of the cost. In return, the Welsh Government would have been paid £99m over 33 years - equivalent to £3m a year. But as guarantors, if the Circuit failed once it had opened, the Welsh Government would have had to pay Aviva £210m - although not all at once. It emerged on Tuesday that backers Aviva would also still own the circuit and the infrastructure in the event things went wrong. Economy Secretary Ken Skates said it had been assessed that there was a "very significant risk" the full £373m debt of the entire project would be classified against Welsh Government capital spending. This would then have eaten into its budget for other projects - the equivalent of building 10 new schools or 5,000 new affordable homes. What were the sticking points? It was down to viability and risk. Could they make it pay? Were the estimates of 750,000 visitors a year wide of the mark? Since February, ministers and officials have been looking in fine detail at the business plan in a due diligence period. Mr Skates said pointedly that the estimate of 6,000 jobs from the project, through the supply chain, had been "significantly overstated". The Welsh Government estimated as few as 100 direct jobs, with another 500 indirect jobs and 500 construction jobs during the building phase. It believed the technology park as part of the plans would deliver most of the economic benefit - but that "could well require significant additional public funding". Hosting the British MotoGP for the next few years had been a coup and would have brought thousands of race fans. But the developers had already estimated that within 10 years, motor sport would only account for just over a third of its revenue. Within four years, more income was expected to come from attracting fans to extreme sports and festivals. By 2029, it projected the circuit development overall would bring in more than £70m a year. Has any public money been spent? HoVDC was given a £2m grant and £7.5m bank loan guarantee to help it progress plans and find private investors for the Ebbw Vale racetrack. The final proposal from the developers said the £7.5m would be paid back in full, plus interest. This has been subject to scrutiny by the Wales Audit Office which was critical of the way in which this was awarded, and there is also an assembly public accounts committee inquiry. So what happens now? When the idea for the circuit was first unveiled in late 2011 it was called "a real game-changer" for an area of high unemployment. The £200m estimated cost of the circuit had more than doubled since and the vision has gone beyond just bike racing. But the economic problems have not gone away in Blaenau Gwent. Mr Skates said local people "have waited long enough for the promised jobs". Sports car-maker TVR has already chosen to base its new factory nearby and a new college campus in Ebbw Vale has given the Welsh Government something to build on. The economic potential seen in the engineering and automotive technology park - part of the circuit plans - has now led to a Welsh Government commitment to a £100m project over 10 years "with local partners". It says this has the potential to support 1,500 new jobs. Ministers are also looking at the potential of locating a South Wales Metro depot in the Ebbw Vale enterprise zone.

ऐसा लगता है कि हम सर्किट ऑफ वेल्स के साथ चक्कर लगा रहे हैं। योजनाओं की घोषणा हुए छह साल हो गए हैं और अब, काफी ऊबड़-खाबड़ यात्रा के अंतिम चरण में, एक अस्थिर इतिहास वाली परियोजना को एक झटके में रोक दिया गया है। इसमें क्या शामिल था?


Sri Lankan refugees drown off India

Summary: Indian navy personnel have recovered the bodies of five Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who drowned after their boat capsized in the Palk Straits on Saturday morning.

A group of 19 Tamil refugees were travelling in a boat towards the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu when the incident took place. Indian navy officials in Rameswaram told the BBC they rescued nine people and brought them to Mandapam. They are searching for five more people who are feared drowned. The boat capsized near the Aindham Thittai islet allegedly due to engine failure, while it was heading towards Dhanushkodi coast in Tamil Nadu. All the 19 refugees are said to be from Trincomalee. Meanwhile, 71 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, who travelled in six other boats, reached the Tamil Nadu coast safely on Saturday morning.

भारतीय नौसेना के कर्मियों ने शनिवार सुबह पाक जलडमरूमध्य में अपनी नाव के पलट जाने के बाद डूबने वाले पांच श्रीलंकाई तमिल शरणार्थियों के शव बरामद किए हैं।


Broken parking meters cost Wrexham council £164,000

Summary: Broken and vandalised pay and display parking meters are expected to cost Wrexham council around £164,000 in lost income.

The figure was highlighted as the local authority looks to balance its books by the end of the 2016-17 financial year. The council said some machines had been targeted by thieves earlier this year. More secure meters are due to be installed which will also accept payment by card and mobile phone, said a spokesman. The authority has agreed to provide free town centre parking on council-run car parks throughout December for Christmas shoppers.

टूटे हुए और तोड़-फोड़ किए गए वेतन और प्रदर्शन पार्किंग मीटरों से रेक्सम परिषद को लगभग £164,000 का नुकसान होने की उम्मीद है।


Nattrass to step down as West Midlands UKIP MEP

Summary: The former deputy leader of UKIP has announced he is to step down.

Mike Nattrass, 65, has represented the West Midlands constituency at the European Parliament since 2004. Mr Nattrass said he planned to step down by the time of the next European elections in 2014 when the time "will be right" to retire. His constituency covers Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, the West Midlands and Worcestershire.

यू. के. आई. पी. के पूर्व उपनेता ने पद छोड़ने की घोषणा की है।


Q&A: RBS 'bad bank' explained

Summary: Royal Bank of Scotland has announced it will not split itself into separate "good" and "bad" banks.

After reporting the biggest loss in UK corporate history at 2008 at the peak of the financial crisis, RBS was bailed out by the government and remains 81%-owned by the taxpayer. There was much speculation that the bank would be split in an effort to restore profitability - but now that will not happen.

रॉयल बैंक ऑफ स्कॉटलैंड ने घोषणा की है कि वह खुद को अलग-अलग "अच्छे" और "बुरे" बैंकों में विभाजित नहीं करेगा।


Ian Paterson: Why have private patients not been compensated?

Summary: Patients taking out private health insurance expect to get the best treatment, but what happens if things go wrong? While the NHS has paid out millions to the patients of disgraced breast surgeon Ian Paterson, his private patients are still seeking compensation. Why?

By Jennifer Harby and Lisa WrightBBC News Paterson was jailed for 15 years last month after being convicted of intentionally wounding his patients. His trial heard he exaggerated or invented the risk of cancer in order to persuade people to go under the knife. While the case centred on nine women and one man, there were in fact hundreds of other victims, many of whom were treated privately by Paterson at Spire Healthcare, in the West Midlands. One such patient is Patricia Welch, who underwent a mastectomy and reconstruction after Paterson told her, wrongly, he had found a "ticking bomb" of cancerous cells in her breast. "I don't think you can ever get over it, because you've got it looking back at you in the mirror every morning," she said. "What he did - it will never go away. When you go private, you think you've got the best." It is a view shared by many - and one of the main reasons people are prepared to pay hundreds of pounds in health insurance each year. While the vast majority of private operations are carried out correctly - and private patients are typically treated sooner than their NHS counterparts - the service they receive if things go wrong is not necessarily better. The key difference between the NHS and private healthcare experience is insurance. In the public sector, the NHS is liable for compensation as doctors are employees. In the private sector, the insurance burden falls on surgeons because they are operating as contractors. "The hospitals are insured for their legal liabilities - the technology, the nurses, the building and the infrastructure," said Neil Huband, of the Private Patients' Forum, which supports patients in the sector. "The doctor, however, is in charge of the case and assumes authority for the welfare of the patient. No doctor is allowed to operate in a private hospital unless he is insured." As a result, hundreds of Paterson's victims are having to pursue compensation through the courts while their NHS counterparts have already received payouts. However, if a surgeon's conduct is held to be criminal, there is no guarantee his or her insurance will be valid. The Paterson scandal Ian Paterson: Surgeon was 'psychopathic like Shipman' Breast surgeon 'played God' with women's bodies Ian Paterson: 'He took a pound of flesh for money' Linda Millband, national lead lawyer for clinical negligence at legal firm Thompsons, is acting for more than 500 of Paterson's former private patients. She said private policies have very stringent restrictions, which can be revoked in cases of criminal activity, meaning the patient is not necessarily covered. "So people are not as safe in the private sector as they are in the NHS because policies are subject to review, so even if you sue somebody, if the insurers say it is criminal conduct it falls outside the policy," she said. "It's really bad and before this case I don't think anyone realised it could happen." Her firm has set up a campaign called Patients before Profit, which is calling for the same governance and accountability in the private sector as the NHS. "Private healthcare is a bit of a Wild West," she said. "There's not really the same level of accountability. The system relies on consultants complying with the rulebook and making admissions when things go wrong - which doesn't always happen. "The hospitals take the profits from the operations but they are not paying back to the client when things go wrong." The High Court is expected to rule later this year on whether Paterson's private patients will receive compensation. Paterson's own insurance of £10m has not yet been revoked, but is understood to feature a clause excluding cases of criminal negligence. Spire Healthcare and the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, which lawyers claim did not pass on information to Spire about Paterson's activities, are also being pursued for compensation. Between 1998 and 2011 Paterson was employed by the Heart of England trust in Solihull, despite the fact he had previously been suspended by Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield. At about the same time as his arrival at the trust, he began taking on private work for Spire Healthcare at its Little Aston and Parkway hospitals. Mark Sibbering, president of the Association of Breast Surgery, said the huge volume of operations Paterson carried out while at Spire was "off the scale". "The number of patients he was seeing was astronomical and there was no input from anybody else," he said. "That was clearly a governance issue." He said recent scandals in the NHS, such as the Stafford Hospital scandal and now the Paterson case, had led to a determination across the service never to let such things happen again. However, the private sector still has questions to answer, he believes. "What happened in the private sector has not been investigated fully yet," he said. "There were a lot of issues, in that they allowed this to go on for such a long time and to such a degree. There's a need to look into that more." Both Spire and the Heart of England trust say they have taken steps to ensure such a case could never happen again. Spire said it was looking at ways of improving data collection and had commissioned a report which made a number of recommendations, including breast cancer patients being required to undergo scans and biopsies before having surgery. A spokesman said: "As an independent hospital, Spire Healthcare operates in an environment which is highly regulated, and subject to strict governance requirements. "Spire is regulated in exactly the same way as any NHS hospital, by the Care Quality Commission. As well as making notifications (where necessary) we are subject to regular inspections. "We understand that Thompsons' campaign was prompted by the case of Ian Paterson. Issues of liability and compensation arising from Mr Paterson's activity will be addressed later in the year through a trial of lead cases. "This approach was proposed by Spire as the fairest and quickest way to determine where responsibility for his actions lies; and all the lawyers representing Mr Paterson's patients, including Thompsons, agreed to the process. "The Verita Report that we commissioned in light of the concerns about Mr Paterson made several recommendations, all of which have been implemented. "Patient safety is at the heart of everything we do, and it is something to which we remain deeply committed." Mr Hubard said regulation in the private sector had improved "out of sight" since the Paterson case. "We have a wonderful private sector in this country - some of the best private hospitals that exist anywhere in the world and we are getting more and more patients from abroad coming to use them," he said. "We are quite sure that the appalling circumstances of the Paterson case are most unlikely to be repeated because of the robustness of the regulations now in place but everybody needs to be vigilant." Christine Comerford, from Kenilworth, Warwickshire, underwent two operations and several biopsies at the hands of Paterson, although she later learned she had in fact never had cancer. She said she no longer trusted private healthcare and had cancelled her insurance scheme. "I was paying £140 a month," she said. "The big difference is that if you are part of a private scheme, you get seen quicker. "But if a mistake is made, people in the private sector don't hold their hands up. "It's too much of a closed environment where people can do their own thing with nobody looking at them." She added: "Spire made a lot of money from Paterson's work. Although you're not paying for the treatment, you get sent the invoices and it's phenomenal the amount insurance pays out. "To say you've learned from your mistakes has become like a standard answer. "It's true you will get rogues in every sector but they have to ensure people like Paterson can't get away with it for so long."

निजी स्वास्थ्य बीमा लेने वाले रोगियों को सबसे अच्छा इलाज मिलने की उम्मीद है, लेकिन अगर चीजें गलत हो जाती हैं तो क्या होगा? जबकि एन. एच. एस. ने बदनाम स्तन सर्जन इयान पैटरसन के रोगियों को लाखों का भुगतान किया है, उनके निजी रोगी अभी भी मुआवजे की मांग कर रहे हैं। क्यों?


BTS: The enduring power of the princes of K-pop

Summary: K-pop has been the driving force of Korean popular culture for more than two decades and one band is now leading the way. But, as the BBC's Heather Chen and BBC Korean's Minji Lee write, can BTS keep up their extraordinary rise in 2018?

It's big business across Asia, contributing billions of dollars annually to the South Korean economy, but has yet to make a significant impact on Western markets. While pop star Psy found massive chart success with his 2012 dance hit Gangnam Style, his star soon fizzled. But come 2017 and enter BTS, the seven-piece boyband who last year managed to go where no K-pop act had gone before by conquering a notoriously difficult and unforgiving market: the US. A highly successful US tour propelled their musical combination of pop, hip-hop and R&B - mostly in Korean - on to the global stage. They had the highest charting album ever by a K-pop act on the Billboard 200 charts and in November, became the first K-pop act to top the US iTunes chart. Add that to their Billboard Music Award win in May, where fans voted them Top Social Artist, beating the likes of Justin Bieber. The boys wrapped up a milestone year by making social media history too. On Twitter, they received several honours which included "most engagements for a music act" and their very own emoji, and they were named the year's most retweeted artist. The US embassy in Seoul even revealed that their tweet with the highest engagement in 2017 was about BTS. How does the band connect to its fans? That's appropriate for a band whose success has been driven by their meticulously maintained social media presence, winning them fiercely devoted fans who call themselves the ARMY. "We can tell you what outfits they were wearing at a particular shoot or which is their favourite Animoji," says 19-year-old university freshman Angelica Bacani from the Philippines. "Sometimes on my way to school, I scroll through my feeds and see messages from the boys which always cheer me up." The self-professed diehard fan, whose favourite member is Jin, told BBC News that it was the "personal connection" with the band, provided by social media, that fans enjoyed most. "Other bands come across as being distant and untouchable but BTS are so relatable." According to Seoul-based pop culture critic Kim Hern-sik, this "genuine and down-to-earth" social media behaviour "wasn't something that was crafted but them just being themselves". "K-pop groups nurtured by bigger talent agencies often run massive marketing promotions with the aim of transforming singers into idols," Mr Kim told BBC News. "They are systemic and controlling so fan interaction becomes restricted. The style of communication therefore comes across as being too formal. "However this isn't the case of BTS, who are managed by a relatively small agency. The boys are granted freedom in interacting with their fans on social media and are not treated as just being part of a huge system but rather, like actual human beings." Who are BTS? Read more: Who are BTS and why are they so important? Another good year ahead? Yes, according to Mr Kim, because they are still offering something new. "BTS is different from Psy who had one good song but didn't maintain a consistent style afterwards," said Kim Hern-sik. "BTS consistently and continuously built up a musical identity that really resonates with teens." He says they transformed the way that Korean celebrities - previously seen as perfect and far-removed from ordinary life - should be networking in order to build loyal fan bases. "Ultimately, they are really successful because they know how to interact with their fans and I think their popularity is here to stay." Business observers like Singapore-based branding strategist Martin Roll agree. He says the "hallyu wave" - the explosion of Korean popular culture - "has proven to be a blessing for Korea and is definitely here to stay". "The past decades are evidence that K-pop is no longer just a passing fad, but BTS needs to constantly think of novel ways to engage their fans in order to sustain their position at the top of the Korean entertainment industry," he told the BBC. The boys are in for a busy year ahead. They are signed on as coveted tourism ambassadors, debuting a year-end ad which caused the Seoul city government's tourism website to crash. "The 'idol power' [around BTS] is really on another level," remarked Peter Kim, an official at the tourism business division. "The strength of the reaction to this video was unprecedented and we did not expect it to be so popular so it definitely went further than what we expected!" BBC News in Seoul contacted representatives from Big Hit Entertainment for this feature but were declined a media interview.

के-पॉप दो दशकों से अधिक समय से कोरियाई लोकप्रिय संस्कृति की प्रेरक शक्ति रहा है और एक बैंड अब आगे बढ़ रहा है। लेकिन, जैसा कि बीबीसी की हीथर चेन और बीबीसी कोरियाई की मिंजी ली लिखते हैं, क्या बीटीएस 2018 में अपनी असाधारण वृद्धि जारी रख सकता है?


Union jack gaffe causes council flap in Manchester

Summary: A union jack which was manufactured in error before being flown in Manchester on Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day has been removed.

Manchester City Council has apologised for the blunder which saw the flag flying over the city's Central Library, close to its Cenotaph. It said the manufacturers cut the flag in the wrong place, leaving the diagonal crosses facing outwards. Contractors then failed to spot the error as the flag was being attached. The flag was ordered in time for the service in St Peter's Square on Sunday. A council statement said: "This was clearly a mistake and we apologise. The misprinted flag will be replaced."

एक यूनियन जैक जिसे यादगारी रविवार और युद्धविराम दिवस पर मैनचेस्टर में उड़ाने से पहले गलती से बनाया गया था, उसे हटा दिया गया है।


Morfa distributor road to be completed a year early

Summary: A £4.5m road which links Swansea city centre to the Liberty Stadium is set to be completed a year earlier than planned.

The Morfa distributor road runs parallel to the River Tawe and it is hoped it will also attract businesses to set up along the route. It aims to cut traffic problems on Neath Road in Hafod which suffers from high pollution levels. The April 2017 finish comes after a £1.1m Welsh Government injection. Swansea council leader Rob Stewart, said: "The completion of the scheme a year ahead of schedule will assist us in unlocking further development in the area and making the area more accessible for the public. "It will also assist in diverting some transport away from Neath Road in Hafod."

स्वानसी शहर के केंद्र को लिबर्टी स्टेडियम से जोड़ने वाली 4.5 करोड़ पाउंड की सड़क योजना से एक साल पहले पूरी होने वाली है।


Jarvis Cocker: Pop poet

Summary: Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker has been writing songs since he was 15 years old. Now, at 48, a selection of his lyrics have been collected in a book. But how did a geeky misfit from Sheffield become a poet for the Britpop generation?

Jarvis Cocker admits he is dangerously close to becoming a grumpy old man, so it comes as no surprise that he pines for a golden age of pop when, he says, music really mattered. "Before, pop stars invented themselves," he says, contrasting the likes of Scott Walker and David Bowie with the manufactured stars of the X Factor generation. He harks back to the days when kids waited eagerly for Top of the Pops every Thursday night and talked about it for days after. A time when teenagers identified themselves by the music they listened to. "I don't know whether kids are using music in such a fundamental way any more," he says. "You can express yourself much more directly now by having a Facebook profile." The singer's childhood and upbringing in Sheffield has had an overwhelming influence on Pulp's lyrics. From the explicit scenes in Sheffield: Sex City to the fountain which plays a central role in Disco 2000, the city has coloured the band's music since they began performing there in 1978. It started with a lunchtime gig at their comprehensive, The City School, where a young Pulp - then known as Arabacus Pulp - charged classmates 20p to see them play. "We got a group together to play a show and I realised with horror that I had to write words," he recalls. His first attempt was a song called Shakespeare Rock, which contained the lyrical gem: "Got a baby, only one thing's wrong. She quotes Shakespeare all day long. I said, 'baby why you ignoring me?'. She said, 'to be or not to be'." Perhaps unsurprisingly, the song does not feature in his current anthology. In fact, it wasn't until the mid-1990s that Pulp's blend of catchy melodies and Cocker's ability to capture the awkward, fumbling mundanity of life with irreverence and wit brought the band to fame. "It took me a long time to take my eyes down from the lofty peak and realise that the stuff that was strewn around me was the stuff I had to be writing about," he says. "We have dreams of what we want our life to be and we always fall short don't we? So instead of editing those bits out and pretending that that incident didn't happen why don't we just embrace it?" At the same time he admits to romanticising the Sheffield of his childhood. "It's much easier to have a relationship with someone once you've split up with them and you can turn them into this saint who never did anything wrong. So I created a Sheffield of the mind," he says. "All these details that maybe I overlooked when I lived there, had a tang of nostalgia but also exoticism." Reality has a way of undermining pop's romanticism, though. That "fountain down the road" was demolished in 1998. Anyone wanting to meet there in the year 2000 would have been sorely disappointed. "That was very mean," says Cocker. 'Clunky and obvious' On stage, Cocker cuts a distinctive figure, dressed in a jacket and tie, jerking his arms into familiar, angular poses, with his thick horn-rimmed glasses tied around his head with an elastic band. "Short of saving up for some corrective surgery you have to deal with the cards you're dealt with," he says. "If you exaggerate it enough it'll actually turn into a fashion feature." Anyone who attended Pulp's reunion shows this summer will know that the band's music is much more than just Cocker's words. There are catchy melodies, clever bass lines and enrapturing performances, as well as Cocker's unique voice. So how does it translate to the page? Is there a danger that the lyrics could seem neutered? "Yeah, but it's exciting. It's like walking around the house naked," he says. "The thing was to try and arrange the book so they would come across in some way... but you are getting half the picture, I suppose." But he fundamentally disagrees with the idea that song lyrics are poetry and objects to the way some bands present their lyrics on record and CD sleeves. "Often the words are laid out [and] they're kind of typeset to resemble poetry. That's always rubbed me up the wrong way because it's just not poetry," he says. "The rhymes in lyrics tend to be very clunky and kind of obvious but it works in songs. I love the fact that songs rhyme, that's one of the real joys of writing for me. When you find a good rhyme you congratulate yourself. If you could high five yourself you would do." Still, he is proud that his work will stand on bookshelves alongside that of poets such as Philip Larkin and Seamus Heaney and impressed that the lyrics he wrote as a young man still resonate today. "I'm not a person who would sit at home listening to his own music, but I found myself having listened to them because we were about to do some concerts and I wanted to remember what the words were," he says. "I was pleased, because it's not a given that you spend your adolescence doing something that stands the test of time. It could have been absolute twaddle." But now that he is in his middle age, and apparently taking a pause from song writing, is the well of creativity drying up? "I think that's a horrible way to think of life, as material. You're playing at it then and I think that's rubbish. At the moment I'm doing the living bit and maybe I'll start commenting about it in a while," he says. "I don't really like happy songs, and I'm going through a relatively happy time right now. I don't want to spoil it by commenting on it." Mother, Brother, Lover: Selected Lyrics, by Jarvis Cocker, is published by Faber and is out now. Listen to Jarvis Cocker speaking to Sarfraz Manzoor on The Strand from the BBC World Service.

पल्प फ्रंटमैन जार्विस कॉकर 15 साल की उम्र से ही गाने लिख रहे हैं। अब, 48 साल की उम्र में, उनके गीतों का एक चयन एक किताब में एकत्र किया गया है। लेकिन शेफ़ील्ड से एक गीकी मिसफिट ब्रिटपॉप पीढ़ी के लिए कवि कैसे बन गया?


Anglesey vote sees go-ahead for 8,000 north Wales homes

Summary: A plan for 8,000 new houses in Anglesey and Gwynedd over the next 15 years has been approved by councillors on Anglesey.

Councillors voted in favour of the Local Development Plan by 21 votes to five. Protestors who feared the plan would negatively affect the numbers of Welsh speakers in the area had met outside the council offices in Llangefni. Gwynedd councillors approved the plan on Friday. Anglesey and Gwynedd had prepared a joint land use development strategy. It includes some houses which have already been built or have planning permission.

अगले 15 वर्षों में एंग्लेसी और ग्वेनेड में 8,000 नए घरों की योजना को एंग्लेसी के पार्षदों द्वारा अनुमोदित किया गया है।


Will Germany's new law kill free speech online?

Summary: In October a new law comes into force in Germany that will impose huge fines on social networks if they don't delete illegal content including hate speech. It's touched off a huge debate over freedom of expression and has attracted an unusual collection of opponents.

By Patrick EvansBBC News The law is called Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz - NetzDG for short. It obliges the biggest social networks - those with more than two million German users - to take down "blatantly illegal" hate speech within 24 hours of it being reported. For material that's less obviously violating the law, networks such as Facebook and Instagram will have seven days to consider and, if appropriate, delete posts. Failure to meet these deadlines could lead to fines of up to €50m. Critics argue the short timeframes coupled with the potentially large fines will lead social networks to be overly cautious and delete huge amounts of content - even things that are perfectly legal. But the law's supporters, and the German government, argue that it will force social media companies to proactively deal with online incitement and hate speech. What counts as 'illegal hate speech' in Germany? The law doesn't actually change what's considered hate speech in Germany. No new offences are created. The law simply cites sections of the German Criminal Code which details illegal speech online. The categories range from "forming terrorist organisations", to the much vaguer "defamation of religions, religious and ideological associations." In addition, German law restricts some types of speech that are allowed in many other countries. For instance, the use of Nazi symbols is banned, as are the symbols and flags of some extremist groups. An earlier draft of the NetzDG bill barred "defamation of the President of the Federation", but the clause was removed after criticism. The law has also been criticised for containing no legal mechanism for people whose posts are wrongly deleted to appeal to get them reinstated. You might also be interested in: So who is worried? Opposition has come from a wide range of groups and politicians on both the left and right - and Facebook has also made its disagreement with the law clear. The United Nations has also weighed in. David Kaye, the UN's Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, has written to the German government to warn about the potential consequences of the law. "With these 24 hour and seven day deadlines - if you are a company you are going to want avoid fines and bad public branding of your platform," he says. "If there is a complaint about a post you are just going to take it down. What is in it for you to leave it up? I think the result is likely to be greater censorship." The group Reporters without Borders says the German law has already inspired a "draconian" new online media law in Russia. But there are voices in Germany who are in favour of the law and who argue that making social networks more responsible for hate speech and illegal content on their platforms is a good thing. Anas Modamani is a refugee from Syria who now lives in Berlin. In August 2015 he was catapulted to notoriety for taking a selfie with Angela Merkel while she was visiting a migrant shelter. But the picture would come back to haunt him, as it was used to accuse him of attacks in Brussels and Berlin. His famous photograph was cropped and pasted into wanted posters and false news reports. "When I read the fake news on the internet, I really cried, it was really bad in my life, it was all untrue," Modamani says. He decided to take Facebook to court for not doing enough to stop the lies being shared about him, but in March 2017 he lost the case. The court ruled Facebook had taken enough measures to attempt to block defamatory images of him for users in Germany. Because of his experiences, Modamani is a supporter of NetzDG. "I think the law is a good idea because people will be a little bit afraid, they can't just write what they want," he says. "I don't mind if other comments get deleted along with the bad ones." Modamani's lawyer, Chan-Jo Jun, is also optimistic about the new law, and plans to use it immediately after it comes into effect. "I regularly report the post that was the subject of the [earlier] trial and I keep getting the answer [from Facebook] that it does not violate community standards," Jun says. "Therefore it is still online. After October I will file a complaint against Facebook under the NetzDG - with the NetzDG, the court case would not have been necessary." On the other side of the legal debate is attorney Joachim Steinhoefel. While Chan-Jo Jun has taken Facebook to court to get them to remove posts, Steinhoefel has threatened the company with legal action to get a post reinstated. In May, photojournalist Markus Hibbeler wrote a Facebook post about Islam and freedom of expression. Translated from German, the post read in part: "We shouldn't shield Muslims, and certainly not Islam, which has never been through an enlightenment or reformation, from criticism and constantly protect them." His post was deleted by Facebook and his account was suspended for seven days. Hibbeler, with Steinhoefel's help, threatened to sue Facebook if the post wasn't put back up within a week and his account reinstated. They succeeded, and Facebook reinstated the post and apologised. It's cases like Hibbeler's, Steinhoefel says, that show how NetzDG threatens freedom of expression. He says he doesn't trust Facebook to decide what posts are legal and illegal and thinks the most likely outcome will be a mass deletion of legal posts that Facebook doesn't want to take any risks with, out of an abundance of caution. The attorney has started a blog where he posts examples of Facebook deleting posts which he says break no laws. The blog also catalogues what Steinhoefel says are blatantly illegal posts which Facebook hasn't removed. For example, one of the latter posts reads: "Jews to the gas chambers". Facebook has not removed it, despite it being reported to the company. "It goes to show how unprofessional they are in dealing with this content," Steinhoefel says. He is suspicious of the real motive behind the new law and says it will allow "the media and political elite to regain control over the political debate in Germany." "The law is superfluous," he says. "The law as it is right now in Germany makes Facebook responsible for illegal content on its site from the moment they know about it. It just takes state prosecutors and courts to implement these laws." The German government, however, is determined to press forward with NetzDG. Gerd Billen, a State Secretary in the German Ministry of Justice, says that although existing laws oblige Facebook to delete illegal comments "there are no rules about when they have to do it, how they have to organise and what their complaint management system should look like." "There is a fear of 'over-blocking' but the reality is 'under-blocking'," Billen says. "They don't block enough. We don't believe there will be a problem (with over-blocking) because the social networks want to keep their customers." Also from Trending: Billen downplays concerns about freedom of speech, and points out that social media companies already censor content that is perfectly legal. "There is no obligation for any private company in Germany or somewhere else in the world to guarantee freedom of speech," he says. "To guarantee freedom of speech is something a government does but not private companies. I didn't find any notice in the terms and conditions of Facebook that the company will respect freedom of speech. "For example they delete many things that are allowed in Germany. Facebook don't accept naked people on their platform. They can decide if they don't want it, so they delete it." Opposition from social media companies A Facebook spokesperson admitted to the BBC that they can't rule out the possibility of legal content being deleted. "The law is not the right way to fight hate speech online," the spokesperson says. "It provides an incentive to delete content that is not clearly illegal and would have the effect of transferring responsibility for complex legal decisions from public authorities to private companies. "Several legal experts have assessed the draft law as being against the German constitution and non-compliant with EU law. Facebook is committed to working in partnership with governments and civil society on solutions that would have made this law unnecessary." The BBC also learnt that although the company will soon have another 500 content moderators based in Essen, in western Germany, Facebook has not hired any new staff in response to the law. "We are still evaluating what the law really means for us," the spokesperson says. You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.

अक्टूबर में जर्मनी में एक नया कानून लागू हुआ जो सोशल नेटवर्क पर भारी जुर्माना लगाएगा यदि वे घृणित भाषण सहित अवैध सामग्री को नहीं हटाते हैं। इसने अभिव्यक्ति की स्वतंत्रता पर एक बड़ी बहस को छुआ है और विरोधियों के एक असामान्य संग्रह को आकर्षित किया है।


Boy from Newcastle accused of right-wing terror offences

Summary: A boy has been charged with right-wing terrorism offences.

The 16-year-old from Newcastle faces 11 charges including supporting the banned neo-Nazi group National Action. He was charged after being summonsed to Westminster Magistrates' Court earlier, with a first official court hearing to be held in due course. The offences, which also include encouraging terrorism and inciting racial and religious hatred, date from between May and October last year. He was arrested in October by Counter Terrorism Policing as part of an investigation into "suspected right wing terrorism online", a force spokeswoman said. National Action was proscribed by the government, meaning it is a criminal offence to be a member, in December 2016. The boy faces four counts of inviting support for National Action in social media posts, three of publishing statements to encourage an act of terrorism and three of distributing materials intended to stir up racial hatred. He also faces one charge of distributing material intending to stir up religious hatred. Follow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.

एक लड़के पर दक्षिणपंथी आतंकवाद के अपराधों का आरोप लगाया गया है।


Migrants ride 'the Beast' from Mexico to the US

Summary: Every year, thousands of undocumented migrants cling to the wagons of "the Beast", a freight train that runs from southern Mexico to the US-Mexican border, braving bandits, immigration officials and the elements to reach "El Norte".

By Valeria PerassoBBC Mundo Hispanic affairs correspondent The BBC spoke to two who survived the perilous journey and made it to California. Frida Hinojosa, Mexican migrant To get to Los Angeles, California, where she has lived since crossing the US-Mexican border without documents five years ago, Frida Hinojosa left her tin shack in Southern Mexico ready to board the "Train of Death". "It was a fearful journey, filled with uncertainties. Those were probably the worst days of my life," she says. By train, Ms Hinojosa travelled about 1,100km (684 miles) from the city of Tapachulas, near the border between Guatemala and Mexico, all the way to Mexico City. "Los garroteros [people armed with garrottes] were running from coach to coach in the middle of the night, asking for money," she says. "They said that even though the train was free and we had not paid for a proper ticket, we had to pay them to be able to ride. And if you had nothing, they would just abuse you, verbally or physically." The train, she says, was the only means to get to the North, as she had very little money and no job, and most of those who ride the Beast take between 10 and 15 different trains to cover the distance. The train is most dangerous for women, many of whom are raped or coerced into performing sexual favours in exchange for protection. "I was travelling on my own and, as a woman, really bad things happened. It was very sad. I had no money and most of what I got from begging at every train stop I had to give to others, who would then look after me." "The Beast is a much worse place for women than it is for men," she says. From Mexico City she continued by bus, stopping in Guadalajara, where she worked to raise money to pay the "coyote" to guide her over the border. She finally reached Tijuana, a border city on Mexico's west coast. On the other side of the fence lay San Diego, California. Her son joined her in Los Angeles 18 months later. She is now married to a Guatemalan who helped her get the documents that allowed her to remain in the US legally. "I saw so many sad things," she says. "I saw a mother whose child died on the train and had to bury him on the Mexican side of the border before continuing her journey. I saw rapes, I saw murders. Knowing that I was doing this for my son gave me strength and hope to keep going. Now he's a grown-up, God bless him, and we are together." Ms Hinojosa is unemployed, a situation she blames on the US economy. But going back home is not an immediate option for her. Would she brave the Beast again? "Of course I would," she replies without hesitation. "All I got here makes it worth the ordeal. I wouldn't have achieved anything if I had stayed [in Mexico]. Most migrants on the train shared a dream, we are in it together." Omar, migrant from El Salvador Omar, a construction worker who now lives in Los Angeles, started his journey as an undocumented migrant in January 1990. "Things back then were slightly different, less dangerous perhaps than what they are now," says Omar, who asked the BBC not to use his surname. He boarded a bus in his native Apopa, a small town in central El Salvador. To reach the US-Mexico border, he first had to travel through Guatemala and Mexico. A four-day bus ride left him in southern Mexico, ready to board the Train of Death. "The cargo trains didn't stop, you had to jump on board before it was gone," he says. "At the beginning it was scary. I let one train go past because I thought I couldn't do it. Then I got used to it. But it's true that your physical abilities determine whether you make it all the way north or you just give up or suffer an accident that can be fatal." Back then, he recalls, migrants did not have to reach the roof of the carriages for their clandestine journey. Train guards would open an empty coach for them, with no seats or ventilation, and would seal the doors in between stops. He travelled for hours jammed into a car with about 200 fellow migrants and suffered severe dehydration. He had his first glimpse of southern Mexico in the state of Chiapas, where the train made its first stop. He spent the night at a shelters for migrants volunteers had set up along the road. "I was emotionally drained," he recalls. "I saw people dying falling from the metal stairs of the Beast, some of them mutilated under its wheels. I started thinking that it was harder than I'd been told. I didn't know if I could do it." Days later, he ran into immigration officers and was deported back to El Salvador. Six months after that he tried again, asking an acquaintance to guide him in exchange for money. "Sexual abuses were common, as well as extortions from the authorities who asked for a "mordida" [bribe] to let us go through a checkpoint," he says. He was mugged and beaten on board the Beast. He also lost all his money: he had given it to a woman he had befriended, thinking that it would be safer with her, but she was also attacked. To raise the cash to continue, he worked for a month as a cleaner and gardener for a wealthy elderly couple of Russian origin in Tonalá, in the state of Jalisco. "They wanted to help and let me sleep in their garage during the night," he says. The memories of the train, he says, are still engraved in his body. "I've never felt such heat in my life," he recalls. "Every time I feel extreme heat, all those memories come back. I saw my own death, I felt it and it felt so real while I was riding that train."

हर साल, हजारों अनिर्दिष्ट प्रवासी "द बीस्ट" के वैगनों से चिपके रहते हैं, एक मालगाड़ी जो दक्षिणी मैक्सिको से यूएस-मैक्सिकन सीमा तक चलती है, डकैतों, आप्रवासन अधिकारियों और तत्वों को "एल नॉर्ट" तक पहुंचने के लिए बहादुर बनाती है।


Jersey cows model matching Christmas jumpers

Summary: A farmer has dressed her cows in Christmas jumpers to spread some seasonal cheer to passers-by.

The five cows have been sporting the matching knitwear while grazing on their farm in St Saviour, Jersey. Dairy farmer and self-confessed Christmas enthusiast Becky Houzé designed the patterned jumpers for her Jersey girls as a festive treat. "We think we've landed on a look worthy of the cream of the crop", Ms Houzé said.

एक किसान ने राहगीरों में कुछ मौसमी उत्साह फैलाने के लिए अपनी गायों को क्रिसमस कूदने वाले कपड़े पहने हैं।


How China guards the Xi creation myth

Summary: The UK says it wants to be China's best friend in the West, and will be laying out the red carpet for the country's new strongman, President Xi Jinping, when he begins a state visit on Monday. But what kind of person is he? I tried to find out by visiting the cave where he lived for seven years in his youth.

Carrie GracieChina editor@BBCCarrieon Twitter I was looking forward to seeing the cave where China's president grew up but as our van skimmed along behind the sleek black sedan, I was nervous too. The man from the propaganda department already had an anxious sheen about him. I foresaw trouble. President Xi is building a personality cult. The last thing the strongman with the perfect creation myth needs is the BBC puncturing it. So pity that local propaganda chief in the car ahead. In general the president's spin doctors do a very slick job of presenting him as a man of the people. He tours leaky back alley homes, ducking through washing lines and wearing no face mask - the message that this is a leader prepared to breathe the same polluted air as you. He talks to his public in earthy prose, telling students that life is like a shirt with buttons where you have to get the first few right or the rest will all go wrong. He queues up in an ordinary dumpling shop for lunch and pays for his own meal. Message - he is neither greedy nor showy. It's all clever political signalling of course. Behind the smile, Xi Jinping is a ruthless operator. You don't rise to the top of the Chinese communist party without being a consummate political player and Mr Xi has spent a lifetime playing. But the Sedan in front was now stopping at a police barrier. We'd arrived at the heart of the president's creation myth. Nearly five decades ago, the 15-year-old Xi fled from the chaos of the capital to this bleak and breathtaking landscape of yellow canyons, caves and mountains. The contrast with life in Beijing must have been even more extreme in those days. Especially for Xi himself. He had actually lived two lives by the age of 15. In the first his father was a hero of the communist revolution so Xi spent his early years as a so called red princeling, enjoying a privileged upbringing. But all of that was shattered by the civil war that an increasingly paranoid and vengeful Chairman Mao inflicted on the party elite in the 1960s. Xi's father was jailed, his family humiliated. One of his sisters died. Without parents or friends to protect him from the murderous red guards dispensing summary justice on the streets, the teenage Xi lived his second Beijing life, dodging death threats and detention… until he came to this village. Millions of Chinese city kids were doing the same thing. Chairman Mao had decreed they should spend time in the countryside, learning from the hard life of the peasants, and Xi Jinping says he did learn. The spin doctors have turned his teenage trauma into triumph. This village has become a shrine to its most famous son, a vital part of the president's image. I left my heart in Liangjiahe. Liangjiahe made me, he likes to claim. There aren't many 21st Century leaders of whom you can say that they lived in a cave and made it as a farmer before clawing their way to the political summit. But in control-conscious China, those facts could not possibly be allowed to speak for themselves. So I was marched round a museum extolling the good deeds that Xi did for his fellow villagers, and whenever my attention flagged a gushing guide stepped forward to fill in narrative gaps, and I soon realised that what I'd mistaken for phalanxes of communist party pilgrims were actually propaganda officials. Also keeping an eye on me rather than the museum exhibits, a liberal sprinkling of plainclothes police. Why the paranoia? Why does the history have to be sanitised, all trace of real personality expunged? I wasn't looking for revelations of youthful depravity or character flaws. But everywhere I turned the memories were so carefully crafted it was hard to work out whether any of them were real. And all the while, the propaganda chief's glassy pallor worsened. Eventually he asked me to sign a document promising that every word the BBC said about President Xi would be positive. He blanched when I said I couldn't. It might be his job to burnish the presidential image, but it certainly wasn't mine. The great irony of Xi Jinping's personality cult is that under Chairman Mao he and his family suffered from strongman politics. And after the tragedy of the cultural revolution the communist party resolved it would never make the same mistake again. Grey faceless committees ran China for the next 40 years. But now the strongman is back. And perhaps also the danger that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. For us it was time to leave the caves. The propaganda chief had started threatening to confiscate our recordings. President Xi may have left his heart in Liangjiahe but I didn't want to leave all the material I'd gathered there. That night we made a sudden bolt, driving 200 miles (320km) to an airport from which we could get our work out of China. Strange exploits when you consider that the cave years are possibly the most positive chapter of Xi Jinping's life even without persuasion and threats from the propaganda department. Mao's Cultural Revolution BBC History How to listen to From Our Own Correspondent: BBC Radio 4: Thursdays at 11:00 and Saturdays at 11:30 Listen online or download the podcast. BBC World Service: At weekends - see World Service programme schedule or listen online. You can watch Carrie Gracie's film for Panorama, The Xi Factor, on BBC1 on Monday at 20.30 Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

ब्रिटेन का कहना है कि वह पश्चिम में चीन का सबसे अच्छा दोस्त बनना चाहता है, और देश के नए शक्तिशाली व्यक्ति, राष्ट्रपति शी जिनपिंग के लिए लाल कालीन बिछाएगा, जब वह सोमवार को राजकीय यात्रा शुरू करेंगे। लेकिन वह किस तरह के व्यक्ति हैं? मैंने उस गुफा में जाकर पता लगाने की कोशिश की जहाँ वे अपनी युवावस्था में सात साल रहे थे।


EE finds 4G a hard sell

Summary: Just three months after the launch of the UK's first 4G network, the "Sale" signs are going up at EE. The company has unveiled what it describes as "new price plan offers" to offer customers more choice. But what EE is actually doing is cutting prices in what looks like an admission that it got its initial offer wrong.

Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter When I spoke to the company's CEO Olaf Swantee last October, he was confident about the strategy: "We really think we've priced it at the sweet spot," he said. "It's all based on months of consumer research." But complaints came thick and fast - in particular about data. The fact that customers upgrading from Orange or T-Mobile would pay £5 more for the same amount of data struck many as unreasonable. After all, the whole point of 4G was that lightning-fast speeds meant that you would want to consume far more data. Now EE is going some way to recognise that. Its entry price has been cut from £36 to £31 a month - though you still only get 500MB of data for that. (Incidentally, those who signed up at the original price won't be able to switch to the cheaper deal, which is bound to cause anger.) And it's bringing in a new £46 a month 20GB Sim-only deal designed for what it calls "super-users". EE says it has introduced this after "listening to customers" but still insists that only a tiny minority - less than 1% - of 4G users have shown a desire to have more than the current 8GB limit. But maybe it's a question of chicken and egg. If the initial prices had not been so high, more people would have signed up and chosen to use more data. That certainly seems to be the message in a report out today from Deloitte that warns mobile networks of an almost insatiable desire amongst smartphone users for data. When I asked EE whether the new price plans were a response to poor uptake of 4G, I was told the company could not disclose any numbers, but had been "very pleased with the customer response to the launch of EE". The rest of the mobile industry will be watching this move very closely. With Ofcom's 4G auction starting this month, operators will be wondering just how great the demand from customers is going to be and working out what that means as they bid for spectrum. Last autumn it looked as though EE had pulled off a coup by getting Ofcom to allow it to launch 4G before the rest of the industry. Now it seems the firm may have done its rivals a favour by running a live consumer experiment on their behalf.

ब्रिटेन के पहले 4जी नेटवर्क के शुरू होने के ठीक तीन महीने बाद, ई. ई. में "बिक्री" के संकेत बढ़ रहे हैं। कंपनी ने ग्राहकों को अधिक विकल्प प्रदान करने के लिए "नई मूल्य योजना प्रस्ताव" का खुलासा किया है। लेकिन ई. ई. वास्तव में कीमतों में कटौती कर रहा है जो एक स्वीकारोक्ति की तरह लग रहा है कि उसने अपना प्रारंभिक प्रस्ताव गलत पाया है।


In pictures: Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter

Summary: Orthodox Christians are gathering around the world to celebrate Easter.

Followers mark their faith's most important festival day on 28 April, one week after fellow Christians. The different dates arise from use of the Julian calendar instead of the Gregorian calendar. All pictures subject to copyright.

रूढ़िवादी ईसाई ईस्टर मनाने के लिए दुनिया भर में इकट्ठा हो रहे हैं।