Dog owners warned over palm oil on Pembrokeshire beaches

Summary: Dog walkers have been urged to take care on Pembrokeshire beaches after what is believed to be palm oil was washed up.

Pembrokeshire council said the coastguard and fire services were at South beach in Tenby and there had been a similar incident on nearby Castle Beach. It warned more may wash up on future tides but in smaller quantities. Palm oil can be harmful to dogs.

डॉग वॉकरों से आग्रह किया गया है कि वे पेम्ब्रोकेशायर समुद्र तटों पर ध्यान रखें क्योंकि माना जाता है कि ताड़ का तेल बह गया था।


Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre calls for £20m arena expansion

Summary: Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre needs a new larger arena to attract stars, its managers have said.

They want to spend up to £20m to increase capacity to attract bigger events and concerts. The centre said it has missed out on acts including Rihanna and Elton John in recent months due to size constraints. Earlier this year the city council agreed to write off the AECC's £26.2m debts.

एबरडीन प्रदर्शनी और सम्मेलन केंद्र के प्रबंधकों ने कहा है कि सितारों को आकर्षित करने के लिए एक नए बड़े क्षेत्र की आवश्यकता है।


Quarter of ferries between UK and Channel Islands late

Summary: One in four fast ferries between the UK and Channel Islands are late, according to figures released by Condor Ferries.

The figures for April, May and June show 76% of journeys to and from the UK were made within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival time. In the same period the company's fast ferries to France and the conventional UK ferry made 87% of journeys on time. The company said in those three months just 26 of its 1,343 passenger sailings had been cancelled.

कोंडोर फेरी द्वारा जारी आंकड़ों के अनुसार, यूके और चैनल द्वीप समूह के बीच चार में से एक तेज नौका देर से चलती है।


Brass eagle lectern stolen stolen from Newtown church

Summary: An ornate brass lectern has been stolen from a church near Newbury.

Police said the theft happened between 18:00 BST Thursday and 11:00 on Friday, from the St Mary the Virgin and St John the Baptist Church in Harts Lane, Newtown, on the border of Hampshire and Berkshire. The church door was stolen before the lectern, which features an eagle book rest, was taken. Hampshire Constabulary said the lectern was insured to the value of £10,000.

न्यूबरी के पास एक चर्च से एक अलंकृत पीतल का लैक्टर्न चोरी हो गया है।


Man dies in car crash at Penygroes Road, Blaenau

Summary: A 20-year-old man has died after a one-car crash in Carmarthenshire.

A white Vauxhall Corsa crashed on Penygroes Road, Blaenau, near Llandybie, on Friday at 20:45 GMT. "Our thoughts are with his family who are being supported by our officers," said a spokesperson for Dyfed-Powys Police. The force is appealing for witnesses or anyone with any dashcam footage to "help officers establish what happened".

कार्मार्थेनशायर में एक कार दुर्घटना में एक 20 वर्षीय व्यक्ति की मौत हो गई है।


The wounded victims of Sri Lanka's child marriage law

Summary: In Sri Lanka the legal marriage age is 18, but under a decades-old community law, much younger Muslim girls can get married. As calls grow for this law to be amended, BBC Sinhala's Saroj Pathirana meets one young girl forced to marry against her will.

When Shafa* was 15, she was forced to get married. "While studying for exams, I fell in love with a boy," Shafa said, tears running down her cheeks. "My parents did not like it. They sent me to my uncle's place. While I was studying there, a regular visitor told my aunt and uncle that he wanted to marry me." Shafa, who comes from a Muslim family and lives in a remote village in Sri Lanka, refused. She wanted to marry the boy she loved, after completing her secondary school education. But despite her objections, her uncle and aunt arranged for her to marry their friend. Whenever she objected to the marriage, she was beaten. Her uncle and aunt even threatened to kill themselves if she did not listen to them. "I cut my arms as there was no other option," said Shafa, pulling up her sleeves to show the scars. "I also took some pills from my uncle's place. "While I was being treated in hospital, they bribed the doctors and took me - together with my saline bottle - to a private hospital. A few days later they forced me to marry that man." Shafa decided to stay with her young husband as she could see no escape but he suspected she was continuing her relationship with her boyfriend. "He regularly beat me," she said. "When I told him that I was pregnant, he picked me up and threw me to the floor. "He then told me that he only wanted me for the one night, he'd already had me and didn't need me any more." It was at the hospital that she realised she had lost her baby as a result of the violence. When Shafa went to the police, they did not take her complaint seriously. One day she got a call from the mosque in the village. There, her husband agreed to continue the marriage but she refused. A few days later, she started getting phone calls and text messages from strangers, asking how much she charged to sleep with them. Shafa realised that her husband had published her photograph and telephone number on social media. The callers threatened her with filthy language and told her: "We got your number from your husband." "I recorded all these calls. And I still have all the text messages," said Shafa, who could not stop crying but was determined to tell her story. Shafa's father did not want to get involved with what was happening. But Shafa's mother is now taking her daughter to a social welfare centre so she can get psychological and legal help in the wake of her traumatic marriage. They visit the centre in secret because openly seeking psychological help is still a taboo in Sri Lanka. Shafa's mother supports her five children by doing daily labour jobs in the village. She was evicted from her hometown by Tamil Tiger separatist rebels in 1990. "I sent my daughter to my brother's place due to one incident. I never thought this would happen to her," she said. She says she objected to her daughter being forced to marry but her brother did not listen to her. "It was a forced marriage," she said. "I fear for her safety and her education now [because of the lies her husband has spread about her]. She can't go to classes. She can't even travel on a bus. Her whole future is uncertain." Every year, hundreds of girls like Shafa from Sri Lanka's Muslim minority are forced to get married by their parents or guardians. Human rights lawyer Ermiza Tegal says Muslim child marriages have gone up from 14% to 22% within a year in the eastern province, a rise attributed to increased conservatism. Shafa was 15 years old but Muslim women's groups have documented girls as young as 12 being forced into marriage. Sri Lanka's common law does not allow underage marriages. The legal age is 18. But a decades-old community law called the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA) allows Muslim community leaders, who are mostly men, to decide the marriage age. There is no minimum age, although a marriage involving a girl under 12 requires special permission from an Islamic magistrate. Girls and their mothers have suffered in silence for decades but Muslim women activists are now coming forward to seek reform of the MMDA, despite serious threats from mullahs and other conservative community leaders. Child marriage: the facts Sources: Girls Not Brides; Pew Research Centre Sri Lanka plans to reform its constitution and so activists believe now is the moment to act. The United Nations and the EU have also recently urged the government to amend the MMDA and other discriminatory laws. But there is not a lot of hope, because a committee set up by the government nearly 10 years ago to look into MMDA reform failed to come up with any concrete proposals. Muslim groups such as Jamiyathul Ulama and Thawheed Jamaath have long resisted the call for change. Thawheed Jamaath treasurer BM Arshad said the organisation supported reforming the MMDA as long as proposals came from within the community, but it opposed setting a minimum marriage age. "Neither Islam nor Thawheed Jamaath accept child marriages," said Mr Arshad. "But Thawheed Jamaath will never agree to setting a minimum age for marriage. "The need for the girl to get married should be the criteria for a marriage," he said. "Some girls may not need to get married even after 18 years of age. It is the right of the person getting married to decide when they do." He denied accusations that his organisation threatens Muslim women activists. The centre Shafa and her mother attend has helped more than 3,000 Muslim women with various issues over the last three years, including 250 child marriage victims. "I have to stay away from home because of the threats from men," said the social worker who runs the centre. "I'm afraid to send my children to school. "I have had to stay in my office and now I'm even afraid to take a tuk tuk home." Activist Shreen Abdul Saroor of the Women's Action Network (WAN) was one of the few Muslim women who dared to reveal her face and her identity. "Child marriage is statutory rape," she said. She insists that 18 years should be the legal marriage age for all communities in Sri Lanka, irrespective of their nationality or religion. A child is not physically mature enough to give birth to another child and they miss out on their education, she says. "When we look at these children getting married, it affects the whole community. The whole community goes backward," said Ms Saroor. "My message to the Muslim community and religious leaders is please do not destroy the childhood of these children." Despite her trauma, Shafa was always a brilliant student and was determined to resume her studies. Her family hope she can get a good job but she still faces many challenges. "Boys regularly come to me and make rude jokes when I go to tuition classes," she says. "This is serious harassment. I feel down. I'm helpless. I don't know what to do." But she refuses to let the bullies win, saying she wants to be a lawyer. "Is it because you want to help other victims like you?" I asked. "Yes," she said. As her smiling eyes meet mine, I sense her determination. *Shafa's name has been changed to protect her privacy.

श्रीलंका में कानूनी विवाह की आयु 18 है, लेकिन दशकों पुराने सामुदायिक कानून के तहत, बहुत कम उम्र की मुस्लिम लड़कियां शादी कर सकती हैं। जैसे-जैसे इस कानून में संशोधन की मांग बढ़ती है, बीबीसी सिंहला की सरोज पथिराना एक युवा लड़की से मिलती है जिसे उसकी इच्छा के खिलाफ शादी करने के लिए मजबूर किया जाता है।


Will Turkish ambitions complicate fight for Mosul?

Summary: With the offensive on Mosul well under way, the simmering tensions between the Shia-dominated Iraqi government and Turkey threaten to open up new fault lines that could greatly complicate the operation. They also raise questions about the future battle for influence in Mosul in particular and, more generally, in northern Iraq.

Jonathan MarcusDiplomatic correspondent@Diplo1on Twitter From the outset of the operation, Turkey has been itching to play a role. This has been resolutely opposed by the government in Baghdad, and the Americans have had to mount some nimble diplomacy to try to ensure the differences between Turkey and Iraq do not overshadow the early stages of the Mosul offensive. US Secretary of Defence Ash Carter made the point explicitly at the end of last week when, on a visit to Baghdad, he reaffirmed "the vital importance of every country operating with full respect for Iraqi sovereignty". This message was clearly directed at the Turks. Turkey's interest in Iraq is complex. It is an amalgam of contemporary strategic concerns, domestic politics, and nostalgia for the Ottoman past. The rise of so-called Islamic State has served to weaken the already fragile Iraqi state and it has reduced Syrian territory to a government-controlled rump. Borders established in the wake of World War One seem far from permanent. A patchwork of ethnic, religious and sectarian groups are seeking to protect their own local interests and many of these groups - most notably the Kurds - straddle the existing borders. No wonder, then, that there continues to be discussion about the cohesion of Iraq, let alone Syria. But it is not just the internal Syrian and Iraqi factions who are in play. Powerful regional actors like Iran and Turkey are also eager to secure their interests which is why, for example, Turkish troops have moved into northern Syria. And, as the fighting comes closer to its own border with Iraq, the Ankara government is eager to reinforce its position in that country, too. Ankara's fundamental strategic concern is to ensure that the Kurdistan Workers' Party - the PKK - which has been mounting an insurgency inside Turkey for decades - does not expand its activities in northern Iraq. It also wants to limit Iranian influence, Tehran already having significant ties with the Shia-dominated government in Baghdad. Turkey has cast itself as something of a protector for Sunni Arabs and the Turkmen minority in northern Iraq. That is why it has been so averse to the idea of the involvement of Shia militias in the Mosul campaign. But there is also a good deal of history here as well, bound up with the increasingly expansive rhetoric of Turkey's increasingly controversial President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In a speech in Bursa on 22 October, Mr Erdogan referred back to the immediate post-World War One period, commenting that "we did not voluntarily accept the borders of our country". He noted that one of modern Turkey's greatest mistakes was "the weakening of our cultural connections". "With total ignorance," he said, people asked "what business does Turkey have in Iraq, Syria and Bosnia? [But] these geographies are each part of our soul." In part, this was a powerful attack against the secular regime that had previously ruled modern Turkey. But, equally, it also sent a signal of where Turkey's abiding interests lie. The Turkish media has been awash with maps showing Turkey's widening horizons. This "irredentist cartography and rhetoric," according to the analyst Nick Danforth, offers a fascinating insight into Turkey's current foreign and domestic policy concerns. For now, Turkish troops are not going to take part in the Mosul operation. Last week, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi warned of a possible military confrontation if they became involved. "We are ready for them," Mr Abadi said. "This is not a threat or a warning, this is about Iraqi dignity." But Turkey retains an army base at Bashiqa, a little to the north-east of Mosul, which has been a frequent bone of contention with Baghdad. It keeps up a close military liaison in major population centres of the semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government. Just as in Syria, Turkey has trained a local militia force - the Ninevah Guards - a 3,000-strong force of Sunni Arabs, Turkmens and Kurds. Its potential role in the Mosul operation remains unclear. But the tensions between Ankara and Baghdad are not going to go away. Turkey, for example, said on Monday that it had employed tank and artillery fire from its base at Bashiqa to assist Peshmerga fighters against IS. The Iraqi government has moved swiftly to deny the story. This is a row not so much about the battle for Mosul but about its aftermath. Who will control the region once IS is expelled? Can a highly sectarian Iraqi government really act in the interests of all? How far is Turkey willing to go to back one set of Kurds to exclude another? And might President Erdogan's neo-Ottoman rhetoric encourage him to play a more active part in Iraq just as he has sought to do in northern Syria ?

मोसुल पर हमले के साथ, शिया बहुल इराकी सरकार और तुर्की के बीच बढ़ते तनाव ने नई दोष रेखाओं को खोलने का खतरा पैदा कर दिया है जो ऑपरेशन को बहुत जटिल बना सकते हैं। वे विशेष रूप से मोसुल में और आम तौर पर उत्तरी इराक में प्रभाव के लिए भविष्य की लड़ाई के बारे में भी सवाल उठाते हैं।


Ukraine conflict: Inside Russia's 'Kremlin troll army'

Summary: Over the past year, Russia has seen an unprecedented rise in the activity of "Kremlin trolls" - bloggers allegedly paid by the state to criticise Ukraine and the West on social media and post favourable comments about the leadership in Moscow.

By Olga BugorkovaBBC Monitoring Though the existence and even whereabouts of the alleged "cyber army" are no secret, recent media reports appear to have revealed some details of how one of the tools of Russian propaganda operates on an everyday basis. "Troll den" The Internet Research Agency ("Agentstvo Internet Issledovaniya") employs at least 400 people and occupies an unremarkable office in one of the residential areas in St Petersburg. Behind the plain facade, however, there is a Kremlin "troll den", an investigative report by independent local newspaper Moy Rayon ("My District") suggests. The organisation, which the paper ties to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a restaurateur with close links to President Vladimir Putin who allegedly pays bloggers to produce hundreds of comments on top news websites and manage multiple accounts on Twitter, LiveJournal and other social media platforms. "[During one 12-hour shift] I had to write 126 comments under the posts written by people inside the building. And about 25 comments on pages of real people - in order to attract somebody's attention. And I had to write 10 blog posts," a former employee, Anton, told Radio Liberty. Typical troll accounts, Moy Rayon noted, were operated by people posing as "housewives" and "disappointed US citizens". To avert suspicions, the fake users sandwich political remarks between neutral articles on travelling, cooking and pets. "My name is Tatyana and I'm a little friendly creature)). I'm interested in what is happening in the world, I also like travelling, arts and cinema," user "tuyqer898" wrote on her blog. However, a leaked list of alleged Kremlin trolls published by liberal Novaya Gazeta newspaper suggests that "Tatyana" is in fact a fake account. Strict guidelines A collection of leaked documents, published by Moy Rayon, suggests that work at the "troll den" is strictly regulated by a set of guidelines. Any blog post written by an agency employee, according to the leaked files, must contain "no fewer than 700 characters" during day shifts and "no fewer than 1,000 characters" on night shifts. Use of graphics and keywords in the post's body and headline is also mandatory. In addition to general guidelines, bloggers are also provided with "technical tasks" - keywords and talking points on specific issues, such as Ukraine, Russia's opposition and relations with the West. One recent technical task, former employee Lena told Radio Liberty, was devoted to the murder of prominent Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov. "It was mandatory to convey the message to the people that Nemtsov's murder was a provocation ahead of the [opposition] march and that he was killed by his own associates," she said. "As a result, hundreds and thousands of comments, where this idea is served up under different dressings, emerge under every news article of leading media," she added. "Reverse censorship" Despite the efforts of the founders of the "troll den", some Russian experts are not convinced there is much point in the Kremlin having an online army. "The efforts the paid crowd make to create a pseudo-patriotic and pro-government noise on the net go to waste," popular blogger Rustem Adagamov told St Petersburg-based news website Fontanka.ru. "It is TV that changes the public conscience, rather than the internet," he added. Internet expert Anton Nosik agrees. "Internet trolling is not, in the first place, aimed at effectiveness, that is at changing the political views of the audience," he told Moy Rayon newspaper. But prominent journalist and Russia expert Peter Pomerantsev, however, believes Russia's efforts are aimed at confusing the audience, rather than convincing it. "What Russians are trying to go for is kind of a reverse censorship," he told Ukrainian internet-based Hromadske TV ("Public TV"). They cannot censor the information space, but can "trash it with conspiracy theories and rumours", he argues. BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.

पिछले एक साल में, रूस ने "क्रेमलिन ट्रॉल्स" की गतिविधि में अभूतपूर्व वृद्धि देखी है-सोशल मीडिया पर यूक्रेन और पश्चिम की आलोचना करने और मास्को में नेतृत्व के बारे में अनुकूल टिप्पणियां पोस्ट करने के लिए राज्य द्वारा कथित रूप से भुगतान किए गए ब्लॉगर।


Ideas invited to develop Isle of Man prison site

Summary: Ideas have been invited from the Isle of Man public about the future of the site of a former Victorian jail.

The prison was decommissioned in 2008 and inmates were transferred to a new £41.7m jail in Jurby. Replacing the 18th Century Castle Rushen jail, the Victoria Road site in Douglas opened in 1891 and housed criminals for more than 100 years, Despite calls for the building to be kept as a listed building the redbrick jailhouse was demolished in 2012. Anyone interested in submitting ideas for the two-acre site is asked to contact the Manx government via the consultation website. .

पूर्व विक्टोरियन जेल के स्थल के भविष्य के बारे में आइल ऑफ मैन जनता से विचार आमंत्रित किए गए हैं।


Your pictures of Scotland 25 September - 2 October

Summary: A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 25 September and 2 October. Send your photos to scotlandpictures@bbc.co.uk. Please ensure you adhere to the BBC's rules regarding photographs which can be found here.

Please also ensure you follow current coronavirus guidelines and take your pictures safely and responsibly. Conditions of use: If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's terms and conditions. Please ensure that the photograph you send is your own and if you are submitting photographs of children, we must have written permission from a parent or guardian of every child featured (a grandparent, auntie or friend will not suffice). In contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way, including in any media worldwide. However, you will still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News. At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe the law. You can find more information here.

स्कॉटलैंड की अपनी तस्वीरों का चयन 25 सितंबर और 2 अक्टूबर के बीच भेजा गया। अपनी तस्वीरें scotlandpictures@bbc.co.uk पर भेजें। कृपया सुनिश्चित करें कि आप तस्वीरों के संबंध में बीबीसी के नियमों का पालन करते हैं जो यहां पाए जा सकते हैं।


Spanish flu: How the 1918 pandemic hit Ulster and beyond

Summary: One hundred years ago this weekend, a fortnight after Armistice celebrations brought people to the streets across Great Britain and Ireland, a killer that claimed more lives globally than the four-year conflict reached its peak in Belfast.

By Hannah GayBBC News NI In the week ending 23 November 1918, the death rate in the city had tripled from the yearly average for all causes. Although the recorded reasons varied, historian Dr Patricia Marsh said that the vast majority of deaths were undoubtedly related to a much-feared global pandemic - the Spanish flu. According to Dr Marsh, it is no coincidence that the death toll soared in the two weeks that followed Armistice Day. The virus was, by this stage, in its "second wave" in Ulster. "The Spanish flu had returned in October in a much more virulent wave than the previous one, and so the public were advised to avoid cinemas and other confined spaces," said Dr Marsh. "The authorities were doing their best to try and contain it, but you can't expect people not to come together to celebrate the end of a war. "You can see from the photos that there were thousands of people on the streets on 11 November. We know now that this is how viruses spread, but back then, people weren't as knowledgeable about the causes of illness." Across the whole island of Ireland, there were more than 23,000 recorded deaths as a result of the virus - approximately 7,500 of those were in Ulster. However, due to a lack of diagnosis and documentation, it is thought that up to 800,000 people in Ireland could have been infected, according to Dr Ida Milne, of Maynooth University. The pandemic is estimated to have killed up to 100 million people worldwide, reaching countries across the globe, as well as remote pacific islands and even the Arctic. The movement of troops and goods in a post-war world allowed the respiratory illness to be transported trans-nationally. In the shadow of World War One, many people were left malnourished and with weak immune systems, making them more susceptible to illness. Unusually, the virus also affected the 20-40 age group more than any other section of the population, so "strong, young adults, parents and workers, were wiped out by it", said Dr Marsh. To make matters worse, many doctors and nurses had been killed while working on the Western Front, so the medical industry was not fully equipped to deal with another disaster. Public places, such as cinemas and schools, were closed to prevent the spread of the flu and people were advised to keep their hands clean and to refrain from spitting. According to Dr Marsh, Belfast was the first location in Ireland where signs of Spanish flu were detected. From there, it spread across the rest of Ireland, thriving in densely populated towns and cities; factories, where workers gathered in close quarters, encouraged the virus to spread. "Newry also had a high mortality rate, which remains more of a mystery, but the nearby port, with its merchant ships, could have been the reason as to why the death rate was so high," said Dr Marsh. "It was recorded as returning to Northern Ireland on 9 October in Larne - probably because of the harbour." Despite being a rural farming area, County Donegal also experienced great losses. According to Dr Marsh, the Catholic tradition of holding wakes for the deceased is likely to have been a primary cause of death within the county. "Many believed an infected corpse would have been contagious, but it was actually the gatherings in confined spaces that would have caused the spread," she explained. "Many members of the farming community died in Donegal. If one infected person entered a small cottage at an event such as a wake, the disease would spread like wildfire." Rosaleen McQuillan Crilly, whose family descended from Hannahstown village on the outskirts of Belfast, has some knowledge of the horror the virus caused. Her father, John McQuillan, was born in September 1918. "Tragedy struck the McQuillan family when my father was eight weeks old, as they were caught by the epidemic that was sweeping across Europe," she said. Triple funeral "My grandfather, Johnny, died from the flu on 12 November 1918, aged just 30 years. His sister, Elizabeth, passed away the very next day, aged just 32 years, as well as their mother Mary, aged 58 years. "Both granddad and Elizabeth's death certificates state the cause of death to be influenza and septic pneumonia, and great-grandmother Mary's stated influenza and heart failure." Their gravestone is a subtle reminder of just how badly the 1918 influenza pandemic devastated both society and communities in the post-World War One world. Today, there remains no official commemoration site marking the pandemic and it is rarely included in school history curriculums. However, evidence of the lives lost can be found on gravestones, in obituaries, in newspapers and within stories passed down through the generations. "There was death everywhere," said Dr Marsh. "When you think about 23,000 deaths in Ireland in the space of nine months - more than the total for the War of Independence that followed - when you think about whole families dying together, countless children left orphaned across Ireland, the horror of that is quite unimaginable in this day and age." *This is an amended version of the original report. The reference in the second paragraph to the number of people who died in November 1918 has been corrected.

एक सौ साल पहले इस सप्ताह के अंत में, युद्धविराम समारोह के एक पखवाड़े बाद ग्रेट ब्रिटेन और आयरलैंड में लोग सड़कों पर उतर आए, एक हत्यारा जिसने चार साल के संघर्ष की तुलना में विश्व स्तर पर अधिक लोगों की जान ले ली, बेलफास्ट में अपने चरम पर पहुंच गया।


Introducing… Egyptian Hip Hop

Summary: Perhaps it's the blinding glare of the buzz surrounding his band at the moment, or the din of the rest of his gang watching Terminator 2 in the back of the tour van, but Alex Hewett is pretty quiet today.

By Greg CochraneNewsbeat music reporter What jokers! Neither Egyptian nor hip hop, the four college students are the latest subversive pop servants coming out of Manchester. He speaks in meek, one sentence answers, seemingly with his mind on other things. You can't blame him for being a little distracted though as Manchester's latest darlings - Alex Pierce (drums), Nick Delap (bass) and Lou Stevenson-Miller (guitar) all 17 years old - EHH are midway through their first ever UK tour. They're dates which come while they're being touted as the fourth leg of north-west England's 2010 takeover - Delphic, Everything Everything and Hurts being the other three. 'Boring' studies Right now the foursome are fitting playing gigs around attending college - or not, as the case may be. "Me, Nick and Lou do music B-tech so right now we'd probably be studying acoustics which is really boring," says Hewett. "Just calculating differences between units of time. "We are just sitting in a van right now but it is a lot more relaxing at least. "We're kind of organising around it [school] at the moment," he says reluctantly. "I haven't got a huge interest in college because it just doesn't teach me as much as actually being out here." Huge buzz Egyptian Hip Hop's own journey began last year when they began writing material in Lou's bedroom. A buzz quickly grew with the release of their debut single Rad Pitt, a lo-fi tinkling waterfall of pop. Bulkier in sound, current follow-up Wild Human Child is a different kind of beast produced by Sam Eastgate lead singer of Nottingham experimenters Late Of The Pier. "I met Sam a few years ago now because I'm quite good friends with his brother who is the same age as us," explains the singer. "We always knew he was really talented with production. "We're definitely a fan of Late Of The Pier, they've done something quite new but in a pop context." It's a sound, coupled with the return of Klaxons this year, that's had bloggers, record labels and promoters getting feverishly excited about Egyptian Hip Hop. They've also already been Nick Grimshaw's 'record of the week'. "We haven't really considered stuff like a record deal," says Hewett quietly. "We don't even know what songs we've got that could become a record." One thing they do know is that they're not going to stop trying new things and decide exactly what the sound of their own band is to be. "Unless you're like Oasis you don't do things for years and years," he says. "We all listen to different music between us - we just experiment. We've already set it so we don't have any boundaries as such - we're free to throw any idea into a song. "We'll pretty much do anything." Listen to the band in session for Radio 1's Huw Stephens

शायद यह इस समय उनके बैंड के आसपास की चर्चा की अंधा चमक है, या टूर वैन के पीछे टर्मिनेटर 2 देखने वाले उनके बाकी गिरोह का शोर है, लेकिन एलेक्स हेवेट आज बहुत शांत हैं।


In Pictures: The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2018

Summary: A shocked squirrel has scooped the overall prize in this year's Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards.

Out of thousands of entries from around the world, Mary McGowan, from Tampa, Florida, won the overall prize with her photo titled Caught in the Act. Other entrants included an exasperated bear, a smiley shark and a rhino appearing to wear a tutu. Here is a selection of some of the hilarious winners and highly commended entries. Winning photos 'Highly Commended' photos The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards is releasing a book, which helps support the Born Free Foundation charity.

एक हैरान गिलहरी ने इस साल के कॉमेडी वाइल्डलाइफ फोटोग्राफी अवार्ड्स में समग्र पुरस्कार जीता है।


Man suffered head injury in Birkenhead street attack

Summary: A man is being treated in intensive care after being found in the street with a serious head injury.

Police believe the 27-year-old man was assaulted in Birkenhead, Wirral, and are examining CCTV footage. He was taken to hospital after being found at the junction of Beckwith Street and Duke Street at around 16:45 BST on Tuesday, 4 August. Merseyside Police said an investigation had begun and have appealed for witnesses to come forward. Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk

सिर में गंभीर चोट के साथ सड़क पर पाए जाने के बाद एक व्यक्ति का गहन देखभाल में इलाज किया जा रहा है।


PC Christopher Burnham hit-and-run accused in court

Summary: A man has appeared in court charged with the attempted murder of a police officer who was left seriously injured when he was hit by a car.

PC Christopher Burnham suffered a fractured skull and shattered knee when he was struck by the vehicle in Radford, Coventry, on Wednesday. Tekle Lennox, 37, indicated to the court he would plead not guilty. He was remanded in custody. He is also charged with driving while disqualified and without insurance. Mr Lennox, of no fixed address, appeared at Coventry Magistrates' Court and will next appear at Warwick Crown Court on 31 October. There was no application for bail. Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, and sign up for local news updates direct to your phone.

एक व्यक्ति एक पुलिस अधिकारी की हत्या के प्रयास के आरोप में अदालत में पेश हुआ है, जो एक कार की चपेट में आने से गंभीर रूप से घायल हो गया था।


Pilot killed in glider crash on Cheltenham school field

Summary: One man was killed and another injured when a glider crashed on school playing fields in Gloucestershire.

Cotswold Gliding Club said "one of the pilots received fatal injuries" in the crash at St Edward's prep school in Cheltenham at about 13:20 BST. The other pilot in the club's two-seater glider "suffered minor injuries" and was taken to a local hospital. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch has sent a team of investigators to the scene in Charlton Kings. The gliding club said it had no further information about the injured man but added "our thoughts are with the pilots' families".

ग्लूस्टरशायर में स्कूल के खेल के मैदान में एक ग्लाइडर के दुर्घटनाग्रस्त होने से एक व्यक्ति की मौत हो गई और एक अन्य घायल हो गया।


For one Missouri lawyer, eight clients executed in 18 months

Summary: At a time when other states in the US are backing away from the death penalty, Missouri has done the opposite. It is currently executing its death row inmates faster than any other state in the country, at a rate of about one per month.

By Jessica LussenhopBBC News Magazine At 21:09 local time on Tuesday evening, Roderick Nunley became the sixth death row inmate executed by the state of Missouri in 2015. He was convicted of the 1989 kidnapping, rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Kansas City. His was the latest in a string of executions by the state since 2013. In May 2015, Nebraska became the 19th state to abolish the death penalty. A federal appeals court in California is currently considering the constitutionality of capital punishment. Difficulty procuring the drugs necessary for lethal injections has halted the process in some places. But while executions have slowed elsewhere, Missouri is ramping up, ever since it secured a new, secret source for the execution drug pentobarbital. Lawyer Jennifer Herndon's caseload is a testament to that fact. Of the last 18 men executed by Missouri, eight of them were her clients. Nunley was her final capital case. No one in Missouri has had more executed clients in the last two years. In part because of this, she was profiled by The Marshall Project in an article entitled "The Burnout". In the story, Herndon - known once as a dedicated lawyer who won a landmark decision that said individuals who committed their crimes while juveniles can not be executed - said she no longer wanted to represent death row inmates. At the time, Nunley and another man named Richard Strong were still alive. Strong was subsequently executed in June this year. "I'm not doing anybody any good," Herndon told the news outlet."There's no joy in it whatsoever. They execute people no matter what." Missouri capital defence attorneys Lindsay Runnels and Jennifer Merrigan were shocked by what they read about Herndon in the story. They did not realise that her law licence had been suspended for a time in 2013 because she was delinquent on her taxes to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. The article also went into depth about her second job as a business coach and online marketer. In the days leading up to Nunley's execution, they tried to convince the Missouri Supreme Court that Herndon did not fulfil her legal obligations to him by failing to find his original trial files and by commenting to media that only a "miracle" could save him. They say the problem is systemic. "It's the same lawyers over and over and over again, Ms Herndon among them. We are involved in every execution," says Runnels. "We're outgunned and out-resourced. And then there is competency problems with some of the bar." Merrigan - who helped Herndon back in 2010 with Nunley's case - has defended several death row clients, and says Herndon's caseload coupled with her tax trouble show a lawyer not able to devote significant time to clients whose lives hang in the balance. Merrigan says working on even a single execution case is a tremendously draining experience for capital defence lawyers. "Even for a person who is not in serious financial trouble, who has not taken another full-time job, it is still extremely stressful," she says. "To say that somebody has had eight executions over the past 18 months, that means they've spent approximately six months in this type of crisis litigation. It's completely unreasonable to believe anyone could operate that way." Together, Runnels and Merrigan filed affidavits last week with the Missouri Supreme Court and a motion asking it to halt the execution so that Nunley could be properly represented. They had many concerns beyond the ones revealed in the Marshall Project article, including the fact that Herndon allegedly never tracked down Nunley's original trial file. According to her affidavit, Runnels says Herndon told her it was stolen, then later admitted she "didn't ever check with the trial attorneys" for the files. "Mr Nunley received mental health treatment as early as 1978...Mr Nunley was 'never the same' after his brother died suddenly as a child...he had suffered at least two gunshot wounds," wrote Runnels in her affidavit. "These red flags and potential lines of humanising and mitigating information were never developed. Additionally, no life history chronology has ever been completed for Mr Nunley nor has any in-depth social history ever been done. " These types of investigations are crucial, says Sean O'Brien, associate law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, in order to show "a unique and complex human being who deserves mercy". That, he says, is the "heart and soul" of the work of capital defence lawyers trying to convince a jury to hand down a life sentence instead of death. He says it takes a huge amount of time and is accomplished mostly pro bono after funding dries up over the years it takes for death penalty cases to be resolved. "A good lawyer wouldn't find herself appointed on seven death cases," he says. "No lawyer could do that. No lawyer could financially survive that." The Missouri Supreme Court overruled Runnels and Merrigan's motion. A half hour before his execution would be allowed to proceed, final appeals to the US Supreme Court sent by Herndon were denied, and Runnels and Merrigan submitted their final writ to the US Supreme Court. "Ms Herndon appears to lack the time and capacity to competently represent Mr Nunley," they wrote. "She also claims to no longer want to do capital defence work and claims to not be able to conduct the work her clients require." Herndon declined BBC's interview request on Tuesday. "I'm busy with my client," she wrote in an email. O'Brien says with the tiny defence bar, the wave of executions and the pro-death penalty politicians in power in Missouri, there is a "perfect storm" raging in the state. In March of this year, four lawyers who served on the American Bar Association's Death Penalty Assessment Team wrote that the Missouri Supreme Court should only allow lawyers to have a client facing execution once every six months. One of them was the group's co-chair, University of Missouri School of Law associate dean Paul Litton. "It is obviously increasing the chances of due process denials," he says of the pace of executions. "We're talking about a time where we're seeing not just fewer executions in general, we're seeing fewer juries sentencing people to death every year." Litton's recommendations were not taken up by the Missouri Supreme Court and the executions have continued at roughly the same pace. Shynise Nunley Spencer, Nunley's daughter, also submitted an affidavit to the Missouri Supreme Court on behalf of her father before he was executed. "Despite the ongoing, close relationship that my father and I share, I have never, not once, spoken with Jennifer Herndon. She has never called me. She has never returned my calls," Spencer wrote. "The simple truth is that I love my father and talk to him almost everyday. My children love my father. His death will be devastating for me and for them." After the US Supreme Court denied the final petition, Roderick Nunley was given a lethal injection at 20:58 and died 11 minutes later. He gave no final statement. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon reminded the public of Nunley's crime in a press release announcing he had denied Nunley clemency. "On the morning of March 22, 1989, 15-year-old Ann Harrison was waiting for the school bus at the end of the driveway of her Raytown home when she was abducted, raped, and then stabbed to death by Roderick Nunley and Michael Taylor. The capital punishment sentence given to Taylor for his role in these brutal crimes was carried out last year," Nixon's statement reads. "Nunley also pleaded guilty to these heinous crimes and was sentenced to death. My decision today upholds this appropriate sentence." Herndon did not respond to subsequent interview questions about whether she will ever represent a capital client again. Another execution is scheduled in Missouri for next month.

ऐसे समय में जब अमेरिका के अन्य राज्य मौत की सजा से पीछे हट रहे हैं, मिसौरी ने इसके विपरीत किया है। यह वर्तमान में देश के किसी भी अन्य राज्य की तुलना में लगभग एक महीने की दर से अपने मौत की सजा वाले कैदियों को तेजी से फांसी दे रहा है।


Why you can't judge a zebra by its stripes

Summary: You can't judge a zebra by its stripes.

By Helen BriggsBBC News That's the finding of research that is shaking up the family tree of the African wild horse. The common (plains) zebra lives on the grasslands of eastern and southern Africa, from southern Ethiopia to northern Namibia. DNA evidence challenges the idea that there are six subspecies that you can tell apart based on variations in the animal's distinctive black and white stripes. Dr Rasmus Heller of the University of Copenhagen says there's little evidence that differences in striping patterns "mean anything in a biological sense". "At least we can say that the striping pattern does not contain much information about the history of the plains zebra, and how the different populations relate to each other," he said. The study, based on analysing variations in the DNA of 59 plains zebra from across Africa, suggests that there are nine populations of the zebra living in different areas of the continent. This knowledge is important when it comes to conservation, the scientists say. "We now have a much clearer impression of which populations should be monitored, ie. are more vulnerable to loss of genetic diversity," said Dr Heller. "This is particularly true for the two Ugandan populations, which have markedly lower genetic diversity and are relatively isolated from other populations." While zebra are still found in large numbers across Africa, some populations - in Uganda and parts of Tanzania - are dwindling in number. The northern-most population from northern Uganda is by far the most genetically distinct from the others, the research shows. To maintain high levels of genetic diversity in the species, there need to be corridors of suitable habitat for zebra to roam. "To maintain the populations that we have today, we have to maintain these habitat corridors, " said co-researcher, Casper-Emil Pedersen, also of the University of Copenhagen. Extinct zebra One type of plains zebra - the "quagga" has already gone extinct. The zebra was once found in large numbers in South Africa, but died out more than 100 years ago. Overhunting was one factor in its demise. However, its isolation from other populations would have played a role, say the researchers. "The quagga probably went extinct because there were no habitat corridors in the region where it lived," said Dr Pedersen. The research, published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, also reveals the ancient heartland of the plains zebra. Its birthplace was in the wetlands of southern Africa - the Zambezi and the Okavango - about 370,000 years ago. The plains zebra is listed as near threatened by conservation body IUCN. There are thought to be about 500,000 zebra ranging from South Sudan and southern Ethiopia, east of the Nile River, to southern Angola and northern Namibia and northern South Africa. They are now extinct in two countries in which they formerly lived: Burundi and Lesotho, and are probably extinct in Somalia. The six subspecies currently recognised are distinguished on the basis of physical features, such as coat patterns, skull dimensions and the presence or absence of a mane. Follow Helen on Twitter.

आप जेब्रा को उसकी धारियों से नहीं आंक सकते।


Swindon town centre Union Square plans go on show

Summary: Plans for the £350m redevelopment of Swindon town centre are on show for the first time.

The Union Square project will be situated between Swindon railway station and The Parade shopping area. Development company Muse is due to submit plans to Swindon Borough Council this spring but expect the scheme to take 10 to 15 years to build. Plans can be viewed at Swindon Central Library on 4 March from 1400 to 2000 GMT and 5 March from 1000 to 1400 GMT.

स्विंडन टाउन सेंटर के 350 मिलियन पाउंड के पुनर्विकास की योजनाएं पहली बार प्रदर्शित की गई हैं।


Coronavirus: 'People couldn't wait for our model village to reopen'

Summary: When Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced certain businesses in England could reopen, there was some surprise that model villages appeared on a list alongside places like pubs, restaurants and hairdressers. BBC News went to Buckinghamshire to find out more about this very British fascination.

By Laurence Cawley and Laura DevlinBBC News It proudly states it's "stuck in a 1930s time warp" and portrays England "how it used to be". This is Bekonscot, the oldest model village in the UK, which has attracted 15 million visitors to a tiny corner of Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire for more than 90 years. Here, the miniature residents enjoy the wholesome pursuits of cricket and bowling, going to church, taking tea in the garden and ploughing the fields, without a care in the world. After months of lockdown it is perhaps comforting to visit a little world tucked away from everyday life, not least against the ravages of a global pandemic. "They couldn't wait for it to be open," said owner Brian Newman-Smith, who lives on site. "What we've got here is fantastic - when you approach there are high hedges, then suddenly you see the entire village in front of you. It has the wow factor." About half a dozen families were queuing just before 10:00 BST for the first day of reopening, having booked tickets online to ensure Bekonscot can limit visitors to 100 per hour. First in line was nanny Stephanie Butters who had travelled 40 minutes from west London to give Ellie and Lottie's parents the space to home-school their siblings. "I've been many times," she said. "It's something fun to do after lockdown. "There's a little park near them in Chiswick, we've been going there to feed the ducks. We're getting a bit fed up feeding ducks now." When the prime minister made his widely-anticipated lockdown-loosening statement in the House of Commons on 23 June, the reopening of pubs, restaurants and hairdressers came as little surprise. The news that museums and galleries could also unlock their doors did not seem particularly unusual. But also in that list of businesses and visitor attractions was, very specifically, model villages - a rather niche and eccentric curiosity, of which there are just a handful in the UK. Miniature village fans were overjoyed but others were bemused, with one woman tweeting that her fiancee had only learnt of them because of lockdown easing and had asked "but why, why do they exist?" "I honestly don't have an answer for her," she said. Robert Peston, ITV's political editor remarked: "Live theatre - banned. Compulsory five-to-18 education in schools - banned. Trips to model villages - very much back on," while comedian Justin Moorehouse quipped: "I'm not prepared to visit a model village until I've had my nails done, thanks for nothing Boris." But for historian Tim Dunn, who worked at Bekonscot and describes himself as "probably the world's only model village expert", the appeal is obvious. He tweeted about his enduring love for model villages, even at the age of "39-and-a-bit". "Model villages are about joy - they're about the suspension of reality," he wrote in a blog post. "People go to them to escape for a bit, to reminisce, or forget. "They're full of silly things, they're full of joyful things, they're full of things that we wish for. They bring out the child in us - because suddenly the world isn't such a scary place full of responsibilities after all." Everywhere you turn, Bekonscot's tiny residents are enjoying an impossibly pleasant and carefree village life in 1:12 scale - relaxing on a boating lake or drinking in a beer garden, with no concerns for face masks, hand-sanitiser or social distancing. The miniature railway weaves through the rolling landscape, the village doctor and nurse assess a patient without the need for PPE and there is no queue outside Chris P Lettis, the greengrocers. You may also like: But for its Gulliver-sized visitors, there are new signs about keeping safely apart. The tea shop can only offer takeaways, picnicking is not allowed and the site has become fully contactless. After months being kept from public view, Bekonscot was in need of a bit of care and attention, with its dainty shrubs and manicured lawns growing wild since March. "The model makers and the gardeners were furloughed, the grass grew long because we've been closed all these weeks," said Mr Newman-Smith. "The team have done a fantastic job, it looks great." Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk

जब प्रधान मंत्री बोरिस जॉनसन ने घोषणा की कि इंग्लैंड में कुछ व्यवसाय फिर से खुल सकते हैं, तो कुछ आश्चर्य हुआ कि पब, रेस्तरां और हेयरड्रेसर जैसी जगहों के साथ-साथ मॉडल गाँव एक सूची में दिखाई दिए। बीबीसी न्यूज़ इस ब्रिटिश आकर्षण के बारे में अधिक जानने के लिए बकिंघमशायर गया।


Hillwalker dies on walk in Sutherland

Summary: A hillwalker has died on a walk in Sutherland, police have said.

The 67-year-old man's body was found during a search involving Assynt Mountain Recue Team and Stornoway Coastguard helicopter on Monday. He had earlier been reported overdue from his walk in the Achfary area near Lairg. Assynt MRT said its thoughts were with the man's family and friends. Related Internet Links Assynt MRT

पुलिस ने कहा है कि सदरलैंड में टहलने के दौरान एक पहाड़ी पर चलने वाले व्यक्ति की मौत हो गई है।


New Jersey-UK health agreement 'very close'

Summary: The health agreement between Jersey and the UK is "very close" to being reinstated, a minister says.

Jersey lost its reciprocal agreement in 2009, which has meant islanders paying for some medical services while in the UK and vice versa. The UK's Department of Health has agreed in principle for a reinstatement of the agreement, the States said. Jersey Health Minister Anne Pryke said the new agreement would provide peace of mind for islanders.

एक मंत्री का कहना है कि जर्सी और ब्रिटेन के बीच स्वास्थ्य समझौता बहाल होने के "बहुत करीब" है।


Countdown to Ullapool's Loopallu music festival

Summary: Final preparations are being made for the 14th Loopallu music festival in Ullapool this weekend.

Last year's was expected to be the last after problems securing a site in the village. But following support from Loopallu's fan base, its organisers agreed to keep holding the festival so long as there was an audience for it. This year's line-up includes Alabama 3, The Bluetones, John Cooper Clarke, Breath Underneath and St Martiins.

इस सप्ताह के अंत में उल्लापूल में 14वें लूपल्लू संगीत समारोह के लिए अंतिम तैयारी की जा रही है।


In pictures: Bosley mill blast 'scene of devastation'

Summary: The rubble and ruins after a massive explosion at a wood flour mill in Cheshire have been described as a scene of "complete devastation" .

Four workers were unaccounted for after the explosion at Wood Flour Mills, at Bosley, near Macclesfield on Friday. The body of one person was found on Sunday and a second body was recovered on Tuesday. All four were believed to be working in the upper floors of the mill when the blast and subsequent fire reduced the four-storey building to rubble. The following images show the rescue mission faced by the fire and search teams.

चेशायर में एक लकड़ी के आटे की मिल में बड़े पैमाने पर विस्फोट के बाद मलबे और खंडहरों को "पूर्ण तबाही" के दृश्य के रूप में वर्णित किया गया है।


Domestic abuse: 'He hunted me down when I thought I was safe'

Summary: When Holly began her relationship with Simon, it felt like the "best thing she had ever encountered". But as time went on, he became violent. When she ran away he hunted her down. This is her story from the time she became pregnant with their child, in her own words, as told to the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme.

"When I found out I was pregnant, it should have been a happy, joyous time. Since the start of our relationship it had been a whirlwind, I felt like it was the best thing I had ever encountered. But then it started to get intense on another level. One day, as I returned home, all I felt as I came through the door was the most shocking and excruciating pain right between the eyes. Simon had punched me. And he wasn't finished. He dragged me through the kitchen, still punching. I remember so clearly trying to protect my baby in my stomach and my head from his blows." "He left me on the kitchen floor, confused, with blood pouring from my nose. He later came over and was super loving, saying he had lost control and that I needed to be more aware so I didn't make him feel like that again. But the more I put every effort into making him calm and happy, the more he seemed to pick on things I was doing wrong. The cleaning, the cooking, not showing him enough affection or attention. I could never do anything right." 'Rushed home after pregnancy' "He told me mid-pregnancy he didn't want to be at the birth. When the time came he was at the neighbour's. I called him and told him it was time, but I didn't want to anger him. While at the hospital he was constantly texting me, telling me to hurry up as he had work in the morning. I became really stressed and had quite a difficult delivery. I waited for the doctor to check over my daughter and rushed back home." "Upon returning he was very mad. The next day I absolutely lost it, saying having a baby was not a party. He slapped me across my face and threw me down the stairs. He then came down after me, stamping on me. It was seriously painful as I had not long given birth. I was bed bound for approximately 10-12 days. I couldn't walk. I had to have a friend come in to bring my baby to me to breast feed." 'Snatched my daughter' "I eventually fled to my friend's house. I stayed inside, petrified to come out. One day, my friend had taken my daughter for a drive. When she got out he appeared from nowhere, snatched my daughter and ran away leaving a message that if I wanted her back I had to return. The police said it was a civil matter and there was nothing they could do." Domestic abuse Source: Crime Survey for England and Wales, Office for National Statistics, Women's Aid For information and support on domestic abuse, visit the BBC's Action Line. "I returned [to Simon] and got a really bad beating. He made a point to tell me he owned me, and would rather kill us than see us leave. I felt scared for my children, and my life." "The beatings continued. He proceeded to rape me. A couple of times I tried to lock him out the house, but he would break through the windows. He stabbed me in the thigh because I had disturbed him in the kitchen. The only thing that kept me going was my children." 'My heart stopped' "A neighbour gave me the number of a refuge, in a place I had never heard of, and they found me a space. I got on a train with the children and left. I was having panic attacks. But day by day I got stronger. We started to rebuild our lives, and life was beautiful. Then one day [years later], my daughter heard that someone was threatening to hurt us. My heart stopped. I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. The next day my daughter was attacked by Simon. He then tried to gain access to my house. Police were called but said there was nothing they could do as he had left by the time I got through." 'His sole intention' "I spent a huge amount of money on hotels as I was scared to stay at the property. I notified my housing association and requested a move to a refuge, but I was informed they had nothing available. Everywhere I went Simon would be there." "If I went to the supermarket he would be there. If I went to a petrol station he was there. He would do signs like mimicking a knife cutting a throat. I knew his sole intention was to end our lives." 'Wake up without fear' "I was really considering killing myself. It was a hard decision to move to the new refuge [when the offer later came], because it was uprooting our lives again. All we want is to be together somewhere nice and quiet, and be positive members of the community. I want to remember what it's like to enjoy life again. To wake up without fear and anxiety somewhere nice." Holly and Simon's names have been changed. Watch the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel.

जब होली ने साइमन के साथ अपने रिश्ते की शुरुआत की, तो ऐसा लगा कि "सबसे अच्छी चीज जिसका उसने सामना किया था।" लेकिन जैसे-जैसे समय बीतता गया, वह हिंसक हो गया। जब वह भाग गई तो उसने उसका पीछा किया। यह उसकी कहानी है जब से वह अपने बच्चे के साथ गर्भवती हुई, उसके अपने शब्दों में, जैसा कि बीबीसी के विक्टोरिया डर्बीशायर कार्यक्रम में बताया गया है।


Who have been Scotland's first ministers?

Summary: Nicola Sturgeon is set to continue as Scotland's first minister following the SNP's victory in the Scottish Parliament election on 5 May 2016.

Ms Sturgeon became first minister on 20 November 2014, following the resignation of Alex Salmond. She is the fifth politician to head Scotland's devolved government (not counting Jim Wallace, who served as acting first minister three times.) Here's a quick look at Scotland's leaders, past and present, and the legacies they have left. Donald Dewar: 13 May 1999 - 11 October 2000 Donald Dewar secured his place in history when he became first minister of the first Scottish Parliament in almost 300 years, but his time in the role was cut sadly short. He was known for an astute legal brain, fierce, fast and formidable debating skills and squaring up to the opposition benches. Not a typical Labour man, he was born in Glasgow on 21 August 1937 into a middle class family and studied law before entering the Commons in 1966 as MP for Aberdeen South and, later, represented the seat of Glasgow Garscadden. His loyalty in the shadow cabinet during Labour's wilderness years saw him rewarded with the post of secretary of state for Scotland by Tony Blair in 1997 - the vehicle by which he helped bring about devolution two years later, earning him the title "Father of the Nation". Mr Dewar became MSP for Glasgow Anniesland, but his new administration was soon embroiled in an access-to-ministers scandal, the Holyrood building fiasco and the repeal of Section 28. He admitted the first year was "towsy". Despite an operation to replace a leaky heart valve and being two years off becoming a pensioner, he was determined to resume his key role in politics. On 10 October 2000, Mr Dewar fell on the pavement outside his official residence and later died from a brain haemorrhage. Mr Dewar's legacy lives on through the devolved parliament itself, and a towering statue of the man himself in Glasgow city centre. Henry McLeish: 26 October 2000 - 8 November 2001 Whatever Henry McLeish's achievements in politics, his tenure in office will always be marked by having been the only Scottish first minister forced to resign from the job. The former professional footballer cut his political teeth in Fife in the early 1970s, working his way through the echelons of Kirkcaldy District Council and Fife Regional Council to be elected Labour MP for Fife Central in 1987. He served on the shadow benches before becoming a devolution minister in the former Scottish Office, playing a key role in delivering the Scottish Parliament in 1999. Mr McLeish was regarded as a competent parliamentary performer, and was seen as a safe pair of hands to take over the reins following the death of Donald Dewar. But there were doubts about the presence of a "common touch" and the ability to control rebellion in the ranks. Nevertheless, he masterminded the introduction of Scotland's historic scheme to provide free personal care for the elderly. The Fife MSP's downfall came during a row over his Westminster constituency office expenses, dubbed "Officegate". The episode was made worse by Mr McLeish's inability to resolve the matter in the eyes of the public and media, and he eventually stood down as first minister, describing his actions as "a muddle, not a fiddle". Mr McLeish's post-Holyrood years have seen him lecture widely in the United States. He has also served on several SNP government investigations and commissions looking into a range of issues, including prisons, football, broadcasting and colleges. That, along with his post-2007 commentary about Labour's woes, during which he lambasted the party's "culture of denial", led some observers to cheekily question whether he was "going Nat". Jack McConnell: 22 November 2001 - 16 May 2007 Elected Labour MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw in 1999, the former maths teacher came to the fore after taking up the "poisoned chalice" of education minister, tackling a crisis at the Scottish Qualifications Authority head-on. Following Henry McLeish's resignation, Lord McConnell won the job - openly admitting to a previous extra-marital affair in the process - and taking on the post while wondering whether devolution could survive. As first minister, he saw through the ban on smoking in public places and forged new links with the African country of Malawi, one of the poorest in the world, which have been maintained to this day. He stood down as Scottish Labour leader after the SNP's 2007 election win, moving to the backbenches for four years. Mr McConnell was due to become British High Commissioner to Malawi in 2009 but, before having a chance to take up the post, the then prime minister Gordon Brown decided to appoint him his "special international representative on strengthening conflict resolution capacity". The move provoked speculation that it would avoid a Labour by-election defeat in Motherwell and Wishaw. After being made a life peer, taking the title Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale, he announced a move to leave Holyrood. He also expressed his wish to work in post-conflict reconstruction and campaign for vulnerable young people. Despite the odd gaffe - including having to reverse a decision to attend a golf club dinner rather than D-Day commemorative events in Normandy and once telling a group of high school pupils it was okay to get drunk "once in a while" - Lord McConnell says he is immensely proud of his achievements as first minister. In his parting shot to Holyrood, Lord McConnell said the Scottish Parliament was failing in its role as a focal point for national debate and ministerial scrutiny and was in need of "radical change". And as Mr Salmond's milestone as longest-serving first minister approached in November 2012, Lord McConnell took to Twitter, cheekily writing: "This might be my last ever night as 'longest serving First Minister of Scotland'. Maybe overtaken tomorrow? Still the youngest though!" Alex Salmond: 16 May 2007 - 19 November 2014 Seen as one of the most talented politicians of his generation, Alex Salmond already had a high-profile before he won two historic Holyrood elections as SNP leader, securing the mandate to hold a referendum on Scottish independence in the process. Born in 1954 in Linlithgow, Mr Salmond graduated from St Andrews University and began a career in economics, working for the Scottish Office and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Despite earning himself a brief expulsion from the SNP in 1982 for his role in the breakaway '79 Group, he began his parliamentary career as MP for Banff and Buchan in 1987, building himself a high-profile. He served as party leader from 1990, standing down after 10 years only to make a dramatic comeback to the SNP's top job before winning the 2007 Holyrood election. Often derided by his political opponents as arrogant and self-serving, Mr Salmond nonetheless succeeded in turning his party into the most popular in the history of devolution, on his platform of fighting for Scottish interests. Despite a hard-fought campaign on the "Yes" side, voters rejected independence by 55% to 45% in the 18 September vote and, the following day, Mr Salmond announced he was standing down as first minister and SNP leader. After more than seven years as first minister, there is little doubt Mr Salmond has changed the course of Scottish politics forever. Nicola Sturgeon: 20 November 2014 - Ongoing Born in the North Ayrshire town of Irvine in 1970, Ms Sturgeon joined the SNP at the age of 16, when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister. Ms Sturgeon said her decision to become an SNP member rather than Labour was borne from a "strong feeling that it was wrong for Scotland to be governed by a Tory government that we hadn't elected" and that the country would only truly prosper with independence. After studying law at Glasgow University and working as a solicitor at the city's Drumchapel Law Centre, Ms Sturgeon's entry into full-time politics came at the age of 29, when she was elected to the new Holyrood parliament in 1999, as a Glasgow regional MSP. She gained an early reputation for being overly serious, which earned her the nickname "nippy sweetie". When John Swinney resigned as SNP leader in 2004, Ms Sturgeon launched a leadership bid before withdrawing from the race once Alex Salmond unexpectedly threw his hat into the ring. Ms Sturgeon agreed to become Mr Salmond's deputy, standing in for him as the party's "Holyrood leader" while Mr Salmond remained an MP at Westminster. After the SNP's victory in the 2007 election, Ms Sturgeon became Scotland's deputy first minister and health secretary, seeing through popular SNP pledges such as the reversal of A&E closures and the abolition of prescription charges. She also won praise for her handling of the swine flu crisis, and played a large part in the SNP's historic majority in the 2011 election. Ms Sturgeon later described the result - and the dismantling of Labour strongholds across the country - as having broken the mould of Scottish politics, and put the SNP's success down to being "in touch with the country it served". Ms Sturgeon subsequently accepted one of the Scottish government's biggest roles, overseeing the 2014 independence referendum, and was the obvious successor to Mr Salmond when he stood down as both first minister and SNP leader after voters rejected independence by 55% to 45%. In her first six months in the job, Ms Sturgeon led the SNP to a stunning success in last year's general election, when the party won 56 of the 59 seats in Scotland. The party also won a third successive victory in the Scottish Parliament election on 5 May 2016, when it won 63 of the 129 seats - short of a majority, but all but guaranteeing Ms Sturgeon will remain as first minister. Ms Sturgeon is married to Peter Murrell, who is chief executive of the SNP. The pair wed in 2010, after meeting 15 years previously at an SNP youth weekend in Aberdeenshire. Jim Wallace: Between 1999 and 2001 Liberal Democrat Jim Wallace never held the post of first minister on a permanent basis but was called on to do the job on three occasions when sickness, death and scandal befell the Labour incumbent. The politician, now known as Lord Wallace of Tankerness, became deputy first minister in 1999, staying in the post until his resignation as Scottish Liberal Democrat leader on a high, following a good night at the polls for his party in the 2005 UK election. He studied law at Edinburgh University and worked as an advocate before entering parliament in the 1983 General Election as MP for Orkney and Shetland. Mr Wallace joined the Liberal Party in 1972 and became its Scottish party leader in 1992, before being elected MSP for Orkney when devolution happened in 1999. When no clear winner emerged in the first devolved government, Mr Wallace's Liberal Democrats agreed to become Labour's coalition partner. He credits his party's role in the coalition for bringing about policies like scrapping up-front tuition fees, free personal care and Scotland's "right to roam" land reforms. But it was not all plain sailing when, as Scottish justice minister, Lord Wallace was forced to perform a series of u-turns, with plans to ban smacking, close Peterhead jail and open up children's hearings to over-16s all dropped. Less than a year after devolution, Mr Wallace took up the post of first minister when Donald Dewar became ill, stepping in again when he died in October 2000. When Mr McLeish quit in 2001, Lord Wallace found himself, albeit briefly, back in the hot seat, and his efforts saw him named Scottish Politician of the Year. After his move to the Lords and a bit of a back seat, Lord Wallace again found himself in government, putting his political and legal skills to use as Advocate General for Scotland in the UK coalition.

5 मई 2016 को स्कॉटिश संसद चुनाव में एसएनपी की जीत के बाद निकोला स्टर्जन स्कॉटलैंड के पहले मंत्री के रूप में बने रहने के लिए तैयार हैं।


Cardinal Keith O'Brien resignation: Statement in full

Summary: Britain's most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, is resigning as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, after being accused of inappropriate conduct - allegations he contests. This is the full statement issued by the Scottish Catholic Media Office on the resignation of the cardinal:

The Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has accepted on the 18 February 2013 the resignation of His Eminence Cardinal Keith Patrick O'Brien from the pastoral governance of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh. This information will be announced and published in the Osservatore Romano of Monday 25 February 2013. The Cardinal had already presented last November his resignation in view of his 75th birthday on 17 March 2013, and it was accepted by the Holy Father with the formula nunc pro tunc (now for later). Given the imminent Vacant See, the Holy Father has now decided to accept the said resignation definitively. Reacting to the acceptance of his resignation, Cardinal O'Brien said: "Approaching the age of 75 and at times in indifferent health, I tendered my resignation as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh to Pope Benedict XVI some months ago. "I was happy to know that he accepted my resignation nunc pro tunc on 13 November 2012. The Holy Father has now decided that my resignation will take effect today, 25 February 2013, and that he will appoint an apostolic administrator to govern the archdiocese in my place until my successor as archbishop is appointed. "In the meantime I will give every assistance to the apostolic administrator and to our new archbishop, once he is appointed, as I prepare to move into retirement. 'Failures' "I have valued the opportunity of serving the people of Scotland and overseas in various ways since becoming a priest. Looking back over my years of ministry: For any good I have been able to do, I thank God. For any failures, I apologise to all whom I have offended. "I thank Pope Benedict XVI for his kindness and courtesy to me and on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Scotland, I wish him a long and happy retirement. "I also ask God's blessing on my brother cardinals who will soon gather in Rome to elect his successor. I will not join them for this conclave in person. "I do not wish media attention in Rome to be focused on me - but rather on Pope Benedict XVI and on his successor. However, I will pray with them and for them that, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, they will make the correct choice for the future good of the Church. "May God who has blessed me so often in my ministry continue to bless and help me in the years which remain for me on earth and may he shower his blessings on all the peoples of Scotland especially those I was privileged to serve in a special way in the Archdiocese of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh."

ब्रिटेन के सबसे वरिष्ठ रोमन कैथोलिक पादरी, कार्डिनल कीथ ओ 'ब्रायन, अनुचित आचरण के आरोपों के बाद सेंट एंड्रयूज और एडिनबर्ग के आर्कबिशप के रूप में इस्तीफा दे रहे हैं। यह कार्डिनल के इस्तीफे पर स्कॉटिश कैथोलिक मीडिया कार्यालय द्वारा जारी किया गया पूरा बयान हैः


Seattle's great minimum wage experiment

Summary: At a union-organised event in Seattle former McDonald's worker Martina Phelps recounts how she walked out three years ago in protest at how little she and her colleagues were getting paid. It was the first time she had ever taken part in a strike.

By Edwin LaneBusiness reporter, BBC World Service, Seattle "It was the experience of a lifetime," she says, as the audience whoops and cheers. "After seeing my co-workers literally struggling and not having enough money to take care of their children, it was set in my mind that I can do something about this." The strike was part of the Fight for 15 campaign - a nationwide movement to raise the minimum wage to $15 (£10) an hour. 'Wage stagnation' It began with fast-food workers in New York, but it was on America's west coast that it saw early success - two years ago Seattle became the first major city in the United States to pass a $15 minimum wage into law. It will come in gradually. This year larger companies started paying employees $13 an hour. It will go up to $15 next year. By 2021, the new $15 minimum will be rolled out to everyone. Since then Fight for 15 has gained momentum. This year both California and New York approved state laws bringing in a $15 an hour minimum wage, along with more than a dozen other cities and counties. Listen to Edwin Lane's report on Seattle's $15 minimum wage on Business Daily, BBC World Service "We've had 40 years of wage stagnation in the US at a moment when the county has gotten richer and richer," says union leader David Rolf, who helped bring in the Seattle law. "Half of Americans now make less than $17 an hour. Forty-three per cent make less than $15 an hour. A quarter make less than $10 an hour. The reality is the American dream is at its moment of greatest risk." 'Supply and demand' But not everyone thinks paying people more is a good idea. The current federal minimum wage is just $7.25 an hour and some economists warn that raising it to $15 will more than double the cost of labour and discourage businesses from hiring people altogether. "It all goes back to supply and demand," says Jacob Vigdor, professor of public policy and governance at the University of Washington in Seattle. He has been tasked by the city to monitor the economic impact of the new minimum wage as it is phased in. "So far as we can tell right now, Seattle is still open for business and we haven't seen a large increase in unemployment," he says. "But that's not to say everything will be just fine forever." He says low-paid workers themselves are concerned about the prospect of prices rising as a result of higher wages, in a city they already find expensive. Businesses have also told him they want more experienced staff for the higher wages they are now paying. "Younger workers who are just starting out in the labour force may find it more difficult to find work," he says. 'Blend jobs' Restaurateur and chef Jason Wilson is among the small business owners with reservations about the new minimum wage. He's already raised the prices on his menu and changed the way staff are paid - getting rid of tipping in favour of a standard service charge. He says he will also expect more of his staff. "We're going to have to look at everyone's job and what they do and start to blur the lines of responsibility, blend those jobs together and get higher levels of efficiency," he says. But he's also sympathetic to the plight of workers stuck in low-paid jobs for long periods. "I grew up earning minimum wage as a kid. I worked extra hours at a bar for tips, and that would incentivise me to work harder and find greater opportunities. That's what a minimum wage job is meant for. It's not meant to support a family." 'No compelling evidence' David Neumark is an economics professor at the University of California who has studied the impact of past minimum wage increases in the US. His main criticism is that higher minimum wages do very little to help the poorest in society, because many minimum wage workers aren't actually poor, but are using low-wage jobs to access the labour market. "In the US data, you really can't find any compelling evidence that the minimum wage reduces poverty, and the reason is a lot of minimum wage workers are not in poor families," he says. He argues that a much more effective action would be to reduce income inequality by simply taxing the rich more and redistributing to the poor. "A politician can legislate a higher minimum wage and they don't have to look at their budget or raise anyone's taxes. A much more effective tool would be to raise taxes, but in the US it's virtually impossible to talk about raising taxes." Back in Seattle union leader David Rolf says the city's implementation of the $15 minimum wage remains an important example to the rest of the country. When the first increases came in a year ago "the sky did not fall in", he says. "That really captured the imagination of the public in this city."

सिएटल में एक संघ द्वारा आयोजित कार्यक्रम में मैकडॉनल्ड्स की पूर्व कर्मचारी मार्टिना फेल्प्स बताती हैं कि कैसे उन्होंने तीन साल पहले इस बात के विरोध में वॉकआउट किया था कि उन्हें और उनके सहयोगियों को कितना कम वेतन मिल रहा था। यह पहली बार था जब उन्होंने हड़ताल में भाग लिया था।


Dominic Cummings shines a light on No 10's inner workings

Summary: Some will contest it, some will question the motives.

Hugh PymHealth editor@BBCHughPymon Twitter But today's dramatic evidence from Dominic Cummings shone new light on the government's handling of the biggest peacetime crisis in modern times. He was a central player in Downing Street and Whitehall and has become the highest profile figure so far to give an inside story of the critical moments and decision making. Mr Cummings' account of the first Covid-19 wave in 2020 was highly critical of ministers and officials who were his former colleagues. British people flown back from Wuhan in China were quarantined in late January. But until the end of February there was no attempt to get the government machine on a war footing, he said. Some key players even took skiing holidays. This was the situation in the UK even as Italian hospitals were being over-run with seriously ill Covid patients. Mr Cummings argued there should have been a lockdown by early March - but big sporting events like the Cheltenham racing festival went ahead. He said experts thought closing mass spectator events would mean people went to pubs instead, but this, in his view, was typical of the flawed thinking on how people might behave. By Monday, 16 March 2020, there had been a big change in thinking. Mr Cummings revealed this had only happened over the weekend once warnings about hospitals being overwhelmed had been taken on board. That day saw the first announcement of restrictions, though a full lockdown did not happen for another week. But Prof Peter Openshaw, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group, said none of the options for ministers were clear cut. He said: "I think it was clear to us that really urgent action needed to be taken - but that was very difficult for the politicians to balance all the inputs they were getting from the scientists on one hand, and those who thought this was really going to be very damaging for the economy on the other." Mr Cummings slammed what he alleged was the lack of preparation for a pandemic, including shortages of personal protective equipment. He said even with virus cases surging in March there were no urgent plans to secure more supplies from overseas distributors. Circuit breaker By September the second wave of the virus was developing, and Mr Cummings said action should have been taken then. The testing system was coming close to being overwhelmed and he claimed the prime minister rejected the idea of a short circuit breaker lockdown in England aimed at reducing case rates. Some experts, including Prof Linda Bauld of the University of Edinburgh, agree that was a mistake. "Its pretty clear that there were a lot of arguments in favour of taking early action in September when cases were rising again and we did not have vaccines," she said. "People had been able to travel and we had reimported infections back into the country, people were moving around and we should have done something earlier." The number of UK deaths is one of the highest of leading industrialised nations - but some other governments struggled as much as the British administration with the timing and duration of lockdowns. Mr Cummings said mistakes had been made and he was sorry for his part in them. His chilling statement that tens of thousands of people had died who did not need to is sure to dominate debate in the run up to the public inquiry next year. Others will give their version of events. Some will want to set the record straight - and recollections may well differ from those of Mr Cummings.

कुछ लोग इसका विरोध करेंगे, कुछ लोग उद्देश्यों पर सवाल उठाएंगे।


Depression: A revolution in treatment?

Summary: It's not very often we get to talk about a revolution in understanding and treating depression and yet now doctors are talking about "one of the strongest discoveries in psychiatry for the last 20 years".

By James Gallagher, Rachael Buchanan & Andrew Luck-BakerThe Inflamed Mind, BBC Radio 4 It is based around the idea that some people are being betrayed by their fiercest protector. That their immune system is altering their brain. The illness exacts a heavy toll on 350 million people around the world, among them Hayley Mason, from Cambridgeshire: "My depression gets so bad that I can't leave the bed, I can't leave the bedroom, I can't go downstairs and be with my partner and his kids. The 30-year-old added: "I can't have the TV on, I can't have noise and light, I have suicidal thoughts, I have self-harmed, I can't leave the house, I can't drive. "And just generally I am completely confined to my own home and everything else just feels too much." Anti-depressant drugs and psychological treatments, like cognitive behavioural therapy, help the majority of people. But many don't respond to existing therapies and so some scientists are now exploring a new frontier - whether the immune system could be causing depression. "I think we have to be quite radical," says Prof Ed Bullmore, the head of psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. He's at the forefront of this new approach: "Recent history is telling us if we want to make therapeutic breakthroughs in an area which remains incredibly important in terms of disability and suffering then we've got to think differently." The focus is on an errant immune system causing inflammation in the body and altering mood. And Prof Bullmore argues that's something we can all relate to, if we just think back to the last time we had a cold or flu. He said: "Depression and inflammation often go hand in hand, if you have flu, the immune system reacts to that, you become inflamed and very often people find that their mood changes too. "Their behaviour changes, they may become less sociable, more sleepy, more withdrawn. "They may begin to have some of the negative ways of thinking that are characteristic of depression and all of that follows an infection." It is a subtle and yet significant shift in thinking. The argument is we don't just feel sorry for ourselves when we are sick, but that the chemicals involved in inflammation are directly affecting our mood. Find out more You can listen to The Inflamed Mind documentary on BBC Radio 4 at 21:00 BST and then here on iPlayer. Inflammation is part of the immune system's response to danger. It is a hugely complicated process to prepare our body to fight off hostile forces. If inflammation is too low then an infection can get out of hand. If it is too high, it causes damage. And for some reason, about one-third of depressed patients have consistently high levels of inflammation. Hayley is one of them: "I do have raised inflammation markers, I think normal is under 0.7 and mine is 40, it's coming up regularly in blood tests." There is now a patchwork quilt of evidence suggesting inflammation is more than something you simply find in some depressed patients, but is actually the cause of their disease. That the immune system can alter the workings of the brain. Joint pain To explore this revolutionary new idea in depression, we visited an arthritis clinic at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. It is perhaps an unexpected location, but it was in clinics like this that doctors noticed something unusual. Rheumatoid arthritis is caused by the immune system attacking the joints. And when patients were given precise anti-inflammatory drugs that calmed down specific parts of the immune response, their mood improved. Prof Iain McInnes, a consultant rheumatologist, said: "When we give these therapies we see a fairly rapid increase in a sense of well-being, mood state improving quite remarkably often disproportionately given the amount of inflammation we can see in their joints and their skin." It suggests the patients were not simply feeling happier as they were in less pain, but that something more profound was going on. Prof McInnes added: "We scanned the brains of people with rheumatoid arthritis, we then gave them a very specific immune targeted therapy and then we imaged them again afterwards. "What we are starting to see when we give anti-inflammatory medicines is quite remarkable changes in the neuro-chemical circuitry in the brain. "The brain pathways involved in mediating depression were favourably changed in people who were given immune interventions." One possible explanation is that inflammatory chemicals enter the brain. There they interrupt the production of serotonin - a key neurotransmitter that's linked to mood. Could I be depressed? If you are having trouble understanding any of these questions, or at any point you start to feel distressed, please stop and seek the advice of a medical professional. See the links below for organisations that may be able to help you. NHS Choices: Stress, anxiety and depression The Samaritans Mind, the mental health charity About the self assessment: The first eight questions are taken from a measure known as the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 or PHQ-9, used by doctors to assess and monitor depression severity. The PHQ-9 was developed by Dr Robert L Spitzer, Dr Janet B W Williams, Dr Kurt Kroenke and colleagues, with an educational grant from Pfizer Inc. To hear more we visited Carmine Pariante's laboratory at King's College London. The professor of biological psychiatry has been piecing together the evidence on inflammation and depression for 20 years. He told the BBC: "Nearly 30% to 40% of depressed patients have high levels of inflammation and in these people we think it is part of the causal process. "The evidence supporting this idea is that high levels of inflammation are present even if someone is not depressed, but is at risk of becoming depressed. "We know from studies that if you have high levels of inflammation today you're at higher risk of becoming depressed over the next weeks or months even if you are perfectly well." He's shown that not only are depressed patients more likely to have high levels of inflammation, but those with an overactive immune system are also less likely to respond to anti-depressants. This is a big deal because a third of patients don't get any benefit from drug treatments. But there's something confusing here. The immune system responds to infection and that doesn't seem to fit the usual story of depression. Take Jennifer Streeting, a trainee midwife in London, who traces her mental health problems back to when she was 14. "My nana passed away and my mum had breast cancer and if you ask my therapist now she puts it down to grief and not really dealing with that at the time, I think there was just a lot going on." Prof Pariante argues it is actually these awful moments in our lives that change our immune system, priming it to increase the risk of depression years later. He said: "We think the immune system is the key mechanism by which early life events produce this long-term effect. "We have some data showing adult individuals who have a history of early life trauma, even if they have never been depressed, have an activated immune system so they are in a state of risk." The hope is that drugs targeting the immune system will provide much needed treatments for patients, particularly for those like Jennifer who seem to have tried them all. "I had sertraline, I had Prozac, there was another one, I got started on citalopram, I was put on duloxetine, mirtazapine as well. I was on three at one point." She is now on a combination of drugs that seem to be working for her, but it has been a long journey. "It is totally trial and error," said Prof Pariante. He added: "We are not able to predict right from the beginning whether someone will respond. "We think by measuring inflammation in the blood we'll actually be able to identify individuals that do require more complex, intensive antidepressant treatment, maybe a combination of an antidepressant and and anti-inflammatory." Most of us have common anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen at home, but doctors warn against experimenting at home, while clinical trials are taking place to prove whether this will work in patients. The world's largest medical research charity, the Wellcome Trust, has brought together universities and the pharmaceutical industry. The aim is to consolidate the evidence to accelerate the field; ultimately they want to find a new treatment for depression and develop a test to identify those who will benefit. Cambridge University's Prof Bullmore is leading the consortium. But we interviewed him at his other employer, GlaxoSmithKline. The company's immuno-inflammation laboratory is where scientists are developing new molecules which they hope will become effective medicines for inflammatory disorders. That process will take more than a decade, but Prof Bullmore says there may already be a drug out there. "One of the exciting things about immunopsychiatry is that because of the success of immunology in other areas of medicine there are already many drugs that are far beyond this stage of development. "They may already be licensed or in late-stage clinical trials so the timeline from start of work on that project to delivering a medicine that might make a difference to patients could be much shorter." Progress Raiding the cupboards is already showing signs of success. Those early clues in arthritis mean the anti-inflammatory drug sirukumab is now being trialled in depressed patients. So are drugs targeting the immune system about to transform the treatment of depression? Prof Bullmore argues: "I don't think they are going to be a panacea, I don't think we're talking about a scenario in future where every patient with symptoms of depression is going to be offered an anti-inflammatory drug. "I don't think that makes sense and frankly that sort of blockbuster one-size-fits-all approach to development of drugs for psychiatry has not been helpful to us in the past. "We have to take a more personalised or stratified approach, not everyone that is depressed is depressed for the same reason." That will require a blood test to identify which patients will benefit from immune-based therapies. Depression is a disease that affects hundreds of millions of people. Even if anti-inflammatories help just a small proportion of them - that would still be a huge number of patients. But if immunotherapy becomes a success, its biggest impact may be on the way we think about the disease, making people less likely to believe sufferers should just "pull themselves together". "I hate that phrase, if I could I would," says Jennifer. She adds: "Just as if someone had diabetes and their insulin levels weren't working correctly, you wouldn't say, 'Oh snap out of it, stop having a hypo.'" Hayley feels the same: "If there was a way to say depression was a physical problem I think it would make a massive difference, I think people would treat depression as something that is not made up and going on in the head. "It would be seen as a genuine condition, it would validate a lot of people's feelings." Prof Pariante concludes: "It is groundbreaking because, for the first time, we are demonstrating that depression is not only a disorder of the mind, in fact it is not even only a disorder of the brain, it is a disorder of the whole body."

ऐसा अक्सर नहीं होता है कि हम अवसाद को समझने और उसका इलाज करने में एक क्रांति के बारे में बात करते हैं और फिर भी अब डॉक्टर "पिछले 20 वर्षों से मनोचिकित्सा में सबसे मजबूत खोजों में से एक" के बारे में बात कर रहे हैं।


Seven West Midlands ambulance stations up for sale

Summary: Seven West Midlands Ambulance Service stations have been put up for sale.

In the third wave of sales in the service's Make Ready scheme, asking prices range from £200,000 for Craven Arms ambulance station in Shropshire to £475,000 for Dordon, Staffordshire. In Birmingham and Solihull another five ambulance stations have gone on sale. Vehicle maintenance hubs and Community Ambulance Stations are being created in the £9.6m project "to ensure a faster response to 999 calls". The hubs house teams of Ambulance Fleet Assistants who prepare vehicles for ambulances crews. The crew will then be based at one of 30 Community Ambulance Stations, which will be leased rather than owned by the service. A spokesperson for WMAS said: "When completed, the number of Community Ambulance Stations will be more than three-times that of traditionally owned stations to ensure a faster response to 999 calls." Two hubs are already in operation in Shropshire and another has opened in the refurbished West Bromwich ambulance station. In Coventry and Warwickshire new hubs are being built in Coventry, Nuneaton, Rugby and Warwick. In Birmingham new hubs will also be created in Erdington and Northfield. In Worcestershire two stations are being refurbished to become hubs at a cost of £1.45m. Alternatives to other ambulance stations are "being planned", with assurances no station will be vacated until new premises are found. Three ambulance stations in Shropshire and two in Warwickshire went on sale in January.

सात वेस्ट मिडलैंड्स एम्बुलेंस सेवा स्टेशनों को बिक्री के लिए रखा गया है।