People who inspired Pride tell their story

Summary: The 1984 miners' strike was a bitter and divisive episode in modern British history. But with the film Pride, screenwriter Stephen Beresford has created a hit focusing on unexpected links between South Wales miners and a Lesbian and Gay group from London. Released late last year, the film has been nominated for three Baftas, as well as a Golden Globe for best comedy. Three of those who were part of the story in real life say they're delighted it's been discovered by a new generation.

By Vincent DowdArts correspondent, BBC World Service Almost certainly Sian James is the only British politician to have been in demand at the Toronto Film Festival. But since the 1984 coal strike the Labour MP's life has been full of the unexpected. "I was a 25 year-old wife fretting who had the whitest net curtains in the village," she says. "All I thought about was supporting my striking husband with virtually no cash coming in. I never dreamt that 20 years after that I'd become a Labour member of parliament. "So who could possibly have thought another decade on I'd find myself briefing the Hollywood Foreign Press Association about the strike? They were fascinated. There were times in Toronto when it all seemed a bit surreal." The publicists for Pride - directed by Matthew Warchus and written by Stephen Beresford - soon realised the real-life participants in the story were a big hit with the media. Two of the leading figures in the group Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners also went to Toronto and then the USA to beat the drum for the film. Jonathan Blake, now 65, is a former actor played in the film by The Hour star Dominic West. In 1984, he acknowledges, he was a slightly flamboyant presence in the Dulais Valley when a group of LGSM (Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners) members drove from London "in two Hackney Community Transport mini-buses and a clapped out old Volkswagen" to meet the families they'd offered to help financially. "We got so lost that we arrived about one o'clock in the morning and it all felt a bit flat. I remember thinking we might have made a terrible mistake accepting the invitation to go and see how our money was being spent: how on earth would a mining community react to these strange people from London? "The film is about 70% true and 30% invention - but Stephen Beresford is spot on showing how warm the welcome was from almost everyone. And oddly we felt the same warmth doing publicity at Toronto and in the States: it's obvious people like the story." After Toronto, Blake went to talk about Pride in New York, Los Angeles and in San Francisco. "In San Francisco we had a screening in the Castro, the main gay area. It was at a cinema in a shopping mall and at first I worried about the reception we'd get. "Russell Tovey (who has a cameo role in the film) was in town making the HBO series Looking so he came over with some of the cast. We were kept as surprise guests until after the screening and people were delighted." Mike Jackson has also been on the publicity trail in America. Thirty years ago he was instrumental in getting LGSM going. "I was working as head gardener at Bedford College in Regents Park. In my spare time I was a volunteer at London Gay Switchboard and that's how I met Mark Ashton [played in the film by American actor Ben Schnetzer]. "Mark was very active in left-wing politics and massively energetic: he suggested we collect for the miners. "At first where we sent the money was a bit like pinning a tail on the donkey. The important thing was to send the money direct to a support group because if you sent through the NUM it would have been lost as their funds had been frozen by the courts. "Someone in LGSM came from South Wales so that's why we wrote to a miners' support group in the Dulais Valley - which in the movie Stephen changes to a telephone call. In retrospect it was a fortunate choice because the South Wales miners were organised and really efficient about getting big donors to spend time with them. And of course without that strange meeting of opposites there'd be no film today." James says the fact their London visitors were gay wasn't a huge issue for most of the community. "I remember some giggling when the letter arrived but it didn't last. I pointed out that there was a lot of rubbish in the media about striking miners - so maybe everything you'd get in those days in newspapers about gays and lesbians was nonsense too. "And during the strike you'd meet Swedish Euro-communists in the village and Maoists and all kinds of activists who wouldn't normally have come to places like Onllwyn. We were very used to strangers. "I think it was rarer then for people - especially women - in a working village to engage with people from outside. For people like me it was an education to meet people who were different: the exact way they were different wasn't so important. "Meeting all these people changed my life and without it I'm sure I'd never have spent the last 10 years as an MP." Played by actress Jessica Gunning, James is seen in one of the film's highlights - a very 1980s dance which Blake launches into in the miners welfare hall. "I can't claim my dancing was quite the big production number it became on screen," she recalls. "But that's the wonder of cinema: Stephen and Matthew made it true to the spirit of what happened." Blake agrees that West's exotic moves to Shirley and Company's disco classic Shame, Shame, Shame might in reality have been a bit beyond him. "But it's a highlight with audiences. And you can see why people are already saying Pride would make a musical." Jackson recalls that he and other LGSM members were in South Wales when the National Union of Mineworkers announced the strike was over and the miners would return to work. "It was a national decision so they went back - but lots of people were unhappy at what happened. In that sense the miners lost and Stephen Beresford's too honest a writer to create a phoney upbeat ending. "But Jonathan and Sian and I have spoken to people about the film in London and Toronto and in America. Audiences like the struggle and the sense of community at the heart of the story. They don't see what happened as a defeat."

1984 की खनिकों की हड़ताल आधुनिक ब्रिटिश इतिहास में एक कड़वी और विभाजनकारी घटना थी। लेकिन फिल्म प्राइड के साथ, पटकथा लेखक स्टीफन बेरेसफोर्ड ने साउथ वेल्स के खनिकों और लंदन के एक समलैंगिक और समलैंगिक समूह के बीच अप्रत्याशित संबंधों पर ध्यान केंद्रित करते हुए एक हिट बनाई है। पिछले साल के अंत में रिलीज़ हुई, फिल्म को तीन बाफ्टा के साथ-साथ सर्वश्रेष्ठ कॉमेडी के लिए गोल्डन ग्लोब के लिए नामांकित किया गया है। वास्तविक जीवन में कहानी का हिस्सा रहे तीन लोगों का कहना है कि वे खुश हैं कि इसे एक नई पीढ़ी द्वारा खोजा गया है।


Man died after being hit by car on M1 in Leicestershire

Summary: A man died after he walked on to the M1 and was hit by a car shortly after he crashed his own vehicle.

Police said a car went down the embankment between junctions 20 and 21, southbound, in Leicestershire, just before 01:15 BST on Sunday. The man was taken to hospital afterwards and later died. The M1 southbound was closed for several hours and re-opened at about 10:30 BST. Police have appealed for eyewitnesses and dashcam footage. Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.

एम1 पर चलने के बाद एक व्यक्ति की मृत्यु हो गई और अपने ही वाहन को दुर्घटनाग्रस्त करने के तुरंत बाद एक कार ने उसे टक्कर मार दी।


In search of Donald Trump's Scottish roots

Summary: The US president-elect Donald Trump has German ancestry on his father's side - but his mother was Scottish. During the election campiagn BBC Newsnight's Stephen Smith went to the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides to find out more.

Lewis is a windblown, God-fearing outcrop notable for its Gaelic heritage, its peat, and its jealously guarded sense of propriety. Trump's mother, Mary MacLeod, was born there in 1912, to Malcolm MacLeod, a fisherman, and his wife, also called Mary. Young Mary left the island at the age of 18 for a holiday in New York, where she met a local builder by the name of Trump - and the rest, as they say, is histrionics. While some journalists have been pursuing the juicy story of the property developer's German grandfather, who appears to have supplied hard liquor and showgirls to gold prospectors in the Wild West, I decided to concentrate on the more understated but deeply enigmatic narrative of his maternal line. I was encouraged in this by Trump himself, who has spoken fondly of his Scottish roots, and even went so far as to make a characteristically hush-hush visit to Lewis in 2008, his airliner "Trump 1" scorching the heather around the catwalk-like runway. He flew into the island for a grand total of three hours or so, as councillors were debating a controversial Trump golf resort, a solid 2-iron away on the mainland. (The course is in business, though he's cooled on it ever since he failed to block a nearby wind farm.) At the time, he said: "I have been very busy - I am building jobs all over the world - and it's very, very tough to find the time to come back. But this just seemed an appropriate time, because I have the plane... I'm very glad I did, and I will be back again." When our own twin-prop flight touched down in Lewis, I sucked in a lungful of rarefied northern air and began to grasp what the Trump family liked about the place. It's perfumed by an intoxicating blend of kelp and nitrate-rich sod that would have the apothecaries at a cosmetics laboratory rending their white coats in despair. At night, the sky's as clear as the small print on a Trump contract, and the stars seem close enough to touch. Perhaps it's this transparency - a sense that what you see is what you get - that accounts for their gruff rectitude. I'm reliably informed that Donald Trump is the talk of the place, but they won't necessarily talk about him to an outsider, on the charitable basis that if you can't say something nice about someone… There's that, and there's also a formidable tradition of Calvinism, which has earned Lewis the TripAdvisor-friendly tag of "the last bastion of Sabbath observance in the UK". This is such an established part of Lewis's reputation that the hostile environment specialists who brief BBC teams before assignments issued us with hipflasks. In fact, I found the pubs of Stornoway open til the witching hour even on a school night. Retired healthcare worker Kathy McArthur told me, "When I first came here years ago, the swings were still padlocked on a Sunday so the children couldn't play on them. But now you see people out in the town with their children on a Sunday whereas it used to be just people going to church. There have been a lot of changes." That said, I heard one outlying settlement described as a "religious village". One thing that Trump has in common with adherents of the old religion on Lewis is that he takes the pledge. He does not drink. He suffered the horror of watching his own brother die of alcoholism, which reinforced whatever strictures he absorbed at his mother's knee. Mary MacLeod was raised in the little village of Tong, among low-rise garrison-style homes "finished in pukey pebble-dash", as one Lewis writer puts it. Who was Donald Trump's mother? Trump's cousins still live in Tong, not far from the capital Stornoway. I was very firmly informed that no-one would talk to us. After I made my apologies and left, I tried to put my finger on what the experience reminded me of. Perhaps I caught the family on a bad day, and no doubt they are weary of the world's press beating a path to their door, but it struck me that it had been like visiting the scene of a mortifying calamity. I hesitate to say it, but there was a sense of shame as well as irritation. In a Stornoway pub, I recounted the experience to Ian Stephen, a storyteller in the island's age-old fireside tradition, and author of an acclaimed Lewis novel, A Book of Death and Fish. "Oh yeah, I can imagine it. You would like to picture Donald with that lovely hair being caught by an island breeze and him helping to carry around a big basket. And what do you get instead? These outbursts of his - and everybody goes like that..." Stephen cradled his head in his hands in mock horror. "It's not fashionable, but in Lewis our main passion is a bloodsport… genealogy," he went on. "You know, 'Who are your people?' So we're very proud of the people who have an impact on the wider world." "So you're proud of Donald Trump?" I asked. Folk musician Gerry Blane said: "Personally I think Trump's behaviour is questionable. There's a lot of intolerance there and you would never see any of that on the island. People used to think of the island as being intolerant and it's not. There's a mix of religions here now and people are very open, very honest and very kind."

अमेरिका के निर्वाचित राष्ट्रपति डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प के पिता की ओर से जर्मन वंश है-लेकिन उनकी माँ स्कॉटिश थीं। चुनाव शिविर के दौरान बीबीसी न्यूज़नाइट के स्टीफन स्मिथ अधिक जानने के लिए आउटर हेब्राइड्स में आइल ऑफ़ लुईस गए थे।


Bexhill Colonnade re-opens after renovation

Summary: A seafront landmark in Bexhill has re-opened following a £3.5m renovation.

Kent-based Neilcott Construction led the works on the Grade II listed Colonnade, which was built to mark the coronation of King George V in 1911. Rother District Council said the works were part of a wider scheme to regenerate the seafront. The project also involves the construction of a new rowing club boathouse and a terraced lawn area alongside the De La Warr Pavilion. Related Internet Links Made by the Sea Rother District Council Bexhill Rowing Club

बेक्सहिल में एक सीफ्रंट लैंडमार्क 3.5 मिलियन पाउंड के नवीनीकरण के बाद फिर से खोला गया है।


'Children jailed as adults' seek justice from Australia

Summary: More than 120 Indonesians who say Australia wrongly jailed them as adults - when in fact they were children - have launched a bid for compensation. The BBC's Indonesia editor Rebecca Henschke visited remote Rote Island to hear how they became caught up in human trafficking.

Siti Rudy's eyes fill with tears when she recalls the long months in 2009 when, with no news, she assumed her son Abdul was dead. "I cried and cried because as the youngest he was the one who looked after me," she says, sitting on the cement floor of her home, a one-bedroom house in Oelaba village on Rote, the Indonesian island closest to Australia. "After a long time he called me and told me he was in jail in Australia. That was a very hard thing to hear." Abdul says he unwittingly became, in the eyes of the Australian authorities, a people smuggler, carrying asylum seekers into Australian waters. He says he was offered around $100 (£77), a significant amount of money in this area, to work on a boat transporting rice. He didn't know or ask where it was going. Australia intercepts any boats attempting to bring refugees or asylum seekers to its shores. Under Australian policy at the time, any crew members of those boats found to be children should have been returned home - rather than face charges. But Abdul was convicted as an adult and jailed for two-and-a-half years. His family and village officials say he was just 14 at the time. "I was scared I would be beaten up," he says. "I was so far from my family and held for a long time. That's what was frightening but I got used to it after a while," he says. I have interviewed many men in Abdul's position over the years - they all go very quiet when they talk about their time in jail. Lawyers say several children were physically and sexually abused, and still suffer psychological trauma. Lawyers in town Siti's small house is a hive of activity. Giggling children crowd around the veranda as a group of Australian lawyers take down her story. Among the visitors, Mark Barrow of Ken Cush Associates is building up a case to have Abdul's conviction overturned and to fight for some form of compensation. More than 120 boys who were imprisoned between 2009 and 2011 have signed up for the class action, pursuing compensation through the Australian Human Rights Commission. They are seeking money from the Australian Federal Police, Australia's Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and the doctor who used a now-discredited X-ray method to determine their age. A 2012 report by the Australian Human Rights Commission entitled An Age of Uncertainty found numerous breaches of the boys' rights. "If this was an Australian child, you would expect the Indonesian police to ring up their parents and ask for the details, and quickly their child would be sent back to Australia. This didn't happen," says Mr Barrow. "I think most people would fairly agree that if that happened to their children, then they would seek redress." The whistleblower Colin Singer was an independent prison visitor, a volunteer job he had held for around four years, when he came across the Indonesian boys behind bars. "There was this tiny kid holding on to this barbed wired fence and I remember saying to him gently, 'what's your name?' And he was in tears, clearly traumatised." Mr Singer started asking questions, but says appeals to resolve the matter with Australian and Indonesian authorities fell on deaf ears. "I strongly believe that the Commonwealth of Australia knowingly and willingly imprisoned these children," he says. "It's beyond belief that a single child could end up in adult prison - not for a day, not for a week, but for nearly three years - and we are not just taking about one child here." As for Indonesia, he says: "The government didn't want to do anything. They didn't provide lawyers. They didn't provide any assistance whatsoever. I was appalled." The lead claimant The boy Mr Singer met behind bars that day was Ali Jasmin. Documents, including an Indonesian birth certificate showing he was 13 at the time of his arrest, were obtained by the Indonesian government but never tendered in his defence. "I kept arguing that I was a child, but I was sentenced to three years because they said I was an adult," he says. "I was angry that the test they used was not my mum; it didn't give birth to me." Ali Jasmin was released in 2012, after extensive media coverage of his case, and deported back to Indonesia. Last year he became the first boy to have his conviction overturned in Western Australia's Court of Appeal, which found that a "miscarriage of justice" had occurred. "My battle for justice was worth it," he says. Mr Singer, he says, has become like family for him. "What I am fighting for now is compensation for the time I spent in jail," Ali says. "After that I will give money to my parents. I want to make my family happy." He has a two-year-old daughter and works as a fisherman. Having not been able to complete his high school education, jobs are scarce. What Australia and Indonesia say The 2012 Australian Human Rights Commission report found numerous breaches of the boys' rights, and flawed handling of their cases. It stated that "federal police and the CDPP [Australia's Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions] placed reliance on wrist X-ray analysis as evidence that a person was over the age of 18 years - despite significant material being available to support the conclusion that they should not do so." The CDPP and Australia's foreign affairs department turned down the BBC's requests for interviews. The CDPP said via email: "You are aware there are still active legal proceedings and as such we decline the offer to be interviewed or provide any comment." Dede Syamsuri was Indonesia's consular-general in Perth at the time. Now ambassador to Morocco, he says Indonesia was not in a position to help most of the boys. "[This was] simply because we had nothing in our hand - we had no proof of how old the boys were," he says. He says Indonesian authorities were able to help just two, or perhaps more, boys - including Ali Jasmin. In those instances, Indonesia helped the boys get documents from their families to prove they were children. Once those documents were handed over to lawyers appointed by Australia, Dede Syamsuri says Indonesia left the matter with the Australian courts. "Because those responsible were doctors using medical ways [to determine ages], I just had to agree with what they said. We had to accept what the doctor found," he says. "Indonesia did firmly raise the issue of the underage boys with Canberra." But he adds: "It was very hard to discuss further the issue." Anger over inaction Ali Jasmin says he felt deeply let down by Indonesia. "I am disappointed and angry because they should have been fighting for us," he says. "They should have been our biggest defenders but they just weren't. The Indonesian consular [officials] asked us if we were underage and we told them clearly that we were, but nothing changed." Dede Syamsuri says Indonesian officials regularly visited the boys in jail, bringing them religious books and food. "Of course being in jail wasn't fun but I saw that they were happy," he says. "They could do regular exercise because there was a basketball court, football pitch and they had a room just for watching TV. The facilities were very good and they enjoyed them. The jails are very different to ones we have in Indonesia." He says he did receive reports that some boys were being sexually harassed, and he requested that the boys be moved to other jails. Dede Syamsuri says he was surprised and pleased to hear from the BBC that Ali's conviction had been overturned. Too sick to go home For Erwin Prayoga, who shared a cell with Ali Jasmin, this legal battle comes too late. He died about two months after being released and sent home to Rote Island. Erwin's family says he was 14 when he was arrested by Australia. His younger brother, Baco Ali, breaks down when he tells me about the excruciating pain Erwin was in before his death. "It's hard to remember how sick he was," Baco Ali says through tears. "They had to push him in a wheelbarrow to the local health centre. I have been told by the lawyers that if you are not well then you shouldn't be sent home from Australia. I want to know why he was." Lawyers have obtained his medical records in Australia and are asking the same question. Erwin's family say any compensation they receive will be used to make him a proper grave. Now it's marked simply with rocks and a wooden block at the back of their house, near the fishing boats where Baco Ali comes to pray often. Lawyers say more avenues are available through the courts, if compensation is not achieved through the Australian Human Rights Commission.

120 से अधिक इंडोनेशियाई जो कहते हैं कि ऑस्ट्रेलिया ने उन्हें वयस्कों के रूप में गलत तरीके से जेल में डाल दिया-जब वे वास्तव में बच्चे थे-ने मुआवजे के लिए बोली शुरू की है। बीबीसी की इंडोनेशिया संपादक रेबेका हेंस्के ने यह सुनने के लिए दूरदराज के रोट द्वीप का दौरा किया कि वे मानव तस्करी में कैसे फंस गए।


Facebook bans the sale of community groups

Summary: Facebook has banned the selling of administration rights for community groups.

By Zoe KleinmanTechnology reporter, BBC News This follows BBC News uncovering several incidents of group owners being approached about selling their pages. Last month, nearly all 25,000 members of a west London group left in protest after finding out it had been sold by the person running it. One buyer told BBC News they bought groups to promote their own business. They also sell unofficial ad space. Facebook says the practice falls under the "spam" section of its Community Standards rules although there is no specific line that says this. "We do not allow people to sell site privileges on Facebook, which includes selling admin roles or space on a page or group to display a third-party ad. "We disabled the account reported to us by the BBC in November and urge our community to report cases like this so we can investigate and take swift action," a Facebook representative said. Community groups are traditionally set up by Facebook members in the local area, acting in a voluntary capacity. Members typically use them to discuss local issues, buy and sell unwanted items, and share upcoming events. Jon Morter runs a local community group in his home county of Essex. It has about 30,000 members. He also belongs to one that is for other group administrators. "A few weeks ago, a member posted to say someone had approached and offered to buy their group," he said. "Another member then pointed out that they had been approached as well. Lots of us all dived in and realised it was the same bunch of people. "We investigated [and found] that there are at least five, possibly more, local sales or community groups that this lot now own. They also say, 'If you want to put your advert on the banner, we'll charge you.'" BBC News contacted someone in the UK who buys local groups. They said they did so in order to showcase their own business and allow it "exclusivity" but added that group members were also allowed to promote their own companies, free, in their posts. Other businesses were also invited to buy promotion by sponsoring the group's cover photo - the large photo at the top of each page - but not many did, the buyer said. Mr Morter said administrators should not make money out of groups. "You do it for the love of where you live. I'm proud of my town," he said. Mr Morter also runs various music group fan pages and says that back in 2014 he was offered $4,000 (£3,100) from a US company to hand over the rights to one of them. "They said they were part of a marketing company and 'we'd like to put our own advertisements on there but we wouldn't stop you putting your content on there still'. They wanted to control it." He did not sell the page. He said that he had read Facebook's Community Standards and could not see anything about whether or not the practice of buying and selling group rights was permitted. "It's very vague - that's being polite about it," he said. "There's not really anywhere specific where it says that you cannot purchase admin rights."

फेसबुक ने सामुदायिक समूहों के लिए प्रशासनिक अधिकारों की बिक्री पर प्रतिबंध लगा दिया है।


Eskdalemuir sheep found 'mauled to death'

Summary: Police are appealing for information following a case of sheep worrying in the south of Scotland over the weekend.

The incident happened some time between Friday and Sunday on farmlands at Clerkhill near Eskdalemuir. Police Scotland said six sheep worth about £900 had been "worried and mauled to death". The fields are near a haulage road in the area and police have asked anyone who uses the road to get in touch if they have seen anything suspicious.

सप्ताहांत में स्कॉटलैंड के दक्षिण में भेड़ों की चिंता के एक मामले के बाद पुलिस जानकारी के लिए अपील कर रही है।


Irish abortion referendum: The people travelling #HomeToVote

Summary: Irish voters from around the world returned to cast their ballots in Friday's referendum on whether or not to repeal the country's Eighth Amendment. That clause in the Irish constitution in effect outlaws abortion by giving equal rights to the unborn.

By Kelly-Leigh CooperBBC News The #HomeToVote hashtag has trended on Twitter for most of the weekend, as men and women shared their journeys home. From car shares, to offers of beds for the night, the movement was propelled by social media. A similar movement also took off ahead of the 2015 vote that legalised same-sex marriage. People on both sides of the argument travelled back to vote, but the movement was spearheaded by the London-Irish Abortion Rights Campaign - a pro-choice group that tried to mobilise an estimated 40,000 eligible emigrants. The Eighth Amendment came into being after a 1983 referendum, so no-one under the age of 54 has voted on this before. For many, the vote was touted as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have their say on women's reproductive rights. Thousands of Irish women travel every year for abortion procedures in Britain. For women who made the reverse trip to vote Yes to repeal the Eighth, the journey held a lot of symbolism. "I think of it every time I've travelled to and from the UK; it's always on my mind," 21-year-old student Bláithín Carroll said before boarding her plane back. Karen Fahy, 26, and Maria Mcentee, 24. travelled back from London to vote against the change. They argue that young women opposed to abortion have been stigmatised for their views in the run-up to the referendum and believe many others like them have kept their opinions quiet. "A lot of people don't want to get involved in the polarising debates online," Maria said. "But you can kind of infer who is voting no, because they'll be the people who don't have repeal stickers on their picture or post things about repeal." The 24-year-old said she had always been "a bit indifferent" to the abortion issue until she saw a campaign video showing a procedure. Currently living in the UK where abortion is legal (except in Northern Ireland), Karen said she had concerns about the proposal presenting abortion as "the first and only choice" for women with unplanned pregnancies. "I don't want to see that coming to Ireland, and I think we can do a lot better," she said. "We should be investing and providing support for women in crisis pregnancies." "In those very difficult situations when there's a very severe disability, we should provide more child benefit and support women in education." Abortion is only currently allowed in Ireland when the woman's life is at risk, and not in cases of rape, incest or foetal-fatal abnormality (FFA). Round trip from Japan Clara Kumagi, a keen repealer, has taken time off work in Tokyo to travel back thousands of miles to cast her vote. She was already on her way back there by Friday afternoon. "I want to live in a country where I feel safe, where I know that I have the autonomy to make decisions about my own body," the 29-year-old said. "For me, the act of travelling was something that I felt was important to do. How many kilometres do Irish women travel every year? For me 10,000km felt like the least I could do." Her student brother also travelled travelling back from Stockholm to vote. Irish men living as far away as Buenos Aires and Africa have posted online about their journeys home. Pro-repeal men have shared their support for the movement using the #MenForYes hashtag. Mother-of-three Amy Fitzgerald, 38, took three flights to return to Ireland from Prince Edward Island in Canada. "There's always people who will need an abortion," she said, reacting to accusations that the proposed new law could lead to abortion "on demand" as a back-up to contraception. The government's proposed abortion bill would allow unrestricted terminations up to 12 weeks, with allowances made afterward on health grounds. "No-one wants one until you actually need one. No little girl dreams of having one," Amy said. Irish actress Lauryn Canny, 19, who travelled back from LA to vote, said that that concern over abortion access loomed over her teenage years. She recalls being "constantly terrified" of the risks of having sex while growing up. "I remember one of my friends said: Well if I got pregnant, I would just commit suicide. I couldn't tell my Mam," she says. "I have two baby sisters now, and they're six and seven, and I just really hope that when they are growing up they feel safer and feel like they're growing up in a more compassionate Ireland that will care for them if they're in crisis." Lauryn was able to afford flights after her grandmother organised a "whip-round" to raise money. Student Sarah Gillespie, 21, travelled back from the US to vote - but for the other side. She felt so strongly about the issue that she cut short her time studying abroad in Pennsylvania to return to Ireland to canvas for a No vote. She describes herself as a feminist, but believes the rights of the unborn should be considered too. Having previously voted for marriage equality, she wants people to recognise that the issues are different, and that No voters were not simply voting according to strict religious beliefs. "I would never judge or get angry at a woman who went abroad, I just wish there was better support here," Sarah said. She hoped that, whatever the result, people respected the outcome. Unlike in other countries, most eligible voters outside Ireland had to physically travel back to cast their ballot. Only those who have lived away for less than 18 months were legally entitled to take part in the referendum. Because of that rule, Oxford University lecturer Jennifer Cassidy was ineligible to vote - but campaigned for repeal. Those ineligible used the #BeMyYes hashtag to encourage support for Yes. "I understand it to an extent - Ireland has a huge global community and policing that would be difficult," she said. "But it seems illogical and counter-intuitive to the Irish narrative, which is one of emigrating for a while and then coming home." Oxford University was one of several UK institutions whose student unions offered to help subsidise travel. Under the current system, people are not routinely removed from Ireland's electoral register, so polling cards were being sent to the family homes of emigrants who were no longer eligible. It was feared that if the result was close, people may have complained about the #HomeToVote movement and whether everyone was actually legal to vote.

देश के आठवें संशोधन को निरस्त करना है या नहीं, इस पर शुक्रवार के जनमत संग्रह में दुनिया भर के आयरिश मतदाता अपना वोट डालने के लिए लौटे। आयरिश संविधान में यह खंड गर्भ में जन्मे बच्चे को समान अधिकार देकर गर्भपात को गैरकानूनी बनाता है।


Rhondda: Porth Park grass fire out as crews kept busy

Summary: South Wales firefighters say a large grass blaze in the Rhondda is out, but other small fires have continued to keep crews busy overnight.

A large area of scrubland above Porth Park burned for much of Saturday, but was out shortly after 21:00 BST. South Wales Fire and Rescue Service also dealt with several others, including a deliberate grass fire at Tonyrefail Comprehensive School. About 15 small grass fires were also reported overnight in the Swansea area. However, Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service said there were no major incidents. No grass fires were reported overnight in north Wales. Across Wales, nearly 200 fires have been tackled since March, with many started deliberately.

साउथ वेल्स के अग्निशामकों का कहना है कि रोंडा में एक बड़ी घास की आग बुझ गई है, लेकिन अन्य छोटी आग ने चालक दल को रात भर व्यस्त रखा है।


Our deep need for monsters that lurk in the dark

Summary: Sea monsters are the stuff of legend - lurking not just in the depths of the oceans, but also the darker corners of our minds. What is it that draws us to these creatures, asks Mary Colwell.

"This inhuman place makes human monsters," wrote Stephen King in his novel The Shining. Many academics agree that monsters lurk in the deepest recesses, they prowl through our ancestral minds appearing in the half-light, under the bed - or at the bottom of the sea. "They don't really exist, but they play a huge role in our mindscapes, in our dreams, stories, nightmares, myths and so on," says Matthias Classen, assistant professor of literature and media at Aarhus University in Denmark, who studies monsters in literature. "Monsters say something about human psychology, not the world." One Norse legend talks of the Kraken, a deep sea creature that was the curse of fishermen. If sailors found a place with many fish, most likely it was the monster that was driving them to the surface. If it saw the ship it would pluck the hapless sailors from the boat and drag them to a watery grave. This terrifying legend occupied the mind and pen of the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson too. In his short 1830 poem The Kraken he wrote: "Below the thunders of the upper deep, / Far far beneath in the abysmal sea, / His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep / The Kraken sleepeth." The deeper we travel into the ocean, the deeper we delve into our own psyche. And when we can go no further - there lurks the Kraken. Most likely the Kraken is based on a real creature - the giant squid. The huge mollusc takes pride of place as the personification of the terrors of the deep sea. Sailors would have encountered it at the surface, dying, and probably thrashing about. It would have made a weird sight, "about the most alien thing you can imagine," says Edith Widder, CEO at the Ocean Research and Conservation Association. "It has eight lashing arms and two slashing tentacles growing straight out of its head and it's got serrated suckers that can latch on to the slimiest of prey and it's got a parrot beak that can rip flesh. It's got an eye the size of your head, it's got a jet propulsion system and three hearts that pump blue blood." Find out more The giant squid continued to dominate stories of sea monsters with the famous 1870 novel, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne. Verne's submarine fantasy is a classic story of puny man against a gigantic squid. The monster needed no embellishment - this creature was scary enough, and Verne incorporated as much fact as possible into the story, says Emily Alder from Edinburgh Napier University. "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and another contemporaneous book, Victor Hugo's Toilers of the Sea, both tried to represent the giant squid as they might have been actual zoological animals, much more taking the squid as a biological creature than a mythical creature." It was a given that the squid was vicious and would readily attack humans given the chance. That myth wasn't busted until 2012, when Edith Widder and her colleagues were the first people to successfully film giant squid under water and see first-hand the true character of the monster of the deep. They realised previous attempts to film squid had failed because the bright lights and noisy thrusters on submersibles had frightened them away. By quietening down the engines and using bioluminescence to attract it, they managed to see this most extraordinary animal in its natural habitat. It serenely glided into view, its body rippled with metallic colours of bronze and silver. Its huge, intelligent eye watched the submarine warily as it delicately picked at the bait with its beak. It was balletic and mesmeric. It could not have been further from the gnashing, human-destroying creature of myth and literature. In reality this is a gentle giant that is easily scared and pecks at its food. Another giant squid lies peacefully in the Natural History Museum in London, in the Spirit Room, where it is preserved in a huge glass case. In 2004 it was caught in a fishing net off the Falkland Islands and died at the surface. The crew immediately froze its body and it was sent to be preserved in the museum by the Curator of Molluscs, Jon Ablett. It is called Archie, an affectionate short version of its Latin name Architeuthis dux. It is the longest preserved specimen of a giant squid in the world. "It really has brought science to life for many people," says Ablett. "Sometimes I feel a bit overshadowed by Archie, most of my work is on slugs and snails but unfortunately most people don't want to talk about that!" And so today we can watch Archie's graceful relative on film and stare Archie herself (she is a female) eye-to-eye in a museum. But have we finally slain the monster of the deep? Now we know there is nothing to be afraid of, can the Kraken finally be laid to rest? Probably not says Classen. "We humans are afraid of the strangest things. They don't need to be realistic. There's no indication that enlightenment and scientific progress has banished the monsters from the shadows of our imaginations. We will continue to be afraid of very strange things, including probably sea monsters." Indeed we are. The Kraken made a fearsome appearance in the blockbuster series Pirates of the Caribbean. It forced Captain Jack Sparrow to face his demons in a terrifying face-to-face encounter. Pirates needed the monstrous Kraken, nothing else would do. Or, as the German film director Werner Herzog put it, "What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams." Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

मैरी कोलवेल पूछती हैं कि समुद्री राक्षस पौराणिक कथाओं का सामान हैं-न केवल महासागरों की गहराई में, बल्कि हमारे दिमाग के गहरे कोनों में भी छिपे हुए हैं। यह क्या है जो हमें इन प्राणियों की ओर आकर्षित करता है।


Could a text message save thousands of fishermen's lives?

Summary: We can't stop nature when it unleashes its fury in the form of volcanoes, earthquakes, storms and avalanches, but we can use technology to warn us of imminent danger - and save lives.

By Gabriella MulliganTechnology of Business reporter As the sun sets over Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake, tens of thousands of fishermen ready themselves to head out on the water for the night, fishing mostly for tilapia and Nile perch. As they push off, they know they are risking their lives - some of them may never be seen again. Lake Victoria - a lake so big it straddles Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya - is notorious for its deadly storms. At this time of year, strong winds, rain, lightning and huge waves are a regular occurrence. Up to 5,000 fishermen lose their lives each year, says the International Red Cross. "The storms usually start at midnight and last until around 6am," says Amone Ponsiano, officer in charge at the Marine Police, Nkose Island, Uganda. "This is the exact time when the fishermen are very busy, collecting their nets. It's very dangerous and we have a lot of people disappearing." Recently, one man's boat was smashed on the rocks as he tried to escape a violent storm, but Mr Ponsiano's team managed to fish him out of the water in the nick of time. But a new early warning system developed by an international team of scientists and technologists could end up saving hundreds of lives. Simply put, real-time satellite data from Nasa is applied to a statistical model and used to forecast the probability of an extreme thunderstorm. This probability is translated into a simple warning message delivered to fishermen via text message, Twitter or WhatsApp. Prof Wim Thiery, lead researcher on the project - a joint venture between Brussels-based university Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Switzerland's ETH Zurich university, Nasa, and CodeForAfrica - says there is a "great potential" for new technologies, in particular machine learning, to improve the prediction of extreme weather. As erratic weather becomes more common due to climate change, such tech will become increasingly important to make us "less vulnerable", he says. "Just like with the traditional weather forecast, there will always be misses and false alarms," he admits. "We are dealing with a deterministic chaos system, so you can't predict everything. "But we clearly see that with time, our ability to forecast extreme events improves, thanks to better weather models, better supercomputers, and innovative techniques." Extreme weather isn't only a mortal peril in Africa. In 2014, Stanford engineering student Ahmad Wani found himself marooned for a week awaiting rescue from extreme flooding in Kashmir, India. The floods claimed hundreds of lives. Since the incident, he has focused his engineering skills on developing a machine learning platform aimed at predicting the impact of natural disasters. Better predictions would enable urban communities to prepare better, he believes. Teaming up with two of his student colleagues, Mr Wani co-founded One Concern to tackle the issue. "By 2030, 60% of the world's population will live in cities," he says, "with 1.4 billion facing the highest risk of exposure to a natural disaster. "These are sobering statistics, but the good news is outcomes can be changed. By having the insights to better prepare for, respond to, recover from and mitigate against disasters, leaders can reduce the risk that their people face," argues Mr Wani. Analysing huge amounts of data and developing predictive models has helped them advise communities on how to improve their disaster response plans. For example, one client had stored supplies for shelter, water, and first aid in a community-owned building they had planned to use as a shelter and relief staging point in the event of an earthquake. But One Concern's simulations showed that this building stood a high chance of being significantly damaged, so was unsuitable for the role. The emergency response plan needed rethinking; the building needed strengthening. The company is currently working with Los Angeles and San Francisco on how to disaster-proof their cities, and aims to roll out its platform globally. "We are on a mission to save lives and livelihoods and believe in the power of benevolent artificial intelligence to help do so," Mr Wani says. Colorado-based Avalanche Lab believes that even simple tech can save lives. About 150 people are killed by avalanches every year. But with two thirds of the world's population owning a mobile, half of which are smartphones, Avalanche Lab thinks a phone app could prove the most effective avalanche prevention and rescue tool in the winter survival kit. The AvyLab "crowdmaps" avalanche data and makes it accessible to those out in the snow. Users record snow observations, pin notes on a map, and share the data with the community. Meteorological information is also provided via the app, with the aim of helping users make informed decisions about venturing out. "A phone app for avalanche safety is not a 'magic bullet' for decreasing avalanche incidents," says AvyLab app creator Michael Murphy, "but rather a way for creating a more informed and connected general public, which will make a difference in decreasing avalanche fatalities." More Technology of Business Tech to warn of impending disaster is being applied around the world to save lives, limit infrastructure damage and aid emergency services. In Mexico, for example, start-up Grillo is installing $50 (£37) seismic sensors along the coast to give early warning of impending earthquakes to residents via a smartphone app. Such warnings may only give residents an extra 90 seconds to prepare, but that's enough potentially to save lives, the founders believe. Tech may not be able to control Mother Nature, but at least it is helping us prepare for an unpredictable world.

हम प्रकृति को तब नहीं रोक सकते जब वह ज्वालामुखी, भूकंप, तूफान और हिमस्खलन के रूप में अपना प्रकोप फैलाए, लेकिन हम प्रौद्योगिकी का उपयोग हमें आसन्न खतरे के बारे में चेतावनी देने के लिए कर सकते हैं-और जीवन बचा सकते हैं।


In pictures: Framing the Mafia

Summary: "These pictures still cause me pain," says Letizia Battaglia, who during her career in Italy took some of the best-known photographs of the surge of Mafia violence in Sicily between the 1970s and 1990s. The BBC's Julian Miglierini talked to her about her work: WARNING: Some of these photos contain graphic content including pictures of the victims' bodies

This is one of Battaglia's best-known pictures: it shows the scene soon after the murder of the then governor of Sicily Piersanti Mattarella by the Mafia. His body is being held by his brother, the current President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella. "It's striking how a picture can change meaning over time: this photograph is not only about the murdered man anymore, but about his brother," says Battaglia. "For me it has become a symbol of hope. Today, the president of our country has the fight against Mafia inside him, forever." "I always used a wide lens, which meant that for taking a good picture you need to be really up close," Battaglia says. Sometimes too close. The man in this picture is Leoluca Bagarella - convicted of Mafia crimes and dozens of murders. Battaglia was there while he was being led away by police after being arrested in 1980. "He was very angry and when he passed in front of me, he threw a strong kick at me. I actually fell backwards just after I took this picture." Battaglia is also known for her work photographing scenes of daily life in Palermo. "This is just a kid who was playing with a plastic gun at a poor neighbourhood in Palermo, Santa Chiara. He was pretending to be a killer. "For the Day of the Dead, little boys would get guns from their relatives - but a gun is a horrible thing. When I worked in politics in Sicily, I wrote a manifesto calling for people to stop giving toy guns to little boys. It has to be said: basta (enough)." In this photograph, a man lies dead after being killed in a Mafia homicide. "I took several pictures at this location, but this sounded like the most 'silent' one, with the car with the Palermo licence plate, that typical Sicilian floor tiles, the blanket... you never get used to seeing children, women and men murdered, every day, everywhere. That was how it was like in Palermo. Like a civil war. I have my archives full of murdered people." Battaglia focused also on the environments around the murder scenes - the relatives who came to see their dead loved ones, the crowds that would gather behind the police cordons. In this photograph, the son of one victim is being held by two Italian carabinieri as he tries to approach the scene. Often, dozens of people would surround the bodies, Battaglia remembers. But there was also a certain "normality" to it all. "There were kids who would be watching this while having an ice cream." This is a picture that Battaglia took of judge Cesare Terranova after he was murdered by the Mafia in an ambush in 1979. His chest is covered in blood - which turns from red to black in Battaglia's work. "I've always taken pictures in black and white - I would have never accepted the red of blood; I didn't want to produce sensationalist photos, I wanted to honour this man. "I'm moved by that little hand laying on the seat, near all the glass. These were people who did their job right, and that's why they were killed." This photo was taken during the infamous "trial of the 114" in 1978, during which 114 Mafia members were put on trial. While the men in the back rows covered their faces when they noticed Battaglia taking pictures - "Maybe they thought they would be able to go back to their underground, criminal lives" - the man in the front, Gaetano Fidanzati, looks defiantly at the photographer. "He was the powerful capo (boss) - he didn't need to cover his face." This picture shows anti-Mafia Judge Giovanni Falcone attending the funeral of Palermo's police prefect Carlo Alberto dalla Chiesa, murdered in 1982. Ten years later, Falcone himself, his wife and three of his bodyguards were killed in an attack with explosives that marked a turning point in public sentiment against the Mafia. "I loved Giovanni Falcone", Battaglia says. "He was someone who wanted to save us." When she took these pictures, she says, "I would have never imagined that one day he would be killed himself. We still don't know who did it, and we're still calling for justice." The rise of Mafia-related violence in the early 1990s galvanised opposition to the organised crime syndicate's stronghold on Sicilian society. There were several anti-Mafia demonstrations in Palermo, like the one this little girl is attending. "I'm normally not very good at photographing the pain and the rage of the anti-Mafia movement", Battaglia says. "But this girl is a symbol of the future, of the desire to fight against the Mafia." Battaglia, now 82, has just published an anthology of her work and the Maxxi museum in Rome is hosting a major exhibition from late November. She still lives in Palermo and closely follows current affairs. "The battle against the Mafia continues. Sometimes I say, 'We'll never make it'. And sometimes I think 'No, we should continue towards victory'. I will not see the victory myself - but I hope that this fight will continue to be fought by my grandchildren - and my great-grandchildren." All photographs © Letizia Battaglia from the book Anthology, published by Drago.

लेटिज़िया बटाग्लिया कहती हैं, "ये तस्वीरें अभी भी मुझे दर्द देती हैं", जिन्होंने इटली में अपने करियर के दौरान 1970 और 1990 के दशक के बीच सिसिली में माफिया हिंसा के उछाल की कुछ सबसे प्रसिद्ध तस्वीरें लीं। बीबीसी के जूलियन मिग्लेरिनी ने उनसे अपने काम के बारे में बात कीः चेतावनीः इनमें से कुछ तस्वीरों में पीड़ितों के शवों की तस्वीरों सहित ग्राफिक सामग्री है।


Local elections 2021: How do Essex councils spend your money?

Summary: Local elections will be held in Essex on Thursday 6 May.

People across Essex can cast their ballot in the county council elections, with several district and borough councils and two unitary authorities. Local authorities are funded by a variety of sources, including council tax, government grants and other income, like parking charges. Below is how a representative £100 of your money is spent by these councils. Essex County Council It serves a population of almost 1.5 million people, but does not have responsibility for Thurrock or Southend. It spends more than £2bn a year on things like education, road maintenance, social care and public libraries. Full details of candidates for Essex County Council can be found on its website. Southend-on-Sea Borough Council One of Essex's two unitary authorities, it is responsible for education, social care and libraries like the county council, but also things like bin collections, parks, and local planning applications. It serves a population of about 183,000 and spends more than £140m a year. Full details of candidates for Southend-on-Sea Borough Council can be found on its website. Thurrock Council Another Essex unitary authority, it serves a population of more than 170,000 and spends more than £111m. Full details of candidates for Thurrock Council can be found on its website. Basildon Borough Council People in several districts and boroughs will be voting in the county council elections but will also elect councillors to their local council, which is responsible for things like bin collections, parks, public housing and local planning applications. Basildon borough, which includes Billericay and Wickford, has a population of around 189,000 and its council has a budget of almost £30m. Full details of candidates for Basildon Borough Council can be found on its website. Brentwood Borough Council It serves a population of about 77,000 people with a budget of more than £9m. Full details of candidates for Brentwood Borough Council can be found on its website. Castle Point Borough Council It has a budget of about £12m to serve a population of more than 90,000 people, providing services such as bin collections, leisure centres and housing. Full details of candidates for Castle Point Borough Council can be found on its website. Colchester Borough Council It provides services such as car parking, museums and planning for almost 200,000 residents with a budget of about £95m. Full details of candidates for Colchester Borough Council can be found on its website. Epping Forest District Council It has a budget of about £70m for services like licensing, planning, and bin collections for more than 130,000 residents. Full details of candidates for Epping Forest District Council can be found on its website. Harlow District Council It serves 87,000 residents with a budget of about £16m for services such as parks, housing and parking. Full details of candidates for Harlow District Council can be found on its website. Rochford District Council It provides services including recycling, leisure, and fly-tipping clear-up for about 86,000 people with a £30m budget. Full details of candidates for Rochford District Council can be found on its website. Across Essex, voters will also be polled on their choice for the next police, fire, and crime commissioner. Click here to see the candidates. Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk

एसेक्स में स्थानीय चुनाव गुरुवार 6 मई को होंगे।


Met arrest 480 in London crackdown on suspected thieves

Summary: Nearly 500 people have been arrested in a Metropolitan Police crackdown on thieves who target people's phones and other valuables.

Dawn raids targeted suspected thieves with 7,500 police officers out across all London boroughs in the operation. Personal theft has risen 14.4% over the past year, according to latest Metropolitan Police figures. The rise is largely down to a surge in mobile phone phone theft, Scotland Yard said.

लोगों के फोन और अन्य कीमती सामानों को निशाना बनाने वाले चोरों पर मेट्रोपॉलिटन पुलिस की कार्रवाई में लगभग 500 लोगों को गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


Minister injured in accident

Summary: Labour minister Mervyn Silva was airlifted to Colombo after he met with an accident in Aralaganwila, Polonnaruwa district.

Chairman of Kelaniya Pradesheeya Sabha, Seevali Kelanithilake, has succumbed to injuries, hospital authorities said. Minister Silva’s private secretary, Kadawatha Amal, and another injured were airlifted to Colombo together with the minister. The controversial minister has sustained injuries in his leg, Dehiattakandiya hospital authorities said. The minister was travelling to Dehiattakandiya from Colombo to organise ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party’s (SLFP) May Day celebrations.

पोलोनारूवा जिले के अरलागनविला में एक दुर्घटना के बाद श्रम मंत्री मर्विन सिल्वा को कोलंबो ले जाया गया।


Election 2015: How close are you to the political centre?

Summary: There is a particular piece of hallowed turf which all politicians like to think they are standing on. It is a Goldilocks place where everything seems just right, where their views and the people's coincide, where harmony rules.

By Andrew BomfordBBC Radio 4's World at One It is a place where elections are won, and as we enter the final straight to the 7 May election, all political leaders seem to be stampeding for the spot. They call it the centre-ground. But according to new research, based on the British Social Attitudes survey, the centre ground is always moving. How close are you to the political centre? Answer the five official survey questions below - asked almost every year since 1986 - and see how your views compare to the rest of the population. You will find out how close you are to the current political centre or whether you are a closer match to the 'centre' in previous years. The results don't imply you should vote for any particular party - instead they reflect where you stand on economic issues compared to the rest of the British population, as surveyed by NatCen Social Research. Try the quiz Users of the BBC news app tap here to take a quiz that will tell you how close you are to the political centre-ground. Tony Blair was someone who found the centre ground - that political sweet spot - and pitched his party's tent firmly on it in 1997. "It's a vision which is right in the centre-ground of British politics today," he told a crowd in Manchester back then. "And if it has one value at its core, it is the simple British value of fairness." Fast forward to 2015, and his successor, Ed Miliband, claims he is occupying the same piece of priceless political real estate. "We're a party firmly in the centre-ground of politics," he said in January. "And this is where I think the centre-ground is: people want a society where, yes, people who do well are properly rewarded, but also where there is fairness." But wait, because David Cameron says he has already raised his flag there. "The real common ground, the real centre-ground of British politics right now, is who has got the answers to making sure Britain competes and succeeds in the global race? That's the question which wasn't answered by Labour, which is being answered by us," he told the BBC last year. And who is this, who is also staking his claim to the Elysian Fields of centre-ground politics? "We are the only party able to build a stronger economy and a fairer society too. Liberal Democrats: take this message out to the country - our mission is anchoring Britain to the centre-ground," Nick Clegg told his party conference in 2013. The centre-ground is starting to look awfully crowded. And surely they cannot all be standing on the very same spot? This election season is different because we have insurgent parties of the right - UKIP, and the left - the Greens and SNP, who seem to be shaking up the old political order. But all successful politicians know that in our political system, elections are actually won in the centre-ground. So the crucial question is this - where is the centre? A new analysis by academics at Essex University, using more than a thousand pieces of polling and survey data, has tracked the political centre over the last 50 years. They have done this by mapping public attitudes to a wide range of issues such as tax and spending, welfare, business, the monarchy, and abortion and placing them on a left-right scale. Much of the data comes from the annual NatCen British Social Attitudes survey which has been tracking public attitudes for more than 30 years. Next week NatCen is publishing the results of the 2014 survey. And here is the thing: the political centre - where, en masse, the views of the electorate generally coincide - is, as already mentioned, always moving. No wonder politicians spend so much time looking for it. It is currently moving leftwards politically, according to the research. It has been heading in this direction since the last general election in 2010. And here is the other thing: it always moves in the opposite direction to the policy programme of the government. In 1979, a milestone year in British politics, the data shows that the political centre was at the most right-wing point it has ever reached. But as soon as Margaret Thatcher was elected, the centre started reacting against the direction of policy by moving to the left, and continued to do so until the mid 1990s. Although the voters were moving leftwards, the Labour Party was seen as even further left, and it was not until 1997, when Tony Blair had abandoned the extremes of left-wing Labour policy and moved his party to the centre, that they won. But no party can afford to rest there in the centre-ground, because it does not stay in the same place for long. In 1997 it started moving rightwards and continued to do so until 2010, when the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition won power. "The electorate tends to move in the opposite direction to the policy trajectory of the incumbent government," Dr John Bartle told politics students at Essex University, as he presented his research. "If Labour are in power and they increase public spending; that will shift the electorate to the right. If the Conservatives are in power and they reduce public spending and they reduce average tax levels; that will drive the electorate to the left." One of the students spotted the quirkiness of the findings. "It seems very counter-intuitive," said Franklin Murray. "You'd expect that if parties promised certain policies and that's what they were voted in for, and then performed on them, that the electorate would be satisfied." Instead it seems, oddly, that by delivering on their programmes, parties sow the seeds of their own destruction. Some political scientists have described the centre-ground as like a thermostat. If things get too hot under Labour - too much government - the centre wants to cool things down and move to the right. Equally, if things are too cold under the Conservatives - inequality rises for instance - then the centre moves left to a warmer policy of more welfare. So when parties hit that sweet spot on the centre-ground, why do not they just stay there, and keep in tune with the electorate? "Most voters are in the centre-ground. Most party members and most MPs are not," Dr Tom Quinn, one of John Bartle's colleagues at Essex University, told BBC Radio 4's World at One. "When you see parties which track closely to the centre-ground like Blair's New Labour, it causes internal tensions. So there were always problems between Blair and the trade unions, and Blair and the Brown-ites. When David Cameron moved the Conservatives to the centre it caused problems with the Conservative right. "So a party might do what it needs to do in order to win an election, but once it's in government some of its supporters might see it as time to start delivering on its core ideological promises. So there's always a temptation to start catering for those less centrist elements." Britain has a particularly rich set of data to work from going back more than 50 years, but similar analysis has been done in other countries such as the US, Canada, Germany, France and Spain. In all these countries the same model seems to apply, according to the researchers. Most of the time the political centre is moving in opposition to the government of the day, but sometimes a strong political leader can actually shift the political centre by successfully persuading the public that a new paradigm is needed. Peter Kellner, the President of YouGov, is a veteran political commentator and pollster. He believes this is why 1979 was such an important year in political history because of the political chaos earlier under Labour and the subsequent actions of Margaret Thatcher. "She might have suffered from being right wing, but what she managed to persuade people was that there was a new sensible centre-ground which happened to be to the right of where British politics had previously been," he said. "In that sense Margaret Thatcher was more of a game changer than Tony Blair because she explicitly moved the centre - and the fact that her reforms were accepted by Tony Blair demonstrates that." "Tony Blair though did not move the centre. He accepted the centre he bequeathed and took his party to that territory." So what are the lessons for the 2015 election? If the current centre-ground is moving leftwards, it ought to benefit Ed Miliband and Labour. But Ed is not ahead. The last time the political centre was at this point on the left-right scale, in 2005, Labour won the election with a working majority. The polls suggest Labour will struggle to achieve this in May. "The policy mood has moved left, but Labour needs to make sure it hasn't moved even further to the left. It can only take advantage if it stays in the centre," said John Bartle. "But," he added, "Labour has another more serious problem. And that is perceptions of its competence. The Labour Party lost its reputation for economic competence in the period from 2008 to 2010." And Peter Kellner believes that Ed Miliband's problems are also more personal. "David Cameron is seen as further away to the right from the centre than Ed Miliband is to the left. And yet David Cameron is regarded as a far more capable leader." He adds: "The left-right axis is only one of a number of judgements that people make. They're also making a judgement on the basis of competence and character, and Ed Miliband loses more on this than he gains by being closer to the centre." Those behind the research also believe that it vindicates our democratic model. They say because the policy mood is almost always moderate, it punishes politicians who become too extreme. "In this democracy you really do govern," said John Bartle. "You as an individual are irrelevant, but collectively the electorate does ensure that government overtime, broadly speaking, pursues the policy direction that the electorate wants."

यहाँ पवित्र मैदान का एक विशेष टुकड़ा है जिस पर सभी राजनेता यह सोचना पसंद करते हैं कि वे खड़े हैं। यह एक गोल्डीलॉक्स जगह है जहाँ सब कुछ सही लगता है, जहाँ उनके विचार और लोगों के विचार मेल खाते हैं, जहाँ सद्भाव शासन करता है।


Rapper Chipmunk releases new compilation

Summary: Chipmunk has released a free 20-track online mixtape.

Just For The Fun Of It, made available through his website, features remixes of Rihanna's Rude Boy, Drake's Forever and Beyonce's Sweet Dreams. Writing on his Twitter the 19-year-old said the release was his "[favourite] features, freestyles and radio rips." The download mixtape also features contributions from Tinchy Stryder, Wiley, N-Dubz and Sugababes' Jade Ewen. Chipmunk released his debut album I Am Chipmunk last year.

चिपमंक ने एक मुफ्त 20-ट्रैक ऑनलाइन मिक्सटेप जारी किया है।


Keir Hardie: Wales' 'first World War One objector'

Summary: While thousands were fighting for their country in World War One, hundreds in south Wales were fighting a struggle of their own as conscription threatened to force them to join a cause they did not believe in.

By Chris WoodBBC News In 1917, communities were split over whether locals should support the conflict. Seven men who refused to take part died in jail, while Labour's first Welsh MP Keir Hardie was said to have been left a "a broken man" after he failed to stop the conflict. Now, new documentaries tell the story of anti-war campaigners and the lengths some went to to avoid service. The project by the Made in Tredegar film company took researchers to places such as the Gwent Archives, Ebbw Vale and Cyfarthfa Castle museum, Merthyr Tydfil. But they found the story of conscientious objection in south Wales could be traced back to Newhouse, Scotland in 1856 - where James Keir Hardie was born. From the age of 10, he was working underground in a local colliery to support his family. "People often wonder why he took Wales to his heart but it could have been an incident where a pit shaft collapsed and he was trapped," said the project's Alan Terrell. "Those above threw rocks down and smashed the cage before lowering buckets down to rescue the men. "But Hardie had gone to sleep in a corner and it was only because his mother was at the top, frantic, they sent someone down to find him." Mr Terrell said "this camaraderie stuck with him through his life" and while serving as an MP in London, he would ask that condolences were sent to Wales following pit disasters. In 1894, he attacked the monarchy after Parliament refused to extend sympathies to the families of 251 people killed in a colliery explosion in Cilfynydd as part of a message to the King. This contributed to him losing his seat, with the mayor of Merthyr Tydfil then asking Hardie to stand to represent the area. He was duly elected Wales' first independent Labour party MP in 1900 and championed the working man - wearing their Sunday best of tweed jacket and deer stalker to Parliament, rather than the expected top hat and tails. Mr Terrell said when war broke out in 1914, support in south Wales for the cause was "about 50-50". "There were those loyal to king and country, but in areas such as Merthyr and Aberdare, where there was a strong labour presence, socialist background, people thought 'it's not our war'," he said. "They thought we shouldn't be fighting, it became religion versus politics and it was a melting pot here." At the heart of the opposition campaigning was Hardie, with some people calling "get the German out" when he spoke. He had opposed conflict his entire life but died in 1915, aged 59, a year before conscription came in for men, aged 18 to 41. "He was anti-war, the first objector without knowing it," added Mr Terrell. "He was very passionate about not going to war - he recognised a lot of people would make a lot of money from it, selling arms, uniforms, horses. "Hardie saw it as a profiteering exercise as well as a loss of men. He worked himself to death, died of pneumonia and was a broken man as he couldn't stop it." While military conscription for coal workers did not come in until 1918, there were many other men eligible to fight. Every week, the Police Gazette listed hundreds of men wanted for service, with about 900 conscientious objectors from Wales. Of these, 25 went on the run to work for the Forestry Commission in the Brecon Beacons, Powys, under false names. The Merthyr Pioneer reported about a pit boy called Aneurin Bevan, 20, who was excused from duty following a tribunal as he had nystagmus - an involuntary movement of the eyes - in June 1918. Documents also detailed the case of Sidney and Henry Solomon, Orthodox Jews from Crumlin, Caerphilly county. They made a vow to their dad on his death bed they would not take any part in the war - and were in jail long after it ended. But it was not just the working classes who refused to fight - the research also found examples of middle class people excused from service. "There was a Newport landlord, who owned £14,000 worth of property. He got off maybe because he owned so many businesses, half of the town would've fallen flat," Mr Terrell said. "Another case was of a man who wound down his dad's undertaking business and became a special constable so he didn't have to go." Swansea University's Dr Aled Eirug suggested it would have been difficult for many people to fight because of religious beliefs and the commandment "thou shalt not kill". He said he would have found it "very difficult" to join up himself, but added: "My father was a conscientious objector in the Second World War and my grandfather was a conscientious objector in the First World War, so you could say that the family has form." Falklands veteran Simon Weston said: "The thought of killing someone, even though I joined the Army and picked up a rifle and was prepared to, it fills me with horror now, and that's why we should not rush to judge people." Mr Terrell described the period between July 1914 and November 1918 as "one of the darkest of human history" when "a country turned on its own population" for refusing to fight. But he said the suffering was not totally in vein, with "mistakes rectified" when World War Two broke out in 1939.

जब हजारों लोग प्रथम विश्व युद्ध में अपने देश के लिए लड़ रहे थे, दक्षिण वेल्स में सैकड़ों लोग अपने स्वयं के संघर्ष से लड़ रहे थे क्योंकि जबरन भर्ती ने उन्हें एक ऐसे कारण में शामिल होने के लिए मजबूर करने की धमकी दी थी जिसमें वे विश्वास नहीं करते थे।


Christopher Howarth trial: Abuse accused priest 'paid boys'

Summary: A priest accused of sexually abusing two boys told one of them he was "preparing" him for a girlfriend, a court has heard.

The Reverend Christopher Howarth, of Rocks Park Road in Uckfield, East Sussex, is accused of 20 offences against the boys, now aged 19 and 20. Hove Trial Centre heard the former teacher paid money to the boys for his own sexual gratification. He denies 19 of the charges which include six counts of sexual assault. However, he has pleaded guilty to one count of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. At the opening of his trial, the jury heard he is alleged to have told one of the boys: "I am simply preparing you for a girlfriend." The offences, including seven counts of sexual activity with a child, are alleged to have taken place between 2004 and 2012. The case continues.

एक अदालत ने सुना है कि दो लड़कों के यौन शोषण के आरोपी एक पादरी ने उनमें से एक को बताया कि वह उसे एक प्रेमिका के लिए "तैयार" कर रहा था।


Good day, bad day

Summary: So, where are we with a raft of Scottish results in? Good day for the SNP, good day for Labour, poor day for the Tories, simply miserable for the Liberal Democrats.

Brian TaylorPolitical editor, Scotland The final political verdict on the day may rest with two key facts. Who has the most councillors (it's currently the SNP)? Who has the biggest share of the vote in local government? (It's currently Labour.) Other council results tend to reinforce that picture - with the full verdict in Glasgow and Edinburgh still to emerge.

तो, हम स्कॉटिश परिणामों के साथ कहाँ हैं? एसएनपी के लिए अच्छा दिन, लेबर के लिए अच्छा दिन, टोरी के लिए बुरा दिन, लिबरल डेमोक्रेट्स के लिए बस दयनीय।


Jamie Brown death: Boy, 17, in court over Halifax stabbing

Summary: A 17-year-old boy has appeared in court charged with the murder of a teenager who was stabbed to death in Halifax.

Jamie Brown, also 17, died after being attacked on East Park Road in the Ovenden area of the town on 27 October. A 17-year-old appeared at Leeds Magistrates' Court earlier charged with his murder. Five other youths arrested in connection with the stabbing remain on police bail. The 17-year-old was remanded in custody and is due to appear at Bradford Crown Court on Tuesday. More Yorkshire stories

हैलिफ़ैक्स में चाकू मारकर हत्या किए गए एक किशोर की हत्या के आरोप में एक 17 वर्षीय लड़का अदालत में पेश हुआ है।


The Bitcoin bubble

Summary: Yesterday afternoon I looked at my mobile phone and found that I had $121 (£79) in it. A couple of hours later though, I only had $79 (£51). But by this morning my phone told me I had $93 (£60) to spend.

Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter Actually, what I had was 0.53 in Bitcoin, the virtual currency whose wild gyrations over the last 24 hours have raised questions about its long-term viability. I got my Bitcoin a couple of weeks ago, because I was making a radio piece about the currency. My mission then was to work out how easy it was to get and then spend Bitcoins - and I eventually ended up with a rather expensive pizza, ordered via an American site and delivered by a London chain. The whole cumbersome process of getting and spending the currency invented in 2009 by a mysterious Japanese (or possibly American) man called Satashi Nakamoto convinced me of one thing - that Bitcoin was not yet much use except as a means of speculation. The only reason to get hold of Bitcoins right now is because you think they might be worth a lot more in a few hours or days. Now if you bought into the market back in January when you could get one Bitcoin for $15 (£10) you'd have been pretty smug yesterday when the price hit a new high of $260 (£170). But if you were one of those who found out about Bitcoin from the mass of recent media and bought at yesterday's peak, then you've learned a valuable lesson - like tulips in the 17th Century and London houses in 1988, prices can go down as well as up. There have been all sorts of explanations of what caused yesterday's crash - from a problem at the main exchange to a strange incident in which someone called Bitcoinbillionaire apparently started giving away large sums on the social news site Reddit. A likelier reason is our old friends Greed and Fear combining to inflate and then depress prices as all those new arrivals crowded into the market. All this talk of a Bitcoin bubble has annoyed the true believers - an interesting mixture of libertarians and cryptographic specialists charmed by the idea of a currency that embodies many of the open and virtually ungoverned principles of the internet itself. They maintain that the key feature of Bitcoin is that the supply can never exceed a certain number - 21 million - and that it has recovered from previous crashes when its demise was predicted. What is true is that we are seeing a fascinating experiment in what a currency of the future might look like. But unless and until Bitcoin can be used to buy a sandwich, or be accepted by your friends when you pay them back for a restaurant meal, then it is likely to remain just a playground for geeks and gamblers.

कल दोपहर मैंने अपने मोबाइल फोन को देखा और पाया कि मेरे पास 121 डॉलर (79 पाउंड) हैं। कुछ घंटों बाद, मेरे पास केवल 79 डॉलर (51 पाउंड) थे। लेकिन आज सुबह तक मेरे फोन ने मुझे बताया कि मेरे पास खर्च करने के लिए 93 डॉलर (60 पाउंड) हैं।


Police find 'frightening arsenal' during Manchester bat attack arrest

Summary: A "frightening arsenal" of knives, stun guns and a hatchet was found at the home of a man being arrested over a baseball bat attack, police have said.

The weapons were discovered during a search of the 39-year-old's home in connection with the assault on Byrom Street, Manchester on 30 November. Two knuckledusters, a "zombie knife", three hunting knives, three extendable batons, an air rifle were also found, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said. A 25-year-old woman was also arrested. The pair were arrested after a man was hit with a baseball bat multiple times, fracturing his leg, at about 22:30 GMT on Saturday. A GMP spokesman said a quantity of cocaine and heroin and three passports were also "recovered" from the address. He said both the man and woman were held on suspicion of possession of class A drugs and possession of a prohibited firearm, with the man also being arrested on suspicion of serious assault.

पुलिस ने कहा है कि बेसबॉल बैट हमले के आरोप में गिरफ्तार किए गए एक व्यक्ति के घर से चाकू, स्टन गन और एक कुल्हाड़ी का "भयावह शस्त्रागार" मिला है।


Bloodhound Diary: November date for debut

Summary: A British team is developing a car that will be capable of reaching 1,000mph (1,610km/h). Powered by a rocket bolted to a Eurofighter-Typhoon jet engine, the vehicle will mount an assault on the world land speed record. Bloodhound will be run on Hakskeen Pan in Northern Cape, South Africa, in 2016. Wing Commander Andy Green, the current world land-speed record holder, is writing a diary for BBC News about his experiences working on the Bloodhound project and the team's efforts to inspire national interest in science and engineering.

By Andy GreenWorld Land Speed Record Holder Bloodhound's world debut date has just been announced: we're going to show the car off with a 200-plus mph run on 17 November this year. While we regard 200mph as "slow-speed testing", it's still going to be quite a show. We're aiming to get full reheat engaged on our ex-Eurofighter Typhoon jet engine, but I'll have to be quick on the throttle. About two seconds after reheat lights up, we'll be doing 200mph and accelerating at close to 2g. 2g is the equivalent of 0-60mph in one-point-five seconds. I don't care what car you have in the garage - this is faster. Want to come and watch us run? Get your booking through the 1K Club today. There's a slight disadvantage of finishing our test running in November, as we're going to miss the ideal weather window in South Africa. Rather than press out to our Hakskeen Pan track in the heat of the summer and in the middle of the rainy season, we're taking the locals' advice and waiting until conditions improve. We'll be doing our first batch of high-speed testing - and aiming to set a new supersonic FIA World Land Speed Record - in summer of 2016. Can't wait. As we get closer to running Bloodhound SSC, we're testing more and more of the hardware. June was one of the more fun experiments, using a Jaguar F-Type to check Bloodhound's high-speed chutes. Our prototype chute can, designed to nestle next to Bloodhound SSC's jet engine, was mounted sticking out of the rear windscreen of the Jaguar. While the F-Type can't get to supersonic speeds, its 180-plus mph runs were more than enough for us to test Bloodhound's unique chute system. In fact, it's more difficult to deploy a chute at slower speeds, as there is less airflow to pull the chute out. Even at these (relatively) low speeds, the chute came out with a fair bang, as you can see from the video of the test session. We happened to be testing the chutes in the same week that Nasa conducted a high-speed test of its new Mars lander chute (which sadly failed to deploy). I'm delighted that our chute support crew managed a 100% success rate during our many test runs. Confidence in our team just keeps increasing. The car build continues steadily, if not quite as fast as seen in our latest build video, the 'hyperlapse' (yes, that's a real word, it just sounds made up) of "Building Bloodhound in 90 seconds". The RAF technicians are still busy this month on the rear deltas, which (to my untrained eye) look mostly finished now. It's great to see the back of the car coming together, catching up with the front. The car is looking more complete every day - it's exciting to watch. The RAF guys are also completing the final assembly of Bloodhound's fin. This is one of the most important bits of the car, as it's critical to keeping the vehicle "pointy-end forwards" during each run. Once it's finished, we've already got over 29,000 names to put on the fin, all wanting to go supersonic. Want to join them? Sign up here. We've got a special prize waiting for number 30,000. The fin loads are being very carefully measured, just like every other bit of Bloodhound SSC. In this case, there is a cluster (known as a "rosette") of strain gauges on the inside of the skin, to measure the loads. For Bloodhound's fin, three strain gauges are glued on to the skin in different directions. A load on the fin will either stretch (or compress) the skin, at the same time stretching (or compressing) the tiny filament wires inside the strain gauge. This will very slightly change the thickness of the wires, which in turn very slightly changes their electrical resistance. Measuring this change in electrical resistance will tell us how much load the skin is suffering. This will be monitored on every run. If the strain gauges see an unusually big load, then the computer will immediately illuminate a big shouty red "STRUCTURE" caption in the cockpit. If this ever happens, it's time for me to stop the car so that we can find out what's going on. I'm not expecting this will ever happen, but it's nice to know the system is there to keep an eye on things. The fin is stressed to 2.5 tonnes of working load, with a big safety factor on top. For comparison, if we laid the car on its side, then the Fin could happily support 30 fully grown men standing on it, or 60 11-year olds. It's very strong. Of course, it would normally be impossible to get 60 11-year olds standing still for long enough to test the fin like this, but don't underestimate the power of the Bloodhound Education Programme to enthral young people. The programme continues to achieve amazing results, with some 100,000 students directly engaged over the past year, and many more following the project online. As part of our Education Programme, we've launched a Model Rocket Challenge, to give students all over the world the chance to set their own Guinness world record. Last year, I spent a few days in Brazil, working with the British Embassy to tell Brazilian schools about the Bloodhound programme. I've just heard that they are now planning to set up a Bloodhound schools rocket car competition across the whole of Brazil. I'm more convinced than ever that we're not going to be the first to set a new supersonic world record - a group of school children somewhere in the world is going to get there first! We've also launched another competition, to design the "keys" for the car. One of our REME technicians is going to make the keys and the REME needs creative assistance - yours. Race cars don't have normal keys to start them (possibly because they don't trust the driver not to lose them). Instead, we will have two electrical isolating keys on the outside of the car, so that the engineers can shut the car off from the outside if they need to. Time to get designing - good luck! We've just finished the final design tweaks to the new "Bloodhound Driving Experience". We tested it with a huge group of visitors to the Bloodhound Technical Centre and the feedback was terrific. Comments ranged from "Is it really that difficult?" to "I want one of these at home!". Fancy a go? Come and try it at one of our public events this summer. Our other June release has been the latest animation of the rocket system and airbrakes. This video shows you what would be happening elsewhere in the car, while you're busy wrestling with the controls of the Bloodhound Driving Experience. Enjoy!

एक ब्रिटिश टीम एक ऐसी कार विकसित कर रही है जो 1,000 मील प्रति घंटे (1,610 किमी/घंटा) तक पहुंचने में सक्षम होगी। एक यूरोफाइटर-टाइफून जेट इंजन को बोल्ट किए गए रॉकेट द्वारा संचालित, वाहन विश्व भूमि गति रिकॉर्ड पर हमला करेगा। ब्लडहाउंड 2016 में उत्तरी केप, दक्षिण अफ्रीका में हक्सकीन पैन पर चलाया जाएगा। विंग कमांडर एंडी ग्रीन, वर्तमान विश्व भूमि-गति रिकॉर्ड धारक, ब्लडहाउंड परियोजना पर काम करने के अपने अनुभवों और विज्ञान और इंजीनियरिंग में राष्ट्रीय रुचि को प्रेरित करने के लिए टीम के प्रयासों के बारे में बीबीसी न्यूज के लिए एक डायरी लिख रहे हैं।


Bollywood cinema: 10 lesser-known facts

Summary: Indian cinema began 100 years ago with the first "Bollywood" film, although the term was only coined many years later. The vibrant song-and-dance routines have millions of fans but here are some lesser-known facts that may have escaped their knowledge.

It all began with a cross-dressing, wet sari scene Dhundiraj Govind Phalke's black-and-white silent film Raja Harischandra was screened in Mumbai on 3 May, 1913. It is a tale of a righteous Indian king who never told a lie. Many say this was the filmic seed that spawned a billion-dollar industry. One of the most famous scenes is the bathtub sequence where the king comes to call on his wife Taramati. She is in the tub with attendants and they are all drenched, their saris and blouses clinging to their bodies - but they are all in fact male actors dressed as women. Phalke went on to make 95 full-length films, but he died in penury. As Nasreen Rehman, a historian of South Asian cinema, points out, the Hindi language film industry of Mumbai was not known as Bollywood for many years. "The term Bollywood is an invention of the late 20th Century, after Bombay cinema caught the imagination of the West." A kiss lasted four minutes - in the 1930s Devika Rani locked lips with her real life husband on screen in the 1933 film, Karma. It took four minutes. Shubhra Gupta, film critic and columnist for the Indian Express newspaper, says: "Post-independence, the kiss vanished into a miasma of prudery and false modesty and a misguided notion of what was Indian culture and tradition and not." In 1954 a group of Indian women presented a petition to then PM Jawaharlal Nehru asking him to curb the influence of cinema as an influence on "precocious sex habits". But there have been changes over the last decade. "The kiss has returned to claim its place in the movies - the two nodding flowers and canoodling swans are a thing of the hoary past." Gupta adds that Bollywood has decades of repression to make up "but the modern industry recognises that sex and lust are part of human behaviour". Most Indians don't watch it Film director Karan Johar recently said: "Of the 1.2 billion population of India, movies should reach out to at least 300 million people. But currently, our reach is limited to 45 million. If we figure out how to cover this gap, it will be a game changer." Nevertheless, the industry hasn't done badly at all. With more than 1,000 films a year, it is the world's most prolific industry. The BBC's India business correspondent Shilpa Kannan points out that India is home to regional industries making films in more than 20 languages - but Mumbai's Hindi-speaking Bollywood is the biggest of all. The most expensive Indian film is in Tamil - Endhiran (Robot) cost $35m (£23m) to make. Indians buy 2.7 billion movie tickets annually, the highest in the world. But average ticket prices are among the lowest in the world so revenues are a fraction of Hollywood's. For a country that is obsessed with films, there are still very few cinema screens. India has fewer than 13,000 screens compared with nearly 40,000 screens in the US. Western actors become stars too Thousands of Westerners arrive in Bollywood every year hoping to make it big. Many make it on to the set as extras. But this is not a new phenomenon. Perhaps the first foreigner to attain cult status in Bollywood was Australian-born Nadia, also known as the "Fearless Nadia" or "the Hunterwali" (the woman with the whip). She arrived in 1935-36 and became Bollywood's first stunt queen. Film historian Jaiprakash Choksi says Nadia, who acted in about 35 films, was his "favourite heroine" in his childhood. "She would ride a horse wearing a mask, jump onto a moving train, whip 25-30 men single-handedly and beat them up with her bare hands if needed." And an Italian actress by the name of Signorina Manelli played a vamp in the 1922 silent-era film Pati Bhakti - a film which advocated that women should be devoted to their husbands. Over the years, there were others too. Indian-born American Tom Alter acted in about 60 films and made a career playing the "white man" who spoke in English-accented Hindi. Then, of course, there was Helen, who floored generations of Indian film-goers with her sensuous dance moves. In her skimpy clothes, she found her way into the hearts of generations of Indian men with her belly dances and pelvic thrusts. In recent years, perhaps no one has made it quite as big as the current reigning queen Katrina Kaif, who is half-British and speaks Hindi with a foreign accent. There were Bollywood-Germany collaborations In those early years, the West was crucial in providing equipment and technicians for films. In the 1920s, filmmaker-actor Himanshu Rai formed a co-production deal with German firm Emalka and together they made several hugely successful films, says film historian Jaiprakash Choksi. German director Franz Osten directed 14 films for Rai but once World War II began, India's British government deported German technicians - about a dozen of them - bringing to an end the lucrative collaborations. Calcutta was really India's film-making hub until the 1930s, says historian Nasreen Rehman. But, she adds, it was only after the Japanese threatened India's eastern borders during the war that many filmmakers moved to Bombay, as it was known then. Swiss mountain love is no longer in The mountains of Switzerland were discovered in the 1960s - in Bollywood that is. And in the 1970s, legendary producer Yash Chopra popularised the notion when he decided to move from the slopes of Kashmir in search of new vistas and new big budget films high on romance and musical declarations of love in Alpine surroundings. Film critic and columnist for the Indian Express, Shubhra Gupta, says "his brand of cinema caught fire. So did the Swiss slopes. So much so that no romance from Bollywood was complete without the lead pair tumbling down the icy tracks - she in sheer chiffon and he in completely snow-proof boots and jacket!" But this is an image that does not belong to the Bollywood of today, which has moved decisively beyond Switzerland, she says. Exotic locations are still in vogue but Bollywood has been spotted in Scotland, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Bangkok and South Africa. Superheroes are box office Bollywood is not alone in struggling to tell tales of pure romance anymore. Gupta says that the mass audience is largely male aged 15-25 and very heavily oriented towards films featuring super heroes and comic book avengers. "Young love is finding it hard to find visibility. And mature love stories have practically vanished," she says. One of the most popular recent examples of superhero films was the science-fiction Krrish series starring Hrithik Roshan. But superheroes have an even older pedigree in Indian cinema, including Anil Kapoor's turn as Mr India in the 1987 cult film. It's the man that rules Like Hollywood, Bollywood is also ruled by its superstar heroes who are mostly men in their late 40s. In the words of film critic Gupta: "They call the shots." These include the Three Khans who have dominated Bollywood films for the last two decades - Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan. "Your average viewer has no trouble seeing his favourite Khan or Kapoor cavorting with a much younger girl. For mainstream Bollywood, the heroine, even the biggest of them all, is dispensable, and interchangeable. The hero is not." The film industry is not an isolated bubble, it is part of this patriarchy, says film director Zoya Akhtar. "It does fuel ideas about objectifying women. For example we have scenes in our films where the male hero woos a woman by stalking her. Indian cinema is the only defining popular culture in this country so we have to take more responsibility." High-pitched singing The basic form of the film song is derived from various regional song types, and hasn't changed much since the 1930s, says film historian Nasreen Rehman. "You could compare it with the opera, but whereas opera is all song, Indian films have between five to nine songs on average," she says. Both song and dance are used to enhance the mood for love, and drive the narrative, she adds. "As song and dance became an essential part of the masala, it became difficult to find a combination of the 'right film face' and the 'right voice', and this led to the practice of using playback singers," says Rehman. The high pitch of the female singing voice also makes the comparison with opera interesting. Nur Jahan - who was trained in the classical tradition of dhrupad and Lata Mangeshkar were the touchstones for all other singers, says Rehman. Nur Jahan moved to Pakistan and, Rehman says, sang some of her best songs in that country. Singers such as Runa Laila and Firdausi, also with high-pitched voices sang in both Pakistan and Bangladesh. South Asian female classical singers sing on lower pitches than Nur Jahan and Mangeshkar, who sing on pitches closer to western opera singers. Bad dancers use a tree as a prop In decades gone, Bollywood stars danced around trees at moments when love was declared. The simple answer as to why this formula endured was that they were not good dancers. "Dance materialises sexuality in these films," says Nasreen Rehman. "Once the vamp was usually the accomplished dancer in films. Now all heroes and heroines dance," she adds. In recent decades, Bollywood actors have proved they really can move. "Up until the 1980s dancers would suddenly appear out of nowhere underneath a mountainous backdrop," says film director Johar. "Nowadays they can still appear out of nowhere, but the choreography is much more sophisticated." Bollywood dance extravaganzas have proved an inspiration to many Western film directors such as Baz Luhrmann. Reporting by Samanthi Dissanayake, Jastinder Khera, Alastair Lawson and Geeta Pandey You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook BBC Asian Network asked a panel of industry experts to compile a list of 100 songs from the World of Hindi cinema from the past seven decades. You can vote for the greatest Bollywood song from the list below. Vote for the greatest Bollywood song

भारतीय सिनेमा की शुरुआत 100 साल पहले पहली "बॉलीवुड" फिल्म के साथ हुई थी, हालांकि यह शब्द कई वर्षों बाद ही गढ़ा गया था। जीवंत गीत और नृत्य दिनचर्या के लाखों प्रशंसक हैं लेकिन यहां कुछ कम ज्ञात तथ्य हैं जो उनके ज्ञान से बच गए होंगे।