Robyn: Finishing an album in the face of death

Summary: Swedish pop star Robyn was in the middle of recording an album with dance legend Christian Falk when he was diagnosed with cancer. She tells the BBC about the struggle to maintain the music's positive message after he died last year.

By Mark SavageEntertainment reporter It has been five years since pop outlaw Robyn last released an album. Or, to be more precise, three albums. Body Talk - an ambitious anthology of killer pop - was issued in three instalments over six months in 2010, followed by an extensive world tour, including support slots with Coldplay and Katy Perry. The herculean effort left the 36-year-old exhausted and creatively depleted, and so she returned to Sweden to reassess her career. There, she caught up with her old friend and some-time mentor Christian Falk. A world famous DJ, he had worked with Robyn since she was 15, producing the title track to her debut album, Robyn Is Here. She later repaid the favour by adding vocals to his biggest hit, Dream On. "He taught me so much about music," she recalls. "He started out as a punk bass player and then got into house music in the 80s and 90s, and from there he moved on to hip-hop and all kinds of music. He was like a magpie." Neither artist was intending to make a new record. Robyn was on a break, while Christian was making a tentative return to the studio after developing tinnitus, a hearing condition marked by a permanent ringing in the ears. "He stopped making music for a while," Robyn recalls. "He was not really in a good place, so he went to do this textiles handicraft course - doing embroidery and weaving." The pair met up at Christian's house, where he casually played the singer some of his musical sketches. "The things we were talking about and the things he was playing me were so interesting, I couldn't step away from it," Robyn says. "So we started working on something." The project became Robyn & La Bagatelle Magique (literally an unpretentious, but magical, piece of music). A love letter to dance, it incorporates everything from piano-driven 1990s house to the radiant brass of Miami disco. The project reflected Christian's record collection which, Robyn says, encompassed "punk to house to two-step to 80s pop to Turkish folk music". "It's such a good way of explaining how he made his own music. It was always a collage of all the thing he's been listening to. He knew how to respect references, but also turn them into something of his own." Ghost in the machine Recording sessions took place haphazardly over a year, after which Robyn asked the musical director of her tours, Markus Jagerstedt, to join them in the studio. He was instantly impressed. "It felt like new kind of remixes of old songs that never existed," he says. "Not too retro. Still modern." The musician had no hesitations about signing up - "in a way Robyn's my boss, of course, but I see her much more like a friend" - and he jumped straight into the writing process. "Markus would work on his things, and send them back to Christian who'd chop them up and send it back to Markus who'd chop it up again," Robyn explains. "It was like a constant remixing of each other's ideas. "But then," she says, her voice catching in her throat, "Christian got sick." At the age of 52, the producer had developed pancreatic cancer - a particularly aggressive form of the disease, where fewer than 20% of patients survive the first year. Christian hadn't even noticed he was unwell but, once diagnosed, his condition deteriorated rapidly. "We kept working as much as we could," Robyn says, hesitantly. "Then of course when he… at the end of his… his fight with cancer it got really difficult to be in the studio. "We kept playing things to him, all the way up to the end. We mixed the first song two months before he died." When the DJ lost his battle with cancer in July last year. Robyn and Markus, understandably, felt unable to continue with their project. "We felt it was too… Too much to keep working," Robyn says. "We knew we were going to finish it," Markus adds. "It just had to be the right time. We wanted to keep the energy in the songs," Even so, when the time came, revisiting the songs was "really hard". The musicians were given access to Christian's computer - but delving into the hard drive brought back a lot of memories. "You'd look through it all and there were all his emails," says Markus. "I didn't want to look at that." When they eventually recovered their recording sessions, the files contained instructions that replicated Christian's movements in the studio. "It was weird. The faders were moving up and down - almost like he was around," Robyn says. "It was, really, like a ghost," says Markus. Working on the tracks was "strange" but "healing", Robyn says. By June, they had finished enough songs to form an EP, which is due out this summer. It is a defiantly upbeat record, with titles like Set Me Free and Love Is Free reflecting the hedonism and euphoria of the ecstasy-fuelled 1990s club scene. "We wanted to stay positive," Robyn explains. "Especially when Christian got sick. He was in love with his life. It wasn't at all like we were there processing his illness. It was an escape. It was the other way around." Robyn and Markus will tour the record later this year. Staying true to their inspirations, the duo are toying with the idea of combining live performances with a DJ set. "But I'll play some of my old songs as well," Robyn reassures. In the meantime, the singer is starting work on a proper follow-up to Body Talk, after being "freed from the responsibility" by the relative anonymity of La Bagatelle Magique and last year's collaboration with Royksopp. "I've been questioning if I really want to keep doing what I've always done," she says. "Both this and the Royksopp album are things I've been doing in the meantime, while figuring that out." But she hints the new material won't repeat the platinum pop pursuits of her prior output. "It's so easy to fall into old patterns and behaviours," she says. "There's always a time for change. I don't know exactly where that's going to lead me." Love Is Free, the first single by Robyn & La Bagatelle Magique is out now on Universal / Island / Konichiwa Records. The mini-album will follow on 7 August.

स्वीडिश पॉप स्टार रॉबिन नृत्य के दिग्गज क्रिश्चियन फॉक के साथ एक एल्बम रिकॉर्ड करने के बीच में थे जब उन्हें कैंसर का पता चला था। वह पिछले साल उनकी मृत्यु के बाद संगीत के सकारात्मक संदेश को बनाए रखने के लिए संघर्ष के बारे में बीबीसी को बताती हैं।


Toyota marks 25th anniversary at Deeside

Summary: Toyota has marked 25 years of manufacturing with a ceremony at its Deeside engine plant.

The factory, which opened in 1992, has produced over three million engines and now employs 620 people. The "advanced manufacturing" factory is the only plant outside of Japan to produce Toyota's hybrid engine. Economy Secretary Ken Skates and Wales Office minister Guto Bebb attended the ceremony on Friday. Toyota UK director Jim Crosbie said Friday was as an "opportunity for everyone involved with Toyota in Wales to celebrate the achievements".

टोयोटा ने अपने डीसाइड इंजन संयंत्र में एक समारोह के साथ विनिर्माण के 25 वर्षों को चिह्नित किया है।


Coronavirus in South Korea: How 'trace, test and treat' may be saving lives

Summary: In a car park behind a hospital in Seoul, 45-year-old Rachel Kim rolls down her car window and sticks out her tongue. She travelled to Daegu last week, the area with the highest number of coronavirus cases in South Korea.

By Laura BickerBBC News, Seoul Now she's developed a bad cough and a fever. Fearing the worst, she decided to get a Covid-19 test at one of the dozens of drive-through centres. Two people dressed head-to-toe in white protective clothing, clear goggles and surgical face masks are ready for her. A long swab stick is rummaged around the back of her mouth and throat and then placed carefully into a long test tube. Then comes the tough bit. The swab goes right up her nose. She screws up her eyes in discomfort, but the whole thing is over in minutes. She rolls up her car window and off she drives. She will get a call if the result is positive, or a text if it's negative. Negative pressure room Nearly 20,000 people are being tested every day for coronavirus in South Korea, more people per capita than anywhere else in the world. Rachel's sample is quickly shipped off to a nearby laboratory where staff are working 24 hours a day to process the results. In the battle to contain the contagion, these labs have become the front line. South Korea has created a network of 96 public and private laboratories to test for coronavirus. Health officials believe this approach may be saving lives. The fatality rate for coronavirus in South Korea is 0.7%. Globally the World Health Organization has reported 3.4% - but scientists estimate that the death rate is lower because not all cases are reported. I turned up at Green Cross laboratories just outside Seoul as a new batch of samples arrived to be tested. Dr Oh Yejin gave us a tour until she stopped at a door and made it clear we were not allowed through. Ask me Share this Explainer "The tests are carried out in this negative pressure room," she told me. "It prevents any droplets from the samples escaping." Inside, two doctors in bright yellow protective clothing are moving around the sealed room. They lift up a number of test tubes and get to work. Beside us dozens of machines are whirring away and processing results. These are PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests - in very basic terms it is searching for the presence of Covid-19 in the sample. The whole process from test tube to test result is about five to six hours. Lessons from Mers Professor Gye Cheol Kwon, the chairman of the Laboratory Medicine Foundation, calls this the Korean "bali bali" gene. Bali means quick in Korean. He says this because the South Koreans managed to design and create a test, set up a network of labs across the country and get it all to work in 17 days. But this has come from bitter experience. "We learned the risk of new infection and its ramifications from the experience of the Middle East Respiratory syndrome (Mers) back in 2015," he told me. Thirty-six people died in South Korea during the Mers outbreak. It forced the country to reassess its approach to infectious diseases. South Korea's Centres for Disease Control even set up a special department to prepare for the worst. In this case, that preparation appears to have paid off. "I think that early patient detection with accurate tests followed by isolation can lower the mortality rate and prevent the virus from spreading," said Prof Kwon. "To learn from the past and prepare systems in advance… that might be the true power to overcome this new kind of disaster." It had been quite quiet for the team at Green Cross until early February when a patient - now known in South Korea as "patient 31" - with no known history of travel and no contact with previous cases tested positive for the virus. She belonged to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a religious sect with over 200,000 members. It led to a race to find the source of the outbreak and trace everyone affected. South Korea's labs were put to the test. Fatigue among staff has been an issue. Now they work shifts and Dr Oh tells me, delightedly, that she is finally able to get some sleep. Role model There is no shortage of testing kits in South Korea. Four companies have been given approval to make them. It means the country has the capacity to test 140,000 samples a week. Prof Kwon believes the accuracy of South Korea's Covid-19 test is around 98%. The ability to test so many people has made the country a role model as others look to battle their own coronavirus outbreaks. But there have been missteps too. At least two patients died waiting for a hospital bed in Daegu, the worst affected city. The initial reaction was to quarantine everyone infected with the virus in a hospital bed, but now the doctors have learned to treat those with mild symptoms in residential centres and leave the clinical beds for those needing critical care. "We can't quarantine and treat all patients. Those who have mild symptoms should stay home and get treated," Dr Kim Yeon-Jae, an infectious disease specialist from the Korea National Medical Centre told me. "We should change our end goal strategy to lower death rates. So other countries like Italy, that see huge numbers in patients, should also change their strategies as well." Wherever the virus hits in large numbers - makeshift test centres follow. This week in Seoul, there was a mass infection at a call centre. Medics set up outside and quickly took swabs from hundreds of staff in the building. Vaccine hope The blood of recovered patients is also being monitored and analysed. Scientists have developed a "unique" protein that can detect antibodies - the hope is that it will help create a vaccine in the future. One of the former patients undergoing weekly blood tests is Mr Lee. (He did not wish to give his first name). He was working in Wuhan, China in December when the virus struck the city. He was flown home by the South Korean government and tested positive for Covid-19 while in quarantine near Seoul. His mum was upset. "People around me were very worried," he said. "I heard my mum cried every night." But she did not need to worry. The 28-year-old only had a mild case of the virus. "I felt fine and almost had no symptoms. Just a little cough. Speaking from my own experience, it's really important to still be cautious and safe, but I wish people would have less fear of the virus itself. "For me at least, the virus felt weaker than a regular cold. I know those who are older need to be careful. But for young people like me who are healthy, they shouldn't be too worried. Of course, it is important to take preventive measures though." 'Better to know' The preventative measures being taken in South Korea have so far involved no lockdowns, no roadblocks and no restriction on movement. Trace, test and treat is the mantra. So far this country of over 50 million people have been doing their bit to help. Schools remain closed, offices are encouraging people to work from home, large gatherings have stopped. However, slowly, day by day, more people are creeping back onto the streets of the capital city, Seoul. Restaurants, buses and subways are beginning to get busy again. Dealing with the threat of coronavirus is the new normal. Most people wear masks (if they can get hold of one). There are thermal imaging cameras in the entrances to major buildings. Bottles of hand sanitisers have been placed in lifts. There are even people dressed in costumes at subway entrances reminding you to wash your hands. This may be the new normal for South Korea and elsewhere. But health officials are still on edge and warning there is no room for complacency. One large outbreak at a church, office, exercise class or apartment block can change everything. And as for Rachel Kim, she got a text the day after her test. She doesn't have coronavirus. But she's glad she got tested. "Better to know", she said, "and that way I am not a danger to others." You may also be interested in:

सियोल में एक अस्पताल के पीछे एक कार पार्क में, 45 वर्षीय राहेल किम अपनी कार की खिड़की से नीचे लुढ़कती है और अपनी जीभ बाहर निकालती है। उसने पिछले सप्ताह डेगू की यात्रा की, जो दक्षिण कोरिया में कोरोनावायरस मामलों की सबसे अधिक संख्या वाला क्षेत्र है।


Glasgow girls' protest inspires musical

Summary: Seven schoolgirls who led a campaign against dawn raids on asylum seekers are the inspiration for a new musical from the National Theatre of Scotland. The Glasgow Girls - as they became known - took on the Home Office and the Scottish government about the way failed asylum seekers were treated.

By Pauline McLeanBBC Scotland arts correspondent Most teenagers are into music. Few take on the government. But this new musical combines both. Its inspiration is the true story of seven Glasgow teenagers, who were at school together in Drumchapel. Spurred on by the possible deportation of one of their friends, the girls began campaigning. Using friends and neighbours they set up an early warning system to prevent dawn raids by immigration officers, lobbied the Scottish government and the Home Office and took to the streets to protest. One of the girls Jennifer McCarron, who seven years on from the start of the protest works in childcare, says: "We weren't getting involved because we were going to be in the press or anything like that. We just did it." But Jennifer says she is now amazed by what they did and achieved. Roza Salih, whose family came to Glasgow from Iraqi Kurdistan, is now a law student. She says: "We accomplished big things that no other people were doing." In the late 90s, Glasgow greatly increased the number of asylum seekers for which it provided accommodation. By 2005, about one in every eight pupils at Drumchapel High was an asylum seeker. However, if asylum was refused Home Office immigration officers would often arrive in force while the families were still asleep and take them to detention centres. The girls - Amal Azzudin, originally from Somalia; Agnesa Murselaj, a Roma girl from Kosovo; Roza Salih, from Kurdistan; Ewelina Siwak, a Polish Roma gypsy; and Emma Clifford, Jennifer McCarron and Toni Henderson from Drumchapel - started a campaign against the dawn raids and the removal of school friends who had spent years in Glasgow. The musical, at the Citizens' Theatre in Glasgow until 17 November, was conceived and directed by Cora Bissett. It is a follow-up to her Olivier Award winning Roadkill, which was about sex trafficking. The story of Glasgow Girls is written by leading playwright David Greig, with original songs from, among others, Scots Asian rapper MC Soom T. The production will travel to London after Glasgow. For Emma Clifford, who now works as a radio researcher at the BBC, and Agnesa Murselaj, who works in health adminisration, a musical based on their story initially came as a surprise. Emma says: "When I first found out it was a musical, I thought 'Jeezo, they are making a musical about a group of girls from Drumchapel campaigning about asylum seekers. Jazz hands does not fit the bill here'. "But the more I thought about it, music was so much a part of our campaign. "Whenever we were celebrating or anything like that there was so much music. It was inspiring." The seven girls remain close friends and see each other regularly. Emma says: "We made that kind of bond when we were 15 or 16. "It is not something we want to lose. That's another reason to keep in touch. Who goes through that kind of thing together? Not many people."

शरण चाहने वालों पर सुबह के छापों के खिलाफ अभियान का नेतृत्व करने वाली सात स्कूली छात्राएँ स्कॉटलैंड के नेशनल थिएटर से एक नए संगीत के लिए प्रेरणा हैं। ग्लासगो गर्ल्स-जैसा कि वे जानी जाती हैं-ने गृह कार्यालय और स्कॉटिश सरकार को असफल शरण चाहने वालों के साथ व्यवहार करने के तरीके के बारे में बताया।


Coronavirus: 'Italy lockdown cut me off from my husband'

Summary: Kaila Haines is a US citizen married to an Italian man and has been living in Italy for 30 years. She lives in Monfalcone, east of Venice, where her husband is undergoing self-imposed quarantine after exhibiting flu-like symptoms, but is currently stuck in Milan, where she was working when the quarantine came into force. Here she describes the situation:

By George WrightBBC News I work in Milan Monday to Friday and go back on the weekend. My husband is a university professor in Venice. In recent months we've been hearing about these cases but it's been pretty much business as usual. About one in 10 people have been in masks, but it's been very laid-back despite all the hype and doom and gloom on the news. But then at the beginning of last week, my husband came down with the fever. The health ministry has asked anybody who has a fever or flu-like symptoms just to isolate themselves. Let's not take any chances, stay home for 20 days. So that's what he did. I was supposed to be going home this past weekend and did not because he was sick and in isolation. Then I got stuck here in Milan because over the weekend they imposed this shutdown in the Lombardy region. So I'm here until 3 April but he'll come out of isolation on 20 March. It's very surreal. Supermarket warnings I went out yesterday morning to the grocery store because I was kind of curious to see if everyone was making a run on pasta and things like that. You read the newspapers and that's what everyone is saying. The situation was quite tense because there was a person on the loudspeaker who was reminding everyone in the store every 30 seconds that they had to keep their one-metre distance from each other. They were quite aggressively inviting everyone to keep their distance. That was quite an unusual feeling. But overall there was no run on the supermarket. Everyone was just like me, running out of milk and getting a few things they needed for the weekend. From that respect it was pretty relaxed. Then I walked down one of the main shopping roads and about 70% of the stores were closed. The bars were open. It was a gorgeous day so everyone was out on their bicycles. Most of the bars have tables outside and I could see they had distanced the tables, so there are less tables than there used to be. There were people having their coffee on the sidewalk at their little cafe, so it was very relaxed. There wasn't a sense of panic or urgency. I think it might take a while for people to realise they need to be a little more careful in keeping their distance and things like that. This week I'm on vacation but I will have to work from home. I'm taking it in my stride. Stir crazy My husband only had a fever for a few days. He has a little bit of a cough and he's going a little stir crazy. We have neighbours who are doing the grocery shopping and leaving it at the door for him. He said he's going to have to learn how to cook - he doesn't know how to cook. We celebrated our 30th anniversary in September. It's not been easy. It's been a challenging year for us in general because I got a promotion and now we see each other on the weekends, but now it's tough. Thank goodness for WhatsApp.

कैला हैन्स एक अमेरिकी नागरिक है जिसकी शादी एक इतालवी व्यक्ति से हुई है और वह 30 वर्षों से इटली में रह रही है। वह वेनिस के पूर्व में मोनफाल्कोन में रहती है, जहाँ उसके पति में फ्लू जैसे लक्षण दिखाई देने के बाद खुद को संगरोध में रखा गया है, लेकिन वर्तमान में वह मिलान में फंसी हुई है, जहाँ वह संगरोध लागू होने पर काम कर रही थी। यहाँ वह स्थिति का वर्णन करती हैः


Persuading China to switch to 'fake' pork

Summary: "Ma po tofu has to be a favourite," says David Yeung, a smile evident in his voice. "It's very spicy, a little bit numbing, and usually sprinkled with minced pork."

By Sarah Treanor and Elizabeth HotsonBBC News Hong Kong-based Mr Yeung is the founder of OmniPork, part of the environmentally focused venture Green Monday. OmniPork is a plant-based meat alternative that is now on the menu in many of Hong Kong's trendiest restaurants, hotels and bars. A vegetarian of two decades, he's explaining how substitute meat is not just a market for the North American brands like Impossible Foods, and Beyond Meat, which have become well known for their burgers. He says the Asian market is hungry for home grown meat alternatives. "Almost everywhere in Asia - Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, especially mainland China - the number one meat is pork. The only exceptions are Muslim countries." Indeed, China loves pork. The country of almost 1.4 billion consumes more pork per capita than any other nation. Half of the world's pork is eaten in China, and the acceleration has been rapid. In the 1960s China annually consumed less than 5kg per capita. By the late 1980s this was 20kg and has since tripled to over 60kg, according to UN figures. But the mass-market meat industry has brought with it some very pressing problems, not least, disease. In 2019 African swine fever led to the mass slaughter of pigs in China, and prices rose 25-30%. And this week, a new strain of flu with "pandemic potential" has also been identified in pigs within China. This has thrown a sharp focus on meat supply chains and production, something the coronavirus pandemic has intensified. Localised outbreaks of coronavirus have been appearing across the globe in meat-processing companies, even where infection rates in the general population are low. It's not entirely clear as to why. Covid-19, environmental issues and growing health concerns in a nation with increasingly high rates of obesity, have all encouraged a new wave of plant protein firms to develop new products. For example, Beijing-based Zhenmeat is looking at 3D printing elements of its products to mimic bone or muscle. "We eat a lot of different parts of the pig. The Chinese consumer loves different parts for different dishes but we are focusing in on Szechuan hot pot," says chief executive Vincent Lu. Zhenmeat is throwing its marketing behind one product in particular, created with the Institute of Alternative Protein in Beijing, a meat-free alternative to pork tenderloin, which is popular in hot pot. It is a very specific cut of pork and style of cooking. But Mr Lu says it's all part of the firm's strategy. "If you look at the US market, consumers love burgers. So what kind of product do consumers love in the Chinese market? Hot pot is the most loved dish." But none of this innovation comes cheaply. Matilda Ho is the founder of Bits x Bites, China's first food technology venture capital group. She has backed four different protein companies, from plant-based to cell-based. "We are just at the beginning," she says. "But will the one-off purchase for the novelty value translate into repeat purchase and product loyalty? That's the big question. In cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu, consumers are known to be eager experimenters when it comes to new food trends. But only a few will turn into behaviour change." Ms Ho also says it is easy to overstate climate worries as a reason for Chinese consumers to switch from animal protein. "Taste will always be the driver for consumers to convert their behaviour. It won't be environmental concerns." Shaun Rein, managing director of the China Market Research Group in Shanghai, says the market is still small but there is potential, given the open-minded nature of Chinese cookery and a willingness of shoppers to experiment. "Chinese consumers are indeed always looking for alternative sources of protein. We think the market for plant-based meat is about $910m (£730m) and will grow about 20-25% annually. There's a lot of excitement about these 'fake' meats, but the market is fairly small." But price is a big driver when it comes to long-term change, he adds. "When we interviewed blue-collar workers one of their main concerns was the price. The big winner could be 'fake' meat, or it could be seafood." Bruce Friedrich is the co-founder of the Good Food Institute, which researches and promotes meat alternatives. He is convinced the price issue will be solved. "While the plant-based meat costs a little bit more than regular meat it will be for people who are interested in looking at the way industrial animal meat is produced. "But if you can make crops which mimic the way meat tastes and smells and looks, and scale that up, it will become cheaper than animal meat. Then it becomes not just for vegetarians and 'flexitarians' (those who cut meat consumption by going meat-free on certain days) but for everybody." Maria Lettini is executive director of FAIRR, a global network of investors concerned with issues surrounding intensive animal agriculture. She says with Covid-19, we are likely to have to pay more for our meat in the future. "How are we going to make this system [of meat production] safe, how are we going to make it more resilient - without that coming at some kind of cost or investment? "I don't think meat at our grocery stores is being correctly valued. We probably need to be spending more to be able to consume it as much as we are." David Yeung of OmniPork says that his product is comparable on price. It now appears on UK brand Pizza Express's products in Hong Kong, and Taco Bell branches in Asia. These are big names, but will this new breed of protein pretenders become mainstream any time soon? Mr Yeung doesn't expect everyone to become vegan, but insists "we are on a ramp-up for the whole industry" and that Asia is leading this change. "This isn't just about consumer trends, it's about climate change, the pandemic, swine fever. Governments will have to look at this, not just as consumer choice or a trend - but about sustainability of the planet."

"मा पो टोफू एक पसंदीदा होना चाहिए", डेविड येउंग कहते हैं, उनकी आवाज़ में एक मुस्कान स्पष्ट है। "यह बहुत मसालेदार है, थोड़ा सुन्न है, और आमतौर पर कटा हुआ सूअर का मांस के साथ छिड़का जाता है।"


Bridgend county to host 2017 Urdd National Eisteddfod

Summary: Bridgend is to host the 2017 Urdd National Eisteddfod, the county council has confirmed.

The Welsh-language arts festival will run from 29 May to 3 June at Bridgend College's Pencoed Campus. The council approved the six-day youth event which it hopes will bring 100,000 visitors and £6m to the local economy. Cabinet member councillor Phil White said it was "a unique opportunity to promote the county borough to a national audience". The 2015 Urdd National Eisteddfod will be in Caerphilly from 25 to 30 May.

काउंटी परिषद ने पुष्टि की है कि ब्रिजेंड 2017 यूआरडीडी नेशनल आइस्टेडफॉड की मेजबानी करेगा।


Ikea paves way for first Indian store

Summary: Ikea has started work on its first store in India, in the southern city of Hyderabad. Due to open by the end of 2017, the Swedish furniture chain is hoping to overcome the challenges that have quashed other international companies entering this market, writes Shilpa Kannan.

Men and women wearing hard hats and bright yellow shirts are standing in a line, shovels in hand. As they dig the earth on the count of three, the crowd cheers on wildly. While the beginning of the building work is a big accomplishment for the flat-pack furniture specialists, it's a bigger victory for India. Bringing international retail experience to India has been among the most controversial and fiercely opposed decisions here. To be part of the $600bn (£460bn) Indian retail market, Ikea has pledged to invest over $1.5bn (£1.2bn) in India over the next 10 years. While other global retailers like Wal-Mart and French hypermarket chain Carrefour hit a wall here and abandoned plans, Ikea is building a symbolic stone wall on its new 13-acre plot of land in Hyderabad. As people queue up to sign their names on the rocks, the retailer says it is a long-term relationship with the country: while the company will bring its global products here, it also wants to see what would best suit Indian homes. "We have to lead business with reality. We cannot lead business with only PowerPoints and Excel sheets and documents. We are extremely obsessed in life at home," says Juvencio Maeztu, the retailer's India chief executive. So he and his team conducted research, visiting more than 500 homes in Hyderabad to try to understand what people want. "We see their bedrooms, toilets, kitchens and then we sit down and then we talk. And then we ask: 'What would you like to change?'" That's the big challenge they now face - wooing customers here. Family shopping The home furniture industry in India is estimated to be worth $20bn and is growing rapidly. I decided to visit Naampally, a noisy, bustling furniture market in the old part of Hyderabad, to find out more. The entire street is lined with showrooms selling everything from seven-seater sofas, to large four-poster beds with elaborate fabric canopies, to hand-carved mirrors. And it's not a quick affair. Entire families come here to spend time checking out the furniture, trying them out and discussing designs and the kind of wood they want. Over endless cups of sweet tea and biscuits, a deal is struck. This is what most of India's furniture market looks like - unorganised and chaotic but doing thriving business. Unfazed At one store, Interior Park, the furniture is mostly made of teak wood. Sofas here range in price from $1,500 up to $10,000. The owner, Deepak Kumar Agarwal, has been in the furniture business for three generations. He says he's not threatened by Ikea. "We are not just selling mass furniture, it is all handcrafted. Some pieces take one month, some pieces take two months, and some pieces have a three-month waiting period." Customers seem willing to wait. Like 63-year-old Dilip Vatsa, who has always come here for his furniture. He says when he picks up a piece he expects it to last forever. Deepak Agarwal agrees. "In India furniture is just like gold and silver - people consider it as an investment. And our kind of furniture is durable for generations. We have our unique place and Ikea has its own place. When new players come into the market, with competition business grows, it never comes down." New generation But while older people may still come to markets like Naampally, Ikea is targeting a new breed of Indians. Its new store will be in the heart of new Hyderabad, home to some 400,000 IT professionals - all young, wealthy and well-travelled. Like Ayanti and Prashant Reddy. They have just bought a new cot for their seven-year-old son. To convince him to sleep without safety rails, Ayanti let him choose his bed online - on a popular ecommerce website. It was delivered flat-packed and they put it together themselves. She says she's excited about going to a store like Ikea because she can buy it off the shelf and come back home to build it herself. Not unusual in other parts of the world - but this is something Ayanti says her parents' generation would have never done. "What I do remember about my childhood is furniture usually got made during weddings as a gift from girl's parents. It was usually considered as having to be heavy and ornate because the heavier it was, the more ornate it was, the more value it had," says Ayanti. "While we have some good memories associated with stuff like that we need things to be a little lighter now, easier to manage." Meatballs are coming It's not just furniture; Ikea is also bringing Swedish meatballs to India - at least the chicken and vegetable versions. Chef Henrik Osterstrom is the firm's food manager in the country. He is experimenting with food here to bring a large menu to the cafe they have planned. As he hands out plates of fried salmon, rye bread with cheese and meatballs with sauce, people seem to love it. So in a city known for its spicy, rich biryanis, what do people make of meatballs? One woman said they were nothing like she had eaten before and loved it with the lingonberry jam. Others preferred it with the more traditional Indian mint chutney. Swedish meatballs may have found new fans, but the furniture may take just a little while longer to appeal to Indians.

आइकिया ने भारत में दक्षिणी शहर हैदराबाद में अपने पहले स्टोर पर काम शुरू कर दिया है। 2017 के अंत तक खुलने के कारण, स्वीडिश फर्नीचर श्रृंखला उन चुनौतियों को दूर करने की उम्मीद कर रही है जिन्होंने इस बाजार में प्रवेश करने वाली अन्य अंतरराष्ट्रीय कंपनियों को रद्द कर दिया है, शिल्पा कन्नन लिखती हैं।


Coronavirus: Could African countries cope with an outbreak?

Summary: Africa has registered its first death from the new coronavirus - a German tourist who died in Egypt. Although cases have been confirmed in many countries, ranging from Egypt to South Africa - including Nigeria, the continent's most-populous country - it has so far been spared a major outbreak.

The continent has close links to China, where the infection originated in late December, but the cases in Africa have all so far been linked to Europe. They have mushroomed in the last week, which is of particular concern as it is feared that poorer countries on the continent may struggle to cope if it does spread. The World Health Organization (WHO) admitted as much when it declared the coronavirus outbreak a global health emergency earlier in February. "Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is from Ethiopia, said at the time. As Michael Yao, WHO's head of emergency operations in Africa, has noted - because the continent's health systems "are already overwhelmed by many ongoing disease outbreaks" early detection is vital. "We're advising countries to at least detect cases early to avoid spreading the new virus within the community - that will be difficult to manage," he said. Is it possible to prevent the spread? The continent has benefitted from the fairly slow arrival of the virus to Africa - giving its 54 countries a window to set up testing and treatment capabilities. Coronavirus tests should be ready "within a couple of weeks" across all African nations, according to the World Health Organization. Currently 33 of 47 sub-Saharan African countries have testing facilities, up from only two in January (in South Africa and Senegal). In Nigeria - with two confirmed cases - the Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is publishing daily reports with updates on cases and any ongoing contact tracing. It has a free phone number and WhatsApp number for enquires and advice. South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases also has a toll-free number. East Africa has no confirmed cases yet, although several people have been put in quarantine as a precaution. In Kenya, the government has opened a quarantine centre in the capital, Nairobi, for suspected cases. In Tanzania, the health minister announced that isolation centres in the north, east and west of the country had been identified. Thermometers have been stockpiled and more than 2,000 health workers trained. Last month, Uganda opted for regulated self-isolation at home for a number of passengers that needed to be quarantined on arrival at Entebbe airport. What about travel? Airports across the continent are testing passengers' temperatures on arrival - and quarantining any suspected cases of the new coronavirus strain that causes Covid-19. Many countries have stopped flights to China, which has close trade links with the continent. China is Africa's biggest trade partner and around 10,000 Chinese firms are currently operating throughout the continent. According to Chinese state media, more than one million Chinese nationals live in African countries. It is estimated that African airlines have lost $400m (£312m) since the outbreak began with airlines like South African Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Air Tanzania, Air Mauritius, EgyptAir, RwandAir and Kenya Airways all suspending flights to and from China. As all the cases detected so far originated in Europe, routes to Europe are likely to be affected soon and Kenya, for example, has also stopped flights to northern Italy, Iran and South Korea. The East African nation, which hosts many international conferences, has also banned such meetings for the next month. Uganda has introduced a mandatory 14-day period of self-quarantine for travellers arriving from 16 countries to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The countries include the UK, the US and several European nations. The authorities have also said passengers arriving at the International Airport in Entebbe will soon be sprayed with a disinfectant. Have any lessons been learned from Ebola? Dr Yao was involved in dealing with the outbreaks of Ebola in West Africa in 2014-2016 and more recently in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He said he was concerned that there was not enough capacity to treat critical cases of coronavirus. Countries that dealt with the Ebola outbreak still have the isolation facilities and expertise in controlling infectious diseases. But when it comes to detection, Ebola is different to the coronavirus. Ebola only became infectious when symptoms showed, however there have been reports that in some cases, the coronavirus may have been transmitted before patients showed symptoms. In fact, it is not yet known exactly how the coronavirus spreads from person to person. However, similar viruses are spread via respiratory droplets, such as those produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Plus, with richer, more developed nations also battling the new coronavirus, they may not be quick to turn their focus and assist Africa. Why HIV could be a problem South Africa, the continent's most developed economy, is arguably most able to deal with an outbreak. But there are particular concerns related to the country's long-running HIV epidemic - the worst in the world. More than seven million people in South Africa live with a virus that seriously weakens immune systems, leaving many people potentially more vulnerable to Covid-19. Might there be lots of cases going unreported? Some international experts and observers have speculated that Africa's relatively low number of cases might simply be the result of poor reporting and low testing rates. Nigeria for instance has identified over 200 people who had come into contact with an Italian man who brought the first case of the virus into the country, but it has so far tested only 33. Still, many African health officials bristle at the suggestion that they are not adequately addressing the crisis, saying there has been an unprecedented level of mobilisation for Covid-19, as well as a growing reserve of experience to draw on. "I'm happy and proud [about] what Africa has done this time because usually we spend time running after epidemics when it is there but in this time we have been prepared," said Dr Amadou Sall, director of the Pasteur Institute in Dakar. At the onset of the outbreak, the institute trained 35 laboratories around the continent to do Covid-19 testing. Dr Sall says African health officials have also learned a lot from the West African Ebola crisis in 2014, and have created critical communications and collaborative networks aimed at containing the virus. "We put together a whole group of people that are going to be together working on referral of samples and confirmation, we're going to do the [genetic] sequencing… and also very important we're going to do research. Research is absolutely critical because three months ago nobody knew about this virus so understanding how it evolves in an African context is… absolutely important." Is heat a factor? If the new coronavirus works like other viruses, it may be that warmer weather in some parts of the continent has stopped it spreading so fast. "We've seen with other viruses that there does seem to be seasonality," Sarah Jarvis, a British doctor and clinical director of the health website Patient, said. "That may be for several reasons - for instance the droplets that carry the virus may not stay suspended in humid air for as long - and warmer temperatures can lead to the virus degrading when it's outside the body more quickly," she told the BBC's Newsday programme. The Sars outbreak, which started in November 2002 did end the following year in July - a summer month in the northern hemisphere - but it was not clear if weather was a factor, she said. However, Mers, a coronavirus that emerged in 2012, "didn't show any sign of being seasonal", Dr Jarvis added. Others point to fact that it is being cooped up in confined spaces during the winter that helps spread viruses. "In the summer months we perhaps spend less time indoors close together," Dr Jarvis said.

अफ्रीका ने नए कोरोनावायरस से अपनी पहली मौत दर्ज की है-एक जर्मन पर्यटक जिसकी मिस्र में मृत्यु हो गई। हालाँकि मिस्र से लेकर दक्षिण अफ्रीका तक-महाद्वीप के सबसे अधिक आबादी वाले देश नाइजीरिया सहित-कई देशों में मामलों की पुष्टि हुई है-यह अब तक एक बड़े प्रकोप से बच गया है।


Coronavirus: 'I was happy to swap a leisure centre for a bin lorry'

Summary: Ian Hall has swapped life working in a leisure centre for a job emptying bins. He is one of many council workers across the country who have been redeployed to new frontline roles following the coronavirus outbreak.

By Giancarlo RinaldiSouth Scotland reporter, BBC Scotland news website Ian usually works in the fitness team at the multi-million pound DG1 leisure centre in Dumfries. But when the facility closed a few weeks ago, Dumfries and Galloway Council asked employees who were not in the "at risk" category if they would volunteer to help fill positions in frontline jobs. Ian, from Annan, was one of those who agreed to take up a new post. "I offered my skills to be used wherever they are needed most," he said. "The decision was made to deploy staff to essential positions where possible, and I was initially assigned to support the community hub in Annan. "However, there was a greater need for me to work in waste collection, and I was happy to help." Ian said he was starting to get used to his new routine and was enjoying working with colleagues from a different council department. "We're following government guidelines for social distancing and using hand sanitiser and sanitiser wipes on all equipment that we use," he explained. "We are also supplied with PPE (personal protective equipment)." Ian added that his new role had been something of an eye-opener. "The people I've been working with have been showing me the ropes and keeping me right, but there's no time to dilly-dally as the job needs to be done," he said. "I have a new respect for the people that come and empty our bins daily, as the majority of bins are full and weigh a lot. "It's surprising how much people can squeeze into a wheelie bin." He also had a message for the wider public. "While being out on the refuse wagon I've seen a lot of people still not following the correct social distancing measure to keep two metres (6ft) apart from others," he said. "I would please urge everyone to try their best to follow the advice, so we can help stop the spread of this virus and get back to normality a little bit quicker." It would also allow him to leave the bin lorry behind and return to more familiar surroundings.

इयान हॉल ने एक अवकाश केंद्र में काम करने वाले जीवन को एक खाली डिब्बे के लिए बदल दिया है। वह देश भर के कई परिषद कार्यकर्ताओं में से एक हैं जिन्हें कोरोनावायरस के प्रकोप के बाद नई अग्रिम भूमिकाओं में फिर से तैनात किया गया है।


Badly burned body found in Tintwistle was white male

Summary: Post-mortem tests on a badly burned body found in a lay-by near the Peak District have revealed the victim was a white male.

Officers said the body was probably dumped some time between 21:00 BST and midnight on Sunday, just off the A628 at Tintwistle, near Glossop. A member of the public discovered the remains the following day. Detectives, who are still trying to identify the man, said a fire was started at the scene. A murder investigation has begun and the force has asked for anyone who may have seen anything unusual in the area to get in touch. People who regularly travel along the A628 between Tintwistle and the Flounch roundabout have also been asked to register their vehicles so they can be eliminated from the inquiry. More updates on this story and from around Derbyshire

पीक जिले के पास एक ले-बाय में पाए गए बुरी तरह से जले हुए शव के पोस्टमॉर्टम परीक्षणों से पता चला है कि पीड़ित एक सफेद पुरुष था।


Family who fled 'threat of violence' in Pakistan can stay in UK

Summary: A family who faced a "very real threat of violence" over a "false blasphemy charge" and attitudes to epilepsy and learning difficulties have won a fight to stay in the UK, an MP has said.

Wilson, Ruth and Charles Mukerjee arrived in Liverpool from Pakistan in 2014, but had their application to stay turned down in 2019, Paula Barker said. She said they feared Charles would be "set on fire" if they returned home. The Home Office said they had now been granted leave to remain. Mr Mukerjee said he and his family were "very happy", adding that they would now focus on his son's health "which got worse when we were detained". Ms Parker, the Labour member for Liverpool Wavertree, said she was "delighted" for the family, as "Liverpool has been their home and will remain their home now for the foreseeable". In a statement, she said they had "fled the very real threat of violence in their homeland". Sarah Jones, the chief executive of Mencap Liverpool and Sefton, said she was particularly glad Charles had been spared the "trauma" of deportation, as it would have been "incredibly dangerous" for him because his epilepsy could be triggered by stress. "As well as Wilson and his wife being at risk from the blasphemy charge, we believe Charles' life was at risk because of the way learning difficulties and epilepsy is viewed in Pakistan," she said. She added that the family were "lovely, talented, warm people, who have so much to contribute". Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk

एक सांसद ने कहा है कि "ईशनिंदा के झूठे आरोप" और मिर्गी और सीखने की कठिनाइयों के प्रति दृष्टिकोण को लेकर "हिंसा के बहुत वास्तविक खतरे" का सामना करने वाले परिवार ने ब्रिटेन में रहने की लड़ाई जीत ली है।


Greenwich murder probe after man dies from attack injuries

Summary: A man has died from injuries he suffered in a street attack in south-east London.

Jozef Boci, 30, originally from Albania, was attacked on Greenwich High Road on 17 February but died in hospital on Friday. Police believe the assault followed an argument between two groups of men at the nearby North Pole pub. Three men, aged 20, 21 and 29, have been arrested on suspicion of murder and remain in custody.

दक्षिण-पूर्वी लंदन में एक सड़क हमले में घायल एक व्यक्ति की मौत हो गई है।


Manctopia: Will progress make or break this council estate?

Summary: Manchester is one of the fastest-growing places in the UK. But as new and younger generations make this city their home, some older residents feel they are being forced to give up theirs - in the name of progress.

By Blanca MuñozBBC Stories Anne Worthington is indecisive about planting daffodils in this year. She's also worried - not so much about the flowers - but about the future. In autumn 2018, she received a letter suggesting her home on the South Collyhurst estate, on the edge of the city centre, might be under threat to make way for thousands of new homes. Her neighbours also received the same information and they are concerned some of their houses - and their community - could be demolished. But they have no idea when - hence Anne's daffodils dilemma. "I want to know their intentions regarding houses that are only 50 years old," says Anne looking at the plans. "We are part of our history. We are 1970s classic housing. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I'll tell you what: it's my cup of tea, I love it," she explains. A multi-million-pound regeneration project, called the Northern Gateway Development, could be about to change Anne's community forever. Stretching one-and-a-half miles from the edge of the city centre to the far end of the Collyhurst area in the north-east, the Northern Gateway has been described as the equivalent of a new town the size of Lancaster being built on to the side of Manchester city centre. A joint venture between the City Council and private developer Far East Consortium (FEC), the scheme is set to build 15,000 new homes by 2038, 20% of which are outlined as affordable. The Northern Gateway aims to deliver better transport links, as well as space for new businesses, shops, facilities for health, education and public spaces. Powerhouse capital Working class communities, such as Anne's, fear being displaced in order to modernise the city, but many see in the Northern Gateway the kind of development Manchester has been fighting for for decades. And with the city centre's population set to increase by as much as 50% in the next five years, every site with potential for construction is a target for developers. A little more than two miles from Collyhurst South is the West Tower, one of the high-rise buildings filling the horizon of Manchester. Its 44 floors are owned by pension giant Legal & General and all 350 of its apartments are only available to rent - none are social housing. This high life vision of Manchester's future is that of architect Ian Simpson. "When you live at the top of the building, it's very much like you're in an oasis almost. A little sanctuary away from the city," says Ian. So far, he has designed 23 apartment buildings in Manchester, which alone create 6,500 new homes. "This is the capital of the Northern Powerhouse in my mind and it needs to be reinforced in that way," reflects Ian while he looks at Manchester from one of the skyscrapers he has helped to create. "That sort of intensity, that's what I would like to see and tall buildings and mid-scale buildings all play their role in that." Find out more You can watch Manctopia: Billion Pound Property Boom on Tuesday 8 September at 21:00 on BBC Two and afterwards on BBC iPlayer. Twenty minutes' walk from the West Tower, in Manchester's red light district, developer Tim Heatley is converting a Victorian mill into apartments. Rather than "build to rent" properties for an investor, like at the West Tower, Tim's strategy is to sell to individual owner occupiers at a premium. "In the past, we were trying to create new neighbourhoods within a city and people will pay for that," explains Tim. He adds: "That's our big gamble, really. That people will value that community over everything else." One person who's bought into Tim's vision is first time buyer Joe Parker, who is moving up from London. His excitement is obvious. "It's great," says Joe admiring the exposed brick walls and the mill windows in the spacious living area. The marketing and communications manager bought one of the 126 mill apartments for £350,000 off-plan, before it was built. This is the first time he has seen his new home. "I lived in London. It was like £1,000 a month and I just thought: 'Why am I doing that?' I mean, I work in London, but I'm lucky enough to work for a flexible working company that looks after people so I thought: 'I've always fancied Manchester and it's got places like this.'" 'They assume we all live in dumps' By February 2020, Anne was still waiting to find out whether her home could be coming down. One of her neighbours, Donna Liley, decided to attend a community engagement meeting, hoping to get some answers. Donna's family was one of the first to move into the area in the 70s. Her father couldn't think about leaving this community without getting emotional. "That's another thing they assume when you live in Collyhurst, that we all live in dumps," says Donna. Attending the consultation event alongside Donna was her aunt Anne Wood. She has lived in the neighbourhood for almost 50 years. From the streets of her estate, and staring at the skyscrapers crowding Manchester's city centre, she complains: "Look at it, what's nice about all that lot? Nothing. I wouldn't go in a flat. I would not. I'm frightened to death of them." As part of a consultation exercise, the FEC and the council have employed a firm to host a number of sessions at the local school. Donna and her aunt are joined by other residents. "Why would they want to demolish good standard living homes? Is that because it's quite near to town and the land is quite valuable?" asks Donna in the meeting. "It's more around looking at the layout of these communities; whether there might be a way of redesigning some of these neighbourhoods to create more welcoming, successful neighbourhoods," responds the adviser at the consultation firm. Looking at the designs on a school desk, Donna insists: "Most people on my dad's estate, the home owners in particular, don't really want to go. At this moment in time, you really can't say the Osborne Street estate will be coming down?" The adviser responds: "I can't tell you here, today, exactly when Osborne Street would be looked at." The consultation firm tells Donna and her aunt that they will be feeding their concerns back, being "really clear on the strength of feeling" that they have encountered. On the way home, Donna is feeling frustrated. "There has to be change and there has to be development, but it does not necessarily have to be at the price of completely ripping an existing community apart." Her aunt wonders: "Not only that. They don't build houses like we've got now, do they?" Donna responds: "They build shoe boxes, auntie." There will be daffodils - for now Anne Worthington has done some digging of her own and managed to find out more details. At a meeting of neighbours at Donna's house, the atmosphere is one of relief. "They are going to build 30 houses on Collyhurst South, which is our area, but on vacant land and they will be all council," reads Anne. According to the latest information shared with residents, should any demolition be required, new houses will be built for council tenants and anyone who is an owner occupier will be invited to take part in shaping the project as it moves forward. The estate's residents have no guarantees their houses won't eventually be pulled down, but they do now know that, at least, it won't happen immediately. This also means good news for everyone's garden. "Get your daffodils in," says Donna to her neighbours. When the bulbs have become too crowded, daffodils can sometimes cease flowering. They may need to be lifted, divided and replanted. But if you cut them too early, the plant won't have enough time to store energy after blooming. As the city grows, one could think that Manchester has a lot more to do with daffodils than new and older residents may have ever thought. You can watch Manctopia: Billion Pound Property Boom on Tuesday 8 September at 21:00 on BBC Two and afterwards on BBC iPlayer.

मैनचेस्टर यू. के. में सबसे तेजी से बढ़ते स्थानों में से एक है। लेकिन जैसे-जैसे नई और युवा पीढ़ियां इस शहर को अपना घर बना रही हैं, कुछ बुजुर्ग निवासियों को लगता है कि उन्हें प्रगति के नाम पर अपना घर छोड़ने के लिए मजबूर किया जा रहा है।


Five youths killed in Trincomalee

Summary: Five young Tamils were killed and two injured in a bomb blast in the eastern Sri Lankan town of Trincomalee.

Elmo Fernando reporting from Colombo told BBC Sandeshaya that the deceased from the attack on the beach are believed to be students of two schools in the town. The north and the east has been tense during last weeks as attacks escalated against the security forces. More than 40 soldiers were killed and many more injured in bomb blasts in Jaffna and surrounding areas. Tamil National Alliance(TNA) parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingham was killed in Batticaloa during the Christmas Mass.

पूर्वी श्रीलंका के त्रिंकोमाली शहर में एक बम विस्फोट में पांच युवा तमिलों की मौत हो गई और दो घायल हो गए।


Belfast flight diverted due to 'disruptive behaviour'

Summary: A Jet2 flight from Northern Ireland to Gran Canaria was diverted to England because of "disruptive passenger behaviour," the airline has confirmed.

Flight LS371 left Belfast International Airport on Sunday morning and was over the Atlantic Ocean when the aircraft turned and diverted to Manchester. In a statement, Jet2 apologised to its customers for any inconvenience caused. It did not say what happened on board but said "as a family friendly airline we will not tolerate such behaviour".

एयरलाइन ने पुष्टि की है कि उत्तरी आयरलैंड से ग्रैन कैनारिया के लिए जेट 2 की उड़ान को "यात्रियों के विघटनकारी व्यवहार" के कारण इंग्लैंड की ओर मोड़ दिया गया था।


What difference will the Pollard report make to the BBC?

Summary: Nick Pollard brought two essential qualities to his review.

By Nick HighamBBC News One was a lifetime's experience as a journalist. His report is written with a combination of a journalist's directness and a lawyer's attention to detail; his judgements are informed by common sense and long experience of the way journalists work and take decisions. The second was his status as a well-informed BBC outsider, a senior television figure who worked for the BBC as a young man in the 1970s, but has since forged a career as a senior executive at rival, much smaller organisations: ITN, Sky News and latterly the forces broadcaster SSVC. He sees clearly, in a way that insiders often don't, the shortcomings in the way the BBC is managed, the way decisions are taken (or, just as often, not taken), the way its constituent parts are often at war with one another and the way in which responsibility for difficult or mistaken decisions can be too easily shifted by managers onto someone else. If he succumbed to the temptation to indulge in a little BBC bashing in what the BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten called his "searingly honest" report it was justified by the circumstances and the evidence. The most positive thing for the BBC in Nick Pollard's report is the central conclusion that, whatever else may have happened, and however reluctant some of those involved in the investigation may be to accept it, Newsnight's story about Jimmy Savile was not pulled because of tribute programmes to the dead star scheduled to run at Christmas last year, or that any improper pressure was put on Newsnight's editor to drop it. Indeed he reports two occasions on which the editor's bosses explicitly told him to press ahead with the investigation regardless of what else the BBC might be doing. That will come as a relief to those who believe that the reputation of BBC News for trustworthiness and independence is one of the Corporation's most valuable assets. Any other conclusion would have been little short of disastrous. The most depressing finding is his conclusion that, once the storm broke, the BBC response "lacked leadership and co-ordination", that the BBC's management seemed "completely incapable of dealing with it" and that even systems put in place to prevent such fiascos didn't work properly. Indeed, he highlights the decision to remove the Newsnight Savile investigation from something called the Managed Risk Programmes List, which circulates to all BBC departments as an early warning of programmes that might, among other things, pose a "reputational risk" to the Corporation. That decision ("a serious mistake on his part, for which he has not been able to provide any credible explanation") was taken by the deputy director of news, Steve Mitchell, who is resigning. On the other hand, the criteria for including programmes in the list have never been properly spelt out. Few journalists would relish their actions being subjected to the kind of detailed scrutiny with which Pollard dissects former Newsnight editor Peter Rippon's "seriously flawed" decision not to run the original Savile investigation, the editor's relationship with some of his programme team (it had "broken down"), Steve Mitchell's role in the decision ("I found the frequency with which Mr Mitchell's memory failed him surprising"), or his boss Helen Boaden's reaction to the "virtual meltdown" in parts of her division ("she should have taken greater responsibility"). Nick Pollard makes some sensible recommendations for tightening up procedures in future. But what wider difference will his report make? As a result of it several executives will move to new jobs, but only one - Steve Mitchell - will leave the BBC, and that not immediately. That's provoked criticism outside, with allegations that the BBC is failing to take the Pollard conclusions seriously enough. The new line in Nick Pollard's report which other news organisations have already seized on is the warning in an email in 2010 from Nick Vaughan-Barratt, the BBC's head of events until he retired in 2011. Vaughan-Barratt had worked with Jimmy Savile as a young man, and said he thought an obituary programme on the star to run on the day of his death would be inappropriate, because of "unanswered questions and rumours regarding his personal life" . In a later email to George Entwistle, then head of television at the BBC, he said "I'd feel v queasy about obit. I saw the real truth!!!" and in yet another email he referred to Jimmy Savile's "dark side". When the Pollard inquiry interviewed him Nick Vaughan-Barratt explained he was thinking of Savile's unorthodox lifestyle, his "weird" personality and his professed dislike of children. He also told the inquiry of his suspicion that Savile was gay, and recalled one occasion when he'd picked Savile up one morning and the star had emerged with a teenage girl. But he stressed that before 2012 he had no suspicion that Savile had done anything illegal. This is not, Pollard concludes, a "smoking gun": but it's further evidence that BBC staff had doubts about Savile during his lifetime; and it does raise questions about the wisdom of running those tributes last Christmas.

निक पोलार्ड ने अपनी समीक्षा में दो आवश्यक गुण लाए।


Charlotte Leslie MP demands action over Avonmouth flies

Summary: The plight of Avonmouth residents who are living with a "plague of flies" has been raised in the Commons by Bristol North West MP Charlotte Leslie.

The Tory MP attacked the Environment Agency for saying that the infestation was "not a problem", and demanded the government take the issue seriously. At Prime Minister's Questions David Cameron acknowledged people in the area had "suffered unacceptably". The Environment Agency said it would work with Ms Leslie on the issue. On 5 June waste recycling firm Boomeco was stripped of its permission to operate at Avonmouth Dock after the Environment Agency found it was responsible for a series of fly infestations. The firm was storing bales of waste at the dockside prior to export.

"मक्खियों के प्लेग" के साथ रह रहे एवनमाउथ निवासियों की दुर्दशा को ब्रिस्टल नॉर्थ वेस्ट के सांसद शार्लोट लेस्ली ने कॉमन्स में उठाया है।


LA Fitness gym in Belfast taken over by Pure Gym

Summary: An LA Fitness gym in Adelaide Street in Belfast city centre, which is due to close on 4 July, is to be taken over by Pure Gym.

The company says the new gym will be open 24 hours a day, however the swimming pool is to close. It has set an opening date of 30 September. Pure Gym is also opening a new branch at Toscana Retail Park in Bangor. A deal had previously been reached to sell the Adelaide Street gym to Sports Direct, but it fell through. Pure Gym has 66 gyms across the UK including one at St Annes Square in Belfast.

बेलफास्ट शहर के केंद्र में एडिलेड स्ट्रीट में एक एल. ए. फिटनेस जिम, जो 4 जुलाई को बंद होने वाला है, को प्योर जिम द्वारा लिया जाना है।


Hunger Games: Fact and fiction collide

Summary: Next to each kneeling, hooded captive stands an emotionless soldier with their finger on the trigger of their gun. On a hidden command they fire, and the line of bodies falls to the floor.

By Echo ChambersOpinion and analysis from around the world This scene, which has become depressingly familiar in recent months, is not another grisly video released by the Islamic State militant group. It's from the biggest film of the year so far, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1. Eerily, it was shot nearly a year before the first IS beheading video was released. The third instalment of the series made £12.6m in the UK and $123m (£78m) in the US in its opening weekend. While the movie version of The Hunger Games, based on the young adult series by Suzanne Collins, is packed with big name stars like Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson and Donald Sutherland, some are more interested in the politics of the film and how it seems to parallel reality. Another scene shows an emaciated and brainwashed Peeta Mellark, played by Josh Hutcherson, flatly repeating lines fed to him by his captors. In the movie the tyrannical President Snow imprisons Peeta and turns him into a propaganda tool in order to quell an uprising. On the other side, Ms Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen is also being used as a tool, but for the rebel army. For many this "war of the airwaves" served as an interesting look at the state of modern warfare. "I think there are parallels with ISIS," director Francis Lawrence said in an interview with the Daily Best. "We made this film before the videos were released, so it's a chilling reminder of what can happen in the real world." Mr Lawrence said one of the themes he explored was the manipulation of imagery and people in propaganda. The practice has been around for a long time, he said, but technology has made it easier to deliver and much more immediate. The jihadist IS wasn't the only real-world similarity in the film. At one point a covert volunteer team sets out to rescue Peeta from the US Capitol in the middle of the night. Watching the small group fly a helicopter and burst into a secure compound, it's difficult not to see parallels with the US raid on Osama bin Laden. One shot even shows the leaders of the rebellion sitting in a room watching camera footage of the mission - an image that strongly resembles the iconic photo of President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice-President Joe Biden viewing footage of the Seal commando team. The Guardian's Suzanne Moore says this children's movie was far from childish, but instead was "violent and despairing". "These are the kinds of images our children see, whether we want them to or no," Moore writes. "When Katniss stands in the rubble of her district razed to the ground, it could be parts of Syria, Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan." She says the fact that Mockingjay is so popular is a grim reflection on the teenagers of today, who grew up on increasingly graphic imagery. Rebecca Cusey, writing for the Federalist, contends that the film is dark, but the complex way it explores the idea of propaganda makes sense compared to the books, which were written in the mid-2000s. "The world seems darker," she writes. "We can no longer attribute these problems to pro-war propaganda. Increasingly, we know evil exists and is not going away. Maybe we need symbols to inspire us." But the Telegraph's Tim Stanley argues that people may just be reading too much into the work. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, as Sigmund Freud quipped. He says the film's ideology does not belong just to liberals who see the story as inspiration to organise against the conservatives. But neither does it belong solely to conservatives who have latched on to the propaganda narrative, he continues, and linked it to the Obama administration's supposed manipulation of the press. Some have even found a survivalist theme in the film, he writes - a call for people to grab their guns and run before Mr Obama comes for them. "In reality, The Hunger Games is first and foremost a fine piece of rollicking fiction," he writes. "The right and left's attempts to read the books and movies to suit their agendas proves the point of postmodern thinkers who argue that readers/viewers interpret art according to their own ends - and we should be highly sceptical of their efforts." Images from the film have spilled over into real life, however. One symbol - a three-fingered salute - cropped up in Thailand, where five students were arrested last week for flashing the gesture. The salute took hold in May after the country's military coup. Since then, Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha, the leader of the junta, has made the gesture illegal. One cinema chain in Thailand recently pulled their screenings of Mockingjay, saying that they wanted to avoid getting involved in a political movement. While The Hunger Games may borrow from reality, it seems reality may start borrowing in return. (By Kierran Petersen)

प्रत्येक घुटने टेकने के बगल में, हुड वाला बंदी अपनी बंदूक के ट्रिगर पर अपनी उंगली के साथ एक भावनाहीन सैनिक खड़ा होता है। एक छिपे हुए आदेश पर वे गोली चलाते हैं, और शरीर की रेखा फर्श पर गिर जाती है।


Channel Islands airline to open French Alps route

Summary: Weekly flights between the Channel Islands and Chambery, near the French Alps, will start this winter, airline Blue Islands has announced.

The service will operate every Saturday from Guernsey via Jersey from 15 December 2012 to 13 April 2013. Rob Veron, managing director, said the new route was aimed at skiers who wanted to avoid flying via the UK. Both its main Channel Islands rivals Flybe and Aurigny also offer direct flights to cities near the French Alps.

एयरलाइन ब्लू आइलैंड्स ने घोषणा की है कि फ्रेंच आल्प्स के पास चैनल आइलैंड्स और चैंबरी के बीच साप्ताहिक उड़ानें इस सर्दियों में शुरू होंगी।


Q&A: What is 'forward guidance'?

Summary: The governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has overhauled his policy of "forward guidance", just six months after it was first implemented.

"Forward guidance" is a tool that Mr Carney has shown a penchant for in his previous job heading Canada's central bank, and that he more-or-less put into immediate action in a statement following the first policy meeting under his stewardship. Mr Carney, and the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), delivered explicit guidance regarding the future conduct of monetary policy in August. But now he has adapted the plan, owing to falling unemployment and an economic recovery in the UK.

बैंक ऑफ इंग्लैंड के गवर्नर, मार्क कार्नी ने पहली बार लागू होने के छह महीने बाद ही "आगे के मार्गदर्शन" की अपनी नीति में बदलाव किया है।


Man charged over Ilkeston rape and attempted murder

Summary: A man has been charged with the rape and attempted murder of a woman who had got off a night bus.

The attack happened on Queens Avenue in Ilkeston, Derybshire, in the early hours of 26 November. Anthony Dealey, of Erewash Square, Ilkeston, was arrested on Tuesday and has also been charged with robbery and sexual assault. The 42-year-old is due to appear at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court later.

एक आदमी पर रात की बस से उतरने वाली महिला के साथ बलात्कार और हत्या का प्रयास करने का आरोप लगाया गया है।


The Roman Ninth Legion's mysterious loss

Summary: The disappearance of Rome's Ninth Legion has long baffled historians, but could a brutal ambush have been the event that forged the England-Scotland border, asks archaeologist Dr Miles Russell, of Bournemouth University.

One of the most enduring legends of Roman Britain concerns the disappearance of the Ninth Legion. The theory that 5,000 of Rome's finest soldiers were lost in the swirling mists of Caledonia, as they marched north to put down a rebellion, forms the basis of a new film, The Eagle, but how much of it is true? It is easy to understand the appeal of stories surrounding the loss of the Roman Ninth Legion - a disadvantaged band of British warriors inflicting a humiliating defeat upon a well-trained, heavily-armoured professional army. It's the ultimate triumph of the underdog - an unlikely tale of victory against the odds. Recently, however, the story has seeped further into the national consciousness of both England and Scotland. For the English, the massacre of the Ninth is an inspiring tale of home-grown "Davids" successfully taking on a relentless European "Goliath". For the Scots, given the debate on devolved government and national identity, not to say the cultural impact of Braveheart, the tale has gained extra currency - freedom-loving highlanders resisting monolithic, London-based imperialists. The legend of the Ninth gained form thanks to acclaimed novelist Rosemary Sutcliff, whose masterpiece, The Eagle of the Ninth, became an instant bestseller when published in 1954. Since then, generations of children and adults have been entranced by the story of a young Roman officer, Marcus Aquila, travelling north of Hadrian's Wall in order to uncover the truth about his father, lost with the Ninth, and the whereabouts of the Legion's battle standard, the bronze eagle. The historians have dissented, theorising that the Ninth did not disappear in Britain at all, arguing both book and film are wrong. Their theory has been far more mundane - the legion was, in fact, a victim of strategic transfer, swapping the cold expanse of northern England, for arid wastes in the Middle East. Here, sometime before AD 160, they were wiped out in a war against the Persians. But, contrary to this view, there is not one shred of evidence that the Ninth were ever taken out of Britain. It's just a guess which, over time, has taken on a sheen of cast iron certainty. Three stamped tiles bearing the unit number of the Ninth found at Nijmegen, in the Netherlands, have been used to support the idea of transfer from Britain. But these all seem to date to the 80s AD, when detachments of the Ninth were indeed on the Rhine fighting Germanic tribes. They do not prove that the Ninth left Britain for good. In fact, the last certain piece of evidence relating to the existence of the Legion from anywhere in the Roman Empire comes from York where an inscription, dating to AD 108, credits the Ninth with rebuilding the fortress in stone. Some time between then and the mid-2nd Century, when a record of all Legions was compiled, the unit had ceased to exist. But what happened to the Ninth? The early years of the 2nd Century were deeply traumatic for Britannia. The Roman writer Fronto observed that, in the reign of the emperor Hadrian (AD 117 - 138), large numbers of Roman soldiers were killed by the British. The number and full extent of these losses remain unknown, but they were evidently significant. The anonymously authored Augustan History, compiled in the 3rd Century, provides further detail, noting that when Hadrian became emperor, "the Britons could not be kept under Roman control". The British problem was of deep concern to Roman central government. Thanks to a tombstone recovered from Ferentinum in Italy, we know that emergency reinforcements of over 3,000 men were rushed to the island on "the British Expedition", early in Hadrian's reign. The emperor himself visited the island in AD 122, in order to "correct many faults", bringing with him a new legion, the Sixth. The fact that they took up residence in the legionary fortress of York suggests that the "great losses" of personnel, alluded to by Fronto, had occurred within the ranks of the Ninth. It would seem that Sutcliff was right after all. It was the Ninth, the most exposed and northerly of all legions in Britain, that had borne the brunt of the uprising, ending their days fighting insurgents in the turmoil of early 2nd Century Britain. The loss of such an elite military unit had an unexpected twist which reverberates to the present day. When the emperor Hadrian visited Britain at the head of a major troop surge, he realised that there was only one way to ensure stability in the island - he needed to build a wall. Hadrian's Wall was designed to keep invaders out of Roman territory as well as ensuring that potential insurgents within the province had no hope of receiving support from their allies to the north. From this point, cultures on either side of the great divide developed at different rates and in very different ways. The ultimate legacy of the Ninth was the creation of a permanent border, forever dividing Britain. The origins of what were to become the independent kingdoms of England and Scotland may be traced to the loss of this unluckiest of Roman legions. Dr Miles Russell is a senior lecturer in Prehistoric and Roman Archaeology at Bournemouth University.

बोर्नमाउथ विश्वविद्यालय के पुरातत्वविद् डॉ. माइल्स रसेल पूछते हैं कि रोम की नौवीं सेना के गायब होने ने इतिहासकारों को लंबे समय से चकित कर दिया है, लेकिन इंग्लैंड-स्कॉटलैंड सीमा को जाली बनाने वाली घटना एक क्रूर घात हो सकती है।


Falklands War: SAS role in the conflict

Summary: When HMS Sheffield was destroyed by an Exocet missile 30 years ago, Britain's Special Air Service (SAS) was mobilised to take out the Argentine aircraft which carried them - one of a number of daring missions at the heart of the Falklands War. Here, those at the sharp end of the special forces operations recall the highs and lows.

By Peter JacksonBBC News After 30 years of counter-terrorism work in minor conflicts, the SAS grabbed the chance to engage in its first large-scale conflict since World War II with both hands. HMS Sheffield was patrolling at the edge of the British fleet in the South Atlantic on 4 May 1982 when it was hit by the Exocet, killing 20 of its crew. The newly acquired French-made weapons were highly effective and threatened a humiliating defeat for the British fleet. To counter the threat, the SAS was called in to destroy the Super Etendard aircraft which carried the Exocets. They were based at Rio Grande on the Argentine mainland, 400 miles west of the Falkland Islands. Operation Mikado aimed to fly 55 SAS men on to the heavily defended base in two C130 Hercules transport aircraft, keeping the engines running while they carried out the attack. It was a daring mission. If they were able to take off again, they would head for a base in Chile; if not, the surviving SAS and aircrew would have to flee into the mountains on foot. Because the Hercules could not carry enough fuel to return to base, it was a one-way trip with no route home, and the SAS soldiers were deeply sceptical about their chances of success. Nicknaming it "operation certain death", they said it amounted to a suicide mission. Robin Horsfall, who is now 55, was among the elite B Squadron soldiers chosen for the operation. He told the BBC that they had all believed they would be killed or captured. "We were written off to save our capital ships. I remember it well - my wife was eight months pregnant," he said. "We didn't at any time question the mission, we questioned how to do it successfully, which was our right." He said the SAS wanted to parachute in "off target" to avoid landing on the runway, but were overruled higher up the chain of command. He said that after one heated exchange, a staff sergeant who expressed his views was fired for being negative. "You wear the cap badge, and when the time comes to earn it, you have to accept it. In many cases it is special forces' job to die to achieve a military and political objective, you just hope you're not going to be the one," he said. "If you're not prepared to die, you're a bluffer. I accepted it." In advance of the main raid, volunteers were sought for a one-way mission in a Sea King helicopter to drop off an SAS team, observe the base and report back. Codenamed Operation Plum Duff, the high-risk night raid needed a pilot - and after much soul searching, Richard Hutchings - who subsequently became a colonel in the armed forces - stepped forward. He would later be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his valour. "You've got these conflicting priorities in your mind. I was the best-qualified pilot to do this, and the only one who was a soldier and SAS-trained. I had to make myself available," he said. "But I also had a wife and two young children, and weighing up one against the other was not easy." He said his cabin floor was covered in screwed up sheets of A4 paper as he wrote two "final letters home" - one to his wife and one to his parents. During the mission on 17 May, Col Hutchings, his crew of two, and an eight-man SAS team were 50 miles from the Argentine coast when he had to divert after flying through a well-lit gas field he did not know was there. On reaching the coast, thick fog descended, and with no visual reference points to navigate he was forced to land - seven miles from the intended drop-off point. Two SAS men jumped out of the helicopter just as their commander aborted the mission, and after the pair had been ordered back inside, Col Hutchings headed to Chile to drop the entire team off then destroy the aircraft. The crew made holes in the helicopter and tried to sink it in the sea, but it remained afloat, so Col Hutchings crashed it into the beach instead. "I poured gallons of petrol around inside... and after jettisoning the remaining fuel, threw a flare into the aircraft, and it went up in a ball of fuel in seconds," he said. "We destroyed our night-vision goggles, threw our weapons into the sea and set off on foot into the countryside." The Sea King "crash" was a cover story aimed at safeguarding Operation Mikado, and the crew was under orders to evade capture for eight days. The Chilean authorities, who were friendly to the British, eventually caught up with them and they were questioned, released and flown back to the UK via Spain. With the element of surprise lost, and after British intelligence discovered Argentina's radar system was better than had originally been thought, Operation Mikado was scrapped. But this was just one part of the British special forces' involvement in the Falklands War. Weeks before the first regular British soldiers arrived on the Falkland Islands, four-man SAS and Special Boat Service (SBS) patrols were flown in at night to hide up and report back on enemy positions. The reconnaissance teams were highly exposed with no natural cover, concealing themselves for days and weeks at a time in shallow ditches covered in camouflage nets and soil. One patrol even hid in the wreckage of a ship, reporting on enemy air and sea movements around Port Stanley via satellite phone - a new technology at the time. "We were literally flying blind, picking out routes around areas where we felt there were unlikely to be Argentine troops." Colonel Hutchings, then a young lieutenant, flew seven missions in less than three weeks in Sea King helicopters, flying as low as 20ft (6m) at times to avoid enemy radar. "From time to time we needed to resupply. We'd fly back using different routes, they would hand over bergens full of leftover food and dead batteries, and we'd hand over new supplies," he said. The SAS patrols eventually called in Harrier jet strikes against Argentine helicopter bases and a fuel dump near Goose Green, which restricted the enemy's movement. One of the most notable SAS raids of the 74-day conflict left six Argentine ground-attack Pucara aircraft burning on a grassy airstrip on Pebble Island, a remote spot on the north coast of West Falkland. An air strike had been ruled out because of the site's proximity to civilians, so 42 SAS men in three Sea King helicopters were dispatched to eliminate the threat posed by the Pucaras. Amid supporting fire from HMS Glamorgan, the assault teams assaulted the airstrip and blew up the planes, choosing the same section of each aircraft to avoid any later reconstruction from spare parts. "It was the best example ever of a combined operation special forces mission since World War II," said Col Hutchings, who flew one of the helicopters on the mission in near-hurricane winds. But he said events on 15 May 1982 did not run like clockwork because the bad weather delayed the Sea Kings' departure. "The mission originally had been the destruction of the aircraft and the killing of the service personnel, but because we were running late their lives had to be spared," he said. "Some of the pilots that survived could have been redeployed, but there had to be last-minute replanning. "In special forces operations, it's the spur of the moment decisions that win the day or not, not the planners at Hereford." A few days after Pebble Island, the SAS lost 18 men in a Sea King crash - the most fatalities suffered by the regiment in a single day since World War II. The helicopter had been attempting to land on HMS Intrepid when it ditched in the sea, killing the SAS soldiers and four others. Some got out but most drowned. The cause remains unclear but has been blamed on both a bird strike and mechanical failure. Robin Horsfall recalled: "People knew them and were sad about it, then you're stoic and get on with your job. In a war of that nature, everyone was taking casualties."

जब 30 साल पहले एच. एम. एस. शेफ़ील्ड को एक एक्सोसेट मिसाइल द्वारा नष्ट कर दिया गया था, तो ब्रिटेन की विशेष वायु सेवा (एस. ए. एस.) को अर्जेंटीना के विमान को बाहर निकालने के लिए जुटाया गया था, जो उन्हें ले गया था-फ़ॉकलैंड युद्ध के केंद्र में कई साहसी मिशनों में से एक। यहाँ, विशेष बलों के संचालन के चरम पर रहने वाले लोग उतार-चढ़ाव को याद करते हैं।


Profile: Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Summary: Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe may have described him as "evil", but Archbishop Desmond Tutu remains a much-loved figure across the world - principally for his role in South Africa's struggle against apartheid.

During the long years that Nelson Mandela was in prison, Archbishop Tutu spoke out against the regime - and won the Nobel peace prize in 1984 for his efforts. He was chosen by President Mandela to chair South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission and investigate the crimes committed by all sides during the apartheid regime. At 78, "the Arch" - as he is known - has remained irrepressible and influential both in his native South Africa and on the global political stage. He is chairman of a group of former world leaders called The Elders, launched on Nelson Mandela's 89th birthday in 2007 with the aim of tackling some of the world's most pressing problems. Early days Desmond Tutu was born in 1931 in a small gold-mining town in the Transvaal. He first followed in his father's footsteps as a teacher, but abandoned that career after the passage of the 1953 Bantu Education Act, which enforced separation of races in all educational institutions. He joined the Church and was strongly influenced by many white clergymen in the country, especially another strong opponent of apartheid, Bishop Trevor Huddleston. Desmond Tutu became the first black Anglican Dean of Johannesburg in 1975. He was already a high-profile Church figure before the 1976 rebellion in black townships, but it was in the months before the Soweto violence that he first became known to white South Africans as a campaigner for reform. Inevitably, his pleas for justice and reconciliation in South Africa drew him into the political arena - but he always insisted that his motivation was religious, not political. The churchman constantly told the government of the time that its racist approach defied the will of God and for that reason could not succeed. Speaking out Desmond Tutu was elected Archbishop of Cape Town in 1986. As the first black head of the Anglican Church in South Africa, he continued to campaign actively against apartheid. In March 1988, he declared: "We refuse to be treated as the doormat for the government to wipe its jackboots on." Six months later, he risked jail by calling for a boycott of municipal elections. Archbishop Tutu warmly welcomed the liberalising reforms announced by President FW De Klerk soon after he took office in 1989. These included the lifting of the ban on the African National Congress and the release of Mr Mandela. 'Appalled at the evil' In November 1995, the then President Mandela asked Archbishop Tutu to head a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. His task was to gather evidence of apartheid-era crimes and to recommend whether people confessing their involvement should receive amnesty. At the end of the Commission's inquiry, in August 1998, he attacked South Africa's former white leaders, saying most of them had lied to the Commission. He was often overcome by the pain of those who had suffered and said that he had been "appalled at the evil we have uncovered". The Commission's report was accepted by the government, but was criticised by those who felt it fell a long way short of its aims. Archbishop Tutu was accused, for instance, of being too soft on Winnie Mandela, who faced allegations of very serious crimes. His experience in setting up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has led many governments and organisations to enlist his help for similar projects. He advised non-governmental groups seeking reconciliation in Northern Ireland and has been invited to the Solomon Islands to help set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission there. Zimbabwe 'basket case' In recent years, Archbishop Tutu has been an outspoken critic of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, saying he had become "a cartoon figure of an archetypal African dictator". In December 2008, he called on President Mugabe to resign or risk trial at the International Criminal Court. The Archbishop accused Mr Mugabe of ruining what he called a wonderful country and turning it from a "bread-basket" into a "basket case". He has repeatedly said that using force should be an option to get rid of Mr Mugabe and has criticised the South African government of being too soft on Zimbabwe's leader. In his role as the chairman of The Elders, Archbishop Tutu continues to lend his support to conflict-resolution efforts across the world. In October 2008, he travelled to the divided island of Cyprus, where the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders had begun negotiations to try to reunify the island. He tried to encourage members of both communities to back the talks. The Nobel laureate was also central to international efforts to calm the political crisis which engulfed Kenya after the 2006 election. The archbishop met the two rival political leaders, Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki, to help persuade them to talk. A power-sharing deal was reached a month later, with the two party leaders agreeing to the formation of a coalition government. However, wrangling over government posts continued for months. Stinging criticism Israel is another country to come under attack from the outspoken clergyman. He has accused Israel of practising apartheid in its policies towards the Palestinians, and described Israeli blockades of the Gaza Strip as an "abomination". On a visit to the Middle East in 2002, he said he was "very deeply distressed", adding that "it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa". Former US President George W Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair also felt the sting of the archbishop's criticism, when he urged them to admit they had made a mistake in waging an "immoral" war in Iraq. In an article for BBC News in February 2009, he wrote: "It would be wonderful if, on behalf of the nation, [President Barack] Obama apologises to the world, and especially the Iraqis, for an invasion that I believe has turned out to be an unmitigated disaster." Tackling poverty His criticism is not confined to politics, either. In the wake of the furore over the ordination of gay bishops in the Anglican church, he accused the Anglican communion of allowing its "obsession" with homosexuality to come before serious action to end world poverty. "God is weeping" to see such a focus on sexuality, he said, adding that the Church was "quite rightly" seen by many as irrelevant on the issue of poverty. Most recently, he has urged governments affected by the global economic downturn to remember less well-off societies when considering cuts in overseas aid. "Can you imagine what the impact must be on those who have been, in any case, on the margins of international society?" he said speaking on a visit to Ireland on 15 February. "We belong together, and protectionism does not work... It is self-defeating."

जिम्बाब्वे के नेता रॉबर्ट मुगाबे ने उन्हें "दुष्ट" के रूप में वर्णित किया होगा, लेकिन आर्कबिशप डेसमंड टूटू दुनिया भर में एक बहुत ही प्रिय व्यक्ति बने हुए हैं-मुख्य रूप से रंगभेद के खिलाफ दक्षिण अफ्रीका के संघर्ष में उनकी भूमिका के लिए।