Malaysia's election: A battle of old allies

Summary: Malaysia is holding a general election on Wednesday.

While incumbent Prime Minister Najib Razak looks likely to secure another term, he is facing a strong challenge from his long-time ally, former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has made a surprise return to politics at the age of 92. Here's what you need to know. Who runs Malaysia at the moment? Malaysian politics has been dominated since independence in 1957 by the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and its major party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). Najib Razak won a second term as prime minister in 2013 but with a weakened majority in the face of the strongest opposition ever. Opponents alleged electoral fraud at the time and critics have also repeatedly accused his administration of gerrymandering. He faces international allegations of rampant corruption in relation to the management of state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Who is running against him? Mr Najib's main rival is former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad who is running again for office at the age of 92. Dr Mahathir had stepped down in 2003 after two decades in power. While his tenure is credited with transforming Malaysia into an Asian economic tiger, Dr Mahathir also took a tough stand against those who opposed him or threatened his power. Formerly Mr Najib's mentor and ally, he had grown vocally opposed to his leadership in recent years. And in a further twist, Dr Mahathir has said if he is elected, he will aim to hand over power to someone else within two years. That person could be his own former rival, jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. Anwar, Dr Mahathir's deputy and heir apparent in the 1990s, was sacked in 1998 over political differences, and later jailed on sodomy and corruption charges, which he has always denied. Dr Mahathir has said he will seek a pardon for Anwar, enabling him to run for election and potentially, for the top job. Will corruption scandals sway voters? 1MDB was initially set up as a sovereign wealth fund by Mr Najib. It was meant to boost the national economy through strategic investments. Yet in 2015 it started missing payments, which unleashed a torrent of allegations of embezzlement and money-laundering. Some $700m (£517m) from the fund allegedly went to Mr Najib's personal bank accounts. 1MDB and Mr Najib deny any misconduct. An investigation by the attorney-general has cleared him of any wrongdoing but failed to convince his critics. Several countries are investigating transactions relating to 1MDB, and several institutions and individuals have been sanctioned over related transactions. But while the opposition campaign has focused a lot on the 1MDB scandal, the issue has consistently failed to rile Malaysians. Voters are primarily concerned about day-to-day issues. The cost of living - housing, food, transport and so on - has risen under Mr Najib's tenure and inflation reached an eight-year high in 2017. Will the elections be free and fair? Activists say no. Election reform group Bersih 2.0 - which has organised large-scale protests in the past calling for political transparency - has accused the Election Commission of electoral fraud. It cites 10 "serious crimes", including alleged failure to remove dead people from the electoral roll, irregularities in postal voting, a failure to take action against corruption allegations and allowing the bare minimum time between parliament being dissolved and voting taking place. The biggest concern, however, has been the allegations of rampant gerrymandering. Activists and the opposition say the recently redrawn election boundaries have ensured constituencies are packed full of Muslim Malays, a demographic which tends to back the government. The government has insisted the election will be free and fair. Mr Najib told parliament the Election Commission acts "for the good of all, for the sake of people and country". Opposition politicians and activists also fear that a controversial fake news law is being used to silence critics. At the beginning of May, authorities began investigating Dr Mahathir under the law over his claim that his plane had been tampered with. Who is going to win? Voters will elect 222 members of parliament as well as state assembly members in 12 of the 13 states. Mr Najib is the outright favourite. He and the BN traditionally enjoy the support of Malay Muslims, about 60% of the population. He has said a win for any other party would be "a nightmare" for ethnic Malays. The opposition has traditionally relied on ethnic Chinese, Indian and other minority groups. Malaysia has a first-past-the-post system - the party that wins the most seats takes office. So even if Mr Najib wins, his party could lose seats, reducing his political clout and potentially putting his position as leader in question. The only thing that gives the opposition a chance is the fact that the Malay vote is likely to be split between the governing, opposition and Islamist coalitions as never before. A defeat for Mr Najib - though seen as unlikely - would lay political powers for the very first time into the hands of the opposition, setting the country into unchartered waters. BBC Monitoring contributed to this report

मलेशिया में बुधवार को आम चुनाव हो रहे हैं।


How real is China's anti-corruption campaign?

Summary: China's anti-corruption campaign seems to be gathering steam by the day. Chinese citizens are subjected to a near-constant stream of headlines in the country's state media, announcing new investigations into business executives and political officials alike. Here are some answers to help explain the latest revelations from the party's campaign against bribery and corruption. Q: The party just placed another top official, Jiang Jiemin, under investigation. Why does this matter?

By Celia HattonBBC News, Beijing Mr Jiang's downfall is important because of the position he held and party officials he is allied with. Jiang Jiemin rose through the ranks of China's highly-profitable state-owned oil companies. Some believe he was netted by the anti-corruption campaign because of his previous position as the head of China's biggest oil giant, the China National Petroleum Corporation. "This kind of state-owned enterprise makes a lot of money, so that's why the corruption campaign is looking into people there," said grassroots corruption investigator, Li Xinde. "It's not just Jiang Jiemin who is under investigation. Several other oil executives have been arrested too." Of course, one cannot ignore that Mr Jiang is not just a business executive. He is also the most senior official to be placed under the shadow of Chinese President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign. After repeated warnings that rampant corruption threatens to topple the Communist Party, Xi Jinping unleashed an anti-corruption campaign he promised would capture officials at all ranks of the party, both "tigers and flies". But so far, only one "tiger", former Chongqing Party Chief Bo Xilai, has faced trial. Xi Jinping cannot even claim credit for Bo Xilai's high-profile implosion, since his downfall started before Mr Xi assumed power. So China's president was under pressure to net a tiger, and Jiang Jiemin fits the description. "Xi Jinping will receive tremendous praise [for this]," Cheng Li, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, said of the investigation into Mr Jiang. "You cannot say they only want to deal with flies. They deal with tigers too." Q: But doesn't Jiang Jiemin's status as a tiger offer him any protection? Can't his party 'cronies' help him out? Perhaps not. Jiang Jiemin's rise through the party ranks is largely attributed to Zhou Yongkang, China's recently retired security czar. Persistent rumours indicate that Mr Zhou continues to act as a rival to Xi Jinping and he might be the ultimate tiger who is toppled by Mr Xi's corruption witch hunt. Citing unnamed sources, the South China Morning Post newspaper argued that Mr Zhou is already under investigation, though Beijing has yet to confirm that story. Q: So what really explains Mr Jiang's downfall? His time in the oil sector or his political ties? It is unclear. Jiang Jiemin appears to be vulnerable in both areas. "The investigations of Bo Xilai and Jiang Jiemin are actually quite similar," said Hu Xingdou, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology. "Bo Xilai's political problems with his former police chief, Wang Lijun, resulted in an investigation into his economic troubles. In Jiang Jiemin's case, he was investigated first for his economic mistakes, but now he is in trouble because of his political affiliations." The true motives behind Jiang Jiemin's investigation might be revealed if his mentor, Zhou Yongkang, is also hauled before the courts on corruption charges. Q: But Zhou Yongkang is retired. Why would Xi Jinping bother to investigate someone who is already out of power? As a member of the elite Politburo Standing Committee, Zhou Yongkang ended his career at the very top of the Chinese Communist Party. Like other retired leaders, he probably still holds a great deal of clout behind the scenes. Perhaps some believe that Xi Jinping wants to curtail that power, said Andrew Wedeman, a professor of political science at Georgia State University, who studies corruption in China. "I can see good reasons why Xi Jinping would like to pick off all the people around Zhou Yongkang but leave him untouched," Dr Wedeman said. "That would leave Zhou in an isolated position where he'd have to skate off into the sunset and absent himself from ongoing infighting regarding appointments, etcetera. "On the other hand, I can see Xi going after Zhou Yongkang in order to really show: I am willing to pick off people who have been at the very senior levels." Q: Does anyone in China actually take this corruption campaign seriously? It seems so. Cynicism is high in a country where corruption among government officials is almost expected. However, the so-called "petro purge" at the state oil companies has won Xi Jinping many fans on China's chatty internet forums. "Anti-corruption is the start of a Chinese dream," wrote a typical blogger on weibo, China's version of Twitter. "This money could have been used to strengthen our national defence and improve people's lives. Party General Xi! Our whole nation supports you and embraces you!" The experts seem optimistic too. Beijing professor, Hu Xingdou, said this campaign is far different from earlier, similar attempts to wipe out government corruption. "This is an unprecedented effort to crack down on corruption, and the level of officials getting investigated is getting higher and higher, " he said. Xi's Tigers and Flies campaign appears to have gone on for such a long time, many seem to believe, and it has netted such a widespread group of party officials, that it is difficult to dismiss it as an empty political gesture. Q: But many top officials rose to power through the same corrupt system they are now trying to clean up! Is the government really serious about stopping all corruption? Yes, up to a point. The public's anger over the brazen corruption displayed by Rolex-toting officials seems to have hit boiling point, forcing the party to take the issue seriously. Corruption exists in all societies, notes Andrew Wedeman, but the Communist Party is tasked with reducing China's corruption to a more manageable level. "The Communist Party concentrates such power in the hands of officials that they are in a position to engage in corruption and cover it up at the same time," Mr Wedeman said. "On the other hand, if the regime wants to go after someone, they go after people. They arrest, they convict and they imprison a substantial number of officials every year. So, in theory, it's possible to crack down on it."

चीन का भ्रष्टाचार विरोधी अभियान दिन-ब-दिन तेज होता जा रहा है। चीनी नागरिक देश के सरकारी मीडिया में सुर्खियों की एक निरंतर धारा के अधीन हैं, जो व्यापारिक अधिकारियों और राजनीतिक अधिकारियों के खिलाफ समान रूप से नई जांच की घोषणा करते हैं। रिश्वत और भ्रष्टाचार के खिलाफ पार्टी के अभियान से नवीनतम खुलासे को समझाने में मदद करने के लिए यहां कुछ जवाब दिए गए हैं। प्रश्नः पार्टी ने अभी-अभी एक और शीर्ष अधिकारी, जियांग जीमिन को जांच के दायरे में रखा है। यह मामला क्यों है?


Amol Rajan: What kind of internet do you want?

Summary: In recent months I have been influenced by a paper on The Geopolitics of Digital Governance by two University of Southampton academics, Kieron O'Hara and Dame Wendy Hall. The paper popularised, but didn't invent, the idea of the "splinternet" - namely, that there is not one internet, but four.

Amol RajanMedia editor@amolrajanon Twitter These four internets are, broadly: the open, universalist version envisioned by the web's pioneers; the current, largely Californian internet dominated by a few tech giants (Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook); a more regulated, European internet; and an authoritarian, walled-garden approach, of the kind seen in China, which has its own tech giants (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent). Most of the stories that I end up covering for BBC News chronicle various attempts to navigate from the second (Californian) internet to the third (European, regulated). What you might call 'the Southampton argument' is based on an irresistible and irrefutable claim: that there is no one internet, applicable to all humanity, and arising in all places; rather there are several iterations of this revolutionary technology, of which the four articulated by our friends in Southampton are simply the most prominent. As our species grapples with the unprecedented disruption, life-improving possibilities, and terrifying potential harms of digital technology, a battle is raging to shape the future of the internet. According to the best estimates, last year was the moment that - for the first time - more people were online than off-line. That means almost half of humanity is still up for grabs. What kind of internet will these people, around three billion of them, come into? In the past year, several articles, such as this Economist briefing, have noted that the companies which dominate the internet today are desperately battling for the attention of those three billion future users. This is the context in which Sir Nick Clegg is speaking in Berlin on Monday. Europe's leading role In his first speech and interview since joining Facebook, Sir Nick chose Brussels as his location. On Monday, he chose the German capital. It isn't mere Europhilia dictating his travel plans, as if the former trade negotiator were trying to relive his youth. It is, in fact, cold, hard commercial need. Facebook knows regulation is coming. It has noticed that most of the smart thinking on regulation is coming from Europe. It wants to shape that regulation before that regulation shapes Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg hired Sir Nick to explain Facebook to Europe and Europe to Facebook. In the past two years, we have seen what amounts to quite radical shifts in the relationship between technology companies and the law, emanating principally from Brussels. GDPR, the name for new data rules, is generally thought to have shifted power back to consumers (albeit at the price of constantly clicking on pop-up boxes on various websites). The most powerful blow to Google's dominance of various sectors has come from the Competition Commissioner in Brussels. And Britain's Online Harms White Paper, which boasts of implementing the toughest internet laws in the world, was cooked up between the Home Office and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in Whitehall. This amounts to an onslaught. Sir Nick is being paid to deal with it on behalf of the tech giant. The opening line of his speech will assert that Facebook actively seeks regulation. It wants new rules on privacy, electoral law, hate speech and data portability. And it is quite happy for those rules to be devised in Europe. Why? Culture, mainly. I have written at length on this blog about the tech-lash, a phrase Sir Nick is using today, and the clash between the world views of Silicon Valley and Europe. A libertarian culture that prizes autonomy over order and is profoundly sceptical of government is often ill-suited to devising smart new legislation of a quickly evolving sector. China, meanwhile, has a completely different set of norms about what the citizen's experience of the internet should be. But in much of Europe, not least Brussels and Berlin, there is a presumption that effective legislation is possible, plausible, and totally necessary. So Facebook is quite relaxed about these new rules coming from Europe rather than, say, the White House of a President they fear is temperamental. Shaping the future Or indeed from China, which Facebook understands less well and has yet to penetrate commercially in the way it would like. Plus, the social media giant is an also-ran when compared with the Chinese tech giants of Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent. Though it has yet to seep into public consciousness, and escape the land of policy wonks, a Cold War is already underway between the US and China, with trade and technology being the two main fronts. How technology companies are being mobilised by the American and Chinese governments as part of this war is not fully clear. That said, in America, the tech giants are fiercely independent of, and yet in political friction with, the government. In China, they are in the lap of government. Europe, which lacks a tech giant, and has that culture of favouring regulation, is therefore unusually well placed to plan the future of the internet. That future is one where the new users - those transitioning from off-line to online - are generally poorer than today's users; much less likely to speak English; and almost certain to be mobile-first (as opposed to laptop or tablet). Though they have less money, they are a juicy commercial proposition for American corporate behemoths who are thinking long-term, as is their wont. Sceptics might point out that with the political heat turned up to maximum in Washington and parts of Europe, Facebook and Sir Nick are trying to grasp the initiative so that they are not broken up: a prospect that is being threatened with ever greater frequency. Hyper-alert to such threats, conditioned by a long-term, even epochal, mindset, and concerned about the authoritarian turn in Asia, Facebook is determined that the future of the internet is shaped more in Brussels and Berlin than Beijing. Though they cast themselves as a global community above mere politics, Sir Nick's second consecutive speech in Europe, and his accommodating approach to new laws, shows a company evolving from a libertarian to a liberal disposition. Facebook is not an apolitical entity championing universal human values. It is an unprecedentedly powerful corporation, born of and conditioned by specific historical circumstances, and led by liberals with their own particular experiences and affiliations. Sir Nick's fondness for Europe just happens to be highly expedient.

हाल के महीनों में मैं साउथेम्प्टन विश्वविद्यालय के दो शिक्षाविदों, किरोन ओ 'हारा और डेम वेंडी हॉल द्वारा द जियोपॉलिटिक्स ऑफ डिजिटल गवर्नेंस पर एक पेपर से प्रभावित हुआ हूं। पेपर ने "स्प्लिंटनेट" के विचार को लोकप्रिय बनाया, लेकिन आविष्कार नहीं किया-अर्थात्, एक इंटरनेट नहीं है, बल्कि चार है।


Yasin Abu Bakr: Leader of Western world's only Islamist coup

Summary: Depending on who you ask in Trinidad, Yasin Abu Bakr is either a respected religious leader, a tireless community worker, or something more akin to a Mafia godfather. Waiting for an audience with him at his mosque in Trinidad's capital, Port of Spain, Colin Freeman starts to wonder if he might be a bit of all three.

It's just after prayers on a Friday lunchtime, and, as ever, there's a queue of folk who've come to seek his help. Many of them want counsel on spiritual matters or marriage guidance. Sometimes, though, he gets asked for help in retrieving a stolen car, settling a debt, or resolving feuds between gang members in Trinidad's crime-ridden slums. "Alternative dispute resolution," he tells me. Whoever he is, Abu Bakr doesn't do things by halves. A former policeman, he became one of Trinidad's first Muslim converts back in 1969, when an Egyptian preacher visited the island. Abu Bakr found Islam more attractive than Christianity, a religion he always associated with his country's past as a slave colony. He wasn't content, though, just to sit reading the Koran. From the 1970s onwards, he spent years in Libya as a guest of Col Gaddafi, who back then was encouraging Muslim activists worldwide. He then returned home, and built up his own organisation, Jamaat-al-Muslimeen, or Party of Muslims. In Trinidad's ghettos, it gained a following for cleaning the streets of drug dealers. Some of his converts were tough ex-cons themselves, and in neighbourhoods where police feared to tread, his "generals", as he describes them, commanded respect. The Trinidadian government, however, did not like the idea of a parallel authority, and after a series of run-ins, Abu Bakr feared they were planning to crush the Jamaat altogether. His response, extraordinarily, was to try to crush them first. In 1990, 100 of his armed followers stormed parliament, taking the prime minister hostage and declaring the overthrow of the government. It was the only Islamist coup ever attempted in the Western hemisphere. He surrendered six days later after being offered amnesty, and spent two years in jail. Since then he's been committed to peaceful politics, he says. Members of his organisation, though, have been accused of Mafia-like activities - and Abu Bakr himself has been charged with, but then acquitted of, murder and extortion. More recently, there's been concern about the 100-odd Trinidadians who've gone to join Isis in Syria - a lot for a nation of just 1.3 million people. Abu Bakr, who's polite and chatty in interviews, admits that the Jamaat has attracted the odd bad apple over the years. That's an occupational hazard of trying to reach out to wayward souls in tough neighbourhoods, he says. But he insists he'd never encourage anyone to join Isis. "We told all our followers not to go, the whole Isis thing is utter nonsense," he tells me. Find out more What Abu Bakr is more concerned about isn't the war in Syria, but the battles on the streets of Trinidad. Last year, the country saw 500 murders - more than four times as many as 20 years ago. Most are related to gang feuds in the slums, from where the Jamaat draws many of its followers. "Generally, the gangs still respect us," says Abu Bakr. "But these days, if we tried to police them directly, the state would come down on us like a ton of bricks. So instead we have two to three murders daily - things are getting really bad now. We can't just sit and let it happen." He won't, it seems, be attempting another coup. But the Jamaat's diagnosis of Trinidad's problems could be that of any socially conservative Trinidadian. They don't just blame poverty. They blame family breakdown, indiscipline and criminal lifestyles promoted by violent gangsta rap. "People need proper heroes rather than rap artists or misguided musicians," says David "Buffy" Maillard, another Jamaat member. "Some music tracks can lead people into killing as much as any gun." Maillard is well-qualified to comment. A former criminal himself, he once worked for a Jamaican gang involved in the cocaine trade in Miami. Not merely selling the stuff, but robbing other dealers. It was, to put it mildly, a high-risk occupation, which saw him shot three times, stabbed five times and serve several stints in prison. Now reformed, he warns today that gangsterism is a much bigger threat to Trinidad than Isis. "The gangster ideology is entrenched here," he says. "You can never match the income people get from drug dealing, so you have to give them self-esteem instead. My choice was Islam. But there're other options too." Are there though? In Sea Lots, a slum that now claims to be shedding its gang-ridden past, one community leader told me it was still hard for youngsters to get jobs because of the area's old reputation. As long as that's the case, I suspect Trinidad's crime problems will remain. And yes, there'll still be folk queuing to see Abu Bakr every Friday. You may also be interested in: At first glance it's paradise, a small Caribbean island with palm trees swaying in the breeze, white sands and emerald waters, untouched by mass tourism. But Old Providence has a guilty secret - the huge number of people who have turned to drug-running, and then disappeared. Read: The island where men are disappearing Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.

इस बात पर निर्भर करते हुए कि आप त्रिनिदाद में किससे पूछते हैं, यासीन अबू बकर या तो एक सम्मानित धार्मिक नेता है, एक अथक सामुदायिक कार्यकर्ता है, या एक माफिया गॉडफादर के समान कुछ है। त्रिनिदाद की राजधानी, पोर्ट ऑफ स्पेन में अपनी मस्जिद में उसके साथ दर्शकों की प्रतीक्षा करते हुए, कॉलिन फ्रीमैन सोचने लगता है कि क्या वह तीनों में से थोड़ा सा हो सकता है।


The surreal world of Venezuela's queues

Summary: In Venezuela many basic goods are in short supply. The government blames America and Europe, which it says are out to destroy its economy. Others say the government has brought the problems on itself. The BBC's Ian Pannell experienced the sometimes surreal art of extreme queuing in Caracas.

The least one can expect from a creditworthy foreign correspondent is that he or she can have a decent stab at making sense of the world. In Venezuela this is more than the usual challenge. Here are the rough basics. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is run by a socialist government that has broadly speaking used - or misused - its vast oil wealth to benefit some of the people, some of the time and to keep itself in power. A combination of woeful economic management - or mismanagement - and the steep fall in oil prices has left the government with a serious cash flow problem. And it's left the people of Venezuela standing in queues across the country every single day, often for hours at a time. People are given time off work to queue. They get up early in the morning to queue. They queue in their lunch hour. They text each other about queues. So not surprisingly they've become very good at queuing. As an Englishman I like a good queue - well formed, orderly, no doubting who's in front of you and who's behind. There are many countries that don't respect these fine, ancient traditions and prefer the first-past-the-post system - involving pushing, shoving and grunting. But on the whole Venezuela is more like Britain with its queues. The difference is that in Venezuela they're not waiting for the number 29 bus - they're queuing for milk, coffee, sugar, corn flour, cooking oil, soap and even toilet paper - all are in severely short supply. The government regulates the price of these goods. It doesn't subsidise them - it tells the producer what they can charge. That might just about make sense in a buoyant economy but with inflation running at over sixty percent and the value of the currency plummeting, it appears producers are not only failing to make a profit but are operating at a loss. Similarly companies who export food to Venezuela have given up waiting to be paid by a government that's down on its luck and are now selling their goods elsewhere. But the government and its supporters have a different narrative. They blame America and Europe and big business and smugglers for waging an economic war against the country, of trying to undermine President Maduro and the legacy of his predecessor, Hugo Chavez - of trying to turn the people against their government. They've told shopkeepers to move the queues underground, into basements and subterranean car parks - apparently to protect their customers from getting sunburnt. Journalists are prevented from filming empty shelves. Shoppers have also been given instructions. You can only buy scarce goods on certain days of the week depending on what number your ID card ends in. So, for example - if it ends in a zero or a one then you can stand in line on Monday. However that doesn't necessarily mean that the milk or soap you want to buy will be available on Monday. Another anomaly of what passes for a system is that often the shelves aren't empty at all. It's just the regulated goods that are in short supply. So if you want something else, and you have the money for one of these higher-priced goods, then you can often skip right past the queue and go straight into the shop. Often people join a queue without even knowing what's on sale. They get into line and then they ask the shopper in front of them what they're waiting for. It's highly likely that the person in front has done exactly the same thing with the shopper in front of them. We saw one queue that only moved forward because people at the front gave up waiting and went hunting elsewhere. But if you were further back in line - around the corner, say - you couldn't see this. You just felt the illusion of momentum or progress and were encouraged to stay and wait a little longer. On this occasion there wasn't even anything to wait for. There'd been a rumour that the shop might be getting a delivery of something - no one knew what - but in the end there was nothing - just an empty loading bay. And so it goes on. It's a surreal symbol of a system that's broken - and frankly, makes little sense. Unsurprisingly people are angry and frustrated. On occasion this has meant that queues have degenerated into riots. And some shoppers have been robbed of their precious cargo while heading home. If shoppers continue to believe the official line that this is caused by Venezuela's enemies, then perhaps the government may be able to ride out the growing discontent. But many Venezuelans are no longer buying it. All-day shopping BBC Mundo's Daniel Pardo makes it his goal to buy eight things he needs for daily life in Caracas - but it's not easy, and takes a ridiculous amount of time. How to listen to From Our Own Correspondent: BBC Radio 4: Saturdays at 11:30. Listen online or download the podcast. BBC World Service: At weekends - see World Service programme schedule or listen online. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

वेनेजुएला में कई बुनियादी वस्तुओं की आपूर्ति कम है। सरकार अमेरिका और यूरोप को दोषी ठहराती है, जिसके बारे में उसका कहना है कि वे अपनी अर्थव्यवस्था को नष्ट करने के लिए काम कर रहे हैं। अन्य का कहना है कि सरकार ने खुद पर समस्याएं ला दी हैं। बीबीसी के इयान पैनेल ने कराकस में कभी-कभी चरम कतार की वास्तविक कला का अनुभव किया।


How do amputees learn to walk again?

Summary: The "health and spirits" of Alton Towers crash victim Leah Washington are said to be improving "dramatically" following an above the knee amputation. But how do people learn to walk again and rebuild their lives after such drastic surgery?

By Laurence CawleyBBC News "My wife June was sat next me," says 61-year-old Graham Facey. "She was pale. "I said 'I've got an itchy foot' and I tried to scratch it with my other foot and realised it wasn't there. I realised then what had happened." A diabetic, Mr Facey had just become one of the 6,000 people each year to have a diabetes-related amputation. Others undergo amputations for other reasons, such as vascular disease or trauma. Trauma includes combat injuries and those suffered by Miss Washington who was on the front row of a carriage on an Alton Towers ride called The Smiler when it hit an empty one. Those who have undergone the procedure say the public at large is uncomfortable about amputations and that they are sometimes met with stares and general awkwardness. Here are some of their stories. Sandra Staffiero Sandra Staffiero, 57, of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, is a retired school secretary who, aged 20, was involved in a moped crash. She suffered a double compound fracture which prevented her from walking properly and left her in excruciating chronic pain. Operations were carried out but the pain remained. In 2011 she went to her doctor. "I said 'I cannot carry on like this'," she says. "I had no quality of life. I just asked if he could do a major operation. I did not even mention the word amputation. "When I made the decision I just felt as though a massive cloud had been lifted. "It is a decision I have never regretted even though it is a hard life as an amputee. "I still get lots of stares, often from older people. "I like to show all the metal. It is not easy, but I now wear skirts. I have put a lot of work into using it to its full potential, so let's show it off. "From 20 to the age I had this done, I was ashamed and hid my leg from view. But then I got to the stage in my life when I thought 'let's do this, let's show off my metal' and, I suppose, show off my mettle - and I haven't looked back. "I have cried about the difficulties afterwards but never about the amputation itself." Roy Birnie Roy Birnie believes in the power of humour. Even when you're being told you need to have you leg cut off beneath the knee. The 66-year-old, who lives in Colchester with his wife Cathy, had polio as a child. Before the amputation three-and-a-half years ago (because of a bone infection) he had already had four toes removed (the big toe was allowed to remain for balance). "I was told the bone infection could have been fatal," says Mr Birnie. "I was fairly matter of fact about it, to be honest. "I told the doctor that my big toe had been getting depressed because it was all alone. I approached it with humour. "The doctor told me he had been out the back trying to work out how to tell me the news. He was surprised I came out with a joke." The day after the operation, rehabilitation begins. "The first thing is balance," he says. "The first thing you learn in your hospital bed is to move from the bed to the chair and then from the chair back to the bed. "Then from the chair to a wheelchair and back again. It is all about learning a new balance because all of a sudden your body is weighted differently." Then comes walking school using parallel bars. "This is scary but exciting as well because you're walking again," he says. "I was back driving (a specially adapted car) within a fortnight." Amputations For more information about life after an amputation: Source: NHS Choices Frances Collins "I consider myself one of the lucky ones," says 60-year-old Frances Collins, born with congenital deformities and who had an above-the-knee amputation at the age of 13 months. "Most of the other amputees I know are always comparing what they have lost. I know nothing different. "I went to a normal school, I climbed trees with my brothers. Children are very tenacious and they will do things that adults often won't try." "I went to school as a teenager when mini skirts were all the rage. It was horrific. I have lived my life in trousers. "But I have brought up three children and had a successful career as a teacher." Throughout her career, she was employed as able-bodied. "I only got a blue badge five years ago - and that was for my other knee which is getting creaky, not my prosthetic limb." She said having a baby was like "having a baby" adding: "It changes everything. But everything does not stop, it just changes. "You can do the things you want, but you just go about doing those things differently. "There were times I cried. But there are so many positives and us amputees are not self-pitying." Graham Facey Graham Facey, of Tiptree, Essex, woke up feeling he had "trodden on something sharp". His wife June looked and saw a black dot on the ball of his left foot. At the time he was a diabetic 49-year-old, who had lost his sight over a weekend three years previously. He went to hospital and learned he had gangrenous gas in his foot which was poisoning his blood, "The doctor told me he was sorry but they were going to have to take me down for an operation. I thought they would just open up my foot. I woke up with a blue pen mark on the top of the knee." He was not told of the amputation beforehand, he says, because it had been "an emergency procedure". "I had already gone through the grief of losing my eyesight, so I didn't feel the same things about losing my leg. It has become a grief since because it stops me doing things." Learning to walk again, he says, is all about balance, gait and how to put pressure through the "residual limb" (stump). "You have to remember you are putting an awful lot of weight on to what is scar tissue," says Mr Facey, who has taken up blind archery and swimming. As chairman of Colchester Prosthetic User Support Group, Mr Facey counsels other amputees. And their families. "Families often feel like they are walking on eggshells around an amputee." It is hard for them, he says. And friends. "I had a couple of friends who came to see me and they sat there. And I said, 'So it's great you've come to see me. It'd be really good if you could also say something'. "They said they didn't know what to say to me. "I told them 'It is still me, that same bloke who was having a beer with you a couple of weeks ago'. I'm still me, but I walk on a stilt."

कहा जाता है कि एल्टन टावर्स दुर्घटना की शिकार लेह वाशिंगटन के "स्वास्थ्य और आत्माओं" में घुटने के ऊपर के अंगविच्छेदन के बाद "नाटकीय रूप से" सुधार हो रहा है। लेकिन लोग फिर से चलना कैसे सीखते हैं और इस तरह की कठोर सर्जरी के बाद अपने जीवन का पुनर्निर्माण कैसे करते हैं?


Committee to advise on Manx sea protection

Summary: A new committee has been tasked with finding ways to protect the marine environment without damaging the Isle of Man's fishing industry.

The area under the spotlight lies off the south coast near Port St Mary. The group has been asked to report back to government before the beginning of the scallop season in November. Fisheries minister Phil Gawne said he wants to bring in "sensible" protection measures in the areas around Carrick Bay and Perwick Bay. The committee will include two representatives of the scallop industry, two crab and lobster fishermen, a diver, an angler and a representative of the Manx Wildlife Trust.

एक नई समिति को आइल ऑफ मैन के मछली पकड़ने के उद्योग को नुकसान पहुँचाए बिना समुद्री पर्यावरण की रक्षा करने के तरीके खोजने का काम सौंपा गया है।


Park Geun-hye and the friendship behind S Korea's presidential crisis

Summary: The press in South Korea is full of feverish allegations of cult rituals and the mysterious influence of an old friend of President Park Geun-hye. The BBC's Stephen Evans in Seoul looks at the personalities behind the scandal, and whether it could end up toppling a president.

Only the two women involved in this unprecedented political storm know the true dynamic of their relationship. And President Park and her confidante Choi Soon-sil are not telling. Choi is suspected of exploiting her links with Ms Park for her own financial gain and has now returned to the country to face her accusers. In the absence of information, the rumour mill is whirling. Newspapers and television channels have been feeding the frenzy of speculation, throwing out ever more fanciful conjecture about a mysterious relationship that goes back four decades. Is the mentor really a malign influence reminiscent of Rasputin - Ms Choi's father was certainly labelled the Korean Rasputin by some - or is she just an old friend? A lonely job Both Ms Choi and Ms Park are intriguing characters. The current president is the daughter of Park Chung-hee, a military strongman who took power in a coup but who then decided that his brutal dictatorship should become a modern, industrialised democracy. Warts and all, he is the father of modern South Korea. He was assassinated by his own head of intelligence in 1979. The motive remains unclear but one theory is that the director of the Korean CIA, who fired the fatal shot, felt he had fallen under the influence of Choi Tae-min, a pseudo-pastor. Choi was also the father of Choi Soon-sil, the woman at the centre of the current controversy. Five years before the president's assassination, the current president's mother had also been killed, shot dead in central Seoul by a sympathiser of North Korea. The daughter immediately returned from her studies in Europe and became, in effect, first lady, accompanying her father on his official duties. With both parents the victims of political violence, the daughter then went into politics on her own account, where she too was physically attacked. She had her face slashed so badly at one political meeting that it needed 60 stitches. The long, thin scar is still visible, running from her right ear to her lower jaw. On top of this extraordinary background, Ms Park, who is not married, has no close family to lean on in what, in any case, would be a tough and lonely job in the presidential palace, known as the Blue House. Is this why she leans so much on Choi Soon-sil? The mysterious mentor Ms Choi's father, Choi Tae-min, was a colourful character, married many times - six, according to South Korean media - and a frequent changer of his own name. He was a Buddhist who converted to Christianity and then set up what he called the "Church of Eternal Life". In this guise he became a friend of the Park family, both of the senior President Park and of his daughter, now president, as she was growing up. Mr Choi's daughter became a friend of the young Park Geun-hye. The two young women remained friends and that is the relationship now under scrutiny. According to the New York Times, the founder of the religious sect won his way into favour with the now-President Park by saying her assassinated mother had appeared in his dreams, begging him to help the orphaned daughter. But this is not the first time this unusual relationship has spilled into public view. An American diplomatic cable from 2007, leaked by Wikileaks, said: "Park has also been forced to explain her own past, including her relationship some 35 years ago with a pastor, Choi Tae-min, whom her opponents characterize as a 'Korean Rasputin', and how he controlled Park during her time in the Blue House when she was first lady after her mother's assassination". It is this allegation of a mystical influence on the current president which is doing the political damage. Prosecutors are investigating whether funds set up by Choi Soon-sil are within the law - the unproven allegation is that the funds sought money from companies by putting pressure on them to pay because of her presidential connections. That may or may not be true, but corruption has rarely destroyed political lives in South Korea in the past. What may be politically fatal this time is the suggestion that sensitive documents were passed by the president to the mentor for approval. A South Korean cable TV station says it got hold of computer hard drives from a vacated office previously used by Ms Choi and they showed that President Park submitted speeches to her friend for alteration and approval. President Park has already apologised, though for what isn't quite clear. Her head bowed, she said: "Regardless of what the reason may be, I am sorry that the scandal has caused national concern and I humbly apologise to the people." "Choi advised me on expressions in my speeches and public relations during the last presidential campaign and she continued to help me for a certain period of time after I took office," she admitted. The advice was only before she had a formal system of advisors in place after moving into the Blue House, she insisted. But the apology hasn't satisfied President Park's opponents or even some in her own party and it is very likely that the anger has not yet subsided.

दक्षिण कोरिया में प्रेस धार्मिक अनुष्ठानों के उग्र आरोपों और राष्ट्रपति पार्क ग्यून-हे के एक पुराने दोस्त के रहस्यमय प्रभाव से भरा हुआ है। सियोल में बीबीसी के स्टीफन इवांस इस घोटाले के पीछे की हस्तियों को देखते हैं, और देखते हैं कि क्या यह एक राष्ट्रपति को अपदस्थ कर सकता है।


Contraception: From fish bladders to home-delivered morning after pills

Summary: The morning after pill has never been more accessible.

Women in the UK are now able to order emergency contraception online for home delivery. It marks a milestone - less than two decades ago, it was not possible to buy it in pharmacies. Medicine historian Dr Jesse Olszynko-Gryn said there were parallels between the journey of the morning-after pill and home-pregnancy tests, as both have moved from "medically controlled to increasingly available". When the first over-the-counter pregnancy test was launched in 1971 - (it involved a test tube in which a woman had to mix her urine and wait two hours) - it was "controversial", said Dr Olszynko-Gryn, from the University of Strathclyde. "Conservative doctors wrote to MPs, they thought it should be regulated. They thought doctors should do it." Until the mid-1960s in Britain, pregnancy tests were done by sending a woman's urine to a lab, where it would be injected into a toad. The toad was checked two hours later and if it had laid eggs, the woman was pregnant. But even after home tests were created, well into the 1970s and 80s a lot of women still preferred to go to their GPs or chemists for tests, said Dr Olszynko-Gryn. "It didn't come along and transform the experience of women overnight," said Dr Olszynko-Gryn, adding that it was only in the 1990s - after the first plastic-stick tests were launched - that home testing became the "new normal". Now "people don't think twice" about home pregnancy tests, he said. Women are also choosing to use different contraceptives than they were a decade ago, said the Family Planning Association. Longer-term contraception - such as implants, injections and the intrauterine device (coil) - "have experienced a surge in popularity over the last 10 years due to a push by sexual health services", a representative for the sexual health charity said. But the contraceptive pill still remains the most popular option. The FPA said the last 30 years have seen many changes to contraception, including improvements to oral contraceptive pills, the release of the contraceptive vaginal ring, and the introduction of the C-Card that allows young people to access free condoms. But, it added: "In the last decade, reproductive and sexual health services became the responsibility of local authorities rather than the NHS. "Since 2014, public health funding has seen significant cuts of £700m. Although teen pregnancy rates are significantly lower now than they were 20 years ago, it is becoming more difficult to access contraception." It said that according to research in 2016, only about one in 50 GPs was able to offer patients the full range of methods of contraception. What's next for contraception? "I think we have come really far... but most of our methods are largely variations on old things," said Clare Murphy, from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service. "We find different modes of delivering the old hormones in a new way, not genuinely ground-breaking and new." Despite discussions over the possibility of creating a pill for men, Ms Murphy said it "is just not going to happen". The FPA also says new methods of contraception for men "are still some way from being publicly available". Ms Murphy's BPAS research has suggested women would be very interested in a once-monthly pill that you would only take if you missed your period to disrupt an implanted egg - but this would be classed as abortion under law. For now, BPAS would like to see the morning after pill become easier to access - by costing less and being able to pick up off the shelf, without a mandatory consultation. The purpose of the consultation is to assess how likely it will work, says the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare. It welcomed the new delivery service from EllaOne - but said it should be cheaper so more can access it. But she said it was "so bound up with conversations about women's sexuality and irresponsibility". "We have come a long way, but there's a long way to go even with the existing methods." Fish bladders and Coca-Cola: What contraception used to be like The history of contraception stretches back thousands of years, with people eating bees or the inside of male deer horns in the hope it would prevent pregnancy. The oldest form of birth control still practised today is the withdrawal method, according to the FPA. Aside from that, for centuries women have put acids from fruit, jellies and pastes into their vaginas to prevent conception. Small sponges or half a squeezed lemon were also used in the 18th Century, according to Vienna's Museum of Contraception and Abortion. Meanwhile, vaginal douching was another popular method dating back hundreds of years - with the household bidet serving this purpose in middle class homes, the Museum of Contraception said. And even as late as the mid-20th century, after intercourse women reportedly shook bottles of Coca Cola before opening them in the vagina, in a bid to rinse out any sperm. Later research showed that it did not work. The first latex condoms were available in the 1930s, replacing those made from rubber - and before that, fish bladders and sheep intestines. And the contraceptive pill became available on the NHS in 1961. The doses were high - with each pill roughly equivalent to seven of the pills in packs today, said the FPA. The first licensed emergency contraception product was launched in the UK in 1984, with another type available in pharmacies from 2001.

गोली के बाद की सुबह कभी भी अधिक सुलभ नहीं रही है।


Does Ruth Davidson going make independence more likely?

Summary: Ruth Davidson's unique selling point has always been that she doesn't look or sound like a Tory so she could persuade people who would never previously have considered voting Conservative to at least give them a hearing.

Sarah SmithScotland editor@BBCsarahsmithon Twitter When the Tories fight election campaigns in Scotland they don't do it under the name of the "Scottish Conservative Party". They do it as "Ruth Davidson's Party". It's her picture that looms large on campaign leaflets. Any mention of being Conservatives is consigned to the small type. That's been Ruth Davidson's great success. Detoxifying the Tory brand in Scotland. She says she is proud that Conservatives can now knock on doors in Scotland without always having to apologise for being Tories. The question now is what happens to that brand without her unique personal appeal. Under her leadership the party won 13 seats in the last general election. Up from having just one MP. That success was crucial to keeping Theresa May in Downing Street and the Tories in power. Will they be able to hold all those seats under a different, less vibrant leader? Another election may well be imminent so it is an important question. It is possible we may all be at the polls again before the Scottish Tories have even had time to elect a new leader. Force of personality is not the only thing that has propelled the Tories into second place in Scottish politics. Ms Davidson was helped enormously by the fact that the dominant issue in Scottish politics throughout her eight years as leader has been Scottish independence. As a fierce advocate of staying in the UK she attracted unionist votes from other parties and became the standard bearer for keeping the Kingdom United. That was her number one policy and as long as she was fighting against another Scottish referendum she didn't have to spend too much time defending austerity policies or tax cuts introduced by her party at Westminster. Ms Davidson may have moved to the backbenches but the arguments about independence are still front and centre in Scotland. So does her departure make an independent Scotland more likely? Since Boris Johnson became PM we saw an opinion poll that suggested more Scots might now vote to leave the UK than to stay. I realise that anecdotes are not evidence but I am struck by how frequently I hear people all over the country saying that they have now changed their minds and would vote for independence if there was another referendum. Without the dynamism and charisma of Ruth Davidson leading the campaign for the UK where will a future "Better Together" campaign get its energy from now the Scottish Labour Party is a mere shadow of its former self? Her spokesman today would not be drawn on whether she might be persuaded to play a leading role in a future referendum campaign.

रूथ डेविडसन का अनूठा विक्रय बिंदु हमेशा यह रहा है कि वह एक टोरी की तरह नहीं दिखती या ध्वनि नहीं करती है ताकि वह उन लोगों को राजी कर सके जिन्होंने पहले कभी भी कंजर्वेटिव को वोट देने के बारे में नहीं सोचा था कि वे कम से कम उन्हें सुनें।


Teenager rescued from child's swing in Merseyside

Summary: A teenager who got stuck in a child's swing on a playground in Merseyside had to be rescued by firefighters.

Firefighters were called just before 12:45 BST to the park near Alfonso Road in the Kirkdale area of Liverpool. A spokesperson for Merseyside Fire Service said it is thought the 14-year-old had climbed into the swing and got his legs stuck. Firefighters took 20 minutes to manoeuvre him out of the swing. The boy was unharmed.

एक किशोर जो मर्सीसाइड में एक खेल के मैदान पर एक बच्चे के झूले में फंस गया था, उसे अग्निशामकों द्वारा बचाया जाना था।


Regulator confirms Guernsey Post monopoly

Summary: Guernsey's utility regulator has confirmed the terms on which Guernsey Post can deliver mail in the Bailiwick.

The Office of Utility Regulation (OUR) said Guernsey Post was to have exclusive rights on letters and large letters up to £1.35. However, it would have to start competing for business in the parcels market, the OUR said. The deal comes after a dispute between the two bodies over plans for increased local postal competition. The OUR had proposed Guernsey Post only having a monopoly on post up to the value 65p. The company warned the 65p move would "significantly damage" its business.

ग्वेर्नसे के उपयोगिता नियामक ने उन शर्तों की पुष्टि की है जिन पर ग्वेर्नसे पोस्ट बैलीविक में डाक वितरित कर सकता है।


Changes to the business pages

Summary: The BBC is improving its international business coverage online.

By Robert McKenzieEditor, Business & Technology, BBC News online We are relaunching our main business pages which will make our video easier to find. We have also taken the opportunity to split our video selection between the latest news and more in-depth pieces looking at issues behind the news. In addition, we will be giving our correspondents and on air editors more prominence by putting their latest analysis right at the top of the page. This will enable us to highlight a wider range of the BBC's journalism by bringing you the best from our Europe, environment and world affairs experts when they are tackling business or economic issues. We have also improved the navigation, so you should be able to find your way around our main Business sections more easily by following links at the top of the page. As part of the relaunch we are asking our business journalists in Asia to focus their efforts on bringing the best coverage and interpretation of Asian business and economics to a wider global audience on our main business pages. In order to make that possible, we have decided to stop updating the Asia Business section of the website. We will still offer you the latest Asian business stories in both our main business section and on the BBC front page in Asia. Improved coverage This is the first of a number of changes to enhance our business coverage in Asia. We have introduced a new page for Asia Business Report on the BBC World News Channel. You can follow the links from the main business page or find it directly - via www.bbc.com/asiabusinessreport. It has background on the presenters and more about how the programmes are made, as well as a list of all the transmission times. In the next few weeks our new chief business correspondent, Linda Yueh, will begin contributing to all the BBC's news services. Linda has a particular remit to focus her expertise on events in Asia and will be travelling and blogging widely in the region. From late May we will be introducing a new section of the website dedicated to coverage of entrepreneurs, providing advice and expertise to a new generation of business leaders. You can see the kind of material we will be covering in the current Running a Business special report. As well as the improvements to our coverage from Asia, we have just put a dedicated online business reporter into our New York bureau. This will enable us to greatly improve our coverage of North American business, which is also of interest to readers in Asia. To see the result of these changes please make sure your bookmarks take you to www.bbc.com/business.

बी. बी. सी. ऑनलाइन अपने अंतर्राष्ट्रीय व्यापार कवरेज में सुधार कर रहा है।


Czech Republic to be known as 'Czechia'

Summary: The Czech Republic wants to be known as "Czechia" to make it easier for companies and sports teams to use it on products and clothing.

The country will retain its full name but Czechia will become the official short geographic name, as "France" is to "The French Republic". If approved by parliament, the name will be lodged with the United Nations. Along with Slovakia, the Czech Republic was established when Czechoslovakia broke in two in 1993. Some of the country's best-known exports, including its Pilsner Urquell beer and ice hockey team, currently use the word "Czech". But "Czech" is an adjective and cannot properly be used as a name for the country. Some have criticised "Czechia" as ugly, or too similar to "Chechnya", the semi-autonomous Russian republic.

चेक गणराज्य "चेकिया" के रूप में जाना जाना चाहता है ताकि कंपनियों और खेल टीमों के लिए उत्पादों और कपड़ों पर इसका उपयोग करना आसान हो।


Australia church abuse: Why priests can't spill confession secrets

Summary: Priests who suspect child abuse after hearing confession should report it to the authorities - or face criminal charges. That is one of the conclusions reached by Australia's four-year Royal Commission investigating child sex abuse.

By Claudia AllenBBC News The proposal applies to the suspicion of child abuse in an institutional context - for example within an organisation which provides services to children or cares for them, such as a church or a children's home. But the Roman Catholic Church in Australia is opposed to the proposal, despite saying that outside of the confession it is "absolutely committed" to reporting all offences against children to the authorities. So what is different about confession? Surely priests would have a moral duty - if not a legal one - to report any concerns, in order to protect children? Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane appeared to recognise that it can be hard for non-Catholics to understand why this is not the case: The answer lies in the special status of confession in the Roman Catholic Church. Officially known as the Sacrament of Penance, it is one of the seven sacraments of the Church. The penitent (person wishing to confess) talks to the priest or bishop, beginning with the words: "Forgive me Father, for I have sinned." Catholics believe that within the confessional the penitent is talking to God, with the priest serving as an intermediary. The priest is able to absolve the person of their sins. But, crucially, everything which takes place within the confession is secret. This is known as the Seal of the Confessional. What happens if a priest breaks the seal? Under the law of the Church, if a priest breaks the seal, he is automatically punished with excommunication (being expelled from the Church). That is the ultimate sanction for a priest, and in this case can only be reversed by the Pope himself. Confessors are not even allowed to reveal whether someone has been to confession, let alone what they said. Prohibitions on breaking the seal of confession have existed since at least 1215. Priests have said they would be prepared to go to prison rather than break the seal of the confession. What are people saying about this? Earlier this year Australian child abuse survivor Peter Gogarty told the BBC that he believed the Catholic Church should reform its laws on confession to ensure crimes are reported to police. But Mr Gogarty said he was not in favour of priests being made to report abuse to the police. "I think it would be a tragedy if the privileged communication in the confessional is abolished," he said at the time. However, Australia's Royal Commission says there should be no exemption for confession. The commission says it heard evidence of instances of both victims and perpetrators having discussed abuse during confession. "We are satisfied that confession is a forum where Catholic children have disclosed their sexual abuse and where clergy have disclosed their abusive behaviour in order to deal with their own guilt," the report says. "We heard evidence that perpetrators who confessed to sexually abusing children went on to reoffend and seek forgiveness again." "We have concluded that the importance of protecting children from child sexual abuse means that there should be no exemption from the [proposed] failure to report offence for clergy in relation to information disclosed in or in connection with a religious confession," the report authors conclude. So if a child says they are a victim of ongoing abuse, the priest will do nothing? It is not quite that simple. The Australian commission heard differing views from a panel of Catholic clerics as to whether a priest would be able to break the seal of the confessional if a child making confession told him that he or she was being abused by an adult. Two of the panel said that as the sin was not that of the child making confession, it would not fall within the seal of confession. But Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney told the commission that "if a child penitent confessed their sexual abuse by an adult to him that, 'I believe I'm bound by the seal of confession not to repeat it'." But priests who take that view would say that, within the confession, they can urge the child to seek help. Have any other countries enacted similar laws? The Republic of Ireland's Children First Act of 2015 requires certain "mandated persons" (which includes Catholic priests) to report child protection concerns to the authorities, and offers no exemption for the confession. The Catholic Church in Ireland objected to this aspect of the law. It is unclear however whether this part of the act has yet come into force. In 28 states of the US, clergy are included among those people mandated by law to report suspicions of child abuse. Some other states require "any person" to report. In many of the states, information discovered during a confession would be exempt from the reporting duty, as it would be classed as a "privileged" communication. In a long-running legal case in the state of Louisiana, a young woman and her family sued a priest and the Catholic diocese, claiming that, at the age of 14, she told her priest during confession that a fellow parishioner had been abusing her - and the priest did nothing to protect her. Louisiana's Supreme Court eventually ruled that the priest could not be forced to reveal what he had heard in the confessional. What about in the UK? There is no mandatory reporting law in any part of the UK regarding child abuse suspicions. A spokesman for the NSPCC told the BBC that it did not believe that wholesale mandatory reporting was the best way to achieve an improvement in reporting and action in response to child abuse: "Instead we are interested in the proposal for a 'Duty to Act', which would allow professionals to give children the support they need based on their specific situation, without imposing a blanket rule that could ultimately be detrimental." 'Absolute trust' Catholic commentator and former editor of The Tablet, Catherine Pepinster, told the BBC that she was not in favour of the proposals. "I think if Australia tries to bring this in, they will have a queue of Catholic priests refusing to tell all about the confessional," she said. "The relationship between the priest and the penitent is one of absolute trust. "If public authorities are going to insist a priest breaks that confidentiality regarding child sexual abuse, why not for adult rape or for murder as well?" A priest could use their relationship of trust with the person confessing to encourage them to turn themselves in. "They could do this by withholding forgiveness - what Catholics call absolution," she explained. "The greatest sin of all seems to me that some priests had their crimes covered up by their superiors, rather than their confessors. Bishops would move paedophiles around from one parish to another, or one school to another school. That is a real problem rather than confession."

जिन पादरियों को स्वीकारोक्ति सुनने के बाद बाल शोषण का संदेह होता है, उन्हें अधिकारियों को इसकी सूचना देनी चाहिए-या आपराधिक आरोपों का सामना करना चाहिए। यह ऑस्ट्रेलिया के चार साल के रॉयल कमीशन द्वारा बाल यौन शोषण की जांच करने वाले निष्कर्षों में से एक है।


India: Kashmir social media ban criticised

Summary: Authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir have announced a one-month ban on 22 social media services, including Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. The state government said the services were being misused by "anti-government elements" to incite violence. Gowhar Geelani reports on life without social media in the valley.

Srinagar-based photojournalist Javed Dar says that the ban on social media has left him "disconnected from people" and has also hampered his work. Mr Dar says he had to invite friends and colleagues to a book release event, but didn't have contact numbers for all. "Normally, I would have invited many through Facebook and Twitter. The ban on social media has made this impossible," he said. Other social media services, communications tools and websites banned under the order include YouTube, Skype, Telegram, Snapchat and Reddit. Also, the faster 3G and 4G mobile phone services have been slower and erratic for more than a week. Dr Qazi Haroon, a government doctor, says many health awareness campaigns which his department was running on social media have taken a hit. "Now we have no other medium to promote awareness programmes related to immunisation, mother and child care, neonatal care," he told the BBC. The internet is often suspended or restricted in Kashmir to quell civilian protests and anti-India demonstrations, which sometimes turn violent. According to a report by the Software Freedom Law Centre, the internet has been blocked in Kashmir at least 31 times between 2012 to 2016. However, this is for the first time that the authorities have placed a complete ban on social networking sites. 'Subversive elements' Advocacy groups like India's Centre for Internet and Society have described the ban a "blow to freedom of speech" and "legally unprecedented in India". And the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has asked India to revoke the ban. "The sweeping censorship of social media under the pretext of 'maintaining peace and order' will bring neither peace nor order," media reports quoting Steven Butler of CPJ said. The state government order said social media networking sites were being used by "anti-national and subversive elements" to harm peace in the state. It said "objectionable content" was being distributed to "spread disaffection" with the authorities. The latest bout of violence began on 9 April when eight people were killed and scores injured after police clashed with protesters during a by-election in the city of Srinagar. Since then, hundreds of students have protested on the streets, chanting anti-India slogans and throwing stones at the security forces. Graphic videos claiming to show abuses on both sides have been shared extensively on social media and have added fuel to the conflict. Opposition and pro-independence groups have criticised the government's move. "Repeated bans on means of communication in this day and age in the hope of restoring so-called peace and normalcy in the Kashmir Valley is ridiculous," Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, one of the most influential leaders in the Kashmiri separatist movement, said. Terming the ban "archaic", the main opposition National Conference party accused the government of meting out "collective punishment to the people of Kashmir for expressing their political aspiration and raising voice against gross human rights excesses". Justifying the internet gag, a government representative said that the move was aimed at restoring normalcy and stopping rumours from spreading further. "It [the ban] is a temporary decision to stop rumours and restore law and order to prevent further loss of life. Also, it is being done to prevent a war of provocative videos from both sides," Waheed Ur Rehman Parra, leader of the ruling party's youth wing, told the BBC.

भारत प्रशासित कश्मीर में अधिकारियों ने फेसबुक, ट्विटर और वॉट्सऐप सहित 22 सोशल मीडिया सेवाओं पर एक महीने के प्रतिबंध की घोषणा की है। राज्य सरकार ने कहा कि हिंसा भड़काने के लिए "सरकार विरोधी तत्वों" द्वारा सेवाओं का दुरुपयोग किया जा रहा था। गौहर गिलानी घाटी में सोशल मीडिया के बिना जीवन पर रिपोर्ट करते हैं।


Joseph Kony victims back online campaign

Summary: With a controversial US film putting the spotlight on Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army, the BBC's James Copnall reports on those in South Sudan and Uganda who believe he must be captured or killed at all costs.

In a refugee camp in the shade of giant mango trees, a Congolese man called Jean-Roger is calling for US soldiers to capture the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Kony. "We need a military intervention. [President Barack] Obama must make an effort to finish with Kony," he says in a firm voice. "The LRA has killed a lot of people, and raped a lot of women, and they kidnap children to train them to become like them. They must be stopped." The recent Kony 2012 film , which has been viewed millions of times, has attracted criticism for simplifying the problem of the LRA. But Jean-Roger and other victims believe the only thing that matters is to stop the rebel movement. There are more than 5,000 refugees in the Makpandu camp in South Sudan, the majority from the Democratic Republic of Congo, others from the Central African Republic. Those are the two countries where the LRA now operates, though its fighters - many of whom are children - sometimes launch raids into South Sudan too. 'World must act' Another refugee, Modeste, a grey-haired man with a bright floral shirt, also wants foreign troops to help out. His four daughters, aged between five and 14, were kidnapped when the LRA attacked his village in DR Congo. "I think they must be dead," he says simply, perhaps not wanting to voice the other, horrifying prospect - that they have been kept as sex slaves. "I want governments all over the world to act, we must finish the LRA. The world should get enough forces to attack, and kill all of them," he says. A short walk away, Jeanne is preparing dinner in front of her simple thatched hut. She will grind groundnuts into a paste, and add some cassava leaves. She is wearing a camouflage top, giving her a strangely military appearance - a bitter irony considering it was the LRA's fighters who drove her from her home. "Some of the people from my village were killed, and I don't know what happened to the others. "If the LRA can be stopped, we can return to Congo. But I don't know when it will happen." Although the Kony 2012 film has prompted renewed calls for action against the LRA, several forces have been fighting them for years. The LRA is no longer in Uganda, but the Ugandan army is chasing after them from bases in South Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR). The Congolese, Central African and South Sudanese armies are involved too. But not always with much success. The LRA's current strength is estimated at a few hundred, but they still terrify many times this number. "We receive regular refugee arrivals due to ongoing LRA attacks in Congo and CAR. They (LRA) also conduct hit-and-run attacks inside South Sudan," says Mireille Girard, the head of the UN refugee agency in South Sudan. 'Arrow boys' In the South Sudanese state of Western Equatoria, some residents have taken matters into their own hands. A dozen men brandish their weapons - one AK-47, some old rifles they describe as "home-made", and the bows and arrows that have given them their name, the Arrow Boys. In June last year they rescued two people, including a 13-year old girl kidnapped by the LRA from the village of Kidi, about 12km from the town of Yambio, close to the DR Congo border. That incident was the last time the LRA struck in South Sudan, but their impact over the last few years has been dramatic. "The damage Kony has inflicted on our people in Western Equatoria is actually far greater even than the losses that we incurred during our 22 years of civil struggle with the Khartoum government," says Sapana Abuyi, the deputy governor of Western Equatoria. It is a startling statement. Two million people are estimated to have died during Sudan's second civil war, although Western Equatoria was less affected than other parts of South Sudan. The frequency of LRA attacks has now fallen in South Sudan, in part due to the efforts of the Ugandan troops, and the Arrow Boys. But Mr Abuyi is still wary. "We cannot rule out more attacks, because they use guerrilla tactics and they can hit at any time." US role He also calls on the US advisors to the Ugandan troops to do more, particularly in tracking the movements of the LRA fighters, who often operate in small groups in the forest. So far the Americans, who number 100 throughout the region, are there to advise not fight, following President Barack Obama's directives. So what can the Americans do, if they are not allowed to go into combat? "Primarily, our advice and assistance is along the lines of planning the fusion of operations and intelligence, logistics planning, and bolstering their communications," the US team's leader Capt Layne told the BBC. Hunting Kony in a region as heavily covered by forest is akin to "looking for a needle in a haystack" according to the captain. Would he prefer to kill or capture Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court? "As long as we rid the region of Joseph Kony, we're happy, however that happens," he says. Col Joseph Balikudembe is the Ugandan who is leading Operation Lightening Thunder against the LRA. The Ugandans have not yet got hold of Kony despite a quarter-century of efforts, but the colonel is still optimistic. "His time is numbered, he will be captured," he says. "It took time to capture Osama Bin Laden, but eventually he was killed. Kony will have his time too." The senior officer denies charges made by some campaigners that the Ugandan military has kept the war running for so long as it justifies high military spending and allows officers to make money from the conflict. The Kony 2012 film, made by the US campaign group Invisible Children, has shone an unprecedented global light onto the LRA. It has been heavily criticised in some quarters. "In elevating Kony to a global celebrity, the embodiment of evil, and advocating a military solution, the campaign isn't just simplifying, it is irresponsibly naive," regional expert Alex de Waal wrote. Dialogue Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala has campaigned against the LRA for many years. He supports the film as a way of raising awareness. But he believes the military option is not the right one. "When we talk about a military intervention, people who think they are powerful think it is the only way to solve a problem. "They think that by the gun you can solve the problem, but instead you aggravate it. "To me military intervention is not a solution. I would encourage dialogue." In a camp for South Sudanese displaced by LRA attacks near the town of Nzara, that view would not be supported by everyone. "The LRA don't want to see you as a human being,' says Charles. "If they see a human, they kill him with a machete or shoot him with a gun. That is why we fear them." Some of the displaced people here have begun to return home. But many remain. "If Kony is arrested, that can solve the problem," says David, hurrying through his words in his anxiety to stress the point. "The abduction of the children and the killing of people make us afraid, that is why most of the people don't want to go back to our homes." These people have not seen the Kony 2012 film. But they are vociferous in their demand for Joseph Kony to be stopped by any means necessary.

एक विवादास्पद अमेरिकी फिल्म युगांडा के विद्रोही नेता जोसेफ कोनी और उनकी लॉर्ड्स रेजिस्टेंस आर्मी पर प्रकाश डालती है, बीबीसी के जेम्स कॉपनल दक्षिण सूडान और युगांडा में उन लोगों के बारे में रिपोर्ट करते हैं जो मानते हैं कि उन्हें हर कीमत पर पकड़ा या मार दिया जाना चाहिए।


Brexit: Will the Falkland Islands wildlife suffer?

Summary: Squids, penguins and elephant seals.

By Manish PandeyNewsbeat reporter No, not a scene from a David Attenborough series, but just some of the wildlife that live in the Falkland Islands. But local conservationists are worried that the Falklands will not have enough resources to protect its environment after the UK leaves the EU. "We might stop being able to protect the amazing wildlife," Michelle Winnard, a local conservationist, tells Radio 1 Newsbeat. The Falkland Islands sit in the south-west Atlantic Ocean - and remains the subject of a dispute between Britain and Argentina who fought a war over it in 1982. It held a referendum in 2013 and opted to remain an overseas UK territory - which means the Falklands are self-governing - but the UK is still responsible for foreign and defence matters. The Falkland Islands did not get a vote in the 2016 EU referendum. After the result was announced, the government said it would work with the UK government to achieve a good deal for the Falkands. Michelle, 28, works for Falklands Conservation - a non-governmental organisation focused on preserving the islands' wildlife. She believes that money from the EU has been vital in supporting their work. Between 2008-2019, the EU has provided the Falkland Islands with more than £10m - including £1.5m to undertake environmental projects. But this will no longer be available once the UK leaves the EU. One of these projects involves endangered sei whales - one of the world's fastest whales that can reach speeds of up to 30 miles per hour. Michelle's team studied how the whales used the waters around Berkeley Sound - an area in the Falklands. The presence of at least 87 whales there suggested it was an "important feeding area" for them. As a result, future decisions about how best to use these waters, which were previously earmarked for industrial activity like shipping and fishing, as well as tourism, "will take these findings into account", says Michelle. The UK government does say it will continue to provide funding to protect the environment through a scheme called Darwin Plus, which provides funding for environmental projects in UK overseas territories. A spokesperson from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) told Newsbeat: "The UK is a world leader in environmental protection and we have been very clear that we will continue to uphold these protections in the British Overseas Territories, and, where possible, enhance these standards even further. "We are working to make sure public funding can continue to support the protection of the environment in our overseas territories after we leave the EU." The Chancellor, Sajid Javid, also announced in the recent spending review - which is the government's plans on how it will spend your money - that it would give an additional £30m to support the maintenance and restoration of vital habitats for wildlife. 'A special way to live' "I've grown up living so close to the ocean that you wake up and the first thing you can hear is the sound of a penguin," Gabriella Hoy, 26, tells Newsbeat. She has grown up on the Falkland Islands surrounded by nature. "Lots of people around the world have to see penguins in zoos. "So, it's incredible to grow up with that natural experience. It makes you really appreciate wildlife." "Recently, when out for a walk, I've seen South Georgian sea lions in the harbour because it's the season when they all start coming up here." Teslyn Barkman, 31, is an independent politician and the youngest ever elected representative in the Falkland Islands. She's also the person responsible for natural resources like agriculture and fish life, along with Brexit negotiations. She says the UK's spending plan applies to all of the UK's overseas territories - which together make up more than 90% of the UK's wildlife - and not just the Falklands. "So it'll be like putting all of your eggs in one basket." 'Crucial to the economy' Teslyn says the environment is "incredibly important" to the Falkland economy. "It's about having security - our economy is dependent on natural resources so we need to protect these," she says. "64% of our income comes from fisheries and marine management activities. We have one of the most sustainable fisheries in the world." She refers to squid - sea creature and food - which "feeds two-thirds of Europe". Nearly all of the Falklands fishing exports in 2018 went to the EU. Current environmental protections have enabled "a record-breaking year" of fishery, according to Teslyn. "It is thriving, and so is incredibly valuable as an environmental resource - it's crucial to the survival of a single-resource economy like ours." Wildlife and environment in the Falklands is also responsible for growing tourism - which has contributed £4m to the economy. A reputational boost Teslyn adds that while Brexit is providing challenges - there have also been positives. She says it has enabled the Falklands to "strengthen the trading relationship with the UK". "Two-thirds of our meat exports were being sold into the European market - but we've had trading arrangements agreed between overseas territories and the UK - so we've been able to direct those contracts into the UK." She adds that Brexit also "put a microscope" on the fact the Falklands is "a single-resource economy" - which means they will be trying to grow "into other areas". And she claims the importance given to the Falkland Islands by the UK government has increased. "I don't think most people were aware just how important that relationship with the EU was in terms of trade and the quality of squid we produce in the quantities that we do. So it's had a positive impact on the reputation of the Falklands." Gabriella adds: "A lot of the generations here want to protect the environment. "We've grown up with it and it's become our lifestyle. You're always excited when you're in nature." Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

स्क्विड, पेंगुइन और हाथी मुहर।


3D firearms: What does it mean for gun control and other questions

Summary: The online release of software which would allow anyone to 3D-print their own gun is now on hold, after a US federal court ruling on Tuesday. Gun access advocacy group Defense Distributed wants to make their plans available online so that anyone can make their own weapon - without any experience or background checks.

By Ritu PrasadBBC News What is a 3D-printed gun? Advances in 3D-printing technology have made it feasible to create gun parts using a simple set-up: a mill or plastic printer hooked up to a computer. Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson invented the first 3D-printed gun five years ago. The Liberator, a single-shot gun, was mostly plastic and less accurate than a conventional pistol. But it was printable - and untraceable. The plastic gun raised concern over how easy it was to sneak past metal detectors. In 2013, Israeli journalists were able to smuggle a 3D-printed gun based on Defense Distributed blueprints into the country's parliament. Mr Wilson's company now has a new printer model which allows gunsmiths to create aluminium objects from digital files, with no experience needed. Aluminium, like plastic, is not a material normally used in guns due to its malleability, which could cause 3D-printed parts to warp when fired. Gun control advocates were the first to nickname these untraceable firearms "ghost guns", but the term has since been adopted into the pro-gun vocabulary, too. These guns have no serial number and are illegal to buy or sell, but making one is still legal. Defense Distributed does not sell any fully assembled weapons - just the data files and printers needed to make them. The Ghost Gunner 2, Defense Distributed's updated mill, reportedly costs under $1,500, and is already sold out for 2018. A $250 deposit reserves a place on the list for the next batch of machines. The machine is also "fully programmable", according to Defense Distributed's website, meaning users can code and complete their own projects even if the company does not sell a design file for it. Is this legal? In the US, most gun parts have little regulation and are not individually considered as "firearms". These parts can be shipped or sold without a federal firearms licence (FFL). The lower receiver, the part that essentially holds the gun together, is considered a firearm under US law, but only if it is complete. An 80% complete lower requires minimal effort to mill into a finished lower, but it is not considered a firearm. This finished lower can be tailored to build different guns, including AR-15s, full-sized rifles or pistols. It is these lower receivers that Defense Distributed's Ghost Gunner is primarily designed to create. When buying a gun from a dealer with an FFL, buyers receive an instant background check using a national database. But with this new technology, gun owners can print and assemble their own firearms, without a serial number or background check. Defense Distributed notes on their website that some states may have manufacturing restrictions, but as long as users do not sell their homemade firearms, it is legal to print them. Are there any concerns? Retired Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agent David Chipman likens the 3D-printing gun debate to the development of bump stocks, a device that enables a rifle to shoot hundreds of rounds a minute. "I was at ATF when a company asked us to render an opinion about a bump stock that I can tell you seemed to be a flimsy, cheap device that seemed gimmicky," he told the BBC. "I can tell you my shock to see that piece of technology transformed into this device that was used to kill dozens and wound hundreds in Las Vegas." Mr Chipman, a gun owner himself, says he believes Americans who can pass background checks have every right to a gun, whether they purchase it or build it. It's the lack of any regulation that worries him. "We understand that you probably can make your own car, but if you take it on the street, it's got to be licenced," Mr Chipman says. "We have to make sure the person making [the gun] isn't a criminal and we have to make sure if that gun is stolen or otherwise used in crime, that it has markings allowing police to trace it." And that's the biggest question around these printable guns: they are potentially accessible to felons or those who otherwise would not pass the basic background checks at gun dealerships. Mr Chipman said traceable weapons are key to solving cases, and the prospect of ghost guns is a "real threat". "Being able to trace a gun back to who purchased it is a core piece of crime solving that we rely on," he said. "I don't know if it's a threat today or tomorrow, but five years from now - I can guarantee it." Avery Gardiner, the co-president of the Brady Campaign gun control advocacy group, said the organisation will not back down in the fight against 3D-printed guns. "Ever since Cody Wilson unveiled his 3D-printed gun years ago, it's been clear to us what a threat this poses not just to American citizens, but to people around the world," Ms Gardiner said in an emailed statement to the BBC. "These blueprints will end up in the hands of the most dangerous people among us, from domestic abusers and convicted felons to even drug cartels and terrorist cells. We are committed to doing everything we can to put an end to this," she said. "This is as important as it gets." What do gun advocates say? Gunsmithing in America is not a new hobby. A quick Google search pulls up YouTube videos of making gunsmithing drill presses, and with a little mechanical know-how, it's entirely possible to build AR weapons. And, as many DIY enthusiasts are saying online, it's fairly time-consuming to mill and assemble a weapon even with the Ghost Gunner. Paul Sheley, a gun enthusiast in Portland, Oregon, says he downloaded Defense Distributed's files in 2013 "within the hour" they were released. "I intend to use these files, but what I further intend to do is disseminate them," he told the BBC. "I want everyone to have it therefore nobody can control it." It's this sense of liberty that has made Defense Distributed's products resonate with much of the pro-gun community. Mr Sheley, 31, says that while the firm's technology is not new or particularly groundbreaking, it's making a statement. "I think what they're actually trying to do is make the point that gun control is a futile effort and it's never going to stop murder," he says. "I feel much safer having my own [gun] than being disarmed totally - and criminals will never disarm. "There's always the human element. The whole taking a file off the internet and punching in some digits on a computer and then having it pop out of a printer - it's never that simple." The lobby group Gun Owners of America (GOA) also described 3D-printing guns as "freedom" in a statement. "Our rights do not depend on what criminals do," Erich Pratt, executive director, said. "Already, almost 80% of firearms used in crime are weapons that were not legally owned." A 2016 study by the University of Pittsburgh found that 79% of criminals were "not the legal owner" of the firearms they used, pointing to theft or trafficking as the main source of "bad guy" guns. What does this mean for US gun control? Defense Distributed's enterprise had been contested by the Obama administration, but President Donald Trump's justice department ruled this summer that Americans may "access, discuss, use and reproduce" the technical data. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump tweeted scepticism over plastic guns but it is unclear whether the president will make any changes affecting 3D-printing guns in general. The NRA later released a statement pointing out that undetectable plastic guns have been illegal for 30 years. US firearms must contain at least 106g of metal, but Ghost Gunner's aluminium gun parts have no serial numbers and cannot be traced by law enforcement. Stanford Law Professor John Donohue says these new tools are "a step into the unknown" for the US. He told the BBC the Trump administration has "created an opportunity for extending this technology to anyone who wants it". "In the normal context when you're dealing with regulation, you're dealing with physical entities and maybe gun merchants and so there is a geographic space that states can more easily command," Prof Donohue says. "When you're talking about the internet, there are no geographic parameters to govern, so it really is a difficult thing for the individual states to police."

मंगलवार को अमेरिकी संघीय अदालत के फैसले के बाद सॉफ्टवेयर का ऑनलाइन रिलीज जो किसी को भी अपनी बंदूक को 3डी-प्रिंट करने की अनुमति देगा, अब रोक पर है। गन एक्सेस एडवोकेसी ग्रुप डिफेंस डिस्ट्रीब्यूटेड अपनी योजनाओं को ऑनलाइन उपलब्ध कराना चाहता है ताकि कोई भी अपना हथियार बना सके-बिना किसी अनुभव या पृष्ठभूमि की जांच के।


Shalbourne attempted murder charge: Man charged

Summary: A man has been charged with two counts of attempted murder after two people were found with multiple injuries at a house in Wiltshire.

James Wells, 42, of Seymour Road, Lee-on-the-Solent, was charged after the attack in Shalbourne, near Marlborough, on Monday. He remains in custody and is due before Bristol Magistrates' Court on Thursday. The victims, a woman in her 60s and a man in his 70s, were both known to the suspect, Wiltshire Police have said. Insp Chris Martin of Wiltshire Police said: "There is likely to be a police presence at the address until the end of the week as we continue with our investigation, so if you live locally please do not be alarmed by this."

विल्टशायर में एक घर में दो लोगों को कई चोटों के साथ पाए जाने के बाद एक व्यक्ति पर हत्या के प्रयास के दो मामलों का आरोप लगाया गया है।


Jersey army reservists could get job protection

Summary: Army reservists who return to Jersey after active service could have a right to get their former jobs back under proposed new laws.

In the UK the Safeguarding Employment Act protects the jobs of reservists while they are deployed overseas, but there is nothing similar in Jersey. The proposals have been put forward by the home affairs minister. Major Nick Spratley, head of the island's TA unit, said it would have a positive impact on soldiers' lives. Earlier this year he said the lack of protection was undermining recruitment efforts.

सक्रिय सेवा के बाद जर्सी लौटने वाले सेना के आरक्षितों को प्रस्तावित नए कानूनों के तहत अपनी पूर्व नौकरी वापस पाने का अधिकार हो सकता है।


Cregagh: Man in hospital after 'vicious knife attack'

Summary: A man has been wounded in what police have described as a "particularly vicious" knife attack in east Belfast.

The attack happened shortly after 23:00 BST on Monday near the Cregagh Road. Police said the victim, who is in his 40s, was chased by a group of men from Killagan Bend towards Greenway. He was then attacked and suffered a number of knife wounds to his back and head. He was taken to hospital where his condition has been described as stable. Police have appealed for witnesses.

पूर्वी बेलफास्ट में एक व्यक्ति घायल हो गया है जिसे पुलिस ने "विशेष रूप से द्वेषपूर्ण" चाकू हमले के रूप में वर्णित किया है।


Rod Stewart gig in Aberdeen postponed by high winds

Summary: An outdoor concert by singer Rod Stewart in Aberdeen has been postponed due to high winds and bad weather.

The gig planned at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (AECC) for Wednesday evening has now been rescheduled for Tuesday 16 July. Promoters Cuffe and Taylor said: "Sir Rod and his team always believe the show must go on and this decision has not been taken lightly. "Due to the high winds and bad weather it would not be safe to go ahead." All existing tickets will remain valid for the rescheduled date.

एबरडीन में गायक रॉड स्टीवर्ट का एक बाहरी संगीत कार्यक्रम तेज हवाओं और खराब मौसम के कारण स्थगित कर दिया गया है।