Guernsey hospital theatre closure delays operations

Summary: Orthopaedic operations at Guernsey's Princess Elizabeth Hospital have been delayed due to the closure of an operating theatre.

It was closed on Monday after problems were found with the filters in the air handling system. The Health and Social Services Department (HSSD) says the theatre is due to remain closed until specialist contractors are brought to the island. The department said five operations had already been delayed. It said arrangements were being made for emergency orthopaedic surgery to take place in a different theatre. The department said: "There may be a knock-on impact on some patients' treatment. "Anyone who is affected will be contacted directly by HSSD, with apologies for any inconvenience caused."

एक ऑपरेशन थिएटर के बंद होने के कारण ग्वेर्नसे के प्रिंसेस एलिजाबेथ अस्पताल में ऑर्थोपेडिक ऑपरेशन में देरी हुई है।


Cockroach: Ai Weiwei's new documentary on last year's Hong Kong protests ★★★★☆

Summary: 23 years ago, Chris Patten, the outgoing Governor of Hong Kong, made an emotional farewell speech as Britain handed over its prized colony to China. With the Royal Yacht Britannia purring away in the harbour as the ultimate imperial getaway vehicle, he said, "Now Hong Kong people are going to run Hong Kong. That is the promise and that is the unshakable destiny."

Will GompertzArts editor@WillGompertzBBCon Twitter "The promise" he was referring to was the one made in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, in which China agreed that it would run, in effect, a "one country, two systems" policy when it regained sovereignty of Hong Kong in 1997. It would allow the region to "enjoy a high degree of autonomy" for the next 50 years with its current social and economic systems, free press and lifestyle. Now, Lord Patten is an intelligent man well versed in politics and would have expected some level of state intervention that blurred the lines of that promise. His democratic developments, for instance, were quickly reversed by Beijing. But he was sincere and confident when he spoke of an "unshakable destiny". Five years of living in Hong Kong, a place he grew to love deeply, had taught him, he said, that its people's commitment to an open society was in their "DNA". He was right. The locals do not like it when China's ruling Communist Party imposes its political will on what it calls Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (HKSAR). When it proposed changes to the city's electoral system in 2014 the Hongkongers gathered en masse in public, carrying umbrellas as a symbol of peaceful protest (doubling up, on occasion, as protection from tear gas and pepper spray). Five years later in 2019 the umbrellas were out again as hundreds of thousands of residents took to the streets, many of whom were not even born when Patten made his speech in 1997. They came to protest against a proposed bill by the Hong Kong government that would enable the extradition of criminal suspects to mainland China. That was a red line for those in the community deeply suspicious of Beijing's motives and interference. They feared the new law would erode judicial independence and endanger activists and journalists. What followed was bloody and brutal with both sides upping the ante as summer protests gave way to autumn sieges. Police deployed a cocktail of teargas, water cannons, rubber bullets, and live ammunition, while some protesters threw petrol bombs, vandalised buildings and wielded batons. Positions hardened, tensions rose. You will probably remember much of this from the television pictures and newspaper reports at the time, but you are less likely to have seen a first-hand account from the frontline. That is what the dissident Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei gives us in his latest documentary, Cockroach - the derogatory name police gave to the protesters (who had their own insulting names for the police). As with all his work it is deeply political and, implicitly, heavily critical of the Chinese government, an administration he and his family have suffered under for decades. Its side is not presented in the 93-minute doc that places you at the sharp end of the action. It is a protesters' dispatch, giving a voice to those who fear suppression and intimidation. We see them taking on the police (some of whom, we learn, are conflicted) with a mixture of courage and audacity. Sometimes they perpetrate violence, often they are on the receiving end. Cameras are constantly rolling, lives are put on the line. It starts with a locked off shot of man standing on top of a 20-metre wall of scaffolding covering the Pacific Place mall in the Admiralty district. He has his back to us. All we can see of him is his yellow plastic raincoat. To his right is a handwritten banner that reads: "No Extradition to China". We hear the traffic below. The film cuts to a young man on the other side of the street. He is looking up at the isolated protester whose earlier post on social media had prompted him to come along. He says he hopes "he will be fine." The introduction of an ominous, metallic soundtrack (by Punkgod) suggests he will not be fine. What happens next is not easy to watch and might be too much for some adults. It is definitely not suitable for children. Ai Weiwei is a very direct filmmaker, he is not one to sugar the pill. It is a brutal beginning to a powerful documentary in which distrust and desperation turns a moderate society into a collective of civil rights activists. There are interviews with pro-democracy politicians, campaigners (some of whom are now in jail) and lawyers, as well as first-person accounts from a section within the protest movement who believe a more aggressive form of direct action is needed to make the authorities agree to their "five demands" (withdrawal of the extradition bill, universal suffrage, amnesty for arrested protesters, retract classification of protesters as "rioters", and an independent inquiry into police brutality). It is with this more radical group of largely younger activists that we remain as they talk of starting at the back of the protests ("like watching a movie") to being at the business end, nose-to-nose with heavily armed police ("like being in a movie"). The allusion to action films and video games crops up more than once, memorably so when on a rare occasion we hear from a policeman who explains his actions as if it were an exercise at drama school, "It's an act, a script, you play the bad guy." Sadly, it is all too real. The documentary goes from bloody confrontation to bloodier confrontation, drawing you further and further into the psyche of the protesters who are fuelled by a heady mix of adrenalin, fear and purpose: a leaderless band of young people willing to die for their culture and community, for the rights and way of life that was promised to their parents: a promise Chris Patten pointedly reiterated as he left 23 years ago. Cockroach is their story, told with intensity and integrity by Ai Weiwei, a fine artist who has become an exceptional filmmaker. It ends with a written update about the new National Security Law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing in 30 June 2020, which effectively quashed the protests and caused the mass resignation of opposition politicians. It marked the loss of Hong Kong's judicial independence, the text says, and the end of "one country, two systems". Recent reviews by Will Gompertz: Follow Will Gompertz on Twitter

23 साल पहले, हांगकांग के निवर्तमान गवर्नर, क्रिस पैटन ने एक भावनात्मक विदाई भाषण दिया जब ब्रिटेन ने अपनी बेशकीमती कॉलोनी चीन को सौंप दी। रॉयल यॉट ब्रिटानिया के बंदरगाह में अंतिम शाही पलायन वाहन के रूप में जाने के साथ, उन्होंने कहा, "अब हांगकांग के लोग हांगकांग को चलाने जा रहे हैं। यही वादा है और यही अटूट नियति है।"


Arrests down in Isle of Man drink-drive campaign

Summary: The number of arrests during the Isle of Man's annual Christmas drink-drive campaign has fallen by more than 40%.

The police said there were 12 arrests in 2013, compared with seven in 2014. The campaign, which was launched at the beginning of December, was run jointly by the infrastructure department, public health and the police. Sgt Allan Thompson said: "Drink-driving can ruin so many lives and our figures, although not ideal, do show that the message is getting across." In 2012 there were 19 people arrested for drink-driving offences and 16 charged - this year there were seven arrests and three charged. The annual four-week campaign was called 'Drink Safe, Drive Safe, Act Safe'.

आइल ऑफ मैन के वार्षिक क्रिसमस ड्रिंक-ड्राइव अभियान के दौरान गिरफ्तारियों की संख्या में 40 प्रतिशत से अधिक की गिरावट आई है।


Yaba: The cheap synthetic drug convulsing a nation

Summary: Hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh have become hooked on yaba - a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine sold as cheap red or pink pills. The official response has been harsh, with hundreds of people killed in alleged incidents of "crossfire".

By Linda PresslyBBC News, Bangladesh "I was awake for seven, eight, even 10 days at a time. I was taking yaba in the morning, the afternoon, in the evening, again late at night, and then working all night and not going to bed." Mohammed was an addict. After staying awake for so long, he would crash. "I would black out. I totally went down. After two or three days I would wake, have food, and go to bed again. But if I had any yaba, I would take it - if you have a single pill left, you will take it." Mohammed's yaba habit started at work in Dhaka. "Our import business was with Japan so we had to work at night because of the time difference. One of my colleagues told me about yaba. He said that if I take it, it will help me stay awake, be more energetic and to work hard in the morning and late at night." At first, Mohammed experienced the benefits his colleague described. But they were short-lived. Mohammed began behaving erratically, and came close to breakdown. "In the early stages of using yaba it has a lot of positive effects. Everything is enhanced with yaba," says Dr Ashique Selim, a consultant psychiatrist specialising in addiction. "You become more sociable… You enjoy music, cigarettes and sex more. In Bangladesh there's a very unhealthy association between yaba and sex - you're awake longer, you've got more energy, you feel more confident. If you stop using yaba, there are no withdrawal symptoms, it's not like alcohol or heroin. But it's the effects of yaba that are really addictive. It's a very, very dangerous drug." Yaba first appeared in Bangladesh in 2002 and its use, and abuse, has steadily risen since then. Manufactured illicitly in industrial quantities in Myanmar, it is smuggled into Bangladesh in the far south-east of the country, where the border partly follows the River Naf. It was across this river that hundreds of thousands of desperate Rohingya refugees fled into Bangladesh in 2017, to escape from the Burmese military. Now nearly a million destitute refugees live in makeshift camps in the region and dealers have succeeded in turning some of them into mules - often women, who smuggle packages of pills inside their vaginas. Experts believe the dealers see an unmissable business opportunity. At a time of rapid growth - Bangladesh has one of the world's fastest growing economies - traffickers are dumping huge quantities of yaba, and selling it cheaply to create a captive market. Anecdotally, it seems its use is becoming more prevalent among go-getters riding the economic boom. "I was totally dependent on it," remembers Mohammed. His wife, Nusrat, who was caring for a new-born baby at the time, says his behaviour became more and more unpredictable. "He used to come home and blame me for everything regarding food, friends, my job… This was very unusual, and it's not actually like him," she recalls. After she found some yaba tablets in the house, she tackled Mohammed about them. "He screamed at me. I tried to convince him to get some treatment, but he was still denying it. He said, 'You don't trust me, you want to go away with someone else, you want to be apart from me.' I had a tough time. And at the same time I knew he could do anything - he could even kill us." According to Dhaka psychiatrist Ashique Selim, yaba has filled a unique role in Bangladesh, a nation where alcohol is not freely available, and drinking is often frowned upon. "I had a gentleman who came to me who'd led a pretty straight life. His parents were very conservative. So when his friends would go out and have a few beers, he wouldn't do that because he didn't want to come home smelling of drink. Then in his 30s he came across yaba. So there were no visual changes in the way he looked, and there was no smell. And when he was having small doses there was no effect the day after." But yaba users struggle to keep their habit purely recreational. And it is the drug's widespread availability, and the chaos it is causing, that provoked the Bangladeshi government to ratchet up the penalties for yaba possession, and to declare "zero tolerance" - a policy that some claim involves summary execution by law enforcement agencies. "I was coming back from the mosque, when I saw a lot of policemen in front of my gate," remembers Abdur Rahman, who lives in Teknaf, the town at the heart of the yaba trade in the south-eastern district of Cox's Bazar. "They entered my house, and found my son, Abul Kalam in the bathroom. They grabbed him and handcuffed him. I said, 'Please release him, what has he done?' The policeman told me, 'If you talk too much, we're going to shoot you.'" Abul Kalam had recently served a prison sentence for human trafficking, not drugs. He was held in the police station for five days before his father got some very bad news. "The police told me my son was killed in a gunfight," he says. Abul Kalam died on 9 January some distance from the police station in what the police said was an incident of crossfire. The media reported another man was killed alongside him, and that 20,000 yaba tablets and five guns were recovered from the scene. One human rights organisation estimates that in 2018, in the first seven months of the government's anti-drug operations, nearly 300 people were killed across Bangladesh. The local press often puts the word "crossfire" in inverted commas, reflecting a widespread suspicion that sometimes these shoot-outs are staged. Find out more Listen to Bangladesh v Yaba on Crossing Continents, on BBC Radio 4, at 11:00 on Thursday 25 April Or catch up later online But the Superintendent of Police for Cox's Bazar, A B M Masud Hossain, denies there is a shoot-to-kill policy for those suspected of involvement in the yaba trade. So how does he explain the circumstances of Abul Kalam's death? "Sometimes when we go for an operation, we face the yaba traders. I think that was such a type of incident," he says. "After arresting someone we take them to the police station. Then, after collecting information during interrogation, we go for the operation. So when you take the criminals on the operation, sometimes they fight the police with guns. So maybe he was killed at that time." And he has an explanation, too, for the fact that these deaths always seem to follow a similar pattern. "They may be the same stories, but the incidents always occur like this. So why would I give another story?" In February, the superintendent organised an extraordinary public event in Teknaf. In a carnival atmosphere, in front of a crowd of thousands, 102 local men - all alleged yaba dealers - surrendered to the authorities. They included relatives of the former local MP for the ruling Awami League, and of other elected representatives. Thirty firearms and packets containing 350,000 yaba tablets were laid out ceremoniously. The men who had given themselves up lined up in front of a podium decked with flowers, and each of them was presented with a single gladiolus flower by the Home Minister, Assaduzaman Khan. "The entire country is flooded with yaba, even students in schools and colleges are dependent on it," the minister told the assembled crowd. Then he addressed the men who had turned themselves in, and who remain incarcerated today. "Your very presence today is reassurance for all of us that we shall be able to eradicate yaba from Teknaf and the rest of the country." It sounded as though those alleged yaba traders came forward of their own volition. But one man claims that his brother, Shawkat Alam, surrendered because he feared for his life. "The police made a list of all the people who had to be 'crossfired', something like that," says Mohamed Alamgir. "And when my brother heard about it, he was so frightened that made him surrender." Police superintendent A B M Masud Hossain rejects the allegation that pressure was applied. "I can assure you, there is no crossfire list. We always try to arrest them." And he says, since February's surrender, yaba trading in the district of Cox's Bazar has decreased by almost 70%. In 2018, Bangladeshi authorities seized 53 million yaba tablets nationally. The total value of this illicit business is estimated to be worth upwards of $1bn a year. There are no reliable surveys of the number of drug-dependent people in Bangladesh. The Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) estimates there are four million addicts, but NGOs have put the number at nearer seven million. Of those, about a third are thought to be yaba users. Mohammed's yaba highs were quickly replaced by wretched lows. "I was always confused and felt that somebody was overhearing me, somebody was looking at me." Paranoia is not unusual among yaba users. As his life spiralled out of control, Mohamed was forcibly taken to a rehabilitation centre in the middle of the night by strangers employed by his family. It was traumatic, but he is grateful now. He spent four months in treatment, has been clean for more than a year, and still volunteers in the same clinic - partly to prevent his own relapse. "Now I think he's ready to get a job again," says Nusrat, Mohammed's wife. "But I never push him. And if he says he needs some help, we're all here for him." Mohammed's addiction to yaba proved a profound test of this couple's relationship. "But our bond has become stronger," believes Nusrat. Mohammed agrees. "And I have more faith in her. I know she won't leave me!" he says. You may also be interested in: When soldiers went searching for militants in Myanmar's Rakhine state last October, the result for members of the Rohingya minority was disastrous. Villages were burned, men were killed, women were sexually abused. And when one woman complained of rape, she was accused of lying by the office of the country's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and hounded by vengeful soldiers. Hounded and ridiculed for complaining of rape Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.

बांग्लादेश में लाखों लोग याबा के आदी हो गए हैं-मेथामफेटामाइन और कैफीन का मिश्रण जो सस्ती लाल या गुलाबी गोलियों के रूप में बेचा जाता है। आधिकारिक प्रतिक्रिया कठोर रही है, जिसमें "क्रॉसफायर" की कथित घटनाओं में सैकड़ों लोग मारे गए हैं।


Barking stabbing: Man charged with murdering Abdulrahman Juma

Summary: A man has been charged with murder over a fatal stabbing in north London.

Abdulrahman Nassor Juma, who was known to his friends as Mani, was attacked in Crows Road, Barking at about 23:30 BST on 17 May. Police and paramedics found the 23-year-old suffering from multiple wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Fahad Sued, 22, has been charged and is due to appear at Barkingside Magistrates' Court later.

उत्तरी लंदन में एक घातक छुरा घोंपने के मामले में एक व्यक्ति पर हत्या का आरोप लगाया गया है।


Dorset diver welcomes protection of 'diverse' coastline

Summary: "From rocky reefs to sandy gullies and kelp forests - it's the diversity that makes it one of the richest in the country", says a Dorset diver of the county's soon to be protected coastline.

Emma Rance, 35, from Purbeck, has been diving for eight years and volunteers her time to record seabed species and habitats for a seabed mapping project, called Seasearch. The work of this scheme has highlighted the importance of a 330 sq km (128 sq mile) reef site from Studland to Portland. Natural Environment Minister Richard Benyon has announced the area will become the 37th Special Area of Conservation (SAC) in English territorial waters, meaning it will be protected from damaging human activities and its marine life conserved. Rare species "It's amazing what is so accessible and close to the shore," Miss Rance said. "People can be walking along Swanage Pier and be completely unaware of the fact there are fish, such as bass, pollock and cuttlefish, right beneath their feet." Simon Cripps, chief executive of Dorset Wildlife Trust which co-ordinates the project, said the site was home to a number of rare species including sea fans [soft coral], cup corals and sponges. "The health of the marine environment depends on protection of the seabed, mainly from dredging and trawling," he said. "All it takes is one dredger to come through and years and years of conservation work is lost - it's like taking a plough to your garden." Miss Rance said there was a misconception about the "underwater world". "People tend to believe it's a grey and barren place but it can be just as varied and colourful as what's on land," she said. "There's the deep shingle bank of Chesil Cove where 20 metres down there are John Dory and sunset cup corals; and the vibrant algae-rich waters of Kimmeridge Bay where all manner of flat fish and crabs can be spotted." A spiny seahorse in Studland Bay has been Miss Rance's "most exciting" discovery. "I'd seen one in captivity before but that was nothing compared to seeing it in the wild," she said. "It must have been about eight inches long - it looked magical, enigmatic and so vulnerable." Studland Bay is the only site in the UK where both spiny and short snouted seahorses are breeding, according to Dorset Wildlife Trust. It is also home to endangered undulate rays. Miss Rance said the new designation brought reassurance the area would be "monitored and maintained for future generations to enjoy". Fisherman and scallop diver, Jason Hemmings, director of Portland Seabass Ltd, also welcomed the move. He said "Anything that affords some protection of the marine life can only benefit fishermen. "It gives fish a safe haven in which to live and spawn."

काउंटी की जल्द ही संरक्षित होने वाली तटरेखा के एक डॉर्सेट गोताखोर का कहना है, "चट्टानी चट्टानों से लेकर रेतीले गड्ढों और केल्प जंगलों तक-यह विविधता है जो इसे देश में सबसे अमीर बनाती है।"


The Bollywood factor in India's election

Summary: "India will not fear terror," we hear the flag-waving strongman say, as he leads followers and soldiers in the snowy terrain of Kashmir before they come under a hail of bullets from militants. "Terror will fear India."

By Kevin PonniahBBC News, Delhi The man portrayed is Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the scene is the most memorable of a two-and-a-half minute film trailer that has caused a political storm in the country ahead of the forthcoming election. The slick biopic, titled PM Narendra Modi, is due for release on 5 April, days before India's weeks-long voting period begins. It has elicited a furious reaction from the opposition Congress party, which sees it as a nakedly political move with links to the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The party is not involved, but lead actor Vivek Oberoi is a noted Modi supporter. At the launch of a trailer earlier this month, he repeated a BJP election slogan - "Modi Hai to Mumkin Hai (Modi makes it possible)" - in response to a question. Senior BJP politicians have also been involved in events promoting the film, but PM Narendra Modi's producers have told India's Election Commission, which is examining if any election rules have been broken, that only their personal funds were used for its production. Producer and writer Sandip Singh said in an interview that he wanted to tell the story of a "great human being" to "inspire the people" of India. "I have nothing to do with politics or politicians or any party," he told the BBC, adding: "If [opposition politicians] are so scared of a film, aren't they confident of their work which they have done for their country and their respective states?" Even though only the trailer has been released, the film has already been derided by some critics as unsubtle propaganda. "The timing is incredibly suspect. It started shooting in January and in April it's coming out… Releasing it before the election smacks of desperation to cash in on the image [of Modi] and whatever image this film can [convey]," Raja Sen, a film critic for the Hindustan Times newspaper, told the BBC. PM Narendra Modi chronicles the prime minister's journey from selling tea on local trains as a child through his time in the right-wing Hindu RSS organisation and nearly 13 years as chief minister of western Gujarat state. Much of the BJP's popularity stems from Mr Modi's personal appeal and image as a tough, Hindu nationalist leader. For many critics, the most galling moment in the trailer is where Mr Modi is seen looking disturbed and upset during the 2002 Gujarat riots, when more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed. The riots occurred under Mr Modi's watch and he has been accused of doing little to stop them. He was once treated as a pariah in the West and denied US visas over what happened. The 68-year-old prime minister has always denied wrongdoing. "This is a fictionalised tale of Mr Modi's life," said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a journalist and the author of a 2013 biography, Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times. "On the contrary, he's been accused that the chief minister's office did not respond to distress calls [during the riots]." He said the dramatic scene set in Kashmir, where Mr Modi and the soldiers come under fierce attack on a bridge while he waves a gigantic Indian flag, was an attempt to fit elements of the leader's past into his party's contemporary political narrative. In 1992, as a BJP party worker, Mr Modi joined then party president MM Joshi on a protest march that traversed India from south to north, ending with the hoisting of an Indian flag in the Kashmir valley. Mr Mukhopadhyay said the convoy did come under fire - but from Sikh militants in Punjab state, not militants in Kashmir, which is contested by India and Pakistan. Anti-Pakistan sentiment and a tough Kashmir policy are at the forefront of Mr Modi and the BJP's election campaign, and so showing the prime minister on the frontline of the battle against terrorism in the disputed region would play well with much of the country, he said. "His past is being distorted to suit the present." Mr Ssingh admits that elements of the film, while based on real events, are "a little bit fictionalised". "We have to make sure that the audience like the situation and the scene and the film and the character," he said. Congress and other parties have argued that the film should not be released during the election period. If the Election Commission decides in their favour, the ruling could affect a separate web series based on Mr Modi's life. The 10-episode Modi: Journey of a Common Man is due for an April release on streaming platform Eros Now. Both the web series and the film PM Narendra Modi are just two of several overtly political features that have been released in the lead-up to the vote. The Accidental Prime Minister - a biopic of Mr Modi's predecessor Manmohan Singh - was released in January and largely panned by critics, some of whom saw it as an attempt to attack a Congress icon. Another film - Uri: The Surgical Strike - dramatised India's 2016 covert military action in Pakistani-administered Kashmir after a militant attack on an army base. The patriotic war film has bolstered Mr Modi's nationalist reputation. Six weeks after its January release, India carried out air strikes in Pakistan following another mass-casualty attack on Indian troops in Kashmir. The phrase "surgical strike" is now a slogan among BJP supporters. At his first rally of the campaign season, on Thursday, the prime minister said that only he had "the courage to conduct surgical strikes on land, in air, as well as in space". But filmmakers are not only fawning over the incumbent government. My Name is RaGa, a film about the life of Mr Modi's main competitor, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, has been promoted by its director as an inspiring "comeback story". There have been a clutch of other films this year about powerful regional politicians. For decades India's film industry was tightly controlled by the censorship board and explicitly political films used to be rare. The flurry of releases in recent months is "absolutely unprecedented", said Mr Sen. The problem, in his view, with films like PM Narendra Modi is that while they might be mocked by urban elites and panned by the media, "the Twitter liberal echo chamber aren't the only people voting". "But the point is that [outside the cities] and in less-educated parts of the country, they might be somewhat swayed by the vision of this megalomania that is presented to them directly. "The perception is that they can't show it in a movie unless it's true."

"भारत आतंक से नहीं डरेगा", हम झंडा लहराते हुए शक्तिशाली व्यक्ति को यह कहते हुए सुनते हैं, जब वह कश्मीर के बर्फीले इलाकों में अनुयायियों और सैनिकों का नेतृत्व करते हैं, इससे पहले कि वे आतंकवादियों की गोलियों की बौछार में आ जाएं। "आतंक भारत से डरेगा।"


Jim Clark and Snowman Rally deaths inquiry begins

Summary: A joint fatal accident inquiry into four deaths at rallies in the Highlands and Scottish Borders has started in Edinburgh.

Joy Robson died at the Snowman Rally in Inverness in 2013. The following year, Iain Provan, Elizabeth Allan and Len Stern lost their lives at the Jim Clark Rally near Coldstream. The inquiry at Edinburgh Sheriff Court is expected to last several weeks with dozens of people due to give evidence. Plans to hold the hearing were confirmed late last year. The decision followed a change in legislation to allow for a single fatal accident inquiry to be held in relation to deaths in different parts of Scotland.

एडिनबर्ग में हाइलैंड्स और स्कॉटिश बॉर्डर्स में रैलियों में चार मौतों की एक संयुक्त घातक दुर्घटना जांच शुरू हो गई है।


Shipshape: when the state steps in

Summary: The disputed Cal-Mac ferries contract at Ferguson's shipyard is forcing the SNP government to address one of its central tensions about economic policy. The case for nationalisation is that government can better steer the economy that way, to meet wider objectives. The case against is that it exposes taxpayers to more risk, and that it could be used mainly to shore up failing companies and loss-making industries.

Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland State ownership of shipyards on the Clyde is nothing new. They were all nationalised in the 1970s. Even when in private hands, as in BAE Systems at Scotstoun and Govan now, government can and does call the shots. But is the nationalisation of Ferguson shipyard at Port Glasgow in the public interest? Does it fit into the SNP government's view of the economy? Or is it being discussed simply because there is a lack of alternatives? The prospect has come to the fore because of the dispute over who pays for the cost overrun on two CalMac ferries, currently being built there. The fixed price contract was for £97m. The final cost looks like nearly double that. Why? It's a long story, and it's disputed. But the main problem seems to be that the ships are being built to a novel hybrid engine system. Diesel gets the ships in and out of harbour, and liquified natural gas is the lower-emissions turbine that powers it between ports. Set aside for a moment the concerns that such technology is only going to reduce emissions over much longer distances than the Ardrossan to Brodick run for which one of the ships is destined, eventually, or the Uig-Tarbert-Lochmaddy triangle for the other one. The problem has been the complexity of designing the new technology into the ship, getting it certified as shipshape, and then handling the numerous changes to design that Ferguson's management say have been required by the client. That client is Caledonian Asset Management Ltd, or CMAL - the Scottish government-owned company that owns and leases CalMac ferries and owns ports as well. The dispute is whether the client should carry the cost for the changes required. A legal review of the contract is understood to tend towards the CMAL way of seeing things, but there's plenty potential for lawyers to pick over this for a long time to come. Backlog The prospect of nationalisation comes in because Ferguson is not far from being insolvent, and its owner - industrial tycoon Jim McColl, through Clyde Blowers Capital - does not want to meet the full cost of that overrun. It's understood that an offer of a compromise has been rebuffed by the Scottish government, which now speaks for CMAL on this. Nationalisation could come if the two sides agree to an independently-set price, or if the Scottish government salvages from insolvency - the latter option also leaving Jim McColl a long way out of pocket. So back to those starting questions: what would the game plan then be? The view at Ferguson's is that this is appealing to Derek Mackay because it's part of a bigger political project. It could fit with a view of the state increasing its role in industry and particularly in transport - taking over the rail franchise, making sure that government owned companies retain the western ferries. There's the interesting, related question of whether CalMac will take over the Orkney and Shetland ferries in place of the current operator, Serco. Watch this space. It could be, particularly post-Brexit, easier for the Scottish government to place ferry orders with its state-owned yard rather than having to put contracts out to private sector tenders. (Though who can tell what the state aid rules will be?) There is a big backlog of ferries required for the CalMac fleet, because the current one is getting old and unreliable. There's also a lack of capacity on major routes, because more subsidised tickets have seen demand rise steeply. Also the idea has been floated this week, of a post-Brexit re-joining of CalMac, the ferry operator, with CMAL, the ferry owner. That split was required under EU competition and state aid law. Politically, such a view of state and industry would push the SNP into Labour territory, where Jeremy Corbyn's view of the post-Brexit economy is for more intervention by the state, taking control of several public utilities. But is the SNP as concerned about taking Labour turf as it is about the pushback from Conservatives, to its freer market right? Frigate order Tories can point out that state ownership would have left the government facing all of that higher cost for the two ferries now under construction. There's more to the case against nationalisation than a dislike of state ownership of industry. Doubt is being cast over non-CalMac work, which Ferguson's has been keen to win. The current management wants to win a share of the Type 31e frigate order for the Royal Navy, bidding with Babcock as part of a consortium. It's casting doubt on whether that would be possible with a change of ownership to the Scottish government, and a potential change of management as well. How would the UK Ministry of Defence reckon on placing a contract for new frigates with a Scottish government-owned company? Perhaps relaxed. Perhaps uncomfortable. A number of other diversified engineering contracts are being pursued under the ownership of Clyde Blowers Capital, and likewise, it's claimed these may be lost. The two main questions about public ownership: how much capital does this tie up which could be used for other public sector priorities? And does government run a shipyard better and more efficiently or profitably than private management? The answer to that, for many in Britain, has long been "no". But other countries' governments run a lot of complex industries very successfully, including several that run Britain's railways. And Scottish Water stands up favourably to comparison with English water companies. Peaks and troughs You might normally expect trade unions to like nationalisation. They have more leverage over state-owned firms. But the GMB doesn't sound so keen in this case, until they see what might be involved. There are 350 workers currently at Ferguson. If the contracts were going better, there could be more. Management reckons it could push up to 700 staff if the order book begins to fill up. If all the work is for CalMac, that could be managed to retain the workforce, but it might also be vulnerable to peaks and troughs of government procurement. The question highlights a central tension at the heart of the Scottish National Party's view of the economy and the state's role in it. The government's council of economic advisers includes Jim McColl, taking an entrepreneurial view of business, and Prof Mariana Mazzucato, who has impressed the first minister with her advocacy of a clearer and more prominent role for the state in steering the economy, and taking more credit for its existing role in research and procurement. Where ministers and the SNP membership are located in response to the nationalisation question is less clear. What they probably won't want is to link state-owned enterprise with propping up failure and loss-making industries. The Scottish government has taken a stake in BiFab fabrication yards, it has full ownership of Prestwick Airport, and has taken over Scotland's wave power pioneers, in the hope that their intellectual property can eventually become commercial. The addition of Ferguson shipyard risks that becoming a trend.

फर्ग्यूसन के शिपयार्ड में विवादित कैल-मैक नौका अनुबंध एसएनपी सरकार को आर्थिक नीति के बारे में अपने केंद्रीय तनावों में से एक को दूर करने के लिए मजबूर कर रहा है। राष्ट्रीयकरण का मामला यह है कि सरकार व्यापक उद्देश्यों को पूरा करने के लिए अर्थव्यवस्था को बेहतर तरीके से चला सकती है। इसके खिलाफ मामला यह है कि यह करदाताओं को अधिक जोखिम में डालता है, और इसका उपयोग मुख्य रूप से असफल कंपनियों और घाटे में चल रहे उद्योगों को बढ़ावा देने के लिए किया जा सकता है।


Shop local - and set the tax rates there too?

Summary: The election result has put the focus on the need to think more local in a response to the places that feel like they have been left behind. An opportunity has arisen with an amendment to the business rates bill, which would shift control of non-domestic rates from Holyrood to councils. While the SNP administration may struggle to overturn the move, business lobby groups are mobilised on the government's side.

Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland People in the final throes of Christmas shopping are facing the familiar call to support their local high street. As big national chains shrink their retail footprint, small independent firms are taking up the space, trying to provide something distinctive and to give town centres more of a sense of place. Going local has become all the more topical after a general election in which England's towns asserted themselves. It was the towns that were key to the Brexit majority, and towns that have sent Labour packing. The constituencies remaining Labour red are heavily skewed to cities. The interpretation of this in some quarters is that towns and their high streets feel left behind. So is this time to reassert themselves? It happens that they may be about to get an opportunity in Scotland, with a looming battle over control of nearly £3bn of tax revenue each year. On manoeuvres This is about Non-Domestic Rates, or business rates. Not, admittedly, the most scintillating subject, least of all for the festive season, but stick with this - it could blow up into something big next month and it has far-reaching implications. A bill is before Holyrood, and has been for most of this year. At its second stage, in committee, Green MSP Andy Wightman, lodged several amendments, one of which passed. To the alarm of the business lobbies, this change hands the power to set business rates from the Scottish government to local authorities. Hence, we could get 32 different business rates, some inflated to plug budget gaps, others used to undercut neighbouring areas. Mr Wightman's view is that local control existed until 1992, and it would be good for local accountability if it returned to that position. He cites the example of Highland Regional Council, which used to use its flexibility on business rates to help the fabrication yards at Nigg and Ardersier through peaks and troughs of work. It's no surprise to the St Andrew's House administration that Mr Wightman is on manoeuvres. He's a formidable operator, with a deep understanding of land law. What seems to have surprised it was the support of Labour and Conservative committee members. The Scottish government is very keen to overturn the amendment at the final stage of legislating next year. A spokeswoman said: "The amendment creates huge uncertainties and unintended consequences for both ratepayers and Scottish councils. As it stands, it also abolishes vital business rates relief from tens of thousands of businesses." But lacking a parliamentary majority, it is not clear the SNP can overturn the amendment. Fears and complexity Business lobby groups, meanwhile, are deeply perplexed. They have responded forcefully. The recurring concern is that the Small Business Bonus Scheme, which exempts premises with low rates valuations, would come to an end. According to the Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC), which has run the numbers on this since the committee vote, that move alone would raise (thus costing business) another £355m. That assumes that the poundage rate (the amount charged per pound of valuation) is not changed by councils. The SFC also looks at the Large Business Supplement. If that is no longer a levy the Scottish government can apply, it reduces revenue by £128m, says the SFC. Andy Wightman has an answer to the concern about national reliefs being removed, including the Small Business Bonus Scheme. He tells me that the removal of the power for the Scottish government to offer such reliefs is a drafting error. He will propose the removal of that part of the amendment at stage three of the Bill. Let's see if that reassurance calms the chorus of criticism, and helps Tory MSPs to support a revised Wightman amendment. Welcome in some quarters One lobby group that likes the look of the Wightman amendment is the council umbrella group Cosla, which said the move is "a welcome opportunity to progress towards greater fiscal empowerment". However, the councils don't want this power without preparatory work, to look at any implications. It wants to see that done "at pace", while recognising it won't be ready before stage three. Business rates also featured in the Queen's Speech at Westminster. This unloved system of taxation, failing to address the fundamental changes to the economy through digital commerce, is due for another review down south. That need not affect Scotland, but it probably will. The Scottish Parliament has, since 1999, had powers to do whatever it wishes with business rates. A change is going to come Yet for all the talk about needing the levers of tax power to grow the economy faster, Labour, Lib Dem and SNP administrations have only tinkered at the margins, with reliefs for some and supplements for others. The poundage charged on each pounds-worth of rateable valuation has been pegged to whatever Westminster sets. So if Westminster reforms the English system, Scotland may no longer have a lead it can follow - not unless Holyrood adapts its own reforms. In general, business would very much like to see big changes to the system, going much further than the Scottish government current legislation. But preferably not Andy Wightman's grand plan.

चुनाव परिणाम ने उन स्थानों की प्रतिक्रिया में अधिक स्थानीय सोचने की आवश्यकता पर ध्यान केंद्रित किया है जो महसूस करते हैं कि वे पीछे रह गए हैं। व्यापार दर विधेयक में संशोधन के साथ एक अवसर उत्पन्न हुआ है, जो गैर-घरेलू दरों का नियंत्रण होलीरूड से परिषदों में स्थानांतरित कर देगा। जबकि एसएनपी प्रशासन इस कदम को पलटने के लिए संघर्ष कर सकता है, व्यापार लॉबी समूह सरकार के पक्ष में जुट गए हैं।


Children's TV veteran reflects on career

Summary: Was children's TV really better in your day? Joy Whitby should know. The award-winning producer of Play School, Jackanory and Catweazle has enjoyed a career in children's factual, drama and animated films that has spanned six decades at the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.

By Samira AhmedBBC News Still working today, at the age of 82, she's preparing to give a talk at the British Film Institute about a lifetime of telling stories on television. In 1964 Whitby was asked to create a new programme, aimed at preschool children, for a new channel - BBC Two. They called it Play School and it ran until 1988. "Watch with Mother had some lovely characters but was past its sell-by date, I thought," says Whitby, who started out telling stories to the young children of psychiatric patients at the Mayfair Delinquency Clinic, where she was a secretary. After joining the BBC, she was asked to write a report about their shows for young people. "Children were addressed collectively, as if sitting on your own you would be aware of all the others watching in their own homes," she recalls. In addition, "many of the programmes were written by puppet performers to showcase their puppets. They weren't necessarily good writers". Whitby was a rarity among women in TV back then - a young, married mother with three small children of her own. But she developed basic principles that, nearly 50 years on, we take for granted - such as addressing one child only and giving them a close-up view of the action. "It's like watching an egg hatch. As a very small child you want to see it yourself, not watch other children seeing it." Play School pioneered diverse casting, both in gender and race, from its earliest episodes. Canadian Rick Jones, who went on to make Fingerbobs, Paul Danquah and Italian Marla Landi were all in the mix. Whitby's consistently strong record in spotting new talent is notable. Her discovery of Brian Cant's unpretentious charm remains the template for children's casting. Years later, she discovered Helena Bonham Carter and gave her a role in the 1983 supernatural drama A Pattern of Roses. She says her programmes were "influenced by advertising - to make tiny ad-type inserts on cleaning your teeth, or eating fresh fruit". 'Too American' It was those ads that the creators of Sesame Street picked up on when they launched their own show. Interestingly, Whitby had wanted to use Jim Henson's Muppets on Play School and was disappointed when the BBC turned down the chance to show Sesame Street because it was "too American". Whitby's prior experience in a photography library and as a radio studio manager meant she saw the power of strong graphic visuals and sound effects to hold a young viewer's attention. That experience served her well when she was asked to fill another 15-minute tea time slot on BBC One, which became Jackanory. A pure storytelling format, like Play School the programme sought "to bridge the gap between privileged children and those who didn't have someone to read to them". What is Whitby most proud of? "Having persuaded really talented people from the mainstream to engage with children's programming because it helps to notch up the quality," she says. We take it for granted that writers and stars wanted to be on Jackanory. But it was Whitby who started it by wooing the Edwardian novelist Compton Mackenzie and veteran actors such as Margaret Rutherford, Wendy Hiller and Harry H Corbett to take part in her programmes. Encouraging children to read has been a lifelong passion. She was the first TV producer to win the prestigious Eleanor Farjeon Award for services to children's literature and she adapted with changing times. Her 1979 Yorkshire TV show The Book Tower still captivates. Its first mysterious proprietor, Tom Baker, came down the spiral staircase grinning: "I haven't read all of them… yet." In the first episode, Baker read an extract from a contemporary novel about a boy caught up in a plane hijacking. 'Sense of occasion' And then, having poured a cup of tea, he opened the pot to take out two live mice in his hands as a prop for the next story. "What?" you think, watching it today. "Terrorism? Health and hygiene horror?" The paranoid forty-something parent might want to grab anti-bacterial spray and wipe the screen immediately. But an eight-year-old child still grins in delight. Mice! In the teapot! It's a shocking illustration of how sanitised much children's content has become. When regularly scheduled children's programmes recently disappeared from BBC One and Two altogether, Anne Wood, creator of the Teletubbies (who originally trained under Whitby) condemned the decision as "ghettoising" children's content. Whitby disagrees. She says she's only concerned about the "glutting" effect of all-day channels. "What's gone is the sense of occasion. You waited and it was your time." But could children's interests suffer when their dedicated programmes disappear from the shared space of the main channels? Ofcom has in recent years censured ITV for showing very violent episodes of The Midsomer Murders in what had been the after-school slot. And as recently as December, the broadcast regulator criticised the BBC for using a 13-year-old actor in violent torture scenes in the crime drama In the Line of Duty. Young people are more rarely seen on the main channels now, except as fodder for Young Apprentice or Britain's Got Talent. 'Worthless' cartoons Whitby has never called her viewers "kids" - she thinks it's disrespectful. But looking back over old shows, she notices what's dated. There are some posh accents here and there. And the pace of editing in some of her earlier dramas can seem very slow to modern attention spans. 1983's A Pattern of Roses, first shown on Channel 4, also highlights an accusation Whitby has had to deal with over the years - that some of her programmes were "too middle-class". The plot focuses on a public school boy (originally to be played by a very young Hugh Grant) convalescing in a country cottage while waiting to take up his place at Oxford. He rebels by saying he wants to go to art school. It's hard to imagine such character motivation getting much sympathy now. Looking back on nearly 50 years in children's TV, Whitby has remained good friends with the performers and writers with whom she worked. Tom Baker, she says, "was one of the most exciting"; former Rutle and Bonzo Dog Band member Neil Innes "one of the most creative"; and Tim Brooke-Taylor "one of the nicest". An intriguing revelation is how Verity Lambert, fresh from the huge success of Doctor Who, rang her up to ask for a job on Play School, which had just launched. A surprised Whitby said "no" to such an over-qualified and high-powered producer. For now, Whitby is focused on finishing Mouse and Mole, an animated Christmas special with the voices of Alan Bennett, Richard Briers and Imelda Staunton for the BBC. "Things move on," she says. But she adds that she wouldn't now leave a child under five in front of the television unsupervised if she could help it. "Many of the cartoons are worthless," she concludes. "It really is passive viewing, as opposed to the creativity involved in building a castle out of bricks." Joy Whitby will be in conversation with Samira Ahmed on 2 February at BFI Southbank. The event will be preceded by Joy Whitby: Telling Stories on the Telly, a selection of episodes from some of her best-known shows.

क्या आपके समय में बच्चों का टीवी वास्तव में बेहतर था? जॉय व्हिटबी को पता होना चाहिए। प्ले स्कूल, जैकनोरी और कैटवीज़ले के पुरस्कार विजेता निर्माता ने बच्चों की तथ्यात्मक, नाटक और एनिमेटेड फिल्मों में अपने करियर का आनंद लिया है जो बीबीसी, आईटीवी और चैनल 4 में छह दशकों तक फैली हुई हैं।


Douglas Carswell defection: the Europe 'bomb' goes off

Summary: This is a body blow for David Cameron.

Nick RobinsonPolitical editor When he became Tory leader, he told his party that they needed to stop obsessing about Europe. This defection - and the by-election which will follow - will revive that obsession. Conservative MPs and activists, as well as the Tory press, will angst and speculate about who might follow Douglas Carswell into UKIP's ranks. They will debate and argue about whether their leader now needs to threaten to leave the EU and spell out his full negotiating demands. They will disagree and fall out about whether and how to control immigration. Their coalition partners in the Lib Dems will do nothing to ease their plight. Labour will highlight every Tory split as evidence of their unfitness to govern and portray every utterance from Number 10 as a lurch to the right or of policy-making dictated by Nigel Farage. The Scottish National Party will tell Scots that the only way to opt out of all this is to vote to break up the United Kingdom. The earliest the by-election can be held is early October, immediately after the Tories' big pre-election party conference - just when they needed to focus on the battle against Labour and Ed Miliband. Whenever it is actually held, almost certainly much later, it will hover like a cloud over the Conservatives. William Hague, Cameron's predecessor and the man he calls his real deputy, once compared the issue of Europe to an unexploded bomb. Not any more. It just went off. PS Carswell's defection genuinely shocked even his Eurosceptic friends in the Tory party - in large part because he had praised Cameron for promising an EU referendum and for his Bloomberg speech spelling out his strategy of renegotiating Britain's relationship with the EU. Tory HQ have already dug out a series of quotes which they will deploy against the man who is now UKIP candidate for Clacton. Here are a couple of them:

डेविड कैमरन के लिए यह एक तगड़ा झटका है।


Double negative trends after Trump remarks on Russian meddling

Summary: It might not be as snappy as "I can't get no satisfaction" or "We don't need no education", but could another phrase - "I don't see any reason why I wouldn't" - be set to join the list of famous double negatives?

By Thom PooleBBC News On Monday, to the shock of many US lawmakers, US President Donald Trump said he couldn't see any reason why Russia would meddle in the 2016 US election. But he has now sought to clarify, saying he had misspoken. "The sentence should have been: 'I don't see any reason why I wouldn't' or 'why it wouldn't be Russia'. Sort of a double negative," he said. It is the last reference that has been seized on. Fans of easy-to-read sentences might want to avert their eyes. First, a definition. Double negatives might be frowned upon - Oxford Dictionaries advises "you should avoid them in all but very informal situations" - but they are common and generally understood. In its look at the topic, VOA discusses President Obama's phrase "time is not unlimited" in reference to the Iranian nuclear issue. But Mr Trump's explanation has raised eyebrows. A Conservative critic of Mr Trump, Ben Shapiro, joined in. History has been revisited. Song lyrics have been adjusted There were also references to other esoteric bits of grammar... ... as well as another famous Trump phrase.

यह "मुझे कोई संतुष्टि नहीं मिल सकती" या "हमें किसी शिक्षा की आवश्यकता नहीं है" जितना तेज़ नहीं हो सकता है, लेकिन क्या एक और वाक्यांश-"मुझे कोई कारण नहीं दिखता कि मैं ऐसा क्यों नहीं करूँगा"-प्रसिद्ध दोहरे नकारात्मक की सूची में शामिल होने के लिए तैयार किया जा सकता है?


Why are so few women inventors named on patents?

Summary: It's easy to list some of the many everyday items invented and patented by women - the dishwasher, windscreen wipers, the board game Monopoly, to name but a few - but the world is still failing to take full advantage of women's innovative ideas, a report suggests.

By Clara Guibourg and Nassos StylianouData journalists, BBC News Women inventors account for just under 13% of patent applications globally, according to the study, by the UK's Intellectual Property Office (IPO). That's one female inventor for every seven male ones. And although the proportion among patent applications is increasing, at the current rate it won't reach gender parity until 2070. So, why are there so few women in the world of inventing? Researchers attribute the gap to a lack of women working in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem). According to Penny Gilbert, partner at intellectual property law firm Powell & Gilbert, it's simply a pipeline issue. "If we want to see more women filing patents, then we need to see more women taking up Stem subjects at university and going on to careers in research," she says. Currently only about a quarter of the UK workforce in Stem industries is female and fewer girls and women study these subjects at secondary school and university, despite efforts to diagnose and solve this imbalance. Two-thirds of applications still all-male Patents are granted to the owner of an invention, allowing the creator and subsequent owners to prevent others from using their invention. In order to qualify as an "invention" patent, the filing must contain a new, useful idea - that would not be obvious to a skilled person in that field. They can be filed individually, or by teams of inventors. The gender disparity among inventors grows even starker when you take into account most female inventorship takes the form of a lone female on a male-dominated team. More than two-thirds of all patents come from all-male teams or individual male inventors - and just 6% from individual female inventors. All-female teams are nearly non-existent, making up just 0.3% of applications, according to the IPO. Even when they apply for patents, women may be less likely to receive them, according to a study of US patent applications, by Yale University researchers. They found applicants with an obviously female name were less likely to have their patent approved. And of course, not everyone involved in an invention is credited with a patent. All in all, female scientists are less than half as likely to obtain a patent for their research, according to a previous World Intellectual Property Organisation study, suggesting women may be less likely than men to think about commercialising their inventions. Biotech the most gender equal In 1991, Ann Tsukamoto developed a way to isolate stem cells. Her innovation led to great advancements in understanding the blood systems of cancer patients and could lead to a cure for the disease. Dr Tsukamoto, who is currently conducting further research into stem cell growth, is also the co-patentee on more than seven other inventions. Biotechnology, the use of living organisms to produce useful products such as medicine and food, is the sector with the highest proportion of female inventors. Some 53% of biotechnology-related patents have at least one female inventor. In second place, 52% of pharmaceutical-related patents have at least one female inventor. Electrical engineering was at the bottom of the list, with fewer than one in 10 applications having at least one female inventor. Parity by 2070 The proportion of women inventors has doubled in the past 20 years, according to the IPO, from just 6.8% in 1998 to 12.7% in 2017, the latest year for which full data is available. During the same period, the proportion of applications naming at least one woman among the inventors rose from 12% to 21%. Dr Gilbert says stereotypes around women's educational and career choices need to be tackled - by encouraging women to choose Stem areas, introducing mentoring schemes, and celebrating female role models. "We should applaud the fact that some of the greatest scientists and inventors throughout history have been women - from Marie Curie and Rosalind Franklin to Grace Hopper, [a computer programming pioneer], and Stephanie Kwolek, the inventor of Kevlar," she says. "We should tell their stories." Russia tops the list Although female inventorship in the UK has increased, from 8% in 1998 to 11% in 2017, other countries are well ahead. With 17% of patent applications including at least one woman over the past 20 years, Russia had the highest proportion of female inventors, out of the 10 countries with the most patent applications, followed by France. At the other end of the scale, in Japan and South Korea fewer than one in 20 patent applications included a female inventor during the time period. How was the data collected? The gender of inventors is usually not included in patent applications, so the IPO inferred gender based on inventors' first names, using data from the European Patent Office Worldwide Patent Statistical Database (PATSTAT). Inventors' names were matched to a gender using birth data from the UK's Office for National Statistics and the US Social Security Administration, which lists the names of all babies born, and the number of male and female entries, as well as by crawling Facebook profiles to create a larger list of names and their likely gender. Only names for which at least 95% of entries were male or female were included, so gender-neutral names such as "Robin" have been excluded. A total of 75% of inventors' names were matched to a gender, although this success rate varies country by country. The name lists used were biased towards Western names, so the UK has the highest "success rate", while countries in East Asia, including South Korea and China, have a lower rate. What is 100 Women? BBC 100 Women names 100 influential and inspirational women around the world every year and shares their stories. Find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and use #100Women.

महिलाओं द्वारा आविष्कार और पेटेंट की गई कई रोजमर्रा की वस्तुओं में से कुछ को सूचीबद्ध करना आसान है-डिशवॉशर, विंडस्क्रीन वाइपर, बोर्ड गेम एकाधिकार, लेकिन कुछ नाम-लेकिन दुनिया अभी भी महिलाओं के अभिनव विचारों का पूरा लाभ उठाने में विफल रही है, एक रिपोर्ट बताती है।


Police concerns over missing 12-year-old Birmingham girl

Summary: Police say they are growing increasingly concerned for the welfare of a missing 12-year-old girl.

Olivia Henry failed to return home after school on Friday in the Sheldon area of Birmingham. Olivia is described as mixed race, of medium build with brown eyes and is 5ft tall. She speaks with a Birmingham accent and it is believed she could be wearing a blue denim jacket with rips, a white shirt, a black skirt and black shoes. The youngster may also have her black school blazer with her.

पुलिस का कहना है कि वे एक लापता 12 वर्षीय लड़की के कल्याण के लिए चिंतित हो रहे हैं।


Montreal ranked top city for students

Summary: Montreal has been named as the best city in the world for students.

By Sean CoughlanEducation correspondent This international ranking of university cities has seen Paris slip from first place - a position the French capital has held for four years. The Canadian city has come top of the QS Best Student Cities, a spin-off from the annual QS World University Rankings. It will add to suggestions that Canada will attract a bigger slice of the lucrative international student market, particularly if there are concerns about changes to entry rules under President Trump. It also has the benefit of being able to offer degree courses in two big international languages - with English-speaking universities such as McGill University, and French-speaking, such as the Université du Québec à Montréal. Entry to this league table requires cities to have at least a population of 250,000 and to be home to at least two universities in the World University Rankings. Alternative countries The rankings are based on a basket of measures - including the quality of universities, facilities for students, affordability, the "desirability" of the city for students, access to employers, the international nature of a city, levels of tolerance, pollution and safety. Canada is seen as high on desirability for international students - with Montreal in top place and Vancouver in 10th and Toronto in 11th place. Ben Sowter, head of the QS Intelligence Unit which produces the ranking, forecasts that Canada's growing popularity will be part of an increase in "alternatives to the traditionally dominant study destinations, both in Europe and North America". "Canada will become a major player," forecasts Mr Sowter. Canada could attract students from the US, and the UK could lose students to Ireland, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries, he says. More stories from the BBC's Global education series looking at education from an international perspective, and how to get in touch. You can join the debate at the BBC's Family & Education News Facebook page. A spokeswoman for the city of Montreal says there has already been a surge of international students - with big rises in student numbers from China, India, France and Iran. London still calling Figures from admissions services in the UK have already shown a 7% fall in applications from EU students - and UK universities have been worried that the backwash of Brexit will leave the UK looking less welcoming to overseas students. But there are no signs of an adverse impact on London in this year's rankings, moving up from fifth place to third. The two great world cities of London and Paris are in the top three best places to study - able to offer both a rich cultural as well as academic experience. Along with Boston, which can claim Harvard, MIT and Boston University, London and Paris are boosted by the strength and number of top universities. The slip from first to second place for Paris is attributed to cost and a loss in desirability, including safety. Mr Sowter rejects a link to terror attacks in the French capital - saying that when students are surveyed only a handful of cities are seen as more attractive than Paris. He says students seem to be resilient to accepting there are no "zero risk" cities - whether it is Boston, Berlin or Paris, all of which have maintained their attraction. Seoul appeal London's universities rate highly on quality - "no city has a superior variety and quality of universities to London" - and the falling value of the pound after the EU referendum has improved their affordability for overseas students. Edinburgh is Scotland's highest ranked university in 18th place. Apart from Canada, the only other country with two cities in the top 10 is Germany, with Berlin and Munich. This reflects Germany's financial advantages for overseas students - who do not have to pay any tuition fees. The most affordable cities of all, taking into account living costs, were Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Surabaya in Indonesia. Stockholm in Sweden and New York in the US were the most expensive. Asian countries - particularly China and India - provide the biggest cohorts of overseas students. But Asian countries are becoming big magnets in their own right, with five cities in the top 20, headed by Seoul, which has risen to fourth place. Shanghai is the highest rated city in China in 25th place, with Mumbai the highest in India in 85th place. The competition for attracting international students is big business. The US remains the biggest market and annual figures show that for the first time more than a million overseas students were at US universities - with almost 330,000 from China alone. Apart from the benefits from international research partnerships - and the long-term influence of soft power - such international students are officially estimated at being worth almost $36bn (£29bn) to the US economy. Being able to attract more of these valuable students makes these rankings much more than a civic beauty contest. QS Best Student Cities 2017 1. Montreal 2. Paris 3. London 4. Seoul 5. Melbourne 6. Berlin 7. Tokyo 8. Boston 9. Munich 10. Vancouver 11. Hong Kong and Toronto 13. Sydney 14. Singapore 15. Zurich 16. Vienna 17. Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe 18. Edinburgh 19. New York 20. Brisbane 21. Taipei 22. Canberra 23. Barcelona 24. Manchester 25. Shanghai

मॉन्ट्रियल को छात्रों के लिए दुनिया का सबसे अच्छा शहर नामित किया गया है।


India strike: Voices from the streets

Summary: Opposition parties and trade unions in India have held a day-long strike over plans to open up the country's retail sector to global supermarket chains and other reforms. BBC correspondents in Delhi, Hyderabad, Calcutta and Srinagar spoke to people on the streets to gauge their reaction.

RK GOYAL, DIAMOND JEWELLERY TRADER, DELHI Fifty million traders are staring into a financial abyss if the government implements its decision to open up the retail sector to global supermarkets. Besides, there are millions of others in the country who are employed by small traders like us and this larger population is dependent on us, so the government will have to listen to us, otherwise they will fall. But we have faith in the government, we have chosen this government and I think they will decide in our favour and roll back the decision. YASIR ARFAT, TELECOMS MANAGER, SRINAGAR Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in any sector actually speeds up growth. We live in the 21st Century, so we cannot think like we are in the Soviet era. The global economy is changing, people are changing. India is a country of vast economic opportunities, and an old-fashioned bureaucratic structure cannot exploit those opportunities to the hilt. While we need to ensure that the new policy safeguards the interests of the common masses and farmers, I think it is a right decision to adapt to a futuristic economic vision. MANJEET RAI, COAL TRADER, DELHI If the government is going to decide its national policy on the basis of critical reports in the international media, then that is an extremely sorry situation. [Prime Minister] Manmohan Singh should stop worrying about what's being said outside the country and pay more attention to the voices coming from inside. It is clear that this government has not kept the interests of people in its mind while taking decisions. It is [US President] Barack Obama and other Western countries who are calling the shots and deciding what should be the economic policy of India. SAMIR PRAMANIK, PRIVATE FIRM EMPLOYEE, CALCUTTA I support the issues behind the strike. The way [PM] Manmohan Singh's government has failed to contain the price rise, we the common people are really struggling. The government recently announced a cap on the number of subsidised cooking gas cylinders which each family can get in a year. Every family needs eight to 10 gas cylinders every year, so I think the government needs to increase the cap from the current six cylinders. I fully support Mamata Banerjee's opposition to these policies and her decision to quit the government. I think opening the retail sector will benefit us, the consumers, because we will be able to get our daily stuff at a cheaper price. But I'm not sure whether the farmers will benefit from the policy. AMJADULLAH KHAN, SMALL BUSINESSMAN, HYDERABAD The strike is causing a lot of difficulties for a small businessman like me. I wanted to buy some supplies today [Thursday] but all the major shops are closed. Shops were closed yesterday on account of a festival and today it is the strike. It is adding to our misery. It is already tough times for us, economically. No problem is going to be solved by strikes. What have they achieved by calling earlier strikes? The government will do what it wants to do. If these [opposition] parties were in power, they would also increase the prices. It is all cheating. GHANSHYAM DAS, PRIVATE FIRM WORKER, DELHI The Indian public is being held ransom to the differences between Mamata Banerjee and Sonia Gandhi. I want to request Mamata Banerjee to take back her decision to withdraw support from the government. I think the decision to open the retail sector to global supermarket chains was not taken on the basis of any public interest. I think it was driven by politics and personalities - it's become Mamata Banerjee versus Sonia Gandhi. We are a poor country and we cannot afford to have mid-term elections. We need the government to take sound economic decisions. RAHEEL KHURSHEED, SOCIAL ACTIVIST, SRINAGAR Even as we wait for this decision to open up the retail sector to global supermarkets to take practical shape beyond the policy stage, a good yardstick for judging the impact of this decision will be as to what it will do for the consumers and the farmers. As long as the decision leads to better prices and more choices for the consumer, better prices for the farmers and an upgraded, competitive supply chain, the decision makes sense. KIRAN KUMAR, IT PROFESSIONAL, HYDERABAD The strike has not made any difference. We are working as usual as our company has its own transport system. Normally such strikes don't affect our work. Nobody comes here to create any disturbances. As for opening up the retail sector is concerned, I think it is very good step. It will be good for the economy and consumers. I don't think any harm will come to anybody because of foreign companies entering the retail sector. I hope that services will improve and standard of goods will improve. Similar apprehensions were expressed when computers came, foreign IT companies came and foreign banks came. See what happened? Each of these sectors benefited. GANESH HELA, OFFICE WORKER, CALCUTTA No-one can oppose this strike, or rather the issue of the strike. And because people are so agitated, the strike is a complete one - you can see it for yourself. The government is unable to ease our problems. The price of everything is going up... from rice to vegetables to cooking gas to diesel. And once foreigners come into the retail market, if we can get things at a cheaper rate, it's fine, it'll be a relief for us. But I don't think that will happen - only wealthy people and the politicians will benefit - not us. Input from Divya Arya in Delhi, Amitabha Bhattasali in Calcutta, Omer Farooq in Hyderabad and Riyaz Masroor in Srinagar

भारत में विपक्षी दलों और ट्रेड यूनियनों ने देश के खुदरा क्षेत्र को वैश्विक सुपरमार्केट श्रृंखलाओं और अन्य सुधारों के लिए खोलने की योजना को लेकर एक दिन की हड़ताल की है। दिल्ली, हैदराबाद, कलकत्ता और श्रीनगर में बीबीसी संवाददाताओं ने अपनी प्रतिक्रिया जानने के लिए सड़कों पर लोगों से बात की।


Sutopo: Indonesia mourns disaster spokesman and fake news warrior

Summary: There has been an outpouring of grief and tributes in Indonesia after the death of national disaster spokesperson Sutopo Nugroho. As the BBC's former Indonesia editor Rebecca Henschke writes, "Father Topo" played a vital role in a country facing twin battles of disasters and fake news.

Sutopo Nugroho's last tweet on his much used account was of a map of Indonesia, one of the most disaster-prone countries on earth. There was no caption, just an image of the world's largest archipelago that sits along the Ring of Fire, its hundreds of islands dotted with volcanoes. He would have spent hours staring at that map, understanding what area would be affected by an earthquake, where a tsunami could possibly hit, or who needed to move to be safe from a volcanic eruption. And then getting the information out. Before he burst onto the scene, the national disaster agency in Indonesia, the BPBD, was at times criticised for being late with information and providing often cryptic details about the many disasters to hit the country. Sutopo revolutionised the role and become an almost 24-hour source of accurate information. 'Iconic and inspirational' The 49-year-old, affectionately known as Pak (Father) Topo, was the voice of the agency for nine years. But it was really in 2018, when Indonesia had one of its worst years in a decade in terms of disasters, that he rose to prominence. At a time when he was battling his own disaster, lung cancer, he single-handedly provided constant updates on two tsunamis, numerous major volcanic eruptions, landslides and earthquakes which all hit Indonesia last year. "He was iconic, he set a high example that motivated all of us that worked under him and with him. He inspired us," says Rita Rosita, who worked with him at the agency. "He always told us to put our heart into our work. If you do your job with passion and dedication then it doesn't matter how hard a task [is], it will become easy. That's what he always stressed to us." Sutopo built up and fostered a close relationship with journalists - he saw us as allies in getting accurate information out. Even from his hospital bed, he wrote press releases, answered phone calls and responded to interviews. A message from a reporter like me, at any time of day, was almost always promptly answered. He would say when there were times when he couldn't answer a question and explain how he got the information on death tolls or affected areas. When once a new staff member at the BBC's Jakarta bureau called him and launched straight into a question about the latest on a disaster hit area, he said "Woah you're asking straight away like that?! Say hello first and ask 'how are you?'" The journalist apologised and said "I am new to this, Pak", and the interview continued. Fake news buster It was on Twitter - bypassing the traditional media - that Sutopo really came into his own. In his posts he was at times poetic, whimsical, philosophical and playful as well as being serious when disasters struck. "I joke a lot. If you see the social media of other ministries and institutions, it is a bit boring," he told The Guardian once. "I'm not like that." Like many countries, Indonesia is struggling to combat fake news and Sutopo waged a war on misleading and wrong information. He would label videos being widely shared as "hoaxes" and call on people to delete the posts from their accounts, worried that they would lead to unnecessary panic or hamper aid work. In this tweet, one of many like it, he explains that this video showing lava flowing is not from Mount Soputan in North Sulawesi (that had just erupted) but from another place. "Ignore and don't spread on social media," he says. He was a skilful social media player and would often tag influencers in his Twitter posts, particularly local pop singer Raisa Andriana. By our count, he tagged her more than 90 times in posts about various disaster-related information. When asked why, he said: "So that Raisa helps spread information" to her eight million followers. Their unusual friendship delighted Indonesian citizens and a hashtag campaign encouraging her to meet him started trending. They did eventually, at the end of November last year. By then he had stage four lung cancer but said that on that day he was so happy he forgot he was ill. He was grinning from ear to ear. 'Hero to humanity' Sutopo was laid to rest on Monday in his home village of Boyolali in Central Java, where he grew up, by his own accounts in a poor family. His father was a schoolteacher. Yet at his packed funeral there to show their respects were key political and military figures. Sutopo's coffin was draped in the Indonesian flag. The head of the disaster mitigation agency, Doni Munardo, described him to mourners as a "hero to humanity" who had dedicated his life to Indonesia and its people. "Prayers and tributes for him have come not only from across Indonesia but also from around the world," he said. His wife, crippled by grief, threw flowers over his grave. Their eldest son Muhammad Ivanka Rizaldy Nugroho said he had been a brilliant father. "My father always taught us to be honest, he always encouraged us to be the best people we could be and he also shared whatever he had with others," he said. Huge role to fill Sutopo himself was at times critical of Indonesia's disaster mitigation efforts, highlighting the fact that the tsunami early warning system put in place after the Boxing Day 2004 Tsunami had long been broken. "Since 2012, none of the buoys were operational, even though they are crucial for early warning," he told reporters last year after a tsunami triggered by an earthquake killed thousands in central Sulawesi. He was also frustrated when people would rebuild their homes near the sea after a tsunami or in earthquake-prone areas - against the agency's advice. He leaves a huge gap in the country's disaster mitigation effort. The journalist chat groups he use to fill with information have been silent in recent weeks. And some are asking if the disaster information system was too reliant on one man. "We all feel an incredible loss," says disaster agency head Doni Munardo. "The BNPB family worked so hard to try and give him the best medical treatment so that he could get better. "Hopefully a new young Sutopo will be born who can continue Pak Topo's fight." But perhaps there aren't too many humans like Sutopo, who often said, "It's not about how long your life is, it's about what you do in your lifetime to help others." A biography about his life is in the works. Renowned local journalist Najwa Shihab says he approached her to help him write it. In a post on social media she recalled the message he sent her, where he said: "Hopefully my story can inspire others, particularly those with cancer. Maybe my journey will be of interest to others." Additional reporting from Boyolali by Fajar Sodiq

राष्ट्रीय आपदा प्रवक्ता सुतोपो नुग्रोहो की मृत्यु के बाद इंडोनेशिया में शोक और श्रद्धांजलि का माहौल है। जैसा कि बीबीसी की पूर्व इंडोनेशिया संपादक रेबेका हेंस्के लिखती हैं, "फादर टोपो" ने आपदाओं और झूठी खबरों की दोहरी लड़ाई का सामना कर रहे देश में महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका निभाई।


Paramedic attacked with claw hammer in Ipswich

Summary: A paramedic has been injured in a claw hammer attack while attending a call-out in Ipswich.

Police said a 37-year-old East of England Ambulance Service worker suffered puncture wounds to a hand. The incident happened at a property in Roundwood Road, off Woodbridge Road, at about 14:45 GMT on Monday. Patricia Gosling, 54, of Roundwood Road, has been charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent and is due to appear before magistrates. The service said its paramedic was in a solo-staffed ambulance and a EEAS manager arrived in a car about 20 minutes later. The paramedic has since had surgery on her hand at Norfolk & Norwich Hospital.

इप्सविच में एक कॉल-आउट में भाग लेने के दौरान पंजे के हथौड़े के हमले में एक पैरामेडिक घायल हो गया है।


Llantysilio: People urged to stay off burning mountain

Summary: People are being urged to stay off a mountain in Denbighshire where a grassfire has been burning for more than three weeks.

The blaze started on Llantysilio Mountain 23 days ago and has continued despite recent rain. One crew from North Wales Fire and Rescue Service has remained in the area, where gorse and underground peat continue to burn. The fire service is issuing posters to people to tell them to stay away. Last weekend, cafe owner Simon Clemence was told to leave his business behind because of the smoke, saying: "Never in 35 years have we experienced anything like this." Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has said it could take "decades" for the land to recover. The area is designated a site of special scientific interest, and an important habitat for rare species of bird such as the black grouse.

लोगों से डेनबिघशायर में एक पहाड़ से दूर रहने का आग्रह किया जा रहा है जहां तीन सप्ताह से अधिक समय से घास की आग जल रही है।


Leeds Car park shuts for Victoria Gate construction work

Summary: A city centre car park will close and some bus stops will be suspended as the first stage of building a £150m shopping centre begins.

The parking facility at Union Street in Leeds will close on Saturday evening in preparation for the building of Victoria Gate complex. The new centre will have a John Lewis store along with 30 other shops and an 800-space multi-storey car park. The shopping centre is due to open in 2016. Some bus stops on Eastgate will also be suspended during the construction work and additional bus stops will be added along the Headrow.

एक सिटी सेंटर कार पार्क बंद हो जाएगा और कुछ बस स्टॉप को निलंबित कर दिया जाएगा क्योंकि 150 मिलियन पाउंड के शॉपिंग सेंटर के निर्माण का पहला चरण शुरू हो जाएगा।


Guernsey's education department chief takes on new role

Summary: Guernsey's Education Department has begun to look for a new chief officer, after the current officer moved to oversee a school rebuilding project.

Derek Neale has served as the director of education for 15 years. His departure from the post comes two weeks before the presentation of a report on the education department, initiated after the publication of this year's GCSE results. Education Minister Carol Steere said the timing was purely a coincidence. She said: "This has always been in the planning and any suggestion otherwise would be absolutely wrong and I want to make that clear." In a letter to the department's staff, Mr Neale said he planned to spend his final few years before retirement overseeing the completion of Les Beaucamps High School and planning the redevelopment of the La Mare de Carteret schools.

ग्वेर्नसे के शिक्षा विभाग ने एक नए मुख्य अधिकारी की तलाश शुरू कर दी है, जब वर्तमान अधिकारी एक स्कूल पुनर्निर्माण परियोजना की देखरेख करने के लिए चले गए हैं।


Sutton death crash: Manslaughter charge after woman hit by van

Summary: A man has been charged with the manslaughter of a woman who died after she was hit by a van.

Stella Frew, 38, was pronounced dead at the scene in Tonfield Road, Sutton, south-west London, just before 18:00 BST on Friday. The vehicle left the scene after the crash. Scotland Yard said James Martin, of Peeks Brook Lane, Crawley, West Sussex, had been charged with manslaughter. The 26-year-old is due to appear at Croydon Magistrates' Court later.

एक आदमी पर एक महिला की हत्या का आरोप लगाया गया है, जिसकी वैन की चपेट में आने से मौत हो गई थी।


Murder arrest after woman's death in Halifax

Summary: A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman found unconscious in a street died.

The 26-year-old woman had been injured in a fight in Silver Street, Halifax, West Yorkshire, at about 02:15 GMT. She was taken to hospital and died a short time later. Her cause of death is not yet known. Officers said the 26-year-old arrested man was in custody and a cordon was in place on Silver Street for forensic examinations to be carried out. Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.

सड़क पर बेहोश पाई गई एक महिला की मौत के बाद हत्या के संदेह में एक व्यक्ति को गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


Bexhill-to-Hastings link road compulsory purchases approved

Summary: The Bexhill-to-Hastings link road has come a step closer after the government confirmed the compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) for the £93.8m project.

East Sussex County Council will now be able to acquire the land needed for the scheme following a public inquiry. The Secretaries of State for Transport, and Communities and Local Government confirmed the CPOs. The government will allocate £56m to the plan. Campaigners have challenged the project and applied for a judicial review. A hearing for the application, which was made by the anti-link road Hastings Alliance, will take place in October.

सरकार द्वारा £ 93.8m परियोजना के लिए अनिवार्य खरीद आदेशों (CPOs) की पुष्टि के बाद बेक्सहिल-टू-हेस्टिंग्स लिंक रोड एक कदम और करीब आ गई है।


China signs deal with Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote

Summary: A Chinese state-owned engineering company has signed a deal worth $4.3bn (£2.8bn) to build factories for a Nigerian cement company run by Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote.

China's Sinoma will build seven plants across the continent and one in Nepal. The new factories will add around 25 million tonnes to the firm's existing cement capacity of 45 million tonnes. Mr Dangote's company also produces food, fertiliser and is investing in oil refineries. He is keeping a close eye on China's economic problems and the ensuing lower oil price. "Of course we are affected," he said, "but we are not badly affected because we are not 100% in oil. "We are a fully diversified company. So today if oil is doing [badly] it doesn't mean we are doing [badly] and that's the good thing about diversification." Africa's economies have been hit hard by the fall in commodity prices but many are seeing a boom in infrastructure, for which cement is vital.

एक चीनी राज्य के स्वामित्व वाली इंजीनियरिंग कंपनी ने अफ्रीका के सबसे अमीर व्यक्ति, एलिको डांगोटे द्वारा संचालित एक नाइजीरियाई सीमेंट कंपनी के लिए कारखाने बनाने के लिए $4.3bn (£ 2.8bn) के सौदे पर हस्ताक्षर किए हैं।


Coronavirus: India home quarantine families face discrimination

Summary: India has quarantined tens of thousands of people in their homes. But some of the measures designed to keep them inside - like the signs posted outside their houses and releasing their personal data - have led to unintended, and unpleasant, consequences. The BBC's Vikas Pandey reports.

Bharat Dhingra's family of six have been in "home quarantine" in India's capital, Delhi, since his brother and sister-in-law returned from the US on 22 March. Neither have displayed any symptoms, but the entire family followed government advice and self-quarantined. Then officials posted a sticker outside their houses that read: "Do not visit. Home under quarantine". It was supposed to ensure people abided by the rules. But for people like Mr Dhingra - who was already diligently following the rules - the sign has caused "stress and psychological pressure". "Our house has become like a zoo," he told the BBC. "People stop to take pictures when they pass by. Our neighbours tell us to go inside even when we step out into our balcony for a minute. "We also understand that the houses that are in quarantine need to be marked for awareness," he acknowledged. "Government officials have been very nice to us, but it's the attitude of some people that hurts. "Some people shared the picture of our house in local WhatsApp groups as a warning." He said it violated his family's privacy. "People need to realise that home quarantine is a precautionary measure - it doesn't mean we are infected, but let's say even if we are, we don't need to be ostracised for it." The BBC spoke to several people across the country who have had similar experiences. One couple, who did not wish to be identified, said that their home in Noida - a suburb of Delhi - had become "a place of horror for many". "We went into home quarantine straight after coming back from abroad as a precautionary measure. Little did we realise that we will be completely shunned by the community." What they'd like is just some words of encouragement on the phone or a text message. "But everybody looks at us with suspicion - even when we are on our balcony. It's in their eyes. "We're not meeting anybody. It's really sad that we are being treated like this." Kulpreet Singh also faced similar issues when he was told to quarantine himself at his home in Farrukhabad district, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. He had met Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor, who later tested positive, at a party. "The case was discussed endlessly in the media and that put so much pressure on my family," he said. "All kinds of rumours started spreading. Some said I was vomiting blood and will die in a few days." Mr Singh said that "people are scared and they believe any rumour on social media". His quarantine period has now ended but, he says, the stigma will take a long time to go. "Even vegetable and milk vendors refuse to come to deliver to our house." In some cases, the way testing was conducted also caused problems: one couple in the eastern state of Bihar said that their son was told to come out of their apartment building and into the street to give his swab for testing. "He was in home quarantine after returning from Canada. Seeing so many doctors in hazmat suits made our neighbours really scared. People stopped saying hello - even from a safe distance." They added that their son tested negative, but the discrimination continues. "People are still reluctant to interact with us," they said. Data leaked Meanwhile, the names and addresses of those in quarantine were made public in the southern cities of Hyderabad and Bangalore. "People [in home quarantine] were happily moving around as if they are on a holiday and that is why the data was shared,'' a senior officer in Bangalore explained to BBC Hindi's Imran Qureshi. But experts say this violates people's privacy. "It would have been fine if the government had only published the name. But giving addresses is an invitation for trouble," Bangalore-based lawyer KV Dhananjay said. Some protests over quarantine facilities have also been reported. In Mysore, 150km (93 miles) from Bangalore, locals forced authorities to evacuate a hotel where 27 people were quarantined. "People feared that those staying in the hotel would spit from the window and they would catch the infection," said MJ Ravikumar, who lives in the area and is a former deputy mayor of Mysore. Senior police official CB Ryshyanth said strict action would be taken against those who discriminate and spread rumours. Meanwhile, the personal data of at least 19 people quarantined at home - including their telephone numbers - was also leaked in Hyderabad. This resulted in phone calls at odd hours and unwanted advice on "how to kill the virus" for some of the families. Ramesh Tunga, who left the city a day before the lockdown was announced on 24 March, said he was facing similar discrimination. "I left Hyderabad to be in my village. I informed village officials and went into self-isolation even though I had no overseas travel history," he said. But it caused "more problems for me". "People stopped talking to my family. Everybody just believed that I had coronavirus and I was going to infect the whole village," he said. "Being careful is good but people shouldn't stop being human." You may also be interested in...

भारत ने दसियों हज़ार लोगों को उनके घरों में अलग कर दिया है। लेकिन उन्हें अंदर रखने के लिए बनाए गए कुछ उपायों-जैसे कि उनके घरों के बाहर लगाए गए संकेत और उनका व्यक्तिगत डेटा जारी करना-के कारण अनपेक्षित और अप्रिय परिणाम सामने आए हैं। बीबीसी के विकास पांडे ने बताया।


Could IRA Birmingham pub bombings inquest resume?

Summary: Twenty-one people were killed in November 1974 when two bombs exploded in pubs in Birmingham city centre. More than 40 years later, the families of the dead want the inquest into their deaths to be resumed. The city's coroner will decide later this week whether to do so.

An inquest was opened and adjourned at the time, but because the case was subject to a criminal investigation which resulted in the conviction of six men, it was never resumed. Even though the convictions of the Birmingham Six were quashed in 1991, the inquests remained closed. No-one has been prosecuted for the IRA bombing and no-one has been arrested. And no-one has admitted to carrying it out. Julie Hambleton, whose 18-year-old sister Maxine died in the attacks, said: "The lives of 20 families changed on that night and they have never been told the truth about what happened. There are many more - the casualties and those who came to their aid on the night - whose lives were changed forever, too. "We believe it is only right for the inquest to be reopened, even after the passing of the years, because it is an opportunity for the truth to be told and a chance for all those left bereaved to find out more about what happened to their loved ones. "We cannot move on until we have explored every avenue to try to get to the truth." The senior coroner for Birmingham, Louise Hunt, will hear from the families of three of the people murdered in the attacks - Maxine Hambleton, Trevor Thrupp and James Craig - as well as other "interested persons". Human rights lawyer Kevin Winters, who has represented families of victims of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, said he believed there was a basis for an inquest, which would provide families with access to certain "disclosure materials" he claimed had been kept from them. "There's an ongoing duty on behalf of the authorities, and especially West Midlands Police, to actually get to the bottom of what happened. These families have received a very poor service in terms of justice and truth and closure - they've got nothing near it at all," Mr Winters said. West Midlands Police has confirmed the case is still open but will not comment on the coroner's review. The three-day hearing is due to begin on 10 February and Mrs Hunt's decision will be delivered on 24 February.

नवंबर 1974 में बर्मिंघम शहर के केंद्र में पबों में दो बम विस्फोटों में 21 लोग मारे गए थे। 40 से अधिक वर्षों के बाद, मृतकों के परिवार चाहते हैं कि उनकी मौत की जांच फिर से शुरू की जाए। शहर के मृत्यु समीक्षक इस सप्ताह के अंत में तय करेंगे कि ऐसा करना है या नहीं।