The Family: 'Raised in a doomsday cult, I entered the real world at 15'

Summary: For the first 15 years of his life, Ben Shenton lived in a doomsday cult that thought the world would soon end. Instead the police arrived one day and plunged him into a new and unfamiliar world… the real one.

By Miriam AnnenbergBBC World Service Tucked away in their home on the shores of Australia's Lake Eildon, behind heavy foliage and barbed wire, seven children in matching outfits and bleached blonde haircuts were finishing their morning hatha yoga practice when they heard a commotion on the stairs. Suddenly uniformed police officers stormed into the room and gathered the children up. Moments later they whisked them away from the five-acre compound, into a new reality that would take 15-year-old Ben Shenton years to fully understand. Up to that moment in August 1987, his world had been shaped by Anne Hamilton-Byrne, a glamorous and charismatic yoga instructor who, in the late 1960s, had persuaded her followers to join a cult she called The Family. Members believed that Anne was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and that when the world ended they would be responsible for re-educating the survivors. Ben and the other children were told that Anne was their mother. She taught them to avoid outsiders and if any approached them - on the shore of the lake perhaps - to follow the mantra Unseen, Unheard, Unknown. "It was very much a thing of: you do not tell any outside person who is not a sect member anything," Ben says. "If I had any interaction with them, I would check through what I said to make sure that I hadn't revealed anything." Members of Anne's inner circle, known as "aunties", helped look after Ben and the other children. They woke at 5am in dormitory-style rooms and followed an unchanging routine: yoga, meditation, lessons, yoga, meditation, homework, bed. Though there were only a handful of children when the police arrived in 1987, there had once been 28 of them. They ate meagre vegetarian meals and were frequently punished. "Aunties" held children's heads under water and hands above candles to the point of burning, while Anne, when she wasn't away travelling, sometimes beat them with her stiletto heels. "Watching it was enough to leave some serious emotional scarring," Ben says. The atmosphere was one of "naked fear". One way Anne exerted control over the cult members was through drugs. Children were kept on a steady stream of sedatives such as Mogadon and Valium. Adults and older teenagers were obliged to take LSD at regular ceremonies called "clearings"; Anne thought that by this means she could strengthen her followers' devotion to her. While Ben did not enjoy his upbringing, it was all he knew. "When you create a reality for a child, they have no reference points," he says. "There was no competing narrative." That instantly changed the day the police arrived. Find out more Lying in bed that first night away from Lake Eildon, Ben combed through everything he had said that day, making sure he had divulged nothing that could get him in trouble. Suddenly, he realised - it didn't matter any more. He was not returning to Anne. "I think for the first time in my life, I realised I was free," he says. But then the real work began. Ben learned that his mother was not Anne, but an "auntie" he disliked named Joy. The children were not his brothers and sisters - some were the children of other cult members, others were orphans Anne had adopted. He was 15, not 14 as he had been told. And of course Anne was not the reincarnation of Christ. "Now I'm trying to work out, 'Well, this world I'm in, what are its rules? How do I function, what do I do?'" he says. At school, Ben struggled to fit in. When three of the more popular boys tried to take him under their wing, he pushed them away. That wasn't surprising - children in The Family who showed signs of bonding were quickly separated, so friendship was something he hadn't experienced. But even if he had, it would have been hard enough to relate to his schoolmates. "Often when you build a friendship with someone, you have common grounds, common interests or common opinions on things," Ben says. "I had none of that." Ben struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts, reaching breaking point one night in 1988 during a school trip around central Australia. He was in tears when his teacher approached him, and reminded him that the other children had known each other since early childhood. "It's going to take time. You're going to have to learn how to relate to them," he said. "They're open to that, but job's on you." Ben took this advice to heart. He began studying the way other people behaved, analysing the outcome of their actions, and drawing conclusions. At the same time, he moved out of the children's home and into a foster home, and started going to church. He began to feel increasingly at home in the new world. Eventually, he married and had two children, now aged 18 and 20. And he got a job at IBM, where he has remained for 22 years. Along the way, Ben grew close to his grandmother - his mother's mother - and would stop by her house often. His mother, Joy, lived overseas but also visited her mother whenever she came to town. In 2006, by chance, the two of them called on Ben's grandmother at the same time. They hadn't spoken since Ben first learned Joy was his mother nearly two decades earlier. At that point, Joy told Ben she wanted nothing to do with him. He remembers her saying: "Don't ever bother turning up at my doorstep, I'll slam the door in your face." But Joy had mellowed, and religion had taught Ben forgiveness. "She had given Anne her word not to connect with me," he says. "That didn't mean there was no concern, desire to have a relationship or love." Joy had remained close to Anne, the founder of the cult, but from then on she kept in touch with Ben too. While visiting Ben in 2012, Joy asked him a surprising question: would he go with her to visit Anne? By this stage, Anne was living in a care home and was being treated for dementia. She had never spent any time in jail. In fact, the only punishment she received was a $5,000 fine for falsifying papers for three of the children. There hadn't been sufficient evidence to charge her with anything else. Ben complied with Joy's request, partly out of curiosity. But while Anne welcomed Joy warmly, she showed no recognition of Ben. As he leafed through a photograph album in her room, he quickly realised it was full of images from his childhood. That was the last time he saw her. Anne died in June this year at the age of 97. Although Ben says he won't be "dancing on her grave" he felt a sense of release after her death. It's his view that she remained engulfed in her own fantasies, and never had any regrets. "Seeing her create a lie, perpetuate a lie and damage people... I knew that she was probably beyond what we call repentance," he says. All of the children of The Family suffered various degrees of damage, Ben says. With his steady job, wife and two children, he considers himself lucky. Today he is looking to the future. He has started a website, Rescue the Family, to educate people on cults, totalitarian organisations and the freedom of the will. He is also writing a book, Life Behind the Wire, which recounts lessons he learned from his childhood about the dangers of cult thinking. "You try to unpack what happened and why, and make sense of it all," he says. "I've calibrated my life to reality." You may also be interested in: Anna LeBaron's father, Ervil, was the leader of a polygamous cult responsible for more than 20 murders. The killings continued even after his death thanks to a hit list he had left behind. Here Anna speaks for the first time about how she escaped from the cult - and her hope to "redeem" the LeBaron name. Anna LeBaron: How I escaped my father's murderous polygamous cult

अपने जीवन के पहले 15 वर्षों के लिए, बेन शेनटन एक कयामत के दिन के पंथ में रहते थे जो सोचते थे कि दुनिया जल्द ही समाप्त हो जाएगी। इसके बजाय पुलिस एक दिन आई और उसे एक नई और अपरिचित दुनिया में डुबो दिया... असली दुनिया।


Why a gay Indian professor's death inspired a film

Summary: A professor from India's prestigious Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) died in 2010 after a video of him having sex with another man became public. Six years later, a Bollywood film revolving around his story is released on Friday. BBC Hindi's Vineet Khare spoke to the professor's partner and the TV news crew which filmed the controversial video.

The crew from a local TV station in the northern city of Aligarh secretly filmed Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, then 64, having sex with rickshaw puller Abdul (name changed) in his house inside the university campus on 8 February 2010. The video led to public condemnation of Prof Siras by conservative religious groups. The university administration suspended him and asked him to leave the campus. He was found dead in his apartment two months later. His death drew widespread criticism of the university authorities. Many saw it as yet another case which highlighted the difficult lives of homosexuals in India. A colonial era law criminalises homosexuality in India. Also, in deeply conservative India, same-sex relationships are taboo and many people still regard them to be illegitimate. 'Angry, ashamed' The professor was in his bedroom with Abdul when local cable TV journalists Ashu Rizvi, Adil Murtaza and Siraj barged into his house. The crew had already filmed the professor having sex with Abdul and wanted to confront the two men. The video, given to the BBC by the university, shows Prof Siras repeatedly pleading with the three men to stop filming. The professor, in an interview to TV channel NDTV, later called the filming an "encroachment on my privacy" and added that he felt "angry", "ashamed" and "insulted". Abdul still lives in constant fear of losing his livelihood, being recognised on the streets or even killed for being the professor's gay partner. The "horrible" incident has stayed with him ever since and he misses his "partner". "He loved me," says the father of five daughters, adding that "a bit of greed" may have guided his relationship with the professor. "Had he been alive, my children would be studying in good schools. I would be running a business," he says. Abdul was born in Delhi in 1981, but his family moved to Aligarh, a three-hour drive from the national capital, in 1992. Poverty forced him to become a rickshaw puller in his teens to contribute to the family's income. He met Prof Siras in 2009 outside the university's arts faculty, one of the many gathering spots for rickshaw pullers. He "enjoyed" his relationship until the video filming incident happened. He said he was "shocked and scared" and left Prof Siras' house after the incident. That was the last time they saw each other. Two months later, he heard on the news that Prof Siras had died. He was told his name was flashing across the media. He feared he would be blamed for the death. He became increasingly worried when police began interrogating him. He said he was "frustrated" and one day he doused himself with kerosene and lit a match. His wife saved his life. "I thought it was better to die. I had done nothing wrong. My only fault was that I had shared a relationship with Prof Siras." 'Genuine story' He has been living in fear since. He is alert at all times, always looking around suspiciously for anyone directly approaching him. "If I die, who will look after my daughters? You know how women are looked down in our society," he said. Life has changed for the three journalists as well. Ashu Rizvi, who ran a cable news business in 2010, is now in the real estate sector. He said Adil Murtaza now worked with an Urdu daily in Lucknow, the capital of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, while Siraj worked at a meat factory. Over the phone, Mr Rizvi told me that they saw it as a "legitimate story of uncovering the exploitation of a rickshaw puller by a university professor". He sees homosexual relationships as "wrong in a country like India". Some media reports had suggested that the university had a hand in the "sting operation" against the professor - an allegation denied by the authorities. Mr Rizvi also denied that he was paid money and insisted that he saw it as a genuine story. "We were tipped off by the rickshaw puller himself that he was being exploited by the professor. It was news, but we were targeted," he said. Abdul denied that he had approached the media. "I never approached anybody. I still don't want any media attention," he said. But he lives with the hope that one day some financial benefits may come his way for being the "professor's lover".

भारत के प्रतिष्ठित अलीगढ़ मुस्लिम विश्वविद्यालय (एएमयू) के एक प्रोफेसर की 2010 में एक अन्य व्यक्ति के साथ यौन संबंध बनाने का एक वीडियो सार्वजनिक होने के बाद मृत्यु हो गई। छह साल बाद, उनकी कहानी के इर्द-गिर्द घूमती एक बॉलीवुड फिल्म शुक्रवार को रिलीज़ हुई। बीबीसी हिंदी के विनीत खरे ने प्रोफेसर के साथी और टीवी समाचार दल से बात की जिसने विवादास्पद वीडियो बनाया था।


Brexit: Where has the process got to?

Summary: It's felt like a long time to get this far.

By Laura KuenssbergPolitical editor Decades of debate about our place in the EU. Years of push me, pull you debates on the right, about whether there should be a referendum on our membership of the European Union. The crashing highs and lows, and lows and highs of the referendum campaign itself. And since then, more than 18 months of the Brexit process squeezing the life out of almost everything else in our politics - still a subject of huge division, of frustration, of thrill and excitement, of concern and fascination and question marks. Much of 'Brexit' is mind-numbing to many in its complexity and level of detail. Some of the political game-playing is tedious soap opera to all but a precious few. The parliamentary process is vital but labyrinthine. The layers upon layers of party divisions are ever shifting, and hard to track. But what looks like a series of individual clashes, or indeed occasionally a shambles, matters. Because the eventual decisions that will and are being made in all of our names are a product of all of those tangles, and they will affect our livelihoods and the place of the country in the world for many years to come. Please upgrade your browser Your guide to Brexit jargon With six months to go, and a critical meeting of EU leaders later this week, where the UK hopes to move into the next phase, it's worth taking a breath and reflecting, in a way that's not exhaustive, on where this process has got to. The most likely outcome right now is that a deal between the UK and the EU will be done in November. If that happens it will be made up of a legally binding withdrawal agreement - that contains the cash, what happens to citizens on both sides, and in theory, a solution for Northern Ireland. Alongside that will be the document that in theory shapes the future of the relationship for good - the political declaration. However, as we joked at the beginning of the process that the deal was likely in the end to be a fudge, so it seems that could come to pass. Behind the scenes diplomats and politicians are starting to talk about the declaration being vague, in order that trickiest issues don't have to be resolved yet. A senior cabinet minister told me last week, 'ambiguity might be the way out'. Michael Gove even suggested publicly on Sunday that this year's deal doesn't have to be the end of the story. One diplomat told me that a vague deal might be the way through but that means Brexit would then essentially go on for years - 'If the vagueness is the solution then at the end we start again'. This set of Brexit talks would conclude, only for years of a next phase to begin. But this is becoming known as 'blind Brexit', and while it is a possible way out of the talks it has obvious problems. One MP joked that we might end up with an 'agreement of adjectives'. Please upgrade your browser to view this content. Brexit key dates Brexit key dates Share this timeline The most pressing argument against a vague deal is concern over the Irish border. Again in his column in the Daily Telegraph, the former foreign secretary expresses his frustration with how that question has become such a central issue in the talks. But frankly, it's been the blindingly obvious case for many months, that without a convincing arrangement coming from the UK side, the EU will find it extremely difficult to do the deal, without forcing their backstop. There's talk in negotiation circles of 'backstop 2', there's talk of a way of softening the language around the EU's position. And, of course, Brexiteers are trying hard to force Theresa May to put a different set of arrangements on the table. There is, however, no chance of her shifting, at least not until after the end of the Conservative conference. Her Chequers agreement where officials and ministers drafted a way through the EU and UK red lines is her plan for now and she isn't budging until she is forced to. Without going through the arguments as we have discussed many times here, her Chequers deal is one of the reasons why her job is at risk. Since the election, her handling of Brexit has made her vulnerable to circling rivals in the Tory party. Her advocates believe she has displayed extraordinary resilience holding on so far. But there is a sense of foreboding around the place. More and more MPs are willing to say publicly that after Brexit her time is limited. One senior MP suggested to me that if those close to the Prime Minister aren't telling her that then they are in fact doing her a disservice. The Tories have been lucky though in one sense. An opposition party that was less distracted by its own woes could be tearing strips off the government daily. As it is, with Labour's own problems so clearly on display, the government is in a less precarious position than you might expect. But they are vulnerable, enormously vulnerable, in the next couple of months. Assuming that there is a deal of some sorts (if it is possible to assume anything), the government is not certain to be able to get the vote through the House of Commons. Government insiders believe the vote will get through, that most MPs will choose the relative stability of a deal, rather than take the risk. One Tory MP even said last week, 'any deal is better than no deal'. But, and it is a big but, Tory hard core eurosceptics might join with the opposition parties to bring the deal down. They really might. If that happens there is no map and no precedent. Those campaigning vigorously for a second referendum believe that could be their opportunity to push for a second vote. The Labour Party hope that would bring a general election giving them an opportunity to win. A vote could sink Theresa May, or even re-open the referendum. The bumps of the last two years could be nothing in comparison to that.

ऐसा लगता है कि यहाँ तक पहुँचने में बहुत समय लग गया है।


Coronavirus and Antarctica: 'Isolated within isolation'

Summary: It's cut off from the rest of the world for months at a time - and there's not been a single case of coronavirus. So why are the research teams at Antarctica following isolation rules to combat the virus when it's probably not even on the continent?

By Sam ProffittBBC News "A case of Covid-19 here could be disastrous. So we are taking lockdown measures, too. It feels like we are isolated within the isolation. Prevention is much better than the cure," That's Pradeep Tomar - a medical doctor on a research mission to India's Bharati base, in Antarctica. He is five months into a year-long deployment to the station. And if Covid-19 reached an Antarctic research base, it could be devastating. There's nowhere else to go, medical facilities are limited - and the likelihood of spreading it to others would be high. And so despite being on the only continent without any cases of coronavirus, the 23-strong team at the facility has been on lockdown since February. Anyone coming to Antarctica is now quarantined for 14 days. And if someone starts showing Covid-19 symptoms in Antarctica, they must be isolated immediately, alongside anyone they've had contact with. There are 29 countries with bases in Antarctica. And before lockdown started, there would be regular visits to Bharati from neighbouring expeditions. The visitors' national flag would be raised for their arrival. The different teams would celebrate important national days together. And if one of the bases needed equipment they did not have to hand, they would borrow it from their neighbours. "This level of harmony among nations is not visible in the real world," Dr Tomar says. But he has not seen anyone from another facility since the beginning of March, when joint activities were paused. When Dr Tomar arrived at Bharati, on 15 November 2019, to study the psychological effects of a polar expedition on the researchers, the world was much the same as it had always been. Now, he says, there is a constant anxiety on the site, fuelled by the lack of information about coronavirus - and constant worrying about their families back home. Dr Tomar and his colleagues have only a vague idea of what the global pandemic and subsequent lockdowns entail. He is relying on friends and family for updates. And some consequences of the social distancing he is struggling to imagine at all. "Friends have been telling me that they are surviving in a situation like ours, isolated and glued at home," he says. "It is beyond my imagination to realise the entire world going out with their masks on." With quarantine measures in place around the world, travelling to and from the base and others may become difficult. And it could mean scientists will have to stay for many more months longer than they expected in the cold and inhospitable climate. Situated on the Larsemann Hills, overlooking the Southern Ocean, the Bharati base, which started operations in 2012, is one of the remotest research outposts on the planet. The nearest mainland is South Africa, more than 5,000km (3,000 miles) away. The only transport is by boat - and then only in the Antarctic summer, between November and the end of March. Those in such an inhospitable place are uniquely aware of how people cope with lockdown. You may also be interested in: Everyone works from "home" for the duration of their stay at the facility. There are no shops. There is no option for a casual stroll. Outside, the threat is the temperature dropping as low as -40C. All the team at Bharati received comprehensive training before they arrived, to learn how to mentally and physically survive Antarctic winters. The constant social isolation and lack of sunlight puts them at risk of developing depression. And on a continent that spends many winter months with no sunlight at all, maintaining a regular sleep pattern can be difficult. "We encourage people to practise good sleep hygiene here," Dr Tomar says. When Dr Tomar arrived, he was wary of the dangers of the Antarctic landscape. "There is a constant threat to life when you are here," he says. "Vast sheets of ice are packed with hidden crevices to fall into." But now, he is more fearful for the people at home. The world as Dr Tomar knows it could change beyond recognition during his year on the frozen continent. While he had been trained for the social isolation, compatriots at home have not. "I truly wish I could serve my country in this time of need," he says. "Nobody has ever witnessed something like the ongoing crisis. I hope to see the same world again when we go home." Do you have a story to tell about Covid-19 and how it has affected your life? We're looking to tell your stories. Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:

यह एक बार में महीनों के लिए दुनिया के बाकी हिस्सों से कट जाता है-और कोरोनावायरस का एक भी मामला नहीं है। तो अंटार्कटिका में शोध दल वायरस का मुकाबला करने के लिए अलगाव नियमों का पालन क्यों कर रहे हैं, जबकि यह शायद महाद्वीप पर भी नहीं है?


Virginity cream sparks Indian sex debate

Summary: An Indian company has launched what it claims is the country's first vagina tightening cream, saying it will make women feel "like a virgin" again. The company says it is about empowering women, but critics say it is doing the opposite. The BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan in Mumbai reports.

It is certainly a bold claim. As the music starts playing on the advertisement for the 18 Again cream, a sari-clad woman is singing and dancing. It is an unusual take on Bollywood. "I feel like a virgin," she croons, although the advert makes it clear she is not. Her shocked in-laws look on, before her husband joins her for some salsa-style dancing. "Feels like the very first time," she continues, as she is twirled around. Cut away to her mother-in-law who begins by responding with a disgusted look on her face, but by the end of the advert even she has been won over, and is seen buying the product online. 'Restoring emotions' This video is designed to market a vaginal "rejuvenation and tightening" product, which was launched this month in India. The makers of 18 Again, the Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company Ultratech, say it is the first of its kind in India (similar creams are already available in other parts of the world such as the USA), and fills a gap in the market. Ultratech's owner, Rishi Bhatia, says the cream, which is selling for around $44 (£28), contains natural ingredients including gold dust, aloe vera, almond and pomegranate, and has been clinically tested. "It's a unique and revolutionary product which also works towards building inner confidence in a woman and boosting her self esteem," says Mr Bhatia, adding that the goal of the product is to "empower women". Mr Bhatia says the product is not claiming to restore a woman's virginity, but to restore the emotions of being a virgin. "We are only saying, 'feel like a virgin' - it's a metaphor. It tries to bring back that feeling when a person is 18." But the company's advertising strategy has attracted criticism from some doctors, women's groups and social media users, who say the product reinforces the widely held view in India that pre-marital sex is something to be frowned upon, a taboo which is even seen as sinful by some. "This kind of cream is utter nonsense, and could give some women an inferiority complex," argues Annie Raja from the National Federation of Indian Women, which fights for women's rights in the country. Ms Raja says that rather than empower women, the cream will do the opposite, by reaffirming a patriarchal view that is held by many here - the notion that men want all women to be virgins until their wedding night. "Why should women remain a virgin until marriage? It is a woman's right to have sexual relations with a man, but society here still says they should not until they are brides." "Being a virgin is still prized, and I don't think attitudes will change in this century," says Dr Mahinda Watsa, a gynaecologist who writes a popular sexual advice column in the Mumbai Mirror and Bangalore Mirror newspaper. Dr Watsa has answered more than 30,000 questions from Indians wanting sexual advice, and says a common question from men is how to find out whether their wife is a virgin, or from women who are keen their husband doesn't know they are not. "Men still hope they're marrying a virgin, but more girls in India, at least in the towns and cities, are having sex before. "Women write to me - and say, what do I do? I've had sex with other people but how do I convince people that I'm a virgin?" Dr Watsa says that in major cities and towns more people are sexually active before marriage - more women working and having independence has led to women having more confidence and interactions with men. "There is definitely more casual sex and sex before marriage happening in India nowadays," says Dr Nisreen Nakhoda, a GP who advises on sexual health for the medical website MDhil. Dr Nakhoda is sceptical about how a cream such as 18 Again can work. "Tightening the vagina is done by the vaginal muscles so I don't know how a local cream can do the job," she says, but believes it has the potential to do well in India because even if practices are changing, attitudes are not catching up as fast, so some people would try anything to cover up any hint of their actions. "It's all very under wraps and discreet, no-one really discusses their sex lives with their friends or boyfriends," says Dr Nakhoda. She says she has even heard stories of companies which work at night, such as call centres, finding their toilets full of condoms which they cannot flush down, as some couples find it hard to find a place to be alone. A survey of more than 5,000 people by India Today magazine last year showed that fewer than 1 in 5 (19%) of respondents were open to the idea of pre-marital sex, or live-in relationships, with a quarter of people saying they did not object to sex before marriage, as long as it was not happening in their family. 'Turmoil' "We're brought up being told that having sex with someone is a bit vulgar," says one 26-year-old virgin. "When you're younger it's hard to have a boyfriend, and most of my friends who did had to go to great lengths to lie to their parents," adds the girl, who says she hopes to lose her virginity to her husband. Another 27-year-old girl, who first had sex at the age of 20 and has had three sexual partners, believes a lot of the stigma comes from the idea that a man wants to feel like he owns a woman, adding that the idea that a women who sleeps with multiple partners might be called a "slut" is something all societies have to contend with. "The Indian mindset is in a state of turmoil," says Dr Nahkoda, "The young generation wants to be hip and cool and try out sex before marriage, but they're still brought up in the traditional set up where it's taboo to have sex before marriage. This leads to a lot of confusion in many teenagers. "On one hand you're supposed to be the traditional demure Indian bride, but on the other hand, you don't want to have to wait for sex because people are marrying later. Temptations are coming their way and people are no longer resisting," says Dr Nakhoda. The introduction of a vagina tightening cream, follows a recent controversy over a vagina skin lightening cream. Both are examples of how traditional values are clashing with newer ones in today's India. Annie Raja says these kind of products are all about giving men control over how a woman should behave or look, and that this is outdated and dangerous. But Ultratech's Rishi Bhatia says the fuss is unwarranted. "Men have so many products they can buy to enhance their sexual pleasure, this is just putting sexual enhancement in the hands of women."

एक भारतीय कंपनी ने देश की पहली योनि कसने वाली क्रीम लॉन्च की है, यह कहते हुए कि यह महिलाओं को फिर से "कुंवारी" जैसा महसूस कराएगी। कंपनी का कहना है कि यह महिलाओं को सशक्त बनाने के बारे में है, लेकिन आलोचकों का कहना है कि यह इसके विपरीत कर रही है। मुंबई में बीबीसी की रजनी वैद्यनाथन रिपोर्ट करती हैं।


Man dies swimming in Ullswater

Summary: A man has died and a teenager was taken to hospital after getting into difficulties swimming in the Lake District.

The body of a man in his 20s was found at Ullswater by specialist divers shortly before 23:00 BST on Thursday. An 18-year-old man was taken to hospital and later discharged, Cumbria Police said. Emergency services began their search at Howtown, on the lake's east shore, at 17:00 BST. The search operation involved all three emergency services, as well the coastguard and volunteers from a mountain rescue team. The dead man's family have been informed, police added. Related Internet Links Cumbria Police

झील जिले में तैरने में कठिनाई के बाद एक व्यक्ति की मौत हो गई और एक किशोर को अस्पताल ले जाया गया।


Amazon lorry crash closes A27 near Chichester

Summary: A lorry carrying Amazon boxes has crashed, blocking both carriageways of a major road in West Sussex.

The lorry overturned on the A27 near Chichester at about 05:40 BST, Sussex Police said. The driver of the lorry, a 62-year-old man, was taken to hospital with serious injuries. A 50-year-old woman car driver also suffered minor injuries. The A27 is expected to be closed for several hours, police say.

अमेज़न बॉक्स ले जा रहा एक लॉरी दुर्घटनाग्रस्त हो गया है, जिससे वेस्ट ससेक्स में एक प्रमुख सड़क के दोनों मार्ग अवरुद्ध हो गए हैं।


Easington Lane fire death: Two more people arrested

Summary: Two further people have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a man died in a fire at a former care home.

Patryk Mortimer was found unconscious in a building that previously housed Manor House Care Home, in Easington Lane, Sunderland. The 39-year-old died later in hospital. Nine other people were brought out of the property by firefighters. A 21-year-old man and a 36-year-old woman have now been arrested and are in police custody. Two men, aged 23 and 35, who were arrested on suspicion of murder on 4 November, the day after the fire, have been released while investigations continue. Northumbria Police said more than 400 hours of CCTV footage had been seized as part of the inquiry.

पूर्व देखभाल गृह में आग लगने से एक व्यक्ति की मौत के बाद हत्या के संदेह में दो और लोगों को गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


RAF mountain veteran on search and rescue's future

Summary: A UK government announcement on a plan to privatise RAF and Royal Navy search and rescue (SAR) operations - which had been expected on Tuesday - is understood to have been delayed. The move would have seen Sea King helicopters replaced by the S-92, a helicopter already in service with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).

RAF veteran David "Heavy" Whalley said any switch to the newer helicopter - and in his opinion better aircraft - in the future must come with a package of training for mountain rescue teams. David has almost 40 years experience in mountain rescue in Scotland. He served as team leader of RAF Leuchars and Kinloss mountain rescue teams (MRTs) and worked for four years in the Kinloss air rescue co-ordination centre. He was also a senior team leader at Lockerbie when a Pan Am jumbo jet, carrying 258 passengers, crashed on the Scottish Borders town in 1988. A former chairman of the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland, David joined Torridon MRT after retiring from the air force. Drawing on that background, he sees good and bad in what was proposed for the future of search and rescue. He said: "There have been big changes afoot for a long time and the financial climate is certainly not helping the situation. "But though I have a military background I have no fears about the use of civilian operators having worked with them for a long time. "The problem I do have is that if this new helicopter - which is a wonderful aircraft - comes into being, then a package of training on working with it must be given to mountain rescue teams." During his military service Heavy was involved in the move from Wessex helicopters to the Sea King. With Torridon MRT he has taken part in rescues where casualties have been airlifted by an S-92. The S-92 is larger and has a more powerful down draft than the Sea King. "When the Wessex changed to the Sea King we did a lot of training, much of it at night with night vision goggles," David said. "And you don't just have to train in summer - winter operations are completely different." He said replacing the Sea King would come eventually and have to be accepted, adding: "Every member of a mountain rescue team would have to be trained in working with the new aircraft. "To train teams of 30 to 40 people takes a lot of time and a lot of money. I would plead with the government to get that training package right."

आर. ए. एफ. और रॉयल नेवी खोज और बचाव (एस. ए. आर.) संचालन के निजीकरण की योजना पर यू. के. सरकार की घोषणा-जो मंगलवार को अपेक्षित थी-में देरी हुई है। इस कदम से सी किंग हेलीकॉप्टरों को एस-92 द्वारा प्रतिस्थापित किया गया होगा, एक हेलीकॉप्टर जो पहले से ही समुद्री और तटरक्षक एजेंसी (एम. सी. ए.) के साथ सेवा में है।


Landlord letting fees banned in Wales to help tenants

Summary: A ban on landlord letting fees has come into force in Wales.

The new law aims to make the process simpler and fairer for tenants and will save them an average of almost £200 per tenancy, the Welsh Government says. They now cannot be charged for services such as an accompanied viewing, receiving an inventory, signing a contract or renewing a tenancy. It also gives the Welsh Government the power to limit the level of security deposits in future. Letting agents and landlords are now only permitted to require a payment for rent, security deposits, holding deposits, a payment in default (when a tenant breaches a contract), and payments related to council tax, utilities, a television licence or communication services. Fixed penalty notices of £1,000 may be issued against anyone seeking a prohibited payment and landlords could lose their licence if prosecuted. The Residential Landlords Association warned a fees ban could see rent charges increase, or agents opting for certain tenants who may not need as much help for their application. Douglas Haig, director for Wales, said: "Agents do spend quite a lot of time helping those who find it more challenging to go through a standard referencing process, some of those people might be on low incomes or from overseas and not used to the system. "Because fees are being banned agents are more likely to say: 'I'm going to choose that person because they understand the system, they've got a good paying job'... over someone who may be presenting under universal credit which is a very complex system. "That's really one of our bigger long-term concerns is in a hot rental market with under-supply of rental properties, that landlords and agents have the ability to pick and choose who goes in there before they even get to the point of being able to apply for the tenancy." Housing and Local Government Minister Julie James said: "A significant proportion of people in Wales live in private rented housing, and it is vital that they can be confident they are getting a fair deal. "I want renting privately to be a positive choice which is accessible to everyone." A ban on lettings fees in England came into force in June. Related Internet Links Welsh Government

वेल्स में मकान मालिक को किराया शुल्क देने पर प्रतिबंध लागू हो गया है।


Trump and North Korea talks: Strange optics of the North Korea announcement

Summary: When South Korea's national security adviser stood on the front lawn of the White House and delivered the news that North Korea's Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump would meet by May, a piece of history was made. But analyst Ankit Panda's dissection of that moment and the extraordinary statement shows that all may not be as it seems.

There was something profoundly odd about the optics of this announcement. Three South Koreans - National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong, Suh Hoon the top spy chief, and the ambassador to the US Cho Yoon-je - stood shoulder-to-shoulder speaking to eagerly-gathered reporters outside the West Wing. Without any American officials present, it very much placed this entire diplomatic initiative in South Korea's hands. One could easily walk away sensing that the United States wasn't entirely enthusiastic about this endeavour. It followed a curious and historic week of Korean peninsula news showing that shuttle diplomacy is back in a big way, with the South Koreans in the driver's seat. Two of the South Koreans on the White House lawn, Mr Chung and Mr Suh, had just been received by reclusive North Korean leader himself, before speedily making their way to the US where they briefly met President Trump. Following that meeting, Mr Chung delivered another statement, outside the West Wing of the White House, on a street with a gaggle of eager reporters before him. In this he announced - on behalf of Donald Trump - that the US president would accept an invitation to meet the North Korean leader. In the span of just three days, South Korean envoys had spoken for Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump on both sides of the world. So what did the statement really tell us? This is what Mr Chung read to reporters: 1. "Today I had the privilege of briefing President Trump on my recent visit to North Korea. I'd like to thank President Trump, the vice-president and his wonderful national security team including my close friend General McMaster." Mr Chung will meet Gen HR McMaster on Friday to presumably hammer out a path forward. It's notable that the US national security adviser chose not to accompany his counterpart, creating the awkward optics of the South Koreans going it alone in arranging the US-North Korea summit. 2. "I explained to President Trump that his leadership and his maximum pressure policy together with international solidarity brought us to this juncture. I expressed President Moon Jae-in's personal gratitude for President Trump's leadership." The South Koreans have realised that Trump responds well to flattery. Seoul has to acknowledge the US-backed policy of "maximum pressure", which has produced at least some results. Kim Jong-un acknowledged the biting effect of sanctions during his New Year's Day address - the same speech where he extended the Winter Olympics olive branch to the South. 3. "I told President Trump that in our meeting, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said he is committed to denuclearisation. Kim pledged that North Korea will refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests." This is repetition of what Mr Chung had announced in Seoul on his return from Pyongyang. Mr Chung, however, did not repeat that Mr Kim included a conditional in his offer to denuclearise, which is that his regime's security would have to be assured. The North Koreans have also long called for the end of the United States' "hostile policy" toward them, which may include the departure of US troops from South Korea. 4. "He understands that the routine joint military exercise between the Republic of Korea and the United States must continue and he expressed his eagerness to meet President Trump as soon as possible." This is an important assurance in the context of the US-South Korea alliance, but it's a highly uncharacteristic statement from a North Korean leader. Pyongyang's behaviour once the postponed exercises - which infuriate the North - begin on 31 March will be far more telling of its actual feelings about the exercises. Last year, North Korea conducted multiple ballistic missile launches during this period. 5. "President Trump appreciated the briefing and said he would meet Kim Jong-un by May to achieve permanent denuclearisation." This is where the headlines have focused and it is the big piece of substantively new information in Mr Chung's announcement in Washington. A venue and an agenda are both left ambiguous - presumably for the United States and North Korea to hammer out in the coming weeks. 6. "The Republic of Korea, the United States and our many partners around the world remain fully and resolutely committed to the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. Along with President Trump we are optimistic about continuing a diplomatic process to test the possibility of a peaceful resolution. "The Republic of Korea, the United States, and our partners stand together in insisting that we not repeat the mistakes of the past, and that the pressure will continue until North Korea matches his words with concrete actions. Thank you." Mr Chung's statement concludes with optimistic boilerplate, but noticeably does not include any affirmation of the alliance with the United States directly. The US is grouped along with "partners". Curiously, he refers to Kim Jong-un's "words", even though all of North Korea's words regarding this supposed diplomatic breakthrough have come through South Korea. The announcement is undoubtedly significant and a Trump-Kim summit would make the history books, but it's far from clear that North Korea has committed to what South Korea has assured the United States it has committed to, or that Washington is ready for a productive diplomatic process with Pyongyang. Ankit Panda is a North Korea expert and senior editor at The Diplomat. Follow him on @nktpnd

जब दक्षिण कोरिया के राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा सलाहकार व्हाइट हाउस के सामने के लॉन में खड़े हुए और खबर दी कि उत्तर कोरिया के किम जोंग-उन और अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प मई तक मिलेंगे, तो इतिहास का एक टुकड़ा बन गया। लेकिन विश्लेषक अंकित पांडा का उस पल का विच्छेदन और असाधारण बयान से पता चलता है कि सब कुछ वैसा नहीं हो सकता जैसा लगता है।


Mandla Maseko: The first black African heading into space

Summary: A 25-year-old DJ from a South African township is set to become the first black African to go into space. Mandla Maseko is one of 23 people who won a seat on an hour-long sub-orbital trip in 2015. He explains how he beat one million other people to the prize.

I first saw an advert for the competition on television and then heard another ad on the radio. I had to send a photo of myself jumping from anywhere, so I chose to jump off a wall and my friend captured me in mid-air. I had to answer a couple of questions and explain why I wanted to go into space. My response was: "I want to defy the laws of gravity, and go down history as the first black South African in space." I was chosen to go to the local space camp in Parys in Free State - there were 30 of us there. I had to go through three challenges - two of them were compulsory. One was to skydive to earth from 10,000 feet, and the other was the vomit comet. The vomit comet is a room where you stand up against the wall and it starts spinning, and at some point the floor disappears so you end up being pushed against the wall by G-Force. The challenge in there was to pick up five flags from beneath your feet and put them above your head. I nailed that one, and the group was narrowed down to six people and we had to do what we called the plane stunt. We were taken up to about 3,000 or 4,000 feet in a plane and the pilot did all sorts of acrobatic manoeuvres like loops, turns and the Cuban 8. When we got off the plane with all that adrenalin rushing around, we had to calm ourselves down very quickly, and do a written test answering questions about the flight. I made it to the top three, and we flew to Orlando in Florida on 1 December where there were 109 competitors from around the globe. We did more challenges which were very, very, very tough, but I'm a typical township boy and I was taught to face all the challenges thrown at me head on, and I did. We had to do air flight simulation, air combat, the zero gravity flight, the assault courses - you name them. I completed them all successfully. When they announced the winners and called out my name I wasn't prepared, so the minute I realised that it was my name that got called out, my body ignited - it was an out of body experience. It still hasn't really sunk in yet. I think it'll sink in the minute I launch into space. I will take my South African flag that has a map of Africa on it. I also want to take a song by PJ Powers and Ladysmith Black Mambazo called World in Union. "If I win, lose or draw, it's a victory for all. It's a world in union, the world as one. As we climb to reach our destiny a new age has begun" - those are the words that really speak to me in the song. I will also play my national anthem as I go into the space craft - that goes without saying, I have to play my national anthem. My family and friends are all excited and happy for me. I was born and raised in Mabopane and Soshanguve townships, so I'm a Pretorian to the core. Thanks to my Dad, I've never gone to bed without having eaten or without having a roof over my head. And my Mum - I would go for an interview and then come back and not get the job and she would be like: "Ah don't worry, something bigger is coming for you - this one was not for you." I would be like, "Ah you're my Mum - you're supposed to say such things." But then when something happens, like me going to space then it's like wow, my Mum really said it: "This is big." Usually we hear about these kinds of achievements being accomplished by people who are not from our own surroundings, but then when it happens to someone that you can relate to, it becomes an overwhelming feeling, so people who live near me are happy. I get stopped and people say: "We are proud and we are behind you all the way." Now space is reachable - it was a far-fetched dream for us township people. Now it is achievable and I am hoping and praying that people will be interested in it more. I wanted to do something out of the ordinary - I like to explore things and this was a great opportunity for me. I wanted to do something that will motivate and inspire the youth of South Africa and Africa as a whole, and hopefully to some extent, the youth worldwide, and show that it doesn't matter what background you come from, you can have whatever you want as long as you put hard work and determination into it. After I go into space I am hoping to finish my civil engineering studies. I had to put them on hold before the competition because I didn't have enough money to fund them. I would also like to study aeronautical engineering and hopefully qualify as a mission specialist, and then next time, go to the moon to plant the South African flag there. Mandla Maseko spoke to Newsday on the BBC World Service. Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

दक्षिण अफ्रीकी बस्ती का एक 25 वर्षीय डीजे अंतरिक्ष में जाने वाला पहला अश्वेत अफ्रीकी बनने के लिए तैयार है। मंडला मासेको उन 23 लोगों में से एक है जिन्होंने 2015 में एक घंटे की उप-कक्षीय यात्रा में एक सीट जीती थी। वह बताते हैं कि कैसे उन्होंने पुरस्कार के लिए दस लाख अन्य लोगों को हराया।


Sinn Fein claims Declan Gormley 'connived with SDLP'

Summary: The High Court has heard that Sinn Fein believes a man suing it for defamation has been acting "in connivance" with the SDLP to undermine Conor Murphy.

Declan Gormley is seeking damages against the party and two of its politicians over press statements. The statements were issued a year after Mr Murphy sacked him from the board of Northern Ireland Water over procurement failings. On Wednesday, Mr Gormley said he was a "non-political individual". Giving evidence in the case, Mr Gormley said he has never been a member of the SDLP and told the court it was "utter nonsense" to suggest he put the SDLP up to attacking Mr Murphy. Sinn Fein argues the two press releases - in the name of Cathal Boylan and Willie Clarke - were a response to a number of attacks by Mr Gormley and the SDLP.

उच्च न्यायालय ने सुना है कि सिन फेन का मानना है कि मानहानि के लिए मुकदमा करने वाला एक व्यक्ति कॉनर मर्फी को कमजोर करने के लिए एस. डी. एल. पी. के साथ "मिलीभगत" में काम कर रहा है।


Why Strictly dances to Russia's beat

Summary: Why is it that Russian dancers are so prominent on Strictly Come Dancing, and so visible in many international competitions and dancing shows? Bridget Kendall, the BBC's diplomatic correspondent and former Moscow correspondent, has been investigating.

By Bridget KendallDiplomatic correspondent When Gleb Savchenko - one of the new Russian dancers on Strictly Come Dancing - turned 13, his grandfather asked what he'd like for his birthday. "I said, 'I want dance shoes.' They were, like, $100 (£67)... And my grandfather said, 'Don't you want something else, something a boy would want - a bicycle? A skateboard?' But I wanted the shoes... So we went together and bought them, and I was really, really happy." By this point, Savchenko had been dancing for five years and was already addicted to ballroom. It was the 1990s - a grim time in Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many people had no jobs or tiny salaries. Savchenko's dancing career was a family enterprise. His grandparents and uncle helped pay for lessons. His father drove him two hours across Moscow every day for training sessions and two hours back again. His mother sewed his costumes and when he came second in a competition, took him aside and told him to try harder. A decade earlier, in the Pacific port of Vladivostok in the far east corner of Russia, Kristina Rihanoff, another familiar face from Strictly, also started dancing young - at six-years-old. The competitive ethos of the Soviet Union meant children were always being pushed, or even groomed, says Rihanoff. "You were sort of faced with the ideology that you had to be the best, to deliver for your class, for your school, for your country." But dancing school was also fun, and she enjoyed the sparkle and glamour of the competitions - an escape from the grey world of the last years of the Soviet Union. A little older than Savchenko, she now recognises the limited horizons of her provincial Soviet childhood. "You don't really understand living under the Iron Curtain, as a child. You just accept things around you, you don't really see. I think now I understand that everything foreign was acknowledged as propaganda." So while they danced waltzes and foxtrots and cha cha cha, there was no samba from Brazil or Argentine tango. And jive from America, that Cold War enemy, was off limits. To keep abreast of new steps, dancers would seek out videotapes of big competitions. Rihanoff says she would study borrowed tapes for days to memorise all the routines. Marina Tarsinov, a former national champion, learnt to dance in another remote part of the USSR, the central Asian republic of Tajikistan. She recalls the excitement of getting hold of a recording from that all-time Mecca of ballroom - Blackpool. Even though it turned out that the technician put the film in the wrong way round. "It was in black and white and had no sound. But we were so happy to see actual dancing, and to learn from this recording - the style, the costumes, the hair, the dancing," she says. "We watched it, and we even learnt something from this tape. But then we realised we had learnt everything backwards because he put it in wrong." It was a Blackpool couple who first helped give ballroom dancing respectability in the Soviet Union. Up until the 1950s, the Communist government in Moscow discouraged it as too foreign and too reminiscent of the previous tsarist era whose every trace it wanted to erase. But after Stalin died, the political atmosphere eased somewhat. In 1957 Moscow hosted an international Youth Festival, which brought in young people from all over the world. Among them were Harry Smith-Hampshire and his partner Doreen Casey, the British European ballroom champions, who danced in front of an audience in the Kremlin. "They did a show dance, and were invited to an audience with our general secretary and the Politburo. It was a big event and sped up the development of ballroom dancing in the Soviet Union," says Leonid Pletnev, another veteran Soviet ballroom champion who is now honorary president of the International Dance Union. After that, ballroom dancing was on the list of permitted amateur hobbies offered by local so-called Palaces of Culture. But some Soviet officials still regarded it with suspicion. It remained a peripheral activity, neither banned, nor exactly celebrated, and sometimes even dangerous. Pletnev recalls one competition held at night and in secret, to avoid trouble from officials. "It was really a spy story, how we got to this Palace of Culture - sitting in the bus with curtains closed and then running inside. That was how far it could go. They called us 'agents', 'agents of counter-propaganda'. Now we can smile about it, but then it was not nice." Almost no Soviet dancers were allowed to travel abroad. In the 1980s Marina Tarsinov and her husband Taliat were among the lucky ones. By now national champions, they managed to get permission to go to Belgium - though only after one government official personally guaranteed that they would not try to defect. As a young married couple with no children, they were seen as prime candidates. "One day when we were going to dinner," recalls Tarsinov, "we saw from the bus window a shop selling feathers. So we decided we would eat very fast and run back to this shop to buy the feathers (for our costumes). "When we got back, the guy who gave the guarantee was almost having a heart attack: when he saw us running out, he thought we were escaping." With the arrival of perestroika reforms in the late 1980s and the Soviet Union dissolution at the end of 1991, everything changed. Now Russian dancers could travel. But while government restrictions had gone, the new obstacle was money. Pletnev recalls driving all the way from Russia to Blackpool, because he couldn't afford the plane ticket. In Germany he worked as a dishwasher. In Norway he acted as an odd job man for his Norwegian dance teacher. "I cleaned his garden, I changed the wheels on his car, cleaned his studio. I got some money and paid him straight back for another lesson," says Pletnev. But the post-Soviet era also brought an exodus of some of Russia's top talent. The Tarsinovs were early emigres who made their way to New York in 1992. At first they found the adjustment difficult. In Russia the focus had been on training talent to create champions. In America dancing was a service industry, delivering entertainment to the public. Marina Tarsinov says they also found they were treated with suspicion, as unwelcome foreign competition. "We were very successful competitors and not everyone loved it. In some competitions they would not allow us to dance - they would ask for our passport and ask if we had legal papers. They would give us an empty envelope instead of prize money. People did a lot of things to us to show that we were not welcomed." But those initial resentments evaporated. Now the Tarsinovs are well established, running one of the famed Fred Astaire Dance Studios, teaching a new generation of Americans - and Russians living in New York - to waltz and foxtrot. And the outflow of top Russian dancers, seeking fame and fortune abroad, continues. Rihanoff also found her way to New York, via international dance competitions. She visits her mother in Vladivostok every summer, but has no plans to return to Russia. Savchenko moved first to Latvia. A modelling career then took him overseas to Hong Kong and New York. Since he returned to dancing full time, he's been a professional dancer on the Australia and American versions of Strictly, and here in the UK, of course. He, too, has no plans to return to Russia. So, if so much top talent has moved abroad, what of the next generation of Russian ballroom dancers? Will they benefit from the same level of dedicated teachers? Will they be as motivated to excel? 'What they live for' Rihanoff says she notices her teenage nephews have a different mentality. "It's much more relaxed and they are not driven because they have much more than we had. I would never say it was a bad time, because what we lacked in knowledge, we made up for in perseverance. "With the little information we had, we worked hard to get ourselves to the best stage we could be. Now you can get clips from YouTube, you can travel, and you can get lessons from the best in the world. But it takes a special person to push themselves." But Savchenko thinks there are still plenty of young Russians throwing themselves into dancing as a way to escape to something better. "I'm sure there are people somewhere, in a small city, practising and dreaming to go out there and have a chance... and they are still watching the videos from Blackpool and trying to copy the routines. And that's what they live for." A shorter version of this article originally appeared in this week's Radio Times. Radio 4 will broadcast Bridget Kendall's Strictly Russian programme on 12 December at 1030.

ऐसा क्यों है कि रूसी नर्तक स्ट्रिक्टली कम डांसिंग में इतने प्रमुख हैं, और कई अंतरराष्ट्रीय प्रतियोगिताओं और नृत्य कार्यक्रमों में इतने दिखाई देते हैं? बीबीसी की राजनयिक संवाददाता और मास्को की पूर्व संवाददाता ब्रिजेट केंडल इसकी जांच कर रही हैं।


Woman on mobility scooter dies in Cannock hit-and-run

Summary: A woman driving a mobility scooter has died in a hit-and-run crash in Staffordshire.

The 62-year-old was struck by a silver VW Golf in Cannock at about 18:30 GMT on New Year's Eve and died at the scene, police said. The collision happened at the junction of Pye Green Road and St Aidan's Road. The driver of the Golf failed to stop. Staffordshire Police said inquiries were ongoing and witnesses should contact the force. Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, and sign up for local news updates direct to your phone.

स्टैफोर्डशायर में एक हिट-एंड-रन दुर्घटना में मोबिलिटी स्कूटर चला रही एक महिला की मौत हो गई है।


Housing crisis: Where are the most new homes being built?

Summary: There is huge demand for more homes to be built.

By Paul Swinney and Anthony BreachCentre for Cities More people are living alone and growing numbers of young people are living with their parents because they cannot afford their own place. But everything from where all the new homes should go to how big they are is a source of much debate. How many homes are being built? There are 247,000 more houses being built in England and Wales every year than are demolished. This is less than a government target of 300,000 new homes in England alone each year but a big increase from a low of 130,000 homes in 2012-13. Are cities expanding? The most new homes have been built in cities and large towns - defined by the Centre for Cities as places with a daytime population of at least 135,000. About 803,000 were created in these places between 2011 and 2019. And while 734,000 of these were built in the suburbs, about 69,000 are in city centres, a rise of 16% over the past eight years. This compares with an overall increase of 6% for England and Wales. However, building has increased elsewhere too. Since 2011, 735,000 homes have been built away from main centres, although more than three-quarters of them are within commutable distance of a city or large town. Places such as Corby, midway between Peterborough, Northampton and Leicester, and Uttlesford, the local authority near Cambridge that includes Stansted Airport, have been big builders. Which towns and cities have the most new homes? London has unsurprisingly built the most homes, with 307,000 since 2011. That's the equivalent of two extra cities the size of Sunderland or one Bristol. Tower Hamlets has been the largest contributor to this overall total, with 23,600. But on a percentage basis, Cambridge has seen the largest growth. It has increased its number of homes by 15%, or more than 7,000. It was followed by Telford (12%, 8,400), Milton Keynes (11%, 11,700) and Peterborough (10%, 7,500). The data for England and Wales is based on new homes with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). This data is not available for Scotland or Northern Ireland. However, other data shows Edinburgh and its surrounding authorities of Midlothian and East Lothian have seen the most house-building in Scotland, And Belfast has built at least 10,500 homes since 2011, accounting for about a quarter of the total increase in homes in Northern Ireland. How big are new homes? The average new home was 92 sq m (990 sq ft), compared with 89 sq m for an existing home (just larger than a badminton court). But this varies across the country. New homes in city centres were the smallest, at 64 sq m (just larger than a squash court). Outside cities, they averaged 101 sq m. And the average size of a new home was larger in the North of England than the South. Among large towns and cities, Blackpool built the largest homes, at 101 sq m, while Luton built the smallest, at 62 sq m. Download the full BBC Briefing on housing here. Part of a mini-series of downloadable guides to the big issues in the news, it has input from academics, researchers and journalists and at the end there's a glossary of useful terminology. Are homes where they are needed? Cities close to and including London tend to be the least affordable places to live. For example, the average home was about 17 times average salaries in Oxford in 2019, compared with four times salaries in Burnley. But Oxford and Burnley have built a similar number of new homes since 2011 - 2,400 compared with 2,100. Cities such as Oxford and Brighton are desirable places to live because of their successful economies, which offer access to large numbers of well paid jobs. If it is not to become ever more difficult for first-time buyers to get on to the housing ladder in these cities, or for renters to not see ever more of their pay cheques disappearing on rent, then more homes will be needed to meet demand. More like this: But elsewhere - in Burnley, Hull and Barnsley, for example - increasing the number of new homes is not always the answer to helping the local economy grow. Instead, creating more jobs first may be the solution. And there may be alternatives to building new homes, such as filling empty houses and providing a broader range of better-quality properties. But the government plans to level up the economy by introducing more employment opportunities in different parts of the country. And if that happens, demand for new homes may grow in these areas too, not just in the least affordable cities. Number of new homes and percentage growth in England and Wales (2011-19) About this piece This analysis piece was commissioned by BBC News from an expert working for an outside organisation. Paul Swinney is director of research and policy and Anthony Breach is an analyst at the Centre for Cities, which describes itself as working to understand how and why economic growth and change takes place in the UK's cities. You can follow Paul on Twitter here and Anthony here. Edited by Ian Westbrook Have you bought a new home recently? Where should new homes be built? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:

अधिक घरों के निर्माण की भारी मांग है।


The Life and death of Flappy Bird

Summary: I was late to the Flappy Bird party. I only started playing the annoyingly compulsive chart-topping game on Friday morning because we were featuring it in a discussion about the games business on our new weekly radio programme Tech Tent .

Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter But after a couple of hours I, like members of my family, colleagues and just about everyone else, was hooked. It was the crudest game imaginable, with graphics that might have been created 25 years ago. You tap continually on the screen to keep a bird from flapping into a series of pipes. But it was the fact that it was so darned hard that made it addictive - and so lucrative for its developer. Then on Saturday the Vietnamese inventor of the game Dong Nguyen tweeted this: "I am sorry 'Flappy Bird' users, 22 hours from now, I will take 'Flappy Bird' down. I cannot take this anymore." It wasn't clear exactly what he couldn't take any more - after all, he had earlier said he was earning $50,000 (£30,467) a day from the adverts that appeared on the free game. But by Sunday night, true to his word, he had removed Flappy Bird from the Google Play store and from Apple's App Store. If you have just heard about the game and want to play it, tough - it is now only available to the hundreds of thousands, or probably millions who've already installed it. What can we learn from Flappy Bird's brief but brilliant trajectory across the gaming landscape? Firstly, that as the screenwriter William Goldman said about Hollywood and the movie-going public, when it comes to understanding what will make a successful game, "nobody knows anything…" Huge businesses like EA set large teams to work with seemingly unlimited budgets to build hit games, then an unknown solo developer in Vietnam races past and heads to the top of the chart. Nearly four years ago, I wrote about a couple of bedroom developers in Britain who had achieved similar success, but I thought the days when David could challenge Goliath in this way were over. I notice, however, that one of the apps mentioned in that piece, The Impossible Game, is riding high in the charts again. It is almost as simple and frustrating a game as Flappy Bird, so maybe it is benefitting from a halo effect. And maybe the recent row over the in-app purchase model - where you get a game for free and then find it totally unsatisfying until you pay for extras - has had an effect too. This article by Thomas Baekdal argues that in-app purchases are killing the games industry, taking sophisticated games and then trying to annoy players so much with restrictions that they will shell out to get to the next stage. Perhaps the success of a simple ad-supported game where the only annoyance is how hard it is to get past the first pipe will inspire others to move away from the in-app purchase model. Then again, maybe not - the model is still proving hugely lucrative and for millions of new games players on smartphones and tablets, free to download then pay to make it fun is the only method they have ever known. But maybe the main lesson we should learn from Flappy Bird is that we have seen the birth of a marketing genius. By killing the golden goose so quickly, Dong Nguyen has ensured that a huge audience will be waiting with breathless anticipation for his next game. And if that doesn't work, he can always allow Flappy Bird to fly again….

मुझे फ़्लैपी बर्ड पार्टी में देर हो गई थी। मैंने केवल शुक्रवार की सुबह कष्टप्रद रूप से बाध्यकारी चार्ट-टॉपिंग गेम खेलना शुरू किया क्योंकि हम इसे अपने नए साप्ताहिक रेडियो कार्यक्रम टेक टेंट पर गेम व्यवसाय के बारे में चर्चा में दिखा रहे थे।


Bethany Home children angry at Irish authorities

Summary: Next month voters in the Irish Republic will go to the polls in a referendum on childrens' rights. But the state and Christian churches have all been accused of child neglect and some Protestants feel discriminated against in the area of compensation.

By Shane HarrisonBBC NI Dublin correspondent Near a busy road in the well-to-do Rathgar area of south Dublin is what was until the 1960s the Protestant-run Bethany Home. The building is now an independent private old folks home and has no religious link, but decades ago it was a place for unmarried Protestant mothers, described at the time as "fallen women", and their children. Among the children was 71-year-old Derek Leinster. Now living in Rugby, in the English Midlands, he describes Bethany as a "place of hell", but not as bad as the home of the dysfunctional adoptive parents in County Wicklow he was sent to when he was nearly four. He said he left them unable to read, write or tell the time of day. "I grew up with starvation, was treated more or less as a dog," he said. "I was that hungry that I remember going into a farmer's field and picking spuds so that we could have a meal and putting the roots back in. Well-off people in the area knew the state we were in but they walked around as if it never happened." Sixty-five-year-old Patrick Anderson-McQuoid also spent his early days at Bethany. Recently recovered medical notes suggest that as a child he was malnourished, had soft bones because of rickets and needed sunlight. Now living in Drumshambo, County Leitrim, he was adopted by a Church of Ireland family at Milltown near Belfast when he was three and they were in their 50s. As an adult he twice made contact with his birth mother who had since married and had other children but she did not want to know. That caused a deep depression that lasted two years and required counselling. He said: "That was very very painful to the point where I had to go back and dig out from within all the heartache and all the pain that I had hidden away and hadn't come to terms with about who I was, why I was here, who did this. "I was angry, I was angry with my birth mother, I was angry with my adoptive parents for what they had done to me head-wise. They meant well but they didn't know how to look after a three-year-old child." Both men survived, but more than 220 children died in Bethany between 1922 and 1949: that's one death every six weeks. Niall Meehan, the Head of Journalism at Griffith College found the unmarked grave of 219 Bethany Home children at Mount Jerome cemetery near Harold's Cross in south Dublin. He said none of the children had been hospitalised and they died mainly from neglect, malnutrition and tuberculosis. Compensation "There are 219 nameless, faceless unwanted so called illegitimate children in this graveyard," he said. "And they need to become recognised by the state in which they lived, and the churches they were members of. They suffered abuse and they suffered neglect. This was avoidable at the time and this needs to be recognised now." Those who survived Bethany said they feel discriminated against by the Irish government. After the many revelations of child physical and sexual abuse over decades in various Catholic-run institutions the Irish government set up a compensation scheme for the survivors of, amongst others, industrial schools and orphanages. The Irish government denies there is discrimination on grounds of religion. A spokeswoman at the Department of Education, which is overseeing the compensation process, said Bethany was excluded because it was deemed "not to qualify" since it was a home for mothers and children. An emotional Derek Leinster is far from impressed. He said: "Everybody can feel the pain. Why doesn't the Irish government and the Irish civil service do the same. Our pain is no different from being a Catholic. "We're all human beings. Let's be fair about it, whether you were a Catholic or a Protestant, nobody is ever going to be compensated to the full extent for what happened to them in their lives." The survivors, who want support in their fight for compensation and to erect a memorial in Mount Jerome for the forgotten children, also say they feel ignored and rejected by the Protestant churches. The Church of Ireland disputes that. A spokesman said that the Archbishop of Dublin, Michael Jackson, had met survivors and afterwards had written to Ruairi Quinn, the Irish education minister, asking him to reconsider "as a matter of urgency" the group's plea for access to compensation. He also said the archbishop "was open" to supporting their request for a memorial and had personally sought to make people in his dioceses aware of the memorial fund.

अगले महीने आयरिश गणराज्य में मतदाता बच्चों के अधिकारों पर एक जनमत संग्रह में मतदान करेंगे। लेकिन राज्य और ईसाई चर्चों पर बच्चों की उपेक्षा का आरोप लगाया गया है और कुछ प्रोटेस्टेंट मुआवजे के क्षेत्र में भेदभाव महसूस करते हैं।


Primary tests: What are the changes?

Summary: Year 6 pupils across England are sitting new, more rigorous, national curriculum tests, known as Sats. The BBC News website answers some of the key questions about changes to - and complications with - the tests this year.

What are the changes to national curriculum tests (Sats) this year? Children in Year 2 (aged 6-7) and Year 6 (aged 10 and 11) are the first cohort to take new, more rigorous Sats tests this summer term. Children will still sit tests in reading, maths and spelling, punctuation and grammar. But the tests are more demanding than previous years, with more expected of pupils. Up until last year, Sats tests were graded on levels - for example Level 4 was the expected level for children finishing primary school. But these national curriculum levels have now been scrapped. Instead parents will be given their child's raw score (the actual number of marks they get) and whether they have reached the national average. Year 6 Sats are largely marked externally, while Year 2 Sats will still be marked by teachers at the school. Children who do not reach the expected level in their Key Stage 2 tests at the of primary will be expected to re-sit tests when they go on to secondary school. When are the Sats tests this year? Tests for Year 6 (Key Stage 2) pupils are taking place between Monday 9 May and Friday 13 May this year. Tests for Year 2 (Key Stage 1) pupils are taking place during the month of May, at a time chosen by the school. Hasn't there been a problem with a published paper? Yes. It emerged in the early hours of Tuesday, on the morning it was due to be taken by 600,000 children, that a spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPAG) test had been published online. The Sats answers appeared for four hours on a password-protected website. The Department for Education blamed a "rogue marker" and put the leak down to an "active campaign by those people opposed to our reforms to undermine these tests" and says Tuesday's tests will go ahead as planned. It also emerged at the end of last month that a spelling and grammar test for Year 2 pupils had been accidentally put online by officials and the government was forced to scrap it. Half a million seven-year-olds in England had been due to take the test. How are children prepared for Sats? Many schools run booster classes in the run-up to Sats, particularly for Year 6 children, to bolster pupils' chances of doing well. Some parents have their children privately tutored. The stakes are high for schools, as the data from the Year 2 and 6 Sats tests is used to publish school "league tables", which rank primary schools on performance. Critics of the tests, which were brought in 25 years ago to regulate educational standards, say this pressure on schools means pupils are taught to the test in their final year of primary school. How are pupils helped to cope with the pressure? Some schools offer pre-Sats breakfasts in an attempt to raise children's morale - and also to make sure they aren't hungry! Others write letters to pupils explaining that the tests are not the be all and end all of their school career. Earlier this week, an inspiring letter sent out to pupils by several schools went viral. Aren't there tests for Reception children now as well? Yes and no. Tests for Reception pupils are known as "baseline tests". They cover reading, writing and maths and are carried out when pupils start school. The government had intended to use these tests to assess primary schools' performance. Schools could have opted to use them in September 2015 for the current Reception cohort. The tests were to be rolled out across all schools in September 2016 - but they have been postponed. In April, ministers abandoned the tests after a study showed the papers - which are offered by three different providers - could not be reliably compared. Ministers admitted using them to measure primaries would be "inappropriate and unfair". With regard to these tests, critics had always maintained that testing four-year-olds is too much, too soon. Why have primary tests changed? Primary tests have changed in line with a new curriculum brought into England's schools by the Department for Education (DfE) in September 2014. The new curriculum covers primary school pupils, aged five to 11, as well as secondary school pupils up to the age of 14. When did we first know Sats were changing? We first knew about the changes two years ago, when the new curriculum was announced in March 2014, by the then Education Secretary Michael Gove. Parents can be forgiven for not remembering all this new information in a seemingly ever-changing landscape of education reform. The DfE has given schools further information on the changes to help them adapt their approach and assessment arrangements, including sample papers. Why were all these changes brought in? The government says all children must leave primary school with a good standard of reading, writing and maths. The DfE's website says "previous expectations for children were too low". It says the new assessment system has been designed to reflect the "new, more challenging national curriculum". Does everyone agree with the tests? No. Critics say all these tests for primary-age children are an unnecessary burden. In the week before this year's round of primary tests, some parents took their children out of school for the day in protest at the pressure being put on children. But those in favour of testing say it holds schools to account - and that can only be good news for pupils and parents. What happens in primary schools elsewhere in the UK? There are no Sats in Scotland. However, Scotland's First Minister announced in August 2015 that new national, standardised assessments will be introduced for pupils in P1 (equivalent to Reception in England and Wales), P4 (Year 3) and P7 (Year 6). The new assessments will start in 2017, after being piloted in 2016, and will focus on literacy and numeracy. In Wales, statutory teacher assessments take place at the end of Key Stage 2 (Year 6), but pupils do not take Sats. From May 2013, all children in Wales from Years 2 to 9 have taken national reading and numeracy tests as part to a new national literacy and numeracy framework. Pupils in Northern Ireland are given computer-based assessments in numeracy and literacy - or InCAS tests - in Years 4 to 7 (equivalent to Years 3 to 6 in England and Wales). Teachers give pupils levels at the end of Key Stage 1 (Year 4) and Key Stage 2 based on how they perform in the general cross-curricular skills of communication, using Mathematics and using IT.

पूरे इंग्लैंड में वर्ष 6 के छात्र नए, अधिक कठोर, राष्ट्रीय पाठ्यक्रम परीक्षणों में बैठे हैं, जिन्हें सैट्स के रूप में जाना जाता है। बीबीसी समाचार वेबसाइट इस वर्ष परीक्षणों में परिवर्तन और जटिलताओं के बारे में कुछ प्रमुख प्रश्नों का उत्तर देती है।


Will we soon be renting rather than buying our clothes?

Summary: The BBC's Circular Economy series highlights the ways we are designing systems to reduce the waste modern society generates, by reusing and repurposing products. This week we look at whether we will be renting our clothes instead of buying them in future.

By Lucy HookerBusiness reporter, BBC News Earlier this year a rather surprising marketing video went viral in China. The film, fronted by a social media influencer called Jiang Chacha takes viewers on a tour, not of a trendy night spot or fashionable clothes store but an industrial-scale laundry operation. The company behind the ad, Beijing start-up YCloset, isn't selling laundry services, however. Instead it will rent you the latest in women's fashions. Doris Ke, who created the campaign, says some Chinese consumers are still unsure about wearing clothes that have been worn before. The aim was to reassure them by showing the steam cleaners, the microscopes and the banks of washing machines they use to clean garments between loans. At the end of the film Jiang Chacha is offered a glass of water that has been through the washing machine - implying it would be clean enough to drink. YCloset, like other fashion rental companies springing up around the globe, believes once it's ironed out wrinkles such as anxieties over cleanliness, the idea of fashion rental is ready to go mainstream. And while its motives may be about building the business, if the idea does catch on, it could also disrupt the current trend towards ever more disposable fashion and help reduce the environmental impact of one of the most resource intensive industries. While it's always been possible to rent a tuxedo, a ball-gown or a fancy-dress costume, rental firms are now chasing the market for everyday wear. They argue the time is ripe for a Netflix or a Spotify of fashion, that could see us all renting clothes as a matter of course. So Doris Ke's next campaign for YCloset showed a young business woman, who rented her wardrobe for work and eventually became so successful she outdid her boss and made it into Forbes magazine - to persuade Chinese women take more care over what they wear to work. In this respect, YCloset is following the same path as firms like New York-based Rent the Runway, which pioneered the rental concept back in 2009, as well as its San Francisco rival Le Tote, and in the UK, Girl Meets Dress. As well as offering one-off rentals, they now offer customers subscription packages that allow them to have several garments at a time for a flat monthly fee. Rent the Runway's CEO and co-founder Jennifer Hyman has been explicit about her ambition to "put H&M and Zara out of business". Likewise, YCloset's chief operating officer Michael Wang has said it is "targeting the fast fashion daily wear market, where people can wear our products to work, during the weekend and also to a party". The firm says 10 million Chinese women have registered with it, even if they don't all yet use it. Rent the Runway says nine million are "members" though that doesn't mean they all use the service. In the UK, Girl Meets Dress's founder, Anna Bance, says the same shift towards a more everyday role for rentals is happening at her firm, which started out predominantly lending designer dresses. "Already it's not just for special occasions," says Ms Bance. Some customers may want one dress a year "for their husband's work do in the city" but others are changing their habits and hiring a couple of dresses a week. She says increasingly customers view it as a "frictionless" service alongside shopping for new clothes, but one that gives them access to higher quality and designer items. She thinks we could eventually be spending half of our clothes budgets on renting rather than buying. That is already the case for 29-year-old New York-based Mila Petrova. As a business consultant she dresses smartly every day. But as she "hates shopping" and was already fed up with her high dry cleaning bill, she has switched to renting four outfits a week from Rent the Runway. She wears them Monday to Thursday, then returns them and picks out new outfits online for the following week. "I use it purely for making my life easier at work," she says. But she notes that most of her friends, though they've happily embraced other parts of the sharing economy, haven't followed suit. "Some people really like new stuff," she says, "buying and owning clothes" while others see it as an unnecessary extra expense. It's our love of buying new stuff, that has made fashion one of the most environmentally damaging industries, says the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which launched a campaign earlier this year to encourage fashion firms to shift towards more "circular" patterns of resource use, reducing waste, and reusing resources more. The trend amongst "generation Instagram" is to wear clothes on fewer occasions before they're thrown away or dumped in the back of a wardrobe, says Francois Souchet from the Foundation. They calculate that if you are able to double the number of times you wear a garment, you decrease its environmental footprint by 44%. As rental firms make higher profits the more times they can rent out a garment; a shift to renting also implies a shift to products that are better made and longer wearing - another step towards a more sustainable fashion industry. Moreover, firms like Le Tote, Girl Meets Dress, Rent the Runway and YCloset are applying the same kind of principles as their fast fashion rivals when it comes to using data analysis to track which styles are popular and which are most durable. That in turn helps to avoid waste. Circular Economy More on the Circular Economy. Mr Souchet says that while he doesn't see the rental model as a solution on its own to the challenges of fast fashion, he is hopeful that it will contribute to a change in the way we consume clothes. That might rely in the long run on whether any big established players choose to back the model. China's internet giant Alibaba, which has a track record of experimenting in the retail space, has already invested in both YCloset and Rent the Runway; while Amazon has been working hard at taking a large share of the US clothing retail market. "It wouldn't be completely crazy" says Mr Souchet, to imagine both these online giants moving into rental fashion too, which would put a different perspective altogether on just how mainstream the idea could go.

बीबीसी की सर्कुलर इकोनॉमी श्रृंखला उन तरीकों पर प्रकाश डालती है जिनसे हम उत्पादों का पुनः उपयोग और पुनः उपयोग करके आधुनिक समाज द्वारा उत्पन्न कचरे को कम करने के लिए प्रणालियों को डिजाइन कर रहे हैं। इस सप्ताह हम देखते हैं कि क्या हम भविष्य में अपने कपड़े खरीदने के बजाय किराए पर लेंगे।


Deportations after deal: The new reality for migrants in Mexico

Summary: Mexico is sending thousands of troops to the border with Guatemala as part of a deal with the US to stem the flow of undocumented migrants, mostly from Central America. Photojournalist Encarni Pindado has seen the impact of the harsher policies on the people making their journey north .

It is only 06:00 and at the Suchiate river that separates Mexico and Guatemala, almost a dozen people are jumping on to a fragile-looking inflatable raft, like many others have done over the years. This is one of the 1,000 spots used by migrants for illegal crossings, and each of them have paid about $3.80 (£3) for a place on the raft to cross these muddy waters. In five minutes, they are all in Mexico. It has been only a few days since Mexico started deploying thousands of National Guard members to the famously porous border with Guatemala, part of a deal reached with the Trump administration to stem the flow of undocumented migrants to the US. From the river, migrants usually follow a similar path - up until now, largely undeterred: a bicycle taxi to the community of Ciudad de Hidalgo, then a shared taxi until the city of Tapachula, some 30km (19 miles) to the north. But things have changed. At an improvised checkpoint on the main road leading to Tapachula, soldiers and the federal police now stop all cars while immigration officials check the identification of people travelling by bus and shared taxis. Any foreigner caught without proper documentation is taken away and likely to be deported. In 40 minutes, two Cubans, one Honduran and one Guatemalan are detained. In Comitán, a city some 150km north of Tapachula, 31-year-old Noe is being held in a small room that looks like a jail cell. The Honduran and his three-year-old daughter, Marlene, had travelled for five days by bus, taxi and even on foot, before being detained with other migrants at a checkpoint. Noe recently lost his job at a factory in Choloma, near San Pedro Sula, from where thousands of other Hondurans have started their journeys to leave behind violence and economic instability. He is devastated with the idea of being sent back but, he says, this is not the end: soon, he will try his luck again. The imminent deportation makes Armando, also from Honduras, cry. "I'm going to be sent back, to be killed," says the 43-year-old who travelled with his daughter Rosalinda, 11, and nephew Milden, 14. He could ask for refugee status in Mexico but the agency that deals with requests has seen a cut of 20% to its budget since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador - who had promised a more humane response to migrants - took office in December. Every night, dozens of migrants sleep outside the agency's offices in Tapachula so they can be the first to try to get an appointment in the morning. But most of the smuggling of migrants into Mexico actually happens through the jungle and back roads to avoid the immigration checkpoints. It is a multibillion-dollar business, as each person pays between $3,500 and $7,000 for the dangerous journey. As a result of the new migrant deal, officials estimate that smugglers lost $3.6m last weekend alone, when the National Guard found 791 migrants being transported in trucks. South of Comitán, 12 heavily armed soldiers patrol the border town of Carmen Xhán in two vehicles. "The first 30 minutes [of an operation] are the most important ones," says the sub-lieutenant in charge, "that's when we have the best chance to catch the smugglers driving through". After that, their location becomes known and smugglers find ways to avoid them. The commando moves from one area to the next throughout the night. Even so, their presence does not go unnoticed by smugglers and, across the border in Guatemala, migrants turn back, unable to cross. This was the second frustrated attempt for 24-year-old Denis Perez and his son, Denis Joshua, from the Guatemalan town of Petén. In their first time, they were detained in the Mexican city of Monterrey, near the US border. To pay for this trip, he says he mortgaged his land, and will now have to return and tell her wife and other child that they could not make it. For him, like most others, more desperation waits when he gets back home. All photographs by Encarni Pindado

मेक्सिको ग्वाटेमाला की सीमा पर हजारों सैनिकों को भेज रहा है अमेरिका के साथ एक समझौते के हिस्से के रूप में अनिर्दिष्ट प्रवासियों के प्रवाह को रोकने के लिए, ज्यादातर मध्य अमेरिका से। फोटो पत्रकार एनकर्नी पिंडाडो ने उत्तर की यात्रा करने वाले लोगों पर कठोर नीतियों का प्रभाव देखा है।


Fallen climber rescued in Cairngorms

Summary: Mountain rescue teams and an Inverness Coastguard helicopter crew have rescued a fallen climber.

Police in Aviemore were alerted to the climber's fall at Aladdin's Couloir, Coire an t-Sneachda, in the Northern Corries at about midday. Members of Cairngorm MRT and rescue personnel at Glenmore Lodge went to his aid. The helicopter based at Inverness Airport has airlifted the injured climber to Aberdeen Royal infirmary. He suffered serious head injuries in the fall.

पहाड़ी बचाव दलों और एक इनवर्नेस तटरक्षक हेलीकॉप्टर चालक दल ने एक गिरे हुए पर्वतारोही को बचाया है।


More than 60 jobs on offer at Swansea uni's new Bay Campus

Summary: More than 60 jobs are to be created at Swansea University to help run its new Bay Campus.

The jobs advertised will be for staff to operate services and facilities at the new site when it opens in September. Areas with vacancies include catering, bars, grounds, customer services, sports and recreation. Two recruitment open days will be held to provide applicants with details on the roles available. When it opens, the £450m campus will accommodate up to 5,000 students and 1,000 staff.

स्वानसी विश्वविद्यालय में अपने नए बे कैंपस को चलाने में मदद करने के लिए 60 से अधिक नौकरियों का सृजन किया जाना है।