Medicinal cannabis: The family that changed Australia's debate

Summary: Being a former police officer, Lou Haslam knew his family's story about breaking Australian law to get medicinal cannabis for his son was powerful. It helped lead to a change in the law but, as Gary Nunn reports from Sydney, the family remains unhappy with the result.

Working undercover for the police drugs squad, Mr Haslam, now 66, arrested "a tonnage" of people for cannabis-related crimes in New South Wales (NSW) between 1972 and 2006. "We were mainly after growers and suppliers," he says. Little did he know he'd later possess cannabis himself - and even purchase a farm to grow it. He began supplying cannabis to his own son, Dan Haslam, after he was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2010. 'You'd do anything' The day of his son's cancer diagnosis, Mr Haslam remembers feeling confusion, anger, fear then grief: "I just thought, this is a 20-year-old kid. What the bloody hell's happening?" Remembering how chemotherapy killed his son's appetite takes Mr Haslam back to a dark time. "He was as sick as a dog," he says. "For seven days afterwards, he couldn't eat. He'd vomit. Ulcers filled his mouth. He lost so much weight and had no energy. Just as he'd feel better, it was time for his next round." Things got so bad that Dan would get anticipatory nausea - he'd vomit at the thought of chemotherapy. "Something had to give," Mr Haslam says. "As a parent, you'd do anything - and I mean anything - to stop your kid suffering." A family friend who'd had colon cancer offered Dan cannabis to manage his nausea, pain and poor appetite. Dan, a "fitness freak", declined. He feared his dad's disapproval. But Mr Haslam's reaction shocked everyone. "I said, Christ almighty - go for it. Get some smoko. Anything to help my son." With ongoing use of the drug, sourced from the black market, Mr Haslam says his son's ulcers disappeared, his appetite returned and his nausea depleted. "He'd tried every bloody pharmaceutical drug. They did nothing. This was really working." Dan went on to have "the best two years of his life". With renewed energy, he travelled the world and married his university sweetheart, Alyce. 'Bloody tough' decision Seeing its impact, the Haslams started hearing how medicinal cannabis helped others with chronic diseases, epilepsy and HIV. They decided to go public with their story to shift Australian lawmakers to legalise it for medicinal use. "Up till that point, we'd never used the word 'terminal' - Dan hated it," Mr Haslam says. "If our story was going to do any good, Dan had to not only accept his terminal diagnosis, but say that word. And I had to tell the world my son was about to die. It was bloody tough." The Haslams persuaded then NSW Premier Mike Baird to launch Australia's first medicinal cannabis trial for terminally ill patients. At the time, Mr Baird wrote a piece for Sydney's Daily Telegraph, headlined: "How a young man changed my mind on cannabis." Mr Baird tells the BBC: "The moment I met Dan I was convinced medical cannabis could make a difference. I could hear it in Dan's voice; I could see it in his eyes." The family set up an online petition which amassed 320,000 signatures. They used those supporters to successfully lobby politicians. A picture of Dan sick on chemotherapy was circulated around Australia. But as the campaign energy built, Dan's began to wane. He died in 2015, aged 25. On 24 February 2016, coinciding with the one-year anniversary of his death, medicinal cannabis was legalised by the Australian parliament. Some MPs called it "Dan's Law". His parents had campaigned tirelessly in their first year without their son. In an Australian first, Lou and Lucy Haslam purchased a farm earmarked to grow medicinal cannabis, which was opened by then Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce in Tamworth - Dan's home town. It was called DanEden. A new battle But now, the Haslams are campaigning again. They argue the number of Australian patients accessing medicinal cannabis is too low, and that the law isn't working. They've reopened their petition using the hashtag #FixDansLaw. The family says medicinal cannabis remains in regulatory limbo due to excessive regulation and bureaucracy, meaning some patients wait up to 19 months for a script. As of April 2019, there have been 5,200 medicinal cannabis approvals. It must be accessed through a special scheme which, critics say, makes it onerous for doctors to prescribe. Australia has only 57 authorised prescribers of medicinal cannabis, according to the Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA), the national regulator. Mrs Haslam adds: "Once approved, many patients realise they can't afford it." She says she knows of parents still breaking the law to get medicinal cannabis on the black market. A TGA spokesperson tells the BBC that there's "significant need" for larger medicinal cannabis research studies. "There have only been a limited number of well-designed clinical studies on medicinal cannabis and so it is hard for some doctors to find quality evidence to support decisions to prescribe medicinal cannabis," it says on its website. Such trials to check safety can last years, a UK committee recently heard. The Australian Medical Association (AMA) acknowledges "the potential therapeutic uses" of cannabis. It says it supports the current regulator and the government's desire to accelerate the process for patients to get the medication. The Haslams fight on. Lou Haslam marvels at his wife Lucy, who founded a charity which campaigns for compassionate access to the medication. "She works 14-hour days," he says. "The death of a son changes you. She just won't give up. Not now."

एक पूर्व पुलिस अधिकारी होने के नाते, लू हस्लम अपने बेटे के लिए औषधीय भांग प्राप्त करने के लिए ऑस्ट्रेलियाई कानून तोड़ने के बारे में अपने परिवार की कहानी को जानते थे। इससे कानून में बदलाव लाने में मदद मिली, लेकिन जैसा कि सिडनी से गैरी नन ने बताया, परिवार परिणाम से नाखुश है।


IS are 'demolishing' ancient sites in Iraq

Summary: It is believed that Islamic State militants have destroyed ruins at the ancient sites of Nimrud and Hatra in Iraq. They have also destroyed museum artefacts in Mosul.

Many people who have visited these areas in the past, have been in touch with BBC News to share their pictures and memories of these two archaeological sites. Email your pictures to yourpics@bbc.co.uk, upload them here, tweet them to @BBC_HaveYourSay or text 61124. If you are outside the UK, send them to the international number +44 7624 800 100. You could also send us pictures on WhatsApp. Our number is: +44 7525 900971. Read our terms and conditions.

ऐसा माना जाता है कि इस्लामिक स्टेट के आतंकवादियों ने इराक में निमरुद और हत्रा के प्राचीन स्थलों पर खंडहरों को नष्ट कर दिया है। उन्होंने मोसुल में संग्रहालय की कलाकृतियों को भी नष्ट कर दिया है।


What is Ramadan and when is it?

Summary: Millions of Muslims around the world are now observing Ramadan.

By Nabihah ParkarBBC News The festival involves a month of fasting - believers taking part will not eat or drink anything during daylight hours - and prayer. What is Ramadan? Ramadan is the Arabic name for the ninth month in the Islamic calendar. It is considered one of the holiest Islamic months. It's also one of the Five Pillars of Islam. These are five principles which Muslims believe are compulsory acts ordered by God. Muslims believe that some of the first verses of the Islamic holy book, the Qu'ran, were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad during the month of Ramadan. Extra emphasis is placed on reciting the Qu'ran at this time. Fasting is considered to be an act of worship, which enables Muslims to feel closer to God and strengthen their spiritual health and self-discipline. How does this work in practice? Muslims have an early morning meal before dawn, known as suhoor or sehri. They break their fast after sunset for the evening meal, called iftar or fitoor. Ramadan is also a time when Muslims are encouraged to give to charity, strengthen their relationship with God, and show kindness and patience. During this month, believers also head to the mosque for an additional night prayer called Taraweeh. This is only held during Ramadan. How will Ramadan be different this year? This is the second Ramadan to fall during the coronavirus pandemic. For Muslims in the UK, just like fellow believers around the world, this means another year of changes to traditional practices. The iftar meal is usually shared with family and friends. Because of the lockdown, such meetings will be restricted once more. However, while mixing between households was banned during Ramadan in 2020, this year the festival coincides with the easing of some lockdown rules in England. Up to six people or two households can now gather outdoors or in a private garden. Restaurants will also be able to serve meals outdoors. For those unable to meet, many virtual iftar events and online Islamic lectures are taking place. What else is changing? Another change from 2020 is that mosques are once again open throughout the UK, and able to host Taraweeh prayers in the evening. Mosques in England will ask worshippers to wear a face covering, bring their own prayer mat, and socially distance. Many mosques are also reducing the length of prayers to minimise the time spent in congregation. Islamic scholars and NHS leaders are urging Muslims to carry on getting vaccinated against Covid during Ramadan. Imams say that because the vaccine goes into the muscle, rather than the bloodstream and is not nutritious, it does not amount to breaking the fast. Muslim mental health organisations are are also encouraging people to look after themselves during these times. When is Ramadan? The Islamic calendar follows the lunar calendar of 12 months. Each month begins with the new crescent moon and lasts either 29 or 30 days. The month of Ramadan begins with the first sighting of the new moon. In the past, this was done by the naked eye, but in recent years, telescopes and technology have been used. Muslim countries are spread across a large geographical area, from Indonesia to Morocco, meaning that some Muslims may see the new moon earlier than others. "Traditionally, Makkah [Mecca in Saudi Arabia] was the centre of sighting the moon," says Prof Muhammad Abdel Haleem from the Centre of Islamic Studies at London's SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies). "Sometimes even in the Middle East, neighbouring countries will say they've seen the moon on different days," he says. Saudi Arabia has now said fasting will begin on 13 April, and many Muslim communities around the world are expected to accept this date. The lunar calendar is about 10 days shorter than the Western calendar. which means that each year Ramadan starts about 10 days earlier. Who can fast during Ramadan? Fasting should only be done by people who are in good health. Some Muslims are exempt: What is Eid? The end of Ramadan is marked with a celebration called Eid al-Fitr. Many Muslims attend Eid prayers at the mosque and then enjoy a large meal with friends and family. It's also very common for believers to exchange money and gifts with each other. Eid falls on 12 May (or in some cases, 13 May), so celebrations will still be affected by lockdown restrictions. Although it has become a well-known event in the UK, this is not the only Eid celebration in the Islamic calendar. Eid al-Adha is celebrated during the month of Dhul-Hijjah. This is the month where Muslims from across the world make the pilgrimage to Makkah known as Hajj.

दुनिया भर में लाखों मुसलमान अब रमजान मना रहे हैं।


Can the Micro Bit inspire a million?

Summary: It was last May that the BBC unveiled an ambitious plan to give a million schoolchildren a tiny device designed to inspire them to get coding. Now, after a few bumps in the road, the Micro Bits are finally ending up in the hands of children.

Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter The tiny device can be plugged into a computer and programmed to do all sorts of cool stuff, and Year Seven pupils across the UK are being told it is theirs to take home. Some, who have had early access to the Micro Bit, have come up with amazing projects - like the Yorkshire school that sent one up 32km (20 miles) on a balloon bringing back pictures of its journey to the fringes of space. But amid all the excitement from the young people getting a new toy, this is where the serious stuff starts. Big claims have been made for how this project can change the way children learn about and engage with technology. Now, it's up to teachers to make that happen. I've been talking to two people with different perspectives on the Micro Bit. Steve Hodges is a Microsoft engineer who was closely involved in the design of the device and Drew Buddie is head of computing at a girls' school and chairman of NAACE, an educational technology association. Steve told me that his whole career in computing had started as a result of the BBC Micro in the 1980s. "I begged my parents to buy me one for home. I told them I would never ask for anything again if they bought me a BBC Micro!" he recalls. His hope is that the Micro Bit will prove similarly inspiring. Unlike his generation, today's children already have access to a variety of computers, so the aims are different. "We built a small, low-power 'embedded' device, which actually needs a regular computer to program it. In a world of wearable devices, connected gadgets and the 'internet of things' the Micro Bit is both relevant and yet unusual - just like the BBC Micro was 35 years ago," he says. Drew is very enthusiastic about the aims of the Micro Bit, and he too harks back to his childhood. "For those of us who were around for the BBC Micro, we feel that we are on the very cusp of a renaissance of that era," he says. But the repeated delays in rolling out the device to schools have dismayed him. Teachers have had Micro Bits for some weeks but they are being delivered to children just as the term ends. "There seems to be a perception at the BBC that teachers were ready to drop everything to use these devices as soon as they became available," Drew says. He explains that it's now too late in the year for many to adapt their lesson plans. The delays are understandable - bringing together a consortium of companies to produce something that had to be exciting, educational and safe was always going to be a challenge. One difficulty came when the team realised that the small watch battery in the original version could be a choke hazard for small brothers and sisters when the device was taken home. "The real challenge was the scale of the project," says Steve Hodges. Usually a company will start out making a few thousand of a new device. "But we knew that we would be manufacturing one million devices from day one so we needed to plan for every eventuality we could think of to make the device as feature-rich, safe and robust as we could," he explains. I asked Steve whether it might not have been better to give children a Raspberry Pi, the barebones computer that has already been a big hit. He sees the two devices being used in tandem but says the Micro Bit is designed to be different, and to attract "students who enjoy a more hands-on, tactile learning style and who would otherwise find coding less appealing". One key feature of the Micro Bits is that they belong not to the schools or the teachers but to the children. It seems, however, that some teachers don't buy into that idea. Drew says significant numbers "seem to be suggesting that they will try to hold on to the devices in schools by discouraging the students from taking them home". But he says that won't happen at his school. "My attitude is that I'm going to give them to the girls because they belong to them," he states. He remains enthusiastic about starting some projects and thinks his students will be keen to use their Micro Bits to make some wearable technology. But he says some of the early impetus has been lost and, rather than being incorporated into lessons, the Micro Bit will be taught in lunchtimes and after-school clubs. The BBC project is focused on schoolchildren who entered Year 7 last September. There is still time for them to get inspired, but it now looks as though it will be in Year 8 that they may really get to grips with their Micro Bits and learn most from them. So, what happens to those who enter Year 7 this coming September? There is talk of turning the Micro Bit into a commercial product and, given the level of interest in it, that must be a distinct possibility. Then schools would have to decide whether to buy more of the devices. The BBC Micro made a big impact in schools and beyond throughout the 1980s, inspiring a generation of computing and gaming entrepreneurs. It is a big act to follow, but let's hope the Micro Bit can now begin to open a new generation's eyes to the creative potential of computing. Read about seven projects already created with the Micro Bit Watch a Q&A Rory hosted about the Micro Bit on the BBC Tech Facebookpage shortly after 1330GMT. page.

यह पिछले मई में था जब बी. बी. सी. ने दस लाख स्कूली बच्चों को कोडिंग प्राप्त करने के लिए प्रेरित करने के लिए डिज़ाइन किया गया एक छोटा सा उपकरण देने की एक महत्वाकांक्षी योजना का अनावरण किया था। अब, रास्ते में कुछ बाधाओं के बाद, माइक्रो बिट्स अंततः बच्चों के हाथों में समाप्त हो रहे हैं।


Israel-Gaza violence: The strength and limitations of Hamas' arsenal

Summary: While death, damage and suffering have been caused to both sides in the escalating hostilities between Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli military, this remains a hugely asymmetric struggle.

By Jonathan MarcusForeign affairs analyst Israel is the vastly more powerful player and its air force, armed drones and intelligence-gathering systems enable it to strike targets in Gaza pretty much at will. It insists that its targeting is restricted to sites used for military purposes but the density of the Palestinian population and the fact that Hamas and Islamic Jihad facilities are located close to, and often hidden under, civilian buildings makes the avoidance of civilian casualties altogether impossible. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, though the weaker parties, have weapons enough with which to attack Israel. They have already tried a variety of tactics. Israeli defences shot down a drone - possibly armed - that had sought to cross into Israel from Gaza. And an Israeli military spokesman said an "elite Hamas unit" had attempted to infiltrate Israel through a tunnel from the southern part of the strip. The Israeli military, it seems, had advance warning of this and, according to the spokesman, was able to "cause the tunnel to implode". But by far and away the most significant weaponry in the Palestinians' arsenal is their wide variety of ground-to-ground missiles. Some of these (along with other systems employed like the Kornet guided anti-tank missiles used during recent days), are believed to have been smuggled in through tunnels from Egypt's Sinai peninsula. But by far the bulk of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad arsenals come from a dynamic and relatively sophisticated manufacturing capability inside the Gaza Strip itself. Israeli and outside experts believe that Iranian know-how and assistance have played a significant role in building up this industry. Accordingly, weapons manufacturing and storage sites have been among the chief targets of the Israeli strikes. Estimating the stockpile of Hamas missiles is impossible. It certainly includes many thousands of weapons of varying ranges. Clearly the Israeli military has its own estimates that it is not willing to share. All a spokesman would say was that they believed Hamas could sustain this level of fire for "a significant period of time". The Palestinians are employing a variety of missiles, none of which, so far, appear to be especially new in terms of basic design. But the overall trend is for the weapons to have increased ranges and larger explosive payloads. While the names and designations of specific missiles can be a bit confusing, Hamas has a huge inventory of shorter-range systems like the Qassam (up to 10km or 6 miles) and the Quds 101 (up to about 16km); bolstered by the Grad system (up to 55km); and the Sejil 55 (up to 55km). These probably make up the bulk of its inventory and for the shortest ranges can be bolstered by mortar fire. But Hamas also operates a variety of longer-range systems like the M-75 (up to 75km); the Fajr (up to 100km); the R-160 (up to 120km); and some M-302s which have a range of up to 200km. So it is clear that Hamas has weapons that can target both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and threaten the whole coastal strip which contains the greatest density of Israel's population and critical infrastructure. The Israeli military says that of the more than 1,000 or so rockets fired into Israel over the past three days, some 200 have actually fallen short in the Gaza Strip itself (perhaps an indicator of the problems of a home-grown and dispersed weapons manufacturing process). The IDF also say 90% of all missiles reaching Israel have been intercepted by their Iron Dome anti-missile system. However, at one stage the battery defending the city of Ashkelon appears to have been off-line due to a technical malfunction, underlining that for all its remarkable technical success, this is not a missile-proof screen. To counter missile fire you only really have a limited number of options. You can employ anti-missile defences. You can target stockpiles and manufacturing facilities. You could in theory also mount a ground operation to push the missile-launchers back beyond effective range. That is not going to be possible in this case. Part of the Palestinians' vulnerability is that they have no strategic depth and nowhere to go. A ground operation to stifle the missile fire is possible. But as was shown in Israel's last major incursion into Gaza in 2014, the human cost would be considerable. During the operation, 2,251 Palestinians, including 1,462 civilians, were killed, while on the Israeli side 67 soldiers and six civilians were killed. This repeating cycle of rocket-fire, response and incursion gets neither side anywhere. At best, it buys a period of calm before the next round begins. Many might argue that it was the tensions in Jerusalem that started this particular episode. A signal once again that the Israel-Palestinian dispute cannot be ignored forever. But with more and more Arab governments making their peace with Israel; with the Palestinians politically as divided as ever; and with this issue being far from the agenda of Israel's current leadership, it is hard to see how any progress towards a real peace can be made. For that you would need a real desire for progress on the ground and a strong and sustained effort by outside players. The conditions for this just do not appear to be there. Jonathan Marcus is a foreign affairs analyst and former defence and diplomatic correspondent for BBC News

जबकि गाजा पट्टी में फिलिस्तीनी उग्रवादी समूहों और इजरायली सेना के बीच बढ़ती शत्रुता में दोनों पक्षों को मौत, क्षति और पीड़ा हुई है, यह एक बेहद विषम संघर्ष बना हुआ है।


Male suicide: 'His death was the missing piece of the jigsaw'

Summary: Suicide is the single biggest killer of men under 45 in the UK - 84 take their own lives every week. A new campaign, Project84 , aims to raise awareness and sees sculptures placed on the top of a London tower block.

By Hamish MackayBBC News Online "People say the wounds heal but you still have the scars," says Jonny Sharples, whose elder brother Simon, 36, took his own life in 2014. "I remember when it happened. I was at home on my own watching a rerun of Match of the Day and I got a phone call from my sister. "I was in tears. I went down to see her in Staines, where she lives, and then we saw my parents in Cornwall. It was Christmas, which made it more difficult. "Simon adored Christmas, even in his thirties he would get up at five in the morning and wake everyone else up to open presents. "It was difficult to be together [after his death], to look around a room and see he was absent." Jonny is helping to remember his brother through the Project84 campaign, set up by the charity CALM. Eighty-four sculptures have been erected on top of London Television Centre, with each figure representing one of the men, each week on average, who ends their life. The campaign aims to raise awareness about the prevalence and devastating impact of male suicide in the UK. And the fact that mental health issues affect people from all sections of society. Jonny says of his brother: "He was a normal, level-headed and unremarkable in many respects. But to anyone who knew him he was a really special person. He was always smiling and making you laugh. "He'd always give you an honest answer, would always give you a helping hand." Away from friends and family, though, Simon - a father of one - was suffering. A year of upheaval saw him change jobs and move out of his Preston home. In December 2014 he took his own life. "It's only with the benefit of hindsight you knew he wasn't quite himself," Jonny says. "When he was watching football or playing golf, doing the things he loved, he was distracted. He was not quite as smiley but was still enjoying himself. "It's only with the knowledge that he did end up taking his own life that things fall into place. His death was maybe the missing piece of the jigsaw." Where to get help SOURCE: NHS - for more information click here. Marcus Chapman was 33 when his best friend Nelson Pratt, from Hampshire, and also 33, took his own life. The two met on a snowboarding course in France and, after just a week, decided to move in together. "Nelson was very old fashioned British gent, impeccably polite, moral and well-mannered but also incredibly talented," says Marcus. "He was very self-deprecating. He had the chance to be arrogant but chose to be the opposite." Nelson had a successful snowboarding career and became a coach for some of Britain's Olympic riders. He had a supportive and loving family, but as his friends began to settle down and have children he found himself conflicted. "The stage of life he was at, a lot of us were settling down, getting married and having families and I think Nelson had a lot of different pressures," says Marcus. "Balancing his snowboarding career with jobs back in the UK. There was definitely a bit of a wrestle there." Nelson sought help, however, Marcus feels he was "let down". "Nelson went to see his GP, there was a waiting list for therapy and he was given an online course to do. Two days later he took his own life." The experiences of men who take their own lives vary, but those left behind are unified on how society should prevent their stories recurring. They say stigmas and stereotypes need to be abandoned and avenues for support must be opened up. "The myth is that someone who takes their own life is weak," says Jonny. "I don't think for a moment my brother was a weak person. I think he was very strong. "We need to create a society where men are comfortable to talk about how they are feeling in the knowledge that the person they are speaking to will offer them the best help and solutions they can." Marcus adds: "It's about having those very early conversations, sometimes close family members are the hardest people to talk to. That's why things like the CALM helpline are so important. "The only way I dealt with Nelson's death was to throw myself into his legacy and raising awareness. "I don't think Nelson's family will ever fully recover from the hole that has been left. "Nelson was such a popular, loved guy - a personality like that doesn't get forgotten."

ब्रिटेन में 45 वर्ष से कम उम्र के पुरुषों का सबसे बड़ा हत्यारा आत्महत्या है-84 लोग हर हफ्ते अपनी जान लेते हैं। एक नए अभियान, प्रोजेक्ट 84, का उद्देश्य जागरूकता बढ़ाना और लंदन टावर ब्लॉक के शीर्ष पर रखी मूर्तियों को देखना है।


One-punch deaths: How lives are devastated by a single blow

Summary: Trevor Timon has been convicted of killing bank worker Oliver Dearlove with a single punch. It's not the first case of its kind to make headlines, but how does one punch kill someone and what are the consequences for those involved?

By Alex TherrienBBC News Online Robert Holland had been on a rare night out after months of working seven-day weeks. Before the 36-year-old went to the Oceana nightclub in Nottingham, he phoned his mother, Therese, to tell her he would visit her the next day. It was the last time they spoke. Hours later, in the early morning of 28 October 2011, Robert suffered fatal brain injuries from just one punch. Therese learned what had happened later that morning when police visited her home. "When they told me I was just screaming," she said. "I even punched them and told them to get out of my house, telling them how dare they tell me lies." Robert's death was caused by the force of one punch severing an artery in his brain. Liam Rockley, a 21-year-old former bouncer, later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison. 'Just as lethal' Robert's death is far from an isolated case. While no official figures are available on one-punch deaths, the campaign group One Punch Can Kill has recorded more than 80 fatalities since 2007. Many of the cases have attracted media attention - in large part because it seems extraordinary that one punch can kill. But Duncan Bew, a consultant in trauma and acute care at King's College Hospital, said this reflects a fundamental lack of understanding. "People are very much focused on penetrating injuries, but actually punching someone in the head can be just as lethal," he said. Mr Bew said deaths from one punch tended to happen in one of three ways. Sometimes, as in Robert's case, the blow itself will cause fatal damage to the brain. Alternatively, it could cause a physiological response where people stop breathing and the brain is starved of oxygen. But in other cases, a punch will cause a person to lose consciousness and strike their head on a hard surface. The impact is similar to being hit over the head with a block of concrete, Mr Bew said. 'Silly row' Many one-punch killings involve young men, often in drink-fuelled, random acts of violence. But Finola Farrant, a criminologist at the University of Roehampton, said the circumstances of cases often varied dramatically. These can range from unprovoked assaults, to people who have landed fatal blows in self-defence. In some cases arguments between close friends have resulted in a fatal punch. Last October, Richard Eveleigh was jailed for killing his best friend of 45 years, Paul Lightowler, with a single punch in what the court heard was a "silly" row. Dr Farrant said the question for courts to explore in these cases was the extent to which defendants should be culpable for someone's death when they may not have intended - or even realised - that one punch could kill. Indeed, such is the shock of those unintended consequences that the attackers and their families may come to see themselves as victims too, she added. One-punch killer: 'People aren't in control of their emotions' Jacob Dunne was 19 when he killed 28-year-old trainee paramedic James Hodgkinson with one punch in 2011. He was sentenced to 30 months' imprisonment for manslaughter. After his release, Jacob agreed to answer questions from James's parents about what happened as part of a scheme called Restorative Justice. Later he met them in person, and keen to show them he was turning his life around, he re-took his GCSEs, did an Access course for university, and is now studying criminology at Nottingham Trent University. Jacob, now 24, says he believes one-punch deaths, and violent crime in general, could be reduced by teaching children emotional wellbeing in schools. "A lot of this aggression stems from people not being in control of their emotions. "In reality people need to ask the question 'why are you fighting on the weekends?' The answer is going to be different for everyone." Jacob now speaks in schools about his experience and in December gave a talk to the TED conference. He remains in touch with James's parents. For those affected by one-punch deaths, the end of the court process can signal the end of formal support and counselling. That lack of support contributed to Ann Bartlett setting up One Punch Can Kill in 2010. Her son, Kyle, a 21-year-old Royal Navy sailor, suffered a fatal brain injury after being punched in Portsmouth on 5 May 2009. "Our message is: 'Be a hero and walk away from a fight'", Ann says. The question of how the number of one-punch deaths can be reduced is one both Ann and Therese believe needs to be considered by lawmakers. Both want sentences to be toughened to match Australia, where there is a minimum of eight years for one-punch killings. Currently in the UK, the attacks are usually treated as manslaughter and often result in custodial sentences of fewer than five years. But Dr Farrant said she was doubtful specific guidelines around one-punch deaths would help. "We've got a very experienced judiciary who can hear and understand the nuances of individual cases that are so markedly different," she said. Mr Bew said the UK should consider following Australia's lead by introducing padded flooring outsides pubs, bars and nightclubs. But one area all four agree on is the need for a high-profile campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of one punch. "Perhaps they need to have signs up in nightclubs, 'think before you punch' and things like that." Therese said. Remembering Robert, she added: "He had such plans and he wanted to be a dad. That's never going to happen. "It's such a waste."

ट्रेवर टिमोन को एक ही मुक्का से बैंक कर्मचारी ओलिवर डियरलोव की हत्या का दोषी ठहराया गया है। सुर्खियां बटोरने वाला यह अपनी तरह का पहला मामला नहीं है, लेकिन एक मुक्का किसी को कैसे मारता है और इसमें शामिल लोगों के लिए क्या परिणाम हैं?


Why South Africa's born-free generation is not happy

Summary: A new black consciousness movement is emerging in South Africa 21 years after its first democratic elections - most recently seen in nationwide student protests. The BBC's Alastair Leithead considers if this marks the end of the idea of the "rainbow nation".

The trendy bars and clubs of Braamfontein in downtown Johannesburg are not the melting pots of race and culture you might have expected. Most places are all white or all black. The coming together of the nation Nelson Mandela worked so hard for appears to have stalled. The "rainbow nation" he spoke so much about is being seen as a failed project by many young, particularly black, South Africans. The voices are loud and while not all are predicting doom, they are demanding change. More change than South Africa has given them in its first 21 years of democracy. Born free, pay later Why now? Perhaps it is because the first generation of those black South Africans who were "born free" - after the end of apartheid in 1994 - are coming of age. They know the story of the struggle but they do not see what history has given them. They mock the idea of a rainbow nation, scoff at any suggestion they need white friends, and rightly ask why is there more wealth in the hands of the whites now than there was back then. Mr Mandela is dead, a new black consciousness is alive and well. And it is angry. The loudest voices are of the students, who earlier this year began pulling down statues commemorating colonialism. "Rhodes Must Fall," they said, and the University of Cape Town duly removed the statue of the British imperialist and mining magnate. The born-free generation: They are now demanding more black professors - still very much in a minority - and have been demonstrating about the proposed rise in tuition fees, storming parliament and converging in a mass demonstration outside the president's office. And they want more than "I'm sorry" from the young generation of whites who so obviously, if unintentionally, have benefitted from apartheid. But their voices are only being heard, their anger only being shared, because of what was achieved by Mr Mandela and his generation before they were born. 'Chocolate sprinklings' They are the first generation of a new, educated, young, black middle-class, but they are still angry and that anger cannot be ignored. "South Africa is a cappuccino society," Panashe Chigumadzi said as we sat in a cafe in what was once a whites-only neighbourhood of Johannesburg. "A vast, huge, black majority at the bottom with a layer of white cream and a few chocolate sprinklings at the top of it," she says, referring to the small black elite who have gained great riches from the post-apartheid years - from a failed attempt to rebalance the wealth among the many. "The 'add blacks and stir' model of society here hasn't worked," she tells me. "There's a generational shift and a lot of young blacks are saying this is not enough." There is maybe some unease or guilt in there - she is not one of the millions still living in the slums of sprawling townships, without clean water, with poor sanitation, and without a job, in what is among the most unequal societies in the world. Naive? Those people are angry too - they are doing what they can to demand change and as ever, loud, vocal street protest is one way to pressure a government increasingly seen as corrupt and out of touch with the needs of the people it once promised to help. Fingers are being pointed at the party of liberation, the African National Congress (ANC), and the president whose extravagant home improvements were paid for by the state. Radical leftists are drumming up support, reviving socialist ideas based on Venezuela or Cuba, looking to Russia and China, and basing their land reform proposals on Zimbabwe, ignoring its disastrous economy. The government has also stalled - not quite sure which route to take as the economy stutters and the voices for more grow louder. And, with their vast and conspicuous wealth, the finger is also firmly being pointed at white South Africans. If it really is the end of the rainbow nation, that is indeed a concern - the end of that wonderful idea of forgiveness, the working towards peace and reconciliation; of all races and ethnicities coming together for the good of the country. Perhaps it is the older generation, not the young, who are naive about that ideal. Their biggest legacy is perhaps the constitution - the checks and the balances so smartly woven into the fabric of South Africa's democracy. That freedom of speech - the independent bodies charged with holding government to account, and the brave people standing up for those ideals. A white liberal journalist and commentator from the days of the struggle against apartheid, Max Du Preez, is not perhaps the person you'd go to for optimism, but he still believes in South Africa's future. "We're facing a second transition in our society," he says. "We had one in 1994 and now the game's up - we're having another one. But it's got to be peaceful. And it cannot destroy the economy." How to listen to From Our Own Correspondent: BBC Radio 4: Saturdays at 11:30. Listen online or download the podcast. BBC World Service: At weekends - see World Service programme schedule or listen online. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

दक्षिण अफ्रीका में अपने पहले लोकतांत्रिक चुनावों के 21 साल बाद एक नया अश्वेत चेतना आंदोलन उभर रहा है-जिसे हाल ही में राष्ट्रव्यापी छात्र विरोध प्रदर्शनों में देखा गया है। बीबीसी के एलिस्टेयर लीटहेड का मानना है कि क्या यह "इंद्रधनुष राष्ट्र" के विचार का अंत है।


Don't look back in anger: Music helps Manchester remember, and forget

Summary: Five days after the Manchester attack, 50,000 people turned out for one of the city's biggest concerts of the year. It was a chance for music fans to unite and remember the victims - but also to get lost in music for a while.

By Ian YoungsEntertainment & arts reporter There were a few signs that The Courteeners' show at Old Trafford cricket ground on Saturday was not an ordinary gig. There were the armed police outside the ground, the flags at half mast over the pavilion, the regular proud chants of "Manchester, la la la" from the crowd, the smattering of "I heart MCR" T-shirts and #WeStandTogether stickers. There were also the home-made signs, like the one held aloft by a girl teetering on the shoulders of a friend who was sitting on the shoulders of someone else. It read "Hate won't tear us apart" - a reference to the song Love Will Tear Us Apart by another Manchester band, Joy Division. Music has always brought people together, especially in this city. This gig was booked months ago. But since the bombing that killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert on Monday, and especially with such a big crowd and an all-Manchester line-up, it became about more than just having a good night - it became about unity, defiance and release. It was the biggest gig of The Courteeners' careers, but the indie band's frontman Liam Fray told BBC News before the show it was "not about us any more". He said: "It's about everybody else. It's not just even about the fans that come into the gig, but the city as a whole." So before his band played a note, Fray appeared alone on stage to read a poem written by Ryan Williams in response to the attack, celebrating the "city of tracksuits and bibles and burkas". It ends with the lines: So come at us again, and again if you must. Time after time, we'll rise from the dust. And you'll never prevail, not against us. Because this is our Manchester, our Manchester, and the bees still buzz. The roar that greeted that last line would surely have drowned out any cheer the ground has ever heard in response to any Ashes-winning wicket. As the gig went on, Fray referred to the week's events again. "Never stop doing what you enjoy," he told the crowd between songs. Later, he said to them: "I just want to say how incredibly proud I was to be Mancunian this week. "Hearts were broken on Monday. And what I've seen of this city and you lot will stay with me for the rest of my life." He recalled a woman who sang Oasis's Don't Look Back In Anger after the one-minute's silence in St Ann's Square on Thursday, with the rest of those present gradually joining in. Inspired by that woman, Fray played the song that has now become an anthem of the city's resilience. Fifty-thousand voices joined him and echoed around the ground. The Courteeners were supported by The Charlatans, Blossoms and Cabbage - all guitar bands. Their fans are a bit older than Ariana Grande's, and have probably never willingly listened to one of the US pop diva's songs in their lives. But Saturday's crowd had lots in common with those at Manchester Arena five days earlier. As well as mostly being from the same city, they know well the thrill of seeing their favourite act live, and the sense of belonging that comes from singing every word at the top of your voice with thousands of other like-minded souls. And, like everyone in the city, they have felt the shock, pain and incomprehension that spread after Monday's attack. "After what happened this week, the timing for a Manchester gig couldn't be better really to pull the city together," said one Courteeners fan, Matt O'Connor, 37, from Rossendale, Lancashire, before the show. Seventeen-year-old Amber Clarke from Droylsden wore a top bearing the city's bee emblem. She said: "I feel more proud, and I feel less scared actually. The city's reaction to what happened has just given people so much courage and so much hope." Another fan in the queue, Cliff Challenger from Stalybridge, said: "There's more defiance, more than anything - just to show that you can't scare us off. "Plus we've paid for the tickets," he added with a laugh. "So you can't not turn up, let's be honest. That's the proper northern spirit coming through." Not everyone took the decision over whether to go to the gig lightly. Liam Wilks has seen every Courteeners gig in Manchester since 2011 - but sold his ticket for Saturday. "I just know I wouldn't enjoy it," he said beforehand. "I wouldn't be focusing on the music, I'd be focusing on if I saw anything suspicious or... I wouldn't be listening to the music. I'd be watching everything else." Others undoubtedly stayed away, but it was hard to tell how many. There was a huge crowd, though, and those that did attend were determined to enjoy it and let off steam as well as showing solidarity and respect. The best gigs are the ones where you lose yourself in the music and retreat from reality for a couple of hours. Despite the reminders of the recent events, this was no different. So while the armed guards kept watch outside and the flags flew at half mast, fans inside sat on their friends' shoulders, put their arms around their neighbours' necks, drank lots, moshed, laughed, took off their T-shirts and whirled them above their heads, and sang at the tops of their voices. Just like they always have done, and hopefully always will. Additional reporting by Colin Paterson. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

मैनचेस्टर हमले के पाँच दिन बाद, 50,000 लोग शहर के वर्ष के सबसे बड़े संगीत कार्यक्रमों में से एक के लिए बाहर निकले। यह संगीत प्रशंसकों के लिए एकजुट होने और पीड़ितों को याद करने का एक मौका था-लेकिन कुछ समय के लिए संगीत में खो जाने का भी।


The 'tyranny' of NHS inspection

Summary: NHS inspection has moved to a new level. Last week saw the publication of data from the inspection of GP surgeries - which found maggots in two - and a new hospital inspection regime is currently being introduced in England, in the wake of the Stafford Hospital scandal.

By Prof David HunterDurham University But in this week's Scrubbing Up column, Prof David Hunter, director of the Centre for Public Policy and Health at Durham University, suggests increased checking breeds furtive behaviour, and he says there should be more trust and less suspicion. Among the many contested issues arising from the government's NHS changes is the burgeoning industry in regulation and inspection. New bodies charged with ever-expanding powers, and staffed by some of the most highly paid managers in the health sector, ostensibly exist to ensure quality and patient safety in the aftermath of the failures at Mid Staffordshire hospital. But wait a moment. Given that these failures escaped the attention of the regulators at the time, how confident can we be that the new inspection regime will prevent future lapses? Might it not be the case that the disproportionate focus on inspection is part of the problem rather than the solution? The evidence is clear: fear and blame are toxic to safety and improvement. Yet regulation and inspection breed both thereby encouraging furtive behaviour and lying on the part of managers and clinical staff in an effort to avoid exposure and blame. 'Culture trumps inspection' The government's own adviser, Don Berwick, acknowledges the place of regulation and inspection but calls for a simple and clear system and an end to the "bewildering complexity" that is a feature of current arrangements. But he also knows that inspection will not solve the problems highlighted by Mid Staffordshire. We have to understand the root causes of what happens in cases like this and why. Culture trumps inspection every time. Securing a safer NHS depends on bringing about major cultural change not on a new inspection regime. It needs to be made the focus of attention. The Francis Inquiry concluded that the events at Mid Staffordshire reflected systemic failure rather than the actions of a few rogue managers, nurses or clinicians. But the causes of this failure are complex and largely arise from misconceived NHS changes. These centre on a preoccupation with markets, competition and choice and with meeting performance targets. The cavalier dismissal of staff opposition to the changes on the grounds that their objections amount to little more than self-interest and protectionism has only served to fuel the growing resentment among staff. Research shows that effective and sustainable change demands the engagement and cooperation of those affected by it. Plot? In a context where trust between professionals and managers, and between the NHS workforce and government has all but broken down, resorting to more and more regulation is self-defeating. It flies in the face of all the evidence about how to motivate staff, boost morale and ensure a happy workforce in place of one that is distrusted, devalued and working under extreme pressure in an atmosphere of bullying and "naming and shaming". So why does the government persist in its perversity, spawning a hugely costly bureaucracy aimed at endless checking? Not only is it a case of acting after the horse has bolted, but the inspection industry is sucking value from the frontline at a time when services are under severe resource pressure. Moreover, it will result in more "gaming" to avoid sanctions. Could the government's investment in inspection be part of a plot to weaken public confidence in the NHS thereby softening it up for further privatisation? If that is being too cynical, perhaps the government wants to be seen to be doing something in order to reassure a sceptical public and keep a feral media at bay? Or is it just cock-up and bad government? Perhaps it's a mix of all three. Whatever is driving current action, if the NHS is not to be irretrievably damaged by policies that are compounding rather than tackling the problems, we urgently need a new and different response. More of the same won't work. Structural "re-disorganisations" are destabilising and leave culture intact. Unfashionable though it may seem, rediscovering the notions of professionalism and public service ethos, recognising that improved quality of care and patient safety demand trust and not suspicion, might be a good place to start.

एनएचएस निरीक्षण एक नए स्तर पर चला गया है। पिछले सप्ताह जीपी सर्जरी के निरीक्षण से डेटा का प्रकाशन देखा गया-जिसमें दो में मैगॉट्स पाए गए-और स्टैफोर्ड अस्पताल घोटाले के मद्देनजर वर्तमान में इंग्लैंड में एक नई अस्पताल निरीक्षण व्यवस्था शुरू की जा रही है।


Budget 2021: Four things missing from Rishi Sunak

Summary: Chancellors like to claim their Budgets include something for everyone, and Rishi Sunak's tax and spend statement on Wednesday certainly cast the net wide. There were short-term policies to tackle the impact of Covid-19 and long-term plans for righting the nation's finances.

By Russell Hotten & Simon ReadBusiness reporters, BBC News But some people still feel there were gaps, areas where he could have done more: for those struggling to make ends meet, for example, and on action to fast-track the switch to a low carbon economy. Here are four areas where critics and commentators were surprised by what was left out of the chancellor's economic recovery Budget. The BBC has put their points to the Treasury for a response. Pale green Rishi Sunak wasn't silent on the environment in the Budget. He handed the Bank of England a duty to support the move to zero emissions. He set up a new infrastructure bank, to invest mainly in green projects, and a new green savings scheme. But does that amount to the revolution many people hoped would be kick-started in the Budget? Hardly, say critics. Mr Sunak held off a fuel duty rise for the 11th year in a row. And he is accused of clawing back money from a key home insulation scheme that supporters say was an easy win for the environment. The £1.5bn Green Homes Grant (GHG), launched last year, offered money for people to insulate their homes and install low carbon heating such as heat pumps. The deadline to apply is the end of this month and people must have their improvements completed by March 2022. But many householders couldn't contact installers, and some installers didn't get paid because the system was so creaky. Only 6% of the cash has been spent, so environmentalists want the money to be rolled over. But Sunak didn't mention it in the Budget so that won't happen and the scheme will be withdrawn as planned at the end of March. Fatima Ibrahim, from the group Green New Deal UK, said: "Our response to the climate crisis should have been front and centre of the Budget, not a footnote." Covid's legacy Money has been showered on government departments to deal with pandemic costs: £150bn this year and the same again next. But there was no planning for Covid costs beyond April 2022, said Richard Hughes, chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility, which provides independent financial forecasts to the Treasury. He called it a "source of risk" for the public finances. The government's own roadmap out of lockdown has talked of the possible need for an annual vaccination programme and continuing test and trace capacity. Add to this the backlog of hospital appointments, additional help needed for school children, and reduced revenues for public transport, and many economists calculate that Covid costs will continue well beyond the next two years. Mr Hughes said: "We don't know what the government's plans are for dealing with these legacy costs beyond this year. In fact the government has announced a reduction in spending after two years, he points out. "Faced with these looming pressures, the chancellor's response so far has been to cut around £15bn a year from total departmental spending in the years beyond 2021-22, including a further £4bn cut in this Budget." Another respected economist, Paul Johnson, director at the Institute of Fiscal Studies, agreed that the Budget left a big question mark over Covid costs. He tweeted: "Spending plans from 2022 include precisely nothing for dealing with additional pressures arising from the pandemic, of which there are plenty. In fact they involve spending cuts relative to pre-pandemic plans. Is that really credible?" Help to rent There was no support for struggling renters in the Budget, pointed out social research group the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. "The chancellor was silent on support for the 700,000 households already in rent arrears," it said. The Local Housing Allowance which is used to work out housing benefit will be frozen from April too, piling further pressure onto renters, the Foundation added. On the other hand, for those buying a home, the chancellor extended the stamp duty holiday for another three months and launched a new 95% mortgage guarantee scheme. "These policies will compound the UK's housing crisis, driving up house prices and making it harder to address the issues faced by people in poverty," the JRF said. Higher house prices can have a knock-on effect, pushing up rents, and squeezing the finances of renters who are often struggling already. Jon Sparkes, chief executive of homeless charity Crisis, said: "It is very disappointing to see the housing support announced is limited to home buyers. Hundreds of thousands of renters in arrears are facing eviction in a matter of weeks and must not be forgotten." Extending the £20 boost to universal credit and the furlough scheme until September will help tenants plan ahead, "but much more is required to avoid a mounting crisis in the private rented sector," said Timothy Douglas, policy & campaigns manager for letting agents' organisation Propertymark. "As the impact of Covid continues to bite and unemployment rates rise, we are increasingly concerned about how tenants will avoid future rent arrears," he added. Take care After the pandemic took the lives of more than 40,000 mostly elderly care residents there were widespread calls for reform of the social care sector. But the chancellor failed to offer even a whisper of fresh support for care homes or their staff. "The sector was already on its knees before the pandemic hit, and now it is at crisis point," said Helen Wildbore, director of the Relatives & Residents Association. "Following a year of unremitting challenges, with care services stretched to breaking point and staff burnt out, support from the chancellor was desperately and urgently needed." She said the Association's helpline hears daily from people who are relying on these services who already feel neglected and left behind by the government. "The Budget is an insult to older people needing care, and their families," she added. The day after the Budget, parliament's Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee launched an enquiry into the impact of COVID-19 on adult social care, conceding that the problems in the sector aren't simply a consequence of the pandemic. "We have seen year-on-year the demand on services increasing, while local authority budgets have been stretched more and more," said committee chair Clive Betts MP. "Unless the funding of social care is resolved there will continue to be more cuts to other council services." But many wish reforms to social care and how it is funded had been tackled much earlier. "The silence on social care funding proposals in the Budget was deeply disappointing," said Steven Cameron, director at pension firm Aegon. "The devastating impact the pandemic has had on our most elderly has shown just how valuable but stretched our care system is, making it even more urgent that the government delivers on previously promised reforms to social care funding."

कुलपतियों को यह दावा करना पसंद है कि उनके बजट में सभी के लिए कुछ न कुछ शामिल है, और बुधवार को ऋषि सुनक के कर और व्यय विवरण ने निश्चित रूप से व्यापक प्रभाव डाला। कोविड-19 के प्रभाव से निपटने के लिए अल्पकालिक नीतियां और देश के वित्त को सही करने के लिए दीर्घकालिक योजनाएं थीं।


Welsh teacher for refugees wins award at Eisteddfod

Summary: A man who teaches Welsh to refugees at Cardiff University has been named Welsh Learner of the Year at the Eisteddfod.

Matt Spry, who began speaking Welsh two years ago, started teaching beginner's sessions in March with the aim of introducing refugees to Welsh language culture and life. The lessons are the result of a Cardiff University initiative, funded by the National Centre for Learning Welsh. People are also able to attend informal sessions at venues around the city. Speaking at the time of the launch of the initiative, Mr Spry said: "Learning Welsh has a huge range of benefits. "As well as being a beautiful language, it can help people new to the city become part of a vibrant and welcoming community."

कार्डिफ विश्वविद्यालय में शरणार्थियों को वेल्श पढ़ाने वाले एक व्यक्ति को आइस्टेडफॉड में वेल्श लर्नर ऑफ द ईयर नामित किया गया है।


Music, TV and digital disruption

Summary: Music and television, two creative industries which, in the fashionable jargon, are being "disrupted" by the internet. But there is evidence this week that music is at last getting to grips with that disruption, while the TV industry - where change has come more slowly - is suddenly getting nervy about a scrappy outsider.

Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter The BPI's annual Digital Music Report has been charting the changes in its industry for a while - but the latest edition seems to show that 2012 was the year when the digital revolution finally began to start paying and stop hurting. More than a quarter of all adults are now purchasing downloads or using legal streaming services, and in the third quarter of 2012, 51% of UK record label revenue came from digital sales. Bad news of course for the High Street (no wonder HMV has struggled) but evidence that British consumers have finally got the legal digital habit. Is pirated music going out of fashion? No, the survey shows that 345 million tracks were downloaded using BitTorrent in six months, and that's just one source. But in the same period, 239 million tracks were legally downloaded and, given that the industry used to reckon the ratio of illegal to legal downloads was 10:1, that looks like progress. There is certainly a new mood of optimism amongst the record labels and the report looks to an even brighter future where we all keep our legally obtained music in the cloud and stream it to our cars, our phones or our TVs, wherever we go. "We're actually looking to a future where revenues could grow!" an insider told me with some excitement. After years in which the industry has been slow to see the way through the digital jungle, it's at last got to grips with the idea that content plus convenience is the answer. Sure, consumers like the something for nothing that illegal file-sharing offers - but if you make it simple and attractive to get good music legally, they are increasingly happy to pay for it. Television has had a rather different experience with digital disruption. Fifteen years ago we assumed that the internet was about to cause major upheaval in the industry, with the channel, the schedule and live broadcasting all doomed to extinction as savvy consumers compiled their own menu of on-demand viewing. But in the UK that hasn't happened anything like as rapidly as predicted. The vast majority of TV viewing still involves turning on the main set, sitting back and watching what's on the main channels. In this industry, content and convenience have worked so far in the favour of the incumbents who can offer viewers plenty of compelling programmes and a simpler way of getting them than fiddling about on the internet. So television executives have become a little more relaxed about the threat to the status quo. This week, though, I think I saw a threat to that complacency. Sitting in bed, I started watching on a tablet computer the excellent Kevin Spacey in the American remake of that great 1990s political thriller, House of Cards. The series has been made not by a major broadcast network but by Netflix, the movie- and TV-streaming business which arrived in the UK from the US a couple of years ago. So far, it has made little impact here, struggling to match BskyB when it comes to hot new movies. In fact, I'd been about to end my subscription when I saw the publicity around the House of Cards launch. It looks as though Netflix has also learned that "content plus convenience" lesson. You can have the smartest technology platform around, but nobody will be that interested if you haven't got something to watch which can't be found elsewhere. And if the big content providers won't give you want you want, then make your own compelling programmes. It has cost Netflix a tidy sum - $100m apparently - to make House of Cards, but if that helps to build a global customer base it could be worth it. So, for a modest monthly fee you can now watch a whole top notch drama series without waiting a week for the next episode, and without having to turn on the TV or remembering to record it. If that catches on and is imitated by other new suppliers of video content, then maybe those predictions of the death of traditional telly won't look so far-fetched.

संगीत और टेलीविजन, दो रचनात्मक उद्योग, जो फैशनेबल शब्दजाल में, इंटरनेट द्वारा "बाधित" किए जा रहे हैं। लेकिन इस सप्ताह इस बात के प्रमाण हैं कि संगीत आखिरकार उस व्यवधान को पकड़ रहा है, जबकि टीवी उद्योग-जहां परिवर्तन अधिक धीरे-धीरे आया है-अचानक एक घटिया बाहरी व्यक्ति के बारे में घबरा रहा है।


The Riot Club: 'It's hard to believe these people actually exist'

Summary: Based on Laura Wade's hit stage play Posh, The Riot Club tells the story of 10 Oxford students who gather at a country pub for a night of debauchery that begins with a 10-bird roast and Latin drinking games.

By Tim MastersArts and entertainment correspondent, BBC News By the end, it is more than glass and crockery that lies broken. Lives, reputations and future careers also hang in the balance. Wade, who adapted her play for the big screen, became interested in Oxbridge dining societies in 2007 when she was working on a research project about wealthy young people in London. Posh was first performed in 2010 at London's Royal Court and transferred to the West End in 2012. At the time, comparisons were drawn between the Riot Club and Oxford's real-life Bullingdon Club, whose past members include David Cameron, George Osborne and Boris Johnson. Wade, though, has always insisted her characters are purely fictional. Max Irons, who stars in the film as Riot Club inductee Miles Richards, admits he had reservations when he first read Wade's script about the pleasure-seeking undergrads. "I thought they were so unpleasant and the values that they stood for were so unpleasant. I found it hard to believe that these people actually exist. I was worried that it was glorifying the behaviour." As part of his preparation, Irons "met a couple of the 'Buller' boys" who confirmed the world depicted in the film "isn't actually far from the truth". "It shocked me that this exists and that these people are around - and often in positions of great power," said the 28-year-old son of actors Jeremy Irons and Sinead Cusack. In Lone Scherfig's film, Tom Hollander cameos as a Riot Club alumnus - now a Tory MP - who suggests that when things go wrong the old boys' network will save the day. "People like us don't make mistakes," he purrs after the club's latest gastro pub outing has taken an nasty turn. Sam Claflin, who plays student Alistair Ryle, says the story offered an insight into a world that he wasn't familiar with. "It's so detached from my upbringing," he tells the BBC. "I found it absolutely hilarious. I couldn't believe it was based on a real thing." Claflin and co-star Douglas Booth spent a day at Eton College meeting students and one of their tutors. "It was very eye-opening," says Claflin, whose other roles include Finnick Odair in the Hunger Games franchise. "One of the kids was 18. He was a lord. "He talked us through his upbringing and what was expected of him in the future. There's a huge amount of pressure. "He said his father, brother, cousin, uncle [and] grandfather had all been to Oxford so he'll have to go. I can't imagine my parents expecting that of me." Ipswich-born Claflin points out that gang culture is often depicted within the sections of society with no power or money. "This is the polar opposite," he goes on. "This is an insight into a world that isn't looked at very often. "You put them in the spotlight, but it's still gang culture. They have power and money and will continue to grow even further. That's what makes it interesting." Booth plays Harry Villiers in the film. A champion fencer whose father is a duke, he knows he will one day inherit the family estate. "These guys kill with charm - that's how they exist and get by in life," says the actor, whose roles include Boy George in BBC biopic Worried About the Boy and Pip in Great Expectations. When he met members of a real university dining club he found them "so charming and easy to talk to. "What I soon learned is that these people became the people we were portraying when they come together. It's like a pack mentality. "They said that walking through those doors to those dinners is a bit like walking into Narnia. It's another world - protected by the history of the club and previous members. "They feel like they can do things they would otherwise not do." But Booth stresses the film does not point fingers at anyone in particular. "There are 20,000 people at Oxford University, and there's only 10 in the Riot Club. It's a minority. "I have some very great friends at Oxford. I don't want to tarnish the whole of Oxford with that brush, that wouldn't be fair." Irons agrees. "I don't think it's an attack on people who are wealthy and privileged. It's about certain people and how some get a different treatment in life compared to others. "I could go further but I probably shouldn't..." The Riot Club is out in the UK and Ireland on 19 September.

लौरा वेड के हिट स्टेज प्ले पॉश पर आधारित, द रायट क्लब 10 ऑक्सफोर्ड छात्रों की कहानी बताता है जो एक देशी पब में व्यभिचार की एक रात के लिए इकट्ठा होते हैं जो 10-पक्षी रोस्ट और लैटिन पीने के खेल से शुरू होता है।


Guernsey Sir Isaac Brock statue may be built by 2014

Summary: A statue of Maj Gen Sir Isaac Brock could be built in Guernsey by October 2014, according to his descendant.

Oliver Brock said he hoped it would be in place before events to mark 200 years since the end of the War of 1812. Gen Brock, dubbed the Hero of Upper Canada, died in 1812 leading a British, Canadian and First Nation army to victory over an invading American army. This year commemorations were held in Canada and his home island to mark the 200th anniversary of his death. Mr Brock said he was working with the other members of the Brock Memorial Foundation and States departments to get permission for the statue and raise the necessary funds.

उनके वंशज के अनुसार, मेजर जनरल सर इसाक ब्रॉक की एक प्रतिमा अक्टूबर 2014 तक ग्वेर्नसे में बनाई जा सकती है।


Man stabbed to death in Tower Hamlets

Summary: A man has been stabbed to death in east London.

Police were called to Alton Street in Tower Hamlets just before 14:00 BST. The man, who was in his 30s, was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after. It comes after police made 14 arrests following four separate London attacks which left two teenagers dead and three men injured in the space of 12 hours. The deaths take the total number of murders in London in 2019 to 56. Last year there were 132 homicides - the highest level for a decade.

पूर्वी लंदन में एक व्यक्ति की चाकू मारकर हत्या कर दी गई है।


Face blindness: Seeing but not seeing

Summary: Imagine that suddenly you cannot recognise your mother, your partner, your child. You can see them but your brain cannot process the information - you don't know whether they are smiling, or understand their emotions.

By Gabriela TorresBBC Mundo health reporter That is what happened to David Bromley, after he suffered a brain injury that left him with face blindness. David has prosopagnosia. People with this condition can see the eyes, the nose, and the mouth, what is known as the context - but they cannot see them as a whole. They do not recognise gestures or emotions. "I can even recognise my wife if I walk into the house and know that she is there," says David. "But if I'm in the street and she passes by and I don't know that she is going to be there, I wouldn't recognise her." David, who lives in Essex, had unknowingly been living with eye damage since birth - the arteries and veins were mixed up. This eventually caused a partial loss of sight and damage in the brain which caused the prosopagnosia. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of this condition is that people do not notice right away that something is wrong with them. 'Social embarrassment' He remembers when he realised there was a problem. "I went to a reunion where I saw friends that I hadn't seen for 30 years. We were pretty close but we went our separate ways." On the way home, he told his brother-in-law: "'Fran and Mickey haven't changed a bit, they are exactly the same!'. And then I said 'hold on, were they wearing tank tops?'" What David was seeing was his memory of their friends back then. "My brain was telling me that there they were and what they looked like, but that wasn't the reality". After that, he discovered he was face blind. There are two main forms of prosopagnosia; developmental - where people fail to develop face processing abilities which is thought to affect around 2% of the population, and acquired, which develops after some form of brain injury and is much rarer. Dr Ashok Jansari, a cognitive neuropsychology expert from the University of East London said: "Acquired prosopagnosia is extremely rare because the type of brain damage is very specific,. "It can be caused by damage to the back of the brain on the right-hand side in an area known generally as the right occipito-temporal region." David said: "I don't know what's worse - not being able to ever recognise people or at 56 years old - as it happened to me - suddenly not being able to recognise anybody". He added that the worst part is the social embarrassment. "We were on holiday in Cuba and I'd been snorkelling in the sea. I was talking with this guy from Denmark, when this woman swam up and said 'buenos dias' and I went 'hello, pleased to meet you', thinking it was his wife, but it was actually my wife and I hadn't recognised her." David can see people perfectly well - but 10 or 15 minutes later he cannot recognise them. He now tells clients: "If I ignore you, I'm not being rude, it is just that I can't recognise you." Job fears Sandra, from London, who only wants to give her first name, is also afraid of social embarrassment. She had encephalitis - inflammation of the brain - 14 years ago, which left her with face blindness. Even though her prosopagnosia is mild - she can recognise people she knew before her illness - she would rather not let people know because she does not want anyone to think she has some sort of incapacity. "Life with prosopagnosia is very shameful," she says. She is teacher and at work almost nobody knows that she is face blind. "If I see someone every day, I can recognise them. But if one of the children says hi to me on the street, I would know it is a student from the school, but I wouldn't know who. "I don't say anything to the children, I just work every day to learn their faces." But she says: "Perhaps the reason why I don't mention it is because I don't want them to think that I cannot do my job, because that's not true. I don't want to feel ashamed or that people think that there is something wrong with me." Dr Jansari understands the feelings and fears of David and Sandra. He knows of cases in which people have lost their jobs because of the condition - including a teacher who had difficulty recognising pupils, causing problems when parents came to pick up their children at the end of the day, Even though prosopagnosia is not recognised as a disability, Dr Jansari thinks it should be treated as such in some cases. This condition has no cure. "In the case of acquired prosopagnosia, once a part of the brain is damaged it is not going to 'grow' back, so it is impossible to fix the problem," he said. "With developmental prosopagnosia, we don't know what causes it, but hypothetically in the future if they find that there is a genetic cause, that could be corrected - but that would be a very long way off." Even though people develop strategies to cope - because people change their appearance, they are not foolproof. Dr Jansari says: "Once David thought that a photograph he saw was of George Michael but it was of me, from a time when I used to have a goatee beard and a gold earring!"

कल्पना कीजिए कि अचानक आप अपनी माँ, अपने साथी, अपने बच्चे को पहचान नहीं सकते हैं। आप उन्हें देख सकते हैं लेकिन आपका मस्तिष्क जानकारी को संसाधित नहीं कर सकता है-आप नहीं जानते कि वे मुस्कुरा रहे हैं या उनकी भावनाओं को समझते हैं।


Zamira Hajiyeva: How the wife of a jailed banker spent £16m in Harrods

Summary: It is perhaps the shopping bill to end all shopping bills.

Dominic CascianiHome affairs correspondent@BBCDomCon Twitter Documents disclosed to the BBC have revealed how a woman married to a jailed banker managed to spend £16m in Harrods without raising suspicions. Zamira Hajiyeva, currently fighting the UK's first Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO), used 54 credit cards - many of which were linked to her husband's bank - to go on a massive spending spree in the west London department store over a decade. Mrs Hajiyeva risks losing her £15m home near Harrods - plus a Berkshire golf course worth millions more on top - if she fails to explain the source of her wealth to the High Court. Her husband is serving a 15-year sentence in their native Azerbaijan for stealing millions from his state-controlled bank. Last year, the BBC and its media partners won a legal battle to name the mother of three after the High Court ordered her to disclose how she had become so inexplicably wealthy despite having no income other than interest on her British bank accounts. If she cannot account for her riches, she risks losing her property. The papers in the battle against the National Crime Agency, now seen for the first time, reveal the painstaking investigation into Mrs Hajiyeva's day-to-day spending and complicated off-shore property arrangements. The permanent UK resident lives less than a five-minute walk from Harrods. Not only was it her local shop, she owned two bays in its private car park. And one of the key documents in the case is a 93-page statement from the store's loyalty card scheme: in effect a record of her extraordinary shopping spree. Spending begins That spending began shortly after she sought to settle in the UK - having been kidnapped in Azerbaijan the year before. She began modestly at first - spending £842 on children's books and £140 on perfume. Before the year was out, she had discovered the Cartier jewellery counter - which would become one of her favourite locations - where a till recorded she spent £181 on 1 October. Later came £1,600 of Miu Miu designer clothes and a further £1,539 on Ferragamo shoes. In March 2007, she was back at Miu Miu and spent £10,616 on one of her 25 American Express cards. Then the amounts began to soar. There was an unspecified payment to Harrods of more than £66,000 and more than £17,000 for goods from the designer Tom Dixon. Zamira Hajiyeva's spending in Harrods Boucheron jewellery: £3.5m Cartier jewellery: £1.4m Dennis Basso, US fashion designer: £402,000 Sandwich by Tom: £332,000 (This spending may be a combination of cafe stops and high-end designer furniture by Tom Dixon) The Harrods perfume counters: £160,000 Total spending: £16,309,077.87 Source: High Court papers Just after midday on 20 June 2008 she paid £925 at the underwear and socks counter. One hour and three minutes later, the Cartier jewellery till received a payment for £433,389.79 - the largest clearly identifiable spend on the schedule Then, rounding off the day, she paid £374 for a "men's designer" item. Days later she was back to spend £8,387 on the Israeli designer Elie Tahari, and £847 on perfume. Having taken a day or so off, she returned on 26 June to spend £17,000 in three purchases at a luxury watches counter. Disney makeovers? The most curious payment is £99,000, which went through the till at "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo" - Disney's then exclusive boutique in the store. It's not clear what this is for, given that the boutique charged £1,000 an hour for a prince or princess children's make-over. That mystery aside, she was not short of credit that particular day - another £160,000 went on Boucheron jewellery. And so it went on - six figure spends at Cartier and Boucheron, five figure outlays to top designers and then visits to Harrods' cafes, restaurants and food halls. Not all of the spending was on herself - she once paid £1,371 on gift-wrapping in a single trip (and almost £6,200 over all) and would regularly buy men's luxury goods. The mother of three also spent £250,000 in the Harrods toy department - where the gifts are so exclusive they may not be on sale anywhere else in the world. The grand total? She blew £16,309,077.87 in Harrods between 29 September 2006 and 14 June 2016 - and almost £6m of it could be directly linked back to 35 credit cards issued by the bank her husband is accused of ripping off. She apparently used 54 credit cards. More on the UK's first Unexplained Wealth Order: £1 million diamond ring seized in Harrods mega-shopper probe Woman who spent £16m in Harrods released on bail BBC wins fight to name Unexplained Wealth Order target Zamira Hajiyeva Did Harrods have any suspicions? In her statement to the court, NCA financial investigator Nicola Bartlett said Mrs Hajiyeva's spending was "significant" in light of the allegations that Mr Hajiyev abused his position at the International Bank of Azerbaijan by issuing credit cards to relatives which would ultimately never be repaid. So did any of this raise the alarm at Harrods? Did the store have suspicions? In a statement Harrods told the BBC that it "assisted and co-operated fully with the investigation" and "goes above and beyond" in implementing stringent anti-money laundering policies. "Harrods compliance with, and adherence to, the strongest anti-money laundering policies is a fundamental principle of the company's operations," said a spokesman. "There has never been any suggestion that Harrods has operated in any way other than in full compliance with the highest regulatory and legal standards." The NCA's ultimate target is not the spending in Harrods, but Mrs Hajiyeva's London home and Berkshire golf course - both of which she stands to lose if she cannot prove how she became so wealthy. In the agency's submissions to the court, Ms Bartlett said: "The manner in which the property has been obtained (and subsequently handled) is complex... [Mrs Hajiyeva's] relationship to the property is obscure." Mrs Hajiyeva's Knightsbridge home was bought in December 2009 by a company called Vicksburg Global Inc for £11.5m. The documents show how the NCA ultimately linked this British Virgin Islands company to Mrs Hajiyeva. Its director is a man from Azerbaijan called Elmar Baghirzade. He was also the director of a company registered in the UK called Berkeley Business Ltd, which bought a Gulfstream business jet for more than $42m (£33m). British companies must declare who has "significant control" - meaning the person with more than a quarter of the voting shares. And in the case of Berkeley, that person was Mrs Hajiyeva's husband, Jahangir. The NCA also linked Vicksburg in the British Virgin Islands to the couple through Mrs Hajiyeva's own visa application. She told the Home Office that she was the beneficiary of the company that owns her home. The ownership of the Mill Ride Golf Club in Berkshire was even more entangled. The court documents show the club is owned by a British company with the same initials - MRGC Ltd. It in turn is owned by Natura Ltd, which was incorporated in Guernsey. In August 2016, Mrs Hajiyeva was declared in official papers as the person with significant control of MRGC Ltd. But that transparency lasted just for one day - as her name was subsequently removed. "The manner in which the property has been obtained and subsequently handled is highly unusual, secretive and complex and, absent further and credible explanation, is indicative of money laundering," said the NCA in its court submissions. "There is reason to believe that the subsequent cancellation of her Person with Significant Control interest was an attempt to conceal her association with the property." The NCA papers reveal the existence of other properties. A further BVI company linked to Mr Hajiyev once owned the home next door to the property targeted by the Unexplained Wealth Order. And it's also believed by investigators that he owns a villa in Sardinia and property in Azerbaijan. Mrs Hajiyeva and her adult daughter, Leyla Yuzbashova, also once lived in a £3m apartment that was owned by another of the companies he ultimately controlled. And when she applied to live in the UK as a wealthy investor - a route into British life for the mega-rich - the NCA says she provided no evidence for any independent income. In support of her application, she bought more than £1m of UK government bonds in August 2010. This loan to the government came from her husband, the court records show. And five years later, her husband assured the Home Office in a letter that "my wife and I have sufficient funds" for her to be granted indefinite leave to remain. Months later he was arrested in Azerbaijan and charged with stealing from the bank he ran. Mrs Hajiyeva has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, and is appealing against the NCA's action against her. She's also now fighting against extradition to Azerbaijan in a case that will be heard later this year. In her statement to the court, also disclosed, she said that she has been unable to defend herself or her husband because he is in jail and is therefore unable to provide a detailed account of how he became a legitimate and successful businessman.

यह शायद सभी खरीदारी बिलों को समाप्त करने के लिए खरीदारी बिल है।


Wrexham council bid to host WWI ceramic poppy sculpture

Summary: An iconic ceramic poppy sculpture which formed part of the Tower of London installation could be displayed in north Wales.

Wrexham council has bid to host the 'Wave' at Llwyn Isaf green in the centre of the town. The installation marked 100 years since the outbreak of WWI. Armed forces champion, councillor David Griffiths, said the location would be "accessible to all" and would "showcase the sculpture in a fantastic way". The outcome of the bid will be known by 30 September.

एक प्रतिष्ठित चीनी मिट्टी की खसखस की मूर्ति जो टॉवर ऑफ लंदन की स्थापना का हिस्सा थी, उत्तरी वेल्स में प्रदर्शित की जा सकती थी।


Which are the countries still talking to North Korea?

Summary: North Korea is often portrayed as entirely isolated from the rest of the world, but the reality is that it has diplomatic links with almost 50 countries. Which are they, and just how close are their ties?

By Alex Oliver & Euan GrahamLowy Institute North Korea's pariah status appears to increase by the day. Yet beneath its apparent isolation lies a strange anomaly, its surprisingly expansive diplomatic network. Since North Korea's creation in 1948, it has established formal diplomatic relations with more than 160 countries and it maintains 55 embassies and consulates in 48 nations. A smaller but still significant number of states - 25 in all - have diplomatic missions in North Korea, including the United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden, as shown in mapping of diplomatic networks by the Lowy Institute China and Russia, as its then communist neighbours, were among the earliest to establish diplomatic relations after the creation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - as it is officially known. The US is now pressing the rest of the world to sever its links with Pyongyang, with its representative to the UN, Nikki Haley, calling on "all nations to cut off all ties". Among those to take action are Spain, Kuwait, Peru, Mexico, Italy and Myanmar, also known as Burma, which have all expelled ambassadors or diplomats in the past few months. Portugal, Uganda, Singapore, UAE and the Philippines have all suspended relations or cut other ties. But many North Korean missions around the world - and those it hosts - will remain open for business. Some countries even appear to be stepping up ties, with Pyongyang co-operating with a number of African nations on construction projects and holding talks on energy and agriculture with others. Diplomatic links with North Korea, however, are deeply flawed. Only six of the 35 member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - the international organisation of the world's most developed economies - maintain a mission in Pyongyang. The United States has never established diplomatic relations with North Korea. Neither have Japan, or South Korea. This means the US and some of its closest Asian allies rely on other countries for the sparse information coming out of Pyongyang. This comes from countries such as Germany, the UK and Sweden, who share a compound there and, so far, have stopped short of recalling their ambassadors, or closing North Korea's missions in their capitals. North Korea's network of missions in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa has been crucial for generating income, both legal and illicit, and evading the ever-expanding dragnet of UN and unilateral sanctions. The embassies are largely self-funding, and allegations that they operate as fronts for illicit activities are rife. European hosts of North Korean missions have complained of embassy buildings being illegally sublet to local businesses. In Pakistan, a country historically sympathetic to Pyongyang, a burglary at the residence of a North Korean diplomat raised suspicions that he may have been involved in large-scale booze bootlegging. On both sides, intelligence agencies are suspicious of each other's officials. They closely monitor diplomats and subject them to tight travel restrictions. North Korea also places its own diplomats under intensive counter-intelligence scrutiny, fearing they could defect. Given all of these problems, the obvious question is what can diplomacy achieve? For some socialist or communist countries, such as Cuba, Venezuela and Laos, a relationship with North Korea brings a semblance of mutual ideological support. But these days, such fraternal diplomatic ties are sustained more by a common strand of anti-Americanism than shared ideology - as is also the case with Syria and Iran. Wherever they are posted, Pyongyang's diplomats are expected to foster pro-government support and rebut "hostile" sentiments. This can sometimes be taken to unexpected lengths, for example berating bemused barbers in London for criticising Kim Jong-un's haircut. Western countries that host missions and remain in Pyongyang, such as Germany, see value in keeping diplomatic lines of communication open, believing diplomacy is the best solution for the Korea problem. They can also provide an invaluable service: it was Swedish diplomats, for example, who were permitted access to American student Otto Warmbier, who was arrested in Pyongyang in 2016 and died shortly after his return to the US. A former UK ambassador to Pyongyang argued that an embassy there was worthwhile, cost little and would be "in a good position to act as the international community's eyes and ears in a potentially volatile situation". The US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has indicated that the US may now be now willing to talk to North Korea if it "earns its way back to the table". But whatever the Trump administration's line on the value of diplomacy - either with "the Hermit State" or the rest of the world - the fragile state of North Korea's diplomatic network is the exception in the modern era. The Lowy Institute' mapping of diplomatic links shows that few countries' networks are shrinking. Only eight of the 43 OECD and G20 countries have reduced their footprint in the past two years, despite austerity budgets since the financial crisis. Twenty states actually expanded their diplomatic network - Hungary, Turkey and Australia among them. The role of embassies as the shopfront of diplomacy appears to be adapting and surviving. That is the case even for one of the world's most isolated, embattled regimes. While there are links, however fragile, between Pyongyang and the rest of the world, diplomatic options with North Korea are not yet exhausted. About this piece This analysis piece was commissioned by the BBC from Alex Oliver,director of the Diplomacy and Public Opinion Program at Australia-based international policy think tank the Lowy Institute, and Euan Graham, director of its International Security Program. Edited by Duncan Walker

उत्तर कोरिया को अक्सर दुनिया के बाकी हिस्सों से पूरी तरह से अलग-थलग दिखाया जाता है, लेकिन वास्तविकता यह है कि इसके लगभग 50 देशों के साथ राजनयिक संबंध हैं। वे कौन से हैं, और उनके संबंध कितने करीब हैं?


China's 'love hunters' seek brides for picky billionaires

Summary: China is moving forwards at an astonishing rate, but parents' preference for boys and the one-child policy have left a shortage of young women. Men of marriageable age are confronted by a shrinking pool of potential female partners - and the competition to find a bride is fierce.

By Lucy AshBBC News Clutching his iced coffee, Peng Tai strolls down the street and disappears into a shopping mall. Half way up the escalator, he surveys the scene below. "What about that girl in a yellow dress?" I venture. "Uh uh, too short," he says. And the girl in micro shorts coming out of a shoe shop? "No way. Too skinny." "I am looking for girls with nice skin, nice white skin," he adds. "They should be not too thin and not too chunky with a normal way of walking." A minute later he sidles up to a fashionable twentysomething girl trying on perfumes. "Are you single?" he coos. "Looking for love?" She quickly shakes her head and walks away. He gets the same brush-off from a few more young women - some look embarrassed, others impatient. Peng Tai rejoins me by the entrance and sucks dejectedly on his drink. "The girls should not look angry. We do not want one with a sour face." Suddenly he spots his prey - a very young girl in a sleeveless top with platform heels. Cautiously he approaches her, all smiles. She listens wide-eyed to his opening gambit and looks intrigued as he takes down her details. Then, iPhone in hand, he moves in for the kill and snaps her picture in the doorway of the mall. Peng Tai has a quota of three suitable girls a day. He is what is known as a "love hunter". He works for the Diamond Bachelors' Agency, a Shanghai outfit which has hundreds of wealthy single men looking for wives on its books. The joining fees range from £15,000 to more than £1m ($1.6m) a year depending on the level of service required. Peng Tai and dozens like him remind me of small fishing trawlers, scooping up what they can in their nets. But their catch then needs to be specially prepared for the customer and China's billionaires are a notoriously fussy bunch. One client insisted on a girl who looked identical to Zhang Ziyi, the star of the hit film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Another, a real estate tycoon, paid the agency to search nine cities and interview 10,000 girls to find Miss Right. Of course she had to be stunning. But she also had to be between 22 and 24 years of age and have a master's degree from one of the top universities in Beijing or Shanghai. Peng Tai's work is performance-related but the rewards can be huge. The top love hunters can earn bonuses worth tens of thousands of pounds. But I wonder if he ever worries about treating women as commodities? "I do not care what the girls think," he says. "This is my job and we are providing a much-needed service." While China's wealthiest men contract out the search for a spouse and have plenty of choice, at the opposite end of the scale some have no choice at all. The country's inexorable economic rise has put marriage out of reach for many men. These days grooms are expected to provide a car, a good salary and real estate. One young engineer I met in a Beijing park, Zhang Junfei, told me that he would have to save up for 200 years to afford a one-bedroom apartment - and that is without eating or drinking. Men in the poorest, least-developed areas suffer the most from the skewed sex ratio because of another inescapable trend in modern China - mass migration. In the past decade, 300 million people have left the countryside for the cities and for many young women it is a one-way ticket. They marry up and never return home. There are 700 people in the village of Tanzhen in the mountainous Guangxi province. As many as 60 of them are single men - most expect to die bachelors. Sitting in his courtyard, 30-year-old Wei Tianguang says virtually all the eligible young women are working in factories on the coast. I ask if he has an ideal woman in mind. Any requirements? "No requirements," he says. "I would marry any woman prepared to live here with me. Anyone at all." From Our Own Correspondent: Listen online or download the podcast. BBC Radio 4: Saturdays at 11:30 and some Thursdays at 11:00 BBC World Service: Short editions Monday-Friday - see World Service programme schedule. You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook

चीन आश्चर्यजनक दर से आगे बढ़ रहा है, लेकिन लड़कों के लिए माता-पिता की प्राथमिकता और एक बच्चे की नीति ने युवा महिलाओं की कमी छोड़ दी है। विवाह योग्य उम्र के पुरुषों को संभावित महिला भागीदारों के सिकुड़ते पूल का सामना करना पड़ता है-और दुल्हन खोजने की प्रतिस्पर्धा भयंकर है।