Night rider: 21 years sleeping on a London bus

Summary: For more than two decades after his asylum application was rejected, Sunny found a safe haven aboard the buses that zigzag across London at night. What's it like to spend every night on the lower decks?

By Venetia MenziesJournalist and photographer Sunny waits patiently, wind penetrating his well-worn jacket and the winter cold biting at his extremities. It's past midnight and his legs are weary but he stands firm and smiles as the bus lunges to a halt, its wing mirror clipping overgrown branches on its way. He moves aside to let other passengers board, greets the familiar face of the driver with a gentle bow of the head and taps his weathered Oyster card on the payment point. Relieved at finding his favoured spot at the back of the lower deck empty, he slides into place and gets comfortable for the long ride ahead. Sunny hugs his bag to his stomach, feels his wrinkled hands start to thaw, and closes his eyes. Leaving behind the smell of fried chicken and noise of London's late-night traffic, his mind drifts. He sees his younger self, kneeling in prayer between the concrete walls of a Nigerian prison, waiting to be executed. His offence: struggling for democracy. A guard barges into the cell, lifts him to his feet and rushes him down silent corridors, out into blinding sunlight, where a car is waiting. Family and friends have bought his freedom, paying off everyone from the prison officials to the air hostess on the flight to London. Sunny is jerked back to the present as a scrum of drunken men, singing tunelessly, trail through the doors and up to the top deck. It must be three or four in the morning, he calculates - the usual hour for trouble. Around this time, Sunny often notices three distinct groups around him. It's a neat survey of modern London. There are those who came to this country for a better life, rushing to their pre-dawn cleaning jobs. Another group - mostly indigenous Britons - heads home from the nightclubs, talking loudly and cramming down fast food. And finally there are the homeless, those who have nowhere else to go, for whom buses are a place to rest. Sunny doesn't resent the others; he has learned to enjoy their boisterousness. When they smile, he smiles. When they laugh, he laughs too. It's amazing how a few pints can evaporate class boundaries, stripping reserved Englishmen of their inhibitions so they chat with the homeless as temporary equals. Sunny tries to recall the last time he felt as happy as these drunken men. Perhaps it was when his asylum claim was still under review. Back then he was full of gratitude for his second chance at life. He took a course in documentary-making, choosing to report on the lives of London's homeless, never imagining he would soon be in their shoes. Sunny had dared to hope for a bright future, safe under the protection of Her Majesty the Queen - that figurehead familiar from sun-faded colonial posters across Nigeria. But his request for asylum was refused. That left him with two options: go home to a country under the iron fist of a military ruler, where his death sentence would finally be carried out, or go underground. It wasn't a difficult choice. And so began 21 years as a nomad on London's buses, which Sunny quickly realised were safer and warmer than the streets. It was a church minister, a woman of unwavering generosity, who first bought him a monthly pass to save him multiple nightly fares. She continued to do so, month after month, and other friends would chip in if she wasn't around. By day Sunny would volunteer at churches - he would attend several during his time in London. When his work was done, he would often head to Westminster Reference Library where he could catch up on the day's news or pick up where he'd left off in the book he'd been reading. He might then ask a restaurant manager if they could spare some food, and says he was rarely turned away. But no later than 9pm he would invariably be stepping aboard a bus for the first of three, maybe four, nightly trips across the capital. He soon discovered the best buses for a good rest. There was the trusty N29, from Trafalgar Square to the northern suburb of Wood Green. But the 25 - which ran 24 hours - offered the longest uninterrupted sleep. In traffic, it would take two hours to get from central London to Ilford, in Essex, where - if he was really lucky - a driver might take pity and leave him sleeping on board at the terminus. More often, the homeless passengers - maybe four or five of them - would be woken and turfed off until the next driver arrived. Most were destitute women, British or African, who used the bus as a sanctuary from the threat of sexual assault. Laden with bags, they would be grateful for Sunny's help lugging them on and off the bus. Sunny always travelled light. A small tote bag allowed him to avoid the stigma of homelessness during daylight hours. Some homeless folk would stretch out across seats but he preferred not to inconvenience other riders. It took a while to learn all the tricks. At first he hadn't worried about where to sit. But then he found himself in a confrontation with two men who had been trying to set light to the hair of an unsuspecting woman in front. He chased them off but resolved to avoid conflict where possible. The lower deck, he concluded, was the preserve of reasonable people, of families and the elderly. Trouble rarely erupted so close to the driver. The back seats were optimal, not just for the head rest but for peace of mind. But there were always distractions: the lurching bus, the neon lights, the noisy night-riders and the humming engine. Two hours of proper sleep across an entire night was an achievement. At dawn - or when he got hungry, whichever came first - he would head to a McDonald's. He never begged but friendly staff at the Leicester Square branch would give him food and let him shave in the bathrooms. Fellow customers could be kind, too. Or, if he timed it right, he could hop off at the 24-hour branch in Haringey - halfway along the N29 route. There, he could enjoy a peace that was rare in the central London branches, rest his head on a table and continue his slumber. For a handful of Christmases, Sunny broke his routine and tried winter night shelters provided by churches. Seven different churches worked a rota. But they were scattered in different locations across the capital, creating a daily exodus of people - the "walking dead", in his words - trying to reach their next bed before the evening curfew. Sunny came to realise he preferred the bus to lying on stone floors, packed shoulder-to-shoulder. It was hard to sleep through the smell of tobacco, alcohol and unwashed bodies. And, of course, the screams of the others as they lay there tormented by nightmares. From the seats of London buses, Sunny watched the changing face of the capital. Slowly, the white population declined as a proportion of the total. The ranks of the homeless expanded. In this most diverse of spaces, he became adept at matching faces or dialects to places of origin. And he developed a sixth sense for trouble, detecting warning signs in gestures: the smirk of trouble-making teens, the pursed lips of an explosive racist. There were combinations that could result in confrontation: drunken football fans and a veiled woman; tired commuters and people using speakerphone; gang members and their local rivals. In the months following the Brexit referendum of 2016, hostility to migrants seemed to become more commonplace. "Go back home," became a regular refrain. Sunny didn't blame the British government for his predicament. Had his own country's not been so bad, he wouldn't have been here in the first place. Eventually, the refugee centre at Notre Dame de France church, off Leicester Square, made an application for leave to remain on his behalf. If people prove they have continuously lived in the UK for 20 years, they can qualify to settle. But Sunny had spent that time avoiding all records, evading detection. How could he demonstrate he had been there all this time? "I understand that your client is currently homeless, but we still require documentary evidence to show continuous residence from 1995 to the present date," said a letter from the Home Office. "Evidence such as utility bills, bank statements, tenancy agreements…" Sunny asked the friendliest bus drivers to write him a letter of support. One obliged, confirming he was "a regular rider throughout the night". The churches he had volunteered at over the years provided supporting statements and dug out old photographs recording his presence at charity events. These days Sunny is the one taking pictures. He reaches inside his bag for the disposable camera he's been given to tell his story as part of a photography project. There are a few frames left. Lifting the viewfinder to his eye, Sunny pushes firm against the flash button and pauses to adjust his composition. Click… He releases the shutter. The photograph will not simply show rows of mostly empty seats on the lower deck of a bus. It will be a picture of life as a free man. At the age of 55, in 2017, Sunny was granted leave to remain. It had taken a year but finally he had the right to shelter, to work, to exist. And he was thankful. It is almost his stop, deep in south London's suburbs - he still isn't used to travelling to a destination. Even now he sometimes sleeps on buses, though more often during the day rather than at night. For so long a sanctuary, they remain a place to empty his mind - their familiarity a comfort. Sunny's knees click as he hoists himself up. He's getting older, his struggle has aged him beyond his years. He thanks the driver and carefully steps down to the pavement. Leaning into the breeze, he walks towards his bedsit, smiling as the cold cracks his lips. Sunny, whose name has been changed, collaborated with photographer and journalist Venetia Menzies to document his story for one year. This story is drawn from interviews with Sunny, his own photographs and portraits that preserve his anonymity. You may also be interested in: In 2017, freelance writer Tom de Castella noticed an elderly woman and her son living on a bench in south London. He discovered they had already been there for two years… which was puzzling. Why hadn't anyone done anything to help them? Why did everyone accept it as normal? The more he investigated, the stranger it seemed. Is it OK if someone wants to live for years on a bench? (October 2019)

शरण का आवेदन खारिज होने के बाद दो दशकों से अधिक समय तक सनी को उन बसों में एक सुरक्षित पनाह मिली जो रात में पूरे लंदन में घूमती रहती हैं। हर रात निचले डेक पर बिताना कैसा लगता है?


PM: "Welsh government need to get their act together"

Summary: So there we were, standing by for the new-look, no-singing, no-dancing Prime Minister's Questions, where "yah-boo" politics was replaced by a Socratic dialogue on the major issues of the day.

David CornockParliamentary correspondent, Wales Yes, was the first time MPs had the chance to question David Cameron, since Commons Speaker John Bercow wrote to the party leaders to ask them to clamp down on "yobbery and public school twittishness" during PMQs. I suspect Mr Bercow may have been disappointed (although not surprised) as the traditional wall of noise accompanied most questions and answers. Occasionally, but only occasionally, a serious detailed question was listened to in respectful silence but otherwise it was largely business as usual. There was cross-party consensus on the successes of Team GB at the Winter Olympics but little agreement on anything else. And while some things may change, others stay the same; a Conservative MP offered David Cameron a free hit at the Welsh government's record, one he felt unable to resist. Charlotte Leslie raised recent correspondence between the medical director of NHS England, Sir Bruce Keogh and his Welsh counterpart. She wanted to know if David Cameron was as astounded as she was by the response of the NHS in Wales. The prime minister said Sir Bruce's views should be respected and listened to by the NHS in Wales. He then went further, highlighting concerns raised by the Royal College of Surgeons: "What they've (RCS) said today, what they're saying effectively, is there are people on NHS waiting lists who are dying in Wales because the waiting lists are too long and because the NHS isn't being properly managed, properly funded and properly reformed in Wales. That is a matter for the Labour Welsh assembly government and they need to get their act together." The NHS in Wales may be devolved but - less than 15 months before the general election - it has seldom been as high on the agenda of the main governing party at Westminster.

इसलिए हम वहाँ खड़े थे, नए रूप के लिए, बिना गाए, बिना नाच के प्रधान मंत्री के प्रश्नों के लिए, जहाँ "याह-बू" राजनीति को उस दिन के प्रमुख मुद्दों पर एक सॉक्रेटिक संवाद द्वारा प्रतिस्थापित किया गया था।


Seven bands from the 80s we wish would reunite

Summary: Children of the 1980s, rejoice - the original Bananarama line-up is back together at last. Which got us thinking - lots of 80s bands have reformed over recent years but which ones are we still wishing would reunite?

By Emma SaundersEntertainment reporter 1. Frankie Goes To Hollywood Liverpool band Frankie Goes to Hollywood, fronted by Holly Johnson, are still best remembered for their debut single Relax, which was famously banned by the BBC in 1984 due to its sexual lyrics but topped the UK singles chart for five consecutive weeks. The band went on to become only the second act in the history of the UK charts (after Gerry and the Pacemakers) to reach number one with their first three singles when Two Tribes and The Power of Love also hit the top spot. But their glory was short-lived. Their second album, Liverpool, released in 1986, failed to live up to expectations and a backstage bust-up between Johnson and bassist Mark O'Toole at their final gig at Wembley Arena sounded the death knell. While various reincarnations of the band have since reformed, we're still waiting for the original line-up to hit us "with those laser beams." 2. The Smiths Never gonna happen. Yes, we know. But just imagine! Johnny Marr and Steven Morrissey formed the band in 1982 with bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce. They went on to release 17 singles and four studio albums, becoming one of the most influential bands of the 1980s. Hits included This Charming Man, Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now, How Soon is Now?, Big Mouth Strikes Again, Panic and Girlfriend in a Coma. But the dream combo of Marr's melodies and Morrissey's musings was broken with the band's acrimonious split in 1987. In Marr's autobiography Set The Boy Free, he revealed that the official version of him walking out on the band wasn't the full story. The tipping point, says Marr, was when Morrissey didn't turn up for the video shoot of the single Shoplifters Of The World Unite, and ordered him to sack their latest manager. Whatever the truth, Marr also wrote that he and Morrissey discussed the possibility of a reunion back in 2008. We're still waiting. 3. Curiosity Killed the Cat Ring a bell? We've been wondering whatever happened to the beautiful beret-wearing Ben with the exotic-sounding surname Volpeliere-Pierrot (although Smash Hits preferred to call him Ben Vol-au-vent Parrot), not to mention Julian, Nick and Migi. The band enjoyed 80s success with soulful pop hits including Down to Earth, Ordinary Day, Name and Number and Misfit. They split after a last hurrah with a cover of Johnny Bristol's Hang On In There Baby in 1992. While Ben has joined some 80s tours singing solo the band have never reunited as a four-piece. It's 30 years this year since Misfit and Ordinary Day entered the charts, so perhaps now would be a good time to hit the road again? 4. Style Council It's well documented that Paul Weller would only reform The Jam if his children were "destitute". But what about his later band, Style Council, which he formed with Mick Talbot, formerly of The Merton Parkas and Dexy's Midnight Runners? The Style Council had hits such as Walls Come Tumbling Down!, Shout to the Top, You're the Best Thing and Long, Hot Summer. The band broke up in 1989. Weller has since said they didn't get the credit they deserved. "I thought we were quite misunderstood and misrepresented. Yet, at the end of the day, we made some good records and I wrote some good songs around that time, songs I still stand by, and I think that will last as well." 5. The Housemartins Formed in Hull in the 1980s, The Housemartins line-up changed frequently over the years but most of us will remember its most famous members, Paul Heaton and Norman Cook AKA Fatboy Slim. Caravan of Love and Happy Hour were probably their best known hits and Heaton and Cook went on to further success with The Beautiful South and Beats International/Fatboy Slim. In 2009, Mojo magazine got The Housemartins' original members together for a photo-shoot and interview but they said they would not be reforming. So it looks like we won't be hearing from "the fourth best band in Hull" - as The Housemartins often described themselves - anytime soon. 6. Bronski Beat/The Communards While Bronski Beat continued following the departure of vocalist Jimmy Somerville in 1985, they are still best remembered for the hits they had with him at the helm, including Why?, Smalltown Boy and It Ain't Necessarily So. Somerville, of course, went on to form The Communards with Richard Coles, who is now a Church of England priest and Radio 4 presenter. But will we see either of these bands back together? Larry Steinbachek, former keyboardist with Bronski Beat, sadly died at the age of 56 in January. And the Communards? Coles and Somerville fell out, not least because Coles lied when he told Somerville he had HIV. The two are back in touch now but with Coles' commitments to the Church, a reunion seems unlikely. 7. The Thompson Twins Yep, it's our wildcard entry - the band that was named after the two bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson in The Adventures of Tintin. The band had various line-up changes over the years but they were best known as the mid-80s trio consisting of Tom Bailey, Alannah Currie and Joe Leeway. Their hits included Hold Me Now, Doctor! Doctor! and You Take Me Up but Leeway left the band in 1986 and Bailey and Currie could never replicate their earlier success (although they did have a dance hit in 1991 called Come Inside). The pair had two children together and moved to New Zealand. While they did briefly reunite with Leeway on a Channel 4 show in 2001, they have so far resisted the urge to go down the nostalgia road and reform. In 2014, Bailey began performing the band's hits as The Thompson Twins' Tom Bailey and continues to tour in 2017. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

1980 के दशक के बच्चे, खुश हों-मूल बनानारामा लाइन-अप आखिरकार एक साथ वापस आ गया है। जिसने हमें सोचने पर मजबूर कर दिया-हाल के वर्षों में 80 के दशक के कई बैंडों में सुधार हुआ है, लेकिन हम अभी भी चाहते हैं कि कौन से बैंड फिर से जुड़ें?


'Game-changer' drug to tackle addiction

Summary: For more than 20 years, Dougie's life was a vicious cycle of drugs, crime and the death of people close to him. But for the past nine months he has been taking a medication that blocks his craving for heroin and helps him break the cycle.

By Lorna GordonBBC News Scotland correspondent Drug misuse has claimed the lives of Dougie's brother, two uncles and more than a dozen friends. And two years ago he lost a leg due to health complications related to his addiction. "If I hadn't stopped I would have died, simple," he says. "I don't think my mum would survive losing another boy through drugs." The 39-year-old Glaswegian has been in and out of prison since he was a teenager, stealing to fund his dependence on heroin and street Valium. But since the start of the year he has been prescribed Buvidal, a new development in the treatment of addiction to opiates. Dougie says it has been "life changing". He was previously taking the opiate substitute methadone but it was not working for him. "I tried this new drug and it managed to get me clean off methadone and clean off heroin," he says. More than 100 people in Glasgow are now being prescribed the drug, which is injected once a month, meaning those using it no longer need to visit chemists to pick up methadone prescriptions every day. It is hoped this will allow patients to focus on improving their lives and overall health rather than managing their dependence. Scotland, and especially cities such as Glasgow and Dundee, has the worst rate of drug misuse deaths in western Europe. It is not known how many people died from overdoses in Scotland last year as the figures have been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. However, the figures for 2018 showed almost 1,200 people dying from drug misuse, more than three people every day. Experts say they think the figures for last year could be even higher. In response to the crisis, a pilot programme for Buvidal was launched with 14 patients in Glasgow last year. It found that more than six months after the trial, all of them remained engaged in recovery. Jennifer Kelly, a prescribing pharmacist for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's alcohol and drug recovery services, said feedback has been "overwhelmingly positive". She said Buvidal blocks the opioid receptors in the brain which stops the patients having withdrawals and allows them to be comfortable. Ms Kelly said it works best for patients committed to moving away from opioid use. It allows patients to engage with the services they need such as occupational therapy, mental health and social services, she said. "For our patients it's been a game-changer," she said. "Their lives have improved in many ways, less drug use, better interaction with their families, with their children. "It's not a case of they go on it and they are on it forever, which is sometimes an issue that people throw at methadone. We have managed to detox a number of patients from Buvidal." Dougie says the drug has "changed the way I'm ticking". "I've got a better relationship with my mum and dad whereas when I was doing drugs they wouldn't open the door," he said. He said the first few weeks coming off methadone were hard because of the withdrawal effects. "Now that I am free of methadone, the plan is to wean myself off Buvidal and then stay totally clean but that is easier said than done," he said. "I wish it had been around 20-odd years ago, it would have saved so many lives." Dougie said he wanted to convince his friends it is better than methadone. "But a lot of my lads are scared," he says. "How are you meant to change that mindset?" According to Dougie one of the advantages over methadone is not having to go to the pharmacy every day and risk contact with other users or sellers. And for the future he says he wants to go back to college to learn the maths and English he missed in his youth. "I don't want to start that lifestyle being a user everyday, chaotic," he said. "I don't want that life any more. I have been there, it doesn't work." Experts are wary of words like "miracle drug" and warn that Buvidal is not suitable for everyone. But it is already helping to fix some broken lives and they want that to continue.

20 से अधिक वर्षों से, डौगी का जीवन ड्रग्स, अपराध और उसके करीबी लोगों की मौत का एक दुष्चक्र था। लेकिन पिछले नौ महीनों से वह एक ऐसी दवा ले रहा है जो हेरोइन के लिए उसकी लालसा को रोकती है और उसे इस चक्र को तोड़ने में मदद करती है।


How the 'risk' of making The Night Manager paid off

Summary: It's been a ratings smash, caused meltdown on social media and an online leak of the last episode has made global headlines. But is the success of the TV adaptation of John Le Carre's The Night Manager down to its star names - or the enduring appeal of the spy?

By Emma JonesEntertainment reporter The mini series, a BBC co-production with US TV channel AMC and the Ink Factory - the latter company started by two of John Le Carre's sons - stars British actor Tom Hiddleston as the enigmatic Jonathan Pine, who goes undercover to try to expose the activities of billionaire arms dealer Richard Roper, played by Hugh Laurie. The story also features Olivia Colman as security services figurehead Angela Burr - who was a male character in Le Carre's 1993 novel. Each episode cost an estimated £3m to make, and one executive producer, the Ink Factory's Simon Cornwell, says the lavish adaptation was "a risk." "It's a difficult book to adapt," he says, "and there have been quite a few attempts to make it into a film, it just didn't work. It needed six hours to explain the story. "But to all intents and purposes, it's been written and shot as a film - we just hired one director, Susanne Bier, for all six episodes. I always think of it as a film - just a six-hour one." Bond audition Despite widespread critical praise for the story, much of the attention from social media has focused on Tom Hiddleston, speculating that its success can be attributed to his popularity with viewers - particularly when he appears without his shirt. The actor, already well-known for playing the Norse god Loki in the Marvel comic adaptations, is also currently starring in the Ben Wheatley film High Rise. A recent sex scene in The Night Manager made Hiddleston's rear a number one trending topic on social media - while other Twitter users have described his part as his "audition for James Bond" - a reference to the sharp suits, glamorous locations and espionage that punctuate the series. Cornwell believes that "we hired a superstar in the making. I don't think British audiences have ever had so much screen time with Tom Hiddleston before. "Viewers have been able to tune in week after week to see him and have become invested in his character, and with him. "What's great for me is when I go and get lunch in cafes and I overhear people talking about him in the latest episode - that's when it hits you how popular the show is." 'Integrity and moral courage' While the actor has previously stated he'd be interested "if Bond ever came knocking", Hiddleston says "story is key" as far as The Night Manager is concerned in his decision to take the part - and he thinks its appeal is "down to a good spy story never going out of fashion". "I wonder why that is?" he speculates. "I've always been fascinated by that decision to sacrifice yourself, which is essentially what a spy does. "There is an erosion of yourself, you have different passports, no attachments, no dependents, no address. You are in the service of something higher and I think that's why most of us are so interested. "I truly loved the character of Jonathan Pine. I was very moved by his courage. Isn't there a saying that 'evil persists when good men do nothing'? "Pine is impelled to stand up for something and risk himself for a greater good, and that takes huge integrity and moral courage." 'Essential reboot' However Hiddleston also wonders if the story would not have been relevant without an "essential reboot". Writer David Farr and director Bier updated many aspects of the original 1993 post-Cold war novel to include Colman as a female security service agent, but also to set it around the Arab Spring in 2011, with locations in Iraq and Afghanistan. "It now has a pertinence and a relevance to today," Hiddleston claims. "I think we can see all too clearly that we live in a dangerous world, and we know that weapons are often sold under the table, and we know that sometimes governments can be involved. "We don't know where those weapons end up, and we don't know where the enemy is. Isis and Al Qaeda have made the threat to our freedom so intangible, but I feel this story weaves it into a clear narrative and it's something we can believe. "But we also needed Olivia Colman as Angela Burr - she is very much the heart of the show. I was told that most of the security services these days happen to be female led, we just don't always know their names - but she's a different class, a different sex, and it adds a new dimension to the story." Danish director Bier, who won an Oscar in 2010 for her film, In A Better World, says before the series aired, "the one danger I was worried about was that audiences would switch off half way through". But unlike another costly adaptation, War and Peace, audience ratings for the show have actually increased as the series has gone on, rising from six million to a peak of more than eight million viewers tuning in for last Sunday's episode on BBC One, when a major character was killed off. Leaked episode However, an online leak of the last episode after DVD and Blu-Ray editions of the series were sent out early, could dent ratings for the series finale this weekend - as well as leaking plot spoilers over the internet, before the series starts in Australia and the United States. Cornwell says he has no comment on the issue, but believes the show had, overall, "been event television". "It's the fruit of a golden age of TV where big names are lining up to take part because the stories and the budgets are so good - plus actors and directors can invest in something unfolding before audiences, week after week." In an unprecedented move for a John Le Carre adaptation, which has also included the films Tinker Tailor Solider Spy, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold and 2005's The Constant Gardener, there's even been speculation that there will be a sequel for The Night Manager. That though, says Cornwell, "is most emphatically a rumour at this point". The final episode of The Night Manager will be shown on BBC One at 21:00 GMT on 27 March.

यह एक रेटिंग स्मैश रहा है, सोशल मीडिया पर मंदी का कारण बना और अंतिम एपिसोड के एक ऑनलाइन लीक ने वैश्विक सुर्खियां बटोरी हैं। लेकिन क्या जॉन ले कैरे के द नाइट मैनेजर के टीवी रूपांतरण की सफलता इसके सितारों के नामों पर निर्भर है-या जासूस की स्थायी अपील?


Ethiopia's clothes firms aim to fashion global sales

Summary: Ethiopian fashion designer Fikirte Addis kneels down and wraps a tape measure around the waist of a customer, before scribbling on a piece of paper on which the outline of a flowing gown takes shape.

By James JeffreyAddis Ababa, Ethiopia The customer, Rihana Aman, owns a cafe in the capital, Addis Ababa, and went to Ms Fikirte's shop in the city, Yefikir Design, for a wedding dress fitting. The dress, however, is actually for her sister, who lives and works in London, but will soon return to her homeland with her English fiance. Ms Rihana explains how she shares her sister's figure, and that the cotton dress will be ready for when her sister arrives back for her "melse", the Ethiopian wedding ceremony. "I love the traditional aspect of the clothing," Ms Rihana says of why she chose Yefikir. "So many dresses now are too modern, and use fabrics that lose what it means to be Ethiopian." Along with other designers, Ms Fikirte is drawing on Ethiopia's rich cultural heritage while adding a modern twist to find success in the fashion industry at home - and increasingly abroad. As a result, fashion design is proving to be one of the most successful Ethiopian sectors for small business and entrepreneurs, generating profit margins ranging from 50% to more than 100%. Rich heritage Companies such as Yefikir have flourished in Ethiopia due to the absence of big chain department stores, and relatively low start-up costs, set against the high prices individuals are willing to pay for quality, traditionally made fashion garments. All Yefikir's fabrics are made by hand on weaving machines operated using techniques that go back centuries. Flashes of colour come from strips of tilet and tilf - intricately woven or hand-embroidered multi-coloured patterns - which skirt hems, go around waists or course down backs. It took Musie Teamrat, a 27-year-old embroider, 10 days to make three tilfs for one Yefikir dress. As a result of such painstaking work, Yefikir's custom-made dresses can sell for up to 15,300 birr ($850; £530), a sizeable sum, especially in a country where many toil for no more than 50 birr a day. Despite such apparent inequities, many Ethiopians - especially those in its growing middle class - are happy to pay handsomely for tailored garments with traditional influences, says 25-year-old fashion designer Mahlet Afework. She adds that Ethiopians take great pride in the country's ethnic diversity - about 84 languages and 200 dialects are spoken - and in displaying allegiances through clothing at special events such as weddings and festivals. Her clothing line, Mafi, specialises in ready-to-wear garments offering a notably funky take on the country's ethnic melting pot, and one that has proved successful. In 2012 Ms Mahlet won the Origin Africa Design Award, and showcased her work at African Fashion Week New York. Home-spun skills Ethiopia's successful fashion designers are predominantly women who grew up surrounded by traditionally woven cotton fabrics, and did not need to be taught the tailoring and embroidering skills required to make beautiful and delicate clothing. At the same time, a lack of formal fashion design education is preventing many Ethiopian designers from breaking out internationally, says Ms Mahlet, who is self-taught, and credits Google Search as her primary tutor. She adds that those few Ethiopian institutions teaching fashion design run courses that are far shorter than the typical three-year fashion degrees taught in the West, and need to better impart the skills needed to compete internationally. Another problem in the international arena is conducting sales transactions. Banking restrictions mean there are no foreign banks in Ethiopia, and international customers are often suspicious of paying into African accounts, Ms Fikirte says. Yefikir currently sells through Africa Design Hub, a US-based online store founded in 2013 by Western expatriates to showcase African designs while bridging markets. Elizabeth Brown, the store's co-founder, says: "After living in East Africa for several years we saw the potential of African designs in the global market, but also a gap in market linkages, and knowledge sharing, between the industry and global consumers." International arena Yet global interest in Ethiopia's fashion scene is undoubtedly growing. "Ethiopia has some wonderful and interesting craftsmanship," says Markus Lupfer, a British fashion designer who since 2010 has mentored young Ethiopian fashion designers in developing collections. He adds that growing international recognition for Ethiopia's designers is partly a result of increasing demand for ethically produced fashion designs. Although for the majority of Ethiopia's fashion designers, there is not yet enough of that recognition. And while local demand remains buoyant - this year Ms Mahlet plans to open in-store Mafi fashion concession areas in Addis-Ababa-based boutiques; common practice in the West, but a new concept in Ethiopia - designers agree that international demand is essential for significant business growth. Ms Fikirte and Ms Mahlet plan to bolster their companies' online presences this year, with both sharing a goal of exporting their designs to overseas boutiques and online stores. "Ethiopia's fashion industry is changing the image of Ethiopia," Ms Fikirte says. "It is showing the diversity and beauty of Ethiopian culture, and providing some of the world's best hand-woven cotton fabrics."

इथियोपियाई फैशन डिजाइनर फिकिर्ते एडिस घुटने टेकते हैं और एक ग्राहक की कमर के चारों ओर एक टेप माप को लपेटते हैं, इससे पहले कि वे कागज के एक टुकड़े पर लिखें जिस पर एक बहते हुए गाउन की रूपरेखा आकार लेती है।


Warner Music Group eyes $13.2bn valuation

Summary: Warner Music Group (WMG), the record label of Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars, estimates it is worth up to $13.2bn (£10.7bn), as it prepares to list its shares on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

That is four times what Sir Leonard Blavatnik paid in 2011 for WMG - the world's third largest record label. At the time, the music industry was in the depths of a multi-year slump, but sales have improved more recently. Warner Music said it is hoping to raise $1.8bn via the listing. The firm had put its flotation plans on hold as the coronavirus pandemic cast financial markets into turmoil this spring. But shares have been on the upswing recently, as investors cheer relief efforts by governments and central banks, hoping for a quick economic rebound. Warner Music said existing shareholders would sell 70 million shares priced at $23-$26 apiece. The proceeds would go to Mr Blavatnik's company, Access Industries, which will retain majority voting power. The firm represents more than 80,000 songwriters and composers, from Beethoven to Madonna. It reported a profit of $256m in its most recent financial year, on revenue of $4.5bn. The industry's recovery has been helped by the rise of paid streaming services such as Apple and Spotify. In 2019, global music revenues rose 8.2% to $20.2bn - more than half of which came from streaming services, according to industry group International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Ukrainian-born Mr Blavatnik now has joint UK-US citizenship and received a knighthood in 2017 for services to philanthropy. He sold a stake in Russian oil company TNK-BP for $7bn in 2013 and was an early investor in the Apple-owned Beats music subscription service.

एड शीरन और ब्रूनो मार्स के रिकॉर्ड लेबल वार्नर म्यूजिक ग्रुप (डब्ल्यू. एम. जी.) का अनुमान है कि इसकी कीमत $13.2bn (£ 10.7bn) तक है, क्योंकि यह नैस्डैक स्टॉक एक्सचेंज में अपने शेयरों को सूचीबद्ध करने की तैयारी कर रहा है।


Awamiya: Inside Saudi Shia town devastated by demolitions and fighting

Summary: The BBC's Sally Nabil has been given rare access to Awamiya in Saudi Arabia, a town in the east of the Sunni Muslim-ruled kingdom that has been rocked in recent months by deadly clashes between security forces and Shia militants that were triggered by the demolition of its old quarter.

"You will have only a few minutes on the ground. When we say 'go', you will have to leave at once," a Saudi police officer told us firmly as we got on an armoured vehicle heading to Awamiya. As we approached the town, escorted by special forces, officers kept talking to their commanders over the phone to make sure the convoy was safe to proceed. The security situation in Awamiya remains unstable, although the government says it is in control. When we got to Awamiya, the scale of devastation was shocking. It looked like a war zone - as if we were in Mosul or Aleppo. The town, which lies in the Qatif region of oil-rich Eastern Province, was home to about 30,000 people, most of them Shia. Now, there is nothing left of the once vibrant residential area but bullet-riddled houses, and burned-out cars and shops - a testament to the heavy fighting. Members of Saudi Arabia's Shia minority have for years complained about what they perceive as discrimination and marginalisation at the hands of the Sunni monarchy. But their protests have always been met by a crackdown. "The Saudi regime does not accept opposition, whether it comes from a Sunni or a Shia. They are just intolerant," Ali Adubisi, the director of the Berlin-based European-Saudi Organisation for Human Rights, told me. As I walked around Awamiya, I saw a few bulldozers standing in the middle of the wasteland. In May, the authorities started demolishing the 400-year-old al-Musawara area, as a part of what it says is a "development project". "Eighty houses were demolished, and we still have about 400 more to go. These are dilapidated buildings, they should be modernised," acting mayor Essam Abdullatif Al-Mulla told me. "Families have been relocated after being generously compensated and offered alternative houses." As soon as the demolitions started, the confrontation in Awamiya took a violent turn. Shia groups accused police troops of forcing people to leave, with the aim of crushing dissent. Activists say security forces sealed off the town's entrances and exits in late July, denying remaining residents access to essential services such as medical care. The violence has killed more than 20 civilians, among them a three-year-old boy who died on Wednesday, in addition to at least five militants, according to activists. The Saudi authorities say eight police officers and four special forces personnel have died, but did not release any information on civilian and militant deaths. The interior ministry has blamed the unrest on "terrorist groups who have been in the area for years". A statement said government forces had been attacked repeatedly with rocket-propelled grenades, Molotov cocktails and machine guns. "Terrorists indiscriminately killed civilians, and used them as human shields. People fled because they felt threatened by the militants," it added. But there is another version to this story. I managed to find a Saudi man who recently fled Awamiya, and is now seeking asylum in Germany. "Security forces would shoot everyone - a man, a woman, an elderly person, or even a child," he said. "For days I couldn't step out of my house. I was too scared." The man, who asked us not to identify him as he feared for his life, told me he had never personally taken up arms but that he understood why some people had chosen to do so. "You can be sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia just because you are a Shia and you belong to a different religious sect." "The people are deprived of their freedom and dignity and might even be executed in unfair trials. They won't remain silent forever. If someone shoots you, you will have to shoot back." The man recalled the start of the Shia protests in Awamiya in early 2011, when people emboldened by the Arab Spring uprisings across the region took to the streets. "We were peaceful protesters, but security forces used to disperse us with live ammunition," he said. Since then, hundreds of people have been arrested. Human rights groups say Specialised Criminal Courts, set up for terrorism cases, have sentenced more than three dozen men and boys to death after convicting them of protest-related crimes following unfair trials. Activists fear that 14 protesters, including four found guilty of offenses committed when they were children, could be executed at any moment. They include the nephew of Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, a prominent Shia cleric and vocal critic of the government who was convicted of terrorism offensives and executed in January 2016. Our brief visit to Awamiya was interrupted by gunshots, fired from a distance. We did not know whether it was the police, or the armed groups. But we had to leave at once, just as the commander said. On our way back, I looked through the car window, and wondered if life would return to this ghost town any time soon. It is very difficult to tell, as the reasons for the unrest are still very much present.

बी. बी. सी. के सैली नाबिल को सऊदी अरब में अवामीया तक दुर्लभ पहुंच दी गई है, जो सुन्नी मुस्लिम शासित राज्य के पूर्व में एक शहर है जो हाल के महीनों में सुरक्षा बलों और शिया आतंकवादियों के बीच घातक झड़पों से हिल गया है जो इसके पुराने क्वार्टर के विध्वंस से शुरू हुआ था।


Golden eagle lands on Ton Pentre woman's windowsill

Summary: A golden eagle caused a flap after landing on the windowsill of a house in Rhondda Cynon Taff.

Rebekah Norton, from Ton Pentre, published pictures on Facebook of the huge bird of prey staring through her window. Appealing for information, she posted: "Has anyone lost a MASSIVE bird? Currently sitting on my window." In an update, she later said: "Apparently it's a golden eagle. Owner found." In the pictures the eagle can be seen wearing leather anklets used in falconry. According to the RSPB, golden eagles can have a wingspan of up to 2.2m (7ft 2in) and weigh up to 6.6kg (14lb 9oz).

रोंडा साइनन टाफ में एक घर की खिड़कियों पर उतरने के बाद एक सुनहरे चील ने फ्लैप कर दिया।


Lorry driver's 'life-changing' injuries after M6 crash

Summary: A lorry driver injured in a crash on the M6 has "life-changing" leg injuries, police have said.

A flat-bed goods vehicle collided with an HGV between J8 for the M5 and J9 for Wednesbury at about 15:30 BST on Thursday. The motorway was closed for four hours following the crash. The 26-year-old driver of the smaller vehicle remains in hospital with serious injuries. Police are appealing for witnesses and dashcam footage. Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, and sign up for local news updates direct to your phone.

पुलिस ने कहा है कि एम6 पर एक दुर्घटना में घायल एक लॉरी चालक के पैर में "जीवन बदलने वाली" चोटें हैं।


60 years of Carnival: How Antigua keeps tradition alive

Summary: In a former shop wedged among the candy-coloured buildings of St John's, artisans armed with glue guns and wire, sequins and scissors, are at work to the beat of an infectious soca rhythm.

By Gemma HandySt John's, Antigua Haughty-looking mannequins bear the fruits of their labour, a kaleidoscopic array of costumes ready to transform the streets of Antigua's capital into a vibrant spectacle during August's Carnival parades. Every year, in the run up to the festivities, back rooms and disused offices across the island are cleared out to make way for designers, seamstresses and the florid materials of their craft. These are the informal mas' (short for masquerade) camps where the bulk of the outfits are still painstakingly created by hand, conceptualised by designers keen to flaunt their talent and secure bragging rights on the road. Enduring tradition This year the stakes are even higher as the Eastern Caribbean nation marks the diamond jubilee edition of the much-loved event. Two hundred years may have passed since Antiguans first hit the streets in a display of pageantry to celebrate freedom from slavery, but time has done nothing to diminish Carnival's electrifying atmosphere and bonhomie. The costumes remain central to the occasion, first commemorated officially in 1957. In those days the vivid ensembles included plantation-style dresses and bonnets, witches and skeletons, soldiers and majorettes. "The costumes used to be larger; some had to be rolled along on wheels," says Calvin Southwell, head designer with the Beautiful People troupe. "Now the materials are lighter so you can wear them more easily for hours. And they're a lot skimpier too," he adds with a grin. Brazilian influences Influences from Rio de Janeiro's parades are evidenced in the bikinis and feathers which characterise contemporary Caribbean carnival garb. But Antigua has maintained many of its indigenous themes and traditional techniques. An elaborate piece can take several days to put together. "Back in the day, go-to materials were lamé, reflective paper, cardboard for the frame, and wire to stop it falling apart if it rained. Often they would incorporate cultural elements like the cathedral or a man on a donkey," Mr Southwell, a fashion designer by profession, explains. "Now I use things like chiffon and lace. I might recycle exotic materials like feathers from an old hat. And that bustier was made from an old evening gown," he says, indicating a shimmering, diamante-studded garment. From designing the pieces to completion is a six-month process. The Beautiful People troupe has a core team of 10 volunteers who bring 400 outfits a year to fruition. "We make everything locally; we don't import anything except raw materials, like feathers from China and various bits from the US and Trinidad," Mr Southwell continues. "We want to keep it totally Antiguan and making everything here preserves our uniqueness. We still incorporate elements of our culture, such as our national 'madras' fabric. We believe in keeping the art form alive; incorporating children into costume production is very important," he says. Proud 'father' Mr Southwell has been taking part in Carnival for over four decades. "I started playing mas' when I was nine; it was a reward for doing well in school and I have done it ever since. He adds: "Having a band is like giving birth; you nurture it, look after it and watch the costumes come to life on the streets. When you see people's reaction, that's when you feel most proud." Janna Henry knows what he means. As lead designer with the Insane troupe, she heads a team of 50 people who create more than 600 costumes each season. "Around 80% of everything we make is by hand, particularly our feather pieces," she says. "Some people think it's a dying art but that's not our experience. Most of our volunteers are teenagers who come just because they want to learn." Insane's pieces are constructed on wire frames to ensure durability. Some require simple wire-bending manoeuvres, others welding. One modern material the group employs is a sturdy foam, similar to the type used in flip-flops and ideal for crafting accessories. "The secret is coming out of the box and doing something people haven't seen before," Ms Henry says. "We are all former mas' players so we know what's comfortable, appealing and looks good on the road. "It's a tropical climate so the sun plays an important role. Metallic fabrics and sequins which reflect the light, and also look good under artificial lighting and flash photography, is a key strategy," she explains, adding: "You have to blend the colours well too; people like lots of vibrant colours to look festive." For Roger Perry, of the Festivals Commission, the real magic takes place during the final parade on Carnival Tuesday, early each August. "That's when you get to see all the costumes, craftsmanship and artistry," he says. "Against the lights, the music and the glow, it's just beautiful."

सेंट जॉन्स की कैंडी-रंगीन इमारतों के बीच एक पूर्व दुकान में, गोंद बंदूकों और तार, सीक्विन और कैंची से लैस कारीगर, एक संक्रामक सोका लय की धड़कन पर काम कर रहे हैं।


How worried should we be about Chinese share price falls?

Summary: Chinese shares fell by almost 9% overnight, alongside another broad sell-off across Asia. Global stock markets suffered their worst week in years last week and, so far, Monday has provided no respite.

Duncan WeldonNewsnight economics correspondent@Duncanweldonon Twitter The immediate catalyst for China's fall was the lack of a government policy response over the weekend. Investors - both Chinese and foreign - have come to believe that the Chinese government will support prices in the market, and so far they have been right. Previous sharp sell-offs have been met with a strong response by essentially banning large institutions from selling to interest rate cuts. The lack of a response could be taken as either a bad sign (that China is running out of policy tools to respond, potentially damaging the credibility of a government that has staked a lot of on its rising market) or as a good one (that the government's commitments to market reform are real and are going to stop trying to manipulate their market). Although either way, it's not good news for those who have bought Chinese equities which they thought were underpinned by a "Politburo Put". For years the more cynical investors in the US have believed in a "Greenspan Put", a "Bernanke Put" and perhaps now a "Yellen Put" - all named after successive chairs of the US central bank. A put option is a financial derivative which protects investors against a fall in share prices: the belief of some is that the US Federal Reserve will act to prop up markets in tough times - essentially providing a free put option and covering investors' downside and limiting any losses. Stepping back, the economic significance of China's collapsing stock market should not be over exaggerated. The country's financial markets are still relatively closed, limiting the direct cross-border impacts. But behind the stock market collapse is a seriously slowing economy and the impact of that overseas is a lot more serious. Still, with many in the markets always on the look out for "the next 2008", it's worth noting that this probably isn't it (and if it is, do feel free to tweet this blog post at me continually for the rest of my career). As I wrote last week, the big structural drivers of emerging economy growth appear to be slowing or reversing. Growth - and emerging market asset price returns - are likely to have to be weaker in the years ahead. With emerging economies representing half of the global economy - and providing around 80% of global growth in the last few years - that matters. And with corporate revenue growth at many large Western firms being driven by increased sales in the developing world, that slowdown will hit their profits and hence Western stock markets. But the immediate economic fall out is more containable. Lower asset prices (making it harder for firms to raise money for investment) and lower export growth will slow Western growth. But that impact could be at least partially offset by much lower commodity prices (and weaker emerging economy growth means a much lower price for oil, copper and the all rest) which means lower prices for things like petrol, boosting household incomes and allowing interest rates to stay lower for longer. There is a worry that weaker growth and weaker currencies across particularly Asia could export deflation to the West. That is a risk worth watching, although as long as wage growth in the developed countries continues at a decent clip, it is a manageable one. You can't have a negative (and damaging) process of wage-price spirals if wage growth remains healthy. A long lasting emerging economy slowdown would have profound impact on the world economy. It will obviously have a major effect on the living standards of the billions of people who live in those economies. But in the West, this isn't a 2008-style crisis but a stage in a ongoing process of the global economy being reshaped. Still, the turbulence in the US markets may be enough to prevent the Federal Reserve from raising US interest rates in September. In which case there will be some who, rightly or wrongly, begin talking about a "Yellen put".

चीनी शेयरों में रातोंरात लगभग 9 प्रतिशत की गिरावट आई, साथ ही पूरे एशिया में एक और व्यापक बिकवाली हुई। वैश्विक शेयर बाजारों को पिछले सप्ताह वर्षों में सबसे खराब सप्ताह का सामना करना पड़ा और अब तक सोमवार को कोई राहत नहीं मिली है।


100 Women: How South Korea stopped its parents aborting girls

Summary: For every 100 baby girls born in India, there are 111 baby boys. In China, the ratio is 100 to 115. One other country saw similar rates in 1990, but has since brought its population back into balance. How did South Korea do it? Yvette Tan reports.

"One daughter is equal to 10 sons," was the message desperately being promoted by the South Korean government. It was some two decades ago and gender imbalance was at a high, reaching 116.5 boys for every 100 girls at its peak. The preference for sons goes back centuries in Korean tradition. They were seen to carry on the family line, provide financial support and take care of their parents in old age. "There was the idea that daughters were not regarded as part of their own family after marriage," says Ms Park-Cha Okkyung, the executive director of the Korean Women's Associations United. The government was looking for a solution - and fast. In an effort to reduce the incidence of selective abortions, South Korea enacted a law in 1988 making it illegal for a doctor to reveal the gender of a foetus to expectant parents. At the same time women were also becoming more educated, with many more starting to join the workforce, challenging the convention that it was the job of a man to provide for his family. It worked, but it was not for one reason alone. Rather, a combination of these factors led to the eventual gender rebalancing. South Korea was acknowledged as the "first Asian country to reverse the trend in rising sex ratios at birth", in a report by the World Bank. In 2013, the ratio was down to 105.3, a number comparable to major Western nations such as Canada. Rapid urbanisation Monica Das Gupta, research professor in sociology at the University of Maryland who has studied gender disparity across Asia, says factors other than legislation are likely to be the most significant in accounting for this change. A legal ban can "dampen things a bit", but she points out that "seven years after the law [was instituted] sex-selective abortions continued". Rather she attributes the change to the "blistering pace" of urbanisation and industrialisation in South Korea. While the country was predominantly a rural society there was great emphasis on male lineage and boys staying at home to inherit their fathers' land. But in just a few decades a large part of the population has moved to living in apartment blocks with people they don't know and working in factories with people they don't know, and the system has become much more impersonal, Dr Das Gupta says. China and India, though, still have a stark gender imbalance, despite India outlawing, and China regulating against, sex-selective testing and abortions. So why is that? Dr Das Gupta believes that in China this may be because until last year, the rule that your household registration - known as the hukou system - remained in the village where you were from, regardless of the fact that you might work in the city, meant that there was still an emphasis on male lineage and land ownership, but that this should now start to shift. But she also stressed that the change is not always linear. As people gain economic advantage they have better access to sex-selective testing and have fewer children, which actually then puts greater emphasis on their gender. In India in 1961, there were 976 girls for every 1,000 boys under the age of seven. According to the latest census figures released in 2011, that figure had dropped to a dismal 914 and campaigners say the decline is largely due to the increased availability of antenatal sex screening, despite the fact that both the tests and sex-selective abortion have been outlawed since 1994. They say that in the past decade alone, 8 million female foetuses may have been aborted in the country. But she argues that several factors in India are slowly having a trickle-down effect on attitudes to women including media representation of women functioning in the outside world, and legislative changes enforcing equal inheritance rules and requiring one-third of elected positions be reserved for women. What is 100 women? BBC 100 Women names 100 influential and inspirational women around the world every year. We create documentaries, features and interviews about their lives, giving more space for stories that put women at the centre. Other stories you might like: The English girls' school reborn in a Nairobi slum Parents who regret having children Who is on the BBC's 100 Women 2016 list? While South Korea may have rebalanced its population, this does not necessarily equate gender equality, Ms Okkyung argues. "Even though Korea has a normal gender ratio balance, discrimination against women still continues," the 47-year-old says. "We need to pay more attention to the real situations that women face rather than just looking at the numbers." Women in South Korea face one of the largest gender wage gaps amongst developed countries - at 36% in 2013. By comparison, New Zealand has a gap of some 5%. "Nowadays women go to university at a higher rate than men in South Korea. However, the problem starts when women enter into the labour market," Ms Okkyung explains. "The glass ceiling is very solid and there is a low percentage of women at higher positions in offices." One of the reasons it is harder for women to compete in the workplace is because they are expected to devote their time to both work and family. "One example is that working mothers have a dilemma, as children in elementary schools come home early after lunch. Therefore, mothers who cannot see a sustainable future in the workplace tend to quit their jobs," says Ms Okkyung. Dr Hyekung Lee was one of the few Korean women in her generation that did find workplace success. "I have been very lucky that I was brought up in a very enlightened family. My family had three girls and two boys, and all were given the same support for education," says 68-year-old Dr Lee, who is the chairperson of the Korea Foundation for Women, the country's only non-profit organisation for women. "But when I became a full-time faculty member in my university, I had to be the only woman professor in my department throughout my 30 years there." Moving ahead Generally, attitudes towards women have improved as today's Korean men become more educated and exposed to global norms. They also inevitably mix with women across all spheres of life, in workplaces, schools or social circles, something that perhaps was not so common decades ago. It is amongst the older generation that many still cling on to the preference for sons. Emily [not her real name], 26, recalls that growing up as an only child, she was always treated equally by her grandparents - until her step-brothers were born. "I only noticed the difference when my brothers came," she said. "Then I realised that they would never do stuff like the housework." "My birthday is also one day before my father's so my grandparents didn't allow me to celebrate it because as they said: 'How dare a girl celebrate a birthday before her father?'" "I think Korea is at that transitional phase that people are more aware now than previous generations, but it's still not quite equal compared to Western countries," she says. "I've had friends tell me I can only keep my career if I stay single, and others tell me I've chased away men because I was too bossy on the dates and took the initiative." She also notes that there is also a substantial difference in attitudes towards women in bigger cities and smaller towns. "Cities like Busan are more traditional. I've had friends from Busan get a culture shock when they come to Seoul," she says. "In the capital, things are more progressive." Yet she believes change will come. "Women in Korea need to be aware that there is gender discrimination," says Emily, who is now studying in the Netherlands. "I didn't know until I left - I thought the way things were was just how they were." "It's not until you expose yourself to other cultures that you start to question your own. I think things will change, but it will take a lot of time." Additional reporting by the BBC's Geeta Pandey and Yuwen Wu.

भारत में पैदा होने वाली प्रत्येक 100 बच्चियों के लिए 111 लड़के पैदा होते हैं। चीन में, यह अनुपात 100 से 115 है। एक अन्य देश ने 1990 में समान दर देखी, लेकिन तब से अपनी आबादी को संतुलन में वापस लाया है। दक्षिण कोरिया ने यह कैसे किया? यवेट टैन रिपोर्ट करता है।


Rooney and Ali items sold in Tommy Scragg auction

Summary: Boots worn by Wayne Rooney in the 2007 FA Cup final and a pair of Muhammad Ali's shorts, both owned by a criminal, have been sold by police at auction.

The items had belonged to Thomas 'Tommy' Scragg, from Solihull, West Midlands, who was jailed for 17 years in 2012 for his part in a £34m fraud. They were seized along with other items from Scragg under the Proceeds of Crime Act. Rooney's boots sold for £2,000 and Ali's shorts for £2,500. The items were sold at an auction in Newtownabbey, near Belfast. Police said the money raised from the auction will be used for public spending. Scragg's Wolverhampton-based businesses stole tax through PAYE and VAT payments between 2002 and 2008.

2007 एफ. ए. कप फाइनल में वेन रूनी द्वारा पहने गए जूते और मुहम्मद अली के शॉर्ट्स की एक जोड़ी, दोनों एक अपराधी के स्वामित्व में हैं, पुलिस द्वारा नीलामी में बेचे गए हैं।


Father Jacques Hamel: Tributes paid to priest who dedicated life to church

Summary: Jacques Hamel, the priest murdered by IS sympathisers during morning Mass at his church in Normandy, has been described as a courageous and dedicated man who had pledged to serve the church "until my last breath".

Father Hamel, who was 86, retired nearly a decade ago but continued to serve as an assistant priest at the church in St Etienne-du-Rouvray, a suburb of Rouen. When the two attackers burst into the church on Tuesday, he was leading the service in the absence of the regular priest, Father Auguste Moanda-Phuati. His throat was slit by the two men, who took five people hostage before being shot dead by police. One hostage remains in a critical condition. "He was a courageous priest for his age. Priests have the right to retire at 75 but he preferred to work in the service of the people because he still felt strong," Father Moanda-Phuati told France's Le Figaro. "He was very popular, a good man, simple and without extravagance. We benefited greatly from his experience and wisdom at the parish of Saint-Etienne. He served people for most of his life," he added. Father Hamel was born in 1930 in Darnétal, Seine-Maritime. He was ordained in 1958 and celebrated his golden jubilee - 50 years of priesthood - in 2008, according to the parish website. Father Aime Remi Mputu Amba, the dean of another local church, described him as a man of "great discretion and great attention" who brought a "ray of sunshine" to meetings. Speaking to Le Figaro, Father Mputu Amba said: "Despite his advanced age he was still invested in the life of the parish. I often told him, jokingly, 'Jacques, you are getting on a bit, it's time to take your pension.' To which he replied, laughing, 'Have you ever seen a retired pastor? I will work until my last breath.'" In a parish newsletter sent out last month to mark the holiday period, Father Hamel urged parishioners to spend time with friends and family and to look out for those who are alone. "Be considerate of others, whoever they are," he wrote. Parishioners said they were shocked by the attack and paid tribute to the priest. Eulalie Garcia, who took catechism classes with Father Hamel as a girl, said: "My family has lived here for 35 years and we have always known him. "He was someone who was treasured by the community. He was very discreet and didn't like to draw attention to himself." Pensioner Claude-Albert Seguin told the Associated Press: "Everyone knew him very well. He was very loved in the community and a kind man." Another parishioner said on Twitter: "The priest who died, he baptised me, taught me the Catechism... I am outraged, shocked, sad." Mohammed Karabila, the president of Normandy's Regional Council of the Muslim Faith, who worked with Father Hamel on an interfaith committee, described him as "a man of peace" who "dedicated his life to his ideas and religion". Pope Francis condemned the killing as "barbaric".

नॉरमैंडी में अपने चर्च में सुबह की प्रार्थना सभा के दौरान आईएस के समर्थकों द्वारा मारे गए पादरी जैक्स हैमल को एक साहसी और समर्पित व्यक्ति के रूप में वर्णित किया गया है जिन्होंने "मेरी अंतिम सांस तक" चर्च की सेवा करने का संकल्प लिया था।


Aberdeen City Council names new chief executive

Summary: Aberdeen City Council has named its new chief executive.

Valerie Watts - currently town clerk and chief executive of Derry City Council - will replace Sue Bruce, who has taken on the same post in Edinburgh. Council leader John Stewart said: "We are absolutely delighted to have chosen Valerie, following a rigorous nationwide recruitment programme." Mrs Watts said: "This is a very exciting opportunity." She is expected to take up the post in late February or early March. Aberdeen City Council said the new chief executive would "bring a wealth of experience" to the post. Mr Stewart said: "Valerie was the outstanding candidate in a very high-calibre field. "It was clear to the appointment panel that she has the energy, enthusiasm and the vision to take Aberdeen City Council forward building on the work of Sue Bruce." Mrs Watts said: "I look forward to the new challenges that a thriving, international city like Aberdeen will bring." Sue Bruce had replaced Douglas Paterson in Aberdeen in 2008 after he took early retirement.

एबरडीन सिटी काउंसिल ने अपना नया मुख्य कार्यकारी नामित किया है।


Obituary: Yemen al-Qaeda leader Nasser al-Wuhayshi

Summary: Nasser Abdul Karim al-Wuhayshi, a former private secretary to Osama Bin Laden, was the leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), formed in 2009 in a merger between two offshoots of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

Under his direction, AQAP took advantage of the weak central government in Yemen to establish strongholds in tribal regions and become what US counter-terrorism officials described as the "most active operational franchise" of al-Qaeda beyond Pakistan and Afghanistan. The group claimed responsibility for a number of high-profile attacks in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, as well as a failed attempt to blow up a US passenger jet. In August 2013, it was reported that Wuhayshi had been named al-Qaeda's "general manager", or second-in-command, showing his importance to the jihadist network's efforts to attack the West and suggesting he might be in line to succeed Ayman al-Zawahiri as overall leader. But in June 2015, AQAP announced that Wuhayshi had been killed in a suspected US drone strike in the south-eastern port city of Mukalla. Prison escape Wuhayshi, who is from the southern Yemeni governorate of al-Baida, spent time in religious institutions before travelling to Afghanistan in the late 1990s. He fought at the battle of Tora Bora in 2001, before escaping over the border into Iran, where he was eventually arrested. He was extradited to Yemen in 2003. In 2006, Wuhayshi and 22 other suspected al-Qaeda members managed to escape from a prison in Sanaa. Among them were also Jamal al-Badawi, the alleged mastermind of the USS Cole bombing, and Qasim al-Raymi, AQAP's military commander. After their escape from prison, Wuhayshi and Raymi were said to have overseen the formation of al-Qaeda in Yemen, which took in both new recruits and Arab fighters returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The group claimed responsibility for two suicide bomb attacks that killed six Western tourists before being linked to the assault on the US embassy in Sanaa in 2008, in which 10 Yemeni guards and four civilians died. Four months later, Wuhayshi announced in a video the merger of the al-Qaeda offshoots in Yemen and Saudi Arabia to form "al-Qaeda of Jihad Organisation in the Arabian Peninsula". His appointment as AQAP leader was later confirmed by Zawahiri. Western targets AQAP's first operation outside Yemen was carried out in Saudi Arabia in August 2009 against the kingdom's security chief, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, though he survived. It later said it was behind the attempt to blow up a US passenger jet as it flew into Detroit on 25 December 2009. The Nigerian man who was convicted in relation with the incident, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, said AQAP operatives had trained him. Two more plots targeting US aviation were foiled. At home, Wuhayshi's group capitalised on political turmoil in Yemen resulting from the uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011 to capture a string of towns and villages, only to be driven out of many areas in an army offensive in 2012 ordered by Mr Saleh's successor, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. At the same time, US President Barack Obama authorised a significant increase in the number of drone strikes targeting AQAP operatives in Yemen in 2012, resulting in the deaths of a number of senior figures, including Wuhayshi's Saudi-born deputy, Said al-Shihri. The territorial losses did not, however, stop AQAP from launching a series of high-profile attacks targeting Yemeni security forces and government personnel. This included a suicide bombing at a military parade in Sanaa in May 2012 that killed more than 120 people and a raid on a hospital in the defence ministry compound in the capital in December 2013 that left 56 people dead. Yemen chaos In March 2014, Wuhayshi was filmed telling a large gathering of militants that AQAP would fight Western "Crusaders" and their allies everywhere. That December, the group threatened to kill an American hostage, Luke Somers, if its unspecified demands were not met within three days. Somers was killed during a failed rescue attempt by US special forces. The next month, AQAP claimed to be behind the deadly attack on the Paris offices of the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, which had published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. US officials later confirmed that one of the gunmen had received training at an AQAP camp. In Yemen, AQAP has recently capitalised on the chaos caused by a rebellion by the Houthi movement and a Saudi-led air campaign to weaken the Zaidi Shia group, expanding the territory it controlled in the south and east of the country. However, the US drone strikes targeting AQAP did not stop and one was reported to have killed Wuhayshi as he met two fellow militants in Mukalla on 9 June. On 16 June, an AQAP spokesman confirmed Wuhayshi's death and vowed that "the blood of these pioneers makes us more determined to sacrifice".

ओसामा बिन लादेन के पूर्व निजी सचिव नासिर अब्दुल करीम अल-वुहायशी अरब प्रायद्वीप में अल-कायदा (एक्यूएपी) के नेता थे, जिसका गठन 2009 में सऊदी अरब और यमन में अल-कायदा की दो शाखाओं के बीच विलय में किया गया था।


Obituary: Guatemala's Efrain Rios Montt

Summary: Guatemala's former military leader Efrain Rios Montt was one of the central American nation's most controversial figures, who briefly seized power during one of the bloodiest periods of the country's brutal 36-year civil war.

In May 2013, he was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, but the conviction was later overturned by the high court. Legal battles over whether he was fit to stand for retrial endured until his death in 2018. Born in Huehuetenango, Efrain Rios Montt joined the army as a young man and was an officer by the time President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman was deposed in a CIA-backed military coup in 1954. He rose through the ranks to become a brigadier general and the army's chief of staff in 1970 during the military regime of President General Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio. He came to power through a coup in March 1982 in the middle of Guatemala's bloody war, in which Marxist rebels battled the military regime. Civilians - the vast majority of them indigenous Mayans - were caught in the crossfire, and an estimated 200,000 died before a truce was reached in 1996, making the conflict one of Latin America's most violent wars. Although Gen Rios Montt was overthrown by his Defence Minister Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores in August 1983, he is considered to have had a major impact on the conflict through the so-called Guns and Beans campaign. The rebels were offered terms through which they would be fed if they supported the regime, but crushed if they continued fighting. Prosecutors say that during his 17 months in power, Gen Rios Montt and his chief of military intelligence, Gen Jose Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez, ordered the deaths of more than 1,700 members of the Ixil Maya ethnic group, whom they suspected were supporting the rebels. In 2012, Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom apologised to the relatives of the victims of a December 1982 massacre in which Guatemalan soldiers killed more than 200 people in the village of Dos Erres, saying it was a stain on Guatemala's history. 'Guatemala was in ruins' General Rios Montt returned to the political limelight when he ran for president in 2003, despite a constitutional rule that no-one who had overthrown a government could stand for the presidency. During the campaign, he was accused of orchestrating a violent protest by his supporters against the constitutional ruling. A journalist died of a heart attack while running away from protesters in what became known as Black Thursday in Guatemala City. But Gen Rios Montt was cleared of manslaughter charges in 2006, with prosecutors citing a lack of evidence. He stood for president again in 2006 but was defeated in an election was marred by violence, with more than 22 people connected with political parties killed in the run-up to the vote. The general returned to public office in 2007 as a member of Congress, which secured him immunity from prosecution over the war crimes allegations. But that immunity expired with the end of his term in office in January 2012, and within two weeks of leaving office he was summoned to court and formally charged with genocide and crimes against humanity. Prosecutors called for 75-year sentences to be given to both Gen Rios Montt and his former spy chief. Although the case was beset with delays, legal loopholes and a temporary suspension, the pre-trial hearing was held in January 2013. The three-judge tribunal reached its verdict on 10 May, declaring him guilty and sentencing him to 80 years in prison. Gen Rios Montt did not testify during the court proceedings, but broke his silence to give an impassioned hour-long defence before the three judges retired to consider their verdicts. On more than one occasion, the 86-year-old apologised for appearing doddery, reminding the judges he was a great-grandfather. But he was crystal clear in claiming that there was no evidence he ordered the extermination of the Ixil ethnic group during his presidency. "I am innocent," he said. "I never had the intent to destroy any national race, religion, or ethnic group." He argued that his "mission as head of state was to reclaim order, because Guatemala was in ruins", rather than overseeing the civil war at a local level. On 20 May, the Constitutional Court of Guatemala overturned the conviction. A retrial eventually resumed in October 2017, behind closed doors and in special conditions because of his deteriorating mental health. He died of a heart attack, aged 91, on 1 April 2018.

ग्वाटेमाला के पूर्व सैन्य नेता एफ्रेन रियोस मोंट मध्य अमेरिकी राष्ट्र की सबसे विवादास्पद हस्तियों में से एक थे, जिन्होंने देश के 36 साल के क्रूर गृहयुद्ध की सबसे खूनी अवधि में से एक के दौरान कुछ समय के लिए सत्ता पर कब्जा कर लिया था।


China goes big in Davos - and here's why

Summary: Today will see a through the looking glass moment at Davos.

Kamal AhmedEconomics editor@bbckamalon Twitter The leader of the world's largest Communist Party will take to the stage at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss ski resort arguing for globalisation and the wonders of free trade. At the same time as the US - the home of capitalism - has a new president saying that the present free trade rules need to be ripped up. The Dragon is here to embrace Switzerland's annual rich fest. And it's keen to be seen as a member of the club. President-elect Donald Trump wants to take a baseball bat to the club house and build a new one. 'Route to prosperity' President Xi Jinping is the first Chinese president to visit the WEF. His message is likely to be uncompromising. After Chinese officials warned against "nativism" last week - a direct reference to Mr Trump - Mr Xi is expected to say that global free trade has brought prosperity and that moves against it will only harm economic growth. Yes, he may nod to the need for globalisation to be seen to be working for all. But he will be clear that more trade is the route to prosperity, for Asia and Western economies. China is making a very major point via Mr Xi's visit to the WEF. With other leaders, notably Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, staying away, China is bringing the largest delegation it has ever mustered. Business leaders such as Jack Ma - the founder of the global internet giant Alibaba - are in Davos, as is Wang Jianlin, another of China's richest men and chairman of the property developer Dalian Wanda. The message is clear. America might start looking inward, but China is seeking to extend its influence, and the chosen route is economics. The big push at the WEF, the launch of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank to rival the US dominated World Bank, the revival of the "Silk Route" trade corridor from Asia to the Middle East and Europe - all point in one direction, and it's towards Mr Xi's enthusiasm for a more expansionist China. Economics is wielded as a tool of influence. The WEF full court press from Mr Xi comes at the same time as Mr Trump has made his position on China clear. Although we have yet to discover what President-elect Trump will actually do when he takes office on Friday, the fact that he hired one of America's toughest China hawks, Peter Navarro, as the head of his new National Trade Council, suggests little change from Campaigning Trump. And Campaigning Trump accused China of currency manipulation and "raping" America, saying that cheap Chinese exports had led to the loss of US jobs. I wrote about China's hyper-chilly reaction to that allegation and what Mr Navarro might mean for Sino/US relations here. So far, Mr Trump is talking tough. A strong supporter, Anthony Scaramucci, who is set to be hired as another of Mr Trump's business advisors, will also speak at Davos. And rather than extol the virtues of the present structures of world trade, he is likely to focus on what he sees as the weaknesses. In the past he has backed Mr Navarro's criticism that allowing China to join the World Trade Organisation under President Bill Clinton was a decision that American industry "has never recovered from". The contrast with President Xi will be stark. And will reveal the tension simmering between the two largest economies in the world - a tension that will define the health of the global economy over the next decade.

आज दावोस में एक अद्भुत क्षण देखने को मिलेगा।


EU faces decision time on migrants

Summary: "The most macabre travel agents in history" is how Italy's Interior Minister Angelino Alfano describes the people smugglers who charge migrants sums they can ill-afford to cross the Mediterranean in unsafe boats.

Katya AdlerEurope editor@BBCkatyaadleron Twitter Italy hopes its EU partners will on Thursday support an initiative to get a military mandate to destroy traffickers' vessels before they use them. The exact details are still unclear but a mandate from the EU - possibly also the UN - would be needed. A British government source told us that all options were on the table. Other proposals to be debated also include significantly boosting the EU's maritime patrol to help rescue migrants. Not quite on a par with Italy's former search and rescue programme but still a huge change. Libya, too, will be high on the discussion agenda. Italy says 90% of the immigrants washing up on its shores come by boat from there. It also worries about the organisation calling itself Islamic State, operating so close to Libya's maritime border. There are fears IS could pose a huge security risk for Europe. In the past, it has explicitly threatened Italy. Add into the mix a German-backed plan to spread migrants out more equally amongst EU countries - an extremely divisive issue - and you can see that the emergency summit will be a challenging one for its participants. But it's all or nothing according to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. He's demanding a fully comprehensive political - and financial - solution to the migrant crisis, rather than an emotional response by the EU and its member countries. Italians want their government to put the rest of the EU under pressure. They feel that they are struggling to cope, between their country's steep economic downturn on the one hand and what their media have dubbed "a migrant invasion" on the other. Anti-immigrant populist politicians here in Italy as elsewhere in Europe are gaining ground on the back of the debate. That's why so many European governments have, until now, silently looked the other way when it comes to the perils of migrants at sea. They feared that tackling the issue could cost them domestically. But Europe is now waking up to the realisation that this is a problem for the continent as a whole. Most migrants arriving in Italy or Greece don't want to stay there, preferring to slip invisibly over national borders until they reach richer destinations like Germany, Sweden or the UK. Germany had 200,000 asylum applications last year alone. In 2015 the numbers are expected to rise even further. The face of Europe is changing. Too fast for some. This is decision time but also a moment for soul searching. Some kind of common document will certainly emerge at the end of today's summit. The real test will be to see if those plans are then implemented. Europe made bold declarations on immigration just under two years ago, also following dreadful loss of life in the Mediterranean. The plans were similar to a number of proposals now being discussed. Yet here we are again.

"इतिहास में सबसे भयावह यात्रा एजेंट" यह है कि इटली के आंतरिक मंत्री एंजेलिनो अल्फानो उन लोगों के तस्करों का वर्णन करते हैं जो प्रवासियों से असुरक्षित नौकाओं में भूमध्य सागर पार करने के लिए पैसे लेते हैं।


Las Vegas shooting: Gun used 'bump-stock' device to shoot faster

Summary: Police say that the gunman who killed almost 60 people at a concert in Las Vegas had outfitted a legal but controversial accessory onto 12 of his semi-automatic rifles to enable them to fire hundreds of rounds per minute.

Officials say that theses devices - known as bump-stocks - have been found along with 23 guns inside Stephen Paddock's room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. Bump-stocks, or slide fire adapters, allow semi-automatic rifles to fire at a high rate, similar to a machine gun, but can be obtained without the extensive background checks required of purchasing automatic weapons. Audio analysis of one clip estimated that about 90 rounds were unleashed in only 10 seconds - far faster than a human being could repeatedly pull a trigger. Lawmakers have questioned the legality of these devices while gun owners - sensing a legislative crackdown - have reportedly begun stockpiling them. Since Congress passed the Firearm Owners' Protection Act in 1986, it has been relatively difficult for civilians to buy new, fully automatic weapons, which reload automatically and fire continuously as long as the trigger is depressed. However, thousands of "grandfathered" weapons - those manufactured and registered before 1986 - can still be bought but are very expensive and all sales must be approved by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). It is also illegal to modify the internal components of semi-automatic rifles - which typically manage about 60 aimed shots per minute - to make them fully automatic. Gun owners can instead legally buy accessories to increase the rate of fire. One option is a "trigger crank", "hellfire trigger", or "gat crank", which bolts onto the trigger guard of a semi-automatic rifle and depresses the trigger several times with every rotation. But the bump-stock, which was used by Stephen Paddock in Sunday's Las Vegas shooting, harnesses a rifle's recoil. It replaces the weapon's stock, which is held against the shoulder, and allows the rest of the rifle to slide back and forward with every shot despite having no mechanical parts or springs. The motion makes the trigger collide with, or bump, the shooter's finger as long as they apply forward pressure with the non-shooting hand and rearward pressure with the shooting hand. Following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut in 2012, California Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced a bill that sought to ban bump-stocks and similar devices, saying that manufacturers were exploiting "loopholes" to circumvent gun laws. However, the bill was defeated in the Senate. In the wake of the Las Vegas shooting, Mrs Feinstein re-introduced a bill on Wednesday that would outlaw the sale and possession of bump-stock equipment and other similar devices.

पुलिस का कहना है कि लास वेगास में एक संगीत कार्यक्रम में लगभग 60 लोगों की हत्या करने वाले बंदूकधारी ने अपनी 12 अर्ध-स्वचालित राइफलों पर एक कानूनी लेकिन विवादास्पद सहायक उपकरण लगाया था ताकि वे प्रति मिनट सैकड़ों राउंड फायर कर सकें।


Northampton single punch death: Manslaughter arrest

Summary: A 19-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of the manslaughter of a man who died as a result of a single punch.

The victim, aged 24, was punched and collapsed in an alleyway off Drapery, Northampton, on Saturday 9 February. He was taken to University Hospital in Coventry but died on Monday of his injuries. The arrested man is in custody. Northamptonshire Police have appealed for witnesses. An 18-year-old man and a 20-year-old man arrested in connection with the attack have been released under investigation pending further enquiries.

एक व्यक्ति की हत्या के संदेह में एक 19 वर्षीय व्यक्ति को गिरफ्तार किया गया है, जिसकी एक ही मुक्का मारने से मौत हो गई थी।


Pope Francis starts key reshuffle in top Church ranks

Summary: Archbishop Pietro Parolin, a 58-year-old Vatican diplomat, is to take over the key post of top foreign policy adviser and deputy to Pope Francis in October. He replaces Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone who has been a controversial and divisive figure in the Vatican corridors of power.

By David WilleyBBC News, Rome Archbishop Parolin's appointment as Vatican Secretary of State marks the beginning of a major reshuffle among the men who run the Roman Curia. When a Pope dies or steps down, as happened in the case of former Pope Benedict last February, all Vatican senior clerics automatically lose their jobs. Pope Francis temporarily reinstated all former department heads, including Cardinal Bertone, while he was planning a radical restructuring of the central government of the Catholic Church. Now, after nearly six months in office, Pope Francis has set in motion a timetable for Vatican administrative reform. The retirement of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the appointee of former Pope Benedict seven years ago, and his substitution by a much younger and more experienced Vatican diplomat who is also an accomplished linguist, is just the first stage in an ambitious plan drawn up by Pope Francis to bring the slow-moving papal court into the world of the 21st Century. Greg Burke, a communications strategist at the Vatican commented: "Archbishop Parolin was the Vatican's deputy foreign minister before he became Ambassador and knows how the Vatican works and how the Catholic Church works around the world. Pope Francis will rely on him heavily for everything regarding international relations." The Vatican has diplomatic relations with over 170 countries. Lacking co-ordination The new secretary of state will take over his job in mid October - after Pope Francis has chaired an inaugural meeting on 1 October of a council of eight cardinals from around the world whom he has appointed to advise him on Church policy. There has been a lack of co-ordination within the various dicasteries or administrative sections which form the Roman Curia or central government of the Roman Catholic Church during the past two decades. The late Pope John Paul II was in poor health for almost a decade before his death in 2005 and left many decisions to his aides. His successor Pope Benedict has not been seen as a successful administrator. The "Vatileaks" scandal, when Pope Benedict's butler stole confidential documents detailing cronyism and corruption among top-level Vatican administrators and leaked them to the media, marked a low point in his papacy. Pope Francis has already set in motion the reform of the Vatican Bank which has allegedly been turning a blind eye to money-laundering by some of its clients. He has also appointed a committee of Catholic economists to advise him on improving accounting methods and financial transparency. But the appointment of his new secretary of state is by the most important single administrative act carried out by the new Pope since his election last March.

आर्कबिशप पिएत्रो पारोलिन, एक 58 वर्षीय वेटिकन राजनयिक, अक्टूबर में शीर्ष विदेश नीति सलाहकार और पोप फ्रांसिस के सहायक का महत्वपूर्ण पद संभालने वाले हैं। वे कार्डिनल टारसिसियो बर्टोन की जगह लेंगे जो सत्ता के वेटिकन गलियारों में एक विवादास्पद और विभाजनकारी व्यक्ति रहे हैं।


First Hebridean Dark Skies Festival to be held

Summary: The Western Isles is to have its first astronomy festival next year.

The Hebridean Dark Skies Festival will take place on the Isle of Lewis from 8-21 February. Speakers will include Chris Lintott from BBC's The Sky at Night, science presenter Heather Couper and Astronomer Royal for Scotland, John Brown. There will be live music performances and screenings of films, including The Rocket Post and the silent movie Wunder Der Schöpfung. Arts centre An Lanntair, Stornoway Astronomical Society, Calanais Visitor Centre, Gallan Head Community Trust and Lews Castle College UHI are involved in the festival. Stargazing events will be held at Gallan Head and the Calanais Standing Stones.

पश्चिमी द्वीप समूह का पहला खगोल विज्ञान महोत्सव अगले साल होना है।


Donaghmore: Car destroyed in petrol bomb attack

Summary: A car has been destroyed after a petrol bomb attack in Donaghmore, County Tyrone.

The incident happened just after 23:00 GMT on Tuesday. A man wearing dark clothing was seen running from the scene after the fire had been started, according to a statement from the police. Detectives want anyone who witnessed the attack or has information about who was involved in it to contact with them.

काउंटी टायरोन के डोनाघमोर में एक पेट्रोल बम हमले के बाद एक कार नष्ट हो गई है।


Google agrees to forget

Summary: When the European Court of Justice made its landmark ruling forcing search engines to listen to people who wanted links about them removed, Google said little in public. But in private the search giant seethed with anger at a ruling it saw as both a threat to free expression and a monstrous bureaucratic burden.

Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter Two weeks on, Google has adopted a far more pragmatic stance, offering a mechanism to people who want to take advantage of the ruling. There is an online form to allow European users to request the removal of links about them. You have to prove your identity and explain exactly which links you want removed and why. But the form makes it clear that there are strict limits on exactly what can be removed. Google says it will "attempt to balance the privacy rights of the individual with the public's right to know and distribute information". So it will look at whether there's a public interest in the links users want removed - "for example, information about financial scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions, or public conduct of government officials". Google has also set up a commission of the great and good, people like the Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, to oversee the whole process. In an interview with the Financial Times, the company's chief executive Larry Page seemed resigned to the need to bow to the ruling from Europe's highest court, while keen to warn that it could threaten the next generation of internet start-ups and strengthen the hand of repressive governments. And much of the comment online has been deeply sceptical about the right to be forgotten, particularly in the United States where the First Amendment guaranteeing free speech would make this kind of ruling impossible. Some have pointed out that information won't be removed from google.com, just your local version of the search engine, others question the sheer practicality. But privacy campaigners say this does give the private individual, who does not want their entire identity defined by a search engine, some small measure of control over how their neighbours see them. In the ongoing battle between Europe and America over the balance between privacy and freedom of expression, this is one case where the European view has prevailed, for now. And, interestingly, one of the most powerful voices calling for a reassessment of the power of the internet giants over our personal data has been an American writer. In his novel The Circle Dave Eggers paints a dystopian future where a brilliant technology firm - The Circle - persuades the world that the more information we all share, the better our lives will be. Tiny online video cameras allow the world to see and hear what is happening anywhere in real time, politicians are persuaded to go "transparent", so that every word they say in private becomes public. At a public meeting, three slogans on a screen sum up The Circle's philosophy - "Secrets are Lies, Sharing is Caring, Privacy is Theft." Now of course this is just a novel - and The Circle is not Google. But American web superpowers, from Amazon to Facebook to Twitter, have acquired enormous power over our online lives, and those who have worried about that have often been told that resistance is pointless in a web with no borders. So today's move by Google is some evidence that if society decides it isn't happy with the idea that privacy is theft, it can do something about it.

जब यूरोपीय कोर्ट ऑफ जस्टिस ने अपना ऐतिहासिक फैसला देते हुए खोज इंजनों को उन लोगों को सुनने के लिए मजबूर किया जो उनके बारे में लिंक हटाना चाहते थे, तो गूगल ने सार्वजनिक रूप से बहुत कम कहा। लेकिन निजी तौर पर खोज दिग्गज एक फैसले पर गुस्से में था जिसे उसने स्वतंत्र अभिव्यक्ति के लिए खतरे और एक राक्षसी नौकरशाही बोझ दोनों के रूप में देखा।


Scottish independence: Aberdeen City Council expects complaints over 'No' letter

Summary: Aberdeen City Council's chief executive has told staff it is likely a number of complaints will be received about letters endorsing a "No" vote in September's independence referendum.

The Labour-led administration decided more than 100,000 letters would be included in council tax bills. Valerie Watts has now contacted staff. She wrote: "I appreciate that it is likely that we will receive a number of comments and complaints from members of the public." She added: "I would ask that you forward any that you or your team receive to my office." The letter added: "I fully appreciate that we all have our own views on the current constitutional debate under way." Aberdeen City Council is run by a coalition of Labour, the Conservatives and independents. The SNP had called for the letters to be pulped, but the coalition backed the move to send them. Labour council leader Barney Crockett insisted it was not political campaigning. SNP and Lib Dem councillors had walked out Tuesday's meeting after it was decided to hold the discussion on the letters in private. SNP group leader Callum McCaig said it was "beyond pathetic".

एबरडीन सिटी काउंसिल के मुख्य कार्यकारी ने कर्मचारियों को बताया है कि सितंबर के स्वतंत्रता जनमत संग्रह में "नहीं" वोट का समर्थन करने वाले पत्रों के बारे में कई शिकायतें प्राप्त होने की संभावना है।