Will Brexit hit Britain's fresh vegetable supplies?

Summary: While uncertainty hangs over the future of the UK's relationship with the EU, the European ports which send millions of tonnes of goods to Britain every year have been planning for every eventuality - including the prospect of a no-deal Brexit. Will their plans be enough to avert chaos?

By Neil KoenigProducer, In Business, Rotterdam For centuries, barges from the inland waterways of Europe and ships from around the world have sailed in and out of Rotterdam's harbour. Today the port is the 10th biggest in the world. Every year it handles "about 470 million tonnes of goods - about the same volume as being handled in all British ports together", says Leon Willems of the Rotterdam Port Authority. Officials are proud of the efficiency of operations here. Much of this is down to the use of an electronic system known as Portbase, which handles a myriad of digitised documents such as transport bookings and custom declarations, removing the need for physical paperwork. But there's another important industry in this busy part of southern Netherlands that is also proud of its productivity - agriculture. The road from Rotterdam towards the North Sea is edged for miles by vast areas of greenhouses. Crops grown include tomatoes and cucumbers - often destined for the UK. The intensity of farming here has helped to turn the country into one of the world's biggest food exporters. "It has to do with the efficiency of the farmers," says Michel van der Maas of the Dutch food safety authority. "Because we are a small country, we have learned to do things in a tightly-packed area." The efficiency of Dutch farmers is mirrored by a smooth and fast delivery process. Annika Hult, director of North Sea trade for ferry operator Stena Line, says a British supermarket can place an order for tomatoes in the morning and the items can be on the shelves the following day. Trucks loaded with fresh produce can arrive as little as 15 minutes before one of Stena's giant ships departs for the UK, says Ms Hult. "That is how lean and 'just in time' the process is today… we are really making modern society work." But some Dutch business leaders fear that a giant spanner may soon be thrown into the works of this well-oiled machine - a no-deal Brexit. Mart Valstar runs Best Fresh, a large family-owned enterprise that imports and exports food products to and from dozens of countries, including the UK. He worries that not only will his business be hit by a no-deal Brexit, but also the full English breakfast. This is something, he says, that the British may "have to forget for a few months" if Brexit goes ahead without a deal. Mr Valstar claims that several of the ingredients of a traditional English breakfast, such as bacon and tomatoes, are often imported. Statistics seem to bear this out - according to the British Meat Processors Association, the UK is a net importer of pig meat. Meanwhile, the British Tomato Growers' Association says domestic production accounts for only around a fifth of the total volume of tomatoes sold in the UK every year. Tomatoes are Mr Valstar's particular concern: "The price is set daily, and every day there is a new delivery… tomatoes are not a product which you should keep. "If there is a Brexit without any arrangements about customs and import duties, there will be long delays at the customs." He fears that shipments could arrive so late that product quality could no longer be guaranteed. "The shops will run out of stock," he says. "The shelves will be empty." At the moment, goods can move freely between the UK and the Netherlands (and other EU countries) without any checks at the port. But after a no-deal Brexit, the UK will no longer be part of the EU's customs union - and whatever arrangement eventually transpires, the Rotterdam Port Authority expects the current frictionless border arrangements to cease. "The UK will become a 'third country'. If it's a hard Brexit, a soft Brexit, a medium Brexit it really doesn't matter - you will become a third country and by definition that will mean custom formalities," says port spokesman Leon Willems. It is the introduction of customs processes that Mr Valstar fears will delay deliveries of his produce, and those of many others. But are his fears justified? Leon Willems says that Dutch authorities and businesses have already made extensive preparations to ensure that any disruption that Brexit might cause is kept to a minimum. He cites the example of Dutch customs, which has hired hundreds of extra staff to help handle the millions of new administrative checks that will be needed after Brexit. Vast emergency parking areas for lorries have been set up for drivers whose papers are not in order. Other organisations have also taken action. The Dutch food safety authority has recruited nearly 150 extra staff, including some 100 "Brexit vets" to help deal with a big increase in checks on foodstuffs once Britain has left the EU. But will these preparations be enough to minimise potential chaos from a no-deal Brexit? No-one we spoke to in the Netherlands was entirely sure what would actually happen after Brexit. Sigrid Kaag, the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, says the country's government is confident that everything possible has been done to prepare for all Brexit scenarios. But she hopes "the UK is as prepared as we are, because that will mitigate the anticipated negative impact on the economy, and on the flow of people and goods between the Netherlands and the UK. And you know, one hand can't clap." As for Brexit preparations in the UK, HM Revenue and Customs says "the government's priority is to keep goods moving and avoid delays at the border", and that as the UK's customs authority it "will act to ensure that border processes are as smooth as possible, without compromising security". Its plans include simplified procedures for some goods arriving from Europe, in order to minimise potential traffic congestion. These measures will allow many lorries to pass quickly through ports like Dover, with customs and other formalities being dealt with later. One phrase that many people mentioned whilst we were in Rotterdam was "prepare for the worst, but hope for the best". And looking ahead, Mrs Kaag is optimistic that whatever happens, ties between the Netherlands and the UK will remain strong. "We share values and a common purpose," she says. "We need to continue to nurture this relationship in new formal settings - but it depends on the nature of the deal." You can hear In Business: Plain sailing? presented by Ruth Alexander and produced by Neil Koenig, on BBC Radio 4 at 8.30pm on Thursday, 12 September. It will also be available via the BBC Sounds app.

जबकि यूरोपीय संघ के साथ ब्रिटेन के संबंधों के भविष्य पर अनिश्चितता लटकी हुई है, यूरोपीय बंदरगाह जो हर साल ब्रिटेन को लाखों टन सामान भेजते हैं, वे हर संभावना के लिए योजना बना रहे हैं-जिसमें नो-डील ब्रेक्सिट की संभावना भी शामिल है। क्या उनकी योजनाएं अराजकता को टालने के लिए पर्याप्त होंगी?


Theresa Villiers: Corporation tax decision 'in weeks'

Summary: The government will decide in principle in the next few weeks if corporation tax powers can be devolved to Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers is expected to say later.

The secretary of state is to speak at a gala dinner on Thursday night. She will say that the government was taking calls to devolve the powers "very seriously". The current rate paid by businesses in Northern Ireland is 21%, compared to 12.5% in the Republic of Ireland. The executive wants to be able to match the tax rate in the Republic. Ms Villiers will be speaking at a Co-operation Ireland event and is expected to say that the Northern Ireland economy is "definitely heading in the right direction" but that "economic growth relies on successful businessmen and women". She will say that the government will do everything it can to "boost enterprise and the private sector in Northern Ireland".

थेरेसा विलियर्स के बाद में कहने की उम्मीद है कि सरकार अगले कुछ हफ्तों में सैद्धांतिक रूप से तय करेगी कि क्या निगम कर शक्तियों को उत्तरी आयरलैंड को हस्तांतरित किया जा सकता है।


Volunteer call in post-storm Isle of Man beach clean

Summary: Volunteers have been asked to help in a post-storm beach clean in the south of the Isle of Man.

Beach Buddies said it is doubling its efforts with two sessions over the weekend after severe storms washed up "mountains of litter" onto the beaches. Clean-ups will take place at Derbyhaven on Saturday and Sartfield on Sunday. Beach Buddies, established in 2007, has recently applied for charity status and is challenging its volunteers to make Manx beaches the cleanest in Europe. More than 1,600 people took part in 220 sessions held across the island last year - a 75% increase on the organisation's first year.

स्वयंसेवकों को आइल ऑफ मैन के दक्षिण में तूफान के बाद के समुद्र तट को साफ करने में मदद करने के लिए कहा गया है।


Analysis: A cure for HIV?

Summary: A baby girl has been "functionally cured" of HIV in the US. The difference it will make to her life could be huge - avoiding a lifetime of medication, social stigma and worries about whether to tell friends and family.

By James GallagherHealth and science reporter, BBC News But beyond the personal story, there is a huge question - does this bring us any closer to an HIV cure? There are very special circumstances involved in the US case. Doctors were able to hit the virus hard and early. This is not possible in adults, who will acquire HIV months if not years before they find out. Even in the UK, where at-risk groups are offered free regular testing - one in four people with HIV is unaware they have the virus. By the time they find out, it will be fully established - hiding away in reservoirs in the immune system that no therapy around can touch. It is also unclear how a newborn's immune system, babies still get much of their protection from their mother through breast milk, may affect treatment. One thing is certain - this approach is not going to provide a cure for the vast majority of people with HIV. So what about about somebody who has been living with HIV for a decade? Any hope of a cure for them? The first thing to note is that HIV is not the killer it used to be. It first emerged in Africa in the early 20th Century and became a global health problem by the 1980s. In the early days, there was no treatment, never mind talk of a cure. The virus claimed the lives of more than 25 million people in the past three decades, according to the World Health Organization. Then, good antiretroviral therapies emerged in the mid-1990s and the impact it had on the number of deaths was dramatic. People infected with HIV should have a near normal lifespan if they have access to treatment. Of course this is a big "if". Nearly 70% of people living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa, where access to drugs is relatively poor. 'Weak spot' The hunt is on for a cure. "We had always assumed that it was impossible, but we've started to discover things we didn't know before and it's opening up a chink in the armour," Dr John Frater, from the University of Oxford, told the BBC. "A cure is something we can no longer write off as impossible." After HIV first infects the patient, the virus spreads rapidly, infecting cells all over the body. Then, the virus hides inside DNA where it is untouchable. But there are now experimental cancer drugs that might be able to flush the virus out and make it vulnerable. Dr Frater said: "It turns on a virus inside a cell and it becomes visible to the immune system and we can target it with a vaccine." However, this approach requires drugs to make the virus active and a vaccine to train the immune system to finish it off - this is not just round the corner. "We are a long, long way away, in truth," said Dr Frater. There is another route being considered - involving a rare mutation that leaves people resistant to HIV infection. In 2007, Timothy Ray Brown became the first patient believed to have recovered from HIV. His immune system was destroyed as part of leukaemia treatment. It was then restored with a stem-cell transplant from a patient with the mutation. A little bit of genetic engineering may also help to modify a patient's own immune system so that it has the protective mutation. Once again this is a distant prospect. 'Uncertain' Chairman of the UK-wide Aids vaccine programme Prof Jonathan Weber, from Imperial College, said: "For established infection we have some ideas, but it is all in the realms of experimental medicine. "There is no consensus and no clear way forward." He added a cure would be very cost-effective, as giving people drugs every day of their life was expensive. Prof Jane Anderson, consultant at Homerton hospital in London, expressed caution about expecting a cure after the case in the US. "This is a very exciting moment, but it is not the answer in today's world. "I'm worried that we so desperately want a cure that we forget the cost-effective stuff that does make a difference." Nearly every case of mother-to-child transmission can be prevented by drugs, caesarean section and not breastfeeding. And in adults, most cases are as a result of unsafe sex. HIV really is an infection where prevention is much easier than cure.

अमेरिका में एक बच्ची को एच. आई. वी. से "कार्यात्मक रूप से ठीक" कर दिया गया है। इससे उसके जीवन में बहुत बड़ा अंतर आ सकता है-जीवन भर दवा, सामाजिक कलंक और दोस्तों और परिवार को बताने की चिंता से बचना।


Broadmeadows seven-year turbine saga nears end

Summary: Councillors have unanimously rejected plans for a Borders wind farm scheme first submitted seven years ago.

The proposals for Broadmeadows Farm near Selkirk had been scaled back. The original application was for 13 turbines but that had been reduced to eight by developer GreenPower Broadmeadows Ltd. Planning officials had advised refusal saying the project would have a "significant adverse impact on the landscape character of the area".

पार्षदों ने सर्वसम्मति से सात साल पहले पहली बार प्रस्तुत की गई सीमा पवन कृषि योजना की योजनाओं को खारिज कर दिया है।


Myanmar coup: Min Aung Hlaing, the general who seized power

Summary: Min Aung Hlaing rose steadily through the ranks of the Tatmadaw, Myanmar's powerful military, but as commander-in-chief for the past decade he also wielded significant political influence before the 1 February coup.

He successfully maintained the Tatmadaw's power even as Myanmar transitioned to democracy, but received international condemnation and sanctions for his alleged role in the military's attacks of ethnic minorities. As Myanmar returns to military rule under his leadership, Min Aung Hlaing now looks set to extend his power and shape the country's immediate future. Rise to the top The 64-year-old general has spent his entire career in the influential military, which he joined as a cadet. A former law student at Yangon University, he entered the Defence Services Academy on his third attempt in 1974. The relatively unassuming infantryman kept getting regular promotions and moved up the ladder, eventually becoming commander of the Bureau of Special Operations-2 in 2009. In this role, he oversaw operations in north-eastern Myanmar, which led to tens of thousands of ethnic minority refugees fleeing the eastern Shan province and the Kokang region, along the Chinese border. Despite allegations of murder, rape and arson against his troops, Min Aung Hlaing continued to rise and in August 2010 he became joint chief of staff. Less than a year later, he was tapped for the military's top post ahead of more senior generals, succeeding long-time leader Than Shwe as commander-in-chief in March 2011. When Min Aung Hlaing became military chief, blogger and writer Hla Oo - who said they had known each other in childhood - described him as "a battle-hardened warrior of brutal Burmese Army", but also called him a "serious scholar and gentleman". Political influence and 'genocide' Min Aung Hlaing began his tenure as military chief as Myanmar transitioned to democracy in 2011 after decades of military rule, but remained keen on maintaining the Tatmadaw's power. His political influence and social media presence increased as the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) led the government. In 2016, when Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) came to power, he seemingly adapted to the change by working and appearing at public events with her. Despite the change, he ensured the Tatmadaw continued to hold 25% of parliamentary seats and crucial security-related cabinet portfolios, while resisting the NLD's attempts to amend the constitution and limit military power. In 2016 and 2017, the military intensified a crackdown on the Rohingya ethnic minority in the northern Rakhine state, leading to many Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar. The military chief was condemned internationally for the alleged "genocide", and in August 2018 the UN Human Rights Council said: "Myanmar's top military generals, including Commander-in-Chief Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing, must be investigated and prosecuted for genocide in the north of Rakhine State, as well as for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan States." Following the council's statement, Facebook deleted his account, along with those of other individuals and organisations who it said had "committed or enabled serious human rights abuses in the country". The US sanctioned him twice - in 2019 for his alleged role in "ethnic cleansing" and human rights violations, and in July 2020 the UK also imposed sanctions on him. Seizing power The November 2020 general election saw a landslide win for the NLD, according to official figures, but in subsequent months the Tatmadaw and military-backed USDP repeatedly disputed the results. The USDP made allegations of widespread electoral fraud. Those claims were dismissed by the election commission ahead of a planned parliament session on 1 February to confirm the new government. Speculation of a coup grew amid the stand-off between the government and the armed forces. On 27 January Min Aung Hlaing warned that "the constitution shall be abolished, if not followed", citing example of previous military coups in 1962 and 1988. His office seemingly reversed this stance by 30 January, saying that the media had misinterpreted military officials' words about abolishing the constitution. However, on the morning of 1 February, the Tatmadaw detained State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other senior leaders, and declared a year-long state of emergency. Min Aung Hlaing assumed all state power for this period in his capacity as commander-in-chief, and immediately prioritised the alleged electoral irregularities. A meeting of the National Defence and Security Council led by him said it would investigate the fraud claims and hold new elections, effectively invalidating the NLD's win. Min Aung Hlaing was originally due to step down as commander-in-chief after reaching the retirement age of 65 in July this year, but has now given himself at least another year in power - and potentially longer - with Myanmar's apparent return to military rule. As Myanmar faces an uncertain future with the state of emergency, he has cemented his power and taken charge of the country. This report was compiled by BBC Monitoring

मिन आंग ह्लाइंग म्यांमार की शक्तिशाली सेना टाटमाडॉ के रैंकों के माध्यम से लगातार आगे बढ़े, लेकिन पिछले एक दशक से कमांडर-इन-चीफ के रूप में उन्होंने 1 फरवरी के तख्तापलट से पहले भी महत्वपूर्ण राजनीतिक प्रभाव डाला।


'If the others go I'll go': Inside China's scheme to transfer Uighurs into work

Summary: China's policy of transferring hundreds of thousands of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang to new jobs often far from home is leading to a thinning out of their populations, according to a high-level Chinese study seen by the BBC.

By John SudworthBBC News, Beijing The government denies that it is attempting to alter the demographics of its far-western region and says the job transfers are designed to raise incomes and alleviate chronic rural unemployment and poverty. But our evidence suggests that - alongside the re-education camps built across Xinjiang in recent years - the policy involves a high risk of coercion and is similarly designed to assimilate minorities by changing their lifestyles and thinking. The study, which was meant for the eyes of senior officials but accidentally placed online, forms part of a BBC investigation based on propaganda reports, interviews, and visits to factories across China. And we ask questions about the possible connections between transferred Uighur labour and two major western brands, as international concern mounts over the extent to which it is already ingrained in global supply chains. In a village in southern Xinjiang, hay is being gathered in the fields and families are placing fruit and flatbreads on their supas, the low platforms around which Uighur family life has traditionally revolved. But the warm wind blowing across the Taklamakan desert is bringing with it worry and change. The video report, broadcast by China's Communist Party-run news channel, shows a group of officials in the centre of the village, sitting under a red banner advertising jobs in Anhui Province, 4,000km away. After two full days, the reporter's narration says, not a single person from the village has come forward to sign up, and so the officials begin moving from house to house. What follows is some of the most compelling footage of China's massive campaign to transfer Uighurs, Kazakhs and other minorities in Xinjiang into factory and manual labouring jobs, often considerable distances from their homes. Although it was broadcast in 2017, around the time the policy began to be intensified, the video has not featured in international news reporting until now. The officials speak to one father who is clearly reluctant to send his daughter, Buzaynap, so far away. "There must be someone else who'd like to go," he tries to plead. "We can make our living here, let us live a life like this." They speak directly to 19-year old Buzaynap, telling her that, if she stays she will be married soon and never able to leave. "Have a think, will you go?" they ask. Under the intense scrutiny of the government officials and state-TV journalists she shakes her head and replies, "I won't go." Still, the pressure continues until eventually, weeping, she concedes. "I'll go if others go," she says. The film ends with tearful goodbyes between mothers and daughters as Buzaynap and other similarly "mobilised" recruits leave their family and culture behind. Professor Laura Murphy is an expert in human rights and contemporary slavery at the UK's Sheffield Hallam University who lived in Xinjiang between 2004 and 2005 and has visited since. "This video is remarkable," she told the BBC. "The Chinese government continually says that people are volunteering to engage in these programmes, but this absolutely reveals that this is a system of coercion that people are not allowed to resist." "The other thing it shows is this ulterior motive," she said, "that although the narrative is one of lifting people out of poverty, there's a drive to entirely change people's lives, to separate families, disperse the population, change their language, their culture, their family structures, which is more likely to increase poverty than to decrease it." A marked shift in China's approach to its governance of Xinjiang can be traced back to two brutal attacks on pedestrians and commuters - in Beijing in 2013 and the city of Kunming in 2014 - which it blamed on Uighur Islamists and separatists. At the heart of its response - in both the camps and the work transfer schemes - has been a drive to replace "old" Uighur loyalties to culture and the Islamic faith with a "modern" materialist identity and an enforced allegiance to the Communist Party. This overarching goal of assimilating Uighurs into China's majority Han culture is made clear by an in-depth Chinese study of Xinjiang's job-transfer scheme, circulated to senior Chinese officials and seen by the BBC. Based on field work conducted in Xinjiang's Hotan Prefecture in May 2018, the report was inadvertently made publicly available online in December 2019 and then subsequently taken down a few months later. Written by a group of academics from Nankai University in the Chinese city of Tianjin, it concludes that the mass labour transfers are "an important method to influence, meld and assimilate Uighur minorities" and bring about a "transformation of their thinking." Uprooting them and relocating them elsewhere in the region or in other Chinese provinces, it says, "reduces Uighur population density." The report was discovered online by an overseas-based Uighur who passed it to Dr Adrian Zenz, a senior fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington. Before the university realized its error, Dr Zenz saved the report (in Chinese) on a web-archive site and has now written his own analysis of it, which includes an English translation of the full document. "This is an unprecedented, authoritative source written by leading academics and former government officials with high-level access to Xinjiang itself," Dr Zenz told the BBC. "The excess surplus population that somehow has to be dealt with, and labour transfers as a means to reduce the concentration of those workers in their own heartlands is, in my opinion, the most stunning admission of this report." His analysis includes a legal opinion from Erin Farrell Rosenberg, a former senior advisor to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, that the Nankai Report provides "credible grounds" for the crimes against humanity of forcible transfer and persecution. In a written statement, the Chinese foreign ministry said, "The report reflects only the author's personal view and much of its contents are not in line with the facts." "We hope that journalists will use the authoritative information released by the Chinese government as the basis for reporting on Xinjiang." The Nankai report authors write glowingly of an effort to combat poverty underwritten by a "guarantee of voluntariness" in the work placements, and with the factories allowing the workers to "leave and return freely." But those claims are somewhat at odds with the level of detail they provide about the way the policy works in practice. There are "targets" to be reached, with Hotan Prefecture alone - at the time the study was undertaken - having already exported 250,000 workers, one fifth of its total working age population. There is pressure to meet the targets, with recruiting stations set up "in every village" and officials tasked to "mobilize collectively" and "visit households," just as in 19-year-old Buzaynap's case. And there are signs of control at every stage, with all recruits put through "political thought education," then transported to the factories in groups - sometimes as many as hundreds at a time - and "led and accompanied by political cadres in order to implement security and management." Farmers unwilling to leave their lands or herds behind are encouraged to transfer them to a centralized government scheme that manages them in their absence. And once they arrive in their new factory jobs, workers themselves are put under the "centralized management" of officials who "eat and live" with them. But the report also notes that the profound discrimination at the heart of the system is getting in the way of its effective functioning, with local police forces in eastern China so alarmed by the arrival of trainloads of Uighurs, that they are sometimes turned back. In places, it even warns that China's policies in Xinjiang may have been too extreme, for example, stating that the number of people placed in the re-education camps "far exceeds" those with suspected connections to extremism. "The entire Uighur population should not be assumed to be rioters," it says. The Huafu Textile Company is located on the edge of a grey industrial estate in the city of Huaibei, in China's eastern province of Anhui. It was to this factory that Buzaynap, featured in the state-TV report, was sent. When the BBC visited, the separate, five-story Uighur dormitory showed few signs of habitation apart from a pair of shoes placed by an open window. At the gate, the security guard said that the Uighur workers "have gone back home," adding that it was because of the country's Covid controls, and in a statement Huafu told us that, "the company does not currently employ Xinjiang workers." The BBC was able to find pillowcases made with Huafu yarn on sale on Amazon's UK website, although it is not possible to confirm if the product is linked to the particular factory we visited, or one of the company's other facilities. Amazon told the BBC that it does not tolerate the use of forced labour and that where it finds products that do not meet its supply chain standards, it removes them from sale. The BBC worked with a group of international journalists based in China, visiting a total of six factories between us. At the Dongguan Luzhou Shoes factory in Guangdong Province, one worker said the Uighur employees used separate dormitories and their own canteen, and another local told reporters that the company makes shoes for Skechers. The factory has previously been linked to the US company, with unverified social media videos purportedly showing Uighur workers making Skechers product lines, and references to a relationship in online Chinese business directories. In a statement, Skechers said it had "zero tolerance for forced labour," but did not answer questions about whether it used Dongguan Luzhou as a supplier. Dongguan Luzhou did not respond to a request for comment. Interviews recorded at the scene suggest the Uighur workers were free to leave the factory during their leisure time, but at other factories visited for the research, the evidence was more mixed. In at least two cases, reporters were told of some restrictions, and at one facility in the city of Wuhan a Han Chinese employee told the BBC that his 200 or so Uighur colleagues were not allowed out at all. Three months after Buzaynap was shown leaving her village to begin her political education training, the Chinese state-TV crew meet her again, this time in the Huafu Textile Company in Anhui. The theme of assimilation is, once again, central to the news report. In one scene, Buzaynap is close to tears as she is scolded for her mistakes, but eventually, a transformation is said to be taking place. "The timid girl who didn't speak and kept her head down," we are told, "is gaining authority at work." "Lifestyles are changing and thoughts are changing." Producer: Kathy Long

बी. बी. सी. द्वारा देखे गए एक उच्च-स्तरीय चीनी अध्ययन के अनुसार, शिनजियांग में लाखों उइगरों और अन्य जातीय अल्पसंख्यकों को नई नौकरियों में स्थानांतरित करने की चीन की नीति अक्सर घर से दूर उनकी आबादी को कम कर रही है।


Coronavirus: How India is readying for its massive vaccine drive

Summary: On 16 January, India will begin what will be one of the world's biggest inoculation programmes, aimed at protecting its 1.3 billion people from Covid-19.

The government plans to vaccinate 300 million people by early August. It will begin with an estimated 10 million health workers, followed by policemen, soldiers, municipal and other frontline workers. Next in line for the jab would be people aged over 50 and anyone under 50 with serious underlying health conditions. India has recorded the second-highest number of Covid-19 infections in the world, after the US. Since the pandemic began it has confirmed more than 10.3 million cases and over 150,000 deaths. The country's drugs regulator has given the green light to two vaccines - Covishield that has been developed by AstraZeneca with Oxford University and Covaxin by local firm Bharat Biotech.

16 जनवरी को, भारत दुनिया के सबसे बड़े टीकाकरण कार्यक्रमों में से एक शुरू करेगा, जिसका उद्देश्य अपने 130 करोड़ लोगों को कोविड-19 से बचाना है।


Tony Fadell: From iPod father to thermostat start-up

Summary: Tony Fadell is one of Silicon Valley's biggest names. He's known as the "father of the iPod" for his work on the first 18 generations of Apple's music player and was also involved in the hardware design of the original iPhone.

By Leo KelionTechnology reporter Since cutting ties with the firm in 2010 he's set up Nest - a smart-thermostat that looks like nothing else on the market. But let's put his achievements aside for a moment and pinch-and-zoom into the ousting of a man portrayed as his nemesis: Scott Forstall. In 2011 Businessweek magazine ran an article which said the two men had repeatedly clashed at Apple with Mr Forstall - the iPhone software chief - raiding his colleague's team for talent, creating an "explosive" climate in which the two argued over credit, attention and resources before Mr Fadell ultimately quit. So what does he make of the news that Mr Forstall lost his post in October after reports of rifts with other executives and a refusal to apologise for the release of a flawed Maps app. "Scott got what he deserved," Mr Fadell told the BBC. When pressed, he adds: "I think what happened just a few weeks back was deserved and justified and it happened." So where does that leave Apple and the shares he still holds in it? "If you read some of the reports, people were cheering in Cupertino when that event happened," he answers, referring to Apple headquarters in California. "So, I think Apple is in a great space, it has great products and there are amazing people at the company, and those people actually have a chance to have a firm footing now and continue the legacy Steve [Jobs] left." Leadership rumours One Wall Street analyst found these comments telling, bearing in mind both Mr Fadell and Mr Forstall had once been tipped as successors to Steve Jobs. "If you are the head of a major success, which both of these people were, of course you would be considered as a candidate to lead the company," says Colin Gillis, senior technology analyst at BGC Partners. "The reality is in any organisation there is more disruption and tension than people realise from a distance and it's coming out more clearly now after the departure of Forstall. "For an investor this is an important kind of thing to watch out for. There have been important changes of leadership and tone at Apple... Jobs, Forstall and Fadell were behind its most disruptive recent products, but [industrial design boss] Jony Ive is still there, and he's the one investors are now watching." Apple said Mr Forstall - who remains its "special advisor" until next year - was not available for comment. Working for Jobs Mr Fadell himself says the decision to shift part of Mr Forstall's responsibilities to Mr Ive means that Apple's software design is now in "good hands". And he has even warmer words for his ex-boss, describing his nine years working with Mr Jobs as one of the most important relationships of his life. He adds that the experience taught him a lesson that he has tried to put into practice at Nest: success is about much more than a good product. "It's about every touchpoint where the consumer interacts with the brand," he explains. "Whether that's at learning about the product, buying the product, using it, servicing it, unboxing the product - all of those places are consumer touchpoints and you need to look at those in as much detail as you do the product-user interactions." Mr Fadell says it was true that Mr Job's high standards meant no-one at Apple could ever relax around him, but he was happy to bust some myths. He says the idea of the iPhone having a click-wheel to make calls was "never going to really happen". Although the idea was briefly explored, he says it was obvious within a couple of months that a touchscreen was the better option. And he laughs when asked about the much-repeated story that Mr Jobs dropped a prototype iPod into water, saw bubbles come out and said it proved the device could be shrunk further. "It's so funny," Mr Fadell says. "That story is about Sony products back in the 70s and the 80s. That was actually the Sony CEO at the time doing those things, not Steve." Smart heating There was a lot of speculation about what Mr Fadell would do after leaving Apple. No-one guessed he would release a thermostat. He describes himself as having "stumbled" on the idea after exploring eco-friendly products and discovering such devices controlled half or more of the average home's energy bill. His device, Nest, features a crisp, minimalist graphical readout surrounded by a metallic band and aims to "learn" how to save energy by studying owners' habits. Perhaps unsurprisingly it can be adjusted remotely by a smartphone app. It went on sale in the US and Canada last year. Teething problems followed. Manufacturing costs proved too high and about 25% of homes found their boilers and/or air conditioner systems proved incompatible. Mr Fadell says both issues have since been resolved. He says his current focus is to launch Nest in 63 countries, including the UK, but proves reticent about speculating what he might develop next. More connected household devices would be an obvious bet, but he mocks the idea of an internet-linked kettle or toaster, saying he can't see the point. Kicking crowdfunding Mr Fadell becomes more revealing when asked about other tech innovations trying to get off the ground, with some critical words for big projects that rely on Kickstarter or other crowdfunding sites. "For the public to think that these products - once they have an interesting CAD [computer-aided design] rendering and maybe an interesting video that they quickly cooked up - that these products will actually see the light of day any time soon - I think that's a disservice to how hard it is to make the kinds of things that make a difference," he says. "Anyone can make a housewares item that has no electronics in it, but something that is truly intricate and with lots of digital hardware and software and customer service and support, it is very difficult to pull off a business like that." He adds that he has helped fund about half a dozen small projects, including a cardboard robot and a movie - but urges entrepreneurs with more ambitious ideas to realise the benefit of giving up a stake in their business to bring venture capitalists or private equity firms on board. "[It] allows small teams to go through the real financing and real management routes that are imposed through private investment," he adds. Before he leaves there's just time for one more question. Having developed a click wheel for Apple and more recently a rotating bezel to control Nest, is he sad to see such an interface ditched from recent iPods in favour of touchscreens? He stumbles for a second and then says: "You kind of fall in love with certain things over time. But you can see how other substitutes work as well or even better. "Do I have melancholy for that? Absolutely. But do I miss it - not really."

टोनी फेडेल सिलिकॉन वैली के सबसे बड़े नामों में से एक हैं। उन्हें एप्पल के म्यूजिक प्लेयर की पहली 18 पीढ़ियों पर उनके काम के लिए "आईपॉड के पिता" के रूप में जाना जाता है और वे मूल आईफ़ोन के हार्डवेयर डिज़ाइन में भी शामिल थे।


Funds secured for remote Coigach and Assynt project

Summary: Heritage lottery funding has been secured for a project covering some of the remotest parts of Scotland.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) has received £2.9m for the Coigach-Assynt Living Landscapes Partnership. The areas of Coigach and Assynt include large expanses of wild land and wildlife such as golden eagles, otters and freshwater pearl mussels. The partnership has a five-year plan to restore landscapes and regenerate areas of native woodland. Some of the funding will be used to support the excavation and preservation of Clachtoll Broch, the site of an Iron Age settlement.

स्कॉटलैंड के कुछ दूरदराज के हिस्सों को कवर करने वाली एक परियोजना के लिए हेरिटेज लॉटरी फंडिंग को सुरक्षित कर लिया गया है।


Arrivederci, Mooch - The story of Anthony Scaramucci

Summary: In the end, the Mooch got stabbed in the back.

By Joel GunterBBC News in Port Washington, New York Before the late-night comedians could hone their impressions of the fast-talking, "front-stabbing" man from Long Island, before even his official start date as White House director of communications, Anthony Scaramucci felt the knife go in. John Kelly, President Trump's new White House chief of staff, called Mr Scaramucci into his office on Monday morning and, with the blessing of the president, cut him loose, 10 short days after he was given the job. Mr Scaramucci reportedly tried to phone Mr Trump, but the boss wasn't available. It was all just coming together for Mr Scaramucci. After six months on the outside, blocked by White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, he had finally got the nod - director of communications, reporting directly to the president. A Wall Street hot-shot who graduated straight from Harvard law to Goldman Sachs and went on to start his own hedge fund, Mr Scaramucci was never short on ambition. "The only kid in high school who read the New York Times every Sunday," recalled one former classmate. Earlier this year, to smooth his path to the White House, Mr Scaramucci announced plans to sell his controlling $80m (£61m) stake in hedge fund SkyBridge Capital, and two weeks ago he pruned his Twitter history of inconvenient opinions on gun control, gay marriage and climate change. "Full transparency: I'm deleting my old tweets," he wrote, apparently without irony. On Friday 21 July, Mr Scaramucci gave his first press conference. He paid tribute to outgoing press secretary Sean Spicer, who elected to resign rather than serve under his new boss. Mr Spicer was Mr Scaramucci's first scalp, and the tribute could not have been more Mooch: "I wish him well and I hope he goes on to make a tremendous amount of money," he said. The first few days were a whirlwind: a tour of the morning shows on Sunday, warning White House leakers that their days were numbered; a trip aboard Air Force One on Monday, while his estranged wife Deidre Ball gave birth to their second child in New York; a dinner at the White House on Wednesday with the president, Fox News host Sean Hannity and former Fox News executive Bill Shine, the details of which were immediately leaked to the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza. Then early on Thursday morning, Alisyn Camerota and Chris Cuomo, the hosts of CNN's New Day programme, were on the line with Mr Lizza discussing the leak when they got an unexpected call from a listener. "Ryan, so sorry to interrupt you right now," said Ms Camerota. "If you would stand by for a second that would be great because we actually have Anthony Scaramucci on the line." 'The American dream on steroids' The Mooch likes to talk about where he's from. "One of the things I can't stand about this town is the back-stabbing," he told the BBC last week in Washington DC. "Where I grew up we're front-stabbers." Front-stabville is Port Washington, a picture-perfect small town on Long Island, home to the very rich - it is the East Egg of F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby - and to hard-working immigrant families with roots in various corners of Europe - "The American dream on steroids", recalled another former classmate who grew up a few streets away from Mr Scaramucci. The son of two Italian immigrants, Mr Scaramucci's father Alexander worked for 42 years in the sand mines of Port Washington, quarrying the sand that went to Manhattan to build the buildings on Wall Street. His mother Mary was a stay-at-home mum. The couple still live in the same, neatly-kept corner house where Mr Scaramucci was raised, just off Main Street. One block up the road, Mr Scaramucci's maternal uncle Sal Defeo, who is 90, sits out most days on the porch of his own ramshackle old house, selling leftover merchandise from his closed-down motorcycle store, Ghost Motorcycles. Few people in Port Washington seemed excited by an old local's sudden celebrity. Only one Trump bumper sticker was visible, and the owner, a lifelong Port Washington resident, had seen only one other locally, on a blue pickup that was occasionally parked around the place. There were signs of the fierce family loyalty that Mr Scaramucci professes to share with President Trump. Sat in his truck, with a glint in his eye and an obvious sense of humour, Mr Defeo switched between singing Mr Scaramucci's praises and pretending not to know who his nephew was. He was more keen to talk about "Crooked Hillary", and said he would put a handful of dirt out on the porch table if that's what I was after. When he was told that his nephew had just got the sack, he looked straight ahead and the window began slowly to roll up. A mile down the road, newspaper cuttings and pictures of Mr Scaramucci covered the walls of the auto glass shop owned by Mr Scaramucci's cousin, Augie Defeo. On a large flat screen TV, the sacking was playing out on Fox News. "Did Sal give you the bit about the dirt on the table?" he asked, and that was about all he wanted to say. A little way up Main Street sits PD Schreiber High School, which Mr Scaramucci attended alongside his older brother and younger sister. Former classmates and teachers remembered a driven boy, slick and popular, with a habit of referring to himself in the third person as "The Mooch". "He was always very political, he knew how to get things done with different groups," said one former teacher. "He was a very smooth character." A fellow 1982 graduate recalled a sharply dressed guy, quarter-back in the football team, who had "supreme confidence, right through high school". "The cool guy then was John Travolta, he was just about the most macho guy there was. And for me that was Anthony. He took on that Travolta, Italian-America swagger." Elected president of the student government, Mr Scaramucci showed flashes then of the man who would later lean on reporters to reveal their sources and advise CNN to be "nice to me in this segment". At one high school government meeting, he singled out the school newspaper editor over a critical editorial, telling him that "derogatory remarks" were "unnecessary", and demanding that he stand up to defend himself. The meeting descended into chaos, and a letter printed on the front page of the paper afterwards took Mr Scaramucci to task over the incident. "At a press conference, Ronald Reagan does not get up and defend himself against all editorials and columns written on how ineffective he or his government is," it said. Mr Scaramucci went on from Schreiber to study economics at Tufts, then to Harvard to study law. "He didn't really fit the stereotypical Harvard model," said Richard Kahlenberg, a fellow Harvard law student. "His father was a construction worker and he had this strong New York accent. He made a very positive impression on me, he was a breath of fresh air. If he had the right-wing politics back then, I don't remember them." He graduated from Harvard in 1989, about the time the Port Washington sand mines closed for good. "To the victor go the spoils," his father Alexander wrote in his yearbook, and Mr Scaramucci headed straight for Wall Street. On the record "White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci joins us this morning," said Chris Cuomo on CNN's New Day. "Anthony Scaramucci, can you hear us?" Mr Scaramucci had been in the job less than a week and he was already on the back foot. Live on CNN, he spoke directly to the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza, another Long Island native, whose father knew Mr Scaramucci's father way back when. He alluded to a conversation he'd had with Mr Lizza the night before, in which he had apparently pushed the New Yorker reporter to reveal his sources in the White House. "I was teasing you and it was sarcastic, it was one Italian to another," said Mr Scaramucci. Then the Mooch went on a half-hour tear against leakers, journalists and Washington political culture in general, while singing the president's praises. "Chris, you're from New York, I'm from New York, the president is from New York. We had dinner last night. I sat next to the First Lady. I love the president." He used the words "honour" and "respect" eight times each, and "dignity" four. But Mr Scaramucci was taking on water. His phone conversation with Mr Lizza had been more colourful than he was letting on. In an unforgivable lapse for a communications director, he'd forgotten to say "off the record". Later on Thursday, Mr Lizza published the full details. The Mooch had demanded the reporter's sources, before launching into a profane tirade in which he called White House chief of staff Reince Priebus a "paranoid schizophrenic" and threatened to "kill all the leakers". Mr Lizza's account went viral. Mr Scaramucci went on the defensive. "I sometimes use colorful language," he tweeted. "I will refrain in this arena but not give up the passionate fight for @realDonaldTrump's agenda. #MAGA." It wasn't the first time Mr Scaramucci had to make a public apology. In 1980, not long after being appointed high school vice-president, he got in a brawl with two fellow students he suspected of vandalising school property, later attacking them again. He published a letter in the school paper, apologising for the assault. Directly above Mr Scaramucci's apology, the paper printed an editorial titled "A Good Leader Is". "A leader is not expected to find solutions through violence or threats. A bully is not a leader," it read, before going on to acknowledge that the school's government was made up of "young leaders, all relatively inexperienced". "If a mistake is made, a Schreiber leader should learn from the experience, change his ways, and emerge as a stronger, more confident leader. If a leader does not learn from the experience, he should resign," the editorial said. President Trump was reportedly impressed by Mr Scaramucci's colourful phonecall, initially - he values loyalty above all - but later grew angry at the negative press coverage, and gave Mr Kelly the go-ahead to ask for his resignation. A few hours later it leaked to the press, and Mr Scaramucci's fall was complete. The short history of the Trump administration tells us that comebacks are not off the cards. Former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, pushed out after appearing to assault a reporter, is now back in the Trump orbit. Reached by the Huffington Post on Tuesday, Mr Scaramucci said he planned to "go dark" for a while. "Then I will re-emerge," the Mooch said. "As me."

अंत में, मूख की पीठ में छुरा घोंपा गया।


Eastern Ghouta Syria: The neighbourhoods below the bombs

Summary: The last rebel-held town in the Eastern Ghouta region outside Syria's capital, Damascus, is on the verge of falling after a six-week-long government offensive that has reportedly killed more than 1,700 civilians.

The United Nations estimates that 70,000 civilians are trapped in the town of Douma, which is controlled by the Jaysh al-Islam rebel group. It has said its fighters want to disarm and stay there, but the government's ally Russia has reportedly ruled that out. The five-year battle for the Eastern Ghouta has devastated whole neighbourhoods. In one district, 93% of buildings had been damaged or destroyed by December, according to UN satellite imagery analysis. The surge of rocket fire, shelling and air strikes that accompanied the ground assault launched on 18 February caused further destruction. Western districts were already devastated by December Source: Damage assessment by UNITAR-UNOSAT and map boundaries by the REACH Initiative. Satellite image Google/DigitalGlobe. Damage assessments cover the densely-populated western districts of the Eastern Ghouta to December 2017. Bombing in January and February caused further damage Source: Damage assessment by UNITAR-UNOSAT and map boundaries by the REACH Initiative. Satellite image Google/DigitalGlobe. Map shows rapidly-assessed damage between 3 December 2017 and 23 February 2018. Roughly the size of Manchester in the UK, the Eastern Ghouta is an agricultural region that was once home to an estimated 400,000 people. The government's siege began in 2013, but the humanitarian situation in the enclave worsened significantly after hostilities escalated last November. The most recent wave of bombings has been among the fiercest of the Syrian war, now in its eighth year. Essential civilian infrastructure and services have been hit. Satellite imagery analysis by McKenzie Intelligence Services suggests a water tower in the Harasta neighbourhood was among the sites targeted. Damage to water tower, Harasta, Eastern Ghouta The UN said on 26 March that 80,000 civilians had fled on foot to government-held territory in Damascus, as troops made dramatic advances and split the enclave into three pockets. Some 20,000 rebels and civilians have also been evacuated to rebel territory in the north-western province of Idlib under deals with the government and its key ally Russia. UN agencies and their partners say the last time they were able to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Douma was on 15 March. A doctor in the area said he would continue treating patients "until we stand with nothing". In the more densely-populated western parts of the Eastern Ghouta, analysis carried out by the UN in December had already identified approximately 3,853 destroyed buildings, 5,141 severely damaged buildings and 3,547 moderately damaged buildings. Jobar Jobar suffered the worst damage in areas assessed. Some 93% of the buildings had been damaged or destroyed by December. It was an active frontline for many months and the civilian population has fled. Only armed groups remain. Neighbouring Ein Tarma, which became home to many of those who fled Jobar, was the focus of a government offensive in June 2017. A sharp increase in shelling and air strikes forced Ein Tarma's residents and displaced families to flee to other areas of the Eastern Ghouta. A total of 71% of the area's buildings had been damaged or destroyed by December. More than 75% of the pre-conflict civilian population had fled. Zamalka Zamalka had the third highest rate of damage in the Eastern Ghouta area assessed by the UN in December. Some 59% of buildings had been damaged or destroyed. There was no water or electricity supply for at least two years, and more than 75% of the pre-conflict civilian population had fled. The intensified bombardment in February saw the area suffer further loss of life, and damage levels are certain to have risen beyond those of December. Hamouria Due to Hamouria's more central location within the Eastern Ghouta, the amount of damage assessed in December was lower than other areas. Some 11% of buildings had been damaged or destroyed. However, the area came under repeated attack during this year's offensive. Video footage obtained by Reuters showed wreckage at the Al-Shifa hospital, which staff said had been hit by air and artillery strikes. "The clinics department is out of service, the clinical care unit is out, the surgery unit is out, the incubator unit is out, the paediatric section is out, all of the departments of the hospital are completely out of service," a man identified as a medical worker said. Water and electricity have been unavailable there since June 2016. Saqba Saqba, which had avoided the high levels of destruction suffered by neighbouring areas, also came under sustained attack in February and March. By December, 27% of its buildings had been either damaged or destroyed. That figure is likely to have increased. More than half of its population was made up of people who had fled other areas. Water and electricity are unavailable there. Kafr Batna Kafr Batna, where 21% of buildings had been damaged or destroyed by December, was attacked repeatedly by government warplanes in the latest round of bombings. Douma Douma - the biggest town in the district - was not included in the UN's damage assessments in December. However, it was hit badly in the latest round of air and artillery strikes. Basema Abdullah, a widow huddled in a basement with her four children, told Reuters: "We are in desperate need for your prayers." Satellite imagery of Al-Biruni University Hospital, near Douma, appeared to show a roadblock on a nearby highway. McKenzie Intelligence Services analysts said it suggested the hospital was only accessible by areas still loyal to the government. Roadblock at Al-Biruni University Hospital, near Douma Satellite images also showed a trench network has been constructed in Harasta, south west of Douma, next to a military barracks. Analysts said the trenches were likely occupied by rebel fighters, given their location, and would allow them to move around the area without being hit by shrapnel and out of the sight of observers who could call in artillery or air strikes. Humanitarian crisis The intense government bombardment forced families to live in underground basements and shelters for weeks - many without water, sanitation or ventilation systems, making children vulnerable to the spread of disease. A bundle of bread cost close to 22 times the national average as the government assault began, and 11.9% of children under five years old were acutely malnourished - the highest rate recorded in Syria since the beginning of the war. Residents described going days without eating, consuming non-edible plants, or reducing the size of their meals due to a lack of access to food. The Syrian government denied targeting civilians and insisted it was trying to liberate the Eastern Ghouta from "terrorists" - a term it has used to describe both jihadist militants and the mainstream rebel groups that dominate the enclave. By Lucy Rodgers, Alison Trowsdale and Mark Bryson.

सीरिया की राजधानी दमिश्क के बाहर पूर्वी घौता क्षेत्र में विद्रोहियों के कब्जे वाला अंतिम शहर छह सप्ताह तक चले सरकारी हमले के बाद गिरने के कगार पर है, जिसमें कथित तौर पर 1,700 से अधिक नागरिक मारे गए हैं।


Rhyl War Memorial: Man arrested for anti-Semitic graffiti

Summary: A man has been arrested after a war memorial and a police station in north Wales were daubed with racist and anti-Semitic graffiti.

Swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans were discovered on the Rhyl War Memorial on the evening of Tuesday, 23 February. North Wales Police said there was a second incident of racist and homophobic graffiti, which had been daubed onto Rhyl police station. The force said a 31-year-old man had been arrested for both offences. The graffiti on the war memorial on the seafront in Rhyl was branded "disgusting" after it was discovered last week. Much of the graffiti had been written in German and the memorial, which displays the names of 300 servicemen and women who have died in combat since 1899, has now been repaired.

उत्तरी वेल्स में एक युद्ध स्मारक और एक पुलिस स्टेशन को नस्लवादी और यहूदी-विरोधी भित्तिचित्रों से सजा दिए जाने के बाद एक व्यक्ति को गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


Goldfrapp tell tales in cinema project

Summary: Pop group Goldfrapp are breaking into cinemas with a one-off screening of their short film anthology Tales of Us, followed by a live concert. Singer Alison Goldfrapp tells the BBC the project is "exciting" but "quite mad".

By Mark SavageBBC News entertainment reporter Ten years ago, the music video was practically dead. Abandoned by MTV and creatively stagnant, budgets were aggressively slashed in line with record company profits. But the format was unexpectedly given a shot in the arm by the advent of YouTube. Suddenly, clips were being shared and watched by millions of fans. At the time of writing, Psy's Gangnam Style has been seen nearly two billion times - generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising revenue. Meanwhile, in 2007, the British Film Institute started screening artistic and experimental videos in a monthly showcase called Bug, giving the medium a hitherto unimagined veneer of respectability. The BFI was also the location, two weeks ago, for the premiere of pop group Goldfrapp's first film endeavour, Tales Of Us. A series of five short films, the portmanteau project tells the stories of five individuals, with interconnecting themes of identity, metamorphosis, love and loss. Although they are based around songs from the band's recent album, singer Alison Goldfrapp says the collection bears little resemblance to the traditional music video. "I've always found promos dissatisfying, really," she says. "The process has always been that we finished the album and then the record company would say, 'this would be a good single, so make a video for it.'" "Then a director will send in a treatment, you might talk a few times and that's it." She cringes as she recalls the video for the barnstorming pop single Strict Machine. Not for the kaleidoscopic, psychedelic animation, but because someone had dyed her Marlene Dietrich curls two entirely separate colours. "I can't stand looking at myself in it," she laughs. "How did I get a hairdo like that? I mean, Jesus Christ." Melancholy Tales Of Us is another story entirely. Largely filmed in bleached black and white, the clips are bewitching and intimate - impressionist sketches of the characters who appear in the songs. The most arresting, Annabel, is based on Kathleen Winter's novel of the same name, which follows the struggles of a young hermaphrodite raised in a remote part of Canada. Lyrically, the song is ambiguous ("All the secrets there inside you, Annabel") but the video is heartbreaking. It follows an androgynous young boy as he wages a quiet war on his sexuality, decorating a secret den with pictures of David Bowie and dressing up in stolen jewellery. "We auditioned a lot of boys," says Goldfrapp. "Interestingly, about half of them dropped out when we told them they were going to have to wear a dress. "But it's quite interesting at that age, their mannerisms… There was another boy who was wonderful but he was quite fidgety and hyper. A real boy. Then Daniel came in and he had this stillness to him, and his movements were much slower and he had this sort of languidness. "And those eyes? When he looked, he had a melancholy. It was instant when we saw him." Not all of the films relate so directly to the song's subject matter, however. "Laurel is quite interesting because the song is about an actress who dates a psycho killer in post-war Hollywood," says Goldfrapp. "But the film is about this girl we met who was a dancer in a strip club, who also happens to be a palaeontologist. She was someone we met, then filmed her in LA. "They're very different narratives, but they work really well together." Over the course of their career, Goldfrapp have never been content to sit still, progressing from cinematic trip-hop on their debut album Felt Mountain, to the million-selling, pounding glam-pop of 2005's Supernature. Their fourth record, Seventh Tree, was a pastoral, acoustic collection, inspired by a tumultuous break-up, while 2010's Head First was a sugar rush of pure pop. It was their last album under contract to EMI and, the band have since admitted, was completed in a rush under pressure from the label. "They had a schedule and we were blackmailed into sticking to it," Goldfrapp's musical foil Will Gregory told The Independent last year. "We needed another six months on Head First, really." 'Hard times' "That time was very odd," concedes Goldfrapp. "There were a lot of things going on business-wise with EMI and management, and then my mother died. "They were hard times financially, and it was all very strange. That added to the whole feeling around that album." By contrast, she says, recording Tales Of Us has been her "most satisfactory and rewarding experience yet". It helped that the videos were made by her partner, Lisa Gunning, a film editor who Goldfrapp met in 2009, when they both worked on Sam Taylor-Wood's John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy. "She was hearing the music as we were making the album - so she was able to get into that headspace, and she really understood the aesthetic," says the singer. "Plus, Lisa's such a brilliant storyteller. Being an editor, she really understands how a story is put together, and how it works." Gunning's skills were sorely tested, though, by a complete lack of funds. "We had hardly any budget for one film, never mind five," laughs Goldfrapp. "It's a miracle we managed to make five. All of that was down to Lisa and her ingenuity. She was able to pull favours from people and borrow equipment. "We were feeding the crew round here in the living room. Our dear friend Cara made giant chilli con carnes on the stove!" At least one of the films was shot "on those little sports cameras you can buy in Dixons" - while Gunning negotiated a day-long shoot in a stately home for "a bit of money towards their electricity". This squeeze on budgets is perhaps the biggest change in modern music videos. In 1994, Michael Jackson set a world record that still stands, spending $7m ($11m / £6.6m in 2014) on the video for Scream. Now, the average video budget is $16,000 (£10,000). Even Beyonce's ambitiously lavish "video album" contains several clips shot with one camera in a single location. For Goldfrapp, the "shoestring" budgets were freeing. "For this album, we made visuals because we wanted to do something with a particular song, and then it built up its own momentum," she says. "It was nothing to do with what the single would be, and whether it would be commercially viable and all that kind of thing. "It was quite remarkable, really." And from humble beginnings, The Tales Of Us Anthology is about to go global. On 4 March, it will be screened in 300 cinemas around the world, followed by a live Goldfrapp show broadcast from London's famous Air Studios. The band's website describes the concert as a "dramatic theatrical performance". Goldfrapp calls it "quite mad". "It's a bit hair of the teeth," she says, "quite nerve wracking". "We've never done anything like this before - so it'll be dramatic whatever happens!" Tales of Us will be screened across the UK, Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand on 4 March. Goldfrapp then embark on a UK tour, launching at Birmingham Symphony Hall on 26 March.

पॉप समूह गोल्डफ्रैप अपनी लघु फिल्म संकलन टेल्स ऑफ अस की एकल प्रदर्शन के साथ सिनेमाघरों में प्रवेश कर रहा है, जिसके बाद एक लाइव संगीत कार्यक्रम है। गायिका एलिसन गोल्डफ्रैप ने बीबीसी को बताया कि यह परियोजना "रोमांचक" लेकिन "काफी पागल" है।


Fires tackled at Aberdeen's derelict Broadford Works

Summary: Firefighters have tackled a spate of deliberate fires at Aberdeen's derelict Broadford Works.

Crews tackled three separate blazes in the disused factory at lunchtime. They were then alerted to another blaze in a lift shaft at about 15:30. It follows a fire earlier this week. In December, fresh plans were submitted to redevelop Broadford Works. The former Richards textile mill, off Hutcheon Street, has more than 100 buildings, many A-listed.

अग्निशामकों ने एबरडीन के परित्यक्त ब्रॉडफोर्ड वर्क्स में जानबूझकर लगी आग से निपटा लिया है।


Lake drama vies for Killing acclaim

Summary: TV crime drama Top of The Lake - which begins this weekend on BBC Two - is set in the beautiful wilderness of New Zealand's South Island. Starring Elizabeth Moss and directed by Jane Campion, it's already drawing comparisons to cult hits The Killing and Twin Peaks.

By Nick BryantBBC News correspondent In the introductory scene of Top of the Lake, a 12-year-old New Zealand girl leaves the gateway of her fortified home, rides through a ghostly forestland and sets down her bike at the edge of a misty shoreline, where she wades into the icy water. Tui, the daughter of a local crime boss, is pregnant, and although rescuers pull her from the lake before she drowns or freezes to death, she soon goes missing. Her swollen belly holds the clues to finding her kidnapper or murderer. A female detective, who has returned home from Australia to care for her cancer-ridden mother, will lead the hunt. Set in the staggeringly beautiful landscape of the South Island of New Zealand, Top of the Lake has been called the Kiwi answer to The Killing. Obstreperous and tunnel-visioned, detective Robin Griffin has been likened to Sarah Lund, the central figure in the Danish hit drama. Because the mystery unfolds in a remote community heavily populated by social misfits, there are also parallels with the '90s cult hit, Twin Peaks. Yet this is a very much a signature creation of its New Zealand co-director Jane Campion. "These are people who have fallen off the edge of the world," says Campion, whose award-winning The Piano was also set in her homeland. "People live there because they want to get away from their problems and because they don't work that well with society." Over six hours of television their characters unfold. For detective Griffin, played by Elisabeth Moss of Mad Men fame, the hunt for Tui revives powerful memories of her troubled childhood in the lakeside town, and her own coming of age. "Inside her, there is also the lost girl," says Campion. "In finding Tui, she also has to find herself." A guide in both searches is her one-time boyfriend, Johnno, played by Thomas M. Wright, the estranged son of the local crime lord and himself a one-time drug dealer. His father Matt Mitcham, played with mesmerising menace by the Scottish actor Peter Mullan, not only heads up his own vigilante hunt for his lost daughter but also the police suspect list. . Not unlike hits like The Sopranos, The Wire, and True Blood, which studied the Mafia, Baltimore street gangs, vampires and shape-shifters, Top of the Lake focuses on subcultures. As well as the South Island's underworld, the drama takes us into a women's camp set up on a patch of land at the top of the lake aptly named Paradise. They have come under the spell of a mysterious guru called GJ, played by Holly Hunter, who delivers desk calendar wisdom in short, staccato sentences. It is the first collaboration between the American actress and New Zealand director since The Piano. "Holly and I work together like sisters," says Campion. "I don't how to describe our method. It's about love and friendship." After initially accepting the role, Hunter tried to talk her way out of it. "I'm used to being your lead woman," Campion recalls her friend saying. "This is a small part." The director tried to persuade her by describing GJ as the "the most extraordinary person in this entire project". Hunter remained unconvinced: "What about the guy who played Gandhi, couldn't he do it?" With long grey hair, GJ bears an uncanny resemblance to Campion. Of all the main characters, perhaps the most evocative is the landscape itself. At once welcoming and threatening, it becomes a refuge and also the most hostile of environments. For all its vastness, it can be strangely claustrophobic. "The Queenstown basin is one of my favourite parts of the world," says Campion. "One of the excitements was to introduce the rest of the world to this environment. I'm addicted to it, I just love it." And if "best landscape" had its own category at the Oscars, the South Island of New Zealand, which has featured in films like Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, would surely have scooped a clutch of awards. On the day that the Top of the Lake team arrived, crews filming Bilbo Baggins and friends were just leaving town. Top of the Lake, which Campion co-wrote with Gerard Lee and co-directed with the talented Garth Davies, has already become the first television series to be screened in full at the Sundance Film Festival. Its screenings in Australia and America have also been met with critical acclaim. "Campion's way of dramatising crime is hypnotic and circular," writes Emily Nussbaum in the New Yorker. "It's an eye opener, in both senses: a model of the sort of series in which words and images carry equal weight." It has also provoked a powerful, and somewhat polarised, viewer reaction. In Australia, there are those who regard it as a Campion masterpiece. Others have lambasted it for being far too whimsical and self-indulgent. For Campion it marks a move from cinema to television. "They say you're doing something for the small screen," she says. "But I don't know anyone with a small screen any more." Freed from cinematic time pressures, she has more space to develop characters and to explore her overarching themes: sexual exploitation, and the impossibility of escaping the bonds of family, home and memory. Oddly for such a compact drama, there are elements that sometimes seem entirely extraneous. Elisabeth Moss delivers a spellbinding performance, combining steeliness and vulnerability, but audiences may struggle to locate her accent. To my ear at least, it sounded more Alaskan than Antipodean. From its opening scene, though, to its denouement, the series is gripping, and surely one of television's most exquisitely filmed whodunits. As the billing for Top of the Lake has it, this is no ordinary place, and no ordinary crime. And no ordinary crime drama.

टीवी क्राइम ड्रामा टॉप ऑफ द लेक-जो इस सप्ताह के अंत में बीबीसी टू पर शुरू हो रहा है-न्यूजीलैंड के साउथ आइलैंड के खूबसूरत जंगल में स्थापित है। एलिजाबेथ मॉस अभिनीत और जेन कैंपियन द्वारा निर्देशित, इसकी तुलना पहले से ही कल्ट हिट द किलिंग एंड ट्विन पीक्स से की जा रही है।


M4 crash: Motorcyclist killed on Christmas Day

Summary: A motorcyclist has died in a crash on the M4 near Newport on Christmas Day.

It happened between junctions 24 (Coldra) and 25 (Caerleon) eastbound at around 18:00 GMT on Friday. The 49-year-old man, from Caldicot, Monmouthshire, was on a Honda motorcycle and died at the scene. Gwent Police is appealing for witnesses to the crash. The motorway was closed between junctions 24 and 28 pending investigation but reopened shortly before 02:00 GMT on Saturday.

क्रिसमस के दिन न्यूपोर्ट के पास एम4 पर एक दुर्घटना में एक मोटरसाइकिल सवार की मौत हो गई है।


Are apprenticeships key to solving youth unemployment?

Summary: Seventeen-year-old Ben Sparkes from Chelmsford in Essex is on a government scheme to boost the numbers of apprentices. It is hoped measures like this will help the numbers of unemployed young people continue to fall.

By Andrew BomfordBBC Radio 4's PM programme Young people bore the brunt of the financial crisis, with almost a quarter (22.5%) unemployed in 2011. Since then the rate has fallen, and Thursday's Labour Market statistics show 16% of 16-24 year olds are unemployed. However the numbers of young people out of work is still significantly higher than the 6% rate for the working population as a whole. Ben began a new position as an apprentice hairdresser this week at a men's barbers in Basildon. He had already completed an NVQ in women's hairdressing at college, but decided that he preferred to cut men's hair. "I took an apprenticeship because I felt it was a better way of learning, because you get people skills at the same time," he says, "and you get paid to learn as well." However, the pay is low. Ben is earning the national minimum wage for apprentices, which is £2.73 per hour. He is expected to complete at least 12 months training, which includes a day release course at college. By the end of the course he will have achieved another NVQ, in barbering. An NVQ is considered equivalent to five GCSEs. His boss, Matt Perham, who runs Rusty's Barbershop in Basildon, gets £1,500 from the government scheme, to cover some of his wages. "I like employing apprentices because you can train them up exactly to your standards," he says, "Sometimes those with more experience have picked up bad habits, and it's harder to change at that point. I think it's a good way to start out in the business." Apprenticeships have suffered in the drive to improve academic standards at schools and universities, with the message to young people often being that a university education is all that counts. England lags a long way behind other rich countries in its numbers of apprenticeships, according to a recent report by the think-tank Demos, with 11 apprentices per 1,000 employees, compared to 39 in Australia, 40 in Germany, and 43 in Switzerland. The report estimated that boosting the numbers of apprentices to similar levels would improve Britain's GDP by £4bn a year. A new drive, launched last month, to boost the numbers of apprentices has vastly extended the range of jobs open to apprentices, and the highest level apprentices can go on to achieve the equivalent of a university degree. Some of the most sought after apprenticeships with the top firms pay very well - up to about £25,000. Apprenticeships are now available in careers ranging from advertising, to legal work, to art galleries, and information technology, to name but a few of the 1,200 job roles on offer. Back at the barbers, Ben replaced another apprentice, Ashley Knott, who has been given a permanent job after a year of training. "I don't think apprentices get the respect they deserve," he says. "For me it's changed my life for the better. Some people see it as cheap labour, making tea and sweeping the floor, but before you know it you're on the shop floor working full-time. I'm really enjoying it." Andrew Bomford's full report will be broadcast on the PM programme on Thursday 13 November at 17:00 GMT. You can listen to the PM programme's Employment Week series from 10-14 November on BBC Radio 4 at 17:00 GMT. Or catch up later on BBC iPlayer

एसेक्स के चेम्सफोर्ड के सत्रह वर्षीय बेन स्पार्क्स प्रशिक्षुओं की संख्या बढ़ाने के लिए एक सरकारी योजना पर हैं। उम्मीद है कि इस तरह के उपायों से बेरोजगार युवाओं की संख्या में गिरावट जारी रखने में मदद मिलेगी।


Images for former Aberdeen City Council HQ plans released

Summary: Images of four proposed schemes for the development of the former Aberdeen City Council headquarters site have been released.

More than 1,000 council staff vacated 14-storey St Nicholas House, erected in 1968, for the newly-refurbished Marischal College building in 2011. Offers were then received from potential buyers. A full report on the disposal of the site will be considered by the full council when it meets on 1 May. BBC Scotland had revealed in September that Aberdeen City Council officials had recommended a shortlist of four potential buyers be drawn up.

पूर्व एबरडीन नगर परिषद मुख्यालय स्थल के विकास के लिए चार प्रस्तावित योजनाओं की छवियां जारी की गई हैं।


The twins of Auschwitz

Summary: When the Soviet army liberated the Auschwitz death camp 70 years ago many of the prisoners had been killed or marched away by the retreating Nazis. But among those left were some twin children - the subject of disturbing experiments by Dr Josef Mengele.

By Andy WalkerBBC News Vera Kriegel and her twin sister Olga were just five years old when they were taken from their village in Czechoslovakia to Auschwitz. Transported in cattle cars which were so tightly packed that the dead were still standing, she recalls the "sheer terror" of arriving at the camp and treading on "dead people like steps" as she left the train. New arrivals at the camp were sorted into the weak, who would be gassed straight away, and the strong, who would be made to work. But Mengele and his assistants were there too, looking for twins. Vera, her sister, and her mother were taken straight to SS Captain Josef Mengele. He was intrigued, she says, by what he described as her mother's "perfect Aryan features" and blue eyes, while Vera's and her sister's were brown. Mengele selected them for experimentation. Another woman who remembers her arrival at the camp is Jona Laks, who was taken as a teenager from the Lodz ghetto. She was not immediately recognised as a twin and was initially sent off in the direction of the gas chamber - when her sister told Mengele they were twins he had her brought to his laboratory. Josef Mengele was an assistant to a well-known researcher who studied twins at the Institute for Heredity Biology and Racial Hygiene in Frankfurt - he started working at Auschwitz in May 1943. There he had an unlimited supply of twins to study, and he wouldn't get in trouble if they died. According to Prof Paul Weindling of Oxford Brookes University, author of Victims and Survivors of Nazi Human Experiments, hundreds of children were used in Mengele's experiments. "I found a record of a prisoner doctor and bacteriologist who was forced to work for Mengele that there were 732 pairs of twins," he says, and suggests the doctor was interested in genetics. "I think Mengele might have been interested in the inheritance of the propensity to having twins." He believes many of the twins survived Auschwitz, although he thinks Roma twins were almost certainly killed. Some of the children, now elderly, have little memory of the experiments, others have memories that may not be 100% accurate. Jona Laks says Mengele removed organs from people without anaesthetic, and if one twin died the other would be murdered. Vera Kriegel says that he killed people with an injection to the heart, and then dissected them. She remembers being ushered into his laboratory. "I was looking at a whole wall of human eyes. A wall of blue eyes, brown eyes, green eyes. These eyes they were staring at me like a collection of butterflies and I fell down on the floor." The first experiment she was subjected to involved being kept in a small wooden cage with her sister and being given painful injections in her back - she doesn't know why, but thinks it may have been an attempt to change the colour of her eyes. In another experiment, she says, the pair of them and more than 100 other twins were given injections of bacteria that cause Noma disease - an infection of the mouth or genitals, which causes boils and often turns gangrenous. Some twins became feverish, and some died, she says. She also remembers Mengele reacting angrily when twins went missing - once when this had happened she stared him out to prove he could not completely dominate her. As well as twins, Mengele experimented on dwarves, giants and Romas. Moti Alon, who arrived in Auschwitz aged nine in 1944, remembers being forced to watch a dwarf and a Roma woman being made to have sex. He remembers having a number tattooed on his arm. The same happened to his brother, though the tattooist made a mistake. "Instead of writing 17 they wrote 10 so they erased it and did some dots," he says. For Menachem Bodner who arrived at the camp with his brother as a three -year-old, this number became his identity. When he left the camp in 1945, he had no idea who he was. With the help of Israeli genealogist Ayana KimRon and a Facebook page set up to help, he has recently discovered that his real name is Elias Gottesman and that he and his brother, named Jeno, were born in a small town east of Munkacs, then part of Hungary, now in Ukraine (and known as Mukacheve). KimRon also discovered that his father had died in a camp and that his mother, Roza, had returned to Hungary following a death march from Flossenburg concentration camp - only then to be murdered in her home town in 1946 during an anti-Semitic riot. Now aged 74, he continues to search for the twin brother he last saw when the camp was liberated in 1945. On 26 January 1945, Vera Kriegel remembers, the guards "were in a big panic. So they poured petrol over the barracks and tried to destroy all the evidence." Grabbing a big pack of family photos, Vera, her mother and sister, fled the camp, only to be caught and beaten and thrown back into the barracks. The following day, Soviet troops entered Auschwitz. The soldiers, she says, "brought these striped coats and told us to put them on and roll up our sleeves, so we could show our numbers. "They filmed us, the children. They wanted to know what happened to us [and] Mengele's experiments. Everything was written down." As for Mengele, he fled West and was arrested by the US Army. But he had no SS blood group tattooed on his arm so he was released by a unit that was unaware that his name was on a list of major war criminals. He worked as a farmhand in Bavaria before escaping to Argentina in 1949. Though the West German authorities issued a warrant for his arrest in 1959, Mengele remained in South America before his death from drowning following a stroke at a holiday resort in Brazil in 1979. He was buried in Sao Paulo under the name Wolfgang Gerhard. The children coped with the appalling ordeal of Auschwitz and Mengele's experiments in different ways. Moti Alon, his mother and twin, eventually made their way back home, arriving in Budapest on 5 May 1945. He now lives in Israel. "I have no traumas, not from this," he says. Vera Kriegel emigrated to Israel with her mother after the war, where she lives today. Seventy years later, she still has nightmares. Jona Laks became an activist, the head of a group of Mengele twins. She has been back to Auschwitz many times, and says what she experienced there has never left her mind. Menachem, the boy with no name, eventually returned to his home town in Ukraine. "I told the driver to stop and got out of the car, and something was familiar to me, very familiar. "I remembered the road, I remembered two Gestapo approaching or arriving from my right side... and then they come to my home." Above all, he recalled his parents, carefree before the war and the Holocaust. "It was noon. my mother wore a green skirt with white flowers... I remember her from the back, not the front. "This is what I remember." Watch Newsnight's report on the twins of Auschwitz - or watch a longer report on BBC World News at 23:30 GMT on Friday 30 January. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

जब सोवियत सेना ने 70 साल पहले ऑशविट्ज़ मृत्यु शिविर को मुक्त कराया था, तो कई कैदियों को पीछे हटने वाले नाजियों द्वारा मार दिया गया था या दूर ले जाया गया था। लेकिन बचे हुए लोगों में कुछ जुड़वां बच्चे थे-डॉ. जोसेफ मेंगेले द्वारा परेशान करने वाले प्रयोगों का विषय।


Paris attacks: What happened on the night

Summary: The attacks in Paris on the night of Friday 13 November by gunmen and suicide bombers hit a concert hall, a major stadium, restaurants and bars, almost simultaneously - and left 130 people dead and hundreds wounded.

The attacks were described by President Francois Hollande as an "act of war" organised by the Islamic State (IS) militant group. Shootings and bomb blasts left 130 people dead and hundreds wounded, with more than 100 in a critical condition. "Three co-ordinated teams" were believed to have been behind the attacks, according to Paris chief prosecutor Francois Molins. In the days immediately after the attacks, French police carried out hundreds of raids across the country, as the search for suspects continued. Raids also took place in the Belgian city of Brussels. This is how the attacks happened. 21:20 (20:20 GMT) First explosion at the Stade de France The first of three explosions occurred outside the Stade de France stadium on the northern fringe of Paris where France were playing Germany in an international football friendly. A man wearing a suicide belt was reportedly prevented from entering the stadium after a routine security check detected the explosives. According to the Wall Street Journal, the man backed away from security guards and detonated the explosives. The bomber and a passer-by were killed. The game, attended by President Francois Hollande, was being broadcast on TV. After a second man detonated his suicide vest outside a different stadium entrance at 21:30, the president was rushed to safety. A third suicide bomber blew himself at a fast-food outlet near the stadium at 21:53. The attackers all wore identical explosive vests. Who were the victims? Fear stalks Paris 21:25 Gun attack on Rue Alibert Shooting: Le Carillon Meanwhile, other attacks were unfolding nearer to the centre of town, around popular nightlife spots. The first took place at about 21:25 in the 10th district (arrondissement), not far from the Place de la Republique. The gunmen arrived at the scene in a black Seat car, later found abandoned, about three miles (nearly 5km) away in the eastern suburb of Montreuil. Witnesses at Le Carillon bar, 18 rue Alibert, said they initially thought a firecracker had gone off before realising that they were under fire from semi-automatic rifles. "People dropped to the ground. We put a table over our heads to protect us," said Ben Grant, who was with his wife at the back of the bar. Bar reels from attack Restaurant attack: Le Petit Cambodge Witnesses describe how a man then crossed the road and turned his gun on a restaurant, Le Petit Cambodge (Little Cambodia). Fifteen people died in the attack on the bar and restaurant, with 15 severely injured. More than 100 bullets were fired. 21:32 Diners shot in Rue de la Fontaine au Roi Then came an attack on diners a few streets south of rue Alibert, in front of the Cafe Bonne Biere and La Casa Nostra pizzeria in rue de la Fontaine au Roi. Five people were killed and eight were severely injured. Again, witnesses reported that the gunmen were travelling in a black Seat. 21:36 Gun attack in Rue de Charonne The next reports of shootings came to the south of the first restaurant attacks, at La Belle Equipe bar in the rue de Charonne in the 11th district. Witnesses said that the attackers arrived in a black Seat. Two men opened fire on the terrace of the cafe. "It lasted at least three minutes," one witness said. "Then they got back in their car and headed towards Charonne station." Nineteen people died in the shooting, with a further nine in a critical condition. Images of aftermath of shootings Eyewitness accounts from the scene 21:40 Suicide bomb Boulevard Voltaire A few minutes later, an attacker - later revealed to be Braham Abdeslam - killed himself by detonating a suicide bomb at the restaurant Le Comptoir Voltaire on the Boulevard Voltaire, the chief prosecutor said. One other person was severely injured in this incident. 21:40 - 00:20 Bataclan concert hall attack The deadliest attack of the night came at a concert venue on Boulevard Voltaire, also in the 11th district, where Californian rock group Eagles of Death Metal was playing. The 1,500-seat Bataclan hall was sold out. The Paris chief prosecutor said three attackers wearing suicide belts were involved - earlier reports spoke of four attackers. Witnesses said they arrived in a black Volkswagen Polo then stormed in through the main entrance and into the back of the concert hall. Eighty-nine people died as the men fired Kalashnikov-type assault rifles into the crowd. At least 99 others were taken to hospital in a critical condition. What happened at the Bataclan? 'I saw people on the ground and blood' One of the attackers was said to have shouted "God is great" in Arabic. One witness heard a gunman blaming President Hollande for intervening in Syria. It was the first clear evidence that Paris was once again being targeted by Islamists. "We thought it was fireworks but then there were men shooting in all directions. So we all lay on the floor and started crawling towards the stage," one woman said. Some escaped via an emergency exit to the left of the stage. Others managed to find a route onto the roof. By now, President Hollande was in crisis talks with Prime Minister Manuel Valls as well as Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve. Mr Hollande announced a state of emergency throughout France and a tightening of border controls. The order was then given to send elite security forces into the concert hall. As the operation came to a head, at about 00:20, a police officer shot one of the gunmen, and his suicide belt detonated. The siege ended with the other two blowing themselves up. The three attackers have since been identified as Omar Ismail Mostefai, 29, Samy Animour, 28, and Foued Mohamed-Aggad, 23. Who were the attackers?

शुक्रवार 13 नवंबर की रात को पेरिस में बंदूकधारियों और आत्मघाती हमलावरों द्वारा किए गए हमलों ने एक कॉन्सर्ट हॉल, एक प्रमुख स्टेडियम, रेस्तरां और बार को लगभग एक साथ मारा-और 130 लोग मारे गए और सैकड़ों घायल हो गए।


Cameron's home-owning dream in spotlight as house building stalls

Summary: It was the centre-piece of his conference speech.

Kamal AhmedBusiness editor@bbckamalon Twitter "When a generation of hard-working men and women in their 20s and 30s are waking up each morning in their childhood bedrooms - that should be a wake-up call for us," David Cameron said before an audience of the party faithful in Manchester earlier this month. The Prime Minister said he wanted a "national crusade to get homes built". The first set of significant house building figures since then have just been published. They are from the National House Building Council - which provides building certificates for new homes. And they make for pretty gloomy reading. Drop Overall, registrations for new homes fell by 2% in the last three months compared with the same period last year. That figure masks what many see as a more worrying trend. In the private sector, new building registrations fell by 1%. While in the public sector - that's largely homes built by housing associations which tend to be more often in the "affordable" category - the number was down a more precipitate 4%. This morning, one housing association chief executive told The Times newspaper that it would certainly be cutting the number of affordable homes it planned to build this year. Neil Hadden, of Genesis Housing Association, one of the largest in the UK, said that he was "looking carefully at priorities for spending". The reason? Uncertainty over how new Right to Buy plans will affect housing associations (the government wants to allow tenants to buy their homes at a discount and cuts to housing benefit which has meant income for many associations has fallen or is at risk. 'Lumpy' Now, the NHBC says it is not time to panic. After a robust first six months of the year, it is still predicting that overall new house building - when the full figures for 2015 are collated - will be up. And it cautions that new build registrations can be "lumpy" - that is, quarter on quarter comparisons can be subject to a degree of volatility. "We're comparing against what was a very strong quarter in 2014," Mike Quinton, the chief executive of the NHBC, told me. "It's easy to forget the depths of the recession five or six years ago when the industry was only building 80,000 to 100,000 homes a year. We're now at about twice that rate so we've come a long way." Priced-out And there is still a long way to go if we are ever going to meet the target set by organisations such as Shelter that England alone should be building 250,000 new homes a year to meet the demand of those priced out of the present under-supplied market. It could be a decade, Mr Quinton admits. In 2007, before the financial crisis led to a sharp downturn in building, around 50,000 new houses were registered to be built every three months. That figure has now fallen to 36,000 and the full year number is likely to be around 160,000. The latest figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government released in August said that house building "starts" (that's actually building houses rather than registering a plan to do so) were down 14% compared to the previous three months and down 6% compared to the same period a year earlier. And that comes against a background of generally poor construction figures as the sector becomes concerned about economic head winds. It may not be time to roll out the tumbrils for UK house building. But the latest figures could be making things a little twitchy for a Prime Minister who has made affordable housing one of the key priorities for this Parliament.

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