Could subjects soon be a thing of the past in Finland?

Summary: Finland has long been renowned for the quality of its education and always scores highly in international league tables. Now it is rethinking how it teaches in the digital age - seeking to place skills, as much as subjects, at the heart of what it does. But not everyone is happy, and there are fears it could bring down standards.

By Penny SpillerBBC News, Finland It is a chilly morning in a remote village in southern Finland, but the thoughts of this class of 12-year-olds are elsewhere - in ancient Rome. Their teacher is taking them through a video re-enactment - shown on the classroom's interactive smart board - of the day Mount Vesuvius erupted and destroyed the city of Pompeii. In groups they take out their mini laptops. Their task is to compare ancient Rome with modern Finland. One group looks at Roman baths and today's luxury spas; another puts the Colosseum up against modern-day stadiums. They use 3D printers to create a miniature of their Roman building, which will eventually be used as pieces for a class-wide board game. This is a history lesson with a difference, says Aleksis Stenholm, a teacher at Hauho Comprehensive School. The children are also gaining skills in technology, research, communication and cultural understanding. "Each group is becoming an expert on their subject, which they will present to the class," he explains. The board game is the culmination of the project, which will run alongside normal classroom teaching. How Finland has shaken up teaching for the 21st Century For nearly two decades, Finland has enjoyed a reputation for having one of the world's best education systems. Its 15 year olds regularly score amongst the highest in the global Pisa league tables for reading, maths and science. Its ability to produce high academic results in children who do not start formal schooling until the age of seven, have short school days, long holidays, relatively little homework and no exams, has long fascinated education experts around the world. Despite this, Finland is shaking up the way it is doing things - a move that it says is vital in a digital age where children are no longer reliant on books and the classroom to gain knowledge. In August 2016 it became compulsory for every Finnish school to teach in a more collaborative way; to allow students to choose a topic relevant to them and base subjects around it. Making innovative use of technology and sources outside the school, such as experts and museums, is a key part of it. The aim of this way of teaching - known as project- or phenomenon-based learning (PBL) - is to equip children with skills necessary to flourish in the 21st Century, says Kirsti Lonka, a professor of educational psychology at Helsinki University. Among the skills she singles out are critical thinking to identify fake news and avoid cyber-bullying, and the technical ability to install anti-virus software and link up to a printer. "Traditionally, learning has been defined as a list of subject matters and facts you need to acquire - such as arithmetic and grammar - with some decoration, like citizenship, built in around it," Ms Lonka says. "But when it comes to real life, our brain is not sliced into disciplines in that way; we are thinking in a very holistic way. And when you think about the problems in the world - global crises, migration, the economy, the post-truth era - we really haven't given our children the tools to deal with this inter-cultural world. "I think it is a major mistake if we lead children to believe the world is simple and that if they learn certain facts they are ready to go. So learning to think, learning to understand, these are important skills - and it also makes learning fun, which we think promotes wellbeing." How Finland is ditching classroom traditions Hauho Comprehensive School is nestled among forests and lakes, some 40 minutes drive north-east of the city of Hameenlinna. With just 230 pupils aged between seven and 15, it has a homely feel. Shoes are left at the front entrance, exercise balls are used instead of chairs in some classrooms, and there are pull-up bars in the doorways. Teachers are relaxed about mobile phones in the classroom; it is a chance, they say, for children to appreciate their value as a research tool, not just as a means for communicating with their friends. On this cold day, the older students huddle around their phones during the lunch hour while some of the younger children brave the snow flurries to use the skate park, football and basketball pitches. Head teacher Pekka Paappanen is a firm believer in PBL and looks for a variety of ways of integrating it into the school's curriculum. "I talk through ideas with our teachers, and then I make sure there is time and space in the schedule for them to happen," he explains. "I think teachers have more power in this way, but they have to realise they can't do everything. We are leaving some old traditions behind, but we are taking it slowly too - the job of teaching our children is too important and we mustn't get it wrong." Tackling Europe's biggest issues in class One big project last year was on the subject of immigration, when the flow of migrants into Europe was making headlines around the world. Aleksis Stenholm says they chose the topic because it became clear many of their students had little personal experience of immigrants and immigration. The topic was incorporated into German and religious classes. Their 15-year-olds carried out street surveys to garner local opinions about immigration, and they visited a nearby immigration centre to interview asylum seekers. They shared their findings via video-link with a school in Germany, which had carried out a similar project. "It was really powerful, how the students reacted to it. They started thinking about things, questioning their opinions," Mr Stenholm recalls. "If I had just taught this over, say, the course of three lessons, the effect would have been very different." But does it work? The idea behind phenomenon-based learning has its critics. Some, like physics teacher Jussi Tanhuanpaa, fear it does not provide children with a strong enough grounding in a subject to enable them to study it at a higher level. He teaches in Lieto, just outside the south-west city of Turku, and says that of one cohort of children he knew who took advanced-level maths post-16, some 30% of them had to drop down a level. He also worries it is widening the gap between the most and least able students - a gap that has been historically small in Finland. "This way of teaching is great for the brightest children who understand what knowledge they need to take away from an experiment. It allows them the freedom to learn at their own pace and take the next steps when they are ready to," he says. "But this is not the case for children who are less able to figure it out for themselves and need more guidance. The gap between the brightest and the less able has already begun widening and I am very afraid that this will only get worse". Others worry that it is also adding to teachers' workloads and is disadvantaging older teachers who may not be as digitally able as their younger counterparts. Jari Salminen of Helsinki University's faculty of education says similar types of learning have been tried in the past - as far back as 100 years ago - and have failed. "Many international visitors are asking me, why are you changing this system when you get such good results? And it's a mystery to me, because we don't have any data from school level that phenomenon-based learning is improving results," Mr Salminen says. Anneli Rautiainen of Finland's national agency for education accepts there are concerns and says they are introducing the changes gradually: schools are only required to provide one such PBL project for its pupils a year. "We want to encourage teachers to work in this way and for children to experience it, but we are starting it slowly. There are still subjects being taught and goals to be reached for each subject, but we also want skills to be embedded in that learning," she explains. But what about results? "We are not too keen on metrics in this country overall so we are not planning to measure the success of it, at least not for now. We are hoping it will show in the learning outcomes of our children as well as in the international tables such as Pisa," she says. What's unusual about Finnish schools? While not everyone is convinced by this revolution in Finnish teaching, it has been given the thumbs up by most students and parents at Hauho. Sara, 14, says it is "not so tiring. It's much more interesting - I like that about it". Anna, also 14, says her older sister is envious because she thinks "school is much more fun than when she was here". Mum Kaisa Kepsu says most parents she knows are positive about the changes to the curriculum. "There has been a wider discussion about the need to ensure children are still learning the basic facts, and I agree with that," she says. "But raising their motivation and making the world more interesting is also important. I don't see anything wrong with school being fun". Could this approach work in the UK? Some project-based learning does happen in UK schools already, says Tom Bennett, the government's classroom behaviour adviser, but on a much smaller scale than that planned for Finland. And it is likely to remain that way, he says, as there is no compelling evidence that it is a more efficient way of teaching. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) funded a trial of PBL that involved mixed-ability Year 7 children in 24 UK schools between 2014 and 2016. The findings were skewed because a large number of schools dropped out of the study, largely because of the high level of management support and organisational change needed. The trial found no evidence that PBL had a positive impact on pupils' literacy or their engagement with school and learning, the EEF said. However, the independent evaluators did find that - from observations and feedback from schools - it could enhance pupils' skills in communication, teamwork and self-managed study.

फिनलैंड लंबे समय से अपनी शिक्षा की गुणवत्ता के लिए प्रसिद्ध रहा है और हमेशा अंतरराष्ट्रीय लीग टेबल में उच्च अंक प्राप्त करता है। अब यह फिर से सोच रहा है कि वह डिजिटल युग में कैसे पढ़ाता है-कौशल को विषय के रूप में रखने की कोशिश कर रहा है। लेकिन हर कोई खुश नहीं है, और ऐसी आशंका है कि यह मानकों को नीचे ला सकता है।


Isle of Man health charity funds hospital ward revamp

Summary: An Isle of Man health charity has given £358,000 to refurbish a hospital ward in the north of the island.

The donation from the Ramsey League of Friends will help create a new wound and podiatry facility at the Ramsey and District Cottage Hospital. The building work is expected to be complete by December 2012. Health minister David Anderson said the improvements would enhance the hospital environment and strengthen the clinical services offered to patients.

आइल ऑफ मैन स्वास्थ्य दान ने द्वीप के उत्तर में एक अस्पताल के वार्ड को नवीनीकृत करने के लिए 358,000 पाउंड दिए हैं।


Martin Luther King: Americans shown 'lost' Newcastle speech

Summary: Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech is known around the world, but few people are aware of another powerful speech he gave in north-east England in 1967 while accepting an honorary doctorate from Newcastle University. Here Americans viewing the speech for the first time give their assessment.

Martin Luther King had recently been released from prison when he visited Newcastle for just 24 hours to receive an honorary doctorate in civil law. He gave a speech which profoundly moved many who witnessed it yet the footage subsequently lay forgotten in the university's archives for more than 40 years. Five months after his flying visit, he was shot dead in Memphis, Tennessee. In the speech he warned of the risk of creating ghettos in the UK and of the dangers of everyday racism and plucked phrases from a repertoire used in his previous speeches. He ended by saying: "With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation, and of all the nations in the world, into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood and speed up the day when all over the world justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream." BBC Newcastle reporter Murphy Cobbing collected the reactions of prominent and ordinary black Americans to the speech. Rashad Richey, Atlanta talk show host "I love it. Powerful. Simply powerful. I was tearing up and when he finished I wanted to clap. "'Even though you may not make a man love you, you can stop a man from lynching you'. I think it's something that needs to be echoed today. "I'm so very happy to see this because I think this generation needs to hear these types of comments and the context coming from Dr King. "I want to say 'Way to go, Newcastle'. Way to go for having a better understanding of race relations than we did in America during the same timeframe. "And I'm so very humbled that you [are making] sure people in Newcastle and the world will know Dr King was a very cultured man, he was a very celebrated man, because when it comes to America, our young people, we see a tortured man sometimes, we see a very hated man sometimes. "When we look at our clips of Dr King it's not the great hero you see in this documentary because that's the way the media portrayed Dr King. But your media, your city, your college has portrayed him as the hero that he is." Kasim Reed, mayor of Dr King's home city, Atlanta "You can tell the occasion meant a great deal to him and you can see he was exhausted. You could hear it in his voice. "If you are an excellent orator - and I think he was one of the very best that ever lived - then the occasion will change you and it clearly changed that speech and made it special. "I think the tape should be shared with the National Centre for Civil and Human Rights [proposed in Atlanta], which will house many of Dr King's papers. "I'm hopeful an arrangement can be made with the city of Newcastle to ensure that the archival footage is included in the centre, which really is going to be an incredible space. "Thank you [Newcastle] for not only seeing what Dr King meant and would mean subsequently mean to the world, but thank you for acknowledging it while he was alive and healthy and vibrant." Rev Raphael Warnock, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta "It was vintage Martin Luther King Junior - riveting, eloquent and penetrating. In terms of tone and delivery, it reminds me of the speech he gave when he received the Nobel Peace Prize. "One of the things that strikes me is the way his words are so incredibly relevant all of these years later. "Here's a man who had a schedule busier than many heads of state and I think it was important for him even in the midst of a dogged schedule to make his way across the pond to help the people in that audience, to raise their consciousness around those issues so the reverberations of the movement would continue. "He spoke with such amazing passion even in the staid environment of a university congregation." Nichole Davis, visiting Dr King's home with her family "My eldest daughter is graduating from college and I thought it was important we stopped here before we went there. "This is awesome. It almost brings me to tears. "I'm speechless. Everyone in the world needs to hear it, I think everyone in the world needs to see it and understand the difference he made to so many people's lives who were there listening to him. "It is a lot to be sitting here on the steps of the home where he was born to see that and to hear that, It's the feeling he travelled so far to be honoured and no one knows about that. Awesome, it was wonderful." A'Lelia Bundles, Emmy-winning producer for ABC and NBC "It's poetic, powerful, seductive. "The words that he sang could be said today. This is incredible. "The problems he identified - race, poverty, war - these things are still the issues we are dealing with. "He is saying we have a really big fight and he's saying we have to do it together. And that hasn't changed. "This tape should be shown everywhere. It should be on YouTube so children can download it and teachers can use it in classes. "It should be talked about - the circumstances, the historical significance. "It's going to be very explosive when people see it. It will resonate. "It shows you the power of this individual and that he was doing this with love and with hope." Dr King's friend, ambassador Andrew Young "What I find is, every time I listen to Martin Luther King, no matter how many times I've heard him, it always reminds me of something that yet needs to be done. We are still not finished with his struggle. "He talked about racism, poverty and war. I frankly think we've made significant progress in race, we've made significant progress in war, but I think the economic plight of all Americans and in fact, of Europeans too, has declined since the 50s and 60s. "He didn't need to fly all the way over there to get recognised by Newcastle, and yet he did. I think it gave an extra prestige to our movement to have the international support that we had. "When Newcastle recognised our movement, they were also, I think, blessing the concept of the diversity of God's children. "I count Newcastle as one of the good guys that's working to make peace on earth and good will to men, women and children." A King's Speech - Martin Luther King on Tyneside is broadcast on Sunday 1 June at 22:55 BST on BBC One North East and Cumbria and nationwide on the iPlayer for seven days thereafter. You can hear what happened when BBC Radio Newcastle took the speech back to America here.

मार्टिन लूथर किंग का आई हैव ए ड्रीम भाषण दुनिया भर में जाना जाता है, लेकिन बहुत कम लोग जानते हैं कि उन्होंने 1967 में उत्तर-पूर्वी इंग्लैंड में न्यूकैसल विश्वविद्यालय से मानद डॉक्टरेट की उपाधि स्वीकार करते हुए एक और शक्तिशाली भाषण दिया था। यहाँ पहली बार भाषण देखने वाले अमेरिकी अपना मूल्यांकन देते हैं।


Tour de France Grand Depart diary

Summary: With the world's biggest bike race starting in Leeds on 5 July, BBC Yorkshire's Tour de France correspondent Matt Slater rounds up the best of the gossip, opinion and stories, on and off the bike, and also tries to explain some of cycling's unique lingo. TOP STORIES

What's cooking? After two days of beer news, it is only right that I address one of the other major food groups, sausages, although these have beer in them, too. Ripon-based R & J butchers have teamed up with Keighley's finest, Timothy Taylor, to produce French-style bangers for your delectation in Taylor's pubs. I will be addressing cakes and crisps in future diaries. Full story: meatinfo.co.uk Tour party Salford's self-styled "People's Tenor" Russell Watson will headline a "Grand Departy" concert on Friday 4 July at York's Huntington Stadium. Joining Watson will be "X Factor favourites" Rough Copy, Union J and some other pop combos I have never heard of, but also some that I have heard of, Altered Images, Brother Beyond and The Blow Monkeys, for example. Ten thousand tickets will go on sale from Friday, with a single ticket costing £29.50, a posh ticket £35, or £100 for a family of four. Full story: The Press Not cricket! I am aware that some people are less excited about the imminent arrival of "the world's largest annual sporting event" (according to its owners Amaury Sport Organisation) than I am, but even the grouches at The Guardian's county cricket blog could not help themselves but get into the Grand Departy (thank you, York) mood on Wednesday. Having sniffed at the "Grand Bloody Depart" in one sentence, two paragraphs later they were waxing almost lyrical at the prospect of riders climbing the Cote de Holme Moss, Cote de Ripponden and Cote de Blubberhouses. And then they returned to the cricket - only kidding, plenty of room for both. Full story: The Guardian CYCLING ROUND-UP It was joy unbound at the Giro on Wednesday where Diego Ulissi became the first Italian stage-winner in this edition of their national passion play. The 24-year-old powered away from an elite group on the climb to Viggiano to record the second Giro win of his career. Australian Michael Matthews put in another fine ride to retain the overall lead he has held since the second stage, but it was the display of compatriot Cadel Evans that provoked the biggest post-race buzz. The 2011 Tour winner looks in fine fettle, finishing second on the stage to leap to third in the general classification. With Wiggo rediscovering his mojo in California, could Cuddles be back too? TWEET OF THE DAY "Many have asked for the Team Sky rice cakes recipe, so here it is… #doingthelittlethings" Team Sky kit supplier Rapha reveals how to make the silver foil-wrapped snacks that power Chris Froome and the boys on to Grand Tour glory. A TO Z OF LE TOUR H is for… Hors categorie - French for "out of", or "beyond", category, this term refers to the enormous mountains the riders must get over on the road to Paris. Most of the significant climbs in the Tour route are given a 1 to 4 score, with 1 being the hardest, 4 the easiest. "HC" climbs are, to paraphrase Spinal Tap, one harder. The harder the climb, the more King of the Mountain competition points are on offer. For reference, the hardest ascent on the two Yorkshire stages, Holme Moss, is only a Cat 2 climb. Hors delai - This is what can happen if you have to climb too many HCs: you miss the time cut on the stage and you are "out of time" and out of the race. The time limit for a specific stage is a percentage of the winner's time, and it is set by the commissaires (race referees) each day. What the time limit is on a tough mountain stage is one of the press room's favourite guessing games, and factors such as the weather, the brilliance of the winner and the quality of the chief commissaire's breakfast, all come into play. TODAY'S TOUR TRIVIA Continuing with the H-theme, it is time to address one of the key themes at recent Tours de France: when will a Frenchman win it again? When Bernard "The Badger" Hinault won his fifth Tour in 1985 - to match the records of Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx - nobody thought France would still be waiting for another home-grown hero in 2014. After all, Bernard Thevenet had won in 1975 and 1977, before Hinault claimed four in a row. Then his apparent successor Laurent Fignon won two on the bounce, before Hinault returned to claim his fifth. France had no warning of the drought to come. But after Hinault came American Greg LeMond, then Ireland's Stephen Roche, followed by Pedro Delgado of Spain, then LeMond again, twice. After that we were into the five-year reign of Spain's Miguel Indurain, a spell that was broken by a Dane, who was followed by a German, then an Italian, and then came Lance Armstrong. Since then we have had Spaniards, a Luxembourger, an Aussie and two Brits…but no Frenchmen, and they have not even been very close to winning in recent years. Things have not quite reached British tennis and Wimbledon status yet, but we will have a reasonable chance of ending our 12-month wait for glory in July. Can French cycling say the same?

5 जुलाई को लीड्स में शुरू होने वाली दुनिया की सबसे बड़ी बाइक दौड़ के साथ, बीबीसी यॉर्कशायर के टूर डी फ्रांस संवाददाता मैट स्लेटर बाइक के अंदर और बाहर गपशप, राय और कहानियों का सबसे अच्छा दौर पेश करते हैं, और साइकिल चलाने की कुछ अनूठी भाषा को समझाने की भी कोशिश करते हैं।


China week: Lunar New Year satire and the 'Power Queen'

Summary: Money, money, money…. a big theme this week.

Carrie GracieChina editor@BBCCarrieon Twitter The headline number is $2.48m (£1.60m), sitting in a bank account in Switzerland in the name of Li Xiaolin. Outside China, Ms Li was not such a big headline. Leaked files on accounts holding more than $100bn provided a rare glimpse inside the super-secret Swiss banking system and the super-rich who use it. The accounts were with the Swiss arm of global banking giant HSBC and in the words of the report from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ): "The documents show the bank's dealings with clients engaged in a spectrum of illegal behaviour, especially in hiding hundreds-of-millions of dollars from tax authorities". Given the scale of the revelations, Ms Li's $2.48m looked rather modest. But for Chinese observers, she is an interesting account holder. Li Xiaolin is "red royalty" in China, daughter of former prime minister Li Peng, and often known as the "Power Queen" because she heads a big state-owned energy utility. Ms Li has made no comment about news of her Swiss bank account, but the timing is sensitive as China's anti-corruption campaign begins to focus on those in state-owned enterprises who have used senior positions to make personal fortunes. Ms Li will need to come up with an explanation for where the $2.48m came from and why the funds were in a secret account in Switzerland. It is not the first time the ICIJ investigators have embarrassed China's mighty by following their money trail overseas. Perhaps top graft buster Wang Qishan will consider hiring the entire International Committee of Investigative Journalists to work for him. On second thought, perhaps not, as the revelations might strain the court and prison system beyond endurance and leave the Communist Party short of people to govern the country. 'Friends' with China Staying with money, it's getting harder to earn it if you're an American tech company in China. This week saw a record fine, nearly $1bn, against US chipmaker Qualcomm for violating antimonopoly laws. Regulators have also forced the company to dramatically lower the royalties it charges Chinese companies. Qualcomm bosses put a brave face on the ruling, saying they were glad to remove uncertainty surrounding the company's business in China. But some observers say Qualcomm is just one battle in a long campaign, symbolic of a rising economic nationalism in China, apparent ever since the revelations from Edward Snowden about US surveillance of foreign governments and companies via technology companies. About half of Qualcomm's revenue comes from China, and internet tsar Lu Wei recently observed that foreign companies could not expect to make money from China without being its "friend". Talking of Lu Wei, we learned this week that he is now WeChat buddies with American ambassador Max Baucus and says he welcomes an exchange of views about internet regulation via WeChat. Note: WeChat buddies, not Facebook friends. Qualcomm, Intel, Cisco and the rest may need to tighten their belts further as China pushes home-grown competitors to go after their market share. Of course, if you're not an American chipmaker but a Chinese citizen with a dream, the Communist Party would like you to know that "The Communist Party is with you". Whether you want to open a diner, or you yearn for a blue sky, a world free of war or a beautiful wife, the message of a promotional video which spread online this week is "Chasing our dreams… and shaping the future together". Images of lush countryside interspersed with smiling clowns, farmers and bartenders… I couldn't help feeling it looked a bit like the kind of TV advert that banks make to reassure you that they are looking after your money, your future and your family. And missing from the feel good narrative was anyone who gets on the wrong side of the Party by raising problems or demanding rights. But Chinese New Year is just around the corner so perhaps the Party believes a feel good vibe is necessary. Especially as nearly 700 local governments have said that due to smog worries, they will either ban or restrict festive fireworks this year. As usual there has been a big media build up to the New Year's Eve CCTV gala, watched annually by up to 700 million people (some of whom grumble that they have no choice as other stations are forbidden from staging competing galas). The buzz around this year's CCTV gala is that it will include a skit making fun of corrupt officials. This is indeed news. Usually the gala is kept politically super safe behind a vacuum-sealed wall of sequins and schmultz. But why stop at corrupt Party and government officials? The gala could poke fun at CCTV's troubled top brass while they're at it. But don't expect anything too racy. Those involved admit that even the satire has been carefully censored.

पैसा, पैसा, पैसा.... इस सप्ताह एक बड़ा विषय है।


China remains biggest challenge for US

Summary: Buried under the avalanche of reactions to presidential candidate Donald Trump's verbal attack against Muslims, the stream of headlines about the San Bernardino couple who shot and killed more than 14 people last week and the dissection of President Barack Obama's Sunday Oval speech about the war against the so-called Islamic State (IS) was a very significant announcement.

By Kim GhattasBBC News, Washington Singapore said it would allow the US to deploy a spy plane out of its territory to monitor Chinese activities in the South China sea. The move, which angered the Chinese, comes at a time of heightened tensions in the area over China's building of artificial islands in disputed places. It is a reminder that while Washington's thinking, bandwidth and resources, including military, seem continually consumed by the crisis and threats emanating from the Middle East, the more serious long-term challenge for US national security interests remains the management of its relationship with China. The complexity crisis in US foreign policy is how security and defence analyst Anthony Cordesman at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) describes it. He talks of the need to handle multiple, urgent and important short-term and long-term crises at the same time and being reactive while formulating coherent long-term strategies. It's a challenge that has frustrated the Obama administration. The president had hoped to disentangle the US from the Middle East and its wars during his time in office, only to find the region follows him everywhere: he had to answer numerous questions about his Middle East strategy, in the wake of the Paris attacks, during a trip to Asia last month. The stops in Manila and Kuala Lumpur were meant to showcase a landmark trade deal - the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) - which leaves out China. While the TPP is seen as a key part of the administration's much-vaunted rebalancing towards Asia - what Obama had conceived as a grand realignment in how the US approaches the world, once dubbed the Asia Pivot, has become more of a grinding daily and crucial exercise to keep up with Beijing. The Chinese capital has emerged as a regional and world power at an unusual speed for a rising power, spreading its money across the globe as well as aggressively asserting itself in Asia. South China Sea disputes Tensions in the South China Sea because of disputes with other claimants like the Philippines and Vietnam are leading to alarming headlines about possible conflict. China insists it is simply doing what all its neighbours are trying to do - but it is doing it at dizzying pace. The US Department of Defense assesses that as of June 2015, China had reclaimed 17 times more land in 20 months in the South China Sea than all the other claimants combined over the past 40 years. China's exact intentions remain unclear, but the overall assessment is that Beijing wants to slowly push the US out of the area without causing a conflict. Experts say that while China knows it cannot claim territorial sea based on land reclamations, the artificial islands will allow Beijing to have forward military bases and patrol the seas a long way away from China. The Pentagon's report on Asia Pacific Maritime Security Strategy warns that: "China is unilaterally altering the physical status quo in the region, thereby complicating diplomatic initiatives that could lower tensions." Anja Manuel, a former State Department official during the George W Bush administration, said: "China has no intention of challenging US military power globally, but they do want primacy in Asia and they like to pick off their adversaries one by one." But China's military is also moving well beyond its usual focus on protecting the borders. Beijing has just announced it will build its first overseas military outpost in Djibouti, a naval facility, not far from the US's own military base and its only one in Africa, Camp Lemonnier. Economic muscle In Pakistan, the Chinese signed $46bn worth of energy and infrastructure contracts. The Chinese Pakistan Economic Corridor will open up new trading routes from Beijing to the Middle East. China is also building a new Silk Road to Europe - a strategic economic agreement that could rival the TTP. Last month, the IMF announced that the Chinese renminbi would join the world's basket of reserve currencies. When China announced it was setting up an Asian Investment and Infrastructure bank, the US tried to strong-arm its allies in staying away, but 57 nations joined, including the UK. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank All of this has led to criticism that Obama is not pushing back hard enough against an assertive China, with one analyst, Harry Kazianis, even claiming that the US has just handed over the South China Sea to Beijing, along with the annual $5tn of international trade that goes through it. "There is concern about whether the US is doing enough to impose a cost on China for what is seen as destabilising behaviour," said Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at CSIS, who pointed out it took two years for the US to finally conduct freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea to push back against Beijing. "I am quite worried about the perception that the administration is not doing enough. It's a perception, even though some of the criticism is fair." Direct conflict with China is highly unlikely, but the risks would be enormous and the impact on the US economy tremendous. US goods account for one-fifth of all trade passing through the South China Sea. But accidents are possible and managing the relationship is an exercise in balance and subtleties that requires constant co-ordination with Asian allies, also in dispute with the Chinese. "People want to know the United States is going to be a stabilising force [in Asia]," Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, said recently. "But they also want us to have a good relationship with China." Many experts think Obama has handled China well - but warn it is a work in progress, which will need to be continued by the next president, no matter how much China-bashing happens during the presidential campaign. None of the world's long-term big problems, like climate change, can be resolved without Beijing - COP21 talks in Paris have been yet another reminder. "You can see a positive track (in the relationship), where there's a climate change deal and trade is fairly open," said Manuel. "But that's not automatic, it's not necessarily the trajectory we are on." A situation where the US is spending more and more on its military and trading less because of China is not inconceivable. So if the headlines today are urgent and the crisis in the Middle East real, the long-term strategic implications for the US of mismanaging the relationship with China are worse.

मुसलमानों के खिलाफ राष्ट्रपति पद के उम्मीदवार डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प के मौखिक हमले पर प्रतिक्रियाओं के हिमस्खलन के बीच, पिछले सप्ताह 14 से अधिक लोगों की गोली मारकर हत्या करने वाले सैन बर्नार्डिनो दंपति के बारे में सुर्खियों की धारा और तथाकथित इस्लामिक स्टेट (आईएस) के खिलाफ युद्ध के बारे में राष्ट्रपति बराक ओबामा के संडे ओवल भाषण का विच्छेदन एक बहुत ही महत्वपूर्ण घोषणा थी।


Silence and solemnity at the Cenotaph

Summary: Under a startlingly blue sky and in bright sunshine they stood silent around Edwin Lutyens' extraordinary Cenotaph, the memorial to the dead of almost a century of wars and conflicts which has stood in mute testimony to the sacrifice of generations in London's Whitehall.

By Nick HighamBBC News As the 11 o'clock chimes of Big Ben died away the wind suddenly got up. The flag atop the Foreign Office stiffened, and the two-minute silence was broken by the rustling of the trees as a few stray leaves blew down past the great white bulk of the Ministry of Defence. Scarcely anyone or anything else moved as thousands stood in solemn contemplation. Courage, service and sacrifice The Queen, top military brass, politicians led by Prime Minister David Cameron, and high commissioners from more than 40 Commonwealth countries, representative contingents from the armed forces drawn up in hollow square around the Cenotaph - and, most moving of all, the 10,000 veterans and civilians massed along Whitehall as far as the eye could see towards Trafalgar Square, a sea of contrasting caps and berets, gathered here to remember fallen comrades. Then the gun fired in St James's Park and the buglers sounded the Last Post to mark the end of the silence. It is a familiar scene, a tradition inaugurated in 1919 and faithfully repeated ever since, a ritual that scarcely changes. It is one I have watched many times on television. But only when you stand in Whitehall do you fully grasp the way the silence and solemnity continue for several minutes more, while the Queen and other members of the Royal Family and the service chiefs lay the first wreaths of poppies at the foot of the Cenotaph. Only when the massed bands of the Guards Division strike up Beethoven's Funeral March No 1 and the prime minister steps forward to lay his wreath is that remarkable silence finally broken. And then perhaps the most moving part of the whole day. The bands set aside the solemn music and strike up a selection of familiar, jaunty march tunes, and those 10,000 veterans, in more than 200 contingents, begin parading past the Cenotaph, each group bearing its wreath. Young, old and very old, some in uniform, some in wheelchairs, proudly recalling their rusty parade ground drill, and organised under the auspices of the Royal British Legion, they march in the sunshine as the Princess Royal takes the salute as the march ends on Horse Guards Parade. And each contingent tells its own story: Of courage, service and sacrifice. On television David Dimbleby observed the numbers marching seemed to grow greater each year. So too it seems do the crowds of bystanders. The two-minute silence may no longer bring Britain's streets to a hushed standstill, but around Whitehall itself ordinary members of the public still come in large numbers to take part, if only by watching from the sidelines. As the veterans dispersed for lunch thousands of people filled the street, thronging around the Cenotaph.

एक आश्चर्यजनक रूप से नीले आकाश के नीचे और उज्ज्वल धूप में वे एडविन लुटियंस के असाधारण सेनोटाफ के चारों ओर चुप खड़े थे, जो लगभग एक सदी के युद्धों और संघर्षों के मृतकों का स्मारक है जो लंदन के व्हाइटहॉल में पीढ़ियों के बलिदान की मूक गवाही में खड़ा है।


50 years of iconic Royal Mail Welsh stamps go online

Summary: Fifty years of stamps honouring iconic Welsh people, places and events are to be celebrated with the launch of an online gallery showcasing them all.

Every special stamp that has been issued by the Royal Mail to honour UK heritage and life since July 1965 will feature on a website from Friday. They include places such as Caernarfon and Harlech castles, along with people including Princess Diana. People can also search for landscape stamps including the Brecon Beacons. The top 10 Welsh special stamps issued are:

प्रतिष्ठित वेल्श लोगों, स्थानों और कार्यक्रमों को सम्मानित करने वाले पचास साल के डाक टिकटों को उन सभी को प्रदर्शित करने वाली एक ऑनलाइन गैलरी के शुभारंभ के साथ मनाया जाना है।


Dale Farm: Environment Agency finds 'no significant risk'

Summary: An investigation into alleged environmental damage at a traveller site has found "no significant risk" to human health.

Residents raised concerns about contamination at the Dale Farm site in Essex, which was evicted in 2011. The Environment Agency, which investigated the claims, said there had been no environmental damage to land. Basildon Borough Council and traveller representatives have been told of the findings. About 80 families were evicted from the six-acre site near Basildon after a decade-long planning row over the illegal settlement. Before the clearance operation, Dale Farm was one of Britain's largest traveller communities.

एक यात्री स्थल पर कथित पर्यावरणीय क्षति की जांच में मानव स्वास्थ्य के लिए "कोई महत्वपूर्ण खतरा" नहीं पाया गया है।


Burundi coup: Timeline of events

Summary: A timeline of the events on Wednesday as a coup attempt was launched in Burundi to try to overthrow President Pierre Nkurunziza, amid unrest over his bid to be re-elected to a third term. All times are approximate and in BST (GMT+1)

08:45: Hundreds of protesters reach an area about one km from the presidential palace, the closest to the centre they have got, reports the BBC's Maud Jullien. 09:24: A spokesman for Burundi's President, Pierre Nkurunziza, tells the BBC's Great Lakes service that rumours of a coup were unfounded and spread over Twitter. 10:53: An army general in Burundi says he no longer recognises President Pierre Nkurunziza as the country's leader. Godefroid Niyombareh tells reporters in the capital, Bujumubura, that a national salvation committee has been set up to run the country. 12:14: An emphatic denial from Burundi's president - there is no coup in Burundi and the situation is under control. 12:19: But on the ground the situation is less clear. Thousands begin heading towards the centre of the capital, including soldiers supporting the coup, reports the BBC's Maud Jullien. 12:56: The police that have been cracking down on weeks of protests have "vanished" from the capital, AP reports. 13:11: Gunfire is heard at Burundi's state broadcaster, as troops loyal to the President fire over the heads of protesters. 15:34: 16:37: The UN makes an urgent appeal for calm and restraint. 1900: Confusion over the whereabouts of the president continues. 1901: The US is viewing the coup attempt with "concern", White House spokesman Josh Earnest says. "We call on all sides to lay down arms, end the violence and show restraint." 1905: There is now a dangerous stand-off in Bujumbura, the AFP news agency reports, with pro-Nkurunziza troops still controlling key institutions, including the presidential palace and state broadcaster. 1920: Leaders of the East African countries attending a regional summit in Tanzania strongly condemn the coup and call fro general elections to be postponed. The leaders call on all parties to ensure that the violence stops. 2115: A senior government official in Tanzania confirms to the BBC's Charlotte Atwood that President Nkurunziza left in a plane for just 10 minutes from Tanzania to Burundi before turning back.

बुरुंडी में राष्ट्रपति पियरे नकुरुंजिजा को उखाड़ फेंकने की कोशिश के लिए बुधवार को तख्तापलट के प्रयास के रूप में घटनाओं की एक समयरेखा शुरू की गई थी, उनके तीसरे कार्यकाल के लिए फिर से चुने जाने की बोली पर अशांति के बीच। सभी समय अनुमानित हैं और बीएसटी (जीएमटी + 1) में हैं।


Charlie Hebdo: Recalling a day at the magazine

Summary: Indian cartoonist Vishwajyoti Ghosh, who was friends with some of the Charlie Hebdo staff killed in Wednesday's attack, remembers a memorable day with courageous artists at the offices of the French satirical magazine.

A big round table, a generous spread of white paper and a few black markers - this was the first frame etched in my memory as I stepped into the newsroom of Charlie Hebdo in Paris. The editorial meeting was under way early in the morning. Some of the artists had arrived, some were on their way. Ideation had begun. As the cartoonists began thinking aloud, the editor stood by the white board noting ideas and themes for the coming edition. So this is how it works, I said to myself, a 12-pager with only political cartoons, strips and a small editorial. As the meeting progressed, more ideas and jokes were tossed back and forth across the table. Some of the cartoonists had already begun their day, now doodling furiously. My friend Tignous rushed in, much like the boy who lives nearest to the school and eventually turns up last. A quick look at the white board, the themes somewhat ringing a bell. Then the arms were out and black sketch pen was now committed to paper. I was in France on an artist's residency at the time and had met Tignous through a friend. It was 2004, the World Social Forum was happening in Mumbai and some of Charlie Hebdo's cartoonists were on their way there to cover the event. Tignous introduced me, the cartoonist from India, and everyone looked up, hoping I might have something to say about the World Social Forum or France's latest intellectual fancy for Arundhati Roy. The Booker-winning Indian author had delivered a lecture at the Sorbonne about the Iraq war a few months earlier. I smiled. I was introduced to the man next to me, Cabu. He had travelled to India too and had published a book of cartoons on India. We chatted, talked about cities we had travelled to and the absurdities cartoonists often discover, if not look for. By now, the paper's mandate was evident. Irreverence, care a damn and, most importantly, ridicule-the-ridiculous. Spare no one. At the time a school girl had been barred from wearing a hijab (veil) to school in France and the controversy had grabbed the headlines. The entire nation was debating the story - and the cartoonists were drawing, poking at both sides of the debate. Looking through many issues of the paper it was clear that no one would be spared - the god men, the institutions, the homophobes, religions and, of course, neither would Nicholas Sarkozy who was then pulling the strings as France's interior minister. So here they were, a bunch of France's leading cartoonists vigorously expressing, ranting and laughing with their black markers. In no time the cartoons were finding their way to the display board from where the best would make it to the paper. The editor and the senior staff would have a word and discuss the pieces and then long debates would follow. Highly democratic and typically French. After some time, Cabu turned to me and said: "Why don't you draw and put them up? Let's see if your humour's French enough." I smiled and drew a few things - whether they were French enough I never found out although they were all very welcoming. Tignous and I became very good friends over time despite not speaking each other's language. His wife, being the translator, was often caught in the crossfire of translating our ridiculous jokes and digs. A few years later I joined them at the Calcutta Book Fair where France was the guest country. Along with other French cartoonists, our brief was simple - to bring out a daily tabloid about the city and the book fair, in cartoons. The city fascinated him - the traffic, the honking taxis, the coffee house meetings and the filter-less Charminar cigarettes. Each of these came under his pen, the lines spontaneous and the humour erratic. The conference room at the Alliance Francaise in the city was soon transformed much along the lines of Charlie Hebdo's editorial room. A bunch of creators, who loved having fun while making fun. The charmed life of a cartoonist, did I think? For those men who ridiculed everything have now ridiculed death too, through their black markers permanently committed to their ideas of expression on white paper. In times when the political cartoon becomes the easiest threat for the intolerant, the markers have the spirit in the ink to draw, critique, rant and ridicule. We may agree or disagree with their politics, but I believe a thousand Charlie Hebdos are here to stay and make us laugh, think, hurt, debate and then laugh again. Vishwajyoti Ghosh is a cartoonist/ graphic novelist based in Delhi

भारतीय कार्टूनिस्ट विश्वज्योति घोष, जो बुधवार के हमले में मारे गए चार्ली हेब्दो के कुछ कर्मचारियों के दोस्त थे, फ्रांसीसी व्यंग्य पत्रिका के कार्यालयों में साहसी कलाकारों के साथ एक यादगार दिन को याद करते हैं।


UK retail sales figures explained by ONS

Summary: Anyone pushing through the Christmas shopping crowds can see the scale of retailing in the UK. Online, out-of-town and on the High Street, shops and stores employ nearly three million people and account for a significant chunk of the economy.

By Kate DaviesOffice for National Statistics Retailing is also seen as a unique indicator of consumer confidence. If people are spending money in the shops, says conventional wisdom, the economy as a whole must be on the up. But how does the Office for National Statistics (ONS) measure such a huge and diverse sector and why should those figures be taken seriously? The Retail Sales Index, produced monthly by ONS, is the most comprehensive survey of retailers, covering 95% of known turnover across the retail industry. ONS asks 5,000 businesses across England, Wales and Scotland - including supermarkets, clothes stores, market stalls and online retailers - to provide their retail sales turnover for a particular period. The figures are released midway through the following month, making the Retail Sales Index one of the earliest short-term measurements of the UK economy to be produced. Data, not sentiment The figures released provide an estimate of how much was spent (value) and how much was bought (volume) from British retailers. Further estimates of the amount spent online are also provided. Accounting for 5.7% of gross domestic product (GDP), retail sales are used by the government, the Bank of England and the City of London as a key source of economic intelligence. So it is essential for such an important and widely used measure to be credible and trusted. ONS produces the index independently of commercial or political influence, so users can be sure that the figures are presented without spin or bias. It is also important that the figures are based on hard data - money in the tills, not sentiment or expectation. So what have the figures been telling us? A good example in recent years has been how shoppers' habits have changed since the emergence of online retailing. The online sector has seen significant growth, doubling its share of the market in the past five years. By October 2013, it accounted for around 10% of all retail sales in Britain with an average weekly spend of just over £650m. Seasonal adjustments As well as long-term trends, the Retail Sales Index can also show the volatility of the retail industry and the factors that can cause fluctuations in figures month-on-month. For example, the entire index showed a fall of 0.7% in October, compared with September. Analysis of this data showed that the dip may have been due to milder weather conditions that we experienced during that month - which meant a delay in the number of people going out to buy their winter coats! These seasonal effects can be measured even more accurately by the method of "seasonal adjustment". This means patterns that occur at a similar time each year - for example, the Christmas shopping rush - are removed. This "smooths" the peaks and troughs from the numbers, and allows ONS to analyse and better explain monthly variations in the data. At this frenetic time of year, it's just a pity that moderating influence can't be transferred to the shops themselves! The opinions expressed are those of the author and are not held by the BBC unless specifically stated. The material is for general information only and does not constitute investment, tax, legal or other form of advice.

क्रिसमस की खरीदारी की भीड़ से गुजरने वाला कोई भी व्यक्ति ब्रिटेन में खुदरा बिक्री के पैमाने को देख सकता है। ऑनलाइन, शहर से बाहर और हाई स्ट्रीट पर, दुकानें और स्टोर लगभग तीस लाख लोगों को रोजगार देते हैं और अर्थव्यवस्था का एक महत्वपूर्ण हिस्सा हैं।


The Kashmiris detained more than 700km away from home

Summary: India's federal government is believed to have detained thousands of people including activists, local politicians and businessmen in Indian-administered Kashmir since it stripped the region of its autonomy on 5 August. Many have even been moved to jails elsewhere in India. BBC Hindi's Vineet Khare visited one such prison in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

It was a hot and sultry Friday morning in Agra, a crowded and dusty city in Uttar Pradesh that is also home to the Taj Mahal. The occasional breeze made the weather bearable - but not for the dozen men and women from the Kashmir valley, where the temperature is around 18C in September. In Agra, it touches 35C. The Kashmiris sat in a large waiting hall outside the imposing gate of the Agra Central Jail, and patiently waited their turn for a brief reunion with jailed family members. Before the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government announced its decision to scrap the special status that gave Kashmir its autonomy, it put the region under lockdown - mobile phone networks, landlines and the internet were cut off; and regional political leaders were placed under house arrest. The Muslim-majority valley has also witnessed protests and security forces have often clashed with protesters. And thousands of activists and others are believed to have been picked up from their homes in the days that followed the surprise move. Indian security forces have transferred several hundred detainees from Kashmir to jails in other parts of India, according to media reports. Officials told the BBC that more than 80 of them are being held in Agra. Agra Central Jail was heavily guarded, hot and smelly. The stink from the toilets wafted into the hall where the families sat, making the wait harder. "It's too hot. I would die here," says one of the waiting family members, smiling grimly as he wipes his sweaty face with his shirt. "Do not ask my name. We may get in trouble." He is from Pulwama, a town that is 30km (18.6 miles) from Kashmir's capital, Srinagar. He was waiting to meet his brother, who he says was picked up by security forces on the night of 4 August. "We were not told where he was taken," he says. "I don't know why he was picked up. He had nothing to do with stone-pelting. He was a driver." He says he followed up with officials who told him that his brother had been taken to Srinagar. "After a lot of effort, we found out he had been brought here," he adds. He arrived in Agra on 28 August only to find out that he needed a "verification letter" from local police in Kashmir, confirming his story. So he went back to Pulwama and returned to Agra with the letter. "My brother is 28," he adds. "He's educated - he even has a Masters, but now all of that is useless because he is in jail." Abdul Ghani's plight is similar. The daily wage worker made the journey by train and bus from the Kashmiri town of Kulgam to Agra to meet his son and nephew - he had been told that both of them were being held here. "They were picked up at two in the morning as they were sleeping," he says. "No one told us why they were picked up. They never threw stones at the forces." Mr Ghani was also worried as he was not carrying a "verification letter". "I didn't know I had to carry the letter," he says. He adds that he had already spent 10,000 rupees ($140; £112) travelling to Agra, and cannot afford another trip. A few gruelling hours later, it was time to for them to go through the gate. Almost all of them had brought fresh apples, the region's most famous produce. Mr Ghani's pleading paid off and he was allowed to go in. An hour later, he emerged smiling. "He [my son] was worried. But I told him everything was fine at home," he says. "Thanks to Allah, I met him here. I will come back in a fortnight." The waiting hall was nearly empty by the evening, when I noticed a woman and a man walking briskly to the prison gate. They had flown from Srinagar to Delhi, and had hired a taxi to drive them to Agra. They were allowed to meet their brother for 20 minutes after submitting a request to officials. "They told us had we come earlier, we could have met him for 40 minutes," says Tarique Ahmed Dar, whose imprisoned brother has three children. Meetings are allowed only on Tuesdays and Fridays, so if Mr Dar had missed this one, he would have had to wait another four days. "I spoke to him. His wife, his three children and our parents miss him," Mr Dar adds. "It's tough for them. Now that I have seen him, I will tell them he is fine." Read more on Kashmir

माना जाता है कि भारत की संघीय सरकार ने 5 अगस्त को इस क्षेत्र की स्वायत्तता छीनने के बाद से भारत प्रशासित कश्मीर में कार्यकर्ताओं, स्थानीय राजनेताओं और व्यापारियों सहित हजारों लोगों को हिरासत में लिया है। कई लोगों को भारत में कहीं और जेलों में भी स्थानांतरित कर दिया गया है। बीबीसी हिंदी के विनीत खरे ने उत्तरी राज्य उत्तर प्रदेश में ऐसी ही एक जेल का दौरा किया।


From Morecambe to MoMA: New York showing for Ten Thousand Waves

Summary: It is almost 10 years since the deaths of 23 Chinese cockle-pickers at Morecambe Bay made international headlines. Now an installation by artist Isaac Julien is on show at New York's Museum of Modern Art. But what does the piece have to say about the tragedy and the attitudes towards those who perished?

By Simon ArmstrongBBC News As darkness descended, fierce winds howled and tore at their clothes. In unforgiving waters, 23 men and women fighting to harvest cockles for criminal gangmasters at Morecambe Bay on England's North West coast drowned on a flooded sandbank. The news shocked people across the globe, but now almost a decade on from that night, their story is the inspiration behind a 55-minute film on show thousands of miles away at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Alongside video footage of the raging storm and extracts taken from emergency calls, Isaac Julien's Ten Thousand Waves weaves together stories set in the glistening modern-day metropolis of Shanghai with others drawn from ancient myths. 'Better times' "They had travelled such a huge distance to eke out a living, but they came to their end in an unforgiving sea," said Julien. "I was really moved by that. I'm very sympathetic to people who travel to find a new life. It's natural for anyone to want to do." Having followed the news reports in the days and weeks after the tragedy, the Londoner set about researching the plight of the workers who, in the words of Mr Justice Henriques, had been "cynically and callously" exploited by gangmaster Lin Liang Ren. A first visit to Morecambe was made in 2006. Several more followed. "It was important to go. I went for a walk when the tide was out, but the water comes in incredibly fast," he added. "You feel it's a space that has seen better times." There were also trips to China's Fujian Province - home to the cockle-pickers and where a fable encompassing the goddess Mazu leading fishermen to safety originated hundreds of years before. Already compiling an 18-minute film called Western Union: Small Boats - which explores the stories of those escaping wars and famine in Libya by fleeing across the Mediterranean - the theme of migration was one Julien was immersed in. It was important, the Turner Prize-nominated artist said, "to go beyond a news story moment and look at the movement of people". 'Branding people' "It's not going to go away whether people like it or not," he added, before referring to the thousands of North Africans desperately struggling to reach the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa in search of a better life. "How many people have to die across the Mediterranean Sea and how civilised is Europe in its pursuit of certain social qualities?" Ten Thousand Waves also features a tale of 16th century fishermen adrift at sea and a ghostly, mystical presence. So does the 53-year-old see parallels between the film and his own life? "Of course. My parents came to England from the Caribbean in the 1950s in search of a better life. "They were seen as immigrants. I have a certain sympathy for that position. We brand them in a not very nice way." For St Martin's School of Art graduate Julien, the film is partly a reaction to the way the issue of migration is framed by governments and the media. "People think they can just wish it away by creating processes that are draconian or engineering a moral panic, but these issues are global," he said. Over three years, Ten Thousand Waves has been taken across the globe. Following its premiere in Sydney, Australia, it was shown in Shanghai to tie in with the Expo 2010 event. Discovering bodies The memories of the tragedy are still vivid to those involved in the dramatic rescue operation. Among them is Lancashire coastguard Chris Turner, who was the duty manager when the emergency call came in. "It's still at the forefront of my mind. I don't think it will ever leave me," he said. "The call came in about 21:00 GMT and I remember the confusion around how many people were in the bay. We had reports of up to 50. Then we began discovering the bodies." Now 51, he said the events of that night proved significant as they shed light on practices that had been largely hidden, and he welcomes any attempt to make sense of the tragedy. "We didn't know about the Snakeheads, gangmasters and illegal immigration until then," he said. "We didn't know people were living 30 to a house, with no furniture, just mattresses. "That had been very much underground. It was only after the tragedy we discovered what was happening." With interest in Ten Thousand Waves strong, exhibitions are lined up in several countries. But there is one place Julien would "love" the installation to be shown - Morecambe. "Where there's a will, it's possible," he said. "I hope it can."

मोरेकैंबे बे में 23 चीनी कॉकल-पिकर्स की मौत को लगभग 10 साल हो चुके हैं जो अंतर्राष्ट्रीय सुर्खियां बने। अब कलाकार आइज़ैक जूलियन की एक स्थापना न्यूयॉर्क के म्यूज़ियम ऑफ़ मॉडर्न आर्ट में प्रदर्शित की गई है। लेकिन इस टुकड़े का त्रासदी और मारे गए लोगों के प्रति दृष्टिकोण के बारे में क्या कहना है?


Fisherman in Sicily marooned in jail in 'red prawn war'

Summary: For the past two months, 18 fishermen from Sicily detained at sea by the Libyan Coast Guard have been held in a jail close to the city of Benghazi. They were fishing for red prawns in Mediterranean waters over which Libya claims sovereignty.

By Linda PresslyBBC News, Sicily Complicating their potential release is a Libyan demand for a prisoner swap: the Sicilians in exchange for four Libyans convicted by the Italian courts of human trafficking and murder. 'Red prawn war' In the capitals of Europe, red prawns can retail at more than €50 (£45) a kilo. Connoisseurs eat them raw. For decades, fishermen from the Sicilian port of Mazara del Vallo have been catching them off the coast of Libya at depths of more than 600m (2,000ft). It is perilous work and Domenico Asaro has had three altercations with Libyan authorities that have cost him and his family dear. The first was in March 1996. "Around 7am, we saw a military vessel coming towards us very fast. When we tried to escape, they opened fire. It was a race for our lives," he remembers. "After four or five hours of chasing and shooting at us, a bullet almost hit me." He and his crew were sentenced to two years in prison before being released after six months for good behaviour. In 2005, Muammar Gaddafi, who was Libya's authoritarian leader at the time, formalised his control over parts of the Mediterranean by unilaterally extending Libya's territorial waters from 12 to 74 miles offshore, a move that was never accepted by the European Union. Domenico Asaro had two more run-ins with the Libyans: But it was that 1996 experience that marked him forever - because his boat was lost. "My father said - why couldn't they keep you, and give us back the boat? These vessels are like our children," he told the BBC. "My father suffered; he was ashamed to go to the port. Following a very deep depression, he died. And still today I feel guilty that his death was my fault." Libya past and present An estimated 50 Italian fishing boats have been seized at sea by Libya in the last 25 years. In the past, negotiations to free captured fishermen often happened informally between Mazara del Vallo and the authorities in Benghazi. When Silvio Berlusconi was Italy's prime minister, it was reported he would pick up the phone to Muammar Gaddafi and make a deal. But Gaddafi was deposed and killed in 2011. And now, after nearly a decade of armed conflict, Libya is no longer one political entity. It is split between two power bases. In the west the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) rules from Tripoli. In the east, from Benghazi, the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) has control under the military command of Khalifa Haftar. Read more on Libya and human trafficking in the Med: 'A wartime mentality' It is Gen Haftar's forces who are holding the 18 fishermen. Italy once had good relations with the LNA, but now the government is aligned with Gen Haftar's adversaries in Tripoli. And for Francesco Mezzapelle, director of the Prima Pagina media network in Mazara del Vallo, this rankles. "In my opinion, this looks like Haftar's revenge because the Italian government seems to support the other side - Tripoli," he says. The foreign ministry in Rome did not want to comment to the BBC about the predicament of the fishermen, but Francesco Mezzapelle says there have been negotiations between the Italians and the LNA. "Italian intelligence had contact with their Libyan counterparts to see if a payment would free the fishermen. But this time it isn't just an economic matter, it's political." Who are the Libyan prisoners? In 2015, more than a million refugees and migrants made their way to Europe. In August, 363 people boarded an old fishing vessel in Libya hoping to arrive in Italy; 49 of them would never set foot on Italian soil. They died a horrendous death packed into the hold of the boat in what the prosecutor in the Sicilian city of Catania called "one of the most brutal episodes ever recorded". The court convicted four young aspiring Libyan footballers and three others of using violence to prevent people from coming up from the hold on to the overcrowded deck. They were sentenced to 30 years in prison. "The interviews we did were very detailed. They all had the same things in common about the way the crossing was organised and how violence unfolded during the trip," says Alessandro Drago, one of the police officers who interviewed the surviving migrants after they were rescued at sea. "They told us they tried to climb up for air: the dead bodies in the hold made the air unbreathable. And they were beaten violently because the traffickers wanted them to stay below deck." All four Libyans are appealing against their convictions. "They had no weapons and no knowledge of navigation, they were just passengers," claims Cinzia Peccoraro, lawyer for one of the young men, Alaa Faraj. She does not believe the traffickers were on board the boat, or that it had a crew as such. And she does not want the Libyans' case to be linked to the men incarcerated near Benghazi. "The 18 fishermen have nothing to do with my client, Alaa Faraj. He wants to demonstrate his innocence here, under the Italian system." A town holds its breath There are regular demonstrations in Mazara del Vallo demanding freedom for the fishermen. The families and their supporters have taken their banners to Rome too, but so far there has been a resounding silence. Every day is torture for Marika Calandrino, who waits for news of her 32-year-old husband, Giacomo Giacalone, one of the 18 languishing in a Libyan jail. "I imagine him silent and very patient, waiting and hoping. I don't want my husband to feel abandoned," she says. She tries to distract herself with the couple's baby daughter, Gaia. "I've only found strength by looking into her eyes. My heart is crying, but I have to fight."

पिछले दो महीनों से, लीबिया के तटरक्षक बल द्वारा समुद्र में हिरासत में लिए गए सिसिली के 18 मछुआरों को बेनगाज़ी शहर के पास एक जेल में रखा गया है। वे भूमध्यसागरीय जल में लाल झींगे के लिए मछली पकड़ रहे थे, जिस पर लीबिया संप्रभुता का दावा करता है।


Russian media see election flaws

Summary: Scepticism has filled many Russian newspapers following what some media outlets consider to have been a flawed parliamentary election, with some party leaders and opposition activists also using Twitter to voice concerns over the election process.

However, several commentators have detected a change approaching in Russian politics, after the drop in support for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's ruling United Russia party. NEWSPAPERS Mikhail Rostovsky in Moskovskiy Komsomolets No 'Orange Revolution' will happen in Russia on the cusp of 2011-12. The authorities will ensure whatever result from the election they consider necessary. [However, the results] may be deemed unfair by a considerable part of the Russian population. If that happens, the keynote of the Russian political process in the near future may be a gradual erosion in the legitimacy of the authorities. Editorial in Vedomosti Those who tried to sterilise the election and the vote count probably unknowingly did the authorities a bad turn. They confirmed society's fears. It is highly probable that many people will refuse to recognise the results of such an "election" instead of the real people's choice, and will wish to count the votes themselves. Kirill Rogov in Novaya Gazeta The predictable result of the election is that the results will not be regarded as legitimate by the population. The authorities are to blame for this. Never before have we seen such shameless pressure, such brazen pressuring of undesirable candidates and observers, such nakedly lawless behaviour on the part of officials and such an evident show of political commitment from the Central Electoral Commission. Aleksandr Rubtsov in Novaya Gazeta Having put himself above everything and having put everything around him down, Putin has made the system fully dependent on his own charisma. Without its leader, United Russia will instantly collapse and disperse. After this election, there will be a pause... and everything will "stabilise" again, but not forever: the process has started. Head of the Political Information Centre Alexei Mukhin in Izvestia I hope this will show the party that it is necessary to change, but not to become a bronze monument by ignoring the electorate's signals. This loss of votes is the result of the decision made by Putin and Medvedev to "exchange their posts". Leonid Radzikhovsky in Rossiyskaya Gazeta Yes, the ruling authorities have won, but their moral capital is declining. And if the system is weak inside, any outside impact (such as a drop in oil prices) will be enough, and it may collapse. TWITTER Many of Russia's best-known Twitter-users have been giving their reaction to the results, with Russia's most followed tweeter, President Dmitry Medvedev, hailing United Russia's poll success. However, several high-profile party leaders and opposition activists used their tweets to claim election fraud, including opposition activist Roman Dobrokhotov, who was detained in Moscow on election day and criticised Mr Medvedev. President Dmitry Medvedev Thank you for supporting United Russia! Opposition activist Roman Dobrokhotov Whose support? No-one's supporting you, you cardboard buffoon. Only [chairman of the Central Electoral Commission] Churov and his wondermaths. United Russia MP Alexander Khinshtein When people say that it's only crooks, officials and forced slaves who vote for United Russia, they're spitting in the faces of millions of people! A Just Russia leader Sergei Mironov What's happening in St Petersburg is completely outrageous - they're brazenly rewriting the electoral returns. Tomorrow we'll be out on the streets. LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky We have been recording violations in every region today. Popular blogger and anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny The party of crooks and thieves managed to crawl above 50% after all. I'll have to review my assessments of their dishonesty. Popular photo-blogger Ilya Varlamov Oh! United Russia's got more than 50%. Well, that's it, now I can go to sleep, without any fear of waking up in a different country. Popular blogger and opposition activist Oleg Kozyrev A clear success for protest voting. United Russia has collapsed and fallen below 50%. By the presidential election, they'll have slumped to 15%, where they belong. BBC Monitoringselects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaux abroad.

कुछ मीडिया आउटलेट्स द्वारा एक त्रुटिपूर्ण संसदीय चुनाव माने जाने के बाद कई रूसी समाचार पत्रों में संदेह भर गया है, कुछ पार्टी नेताओं और विपक्षी कार्यकर्ताओं ने भी चुनाव प्रक्रिया पर चिंता व्यक्त करने के लिए ट्विटर का उपयोग किया है।


'Unknown' substance sprayed during Chelmsford robbery

Summary: Two women have been sprayed in the face with an "unknown" substance during a robbery in which more than £1,000 was stolen.

They were attacked when a man broke into the property in Bounderby Grove, Chelmsford, Essex, between 21:30 and 21:40 BST on Friday. Police said the women suffered eye and skin irritation, but were otherwise unhurt. The suspect fled the scene on foot with a four-figure sum. He was described as white, slim, aged between 35 to 45, with short black hair and was wearing a black winter jacket, black trousers and a black baseball cap. Police searched the area and wanted to speak to anyone who had spotted a man matching his description in the residential street at the time.

एक डकैती के दौरान दो महिलाओं के चेहरे पर "अज्ञात" पदार्थ का छिड़काव किया गया है जिसमें £1,000 से अधिक की चोरी हो गई थी।


Coronavirus: How can you still celebrate Mother's Day?

Summary: It will be a Mother's Day like no other on Sunday, as scores of people self-isolate and are forced to rethink plans with loved ones. With the usual lunches and afternoon teas cancelled, what can people do instead to celebrate?

By Kirstie BrewerBBC News Affi Parvizi-Wayne lives just three doors down from her 74-year-old mother, Afsar, in north London. Like millions of others, they won't be able to have the family lunch they planned for this weekend. For them, Mother's Day is usually a triple celebration because it coincides with Afsar's birthday and Persian New Year. "To suddenly be told the only interaction is through the window is tough for my mum," says Affi, a social entrepreneur with two children. Instead, she says her family plan to congregate on the pavement outside Afsar's house and sing happy birthday. "My nieces are going to release some balloons". Doorstep drop-off Afsar has four children and six grandchildren, and is usually the person who brings everyone together. This year, she is going to cook the family a traditional Persian dish of green herby rice and fish, and leave it on her doorstep to be collected. The two households will set up screens by their dining tables and have a virtual meal together. An added bonus is it also means family members in Iran can be present too. "This Sunday will be about keeping the spirits up," Affi says. Elsewhere in London, it will be chicken legs from the freezer for Ros Ball and her family, who are self-isolating after one of them showed coronavirus symptoms. Ros's mum Penny, 73, is also staying indoors in Bedfordshire. But they plan to sit down to eat together over FaceTime. Ros's children aged, 9 and 12, will then play some online games and quizzes with their granny. Banana muffins Others are still planning to share a meal in a more conventional way. Becky Greenwell and her sister have moved back in with their parents, in Woking, to be with them during the coronavirus outbreak. They've had to cancel plans to celebrate Mother's Day with a Sunday roast in a pub. But it means they'll be able to sit round the dinner table together. "We are planning on cooking my mum a three-course meal based on her favourite foods and printing out a special menu, like we used to when we were kids," she says. Meanwhile, Savannah Dawsey-Hewitt, from Harpenden, in Hertfordshire, says she has baked her mum some ginger, turmeric and banana muffins, topped with brazil nuts. All the ingredients were chosen for their immune-boosting properties. According to current guidelines there is no evidence to suggest that Covid-19 is passed through packages or food, if cooking is what you plan to do. But the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends following good hygiene practices when handling and preparing food, such as washing hands, cooking meat thoroughly and avoiding potential cross-contamination between cooked and uncooked foods. For other it will be about dealing with self-isolation. Rob Bacon's mum Vicky, 75, will receive a bumper pack of her favourite magazines, sweet treats and crucially wine, for Mother's Day this year, to help see her through. Members of the newly-established family Whatsapp group - called The Bacons - also plan to set-up chairs a safe distance from Vicky and her husband Roy's front door, bringing their own food and drink. "We will all wrap up warm and talk," says Rob, who works in public health for local government. Seeds in the post Marie Phillips' mum, Janet, is a nurse. They can't be together either on Mother's Day so she has posted her a grow your own vegetable kit to her keen gardener mother. "We've all got to find distractions and try to put our energy into something positive," says Marie. Planting seeds and waiting for vegetables to grow or flowers to bloom can be a hopeful reminder of better seasons to come. For some people, even delivering a card or present won't be an option. Consuelo Martin, in Birmingham, is in self-isolation and plans to send her mum a virtual card, together with a subscription to an online streaming service and Spotify. "My mum is on her own and I'm worried she is going to get bored in self-isolation. I wanted to make sure she has music and films and television at her fingertips." Think creatively For others technology could be the solution. Speaking on BBC Radio 5 this week, Dr Sarah Jarvis said cancelling celebratory lunches and big gatherings would be the most loving and responsible thing for people with elderly mothers to do. Instead, she suggests investing in a mobile phone or tablet and setting up so elderly relatives with Skype or FaceTime. Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK agrees. "We need to think creatively about how to stay in contact with older friends and relatives to keep morale up." She suggests considering using video technology that is integrated on smartphones, tablets and laptops. She says those are often be the most straightforward and easy to use, and to remember that older people may also prefer to use equipment like a mouse rather than a touch screen. "It might turn out that some of these options remain a good way to maintain regular contact and nip loneliness in the bud in the long-term."

यह रविवार को किसी और की तरह मातृ दिवस नहीं होगा, क्योंकि कई लोग आत्म-पृथक हो जाते हैं और प्रियजनों के साथ योजनाओं पर पुनर्विचार करने के लिए मजबूर हो जाते हैं। सामान्य दोपहर का भोजन और दोपहर की चाय रद्द होने के साथ, लोग जश्न मनाने के लिए क्या कर सकते हैं?


Alice ballet brings magic to Royal Opera House

Summary: Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon talks about his new work, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the first new full-length ballet commissioned for London's Royal Ballet for 15 years, and the first specially composed for the company in 20 years.

Wheeldon explains why he was inspired to bring Lewis Carroll's classic children's fantasy story to the West End stage in the form of dance. How daunting was it creating this ballet? It has never felt daunting but it has always felt huge in scale. Like any production that has a lot of material in it, when you start it feels like a large mountain that has to be conquered. But at this point it's done, so we have gone up the mountain and come down the other side. Lauren Cuthbertson is dancing the role of Alice, what can people expect? I think people can expect a very different fresh interpretation. Lauren very quickly convinces you that you are not going to be seeing a little blonde Disney Alice, but an interpretation that is a more relevant to today. Joby Talbot has worked on the music score, tell me about that. Joby has done a very fine job of creating the score. I think his experience of working on film and his understanding has helped. Saying that, here he certainly hasn't written a piece of film music, he has written a real ballet score. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is a dark tale, is your version as dark? It captures some of the dark qualities of Alice in Wonderland, the same way we capture the qualities in our minds as children, rather than being a Freudian take on the story. As a child you often listened to an audio recording of the story, did you have vivid dreams? You know I think I probably did. It engrained itself in my consciousness. Honestly I never really loved the story of Alice in Wonderland but always loved the characters and loved imagining myself in those crazy situations with the Mad Hatter and March Hare. The beauty of that book is it allows a child to conjure up so many images. So yes, I think that is what drew me to initially want to translate it into a ballet. Characters such as the Mad Hatter are almost cartoon- like, did that make it easier to adapt for ballet? It certainly makes them very physical, they kind of leap off the page at you. When you are creating ballet you need to look for characters that can be easily physicalised. Monica Mason, the Director of The Royal Ballet, has said that the back bone of a ballet company is the full-length ballet, do you agree with that? I think it is the way to guarantee you get a new public, a public that are reassured by a plot line. I think new ballet can often be looked at as rather cerebral, and I think quite a lot of people are afraid of that. Narrative ballet helps to introduce people to ballet, fall in love with it, and hopefully come around to those more abstract works. Many audiences are reluctant to attend the Royal Opera House as they think it is just for a certain privileged section of society. What do you think? You can only find out about it if you come and see the sort of productions that are on here. I think the Royal Opera House is starting to make itself far more affordable. I came the other night to see Anna Nicole the Opera and it didn't feel like a stuffy theatre at all. It felt like a beautiful very historic special place that had dusted off the cobwebs and was presenting a really good opera and the audience responded very favourably to that. The film Black Swan has brought ballet into popular culture, do you think it was fair reflection of the world of ballet? I think a fictionalised film based on a true art form is not meant to be realistic. I am a bit torn, it did fall into a lot of typical cliches representing ballet dancers as neurotic and bulimic. Darren Aronofsky was making a film, I don't think he was really thinking of portraying ballet in a specific way. It certainly put the word ballet back on the map. I just hope people will be inspired to come and see the real thing which is something completely different. You have had an illustrious career, training at the Royal Ballet school, moving into the company and then the New York City Ballet. Do you miss dancing or do you prefer choreography? I love getting up in the morning, having a coffee, reading the newspaper and then telling everyone what to do. I don't want to be back being told what to do any more, it is too painful. Do you think Alice's Adventures in Wonderland will join the great repertoire of The Royal Ballet? I hope so. That is for the audience and critics who are judging us to decide. Christopher Wheeldon was talking to BBC News reporter Claudia Redmond. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is at the Royal Opera House from 28 February to 15 March.

कोरियोग्राफर क्रिस्टोफर व्हील्डन ने अपने नए काम, एलिस एडवेंचर्स इन वंडरलैंड के बारे में बात की, जो 15 वर्षों के लिए लंदन के रॉयल बैले के लिए कमीशन किया गया पहला नया पूर्ण-लंबाई वाला बैले है, और 20 वर्षों में कंपनी के लिए विशेष रूप से रचित पहला है।


Why staff at McDonald's, TGIs and Wetherspoons are striking

Summary: Workers from McDonald's, JD Wetherspoon and TGI Fridays are joining UberEats riders in a strike over pay. Three women taking part in a rally in London explain why they think staff should be paid £10 an hour.

By Ian MurphyBBC News 'Everyone I worked with was scraping to get by' Lauren Townsend, who has worked as a waitress at a TGIs in Milton Keynes since 2010, earns £7.83 an hour - which is the minimum wage for over 25s. She thinks a wage of £10 an hour "would be enough for everybody to support themselves". "I don't think it's too much to ask in a multimillion-pound company," the 27-year-old said. "The way I see it, if they could legally pay us less they would." University student Elsie Bradley Middle has worked at a Wetherspoons in Brighton since September last year. The 20-year-old says the average wage for staff is not much more than £8 an hour which "isn't sustainable to live on". "I've had a few occasions where I've worked late nights and then had to get up early for uni. "It's difficult to find the balance and make enough time for my degree." Lauren McCourt, who worked in a McDonald's in Manchester from September 2016 until May, is joining the rally to support her former colleagues. "Where I worked we were paid 5p above the minimum wage and then they put it up to 13p when they announced the strike ballots," says the 23-year-old. "McDonald's is a multibillion-pound company and most people that work there are struggling to get by. "It's a massive struggle; everyone I worked with was scraping to get by, living in shoddy accommodation. "People end up over-working because that's the only way they can pay their rent." 'We've only got one pair of hands' Lauren McCourt says staff hours get cut at McDonald's during low sale periods like the summer and after the new year. "They cut it to a point where you can't manage. We are having to run around and do the jobs of three or four people at once. "And then you get blamed when things go wrong. You end up with worse quality food and longer waiting times." Elsie, who works about 20 to 25 hours a week at the pub, adds: "We have quite a high staff turnover. "There are a lot of times where there isn't enough staff on shifts, especially busy weeks like freshers' week or bank holidays. "It can feel quite discouraging working in [those] conditions." Lauren Townsend says she used to cover a section of about six or seven tables during a shift but that has almost doubled over the past eight years. "You try your best but if the food is taking longer because the kitchen is understaffed, and we've got extra tables and you're expected to give every child an animal balloon and do magic tricks at the table, it just becomes ridiculous. "A lot of us take pride in our work, we keep a smiley face but we've only got one pair of hands and feet. "TGIs used to retain staff which is unusual but with this last couple of years we've seen a lot of long-term members of staff leave." 'Work becomes your life' McDonald's calls its contracts "flexible" instead of zero hours, but according to Lauren McCourt staff don't know how to get a "fixed" - or permanent - contract. "We only get our schedule a few days in advance. We have no say in what days we work, which leaves you with no control over your life. "Work becomes your life, which you don't want. You can't plan anything." McDonald's says it has offered staff a choice between fixed and flexible contracts and "80% have made the decision to stay on a flexible contract". Lauren Townsend says TGIs tells workers they are not on a zero-hours contract. "But in the small print it says they reserve the right to increase or decrease your hours," she adds. Lauren also says changes to TGI's tipping policy have meant she no longer "doubles her pay in a good week" as she used to. "We really shouldn't have to rely on the generosity of the public to make ends meet, we should be on a good enough wage," she says. McDonald's does not allow employees to receive tips, which Elsie says is the same at Wetherspoons, though their website says different. "We are literally just working for the wage we get which makes it more important," she added.

मैकडॉनल्ड्स, जे. डी. वेदरस्पून और टी. जी. आई. फ्राइडेज के कर्मचारी वेतन को लेकर हड़ताल में उबरईट्स सवारों के साथ शामिल हो रहे हैं। लंदन में एक रैली में भाग ले रही तीन महिलाओं ने बताया कि उन्हें क्यों लगता है कि कर्मचारियों को £10 प्रति घंटे का भुगतान किया जाना चाहिए।


Who owns outer space?

Summary: When space crops up in conversation, ownership does not immediately spring to mind. But as the human race continues to advance in this field, and with commercial space enterprises just around the corner, questions about power politics and their interaction with space exploration must be asked and answered.

By Yasmin AliScience reporter Neil Armstrong famously planted a US flag on the Moon in 1969. This gesture may have implied territorial ownership, but was purely symbolic because of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. 129 countries, including China, Russia, the UK and the US, have committed to this treaty, which is overseen by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. It sets out important principles, such as the concept that space should be considered the province of all mankind, that outer space is free for the exploration and use by all states, and that the Moon and other celestial bodies cannot be claimed by a sovereign nation state. Additionally, the Moon and celestial bodies are to be used purely for peaceful purposes, and weapons will not be placed in orbit or in space. "This is frequently referred to as the outer space constitution," says Dr Jill Stuart, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Editor of the journal Space Policy. She spoke to BBC News at the British Science Festival in Bradford. Where is outer space? This treaty has worked so far, but there are some potential pitfalls - as Dr Stuart explains. "There is no official definition of outer space, but it's something on which a United Nations working group is currently consulting member states. I suspect we will settle for a physical demarcation at the Karman Line, which is about 100km up, but it's also an option to go for a functional definition. This is where laws are defined based on the function of a space object rather than where it is in space." A physical demarcation results in a lot of paperwork for commercial spaceflight companies, such as Virgin Galactic, which is developing a sub-orbital tourist space plane. It means Virgin has to abide by both international aviation laws as well as space laws, despite only being "in space" for five or six minutes. A sensible compromise has to be reached. Mining the Moon Commentators agree that the Outer Space Treaty is an excellent foundation for international space law, but it makes no reference to commercial space activities, such as the exploitation of space resources; presumably because this was not foreseen back in 1967. "International law is ambiguous about private companies setting up mining operations in space. There is a strong case for revisiting the Outer Space Treaty to bring it up to date," argued Ian Crawford, a professor of planetary science at Birkbeck College, University of London. There is an argument that in the future, when assets are developed in space, it is more cost-effective to use raw materials mined from space rather than transporting them from Earth. There is also another strong reason for developing clearly defined space laws, says Prof Crawford: "For scientific reasons, some areas of the Moon are sites of special scientific interest and should be preserved and protected from commercial activities." As the Earth's population grows and more raw materials are required to maintain high living standards, it is arguably more ethical and environmentally sensitive to mine those materials from celestial bodies with no existing habitats and no bio-diversity to disrupt - as opposed to continuing to over-exploit this planet. This raises a further issue: if space mining does become a reality through private companies like Planetary Resources and Moon Express, does their work contradict the Outer Space Treaty? Can they justify that they are doing this for the benefit and interest of all countries and mankind? Space wars "Our daily lives depend on space. Every time you make a phone call, financial transaction or use Google Maps - it is dependent on satellite signals. In times of conflict, it would be easy to target those satellites. Space has the potential to be the new battlefield," said Dr Cassandra Steer, executive director at the McGill Institute for Air and Space Law. Despite the myth that outer space is a lawless "wild west", in fact all of international law applies there. So, if these laws already apply, what's the problem? As well as the Outer Space Treaty, there are four other treaties governing space law. According to the Liability Convention, anything that goes into space must be registered with its launching state, and becomes sovereign territory. "If you were to target another country's satellites, you will create a lot of space debris, which could impact other satellites," said Dr Steer. This is where ambiguity arises over who is responsible for clearing up the mess. Dr Steer added that some satellites have dual use. Their technologies can be used in the military as well as the civilian context - and this makes the issues around the Outer Space Treaty quite complex. What if other intelligent life is encountered, with their own set of rules? Whose laws take precedence? This topic perhaps throws up more questions than solutions. "We're at a point in time where it's ever-more pressing to re-evaluate our current legal infrastructure that governs outer space," Dr Stuart concluded.

जब बातचीत में अंतरिक्ष सामने आता है, तो स्वामित्व तुरंत दिमाग में नहीं आता है। लेकिन जैसे-जैसे मानव जाति इस क्षेत्र में आगे बढ़ रही है, और वाणिज्यिक अंतरिक्ष उद्यमों के साथ, सत्ता की राजनीति और अंतरिक्ष अन्वेषण के साथ उनकी बातचीत के बारे में सवाल पूछे जाने चाहिए और जवाब दिए जाने चाहिए।


New footpaths network to Culloden Battlefield

Summary: A new network of paths is being built to connect the Culloden Battlefield with the surrounding local community.

The £230,000 project will link Balloch, Smithton and Culloden and enable walkers to reach the site of the 1746 clash, via five miles (8km) of trails. The paths will reach more remote parts of the battlefield. The National Trust for Scotland, which owns the battlefield, said the network would increase understanding and appreciation of the site. Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobite forces were defeated by government troops at Culloden.

कुलोडेन युद्धक्षेत्र को आसपास के स्थानीय समुदाय से जोड़ने के लिए रास्तों का एक नया नेटवर्क बनाया जा रहा है।