Covid PPE: How healthcare workers came to feel 'expendable'

Summary: Over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, there have been hundreds of deaths among healthcare staff from Covid and many thousands off sick or self-isolating, but many hospital staff say they still don't feel properly protected at work.

By David ShukmanScience editor They blame a sudden weakening in policy on masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) early in the pandemic. And the largest health unions and many professional groups say the new variants of the coronavirus could put staff at even greater risk. Matt Butler was preparing for a weekend shift last March, aware he would be caring for his first Covid-19 patient. A consultant in geriatrics, he knew that the disease was taking a terrible toll on the elderly. So he studied the personal protective equipment (PPE) instructions, issued soon after the crisis started, which said he would have to wear a long-sleeved gown, gloves, eye protection - and a particular kind of mask. Known as an FFP3, it fits closely over the mouth and nose and has an in-built filter to screen out tiny virus particles called aerosols that can linger in the air. This level of protection seemed to make sense because research into a related coronavirus, Sars, which claimed nearly 800 lives in Asia in 2003, found that aerosols could spread it. A special training video from the NHS and Public Health England even demonstrated how to fit the mask properly. So when Dr Butler went to bed on Friday 13 March, he felt reassured. But when he arrived at the hospital the next morning, he was shocked to find that the official safety instructions had been mysteriously downgraded overnight. With no warning, staff on wards across the UK would now be getting lower levels of protection - no longer would Dr Butler and his colleagues be equipped with the FFP3 masks that they'd trained for. Instead, they were told, surgical masks - which are far thinner and cheaper - were now deemed to be adequate. "I was very scared and a lot of us were very scared," he says. For this calm and experienced professional, facing a new virus was part of the job. But how, he wondered, could FFP3 masks be thought essential one day but not the next? How could the risk from infectious aerosols suddenly vanish? These were questions that would increasingly unsettle him and his colleagues as the pandemic escalated. And they would lead to increasingly desperate appeals for better equipment by a leading healthcare organisations, the British Medical Association which represents doctors, the Royal College of Nursing, the College of Paramedics and many others. As Dr Butler puts it: "We just feel like backs have been turned against us and that we're less important, we're seen as more expendable almost." Who changed the policy and why? With growing evidence that the virus can spread through aerosols, and with new variants increasing the risks of infection, many of the most prominent medical unions remain worried about the risks. A decision last year that might appear to be a bit of ancient bureaucratic history is highly relevant right now and - in the view of some - a matter of life and death. What Dr Butler didn't know when he turned up for work back in March 2020 was that wheels were turning behind the scenes in Whitehall. March 2020 was a febrile time, with so much unclear about the virus itself, how to treat its victims and how emergency plans for a flu pandemic should be adapted for the coronavirus instead. Decision-making involved a complex web of organisations known by a dizzying array of acronyms, and unpicking how things unfolded isn't easy. One of the most important groups is so obscure that it hasn't published any minutes since 2017. The Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP) assesses how to handle biological hazards from anthrax to Ebola. Back in January 2020, as details emerged from Wuhan, the committee had added the new coronavirus to a grim list of illnesses defined as a "high consequence infectious disease". That alarming label carried a host of implications for labs and hospitals around the country. It meant that ambulances had to go through a three-hour cleaning process between patients, and that everyone dealing with the virus had to wear a certain grade of PPE. That included the FFP3 masks that Dr Butler and others had been poised to wear. But on 13 March the advisory committee ruled coronavirus would no longer be defined as "high consequence". The consequences would be far reaching. Why did this decision matter? The exact reasons for the decision have not been made public. A government statement a few days later said it was a "technical" definition that simply reflected the fact that the death rate from the virus was much less severe than expected - far lower than Ebola, for example, where as many as 50% of infected people die. In any event, the decision acted like a lubricant to the cogs of government. The Department for Health and Social Care was said to be "moving towards" a shift from FFP3 masks to surgical ones, and a rapid sequence of events then made that happen: So, in a matter of hours, the key figures were aligned and the way was clear for a new message to go out: FFP3s were no longer required on the wards - as Dr Butler would discover when he reached his hospital the following morning. A 'pragmatic' decision Covid sceptics saw the move to declassify the virus as evidence that the pandemic was not a serious threat after all. Among medics it fuelled very different suspicions: that the true reason for the hurried decision-making was because of a looming shortage of protective equipment. A member of ACDP, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the decision was indeed "pragmatic", not because of pressure from government but because everyone knew the stockpile of PPE was limited. "The reality was that we couldn't have given everybody an FFP3 anyway - there was no question of getting that quantity of them." In addition, working in heavy gear all day would have been "incredibly difficult" for people. Staff handling swabs from coronavirus tests had been complaining that the required PPE was cumbersome and that to scale up testing - an urgent priority at the time - the rules had to be eased. "Did Public Health England and the Department of Health use the decision on a high consequence infectious disease as a cover for a change in clinical guidance? Possibly." So could hospital staff have been better protected? "Bluntly, in hospitals, you have to accept a certain level of infection. You could move to Ebola-style controls, but then you couldn't treat 40,000 patients." How bad was the shortage? An investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO) found that the national stockpile did not hold all the PPE it was meant to. And it was designed for a flu pandemic, not one with a coronavirus, so the focus was more on protecting against infection spread by droplets and less on infectious aerosols contaminating the air in stuffy rooms. So there were relatively few of the aerosol-filtering FFP3 masks - and a similar but less effective type known as FFP2. By April there was a total of 26.3 million of these two categories of mask which was enough to last just two months. Plus six million had passed their expiry date and had to be tested and relabelled. Under the new guidance, these masks were needed for intensive care and for procedures that generated aerosols such as intubation. But even for these limited uses, it was proving hard to get fresh supplies. Even in June, when most types of PPE were easy to obtain, there was still a problem getting hold of FFP3s. The whole world was after the same equipment, so prices more than doubled. The bill for FFP3 and FFP2 masks bought between February and July reached £1.48bn. Despite all this, the NAO was told by health officials that the protection for hospital staff had not been downgraded to match the PPE that was available. Why have medics been so worried? As the pandemic claimed the lives of more and more healthcare workers, the clamour from unions and professional bodies for better protection has become louder. They highlight how the rates of infection among staff on general wards - where most Covid patients are cared for - are twice as high as in intensive care where medics have the best equipment. A further concern is the risk from infectious aerosols, especially where there's poor ventilation - one identified by government's scientific advisers in the early months of the crisis. There is a detailed list of "aerosol-generating" procedures - or AGPs - for which staff have to wear FFP3 masks - but critics say these so-called AGPs are too narrowly defined and don't include some known to cause coughing, such as inserting feeding tubes or assessing the ability to swallow. Around 20 major organisations representing thousands of healthcare workers ranging from dieticians to speech therapists - all of whom have close contact with Covid patients but are not given FFP3 masks - have formed the AGP Alliance to campaign for change. "We're exasperated", says Dr Barry Jones, a spokesman for the group. "Why not take a precautionary approach? It's just common sense for people in hospital to be better looked after." Another group, which Dr Butler belongs to, also questions the adequacy of ventilation in hospitals. FreshAirNHS says intensive care units have their air changed at least 10 times every hour - to help disperse and dilute aerosols - while general wards should have six per hour, but often have far fewer. He says: "We're doing excellent hand washing contact precautions, we're distancing as much as we can - yet we're still getting outbreaks and we're still getting staff sickness." Will anything change? Health officials have consistently said staff safety is a top priority, that the latest evidence has been reviewed and that current policies will continue. Dr Ben Killingsley, a specialist in acute medicine and member of Nervtag, says aerosols are seen as "the poor brother" of infectious disease transmission but are now recognised as playing a role. In his view, the new more infectious variants may justify giving Covid-facing medics the FFP3 masks but it would be a major step, requiring each member of staff to go through a fitting lasting 30-60 minutes. "Cost and logistics shouldn't be an obstacle", he says, but a more efficient first move would be for hospitals to enforce social distancing. "My hunch is that if we could get away from the small doctors' offices that are overcrowded, with poor ventilation, infection rates would drop." For Dr Butler, it's not a question of enforcing the guidelines or providing better masks, but doing both until hospital outbreaks are brought under control. Related Internet Links Public Health England British Medical Association Royal College of Nursing

कोरोनावायरस महामारी के दौरान, कोविड से स्वास्थ्य सेवा कर्मचारियों के बीच सैकड़ों मौतें हुई हैं और कई हजारों बीमार या आत्म-पृथकवास में हैं, लेकिन कई अस्पताल कर्मचारियों का कहना है कि वे अभी भी काम पर ठीक से सुरक्षित महसूस नहीं करते हैं।


Orkney installs ground source heat pumps for public buildings

Summary: Work is under way to install ground source heat pumps at Orkney's four new major public buildings.

The technology harnesses the temperature difference underground to create heat. It is being used at the new Kirkwall Grammar School, Stromness Primary school, Papdale Halls, and the new developments at the Pickaquoy Centre. The aim is to cut carbon emissions by 30%. It is believed to be the biggest geothermal project of its kind in Scotland. The work is being carried out by Geothermal International. The work at Kirkwall Grammar School is set to take about three months.

ऑर्कनी के चार नए प्रमुख सार्वजनिक भवनों में ग्राउंड सोर्स हीट पंप स्थापित करने का काम चल रहा है।


Compassion fatigue and the optician of Lampedusa

Summary: Day after day we are bombarded with images of overcrowded rubber boats in the Mediterranean, horrific pictures of obliterated streets in Aleppo and heartbreaking photographs of desperate people staring through the bars of refugee reception centres.

By Emma Jane KirbyBBC News Occasionally a single image will startle us from our numbed state: Aylan Kurdi's tiny body washed up on a Turkish beach; the bewildered, bloodied face of the five-year-old Syrian boy Omran Daqneesh, sitting barefoot and plastered in masonry dust in the back of an ambulance. Yet somehow, many of the horror stories of the Syrian war and this migration crisis get drowned out under the weight of their own numbers. And it's our job as journalists and writers to keep telling those stories and to keep telling them in new ways that will cut through the compassion fatigue and keep our audience and readers focused. It was last May, when I was reporting largely from Sicily for BBC Radio 4 news programmes, that it became clear to us that our listeners were switching off when they heard the phrase "migrant crisis". They were doing so not because they were in any way heartless, but because they felt they were hearing the same story, the same pain, over and over again. The migration story was now so commonplace, it was becoming almost meaningless. We needed to find a new angle. So instead of interviewing the migrants themselves, we decided to interview ordinary Italians affected by the situation, as outlined in my book The Optician of Lampedusa. We spoke to a vivacious housewife-turned-chef in a migrant soup kitchen, a hospital director whose wards were full of burned and brutalised migrant patients and a gravedigger who had the awful task of burying those who washed up dead on Europe's shores. We interviewed a carpenter who spent his time carving crosses from shipwrecked wooden migrant boats and offering them to Christian migrants as a symbol of hope and resurrection. We had an unprecedented response to the series. Several listeners who were going on holiday to Sicily asked for the address of the migrant soup kitchen so they might devote a couple of evenings helping the chef Maria-Grazia. Listeners in Africa wrote to us about the tenderness of the gruff gravedigger who never forgot the faces of the nameless bodies he buried. A curator at the British Museum was so moved by the carpenter's crosses that she ordered one for the collection. Symbolically it became the last acquisition of the outgoing director, Neil MacGregor. But one of our stories cut through all the rest. Carmine Menna runs the only optician's shop on the little island of Lampedusa, off the coast of Sicily. Although he saw the migrants all around him every day and felt pity for them, he did not really see them - he did not want to see them as his problem. After all, he was just an optician. What could he do? One day in early October 2013, however, he took a boating holiday with his wife and six friends. He remembers it was a beautiful day and he woke in his bunk to hear what he thought was the first of the seagulls squabbling and screaming over a lucky catch. But when the noise became more persistent and piercing, he and his crew upped anchor and went to investigate. They did not find seagulls. Instead they found scores, perhaps hundreds of drowning people in the water, begging them for help. The optician was on a boat that had a maximum capacity of 10 and already had eight people on board. They had only one rubber ring. Carmine's story resonated enormously with our listeners because he is such an ordinary man - no better or worse than us. Listeners said that they could imagine themselves in his boat reaching out to grab those desperate hands. Watching the drama unfold from behind his glasses, they could really see the crisis for the first time. Suddenly the migration story - and perhaps their own part in it - had become real. The optician himself told me that it was only when he felt the flesh and bone of the hands he seized grind into his, that the migrants became "names, not numbers - names." That Lampedusa tragedy left 368 people dead. Carmine is a reluctant interviewee because he does not want to be cast as some sort of hero. "We saved 47 people that day," he tells me quietly. "A hero would have saved them all." I was unsure that the shy and discreet Carmine would let me turn his story into a book, but when I approached him to ask his permission he surprised me by readily agreeing. An optician's job, after all, is to make people see clearly and I think that is exactly why he has allowed me to tell his tale through his eyes. It does not matter, he seems to be saying, whether you are pro or anti-immigration, or whether you vote left or right. But it does matter - it has to matter - that thousands of human beings are drowning every year on Europe's doorstep. We cannot get hardened to this horror of our age. Listen to Emma Jane Kirby's most recent report for PM on the optician of Lampedusa via the BBC iPlayer.

भूमध्य सागर में भीड़भाड़ वाली रबड़ की नौकाओं की छवियों, अलेप्पो में ध्वस्त सड़कों की भयानक तस्वीरों और शरणार्थी स्वागत केंद्रों की सलाखों के माध्यम से हताश लोगों की दिल दहला देने वाली तस्वीरों के साथ दिन-ब-दिन हम पर बमबारी की जाती है।


Newport's Celtic Manor Resort buys rival Hilton

Summary: Newport's Hilton hotel has been bought by nearby rival Celtic Manor Resort.

The 148-room Hilton will continue to be run as a hotel under a new name which has not yet been confirmed. The exchange of contracts is set to be completed on 31 March. Celtic Manor Resort chief executive Ian Edwards said: "We are extremely pleased to be exchanging contracts to acquire Hilton Newport and look forward to working with the experienced team there."

न्यूपोर्ट के हिल्टन होटल को पास के प्रतिद्वंद्वी सेल्टिक मैनर रिज़ॉर्ट ने खरीद लिया है।


Cement lorry crash recovery shuts A75 for hours

Summary: A cement lorry crash recovery operation requiring specialist equipment shut the A75 in Dumfries and Galloway for several hours.

The road was closed in both directions between Newton Stewart and Glenluce at about 09:30 on Monday. The 30-mile diversion remained in place until about 20:00. Drivers were advised to seek alternative routes if possible or expect significant additional journey time.

विशेषज्ञ उपकरणों की आवश्यकता वाले एक सीमेंट लॉरी क्रैश रिकवरी ऑपरेशन ने डमफ्रीज़ और गैलोवे में ए75 को कई घंटों के लिए बंद कर दिया।


Farmers find 'unicorn' among their sheep in Iceland

Summary: A craze for all things unicorn has swept through popular culture of late, whether it's multi-coloured novelty drinks or technology investors looking for the next big thing . But a farming family in Iceland reckon they've found the real thing - of sorts - among their own flock of sheep.

By News from Elsewhere......as found by BBC Monitoring Erla Porey Olafsdottir's sheep normally have two horns. On one ram, however, these appear to have fused into one, forking only a little at the end, thus matching the Latin origins of the word - uni and cornu - "single horn". To be doubly sure though, Erla's family have also named him Einhyrningur, "unicorn" in Icelandic. The Iceland Monitor website reported that Einhyrningur was accidentally left on the mountainside when other sheep were rounded up for the winter. Farmers who spotted him at Christmas were not sure what he was at first, and thought he might be a goat. "The horns stretch his face, particularly around the eyes so he always seems to be a bit surprised. He kind of looks like people that have had a facelift," Erla was quoted as saying. The Ice News website reported that his owners did not rate him as a breeding sheep as he was "skinny", and had only planned to let him live till next spring. But the Iceland Monitor says that although a transfer to Reykjavik Zoo has been ruled out due to Iceland's strict rules on animal movements, he may still survive should another local farmer want to buy him. Next story: Man lived above Japanese toilet for three years Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.

सभी चीजों के लिए एक सनक यूनिकॉर्न पिछले कुछ समय से लोकप्रिय संस्कृति में बह गई है, चाहे वह बहु-रंगीन नवीन पेय हो या प्रौद्योगिकी निवेशक अगली बड़ी चीज़ की तलाश में हों। लेकिन आइसलैंड में एक किसान परिवार का मानना है कि उन्हें असली चीज़ मिल गई है-एक तरह की-भेड़ के अपने झुंड के बीच।


Nato's painful homecoming

Summary: Past civilisations erected great monuments to show their power and influence, and in a sense Nato's brand new glass and steel headquarters building in Brussels is similarly intended to send a signal of the alliance's potency and relevance as tensions with a resurgent Russia once again dominate its agenda.

Jonathan MarcusDiplomatic correspondent@Diplo1on Twitter The building's sweeping lines - it looks like several giant launch-ramps or ski-jumps fused together - sends out a clinical message of modernity and efficiency. It could be a high-tech company's global hub; the only difference being those parts of the building that probably extend underground. Nato is giving no tours there! It stands in stark contrast to the old headquarters just across the road - a drab, low-rise building, that was a former Belgian military hospital. It has been the alliance's headquarters since it was forced to move from Paris in the mid-1960s. However, as the alliance expanded it became ever more crowded; patently unsuited to the job of hosting the 21st Century world's premier military and diplomatic alliance. Mounting tensions As Nato defence ministers gather here for their first meeting in the new building - the last ministerial before a crucial summit in early July, the main message the image-makers will want us to take away will be of a business-like organisation in its new business-like home. But everything in the Nato garden is far from rosy. With just weeks to go before the summit and President Donald Trump's second visit to the alliance, tensions are mounting. Europe and the US stand on the edge of an unpleasant trade war prompted by the Trump administration's decision to pull out of the nuclear deal with Iran and to threaten sanctions against any European companies who still hope to trade with Tehran. Trans-Atlantic divisions over Iran are not the only problem. The US is said to be closer to imposing separate sanctions against German and other European energy companies in an effort to prevent construction of a pipeline to carry Russian gas across the Baltic. The US decision to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem caused deep unease in many European capitals. Undiplomatic comments from the US ambassador to Germany talking about his desire to boost right-wing parties throughout Europe caused annoyance in Berlin and beyond. President Trump looks less like the uncrowned leader of the Western alliance and more like a divider - his "America first" policy leaving little room for the sort of compromises that are essential to a healthy alliance with a collective sense of purpose. And of course nobody knows which Donald Trump will turn up at the summit. Will it be a benevolent leader championing US commitment to the defence of Europe while urging the Europeans politely to spend more on their military budgets? Or will it be the Donald Trump who visited the old Nato headquarters in May of last year - a president who was blunt, appeared singularly ill-informed about Nato's budgetary processes and founding treaty and whose speech was met with barely-hidden sniggering from some key European leaders? The Russian factor If you then consider the tensions between the US and key Nato ally Turkey, which has recently been pursuing a partial tilt towards Moscow. Now mix in the implications of the new government in Rome, which again has some curious attitudes towards Russia. Then add the worrying schism within Europe between the "traditional" liberal democracies of the West and the increasingly harsh tones of "the populist democracies" of the East and you get a picture of an alliance riven with tensions. This is before one even begins to talk about Nato's core business - the collective defence of its members. Some certainly overstate the nature of Russia's military threat to the West, but a threat of some kind is real enough. Indeed, it may be less from Russian tank armies as of old and more to do with cyber-influence, information operations and propaganda war. But it is a battle that has already been joined and - despite President Vladimir Putin's recent benevolent sounding statements directed at the EU - many will choose to judge Russia by its actions rather than its words. Nonetheless, the precise nature of this Russian challenge and what Nato collectively must do to meet it also divides the alliance. Countries like Poland and the Baltic Republics, with a very different historical relationship with Moscow, see a much more immediate threat than other Nato allies. A trial balloon from the Polish ministry of defence asking for the deployment of a permanently-based US division on Polish soil seems to fly in the face of existing Nato policy and suggests that some at least in Warsaw are not convinced that the alliance's current approach is sufficient. Those allies bordering the Mediterranean in Nato's south worry about Russia, But their biggest security threat remains the influx of people and instability from the Middle East and Africa - population movements which are becoming a key driver of political developments in a number of Nato countries. The 'four 30s' plan Either way, the summit will focus a good deal on "strength in depth", which makes a catchy slogan, but what does it really mean? There's talk of Nato leaders agreeing to a new formula - "the four 30s" - a plan to be able to muster 30 mechanised battalions, 30 air force squadrons and 30 major warships within 30 days of the outbreak of any crisis. But is this timeline really serious? Might it be too slow? And given the lamentable readiness of Germany's armed forces for example, on paper one of the strongest countries in the Alliance, are such goals attainable or simply an aspiration? Much also needs to be done to improve Nato's logistical support structure. For example, a key petroleum pipeline only extends as far as the old Cold War border between East and West Germany at the Fulda Gap. Governments manage to employ a peculiar schizophrenia in the international system. Some might call it compartmentalisation. They agree in one forum whilst being at daggers drawn in another. You will hear all sorts of statements that Nato is in rude health and busily adapting to the new challenges it faces. In part this is true - at least in terms of the professional military and civil service. But no amount of spin can cover up the wider and multiple crises in the Nato family. Pouring some balm on these tensions is what you would expect from a "normal" Nato summit and a "normal" US administration. Is Mr Trump up to the task? We will find out in a little over a month's time.

पिछली सभ्यताओं ने अपनी शक्ति और प्रभाव दिखाने के लिए महान स्मारकों का निर्माण किया, और एक तरह से ब्रसेल्स में नाटो के बिल्कुल नए कांच और इस्पात मुख्यालय की इमारत का उद्देश्य गठबंधन की शक्ति और प्रासंगिकता का संकेत देना है क्योंकि पुनरुत्थानशील रूस के साथ तनाव एक बार फिर इसके एजेंडे पर हावी है।


Haydon Bridge fatal crash: Glasgow man charged over woman's death

Summary: A man has been charged over the death of a woman in a two-car crash in Northumberland.

The woman, who was a passenger in a Ford Focus, was pronounced dead at the scene of the collision on the A69 near Haydon Bridge at 18:30 BST on Tuesday. Two other women were injured when the Focus collided with a Hyundai i30 travelling in the opposite direction. A 31-year-old man from Glasgow has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving and other traffic offences.

नॉर्थम्बरलैंड में दो कारों की दुर्घटना में एक महिला की मौत के लिए एक व्यक्ति पर आरोप लगाया गया है।


The elephants’ graveyard: Protecting Kenya’s wildlife

Summary: A rise in the demand for ivory has led to poachers illegally killing thousands of elephants every year - and despite the use of GPS tracking systems, rangers are finding it increasingly difficult to protect the animals.

By Natasha BreedKenya Years ago, while walking with a camel train in northern Kenya, I remember coming across the bleached white dome of an elephant's skull. Within the smooth hollows of both its eye sockets were bunches of dried grass, fluffy with seed, arranged with evident care. A camel herder told me it was customary, among his people, on passing the skull of an elephant, to pay respect to the fallen giant in this way. In those days, you rarely saw the skull or bones of an elephant. There's a legend that elephants have graveyards where they go to die, but science has never proved this. It's true they will - on finding the skeleton of an elephant - stop and examine it, touch it, sometimes even pick up a bone or a tusk and carry it off. I once sat and watched with tears in my eyes, as a family of elephants returned to where they'd had to abandon a calf, which had been too weak to stand or follow them. It had since died, and the tenderness and sorrow that emanated from that desolate little huddle of elephants as they gently explored the lifeless grey body with their sensitive trunks, was one of the most moving scenes I've ever witnessed. Nowadays, it seems northern Kenya is littered with the carcasses of elephants. Poaching and the relentless ivory trade is laying waste to many of Africa's elephant populations. Kimeli Maripet is an elephant researcher monitoring their movements across Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, the Ngare Ndare Forest and Mount Kenya, where - for centuries - elephants have followed the same migratory patterns. A network of conservation organisations working alongside the Kenya Wildlife Service equip foot and vehicle patrols to monitor the vast expanse of northern Kenya. State of the art GPS telemetry keeps track of certain radio-collared individuals as they follow time-worn routes pioneered by generations of elephants whose own bones have long since turned to dust. It was Maripet who was detailed to go looking for Mountain Bull. Mountain Bull wore one of the broad leather collars and satellite transmitters - his daily movements monitored on the researchers' computer screens. He had earned his name from being one of the most determined elephant bulls in the area, when it came to overcoming obstacles in the way of his chosen path, following his ancestors' footsteps to Mount Kenya. Even electric fences didn't deter these bulls. They showed great persistence in finding a way up to the forests and moorland, bulldozing the odd farm fence along the way and they crop-raided with impunity as they went. This eventually led to the construction of a purpose-built elephant corridor that crosses beneath a major road with heavy traffic, allowing the elephants to take a safe route, away from farmland, up to their mountain refuge. But for several days the signal emitted by Mountain Bull's collar hadn't moved. It happens sometimes. Only a week before, another elephant's signal had remained static for a few days on computer screens, and a search party was mounted. That collar was found - torn and lying on the ground, still sending its signal up to space and the elephant was soon spotted nearby, unharmed. That's what you always hope is the case, says Maripet. Collars do sometimes break and drop off, necessitating the elephant being tranquilised again to have a new one fitted. So, armed with a satellite receiver and coordinates of Mountain Bull's GPS signal, Maripet and a scout from the Mount Kenya Trust set off to look for him. After two days, they came across the tracks of an elephant which appeared to have stood still for a long while, before heading - falteringly - into a thicket of bamboo. Mountain Bull was lying on his side with a deep spear wound in his back. Triggered by his weight on some sort of trip wire, a spear, strategically positioned in an overhead branch, must have dropped and lodged in the elephant's spine. He was dead. And his tusks had been hacked from his face. It was heartbreaking hearing Maripet's account of how the elephant had met his fate. No doubt the poachers had waited nearby, and - once the bull toppled onto his side - wasted no time in drawing out their machetes and hacking out his beautiful creamy tusks. Had the elephant even drawn his last breath, I wondered? I recall the grasses in the skull of that elephant, years ago, and ask Maripet if he knew of the custom. "Oh yes," he says. "It's our way of saying, sleep tight, comrade." How to listen to From Our Own Correspondent: BBC Radio 4: Saturdays at 11:30 and some Thursdays at 11:00 Listen online or download the podcast. BBC World Service: Short editions Monday-Friday - see World Service programme schedule. Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

हाथीदांत की मांग में वृद्धि के कारण शिकारी हर साल अवैध रूप से हजारों हाथियों को मार रहे हैं-और जीपीएस ट्रैकिंग सिस्टम के उपयोग के बावजूद, रेंजरों को जानवरों की रक्षा करना मुश्किल हो रहा है।


Can spending £5 a week save your local high street?

Summary: Online shopping and competition from out-of-town retail parks and supermarkets have long been cited as the reason so many British high streets are suffering. But can a project which challenges consumers to spend £5 locally finally turn the tide?

By Matt LeeBBC News Online A number of government schemes have been introduced to try and give shopping areas a boost, but what can towns do to help themselves? Burslem in Stoke-on-Trent is the latest to try out a scheme to get local people to spend £5 of their weekly shopping budget in their town centre instead of online or in chain stores. It currently has about 30 empty shops and has suffered since the closure of the Royal Doulton factory in 2005 and tourist attraction Ceramica shutting down in 2011. It is also two miles from Hanley which is seen as the retail centre for Stoke-on-Trent. Professor Jon Fairburn, from Staffordshire University's Business School, is helping to implement the social enterprise scheme called Totally Locally. "The theory is if every adult living within one mile of Burslem town centre spends £5 with their local independent shops and businesses, it would be worth an extra £6m a year to the local economy," he said. But how realistic is that figure? 'Can't be sustained' Matthew Hopkinson, director of the Local Data Company which analyses retail trends, claims the scheme is "a gimmick". He said: "What you're trying to do is change consumer behaviour but even if they do it for one week they're probably not going to do it for 52 weeks a year. "Businesses think if they can manipulate the consumer and their habits everything will be alright, but ultimately it can't be sustained." One town to already try the idea is the market town of Leek in the Staffordshire Moorlands. Three years ago, 11% of its shops - about 30 of them -were vacant and charity shops occupied a number of units. That vacancy rate is now down to 6% - about 11 shops. Marc Briand, who leads the scheme, said it was set up as a reaction to the building of a new supermarket in the town in 2011. "Switching £5 of your shopping budget is as simple as buying a sandwich from the local cafe at lunch or buying your weekly fruit and veg," he said. "Out of that people then start to think about getting their car serviced at the local garage or buying clothes from local boutiques. "The initial idea of making sure people spend that fiver has started to tail away but we've built on that to market the town in the right way and people keep coming back." Pop into Alison Szafranski's Market Kitchen Cafe in Stanley Street and she will point you in the right direction to buy a birthday gift or bottle of wine for a dinner party - all on the town's high street. "It's about promoting all the businesses here, competition is healthy, but we are all about pulling together to make our businesses successful and Leek successful," she said. 'Reasonably prosperous' Mr Briand said it was "difficult to gauge" how successful the £5 spend scheme had been. "Traders are quite cagey about what their profits are but shopkeepers I know saw a definite upturn [in profits]," he said. "Even taking it from a low vacancy rate...you can't say it hasn't had an effect." Traders in the smaller Staffordshire town of Eccleshall started the £5 spend scheme in January. Accountant Tim Hulse, who leads the project, said it was about uniting traders rather than revitalising the high street. "Eccleshall has always been a reasonably prosperous area because we've got a lot of so-called destination shops; a baby boutique, a speciality wedding shop, jewellers, and those bring people in," he said. "I think it's the case of bringing a group of people together to put the effort in to promote any sort of campaign. Some traders have reported a 10 to 20% rise in turnover since we began." At WM Perry's butchers shop in Stafford Street there is a list of nearby farms where the shop's meat comes from and a stack of bones piled on a table outside for dog owners to take for their pets. Owner Peter Bevan said: "I don't think you can dictate to someone how and where they spend their money but the important thing is we give them the service that keeps them coming back. "I think that's what Eccleshall prides itself on, shopkeepers now know the customers' names and faces and know exactly what they want." But the scheme would not suit all town centres, according to Mr Hulse. He said: "We're a small enough town not to need a massive major brand name and I think with the unique businesses we have, proximity drives footfall. "It will be interesting to see how Burslem does, being so close to Stoke-on-Trent city centre and what it has to offer retail-wise." Back in Burslem, some shops are getting a fresh coat of paint ahead of the launch of the £5 scheme on 12 October. Only time will tell if shoppers spending a weekly fiver will spark the town's revival.

ऑनलाइन खरीदारी और शहर से बाहर के खुदरा पार्कों और सुपरमार्केट से प्रतिस्पर्धा को लंबे समय से कई ब्रिटिश ऊँची सड़कों के पीड़ित होने के कारण के रूप में उद्धृत किया गया है। लेकिन क्या एक परियोजना जो उपभोक्ताओं को स्थानीय रूप से £5 खर्च करने के लिए चुनौती देती है, अंततः ज्वार को बदल सकती है?


Coronavirus: Not just any retail recession...

Summary: Where there's a crisis, there's an opportunity to drive reform: M&S is used to being in crisis, and the new mantra is "never the same again". It's a road others can be expected to take. There are high costs to managing garment stocks, but don't be surprised to see this year's spring ranges return next year. The retailers' boss is making permanent moves to more flexible staffing, accelerating store closures and pushing for lower rent, while lockdown has shown him he can delegate while stripping out head office jobs.

Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland Never miss the opportunity of a big crisis, goes the advice. Marks & Spencer starts with a big advantage - it's already very used to being in crisis. With its annual results, its boss has seized on the opportunity to push further and faster than he was already doing. It's a ploy you can expect other business leaders to adopt, so it may be of interest to see how Steve Rowe is going about it. The striking thing about this one-time flagship of British retail is that it has survived being in crisis for so long. That's partly because the M&S food business has done at least OK in navigating changes to the grocery market. It has invested, for instance, in smaller outlets at locations with a big "food-to-go" footfall - notably at railway stations. That's causing it some pain at the moment, with so few rail travellers. Food has helped support it through a perpetual state of crisis with its clothing and home ranges. Criticised for being too frumpy, it has chopped and changed its design teams, its store design, its buying strategy, its marketing... and even when it got things right, it didn't order enough stock. Chief executive Steve Rowe says the turnaround strategy was on track. A 2% drop in revenue in the year to March isn't bad by M&S standards, even though pre-tax profits are down 21%. Never the same again But clearly, the garment trade is now in a horrible mess, holding stock for summer that it can't sell, with an appetite for online sales sharply down, and no clarity about when it can get back to normal business. The Scottish Retail Consortium figures for April are out, and they make predictably dire reading. Inflation is down to only 0.8%, and at risk of heading into deflation, which would be a bigger nightmare for retailers. If consumers have an expectation that prices will keep falling, then they hold off purchases. Mr Rowe's message to investors and staff is to take "£1bn of actions" for the short term, including £100m less late summer stock on order, £50m down on marketing, £40m saved by freezing recruitment and pay, £40m less on technology, £60m through ordering less stock £50m saved by furloughing staff, and £140m less capital spend. Some £400m of stock is not seasonal, so it stays on the shelves. £200m of spring stock will be put in warehouses for next year. Extra costs for changes in stocking: £145m. Note that a lot of that is bad news for the supply chain, in this country and for overseas garment workers. It's better news if you're renting warehouse space. Beyond the short term, M&S has a new mantra: "never the same again". Steve Rowe says it is learning lessons: of a smaller, nimbler top team, delegated decisions, with working groups and committees disbanded. Staff have improvised and learned to multi-task, in-store and in support roles. Microsoft Teams software is a key relationship. Buying policy is focussed on stocking "more of less from fewer core suppliers". It seems all that is going to remain in place. That saves cost, and costs mean jobs: "central support costs and headcount will be examined at all levels". Lending conditions Transformation plans get accelerated, and that means changes to supply chains: decisions are made closer to the supplier, which is often overseas, while more will be 'near-sourced' for online seasonal products that need quick turnaround. M&S wants to vacate older, underperforming store locations, and is joining other retailers in a hard-bargaining drive to lower rent levels. Commercial landlords won't be at all surprised. Intu, a shopping mall giant which owns Braehead shopping centre in south-west Glasgow, told its creditors this week to brace for their lending conditions to be broken, as rents simply aren't paid. The implicit message: if you collapse this business, good luck finding another one that can work the asset any better! Says Steve Rowe at M&S: "Whilst some customer habits will return to normal others have changed forever, the trend towards digital has been accelerated and changes to the shape of the high street brought forward. "Most importantly, working habits have been transformed and we have discovered we can work in a faster, leaner, more effective way. I am determined to act now to capture this and deliver a renewed, more agile business in a world that will never be the same again." Going concern, or gone? Talking of business strategy, one of the most awkward decisions facing company directors and auditors in the next few months is going to be signing off on accounts. The "going concern" statement is meant to reassure creditors and investors that the business will still be around in 12 months. Without a "going concern" signature, the red light starts flashing at your bank branch, so it's definitely preferable to have one. In current circumstances, and for many companies, getting from here to this time next year is not at all certain. So the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland is today offering updated guidelines. You might hope it would offer some reassurance. Instead, its chief executive, Bruce Cartwright, says directors should "consider the specific facts and circumstances of their company in determining the extent of the procedures to be undertaken when forming the going concern assessment, whilst being cognisant of wider macroeconomic conditions". Reassured by that? No, me neither. What does it mean? Well, with no specialist qualification in such matters, my interpretation is "Ca' canny, don't just hope for the best, and this is no time to bend the rules". Mr Cartwright, a veteran insolvency practitioner, emphasises the need for such statements to be clear and transparent about the evidence available, as well as uncertainty. He adds that companies need to think about permanent changes in the markets where they operate, whether their business model remains sustainable, and whether they need to diversify.

जहाँ संकट है, वहाँ सुधार करने का अवसर हैः एम एंड एस संकट में होने का आदी है, और नया मंत्र है "फिर कभी वैसा नहीं"। यह एक ऐसा रास्ता है जो दूसरों से लेने की उम्मीद की जा सकती है। परिधान स्टॉक के प्रबंधन के लिए उच्च लागतें हैं, लेकिन अगले साल इस साल के वसंत रेंज को वापस देखकर आश्चर्यचकित न हों। खुदरा विक्रेताओं के मालिक अधिक लचीले कर्मचारियों के लिए स्थायी कदम उठा रहे हैं, स्टोर बंद करने में तेजी ला रहे हैं और कम किराए के लिए जोर दे रहे हैं, जबकि लॉकडाउन ने उन्हें दिखाया है कि वह मुख्य कार्यालय की नौकरियों को समाप्त करते हुए प्रतिनिधित्व कर सकते हैं।


Man hit by car in Plymouth dies

Summary: A man in his 60s was killed when he was hit by a car in Plymouth.

He was pronounced dead at the scene on St Levan Road at about 00:40 BST, police said. Two men, aged 23 and 25, have been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. They remain in police custody and are due to be questioned. Police have appealed for witnesses and said efforts were under way to find the victim's next-of-kin. More Devon and Cornwall news

प्लाईमाउथ में एक कार की चपेट में आने से 60 साल के एक व्यक्ति की मौत हो गई।


Black cats less popular says Berkshire charity

Summary: A Berkshire charity which rehomes cats and dogs says black cats have fallen out of favour with people looking for a new pet.

According to the Old Windsor branch of the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, ginger and tabby cats are proving more popular with pet lovers. Manager Tracey Curren, said there may be "an element of superstition about black cats". The cats and dogs' home in Berkshire took in 600 cats last year. "We would urge people to look at cats' personalities, rather than looks," said Ms Curren.

एक बर्कशायर चैरिटी जो बिल्लियों और कुत्तों को फिर से बसाती है, का कहना है कि नई पालतू जानवर की तलाश करने वाले लोगों के कारण काली बिल्लियों की पसंद कम हो गई है।


Police dogs search for missing Stefan Sutherland

Summary: Police have brought in search dogs to help them find a Caithness man who has been missing since midnight on 6 September.

Stefan Sutherland, 25, was reported missing from Lybster. Searches have been made of the local area. Police Scotland said officers involved were becoming increasingly concerned for his welfare. Mr Sutherland is described as 5ft 8in, of slim build with receding hair and facial stubble. He was last seen wearing a light coloured, long sleeve top and dark trousers.

6 सितंबर की आधी रात से लापता एक कैथनेस आदमी को खोजने में मदद करने के लिए पुलिस खोज कुत्तों को लाई है।


China NPC: Economy growth target 'around 6.5%' in 2018

Summary: China has set its 2018 economic growth target at "around 6.5%".

The figure, announced at the opening session of the annual National People's Congress, is in line with the country's existing expansion goals. But it is below the 6.9% reported for 2017 - the first time in seven years the pace of growth picked up. The report also said China would clamp down on the kind of financially risky operations which have threatened to cause the collapse of major firms. It follows last months steps by Beijing to take control of insurance and financial giant Anbang. Several other high-profile operations are also having their finances scrutinised by Beijing. China is now the world's second largest economy, but a reliance on borrowing has led to pressing political concerns about debt risk. As expected, the report delivered by Premier Li Keqiang said reining in this risk would be a key policy for the coming year, promising to "see that internal risk controls are tightened in financial institutions" and a "serious crackdown on activities that violate the law like illegal fundraising and financial fraud". 'High-quality development' While many China watchers still believe the GDP numbers are much weaker than the official figures suggest, the country is a key driver of global growth. It has relied heavily on debt-fuelled investment and exports to drive its growth of the past four decades. But Beijing is now focussing on slower but more sustainable consumption-based growth. The report added that the unchanged growth target was "fitting given the fact that China's economy is transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development" and would allow it to "achieve relatively full employment". Other goals mentioned in the report included: The report said that China's economics and financial risks were "on the whole manageable". Its debt has risen significantly in recent years, with worrying numbers around corporate and household debt and non-performing bank loans. Local government debt grew 7.5% percent last year to $2.6 trillion, according to figures in January. And the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said recently that the country's debt had ballooned and was now equivalent to 234% of the total output. It said Beijing needed to concentrate less on growth and instead help improve banks' finances, among other efforts.

चीन ने अपना 2018 का आर्थिक विकास लक्ष्य "लगभग 6.5 प्रतिशत" निर्धारित किया है।


Aung San Suu Kyi: 'I have personal regrets'

Summary: Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner, spent most of the past two decades under house arrest in Rangoon, thousands of miles from her husband and children in the UK. She has rarely talked about the pain of this separation.

By Eamonn WalshBBC News "I think she's genuinely strong. And you know even if she's sad at something, she knows she's got to get on with things. She's not going to waste time crying about it," says Kim Aris, Aung San Suu Kyi's son. Every day for almost 20 years, Aung San Suu Kyi faced a choice - to remain imprisoned in her house in Rangoon or re-join her family in Oxford, knowing that if she chose to leave she might never be allowed to return and lead her people. "Of course I regret not having been able to spend time with my family," says Suu Kyi. "One wants to be together with one's family. That's what families are about. Of course, I have regrets about that. Personal regrets. "I would like to have been together with my family. I would like to have seen my sons growing up. But I don't have doubts about the fact that I had to choose to stay with my people here," she says. Suu Kyi is the daughter of Burma's independence hero, General Aung San, assassinated when she was only two. She always believed it was her destiny to serve the people of Burma, even telling her English husband-to-be Michael this on the eve of their marriage. "I wanted to make sure that he knew from the very beginning that my country meant a great deal to me and should the necessity arise for me to go back to live in Burma, he must never try to stand between my country and me," she says. After a period working overseas, she and Michael settled into Oxford academic life, raising their two young sons, Alexander and Kim, until Suu Kyi's mother became critically ill in Rangoon in 1988. When she returned to Burma to care for her mother, Suu Kyi became a figurehead for democracy protests, founding the NLD party. The military junta which seized power confined Suu Kyi to her house - and family life came to an end. "The parting of the way came when I was placed under house arrest," she says. "Then of course I knew that my relationship with the family was going to change considerably because we would not be able to be in touch with each other," says Suu Kyi. The military junta thought it could pressure Suu Kyi to leave Burma by exploiting this fact. "The first Christmas after I was placed under house arrest, Michael was allowed to come to see me but they wouldn't let the children come," she says. But Suu Kyi stayed in Burma, committed to the struggle for political reform - although the personal sadness remained. "There are things that you do together that you don't do with other people. It's very special. A family is very special. So when a family splits up, it's not good, it's never good," she says. It was 12 years before she would see her younger son, Kim, again. When he was finally allowed to visit his mother in Burma, they would bond over a love of music. "He brought his music with him. He had all these tapes and he would say, 'Now do you know who that is, mummy?' "And I'd get it all wrong, but later I began to learn who was who. He plays a lot of Bob Marley, so I learnt to like Bob Marley," she says. The pressure on Suu Kyi increased when her husband - still living in the UK - was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1997. The military regime said that she could leave to be with him - but she believed she would not be allowed back. Neither Suu Kyi nor her husband were prepared to contemplate this. "There never was a point when I thought of going. I knew that I wouldn't go. And he knew too," she says. Michael died in 1999. Ten years later, with Burma struggling economically, its rulers began to see that they needed help from the West to compete - but that meant introducing reform and ultimately, in 2010, ending Suu Kyi's house arrest. Today, Suu Kyi and many NLD members have been elected to the parliament led by the generals, though full democracy remains a distant prize. Although the legacy of personal sacrifice remains, Suu Kyi remains optimistic for the future. "We know that something remarkable is going on. We are all aware that this is a very unusual time for Burma. This is an extraordinary moment for our country."

बर्मी असंतुष्ट और नोबेल शांति पुरस्कार विजेता आंग सान सू की ने पिछले दो दशकों का अधिकांश समय ब्रिटेन में अपने पति और बच्चों से हजारों मील दूर रंगून में नजरबंद में बिताया। उन्होंने शायद ही कभी इस अलगाव के दर्द के बारे में बात की हो।


Why Texas is closing prisons in favour of rehab

Summary: The US is known for its tough criminal justice system, with an incarceration rate far larger than any comparable country. So why is it that Republicans in Texas are actively seeking to close prisons, asks Danny Kruger, a former speechwriter for David Cameron.

Coming from London to spend a couple of days in Texas last month, I was struck most of all by how generous and straightforward everyone was. Talking to all sorts of different people about crime and punishment, the same impression came across: We expect people to do the right thing and support them when they do. When they don't we punish them, but then we welcome them back and expect good behaviour again. It's not naive, it's just clear. For years that straightforward moral outlook translated into a tough criminal justice system. As in the rest of the US, the economic dislocations of the 1970s, compounded by the crack epidemic in the 1980s, led to a series of laws and penal policies which saw the prison population skyrocket. Texas, for instance, has half the population of the UK but twice its number of prisoners. Then something happened in 2007, when Texas Republican Congressman Jerry Madden was appointed chairman of the House Corrections Committee with the now famous words by his party leader: "Don't build new prisons. They cost too much." The impulse to what has become the Right on Crime initiative was fiscal conservatism - the strong sense that the taxpayer was paying way too much money to fight a losing war against drugs, mental ill-health and petty criminality. What Madden found was that too many low-level offenders were spending too long in prison, and not reforming. On the contrary, they were getting worse inside and not getting the help they needed on release. The only response until then, from Democrat as well as Republican legislators, was to build more prisons. Indeed, Mr Madden's analysis suggested that a further 17,000 prisoners were coming down the pipe towards them, requiring an extra $500m (£320m) for new prisons. But he and his party didn't want to spend more money building new prisons. So they thought of something else - rehab. Consistent with the straightforward Texan manner, the Congressional Republicans did not attempt to tackle what in Britain are known as "the causes of crime" - the socio-economic factors that make people more disposed to offend. Instead, they focused on the individual criminal, and his or her personal choices. Here, they believe, moral clarity and generosity are what's needed. Though fiscal conservatism may have got the ball rolling, what I saw in Texas - spending time in court and speaking to offenders, prison guards, non-profit staff and volunteers - goes way beyond the desire to save money. The Prison Entrepreneurship Programme, for instance, matches prisoners with businesspeople and settles them in a residential community on release. Its guiding values are Christian and its staff's motives seem to be love and hope for their "brothers", who in turn support the next batch of prisoners leaving jail. The statutory system is not unloving either. Judge Robert Francis's drugs court in Dallas is a well-funded welfare programme all of its own - though it is unlike any welfare programme most of the 250 ex-offenders who attend it have ever seen. Clean and tidy, it is staffed by around 30 professionals who are intensely committed to seeing their clients stay clean and out of jail, even if that means sending them back to prison for short periods, as Judge Francis regularly does when required. Every week the ex-offenders attend court and take a drugs test. Then, in the presence of 50 of their peers, they tell the judge what they've been up to before receiving a round of applause from the crowd. Immediate, comprehensible and proportionate sanctions are given for bad behaviour, plus accountability to a kind leader and supportive community. This is the magic sauce of Right on Crime. Far from having to build new jails for the 17,000 expected new inmates, Jerry Madden and his colleagues have succeeded in closing three prisons. I visited one by the Trinity River in Dallas, now ready for sale and redevelopment. They spent less than half the $500 million earmarked for prison building on rehab initiatives and crime is falling faster than elsewhere. This, then, ticks all the boxes - it cuts crime, saves money and demonstrates love and compassion towards some of the most excluded members of society. It is, in a sense, what conservatives in America and Britain dream of - a realistic vision of a smaller state, where individuals are accountable for their actions and communities take responsibility for themselves and their neighbours. It is a more positive version of the anti-politics - anti-Washington, anti-Westminster - tide that seems to be sweeping the West. I hope that Right on Crime will catch on in Britain. Already there are positive steps towards establishing drugs courts, expanding rehab and opening up our prisons to the community groups which can make such a difference. This is part of a major reform of outsourcing - some call it privatisation - of prisons and probation, which involves handing huge contracts to private companies who will, it is hoped, subcontract to the little guys. The danger is that people distrust big corporations as much as they distrust central government. The ideal is a criminal justice system that is genuinely community-led - not directed by profit or by politics, but by local people and the professionals accountable to them. Danny Kruger is a former speechwriter for David Cameron and now runs Only Connect, a charity for young people involved in, or at risk of, crime. Republican Rehab broadcasts on BBC Radio 4 on Monday 1 December at 20:00 GMT - or catch up online.

डेविड कैमरून के पूर्व भाषण लेखक डैनी क्रूगर पूछते हैं कि अमेरिका अपनी कठोर आपराधिक न्याय प्रणाली के लिए जाना जाता है, जिसमें कैद की दर किसी भी तुलनीय देश की तुलना में कहीं अधिक है। तो ऐसा क्यों है कि टेक्सास में रिपब्लिकन सक्रिय रूप से जेलों को बंद करने की मांग कर रहे हैं।


Rhyl flood risk reduced by back up sea defence

Summary: Sea defences have been improved in a seaside town which was devastated by flooding in 2013.

Natural Resources Wales has installed a new penstock - a structure to manage water levels - in Rhyl, Denbighshire. It will be operated manually during high tides and will "play a vital part" in protecting low-lying areas of the town. It will back up the existing tidal flap which can become blocked. About 400 people in east Rhyl were forced to leave their properties in December 2013 when severe storms breached the sea defences.

एक समुद्र तटीय शहर में समुद्री सुरक्षा में सुधार किया गया है जो 2013 में बाढ़ से तबाह हो गया था।


The disabled teenagers whose identity crisis led them to modelling careers

Summary: Caitlin Leigh and Brinston Tchana have modelled for high street retailers including Primark and River Island but their interests in fashion were only piqued after they became disabled and felt they had lost their identities.

By Natasha LipmanBBC Ouch With more than 15,000 followers on Instagram regularly checking-in on his style, Brinston has hopes of one day modelling at New York Fashion Week. But a few years ago, fashion couldn't have been further from his mind. At 17, he was months away from signing up to play for a professional football club in Spain, where he'd grown up, and life was good. Before the big signing he went to a nightclub with his friends. They spent the night dancing, carefree and excited about their futures and later walked home together through the dark streets laughing and chatting. But, out of nowhere, a car came from behind and struck them. The emergency services were called but three of the friends died that night and Brinston was left in a coma. When the young footballer came around he was told he had been paralysed from the waist down. The driver had been drunk. It changed his life completely, with his professional sporting ambition off the table and a different body and appearance to get used to. Until then the idea that fashion could be interesting or fun had passed Brinston by. "My mum bought all my clothes. I had been more focussed on football and didn't care about anything else," he says. Now a wheelchair-user, he felt he had to start caring about his image because of the shift in how people perceived him. One day, while waiting for a friend in his new home in Birmingham, England, and shivering from the cold in a thin jacket, a man approached Brinston. "This dude just came close to me and gave me £5. I was like: 'Why are you giving me £5?' And he was like: 'You're not homeless?'." Brinston was taken aback. He felt that, had he not been in a wheelchair, this wouldn't have happened. He says he has learnt some people think he's homeless while others presume his tattoos and injury are gang-related or linked to violence. They're not. He feels there is sometimes a racial element to this way of thinking - "being black in a 'white country' with a disability is not easy," he says. But over time, Brinston discovered that if he dressed stylishly, fewer unwanted assumptions would be made about him. It also shifted how he viewed fashion and he started to adopt it as both a way to express himself and as a shield against the outside world. He bought high-end jackets and shoes which looked smart and elegant, but also looked good and were comfortable for him as a wheelchair-user. "When I'm at home and feeling safe, I'll put on casual stuff and I know nobody is going to judge me. But when I'm out, I feel like I need to show that I am not that vulnerable." Like Brinston, using fashion as armour is something Caitlin Leigh identifies with and has employed since becoming disabled - she began to lose her hair and have seizures a year ago. Her symptoms initially baffled doctors. She was diagnosed with alopecia and, after many tests it was determined that she blacked out as a result of her mind trying to block difficult situations - a condition referred to as dissociative seizures thought to be brought on from earlier episodes of depression, anxiety and stress. The seizures happen every couple of hours and Caitlin started to use a wheelchair to ensure she was safe. "The minute I started losing my hair I decided to go for a buzz cut," she says. "I just felt like nothing in my wardrobe suited me, but over time I slowly started finding my way in fashion." Previously, Caitlin's hair had been long and she loved colouring it. Now she describes her overall style as edgy and indie. "Fashion is a way for me to express myself. Before it was my hair, now it's my fashion. And it just fills me with confidence. If I feel a bit different, I feel untouchable." Often choosing statement pieces with bold colours and patterns she says her style helps challenge stereotypes that people have of wheelchair-users and acts as a "gateway" to conversations. Listen to the podcast Caitlin loved experimenting with her hair before developing alopecia and Brinston was about to sign as a professional footballer when he was paralysed in a car crash. Listen to the two models talk fashion, disability and redefining who they were. "I find people feel they can approach me more if I'm wearing something unusual or if my hair is different, because they see that as the talking point. "If I go out and I look confident and I'm dressed confidently, people definitely have a more confident mannerism towards me. If I'm just wearing normal comfy clothes, people see me as just a person in a wheelchair." But it gets complex. If you do express yourself positively it can be double-edged. Some wheelchair-users feel that when they "dress well", or in a way that challenges stereotypes, it can make people think they're not disabled. Brinston says he has experienced this. On one night out with friends, he wore his most expensive shoes - £700 Balenciaga's . A man came over to him and asked if he was faking his disability. "Why would I be faking it? How I wish I could be like you, just dancing around," he told the man. "I think the negative part is that if you dress well then people think you're faking it just to get money." But that's not to say disabled people should feel they need to dress-up. "It does take time to have the confidence to think about fashion for yourself," Caitlin says. "I think that's the biggest thing for young people growing up, that they feel like they have to dress for other people, and that's not how fashion should be." Even though fashion is an integral part of Caitlin and Brinston's lives they say shops need to become more accessible and clothes - which remain presentable even after you've been sitting in a wheelchair all day - need to become more mainstream. The disability charity Purple estimates the British high street loses about £267m a month because of this inaccessibility. Both Caitlin and Brinston say fashion helped them accept their disabilities and neither think they would be working in the industry if they hadn't become disabled. "Finding my style has given me the confidence I've needed to pursue the fashion career I'm now living," Caitlin says. "It doesn't matter what your disability is, you can still look bomb." After watching shows at last year's London Fashion Week, she's determined to be on that catwalk one day. "People just need to have the confidence to take that step - to book a disabled model - because we are human beings and it is really important we are represented." Brinston agrees and says after spending years struggling to accept his disability, fashion also helped redefine his identity beyond football. "It's given me confidence to say 'this is who I am'." For more Disability News, follow BBC Ouch on Twitter and Facebook, and subscribe to the podcast.

कैटलिन लेह और ब्रिंस्टन चाना ने प्राइमार्क और रिवर आइलैंड सहित उच्च सड़क खुदरा विक्रेताओं के लिए मॉडलिंग की है, लेकिन फैशन में उनकी रुचि केवल विकलांग होने के बाद ही बढ़ी और उन्हें लगा कि उन्होंने अपनी पहचान खो दी है।


Newlyn Harbour 'industrial accident': Man dies on fishing boat

Summary: A man has died in what is thought to be an industrial accident onboard a fishing boat.

Police were called to Newlyn Harbour, Cornwall, at about 16:15 GMT. The man, whose next of kin has been informed, was pronounced dead at the scene. Officers are not treating the death as suspicious. South Western Ambulance Service said a land ambulance, air ambulance and a senior paramedic attended the scene near The Strand. Related Internet Links Devon and Cornwall Police

मछली पकड़ने वाली नाव पर एक औद्योगिक दुर्घटना में एक व्यक्ति की मौत हो गई है।


Terry Edwards: Wrexham man in court on murder charge

Summary: A 41-year-old man has appeared in court charged with the murder of a man at his home in Wrexham.

Terry Edwards, 60, was found dead at his house in Pont Wen, Caia Park, on 1 June. On Friday, Barry Bagnall, of Trevenna Way, appeared before Llandudno magistrates charged with his murder. Mr Bagnall is also accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice between 31 May and 13 June by asking a witness to lie.

एक 41 वर्षीय व्यक्ति रेक्सम में अपने घर पर एक व्यक्ति की हत्या के आरोप में अदालत में पेश हुआ है।


Central African Republic crisis: Another French intervention?

Summary: A fresh crisis in Africa - and once again French troops are on their way. This time around 1,000 extra soldiers are heading to the Central African Republic (CAR) to restore order after a rebel takeover. They will supplement the 400 odd French troops already on the ground in the country.

By Paul MellyWest Africa analyst So what's new? Is this just a case of Paris once again acting as gendarme in a former sub-Saharan colony? Are we back to the days when the famously influential Jacques Foccart acted as Africa adviser in the Elysee Palace and French paratroops made and unmade governments, protecting allies - some of them deeply unsavoury - and displacing supposed troublemakers? It's tempting to drag out all the old cliches. After all, the CAR is the remote backwater briefly transformed into a titular "empire" in the 1970s by the bizarre Jean-Bedel Bokassa, who allegedly studded his friendships in the French elite with diamonds. When Bokassa's credibility was finally shattered by allegations of cannibalism - although this was never proven - French troops intervened. Operation Barracuda saw Bokassa overthrown and former President David Dacko installed in his place. But the temptation to reach for old history should be resisted. We are not in the 1970s. Africa has changed. And so has France. Opt to act Paris has started to send extra troops to reinforce an under-powered regional intervention force led by the African Union (AU). The peacekeepers are struggling to restore order in a huge country where warlords and criminal gangs, many of them foreign, have run amok. The unrest is now sparking a dangerous new spiral of inter-communal religious conflict between local Christian and Muslim communities. Some 460,000 people have been driven from their homes and more than a million are dependent on external aid. It is this catastrophic humanitarian and security crisis that France is now seeking to help contain with the despatch of the heavily equipped troops and high tech support that only a major military power can provide. Paris has been trying to stir international engagement since September, when President Francois Hollande put the CAR at the centre of his address to the United Nations. It has drafted a Security Council resolution that this week should give UN backing for a beefed up AU or UN force. But such operations need time to organise, and finance. And in the meantime, an emergency is worsening by the day. So after talks with Central African Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye, the French have opted to act anyway. This humanitarian security intervention, acting to complement an international or African Union effort, is a far cry from the self-interested military meddling of the immediate post-colonial era. Fundamental reform To outside eyes this may seem a new and sudden change. But in fact the nature of French military engagement in Africa has been evolving from the old paternalism for almost 20 years. A key turning point was the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. French troops supposedly sent to protect refugees ended up creating the space for many genocidal killers to escape across the border to Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo. This episode provoked painful reflection among French policymakers, particularly Alain Juppe, who was foreign minister at the time. Becoming prime minister shortly afterwards, he launched a fundamental reform of France's Africa policy which was continued by his Socialist successor Lionel Jospin. And after Nicolas Sarkozy became president in 2007, the process was taken a step further, with a review of France's permanent military deployments and a rewrite of longstanding bilateral defence accords with African allies, abandoning the commitment to use military force in defence of incumbent friendly regimes. Consensus During these almost two decades of reform, France has continued occasionally to intervene, but increasingly it has done so in a neutral peacekeeping role. It made a vain effort to hold the ring between government troops and mutineers in the CAR in the late 1990s. But wherever possible France has sought to operate as part of a UN or European Union force, rather than acting on its own. In 2003, France led Operation Artemis to tackle militias who were killing civilians in north-eastern DR Congo. It was the first autonomous EU military intervention outside Europe. In Ivory Coast in the 2000s, France's Licorne force worked alongside UN troops to maintain the line of partition between the government-controlled south and the rebel-held north. In the CAR, French troops and regional peacekeepers collaborated in fighting to prevent a rebel takeover of communities in the north. And Mr Sarkozy subsequently persuaded EU partners to join France in deploying the Eufor force to secure the Central African and Chadian frontiers with Sudan's troubled Darfur region in 2008-09. But not all the interventions of the Sarkozy era commanded consensus. In Ivory Coast in early 2011, operating under the authority of the UN Secretary General, French troops helped former rebels loyal to election winner Alassane Ouattara capture Laurent Gbagbo, the defeated incumbent, who had opted to fight rather than accept the outcome of the November 2010 presidential contest. This intervention to support the enforcement of Mr Ouattara's election victory was in line with the stance taken by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) bloc, to which Ivory Coast belongs. But it discomfited Mr Gbagbo's allies such as South Africa and Angola. More contentious still was the 2011 French and British intervention in Libya, to support rebels fighting Muammar Gaddafi. This angered many sub-Saharan leaders because the AU was trying to achieve a negotiated solution. Partnership of respect Mr Hollande came to power in France in May 2012, just weeks after jihadist groups had taken over northern Mali. Yet in handling this new crisis he made a point of breaking sharply with Mr Sarkozy's unilateralist tendencies. Mr Hollande has argued that the relationship between France and Africa must be a partnership of respect, even when there are disagreements. And he has gone out of his way to consult African leaders before launching military action. When jihadists launched a fresh offensive in January 2013, threatening to break through into the south of Mali, France knew that it alone had the military capability to stop them. The African deployment planned for later in the year could not be brought forward in time. Although the US has regularly trained West African armies for combat against jihadists, France was uniquely well-placed to stage a direct military intervention in Mali, because of its long experience of operations in Africa and its existing military presence. Once Mr Hollande took the decision to intervene, his commanders were able to despatch special forces combat helicopters from Burkina Faso, to stage initial strikes against the jihadists. France also mobilised warplanes based in Chad, special forces based in Senegal and armoured units from its operations in Ivory Coast. But even as final military preparations were being made, Mr Hollande and his ministers made a point of calling leaders across Africa to seek their views. The warm sub-Saharan welcome for the Malian intervention has helped to create a climate in which France can more easily intervene in the CAR. And that subject will surely have been on the menu of Mr Hollande's talks with President Jacob Zuma during a recent visit to South Africa. This time, as in Mali, the African political ground for a French deployment has been carefully prepared. And later this week Paris is hosting leaders from across the continent at a summit on African peace and security.

अफ्रीका में एक नया संकट-और एक बार फिर फ्रांसीसी सैनिक अपने रास्ते पर हैं। इस बार लगभग 1,000 अतिरिक्त सैनिक विद्रोहियों के अधिग्रहण के बाद व्यवस्था बहाल करने के लिए मध्य अफ्रीकी गणराज्य (सीएआर) की ओर बढ़ रहे हैं। वे देश में पहले से ही जमीन पर तैनात 400 फ्रांसीसी सैनिकों की सहायता करेंगे।


Boy, 14, arrested over St Ninian's school knife find

Summary: A 14-year-old boy has been arrested after police were called to a lower school on the Isle of Man amid concerns a student was carrying a knife.

Manx police were called to St Ninian's in Onchan at 11:05 GMT on Wednesday. The teenager was arrested on suspicion of public order offences and has been referred to the police early action team, a force spokesman said. Police said on Wednesday that a knife was recovered at the scene. The school is for children aged between 11 and 14. Related Internet Links Isle of Man Constabulary St Ninian's High School

एक छात्र के पास चाकू होने की चिंता के बीच आइल ऑफ मैन के एक लोअर स्कूल में पुलिस को बुलाए जाने के बाद एक 14 वर्षीय लड़के को गिरफ्तार कर लिया गया है।


Last blocks of net addresses get handed over

Summary: The original pool of internet addresses has officially run dry.

The last five blocks of the IP Version 4 addresses have been handed over to the regional bodies that distribute them. Those five blocks, called /8s and which contain 16 million addresses each, are expected to be completely depleted by September 2011. The move to the new addressing scheme, IP version 6, is under way but could take years to complete. "This is one of the most important days in the internet's history," said Rod Beckstrom, head of net overseer Icann at a press conference called to mark the handing over of the final five blocks. "It is a point that the founders of the internet thought would occur far in the future," he said. "It gives us an opportunity to shift to an internet protocol that offers a pool so large that it is difficult even to imagine." IPv6 has a pool of addresses a billion, trillion times larger than the 4.3 billion that IPv4 can support. While that pool of 4.3 billion addresses was seen as plenty when the net was getting going, its recent growth has seen it get used up very quickly. The shift to IPv6 was needed, he said, to support the continuing growth of the net and its greater use by all kinds of connected devices. "The future of the internet and the innovation it fosters lies with IPv6," said Mr Beckstrom. Despite the imminent exhaustion of the IPv4 pool, few ISPs, companies, academic organisations and others have made the switch. A World IPv6 Day is being planned for 8 June that will give governments, companies and others the chance to test out the technology. Cisco, Verizon, Yahoo, Google, Facebook and many others have committed to testing IPv6 on 8 June. In the UK, the switch to the new addressing scheme might take years, said Philip Sheldrake, head of 6UK, an organisation set up to advise companies how to make the move. Most firms would upgrade equipment, routers, hubs and modems, as part of their "normal replenishment cycle", he said. Equipment that is going to be in use for years before being replaced could be fitted with "dual stack" systems that can handle both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses Some ISPs and others may take a more aggressive approach to the switch, said Mr Sheldrake. "There are automated approaches that involve some remote updating of firmware in equipment," he said. "The internet does not break when IPv4 is exhausted," said Mr Sheldrake explaining why this long term shift was feasible. "What we are looking at here is that some parts of the world that have less IPv4 will be more on the front foot of adopting v6 than the UK because we have some good v4 space," he said.

इंटरनेट पतों का मूल पूल आधिकारिक तौर पर सूख गया है।


David Tennant pulls out of Shakespeare shows

Summary: Former Doctor Who star David Tennant was forced to pull out of a West End production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing this week after losing his voice, it has emerged.

The actor missed two shows on Monday and Tuesday. Producers said he hoped to return to the stage on Wednesday. Understudy Alex Beckett played Benedick opposite Catherine Tate's Beatrice in the 40-year-old's absence. The production is due to end its sold-out run on 3 September. Much Ado About Nothing opened at the Wyndham's theatre in June, receiving positive reviews from the critics. In Josie Rourke's production, Shakespeare's romantic drama is transplanted from 17th Century Sicily to a sun-drenched holiday resort in the 1980s. Scottish star Tennant has been forced to miss performances before while performing Shakespeare on the West End stage. In 2008 a bad back forced him to pull out of a RSC staging of Hamlet at the Novello theatre for much of its London run.

पूर्व डॉक्टर हू स्टार डेविड टेनेंट को अपनी आवाज खोने के बाद इस सप्ताह शेक्सपियर के मच एडो अबाउट नथिंग के वेस्ट एंड प्रोडक्शन से बाहर निकलने के लिए मजबूर होना पड़ा, यह सामने आया है।


Labour: The s-word and keeping the show afloat

Summary: It felt like John McDonnell had been waiting for a long time to say it. Up on the conference platform, at the very end of his speech, he told delegates, "you no longer have to whisper it, it's called socialism".

Laura KuenssbergPolitical editor@bbclaurakon Twitter In fact, as other MPs reminded me after his speech, Tony Blair's controversial amended version of Clause 4, included the phrase, "The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party". It was never an officially banned word, although no question, until Mr Corbyn's victory, talk of true socialism was not a popular subject at the conference lectern. Mr McDonnell had a long list of plans that would tickle the bellies of activists - a minimum wage of more than £10 an hour, a repeal of the Trade Union Act, more intervention to stop corporate bad behaviour, more borrowing to invest in infrastructure. But even before Mr McDonnell took to the stage to give his speech, another row had broken out and this time, a spat between one of Mr Corbyn's most loyal supporters, the shadow defence secretary Clive Lewis, and the leadership. Mr Lewis was seemingly furious, and hit the wall in frustration, when a line from his speech about the party's position on the nuclear deterrent was changed at the last moment. It is a big job for Labour to get back to being credible on the economy. It's a big job to pull this party back together after the leadership contest. Tonight after that row between one of their own loyal supporters and Mr Corbyn's team, it seems it is also a big job just keeping the show on the road. You can't underestimate how distracted and distressed different parts of the Labour Party are. And as this conference progresses, it's starting to show.

ऐसा लगा जैसे जॉन मैकडॉनेल इसे कहने के लिए लंबे समय से इंतजार कर रहे थे। सम्मेलन के मंच पर, अपने भाषण के अंत में, उन्होंने प्रतिनिधियों से कहा, "अब आपको इसे फुसफुसाने की ज़रूरत नहीं है, इसे समाजवाद कहा जाता है।"


Election results 2019: What were people talking about online?

Summary: As the results rolled in overnight, reaction came in fast online.

By BBC TrendingIn-depth reporting on social media In partisan Facebook groups, the results were cheered or jeered - as you might expect - depending on which way the groups lean. This post in a large anti-Brexit group was typical: Meanwhile, in big pro-Brexit groups, there was an overall feeling of "job done" - and even a note of sadness at the end of the campaign: And in Scotland, pro-independence groups were cheering the SNP's rising fortunes: While these partisan groups are generally "echo chambers" where everyone largely agrees, groups focused on local areas tend to have more of a mix of voices giving rise to lively debates. During the campaign we found many of these were left-leaning, with Labour supporters significantly more vocal than those who back the Tories. Administrators and group members told us that "shy Tories" may be a reason. This phrase originally referred to the theory that Conservative supporters were less likely to tell opinion pollsters who they were voting for. The online version we've found means that Tory supporters are sometimes less visible in local groups. As Conservative voters tend to be older, they are less likely to be social media users in the first place, and those that use Facebook seem less likely to air their opinions. However they did come out in force once the results became clear: What were people talking about on Twitter? Election-related hashtags dominated Twitter's list of top worldwide trends throughout the night, with several users pointing out the discrepancy between some of the most popular messages on the social network and the results ("shooketh" in the example below is slang for "extremely shocked"): In the early hours of Friday, one surprising term made an appearance on the list of top UK Twitter trends: "Canada". The most popular tweets were from left-leaning voters declaring their intention to up sticks. How things changed The big online story during the 2017 general election was the influence of a huge network of pro-Labour websites, accounts and groups. But changes to Facebook's algorithm - the code determining which posts get seen - have made it much harder for these sites to reach massive numbers of people. And this time Jeremy Corbyn's online cheerleaders had more competition from popular pro-Brexit groups. Throughout the campaign, and particularly after the Brexit Party announced they would be standing down in Conservative-held seats, the chatter in those groups swung steadily in favour of Boris Johnson. Meanwhile the left-wing and anti-Brexit groups and pages were divided on whether to vote tactically, and how to go about it - in lots of seats it was unclear which party was best placed to beat the Conservatives. These divisions remained apparent even once polls had closed. And recriminations continued throughout the night. For instance this post in a pro-Corbyn group celebrated the loss of Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson: Beware the big numbers A Labour press release the day before the election claimed that the party ran "the most successful election social media campaign the country has ever seen". That may have been the case. Most of the top viral videos were pro-Labour. But that doesn't seem to have translated into more votes. Social media users are not necessarily representative of the UK. Research suggests that users of Twitter, and to a lesser extent Facebook, skew young, left, and pro-EU, while older voters - who are more likely to vote Conservative - are less likely to be active on social media. There will be more analysis in the coming days, but it's clear that we have yet another reason to look below the surface when it comes to politics online. Reporting by Sean Allsop, Joey D'Urso, Marianna Spring and Mike Wendling. Have you spotted something interesting on social media? Email us Follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.

जैसे ही परिणाम रातोंरात आए, प्रतिक्रिया तेजी से ऑनलाइन आ गई।


Cardiff Bay murder accused Kris Wade appears in court

Summary: A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of a woman found dead in her Cardiff Bay apartment.

Kris Wade, 36, of Cardiff, is accused of killing 65-year-old Christine James at her flat in Century Wharf some time between 25 February and 3 March. Police were alerted after she failed to arrive at London's Gatwick Airport for a flight to Florida. Mr Wade was remanded in custody ahead of a hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Friday. Mrs James is the mother-in-law of former Wales rugby captain Jonathan Humphreys.

कार्डिफ बे अपार्टमेंट में मृत पाई गई एक महिला की हत्या के आरोप में एक व्यक्ति अदालत में पेश हुआ है।


Tribute paid to Bilston murder victim Deniss Buzmakovs

Summary: The family of a 42-year-old man who died after being found with serious injuries have paid tribute to him.

Deniss Buzmakovs died in Beckett Street, The Lunt, Bilston, on Sunday evening. Two men, aged 42 and 34, who were arrested on suspicion of murder remain in police custody. In a statement, Mr Buzmakovs' family said he had been a wonderful son, brother, father and partner and was a loving and caring person. A post-mortem examination is set to take place to establish the cause of death. West Midlands Police said they are still investigating if earlier disorder on the street is connected to the death.

गंभीर रूप से घायल पाए जाने के बाद मरने वाले 42 वर्षीय व्यक्ति के परिवार ने उन्हें श्रद्धांजलि दी है।