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magazine-25371014

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25371014

Twin DNA test: Why identical criminals may no longer be safe

It's well known that identical twins are not totally identical - they can, usually, be told apart, after all. But up to now it has been almost impossible to distinguish their DNA. It's claimed that a new test can do it quickly and affordably, however - and this could help police solve a number of crimes.

By Alison GeeBBC World Service At the end of 2012, six women were raped in Marseille, in the south of France. Evidence, including DNA, led police to not one, but two suspects - identical twins Elwin and Yohan. Their surname was not revealed. When asked to identify the attacker, victims recognised the twins but couldn't say which one had assaulted them. Police are struggling to work out which one to prosecute. They have been holding the brothers in custody since February - each twin says he didn't carry out the attacks, but neither is blaming the other. When the twins were arrested, media reports said tests to determine who to charge with the crimes would be prohibitively expensive, but that looks set to change. Scientists specialising in genomic research at the Eurofins laboratory in Ebersberg, Germany, say they can now help in cases like this. "The human genome consists of a three-billion-letter code," says Georg Gradl, their next-generation sequencing expert. "If the body is growing, or an embryo is developing, then all the three billion letters have to be copied. "During this copying process in the body there are 'typos' happening," says Gradl, referring to slight mutations. In standard DNA tests only a tiny fraction of the code is analysed - enough to differentiate between two average people, but not identical twins. Gradl and his team took samples from a pair of male twins and looked at the entire three-billion-letter sequence, and they found a few dozen differences in their DNA. The scientists also tested the son of one of the men, and found he had inherited five of the mutations from his father. Having analysed the results, they are confident that they can now tell any twin from another, and from their children. And the speed of the test is important - it can be carried out in about a month. Forensic institutes and police from Europe, Latin America and the US have already asked Eurofins if it can help them solve some 10 different cases. Gradl says cases of rape or sexual violence involving a twin are "more frequent than we expected". Often there are traces of sperm "and in these cases we can really differentiate," he says. The company can't reveal which cases it is working on, but Gradl admits Marseille is "certainly one of the cases that we would like to help… and we are very convinced that we would get [a result]". A number of other cases present similar difficulties. A court in Argentina recently suspended a trial so further investigations could be carried out, after a man charged with rape blamed his twin. There have also been a handful of cases in the US. Sometimes a tattoo or an alibi has enabled investigators to work out which twin to prosecute, but there have been times when both suspects have walked free. One of these cases occurred in 1999 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, when a female student was hit over the head and raped. Five years later, police matched DNA from the attack to Jerome Cooper - but he has an identical twin, Tyrone. Both brothers already had records for sexual assault. "Both gave us statements, both denied it," says Captain Jeffrey Hertel of Grand Rapids Police Department. "We were naively hopeful that one of them would come forward and say, 'I don't want my brother falsely accused of something - it was me,' but that never happened." "At one time we put them in the same room together to see if they would come to some type of conclusion between the two of them. That didn't occur - they just talked small talk," he says. "We're all hoping that science is going to catch up to this case… we've taken deep breaths, we know it's going to happen, it's just a matter of time." More than a decade after the assault, he says the victim is "still waiting for her day in court". Another case occurred in 2009, in Malaysia, when police in Kuala Lumpur stopped a car containing 166kg (366lbs) of cannabis and 1.7kg (3.7lbs) of raw opium, and arrested the driver. A little later another man arrived at the house to which the car had been heading. They arrested him too. It turned out they had picked up identical twins, Sathis and Sabarish Raj. Only the first one had a key to the house and would have known for sure what was in the bags in the car. But when the case came to court, there was reasonable doubt which twin was which. A DNA test that might usually have been able to link a suspect to the car was of no use. "I can't be sending the wrong person to the gallows," said the judge, according to the New Straits Times. So both walked free, escaping the death penalty that is mandatory for convicted drugs traffickers in Malaysia. It's not just crimes that could be solved by the new test - doubts about paternity could also be laid to rest. In 2007, a court in Missouri heard a case concerning Holly Marie Adams, who had sex with identical twin brothers and subsequently gave birth to a child. A DNA test gave a nonsensical result - there was a 99.9% probability that Raymon Miller was the father, and also a 99.9% probability that his twin, Richard Miller, was the father. In the end, the judge had to rely on Adams' testimony to find out the exact dates she had slept with each man, how this corresponded with her menstrual cycle and whether either had used a condom. In the end he ruled that Raymon was the legal father. The standard of proof was lower than in a criminal trial. For all of these scenarios, Eurofins' test offers "a very exciting development… a significant step forward in forensic DNA analysis," says Laura Walton-Williams of the Forensic and Crime Science Department at Staffordshire University in the UK. She says she could also imagine a situation where police would use the test to determine whether a twin had been involved in the murder of an identical sibling - as for the first time they could differentiate between the DNA of the victim and the suspect. Walton-Williams cautions, however, that courts will want to know how rigorously the method has been tested before they allow it to be used as evidence. The cost of the test will also influence how widely it will be used, she says - and it will therefore probably be used more often in criminal trials than paternity cases, she predicts. Eurofins won't say publicly how much their test costs Other companies have said they can do something similar in the past, but for one reason or another it has never proved to be the breakthrough that police and prosecutors need. And there will always be some cases where no DNA test would be sufficient. In 2009, jewellery with a retail value of six million euros ($8.2m) was stolen from Berlin's KaDeWe department store. Traces of DNA were found in a glove found at the crime scene, and once again the DNA led police to twin brothers, who walked free. But even if police had been able to tell which one the DNA belonged to, they still might not have been able to get a conviction. The defence could have argued that even though the suspect had once worn the glove, someone else might have left it at the crime scene, and that neither of the twins was ever at the department store. Georg Gradl spoke to Newshour on the BBC World Service. Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

entertainment-arts-36269295

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-36269295

Q&A: White Paper on the BBC's future

The government has published its White Paper, outlining its proposals for the renewal of the BBC's Royal Charter . Culture Secretary John Whittingdale has set out a new regime for the broadcaster in his plans for the next 11 years.

What is the Royal Charter? The Royal Charter is an agreement with the government over what the BBC intends to do over the next 11 years. It is a general document outlining how the corporation is funded, how it is run, who holds it to account and what its broad objectives are. The process ends with a meeting of the Privy Council at Buckingham Palace. What is the BBC White Paper? The White Paper is the government's proposals for the Royal Charter. It will probably be debated in Parliament but there is no vote by MPs or peers. The final shape of the Royal Charter is determined by the culture secretary. What's at stake? There are three main issues: What might it mean for the BBC? The BBC is anxious to have a clear majority of its board appointed by the BBC in order to fend off accusations that it is a government or state broadcaster. Under the existing system, members of the BBC Trust - which oversees the corporation - are appointed by the Queen on advice from the government. The BBC Trust then appoints members of the BBC Executive, which manages the BBC. The BBC Trust and the BBC Executive are to be replaced by a new "unitary board". Mr Whittingdale's plan says the BBC will appoint "most of these board members", with others "selected through an open public appointments process led by government". Is there a knock-on effect for Channel 4? The question of whether Channel 4 is privatised is a separate topic, but the BBC and Channel 4 are part of a wider ecology of public service broadcasting. How will it affect the audience? The question of how "distinctiveness" is enforced may affect the balance of what sort of programmes appear. The government previously expressed concern about shows chasing ratings, but in his speech on the White Paper Mr Whittingdale said he was "emphatically not saying that the BBC should not be popular". The White Paper says all employees and freelancers - including star names - who earn more than £450,000 will be named, although salaries will only be revealed in "broad bands". Managers on more than £150,000 already have salary details published. Within the BBC, there is a concern that publishing stars' earnings could put some off working for the BBC, as well as making it easier for rival broadcasters to poach stars. What happens next? A debate in the autumn, then the drafting and signing of the new charter for the next 11 years. Why 11? The BBC was anxious to remove the negotiations from coinciding with elections - now fixed to take place every five years. Anything else we know? See our guide to the key points in the White Paper.

world-asia-india-51500812

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-51500812

Will Vodafone hang up on its business in India?

India's Supreme Court has refused to grant telecoms companies further time to pay billions of dollars in additional revenues to the government. The BBC's business reporter Arunoday Mukharji explains why this is a body blow to the entire industry.

India is one of the world's largest telecoms markets, but its main players have been facing a torrid time in recent years. And now their woes have been added to, after the country's top court directed telecoms companies to pay $13bn (£9.9bn) by 17 March - further asking why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them for not coughing up the money earlier. For Vodafone-Idea - one of the country's biggest telecoms firms - the order comes during an especially difficult period. The company announced a sixth straight quarterly loss of $903m (£693m) this week, compared to a loss of $70m during the same period last year. The situation is so bad, the company's chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla has gone on record to say the company will shut shop if they are not granted any relief from the government or courts. Vodafone-Idea, along with competitor Airtel, had been seeking more time to pay their dues at a juncture when they are already burdened with dipping tariffs and mounting debt. The question now is with a payment deadline of 17 March and no intervention from the government looking forthcoming, is this the end of the road for the company's India operation? The UK-based telecoms company has been one of the oldest and largest players in the Indian market, and the impact of a shutdown is not insignificant. After all, it has more than 300m subscribers, and provides jobs for hundreds of thousands. But its closure would likely have an adverse impact on the telecoms sector as a whole. If Vodafone Idea does decide to exit the Indian market, the industry will effectively be turned into a duopoly, with the only players being India's Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel. And Airtel is not in a very good place either, posting losses of nearly $3bn at the end of the last quarter and owing the government nearly $5bn in dues. Jio, the newest entrant to the country's telecoms sector, is in a much happier place and is acknowledged to be responsible for completely changing the nature of the telecoms sector. When it entered the market three years ago, the company slashed data prices and, in the process, managed to change what was essentially a voice market into a data market. This resulted in India ending up with the cheapest mobile data in the world and severely disrupting the business models of both Vodafone Idea and Airtel. Since then, both companies have shed millions of subscribers. They have joint losses of more than $10bn and they are now haunted by the prospects of a massive pay-out in dues to the government within the next month. With more than 350m subscribers as of 2019, Jio looks most likely to benefit from a Vodafone exit. Experts have estimated that it could well double its earnings by 2022, potentially signing up more than 500m subscribers by then. But what will this mean for India's price-sensitive consumers? Possibly, not very good news. Massive losses from both Vodafone and Airtel last quarter prompted all three firms to raise prices. "Prices going up is not necessarily a bad thing - it would in fact be a good thing, because that is the only way to have some competition in this market," economist Vivek Kaul told the BBC earlier. "This needs to happen for telecoms to survive and thrive in India." But, whether that would result in a slowdown of India's massive telecoms growth rate, remains to be seen. What exactly are telecoms companies and the government battling over? The battle over Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR), has been a long and drawn out one. In layman's terms this means that a certain proportion of revenues earned by telecoms companies needs to be shared with the government's department of telecoms. Telecoms companies and the government had disagreed on the definition of adjusted gross revenue since 2005. The companies only wanted revenue from telecoms to be calculated in this figure, but the government wanted a much wider definition, including non-telecoms revenue like sale of assets and interest earned on deposits. But recently, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the government, which meant that telecoms companies needed to pay authorities a further $12.5bn.

uk-wales-south-west-wales-36349207

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-36349207

Army unit blows up 'bomb' on Cefn Sidan Beach

An army unit has carried out a controlled explosion after a suspected explosive device washed up on a Carmarthenshire beach.

Police closed Pembrey Country Park on Friday following the discovery, with a bomb disposal team called to make it safe. Dyfed-Powys Police lifted restrictions to the park on Saturday morning. Cefn Sidan beach remained closed while the operation was carried out.

newsbeat-11549701

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-11549701

X Factor: Finalists cover David Bowie for charity

The 16 X Factor finalists are going to record a charity single in aid of Help for Heroes.

They will be covering David Bowie's track Heroes, to raise money for injured servicemen and women. Acts like Cher, Aiden, Mary Byrne and Diva Fever will record the track and video in the next week. In 2008, X Factor finalists including Alexandra Burke, JLS and Diana Vickers recorded a cover of the track Hero for the charity. It broke sales records and raised £1.3m for a rehabilitation complex at Headley Court in Surrey.

uk-england-leicestershire-49700240

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-49700240

Newbold Coleorton man in court over explosives charge

A man has appeared in court charged with making or possessing explosives under suspicious circumstances after part of a village was cordoned off.

Homes were evacuated and roads shut as bomb disposal experts were called on Thursday afternoon. Matthew Montanow, 29, from Vicarage Close, in Newbold Coleorton, Leicestershire, was remanded in custody at Leicester Magistrates' Court. Police said they were not treating it as a terrorist incident. Mr Montanow has also been charged with possessing firearm ammunition during a five-year period following a suspended sentence of three months or more and possessing ammunition for a firearm without a certificate. He is next due to appear at the same court on 20 September. Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.

uk-england-47088784

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-47088784

Where are England's pongiest places?

The sweet smell of home can mean many things to many people - but if, to you, it conjures the intoxicating aroma of warm dog food, rotten eggs or cannabis, you could be an inhabitant of one of the places mentioned below. We hold our noses and get set to explore England's pongiest places.

By Jennifer HarbyBBC News Does your neighbourhood - to put it bluntly - niff a bit? Does your hometown - particularly during the summer - have a certain hum? Then, you are not alone. When the wind changes direction, residents of several towns and cities get a waft of something very specific - be it biscuits or breweries. "Many of these smells are associated with industry," explains Will Rossiter, associate professor at Nottingham Business School, who points out that places like Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Burton upon Trent were once home to a "lovely, hoppy, malty smell" associated with their breweries. But in some places, the whiff was far more noxious. "It used to be the case that if you drove up the M1 through north Nottinghamshire, you really could almost taste the sulphurous smell of the old coking works," Mr Rossiter said. "You could see a yellow haze." As Britain's manufacturing sector has shrunk and environmental regulations have improved, Mr Rossiter says the smells associated with industrial processes have also disappeared - but there are a few places where industries - and their odours - continue to linger. So what do residents think of these heady aromas? Are they regarded with affection - do they smell like town spirit? Or are some townsfolk right to kick up a bit of a stink? Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire Melton is famous for styling itself as the capital of rural food; both pork pies and Stilton cheese are made in the area. But it's another kind of food that infiltrates the nostrils of its residents. "During the summer there's a nice smell of warm dog food," said Sarah Haines, who lives in the town. The pet food smell that permeates the streets on sunny days stems from the Mars Petcare factory, on Mill Street, which manufactures rural fare of a different kind, namely Pedigree Chum and Whiskas. "It's just part and parcel of living here," added Georgie Kemp, Sarah's friend. "You certainly don't smell pie and cheese anyway, as you'd expect." According to social media, Melton also basks in the very distinctive odours of rural life - one of the drawbacks of being surrounded by rolling countryside. "Yes, you get the muck-spreading in the summer," added Ms Haines. "Basically, there are no nice smells." A local joke is that the town marks the point where the River Eye becomes the River Wreake - "Eye Wreake" being the result. But many residents say the odour does not offend them as much as you might expect. "Can't really say it bothers me," said one woman who was shopping at the town's market. "We stayed in France near a pet food factory and that one smelled much worse than ours," added another. Mars Petcare said it was aware its production processes occasionally produced "a distinctive smell" and it worked to minimise this as much as possible. Carlisle and Wigton, Cumbria Biscuits versus rotten eggs. Biscuits versus rotten eggs... In the battle of the Cumbrian pongs, the proud city of Carlisle definitely takes the biscuit. "One of the first conversations I had when I came here was with someone who said: 'It smells a lot better than Wigton'," said comedian Mark Steel, who visited Carlisle for his BBC radio series Mark Steel's In Town. He claimed Carlisle residents were so used to the "constant biscuit cloud" they could actually pick out the individual biscuits being baked at the time. "When I first came here I mentioned the smell to three people and every one of them went, "Yeah and it's ginger nuts today". It's a nice smell. It's just a bit unusual when it covers 15 square miles." "It's quite a comforting smell," said creative designer Lydia Leith, who lives in the city. "If they're making Nice biscuits, you get a smell of coconuts. Other days, it's a gingery kind of smell. "Although it's not very helpful if you're on a diet." Down the road in Wigton, however, townsfolk did not get quite so lucky with the whiff of their local industry. "It can only be described as sulphur," said Sandra Hodson, a town councillor who has lived here for 40 years. The so-called Wigton pong emanates from a nearby factory that makes food packaging film. The process involves a range of chemical processes which have been known to give off a rotten egg smell. You might also like: "It's only on certain days and generally you smell it when you're going to get wet weather, for some reason," added Mrs Hodson. "It's like our weather station." However, she added the town was proud of the factory, which is owned by Japanese company Futamura. "It's the glue that holds us all together," she said. "If we ever lost it, it would devastate us." Futamura did not respond to the BBC's request for a comment. Derby While some odours linger like - well, a bad smell - other whiffs disappear in a jiff. Such was the case for the people of Derby during the long, hot summer of 2018 when a mystery "sick" stench was reported in the city. The smell was described by residents as "like sick", "like sewage" and "like poo" and one shop said it was "running dangerously low on air freshener". "It smells just like liquid manure," Tom Clarke, from Chellaston, told the Derby Telegraph. "It was just nasty," recalls Mycah Gatt, who lives in the city. "It smelled like pure sewage. It was so intense it made us feel dizzy. It was like shoving your head down a toilet. We stayed inside as much as possible." Derby Council and Severn Trent both said they did not know what caused the pong. Derby councillor Martin Repton speculated the stench stemmed from fertiliser from a farm in the Kedleston area. "We are a small city, quite low-lying, and, unlike other cities, we are surrounded by farms," he said. "I can remember smells like that as a boy at muck-spreading time but not quite as bad. "Perhaps it was the way the wind was blowing, perhaps it was a different type of fertiliser. "It was dreadful, it was obnoxious and the way it enveloped the streets was quite worrying." Luckily, the smell quickly wafted over Derby and, so far, has yet to return. Nailsea, Somerset In July 2017 the residents of the Somerset town of Nailsea began complaining that their town smelled of cannabis. "Left my bedroom window open last night, woke up about three-ish with the room absolutely reeking of it," complained one resident on the town's Nailsea People Facebook page. "Is it just me or does Nailsea stink of weed?" asked another on Twitter. "Yes I noticed it the other day," somebody replied. "I did wonder if someone had been composting their cannabis plants!" Heather Pickstock was the Bristol Post journalist who sniffed out the source of the smell. "I first noticed it when I went into Nailsea one lunchtime and smelled it, initially thinking someone was smoking," she said. "It was quite pungent. But then I realised it was covering the whole town and started to investigate and saw other people talking about it on Facebook." What she found was quite surprising. "It was caused by the blackcurrant harvest by Thatchers Cider in Sandford for Ribena," she said. "They do harvest every year but it was the first time I'd ever smelled it." Thatchers said it pressed about 13,000 tonnes of blackcurrants at its mill in July and August each year. These are then sent to Ribena's plant in Coleford, in the Forest of Dean. The cider-maker added that the smell was a "perfectly natural" result of the pressing process. Police at the time confirmed the odour was "due to the annual blackcurrant harvest" and "not due to a large cannabis operation". "People do not need to be concerned," they added. Ribena, though, has declined to comment on the stink. London In Victorian times, the English city with the biggest odour issues was London. Notoriously the city's "Great Stink", in 1858, saw the hot weather exacerbate the smell of untreated human waste and effluent around the Thames. The city cleaned up its act thanks to civil engineer Joseph Bazalgette's famous sewer system that still operates today. So has England's capital, in the words of a famous carpet reviver, managed to "put the freshness back"? Not quite, according to some. "I think it's improved since Victorian times but some areas still smell a bit," said law student Hodan Shire, who lives in the north west of the city. "It smells mainly of cigarettes and traffic fumes," added her friend Zanaira Siddique, from Cambridge. "When you come here, it kind of hits you. When the weather gets hotter, it's even worse." Indeed, in October 2018 there were reports of an "acrid, noxious and strange chemical smell" across parts of the capital, although the authorities could not confirm the cause. "It smells of rubbish because of all the bins on the streets and the dirt and pollution," said Gemma Dilworth, who commutes to the city from Oxfordshire. "You have black bogeys when you blow your nose." "It's not really bad but there is still a smell," agreed her friend Annika Murfitt. "It smells of urine and drains," said Arsenal fan Mark Jones, from Devon, who was visiting the capital with his wife Lynn. "You can smell pee around every corner but, in fairness, that's just a city smell." However, to Danish national Lars Friis, who lives in Chiswick, the odour of London is a pleasant one. "Hmm... the main thing I can smell is lots of food." Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.

uk-england-essex-54523292

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-54523292

A13 crash: Driver seriously hurt as car crushed under lorry

A driver suffered serious injuries after his car was crushed between two lorries leaving his vehicle wedged beneath one.

The crash happened on the A13 westbound at Thurrock near the M25 junction at 06:25 BST on Monday. A spokesman for Essex Police said:" The driver of the car was taken to hospital but his injuries are not considered to be life-threatening or life-changing." The road was closed for more than six hours while police investigated. Any witnesses have been asked to contact Essex Police.

business-18417589

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-18417589

The vicious euro circle keeps turning

It's no good bailing out the banks if you can't bail out the economy. That, in a nutshell, is the judgement that financial markets seem to have been making about Spain in the past few days.

Stephanie FlandersFormer economics editor For weeks, all we heard from financial analysts was that Spain's banks needed rescuing, and the Spanish government didn't have enough money to do it. Finally, this weekend, the prime minister swallowed his pride and asked for that support. But the market relief has been short-lived, even by the standards of past eurozone "bailouts". At one point today the interest rate on a 10-year Spanish government bond had risen to 6.8% - the highest since the euro began. The gap between Spanish and German long-term borrowing rates also reached a record high, as did the cost of insuring against a Spanish sovereign default. Why are investors still so gloomy about Spain? One part of the explanation is probably our old friend, political uncertainty. The Greek election looms large on the horizon, and the agenda for the European summit at the end of next month looks painfully ambitious. No-one knows, yet, what Chancellor Merkel will be willing to sign up to at that meeting - if, indeed, she is ready to sign up to anything at all. As Robert Peston has succinctly reminded us, she has good reason to be wary of the talk of a European "banking union" now coming out of Brussels. And so has the Bundesbank. But the core of the problem for Spain - reflected very clearly in the market movements of the past few days - is economic growth. In Italy, too - worries about the state of the economy helped push up the Italian government's cost of borrowing at the start of the week. It's largely the grim prospects for the Spanish economy that has led Fitch and other ratings agencies to downgrade so many Spanish banks in recent days. Emergency lending is helpful. But it can't make the recession go away, and it can't take away the need for many more years of fiscal austerity. An extended period of economic depression and fiscal austerity can trash the balance sheet of the healthiest bank. As the IMF pointed out so helpfully in their recent assessment of Spain's financial sector, Spain does not have the healthiest banks. And, by raising Spain's national debt by up to 10 percentage points, the new 100bn-euro ($125bn; £80bn) European loan could actually make the clean-up job for the public finances last even longer. We've seen, throughout this crisis, how different countries have been hit by the close, mutually destructive relationship between banks and their sovereign governments. In Spain, as in Ireland, it is the debts of the banks that have fundamentally weakened the government's balance sheet. In Greece, Portugal and to some extent Italy, the debt problems have largely spread in the other direction - from the government to the banks. Either way, it's been a toxic mix. Now Spain's enfeebled banks are being made even weaker, by the broader economic consequences of tackling the government's debt problem - a problem created, in no small part, by the banks themselves. In that sense, the vicious circle is complete. And not just in Spain.

world-asia-india-51538731

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-51538731

Crossing Divides: What happens when pen pals reunite

Duaa Bhat is a 17-year-old girl in Indian-administered Kashmir, one of the most heavily militarised zones in the world. Two years ago, she became pen pals with Saumya Sagarika, 18, from the country's capital, Delhi, in a bid to understand the different worlds they were growing up in.

By Divya AryaBBC News The army has been deployed in Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority region, since the rise of an armed rebellion in 1989. As Saumya discovered through her letters, Duaa's studies were interrupted by strikes and school shutdowns. The problem was often compounded by the Indian government who would deliberately shut down or "snap" internet and social media. Then, in August last year, the government removed Kashmir's special status - which provided a degree of autonomy under article 370 of the country's constitution - and imposed a communication clampdown. Schools were closed, thousands including politicians were placed under detention, and phone lines and internet were blocked. Five months later, as the government began to ease communication restrictions, Saumya began writing to Duaa again. Here are edited excerpts from their letters. Dear Duaa A warm hello from Delhi. How are you? How is everyone in your family? We didn't really continue our promise of staying "pen pals" after our last round of letters, but I am very happy to restart our conversation. A lot must have changed in your life and the circumstances around you in the past two years too. I got to know that Section 370 was removed from Kashmir a few months back and for some time telecommunications were snapped there, and internet is probably still not working. I am sure the situation must have changed. I hope everyone is safe there? Dear Saumya A chilling salaam from Kashmir. Chilling because it is really, really cold here these days. I am good and, Allhamdullilah, everyone in my family is doing good. We didn't continue being pen pals because the internet here is down most of the time and staying in touch with anyone outside the valley is a task in itself. I was really happy to know that you've started college and your studies are going well. People like me have suffered the most in the past few months. We used to study ourselves with some help from the magic of the internet. Only the Almighty knows how we've completed our syllabus in time for exams. People here are not happy with the removal of our special status. Personally, I feel depriving people of even talking to their near and dear ones is a violation of human rights. Saumya, most people, including myself, do not understand the protests in the rest of the country. News channels here do not give us enough information to understand what the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) really is. Can you brief me about them? In December, India's parliament passed the CAA, which offers amnesty to non-Muslim illegal immigrants from the three nearby Muslim-majority countries - Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. It sparked massive protests as many considered it discriminatory against Muslims, something the government denies. Saumya, a Hindu, joined the hundreds of mostly Muslim women in a Delhi street protest against the new citizenship laws. Dear Duaa It is quite cold in Delhi too but the mood is really hot. A few days back, I went to the protest at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh. Women have been protesting against this act there for the past 26 days. These women are not university professors or activists but homemakers, women who remain in purdah, who have stepped out on to the streets to protest. They are fighting this battle so their children are able to lead their lives in peace. After witnessing the enthusiasm among people at Shaheen Bagh, I'll say people are prepared to fight this battle for our rights. In your last letter, you wrote that you'd heard slogans like, "They wanted Kashmir to become like India but have made India into Kashmir", were being chanted in Delhi. You are 100% right. Since this protest movement started, all of Delhi is feeling like Kashmir. Like internet/phone shutdowns, section 144 (curfew) being imposed, stone-throwing and police lathi-charge (using long batons) during protests. So I can say that today I understand Kashmir and the situation facing people living there quite well. Dear Saumya From what you said about CAA, I feel we are going back in time instead of moving forward. I still can't believe that even in the 21st Century some people discriminate against others on the basis of caste, religion and, in some parts of society, even gender. These protests are a proof that people still believe in taking a stand for each other and that humanity is still alive. Unlike other places in India, Kashmir has been really calm about this act. In our hearts we know this act is wrong but these days we Kashmiris couldn't care less about what's happening outside the valley. Our voices, our rights have been neglected in the past and are being neglected right now. A couple of days ago, a Niti Aayog (a government think tank) member VK Saraswat defended the communication ban and he went as far as saying that Kashmiris do nothing but watch "dirty films" online. Even though he apologized later, these remarks cannot be just thrown out of our minds. Do people there really think that way about us? No one is talking about the problems we are facing right now due to the internet ban. Are we really invisible to the rest of the country? Religious identities come up repeatedly in Saumya and Duaa's letters. In 1989-90, at the start of the rebellion, hundreds of thousands of Hindus - referred to as Pandits - were terrorised into leaving by Muslim militants. It tore apart the centuries-old harmony that existed between the two communities. Dear Duaa I feel that people here consider Kashmir a precious property of the country and don't give any importance to its people. Just last week, there was a discussion on the film Shikara on TV. The film is based on Kashmiri Pandits. There has been no discussion of their plight for the past 30 years here. And I don't think that people will go to watch this film or talk about it even now. Through our letters I have been able to understand a lot about Kashmir and Muslims, which is different from common perceptions. We have lots of family friends who are Muslim but are unable to discuss such issues with them openly, lest we offend them. This CAA issue motivated me to protest, even though I am a Hindu. As I have understood Kashmir through your letters, it has removed my apprehensions and made me even more curious about Kashmir and Kashmiris. Earlier I was afraid because of the image created by society and the media. But after our conversations, I am excited to go to Kashmir to understand and experience it myself. Is the Kashmir valley open for people from outside now? Dear Saumya I am writing this letter not from Kashmir, but from one of the most holy cities of the world - Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It's an amazing feeling to watch Muslims from all around the world come to pray here. I feel glad that you know the truth about Kashmir. The valley is open for tourists now (officially) but for us Kashmiris it was and will always be open for the people outside. You know there is a place in the Khanyar area of Kashmir, where worshipping places of different religions are located on one hill. At the bottom is a Gurdwara (Sikh temple), in the middle a shrine and at the top a temple. My mother's maiden home was near that area and they had Pandits as neighbours. In my childhood, my mother used to tell me various stories about the brotherhood between different communities. Kashmir is a really beautiful place to live and I pray to the Almighty in this holy city of Mecca to make Kashmir a peaceful place again and to restore the brotherhood that was lost. I'm closing this letter with the hope that my dua (wish) comes true and you will come to Kashmir to meet me. With lots of love Duaa Illustrations by Neelima P Aryan Crossing divides A season of stories about bringing people together in a fragmented world.

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Cinderford Asda planning permission reviewed by judge

Plans for an Asda store in Gloucestershire are being reviewed by a judge at the Royal Courts of Justice.

Co-op, which already has a store in Cinderford, applied for the judicial review into Forest of Dean District Council's decision to give the go-ahead for the new supermarket. The council gave permission for the new 4,645 sq m store on Steam Mills Road in Cinderford last January. The Co-op was not happy with the way it reached its decision. Related Internet Links Asda The Co-operative Forest of Dean District Council

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Cartoons by Islamic State: A new propaganda tool

The sophisticated propaganda efforts of self-styled Islamic State group include a radio station, magazines, videos and photos - often depicting violent imagery. But earlier this year, there appeared to be a shift in the tone of the messaging from some supporters. Among the new methods of communication: cartoons.

By BBC TrendingGoing in-depth on social media Earlier this year, a channel on the messaging app Telegram - and a now-deactivated channel on YouTube - began releasing narrative animated stories which veered away from the brutal and shocking images that so-called Islamic State (IS) had previously been pushing. One, specifically aimed at children, was titled The Ruler and the Brave and told the story of a country that had become disillusioned with its tyrant leader. The leader, the video explained, would lie to his subjects about "brave men" who dared to stand up to him. These "brave men" turn out to be IS militants. Telegram Over the past two years, Islamic State group militants and their supporters have increasingly been facing restrictions imposed by social media platforms. Telegram, a messaging app which offers encryption, ensuring the privacy of users, has attempted to shut down suspected Islamic State channels in the past. Telegram has 100 million active monthly users, and many of its groups are private. Because of the network's security features, extremist material can be hard to identify. Violent photos and videos on bigger platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are generally removed within days. Earlier this year cartoons which glorified Islamic State ideology began appearing on a pro-IS Telegram channel which remains active. The cartoons were also shared on YouTube in March, and remained on the platform until early this month - only being shut down after the BBC alerted YouTube. Cartoons While cartoons are less likely to be flagged up than violent photographs, Brendan Koerner, a contributing editor at Wired magazine, says that the use of cartoons may also be due to fewer videos and pictures being produced inside regions controlled by IS forces. "(Their) ability to produce media content has been degraded due to their military setbacks," he told BBC Trending, "They are now depending on supporters abroad (outside IS-held territory) to make their content." Hear more You can hear more on this story on BBC Trending on the BBC World Service And for more Trending stories, download our podcast Aside from the cartoons, the members of the channel use the hashtag #SupportEtiquette, advising their supporters to adopt a softer tone when discussing IS ideology with potential new members. They urge followers to "softly preach to the ignorant and undecided." This approach is markedly different to IS's usual imposition of its views and strict religious interpretations, and its ruthless punishment of those who disagree. "They have to find new ways to recruit sympathisers and people willing to move," Koerner says. "One part of that is that they have to set up this image that it is a functioning government, that it provides basic services and justice and that it is a utopia." Who is behind this channel? The channel's posts and the way its administrator is addressed by members of the group suggest the admin is female, and possibly Egyptian. One post explains that one of the channel's aims is to prove that "pious" women (presumably implying the administrator) enjoy high status in the eyes of the group. The channel's material also has an impact outside of Telegram. It has been promoted and praised by high-profile IS supporters online and has been used in publications produced by other prolific pro-IS online media groups. Suspension YouTube suspended the channel spreading the pro-IS cartoons after the BBC flagged it up and sent Trending the following statement: "We take our role in combating the spread of extremist material very seriously. We act quickly to remove flagged content that incites violence and terminate accounts run by terrorist organisations" Telegram has not responded to requests for comment. In a blog posted in March, a Telegram spokesman insisted the network was taking action against extremist content and blamed media outlets for exaggerating the impact of terrorism. Reporting by Dina Aboughazala from BBC Monitoring Blog by Dina Aboughazala and Megha Mohan NEXT STORY: Macron Leaks: the anatomy of a hack The US alt-right, WikiLeaks and bots helped to amplify the leaked emails from the Emmanuel Macron campaign. READ MORE You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.

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Child abuse: Documenting Australia's shame

In Australia, a boy of 10 is raped by an Anglican clergyman, who cuts his victim with a small knife and smears blood over his back in a twisted ritual to symbolise the suffering of Christ.

By Phil MercerBBC News, Sydney This happened in the 1960s in Cessnock, a former mining town in the New South Wales Hunter Valley, but only now has this and other decades-old stories of sexual violence and degradation been heard, catalogued and, crucially for many victims, believed. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is an unprecedented investigation into an epidemic of depravity across Australia. The far-reaching inquiry began in 2013 and has heard from thousands of survivors of paedophiles who worked, or volunteered, in sporting clubs, schools, churches, charities, childcare centres and the military. It has the power to look at any private, public or non-government body that is, or was, involved with children. The Commission's task is to make recommendations on how to improve laws, policies and practices to protect the young. To date, it has held more than 6,000 private sessions, along with several high-profile public hearings. Paul Gray told investigators that between the ages of 10 and 14, he was sexually assaulted by Father Peter Rushton in Cessnock every one or two weeks. Sometimes, his attacker had an accomplice. "I was chased by two men to the edge of the cliff and I hid in the bushes. "After a while they dragged me from the bushes and I was raped by the two men, and while I was being raped I could hear another boy screaming," said Mr Gray, fighting back tears as he recounted memories that have burned inside him for half a century. Too ill to travel from the Vatican to Sydney to give evidence, Australia's most prominent churchman, Cardinal George Pell, was questioned via video link by the Royal Commission over what he knew about alleged abuse and cover-ups within the Catholic Church. For four days earlier this year, the senior Vatican official was quizzed, denying any personal wrongdoing but conceding the organisation had made grave errors. "I am not here to defend the indefensible," said Cardinal Pell. "The Church has made enormous mistakes, is working to remedy those, but the Church has in many places - certainly in Australia - mucked things up." When he was 13, John Ellis, a former altar boy, was molested by an Australian monk who was also implicated in a suspected paedophile ring at a former Catholic boarding school in the Scottish Highlands. Now a solicitor, Mr Ellis works with other victims, and we meet at a public hearing held by the commission on the 17th floor of Governor Macquarie Tower that stands over central Sydney. Presiding over the session is the chief royal commissioner, Justice Peter McClellan, a judge of appeal in New South Wales. He is one of six commissioners; two women and four men, and they include a former Queensland police chief, a consultant child psychiatrist and a retired federal politician. They have fanned out across Australia to document a nation's shame. "The most important thing for people in being invited to give their own stories and having their stories valued is that somebody cares," Mr Ellis told the BBC news website. "For many, many years people have been silenced, people have been fearful of what reaction they will get if they were to tell their truth. The overwhelming emotion people have when they have had that opportunity is empowerment." When it hands down its final report at the end of 2017, this painstaking inquiry will have lasted for almost five years. Already, more than 1,700 cases have been referred to the authorities, including the police. More prosecutions will almost certainly follow, but many victims will never savour justice. Dr Wayne Chamley, from Broken Rites, a group that gives a voice to the abused, said decades of brutality had left a terrible legacy. "When you look at the rate of suicide for men who had these experiences and compared it with age-matched data from the coroners' courts, their risk factor is 20 to 40 times higher for suicide," he explained to the BBC. "There are townships where there have been waves of suicide with hundreds of men. [In] Ballarat [in Victoria state], at least 50 or 60 suicides across just three classes in the primary school - just three classes of boys who became men. Bang. Devastating." Gerard McDonald, 52, is a survivor of abuse, and one of thousands of people who have told their stories to the commission. His attacker, a Catholic priest, has spent 14 years in prison for attacking 35 boys. "After every other altar boy practice in 1975, before dropping me home Father (Vincent) Ryan would sexually abuse me. All I could do was think about running to my mate's place and getting the biggest two knives he had and killing him," he said. While this harrowing process is undoubtedly cathartic for Australia - and it's inevitable that legislation and procedures will eventually change to make children safer - campaigners insist many youngsters today still remain at risk from predators in institutions, while paedophiles stalking the internet continue to groom the vulnerable.

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Mozambique: Is Cabo Delgado the latest Islamic State outpost?

A simmering Islamist rebellion in a remote corner of Mozambique has erupted into open warfare in recent weeks, with reports of massacres, beheadings and the brief seizure of two towns in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, writes BBC Africa correspondent Andrew Harding.

The armed men walked calmly through the long grass, skirting past a large white building, seemingly untroubled by the sound of gunfire. Most carried automatic rifles and wore variations of what appeared to be Mozambican army uniforms. A few more shots rang out in the distance and someone shouted "Allahu Akbar" - God is the greatest - as if in reply. The video footage, shot last month on a mobile phone in Muidumbe was powerful new evidence that a murky conflict in the northern-most region of Mozambique has now moved out into the open, in spectacular and alarming fashion. A second video, shot a few weeks earlier, showed a dead man - apparently a policeman - lying in a pool of blood. The camera then moved over to reveal another corpse, then a third lying under a black police vehicle, then a fourth body out in the open, and finally a large pile of automatic weapons in some sort of police or military store. How close are the links to Islamic State? That footage was filmed in the strategic port of Mocimboa da Praia, which was briefly - and dramatically - seized by the militants on 24 March. Two days later, they seized another important town, Quissanga. "Now they have guns and vehicles, so they move easily and can attack widely. And they are using soldiers' uniforms. So, people are very confused, and very afraid," said the Catholic Bishop of Pemba, Luiz Fernando Lisboa. Those two large-scale, sophisticated military assaults are proof of a radical change in strategy for the group known locally as al-Shabab, although it has no known links to the Somali jihadi group of the same name, which is affiliated to al-Qaeda. It has spent the past two years operating in the shadows, attacking remote villages across the province, ambushing army patrols on isolated roads, instilling terror in many rural communities, forcing perhaps 200,000 people to flee from their homes, but rarely giving any indication about its motives, its leadership, or its demands. The video footage from both Mocimboa da Praia and Muidumbe district was quickly incorporated into the so-called Islamic State (IS) group's propaganda films, aired by the Amaq News Agency. IS has claimed responsibility for a string of recent attacks in Mozambique, which has a Muslim population of about 18%, and appears to be promoting its involvement there as part of a "franchise" operation that has seen it expanding its footprint in several parts of Africa. The idea that the rebellion in Cabo Delgado is, at its core, part of a global jihadist movement, has been given credibility by the militants themselves, who publicly swore allegiance to IS last year. The relationship offers advantages to both sides. But in a separate video, filmed this year and circulated widely on WhatsApp in Mozambique, a militant leader offered a much more nuanced explanation for the group's actions. Locals complain about discrimination "We occupy [the towns] to show that the government of the day is unfair. It humiliates the poor and gives the profit to the bosses," said the tall, unmasked man, in khaki uniform, surrounded by other fighters. The man spoke frequently about Islam, and his desire for an "Islamic government, not a government of unbelievers", but he also cited alleged abuses by Mozambique's military, and repeatedly complained that the government was "unfair". Observers say the evolution of the insurgency in Mozambique is remarkably similar to Boko Haram's emergence in northern Nigeria, with a marginalised group exploiting local grievances, terrorising many communities, but also offering an alternative path for unemployed youths frustrated by a corrupt, neglectful and heavy-handed state. "It's very significant," said Eric Morier-Genoud, a Belfast-based academic and expert on Mozambique, of the militant leader's statement. "He explains that he's a local, from Mozambique. He responds to the argument that they're all foreigners and denies it, and he denounces the present state as unfair and illegitimate," said Mr Morier-Genoud, arguing that the fact that most of the faces in the video are unmasked reveals "a clear gain of confidence". Find out more: "For the first time, they spoke to the public," said Mozambican historian Professor Yussuf Adam, who said that the video gave further weight to the argument that the conflict in Cabo Delgado is, at heart, fuelled by local issues. "The army, from the beginning… beat people up, took them to jail, tortured them. There's a lot of Islamophobia [in the majority Muslim province of Cabo Delgado]. They're discriminated against because they're northerners - people think they're dumb. "The problem is that we have a youth bulge - and the young don't have jobs. If we solve… the abuse of force, corruption, and if we have a serious system of justice I'm sure we'll solve this very rapidly," said Professor Adam. Government hiring foreign mercenaries Mozambique's government initially sought to downplay the rebellion, dismissing the militants as criminals, and blocking journalists from accessing the region. But that is changing. "We've seen a shift from the politics of denial. Most of society and politicians now accept we have an Islamist insurgency," said Mr Morier-Genoud. Later, the government began to hire foreign security contractors - allegedly from Russia, the US and South Africa - to help the army crush the rebellion, but without any significant success. There are concerns that the conflict, if mishandled, could spread into neighbouring Tanzania, and perhaps even to South Africa. International gas companies - poised to invest billions in the off-shore gas fields discovered along the coast of Cabo Delgado - are now getting cold feet, partly because of the rising insecurity, but also because of falling gas prices. Many observers and analysts believe that, fundamentally, the solution to the conflict lies in good governance, and a transparent attempt to address deep-seated economic and social grievances, including fair access to land, jobs, and a share of any future gas revenues. "Multi-nationals want to know they can take their share, but they have to consider local people," said the Bishop of Pemba. "And the government has to know that it is very necessary that Mozambique's natural resources must be used for the betterment of its people, not to cause corruption," he added.

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Fitzwilliam Museum Chinese art theft: Man remanded

A man has appeared in court in connection with the theft of Chinese art valued at up to £40m from the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

The 25-year-old man, from London, appeared before Cambridge magistrates accused of conspiracy to commit burglary and theft. He is the third person to be charged after the art from several dynasties was taken on 13 April. He was remanded in custody to appear at Cambridge Crown Court on 28 May. A 28-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy already face the same charges.

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Jersey could introduce 'MOT' checks for some vehicles

A system for checking and testing the condition of commercial vehicles could be introduced in Jersey according to the Transport Minister.

Constable Mike Jackson told States members his department was thinking about some kind of system similar to the UK's MOT. But he said they would not consider increasing taxes in any way. He said: "We are looking into how the offending vehicles can be better controlled." Constable Jackson said: "We may be looking towards some sort of examination vehicles for commercial vehicles." Jersey currently relies on spot checks by Driver Vehicle Standards and the Police to identify dangerous vehicles.

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Tendering for planes for Barra, Tiree and Campbeltown starts

Government plans to buy two new planes to serve the lifeline air service linking Barra, Tiree and Campbeltown with Glasgow have taken a step forward.

Transport Minister Keith Brown has confirmed the start of a six-week tendering process for supply of the aircraft. The route is officially designated as a public service obligation and would not be commercially viable without support. The new planes were expected to have been operating by April last year. However, the process of purchasing them has taken longer than was expected. The Scottish government announced two years ago that it planned to buy two new replacements for the existing Twin Otter aircraft - owned and operated by Loganair and whose contract to serve the lifeline route ends next year. The tendering process for the aircraft - which must be twin engine and able to land on Barra's beach runway - will run until 22 August.

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P&O's Ventura cruise ship undergoes crack repair work

Repairs to a cruise ship are being made in Southampton after a crack appeared in its top deck while it was at sea.

Passengers described the crack on board P&O's Ventura cruise ship as three inches (60mm) wide, stretching the entire width of the aluminium deck. The company said an inspector from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency is on board and the crack raised no structural strength or safety concerns. The ship is expected to resume sailing later on a short cruise to Belgium.

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Reading road names shortlist includes local celebrities

A shortlist of new road names for Reading has been approved.

Among those who could have new streets named after them are late Reading FC goalkeeper Steve Death and club chairman Sir John Madejski. BBC Radio Berkshire presenters Andrew Peach and Phil Kennedy are also included on a list approved by the borough council. Planning committee chairman Pete Ruhemann said the names will "reflect the history and culture of the town". Reading Borough Council received 49 suggestions and recommended 27 which were approved at a Planning Application Committee meeting on Wednesday. Other names on the approved list include:

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Bedouin oppose Israeli plans to relocate communities

Bedouin in the occupied West Bank and in Israel's Negev desert say they fear for their future as new reports circulate that the Israeli authorities plan to relocate them. International aid and Bedouin groups say tens of thousands of people could ultimately be affected.

By Yolande KnellBBC News, Jerusalem Bedouin to the east of Jerusalem expect attempts will soon be made to move them against their will. They live in an area that is controlled by Israel's Civil Administration, part of the Defence Ministry that governs the West Bank. "Nobody can stop them. This is their project and they will implement it no matter what," says Ghadara Jahalin, who squats on a rug surrounded by her grandchildren in a camp made up of tents and metal shacks. "They will push us to somewhere where we won't be able to survive". The small community already endures harsh conditions in the desert. They have no running water or access to the electrical grid. On the other side of the busy road leading to Jericho, Israel's largest settlement, Maale Adumim, fills the horizon. "You can see now we are trapped between the settlements, their power cables and the road," Ghadara says. "We used to have wells, now we can't reach them. We can't plant anything so there is no pasture for the goats and sheep." The family moved here after they were forced away from Tel Arad in the northern Negev, more than 60 years ago, soon after the creation of Israel. Now there are plans to relocate them to allow for expansion of the nearby settlement bloc. The Israeli authorities say this will also give them better access to resources and services. Recently the Civil Administration declared its intention to move some 20 Bedouin communities, a total of about 2,300 people, most of them refugees. Reports said the Bedouin would be taken to a new permanent location by al-Azariya, close to a rubbish dump. Dozens of members of the Jahalin tribe were relocated there in the 1990s due to early construction at Maale Adumim but complain of lack of access to grazing land and health problems. The local UN agency, OCHA, says such a move would contravene international humanitarian law and "further endanger the Bedouin's way of life". However the Civil Administration spokesman suggested the plans were not final. He said work had gone on for months "to find a solution for the relocation dilemma of the Jahalin tribe who are illegally located without the required permit". "Talks are being conducted with the heads of the Jahalin tribe to find a solution that would suit them," he added. Demolitions and harassment The Israeli authorities ban most new construction by Bedouin in the West Bank zone they control. Since the beginning of this year there have been increased demolitions of homes. UN data shows more than a hundred Bedouin structures have been demolished. Settler harassment is also a growing problem. In Khan al-Ahmar, many homes are under demolition order, as is the primary school, set up with the help of an Italian charity two years ago. It was built out of rubber tyres covered in mud and concrete. Dozens of children attend classes there. "All basic international laws support education. Today you must have it. It's as important as water and oxygen," says Eid Jahalin, the father of two pupils. "The status of the school is like an intensive care patient: we don't know if it will make it or not," he goes on. "We are facing many lawsuits." It is estimated that about 27,000 Bedouin living in the West Bank. They mostly live in areas that Israel declared as state land or on private land leased from Palestinians. Some have deeds showing they bought territory when Jordan was in control of the area between 1948 and 1967. Many of the nomadic communities settled there after leaving their ancestral land in the Negev desert. The Bedouin that remained became Israeli citizens but still have a tense relationship with the state. 'Unrecognised' villages In September, the Israeli cabinet approved a plan that would see over 30,000 Bedouins moved from Negev villages which it views as "unrecognised", to land adjacent to existing urban centres. These are villages that often predate the State of Israel, are not officially recognised and therefore denied state support or services. "A decision must be made for the country and for the development of the Negev and its residents, Jews and Bedouin alike," said the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Legislation is soon expected to go before parliament after a three-month consultation period. Arab advocacy groups argue this reverses the usual planning process and that Negev Bedouin will never agree to relocate two-thirds of their population in "cramped towns" where they cannot pursue their traditional agricultural lifestyles. They say they seek rights to land that amounts to just 2% of the Negev. "We think the Prawer plan [named after Ehud Prawer, an Israeli official who led a team to resolve the issue of unrecognised villages] is bad for the Bedouin and Jews because it will upset Arab-Jewish relations," says Thabet Abu Ras of Adalah, the legal centre for Arab minority rights in Israel. He sees it is an act of discrimination against the Arab-Israeli community who he says are looked at as "a demographic and security threat". "They think they can push Arabs from the border, reduce the population and make room to establish more Jewish communities," he says. "Jewish citizens who live in the Naqab [Negev] are free to live in cities, a kibbutz, even their own farm. Why is this not the right of all citizens?" Large protests have already taken place and more are planned.

uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-13361551

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Windscreen smashed after brick thrown from A64 bridge

Police have said a driver and passenger could have been seriously hurt after a brick was thrown from a bridge, smashing the windscreen of a lorry.

The brick, thrown from a bridge on the A64 in Tadcaster, hit a passing Leyland HGV at about 0710 BST on Wednesday. The windscreen was shattered but the driver and passenger escaped unharmed. Sgt Neil Dunn said: "This was a dangerous incident which could have been much more serious for the driver and his passenger." Mr Dunn, of Selby Rural Safer Neighbourhood Team, said: "Fortunately they were uninjured but incidents like this can potentially lead to serious or fatal injuries. "Whoever is responsible for this mindless act needs to realise what the consequences could have been. " Witnesses or anyone with information are being asked to contact North Yorkshire Police.

uk-scotland-highlands-islands-27679838

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-27679838

Jelly tot: Young dolphin flips jellyfish in Moray Firth

Highlands-based photographer Peter Jolly has captured images of a juvenile bottlenose dolphin playing with a jellyfish in the Moray Firth.

The photographs show the youngster flicking the creature into the air with its nose. The Moray Firth and North Sea provides habitat for the world's most northerly resident population of bottlenose dolphins. Research published in 2012 suggested the population was "stable" with almost 200 animals. The species is protected by European Union rules.

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Newspaper headlines: Labour turmoil, post-Brexit politics and Wimbledon siblings

The Daily Mail describes it as a "chaotic day in which the Labour Party went into meltdown" . The resignations of a series of shadow cabinet members following the UK vote to leave the EU come under scrutiny in Monday's press.

By Alex KleidermanBBC News Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, says the Times, is facing a "leadership ultimatum". With Brexit raising the prospect of a snap general election this year, figures from across the party told him they were resigning because he was not capable of securing victory, it reports. According to the Daily Mirror, former minister John Spellar is being tipped as a stalking horse candidate after rebel MPs collected the 51 names needed to trigger a coup attempt over Mr Corbyn's failure to inspire enough Labour voters to back Remain. The Guardian says the resignations will pitch politicians against the members who elected Mr Corbyn by an overwhelming majority "in a battle for the heart of the Labour Party". Mr Corbyn was left reeling but has already vowed to fight for the leadership and, adds the paper, will try to confront the crisis as he enters emergency talks with his deputy Tom Watson. Mr Corbyn's parliamentary authority was leeching away, writes Nigel Morris in the i, and suggests the events amounted to "the gravest test of his leadership to date". Battle for Number 10 The lead story in the Daily Mail focuses on what it sees as a campaign by the "bitter losers" in the EU referendum to force a second vote. "A string of senior figures in Britain and Europe yesterday attempted to undermine the democratic will of the British people by sabotaging Brexit," it says. Meanwhile, the Daily Express reports David Cameron has come under pressure to speed up his departure from Downing Street as concerns grew that a "stitch-up" is being plotted to scupper Britain's exit. Turning to the Tory leadership contest, the Daily Telegraph says George Osborne has been offered the opportunity to stay chancellor or become foreign secretary in a bid to secure his support for Boris Johnson. The Sun reports it comes after Justice Secretary Michael Gove gave his backing to fellow Leave campaigner Mr Johnson and the duo attempt to persuade other hopefuls to give the former London mayor a "free run to unite the Tories". But the Daily Mail says Theresa May will enter the race this week "triggering a fierce battle for the premiership" with the claim she can secure the best post-Brexit deal. Mr Johnson uses his regular column in the Daily Telegraph to say the "negative consequences" of an EU exit are being "wildly overdone" by those who seek to overturn the referendum result. According to the Financial Times, Britain is facing the "stark reality of crumbling influence on the world stage" after turmoil triggered by the vote to exit the EU plunged the country into domestic political instability. What the commentators say... The leader writers on... post-Brexit politics Eye-catching headlines Siblings on court As Wimbledon swings into action, the Financial Times says organisers are jostling with the world's three other Grand Slam tennis tournaments for supremacy. It reports on a multi-million-pound modernisation plan to create a "21st century venue that... maintains the spirit of the tennis in an English garden". The Daily Mirror carries news of a reunion at the All England Club for the ball boys supplied by children's charity Barnado's between 1946 and 1966. As for this year's tournament, the Times says "family business is thriving in SW19" with three sets of siblings from Britain due to compete. Like Andy and Jamie Murray, the families of Liam and Naomi Broady and Ken and Neal Skupski decided to reject the Lawn Tennis Association's help in training, it notes. And there is also news of a player who will not be participating. The Daily Telegraph is among several papers to feature a photograph Russian player Maria Sharapova has tweeted of herself sitting outside Harvard Business School. The 29-year-old - currently fighting two-year ban for a doping offence - is said to have just enlisted on a course there. Making people click Guardian: Firms plan to quit UK as City braces for more post-Brexit losses Daily Telegraph: Second referendum petition: Inquiry removes at least 77,000 fake signatures, as hackers claim responsibility for 'prank' Daily Express: Britain's oldest paperboy still delivering at 85 The i: England critics out of step not Roy Hodgson

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Talia Dean: 'My back pain was misdiagnosed for 15 years - now I can't dance'

When singer-songwriter Talia Dean was 18 years old, she started experiencing the symptoms of a condition called axial spondyloarthritis - or axial SpA. But the condition has a tendency to be overlooked in women and it took more than 15 years for her to get a diagnosis. By this time, irreversible damage had been done to her spine.

By Lucy WallisBBC News There is a moment of silence before the sound of drumsticks clicking together four times and the guitar begins its intro. Talia Dean stands smiling in front of an ivy-draped microphone in a purple dress and leather jacket and launches into Get Up - a pop-rock track produced by Queen guitarist Brian May, which took her band, Kings Daughters, to number 12 in the charts last year. Since her appearance on X Factor in 2017, where judges described her voice as "beautiful" and "amazing", Talia has been ever more in the public eye, but she has been hiding something. "I just wanted to keep up this facade of nobody knowing, but I don't think I can do it much longer," she says. "I should own it now." Talia, 35, from west London, has axial spondyloarthritis (axial SpA), a form of inflammatory arthritis that affects the spine and other joints and ligaments in the pelvis. Back pain and stiffness, fatigue, weight loss and night sweats are among the symptoms. In five years, it's predicted, Talia won't be able to walk unaided. But if she had received appropriate treatment earlier, she says, she'd be dancing for years to come. It all started with a pain in her hip.. Talia was 18 and studying music, acting and dancing at West Thames College, where Freddie Mercury had studied 40 years before her (when it was Isleworth Polytechnic). "I just put it down to growing pains or something. I didn't really know what it was, but it was relentless and I really walked funny with it. "We would always sit on the floor and do stretches and it was just painful. I couldn't really stretch my legs out and I just thought, 'What have I done?' "It went on for weeks, to the point where I ended up going to A and E and just saying, 'I can't walk, it really hurts.' So at 18 years old, I'm on crutches and no-one can really find why." The pain became so unbearable she had to leave the course. A couple of years later, it went away and for a while she was fine. Then it returned, when she was 22 or 23, as a pain in her lower back. Although she was still singing, she had also started to train and work as a hairdresser and wondered whether the problem stemmed from being on her feet all day. "You just make all these excuses, you know the whole world has a back ache, so I didn't really think anything of it." To begin with she just took painkillers, but it soon became clear she would need medical help. Over the next six years she had four MRIs and numerous X-rays. She saw rheumatologists and urologists, as well as osteopaths and acupuncturists. And all the time, her symptoms were getting worse. It got to the point that she couldn't turn over in bed, and getting up in the morning would push her to tears. Axial SpA symptoms "It was like someone had stabbed me. It was horrible and it never really went away. I just always had a backache and I always felt tired." At 29, 11 years after her first symptoms, she had a "complete breakdown", she says. "I thought, 'There's something wrong with me, I'm dying and they can't find it,'" she says. She developed a fear of doctors and blood tests, and decided she would prefer not to know what was wrong with her. When she became pregnant her symptoms abated, but they returned again after the birth. This time the pain was in the middle of her back. "I was looking in the mirror and I thought, 'I don't look right,'" Talia says. "I noticed that I was kind of wonky, and being a dancer and being on stage, I always had a great posture." Talia says she even struggled to lift her son out of the cot. "I felt like an 80-year-old woman, and I looked like an 80-year-old woman," she says. "I looked frail. I was holding myself like an old lady, so I was tilting forward." She noticed that she couldn't wiggle her hips or twerk. She describes it as feeling like "someone had glued a rod to me". But then something happened that persuaded Talia to have one further MRI scan. "I was lifting my son out of the bath and my back gave way and I dropped him in the bath. I fell forward and smashed all my face on the taps," she says. "It was horrible. I had black eyes. I was really injured. That was when they said to me, 'We really need to look at your spine, you shouldn't be struggling to carry a baby out of a bath.'" It was on her 34th birthday last year that the results came through - showing that vertebrae in her spine had fused together. Axial SpA is a form of arthritis, but unlike the more common osteoarthritis, which generally affects people in middle age or older, it often strikes early - 24 years is the average age of onset. "Axial SpA is not the kind of wear and tear that you get in osteoarthritis," says Dr Dale Webb, CEO of the charity the National Axial Spondyloarthritis Society (NASS). "Nor is it the mechanical back pain if you lift an object incorrectly or you do some sports. This is about inflammation caused by a particular inflammatory response in the immune system. "What happens is your symptoms will come on very slowly - over months - and it could be pain in the lower back or in the joints at the base of the pelvis." Dr Lesley Kay, a consultant rheumatologist at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, says this pain often wakes people in the second half of the night, and they may be very stiff when they wake up in the morning. "It tends to be better as they move around during the day, and worse again in the evening," she says. Another result is that someone with the condition "may feel generally unwell or disproportionately fatigued". When inflammation subsides, new bone can develop as part of the body's healing process, and vertebrae can fuse together - a process called ankylosis - leading to loss of mobility. "Axial SpA" is an umbrella term, covering ankylosing spondylitis - Talia's condition, where changes to the spine or bones of the pelvis can be picked up in an X-ray - and cases where inflammation can only be detected by MRI. Someone may also have the symptoms without any visible inflammation. "My ankylosis is so severe even the doctors said they hadn't seen a case like mine in a really long time and I would be lucky if I didn't need full assistance by the time I'm 40 in my mobility," says Talia. "It was so preventable, it is so preventable, and it took over 15 years." Talia thinks one reason her condition wasn't detected sooner is that it is often thought of as a male disease. "This in part goes back to the days when we used to diagnose only with an X-ray," says Dr Webb of NASS. "For reasons that aren't completely understood at the moment, if you look at the percentage of people who've got ankylosing spondylitis - they've got the bony formation and the joint damage - two-thirds are men and one-third is women." As a result, many GPs would say, "It's a man's disease, women don't get it," Dr Webb says. "Now actually when you look at the MRI scans - the people who haven't got the bony formation - there, two-thirds are women and one-third is men. In other words, women get the same inflammation, the same disease, but don't often go on to get the same structural damage in their joints that men do." According to Dr Webb, it takes on average 6.5 years for men to receive a diagnosis and 8.8 years for women. A recent study suggests that although X-rays generally show less structural damage to women's joints than men's, the "disease burden" of axial SpA can be more serious for women. "These are often the things that it is very difficult to measure, such as fatigue and pain which can contribute very significantly to disability and disease impact, and also contributes to the stigma of invisible disability," says Dr Kay. Women are also more likely to have "atypical symptoms", she adds, including pain in the middle of the back - as Talia did after her pregnancy - rather than the lower spine and pelvis. "This means that a non-specialist may not join the dots so easily to think of the diagnosis and organise the right tests." Talia would like to raise awareness of the fact women also get the condition. "Had they have known what they were looking for, or even given me a chance to think, 'Actually women can get this, so it is possible,' that would have saved my life as a dancer," she says. "I walk around and people think I'm drunk. I'm not drunk, I just can't walk, it's just so painful." She would like anyone who has recurring back problems to be tested for the condition. "This is what gets me," she says. "I could forgive everybody that missed my diagnosis. I could forgive them if it was a rare condition that's hard to find, but it isn't and I'm really, really angry about it because the more I research it, the more I think, 'Wow, every time it was staring you in the face.'" Axial SpA facts and treatment One thing that is crucial with axial SpA is exercise to improve and maintain flexibility, posture and strength. Talia says her condition was made worse because she wasn't given the right advice. "You know what they say, the doctors, 'Rest, rest, rest. Here's some painkillers, lie in bed until the pain goes away.' I should have been up, moving, stretching, yoga," she says. Dr Kay says "the right kind and amount" of exercise, guided by a physiotherapist is the "core treatment" for axial SpA. "It's hard for patients to appreciate this at first," she says. "It seems counterintuitive that someone with pain, feeling tired and unwell should exercise more and that it will help. "I have seen in a lot of patients' eyes when I introduce this that they question whether I really appreciate how bad they feel. However, when people have really taken this on, they come back to clinic and describe a great deal of improvement, particularly in stiffness and in sleep quality." Talia says she had become used to hiding her condition, before the pandemic put a halt to live performance. "We always work out what's a good angle, whether it's photos or a music video or an interview. You'll find I'm always the one sitting in the middle, because I have to be supported on both sides. There's certain tricks that we've learnt with me," she says. She started to wear a jacket to cover her shoulders and neck, and sometimes she changed her set by putting a ballad in the middle, so that she could sit down. "I don't wear those massive heels that I used to wear - little changes just help so much." The impossibility of performing during the pandemic, has led her to begin work on a new podcast, in which she will speak to unconventional social media influencers. She has also started her own online music academy, where people can learn to sing or play an instrument. This is a new source of joy. "I can teach this from home sitting down, and was nominated for a best new business award," she says. And thanks to the fact that she has now been properly diagnosed, Talia is due this year to start biologic therapy, which blocks aspects of the immune system in order to slow down its attack on the spine. She is determined to get back on stage when the pandemic is over, but she will no longer be hiding her condition. Watch Talia Dean talk to two other women with axial SpA about their diagnosis. Further help and advice: NHS: Ankylosing Spondylitis National Axial Spondyloarthritis Society NICE: Spondyloarthritis in over 16s - diagnosis and management The Lancet: Axial spondyloarthritis You may also be interested in: Diagnosed with terminal breast cancer in her early 20s, Kris Hallenga is determined the disease is not seen as something that affects only older women. Through her charity, CoppaFeel!, she is fighting to raise awareness of breast cancer in young people. 'I've got a lot of living to do'

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Quetta hospital bombing: 'There were heaps of men lying over each other'

The scene of the attack in a Quetta hospital that killed more than 70 people and injured more than 100 on Monday will haunt its witnesses for a long time, says Shah Mohammad, a local lawyer and office-bearer of the Balochistan Bar Association.

By M Ilyas KhanBBC News, Islamabad He was asked over the telephone by a colleague to reach the Civil Hospital because the president of the Bar, Bilal Kasi, had been shot. As he reached the hospital, Kasi had died, and there were "hundreds" of lawyers crowding the gates of the emergency ward. "The blast happened when the body was being carried out through the gate. I fell down with the impact, then got up and took to running," he says. But soon after, he stopped and looked back - and saw the scene he says he will never forget. "All around the emergency gate, there were heaps of men lying over each other; some dead, some injured. There seemed to be hundreds of them. Some of the bodies were burning, some were torn to pieces. Many of them had been my lifelong colleagues." Pakistan lawyers mourn Quetta attack The lawyers who survived were able to regroup, but they didn't know how to handle that scene. "The hospital staff had disappeared. We didn't know where to start. Our minds had gone numb. Many of the victims simply bled to death because there was no first-aid available." While this may be the most tragic attack seemingly targeting lawyers, it is certainly not the first. Since 2007, at least 11 lawyers and three judges have been killed in militant violence in Quetta. Some were killed in sectarian attacks, others died in suicide bombings, while some were kidnapped and tortured to death, with their bodies dumped on the streets. Balochistan province, of which Quetta is the capital, has been torn by a decade-old separatist insurgency carried on by secular-nationalist ethnic Baloch groups. But it has also been home to an array of Islamist militants, ranging from the Afghan Taliban to their Pakistani religious and sectarian allies such as factions of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ). For several years, the Pakistani military has been conducting an operation against the separatists, and has often been accused of using Islamists to counter them - a charge it denies. But after an apparent lull in recent months, a new wave of hostilities has been in evidence, and lawyers have been its apparent target. In June, militants gunned down the principle of Quetta University's law college, Barrister Amanullah Achakzai, while another lawyer, Jehanzeb Alvi, was gunned down in early August. The gun attack that killed Bilal Kasi on Monday and led to the carnage at the hospital was the third attack on lawyers this year. But why have lawyers become targets? "This is because lawyers are a more visible and vocal section of the society," says Amanullah Kanrani, a veteran lawyer and former advocate-general for Balochistan government, who was also at the scene of the attack. They are politically active, and, when one of their number is attacked, they will not hesitate to make themselves heard - through protests and strikes demanding better protection of lawyers, he says. "This may be what the attackers want," he adds, as many anti-government militants wish to undermine the authorities and make them appear powerless. Mr Kanrani received splinters in his arm and leg which were easily cleared by the hospital staff and he was discharged after receiving treatment. "Despite their nuisance value, lawyers… are just like any other non-official section of the society," with little influence and inadequate protection, Mr Kanrani says. Lawyers, like other civilians, are "a hostage to a situation that has been evolving between the militants and the state since 9/11." Asked how safe and professionally independent the lawyers feel in such circumstances, Mr Kanrani sounds rather pessimistic. "We must get realistic about it. It's not going to get any better. Every arm of the state has its own set of priorities. One arm moves to eliminate the militants, the other moves to supply them with weapons. How can you expect safety and independence in a situation like that?"

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Grenades and guns drugs gang targeted in Liverpool and Manchester raids

A gang of drug dealers believed to be using guns and grenades have been targeted in dawn raids by police.

Twelve people, aged between 22 and 54, were arrested as warrants were executed in Manchester, Oldham and Liverpool. A police spokesman said nine men and three women were held on suspicion of conspiracy to supply controlled drugs, money laundering and firearms offences. Greater Manchester Police Insp Anthony Norman said anyone with information about the gang should contact police. The raids were carried out at properties on Falside Walk and Pirie Walk in Newton Heath, Warwick Road and Medlock Road in Failsworth, Parkview Road and Camelford Road in Gillmos,s and Parkhill Road in Dingle. Related Internet Links Greater Manchester Police

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AV voting referendum: Sayeeda Warsi's viewpoint

A referendum will be held on 5 May on whether to keep the first-past-the-post system for electing MPs or to switch to the alternative vote. The BBC is asking a variety of people to give their personal view.

This referendum is much more than a choice between two counting systems. This is about a fundamental British principle - the principle of one person, one vote. Generations of British reformers have been inspired by that principle. They believed that because each person is equal, everyone should have an equal vote. It took many years for that principle to become part of our politics. But today it stands as the cornerstone of our democracy. Look around the world and we see the legacy: 2.4 billion people use our voting system. It's the most widely used voting system in the world. So what on earth will all these people think if they turn to the mother of democracies after 5 May and find we've turned our back on all this history and brought in a voting system which no one understands? My point is that AV could be disastrous for our democracy - for three crucial reasons. Confusing and perverse First, AV is unfair. With first-past-the-post, everybody gets one vote. But under AV, supporters of extreme parties like the BNP have more of their votes counted than those who back mainstream parties. As I argued in a speech in London's East End recently, this represents a serious danger, as candidates could end up pandering to extremists in order to win seats. Second, AV is confusing and perverse - because the candidate who comes third can end up coming first. Just imagine if we applied this rule to the Olympics. The British Coxless Four finishes first in the rowing - but they're awarded the bronze medal. It's a crazy idea. Third, AV is a totally discredited and unpopular system used by only three countries in the world. Even the "Yes" campaigners don't actually want AV. Not so long ago, they were saying AV would do nothing to rebuild trust in politics. They called it a "miserable little compromise" and a "politicians' fix". They were right. The simple fact is AV is wrong for our country. It's wrong that candidates who come third can win elections. It's wrong that your neighbour's fifth choice can count as much as your first. And it's absolutely wrong that elections can be decided by the eccentrics who vote for the Monster Raving Looney Party or the extremists who vote for the BNP. That's why we need to pull together and fight for our democracy - and say no to AV.

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New alcohol guidelines: What you need to know

Men and women should drink no more than 14 units of alcohol a week - the equivalent of six pints of average strength beer or seven glasses of wine - in order to keep their health risks low, new guidelines have recommended.

The new Department of Health limits - which come into effect on Friday - replace the previous ones on drinking, which were set out 21 years ago. Here is a breakdown of what you need to know: Why now? The government previously said it had heard "sufficient concerns" from experts about what was known about alcohol and its health risks. The previous guidelines came out in 1995 and the links between alcohol and cancer and heart disease were not as well understood then as they are now. It is now known that the risks from alcohol start from any level of regular drinking and rise with the amount being consumed. The new guidelines have been set at a level to keep the risk of mortality from cancers or other diseases "low". Work on the new guidelines has been under way since 2013. So what's changed? The new changes affect men more than women. Previously, women were advised to drink no more than 2-3 units a day and men no more than 3-4. This technically meant men could consume around 28 units a week, although the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) recommended no more than 21 units should be drunk over seven days. The old guidance said that by sticking within recommended limits, there was "only a low risk of causing harm in most circumstances". However, the new rules now state that both men and women should drink no more than 14 units over the course of three days or more. This is the equivalent of a bottle and a half of wine over the course of a week. The rules also say that it's best not to "save up units" and drink them all in one go and to make sure you have alcohol-free days. I thought a small amount of alcohol was good for you? The new recommendations appear to be moving away from this long-held belief. The review found that the benefits of alcohol for heart health only apply for women aged 55 and over - and even then it's in very small amounts, around five units a week. The guidelines say: "There is no justification for recommending drinking on health grounds - nor for starting drinking for health reasons." It also says that evidence in support for drinking alcohol in small amounts to maintain good health was "weaker than it was at the time of 1995". What about drinking while pregnant? It's an issue which has caused great debate. But the new guidelines for pregnant women have now been updated in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to be clear that no level of alcohol is safe to drink in pregnancy. Previously it was recommended that for women who had opted to drink, consuming no more than one or two units of alcohol - equivalent to one or two small glasses of wine - would "minimise the risk to your baby". The new guidance says that for women who do drink that amount the risk to their baby is likely to be low, but "nevertheless, we cannot rule out the risks altogether". Is there a safe drinking level? No. The new recommendations are at pains to point out that these guidelines are not for "safe" drinking, but rather just at minimising risk of illness. All alcohol consumption carries some risk, the guidance says. "The vast majority of the population can reduce health risks further if they reduce drinking below the guideline levels, or do not drink at all," the guidance says. Drinking above the new recommended 14 units a week is the point at which a person's risk of an early death increases by 1% - the equivalent amount of risk as driving a car. What happens elsewhere? The guidelines mean the UK has become one of the more stringent countries in Europe when it comes to recommended limits on alcohol intake. The table below shows guidelines for 12 other European countries - for which the Department of Health had data. The figures show alcohol units per week. What's the reaction? Prof Matt Field, who is a lecturer in addiction at the University of Liverpool, said one of the most important changes with the recommendations is that there is no "safe" level of alcohol consumption. "Any amount of drinking is associated with increased risk of a number of diseases; the often-reported protective effects will not apply to the majority of people and where they do apply, they refer to very low levels of drinking. So, any amount of alcohol consumption carries some risk," he said. "It is also important to emphasise why this advice is being issued. This is not about telling people what to do. Instead, people have a right to accurate information about alcohol and its health risks so that they can make informed decisions about their drinking behaviour." Booze calculator: Which nationality are you? Dr Niamh Fitzgerald, who is a lecturer in alcohol studies at the University of Stirling, said: "The purpose of these new guidelines is to provide the public with the latest accurate information on how they can reduce health risks from alcohol, if they choose to drink. "Most people are aware of the links between smoking and cancer, but far fewer are aware of evidence linking alcohol consumption with an increased risk of future health problems, in particular cancers of the mouth, intestines and breast cancer in women." Chief Medical Officer for England, Dame Sally Davies, said: "I want pregnant women to be very clear that they should avoid alcohol as a precaution. Although the risk of harm to the baby is low if they have drunk small amounts of alcohol before becoming aware of the pregnancy, there is no 'safe' level of alcohol to drink when you are pregnant."

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Murray Hall: The New York politician who broke 19th Century gender rules

He was a hard-drinking, twice-married businessman and politician in 19th Century New York - but Murray Hall had a secret which was only revealed after his death. Now his story is being retold in Glasgow as part of an attempt to "write LGBTQI+ people back into history".

By Gillian SharpeBBC Scotland Murray Hall had a reputation for hard living - drinking, smoking, playing poker and even brawling with a policeman. He also had an active political career and a business as a bail bondsman. So far, so ordinary for a man at the time. But one aspect of his life remained a secret until he died from cancer in 1901. That was when it first emerged that Hall had been assigned female at birth. It was later reported that he had been born in Govan as Mary Anderson. According to a source quoted by the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, he began dressing as a male in his teens, then fled to America when his first wife disclosed his gender to the police. It was there that he took the name Murray H Hall, before marrying for a second time and beginning his business and political career. Writer and archivist Mel Reeve said there had been a "huge backlash" in the media after his death. "People were very angry and felt like they'd been betrayed, but obviously he was just living his life how he wanted to - which was as a man," she said. Newspapers reported breathlessly on the events in articles which reflected some of the attitudes of the times. The New York Times, for instance, accused him of "masquerading" in male attire. It said Hall had a reputation as "a 'man about town', a bon vivant, and all-around 'good fellow'." One senator described how Hall used to "hobnob with the big guns of the County Democracy" and said that he "cut quite some figure as a politician". He added: "He dressed like a man and talked like a very sensible one." 'They felt someone was transgressing' Another political colleague told the New York Times: "He'd line up to the bar and take his whisky like any veteran, and didn't make faces over it, either. If he was a woman he ought to have been born a man, for he lived and looked like one." The paper said Hall "exercised considerable political influence with Tammany Hall" - a political organization which played a major role in controlling politics in New York City and New York State. For some others, it was the knowledge that Hall had voted which rankled most at a time when women had not yet secured the right to vote in the US. "I think they felt that someone was transgressing," added Ms Reeve. "They were doing something that allowed them to exist in a space that they wouldn't otherwise have had access to and I think that's something we still see happen in the way that marginalised people are treated." The New York Times said Hall had suffered from breast cancer for several years, and speculated that he had not sought medical advice due to fears of his secret becoming known. He had, however, amassed a collection of medical books which he used to treat himself. When Hall did consult a doctor, he only had a few days left to live. His wife had died some years previously, leaving an adopted daughter as his sole heir. Murray Hall's story features in the new Stride with Pride heritage trail which is being launched this weekend by Glasgow Women's Library. The library's Sue John says it is important to have a wider view in order to fully understand history and society. "Otherwise we get a partial knowledge of history and it's almost like the default of our partial knowledge of history is it's about white men," she says. The site of Hall's last New York residence, an apartment on 6th Avenue in Greenwich Village, is highlighted by the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project. "If you're a trans kid or a gender non-conforming kid today and you look back at that history and see that Murray Hall was a person living their life without the support of anyone, that's inspiring," says the project's Ken Lustbader. "Those intangible nuggets or history and information give you a sense of connection to the past and a sense of pride and removing isolation." Mr Lustbader, who lives near Murray Hall's former apartment, went to visit his unmarked grave at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Queens, New York, earlier this year. According to the New York Times, Murray Hall was buried there in woman's clothing. "When I was at the grave I had this little moment kind of envisioning him being buried there in women's clothing, much to his horror," said Mr Lustbader. "I just felt I was sending a message to Murray Hall saying don't worry, people know your story and you are not being mocked any longer. "You're being recognised for the contribution you've made and to your own personal struggle and what you've succeeded in doing - living as a man, as you so choose." All images subject to copyright.

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Talks to resolve Southern conductors row to continue

Southern rail and the RMT union are to continue negotiations next week in a bid to resolve a year-long dispute over driver-only operated trains.

The two sides adjourned talks after two days of discussions on 24 and 25 April. The row is over Southern's plans to give drivers responsibility for door operation and changing the role of guards to on-board supervisors. The RMT has taken 31 days of strike action over the proposed changes. A spokesman for Southern said: "I can confirm we will be meeting with the RMT next week but, at this stage, can't confirm the date." In a separate dispute, members of drivers' union Aslef rejected initial proposals to resolve the row in February and this month voted against another proposed deal.

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Australia fires: The public ire falling on Australia's 'absent' PM

"I don't really want to shake your hand." "You won't be getting any votes down here buddy... you're out." "What about the people who are dead now, Mr Prime Minister? What about the people who have nowhere to live?"

By Jay SavageBBC News, Sydney As Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison toured a bushfire-ravaged town on Thursday, he was loudly heckled by locals. The anger towards him in Cobargo, New South Wales, was palpable. But most awkward - and attention-grabbing - were two quieter encounters. In one, Mr Morrison approached a woman and asked "how are you?" When she failed to meet his hand, he reached down and lifted hers for a limp handshake. She responded: "I'm only shaking your hand if you give more money to RFS [Rural Fire Service]. So many people have lost their homes." "I understand," he replied. As he walked away, she added: "We need more help." After a firefighter separately refused to shake his hand, Mr Morrison said to his aides: "Tell that fella I'm really sorry, I'm sure he's just tired." A local official responded: "No, no, he lost a house." The exchanges, all filmed and widely shared, have again focused public ire on Mr Morrison over his handling of an unprecedented bushfire crisis. The prime minister has faced persistent accusations of being too absent, including by taking a holiday to Hawaii, and underplaying the role of climate change. Fires as big as small countries Since September, blazes across Australia have killed 20 people, razed more than 1,200 homes and scorched millions of hectares. Though much attention has centred on worst-hit NSW, every state and territory has been affected. Smoke has shrouded towns and cities in Australia's most populated south-east, bringing hazardous air quality to millions of people. Millions of animals are estimated to have perished, and the economic cost is predicted to be enormous. Public gratitude has been boundless for the fatigued firefighters - overwhelmingly volunteers - who have battled blazes as big as small countries. Three have died on duty. Fire service chiefs, such as Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons in NSW, have often been the face of the crisis. To critics of Mr Morrison, those chiefs have provided a stark contrast in leadership. On Friday, a high-profile member of Mr Morrison's own party made a withering critique. "The only two people who are providing leadership at this stage are Shane Fitzsimmons and [NSW Premier] Gladys Berejiklian," Andrew Constance, the state transport minister, told Seven News. Of the heckling, Mr Constance added: "To be honest, the locals probably gave him the welcome he probably deserved." What has prompted the anger? Early in the crisis, criticism centred on Mr Morrison's reluctance to discuss how climate change is exacerbating bushfires - a link acknowledged by Australia's Bureau of Meteorology. Though he has since acknowledged it as a factor, the conservative leader maintains there is no direct link between the fires and his climate policies. This has continued to cause controversy because of Australia's reliance on coal mining. But as the fires have spread, Mr Morrison has been accused of "going missing" in other ways. Most prominently, he took a holiday to Hawaii last month as many blazes intensified - prompting him to later apologise for causing "great anxiety" with his timing. A New Year's Day cricket event, where he said Australians would soon be gathering round TV sets to be "inspired by the great feats of our cricketers", was accused of being "tone deaf". Many have called on the government to better fund Australia's largely unpaid firefighting services, pointing to an extraordinary strain on resources, and arguing that smaller communities are being disadvantaged. A group of ex-fire chiefs has argued a new long-term firefighting strategy is needed, but they have criticised Mr Morrison for refusing to meet them. Mr Morrison found himself in even more hot water on Saturday when he tweeted a video, authorised by his Liberal Party, trumpeting the government's latest measures to tackle the fires. To a backdrop of upbeat music, the video highlights the 3,000 defence force reservists called in, as well as extra water-bombing aircraft and other resources to bolster the operation. The Liberal Party also tweeted the extra measures in an advert saying "our Defence Force is providing boots on the ground, planes in the sky and ships at sea, to support the bushfire fighting effort and recovery". Mr Morrison's critics accused his government of using the bushfires - and the military - for political campaigning. The Australia Defence Association lobby group said the Liberal Party advert was a "clear breach" of conventions aimed at keeping the military out of politics. The association accused the party of "milking ADF support to civil agencies fighting bushfires". Pat Conroy, shadow minister for international development, said Mr Morrison was trying to "exploit a national tragedy". He described the advert as a "new low". What does Morrison say? After initially saying the firefighters "want to be there", the prime minister recently pledged compensation for volunteers who miss work to fight fires, and an additional A$11m (£5.8m; $7.7m) for firefighting aircraft. He has resisted calls for further funding, but frequently paid tribute to firefighters. He has emphasised a prolonged drought as a key reason for causing dry conditions which fuel fires. When asked on Friday why he had been heckled, he told 3AW radio: "Because people are hurting and angry. Whether they are angry with me or angry about the situation, all I know is they're hurting." He has maintained that Australia will meet its climate commitments - an assertion disputed by the UN and others - but that deeper action would not take precedence over "reckless" cuts to jobs in fossil fuel industries. Mr Morrison has called on Australians not to panic and to pull together. He has repeatedly said it was up to each state to arrange their emergency response - the best tactic is to let them get on with their job, he has said. His supporters say he can't be held responsible for the sort of natural disaster which has always struck Australia, nor fix it by knee-jerk policy U-turns. Mr Morrison also hit back at the criticism of his tweeted video, saying: "The video message simply communicates the government's policy decisions and the actions the government is undertaking to the public." 'You will be judged' Mr Morrison was returned last May in a surprise election victory that led many to hail him as a shrewd, instinctive politician. But for some, his bushfire response has stirred incredulity. "You are watching the destruction of a political leader and this time not by his own party but by his own hand," tweeted one veteran commentator, Barrie Cassidy, after the Cobargo footage. Another, Ten's Hugh Riminton, wrote: "I have never seen a PM so openly disdained during a national disaster." Not all have been been so critical. Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews, a Labor politician, thanked Mr Morrison for providing assistance as bushfires swept through the state this week. Liz Innes, a mayor of a shire near Cobargo, apologised to Mr Morrison for those who had heckled him, the ABC reported. The federal Labor opposition, too, has often appeared reluctant to directly criticise Mr Morrison. It has also been accused of courting pro-coal voters in the wake of its election loss. Australia was the fourth largest producer of coal in 2017, according to the International Energy Agency. It also has one of the highest per capita greenhouse gas emission rates globally. The 2020 Climate Change Performance Index ranked Australia last of 57 countries for its climate policy, saying it had gone backwards under the Morrison government. Many including John Hewson, a former leader of Mr Morrison's Liberal Party, argue that the prime minister's "hang-ups on the climate issue" are holding him back on the fire crisis. "The die is already cast on your government and, if you continue as you have been doing, time will not be your friend," Mr Hewson wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald. "Ultimately, you will be judged on authenticity and policy outcomes - on genuine leadership."

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Jersey to get 'better quality water' after pipe upgrade

Jersey residents will get better quality water following an upgrade to the St Helier's mains pipe, according to Jersey Water.

A spokesman for the company said the £110,000 scheme would allow the pipe to better cope with customer demand. A number of bursts have affected the 106-year-old Burrard Street water main in recent years, which have led to disruption to the water supply. Parts of the road will be closed for six weeks as work takes place.

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Unpicking the Scottish budget

Expert analysis of the Scottish budget has foundered on its lack of clarity and transparency It is hard, if not impossible, to tell how much is being spent on priority areas, such as tackling poverty or boosting economic growth 'Wellbeing' is a new dimension to budget planning, but it has yet to be defined or baked into the financial plans Council tax remains barely reformed and regressive, yet bills are set to rise ahead of inflation.

Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland The draft budget now being road-tested at Holyrood was a "wellbeing" budget. It was progressive and inclusive. It was for growth, and a greener Scotland. Or so we were told. The stand-in finance minister, Kate Forbes, won plaudits and new admirers for the way in which she told us. The tricksy thing about budgets, however, is that they feature numbers, which either back up the claims being made or they don't. Or, alternatively, they leave even the experts baffled. So, let's ask the question, for instance: how much is being spent to support families in poverty? We don't know The figure £1.4bn was used in the budget speech. It turns, out, when checked by poverty policy experts at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, that was a number from two years ago. There's no number for next year, which is what this budget process is all about. How much is being spent to promote economic growth, or better still, inclusive growth? At the Fraser of Allander Institute, they read the budget long into the night, and concluded that they don't know. Take the flagship enterprise policy of taking many smaller businesses out of the reach of business rates. Is it popular with small businesses? Yes. Does it work in boosting growth? We don't know. Are councils better or worse off in their funding allocation? Nope, that's not clear either. There's more money going in, but it seems all of it is attached to central government priorities. The 'discretionary' budget for councils is down. That's unless they use the leeway to raise council tax by nearly 5%. (Of which, more later.) So in the very brief period available to MSPs to scrutinise the budget, to see if it stacks up and does what Kate Forbes said it does, they'll be lucky to get at the answers they're most likely to require. This was the main thrust of the post-budget analysis by the Fraser of Allander Institute - to which it added expertise drawn from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. These are not just any boffins and bean counters. The top two figures at Allander - the Strathclyde University economic and public finance centre - were at the heart of the St Andrew's House economic team, and not long ago. Prof Graeme Roy is scathing about the work his former colleagues have produced. Find an answer It is long, long-winded and reads like a series of memos between civil servants, he observes, and it doesn't answer the questions the public, and MSPs, are most likely to ask: what difference will it make, and does it actually follow the priorities being set? An innovation with this year's budget is that it is about wellbeing. Inclusive growth is no longer the sole guiding purpose of the Scottish government. No, it's wellbeing. And what is wellbeing, you might ask? Emma Congreve, of the Rowntree think tank, asked, and she couldn't find an answer. For now, like beauty, it's in the eye of the beholder. One test of any new spending priority is whether it means some former priorities lose out. That is, it should isolate the spending that was NOT promoting wellbeing? That doesn't help us either. Wellbeing is a worthy departure for budget planning. It follows a lead set by the New Zealand government. So unfair But in the beehive-shaped parliament in Wellington, they've been busy defining the concept, setting a framework, and attaching numbers and values to outcomes. There's a lot more work to be done in Edinburgh, it seems. But at least we know that the SNP government is going to scrap "the hated council tax" because it is so unfair, and replace it with a much more equitable local income tax. And it trumpets a "historic concordat" with local authorities, giving them the freedom to spend their funds as they choose, without strings attached. No, hang on. That was 13 years ago, when it came to power. The concordat was binned long ago. More spending comes with more strings attached. And council tax goes on, with no sign of reform beyond some tinkering at the higher bands. Inside Holyrood, it is rarely questioned because none of the major parties have the stomach for reform. Outside Holyrood, it is regularly mauled by critics for being so regressive. That is, it demands a much higher share of the income of a poorer households than from that of a high earner. Since those heady days in 2007 when council tax faced the axe, it ceased to be so "hated" through the simple measure of freezing bills. Replacing it with a local income tax looked too expensive in cash and in political capital. Now, the Scottish government has income tax powers. That is more progressive than council tax. It is difficult to localise without administrative burdens. Yet instead of raising more funds through income tax (progressive), it is local authorities that are being invited to raise their council tax (regressive) bills by nearly 5%. Got that clear now? No, me neither.

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Voting age of 16 for Welsh assembly plan unveiled

Sixteen-year-olds would be allowed to vote in the next Assembly election in 2016 under a plan from Labour peers.

Baroness Eluned Morgan and Baroness Gale will ask the House of Lords to lower the voting age from 18 by amending the Wales Bill next week. Supporters claim the lower voting age increased interest in politics among young people when it was used for the Scottish referendum on independence. The bid is likely to fail unless it receives government backing. Commons leader William Hague said on Thursday there were "strongly held and opposing views" among MPs on the issue.

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Leah Heyes: Teens admit supplying drug that killed schoolgirl

Two teenagers have admitted supplying class A drug ecstasy that killed a North Yorkshire schoolgirl.

Leah Heyes, 15, died in hospital after collapsing in the Applegarth car park in Northallerton in May 2019. Mitchell Southern, 19 and Connor Kirkwood, 18, both pleaded guilty at Teesside Crown Court to supplying the class A drug. The pair are due to be sentenced on 25 August. On Tuesday Southern, of Dondeen Avenue in Thirsk pleaded guilty to charges of supplying cocaine and ecstasy on 11 May, 2019. Kirkwood, of Lynx Lane, Dishforth Airfield, admitted supplying ecstasy on the same day.

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Northstowe: second phase of new town plans approved

The second phase of plans to create Britain's biggest new town since the 1960s have been given the go-ahead.

About 3,500 homes will be added to Northstowe, near Cambridge, where work is already under way to build 1,500 new properties. Two primary schools, a secondary school and a sports hall will also be created as part of the development. Northstowe, the biggest new town since Milton Keynes, is being developed by the government and property developers. Tim Wotherspoon from South Cambridgeshire District Council said securing approval for the latest phase was a "major milestone".

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The friendship that survived the division of a nation

Seventy years ago, in August 1947, British colonial rule in India came to an end. The country was divided into two independent states - Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. Using letters and diaries sourced from the world's first Partition Museum which opens in Amritsar on 17 August, Soutik Biswas pieces together the extraordinary story of four friends who were separated by the traumatic event and reunited 30 years later.

"Our country has been broken; the great, sound pulsating heart of India has been broken," a young man in Lahore, Pakistan, wrote to his best friend in Delhi, the capital of India, in the summer of 1949. Writing in elegant cursive and turquoise blue ink, Asaf Khwaja had poured his heart out to Amar Kapur. Barely two years had passed since they had been separated by the bloody partition which split the subcontinent into the new independent nations of India and Pakistan. "We in Lahore, your friends and former playmates, those who were in school with you and in college and whose first 25 years of life, are inseparably linked with those of yours assure you with the utmost sincerity that distance has not made the slightest difference in our love and affection for you; that we remember you, and remembered you often, with the same brotherly feeling that for so long characterised our relations," wrote Asaf, who had just joined the Pakistan Times newspaper as a journalist. "We have spent good times, Amar, grand times, together." Amar Kapur, Asaf Khwaja, Agha Raza and Rishad Haider were like a brotherhood of friends. They lived within a three-mile radius, visited each other's homes, shared street snacks on the way home from convent school, studied in the same college and played soft ball cricket with twigs for stumps. From innocent boyhood to callow youth, they had shared the good times. Then, in the tumultuous summer of 1947, hard times arrived with a vengeance. Amar's separation had hurt the most. He was the only Hindu in the group, and his friends called him Punditji, which means a Hindu priest. Three weeks after the partition in August 1947, Amar and his family abandoned their sprawling family home and 57-year-old printing business in Lahore, and joined the millions of refugees that crossed the border in what was one of the greatest migrations in human history. Two years later, in Delhi, they were still trying to salvage their lives from the detritus of partition. Back in their severed homeland, Asaf, Agha and Rishad had entered adulthood and were starting to earn a living. Asaf's mordant wit was on magnificent display as he shared the news about their friends. "Agha and Rishad have entered into business - the swindlers. They are running an agency for Burmah Shell Company and minting a good bit of money. I wish you could see [Agha] Ahmad. He is (sic) grown so fat and bald that you would find it hard to recognise him - signs of prosperity!" Asaf wrote. Asaf was a pragmatic idealist. He loved cricket, poetry and the mountains and developed a love for contract bridge in his later life. He would sometimes spend his summers with his grandfather on a houseboat on Kashmir's Dal Lake or visit the unspoilt mountains of Swat. He was also hopeful about a brighter future for both nations. Partition of India in August 1947 Read more: "Much suffering has been caused and much bitterness engendered," he wrote to Amar. "But what is done cannot be undone. All we can do now is to make amends for our past mistakes and work wholeheartedly for the restoration of peace and goodwill among the divided sections of the people." But Amar was less buoyant. Riots had broken out in Lahore - a Muslim-majority city where businesses were dominated by non-Muslims - in the months before partition. Under the smoke-filled skies, Hindus and Muslims had turned on each other, burnt down properties, and looted shops and homes. His father had forbidden the children and women in the house to step outside. When his family finally left Lahore in September in a convoy of cars, led by his father's grey Opel, he hid a .38 calibre revolver in the door lining. "It was madness, complete madness," Amar Kapur, now 94, told me recently. He kept a diary after migrating to Delhi following the blood-drenched summer of 1947 via the border city of Amritsar, where the family spent three months on the veranda of a house. In Delhi, the Kapurs then lived without electricity for three years in three rooms in a disputed house. "On 3 June 1947 it was decided that India would be partitioned and Pakistan would come into being. On that day was India doomed," Amar wrote in his diary. He wrote that violence hadn't stopped since the announcement. "Religion, which should be a strictly private affair and the concern of the individual, was being used to cover up beastly acts of murder and other inhuman acts," he wrote. Asaf, in Lahore, believed none of this would affect their friendship. "We have common memories and common experiences that bind us so closely together that no adventitious circumstances can wrench us apart," he wrote in one of his letters. But separated by distance, experience and time, the four friends did get separated. For three decades, they completely lost touch. Keeping friendships alive in rival, hostile nations was difficult, not least because it was hard to get visas to visit each other's countries. They also lost each other's addresses. A simple twist of fate brought the four together again, however. In the summer of 1980, an uncle of Agha Raza visited Delhi to attend a conference. Before he left, Agha had asked him to try trace Amar and his whereabouts. He told him that his family owned a printing press business in Delhi which bore the Kapur family name. Agha had been the maverick of the quartet. He had worked for an oil company, joined the Pakistani navy as an officer and then worked for the labour department. In his thirties, he retired to the countryside to look after his family farm, some 120km (74 miles) from Lahore. His friends called him the agriculturist. Now, he was on the hunt for his long-lost friend. In Delhi his uncle, a former diplomat, looked up the telephone directory and began calling all the Amar Kapurs. He got lucky with the fourth call, and returned to Pakistan with Amar's address and phone number. Soon the friends reconnected, speaking on the phone and writing to each other. They shared notes about themselves and their families - all of them were now married with children - and work. There was lot of catching up to do. Rishad Haider had become one of Pakistan's most successful banking professionals. Agha was looking after his farm. Asaf continued to work with the Pakistan Times, and chaired Pakistan's National Press Trust until he quit after a run-in with military leader Gen Zia ul-Haq. Amar was ensconced in the family's thriving new printing business in Delhi and Agra. They spoke of their joys and sorrows: the marriages of their children, the death of relatives. When Amar lost his family home in a posh Delhi neighbourhood due to a dispute with his brother, Agha wrote to him: "I was shocked and greatly distressed to hear about the sale of your house. I felt as if my own house had been sold. How very unfortunate that it had to come to this. But who knows. It might turn out to be good for you and the rest of the family." In January 1982, Amar returned to Pakistan to attend the wedding of Agha's son, Qasim. Since getting a visa required submitting the wedding card well in advance as proof, Agha got a special card made months in advance and sent it to his friend in Delhi. Since Amar only had a visa to visit Lahore, the others came to visit him from Karachi and Islamabad, where they were working. Over the next decade the Kapurs visited Pakistan three times, once availing of an easier visa given out to Indians to watch a rare cricket Test against their arch rivals. In Lahore, family members remember night-long conversations and days-long marathon contract bridge games when Amar came visiting. "They were like blood brothers, like a family. I found it interesting that all the four men were dynamic, successful individuals. But when they met they kind of merged into each other and became completely childlike. The intensity of friendship was something," Cyma Haider, daughter of Rishad Haider, told me. Amar would often pick up the phone and invite Agha to visit him in Delhi. One day, he wrote to him, saying he hoped to visit him soon. "Your repeated invitations to visit you all are so full of love and kindness that I feel very guilty in not having been able to make it so far. But sooner or later, Inshallah, we will and I hope in the not too distant future." As winter approached in 1988, Agha promised Amar that he would see him in Delhi in the new year. But in December, he collapsed in his home and died of a heart attack, aged 67. Rishad was the next to depart, in 1993, also aged 67. Feeling rather unwell, he was admitted to hospital a few days before his death, telling his family, "I think my time has come." In June 1996, an unusually despondent Asaf wrote to Amar: "How saddening is to lose lifelong friends. It is as if a part of you dies. Both Agha Ahmed and Rishad have left a void in my life, a void that can never be filled. I have myself been keeping indifferent health for some time now, and it may not be long before I join my departed friends in their eternal abode." "My only wish is that I should die as they died - suddenly and without lingering pain." Asaf wrote about "leading a lonely life, with both our children away in the US". He said they did meet on short visits to each other's countries every two to three years, but these "short visits only sharpen the sense of loneliness". "Sometimes I feel that life has become meaningless." Asaf contemplated a future where their children would continue the friendships forged by their parents. "If you and I cannot meet, let our children get together if they can and carry on a friendship which their fathers have been able to retain only flimsily due to a tragic quirk of history," Asaf wrote. A month later, on 29 July, Asaf Khwaja woke up in the morning, showered, had his breakfast and began reading the morning papers when he suffered a heart attack and died. He was 71. At 94, Amar Kapur is the only survivor of the brotherhood. He sold off his business some 20 years ago and continues to lead a busy life with his wife, Minna, in his two-storey home that he built in 1986 in Faridabad on the outskirts of Delhi. He is remarkably agile for his age, and lives with his pencil drawings, paintings, photographs and a boxful of memories. He is rather stoic about his past, taking more pride in his wife's work with the Rotary Club, than anything else. I ask whether he misses his old friends. "I miss them," he says. "I loved them and I love them even more now." "They are the only real friends I ever had." Pictures by Mansi Thapliyal. Archive pictures provided by family members. Interviews conducted in Delhi, and by phone to Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and California.

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Coronavirus: How pandemic pods and zutors are changing home-schooling

When the number of coronavirus cases began to rise in the San Francisco area in early July, mother of one Lian Chikako Chang started a Facebook group to support local families and teachers who were suddenly facing the prospect of schools not opening in person as planned in mid-August.

By Penny SpillerBBC News The "Pandemic Pods" group, which aims to help with childcare and schooling needs, grew to more than 30,000 members within three weeks, as areas across the US were hit by Covid-19 spikes and more schools decided to stay shut. "Families were left scrabbling for solutions," says Ms Chang. "Most parents have to work, and most jobs are not compatible with home-schooling". And it's not just Facebook parents are turning to. Matchmaking apps and websites have sprung up offering to help parents connect with other families to form "safe" learning pods, or match them with teachers who can give online lessons, dubbed "zutors" (zoom tutors) by one matchmaking service. Regular tutoring services have also seen an explosion of interest. One company in Missouri saw a 40% rise in bookings for its online academic subjects across all age groups in April, and is now seeking to add 10,000 more tutors and instructors. But extra teaching does not come cheap, with private tutors costing anywhere between $20 (£15) and $65 (£49) an hour, and monthly fees at around $3,000 (£2,300). Posts to the Pandemic Pods group range from seeking advice on whether an "outdoor-based" pod of five children, made up of three families, can safely spend some time indoors, to a mother wanting advice on how to manage a "micro-school" timetable for six six-year-olds. One California mother has erected a huge geodesic tent in her back garden and renamed it "Dome School" for a small group of kindergarten-age children. Julie Lam, CEO of San Francisco-based real estate investment firm Goodegg, realised she needed to make changes for the new school year after her "really terrible" experience trying to work and home-school her three children aged five, seven and eight during the spring term. "I'm not an educator. I was trying to support each of my three children in their school work each day, trying to work out what they should be doing, trying to work out if they were doing it right, while fielding calls and taking meetings. It's was so stressful," she says. Unhappy with the input she got from her children's public school, she and her husband decided to move their children to a private school. Although her children will start their new school remotely, Mrs Lam says the support she has received has been "very refreshing". The children can expect a full timetable of study, and she can have a daily check-in with their teachers. Through a matchmaking site, she has also found a college graduate who can come to her house three days a week and help supervise her children's distance learning. Ms Lam recognises she is in a fortunate position to be able to make these choices. "I didn't grow up with wealth so I don't take it for granted. I think everyone is just trying to do the best they can in these difficult times." Widening gaps of inequality Her comments touch on one of the big concerns around the growing popularity of learning pods and private tutors - that it will further widen inequalities in the education system, which have long fallen along race and income lines. New research suggests the impact of the lockdown is already being seen in students' academic gains. A working paper from the NWEA, a non-profit organisation, predicts the average student will be starting the new school year having lost as much as a third of the expected progress in reading and half the expected progress in maths. Some students are nearly a full year behind where they might expect to be in a normal school year. Learning loss is likely to be greater among low-income black and Hispanic students, according to analysis by consulting group McKinsey and Company. It highlights data which shows only 60% of low-income students logging into online instruction compared with 90% of high-income students. Engagement rates were also lagging behind in schools serving predominantly black and Hispanic students, with 60-70% logging on regularly. Most schools across the US had intended to welcome back students on their premises when the new academic year starts in the coming weeks. But with US Covid-19 cases topping 4.7 million and rising by up to 77,000 a day, they have had to rapidly rethink their plans. More than half of 106 school districts have now confirmed they will begin remotely, compared with just one two weeks ago. Bree Dusseault of The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) says some schools have been able to transition smoothly to online teaching, while others are still trying to organise laptops and internet hotspots for their students. She says many school districts have not been properly supported at state level, and have been burdened with having to "provide everything for schools as well as ensure health". State intervention would allow for greater consistency when it comes to "device provision, communication hotspots, school meals, mental health and protections for physical health", she says. A big unknown, she says, is how the country's most vulnerable learners are faring. "Districts are reassuring us that they will provide services, but there has been almost no information about what support is being given to children who are homeless, disabled and in juvenile detention." Ms Dusseault understands why parents would seek out-of-school support "especially if their district isn't stepping up", but she says "the key is ensuring that all families can find and pay for those solutions if they have to". "Robust conversations" around equality issues are also heavily discussed in the Facebook groups, says Ms Chang, and some families are actively trying to organise pods that are more equitable. One public elementary school in San Francisco, Rooftop, decided to "head inequity off at the pass" as head Nancy Bui puts it, by organising a school-wide virtual "pod" programme. This programme "supports family-to-family connections by assigning kids in the same class to smaller cohorts" but ensures the pods reflect the diversity of the school. 'They didn't even know they were learning' Kellyse Brown's family is one for whom a solution has been found. The lively nine-year-old has spent the summer taking part in a summer school set up and run by a parent-led group in Oakland, California. Oakland Reach was set up four years ago to help disadvantaged families fight for high quality education for their children. Most of the city's public schools are majority black and Latino, and less than 30% of students were reaching the required reading level. A group of parents decided this had to change. Co-founder Lakisha Young said it became apparent as soon as the lockdown happened in March that the students of Oakland were likely to be adversely affected and indeed this proved the case, with just 30% of students found to be participating in online learning. The organisation raised more than $350,000 to pay for 14 teachers and two directors to run a free virtual summer school for 180 children aged between five and 13, for the whole of the six-week summer break. Kellyse's day starts with a virtual get-together with her classmates and teacher. She will do some maths and English along with an hour of mindfulness and an afternoon of enrichment activities ranging from science experiments to karate and cooking. Her mother, Keta Brown, who is a family liaison officer with Oakland Reach, says it has been a wonderful experience for her daughter. "It hasn't felt like work. Their literacy lessons for instance revolved around civil rights and Black Lives Matter - issues that are relevant to them. They didn't even know they were learning," says Keta, who is also delighted that her daughter now knows how to cook pasta. "I feel so fortunate that Kellyse was able to have this opportunity because so much learning is lost in the summer term, and it's very possible children this year will have backtracked to March." Oakland Reach is now thinking about how to help families further as the new school year gets under way remotely - and is well supported by both the school district and financial donors in doing so. Ms Young says that for families who are happy with their school's provision they still want to offer "robust one-to-one tutoring" to supplement children's learning. For other families, they intend to continue providing academic instruction and enrichment - and "setting up parents as the real leaders of their child's education", by providing support to access both the curriculum and the necessary technology. On the subject of pods, she says: "We would love to partner with them. This crisis has created an opportunity for real innovation and we are open to working with everyone to help make our education system work better for all."

world-africa-15854793

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-15854793

Is South Africa's Aids plan working?

South Africa has one of the world's highest HIV rates but for many years was accused of ignoring the problem. Two years ago, President Jacob Zuma introduced some radical changes to the country's Aids policy. To marks World Aids Day, the BBC's Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg asks what has changed.

By Pumza FihlaniBBC News, Johannesburg Moses Sechedi lives in Soweto, one of South Africa's biggest townships. Outside the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital - the largest hospital in Africa - Mr Sechedi, 62, tells me that he has seen the benefits of the new policy. "A few months ago, my younger sister became gravely ill and we rushed her to hospital. After a number of tests the doctor told us she had Aids," he says. The family was devastated. His 39-year-old sister suffers from mental illness and had been raped when she was younger by a local traditional healer who had promised the family he could cure her. The healer recently died of Aids-related complications but Mr Sechedi's family had not thought to have her tested until she became sick. Mr Sechedi says his sister would have died were it not for the Aids drugs she receives. "Those pills are the reason she is alive today. She is getting stronger by the day - it is like looking at a miracle daily," he says. 'Doing the right thing' Under President Zuma's new policy, the number of HIV-positive people like Mr Sechedi's sister receiving live-saving anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs has more than doubled from 678,500 to 1.5 million. The government of former President Thabo Mbeki, who denied the link between HIV and Aids, said it could not afford to roll out this treatment to all the South Africans who needed it. More than five million people are HIV-positive - about 10% of the total population. Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told the BBC that his department plans to provide Aids drugs to the remaining one million patients who need them by 2014. Not everyone who is HIV-positive needs the drugs. The most common way of checking is to measure the CD4 cells, which help the body to fight diseases. Under the previous administration, only those with a CD4 count of 200 were given treatment - by which time they were already sick - but this has now been raised to 350, meaning the drugs are provided in time to keep people healthy and active. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) led a vigorous campaign against Mr Mbeki's government - even taking the authorities to court to secure the right to ARVs. It says the government is "finally doing the right thing". "We have moved from an era of denialism to realism," the group's Marcus Low says. It seems there is now the "political will to fight the disease", he says. The government has also added medical male circumcision to its Aids plans. State health facilities now provide free circumcisions, which health officials say reduces the risk of transmission by 60%. Experts also say new infections have decreased over the past couple of years, which could indicate that young people are changing their sexual behaviour. Saving the children Another key plank of the government's new Aids policy is to prevent mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). Until 2009, pregnant HIV patients needed to be at least 28 weeks pregnant to access drugs - that has now been reduced to 14 weeks. According to a recent UNAids report, 95% of infected pregnant women are now getting ARVs to prevent their babies from getting HIV. This is a 30% increase from 2007. At the Harriet Shezi Children's Clinic in Soweto, more than 3,000 children currently receive Aids treatment. The clinic treats advanced cases of HIV in children. "In the past, most admissions would be of children under a year old - those would be fast progressors who had not been put on PMTCT or failed the limited treatment available," says the clinic's Nosisa Sipambo. Cost of life Following the changes, South Africa now runs the world's largest anti-retroviral programme but some have expressed concerns about how much these drugs are costing the country. Mr Motsoaledi says his department has managed to halve spending on ARVs. Instead of paying out 8.8bn rand ($104.5m; £67.2m) on the drugs over the next two years, South Africa will now spend just 4.2bn - less than 4% of the 2011 health budget of 112.6bn rand. But despite the progress, Aids remains South Africa's leading cause of death. Last year it killed more than 260,000 people - almost half of all those who died in the country. The TAC says it will monitor the government to makes sure that it builds on its progress. "We need to make sure that the government stays committed to this programme," says Mr Low.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-46831229

What could change the dynamics of Brexit vote?

"We're going to get smashed" - one government insider's apocalyptic prediction about one of the most important votes in recent political history, the big night next Tuesday when MPs give their verdict on the government and the EU's compromise.

Laura KuenssbergPolitical editor@bbclaurakon Twitter As things stand, MPs are on course to kybosh Theresa May's long-argued-over Brexit deal, with a very heavy defeat. Dozens of her own backbenchers have said publicly they will vote against it. The opposition parties are adamant they will say "no" too. The Tories' supposed partners in government, the DUP, are deeply dug-in to opposing the agreement, for reasons we've discussed plenty of times here. And although there are whispers of compromises that might peel off a few rebels here and there and a handful of switchers - like her former policy chief George Freeman who revealed his change of heart in the Commons and will now back her - there is nothing on the horizon that looks like shifting big numbers. The draft script for Tuesday's drama, therefore, outlines a heavy and embarrassing defeat for the prime minister on her central policy, with nothing and no-one seeming to come to her rescue. But there are at least two factors that could change the dynamics, quite separate to the chorus of warnings about no deal from members of the Cabinet and outside voices like the Japanese leader Shinzo Abe. First off, with any rebellion it's not a bad rule of thumb to suggest that many of those who have made loud complaints may, in the end, prove to be less brave than they at first appear. It is not unusual for cantankerous politicians to be proven to have had rather a lot of mouth - and rather threadbare trousers. One senior Brexiteer told me they reckoned they had around 40 or 50 critics solid and certain to vote to reject the deal, far fewer than the hundred or so publicly opposed. Parliament seems in such uproar that perhaps the numbers will be as high as the most dire warnings suggest. But don't be surprised when MPs actually have to make a final decision and go through the division lobbies with their deadly rivals, if the scale of the defeat looks rather different. Casting a vote, especially one so vital, is very, very different to criticising a policy. Second, we're not exactly short these days of twists in Parliamentary drama. And there could be another one next Tuesday. Other tweaks, amendments, might be suggested by MPs, and voted on first. The way this place works, if any of those ideas are approved, that would change what's on the table - maybe a little, maybe a lot. That means, despite the months of rows about the precise terms of the agreement, there might not be a vote on Theresa May's deal in its original form. This could be something relatively minor, although important to some MPs, like the increased environmental protections the PM has discussed with Labour MPs. Or, much bigger, an amendment that kills the deal off altogether. Still with me? Politically, what happens with the other ideas backbenchers put forward, before the expected vote on the deal as it stands, might matter enormously. That's because a defeat on the plan as amended, might be much smaller than a defeat on the deal with no changes. For Theresa May's authority, losing by a few dozen, is very different to losing by way over 100. That might, in turn, make it seem much more credible for the prime minister to have another go at getting it through. And it also will matter who the main architects of the defeat appear to be. Government sources warning of being "smashed" in the Commons suggest the best outcome for them is, perversely, losing on an amendment, therefore avoiding a straightforward and overwhelming "no" to their deal. Some Brexiteers and some in government believe that that the Labour MP Hilary Benn's suggested change - that would reject the deal, and rule out no deal - could be voted through by MPs, because of support from former Remainers. And a narrow defeat at the hands of Remainers would be a totally different political beast to a heavy, heavy defeat at the hands of Brexiteers in their own party. Games not over One well-known member of the Conservative Eurosceptic group the ERG joked: "We may not even end up being the bad guys - we might not have to rebel." It's possible that Hilary Benn will pull that particular amendment, with talk of a different "no deal" amendment being put forward. And one senior Labour figure suggested the party would do almost anything to make sure that there is a clear vote on the prime minister's proposal and that Parliamentary shenanigans don't get in the way of the Commons giving a definite view, (they expect a total kicking), of Theresa May's plan. But as we head into these next few vital days, the point is that the serious games in the Commons are far from over. And what happens this time next week will be affected by precisely how Tuesday night plays out. In the wake of the likely defeat, Theresa May might make an emergency dash to Brussels, could pivot to a "plan B" or a series of emergency cross-party talks. But the actual numbers, the atmosphere once the tellers have actually counted the votes and who walks through which lobby will still shape what she does next. Need some guidance? If you feel like you ought to know more about Brexit...

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Alternative Vote (AV) coverage on the Daily Politics, This Week and Politics Show

The Daily Politics - and sister shows This Week and Politics Show - have been covering the debate about the Alternative Vote (AV) referendum and the arguments for and against the proposed change, set to be decided during a UK-wide referendum on Thursday 5 May.

Watch our coverage in video over the last 12 months as we have followed the struggle to get the AV bill through the House of Lords. We also heard from those for and against the plan, who gave their views to Andrew Neil, Anita Anand, Jo Coburn and Jo Sopel, and we had films from our own reporting team of Giles Dilnot, Adam Fleming, David Thompson, Max Cotton and Susana Mendonça. The newest clips are at the top, and they go back in date order. Eddie Izzard and Lord Winston: May 4 Film from Giles Dilnot: May 3 Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne: May 3 Should we ever have a referendum: May 3 Lord Reid and Simon Hughes on AV coalitions: May 2 Ed Miliband on the AV campaign: May 1 Michael Portillo finally decides on AV vote: April 28 Michael Heseltine and Caroline Lucas: April 28 Can UK learn from Australian AV system?: April 27 Will AV vote rock the coalition?: April 26 Film from David Thompson: April 26 Explaining Scottish voting system: April 26 Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg: April 17 Alternative Vote Debate April 6: How would it affect minor parties? Click here to watch the 37-minute debate in full Alternative Vote Debate April 6: John Prescott speaks against Alternative Vote Debate April 6: Charles Kennedy speaks in favour Alternative Vote Debate April 6: Tessa Jowell speaks in favour Alternative Vote Debate April 6: Michael Howard speaks against Former Australian PM John Howard: April 5 Explaining the Australian voting system: April 5 Shirley Williams, Alan Johnson & Michael Portillo: March 31 Film from Max Cotton: March 27 Michael Portillo can't make up his mind: March 17 John Healey, Jeremy Hunt, Jo Swinson and David Lammy: March 16 Alan Johnson on This Week: March 10 Film by David Thompson: February 20 Jacqui Smith and Michael Portillo: February 17 Bernard Jenkin: February 16 Eleanor Laing and Charles Kennedy: February 15 Film by Susana Mendonça: February 15 Francis D'Souza, Mark Harper and George Foulkes : January 31 Lord Falconer and Lord McNally: January 20 Lord Foulkes and Lord Trimble: January 19 James Landale: January 18 Chuka Ummuna, Lord Falconer and Mark Harper: January 17 James Landale explains : January 13 David Blunkett: November 26 Lord Falconer and Lord McNally: November 15 In the Mood box: September 29 Bernard Jenkin: September 06 Giles Dilnot talks to Watford voters: July 06 Daniel Kawczyinski and Tim Farron: July 06 Douglas Carswell, Simon Hughes and Ben Bradshaw: May 26 Professor John Curtice: February 09 (2010)

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32811867

Whatever happened to Psy and K-pop’s bid to conquer the world?

For a while, it was impossible to move without Gangnam Style pounding the eardrums — whether it was SuperBowl commercials, flash mobs, primetime TV performances or mobile ringtones chiming away, writes Omid Scobie, an expert on the entertainment industry and K-pop genre.

Every corner of the globe, it seemed, had become obsessed with Psy's viral hit in 2012. But despite two successful follow-up singles and promises of a US-produced album, there has been very little noise from the South Korean rapper since. K-pop was officially on the map, but did its unofficial ambassador give up? Hardly. Having earned an estimated $55m (£36m) from his work in the West, Psy is now racking up similar amounts from the lucrative Chinese market, where his collaboration with world-class pianist Lang Lang is currently producing a run of consecutive number ones. "Chinese fans love his music and the song," Hyun Suk "YG" Yang, his manager and founder and chairman of one of Korea's biggest entertainment companies, YG Entertainment told the BBC. "It topped [all the] Chinese music charts." Psy's decision to focus on the Asian music market may be an indication of where the entertainment industry turns over the highest profits for musicians - China's entertainment market was last valued at $95.7bn - but it also put a sudden end to the epic K-pop tidal wave he was supposed to be riding in to the West. That could be about to change. Talent manager Scooter Braun, who discovered the likes of pop megastars Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen, told the BBC that it was Psy who opened his eyes to South Korea's hottest commodity and its line-up of talented idol stars ripe for export. When he first saw Psy's Gangnam Style video "something in my gut went off" says Braun, who immediately signed the singer to his US-based label, School Boy Records. "K-pop as a genre invests a lot in their music videos, with unique and vibrant visuals and even a bit of an exoticness to them," he says. "These larger than life visuals allowed fans who may not understand the language to still understand the music." Which explains why, with virtually no marketing whatsoever, K-pop music videos continue to rack up millions of daily video views by overseas fans, many of whom simply discover the genre by chance. In fact, more than 90% of K-pop YouTube streams are now consumed outside Korea, many in North America. "The fact that fans around the world can see content online is really helping to establish K-pop outside of Korea and Asia," Braun says. As are the K-pop concerts. South Korean boy band, Big Bang's 2013 Alive Galaxy Tour performed at 48 international stadiums, including sold-out shows at London's Wembley Arena. Read more stories from the South Korea Direct season: The woman who liberated Korean housewives In Pictures: Fish, fruit and veg in South Korea's markets How good are Kim Jong-un's hackers? And for those still unaware of the genre, Braun's next discovery could be about to change things. Step forward 24-year-old Korean pop sensation, CL. Hailing from one of K-pop's biggest girl groups, 2NE1, the singer and rapper has more than 45 million Asia single sales under her belt and is already a favourite among US producers and elite fashion designers. Moschino's creative director Jeremy Scott, who has worked with the likes of Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Rihanna, credits her as his muse. "My team first saw CL perform with 2NE1 in Seoul at one of Psy's concerts," says Braun. "We were extremely impressed with her stage presence… [she's an] amazing performer. "We wanted to help her bring her talent to the US," explains Braun. So, can CL singlehandedly drive the K-pop takeover that Psy almost pulled off? "I grew up listening to English bands and American pop," CL says. "Now that I've been an artist in Asia for eight years, I feel like challenging a new crowd. I definitely have a long way to go, but I feel like I have the right people around me, a good team." Plus great connections. In the past year, Braun has helped CL (real name Chaerin Lee) rap on tracks for producers Diplo and Skrillex. In April, she appeared alongside young Hollywood's elite, including Bieber, Kendall Jenner and Ariana Grande, for a viral video style lip-sync cover of Jepsen's I Really Like You. Last week, her collaboration single with Diplo, Riff Raff, and OG Maco, called Doctor Pepper was released. Diplo, whose back catalogue includes hits for Beyonce, Madonna and Chris Brown, calls the hip-hop track "the right balance between glossy K-pop attitude and keeping CL positioned where she belongs - as the baddest, coolest female out right now." Like many idols in the K-pop industry, CL began training with her agency at the age of 15. Trainees are expected to juggle school and long hours of daily practice, which include singing, dancing, acting, language classes and, in extreme cases, plastic surgery makeovers. It is a gruelling process that can last years before an artist is deemed ready to debut though the rewards for those who succeed are worth the intense training periods. Korean entertainment agencies are known for signing artists to golden handcuff-like contracts, anywhere from seven to 13 years. These guarantee long and profitable careers for the artist and a lucrative return for the agency, who will have spent seven-figure sums on training. 2NE1's label mates Big Bang, a five-member male group who debuted in 2006, reportedly earned $71m in 2014, just $4m shy of One Direction in the same year. But for every success story there are, of course, cautionary tales. It is not uncommon for hopeful artists to dedicate years of their lives to training with an agency, only to never properly debut. Some trainees just do not live up to expectations, says a staffer at a well-known agency (who asked for anonymity). Instead of being dropped they will be tested out in different fields such as a variety show or TV presenting. "If that doesn't work, it might be behind the scenes - styling, writing, choreography," says the staffer. "Because the company has invested so much in to the training, they often refuse to let them go from their contracts until they have made some of the money back." Ida Simmons began training with SM Entertainment, one of South Korea's other major talent agencies, at 14. With a Korean mother and German father, her unique looks and note-perfect singing voice should have had her destined for big things with a company behind some of the top names in the industry. But while her peers went on to the big stage, Simmons failed to catch the attention of new fans during focus groups and TV appearances. Having signed a 13-year contract with SM, Simmons was technically benched by the agency and found a job by the company as a DJ on Korea's Arirang Radio to sit out the remainder of her contract. "It was definitely difficult," Simmons, now 29 and free of her contract, has said. "Now I'm just happy to be able to move on with my career." Nevertheless, there is much the Western music industry is keen to learn from the well-oiled system in South Korea. "The entire structure of developing a new artist in the US is completely different than it is in Korea," talent spotter Braun says. "In Korea, there is no real distinction between management and the record company. They are one and the same and invest heavily in finding and grooming talent from a young age. "I've actually learned a lot from YG and his company's system and really admire the work they do." Over the next year, we could see more of Western music's big players looking for a slice of the K-pop pie. Rapper Kanye West's creative team recently announced plans to launch Seoul-based joint-stock company 10-Jones, incorporating brand, agency and entertainment branches. The Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy group (LVMH) recently invested $80m in YG Entertainment. As for CL - who will release a full solo album later this year - she has fan and personal friend, Chanel and Fendi creative director, Karl Lagerfeld rooting for her. "CL is beautiful… you can't take your eyes off her. This year she will help K-pop take over the world." About the author: Omid Scobie is the European Bureau Chief for US Weekly magazine and founder of Korean entertainment news site, IdolWow!

world-asia-36223755

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36223755

Philippines election: Populism, celebrity and ugly realities

As the Philippines prepares for its fifth election since the "People Power" revolution that overthrew dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, the BBC's South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head asks whether any candidate can address the country's true problems.

If you want to understand the dynamics of this election look away from the flutter of posters, from the noisy campaign trucks and their jaunty songs, and from a bewildering selection of smiling candidates contesting thousands of elected posts. Look instead at the creaking infrastructure of Manila, the visible slums, the denuded mountainsides and scrappy farms. The Philippines stands out - in a region that was once a byword for crippling poverty - for its failure to match its neighbours' partial success in reducing inequality. Official statistics show that poverty has stayed at more or less the same level for the past decade, despite economic growth averaging 6%. Ask a motor tricycle driver or a day labourer how much the past four elections have changed their lives, and they will nearly all tell you: not one bit. If you look at how they live, you can believe them. On paper, outgoing President Benigno Aquino has performed well - better, certainly, than his two predecessors. Foreign direct investment has quadrupled, and the budget deficit has fallen. Spending has increased on infrastructure, schools and rural development. Middle-class Filipinos who have good jobs or businesses feel better off. The problem is that President Aquino started with the Philippines far behind its neighbours, and the changes he has brought are incremental, rather than revolutionary. Had the constitution allowed it, he might have been able to turn his modest successes into a story alluring enough to win another term of office. But in a reaction against the monopolisation of power by Marcos in the 1970s and 80s, Mr Aquino's mother, Corazon - who led the movement that overthrew Marcos - also oversaw a new constitution which limited presidents to a single term. So every six years there is an entirely new slate of contestants. Except they are not really new. The people go to the polls Voters hope for jobs at home and abroad Who will lead the Philippines? A beginner's guide to the Philippine elections The fizzy drink and bun presidential poll Filipino boxing youth and politician Pacquiao An anti-establishment backlash Mar Roxas, an ally of President Aquino's, is a former minister, a vice-presidential candidate in the last 2010 election, and also the grandson of a former president. By all accounts a decent and capable politician, he is nonetheless a quintessential establishment figure. Another candidate, Jejomar Binay, is the outgoing vice-president, and is a wealthy former mayor of Manila's financial district, Makati. Miriam Defensor Santiago ran for president as long ago as 1992, and has also been a tough-minded judge and senator. The only political novice in this contest is Grace Poe, a first-term senator who is best known for being the adopted daughter of popular actor Fernando Poe. Rodrigo Duterte is not new to politics either. But as the long-serving mayor of the southern city of Davao, he is an outsider in the cosy world of Manila political families. And his campaign style and language are certainly something very new. Mr Duterte has scarcely been able to make a campaign speech without threatening to kill someone. In fact he says openly that you need to be willing to kill to be president. He has talked about filling Manila Bay with the 100,000 criminals he says he will kill if he wins the top job, which opinion polls suggest is likely. His blunt, often offensive comments have won him legions of fans here. Perhaps they don't take his threats seriously. Perhaps they love the idea of a lone vigilante gun-slinging his way to justice as seen in the barilan shootout dramas that play all day on Filipino televisions. Mr Duterte's showcase is the city he has run for the best part of 30 years. Davao is the third largest city in the country, and, up until the late 1980s it also had one of the highest homicide rates in the world, thanks in large part to the conflict with the communist New People's Army. The local authorities began arming civilian militias to tackle to communist insurgents, and those militias morphed into shadowy death squads which targeted anyone seen as a threat to public order. Today, Davao is safe and law-abiding, with a prosperous business district and healthy crime statistics. At an impressive integrated emergency response centre there were housed state-of-the-art rescue vehicles and inside, a long wall covered in screens showing feeds from dozens of high-resolution security cameras around the city. Committing a crime and getting away with it is hard in Davao - and would you dare when the mayor has threatened to kill you? In a poorer part of town lives Clarita Aria, who runs a small market stall and lives in a cramped wooden shack behind it. She still weeps as she recalls how, over a period of six years four of her sons, all teenagers, were killed, after being warned by the police. The thought of Mayor Duterte winning the presidency fills her with sadness. But in much of the city he is celebrated as a hero. At the other end of the Philippines, in Iliocos Norte, Ferdinand Marcos is also feted as a hero and saviour, 30 years after he was overthrown in the first "people power" uprising. Back then, Marcos and his free-spending wife Imelda were vilified as symbols of greed, corruption and repression. But today, the Marcos museum in his home town of Batac, which glorifies his life and achievements, is crowded with visitors from all over the country. Many of them are young - more than half of those eligible to vote were not born when Marcos was overthrown. Some came out won over by the melodramatic representation of Marcos's sacrifices they had watched inside, and the viewing they had of his embalmed body lying in state next door. His daughter, Imee, is governor of the province. Even Imelda, who at 86 is in poor health, is running unopposed as a congresswoman. A host of other Marcoses and their relatives are contesting many of the 240 or so positions up for grabs in the election. And his son Ferdinand Jr, or "Bongbong", has been leading the polls to win the vice-presidency - running a slick social media campaign, which appeals to the young in particular. In vain have the victims of the older Marcos's martial law, in which thousands were imprisoned and tortured, cried warnings about forgetting the past. When I asked Bongbong how much of a problem his father's reputation was he laughed: "Quite the opposite - it's a boost", he said. If the polls are correct, Mr Duterte and Mr Marcos could end up running this country. No-one is sure how they will do it, nor in what state they will leave this country's fragile democracy when they are finished. But after holding out so much promise when it was born 30 years ago, that democracy has delivered little of substance to most Filipinos, and they cannot be expected to care too much if it is put at risk.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-32082182

Anushka Sharma: Indian media defend actress after cricket loss

Papers, former players and pundits have criticised Twitter users for blaming cricketer Virat Kohli's girlfriend Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma for India's defeat against Australia in the World Cup semi-final match.

Australia powered into the World Cup final with a 95-run victory over defending champions India in Sydney on Thursday. Kohli, who is the team's vice captain, went out after making just one run. Indians follow cricket passionately and millions of fans were disappointed by his poor show. As India's chase hit roadblocks and it became clear that India was losing to Australia, many fans started to vent their anger on Twitter and some began to target Sharma, who was present in the stadium, watching the match. But this anger was met with strong resistance from others on Twitter who felt it was wrong to blame the actress for Kohli's "poor performance". Tweets supporting the duo soon outnumbered those who made jokes about Sharma's presence in the stadium. Bollywood actor Rishi Kapoor, tennis star Sania Mirza, senior journalists and other users came to the defence of the couple. Former Indian cricket captain Saurav Ganguly also criticised those who blamed the actress for the team's defeat. "What wrong Anushka has done? She had only gone to see a cricket match like the families of other players. It is unfair to blame her for Kohli's performance. It is the immaturity of people," he told The Indian Express. Newspapers and websites have also published reports, criticising the "irrational behaviour by Indian fans". "Such extreme reactions only go on to show the misogynist character of Indian society where a woman is blamed for anything and everything that goes wrong with the man. Anushka just like millions of other Indians is a fan of cricket and her boyfriend is a star batsman in Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team," writes Senha Thakur on the CNN-IBN website. In an interview with the NDTV earlier in the month, Sharma had said "it's primitive to call me his distraction and blame me for his performance". 'Sensational' coverage Meanwhile, leading news channel Times Now and its editor Arnab Goswami are also being criticised for their harsh review of India's performance. The channel ran its shows with headlines like "Team India mess it up", "Team India #ShamedinSydeny, and "India disgraced in Sydney". Some Twitter users criticised the channel for being "sensational" and tweeted with their own hashtag #ShameonTimesNow. BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.

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https://www.bbc.com/sinhala/news/story/2011/03/110309_listof

Politicians to give evidence

A new list of defence witnesses including prominent opposition politicians was submitted to the courts on Wednesday when the white flag case was taken before Trial-at-bar in Colombo.

The ten-member list of witnesses include Former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, Deputy leader of the United National Party, Karu Jayasuriya, opposition MP Mangala Samaraweera, DNA MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake, prominent academic Professor Ashley Halpe and Sunday Leader Journalist Raisha Wickramatunge. The defence lawyers also informed the courts a request for Hot water for Sarath Fonseka,that was granted by the courts was not honoured by the prison officials. large scale corruption Later, speaking to the media, Sarath Fonseka accused the government of exploiting development projects of the past. “They are putting up signs with their name on other people’s work” he said. He also accused the government of large scale corruption.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cumbria-11070801

Cumbria University appeal for new student landlords

A university is urging property owners to consider renting to students.

Cumbria University said it had inquiries from more than 100 undergraduates who had gained a place through Clearing but were struggling to find accommodation. Lucy Roberts, commercial services manager for the Carlisle campuses, said landlords could make hundreds of pounds a month. She also said landlords should not be put off by the student "reputation". Ms Roberts said: "As long as there is a good contract in place and deposits have been paid we have less reported problems than you might think. "We have had at least 100 inquiries from new students and are hoping to solve the accommodation problem through the private sector. She said those interested should contact the university for advice on how to register with the county council and meet health and safety requirements. "Renting to students is better than having an empty room," she added. She also said that landlords can make between £50 and £60 per student, per week.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-19757181

Royal Cornwall Trust investigates swab incident

A hospital in Cornwall says it is investigating why a swab was left inside a woman while she was giving birth.

The Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust said it happened earlier in September after an assisted birth in a delivery suite. The trust says the woman involved is understood to be well and it is now working to make sure what they called a "Never Event" does not happen again. The trust said it would "ensure appropriate actions are taken".

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Fans descend on San Diego Comic-Con

Dust off your Wonder Woman suit. Leave your selfie stick at home. And if you must carry a sword, make sure it's tied securely to your costume as dangerous weapons will be checked at the door.

By Regan MorrisBBC News, San Diego Yes it's time for Comic-Con, the annual pop culture convention where the entertainment industry markets directly to its most die-hard fans. And the fans turn out in droves. Tens of thousands are expected to descend on the San Diego Convention Center this week, many dressed as their favourite superheroes. All will be hoping to catch a glimpse of their favourite film, TV and video game stars, or sneak a peak at an upcoming film, show, comic book or video game. "Tales of San Diego Comic-Con are told in awe on every set around the known fantasy/sci-fi production world," said Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi, who is attending the convention for the first time. "It's become a fabled kingdom, one I am thrilled to find myself heading for. And to appear in the legendary Hall H is a further twist to the cosplay and comic madness I may never recover from." "Cosplay" is short for "costume play", or the fancy dress many choose to wear to such conventions, while Hall H is the massive room inside the convention centre where the biggest "panels" are held. No tents are allowed in the vast queue, but sleeping bags are allowed for the many who line up all night to guarantee themselves a place. Batman v Superman, X-Men, Hunger Games and Star Wars events look set to dominate Hall H. Yet some of Hollywood's biggest studios are skipping the con of cons this year. Marvel blamed "bad timing" for its absence, having already unveiled plans for the next phase of its superhero slate at a fan event last October. "I really have a belief: If you can't go to Comic-Con and over-deliver, then don't go," boss Kevin Feige explained. Without the Avengers to steal the show, the superheroes of Warner Bros and elsewhere have a chance to be the main attraction. Unless Star Wars upstages them all, of course... Fans are hoping to see Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill suited up as Batman and Superman. Jennifer Lawrence may be in town to promote the final instalment in the Hunger Games franchise. And there should be plenty of Wonder Women. Women are increasingly represented at comic conventions, so much so that there is a movement to prevent sexual harassment of women in costumes. Women often complain men grope and photograph them from behind at conventions, so a group called "Geeks for CONsent" has formed to remind crowds that cosplay does not equal consent to be manhandled or harassed. The fabled Hall H may be the most desired ticket, but there is plenty of other space for fans inside the 2.6 million sq ft (2.4 million hectare) convention centre. The San Diego Comic-Con is the largest and most star-studded of its kind, but there are dozens of similar events around the world that are becoming increasingly popular. While some big Hollywood studios may be skipping Comic-Con this year, big corporations outside of traditional entertainment are waking up to how they can advertise their products to pop culture fans. "Is Comic-Con becoming more corporate? Absolutely it is," said Jeetendr Sehdev, a marketing professor at the University of Southern California. "That's the nature of how business is going. I think the corporate brands are becoming more entertainment centric." Some fans may be annoyed at the presence of car company Lexus or insurers State Farm at comic conventions. But Sehdev said that is how pop culture is changing, and that younger fans are more receptive to the blurred lines between art and commerce. So how do Comic-Con fans themselves feel about their culture going mainstream? "I think it's great! The nerds won," said Matt Moore, a pop culture writer who has attended many Comic-Cons. "All the people who used to make fun of me in high school are there standing in line to watch Age of Ultron, or waiting for Batman v Superman. We won!" The 2015 Comic-Con International runs in San Diego California from 9 to 12 July.

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UK military deaths in Afghanistan: Full list

The UK's military role in Afghanistan since 2001 has brought with it a heavy human toll. Members of the Army, RAF, Royal Marines and special forces have lost their lives in the fight against the Taliban. Here, the BBC News website offers a look at who they were and how they died.

The number of deaths stands at 456 after two RAF personnel were among five people who died in a helicopter crash on 11 October 2015. Users of the app, click to view the full list of casualties. Select a photograph to find out more about each casualty. 2015 - total deaths 2014 - total deaths 2013 - total deaths 2012 - total deaths 2011 - total deaths 2010 - total deaths 2009 - total deaths 2008 - total deaths 2007 - total deaths 2006 - total deaths 2005 - total deaths 2004 - total deaths 2003 - total deaths 2002 - total deaths

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Liverpool domestic abuser broke woman's bones

A man who beat a woman so much she had broken bones and a bleed on the brain has been jailed for nearly 10 years.

David Ellis, 50, from Liverpool, admitted the section 18 domestic assault of a 27-year-old woman he left with multiple injuries. Ellis, of Halewood Drive, Woolton, was given nine years and nine months, at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday. Det Insp Tracey Martin said the sentence sent a "strong message" of zero tolerance of abuse. Merseyside Police found the woman on 26 February. Det Insp Martin praised her bravery and said she hoped the woman's "courage inspires anyone else out there who may be a victim in this way, to seek help." She said there was help and support available for victims of domestic abuse.

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Congo's sapeurs pass their style on to a new generation

Some residents of the twin Congolese capitals of Brazzaville and Kinshasa have long been known for their love of stylish dressing - in particular members of the Society of Ambience-Makers and Elegant People (Sape). These photographs by Tariq Zaidi reveal a whole new generation of "sapeurs".

In the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa, the son of famous sapeur Fiston Mahata, eight-year-old Natan, represents the new generation of style. Across the River Congo in Brazzaville, 10-year-old Okili Nkoressa, middle, uses the dirt roads as his catwalk. "My favourite item of clothing is my Yves Saint Laurent suit which I am wearing today," he says. He is accompanied by veterans of the Sape scene, 52-year-old businesswoman Ntsimba Marie Jeanne, left, and 39-year-old policewoman Judith Nkoressa, right. Severin Mouyengo's father was also a sapeur. "I Sape every day. It makes me forget about everything," says the 62-year-old retired forester. "It brings peace and tranquillity to everyone... I don't see how anyone in La Sape could be violent or fight. Peace means a lot to us." Elie Fontaine, a 45-year old taxi-owner says he started dressing in suits as a child in 1982. "They used to tell us that Sape was just a form of 'juvenile delinquency'." They gained international fame in 2014 when their style was featured in a Guinness advert. "For me Sape is an art, Sape is a discipline, Sape is a job" says Maxime Pivot Mabanza, who has been a sapeur for 36 years. Perreira Franchisco, a 37-year-old computer consultant in Brazzaville, calls himself "the greatest sapeur". "I will now demonstrate, what is known as a clothing equation with 2 or 3 elements. So I will be wearing a Kenzo suit, made in Italy, with a backless vest by Jean Basinga, I'll wear a tie blue, white, red by Pierre Cardin and a pair of varnished tectonic shoes by John Foster. I love wearing my Kenzo suit - made in Italy!" More and more women are joining the dapper dressers, including 44-year-old businesswoman Ella Kiadi who started eight years ago. The women in the club are known as sapeuses. Some women started decades ago, including 52-year-old housewife Clementine Biniakoulou, who has been a sapeuse for 36 years. "It's like someone who has an incurable disease and must take medicine, that's what Sape is like," says Nino Valentino. Human resources manager Basile Gandzion, 51, has been a sapeur for 30 years. "Out of all my clothes my favourite item of clothing is my hat," says 58-year old bricklayer Yamea Bansimba. He has been a sapeur for 50 years. "Jika is here. The clothes inspector, I have arrived, all the labels are here. A Y3 skirt, Zara and other labels, crocodile shoes, 40 cm socks, do you feel me. I am here, Jika the Parisian," is how 28-year-old Serge Bakama Boke - aka Jika - introduces himself. At just five years old, Israell Mbona (right) has been a sapeur for three years. Even at his young age, his kilt is from Scotland and his shoes are Versace. Photographer Tariq Zaidi's book Sapeurs: Ladies and Gentlemen of the Congo is published this month. All photos by Tariq Zaidi

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-26082628

Johnstonebridge man reported over Neknomination video

A man is being reported to the procurator fiscal for dangerous driving after police viewed a piece of Neknomination video footage.

Police said a 42-year-old man from Johnstonebridge had been traced as a result. The incident is alleged to have happened in the area around Lockerbie. Police Scotland said it was aware of a number of other Neknomination acts which could result in further reports to the procurator fiscal. Neknomination involves filming yourself "necking" a drink, posting a video on social media and then nominating someone else to do the same.

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Q&A: Is local government collective Cosla heading for a schism?

Is Scotland's local government umbrella body the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) heading for a schism? Two of Scotland's local councils - Dumfries and Galloway and Aberdeen - have said they are planning to leave and there's speculation a number in the west of Scotland will follow. So what are the issues?

By Jamie McIvorBBC Scotland local government correspondent 1. What is Cosla? Cosla represents the collective interests of all 32 councils in Scotland. Councils choose to join Cosla and pay a subscription because they think it is in their interests to do so. The organisation has its own staff and offices in Edinburgh. Its main role is to lobby on behalf of local government, represent the collective views of councils and deals with pay negotiations. But because it represents councils across the political spectrum it is rarely able to take a strong public stand on issues of controversy such as the council tax freeze. Well - at one level, it's one for the anoraks. Councils chose to join this organisation which works for their collective interests. If a council quits, it doesn't make any difference to local services, the terms and conditions of staff or how much you pay in council tax. What is more interesting are the reasons why some councils and councillors are wondering whether remaining in Cosla might be the right thing to do. Basically, this move exposes tensions in local government over funding - in particular over the way the Scottish government's money for councils is distributed between the 32 councils. Well there's been speculation for some time that some of the Labour councils in the west of Scotland - Glasgow, Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, South Lanarkshire - might decide to leave. At the root of it all is money - and the way government money is distributed to councils. As a general rule, about 80% of every council's budget is from central government - and there's a complicated formula that's used to calculate just how much each council gets. Some Labour councils have been pushing to get that formula changed. But not surprisingly, any move to change that formula would have both winners and losers and those who feel they'd lose out don't want change. The thinking among some Labour councillors who'd been pushing for change is that if Cosla agreed, if the whole of Scottish local government agreed, then it might happen. But if it doesn't happen and they pull out of Cosla they might have a freer hand to fight the Scottish government. This is one challenge. The Scottish government holds the reins - they give the cash. There would be no guarantee the funding deal would be any better for a particular council. But I think the feeling is more that some councillors feel membership of Cosla isn't value for money. Because Cosla represents all councils of all different political persuasions, it can rarely take a stance on controversial issues - it has been individual councils who have condemned, say, the terms of the council tax freeze. Now Glasgow City Council's likely to discuss whether to stay in Cosla between now and the end of March. One thing they'll be looking at is whether a number of councils in the west of Scotland might be able to work together, lobby for their interests with central government and the like, at a far lower cost - without supporting the staff or overheads of Cosla which has staff and a big office in Edinburgh. And there is the argument that four or five councils of a similar political persuasion may be more powerful lobbying collectively than one organisation having to say something all 32 basically agree on. Indeed. One important thing Cosla does is negotiate nationally set pay and conditions for council staff. Over time, without Cosla, might wider differences in pay and conditions emerge? Trade union Unison would rather Cosla stays together and fear breakaways simply weaken the message and encourages divide and rule. The other thing is there's been concern for years over alleged creeping centralisation in Scotland. In fact, Cosla's looking just now at how local government might be strengthened after the referendum. The fear would be that without one organisation representing councils, any process of centralisation might be harder to counter.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-14150513

Russian anger at parcel thefts goes viral

It's a long way from Siberia to London.

By Steve RosenbergBBC News, Moscow But when Sergei Lyapko from Akademgorodok saw an iPad going cheap in an online auction, he snapped it up. The Royal Mail duly despatched the item. But Russian Post failed to deliver it. "The package arrived," Sergei told me by phone from Siberia. "But instead of a tablet computer it contained five stones! "The weight of the parcel was almost the same as what it should have been with the computer, there was just 15 grams difference. I made an official complaint and now there are two investigations ongoing: one by Russian Post, the other by the police." Enraged by the rocks he received, Sergei started his own website called Post Office Thieves, a forum for other Russian victims of mail theft. He has been inundated with stories. Among the victims to make contact with him are: "I'm going to collect all these complaints," Sergei told me, "and take them to the Russian authorities, so that they see the need to carry out checks on Russian Post." 'Huge organisation' It's not only Sergei who wants to clean up Russian Post. At a rowdy press conference in Moscow this week, consumer protection official Alexei Samokhvalov clashed with representatives of Russian Post. He described the situation with parcel deliveries as "alarming" and "farcical". He also claimed the postal service had worked better in Soviet times. Russian Post admits that thefts do occur. But the company strongly defends its record. "Each year we receive, process and deliver more than 1.7 billion letters and 54 million parcels," says the service's spokesperson Raniya Yefimova. "Of those parcels, 6.5 million contain goods from abroad, mainly items from internet shopping sites. Normally, no more than 3% of them go missing." The Russian mail service says it does all it can to prevent such incidents and - when they happen - to investigate them. "Russia has 380,000 postal workers at 42,000 branches," Ms Yefimova points out. "It's a huge organisation and there are all kinds of people working there. But most of our staff are very honest people. "We don't like our staff being called thieves and bad words like that. Naturally we jump to their defence. Because we, more than anyone, work to prevent stealing."

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Cuba's new constitution: What's in and what's out

A draft of an updated constitution for Cuba approved by the island's National Assembly on 22 July has made headlines as much for what was left out as what was put in. Here are highlights of what's in, what's out and what's staying in the proposed new Cuban constitution.

By Pascal FletcherBBC Monitoring, Miami Why the plans for a new constitution? The proposed 224-article new constitution will replace the 1976 national charter that enshrined one-party communism on the island following Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution. Acknowledging that Cuba and the world had changed since 1976, newly-elected Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the new realities meant the constitution was "obliged" to be updated, and he called the reform "deep". Mr Díaz-Canel, who took over from Fidel Castro's brother Raúl on 19 April - the first time for decades Cuba's head of state has not carried the name Castro - said the new document would reflect "the now and the future of the nation". Proposed changes that recognise same-sex marriage, but drop a previously stated objective of constructing a "communist society" in Cuba, have drawn intense media attention. However, the Caribbean nation definitely will be keeping its one-party socialist political and economic system, ruled over by the Communist Party of Cuba. While it has already been approved "unanimously" by the 600-plus assembly deputies, Cuban officials said the document would be subjected to a process of "popular consultation" among the island's people, to gather comments and suggestions, before being submitted for final approval in a national referendum. In: Marriage 'between two persons' One alteration that attracted comment both inside and outside the island was the proposal to redefine the institution of marriage as being between "two persons" rather than "a man and a woman" - a change effectively opening the way for the legalisation of same-sex marriages. This was undoubtedly a novelty in a country where the communist authorities - in the name of "revolutionary morality" - had persecuted homosexuals as "scum" in the first few decades following the 1959 revolution, often dispatching them to work camps along with priests and other "anti-social" elements. Since the collapse of the Soviet bloc after 1989 which pushed Cuba to open up more to the outside world, official attitudes to both religion and homosexuality have eased. In the 21-22 July debate by the National Assembly on the revised constitution, Cuban media made a point of highlighting the support for the marriage re-definition expressed by "deputy Mariela Castro" - the 55-year-old daughter of Cuban Communist Party leader and former president Raúl Castro. Mariela Castro, who is the director of the Cuban National Centre for Sex Education (CENESEX), has gained prominence as a defender of LGBT rights. In: Role of the market While reaffirming the overriding principles of a "socialist" economy and central economic planning, the proposed new charter gives formal juridical recognition to the "the role of the market", and "private property" as one of a range of types of property existing in the Cuban economy. The "market" and "private ownership" are both key elements of Western capitalism which were long pilloried as corrupting generators of inequality by Cuba's Communist Party rulers. So the changes reflect the realities of Cuba's own experience, which saw the island forced to open itself up more to foreign tourism and investment after the disappearance of its Soviet benefactor, including allowing of private self-employed economic activities and enterprises for which more than half a million Cubans currently have licences. Observers saw the constitutional tweaks moving Cuba in the direction of - but still far from close to - the types of "market socialism" currently practised by political allies like China and Vietnam. However, unlike those countries, Cuban officials and state media were still expressing public aversion to the idea of excessive individual enrichment, and the revised constitution continues to prohibit private "concentration of property". In: Prime minister and governors The constitutional reform introduces proposed novelties in the organisation and hierarchy of the Cuban state. One is the creation of the post of prime minister, to lead the Council of Ministers (cabinet) in the day-to-day running of the country. This prime minister would be designated by the National Assembly at the proposal of the president. This reinstates a position that had existed in the early years of the Cuban revolution. Another change is a proposal to have governors ruling Cuba's 15 provinces - instead of the current presidents of provincial assemblies - but the new constitutional text also stresses the importance of "municipal autonomy". Out: Aiming for a 'communist society' The elimination of the phrase "to advance towards communist society" has generated the most attention and comment. The revised article retains the goal of "the construction of socialism". Some media jumped on this change. "Cuba renounces communism," was the excited headline carried by Cuban dissident website CiberCuba on 21 July. Even inside Cuba, the proposed alteration has produced debate, for example, on the curated readers' comments section of the official Communist Youth daily Juventud Rebelde on 22 July. Reader "Juan R Oro" wrote: "The majority of us Cubans are not in agreement with this project of a constitution nor with the fact that the word communism is eliminated from this." Another reader, "El Oriental" (The Easterner) had a different view: "Jose del Oro, if communism has been a failure in Europe and what it does is keep investors away, why keep insisting on an obsolete and demonstrably failed system which does not evolve, it simply disappears." Staying: Communist Party of Cuba and single-party system Cuban leaders and official media made very clear however the island was not giving up its one-party socialist system, or the pre-dominance of the ruling Communist Party, specifically defined as "Fidelist" and "Marxist-Leninist". Communist Party daily Granma declared on 23 July: "The [constitution] project reaffirms the socialist character of our political, economic and socialist system, as well as the directing role of the Communist Party of Cuba." In comments carried on state TV, Cuban National Assembly President Esteban Lazo assured viewers that "the ideology" was not being "lost" but updated to aim for "sovereign, independent, democratic, prosperous and sustainable socialism". Many Cuban exiles and anti-government dissidents were unimpressed by the proposed constitutional changes. In an apparently mocking reference to the continuation of the one-party state, Cuban dissident website 14yMedio carried a 22 July commentary headlined: "There will be no transition in Cuba... not even to communism". Some exile commentators were asking whether the alterations meant Cuba's schoolchildren, who start each day with a salute and the words "Pioneers for communism! We will be like Che [Guevara]!" would be changing their slogan now.

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The Archers star reveals sacking secret after 60 years

Sixty years ago, ITV was born with a star-studded launch. But Britain's first commercial TV broadcast was overshadowed by a BBC radio soap - and the star at the centre of the plot has now revealed the truth about what happened.

By Ian YoungsArts reporter "Who killed Grace?" the Daily Express demanded on its front page on 23 September 1955. "AND WAS IT JUST COINCIDENCE IT HAPPENED ON ITV NIGHT?" Grace was Grace Archer, who had been heard perishing in a stable fire in BBC radio serial The Archers the previous night. The glamorous young wife of Phil Archer, played by Ysanne Churchman, was one of the soap's main characters. Eight million people heard her dramatic demise. Afterwards, distraught listeners flooded the BBC switchboard and vented their grief in newspaper letters pages. "The Archers are like members of the family," wrote Mrs D Hall of Burton-on-Trent to the Daily Mirror. "This 'death' has brought a sense of grief to me that not even the thought 'it's just a play' can quite erase." Mrs L Botterill from Kettering declared: "At first I couldn't believe my ears. 'Grace Archer dead?' I said to my husband. 'She mustn't be!' Then I felt quite cold and had to put my woolly on." And a correspondent identified as SW from Balham, south London, complained: "I thought I was in for a lively party when I was invited next door for the first night of ITV. "Instead it was like a house of mourning because Grace Archer had been 'killed off' in that radio serial at 7pm." That must have been music to the ears of the BBC top brass, for they had deliberately timed Grace's downfall to sabotage the launch of ITV. Fifteen minutes after Grace's shocking death, a sequence showing sweeping shots of London landmarks, accompanied by a rousing voice-over, went on air on TV's channel nine. This was the new ITV. The opening sequence was followed by live coverage of a seven-course banquet from London's Guildhall, then a variety show featuring Hughie Green and Elizabeth Allan. After that, there was drama performed by the leading actors and actresses in the land - The Importance of Being Earnest with Dame Edith Evans and Sir John Gielgud; and Baker's Dozen with Alec Guinness and Pamela Brown. Then there was boxing, a fashion show and more variety. The first night was only available to those with TV sets in London and surrounding areas, and around 100,000 were estimated to have tuned in. The coming of independent television was highly controversial. BBC founder Lord Reith was aghast at the breaking of the corporation's monopoly, and feared it would bring an invasion of an American-style commerciality. "Somebody introduced dog-racing into England," he said. "And somebody introduced smallpox, bubonic plague and the black death. "Somebody is minded now to introduce sponsored broadcasting into this country… Need we be ashamed of moral values, or of intellectual and ethical objectives? It is these that are here and now at stake." In public, the BBC denied it had intended to try to smother its new rival at birth. Official line The official explanation for Grace Archer's headline-grabbing death was that the show had too many characters and they needed to get rid of one. "We knew some major person must go out to leave other situations possible," Mr D Morris, head of BBC Midland regional programmes, told a press conference afterwards. But, as the Daily Express suggested, that was not the full story. Earlier that year, H Rooney Pelletier, controller of the BBC Light Programme, had written a memo saying: "The more I think about it, the more I believe that a death of a violent kind in The Archers, timed, if possible, to diminish interest in the opening of commercial television in London, is a good idea." And so there was a violent death on the night of ITV's launch, and Grace was the victim. But one question remained. Why Grace? Or - more to the point - why Ysanne Churchman? There were rumours that Churchman had been involved in a pay dispute with the corporation, and had brought in actors' union Equity. But no-one involved would confirm the story. "Was Grace Archer coldly and calmly murdered - to rid the Archers of Ysanne Churchman?" The Daily Mirror asked. "The BBC know the facts. So does Equity. And, of course, so does Ysanne Churchman. But, dead girls can tell no tales." Dead girls can tell no tales. That phrase has now been borrowed for the title of a BBC Radio 4 docudrama about these events, which was broadcast on Saturday. At the conclusion of Saturday's drama, Churchman herself - now aged 90 - spoke to finally resolve the mystery of why her character was killed off. It was "victimisation because I'd been to Equity to get my fees put right", she revealed. She wanted the same pay as her male co-stars, and for actors to be in the union. The Archers creator Godfrey Baseley wanted her out. "But don't feel too sorry for me," Churchman continued. "In some ways Godfrey Baseley may even have done me a favour. "They say that when one door shuts another opens. And on the very night Grace died, ITV started, and immediately needed people with just exactly my experience to voice the commercials. And so I was able to make a good living from voice-overs for years." Grace 'never really died' For ITV's 50th anniversary in 2005, Churchman sent a card of congratulations to the broadcaster's chairman, signed from Grace Archer. "I hope he appreciated the joke because I've sent another one this year too," she said. "For me, for The Archers and for so many listeners even today, Grace - the character, the sensation of her death, the claims and counter-claims, the myth-making - mean that she's never really died. A good story never does. "The legend of Grace will live on, and I must say that I really feel quite proud to have been part of it." Dead Girls Tell No Tales is available on the BBC Radio 4 website.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31438226

The card aiming to end Nigeria's fraud problem

Nigeria has a bad reputation when it comes to fraud.

By Tom JacksonBusiness reporter "Dear Friend" emails originating from the country - also known as 419 scams - are among the most notorious in the world, with statistics from Ultrascan AGI suggesting losses from such schemes totalled $12.7bn (£8.2bn) in 2013. And the number of scams is growing by 5% each year. "Nigeria certainly has a problem," says Cormac Herley, principal researcher at Microsoft Research, who has looked in detail at 419 scams. "[The country has] become associated with a particular form of scam that's very visible and known to everyone who receives those emails." However, identity fraud is also a serious problem. Identity problems In May last year, 16 people were charged in the US for using stolen information to obtain money and goods and then shipping them to Nigeria. Those arrested, most of them Nigerian, were charged with taking over bank or stock brokerage accounts, removing all the money, and making purchases. They were eventually sentenced to seven years imprisonment. And it is not just foreigners who are targeted by such fraud. Nigeria's Inter-Bank Settlements Systems estimates the country's banks lost 159 billion naira ($800m; £515m) to electronic fraud between 2000 and 2013. Faced with its negative international reputation, and local banking losses, the Nigerian government is seeking to address the issue centrally. Last year, the National Electronic Identity (e-ID) Card was launched in collaboration with MasterCard, with President Goodluck Jonathan the first recipient. Ending impersonation The smart card's Match-On-Card technology matches a holder's fingerprint against a profile stored in the embedded chip. The card is also a travel document, conforming to the same standards as international passports. It contains electronic identification information, as well as Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology that allows for document signing, non-repudiation and encryption. The National eID card is "capable of identifying two identical twins by the use of biometrics," says Chris Onyemenam, chief executive of Nigeria's National Identity Management Commission, which is handling the rollout of the cards. Part of the problem for Nigeria, which has a population of about 170 million, is that until now it has had no unified national system for recording identity data. Rooting out fraudsters The new card is "actually addressing the issue of multiple identities by some Nigerians," explains Mr Onyemenam. "It is addressing the issue of stolen identity. It is helping security agencies verify and fish out who the real culprit is." Aside from its identification features, the card offers can be used as a form of payment. Separated from the other services by a firewall, the payments function uses MasterCard's prepaid technology and is chip and pin certified. Daniel Monehin, division president for sub-Saharan Africa at MasterCard, says the fact the card has a computer chip embedded protects cardholders from fraud, and protects against the creation of counterfeit cards. The rollout of the payments-enabled e-ID card will also go some way to addressing another of Nigeria's major issues: lack of access to banking. Fully 70% of adult Nigerians do not have a formal bank account. "By giving every Nigerian of 16 and older an identity card with payments functionality, the government can effectively eliminate financial exclusion in Nigeria, and help citizens to improve their livelihoods," says Mr Monehin. "The broader economic impact of the card will be felt as the previously unbanked and under-banked are able to gain access to the mainstream economy and the visibility of their assets allows them to build a financial history and establish creditworthiness with financial institutions." This will be particularly helpful to small and medium-sized enterprises, Mr Monehin adds, which will now be able to access the financing that they need to grow their businesses. Privacy concerns The eID card has, however, caused some controversy. Civil liberties organisation Privacy International has raised concerns about the data integration, saying it would make it easy to link together pieces of information about a person. It is also concerned about the combination of the identity scheme with a strongly commercial initiative such as the bank card. Concerns were also expressed on popular Nigerian social networking site Nairaland. "The future of 170 million Nigerians sold to MasterCard," said one user, while others said they were worried about their personal data and how it would be used. MasterCard, however, has reiterated that the banking function is separate from the others and it does not have access to the identity information of any Nigerians. 'Time will tell' Nigeria is actually ahead of the game globally in terms of rolling out such identity cards, with identity analyst firm Acuity Market Intelligence forecasting half the world's population will have a chip-based National e-ID card in five years time. For Nigerians themselves, however, the proof will be in the pudding. Paul Adepoju, who lives in the city of Ibadan, says many Nigerians are not aware of the threat of identity theft due to the low level of education about e-banking. He added, however, that if the government could facilitate easier uptake of the cards, there was nothing to say this would not be successful. "At least they are doing something, and we have to be optimistic that something somewhere and somehow could, would and should work. "It could be this one - we will only know when every Nigerian has got it."

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Beginners' guide to Mo Yan

Chinese author Mo Yan has been awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for literature. Michel Hockx, Professor of Chinese at the School of Oriental and African Studies, part of the University of London, hosted a lecture by the author during the recent London Book Fair. Here, he offers a brief guide to the prolific 57-year-old novelist.

Who is Mo Yan? Mo Yan is a popular novelist living in China who has been producing a steady output of fiction since the 1980s. He is also one of the most translated Chinese novelists into English, certainly among living authors. What genre do his books fall into? He writes a mixture of realism and magical realism. Earlier works were more historical, but as his career has developed, the stories have become more elaborate, more complicated and more unusual. What does he write about? He writes about rural communities in China that seem to be very familiar, very ordinary - the sort of region where he grew up - but then all kinds of magical and unusual things start to happen. Who reads his books? He is a wonderful storyteller, and is someone who could appeal to anyone. The novels - especially the early ones - are quite easy to read. They are good, gripping stories. When he spoke at SOAS during the London Book Fair what I noticed was that a lot of the audience were not Chinese experts, they had just read his novels in translation and really liked them. They just wanted to see him and meet him, he has a strong international following. What is his best-known book? The earliest novel by him that was translated into English was Red Sorghum, which was also turned into a very famous movie by Zhang Yimou. It's actually a very complicated tale. It's a historical novel written from the perspective of a child growing up during up the second world war. I was in China when that film came out and I remember audiences going absolutely crazy for it. Is he political? Mo Yan was asked whether he was political when he was here at the London Book Fair. His response was: 'Of course I care about politics, and I write about things that I see that I think are wrong - but I also think that the writer should not just be a political activist, a writer should be a writer, first and foremost'. He has had his spats with the authorities, but nothing serious. Is he a good pick to win the Nobel Prize for literature? It's a good choice. He has been writing for decades. He has a very impressive oeuvre, a large readership and he addresses the human condition in a way in which the Nobel Committee likes to see.

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Scottish Greens appoint Alison Johnstone as new co-leader

Alison Johnstone has been appointed as co-leader of the Scottish Greens' parliamentary group alongside Patrick Harvie.

Mr Harvie had previously held the role, which includes speaking at First Minister's Questions, on his own. Ms Johnstone said the Greens had gender balanced roles throughout the party, which also now applied to Holyrood. Maggie Chapman will remain a co-convenor of the party's national council. Related Internet Links Scottish Greens

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Should homeless people be given tents?

Cheap, easy-to-assemble tents are being used to shelter those on the streets, with some charities and campaign groups encouraging donations. But in some places, authorities are clamping down on homeless camps.

By Justin ParkinsonBBC News Magazine "Loads of people on the streets swear by tents," says Steve, 27, who has been a rough sleeper since the age of 14. "I mean, they give you a bit of extra warmth, so it's a lot easier to stay out in the open than it is if you're just using a sleeping bag." The average age of death for a rough sleeper in England is just 47. Bad weather and fear of attack make life difficult and uncertain. Anecdotally, it appears it's becoming more common for homeless people to seek some shelter and degree of privacy in tents. While they "cannot begin to provide an adequate substitute for the roof, every person deserves over their head, any advantage a rough sleeper has against the elements could be the difference between life and death", says Jon Sparkes, chief executive of the homelessness charity Crisis. "There are loads more than there used to be," says Steve, who did not want to give his surname. He sleeps out in central London, having moved to the UK from Ireland. "People feel a bit safer in a tent. After all, it's harder to hurt someone by jumping on a tent than it is out in the open. Some people have been a bit stupid with where they're putting their tents and they get moved on, but most use their brains." The number of rough sleepers in England increased by 30% from 2014 to 2015, according to official figures. Many of those living outdoors in towns and cities have addictions and mental health problems. But not everyone thinks tents are a solution. Several camps formed in Manchester have been moved on over the past year, and the city's council has won an injunction against the pitching of tents on land it owns. Bristol Council has warned that charities and organisations urging the donation of tents to rough sleepers are encouraging anti-social behaviour and might be delaying those in need from seeking help. Rough sleeping in England It's become easier to pitch a tent. Instant or pop-up versions allow people to set up their overnight accommodation in just a few seconds. They are light and fold up into near-flat containers, with basic models retailing in the UK for less than £20. There's been a strong drive to provide more of these tents in the US, where the government estimates that more than 500,000 people are homeless. The charity Tents-4-Homeless was set up in Los Angeles to encourage the public to donate tents and money to supply them. These "at least provide temporary protection against inclement weather and provide a small measure of dignity and privacy", says founder and director Peter Schey. Without the construction of "several hundred thousand new housing units", the situation will not ease, he argues, adding: "Until then, more and more homeless people will have no option other than to live in tents lining the streets of the richest nation on earth." About 20 tents are currently standing on a plot of land next to London Road in Manchester. The camp is the successor of several others in the city that have been disbanded or moved on since the first started outside the town hall in April last year as part of an anti-austerity protest. "The use of tents by homeless people is a recent thing," says solicitor Ben Taylor, who has represented those involved in the camps during their disputes with Manchester City Council. "I've worked with homeless people for 20 years and I've never seen large-scale use of tents until last year. Before, people tended to sleep under a bridge or in a driveway or on a park bench. Spots next to air vents were popular too." At points during the encampments, organisations appealed via Facebook for the public to donate tents - a smaller-scale version of what Tents-4-Homeless is doing in the US. This provoked widespread "sympathy and empathy", says Taylor, with some people buying tents, as well as jumpers, blankets and underwear, from nearby shops and bringing them to the camp. "There's a practical reason," he says. "If you are sleeping in a tent and there are five other tents next to it, you are less likely to get beaten up. The problem is that people coming out of nightclubs sometimes kick people. "If there are a few of you in tents, you can leave your stuff inside and go to the loo or a shop and someone can keep an eye on it for you. If you leave it out on the street, then it's gone. With tents there's a bit more of a community situation going on." A sizeable proportion of the early Manchester tent-dwellers was made up of activists, rather than the genuinely homeless, says Taylor, but the London Road camp is "100% homeless". In Bristol, the council has threatened to remove tents erected by rough sleepers in sites including Castle Park and St James Park. Nick Hooper, the council's director of housing solutions and crime reduction, has said some of those involved "start causing nuisance, anti-social behaviour, littering". The authority warns that the use of tents could make it harder for charities and others looking to help the most needy. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has said that even the organisation's own family tents, made to a higher specification than the most basic models, "are designed as a short-term shelter solution, particularly in support to emergency situations" and are "not a substitute for a more permanent shelter". One city where tents' use by the homeless has proved particularly controversial over a long period is Paris. In January 1954, Catholic priest and former MP Henri-Antoine Groues, better known as Abbe Pierre, launched an appeal for help after a homeless couple and a homeless single woman died of hypothermia. He sent an open letter to newspapers, saying: "Everyone can help those who are homeless. We need - tonight and, at the latest, tomorrow - 5,000 blankets, 300 big American tents, and 200 catalytic stoves." The appeal succeeded and Abbe Pierre had tents erected on the quays of the river Seine, partly a practical measure and partly for the propaganda effect. In 1956, a government minister said those involved should "go sleep under the bridges" of Paris instead, hidden from wider public view. Fifty years later, in 2006, another camp grew by the Saint-Martin canal in north-east Paris, the tents bearing the initials SDF, standing for "sans domicile fixe" ("without a fixed abode"). A group called the Children of Don Quixote set up around 100 tents, inviting people to come and spend time with the residents. The camp lasted for three months. An attempt to build a successor in December 2007 was stopped by police. The current Manchester camp is on ground owned by Manchester University, which says it has made "clear that we have not consented to this use of this land" and "reserves all rights to take appropriate steps to require vacation of the land". But it adds that it is a "large and inclusive institution, with a clear commitment to social responsibility". "We'll have to see what happens," says Steve, "but I know that until things get a lot better there'll be a lot of people using tents." What the law says Follow Justin Parkinson on Twitter @justparkinson Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

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Heathrow Airport compensation views in Berkshire wanted

People in Berkshire who think they should be compensated if Heathrow Airport is expanded are being urged to attend a series of exhibition events.

A proposed new runway north-west of the airport would affect residents living in and around Slough and Windsor. Slough Borough Council said it was important residents were compensated for an increase in noise and the impact on property values. Three events across Slough and Windsor will be held next month. The airport has already set aside £550m for compensation and said owners of 750 homes that would need to be demolished would be offered 25% above the market value of their properties. Slough council is also making copies of the consultation document available at a number of its public buildings, including all of the town's libraries. The Heathrow Airport consultation runs until 12 October.

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Barcelona's Sagrada Familia agrees deal over lack of licence

The Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona, one of Spain's most famous tourist sites, has agreed to pay $41m (£31m) to the city authorities after going without a building permit for more than 130 years.

The spectacular church designed by architect Antoni Gaudí, is a Unesco world heritage site and still under construction. Work began on the building in 1882. Barcelona's mayor said the deal was a historic agreement. The basilica will pay the money over 10 years to improve public transport and access to the monument and assist the local neighbourhood. In return its status should be regularised early next year, Mayor Ada Colau said. About 4.5 million people visit the Sagrada Familia each year, with a further 20 million people visiting the area to look at it. The main structure is due to be completed by 2026, the centenary of Gaudí's death.

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Police Federation: Pulling it out of the past

Every year, there are two places where you will find a rowdy audience willing to boo and heckle. The first is the pantomime. The second is the Police Federation annual conference - as soon as a Home Secretary walks on stage.

Dominic CascianiHome affairs correspondent@BBCDomCon Twitter Notwithstanding the fact that Theresa May didn't get jeered this year (it was such a surprise, some newspapers thought the lack of boos to be newsworthy), the expectation of such a performance only serves to confirm to the Police Federation's critics that it is a dinosaur-like organisation stuck in the dark ages of industrial relations. Now a major report - commissioned by the federation's new leadership - has found the organisation wanting from top to bottom - just as critics have long suspected. The report, headed by former Home Office Permanent Secretary Sir David Normington, is withering in its criticism. His panel concluded that the federation is not only suffering a worrying loss of internal confidence and competence - but it has also lost influence or the ability to speak with one voice. The federation was born in the wake of walk-outs by police officers in 1918. Parliament banned the police from striking - but ministers recognised there still needed to be some way of hearing the voice of ordinary officers. The Police Federation of England and Wales was created to fill that role - and it was given a degree of state funding and largely guaranteed access to ministers. So for around a century, the federation has been at the centre of police industrial relations - and it has been able to present itself to ministers as an extremely powerful body, backed by tens of thousands of members. The problem is that two recent events - police reform and "plebgate" - have revealed how divided and weak the federation has actually become. Personal attacks The cracks began to emerge as the coalition pushed through a series of radical changes to policing: cuts to numbers, wide-ranging reforms to pay and conditions for those left behind, and the introduction of the controversial police and crime commissioners. The Fed's stance was to oppose and fight. There was an explosion of outrage from some officers on social media, including personal attacks against the twin architects of the reforms, Theresa May and Tom Winsor. The Fed lost. Completely. Today, Mrs May has implemented or is implementing most of the package - and she has even managed to consolidate it by appointing Mr Winsor as the chief inspector of constabulary. Then came "plebgate" - an affair that is far from over. One officer has been convicted after lying about the Downing Street incident. Others are facing either independent investigation or internal disciplinary hearings. The federation has played an important role in this saga and some branch figures orchestrated personal social media campaigns over the issue. Yet, again, it appears to have backfired; A BBC News poll found that in the wake of Plebgate more than a quarter of people were less likely to trust the police than before. Impartiality and Integrity The Normington report does not pull any punches, saying personal campaigns, including against federation members who held a different point of view, risked the police's reputation for "impartiality and integrity". "If the federation wants to be respected and listened to in the future, this has to stop," says the report. Steve Williams, the new chairman who commissioned the report, has his work cut out. Some of the branches don't even tell him how much money they have in the bank. So while Sir David's proposals require a complete rethink of the organisation - it is going to be a very tough road ahead. But perhaps most importantly, Sir David warns that no matter how successful the organisation is at reorganising its internal structures, it must face down a factionalist "powerful minority" who are more interested in political infighting and point-scoring than what's good for the country. "In terms of ethics, it's not what we want from our police officers," he says.

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Bloody Sunday commander Derek Wilford stands by soldiers

As January 1972 dawned, the month forever associated with the tragedy of Bloody Sunday, Lt Col Derek Wilford commander of the 1st Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, was one of the British Army's rising stars.

By Peter TaylorBBC News He was tough, outspoken and charismatic, adored by his men whom he adored in turn. But Wilford was no ordinary Para. He was an accomplished artist and used to read Virgil's Trojan War saga, The Aeneid, in the original Latin outside his tent. In Belfast, where Wilford's battalion was based, the Paras had a fearsome reputation, used by General Frank Kitson, the controversial guru of counter-insurgency operations, as shock troops to deal with trouble whenever and wherever it arose. The battalion's Support Company, consisting of some the regiment's toughest and most battle-hardened soldiers, including veterans of Aden, became known as "Kitson's Private Army". According to Lord Saville, who conducted the 12 year inquiry into Bloody Sunday, Support Company was known for "using excessive physical violence". Following internment without trial in August 1971, Wilford's battalion, along with other Paras, was sent to deal with serious rioting in west Belfast's Ballymurphy estate, then home to Gerry Adams, where the army had swooped to arrest and intern IRA suspects. The operation ended with 10 people dead. Local people said the victims were all innocent civilians. The long delayed inquest is currently being held in Belfast. Just over five months later, Col Wilford's battalion was deployed to Londonderry to crack down on rioters, known to the army as the 'Derry Young Hooligans', who, local traders said, were ruining their business and getting ever closer to the town centre. In response, General Robert Ford, the operational head of the army in Northern Ireland, travelled to Derry to listen to the businessmen's concerns. He was given an earful. The situation was getting ever more serious with the result that General Ford wrote a chilling memorandum to his superior, General Sir Harry Tuzo. It said: "I am coming to the conclusion that the minimum force necessary to achieve a restoration of law and order is to shoot selected ringleaders amongst the DYH (Derry Young Hooligans) after clear warnings have been issued." Although Ford wasn't issuing a 'shoot to kill' instruction, his words do indicate the increasingly fraught climate of the time with more soldiers and police officers now being killed after internment and the allegations of "torture" by Army interrogators that followed in its wake. "Kitson's Private Army" was called in. Wilford had been outraged watching television images of soldiers in Derry being forced to retreat in the face of increasingly emboldened rioters. When I interviewed him on the 20th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in 1992, he told me, "The soldiers just stood there like Aunt Sallys… I had actually said in public, my soldiers were not going to act as Aunt Sallys - ever." With the emphasis on the "ever". Wilford was a man of his word. Given the tensions of the time, there was a certain inevitability that trouble would break out before and during the march that had been called to protest against internment. Thousands took part. But no-one envisaged that 13 men would end up dead on what became known as Bloody Sunday. The soldiers said they had come under attack and were returning fire. Many too were injured. Today, 47 years after the event, Derek Wilford still maintains that his men did not act improperly. Almost a decade after the Saville Report, does he accept what the inquiry said? "No, I don't, because I was there," he said. "We were under attack and we will actually remain convinced of that actually to the end of our days." In my 1992 interview, Wilford described the option soldiers faced when they came under fire. "You can run away - certainly my battalion would never run away - take cover behind your shields or do what my battalion was trained to do, to move forward and seek out the enemy." Lord Saville makes it clear that the first shots were fired by the Paras, wounding Damien Donaghey who, according to Saville, was not posing any threat of death or injury. Shortly afterwards an Official IRA gunman fired a shot in their direction, it remains unclear whether that was in response to the Paras' first shots. After Support Company invaded the nationalist Bogside enclave into which the rioters had fled, now pursued by Wilford's soldiers, a Para officer fired a warning shot. Confusion and bloody chaos then reigned. It is possible that the Paras thought they were then coming under attack. Father Edward Daly who was an eye-witness on the ground, told me he saw a gunman against a wall and told him in unecclesiastical terms to get out. In the 30 minutes following Wilford's command to "Move! Move! Move!", Support Company had fired 108 rounds and made 30 arrests. I walked into the Bogside the following morning when the blood was still fresh on the ground and bunches of flowers had begun to appear where 13 men, young and old, had been shot dead the afternoon before. None of them had been carrying a firearm. I walked past the rubble of the barricade in Rossville Street in the vicinity of which six young men, mostly teenagers, were killed. One of them was John Kelly's brother, Michael, 17, who had been shot dead. John Kelly and families of other victims have fought incessantly for justice, culminating in the demand that soldiers be prosecuted for the killings. "You can't draw a line under murder," said John. "Justice has to be seen to be done, no matter how long ago it is." 'We were betrayed' Bloody Sunday has taken its own toll on Derek Wilford, debilitated by Parkinson's disease and age. Climbing the stairs, too narrow for his Zimmer frame, to his artist's studio, is a struggle. The multitude of paintings in oil and watercolour, of landscapes and portraits, are testimony to his more energetic and creative days. Now he can't even hold a paintbrush. He showed me his farewell present, a Parachute Regiment painted drum, resting on three rifle butts. But he remains steadfastly defiant, standing by his men until the end. He is appalled at the possibility of his soldiers facing prosecution. "I don't believe they were capable of that sort of indiscriminate shooting and killing," he said. "We were betrayed and bringing charges against soldiers is part of that betrayal." Would he apologise to the families of the victims? "I said that at the time and I've said it subsequently, he replied. "I see no point in repeating it because whatever I say will be discounted." I finally asked what Bloody Sunday had done to him. "I think it destroyed my world," he sighed. In a far more direct way, it also destroyed the world of the families whose loved ones were killed and wounded by his soldiers.

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Middle East unrest: Silence broken in Syria

The silence has been broken in Syria.

By Lina SinjabBBC News A "day of rage" has now been held in several cities - Damascus, Homs, Banyas, and Deraa, south of Damascus. In Syria, it is not the Facebook generation that is taking to the streets. It is people who are tired of poverty and repression. The demonstrations in Deraa - where the police have reacted most brutally - started on Friday. Several families had gathered to demand the release of 15 school children who - influenced by the protests in Tunisia and Egypt - wrote the popular revolution slogan on the wall: "The people want the fall of the regime". Residents say the children's arrests in the tribal region deepened feelings of repression and helped fuel the protests in Deraa. Security forces opened fire on the protesters on Friday, killing three people. A fourth died from his wounds on Saturday, rights groups say. One YouTube video from Friday shows protesters chanting "Freedom, no fear after today". In another, people are carrying the bloodied body of Amer al-Jawabra, one of those killed. Before long, gunshots are heard, and the men are forced to run for cover. 'Rise up' Today, the police have used tear gas against thousands who were attending the funeral of two of the victims. Now, the slogans appear to be harsher. The mourners called for "revolution" - the boldest challenge to Syria's rulers since uprisings began sweeping the Arab world. "Revolution, revolution. Rise up Hauran," chanted the mourners in Deraa, administrative capital of the strategic Hauran plateau, as they marched behind simple wood coffins of Wissam Ayyash and Mahmoud al-Jawabra. "God, Syria, freedom. Whoever kills his own people is a traitor," they were quoted as saying by Reuters news agency. Eyewitnesses told the BBC that residents of Deraa were expecting more trouble in the coming days and hours. The communication lines appear to be down, and the security presence is high. Analyst and writer Louai al-Hussein said that the inevitable had happened. "Syria is now on the map of countries in the region with an uprising," he said. The al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the regime, says the authorities have decided to open a high-level investigation into the killings on Friday. They have also pledged to respond to people's demands in Deraa that the arrested school children be freed. Arrests The government has announced several measures to improve the situation in Syria in the wake of the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt that toppled the presidents of those countries. President Bashar al-Assad told the Wall Street Journal in January that Syria's leadership was "very closely linked to the beliefs of the people" and there was no mass discontent. Many in Syria say the hope was for the government to introduce real change, especially to improve their job prospects and living standards. Syria suffers similar problems to Egypt and Tunisia - poverty is high and the country has been under one-party rule for almost 50 years. But the margin of freedom is smaller in Syria. Syria has been under emergency law since 1963, and political freedoms are almost entirely absent. On Wednesday, the police arrested around 36 protesters who went to interior ministry calling for the release of political prisoners. Thirty-three of them, including women, were charged with weakening national morale and compromising the state. They are reported to have started a hunger strike, and Hirvin Orso, who stopped drinking water, is said to be in a critical condition. How things go now will depend on the government's response, says writer Louai al-Hussein. "They will either oppress it, and it will get worse, or [they can] allow peaceful demonstrations in Syria," he says.

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States of Alderney to hold a census

The States of Alderney has agreed to hold a census in the island this year, with the questions "broadly similar to those asked in 2001."

The Policy Committee agreed to make arrangements to make sure the census is compulsory. The States said the census would be analysed off island to ensure confidentiality of information. Paul Arditti, chairman of the Policy Committee, said the final report was expected in the early part of June. He said: "It is quite clear that the people of Alderney want a census. "Time and time again when considering policy options we come up against the obstacle of not knowing how many people live here and this will settle that argument once and for all." At the last census in 2001, there were 2,294 people living in Alderney.

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Simon Smith: Mum recalls baby's murder 25 years on

Twenty-five years ago, Simon Smith killed his three-month-old daughter - sparking an investigation into the deaths of his two other children. As he is moved to an open prison after serving decades behind bars, his ex-partner Rachel Playfair tells the story of how he murdered their baby.

By Lisa WrightBBC News On Thursday 17 November 1994, Smith was looking after three-month-old Lauren on his own for the first time. At lunchtime, Rachel called home to check in, having returned to work as a physiotherapist. When there was no answer, she knew something was wrong. "Then I got the call to say that Lauren had been taken to hospital with breathing difficulties, but she was actually dead at that time. When I walked into Stafford Hospital there were a lot of police around which I couldn't understand, and they said she had died. My first words to Simon were 'what have you done to her?' "There was just something that didn't ring true. How my healthy, bouncy, smiling little girl that I left that morning could suddenly be dead." Mrs Playfair was 22 when she met Smith in 1993, and by her own admission, she was vulnerable. She had been admitted to St George's Hospital in Stafford with an eating disorder, while he was being treated for depression following the death of his baby, and the pair developed a friendship. "He was incredibly charming and seemed very sensitive," she remembers. "My self-esteem at the time was pretty low, I had just come out of a long-term relationship and I suppose in a way he groomed me. "He said all the right things and did all the right things and it wasn't until after I was discharged from hospital that we formed a relationship, but during that time I became aware of his issues." Smith was violent and an alcoholic, said Mrs Playfair, and shortly before Christmas of that year she made the decision to end things. But before she had the chance, the couple was involved in a car crash and a test at hospital revealed she was pregnant. "In the space of about three hours I had gone from someone who was going to end the relationship to somebody who was absolutely stuck." Lauren was born on 27 August 1994. Mrs Playfair was besotted, but Smith was only "playing the part" of a doting father. And as the family returned home to Stone, in Staffordshire, it became clear things were not right. "There were times he made it quite clear that Lauren was quite an inconvenience," said Mrs Playfair. "There were times during the 12 weeks of her life when he was physically abusive [to me]," she said, but added there "was never a time I thought he would harm Lauren". Her threats to leave would be countered by threats by Smith that she would never be able to keep her daughter due to her previous eating disorder. And at the time "domestic violence was not something that was talked about", so she "stayed put", she said. When Lauren was 11 weeks old, Mrs Playfair returned to work and her daughter was looked after by a childminder during the day. On a few occasions she came home and found Smith had left their daughter in her cot with the heating on high and wrapped in blankets. "If you know anything about cot deaths, you know the risks of overheating the baby," she said. "He knew all these risks of allowing her to get too hot." That same week, Smith was to look after Lauren on his own for the first time. She would not survive the day. Her death prompted police to investigate the deaths of his other children - Eleisha in 1989 and Jamie, who died in 1993. Smith, a trainee assistant in a care home, admitted to police he had suffocated Lauren but insisted his two other babies had suffered cot deaths. But police led an inquiry and brought expert witnesses to court, who said the infants could have been suffocated. He was convicted of all three murders and jailed in 1996. During her pregnancy Mrs Playfair and Smith had been in contact with social services under the "next infant scheme", due to the previous deaths of his children. While Lauren's family praised the police work, they say they were failed by authorities at the time and more should have been done to prevent her death. Mrs Playfair, who was not able to have any more children, said she believed "Lauren was here to get justice for Jamie and Eleisha". They felt it had been served when the judge recommended Smith's life sentence should mean life. However, at the time decisions on the minimum length of a life sentence were made by the home secretary. The responsibility was handed to judges when the Criminal Justice Act was implemented in 2003 and Smith was told he would serve at least 24 years. In October it was confirmed he had been moved to an open prison and his release on temporary licence would happen in the following weeks. "The goalposts have been moved," said Mrs Playfair, who now lives in Shropshire with her husband, Paul. Her father, Patrick, has since met the minister of state for justice to discuss the case and the Parole Board decision. He said he had been encouraged by the emphasis on public protection following the meeting. But the family said they have been told the Parole Board's decision is unlikely to be overturned, so they will continue fighting to keep Smith in a secure prison. "We just want somebody to say this is wrong, it's inconceivable that a man that killed three children should be released from prison and back into the community, regardless of what protections are put in place," said Mr Playfair. The Ministry of Justice says public protection is its priority and offenders are returned to closed prison "at the first sign of concern". A further parole hearing is expected to take place in the new year and Mrs Playfair aims to attend in person and read her victim impact statement. She says she fears for her own life and that of her family if Smith is released. They would also like to see laws around the sentencing of child killers looked at in the future. There is a "great disparity" between the fixed sentence given to convicted child killers and "the life sentence that's left with the victims", Mrs Playfair said. As she reflects on the anniversary of her daughter's death, she added: "This time of year for me is very difficult because the sight of the leaves changing, the smell of the autumn is so evocative. "One of my last memories I have of Lauren is of Remembrance Sunday, I took her to church and I walked down this footpath and the leaves were beautiful. "It was a bright, crisp, cold, sunny day and all the smells of autumn, and just having Lauren in her pram - it's such a vivid picture and it doesn't take a lot for that image, the smells, the feeling to come back. And it just catches you. "So for us there isn't any parole, there isn't any release, even on temporary licence. This is our reality."

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Ethnic rifts overshadow Bosnia election

It nestles in a lush valley in southeastern Bosnia, a few streets winding up the surrounding hills to the houses dotted above. But the serene landscape around Foca belies the town's devastating past.

By Mark LowenBBC News, Bosnia-Hercegovina This was where some of the worst ethnic cleansing of Muslims - or Bosniaks - took place by Bosnian Serbs during the war of the 1990s. The town was renamed "Srbinje", or "Place of the Serbs". The central sports hall was transformed into a rape camp. But today, Foca is gaining a reputation for reconciliation and progressive politics. Its mayor, Zdravko Krsmanovic, has been in charge for six years and is now running for government in Sunday's election. He has encouraged Bosniaks to return to Foca, rebuilding many of the mosques destroyed during the war. Voice of tolerance Among Bosnian politicians, he is a rare voice - non-nationalistic and vehemently opposed to the ethnic divisions that still blight Bosnia today. Zdravko wanders through the main street of Foca, stopping to talk to several residents. "Foca should become an example for the whole of Bosnia: to expel the hatred and fear," he tells me. "My mission is to promote peace, dialogue, compromise and tolerance." Bosnia is a young state," he says, "and we can't allow this child to be killed before it can really live. The nationalists want to kill this child but if Bosnia is divided, it will only lead to new wars." But nationalism wins votes here. Foca is part of the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska: one of two semi-autonomous entities which, along with the Bosniak-Croat Federation of Bosnia-Hercegovina, makes up the country's post-war political structure. Mistrust of 'the other' The Prime Minister of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, has frequently called for his region to secede from Bosnia. In an interview earlier this year, he told me Bosnia was a "virtual, pointless country". And he is way ahead in the pre-election polls: his SNSD party is likely to strengthen its hold on power. Zdravko's liberal message provokes a mixed reaction in Foca. "We all live in one country and we have to work together," says Ana, a young businesswoman. But a taxi driver, Vaso, is against the mayor who, he believes, does not care for Serbs. "He just tries to support the Muslims to get their votes," he says. "Muslims are actually all Serbs. They just converted a few hundred years ago. Bosnia has always been a Serb land - we now have an autonomous Republika Srpska, but I would like Bosnia to be Serb again." That division - that mistrust of "the other" - is, many believe, driven by politicians such as Milorad Dodik and the Bosniak member of the country's presidency, Haris Silajdzic, who has labelled Republika Srpska a "genocidal creation". Political stalemate Under Bosnia's extraordinarily complex political system, voters elect MPs to their own entity governments - in other words, a Republika Srpska resident does not choose members of the entity parliament of the Federation of Bosnia-Hercegovina, and vice versa. The result is that politicians focus on shoring up their own core ethnic vote. And if that is difficult to grasp, just consider the figures: in Bosnia's 14 parliaments, there are five presidents, 13 prime ministers and 700 MPs - all for a population of just four million. The result is stalemate, with the different political parties failing to agree on any meaningful reform. And Bosnia is left in prolonged political crisis, far from its goal of European Union and Nato membership. "If we don't change the current system, what we'll have in a generation is people who socialise in isolation from other ethnic groups, so Bosnia might lose its meaning," warns political analyst Asim Mujkic. "Inflammatory speech is rising and I think these elections are bringing the country more and more towards instability and unrest," he says. "Political candidates are pointed towards radicalism.. If you start talking about multi-ethnicity and multi-culturalism, you'll end up with two hundred votes." Country at crossroads There are however some small signs of progress. The state parliament has just voted to send 45 soldiers to serve in Afghanistan this month: a step towards Bosnia joining Nato. I join them during their final training, a couple of hours' drive from Sarajevo. They simulate vehicle checks in which they find a car bomb and shoot the attacker. In the neighbouring forest, a dozen soldiers climb through the brambles before one comes under simulated fire: they huddle around him, applying emergency first aid. "Finally we can give somebody help, not just be a country receiving help and for us that is very important moment," says the commander, his name withheld for security reasons. "I'm proud that this unit is mixed with all nations in our country. The military is going towards Nato: just the political part has to follow." So as voters prepare to cast their ballots, Bosnia stands at a crossroads. Either the past is finally laid to rest, and the country is shaken out of its lethargy, or nationalist divisions deepen and the dream of European integration slips further from Bosnia's grasp. Politicians fomented conflict here in the 1990s. Fighting is unlikely to return but, 15 years on, the fear of a failed state in this corner of Europe is still real.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-35846098

Allied Bakeries strike to hit hot cross buns baking

Workers at a Cardiff bakery plan to strike, affecting the production of some of the 900,000 hot cross buns produced there in the run-up to Easter.

The Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union said members voted for Wednesday's 24 hour walkout at Allied Bakeries after changes to holiday entitlements and shift patterns. Union representative John James said he hoped the issue could be resolved. The company said it was in discussions with unions. Mr James said 56 out of 70 workers who cast ballots voted for industrial action, timed to coincide with the lead-up to Easter. 'Working hard' Mike Auden, general manager at Allied Bakeries Wales, said: "We can confirm that we are in discussions with unions at our Cardiff bakery regarding a wage related matter. "We are listening to employees and working hard to maintain open and constructive dialogue with our workforce. "On that basis we hope that the strike action called for next week will not go ahead."

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-31138396

New MV Loch Seaforth makes first berth at Stornoway

A new ferry built to serve on the Ullapool to Stornoway route has berthed for the first time at Stornoway harbour.

The £42m MV Loch Seaforth has been doing berthing trials at pier number three ahead of its introduction to the route. The boat has already carried out trials at Ullpool. Last month, Transport Minister Derek Mackay said he was confident the ferry will be operating by the end of May. Related Internet Links Calmac Transport Scotland

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A493 death crash: Family pay tribute to man hit by van

A family have paid tribute to a man who was killed when he was hit by a van, saying he would be "missed immensely".

Anthony Brown, 38, from Wolverhampton, died on the A493 between Bryncrug and Tywyn, just before 21:45 BST on Saturday. He was "loved by all" and would be "missed immensely", his family said in a statement. North Wales Police asked for any witnesses, or anyone with dashcam footage or CCTV to contact them. The family said he was staying in north Wales after arriving by train. "We know he had enjoyed a night out in Tywyn on Friday evening and was looking forward to the rest of his weekend," they said. The vehicle involved was a grey Mercedes Vito, police said. Senior investigating officer Sgt Raymond Williams said the force's "thoughts" were with Mr Brown's family and friends.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-45798623

Spanish flu pandemic 1918 - could it happen again?

It is 100 years since the influenza pandemic killed millions around the world, a death toll far worse than the bubonic plague. But what is the chance of something similar happening again? New strains of flu continue to emerge and experts warn that another pandemic could happen despite a century of advances in technology and healthcare.

By Steve DuffyBBC News During the 1918-19 outbreak, it was thought that Spanish flu was caused by bacteria rather than a virus. Viruses are now better understood, but scientists have also learned a great deal from studying the pandemic which struck a century ago. They learned how very differently it could behave to our usual experience of seasonal flu. It hit proportionately more younger and healthier adults. Experts believe older people who were infected by Spanish flu may have previously encountered a similar strain, and therefore had a degree of immunity. Dr Niall Johnson, who published a study of the 1918-19 pandemic says the medical profession a century ago was familiar with infectious disease, but not at this scale. "Many of the medical memoirs mention the pandemic, and often say that it was not the presentation of the disease that was unusual but the sheer volume of cases - and how little they could offer people," he said. Dr Jonathan D Quick is an expert on epidemics worldwide and is working to help nations prepare better. "With some flu viruses - it was true in 1918 and in 2009 - one of things which happens is that the way that flu kills you is not the flu itself," he said. "It's what it does to your lungs, it sort of melts the linings and then you get a bacterial pneumonia... that will kill you. "They didn't have antibiotics then, so they died faster. But the other thing that happens, particularly in young people when they have a good, active immune system is that your body overreacts. It ends up just filling your lungs with fluid. A lot of these deaths weren't from the bacterial complications, but from an explosion of the immune system." Dr Johnson says the impact of new viruses today will vary, for several reasons. These include vaccines that may confer some immunity, anti-viral drugs, better hygiene and antimicrobials that deal with the infections such as pneumonia, that were major contributors to the death rate in the 1918-19. "So, yes, I think we are better placed than in 1918 but the potential for a pandemic to be a global infection that sickens the majority of the world's population and kills a substantial number is still there." Dr Quick believes such a scenario is not inevitable, if more is done to make the world safer and prepared. "One of the most important things is to invest in the so-called universal flu vaccine," he says - one which works against all strains of the virus, by targeting the part of the virus which doesn't change. More stories you might be interested in How the 1918-19 epidemic devastated Wales Spanish flu: 'We didn't know who we'd lose next' Why flu is so unpredictable How you could help stop a flu pandemic Why are some flu outbreaks worse than others? The UK government sets out an official National Risk Register, which says that no country is immune to infectious disease from another part of the world. It estimates that in the event of pandemic flu: Dr Quick believes the UK is the only country to report risk in this way. But globally, are we still complacent? "Absolutely," he says. "I believe we're just as vulnerable today to big flu as we had in 1918 but for different reasons. So today we have four times the population, we are twice as urbanised, and that crowding has been a factor in recent Ebola outbreaks, and is a factor in flu. "We are 50 times as mobile - so we're in the air, travelling across borders, there isn't any place on the planet which is more than 24 to 36 hours away from any major city." He says flu is tricky, a virus that keeps mutating and exchanging genes. "With all of those risk factors in play, we could have an epidemic with a new virus that has mutated and that we don't have immunity to," he says. "We could have an outbreak which could kill between 200 and 400m in the matter of a couple of years and knock the global economy as badly as the Great Recession." Predicting the path of a pandemic The BBC Four Pandemic experiment, with mathematicians from Cambridge University, involved nearly 29,000 people downloading an app to track their movements and social interactions to predict how a pandemic might spread. Their modelling predicted that: Dr Meirion Evans, a recently retired consultant epidemiologist at Public Health Wales, believes the key is vigilance and sharing data - underpinned by a global surveillance system which is coordinated by the World Health Organisation (WHO). "Linked to that is a global virology network... when there's an incident, the local specialist laboratory will isolate, identify and type these viruses to work out if it's something new, or if it's not, what virus it is related to," he said. Technology could also help. Dr Quick points to the web crawler created by Public Health Canada which harvested news of the SARS outbreak as it showed itself in China. We have come a long way from old newspaper adverts, offering cure-all remedies, old wives' tales and simple hope. But there are lessons still to learn - and we underestimate flu at our peril. "If anyone doubts it, humanity has not escaped infectious disease," says Dr Johnson. "In the mid-20th Century some people rather hubristically claimed we'd beaten infectious disease. HIV, multi-drug-resistant TB, flu, Ebola all put pay to that. "Flu is particularly interesting due to its ability to change, and our continuing inability to find vaccines that work against more than specific strains". It is impossible to tell when the next pandemic flu may occur - in 25 years or next year. Although a rare occurrence, Dr Quick says in the meantime we must be ready for it at the highest level. "There needs to be that vigilance and the willingness of leaders to open their eyes - because delays are deadly - respond to the immediate epidemic and then once the panic's gone, keep promises about investing in preventing the next one; it's that leadership."

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-44140174

East Tilbury 'hit-and-run' arrest as woman and child struck by car

A man has been arrested after a woman was left in a critical condition and a child seriously hurt when they were struck by a car.

The woman, 65, and the girl, 11, were hit by a dark grey Mercedes A-Class on Coronation Avenue, East Tilbury, Essex, at about 08:20 BST. The car failed to stop and was later found abandoned on Mucking Wharf Road. A 25-year-old man from Basildon was arrested soon afterwards and remains in custody. The pair are being treated in hospital. The suspect was arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, drink-driving, driving while unfit through drink or drugs, failing to stop after an accident and driving without insurance. Any witnesses have been asked to call Essex Police.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-20222954

Software firm First Derivatives increases turnover

A software and consulting firm with its headquarters in Newry, County Down, has said it is continuing to grow.

First Derivatives has announced its half-yearly performance on the stockmarket. Company turnover has increased to £27.6m, up from £22.4m in 2011 and at £4.1m its operaing profit has increased by 14.2% over the year. The firm has recently acquired three other companies and issued an interim dividend of 3.1p per share.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-19412857

Kidderminster carpet traders dispute the decline of the industry

While historians say the decline of the carpet industry in Kidderminster was inevitable, those still in the business argue they are making a success of the trade in the face of "challenging" economic times.

By Julia LeonardBBC News Cloth weaving began in the Worcestershire town in the Middle Ages, according to Melvyn Thompson, a former factory worker and carpet historian. He is one of 20 volunteers preparing to open a museum commemorating the town's carpet industry, which at its height, boasted 25 factories and employed about 15,000 people. Mr Thompson said: "Kidderminster used to be wall to wall carpets, if you lost your job at one factory you could walk down the road and get one in another. "The boom time was post-war in the 50s, 60s and 70s when exports opened up - they couldn't make enough carpets. "It was one of the top towns for income per family because work was plentiful and the whole family could get work - it was good money." Today, the industrial landscape looks very different. Many of the old carpet factory buildings have been demolished and replaced by supermarkets and car parks. Mr Thompson, who started work as an apprentice in 1953, said it began in the 1980s when the economic situation changed. He said: "Laminated flooring came in, the price of raw materials has gone up, technology has changed and more carpets are being imported. "Now we reckon there could be as few as 500 people working in carpets, only five factories are still going.." He believes the decline was "inevitable" as traditional skills have been quietly dying out. "This is why the Museum of Carpets is vital, we're preserving machinery but also preserving the skills. "We're training people up to do demonstrations on two working hand looms," he said. Flexible workforce The Herefordshire and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce is unable to put a figure on how much carpet production was, and is, worth to the town but described it as "very important" in the past. Mike Ashton, the chambers' chief executive, said: "The companies still based in Kidderminster are world class and this heritage has created some great opportunities in other manufacturing sectors." However Charles Annable, the managing director of Brockways Ltd, dismissed any so-called "decline". "We don't like to think of it in that way because we're still very active and keep on going. "Of course you have to adapt and change but the last redundancies we made were 15 years ago when we had to lose 40 people - now we're down to 100." Mr Annable said the secret to the firm's survival, with an annual turnover of £15m, was down to the skill of the workforce. He said: "They're great experts because carpet has been in the blood of Kidderminster for so many years. "We have generations of families who have worked for us and that in itself is incredibly helpful. "They're also very flexible as we've had to adapt and evolve using new machinery." But Mr Annable, whose father Roy is the company's chairman, also admitted the market was "incredibly challenging". He said: "The market is down 15-20% from this time last year and my father said it's the most difficult period he can recall in 48 years with the firm. "We rely heavily on the housing market so if that isn't moving then sales aren't moving. "But being a family business, we can ring in the changes quite quickly." Hong Kong airport Other firms like Brintons, with 1,700 staff globally, have also had to adapt and lost 70 of its 700 UK-based staff last year. It was recently bought out by the Carlyle Group in a £40m deal, taking it out of the hands of the Brinton family after more than 200 years. But Mr Thompson said reputation was invaluable. "Brintons have a name that will sell a carpet anywhere, any time - like the word 'Hoover'. They also do well from contract work, he said. "A lot of their woven carpet still goes into cruise liners and casinos and they had the exclusive deal on Hong Kong Airport many years ago," he said. Maria Flint worked as a setter at Carpets of Worth for 19 years and said the shrinking of the industry has had a domino effect on the town. She said: "It's such a shame, Kiddy used to be packed with people but even on a Saturday it's quiet. "When I worked in the factory I used to be able to go down to browse the shops in my lunch hour and buy something if I fancied it - not any more. "People have to stop and think about what they're spending, there's unemployment all over the place."

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https://www.bbc.com/news/education-19812961

Viewpoints: Teaching children to read

Finding the best way to inspire children to become fluent readers has long been debated. The "look and say" approach, where children learnt to memorise words, dominated in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. But now the pendulum has swung towards phonics-based teaching, where children decode words by sounds.

The Department for Education says international evidence demonstrates that phonics is the most effective way of teaching early reading, and this year introduced a phonics reading test for six-year-olds. So what is the best way to teach children how to read? David Reedy, UK Literacy Association The teaching of reading should encompass a balance of teaching strategies including a systematic approach to phonics and other word reading strategies, and a significant emphasis on children experiencing a wide range of texts, including moving image and digital - all available to read from the very beginning. Phonics teaching is an important component of the teaching of reading, but not all words in English are phonically regular (the linguist David Crystal estimates 80% are, but the other 20% contains many of the most common words in English). Young children need more than phonics to read words accurately. For many very common words in English such as "come", "once", "was", "the", the best method for accuracy is to read them as "sight" words - that is, using the strategy of look and say. In addition, in order to be fully accurate in word reading, we have to use meaning gleaned from the context in many cases, for example "read", "lead", "sow", "close". Attention should be given to reading for purpose and pleasure, and to introduce children to more challenging texts as well as focus on word reading skills. A school should invest significantly in books and adult time to support reading. Teachers should be knowledgeable and enthusiastic about literature suitable for children so they can recommend and inspire their classes as well as individuals. Motivation to read is a crucial component of a teacher's job. This approach results in deep engagement as well as accuracy in reading, both of which are crucial and lead to high standards. We need to develop both the skill and the will. Shelagh Harvey, head teacher There is no simple way to teach all children to read. Phonics, contextual clues, sounding out, going back to words - all of these are important skills. Phonics is important, but I do think it has been over-exaggerated of late. We run a very successful phonics reading project for the majority of our children, but we need to find different strategies for a small group of children who struggle with it. I think the government's reading test is fundamentally flawed. It didn't give us any clues for helping us move forward with our children. I had two very able readers at the end of Year 1 who failed the test, but who could read a Level 2 book and read fluently. One failed because she refused to read the non-word and the other little girl rushed because she's used to reading, not sounding out words. The over-emphasis on phonics and the test may put pressure on some teachers to "teach to the test" at the expense of a wide richer reading experience. A minority of children, for whom phonics is not successful, could be deprived of other reading strategies and have their difficulties exacerbated. It is also known that some children who are good with phonics and able to decode successfully do so at the cost of understanding what they read, known as "barking at text". The only way we can really measure progress is to let our children read. Here we sit them down with appropriate texts and judge them at the level they are reading at. You have to give children skills and a range of materials. We do a lot of work with parents too, encouraging them to read to and with their children. Prof Maureen McLaughlin, International Reading Association Reading is a complex process that involves multiple factors including decoding, integrating background experiences, having purposes for reading, and using skills and strategies to construct meaning. For very young readers, the process begins with issues such as the alphabetic principle and concepts of print. The goal of successful reading is comprehension. There are five pillars of literacy - phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. All contribute to reading comprehension. Students need ample opportunity to learn, practise, and use these skills. Researchers report that students' construction of meaning is enhanced when they use a repertoire of reading comprehension strategies, including predicting, self-questioning, visualising, monitoring, summarising, and evaluating. Students have diverse strengths, needs, opportunities and cultural backgrounds. To ensure access and opportunities for all students to become readers and achieve their greatest potential, reading instruction should be differentiated. Differentiated instruction enables us to accommodate the diversity of students' needs. Struggling readers, students with disabilities and dual language learners are examples of students for whom instruction should be differentiated. Reading is essential in the complex, global society in which we live. It is important for personal, social and economic well-being. As literacy professionals, our goal is to teach students to become active, engaged readers, who succeed to their greatest potential. Lisa Morgan, speech and language therapist Reading effectively for meaning and pleasure involves a complex range of skills, most of which rely on strong speech and language skills - using sounds to decode, knowing how words work together and understanding the vocabulary to gain meaning, for example. We know that children with good oral language skills are likely to become good readers. In the UK, more than one million children have long-term and persistent speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). We know that these children are at greater risk of literacy difficulties. Add to this the evidence that highlights that in areas of social disadvantage upwards of 50% of children are starting school with delayed language, then this raises key questions about ways to support children with SLCN to learn to read. For some children with SLCN, a phonic approach, within a context of focused language enrichment and opportunities, will work well to support their reading development. For others, it absolutely won't. For some, assessing their phonic skills in Year 1 through the phonics screen has been OK. For others, it absolutely hasn't. Each child and young person with SLCN is different - their needs are different, their strengths are different and the ways in which they best learn are different too. It is therefore essential that firstly teachers understand a child's SLCN and any implications for developing their literacy, and secondly that they are skilled and confident in choosing and using whatever works for that child in developing their reading skills. Siobhan Freegard, parenting website Netmums Reading regularly to children from an early age is important as they will learn to love stories and books. Making reading part of the everyday routine, so children quickly pick up subtle skills such as which way to follow the print of a book, how to use pictures to help decode the words, and how to recognise initial letters and the most commonly used words. It's good to let them see adults reading too, surrounding the home with books, magazines and newspapers, as children learn by copying adults. Parents can share the stories they are reading and any funny parts or interesting nuggets to spark their interest. The other key building block to learning to read is rhymes and sounds. Singing or chanting poems and rhymes to children will help them to learn their favourites and decipher rhyming words and different sounds, all of which will help them with their phonics skills later on. But apart from school books that need to be read, parents should not force books on their children and should let them read what they like - whether that is comics or football magazines - so they realise reading is fun.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35813470

Anders Breivik: Just how cushy are Norwegian prisons?

Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass murderer, is arguing that conditions in the prison where he is held violate his human rights. Many Norwegian prisons, on the other hand, are seen by foreigners as extremely cushy. Lars Bevanger describes a system referred to by one American visitor as "prison utopia".

Two Norwegian institutions vie for the title of the world's "nicest" or "most humane" prison. Inmates on the prison island of Bastoey, south of Oslo, are free to walk around in a village-style setting, tending to farm animals. They ski, cook, play tennis, play cards. They have their own beach, and even run the ferry taking people to and from the island. And in the afternoon when most prison staff go home, only a handful of guards are left to watch the 115 prisoners. "We have something we call the 'normality principle' in the Norwegian correctional service," says Tom Eberhardt, the prison governor. "Daily prison life should not be any different than ordinary life, as far as this is possible." The other prison that tends to leave foreign visitors speechless is Halden, also in southern Norway, close to the Swedish border. In 2014 a Finnish TV company took a retired prison superintendent from New York, James Conway, to Halden. His verdict: "I don't think you can go any more liberal, other than giving the inmates the keys." He's startled by the steel cutlery in the kitchen, and the well-equipped workshop supplied with saws, pliers and metal files. "You don't have to bake them in a cake," he quips. In the inmates' music studio - with guitars, keyboards, drums and a mixing deck - he wonders whether it's "a little over the top". "This is prison utopia. This is the best prison you could ever imagine - if you were an inmate," he says. But though Halden is a high-security prison, surrounded by a conventional high wall, it isn't typical. Most Norwegian prisoners will find themselves, at least to begin with, in a prison that foreigners would recognise - places where windows have bars on them, and prisoners are locked in their cells except when taking part in group activities. "Inmates often begin serving their sentence in a high-security prison," says Jan-Erik Sandlie, deputy director general of the Directorate of Norwegian Correctional Service. "The correctional services will then consider whether to transfer the prisoner to a lower-security institution. This is in order to create a gradual transfer from prison to full freedom." Later, towards the end of a sentence, prisoners can be transferred to a halfway house, which in many respects will resemble ordinary life. At this stage prisoners might be allowed "breaks" from their incarceration, to make trips home for example, and the focus turns very much to reintegration into normal society. "This is because we want all prisoners to be as ready as possible for an ordinary life when they are released," says Tom Eberhardt at Bastoey prison. Breivik's world According to the Directorate of Norwegian Correctional Service, prison should be a restriction of liberty, but nothing more. That means an offender should have all the same rights as other people living in Norway, and life inside should resemble life outside as much as possible. All Norwegian prisoners have the right to study, for instance, and they are all allowed to vote. Sentences are kept very short. On average they are no more than eight months long, and nearly 90% of sentences are for less than a year. "This means most prisoners are going to return to society at some point. Put that together with very short sentences, and rehabilitation becomes even more important," says Anders Giaever, a commentator with Norway's daily VG newspaper. Only 94 people in Norway, Breivik being one, are sentenced to "preventative detention" in an extra-high-security prison. This means they can be kept beyond the longest sentence permitted by law - 21 years - if they continue to be considered a risk to society. Norway's prison system does have its critics at home, some of whom think it is too soft. Yet it is hard to argue that it does not work. When criminals in Norway leave prison, they tend to stay out. Norway's recidivism rate of 20% is one of the lowest in the world. By contrast in the UK it's about 45%, while in the US more than 76% of prisoners are re-arrested within five years. Defenders of the Norwegian system are also keen to point out how much money is being saved on successful rehabilitation and reintegration. "Authorities in the US and the UK might want to ask themselves whether all the billions of dollars and pounds they have been spending on locking people up behind tall fences and barbed wire has had any effect at all over the past 150 years," says Tom Eberhardt at the Bastoey prison. Breivik's grievances Yet the Norwegian model has come under strain in recent years. Nearly 35% of Norway's total prison population is now from other countries, mainly Poland, Lithuania and Romania. "This creates challenges linked to language and communication, cultural understanding, attitudes, safety and more," says Jan-Erik Sandlie. "Many inmates spend their time studying, establishing contacts [in the outside world] and looking for jobs. For many foreign inmates this is not interesting, because they might be facing deportation at the end of their prison term, or they are to be transferred to their home country to finish serving their sentence there." So far, though, neither politicians nor the general public have shown any serious appetite to make changes to Norway's penal system and its humanitarian approach. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

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'I fear my neighbour' - the story behind US hate crimes

"Hey, dumbass - the election is over... you lost on all accounts," said the letter that arrived in John Gascot's mailbox.

Valeria PerassoBBC World Service It accused him and his husband of living in a "gay house", adorned with a rainbow flag to "troll for queers". And it was unsigned. "I was angry. It was a cowardly act. My first reaction was 'I'm painting the house rainbow'", says Gascot, an artist and active member of the LGBT community in the state of Florida. Three years ago, he moved with his partner of 20 years to St Petersburg, in Florida's Gulf Coast, and always felt that "people in this neighbourhood are very warm with each other". Yet the anonymous "hate mail" that he got in December, just weeks after Donald Trump was elected president, put them on alert. "It was from a neighbour, somebody who sees us on a daily basis, because the letter details what times our lights go on and off, when we take our garbage out, when we put up our Christmas decorations," says Gascot. Back then, the couple still had a "Vote for Hillary Clinton" poster in their front yard. "Do we want to live fearing your neighbour? There's definitely an element of fear... We considered arming ourselves for protection." The couple's story is one of many. St Petersburg is home to a vibrant LGBT community and threats motivated by gender identity have been mounting. And many here - observers and victims alike - blame it on the current political climate. "Since the election, there are people who have felt emboldened to speak up their hate or dislike," says Gascot. "[Republicans] ran a campaign based on fear, how was this not going to happen?" Double digits Hate crimes have been in the spotlight in the US following the November election. A study from the nonpartisan Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, at the California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), revealed that there has been a double-digit spike in reported cases in many US metropolitan areas in 2016, a trend that seems to have continued. In New York City, the uptick was 24%, the highest in over a decade. Chicago saw a 20% increase, it was 50% in Philadelphia and 62% in Washington DC - the largest increase among the 25 large cities surveyed in the CSUSB report. Incidents range from serious physical attacks to racist graffiti and slurs, desecrations at synagogues and Jewish cemeteries, harassment of black Americans and threats towards immigrants, undocumented or otherwise. Abuses against Muslims and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people accounted for much of that growth. A week ago, violent clashes at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, shocked the nation with a display of torches and Nazi flags. A woman was killed when a car ploughed into a crowd of counter-protesters. And although the findings of the CSUSB study are partial - based on a small sample of cities, with data provided by some but not all state and local law enforcement agencies - it offers a glimpse into a trend noted in other surveys. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), for instance, reports that the number of anti-Semitic incidents surged more than one-third in 2016 and jumped 86% in the first quarter of 2017. ADL also tracked an 106% increase of hate crimes in schools between 2015 and 2016. Inflamed passions during a racially tinged presidential campaign, as well as a willingness of victims to step forward, may be the forces behind the spike, researchers say. By highlighting issues such as race, religion and national origin, the tone of the past US presidential election cycle could have exerted an influence on crime rates and media exposure, leading to "individuals who vary in motivation, from hardcore bigots to those just seeking a thrill" to take action, the Centre for the Study of Hate and Extremism's director Brian Levin told Reuters. Many have drawn a connection between violent outbursts and the polarising rhetoric of the incumbent president - although statistics cannot prove direct correlation. Donald Trump repeatedly disparaged Mexicans during his presidential campaign. "They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists", he said in a speech in 2015, when he announced his candidacy. Mr Trump also called for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States", although this statement was later removed from his campaign website. Seven days after taking office, he signed an executive order temporarily barring people from seven Muslim-majority countries to travel into the country. The president was also heavily criticised for taking too long before condemning a US-wide rise in anti-Semitism, last February (he later said it was "horrible" and "has to stop") and, more recently, for blaming "both sides" for the violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. While Mr Trump pledged to make pro-LGBT policy a matter of record, measures such as his unexpected ban on transgender people from serving in the military, last month, angered gay rights activists. Many believe the political climate, as well as Vice-President Mike Pence's openly anti-LGBT stance, have emboldened social conservatives to express homophobic views, leading to an increase in hate crimes against sexual minorities. A study undertaken in the three months after Election Day provides some evidence of a "Trump effect" of some sort. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an Alabama-based advocacy organisation that monitors extremism nationwide, measured 1,094 bias incidents between November 2016 and February 2017 as part of their #ReportHate project. Of those, 37% openly referred to the president, his campaign slogans or policies. Another tracking effort, from liberal news site ThinkProgress, puts that figure at almost 42%. And the fact that different organisations nationwide feel there is a need to compile a database of hate incidents is a sign of the times in itself, experts say. The SPLC - which was founded by civil rights lawyers to monitor white supremacist organisations such as the Ku Klux Klan but later expanded its scope - has mapped hate groups operating on US soil: 917 across the mainland 48 states in 2016, up from 784 two years earlier. California hosts the largest number, 79, followed by Florida, with 63. The SPLC has also been building a map of hate incidents, in which California, New York and Texas have the largest number of reported cases, followed at a distance by Florida. Lacking statistical value, it relies on data provided by law enforcement agencies but also on field sources, news reports and personal accounts, not all of them verified, it nonetheless provides a snapshot of a seemingly upward trend. The problem, the SPLC says, is that hate crimes are a national problem "but there's no reliable data on the nature or prevalence of the violence". Hate crime data is notoriously difficult to gather. The FBI, which is required to track these crimes and has been publishing related statistics since 1996, counts around 6,000 annually. But a June report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates a total closer to 250,000. One of the reasons for such a gap, experts say, is that law enforcement agencies aren't all required to report to the FBI, so their numbers may not make it into the national tally. The other, is that a striking 54% of victims do not contact the police. "Hate incidents do not seem to follow a distinct pattern, every minority is affected," says Heidi Beirich, director of SPLC's Intelligence Project. And some types, Beirich says, are more underreported than others, "specially in areas where people feel insecure because they lack tight social networks". Hover over the image to see figures for each type. Keep the church safe During a Sunday service at the King of Peace Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) in St Petersburg, doors remain locked to keep some 250 attendants safe. This church, a Christian denomination that originated in 1968 in a living room in California and has now expanded to other countries, has an ethos of inclusiveness and openness. So the increased security measures - surveillance cameras, extra staff and protocols to respond in case of attack included - were introduced as a last resort. "We had to put more security in place after our church got chalked with "MAGA" signs [an acronym for Trump's slogan Make America Great Again]," says pastor Candace Shultis, who has been in charge of St Pete's MCC branch for nine years. The campaign slogan was written on the pavement just a week after the election, together with swastikas. "To see a swastika was shocking, and disheartening. We called the police to report it as a hate crime," says slender and short-haired Shultis, in her deep, calm tone. One of the motives for the attack is likely to be the church's appeal for LGBT people, says Shultis, as MCC was originally founded as an outreach space for gay men when other denominations were less inclusive and tolerant. Churches that perform same-sex marriages or advertise inclusivity have been targeted nationwide. But down the road here in St Petersburg a legal firm was also targeted - with a sign outside offering "immigration advice"- as well as a paint store ("Maybe because many of our customers are Latino construction workers, or because our logo has many colours to promote our paints and they mistook it for a rainbow flag", says Daniel, the store manager). "There was an undercurrent of racist attitudes during the Obama administration, this is not new," says Shultis. "People have now been given permission to spew out the hatred". "Trump's candidacy show forth that part of the country that is extremely conservative. There are reasons to be fearful because these attacks are not always verbal, and let's not forget that in this country we have easy access to weapons". Hover over the image to see figures for each location. At the Sikh gurdwara Among all minority groups, hate crimes against Muslims have probably been the most widely reported - a long-standing trend that spiked immediately after the 9/11 terror attacks. According to FBI data, there were 481 crimes in 2001, up from just 28 a year earlier. A few years later the number of anti-Muslim violent incidents receded. But in 2015, during the early stages of the election cycle, a new surge was observed, with a 67% increase over the previous year according to researcher Brian Levin. Between April and June 2017, advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reported 72 cases of harassment and 69 hate crimes. Hate incidents in the first half of 2017 spiked 91% compared to the same period in 2016, they claim. Anti-Muslim cases "now account for 4.4% of all reported hate crime even though Muslims are estimated to be only 1% of the population," wrote criminologist Brian Levin in a column for The Conversation. Other minorities have perhaps got less media attention, yet they rank high as targets of hate attacks. In the largest Sikh gurdwara close to St Petersburg - a house of worship and community centre in nearby Tampa, just across the bay- the Sikh community share their fears. "Am I more careful? Yes, I am. I know I do look different, we trigger all sorts of stereotypes when we come into the room," says young IT professional Satpreet Singh. Founded in Punjab five centuries ago, Sikhism establishes some personal grooming practices that set their adherents apart. Observant male Sikhs don't ever cut their hair and cover it with a turban, while many also typically refrain from shaving. There are some 500,000-700,000 Sikhs living in the US. Misconceptions led many to believe that they are Muslims. The outburst is not new - it was fuelled by the 9/11 attacks and led to episodes of extreme violence such as the murder of a Sikh in Arizona and the so-called massacre of Oak Creek, when a white supremacist opened fire on worshippers at a gurdwara in Wisconsin, killing six. Satpreet himself escaped a shooting years ago, while being driven around by his turban-clad father. As with Muslims, hate crimes against Sikhs slowed down for some years but went up again recently, experts warn. Advocacy group South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) documented over 200 incidents after the last election campaign kicked off. "It's alarming, the trend that followed 9/11 is re-emerging," says Singh. "It is hard because it can lead you to live in fear of doing even the most basic things, like going around your neighbourhood." With his wife, Hardeep Khur, they stopped going into "areas that are more conservative." "The other day we were just going to a doughnut shop that is located in a very white area. First thing that came to my mind was 'you know what? Let's go to another doughnut shop elsewhere'", says Khur, who is Canadian and moved to Florida eight years ago. Some of the younger worshippers in the gurdwara have gone a step further: they have cut their hair and stopped wearing a turban altogether to avoid being singled out - even though it goes against a basic mandate of their religion. "We cannot educate people when they call you names and threaten you, because they are not open to being educated. You just have to be aware and protect yourself," says Singh. Undocumented and afraid Hispanics in St Petersburg do not have it easier either. Even though they represent almost a quarter of the overall population in Florida, here they are a small minority of less than 7%. Following Trump's promises to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, anti-immigrant harassment has become the most reported type of hate crime, according to SPLC statistics. "We've seen people's feelings reverting to fear," says Raymond Croze, Spanish Outreach officer in a local police department. "We have seen an increase in wage theft. People who work in gardening, for example, and get abuse from bosses who make them work and then don't pay them their wages. We intervene to make sure they do get their money," he says. "Build the wall" and "Go home" signs, swastikas and Nazi messages were found on the walls of a Spanish church and on lamp posts in a nearby beach. Croze referred all cases up to the FBI. "Undocumented immigrants often fear that reporting these crimes will reveal their status, which leads to an underreporting of incidents," Croze says. Contested numbers In a polarised climate, it comes as no surprise that some of these numbers are being contested. Critical voices reject the notion of a spike in hate crimes in Trump's America. They argue that the proliferation of hate groups is a phenomenon that started before his candidacy - and as early as the turn of the century, driven in part by a rejection of Latino immigration and by US Census projections that show whites will no longer be the demographic majority in the country by 2044. Hence, Trump supporters could say, it cannot be established that increased rates of bias incidents come as a result of the campaign's inflammatory speech. In fact, the current number of hate groups in operation measured by the SPLC is still well below its all-time peak, in 2011. Also, the SPLC has been criticised for going too far in labelling too many groups and individuals as extremists, as well as for not having enough data over a long period of time to project trends that are solid. Others say that attacks against minority groups have been long happening in large numbers without anyone watching. Historically, FBI reports show that half of all hate crimes have been racially charged and the majority have targeted black people - in 2015, those incidents far outnumbered anti-white or anti-Hispanic cases, for example. The activist movement Black Lives Matter says African Americans are victims "on a regular, daily basis". "While the president and his advisors significantly contribute to the lack of safety that black folks experience and are accountable for incredible harms inflicted on communities of colour, they are mere symptoms of white supremacy and xenophobia, which are far greater enemies than just one administration," they wrote in a Facebook statement after the violent rally in Charlottesville. So is it just a matter of hate crimes now having wider media coverage? Some believe that is the case. "While it's easy for some to blame Trump for all acts of bigotry, we should discern what's new from what we're simply noticing for the first time," wrote Mark Oppenheimer in the Washington Post. "For those who believe that Trump poses a threat - to Jews, all other minorities and all Americans - it's important that we get our facts right. If danger is on the rise, we have to be looking in the right direction", Researcher Brian Levin doesn't agree. "I don't think we can just explain away the increase with increased reporting," he says. More numerous or more visible, hate crimes have also inspired a counter-reaction at community level. Support networks have grown in some minority neighbourhoods. The SPLC has published a "community response guide", with practical advice: pick up the phone, sign a petition, research your rights, and the list goes on. For Pastor Shultis, relief came when the church's neighbours stood up. Families brought their children to draw rabbits, dogs and butterflies in colourful chalk over the swastikas. While artist John Gascot felt he needed to "turn something ugly into something nice" after the hate letter. He decided to host free workshops for LGBT youth, to provide a safe space for often-marginalised students in fear of expressing themselves. "Art helps, but this is not about art at all. It's about helping them feel comfortable to be who they are, giving the future generations what we didn't have," says Gascot. "This election has taken a lot of people out of complacency, and that's a good thing after all". .

entertainment-arts-25121347

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-25121347

The Halle orchestra get creative to make music pay

The Halle orchestra is taking a leaf out of celebrity choirmaster Gareth Malone's book and holding its first corporate choir competition. The Halle has trained six office choirs in an attempt to use its musical expertise to make up for funding cuts.

In technology companies, finance firms and transport offices across the north-west of England, unusual sounds have been coming from meeting rooms during lunch breaks in recent months. The sound of singing is unusual, that is, compared with the normal office din of rattling keyboards and conversations about contracts. The six office choirs, who have all been coached by the Halle, will hope to be on song when they do battle at The Halle's corporate choir contest in Manchester on Friday. The prize is an opportunity to perform with the full orchestra and it is all part of an attempt by the Halle to find new ways of using its artistic excellence in making money. The office choirs have essentially been teambuilding endeavours, with secretaries and senior executives coming together in (almost) perfect harmony. If the companies involved decide they have benefited from the experience, the hope is that they may pay the Halle to continue running their choirs, or even become more deeply involved in sponsoring the orchestra. Between 2010 and 2015, the Halle will lose between £400,000 and £500,000 from its local council and Arts Council England grants. It hopes to make up at least half of that shortfall through money-spinning schemes like the corporate choirs. "Of course, at the moment when public finances are strained, we need to do everything we can to increase our income from earned sources," Halle chief executive John Summers says. "We're trying to find lots of new ways to create income in order to support the art that we do." Five of the six office choirs are relatively new, but the Halle has been training singers in the headquarters of technology firm Siemens for the past two years. At their final rehearsal before the contest, 20 colleagues were being put through their paces by Halle choir leader Stuart Overington. Caron Eastwood, a personal assistant who has worked for the company for 18 years, says she likes the choir sessions because she feels part of a group. "It lifts you up for the day," she says. "The division I work in is quite small but it makes me feel as if I'm contributing to part of the company." The company's financial director Robin Phillips is also in the choir. He says it brings together some colleagues who would never normally meet. "It's been noticeable how you can motivate a team of people who are out of their comfort zone and through really tactical motivation and encouragement get them to a given goal," he says. "It's been staggering how what we do with the choir can also relate to what we do at the office." Using the arts in training and teambuilding is not new. But as grants are cut, more cultural organisations are thinking about new ways to use their artistic assets. As well as the Halle, the London Symphony Orchestra runs choirs for City of London sponsors and the Royal Northern Sinfonia offers to visit offices to set up ukulele bands and tin whistle orchestras. Meanwhile, theatres from the National Theatre to The Lowry in Salford offer actors and directors to train executives in the art of communication and leadership. "Arts organisations are having to be more creative about who they talk to and how they talk to them in terms of getting money," says Philip Spedding, chief executive of Arts & Business. "But for a number of them, it's about more than just that - it's about showing that the arts can make a difference in communities, and those communities can be where employees come together." One company even got its employees to stage an opera as a teambuilding exercise, he says. But this form of fund-raising will not be open to all arts organisations. "There are natural challenges for arts organisations in rural communities or in parts of the country where the business community has been particularly hard hit. Likewise there are artforms where this is more challenging." Another orchestra using its artistic experience to raise revenue is the Manchester Camerata, which has signed a deal with private care home operator Care UK to provide musicians for music therapy sessions from next spring. That follows a similar project in which players from the chamber orchestra have taken part in therapy sessions for dementia sufferers in and around Manchester. Manchester Camerata chief executive Bob Riley says the sessions were set up because music can have health benefits for care home residents. He also realised the skills could have a commercial value. "As a business, we are looking at different ways to increase and vary our sources of income," Mr Riley says. "We all know the environment we're in - there's not a tremendous amount of money in the public purse. "And we know there are other ways we can be relevant in today's society. Health is one of them, [and] within schools, communities, all sorts of places, so we're trying to work with all sorts of partners who have a new perspective."

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-57069437

Intercity 125: Workers say farewell to British Rail icon

East Midlands Railway is the latest operator to retire its fleet of high speed trains - better known to millions as the InterCity 125. Some workers at the company's depot have spent most of their careers repairing, improving and tending to the engines, helping them to become a workhorse of the tracks since they came into service in 1976. But now it is time to say goodbye to an icon of Britain's travel network.

High speed trains (HST) were the future of British Rail in the 1970s, with advertisements promising unheard of speeds and shorter journey times. Better known as the InterCity 125, the diesel locomotive was only intended as a stopgap before electrification, but has linked Britain's cities for more than four decades. In the last 10 years, most rail companies have replaced them with newer models, and East Midlands Railway (EMR) is the latest to follow suit. The company's HSTs are serviced and maintained at the Neville Hill depot in Leeds, where staff say they will be sorry to see the trains, described by some as the saviour of British Rail, go. 'Fantastic icon' Maintenance fitter Simon Greaves, 59, says it has been a pleasure to work with HSTs for 30 years. "They have served the railway fantastically well and they saved British Rail back in the 70s and 80s when they were in deep trouble," he says. "They are a brilliant train, a fantastic icon, and a credit to the British engineers who came up with the design and built these brilliant trains. So it's been a pleasure for me to work on them for 31 years, it really has. "On the whole they are extremely reliable and they have been modernised over the time as well. Lots of things have changed over the 40-odd years they have been in service. "It's a shame really but technology moves on so they have to make way for new trains." 'Pinnacle of British Rail's expertise' Fleet engineer Nigel Yule agrees: "They are just an iconic train to be honest. "If you think about the achievements that were made in terms of the way it was built as a stopgap, designed in 20 months, it was the pinnacle of British Rail's engineering expertise. "There's all sorts we've gone through, re-engining new cooling units, we've redesigned whole bits of the trailer car. "If we think back 20 years ago what we were doing on servicing compared to what we do now it is totally different. We were bolting things back up on a nightly basis in some areas and we just don't now. We've engineered them out. We've put the things right and solved the problems. "They are probably more reliable now than they ever were. "They are a brilliant train. I don't believe there's a better train in this country even now, but obviously I am biased." 'Strange without her' EMR quality inspector Paul Corrie, 63, says the HSTs' length of service is a testament to their quality and enduring appeal. "I know them inside out," he says. "The measure of their success is the phenomenal mileage, the public persona of them, they've saved the railway and I don't think any other vehicle will get the amount of running mileage these vehicles have put in. "They are old technology and the old girls do present some problems. "Now and again we do get electrical faults. It is because of the age of the vehicles. Wires break down, wires snap off. Some are quick fixes, others can be a major headache. "I've worked on these since 1981 and it will be a little strange walking into the shed without a HST there" 'Like nothing else on Earth' The HST doesn't just inspire devotion among workers - it is also a firm favourite with enthusiasts, including Anthony Coulls, senior curator of rail transport & technology at York's National Railway Museum (NRM). He credits the trains with changing the perception of rail travel in Britain, where steam locomotives where still in use less than 10 years earlier. HSTs were a complete contrast to the "scruffy, dirty and noisy" early diesel trains, he says. "It was British Rail reinventing itself. They burst onto the scene looking like nothing else on Earth. It's hard to visualise 45 years on." Mr Coulls says designer Sir Kenneth Grange's sleek blueprint, with an aerodynamic wedge-shaped nose cone, made the train "an absolute icon of engineering and design". Because British Rail could not afford full electrification, no-one expected the trains to remain in operation for so many decades, he says. Their speed and significantly reduced journey times helped to change the "look of the commute", Mr Coulls says, making it practical for people to live further outside London and travel to work by train. The HSTs were all built between 1976 and 1982 and, unlike other famous models such as the French TGV and the Japanese Shinkansen [bullet train], the power cars at the front are the originals. "It is actually the most successful passenger train in the world ever," Mr Coulls adds. InterCity 125 EMR's fleet director Neil Bamford began his career just three years after the HST launched. He accepts that the trains have to go, but says it does "bring a tear to the eye". "The HST is a fantastic machine. My career, which is now 43 years, is almost parallel with the HST fleet. HST came in on my birthday in 1976 so they are only a little bit older than when I started in 1979." "In 1981 I remember going on test and commissioning runs from Derby where the trailer cars were built. The power cars were built in Crewe. Then we went up to Darlington and put it through its paces at 125 mph between York and Darlington on a flat bit of straight, fast track. I remember that vividly as an 18/19 year old. "Throughout my career I've been in and out of HSTs and I love them. "I just think the interior, the ride of this fleet is fantastic. The window spacing and seats is fantastic, the seats are comfy. It's just part of the railway. "It's a big miss for the industry, because there's a lot of people, probably more so of my generation... the railway without HSTs, you can't think of it. "They've got to go because they aren't quite up to modern standards in terms of accessibility for passengers and they still discharge effluent onto the track. "So the trains have to retire graciously." ScotRail, Great Western Railway and Cross Country still have HSTs in operation on some routes. Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here Related Internet Links National Railway Museum East Midlands Railway

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Spies facing budget squeeze and more oversight

The committee that oversees the work of Britain's intelligence agencies, such as MI5 and MI6, says it is "out of date" and should be given broader powers to look into operational matters. The Intelligence and Security Committee wants a wider remit and says it must change in order to maintain public confidence in the agencies. Gordon Corera looks at the implications of its report and the challenges ahead.

By Gordon CoreraSecurity correspondent, BBC News Times are changing for British intelligence. For much of the last 10 years since the attacks on 11 September 2001, they have been growing at a rapid pace - MI5, for instance, doubling in size. The last decade has also seen greater controversy surrounding their work - whether over Iraq and its absent weapons of mass destruction, questions over the treatment of detainees, or whether the 7 July 2005 attacks could have been prevented. The latest Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) annual report makes clear that spies are not immune from the latest budget squeeze and that they also now may be subject to increased oversight. Appearing before the committee, the head of MI6 warned that budget cuts meant that it would be 'quite hard' to maintain the capability of the Secret Service. Sir John Sawers told the ISC that, even though his budget settlement had been "reasonable", it would be a difficult year ahead with a 10% reduction in staff. "The aspiration of some ministers that we can provide answers to a whole series of intelligence requirements has to be limited, has to be contained, because we are not going to be able to do that," he told the committee. MI6 should be able to meet the present set of requirements set for it but will not be able to contribute to looking at the global economy in a way that Sawers would have liked. In a speech last week, the former head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove, called on the service to do more on this very subject. He said it should not be "squeamish" at looking at spying on other countries to uncover useful information on the future of the euro or other country's economic positions. In its annual report, the committee argues that the 11.3% reduction in budgets for British intelligence agencies "will inevitably have an impact on the ability of all three agencies to maintain current levels of coverage of all aspects of the threat". 'Losing talent' The concern over money also extends to securing the new cyber world. GCHQ director Iain Lobban also says he is having trouble retaining sufficient numbers of suitably-qualified internet specialists. "I need some real internet whizzes in order to do cyber," he told the committee. "They will be working for Microsoft or Google or Amazon or whoever. And I can't compete with their salaries. I can offer them a fantastic mission, but I can't compete with their salaries. "But I probably have to do better than I am doing at the moment, or else my internet whizzes are not going to stay… and we do have a steady drip, I am afraid . "Month‑on‑month, we are losing whizzes who'll basically say 'I'm sorry, I am going to take three times the salary and the car and whatever else'." The committee argues the Cabinet Office may have to look at bonuses for those with specialist skills. Technically, the work of the ISC covers areas such as policy, administration and finances, but not operations. That is one area where the Committee is now making a push for more power. Confidence and credibility The ISC report includes a call for major changes to its oversight function. This comes because of questions over whether the current arrangements do enough to provide accountability and public confidence in the work of the UK's spies. Reports like today's may give a sense of where the money gets spent but not what the agencies really do. Each of the three major controversies over the last decade - Iraq, detainees and 7/7 - were initially investigated by the ISC. But, in each case, questions surfaced over whether the ISC managed to get to the bottom of events, and later inquiries either found out considerably more or, in the case of detainees, remain pending. In the case of 7/7, there were real concerns, as indicated by the coroner, that the ISC had not been given correct information during its inquiries. There have also been rows between the previous ISC and the Cabinet Office over how independent it was. The danger was that - without reform - the credibility of the ISC would continue to be called into question, undermining confidence that intelligence agencies were properly accountable. The result, announced in the committee's report, has been a push to change the standing of the committee and increase its independence from government, as well as its powers to investigate. This, the committee argues, should include formal oversight of operations and the ability to require rather than request information. These recommendations, like the budget squeeze, may be uncomfortable for some in British intelligence but there also may be a realisation that both developments are inevitable.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-42939294

Man dies after assault outside Tamworth McDonald's

A teenager has died almost two weeks after he was attacked outside a McDonald's in Staffordshire.

Liam Roche, 18, suffered serious head injuries in the assault outside the restaurant at the Ventura Retail Park in Tamworth on 22 January. The victim, from Kingstanding, died at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. A 24-year-old man was arrested on Sunday in connection with the incident and the investigation continues, Staffordshire Police said. Anyone who witnessed the altercation between 22:30 and 23:30 GMT is asked to contact the force.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-51561854

'Bullied' Manx teen chased fellow student at school with knife

A teenage boy who chased a pupil through a school corridor "brandishing" a knife has appeared in court on the Isle of Man.

Manx Police were called to the school shortly after 11:00 GMT on 12 February. The 14-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to affray and having a knife on school grounds which he had taken from home. Magistrates heard that the defendant had "reached breaking point" after being bullied for several years. The defendant had "no intention to hurt" anyone, his advocate told the court. He has been remanded to appear again at Douglas Courthouse on 18 March. Related Internet Links Isle of Man Courts of Justice

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-17461556

Renishaw to create 120 new jobs across Gloucestershire

Manufacturing firm Renishaw is to take on 120 new members of staff to be employed across its five sites in Gloucestershire.

The company based in Wotton-under-Edge wants to expand its team as part of its growth plans. Skilled workers with engineering and manufacturing experience are primarily being sought by the firm. Renishaw will be holding open evenings at its Stonehouse facility as part of a recruitment drive this month. Group human resources manager, Peter Bowler said: "These 120 new positions are just part of our wider strategy to recruit and develop the talented individuals that will help us to take advantage of the many global commercial opportunities that will drive our business growth in the future." Related Internet Links Renishaw

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-46213774

HMP Doncaster inmate threw urine and excrement at guard

A serving prisoner has had his sentence extended by two years after he threw a mixture of urine and excrement at a prison officer.

Joshua Morris, 24, squirted the substance out of a bottle in Doncaster prison in December 2017. At Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, Morris pleaded guilty to administering a noxious substance. He will serve an additional two years at the end of his existing five-year sentence for burglary. Det Con Alex Dorlin from South Yorkshire Police described the attack as "a disgusting offence". "While the officer was not physically injured, the impact of such disgraceful and unprovoked behaviour was quite significant," he said. Related Internet Links HM Courts & Tribunals Service

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Police appeal over Cockburnspath sheep theft

Police are appealing for witnesses after 40 ewes and 80 lambs were stolen from a field in the Scottish Borders.

The incident happened between 09:00 on Friday and 08:00 on Saturday at a field beside Kinegar Quarry in Cockburnspath. A statement from Police Scotland said all the animals involved were cross-breeds. Anyone who can assist police trace those responsible for their theft has been asked to come forward with information immediately.

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Are Corsica's militants and mafia a thing of the past?

Located off the Italian coast, but politically part of France, Corsica has experienced a violent independence struggle since the 1970s. But in June armed militants announced they had laid down their weapons. So has peace really broken out?

By Martin BuckleyCorsica As I drove around Corsica on the first of two visits this year, I was struck once again by the island's violent beauty. Against a backdrop of jagged granite mountains, the maquis had erupted into brilliant yellows and purples. The beaches I glimpsed from the twisting roads showed white sand alongside turquoise water. The survival of the Corsican landscape, compared with the desecration of so much of the Mediterranean, seems miraculous. But as several Corsicans recently reminded me, it's the independence movement's willingness to blow up seashore developments that's protected the so-called Ile de Beaute - the Isle of Beauty. It's important to add that no tourist has ever been harmed. For a mountainous terrain where agriculture is a tough challenge, tourism is a blessing, the golden goose no-one would dream of killing. But outside the summer months, when the island's population doubles with holidaymakers, an armed struggle has raged for more than 40 years. Corsicans have always had a reputation for toughness and vendetta. James Bond fell in love with, and married, the daughter of a Corsican brigand. According to the newspaper l'Express, Corsica's more violent than its near-neighbour Sicily. In the last three years alone there have been 40 murders, mostly mafia-related - grand banditry, as it's rather picturesquely known. Killings take place with clinical efficiency, but the motives are opaque. There's often speculation about land deals, murders designed to, in a sinister phrase, "send a message", and tit-for-tat killings. But experts on organised crime admit the threads of violence in Corsica are impossibly tangled. What is certain is that almost none of the murderers are ever apprehended. Corsica became a French colony in 1768. It had one of Europe's earliest functioning democracies, but France brutally abolished that, shut down the university, and banned the indigenous language. Over the next two centuries the island was rendered into a region of France. But resentment smouldered on. In the 1970s, after Vietnam and revolutions worldwide, armed revolt broke out against Corsica's perceived colonial ruler. The fighters made their mark and wore down the French state with a kind of attrition similar to the IRA in Northern Ireland. But by the 1990s various independence factions were turning against each other and political goals were getting foggy. French security forces had ever more efficient electronic surveillance and public support for armed struggle was declining. Few younger islanders are gripped by the nationalist fervour that animated their fathers' generation. I spoke to a man in his late thirties who has a young family and is building a successful business. He felt uneasily that he should sympathise with the older generation's long struggle. "But what did they achieve?" he asked. Undeveloped beaches, yes. And some say they held back drug trafficking on the island. But they didn't achieve independence. And ironically, the ballot box could now be key to Corsica's future. Recent elections, like the mayoralty of the important city of Bastia, have seen independence candidates gaining power. Why fight a traumatic clandestine war if you can get what you want by legitimate means? So not everyone was surprised when, in June, the movement called FLNC, or National Front for the Liberation of Corsica, unexpectedly announced it was downing arms. Few islanders I met still dream of a genuinely independent Corsica - indeed, many believe that transnational institutions like the European Union make nationhood increasingly irrelevant. The Scottish referendum excited much interest and admiration for British political pragmatism. But all that many Corsicans now hope for is increased autonomy, more control over their language, and a halt to the land speculation that's pushing property values beyond the reach of ordinary islanders. Many also want a halt to immigration, and if that sounds like a UKIP agenda, then - yes: supporters of independence are as likely today to be on the right as the left. What the FLNC called for when it declared its ceasefire was a response from the French state. But so far, there are few signs of movement from Francois Hollande's socialist government. In Northern Ireland arms were eventually put out of commission, destroyed in a process overseen by a neutral Canadian general. When I mentioned this to an elderly independence supporter, he laughed out loud. "We might lay down our arms but Corsicans will never abandon their weapons," he told me. And if Paris doesn't budge, he warned, then Corsican frustration will lead to more violence, worse than ever before. Many former independence leaders disagree. They feel Corsica is moving inevitably towards a new, non-violent phase. But the Island of Beauty is also an island of passionate emotions. And its militants' weapons are very far from being out of commission. How to listen to From Our Own Correspondent: BBC Radio 4: Saturdays at 11:30 Listen online or download the podcast. BBC World Service: Short editions Monday-Friday - see World Service programme schedule. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

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Cleveland Potash Boulby mine tower to be demolished

A 50m (164ft) tower at a potash mine in East Cleveland is to be demolished as part of a £300m redevelopment.

The old Rockshaft Tower built at the Boulby mine in 1969, is being replaced after the sea air and weather corroded the structure. The £15m project will see the new tower built alongside the current one. Work is expected to be completed by April. Project manager Neil Fickling said the project would "guarantee" the future of the mine for at least 30 years. The renewal will raise the amount of ore lifted to around 5.3 million tonnes a year, a one million tonne increase on the current maximum, owners Cleveland Potash Ltd said. A controlled demolition will take place on Monday.

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Law firm representing abuse victims calls for inquiry

A Hampshire law firm representing 21 victims of abuse in Jersey has expressed concerns about the decision not to hold a public inquiry into the historic child abuse investigation.

Verisona is seeking substantial damages from the States on behalf of former residents of the Haut de la Garenne children's home. The law firm specialises in historic abuse cases. It said some victims would now never get the chance to tell their stories. The firm said many had been pinning their hopes on an inquiry which the government had said would take place once the police investigation had closed. Verisona is representing people who were at the home between the 1940s and 1980s. It said it was in the interests of all that an inquiry was held.

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Murder charge after man found in Bilston property

A man has been charged with the murder of a man who was found with multiple serious injuries.

Deniss Buzmakovs, 42, was discovered in Beckett Street in Bilston, West Midlands, at about 18:30 BST on Sunday. Aleksejs Lusnikovs, 42, from Beckett Street, is due to appear before Walsall Magistrates' Court on Thursday. A 34-year-old man who was arrested has been released with no further action. A post-mortem examination is due to be carried out on Thursday, police said.

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The real reason humans are the dominant species

From early humans rubbing sticks together to make fire, to the fossil fuels that drove the industrial revolution, energy has played a central role in our development as a species. But the way we power our societies has also created humanity's biggest challenge. It's one that will take all our ingenuity to solve.

By Justin Rowlatt & Laurence KnightBBC News Energy is the key to humanity's world domination. Not just the jet fuel that allows us to traverse entire continents in a few hours, or the bombs we build that can blow up entire cities, but the vast amounts of energy we all use every day. Consider this: a resting human being requires about the same amount of energy as an old-fashioned incandescent light bulb to sustain their metabolism - about 90 watts (joules per second). But the average human being in a developed country uses more like 100 times that amount, if you add in the energy needed to get around, build and heat our homes, grow our food and all the other things our species gets up to. The average American, for example, consumes about 10,000 watts. That difference explains a lot about us - our biology, our civilisation and the unbelievably affluent lifestyles we all lead - compared, that is, with other animals. Because unlike virtually every other creature on Earth, we human beings do much more with energy than just power our own metabolism. We are a creature of fire. Humanity's exceptional relationship with energy began hundreds of thousands of years ago, with our discovery of fire. Fire did much more than just keep us warm, protect us from predators and give us a new tool for hunting. A number of anthropologists believe fire actually refashioned our biology. "Anything that allows an organism to get energy more efficiently is going to have huge effects on the evolutionary trajectory of that organism," explains Prof Rachel Carmody of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She believes the decisive development was cooking. Cooking transforms the energy available from food, she argues. The carbohydrates, proteins and lipids that provide our bodies with nutrition are unravelled and exposed when they are heated. That makes it is easier for our digestive enzymes to do their work effectively, extracting more calories more quickly than if we ate our food raw. Think of it as a way of "pre-digesting" food. Prof Carmody and her colleagues believe the extra energy it reliably gave us allowed us to evolve the small colons and relatively large energy-hungry brains that distinguish us from our primate cousins. And, as our brains began to grow, it created a positive feedback loop. As neurons are added to the mammalian brain, intelligence increases exponentially, says Suzana Herculano-Houzel, a neuroscientist based at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. With smarter brains, we got better at hunting and foraging. And we figured out more ways to access the calories in our food - by pounding it with a rock, by grinding into a powder, or even just letting it rot - or of course by roasting it over a fire. In doing so, we further increased the supply of energy to our bodies. This allowed us to evolve even smarter brains, and the ensuing virtuous circle propelled our brains to the top of the class. Over hundreds of thousands of years, the climate constantly changed, with ice sheets advancing and then retreating across the northern hemisphere. The last Ice Age ended around 12,000 years ago. Global temperatures rose rapidly and then stabilised, and humanity embarked on its next energy transformation. It was a revolution that would see the world reach unprecedented levels of technological change. "Within 2,000 years, all over the world, in China, in the Near East, in South America, in Mesoamerica, you're getting people domesticating crops," says Dr Robert Bettinger of the University of California Davis. Cultivating crops had been pretty much impossible during the Ice Age, he believes, but the new warmer climate, coupled with a big rise in carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, was very hospitable to plant life. The cooking ape became a farming ape too. It took huge investments of human energy in the form of hard, arduous labour. But in return, our ancestors reaped a far more abundant and reliable food supply. Think for a moment about what you are doing when you raise crops. Fields act like a kind of solar panel, but instead of making electricity, they turn the Sun's rays into packages of digestible chemical energy. Above all were cereal crops - domesticated grains like wheat, maize and rice acted like a kind of storable energy currency. You can bank it away in a silo to consume at your leisure during the winter months. Or you can cart it off to market to trade with others. Or invest it in planting the next harvest. Or in fattening up animals, which could convert that energy into meat, dairy or draught power. As the centuries passed, animals and plants domesticated in different locations would coalesce into a kind of agricultural package, says Melinda Zeder, an archaeologist who studies the development of pastoral farming at the Smithsonian Institution. The crops fed animals. The animals worked the land. Their manure fed the crops. And, says Dr Zeder, as a package, they provided a much more reliable and abundant food source. More food meant more people - who could then expand into new territory, and develop new technologies that produced even more food. It was another virtuous circle, but this time powered by the solar energy captured through agriculture. The surplus energy it created meant we could sustain much larger populations, and what's more, not everyone needed to farm. People could specialise in making tools, building houses, smelting metals or, for that matter, telling other people what to do. Civilisation was developing and with it some fundamental changes in the relationships between people. Hunter gatherer communities tend to share resources fairly equally. In farming communities, by contrast, deep inequalities can develop. Those who worked long hours in the fields would naturally want to hoard their grain. And then there were those with metal weapons who took a cut from those granaries in the form of taxation. In fact, for thousands of years, the standard of living for the vast majority people on Earth did not improve significantly, despite the bounty of agriculture. "Hunter gatherer societies were the original affluent society," says Claire Walton, the resident archaeologist at Butser Ancient Farm in Hampshire. "They spent something like 20 hours a week in what you would call proper labour." By comparison, a Neolithic, Iron Age, Roman or Saxon farmer would be doing at least double that, she believes. Only kings and nobles lived the kind of affluent, leisurely lifestyles that more and more of us enjoy today. It would take an explosive shift in energy use to achieve that, a shift powered by fossil fuels. By the 18th Century, our increasingly populous societies were beginning to run up against the limits of what the energy provided by the daily influx of the Sun's rays could do. A Malthusian reckoning loomed. How could we grow food fast enough to feed all those mouths? Or indeed wood to build all our houses and ships, and to make the charcoal to smelt all our metal tools? So we began to turn instead to a black rock that we could dig up and burn in almost unlimited quantities. Coal contains the solar energy captured over millions of years by fossilised forests. In the 20th Century, the black stuff would be succeeded by those even richer geological stores of photosynthetic energy - oil and natural gas. And with them, all sorts of new activities became possible. Not only were fossil fuels abundant. They also provided ever greater sources of power, liberating us from our dependence on animals. First came steam engines to turn the heat from coal into motion. Then the internal combustion engine. Then the jet engine. "A horse can only give you one horsepower," explains Paul Warde, an environmental historian at Cambridge University. "We now have industrial machines that can give you tens of thousands of horsepower, and at its limits a Saturn V rocket: 160 million horsepower to deliver you off the surface of the Earth." Fossil fuels power much more than just our vehicles. Some 5% of the world's natural gas supply is used to create ammonia-based fertilisers, for example, without which half the world's population would starve. Turning iron into steel consumes 13% of global coal production. An estimated 8% of the world's CO2 emissions are from concrete. But burning fossil fuels has had an incredible effect on our standard of living. Since the Industrial Revolution we have grown taller and healthier, our life expectancy has increased vastly, and in the developed world we are on average 30 to 40 times better off. And it's all thanks to the energy revolution driven by fossil fuels, argues Vaclav Smil of Manitoba University in Canada, a hugely respected expert on the role of energy in our societies. "Without fossil fuels, no rapid mass transportation, no flying, no surplus consumer food production, no cell phone made in China, brought to Southampton by a giant container ship with 20,000 containers. All of that is fossil fuels," he says. We live in a fossil fuel society, believes Smil. But while they have lifted ever more of us out of agrarian hardship, and created our global economy and high living standards, the catastrophic climate change they are creating now threatens to derail that society. Just as two centuries ago we reached the limits of what agriculture could do, now global warming is imposing a limit on what coal, oil and gas can safely do. It has created the greatest challenge human society has ever faced - moving back to relying on the daily influx of energy from the Sun to meet the huge energy needs of eight billion people and counting. I believe that is possible. But you'll have to listen to my new radio series to find out how. Follow Justin on Twitter. A Pyrotechnic History of Humanity will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 11am on Tuesday 30 March. I've travelled all over the world for the BBC and seen evidence of environmental damage and climate change everywhere. It's the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced. Tackling it means changing how we do virtually everything. We are right to be anxious and afraid at the prospect, but I reckon we should also see this as a thrilling story of exploration, and I'm delighted to have been given the chance of a ringside seat as chief environment correspondent.

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Liz Kendall: I'm an 'all or nothing' person

In the first of a series of profiles of the four Labour leadership candidates, the BBC's Iain Watson spends the day with Liz Kendall on the campaign trail in Berkshire.

By Iain WatsonPolitical correspondent, BBC News She has never been on a CND demonstration. But in her youth, before joining Labour, Liz Kendall first took to the streets to campaign for a pedestrian crossing in Abbott's Langley, her Hertfordshire village... with her mum. Could there be a better image for a candidate who aims to win back Middle England marginals? She did succeed in getting that crossing. "We Kendalls always succeed," she says as she recounts the tale on the train to Reading, a town where Labour took both seats in 1997 but failed to win either of them back in 2015. She also tells me she was at the same school - Watford Grammar - as Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, and that if Girl Power is to be put into practice, it's high time Labour had a woman leader. But why not Yvette Cooper - a more experienced politician? "We need someone who can lead the party in to the future, who will meet challenges head on. You don't solve the problem of our defeat by trying to paper over it, you face it, deal with it. Change. That's what I've got to offer." The 44-year old MPs has never been in the cabinet, and so she feels she has less baggage than both Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham, and more free to tell home truths. Dancing shoes That may be a trait she inherited from her mother, a primary school teacher. Liz Kendall loved dancing as a child and took part in public performances. But her mum told her bluntly she wasn't good enough to be a professional. "I wasn't very happy with her at the time," she admitted. She is now the one telling her party "uncomfortable things" that some of them don't want to hear - primarily, reminding them just how badly they lost. She joined Labour when at Cambridge University, just after Labour's arguably unexpected defeat in 1992. And in delivering her home truths, she doesn't just have a warning for those who have joined the party after its latest defeat in order to vote for left-winger Jeremy Corbyn. She also takes a pop at the more mainstream shadow cabinet duo of Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper too. "If we move to the far-left it will be disastrous - we will be out of power for a long time. But if essentially we also just say and do the same things as we did over the past five years we will end up with the same result. Someone who just has a different gender, or a different accent (from Ed Miliband) just isn't enough." 'Straight answer' But why did she stand for the leadership? "I gave a straight answer to a question. Andrew Neil on the BBC asked me if I was going to go for it and I said yes." And from one television celebrity to another. The comedian Arthur Smith has done a fundraiser for her, but she had to do a stand-up act of her own in front of the still shell-shocked Labour members she met in a cafe - a forum which the losing candidate for Reading West, Vicky Groulef, had organised. She opens her performance for party members with a bombshell: "They are out to obliterate us." No, not her leadership rivals but the Conservatives - stealing Labour's clothes on the living wage, and attacking the party's funding by reforming trade union laws. She much prefers this format to the series of gruelling hustings all the candidates have to attend in every region of the country. "At those meetings we are often asked about council house building or spending cuts when the fundamental question is what this party is for in the twenty first century. And it's difficult to convey that in a series of one-minute answers." So here she's on her feet for over an hour, fielding questions from some activists who haven't pledged support for her. She hears members complain about the former leader - "we followed a firm tradition of having the wrong person", one says - and she pledges that she wouldn't oppose a "break clause" in her leadership so she could be removed if she doesn't live up to expectations. 'Rocking the boat' But this is about politics, not just personality, and she is told that Labour didn't have a message that resonated in this comfortable, but not affluent, area: "We had nothing to say to people who were coping with their mortgage payments, just about doing ok, and didn't want us to rock the boat." She repeats her core message that Labour must again be seen as the party of work, not welfare. Even her poorly paid hairdresser had voted Tory because she didn't think Labour stood up for people that want to get on. Members of her own family had voted Conservative, she confided - though not her dad Richard - a former Liberal councillor who has returned to the Labour fold from which he had bolted in the seventies. Fundamentally, she said, Labour had to be trusted again on the economy - and argued that being fiscally prudent wasn't always regarded as right-wing. Adorning the largest wall in the cafe was the flag of St George and the Leicester West MP - who represents a multi-cultural seat - said she was being told on the doorsteps her party must speak for England. She favours setting up an English Labour Party, on a par with the Scottish and Welsh parties with their own leaders. "It's important to give England a greater voice," she tells me. "We believe in the Union but you have to look at giving English MPs more of a say in parliament. But this isn't just about obsessing over who sits on what committees (at Westminster) - it's also about getting more powers out of Whitehall." But how can Scotland be won back for Labour? Indeed can Scotland be won back? "I don't want to give glib answers. But the problem started before the referendum. We took too many people for granted. Our brightest and best there chose to come to Westminster. If you lose touch with your roots you get this result. But we must have a positive, optimistic vision of Scotland's future. There are no easy solutions but we have got to work more as a team with the new leader in Scotland (who will be elected in August)." Apart from meeting party members, Liz Kendall squeezes in two more visits to highlight the themes of her campaign. The Little Kingdom nursery in Reading is innovative in two ways, it charges by the hour, not the day, to help parents on zero hours contracts. And it trains up its own staff. She declares that she wants the state to get out of career advice, at which it's not terribly good, and let businesses fill the gap. She wants to see better, more flexible child care provision too. Before becoming an MP she ran the Maternity Alliance charity, between stints as a government adviser - first to Harriet Harman on welfare, then Patricia Hewitt at the Department for Business. Family ties She isn't embarrassed by her background as a special adviser. "I am very proud to have worked with Harriet in the 1997 campaign and on the national childcare strategy. When she was sacked from the cabinet it was a very bruising experience but she got us all together and said we would go on to achieve great things. "I campaigned for rights to flexible working and Patricia said 'come in and make it happen on maternity and paternity leave'." Given her long-standing commitment to childcare I wondered if she had been hurt by supporters of rival candidates pointing to the fact that she doesn't have children of her own? "I am close to my nieces," she replies. Yes, but why does the issue even matter? Why is it raised at all? "Well, I had this from journalists way before this leadership campaign. I don't think they would ask the same questions of men. A woman said to me 'you don't have a family' but I do have a family - they come in different shapes and sizes and I am passionate about giving children the best start in life." So much for the rough and tumble of the leadership campaign. She admits it has become more divisive but doesn't think that is entirely a bad thing. 'Debate then unite' In 2010 the party perhaps papered over some big cracks in the interest of unity. "You must debate, decide, then unite in that order," she says. But what of the former Blairite ministers - and there are a few - who like her politics but either don't think she is leadership material or couldn't unite the party even when the debate subsides? "Leaders don't shy away from things that are difficult. And a good leader builds a strong team and sets out a clear direction of travel. "Look, I'm the outsider. I haven't been a cabinet minister. But I feel I haven't got any choice but to stand. I can't bear to see my party lose again and be out of power for a generation. I'm an all or nothing person - that's why I am doing this. We have to make sure we are in touch with the country as it is - not as we wish it to be." But would she be as radical as she first appears? The rhetoric on change is strong. What about the practicalities? She says she is pro-business. She says she wants to see a step change in devolution to English town and cities. Surely then she couldn't possibly object to the government's proposal to giving councils and mayors the right decide Sunday shopping hours? Well, apparently she can. "I think the Sunday trading laws give people time to spend with their families. And there is enough time for businesses to sell their goods." So how radical would her devolution be to English cities? "We need a new fiscal settlement for local government," she says. Would they be given tax raising powers? The power to set business rates? "At this stage in the leadership election, I want to set out a direction of travel. The country - and the party for that matter - is too centralised. It would include more power and responsibility over business rates. But we have got to get the balance right. If you devolve everything some of the most deprived areas won't get the resources and help they need." As someone who has championed public service reform, would she back Conservative plans for a threshold of support before employees in essential services could go on strike? "No, I don't support those plans. Look, many MPs are elected on a low threshold. The way to stop strikes is through negotiation. There is a big role for unions in the future - but they, like we, have to change. Look at the Community trade union - they are becoming the trade union for the self employed. Those huge workplaces, where we had a sense of solidarity, many of them are gone." As it happens, the leadership of the Community union is backing Yvette Cooper. Labour's splits on strategy, as much as substance, were highlighted recently when the interim leader Harriet Harman called for her party to abstain on the Welfare Bill but 48 of her MPs rebelled. Welfare stance Not Liz Kendall, though. So when the bill returns in the autumn would she back the Conservative policy of restricting child tax credit to two children for future recipients? "The reason I strongly defended Harriet is she was trying to say if we oppose all of the bills, as we did in the last parliament, we will get the same result. If we are going to oppose something we have to show how we would pay for an alternative. "So on tax credits, I say to govern is to choose - we spend £100bn on tax reliefs, many of which are good, but I have asked Margaret Hodge (the former chair of the Public Accounts Committee) to do a big review of those reliefs to come up with the money we need." On the specific question, after a protracted exchange, I never did get a Yes or No answer but given the strength of feeling in the Parliamentary Labour Party I get the impression she would like to find an alternative proposal rather than back this specific Conservative plan. After all, she has said she backs the benefit cap in principle but doesn't use the same language on the future tax credit restrictions. I conclude by asking "so you might vote for the Conservative proposal" and she responds: "As leader I won't oppose anything unless we show how we can pay for the alternative. That is it, full stop. That would be a general rule under my leadership." A trip to Microsoft - located on the outskirts of Reading due to proximity to Heathrow - allows Liz Kendall to underline her support for a third runway at the airport. She also meets two very bright apprentices and portrays herself as the candidate of the future as she is shown cutting edge technology to enable 'virtual meetings' to take place - and an electronic changing room where clothes can be called up on screen and delivered to the door (or curtain). Chelsea Girl She utilises this as an opportunity to burnish her pre-special adviser working-life credentials by admitting she had a Saturday job in Chelsea Girl - or "the forerunner of River Island", as she explains to younger Microsoft staff. Then it's back on message - but she delivers her pitch with passion: "The world of work is changing. We live in a global economy. This is what we must debate in the Labour Party. How do we show our principles are relevant in the modern world? The candidate characterised as the most Blairite says New Labour was too cavalier about the consequences of globalisation and didn't do enough for those who were left behind: "The great tragedy is our values and principles - achieving more through common endeavour than we do alone - are more relevant than ever and yet we have vacated the ground." She has big plans if elected, including a major speech on foreign policy. But her summer will be spent travelling the town and cities of England trying to convince Labour members that the party needs to change quite as much as she believes it must. "Just being a bit more pro-business won't cut the mustard," she concludes. Then it was off to Ealing in west London, where Labour won a seat from the Conservatives, for a fundraiser. On 12 September when all the votes are counted, her adage "the Kendalls always succeed" will be put to the test. Until then perhaps her old Watford Girls grammar school motto will stand her in good stead: "Go forward - with preparation."

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32044059

Yemen crisis: An Iranian-Saudi battleground?

Yemen is fast descending into a violent cauldron where the competing interests of Shia Houthi rebels, Sunni tribes, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states, Iran, al-Qaeda and now Islamic State are forming a toxic mix.

By Frank GardnerBBC security correspondent The situation has got so bad that the US and UK have closed their embassies and evacuated their staff, while Gulf Arab countries have moved theirs to the southern city of Aden. The Houthis are closing in on Aden, which controls the entrance to the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab strait, through which about 20,000 ships pass annually. The city is also the base of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, who has called for military intervention by the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), including the imposition of a no-fly zone, while few people hold out much hope for the promised peace talks in Qatar. So, is Yemen about to embroil the region in a wider war? Sectarian strife At its heart, the current conflict in Yemen is one between the rebels and what remains of the elected Yemeni government. The Houthis are Shia, from the Zaidi sect. They are opposed not just by the government they have ousted but also by Yemen's many Sunni tribes. But above all, they are opposed by the jihadists of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Islamic State, who consider Shia heretics. On 20 March, IS marked its violent debut in the country with four suicide bomb attacks at mosques popular with Houthi supporters, killing more than 130 worshippers. The Houthis come from the far north of Yemen and have little popular support in most of the rest of the country. But they are effective fighters who seized the capital last September (having said they would not) and they are getting a lot of help from some quarters. The powerful former President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, is widely reported to be backing them, determined to make Yemen ungovernable by his successor, the UN-backed President Hadi. Iran is also alleged to be supporting the Houthis. The rebels officially deny this, but senior figures have been seen in Iran's holy city of Qom and there are unconfirmed reports of Iranian pilots flying Yemeni planes. All this is enough to seriously rattle the Saudis, who woke up too late to the prospect of a pro-Iranian rebel movement taking over their southern neighbour. The Saudis, who conducted air strikes against the Houthis on their common border in 2010, say they will not allow Iran "to sow sectarian strife in the region" and have vowed to back Yemen's beleaguered president. Saudi Arabia is still in the process of building a massive border fence with Yemen and is now bolstering its naval base at the southern Red Sea port of Jizan. Proxy war fears "The Saudi military preparation," says security analyst Aimen Deen from the think tank Five Dimensions, "signals, along with the increasing diplomatic efforts, Saudi Arabia's intent to stop the Houthis controlling the Bab al-Mandab strait. "The pressing question is whether the Royal Saudi Air Force will intervene to prevent Aden from falling to the Houthis. All indications are that the Saudis are preparing militarily to answer this question, but the political decision is not yet taken." Put bluntly, Yemen is in enough trouble with the ongoing fight between its own citizens. If Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states get drawn in one side, and Iran on another, the conflict risks getting exponentially worse. "The looming danger is seeing Yemen merely as a proxy war between the Gulf Co-operation Council states and Iran," says Jon Altman, Middle East programme director at the Centre for Strategic & International Studies in Washington. "Iran is clearly giving some support to the Houthis, but over the last 10 years that support has been limited and slow to arrive. "There are no indications that the government of Iran sees Yemen as a strategic priority. If the proxy war route is pursued, the conflict is likely to rage for years." 'No exit strategy' Yemen is no stranger to outside interference. In the civil war of the 1960s, Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser sent his country's air force to support the Republicans against the Royalists, dropping chemical weapons from the air. Aden and its adjacent provinces were British protectorates until the British withdrawal in 1967. South Yemen was then ruled by communists with Soviet backing, and the Russians established bases there. In the civil war of 1994, Saudi Arabia allegedly supported the Southerners as they tried, unsuccessfully, to break away from the North. And for the last 20 years, the US military has maintained a small and discreet military presence in the country, mostly training and advising on counter-terrorism, a presence which has now ended in an abrupt withdrawal after al-Qaeda fighters overran a town close to the base used by US Special Forces. "The real danger of the civil war," says a senior Western official who asked not to be named, "is that of outside players getting involved." But outside powers will be thinking carefully before committing themselves to military intervention in Yemen. It is an expensive, difficult country for anyone to wage war in, the battle lines are blurred and there is no clear exit strategy for either side.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28448688

Illegal bottom injections on rise in US

A growing number of American women are getting plastic surgery to enhance their behinds. But with the costs running into the thousands of dollars, many are choosing cheap, illegal and life-threatening backstreet procedures.

By Rajini VaidyanathanBBC News, Miami She did it because she thought she'd look better, and be more desirable. But getting injections for a bigger behind was the biggest mistake Natalie Johnson ever made. At her home in a Miami suburb, she shows me pictures of her scarred body, bruised and blackened from decaying tissue. "I didn't need it, I was perfect without it," she says. "I was in a lifestyle where I felt if I had a big old butt, I could make more money." The pain she has to endure is so severe that it is hard for her to sit down for too long. Johnson relies on her nine-year-old daughter to help with the most basic of tasks. Johnson was working as an exotic dancer when she met someone claiming to be a doctor who offered to perform a buttocks-enhancement procedure at a fraction of the price of a registered surgeon. It did not seem out of the ordinary. Other friends had it done and plenty of young women in Miami desire a larger behind to look like the dancers in music videos, Johnson says. She says a man named O'Neal Morris came to her house wearing white scrubs - "looking professional" - and injected a substance into her behind using plastic syringe. At first the results were good: a firmer, rounder rear, bringing her closer to her goal of a "Coca-Cola bottle-shaped body". She had two more rounds of treatment. Soon after, the problems began. "It started making me really, really sick. I noticed it was starting to disintegrate and my butt turned wrinkly," she says. Bottom's up Surgical attention to the backside is on the rise. In 2013: • 2,438 people got a buttock lift, an 80% increase over 2000. • 7,281 people received a "lower body lift", which includes shaping the buttocks, thighs, hips and abdomen. That represents 3,417% increase over 2000 and the biggest growth measured by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. • 942 people got buttock implants, compared with 858 in 2012. Rates were not measured in 2000. • 9,993 people in the US got a buttock augmentation with fat grafting, compared with 8,654 in 2012. "I was getting dizzy, and feeling fatigued." On one occasion Johnson was rushed to hospital after she stopped breathing. Morris began a one-year jail sentence in January for practising medicine without a licence. Women who came forward during the trial said Morris, who is not a qualified doctor, had injected them with a range of substances including cement, superglue and tyre sealant. The Federal Bureau of Investigations says the numbers of cases of people posing as fake doctors to perform this kind of treatment are on the rise, especially in Florida, New York, California and Texas. At his surgery in a Miami suburb, Dr Alberto Gallerani shows me vials containing things he has pulled out of patients' buttocks, including olive oil and super glue. A certified plastic surgeon, Gallerani has been treating Johnson and hundreds of other women and men who come to him for corrective surgery after botched procedures. He shows me photos of what can go wrong. They are too horrific to post online, but in some cases the skin has changed colour and is badly scarred. Other more extreme images show how the body has become severely disfigured. Gallerani says in many cases the symptoms can take several years to appear. "What many of the people doing this don't realise is, they're putting a ticking time bomb in their body," he says. He says he gets 100 calls a week from people asking for help. Buttocks are an increasing target for surgical enhancement. In 2013, the numbers for this procedure doubled over the previous year, according to the American Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. It costs thousands of dollars to get it done properly, which is why many women are opting for cheaper, unregulated methods. Hip-hop culture celebrates a larger rear, and the pressure on women to have a bigger behind is huge, says Tee Ali, a London-based casting agent. His client and friend, 20-year-old Claudia Aderotimi, died in 2011 after she flew from London to Philadelphia to get injections from a woman she met online. Doctors believe the illegal silicone shots spread to her organs, killing her. The person accused of administering the procedure is due in court next year. Ali says Aderotimi believed a bigger behind would help her make it in the music industry. "When girls go out and one of them has a big rear, she gets all the attention. She'll get everything, free lifts, free drinks," he says. "It's well known, girls with bigger bums have more attention and they have big jobs and they're more in demand." Ali says young women to whom he has spoken are afraid to discuss the issue openly, and won't admit they might want to get surgery in the first place, which also drives many to underground procedures. He says many women fly to the US to get the injections because they are harder to find in the UK. Tragically, Aderotimi is not alive to warn others of the dangers, but Johnson believes by sharing her story she can save others from the same fate. "Stick with what God gave you," she says. "I tell girls, if it ain't broke don't fix it. You are beautiful the way you are."

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Kenya attack: Who are the Nairobi victims?

At least 21 people died when Islamist al-Shabab militants stormed a luxury hotel compound in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

A 19-hour siege of the DusitD2 hotel and business complex last Tuesday ended with five attackers "eliminated", President Uhuru Kenyatta said. Among the victims was someone who had survived the 9/11 terror attacks in the US, a football fan and well-known YouTuber and two inseparable friends. Here is what what we know so far about them: James Oduor Dubbed "Odu Cobra" by his friends, James Oduor died on the eve of his birthday and was known for his passion for football. He loved the grassroots game and set up the YouTube fan site, Wadau TV, a year ago. He was a university friend of BBC business editor Larry Madowo who tweeted, "He was one of the nicest, happiest people I've ever met. Rest well, Odu, nind maber [Luo for rest in peace]. The world is better because you lived." According to those sharing tributes to him on a site set up to remember him, he was an ardent supporter of the English premier league side Manchester United and played for a local team. "Manchester United Kenya will miss a loyal fan. And our football team will miss a leader and a brother. Thanks for all the memories and games we had together. Fare thee well. You will be received well by the legends up there," one person wrote. He also worked for LG Electronics, which has offices in the Dusit complex. Tweeting in the wake of the attack, Mr Oduor said that he had heard "gunshots and non-stop explosions" and said that he and his colleagues were trapped. "Your good spirit will live on in football. You did your part," president of the Football Kenya Federation Nick Mwendwa tweeted after it was announced that he had died in the attack. Sports journalist Jeff Kinyanjui paid tribute on Twitter, saying "No-one ever defended me the way you did... even when I was clearly on the wrong." His close friend James Magayi, from the Sports Journalists Association of Kenya, told Citizen TV that he had seen Mr Oduor at a business meeting on Tuesday morning. "We made some banter about his beard; I remember telling him that he needed to trim it," he said. A statement released by LG Electronics described him "not just an incredible employee, but a truly inspiring and genuine human being". Bernadette Konjalo In the moments after the shooting began at the DusitD2 hotel and business complex, Bernadette Konjalo was helping to guide guests to safety. Then she, along with some of her hotel colleagues, retreated when they saw the gunmen at the main entrance, but they were not able to outrun or hide from them, Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper reports. Ms Konjalo had risen through the ranks to become the director of revenue of the DusitD2 having joined the hotel in 2014 as a front office manager. Tributes have been paid to her on Facebook where one of her last posts was a composite image of herself taking part in the #10YearChallenge - a recent social media trend to post a 2009 photo of yourself next to a recent one, to show how much you've changed in a decade. Her family, from the western county of Siaya, say the youngest of four siblings was outgoing and supported her relatives financially, including paying school fees for some. In a Facebook post, Georges Nato commended his friend's bravery: "Bernadette Konjalo you are one tough mama! "As others ran for safety you encouraged them and showed them the way from behind like a true leader!!!" Ms Konjalo is one of six staff at Nairobi's DusitD2 hotel who are known to have died following last week's attack. The others victims were Erickson Mogaka, Trufosa Nyaboke, Dedricks Lemisi, Zackary Nyambwaga and Beatrice Mutua, according to the company. "Shine on, dear friends", read the hotel's tribute posted to Twitter. A memorial service is to be held on Wednesday, DusitD2 said. Jason Spindler An American tech CEO who survived 11 September World Trade Centre terror attack in New York in 2001 was among the victims of the hotel attack. "It is with a heavy heart that I have to report that my brother Jason Spindler passed away this morning during a terror attack in Nairobi, Kenya. Jason was a survivor of 9/11 and a fighter. I am sure he gave them hell!" his brother Jonathan said in a private Facebook post. Mr Spindler was working for investment bank Salomon Smith Barney in the World Trade Center when his building collapsed in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, reports AFP. That ordeal changed his life, said Mr Spindler's friend and former roommate from the University of Texas. "Something struck a nerve and changed how he felt and thought about things," Kevin Yu told the Washington Post.. "He just felt like he could be doing so much more." Mr Spindler became co-founder and CEO of I-Dev International - a company focused on financial innovations to reduce poverty - he was working in Kenya on a mini-power grid project tailored for remote areas. The I-Dev website goes on to say that he studied business at the University of Texas at Austin, then law at New York University and had served for the US peace Corps in Peru. In an interview with US broadcaster NBC, his mother Sarah Spindler said that Jason was trying to "make a positive change in the third world in emerging markets". Feisal Ahmed and Abdalla Dahir Kenyan development consultants Feisal Ahmed, 31, and Abdalla Dahir, 33, who worked for Adam Smith International (ASI), were having lunch together at the Secret Garden restaurant in the grounds of the hotel when the suicide bomber struck. Friends and relatives described Mr Ahmed and Mr Dahir as inseparable. "They were close buddies," Mr Ahmed's brother-in-law Abdullahi Keinan told the Reuters news agency. "They were so close, people said they would die together." They had been working for the Somalia Stability Fund managed by ASI to "bring peace and prosperity to Somalia", ASI said on their website. "He [Ahmed] was an outgoing funny guy, charismatic. He was loved by everybody," said Mohammed Abdilatif, a close friend and colleague told Reuters. Mr Ahmed's widow is reportedly seven months pregnant. Mr Dahir's LinkedIn profile says he was passionate about photography and sharing "the stories of vulnerable people especially the voiceless victims of violence in order to educate the world about the detrimental impacts of war". A joint funeral was held for them on Wednesday. Luke Potter Briton Luke Potter worked for the charity Gatsby Africa as their Africa programmes director. He described himself on his company website as loving water-sports, camping, hiking and talking about adventures outside the city. Mr Potter held dual South African nationality and had only recently moved to Nairobi from Britain. "I strongly believe in the need for societies to offer as equal an opportunity as possible to all, and that, while economic competitiveness is essential to build a country, long-term stability is not achievable unless the gains are widely spread," he said on the website. Gatsby Africa said in a statement that he had devoted the past 10 years to "helping some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world". It said he played an "instrumental" role in establishing the organisation's forestry programme in Kenya and provided "crucial leadership, guidance and support" to other programmes in Tanzania and Rwanda. "He brought a calm head and his unique sense of humour to every situation," the company added. "We share the grief of his family, partner, daughter and friends." Jeremiah was not just a leader, he was a brother and a mentor to many. He guided his team with humility and corrected with humor. He loved God and everyone he came across; and always challenged his team to grow. Tech company Cellulant, described as one of Africa's most innovative start-ups in the world of financial technology, lost six members of staff in the attack: Jeremiah Mbaria Cellant described Jeremiah Mbaria as a leader, a brother and a mentor to many. "He guided his team with humility and corrected with humour. He loved God and everyone he came across, and always challenged his team to grow." He had just taken up a leadership role after his manager left the company late last year. "He took on the responsibilities of leadership very gracefully and lead by example, working late to help his team meet their deadlines," Cellulant said. On the day of the attack, he along with Ashford Kuria, were running the team meeting when they heard an explosion. The two, together with Denis Mwaniki, guided 83 of the 100 colleagues based on the fifth and sixth floor to safety through the building's emergency door. Kelvin Gitonga Passionate about his job, Kelvin Gitonga believed "technology would change the world", Cellulant said. It described him as "an intelligent and versatile engineer" with a thirst for knowledge and learning. He single-handedly overhauled the product's user interface making it easier and more friendly to use, the company said. Mr Gitonga was also involved in providing support for non-web applications. After the militants noticed people were escaping through the emergency door the remaining team scattered. Six sought refuge in a small room underneath the stair cases on the first floor. The other 11 hid in two washrooms on the fifth floor. Mr Gitonga was among the team hiding in the lower floor. Ashford Kuria Ashford Kuria is fondly remembered by those at Cellutant as "the ultimate geek". He had worked on all the company's major products, and was part of the team that built the technology that supports Cellutant services. He was also described as the company's "unofficial documentarian". "If you wanted a photo from any event in the past 10 years - Ash would have had it," Cellutant's tribute said. "His knowledge of everything about everything was hilarious," it added. "[Ashford] will be remembered best for his big smile, warm personality, his kindness [and] love to everyone - and most importantly his tenacity." Wilfred Kareithi "Energetic" and "happy" was how Cellulant described Wilfred Kareithi who started as an intern at the company but proved himself to be one of the best engineers. He "never shied away" from taking on the most challenging of tasks, the firm's statement said. "He helped unconditionally, and always sought to mentor new staff members and share knowledge." He had been managing projects in Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Nigeria. John Ndiritu "Just because it is not my job, doesn't mean I can't do it," John Ndiritu was known to tell colleagues at Cellulant in need of help. As a quality assurance tester "he was always willing to go the extra mile to help when called upon", the company said in a statement on Twitter. "Jovial, calm and best-known for his humour", is how they summed up his personality. He was part of the team members that worked on a mobile banking app for Ecobank, one of the leading banks in Africa. The team "delivered the app in 86 days, four platforms, four languages in 33 countries in Africa", Cellulant said. Denis Mwaniki Information security expert Denis Mwaniki was described by his employer as a "curious explorer, strategic thinker, a gentleman and exemplary leader". Cellulant said it secured coveted information security certification thanks to Mr Mwankiki's "intellect", adding that he would be remembered as "a calm and humble spirit". He was one of the best IT security experts in Africa, the company said. His work enabled the company to get certified to operate in almost any market in the world. Japhet Ndunguja Nuru Twenty-six-year-old Japhet Ndunguja Nuru served as paramilitary police officer. According to his older sister, he was killed during a gunfight with the militants who broke into the Dusit complex. Helen Jumapili told the Daily Nation newspaper that she had spoken with her brother before the attack and he had promised to visit her the following day which was his day off. "I thought he was resting since he had a long night. My parents, however, kept on calling me to know whether he was OK. We confirmed in the evening that he died in the fight," she said. His sister described him as a hardworking man who next month had been about to start building a home in south-eastern Taita Taveta County, where his family lived. How the attack unfolded

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Woody Allen allegations spur debate over legacy and celebrity culture

On Saturday, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof posted to his blog an open letter to the public from Dylan Farrow detailing allegations that her adoptive father, legendary actor and director Woody Allen, sexually assaulted her when she was seven years old.

By Anthony ZurcherEditor, Echo Chambers The allegations first surfaced during contentious divorce and child custody proceedings between Mr Allen and actress Mia Farrow in 1993 but returned to public debate when the Golden Globes honoured the director with a lifetime achievement award and he received an Academy Award nomination for best original screenplay for his latest film, Blue Jasmine. "For as long as I could remember, my father had been doing things to me that I didn't like" wrote Dylan Farrow. After the assault, which she says occurred in the attic of her house, she told her mother. She recounts how the court battle between her parents played out from her perspective and the emotional impact the alleged assault and resulting high profile debate over Mr Allen's guilt have had on her mental health. "I was stricken with guilt that I had allowed him to be near other little girls," she writes. "I was terrified of being touched by men. I developed an eating disorder. I began cutting myself." Ms Farrow, who lives under a new name in Florida with her husband, lays blame for her situation in part on Hollywood culture and a US society that glorifies celebrities. "Woody Allen is a living testament to the way our society fails the survivors of sexual assault and abuse," she writes. On Sunday Mr Allen issued a statement denying his daughter's claims. "Mr Allen has read the article and found it untrue and disgraceful," his publicist, Leslee Dart, writes. He continues: At the time, a thorough investigation was conducted by court appointed independent experts. The experts concluded there was no credible evidence of molestation; that Dylan Farrow had an inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality; and that Dylan Farrow had likely been coached by her mother, Mia Farrow. No charges were ever filed. Ms Farrow's letter has largely generated sympathy from the commentators and columnists. "Dylan Farrow's bravery is to be commended," writes the Washington Monthly's Kathleen Geier. "I hope that by going public, she finds renewed serenity and strength, and that her example gives hope to other survivors. Actress/director Lena Dunham tweeted: "To share in this way is courageous, powerful and generous." Others have called for Mr Allen to be shunned by the public and Hollywood. "Look, none of us can be certain what happened," writes Kristof in a column that accompanied Ms Farrow's letter. "The standard to send someone to prison is guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but shouldn't the standard to honor someone be that they are unimpeachably, well, honorable?" That Mr Allen has been able to continue to move in celebrity circles and find support for his artistic work is a reflection of a "rape culture" that gives equal weight to the accuser and the accused, writes the New Inquiry's Aaron Bady. "In a rape culture, there is no burden on us to presume that she is not a liar, no necessary imperative to treat her like a person whose account of herself can be taken seriously," he writes. "It is important that we presume he is innocent. It is not important that we presume she is not making it all up out of female malice." Bernard O'Leary of the Guardian Liberty Voice writes that the allegations present a dilemma for Mr Allen's fans - similar to what fans of other celebrities have faced when their idols are accused of heinous crimes. "The truth is that society does not really know how to deal with celebrity sex offenders, especially when the work they've produced is widely admired," he writes. "Fans and supporters will try to sweep it under the carpet and people will try to focus on the work. Perhaps it is possible to celebrate the art while condemning the artist, but hopefully society will not soon be listening to Woody Allen's apologists trying to claim that it wasn't 'rape-rape.'" Reason magazine's Nick Gillespie notes that history is full of artists with tarnished legacies. How, he asks, should we treat their creations? "If artists are not simply awful human beings but criminals, should we turn away from their work?" he writes. Arthur Koestler was a rapist, according to one of his biographers. Does that mean his great anti-totalitarian novel, Darkness at Noon, should go unread? Edmund Wilson was a wife-beater, Picasso well beyond a sociopath, and on and on. When it comes to figures such as Martin Heidegger (an actual Nazi) and Paul de Man (a Nazi collaborator) and others in the past, the question is simpler: We can add new disclosures or information to a study of their influence and an estimation of whether their reputations are deserved. When faced with living, breathing creators such as Allen and [director Roman] Polanski, that sort of dodge isn't really available. Other writers have argued that Mr Allen should have the benefit of the doubt. "Clearly, this is a woman who is very damaged, if not by Allen himself, then by her parents' bitter breakup and savage custody battle," writes Susie O'Brien in the Melbourne Herald Sun. "I believe Farrow does think something terrible happened in that dark attic all these years ago, and she has clearly not recovered from it. However, it doesn't necessarily mean Allen is a child abuser who should be shunned from society, and ignored professionally." Tablet Magazine's Alana Newhouse writes that the "entire premise" of Ms Farrow's letter is wrong. She shouldn't be blaming the public and Hollywood for her pain. Instead it was her mother's decision to not pursue criminal charges against Mr Allen that has left ambiguity in the case. "It disabled our ability to judge anyone either way, and it solidified this as an endless he-said-she-said," she writes. "Imagine if Mia Farrow had pressed charges and Allen had been convicted and gone to prison. Does anyone think, for one second, that he'd be the recipient of a Golden Globes lifetime achievement award?" The details in this case have been extensively covered over the past two decades. Several pieces in Vanity Fair present the case against Mr Allen. Robert B Weide, who directed a documentary about Mr Allen, offers his critique of the allegations and a defence of the embattled director in the Daily Beast. Since the statute of limitations for charges against Mr Allen relating to Ms Farrow's allegations has passed, there will likely be no definitive resolution to this sad story. The public, and in the end history, will be the only judges for Mr Allen and his daughter.

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-39960586

Solicitor Jane Poole-Wilson elected to Legislative Council

A solicitor has been elected to the upper house of Tynwald following a vote by the Members of the House of Keys.

It was the first poll since reforms to the election procedure came into effect in April and meant a majority of 13 was no longer required for election. Jane Poole-Wilson received 14 votes with her closest rival Alan Wright gaining six. The mother of two will fill the seat made vacant when Tony Wild retired due to "ill health" in February. The Speaker of the House of Keys Juan Watterson congratulated her and said she would be sworn in on 23 May. She will hold the position until February 2018.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-22508670

Jennie Runk: My life as a 'plus-size' model

When H&M hired a "plus-size" model to show off the range of sizes for its beachwear, the ad campaign caused much discussion. Model Jennie Runk says it's time we stopped obsessing about size.

I had no idea that my H&M beachwear campaign would receive so much publicity. I'm the quiet type who reads books, plays video games, and might be a little too obsessed with her cat. So, suddenly having a large amount of publicity was an awkward surprise at first. I found it strange that people made such a fuss about how my body looks in a bikini, since I don't usually give it much thought. When my Facebook fan page gained about 2,000 new likes in 24 hours, I decided to use the attention as an opportunity to make the world a little nicer by promoting confidence. I've since been receiving lots of messages from fans, expressing gratitude. Some even told me that my confidence has inspired them to try on a bikini for the first time in years. This is exactly the kind of thing I've always wanted to accomplish, showing women that it's OK to be confident even if you're not the popular notion of "perfect". This message is especially important for teenage girls. Being a teenage girl is incredibly difficult. They need all the help and support they can get. When our bodies change and we all start to look totally different, we simultaneously begin feeling pressured to look exactly the same. This is an impossible goal to achieve and I wish I had known that when I was 13. At 5ft 9in and a US size eight (usually either a UK 10 or 12), I envied the girls whose boyfriends could pick them up and carry them on their shoulders. Gym class was a nightmare. While the thin girls were wearing shorts, I was wearing sweat pants because my thighs were the size of their waists, and those pants were embarrassingly short because I was taller than the average adult, but still shopped at (pre-teen clothing store) Limited Too. I also had thick, curly hair that only drew more attention to me, hiding behind my braces and beige, wire-rimmed glasses. On top of all this I've always been rather clumsy, so to say that my adolescence was awkward is an understatement. Having finally survived it, I feel compelled to show girls who are going through the same thing that it's acceptable to be different. You will grow out of this awkwardness fabulously. Just focus on being the best possible version of yourself and quit worrying about your thighs, there's nothing wrong with them. After all, I never thought of myself as model material but then I was discovered at a Petsmart, while volunteering in my too-short sweat pants no less. I was given the option to lose weight and try to maintain a size four (a UK six or eight), or to gain a little - maintain a size 10 (a UK 12 or 14) - and start a career as a plus-size model. I knew my body was never meant to be a size four, so I went with plus. People assume "plus" equates to fat, which in turn equates to ugly. This is completely absurd because many women who are considered plus-sized are actually in line with the American national average, or a US size 12/14 (somewhere between a UK size 14-18). I can't argue that some styles look better on one size than another. While the idea of separating women into size categories seems stigmatising, clothing companies do this in order to offer their customers exactly what they're looking for, making it easier for people of all sizes to find clothes that fit their bodies as well as their own unique stylistic expression. The only problem is the negative connotations that remain stubbornly attached to the term "plus-size". There shouldn't be anything negative about being the same size as the average American woman, or even being a little bigger. Some women are perfectly healthy at a size 16 (a UK 18 or 20). There are also negative connotations associated with thinness. Just as bigger women get called fat or chunky, thin women get called gangly or bony. There's no need to glamorise one body type and slam another. We need to stop this absurd hatred towards bodies for being different sizes. It doesn't help anyone and it's getting old. You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook

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Avoncroft Museum windmill damaged in heavy gusts

A windmill that is part of a Worcestershire tourist attraction has been damaged during severe weather.

One of the sails of the Danzey Green windmill, at Avoncroft Museum, near Bromsgrove, was left hanging off after heavy gusts of wind. The tourist attraction is a collection of historic buildings. Simon Carter, director of Avoncroft Museum, said it was a "major setback" to their planned maintenance schedule for this year. Related Internet Links Avoncroft Museum

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Kevin Nunes shooting: The police mistakes that sank a murder case

A promising young footballer shot dead. Five men jailed for his murder released after a catalogue of police mistakes.

By Phil MackieFile on 4 Fifteen years on from his cold-blooded killing, the family of Kevin Nunes have no answers to their questions, no-one has been held responsible for his death and no police officers have been disciplined. Here, those at the centre of the saga tell their stories to File on 4. Things could have worked out very differently for Kevin Nunes. Arriving in the UK from Jamaica as a schoolboy, he began to show promise as a talented footballer. He impressed scouts at Tottenham Hotspur, and was on Leyton Orient's books. When he moved to the West Midlands, he began playing for Stafford Rangers semi-professionally. At about the same time, 18-year-old Leanne Williams, from Wolverhampton, caught his eye. "A friend phoned me and said that somebody liked me, so I went to see who - I was quite intrigued," she recalls. "He was a good person. He liked playing football, going to the gym and just hanging out really. He was very committed in football." By 2002, Leanne was pregnant with his son. But any hopes of Kevin realising his dream as a professional footballer had begun to fade. He had started hanging around with a bad crowd - a gang of drug dealers linked to a notorious criminal gang in Heath Town, Wolverhampton. He learned there was quite a bit of money to be made buying cheap cocaine in the West Midlands, and selling it on in Aberdeen. In what was known as the "Aberdeen run", small-time dealers would board a train in Wolverhampton and head up to the Scottish city, making three or four times as much as they could back at home. Kevin, then 20, began making several trips. But his money-making scheme did not last long after he clashed with gang members back in the Midlands. Kevin's bullet-ridden body was found on a grass verge near a farm in the Staffordshire village of Pattingham in September 2002. Leanne, who had been frantically looking for her boyfriend after he failed to return home, was visited by Staffordshire Police and quizzed about his last known movements. "The last thing they asked me was what was he wearing. I said 'red cardigan, jeans, white trainers', and they said 'sorry to tell you, it is Kevin we found'. "I broke down and started crying. Up to this day I don't know what happened or why." Detectives took about 1,000 statements but, as is often the case with gangland killings, no-one was willing to put a name to anyone responsible. Star witness "They said that they were met with reluctance and that wall of silence, which I know amongst the black community - it's a thing there between the police and ethnic minority, really," says Leanne. "There's not really that trust there, because we don't believe that they're for us in that way, you know." But in 2005, a man by the name of Simeon Taylor came forward with key information. He told detectives that he had been there when Kevin was repeatedly shot and beaten by five men, having driven one of them to the scene. He denied being involved in the murder, and said he was willing to give evidence at a trial. Already in jail for another offence, when released, Taylor was given protective witness status. It was the job of Staffordshire Police's sensitive policing unit (SPU) to keep him safe ahead of the trial. The force had their star witness. Five men were in custody awaiting trial for murder. But it is at this point that the investigation started to go very wrong indeed. Drugs paraphernalia As the only person placing the five suspects at the murder scene, Taylor was afforded gold-plated police protection, and he knew it. He continued to commit crime - such as being in possession of an offensive weapon - but was never charged amid fears it would harm his role as key witness. His handlers had to clear up drugs paraphernalia he left behind in hotel rooms and safe houses - with no consequences for Taylor. He was even taken on nights out drinking with officers. But the most startling revelation is that while on the witness protection scheme, he and his relatives were sent on a lavish, taxpayer-funded trip to South Africa, believed to have cost up to £10,000, as part of a potential relocation package. His behaviour was so bad, he was asked to leave the country. Joe Anderson, a former detective inspector who had recently taken charge of the SPU, was flabbergasted. "I found out he was sent to South Africa - his mother and his two brothers were also sent to South Africa, and spent several weeks over there having a holiday. "Staffordshire Police was held to ransom, and Staffordshire Police gave in to the vast majority of [the] demands." Despite being informed about Taylor's behaviour - he had breached a behaviour code of conduct 76 times - Staffordshire's then head of crime, Assistant Chief Constable Suzette Davenport recommended he continue to be granted protected witness status. "The bottom line is that because of the type of lifestyle he was involved in, I feared for his life," she now says, speaking for the first time on the subject. "And one of the overriding drivers, because I am a public servant, is to protect life and property, and I absolutely feared that if he wasn't within that protection scheme - regardless of if he might have given evidence or not - that he would potentially have come to significant harm. I feared for his life." But when Taylor cancelled a hotel booking police made for him, keeping the £320 refund, it was enough to make Det Insp Anderson turn whistleblower. He believed colleagues had deliberately not recorded this, knowing it could jeopardise the investigation. "Constantly the words that kept being used to me were, we must get him to court at all costs," said the officer. This time, he went to Supt Jane Sawyers, the then head of Professional Standards for Staffordshire Police. He told her he believed what was happening in his department amounted to corruption. But in her first interview about the case, she recalls a different conversation, during which Det Insp Anderson complained about a lack of professionalism and management support. Ms Sawyers spoke to her line manager, the then Deputy Chief Constable Adrian Lee, who commissioned an internal review into the department's actions. It was completed in 2007, before the murder trial took place. The report "exposed failings in the structure, procedures, working practices, culture and management of the unit". Officers were criticised for socialising with Taylor, and concerns were also raised over the amount of money being spent on him. A defence lawyer could suggest this amounted to a bribe, the review added. One member of the SPU was given formal advice by a senior officer, another was put in a different unit. But the contents of the report were only circulated between a handful of senior officers, and were not disclosed to detectives investigating Kevin's murder. The murder trial went ahead in January 2008, and five men were found guilty and handed life sentences. Adam Joof and Antonio Christie were jailed for a minimum of 28 years; Levi Walker and Michael Osbourne were handed 27-year tariffs, and Owen Crooks was given at least 25 years in prison. Leanne, who had travelled to court with her mother and brother Benji, was overwhelmed at the verdicts. "I cried and I was overjoyed, you know, because I didn't think anybody would get convicted of Kevin's murder. "I just thought it would be another unsolved case, to be honest." Leanne and her family moved on with their lives. But two years later, rumours emerged the five men were appealing against their convictions. Simeon Taylor had been secretly recorded telling a friend he lied in court. 'Shell-shocked' The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) launched an investigation called Operation Kalmia. Still concerned the case had been mishandled, Joe Anderson, says he approached Marcus Beale, then the assistant chief constable at the Staffordshire force. When he heard nothing back, he took his complaints to the CCRC. "I think the word I'd use is 'shell-shocked'," he says. "They were clearly shocked at what I was telling them. They told me to go back to the force to secure whatever evidence I could, copy everything and retain everything and bring it back to them." The chief constable of Derbyshire, Mick Creedon, was put in charge of the probe, which concluded the initial report into the handling of Taylor should have been disclosed long before the trial went ahead. All five men's convictions were overturned at the Appeal Court on 4 July 2012. Lord Justice Hooper said the case was "seriously flawed". "It's to be hoped that the appropriate measures will be taken against those responsible for what appears to be a serious perversion of the course of justice," he concluded. The Independent Police Complaints Commission took up the investigation. 'Collective failure' Meanwhile, the four senior officers under investigation had moved up the ranks since 2012. Adrian Lee was chief constable in Northamptonshire; Suzette Davenport was about to be promoted to be chief in Gloucestershire; Jane Sawyers was poised to become chief constable in Staffordshire, and Marcus Beale was an assistant chief constable in the West Midlands with responsibility for counter-terrorism. While Mick Creedon's review found the officers did have a case to answer for gross misconduct, the IPCC ultimately concluded no action would be taken following discussions with the officers' own police and crime commissioners. Agreeing there had been a collective failure, they all said that there was no evidence that could point to an individual being held responsible and so none faced misconduct charges. Three years after the report was completed, its findings were made public this month. While it found "significant and serious collective failings within Staffordshire Police" and serious problems with the handling of the protected witness, it concluded there was no deliberate conspiracy. Jane Sawyers, who retired earlier this year, acknowledges "serious mistakes" were made. "There was a cock-up, without a shadow of a doubt. There wasn't a cover-up and there wasn't a conspiracy," she adds. She describes the family of Kevin as being "incredibly dignified" throughout the whole process. "As I said right at the outset, they've lost a member of their family and they've had absolutely no closure on those responsible for the murder of Kevin. It's a regret of mine." 'It's shocking' Fourteen officers were investigated by Operation Kalmia. Thirteen have retired including the three of the most senior. Only Mr Beale is still a serving officer. Two of the five men cleared of Kevin's murder were awarded £200,000 in damages from Staffordshire Police earlier this year, and it is thought the others may lodge their own claims. Leanne, whose son is nearly 15, still dreams of justice for Kevin. "Nobody has been punished, nobody is held accountable, so to me, a report is nothing. "How is it that nobody, not one person, has been disciplined - nobody? "It's just shocking to me, it's just absolutely shocking and I just think it's really, really, really, bad." The full report can be heard on File on 4, Tuesday 17 October, at 20:00 and afterwards on iPlayer. *Additional reporting by Rebecca Woods