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A murder takes place in a misty Himalayan hill resort. As the whodunit unfolds, a couple almost unwittingly begin sleuthing to get to the bottom of the crime. And the story is based on a novel by the world's most celebrated crime writer.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Soutik BiswasIndia correspondent That's all Indian filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj is willing to reveal now about his upcoming film, based on a novel by "queen of crime" Agatha Christie. It is also the first time that Agatha Christie Limited, which looks after the author's estate, has franchised her stories to an Indian filmmaker. "We have done many adaptations across the world and every country brings its own flavour to the piece. I have no doubt that this will be the same," James Prichard, Christie's great grandson and the CEO of the estate, told me. Bhardwaj, 55, is one of India's most exciting filmmakers. Over the past two decades, he's directed and produced 15 films, including three modern-day adaptations of Shakespeare's plays - Maqbool based on Macbeth, Omkara on Othello, and Haider on Hamlet - which have a cult following among fans. After Omkara's release, Peter Bradshaw, film critic of the Guardian, wrote that transferring Othello to a modern-day feudal Indian village appeared to be "appropriate, because Bollywood, with its liking for ingenuous fantasy and romance, has often seemed to me to resemble in style nothing so much as a late Shakespeare play". Equally at ease with tales set in feudal badlands and bleak ganglands, Bhardwaj combines gritty story telling with rootsy popular music - he began his career as a music composer. His films have often turned Bollywood cliches - lost and estranged brothers, exaggerated villains, cloying love interests, the retribution and redemption - on their head. Bhardwaj has been ensconced in his house in the hill station of Mussoorie since mid-June after escaping a grinding pandemic lockdown in Mumbai, where he mostly lives and works. He is now working on the Christie script which he hopes to finish in two months, and begin filming early next year. Most of the film will be shot in frosty Himalayan towns - Bhardwaj says he loves the "biting mountain winters". Bhardwaj, who grew up in the northern Indian town of Meerut, says he has always been "a crime fiction junkie". He devoured Christie novels when in high school and counts The ABC Murders, a thriller about a serial killer working his way through the alphabet in 1930s Britain, and Murder On The Orient Express, an edge-of-the-seat murder mystery set in a luxury train stuck in a snow bank, as his favourites. Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction was one of the films that inspired him to take up filmmaking, and Alfred Hitchcock's Rope, a gripping crime thriller shot with long uninterrupted takes, remains one of his favourite films. Although Indian literature is full of popular detective stories, Bollywood has a disappointing record in adapting them to film. Agatha Christie (Source: Agatha Christie Limited) And only a handful faintly stood out, including a few Christie rip-offs. Years ago, Bhardwaj says, he wanted to make a film inspired by a wildly popular and irreverent detective TV series Karamchand, a carrot-eating, chess-loving sleuth, played by Indian actor Pankaj Kapur. "I wanted to cast Kapur's son, Shahid, (now a Bollywood star) in the film. It didn't happen. But I always wanted to make a detective film," he says. I asked Bhardwaj whether his Christie-inspired whodunit would have songs and dances like his Shakespeare adaptations. He offers a tantalising hint. "There are one or two characters in the story who are classical singers. If songs come naturally to a story, they will [sing]. Nothing will be imposed." Bollywood's Christie would not be the first adaptation to have music and dance. An episode of a series in French - Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie - had "many musical numbers," says Prichard. "So never say never." Some 45 films have been based so far on Christie's novels, many of them featuring Hercule Poirot, one of the world's timeless fictional detectives. The 2017 film, Murder on the Orient Express, raked in $350m (£267m) at the global box office and was watched by 48 million people. The latest, Death on the Nile, set in Egypt where Poirot is on vacation, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh as the detective, is expected to release soon. Pritchard says the estate's decision to franchise stories to filmmakers is "largely based on instinct". "Nearly everything starts with a conversation and usually quite quickly it becomes clear whether the project feels right or not and whether it feels like we would work well together or not. A lot of this is instinct," he said. It's possibly apt that Christie is going to Bollywood in the 100th year since the publication of her first novel The Mysterious Affairs at Styles. Since then, an astonishing two billion copies of her books have sold in more than 100 languages, including English, according to her estate. Last year alone, her books sold more than two million copies. They have been adapted by television, film and theatre, a testament to their timelessness. "My effort is to create a new detective out of my film. I like the idea of two people who are not designated detectives but end up solving a crime. It's about the making of two detectives. The story will be true to Christie's soul if not her text," says Bhardwaj. "I am itching to get behind the camera after two years when I made my last film. And if all goes well, this will the beginning of a trilogy of Christie's novels." Read more from Soutik Biswas

For two weeks, Aberdeen City Council finance convenor Willie Young's declaration stood: "Abandoning the (Marischal Square) project would mean the council tax payer requiring to repay the developers over £100m in cancellation fees".

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Steven DuffBBC Scotland reporter It came as protests grew over the scale of the project, amid fears it would block the view of the historic Marischal College and Provost Skene House. However, on Monday, BBC Scotland revealed there were no cancellation fees for the £107m project between Aberdeen City Council and Muse Developments. That begged the question why, on 11 January, did Mr Young say there was? Mr Young was unrepentant. He told BBC Radio Scotland: "I absolutely stand by that because at the time that was said it was my understanding that we, the council, were still the owners of the property." 'It's unfortunate' It was pointed out that ownership had transferred to Muse Developments at the end of last year, and before he made his statement about cancellation fees. He added: "It's unfortunate when I said that I wasn't in possession of all of the facts. As far as I'm concerned having spoken to our officers that was exactly the position that I was advised." So did Aberdeen City Council officers - the accountants and finance experts employed by the authority - wrongly advise Councillor Young? Privately, BBC Scotland understands officials are not at all happy with his claim that he was acting on their advice. But officially, and despite repeated attempts for a comment on that specific issue, this was the only response from Aberdeen City Council. "The city would potentially lose out to the tune of more than £100m if the scheme were not to proceed. "The city will receive £10m for the site - £1m now and a further £9m on completion in two years, an equal share of the development profit, the difference between the lease cost to Aviva and the income generated by the development for 35 years and the value of the development in 35 years' time. "Sums are also available for works to upgrade Provost Skene's House, Broad Street and to create the gardens and other public areas within the scheme." 'Pass the buck' The SNP group leader on Aberdeen City Council, Callum McCaig, said: "I don't know why he can stand by an assertion that has been proven to be completely and utterly wrong. "The response from Councillor Young is as always to pass the buck. This time he is passing it on to council officers who are completely blameless. "I have no doubts that Councillor Young was explained in some detail the consequences of cancelling Marischal Square, it's just when he opened his mouth to regurgitate it, he got it completely and utterly wrong." Ian Yuill, leader of the Lib Dem group on the authority, said: "It's Councillor Young's job to check the facts and he should just man-up and admit that."

US President Barack Obama touched down in Japan on Wednesday to hold talks with America's key Asian ally. China's leaders will be watching the visit from afar. Ahead of his arrival, Mr Obama told a Japanese newspaper that a cluster of islands in the East China Sea that both Tokyo and Beijing claim fell under the scope of a decades-old bilateral security alliance.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Celia HattonBBC News, Beijing Known as the Diaoyu Islands in China, and the Senkaku Islands in Japan, the territory is easy to miss on a regional map. This tiny string of five uninhabited islets and three barren rocks lies almost exactly between mainland China and southern Japan. For decades, Japanese authorities have controlled the islands, prized for their strategic location in the East China Sea and possible oil and gas deposits below. But in the past few years, Beijing has reinvigorated its campaign to assert its historical ownership over a minute piece of territory that's causing huge regional arguments. China's Communist leaders first disputed Japan's ownership of the islands in the 1970s, but both countries agreed to leave the problem to future generations. The issue heated up again in 2012, when the Japanese government purchased the islands from a private landowner. Japanese nationalists wanted to develop the islands, Tokyo said. It wanted to halt that plan, partly to placate China. Few in Beijing believed that explanation. Instead, the change to the status quo gave China an opportunity to exercise its growing political appetites. "When Xi Jinping came to power, he changed the basic approach of Chinese foreign policy," explains Renmin University Professor Cheng Xiaohe. "From maintaining the status quo to maintaining a low profile to a new approach of doing something." To the frustration of China's leaders, Japan has not publicly acknowledged Beijing's claim. So, to pressure Tokyo, Beijing stepped up patrols of the area. Chinese fighter jets regularly fly above the islands, while naval ships sail below. "If Japan refuses to talk about this problem, China has to cruise around the Diaoyu Islands to assert China's sovereign rights," explains Liu Jiangyong, a professor at Tsinghua University. Last November, Beijing made a surprise move, declaring new air traffic restrictions in a zone covering the disputed area. Some countries, including the United States, ignored China's rules, but it is all part of the country's long-term strategy, says Dr Cheng. "China's design [is] to reserve some kind of rights and freedoms for China to take military action if something happens in Diaoyu Islands or some other disputed area," he explains. 'One inch of territory' Inside China, the government is using another tool - anti-Japanese propaganda - to keep the island issue at the forefront of foreign policy. Even young Chinese audiences are regularly reminded of unresolved tensions dating back to World War Two. "Shoot Japanese Demons", an online videogame, was released in February by People.com, a government website. Players choose a so-called Japanese warlord from a gallery of real historical figures and then score points by shooting the chosen person with a gun. The game is cartoonish, but it's important to ask: is Beijing's campaign all just a game? Would Xi Jinping really go to war for a speck of uninhabited territory? Well, yes. "Yes, the islands are small, but from Chinese perspective, one inch of territory is big enough for China to fight for," says Dr Cheng. Ultimately, it's a circular problem. The symbolic value of these islands will continue to rise as long as both countries push to control them. "If China and Japan had a friendly relationship, military interest in the islands would drop," Dr Liu adds. Outside the Japanese embassy, security remains tight. Forbidding 4m-high (13ft) walls prevent anyone from looking in, and grim-faced soldiers circle the exterior. There are many reasons why China and Japan would avoid a territorial war, including rising trade links and the threat of Washington's involvement. But the presence of these guards reminds those both inside the embassy and out that the threat of a serious military confrontation is never far away.

No adoring crowds - no 'moment' - accompanied Keir Starmer's elevation to the Labour leadership on 4 April 2020.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Iain WatsonPolitical correspondent, BBC News There was no rousing speech. Instead, he recorded a video message against a backdrop of a white shuttered window, which seemed an appropriate image for a victory achieved during lockdown. It was a low-key address, and almost a year on, Sir Keir's internal critics claim his leadership has remained underwhelming. They say when he promised, on that day, not to indulge in "opposition for opposition's sake" he hamstrung himself, and subsequently failed to press home attacks on the government when it was vulnerable. His supporters say that voters would have railed against too confrontational a stance during a pandemic. And they point out that in his speech he signalled he'd take a more distinctive path as the cloud cast by Covid finally disperses. "We cannot go on with business as usual," he said. And he pledged: "Where we have to rethink, we will rethink." So how much progress has the Labour leader made towards fulfilling the promises he set out in this prospectus? I've talked to some key figures across the party. With Labour recovering from its historic defeat in 2019 but still behind the Conservatives in many polls, some would speak only off the record - though others were happier to signal either strong support, or clear criticism. Slippery mountains Sir Keir has faced the external challenge of winning back voters who abandoned the party for the first time in 2019, and he has emphasised several times that Labour has "a mountain to climb". There are doubts, too, about what exactly Sir Keir wants to do if and when he reaches the summit. But even in order to leave base camp, he and his allies have had to devote more of the past year than perhaps anticipated to dealing with internal challenges. There were two passages in his victory address last April that appear to have proved mutually exclusive. He pledged: "I will bring our party together" - and described Jeremy Corbyn as "a friend as well as a colleague". He then denounced the "stain" of anti-Semitism and declared "I will tear out this poison by its roots". He certainly hasn't split his party down the middle but, one year on, he would be hard-pressed to claim that he has united it. That friend and colleague was suspended from the parliamentary party by none other than Sir Keir himself. No other act so easily underlined his claim to have put the party under new leadership. But in doing so, battle lines were drawn with many supporters of the old leadership. Fraying unity Critics say party management has been more ad hoc than strategic. Sir Keir may not have been looking for conflict but it has somehow found him. Following his convincing victory, Sir Keir initially appeared to be serious about unifying the party. For example, he appointed Morgan McSweeney - who ran Liz Kendall's ill-fated leadership bid in 2015 - to LOTO, the Leader of the Opposition's Office, but he also found a role for Simon Fletcher - a key figure in Jeremy Corbyn's successful leadership bid. And while some of those closest to Mr Corbyn were turfed out of his shadow cabinet, there was a place for Rebecca Long-Bailey who was one of those who successfully nominated Mr Corbyn in 2015 and herself challenged Sir Keir for the leadership in 2020. But within three months, Ms Long-Bailey was sacked. Those who had always been sceptical towards Sir Keir complained, though there was little open revolt. But some on the left had voted for Sir Keir not Long-Bailey, contributing to his decisive victory - and while they weren't openly critical, at this moment some began to grow uneasy. One prominent party figure told me: "It was a stretch to see Becky Long-Bailey as remotely anti-Semitic. "She had the guts to speak out against others on the left under Corbyn." This proved to be a warm-up for a much more heated battle. Under new leadership Sir Keir knew the response to the Equality and Human Rights report in anti-Semitism in the Labour Party had to be pitch-perfect. But on the day of its long-awaited release last October, Jeremy Corbyn appeared to question the extent of anti-Semitism under his leadership. He said: "One anti-Semite is one too many, but the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party." Mr Corbyn was suspended from party membership, but then reinstated - with a rap on the knuckles - by a panel from Labour's ruling national executive (NEC). It was following this decision that Sir Keir suspended his predecessor from the parliamentary party - meaning he cannot restand as a Labour MP unless the suspension is lifted. This has lead to a wider breach between some on the left and Sir Keir. Sources close to Mr Corbyn insist the Labour leader and his deputy gave authority to two members of LOTO staff to reach a deal to readmit Mr Corbyn. And that this was negotiated initially with Unite's Len McCluskey and a shadow cabinet member sacked by Sir Keir - Jon Trickett. LOTO sources say they were lobbied on Mr Corbyn's behalf, but no deal was struck. Criticism of how this was handled wasn't limited to the left. One backer of Sir Keir said that the current leader had made the previous leader look like a victim, and provided opponents of the new leadership with a casus belli. Internal opposition to Sir Keir very much moved above the radar, with some left-wing members of Labour's ruling national executive staging a temporary walkout, and other pro Corbyn activists being suspended. Mr Trickett and Ian Lavery - who was also sacked by the leader from the shadow cabinet - set up the 'No Holding Back' initiative with the former MP Laura Smith, who'd lost her Crewe and Nantwich seat in 2019. This involved talking to party and trade union activists outside London, and she told me some had been demoralised by the leadership's actions. "You can't treat the membership - and politicians who have tried to get a Labour government for the past five years - like dirt than expect them to go out door-knocking for you or not voice their concerns," she says. "There seems to be an effort in to either pushing people out or keeping them quiet." More significantly, though, she believes the infighting has held Labour back in the polls. "In our communities people aren't interested in internal warfare and battles within parties and for every moment we spend doing that, people switch off." Charting a different course But problems can bring opportunities, and not everyone has been worrying over divisions. The former cabinet Lord Mandelson has been in touch with some on Sir Keir's team who want the benefit of his experience in taking Labour from opposition to government. He tells me that Sir Keir was on the right track, but his internal battles are not yet over. "There are times when he has shown courage during his first year, for example removing Corbyn's people in the party, suspending Corbyn himself, standing up to Len McCluskey…but this is just the beginning. "He will be tested again and again - and he will have to take a lot more risk." While battles with the Left have become more prominent in the press, beneath the surface, there has nonetheless been something of a quiet revolution under Sir Keir's leadership. Last summer he succeeded in installing David Evans - who had worked as a party organiser under Tony Blair - as general secretary, the most senior official in Labour's head office. Even more crucially, his supporters achieved a working majority, albeit slim, on Labour's ruling NEC. Machine politics Luke Akehurst, secretary of Labour First, which describes itself as a network that exists to ensure that the voices of moderate party members are heard, was elected to the NEC in the autumn, and explains why tilting the balance of power away from the Left has been significant. "There are three focal points of power in the party - the leader's office, the general secretary and the national executive," he says. "If you control all three of these, you can usually steer the party in the direction you want to go in." And Mr Akehurst says the nature of the party has changed markedly from Mr Corbyn to Sir Keir. "Membership is down on its absolute peak but in historic terms 512,000 is a huge membership. "And it is being kind of reshaped in Starmer's image," he says. "About 100,000 came in to vote for Keir or Lisa Nandy, or some for Jess Phillips - who in the end didn't stand - but they seem happy with Keir as leader. A comparable number of people who were Corbyn enthusiasts have left. "Some people don't like hanging around in a party with a leader they didn't vote for. So the Labour party looks fundamentally different from the party that was there in November 2019." Mr Akehurst believes further change will follow, but this will take time. "I hope some more people will shift their politics - I'm into redemption for people. "A lot of former Tony Benn supporters in the 80s ended up sitting on Tony Blair's front bench." Insiders also give credit to Sir Keir's LOTO team for bringing about a leadership change in Scotland. There are huge sensitivities, as any notion that the Scottish party is being treated as a "branch office" is toxic. And some very senior figures in the Scottish party were urging caution on Sir Keir's part. But faced with a potentially poor result in May's parliamentary elections, I am told the leader took the risk, albeit under the radar, of backing attempts to persuade the then incumbent - Richard Leonard - to stand down. Power to change Sir Keir Starmer has taken control of the party machine more swiftly than Mr Corbyn managed, but some are questioning what use he is making of this unprecedented power within his party. In order to be heard in those seats in England where people turned away from Labour for the first time in 2019, he has been determinedly trying to eliminate perceived negatives. He has made the union flag a regular backdrop to media interviews and public statements, to emphasise his patriotism - and create more clear blue water with Jeremy Corbyn. Sir Keir has also declared that Labour is "the party of the family". He has tended to assert this rather than demonstrate it. But here there is a clear strategy. Although she is his policy chief, Claire Ainsley doesn't want the party to be burdened with too many specific policies this far from a general election. But before working for Sir Keir, she wrote a book called The New Working Class and it gives strong clues to her approach. She said that polling suggested that the values that voters rate most highly across social classes are family, fairness, hard work and decency, and that women in particular "are likely to see policy through the prism of their children's lives, their parents and their friends". So emphasising family will gain voters' attention, and presenting any future policies not in the abstract but what they mean in concrete terms for families are likely to make them appear more attractive. While few firm policies have emerged, Sir Keir's supporters stress that he is involved in a four-year project, and that dramatic change cannot be expected straight away. Policy work is going on, though not in full public view, but the main task so far has been to convince voters that the leader shares their values. Sense of direction But even some of those who are willing Sir Keir to succeed feel he has to set out a clearer sense of direction. Lord Mandelson believes that "Covid eclipsed everything else. Without it, he would have been able to do more in day-to-day politics. "We have lived through abnormal times, and although he has been tested by it, there is clearly a lot more to do. He needs to now pick up speed and work out a real argument and point of difference with the government." And a key member of his leadership team said he still needed to be demonstrating that he can "rise to the moment" as the pandemic recedes. There are concerns that his recent pre-Budget speech - setting out a "fork in the road" with the government - was bold on rhetoric but more timid in reality. While he promised a different type of economy and a new partnership with business, some of his own backers believe that the substantive policy announcement - a national recovery bond - was not the kind of symbolic policy that might stick in the minds of prospective voters. One of them told me that despite the pandemic, there needed to be the bandwith to "think bigger". Ten pledges In his victory speech Sir Keir said he was prepared to "rethink" where necessary. Some of his supporters don't just want to see a greater sense of where he is going, but what he is willing to leave behind. During his leadership campaign, he made 10 pledges. These included a range of positions which his predecessor would happily have taken. For example, he said he supported "common ownership of rail, mail, energy and water" and "ending outsourcing in our NHS, local government and justice system". Luke Akehurst wants him to move on, saying: "Policy making should be an intense process, not about scribbling some pledges in the heat of a leadership campaign. I want him to be thinking of policies that work and resonate with the electorate, not what tickles Labour Party members on the chin." And Lord Mandelson believes he should go further, too. "It would be wrong to make too many specific commitments early in the parliament but he needs to start a policy review. He still has the 2019 manifesto around his neck…. Labour will need policies which are radical, credible and affordable." To do so would further fracture his coalition and it seems that is a decision he has yet to take. A prominent left-wing supporter of Sir Keir's is less enthusiastic about his leadership nearly one year on. While they are content to see new policies developed, they told me that the 10 pledges have to be retained "as a bare minimum". And Laura Smith, who didn't vote for Sir Keir, maintains that Brexit and not 2019's policies led to Labour's election defeat. "Moving away from those policies is wrong," she says. "The Tories are taking a lot of these policies and dressing them up as their own. "It wasn't policies that were hammered on the doorstep. The work wasn't done to sell those policies to our communities. It would be ridiculous to say we want to get away from 2019, as we had some of the answers that would be able to deliver for our communities, especially in the North." The risk of caution There is little doubt that in his first year, Sir Keir has appeared to offer competent leadership. At his very first PMQs, he disconcerted Boris Johnson and for weeks he basked in the glow a favourable commentariat who praised the former DPP's questioning as "forensic". While this may have been necessary to - in the words of one adviser - "pass the smell test that he could be a prime minister' - some of his supporters think that too much store was placed on this image. One of them said the assumption was made by LOTO that Boris Johnson would be "irreversibly, irredeemably incompetent". But then the vaccination programme jabbed the Labour leader in the political posterior. Sometimes being cautious is the riskier option. As another supporter put it: "Competence doesn't inspire people, though maybe it should." There is little doubt that Sir Keir will face challenging local elections in England this spring. Lord Mandelson doesn't expect a "seismic" advance for the party but remains optimistic about Labour's prospects beyond May. ''I don't see any reason to think Keir has hit a ceiling of support," he says. "He is emerging from the pandemic with a widespread public perception that it would have been no worse if he had been in charge. "He is a great asset to the Labour Party. We are now firmly back in the ring." But some on the Left believe that moving away from the Corbyn era does not guarantee electoral success. Laura Smith says: "I don't know how anyone can look at the polling and think that strategy is the right one. "I'd urge the Labour Party to be braver. People want change. Politics hasn't worked for them. If all you are going to say is 'I'm not Jeremy Corbyn', that's not good enough." Delivery So what has Sir Keir Starmer delivered from his speech almost a year ago? He has done much to scrub away at the stain of anti-Semitism. Luke Akehurst would maintain he had no choice. "Tackling anti-Semitism, politically is a 'key in the door' question - he would not be listened to by anyone if he didn't do it." He has stuck to the pledge not to oppose for its own sake - though that has not been universally welcomed in his party. He hasn't been able to bring unity - perhaps that was too ambitious an aim. But he hasn't fully embraced the potential benefits of disunity to help define himself. He has made a huge advance by having his own supporters in control of the party machine. The question is to what purpose this will be put in the year ahead. One supporter confided: "Keir keeps things pretty close. "If he has a plan, he probably hasn't even told his wife about it."

A bill containing harsher punishments for rapists was passed by India's parliament earlier in March. Karuna Nundy, a leading Supreme Court lawyer, explains the new laws. Why change the law?

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Reacting to the massive protests that followed the fatal gang rape of a student in Delhi last December, the government set up a panel headed by a retired judge to recommend legal reform and other ways to reduce sexual violence. The Justice Verma Committee received 80,000 recommendations, held wide consultations and referred to laws and research from around the world. Its report gave many women the audacity to hope that freedom from violence and constitutional equality would be reclaimed by and for women. The new law is a combination of just thinking about gender and existing patriarchal attitudes in society, as well as those ingrained in the colonial Indian Penal Code of 1860. It also reflects the government's desire to be seen as tough on crimes against women. So "outraging the modesty of a woman" remains a legitimate legal standard, though some new crimes based on a women's right to bodily integrity and to be free of sexual harassment have also been incorporated. A clearly defined rule should have been to penalise violent, coercive activity. Instead, most marital rape is still legal, even the rape of a "married" child, aged between 15 and 18. If an unmarried girl and boy of about 17 years have consensual intercourse, though, the boy risks being sent to a juvenile home for three years, reported for statutory rape by unhappy parents, unofficial caste-councils, or religious moral police. Which new crimes are included? ‪ The new laws are closer to addressing violence as women experience it. New crimes include stalking, which is intimidating and often leads to assault, even murder. Acid violence and disrobing, common now in India, are specific crimes. Voyeurism - spying on a woman when naked or circulating her pictures without her consent - is a new crime. The law also expands the definition of rape and says explicitly that the absence of physical struggle doesn't equal consent. A major reason such a tiny percentage of crimes against women are reported is that the police don't let complaints through. Now the security blanket that protected misogynist police officers and other public servants who failed to register complaints and compromised survivors' rights during investigations has been removed. Compulsory jail time has been prescribed for the non-military public servant who fails to register a complaint or himself commits sexual assault. Procedures for gathering evidence and the trial are a little easier on women now, and more careful of disabled people's rights. Also, all healthcare providers must now give survivors of sexual violence or acid attacks free and immediate medical care. There's a legal provision for compensation but the relevant governments have not set up systems to give survivors quick and adequate restitution. Are the laws tougher? The word tough can be a red herring: people often think it's about higher sentencing. The new laws increase jail terms in most cases, and bring in the death penalty for a repeat offence of rape, or rape that causes coma. We don't have comprehensive, long-term studies that measure the effect of higher sentences on the rate of sexual violence - but evidence from India and other countries shows that the death penalty is no deterrent to violent crime. There's also a concern that if sentences are thought of as too harsh by the judges, the already high acquittal rate in cases of sexual violence will rise further. Certain and swift justice is more likely to reduce crime. Without comprehensive expansion of the criminal justice system it's unclear how fast rape and assault trials will be, but there's a hopeful amendment in the Criminal Procedure Code - that trials "as far as possible" be completed two months from the date of filing charges. There are fears of false complaints, but the power to prosecute malicious complaints already exists under law. Besides, a recent UK study released earlier this month by the Crown Prosecution Service says false cases of rape and sexual violence are much rarer than many believe and compromise justice for women who have in fact been raped, assaulted or harassed. What about the age of consent? The 'age of consent' is a misnomer and lead to all sorts of confusion in public and parliamentary debates. The age of statutory rape would be more accurate. For about 30 years that age was 16 years. It was increased a few months ago to 18 years without much discussion by the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. There were those who thought keeping the age of consent at 16 years would be a social and moral endorsement of teenage sexual activity. But the criminal law doesn't tell you to do this or that. Families, schools, society and free will do. If two young people decide to engage in sexual intercourse with others around the same age, the truncheon of the criminal law is not the appropriate societal signal. Now boys of 16-18 years or slightly older may be branded rapists if they have consensual sex with a girl of the same age and the judge will have no discretion in the matter. This is against the "best interests" of teenagers, who weren't even consulted on this important decision, although India is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. A "proximity clause" is badly needed: one that clarifies that sexual intercourse between a teenager of 16-18 years with a person not more than four years older will not be criminalised. Parents, schools and communities are free to impart their social values to children, whatever they may be. What do the new laws not cover? That the new laws only protect women from rape and sexual assault and not men and transgender people is a major failure. The infamous section 377 of the Penal Code penalises "carnal intercourse against the order of nature". Even if it survives a Supreme Court challenge, the law is limited, and doesn't have violence or coercion at its core. The absence of a proximity clause means 18 as the "age of consent" criminalises intercourse between young adults that is neither violent nor forced. Marital rape is still legal - unless the couple are separated. Armed forces in "disturbed areas" are still effectively immune from prosecution for rape and sexual assault. They benefit from the boys' club protections that are enhanced in situations of sanctioned violence, committed against communities they are seriously alienated from. While in state and central legislatures politicians accused of crime may remain in office and benefit from the slow justice system until convicted. What lies ahead? The Justice Verma Committee report has laid out a comprehensive roadmap for women's constitutional equality - the panel was set up by the government, it should use that blueprint. It includes police reforms, educational reforms, training of personnel in the criminal justice system, services such as well equipped rape-crisis centres. The new amendments are only a start and a law is nothing if it's not enforced; but you have to have a law first. And for better or for worse, now we do. Karuna Nundy spoke to the BBC's Soutik Biswas.

Wednesday could see another important step towards the modernisation of money. iZettle, a device that allows small traders to take credit card payments, is arriving in the UK after a successful rollout in other markets. But a failure by big payment firms to agree common standards on how we use these mobile money systems could mean the whole idea fails to fly.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter iZettle is a small card-reader that plugs into iPhones, iPads and a number of Android smartphones or tablets. It is designed for use by any small trader who can't afford the infrastructure needed to take credit card payments. You hand over your card to the stallholder - or plumber or window-cleaner - it is swiped through the device, and then you sign for your purchase. The merchant pays a commission of 2.75% a transaction, and the consumer gets to use their plastic rather than cash in new places. I tried it out at a launch event and it worked pretty smoothly. A scented candle manufacturer told me she had been using a trial device for some months, and had found it was an excellent way of taking payments at craft fairs. iZettle was launched in Sweden a year ago, and according to the co-founder Jacob de Geer, it is now used by more than 75,000 small businesses and individuals in six countries. In Sweden, he told journalists at the launch, 700 blacksmiths are using the device. "It's bringing new merchants to the table. My ambition is to democratise card payments." The big question in the UK, though, is whether consumers will fancy the idea of having their cards swiped into this device. And here there's a hitch. There are big names backing iZettle including the mobile operator EE, and the payments firms Mastercard and American Express. But the other major force in the card industry, Visa, is an investor in a much bigger player in the mobile payments area. Square, started by the Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, is making rapid progress in the United States market and is now valued at something over $3bn. And what people couldn't help noticing at the iZettle launch event was that paying with Visa was a lot harder than with other cards. Whereas with Mastercard or American Express the consumer just presents their card and signs, Visa users had to hand over their phone numbers and tap in security details on their own phones. It seems that Visa is not too keen on the "chip 'n' signature" security that iZettle uses, even though the Swedish company says it has a lower fraud rate than for chip and pin transactions. When I asked Visa about the issue, the company sent me this statement: "We're continuing to work with iZettle to develop a fully Visa Europe compliant mobile point of sale solution." The trouble is that any kind of friction in a mobile payments system is annoying and will lead many to conclude they are better off sticking with cash. There are now lots of different mobile payment technologies from all sorts of companies, but they all seem to have different ways of verifying who customers are. But with little evidence of any great enthusiasm for mobile money - unless it makes life easier - surely it is time for the payments industry to get its act together and agree some common standards.

The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company will operate 48 additional sailings to Liverpool this summer.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: The fast craft Manannan will return to service on 26 March for the summer season and operate a twice daily service to Liverpool. A spokesman said the extra services have been added to meet increased demand. The 96m (314ft) catamaran will also sail to Dublin and Belfast, starting on 1 April.

Zohra Khaku is on the frontline of the fight against coronavirus.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Ashitha NageshBBC News But rather than working on a ward, or delivering food, she and her staff are on the end of a phone line. She runs the Muslim Youth Helpline, which offers counselling for young Muslims in the UK. She's one of many people in this country dealing with the overwhelming effect the virus has had on black and Asian communities. In a report released on Tuesday, Public Health England (PHE) acknowledged the disproportionate effect the pandemic has had on black, Asian and minority ethnic (Bame) people, including making us more likely to become critically ill, and to die. Black people are almost four times more likely to die of Covid-19, according to the Office of National Statistics, while Asians are up to twice as likely to die. Over the past few months, outreach workers like Zohra have been helping those affected by Covid-19 in our communities. The effects have been brutal - not just physical, but psychological, societal and financial. And they hint at why our communities were so vulnerable to the pandemic in the first place. Zohra says they've had a more than 300% increase in calls, web chats and emails from distressed teens and young adults since the virus arrived in the UK - including a spike on Eid weekend. The virus, she tells me, has led to many young people becoming isolated - including those who'd never had mental health issues before - while others are struggling with bereavement and grief, after suddenly losing parents and other loved ones. "We've been going for 19 years, but we've never been as busy as this," she says. The helpline has had calls from young Muslims with mental health conditions, for whom Friday prayers was their only lifeline to the outside world, providing them with a vital support system and connection to their community. "People's support systems were taken away," she says. "Because we've had Ramadan in lockdown, and people not able to go to Friday prayers, people who had depression or were isolated or lonely before all of this happened - whose only thing they would do with other human beings was once a week on a Friday - they suddenly don't have that any more either." One call that sticks in her mind was from a 17-year-old girl whose parents had both been taken to hospital with Covid-19. "Because her parents were in hospital she was looking after a 19-year-old sibling who was self-isolating, and a younger sibling who was severely disabled," Zohra says. "Issue one was, 'I don't have any money left, please can you point me in the direction of a food bank because I need to be making food for my siblings.' The second thing was that she was doing her A-levels and applying for university, and this was at a time when we weren't sure what was happening with grades. She said that if one teacher in particular ends up giving her a predicted grade instead of her doing an exam, then she doesn't think she's going to get into the university she wants, because she doesn't think her teacher believes in her and is a little bit racist. So she's worried about her future. "And the third thing was, the doctor from the ward that her mum's in called her just before she called us, and said, 'we don't think your mum's going to make it'. This girl said to us, 'the next phone call I'm expecting is to say that she's died. How do I make sure she has a Muslim burial? I'm only 17, I don't know how to do that.' "That's just one case, and yet it's so complex. She was on nobody's radar, and if she hadn't reached out for help she'd still be in that situation on her own." The outbreak's impact on ethnic minorities' mental health has been devastating. The Muslim Youth Helpline, Zohra says, has seen a worrying increase in calls from people saying they're considering suicide. "We usually get one call about suicide every two weeks, but we get them every night now," Zohra says. "We had one day last week where half of our enquiries were about suicide, and there have been about three or four every night this week." The PHE report reveals that people living in the most deprived areas of the country are twice as likely as those living in the least deprived areas to be diagnosed with and to die of Covid-19. People of black, Asian and mixed ethnicities are all significantly more likely to live in the most deprived 10% of neighbourhoods, according to government statistics. Overcrowded households are linked to this deprivation, too. Overcrowding is significantly more prevalent in lower-income households than in wealthier ones - according to one study, it affects 7% of the poorest fifth of households, as opposed to 0.5% of those in the richest fifth. This poses additional challenges for Ursala Khan, who provides counselling specifically to Bame youths through her work at The What Centre in Dudley. Since the coronavirus outbreak began, privacy has become a huge issue, she says. Many of the teens she works with live with large families in small spaces, meaning they don't have enough privacy to talk on the phone or video-call about mental health. "Although we do offer alternatives like online counselling or phone counselling, there are still concerns for people trying to access those," Ursala says. "If someone lives in an over-crowded house, it's quite difficult for them to know if they'll have the privacy to speak to us about their mental health." According to the English Housing Survey, carried out between 2014 and 2017, 30% of Bangladeshi households, 16% of Pakistani households and 12% of black households experienced overcrowding. This was compared with just 2% of white British households. South Asian families in the UK are also more likely than white families to live in multi-generational households, with up to three generations of the same family living together. This means that school-age children may be living with their grandparents - something outreach workers have said most iterations of the government's guidance haven't taken into account. Because of this, many of the teens The What Centre works with are scared of going back to school. "I see a lot of young people concerned about returning to school or college, especially if they live with elderly family members or family members who have pre-existing health conditions," Ursala says. Some people have been told to go into work when they haven't felt comfortable, too. Zohra gives the example of a young man who called the helpline after losing his job, after refusing to go into an office he deemed unsafe. "We had a few cases of people saying 'I'm not sure if it's safe to go to work, but my employer's making me', and even before the lockdown we had calls about things like PPE," she says. "Early on in the outbreak, there was one guy who said he got fired for refusing to go in… but he wrote in a few weeks later and told us: 'You know what, I have no job, but at least I'm alive - and I believe that if I'd continued going into work I wouldn't be'." The high risk of 'essential' work The risk is partly because of the kind of work that many black and Asian people in the UK do. South Asians are significantly more likely to work in the NHS, for example. In England nearly 21% of NHS staff are from ethnic minority backgrounds, but they only make up about 14% of the general population. At the same time, black and Asian people are also more likely to be in insecure work - such as gig economy jobs, bogus self-employment and zero-hours contracts - than white people with the same qualifications. Many of these jobs, such as delivery drivers, taxi drivers and supermarket work, are now considered "essential". Research from the Trade Union Congress (TUC) last year found that ethnic minority workers are a third more likely to be in insecure work. A report released last month by Carnegie UK Trust, UCL and Operation Black Vote also found that Bame millennials in particular were 47% more likely to be on notoriously unstable "zero-hours" contracts. Because of this, black and Asian people are disproportionately more likely to have been "key workers" in front-line jobs during this pandemic - whether that's caring for patients on a Covid ward, or delivering takeaways. Rajesh Jayaseelan, for example, was an Uber driver in London who died of coronavirus in April. Days before he died, he was evicted from his home and forced to sleep in his car because his landlord had deemed him high-risk, on account of his job. Healthcare workers have also highlighted racism and workplace discrimination as major issues during the pandemic. Last month, Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust's head of equality Carol Cooper told the Nursing Times that black and Asian nurses felt they were being "targeted" for work on Covid wards - more so than their white colleagues. "They feel that there is a bias," she told the publication. "The same bias that existed before, they are feeling is now influencing their being appointed - and they are terrified. Everybody is terrified." In another survey last month, carried out by ITV News, about 50% of doctors and healthcare staff who responded explicitly blamed "systemic discrimination" at work for the disproportionate number of deaths among Bame NHS staff. One in five healthcare workers said they had personally experienced racism - in response, NHS England said protecting staff was its "top priority" and that it had asked trusts to risk-assess Bame workers. So for now it's impossible to pin down whether the higher death rate among Bame people is down to sociology or biology, Michael Hamilton from Ubele, a social enterprise working with Britain's African diaspora, tells me. According to PHE, this is "complex" - but in essence, it's both. Socio-economic inequality means we're more likely to catch the virus, while our biology means we're more likely to die. Ubele has set up a fund to help people hold memorial services for their loved ones after the crisis. It is also leading the call for a full independent, non-governmental inquiry into the deaths of black and ethnic minority people of coronavirus. So what, in Michael's opinion, is causing us to die at higher rates than our white British counterparts? "Clearly there are multiple reasons, and I think I am personally, genuinely in a place to say at this point that I don't know," Michael says - adding that jumping to conclusions without all of the information is "the worst thing we can do". "I think people are going to find different answers depending on their own speciality," he says. "We might find that there is some biology. The socio-economic stuff, that's my bread and butter, so I can recite that. But I want to keep looking, because I genuinely don't know - but I believe that we do have to know." How systemic inequality affects our health Dr Enam Haque is a GP in Manchester, but he also works with two Bame outreach groups - one that aims to educate patients, and another that works with Bame healthcare workers. He says he and his Bame colleagues have been "terrified" of the virus. "It's quite scary as a GP from a Bangladeshi background myself, when I've seen Bame colleagues dying disproportionately," he tells me. The virus is very close to home for him - his uncle, Dr Moyeen Uddin, was a cardiologist in the city of Sylhet in Bangladesh, and was the first doctor in his country to die of Covid-19. It's affecting his patients, too: "Many of our patients are staying away and not contacting us with health issues. My fear is that a lot of chronic conditions, lots of worrying conditions are not being diagnosed because people are scared - particularly, I've observed, from the ethnic minority population - that any kind of access to healthcare will make them exposed to Covid-19." What about pre-existing conditions? Scientists have been looking into whether certain pre-existing medical conditions could be playing a part. Black and South Asian people are significantly more likely than white people to have Type 2 diabetes and hypertension (that is, high blood pressure), two conditions known to be high-risk. The PHE report reveals that the proportion of both black and Asian people who've died of Covid-19 with diabetes was higher than white patients. As well as these two conditions, a recent study from Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge has found a link between lower levels of vitamin D and higher Covid-19 mortality rates in 20 European countries. Vitamin D deficiency is particularly common among black and Asian people in the UK and other countries with limited sunshine. I ask Dr Haque what, in his opinion, could be the reason we're so much more likely to become critically ill, or even die. He tells me that although there are medical reasons for people from Bame backgrounds to be more vulnerable, biology doesn't explain everything. "It's a fact that people from Bame backgrounds, particularly from South Asia, are more likely to have diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure, all of which make them more at-risk," he says. "But the bigger issue, in my opinion, are the social determinants of health." By this, he means the economic and social conditions that make some people more vulnerable to health conditions - in this case, to becoming critically ill from a deadly virus - than others. "There's something that has disadvantaged our population and has put us at risk," Dr Haque continues. "It's the inequality in society - there's so much more deprivation, people in our communities earn lower wages, and we have more people working in frontline jobs as well. "As well as healthcare workers we have a lot of bus drivers, taxi drivers… they may not have access to PPE in these jobs either, so they're putting themselves at risk while serving the community. That's a major factor right there." The problem, Michael Hamilton from Ubele says, is the people we're relying on the most in this pandemic are the ones who are the most exposed - and yet, by virtue of being considered "low-skilled", they are rendered invisible. "I think one of the things we have to do - the biggest lesson I think we have to take from this - is to look at what we value, and who we value, and how we show them value," Michael says. "It's our ability to not value certain types of people that has allowed this to happen."

A band from Merthyr Tydfil has signed a record deal with Virgin EMI Records despite only playing two gigs.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Pretty Vicious, who are all in their teens with one of them still in school, has been the subject of a record company bidding war this month. Despite only releasing one song online they are already being touted as the next Oasis in the music press. The band has recorded a session for BBC Wales, which will be broadcast on the Bethan Elfyn show on Saturday. A spokeswoman from Virgin EMI Records confirmed they had signed the band this week.

Forget a dash of tonic with lemon and lime - gin has been spiriting its way into our mealtimes, with supermarkets now selling gin-flavoured foods, from yoghurt to fish. So does gin belong in the pantry as well as the pub?

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Kate PalmerBBC News Tubs of gin-flavoured yoghurt - containing 0.25% alcohol - went on sale in Sainsbury's this summer, which says more gin foods are on their way. Meanwhile, gin-infused salmon, gin-flavoured popcorn and sweets, gin and tonic ice cream and gin sauces are stocking supermarket shelves across the UK. Gin's resurgence in liquid form has been dubbed a "Ginaissance", with sales of the spirit surpassing £1bn last year and micro-distilleries opening across the UK. Mother's ruin "Sure, there's an element of gimmickry, but why not?" says cocktail expert and writer Ben Reed, who has 20 years' bartending experience. It is an "obvious step" for chefs to use gin, he says, adding it can enhance flavours in foods. "By choosing gins with the appropriate botanical additions you can add complex combinations," he says. Gin's trendy reputation is now a far cry from the spirit's age-old nickname as "Mother's ruin" - a favourite vice drink of the poor, and thought to bring on a miscarriage if consumed while in a hot bath. Supermarkets are confident people will tuck into gin-flavoured food as gin's rise continues. Nicola Bramley, a food development chef at Sainsbury's, says the supermarket's premium gin sales are rising 25% year-on-year, and insists the trend "isn't limited to your glass of G&T". "There's plenty more to come," she says, adding that the retailer has plans to introduce a smoked salmon paté with a gin & tonic glaze. Gin, like other spirits such as vodka, has a neutral flavour but gets its character from botanicals used to flavour it - the taste we think of as "gin" comes from juniper, which tastes like pine. Miles Beale, chief executive of the Wine and Spirits Trade Association (WSTA) says our love of gin means flavoured food is "selling like hot cakes". He says the "quintessentially British" drink is supporting a wider industry, with gin-themed gifts and gin-flavoured foods. "It is fantastic to see," he adds. Gin and... popcorn? Some snacks on sale It is now commonplace to see flavoured gins from seaweed to tea - but some think using the spirit in snacks is a step too far. "Gin with yoghurt or gin-flavoured crisps don't seem like natural bedfellows to me," says Barney Desmazery, a chef and BBC Good Food magazine's editor-at-large. He says food manufacturers are jumping on gin's resurgence to make their products seem more enticing, rather than matching the right flavours. "It's without doubt got a place in the kitchen," Barney says, instead suggesting gin fans experiment with homemade treats, such as a gin and tonic cake. He recommends the spirit's alcoholic flavour be "used sensitively". And Nick King, a spirits teacher at the Wine and Spirit Education Trust, says "you'd have to be some kind of god-like taster" to detect gin flavours in many of these foods. "They're not necessarily very strongly flavoured - not least because if it's in the yoghurt aisle and it's notably alcoholic, there might be confusion at the till," he says. He says alcohol-flavoured food is nothing new. "You've had rum and raisin ice cream for donkeys years, liquor chocolates - and of course my mother's legendary brandy butter." But he admits the products tap into a booming gin market - mainly comprising people in their 20s and 30s - who like anything quirky. "As an idea, it makes perfect sense in cashing in on and appealing to those people," he says. "We're looking at a generation that's much more interested in flavour and interesting and exciting things." He adds: "Gin will be around when our grandchildren are talking about it, but whether gin ice cream will be is another thing altogether."

More than 100 of the world's top robotics experts wrote a letter to the United Nations recently calling for a ban on the development of "killer robots" and warning of a new arms race. But are their fears really justified?

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Mark SmithTechnology of Business reporter Entire regiments of unmanned tanks; drones that can spot an insurgent in a crowd of civilians; and weapons controlled by computerised "brains" that learn like we do, are all among the "smart" tech being unleashed by an arms industry many believe is now entering a "third revolution in warfare". "In every sphere of the battlefield - in the air, on the sea, under the sea or on the land - the military around the world are now demonstrating prototype autonomous weapons," says Toby Walsh, professor of artificial intelligence at Sydney's New South Wales University. "New technologies like deep learning are helping drive this revolution. The tech space is clearly leading the charge, and the military is playing catch-up." One reported breakthrough giving killer machine opponents sleepless nights is Kalashnikov's "neural net" combat module. It features a 7.62mm machine gun and a camera attached to a computer system that its makers claim can make its own targeting judgements without any human control. According to Russia's state-run Tass news agency it uses "neural network technologies that enable it to identify targets and make decisions". Unlike a conventional computer that uses pre-programmed instructions to tackle a specific but limited range of predictable possibilities, a neural network is designed to learn from previous examples then adapt to circumstances it may not have encountered before. And it is this supposed ability to make its own decisions that is worrying to many. "If weapons are using neural networks and advanced artificial intelligence then we wouldn't necessarily know the basis on which they made the decision to attack - and that's very dangerous," says Andrew Nanson, chief technology officer at defence specialist Ultra Electronics. But he remains sceptical about some of the claims arms manufacturers are making. Automated defence systems can already make decisions based on an analysis of a threat - the shape, size, speed and trajectory of an incoming missile, for example - and choose an appropriate response much faster than humans can. But what happens when such systems encounter something they have no experience of, but are still given the freedom to act using a "best guess" approach? Mistakes could be disastrous - the killing of innocent civilians; the destruction of non-military targets; "friendly fire" attacks on your own side. And this is what many experts fear, not that AI will become too smart - taking over the world like the Skynet supercomputer from the Terminator films - but that it's too stupid. "The current problems are not with super-intelligent robots but with pretty dumb ones that cannot flexibly discriminate between civilian targets and military targets except in very narrowly contained settings," says Noel Sharkey, professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at Sheffield University. Despite such concerns, Kalashnikov's latest products are not the only autonomous and semi-autonomous weapons being trialled in Russia. The Uran-9 is an unmanned ground combat vehicle and features a machine gun and 30mm cannon. It can be remotely controlled at distances of up to 10km. More Technology of Business And the diminutive Platform-M combat robot boasts automated targeting and can operate in extremes of heat and cold. Meanwhile the Armata T-14 "super tank" has an autonomous turret that designer Andrei Terlikov claims will pave the way for fully autonomous tanks on the battlefield. Manufacturer Uralvagonzavod also didn't respond to BBC requests for an interview, but Prof Sharkey - who is a member of pressure group The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots - is wary of its potential. "The T-14 is years ahead of the West, and the idea of thousands of autonomous T-14s sitting on the border with Europe does not bear thinking about," he says. And it's not just Russia developing such weapons. Last summer, the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) equipped an ordinary surveillance drone with advanced AI designed to discern between civilians and insurgents during a test over a replica Middle Eastern village in Massachusetts. And Samsung's SGR-A1 sentry gun, capable of firing autonomously, has been deployed along the South Korean side of the Korean Demilitarised Zone. The UK's Taranis drone - which is roughly the size of a Red Arrow Hawk fighter jet - is being developed by BAE Systems. It is designed to carry a myriad of weapons long distances and will have "elements" of full autonomy, BAE says. At sea, the USA's Sea Hunter autonomous warship is designed to operate for extended periods at sea without a single crew member, and to even guide itself in and out of port. All the Western arms manufacturers contacted by the BBC, including Boeing's Phantom Works, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, refused to co-operate with this feature, an indication perhaps of the controversial nature of this technology. But could autonomous military technology also be used simply as support for human military operations? Roland Sonnenberg, head of defence at consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, says combat simulation, logistics, threat analysis and back office functions are the more mundane - but equally important - aspects of warfare that robots and AI could perform. "The benefits that AI has to offer are only useful if they can be applied effectively in the real world and will only be broadly adopted if companies, consumers and society trust the technology and take a responsible approach," he says. And some argue that autonomous weapons could actually reduce the number of human casualties. But Elizabeth Quintana, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, disagrees. "Deploying robotic systems might be more attractive to politicians because there would be fewer body bags coming home. "My view is that war is an inherently human activity and that if you wage war from a distance at another group or country, they will find a way to hurt you at home because that is the only way that they can retaliate." The prospect of autonomous weapons systems inadvertently leading to an escalation in domestic terrorism or cyber-warfare is perhaps another reason to treat this new tech with caution.

The fall and sack of the city of Troy at the hands of an avenging Greek army is one that has been told for some 3,000 years, but contained within it are clues to a much wider global collapse - with lessons for our own 21st Century.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Tim BowlerBusiness reporter, BBC News In 1300BC, at the height of the Bronze Age, the great powers of Egypt, the Hittites in central Turkey, the Greeks, Babylonians and Middle Eastern city states would have seemed secure to any merchant sailing around the Mediterranean. None more so than the walled city of Troy, on Turkey's north west coast at the mouth of the Dardanelles. Ships were often forced to wait in its harbours for suitable winds to sail into the Sea of Marmara and Black Sea, so it was ideally placed to grow rich by taxing this trade. Yet just over 100 years later, by about 1170BC, almost all these civilisations had collapsed. In the dark age that followed even the art of writing was lost. In Greek mythology, the tale of the fall of Troy was encapsulated in two epics - the Iliad and the Odyssey - traditionally attributed to the poet Homer, and set down in writing about 400 years later. "He wasn't writing history but it is apparent that Troy was an important fortified place," says J Lesley Fitton, keeper of the department of Greece and Rome at the British Museum. Interconnected world The Bronze Age was typified by palace-based states all interacting and partially dependent on each other - which has similarities with our own age with its interconnected economies and financial markets, just-in-time manufacturing processes and international supply chains. The key commodity of the age was bronze - without which no country could equip an army. The copper came from Cyprus but the tin had to come 4,000km (2,500 miles) from Afghanistan; transported overland to Syria and then in ships along the coast, it was as vital as oil is now. Dr Carol Bell, of University College London says that getting enough tin to produce "weapons-grade bronze" would have exercised the minds of rulers "in the same way that supplying gasoline to the American SUV driver at reasonable cost occupies the mind of a US president today". Trade vulnerability In the 21st Century, we are still vulnerable to interruptions to global trade. In 2012, global oil prices climbed after Iran threatened to close the Straits of Hormuz, through which about 20% of global oil supplies pass. Iran said this would cause a shock to markets that "no country" could manage. Last year, a Chatham House think-tank report urged governments to do more to protect key "chokepoints" on trade routes. It said the Dardanelles, the Turkish Straits, were "particularly critical for wheat, a fifth of global exports pass through them each year". "A serious interruption at one or more of these chokepoints could conceivably lead to supply shortfalls and price spikes, with systemic consequences that could reach beyond food market," it added. Back in the Bronze Age, it didn't take much to cause economic chaos. You only need a "few small interruptions or environmental problems," says Andrew Shapland, Greek Bronze Age curator at the British Museum. Climate change Then as now, climate change was a key factor. "We know that led to famine," says Eric Cline professor of archaeology at George Washington University, Washington DC Indeed, pollen analysis, marine and oxygen isotope data show the period experienced 300-year-long droughts. The Mediterranean cooled significantly at this time, reducing rainfall levels over land. But the Bronze Age states were then hit by multiple events. Not just sustained droughts and famine, but also numerous volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, civil unrest, mass refugee migrations, trade disruptions and war. "If only one thing happens you can survive. The difference in the late Bronze Age is you get the perfect storm. With one, two, three or four events you're looking at multiplier effects - you can't survive," says Prof Cline. Our own world may be more resilient yet even today earthquakes can cause economic chaos. When Japan was struck by the 2011 Tohoku or Fukushima earthquake and tsunami, the economic impact was felt right across Asia. Multiple impacts By 1250BC problems were accumulating. One Hittite queen appealed to Egypt for help, saying "I have no grain in my land". A Syrian merchant warned that "there is famine in our house, if you do not quickly arrive here we will all die of hunger". To help alleviate the situation the Egyptians started food shipments to their neighbours. And even in the Bronze Age, governments were keen to promote their international aid programmes. One pharaoh boasted he "caused grain to be taken in ships to keep alive this land of Hatti (the Hittites)". Despite this international co-operation it was not enough. Whether those who lived around the palaces turned on their rulers because they were not getting fed or had lost their jobs is unclear. But as crops and economies failed, it triggered civil wars and the mass migration of refugees. Homer: Truth or fiction? In Homer, it is the affair between Troy's prince Paris and Greek queen Helen that triggers the legendary war. In reality, contemporary records from the neighbouring Hittites confirm the Greeks "had a number of military campaigns in the west coast of Anatolia", says Spyros Bakas of the Koryvantes Association for Historical Studies, with one Greek ruler "leading 100 chariots and an infantry force against a Hittite prince". The two sides certainly clashed over Troy (which was a Luwian city, sometimes allied to the Hittites). At one point Troy's royal family was deposed, and there is also a Hittite letter to a Greek king about a peace deal over Troy. None of this proves Homer's accuracy but "Troy was clearly a place that could amass great wealth so it was always going to attract people who might want to sack it," says J Lesley Fitton. Sacking of cities Troy was certainly sacked around 1200BC though there is nothing from it or Greece (Greek records are little more than administrative lists) to shed light on what happened. But in Syria we do have the voices of the victims of the wider catastrophe. The ruler of Ugarit, wrong-footed by fast-moving events, asked for help saying: "All my troops and chariots are in the land of Hatti and all my ships are in the land of Lukka. Thus, the country is abandoned to itself." His appeal seems to have fallen on deaf ears; perhaps his neighbours were also hard-pressed. If any help did arrive it came too late, according to one of the last tablets from the doomed city. "When your messenger arrived, the army was humiliated and the city was sacked. Our food in the threshing floors was burnt and the vineyards were also destroyed. "Our city is sacked. May you know it! May you know it!" Those who survived possibly ended being sold as slaves, or joined the growing number of refugees and lawless freebooters as societies broke down. Blaming migrants For their part, the Egyptians had a simple answer to what caused all the Bronze Age states to collapse: it was all the fault of different groups from around the Mediterranean, groups they called "the Sea Peoples". "The foreign countries made a conspiracy in their islands. All at once the lands were removed and scattered in the fray. No land could stand before their arms," says one Egyptian inscription. Egypt seems to have had time to defend itself and its army beat off the Sea Peoples, says Prof Cline, with pharaoh Ramses III proclaiming "I overthrew those who invaded from their lands... they were made as those that exist not" . Andrew Shapland cautions that we need to be careful how we read such government statements: "Ramses is just taking these migrants and he's making them the aggressors. "What if he is doing what any right-wing politician today is doing - and finding an outside set of people and blaming them for the economic woes?" Pyrrhic victory If the Greeks really did vanquish the Trojans, their victory was short-lived. Most Greek palaces were also soon destroyed or abandoned; the Hittites, Syrian city states, Assyrians and Babylonians also collapsed. Only Egypt survived. Unlike Bronze Age rulers who could only pray to their storm god for rain if the crops failed, we are far more aware of global problems and have far more technical resources to deal with them, says Prof Cline. But Homer's is a cautionary tale, he argues. "Every civilisation in the world has ultimately collapsed. It would be very hubristic to think we will be the only civilisation to survive." Troy: Fall of a City The BBC/Netflix eight-part drama retells Homer's story from the Trojans' viewpoint. "The story we're telling has an epic and political sweep but is also deeply human and intimate," says writer David Farr. Troy: Fall of a City starts at 9.10pm, 17 February, on BBC One.

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

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Somebody far brighter than the diary could probably fashion a very accurate Grand Depart countdown clock out of the times that these diaries appear every day: this one has just beaten sunset, let us hope Friday's makes it online before the race starts on Saturday. Never mind, have you noticed how yellow Yorkshire is? Even the central Leeds statue of Edward of Woodstock, aka The Black Prince, is wearing a maillot jaune for the Tour period. Edward, of course, enjoyed big stage wins at Crecy and Poitiers in the Tour de Hundred Years. Full story: The Yorkshire Post Nobody has enjoyed the yellow-fication of Yorkshire as much as this correspondent, but there are limits: the Emley Moor TV mast in Kirklees, for example. It has come to our attention that plans are afoot to illuminate the UK's largest free-standing structure later this week, turning it into the "world's biggest light sabre". Now, we are all in favour of a bit of decoration, but if there is any damage done to Emley Moor you will have Harry Gration to answer to, and his audience south of Huddersfield. Full story: Huddersfield Examiner Yorkshire's East Riding has been feeling a little left out in recent months - 250 miles of Tour de France racing this weekend and not one of them on its patch. Hull, the UK's City of Culture 2017, did get in on the action on Tuesday, though, by providing a landing point for the Tour's temporary invasion. A ferry-full of flat-bed trucks, carnival floats, sponsors' wheels and VIP mobiles rolled off the King George Dock bright and early, ready to create their first traffic jam of the week. Full story: Hull Daily Mail CYCLING ROUND-UP The good thing about writing this so late is that we can finally get some good news in about team line-ups at Le Tour. Having spent the last few days (or is it decades?) writing about Team Sky's Byzantine internal politics, British riders with curiously bad cases of man flu and general injury woe, a team has actually picked an Englishman to ride in this most English of Tours. Step forward Bury's Simon Yates, the 21-year-old with a big future that starts right here, right now. A world champion on the boards, and 3rd at last year's Tour of Britain, Yates is something of a surprise pick because of his age and his injury-plagued season. But he has bounced back from a broken collar bone to finish seventh at the recent Tour of Slovenia and then claim third at the British road race championship. His twin brother Adam does not make the cut, though, despite enjoying a remarkable breakthrough season. In some ways, he has almost been too good, having ridden more days, and ridden them much harder, than his Australian team Orica-GreenEdge could have predicted at the start of the season. He and his brother will get plenty of chances to ride Tours together in the future. TWEET OF THE DAY "With the #TDF just days away here's your chance to ride with @GiantShimano. Join us @weetwoodhall 1.15pm sharp on 2nd July for a short ride." Want to join Marcel Kittel, Jon Degenkolb & co on an Otley Run on bikes? Here is your chance. Remember where you heard it last. THE COUNTDOWN - 4 DAYS TO GO Given the news about Simon Yates, this is obvious, innit? There will be four British riders on the start line in Leeds: one from the post-Empire Diaspora, one from a self-governing crown dependency in the Irish Sea, another from a part of the United Kingdom with a devolved government and the last from Greater Manchester, truly a team for Britain's constitutional experts. Can you imagine how complicated things would have got if our Belgian-born, northern-based Londoner had made the cut, or if the Maltese-born, Hong Kong-raised, English-educated Scot had convinced his team that he was over the sniffles? We really are better together.

Swastika. The word is a potent one. For more than one billion Hindus it means "wellbeing" and good fortune. For others, the cross with arms bent at right angles will forever symbolise Nazism. Yet England is seemingly awash with swastikas. Why?

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Laurence CawleyBBC News It comes from the Sanskrit "svastika" and means "good to be", yet the word swastika - and perhaps even more the symbol which represents it - is very often taken to mean something very different. So much so, in fact, that when a member of the public recently asked Essex County Council why it allowed swastika motifs to be carved into its HQ building during the 1930s, some demanded the symbols be removed. The case is a perfect demonstration of the seismic shift in the swastika's reputation in the West as a result of its use by Nazi Germany. Why did Adolf Hitler and the Nazis seize the swastika? The Nazi party formally adopted the swastika - which it called the Hakenkreuz (hooked cross) - in 1920. Dr Malcolm Quinn, of the University of Arts London, says the party picked up on the symbol's association with the Aryans, who some intellectuals of the time believed had invaded India in the distant past. They considered the early Aryans of India to be the prototypical white invaders and the cultural ancestors of the German people. "What Hitler did," says Dr Quinn, "was to add the swastika symbol (of a conquering 'race') to the colours of Bismarck's flag and Germany was rebranded as a nation whose central mission was conquest and colonisation. "The Nazis created a new history for themselves. Within decades the swastika had been ripped from its Indian roots." But the swastika - or at least the shape to which the word refers - predates Hitler by thousands of years. Dr Jessica Frazier, of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, told the BBC swastikas had been found in China, Japan, Mongolia, the ancient Mediterranean, among native Americans and, of course, the British Isles. "Its (the swastika's) original meaning is an enigma," she said. "Perhaps it is just an elegant geometry which has an instinctive appeal across the world." The earliest swastikas might have had some religious or astronomical meaning. Then again, they might not. One of those earliest "swastikas" is the Swastika Stone which sits proudly on the edge of Ilkley Moor in West Yorkshire. The carving is thought to be early Bronze Age dating back to about 2,000 BC. Now heavily eroded from the surface of the grit stone outcrop on which it sits, the design features a grooved swastika with a number of circular hollows. The name Swastika Stone, as the Yorkshire-based archaeologist Dave Weldrake explains, is a Victorian invention. And a successful invention at that. It pulls in the tourists not because it is the most elaborate carving on the moor but because of its name. Mr Weldrake said it was most likely a religious carving. "But there's no written record," he said. "It is one of many carved rocks in the area which vary from the really simple to the highly elaborate. "There is another one which looks partially on the way to being a swastika and there are others with ladder patterns. Part of the problem with interpretation is you don't know how they looked at the time." Jump forward a few thousand years and the swastika motif reappears in England in thriving abundance. Not on rocky outcrops now, but on buildings. Many of these motifs, says Dr Quinn, arrived in England as a result of Britain's colonisation of India during the 18th Century. The British author Rudyard Kipling, who was strongly influenced by Indian culture, had a swastika on the dust jackets of all his books until the rise of Nazism. Other swastika-based designs, including the Essex County Council building swastikas mentioned above, were most likely inspired by Greek patterns. Whatever their derivation, without knowing the intention of the architects who included such designs on churches, government buildings, banks and railway stations, referring to them as swastikas is problematic. By and large, says Dr Quinn, they are "decorative motifs that happen to use the same symmetry group as the swastika symbol". And they mostly predate Nazi Germany. Shaunaka Rishi Das, director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, says: "Most Western people when they see it (the swastika), they see Nazi Germany. "But you have to understand that here's a tradition that is ancient and the Germans borrow it from a different culture and misuse it over less than two decades and it develops an internationally bad reputation." Mr Rishi Das told how he himself once lived in a house in Belfast which had a tiled swastika on a wash-room floor. "It somehow survived the fact that American officers were billeted there during the war," he said. "The daughter of the man who built the house, a well known architect of his time, told me the symbol was a Celtic one." That house, he said, later became a Krishna Temple. Although single swastika motifs - such as one found on cottages pictured below in Aylsham, Norfolk - are not rare, it is far more common to find swastikas used in repeating patterns. Examples include those on the The Royal Academy of Arts building at Burlington House and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in King Charles Street, London. As Mr Rishi Das found in Belfast, walls are far from the only surfaces to carry the swastika. Floors carry them too. The Natwest branch in Bolton's Derby Street, for example, has two swastikas on its floors. When asked to remove them in 2006, the bank pointed out that the building was built in 1927 when the swastika was commonly used in architecture. The request to remove them was turned down. The floor of The Painted Hall of the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich also features a swastika design. And then there is this red, white and black swastika design outside the barriers to the District Line service at the Upminster Bridge tube station in Hornchurch, east London. Could the swastika motif ever stage a comeback in western architectural design? Dr Quinn said he was not aware of any building other than temples created since World War Two in England featuring swastikas. And while the swastika design may well be used in Hindu architecture, its future use on public buildings seems unlikely.

A decision on plans for a £14m dairy expansion has been deferred by Wrexham councillors pending a site visit.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: A council report said extra production space was needed to meet demand at Tomlinson's Dairies, Minera, which had outgrown its facilities. Bosses want to double production to 195 million litres of milk a year. They have said about 60 extra staff would be needed The dairy currently employs about 170 staff. Wrexham planners had recommended the proposals get the go ahead. But councillors voted to hold a site visit on 14 October before making a decision. The business was established in 1983 by brothers Philip and John Tomlinson, expanding from a doorstep round using milk from the family dairy farm at Minera.

Author Ian Rankin is to appear at the final Loopallu festival in Ullapool. So what better chance to catch up with Scottish literature's "frustrated rock star" and quiz him about writing, music and his love of the Highlands?

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Steven McKenzieBBC Scotland Highlands and Islands reporter This month will see the staging of the 13th, and last, Loopallu after the organisers were unable to secure the continued use of the event's site. Those involved in the festival hope it goes out with a bang with headline acts that include The View, Glasvegas, The Pigeon Detectives and The Vatersay Boys - and the book tent slot filled by Rankin. The Fife-born, Edinburgh-based writer is famed for his John Rebus detective stories, and also for his love of music which has seen him appear on Desert Island Discs and also write lyrics for a group that rose to prominence in the 1990s. "I am a frustrated rock star," says Rankin, who in his teens fronted a short-lived punk rock band. "I'd love to be playing the main stage at Loopallu, no question about it. "But I had my attempt at music when I was 17-18 and got nowhere," he adds. "But I will be the only writer at the festival with a top five album," says Rankin, referring to lyrics he wrote for a track for 90s indie band The Charlatans' new album Different Days. "Through my writing - I write about music and bands in my books and use song lyrics in titles for books - I have still been able to be part of that world. "I have been able to meet some of my heroes by writing about music," adds Rankin, whose wide-ranging tastes includes the sounds of Jamaican musicians Dave & Ansell Collins, the post-rock tunes of Mogwai, jazz music and the post-punk of Joy Division. 'No TV' The author is looking forward to his trip to Wester Ross for Loopallu. "It will be my first time at Loopallu. Sadly it is being held for the last time," he says. "The great thing about festivals is it is like grazing. You can go round a festival finding bands you know nothing about and enjoying their music." While it will be his first visit to Loopallu, Rankin is no stranger to Ullapool - Loopallu is the village's name backwards. "I've been to Ullapool's book festival and have been up on other visits. "My wife is interested in weaving and textiles and we've often travelled up to Ullapool from a house we have in Cromarty to go to textiles exhibitions." In Ullapool, Rankin has also been able to slake his thirst for music after stumbling upon a gig in a bar by Martin Stephenson, of folk/rock/pop group Martin Stephenson & The Daintees. Cromarty, a village on the Black Isle and about an hour and half's drive from Ullapool, provides an important base for Rankin. "In the house there is no mobile reception and no TV," he says. "So it is somewhere I can get peace and quiet to write the early stages of a book. "I can get the first 100 pages written there. Once I have got those written I know I can go back to the city and finish the book. "Also in Cromarty, if I'm struggling to write, I can just go out and have a walk along the sea front and collect my thoughts." 'Dodgy suspect' Rankin's stories are filled with references to the Highlands. They include Rebus' daughter living in Tongue on Sutherland's north coast. "People asked me to put the Black Isle in one of my books," he says. "So, I did. I had a murderer who came from the Black Isle. "Folk were then asking me why I was so horrible to the place. You can't please everyone," he adds with tongue firmly in cheek. "I'm not sure how friendly the reception will be for me at Loopallu," he adds. "I had Rebus go up to Ullapool to interview a dodgy suspect." The last Loopallu is being held on 29 and 30 September.

As Greece faces the consequences of an inconclusive election, BBC Radio 4's Profile looks at the rise of the leader of the left-wing Syriza Party who rejects EU austerity plans as "null and void" and is now playing a critical role in determining the country's future.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Andy DenwoodRadio 4's Profile At 37, Alexis Tsipras is Greece's youngest political leader - and a champion for Greek voters, young and old, outraged by tax rises and spending cuts. His hard-hitting campaign in last week's election catapulted his Syriza coalition of left-wing and green parties into an unexpected second place, presenting a potentially historic opportunity for the Greek left to establish itself as one of the country's main political forces. High school protester Alexis Tsipras was born in Athens three days after the fall of the Greek military junta in 1974. The junta cast a long shadow over Greek life, but the Tsipras family was not especially political, and it was the more benign shadow of the nearby Panathinaikos football stadium that dominated Alexis's life growing up in Athens - he remains a fan, attending every home game. However, his interests were not confined to sport for long. When a new right-wing government threatened unpopular education reforms in 1991, pupils responded by taking over their schools. 17-year-old Alexis led the occupation of his high school, with pupils living, eating and sleeping in their classrooms, guarding the doors and cleaning the school for several months. Matthew Tsimitakis, then a pupil at another Athens school, remembers meeting the young Alexis Tsipras at the height of the action. "He struck me as very intelligent, calm, passionate but also very aware - he could represent the balance of a few hundred thousand kids who weren't very sure of what they were demonstrating about." "I think it has something to do with the fact that he was a member of the communist youth, and was used to dealing with this kind of situation." At the time, many young Greek students were getting involved in politics - but Mr Tsipras stood out, says Mr Tsimitakis. "He was very well informed about what was going on in the educational system... he would negotiate with the minister and I think he was the only one who could deal with the press." These were heady days for the teenage Alexis, experiencing his first taste of political success as the student occupation won concessions from the government - he also met the woman he planned to spend his life with, fellow student activist Betty Baziana. A charming campaigner After high school, he began a course at the National Technical University in Athens to study civil engineering, where the siren call of politics remained strong. Soon, in a move that foreshadowed later political struggles, he was welding together a new coalition of radical leftist and green student groups. After university politics came city politics. In 2006 he represented the new left-wing Syriza coalition in the Athens mayoral election. The results were impressive - against seasoned opponents, the political amateur representing a brand new party came third. His modest, direct approach won support from party workers and the electorate, recalls Elpida Ziouva, a civil servant who works for the Athens assembly: "No-one had a bad thing to say about him," she says. "He toured around neighbourhoods in Athens, and tried to have close contact with potential voters. "It reminded voters of the old times when people knew politicians by their first name and they used to answer direct questions." Just four years after entering local government, Mr Tsipras was chosen to lead the national party. At 34 years old, he was now the youngest political leader in Greece. Over the past two years, he has repeatedly condemned government support for the Greek financial recovery plan proposed by the so-called "troika" - the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He has insisted cutting jobs and services is a failing policy and, as international creditors demanded more job cuts and privatisation, Mr Tsipras declared "soon they will tell us to abolish democracy". His relaxed manner has also grabbed headlines - he chooses to cross Athens by motorbike rather than the limos favoured by other Greek political leaders, and prefers open-necked shirts to a suit and tie. 'Not honest' Evidently, he enjoys thwarting convention - former student activist Matthew Tsimitakis recalls a presidential party a few years ago, commemorating the end of the junta's rule. "Alexis decided to go in a simple suit, no tie, and he was escorted by a young black woman, who was an African immigrant - that was considered a shock in conservative Greece. "Alexis became the symbol of a new generation trying to enter a political scene which was occupied by the elders." When the Greek people went to the polls earlier this month, the Syriza coalition won nearly 17% of the vote, confounding expectations and making Mr Tsipras the leader of the second-largest party in the Greek parliament, establishing him as a key political player. But he is not without critics. Some suggest he has not fully explained how his opposition to the EU's austerity plans can be squared with his support for the euro and for continuing Greece's EU membership. Miranda Xafa, an economist and leading member of Greece's free-marketeer Drassi Party, argues that he will not admit the truth: "His message is a populist one, telling his supporters that he will put an end to austerity, and keep Greece in the euro area, which is an impossibility." The charge is dismissed by long-time friend and Syriza party member Yiannis Bourgeois. "That's a smear campaign. He repeatedly stated that it is not our choice to leave the eurozone." One to watch But there are more serious criticisms - Mr Tsipras has also been accused of supporting violent anti-austerity demonstrators, which he denies. "He was persistent in supporting and saying that the public has the right to revolt if unfair austerity measures are imposed on them," says Dr Vassilis Monastiriotis, an expert on Greek politics at the London School of Economics. "He didn't back off despite the fact that many people, both in the media and the political spectrum, were criticising his stance for inciting violence in the streets of Athens." Such criticisms may explain why, when his moment came on Wednesday last week, he was unable to construct a viable coalition government for Greece. But with a new election looking likely, one opinion poll suggests that he would emerge as the winner - commanding the largest single group of MPs. If that were to happen he could soon be negotiating at Europe's top table. "We don't know how good a negotiator he is and how solidly he can put forward his position in the European forum where he will be talking to [German Chancellor] Angela Merkel, [French] President [Francois] Hollande and the ECB [European Central Bank]," warns Dr Monastiriotis. But his supporters, like old friend Yiannis Bourgeois, insist that the charismatic Alexis Tsipras is a different brand of leader: "The Greek people have had enough of the inadequate negotiators. "You saw the results - our country is collapsing. Let's try something new." This edition of Profile was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday, 12 May 2012. Listen again via the Radio 4 website or download the podcast.

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

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

US tech firm Palantir, known for supplying controversial data-sifting software to government agencies, has fetched a market value of nearly $22bn (£17bn) in its debut on the New York Stock Exchange.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Natalie ShermanBusiness reporter, New York It's a lofty figure for a firm that has never turned a profit, been hit by privacy concerns and relies on public agencies for nearly half of its business. But the company, which takes its name from the "seeing stones" known for their power and potential to corrupt in Lord of the Rings, says the need for the kind of software it sells "has never been greater". The firm, which launched in 2003 with backing from right-wing libertarian tech investor Peter Thiel and America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), builds programs that integrate massive data sets and spit out connections and patterns in user-friendly formats. Palantir expansion The firm - sometimes described as the "scariest" of America's tech giants - got its start working with US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, but now supplies software to police departments, other public agencies and corporate clients. It is active in more than 150 countries, including the UK, where it was one of the tech firms the government enlisted this spring to help respond to coronavirus. In the first half of 2020, Palantir revenue rose 49% year-on-year, topping $480m (£373m). And at its direct listing on Wednesday, in which investors sold some of their existing shares to the public, shares opened at $10 each - above the $7.25 reference price - giving it a value of roughly $22bn. Mark Cash, equity research analyst at Morningstar, who has estimated the firm's value at $28bn - even higher than the valuation reached on Wednesday - said the firm is well-positioned in a growing industry. "Data integration at this scale for the government is very complex and I think if you tried to stop spending on that and it just goes away, you're going to have some big problems," he said. "We think it's very hard to switch away from once you're in as a customer." ICE and privacy protests But Palantir's rise has been shadowed by concerns from privacy experts, who say the firm's tools enable surveillance and analysis of data - everything from drivers licenses and social media posts to DNA swabs - that skirts people's right to privacy and is ripe for abuse. In the US, the use of its technology by immigration authorities to help round up undocumented immigrants has drawn heated protests and in the UK, the health data handled by the firm has also raised alarms. Ahead of the firm's listing, Amnesty International issued a report saying the firm was failing its responsibility as a company to protect human rights with inadequate due diligence into who it is working for. "We have to move away from the idea that data analytics and data collection is objective or clean or immune from all the pathologies that we're seeing play out right now," said Paromita Shah, executive director at Just Futures Law, which focuses on immigration law. "Our governments are the problem because they don't want to set up oversight, but Palantir takes advantage of it." 'We have chosen sides' Palantir told Amnesty that it had deliberately declined some work with border authorities in the US due to the concerns. But the company has also vigorously defended its government work, maintaining that its clients own and control the data. It says it has a team focused on civil liberties issues, but it is the government's job to craft policy, not Silicon Valley's. It has contrasted its commitment to some other tech firms, such as Google, which stopped work on an artificial intelligence project with the Pentagon after a backlash from employees. "Our company was founded in Silicon Valley. But we seem to share fewer and fewer of the technology sector's values and commitments," chief executive Alex Karp wrote in the filing announcing its plans to sell shares to the public. "We have chosen sides, and we know that our partners value our commitment." The outspoken defence is perhaps little surprise, coming from a firm co-founded by Mr Thiel, who famously abandoned Silicon Valley in 2018, decrying its liberal politics. Mr Thiel, whose estimated $2.1bn fortune was fuelled by the sale of PayPal and an early investment in Facebook, funded the Hulk Hogan invasion of privacy case that bankrupted gossip news site Gawker and has given generously to conservative politicians. In 2016, he donated more than $1m to US President Donald Trump, though he is reportedly sitting out this election cycle. By contrast, chief executive Alex Karp, who met Mr Thiel when they both attended Stanford Law School, is a self-described neo-Marxist and "card-carrying progressive", with a doctorate degree in neo-classical social theory from a Goethe University in Germany. He displays Tai Chi swords in his offices, according to Bloomberg, and the firm's presentation to investors this month opened with a video of him racing up a hill in orange exercise gear. Prospective investors have to be "comfortable" with the firm's leaders - especially since, under the terms of the listing, they will continue to wield outsize voting power over the firm, even after ownership shifts to the public, said Mark Moerdler, senior research analyst at Bernstein Research. His team also warned in a recent note that the controversies could hurt the firm's efforts to win private-sector clients. "Politics has entered business in a way we haven't seen before and you see large companies being influenced by employees and others in interesting ways," Mr Moerdler told the BBC. But, he added, "I don't think it will fundamentally impact their ability to grow the business if the opportunities are as large as they believe they are." Palantir may be an American company, but it actually employs more people in London - just shy of 600 - than in either its Silicon Valley base or Denver headquarters. That reflects both the work it does for European clients including BP, Airbus and Ferrari - but also its UK government contracts, which predate the coronavirus pandemic by several years. These - a source told me - have included work with GCHQ's cyber-spies as well as publicly declared work for the Ministry of Defence. Big data analytics may sound like a dry subject, but speak to the firm's staff and they can speak passionately about a job that they say has involved helping fight drug cartels, catch child predators and prevent terrorist attacks. But while Palantir might like to highlight the lives it helps save, it has also been accused of having "blood on its hands" by civil rights protesters. They object to its tech being used to identify places where illegal immigrants are working so the properties can be raided and those arrested deported. In fact, the firm has effectively become the bogeyman of surveillance tech. Shareholders will have to be aware that while many states and companies see benefit from using its software, there are also many with an interest in exposing any further controversies it might be involved in. Palantir financial prospects Just how big those opportunities are remains an open question. While its efforts to make inroads in the corporate world were rocky initially, Palantir's commercial business has grown. It now accounts for 53% of revenue and includes customers such as French plane maker Airbus and energy giant BP. And Palantir has said it is well-poised to continue to win government work, thanks to a lawsuit it won against the US military in 2016, which requires the government to consider commercially available products first. The firm's finances have also improved in recent years, amid pressure from early backers to list shares publicly and allow them to cash out. In 2019, the firm brought in $743m in revenue, up 25% from the year before, with some 60% of sales from outside the US. But Palantir still posted a loss of nearly $580m last year and relies on a relatively small number of clients for the majority of its revenue. Its nearly $22bn opening valuation was only a bit higher than the $20bn private investors valued the firm when it fundraised five years ago. And as Palantir starts to trade publicly, scrutiny has only grown. This month, liberal US politicians, including Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, asked financial regulators to investigate the firm, saying the information it had provided to investors lacked transparency on key areas of risk, including data protection and work with foreign governments. Growth will depend on landing new, large deals every year while retaining their profitable clients - and the firm hasn't shared much about its record, said Mr Moerdler. "If they can make the product critical to an organisation, it can be sticky, but the road there is long," he said. "In terms of growing, it still needs to be proven."

Police investigating the shooting of three men in Coventry have identified a taxi driver, following an appeal.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: The three victims were attacked on Far Gosford Street on Thursday night, but have since been discharged from hospital. At the time, officers said they believed the taxi driver could have valuable information. He is now helping with the inquiry. West Midlands Police said no arrests had yet been made. The force renewed an appeal for anyone with information to come forward. Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected] Related Internet Links West Midlands Police

The troubles just keep on mounting for Tesco.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Richard AndersonBusiness reporter, BBC News Stagnant sales, falling profits, boardroom turmoil, dodgy accounting and now its biggest loss in history. No wonder shoppers and investors alike are questioning what was, until recently, the undisputed king of UK retailing, revered as much for its gargantuan sales as its continual innovation. So where did it all go wrong? Innovation From humble beginnings selling army surplus food in the aftermath of the First World War, Tesco's stranglehold on the UK's food retailing sector began to tighten in the 1990s. It was one of the first major retailers to understand the power of loyalty cards - not just in boosting sales through discounts but in using vast amounts of customer data to help tailor individual shopping experiences. Tesco's Clubcard has since proved a blueprint for reward schemes countrywide. It was a pioneer both in introducing smaller convenience stores in towns and cities under the Express and Metro brands, and in differentiating own-label products with its Value and Finest ranges. Tesco was also at the forefront of online shopping, understanding the importance of home delivery in the internet age. In short, it "understood its customers and implemented this understanding on the shop floor," says Neil Saunders at retail research group Conlumino. "Its marketing was both clear and compelling." From snapping at the heels of Sainsbury's in the mid-1990s, Tesco's share of the market hit almost a third by 2006, almost twice that of its erstwhile rival. It was opening new stores in the UK at a rapid rate and embarking on a substantial overseas expansion plan that helped it become the world's third largest retailer. There was, it seemed, no stopping this retail leviathan bent on global domination. 'Startling decline' And yet things have turned sour remarkably quickly. Sales have been stagnant for the past four years while hefty profits have turned into significant losses. Last year, market share fell below 30% consistently for the first time in eight years. And despite a rally early this year, Tesco's share price is still down by more than 20% over the past 12 months. Investors would normally pile in to a blue riband stock after such a startling decline, but as Garry White, chief investment commentator at Charles Stanley stockbrokers, says, some City investors refer to Tesco as a 'value trap' - a bargain stock that fails to perform. Some reasons for the supermarket's dramatic fall from grace were outside the retailer's control, others less so. The financial crisis and subsequent recession focused consumers' minds on value and led to the rise of discount chains - primarily Germany's Aldi and Lidl - at the expense of the established UK supermarkets, primarily Tesco. At the same time, changes in shopping habits meant consumers were less willing to visit large out-of-town hypermarkets - the kind Tesco had invested heavily in - when they could get their groceries delivered at the click of a mouse. Perhaps more importantly, Tesco became "complacent", according to Mr Saunders. "It became a bit arrogant about its position, lost its customer focus and stopped innovating." He also argues the company became too focused on profit and stopped investing in stores and customer service. This lack of investment became all too obvious on the shop floor. Tesco also lost a lot of money, not to mention management time, on expensive overseas projects such as Fresh and Easy, its failed foray into the lucrative US market. Finally, the company seems to have lost its way - where once there was a clear vision and identity, now there is indecision and confusion. As Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at research group Kantar Worldpanel, says: "There has been no big innovation for a long time, while nobody knows what [the company] stands for." The appointment of marketeer Dave Lewis as chief executive following the short and ultimately unsuccessful reign of Philip Clarke recognised as much. "Tesco has a major brand problem and Mr Lewis understands brands," says Mr McKevitt. 'Radical solutions' But what can he do to help Tesco turn the tide in a retail landscape that has changed considerably since the chain's heyday? Not only is the market more fragmented and more competitive, but all grocery retailers have yet to find a way to make good money from online shoppers. Mr Clarke launched a £1bn turnaround plan that did little to convince investors. His successor will need to do more than throw money at the problem. "Radical solutions are needed," says Rahul Sharma, retail analyst at Neev Capital. "Tesco's predicament is similar to other major global retailers such as Walmart and Carrefour - it is wedded to its big stores. There are no easy answers." These stores are not just a major source of profits, he argues, but they are integral to the distribution of home-delivered goods. Simply selling off big stores is not, therefore, an easy solution. But whatever direction Tesco chooses to go, whether it be reinvigorating both the brand and its big stores, or becoming a more streamlined business focusing on smaller outlets, one thing is certain - it is unlikely to return to its former glory. "Tesco can be turned around, but it will take a few years," says Mr Saunders. "However it will never get back to where it was." For those critics of Tesco, who bemoan its role in ousting local retailers and paying farmers unsustainably low prices for their produce, this is perhaps no bad thing.

The battle of Brexit has been raging at Westminster this week. But one of the subjects that's infuriating Brexiteers is going far over our heads. And if you've got a smart phone, or sat-nav in your car, you may already be dependent on it.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland We often call this GPS - global positioning system. But increasingly, we should call it Galileo. That's because GPS is controlled from the Pentagon in Washington. It's an American military-based satellite system. The European Union has been putting together Galileo as its own network of satellites. It's full of British expertise, but Brexit Britain looks like losing its privileged access to Galileo's secret inner workings. I've been finding more about it, from those who have co-ordinated the commissioning from Brussels and from Professor Malcolm MacDonald, an expert in satellite technology and space policy at the University of Strathclyde. How does this technology work? The systems are all similar in concept, requiring a minimum of 24 satellites in quite a high orbit to get the maximum reach over the earth's surface. These send out very, very accurate time signals. Wherever you are, your phone or satnav picks up signals from at least three different satellites, which orbit the earth on different axes - something like those illustrations of an atom where electrons spin around a nucleus. Put the three together, compare the different lengths of time it has taken for the signals to reach your mobile phone, and it can compute where you are. A recently bought phone, or one with updated software, will be Galileo-compliant, so it will draw on GPS signals plus Galileo and possibly also from a Russian satellite network. They interact, and the more signals, the more accuracy you should get. How accurate is Galileo? GPS is accurate to within about 20 metres. Galileo is designed to improve that, to around one metre. The restricted system, for use by governments, should be able to reduce that to around 25cm. Does that give it more uses than GPS? The satellites don't monitor which devices are using the signal, but there is part of system that can pick up search and rescue signals. So that's of use for maritime search, or remote mountains, or if a car crashes off the road. Every new car model launched in Europe is required to have a Galileo-linked beacon, which should be activated as soon as an air bag is inflated. Emergency services will instantly know where an accident has taken place. The estimated time of getting to a maritime Mayday call can be sharply reduced. The uses for autonomous vehicles have yet to be developed, but it's clear that satellite technology will be an important part of future road transport - both to guide cars and to manage traffic systems. It also has potential for road pricing. Malcolm MacDonald says the crucial difference is that we can trust Galileo better than GPS, even to land a plane where there's no ground radar. That element of its capability is being used by 350 airports in Europe, and also deployed in less developed areas of the world, where communications are poor. Already, GPS and Galileo have become a vital part of finance. In trading, it matters a lot that there is an electronic record of when transactions have taken place. The electronic date-stamp from the satellite navigation system is recognised by all parties to contracts as the reliable industry standard. Then there's agriculture. Another European Union network, called Copernicus, provides earth surveillance. It can tell a farmer about different growing conditions across a field. It can, for instance, highlight an area that needs a higher level of fertiliser or pesticide than others. Satellite navigation can then be used to direct farm equipment - in some cases, autonomously - to the point of need, saving on cost and environmental impact. How close is Galileo to completion? The first satellites were put into orbit from 2013. There are now 22 in orbit, and 18 of them have become operational. That gives it around 80% global coverage. Another four satellites are being prepared for a rocket launch from French Guiana next month. Once they have been fully deployed, from 2020 the system should be complete, and there will be two spare satellites in case others run into technical difficulties. From around 2023, a replacement programme will start. Due to stresses of heat and cold, the satellites have an estimated 10-year lifespan. Haven't the British done some good business out of this project? Almost all the payload - the brains of the satellite - are built in Britain, which is a world leader in small satellites. Glasgow's got a good chunk of that market but not for Galileo. The other big spend is on the components - the solar panels, the casing, the rocket systems, where the Germans, French and Dutch have done well. But if we go back to 2002 into 2004, when Galileo was first being discussed, the British - backed up by Germany and the Netherlands - were strenuously arguing against it. They argued it was a classic, daft, Euro-waste of money and, literally, of space. With encouragement from Washington, the British were asking why Europe couldn't simply rely on the American GPS system. They didn't realise then how quickly people and the economy would become dependent on satellite navigation, on how widespread its applications could be, or on how positive the satellite sector could become for the British economy. Nor did they foresee that Donald Trump would become US President and could switch off GPS on a whim. When the programme was first discussed, there was talk of it being privately financed. That didn't happen, as providing a free service doesn't produce an income stream. There were discussions with Russia and China about working on this network with the European Union. But in Moscow and Beijing, they decided to go and make their own, military-led systems. Given the change of tone from the Kremlin, and concerns about China's acquisition of technology, it's hard to imagine those partnerships working smoothly now. So the European Union is happy with the system it has bought? The European Commission certainly sounds that way. It has spent around 10 billion euros so far, on satellites, launches, and building ground stations (the British and French have some helpful far-flung outposts and former colonies that can be used for that). And they're so happy with it that they announced this month that they intend to spend a further 16 billion euros from 2021 to 2027. That's as much as they have spent from 2005 to 2020. The absence of the UK from paying into the budget isn't going to slow them up. That money sustains the Galileo systems, paying for some replacement satellites as they wear out. It also supports the Copernicus network of satellites, which provides earth surveillance - of farming, land planning and pollution monitoring, and it has uses in handling natural disasters. The commission reckons that 80% of new phones on the market are Galileo-enabled. Just two years ago, there was one manufacturer linking with it, a small one in Spain. That did not take regulation. It's in the manufacturers' interests to deploy the technology. It did, however, require legislation to force car manufacturers to adopt the locator beacon technology as standard. And once on board all cars, it's an important step towards a satellite-based system for smart traffic management and autonomous cars. Britain's being denied access to at least part of this satellite system. Why? The UK is being denied on two grounds. One is the restricted part of the system, of particular interest for military uses. Britain has a lot of them. Think missile targeting. That element of Galileo is only for EU members, and when Britain is not an EU member, it will have to negotiate a special deal to use the system. Norway and America are already in talks to do that, and the talks have been under way for more than two years. I was in Brussels earlier this month, asking around about this, and I was told this makes the British - Brexiteers and remainers alike - more incensed than almost anything else in the negotiations. (So far.) Britain helped pay for it. It's been important to building it: "So be reasonable, chaps." In Brussels, they're saying: we're governed by rules, and look at the words - non-EU members, or "third countries" don't get automatic access to the high security functions. The other dispute is the ban on Britain being able to bid for work on the secure aspects of future EU satellites. So SSTL, the Surrey-based subsidiary of Airbus that makes most Galileo satellite payloads, is reported to be planning a move of its production to the continent. The UK government has tabled a proposal to share the system post-Brexit, but the other 27 members this week chose to continue while cutting the UK out of procurement. That brought a warning that the British could seek to frustrate the process and increase its costs. Could the UK have its own satellite network? That was being urged on ministers in the House of Commons this week. It would be an expensive option. It could be cheaper to do this on a one-country basis, and some lessons have been learned from the Galileo process. But it's not expected to leave much change from £10 billion. The British clearly have the know-how. At a price, it can hitch a ride on another country's rocket. Japan and India have their own regional systems, with satellites positioned above those countries, so that might be an option. But it looks like we might have spending pressures closer to home.

On Sunday morning, three police officers were shot dead in Baton Rouge. This attack came just 10 days after five police officers were killed in Dallas. Both events were revenge attacks for the killing of young black men by police.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: The bloodshed has shocked the US, leading President Barack Obama to call for calm. But how many police officers are killed in the US in a normal year? And how many people are killed by police? Police killed "There's a widespread perception in the American public, and particularly within law enforcement, that officers are more threatened, more endangered, more often assaulted, and more often killed than they have been historically," says Seth Stoughton, a law professor at the University of Southern Carolina and former policeman. "I think it's a very strong perception. People truly believe it. But factually, looking at the numbers, it's not accurate," he says. FBI data on police officers "feloniously killed" - killed as a result of a criminal act - indicates that the numbers have been falling, he says. Looking at the 10 years from 2006 to 2015 the annual average number of police deaths was 49.6, Stoughton says, which he notes is "down significantly from the high". "The high was the 10-year period prior to 1980, when we had an average of 115 - actually 114.8 officers feloniously killed… in the line of duty every year." At the same time the number of police officers has increased dramatically in the US. At the same time the number of police officers has increased in the US. There are a quarter of a million more police officers working today than there were three decades ago. So when you consider the number of officers killed per 100,000, there has been a dramatic decrease. The annual per capita number of officers killed has dropped from 24 per 100,000 in the 10 years to 1980 to 7.3 per 100,000 in the 10 years to 2013 (the last year for which there is good data). This chimes with a bigger trend, which is a steady reduction in crime, including homicides. Killed by police Official data on the number of people killed by the police turns out to be remarkably unreliable. "We can't have an informed discussion, because we don't have data," FBI Director James Comey said in the House of Representatives in October. "People have data about who went to a movie last weekend, or how many books were sold, or how many cases of the flu walked into an emergency room. And I cannot tell you how many people were shot by police in the United States last month, last year, or anything about the demographics. And that's a very bad place to be." He had previously said it was "unacceptable" that the leading sources of this information were newspapers, the Washington Post and the Guardian. Find out more Although the FBI does gather some data on fatal shootings, police forces are not obliged to provide it, and only some of them do. This led the Washington Post to start tracking civilian deaths itself after the shooting of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson in August 2014, by monitoring reports in the media. "We looked at the FBI database, since that was the official government accounting for things. And saw that over the past decade, the average number of shootings that they counted was about 400. By the end of last year, we had almost 1,000 fatal shootings that we had captured," says Kimberly Kindy, an investigative reporter at the newspaper. "What we didn't know though, of course, as we went into this year and did it a second year was - was last year a normal year? Is 990 people being killed by police in a single year about what you would expect year in and year out?" So far, 2016 appears to be roughly on track with 2015, Kindy says. "In fact there's been an increase, a 6% increase in fatal shootings when we compare the first six months of last year to the first six months of this year… So that's about three people are dying a day, who are being fatally shot by officers." The Guardian has recorded even more deaths in 2015 and 2016, including deaths as a result of tasering, collisions with police vehicles and altercations in police custody. The Washington Post journalists also collect information about the race of those shot by police. According to Kindy, about half are white, and about half are from minorities, but adjusting for the size of the populations, Kindy says, "minorities are definitely being shot at a higher rate than whites". This is particularly noticeable in the case of the black population. "Blacks are being shot at a rate that's 2.5 times higher than whites," Kindy says. The big question is whether that is evidence that the police are discriminating against African Americans. There's an obvious argument that it is: African Americans are just 13% of the US population, and yet 26% of the people killed by the police. But there's another way to look at these numbers. Nearly 50% of convicted murderers in the US are African Americans. Why that number is so high is a difficult question to answer. So is the question why African Americans are also far more likely than whites to be murder victims. The point is that if African Americans are more likely to be involved in violent crime - both as perpetrators and victims - then the higher rate of police shootings may not be surprising. The truth is that the raw statistics can't tell us whether the police are treating African Americans differently from white people. To understand that, we'd need to look at more details about what happened in each incident. There's a big difference between a case where someone was shooting at the police, and a case where someone was passive and unarmed. One person who has tried to do that is an economist from Harvard University called Roland Fryer, the first ever African American to win the prestigious John Bates Clark medal in economics. This month Fryer released a preliminary study examining records from 10 cities and counties, with the best data coming from Houston - it's not yet peer-reviewed, but it has received a lot of attention in the press. Fryer's research suggests that African Americans and Hispanics are substantially more likely to experience force in their interactions with the police - such as having a gun pointed at them, being handcuffed without arrest, or being pepper-sprayed or hit with a baton. This racial difference is reduced, but doesn't completely disappear, when Fryer adds all sorts of statistical controls such as whether the incident was indoors or outdoors, in a high-crime area, took place at night, and so on. However, Fryer doesn't find any racial difference in the cases where police offers actually shoot someone. The debate over this continues, both on the streets and in academia. Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

The government must devise a new plan to clean the air after losing two court cases. As part of the So I Can Breathe series, we examine air pollution in the UK. Who is most to blame and what should be done?

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Roger HarrabinBBC environment analyst How bad is UK air pollution? Air pollution is a major contributor to ill health in the UK, but it's hard to say exactly by how much. Dirty air doesn't directly kill people. But it's estimated in the UK to contribute to the shortening of the lives of around 40,000 people a year, principally by undermining the health of people with heart or lung problems. How accurate are media headlines about 40,000 deaths? Headlines claiming that pollution kills 40,000 are just wrong - it's more subtle than that. It's also wrong to say pollution in the UK is rising. The 40,000 pollution-related deaths figure is not a count of actual deaths - it's a statistical construct, with a lot of uncertainty involved. Government advisers say the 40,000 number might be a sixth as big - or twice as big. Pollution clearly is a problem, though. And, remember, it doesn't just contribute to early deaths, it also compromises the health of people suffering from ailments like asthma and hay fever. Is pollution increasing? In cities globally, pollution is increasing. In the UK, air pollution nationally has been generally dropping (except from ammonia from farming). But despite the overall fall, in many big UK cities safe limits on harmful particulates and oxides of nitrogen - NOx - are still regularly breached. And in London, NOx levels at the roadside have barely dropped at all. Why is there so much concern at the moment? Experts in air pollution argue that it has been under-reported for decades, but the issue has been thrust into the news because the UK government lost court cases over illegally dirty air, and because car makers were found to be cheating tests on car emissions. Scientists are also more confident now about the ways that air pollution harms people. It has even recently been linked with dementia, although that link remains debatable. Diesel cars seem to be portrayed as the main villains. Is that fair? Yes and no. Diesel car manufacturers drew fire by cheating emissions tests. Diesels are much more polluting than petrol cars on a local scale, and the biggest proportion of pollution in UK cities does come from road transport in general. But if you look at Greater London (London stats are the most detailed) you see that private diesel cars contribute 11% of NOx - less than you might have thought. Lorries - with far fewer numbers on the roads - produce the same amount. Zoom into Central London, and just 5% of NOx comes from private diesel cars. That is dwarfed by 38% from gas for heating homes and offices. There are many other sources of pollution, including buses, taxis, industry and other machinery, such as on building sites. So it's a many-sided problem. What should we do? Solving air pollution needs a many-sided approach. The best value for money comes from targeting the really big individual polluters - that's old buses and lorries in cities. Most big cities are already doing that, although critics say not fast enough. Insulating homes so they don't burn as much gas, would save pollution, cash and carbon emissions in the long term - but critics say the government appears to have no strategy for this. Stopping the spread of wood-burning stoves in cities might help a bit. Cutting pollution from ships would be good in port cities. Reducing use of some chemicals in the home would help a little. What about taxing diesel cars more? A previous government encouraged drivers to buy diesel vehicles because they produced fewer emissions of greenhouse gases. Incentives for diesel were removed in 1999. Petrol cars are now almost as efficient and are much less polluting locally, so scientists say it makes sense to tax diesel cars extra. Politicians are nervous upsetting drivers, and we shall have to wait to the Budget to see how they respond. Ministers are also under pressure to offer a £3,500 incentive for drivers to scrap old diesel cars, which would incentivise the purchase of new cleaner vehicles. The Green party says it would be perverse to reward car makers with increased sales when they caused the problem in the first place by failing on their promises to government to make diesel engines clean. Follow Roger on Twitter. So I Can Breathe A week of coverage by BBC News examining possible solutions to the problems caused by air pollution.

Barely a day goes by at the moment when a big British company isn't flogging a big asset or isn't on the end of a takeover bid; and banker chums tell me the "deal flow" (dread phrase for takeovers of companies) looks set to be strong.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Robert PestonEconomics editor The explanation is psychological. The economy is recovering. There hasn't been a big economic whoopsy since the eurozone's banks almost went splat two years ago. And most substantial companies accumulated mountains of low-yielding cash in the years of the Great Recession. When it comes to investing and buying businesses, companies aren't a good deal more sophisticated than sheep: when they sense the big bad wolf of recession or crisis is over the hill, they all rush in a flock to spend. Which raises that hoary issue once again of whether companies buying other companies is a good or bad thing, for investors and the wider economy. There is so much empirical evidence that takeovers regularly damage shareholders' wealth, and yet the bids-and-deals game goes on and on, that it is probably fatuous to expect the owners to exercise caution, and block deals. As for the economic impact, well it is not cut and dry. Many of the UK's more successful industrial competitors, including the US, see politicians intervene to block or amend deals for national strategic reasons in a way that almost never happens here. Which begs two questions. First, whether the government should intervene to frustrate takeovers in a way that hasn't been fashionable for decades. Or whether the boards of companies in receipt of takeover offers should explicitly take into consideration more than the price being proffered. Key sector In the UK, this is once again a semi-urgent issue, following the announcement that the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer wants to buy AstraZeneca. This transaction is particularly resonant because AstraZeneca has great intellectual property, it employs significant numbers of scientists and brainy researchers in the UK, and it has important links to top British universities. The legitimate fear would be that - whatever promises and undertakings are given by Pfizer - over time the deal would hollow out an industrial sector important to British prosperity. The noises from government are that ministers understand this concern. But the British industrial convention of the past 30 years is that everything is for sale - and that the UK attracts much more inward investment than other comparable rich countries because it rarely frustrates the operation of the market. And even if ministers wanted to block the deal, it is not clear they could, on the basis of current competition law. So what about the directors of AstraZeneca? The point is that since the great Crash of 2008, caused in large part by short-term, financially driven deal-doing by reckless banks, most big companies have talked the talk that short-term profits and the short-term share price isn't everything. They all make a big deal of their responsibilities to employees, to customers and to the local and wider communities. So could AstraZeneca's board cite the interests of these other interested parties or stakeholders to reject Pfizer's offer? Err no. Its primary and overwhelming responsibility is to its owners, the shareholders. But they could perhaps discuss the effect of the deal on the UK's economic prospects in a full and frank way, so that - if they think the effect would be negative - the public and politicians would know what is genuinely at stake. If they did not believe there would be a cost to the UK, that would be worth knowing too, of course. Opening up in this way would be a scary prospect for most boards. Most company directors hate engaging in that kind of public debate. That said, if they don't do it willingly, there is a strong likelihood they will be compelled to give their views, by MPs on one of a number of relevant select committees. True defence? One other thing. In my too-long experience, bankers, brokers and public-relations advisers working for a target company always want the deal to happen - and that all they are really striving to do, underneath the rhetoric of "defending" the company, is to secure the highest price in an auction. That is unsurprising, given that typically they receive more millions for their services if the takeover happens above a threshold price set by the board, than if it is not completed. Which, given the powerful influence of these advisers, on the opinion of investors, media and politicians, means the probability of the deal collapsing is minimal. Some might therefore argue that advisers should be rewarded for the quality of their advice, not for the outcome.

Paul and Sandra Dunham had protested their innocence with a quiet determination. Faced with charges of fraud from their time in the US, the Northamptonshire couple denied any wrongdoing and campaigned against their extradition.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: But a few weeks before their trial was due to start, the pair struck a plea bargain with US authorities and admitted their guilt. In numerous interviews, Mr Dunham had claimed their extradition was "disproportionate" and the case was just an "employment-related dispute" with Pace, the company they had worked for. He claimed they were "totally let down" by the British justice system, that their lives were "shattered" and that they faced months or perhaps years on remand in separate US jails. They even appeared to have attempted to take their own lives, hours before they were due to be flown out to Maryland. The Dunhams certainly garnered support and sympathy from some quarters during their drawn-out fight, but Eric Siegel was resolutely unconvinced. 'Completely violated' As president and chief executive of Pace Worldwide, he considered the Dunhams as "part of the Pace family for well over 30 years". "I feel completely violated, as do many current and former employees at the company," he told the BBC. "Their fraud nearly put us under. The fact we're still in business is a miracle." Both Mr Dunham, 59 and Mrs Dunham, 58, admitted conspiring to commit wire fraud. He pleaded guilty to an additional charge of money laundering. Mr Siegel brought Paul Dunham over to the US in 1999 to help run operations for the company, which manufactures soldering irons for the electronics industry. 'Mountain of evidence' He believes Mr Dunham had his eyes on succeeding him when he left the company in 2003. "I think Paul had designs on taking over the company, and he wasn't happy working with me or the fact I was the co-chairman and president at the time and he was really just the chief operating officer," he said. "I think he was quite envious of that and didn't want to be told what to do." In 2009, Mr Siegel was back at Pace and had suspicions about the couple's activities. By then, Paul Dunham was chief executive and his wife sales director. Mr Siegel gathered a "mountain of evidence" and the following year won a civil case against the couple in North Carolina. It sparked a criminal investigation by the Department of Justice and FBI, and the bringing of charges for which they have now been convicted. 'Warped sense' The Dunhams, meanwhile, claimed Mr Siegel had a personal vendetta against them, somehow influencing the interest of the authorities - which he describes as "laughable" and "absolutely ridiculous". "If I had that kind of power it would be amazing," he said. "I recall Paul Dunham did a news piece saying 'anyone could walk into a federal grand jury and accuse somebody of something and they'll go ahead and indict them. "I'm afraid it doesn't work that way." They also claimed they owned 20% of the company, that Mr Dunham was in charge and he did everything he was entitled to. "I believe he thought he was entitled to it, but he has a very warped sense of right and wrong and everyone else would call it fraud and theft," said Mr Siegel. "We won the civil case, then we brought the judgment over in the UK to domesticate it and have it ratified here. "They did very vigorously fight the domestication of the judgement in the UK, but they lost. "The notion they didn't have a chance to address or answer the charge is quite ridiculous."

A man has been arrested on suspicion of fund-raising for terrorism and encouraging support for a banned terror group.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: The 31-year-old was arrested in Norfolk by Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism officers shortly after 06:00 GMT on Thursday. He was being held for questioning at a police station in central London. The Met said searches were being carried out at two addresses in Norfolk and one in north London. The arrest relates to suspected activities overseas, police said.

UKIP's Nigel Farage got a tumultuous reception in Paris on Sunday from a fellow Eurosceptic party, whose great advantage - as far as he is concerned - is that it is NOT the far-right National Front (FN).

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Hugh SchofieldBBC News, Paris Debout la Republique (DLR: Stand up, the Republic!) is the political vehicle of Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, a 52-year-old dissident Gaullist who feels the mainstream centre-right UMP party has sold out to Brussels. It is not a big party (he got less than 2% at the last presidentials), but it does have a niche - among respectable middle-class types who believe in the nation state. Several hundred of Mr Dupont-Aignan's supporters crammed into the Alhambra Theatre near Place de la Republique for the launch of his Euro 2014 campaign. After a series of less-than-thrilling speeches from various DLR hopefuls, they got what they came for: a taste of the famous English firebrand. Clearly Nigel Farage's name carries weight in these French circles. Nicolas Dupont-Aignan was almost pathetically keen to be seen at the UK Independence Party leader's side, insisting he come back to the stage for a triumphant hand-in-upraised-hand pose for the cameras. At the climax, the crowds were ecstatically chanting "Nigel! Nigel! Nigel!" Avoiding 'baggage' In his address, Mr Farage explained why he had chosen DLR as a partner in France, and not Marine Le Pen's FN (boos, hisses). Eurosceptics had to show the world that they were not extremists, that national sovereignty and national currency were normal aspirations. But the FN, he said, had too much political baggage. It could never entirely kick off its anti-Semitic past. Interestingly I spoke to Mr Farage afterwards, and he was more nuanced in his critique of the FN. Marine Le Pen had "taken the party to new highs, and is achieving remarkable things in this country. I make no bones about it, she's got some good qualities," he said. He said he could foresee a European Parliament in which UKIP and the FN vote together on any number of different subjects - along with the "British Conservatives on a good day and some hard left characters from the Mediterranean". But as for being in the same political family as the FN - that was not on the cards. This is no doubt intelligent politics. For all Marine Le Pen has done in detoxifying the brand, the FN is still too hot to handle. Its kiss for UKIP would be the kiss of death. But it is worth bearing in mind that in terms of popular support, the French Eurosceptic equivalent of UKIP is certainly not Dupont-Aignan's minuscule DLR. It IS the National Front.

It's nearly finals weekend at Wimbledon when thousands of people will be forming an orderly queue to get in. But is queuing politely really the British way?

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Denise WintermanBBC News Magazine Queuing, it's what the British are renowned for doing - and doing very well. Better than anyone else in the world, if reputation is to be believed. Take the Wimbledon queue. It's held up as a supreme example of Britain's prowess when it comes to queuing. The likes of tea, cake and camping chairs often make an appearance. It even has its own code of conduct in case, heaven forbid, anyone doesn't understand how the queue works. But Wimbledon is an exception when it comes to standing in a long line, say social historians. Despite the UK's formidable global reputation, queuing in a calm, good-natured manner has not always come naturally. "We're supposed to be so wonderful at it but really that reputation is built around a whole mythology to do with the British and queuing," says Dr Joe Moran, a social historian and author of Queuing for Beginners: The Story of Daily Life from Breakfast to Bedtime. The temporary nature of queues makes it hard to trace their history, but key historical events are said to have shaped how the British queue and their reputation for being so good at it. One is the industrial revolution. "The orderly queue seems to have been an established social form in the early 19th Century, a product of more urbanised, industrial societies which brought masses of people together," says Moran. People were moving in huge numbers from the countryside into towns changing the patterns of daily life, including shopping. "More of a barter system existed in local markets, the whole way people shopped was more informal," says historian Juliet Gardiner. "Traders started moving from market stalls into shops as they moved into towns. In the more formal setting of a shop people had to start to queue up in a more structured way." Despite the mass expansion of manufacturing not everyone reaped the financial rewards and poverty was rife. "Queuing started to become associated with extreme hardship as the poor had to queue to access handouts and charity," says Dr Kate Bradley, a lecturer in social history and social policy at the University of Kent. But what really shaped Britain's reputation as civilised queuers was World War II. "Propaganda at the time was all about doing your duty and taking your turn," says Bradley. "It was a way the government tried to control a situation in uncertain times." The queue became loaded with meaning, drawing on notions of decency, fair play and democracy and the myth of the British as patient queuers was forged, says Moran. "In reality there were arguments and disturbances, often the police had to be brought in to sort things out and restore order. Queuing was exhausting, frustrating and tense. "Things that weren't rationed would go on sale spasmodically, word would go round and long queues would start to form. People often joined the end of a queue without knowing exactly what it was for, they just hoped it would be something useful." The notion of the orderly queue is a belief that is still cherished today. "It's a story we still like to tell about ourselves," says Moran. "We like to think it fits in with a particular idea we have of our national character - that we're pragmatic and phlegmatic." Others argue that the British are good at organising themselves into a queue but not so good at waiting in it. In the post-war years things flipped and the queue came to represent everything that was wrong about British society. Politicians and social commentators tried to make capital out of them, like the dole queue in the 1980s. But the nation's reputation for queuing patiently remained intact. Wimbledon and other events - from queuing for Glastonbury to the Queen's 60th Jubilee concert - were and still are held aloft as British queuing at its best, but they are not the type of queue people experience in everyday life. "The queue at Wimbledon is part of the whole ritual. You certainly don't get the same warm glow of togetherness waiting for the bus or standing in a line at the bank," says Moran. It's the bus queue that is often cited as an example of the demise of civilised queuing. In some places it's every man, woman and child for themselves when the bus draws up. But cultural historians say there is little evidence that people behaved any better in years gone by. "What we do know is people have been complaining about the disintegration of queue discipline for almost as long as they have been lauding the queue as the essence of British decency," says Moran. What makes standing in a line for a bus problematic is that people have to police the queue themselves. "The people who push to get on a bus are the same people who wait patiently in other queues," says Dr Michael Sinclair, a consultant counselling psychologist with City Psychology Group. "The difference is in the bus queue people have to enforce the rules themselves. This is when the system can break down. We all want things to be done the way we'd like, the problem is people have different ideas of what that should be." In most other places, like the bank or supermarket, people are shown how to queue so lines are controlled a lot better, says David Worthington, a professor in the department of management science at the University of Lancaster who has researched queues. Poles with retractable straps, numbered ticket machines - developed in Sweden in the 1960s - and electronic called-forward systems, tell people what to do and when. "People know where they are in the queue and that is important when it comes to keeping things organised," he says. Other queue myths have also been picked apart over the years. The notion that other nations can't queue like the British is outdated, says Worthington. The motives behind the UK's intolerance of queue-jumping have also been questioned. "When people tackle breaches of queue discipline it's not really the notion of fair play that is driving them, it is protecting their own interests," says Bradley. Ultimately, if the British can avoid standing in a line they will, just like everyone else. You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook Your observations about queuing: As a UK/Canadian dual citizen who has spent considerable time in both countries, and who loves and feels loyal to both, I can report unequivocally that Canadians are the superior queuers. Most particularly when they are driving, but everywhere really, and most apparently when queues require self organization, like waiting to use a bank machine. Michael Robinson, Canada. Singaporeans are the world's best queuers in my opinion. When H&M first opened they had people queuing around the block all day, every day for a week - if three came out, three were let in. It was quite a bizarre thing to witness. Laura, Cambridge. A globetrotter, I have been trampled in a "queue" to get on a ferry in Switzerland, watched Chinese in Hong Kong rush onto a subway train so fast you could hear the "click" as their backsides hit the seats, seen the Turkish barging into an otherwise orderly line at passport control in Turkey and both Indians and Egyptians waiting patiently despite the hot sun. Megan, Cheshire UK. Having worked in a variety of airports for eight years now I have seen the splendid queues which form at check ins, security areas and passport control. But as stated in the article, yes the Brits can form queues but waiting in them? That is another story. I have heard it all before. "That queue is going faster than my queue", "they have pushed in front", "someone must be training on this desk as it is the slowest", "I was here first" to name but a few. The tutting and watch looking normally starts after about 20 minutes. Queuing is something I tolerate knowing that it is something that sometimes we just have to do. We can't all be first, and someone has to be last. Lucy, Portugal. In Beijing the Chinese form very orderly queues whilst waiting at a subway station. There is no jostling for position or cutting in. They walk round a queue rather than through it. Immediately the train doors are open it is every man, and woman, for themselves. The very idea of a queue disintegrates and the evidence is gone. Trevor Daynes, Beijing, China. I have lived in three different countries outside of the UK and let me tell you the British are fantastic at queuing. Whether it be at a bus stop, at a shop, there is no comparison. The only place that seems to lack the typical British queuing is when one is at a bar, pub or club. Jared King, Civitanova, Italy. Canadians are very good at forming and observing queues. At automatic banking machines in shopping centres or with street-access, for example, we form a single line that starts about two metres behind the people using the machines. We leave room for passersby and afford the people at the machines privacy to conduct their business, and as each person finishes his/her banking, the next in line moves to that machine. Waiting for a bus, however... not so much. Ruthanne Urquhart, Ottawa, Canada. I was picking up a few odds and ends one day, when an American couple stopped me at the tills and asked me how the queue worked. Whether they genuinely did not know, or whether our reputation for queuing is that formidable, I will never find out. They seemed delighted with the information they received in any case. Sacha Jones, Wigan. British best at Queuing? When it suits us we can be awesome at it, and we love a good whinge when other folks don't adhere to our own high queuing standards, but we have our lapses as well. Take boarding a Ryanair flight for instance. Queue etiquette means nothing.... it's every man/woman/child for themselves. Nick Exley, Bradford, West Yorkshire

Work has started on a £348m contract for three Royal Navy warships at BAE Systems' yards at Scotstoun and Govan on the River Clyde in Glasgow.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: The offshore patrol vessels will be known as HMS Forth, HMS Medway and HMS Trent. The first will be ready by 2017. They will be used to support counter-terrorism, counter-piracy and anti-smuggling operations in UK waters. The vessels will be capable of global deployment, able to carry the latest Merlin helicopters and special troops.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has led the centre-left Labour Party to a historic victory and is in a position to form the first single-party majority government since 1993. But political columnist Josh Van Veen says this result is likely to be her biggest challenge.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: The preliminary results suggest the largest swing to an incumbent government ever. With Labour projected to win more than 61 seats in the 120-seat parliament, Ms Ardern is now in a position to form the first single-party majority government since 1993. This is a remarkable turnaround since the beginning of the year when opinion polls suggested the election would be close. Ms Ardern's ability to make New Zealanders feel safe during a pandemic has been the main factor in her decisive victory. Before that, there was a very real perception that Ms Ardern could be a one-term prime minister as there was discontent towards her. In her first term Ms Ardern relied on support from the populist New Zealand First and the centre-left Greens to form the government. Now, with New Zealand First not making it back, and the Greens not needed for a majority, she can go it alone. Whether she will choose to is another question. Her leadership style is one that prefers compromise and consensus. She will be mindful that although the voters have given her a majority, this owes more to a quirk of the Mixed Member Proportional representation (MMP) voting system - a system which asks people to vote twice, for their preferred party and for their electorate, or constituency, MP - than to her popularity . Labour has been helped by the fact that thousands of votes have been "wasted" on parties that did not gain representation. These votes are disregarded when allocating seats. In effect this means Labour has been able to secure a majority in Parliament with just under 50% of the vote. It is likely the 2020 result is an aberration, and won't lead to a permanent shift in New Zealand political culture. Come the next election, Labour may again have to depend on the Greens or another party to retain power. If she were to take a more long-term perspective, then Ms Ardern may be inclined to keep the Greens on side by offering them some role in the next government. This would head off criticism from the left. However, it remains uncertain what Ms Ardern plans to do with her second term. The Labour campaign was devoid of new ideas and light on policy. In 2017, she promised to lead "a government of transformation" but failed to deliver on that in office. In fact, child poverty and homelessness have worsened under her government. Although motivated by a belief in social justice, Ms Ardern has a conservative disposition which makes her reluctant to embrace the kind of radical policies needed to address structural inequality. Paradoxically, it is her conservative approach that persuaded many New Zealanders to vote for the Labour Party. Despite having the biggest mandate of any prime minister in recent history, she will find it extraordinarily difficult to reconcile the demands of affluent middle-class voters with those of the poor. A major issue during the campaign was the Greens' proposal for a wealth tax. Ms Ardern categorically ruled this out, frustrating her progressive supporters. For most of 2020, New Zealand was preoccupied with fighting Covid-19. Ms Ardern's success in uniting "the team of five million" - a reference to the population of the country - is a testament to her extraordinary abilities. But with the virus under control, attention is turning to other issues such as unemployment and housing affordability. Voters now expect her to address these problems. That will be no easy task. Josh Van Veen is an Auckland-based political writer and former member of NZ First, who worked as a parliamentary researcher toMinister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters from 2011 to 2013

The killing of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane by loyalist paramilitary group, the UDA/UFF remains one of the most controversial murders during the Troubles. BBC News Online looks at some of the key events in the family's quest for a public inquiry.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: 12 February 1989 Mr Finucane was shot 14 times as he sat eating a Sunday meal at home, with his wife and three children. His wife was wounded in the attack. In its statement claiming the killing, the UFF said they had killed "Pat Finucane, the IRA officer". While Mr Finucane had represented IRA members, the family vehemently denied the allegation - and have been supported in this by the police. April 1998 The government rejects a call by the UN for an independent inquiry. April 1999 Sir John Stevens, then deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, is appointed to carry out an investigation into the lawyer's murder. June 1999 Former UDA quartermaster William Stobie is charged with the murder of Mr Finucane. 2000 Amnesty International calls on the then Secretary of State, Peter Mandelson, to open a public inquiry into events surrounding Mr Finucane's death. November 2001 Stobie, who admitted supplying the guns used in the killing but denied murder, walks free from court after the case against him collapses as a key witness refuses to give evidence. December 2001 Two months later Stobie was shot dead by loyalist gunmen. 2001 Retired Canadian Judge Peter Cory appointed by British and Irish governments to investigate allegations of collusion by the RUC, British Army and Irish police into several killings during the Troubles, including that of Pat Finucane. April 2003 A report by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir John Stevens, is published. "Stevens Three" states that rogue elements within the police and Army in Northern Ireland helped loyalist paramilitaries to murder Catholics in the late 1980s. The Finucane family reiterates its call for a full, independent, public inquiry. May 2003 Loyalist Ken Barrett is arrested and charged with the murder of Mr Finucane. January 2004 The Finucane family takes legal action against the British government for failing to publish Judge Cory's report. Mr Finucane's widow lodged papers at the High Court, seeking an order compelling the secretary of state to publish it. April 2004 Judge Cory concludes that military and police intelligence knew of the murder plot but failed to intervene. He recommends a public inquiry. The government refuses until the criminal proceedings against Barrett are completed. September 2004 Ken Barrett, who confessed in court to murdering Pat Finucane, is sentenced to 22 years' imprisonment. September 2004 Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy announces an inquiry. He said it would be necessary to hold the inquiry on the basis of new legislation to be introduced. 2005 The Inquiries Act 2005 introduced and led to the creation of Hamill, Nelson and Wright inquiries. However the Finucane family opposed the new law, fearing it would enable the government to interfere with the independence of any future inquiry because it enabled a British government minister to rule when an inquiry sits in public or private. Autumn 2006 Plans to set up an inquiry into the murder of Mr Finucane are halted by the then Secretary of State Peter Hain. June 2007 The Public Prosecution Service says no police or soldiers will be charged in connection with the murder of Pat Finucane. It said insufficient evidence was "critical" in its decision. November 2010 Then the Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, says he will decide in the new year whether there should be a public inquiry into the murder. May 2011 The Finucane family say they expect to hear soon that the government will hold a full inquiry. Mr Finucane's son, John, said Mr Paterson told him in March that an announcement would be made after the election. October 2011 The British government rules out an inquiry into Mr Finucane's murder but puts forward a proposal for a leading QC, Sir Desmond de Silva, to review the case. His family are told the news during a meeting with David Cameron in Downing Street. They cut the meeting short and pledge to continue their campaign for an independent public inquiry. They say they will not participate in the review. The secretary of state says he wants the truth about the murder to be uncovered. The Irish government and one of the UK's leading barristers condemn the decision not to hold a public inquiry into the killing. November 2011 MLAs reject an assembly motion calling on the British government to establish a judicial inquiry into the killing. Meanwhile, Sir Desmond de Silva QC says he is "determined to expose the truth" about the "appalling" murder. Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny says he will push for a public inquiry, after meeting Pat Finucane's widow. January 2012 The Finucane family win the right to a judicial review over the government's refusal to hold a public inquiry into his death. October 2012 Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers says there will be a government security check on the de Silva report, prior to publication, to rule out security breaches. She says highly sensitive material given by the government to the author would not be included. The Finucane family claims government "vetting" would undermine the credibility of the report. December 2012 Sir Desmond de Silva's review confirms that agents of the state were involved in the loyalist murder of Pat Finucane and that the solicitor's killing should have been prevented. However, he says there had been "no overarching state conspiracy" in the case. Prime Minister David Cameron says the level of state collusion uncovered by the de Silva report was "shocking". However, the victim's widow describes it as a "sham" and a "whitewash". June 2015 At the High Court in Belfast, the Finucane family lose a judicial review of the prime minister's decision to rule out a public inquiry. However, the judge says that the government has not fully met its obligations to conduct a prompt investigation of new evidence uncovered by the 2012 de Silva report. The victim's son, John Finucane, says they are disappointed by the ruling but will continue their campaign.

Originally the name of an ancient Egyptian goddess, in Oxford "Isis" is merely the name for the River Thames within the city's boundaries. And the name's been very popular in marketing, with businesses and organisations wanting to subtly vaunt their Oxford links.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: But since the growth of the militant group known by some as Isis - an acronym for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria - has the word become too toxic for everyday use? After all, there appears to be no way back for the swastika - originally a symbol meaning "good fortune" or "well-being" until it was purloined by the Nazis. So who's rebranding and who's sticking with the name? Isis Business Brokers Dominic Marlow says his company, which sells businesses, is going to keep the name, although it triggered "an ongoing conversation that comes up on a daily basis". However, he believes the positives associated with the name outweigh the negatives. "I had a payment held up from the US, probably due to the name, and I had to go through quite a lot of extra money-laundering checks just to get registered as a payee by the US bank concerned." He says the majority of feedback about the issue is positive and has been praised for not changing the name. Isis Education Isis Education, an Oxford-based chain of language schools, was rebranded in 2015 as the Oxford International Education Group. Because its students are usually non-English speakers from overseas, the group had concerns about international perceptions of the Isis name, as well as issues about internet search engines and the results that might follow from someone looking for Isis training centres. There were also a few "negative comments" for staff wearing their branded Isis T-shirts. Oxford Isis Korfball Annaliese Taylor from the club says it plans to keep its name, despite a "healthy debate at our AGM last week" about the issue. She says the club, which was established in 2007, "is proud of its local heritage" and "is determined to have a laugh about it and keep it light-hearted". "As a relatively unknown sport, we'd had a couple of comments that people would be less likely to come along and try out Oxford Isis Korfball Club due to the name. "On top of that, walking around in our Oxford Isis Korfball kit and playing at tournaments outside of Oxfordshire can raise a few eyebrows." For those more puzzled about the "korfball" than the "Isis", it's a game with similarities to netball and basketball. The Isis Academy The Isis Academy in Oxford changed to the "Iffley Academy" to protect its "reputation, integrity and image". A statement issued by the school said it had changed name following "the unforeseen rise of Isis (also known as Isil and the Islamic State) and related global media coverage of the activities of the group". Isis Boutique The problem isn't just in Oxfordshire, though. Now rebranded Juno Boutique, a clothes shop in Malvern was named Isis because owner Jill Campbell comes from Oxford. Ms Campbell said some "very unpleasant" posts were made on social media about her shop, leaving her in the position "of thinking do I change the name or do I stick it out?" When she opened a second boutique in Ledbury, Herefordshire, she decided to change the brand for both outlets. "I have absolutely no sympathy with these monsters in Syria and it is for very innocent reasons that we chose the name," she says. Isis Beauty Academy The Isis Beauty Academy in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, was named by owner Carolyne Cross after the ancient goddess of rebirth. As the so-called Islamic State became more prominent, life got difficult for the beauty school. "We'd have people ringing up, saying 'why do you call yourself that, are you a terrorist group training students?' "So we had to have a long think, and as bookings were dropping and so were student numbers, we changed the name," Ms Cross says. It's now the Omni Academy of Beauty. Who are IS and what do they want?

Gravity-defying stacks of stones were created at the first European Stone Stacking Championships.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Competitors from across the UK, France and Spain took part in the contest at Dunbar last weekend. Organiser Steve Hill said stone stacking was "the most natural form of street art you can find" and the artists' creations were "breathtaking". The overall winner was Pedro Duran, of Spain, who managed to balance 33 rocks in one stack.

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

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: 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.

Gardaí have sent a new file to the DPP in connection with the 1981 Stardust nightclub disaster.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Forty-eight people died in the fire in Dublin on St Valentine's Day. The police action follows a complaint made by a researcher concerning evidence that five of the victims were already dead before the alarm was raised about a fire in the seating area. A Garda spokesperson said they could not comment on the new file.

Littering and fly-tipping in a Cambridgeshire village has become so bad that a volunteer group was formed to tackle the problem. Since the start of the year they have collected more than 300 bags of rubbish. But the issue blights many parts of the county, so how are the mayoral candidates planning to clear up the problem?

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Tom Gosling, 34, from Sawtry, Cambridgeshire, created a litter-picking group in January after noticing what he called a "litter pandemic" in his village. The group now has dozens of members who regularly go out and clean up rubbish dumped in trees, bushes and on the roads. Mr Gosling said: "You go to these beautiful places within your own area and they are tarnished with litter. "I do get extremely frustrated where it feels a burden's been put on my shoulders to eradicate a fly-tip or litter." He believes more can be done at a political level to prevent littering and fly-tipping and protect the environment. All three candidates to be mayor of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority agreed that littering had become a problem, especially in rural areas. However, they disagree on the role of the mayor to tackle the issue. In alphabetical order, they set out their plans below. Nik Johnson, Labour "Tackling the scourge of littering can only be done collaboratively across the public and private sectors but all responsible duty bodies need to recognise their responsibilities as set out in the Environmental Protection Act 1990. "I will start with a particular focus on the roadsides of the major roads - A1, A10, A14, A47 - using FOI requests to clarify current litter prevention strategies while encouraging the innovative use of marking all disposable wrappers from drive-through restaurants to encourage personal responsibility for litter disposal. " James Palmer, Conservatives "Littering and fly-tipping in particular are a blight on rural counties like Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. "However, the responsibility for litter and fly-tipping lies with local authorities not the combined authority. The mayor may offer leadership in any campaign but does not have powers to directly control litter collection or responses to fly-tipping." Aidan Van de Weyer, Liberal Democrats "Littering makes people feel that the places they live in aren't cared for. Those who drop litter don't realise the effect of their carelessness. "So eye-catching signs and campaigns like Keep Britain Tidy can really help. We can do more to support community groups to look after their areas by providing equipment and collecting bagged litter quickly. Residents see that their neighbourhoods are valued and people who litter see the harm they do." A modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive. More information about these elections Who can I vote for in my area? Enter your postcode, or the name of your English council or Scottish or Welsh constituency to find out. Eg 'W1A 1AA' or 'Westminster' A special programme with all three candidates - called A Mayor for Cambridge and Peterborough - will be broadcast at 14:20 BST on Sunday on BBC One in the East. Related Internet Links Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a man died in a suspected stabbing.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: The man's body was found in Mayfair Gardens, Gateshead, after police were alerted by a member of the public at about about 14:30 BST on Wednesday. A Northumbria force spokesman said two men aged 20 and 21 remained in custody as inquiries continued. He added it was believed those involved were known to each other and there was "no wider threat to the public". Police appealed for witnesses who were in the Mayfair Gardens area to come forward. Related Internet Links Northumbria Police

Married actors Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig and fellow British star Rafe Spall were applauded by a star-studded audience at the opening night of their performance in the Broadway revival of Harold Pinter's play, Betrayal. Steven Spielberg and Bruce Springsteen were among those watching and tickets for the new adaptation are reportedly changing hands for thousands of dollars on the black market.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Pinter's 1978 play was inspired by the playwright's extramarital affair with BBC television presenter Joan Bakewell. Craig plays the cuckolded Robert, while Weisz is Emma, the wife who betrays him with his best friend (Spall). The play is directed by Mike Nichols. David Cote - The Guardian The compact, rugged Craig hasn't shrunken from years behind the camera: he projects himself fully and muscularly to the back stalls. Craig even enlivened vastly inferior material when last he was on the Great White Way, in the 2009 police melodrama A Steady Rain. And he's not emoting in a vacuum: Weisz and Spall have charisma to spare, not to mention keen sexual chemistry for their Kilburn flat trysts. So the design is lovely, the cast is appealing and the play itself, while of its time, is not essentially dated. It's simply that nobody gets the tone. Read the full review here Tom Teodorczuk - The Independent Although this production never catches its breath to reveal the slow-burning ashes of the past that the play usually makes vivid, knockout performances from both Craig and Weisz render it a Betrayal on fire. Nichols's crude and chaotic depiction of the love triangle is powerfully compelling theatre - enhanced, one feels, by the real-life frisson supplied by the onstage sparring of Weisz and Craig. Read the full review here Marilyn Stasio - Variety Anyone who shelled out the big bucks to see James Bond in the flesh will get more than they bargained for in Mike Nichols' impeccable revival of Betrayal. They'll be getting a powerful performance from Daniel Craig, a movie star who still has his stage legs. Rachel Weisz, Craig's wife in the real world, and Rafe Spall, both superb, claim much of the stage time as the adulterous lovers in this enigmatic 1978 play that Harold Pinter based on one of his own extramarital affairs. But it's the smouldering Craig, as the cuckolded husband, whose brooding presence is overpowering. Read the full review here Matt Wolf - The Telegraph Craig, who occupies the most explosive point on the play's libidinous triangle, easily comes off the best, playing Robert, the publisher whose wife, Emma (Weisz), is revealed to have had a seven-year affair with his great friend, Jerry (Spall), who was best man at the couple's wedding - a rather cartoonish best man on this evidence, given that Spall plays the gathering ache of the text largely for laughs. (There's also a hint that these Oxbridge contemporaries, plied with enough drink, might well become more than simply friends.) Across nine scenes and as many years, Pinter rewinds events to conclude with the telling physical act that launched the affair, a small yet impulsive gesture here replaced by the sight of Jerry and Emma all but devouring one another: overstatement where less would be more, and sexier, too. Read the full review here David Rooney - Hollywood Reporter Craig, last seen on Broadway opposite Hugh Jackman in 2009's A Steady Rain, showed his dynamic stage chops even in a mediocre play. With a jewel like this one, he's magnificent... watching Craig and Weisz - an offstage husband and wife - explore the unique capacity of a married couple for mutual cruelty adds another fascinating layer. In her Broadway debut, Weisz makes her character's pain incandescent. Her Emma is an unhappy beauty who can be emotionally transparent one minute, brittle and unreadable the next. The actress brings a deliberate stilted, somewhat tremulous quality to the performance that is perfect for Pinter; her line readings suggest Emma's awareness that any ill-chosen word might detonate a bomb. Like her male co-stars, Weisz leaves her character's motivations open to interpretation, which makes this production of Betrayal keep playing out in your head days after seeing it. Read the full review here Ben Brantley - New York Times This is a sexed-up Betrayal, which is not the same as a sexy Betrayal. All those contradictory, fleeting, haunting shades of thought that you expect to see playing on the features of Pinter's characters are nowhere in evidence. Instead, Robert, Emma and Jerry make up the rowdiest, most extroverted sexual triangle since Liza Minnelli, Burt Reynolds and Gene Hackman caterwauled their way through the ill-fated film Lucky Lady in 1975. And I can safely say that this production has the highest decibel level of any version I have encountered. I suppose you could conceivably argue, generously, that with volume comes clarification. Certainly, the abiding Neanderthal aspects of manhood - a subtext in Pinter's power plays - have seldom been more violently rendered than they are in Mr Craig's shouted fulminations, Mr Spall's flustered stammerings or even in Ms Weisz's good-ole-gal heartiness. But it does make it hard to believe that these people could ever possibly deceive one another, when their faces keep reading like large-print telegrams. Read the full review here Charles McNulty - Los Angeles Times One of the play's best scenes, set in an Italian restaurant in which Robert takes out his frustration on Jerry by blowing up at the waiter (Stephen DeRosa), strongly implies that Robert is more heartbroken over Jerry than Emma. Craig exposes the sadness beneath Robert's displaced anger while Spall throws into relief Jerry's self-protective bewilderment. Nichols takes risks with his interpretation but maintains the necessary ambiguity of the situation. His production would have been stronger, however, if he had allowed Weisz's Emma to play hardball with the boys. Kristin Scott Thomas would have given Craig and Spall a real match. But this Betrayal is a decidedly male affair, and Craig and Spall live up to the expectations that have surrounded this most anticipated production of the New York fall season. Whether the work justifies such exorbitant ticket prices is another story. Read the full review here Elysa Gardner - USA Today Too often, this Betrayal seems to make the same statement as its marketing campaign. We're reminded that we are watching great thea-tuh, staged by a prestigious company, rather than being titillated or moved by the longing and anguish and bile that courses through the play's triangle. Weisz's Emma can be earthy to the point of seeming blowsy, giggling and wiping her nose between sips of booze. Yet somehow the performance seems studied - that of an elegant actress showing us a cultured but tempestuous woman with her guard down. She has one wonderful, crushing scene with Craig, when Robert essentially shames his wife into a confession; cowering and crying out, Weisz conveys despair, rather than just projecting it. Craig is crisp and robust throughout, deftly illustrating Robert's capacity for menace, and he and Spall have some witty fun with the festering rivalry between the two buddies. But at length, their exchanges - while absorbing enough for those who enjoy watching educated Brits struggle with their feelings - never really draw blood. Read the full review here Richard Zoglan - Time Director Mike Nichols keeps the mood sombre and the pace deliberate, leaving plenty of room for those famous Pinter pauses. In truth, the mystery and menace are relatively muted for Pinter, and there's a certain safeness in hiring Nichols, Broadway's most bankable director, to direct a couple of movie stars in what is probably the playwright's most conventional and crowd-pleasing drama. Yet Craig and Weisz are excellent, Spall even better, and it's a sleek, taut and spellbinding evening. Read the full review here Thom Geier - Entertainment Weekly Director Mike Nichols' handsome, well-staged production is not your typical crowd-pleaser. Those seeking a more traditional star turn might want to scan the orchestra section before the curtain goes up. (The night I attended, the audience included Javier Bardem, Bette Midler, Glenn Close, and Oprah Winfrey.) Perhaps because Pinter's backwards structure forces him to seed each scene with clues to his puzzle-like plot, there's an off-putting guardedness to the main trio. They regard their emotions from a safe distance, as if with hands safely tucked into pockets. Unable to engage with each other, they may prove a challenge for audiences to embrace as well. Read the full review here

Thai military leader and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has named a cabinet featuring serving or former generals in more than one-third of positions.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: The military veterans will run key ministries including defence, justice, foreign affairs and commerce. On Monday Gen Prayuth was officially appointed prime minister following endorsement by the king. Gen Prayuth led a coup against an elected government in May, saying it was necessary to preserve stability. He was nominated for the post of prime minister earlier this month by a legislature hand-picked by the junta. He was the only candidate. He is meant to be an interim prime minister as the military plans to hold a general election in late 2015. But concerns have mounted that the military is seeking to strengthen its hold on the country. Prayuth Chan-ocha Prayuth Chan-ocha: Full profile

A teenager thought to have been the first victim of the Titanic has finally been given a headstone on his grave.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Samuel Scott, 15, fractured his skull whilst working on the ship in 1910. His body has since lain in an unmarked grave in Belfast City Cemetery. However, a new headstone was unveiled there on Saturday as part of the Feile an Phobail festival. A new children's book, Spirit Of The Titanic, used the teenager as its main character. The book, published earlier this year, follows the boy's ghost as it haunts the decks of the ship during its voyage.

Three 24-hour Belfast bus lanes are to be scrapped.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: One of the three is the controversial lane beside Central Station, which will instead operate from 07:00 to 19:00 like most other bus lanes in the city. There were complaints about the camera operating 24 hours a day - even when buses are not running. Two other 24-hour cameras, on the Upper Newtownards Road and the Saintfield Road at Forestside, will also have their hours reduced. It comes after figures revealed more than 2,000 people have been fined for driving in Belfast's city centre bus lanes between the hours of 00:00 and 06:00. City centre buses do not run at night, with the latest one ending before midnight. Figures obtained from the Belfast Telegraph in a Freedom of Information request revealed 115 of these were fines issued on East Bridge Street and 2,090 fines issued on the Castle Street bus lane. Minister for Infrastructure Chris Hazzard asked for the matter to be reviewed. A Department for Infrastructure spokesperson said: "A review of all 24-hour bus lanes took place in March. "It recommended that three of the 24-hour bus lanes could be amended to 7am to 7pm, including East Bridge Street, Saintfield Road at Forestside and Upper Newtownards Road. "Legislation is currently being prepared to enable these changes to be made." Councillor Jim Rogers told BBC News NI he had been keen to see an end to 24-hour bus lanes. "When they were first introduced I couldn't believe it. Our buses and trains don't run 24 hours," he said. "I remember saying to the department 'What's the reason for this?' They could give me no answer. "Bus lanes are causing mayhem and driving people out of the city centre." Since June 2015, motorists who drive in the lanes have faced a £90 fine, which is reduced to £45 if paid within two weeks. There are more than 60 bus lanes across the city. Bus lanes were introduced as part of the On the Move traffic plan. Last year, Ciaran de Burca from the Department for Regional Develoment's transport projects division told Stormont MLAs that the scheme was not about making revenue. More than £500,000 was raised from fines between 22 June and 16 September 2015. He said he and his staff did not believe that they would raise this level of fines. Extra signs had been put up in efforts to reduce the number of drivers being caught out, he added.

As Cuba slowly opens up its economy to the rest of the world, more and more Cubans are learning English. The Cuban government has made proficiency in English a requirement for all high school and university students. As Will Grant reports from Havana, that approach differs from the Cold War, when Russian was the preferred foreign language.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: At the annual Havana Jazz Festival, the audience members, much like the music, were a mix of international and Cuban. Sitting on plastic chairs at the open-air venue, visitors from the United States, Europe and China mingled with local jazz aficionados. On stage, a saxophonist who lives in Denmark was reunited with some old Cuban friends. At such an international event, the common language is generally English. Many Cubans are already learning the language themselves, and if not, they are trying to make sure their children are. 'Nyet' to Russian Morning assembly at Jesus Suarez Gayol Secondary School on the outskirts of Havana begins with the school's anthem. The school is named after one of the guerrillas who fought alongside Ernesto "Che" Guevara but these teenagers are growing up in an increasingly different Cuba to the one Jesus Suarez did. For a start, a certain proficiency in English is now a requirement for all secondary school children and university graduates. During the Cold War, students could choose between learning English and Russian but Cuba's educational authorities told the BBC they now consider English a necessary skill for all of the nation's youth. "As an international language, English has always had a place in our curriculum," says Director of Secondary Education Zoe de la Red Iturria. "But we are now rolling out new techniques to evolve our learning of the English language," she adds. But language-teaching methods remain quite traditional, relying heavily on textbooks, parrot-fashion repetition and with only very limited Internet access. Olga Perez, national adviser for English teaching in Cuba, says the authorities are hoping to tackle that last issue. "It would be very good for us if we had the internet in the schools. And we hope that in the future, we'll not only have the internet, we're also dreaming of installing language laboratories in every school." And it is not just in the classrooms that English can be heard more frequently but on the streets of Havana, too. Making conversation In what was a record year for tourism to Cuba, many Cubans have tried to teach themselves English without the help of any formal classes. Darvis Luis sells second-hand books and posters to tourists. He says he learnt English entirely through computer games, music videos and rock songs. "I have to make conversation because I need to make money to eat," he says in easy-flowing, fast English. "I have to learn how to speak with them and I have to get better and better. I tell them a story because books aren't so easy to sell. So you have to make them believe in what you're saying." Resources for Anglophiles and budding English-language students like Darvis Luis are limited in Cuba. One place they can go is Cuba Libro, the island's only English-language bookstore. Nestled in the leafy Havana district of Vedado, it is the brainchild of US healthcare journalist and long-time Havana resident Conner Gorry. Ms Gorry says that after some initial misgivings, local residents "welcomed us with open arms" once they saw "the free cultural programming, high-quality literature and community outreach" on offer. "Literature is not subversive," she says. "A Cuban government-run publishing house just published George Orwell's 1984 and that's available in state-run bookstores." "With increased tourism and increased business connections to the wider world, the Cubans are encouraging people to learn English. So we've become a resource," she adds. In the past months, as well as the jazz festival, Havana has hosted the annual film festival and the international ballet festival. It is at events like these that the thaw in relations with the US seems clearer than ever. The decision by the Obama Administration and the Castro government to rebuild their diplomatic ties has undeniably brought Cubans and Americans closer together. It has also brought about some potentially lasting collaboration in science and the arts. There are people on both sides who fear those steps could soon be reversed, especially in light of comments made to that effect by President-elect Donald Trump. For now though, the young students at Jesus Suarez are just keen to keep improving their ability to communicate with the rest of the world.

The United Nations has called on Thailand to amend its harsh law against insulting the monarchy. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said it was deeply troubled by the high rate of prosecutions, and the disproportionate sentences for the offence.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Jonathan HeadBBC News, Bangkok The UN said that since the military coup in 2014 the number of people investigated for violating the lese-majeste laws has risen to more than double the number investigated in the previous 12 years, and that only 4% of those charged were acquitted. Trials are routinely held in closed session, often in military courts where defendants' rights are limited. Earlier this month a man was given a 35-year sentence for Facebook posts judged to have defamed the monarchy, the harshest penalty to date. Two years ago, a similarly harsh sentence was given to a woman in the northern city of Chiang Mai. On 7 August 2015, two military courts in Thailand handed down what were then the harshest sentences ever imposed under lese-majeste. In the first, a court in Bangkok sentenced a 48-year-old tour guide operator, Pongsak Sriboonpheng, to 60 years in prison, 10 years for each of the Facebook posts critical of the monarchy that he was charged with writing. Because he pleaded guilty the sentence was halved to 30 years. Pongsak acknowledged that he had become politicised during the prolonged political conflict which preceded the 2014 coup, and had often posted his views on Facebook. But the second case, in Chiang Mai, was baffling. A 29-year-old single mother, with no history of political involvement, was sentenced by a military court to 56 years in jail, also for posting anti-monarchy content on Facebook. Her sentence, too, was halved after she agreed to plead guilty. She had begged for leniency, given the ages of her two young daughters, and her mother's poor health. The tribunal was unmoved. Her name is Sasiwimon, and her story illustrates the sweeping scope of the lese majeste laws, deployed by a military government which has made defending the monarchy's exalted status in Thailand its highest priority. Facebook revenge gone wrong The regime at the Chiang Mai Women's Prison is relaxed enough to allow frequent family visits. But Sasiwimon's mother, Suchin, can rarely break away from her job as a cleaner in a hotel, and the two girls are in school most days. At best they can go every week or two. It takes up to two hours to get inside the prison, through the paperwork and security searches. Sasiwimon was brought out to meet us, in her loose blue prison dress, holding her arms out to the girls. For the hour we were allowed to stay, she did not let go of them. She had been married to a mechanic, she explained, but he had left her for another woman. A friend she had made during a previous job in a restaurant had suggested to Sasiwimon a way to get back at the woman, by using a fake Facebook account. She says the friend came back to her home, and used her computer to set up the account. Sasiwimon only found out what kind of comments the she was leaving on the fake Facebook page when she was sent screenshots of them a few days later. That friend has since disappeared, she says. Ultra-royalist activist At around the same time Krit Yeammaethakorn, who leads a group of ultra-royalists in Chiang Mai that monitors social media for anti-monarchy content, spotted the offending Facebook page. "I was angry," he recalls. "This was not about politics. It was a natural reaction. We discussed what we had seen among ourselves, and decided that we had to act." Mr Krit has strong feelings about the monarchy. He sobbed openly when he remembered hearing of the death of King Bhumibol last year. "I know we are the only country in the world that still treats kings like gods, like demigods. Yet our late king was not just a god - he was a living deity. "That's how Thais feel toward him. I believe that in 5,000 years of world history, there has been no other king who was as great as he was." On 27 September 2014, Mr Krit's group informed the Chiang Mai police, whose investigations eventually traced the Facebook page to Sasiwimon's computer. Sasiwimon remembers the police coming to the house early in the morning a few days later. They confiscated her computer and two mobile phones. She accompanied them to the station, with her youngest daughter, who was running a high temperature. The police showed her some of the comments from the Facebook page, and asked her to sign a document acknowledging that she had seen them. She says she did not understand that she was in fact signing a confession. She and her mother say they knew nothing about the lese majeste laws. Sasiwimon says she had an alibi for the times the posts were published on Facebook; that she had been at work, in the hotel where her mother is also employed, and that she had no internet access there. Martial law, no appeal Four months later, Sasiwimon was asked to come back to the police station. She has been in custody ever since. "I thought she was going to show up and then leave," Suchin told me. "I had no idea it was going to be this severe. I thought it might be a one-year sentence, maybe suspended. We never sold drugs. We never killed anyone, or stole anything. "We learned about this law when it was too late. I didn't even have time to come to terms with the fact that my child would be gone." Typically for a lese majeste case, she was refused bail. When her trial date finally arrived after five months, on 7 August 2015, her lawyer advised her that she had little chance of acquittal, and should change her plea to guilty to reduce the sentence. The charges were read out in a closed session, because the alleged offences were deemed too sensitive for the public to hear. And because she pleaded guilty the evidence against her was never tested. "When the verdict was read, my ears were ringing," recalls Suchin. "They said this offence insulted the high institution, so it carried a high penalty. I didn't know how high. I thought ultimately it might be four to five years, but I never thought for a second it would go that high. More than 20 years… I didn't even think about 10 years." In a military court, under martial law, there was no right of appeal. In their small rented house in Chiang Mai, the tatty calendar on the wall has been left with the front page at August 2015, the 7th ringed, and also the 28th. I asked Suchin why. She said that while her eldest granddaughter had understood the sentence, the youngest, who was then seven years old, had thought it meant her mother would be coming out on 28th August. There are also faded pictures of the royal family on the walls. "No-one in this family has ever insulted or defamed the monarchy. Never," she said. Hopes for a pardon When he informed the police about the Facebook posts, Mr Krit had not known who was responsible for them. Would he do the same again, knowing that a young mother of two girls would get such a long sentence? "I don't regret it and no-one else does. This is an issue affecting the highest institution, for which Thais have the utmost respect," he told me. "It's like when a judge hands down a sentence but he still manages to remain unattached emotionally. "Although the culprit was young, she didn't understand the law, and has two young children, the right thing is… even if we had not filed a complaint, the law had to deal with her. The offender had to be punished." Mr Krit has not inquired about Sasiwimon's situation now, but hopes she will get a pardon. And perhaps there is some official acknowledgement that the sentence against her was too harsh, as she has already had her sentence reduced, in two royal pardons, to 12 years. This still means her daughters will have grown up by the time she leaves prison. But she remains hopeful of further pardons, although embarrassed, she says, that she has to ask for mercy from the very institution she is accused of insulting.

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" is an 18th Century trumpet call for free speech, one often repeated by parliamentarians around the world… but never in China.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Carrie GracieChina editor@BBCCarrieon Twitter The message from Beijing to its unruly territory 2,000km (1,350 miles) south is, by contrast, "we disapprove of what you say and we hereby decree that you have no right to say it". China has now spoken on the question of whether elected members of Hong Kong's legislature can use that public platform to campaign for ideas offensive to China and the answer is a resounding no. In a unanimous decision by a panel of the Communist Party-controlled national parliament, Hong Kong has been reminded that the freedoms it enjoys are ultimately at the whim of Beijing. Today's "interpretation" of Hong Kong's mini-constitution is one of the most significant interventions in Hong Kong's legal system in two decades of Chinese rule. It is the first time China's parliament, without the request of either the Hong Kong government or Court of Final Appeal, has interpreted the mini-constitution at a time when the issue is under active consideration in a Hong Kong court. Why didn't China's politicians wait till after a court ruling on whether two legislators might be allowed to retake their oaths? Li Fei, the chairman of the Basic Law Committee of China's parliament, made the logic clear when he said the Chinese government "is determined to firmly confront the pro-independence forces without any ambiguity". The interpretation is a highly confrontational move which plunges Hong Kong into a new phase of its long running political and constitutional crisis. But Beijing's move comes in response to an equally confrontational move from the other side. The two lawmakers, Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching, who used their swearing-in ceremony to insult China and talk of a "Hong Kong nation" should have known that a Chinese government so sensitive to questions of national pride and dignity would feel it had no choice but to act. It was no surprise when China's parliament said their words and actions had "posed a grave threat to national sovereignty and security", with Li Fei adding: "The central government's attitude is absolute. There will be no leniency." A price worth paying The scope of Monday's interpretation will raise inevitable questions about whether China is interpreting Hong Kong law, which is allowed, or re-writing it, which is not. And apart from disqualifying the two young legislators at the heart of the crisis, it will raise a raft of questions about the way in which some of the other newly elected young democracy activists took their oaths. For example, does reciting the oath in slow motion or using eccentric intonation contravene the interpretation's insistence on "genuine" sincerity and solemnity? Who will decide? And if Beijing doesn't like the decision of a Hong Kong court, what will it do next? For that matter, where does Beijing's intervention leave the ongoing review of the oath taking question in Hong Kong's courts? The Hong Kong Bar Association warned in advance that an interpretation of the Basic Law by the Chinese parliament at this moment would be a severe blow to the territory's judicial independence. On Tuesday it plans a silent protest, yet another worry for police after Sunday's tense standoff with thousands of protesters outside a Chinese government office in Hong Kong. But for Beijing, all these problems are small ones. Its bottom line is that a handful of perceived troublemakers in a city of 7m people cannot be allowed to trump the needs of a Chinese nation of 1.3bn. A row over judicial independence, a constitutional crisis even, is a price China's leaders are prepared to pay to get the independence genie back in the bottle. Beijing sees any talk of independence as threatening Chinese sovereignty. Separatism is a crime and in Tibet or Xinjiang, campaigning for independence results in a lengthy jail term. When the leader of Taiwan's China friendly opposition party Hung Hsiu-chu visited Beijing last week, Taiwanese press reported Chinese President Xi Jinping as telling her that the Chinese Communist Party "would be overthrown by the people if it failed to properly deal with Taiwanese pro-independence". Fuelling the fire? Mr Xi knows that his credibility and that of the party will suffer if "the people" see an independence movement take hold among Chinese citizens in Hong Kong. In this context, to allow elected members of Hong Kong's legislature to use the public platform of the Legislative Council to insult China and talk of a Hong Kong nation is unthinkable. Two worldviews collide here. One in which Chinese identity trumps all others and where Mr Xi's "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation" requires all compatriots to unite under one flag. The other worldview, shared by many young people in Hong Kong and Taiwan, is that democratic freedoms trump all else, including Chinese citizenship. If they can't have meaningful democracy under Chinese rule, then this constituency conclude that perhaps they should do without Chinese rule. These worldviews are simply not compatible. Worse, every time Beijing uses the stick rather than the carrot to bring Hong Kong to heel, it alienates young voters further. Until this year hardly anyone in Hong Kong talked of self-determination or independence, but now such ideas are gaining currency. As Beijing's interpretation of the law disqualifies their elected representatives, the question for Hong Kong's young democracy activists is whether they can capitalise on popular indignation, and where to take their defiance next.

Firefighters have extinguished a house fire on Anglesey which they say had spread to a neighbouring property.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: North Wales Fire and Rescue Service was called to Capel Coch, near Llangefni, at 05:50 BST on Wednesday. Crews from Benllech, Llangefni, Menai Bridge and Rhosneigr, and an incident command unit from Rhyl were called to the blaze at the terraced properties. A spokesperson said the fire, caused by an electrical fault, affected the house's kitchen, storeroom and roof. The blaze also damaged the roof space of the neighbouring property. There were no injuries, said the spokesperson.

China's newly-retired president, Hu Jintao, will probably never write a gossipy bestseller chronicling his time in Beijing. And the country's outgoing premier, Wen Jiabao, isn't expected to embark on a lucrative speaking tour once he leaves office.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Celia HattonBBC News, Beijing Top politicians from other countries often engage in charitable or diplomatic work when they retire. But in China, there's an unspoken rule that Chinese leaders should step out of the public spotlight when they step down from office. The very concept of retirement is relatively new in the world of Communist politics. For decades, cadres were expected to follow an old party slogan by "working for the revolution with their last breath and last drop of blood". In 2002, then-President Jiang Zemin tried to clear the ranks at the top of the party by instituting retirement age limits: 68 for top leaders and 65 for senior level officials. That rule has been followed with varying degrees of success. Mr Jiang himself delayed his own retirement. He stayed on as the chairman of China's military for two years until 2004 after relinquishing his other positions to his successor, Hu Jintao. Just this week, the governor of China's Central Bank, Zhou Xiaochuan was allowed to remain in his role past the age of 65. It's thought that Chinese leaders wanted Mr Zhou to continue his successful economic reforms, so they bent the rules to allow him to stay. 'Meddling' The decision was unpopular with users of weibo, China's version of Twitter. "Zhou is not a saviour, and he's not God!" one typical poster complained. "New talents emerge in every generation, and it's the rule of nature to replace the old with the new." Many Chinese citizens have also been clear in their demand for former Communist cadres to stop meddling in current affairs. "The last thing we want is to see retired leaders using their political power to serve their private needs behind the scenes, intervening with reform and social progress," says Wu Zuolai, a popular blogger and scholar at the Chinese National Academy of the Arts. Those demanding a clear line between current and former leaders focus most of their anger on - who else? - former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin. According to China's state-run media, Mr Jiang vowed to do nothing but work as a university lecturer after retirement. Instead, he became famous for his active role in back-room party politics. Last year was a particularly busy one for Mr Jiang, 86, as he pushed to secure plum appointments for his protégés ahead of last November's Communist Party leadership transition. Mr Jiang's office inside Zhongnanhai, the central Beijing compound where the country's elite politicians live and work, was only closed late last year, after China's new Communist Party leader Xi Jinping had come into power. Some believe retired leaders have no choice but to stay involved in politics because they must ensure the party will not prosecute them for past misdeeds. However, there is little chance this would actually happen, says Steve Tsang, professor at the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham. If possible, the Communist Party would avoid opening a Pandora's Box of unnecessary strife by attacking a politician who is no longer in power. 'Controlling history' Some ageing leaders might yearn to retire in peace, but they are pushed to stay involved in political affairs by those who benefit from their influence. Even if Hu Jintao wanted to enjoy a life of peaceful seclusion in retirement, Steve Tsang explains, the officials who followed him up the ranks of China's Communist Youth League will push him to stay involved ahead of the next party power transition in 2017. "Those people will have a vested interest to make sure Hu Jintao is not completely out and won't fade into retirement fully," Dr Tsang says. "They want to be sure that the Youth League remains a fully coherent power block." Behind the scenes, retired leaders are busy but one rule is clear: they are expected to stay away from the country's history books. Some politicians might be tempted to write memoirs of their time in office, but the Communist Party will discourage their personal accounts from entering the public record. "You're not going to get it published unless it has received official permission for publication, which means it will be very, very heavily vetted," says Dr Tsang. Even the most senior former leaders cannot escape China's censors. Li Peng, who acted as China's premier from 1987 to 1998, is thought to have written a relatively conservative explanation of his involvement in 1989's Tiananmen Square crackdown. However, it was banned from publication. Another former premier, Zhao Ziyang, was forced to smuggle his account of the Tiananmen events to a publishing house in Hong Kong. "History is far too important a matter to be left to former presidents or former premiers," Mr Tsang explains. "History is something which the party must maintain very careful control over. After all, the party has a monopoly on the truth. Controlling history is a way of monopolising the truth." As former leaders feel their way through the gilded cage of retirement, they can gather strength in the knowledge that soon, their ranks will swell. Five of the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the elite group which steers the Communist Party, are set to step down in 2017. Perhaps, by that point, Zhou Xiaochuan, the industrious bank governor, will be ready to greet them.

The Chinese region of Xinjiang is home to millions of ethnic Muslim Uighurs who have lived there for decades. Rights groups say hundreds of thousands have been detained in camps without trial, but China argues they voluntarily attend centres which combat "extremism". The BBC went inside one of them.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By John Sudworth BBC News, Xinjiang I'd been to the camps before. But the closest I'd managed to get on previous visits were snatched glimpses of the barbed wire and watchtowers from a passing car, while the plainclothes police officers tailing us tried to stop us getting any closer. Now I was being invited inside. The risks of accepting were obvious. We were being taken into places that appeared to have been carefully spruced up - with satellite images revealing that much of the security infrastructure had recently been removed. And one by one the people we spoke to inside, some of them visibly nervous, told us similar stories. All of them members of Xinjiang's largest, mainly Muslim ethnic group - the Uighurs - they said they'd been "infected by extremism" and that they'd volunteered to have their "thoughts transformed". This was China's narrative in the mouths of people selected for us, and for whom any cross-examination might pose a serious risk. What might be the consequences if they did let something slip? How could we safely separate the propaganda from the reality? Radicalised and reborn There are plenty of precedents for this kind of reporting dilemma. There was the heavily managed 2004 press tour of the US-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, in the wake of the abuse scandal, with reporters herded away from detainees clamouring to have their voices heard, some while waving their prosthetic legs. Or there's the example of the rare and restricted media access to Australia's offshore immigration detention centres. And in the 1930s and 1940s, Germany organised media trips to camps at Sonnenburg and Theresienstadt, designed to demonstrate how "humane" they were. In all such cases, the reporter is witness to a story of vital global importance, but forced to try to tell it with only limited or highly controlled access to those most affected by it. In Xinjiang though, there is one big difference. The authorities grant access not only to show that the conditions inside the facilities are good, they also want to prove that they are not prisons at all. We were shown adults seated in rows at school desks in brightly lit classrooms, chanting in unison while learning Chinese. Some performed highly staged and choreographed music and dance routines for us, wearing traditional ethnic costumes, whirling around their desks, smiles fixed in place. And what was quite clear was that the Chinese officials accompanying us believed wholeheartedly in the narrative on display, some almost moved to tears as they looked on. These people, we were urged to recognise, were reborn. Once dangerously radicalised and full of hatred for the Chinese government, they were now safely back on the road to reform thanks to the timely, benevolent intervention of that same government. The West could learn a lot from this was the message. Referring to the date the re-education policy began, one senior official looked me sternly in the eye. "There has not been a single terror attack in Xinjiang in 32 months," he said. "This is our patriotic duty." 'Oh my heart don't break' But in accepting the access, our job was to try to peer beneath the official messaging and hold it up to as much scrutiny as we could. There were the bits of graffiti we filmed, written in Uighur, that we later had translated. "Oh my heart don't break," read one. Another in Chinese said simply: "Step by step." There were the answers, in extended interviews with the officials, that revealed much about the nature of the system. Those in it were "almost criminals," they said, viewed as a threat not because they'd committed a crime, but because they might have the potential to do so. And there was the admission that, once identified as having extremist tendencies, they were given a choice - but not much of one. The option was "of choosing between a judicial hearing or education in the de-extremification facilities". "Most people choose to study," we were told. Little wonder, given the odds of a fair trial. And we know, from other sources, that the definition of extremism is now drawn very widely indeed - having a long beard for example, or simply contacting relatives overseas. We saw the dormitories in which these "extremists" slept, up to 10 per room, in bunk beds and with a toilet at one end, shielded with only a thin sheet of fabric. And then there was the cautious questioning that revealed much, not in what they could say, but what they couldn't. I asked one man, who'd been there for eight months already, how many people he'd seen "graduate" in that time. There was a slight pause before he answered. "About that, I have no idea," he said. Just one voice from within a giant system of mass internment thought to hold more than a million people on the basis of their ethnicity and their faith. However faint and muted, we should listen carefully to what such voices might be telling us.

India's federal government detained thousands of people ahead of a controversial move to strip the state of Jammu and Kashmir of its semi-autonomous status on 5 August 2019. One year later, many of them have been charged with serious offences and are still languishing in jails across India. BBC Hindi's Majid Jahangir reports.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Tasleema Wani and her family were fast asleep on the night of 6 August when there was a loud banging on the door. It was the day after the Indian government in Delhi stunned the country by revoking a constitutional provision that gave Jammu and Kashmir special powers. The decision split the part of the disputed region that India administers into two federal territories, and saw an unprecedented curfew and communications lockdown imposed. "It was a team of joint security forces from the army and police and they were screaming for us to open the door. It was terrifying," Ms Wani said. "They sent me inside, and took both my sons outside to the lawn and questioned them for about 15 minutes. Then they left." But they later came back and asked her elder son, 19-year-old Nadeem, to show them the way to a neighbour's house. That was the last time Ms Wani saw him. He was taken to a police station, detained and eventually transferred to a jail in Uttar Pradesh state, more than 1,000km (620 miles) away. In an official dossier, which the BBC has seen, police have accused Nadeem Wani of being an "Over Ground Worker". Such "OGWs" are defined by security forces as non-combatant members of armed rebel groups, usually tasked with logistics. He has also been charged with other offences, including putting up posters asking people not to participate in the 2014 elections - he was 15 at the time. "I know my son. He is not a militant and never took part in any unlawful activity. I appeal to the government to please release him," Ms Wani pleaded. Her husband, Mohammad Ashraf Wani, has only seen Nadeem once in the entire year that he has been in jail. Nadeem is among thousands of Kashmiris who were detained in a massive security operation that began in the region just before 5 August and continued for weeks after. Politicians, businesspeople, lawyers, activists and others with alleged links to protests or militant groups were detained, imprisoned or placed under house arrest. Three former chief ministers were among those who were detained - one of them is still under house arrest. Despite strident criticism in India and abroad, the government insisted that the arrests were necessary to maintain law and order in the region, which has seen increased militancy in recent years. Many, including Nadeem, have been detained under the controversial Public Safety Act (PSA), which among other things, allows detention without formal charge for up to two years. It's unclear exactly how many Kashmiris have been detained or jailed as part of this crackdown. On 20 November 2019, the government told parliament that they had made 5,161 preventive arrests since 4 August that year. But it's unclear how many of them have been charged under the PSA and how many are still in jail. Court records obtained by a civil organisation made up of parents of "disappeared" Kashmiris show that as many as 662 petitions challenging detentions under the PSA were registered in 2019. The majority of those, 412, were filed after 5 August. The BBC asked Kashmir Inspector General of Police (IGP) Vijay Kumar for information on the arrests but he said he could not share "such sensitive data". Rights activists have alleged that these arrests and detentions are aimed at creating fear. "The arrests were to silence the people. Many were booked under PSA. Some were released. And fear was created. The government wanted to ensure that no-one would come out of their homes and protest against the new law," said Srinagar-based rights activist Parvaiz Imroz. Srinagar-based journalist and political commentator Haroon Reshi agrees. "August 5th was a big event and the state knew it could trigger public resentment. The state didn't want to hear reactionary voices," he said. Meanwhile, those who have been released have spoken of the ordeal of detention. Qamar Zaman Qazi, editor of regional online news portal The Kashmiryat, was detained days after being summoned to "explain" some tweets. In the days before 5 August, the region had seen a massive military build-up. Until then the government had given no indication of what was to come, and the entire operation had been kept a closely-guarded secret. Mr Qazi's tweets on 26 July - talking about additional troop movements - were noticed by local police who summoned him to the station the next day and detained him. On 8 August, he was transferred to the central jail in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir. "We were stripped naked there. Initially, we tried to resist but we couldn't," he said. There, Mr Qazi added, he was told he was being charged under the PSA He was transferred to Bareilly central jail in Uttar Pradesh state. "As they put us in the military aircraft, we started singing Urdu poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz's anthem of resistance, Hum Dekhenge (We shall bear witness)." With no information about where he was being held, Mr Qazi's family visited four prisons in the state looking for him. It took them 52 days to find him - and when they did, he was still wearing the shirt he had been wearing when he went to the police station. At his home, after he was released following the revocation of his detention order by a district magistrate, he showed me the T-shirt, ragged and torn, with 119 holes in it. "The worst thing was that I wasn't given a paper and pen inside my cell despite several requests. I wanted to record the agonies and pain I went through for nine months," he said. Earlier this week, Mr Qazi was detained again because of a story he wrote - authorities have told his family to apply for bail after 6 August, when the curfew imposed on Monday will be lifted. Across the state thousands of worried families are still fretting about the safety of their loved ones, particularly in the wake of the pandemic. Among them is the mother of Waseem Ahmad Sheikh, who has been in jail since he presented himself at a police station on 8 August 2019 - one day after security forces came looking for him in the middle of the night. He is accused of helping militants and throwing stones at security forces. Waseem was also flown to a jail in faraway Uttar Pradesh, and his family has not been able to seen him since then. His mother, Sara Begum, said she was terrified that Covid-19 would either kill him or her before they are reunited. "We want to die together. I haven't seen my beloved son for the last 11 months," she said, sobbing. "I appeal to the government to at least shift him to a jail in Kashmir even if they don't want to release him." Read more on Kashmir:

Police have imposed a 48-hour dispersal order on a Gwynedd town in a bid to curb anti-social behaviour.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: North Wales Police called on parents in Caernarfon to "think very carefully about where your children are". The force said the order was in place all weekend "to target groups of youths behaving in an unacceptable anti-social manner in the town". It comes a week after an incident prompted a fast food shop to ban young people unless accompanied by an adult. The order means that the police can ask a group of two or more people to move on.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the body of a 56-year-old man was found in Stoke-on-Trent.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Staffordshire Police said they were called to an address in Maud Street, Fenton at about 12:00 GMT on Sunday, where the body was discovered. The death is being treated as suspicious and a post-mortem examination is due to take place. The arrested 48-year-old man, from Stoke-on-Trent, remains in custody for questioning. The address was cordoned off while a forensic examination was carried out. Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, and sign up for local news updates direct to your phone

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

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

A 16-year-old boy has appeared before magistrates charged with the murder of a 50-year-old man.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: The victim suffered a head injury in Week Street in Maidstone, Kent, on Friday night. He later died in hospital. The teenager, from Maidstone, was remanded in custody, and will next appear at Maidstone Crown Court on Wednesday. Three other teenagers who were also arrested have been released on bail. Related Internet Links HM Courts & Tribunals Service

Stuck at home, irritable, and a little bit bored during lockdown - and that's just the parents. Many have felt the need to buy big Lego sets and 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles to keep themselves entertained.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Kevin PeacheyPersonal finance reporter Their children, on the other hand, have had a whale of a time playing outside in the glorious weather. Retro stationary tennis game Swingball has bounced into the top 10 toy bestsellers during the coronavirus restrictions. While many families do not have the luxury of outdoor space at home, one psychologist says the experience of playing games together may be one good outcome from the national crisis. Bored of board games? Lockdown has proved to be a mixed blessing for the UK toy sector. Toy retailers, like the rest of the High Street, have been shut and struggling. Gary Grant, boss of one of the biggest toy sellers in the UK, The Entertainer, says that the business would have folded without the government's financial support, and is still fighting for survival. Yet the value of UK toy sales rose by 17% in the two months from the beginning of lockdown compared with the same period last year, according to analysts NPD. That's because parents and children in the UK have actually been buying fewer toys, but spending more on those they have bought during lockdown. The average amount spent on a toy or game has risen from £8.07 to £9.65, NPD data shows. Initially, the big sellers were games and puzzles "to keep the kids occupied while parents were working", according to Frederique Tutt, global toy industry expert at NPD. They remain the biggest success story, with sales up 43% in value in the first half of this year compared with the first six months of 2019. Monopoly and Dobble are among the 10 biggest-selling toys and games during lockdown. Then the month of May - the sunniest calendar month on record in the UK - prompted demand for outdoor toys, which recorded a 31% increase over the same period. Sand and waterslides flew off the virtual shelves. It was a different story in continental Europe where, despite similarly good weather, tighter restrictions and less of an online market meant parents saved their toy spending until the shops reopened. In the UK, children - unable to visit the toy shop - have kept their pocket money tucked away too. The amount spent on collectable toys, the big hit of recent years, has collapsed by nearly a third (29%) since the start of the year. Impulse buying evaporated, and that was bad news for Gary Grant, long-time advocate of the physical toy shop. Even the sale of 300 tonnes of play sand in eight weeks could not make up for lost revenue. He describes the last three months as "traumatic". The vast majority of his 2,000 members of staff have been furloughed and he had to overhaul the business's online operation and warehouses within days. All attention is now on the shops reopening in England on Monday and later in other parts of the UK, and making them a safe place to visit. "We want children to run around our shops. They are toy shops. But at the moment, they can't, because it has to be safe for customers and staff," he says. Reopening has to work for the future of town centres, he says. The government lifelines of providing state-paid wages, business rate breaks, and support loans will end eventually. "We cannot afford to have a second wave [of the virus]," he says. "We might not survive that." For now, he is appealing to the public to visit shops again, but sensibly. "Do not turn your back on the High Street, otherwise the High Street will be dead. Retailers like the food shops stepped up [during lockdown], we need to back them up," he says. The analysts' predictions will not all make happy reading for him. Consumer surveys by NPD suggest shoppers are cautious about heading back to stores. Four out of five of those asked said they would research toys online before buying them. Click and collect, free delivery, and in-store fast lanes at tills are all high on consumers' wish lists. The silver lining for shops is that, despite the inevitable economic pain ahead, Christmas in the toy sector has usually been resilient to stretched household budgets. The last thing to sacrifice, it seems, is the kids' presents, especially when grandparents are able to step in to help pay for them. Quality time The sector can also comfort itself in the knowledge that, according to one psychologist, play has helped families get through the anxieties created by the coronavirus outbreak. "Playing is a great distraction, and families communicate better when they are doing something together," says Dr Amanda Gummer, founder of the Good Play Guide. She says that there are inequalities over space at home, and how much money can be spent, but play is a great leveller. "You can still make a great den with pillows and a duvet," she says. The long-term effects of lockdown may also be positive. Children have had to learn about boredom and how to entertain themselves, to know when to be energetic or quiet, she says. That might not mirror every parent's experience, but she says they too may have recognised the benefits of a slower pace of life, taking time to smell the roses or do a scavenger hunt with their children. If all that fails, they could just go back to that unfinished jigsaw.

Last week I developed a high temperature and aching body.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Kirsty GrantNewsbeat reporter Because a fever is one of the main Covid-19 symptoms, I followed government advice which tells people who think they have it to isolate for seven days. I live with my parents and one of my brothers, who all had to stay home for fourteen days, like the government advises. To minimise contact as much as possible, I used one of the two bathrooms in our house and stayed in my bedroom the rest of the time. They brought food to my door and left it. I took it into my room when they'd gone again. The feeling of coming out of that room after seven days was one of the strangest things I've felt in a long time. As you might imagine, going to the kitchen to make a cup of tea after all that time alone felt like a liberating experience. But, after the novelty of a change of scene wore off, I realised I had no idea how to make sure I wasn't still spreading germs. So, in the move from "self-isolating" in my room to "social distancing" in the house, I had a lot of questions about how I best keep myself and my family safe. Do I need to deep clean the room I isolated in? After staring at the same four walls for a week, spending more time in the room you isolated in is probably the last thing you want to do. But you've been touching things in there, while potentially ill, and that room needs to be cleaned. "Viruses are actually fairly delicate bits of material, so they don't survive very long", Alex Akin, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, tells Radio 1 Newsbeat. He says using soapy water or any kind of detergent to wipe down surfaces in the room you've been isolating in is enough to kill droplets of any virus. I was ill, but like lots of people, I'm still not sure whether I had Covid-19 or not. NHS advice says to self isolate even if you have mild symptoms, so to be on the safe side, assume you did. Can I throw my laundry in the wash with other people's? After almost pulling a muscle changing my bed sheets, I asked Alex whether that was necessary for the deep clean. His short answer - no. "You could wash the bedding, and any washing machine will be fine for cleaning it, but fabrics aren't the most likely place to have viruses on," he says. Although for general hygiene reasons, after seven days, they were due a wash anyway. The same goes for what I was wearing in my sick bed - and I was worried about throwing that in with my family's next wash. "It's fine to wash with someone else's clothes. There's no risk of cross contamination in a washing machine," says Alex. "You don't need to leave your clothes for any period of time before you wash them and the normal detergents in a British washing machine will easily deal with any amount of virus." He emphasised that the areas you should focus most on cleaning are "smooth, flat, smooth plastic or metal surfaces". What about washing myself? We're only allowed to travel if it's considered "essential" and we can't socialise with friends - leaving us without much to do. But you'll still want to clean yourself up after coming out of isolation. It'll give you something to do and make sure any last germs are completely washed off. "I don't think it needs more than that. Going to be with your family or housemates after a good shower will be fine," says Alex. If I'm still unwell after seven days, what do I do? The idea is that after seven days of isolation you should feel better. If you don't, the NHS advice is to contact 111 online. The government website says: "The cough may persist for several weeks in some people, despite the coronavirus infection having cleared. "A persistent cough alone does not mean someone must continue to self-isolate for more than 7 days." Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

Nancy Pelosi has made headlines once more after securing a fourth term as Speaker of the House of Representatives. It marks a new chapter in her nearly 50-year political career with the Democrats - and perhaps her greatest challenge yet.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: With Kamala Harris about to be the country's first female vice-president, Pelosi can no longer claim the mantle of most powerful woman in US politics. But the 80-year-old will play a critical role in advancing the agenda of the new president. That means there's no time to dwell on her personal disappointment over November's election - she takes charge of a shrinking majority in the lower chamber. And on Sunday, she was only narrowly re-elected as Speaker, following defections from a handful of Democrat colleagues. Instead, her coming term must demonstrate all the Pelosi qualities that both rally her supporters and alienate her many detractors. Her legislative acumen, her ability to keep a restless party united when it matters and her instinct for political theatre (more on that sarcastic clap later). Raised in a political family Republicans have typically painted Ms Pelosi as a "San Francisco liberal" enamoured with big government and far to the left on social issues. But her roots are from a more practical style of politics on the other side of the continent. She grew up in a political family, youngest of seven children in the gritty East Coast city of Baltimore, Maryland, where her father was mayor. She went to college in nearby Washington where she met and eventually married financier Paul Pelosi. They first moved to Manhattan, and then San Francisco, where Ms Pelosi started as a housewife. She had five children - four daughters and a son - in the space of six years. The start of something big In 1976 she became involved in politics, using her old family connections to help California Governor Jerry Brown win the Maryland primary as he ran for president. She then rose through the state's Democratic Party ranks, eventually becoming its chair and then winning a seat in Congress in 1988. In the House she worked her way up again. Because she represented a portion of the city with a large gay community, she made increasing Aids research funding a priority. In 2001, she ran for House minority whip, which is vote-counter and second in command of the party in the House, and won a narrow victory. The next year she moved up to minority leader, which means leading the party in the House but in opposition. Reaching the top She was one of the highest-profile, most outspoken opponents of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. This stand was vindicated and paid dividends in 2006 when the Democrats took control of the House for the first time in 12 years. She was elected by her party to be Speaker of the House, becoming the first woman in that role in US history. Four years later, Democrats lost control of the lower chamber of Congress. Despite the setback Ms Pelosi defeated several challenges within her own ranks, to take the gavel once more at the helm of a resurgent party in 2018. What does a Speaker do? Speaker of the House is the one congressional job detailed in the US Constitution. It is second in line for the presidency, behind only the vice-president. Its massive office, in the Capitol rotunda, reflects the prestige of the job, with its own balcony looking out toward the Washington Monument. The majority party in the House has virtually unfettered control over the legislative process. The speaker and her deputies and committee chairs determine what bills are considered and voted on. They set the agenda and decide the rules governing debate. If a speaker can keep her majority in line, the legislative process in the House can purr like a well-tuned machine. From 2009 to 2011, Pelosi's chamber enacted an $840bn stimulus package in the aftermath of the 2008 economic collapse. She also pushed hard to get the Affordable Care Act, which became the defining battle of the Barack Obama presidency, through the House and on to the president's desk. Pelosi's biggest moment She faced very different circumstances when she returned to the speaker's chair in 2018. By then she was a lightning rod for Republican anger - in their eyes, representing the coastal elites pushing a big-spending, radical platform. During the 2018 midterms campaign, Republican incumbent David Brat mentioned Nancy Pelosi and her "liberal agenda" 21 times in one debate. The move backfired for him - and his party - as Democrats swept to a historic win in the House. But this time she had President Donald Trump as well as the wily Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as obstacles. So any bills her party got through the House didn't go any further. In viral terms, her big moment was her sarcastic #PelosiClap during Trump's State of the Union speech a month after she took office. It still lives on as a popular gif. Most controversially 12 months later, she ripped up Trump's speech in front of the TV cameras. Accused of disrespect, she later defended the move, calling his words a "manifesto of mistruths". Taking on Trump Pelosi was initially reluctant to lead only the third impeachment of a US president. But as more emerged in 2019 of Trump's dealings with Ukraine she eventually said it was an abuse of power that could not be ignored. He was accused of pressing Ukraine to dig up damaging information on Joe Biden, and using military aid as leverage but was acquitted in the Republican-controlled Senate. Some of those in her own party who were openly calling for her removal in 2018 have since been impressed by the way she has taken on President Trump. As well as some testy exchanges in the Oval Office, she has scored some big legislative wins against him over the border wall funding and a government shutdown. A hollow victory Expectations were high for Democrats to increase their House majority in 2020. But they ended up losing members of Congress instead - more than a dozen net losses. Given the presence of Donald Trump on the ticket to rally Republicans, it was always optimistic for them to expect to improve on their 2018 landslide. But the setback will make things harder for Pelosi as she fights a continuous battle to keep the left-wing of her party happy. The BBC's Anthony Zurcher says this coming term could present her with her biggest political challenge yet. "She must find a way to cajole her razor-thin majority into continued action, with the hopes that Democrats either take back the Senate on Tuesday or convince a handful of Republican moderates to form a deal-making coalition in Congress. "Pelosi has been seldom outmanoeuvred in parliamentary procedure and is unrivalled in her ability to keep her party from breaking ranks - either from the left or the middle. She'll have to keep it up, with little margin for error, if she wants to help Joe Biden get his new administration off to a successful start."

Ryanair will run flights from Exeter Airport to three European destinations starting next year, the budget airline has announced.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: New routes to Malaga, Naples and Malta are expected to attract 80,000 customers per year, Ryanair said. The announcement makes the airport Ryanair's 21st base in the UK. Exeter Airport's managing director Matt Roach described the announcement on Tuesday as a "significant vote of confidence". More news from Devon Passenger numbers at the airport have increased by 22% to more than 900,000 in the past five years. Mr Roach said: "These routes are popular destinations and offer customers even more choice and greater connectivity from their local airport."

The police have said nothing was found following a security alert at the home of Sinn Féin's North Antrim MLA Daithí McKay.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: It followed reports that a bomb had been left at his house. An anonymous caller contacted the MLA's Dunloy office claiming a device had been left at the family home which prompted police to carry out a search. Mr McKay said it was not the first time he had been threatened.

The Vatican has hosted its biggest event in years - the beatification of the late Pope John Paul II.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: The globe-trotting Pope credited with contributing to the fall of communism in Eastern Europe was blessed in St Peter's Square on Sunday 1 May. Here the BBC's Rome correspondent, David Willey, answers questions about one of the most important events of Pope Benedict XVI's papacy.

Four soldiers and two porters have died after an avalanche struck on the Siachen glacier in Indian-administered Kashmir, an army official has said.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: The eight-man patrol was close to 19,000 feet (5,800 metres) up in the Himalayas when the avalanche hit. Rescue teams managed to pull all the men out and helicopters evacuated seven critically injured members of the group to a nearby military hospital. Six of the men later died of hypothermia. Pakistan and India have failed to demilitarise the Siachen glacier despite talks. It is known as the highest battlefield in the world. India seized control of the glacier in 1984, and since then more soldiers have died from the conditions than in combat. A group of 10 Indian soldiers died when an avalanche hit a military base in the region in February 2016. Landslides and avalanches are common in the region during winter, when temperatures can drop to -60C.

"Going without food for any person, for any child - it's destabilising, it shakes you to your core. I remember being a child and going without food and being able to have just one good meal in a day."

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Ijeoma NdukweAbuja, Nigeria Oscar Ekponimo's drive comes from a childhood fuelled by hunger. When his father got sick and couldn't work, the whole family went hungry. But now this tech entrepreneur in Nigeria's capital Abuja thinks he has the answer to the problem of food inequality. He's the inventor of an app called Chowberry which connects people to supermarket food that would ordinarily end up in the bin. It has already been taken up by 35 retailers, NGOs (non-government organisations) and other organisations in the country. At a supermarket in Abuja, a sales assistant unloads shelves filled with semolina, a type of milled flour, into shopping trolleys. He's preparing the products for collection by Thrifty Slayer - a charity that has bought these discounted items via Chowberry. Discount products As we stand in one of the aisles, Oscar takes out a tablet to show me how the technology works. "We have a system on this app that allows retailers to put information about products that are about to expire. "These products are deeply discounted because the products are reaching the end of their shelf life. "The food would ordinarily be thrown away by the retailers, but with our system they have a way of saving their losses," he adds. "At the same time NGOs are able to take this food at a very reasonable price and acquire more food for distribution." Currently anyone can order food at a discount online, although there are 15 charities with priority access who are able to to order larger quantities. Chowberry has a list of their preferences and sends them updates when it receives the type of food the charities need for their food distribution programmes. The supermarket that Oscar is showing me round was an early adopter of Chowberry when it launched two years ago. "Some of the shops we work with have said they've managed to save 80% of what they used to throw away," he tells me. A study commissioned by the United Nations indicates that globally, one-third of food produced for consumption is lost or wasted. This amounts to 1.3 billion tonnes a year. UN figures also suggest that one in nine of us across the globe go to bed on an empty stomach - despite there being enough food in the world. Oscar's ability to relate to the problem is at the heart of his mission to reach those living on extremely low incomes, right at the bottom of the pyramid. The BBC's Innovators series reveals innovative solutions to major challenges across South Asia and Africa Learn more about BBC Innovators. "They don't have access to smartphones, so the connecting entity is the NGOs," says Oscar. Thrifty Slayer is one of the many charities and NGOs that buys discounted products for its food distribution programmes through the Chowberry app. Its programmes are funded by selling donated second-hand clothing online but Ijeoma Nwizu, Thrifty Slayer's founder, says Chowberry helps the charity's funds go much further. "We started feeding about 40 people, but then the community kept growing. Now we feed them and neighbouring communities - about 200 people every Sunday," she says. "As the numbers of people we feed increased we started to look for ways to keep our costs low. The good thing about partnering with Chowberry is the availability of food in the quantities we need them." UN figures show over 14 million people in Nigeria are classified as undernourished. Hunger is a major problem according to Amara Nwankpa, director of public policy at the Shehu Musa Yar'Adua Foundation, an organisation campaigning for food security. "I think the challenges we face with food supply and access represents an opportunity for innovators. We have no choice but to innovate our way out of this situation," says Amara. "Most times I get emotional about it. I get a sense of fulfilment that a simple idea can reach people in a real way. But the feelings are mixed," says Oscar during a visit to Pyakasa, a small dusty town surrounded by mountains on the outskirts of Abuja where a feeding programme is under way. On the days we are there, around 50 people, mainly women and children, were queuing for lunch. We were told that for most of them, this would have been their biggest meal all week. "The challenge is to scale up, that's where our work is cut out for the next few years," says Oscar. "I'm in it for the long haul, as long as there's the value chain of food there will always be food floating around." Food waste is a huge problem and this entrepreneur has global aspirations for his simple solution. He hopes that once it makes inroads in Nigeria and across Africa, it will go on to transform the lives of people around the world. This BBC series was produced with funding from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The House of Fraser store in Exeter will remain open it has been confirmed, despite previous plans for it to close this month.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: In October 2018 signs appeared in the high street store's windows advertising a closing down sale. A spokeswoman for House of Fraser said she was "able to confirm that we have reached an agreement with the landlord to stay in occupation." It follows a number of store closures across the country. Sports Direct bought the chain in August and boss Mike Ashley has said his firm faces "significant challenges" in turning it around. Previously known as Colsons in the 1800s, the Exeter store has remained in the same location in High Street despite several re-buildings and re-brandings.

Opposition parties and trade unions in India have held a day-long strike over plans to open up the country's retail sector to global supermarket chains and other reforms. BBC correspondents in Delhi, Hyderabad, Calcutta and Srinagar spoke to people on the streets to gauge their reaction.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: RK GOYAL, DIAMOND JEWELLERY TRADER, DELHI Fifty million traders are staring into a financial abyss if the government implements its decision to open up the retail sector to global supermarkets. Besides, there are millions of others in the country who are employed by small traders like us and this larger population is dependent on us, so the government will have to listen to us, otherwise they will fall. But we have faith in the government, we have chosen this government and I think they will decide in our favour and roll back the decision. YASIR ARFAT, TELECOMS MANAGER, SRINAGAR Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in any sector actually speeds up growth. We live in the 21st Century, so we cannot think like we are in the Soviet era. The global economy is changing, people are changing. India is a country of vast economic opportunities, and an old-fashioned bureaucratic structure cannot exploit those opportunities to the hilt. While we need to ensure that the new policy safeguards the interests of the common masses and farmers, I think it is a right decision to adapt to a futuristic economic vision. MANJEET RAI, COAL TRADER, DELHI If the government is going to decide its national policy on the basis of critical reports in the international media, then that is an extremely sorry situation. [Prime Minister] Manmohan Singh should stop worrying about what's being said outside the country and pay more attention to the voices coming from inside. It is clear that this government has not kept the interests of people in its mind while taking decisions. It is [US President] Barack Obama and other Western countries who are calling the shots and deciding what should be the economic policy of India. SAMIR PRAMANIK, PRIVATE FIRM EMPLOYEE, CALCUTTA I support the issues behind the strike. The way [PM] Manmohan Singh's government has failed to contain the price rise, we the common people are really struggling. The government recently announced a cap on the number of subsidised cooking gas cylinders which each family can get in a year. Every family needs eight to 10 gas cylinders every year, so I think the government needs to increase the cap from the current six cylinders. I fully support Mamata Banerjee's opposition to these policies and her decision to quit the government. I think opening the retail sector will benefit us, the consumers, because we will be able to get our daily stuff at a cheaper price. But I'm not sure whether the farmers will benefit from the policy. AMJADULLAH KHAN, SMALL BUSINESSMAN, HYDERABAD The strike is causing a lot of difficulties for a small businessman like me. I wanted to buy some supplies today [Thursday] but all the major shops are closed. Shops were closed yesterday on account of a festival and today it is the strike. It is adding to our misery. It is already tough times for us, economically. No problem is going to be solved by strikes. What have they achieved by calling earlier strikes? The government will do what it wants to do. If these [opposition] parties were in power, they would also increase the prices. It is all cheating. GHANSHYAM DAS, PRIVATE FIRM WORKER, DELHI The Indian public is being held ransom to the differences between Mamata Banerjee and Sonia Gandhi. I want to request Mamata Banerjee to take back her decision to withdraw support from the government. I think the decision to open the retail sector to global supermarket chains was not taken on the basis of any public interest. I think it was driven by politics and personalities - it's become Mamata Banerjee versus Sonia Gandhi. We are a poor country and we cannot afford to have mid-term elections. We need the government to take sound economic decisions. RAHEEL KHURSHEED, SOCIAL ACTIVIST, SRINAGAR Even as we wait for this decision to open up the retail sector to global supermarkets to take practical shape beyond the policy stage, a good yardstick for judging the impact of this decision will be as to what it will do for the consumers and the farmers. As long as the decision leads to better prices and more choices for the consumer, better prices for the farmers and an upgraded, competitive supply chain, the decision makes sense. KIRAN KUMAR, IT PROFESSIONAL, HYDERABAD The strike has not made any difference. We are working as usual as our company has its own transport system. Normally such strikes don't affect our work. Nobody comes here to create any disturbances. As for opening up the retail sector is concerned, I think it is very good step. It will be good for the economy and consumers. I don't think any harm will come to anybody because of foreign companies entering the retail sector. I hope that services will improve and standard of goods will improve. Similar apprehensions were expressed when computers came, foreign IT companies came and foreign banks came. See what happened? Each of these sectors benefited. GANESH HELA, OFFICE WORKER, CALCUTTA No-one can oppose this strike, or rather the issue of the strike. And because people are so agitated, the strike is a complete one - you can see it for yourself. The government is unable to ease our problems. The price of everything is going up... from rice to vegetables to cooking gas to diesel. And once foreigners come into the retail market, if we can get things at a cheaper rate, it's fine, it'll be a relief for us. But I don't think that will happen - only wealthy people and the politicians will benefit - not us. Input from Divya Arya in Delhi, Amitabha Bhattasali in Calcutta, Omer Farooq in Hyderabad and Riyaz Masroor in Srinagar

A man has appeared in court charged with causing the death of a 25-year-old man by dangerous driving.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: James Gilbey, from Bramely, died after he was hit by a car, which allegedly failed to stop, while crossing Stanningley Bypass on 13 July. Majid Malik appeared at Leeds Crown Court charged with causing his death. Mr Malik, of Silverhill Avenue, Bradford, did not enter a plea and was remanded in custody to appear at the same court on 2 October. Eight other men arrested in connection with Mr Gilbey's death have been released on police bail.

When it comes to animals threatened with extinction, the cute and cuddly ones tend to get the most attention. But what about the ugly ones that go unnoticed when their numbers start to dwindle? Mary Colwell speaks up for the burbot.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: "When you are furry, when you're lovable, you often fare better in people's interests than if you're bald and rather ugly," says Richard Sabin, curator of mammals at the Natural History Museum in London, referring to the popular appeal of animals such as pandas. It was never going to bode well for the burbot then. The fish is "fat looking and a little bit flabby and soft" - a description offered by the museum's fish curator, James Maclaine. He isn't the only one who doesn't swoon at its looks. "People have mixed feelings about the burbot," he says. "There's a 19th Century account by a man called Pennant who calls it 'a very delicate fish for the table, though of disgusting appearance when alive'." It is true that burbot are… characterful. They are long and sinuous, commonly growing to more than a metre in length, but can get much larger. They look very much like eels - they are often called eelpout - and when caught, will wrap themselves around the angler's arms and legs. With large squashed heads, small eyes, downturned mouths full of razor sharp teeth and tubes protruding from their nostrils, they are not exactly pretty. They are also exceedingly slimy and under the chin is a single long, fleshy feeler called a barbel, giving the impression of a goatee beard. These characteristics are important. They are all adaptations to the cold, dark world at the bottom of northern lakes and rivers. These were ice-age fish that once swam unhindered in a glacial world, until the ice retreated 10,000 years ago leaving some remnant populations throughout the northern hemisphere, including eastern England. Find out more The burbot is the only member of the cod family that lives in fresh water. For several months a year burbot can be trapped under ice - they need cold temperatures to spawn but all that slime and flabbiness provide excellent protection. Their teeth are essential for catching a huge variety of food. "They're a very voracious predator," says Steve Simpson, marine biologist and lover of burbot at Exeter University. "There are reports of them eating birds, eating snakes, eating frogs - they really will eat anything they encounter." Because their world is dark, they don't need big eyes. They use their barbels to detect vibrations and catch their prey. They may not be beautiful but they are perfectly adapted to their gloomy, chilly world. Although still present throughout the rest of Europe and North America, the only burbot in England today can be found in the vaults of the Natural History Museum in London, preserved in pickling jars. Once a proud member of Britain's piscatorial family, the fish disappeared from British waters in the 1960s - the Angling Times offered a reward of £100 to anyone who found one in the UK, but that money lies unclaimed. They were common enough until the 20th Century but slowly faded away - probably a combination of the draining of wetlands, river engineering and warmer winters saw them off. It is a pity. Burbot make good eating. Many medieval recipes use them in pies and soups and their livers, which are the richest in vitamins of any fish, were once highly prized by French chefs and the tsars of Russia. They were so admired as a table fish that Anton Chekhov wrote a story called The Burbot about a group of men trying to catch one (it got away) and burbot soup was a dish for royalty in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. The burbot in Russian literature The fish makes a sudden, unexpected upward movement with its tail and the fishermen hear a loud splash . . . they all put out their hands, but it is too late; they have seen the last of the burbot. The Burbot, Anton Chekhov "There's no room with us. Go to that table, and make haste and take a seat," said the Prince, and turning away he carefully took a plate of burbot soup. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy Middle-aged smokers and tea drinkers in the UK may remember pictures of burbot on the collectors' cards that used to come in packets of Brooke Bond Tea and some cigarettes. We used to love the burbot - but no longer. It is all but forgotten. Well, not by everyone. There are some burbot lovers who yearn to see the Lawyer Fish (another of its names due to the beard) return to the UK's waterways. As the desire to "re-wild" Britain grows, we hear increasingly loud demands for the charismatic wolf and lynx to be brought back. A trial reintroducing beavers to Scotland has already taken place. But there are a few burbot champions. Environmentalist and writer George Monbiot is one of them, however. "It's this dark, mysterious, weird creature which lives down deep in the bottom of deep lakes and buries itself in the mud and then moves through marshes and water courses, and you're quite unlikely to see it and for me that's part of its appeal," he says. Monbiot feels we have lost a part of our natural history. If the burbot is reintroduced we can once again experience the primeval pleasure of chancing upon a secretive, slimy, ugly fish, as ice-age hunters would surely have done. "Somewhere in those marshes the burbot lurks and for me that sums up the serendipity and wonder of these chance encounters with wildlife. Just knowing it's there, that's something you can't put a price on," he says. Not everyone agrees, though. Others think that the warming world will make life too uncomfortable for the burbot and its chances of survival in UK waters are slim. They believe it is best to leave it as a memory of colder days. But whatever we do, let's not forget the burbot. It may well have been prized more for its taste than its looks, but that doesn't mean we should erase it from our memory. Last year WWF produced a report showing that since the 60s the total number of animals living on the planet has halved. The burbot is just one part of that sad statistic. To reverse the trend we must remember, not forget, those creatures that once lived alongside us so abundantly. If we only remember and revive the cute and cuddly, Earth will be less rich and vibrant. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

Engineers have spent the day working to fix an electrical fault on a lifting bridge after it was stuck in the upright position for several hours.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: The bridge in Poole, which links the port with Hamworthy, had to close to traffic after becoming stuck. It was eventually brought into the closed position to allow vehicles to cross, but engineers remained on the bridge dealing with the fault. The bridge returned to normal operation by the evening rush hour. Users had been advised to use the Twin Sails bridge while the lifting bridge was out of action. An estimated 20,000 vehicles use the bridges, which lift every half hour, to cross the harbour each day.

More than $11m (£8.8m; €10.3m) is reportedly missing from The Gambia's state coffers following the departure of long-time leader Yahya Jammeh, who clung to power for nearly two months despite losing the presidential election in December.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Mr Jammeh, thought to now be in Equatorial Guinea, is not the first leader accused of lining his own pockets with state funds. In fact, many have taken far more. Here are some of the worst offenders. Sani Abacha, Nigeria Sani Abacha, the Nigerian leader from 1993 to 1998, reportedly looted somewhere between $1bn and $5bn from the country's coffers using fake funding requests. In 2014 the US Justice Department said it had frozen more than $450m of Abacha's stolen assets. Suharto, Indonesia Suharto, the president of Indonesia from 1967 to 1998, is alleged to have cleaned out the country's state funds to the tune of about $35bn. In 2000 he was placed under house arrest and charged with the theft of $570m via fake charities, but court doctors found him too ill to stand trial. He died in 2008. Mobutu Sese Seko, Zaire The leader of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) from 1965 to 1997, Mobutu ran a murderous regime which brutally suppressed the opposition. He also lived in great style at the expense of the country's people, accumulating international properties including a 30-room mansion in Lausanne worth $5.5m. He is suspected of stealing about $5bn. Ferdinand Marcos, Philippines It's the shoes that everyone remembers - the supposed 3,000 pairs of designer shoes accumulated by Marcos' wife Imelda. They became an enduring symbol of the corruption of his leadership of the Philippines between 1965 and 1986. But Marcos is suspected of stealing more than $10bn from the country during his reign. After his death a series of lawsuits forced the Swiss banks in which he stashed the cash to release nearly $700m back to the Philippine authorities. Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is suspected of corruptly amassing as much as $60bn during his time in office - roughly equivalent to Yemen's annual GDP - much of it through schemes to provide oil and gas contracts. He was ousted from power in 2012 after the Arab Spring, but is now allied with the Houthi rebels, locked in battle with the country's internationally recognised government. Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia Slobodan Milosevic, the brutal dictator who ran Serbia between 1989 to 1997, was eventually charged with genocide, but he was first arrested on charges of plundering funds from the Serbian state. The total is not known, but he is suspected of stealing $1-$4bn. He died in 2006, while on trial in The Hague. Hosni Mubarak, Egypt Toppled by the 2011 uprising, Hosni Mubarak went on trial accused of embezzling funds meant for the renovation of presidential palaces to do up his personal properties. Mubarak and his sons were found guilty of embezzling more than $17m over an eight-year period. He was sentenced to three years in prison while his sons, Gamal and Alaa, got four years each. Ben Ali, Tunisia The 2011 overthrow of Ben Ali marked the beginning of the Arab Spring. Ali and his wife fled to Saudi Arabia but a Tunisian court sentenced them in their absence to 35 years in prison for embezzlement and misuse of public funds. At his trial, the prosecution said $27m in jewels and public money had been found at one of his mansions.

Sri Lanka is in a state of shock and confusion, trying to understand how a little-known Islamist group may have unleashed the wave of co-ordinated suicide bombings that resulted in the Easter Sunday carnage - the worst since the end of the civil war a decade ago.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Anbarasan EthirajanBBC News, Colombo The South Asian island nation has experience of such attacks - suicide bombers were used by Tamil Tiger rebels during the civil war. But the ruthlessness of the new atrocities has stunned the nation anew. Eventually the government spokesman, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, came out and blamed National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), a home-grown Islamist group, for the bombings. "There was an international network without which these attacks could not have succeeded," he told reporters on Monday. That might go some way to explaining how a group that has been blamed for promoting hate speech may now have been able to scale up its capacity so monumentally. On Tuesday, however, the Islamic State (IS) group said its militants had carried out the attacks. It published a video of eight men the group claimed were behind the attacks. The IS claim should be treated cautiously. It is not clear whether these men were trained by the group or simply inspired by IS ideology. Political deadlock and confusion The manner in which NTJ was identified was circuitous. The prime minister said there had been warnings made to officials that hadn't been shared with the cabinet. He said only the president would get such briefings, even though it is not clear if he personally did in this instance. This is not an insignificant statement from a prime minister who was at loggerheads with the president for much of the past year. Many are drawing a conclusion about how political discord can have serious consequences - as well as undermining trust in the messages being put out. If the suicide bombers were local Sri Lankan Muslims, as stated by the government, then it is a colossal failure by the intelligence agencies. Information is also now emerging in the US media that the Sri Lankan government may also have had warnings from US and Indian intelligence about a possible threat. "Our understanding is that [the warning] was correctly circulated among security and police," Shiral Lakthilaka, a senior adviser to President Maithripala Sirisena, said. The Sri Lankan president, who oversees security forces, has now set up a committee to find out what went wrong. Sri Lankan intelligence was credited with foiling several suicide attacks by the Tamil Tiger rebels at the height of the civil war and for penetrating a well-knit and ruthless Tamil Tiger organisation. Sri Lanka's Muslim strife While this is clearly a security and political failure, there are also questions about the nature of communal strife in Sri Lanka's more recent history. During the civil war, Muslims were also targeted by Tamil Tiger rebels and suffered at their hands. But Muslim community leaders say successive Sri Lankan governments have failed to restore confidence among young Muslims following more recent attacks by some members of the majority Sinhalese Buddhist community. One of the worst incidents was in the town of Digana in central Sri Lanka where one person died when a Sinhalese mob attacked Muslim shops and mosques in March last year. "After Digana quite a few Muslims lost faith in the government to provide them security. Some of them got the idea that they can defend themselves," says Hilmy Ahamed, vice-president of the Sri Lanka Muslim Council. The attacks and what the youths perceived as the lack of action by the government may have led some of them towards groups like NTJ. Some of the radicals were blamed for damaging Buddhist statues in recent years and their leader was arrested last year for offending religious sentiments. He later apologised for offending the sentiments of the Buddhist Sinhalese. Radical preacher Now it is widely believed a new group emerged a few years ago under the leadership of Zaharan Hashim, a radical Muslim preacher from eastern Sri Lanka. Mr Hashim posted several videos on social media purportedly promoting hatred against non-Muslims. Most of his videos are in the Tamil language. His teachings are said to have attracted several Muslim youths. "This man was preaching hate with lots of YouTube videos on social media posts. Some of us reported him to the national intelligence services. Once about three years ago and once in January this year," says Mr Ahamed. He added that security services did not take any action against Mr Hashim. Reports say the preacher was one of the suicide bombers though it's yet to be confirmed. Muslim community leaders say a few youths went to Syria to join IS, and some of them were killed in fighting there. It's important not to overstate this, though, and a former senior military officer Maj Gen (Retired) GA Chandrasiri says "we have very cordial relationship with the Muslims. Most Muslims are not with these people. They are peace loving people". There are no reports so far of a high number of jihadists returning to Sri Lanka. But even if a select few jihadists are angry with the majority, why were Christians targeted? In the complex cocktail of Sri Lanka's religious and ethnic tensions, Christians are almost unique for not perpetrating any kind of violence on behalf of their community. After all, it is a religion that crosses ethnic lines. Global dimension? I covered the Sri Lankan civil war for years and reported on many Tamil Tiger suicide attacks. It took years for the group to be able to learn to detonate such devices. So it is intriguing that a lesser-known Islamist group, with a few home-grown radicals, could carry out six - some say even seven - suicide attacks with such pinpoint precision and devastation. None of them failed. Even though connections with global jihadist groups are unclear, the choice of major luxury hotels and Christians as a target - in addition to the sophistication of the operation - makes it plausible that local radicalism has come under the influence of global jihadist networks. It would be a tried and tested pattern in global attacks. During the Sri Lankan civil war foreign tourists were spared and attacks on outsiders were rare. In the latest bombings, many foreigners were killed and this has raised the spectre of links with al-Qaeda or IS. "For this type of operation you need lots of assistance from outside. You need finances, training and technique for this kind of work. You can't do these things alone. May be there was some help from outside," Gen Chandrasiri said. Violence is not new to Sri Lanka. It went through turbulent times during a left-wing insurrection in the 1970s followed by a nearly three-decade bloody war with the Tamil Tiger rebels. Tens of thousands of people were killed. But the ruthlessness and sophistication of the latest atrocities indicate that it will be challenge for the Sri Lankan security forces to deal with those behind the bombings. The last thing the Sri Lankan public wants is more violence and recrimination.

Zakir Hossain Khokan has just about had enough.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Yvette TanBBC News It's been weeks since he was last allowed out of the room he shares with 11 others. The room is bare, except for six metal-framed bunk beds. Clothes and the odd towel hang in front of the beds, providing some semblance of privacy. "Day and night, we are just inside one room," he says. "It's actually torturing our mind. It's like jail." "Then we can't social distance because there's no space." Having already caught Covid-19, recovered, and gone back to work, Zakir thought his worst days were behind him. His dormitory was declared cleared of the virus in June. But last month a new cluster developed at the dorm, and like thousands of migrant workers, he was ordered back into quarantine. Once lauded for its containment of the virus, Singapore's success crumbled when the virus reached its many foreign worker dormitories, something activists say should have been seen coming a mile off. Now months on, Singapore is reporting single figure daily cases in the local community. People are going back to work, cinemas have reopened and laughter can be heard coming out of restaurants again. But many of Singapore's lowest earners remain indoors, facing uncertainty. The men who built the city Singapore saw its first imported virus cases in late January - weeks later, it had more than 100 cases. A huge contact tracing programme began and a national coronavirus-tracing app was rolled out. Public cautions were increased and clearly communicated. Harvard epidemiologists called Singapore's system the "gold standard of near perfect detection". But there was a crisis building, unseen by most of the population. Singapore is home to more than 300,000 low-wage foreign workers from countries like India and Bangladesh, who mainly work in industries like construction and manufacturing. Their right to live in Singapore is tied to their job and their employer must provide accommodation, at a cost. They commute from their dorms in packed vans to building sites where they work and take breaks alongside men from other crowded dorms - perfect conditions for the virus to spread. With no legal maximum occupancy rules, in pre-Covid times it was normal for up to 20 men to share a room in a dorm. In late March, migrant rights group Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) warned that the "risk of a new cluster among this group remains undeniable". Weeks after a partial national lockdown largely brought the situation among the general public under control, the activists' predictions came true. Hundreds of new migrant worker cases were being discovered each day. Since mid-April, the government has released two distinct daily figures - the cases amongst the local community and the cases in the dormitories. The statistics show the stark contrast between the high number of cases in the dorms and the number of cases in the community, which are so low they barely register in the graph below. "Covid-19, much like any other pandemic, is a pandemic of inequality," Mohan Dutta, professor of Communication at Massey University, told the BBC. "How we communicate it - like the idea of reporting two different numbers in Singapore… [these] make the inequalities even more evident. One might even go so far as to say its [an example of] 'othering'." Locked in The authorities decided that the dormitories would have to be sealed off. Around 10,000 healthy migrant workers in essential services were taken out to other accommodation - a skeleton staff to keep the country running. But the majority were trapped in the dorms - some not even allowed to leave their rooms - while mass testing was carried out. Infected workers were gradually removed, isolated and treated. It was a remarkably different experience to the lockdown the rest of the country was going through, with shopping allowed, daily exercise encouraged and every type of outlet offering delivery. These people were well and truly locked down, with only basic meals delivered to them. "Once the lockdown was in place, we were not allowed to come out of the room. We were not allowed to go next door too," Vaithyanathan Raja, from southern India, told the BBC. The turn of events forced many in Singapore to confront the living conditions of many of these migrant workers - the sudden attention, coupled with new hygiene measures, saw a surge of charitable collections, and many dorm operators working to improve conditions. Mahalingam Vetriselvan, a 51-year-old worker from India, says facilities in his dorm had been ok, but that tightly packed bunks have now been replaced with single beds, placed at a "good amount of distance". Another foreign worker sent similar pictures of his dorm being re-arranged, and said the number of beds had gone from 15 to eight. Another worker told the BBC he was lucky to be moved into a hotel by his employer. But this wasn't the case for Zakir, who comes from Bangladesh and works as a project co-ordinator in construction. After being hospitalised with Covid-19, he recuperated in temporary accommodation before finally being taken back to his dorm. "I left the dormitory on 17 April, and when I came back on 9 July, I didn't see any improvements," he said. According to Zakir, his room - which measures around 6m by 7m - is shared by up to 12 men. "They say we should social distance, but to us, that's a joke you know," said Zakir. "How do we have space to distance inside the small room?" Each floor is home to 15 such rooms - or up to 180 men assuming each room is fully filled. They share one toilet facility, with six basins, shower cubicles, toilets and urinals, says Zakir. Government guidelines state there should be 15 beds to one toilet, shower and sink. "They ask us to keep clean but inside the soap dispenser there's no soap," said Zakir. The BBC has reached out to the dormitory operator for comment but has not heard back. According to Dipa Swaminathan, the founder of migrant rights group Its Raining Raincoats, such conditions have long been the norm for many workers. "The things we're talking about now - their dorms, their food - these things have been around for years," she told BBC News. "The reason why we don't hear about it is because they're not the complaining kind. They have a deep sense of gratitude for what they have here [in Singapore]. If they do feel any level of stress, they've really reached a breaking point." There are grim stories of the strain the pandemic has put on the workers. There were several reports of attempted suicides, deaths or self harm. One widely circulated video - which could not be independently verified - showed a worker standing at what appeared to be a window ledge of a dormitory - before being pulled in by his flatmates. "I see some people from my dormitory, they call their family and say they cannot take the situation," said Zakir, who himself runs a charity for migrant workers. "They cry and say they want to go home." Salary issues also contribute to some of this mental stress, with families at home relying on the workers' wages. "We can't send money because we can't go outside," said Zakir, who adds that some others have not been paid their usual salary. The Ministry of Manpower told the BBC that all foreign workers who work full-time must be paid their prevailing salaries, but that for those who could not work, it would be "unrealistic to impose a uniform requirement across all employers". Instead, employers should "engage and mutually agree... on appropriate salary arrangements". A post-mortem Singapore has since pledged to further improve conditions for migrant workers - the government says that by the end of 2020, each resident will be given a living space of at least 6sqm/person. Each room can be allocated a maximum of 10 beds - all of which have to be spaced out by at least 1m. The question now being asked is how the situation was allowed to get so bad in the dorms when, as Prof Dutta said, "many organisations already pointed to basic problems before the pandemic hit". Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has admitted that the government's response to the threat to dorms was "not without shortcomings" but that "communal living in any form poses risks". "We stepped up precautions. For a time, these seemed adequate. But then bigger clusters broke out in the dorms, which threatened to overwhelm us," he said in an address to parliament earlier this month, shortly after winning an election in which the migrant issue was only a minor talking point. Though he conceded that missteps were taken, he ended by saying: "In the fog of war, it is not possible always to make the perfect decisions." Last month, the government declared that all workers living in dormitories had recovered or were tested to be Covid-19 free. But just weeks later - new virus clusters have emerged in a handful of dormitories again. Zakir doesn't know when he will be released. His greatest hope now he says, is to just be able to go back to work, and for things to improve for migrant workers in Singapore. "Many of us have spent a long time here. For me, I have been here 17 years - it's like we are already part of Singapore," he said. "We are not asking to be treated like a citizen. Just treat us like you would treat a human being - like we are a part of society. If it could be like that, that would be very nice." Additional reporting by Krithiika Kannan, graphics by South Asia Visual Journalism

On Sunday, Australia announced that it would hold a royal commission - its supreme form of inquiry - into the nation's scandal-hit aged care sector. Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned Australians to brace for "bruising" evidence of abuse and negligence.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Phil MercerBBC News, Sydney A hidden camera captures the chilling moment when an Australian care worker appears to try to suffocate an 89-year-old man with dementia. The image, first publicised in local news in 2016, highlighted the terror, domination and deceit of elder abuse in a country with an ageing population. The mistreatment of Clarence Hausler in a nursing home in Adelaide in 2015 was uncovered by his daughter, who had been suspicious about her father's bruises. Video from a spy camera she secretly installed revealed that a care assistant, Corey Lyle Lucas, had apparently attempted to violently force-feed his bedridden patient who could not talk or walk, and pinned him down when he resisted. Lucas was convicted of aggravated assault. The care home apologised and said his actions were a "rogue act". 'Love is vanishing' In recent years especially, Australia has been confronted with the exploitation of its youngest and oldest citizens. The nation is still digesting the recommendations of a royal commission that spent almost five years investigating the depraved treatment of children in institutions. Now residential and in-home aged care will be scrutinised. In justifying the need for a royal commission, Mr Morrison said "our loved ones - some of them - have experienced some real mistreatment". "And I think that's going to be tough for us all to deal with," he added. "But you can't walk past it." Community leaders say the true scale of elder abuse is unknown but anecdotal evidence has suggested it is a dark and deep-rooted problem. "It is a scandal beyond belief," says Reverend Bill Crews from Australia's Uniting Church. "How we can behave to one another - when we are not watched by others - is beyond belief. It started with young people. It is now with old people. We are a society where love is vanishing and the inevitable outcome of that is a lot of pain." An Elder Abuse Helpline was set up in New South Wales (NSW) in 2013, and state lawmakers have conducted their own investigation into the mistreatment of senior citizens. "It is often psychological and emotional abuse but it can also be physical, financial and even sexual, which is extremely disturbing," Tanya Davies, NSW minister for ageing, women and mental health told the BBC. "As a nation we don't yet have a comprehensive idea as to the length and breadth of this." Harrowing stories Victims have also shared their stories with another inquiry in Western Australia. A frail elderly woman, identified only as Sylvia, was forced to move into a nursing home after her son took her money to buy himself a house. According to a legal submission, Sylvia was scared that if she didn't do as he asked, her son would assault her. The inquiry was told that her son had threatened to burn down her home if she "called the cops" on him. To make his point, the son allegedly set fire to his bag in her living room. Sylvia was too afraid to take legal action and she died nine months after going into residential care. Ian Henchske, chief advocate for independent lobby group National Seniors Australia, says a lot of elder abuse "takes place within the family". He told the BBC that less than 20% of elder abuse is reported to an authority, and that greed was mostly to blame. "The predominant form of abuse that is being reported is financial abuse," he says. "You have got a generation below the older generation looking at their parents and wondering when are they going to get out of that home because that is an important part of my inheritance." Ageism in society Campaigners say that rapacious relatives suffer from "inheritance impatience" and that disrespect and abuse is underpinned by ageism. "These sorts of things are similar to the attitudes and the discrimination that occurs around race and sexism," says Jenny Blakey, the manager at Seniors Rights Victoria. "We ignore the wealth of knowledge and wisdom that older people have at our peril. We need to harness the skill and recognise the value of older people and what they bring to our society." Many victims can't or won't fight back. But some do. In Perth, Mrs M, a frail but spirited woman in her late 80s, had been ripped off by her son, who had drained several thousand dollars from her account. She went to her bank to complain that she had not been told about payments made by her son on her credit card. In a loud voice, she berated staff for their incompetence - before being fully reimbursed. Tackling ageism, abuse and indifference won't be easy, but Mr Crews believes that respecting the elderly is a good place to start. "I was talking to an older man a week or so ago who was 97 and we sat in the back there and just talked, and the love just poured out of him," he says. "It was like sitting in the sunlight. All he needed was someone to love."

Earlier this year a photograph was released showing a woman on a stretcher in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. She was there to take a final look at her favourite Rembrandt painting. Her visit had been made possible by a Dutch charity that helps terminally ill patients fulfil their last wish.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Vibeke VenemaBBC World Service "I've learned that people who are going to die have little wishes," says Kees Veldboer, the ambulance driver who founded the Stichting Ambulance Wens - or Ambulance Wish Foundation - after an impulse to help a patient. In November 2006 he was moving a terminally ill patient, Mario Stefanutto, from one hospital to another. But just after they put him on the stretcher, they were told there would be a delay - the receiving hospital wasn't ready. Stefanutto had no desire to get back in the bed where he had spent the past three months, so Veldboer asked if there was anywhere he would like to go. The retired seaman asked if they could take him to the Vlaardingen canal, so he could be by the water and say a final goodbye to Rotterdam harbour. It was a sunny day, and they stayed on the dockside for nearly an hour. "Tears of joy ran over his face," says Veldboer. "When I asked him: 'Would you like to have the opportunity to sail again?' he said it would be impossible because he lay on a stretcher." Veldboer was determined to make this man's last wish come true. He asked his boss if he could borrow an ambulance on his day off, recruited the help of a colleague and contacted a firm that does boat tours around Rotterdam harbour - they were all happy to help, and the following Friday, to Stefanutto's astonishment, the ambulance driver turned up at his hospital bedside to take him sailing. In a letter written weeks before his death Stefanutto wrote, "It does me good that there are still people who care about others… I can tell you from my own experience that a small gesture from someone else can have a huge impact." That was the genesis of the Stichting Ambulance Wens. Veldboer and his wife Ineke, a nurse, started it at their kitchen table - eight years on it has 230 volunteers, six ambulances and a holiday home, and is fast approaching 7,000 fulfilled wishes. Sometimes wishes are fulfilled the day they are made. On average, the charity helps four people a day - they can be any age and the only stipulation is that patients are terminally ill and can't be transported other than on a stretcher. "Our youngest patient was 10 months old, a twin. She was in a children's hospice and had never been home - her parents wanted to sit on the couch with her just one time. "And our oldest patient was 101 - she wanted to ride a horse one last time. We lifted her on to the horse with the help of a truck, and later we moved her to a horse-drawn carriage - she was waving at everyone like royalty. That was a good wish," says Veldboer. Although other charities offer terminally ill patients a day out, the Stichting Ambulance Wens was the first to provide an ambulance and full medical back-up. There is always a fully-trained nurse on board, and the specialist drivers tend to come from the police and fire brigades. The specially-designed ambulances have a view, and every patient receives a teddy bear called Mario, named after Stefanutto. Find out more "It gives us volunteers so much satisfaction to see people enjoying themselves," says Roel Foppen, a former soldier who acts as a driver. Over the past six years he has helped to fulfil 300 wishes. Once he went as far as Romania, a 4,500km (2,800 mile) round-trip. It was for a woman called Nadja, who had lived in the Netherlands for 12 years. Her children, aged three and seven, were already back in Romania with her family, and she wanted to go there to die. "She was so ill we couldn't even touch her," says Foppen. They left on a Thursday morning, but as they were driving through Germany Nadja's condition deteriorated, so they stopped at a hospital. Doctors recommended Nadja stay there, but she wanted to see her children - and her wish was what counted. After a three-hour delay they carried on, through Austria, then Hungary - when they reached the Romanian border, Nadja said, "Take the stretcher out, now I can die!" Foppen said, "It's just another 600km to your mother and your children - could you hang on just a little longer?" On the Saturday the ambulance arrived in Bucharest for an emotional reunion. Then the crew drove back, leaving Nadja behind. Her family sent a card to say she died two weeks later. "If people know we're coming, they find new reserves of energy," says Foppen. "Often the family tell us they were about to cancel because the patient was so ill, but when we arrive they are beaming, ready for their day out." It was Foppen who took the famous photograph in the Rijksmuseum. He was on the other side of the gallery with his colleague Mariet Knot, fulfilling someone else's wish. They were looking after a man called Donald, who used to visit the museum regularly with his partner of 30 years - the two men had married the week before. "What was great was that he was very much in charge," says Knot. "He told us which paintings he wanted to see and was able to tell us a lot about them, so we could enjoy it too." The last work in the exhibition was one Donald had never seen before - Simeon with the Christ Child in the Temple, a painting that remained unfinished at the time of Rembrandt's death. Donald was deeply moved by it. "I realise now that a life is never finished. My life is unfinished, and this painting is unfinished," he told them. Then, after a pause, "I have seen what I wanted to see, we can go now." Knot, who works as a district nurse, says it is an honour to be able to share such moments. She first came across the charity when she was invited along by a cancer patient she had grown close to. His wish was to see the Maasvlakte 2, a major new extension to Rotterdam's port which is being built on reclaimed land. Before he got too ill, he would check on its progress every week - this time he was given a grand tour. The experience made Knot so enthusiastic she wrote to Veldboer to offer her services. "Every time is special. You discuss it with your colleagues on the way home and it's always special, no matter how small," says Knot. "I had one lady who just wanted a glass of advocaat (a thick egg liqueur) at home. So her son bought a bottle, we went to her house, she spooned up the advocaat and we went back. That was her wish." "People ask, 'Isn't it draining? Isn't it emotional, always dealing with last wishes?' Yes it is, but often people are ready to die because they are so far down the line, and then it's nice to give them something they really want," she says. Frans Lepelaar is a former policeman who now drives for the charity. After 20 years behind a desk, investigating fraud, he wanted to get back to helping people face-to-face. "Sometimes it is difficult, but as a policeman I also had to deal with murder so I know how to take a step back," he says. "It can be a long day - you could be back in the middle of the night. We always ask, 'Do you want anything more?' They're always grateful. That's what you do it for," he says. A great deal of wishes involve going home, saying goodbye to colleagues or attending weddings and funerals. Many long to see the sea, "because it's part of the Dutch landscape" says Lepelaar, who used to patrol the beach. Zoo trips are also very popular, and make up about 15% of the wishes. It was one such trip that made headlines in 2014. Lepelaar and his colleague Olaf Exoo took Mario, a 54-year-old man with learning difficulties, to say a final goodbye to his colleagues at Rotterdam's Diergaarde Blijdorp Zoo, where he had worked for 25 years. At the end of his shift as a maintenance man he used to always visit the animals, and they took him on his rounds one last time. When they reached the giraffe enclosure they were invited in, and it was then that one of the more curious giraffes came over and gave Mario a lick on the face. He was too ill to speak, but his face lit up, says Exoo, whose photograph of the "giraffe's kiss" made headlines. Exoo says he likes the little wishes best. "Those things that we take for granted, but which have become impossible for these people." As his own nursing career progresses, Exoo spends more and more time behind a desk, so volunteering is a way of getting back to what he loves best - caring for patients. "There are no time limits, so I can spoil people all day long," he says. "It's intense, but that's why it's interesting," says Mirjam Lok, a 25-year-old nurse. "You don't know who you'll meet when you walk through the door, and at the end of the day you have fulfilled their last wish, you close the door and you think - that was good. "It has taught me that you can find happiness in little things, and that's what you should aim for - rather than longing for what you don't have." Lok is based in the north of the country, and had hoped to work locally, but it seems that very few people in the northern provinces - Groningen and Friesland - have last wishes. "They are very phlegmatic," says Lok. "People don't ask for much, they are easily satisfied - they say, 'I wouldn't know what my last wish could be.'" Veldboer confirms that fewer northerners use their services, and the same applies to the southern province of Zeeland. He thinks it's a question of regional character, but Knot believes it's more about medical staff encouraging patients to take up the offer. At first, doctors would veto the foundation's outings, says Veldboer, but as their work has become better known, this happens very rarely. Now it's often the hospital or hospice that makes the first move. "There was one lady who wanted to go to her grandson's wedding. The hospice had told her 'No', but she was desperate, so in the end they called us. We took her there and she loved it," says Veldboer. "On the way home she turned to us and said, 'You don't realise how important this was to me.'" She died that same night. Considering how close to death their patients are, it is perhaps surprising that out of nearly 7,000 guests only six have died during their "wish". In those cases the role of the ambulance crew is to support the family, and to make the necessary arrangements for the body. Veldboer says that in all six cases the families were grateful for their help. "I think we have come a long way with palliative care and end-of-life care," says Knot. "We make sure people have no pain. They have stopped receiving treatment, and they are going to die soon... if they can have a nice day out, even if they're tired the next day, isn't that a good thing? Everyone is happy to work towards that." "In the Netherlands discussions about death are more and more open," says Knot. As part of her work as a district nurse she often asks about final arrangements, sedation and euthanasia - usually patients have already talked about these things with their doctors. "I do think there has been a change of culture - for older people, especially if they grew up in the church, it's still swept under the carpet, it gets tucked away, but for younger people with a family it is spoken about openly," she says. Knot believes what the foundation does is very much part of the grieving process, and that it's good to involve patients while they are still able - "so it doesn't have to wait until after their death". As an example she cites a man whose last wish was to go back to the family firm. "The whole family came to the warehouse to say goodbye to this man on a stretcher. He wanted to go and see all the machines, revisit all the dark corners where he had fixed things." While they wheeled the stretcher through the warehouse the rest of the family followed, in a sort of procession. "It was tiring for him to talk, because he used sign language - he and his three brothers were all deaf, as were two of their wives," says Knot. "Then my driver began speaking with his hands." The ambulance driver, who was new to the foundation, knew sign language. "It was so extraordinary, the family said they got goose bumps. Then you think - there is no such thing as coincidence." Following the huge success of his venture, Veldboer has helped to set up similar ambulance services abroad, first in Israel - after taking a Jewish woman to Jerusalem, where she wanted to die - then in Belgium, Germany and Sweden. A practical, no-nonsense man, he admits that setting up the foundation has given him confidence. "I used to think I didn't amount to much, but then I discovered my ideas aren't that bad after all. I've learned that if you follow your heart and do things your own way, people will support you. "I'm just a very ordinary Dutch guy who does what he likes best, and my hobby is helping others." Kees Veldboer appeared on Outlook on the BBC World Service. Listen to the interview on iPlayer or get the Outlook podcast. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

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

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

A man from Scarborough who died after being swept out to sea has been named locally as Andrew Shaun McGeown.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Mr McGeown, who was in his 30s, had been walking his dog with a friend. North Yorkshire Police said he was reported in the sea at South Bay near the Spa at about 18:00 GMT on Sunday. He was recovered unconscious from the water about 40 minutes later, and taken to Scarborough District Hospital but was pronounced dead. Police said his friend was also taken to hospital suffering from shock and the effects of the cold, but was later discharged. The RNLI, Coastguard and air support from RAF Leconfield attended the scene.

Four more Poundworld stores in Wales are to close with 51 jobs being lost, administrators for the collapsed discount retailer have said.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: The Cardiff, Llanelli, Llantrisant and Merthyr Tydfil stores will shut by 22 July. The Carmarthen branch is closing on 15 July with nine jobs lost. In total, 105 shops are closing across the UK, with more than 1,200 jobs axed. Deloitte has been trying to find a buyer for Poundworld since it went into administration on 11 June. The latest closures bring the number of stores down to 230 across the UK.

Lady Gaga is the first person to have nine million followers on Twitter.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: The American singer, 24, became the most popular person on the social networking site last August overtaking Britney Spears when they both had just over 5.7 million followers. She joined Twitter in 2008 with her first Tweet saying she was rehearsing for the Just Dance video. Justin Bieber is the second most popular celebrity on the site, with just over 8.3 million followers. Gaga's latest single, Born This Way, is at number one in the Billboard Hot 100 and made it to number three in the official UK singles chart. Born This Way, the singer's second album, is released on 23 May. The star also has 31 million fans on Facebook and her videos have had more than a billion views on YouTube.

This week a Darth Vader costume dating from the era of Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back (1980) is to be sold at auction at Christie's in London. We talk to actor Dave Prowse about his time as the man behind the mask.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Tim MastersEntertainment correspondent, BBC News "We were filming during the hot summer of 1976," says Dave Prowse, the man who was Darth Vader. "The suit was made from quilted leather. I wore a t-shirt and a pair of swimming trunks underneath - and the heat would rise into the mask and mist up the eye-piece, so you couldn't see where you were going!" Darth Vader - for those who don't know - lived a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. For many he is the movie villain par excellence. Prowse played the bodily form of Darth Vader in the first three Star Wars films. But the character was voiced by American stage and screen actor James Earl Jones. (Prowse confirms the two men have never actually met, although they have spoken by phone.) "I'm a great adorer of what he did - he enhanced the part greatly with his beautiful tonal voice." Green Cross Man The Darth Vader costume in the Christie's auction is expected to fetch up to £230,000 ($368,000). Prowse has seen the costume, but has not verified it as the one he wore on screen. The original Star Wars costume is in the Lucasfilm archive in the US. The last time he wore it was in the 1990s. "They sent it over to me - with a guard - to do a Star Wars video game called Rebel Assault II. My name tag is still in the suit." A former weightlifter and bodybuilder, Prowse played a variety of monsters on film and TV in the 60s and early 70s. When he was cast as Darth Vader he was already well known as road safety superhero the Green Cross Code Man. As Prowse recalls, when he tried on the helmet at Elstree Studios for the first time he found he was able to move his head freely around inside it. "I said, 'It's miles too big! We'll have to get another one done.' But they said it looked perfect - and padded it out with foam rubber. It had a Velcro fitting at the base, so when the wind machines were on the thing was still wobbling around." What was it like being on the Star Wars set? Did Prowse have any inkling of how successful the film would become? "I thought I was doing a load of rubbish, I really did," he laughs. "You were wandering round looking at all these funny creatures and fantastic sets, but you had no idea what it would look like at the finish." On The Empire Strikes Back, such was the level of secrecy that Prowse wasn't shown a complete script. His lines for the next day were sent by courier each evening. For the big showdown between Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Darth Vader, Prowse wasn't even given the real lines. He had no idea of the big revelation until he saw the film at its premiere. He recalls: "Suddenly there's me saying to Luke 'I am your father' - and I thought 'this is new!' I was sat behind Mark - who knew the real dialogue - and he thought I was going to jump over three rows of seats and smash him for not telling me." For many years Prowse has travelled all over the world attending Star Wars conventions. His relationship with Lucasfilm, however, is not a happy one. "We were about to start on Jedi and I got accused of giving information on what was going on in the movie. I didn't have a copy of the script, but somehow I got called a blabbermouth." He denies any wrongdoing, but the rift has gone on for years. "I'm still part of the Lucasfilm family, although I appear to be a very distant relative." Darth auction The Darth Vader costume up for auction is being sold by American private collector who acquired it in 2003. The auction notes say: "The costume is being sold on behalf of a gentleman recorded as having one of the most extreme cases of the debilitating condition Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) ever diagnosed. "The costume came into the gentleman's possession after much tenacity in his quest to possess an original Darth Vader suit from The Empire Strikes Back, as an aid to battle the condition." The owner bought two suits from a UK company that had been authorised to create "second generation Vader suits for promotional purposes". After examining differences in the second suit, the collector came to the conclusion "that he was now the owner of production-made helmet, mask, shoulder armour, and shin-guard components". Christie's notes: "To say it is screen-used is difficult as there would be several production-made helmets, masks and shoulder guards, just to cope with the sheer intensity and requirements of filming." Three masks and helmets have already been sold via Christie's in the 1990s. The seller is donating a percentage of the proceeds of the sale to Cancer Research UK in memory of his mother. Jedi knight Dave Prowse, meanwhile, is still acting in low-budget independent films. This year he appeared in The Kindness of Strangers - a film by first-time director Deborah Hadfield - which screened at Cannes. He will be working with her again next year in romantic thriller Sweetest Love. As the interview ends, Prowse offers up an anecdote that not only sheds light on his first meeting with Sir Alec Guinness (Obi-Wan Kenobi), but also his thespian credentials. "When Alec died, a biography came out and I got a copy and wondered if I got a mention. So I looked up myself in the index and there was a diary entry that said: 'Had lunch today with Dave Prowse - who is going to play Darth Vader'. "And then there was a dash and the words - 'I fear he is not an actor'." The Darth Vader costume will be auctioned as part of a Popular Culture: Film and Entertainment sale on 25 November, at Christie's, South Kensington.

Prime Minister David Cameron is under fire for his decision not to join a boycott of the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka. He is also attempting to build bridges with China after he angered its leaders last year by meeting the Dalai Lama.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Is he getting the balance right between promoting British trade and other interests abroad and human rights? Dr Stephen Davies, education director at the Institute for Economic Affairs "Everyone wants to see individual liberty expanded in all parts of the world - the question is how to do this most effectively. "The key is to expand 'social power', the ability of people to act, and to reduce 'political power', the capacity of elites to use force and the power of government against people to limit their freedom of action, speech and thought. "More trade is crucial for this. It undermines the power of despots, their ability to control populations, while increasing ordinary people's resources, their connections with each other and their ability to organise and co-operate. "The spread of the mobile phone through trade and commerce has done more to undermine authoritarian government than any amount of action by more liberal states. "While we should all strongly support action by civil society organisations such as Amnesty it is not clear what governments should do. "The main role of governments is to protect the rights of their own citizens and to provide a stable system of law for them. "Attempts to make greater trade dependent upon changes in policy will simply lessen the kind of transformations brought about by trade and private action, which in the longer run will do more to increase liberty and undermine tyranny." Allan Hogarth, head of policy and government affairs at Amnesty International UK "In all its foreign relations it's absolutely vital that the UK government raises human rights issues with as much enthusiasm as it does trade ones. Presently, we're far from convinced the government is getting this balance right. "So it's vitally important that human rights are not downplayed when the prime minister visits China next month. While we understand that No 10 is keen to develop trade with China, this must not be done by turning a blind eye to China's absolutely dreadful human rights record. "We'd like to see Mr Cameron and other senior members of government publicly raising human rights concerns with senior Chinese officials. "One case they should raise is that of Cao Shunli, a prominent activist who's been detained for two months under a charge of 'picking quarrels and making trouble'. She's one of numerous prisoners of conscience in China. "Meanwhile, we'd like to see the prime minister meeting Chinese human rights activists during the visit. We'd be happy to personally brief Mr Cameron or his officials prior to the visit. "Announcing the trip during his Lord Mayor's Banquet speech, Mr Cameron said he wants Britain to show an 'entrepreneurial, buccaneering spirit, where people who take risks to make money are celebrated and admired. "However, historically speaking a buccaneer is a pirate acting with total contempt for the law. We need to make sure that countries like China aren't themselves acting lawlessly." Richard Ottoway, Tory chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee "It is not a perfect world so there will always be conflict between our interests and our values. "Boycotting countries just to emphasise our values will achieve very little and could be counter-productive. By far the most effective way is to argue our case in private, as we do in a number of countries around the world." William A Callahan, professor of International Relations, London School of Economics "China is well-known for having a pragmatic approach to international relations. "Since Deng Xiaoping launched the policy of economic reform and opening up to the outside world in 1979, Beijing has quite effectively separated economic issues from political ones in its international strategy. One could say that David Cameron is taking a Deng-ist approach to the UK's relations with China because his government now sees the People's Republic of China as an economic opportunity rather than as a human rights problem. "But this would be a mistake. "Recently, Beijing has retooled its diplomatic strategy to focus on political issues as well as economic development. Since he became China's new leader last year, Xi Jinping has stressed the role of values in Chinese diplomacy. "Rather than talking about the rise of China in terms of geo-economic power, Xi declared that his 'China Dream' is the 'rejuvenation of the Chinese nation' as a moral force in global affairs. "The Chinese government now promotes a combination of socialist values (equality, stability and justice) and Confucian values (order, harmony and family) not just at home but on the world stage. Beijing's 'values diplomacy' is specifically designed to provide an alternative to the liberal values of freedom, human rights and the rule of law. "Since the UK is known in China as a human rights superpower, it would be a shame if Cameron missed the opportunity to join in the values debate that is already raging in the People's Republic of China. "If you want the Chinese people to take you seriously, it is best to speak honestly about differences." Ann Clwyd, a Labour member of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee "It is not a trade issue, but the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is a very important meeting. We put forward a strong argument (in committee) why the UK should not be going there because of human rights concerns, the past failure of the Sri Lankan government to investigate some of the many allegations about that country. "I have met the president of Sri Lanka myself and I have put to him the case for allowing a proper investigation into what went on in the civil war. There were atrocities on both sides but they are still refusing to allow a UN investigation. By going to a conference of this kind, it is giving the wrong signal about where the UK is coming from. "World leaders should be allowed to raise these issues. We will see in a few days whether Cameron and Hague have done this in Sri Lanka. "On trade and human rights, we have constantly debated this in our committee. "We understand there must be trade but at the same time we ask that human rights is up at the top of the agenda, not just mentioned in a few sentences as a throwaway. "It must be on the agenda and it must be discussed."

One person has been killed and another injured after scaffolding collapsed outside the central station in the Belgian city of Antwerp, police say.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: The victims were two construction workers who were on the scaffolding when it fell shortly after 10:00 local time (08:00 GMT). The injured worker's condition was stable, police said. No further victims were found under the twisted metal, which emergency crews were preparing to dismantle. You might also be interested in:

For 26 years Shoreham had enjoyed an air show that attracted 20,000 visitors and left the town buzzing but in 2015 the unthinkable happened. A jet crashed on to a dual carriageway, leaving 11 people dead.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Tanya Gupta & Piers HopkirkBBC News The trial of pilot Andy Hill, who was cleared of the manslaughter of the victims on Friday, has prompted some of those who saw the disaster unfold to remember the palpable silence that descended as the aircraft burst into flames. Photographer Archie Tipple had met up with friends to enjoy the show and was taking pictures as the Hawker Hunter came across the bridge and went into a loop manoeuvre. When a plume of smoke went up and turned into "a ball of flame", at first he thought it was part of the event. "We initially thought that's pyrotechnics and they've gone a bit over the top," he said. "And then it didn't come out of the smoke." As it slowly dawned on those watching that the vintage jet had crashed, onlookers began to realise "something catastrophic" had taken place. The quiet that followed the crash on Saturday 22 August 2015 has stayed in Mr Tipple's mind ever since. "Everything just went really silent. People were stood there in disbelief, waiting for an outcome that never really happened," Mr Tipple remembers. "And when the news came that the pilot had come out of the plane, we were like 'oh that's great news'." At that point, onlookers believed the jet had landed in a field. "Then news started filtering through that he'd actually landed on the A27," Mr Tipple said. "And that was when I think the reality of how big an event this was hit myself and everybody, the people we were with, the spectators that were here." Those close to the crash felt a shockwave as the plane hit the ground and the site was later described as being like a warzone, with debris, smoke and road signs left peppered with shrapnel. Spectators felt the searing heat of the blast on their skin, while witness Terry Smith, from Worthing, remembered seeing a car with the top sliced off as he dived for cover. Traffic in the area ground to a standstill and, as the sound of sirens took over, Mr Tipple ended up going to a friend's house because he could not get out of the town. When he got there, he looked at his camera and discovered he had captured the moment of the plane's impact and the ensuing fire. "He's literally below the roofline. You can see just the cockpit and the front part of the plane," he said. "Then the next thing which I got is just a ball of smoke." He said it was when he looked at his pictures "it really hit home". The news several people had died came out on the day of the air crash but Sussex Police were only able to confirm numbers later, as investigations took place, and victims were identified over the coming days. The parents of one of the 11 men who died, Jacob Schilt, said they realised on the day of the crash they had lost their son. He had been due to play in a football match and the team got in contact with them after a photo of the car he was thought to be travelling in with teammate and fellow victim Matt Grimstone was spotted on social media. The couple waited for five days for Jacob to be formally identified but said they understood police had to carry out their investigations. Jacob's mother, Caroline Schilt, described her sickness as the realisation he had died hit home on the day of the crash, likening it to a "horrible, indescribable feeling". In the hours her son was missing, she had been calling his phone. Mrs Schilt said: "We now find that was a horrible time for the emergency services because they had all these phones going off that they couldn't touch, they couldn't answer them, but they were ringing and ringing and ringing in this crash site." At the time, police said more than 200 people reported concerns for missing relatives or friends. Jacob's father, Bob Schilt, said: "People talk about that terrible feeling. It kind of goes right through you when you know, you finally know. "It's just a terrible, terrible feeling of hopelessness and loss." As the community began to come to terms with what had happened, and the names of all the victims emerged, the "awful silence" that came directly after the crash gradually turned to the quietness of sadness and respect, according to the local vicar and MP. The Reverend Terry Stratford, who was then a vicar in Shoreham but has since retired, saw the plume of black smoke go up on the day of the air show. He knew immediately there had been an accident but he also knew there had been other, less serious, accidents before. "I don't think I took on board the enormity of what was going to unfold," he remembers. He said it did not hit him until late that night that a disaster had taken place on the church's doorstep and he realised "people are going to be looking to us… we need to find something to say". Mr Stratford spent that night preparing to help people who would turn up at the church the next day. The quiet hit him as people gathered for Sunday's service. "There was a kind of awful silence over the town," he said, "as if no-one really knew how to react. "It was almost as if people were walking around on tiptoe, afraid of disturbing anyone else, just waiting for the news to come through as to how bad it was." Meanwhile, Tim Loughton, East Worthing and Shoreham MP, had driven along the A27 five minutes before the jet crashed. As soon as he heard what had happened, he went straight back. He recalled the atmosphere of the air show held every summer in Shoreham, bringing numbers of about 20,000 to watch the spectacle. The air show has not taken place since the crash. But traditionally it would have seen the town full of excitement and activity, as crowds who had spent a day watching the aircraft by the sea would then finish in a local pub with a drink afterwards, leaving the streets "buzzing", Mr Loughton said. After the Hawker Hunter hit the road "there was an eerie quiet about the town". Mr Loughton said a "great outpouring of grief" emerged as tributes turned the town's toll bridge into a "bridge of flowers". "There was a quiet, respectful silence," he said. "People came along, gave their flowers, made their own memorial in their own, quiet way." Colin Baker, chairman of the directors of the Shoreham Airshow, said the event was stood down in deference to everyone involved, particularly the bereaved families. He said it would not resume until matters were settled, including the inquest, and then organisers would have to seek agreement from the Civil Aviation Authority, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch, the police, fire service, council and others, before they could stage another event. Mr Baker, who was at the show that day, was taken to the scene of the crash. "It was the sort of thing that you shouldn't see. Nobody should see it," he said. "Immediately our thoughts, my thoughts and everyone else's was for those that had been killed and injured. "That ball of worry is still there. It's like a cloud over the air show organisers all the time. It won't go away. "We do so feel for the people, for the families, for the relatives, the friends of the people that were killed." More than three years on from the crash, tributes have gone from the bridge, Shoreham has a permanent memorial to the 11 and life in the town has started to move on. But the trial of pilot Mr Hill at the Old Bailey has meant the families and community have again been confronted by the reality of what happened that day in 2015. "It's shocking," Mrs Schilt said. "Because we've seen footage that we haven't seen before. It brings it home to us exactly what happened. "But at the same time, it is telling us exactly what happened and we feel we need to know. "I know he didn't intend to crash his plane. He certainly wouldn't have intended to kill anybody. And I really don't know how he feels about it. "I'd actually quite like to have a conversation with him really, not to point the finger at him or be unpleasant but just because I don't really know what is going on inside his mind." Mr Schilt said: "I don't for a moment believe that he had any intention of doing harm. I don't really feel any bitterness like that. "I'm very bitter about what has happened."

The energy regulator was unequivocal: The current system is not working.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Kabir ChibberBusiness reporter, BBC News Ofgem, in a review of the UK gas and electricity market following claims that suppliers were making excessive profits, decided that consumers are being "bamboozled". The "big six" - British Gas, E.On Energy, EDF Energy, Npower, Scottish and Southern Energy and Scottish Power - have been found to be stifling the market. The regulator says they must offer less complex tariffs to help consumers compare prices - or face the threat of being referred to the Competition Commission. But what will the changes actually mean for consumers? 'Not working' Firstly, Ofgem is recognising that the fault lies with the companies and not the billpayer. "What Ofgem has acknowledged today is that the market isn't working properly for consumers," says Ann Robinson, director of consumer policy at uSwitch.com. "The fact is that not enough people are using it. Incredibly, just one in ten households are paying the cheapest energy prices on the market." Around four in 10 households have never switched energy suppliers, she added. Ofgem feels that this is because our bills are too complicated, making it impossible to figure out what tariff you are on and compare it to other energy suppliers. "Because bills are so complicated, people almost ignore them when they come in through the post," says Scott Byrom, energy manager at Moneysupermarket.com. Terminology But he cautions that Ofgem is tackling the wording of the bills, rather than the level of prices in them. Consumers should not expect to see a drop in prices as a result of the review. What they should see, eventually, are less complex bill statements. But simpler explanations of the bills should help people to save up to £300 a year from the annual average energy bill of £1,108, according to Moneysupermarket.com simply by choosing other providers at existing prices. "We're finding that consumers look at the provider they're with, rather than the tariff they're on," Mr Byrom says. "If they are more educated on the tariff, chances are they're going to look around for a better deal." The regulator is also planning to ban the automatic rolling over of fixed contracts - where people pay a set price each month for their energy over the period of a contract. That should also force consumers every year to re-evaluate whether they are getting the best deal for them. New players? Ofgem also believes the "big six" are too dominant. It wants to force these firms to auction off up to 20% of the electricity they generate. This is an intriguing proposal - one that raises the prospect of the growth of new energy providers such as Ovo Energy, a small player based in Cirencester in Gloucestershire founded in 2009 that has around 40,000 customers. However, Mr Byrom is worried that it could lead to a situation like the retail insurance industry, where there are many brands but they are owned by a few players. "Only today we see yet another example of how the smaller energy companies are being squeezed out of the market," says David Hunter, an energy analyst from consultancy M&C Energy Group. "The official opening of a new gas-fired plant at Langage, Plymouth, is the first major new power station in the UK for five years. "Yet, it is owned by Centrica and all gas generated will go direct to the company's retail arm, British Gas, under a 'tolling agreement'." There are many barriers to entry for new players, so most are waiting to see if this measure to try to open up competition will ever become a reality. In any case, it is difficult to see whether a foreign company will be able to find a niche in the UK - with Germany's E.On and France's EDF already so dominant. While this Ofgem report has been welcomed by many consumer advocacy groups, it seems that it will only be when consumers read their bills - and understand them - that they could find the savings they are looking for.

When US President Donald Trump met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, on 16 July 2018, they entered their names into the pages of a long history of talks between US and Soviet or Russian leaders.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Here we look back at the summits that preceded this one. President John F Kennedy met Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna in 1961. The talks were dominated by the crisis in Berlin and control over the divided city. For Kennedy, it was a bruising, unexpectedly hostile encounter at which he felt outmatched by his Soviet counterpart. "Worst thing in my life," the president told a New York Times reporter after the talks. "He savaged me." The Berlin Wall went up in the months after the talks and the following year the two superpowers locked horns over the Cuban missile crisis. In May 1972, President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev met in Moscow for their first summit, which produced what appeared to be a good working relationship between the two leaders and a historic arms treaty setting limits to the rapidly expanding nuclear arsenals of both powers. Nixon invited Brezhnev to Washington the following year, and the pair signed nuclear arms control treaties at three successive summits. In November 1974, Nixon's successor Gerald Ford met Brezhnev for the first time in the Russian city of Vladivostok. Relations between the pair were warm despite the extreme cold. They discussed American football and football which they had respectively played as younger men, and joked together. Ford had come wearing a wolfskin coat from Alaska. "I'm a sheep in wolf's clothing," he joked to reporters. "I told the first secretary. I'm going to get him one." Brezhnev then tried on the coat and modelled it for photographers. The pair met again the following year in Helsinki - the first of several US-Russian summits that would take place in the Finnish capital - for the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe. Leaders from 35 nations signed the Helsinki accords - a declaration which called for respect for human rights and for the inviolability of European borders. It was among the most significant moments of the Cold War, but Ford faced criticism at home for what was seen by some as a concession to the Soviets and a legitimisation of Soviet oppression in Eastern Europe. Jan Lodal, a member of Ford's policy team at the summit, later wrote in the Atlantic that Brezhnev had secretly told Ford that the Soviets supported his re-election and would "do everything we can to make that happen". It would turn out to be a strange foreshadowing of the build up to another US presidential election, 41 years later. Towards the end of the Cold War, in December 1987, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met in Washington DC, where the two nations once again engaged on the issue of controlling nuclear arms stockpiles and testing. They signed the INF Treaty - an accord banning intermediate-range nuclear missiles which led to the destruction of 2,692 missiles by 1991. Then last year, shortly before the INF Treaty's 30-year anniversary, President Trump accused Russian leader Vladimir Putin of violating the pact by testing and deploying a ground-launched intermediate-range cruise missile, calling it a "big deal". Moscow responded by accusing the US of violating the treaty. President George HW Bush met Mr Gorbachev seven times. By the time they met for their third summit, in Helsinki in September 1990, they had established a warm working relationship based on hours of discussions, often without advisers. Mr Bush was hoping to shore up support from Mr Gorbachev in dealing with aggression by the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who had weeks earlier invaded Kuwait. Mr Gorbachev arrived at the summit with a gift for Mr Bush - a framed cartoon depicting the two leaders as boxers, both standing in a victory stance, having knocked out a prone figure labelled "Cold War" in Russian. President Bill Clinton met Russian leader Boris Yeltsin in Helsinki in March 1997 for talks viewed as some of the most crucial between the US and Russia since the end of the Cold War. Relations had been strained by an eastward expansion of Nato to include former Soviet bloc nations. Yeltsin made it clear at the summit that he objected to Nato enlargement, but agreed to negotiate a pact with the alliance. The pair also agreed to a sharp reduction in their respective nuclear arsenals. US-Russia relations steadily worsened under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, a former Russian intelligence official who became president in 2000. George W Bush, who became US president a year later, attempted to bring Mr Putin on side but the pair's relationship slowly soured over the eight years Mr Bush was in office. "I think Putin is not a democrat anymore," he told the visiting prime minister of Slovenia in 2006. "He's a tsar. I think we've lost him." When Barack Obama became US president in 2009, he tried a new strategy of going around Mr Putin. The Russian leader had stepped aside to comply with Russia's two-term presidential limit, and installed Dmitry Medvedev in his place. President Obama attempted to develop a relationship with Mr Medvedev, and in 2009 dispatched his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to meet her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov with the goal of re-setting US-Russia relations. She even went armed with a toy button labelled "reset" in English and Russian, only for it to be revealed that the Russian word they'd used in fact meant "overload". Russia later pointedly refused US demands for them to extradite the whistleblower Edward Snowden. Mr Obama cancelled a trip to Moscow and distanced himself from Mr Putin. Then in 2014 Russia annexed Crimea, breaking for the first time the Helsinki Accord signed by Ford and Brezhnev in 1975 and heaping international opprobrium and sanctions on itself. President Obama criticised Mr Putin, but made it clear he had no intention of entering into any kind of conflict. "This is not another cold war that we're entering into," he said. "Now is not the time for bluster … There are no easy answers, no military solution." Now Donald Trump is president and the US is once again seeking a kind of reset. Mr Trump went into the 16 July summit with Mr Putin with US-Russia relations under a heavy raincloud at home. US intelligence agencies have unanimously concluded that Russia conducted a cyber operation to influence the outcome of the US presidential election in 2016, and a special counsel investigation led by a former director of the FBI is investigating whether Mr Trump's campaign team colluded in that effort. In a press conference, President Trump defended Russia over the claims, contradicting US intelligences, saying Russia had no reason to meddle. Mr Trump also blamed poor relations with Russia on past US administrations rather than Russian actions. The US president has since faced a barrage of criticism from both sides of the US political divide for his defence of Russia. In the end, Mr Putin said the ball was in Mr Trump's court, and gifted the US president a World Cup football. .

The discovery of human remains at an Orkney beach is being investigated by police.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Officers were called out to the Dingieshowe area at about 13:30 on Monday. The beach area was cordoned off. Ch Insp Matthew Webb said: "A full investigation is under way to establish the person's identity and the circumstances surrounding how they came to be there, as well as what may have happened." A post-mortem examination will take place in due course.

Dr John Wright of Bradford Royal Infirmary says he's noticed that his medical colleagues show a preference for one vaccine, while members of the public often prefer another. He argues that this isn't a time to be choosy.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: The dash for vaccines has thrown up a rather peculiar situation. With so many pharmaceutical companies competing in this greatest of scientific races, we now have a variety of vaccines, and people are starting to ask me, "Do I get a choice?" And "Which vaccine would you recommend?" The concept of consumer choice when it comes to immunisation, or even medications, is alien. No-one asks about the brand of their annual flu jab, or which company produces the MMR vaccine that will protect their precious children. But the intense global relief that greeted the Pfizer covid vaccine, and then Moderna, AstraZeneca and most recently Novavax and Janssen vaccines (though the last two are still awaiting regulatory approval) has created brand awareness in a population that has had a crash course in epidemiology and infectious diseases. My answer is a simple one: we take whatever vaccine we are given and thank the lucky Northern stars that we live in a developed country. The idea of choice seems so wrong, when there is such an acute shortage of vaccines across the world. In Italy, however, it's reported that police unions are refusing the AstraZeneca vaccine in the belief that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are more effective, and some Italian doctors are said to be rejecting it on the grounds that it takes longer to provide immunity. It is still too early to make such claims: as evidence accumulates from the continuation of vaccine trials and real-world evidence we will get a clearer picture. Comparing vaccines is not as simple as comparing cola drinks or cars. The clinical trials that have reported very early results will continue for their full 12-month duration and the results will become more reliable with time. We have yet to start vaccine trials that can make head-to-head comparisons between different vaccines, so it may be that early results reflect different populations, or dosing regimes. Side-effects after the vaccines will also vary - some may cause localised problems such as sore arms, others systemic effects such as flu-like symptoms. Again, as vaccine roll-out continues we will get a better picture of these profiles. In my very unscientific straw-polling of preferences I find my medical colleagues have a slight preference for the Pfizer vaccine - they tend to be more comfortable than non-medics with new mRNA technologies and preliminary trial data suggested better clinical effectiveness, which is a key part of all our clinical decision-making. However when Pfizer's summary trial data was recently released by the US Food and Drug Administration it turned out that over 3,000 suspected but not confirmed cases of Covid were not included in the heavily publicised press releases, so the vaccine may well be less effective than the original 95% claim. Front-line diary Prof John Wright, a doctor and epidemiologist, is head of the Bradford Institute for Health Research, and a veteran of cholera, HIV and Ebola epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa. He is writing this diary for BBC News and recording from the hospital wards for BBC Radio. In my patients and non-medical colleagues there seems to be a greater preference for the AZ vaccine. People are comforted by its made-in-Britain roots, and its more traditional, tried-and-tested viral vector platform, using a harmless virus to deliver the gene for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein into the patient's body. The Johnson and Johnson vaccine (made by its subsidiary Janssen), takes the same approach. The Novavax vaccine uses a novel nanoparticle technique - it consists of a laboratory-made SARS-CoV-2 spike protein together with an adjuvant, an agent that signals to the immune system that it must take defensive action. The UK has ordered 60 million doses, so Novavax is likely to be widely used as the roll-out continues. There is a dismissive scepticism about Russian or Chinese alternatives both among doctors and members of the public, although the effectiveness of the rather scarily named Sputnik V looks pretty good and as yet unpublished results for Sinovac's CoronaVac, which have been circulating in the medical community, also look promising. I was due to have my hospital (Pfizer) vaccine just before Christmas, but the SARS-CoV-2 virus nipped in just beforehand and gave me a dose of the real thing. I have held out for a couple of months before re-joining the queue. It is likely that I will maintain a good immune response for the first two or three months, and I feel that while the vaccine is so precious, someone else will benefit more than me, so I would rather give up my dose to those in greater need. However having had possible reinfection already I don't want to push my luck by leaving it too long. While being choosy about vaccines seems inappropriate to me, the reality is that some older health workers already have a choice and I will soon be in this position myself. My hospital is providing the Pfizer vaccine to all our staff. It will not be so long before my GP offers me the AZ vaccine or possibly the Novavax vaccine that I have been helping to trial, assuming it is licensed by then. I would of course take any of these vaccines: they have all turned out to work much better than we could have imagined. If I had a choice then it would be an ethical decision. Which vaccine manufacturer reflects the zeitgeist of our collective humanity during the pandemic - the kindness and compassion, the sharing and donating? I'm impressed by the companies that have offered to make doses available on a not-for-profit basis to low and middle-income countries. Others may have different ways to assess a company's ethics, but this is surely a time when we should encourage the pharmaceutical industry to show us what corporate social responsibility truly means. Follow @docjohnwright, radio producer @SueM1tchell on Twitter

In April 2013, as Frédéric Pierucci stepped off a plane at New York's JFK airport during a routine business trip, he was seized and handcuffed by uniformed men.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Henri AstierBBC News The 45-year-old executive for Alstom, a French energy and transport group, was then driven to the FBI building in Manhattan, where the reason for his arrest became clear. In 2003-4, a federal prosecutor explained, Pierucci had authorised bribes to Indonesian officials to secure a contract for boilers at a power plant. This was true. At the time, he was working for an Alstom subsidiary in Connecticut. Bribery was common practice at the company then. Risky business Pierucci had assumed he was safe from prosecution because he had not arranged the Indonesian kickbacks, only signed off on them. And since then, Alstom had assured the US justice department that it was cleaning up its act. But, as Pierucci discovered, the department had been gathering evidence against him on charges including wire fraud and money laundering. He did not know about them because the indictment had remained sealed - as it was for Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei executive who was arrested in Canada last year and denies US allegations that she helped evade sanctions on Iran. Pierucci was to spend more than five years in the clutches of the American justice system. His story illustrates the risks faced by foreign businessmen who - sometimes unbeknownst to them - are accused of breaching US law. The US government has long been dead serious about corruption. In 1977 it approved the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the world's first ban on bribing foreign officials. Elsewhere, companies continued to get away with it for decades. In the 2000s, however, spurred by a campaign by the OECD, other developed nations began to clamp down. Co-operation from foreign law-enforcement agencies helped the US government export its anti-corruption drive. Alstom is a case in point. The justice department pursued the company after Italian, Swiss and British prosecutors had exposed the company's global bribery scheme. American investigators have their own way of pursuing white-collar crime. Instead of launching raids on company offices, they start by asking for co-operation. The request is polite but the underlying message brutal: help us incriminate yourself and we will not come down as hard as we might otherwise. Prison rules When Alstom was first approached in this way in 2010, its then-chief lawyer Fred Einbinder understood the need for coming clean. "When you get a subpoena, it's not like you've got a choice," he tells the BBC. But his advice to co-operate was ignored. Later that year, Einbinder was let go. The prosecutor offered his quarry a deal: Pierucci could be released if he agreed to act as a secret FBI informant within Alstom. He declined the offer. The next day, Pierucci was denied bail and transferred to the Wyatt Detention Facility, a high-security prison in Rhode Island. He had to adjust quickly to living alongside hardened criminals. "You must not look fellow inmates in the eye. You must not touch or even brush past them. Any perceived slight can turn into a fight," Pierucci told the BBC in a recent interview. A 70-year old man was raped by a drugged-up youth in a nearby cell, he says. Detention conditions were not Pierucci's only, or even main, concern. He had no idea how long he would stay inside. The Connecticut-based lawyer appointed and paid by Alstom to defend him said his best hope for release was to plead guilty in a deal with prosecutors. 'Monumental error' The advice may have been sound, but there was a problem. Pierucci wanted to argue that he was far down the chain of command. However he soon realised that the Alstom management would never go along with a line of defence that implicated them. "At first I was happy that Alstom took charge of my defence - it was only later that I saw it had been a monumental error," Pierucci says. As months went by, the news got worse. Three other Alstom executives were arrested on bribery charges. If one of them struck a plea deal first, Pierucci's own bargaining position would be undermined. He was in a race with the other defendants to satisfy the prosecutors. Unsure about the next step, Pierucci turned to his cellmates for legal advice. Jacky, a veteran of the French Connection drug ring who had 36 years' experience of the US penal system, warned him against accepting an "open plea", where defendants sign away their presumed innocence without any guarantee on a sentence. What Pierucci wanted, Jacky said, was a "binding plea" that commits prosecutors to a specific jail term. When he relayed this request to his lawyer, he was told - correctly - that open pleas were the only option in Connecticut. But the lawyer thought he had a gentleman's agreement with the prosecutor on a six-month sentence: if Pierucci admitted sole guilt, he could expect to be free by October. The alternative was to go to trial and risk up to 125 years in jail. The pressure he was experiencing was far from unique. Thanks to mandatory sentences, US prosecutors wield huge powers. One of Pierucci's fellow detainees, who had been caught with drugs but had no previous convictions, hanged himself in his cell after being offered 15 years as an opening bid. Fired In July 2013, hoping for release within months, Pierucci bowed to the inevitable and pleaded guilty. The plea deal, however, brought little relief. Now that Pierucci was a convicted criminal, Alstom cut him loose. His absence, the dismissal letter read, "imperils the operation of the entity which you lead" and makes it impossible "to maintain our contractual relation". In addition, it noted, his misdeeds "run counter to the values and the ethics of the group". Besides being apparently fired for not turning up for work while in jail, Pierucci found it a bit rich to be lectured about integrity by a firm that had engaged in corruption in many countries and been blacklisted over these practices by the World Bank. But he recognises that the company had little choice. It made sense for Pierucci's bosses to blame him as much as they could. Meanwhile Pierucci's detention showed no sign of ending. October came and went. Six months turned into a year, without any news on sentencing. In a book on the case, Le Piège américain (the American trap), he compares his ordeal to being stuck in "an endless tunnel with slippery walls - nothing to hold on to." In June 2014, Pierucci was released after friends put up their homes as bond and later that year went home to Paris. But he was yet to be sentenced, and the possibility of more jail time still hung over him. The uncertainty lasted another three years. In September 2017 Pierucci flew back to Connecticut for sentencing. The judge gave him 30 months. He did not become a free man until late 2018, when he walked out of the Pittsburgh prison where he had served the second half of his sentence. Paranoia? Pierucci believes he was a pawn in three larger battles with global economic and political ramifications. The first is the fight between the US justice department and Alstom, which resulted in total surrender by the French company. In late 2014, it admitted having paid $75m bribes over a decade, in a scheme described by prosecutors as "astounding in its breadth, its brazenness and its worldwide consequences". Alstom settled the case for $770m (£580m; €670m) - the largest-ever FCPA fine imposed by the department. The arrests of Pierucci and other managers were crucial in breaking Alstom's resistance. As then-Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell said: "It was only after the department publicly charged several Alstom executives - three years after the investigation began - that the company finally co-operated." The second battle that Pierucci believes influenced his fate was the purchase of most of Alstom by its US rival General Electric (GE). The business saga and the legal cases unfolded in lockstep. Alstom boss Patrick Kron announced plans to sell the power business - 75% of the company - in mid-2014, when it was clear that the company was in the justice department's crosshairs. Shareholders approved the sale to GE that December. Three days later, the settlement in the bribery case took Alstom's top brass off the hook. Pierucci is among many in France who claim that the justice department was helping GE by keeping the pressure on Alstom until the sale was complete. According to a French parliamentary report published last year, the threat of a huge fine "undoubtedly... precipitated Mr Kron's decision". Kron has always vehemently denied the allegation. "We absolutely did not make this transaction in response to any direct pressure on myself or anyone else," he told MPs. Alstom's power operations, he insists, were sold for the best business reasons. Indeed the purchase is widely seen as a costly mistake by GE, and in 2017 its CEO admitted as much. The US justice department's anti-corruption chief, Daniel Kahn, also rejects any suggestion of collusion. "We certainly didn't force Alstom to plead guilty in order to help out GE. That never entered into consideration," he told the BBC. Neither is the timing necessarily suspicious. The justice department could have taken the sale into account in its settlement with Alstom simply because of GE's strong anti-corruption record. "In general, we don't want to discourage companies with strong compliance programs from acquiring companies with weaker ones," Kahn says. Andrew Spalding, who teaches anti-corruption law at the University of Richmond, Virginia, notes that for any conspiracy between prosecutors and GE to work, it would also have to involve America's independent judiciary. "That's paranoia," he says. Power games The third battle Pierucci is convinced he was dragged into is the biggest of all. It is nothing less than a struggle for worldwide supremacy. In the subtitle of his book, he describes himself as a "hostage in the greatest campaign of economic destabilisation". He is not alone in believing America is seeking to weaken foreign companies. This is the way most French analysts and many politicians have described the various Alstom sagas over the years. Pierre Laporte, a former GE lawyer who now works as Pierucci's partner, notes that 70% of firms targeted for US anti-bribery action are foreign - notably European. The FCPA and other laws that apply beyond US borders, Laporte says, are "tools of economic domination". Such suspicions may sound overblown, but they reflect serious concerns in France. Alstom, whose turbines power the country's nuclear stations and submarines, is regarded as a strategic asset. Many worry that if a serious diplomatic spat arose with the US, as was the case during the Iraq war, French sovereignty could be undermined. America's judicial expansionism is a matter of concern for many countries whose companies are being pursued for doing business with Iran and other states targeted by American sanctions. Since his return to Paris, however, Pierucci has focused on the narrow issue of the fight against corruption rather than geopolitical power games. He and Laporte have set up a consultancy to help companies stay on the right side of anti-bribery prosecutors. There is a big demand for Pierucci's expertise. In 2016, France belatedly passed tough anti-corruption legislation and is enforcing it. The US justice department's Daniel Kahn says he has a "very strong relationship" with his French counterparts - this recently resulted in a successful joint action against French bank Société Générale over bribes in Libya. "Once you identify possible violations, you can put safeguards in place," Pierucci says. He tells his clients to be particularly vigilant about hidden practices by overseas partners or consultants that may put them at risk. Danger can lurk in unexpected places. In 2017 a retired Siemens manager was arrested while on holiday in Croatia and extradited to the US, where he was eventually convicted over bribes paid by the German group in Argentina in the 1990s. As the reach of US legislation expands, foreign executives who fight the law may well find that the law wins.

As so-called Islamic State (IS) militants are driven out of Mosul, Paul Moss reports on the continuing plight of the Yazidis, the Iraqi religious group who the United Nations says has suffered more destruction than any other at IS hands.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Paul MossThe World Tonight, Irbil First one of the Yazidi women started crying, then one of her friends. And then one of the visitors could be heard stifling a sob. We were listening as a group of Yazidis recounted the now horribly familiar story of how IS came to their homeland on Mount Sinjar in 2014, killing thousands and driving many thousands more into exile. "Some of our neighbours were running away, but before reaching the mountains, Islamic State gangs captured them and took them," one of the women said. "The men were killed, and the women and children taken. "So many died." The long road ahead None of these women wanted to give their name. The experience of two years ago has apparently left them with a deeply ingrained sense of fear - of other people, and of the future: "They might be able to drive Islamic State out of our area, but it would be very difficult for us to return to where we came from, because we're scared something might happen," one of the women said. "They might come back." The possibility of returning is on the minds of many Iraqis, as IS comes under sustained attack in Mosul and is defeated outright elsewhere. But even Yazidis not scared to go home would find it extremely difficult because the city of Sinjar and the villages that surround it have been so thoroughly destroyed. "From houses to roads to bridges, the area is razed to the ground," says Dara Yara, a minister in the Iraqi government, with responsibility for housing and construction. He makes no bones about the long time it will take before they can even start proper rebuilding in the Yazidi areas. "This kind of situation needs peace, stability. This is a long process," he says. No return For now, many Yazidis languish in refugee camps, contemplating another winter under canvas. Others have given up on the idea of returning home, and have sought asylum in Europe and North America. It is a trend that worries Luqman Suleiman, a teacher, who also takes people round the Yazidis' most holy temple, in the town of Lalish. "They want to go to Germany, to France, to Australia," he says. "There is no future for the Yazidis in Kurdistan." As far as Mr Suleiman is concerned, the problem is not a matter of houses and roads. What will ultimately dissuade Yazidis from returning to their homes and lives on Mount Sinjar, he says, is the fact their own neighbours helped IS. He is one of many Yazidis who insist that Sunni Muslims already living in Sinjar told IS who was Yazidi and who was not. "The people in the villages helped Islamic State kill the men, kill all the men, and take away the girls," he says. "How can people live again together?" The future No-one is sure how many Yazidi girls were taken away by IS, but a United Nations report suggested it was between 5,000 and 7,000, and that some, perhaps many, were being held as sexual slaves across the border in Syria, but also in Mosul. It is another thought that occupies the minds of Yazidis, as they watch Iraqi army tanks make their way through Mosul's streets. "They are there. Recently, one member escaped, but the others - we don't know," another Yazidi woman says, another who does not want to give her name, lest there be reprisals against members of her family still inside IS-held territory. She was speaking at a rehabilitation centre in Qadia refugee camp, run on behalf of a British charity, The Lotus Flower. Here, Yazidi women are taught various skills, including how to sew. The hope is that this may one day provide them with a source of income, but the manager running the project acknowledges that the main purpose is therapeutic. "We have to help them to be busy with something," says Vian Ahmed, "rather than thinking a lot about what happened to them, about what horrible memories they have." "Islamic State survivors tend to want to be alone. "We are helping them to get out, which will be a benefit to them, psychologically and socially." Of course, what would really benefit the Yazidis would be if they could get out of the refugee camps in which so many of them are living, and for those who want to, to have a chance to see again the villages in which they have lived for so many generations. But that remains a very distant prospect, if not an impossible one.

The contents may be controversial, there may be talk of backbench rebellions and attempts to rewrite the proposals.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Mark D'ArcyParliamentary correspondent But when Parliament plunges into the procedural thicket that is the Budget, the legion of new MPs will discover it's much more difficult than they might imagine. First off, you don't amend the Budget, you amend the subsequent legislation, the Finance Bill. Second, the procedural mechanisms around it make that a rather baffling task. What MPs actually debate in the Budget debate is a series of resolutions on which the Finance Bill is brought in. Typically, they describe the scope of the bill, and only the first one can be amended - and it is normally drafted in such a way as to make amendment a practical impossibility. What MPs don't therefore get is an early opportunity to say "we want to do something different" with, say, corporation tax. The opportunity to try and make changes comes with the Finance Bill, and the thing to watch there is which clauses are allocated for debate in Committee of the Whole House, and which are sent upstairs to the bill committee. Budget peculiarities Since the improbable 1970s alliance of Labour rebels Jeff Rooker and Audrey Wise, with the Conservatives under Nigel Lawson, which pushed through the index-linking of tax thresholds (very significant in those high inflation days), the government whips have been very wary of putting awkward squad backbenchers into a Finance Bill committee. So any major action would probably have to take place on the floor of the House. The Labour whips will doubtless be seeking to force votes on aspects of the chancellor's plans that displease Tory backbenchers. Keep an eye on backbenchers like Robert Halfon, who has led campaigns against increases in fuel duty for a decade, and the formidable duo of Andrew Mitchell and Dame Margaret Hodge, who will doubtless continue their long-running campaign for a register of the beneficial ownership of assets in the UK, and its dependent territories, to combat money laundering. There are other peculiarities to the Budget debate. The proceedings are chaired by the senior deputy speaker, Dame Eleanor Laing, as Chairman of Ways and Means. This tradition dates back to the 17th Century, when the Speaker was considered a stooge of the Crown, and MPs preferred to have debates on taxation chaired by someone else. Test for Starmer Dame Eleanor, incidentally, has a special role: before the chancellor begins, she is presented with a sealed envelope containing the resolutions to be moved immediately - these are any increases in duties on alcohol, cigarettes, or even fuel, that might be proposed. But there's no peeking, and absolutely no pre-emptive lunchtime trips to the off-licence. The chancellor delivers his statement, and then the Leader of the Opposition responds. Saying something coherent about this massive and complex package of measures is probably the single toughest gig in the parliamentary year, so it will be a considerable test of Sir Keir Starmer's parliamentary abilities. The shadow chancellor gets her chance to respond the next day, when she opens the next stage of the Budget debate. The debate lasts for four sitting days, concluding on Tuesday 9 March, and there's some attempt to give each day a theme, with particular cabinet ministers and their shadows opening, but MPs don't have to stick to those themes, so it's all a bit amorphous. Meanwhile, in the House of Lords, a new plotline has emerged with the decisions of the veteran ex-health secretary, Lord Fowler, to quit the Woolsack early. Watch out for open auditioning by would-be successors. Here's my rundown of the week ahead: Monday 1 March The Commons opens (14:30 GMT) with an hour of Education questions, and, as ever, that is likely to be followed by any post-weekend government statements or urgent questions (it's often a sign that something may be dropped into the agenda at the last minute, when the main business looks quite light). In this case, the main business is a series of statutory instruments, secondary legislation to implement policies. There's also a slot on the agenda set aside for Lords amendments. I think this may be for the Ministerial and other Maternity Allowances Bill, where there have been amendments to change "person" to "woman." The adjournment debate sees Labour's Stephen Morgan hammering away at one of his party's major themes, the protection of leaseholders from fire safety remediation costs. On the committee corridor, Housing, Communities and Local Government (16:00) has a follow-up session on the post-Grenfell drive to remove flammable cladding from tower blocks, with witnesses from the Association of Residential Managing Agents, the UK Cladding Action Group and the National Housing Federation giving their view of the government's latest proposals. Petitions has an evidence hearing on an online petition on TV licensing (16:30). In formal terms, these are select committee sessions, but in effect they're mini-Westminster Hall debates. The star turn is Culture Minister John Whittingdale. Treasury (15:30) hears further evidence on The Financial Conduct Authority's regulation of the collapsed company, London Capital & Finance, from the top brass at the FCA, Chief Executive Nikhil Rathi and Chairman Charles Randell. In the Lords (13:00) proceedings open with the introduction of two new peers, Baroness Chapman of Darlington, the former Labour MP Jenny Chapman, who lost her seat in the 2019 general election, and Lord Etherton, the former Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice, who was the second most senior judge in England and Wales from 2016 to 2021. Then, ministers face questions on allowing cadet forces to resume their activities, domestic energy efficiency and conducting relations with the US government "on the basis of sovereign equality". Then peers polish off the relatively uncontroversial Non-Domestic Rating (Lists) (No. 2) Bill. Peers will also debate the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers and Self-Isolation) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2021, which, among other things, bring in a new fixed penalty notice for attending a gathering of more than 15 people in a private home or educational setting, or in an indoor rave. The penalty for a first offence will be £800 (£400 if paid within 14 days) but doubles for each successive offence, to a maximum of £6,400. Tuesday 2 March The Commons begins (11:30) with Foreign Office questions. The day's ten-minute rule bill, from Conservative MP Duncan Baker, aims to require high street banks to provide basic banking services through the 11,500-strong Post Office branch network, as a way of compensating for the loss of 14,000 bank branches since 1988. This would replace a voluntary and, he says, unsatisfactory arrangement, and provide much better security for communities. The bill is supported by a range of backbenchers, the Post Office and the National Federation of Sub Postmasters. Then, MPs debate a 0.5 per cent increase in compensation payments to pneumoconiosis sufferers, and lump-sum payments to mesothelioma sufferers. That is followed by a general debate on Covid-19 and the cultural and entertainment sectors. It's a busy day on the virtual committee corridor, with Education (10:00) focussing on the impact of Covid on education and children's services. Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (14:30) hears evidence on fish and meat exports to the EU from Seafood Scotland, the Shellfish Association of Great Britain, the British Meat Processors Association, the National Pig Association and the National Sheep Association. Foreign Affairs (14:30) continues its hearings on the Xinjiang detention camps in China, with witnesses from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Anti-Slavery International and Human Rights Watch. In the Lords (12:00), the action begins with the introduction of Lord Khan of Burnley, Wajid Khan, a former Labour MEP for North West England. Questions range across supporting the economy of Anglesey following Horizon Nuclear Power's decision to drop is bid to build a power station there, the financing of Transport for London, and a redress scheme for women and families harmed by sodium valproate following the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review. Then, peers debate two important statutory instruments. The first deals with the powers of UK Border Force officials operating ("juxtaposed") in ports in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. This order would give them the power to use reasonable force, to enforce compliance with UK immigration controls. The second aims to prevent people from travelling to or from the UK, for security reasons. Since the system began, in 2015, the Home Office has refused authority to carry around 8,000 individuals into the UK. The 2015 scheme has a sunset clause, meaning that it would cease to have effect from April 2022, and a replacement scheme has been fast-tracked because of Brexit. Wednesday 3 March A momentous Commons day begins (11:30) with half an hour of Northern Ireland questions, followed, at noon by Prime Minister's Question Time. (There is no ten-minute rule bill - the legacy of an eruption by Alex Salmond before a 1980s budget, which led to a rule change.) Then comes the day's main event, the 2021 Budget, from Chancellor Rishi Sunak. This kicks off a series of themed debates, in the following days, on the contents of the statement, extending into the following week. The importance of the Budget means that there is no significant committee business clashing with it. But Transport (09:30) does have a session on the post-Covid future of the aviation sector, with Aviation Minister Robert Courts. In the Lords (12:00), questions cover a report by accountants KPMG into loans to Northampton Town Football Club from the local council, the timetable for refugee resettlements under the UK Resettlement Scheme, and how funding replacing EU grants in Wales will be administered. The main legislative action is consideration of the detail of the Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill - where there are plenty of amendments from legal heavyweights on the sentencing rules for terror offences. Thursday 4 March MPs begin (09:30) with forty minutes of questions to environment ministers, followed by mini-question times for the MPs who speak on behalf of the Church Commissioners, the House of Commons Commission, the Parliamentary Works Sponsor Body, Public Accounts Commission and Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission. Business Questions to Commons leader Jacob Rees Mogg are followed by the continuation of the Budget debate. The day's committee action sees Public Accounts (10:00) looking at the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. In the Lords (12:00), there are questions to ministers on the use of British Board of Film Classifications ratings for user-generated content on video sharing platforms, and government discussions with UK fishing industry representatives during negotiations on the Brexit trade deal. The main event is a series of statutory instruments designed to allow England's local elections to go ahead in May. These could provide an opportunity to debate the row around the government's view on what kind of campaigning is permissible under Covid regulations. Other parties fear this will not allow them a level playing field, particularly because the government has issued guidance that getting activists to post campaign literature is not allowed. And there are also questions about whether party leaders should be allowed to make campaign visits. Finally, peers consider Commons amendments to the Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Bill.

Labour is calling for an investigation after the prime minister accused Sadiq Khan of leaving a "black hole" in Transport for London's (TfL's) funding during a Downing Street press briefing.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Boris Johnson accused the mayor of London of "blowing" TfL's finances with an "irresponsible fares policy". Mr Khan dismissed the remarks as "lies". Labour has written to the Cabinet Secretary Simon Case to investigate if Mr Johnson broke the ministerial code. The remarks were made from Downing Street during the pre-election purdah for the London mayoral election on 6 May. During purdah the government is required to limit announcements that might influence the outcome of an election. In a letter to Mr Case, Labour's Deputy Leader Angela Rayner, said the ministerial code "clearly states that official facilities and resources may not be used for the dissemination of party political material". Asked at Monday's coronavirus press conference about potential government support for London's pandemic recovery, the prime minister said: "As for the finances of TfL, I must respectfully remind you that I left them in robust good order. "And it is not through any fault of my own that the current Labour mayor decided to blow them on an irresponsible fares policy. "We're doing our best to help them out and will continue to do so. "And I'm afraid there was a black hole in TfL's finances even before Covid began." Mr Khan said he had reduced TfL's deficit by "more than 71% before the pandemic". Mr Khan said: "I think it is inappropriate for all of us to follow the rules and abide by the rules, and Boris Johnson to yet again break the rules in the way he's done. "Firstly, during the purdah period using a government platform to attack a Labour candidate. "But secondly, to tell lies." Related Internet Links London City Hall Electing the Mayor and Assembly London Elects

Coastguard rescue teams were deployed after reports several swimmers got into difficulty in water off the Jurassic coast.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Lifeboat crews were sent to Durdle Door and Stair Hole in Dorset after some members of a group of 15 swimmers required assistance just after midday. The coastguard said all swimmers were accounted for after they "self-rescued" at various points along the coastline. Crowds have flocked to the area after lockdown restrictions were eased. Related Internet Links Maritime and Coastguard Agency

Models made with hundreds of thousands of Lego bricks are on display in Sheffield to mark the moon landing's 50th anniversary year.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: A 6ft 2in (1.9m) model of astronaut Neil Armstrong was built with 81,090 bricks and took two makers 261 hours. He features along with other astronauts, planets, rockets and space vehicles recreated out of Lego. The interstellar trail takes visitors on a journey around the city and runs until 30 August.

The threat to Indonesia from militant groups is likely to remain active and high for the forseeable future, though recent attacks by supporters of the so-called Islamic State (IS) group show that their capacity for violence remains limited for now.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Four of the eight casualties in the Jakarta terror attack in January were the attackers themselves, and a suicide bomber in Surakarta on 5 July succeeded only in killing himself and injuring one police officer. This is quite a contrast with more devastating previous incidents, the worst of which were the Bali bombings in 2002, which killed more than 200 people. Support at home and abroad But regional authorities and terror experts believe IS has galvanised militancy in Indonesia again after a largely successful crackdown on terror networks there in recent years. Between 300 and 700 Indonesians are believed to have joined the group in Syria and Iraq over the past two years. In Hasakah province, Syria, they have combined with fighters from Malaysia to form their own unit, Majmu'ah al-Arkhabiliy, also known as Katibah Nusantara Daulah Islamiyah. IS has also stepped up its propaganda efforts targeting the South-East Asian region in recent months. Indonesians have appeared in two of its latest videos, threatening governments and police, and urging supporters to carry out attacks where they are if they cannot travel to the Middle East. Up to 30 Indonesian groups have pledged allegiance to IS and some have voiced ambitions to establish an official IS province in South-East Asia. While many top militant leaders have been either killed or captured, IS-inspired cells exist and are a continuing threat, influenced by leaders both at home and abroad. The Jakarta attackers are believed to have been directed by Indonesians based with IS in the Middle East, particularly one Bahrun Naim, as well as jailed local cleric Aman Abdurrahman, who is believed to lead a group called Jamaah Anshar Khilafah (JAK) from prison. The man who carried out the Surakarta bombing, Nur Rohman, is also believed to be a JAK member and to have links to Naim. Competition may drive attacks The Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) issued a report earlier this year saying that competition between the leaders of local groups and Katibah Nusantara is likely to lead to further attacks. In addition, al-Qaeda is likely to have a continuing interest in Indonesia as well. The Jakarta attacks were claimed by IS but also preceded by a message from al-Qaeda specifically targeting Indonesians. Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the al-Qaeda-inspired group responsible for previous attacks has largely splintered, and its jailed leader Abu Bakar Bashir rowed back on a previous pledge of allegiance to IS. But it is believed to have been actively recruiting again. Membership is thought to be back up to about 2,000 - the level it was at before the Bali bombings - according to IPAC's director, Sidney Jones. Reforms required The authorities have imprisoned some 800 militants and killed more than 100 since the Bali bombings. But it has not had a great amount of success reforming them. Hundreds of militants - some with significant battlefield experience - are due to be released from prison in the coming years, and they may bolster the current ranks of jihadists. Taufik Andrie, the executive director of Yayasan Prasasti Perdamaian, an institute that helps paroled militants, estimates that some 40% of 400 militants released as of December, for example, have returned to their radical network. Security analysts have also questioned the authorities' ability to curb the influence of jailed jihadist leaders and the support that mosques and Islamic schools might provide to militants. Indonesia is also attempting to tighten its anti-terrorism laws: to more clearly define terrorism and make it illegal to join militant groups like IS, enable police to detain people who support terrorist groups, and to enable them to hold terror suspects for longer periods - all issues that police say are hampering their jobs at the moment. 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.

A £30m work programme has been launched to help long-term unemployed people find jobs.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Announcing the scheme on Thursday, Communities Minister Lesley Griffiths said the scheme would support 35,000 adults over three years. More than 200 specialists will help people who struggle to find work because of issues with childcare, qualifications or health. The Communities 4 Work scheme is available to people aged over 25.

UN climate negotiators are meeting in Bonn amid a welter of reports indicating that concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have broken records, while international attempts to curb greenhouse gases are not doing enough to avoid dangerous levels of warming. Our environment correspondent Matt McGrath has travelled to Switzerland to see if technology to remove CO2 from the air could be the answer to this ongoing carbon conundrum.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Matt McGrathEnvironment correspondent While CO2 concentrations are now higher than they have been in at least 800,000 years, the gas still only accounts for a tiny 0.04% of our atmosphere. However, extracting carbon dioxide from well mixed air is not just technically difficult, it's expensive as well. A half-hour outside Zurich stands one of the frontline attempts to develop a commercial approach to sucking down CO2. On the roof of a large recycling centre at Hinwil stand 18 metal fans, stacked on top of each, each about the size of a large domestic washing machine. These fans suck in the surrounding air and chemically coated filters inside absorb the CO2. They become saturated in a few hours so, using the waste heat from the recycling facility, the filters are heated up to 100C and very pure carbon dioxide gas is then collected. This installation, called a direct-air capture system, has been developed by a Swiss company called Climeworks. It can capture about 900 tonnes of CO2 every year. It is then pumped to a large greenhouse a few hundred metres away, where it helps grow bigger vegetables. This is not supposed to be a demonstration of a clever technology - for the developers, making money from CO2 is critical. "This is the first time we are commercially selling CO2; this is the first of its kind," co-founder Jan Wurzbacher told BBC News. "It has to be for business; CO2 capture can't work for free." Right now Climeworks is selling the gas to the vegetable growers next door for less than $600 per tonne, which is very expensive. But the company says that this is because it has built its extraction devices from scratch - everything is bespoke. The firm believes that like solar and wind energy, costs will rapidly fall once production is scaled up. "The magic number we always say is $100 per tonne," said Jan Wurzbacher. "We have drawn a road down to the region of $100 and that is something we think is feasible. We can do it by scaling up the mass production of our components. I'd say half of the way to go there - we know what to do. We just have to do it over the next two or three years." One of the things about CO2 that makes it attractive for developers is that it has many uses in the world. From fish food to concrete; from car seats to toothpaste - entrepreneurs are trying to use carbon dioxide as a raw material. There's also a roaring trade in CO2 in the US, where it's being used, without irony, to boost the extraction of oil from wells. One of the most ambitious plans is to extract CO2 and turn it into fuel. A couple of years ago, car manufacturer Audi announced it had developed what it called "e-diesel", a liquid fuel made from water and CO2. Climeworks supplied some of the CO2 for the trials. Driving down the price of capturing CO2 is key to making this idea work. "If you have to pay $100 per tonne of CO2 that makes roughly 25 cents per litre of gasoline," said Jan Wurzbacher. "It is a reasonable amount per litre or per kilogramme of natural gas." Making fuel or other products out of CO2 might help but it won't achieve the type of large scale take-down from the atmosphere that many scientists now fear will be necessary over the next 20-30 years if the goals of the Paris climate agreement are to be met. 'Natural' solution The terms of the pact state that there needs to be a "balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases" in the second half of this century. To reach that balance, many experts believe we will have to resort to technological means of taking carbon out of the air. "There are some things we can do in the real near-term but to get to zero emissions we will probably need some technologies to remove carbon from the atmosphere," Dr Glen Peters from the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research told BBC News. "So we need to focus on getting things deployed that we know already work and at the same time we also need to focus on developing new technologies that will help us go the last part of the journey." Back in 2013, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggested that BECCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage) might be one way to do this. BECCS involves growing plants that suck down carbon, then burning them to make energy while capturing and burying the carbon that is released. Critics point out that to make a real impact with BECCS would take up way too much land that could be used for planting food. However, a recent study showed that a simpler approach, including planting more trees and better management of soils and grasslands, could actually make a significant difference. The report said that this could account for 37% of all actions needed by 2030 - the equivalent to China's current emissions from fossil fuel use. So would the world be better off planting trees than waiting for Climeworks and others to perfect their technology? "We're not against trees," said Anka Timofte, an engineer with the company. "It is all about the efficiency of the surface area that you are using. Our machine has a higher capacity of removing CO2 from the air and this CO2 can be re-used, and our machines are location-independent, so we could place them in the desert or anywhere there is an energy source." Climeworks has big ambitions. Recently it opened a plant in Iceland. CO2 is captured and buried underground where it will eventually turn to stone. The Swiss company wants to capture 1% of global emissions of CO2 by 2025. But to make a small dent in the global picture would require the use of 750,000 units similar to the one installed in Hinwil right now. It would also require huge amounts of energy to run these devices. 'Magical techno-fixes' The Swiss company is not alone. There are similar efforts underway in Canada with a company called Carbon Engineering, and a Finnish-German consortium is also in the direct air-capture business. So plentiful are they becoming that environmental groups have started to map the progress of these and other geo-engineering projects that aim to curb climate change through technology. Many greens are deeply suspicious of these efforts. They argue that we need a fundamental rethink of the way that we produce and consume to put sustainability at the heart of everything we do. "We need to step back and actually question what are all the possible pathways to a climate safe future," said Lili Fuhr from the Heinrich Böll Foundation. "Have we seriously explored them and are they not more realistic than relying on these magical technologies that in my view hold immense risks and uncertainties and are certainly harmful for many people around the planet?" Other critics are worried that if the technology works, then it will encourage politicians not to make the cuts in carbon and rapidly move to renewable energy. Question of time Climeworks' Jan Wurzbacher rejects this idea. He says it is all a matter of timing. "If you had asked me 20 years ago I would have said that, yes, you should just focus on reducing emissions. "But as of today we may have passed the point of being able to achieve it just by that. People say we will need to remove 10 gigatonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere every year by 2050. It's not enough to develop it then; you need to deploy it and scale it, and that will take 30 years!" Lili Fuhr doesn't agree. She says that approaches to capturing carbon are all part of a self-preservation strategy by the fossil fuel industry. "For many decades the fossil fuel industry has funded climate sceptics and in that way tried to prevent climate action. But they've seen that is not working, so instead of denying, they are beginning to come up with these magical techno-fixes that would help prolong the lifespan of their industry. "What we are seeing is a shift in the broader denial-ism and prevention strategy of the fossil fuel industry." Follow Matt on Twitter and on Facebook

When reports emerged earlier this week that no girl had been born in 132 villages in the small Himalayan state of Uttarakhand in the last three months, it sparked panic and prompted a government investigation into the matter.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Soutik BiswasIndia correspondent The "no girl villages" were reported from Uttarkashi, where some 400,000 people live in 550 villages and five towns. Much of the terrain is hilly and remote. In a country which has been grappling with an awful sex-ratio imbalance - largely because of illegal sex-selection abortions - the news has caused considerable anguish. Except that this might not be completely true. The reports said 216 boys and no girls were born in the 132 villages between April and June. But officials found 180 girls and no boys were born during the same period in 129 different villages. And to complete the mixed picture, 88 girls and 78 boys were born in another 166 villages. Overall 961 live births were recorded in Uttarkashi between April and June. A total of 479 were girls, while 468 were boys. (The rest were possibly stillborn) This, officials say, corresponds with the district's favourable sex ratio of 1,024 women for 1,000 men, higher than the national average of 933 women per 1,000 men. Officials say the media possibly cherry-picked the birth data provided by volunteer health workers entrusted with collecting it. Some 600 of these workers are tasked with the job of recording pregnancies and births, and carrying out immunisation and birth control programmes. "I feel media reports about the no-girl villages have been misinterpreted. Also, there is not enough understanding of the context. We've ordered an investigation anyway," Ashish Chauhan, the senior-most official of the district told me. So 26 officials have fanned out across 82 villages to check the veracity of the data and to find out whether something is wrong. Slip-up? What could have gone wrong? One possibility is the data is erroneous or incomplete, and the health workers slipped up. Did they assign a number of male births to a group of villages, and a number of female births to another group? Second, Uttarkashi is a thinly populated place. The average population of a village is 500, and some of the more remote villages have a population of about 100. Health officials say the smallest villages will typically have 10-15 households, and a substantial number of such villages with single-sex births "did not add up to much". "If girl babies have not been born in so many villages, it would have hurt the overall sex ratio of the district," Mr Chauhan said. Locals claim there is little history of discrimination between boys and girls in the district, and point to its favourable sex ratio. "Be it girl or boy, we only pray that the child is healthy and happy," Roshni Rawat, a local woman, told the Hindustan Times newspaper. Also, women here are typically more hardworking than men: labouring on farms, cutting grass, milking cows, cooking and doing household chores. Alcoholism among men is high. Officials say they have not reported cases of female foeticide in the district for some years now. There are three registered ultrasound machines in the district, all in government clinics. "There's no economies of scale here to carry out large-scale illegal abortions or tests to abort female births," says Mr Chauhan. But there's an interesting caveat. Of the 961 births here between April and June, 207 were recorded at home. (The rest were recorded in hospitals or institutions.) A total of 109 of them were male and 93 were girls, upending the overall sex ratio in this district. "This is a bit of a puzzle. We have to investigate this further. Home births typically happen in far-flung villages where access to ambulances and clinics is difficult," Dr Chandan Singh Rawat, a senior medical officer of the district told me. In a week's time, we will know more about the so-called "missing girls" of Uttarakhand. Read more from Soutik Biswas Follow Soutik on Twitter at @soutikBBC

The government has said it is willing to drop parts of a controversial piece of legislation - the Internal Market Bill - which had the potential to further complicate the already tense trade talks between the UK and the EU.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Chris MorrisReality Check correspondent, BBC News It contains measures relating to the way trade will be done between Northern Ireland and Great Britain in the future. They would only come into force if the UK and the EU failed to reach a trade deal. But they would overrule parts of the Brexit withdrawal agreement the UK signed with the EU last year. The House of Lords voted to remove the offending clauses from the bill in November but the House of Commons then voted to reinstate them. The government now says it is willing to withdraw them because of an "agreement in principle" on a range of issues affecting Northern Ireland. So, what is the controversy about? Breaking the law The withdrawal agreement (also known as the Brexit "divorce deal") includes a section - or protocol - on Northern Ireland, and it is now an international treaty. Article 4 of the agreement says the provisions of the treaty take legal precedence over anything in the UK's domestic law. So if any of the proposals in the Internal Market Bill that contradict the withdrawal agreement actually became law, it would breach the government's international obligations. That is what the Northern Ireland Secretary, Brandon Lewis referred to in September when he spoke about breaking international law in a "very specific and limited way". Breaking the law, though, is still breaking the law. What was agreed on Northern Ireland? The overall aim of the Northern Ireland protocol was to avoid the return of a "hard" land border between Northern Ireland, in the UK, and the Republic of Ireland, in the EU. All sides agreed they did not want the return of border checks - or other physical infrastructure - that could become a target. One of the solutions in the treaty was to keep Northern Ireland in the EU single market for goods, unlike the rest of the United Kingdom. It promised to maintain unfettered access for Northern Ireland goods to the rest of the UK but also introduced new bureaucracy for trade across the Irish Sea. So what's the problem? The way these measures will be implemented on the ground have been negotiated by UK and EU officials, who have been meeting in a joint committee for the past few months. If there was no agreement by the end of the transition period, on 31 December 2020, and there was no free-trade deal, that is when parts of this new proposed legislation would have come into play. For example, the protocol states that companies moving goods from Northern Ireland to Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) would have to fill out export declaration forms. But the government's Internal Market Bill would give ministers the right to overrule or ignore this part of EU customs law. Another part of the protocol says the UK has to follow EU rules on state aid - the financial support governments give to businesses - for goods related to Northern Ireland. But the Internal Market Bill would give ministers power to interpret what that means and says this should not be done in accordance with the case law of the European Court of Justice. The EU said this was trying to change parts of a recently-agreed international treaty unilaterally. And when the legislation was first published, US President-elect Joe Biden warned that the Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland "cannot become a casualty of Brexit". But on 8 December, the UK and EU announced an "an agreement in principle" on issues including border control posts, the supply of food and medicines and clarification around state aid in Northern Ireland. As a result, the government said it would drop the controversial clauses in the bill. Taxation Bill The Internal Market Bill only deals with trade from Northern Ireland to Great Britain, but the debate about goods moving in the opposite direction is equally sensitive. The protocol says the joint committee is supposed to determine which goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland are "at risk" of being exported over the Irish border to the EU and should therefore have tariffs - taxes on imports - imposed on them. If there was no agreement between the two sides, then the default position would be tariffs paid on all goods. The UK had plans, due to be introduced in a Taxation Bill, to allow UK ministers to make unilateral decisions on which goods could be deemed as "at risk" - after 1 January. But, as a result of the "agreement in principle" - the government says these measures won't now be introduced. What claims do you want BBC Reality Check to investigate? Get in touch Read more from Reality Check Follow us on Twitter

George Whitman, who died this week, ran a remarkable Paris bookshop that has for decades been more than just a place to buy books in English, but also a writer's refuge and tourist destination - a place with an atmosphere all its own.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Christine FinnParis, France George Whitman made his money selling books, but he never forgot what he owed to those authors. His bookshop was a refuge for them. Over the decades, thousands of writers have helped out there, giving their time in exchange for a few hours, or even longer, with kindred spirits. Whitman's dictum was, "Give what you can, take what you need." A few lines of WB Yeats are painted on the wall: "Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise." Visiting authors and students were able to work here, sleep amid its piles of books and soak up its unique literary atmosphere. A few weeks ago, before George Whitman's death, I talked to his daughter Sylvia, about joining those ranks of writer-volunteers. Then, not long after, I stepped into the warm glow of Shakespeare and Company. "And this is the section to do with Paris," said Linda at the counter, in her Irish lilt, starting my grand tour of the bookshelves. It is a grey Monday morning, not a time you would expect many people around, but already the shop is buzzing with bibliophiles. The store was named after another which used to stand not far away, also by the River Seine, a gathering place for the likes of James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway. That Shakespeare and Company was owned by a woman called Sylvia Beach. George Whitman named his own daughter Sylvia after her. Reputed to be the grand-nephew of the American poet, Walt Whitman, he had his own radical friends in Paris. The work of these 1950s Beat poets occupies not just a section but a whole glass case in the shop. His daughter took over the reins a few years ago and, as some wondered whether the e-book would come to replace its paper and ink counterpart, she took Shakespeare and Company online to promote its events and history. The virtual book seemed not to matter. As ever, it was all about just being there. Linda guides me past poetry and the modern fiction sections, and through a series of tiny rooms which have the feel more of a library than a commercial enterprise. Mr Whitman described them as being like the chapters of a novel. I study walls papered with news cuttings and postcards, and walk up the stairs - through "plays and playwrights" - to the hallowed upper floor. This is where Sylvia Beach's own library sits, in a room now used for events. Amid the hush, I hear a familiar "tack, tack, tack, thunk" and a glimpse into a cosy writer's cave reveals someone sitting at an old portable typewriter at a desk, and shelves laden with well-thumbed books about how to get published. The only other sound, apart from the typing and the conversation, comes from a piano on which customers sometimes get carried away. "It's nice," says Linda, "the sound carries downstairs to the tills." She then gives me the science fiction and fantasy section to sort. Putting the books into some kind of order is a strangely comforting task. Conversations continue around me. A woman is flouting the "Please no photography" notice, directing a mobile phone photo shoot in the history section. "No," she instructs, "I want that shelf to be in it." Someone else is seeking advice on a good title for a book club reading, which results in a lively dialogue about international authors. I become fascinated by the role of the bookshop assistant. In my hands, sundry titles are unearthed from darker corners of the shop, and putting them into the few gaps I find in the shelves means I am bringing them, and their authors, into the light. On the stairs another volunteer is gamely trying to organise her section, precariously lunging with piles of books, between people going up and down. We smile as a light bulb blows in the crime section, leaving it in mysterious darkness. The light restored, a so-called "mirror of love" is revealed upstairs, its surface covered with notes and billets-doux, love poems and declarations. Here you can see not only a fascination with books, words and with Paris, but also the reflections of book lovers chatting over dusty tomes. "Oh, that's my favourite Auster too," says one. My session as a volunteer over, I go to collect my bag from a locker in the labyrinth upstairs. It turns out to be the lair of a writer-in-residence, 25-year-old Jimmy Hargreaves. He is a published poet from Grimsby and, with his long hair flopping over his chiselled face, he looks every inch the part, head bent over his paper notebook. "I'm a dreamer," he tells me. "This is a place where I can create." How to listen to From Our Own Correspondent: BBC Radio 4: A 30-minute programme on Saturdays, 1130. Second 30-minute programme on Thursdays, 1100 (some weeks only). Listen online or download the podcast BBC World Service: Hear daily 10-minute editions Monday to Friday, repeated through the day, also available to listen online. Read more or explore the archive at the programme website.

It's just before nine in the morning in the well-heeled north London suburb of Highgate. The area boasts A-list movie stars, Nobel laureates, some of the nicest views in London and in a few minutes' time Jessica Stewart will officially open the neighbourhood's new yoga studio.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: By Ian RoseBusiness reporter, BBC News Many businesses have rushed to move their services online as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, but Jessica is one of those taking advantage of newly empty premises to go into the High Street. "It is a huge risk and absolutely terrifying," she says, shortly before her first class begins at her new State studio. But she also says that the service has never been more important. "Everyone's mental health and physical health has been hugely affected by the lockdown." Flexible business During lockdown one of Jessica's streams of work came from online yoga classes for investment banks and other businesses who would hire her to help their stressed staff manage the constant screen time that came with working from home. Other clients who were home-schooling kids also reached out for yoga and other mindfulness techniques to help them cope. But do people worried about being close to each other in confined spaces want to come to a yoga studio? Before Covid some yoga studios would cram students in like sardines but that can't happen anymore. At State students bring their own mats, which are kept at a distance from each other, and the studio has a one-way system where you put your belongings in a box as you go in and then collect them as you leave via another exit. But with local lockdowns in some areas and new restrictions that could last for up to six months, is this the right time to be starting out on the High Street, particularly if another full lockdown were to come? "At any point should we need to or when we want to we can actually just stream our classes," Jessica says. "I think anyone doing anything right now has to build in that plan B, or plan Z depending on how bad things get." Sourdough dreams According to the British Retail Consortium, things have already become tricky on the High Street, where footfall was down 41% this August compared with a year ago. But that's not putting off fellow north Londoners Sophia Sutton-Jones and her husband Jesse. When lockdown happened they were running a business shipping kitchen equipment around the world but the transport charges for international shipping became so high that the business model no longer worked. Instead they fell back on Sophia's love of sourdough baking. For years she had written a well-read blog about the craft she had learnt from her baker father. A neighbour asked her to bake some bread and when they liked it they spread the word. Soon the couple were turning their flat into a sourdough microbakery. People were ordering online for delivery or pick-up in slots and they could not bake enough to meet the demand, which is when they started to look for premises. They decided to crowdfund and set a target of £25,000. In fact, they were overwhelmed by support and people pledged £33,000 to get them into their shop. The couple hope to have their bakery and baking school up and running in Crouch End by December and in the meantime are paying the bills with proceeds from Sophia's online baking courses. In the event of another lockdown, the couple say they would carry on delivering to their customers but they also hope as bakeries are categorised as essential businesses that they would be able to stay open. Riding the wave Opening a shop is plan B for Anna Strzelecki. Her business, iSea Surfwear, makes surf-style clothes which she sells at festivals and online. But this year the festivals that are the backbone of her business were cancelled. Anna and her staff design and make the clothes themselves, so to get them over the initial shock they made leggings for another company. "While the festivals were off the online business picked up as people were at home and wanted to still do shopping, so we were lucky we had built up that following," she says. Then Anna found out about an empty shop with a reasonable rent in a prime spot on the High Street of the South Wales holiday beauty spot of Pembroke. "Businesses support each other here," Anna says. She had previously taken empty shops as temporary "pop-ups" but never for more than two months. This time she's signed up for a year. "They're very welcoming here. They see me as adding something to the High Street by filling the shop rather than as competition." And Anna's prepared if the business is affected by further restrictions. "In the contract the landlord said they will reduce the rent if lockdown happens again," she says. "I would have a window display for the website." 'Opportunities in crisis' Anna, Jessica, Sophia and Jesse are not your typical High Street brands. They are not going to be replacing Marks and Spencer and John Lewis any time soon. "There are clearly lots of challenges for retailers right now," says Michelle Ovens, the founder of Small Business Britain and the director of Small Business Saturday UK. "But many small firms are also finding opportunities in a crisis, such as negotiating on a bricks-and-mortar presence, where landlords have space to fill. Shoppers are also tending to stick closer to home, favouring their local High Street over city centres. This love for shopping small works in the favour of community-driven businesses."

Swansea University officially opens its new £450m science and innovation campus on Monday.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: It has taken just over two years to build and will be home to almost 5,000 students and 1,000 staff in the university's College of Engineering and School of Management. The Bay Campus has direct access on to a beach and its own seafront promenade. The university hopes the campus will contribute £3bn to the regional economy over the next 10 years.

Firefighters in the West Midlands are to wear body cameras.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Watch commander Gemma McSweeney said the cameras would help firefighters gather information to review their responses to incidents. They are being rolled out after a trial at ten Birmingham fire stations earlier this year, during which a suspected gas explosion at a Birmingham home was filmed. The fire service said 80 cameras would be introduced in early 2017. In June Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service said its firefighters would wear helmet-mounted cameras, a decision the Fire Brigades Union warned "could compromise neutrality". Related Internet Links West Midlands Fire Service

Legal action has been taken to evict a group of travellers who have moved on to one of the sites used by the Anglesey Show.

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: They arrived on the Mona Industrial Estate site on Thursday, hours before organisers of next week's show were due to prepare it for use as a park-and-ride area. Anglesey council said the possession order means the site must be vacated. The annual two-day show, which attracts 60,000 visitors, starts on Tuesday. A council spokesperson said: "At Caernarfon County Court this morning, we were successful in obtaining a possession order and a warrant to evict travellers occupying land at Mona Industrial Estate."

Is it a revamped "Snoopers Charter," or is it an essential set of 21st century powers, to fight organised crime and terrorism?

You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text: Mark D'ArcyParliamentary correspondent Should the government be able to access your internet browsing history, bug your computer or smartphone, access and hold data on your medical history, trade union activities and much, much more? If so, what protections and procedures should be in place to control the process? How far should judges ride shotgun as ministers authorise intrusive powers? Should there be a watchdog to protect the citizen? These are some of the issues to be fought out next week, when the Commons holds two days of detailed debate on the Investigatory Powers Bill (here is my regular rundown of what is coming up in Parliament next week). This is the latest bill aimed at giving the security services and the police up-to-date powers to monitor activity on the internet - it comes with a long back-story: first there was the Communications Data Bill (the original Bill dubbed the Snoopers Charter, by its opponents) which was dropped after being savaged by a committee of MPs and Peers; then there was DRIPA, the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA), which only made it through Parliament after a clause was added to make it expire at the end of December. Now the IP Bill aims to renew and update those powers. The key to understanding what is going on, as this legislation returns to the Commons for two days of detailed Report Stage debate, next week, is the Parliamentary timetable and the mathematics in both the Commons and the Lords. The Bill has to be passed before the DRIPA expires in December - otherwise the legal authority for the existing powers will lapse (although there's always the option, in extremis, of passing an emergency mini-bill to continue the existing powers for a couple of months). Government concessions Then there's the maths - faced with some formidable backbench Tory critics, the government cannot rely on its narrow Commons majority, and needs at least the acquiescence of Labour to get the Bill through the House - and it has no majority at all in the Lords, so a roughing-up in the Commons may mean peers think they then have a licence to fillet the Bill of its most controversial provisions. And there's plenty of scope for controversy. The ur-text on this are the speeches by Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham and Labour's frontbench superlawyer, Sir Keir Starmer, at the Second Reading debate in March (the bill has been "carried over" from the previous session), where they set out their key concerns. Then, Labour abstained - arguing that a new framework for investigatory powers was needed, but this wasn't it. They set out a shopping list of changes required to gain their support. And since then an intensive process of behind the scenes negotiation has been under way - both between Labour and the government and with dissident Tories and amongst the opposition parties (providing, whisper it quietly, a rare example of Labour-SNP cooperation). This week, that process produced a couple of major government concessions. Trade unions First the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, David Anderson QC, has been commissioned to examine the operational case for the powers in the Bill (Labour being unconvinced by the evidence produced by the government, thus far). He will report back before the Bill reaches its Committee Stage in the House of Lords, and the government will have a hard time resisting any recommendations he makes, and would probably face defeat in the Upper House, if it did. Second, the government has agreed to accept Labour amendments making it clear that the powers in the Bill cannot be directed against legally-constituted trades unions. In addition, Home Secretary Theresa May has put down a new "privacy clause" (NC5) giving the various authorities allowed to employ the investigatory powers a duty to "have regard to: (a) whether what is sought to be achieved by the warrant, authorisation or notice could reasonably be achieved by other less intrusive means, (b) the public interest in the integrity and security of telecommunication systems and postal services, and (c) any other aspects of the public interest in the protection of privacy". This gives critics of the Bill some of the safeguards they want. Another government amendment will add a requirement for "exceptional and compelling circumstances" to justify the retention and examination, of health records. There is also movement on providing special protection for MPs, lawyers and journalists. Plenty of issues remain, however. 'Judicial review' All the opposition parties remain concerned about the extent to which the Bill would require people's internet connection records (ICRs) to be kept for 12 months. This would reveal which websites had been visited by who - although not the detail of what had been looked at within a particular site. There is still considerable dispute over the threshold of seriousness which should be crossed before this information could be accessed. Then there's the question of how authorisation should be granted. In the Bill, the security services apply to the Secretary of State for a warrant and then a Judicial Commissioner reviews the minister's decision under 'judicial review principles' - effectively checking that a proper process has been followed, rather than considering the merits of the application. Both Labour and former Shadow Home Secretary David Davis, a long-standing critic of the government's approach on investigatory powers and an important player on the Tory benches, have amendments down to tighten up this "double-lock" scrutiny mechanism and remove reference to judicial review principles throughout the Bill. Both want to give the Judicial Commissioner the same power as the Secretary of State to determine whether a warrant is required based on the evidence available. Major flashpoints And David Davis goes further, with a new clause (NC 22) to reverse the approval process, so that an application for a warrant is first made to a Judicial Commissioner, rather than the Secretary of State - although Labour look unlikely to support that. This area could be one of the major flashpoints; the government will probably resist any further erosion of ministers' role, on the principle that ministers, not judges, should take such decisions - and be accountable to Parliament for them. The SNP want even more controls - they're particularly concerned about equipment interference, one of the most intrusive powers in the bill, which would allow the direct bugging of computers, smartphones and other devices - and where it's applied to Parliamentarians, which includes those in the Scottish Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Welsh Assembly, they want both the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister to sign off on equipment interference warrants. They are also calling for heavier supervision of the use of investigatory powers - with amendments to replace the proposed Investigatory Powers Commissioner with a bigger, all-singing, all-dancing Investigatory Powers Commission. And across the opposition parties there is a move to ensure that the appointment of the Commissioner (or, if agreed, the members of the SNP's Commission) can be made, except on the recommendation of independent judicial appointments bodies in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. 'Unlawful use' Meanwhile, UKIP's Douglas Carswell has an amendment to require the appointment of the Investigatory Powers Commissioner to be agreed by the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament. Lib Dem former Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael has an amendment to address the problem that, because of the nature of the business, people who are wrongly subject to intrusive surveillance are unable to secure redress. To deal with this he proposes giving the Investigatory Powers Commissioner the power to notify those who have been a subject to an interception warrant/equipment interference/covert human intelligence gathering etc, when the authorisation or warrant against them has fallen. This would allow someone who is notified of their surveillance to take a case before the investigatory powers tribunal and would discourage the police or security services from mounting fishing expeditions based on very little evidence. A similar system is already in place in Germany, Belgium and California. This probably goes too far for Labour. The political parties are not the only players. The Intelligence and Security Committee, the high-powered parliamentary watchdog, chaired by the former Attorney General, Dominic Grieve, has weighed in with amendments designed to put privacy at the heart of the Bill. They start with New Clause 4, which creates a criminal offence of "unlawful use of investigatory powers". 'Operational purposes' It's not a completely new offence, but the idea is to create a catch-all crime, taking in what the committee calls the "intrusive investigatory powers in the Bill," rather than relying on offences scattered across several pieces of legislation. Another amendment (25) aims to limit the potentially broad scope of thematic warrants involving people who "share a common purpose" by ensuring that they also must be engaged in a particular activity. Then there's New Clause 2, to allow the ISC to refer matters on behalf of Parliament, to the Commissioner and to provide a mechanism for the Committee to be informed of the outcome. And there's a proposal that the list of "Operational Purposes" for which the powers can be used is reviewed at least annually by the Prime Minister. Other amendments have come from individual MPs: the Conservative Stephen McPartland's New Clause 6 is designed to limit access to Communications Data to the Intelligence Services and Law Enforcement Agencies only. "There is no rationale for organisations such as Food Standards Agency and Gambling Commission to have the same incredibly intrusive powers as the Intelligence Services, Mr McPartland said. Conservative ex-minister Sir Edward Leigh wants to require the Secretary of State to consult the Speaker before deciding to issue a warrant that applied to an MP's communications - and a further cross-party amendment extends that to the presiding officers of all UK legislatures. SNP concerns And the SNP go further - proposing a new clause (NC23) to ensure applications for a targeted equipment interference warrant or targeted examination warrant against Parliamentarians are decided by a Judicial Commissioner, without the involvement of the Home Secretary - and it would also provide extra safeguards to the correspondence of Parliamentarians when a warrant for hacking is sought. This is just a cross-section of some 400 amendments. Of course, many will not be selected by the Speaker for debate, while others will be grouped together, but there will be plenty of issues on which the government, faced with a combination of most of the Opposition parties, plus an array of Tory dissidents, may be forced into concessions. There's a delicate political dance here, because while ministers are not in a strong position, Labour (which would be the essential keystone of any government defeat) cannot afford to be painted into a corner where it looks soft on terrorism. While almost the entire Opposition abstained at Second Reading, few are expected to do so when Third Reading is reached on Tuesday. But it would take a monumental bust-up over some really crucial point for Labour to vote against - especially when they know that the Bill will certainly be highly vulnerable to further amendment, when it reaches the House of Lords. The SNP, meanwhile, say the government has not responded to their concern. Justice spokesperson Joanna Cherry MP said: "For the UK government to dismiss reasonable SNP amendments outright means they run the real risk of putting opposition parties in the position of having to vote against the Bill in its entirety. "That is not a decision that we would take lightly - so I call on the Home Secretary to urgently reconsider adopting our proposals before next week's vote."