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Iran has signed a deal to buy 118 Airbus planes worth $25bn (€22bn; £17.4bn) at list prices in one of the biggest deals signed since Western sanctions against Tehran were lifted. | By Chris JohnstonBusiness reporter
The agreement was signed during a visit by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to France.
The order included 73 wide body and 45 narrow body jets, including 12 A380 superjumbos.
Iran's decision to buy the A380 is a significant boost for Airbus.
The company has struggled to convince airlines to order the world's biggest passenger aircraft in the past two years.
Airbus only broke even on the A380 programme last year, a decade after it first took to the air.
The huge deal will depend on Airbus winning US export licences because more than 10% of the parts for the planes are made in the United States.
It also covers the training of pilots, airport operations and air traffic management support, the company said.
The UK stands to benefit from the order as wings for Airbus planes such as the A320 are made in Broughton, north Wales.
Iran is also interested in buying planes from Boeing, Airbus's arch rival.
Transport Minister Abbas Akhoundi has estimated that his country will need 400 medium- and long-range planes, and 100 short-haul jets, in the next few years.
An embargo imposed in 1995 has prevented Western manufacturers from selling equipment and spare parts to Iranian companies.
Iranian airlines have about 140 planes that are an average of 20 years old, with many needing to be retired.
Direct flights
Flag carrier Iran Air has three weekly flights to London and two to Paris and Amsterdam respectively.
It is also considering resuming direct flights to the US, which ended more than 30 years ago.
About one million Iranians live in the US, with the thousands who fly home every year forced to change in London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Istanbul or Dubai.
Iran Air chief executive Farhad Parvaresh said: "Today's announcement is a first step towards restoring the prestige of the civil aviation sector in the region, and alongside partners such as Airbus we will offer unparalleled services."
Several European airlines, including Air France-KLM, plan to resume flights to Iran this year.
Many European companies are lining up to strike deals with Iran following the lifting of sanctions.
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When so-called Islamic State announced on 8 June that it had killed a Chinese man and woman in their mid-twenties in Pakistan's most volatile province, many would have assumed they were two of the thousands of workers that Beijing has sent to the country in the last few years. | China is investing more than $55bn (£43bn) in Pakistan, a key beneficiary of its grand plan to connect Asia and Europe with a new Silk Road paid for by Beijing.
Such an ambitious project involves risk, and China is building major infrastructure projects in Balochistan, a Pakistani province home to a long-running separatist insurgency and an array of militant and jihadist groups.
But Meng Lisi and Li Xinheng were not there to work on Chinese-funded projects.
They were in the provincial capital, Quetta, on a clandestine mission: to spread the word of Christianity in the unlikeliest and most dangerous of places in conservative Muslim Pakistan.
Their story draws attention to an unintended and often overlooked by-product of China's aggressive drive to develop new trading routes and carve out influence across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Hundreds and possibly even thousands of the country's growing cadre of Christian missionaries are along for the ride too - even if Beijing doesn't want them there.
'Why didn't they save our children?'
The province of Zhejiang, on China's eastern coast, is one of the country's Christian centres.
There are thousands of protestant churches here, both official ones permitted by the atheist Chinese Communist Party and so-called "underground" or "home" churches, whose members often meet private homes.
Neither of the pair who ended up in Quetta were originally from Zhejiang, but they did join home churches in the province.
Meng Lisi, 26, was originally from Hubei while Li Xinheng, 24, was from Hunan.
Mr Li's mother, who only wanted to be named as Mrs Liu, said her son did not know Ms Meng before he travelled to Pakistan in September 2016.
She says she thought he was going there to teach Mandarin, but quickly adds that as a Christian she would be "proud" if it was true that he was proselytising there.
After armed men masquerading as policemen kidnapped the pair in Quetta on 24 May, the Pakistani military launched a three-day operation in a region south of the city called Mastung, targeting fighters allegedly linked to IS.
It is in Mastung that IS later said it had carried out the killings, and Mrs Liu questions why the Pakistani government launched an attack in the area instead of trying to negotiate their release.
"Why didn't the Chinese government tell the Pakistan side to save our children?" she asks.
Mrs Liu says her phone is monitored, and authorities have been investigating the family. The leader of her local protestant home church, meanwhile, has "blacklisted" her.
Since the young missionaries were killed, the Chinese authorities have repeatedly said they are continuing to investigate in response to queries from journalists.
Why Chinese Christians have turned to underground churches
But the government has responded with a crackdown at home, detaining at least four preachers from church groups in Zhejiang as part of a targeted blitz against house churches connected to overseas missions, says Bob Fu, whose US-based China Aid group supports Christians in the country.
They have been released but are not allowed to continue their activities and are banned from giving media interviews, he says.
China's up to 100m Christians have been subject to increased scrutiny and harassment since Xi Jinping became president in 2012, Mr Fu says, adding: "He has been worse than any leader since Chairman Mao".
Crosses were torn down from more than 1,000 churches in Zhejiang between 2014 and 2016.
Dismay as church crosses removed in China
But incidents like the killings in Pakistan present a tricky dilemma for Chinese authorities. As a self-declared atheist government, news of Chinese Christian missionaries getting into trouble abroad is embarrassing. But at the same time, Beijing needs to show it can protect its citizens as it goes global.
As Fenggang Yang, an expert on religion in China at Purdue University, puts it: "They thought Christianity was a western religion imported into China, so how can you export Christianity from China?"
"This is new and the Chinese authorities are still struggling to figure out what to do with this."
'They said we were all sinners'
When Meng Lisi and Li Xinhen were abducted in Quetta, they were first reported to have been working at a language school run by a South Korean.
It was only after they were killed that Pakistani authorities accused the pair of being preachers who had misused business visas.
Two Koreans were detained by Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency, and another 11 Chinese believed to be part of the missionary group were deported.
Locals in Jinnah Town, a wealthy area of Quetta where the language centre was based, said the group, while distinctly visible, kept a low profile.
They travelled around in rickshaws without security and stayed in a simple hostel in the centre of the city.
"Sometimes I saw them singing and playing guitars," a local garbage collector said.
In Kharotabad, a very conservative area in Quetta's west home to Pashtun tribes and Afghan refugees, some of the Chinese women went door-to-door speaking with women about Christianity.
One boy said he overheard them saying "we are all sinners", and that they distributed leaflets, rings and bracelets. Another said he saw three women who spoke some Urdu and Pashto, and were "doing something about Christianity".
He said his mother asked them if they were Chinese, and "they said yes".
Is China-Pakistan 'silk road' a game-changer?
But once local police got wind of this, the group were taken out of the area and told foreigners should not be there.
Their efforts at proselytising didn't make much headway. Many locals given booklets and leaflets said they tore them up and threw them away.
Back to Jerusalem
In the 1940s, a movement began among Christians in eastern China to bring the gospel westwards - in the direction of Jerusalem.
Evangelists travelled to China's western provinces but when Mao Zedong proclaimed the communist People's Republic of China in 1949, ushering in a repressive era for Christians, they settled there and the "Back to Jerusalem" movement lay dormant for decades.
In the early 2000s, coinciding with China's emergence onto the global stage as a major power, the movement revived and Chinese missionaries began travelling out to what some evangelists call the "10/40 Window" - a zone between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator that stretches from West Africa to South East Asia and is home to the least-Christian countries.
This zone overlaps significantly with the new Silk Road that China is trying to promote and in the last few years, as Chinese workers have gone overseas to these countries in droves, hidden among them have been hundreds, perhaps even thousands of missionaries, according to members of the movement.
In countries like Iran, Iraq or Pakistan, Chinese missionaries have little trouble getting in, says Pastor Danny Lee, the director of Back to Jerusalem in the UK.
"They let them straight through. They last thing they would think [a Chinese person could be] is a missionary," he said.
The movement's ambitious goal, Pastor Lee says, is to eventually have 100,000 Chinese missionaries serving across 22 countries in the 10/40 zone.
"Many of them have already left and are serving in places like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Burma and many other places as well," he said.
And violence like that seen in Quetta does not appear to put them off.
A young Chinese Christian couple sent to northern Iraq as missionaries told the South China Morning Post after the Pakistan killings that the incident was a reminder that they needed to be careful and sensitive in their work.
But they said they still intended to stay there indefinitely, despite the risks. "I actually feel safer here," 25-year-old Michael said, referring to the repression faced by underground churches in China.
Pastor Lee says Back to Jerusalem missionaries know the risks when they go abroad, and accept them. "They feel this is their calling and purpose and the plan that God has for them."
All-weather friends
Since the killings came to light, Pakistani authorities have vowed to better regulate the inflow of Chinese nationals to Pakistan.
Militants have targeted Chinese nationals before but the attention the case received appears to have triggered significant concern among top-level officials about implications for relations with China.
In Quetta, Chinese individuals could occasionally be seen on the streets before the May kidnapping but since then they have vanished.
In the port of Gwadar, the centrepiece of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, frequent attacks by separatist insurgents have denied Chinese workers the freedom of unguarded movement on the streets, reporters there say. They remain in secure compounds and move under heavy security escort.
Professor Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Pakistani political and security analyst, said that Chinese and Pakistani officials would have robustly discussed the Quetta case behind closed doors.
"The likeliest outcome would be a combined set of procedures on both sides to ensure this doesn't happen again," he said.
Indeed, China has continued to stress that it and Pakistan are "all-weather strategic partners".
But Beijing knows that as more and more Chinese missionaries follow the new Silk Road, other cases like this are bound to occur.
On 9 June, the day after IS announced the killing, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying responded to a journalist.
"You asked about the risk in the building of the Belt and Road," she said. "I shall say that going global comes with risks."
Reporting by the BBC's Kevin Ponniah in London and M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad, BBC Chinese's Yashan Zhao in Hong Kong and BBC Urdu's Muhammad Kazim in Quetta
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The body of a 46-year-old woman reported missing on Christmas Eve has been found in a river. | Gwent Police said the body of Lydia Davies, from Monmouth, was found in the River Wye on Saturday at about 15:30 GMT.
It said formal identification had taken place and her death was not being treated as suspicious.
Ms Davies' next of kin and the coroner had been informed, it added.
Related Internet Links
Gwent Police
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"Rare earths" are a group of 17 chemically similar elements crucial to the manufacture of many hi-tech products. Despite their name, most are abundant in nature but are hazardous to extract. Most "rare earth" elements have uses in several different fields, as well as those listed below. | Neodymium
This is used to make powerful magnets used in loudspeakers and computer hard drives to enable them to be smaller and more efficient. Magnets containing neodymium are also used in green technologies such as the manufacture of wind turbines and hybrid cars.
Lanthanum
This element is used in camera and telescope lenses. Compounds containing lanthanum are used extensively in carbon lighting applications, such as studio lighting and cinema projection.
Cerium
Used in catalytic converters in cars, enabling them to run at high temperatures and playing a crucial role in the chemical reactions in the converter. Lanthanum and cerium are also used in the process of refining crude oil.
Praseodymium
Used to create strong metals for use in aircraft engines. Praseodymium is also a component of a special sort of glass, used to make visors to protect welders and glassmakers.
Gadolinium
Used in X-ray and MRI scanning systems, and also in television screens. Research is also being done into its possible use in developing more efficient refrigeration systems.
Yttrium, terbium, europium
Important in making televisions and computer screens and other devices that have visual displays as they are used in making materials that give off different colours. Europium is also used in making control rods in nuclear reactors.
Source: British Geological Survey, Royal Society of Chemistry
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Alice Levine has announced she's leaving Radio 1. | The broadcaster, who's been with the station for nine years, says it's "the end of an era".
"I've decided it's the right time for me to hang up the headphones (not a thing) and say goodbye to Radio 1," she wrote on Instagram.
The 34-year-old currently hosts the weekend afternoon show with co-host Dev Griffin - her last show will be on Sunday 9 August.
Alice says she's "met friends for life" and thanked everyone at Radio 1, including the producers who "patiently stood with me whilst I crashed the vocals, pressed the wrong buttons and had a prolonged crisis of confidence in those early off-air days (and beyond!)."
During her time at Radio 1 Alice presented the 10pm until midnight show with Phil Taggart, before taking on a weekend afternoon show and then the Weekend Breakfast Show.
She picked up a Music Week Best Music Show Award along the way and in her own words - "had a dead nice time".
"If you've listened to the show or got in touch with one of your amazing stories over the years, I can't thank you enough. To make jokes all day has just been a gift of a job!"
Alice hasn't revealed what she's doing next but alongside her BBC presenting duties she's been one-third of one of the world's most popular podcasts - My Dad Wrote A Porno.
Fellow broadcaster Clara Amfo, who's presented from the Brits red carpet alongside Alice over the last few years, was one of the first to react.
Alice's announcement comes not long after Maya Jama revealed that she was leaving the station, and a week after 1Xtra Breakfast Show presenter Dotty announced she was leaving Radio 1's sister station.
Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.
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Two councils in Norfolk are hoping to save more than £1m by combining their information and communication technology (ICT) departments.
| Great Yarmouth Borough Council has joined Norfolk County Council to make the savings over five years.
Great Yarmouth's ICT will managed by the county council. Current borough council staff will become part of the county's team.
Barry Stone, the borough council's deputy leader, welcomed the move.
"Sharing the county council's networks and technology, and the pooling of expertise of staff from both councils, will make the borough council more resilient.
"The savings identified as part of this arrangement will be reinvested into improving the way the borough council uses IT."
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A 27-year-old man has been arrested after a man was sexually assaulted in Jersey. | The incident took place in the Maufant area of St Martin at about 04:00 GMT on Saturday.
Police said the suspect was arrested on suspicion of break and entry and sexual touching without consent.
The man remains in custody while investigations continue, the States of Jersey Police said.
Related Internet Links
States of Jersey Police
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A father from the Isle of Wight who took his daughter out of school for a family holiday has lost his legal battle in the Supreme Court. So what are the rules around term-time holidays and how have they changed in recent years? | Why did ministers crack down on term-time holidays?
With the cost of trips abroad rocketing during the school holidays, it is hardly surprising many parents are tempted to take their children away during term time.
But this obviously means pupils missing lessons, and the government says there is clear evidence doing so impairs children's attainment.
In 2012, the then Education Secretary, Michael Gove, said: "We need to do more to discourage holidays taken during term time: the rate of these absences in primary schools is double that in secondary schools."
Ministers were concerned that because of guidelines dating back to 2006, some parents mistakenly believed they were entitled to two weeks' annual holiday during term time as a right.
What did the guidelines actually say?
The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 said head teachers could grant leave of absence of up to 10 days for the purposes of a family holiday during term time in "special circumstances".
Head teachers could also grant extended leave for more than 10 days in "exceptional circumstances".
And the government said it had long recognised schools were experiencing problems with parents using this threshold as a right, rather than as a rough guide for a particular sort of situation.
What changes did ministers make to the guidelines?
They removed all references to family holidays from the regulations and said head teachers could not grant any leave of absence to pupils during term time without "exceptional circumstances".
This came into force in September 2013.
They also highlighted and tightened the procedure for local education authorities fining parents for unauthorised pupil absences.
Under the 2006 guidelines, parents could be fined £60 for the unauthorised absence of a child, if it was paid within 28 days, rising to £120 if it was paid within 29 to 42 days.
In September 2013, the timescale for payment was reduced to 21 days at £60 and 28 days at £120 respectively.
The fines were to be levied by local authorities for absences in maintained schools, and by academies where absences were from academies.
What was the reaction?
Numerous polls of parents suggested the policy was not very popular, with some arguing they should be able to take term-time holidays if they were booked in advance, for a strict number of days and not at a crucial time.
The National Union of Teachers suggested there were important cultural and social benefits to going on holiday and that this should not become the preserve of the middle classes.
The Local Government Association agreed, saying the law was not really practical.
The LGA said families often struggled with the high cost of trips out of holiday time and called for a common-sense approach.
Nonetheless, between September 2013 and August 2014 almost 64,000 fines were issued for unauthorised absences, according to local authority data.
However, different LEAs appear to have taken quite different approaches to cases of unauthorised absence, and the government website invites parents to check with their own local authority if and when they may face a fine for the non-attendance of a child.
All clear then?
Well, not really.
The head teachers supposed to be making these decisions said they wanted detailed guidance on what constituted exceptional circumstances.
National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) general secretary Russell Hobby said: "Head teachers already have discretion over the granting of absence during term time.
"They rightly prioritise learning over holidays."
But to clarify matters, the NAHT published guidance on how heads could arrive at a decision to authorise absence or not, adding there could be no absolute rules on this subject.
Term-time was for learning, it said, adding children and families already had 175 days off school, including weekends and school holidays, to spend time together.
An absence for the bereavement of a close family member, a funeral or important religious observances could be counted as exceptional, it said.
But if an event could reasonably be scheduled outside of term time, then it would not be normal to authorise absence, the guidelines added.
Heads would be expected to determine in advance the exact number of days a pupil may have away from school.
In the case of unauthorised absence, the decision to prosecute or seek a fine then rests with local authorities.
What are the rules elsewhere in the UK?
In Scotland there are no fines for parents who take their children on holiday in term-time.
But the Scottish government advises that schools will not normally give a family permission to take pupils out of school for holidays.
It is up to education authorities to decide sanctions for persistent truancy.
Likewise in Northern Ireland term-time holidays are considered unauthorised absences but there are no fines.
Parents who come before the courts for absenteeism are those who have allowed their children to truant over a long period.
In Wales families are allowed up to 10 days of term-time holiday at the head's discretion. In January Huw Lewis, the education minister for Wales, wrote to councils saying it was wrong to tell head teachers to ban all term-time leave.
His intervention followed a petition by parents last year against fines for taking holidays in term-time.
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Medical students whose studies on a Caribbean island were disrupted by Hurricane Irma are to resume their courses in Preston. | About 600 students and 30 staff from the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine (AUC) will transfer to University of Central Lancashire (UCLan).
They are visiting to finalise details.
AUC already has links with East Lancashire Hospitals Trust (ELHT), which in turn works with UCLan.
Hurricane Irma devastated Sint Maarten, the Dutch-French island where the students complete their first two years of pre-clinical medical school.
Students and staff will be taught at UCLan, staying in halls of residence and houses within Preston. Clinical skills training will take place at NHS sites in East Lancashire.
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The number of people who have contracted the Ebola virus in Guinea, according to the World Health Organization, has risen to 208 - and 136 of them have died. About half of these cases have been confirmed in a laboratory - earlier cases were not tested. | There is no cure for Ebola but with early medical support some people's bodies are able to develop antibodies to fight it off.
One survivor, who asked not to be named, told the BBC his story.
Testimony:
The symptoms started with headaches, diarrhoea, pains in my back and vomiting.
The first doctor I saw at a village health centre said it was malaria - it was only when I was brought to a special unit at the hospital in [the capital] Conakry that I was told I had the Ebola virus.
I felt really depressed - I had heard about Ebola so when the doctors told me, I was very scared.
I tried to be positive - I was thinking about death, but deep inside I thought my time had not come yet and I would get over it. That's how I overcame the pain and the fear.
Doctors from the charity Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) were here to comfort me and give their moral support. I tried to stay positive although I was scared when I saw my relatives dying in front of me.
There was a moment when I thought I might die when I lost two of my uncles and their bodies were taken away.
On that night none of us could sleep - we thought we would never make it to the morning.
Some doctors from MSF came to collect and wrap the bodies and sterilise the area. It all happened in front of us.
A short while after I was admitted to the hospital for treatment I started feeling better, step by step.
'Shook my hands'
At first I was scared to eat as I thought I would be sick but after a while I took a few drops of water and realised it was OK and the diarrhoea gradually stopped as well.
The doctors would come to see me and ask questions and one day nearly all my answers were "no" - the doctors were pleased and I realised that I would make it.
That was a very powerful feeling for me.
It was a great feeling when I walked out of the hospital.
We had a little celebration with the doctors, all the nurses and the people who had been waiting for me.
They took pictures of me, they shook my hands - I saw that they felt safe touching me and I realised I was better. I was really happy on that day. Now I feel good although I sometimes get some pain in my joints.
I prefer not be identified in the media - many people are aware that I had the disease but many others are not.
We have been through difficult times - people were afraid of us.
You know about African solidarity - usually when someone dies people visit you but when we lost one and then two, three, four members of our family, nobody came to visit us and we realised we were being kept at bay because of fear.
It gets even worse if everybody hears about your condition on the radio and television.
Even people close to us, neighbours and relatives, are met with suspicion when they mention they know us.
Immediately the other person takes two or three steps back for fear of contracting the virus. People are very poorly informed about the disease.
Nine people in my family had the virus in total. My wife and my cousin survived too, so it is the three of us out of nine.
We were very affected by the deaths of our relatives but we were also relieved that not all of us had died.
It would have been such a catastrophe if we had all passed away.
This was a lesson on a spiritual level and it has changed the way I look at life.
The short time we spent in hospital has really transformed us. I feel lucky. I feel very happy to be alive.
This interview was featured on Newsday on the BBC World Service.
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Gardaí have sent a new file to the DPP in connection with the 1981 Stardust nightclub disaster. | 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.
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More than £8,600 was paid by a council to get out of a hire contract for a Porsche its former boss used to drive. | Pembrokeshire council cancelled the contract after former chief executive Bryn Parry Jones left the council in October. Last week it was instructed to reveal the full cost within 35 days.
Coun Jacob Williams published the amount on his website, and the council later confirmed it was correct.
He said they had to pay four months' leasing costs after the contract ended.
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Javier Valdez knew he was living on borrowed time. | An award-winning reporter who had fearlessly chronicled Mexico's deadly drug trade, he remarked at his book launch last year that being a journalist "is like being on a blacklist".
The government's promises of protection are next to worthless if the cartels decide they want you dead.
As Valdez put it: "Even though you may have bullet-proofing and bodyguards, [the gangs] will decide what day they are going to kill you."
The 50-year-old was dragged from his car and shot dead on Monday, in Culiacan city, Sinaloa, where he lived and worked.
Over a three-decade career, Valdez founded the Ríodoce newspaper in Sinaloa, the north-western state blighted by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's powerful drug cartel.
He was also a correspondent for the national newspaper La Jornada, and the author of several books, including Los Morros del Narco [The Children of the Drug Trade], which followed young people through Mexico's bloody underworld.
In public, he often spoke of the risks facing reporters in Mexico, which has one of the world's least free presses.
His words illustrate both the cost of printing the truth, and the bravery of those who continue to do so.
Hand grenades and threat calls
Last month, Valdez told the freedom of expression organisation Index on Censorship that a hand grenade had been thrown into Ríodoce's offices in 2009 - but had "only caused material damages".
"I've had phone calls telling me to stop investigating certain murders or drug bosses. I've had to suppress important information because they could have my family killed if I mention it," he said.
"Sources of mine have been killed or disappeared… The government couldn't care less. They do nothing to protect you. There have been many cases and this keeps happening."
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 40 journalists have been murdered in Mexico since 1992.
Fears for family
The journalist's brother Rafael Valdez told Agence France-Presse that he had tried not to expose loved ones to the hazards of his profession.
"He was very reserved when it came to his work," Rafael said. "He never talked about it so as not to drag people into it.
"I asked him several times whether he was afraid. He said yes, he was a human being. So I asked him why he risked his life, and he replied: 'It is something I like doing, and someone has to do it. You have to fight to change things.'"
Sometimes, reporters are forced to flee Mexico under threat of death - knowing they will be murdered if they ever return.
"Now they must be content seeing their homes through the internet. They have been banished from their families for the rest of their lives," Valdez told Revista Desocupado [in Spanish].
Murdered friends
In March, Valdez's colleague Miroslava Breach - a crime correspondent for La Jornada - was killed by being shot eight times in front of one of her children.
The gunmen left a note saying: "For being a loudmouth."
Valdez raged against her death on Twitter, writing: "Let them kill us all, if that's the death sentence for reporting this hell. No to silence."
Other Mexican journalists killed in 2017 include freelancers Maximino Rodríguez and Cecilio Pineda Birto, CPJ records show.
Narcos in the newsroom
Mexico's violent cartels are well known for using informants. While researching his book Narcoperiodismo [Narco Journalism], Valdez realised that local newspapers were being regularly infiltrated by gang spies.
"Serious journalism with ethics is very important in times of conflict, but unfortunately there are journalists who are involved with narcos," he told Index on Censorship.
"This has made our work much more complicated, and now we have to protect ourselves from politicians, narcos and even other journalists."
In Narco Journalism, he describes how reporters are exiled, murdered, corrupted, terrorised by the cartels, or betrayed by police or politicians in the pay of the gangs.
He told Revista Desocupado: "It is not only about the criminal drugs trade, now they kidnap, extort; they have control of the sale of arms, beer, taxis; they control hospitals, police officers, the army, people in the government and those who finance them. The omnipresent narco is everywhere."
A lonely battle
Valdez felt frustrated and alone in his fight to keep an independent newspaper running.
"I don't see a society that stands by its journalists or protects them," he said. "At Ríodoce we don't have any support from business owners to finance projects. If we went bankrupt and shut down nobody would do anything [to help]. We have no allies."
He feared his newspaper would not outlast this apathy.
"We need more publicity, subscriptions and moral support - but we're on our own. We're not going to survive much longer in these circumstances."
For Valdez, Mexico had become accustomed to death, evil and abuses - a nation resigned to serial murder, because acceptance is easier than fighting.
But as recently as two months ago he was determined to persevere, telling an interviewer:
"Inside me there is a pessimistic bastard, distressed and sometimes sullen, who feels like a somewhat bitter old man with watery eyes, who is bothered by having his solitude spoiled. But he dreams. I have an idea of another country, for my family and other Mexicans, that does not continue to fall into an abyss from which there may be no return."
Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto has condemned Valdez's killing as an "outrageous crime", and said his government remained committed to press freedom.
Last week, Mexico appointed a new prosecutor to investigate crimes against freedom of expression - including the murder of journalists.
Sinaloa state attorney general Juan Jose Rios said Valdez's shooting was under investigation.
He promised the authorities would protect Valdez's relatives and colleagues, telling reporters: "Above all else, we are interested in Javier's family."
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Seventeen people have died in a fire at a building housing elderly people in a village near Ukraine's capital Kiev. | The fire broke out in the early hours of Sunday in a two-storey building housing some 35 people.
"Emergency services units saved 18 people, five of whom have been hospitalised with burns of varying degrees of severity," Ukraine's emergencies ministry said.
Police have detained the man in charge of the building.
Officials said it was being used to house the elderly people illegally.
Prime Minister Volodymyr Groisman described the fire as a "terrible tragedy that has caused irreparable loss" and said the government offered "sincere condolences" to the victims' families, Ukrainian media reported.
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Can a Latte change your life? It's often said answers can't be found at the bottom of a glass - but what if there's a solution at the bottom of a coffee mug? Isolated people have found that sharing over a hot drink means "the lonely don't need to be alone". Welcome to the Chatty Cafes. | By Ben PerrinBBC News
As part of the BBC's We Are Stoke-on-Trent project, residents have been speaking about the issues that matter to them. Among the topics is the work being done to bring together lonely pensioners under a service hailed a lifesaver.
The organised meetings - known as Chatty Cafes - create a safe and social environment, with regular get-togethers in the Stoke, Hanley and Fenton areas of the city.
They are led by support service CareLink which seeks to look after vulnerable people, offering them "understanding, friendship and welfare checks".
But over coffee, something deeper seems to be happening. Meaningful friendships are forming, with many users bonding over a shared feeling of isolation or grief - and at the same time, fighting the problem. "The lonely don't need to be alone," one member said.
Karen Thompson and Gwen Karakawa both lost loved ones over the last five years and felt lonely on their own. It was talking about it that helped.
Gwen, 67, said she had taken so well to the group's ethos, she felt comfortable sharing her feelings on the sudden death of her son.
"It just felt right to talk about it as I live by myself," she said. "I was told I was brave and given big hugs."
She told the BBC: "Chatty Cafes are such a brilliant idea. It helps you through tough times and brings everyone together just by talking."
CareLink is looking out for the interests of 180 people and is supported by five staff members and 28 volunteers. It secured Lottery funding to start the Chatty Cafes in March.
Some of the bonds being formed are so strong, the Cafes' chatters are planning trips away. Among them are Julia Fisher, 79, and Gladys Powell, 84, who said: "The group is a fantastic idea and I enjoy being part of it. I find it hard to leave my home so this is helping."
But as well as support, participants also talk of a new start; a sense that setbacks could have taken over until Chatty Cafes offered refreshed purpose and direction.
Joan Scarratt, 91, lost her 88-year-old husband Bernard last year. She said it felt good to socialise again.
"You need to keep the mind ticking over and I enjoy coming to this group," she said.
Neil Williamson, 68, organises trips to theatre shows for members and says joining has given him a "new lease of life".
He said: "I'd be home alone staring at four walls. I look forward to seeing everyone."
And calling the scheme a lifesaver, ex-miner Peter Owen, 72, sees the bigger picture: "The lonely don't need to be alone."
Councillor Ann James, from Stoke-on-Trent City Council, which supports the scheme, said: "The Chatty Cafe is a brilliant initiative that helps to combat loneliness in the city and encourage people to talk to one another - a simple conversation can make a real difference to people's lives."
This article was created as part of We are Stoke-on-Trent, a BBC project with the city's people to tell the stories that matter to them.
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India's ruling Congress party has urged Sri Lanka to hand over the Tamil rebel leader if he is caught alive in the current
military offensive in the north of the island. | The party's chief spokesman, Veerappa Moily, said the rebel leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, should extradited to face trial
in India for his alleged involvement in the assassination of the former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
His comments came amid reports that Sri Lankan troops have been continuing their offensive a day after capturing the rebels'
administrative headquarters in the town of Kilinochchi.
India outlawed the Tamil Tigers after the assassination of the former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, allegedly by a woman suicide
bomber from the Tigers.
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This was the year that Nick Clegg apologised. | By Ben Wright & Andrew FaggBBC Westminster
He had broken a pre-election pledge to oppose any rise in university tuition fees and for that, he said, he was sorry.
The PM programme on BBC Radio 4 set the apology to Elton John singing, What Have I Got To Do To Make You Love Me?
It was a telling choice of tune. Nick Clegg's apology, however sincere, was an attempt to arrest an alarming decline in his own and his party's popularity.
'Toxic brand'
But according to the president of the YouGov polling firm, Peter Kellner, it didn't work.
"Nick Clegg is a toxic brand," he argues. "Fewer than 20% think he's doing well as party leader and deputy prime minister.
"Around 70% typically think he's doing badly.
"These are simply terrible figures. I find it hard to see how the Liberal Democrats could recover with him leading the party at the next election."
The plunging popularity of Mr Clegg and his party has been made clear at the polls.
The Corby by-election in November was possibly the lowest point. The Lib Dem candidate, Jill Hope, lost her deposit, polling less than 5% of the vote.
She accepted that her party leader was part of the problem.
"Yes he's a problem for our party, but I don't know whether that's Nick's fault.
"And I don't think the Liberal Democrats are like other parties. We don't dump somebody because they're unpopular. Every single person I know that has met Nick respects him and regards him fondly.
Coalition 'conscience'
Mrs Hope is typical among Lib Dem activists, in that she remains supportive of her leader - reserving her ire for the party's Conservative coalition partners.
"Can you imagine the draconian measures that would be implemented if we weren't there on their shoulder like Jiminy Cricket as their conscience, making them do things for ordinary people, for lower-paid people?"
This line of attack - that the Liberal Democrats are the "conscience of the coalition" - gives a clue to what the party's narrative might be at the next election.
Activists have had their cherished hope of reforming the House of Lords dashed.
They have seen the number of Lib Dem councillors falling below 3,000 for the first time in its history. But they insist there is plenty to shout about.
This was the year, they say, in which Nick Clegg won key concessions on the controversial health bill - and prevented a return to O-Levels.
It was the year in which Vince Cable convinced the Treasury to fund a British Business Bank, and more free childcare for parents on low incomes.
It was the year in which Mr Clegg drove through the Lib Dems flagship policy of lifting the level at which people begin to pay tax - giving a tax cut to more than twenty million people.
Sir Nick Harvey - one of the longest serving Lib Dems in the Commons who left the government in September's reshuffle - believes Mr Clegg has to remain in charge.
"Nick Clegg was the architect of the strategic gamble of going into the coalition with the Conservatives," he says.
"I just don't think the issue arises of getting shot of Nick Clegg. It was a five-year strategy and people still have the belief that the strategy was right."
Political strategy
No one, then, is talking seriously about a change of leader.
But there are murmurings about some of Mr Clegg's decisions, including pulling ministers, including Sir Nick, out of the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office in the summer reshuffle.
"I did not agree with the decision," Sir Nick says.
"We are an internationalist party. We are committed to the UK's participation to international organisations. We should still be in defence and the foreign office and we may live to regret coming out of both of them."
There has been a lot of talk this year about how the Lib Dems must sharpen their differences with the Conservatives.
Mr Clegg gave a flavour of this in the summer when he withdrew his support for constituency boundary changes, following a Tory rebellion on Lords reform.
But - barring disagreement about energy policy - Nick Clegg has if anything scaled down his rhetoric against the Conservatives since then.
He must soon come up with a strategy to win back popular support.
The protest vote, the anti-war vote, the student vote, the new-way-of-doing-politics vote has disappeared and Peter Kellner believes this has left only a rump of core supporters.
"Unless something dramatic happens, they are bound to lose quite a lot of seats next time.
"So the Lib Dems' challenge in 2013 is to find that big, deus ex machina, that thing that none of us can quite foresee, which will change people's minds about him. I don't know what it is. "
Clearly, Mr Clegg has some big thinking to do.
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A 42-year-old man has died after getting into difficulties in waters off Gower, South Wales Police has said. | Emergency services went to Three Cliffs Bay, near Swansea, after the alarm was raised at 14:10 BST on Saturday.
The man was taken to Swansea's Morriston Hospital, where he later died.
Two more people were taken to hospital but their injuries were not thought to be life-threatening.
South Wales Police have asked anyone with information about the incident to get in contact via the 101 phone line.
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On Wednesday 20 July 2011 - the anniversary of the attempt on Hitler's life in 1944 - the public was informed that the grave of Rudolf Hess, the "Fuehrer's deputy", had been razed before daybreak. | By Thomas DoerflerUniversity of Goettingen, Germany
Beyond the fascinating coincidence in the date - there will surely be further speculation on this - the decision by Hess's heirs was surprising.
They wanted to commit his mortal remains to the waves and organise a funeral at sea for a man whose mystique and influence on the far-right was strongly linked to the existence of his grave in the Bavarian village of Wunsiedel.
He was already one the most interesting figures in post-war Germany, being the only high-ranking Nazi serving a life sentence imposed by the Nuremberg war-crimes court - Albert Speer, for instance, was released in 1966.
'Anti-German plot'
Hess owes his ambiguous fame to the circumstances of his death. He was found hanged in a summer house in Berlin's Spandau Prison, where he had spent the previous 20 years.
The official version - contested by right-wingers of all stripes - was that he committed suicide to end his long imprisonment.
For the German and international far-right movement, this was clear evidence that the powers that be had tried to suppress the truth about an "anti-German" plot dating back to the war years.
According to this version of events, the Allied forces - notably the British secret service - ignored the true purpose of Hess's flight to Britain in 1941. He was taking a peace plan to Churchill, he told his interrogators.
This idea made Hess the perfect figure to portray the Nazis as victims, rather than aggressors.
Britain had started World War II to destroy Germany, and Hess was captured in Scotland to crush the peaceful intentions of Nazi Germany.
Even the fact that Hitler declared him insane did not dent this legend.
Revitalised myth
Moreover the resurgent Nazi scene in recent years has gradually recognised the potential of this myth to attract young people susceptible to tales of injustice.
What started as a tiny demonstration of a handful of Nazi activists in the 1990s had turned into thousands regularly filling the streets of Wunsiedel by early 2000s.
Everybody who looked at such scenes - including myself and my academic colleagues - felt uncomfortable. Most of the demonstrators were young and dressed like average heavy-metal kids - until you looked at their T-shirts and tattoos.
The Hess myth, modernised to satisfy a desire for victimhood, made the Wundsiedel commemorations alluring to young people. But it also led the Constitutional Court to ban the event in 2005, as the potential for the recruitment of new blood into the Neo-Nazi movement got increasingly obvious.
However the court order had limited effect on such gatherings, which continued less frequently and at a smaller scale elsewhere. But then Hess had become a kind of right-wing Che Guevara, with his portrait on shirts, buttons and posters.
In the end the family agreed to terminate the lease on the grave.
Thus an event that many would have thought highly improbably until now became reality on Wednesday evening. What might be the consequences of this startling decision?
Nazi zombie
Firstly, it is no coincidence that the relatives and officials chose to eliminate every physical trace of a figure with a vast potential for creating right-wing legends.
As was the case for Osama Bin Laden some weeks ago, the authorities understand the power of a permanent shrine to a highly controversial figure.
It becomes a place of pilgrimage, a focus for irrational and uncontrollable worship.
Secondly, the far-right movement has lost a crucial place embodying myths and legends that give it a friendly face. The neo-Nazis desperately need to celebrate the memory of an attractive "hero" for the benefit of new recruits.
And thirdly, there will be an increased potential for violence of all kinds - from street unrest to digital stalking - by the far-right.
Deprived of a leading rallying figure, the movement will feel that its noble tradition has been humiliated by unjust powers yet again.
Ultimately it is possible that a renewed cult could rise again around Hess, the ultimate Nazi zombie.
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Jersey Met Office has warned there may be problems for people going into and out of the island's airport on Friday. | Many flights were cancelled, delayed or diverted on Thursday because of foggy weather.
Jon Searson from the Jersey Met Office said he expected the fog to lift by mid-afternoon.
It comes after about 10,000 passengers were affected by similar disruptions last week when planes were grounded for several days in a row.
Passengers are being advised to check in as usual, unless they hear otherwise from airlines.
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The world's largest democratic exercise begins today. | By Szu Ping ChanBusiness reporter
Nine hundred million Indians are registered to vote in general elections taking place over the next five weeks. Much is at stake.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has promised to make India the world's third largest economy by 2030.
Meanwhile, the opposition Congress Party has put job creation at the heart of its manifesto.
India's trade policy has also come under scrutiny.
With some of the highest tariffs in the world, some fear the country is slipping back into its old protectionist ways.
A history of protectionism
After independence in 1947, India spent decades trying to survive without international trade.
The country ditched its model of local production for local consumption following a currency crisis in the early 1990s that forced policymakers to ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help.
The IMF cash came with conditions: India had to open up to foreign investment, cut red tape and remove trade barriers.
Many saw this as the start of India's reintegration into the global economy, and over the last 20 years liberalisation has connected its young, vibrant workforce with firms around the world.
Today, it is one of the world's top outsourcing destinations, with many of its workers powering back-end IT systems, call centres and software development.
This has also helped India to run a trade surplus - whereby it sells more than it buys - in goods and services with the US.
The Modi era
When Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, he promised to boost India's already impressive growth through further economic liberalisation.
And the new government took big steps to make doing business easier, says Rick Rossow, former deputy director at the US-India business council.
For example, it combined more than a dozen levies into one national sales tax that helped goods to move seamlessly across state borders.
Mr Modi's warmth with global leaders and chief executives - and his oft-lampooned fondness for hugging them - also marked a big shift from past prime ministers.
Yet when it comes to its trade, there has been no such progress, with some even accusing the country of travelling backwards.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked Indian duties on Harley Davidson motorcycles and American whiskey, despite trade between the two countries having boomed in recent years.
In its latest report on global trade barriers, the US trade department singles out India as having the highest tariffs "of any major world economy" - averaging 13.8%.
It describes Indian trade policy as opaque, unpredictable, and says it often leaves US firms drowning in paperwork.
Global Trade
More from the BBC's series taking an international perspective on trade:
Mr Rossow says India's strategy has always been "pro-investment and anti-trade".
Flagship government policies such as Make in India have aggressively courted foreign direct investment while seeking to boost domestic manufacturing.
To achieve this, India has erected trade barriers against competitors. In the past, western multinationals were the target. Today, China is seen as a rising threat.
The BJP used its budget last year to raise import duties on goods including sunglasses, cigarette lighters and fruit juice to discourage Chinese imports.
'WTO troublemaker'
Mr Modi's government has also spent the last four years defending India's multibillion-dollar food-security programme, which many developed countries see as unfair.
Under the programme, the government heavily subsidises local farmers so they can provide low cost food for the poor.
But, the US and others argue it breaks World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules around subsidy limits.
Dmitry Grozoubinski, a former Australian negotiator at the WTO, thinks they may have a point.
"India is justifying its agricultural subsidies by claiming their poorest citizens can't afford food, but they're maintaining massive tariff walls that effectively prevent the imports that could bring prices down."
Blocking progress?
He believes Mr Modi is just grandstanding to show support for the millions of farmers in India - a key voting constituency.
This also may explain why India has become such a troublemaker at the WTO over the issue, Mr Grozoubinski adds.
Indian trade representatives regularly use obscure legal precedents to stop the Geneva-based body from doing its job, he says, even trying to block rulings on entirely unrelated matters.
"Domestically it plays well for them to say we're standing up for poor farmers and not letting western countries bully us," he adds.
Trade flows and trade talks
As the fastest growing major economy in the world, India is unlikely to worry too much about such criticism. It's managed to bring millions of people out of poverty since the millennium, although challenges remain.
There is, however, a risk that its protectionism could backfire.
Take the way that, last December, the government banned foreign retailers such as Amazon from striking exclusive deals with local goods sellers.
The move was viewed as a bid by Mr Modi to placate small traders, also a key voter base.
But it irked the US and last month the Trump administration said it planned to end a scheme which allows some goods to enter the US duty-free after India refused to remove price caps on some medical devices.
India, which was also angered by Washington's refusal to exempt India from steel and aluminium tariffs last year, vowed to retaliate. But it has so far delayed implementing tit-for-tat tariffs.
"My guess is that they see picking a direct fight with the US as a losing battle and a real danger," Mr Rossow says.
Will the election change anything?
Trade is unlikely to play a major role in this year's election. Voters are more likely to be concerned about jobs and growth, says Shumita Deveshwar, director of India research at TS Lombard.
Others compare Indian protectionism to the "slippery slope" in President Trump's America, where strong growth is overshadowed by a fear of China and a lack of good jobs.
Analysts say the risk is that further protectionist measures could reverse the economic gains enjoyed by the country since liberalisation.
Ms Deveshwar says India will need to reform on trade if it wants to secure long-term prosperity.
"India hasn't been able to tap into some of the trade opportunities that have opened up because of the tensions between the US and China, and you've seen other countries such as Vietnam come and take that market share."
If the Congress party gains power in May, it is unclear whether it will seek to change India's trade policy, and Mr Rossow believes a second term for Mr Modi will just mean more of the same.
"This government is all about trying to encourage investment and if it continues [in power], you're going to see another big run at that."
The Indian government did not respond to requests for comment on the issues raised in this article.
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A Met Police officer has been charged with the kidnap and murder of 33-year-old marketing executive Sarah Everard. It means criminal proceedings are under way but, with the justice system creaking under a massive backlog, how long might it be before a trial could take place? | By Thomas MackintoshBBC News, London
To start with, Wayne Couzens will be taken to Westminster Magistrates' Court for his first court appearance.
All such proceedings start at the magistrate level, where a defendant confirms personal details such as their name, date of birth and where they live. Serious crimes, known as indictable offences, are always sent up to crown court.
The 48-year-old will then appear at crown court - most likely the Central Criminal Court in London, which is better known as the Old Bailey.
A judge will listen to the background of the case and can grant or refuse bail - although it is extremely rare for someone accused of murder to be granted bail. The judge will also set a date for a plea hearing and, should Mr Couzens plead not guilty, he will go on to be tried by a jury.
When might a trial take place?
The coronavirus pandemic has contributed to a backlog that stands at an estimated 56,000 crown court cases in England and Wales.
About 65% of the crown court backlog is believed to be made up of trials, and many will not go before a jury until 2022 at the earliest. The other cases are sentencing hearings and plea preparations.
Due to the pandemic, social distancing measures have had to be put in place. This means not all trials in the past year have been able to be heard in court buildings, which often have very cramped conditions.
So finding a suitable courtroom could take some time, as dates have already been set for other trials.
Mr Couzens has been charged with murder and has already been remanded into custody.
Custody ahead of a trial carries a time limit which is currently eight months, but this can be reviewed, extended or cut by a judge.
There are protocols in place to expedite the most serious cases, both in the interests of public protection and management of dangerous offenders on remand.
Any trial could well take place this year, should it be fast-tracked.
What about social media?
Particularly now there has been a charge in the case, people need to be especially cautious about what they post about it on social media.
Posts should not include comments claiming or implying that any suspect is guilty of an offence of which they have been accused, nor anything else that could prejudice a trial or impede the administration of justice.
This is because, according to English law, everyone charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until proven guilty and everyone has the right to a fair trial.
Criminal proceedings against Mr Couzens have been "active" since his arrest.
This means that under contempt of court laws, nothing should be published that could cause a substantial risk of seriously prejudicing or impeding the legal process, for example by influencing potential jurors.
What has the Met Police said?
Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said that the arrest of a serving police officer on suspicion of murder had caused anger both within the Met and with the general public.
As is usual, because one of its own has been arrested, the Met referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) as well as its in-house Directorate of Professional Standards.
Both are responsible for investigating complaints about the professional conduct of officers.
The IOPC has also launched an investigation into the Met's initial handling of the missing person investigation.
Ms Everard's last known movements were at about 21:30 GMT on 3 March, shortly after she got off the phone to her boyfriend.
It took roughly 36 hours for police to make their initial appeal for information about the whereabouts of the marketing executive.
But the findings of investigations into the way the case was handled would not be made public until after any murder trial.
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The owner of a shop selling legal highs in Taunton has lost an appeal to get it reopened following its closure by magistrates. | Taunton magistrates had granted an application for police to close Hush in Bridge Street for three months under anti-social behaviour powers.
Police said it was responsible for serious disorder in the town.
Owner Simon Tomlin appealed against the closure order at the higher crown court but the appeal was dismissed.
Last year, Taunton Deane councillors voted unanimously to ban the sale of the substances in premises rented from the authority.
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This week marks 25 years since Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in a conflict which lasted three decades. Rights groups criticise the East African nation for its lack of democracy, media freedom and its policy of forced conscription, which can last for many years. But the Eritrean government has organised huge celebrations.
| By Mary HarperBBC News, Asmara
Long rows of rusting tanks and other military vehicles, which were captured from Ethiopian forces, fill a field outside the capital. Eritrean rebels were fighting a far more powerful and better equipped army.
At a carnival in the capital, Asmara, people re-enacted key moments from the war. Tens of thousands of Eritrean women fought alongside men in the war for independence, making up more than a quarter of the army's fighting force by the end of the conflict. When women joined the army, their long hair was cut off into an Afro-style.
Children born to female soldiers were known as Red Flowers. People told me the young would be separated from their parents and raised in communal creches so their parents could keep fighting.
Many buildings across the country have been festooned with decorations for Independence Day.
At an exhibition about the conflict, this bra is one of the items on show. Made by hand from scraps of cloth, it is an example of the creative self-reliance Eritrean fighters had to practise, given the extremely limited resources they had.
Along with the bra, a pair of pants is also being exhibited. One way to kill lice, which were rife among soldiers, was to bury clothes under small stones, a war veteran told me. There was very little water to wash clothes. He said soap was in such short supply that there was a "special punishment" for anyone who lost a piece of soap.
When wounded Eritreans left hospital to go back to the front, they often had no shoes. Doctors in the underground hospitals made them temporary shoes out of cardboard and the tubing used for drips.
This tree bears the photos of 264 "martyrs" who were killed in the space of five days as the Eritrean rebels made a final push into the capital, Asmara, in 1991.
In 1998, fighting resumed between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Thousands were killed on both sides during the two-year border conflict, which remains unresolved.
Eritrea still takes great pride in its self-reliance and there is a special market in Asmara where metal is recycled into everything imaginable. Old oil drums are made into plates. Rusting heaps of metal are "rewound" to be converted into combs, hair pins, Christian crosses, gutters and other items.
This young man is working on a gate made using the same technique. Many of the men in the market said they were still in "national service", some after nine or 10 years, and were working in the market to supplement the small wages they received from the army.
Asmara's central boulevard has been decorated with special lights for the occasion. Even though Eritrea is known as a place people run away from, thousands of people from the diaspora have come home to join the party.
In some ways, Eritrea seems frozen in time. Many buildings are in the Modernist and Art Deco style of 1930s when the country was colonised by Italy. Some of the cars are old and Italian too.
Although the carnivals and parades held for the Silver Jubilee have been a joyous occasion for many Eritreans, everyday life remains tough for many. The wars with Ethiopia, targeted sanctions and international isolation have hit the country hard. But things are beginning to change.
Eritrea is opening up, albeit slowly. It is making more friends, especially in the Arab world. And there is increased foreign investment, especially in the mining sector.
Despite this, a UN-appointed commission of inquiry into human rights in Eritrea said last year that as many as 5,000 Eritreans flee their country every month, many of them young men.
The European Union says more Eritreans come to Europe than from any other African country, many fleeing years of conscription, although the Eritrean authorities deny this and dispute the figure given by the UN.
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Brexit. It's all about Britain, right? | By Chris MorrisBBC News, Brussels
Well, not entirely.
There is the rest of the club to consider - what has become known, rather inelegantly, as the EU-of-27.
They are about to lose - depending on your point of view - a curmudgeonly whinger who was dragging the whole project down or one of their largest economies and the most powerful defence and security power in Europe.
So what to do?
There are those who think, genuinely, good riddance.
"General de Gaulle was right all along," they mutter. "We should never have let them join in the first place.
"Freed from the shackles of British ministers objecting to integration here and integration there, we can get on with it."
Costly divorce
Closer co-operation on EU defence policy is high on their list; and it has been given an extra boost by the new president of the United States musing out loud about Nato and whether it is all worth it.
Others are dismayed by the British decision to leave, but after getting over the initial shock - and it really was a shock - they too are determined to make the best of it.
And when it comes to negotiating the UK divorce bill, make no mistake. For the people who matter, the unity of the remaining 27 is more important than trying not to upset the Brits as they wave goodbye.
The bill will be big - up to 60 billion euros - and European diplomats are bracing themselves for what one called "the very real possibility" that the UK will walk out in a huff.
But the likelihood is that after one too many late-night summits - and one too many outraged tabloid headlines - a deal of sorts will emerge from the rubble.
The consequences of Brexit will rumble on for years; there are trade deals that will have to be done. But the EU is in no position to wait for the dust to settle.
In many ways, it has already moved on. So long Britain, and thanks for the memories.
Later this month, leaders of the 27 (the 28th has already sent her apologies) will meet in Rome to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the EU's founding treaty.
Multi-speed Europe?
I say celebrate, but there is no illusion about the challenges facing the union.
Could the forces that prompted Brexit spread to other countries? Will anti-EU populists continue to rise in France, the Netherlands and parts of Central Europe?
It is certainly not impossible, and EU leaders know it. The idea that the EU could fall apart - unthinkable a few years ago - is now the subject of serious discussion.
Which is why they need a new plan to reinvigorate the project on its 60th birthday, and make it fit for future purpose.
The European Commission has now produced a series of policy options for the best way forward, ranging from shrugging its shoulders to throwing up its hands in horror.
But the most likely solution is to make more use of what is known as multi-speed Europe.
That's the idea that "coalitions of the willing" can move forward on big projects even if others want to linger on the starting line.
It is already happening with the euro, and with the passport-free Schengen area - not all EU countries are members of everything. An inner core may want to push ahead, if (and it's a big if) it can take public opinion along for the ride.
Difficult balancing act
The other Commission proposal that looks to have legs is the idea that Brussels would return some powers to member states, as long as the EU was given greater responsibilities in major policy areas such as trade, migration, security and defence.
Variations on this theme have been around for some time. The EU needs to be big on the big things, they said, and smaller on smaller things.
And the biggest of the big things - in a competitive field - is probably the need to fix the eurozone.
The single currency remains half-formed, and - as a result - not yet secure. There is talk of a eurozone finance minister and a single eurozone budget.
But if you centralise economic power, you have to make sure it is politically accountable.
In an era of populist, anti-establishment rage, that is a difficult balancing act. Much will depend on who wins national elections this year in Germany and, in particular, France.
Political leadership will be at a premium.
But as the UK prepares to leave and enter a whole new world, the status quo is no longer an option for the countries that remain.
The EU either needs to move forward towards closer integration, or transfer significant power back to nation states.
It continues to be a bold experiment in Europe. But the halfway house has been built on sand.
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Three men have been rescued after their fishing boat broke down off the coast of the Isle of Man. | Port St Mary's all-weather lifeboat Gough Ritchie 2 was launched at 17:55 GMT on Wednesday after being alerted by Belfast coastguard.
The RNLI said the scallop fishermen were "fit and well" when found on board the locally owned 14m (46ft) boat.
He said their trawler had suffered steering problems 10 miles (16km) south-east of Port St Mary.
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A museum dedicated to telling the story of the Normandy landings is set to receive a £4.1m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). | Portsmouth's D-Day Museum is currently marking the 70th anniversary of the invasion which was a turning point for the Allies during World War Two.
The money will be used to "renew" it in time for the 75th anniversary in 2019.
The museum opened in 1984 and houses the Overlord Embroidery, an 83-metre-long textile tribute to the veterans.
Carole Souter, chief executive of HLF, called the landings a "monumental moment in European history".
Plans include new displays using the words of veterans to bring the story to life, and a new activity space for work with schools.
The museum must now raise £160,000 towards the development costs.
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A wanted man driving a stolen car knocked on a police station door asking for help, telling officers he was being chased. | The 41-year-old called in at Newtown police station in Birmingham at about 08:00 BST.
West Midlands Police said he is alleged to have made off from a petrol station without paying last week.
Officers arrested the man and later described the incident on Twitter as an "epic fail".
On Twitter, police described it as "unbelievable".
It garnered a number of responses, with one user commenting that it would "save so much time and effort" if more criminals "came knocking on your door".
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EU students applying for places at Welsh universities for the next academic year will be eligible for loans and grants, ministers have said. | Education Secretary Kirsty Williams said the financial support would continue, on the same terms, if the UK leaves the EU during their studies.
The aim was to ensure the "best and the brightest" students across the EU were still attracted to Wales, she said.
The same announcement has also been made for universities in England.
"Our decision not only provides welcome certainty for our universities and colleges regarding future funding, but also assures prospective EU students they will not have the terms of their funding changed if the UK leaves the EU during their studies, Ms Williams added.
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For the first time ever, the winner of the Mercury Prize will be revealed on The One Show this Thursday. | By Mark SavageBBC music reporter
The prize, which recognises the best British or Irish album of the year, is normally announced at a lavish awards ceremony in London.
But with Covid making that impossible, Radio 1's Annie Mac will deliver the judge's verdict live on BBC One.
This year's nominees include pop stars like Dua Lipa and Charli XCX, alongside Stormzy and folk singer Laura Marling.
The bookmaker's favourite, however, is Michael Kiwanuka - whose soulful exploration of identity and self-doubt is one of the most acclaimed albums of the last 12 months.
The BBC has also put together a special Mercury Prize show featuring specially-filmed performances from many of the 12 nominated acts.
Laura Marling performed music from her nominated album, Song For Our Daughter, at the Royal Albert Hall, while indie band Porridge Radio filmed their contribution at Brighton's Rialto Theatre.
Charli XCX has shot an exclusive performance in LA, while Dua Lipa has made a previously unseen performance available, and Stormzy will be seen in an excerpt of his historic Glastonbury set last year.
As well as The One show, BBC 6 Music will present live coverage of the award from 19:00 BST, including the first interview with the winner.
The winner will also appear for an extended interview on a special edition of Later… With Jools Holland on Friday at 22:00 BST on BBC Two.
Read about all 12 of this year's nominees below.
Anna Meredith - Fibs
Scottish composer Anna Meredith has been a composer-in-residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, made music for park benches in Hong Kong, opened the first night of the Proms with a piece commemorating the end of World War 1, and created orchestral arrangements for Laura Marling and Sigur Ros.
The songs on her second solo album, Fibs, are in perpetual motion, skipping deftly between moods and sounds, whether she's layering up arpeggiated synths, thrashing a hair metal guitar, or making "bangery pop pop" on the elegaic Inhale Exhale.
The critics say: "It's a frankly overwhelming listen first time around, with everything tearing along at 100 miles an hour, but it's all fizzing and crackling so exhilaratingly that you're happy to let her sweep you along." [DIY Magazine]
Listen to this: Inhale Exhale
Charli XCX - How I'm Feeling Now
"Staying positive goes hand in hand with being creative," said Charli XCX, announcing that she intended to write and record an album from scratch during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Six weeks later, How I'm Feeling Now emerged, fusing her pop melodies with fidgety electronic production. Understandably, it simmers with anxiety and stress - but also finds space to celebrate the relationship that sustained Charli through self-isolation.
"I don't know why I haven't made an album like this before'," she told the BBC. "It's so fun and nice to work like this."
The critics said: "While not life-altering, How I'm Feeling Now is fun, fast and thoroughly listenable. It's absorbing as a document from a strange period, and its diaristic, vloggy aspects provide an intriguing peek into artistry under pressure." [The Quietus]
Listen to this: Claws
Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia
"I've time-travelled quite a lot on this record," said Dua Lipa of her second album, which draws on 70s disco, 80s workout-pop and 90s club jams.
The retro-futuristic sound was a deliberate step away from her debut album, as Lipa resisted the pressure to make a "New Rules Pt. II" and revisited the music that inspired her, growing up in London and Kosovo.
The result is almost defiantly happy - a sweat-glistened hymn to the dancefloor that cements her position as Britain's top pop star.
The critics said: "A breathtakingly fun, cohesive and ambitious attempt to find a place for disco in 2020." [Rolling Stone]
Listen to this: Don't Start Now
Georgia - Seeking Thrills
Growing up, Georgia Barnes' bedroom doubled as a recording studio for dance mavericks and two-time Mercury nominees Leftfield. "It was keyboards, drum machines, wires, bits of percussion, microphones," said the singer, whose father was the band's producer Neil Barnes.
She started playing one of those drum machines when she was five, and her love of rhythm permeates her propulsive second album, Seeking Thrills.
Like Dua Lipa's record, Seeking Thrills is a euphoric tribute to dancefloor deliverance. Or, to use Georgia's own words, "ultrasound light, consumed by night".
The critics said: "It's a spectacularly physical and restless album... The embodiment of what it means to come alive on the dancefloor." [Popmatters]
Listen to this: Never Let You Go
Kano - Hoodies All Summer
One of the legends of grime's first wave, Kano's fifth album, Made In The Manor, landed him a Mercury nomination in 2017.
His sixth record is, if anything, sharper and more focused - a lean, 10-track survey of social and racial injustice, that addresses everything from knife crime and Windrush to gentrification and, crucially, the importance of good times.
"I feel like we're resilient people and there's always room for a smile and to celebrate the small wins and the big wins," he told Apple Music.
The critics said: "This is the album grime has been crying out for." [The Telegraph]
Listen to this: Can't Hold We Down
Lanterns On The Lake - Spook The Herd
On their atmospheric fourth album, Newcastle's Lanterns On The Lake sing about environmental crisis, internet extremism, social media addiction and bereavement.
"Don't look now," sings Hazel Wilde on the opening track, "Here come the baddies/ On a wave of hate."
The topics are urgent and frequently upsetting, but Wilde infuses her lyrics with empathy, exploring how compassion could deliver us from disaster.
The music is a balm, too, with shimmering guitars and dreamy soundscapes that draw you deeper with every listen.
The critics said: "A spectacular, rich and luscious album that many listeners will have etched into their minds and hearts forever." [Music OMH]
Listen to this: Every Atom
Laura Marling - Song For Our Daughter
Laura Marling's seventh album was inspired by Maya Angelou's book, Letter to My Daughter - a series of essays to a younger generation of women, full of wisdom and lessons in compassion and fortitude.
Marling is also passing down some hard-won wisdom. "Stay alone, be brave," she sings on Strange Girl. Later, on For You, she advises: "Love is not the answer / But the line that marks the start."
For an artist who's frequently hidden behind characters and metaphor, it's her most straightforward record yet, full of rich string arrangements and melodic Laurel Canyon harmonies, and earning the singer her fourth Mercury nomination.
The critics said: "Marling's seventh solo LP has the clarity, mastery and quiet strength of a folk-rock classic." [Q Magazine]
Listen to this: Strange Girl
Michael Kiwanuka - Kiwanuka
Michael Kiwanuka joins rarefied company, as only the third artist to receive a Mercury nomination for each of their first three albums (the others being Coldplay and Anna Calvi).
Despite that track record, his latest album emerged from a period of crippling self-doubt. "I've always had imposter syndrome," he told the BBC last year. "I was always waiting for someone to find me out and go, 'You're not actually that good and it's all going to crumble'."
After conquering his demons, Kiwanuka re-emerged with a record that bears his name as a badge of pride and self-belief.
Across 13 interwoven tracks, it showcases his talents as a melodicist and arranger, steering effortlessly through gospel-rock, melancholy soul and trippy psychedelia - while never losing sight of his grace and humanity.
The critics said: "Kiwanuka is loaded with memorable songs, but the best way to experience them is by listening to the album from start to finish." [Uncut]
Listen to this: Hero
Moses Boyd - Dark Matter
Moses Boyd made his name as a drummer, winning two Mobo Awards as part of the free-jazz duo Binker and Moses.
His solo debut is a foundation-shaking collision of West African and Caribbean rhythms, incorporating elements of UK garage and experimental electronica for good measure.
Aimed squarely at the dancefloor, it's also a subtly political album, written as a reaction to Windrush, Grenfell and Brexit.
"I didn't sit down to write political songs," he told All About Jazz, "but I was turning on my TV and seeing tower blocks burning and people being deported [so] I was responding to what was around me. There's a lot of darkness."
The critics said: "Cool, relevant, and vital in pulling together the threads of London's often disparate musical communities." [Allmusic]
Listen to this: Stranger Than Fiction
Porridge Radio - Every Bad
"I'm bored to death / Let's argue," sings Porridge Radio's singer, songwriter and guitarist Dana Margolin in the opening seconds of the band's second album.
Those feelings of frustration and uncertainty appear across the whole album, as Margolin attempts to figure out her place in a world that doesn't allow space for self-reflection.
The chaos is reflected in the itchy guitar lines and agitated drums, helping the Brighton-based band burn off some of that nervous energy.
The critics said: "Porridge Radio have not only written the album of their careers but possibly of the year too." [Clash]
Listen to this: Circling
Sports Team - Deep Down Happy
Last month, Sports Team achieved the highest first-week sales for a debut album by a British band in four years, narrowly missing out on the number one slot after a week-long showdown with Lady Gaga.
It's easy to see why: Deep Down Happy is a compact, playful blast of indie-rock, combining the spirit of Britpop with the scuzzed-up swagger of post-punk.
Frontman Alex Rice's lyrics, meanwhile, take a sardonic look at middle England - "I wanna be a lawyer, or someone who hunts foxes," he sneers on Lander - placing them alongside previous Mercury-winners Pulp and Arctic Monkeys, albeit with the added privilege of a Cambridge education.
The critics said: "This is the sound of a band who are done being the underdogs." [NME]
Listen to this: Here's The Thing
Stormzy - Heavy Is The Head
Stormzy's debut won multiple Brit awards, landed him a headline slot at Glastonbury and established the 26-year-old as one of Britain's most compelling new voices.
The pressure on the follow-up was immense - hence the title - but the rapper kept a level head and focused on the music.
The result is an eclectic album that caters both to his mainstream audience and the grime scene that built him, without feeling like he's pandering to either.
Indeed, the intended target appears to be Stormzy himself. Throughout the album, he questions how to use his fame - to crush the competition, or elevate his community? He usually errs towards the latter, seeking humility and forgiveness (particularly from his ex, Maya Jama) while turning to God for guidance.
The critics said: "Not only is it a drastic step up from his impressive debut, but it shows an artist keen to test himself emotionally, as well as artistically."
Listen to this: Crown
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"We just had this huge stand-off because our label wanted us to do a certain TV show and we don't want to do it," says The Ting Tings' lead singer Katie White. "It just feels cheap and nasty." | By Greg CochraneNewsbeat music reporter
Was it X Factor?
"I'd rather not say," she smiles.
"We just felt like we want to have a career. We don't just want to ride on celebrity and hope people see your face in a magazine and then buy your record. For us it's about the creative side.
"If you have great songs and interesting, innovative stuff then you don't have to whore yourself out."
DIY approach
Right now, Salford's The Ting Tings are in an interesting place. Back in 2007, the pop pairing had more or less given up hope of chiselling a career in music.
As drummer Jules De Martino puts it: "We had nothing to lose.
"There was no intention to be a band commercially or travel the world - those dreams had gone. Our chances over."
But the duo, who were previously dropped in another band, began their last shot at stardom doing everything themselves. They organised their own gigs, sold their own vinyl and shot their own videos.
It's a deep-seated DIY attitude which they still maintain despite being signed to a major record label and having sold over two million copies of their debut album, We Started Nothing.
On the eve of their new album the band are determined to fight for their own creativity, but also sympathetic to the state the music industry finds itself in right now.
"It's really hard for labels at the moment," says De Martino. "There are less and less things for them to channel you into.
"They want to put you on TV but there are not a lot of shows left - the pickings are slim so it gets even more competitive.
"In terms of making decisions, we've always said if we're going to do anything wrong or fail we'd so much rather that be our decision."
White jumps in: "You might sell slightly less records for two weeks but in the long run you have more respect and dignity and you end up selling more albums.
"People realise you're an artist and you're not just trying to jump down their throats."
New album
All of which leads to The Tings Tings preparing for the release of their as yet untitled second album (tentatively scheduled for January) and latest single Hands.
"It was the first track we wrote coming off the 18-month tour. It's about working really hard," says De Martino.
"After we came back to the UK after being around the world for so long a lot of things had changed. A lot of our friends had lost their jobs or were working ridiculous hours."
The impact of the financial downturn appears to have bled into the band's music.
"We were touring through the whole global recession that was going on," adds De Martino. "Every country we visited, we had them talking about them losing their jobs and how things were tough for them.
"Places in Europe like Greece were crazy. Rubbish wasn't being picked up on the street… You just wouldn't think that you'd see that in our life time.
"You think you're going to come home and back in Blighty everything would be fine - but the same thing is happening here. It was a shock."
Shocked, yes. Surprised, yes. But The Tings Tings, understandably, are ploughing on regardless.
Between now and the album release they're planning on putting out another one or two singles that will be accompanied by online "visuals".
The album's sound has been influenced by everything from Nancy Sinatra to 60s psychedelic pop and 90s girl-group TLC.
It was recorded entirely by the twosome, who set up shop in a deserted Berlin jazz club last winter.
"It was still a very isolated area. We had no internet, no TV… The internet we had was a dongle you stuck in a laptop and then walk down an alleyway to send an email," says De Martino.
"To be creative, we have to come out of the entertainment industry. You get caught up in that and become part of that.
"There was nobody over your shoulder saying 'you sold two million albums last time, if you write this again you'd sell three million'.
"We've got egos like every other musician and pop star, but equally it's important to feel totally free when it comes to recording."
"We're control freaks," giggles White, almost stating the obvious. "You don't want to hit them with a song and then be papped every day. I don't think people get convinced by that."
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People who see something going wrong in the NHS should be able to report their concerns, even if they haven't been directly affected, according to Anna Bradley, the chair of patients' group Healthwatch England.
In this week's Scrubbing Up, she says the NHS often doesn't let witnesses file complaints - an omission akin to preventing people reporting an abandoned bag at an airport because they don't have the owner's permission. | By Anna BradleyChair of Healthwatch England
We know that patients are reluctant to make a fuss when standards slip on hospital wards.
Many simply don't know how to make a complaint, others are actually scared of the consequences.
Yet we often hear complaints referred to as 'gold dust' by hospital bosses in terms of improving services.
You would think then that health and care organisations would be eager to hear from anyone who wanted to report a concern or complaint.
However, our research suggests that tens of thousands of incidents are slipping under the radar because those who witness poor care and try to report it are being told, in one particular case, to "mind their own business".
'Civic-minded individuals'
Responding to a Freedom of Information request, a third of hospitals across England told us that they don't record complaints from "third parties", ie those that witness rather than personally experiencing poor care.
Many of the hospital trusts that replied incorrectly stated that such complaints cannot be investigated without the permission of the patient.
Others said they record such incidents as informal feedback only, with no follow-up provided to the courageous and civic minded individuals complaining on behalf of vulnerable patients.
In the worst cases some hospitals just flat out said they don't record these complaints.
Even where these reports are recorded, they are often not included in formal stats allowing hospitals so their complaints data doesn't tell the true story.
For me this is symptomatic of a much bigger problem around complaints handling in the NHS and social care services.
The fact that doctors and nurses would rather tell one of these "citizen whistleblowers" they can't complain because they don't tick the right box or have the permission to make a complaint is just wrong.
If a passer-by reports an abandoned bag in an airport, the staff don't say: "I'm sorry sir, but do you have the permission of the bag owner." Rather they are thanked for their vigilance.
If the policy makers and politicians are serious about driving culture change in the NHS then more needs to be done to wipe out this 'compute says no' attitude and encourage staff to welcome feedback - positive and negative.
'Long hard look'
With the secretary of state for health's update on progress against the recommendations of the Francis inquiry expected in the next few weeks, I implore him to take a long hard look at the complaints question.
In our report, 'Suffering in Silence', we set out a vision for streamlining and refocusing the complaints system around what people want.
Firstly, the system needs to make it easier for people to complain, including institutions understanding that everyone, including third parties, has the right to raise concerns.
Secondly, every case should be dealt with compassionately, with a speedy, personalised response that actually addresses the poor experience and includes an outline of what happens next.
Lastly, those who fail to up their game must be held to account by being put into "special measures" by the regulators, issued with financial penalties and ultimately being shut down and replaced.
In short, it's time for the health and social care sector to get serious about complaints, and stop finding loopholes to avoid having to face up to their mistakes.
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A child has been left in a life-threatening condition following a collision between a car and a vehicle towing a livestock trailer.
| The head-on crash happened at about 08:50 BST on the A485 between Llangybi and Tregaron in Ceredigion.
The driver of the car, a 28-year-old woman who was travelling with her two children towards Lampeter, was also taken to hospital.
The driver and passenger of the other vehicle sustained minor injuries.
Dyfed-Powys Police has appealed for anyone who may have witnessed the collision to contact them.
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Jeremy Corbyn's defiance has been built on his insistence that a small number of Labour MPs who have never believed in him are trying to unseat him in Westminster, and his position is buttressed by overwhelming support among the party around the country. | Laura KuenssbergPolitical editor@bbclaurakon Twitter
But with only hours until a vote on a motion of no confidence in his leadership at Westminster, there are signs that his backing away from Parliament could be starting to fray.
Another member of the front bench, Andy Slaughter, has joined dozens of others in resigning. But this is different.
Mr Slaughter describes himself as a "comrade" of Mr Corbyn and decided to resign only after consulting with his local party activists who agreed.
His disquiet cannot be dismissed as the grumbling of an MP from a very different wing of the party. I understand he also turned down a promotion to the shadow cabinet, and decided to quit instead.
Fighting on
And the first senior figure in Labour local government is now calling for him to go. Dave Sparks, the former chair of the Local Government Association, has warned that if Mr Corbyn stays, Labour will be wiped out.
He told the BBC that if the leadership doesn't change leader, and change course, the party is looking at its support disappearing in England as it has melted away in Scotland.
But last night, shadow chancellor John McDonnell said that Jeremy Corbyn would fight to stay on.
Last night in Westminster, Mr Corbyn and his close friend and colleague Mr McDonnell seemed utterly determined not to budge. It seemed inevitable that MPs' only course was to challenge him as leader.
But other local council figures are expected to echo Mr Sparks and call for him to go. The wave of enthusiasm he built outside Parliament may be starting to recede.
If so, his confidence that he would win the likely leadership contest may prove to be misplaced.
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The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, has been found guilty of negligence after a trial in France over compensation awarded in 2008 to Bernard Tapie, a well-connected businessman, when she was finance minister.
Although she has avoided a sentence, Ms Lagarde had denied wrongdoing and the verdict came as a shock. The IMF had backed her through the judicial saga, and prosecutors said while she had made a bad decision, they did not see it as an offence. | Why was she taken to court?
It is a story that all began with a big business deal in the early 1990s that years later led to accusations of cronyism levelled against several leading French figures, including Christine Lagarde.
In 1993, Bernard Tapie had to sell his business interests to become a minister in the then Socialist government.
When sports goods manufacturer Adidas was sold on his behalf, Credit Lyonnais (CL) bank found buyers for the equivalent of €320m in 1993. The state-owned bank said this was a good price, but investors immediately sold Adidas on for €560m, and Mr Tapie cried foul.
Mr Tapie argued that the bank had deliberately undervalued the company, and pointed out that one of the firms that had flipped Adidas for a huge profit was a subsidiary of CL. He sued the bank for fraud in a court battle that went on for many years.
Why was Christine Lagarde caught up in it?
As finance minister from 2007-11 under centre-right President Nicolas Sarkozy, she played a key role in the initial settlement. In 2007, she decided to refer the long-running case to final arbitration.
This decision was controversial as Mr Tapie had thrown his support behind Mr Sarkozy in the election.
In 2008 the three-member panel awarded Mr Tapie not just compensation, but also interest and other costs - for a total of €404m ($429m; £340m). That included €45m for "moral damage".
Ms Lagarde decided not to challenge the ruling, prompting an outcry.
Critics argued that by going to binding arbitration rather than continuing fighting Mr Tapie through the courts, she was repaying favours.
Profile: IMF chief Christine Lagarde
Many accused Ms Lagarde of cronyism, and in 2011 a group of Socialist MPs launched a corruption case against her.
The whole compensation deal was eventually thrown out and Mr Tapie was ordered to repay the €404m.
Paris prosecutors later targeted parties to the 2008 decision - including Mr Tapie, arbitrators and other officials - on suspicion of fraud and misuse of public funds.
Investigations are still ongoing but Ms Lagarde was tried by France's highest court and cleared of the most serious charges in 2014.
So why was she put on trial again?
The court in 2014 said Christine Lagarde's decision to settle the case through arbitration had demonstrated a "grave negligence".
Prosecutors argued that she had not committed an offence, but simply made a poor decision.
However, the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) rejected their recommendation. Ms Lagarde was accused of negligence and faced hostile questioning during the five-day trial.
What happened in court?
One of the key moments came when ex-treasury official Bruno Bezard told the court that the government had been warned on several occasions not to go to arbitration, which had "colossal risks".
But it was not clear that the warnings had reached Ms Lagarde. Her then chief of staff, Stephane Ricard, decided not to give evidence in the trial.
However, when the €404m payout was recommended by the panel, Mr Bezard said the decision not to appeal was "scandalous", he said.
Although Ms Lagarde said she had taken her time before deciding not to contest the payout, Mr Bezard spoke of his shock at the speed at which she took the decision.
Chief prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin spoke of " very weak accusations" that were not sustained by the evidence. On the final day of the hearing, Christine Lagarde appeared to be close to tears as she defended her record and described a five-year ordeal.
The risk of fraud had never occurred to her, she said. "I acted in good faith and good conscience with the sole aim of defending the general interest," she insisted.
Why did she avoid a sentence?
The CJR ruled that Ms Lagarde had been personally implicated in the decision not to challenge the panel's decision.
And yet it decided not to hand down a criminal penalty because it said her national and international reputation had to be taken into account.
It is not yet clear how far her reputation will be tarnished. Although there can be no appeal, her lawyer has said they will try to contest the ruling.
Why is the court unusual?
The CJR was set up in 1993 to handle crimes allegedly committed by cabinet ministers.
As it is composed of 12 politicians and three magistrates, many see it as a way of using the court system to wage political battles.
Outgoing French President Francois Hollande has vowed to scrap the CJR, arguing that government ministers should be treated like ordinary citizens.
But the court remains in place, and has just held one of the highest-profile cases in its short history.
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The Budget is over, the battle lines are drawn. Stand by for a prolonged period of speculation about how NHS England will respond to a funding announcement one of its top officials, Sir Bruce Keogh, has described as "worrying". | Hugh PymHealth editor@BBCHughPymon Twitter
There's talk in the air of rationing and a further downgrading of targets for patient care.
Sir Malcolm Grant, chairman of the organisation, has said the extra money will go some way towards filling the funding gap but "we can no longer avoid the difficult debate about what it is possible to deliver for patients with the money available".
This will be high on the agenda for the NHS England board meeting on 30 November.
Haggling
NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens has already warned that failing to get a significant funding increase would mean waiting lists for non-urgent surgery in England ballooning to 5 million.
He said the only appropriate course would be to scrap the national waiting times target for routine operations. It was clear from NHS England's responses on Budget Day that its leadership felt the chancellor had not delivered what was needed.
The board meeting may well set out the direction of travel and the areas of care NHS England feels will need to be "deprioritised". But this will be followed by weeks of haggling with the Department of Health over the annual mandate setting out the government's objectives for NHS England as well as its budget.
NHS Budget plan not enough, say bosses
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The £2bn extra announced in the budget for the NHS in England in 2018-19 will go to the Department of Health (after the usual formula is applied, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will get proportionate increases).
Ministers will then "discuss" with NHS England leaders how the money will be spent. The Department, it seems, will not try to insist the funding is tied to specific waiting-list initiatives but may demand more efficiency improvements. There will, no doubt, be wrangling over what Mr Stevens thinks is achievable and what Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt thinks must be delivered (he has already said the four-hour A&E wait target will be reached next year and will be embarrassed if that does not happen).
Sir David Nicholson, former head of NHS England, gave his view via Twitter: "The first response is not to tell the public what they can't have but present the government with options and choices that flow from the consequences of the proposed funding of health and social care and do it openly and transparently."
'Dodged a bullet'
While NHS England was clear that the chancellor's injection of new funding was not adequate, there were varying shades of opinion across Whitehall and the health service.
Jim Mackey, head of the regulator NHS Improvement, struck a different note with his view that the extra revenue was "a reasonable investment" and the news that any pay award above 1% would be fully funded by the Treasury was "very welcome". He did acknowledge the money wouldn't make all the problems go away.
After an intensive number crunch, the health think tanks Nuffield, King's and Health Foundation suggested the Budget could have been worse and the NHS had "dodged a bullet".
But their experts criticised the award of £350m to cope with this winter's pressures arguing it was hard to spend the money effectively so late in the year. Sir David Nicholson's Twitter assessment was that it was "too late to spend it so it'll go straight to the bottom line and will allow government to blame the NHS if things go badly wrong". Whitehall sources argue that the new winter money is "better late than never".
Challenge of winter
Labour's Jon Ashworth has claimed that the funding boost for health still does not meet the Conservatives' manifesto pledge of raising the amount spent per person across the lifetime of the Parliament.
Figures from the House of Commons library show that Department of Health spending (in real terms) per head of population will rise from £2,207 this year to £2,223 next year before falling again to £2,222 and staying there till 2020-21. The Conservative election pledge on funding per person referred to the NHS as opposed to the Department of Health.
There will always be a debate about the NHS and money as patient demand rises relentlessly. Calls for a cross-party convention to grapple with the issue are gaining momentum. It will be brought to a head as and when NHS England announces what has to give in its services because of the funding which has been made available. There is also of course the small matter of a winter to be navigated.
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Before becoming one of Britain's best-loved actors through roles in Brookside and The Royle Family, Ricky Tomlinson was controversially jailed for his part in a strike in 1972. He is trying to clear his name, and hopes a new play about the case will help. | By Ian YoungsEntertainment reporter, BBC News
In 1972, Ricky Tomlinson was a plasterer in his mid-30s, living in a council house in north Wales, known by his real name Eric, with his familiar gift of the gab and a fiery streak.
When building workers went on a national strike that May, Tomlinson was among the leaders of a "flying picket" that visited building sites to persuade non-union members to down tools.
On 6 September, 300 members of a flying picket, including Tomlinson, visited building sites around Shrewsbury.
Five months later, 24 were charged with committing offences on that day including conspiracy to intimidate, unlawful assembly and affray.
In the end, three were jailed. Tomlinson, given a two-year sentence, was among them. Fellow picket leader Des Warren got three years.
Tomlinson, Warren and the others insisted they were innocent and had been set up by the political establishment. Their treatment led to protests, bitter arguments within the Labour party and the threat of a general strike.
Those with long memories may recall the case of Eric Tomlinson and his comrades.
Those who know him only as the cuddly TV and film star - as layabout Jim Royle from The Royle Family, Bobby Grant from Brookside and Mike Bassett England Manager - may be surprised to learn about his past life.
More than 40 years on, the story is being told on stage in a docu-drama called United We Stand.
Tomlinson, now approaching his 75th birthday, has given his support to the play and hopes it will help the campaign to clear his name.
He transforms back from cuddly star to firebrand as he discusses the case, insisting it was a miscarriage of justice. "We live in a so-called democracy, but does it really exist?" he asks.
"That's why it's so important to tell people today that we haven't got the freedom that we think we've got.
"They're taking it [the story] to the masses, to the people who don't know anything about it. A lot of people who will see the play weren't born when this went on."
The trial of Tomlinson, Warren and the others was told that they put on a "frightening and terrifying display of violence", according to newspaper reports from the time.
According to Tomlinson, the government, judiciary, police and building trade cooked up the charges to make an example of the strikers.
The year 1972 had been a torrid one for Edward Heath's Conservative government. Strikes by miners and dockers had forced the prime minister to call two states of emergency.
So what happened on 6 September 1972? Tomlinson says the pickets were asked to visit a building site ("called the Brookside site, funnily enough") that was full of "lumpers", casual workers who were paid lump sums and undermined the strength of the union.
Police accompanied them at all times, he points out, and made no arrests on the day.
"Considering we were charged with conspiracy, their argument was blown to pieces because I'd only hired my coach till 12 o'clock to go as far as Oswestry," he says.
"The guy I hired the coach off did the school run. I had to phone him at 12 o'clock to ask if we could keep the coach longer. The police were with us, these 80 police, and we had a good meeting on the site."
Was there any trouble? "Oh, there was the usual banter," he replies without defining what he means by banter. "And fellas shouting, 'Oh, we don't want to come out.'"
'Peaceful' protests
But the meetings were not violent, he says. "I went out every day. I used to take my lad out with me - I had a five or six-year-old son. I used to take him out nine times out of 10 on my shoulders.
"We were after £30 for a 35-hour week and we were after better health and safety. In 1972/3, more people died in the building game than in the mining industry and the farming industry put together. That's the point we had to put across."
Part of the following outcry stemmed from the fact that the men had been charged with conspiracy to intimidate rather than intimidation. Simple intimidation would have carried a maximum sentence of three months. The conspiracy charge had no limit.
The trial judge and the appeal judge acknowledged that the length of the sentences was intended as a deterrent to other strikers.
Lord Widgery, Lord Chief Justice, dismissed the appeal, saying at the time: "The deterrent effect of the original sentence has contributed to a period of relative peace."
Career change
Des Warren died in 2004, having blamed his ill health on tranquilliser drugs administered to awkward prisoners. Tomlinson is clearly haunted by the treatment his co-defendant received.
The campaigners now want the convictions to be overturned and want government and security service documents from the era, which have not been made public on national security grounds, to be released.
After leaving jail in 1975, Tomlinson struggled to work in the building trade again. He had been a pub and club entertainer on the side, and so answered an advert in the Liverpool Echo for someone with an Equity card and trade union experience.
It was placed by director Roland Joffe, who invited him to do a workshop. Tomlinson says he misunderstood: "I phoned my mate and said, 'That fella's turned out alright. He wants us to build a workshop.'"
When he got there, with mate and building gear in tow, Tomlinson found he had actually been invited to an acting workshop, where actors and directors try out scenes.
Joffe was so impressed with Tomlinson's acting that he cast him in the lead role for a BBC Play For Today titled United Kingdom in 1981.
Ricky Tomlinson, the lovable TV personality, was born - but his fiery streak burns on.
United We Stand opens at the Lantern Theatre in Liverpool on Thursday before going on tour.
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When Egyptian teenager Ghadeer Ahmed sent her boyfriend a video of her dancing - without her hijab, and in a short dress - she never imagined he would post it online. But years later he did. Here she tells the story of her decision to re-post the video herself, and to tell the world she saw no reason to be ashamed. | In 2009, when I was 18 years old, I was at a friend's house having fun and dancing with other girls. In Egypt, girls don't have anywhere to dance in public, so we dance together behind closed doors.
I asked one of my friends to record a video of me dancing on my mobile phone. There was nothing pornographic about this video, but I was wearing a short dress that revealed my body. A few days later, I sent it to my boyfriend.
In Europe or the US this would not be a big deal. But I come from an ordinary Muslim family in the Nile delta and, like most Egyptian girls, I had been raised to believe that no man has the right to see my body except my husband. At that time I was still wearing the hijab, the very emblem of female modesty, whenever I left the house. I knew that it was risky to send that kind of video to a man who was not my husband or even my fiance. But I sent it anyway. A while later I did something even riskier and sent him some private photos.
By 2012 we had broken up. That's when the threats started. He said he would put the video and photos online if I didn't get back together with him. He knew that I was starting to build a public profile as a political activist and women's rights campaigner, and he thought he could use these images to destroy my career as well as my reputation.
I was really frightened. I even thought my life might be in danger. In our society, the reputation of the whole family rests on the conduct of its daughters, sisters, and wives. Our bodies are not our own: they belong to the male members of the family, and are the vessels in which the family's honour is carried. I was scared that the video would bring shame on my parents, that our friends and neighbours would condemn my father for failing to raise me as a "good girl". I begged my ex-boyfriend not to publish the photos or the video.
About a year later, in early 2013, I was talking with friends and mentioned that I loved dancing. I'll never forget the reply from one of the men in the group. "I know," he said. "I've seen you dancing on YouTube."
#ShameOnline
This is one of a series of stories looking at a new and disturbing phenomenon - the use of private or sexually explicit images to threaten, blackmail and shame young people, mainly girls and women, in some of the world's most conservative societies. You can explore all the stories and contribute to the conversation here.
My ex had not only uploaded the dancing video - he had also made a video montage out of the private photographs and uploaded that as well. I managed to get YouTube to take down the video showing these photos, but the dancing video was still online.
Secretly, I contacted a friend who is a lawyer and asked if there was anything in Egyptian law that would allow me to press charges. He encouraged me to file a complaint for defamation. The next day I reported my ex-boyfriend to the police.
My family still knew nothing of this, and I was hoping to keep it that way. But a few months later, when I was on my way from Cairo back to my parents' home town, I received a phone call from my mum. Worried by the involvement of the law, my ex-boyfriend had gone to my father and told him everything. He had even shown my dad the private photos to prove that he had seen my body, and then offered to "restore" the family's honour by marrying me - on the condition, of course, that I drop the charges. I can definitely say that this was the worst marriage proposal I have ever received.
The absurdity of this offer - a legal settlement wrapped up as a marriage proposal - lays bare the assumptions that restrict the sexual freedom of women in Egypt and across the Arab world. Family honour is inextricably linked to female sexual purity. If that purity is compromised in any way, honour can only be restored through marriage - or, in extreme cases, through murder. Some countries apply the same logic even in cases of rape. Jordan, for example, still has a law, Article 308, which exempts rapists from prosecution or punishment if they agree to marry their victims.
When I got home, my mother was distraught. "You have shamed us," she said. I left and got on the bus back to Cairo, where I had been living for a while. I was convinced that I had lost my family. But after a few kilometres, I told the bus driver to stop and let me off. I went home again to my parents and asked them to help me put it right. "I can't fix this without your support," I told them.
My father was furious with me for sending the video to a stranger. I tried to argue that the fault lay not with me, but with the man who had violated my privacy. He looked totally unconvinced. But despite the immense social pressures that they were under, my parents supported me in my fight for the right to privacy, and in 2014 my ex-boyfriend was convicted for defamation and sentenced in absentia to one year in jail.
The legal situation was muddied by counter charges that, in an attempt to derail the case, he had filed against me in a separate dispute over money.
In the end, exhausted by the whole procedure, I decided to withdraw my complaint. His conviction was annulled and he was never arrested or jailed. But the fact that a judge had examined the case and found him guilty was enough for me. The blackmailing was over. I thought I could forget about the video and get on with my life. I was wrong.
Back in 2012, exactly one year after the Egyptian uprising and the protests in Tahrir square, I had founded a group called Girls' Revolution. It began as a hashtag on Twitter, and then grew into a movement of young women campaigning for change. We felt we had no real rights in Egypt, that we were merely tolerated as guests in our own country. Around the same time I decided to take off the hijab and started to become more outspoken - on Facebook, in TV debates and elsewhere - about the situation of women in Egypt.
This drew hostility from some men, who began to insult me on social media. In October 2014, one of these trolls posted a link to the dancing video, with a comment saying, "This is Ghadeer Ahmed, who wants to corrupt our Egyptian girls, and here is the video that shows that she herself is a slut."
For me, that was breaking point. I was exploding with rage. I thought, "No. I refuse to be blackmailed, I refuse to be threatened, I refuse to be shamed for having a female body. I will never again feel guilty about my own body, or frightened of what I do with it."
So I took the dancing video and posted it on my own Facebook page for the whole world to see. The post I wrote to accompany it said: "Yesterday a group of men tried to shame me by sharing a private video of me dancing with friends. I am writing this to announce that, yes, it was me in the video, and no, I am not ashamed of my body. To whoever is trying to stigmatise me, as a feminist I've got over the social misconceptions about women's bodies that still dominate Eastern societies. I don't feel ashamed because I was dancing happily, just as I did publicly at my sister's wedding, where I also wore a very short and revealing dress. Now, I want to ask you guys: what is it that really annoys you? Me being a slut, or me being a slut without sleeping with you? My body is not a source of shame. I have nothing to regret about this video."
Immediately, the post went viral in Egypt. A lot of people said how brave I was, and agreed with my argument that a woman must have rights over her own body, as well as the right not to be exposed online. I received calls from my close friends offering their support. Finally, after five years, I felt that I had put an end to all the fear. I closed the door on it all.
Two years on, I have no regrets about posting that video. Every now and then a girl has to break the mould that girls are put in. A girl has to stand up and say "Yes, I've been blackmailed with private images, yes, I sent them of my own free will, but still no-one has the right to use them to shame or humiliate me."
I am sharing my story now to encourage the thousands of girls all over the world who are still being threatened and blackmailed with digital images on social media. Here is what I want to say to you: You are not alone. I went through what you are struggling for. I felt lonely, I felt helpless, I felt weak and ashamed. There were times when I collapsed during this whole exhausting experience. I do not have the right to tell you to fight as I did, but I am urging you to ask for help from someone you trust. Once we ask for help, we feel less alone, less endangered. Together, we can change the culture that makes us frightened and ashamed. Together, we can survive. Together, as sisters, we can turn the world into a safer place for women.
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.
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The driver of a tractor which knocked down and killed an 11-year-old boy has admitted breaching health and safety rules. | Harry Whitlam, 11, died after the vehicle driven by Gary Green, 51, reversed into him at Swithens Farm, Rothwell, in 2013.
An inquest last year heard Mr Green was almost three times the legal alcohol limit on the day of the crash.
He was not prosecuted at the time as it happened on private land.
Mr Green, of Bradburn Road, Wakefield, admitted failing to ensure the safety of others at a hearing at Leeds Crown Court.
He is due to appear in November for a further hearing before sentencing.
The Health and Safety Executive announced this year it had brought a charge against Mr Green under Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act.
Related Internet Links
Health and Safety Executive
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This weekend marks the 300th anniversary of the role of prime minister. | By Sir Anthony Seldon & Peter SnowdonPolitical historian and Blair biographer
On 3 April 1721, Sir Robert Walpole became Britain's first PM, and since then a cast of 54 occupants have tried to change the course of the country, though only a small number have succeeded.
Most prime ministers leave office in unhappy circumstances, having been thrown out by the electorate, pushed out by their parties or succumbing to ill health.
"I don't think I did enjoy the job," Tony Blair told us. "Because the responsibility is so huge.
"Every day you're making decisions and every day you're under massive scrutiny as is your family. The paradox is that you start at your most popular and least capable and you end at your least popular and most capable."
Few might have suspected that a prime minister who, in his decade in office, exuded such an appetite for power, harboured such regrets.
Mr Blair's predecessor, Sir John Major, who struggled to hold his government together as his party's long period of rule came to an unruly end in 1997, recalls how his premiership became intolerable as his small majority vanished.
"If you have a very small or no majority it is crippling of your time. You have to attend very late night votes, which prime ministers with a large majority don't have to do.
"You don't have to worry about sections of your party who are opposed to a particular policy because they're a minority, they're going to be outvoted. You treat them decently and listen to them, but you don't have to worry that they're going to upset the apple cart completely and defeat the government."
Sir John found some solace in his weekly audiences with the Queen. "They are utterly private. So it is an opportunity for both parties to speak in total frankness to one another. And in politics, except with people who are extraordinarily close, it is very difficult to do that. So it's a great outlet when prime minister and Monarch can meet."
What of the current incumbent? Boris Johnson strikes a characteristically ebullient note. "Number 10 has brilliantly evolved over hundreds of years into what is a big department of state now," he says.
"And what you've got is a 18th century townhouse, which is rather beautiful. This is an incredible institution that has evolved over time into this extraordinary centre of a G7 economy."
It is obvious that the prime minister revels in the history of the building and, despite being in office during the worst pandemic in over a century, which almost took his own life, he relishes the job.
While Mr Johnson claims that he's supported by a "big department of state" in Number 10, many prime ministers feel they lacked institutional might, especially compared with the Treasury.
David Cameron told us: "Everyone thinks Number 10 is all powerful because it is the office of the prime minister. But of course Number 10 is very small - underpowered - compared to these massive departments of state.
"I remember joking after a few months that you spend far too much time trying to find what the government's actually doing and quite a lot of time trying to stop it."
Mr Cameron was criticised for "chillaxing" in the job, enjoying the trappings of Chequers, the prime minister's official residence in the Chilterns.
Lack of time and the relentlessness of the Downing Street diary afforded him little time off.
"I would often pop up [to the flat] and make a sandwich for lunch. Because you do need a bit of time to be able to be on your own and just think and just breathe. Just a few moments of peace at lunchtime and making a cheese sandwich. These were really valuable moments," he says.
For many incumbents of Number 10, survival in office was not just political - it was a matter of life or death.
While Spencer Perceval remains the only prime minister to be assassinated - in 1812 - others have been the targets of numerous attempts - notoriously Margaret Thatcher in 1984 and John Major in 1991, both targets of the IRA.
Others have left exhausted and ill, notably Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan.
David Lloyd George nearly died of Spanish Flu in September 1918 only a few weeks before the end of the First World War. The seriousness of the condition was concealed from the public for fear that it might harm morale.
A century later, a stunned public was all too aware of the gravity of Boris Johnson's illness, when he was admitted to intensive care suffering with Covid-19.
Was Mr Johnson aware of the echoes with Lloyd George's near death experience during the last major pandemic? "Did he? I had forgotten that. I didn't get the Spanish flu. If you want to know, I'm feeling absolutely tremendous."
As a keen student of history and biographer of Winston Churchill, which of the prime minister's predecessors would he most like to meet and find common cause? Would it be Churchill himself, the choice of David Cameron? Might it be Sir Robert Walpole, the man who established the office and held it for longer than any other?
The PM's reply was surprising.
"I think Gladstone. I'd love to meet Gladstone," he says.
The Prime Minister at 300, presented by Sir Anthony Seldon and produced by Peter Snowdon, is on BBC Radio 4 on Friday at 11am and at the same time on Friday 9 and 16 April. It is also available on BBC Sounds.
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Travon Free was co-writing a romcom screenplay last year when George Floyd died. Free decided the romcom would have to wait - as an African American, he wanted to create a serious screenplay addressing the police killings of black people in the US. | By Vincent DowdArts correspondent, BBC News
But the resulting short film, Two Distant Strangers, which is nominated at this week's Oscars, still borrows a lot from one of the big comedy hits of the 1990s.
Travon Free started his career as a writer on Comedy Central's Daily Show. Last May, he was at work on a screenplay with Martin Desmond Roe, a white British writer and director who has worked in Los Angeles for almost 20 years.
Then, during an arrest in Minneapolis, George Floyd was killed. Derek Chauvin, an officer called to the scene, had knelt on his neck for nine minutes. The incident was caught on video and protests at police brutality against black people spread across the US.
Chauvin was was found guilty of two counts of murder and one count of manslaughter on Tuesday.
Following Mr Floyd's death, Free said to Roe that he wanted to switch tracks. "There were all the George Floyd protests in America and marches around the world," he says. "So at the beginning of our work day I just told Martin I had a new idea for a short film, and after that it just consumed our lives."
The film is in contention for best live action short at Sunday's Oscars.
"Two Distant Strangers is about a young black man, Carter, who initially we wrote as a nerdy cartoonist," Free says. "He's spent the night with a girl he met. But he's left his dog at home and in attempting to leave the apartment to get to the dog, he has a run-in with a police officer who ultimately kills him."
Dying, he wakes up back in the girl's bed. He realises everything that's happening he's seen before, and the audience recognises he's stuck in a time loop.
The device is familiar from the 1993 film Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray. Free is not the only writer to have borrowed it.
Roe says neither of them hesitated to use the structure, even if audiences might associate it more with romantic comedy.
"As soon as Travon pitched it to me I thought, this is a great metaphor for what America is going through right now. His screenplay really elevates the idea.
"As we were discussing the screenplay last summer, we were watching America tear itself apart. The idea of doing something that might speak to what was happening was overwhelming to me and to almost everyone who got involved."
The film lasts 32 minutes and was shot with LA standing in for New York. Free and Roe share the director's credit. Carter is played by the rapper Joey Bada$$, while Welsh actor Andrew Howard makes a convincing New York cop.
Free says writing the story was a powerful experience. "It was the first time that, whatever I thought a piece of writing would be, I was pulled away from that by the script itself."
He says the urge to write came of anger, sadness and hopelessness.
"But also I was holding onto a little bit of hope that we could change America."
He says white people and black people react differently to the film.
"White viewers say to me that they finally see this story differently - they understand in a way they never could when they were trying to engage in the issue.
"We put you right in Carter's shoes and, no matter what your background is, you have to go on that journey with him. It's the power of film.
"And for black people it feels like a confirmation of what they've already been feeling about these events."
Studies suggest a black person in America is at least three times as likely to be killed by police as a white person.
In reaction to Chauvin's murder conviction on Tuesday, Free tweeted: "Justice for George has been served."
He also told the Hollywood Reporter: "The fight to end police violence is not over, and one verdict won't change the system that perpetuates it, but it is a sign that we have the ability to move in the direction of a society where these things no longer happen."
Free's screenplay may have been prompted by a specific death, but George Floyd is not the only person he keeps in mind.
"I was on the phone to Martin and he told me about the death of Daunte Wright in Minneapolis [on 11 April]. It felt like the worst kind of confirmation of why what we've done with our film was important and necessary.
"It's an issue that we still haven't dealt with. We still refuse to give it the level of importance it deserves.
"Once we do, we'll finally be at the beginning of the conversation we need to have so there aren't more Daunte Wrights and Adam Toledos and George Floyds."
Two Distant Strangers is available on Netflix.
Follow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected].
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Long queues, overcrowding and passengers left on Tyne and Wear Metro platforms during the 2015 Great North Run were caused by an "intentional, sizeable reduction" in train numbers by its operator, a report has found. | Known driver shortages, power failures and illness caused by overcrowding meant "significant" delays, it said.
Service operator DB Regio Tyne and Wear (DBTW) apologised "unreservedly".
Metro owners Nexus said it was working to make sure it did not happen again.
More than 55,000 people took part in the half marathon on 13 September.
Early in the day six trains failed or were cancelled, on top of the already reduced service, leaving capacity down by between 25% and 44% across the network, the Nexus report said.
Squeezing large numbers of passengers onto fewer overcrowded trains and treating those who subsequently felt unwell also caused delays, it added.
'No excuses'
Disruption also meant trains bunched together, tripping overhead power lines.
The report into what happened concluded DBTW addressed driver shortages by reducing the timetable and did not inform Nexus or its own directors.
Nexus staff failed to notice the number of trains planned did not meet its requirements.
Additional driver shortages on the day made the situation worse.
DBTW managing director Sharon Kelly said she made "no excuses for what happened".
"Mistakes were made in terms of planning for this event, which have been subject to a review that has now concluded, and we have immediately taken actions to ensure this never happens again," she said.
Complaints by customers relating to the race rose from 5 in 2014, to 517.
Nexus managing director Tobyn Hughes apologised and said the company was "working closely" with DBTW to "prevent a repeat of the problems".
The report's recommendations include DBTW reviewing plans for future marathons, addressing driver shortages and improving communication of problems.
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Politicians often make strange promises on the campaign trail. | By Ayeshea PereraBBC News, Delhi
But even so, a pledge relating to in-flight announcements is not quite what you would expect to hear at a large political rally. And especially in a country like India where much of the population has never seen the inside of an airport, let alone a plane.
Yet that is exactly what India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about to a large gathering in Kancheepuram in the southern state of Tamil Nadu earlier this month.
"We are also seriously thinking about ensuring that flights flying to and from Tamil Nadu have in-flight announcement in Tamil language," he told the crowd in halting English with the aid of a Tamil translator.
The chief minister of the state, whose AIADMK party had recently signed an alliance with Mr Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), looked gleeful and clapped his hands together briefly. The crowd dutifully cheered but soon fell silent.
Mr Modi's second promise - to rename the iconic Chennai Central Station in honour of AIADMK's founder MG Ramachandran got a better response. But these were still unusual announcements from a politician who normally sells his crowds much more ambitious dreams.
'Go back, Modi'
Usually a captivating and fiery orator, the prime minister looked discomfited during his speech of just over 40 minutes. His decision not to speak in Hindi was a clear handicap, although in a state known for its strong sentiments against the language, it was an unsurprising choice.
Even as he stood on the stage, social media in the region was lighting up as people began tweeting with the hashtag #GoBackModi. The slogan, which was first prominently raised by opposition parties when Mr Modi visited Chennai (formerly Madras) for an event last year, has begun trending on social media every time he visits the south. On several occasions, including this one, it began trending worldwide.
In parts of his address, it seemed as though India's PM genuinely did not know how to connect with the people gathered there. And it appears many voters in the state, which has a population of 72 million and has always defined itself in opposition to the Hindi-speaking North, do not connect with him either.
"Not many youngsters attend BJP meetings. I have seen many memes and video trolls of Modi and other Tamil Nadu BJP leaders and laughed loudly," D Selvakumar, a first-time voter in Chennai, told BBC Tamil. "We do not look up to Modi as a national leader because he lacks relevance among Tamil people."
Of course not everyone feels that way. Political analysts say that there are many in the state who identify with Mr Modi's message of patriotism and see him as a strong leader.
Narayanan Thirupathy, a spokesman for the BJP in south India, said the prime minister was the only person who could fill the vacuum left by the deaths of Jayalalitha in 2016 and Karunanidhi in 2018. The two former chief ministers dominated politics in the state for decades.
"The parties here fear the name of Modi. So they have been part of a malicious campaign to paint him as an enemy of the Tamil people. They are trying to destabilise the culture and government of this state," he told the BBC.
But KN Arun, a senior journalist and political analyst, said that Mr Modi's silence after cyclone Gaja devastated the state last year, had angered many people.
"He didn't even tweet about it or make an aerial survey. And now after elections have been announced, he has come here three times. People are very rankled."
India votes 2019:
Analysts in the state say however, that the disconnect is much more fundamental than that.
The BJP and its ideological fountainhead, the RSS, are widely perceived to represent an upper caste, north Indian agenda. Although Mr Modi is not a Brahmin (the caste on top of India's social hierarchy) and the RSS has in recent years tried hard to shed its image of a purely upper caste organisation, it does not seem to have convinced too many people.
"It's been about eight decades now, but the BJP is still seen as a Brahminical party here. They really need to shed this image," Mr Arun said.
Tamil Nadu is a state that has long seen itself as a bulwark against the "hegemony" of north India. In 1965, it saw violent protests against the proposed imposition of Hindi as India's only official language.
Its politics are also influenced by the Dravidian movement, at the core of which is anti-Brahmin sentiment with a strong emphasis on "self-respect" for other castes and a focus on social welfare and development.
So successive state governments in Tamil Nadu have invested heavily in social welfare projects such as nutrition schemes, the building of free schools and colleges, and the electrification of villages.
Therefore Tamil Nadu, along with its neighbouring state of Kerala, stands apart in a country that still has massive challenges to overcome in terms of human development.
According to the 2011 population census, the state has a literacy rate of more than 80%. It also has a maternal mortality rate of just 67 per 100,000 live births and low levels of malnutrition. This is mainly due to the fact that successive state governments have followed strong socialist welfare policy schemes.
It also has the second-largest state economy in India, with strong agricultural and industrial sectors. The latest data shows that the eonomy grew by an impressive 8% in 2017-2018.
"The problem is that everything he offers Tamil Nadu was irrelevant to us 20 years ago. All the goals of his so-called landmark schemes were achieved in this state decades ago," says PTR Thiyagarajan, a lawmaker from the state's opposition DMK party, who called Mr Modi's rallies "embarrassing".
"He is so used to talking in the language of deprivation that he doesn't know what to say when he comes here."
But Mr Narayanan of the BJP said his party had introduced both infrastructure development programmes and welfare programmes which had greatly benefited the state.
Elsewhere in India the BJP has worked to consolidate a common Hindu vote. But this strategy has not succeeded in Tamil Nadu: the party won a single seat in the state there in 2014.
"Although it is deeply religious, Tamil Nadu has always been a truly secular state. People here don't want that disturbed. We don't want all these fundamentalist slogans and divisive politics," author and journalist Vaasanthi said.
"Dravidian ideology runs counter to the Hindu fundamentalist ideology of the BJP. Even if it has some traction among some sections it is highly unlikely to convert to votes here," says KN Arun.
However, it is not as though Tamil Nadu does not have issues that Mr Modi could seize on.
'Not a game-changer'
"There are gripping local issues, extremely important regional issues, but none of these things are reflected in Mr Modi's speeches. He cannot be expected to keep track of what is happening everywhere in the country but his speech writers should know better," RK Radhakrishnan, the associate editor of the Frontline current affairs magazine, said.
Mr Radhakrishnan said that instead of talking about things like station names, which he described as a "joke", Mr Modi could have talked about how the state's industrial hubs were floundering, with massive job losses in recent years.
"And why can't he directly address voter demands? When he went to the city of Tiruppur he could have talked about the speciality hospital that people had asked for. Yet he never even brought it up. Why can't he talk about how a Supreme Court ban on firecrackers is hurting industries in Sivakasi?"
He believes that the BJP has simply decided that Tamil Nadu is not a priority - at least for now.
"Of course he would love to get Tamil Nadu right, but it's not a game-changer if he doesn't. I believe he comes just to galvanise his base in the south. And for that, this is enough."
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The best British TV of 2019 has been honoured at the Bafta Television Awards, held virtually on 31 July. Here is the full list of winners and nominees: | Leading actress
Leading actor
Supporting actress
Supporting actor
Entertainment performance
Male performance in a comedy programme
Female performance in a comedy programme
Drama series
Single drama
Mini-series
Soap and continuing drama
International
Entertainment programme
Comedy entertainment programme
Scripted comedy
Features
Must-see moment
Current affairs
Single documentary
Factual series
Reality and constructed factual
Specialist factual
News coverage
Sport
Live event
Short-form programme
Special Bafta
The winners of the Bafta TV Craft Awards, honouring those who work behind the scenes, were announced on 17 July.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected],
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Two people have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a man was found dead in Doncaster. | Emergency services discovered the body of the 55-year-old man at an address on Beckett Road, in the Wheatley area, on Sunday afternoon.
South Yorkshire Police said officers were called to the scene shortly after 12:00 GMT after reports a man had died.
A 34-year-old man and a 50-year-old woman were detained and remain in custody as inquiries continue.
A post mortem examination is due to take place later.
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Archaeologists and volunteers in Gwynedd are hoping to unearth an Iron Age hill fort as part of a UK-wide Festival of Archaeology. | The team is excavating an ancient ditched enclosure at Hen Gastell in Llanwnda, near Caernarfon.
Surveys in 2013 suggested the site may be medieval rather than Iron Age.
Site director Jane Kenny said: "There are definitely at least five postholes, which is really exciting, because postholes mean there was a building."
An open day on Saturday 19 July will offer a glimpse of what the dig has discovered.
The Festival of Archaeology, which runs until 27 July, includes open days and special events at historic sites across Wales.
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Europe's largest balloon festival is staged this weekend in Bristol. We trust there'll be no repeat of the scenes in Leicester in 1864. Author Jeremy Clay tells the little-known tale of Britain's balloon riot. | Magazine MonitorA collection of cultural artefacts
The distinguished gentleman ran for his life - his clothes ripped, his hair dishevelled, a furious mob hot on his heels, baying for blood.
Behind him lay the ripped-up, burning remnants of his livelihood. What with one thing and another, his balloon display hadn't gone quite as well as he'd expected.
It had all started so promisingly, too. A crowd of about 50,000 people had gathered on the racecourse in Leicester that summer's day in 1864 to see the feted aeronaut take to the skies.
Henry Coxwell wasn't just an aviation pioneer, he was something of a celebrity too. Two years earlier, accompanied by the meteorological scientist Dr James Glaisher, he'd soared up to the stratosphere, curious as to what might happen next.
What actually happened next was Dr Glaisher went temporarily blind, then passed out. Coxwell, who had lost all sensation in his gloveless hands, could well have followed suit, had he not saved them both by opening the valve-cord with his teeth.
Such shivering dash and derring-do made him a hero, so when he agreed to appear with his fancy new balloon Britannia at the Order of Forester's fete in Leicester, admirers arrived from as far and wide to see him soar into the skies.
But as the punters gathered, and Coxwell made his pre-flight preparations, there was trouble afoot.
"Early in the afternoon, a gentleman, reported to be a professional man, gave it out that the balloon then present was not my largest and newest balloon but a small one," Coxwell would later write to the Times.
"This was a cruel libel," he added, but the rumour spread all the same. "This Coxwell," they muttered, darkly, "he's taking us for mugs."
As the mood soured, the masses pressed in. With barely any police on duty to control the huge throng, "a perfect sea of clamouring spectators" broke into his enclosure, "everybody demanding an instantaneous ascent".
If he expected better behaviour from the well-to-do Leicester folk who were to accompany him into the air, he was sorely disappointed.
"Those who had paid their money and obtained tickets pounced into the basket in such a rude and unceremonious manner that all operations were stopped and the passengers themselves were preventing their own departure," wrote Coxwell.
"One person seated in my car was a disgrace to his town, as by his gestures and foul language he excited the mob and induced the belief that there existed on my part a disinclination to ascend.
"The pressure of the mob was now so great that my car was damaged, the network broken in several places owing to persons hanging on to the lower meshes, and a bottle was thrown into the balloon."
Enough was enough, thought Coxwell. He appealed to the nobler instincts of the crowd and warned that unless they eased back, he would be forced to let out the gas.
In return, they shouted abuse. "I forthwith executed my threat," he said.
"To the astonishment of everyone," reported the Leicester Chronicle, "the canvas which a few moments before appeared, every inch of it, to be well filled with gas, began to hang loose, and flapped in the wind so much it was soon apparent that the gas was fast escaping.
"All doubt on this point was soon dispelled, more especially in regard to those people immediately surrounding it (for the stench became intolerable) and every moment the size of the balloon became less and less; the wind filling its loose folds, and causing it to pitch and toss about considerably, and threatening every moment to fall on the heads of those who stood near it.
"Finally, the whole structure fell into a shapeless mass on the ground."
And that's when it really kicked off.
"The crowd who stood around immediately seized upon the net-work and material of the balloon and tore it into a hundred shreds," said the paper. "The car was next - set fire to and burnt to ashes."
Insp Haynes and Sgt Chapman, stalwarts of the Leicester force, battled manfully with the rabble, but they were horribly outnumbered.
"It was brave but hard work," Coxwell wrote, "for nothing short of the destruction of my balloon, and indeed an attempt on my own life, appeared a sufficient sacrifice.
"While the work of demolition was proceeding, Sergeant Chapman led me away amid yelling and derision. My clothes were soon torn and then the cry was raised, 'Rip him up,' 'knock him on the head', 'finish him'."
Dashing for safety, Coxwell found sanctuary in the nearby home on the Town Clerk. Back on the racecourse, a man who had been taken for the aviator was attacked, and his coat pulled to bits. The more entrepreneurially-minded, meanwhile, began selling remaining pieces of the balloon as souvenirs.
"I never witnessed such barbarous ignorance, baseness and injustice in my life," a letter-writer complained to the Chronicle after returning from the ruckus. "I feared Mr Coxwell would be killed. I was knocked down thrice myself simply for endeavouring to defend him."
The correspondent added a PS: "They have burnt the balloon and are parading its remains through the town, having just passed my window."
Condemnation of the brouhaha swiftly followed. A report of The London Review of Politics, Society, Literature, Art and Science said: "No man who commits himself to the science of ballooning can tell where or amongst what people it will carry him, as Mr Coxwell has just discovered.
"It set him down on Monday amongst a horde of savages as fierce and untamed as South Sea Islanders and differing very little from them except in their habitat, which was at Leicester.
"It is humiliating to think that after all the civilising influences which have been exerted upon them, so much of the savage should still linger in the blood of our working classes."
In Leicester, the blame for the uproar was put on out-of-towners. Excursionists. From Nottingham, perhaps. But to no avail. The town was stigmatised.
And so, a short-lived nickname was born. People from Leicester are known as Leicestrians. For reasons that needn't trouble us here, you might also hear them called Chisits. But for a while in 1864, thanks to Punch magazine, they had a new title - Balloonatics.
Discover more about what life was like in Victorian times and 10 truly bizarre Victorian deaths
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Penny Illustrated Paper image provided by The British Library Board.
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When police shot dead a 29-year-old man, Mark Duggan, in Tottenham last summer it led to the worst riots in England for a generation. The circumstances of the shooting have been shrouded in mystery.
But over the past month a trial has opened a window, for the first time, on the events leading up to, and immediately after, the controversial shooting. | By Matt ProdgerHome affairs correspondent
A jury has failed to reach a verdict on whether a friend of Mark Duggan, Kevin Hutchinson-Foster, supplied him with the handgun which police say he was holding when they shot him dead.
On 4 August 2011, the Met's gang crime unit, Trident, had Mark Duggan under surveillance.
They followed him as he made his final journey, by minicab, across North London.
He knew he was being followed. He sent a text message to a friend which read: "Watch our for a green VW van. It's Trident. dey jus jammed me."
It was alleged in court that in Leyton the cab stopped and Kevin Hutchinson-Foster handed Mark Duggan a shoebox with a gun inside. But although Hutchinson-Foster pleaded guilty to possessing an illegal handgun and using it in an assault a week earlier, he denied meeting Mark Duggan on 4 August and supplying him with the weapon.
In Tottenham, firearms officers from CO19 carried out a "hard stop" on the cab and within seconds Mark Duggan had been shot twice.
In the immediate aftermath it was reported that Mark Duggan had fired at police. He hadn't. There was also a failure to liaise properly with relatives of Mark Duggan after the death.
Tempers frayed in Tottenham, and by 6 August a protest at the shooting became a riot. That fireballed into four days of unrest and looting in cities across England.
The trial of Kevin Hutchinson-Foster has provided more detail about the shooting than ever before heard in public. And during it the police account - that Mark Duggan was holding a gun when shot - was questioned.
For the first time, the jury heard:
Kevin Hutchinson-Foster admitted possessing an illegal handgun a week before the Duggan shooting and using it to beat a Hackney barber during an argument over a woman. But the jury was unable to agree on whether he had later given Mark Duggan the gun.
The question remains as to whether or not Mr Duggan was armed and the police shooting justified?
Ed Brown QC, for the prosecution, told the jurors that it was not their job "to decide one way or the other the rights or wrongs of the shooting of Mark Duggan. That is a task properly left to an inquest."
More than a year after the riots, we know much more about the killing that triggered them. But today's failure to reach a verdict on the man accused of providing the gun at the centre of the Mark Duggan killing has done very little to settle the debate.
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You've probably heard of Ed Balls Day. | By Chris Bell and Yana LyushnevskayaBBC UGC and Social News and BBC Monitoring
Back in 2011, the former Labour MP inadvertently inserted his name into the calendar by tweeting two famous words: Ed Balls.
You might be less familiar with Mykhaylo Dobkin, unless you're reading in Ukraine. But Mr Dobkin became a social media sensation 10 years ago to the day, long before Ed Balls, when a video leaked of him preparing for his electoral campaign.
A decade on, Ukrainians are celebrating his sweary contribution to the pantheon of politicians who have come unstuck online.
Starring alongside Mr Dobkin, then the mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second most-populous city, was his close ally Hennadiy Kernes.
Like many double acts, it's the back and forth between the two which helped the video to spread far and wide. Much of their exchange is somewhat less than safe for work but, as Mr Dobkin struggles to get to grips with his lines, there are a few, choice, printable morsels.
"This text has been written by a moron," Mr Dobkin exclaims, as he attempts to get his words out.
"Your face is dull. Nobody will give you money," Mr Kernes retorts, in an apparent attempt to liven up Mr Dobkin's performance. Both have become often heard catchphrases in Ukraine.
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Mr Dobkin is currently a member of the Ukrainian parliament who unsuccessfully ran for President in 2014.
He is under criminal investigation for alleged abuse of office, charges he denies, while Mr Kernes, the current mayor of Kharkiv, has been confined to a wheelchair since 2014 following an unsuccessful assassination attempt.
Mr Kernes is charged with alleged abduction and death threats linked to the 2014 revolution which saw President Viktor Yanukovych, then the leader of Dobkins and Kernes' political party, forced into exile in Russia.
'Epic video'
Marking the 10-year anniversary, the video has once again been widely watched and shared.
One posting of the video from a Ukrainian satirical Facebook page (warning: contains swearing in Ukrainian) has been watched more than 150,000 times.
Ukrainian blogger Sergey Naumovich described it as the "most epic video of Ukrainian politics".
"This video is epic not only because of the catchphrases but also because the candidate is not even remotely aware of what is said in his campaign speech and because he can't put two words together even with a cue," Naumovich wrote.
Social media user Aleksey Moroz reflected the sentiment of many comments on posts sharing the video when he asked: "How can you vote for this? I can't even wrap my head around it."
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As hospitals in Delhi and many other cities run out of beds, people have been forced to find ways to get treatment for sick patients at home. Many have turned to the black market, where prices of essential medicines, oxygen cylinders and concentrators have skyrocketed and questionable drugs are now proliferating. | By Vikas PandeyBBC News, Delhi
On Monday, India recorded a new global high for daily coronavirus cases for a fifth straight day at 352, 991.
Anshu Priya could not get a hospital bed in Delhi or its suburb of Noida for her father-in-law and as his condition continued to deteriorate. She spent most of Sunday looking for an oxygen cylinder but her search was futile.
So she finally turned to the black market. She paid a hefty amount - 50,000 rupees ($670; £480) - to procure a cylinder that normally costs 6,000 rupees. With her mother-in-law also struggling to breathe, Anshu knew she may not be able to find or afford another cylinder on the black market.
This is a familiar story not just in Delhi but also in Noida, Lucknow, Allahabad, Indore and so many other cities where families are desperately cobbling together makeshift arrangements at home.
But most of India's population cannot afford to do this. There are already several reports of people dying at the doorsteps of hospitals because they couldn't afford to buy essential drugs and oxygen on the black market.
The BBC called several oxygen cylinder suppliers and most of them asked for at least 10 times more than the normal price.
The situation is particularly dire in Delhi where there are no ICU beds left. Families of those who can afford it are hiring nurses and consulting doctors remotely to keep their loved ones breathing.
But the struggles are huge from getting blood tests done to getting a CT scan or x-ray.
Labs are overrun and it's taking up to three days for test results to come back. This is making it harder for treating doctors to assess the progression of the disease. CT scans are also used by doctors to asses the condition of the patient but it's taking days to get an appointment.
Doctors say that these delays are putting many patients at risk. RT-PCR tests are also taking days. I know several sick patients who found a bed but couldn't get admitted as they didn't have a positive Covid report.
Anuj Tiwari hired a nurse to assist in the treatment of his brother at home after he was refused admission in many hospitals.
Some said they didn't have any free beds and others said they were not taking new patients due to continuing uncertainty over the supply of oxygen. A number of patients have died in Delhi due to a lack of oxygen supply. The city's hospitals are desperate and some have been issuing daily warnings, saying they are left with just a few hours of oxygen. Then the government swings into action and tankers are sent, which is often enough to run the hospital for a day.
A doctor in Delhi said that was how hospitals were working and "there are real fears now that a big tragedy may happen".
Given the scenario at hospitals, Mr Tiwari paid a hefty amount to procure a concentrator - which can extract oxygen from the air - keep his brother breathing. The doctor also asked him to arrange the anti-viral drug remdesivir, which has been given emergency-use approval in India and is being prescribed widely by doctors. The benefits of the drug - which was originally developed to treat Ebola - are still being debated across the world.
Mr Tiwari couldn't find the drug in any medicine shop and eventually turned to the black market. His brother's condition continues to be critical and the treating doctor says he may soon need a hospital where remdesvir could be administered.
"There are no beds. What will I do? I can't even take him anywhere else as I have already spent so much money and don't have much left," he said.
He added that "the desperate battle to save Covid patients has shifted from hospitals to home", and even that is proving to be a daunting task as "we don't have easy access to oxygen".
Remdesivir is in such short supply that families of the patients who are being treated at home are rushing to procure it. They want to have the drug in case the patient is required to go to hospital and may need the drug.
The BBC spoke to several dealers on the black market who said the supply was tight and that was why they were charging such high prices. The government has allowed seven firms to manufacture remdesvir in India and they have been told to ramp up production.
But several promises of adequate supply from the government have failed to show any result on the ground. Epidemiologist Dr Lalit Kant says the decision to ramp up production was taken too late and the government should have been prepared for the second wave.
"But somehow the drug is available in the black market, so there is some leakage in the supply system which the regulators haven't been able to plug," he says.
"We learnt nothing from the first wave."
Another drug that is in huge demand is tocilizumab. It is normally used to treat arthritis but studies have shown that it can reduce the chances of a very sick patient needing to go on a ventilator.
Doctors are prescribing the drug mostly to patients who are severely sick. But it has disappeared from the market. Cipla, the Indian company that imports and sells the drug, has been struggling to meet the rising demand.
It usually costs around 32,480 rupees for a vial of 400mg. But Kamal Kumar paid 250,000 rupees to buy one dose for his father. He said the price was "mind boggling" but he had no other option but to pay.
Public health expert Anant Bhan says the government should have procured the drug in huge quantities as not many can afford to buy it in the black market.
"This shows that there was no planning. The government failed to anticipate the wave and plan for it," he says.
"People have been left to their own fate."
Cheating
Fake remdesivir has also appeared in the black market. When the BBC questioned a dealer that the drug he was offering seemed fake as the firm manufacturing it wasn't on the list of the companies licensed to produce it in India, he replied that it was "100% original".
The packaging was also full of spelling errors. But he shrugged and asked me to get it tested in any laboratory. The firm also has no presence on the internet.
But such is the desperation that people are willing to buy even questionable drugs. And some have been cheated as well. People are constantly sharing phone numbers of suppliers who can provide anything from oxygen to medicines. But not all of these numbers are verified.
An IT worker, who did not want to be named, said that he desperately needed to buy an oxygen cylinder and remdesivir, and he got a lead from Twitter. When he contacted the person, he was told to deposit 10,000 rupees as advance payment.
"The moment I sent the money, the person blocked my number," he said.
Desperation is driving people to trust anything in the hour of need and that seems to be fuelling the black market. Several state governments have promised to crack down on black marketing of remdesivir and some arrests have also been made. But the black market seems unfazed.
Mr Tiwari says people like him don't have any choice but to pay more.
"It seems you can't get treated in hospitals, and now you can't save your loved ones even at home."
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He's either a grime MC making punk music or a punk making rap music. Either way, slowthai - number four in the BBC's Sound of 2019 - is unlike any artist to emerge from the past 12 months. | By Kev GeogheganBBC News reporter
The 24-year-old "class clown dunce" and his nihilistic, often funny tales of petty criminality have taken the music industry by storm with effusive praise for his energetic live shows.
Born Tyron Frampton, slowthai was brought up on a Northampton council estate nicknamed "The Bush".
Raised by a single mum, his name comes from his childhood habit of talking slowly (Slow-Ty). But his vocals are anything but as he spits lyrics with the furious pace of a young man who has much to say, whether it's about race...
Brown sugar never been so sweet / But vanilla ice cream is my favourite dish / Blacker the berry, the sweeter the drip - make a cheesecake, last bit, we can split it / Why you care what my pigment is?
...or a tribute to the women in his life.
This one's for the ladies / 'Cus they have our babies / And they drive us crazy / But they made us men.
The issues of class, unemployment, hopelessness and and feeling like a outsider also loom large in slowthai's work. In Doorman, he writes about dating a girl from a different social background:
Doorman, let me in the door / Spent all my money, you ain't getting no more wages / Sure Sir, Sir, are you sure? / In short - I'm not a mop you can drag 'cross the floor.
He released his debut track, T N Biscuits, in 2017.
Hi slowthai! We hear you just got back from South Africa...
I was there for a gig, it was amazing. I never thought I would go to South Africa to play a gig but to get there and see people going crazy and knowing all the tunes... it's a completely different way of life out there but it was beautiful to see, it was a pleasure, a blessing man.
What is it about your music that makes travel?
Over there, people feel alone, it gives them a sense of - no matter where you are, there is somebody out there that has a similar understanding or viewpoint or perspective. It's connection to the music. Anywhere you go, where people are at the bottom, we've all got the same outlook on life and want to strive for more. It shows people that haven't got much, I haven't got anything, that they can do whatever they want to do.
What's been the standout moment of 2018 for you
Probably going to Dubai and going to South Africa, shutting it down. Also my first tour, I never believed that we'd get that far selling out a European tour. I wouldn't say that was one specific point because they all amount to something. Just being in the position I've been in, from where I was last year, it's life-changing. I never expected to be anywhere so to have done it is just crazy
Congrats on making the Sound of 2019 top five...
It's crazy man. As a kid you always looked to BBC Radio and think that's how you make it, so to be acknowledged, it's a blessing man, to put something out into the universe and it gives it back.
What does it mean to a kid from a Northampton council estate to be on the list?
I don't know if there's ever been anyone from Northampton on there. It gives people back home confirmation that something is really happening. It shows them that they can do whatever they want, if I can do it. The majority of people who know me, know the situation I'm from. They can be like, 'He's strived, he's stuck to what he's doing and he's got somewhere.'
Are there many opportunities for young musicians in Northampton?
It's always been a band town, there's always been good music but never a strong scene to keep it going. People want the quick and easy route, they give up too easy, but it's coming to a point where everyone is picking back up the instruments and starting to get involved.
Is your plan to stay based in Northampton?
I don't believe in the whole thing of staying anywhere - we are meant to explore, to travel and meant to spread our roots. (He recently toured Europe and South Africa). I'm trying to go everywhere I can and connect with people who feel the same way who haven't got much and give them a voice and let them know they're not alone, not just in Northampton.
You've already had support from Radio One with a Hottest Record, that must have been cool?
It was a shock and a surprise, I've had three Hottest Records, I think Polaroid, Rainbow and Doorman and it's been a blessing. It shows you don't have to make poppy music. I need to do that every time now though. Every time I release a new record, it has to be the hottest.
In terms of songwriting, your life has changed a lot for you. How will that affect what you talk about in your music?
I led a life before music and I've got so many stories to tell - I've not got to this point in time yet. I feel like when people are talking about how they make music or how they are the biggest rapper, I don't understand how that's relatable to people. I don't want to write about catching flights or how nice my life is; it will be more about what I see on my journey. I always want to talk about real life not about material possessions. I've got to tell the story of the people for the people and not for celebrity or fame.
How do you think you will avoid the trappings of fame?
Everyone that's on my team, that I make music with, is a friend. I don't make music with anyone - I have to connect with them first. I still have the same friends I had from before I was making music, I've still got all my family and any time I'm getting too big for myself, they will tell me.
None of that stuff has ever appealed to me really, I mean I would like diamonds and jewellery and flashy things like other people but it's not fundamental to my every day. It's about going and picking up cultures, I'm going to places where people won't go because they're scared of getting robbed and spending time with people who are living real life and that's how I tell the story and keep it real, regardless of how big my bank balance is.
The Influences- Sound of 2019 - slowthai chooses his lifelong musical influences - BBC Sounds
What are your hopes for 2019?
Just happiness, man. All I strive for is just to be happy, make music, explain where I am in life to other people. I just want to have a good time, that's all. I'm in this because it makes me happy, that's all I want.
What would you be doing now if it wasn't for the music?
I'd probably be in jail now or doing something silly. Just in an all-round bad place.
Does music have a stabilising influence on you then?
It's my expression, it's a way that I can fully release. You get lost in it, it's my escapism when I'm feeling something or have pent-up aggression, I can explain to myself and talk to myself and give myself a good reason to live. Just taking a bad situation and making it good.
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Recently released figures showed that a shocking 6% of female students got pregnant in a single year at a school in South Africa's Limpopo province. The BBC's Pumza Fihlani went to investigate. | When I meet 17-year-old Kholofelo Moholola, she is holding her two six-month-old babies, one in each arm, trying to comfort them.
It is feeding time and they are restless.
Kholofelo was one of 27 girls who became pregnant in the same year at the Molautsi Secondary School - out of 438 female pupils aged between 15 and 19.
The young mother describes her children as "the most precious diamonds". But life is hard.
She lives in the village of Blood River near Polokwane, the main city in Limpopo, which is a rural and sparsely populated province where poverty runs deep.
Kholofelo's unemployed 35-year-old mother and her 53-year-old grandmother have to look after the children while she is at school.
'They are innocent'
Hundreds of thousands of teenagers across the South Africa are currently writing their school-leaving exams.
Kholofelo has to cope with these vital tests while juggling feeds, sleep, seemingly endless cries and nappy changes.
She is also grieving the unexpected loss of one of the triplets she gave birth to - she now refers to the living pair as "the twins".
"I need to do well in school; I have to make something of my life for the sake of my children. They are innocent. I owe them a good life," she says, her eyes welling up.
But the chances of a good life seem slim.
Their father is a 19-year-old fellow student. He has no financial means to help look after the children, and has to rely on the good graces of family members.
Driving through the province, I see young people milling around on the streets, many in school uniform.
Authorities say because of the lack of after-school activities to keep them occupied, alcohol and sex become easy escapes.
'Sugar daddies' and HIV
Teenage pregnancy is a big problem in South Africa.
It is a particularly pernicious problem in rural areas, where young girls hoping to escape poverty make easy prey for older men, known here as "blessers" or "sugar daddies".
We drive further into Limpopo to an area called Dididi, a drive of about four hours from Kholofelo's village.
It is home to a cluster of small villages. A total of 36 girls, aged between nine and 19, became pregnant here this year.
Thirteen of them are now HIV-positive, according to Limpopo health authorities.
"In the case of the 13, both parents tested negative for the virus. Where are they getting this virus, if not from older men?" asks Limpopo Health Minister Phophi Ramathuba.
"If these children were only sleeping with each other we wouldn't be talking about HIV infections, we would be talking about teenage pregnancy. Now we are also dealing with new HIV infections in teenagers here," she adds.
Parent-teacher meeting
The Dididi community is also concerned. Scores of parents convened a meeting at a local secondary school where at least nine pupils are currently pregnant.
The school authorities would not allow cameras inside but the principal Mashudu Maboho says the rate of teenage pregnancies was worrying.
"This is not a problem for a school, this is a problem for the entire community. Parents want answers but teachers are not equipped to deal with this," he says, before leaving to address the anxious crowd.
It is estimated that 182,000 South African teenagers become pregnant each year, and many are still in school.
In Limpopo, a total of 16,238 children were born to teenagers in the province's state-owned hospitals between April 2017 and March 2018.
Of these, 378 were 10 to 14 year-olds while the remaining 15,860 were 15 to 19 year-olds.
According to a 2016 study by the South Africa Demographic and Health Survey, children born to very young mothers are at increased risk of sickness and death - something Kholofelo sadly found out first hand.
Baby Bontle died just two days after birth because her lungs had not fully developed, leaving behind siblings Neo and Tshiamo.
"It has been hard and I've been finding a way to cope. At least I still have these two. She couldn't breathe on her own, she was weak and didn't make it," says the young mother, weeping.
Studies show that teenage mothers are more likely to have health problems such as hypertension and difficult deliveries, which sometimes lead to death.
They account for 36% of maternal deaths every year, despite only accounting for 8% of births.
What can be done?
The question now is what can be done to change things?
My time in Limpopo speaking to provincial authorities makes it clear that there are no easy answers.
Still, authorities are worried that their messages on safe sex are falling on death ears.
I ask Kholofelo about this.
She pauses, looks at her grandmother, who at this point has joined her on the couch to help carry baby Neo.
"Honestly, we learn about it at school. I am not sure if my boyfriend used a condom but we know we should use them."
"Maybe we as young people just don't want to listen to the advice we are given. We want to do our own things," she says.
Both she and her grandmother look uncomfortable when the subject comes up as communities here are still conservative.
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Limpopo's Education Minister Maaria Kgetjepe agrees.
"Rural communities are still reluctant to talk openly about sex. Talking to young people about sex is considered taboo. The problem with that is it does not mean they are not engaging in those activities," he says.
"Learners also tell us there is a lot of judgement and ill-treatment from older nurses when they visit government facilities to ask for contraceptives so this makes them reluctant to approach clinics and hospitals," he adds.
Back at Kholofelo's home, on the eve of her school-leaving exams, she takes the babies to where their sister is buried.
She believed this will not only bring her good luck but also help her deal with her grief.
The infant's grave is no more than a mound of dirt and the young mother breaks down almost instantly when she arrives.
Moments passed.
Exhausted from crying she finally stands up, dusts herself off and walks out of the cemetery.
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Millions of people swear by vitamin supplements. But many are wasting their time and some could even be harming themselves, argues Dr Chris van Tulleken. | In November 1912 a party of three men and 16 dogs set out from a remote base in eastern Antarctica to explore a series of crevasses many hundreds of miles away.
Three months later just one of the men returned. His name was Douglas Mawson. His skin was peeling off and his hair was falling out. He had lost almost half his body weight. He recounted what Sir Edmund Hillary described as "the greatest story of lone survival in the history of polar exploration".
A month into their journey, one of the team, along with the tent, most of the provisions and six dogs plunged into a crevasse, never to be seen again. Mawson and the other surviving member, Xavier Mertz, started to return to base, surviving in part by eating the remaining dogs. After a few weeks Mertz developed stomach pains and diarrhoea. Then his skin started to peel off and his hair fell out. He died incontinent and delirious a few days later.
Mawson suffered similar symptoms. With the kind of understatement typical of his generation of polar explorers he described the skin of the soles of his feet peeling off: "The sight of my feet gave me quite a shock, for the thickened skin of the soles had separated in each case as a complete layer... The new skin underneath was very much abraded and raw."
It was the suffering of early explorers and sailors that motivated the first studies of vitamins and their deficiency diseases.
At first sight Mawson's story seems to be another such tale - starvation combined with a lack of some vital nutrient. In fact, Mawson's description of his symptoms is an almost textbook description of vitamin A overdose - probably from eating dog liver. As little as 100g of husky liver could give a hungry explorer a fatal dose.
Mawson lived to the decent age of 76 but in his story we find the cautionary tale for our times - vitamins can be very bad for you.
This piece is about what we have learned about vitamin supplements in the last few years - if you are healthy, and you live in a country like the UK, taking multi-vitamins and high-dose antioxidants may shorten your life.
For most of us, for most of the time, they're unhealthy. "Argh!" I hear you say, "I spend loads of money on them and the claims on the packet are really persuasive. Everything, from my full head of hair to my sex life, depends on them!"
I want to get into this in a bit more detail because the vitamin companies certainly don't agree with me. So why do we believe they're useful and why do we take them?
Vitamins are essential for life, and there are groups of people even in the UK who benefit from specific supplementation, but general unsupervised vitamin pill-popping is more than just a waste of money. The problem is that we all feel very warm and fuzzy about vitamins because, firstly, the tales of deficiency are so horrific, secondly, we read breakfast cereal packs and thirdly, a double-Nobel laureate called Linus Pauling liked vitamin C in vast, vast doses.
All this is packaged by the people now selling us vitamins over the counter into that most beguiling of all logical falsehoods - if a little is good, then more must be better.
Now I knew the names of the most obscure vitamins long before medical school because I have always had a fondness for the kind of multicoloured, artificially flavoured breakfast cereals that are marketed using a combination of unlikely cartoon animals and claims of being "vitamin and mineral-enriched".
And it has to be said that this vitamin and mineral enrichment of staple food has been one of the most effective public health interventions in history. It continues to save countless lives per year even in Europe.
So, while you shouldn't eat dog liver in Antarctica, vitamin A deficiency hugely increases the risk of blindness and death in children with measles and diarrhoea in developing countries. So the World Health Organization recommends a very strict amount and cautions that higher doses can cause birth defects in early pregnancy among other problems.
So vitamins do make a huge difference to life expectancy in some circumstances, which is persuasive, and the breakfast propaganda catches us in our most vulnerable, bleary-eyed, early morning state, hinting to us that these vitamins have some sort of catch-all, beneficial effect on our lives, that will transform us into the healthy, energetic beautiful people/cartoon creatures portrayed on the cereal box.
These things contribute to a general ideal of healthfulness of vitamins. And then there's Linus Pauling.
Whether or not you've heard of him, Linus Pauling is a major influence on vitamin and nutrient culture. It's almost impossible to imagine someone with more authority and credibility. He won two Nobel prizes and was, by all accounts, a genuinely good bloke. He wrote a book in 1970 saying that high doses of vitamin C could be effective in combating flu, cancer, cardiovascular disease, infections and degenerative problems.
He took immense quantities himself, hundreds of times the required amount, and lived to a ripe old age surrounded by many great grandchildren. He was the poster boy for mega-dosing of vitamins and this contributed to the growth of an industry supported by the belief that supplementation of these molecules in our diet is beneficial in almost every way imaginable.
But rather than taking one man's word for it, however credible, it's worth looking at the results of studies that look at what happens to people who take these supplements for long periods of time.
Looking at any one individual study won't be very revealing to answer the question of whether vitamin supplementation is good for you. They're densely scientific and the conflicts of interest can be very hard to spot.
For the answer you have to turn to what are called "systematic review papers". This is where independent scientists gather up all the available data and re-analyse it to answer big questions.
Here's what a couple of them say:
"We found no evidence to support antioxidant supplements for primary or secondary prevention [of diseases of any kind]. Beta-carotene and vitamin E seem to increase mortality, and so may higher doses of vitamin A. Antioxidant supplements need to be considered as medicinal products and should undergo sufficient evaluation before marketing". (See references below).
Just to be clear - "increase mortality" - that means they're killing you. These are powerfully bioactive compounds but they're not regulated in the same way as drugs. Whatever you think about the regulation there should surely be a warning on the pack if there's data saying they're bad for us.
The next question is - why are they bad for us? It's very hard to pick apart the data, partly because vitamins are a fabulously diverse group of chemicals.
I'm going to include what people normally refer to as minerals under the heading of vitamins. They're required in the diet not for energy, but as chemical partners for the enzymes involved in the body's metabolism - cell production, tissue repair, and other vital processes.
Their functions are understood largely by their deficiency diseases so we're not exactly sure of precisely what they all do or how they interact. Antioxidants provide a nice example. They soak up the very toxic, chemically-reactive by-products of metabolism called free radicals. These free radicals, left unchecked, can cause damage to DNA and may be linked to cancer.
Your cells are full of antioxidants but surely taking more would be better? Right? Keep those cancer causing radicals under control? Well, unfortunately, your body's immune system fights infections by using free radicals to kill bugs. Exactly what effect huge quantities of extra antioxidants could have on this is not clear but it's easy to imagine that it might not be good and you could get more infections.
Vitamin A is linked to increasing lung cancer in smokers. Excess zinc is linked to reduced immune function. Long-term excessive intake of manganese is linked to muscle and nerve disorders in older people. Niacin in excess has been linked to cell damage. And so on.
And it gets more complicated still when you start mixing everything up in one tablet. For example, different minerals compete for absorption. If you take large quantities of calcium you won't be able to absorb your iron. If you take large quantities of iron you won't be able to absorb zinc. If you take vitamin C you'll reduce your copper level.
So it's not just that taking lots of one thing is not good for you, it's that it may cause a dangerous reduction in something else even if you are also supplementing that. To work out the optimal ratios is all but impossible although some manufactures claim to have worked it out.
So when are supplements recommended? The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends certain supplements for some groups of people who are at risk of deficiency, including:
Your GP may also recommend supplements if you need them for a medical condition. If you decide to take supplements, stick to within the RDA, unless you've had guidance from a state-registered dietician or clinical nutritionist to exceed the dose. If you've got questions about dosage levels, consult a state-registered dietician or clinical nutritionist.
The tales of deficiency combined with the success of enrichment programmes mean that it's easy to make that leap of logic that if a little is good then more must be better.
And if you read my article last week on water you'll see where this is going. I could do this every week. The same article. Substitute water for vitamins/probiotics/antibiotics. Don't trust the science done by the people who are trying to sell them to you and don't assume that if some is good more must be better.
It's like beer. Or coffee. Or computer games. Goldilocks was right about things needing to be just right.
References:
Bjelakovic G, Nikolova D, Simonetti RG, Gluud C. Antioxidant supplements for preventing gastro-intestinal cancers, , 2004
Bjelakovic G, Nikolova D, Gluud C, Antioxidant supplements to prevent mortality, The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2013
Bjelakovic G, Nikolova D, Gluud LL, Simonetti RG, Gluud C, Antioxidant supplements for prevention of mortality in healthy participants and patients with various diseases, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2012
Chris van Tulleken is on Twitter: @doctorChrisVT
Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook
Trust Me I'm a Doctor is broadcast on 17 October on BBC Two at 20:00 BST, or catch up with iPlayer
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When Rumisa Lakhani and Rashida Shabbir Hussain created a placard for an International Women's Day march in Pakistan, they had no idea just how much it would place them at the centre of a fierce national debate. | By Ammar EbrahimBBC Stories
The day before the event the two 22-year-old students attended a poster-making session at their university in Karachi.
They wanted to come up with something that would attract attention and started brainstorming ideas.
A friend happened to be sitting with her legs spread wide, and this inspired the poster that Rumisa and Rashida made.
For Rumisa the way women should sit is a constant issue. "We have to be elegant; we have to worry about not showing the shape of our bodies. The men, they manspread and no-one bats an eye," she says.
Rumisa's design depicted an unashamed womanspreader nonchalantly lounging in sunglasses.
Her best friend Rashida then provided the slogan. Rashida wanted to draw attention to the fact that women "are told how to sit, how to walk, how to talk".
So they decided on the caption: "Here, I'm sitting correctly."
Rumisa and Rashida met in their first year at Habib University. Rumisa studies communication design, while Rashida is a social development and policy student.
"We are best friends, we laugh together, tell each other everything," Rashida says.
They share a passion for women's rights, based on their personal experiences of sexism.
For Rumisa, dealing with the family pressure to get married has been a "daily struggle". She sees the fact that she isn't married today as "a personal victory".
Rashida says she faces constant harassment on the streets. She also finds the expectation that she should marry and become a housewife uncomfortable.
So the two friends were keen to participate in one of several "Aurat" marches - named after the Urdu word for women - staged in cities across Pakistan last month.
"It was an amazing feeling, having so many women screaming for their rights," Rumisa says. "It was our space at that moment and I think all who attended could feel that empowered vibe from it."
The Aurat marches were a big moment for the country's feminist movement. While women had marched in huge numbers in Pakistan before, these protests cut across class divisions and also included members of the LGBT community.
In 2018 the World Economic Forum ranked Pakistan as the second-worst country out of 149 in terms of gender equality - the only country with a worse ranking was Yemen. Women in Pakistan regularly face domestic violence, forced marriages, sexual harassment, and can be the victims of honour killings.
Some placards and posters on the Aurat marches were sexual in nature, and in this conservative country these triggered a backlash.
The march organisers attribute this response to the fact they were challenging the notion that men should make decisions about women's bodies.
"We were questioning body policing, the policing of women's sexuality," says Moneeza, one of the national organisers. "In the religious community there is the notion that a woman should cover herself and stay at home. We were challenging that."
Rumisa believes the sight of 7,500 women gathering on the street shocked conservatives. "Doing that on the road with such a loud voice made people uncomfortable," she says. "People feel it's threatening Islam, although I don't see that. I think Islam is a feminist religion."
Even before she had got home from the protest, Rumisa realised the picture of her with the placard had gone viral on social media.
One comment on a Facebook post said, "I don't need this kind of society for my daughter"; while another said, "I am a woman but I certainly don't feel good about this. Show that we belong to an Islamic society." Another read, "It was women's day. Not bitches' day."
However, others supported the placard's message.
One woman tweeted: "I genuinely don't understand why people are so horrified by words on a poster when they should be disgusted by the subjugation of women in Pakistan."
Rumisa received messages from people she knew saying, "We can't believe you did this. You're from such a modest family."
Members of Rumisa's extended family told her parents that they shouldn't let her go on any more marches.
Despite this pressure, Rumisa's parents supported their daughter's decision to protest.
Another placard at the march said "my body, my choice".
According to the Samaa TV channel, this led to one cleric in Karachi ridiculing the slogan in a sermon that was posted online.
"My body my choice… your body your choice… Then men's body men's choice… They can climb onto anyone they want," Dr Manzoor Ahmad Mengal is reported to have said in a video posted online.
He has been accused by critics of inciting rape, and march organiser Moneeza says that rape and death threats have been commonplace since the protest.
"There has been a backlash on social media with a lot of organisers getting rape threats," she says. "I think that is part of the wider misogyny amongst men that we are challenging."
The Aurat marches also caused divisions within Pakistan's feminist movement.
"A lot of feminists participated in the backlash, self-proclaimed feminists. They were like, ' these are not valid issues, this is not the way women should behave'," Rumisa says. "My own friends - who call themselves feminists - felt my poster was unnecessary."
One prominent feminist, Kishwar Naheed, said she believed that Rumisa and Rasheeda's placard, and others like it, were disrespectful to traditions and values.
She said that those who thought they could secure more rights using such placards were misguided like jihadis who think that by killing innocent people they will go to heaven.
However, an article by Sadia Khatri in the Dawn newspaper accused Kishwar of letting feminists down.
She called on those seeking change to embrace the "vulgar" nature of some of the posters.
"We need to claim these posters and make the connection between them and the 'larger' feminist struggles," she said.
"A girl's right to sit with her legs open is about her agency to do what she likes with her body without reprimand or harassment, it is about her right to move freely, it is about victim-blaming and whose fault it is when someone is assaulted — not the girl's, no matter how she was sitting."
Despite the controversy Rumisa doesn't regret making the poster. "I'm kind of happy that my poster got a lot of attention," she says.
"I'm not ashamed or afraid of that kind of attention, it's one of the reasons we use slogans like that because we wanted attention to be brought to the women's march and to all kinds of issues."
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It was a lofty ambition: To build a life-size replica of the 17th Century Mayflower and recreate the Transatlantic crossing that set sail 400 years ago. But despite hundreds of thousands of pounds spent, no ship was ever built. What went wrong? | By Laurence CawleyBBC News
In 2009 a meeting took place to consider how the small Essex town of Harwich might commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower setting sail with a group of Puritan settlers seeking a new life in the New World.
The Mayflower set off on 16 September 1620 from Plymouth - but is widely thought to have been built more than two decades earlier in Harwich, the home of the ship's master and joint owner, Captain Christopher Jones.
Eventually they landed in what they called New Plymouth, in what is now Massachusetts.
Initial suggestions as to how Harwich might celebrate its role in the Mayflower anniversary were fairly low key. Putting up bunting was one suggestion.
It was a dentist - Tom Daly - who first had the idea of building a sea-going replica of the original Mayflower in the town.
"Harwich sometimes has a small view of the world," he said. "I'd watched over the first 15 years I was in Harwich as the place declined.
"I thought, 'look, we need something bigger, that would deliver amazing tourism infrastructure and offer training'."
A charitable venture, the Harwich Mayflower Project was set up shortly after with five directors setting itself a multimillion pound fundraising target to get the ship built.
The idea was to sail the ship across to the US and then back to Harwich, where it would become a major tourist attraction.
The estimated costs rose steadily between 2009 and 2018, from a £2.4m initial estimate, to £4m in 2013, to about £6m in 2016 and then up to £10m, according to a statement from those involved in July 2017.
"As well as plans for the ship we were trying to provide employment opportunity for youngsters through training," said Mr Daly. "At the beginning there was a sense of excitement and we were all very enthused by it all."
The first task was not building a ship at all, but building a shipyard in which the ship could be built. As well as this, a working project office had to be established, the necessary experts - from ship's architects to ship-building carpenters-cum-tutors - had to be assembled and procedures for taking on apprentices put in place.
The keel log was only prepared for cutting towards the end of 2013.
The project generated wide-scale interest, including from the likes of explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes and entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, as well as US citizens who at one stage were reportedly arriving in Harwich in their thousands to witness the building work first hand.
But by the end of 2016, the only parts of the ship that had gone up were the keel, the bow and a pair of side ribs.
Officially, serious doubts about the likelihood of a sea-going vessel being built only emerged in 2016, despite a reported claim by the then vice-chairman of the project Lynda Chase-Gardener, who told a meeting of Harwich Town Council: "It's a two-year build and professionally qualified engineers have confirmed it is a two-year build (followed by a period of allowing timbers to expand in water and sea trials) - so we are on track to sail in 2020."
Miss Chase-Gardener, who resigned from the board of trustees in March 2017, did not respond to a BBC request for comment about Harwich's Mayflower scheme.
But former apprentice Rebecca Hawkins claims some inside the project were voicing doubts as early as 2013.
Ms Hawkins joined the project as a Level 3 Business and Administration apprentice in January 2013 aged 18, earning a little over £400 a month.
"There were arguments going on back in 2013 with people saying we've got to get started or there won't be a ship in time," she said. "There was a bit of a worry even back then that it was not going to get built.
"Others were saying, 'no, no, don't worry, it'll get built'."
She told how the Mayflower Project was "a lovely group of people to work with", adding: "I felt quite proud to say that I'd worked there."
But she described a number of issues, including apprentices being sent off to other ship yards to work, no tutor being assigned to her own apprenticeship course and difficulties training up enough apprenticeships to meet the requirements of building an ocean-going ship.
Ideas for fundraising for the project were various - from sponsored ship bolts (which did happen) to taking deposits for cabins once the ship was ready (which did not).
But the 100ft (30.5m) long ship never was ready.
"We got the bow up and one rib, I believe. There's no ship there. All that work and hard effort that was put in and there's little to show for it," said Ms Hawkins.
"It is a shame that nothing has happened.
"It went from it was going to be a sea-faring vessel to a display vessel. Perhaps they should have just built a miniature."
Rumours swirl around Harwich about where all the money for the project went, either the private donations or official grants. And the whereabouts of the multiple lorry loads of oak sent to Harwich from Truro in Cornwall. And the many expensive power tools gifted to the project.
Ms Hawkins for one said she had heard the conspiracy theory about the "missing" oak.
The truth of the matter seems a little more mundane.
"People gave money and that was used for business essentials such as electricity and materials," said Mr Daly, who was chairman of the project until 2016.
As for the oak, which was paid for by Mr Daly out of his own pocket, "it is still there", he said.
The exact location, because of the value of the timber, was not disclosed - though a number of people told the BBC it had been recently sighted in an area of private land in the town.
"The other items of materiel are in storage," he said. "Nothing was taken out of the project that wasn't earned.
"It was a business like anything else - lighting, insurance, rent to British Rail and so on. And in terms of donations, every pound of that was put back into the project."
In fact, if anybody has lost out on the project it is Mr Daly himself. Although he is reluctant to give an exact figure, it is understood he invested more than £250,000 of his own money into the Mayflower dream.
"I had to stop because my wife would have killed me," he said.
So what went wrong?
"We did get quite a lot of small donations," said Mr Daly. "But we were cost heavy. We had to pay teachers, ship-wrights, lighting, electricity - everything that a business has to pay. We needed substantial funding.
"Early on, we had a ship's architect to design a ship that would comply with Maritime and Coastguard Agency regulations and from that we were able to work out how much it would cost.
"That [the £4m cost] would have been achievable. Yes, the cost did go up - but if that money had come in, the ship would been built."
According to the charity's statement of accounts, the effort did not come to close to achieving even the lowest and earliest estimate.
Between 2009 and 2018 (the last year for which accounts are available), the charity had £1.73m in income and in four of those years spent more than it received.
"We applied for government funding and [submitted] three applications for National Lottery funding," Mr Daily said.
"It was very time consuming. Applications take up hundreds of hours and then you're told 'no'."
The exact reasons the project failed to get large-scale funding awards remain unclear. Mr Daly said the project was repeatedly pipped to the post by other charities.
Mr Daly feared the worst in 2016-17.
"At that stage, if it was going to be ocean going we needed it being well under way in 2017-2018 and ready for sea testing," he said. "The funding wasn't forthcoming."
He believes the project would have "changed the whole tourism outlook for Harwich" adding: "We tried hard on this and we had an awful lot of good people who put massive amounts of time and energy into this because they could see what it could achieve.
"We didn't achieve an ocean-going ship, but there were many other positive things that came out of it."
In 2016, the training centre closed due to a lack of funding. In all, about 600 apprentices had passed through its doors during over the six-year running period.
The project's buildings - which were based within a former railway station - were instead given a new lease of life as a heritage museum.
By July 2017, according to the annual trustees' report, the idea of building a sea-going vessel had been formally shelved and a rail and shipping centre idea brought centre stage. And instead of a sea-faring vessel, a land-based replica was now the aim.
For rail expert Bob Clow, the chance to restore the railway station to its 1920s heyday was too good to pass up.
"I had looked at Harwich station 20 years ago with the objective of doing exactly what we're doing now," he said.
"When we started, I knew there was a lot of problems with the Mayflower Project," he said.
But because he was only involved in the heritage centre side of it, Mr Clow pressed ahead and has seen his designs for the recreated 1924 station come to fruition.
The Harwich Railway and Shipping Museum has since become a separate entity with its own board of trustees and financial independence.
"It is the light at the end of a very long tunnel."
The Harwich Mayflower Project changed its name to Harwich Mayflower Heritage Projects Ltd in May 2018 and then to Harwich Cultural and Community Projects in March 2020.
The BBC contacted the successor organisation for comment about the Mayflower story but did not receive a response.
The project still has use of a three-acre site where the ship was meant to be built (it was offered for temporary lease by Network Rail).
Tony Francis, who said "it would have been nice to have a British-owned replica of the Mayflower", has for months been trying to generate interest and support to put that land to community use.
"This community fundamentally needs that land for community use and to become something very special," he said. "I'd like to see a heritage village down there with pre-fab homes because decent housing is the number one need."
As for the Mayflower ship, not only did the sea-going replica never materialise - the planned life-sized shore based replica didn't either.
But there is a sculpture. On a roundabout.
And Ms Hawkins suggests that if the town pulls together it should perhaps give the idea of building a sea-going replica another chance - for the 500th anniversary.
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Photography by Laurence Cawley unless otherwise stated.
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A question one Radio 4 listener asked about the bloodline between Jesus and King David raised a wider genealogical issue. How many generations does it take before someone alive today is a descendant of everyone on the planet? | By Dr Yan WongEvolutionary biologist
Listeners to the More or Less programme on Radio 4 have been challenging me to answer any fiendish question they can throw at me.
A question about Jesus's genealogy was rather interesting and the answer has astounding ramifications.
The Bible says Jesus was a descendant of King David. But with 1,000 years between them, and since King David's son Solomon was said to have had about 1,000 wives and mistresses, couldn't many of Jesus's peers in Holy Land have claimed the same royal ancestor?
Theory tells us that not only would all of Jesus's contemporaries be descended from King David, but that this would probably be the case even if Solomon had been into monogamy.
We can make this sort of prediction because over the past 15 years or so, these ideas have been studied as part of the research into understanding patterns in our own genome.
The most successful approach has been to go backwards in time, taking a sample of people and imagining the patterns of inheritance in their ancestral family tree.
When applied to the question of who is descended from whom, the results can surprise even the professionals.
That's because geneticists normally study biological information - DNA - that people inherit from just one of their parents.
Just like a surname, or the male lines of descent quoted in the Bible, these generate lineages that shrink or expand rather slowly. That's why we expect the proportion of Smiths in the phone-book to fluctuate only a little from decade to decade.
The surprise comes if we look at inheritance from both parents. Here, the numbers change drastically as the generations go by. For instance, we have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, and so on.
Each generation back, we multiply the number by two. This leads to what is called an exponential increase: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024 and so on.
It's not long before we hit huge numbers. Take the specific case of Jesus and King David.
The number of generations between them is at least 35. Luke lists 42 generations down the male line, and Matthew gives an incomplete list of 27.
These numbers agree reasonably well with an average time between generations of 25 or 30 years - an estimate taken from documented historical records from Iceland and Canada.
So back in the time of David, Jesus would have had at least 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 (35 times); in other words 2^35 - or more than 34 billion potential ancestors. That's far more than the total population of the world, of course.
This is a good illustration of what's been called the "genealogical paradox".
In short, we seem to have too many ancestors. The solution is that we have to take inbreeding into account. Many of these ancestors are duplicates; the same person can found through multiple routes in the family tree.
You are unlikely to be the product of inbreeding between recent ancestors. So initially, your increase in ancestors will indeed be almost exponential.
But as your family tree increases to thousands upon thousands, you will inevitably find many obscure branches that have interbred. That's when the numbers start tailing off.
Even so, by that time, you will have collected a large number of people in your ancestry. So it's not surprising that any two people in any one country probably won't need to go back many generations before finding a common ancestor.
More specifically, imagine the simplest case of a population of a constant size - say a million (the approximate size of the Holy Land at the time of Jesus).
If people in this population meet and breed at random, it turns out that you only need to go back an average of 20 generations before you find an individual who is a common ancestor of everyone in the population.
If you go back on average 1.77 times further again (35 generations) everyone in the population will have exactly the same set of common ancestors (although they will be related, of course, through different routes in all the different family trees).
In fact about 80% of the people at that time in the past will be the ancestors of everyone in the present. The remaining 20% are those who have had no children, or whose children have had no children, and so on - in other words, people who were genetic dead-ends.
Apply that to the case of King David. According to this model, he would be a common ancestor of the whole population of the Holy Land somewhere between 20 and 35 generations after his life. That's even without Solomon sowing his seed so widely.
That's why everyone alive in the Holy Land at the time of Jesus would have been able to claim David for an ancestor.
Reductions in population caused by events such as the Assyrian invasions will have produced more inbred family trees, and shortened the number of generations needed to reach a common ancestry.
What about the wider ramifications? A single immigrant who breeds into a population has roughly 80% chance of becoming a common ancestor. A single interbreeding event in the distant past will probably, therefore, graft the immigrant's family tree onto that of the native population. That makes it very likely that King David is the direct ancestor of the populations of many other countries too.
How far do we have to go back to find the most recent common ancestor of all humans alive today? Again, estimates are remarkably short. Even taking account of distant isolation and local inbreeding, the quoted figures are 100 or so generations in the past: a mere 3,000 years ago.
And one can, of course, project this model into the future, too. The maths tells us that in 3,000 years someone alive today will be the common ancestor of all humanity.
A few thousand years after that, 80% of us (those who leave children who in turn leave children, and so on) will be ancestors of all humanity. What an inheritance!
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Two parliamentary by-elections, two weeks away. | John PienaarDeputy political editor@JPonpoliticson Twitter
Is Labour a sitting duck in its own heartland territory?
A quick road-trip to the West Midlands and the Lake District was enough to conclude that Labour can look forward to a sweaty, and quite possibly a painful night on 23 February.
Both seats would normally be considered "safe" for Labour.
But "normal" now seems a long time ago. Stoke voted 70% to 30% to leave the EU. In Copeland the margin was 60% to 40%. That would be enough to give Remain-supporting Labour sleepless nights.
Copeland by-election candidates
Stoke-on-Trent Central by-election candidates
But add to that the fact that, in 2015, UKIP came second in Stoke - 5,000 odd votes behind Labour.
Throw in Labour's long term deficit in the polls, which suggests former Labour voters have turned away from Jeremy Corbyn.
Then, chat to people in Hanley town centre - in the Stoke-on-Trent Central constituency - before travelling north and doing the same in Whitehaven, the large coastal town in the sprawling, and beautiful, Copeland constituency in the Lake District.
If you don't hear enough cause for Labour to fear losing one or both of these seats, you're not listening.
Dismal rating
In Copeland, the biggest employer by far is the Sellafield nuclear power plant.
In Whitehaven, where Sellafield has a large office block, Jeremy Corbyn's past opposition to nuclear power - which has since softened - comes up in almost every conversation.
The local grocer - whose family have run Kinsella's since the turn of the last century - told me customer after customer was switching allegiance away from Labour for that reason.
That, and the doubts about Mr Corbyn's fitness to lead which have handed him a quite dismal personal rating of minus 40.
That's 46 points behind Theresa May who was the only national leader with a positive rating in the survey conducted by Yougov last week.
Strong identity
In Stoke, the UK Independence Party's new leader, Paul Nuttall, is standing as a candidate. UKIP has a great deal invested in this fight.
It's not clear whether the perception of an outsider parachuting into the seat - a charismatic Scouser seizing his chance in an area with a strong identity of its own - will count against Mr Nuttall and his party.
If UKIP fails it will hurt, and suggests the party lost its way when it lost Nigel Farage as leader.
So Labour will throw everything into both campaigns. Jeremy Corbyn's visited both, and will visit again.
Victory in both seats will buy time and space to try to regain ground, to try to recover from the visible splits which opened up so glaringly during debate and voting on the bill to begin Brexit.
But if Labour loses in either or both seats - each of which has been held by the party since 1935 - it means talk of existential crisis for the party.
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As Southern railway passengers brace for a very unhappy Christmas, and a lousy New Year from strikes targeted at the festive season, what, you may wonder is life like on the rest of the rail network? | By John WareReporter, BBC Panorama
Something of a triumph, according to the rail industry. "The railways are actually incredibly successful," says Paul Plummer, chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group, which represents the industry.
Certainly the headline statistics look good:
But drill into the performance statistics, and a different picture emerges.
Punctuality
Take those posters the train operating companies like to pin up on stations about punctuality.
While they often convey an upbeat picture, blow away the smoke and remove the mirrors and you find that overall punctuality is now worse than at privatisation.
And that can't just be blamed on strike-hit Southern railway. Punctuality has been declining for four years.
Ironically, the number of incidents causing delays has also declined.
The headline official punctuality statistics also mask big drops in punctuality during peak hours.
On some commuter lines out of Manchester, more than six out of every 10 trains are late each day. On one commuter line into Birmingham, four out of every 10 trains have been late.
Overcrowding
Then there are the official overcrowding statistics.
Until 2013, the rail industry liked to boast that trains were no more overcrowded than at privatisation - even though passenger numbers more than doubled between 1994 and 2014.
It sounds like a conjuring trick - until you decode something called "PiXC".
That's Passengers in Excess of Capacity, the official definition of overcrowding.
This measures the difference between the number of seats of each train journey into and out of London during the peak hours against the actual number of passengers (excluding First Class) sitting and standing at its most crowded point on the journey.
Here's the catch: before kicking in, PiXC makes a big allowance for the numbers standing.
So, like a tank filling up with water, until 2013, carriages could continue to fill up with standing "customers" but because they hadn't hit the critical "overflow" mark, they didn't score on the official PiXC statistics - even though their "customer experience" was becoming more and more unpleasant.
Since 2014, more and more services have just been spilling over past the overflow point so that in just the last two years, there's been a 50% rise in the number of officially overcrowded trains.
Today, some 160,000 commuters coming into London can't get a seat.
Six of the 10 most crowded services are in the home counties. All 10 are between 61% and 129% past the overflow point.
We don't have a clear picture about overcrowding on long-distance and cross-country lines because PiXC doesn't usually measure them.
However, we do know that, by 2005, some cross-country routes were already officially overcrowded - and since then annual passenger journeys have gone up by 600 million.
Fares
When it comes to fares, train companies are forever reminding us that they offer many off-peak bargains.
Yet Virgin's morning and afternoon peaks from Euston now total nearly seven hours (06.16 to 09.26am and 3.01pm and 6.44pm).
This means that people wanting to get home to the Midlands or the North are limited in their choice and may arrive at their destination late.
Then there's the Friday night stampede for the first off-peak train with travellers often having to squat on the floor for hours even though they've had to stump up a lot of money for the privilege - £87.70 from London to Preston, for example.
Happy travellers?
With overcrowding, cancellations and fares all going up, and punctuality going down, you might expect a rise in official complaints.
In fact, they've more than halved - down from a million soon after privatisation to under half a million today.
You might think that's because of the train companies' commitment to customer service. All nine parent companies covering 20 passenger franchises in Britain insist they're "passionate" about this.
Well, here's the passion killer. In 2014-15, an organisation called Commute London counted 1.1 million overtly negative tweets about commuters' "customer experience".
Commute London provides live social media feedback on train services in and out of London. And very lively it is too.
Formal complaints seem to have been replaced by a huge rise in informal complaints.
Commute London say the sheer scale of negative tweets shows that the complainants can't simply be dismissed as coming from the ranting brigade. They include the normally polite and curious too.
This rise in social media venting against the train companies is consistent with falling satisfaction ratings.
Once again, the headline figures mask a much less rosy reality.
While the National Rail Passenger Survey shows a gentle decline in overall journey satisfaction - albeit one that, at 80% , is still high - only 73% of passengers are satisfied with punctuality/reliability, 65% satisfied with sufficient room to sit or stand, 45% satisfied with value for money for the price of their ticket and on some routes that's down to just 28%.
Who pays?
What ministers say about how much "investment" is going into the railways shouldn't always be taken at face value either.
They claim "we" are delivering "record" investment to modernise the railway.
Sounds like the government is paying in record government grant, doesn't it?
It isn't. "We" is the royal "we": government and fare payers.
Seventy per cent of that "record" investment now comes from fares, thanks to all those above-inflation fare rises since privatisation, while the share of government grant to the railways has been shrinking.
Here's the titanic challenge the railways pose for any government.
Network Rail has forecast yet a further doubling of passenger journeys over the next 25 years, to an eye-watering 3.4bn.
To keep Britain moving, a continuous series of mega projects sustained over a generation will be required.
Although Crossrail 1 will provide 10% more capacity for London's squashed commuters, when it opens in 2018 that capacity will soon be gobbled up by the capital's rapidly growing population as it heads towards 10 million by 2030.
There will need to be Crossrail 2 and quite possibly 3; not just High Speed 2, but also an HS-3; further electrification of the network, digital signalling to release more capacity on the track, relief of a multitude of pinch points, vastly more rolling stock… the list goes on.
It's easy to get up to an investment figure well north of £150bn, never mind the cost of operating and maintaining an expanding railway.
This year's capping of regulated fares in line with inflation is a tacit acceptance by ministers that government has reached the limit of the fare-paying public's patience.
Which means higher taxes. That's if we don't want to go on getting ever more squashed until we really do end up travelling like sardines in a steel box as opposed to a tin can.
John Ware presents Panorama: The Trouble with our Trains on BBC One at 19:30 GMT on Monday 7 November and available on the iPlayer in the UK afterwards.
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Sensors have been buried high up on a Lake District crag to let people know when the weather is suitable for ice climbing. | The monitors have been fitted on Helvellyn by the British Mountaineering Council.
They show if it has been cold enough for the turf to freeze, allowing the use of ice axes and crampons.
If not, there is a risk they could damage some of the rare plants growing in the deep cracks.
These include the Alpine saxifrage which grows in only two locations in England.
The high and north-facing Helvellyn massif often gets hit with winter conditions before other parts of the Lake District, making it a popular choice right after a cold snap or snowfall.
Related Internet Links
British Mountaineering Council
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As an inquest of a baby girl opens, BBC News looks at some questions about the bed blamed for her death. Seven-week-old Grace Roseman died from asphyxia at her home, after being put to sleep in the Bednest crib. | In response to what happened to Grace, in April 2015 coroner Penelope Schofield issued a Regulation 28 Report to Prevent Future Deaths, and the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) has issued guidance.
Such reports are issued if it appears there is a risk of other deaths occurring in similar circumstances, but do not necessarily arise from an inquest.
What is a Bednest?
It's a bedside crib with an adjustable height so parents can make it the same level as their bed. The side flaps down to open on to the main bed's mattress so that there is no gap between the baby's sleeping area and the main bed.
This means the baby cannot slip between the crib and the bed.
Why are they used?
Many people believe co-sleeping can be dangerous, and parents may be anxious about accidentally rolling on to their baby in their sleep.
The Bednest means the baby can sleep close to the parents without actually being in the bed, and the parent can see and reach the baby without the side of a cot in the way.
What happened to Grace Roseman?
The side of the Bednest had three positions - fully up, fully down and halfway up. Grace was put to bed with the side in the halfway position and with the head end tilted up higher than the feet - which some parents find helps relieve reflux.
The tilt should be no more than 5cm, but Grace was tilted 8cm.
When her mother checked on her, Grace had managed to move her head over the side of the crib. The weight of her head meant she could not roll free, and she became unable to breathe and died.
What has Bednest said?
The company said the crib should only be used with the side fully up or fully down. The current version of the cot has been modified so the side cannot be left in the halfway position.
Bednest has also issued a free kit for people who own a pre-modification crib, which can be fitted to make sure the sides are either fully up or down.
Advice on its website says the Bednest should never be used with the folding panel in the half-raised position.
The company told the BBC: "We continue our programme to reach all owners of pre-November 2015 Bednests and we are monitoring online second hand sales of cribs closely, contacting anyone who appears not to have the modification fitted. Any purchaser of a replacement mattress is notified to check that they have a modified Bednest.
"We send our heartfelt condolences to the Roseman family for the tragic death of baby Grace and we continue to work to do everything we can to ensure the safety of all children using our equipment. This is at the heart of our company's ethos."
What has the NCT said?
Following Grace's death, the NCT carried out an investigation which identified a "small but plausible" safety risk when using the Bednest crib in the halfway folded-down position.
It also stated that using the crib with the folding side fully up (or fully down if bedside-sleeping) eliminates the risk that a baby could move on to or over the side of the crib.
What did the coroner's report say?
Coroner Penelope Schofield said in 2015 she had "a number of concerns".
These included:
Are Bednests still on sale?
Yes, but only the modified version. If used correctly, the NCT says the Bednest is completely safe.
Customers are urged to keep the paper instructions and pass them on to the new owners should they sell their Bednest second-hand.
The manufacturer provides the latest user guides and instructions on its website.
The NCT, which formerly sold the Bednest via its website, no longer has an online shopping division. The charity said this was a "commercial decision".
The European Child Safety Alliance also produces a safety guide for child-related products.
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The poignancy is enough to make anyone weep. Just a day after a beloved daughter dies, the mother passes away. It is a tragedy with a hint of sweetness - the two who lived each other's lives, end those lives together. | By Stephen EvansBBC News
And it is not uncommon. We do not know the cause of Debbie Reynolds' death but there are more instances of two people who love each other dying in short proximity than you might think. There are medical reasons why it is possible to die of a broken heart.
I once went to the joint funeral in Wales of a couple who died within a week of each other. Then I read a report in the news about a man in California who died hours after his wife. It made me wonder how often this happens - and what could be the reason.
In the first case, the widower selected a poem to be read at his wife's funeral - it talked of "two lovers entwined" and a journey "to the end of time's end". But before that funeral took place, the husband, Edmund Williams, also died. He and his wife, Margaret, had been married for 60 years and their love had endured. In their late 80s, they would still go into their garden holding hands. Parting broke his heart.
And about the same time Don and Maxine Simpson died in Bakersfield in California. He was 90 and she was 87, and they were as inseparable as they had always been after meeting at a bowling alley in 1952 and marrying that same year. Maxine died first and four hours later, by her side, Don followed.
It looks like a pattern, and perhaps it is.
Research published two years ago in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine found that, while it happened rarely, the number of people who had a heart attack or a stroke in the month after a loved-one died was double that of a matched control group who were not grieving (50 out of 30,447 in the bereaved group, or 0.16%, compared with 67 out of 83,588 in the non-bereaved group, or 0.08%).
One of the authors, Dr Sunil Shah of St George's at the University of London, told the BBC: "We often use the term a 'broken heart' to signify the pain of losing a loved-one and our study shows that bereavement can have a direct effect on the health of the heart."
Some people talk about "broken heart syndrome", known more formally as stress cardiomyopathy or takotsubo cardiomyopathy. According to the British Heart Foundation, it is a "temporary condition where your heart muscle becomes suddenly weakened or stunned. The left ventricle, one of the heart's chambers, changes shape."
It can be brought on by a shock. "About three quarters of people diagnosed with takotsubo cardiomyopathy have experienced significant emotional or physical stress prior to becoming unwell," the charity says. This stress might be bereavement but it could be a shock of another kind.
There are documented cases of people suffering the condition after being frightened by colleagues pulling a prank, or suffering the stress of speaking to a large group of people. It's speculated that the sudden release of hormones - in particular, adrenaline - causes the stunning of the heart muscle.
This is different from a heart attack, which is a stopping of the heart because the blood supply is constricted, perhaps by clogged arteries.
"Most heart attacks occur due to blockages and blood clots forming in the coronary arteries, the arteries that supply the heart with blood," says an FAQ on broken heart syndrome published by Johns Hopkins University.
What becomes of the broken-hearted
By contrast, most patients who suffer from cardiomyopathy "have fairly normal coronary arteries and do not have severe blockages or clots", the website says.
Many people simply recover - the stress goes away and the heart returns to its normal shape. But in some, like the old or those with a heart condition, the change in the shape of the heart can prompt a fatal heart attack.
The scientific name, takotsubo cardiomyopathy comes from the Japanese word for a type of round-bottomed, narrow-necked vessel used for catching octopuses. The sudden stress causes the left ventricle of the heart - the one that does the pumping - to balloon out into the shape of the pot.
There is also evidence of an increased risk of death after the hospitalisation of a partner, according to a study published in 2006 in the New England Journal of Medicine. Other research published in 2011, meanwhile, suggests that the odds of the surviving partner dying are increased for six months after their partner's death.
The researchers pointed out that a mutually supportive marriage acts as a buffer against stress. Partners also monitor each other and encourage healthy behaviour - reminding each other to take their daily tablets, for example, and checking they don't drink too much.
Whatever the science behind "broken heart syndrome", the results are bitter-sweet. There is, of course, the grief of a bereaved family who have lost two people they love. But there is also often a relief that a couple deeply in love should have exited life together.
Edmund Williams' poem for his wife Margaret talked about "two lovers entwined" and a journey "to the end of time's end".
If there is a benevolent heart condition, surely takotsubo cardiomyopathy is the one - but "dying of a broken heart" puts it better.
An earlier version of this feature appeared in August 2014.
Additional reporting by Tammy Thueringer.
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When Sebastian Cadavid was recruited to join the Farc guerilla group in Colombia he had little idea of how it would shape his future. Lured with promises of cars and money the 12-year-old didn't hesitate to sign up. | By Lucy SherriffBBC News global education
Sebastian spent four years fighting with the guerillas, receiving intensive ammunition training - but no schooling. When he was captured by the army at 16, Sebastian was faced with a world he was unskilled and unprepared to join.
"I was sent to Bogota," said Sebastian. "To a reform house where street criminals were sent. And I had to find a job, in a busy city where I knew no-one and had no skills. I was scared and nervous - it was the first encounter I'd had with society since I was 12."
The majority - 70% - of Farc members were illiterate, giving the recently demobilised guerrillas little chance of finding work, let alone sustainable, full-time employment.
"Many just go into construction, where the pay is bad and the work conditions are terrible, but at least you don't need to know how to read," Sebastian explained.
"It was so difficult for me to get any work when I came out of the Farc. I had no skills, and who would employ an ex-guerrilla?
"I moved back to the countryside and found work on a coca farm [the leaf used to make cocaine] - the only thing I knew how to do - and eventually ended up getting back into narco-trafficking."
Demobilising
Sebastian's story is not unusual. Although the government is offering the 7,000 recently-demobilised Farc members two years of education, it is insufficient to allow them to compete against other Colombians, particularly in the current economic landscape.
Unemployment in Colombia rose to 9.4% in 2017, making it the country with the highest rate in Latin America after Venezuela.
But it's not just ex-guerrillas who are struggling to find work as a result of poor education caused by the conflict.
Karen Carvajalino started Biz Nation, a social enterprise, in 2016 with her two sisters in a bid to train victims of the conflict and former guerillas in vocational skills, and support them to set up their own businesses.
She emphasised the importance of education in healing her country's wounds and providing a stable, peaceful future.
Long conflict
"We work with a significant amount of vulnerable people who haven't had the chance to finish school or attend university, and so aren't prepared for the world of work and can't break the poverty cycle," she said.
"We're trying to help people adapt to society after such a long conflict."
Ms Carvajalino says it isn't just ex-guerrillas who struggle to reintegrate into society, but also the hundreds of thousands of people who fled the war. A 2017 report found Colombia has around 7.2 million internally displaced people.
"We believe that the victims are just as important as ex-Farc members because they have also been severely affected by war. Millions of children have had their education disrupted, and fled to cities where they don't have the skills to find urban employment.
"And it's not just children, many adult victims come from rural areas where they mainly worked in agriculture and they moved to a city where they needed another set of skills."
Lack of education
Ms Carvajlino adds she is "extremely worried" about the number of former guerrillas who do not have access to productive education.
"Yes they are getting basic education - learning to read and write - but this is not workforce or technology skills, and won't give them any competitive edge."
William Forerro Pinella, a former Farc commander who left in 2003 and now works with the Ministry of Defence, has similar concerns.
"It was very complicated for me to get work after I left. I wanted nothing more than to integrate into society, but I wasn't allowed. There are many people who do not want peace and who refuse to accept us. We are seen as traitors.
"Ex-Farc members are not getting the education they need to make them level with other members of society.
"There is also still a lot of prejudice and stigma against Farc members, and so most employers will choose a non-Farc candidate over someone who has been in the guerrillas."
'Stigmatised'
However the country's Labour Minister Rafael Pardo insists reintegrating Farc is not a challenge.
"There are 12,000 former members of Farc so the unemployment rate won't be a problem," he said.
"It's not a hard task to bring former guerillas back into jobs. There have been a lot of good reactions from companies to hire and train former guerrilla members."
He admits the issue of stigmatisation could pose a problem for the ex-guerrillas, and added: "We do need to reduce polarisation of people who were in the past members of armed groups. The government has to show the advantages and benefits of reintegrating Farc members."
Mr Cadavid eventually received training to set up his own shoe workshop, which he runs from his garage, and for every pair of shoes he sells, he contributes one to pair to a vulnerable child.
"I want to make sure these children know there is hope that they can start their own business, wherever they're from, and they don't have to go into drug trafficking."
However, he added he is one of the lucky ones.
"I have many friends who regularly go hungry because they cannot find work. Who is going to employ a 50-year-old man who can only just read and write but has no other skills?
"The issue is not giving us education. The issue lies with giving us the skills to work so we can rejoin society.
"Otherwise peace will be impossible."
More from Global education
The editor of Global education is [email protected]
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A man has appeared in court charged in connection with a spate of lead thefts from churches in England.
| Mihai Birtu, 23, appeared at Lincoln Crown Court charged with 21 offences of theft from churches between May 2018 and March this year.
These include churches in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Somerset and East Yorkshire.
Mr Birtu, of Port Street, Evesham, did not enter a plea and the case was adjourned until 9 October.
More news from across Lincolnshire
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A 14-year old boy has been stabbed twice after being chased into a takeaway restaurant, police say. | The attack happened on Rookery Road in Handsworth, Birmingham, during Saturday afternoon.
The teenager was approached by a number of men before they chased him into the restaurant, said West Midlands Police.
His injuries are not believed to be life-changing or life-threatening, the force added.
CCTV and house-to-house inquiries are under way.
Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]
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It is hoped that a final decision on plans for Guernsey Airport's redevelopment will be made an October.
| Planning permission is the final step needed before work can start after the States agreed the £80m budget in July.
The work includes upgrades to the runway, taxiways and landing lights.
A public consultation on the proposals closed on Friday and a provisional date of the 18 October has been set for an open planning meeting to discuss the proposals.
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A man has been jailed for more than 13 years for firing a gun at a house where a children's party was taking place. | Sean Durrant, 22, fired the gun during an event at Belmont Avenue in the Low Moor area of Bradford on 20 July 2019.
He was jailed for 13 years and two months at Bradford Crown Court after admitting possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.
Durrant, of Dick Lane, Tyersal, initially denied any involvement.
Senior Investigating Officer Det Insp Ian Thornes said after the case: "The discharge of a firearm in a public place is a serious matter, particularly in this case where an occupied property was the target."
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The BBC has chosen its list of inspirational and influential women for 2016. They will bring you groundbreaking moments of defiance, new takes on fairy tales, stories of octogenarian cheerleading, and take you inside the world of e-gaming.
| Others will be exploring black feminism or taking part in our first ever live festival. You will hear from some of the world's biggest names but also from women you may never have heard of, but who all have astonishing stories to tell.
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Dog walkers in Guernsey have been warned they face up to a £1,000 fine if they flout the summer dog bans on some of the island's beaches. | The Environment Department said it had received three complaints that dogs were being walked at Vazon's main beach and at L'Eree.
The ban is now in place until the end of September and sees dogs banned from many of the island's popular beaches.
The ban is active at all times of the day, the department said.
The summer ban is in action at Fermain, Petit Bot, L'Eree main beach, Vazon main beach, Cobo main beach, Port Soif and L'Ancresse and Pembroke beaches.
The department said there were signs with maps showing the boundary of the dog ban area in place near the entrance points of all the beaches, where dogs are prohibited during the summer months.
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A Sri Lankan appeals court has found moves by MPs to impeach Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake to be unlawful. | The parliamentary select committee which found her guilty of professional misconduct in December lacked authority to make such a ruling, the court said.
The Supreme Court issued a similar ruling last week. Mrs Bandaranayake denies the allegations of financial and professional wrongdoing.
Critics say the impeachment charges are politically motivated.
They accuse the government of trying to stifle the independence a judiciary which has made rulings unfavourable to Sri Lanka's powerful president.
The government has denied pursuing a vendetta.
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The police have said nothing was found following a security alert at the home of Sinn Féin's North Antrim MLA Daithí McKay. | 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.
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A man has been arrested on suspicion of fund-raising for terrorism and encouraging support for a banned terror group.
| 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.
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A woman who went missing from a West Yorkshire hospital sparking a police search has been found "safe and well". | The unidentified woman left Huddersfield Royal Infirmary on Monday and West Yorkshire Police appealed for information saying they had "serious concerns" for her welfare.
The force said she had now been found in Lincolnshire.
Officers thanked the public for their help in sharing the appeal on social media.
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West Yorkshire Police
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Since early 2013 one question has dominated Indian political discourse: will there be a "wave of support" for Narendra Modi of the main opposition BJP? The Gujarat chief minister has an impressive economic record, but has been seen as divisive since deadly religious riots in the state in 2002. He currently looks like the man to beat, according to political scientist Milan Vaishnav. | When Mr Modi was named the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) prime ministerial candidate in September, it was too early to tell whether Indians were prepared to vote in large numbers for him.
Following the BJP's triumph in state elections in December, there were signs something was afoot.
Now, with the recent release of three pre-election surveys, the evidence of "a wave" is incontrovertible. Notwithstanding this, the gauntlet of Indian politics rarely permits cakewalks.
Complex
There are four key pieces of evidence in support of this unusual surge behind Mr Modi, drawn from a recent survey conducted by the Delhi-based Lokniti programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), a respected Indian think tank.
First, the BJP garnered 18.8% of votes in 2009, a steady decline from its all-time high of 25.6% in 1998 (see figure below).
In a CSDS July 2013 survey, the BJP was projected to win 27% of votes. This number had grown to 34% in January 2014 - an 80% rise from 2009.
Given the vagaries of India's winner-take-all election system, converting votes into seats is complex.
Estimates suggest 34% of the vote would translate to between 192 and 201 of 543 parliamentary seats - a steep increase from its 2009 tally of 116 seats.
Second, according to CSDS, there is a huge pro-BJP vote swing under way in the electorally pivotal states in the north Indian "Hindi heartland" (see figure below).
In Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, which together account for 120 seats, the BJP is enjoying increases of 25 and 20 percentage points in its vote share, respectively.
What is unusual about these states is that they do not feature head-to-head contests between the Congress and the BJP; instead, each of these states boasts formidable regional parties.
This means that the shift toward the BJP goes beyond simple anti-Congress party sentiment.
In Uttar Pradesh, disaffection with the Congress is not simply benefitting the state's major regional players - the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party - but rather the BJP.
In Bihar, voters would like to see the ruling Janata Dal (United) government remain at the state level, but are flocking toward the BJP when it comes to parliamentary elections.
Moreover, the BJP is expected to poll unusually well in states where it historically has not.
Popularity
This is not due to a suddenly robust party organisation, but the apparent popularity of a Modi candidacy.
Indeed, the party has had little traction over the last several elections in southern India, save for the state of Karnataka.
Yet in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, the BJP's vote share has grown by 6 and 14 percentage points, respectively, albeit from a low base.
The BJP's projected performance is probably not enough to win seats, but is indicative of swelling support.
Moreover, if the upward trend persists, other regional parties may join hands with the BJP ahead of elections.
Third, Mr Modi's impact is evident in voters' preferences (see figure below).
In 2009, 2% of voters favoured Mr Modi.
That number has steadily grown to 5% in 2011, 19% in 2013 and 34% as of January 2014; comparing favourably to the stagnant support for Congress party vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
In virtually every state where the CSDS conducted its survey, voters preferred Mr Modi over Mr Gandhi.
In October, 31% of voters in Madhya Pradesh wanted to see Mr Modi become prime minister. Today, 54% do.
In Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, 15% and 40% of voters preferred Mr Modi just months ago. Now, 28% and 48% of voters do.
A fourth sign of a Modi wave of support is the BJP's noticeable appeal to younger voters.
His relentless talk of growth, jobs and development - not to mention his economic credentials in Gujarat - seeks to capitalise on the aspirations of a population with a median age of 25.
Different conditions
The BJP is by far the preferred party of voters between the ages of 18 and 25, though its appeal declines as voters get older (see figure below).
Nevertheless, the only age group where the Congress trumps the BJP is 56 years and above.
It is true that surveys incorrectly predicted BJP wins in 2004 and 2009, but the conditions today are different.
For starters, there is palpable resentment over slow growth, high inflation and the lack of employment.
Moreover, there are indications that many Indians are hungry for decisive leadership, a quality missing under the prevailing government, but attributed to Mr Modi.
Even if the surveys are accurate, other obstacles to Mr Modi's ascension loom.
These include nascent alliances between opposition parties seeking to blunt the BJP's popularity and tricky alliance mathematics.
A potential ally of the BJP, the AIADMK, recently announced an alliance with left-wing parties in Tamil Nadu, a veiled message by AIADMK leader J Jayalalitha that she is a contender in her own right.
Perhaps most worrying for Mr Modi is the rise of the anti-corruption, populist Aam Aadmi Party (Common Man party).
This party also targets young, urban, middle class voters, placing it in direct competition with the BJP.
With two months before voters cast their ballots, there is more than enough time for surprises.
The coast is not yet clear for the BJP, but it appears that they are indeed riding a "Modi wave".
Milan Vaishnav is an associate with the South Asia programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC. You can follow him on Twitter @MilanV.
Related Internet Links
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Plans to turn Sir Walter Scott's former home into a tourist venue have been submitted to Scottish Borders Council. | Full funding for the £10m project at Abbotsford House near Melrose has yet to be secured.
The running total stands at more than £4m - including money from the council, heritage and enterprise bodies as well as the Scottish government.
However, a decision from the Heritage Lottery Fund on a £4.5m bid is not due until July.
The Abbotsford Trust wants to refurbish parts of the house and build a new visitor centre with cafe and shop, a large car park and woodland play facilities for children.
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By-elections are by their nature unusual events but there has been nothing quite like this before - a vote prompted by the death of a Welsh Government minister who is thought to have taken his own life while being investigated for misconduct allegations. | Nick ServiniPolitical editor, Wales@NickServinion Twitter
The back story of Carl Sargeant was always going to loom large, but once his son Jack decided he was going to try to continue the legacy of his father as the Labour candidate in Alyn and Deeside, it ensured it became a central feature on the doorstep as well.
I have been out with the candidates, including Jack Sargeant, and his father obviously comes up in conversation.
The 23-year-old says he is more than happy to engage with voters on family matters - how could he do anything else? The challenge for him is to forge his own identity at the same time.
In other words, Jack Sargeant has to try to emerge from the shadow of his father while presumably still coming to terms with events.
Incidentally, when asked what he thinks of the first minister, he refers to the inquiries under way into his father's death in neutral fashion, while suggesting the time for comment will come later.
Close friends of the Sargeant family have called on Carwyn Jones to resign but Jack has kept his views on the matter private and he is not going to reveal them during the campaign.
It demonstrates the swirl of emotion and speculation surrounding the Labour Party that the other parties have had to work around.
Labour may be defending a big majority but the Conservatives came second last time round.
Their candidate, Sarah Atherton, used to work in army intelligence, and they know they will need a clever campaign in order to close the gap.
Plaid Cymru's Carrie Harper is a Wrexham councillor who is an experienced campaigner for the party.
I caught up with her less than a mile from the English border, a long way from Plaid heartland territory, where she said the big subject on the doorstep was the state of the NHS, although 40% of residents didn't realise it was a devolved matter.
Duncan Rees is standing for the Greens and the Liberal Democrats have been gearing up for the arrival of party leader, Vince Cable, this weekend.
Their candidate is part-time bank worker Donna Lalek who is making a big play on anti-Cardiff sentiment, particularly in relation to investment.
This is well-trodden territory for assembly campaigns in north Wales, and for a banker on the doorstep.
To varying degrees, all of the parties are trying to cash in on a sense of alienation from Cardiff Bay.
Turnout is also the challenge for everyone. It was only 35% in the 2016 assembly election and that was with a fair wind of a national campaign behind it.
There are no posters or banners anywhere indicating there is an election on and polling is also on a Tuesday, which adds to the unconventional nature of the vote.
Which takes me back to where we started - there has not been anything quite like this before.
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Sir John Chilcot's report into the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq is already nearly five years late. He has just announced that it should be published in June or July 2016. Political commentator Peter Oborne cannot understand why there has been such a delay.
| So for BBC Radio 4's The Report, he studied much of the testimony given to Sir John and asked some of the witnesses who appeared four key questions at the heart of the inquiry. Here we set out what those questions are and reveal Peter Oborne's own conclusions.
Question 1: Was the information presented by the Blair government on weapons of mass destruction and other matters an accurate reflection of the underlying facts?
The British government led by Tony Blair justified the war in Iraq as the best way to neutralise the threat that Iraq might pose to its enemies with chemical and biological weapons.
Mr Blair did so by publishing a controversial intelligence dossier Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Assessment of the British Government in September 2002.
The dossier said Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had an arsenal of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), which could be deployed in as little as 45 minutes.
The claims were questioned by critics both at the time and since, but Mr Blair and his advisers have always denied any suggestion they sensationalised the dossier's contents.
Witness 1: Hans Blix, 2002 Chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission for Iraq (Unmovic)
"They had taken much of that [the contents of the dossier] from an Unscom document that had been issued in December 1999." [Unscom was the UN's weapons inspection body before Unmovic].
"In the Unscom document they talked about items unaccounted for." ("Unaccounted for" meant there were question marks about where they had gone.)
"The big difference in the British dossier was that they simply asserted that these items are there. But when Mr Blair asserts that there were weapons, well that's an assertion and it was not supported by evidence.
"Both the UK and the US (figuratively) replaced question marks by exclamation marks. I certainly think it was a misrepresentation."
Question 2: Did our military action in Iraq increase the threat to Britain from al-Qaeda?
Protecting Britain from a foreign terrorist attack was another reason given to justify the war.
As the invasion of Iraq began in March 2003, Tony Blair said in his address to the House of Commons: "Should terrorists obtain these weapons, now being manufactured and traded around the world, the carnage they could inflict to our economies, our security, to world peace would be beyond our most vivid imagination."
Critics, however, warned even at the time that by joining in military action in Iraq, Britain was actually making itself more of a target for terrorist attacks.
Witness 2: Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller, Director General of the British Security Service MI5 between 2002 and 2007
Baroness Manningham-Buller has refrained from speaking to journalists but told the Chilcot Inquiry that senior government figures had been warned before 2003 that invading Iraq would increase the terrorist threat to Britain.
She told the inquiry that in the event, the threat increased "substantially".
"The fact is that the threat increased, was exacerbated by Iraq, and caused not only my service but many other services round the world to have to have a major increase in resources to deal with it.
"In 2003, having had an upgrade in resources after 9/11, which my predecessor agreed, and another one in 2002, by 2003 I found it necessary to ask the prime minister for a doubling of our budget.
"This is unheard of, it's certainly unheard of today, but he and the Treasury and the chancellor accepted that because I was able to demonstrate the scale of the problem that we were confronted by."
Question 3: Did Tony Blair enter into a secret agreement with George W Bush that the UK would support US military action come what may?
The build-up to the Iraq war saw Britain's biggest ever street protest, with hundreds of thousands of people marching across London and other cities to voice their opposition to military action.
Tony Blair insisted that his preferred solution to the crisis was a diplomatic one, but his willingness to send troops to Iraq, despite the huge opposition has led many to believe he had done a secret deal with the US president, during a trip to Mr Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, in April 2002, 11 months before the war.
Witness 3: Sir Christopher Meyer, British Ambassador to Washington from 1997 to 2003
"For quite a significant period of time the president and the prime minister were alone. To this day we are not sure what passed between them.
"But on the Sunday after this 24-hour summit at Crawford, Blair went off and made a great speech at the George Bush Senior Presidential Library in College Station.
"That speech was the first public time that I know of when Blair supported regime change.
"Now is that the same thing as saying we're going to go to war and kick him out? It's not exactly the same thing, but it's another notch down the stick.
"I suspect he said something to Bush like, 'Whatever you decide to do, George, you know you can count on me.'
"The evidence for that is entirely circumstantial. It's partly the speech the following day, and, secondly, what I started to hear from the American administration in the weeks following the summit.
"The message you started to get back from the White House, from the State Department, from the Defense Department was 'Great, you guys are on board for whatever we decide to do. Terrific!'"
Question 4: Was the war legal?
The British government went to great lengths to prove that war against Iraq would be legal ahead of the invasion, and tried to secure a UN resolution sanctioning action in Iraq.
The government's chief legal adviser at the time, the Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith, at first suggested the war would not be legal, but later changed his advice.
The British government's argument was that a previous UN resolution - number 678, issued in 1990 at the time of the first Gulf war - had provided a mandate for military action against Saddam Hussein.
Witness 4: Carne Ross, UK Iraq expert at the UN Security Council from 1998 to 2002
"On the international law course that I did at the Foreign Office as I became a diplomat, I was taught war is legal under two circumstances: either in self-defence or it has to be authorised explicitly by the UN Security Council.
"Neither of those things was the case in the case of the 2003 invasion.
"The UK attempted to introduce a resolution at the Security Council explicitly endorsing military action against Iraq and it failed to get that resolution.
"In my book if you try to get the Security Council to give you authority to do something and it doesn't give you that authority then you don't have authority.
"You can't then claim that in fact all the resolutions from, you know, 12 years ago in fact give you that authority. That's nonsense."
Chilcot in a nutshell
Peter Oborne concludes that the central questions investigated by Sir John Chilcot can be answered very simply.
Did the British government mislead Parliament about weapons of mass destruction? Yes.
Did the war very substantially increase the threat from al-Qaeda? Yes.
Is there hard evidence that Tony Blair entered into a secret deal with the US president? No.
Was the war illegal? Yes.
Listen to Peter Oborne's Chilcot Report on this week's edition of The Report on BBC Radio 4 at 8pm GMT on Thursday 29 October or catch up later online.
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With so much of politics, economics, culture - not to mention every other facet of human existence - taking place online, it is startling to realise that such a loose and baggy concept as the "centre of the global economy," can actually be located somewhere real: in a particular grey stone building in lower Manhattan in fact; and within that building, on a particular floor. | By John MervinBBC Business reporter, New York
It is the open markets desk of the New York Federal Reserve - a trading floor that looks much like any other big open plan office.
But the people working here aren't typing away at the usual sort of office email or message. What they have their hands on is the basic lever of the whole global economy - US interest rates.
Do you pay interest? Probably. Anyone with a mortgage, a car loan, or a credit card does. Do you earn it? Again, it's very likely, if you've ever had money in a savings account.
And if you've studied the statements you get from your bank you'll know that the rate of interest that is paid or earned has a big impact on how much money you are able to spend on other things.
What's true for you is true for the bank, too. How much it costs you to borrow money, influences how much you can afford to spend. How much it costs the bank to borrow money, directly affects how much it's going to charge you for a loan, or how much it's going to pay you on your savings.
And think about those savings. If you're sure you can get a higher rate of return by taking your money out of the bank and putting it into the stock market then usually you will.
In this way the entire US economy can be seen as one long chain of interest rates.
If it is, then at the start of that chain, is the US's central bank, the Federal Reserve. The interest rate set by the Fed is the one to which almost every other interest rate in the world is linked.
You may have seen changes in that rate in the news. They happen in Washington and are decided by the Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC), usually accompanied by a jargon-filled press conference by the chair of the Federal Reserve
But carrying out the policy of the FOMC, is something that's largely the job of the Open Market Desk in the New York Fed.
All of the big commercial banks in the US hold reserves at the Federal Reserve. Reserves are the money banks have to keep on hand in case too many people try to withdraw their money at the same time.
The key US interest rate is what is known as the Federal funds rate. It's the rate of interest that banks earn when they lend their excess reserves to each other.
The target for that rate is what the FOMC in Washington decides on at its regular meetings. But making that target into an effective rate is where the Open Markets desk comes in. When the FOMC issues its statement it identifies a range for the federal funds rate. Currently it's between 1-1.25%.
The simplest method of hitting the target is simply to pay the banks interest on their reserves at the rate at the top of the range. Since banks are obliged to try and make money for their shareholders they're not in the business of lending their money out at a lower rate than they can get for just leaving it in their reserves.
The problem is that the banks can borrow reserve funds from other big financial players who are not part of the Federal Reserve System - money market funds for example, or the government sponsored organisations, that play a big role in America's housing market.
And because they're not part of the Federal Reserve System and keeping reserves at the Fed, they are sometimes willing to lend reserve funds to the banks at a rate below that at which the Fed is paying interest to the banks for their reserves.
What the open markets desk does then is offer to borrow money from those non-bank lenders at a rate at the bottom end of the target. Again, no-one works to lose money, so this creates another floor for the federal funds rate, which therefore sits between the two ends of the range.
And remember we're all links in a chain of interest rates. If your bank has to pay 1.25% interest on the money it needs to keep its reserve funds full, it's going to charge you a higher rate on your mortgage in order to make a profit, or pay you a lower rate on your savings.
So when the amount of money you have left over after you've paid interest on your loans changes, or when the amount of interest your savings earns changes, you're feeling the effects of the work of the traders at the New York federal reserve.
Beyond that, since the US economy is the biggest in the world, and so are its financial markets, borrowers and investors everywhere are living in a world directly shaped by the men and women on the open markets desk in New York.
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A US aid agency is helping to fund a project of a charity set up in memory of a Scots aid worker killed in an attempt to free her from kidnappers. | Linda Norgrove, from Lewis, had been working in the country when she was seized by rebels in 2010.
The 36-year-old was killed by a US grenade during a failed rescue attempt.
The Linda Norgrove Foundation is being supported by USAID in its work to set up a network of 40 community libraries in Afghanistan.
The American organisation has given a grant of about £401,000 towards the project.
Her parents launched the foundation in Ms Norgrove's memory.
Its relief work so far has included helping Afghan victims of domestic abuse.
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More details have been revealed about The Queen's visit to Hereford as part of the UK Diamond Jubilee tour. | Herefordshire Council said she would travel through High Town on 11 July, accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh.
The couple will also go to King George V Playing Fields where the city's
Diamond Day event
is being held.
Lady Darnley, Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire, said: "We're going to give the Queen a real taste of life in Herefordshire."
The council said an awards ceremony for people who had been judged to have made noteworthy contributions to the county during the past 60 years would also take place at the Diamond Day event.
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For more than 20 years, families in Kashmir have been divided by a stretch of water only 100 metres wide - a river that is part of one of the most deeply disputed borders in the world. And despite easing tensions between India and Pakistan, their hopes of returning home seem as remote as ever. | By M Ilyas KhanBBC News, Neelum valley, Kashmir
Ashraf Jan often visits this particular spot in northern Kashmir where the Neelum river cuts a narrow passage through a mountain village, leaving it divided between two steep hills.
She stares at the wooden houses across the river, and points to one of them.
"A very old couple live there - they are so old they don't come out of their room any more. They are my father and mother," she says, fighting back her tears.
Even though Ashraf Jan, who is 40, is standing just minutes away from the house, she hasn't been there in 22 years.
That's because the divide here runs deeper than the river, and she's standing on the wrong side of it.
In 1948, India and Pakistan went to war over Kashmir. The war ended with them dividing the region along a de facto border, the Line of Control (LoC), which is still disputed - and often violent.
In Keran village, this line passes along the river, and since a 2003 ceasefire, it has become a convenient point for divided families to assemble and wave greetings from opposite banks.
Siddique Butt, 65, is here to wave a hello to his daughter.
"She was sitting up there a while ago," he says, pointing to a clutch of houses higher up on the same hill. She's married with four children. She recognises me when I walk on the riverbank."
Ashraf Jan and Siddique Butt are among roughly 30,000 people who fled their villages on the Indian side of the LoC in or about 1990, when a violent separatist insurgency broke out in Indian-administered Kashmir, the country's only Muslim majority state.
They crossed to the Pakistani side where they were housed in temporary camps, hoping to return home soon when the conflict was resolved. But that didn't happen.
During a decade following the uprising, another 30,000 youths from the Indian side are believed to have crossed over to receive training and arms to fight Indian forces in Kashmir.
Most of them went back to carry out attacks on Indian targets. Many were killed or captured, while some managed to slip back into normal lives in homes they had once abandoned.
Today some 3,000 to 4,000 of them remain in Pakistani-administered Kashmir - many of them are now middle-aged and have families.
These displaced Kashmiris - who number more than 36,000 in all, according to officials in Pakistani-administered Kashmir - find themselves increasingly alienated as Pakistan mends fences with India, and the insurgency winds down to a mere shadow of what it once was.
The divide along the LoC remains as deep as ever, however.
Defence analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi says these people are caught in a "time warp".
"The insurgency kept Kashmir on the boil for well over a decade, but failed to shake Indian rule, prompting many quarters to question its justification," he says.
"Also, the insurgency passed into the hands of religious extremists, which made it unpopular internationally, especially after the 9/11 attacks in the US."
Pakistan, then under pressure to severe links with militant outfits, took a series of steps to wind down the Kashmir insurgency.
In 2003, it agreed to the ceasefire with India across the LoC. In 2006, it stopped all funding for militant operations in Indian-administered Kashmir, ignoring protests by some of the more influential groups such as Hizbul Mujahideen (HM).
Earlier this year, it cut by half the administrative funds it issues to insurgent groups that still maintain offices in Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
Alongside this financial squeeze, Pakistan offered a cash rehabilitation package to former fighters to get married and set up businesses.
These steps sparked a chain of events that further diluted militancy.
India's military took advantage of the ceasefire to fence the entire LoC, which it now monitors electronically making infiltration by militants more difficult.
On the Pakistani side, communities along the LoC who had virtually lived in bunkers for 16 years rose up in protest against any hint of militant activity that might endanger the ceasefire.
These protests forced local authorities to relocate militants to areas away from the border region.
On the Indian side support for militancy has also dwindled.
People there had backed the uprising of 1988-90, but things began to turn sour for them when infighting broke out between pro-independence nationalists - who had kick-started the insurgency - and Kashmiri Islamists who wanted Indian-administered Kashmir to accede to Pakistan.
Although they prevailed initially, the Islamists too became increasingly frustrated when by the mid-1990s many hardline Pakistani groups - such as Harkatul Mujahideen, Al-Badr, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad - joined the fray.
These groups brought with them greater resources to eclipse local Kashmiri groups, and professed foreign religious ideologies that were less tolerant of local sensibilities.
According to conservative estimates, more than 50,000 people died in about 20 years of conflict, most of them civilians.
The prolonged and heavy militarisation of the region played wrecked people's lives and ruined the economy, as well as depriving a generation of proper education and normal upbringings.
By the mid-2000s, the downside of the conflict was becoming obvious.
Ershad Mahmud, an expert on Kashmir affairs, describes the lessons the Kashmiris have learnt from this "bitter experience".
"Today's Kashmiri youth know that the blood-letting of all those years didn't bring them an inch closer to independence. They also know that armed conflict has damaged some of the best values of their society."
The new mood in Indian-administered Kashmir is to switch to a movement of civil liberties and human rights, which has not only attracted international attention, but also drawn sympathy from the Indian media itself, he says.
This change of thinking on both sides of the divide has put most Kashmiri militant groups out of action, and Pakistani groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba have seen their foothold in Kashmir steadily weaken.
"These [Pakistani] groups cannot keep the insurgency going, because they cannot operate without local support," says Dr Rizvi.
But while the scene in Kashmir is changing for the better, the circumstances of the people who were displaced from their homes 22 years ago have gone from bad to worse.
Once literally coaxed by Pakistani border officials to cross over, they now form part of an unwanted population that is denied both citizens' rights in Pakistan and access to their former homes.
For militants, the journey has been from freedom fighter to refugee living in one of the miserable, crowded tent villages in the slums of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
"My children have no future here," says one dejected former fighter, requesting anonymity.
"They can't have a Pakistani national ID, which means they can't have a passport, a decent job, or any other rights. We are living in a trauma."
As the dream of liberation recedes, the urge to return home grows stronger. It is further fuelled by an Indian offer of amnesty.
But neither the Indians nor the Pakistanis want these people to return to their homes all at once.
For India this could create security risks and administrative bottlenecks. And Pakistan fears negative publicity - most refugees are disappointed with life there and might speak up once they are out of reach of Pakistan's "unforgiving" intelligence services.
To prevent this, the two countries do not allow public movement across the heavily militarised LoC.
They have kept refugees off a bus service that began in 2005 and is the only transport link between the divided parts of Kashmir. Officials on both sides strictly screen passengers before issuing travel permits.
But since January 2011, the two countries seem to have collaborated in opening an alternative route - presently open only to former fighters and their families - which ensures "controlled" exodus from Pakistan.
One former fighter who took this route, explained it to the BBC before returning to India in June.
"I sold my belongings in Muzaffarabad to raise money for my family's air travel to Nepal, from where we'll cross into India and reach Srinagar," he said, preferring not to give his name.
"Our passports and air tickets were arranged by a contact person in Rawalpindi city."
He paid more than $2,000 (£1,278) to arrange travel for himself, his wife and three children. This is big money by local standards, and has kept the numbers of returnees fairly low.
Pakistani sources say just over 1,000 people, roughly half of them militants, have gone home or are in the process of doing so, since the route was opened 19 months ago.
Officials in Indian-administered Kashmir put the figure at about 500, including relatives of former militants. They expect a similar number to follow suit by the end of this year.
Pakistani authorities are now conducting a survey among the refugee population to determine how many of them want to return to their former homes. The refugees fear that they, too, may be required to travel via Nepal.
"Few people can raise the kind of money required for that route," says a former militant commander, Bashir Ahmad Peerzada.
Mr Peerzada is married with two children, and has set up a small business in Athmuqam, a town in Pakistani-administered Kashmir. He says he is under pressure from his parents and siblings on the Indian side to come home, but he doesn't have the money to pay for the trip.
"If India and Pakistan care for the Kashmiris, they should let them cross this arbitrary line they have drawn to divide them," he says.
For the moment, there are no signs of this happening, and most refugees who want to return to India feel stranded - and desperate.
"It's been 60 years, but there's no freedom," says Siddique Butt. "I don't care about freedom any more. I just want to go home."
Ashraf Jan has similar sentiments.
"Sometimes I feel like jumping into the river and swimming to the other side. But I can't do that. I have children, a family, back at the camp."
For these people, unless things change, a trip to Keran and a walk along the riverbank will be the nearest they ever get to a family reunion.
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The sale of 20 stamp albums has raised £1,000 for the RNLI lifeboat station in Hartlepool. | The albums were donated anonymously to be auctioned in aid of the station.
They were sold by North East stamp dealers Corbitts at an auction attended by about 200 philatelists.
Chris Hornsey, lifeboat operations manager, said the "extremely generous donation" would help provide "first class kit" for crew members.
He said funds would also help maintain two lifeboats at the Ferry Road lifeboat station.
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Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was a firebrand activist who fought the apartheid regime in South Africa. She was far more militant than South Africa's first black president, her ex-husband Nelson Mandela. She also became a critic of the African National Congress (ANC), the party to which she was fiercely loyal throughout her political life. | Here is a selection of some of her most compelling quotes.
On what prison did to her:
"The years of imprisonment hardened me... I no longer have the emotion of fear... There is no longer anything I can fear. There is nothing the government has not done to me. There isn't any pain I haven't known."
The quote, in the book Lives of Courage: Women for a New South Africa, highlights the extent to which Mrs Madikizela-Mandela was brutalised by the apartheid regime.
She was imprisoned on numerous occasions from 1969, much of it spent in solitary confinement. In 1976, the year of the Soweto riots, she was banished from the township to a remote rural area. At one stage her house was burned down.
Mrs Madikizela-Mandela was a politician in her own right, and opposed her husband's move to negotiate an end to apartheid, claiming it would lead to a "sell-out" of black people. Despite their differences, Mr Mandela appointed her as a deputy minister in his first government in 1994. He sacked her after a year, reinstated her when she successfully challenged his decision in court, and then sacked her again.
On how black people will achieve freedom:
"With our boxes of matches and our necklaces we will liberate this country."
The comment, at a rally in Johannesburg, signalled that Mrs Mandikizela-Mandela had endorsed the brutal method of "necklacing" - putting a tyre around suspected collaborators, dousing them with petrol, and burning them alive.
It caused shock around the world, and tainted the image of the ANC. The comment was condemned, including by South Africa's Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu (above).
On loving Nelson Mandela:
"I had so little time to love him. And that love has survived all these years of separation… perhaps if I'd had time to know him better I might have found a lot of faults, but I only had time to love him and long for him all the time."
Nelson and Winnie Mandela were the most celebrated political couple in South Africa. Hailed as the "mother of the nation", she kept the name of her husband alive during his 27 in prison. She was a young social worker when she married Mr Mandela, then already a prominent ANC leader, in 1958. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1961 for his role in fighting apartheid.
On why she kept the Mandela name after their divorce:
"I am a product of the masses of my country. I am the product of my enemy."
The couple divorced in 1996, two years after Mr Mandela became South Africa's first black president. The years apart took its toll on their marriage, and Mrs Madikizela-Mandela was also accused of having an extra-marital affair. She kept his surname in what critics saw as an attempt to continue trading on the Mandela brand.
On women:
"The overwhelming majority of women accept patriarchy unquestioningly and even protect it, working out the resultant frustrations not against men but against themselves in their competition for men as sons, lovers and husbands. Traditionally the violated wife bides her time and off-loads her built-in aggression on her daughter-in-law. So men dominate women through the agency of women themselves."
Mrs Madikizela-Mandela was hailed by her supporters as a feminist icon. She became the leader of the women's wing of the ANC in 1993, and believed that black women suffered from "a triple yoke of oppression" - their sex, colour and class.
On the ANC in government:
"I believe something is very wrong with the history of our country, and how we have messed up the African National Congress."
In the latter years of her life, Mrs Madikizela-Mandela became deeply disillusioned with the ANC - the former liberation movement which took power in 1994 - because of the corruption and in-fighting in its ranks. But she remained loyal to the party, and appeared to endorse Cyril Ramaphosa when he replaced the scandal-hit Jacob Zuma as president earlier this year.
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It was only when Abi Blake was nearly killed by her abusive husband that she decided to break up with him and press charges. A new policing pilot in Cheshire encourages women not to leave it so late, reports the BBC's Sue Mitchell. | They were introduced by friends just after Valentine's Day in 2014. She was an operations manager at Manchester airport, with a son from a previous relationship, and he was a telecoms manager down south.
Just months after their first date, Abi Blake ignored the doubts of friends and family and married the man she called her "prince". As they drove to the hotel afterwards she told him it was one of the happiest moments of her life. But the happiness didn't last long.
Moving to live with Abi in the Cheshire village of Knutsford, Sebastian Swamy told his new wife that he wanted to help make her son's life happier than his own had been. But from the start there were things that troubled her about her new husband. He kept telling her how to behave - "from wearing make-up, to wearing high heels, to how I looked, how I'd speak, how I'd conduct myself", Abi says.
"He used to tell me, despite my degree, and he even used to point his finger at my head and say, 'For someone with such intellect, you know, you're pretty stupid.' And I started to doubt myself and question myself, and that was just at the beginning."
For a long time Abi tried to shrug things off, making excuses for him and focusing on the things she loved: the times he looked after her and was kind and charming, the occasions when he would take her out, buy her flowers and fix things in the house. He was handsome and she felt touched by gifts that meant so much to him, like the ring that had belonged to his grandfather in India.
Once the violence started, it was harder to ignore. The first time was after he'd persuaded her to go out with friends. She returned to find traces of what looked like cocaine on her son's Thomas the Tank Engine table and bottles of drink on the floor. She demanded an explanation and Sebastian exploded.
"He slapped me very, very hard and then he gripped hold of my mouth and told me to shut up.
"I ran up the stairs and the next morning he apologised and said he didn't mean to do it, he'd never do it again and how sorry he was for it. He said it was because of me, because I was screaming and shouting, and it was just to keep me quiet so that the neighbours wouldn't hear. That was the first hit."
Abi would try to hide the bruises with long sleeves and scarves, but it was harder to hide the shame. When she got really scared she would call the police, who would come and take Swamy away, and then return to talk to her hours later.
But she always refused to press charges, even when her husband appeared to have started a fire in the house as she slept upstairs.
"I sat down, I could see the house and I kept thinking, 'I've got to paint it, I've got to clean it.' And I just said, 'No, I can't do it., And [the police officer] said, 'Well Abi, you know he needs to be charged with arson.' I said, 'Oh no, no, no.' It was just all so daunting."
Find out more
Listen to Abi Blake on the latest edition of Radio 4's My Name Is...on BBC Sounds
Her husband had made her believe that she couldn't live without him, she says.
"Your self-worth and your self-esteem are so low that you believe everything that they say," she explains.
Abi's mum warned her one day that she would end up in a body bag. Five days later her words almost came true, when Swamy kicked and stamped on Abi's body with such force that he damaged her spinal cord, punctured a lung and broke her ribs. As she lay injured, he shouted that he had had enough of her and she needed to shut up.
Abi survived thanks to neighbours who came to her rescue and surgeons who carried out surgery on her damaged vertebrae through an incision in her neck. She suffers from permanent spinal cord damage and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
This time she realised she had to leave him.
Dr Keri Nixon, a consultant forensic psychologist, is convinced that if she hadn't, she might soon have been killed. "He was a violent person but that level of alcohol that night, I think, made that particular attack so much worse, and that's why potentially she would have ended up dead. Because he would have gone out again and he would have got drunk again, and he would have been angry with her again, and he wouldn't have stopped."
Swamy's abuse of Abi was a textbook case of "serious, high-risk domestic abuse", she says. There was coercive control and emotional abuse, isolation - Swamy discouraged her from seeing friends and family - and physical abuse. And as so often in such cases, Abi herself was in denial.
Discouraged by the number of times that police officers were getting called out to domestic abuse incidents, and finding that victims were declining to press charges or retracting their statements the following day, Det Insp Claire Jesson of Cheshire Police, together with a student on a placement from Cheshire University, came up with a proposal.
Instead of leaving the victim alone for several hours after taking the perpetrator away, it would be better to send a dedicated domestic abuse officer to every incident, who would remain with the victim and talk through the options for seeking help, they suggested.
This idea then became a pilot programme, which started in Crewe last June, and is now also being tried in Macclesfield, and could be rolled out more widely.
"From the minute they go through the door, they're there for the victim. So we're building that rapport from the off," Claire Jesson says.
"What used to happen is if a perpetrator was arrested, the officers would have to take him or her to custody and then return later, by which time people had often decided not to press charges."
Of 180 cases dealt with by the domestic abuse team in Crewe, 74 have resulted in a charge, summons, caution, or community resolution, Claire Jesson says - a far higher proportion than previously. The length of an average investigation has also come down from 32 days to less than 20.
"I think that we can show that it's been successful. A full review is taking place at the minute and they'll look at how viable it is to roll it out force-wide. The feedback on it has been so positive from the partners but it's not a simple thing. It's a huge investment from the police."
Figures from the Office of National Statistics show how important it is for solutions to be found. In 2018, 4.2% of men and 7.9% of women suffered domestic abuse, which equates to about 685,000 male victims and 1,300,000 women. Murders related to domestic violence are at a five-year high, with an average of two women murdered every week.
Why does it happen?
Abuse victims often ask consultant forensic psychologist Keri Nixon what makes their partners act in the way that they do.
"Most of the time, the perpetrators I've worked with grew up witnessing domestic abuse," she says.
"Sometimes you have perpetrators who have that very narcissistic personality, whose mother made them feel that they were the best thing ever. When they were told off, they defended them. It was almost like, 'My son can do no wrong.' And they created this narcissistic monster who thinks that they can just waltz through life getting their own way.
"And if that kind of guy [has] also witnessed domestic abuse, it's very likely that they're going to be abusive in their relationship and not take any responsibility. So when they get let out of prison, it's 'not their fault'. So they'll get into another relationship and they'll wine and they'll dine and they'll charm, and they'll make that woman fall in love with them and then the pattern will start again."
Dr Keri Nixon says that the focus on people who are murdered by their partners means that people like Abi are sometimes forgotten.
"I've worked with police forces across the country and examined many, many cases of domestic abuse where victims are almost left for dead, and we don't hear about those cases.
"I've worked on a case where a woman got her head repeatedly bashed against the bath until she was nearly dead, a case where a woman was stabbed and then stood up in court and defended her attacker because she was at the point where she couldn't leave," she says.
Abi did see her case through to court and in January 2019 Sebastian Swamy admitted causing her grievous bodily harm and was jailed for three years and four months. He said he had been drinking heavily after losing thousands in a scam.
Sentencing him, Judge Steven Everett said he had caused serious and catastrophic injuries to his wife and that her life would never be the same again. "You were Dr Jekyll to people in the street, but it was clear you had the ability to be Mr Hyde when you were at home," he said.
Although Swamy was sentenced to more than three years, he had spent time on curfew before the trial, and Abi suddenly learned last summer that he was going to be let out much earlier than her lawyers had led her to expect. When probation officers refused to give her the exact date, she appealed to Det Insp Jesson for help.
"It was flagged to me because bizarrely, and I still can't quite understand it to this day, Abi wasn't being given the date. For data protection reasons, probation weren't willing to release the date, so I just rang them and told them, 'This is a high-risk case, we really need to make this disclosure straight away.'"
How to get help
Abi went into hiding as Swamy left Wrexham prison. He travelled to his family home in Berkshire and when she knew he was under electronic surveillance she went back home.
Abi is proud to be helping others now, through her work with a Cheshire-based charity, My CWA, which provides refuge places, a crèche, family support, a 24-hour helpline, a perpetrators programme, counselling for children, a relaxing area for people wanting to socialise and facilities for those seeking to train and learn new skills. Claire Jesson's domestic abuse officers are regular visitors and get a warm welcome from the women they have helped.
Abi hopes that other victims do not suffer in the way that she has, and urges them to save themselves by taking action at an earlier stage than she did.
"It doesn't start with the physical, it starts with the psychological. I didn't know that this was abuse, not until I nearly died - and then I got the help that I so desperately needed. And so, on the psychological level, if they can get out, then get out. I'm speaking out to hopefully help or save one person and/or their children."
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Nicole spent years living with a charming man, but she always seemed to be doing something wrong. Eventually she began to realise that it wasn't her that was the problem, it was him - and when she met one of his previous girlfriends, Elizabeth, everything made sense. Here Nicole tells her story, followed by Elizabeth.
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Deadly clashes in Kenya have raised fears that elections in March could again be violent as politicians exploit tribal rivalries, reports the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in the Tana Delta. One minister has been sacked from the cabinet, accused of inciting conflict in the Tana Delta region. More than 100 people have been killed there in the past month in clashes between two rival communities. | In the village of Kilelengwani, the morning of 10 September began just like any other Monday.
Then suddenly, says Ismail Bodole, a resident of this small settlement of several dozen thatched mud houses, the place was surrounded by a group of armed men.
"They were many," he says. "They had red scarves tied around their foreheads. They were shouting, 'Kill, kill, kill!' That was their roar."
The attackers were several hundred strong. Some were armed with guns, but most carried spears, machetes, or bows and arrows.
They set fire to the villagers' huts. Then they hacked them to death: men, women and children, indiscriminately.
At a hospital in the nearby town of Malindi, we met Jamila, a survivor of that attack. She is eight years old. The left side of her face was slashed from ear to mouth: a machete wound, a doctor said.
Jamila's condition was stable, he added; she would pull through. She was too traumatised to speak for herself.
Stench of death
Days after the attack, the stench of rotting flesh still hangs over Kilelengwani.
The severed head of a cow lies in the dust, buzzing with flies.
Nearby, a square mound of raised earth indicates the location of a shallow grave, where some of the 38 victims of this massacre lie buried.
Ismail Bodole believes this was no spontaneous outpouring of tribal anger. This was, he says, a planned attack, an organised act of brutality and terror.
"The attackers were divided into three groups. One group torched the houses. Another would carry off the injured. Then there was a third group whose job it was just to kill."
On one level, this is a conflict over access to land and water.
On one side are the Pokomo people. They are mostly farmers, smallholders who eke out a living growing cash crops by the banks of the Tana River.
On the other are the Orma, semi-nomadic cattle drovers who roam the land in search of grazing grounds for their herds.
In the past, disputes would often be resolved peacefully. But not now.
We met Ali, 25, and Adhan, 19, driving a herd of cattle through the bush. Instead of the usual herdsman's sticks, each young Orma man carried a sharp spear.
"Of course we are afraid," said Ali. "But we have our weapons. If anything happens, we will defend ourselves."
Adhan said he wished he had a more effective weapon.
"Some of them [the Pokomo] have guns as well as bows and arrows. But I only have this spear.
"I haven't killed anyone with it," he added, "but we have wounded many."
Scramble for power
The killings have left more than 100 people dead on both sides. Thousands have been forced to flee their villages, living in makeshift shelters or on the outskirts of the larger towns.
On Saturday, in the town of Garsen, a crowd of several hundred gathered under the shade of a tree as religious leaders led prayers for peace.
A number of politicians had also come to convey their support for that message.
But land is a valuable commodity in the Delta region, and not just for the relatively small communities who live on it.
As Kenya prepares for elections next spring, many are convinced that political interests are stoking the violence.
"There has been a scramble in the Delta in the last four or five years," says Francis Kagema, a conservationist.
Investors, both Kenyan and foreign, have been acquiring leases on vast tracts of land in the region for the purposes of large-scale cultivation of food and biofuel crops. Getting elected to office can mean gaining control of such lucrative deals.
"Political power is everything in Kenya," says Mr Kagema. "Even foreign investors have discovered how to manoeuvre by getting the right political connections."
The government has, belatedly, sent some 1,800 paramilitary troops to the Tana Delta region to halt the violence.
The move appears to have had an effect: in recent days the cycle of tit-for-tat attacks has abated, though many villagers are still too fearful to return to their homes.
And the wider fear is that, as the scramble for votes intensifies ahead of the election next spring, the killings in the Tana Delta could mark the start of another bloody Kenyan election.
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The Duke of Edinburgh has been admitted to hospital with a bladder infection for the second time in just over two months.
Elderly people tend to be more prone than most to infections of the urinary tract, including the bladder. They are found in about one in 10 men in their 80s and can recur.
How common are the infections?
| In general, the elderly are more vulnerable to infections because the immune system weakens with age.
The muscles of the bladder also get weaker which can make it harder to completely empty it when urinating.
This means bacteria that can cause infection may get more of a chance to grow in the residual urine left behind.
How else can they be caused?
In some elderly men an enlarged prostate gland may lead to obstructed urinary flow. Kidney stones may also cause problems.
What are the symptoms?
Symptoms of a urinary tract infection include pain when urinating, cloudy, bloody or smelly urine, and a need to go to the toilet very often.
How serious are these infections?
It can be more difficult to spot infection in elderly people as some don't develop a fever - as younger sufferers often do - because their immune systems are not powerful enough to swing into action to fight the problem.
Sometimes these infections - if not picked up an early stage - may also cause confused thought.
However, the vast majority of sufferers improve within a few days of starting antibiotic treatment.
Why might the Duke of Edinburgh be especially vulnerable?
Prince Philip has long been recognised as a very fit and active man for his age - 91.
But in December last year he underwent treatment for a blocked coronary artery.
He was fitted with a metal tube known as a coronary stent, designed to keep the blocked artery open. It also reduces the pain from the blockage, caused by a lack of blood supply to the heart tissues.
In some instances patients are given drugs to minimise the risk of complications, such as over-growth of new tissue, after their stent is fitted. These drugs may suppress the immune system.
If the duke received this form of treatment it is possible that made him less able to fight off infections, such as the bladder infection in June, which now appears to have recurred.
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Seven hundred new jobs have been confirmed by offshore firm Statoil after it selected a new UK North Sea head office in Aberdeen. | The Prime Four business park base will be the operations centre for developing the Mariner field, creating 200 onshore and 500 offshore jobs.
The Mariner field is about 150km (93 miles) east of Shetland.
Statoil expects to start production from Mariner in 2017 and the field is expected to produce for 30 years.
Statoil and the business park's developers, Drum Property Group, are in the process of finalising terms for the new base.
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Seventy-five years ago, the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic was the scene of a mass slaughter that has long burned in Haitians' collective memory but was either unknown or forgotten in the wider world. | By Nick DavisBBC News, Caribbean correspondent
It earned the name the Parsley Massacre because Dominican soldiers carried a sprig of parsley and would ask people suspected of being Haitian to pronounce the Spanish word for it: "perejil".
Those whose first language was Haitian Creole found it difficult to say it correctly, a mistake that could cost them their lives.
Historians estimate that anywhere between 9,000 and 20,000 Haitians were killed in the Dominican Republic on the orders of the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo.
Bodies were dumped in the Massacre River, ominously named after an earlier colonial struggle between the Spanish and French.
The killings of 1937 changed the relationship between the two countries on the island of Hispaniola and its effects can still be felt today.
From late September to mid-October that year, men, women and children were rounded up, then beaten or hacked to death for just being Haitian.
Even dark-skinned Dominicans were caught up in the purge that became known as "el corte", the cutting.
Haitian migrants had for generations crossed the informal border region in the north of the island to work as labourers in the sugar plantations of the Dominican Republic.
But during the Great Depression the country's economy began to slump and immigrants became the scapegoat.
US diplomatic cables at the time described the killings as "a systematic campaign of extermination".
The US administration regarded Trujillo as a staunch ally but after the scale of the massacre emerged, President Franklin D Roosevelt's administration made the Dominican Republic pay reparations to the victims' families - money that ultimately never reached its intended recipients.
There is evidence that in many villages Dominicans risked their own lives to help their Haitian neighbours escape.
But in other cases, local people pointed out Haitian immigrants to the authorities.
Shared history
Today, the border is officially open on Mondays and Fridays.
The bridge that connects the town of Dajabon on the Dominican side and Ouanaminthe in Haiti is a sea of people carrying goods to market.
The two towns, filled with the sounds of Spanish and Creole, depend on each other.
"We have more in common than the differences. Trujillo tried to rid the Dominican Republic of its Haitian roots but our cultures and lifestyle are very similar," says Lesly Manigat, a Haitian doctor living in the Dominican town of Santiago.
"The French, the Spanish, the Africans, it's a shared history."
Dr Manigat belongs to a group called Border of Lights that has been marking the anniversary by using art, poetry and social action to bring the communities together.
Church services were held in both towns to remember the dead, and people took part in a candlelight vigil, marching to their respective border fences.
Distant voices of support could be heard as flickering tea lights floated down-river.
There were some, however, who felt that too much time had passed. In the Dominican newspapers, there was concern that marking the event may raise tensions.
But organisers of the commemorations said it was important to remember.
"People have described it as 75 years of silence and this is a chance to talk about it because these wounds are still in us and so we don't repeat the past," said Cynthia Carrion.
Joint efforts
However, attitudes marked by the past still haunt both countries.
It is estimated than more than a million illegal Haitian migrants live in the Dominican Republic, and in Dajabon, people-smuggling is rife.
"After 1937, the Dominican culture became exclusive. On a local level people could work together and could accept that we have a society that's mixed, of which Dominicans of Haitian descent are a part," said Dr Edward Paulino, a Dominican-American member of Border of Lights.
"But at the state level there's still this sense of rejection of dark-skinned Haitians."
Recently it was alleged that a Haitian worker in a town near the border, Loma de Cabrera, had killed a Dominican.
Local people told the Haitians to leave within 24 hours.
But many of those taking part in the events to mark the massacre spoke of the unity that exists between people on the border.
"We did a park clean-up on the Haitian side. One of the volunteers couldn't believe we'd come to help his community and I realised that this was a first," said Sady Diaz, one of the organisers.
People in both towns will be coming together again later in the month to paint murals along the border, a lasting tribute to those who died.
Related Internet Links
Border of Lights
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Scotland's political parties have submitted their candidate lists for European Parliament elections in May - should the UK end up holding them. | Voting has been fixed for Thursday 23 May, but could still be called off if a Brexit deal is agreed before then.
Scotland operates as a single nation-wide constituency for the election, and is represented by six MEPs.
Parties put forward lists of candidates who are then elected on a proportional representation basis from votes cast.
Here is the full list of candidates confirmed as standing in Scotland by the Electoral Commission.
SNP
Scottish Conservatives
Scottish Labour
Scottish Greens
Scottish Lib Dems
UKIP
Change UK
Brexit Party
Independent
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Shops in Guernsey face being banned from displaying tobacco, if a proposal from health officials gets the backing of the States.
| The Health and Social Services Department also wants stricter rules surrounding tobacco vending machines.
Deputies are being asked to agree to ban the display of tobacco at the point of sale and restrict vending machines to adult-only establishments.
The proposals will go before the States in June.
In 1996, the States became the first government in the British Isles to ban tobacco advertising.
The proposals also include making tobacco vending machines token operated and ensuring all products imported into the island include pictorial warnings.
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More than £4.4m is being spent on flood defence work in a Cumbria town where hundreds of homes were deluged in 2009. | The Environment Agency is carrying out the work in Cockermouth to protect 360 vulnerable homes and 55 businesses prone to taking in water.
The work will include building walls, embankments and flood gates along the Cocker and Derwent rivers.
The agency has already built new flood walls and fitted gates to protect homes in Waterloo Street and Graves Mill.
Construction has also begun on an embankment along Derwentside Gardens where existing flood walls are being extended.
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The search is on for a couple to train as astronauts, for a privately funded mission to Mars. But wouldn't any couple squabble if cooped up together for 18 months? Explorer Deborah Shapiro, who spent more than a year with her husband in the Antarctic, provides some marital survival tips. | It never ceases to amaze us, but the most common question Rolf and I got after our winter-over, when we spent 15 months on the Antarctic Peninsula, nine of which were in total solitude, was: Why didn't you two kill each other?
We found the question odd and even comical at first, because the thought of killing each other had never crossed our minds.
We'd answer glibly that because we relied on each other for survival, murder would be counter-productive.
Still, people do get cabin fever - an emotional disturbance that can affect people living in small spaces, in an isolated place.
Cabin fever usually manifests itself first in signs of irritation, and ends in violence.
At a remote Antarctic station during a winter, one man killed another over a chess game. The episode could have started from him not liking the way his colleague buttered his toast...
People can and do have a difficult time living together in this era of self-reliant independence.
We figure that a couple who ran a farm a few generations ago would be very likely to have a successful trip to Mars.
Why? Because a couple on a farm lived in interdependence, with accepted roles. They lived frugally, entertaining themselves, producing what they needed and repairing their tools that broke. All those traits are necessary for a long space voyage.
In hindsight, we can say that there are some guidelines for living in harmony in a confined space, and all of them fall into the category I call "simple, but not necessarily easy".
One has to be able to give the other person mental elbow room. During our winter, when a person settled into the sofa in the salon with a book and started reading, he or she was not interrupted.
Keeping quiet when the person is close enough to practically read one's thoughts, is a matter of self-discipline, fuelled by caring.
The only exception to our silence rule was for boat-related safety issues. The boat, for obvious reasons of survival, always came first.
Showing tangible signs of caring and of empathy ensures that cabin fever never takes hold. It's one of the personality traits Sir Ernest Shackleton looked for, when signing-on crew for his expeditions.
As Rolf, who has Shackleton as a role model, always says: "I can teach anyone how to sail, but I can never change a person's personality."
Two simple examples of our interaction - firstly, remaining sensitive to each other's moods and concerns, never belittling.
We learned early on that I, the novice, when scared, expressed anger. After it happened a few times, Rolf brought it to my attention.
"Whenever you are about to get in the dinghy to take photos of the boat sailing, your mood changes," he said. "You become aggressive and have lots of 'reasons' why we can't do it. Remember, you once agreed to take these photos."
My unspoken response was: Yeah, but that was before I realised the dangers. Then I had a think, and decided that I could not let my weakness jeopardise our documentary project.
Whenever I felt the anger, I would simply keep my mouth shut. As I gained experience, fear dwindled and the trait evaporated.
The second important rule, is that showing care benefits both.
We believe this to the point that it is built into our daily routine - we alternate cooking days. Each day's food becomes a present to our partner. We try to surprise the other with new dishes. There's a prize to be won - the other person's admiration.
Lives lived at close quarters
People sometimes joke that long-distance sailors must have a high boredom threshold, but my response is that one can only be as bored as one is boring.
Doing things is the antidote. We always have a creative project in progress - the documentation of the voyage itself.
There are hours of repairs to accomplish every day, just to keep things operational. In the evenings, we often play games. Or we read aloud for each other, pausing to discuss our reactions and thoughts.
We also developed thoughts during the winter as a team, mostly along the lines of our favoured subject: world politics and management.
Rolf came up with an idea he called Global Justice, a method of sharing non-renewable resource that doesn't generate war. It was based on an idea that whatever man has not created, he can't own. All winter we discussed and honed the idea.
It seems everyone who temporarily removes themselves from civilisation has these discussions.
Astronauts, who look back through the deadly distance to that beautiful planet they call home, have the supreme position. Their perspective is indeed unique.
In essence, our opinion is that a likely pair for the trip to Mars would be a loving couple who have been living together a long time, who are technically clever and bright, remain ice-cold under pressure, and are naturally upbeat - and whose main goal is to support each other through every phase of life.
Both Rolf and I still consider the 270 days we spent alone in Antarctica as the highlight of our lives.
Had our engine not broken down, we would have stayed for another year.
But there is a big difference between our small-scale expedition and a trip to Mars.
In a space capsule, the couple will have to depend upon a vessel they have not built, and the people working at space control.
The outcome of the project is therefore not just in the hands of the couple, and they must be willing to put their lives in someone else's hands.
That will demand a special strength.
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Prince Charles has toasted the news that he is to become a grandfather again "several" times, he has said. | The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced Meghan's pregnancy on Monday.
The Duke of Rothesay spoke about son Prince Harry being set to become a father, as he visited Lochnagar Distillery in Crathie, Aberdeenshire.
After sampling a 30-year-old malt, he was asked if he had toasted the news, to which he replied, laughing: "Oh yes, absolutely. Several times."
The baby is due in the spring. The royal couple married in May.
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Three faded photographs of Ami as a toddler are Elhadj Diop's only tangible mementoes of his daughter. Yet she comes alive in the intensity of his voice, as he recounts her last two days of life. | By Alex Duval SmithBBC News, Thienaba Seck, Senegal
Ami was 12 when she died from malaria on 10 October 1999.
Since then Mr Diop, now 64, has channelled his grief into a unremitting campaign to banish malaria in his town of Thienaba Seck, about 150km (95 miles) from Senegal's capital, Dakar.
He has given up his job, sold his belongings, walked hundreds of kilometres and convinced thousands of people - from politicians to village sanitation brigades - to play their part.
He is one of the reasons why Senegal is on track, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), to be declared malaria-free by 2030.
"At the time we had no idea what it was," says the former photographer, sitting in his yard under a tree. "She was vomiting. Her limbs ached. We took her to the clinic and to the traditional practitioner.
"But only the wet cloths we wrapped around her burning body seemed to offer her relief.
"On the second day, she seemed to have improved. She asked me to buy her some apples. I was holding the bag of apples when my sister phoned with the news."
Thursday is sanitation day
The same day as Ami's funeral, several other children were buried in Thienaba Seck, a town of 4,000 people.
"They had died of the same illness. The day after, it was a young woman who had just had a baby. Ten days later, I lost my nephew to malaria."
He quit his job.
"Taking photographs for Unicef, I had learnt that fighting malaria requires community involvement. I convened information meetings at my house with elders from the area.
"But of course I had to pay for their transport and give them a meal. So I sold my camera, my television set and all the electric fans in my house."
Mr Diop goes round communities in his district, informing people about the importance of hanging a mosquito net over every bed, and the need for rigorous cleaning - in Thienaba Seck, every Thursday is sanitation day - to remove rubbish and stagnant water that attract the mosquitoes which spread malaria.
"In 2014, I walked 412km. I made myself ill. That is when one of the donors gave me a car. It was very nice of them,'' he says, pointing at a battered white pick-up in his yard, ''but I can only occasionally afford to put fuel in it."
Neighbourhood watch for cleanliness
Mr Diop is not particularly interested in receiving aid money.
"If it is offered I take it. But the donors have their own priorities. One day USAid and the Global Fund will leave Senegal and go elsewhere. If we depend on them, then what will we do?" he says.
He has convinced the households in Tienaba Seck to contribute a small amount each week to a sanitation fund. He has set up a neighbourhood watch system, whereby people check on each other's cleanliness and report transgressors to a committee.
Mr Diop has strategic allies, including Alou Niasse, the district nurse who took up his post in Thienaba Seck 20 years ago.
"In those days we worked long hours - sometimes from 8am to 11pm," says the nurse.
"Out of 100 people who walked into the health centre in the rainy season, 65 had malaria or were assumed to have it.
"We had patients on drips all over the place, even in the yard," says Mr Niasse, aged 56.
"People had no idea what malaria was or how to protect themselves. A lot of people died. Ami Diop was one of the most striking of them."
Mr Niasse goes through his ledger: there have been no confirmed cases this year.
"We get a few in the rainy season but they are mainly imported, by truck drivers who come from Dakar or from neighbouring countries, like Mali or Guinea."
Malaria-free generation?
He says there has been progress on many fronts: ''We have the instant tests now, so diagnosis has improved.
"The government has introduced free treatment for under-fives. The medication has improved. But the biggest change is the community's level of understanding and its commitment to sanitation.''
This week, Mr Diop will make a speech about his experience before 3,000 eminent scientists, including two Nobel Prize winners, who are gathered in Dakar for the 7th Multilateral Initiative on Malaria conference.
Among them will be Doudou Sene, the coordinator of Senegal's national programme to fight malaria - a government-funded body whose work far away from the Thienaba Seck community has helped the country make great strides towards eliminating the mosquito-borne parasite.
"Senegal is at the forefront of genome research to develop ultra-sensitive instant diagnostic tests to detect even small traces of the parasite.
"As a country, through public information, we have reduced mortality from malaria by 40% in the past 10 years, and morbidity [the number of cases of people falling ill] by 77%."
But Senegal still has challenges ahead if it is to succeed - along with Algeria, Comoros, Madagascar, The Gambia and Zimbabwe - in meeting the 2030 deadline for eliminating malaria set by the WHO.
Mr Sene says, "The hardest places are along our borders with Guinea and Mali - two countries that have made fewer strides. We still have high rates to beat in five out of Senegal's 14 regions."
Back in Thienaba Seck, Elhadj Diop sits in his yard and lifts up his latest grandchild. She looks just like Ami.
Thanks to his tireless efforts, six-month-old Rokaya has a real chance of taking all the love he gives her into adulthood, as a member, perhaps, of Senegal's first malaria-free generation.
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The landscape is airbrushed white and Mncedisi Paliso is clearing hailstones off his roof before they melt. Leave it too long and the water will seep through the holes in the corrugated iron roof, drenching the bed beneath. | By Karen AllenBBC News, Marikana
An eerie silence haunts South Africa's Marikana mine. A ferocious hailstorm has forced protesters into their homes to contemplate the events of these past few weeks.
"It's a strike about wages," Mr Paliso explains, but it's also about tackling grinding poverty and inequality.
"Wages mean improving our lives… If you've got money, you can build a home and do things like look after your family."
Mr Paliso and his family moved here from the Eastern Cape three years ago.
The village they hail from buried its dead from the "Marikana massacre" just last week.
There was little chance of employment back at home, so work at the vast platinum mine was the next best thing for the Paliso family.
'White capital'
Mr Paliso, a man in his mid 40s, spends eight hours underground each day as a rock driller and, because he is a contract worker, earns less than his colleagues - 2,500 rand ($300; £190) a month - and no living allowance.
He and his wife rely on that income plus a meagre government child grant to feed their two children. Their home is a painted blue "shack farm" with a goat and a couple of dogs outside. And a roof that leaks.
They are under no illusion that the wage increase their union is demanding, (though badly needed) will provide a quick fix to their problems.
"A lot of people say: 'We would rather kill than go back to what we were earning'," Mr Paliso says and he agrees with that, but ultimately he concedes it is a more complex problem.
Observers have salivated at the thought of an "African Arab Spring" emerging from the Marikana dispute. But it's not happening.
Unlike Libya or Syria, the new South Africa has a democratic tradition, and despite widespread frustrations at the slow pace of change, so far the protest action has been largely confined to the mining sector.
But it is still a turning point, according to political analyst Eusebius McKaiser.
"I don't think this has the spark to make it an Arab Spring, but this is the first event in post-apartheid South Africa since 1994 where you can't say there will be zero political fallout for the major factions within the ruling ANC alliance."
While Julius Malema - the expelled leader of the ANC youth league - has said "white capital" is largely to blame for inequality in South Africa, Mr Paliso's wife Nomnikelo is more circumspect.
She expresses a disappointment with the leaders of the ruling party - a party she once supported without question.
"I think the government is ultimately responsible," she states bluntly.
"They are in charge, they are the ones that should be blamed and I think it is their duty to improve our lives."
But levelling South Africa's economic playing field is an enormous task - the statistics bear this out.
According to the World Bank, the richest 10% of the population earns 58% of national income while those at the bottom, the poorest 50%, earn just 8%.
Apartheid's cruel legacy is still being blamed up to a point, but so too are the elites that have shaped the new South Africa.
"One of the most horrible things is that we are one of the most unequal societies in the Milky Way," argues Mr McKaiser.
"Government has never really dealt with this. We've always hoped that it would deal with economic growth challenges, joblessness and poverty, and that inequalities would somehow fall into place as a consequence. What we are now seeing is a political challenge that comes with the injustice."
Leadership failure
The trade unions once carried the moral high ground to address the injustices of apartheid, but many have now been criticised for being "too close" to government and big business.
This blocks the possibility of shaking up South Africa's labour laws to encourage businesses to flourish.
President Jacob Zuma has been accused by all sides for failing to show the political courage to deal with this sensitive issue and for protecting vested interests within his own party.
Meanwhile, figures like Mr Malema have a ready market in the disillusioned poor, who are ready to seize upon his every word. Nationalisation - his mantra - is the solution to South Africa's inequality problems.
So where is the responsibility of the mine owners in all this? Shouldn't Lonmin, which is listed on both the Johannesburg and London Stock Exchanges, have seen this coming, given that workers' appalling conditions have persisted for years?
Lonmin executive Abey Kgotle says:
"People have chosen to use means that are out of the ordinary when it comes to collective bargaining. We have the Labour Relations Act but clearly people have acted outside that scope."
The phrase that keeps coming up time and time again during commentary on the Marikana dispute, is leadership.
Failure of leadership within business, within the trade unions and within a governing party that is trying to straddle both the political left and right.
Collectively many argue, they have failed to address South Africa's very pressing problems of inequality.
The miners may not be at the "bottom of the pile" in terms of pay, as many commentators have pointed out, but with 36% of South Africans having no job whatsoever or unions to argue their case, leaders ignore inequalities at their peril.
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Whether you're Team Harry and Meghan or find yourself feeling outraged that they reportedly DIDN'T TELL THE QUEEN FIRST, it's hard to ignore the hashtags and memes exploding on your timeline. | It's the story that almost everyone is talking about - the decision of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to step back as "senior" royals.
And like with any hot topic these days, the internet is heavily involved - giving voice to both sides of the debate as well as providing some light relief.
On Twitter there is some support for the decision by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
But among the positivity, some are questioning their decision and what it might involve.
The Duke and Duchess have spoken about the different struggles they feel they've faced, including intrusion from the media. In October 2019, both Meghan and Harry began separate legal action against the press.
But not everyone agrees that Meghan's had unfair treatment.
It seems no other royal - including the Queen or Prince William - were consulted before the latest statement and Buckingham Palace is "disappointed".
And just because we can all relate to how it feels when a family member drops a bombshell... here's a Gavin and Stacey clip.
Some are even getting ideas about exiting from their own families...
And, after Meghan and Harry mentioned wanting to achieve "financial independence", some have speculated about how that could work. With suggestions
In October, Newsbeat spoke to Dr Richard Clay - a professor of Digital Cultures at Newcastle University who recently made a documentary about memes.
He says internet jokes give an insight into how people think and feel about the big news stories of the day.
"You get an upsurge in meme production when people are particularly intense about their feelings about what's going on at the time," Richard says.
"It's a kind of steam valve that releases the pressure and the tension and allows people to calm down. That's what satirical humour has always done.
"There's a huge body of evidence that's being produced daily worldwide that gives us an insight into what's going on right now."
So if you find yourself getting a bit too caught up in all the royal drama then remember to scroll for some light relief.
Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.
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A 24-year-old Rwandan whose mother was raped in the genocide tells the BBC how he came to learn of the circumstances of his birth. Their names have been changed because of the shame surrounding rape, which still exists to this day. | By Flora DruryBBC News
Jean-Pierre says it was a form asking for his parents' names at the end of primary school which first made him question who exactly his father was.
"I did not know him - I did not know his name," he says.
Warning: Some people may find some of the content of this article upsetting
Not having a father at home was not unusual: many other children may have been fatherless - more than 800,000 people were killed during the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. But they knew their father's name.
He had heard the village whispers, and the names people would call him - but it would take years for him to finally learn the whole truth.
The story, his mother Carine says firmly, "is not something to take at one time".
"He had heard different information. He heard gossip. Everyone in the community knows I was raped. There was nothing I could do about it," she explains.
"My son kept asking who his father was. But among 100 men or more who raped me, I could not tell the father."
'I couldn't run away'
Exactly how many children were born as a result of rape during the 100-day massacre in 1994 is not known.
Efforts are being made by the UN to end to conflict-related sexual violence - rape was used as a weapon of war from Syria to Colombia and from Democratic Republic of Congo to Myanmar last year.
Survivors are sharing stories on social media using the hashtag #EndRapeinWar to mark the UN's day to eliminate sexual violence in war.
But it is not easy for those involved to recall the events - even a quarter of a century later. Hearing Carine's story, it is clear why she waited until her son was old enough to hear the truth.
She was about the same age as him the first time she was raped, one of hundreds of thousands mainly Tutsi women and girls believed to have been sexually assaulted by Hutu neighbours, militia and soldiers.
The genocide had just begun, and she was still bleeding from two machete wounds on either side of her face - wounds which still make it hard to eat and speak today.
Her assailants - people who had once been part of the same community - had dragged her to the edge of a pit where they were dumping the bodies of the men, women and children they had just systematically murdered in a school.
But despite her wounds, despite the pain, Carine knew she did not want to die. She also knew she did not want to die when a group of soldiers sexually assaulted her with small trees and sticks just hours later, causing unimaginable damage.
It was only when another group attacked her, biting her all over her body, she decided she no longer wanted to live.
"Now I wanted to die soon. I wanted to die so many times."
But her ordeal had only just begun: the hospital which tried to save her life was quickly overrun by Hutu militia.
"I couldn't run away. I couldn't go because everything was broken," she says.
"Whoever wanted to have sex with me could. If the perpetrators wanted to urinate, they could come and do it on me."
More on the genocide:
It was only when the hospital was liberated by the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front that Carine finally got the treatment she needed, and was allowed to return home to her village - weak, broken, bleeding, but alive.
So when the doctors discovered she was pregnant, they were shocked.
"I was asking what to do as the body was almost nothing - I could not imagine what was going to happen.
"When the baby was born, I could not understand why. I could not believe the boy was from me. I was always thinking about what happened. After giving birth, I kept the baby - although I felt no love."
'Children abandoned'
This story - or variations of it - has been told hundreds of times to children across Rwanda over the past 25 years, although rarely told openly.
"Rape is taboo. In most cases, the shame goes to the women instead of the man," says Sam Munderere, chief executive of Survivors Fund (Surf) that coordinates the Foundation Rwanda programme, which offers educational and psychological support for mothers and their children born as a result of rape during the genocide.
6 April 1994President Habyarimana, a Hutu, killed in plane explosion
Over 100 days Hutu extremists kill some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus
4 July 1994 Tutsi-led RPF rebels capture the capital Kigali
Two million Hutus flee to Zaire, now DR Congo, fearing revenge attacks
93ringleaders indicted by a UN tribunal
12,000community courts try more than 1.2 million suspects
In some cases, he explains, the stigma caused relatives to urge the mothers to abandon the children. In others, it caused the breakdown of their marriages.
Where they could, the women kept it secret. As a result, many children only realised how they were conceived when, like Jean-Pierre, they tried to fill in the form.
"The issue is now the mothers telling the children how they were born after the genocide. It was easy to simply say: 'Your father was killed during the genocide.'
"But as kids grow up, they ask many questions, and the mother is sort of pushed to saying the truth."
Over the years, Foundation Rwanda has helped mothers find the words to tell their stories over the years but the truth, Sam acknowledges, can cause a trauma of its own.
"The effects can be long-term; the effects can go from generation to generation," he says, recounting the story of one young woman who was hiding the truth about her father from her new husband.
It would, she said, harm her marriage if he knew.
Then there was the mother who admitted she mistreated her daughter because she believed her naughty behaviour was due to "how she was born".
And there are the many mothers who, like Carine, simply felt disconnected from their children, the lasting impact of which is yet to be fully realised.
"They are consequences we would not think of," Mr Munderere points out. "The young people have their own challenges and we are doing our best to support them to be able to fit into society, to feel they are as good as any other young person in Rwanda."
The trauma of bonding
Carine finally told Jean-Pierre the whole story of his conception, and birth, when he was 19 or 20.
He has, he says, accepted it. But still, he feels there is a hole in his life where a father should be. Somewhat surprisingly, he feels no hatred towards the man who attacked his mother - but then, Carine has also decided to forgive.
"One of the things that made me most traumatised was thinking about them. When you forgive, you feel better," she says, matter of factly.
"I have never been angry about him," Jean-Pierre adds. "Sometimes I think about him: when I meet with life challenges I feel that I would love having a father to help me solve these problems."
He plans on training as a mechanic and one day having a family of his own.
"I am planning to help my family as well," he says, although all that takes money - and money is something in short supply.
As for Carine, she accessed counselling early, helping her bond with Jean-Pierre as he grew up: "I feel this is my kid now."
Their closeness is easy to see as they sit on a step looking out over the rolling green hills from the door of their new home, bought with help from Surf.
It sits just outside the village where she grew up - the village she ran from when her family tried to make her give Jean-Pierre up, the village where he was called names as a younger man.
But now things are calm. They feel accepted by both the family and community.
"They know I survived for a long time living with the trauma and I am happy here," she says.
As for Jean-Pierre, he is full of pride for his mother and what she has achieved: "It is very hard to see but I was very happy with her progress.
"The way she accepted what happened. The way she thinks about the future and the way forward."
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Fragile plant life growing near Scotland's most northerly Munro are being threatened by deer and sheep, according to a new report. | Ben Hope Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) includes the 927m (3,041ft) mountain it was named after.
Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) commissioned an assessment of what effect deer, sheep and cattle have on the site's blanket bog and heath.
The study suggests some areas were threatened by trampling.
Grazing by the animals was not found to have as great an impact on Sphagnum moss and lichen.
Certain areas of the SSSI in Sutherland were deemed to be under more pressure than others.
An Gorm-choire was one of the areas reported to be at most risk.
Deer and sheep were said to be damaging pools and water tracks, which were in turn reducing the spread and diversity of plant life.
Related Internet Links
SNH
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Energy giant BP is to develop two new North Sea fields capable of producing up to 30,000 barrels of oil a day, the company has announced. | Alligin, west of Shetland, and Vorlich - in the central North Sea - are expected to come on stream in 2020.
BP said investment in the fields would total about £420m.
BP said Alligin and Vorlich would lead to "significant production gains" and further demonstrated a commitment to the North Sea.
BP and Shell each hold 50% stakes in Alligin, while BP has 66% of Vorlich alongside Ithaca Energy's 34% share.
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A lot has changed since last year's round-up of the biggest viral hits , in which we met Grumpy Cat, the "overly attached girlfriend" and the One Pound Fish man. | By Dave LeeTechnology reporter, BBC News
As we begin to think back to this year, it's less "come and have a look, one pound fish..." and more "come and have a look... at our expensive advertising campaign".
The history of the internet - when someone comes to write it - will no doubt look back on 2013 as the year marketers and advertisers finally worked out the internet's secret sauce, the sure-fire way of getting something shared far and wide on the internet, without the need to fill the pockets of television executives.
In 2014, will internet users begin to resent the PR stunt virals? Will our cynicism see even genuine viral hits shot down?
The BBC reached out to Grumpy Cat to see what she made of all this. Frankly, readers, her expression said it all.
But onwards, she demanded - for while 2013 may have felt the ugly hand of commercialism, and made us question our ethics at times, it at least made us laugh. A lot.
January was about... falling over
When you fall over, in public, you think two things. 1) Am I hurt? and, more importantly, 2) Did anyone see?
Well if you slipped over on Duke Street in Norwich in January - bad luck.
Chances are more than a million people saw thanks to a video called, pun-tastically, Duke Street Hazard.
That icy action was soundtracked by the Party Boy music from MTV muck-about series Jackass, but for more comic effect, perhaps they should have signed up the New York Philharmonic's David Finlayson, who in the same month shared a hypnotic perspective on trombone playing.
And in the first of many great videos uploaded by these guys this year, Bad Lip Reading took on the NFL with dubbing so good you'll be convinced that it was what they actually said.
Bad Lip Reading had form - late 2012 it posted this masterpiece - One Direction's first foreign language film, Shadow Pico. Eerie.
It started with a few Aussies mucking about in a room... and ended with two Israeli soldiers in prison.
Yes, it can only be the Harlem Shake - a meme so popular that at one point more than 4,000 versions of the craze were being uploaded to YouTube every day.
The Harlem Shake - or at least, this viral spin-off of it - has an important legacy: the popularity of its soundtrack spurred US chart company Billboard to start counting YouTube popularity in its listings.
It's the sign of any great viral hit that as well as being sharable in its own right, the original inspires countless others - just as another hit in February demonstrated.
Even Taylor Swift, cracking set of lungs that she has, couldn't compete with the "screaming goat" cover version of her song, Trouble.
Taylor's is the original, but be sure to check out goat Bon Jovi, goat Katy Perry and goat Miley Cyrus (more about her later, of course).
You'd assume, in any one of Watford's fine pubs, people are still buying Chris Stark drinks.
His interview with actress Mila Kunis was the best celebrity interview of the year, primarily because it broke all the rules, and then some.
Sure, the nervous Chris may have spoken mainly about himself. And yes, he may not have discussed the film (much to the annoyance of Mila's PR team).
But what we got as a result was one of the most genuine interactions with a Hollywood superstar we're ever likely to see in this media managed day and age, complete with tales of "lad bombs", Nando's chicken and Sir Dossa.
There's no denying the educational value of the year's most "popular" YouTube clip (based on discussion and sharing, as well as views).
David Attenborough it ain't, but still - How Animals Eat Their Food (90 million views and counting) is a treat, especially the bit with the rhino.
Meanwhile, in Belfast, it was parallel parking raising the most laughs. Excruciating footage showed a poor motorist trying to get the angles right.
They'd offered to help, the giggling lads insisted, but to no luck.
Eventually, to an eruption of cheers, the car was parked.
April was clearly a good month to be looking out of windows in the UK. In Eastleigh, 35-year-old Ellie Cole was getting her dance on at a bus stop.
It was an inspiring video to many thanks to the Ellie's admirable "dance like no-one's watching" approach to life.
By September, the Dancing Queen - as she was dubbed - landed a role in a local play.
He is, says Forbe Magazine, the most "social media savvy astronaut ever to leave Earth".
There's not a great deal of competition in that regard, admittedly, but Chris Hadfield's captivating work on the International Space Station had millions enthralled on Twitter.
As a final sign off, the 54-year-old, now retired, sang David Bowie's Space Oddity from the Space Station itself (and later in a BBC studio).
Later in May, inspiration (for some) of a different kind: US high school student Jeff Bliss ignited a debate about teaching standards after his rant at a teacher was filmed and uploaded to YouTube.
He later joined Twitter to continue his message further. "This is to help UPRISE a DEMAND for better education and learning," he explained.
Down-to-earth man of the people George Osborne - the chancellor - was hard at work one night on a speech when he decided to have one of his aides tweet a picture, the focal point of which was a half-eaten burger.
"But wait!" cried the internet, "that's a posh burger!"
The burger debate raged for hours, maybe even days, until communities secretary Eric Pickles, known for being rather portly, upped the banter stakes with a picture of himself, in the same pose, tucking into a somewhat unlikely salad.
"Nice one Eric," replied Mr Osborne, as we all got on with our lives.
"When a freak hurricane swamps Los Angeles, nature's deadliest killer rules sea, land, and air as thousands of sharks terrorize the waterlogged populace."
Now there's a plotline.
Sharknado - that's a compound word of shark and tornado - fit neatly into the "so bad, it's good" category of straight-to-TV movie.
Such was its online popularity, a sequel has been commissioned... and fans on Twitter got to choose the name. They went for Sharknado 2: The Second One. Coming next year.
If Sharknado wasn't enough to keep people awake at night, August's viral moment certainly was.
The "twerking" phenomenon hit a new high (or low, depending on your perspective) when former Disney Club teen Miley Cyrus took to the stage with popstar Robin Thicke.
Clad in a nude-coloured bikini, and armed with a big foam finger, Miley proceeded to twerk her heart out, while the jaws of the world hit the floor.
Married dad of one Robin Thicke, meanwhile, added to the viral flames later that night after an unfortunately placed mirror revealed the exact position of his hand as he embraced a female fan for a picture that was, of course, tweeted.
All that twerking led to one of the more controversial viral moments of the year.
It appeared to be a bona fide "fail", as they say. A girl, recording herself on her webcam, twerked around a room, before attempting some upside-down twerking against a closed door.
Thanks to a friend, the closed door soon became an open door - and with it, our twerking hero was flung into a nearby candle-covered table.
The twerker's legs caught fire - and the video abruptly cut.
For the next week, it was the talk of the internet - and it was US late night host Jimmy Kimmel who bagged the scoop, getting the girl onto his show for an interview.
We'd been had! It was all a stunt for the show. And hundreds of news organisations fell for it.
The whole saga led Felix Salmon, from news agency Reuters, to ask the probing question: Can news organisations fact check a twerking video?
Keeping with the theme of thought provoking questions, how about this one: What does the fox say?
While not quite reaching the dizzy heights of billion-hitter Gangnam Style, the relentlessly catchy song from Norway's Ylvis is a treat. X Factor fans will have enjoyed presenter Dermot O Leary's homage a month or so later.
Naturally, the fox inspired many covers - this soulful effort stood out.
Without YouTube, this next viral moment would be consigned to the tittering memories of the three men involved, an anecdote forever doomed to end with "oh forget it, you just had to be there".
But it's 2013! And now the world can be there, over and over again.
So picture the scene: Scotland, dead of night.
The three men were driving in a van along a lonely, deserted road. When suddenly - their nemesis appeared: The Rabbit.
What followed was arguably the most infectiously hilarious five minutes ever to hit the internet, and you can watch it here, provided you don't mind some very strong language indeed.
The Ohio State Marching Band went viral several times in the year with their brilliantly choreographed performances during college football half-times. But the finest effort had to be their tribute to Michael Jackson - which steps up a gear around the four minute mark. Shamone!
Confidence is everything in the dating game, but it can be taken a bit too far: just ask the man who will forever be known in the online world as StarbucksDrakeHands. After meeting a woman he was interested in a Los Angeles chain of Starbucks, and getting her number, StarbucksDrakeHands - real name Brody Ryan - sent a short clip of himself gazing into the camera, model-like, brushing his hand across his face before busting out a broad smile.
Naturally, the recipient put it straight online - and before long, thousands, maybe millions, had taken the collective mickey out of him. Poor guy. (Here's a compilation of the funniest.)
A solid start to November on the viral front, as five French lads took a Llama for a cracking night out.
Serge the Llama had a night to remember, while Serge Lama - that's a French singer - said the night looked like a "good laugh".
A French TV channel even went to interview Serge (the Llama), but without much luck. Hungover, perhaps.
Break-ups are never easy, but what would make it worse, you'd think, would be someone listening in and livetweeting every excruciating word.
That's what Brooklyn resident Kyle Ayers did after he overheard a couple in the final moments of a relationship. It had the internet transfixed - but it did provoke some soul-searching. "Please stop live tweeting people's private conversations," asked MSNBC's Nisha Chittal.
At the end of November, just days after the rooftop break-up, another live-tweeted argument was causing a stir. This time, it was on a plane, between US television producer Elan Gale, and "Diane", a fellow passenger who was being rude to employees. The back-and-forth of notes whipped up a storm.
But by December, it was all revealed as one great big hoax.
Like the rooftop break-up before it, Elan's tweets spread around the world quickly - without time for fact-checking. In an age when newspapers and broadcasters are begging for clicks, if something goes viral, suggested the New York Times, "the truth" might take a beating.
Unfortunately, for our final viral "star" of the year, her plane drama was all too real.
Justine Sacco, a major PR executive in the US, boarded a plane to South Africa, and tweeted: "Going to Africa. Hope I don't get Aids. Just kidding. I'm white!"
By the time she had landed, she had lost her job, following a worldwide wave of criticism and a hashtag - #hasjustinelandedyet - that trended around the world.
Justine has since apologised for her momentary lapse and, perhaps, can take a little comfort in knowing that 2014 will no doubt see many more like her.
What have we missed? Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC
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A father and his 13-year-old son have been rescued by a coastguard helicopter after their kayak overturned off the Anglesey coast. | The man's wife called 999 at 13:40 GMT after the pair failed to return from their trip off Lligwy Beach.
They were spotted 20 minutes later by the Moelfre RNLI lifeboat on a nearby island, with their kayak floating offshore.
They were taken by helicopter to hospital in Bangor with minor injuries.
HM Coastguard Duty Controller Mat McInally said: "This incident could so easily have turned into a really tragic one and the first informant did absolutely the right thing to call the Coastguard when her husband and son did not get back on time.
"Her quick thinking action undoubtedly helped save two lives today and we wish the two casualties a speedy recovery."
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