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At the end of December, temporary work restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians who come to the UK are being lifted, allowing them the same benefits and NHS care as other EU citizens. Panorama reporter Paul Kenyon has travelled to Romania with British police on an intelligence and information gathering mission. One of the aims of their visit is to discourage Romanians from moving to Britain without guaranteed work. | "Very good in Cricklewood."
A remote village in the Carpathian mountains is a strange place to hear someone talking about London.
Apata might look like any other rural, tranquil town in Romania but this one has a secret.
And the British police have come all this way to try to unlock it.
When a camp of Romanian squatters were evicted from Hendon football club in June, 65 out of the 68 people they found sleeping in makeshift shelters were from the village.
I have travelled here with Chief Superintendent Adrian Usher. He polices Barnet in north London, which he says is home to more Romanians than anywhere else in the UK, many of them from the Roma ethnic minority.
As if to illustrate the depth of the connection between Apata and the UK, one young girl runs up to me shouting English phrases she has picked up from villagers who have returned from London.
Ch Supt Usher wants to discourage Romanians from moving to Britain without guaranteed work.
"If you come to the UK without a named job to go to, then you're at really increased risk of being exploited or being the victim or perpetrator of crime," he told a group of villagers.
He said the welfare of Romanians who migrate to London was just as important a concern as that of Londoners themselves.
"I'm not here to comment on any particular issues at all. We're here to protect all the residents of London and that includes those people who come to London looking for work."
Nobody knows how many Romanians or Bulgarians will move to the UK in January. The UK government is not making any official predictions.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has said he has no confidence in figures, published on his department's own website, predicting that about 13,000 will arrive. Pressure group Migration Watch has predicted 50,000 could come to the UK every year until 2019.
The Romanian Ambassador, Dr Ion Jinga, has said: "Because Romania has joined the European Union seven years ago... those Romanians who wanted to go and live and work abroad, they already did so."
He adds: "A very tiny minority of Romanians have chosen Britain as their work destination."
According to the Office for National Statistics, in July 2012 there were 94,000 people who were born in Romania and 47,000 people who were born in Bulgaria resident in the UK.
Grim camps
One resident, who told us his name was Alexandru, said as many as 400 villagers might have left for London already.
Alexandru said that his cousin was the first to leave for London and he followed him after he recommended moving there.
Alexandru said he left because there is so little work in Romania. He said villagers were prepared to live in grim camps in the UK for the chance of a foothold in the UK construction black market.
He showed me a cooker which he had been able to afford following his time spent working in London.
Alexandru plans to return to Cricklewood in north London in the New Year. It is an area where hundreds of Romanians are part of a growing underclass of migrants.
'No money left'
Back in the UK another immigrant, called Alex, told me he was from a small, mainly Roma village, over the hill from Apata. He said he had been working in the construction black market in Cricklewood for a few months.
He worked for cash-in-hand, paid no tax and had no national insurance number.
He spoke no English, had no qualifications and wanted his wife and children to join him from Romania.
He said he had struggled to make ends meet during his time in London.
"I worked for three days on someone's property," he said. "They drove me far away; I didn't even know where I was or how to come back. He took me with his car.
"After the work finished I was told to wait at home, he was going to pick me up the following day. I waited for two or three days and I tried to call but when no one answered. I had no money left and I didn't have anyone to borrow money from."
Alex was never paid. He has been forced to live in a shared room because paid work has been intermittent.
He plans to join the formal job market in January, when temporary work restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians who come to the UK are being lifted.
Despite what appear major difficulties in gaining employment, he is confident he can make things work.
"I would bring my family here. I don't think it would be too difficult to look after them. I would rent two rooms and a kitchen if everything was convenient."
Despite talk of immigrants flooding the UK when these changes come into play, Romanians and Bulgarians have had the right to visa-free travel in the UK since 2007, when their countries joined the EU.
Since 2007, they have also had the right to work here if they were self-employed, had a particular expertise like doctors and nurses, or took seasonal agricultural work.
But there were temporary restrictions on the kind of jobs they could take. Employers had to apply for work permits, and migrants for an "accession worker card". Low-skilled workers were restricted to existing quota schemes in the agricultural and food processing sectors.
These restrictions will be dropped on 1 January 2014. Bulgarians and Romanians will also be entitled to claim the same benefits and NHS care as other EU citizens.
Panorama: The Romanians are Coming?, BBC One, Monday 16 December at 20:30 GMT and then available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer.
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Already 100,000 people in the UK have died with Covid, according to the official count. The idea of 100,000 deaths is hard for many of us to comprehend. But each was a human being who lived and loved in their own unique way. This is the story of one of them. | By Jon KellyBBC News
By 3:01am, alone in a hospital room, Ann Fitzgerald reached for her phone. This would be her last chance to contact her husband of four decades, the man she'd raised two children with, her Tony - to Ann, he was always her Tony.
The couple had made a pact. So long as Ann was in hospital with Covid, Tony would spend his nights dozing upright in a chair at their bungalow in Pewfall, Merseyside. That way, he would wake up if there was a message alert.
It wasn't much of a sacrifice, Tony thought, not when the woman he'd loved for 47 years was all by herself and frightened. And besides, each time his phone bleeped Tony would know she was still alive, and silently he'd thank the stars.
And so in the early hours of Tuesday 7 April, Ann's last message arrived. She'd summoned the energy to take a farewell selfie as she lay in bed wearing an oxygen mask. "She must have thought: 'Here's something so you won't forget me,'" says Tony.
Two-and-a-half hours later, Ann was dead. She was 65, a mother, a wife, a neighbour, a colleague and a friend, and one of 999 people in the UK who died that day with the novel coronavirus.
Soon after the hospital rang and told Tony of her death, he was at her bedside, dressed from head to toe in PPE. No visitors had been allowed to see her while she was alive, but now she was gone it was apparently fine - for reasons he didn't understand.
Tony wept as he apologised to his wife's lifeless body for letting her go like this, with no loved ones by her side. Then he turned and cursed the sterile white hospital ceiling and walls, because they'd been with her at the end and he hadn't.
Back then, few could have imagined the UK's death toll would reach 100,000, or anything close to it.
At that point, the tally stood at 10,000; three weeks previously the UK government's Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance had said limiting the final figure to twice that sum would be a "good outcome".
Now, 10 months on, the total number of people in the UK who have died within 28 days of a coronavirus diagnosis has increased tenfold, while UK excess deaths in 2020 were at their highest level since World War Two. The UK has had one of the highest rates of recorded coronavirus deaths in the world so far.
By any measure, 100,000 is a devastating amount, roughly equivalent to two Premier League football grounds, or the number of people who attend the Reading festival every year. For many people, the sheer scale of loss conveyed by the figure will be impossible to grasp.
"Numbers with lots of zeros are very difficult to interpret, and can be made to look large or small," says Sir David Spiegelhalter, a statistician at the University of Cambridge.
"If I say that 100,000 deaths is two months' worth of normal mortality, then it may not look so bad. If I say that it is more than all the [UK] civilian deaths in WW2, or as if everyone in a city the size of Durham got killed, then it sounds worse. It is challenging to adequately convey such a large number of individual tragedies."
But while many may have become numb to the daily death figures, behind every statistic is a real life lost - a real life like Ann's. "That is why this arbitrary numerical milestone is important," says Hetan Shah, chief executive of the British Academy and a former executive director of the Royal Statistical Society. "It is a chance to reflect again on the terrible toll this pandemic has taken on so many British families."
In a Manchester nightclub one evening in 1973, 18-year-old Tony felt a tap on his arm. It was Ann, a year his senior, whom he knew by sight as a barmaid in one of the city-centre pubs he sometimes drank in. She'd always stood out to him, with her olive skin and striking good looks, but he'd never dared imagine she might be interested in him romantically.
"I'm here with that fella over there," she told him, gesturing towards across the room. "But I don't like him and I don't know what to do."
Tony walked over to Ann's date and told him to clear off. Then Tony returned to Ann, and the two of them had a drink together, and then another. Before long they were a couple and Tony decided he was the luckiest man in the world.
Soon he learned all about Ann's background. Her Lithuanian-born Jewish father had died when she was two years old, and with her mother unable to cope she'd been passed between relatives throughout her childhood. By 16 she was living in a bedsit, supporting herself with waitressing and bar work - she'd also been employed at the legendary art-deco Kardoma café on Market Street and at George Best's nightclub, Oscar's.
"As a consequence of her upbringing she was really, really independent," says Tony. "She was really good at talking to people, and she was sharp - the sharpest, wittiest person I've ever met."
They rented a flat in Fallowfield together and made it their home. After Ann was offered relief work running bars around Manchester, Tony quit his job as a sales rep to join her. Eventually, in 1981, they took on their own pub. It was in what was then a tough part of Salford, but Ann had grown up nearby and knew how to handle the local characters: "She could have you in stitches, but she could throw you a look, and you knew you had to behave yourself," Tony says.
The couple were offered the chance to take on another pub in Sale Moor. They thought they were going upmarket, but it turned out to be quite the reverse; Tony would joke that he should take away all the tables and chairs and install a boxing ring instead.
But Ann wasn't intimidated by anyone. According to Tony, when a notorious local villain turned up and demanded a free drink, Ann stood her ground: "My husband's name is above the front door, and he pays for his drinks, so you're going to pay for yours," she told him. Impressed, the villain ended up buying one for Ann instead.
She and Tony knew it was time to quit when burglars broke in one night while their baby daughter slept in her cot upstairs. Tony went back on the road as a salesman; Ann worked variously as a debt counsellor, an incident manager for the RAC, and a sales trainer at a cotton firm. Their children, Gary, and Rachel, never once heard them argue, Tony says.
For six years the couple had a stall at Altrincham Market selling women's clothes. "People would come, not necessarily to buy something - they just wanted to see Ann," says Tony. "And as a consequence, they'd buy something they didn't really want." Each time this happened, Ann would give Tony a wink.
By the start of 2020, Ann and Tony were looking forward to a long retirement together. Both their children had left home, and they'd recently moved to the bungalow. The news broadcasts had begun describing a deadly pandemic that had spread from China. But Ann wasn't leaving the house much while she recovered from an operation to replace both hips.
Then one Thursday in March she went for a haircut; she asked for the colour to be darkened slightly too, and when he first saw her afterwards Tony told her how much he loved it. Ann mentioned that the hairdresser had been coughing.
Three days later, Ann began coughing too, and soon afterwards so did Tony. But with a fever, she felt worse, and within a few more days she was barely able to stand. She asked Tony to call 999.
The paramedics helped her to the ambulance. It haunts Tony now that he didn't hug or kiss her as they said goodbye. "Neither of us thought for one moment that it would be the last day I would ever see her alive," he says. She told him they'd probably give her antibiotics and he could come and pick her up in a few hours.
But later that day she phoned him to say the doctors suspected Covid and they would be keeping her in. As in many hospitals during the first wave, no visiting was allowed.
Tony could only stay in touch with her by phone. When a doctor told him the next 24 hours were critical, he didn't tell Ann, because he knew how scared she was already by then.
But he did pass on something else the medic had said - that they were deeply impressed by her upbeat attitude and fighting spirit. Tony told her, too, that he believed she would be home soon: "I had to say that to keep her fighting, and fight she did for 10 days."
The last time they spoke was Saturday 4 April. Ann told Tony she thought she'd turned a corner; she'd eaten a sandwich and some yoghurt. After that, talking became too difficult for her; she wasn't in intensive care but the mask she wore to help her breathe was getting in the way.
Three days after their last conversation, Tony was sitting in a white hospital room beside Ann's body. He sat with her there for an hour. He didn't just apologise, he also promised he'd make sure she was remembered properly. When it was time to leave, a nurse gave him a booklet about bereavement and a black bag in which to put Ann's belongings. Tony carried them along a hospital corridor, wondering how he would tell Gary and Rachel their mum was dead.
There are eight photographs of Ann in Tony's living room. In each of them she looks full of joy. "Every time I look around, there's a picture of Ann somewhere," Tony says. "She's smiling and I'm thinking, 'If only I could turn back the clock.' But I can't, you know, and nor can all those other families and relations, either."
Nearly 10 months after Ann's death, Tony finds himself resenting the home he's been left alone inside. If they hadn't moved there, he reasons, Ann wouldn't have gone to that hairdresser's that day and caught the virus - she'd still be alive, perhaps.
He feels robbed of the 20 additional years he hoped they'd spend together, as surely will thousands of other bereaved relatives. While the impact on the very oldest has been widely recognised, those who might have looked forward to a long retirement have been badly hit, too - during the pandemic, around 15% of all UK fatalities with Covid mentioned on the death certificate have been among those aged 65-74.
Tony desperately wishes his life would go back to how it was, but knows it won't.
Ann's funeral didn't give him any closure. Tony would rather she had been buried, but the undertaker warned him to hurry - extra restrictions could be introduced any time - so he took the date that was offered by the crematorium.
As it was, under the rules that were already in force, only 10 mourners were permitted, spaced out around the chapel. No flowers or photographs on display, no hugging.
Tony understood why all this was necessary - but it wasn't the celebration of Ann's bright, gregarious, love-filled life that he thought she deserved. He'd have to plan another one when all this was over.
As the months went on, Tony joined online Covid support groups. It helped talking to others who understood how it felt to have lost someone. There was the family of a 19-year-old boy. A woman who was mourning both her mum and her dad. Another woman whose husband had died in the car as she drove him to hospital.
He thought of these stories each time he switched on the news and watched the Covid mortality figures climb higher and higher. Behind these cold statistics were human lives. And each was as unique as Ann, with a personality and backstory entirely of their own.
It would have been Ann and Tony's 41st wedding anniversary on 6 October, the day before the six-month anniversary of her death. The following month, a few days after the UK's Covid death toll reached 50,000, Tony once again felt Ann's absence bitterly on what would have been her 66th birthday.
"Christmas was a nightmare for me," he says. Under the rules for the festive season, Gary and Rachel and their partners were able to be there with him, and cooking lunch kept him busy most of the day. But afterwards, when he was on his own again, the reality hit that another celebration had gone by without Ann beside him, and Tony sat down and sobbed.
For millions the arrival of the Covid vaccines has brought hope, but it is a cold comfort for those who have lost someone. If every one of the 100,000 were loved by a dozen people, "that's a million people in Britain who have been bereaved", says the bioethicist and sociologist Prof Sir Tom Shakespeare. "We need a national monument, some form of remembering."
Tony is not one of those who will find it hard to grasp the significance of this bleak milestone.
"To me it's 100,000 poor souls fighting for breath, and they've not had a hug from anyone in their family," he says. "There's a name - there's a person behind that number. And then they've passed away, and the family goes through the grief that I've been through - the numbness, the shock, the anguish and the pain to come."
Follow @mrjonkelly on Twitter
Picture editor: Emma Lynch. Additional reporting by Oliver Barnes
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For more than a month now, men and women, young and old, have gathered in large numbers on streets and university campuses across India to protest against a new citizenship law which they believe is discriminatory. | Soutik BiswasIndia correspondent
There, they have been invoking the Constitution and chanting its solemn preamble, which promises justice, equality and fraternity and embodies the basic features of the nation's founding document.
The mass readings have revealed a deeper public engagement with the Constitution than commonly thought. So far most believed the Constitution hadn't travelled much in the public imagination beyond dreary classroom lessons.
India's Constitution, which took four years to write, is the world's longest founding document. The text governs more than a billion people who practise almost every mainstream religion.
The voluminous document contains more than 450 Articles and 12 Schedules and is painstakingly detailed. It is also, according to legal scholar Upendra Baxi, an "unparalleled exercise in verbosity", with the text scaling some "extraordinarily ludic heights". Article 367, for example, makes it clear that a foreign state "means a State other than India". The text has been amended more than 100 times since 1950.
Born in the aftermath of a bloody partition and independence, and written amid differences over the "religious and national vision" of what India should be, the Constitution is a remarkable document.
In trying to forge a national identity, the draft was debated fiercely and the document wrestled with questions relating to moulding a national identity in one of the world's most ethnically diverse countries. Critics say the Constitution was largely based on western ideas and written by western-educated elites. The preamble itself, according to scholars, was a compromise between a range of groups and interests and borrowed from colonial laws.
Seventy years later, the Constitution appears to be igniting the minds of ordinary Indians in a way not seen and heard of in the recent past.
But many scholars believe the document has always had a deep engagement with Indians. As Rohit De, an assistant professor of history at Yale University, explains in his extraordinary book, A People's Constitution, the document mattered to its citizens, and "constitutional engagement included large number of ordinary Indians, often from minorities or disprivileged groups".
Dr De writes about how thousands of ordinary Indians from all walks of life have invoked the Constitution in the courts ever since Mohammed Yasin, a young Muslim vegetable seller in north India, petitioned the Supreme Court in 1950, saying his rights to trade and an occupation, guaranteed by the document, had been violated by the authorities who had granted a single merchant a monopoly over the local vegetable trade.
But the ongoing engagement is much wider.
"There are two aspects that make the current engagement remarkable: first, its widespread extent, cutting across a range of demographics. In the 50s, particular groups argued that the Constitution protects them, but today diverse demographics make the case for the Constitution protecting everyone. The second, of course, is the profound focus on the preamble as opposed to specific rights," Dr De told me.
The unprecedented reading of the preamble, he says, evokes the pro-Independence civil disobedience protests, when Indians marched, sang songs and recited a pledge of independence challenging British rule. "The protestors argued that power need not be given, but was taken by the people themselves," he says.
Many believe that citizens have taken to the Constitution partly because the Narendra Modi-led ruling Hindu nationalist BJP government has painted almost all opposition to its policies as "anti-national". "By using the constitution, the protestors can continue to assert their patriotism, use national symbols and songs and challenge the discourse of 'anti-nationalism' with constitutional patriotism," Dr De says.
Also, many believe, people are invoking the Constitution to express their displeasure with the "failure of the courts" - especially the Supreme Court - in not being transparent and its "weakening record" on civil liberties.
They say the top court, which has built a reputation for itself as a defender of constitutionalism against the executive, seems to have become muted when facing a government with a huge parliamentary majority like the BJP. "It is this absence of the court as the defender for civil liberty and constitutional processes, that is forcing ordinary citizens to step in and champion the Constitution." says Dr De.
Last month, 40 lawyers gathered in the lawns of the Supreme Court in Delhi and read out the preamble. And the Communist government in the southern state of Kerala announced that it would make the reading of the preamble compulsory during the morning assembly in schools.
"All this is very important and powerful. It aims to engage and articulate what India as a nation means," says Madhav Khosla, legal scholar and author of India's Founding Moment: The Constitution of a Most Surprising Democracy. "I don't think there is any precedence."
Read more from Soutik Biswas:
Follow Soutik on Twitter at @soutikBBC
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Former footballer Paul Gascoigne has denied sexually assaulting a woman on a train from York to Durham. | The former England midfielder was arrested at Durham station in August.
Appearing at Peterlee Magistrates' Court, Mr Gascoigne pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual assault by touching.
Mr Gascoigne, 51, who played for Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Lazio and Rangers, will next appear at Teesside Crown Court on 8 January.
The retired midfielder shot to international fame during the 1990 World Cup.
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Trinity Mirror, the owner of the Mirror newspaper, is to buy local paper publisher Local World in a deal worth £220m, making it the UK's largest regional news outlet. | Trinity Mirror will buy the 80% of Local World it does not already own, and assume its debts.
The deal gives it control of more than 200 titles.
Local World owns 83 print publications including 16 daily titles and 36 weeklies.
Local World was formed from a merger in 2012 of Daily Mail & General Trust's Northcliffe Media, and Iliffe News & Media.
Most of its titles cover the South West and Wales, London and the South East, and the Midlands and the North.
Trinity has also said it will sell some titles in Cambridge and Hertfordshire to Iliffe parent Yattendon Group for £15.8m. Yattendon owned a 21.3% stake in Local World.
More local titles could make the company more attractive to advertisers.
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A coal summit has opened in Warsaw, down the road from UN climate talks. Poland stands accused of thumbing its nose at efforts to cut emissions by encouraging use of the most carbon-intense fuel. The BBC's Matt McGrath examined whether the government's goal of a cleaner future for coal was anything more than a pipe dream. | By Matt McGrathEnvironment correspondent, BBC News, Krakow
In the dense, foggy haze that sits over the ancient city of Krakow, you can barely see the outline of Wavel's famous castle.
Legend has it that a fire breathing dragon lives in the bowels of this fortress, but the mythical beast is not responsible for the smog that now clogs the city. It's the 35,000 households in the central area that use coal for heating.
"This is the situation we face during the entire winter season," said Andrzej Gula, a campaigner for cleaner air in the city as we look down on the grey blanket enveloping his town.
"It's why Krakow is one of the most heavily polluted cities in all of Europe."
The statistics are very worrying, he says. The air is so dirty that every man, woman and child breathes in the equivalent of 2,500 cigarettes every year.
Krakovians are angry about the issue. There have been several demonstrations in the streets calling for action.
"People in Krakow actually hate coal. They know it is the major source of the problem, they are demanding that politicians do something about this," said Mr Gula.
But politicians are reluctant to move forward with a ban.
"The problem is that to change the law you have to go to the regional authority," says journalist Tomasz Ulanowski, who lives in Krakow.
"Those politicians don't live in the city, and they are elected by people who live in mining communities.
"No sane politician would forget about those votes."
The national government is also reluctant to tamper with the role of coal. Poles see it as a national resource, something that could last for 600 years at current rates of extraction. And they are at loggerheads with the European Union over its future.
Poland produces more than 85% of its electricity using coal and says its economy depends on continuing to use it.
As well as economic arguments, Poland is wary of its large neighbour Russia, from which it imports crucial gas supplies. The future security of these imports makes the Poles nervous about moving away from coal.
Last year, the Polish government vetoed EU proposals that would have reduced carbon emissions significantly from 2020 onwards.
Poland argues that coal is not just critical for its future energy needs, it is a substance the developing world is going to use in greater quantities to satisfy the global hunger for energy.
And it can point to projections from the International Energy Agency (IEA) that supports this view. The IEA says that by 2035 coal will still be the dominant source of electricity production throughout the world.
So Poland and others argue that cleaning up coal is the only policy that makes sense.
To that end, and with support from the EU, they've just opened a 45 million-euro clean coal research centre to develop the technologies that will take the carbon dioxide from the black stuff.
In the bustle of the technology hall where several different types of clean coal technologies are being installed, the centre's co-ordinator, Prof Krzysztof Stańczyk, tells me that clean coal is now "the most important topic in energy".
Shale gas was once touted as transforming the future for Poland. But the geology is difficult, and the foreign investors have packed up and left. Coal is the only game in town.
Standing in front of what looks like a space age iron lung, Prof Stańczyk tells me that this reactor is the only one of its type in the world.
It will allow the scientists here to essentially reverse engineer hard coal. The machine will bake it under enormous pressure and at extremely high temperatures and turn it into a gas from which carbon dioxide can be extracted and stored, leaving a clean fuel that can be burned.
"I think it will be a reality in 10 years," said Prof Stańczyk.
"In the EU Commission there is a paradigm change that economy is more important than ecology.
"There can be many different clean coal technologies, but all of them must be safe and environmentally friendly, so if they fulfil these criteria we can make clean coal a reality."
As well as research, Poland is moving ahead with other clean coal projects. An Australian company called Linc Energy says they will open a demonstration plant in 2014 to show the potential for underground coal gasification.
This approach literally burns the coal deep in the ground to produce synthesis gas that can be used for electricity production.
"We get this right and the government signs off on going commercial, we could be making between 10-25% of Poland's gas needs within 3 years", said Peter Bond, Linc Energy's chief executive on a recent visit to Krakow.
The process means very little disturbance on the surface, and coal can be turned into gas 1,000m underground.
Peter Bond firmly believes that coal can continue to be utilised in a cleaner way in order to meet climate goals.
"At the moment, the argument is black and white, you're either for or anti coal - there is no middle ground, but there is middle ground, and UCG is it," he says.
Back in Warsaw, environmental campaigners opposed to the continued use of high carbon fossil fuels marched over the weekend to chants of "keep the coal in the hole".
One protestor told me he didn't believe clean coal would ever be a reality.
"It's dirty," he said.
"Coal just causes suffering everywhere."
Follow Matt on Twitter
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Simple fact. There's no such thing as the perfect mobile phone. | By Iain MackenzieNewsbeat reporter
If there was a handset that spewed out free gold bars, someone would complain that the keyboard was a bit fiddly.
Our mobile preferences are deeply personal. Some people just want to make calls; others like having the world in their pocket.
Microsoft's new Kin handsets are firmly aimed at hyper-connected users, who need to know what everyone they've ever met is doing at any given moment.
But social networking is only one of the must-have features for any new hand held device.
Touch screen
Mobile screens are used as much for input as output nowadays.
Early touch screen phones used "resistive" technology, where the pressure of a finger pressing down makes an electronic connection.
These were often slow to respond, leading to a lot of angry prodding and poking.
Newer "capacitive" screens can work with a hard surface, such as glass.
They respond instantly and feel more satisfying to use.
Many mobiles feature "multi touch" where different functions are performed by using more than one finger.
Apple is involved in several legal disputes over multi touch and pinch-and-zoom, claiming rival phone companies have, literally, pinched its patented technology.
Social networking
Anyone who has used the internet in the last five years will have noticed that social networking is almost as big as porn.
Phone companies think we are so in love with it that we won't want to leave our Facebook, MySpace or Twitter at home.
After all, what's the point in walking to the shop to get a pint of milk if you can't tweet the world, 'Walking to the shop to get a pint of milk?'
Some phones feature dedicated social networking applications that either run in the background or have to be opened to check updates.
Facebook for iPhone is the app store's most popular free download.
Several manufacturers have tried to build their entire phone experience around social networking.
Motorola's Motoblur interface allows users to receive updates and news feeds directly on their home screen.
Microsoft's new Kin system is also billed as a social networking phone.
It features the 'kin spot'; a big green dot where users can drag items they want to share with friends.
Apps
Apple didn't invent the mobile app. Windows Mobile and some Nokia devices have been capable of running other software for years.
However, iPhone popularised the idea of downloading programmes to your mobile.
Apps have, in some respects, changed the way people view handsets.
There is less emphasis on the features included on the phone at launch, as these can be added later.
Mobiles are now viewed as a platform - like a computer.
How much memory does it have? How fast is the processor? How big is the screen?
One of the big debates around apps is how they are distributed.
"Closed" systems, such as the iPhone, require apps to be downloaded through Apple's own store. The company can choose to reject some content.
The alternative is an open system, like Google's Android which allows users to download programmes directly from the developers.
Banned stuff
As people get used to smart phones and what they can do, they are starting to compare the different systems.
They are realising some mobiles offer features that others don't.
Apple's refusal to allow Flash video and animation on the iPhone is a subject of great debate in the technology world.
It means many popular video websites won't work on the device.
Another controversial area is Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) applications such as Skype and Google Voice.
Some network operators bar their customers from using alternative systems for making calls.
Apple allows Skype over WiFi, but not using the 3G mobile data connection.
Google Voice runs on Android, but is banned from the iPhone.
It may be, in the near future, that phone users stop basing their mobile choice on the handset altogether, and instead, go for the gadget that best handles their favourite apps.
Perfect phone?
Mobile manufacturers are working furiously to refine their technologies, especially in the highly competitive smart phone market.
At the moment, all the main players have strengths and weaknesses.
However, the iPhone continues to enjoy an iconic position, even if it is not yet the biggest-selling handset.
Its competitors will continue to look for new ways to steal its limelight.
One obvious area for innovation is video calling over the mobile internet, where there has so far been very little movement.
There are some major launches on the way that will further shake-up the mobile business.
Summer 2010 - iPhone OS version 4.0 expected. Introducing multi-tasking (running more than one app at once) on the 3GS. Possible new iPhone handset.
2010 - New updates to the Google Android operating system, code named FroYo and Gingerbread. Few details at the moment. Android platform is likely to benefit from rapid growth in the number of apps, after lagging behind Apple.
Christmas 2010 - Release of Windows Phone 7, the next generation of Windows Mobile. Microsoft's new-look system integrates Xbox Live and the Zune music player.
Symbian, the system used on some Nokia phones, will go open source - meaning developers are free to mess with, tweak, and play around with the operating system.
It's hoped this will lead to fresh, new software and put Nokia back in the smart phone game.
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"Long live the Pope, long live the Pope!" | By Caroline WyattReligious affairs correspondent, BBC News
The crowd was small, but passionate. The Catholic faithful here are few.
A mix of young and old, though, were waiting for the Pope to arrive at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Istanbul.
It is tucked behind a discreet doorway on a main road, and the pavement was sealed off behind a temporary security barrier.
Attendance at the special mass with Pope Francis was by invitation only.
When the Pope arrived at last, they gave him a rock star's welcome; youngsters desperately holding up their mobile phones to take selfies with the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics.
The 77-year old Pontiff did not disappoint; he seemed energized by the cheers, smiling broadly as he was mobbed by his small Turkish flock.
Elsewhere in Turkey, though, there was little interest in his visit: no surprise in a nation of 77 million people that is now some 99% Muslim.
Its Christian minority was around 20% a century ago, but is down to well under 1%, or 80,000 people in total, while Turkey's Jews number just 17,000.
Key visit
This was nonetheless a key visit for the Pope, thanks to Turkey's importance as a majority Muslim nation that bridges two continents, looking both east and west.
It is also a NATO member deeply affected by the conflict on its borders, in Iraq and Syria.
Turkey now hosts over 1.6 million refugees fleeing the violence of the so-called Islamic State, the Sunni extremist group that has sought to rid the territory it takes of religious minorities, including Christians and Yazidis, as well as Shia Muslims.
In seeking to build bridges between Christianity and Islam, as well as with the Orthodox Church on his trip, this Pope proved more sure-footed than his predecessor, Pope Benedict, who walked into a diplomatic storm here over his attitude towards Islam during his visit to Turkey in 2006.
However, even though Pope Francis did not put a foot wrong diplomatically, this trip proved that building bridges with Islam, even in a secular state such as Turkey, is not easy.
As the Pope arrived at President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's sprawling new palace in Ankara, no mention was made of Mr Erdogan's speech just days before the visit.
The politician, from the Islamist-leaning Justice and Development (AK) party, had reportedly told an audience at an economic Islamic conference that: "Those who come from outside (the Islamic world) love oil, gold, diamonds and the cheap labour force of the Islamic world. They like the conflicts, fights and quarrels of the Middle East.
"Believe me, they don't like us. They look like friends, but they want us dead. They like seeing our children die."
West blamed
The Turkish president did make clear in person to the Pope on Friday that he blamed the West for the rise of Islamic State (IS).
President Erdogan said extremist groups such as IS were a consequence of the "serious and rapid rise of Islamophobia" in the West, warning that the sense of "rejection" among Europe's Muslims was one of the factors behind the radicalization of young men joining violent groups.
"Those who feel defeated, wronged, oppressed and abandoned ... can become open to being exploited by terror organizations," according to the Turkish leader.
For his part, the Pope spoke of poverty being one of the drivers of radicalization, but said he believed Christians and Muslims must work together to defeat the extremists' violence, to ensure Christianity was not driven from its birthplace in the Middle East.
Later, speaking to reporters on the plane as he returned home, the Pope said that he had told President Erdogan that it would be "wonderful" if all the Muslim leaders of the world - political, religious and academic - spoke up clearly and condemned the violence being carried out in the name of Islam.
Pope Francis said that would help the majority of Muslims, who were offended by the stereotype equating Islam with terrorism, because most would say that the Koran was a book of peace.
On this trip, the Pope himself spoke out with real passion against the killings and displacement of Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities in the Middle East.
Christian reconciliation
In that, he found a closer ally in Patriarch Bartholomew - the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church - whom some say is becoming a real friend, in a relationship that may ultimately help to heal the almost thousand year schism between these two main branches of Christianity that began here in what was Constantinople in 1054.
The Pope and the Patriarch issued a joint condemnation of the violence against Christians and others in the Middle East, and called for a constructive dialogue between Christianity and Islam based on mutual respect, saying people of all faiths could not remain indifferent to the suffering in Iraq and Syria.
"I think what he wants is an alliance of the faiths, of peace against terrorism and to give encouragement to Christians across the Middle East who are suffering, and in Turkey where there's a tiny beleaguered Christian population," says Austen Ivereigh, author of the biography, "The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope."
"Pope Francis is a master bridge-builder and he's great at building relationships across the divides of faith, of politics and of culture, and I think what he wanted to do on this visit - and as Pope - is to construct those alliances, and build a new kind of a civilization in which we respect each others' differences and are all able to take part equally in society, in peace."
Ivereigh notes that as Bishop of Buenos Aires, the then Jorge Bergoglio built genuine friendships with Jewish and Muslim leaders, as well as with other Christians.
"Those were deep relationships, which paid off particularly in moments of crisis," says Ivereigh.
"I think here he is again building relationships that are really loving, trusting relationships which, as the situation in the Middle East gets more tense, can be drawn on for the sake of peace.
"Action, not words - that's what the Pope is after."
Inter-faith relations
At one Catholic church in the centre of Istanbul, which bears a poster of the Pope and the Patriarch, the congregation is reluctant to speak to journalists.
The priest explains that some are converts from Islam, while others worry about discrimination.
So what are relations like between Turkey's majority Muslims and its religious minorities?
"There is no problem in terms of practicing their religion, but there is historical baggage by which some religious activity is perceived to be suspicious," says Prof Dr Ilter Turan, emeritus professor of international relations at Bilgi University in Istanbul.
"Missionary activity was responsible for some of the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, which means the government looks with suspicion on proselytizing.
"I don't think it's so much that Christians in Turkey are under threat as feeling that they are marginal to society.
"It's only recently that the native Christian populations have begun once again to aspire to holding public office.
"At the late stages of the Ottoman Empire, that was normal and that only began to change after the First World War. So it seems that we are back to a period of restoration."
Refugee tensions
Of far greater concern to Turks, he says, is what is happening to the country as a result of the number of refugees coming in.
"Turkey is trying to cope, with a lot of effort and sacrifice, and unfortunately I think the international community is more generous in offering wisdom than offering support," he says.
The professor also believes that many in Turkey will support Mr Erdogan giving the Pope his views on Islamophobia in Europe.
"One must also examine how Muslims are treated in host societies in Europe, and in almost all (European) societies, the construction of a mosque becomes a major political issue, and is sometimes not allowed.
"And in many western societies, there is a rather strong anti-Islamic streak that is becoming more manifest as nationalistic parties receive more support there."
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President Joe Biden has made reforming US immigration policy one of his top priorities. On Friday he will flesh out his plan. | It comes after four years in which his predecessor Donald Trump pushed hard to curb the flow of illegal immigration into the country.
Mr Biden is already reversing and rolling back several Trump-era policies, including freezing construction of the border wall and revoking the policy to separate migrant families crossing the border.
He also plans to offer an eight-year pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the country.
We asked members of our BBC voter panel to weigh in on these actions. Here's what they said:
Amira lives in the border town of El Paso. Like many of her friends, she has felt the direct impact of recent US immigration policy: in 2016, her father was deported back to Mexico.
Do you approve of President Biden halting construction of the border wall?
Finally! When Trump disclosed his plans for the border wall, I thought it was pointless. It stood for a system of white supremacy. It was a statue for Trump. I'm glad that Biden is stopping construction. I know what it's like to grow up in a border city, with Juarez, Mexico, a few feet away. We are a proud Mexican city and we try to exemplify that in our culture and customs. The rhetoric divided people. There's a fence, but there was no need for a wall. A lot of my friends - Mexicans and Mexican Americans - said they'd just get a ladder and climb over it. A wall wasn't going to stop people looking for better opportunities.
Do you approve of the Biden administration retracting the 'zero tolerance' separation policy?
I'm glad that's finally halted and it was much needed. Here in El Paso, a lot of us protested against the separation of families. Travelling to a different country and being forcibly separated has to be the worst experience. I can't even imagine what these migrants are dealing with. I have a couple of friends who were born in the United States but whose families were deported, so I've seen firsthand their struggle of waking up every morning and crossing the border to go to school.
Do you approve of the Biden proposal that creates a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented?
I did not know he was going to do that, but I think it's great. I have friends who aren't able to go to school because of their citizenship and it takes years to get a green card or student visa. It took my grandmother 11 or 12 years to get her green card. So it is fantastic that the process is now going to be sped up.
Gabriel is a second-generation Ecuadorian American and a 'Latino for Trump'. He is not a fan of President Biden's proposals on immigration and fears there is an ulterior motive behind them.
Do you approve of President Biden halting construction of the border wall?
I'm not a fan of that. We were working towards having stronger border security and ensuring sovereignty for the US and our neighbours. When you deter people from coming, they'll find better approaches rather than paying out to coyotes [smugglers]. When I was a Democrat, I was a strong believer in open borders, but looking at the legality of things, it isn't fair. People have been waiting for years to get in legally, so they can prosper without fear of deportation or being sent away. It's put in place so that you don't have to rely on people that can potentially ruin your life, like the traffickers and the cartels. People are still coming here because they see opportunity. I find it very important that we not only recognise that but ensure that, when we send people back, they understand what they did wrong. They can't fix their country of origin by coming here and sending money back because it will just encourage more people to do the same.
Do you approve of the Biden administration retracting the 'zero tolerance' separation policy?
From an altruistic and strictly human perspective, I can understand and feel for people who are nervous, worried or scared. From a legal perspective, people know they run that risk every day when they don't take the necessary steps. Those rules are our rules. It's a very sad thing to know you can leave your family to make a new life and - in the blink of an eye - you can be caught and separated from those people, in a completely strange place, potentially not speaking the language and not knowing what'll happen to you. Do I think that it is necessarily the right thing? No, I would like to see the families at least have each other. I'm not a fan of the separation, but I can also understand why it was a deterrent.
Do you approve of the Biden proposal that creates a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented?
There certainly needs to be a thorough vetting process. As much as I can be upset about it, I think it'll pass through the House and potentially the Senate, but I cannot emphasise enough how much people need to be vetted for what ties they might have and to whom. It's not wrong to want to know who you have in your country and in your neighbourhood. The people who live around somebody I know are MS-13 gang members and they were going to kill a person in her front yard, and they were not illegal. This is not indicative of all immigrants by any means, but I've seen what people do when they do not have their papers. There needs to be measures taken against people who are trying to make a decent life here versus people who are actively breaking the law and taking advantage of our system.
Bessy was born in Honduras but migrated to the US legally as a child. She feels fortunate to be here but sympathises with the plight of the millions denied entry at the border.
Do you approve of President Biden halting construction of the border wall?
I'm happy to hear it. I always thought the border project was one of those promises Trump made just to appease his base. I never thought there was any real purpose considering that most people in the US illegally overstayed visas. With so many other issues, it was stupid for them to be funnelling so much money into a racist vanity project. I always said, if I wasn't in the US now, I could see myself being young and willing to cross the border. I was just lucky.
Do you approve of the Biden administration retracting the 'zero tolerance' separation policy?
I'm happy Biden did that. I thought it was one of the cruellest and darkest chapters of the Trump administration. For people that prided themselves on being so pro-life to rejoice over literally separating children from their parents was so barbaric. Those detention centres were borderline concentration camps. I had a cousin in one of them and he said it was awful. He was sick for weeks and got no medical attention. He was crammed in a room with 20 men. It took ages for us to even track him down and we only found him by sheer luck. If we spent weeks trying to find him - a man in his 20s - I can't imagine what it must be like to be alone as a child.
Do you approve of the Biden proposal that creates a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented?
I think it's great. A lot of these undocumented immigrants are already paying taxes, so I really don't see a problem with giving them papers and allowing them to to work and contribute to the economy. A lot of people have been here for years, they haven't done anything wrong and they've been honest, hard-working people. Undocumented immigrants are doing jobs like harvesting food and cleaning houses, jobs that no one wants to do. My mother came to this country - although legally - and did not speak any English, but 25 years later, she owns a massive housekeeping company. That's the American Dream. Immigrants make this country great. And I would imagine there's some kind of due process. If someone's committed a crime or some kind of felony, they shouldn't be allowed, but if someone has no criminal record other than illegally crossing the border, I think they deserve to stay.
An Iranian migrant, Rom was a strong supporter of the Trump administration's immigration policies. He says the policy changes under Biden will only encourage more illegal immigration.
Do you approve of President Biden halting construction of the border wall?
I'm against President Biden doing that. I think a wall is effective and I was all for President Trump building it. I forget what the budget estimate was for the wall, but it was a spit in the ocean when you look at the trillions in federal budget outlays. I was disappointed in the lack of progress but that's only because Democrats were trying to hobble that effort every step of the way. There's talk of high-tech alarms and drones, but at the end of the day, a physical wall stops people or slows them down. The classic example is politicians like Nancy Pelosi, who's got this wall around her compound in the middle of San Francisco. If walls didn't work, why do they have walls built around their homes?
Do you approve of the Biden administration retracting the 'zero tolerance' separation policy?
I viewed family separation as being unfortunate, but my personal perspective is that parents who bring their kids across the border put them at risk. Because they are dependent on coyotes [smugglers]. When the US government separates them for whatever reason, somehow the US is the bad guy. Where's the parents' responsibility in all of this? I understand the need to provide a better life for their children. I get it, but I don't have a lot of empathy or sympathy for that situation. At least they should be thankful they're being well fed and cared for, it's not like the kids are being tossed out into the wild. To be honest, I wasn't even aware of it under President Obama; I don't remember hearing about it and he got a free pass.
Do you approve of the Biden proposal that creates a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented?
If I knew this was going to be the last bite at the apple, I would support it, to lay this issue to rest once and for all. However, I know from past history that this will not be the last bite. A similar amnesty-type program was issued around 1986 when President Reagan was in office and I remember all the politicians who signed on said let's clear the air and be done with it. And then it just built up again over the next 30-35 years, and here we are again. Where's the end of the line? If President Biden would say this is absolutely the last time we're doing it and we're going to make sure this can't be done again, I'd be all for it. But it's not going to happen and my fear is we are going to end up in a situation where we have open borders.
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Scotland may face a choice between two unions following the Brexit vote, having endorsed membership of both the UK and the EU in recent referendums. Having travelled to Brussels, BBC Scotland's political correspondent Glenn Campbell analyses the options open to Scotland. | By Glenn CampbellPolitical correspondent, BBC Scotland
It was an extraordinary scene.
MEPs from left, right and centre rose to their feet and applauded.
The standing ovation was for the Scottish National Party MEP Alyn Smith.
He had just argued that by voting remain, Scotland had not let the EU down.
And he appealed to his colleagues in the European Parliament: "Do not let Scotland down now".
At that moment it was clear that Mr Smith's boss, Nicola Sturgeon, would receive a sympathetic hearing in Brussels.
Hostility to SNP independence ambitions from some key EU figures like Jose Manuel Barosso was a feature of the 2014 referendum.
But as one high-ranking official in the European Commission put it to me "the emotional response has changed" following the Brexit vote.
Now, a change in mood is not the same as a change in policy and there is no guarantee that one will follow the other.
No one is promising Scotland a special deal with the EU, whether as part of the UK or as an independent country.
The former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt has suggested Scotland should be allowed to stay in the EU but that would be for member states to decide.
They are well aware of the distinctive approach the Scottish government is taking.
'Impressive access'
Ireland's prime minister, Enda Kenny, put Nicola Sturgeon's case to all EU leaders, including David Cameron at the European Council summit.
The first minister has been able to speak directly with other important EU figures including the European Parliament president, Martin Schulz and the president of the EU commission, Jean-Claude Juncker.
The European Council president, Donald Tusk - who chaired the summit - decided it would not be appropriate to meet the first minister at this point.
Otherwise, the access she has had is impressive.
As president Juncker put it: "Scotland has earned the right to be heard in Brussels".
Nicola Sturgeon has repeatedly said she wants to look at all options to preserve Scotland's relationship with the EU, including access to the single market.
But it's not clear what these options are. At this stage, there appear to be three broad areas of possibility.
Option 1 - the UK deal
If the new UK prime minister triggers the withdrawal process, a new relationship between the UK (including Scotland) and the EU will also need to be negotiated.
David Cameron has promised the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be involved in this process. The UK could potentially seek concessions for Scotland.
We simply don't know what form any new UK-EU deal would take and whether or not it would include access to the single market.
If it does, the German chancellor Angela Merkel is among those who has made clear the UK would need to continue to accept the free movement of people.
That could be difficult for a Brexit supporting prime minister to agree. But not all the candidates were part of the Leave campaign.
Option 2 - a special arrangement
Some have argued that the UK could withdraw from the EU, whilst allowing parts of its territory such as Scotland and Gibraltar to remain.
This is sometimes called the "reverse Greenland" option because Denmark was able to retain its EU status when part of its territory - Greenland - withdrew.
It's not clear how this would work in practice if Scotland also stayed in the UK.
Such an arrangement would raise questions about Scotland's use of Sterling as its currency and its access to the UK's single market and travel area.
Issues that would also need to be addressed with Scottish independence.
Spain's acting prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, seemed to be attempting to close down this option when he said: "if the UK leaves, Scotland leaves".
Spain is worried about accommodating Scotland in any way that might give encouragement to those seeking greater autonomy for Catalonia.
Option 3 - independence
Nicola Sturgeon has made clear that revisiting the question of Scottish independence is another possibility. Indeed, she has said a second referendum is "highly likely".
She wants the option to call the vote during the Brexit negotiations, in the hope that a "Yes" vote would result in continued EU membership, rather than Scotland having to apply from outside.
It's not clear how the EU would deal with such an unprecedented set of circumstances.
As ever, it would be for member states to decide.
They can be very creative, as they were when Germany reunified and the former East Germany automatically became part of the EU.
If a country like Spain was reluctant to agree a special process for Scotland it would have to weigh that against other interests such as access to Scottish fishing waters.
Nicola Sturgeon has said independence may turn out to be the "only way" to secure Scotland's EU relationship but that she is open-minded to alternatives.
She is unlikely to make a decision on indyref2 without knowing more about the UK's proposed relationship with the EU and what other options, if any, are available.
The SNP has previously indicated there would only be a second referendum if public support for independence was clear.
What is apparent is that the proposition would be very different to 2014. Keeping the UK and the EU would not be an option.
With Brexit, Scottish independence becomes a choice between two unions - the UK and the EU.
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The war in Yemen had been going on for just two months when Abdullah al-Ibbi sat down for a late-night meal with his two wives, their children and grandchildren. It was then, in an instant, that his world shattered. | By Sumaya BakhshBBC Monitoring
The air strike that hit Abdullah's home killed 27 members of his family. He survived, but only learnt about their deaths six weeks later when he woke up in a hospital bed.
"If I didn't fear God, I would have committed suicide at that moment," he recalls. "I would have jumped off a building... but God gave me patience."
The family had lived in the Houthi rebel stronghold of Saada, which has come under intense aerial bombardment by the Saudi-led coalition supporting the exiled President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.
The air strike hit their home at around midnight, says Abdullah. Rescuers with bulldozers worked until morning to retrieve the bodies buried under the rubble. Seventeen were children - the youngest, Abdullah's granddaughter, Inas, was one month old.
Three of his adult sons also made it out alive.
Since the war in Yemen began early last year, civilians have paid a heavy price, with more than 4,000 killed, the vast majority by Saudi-led air strikes alone, according to the UN.
Surviving on memories
Abdullah spends most of his time alone now, in the room in a local mosque where he lives. He looks forward to visits from his sons, who live elsewhere in the city.
The nights are particularly difficult. Abdullah sustained injuries to his head, spine and jaw and needs treatment that is not available in Saada, but it is not just the physical pain that keeps him awake.
He is haunted by the memories of the life he had. "Sometimes I sleep two, three hours and then I wake up and stay up until morning... I remember my children and my home," he says.
"Our lives were humble but it was a quiet life, a good life, we were happy... we lost everything."
Abdullah had grown up in the central province of Ibb and later moved to Saada, opening two barber shops where he and his sons worked. "I struggled and worked over the years and built our home brick-by-brick," he said.
Hope for future
In the 18 months since the tragedy, despite numerous interviews and visits from representatives of various organisations, Abdullah's remaining family have received no financial support.
They have been left in debt, after they were forced to borrow money to pay for medical treatment for Abdullah's son, Yunus.
Yunus spent six months in hospital, having suffered heavy shrapnel wounds and the loss of one eye.
"I want to give my sons their lives back. I want to see them settled in their own homes," says Abdullah.
He is distraught as he names his youngest children - Ismail, Ibrahim, Ishaaq and Yaaqoub - who were always at his side.
But the recent birth of his grandson has brought Abdullah joy in the midst of his unfathomable loss.
His son, Ayman, has named his baby boy Ismail, in memory of his youngest brother, who was two years old when he was killed.
Abdullah describes seeing Ismail for the first time: "I felt like I'd been given the world... I felt that God had compensated us for what we've lost."
He says his hope is that Ismail will not see what his family has witnessed. "I hope he doesn't see this humiliation and war... I hope he has a better future."
BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.
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A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and dangerous driving after a cyclist was hurt in a crash with a car. | Humberside Police said a car followed the cyclist from Acton Close to Bellfield Avenue in Hull prior to the collision on Fortune Close shortly after midnight.
The victim suffered minor injuries in the crash.
Officers have appealed for any witnesses to come forward.
Related Internet Links
Humberside Police
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Two people have been found dead in a house in Nottinghamshire. | The 57-year-old man and 39-year-old woman, who were known to each other, were found in Porchester Road in Bingham at 15:40 GMT on Wednesday.
Post-mortem examinations are due to take place later to establish a cause of death.
Nottinghamshire Police said it was not looking for anyone else in connection with the deaths, which it described as an "isolated incident".
Det Ch Insp Rob Routledge said: "We are aware that Bingham is a small community and this incident will have an impact on its residents."
Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].
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It was an audacious double-cross that fooled the Nazis and shortened World War II. Now a document, here published for the first time, reveals the crucial role played by Britain's code-breaking experts in the 1944 invasion of France.
| By Jon KellyBBC News Magazine
All the ingredients of a gripping spy thriller are there - intrigue, espionage, lies and black propaganda.
An elaborate British wartime plot succeeded in convincing Hitler that the Allies were about to stage the bulk of the D-Day landings in Pas de Calais rather than on the Normandy coast - a diversion that proved crucial in guaranteeing the invasion's success.
An intercepted memo - which has only now come to light - picked up by British agents and decoded by experts at Bletchley Park - the decryption centre depicted in the film Enigma - revealed that German intelligence had fallen for the ruse.
The crucial message was sent after the D-Day landings had started, but let the Allies know the Germans had bought into their deception and believed the main invasion would be near Calais.
It was an insight that saved countless Allied lives and arguably hastened the end of the war.
Now archivists at the site of the code-breaking centre hope that a new project to digitise and put online millions of documents, using equipment donated by electronics company Hewlett-Packard, will uncover further glimpses into its extraordinary past.
Behind the story of this crucial message and its global impact lies Juan Pujol Garcia, an unassuming-looking Spanish businessman who was, in fact, one of the war's most effective double agents.
The Nazis believed Pujol, whom they code named Alaric Arabel, was one of their prize assets, running a network of spies in the UK and feeding crucial information to Berlin via his handler in Madrid.
In fact, the Spaniard was working for British intelligence, who referred to him as Garbo. Almost the entirety of his elaborate web of informants was fictitious and the reports he sent back to Germany were designed, ultimately, to mislead.
But agent Garbo was so completely trusted at the top level of the Nazi high command that he was honoured for his services to Germany, with the approval of Hitler himself, making him one of the few people to be given both the Iron Cross and the MBE for his WWII exploits.
"He was no James Bond - he was a balding, boring, unsmiling little man," says Amyas Godfrey, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.
"But he had the Germans completely fooled. They thought the information he was sending was so accurate."
To maintain his cover, much of what Garbo fed the Germans was absolutely genuine. But when it came to the looming Allied invasion of France, his "intelligence" was anything but.
Ahead of D-Day, the British launched Operation Fortitude, a plot to confound the Nazis about the location of the landings. Garbo was an integral part of the plan.
To establish his credibility, he sent advance warning ahead of the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 - but too late for the Germans to act on it.
Then, in the days afterwards, he fed them entirely fictitious intelligence from his fake "agents" that the invasion had been a red herring and "critical attacks" would follow elsewhere - most likely down the coast in Pas de Calais. He also reported, again falsely, that 75 divisions had been massed in England before D-Day, meaning that many more were still to land in France.
It was an account the Nazis took extremely seriously. As can be seen in the document reproduced by the BBC, it was transmitted to their high command by Garbo's German handler.
As a result, German troops were kept in the Calais area in case of an assault, preventing them from offering their fullest possible defence to Normandy.
But what truly gave the Allies the edge was the fact that they knew the Nazis had been duped.
Unknown to Berlin, the Germans' seemingly foolproof Enigma code for secret messages had been cracked by Polish code breakers.
In Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, some 10,000 men and women were employed deciphering the messages. And when the document above was cracked, the Allies knew they could press forward in the confidence that thousands of German troops would be tied up vainly standing guard at Calais.
"The whole of the 20th Century might have been very different if it wasn't for this," says Kelsey Griffin, Bletchley Park's director of museum operations.
"Churchill's official biographer, Martin Gilbert, said it was difficult to imagine how the D-Day landings could have happened without Bletchley Park.
"We had an army of unarmed intellectuals here."
The intercepted document - in its original, freshly-released, German language version - is all the more extraordinary for having been found by volunteers digging through Bletchley Park's archives.
One of them, retired civil servant Peter Wescombe, 79, recalls the excitement of realising its significance for the first time.
"It was like turning up a crock of gold," he remembers. "It was absolutely wonderful."
It is a find archivists at the site, run by the Bletchley Park Trust, hope will be repeated after HP donated scanners and experts to provide technical expertise to the digitisation project.
Many of the records at the centre have not been touched for years, and the charity hopes that by putting them online in a searchable format they can "crowdsource" the expertise of historians and amateurs alike.
And surely then many more real-life tales of deception, double-crosses and painstaking effort will emerge.
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Sitting on a fifth of the world's oil reserves, Saudi Arabia has seen a rapid transformation from desert to developed economy. But despite the modernisation of Riyadh, Saudi society is ruled by conservatism and tradition. | By Katy WatsonMiddle East business reporter, BBC News
Women are banned from driving in the kingdom - despite protests last year by activists hoping to force change - and they need permission from a close male relative to be able to do simple things like travel or work.
But it is the workplace that is becoming the leading edge of change. Last year, King Abdullah, who is seen as a cautious reformist when it comes to women's rights, ordered that no longer would women have to buy underwear from male shop assistants - lingerie shops would be staffed by women. Jewellery shops and those selling abayas - the long black robes that women have to wear in the kingdom - will also go through the same process of hiring women.
These are seen as huge leaps forward for the ultra-conservative kingdom. Despite the fact that it spends heavily on educating both men and women - 60% of those who graduate from Saudi's universities are female - only 17% of women are actually in the job market. That compares with 75% of men.
Legal battle
26-year-old Jamila's friends and family call her a pioneer - she was one of the first women to study law at her university. When she started her degree, she knew her career options were limited because female lawyers were not allowed to plead cases in court - but she has been encouraged by a recent announcement that will soon allow her to practise law on an equal footing to men.
"I just thought it would be an amazing thing to be a part of something that I could change," she says. "It was hard at first, everyone was against us, everyone was criticizing us saying that 'you guys are just wasting your time, this isn't something that's going to help you in the future. I guess we just proved them wrong."
The move has also been welcomed by law firms in the kingdom. But to comply with the law, they need to have separate offices for women - and that means finding the space - and the money - to build segregated areas. Despite the costs, women in Saudi are in demand and seen as hard-working - and of course, it can bring in more business.
"For a woman who's perhaps the chief financial officer of the family business here in the kingdom, it's a business opportunity for us as well," says Kevin Connor, partner at international law firm Squire Sanders in Riyadh. "At the same time, a rising tide lifts all boats, so it's a win-win situation."
Unlikely feminist
The barriers to women working in public spaces led to one unlikely feminist. Khalid AlKhudair set up Glowork, the kingdom's first all-women's online recruitment company, after he watched his sister struggle to find a job because she could not meet prospective employers easily in public places. Now, he's working with the government to get more women into work but admits that a MAN championing a women's cause has made change easier.
"I don't think it would have been taken as seriously as I have been taken," he says. "When you're defending their rights, people will stand up and say 'This guy - what is he talking about, there must be something there'."
Nevertheless, there are those in his office - which is staffed entirely by women - who feel more change needs to be made.
"Most Saudi ladies here need encouragement - there are lots of limitations," says Shahad Al Saud, one of the interns at Glowork. "Most families are not willing to let the women work. It's out of the question. And the other thing is, our society's holding on to traditions. I'm with sticking to traditions and your religion but you can work while holding on to your traditions."
'Daughters of society'
Jamila who now works as a full-time lawyer in the capital, is certainly smiling about her new career options. But she does not want it to stop there.
"I don't think a country will improve if only one gender accelerates in society while the other just stays as it is," she says. "My father's excited, my brothers are excited, my uncles are happy. We're the sisters, we're the mothers, we're the daughters of society - we're becoming how we should be. I just hope we're given more chances that we're up to everything we say we are."
For every Jamila, there are far more women who remain outside the workforce. The government is introducing reforms - but slowly.
Equality here is still a long way off.
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A 16-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man have been arrested in connection with a "serious assault" which saw two older men suffer suspected stab wounds. | Staffordshire Police made the arrests after they were called to Minton Street, Wolstanton, Newcastle-under-Lyme at about 02:20 BST on Saturday.
Two men, aged 20 and 50, were injured during the incident.
The suspects are being questioned and and investigation into what happened is under way.
The 19-year-old from Newcastle-under-Lyme was arrested on suspicion of assault, grievous bodily harm with intent and affray. The 16-year-old from Stoke-on-Trent was arrested on suspicion of assault, actual bodily harm and affray.
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MPs will get a 1.8% pay rise for 2018-19, taking their overall salary to £77,379 from 1 April, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority said. | The salary for chairmen of Commons select committees will also increase by 1.8% to £15,509, which is added to their basic salary for being an MP.
It is a bigger increase on the 1.4% pay rise MPs got last year.
IPSA says it is in line with its policy of adjusting MPs' pay at the same rate as changes in the public sector wages.
Members of the Scottish Parliament were given a 0.6% pay rise to £62,149 a year in December.
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A woman in her 20s was raped near to public toilets in a park, police have said. | Dorset Police said she was attacked in Bournemouth Lower Gardens.
It took place in the early hours of Saturday and a cordon has been set up while the area is examined.
Det Insp Christijan Boyle said police want to speak to a man who rode past the scene on a bike at about 01:50 BST who "may have important information".
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Dorset Police
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Europe was about to tear itself apart, but Londoners in 1914 were more preoccupied with the overcrowding on the Tube and a profanity uttered in a new West End play. | By Emma Jane KirbyBBC News
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A zoomable version of this map is available on the desktop site
Explore the 1914 Wonderground Underground map
Just outside St Paul's, the Tube train hiccoughs twice, then stops. The bearded man in painter's overalls squashed beside me asks rhetorically why we should pay such ludicrous ticket prices for such a geriatric transport network? A flood of complaints echoes him: "London's going to the dogs!"
Suddenly, there's a bellow of laughter and the bearded man points at the priority seat for the elderly and disabled. In the round typeface, synonymous with the London Underground, someone has replaced the sticker with one of his own.
"Priority seat for persons with gonorrhoea and genital herpes," it reads.
A raucous cheer breaks out and a round of applause. "You gotta laugh," winks the bearded man. "I mean, at least we can still laugh, eh?"
Let's ease the train backwards… While everyone is still chortling together in a newfound spirit of camaraderie, let's glide the carriage back through the tunnel, back 100 years or so.
Can you feel the carriage air getting even tighter in and closer? I'm sorry there's no seat for you, but it's rush hour and at least 70 grumbling commuters are squashed in what's commonly termed the "padded cell". You can only tell you've arrived at the station because the guard is shouting the station's name. "Post Office! Post Office!" Almost a quarter of a century will have to pass before you can get off at the station we know as St Paul's again.
Two-and-a-half miles to the west, at the London Underground's Electric Railway headquarters in Victoria, the network's newly appointed commercial director, Frank Pick, is perhaps leafing through the complaints letters on his desk. Passengers are moaning about unpunctuality, about overcrowding, about confusion and dirt. The Tube, crammed on workdays (some 400,000 people now work in the heart of the city) is virtually empty at weekends and holidays and the company is fast losing money and public support. What we need, thinks Pick, is stronger branding.
He's already commissioned a calligrapher, Edward Johnston, to create an iconic typeface for the Tube―the Johnston Sans lettering still spells out London's Tube stations today. But now Pick wants some eye-catching posters, distinct from general advertisement bills, that will make Londoners of all social classes proud to journey around their city and visit its attractions. An Eric Gill who helped Johnston develop the typeface has a younger brother Macdonald, known as Max, who's an architect and designer. Pick visits him and explains his vision.
"And Max," he adds, "We've got to make those commuters laugh!"
Macdonald Gill's primary coloured Wonderground map was published early in 1914 and was hung at every station. A mixture of cartoon, fantasy, and topological accuracy, it was an instant hit with the travelling public.
He silences critics by writing disdainfully in one corner, "Scale of six inches to one mile―can't you read?" It became the first London Underground poster to be sold commercially for homes and offices.
1914 London, with its population of seven million, was the capital of the largest empire the world had ever seen. Gill reminds commuters of its grandeur with a sign pointing off the eastern edge of the map boasting: "This is the way to Victoria Park, Wanstead Flats, Harwich, Russia and other villages."
Listen to the story behind the Wonderground map, as told by Macdonald Gill's nephew Andrew Johnston. (Not available on mobiles)
London is presented as a medieval walled town, with a curved horizon like the medieval world map's enclosing circle, all bound by a decorative border in which heraldic coats of arms give a sense of London's great history and heritage. Yet, drawn in the vibrant colours of the Fauvists, it captured the mood of a busy, bustling contemporary London going about its business. Just as today's smartphone users are distracted by the presence of wi-fi at Tube stations, so the passengers of 1914 were absorbed by the Lilliputian minutiae of the map―they repeatedly missed trains as they gawped at the figurines' quips and guffawed at the contemporary jokes.
Jibes such as the one aimed at the French pilot depicted hovering in an upside down plane over London asking passing birds whether they'd looped the loop yet. In the autumn of 1913, Le Roi du Ciel, Adolphe Pegoud, had performed that first aerial stunt at Brooklands airfield on London's outskirts before a crowd of 50,000 people. Upon landing safely, the moustachioed little Frenchman had brushed away awe-struck British reporters with a nonchalant Gallic wave of his hand saying, "Head up, head down―it's all the same to me!"
Down at the Kennington Oval, a proud cricketer swings his bat and asks, "How's this for a six?" - a patriotic in-joke as England was celebrating winning an away series against South Africa, with the great Jack Hobbs being the talk of the town. There were visual jokes too for London's youth - at Regent's Park Zoo a prehistoric-looking bird eats a child through the bars of its cage as the child laments, "And I promised mother I'd be home for tea by five!"
Most of Max's characters' speech bubbles are written in 1914 Cockney - "Are you sure them gas tubs is full, Bernard?" calls one worker to another. "Nothink like wortur for a chainge Bill," says a man as he dives into a reservoir.
Accent, class and social mobility were major preoccupations of 1914 London. The new poet laureate, Robert Bridges, had temporarily ceased to pen poetry and was instead concentrating on writing A Tract on the Present State of English Pronunciation. His pamphlet attacked what he called "the corrupted vowels….of London vulgarity". He feared the "clipped and slovenly London jargon" would overwhelm the "older tradition"―and founded The Society for Pure English.
But even that couldn't keep out Eliza Doolittle.
On 11 April 1914, at His Majesty's Theatre - which Max would draw the following year in his subsequent Tube map Theatreland - Mrs Patrick Campbell waited in the wings for the curtain to go up on George Bernard Shaw's new play, Pygmalion. She would play the common little flower girl who's taught by a pompous professor of phonetics to "talk proper", like a duchess. Rehearsals had been stormy, as Higgins - played by the flamboyant, practical joker Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree - didn't get along with the serious Shaw.
London audiences swarmed into the theatre out of prurient interest - the play had already been staged in Vienna and America and everyone knew it contained the profane and forbidden line: "Not bloody likely!" Would Mrs Campbell dare pronounce it or would the censors silence her? She did dare - and the delighted audience laughed for over a minute at the decadence of it all.
Shaw of course had regarded his work as a serious social satire on modern manners, and was so appalled that Londoners seemed only to thrill at his use of a swear word that he walked out.
If Eliza Doolittle had walked into Max Gill's map, she would have joined the long-skirted, bonneted beings who do nothing more than push prams or hold children's hands. Yet by the publication date, Emily Davison had already died under the King's horse on Derby day and Emmeline Pankhurst's Women's Social and Political Union had long been orchestrating a very public programme of heckling politicians, setting fire to post boxes, disrupting courtrooms and chaining themselves to railings.
By May, five paintings in the National Gallery had been attacked - Velasquez's Venus received seven slashes across her beautiful back from Canadian suffragette Mary Richardson. And at the Royal Academy, Mary Wood, screaming, "Votes for Women!' took a meat cleaver to Sargent's portrait of Henry James. When the suffragettes smashed a glass case in the British Museum containing an Egyptian mummy, London's other museums temporarily closed. And the British Museum announced that, in future, women would only be admitted with a ticket issued on receipt of a letter from a person "willing to be responsible for their behaviour".
Max's map, restrained by its commercial purpose, preserved London in a fairytale 1914 where anything unpleasant could simply be laughed off or indeed missed out. But among the puns and japes, he gives just a couple of subtle hints at underlying social problems such as the massive and growing gap between the rich and poor.
In 1913, the Fabian activist Maud Pember Reeves had published the shocking Round about a Pound a Week. Her four-year study among the working poor in Lambeth revealed the extent of food poverty families were suffering and the high mortality rate of their children.
Soup kitchens had opened up along the Embankment and in the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields, the new vicar Dick Shepherd, offered the church crypt as a night shelter for the homeless, declaring St Martin's should be "the church of the ever-open door". Its doors have been open ever since to London's down-and-outs.
Meanwhile, the City had become all-powerful - described by the Economist as "the banker and financier of the universe" - and the Stock Exchange was making traders an awesome amount of cash. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, worried this new money would create an arrogant class of "self seekers… and footballers".
Industrialists feared London was in danger of losing her manufacturing competitiveness by focusing on finance. In the Wonderground map, a labourer straining to pull a plough uphill calls out, "Harrowing work this!" to a disdainful, cravat-sporting gentleman who sneers back with a flick of his umbrella: "What is work? Is it a herb?"
By the end of July, the jokes were over. Within days, Germany would invade Luxembourg and Belgium and would head for France. From the War Office - an insignificant tiny black square on Gill's map - Lord Kitchener appealed for volunteers for his Army. Hundreds of thousands of new recruits flooded the Underground on their way to training camps. Doing its bit, the Underground authorities allowed all uniformed men to travel free until October 1914.
As they waited on the station platforms, the young soldiers would have seen the whimsical Wonderground posters. For many of them it would be their very last look at the old Town, resplendent in fairytale, primary colours, before the black tunnels swallowed them up.
At the bottom of the map, Macdonald had drawn his big brother, Eric Gill. As Max delighted in his splashes of garish colours and cartoons for the Wonderground, Eric had been silently working on his own stark commission for Westminster Cathedral - the first of 14 carved stone panels of the Stations of the Cross, the representation of Christ's last, bleak journey on the road to crucifixion.
Let's move forward again and get back on our packed tube that continues to be stuck outside St Paul's. Everyone's still laughing at the gonorrhoea sticker and the anger has dissipated. The bearded man in painter's overalls asks if anyone's seen that great poster the Underground's just done with the FA, renaming all the stations after football stars… St Paul's had been transformed into the Scottish striker Denis Law…
I want to tell everyone that it's all because of a comical map drawn in 1914, a map designed to cheer up angry commuters like us when the trains were late. It's because of that 1914 map and its commercial success that there's still Art on the Underground and that Frank Pick went on to commission so many other artists to design posters for the Tube. It's partly because of that map that Tube posters have become a respected art medium.
But the train jolts and starts to grind forwards again and the Wonderground's ghost stations - Down Street, Dover Street, Mark Street and Post Office - fade away as we pull into the bright, electric lights of St Paul's.
Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook
Find out more about the centenary of the outbreak of World War One at BBC Online
Music on the Brink: The Essay series is broadcast Monday to Friday this week at 22:45 GMT on BBC Radio 3. Monday: Vienna. Tuesday: Paris. Wednesday: Berlin. Thursday: St Petersburg. Friday: London. You can listen to the whole series on BBC iPlayer.
Slideshow production by Paul Kerley. Music by KPM Music. All images subject to copyright. Images courtesy London Transport Museum (TFL), Caroline Walker and Andrew Johnston.
London Transport Museum's World War One exhibition Goodbye Piccadilly, from the home front to the Western Front, opens on 16 May 2014
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Pakistan's request for all three million Afghan refugees within its borders to leave is causing chaos on its borders and plunging families into uncertainty. Many Afghans have spent all their lives in Pakistan. The BBC's M Ilyas Khan reports from Peshawar. | Noor Mohammad has been queuing for three days to return to Afghanistan - despite being certain that hardships face him on his return.
He fled to Pakistan in the winter of 1979, days after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan and helicopter gunships started hovering over his village in Baghlan.
He was 12 or 13, and remembers the gruelling journey he made with his family.
"We climbed the hills and started to move south. We went on for days, sometimes walking, sometimes taking a ride on lorries or ponies."
Thirty-seven years later, he has to move again, because his second home says he has overstayed his welcome.
His return journey will be less physically demanding than the one he made as a teenager - but not much easier.
When I met him last week, Noor and his family had spent three days stuck behind a 3km (two-mile) queue of lorries trying to reach the UN-run repatriation centre in Peshawar. And they still seemed to be days away from the centre.
They were angry and frustrated. Others in the queue said they had been waiting for nearly a week.
I counted more than 200 lorries queuing up on the road near the repatriation centre, loaded with household goods, timber and firewood - the belongings of roughly 400 families, or around 3,000 individuals
The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and Pakistani authorities have admitted they were not prepared for the rush of refugees returning, and could not handle the influx.
Many made Pakistan their homes and fear Afghanistan is still years away from bringing health, education, business and livelihood at par with what they had in Pakistan.
So why are they returning?
The answer lies in the evolution of Pakistan's refugee policy.
Back in the late 1970s, the country welcomed Afghan refugees with open arms.
Unlike Iran, which confined refugees to camps and prevented them from indulging in politics, Pakistan allowed them to mix with local populations, and encouraged them to link up with Islamist camps that fed resistance to Kabul's communists.
The refugees were predominantly ethnic Pashtuns and merged well with Pakistan's Pashtun population. And they could be influenced to agree with Pakistan's emphasis on Islamic identity rather than Afghan nationhood as the basis of their resistance.
As a result, many believe Pakistan welcomed the refugees in order to expand its influence in Afghanistan, which had traditionally tilted towards India, and to neutralise its own Pashtun nationalists who had been pushing for greater autonomy, sometimes bordering on secession, as some in the Pakistani establishment suspected.
But suspicions struck the Pakistani mind post-9/11, when an anti-Pakistan version of the Taliban began to evolve, with links to these sanctuaries.
Since then, the narrative of the Pakistani establishment has gradually turned against the refugees.
Yet despite the growing hostility, Pakistan was initially in no hurry to send the Afghans home.
A UNHCR-funded repatriation programme for refugees was initiated in 2002, but Pakistani and UN officials say take-up was slow.
Pakistan issued various deadlines for the refugees to leave, but they were often long-term and not enforced, because the UNHCR wanted any repatriation to be voluntary.
The decisive push came in December 2015, when Pakistan suddenly set a six-month deadline for the refugees to leave.
It extended the date for another six months in June, but at the same time closed the main Afghan-Pakistan border crossing in Torkham, and put a ban on Afghans crossing over without travel documents.
It was this ban that showed Pakistan meant business this time - and convinced Noor Mohammad to leave.
"Some of our family members who had gone to Kabul for summer were stranded there," he says.
"We don't have the money to pay passport fees for all our family, which numbers over 40. So we thought it was time to go."
Also in June, the UNHCR doubled its repatriation package from $200 to $400 per head for returning refugees, providing added incentive to poorer families that had not sunk deeper roots in Pakistan.
'Afghano-phobia'
The future is now uncertain for many Afghan refugees.
Khalid Amiri, a 21-year-old student, has lived in Pakistan since he was a few months old.
He is now studying a Master's programme at Peshawar University, which does not finish until the end of 2017.
He and around 9,000 other Afghan students in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are not sure if they will be allowed to complete their courses.
Khalid believes the moves to force refugees out are due to "growing Afghano-phobia in Pakistan".
He says there has been "increased harassment of refugees by Pakistani police", and "a hate campaign against the refugees in the Pakistani media since the [December 2014 attack on Peshawar's] Army Public School".
The hate has spread to social media in recent months, with "hashtags like #KickOutAfghans and #AfghanRefugeesThreat", he says.
The prospects for Afghan businessmen are even dimmer.
Mohammad Ismail's father left behind his antiques business in Ghazni and migrated to Peshawar in 1983. Here they made a fresh start and established themselves as certified exporters of antiques and rugs to Europe and the Far East.
But in June, Mohammad's children who were on vacation in Kabul were stranded there when the Torkham border was closed down. They have since obtained Afghan passports and visas for Pakistan, which means they have lost refugee status.
He now has to start from scratch, like his father did 33 years ago.
"My biggest problem is to get rid of my inventory. No one will give me a fair price because they know we are desperate. There's also money stuck up in credit lines. It will take time."
Baryalai Miankhel, a leader of Afghan refugees, says he expects the UNHCR, and the Pakistani and Afghan governments, to develop a phased programme of repatriation, spread over three to four years, "to soften the blow both for the refugees and their client populations in Pakistan".
There are indications that he may be right, but many refugees remain anxious.
And those who await the returning refugees in Afghanistan will not be patriots holding flowers in their hands but predatory businessmen, transporters and property owners eager to fleece them of whatever little they have.
Noor Mohammad knows this.
"House rents in Afghan cities have spiralled to $300 and $400 a month, and our houses in the villages are in ruins," he says.
He says his only option, once he returns to Afghanistan, will be to build a shelter "as quickly as possible", given that "winter is coming".
In what some would call a cruel twist of fate, Noor's family will have to stay in a tent until he builds a shelter. It reminds him of the UN tents he lived in 37 years ago, when he first arrived in Pakistan as a refugee.
"For us, it's back to the tents," he says.
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A 15-year-old boy has appeared in court charged with the murder of another boy who was stabbed to death in a skate park. | Elton Gashaj, 15, was found injured in Salt Hill Park, Slough, on Saturday, and died of a stab wound to the chest.
The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared at Reading Crown Court and was remanded in youth detention.
He also faces one count of possession of a bladed article.
Police said a second boy, also 15, who was arrested has been released while inquiries continue. A third boy, aged 17, was released with no further action.
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Three people have been arrested in connection with the death of a cyclist killed in a suspected hit-and-run crash. | The man was struck by a car on National Avenue in Hull at about 21:00 GMT on Wednesday and died later in hospital, police said.
Humberside Police said two men and a woman were being held in custody.
Officers are investigating a blue Audi found in a street in Kirk Ella in connection with the crash.
Police said the cyclist was hit by a car which failed to stop at the scene.
"His family are continuing to receive support from specially trained officers," a spokeswoman said.
Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].
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Andrew Crosby has 7,000 emails in his inbox. To some that might not sound like many, but he's only been at Relax Gaming for a year, so there's not been much time for the inbox to get out of control. | By Ben MorrisBusiness reporter, BBC News
As a senior executive at the software company, which has eight offices around Europe, he fields around 140 emails a day.
"You have to pick and choose what you think is going to be relevant to yourself... you can get cc'ed into so many emails that are nothing to do with yourself whatsoever," he says.
And there's the key problem with email. The message that might contain the single most important thing you need to know all year, could well disappear into the landfill that is your inbox.
Email malaise
It's not just inefficient, it's also bad for your health.
"Email overload is causing people to get ill," says Cary Cooper, organisational psychology professor at Manchester University.
His research has found that higher email load is associated with higher workload stress.
"The problem is there aren't good guidelines on what is the best use of email and the things we should not do," he says.
"We cc in everybody rather than just the one or two people we should be interacting with. Line managers should never send emails outside of office hours to their subordinates unless it's absolutely essential.
"There's no point in sending someone an email on a Friday night saying you don't have to deal with this until Monday, because people will then worry about it and do it that weekend."
But he is not saying that email should be eliminated altogether.
"It's a great way to keep in touch with people, particularly who are remote. It's a great way to send data, to send information. By itself it's fine - it's the way people are using it is the problem," says Prof Cooper.
Enforced breaks
France has tried to improve the situation. In 2017, a law was introduced that obliged firms to come up with a plan to ensure staff get a break from office emails. In August 2018, the French arm of Britain's Rentokil Initial was ruled to have broken that law and was ordered to pay an employee €60,000 (£53,000).
No such rules exist here in the UK, but some firms have taken action anyway.
Platypus Digital is a marketing agency which runs fundraising campaigns for charities. From the very start, in 2014, its founders banned internal emails and any staff who forget have to donate £5 to charity.
"We'd all worked in charities and companies that had been around a lot longer and experienced that internal email overload, where the majority of your day is trawling through internal updates that you don't need to be a part of," says managing director Matt Collins.
Instead, the company's seven employees use a messaging service and documents software from Google, and a project management system from Asana.
"We decided to use tools that were much more effective and much more fun," Mr Collins adds.
Inbox zero
But what if you work in a much larger organisation, where you have to use email to get anything done?
Clare Godson is a senior lawyer and executive director at global legal subscription business Aosphere. Six months ago she decided to try "inbox zero" and has been "evangelical" about it ever since. The idea is to manage your inbox strictly, ideally not having anything there at all.
There's lots of advice about how to do it on the internet, but broadly you have to do something with every email you receive.
"It's completely revolutionised the way I feel about my email," she says. "I never have that feeling any more that there's something lurking in there that I've forgotten to deal with.
"It's massively satisfying as a way of working, it just makes me feel more efficient and I think I feel lighter mentally."
She accepts that for many people it's a big hurdle.
"Most people are incredulous that you could possibly get there. They think you must be constantly in your inbox checking, deleting and sorting, which isn't true."
People also think she can't be that busy, which she also rejects: "The busier you are, the more you need to be rigorous and organised."
Slack attack
Let's face it, for most office workers, inbox zero is never going to happen.
Whoever who can solve this communication problem "will be the most important software company in the world". That's according to Slack, a US company which sells a service that allows staff to message each other and co-operate on projects.
Its founders, frustrated with email, launched Slack in 2014 and, according to the firm, more than 600,000 organisations use the service.
On Slack, communications are based on groups of users rather than individual inboxes. Despite losing $420m in three years, it plans to list on the stock market later this month.
Andrew Crosby of Relax Gaming uses Slack and likes it, although it has not stopped him accumulating 7,000 emails in his inbox.
More Technology of Business
Other firms are also trying to exploit frustration with emails, including Microsoft, which Slack identifies as its biggest rival. Microsoft Teams was launched in 2017 and the company says that more than 500,000 firms use the service.
Facebook also offers a collaboration tool called Workplace.
The secret?
While many people rave about such services, they don't appear to be a complete replacement for email. It is still the best way to communicate with people outside your organisation.
The trick, according to Mr Collins, is to be strict about how you use it. He attaches a document to all his emails explaining his personal policy, which warns correspondents that his emails will be brief and, unless they are a current client, they should not expect a quick reply.
He says lots of people read his personal policy and like it. And it seems to be working. When I speak to him he has just 20 emails in his inbox. If all this seems a bit too much effort, then perhaps you should consider inbox infinity.
The idea is to let the emails pile up, embrace the chaos and thus liberate yourself from the guilt and anxiety. Just make sure you don't miss the message from the boss about your pay rise.
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For decades state-regulated brothels have existed in Tunisia. They remain legal, but pressure from women's rights activists and religious conservatives has forced nearly all of them to close, as Shereen El Feki reports. | "I wake up at seven in the morning. I wash my face, I do my make-up. I go into the hall, I drink my coffee, and I wait to start our job."
Like many women in Tunisia, Amira, a single unmarried mother in her mid-20s, is working hard to make ends meet.
But Amira's job is far from usual: she is one of the few remaining legal sex workers in the Arab region.
Tunisia has a two-tier system of prostitution. One is made up of government-registered "maisons closes", or brothels, where female sex workers are authorised by the state to ply their trade. The other involves illegal freelance sex work, where the people involved risk up to two years in prison if convicted.
Regulation of sex work, in the name of hygiene - protecting clients from sexually transmitted infections - tightened with the French occupation of Tunisia in the 19th Century.
The current laws on legal sex work were introduced in the 1940s, and survived Tunisia's independence in 1958. But for how much longer?
Before the 2010 uprising, there were an estimated 300 legal sex workers in a dozen or so sites across Tunisia. Today, only two cities - Tunis and Sfax - are home to a handful of legal brothels. They are found in tiny houses tucked away in the twisty lanes of the medina, the cities' historical heart.
'I expect to be fired'
When Amira, 25, started working in Sfax five years ago, there were 120 legal sex workers. Now she is one of a dozen left.
"Step by step they are firing women, they fire them for the simplest mistake they do. I am expecting that one day the same thing could happen to me," she said anxiously.
Infractions, such as fighting with a client or drinking in their room, are now grounds enough for dismissal.
"We used to make a living for our children, pay our rent. We don't anymore. Actually, I don't have anything else. If they kick us from there, where we would go?"
Over in Tunis, Nadia, a divorcee in her 40s, knows the answer all too well.
She had been working in legal brothels around the country and ended up in Gafsa, in the south. Violent protests by Salafist extremists in 2011 led to the closure of Nadia's workplace in 2011 in a wave that saw legal brothels shutting down across the country.
Nadia was injured in the Gafsa attack. Once she had recovered, she had trouble fitting back in a dwindling state system and turned to illegal, street-based sex work, which is very risky.
'No-one to protect me'
She misses her life in the legal system: "It is not the same as when we were in the protected brothel, with a doctor [for weekly medical exams], a female condom and a madam [who kept an eye on proceedings]."
"Now when I get a client I am scared because I don't have anyone who can protect me or stand by my side.
"Once, there was a client who, after he slept with me, stole my money, beat me, and choked me. Now my body is full with bruises; as you can see, my nose is broken," she pointed to her battered face.
The future of sex work in Tunisia has sharply divided the country's activists, Wahid Ferchichi, a law professor at Carthage University and leading rights advocate, told the BBC.
For all the campaigns on legal reform to guarantee individual freedoms - including liberal calls for the decriminalisation of homosexuality - many women's rights activists draw the line at sex work.
"There are many in politics and civil society who support the closure [of the legal brothels], because they consider that sex work is a new kind of slavery, or human trafficking," Prof Ferchichi said.
"But if we close all these places and the Tunisian penal code is applied, we will put all these women in prison, so what is the solution?"
Downturn in sex work
A recent draft law proposes a 500 dinar ($175; £140) fine instead of jail time. But the imposition of what would be a hefty fine for the women is not popular among those who would be affected.
"It's not reasonable, in an economic situation where the country has no money and there are no jobs," said Bouthayna Aouissaoui, who runs an association for sex workers in Sfax.
Business is already down in the illegal sex trade, she observed.
Sex work has been hit by cash-strapped clients steering clear as they fear religious condemnation. Several sex workers have also spoken of growing competition from increasingly desperate women, including Tunisia's struggling migrant population.
"Five hundred dinars is too much! Where is she going to get it from?" Ms Aouissaoui asked. "She only gets 15 or 20 dinars ($5-$7) per client."
Prof Ferchichi is among the few human rights activists openly calling for decriminalisation.
He looks forward to the day "when the sex trade is decriminalised, [and] the Tunisian government will apologise to all these women who were imprisoned for this reason".
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That day will be some time in coming, so long as Ennahda, Tunisia's Islamist party, holds sway.
Meherzia Labidi, a leading Ennahda member, disagrees with decriminalisation.
"If our society's basis for its values is violated," she said, "the family will be violated, the values that we raise our children to learn will be violated."
The politician is famous in Tunisia for having met with sex workers who had been protesting against the closure of their brothels in the coastal city of Sousse in 2014.
While no fan of the legal brothels, Ms Labidi wondered about the alternatives for their residents.
"How we can we secure healthcare, housing, food and a living for them?" she asked. "By giving them a job. for example, and by making the society accept them in another way.
"It is not only about laws and political decisions, it is about changing mentalities."
If the trend of greater restrictions on sex work continues, there will be the problem of what the women who used to work in the industry can do. Jobs are hard to find in Tunisia, especially for women, whose unemployment rate is double that of men.
'Sorry I cannot hire you'
Afef, a former madam whose brothel was recently shuttered, explained the difficulties.
"Even if [a former sex worker] goes to work in a restaurant to clean dishes," she said, "one or two days later, they will say that this woman was working in a brothel and the boss would say: 'Sorry I cannot hire you.'"
Meanwhile, Amira has few hopes for the future.
"It is hard for our family to take us back. If I was kicked out of the brothel, I will go to the street, because I will beg for money for my child under the mosque. I hope they will have mercy on us."
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The birth of 10 Humboldt penguin chicks caps a "phenomenal year" for the birds at a Manx wildlife park, a keeper has said. | The penguins, which are threatened by overfishing, are classed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
It is the third year in a row chicks have successfully hatched at the Curraghs Wildlife Park.
Keeper Bernie Cannan said it was a "very special time" at the park.
He said it was the largest brood to successfully hatch at the park in a decade, which made it "a phenomenal year".
Park manager Kathleen Graham said the new arrivals were a "major success story" for the park's breeding programme and for her team, "who have worked so hard throughout lockdown".
The park is part of an international programme to conserve several species around the world, run by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria.
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MPs and their hounds have braved inclement weather to take part in the 20th annual Westminster dog show.
| By Ed LowtherBBC News
The field was dominated by Conservative MPs once again, and despite the best efforts of a smattering of Lib Dem and Labour MPs, the "dog of the year" accolade was handed to Tory MP Charlie Elphicke.
Dog welfare charities Dogs Trust and the Kennel Club are the brains behind the contest. "Westminster dog of the year is a light-hearted way to encourage discussion on serious dog welfare issues needing urgent attention," the Kennel Club's Caroline Kisko has said.
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A second man has been charged with murder after a 39-year-old who was found with serious injuries died. | Dego Ahmed was found with head and neck injuries at a property in Stapleton Road, Bristol, on 22 October and died in hospital on 6 November.
Mohammed Farah, 39, of Stapleton Road, Bristol, appeared before magistrates on Tuesday and was remanded for a hearing at the city's crown court on Thursday.
A 42-year-old man has also been charged with murder.
Aden Mohamoud, of Stapleton Road, who was originally charged with wounding has been remanded into custody by Bristol Crown Court for a hearing on 10 January next year.
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A masked man armed with an axe has raided a Co-op store in Wolverhampton. | Police said it happened at the supermarket in Stafford Road in the Oxley area of the city at about 10:00 BST.
The raider demanded money from staff and took a a quantity of cash before leaving the store, West Midlands Police said.
No-one was injured inside the shop, police said, although people were left shaken.
Armed officers and a police helicopter were called to the scene.
Police are appealing for witnesses to come forward.
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First-time buyers are benefitting from a pilot scheme breathing new life into empty homes, a council has said. | Homeowners can receive up to £20,000, plus £5,000 for renewable energy measures, as part of the initiative in Rhondda Cynon Taf, to transform empty buildings into liveable homes.
Between September last year and March this year, the council received 173 applications and handed out £2.4m.
The aim is to tackle poor housing stock and eyesores.
The council said the Welsh Government scheme had also helped alleviate anti-social behaviour hotspots as well as enabling first-time buyers to get on the property ladder.
The second part of the scheme continues until March 2021.
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Conservation experts say the coronavirus pandemic, which likely originated at a market selling wild animals in China, is a watershed moment for curbing the global wildlife trade, which can drive extinction and spread disease. | By Helen BriggsEnvironment correspondent
When Adam Peyman walked into a restaurant in Vietnam to order a meal he was shocked to find wild animals, including threatened species, on the menu, alongside traditional rice, noodles and seafood. Sting ray, porcupine, softshell turtle, wild pig and wild goat were all on offer.
"It was a bit of a surprise to see these foods," says the wildlife manager for the animal welfare organisation, Humane Society International. "But, these kinds of wild foods are considered something of a luxury."
Feasting on exotic game has become a sign of status and wealth in some Asian countries. The desire for wildlife as food or medicine drives a trade in wild animals, some procured illegally, creating a breeding ground for disease and the chance for viruses to leap to humans.
"The consumption of wild animals, especially wild mammals, which can carry diseases that can cross the species barrier, does pose a real threat to human health," says Mr Peyman. "It's hard to tell whether these animals are taken from the wild legally or not, some of them could have been smuggled in and then sold on these wet markets, as they're called."
Wet markets
Wet markets have become a familiar sight in many countries in Southeast Asia, particularly mainland China. Selling live fish, chickens and wildlife, as well as fresh fruit and vegetables, they get their name from the melting ice used to preserve goods, as well as to wash the floors clean of blood from butchered animals.
Wet markets can be "timebombs" for epidemics, says Prof Andrew Cunningham, deputy director of science at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). "This sort of way that we treat... animals as if they're just our commodities for us to plunder - it comes back to bite us and it's no surprise."
Leap to humans
The current coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives, likely originated in the Wuhan seafood market. Despite its name, the market was selling a lot more than fish, including snakes, porcupine and deer, according to one report.
After an initial cluster of cases connected to the market, the virus began spreading dramatically inside China, before reaching much of the world. The origins of the novel virus are unknown, but it most likely emerged in a bat, then made the leap to humans via another wild animal host.
Scientists have for decades been drawing attention to outbreaks of human diseases that have originated in animals, including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) and Ebola.
The message from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society is clear: ban live animal markets that trade in wildlife, stop illegal trafficking and poaching of wild animals.
"Not only will this help prevent the spread of disease, it will address one of the major drivers of species extinction," says the society.
In the wake of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, China introduced a ban on all farming and consumption of live wildlife, which is expected to become law later this year. Thousands of wildlife farms raising animals such as porcupines, civets and turtles have been shut down. However, loopholes remain, such as the trade in wild animals for medicine, pets and scientific research.
Then there is the traditional Chinese medicines industry, which also uses wildlife products. Only recently, the Chinese government appears to have approved the use of an injection - ironically as a coronavirus treatment - that contains bear bile.
Campaigners worry these exemptions could pave way for illegal trade on wildlife meat, as it did in the past with, for instance, tiger and leopard body parts. So pangolin meat could still be available as the animal's scales can be used for medicine and its nails as ornaments.
All eyes, therefore, are on the soon-to-be amended wildlife protection law - whether and how it would address those loopholes.
In neighbouring Vietnam, the government is rushing through legislation to clamp down on illegal wildlife trade at street markets and online. But some say it won't be easy to change cultural attitudes or to enforce bans, when wet markets are part of the local culture, with the belief that the meat sold there is fresh and cheap.
Supply and demand
Prof Dirk Pfeiffer of City University of Hong Kong says the real issue is demand. "The people who are providing them, whether that's farmed wild animals or animals from the wild, that's an important source of income for them. Pushing it underground, that's not the solution, so it needs to be a phased process."
This isn't the first time a pandemic has put the spotlight on wildlife trade. The 2002 Sars outbreak, which started in China and claimed more than 700 lives, was linked to bats and mongoose-like civets, although the source was never confirmed.
Prof Cunningham says if we're to stop another pandemic in the future, we must focus on causes as well as effects. At the root of the problem is the destruction of nature, bringing animals and humans into conflict.
"Even in protected forests, the forests are still there, but the wildlife's gone from within them because they have ended up in markets," he says. ".And it's easy to finger point, but it's not just happening in China, it's happening in many other countries and even in the western world. We like to have exotic pets and many of those are wild caught and we ought to be putting our own house in order too."
Additional reporting Navin Singh Khadka
Follow Helen on Twitter.
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Prominent Ghanaian journalist, BBC columnist and former government minister Elizabeth Ohene recently wrote about her experience of being sexually abused more than 60 years ago, when she was just seven years old. Here she explains why she decided to go public after such a long time. | I am not quite sure I had considered what the effect would be if I went public with the story of my having been sexually molested.
Last Wednesday, I told that story in the weekly column I write for Ghana's largest circulation newspaper, the Daily Graphic.
I am a 74-year-old woman and I was recounting something that happened 67 years ago.
One of my best friends - male - asked why I had chosen to unburden myself onto the rest of them. The story, I am told, makes difficult reading. Therefore, if I have been able to keep it to myself for 67 years, why was I now telling it, why did I not take it to my grave?
Warning: This article contains details which some readers may find distressing
My story
I am not sure I wanted to unload my burden onto an unsuspecting public. I had decided ages ago that I had a responsibility to tell this story in the hope a young girl somewhere would be protected from suffering what I went through.
Maybe I should first tell the story and then I will attempt to see if I can explain why I have told it.
Back in 1952, I was a seven-year-old, happy child living with my grandmother in our village. One day, a man, who was a family relation who lived next door to us, dragged me into his room and sexually molested me.
I have a difficulty with the terminology to describe what happened to me. At the time, I cannot say that I knew what he had done, I did not have a name for what he had done, I did not even have a name for the part of my body that had been violated.
All I know is that he pushed his very rough fingers and cracked finger nails into my vagina.
I don't remember what, if anything he said, it is the overpowering smell of his body and his rough fingers and cracked fingernails that stay with me to this day, 67 years after the event.
Today I know what he did and one of the frustrations I have is that social norms do not allow me to describe exactly what happened and I am reduced to saying I was defiled or sexually molested.
My grandmother nursed me back to health, at least physical health. I did not tell her what had happened. The morning after the event, when she was giving me a bath, she noticed there was pus coming from my vagina and decided I had an infection.
She did not ask me if anything had happened, she simply set about repairing and bringing me back to health. It might well be she did not imagine anything untoward could have happened to her favourite granddaughter.
Years later when I was a grown-up and was trying to make sense of the incident, this was the conclusion I came to. It was the easier scenario.
The next thing happened when I was 11. I was raped, it was violent and it was the same man.
There, I have got it out.
I cannot say that I understood the second incident any better, but it was a bigger burden and I think I was in danger of what I now would call psychological trauma.
But I suppose it is fair to say I survived and I don't think I was irretrievably damaged by these experiences.
I have made what would be considered a reasonable success of my life as a journalist, a writer, and a public official. I am 74 years old and if I should die today, in the Ghanaian scheme of things, my obituary notice would be titled Celebration of Life, or Call to Glory.
In other words, it would be considered that I have led a full life.
So, I have been asked, why bring it up now, this most unpleasant and dirty subject?
I feel strongly that there is a scandalous acceptance of the sexual molestation of children in our society as part of life. Little girls especially are at risk from grown men. It is not a subject we are willing to talk about.
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Recently there have been attempts to tackle the phenomenon, but it is an uphill task. If a child is defiled and some brave person dares to report the matter to the police, the person comes under a lot of pressure from the police to withdraw the case, for it "to be settled at home".
If you persist in trying to get the molester prosecuted, you run the risk of being ostracised in the family. Thus, very few of these cases ever come to court or are prosecuted successfully.
I fear that there are other seven-year-olds and even three-year-olds who are being subjected to what I experienced so long ago.
Outrage at gay people, but not child molesters
I believe that this situation will persist unless we are ready to talk about these matters. There is great reluctance to talk about sex generally unless it is to express outrage at homosexuality.
It would appear there is a consensus across the board that Ghanaians don't want to tolerate LGBTQ people in their society. A Pew Research survey found that just 3% of the population say homosexuality should be accepted, there is a strong resistance to admitting existence of LGBTQ people in our society.
The religious community is united as one and there seems to be a suspicion that sex education in primary schools is not only against our culture and "un-Ghanaian", but an attempt to introduce homosexuality into our society through the back door.
The country was recently thrown into a veritable mass hysteria when a story emerged that there was an attempt to introduce something called Comprehensive Sexuality Education into the school curriculum. It took a statement from the president disclaiming any intention to introduce any such thing to calm down things.
But it is difficult to raise any such passions about abuse in heterosexual relationships especially where the balance of power is weighted against the female.
If I have helped anyone, I'm humbled
The reaction so far to my story has been overwhelming. Everybody is uncomfortable with the story. It is an uncomfortable story and telling it is uncomfortable and I am not surprised if reading it is uncomfortable.
Some have said I am brave to have gone public with the story. It has taken me 67 years to summon the courage to tell the story and so I'm not sure about the bravery bit.
Some have said it is unfair to pour out such filth into the public space. I have no comment on that.
Many people, mostly women, have thanked me and said it has given them the courage to deal with their own personal demons. I am humbled.
If this will lead to more openness in talking about sexual practices and maybe equip and empower children to deal with abuse, I would go to my grave a happy woman.
Victims of abuse in Ghana can directly reach the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) through toll-free numbers 0800 800 800 and 0800 900 900. Text messages can be sent on a free short code 8020 on all mobile networks.
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Much of the US is baking this weekend. As American cities continue getting hotter, the people who live in them have begun efforts to heatproof their homes and neighbourhoods in order to stave off the impending rise in global temperatures, writes Lucy Sherriff. | The number of extreme heat days will rocket across the US, according to a new climate change report which predicts hundreds of cities experiencing month-long temperatures above 100F (38C) by 2050.
Roughly 80% of Americans live in cities, equating to around 262 million people. Cities are almost always hotter than the surrounding rural areas, thanks to the urban heat island effect.
These heat islands are caused by numerous factors, such as trapped waste heat, concrete structures and pavements absorbing the sun and tall buildings blocking the wind.
All of these components contribute to air temperatures in cities that can be up to 22F hotter than neighbouring regions with less urban development.
A warming planetary climate means temperatures in heat island areas will continue to rise, with desert states such as Texas, Nevada and Arizona particularly affected.
Tree planting in Phoenix, Arizona
In 2017, heat killed 172 people in Maricopa County, according to local health officials.
The 9,000 square-mile region - which includes the city of Phoenix and miles of desert - contains 60% of Arizona's population.
The region is one of the most heat-vulnerable areas in the US. To combat this, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) environmentalist group launched a programme to engage communities in tree planting in order to provide cooling shade to vulnerable residents.
The programme aims to bring equality to the city. Affluent neighbourhoods can finance trees themselves, often have air conditioning units, and are less likely to use public transport.
In low-income areas, residents are more likely to work outside, use public transport and generally are more vulnerable to the heat due to their lack of economic resources.
"We are creating green corridors around the city," says Maggie Messerschmidt, urban conservation program manager at the TNC.
TNC is starting by targeting low-income neighbourhoods where urban heat islands are more prevalent due to these areas having fewer open spaces, more concrete surfaces and less trees.
Shaded parking in Austin, Texas
This Texas city has been working for a number of years to fight the heat. For all but one day this past week, temperatures in Austin hit 100F.
Once humidity is taken into account, Austin's summer weather is even more intense - with temperatures feeling closer to 110F.
One city ordinance in place requires 50% canopy coverage in all car parks by 2030.
Not only that, but 80% of the trees have to be large shade-producing varieties from a designated list of native shade trees, and be planted within 50ft (15m) of parking spaces.
The idea behind providing a specific list of trees is to ensure a diversified and sustainable urban forest, as well as preserving native species.
Cool roofs in Albuquerque, New Mexico
In Albuquerque, difference in temperature between rural and city areas can reach almost 10F at night.
Climate campaigners have been advocating the use of white-coloured roofs in order to help mitigate the heat, as a traditional dark roof can reach temperatures of up to 150F, and can be up to 50F hotter than white roofs.
Donna Griffin, a member of the Sierra Club's New Mexico chapter, changed her flat black roof to white and says the difference has been "amazing".
There are several buildings in the city already with white roofs, but Griffin is hoping the tactic will be rolled out across the city to include residential homes, particularly those with low income tenants.
Another tactic is implementing "green roofs" - plants and gardens on top of roofs that use vegetation to help trap heat in a process called evapotranspiration.
Although this has been championed by local scientists and urban planners, it has yet to make it into city policy.
"We don't have a citywide policy on using green roofs," says Kelsey Rader, sustainability officer for the city of Albuquerque, in an interview with BBC News.
"But we have adopted a roofing specification for all city government building roof contracts to require reflective roof."
Stopping sprawl in Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is among the fastest warming cities in the US, warming more than 5.76F degrees since 1970.
A car-centred city, Vegas is implementing alternative transport options to try to break the cycle between heat and air pollution.
Pollutants contribute to temperature rise, but are also made worse by heat which can make air pollutants more toxic and leads to smog.
The city has developed new standards for planning to reduce urban sprawl, create more open spaces and increase bicycle routes by 450 miles.
Almost all of the city's vehicle fleet run on alternative fuels, and electric charging stations have been installed at a number of garages and community centres for public use.
As part of the city's "Master 2050 Plan" - which aims to overhaul planning and zoning - public transportation routes will be extended, renewable energy vehicles prioritised and bike and pedestrian facilities made more accessible.
White streets in Los Angeles, California
The concrete jungle of LA gets up to 6F hotter than the surrounding desert, with 2019 already setting records for hottest ever days, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti aims to cool the city down by 3F by 2035.
One of the city's tactics is using a light-coloured material over one street in each of the 15 council districts, in order to test out the impact.
The material, known as "cool pavement", reflects rather than absorbs the sun and so remains cooler than typical black roads.
However, it is more expensive and doesn't yet meet safety standards for wider, busier streets in the city, hence the demo phase.
One "cool street" in Canoga Park measured 70F shortly after being laid, as opposed to 93F found on a nearby intersection road.
City officials also hope the cool pavements will help cool the insides of nearby buildings and lessen air pollution.
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Two teenagers have been charged with assaulting a police officer and breaching coronavirus lockdown rules on public gatherings.
| Police officers were on patrol in Brixton, south London, on Friday when the incident is said to have occurred.
A 17-year-old boy and Jamar Jackman, 19, from Brixton, have been charged over the assault of an emergency worker and obstructing a police constable.
They are both due before Croydon Magistrates' Court.
Both teenagers were also charged with contravening a requirement to not participate in a gathering in public of more than two people under the Coronavirus Regulations 2020.
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Tens of thousands of Malians, mainly ethnic Tuaregs, fled into Mauritania last year after a mixture of separatists and jihadi groups seized control of their home towns. The militants have since been ousted by a French-led campaign and the refugees are starting to plan their return home, as the BBC's Thomas Fessy reports from Mberra camp. | Mohammad Ag Mohammed Hamma is growing impatient. His face almost entirely covered by a washed blue turban, the village chief of Tin-Telout, on the outskirts of Timbuktu, cannot bear this "undignified life" any more.
"Living here has been humiliating," he complains. "The food rations they give us aren't enough and we feel like beggars asking for more all the time."
He has been back to his village three times since he fled last year, and he is planning on crossing the border again by the end of this week, this time for good.
Only about 500 refugees have decided to leave the camp so far. Aid agencies believe that if northern Mali shows signs of stability in the months to come, the first real waves of returns could start to be seen some time in 2014.
For now, for all the desire to return, instability remains. A peace deal is one thing, but a lasting agreement is another.
On Saturday, two suspected Islamist militants drove a car-bomb into the Malian army camp in Timbuktu and blew themselves up, while on Sunday Tuareg rebels exchanged fire with government troops in the remote town of Kidal.
Painting a piece of leather made out of a goat skin that she will sell at the market, Zouda Walett Infa says she does not intend to go back home until she can be certain that peace has been achieved.
The 25-year-old mother of three only arrived seven months ago and fears potential inter-communal attacks.
Too late
In the meantime, other tensions are palpable inside Mberra camp.
At the main health centre, two-year-old Mohammed requires full attention. He has got cerebral malaria, which can kill fast.
His eyes are glazed and he is clearly struggling to breathe as his mother watches over him.
Doctors say he needs an urgent blood transfusion, and order his evacuation to the nearby town of Bassikounou, where international organisations have set up their bases.
The little boy is hurried into an ambulance, unresponsive. His mother and family members cram into the back of the car.
But despite the doctors' best efforts, the transfusion and treatment come too late.
Children always suffer the most in refugee camps and Mberra is no exception. Malaria and malnutrition are preying on the young and vulnerable.
Dr Fabien Kabongo from Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) - which warned of "appalling" conditions in the camp earlier this year - says that a lot more needs to be done to improve standards here.
"Shelters have been seriously damaged by the rains and with the upcoming colder season, we will see many lung infections if they are not replaced," he says.
"And too many refugees still have no shelter at all."
There are also issues with registering for food handouts. Some of the refugees who were given food on arrival claim that they have now been taken off the distribution lists.
"On my fourth distribution, I queued up but I was sent away with nothing," Ms Infa says.
She hands me her registration documents that are no longer accepted by the UN refugee agency.
"The same thing happened during the distributions that followed each month."
Countering criticism of their management of Mberra camp, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, says it is introducing a new biometric registration process.
"Refugees have been informed," Hovig Etyemezian, who runs the agency's operations here, explains.
"Most of them have come for the new enrolment where they were given a new document,"
"It's blue and that's the one they must use for the distributions."
"Those who have missed the enrolment can come to our litigation centre."
Refugee leaders claim that up to 6,000 are in the same situation as Ms Infa. Mr Etyemezian rejects such a figure.
UN sources say that the refugee agency is under pressure from donor countries to fund smaller scale operations at Mberra camp.
Yet, angry refugees trashed a registration centre at the camp in early September, prompting the UNHCR to suspend its activities for two weeks. It has only just resumed.
Signs of hope
Inside the camp, some are busy filling jerry cans of water while others play an improvised board game on the sand with pieces of wood.
These refugees came here because they did not trust either the rebels or the government army in Mali.
They are now willing to believe that the newly-elected president does want to create a safe environment for their return home.
But they will need guarantees that all Malians will be able to live as a united people - one reason why so many ethnic Tuaregs fled is that after the separatists took up arms, there were reports of attacks on Tuareg civilians by members of other communities.
"Personally, I am confident I can go back because I know my neighbours," says Mr Hamma.
"We're no stranger to one another, we all know what's happened."
"I am sure the governor, the army zone commander and the police chief of where I am from can be trusted when they say that we will live together."
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David Cameron's proposal to ban migrants from claiming in-work benefits for four years is proving to be a major sticking point as he seeks to renegotiate Britain's membership of the EU ahead of a referendum. The prime minister is now said to be open to other ideas aimed at cutting immigration "pull factors" - but what are they? | An "emergency brake" on benefits
How it would work: Details are still being worked out but it is thought that the UK, or any other member state, could apply to the European Commission for a temporary ban on in-work benefits for new arrivals. The European Commission would perform tests on whether a brake in benefit payments was acceptable. The member state would have to prove that its welfare system was being placed under intolerable strain by excessive immigration.
Will the EU accept it: Central European member states would probably rather have no possibility of in-work benefits curbs, but may swallow this as a price of keeping the UK in the EU. It would be something that would be available to all member states, not just the UK. And the "emergency brake" would have to be agreed by a majority of the 27 other member states before being applied.
What critics will say: British Eurosceptics will not wear the proposal currently being discussed. John Redwood said it "insult to the UK" and not a serious offer". He said Britain would have to beg other countries in certain circumstances to impose a temporary halt on benefits, a plan he dismissed as a "bad joke".
Targeting the unemployed
How it would work: Banning first time EU jobseekers from claiming out-of-work benefits. Cutting the length of time EU migrants can claim benefits when they lose their job. At the moment, EU citizens working in the UK for three years are entitled to Jobseekers Allowance and housing benefit for six months. The IPPR think tank has suggested this Housing Benefit limit should be cut to three months - something that the EU is already considering.
Will the EU accept it: The Poles and other EU nations opposed to Mr Cameron's existing plans could go for this. It would not, in theory, threaten the principle of free movement because it only applies to jobless migrants. It could also be done without treaty change.
What critics will say: Mr Cameron's plan to ban migrants from claiming in-work benefits and child benefit for four years is a Tory manifesto commitment. So he would be accused of breaking a promise to the electorate.
A shorter benefits ban
How it could work: The length of time migrant workers have to pay into the system before they can claim tax credits and other in-work benefits could be reduced from four years. The Labour Party called for a two year ban at the general election, although Britain's top civil servant, Sir Jeremy Heywood, has warned ministers any ban lasting longer than six months could be discriminatory and it may have to be cut to a "few weeks or months".
Will the EU accept it: It would be tough to get agreement from the East European nations, who would still view it as direct discrimination against their citizens.
What critics will say: See above - they would accuse Mr Cameron of a humiliating climb down.
Restrictions on British expatriates
How it would work: British citizens returning from abroad after a certain number of years would be subject to the same in-work benefit restrictions as EU migrant workers in the UK.
Will the EU accept it: The European Commission has responded positively to the suggestion, according to the Telegraph.
What critics will say: Mr Cameron will be accused by Eurosceptics of watering down his demands to save his floundering EU negotiations - and unfairly targeting expats, who might have paid into the system before moving to another EU nation.
'Emergency brake' on immigration
How it would work: Temporary controls on EU migration if the flow is judged to be too large.
Will the EU accept it: Potentially. Brakes in other EU policy areas have been allowed and the Eastern European countries are reportedly open to the idea.
What critics will say: Unlikely to reassure Eurosceptics, who will say Britain still does not have control of its own borders, particularly if the "emergency brake" is policed by the EU. UK officials are reported by the FT to be sceptical about the idea, seeing it as an attempt by EU officials to muddy the immigration debate.
Cutting benefits for all
How it could work: The four-year ban on claiming in-work benefits, such as tax credits, could be extended to all UK benefit applicants from the age of 18. In practice this would mean British young people would not be able to claim until they were 22. Downing Street ruled out this option after analysis that it would lead to 300,000 Britons losing benefit entitlement.
Will the EU accept it: It would not be viewed as discrimination by other EU countries, who are reported to have told Mr Cameron it is the only way they would accept his four-year ban.
What critics will say: The government would be accused of unfairly targeting British young people. The idea was originally suggested by Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond as a joke, according to The Guardian, but documents seen by the BBC suggest it was being seriously considered.
A residency test
How it could work: In-work benefit claimants would have to prove they have lived in the UK for four years. Analysis suggests this would affect 50,000 British claimants.
Will the EU accept it: Possibly.
What critics will say: Some ministers are said to be against any compromise that waters down the Conservatives' manifesto commitment.
UK's EU referendum in-depth
Q&A: What Britain wants from Europe
Guide to the UK's planned in-out EU referendum
BBC News EU referendum special report
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Ceara Thacker's parents believe she "fell through the cracks" between various mental health services while at university. Speaking after a coroner ruled their daughter killed herself, they say they hope lessons can be learned from her death. | By George BowdenBBC News
The end of Ceara Thacker's first year at the University of Liverpool was just weeks away.
She seemed upbeat and happy when she returned home for the Easter break, her father Iain recalled.
The 19-year-old was excited about a big family party and to see her boyfriend Sam - and his dog - who still lived in Yorkshire.
Things appeared to have been going well for Ceara. The philosophy student had always been a voracious reader and a deep thinker and the course seemed like a good fit for her.
She had loved the atmosphere of Liverpool when she visited on an open day, and had made good friends.
Yet just a few weeks after she returned to Liverpool after that Easter break at home, Ceara was found dead in her halls room. A coroner ruled she died by suicide.
It is the stunned silence Iain Thacker remembers most about the moment he and Ceara's mother Lorraine were told, just hours after their daughter had died, that she had previously attempted suicide.
"Straight away we looked aghast at each other and thought, 'How can we not know this?' 'How can we not be told this?'" he said.
Ceara had struggled with her mental health since she was 13 and first showed her mother a self-inflicted cut on her hand.
Throughout her early teenage years, Ceara was helped by Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, commonly known as CAMHS, and had always been fairly open about her mental health with her parents.
She also seemed able to seek professional help when she felt she needed it, Iain said.
Ceara declared her mental health problems on both her university application, and it was followed up by the University of Liverpool.
"I remember she couldn't wait for us to leave," Iain said of the day he dropped her off at the halls of residence.
Yet over the next eight months, unknown to her parents, Ceara would seek help for mental health problems several times before she died, the inquest heard.
Just a few weeks after her arrival in Liverpool, Ceara attended A&E and told a mental health nurse she was struggling. She later attended a GP appointment and was prescribed anti-depressants.
Into the new year, Ceara continued to struggle. On 21 February 2018, the coroner heard she had texted a friend to say she had taken a number of tablets. The friend took Ceara to the reception in the halls of residence and told the staff member there.
They ordered her a taxi to get to A&E but nobody escalated the incident to other parts of the university, including its mental health team.
After being treated for the overdose at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, Ceara was assessed by two mental health nurses.
The inquest was told how records of that assessment were incomplete and not sent to Ceara's GP. One of the nurses, Lindsay Cleary, told the inquest she was sorry for the error, which came after a busy shift.
The day after, Ceara sent an email of her own accord to the university's mental health team requesting an appointment.
She did not receive a response for almost two months due to what the university said were "exceptional circumstances" - including a strike by staff at its mental health advice service.
Ceara was eventually offered an appointment, her first with the campus mental health team, but none of the plan put together to help her at the meeting was acted upon.
She died two weeks later on 11 May 2018.
The University of Liverpool said it had since "conducted a thorough review of the support Ceara was offered" and had also recruited more staff at its mental health advice service.
After her death, a letter from Ceara's GP practice was found in her room, asking her to get in touch. A handwritten note on the page urged "do it!!" underlined and in capital letters.
"We don't know why Ceara didn't feel able to tell us what was going on. However, we feel very strongly that someone in a position of responsibility needed to ask her if she wanted us to be told," Iain said.
"If we had been told what was happening with Ceara we would have made a difference."
'Progress being made'
Rosie Tressler, the chief executive of mental health charity Student Minds, told the BBC she was optimistic about the progress being made by the higher education sector with innovative schemes being tried and tested by institutions.
At Bristol University, where about a dozen students died through suspected suicide in a short period, all students are asked to "opt-in" to a policy which automatically informs a parent or guardian if there are concerns for their wellbeing in the future.
"We can't rest on our laurels. With so many challenges, we can't stop working on student mental health. It will require partnership between universities, NHS services and the student voice," Ms Tressler added.
What did the coroner say?
Liverpool area coroner Anita Bhardwaj concluded that Ceara died by suicide. She said Ceara experienced an "unacceptable delay" in accessing the university's mental health service and there were several missed opportunities to refer her for mental health support.
Mrs Bhardwaj said there was no record of discussions between medical professionals and Ceara about contacting her family.
She added: "It is difficult and unclear whether Ceara would have had a different outcome had she had additional mental health appointments, been given an urgent appointment, and had family involvement."
What did the University of Liverpool say?
Gavin Brown, of the University of Liverpool, said it had "instigated a number of improvements to mental health support services" with a £500,000 investment and new guidance on asking students about sharing information.
He said some students might not want to inform family and that in those cases staff would work with students to "identify alternative support networks".
The university has chosen not to adopt a campus-wide "opt-in" policy to automatically inform parents of concerns for a student's wellbeing.
Information and advice
If you or someone you know is struggling with issues raised by this story, find support through BBC Action Line.
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This meeting of Nato defence ministers is the first formal alliance get-together since the arrival of the Trump administration in Washington. Mr Trump's initial suggestion that Nato was in some sense "obsolete", along with his stated desire to do deals with Moscow, set alarm bells ringing in many capitals, where Russia is seen as a re-emerging strategic threat. | Jonathan MarcusDiplomatic correspondent@Diplo1on Twitter
Many in Europe see elements in the Trump administration as having an in-built antipathy towards multilateral institutions. There were also fears about certain officials' closeness to Moscow - a worry that the US might seek a strategic dialogue with Russia over Europeans' heads. Accordingly, the resignation of the president's controversial National Security Adviser Michael Flynn will not prompt many tears in Europe.
America's European allies will, though, at least to some extent, have been reassured by the subsequent noises that have come out of Washington. But they will want to hear direct reassurance from Gen James Mattis - Mr Trump's new defence secretary - that the alliance retains its centrality in US security thinking.
They will also want confirmed that all of the steps that the Obama administration took to reinforce deterrence in Europe - the deployment of additional combat brigades and an intensive series of exercises - will continue under the new man in the White House.
Of course Gen Mattis will come with some messages of his own. President Trump - indeed the US Congress - wants to see the European allies shoulder more of the cost of their own defence.
Washington has shown that it is willing to stump up troops and equipment, but while collective Nato expenditure is rising, too many Nato governments have been sluggish in bringing their expenditure up to the agreed target of 2% of GDP. According to the latest Nato figures only five allies, Estonia, Greece, Poland, the UK and the United States met or exceeded the 2% benchmark in 2016.
The demand from Washington that its allies spend more on their collective defence has been a consistent one over recent years. As a former Nato commander, Gen Mattis knows the alliance well and he has heard all of the excuses before. He will deliver the familiar message with more punch and with a clear implication that this time the US administration expects to see prompt action.
Gen Mattis also wants to see Nato become more agile and better at decision-making especially at times of crisis. Washington wants to see the alliance playing a greater role in international efforts to defeat terror and to help prop up failing states.
This is a difficult area which causes divisions among the alliance's European members as much as between European capitals and Washington. Iraq - where Nato has already agreed to conduct a small amount of training - could become a test case.
The Americans are already thinking about what will happen after Mosul is fully re-captured. As the situation on the ground transitions from all-out war-fighting, there will be a continuing need to build Iraqi capabilities. Here there are lots of things that the US believes Nato countries could do - training for border patrolling, instituting defence reforms and so on. So far the response among allies to the small-scale effort in Iraq has been, shall we say, limited.
As far as Washington is concerned, Nato countries don't just need to spend more - they need to significantly enhance their capabilities and be relevant to the sort of real-world tasks in which the US wants its partners to be engaged.
Nato's response to a more assertive Russia is all very well but it threatens to open up fissures between northern and eastern allies, on the one hand, who directly face Russia's modernising forces and countries on Nato's Mediterranean flank, on the other, who confront a very different set of challenges.
As the paroxysms in Syria and Libya have shown, the migrant or refugee crisis has repercussions throughout the Middle East and much of Europe.
At this meeting, Nato ministers want to apply a small corrective to enhance the focus on threats from the south. It's a modest start - a small command hub at the joint forces headquarters in Naples whose job will be to explore what Nato can contribute to dealing with the complex security challenges on its southern flank.
But as well as a demand for a more dynamic Nato agenda the US is eager to reassure its allies. A senior US Congressional delegation is visiting the Nato headquarters this week. The Nato meeting is followed by Europe's premier annual security event - the Munich conference - after which the US vice-president himself will also be stopping by at Nato.
It is all something of a curtain-raiser for the US president's own first visit to the alliance which will take place in late May. That looks set to be a fairly brief event - little more than a lunch - in Nato's brand new headquarters building, which inconveniently will not be finished in time for the summit.
By then it is hoped that Mr Trump will have fully made his peace with Nato. If not, a reduced scale summit in an unfinished building holds risks as well as opportunities. The headline writers could have a field day.
The hope is that this Nato ministerial meeting will set the course for more harmonious relations between the alliance and its most important, albeit mercurial member.
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Every day some 55 million people go about their lives across England. This is a snapshot of a nation across 24 hours.
| Photographs were added through the day, telling the everyday stories of the people who make up the nation.
'I made Sir Alex laugh'
23:04
Rob Gregory is a train dispatcher at Manchester Piccadilly station, and earlier waved away the last service leaving the city for London.
The 35-year-old, from Cadishead, Salford, says he enjoys being around people and has met some famous faces in his work, including Sir Alex Ferguson, Eddie Izzard and Rita Ora.
"Sir Alex was in first class, and the food menu that day had dishes from around the world, including Australia. I made him laugh by doing an Aussie accent," he says.
"People think we just use the whistle and baton, but there's a lot more to the job than that. There's a lot of helping people.
"It's a cliché but every day really is different. I've never been one to be cooped up in an office."
'Sometimes you've got trouble but we've got security at the door'
22:08
Murat Baser, 34, manages The Olive Tree takeaway in Norwich. Born in Ankara, Turkey, he moved to Norwich from Wales in 2011.
"I like Norwich, I like the university, the city centre and the historic castle," he says.
He also likes the football team. "I used to support Ipswich but I support Norwich now."
The shop doesn't close until 04:00 and the hours can be hard but Murat is philosophical about it. "What can we do? I've got a pregnant wife."
The shop is surrounded by bars and clubs but Murat doesn't think Prince of Wales Road is as bad as some people think. "Sometimes you've got trouble but we've got security at the door and straight away he sorts it out," he says.
'It smells of being Victorian'
21:12
Shaun Phillimore, 47, works as a toll man at the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol.
He's proud to carry on a tradition dating back more than 150 years since Brunel's famous bridge, spanning the Avon Gorge, was opened in 1864.
He says he has an "emotional attachment" to the structure.
"It's like a museum that you work in. It smells of being Victorian. The atmosphere hasn't changed," he says.
And the toll men are still working to a Victorian shift pattern, Shaun says.
"The hours we work are based around pub opening times, so everyone gets a chance to go down the pub when the shift ends."
'West Pier should never be forgotten'
20:04
Rachel Clark is chief executive of the West Pier Trust in Brighton. She's been in charge of heritage projects on the pier's site for 25 years.
"Unfortunately arson attacks in 2003 meant that the structure is now completely beyond repair.
"But we're conserving and celebrating the past, managing the present and planning for the future.
"We're about to open a centre celebrating the history of the pier and are restoring an original kiosk.
"It's so important that the West Pier should never be forgotten. The site is such an asset to the city and should be enjoyed by as wide a public as possible."
'Pakistani cricket team came in'
19:32
Talib Hussain is getting ready for a night's work at Imran's restaurant in Birmingham.
The city's Balti Triangle is renowned for its array of Indian restaurants and Imran's was among the first to arrive on Ladypool Road 40 years ago.
Now run by Imran Butt, whose father named the restaurant after him, it is not just a favourite among the Midlands' curry fans.
"The Pakistani cricket team came in when they played at Edgbaston a few weeks ago," he said.
Search for new talent
19:00
Millwall Community Trust runs football sessions, in conjunction with the Premier League and Fusion/City of London, on estates across Southwark and Lewisham with the aim of helping hard-to-reach youngsters and identify new talent.
Leyton Orient's Josh Koroma, Deshane Dalling of Huddersfield, Norwich's Diallang Jaiyesmi and Dejo Oshilaja of AFC Wimbledon are among those to have started their careers on ball courts like this one.
The Millwall Premier League Kicks programme reaches 1,900 people a year.
Coach Tariq Ibrahim says: "The sessions give kids an opportunity to play at a high level, keeps them out of trouble and allows them to talk freely about anything and everything."
'When you come to Redcar you have to have a Lemon Top'
16:43
Pacitto's is well known on Teesside for the creation of a summertime favourite - the Lemon Top. Whipped vanilla ice cream with a lemon sorbet finish, you can't move down the esplanade in Redcar without seeing someone tucking in to one.
The shop, opened by Marcus Pacitto's great-grandfather Giacomo, has been a feature of the seaside town for more then 85 years.
Speaking about their most popular item, Marcus, 52, says: "I don't know if it was my grandfather or if it was taken from elsewhere, but it just seems to have hit Redcar and it's a ridiculously popular dish.
"It kind of makes me proud, in a strange way. It's part of Redcar folklore now - in fact, it's a law - when you come to Redcar you have to have a Lemon Top."
'It's hard to pull myself away'
16:28
City archaeologist Scott Lomax spends much of his time below ground in Nottingham investigating long-lost man-made caves.
The caves, some dating back to the 9th Century, were once used as dungeons, bomb shelters, pub cellars and homes and Scott, 34, from Chesterfield, is determined to find and record every one.
"Caves are central to understanding the heritage of Nottingham," he says.
"There's so much archaeology and so many hundreds of caves it's hard to pull myself away from Nottingham."
'All the colours are really bright'
15:49
As school ends for the day, 10-year-old Harriet Laycock is playing with a series of art installations at the Humber Street Gallery, Hull.
The State of Play exhibition contains a number of contemporary works by UK and international artists including a remote-controlled robot, an arcade slot machine containing porcelain and terracotta coins, a knitting lamp and a miniature city modelled from paper.
She is pictured with a row of large sensory plastic circular discs that light up different colours when blown on. "It was really cool and fun; it was amazing how they do it. All the colours are really bright," she says.
'I always enjoy the greenifying process'
13:58
Actress Willemijn Verkaik is playing the role of Elphaba in Wicked at London's Apollo Victoria Theatre.
"I always enjoy the greenifying process, as slowly Elphaba will come out," she says.
The show is currently in its 11th year in the West End.
'I hope my son will be the next'
13:41
Jake Radford, 41, is the third generation of his family to run donkey rides on Blackpool beach.
"My grandfather Sydney Clews started the business 80-odd years ago," he says.
"They may have smartphones and tablets but children still like going for donkey rides on the beach. It's part of the traditional seaside.
"In the winter I work in a warehouse but I love being outdoors. It's been in the family three generations and I hope my son will be the next."
'Literally just had a baby'
12:54
Meet William Edwin, one of England's newest people. He was born at 10:50 BST in the maternity unit of Ipswich Hospital.
Here he is after a feed with his mother Kirstie Elliott and father Tito Brela. He is yet to meet his older brother Oliver, who is 14 months old.
While Ms Elliott was with the BBC she had a telephone call on her mobile from a delivery driver.
Her reply was one of the best you will hear today.
"I am sorry," she said to the caller. "I cannot really talk right now, I've literally just had a baby."
'People are pretty helpful'
12:00
University student Alex Hedley has an unusual job at The Open at Royal Birkdale in Lancashire.
The 21-year-old from Bourne, Lincolnshire, is part of a marketing feedback project run by Sheffield Hallam University.
"We do a lot of different events," Alex says. "We did the Royal Regatta at Henley and we're doing the Special Olympics in Sheffield next month.
"People are pretty helpful if you ask them questions when they're having a sit down. But not so if they are up in the stands as really they're trying to watch the golf."
'They were so calm'
11:30
Ian Lock, 42, is a critical care paramedic for Midlands Air Ambulance. He has been with the service since 2009 when he joined because he wanted a new challenge.
On his first mission he remembers going to a road accident in Coventry and recalls: "All the existing guys who'd been on for a while were so calm and I was a bit like a new boy with wide eyes thinking what on earth have I done, why am I here and how am I here and how I am going catch up with them?"
'Things people don't normally see'
11:14
Paul Dent is a fisherman working out of Blyth Harbour in Northumberland, whose family has been in the business for generations.
His catch depends on the season; prawns in winter and salmon during summer months. But today he's not at sea because of weather and tidal conditions so he's concentrating on maintenance on one of his boats.
The 47-year-old says being a fisherman is "the best job in the world".
"It can be feast or famine when it comes to pay, but I love it. You see sunrises, wonderful cloud formations, dolphins, there's just been some minke whales. Things people don't normally see. I love getting out of bed every morning."
'Reduced impact living'
09:54
The Wheelhouse family live in their self-built straw bale roundhouse at their Karuna Insight Design project. It is in an 18 acre forest healing farm site in Picklescott, within the Shropshire Hills Area of Natural Beauty.
Janta Wheelhouse says: "We are running a forest garden demonstration site inspired by local pioneer Robert Hart.
"Our deepest concerns are to support develop and raise awareness of reduced impact living, true sustainability, community, natural building, organic food growing, wildlife conservation, healing and art."
The family opens their home to the public through organized groups and tours, workshops and volunteer projects.
Turning around a 'floating city'
09:12
At the Mayflower Cruise Terminal in Southampton port, P&O cruise ship Oriana has berthed. That's when the clock starts ticking for terminal manager, John Garner, 69, and his team.
They have 10 hours to unload and restock the 1,880 passenger ship again for the next cruise.
"It's all on a time factor," he says. "It's got to fall in line for the ship to go out again at the right time - it's very challenging but it's a pleasure to work here."
Despite organising the smooth sailing of a countless number of the ships in his 49-year career, Mr Garner has an admission.
He's only actually been on one cruise.
'We're like a family'
07:52
Liam Reid's family has been selling fruit and vegetables on Leicester Market since World War One. The 32-year-old gets up every morning at 5am and works six days a week.
"There is a buzz [around the market]," he says. "Everyone is always having fun, there's always loads of banter. We're like a bit of a family down here."
Mr Reid says the weather does make a difference though. "The winters are minging," he adds. "They're freezing and it's not as busy - it's hard work. But in the summer you can have your shorts on, the sun's out and there's soft fruit."
The dawn patrol
06:38
As many people across the nation rise from their beds and perhaps perform a morning stretch, yoga teacher Stephen Harding, 58, is on dawn patrol for waves at Bigbury in Devon.
He's also a co-founder of the Surf Hams Film Collective - a group of artists who ride waves and make films.
"There's a synergy to surfing and yoga," he says. "Yoga's a great warm up and conditioner for the sport."
'We have more of a connection with the cows than people'
05:35
While most teenagers are asleep at 5am, 18-year-old twins Laura and Anna Callwood are milking cows near their home in Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire. The fifth generation farmers have overcome challenges to pursue their dream, as both are on the autistic spectrum.
"One teacher told us 'there's more to life than farming'," said Anna, but the comment made the Worcestershire Young Farmers Club members more determined. Despite concerns they could struggle with its demands, both are studying for an agriculture diploma. "We have more of a connection with the cows than people," said Laura. "They are used to us, they know us, and they love us."
'I see the sun rise every day'
04:17
Richard Parker is a third-generation milkman from Long Eaton in Derbyshire. Despite having to leave home at either 23:40 or 01:00, the 42-year-old loves his job and said it's "fantastic to see the sun rise every day".
He's often called upon to help elderly customers help carry things, change light bulbs, and even set up Skype calls. "I really do like that side of the job," he said. "You get that sense of being part of the community." He said he has two sleeps - a few hours at about 09:00 and then a couple more before he starts work.
'Every day is different'
03:34
Sarah Herbert, 38, has been a resource deployment officer at Devon and Cornwall Police's control room for 17 years.
"Every day is different, you never know what's going to come in and you leave with the feeling that you've helped someone positively."
She is also trained to speak to suicidal people.
"We've had a lot of trees down tonight, we've had a couple of people in mental health crises, and a break-in - it's been a steady night so far."
'I get paid to go out'
02:00
Teenager Lauren Sullivan started working in a bar as a Saturday job but enjoyed it so much she decided to take it up full time. "You get paid to go out," she said. "It's just like having your own family at work."
The 19-year-old works late shifts at the Actress and Bishop bar in Birmingham, which is open until the early hours. At weekends she works till 05:30 and then works out. "I go to the gym because it helps me get to sleep. Everyone thinks I'm a bit insane."
'I try to avoid the drunks'
01:14
Taxi driver and part-time actor Shameer Madarbakus from Alvaston works for Derby firm Albatross Cars. The 39-year-old prefers working during the day because night shifts can mean dealing with drunken customers. "You have to do your best in difficult situations," he said.
However, he loves chatting with friendly passengers: "You meet people from all walks of life. You experience all sorts of situations, some good some bad."
Shameer has appeared in Casualty and Eastenders and likes the flexibility of the job as it helps with his acting work and means he's able to spend time with his 17-month-old son.
Use #24HoursInEngland on social media to share your stories.
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Three church-owned buildings have gone on sale in the Isle of Man with a collective asking price of almost £2m. | The island parsonages at Andreas, Bride and Patrick have been described by the church as "surplus to requirements".
The properties, which are situated in the north and west of the Isle of Man, are expected to sell for £395,000, £595,000 and £875,000 respectively.
A spokesman from the Diocese of Sodor and Man said they are too expensive for the church to maintain and repair.
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A scheme which offers female students scholarships to girls in rural South Africa if they can prove they are virgins has been condemned by human rights groups. The BBC's Nomsa Maseko visited the town to find out more. | Thubelihle Dlodlo is nervous about leaving home in Emcitsheni village in rural KwaZulu-Natal. The 18-year-old has won a prized scholarship, but there is a catch: she only qualifies for the funding if she keeps her virginity.
"Remaining a virgin is my only chance to get an education because my parents can't afford to take me to school," she says.
To continue receiving her funding, Ms Dlodlo has to undergo regular virginity tests but she says she does not mind.
"Virginity testing is part of my culture, it is not an invasion of my privacy and I feel proud after I'm confirmed to be pure."
The age of consent in South Africa is 16 years, though there is an exception which makes it legal for those older than 12 and younger than 16 to have sex with each other.
Even with a strict interpretation of the law, Ms Dlodlo is already more than two years over the age of consent, but is only just starting her university career.
But activists argue these tests are intrusive and that it is not fair to link opportunity to education and sex in this way:
"What is really worrying is that they are only focusing on the girl child and this is discriminatory and will not address problems with teenage pregnancy and HIV infection rates," says Palesa Mpapa from campaign group People Opposing Women Abuse.
"It's not only the girl that is to blame," she says.
uThukela municipality mayor Dudu Mazibuko, who introduced this special category dedicated to virgin girls, disagrees.
"The scholarship is not a reward but a lifelong investment in the life of a girl, we are also not condemning those who've made different choices because we accommodate them in other scholarships," she said.
The council offers more than 100 scholarships, 16 of which have been given to virgin female students.
Culture and tradition
In this part of the country, virginity testing is common practice. In Zulu culture, virginity testing is done by elderly women.
It qualifies Zulu maidens to participate in the annual reed dance which takes place every September at Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini's royal palace.
This practice is not against the law in South Africa but it has to be done with consent.
Community leader Dudu Zwane has made it her mission to encourage young girls to abstain from sex. Affectionately known as "Mum Dudu", the 58-year-old gives talks at schools.
"It's very important for these girls to focus on their studies and stay away from boys," she says.
The retired nurse also conducts virginity tests on young women. She agrees that her methods are not scientific but says she looks out for certain signs to prove that the girl has not had sex.
"The social standing of young women who remain virgins increases and many girls take pride in their results after being tested," she said.
Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini recently questioned the merits of virginity testing.
The practice "complements other harmful practices such as female genital mutilation", she said in a statement which upset traditionalists.
In rural parts of KwaZula-Natal, virginity is celebrated and remaining "pure" is a source of pride for families.
Ms Dlodlo says her friends are also virgins and envy her for being awarded the scholarship.
She says she does not have a boyfriend, as she doesn't want to find herself in a position where she is pressured to have sex.
"I want to be a role model", she says.
Teenage pregnancy in South Africa
Source: Human Sciences Research Council, World Bank; Stats SA 2013
Investigation
Virginity testing is seen by some as the answer to stop the increasing numbers of teenage pregnancy and HIV and Aids.
Teenage pregnancy is on the rise in South Africa.
In 2013, a survey released by Stats SA as part of its General Household found that teen pregnancies had risen to nearly 100,000, up from 68,000 just two years earlier.
The South African Council for Educators and the education department labelled the figures an unprecedented crisis.
This is despite the fact that the country's schools offer sex education and that free maternal care is also available nationwide.
South Africa already has the highest number of people living with HIV in the world, but what is even more alarming is that the highest new HIV infections are amongst young women aged 15-24.
Following the outcry, the South African Human Rights Commission has said it will investigate whether the scholarships are against the constitution.
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A third man arrested over the attempted theft of a rhino horn from Norwich Castle Museum has been charged. | Patrick Kiely, 29, of Eleanor Street, Bow, east London, has been charged over the incident in February.
Nihad Mahmod, 19, of no fixed address, was last month jailed for two-and-a-half years for attempted theft.
Mr Kiely is due to appear before Cambridge magistrates on 10 August. A 21-year-old from Newham, east London, remains on bail.
The museum has since replaced the rhino horn with a replica.
On the black market, rhino horns can sell for about £50,000 per kilo.
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Bloody Sunday was the name given to Sunday 30 January 1972 after paratroopers opened fire on a civil rights march in Londonderry, killing 13 people and wounding 15. | Forty-seven years later, prosecutors have announced one former soldier - Soldier F - has been charged with the murders of James Wray and William McKinney.
He has also been charged with the attempted murder of four other men on the day.
Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Herron said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute 16 other former soldiers and two former Official IRA members involved on the day.
Here is some of the reaction to that decision:
Liam Wray, brother of victim James Wray
"I'm relieved that that's happening obviously as we've been fighting for 47 years.
"But I'm very saddened for the other Bloody Sunday families who have not got justice here today and whose hearts must be broken and sore now.
"It's been a sad day, but one obviously that the Wray family are relieved [to see] in relation to our deceased brother.
"There are a lot of sad, sad and heartbroken people today."
NI Secretary of State Karen Bradley
"We are indebted to those who served with courage and distinction to bring peace to Northern Ireland, and I have the deepest sympathy for the suffering of the families of those who were killed on Bloody Sunday and all those who lost loved ones during the Troubles.
"Everyone agrees that the current process for investigating the past in Northern Ireland needs to be reformed. That is why we need to get the institutions to investigate the past set up quickly and completed as soon as possible.
"We will set out how we intend to move forward shortly.
"As this is now an ongoing legal matter, it would be inappropriate to comment further."
Linda Nash, sister of victim William Nash
"I'm feeling devastated.
"I just feel let down by a law and a justice system that's supposed to protect people and bring anybody to book for crimes they've committed in the past - and it's just not happened.
"The most difficult thing I had to do today was to call my children and tell them that there are no prosecutions for their granda and uncle."
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson
"We are indebted to those soldiers who served with courage and distinction to bring peace to Northern Ireland.
"The welfare of our former service personnel is of the utmost importance and we will offer full legal and pastoral support to the individual affected by today's decision.
"This includes funding all his legal costs and providing welfare support."
Alan Barry, founder of Justice for Northern Ireland Veterans
"It's very one-sided.
"No soldier should be charged. It happened 47 years ago, a line in the sand needs to be drawn and people need to move on.
"Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, veterans are being left open to prosecution while terrorists have been cleansed of their past crimes."
John Kelly, brother of victim Michael Kelly
"We've had a terrible disappointment.
"We have walked a long journey since our fathers and brothers were brutally slaughtered on the streets of Derry on Bloody Sunday.
"Over that passage of time all the parents of the deceased have died - we are here to take their place.
"The Bloody Sunday families are not finished yet."
Michael McKinney, brother of victim William McKinney
"Everyone deserves justice, including those whose loved ones were murdered by the British state."
He said it was "disappointing" for families who had not received news of prosecutions, adding: "we are mindful of those families who received that news today, and believe me, there are many.
"For us here today it is important to point out that justice for one family is justice for all of us."
Colonel Richard Kemp, retired Army officer
"We have terrorists who are being treated better over their despicable actions.
"The very thought that one man now out of all of those involved - from politicians to generals to soldiers on the ground and of course those people who were provoking the situation on the other side - only one man is being held culpable for everything that happened pretty much.
"I suspect the real chances of a successful prosecution against this man is very low after almost half a century has passed."
Geraldine Doherty, niece of victim Gerald Donaghey
"While we as a group of families and individuals may have differing views on whether or not the soldiers who carried out the shootings should face jail, or how long they should spend in jail, we are all agreed that they should face the due process of the law.
"And they should do so in public.
"The very few British soldiers that were charged during the conflict here were named, and the same should apply to those being charged now.
"Killers should not benefit from anonymity."
Gregory Campbell, DUP East Londonderry MP
"When events which occurred on what became known as Bloody Sunday are focused upon, they are taken in isolation from what occurred in the days leading up to 30th January.
"The Saville Report ignored those events, including the murder of two RUC officers Sgt Peter Gilgun and Constable David Montgomery, gunned down by a Provisional IRA sub-machine gun in the vicinity of the march just three days beforehand.
"There is still a disproportionate focus on the small proportion of the 10% of deaths attributed to those who were attempting to serve the community in difficult and often very dangerous situations."
John Teggart, whose father was killed in Army shootings in Ballymurphy, Belfast in 1971
"It's a victory for the families and a victory for them is a victory for us also.
"I'm a bit disappointed that just one soldier was charged.
"But I don't think the fight is over, I would hope the fight is not over, for families like ourselves [the Ballymurphy families], we are here today in solidarity with the Bloody Sunday families like they have supported us for many many years."
Michelle O'Neill, Sinn Féin deputy leader
"There is of course huge disappointment that only one former soldier has been charged with two counts of murder and four attempted murders.
"But even the fact that one former soldier is to face trial is a significant achievement.
"I also commend the dignity and solidarity shown by the families today in response to the decision. As they said themselves, justice for one family, is justice for them all."
Colum Eastwood, SDLP leader
"This campaign for truth, justice and accountability has been met with prevarication, equivocation and obstruction at every level.
"In sharp contrast, the unshakeable dignity and solidarity of the families has been immense.
"I welcome the decision to prosecute Soldier F. The absence of prosecution for others is not, however, a vindication of their actions. They remain unjustified and unjustifiable."
Johnny Mercer, Conservative MP and former Army officer
"An abject failure to govern and legislate, on our watch as a Conservative administration.
"When I speak of a chasm between those who serve and their political masters in this country, I mean this."
Simon Coveney, Irish deputy prime minister
"Every civilian who died or was injured on Bloody Sunday was an innocent victim who posed no danger to anyone.
"My thoughts are with all of their families right now.
"A decision has been made today to pursue a prosecution and it is very important that no one prejudice that process."
Ciaran Shiels, solicitor for firm representing some Bloody Sunday families
"It's a very bittersweet day for our clients. I have five families who got great news today, I have 17 families who got crushing news today.
"They are very clear legal avenues that are open.
"What we do now is submit further submissions and ask for the decisions not to prosecute to be reviewed.
"If the reasons given by the Public Prosecution Service do not withstand proper legal or judicial scrutiny we then challenge by way of judicial review in the High Court."
Denis Bradley, former co-chairman of the Consultative Group on the Past
"What we also need to learn today is that the criminal justice system is not the place to deal with legacy.
"This is another confirmation of that which we have known, but which we have failed to grasp and which we fail to tackle.
"Every time that people end up in the judicial process it's about innocence and guilt and it's very difficult to do guilt 45 years on."
Doug Beattie, Ulster Unionist MLA and former Army officer
"The PSNI looked at the evidence, passed it to the PPS and they decided - based on the evidence - to prosecute one former soldier.
"This is the law, it must be respected by all and it is now for the Courts to decide.
"I have long said nobody is above the law and nobody should be held to a greater or lesser standard than anyone else.
"My thoughts remain with the families of all the innocent victims of the Troubles."
Eamonn McCann, former civil rights activist
"In emotional terms this is not the end of it, that's certainly true.
"You would only have to be here and see the distress of some of the Bloody Sunday families.
"Legally we haven't entirely run out of road yet, politically of course, many people including myself have been pointing out that the only people being considered for charges were lower ranked soldiers."
Sir Michael Fallon, former defence secretary
"I think it would be nice for everybody if we started to hear about some of the IRA terrorist cases being reopened and some of them being put on trial.
"It's very important that if we're going to have a process like this, that IRA men are also investigated and where necessary, where there is the evidence, prosecuted as well.
"It would be quite wrong simply to prosecute those who served."
Jean Hegarty, sister of victim Kevin McElhinney
"We'll make a decision on where we go from here and take advice on what further courses of action are available to us, if any.
"There won't be any hasty decisions.
"We're absolutely delighted for the families who have achieved a degree of satisfaction with the prosecution and we'll look forward to supporting them through that and we'll see where it goes from here."
Bob Stewart, Conservative MP and former Army officer
"In this case, this man went out to serve his country a very long time ago.
"Mistakes were made, clearly, possibly by him, mistakes were made by his superiors, but they were mistakes.
"They were not acts of deliberation and I think people should bear that in mind and he shouldn't go to court for that reason."
Jim Allister, assembly member and Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader
"In 1972 we also had Bloody Friday, but IRA murders don't count it seems when it comes to this distorted dealing with the past.
"The pursuit of soldiers while terrorists continue to go scot-free is now very much part of the rewrite of history so promoted by IRA/Sinn Féin."
George Cowie, Army veteran
"It's absolutely disgraceful. I did two emergency tours in Londonderry and south Armagh and there were procedures in place to deal with any wrongdoing."
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A jury has been sworn in for the trial of a mine manager over the deaths of four miners at a Swansea Valley pit. | Malcolm Fyfield, 58, was the manager of the Gleision drift mine near Cilybebyll when it flooded in September 2011.
David Powell, 50, Charles Breslin, 62, Phillip Hill, 44, and Garry Jenkins, 39, died in the incident.
Mr Fyfield denies manslaughter while MNS Mining, the company which operated the site, denies corporate manslaughter.
Eight women and four men were selected for the jury.
The first evidence at Swansea Crown Court is expected to be heard later this week.
The trial is due to last until at least the end of June.
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In the words of Janice, "Oh. My. God." | It looks like all six Friends stars will reunite as part of a special programme to honour one of the show's directors.
Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, and Lisa Kudrow are all set to appear as part of a tribute to James Burrows.
So with Friends no longer "on a break", fans have taken to twitter to celebrate (although not like Ross and Monica at that New Year's Eve party).
Here are some of the best memes and reactions on Twitter, using the hashtag FriendsReunion.
@brigzap tweeted: "Me finding out about the #FriendsReunion."
@
This one uses the "turkey scene" to great effect.
@EderEditado felt like dancing, apparently.
While @ashleymccuen decided to post this picture of Ross and a Martini glass.
And @monhas99 used David Schwimmer's character too in their post.
Confusingly @
The two hour show will be screened on NBC in February.
But the network's chairman of entertainment, Bob Greenblatt, says getting the entire cast of Friends in the "same room" might be tricky.
"I'm hoping all six of them will be all in the same room at the same time, but I'm not sure if we can logistically pull that off," he said.
@MarcSnetiker is just hoping Jennifer Aniston is there.
@DrakeBell tweeted this after discovering the news.
Some fans are unhappy the reunion is only part of a tribute show - but Joey (sorry, Matt LeBlanc) can't wait to appear.
@Matt_LeBlanc tweeted: "Should be a good time!"
For more stories like this one you can now download the BBC Newsbeat app straight to your device. For iOS go here. For Android go here.
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Belarusians are groping to find an explanation for the massive explosion that ripped through a metro station in Minsk, killing 12 people and injuring more than 200, earlier this week, reports the BBC's David Stern in the city. | Belarus is on high alert after what officials now believe was a terrorist attack.
They say a bomb went off at close to 1800 local time, at the height of rush hour, in the Oktyabrskaya station - one of Minsk's busiest.
The explosive device, which was packed with nails and ball-bearings, and was equivalent to 5kg of TNT, was placed under a bench on the platform, they add. It may have been detonated by remote control.
The Interior Minister, Anatoly Kuleshov, said the aim of the assailants was to "kill as many people as possible".
Memorial
On Tuesday, mourners gathered by the entrances to the metro station, where a spontaneous memorial had sprung up.
Every few moments someone would step forward to lay a flower on one of the numerous rapidly rising piles, or to light a votive candle.
In a recess off the street, there was a more formal shrine - six white boards with the names of those killed simply printed on them. In front was a low, red platform where an even bigger pile of flowers was growing.
The crowd, which sometimes grew to a couple hundred, was for the most part silent.
People stood as if rooted to the ground, facing the makeshift monument, their faces etched with disbelief.
"I am in shock," said Lidiya Vintskevich, a journalism student who works at a local radio station. "I can't believe that something like this could happen in our town, we are so small."
The Belarusian security services, which are still known by their Soviet-era acronym, the KGB, said a composite photo of the possible perpetrator was now being circulated.
"The man is of non-Slavic appearance, up to 27 years old, and well-built. He was dressed in a brown coat and a woollen hat," KGB chairman Vadim Zaitsev said, adding that the suspect could have been hired to place the bomb.
The country's deputy state prosecutor also said that several people had been detained, but did not provide any further details.
'No sense'
Belarus has come under increasing political and economic pressure in past months.
The United States and European Union slapped harsh sanctions on the Belarusian government, after it clamped down on the country's opposition following presidential elections last year.
President Alexander Lukashenko and other top officials were forbidden from travelling to the West.
Meanwhile the country's central bank is running out of hard currency, and many analysts are predicting a steep devaluation of the currency, the ruble.
President Lukashenko already governs what is considered Europe's strictest authoritarian state. Many Belarusians do support him, however, in part in gratitude for the stability and law and order that he provides.
Mr Lukashenko has promised to turn Belarus "inside out" to find those responsible.
In comments just after the blast, he also said that it could have been an attempt to destabilise the country, and was possibly a "present from abroad".
Many Belarusians are nevertheless at a loss to imagine who would benefit from such an attack.
"I can't imagine why anyone would do this," said Stepan, a local businessman who asked not to use his last name. "I can't imagine what they would gain or what they hoped to achieve. It makes absolutely no sense."
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Three schools in Hartlepool are to be rebuilt or refurbished thanks to £19m of government funding. | Barnard Grove Primary School, Manor College of Technology and Holy Trinity C of E Primary School received the funding from the Priority School Building Programme (PSBP).
The first school is expected to be rebuilt by 2015.
Hartlepool Borough councillor Chris Simmons said it was "important" for the children's future potential.
The schools do not yet know how much will be spent on them individually and which ones will receive funding to support a rebuild or refurbishment.
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Who wants the UK to stay in the EU? | By John CampbellBBC News NI Economics & Business Editor
Sinn Féin, the SDLP, the Ulster Unionists, Alliance and the Green Party, as well as the Irish government, are campaigning for a remain vote.
Who wants the UK to leave the EU?
The DUP, the TUV and the left-wing People Before Profit party are campaigning for a leave vote.
What about businesses?
Big business - with a few exceptions - tends to be in favour of Britain staying in the EU because it makes it easier for them to move money, people and products around the world.
Bombardier, Northern Ireland's largest manufacturing employer, has told its staff "it is better for our company that the UK remains within the EU".
Many major Northern Ireland business organisations are officially neutral, as is the Ulster Farmers Union.
The most high-profile local businessman in favour of Brexit is William Wright, the founder of bus-maker Wrightbus. He said he was concerned about immigration and the UK would be better off going it alone.
How much does Northern Ireland contribute to the EU and how much do we get in return?
The UK made a gross contribution of £12.9bn in 2015. Northern Ireland has about 3% of the UK's population so its contribution can be estimated at £374m.
In terms of what comes back, subsidies for farming and fishing, alongside structural funds were £320m in 2015.
Special peace and cross-border funds added about £50m - though we'll stop getting much of that money after 2020.
There are also science, education and research funds - they're at least £10m a year.
So Northern Ireland is probably still a beneficiary of the EU, or at the very least breaks even.
What would happen with the Irish border if the the UK left the EU?
People can move freely between Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland without passport checks due to the 'common travel area', a fairly informal arrangement which pre-dates the creation of the EU.
Both the UK and Irish governments would push to see it continue even if the UK left the EU.
But we can't be certain that it will - legal experts suggest it could only continue with the agreement of other EU countries.
If there's no agreement we could either see a harder border or more checks when travelling to Great Britain from any part of the island of Ireland.
There's also a possibility we could see the return of customs posts.
If a post-Brexit trade deal didn't include free access to markets then things like tariffs would have to be enforced at the border.
Is there much EU migration to Northern Ireland?
The last census, which dates from 2011, recorded 83,000 people from elsewhere in the EU living in Northern Ireland.
Of that group 37,000 were from the Republic of Ireland.
Medical card data estimates that about 4,000 people from the EU came to live here last year, of which about 750 were from the Republic, but we don't have any reliable figures on how many left.
The vast majority of EU citizens coming to the UK say they're here to work - and the figures bear that out.
In 2015 men from newer EU countries living in the UK had a 90% employment rate compared to 78% among UK-born men.
What would the impact of Brexit be on the Northern Ireland economy?
The consensus among economists is that Brexit would disrupt trading relationships and make the UK less attractive to foreign investors.
A number of reports from research organisations have said Northern Ireland would be particularly vulnerable because of the structure of its economy.
For example food, beverages and agricultural products make up 35% of Northern Ireland's exports to the EU, while for the rest of the UK the sector makes up only 10%.
Those products could face high tariffs if a free trade deal cannot be reached between the UK and the EU.
Dr Graham Gudgin, one of the small number of prominent pro-Brexit economists, has said leaving would not have "much effect" on the Northern Ireland economy.
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Opening hours at 21 libraries in Wiltshire are to be reduced due to spending cuts.
| At a meeting on Tuesday, Wiltshire councillors decided all the county's 31 libraries would remain open.
The authority had said it was looking for "innovative ways" to retain all the libraries. The remaining 10 will be managed by volunteers.
The cabinet also decided the new Pewsey Library will be able to open for three hours on a Saturday.
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The latest Tory call for an EU referendum - delivered to the prime minister last night by backbench awkward squaddie John Baron and an anonymous accomplice - adds new data to the eurosceptic numbers game among Conservative MPs.
| Mark D'ArcyParliamentary correspondent
The backbench motion calling for a referendum, last October, was supported by 81 Tory rebels; now "100 plus" Conservative MPs, including some ministerial aides, have backed Mr Baron's call for the government to legislate for a referendum after the next election - and Mr Baron adds that he could have collected more signatures, but wanted to deliver his letter in good time.
In short, he thinks he has the support of practically every Conservative MP outside the government, and he expects that fact to weigh heavily on the PM.
His proposal is to commit the next government to holding a referendum, and put whoever is in charge in the position of having to repeal a law, if they want to avoid the referendum. More than that, party leaders would certainly face questions about whether they would go ahead with the referendum, in the course of the next election campaign.
One key detail is not set out: the question which would be put to the public at the referendum. Mr Baron argues that, two years from now, the EU is likely to have been transformed by the euro crisis, and it is impossible to know what kind of organisation it will have become. So he proposes that the referendum question should be on the "nature of our relationship with the EU".
There's plenty of euro-sceptic activity in the undergrowth at the moment - with cross party discussions about the response, if there is, for example, a collapse of confidence in another euro-zone country, or the expulsion of one of the member states from the single currency.
Next week, David Cameron will report back to MPs on the outcome of the latest EU summit. He can expect a rough ride. And that will be just another step in what promises to be an unrelenting campaign.
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Doctors in Kazakhstan who examined a man complaining he'd lost his appetite have found a surgical clamp lodged inside him, left over from surgery more than a decade ago, it's been reported. | News from Elsewhere...... media reports from around the world, found by BBC Monitoring
The patient had been walking around with the 20cm (8in) lump of metal in his gut since undergoing an operation in the city of Shakhtinsk 13 years ago, the Novy Vestnik newspaper reports. A surgeon had forgotten to remove the clamp during an abdominal operation, but the man noticed nothing until this summer, when his wife sent him to the local clinic after he went off his food.
Doctors were initially at a loss to explain his symptoms, until they tried an X-ray scan. "I've never seen anything like it - at least not lasting this long," says radiologist Baurzhan Aibayev. "Foreign objects usually cause some sort of medical problem, but in this case he felt nothing for more than 12 years!" The Kazakh Medical and Pharmaceutical Oversight Committee tells Novy Vestnik that it won't take any steps against the absent-minded surgeon, as no one has filed a complaint, a decision echoed by the hospital in question. The patient himself is to undergo another operation to remove the wayward clamp. "It's difficult to imagine someone who's about to go under the knife picking a fight with the doctors," the paper concludes.
Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.
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It holds nuclear missile codes, it's in charge of the security of the United States, and its ultimate boss, the US president, is a prolific tweeter. But when it comes to handling its own Twitter account, the Pentagon could do with improving its skills. | By Rozina SiniBBC UGC & Social News
On Thursday the US Department of Defense accidentally retweeted a tweet calling for Donald Trump to resign as US president.
The original tweet which also called for two other US politicians to step down following sexual harassment allegations was tweeted from an account belonging to @ProudResister, an anti-Trump activist.
It said: "The solution is simple. Roy Moore: Step down from the race. Al Franken: Resign from congress, Donald Trump: Resign from the presidency. GOP: Stop making sexual assault a partisan issue. It's a crime as is your hypocrisy."
The Pentagon's main account retweeted the message to its 5.2 million followers before quickly deleting it. But the embarrassing blunder did not go unnoticed. A screen shot of the Pentagon's retweet was itself retweeted and shared, and the reaction to it was swift.
"Uh someone made a mistake," posted one Twitter user.
Another user tweeted: "Looks like that ex-Twitter employee found a new gig at the Pentagon," referring to a similar social media blunder earlier this month when a Twitter employee deactivated President Trump's account on their last day in the job.
At the time, the president brushed off the 11-minute Twitter outage, but the incident raised questions about the security of President Trump's account.
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Chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White tweeted an explanation of how the post got out to its followers.
But many social media users were dissatisfied by the response.
"Are we supposed to believe this was done by mistake? Somebody in @DeptofDefense needs to be fired along with anybody working with them," posted one Twitter user.
However, another saw the funny side and tweeted a joke response from the Pentagon: "There has been no coup. The President is safe."
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Most of the annual hordes of trekkers left the slopes of Nepal's Himalayas weeks ago, after the monsoon rains descended. But police remain in the region - investigating the death of a young Belgian woman and the disappearance of a British man. | By Surendra PhuyalBBC Nepali, Kathmandu
The headless body of Debbie Maveau, 23, was found on 14 June on a forest slope below the Gosaikunda trekking trail, more than two weeks after she went missing.
"Her body was decomposed when we found it. Her head was two or three feet below her body," says Achyut Pudasaini, a police officer based in Dhunche, near Langtang, where her body was found, told the BBC.
"It wasn't clear how that happened."
Closer to Everest base camp, British trekker Zisimos Alexander Souflas, 27, has been missing since 23 April, when at the break of dawn he reportedly left his guesthouse at Namche Bazar, a popular Sherpa hamlet en route to the camp.
Investigations in the remote Himalayas are challenging at the best of times, but as the police continue their work through the wet summer months they face serious obstacles.
Nepal's mountainous terrain - prone to natural disasters such as landslides, floods and avalanches - makes searches for missing trekkers a difficult task. There is no dedicated search and rescue unit, so this is a job for local police.
And apart from the challenge of the elements, wild animals roam the area, complicating the task of finding and identifying bodies, police say.
They still do not know what happened to Debbie Maveau.
"Even the post-mortem report couldn't determine the cause of her death and that is what makes Maveau's case very complicated for us to investigate. All her belongings and money were intact with her body," says Pudaisini.
"The trail is generally very quiet and the weather isn't too good - with floods and landslides, the investigation isn't yielding much."
Searches for Souflas have been equally fruitless.
"It's raining continuously, very foggy and misty, and the trails are either slippery or landslide prone but we haven't given up," says Tukaram Adhikari, a junior police officer at Namche Bazaar police station, and part of the investigation team.
"We don't have adequate mountain gear and search equipment, but all the police staff in four stations in the Everest region are alert and working hard to trace his whereabouts," says Adhikari.
After combing all the trails in the area, Adhikari says his police team searched the area around Imja glacial lake at 5,010m (16,437 ft).
"It was snowy and the lake was frozen and that made it very risky to move around," he says. "It was a very tough climb. One of our colleagues even suffered high altitude sickness, and had to be carried down."
Police say they haven't give up hope of a breakthrough.
The Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal (TAAN) says the chances of something untoward happening in the mountains are low. Of the 735,000 foreign tourists who visited Nepal in 2011, about 35%, or a quarter of a million, went trekking, according to Nepal's trekking agents' association.
"It's very safe, too, so long as you are physically fit to do it, have the necessary gear and take proper safety and security measures such as hiring a guide and registering your movements at several entry and exit points," says TAAN's Gangaram Pant.
The registration system for trekkers - the Trekkers' Information Management System (TIMS) - requires climbers to check in at points along their route - if they go missing, information is always stored about their last known location.
"Unless you are registered, nobody will have a clue where you could be. If you slip and fall and break your back who is going to help you? Wildlife definitely won't," says Dawa Steven Sherpa, who has climbed Everest.
Tourism officials say trekkers should always have someone with them, and new laws to make it compulsory for foreign trekkers to employ guides are being considered by the home and tourism ministry.
The UK Foreign Office also warns trekkers against walking alone, or becoming separated from their group at any time.
"There have been reports of trekkers being robbed where violence or the direct threat of violence has been used. Isolated incidences of rape have also been reported on trekking routes, and female travellers in particular should stay vigilant," its website states.
"Since 2003, four British nationals and eight other foreign nationals who had been trekking alone were reported missing."
Miracles do happen.
Last year, a missing Japanese trekker, Makiko Iwafuchi, 49, survived on leaves and bamboo shoots for two weeks before she was rescued.
In February 1992 an Australian trekker, James Scott, then 22, was rescued alive after 42 days without proper food, water or shelter. His sister flew from Brisbane to mount a long and arduous rescue mission.
Not every missing trekker in the Himalayas will be as lucky.
And police warn that as the monsoon rains continue, the task of finding out what happened in the Maveau and Souflas cases gets that much harder.
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A cyclist has died three days after a collision involving a lorry in the City of London.
| The 26-year-old woman was cycling on Ludgate Hill, close to the junction with Farringdon Street, when the crash happened at about 11:30 BST on Friday.
She was taken to the Royal London Hospital where she died on Monday morning.
City of London Police said the lorry driver had not been arrested but officers were investigating the crash.
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Janina Dawidowicz was a nine-year-old girl when World War II engulfed Poland. As Jews, she and her family were soon driven into the Warsaw Ghetto, but she later escaped and remains one of its few survivors. | By Monica WhitlockBBC World Service
The extermination of the Jews of Poland began 70 years ago.
On the morning of 22 July 1942, Nazi soldiers marched the first group of 6,000 Jews held in the Warsaw Ghetto to the railway sidings, the Umschlagplatz, and put them on trains to the Treblinka gas facility.
Janina Dawidowicz, born in 1930, is one of the few people who lived in the ghetto and survived. She recalls the posters going up, ordering residents to report to the Umschlagplatz at 11 o'clock. Any one disobeying would be shot.
Many people, she says, lined up willingly. The Germans told residents that they were being sent to labour camps in eastern Poland where they could escape the misery. What is more, there would be handouts of free food.
"People were offered, I think, two loaves of bread, some margarine or some sugar if they reported to Umschlagplatz. Nobody could imagine that you were going straight into a gas chamber."
The first to go were those with the least power to resist - the old, the ill and the under-12s.
They included, from Janina's apartment, a fragile young woman called Rachel. She had once shown 11-year-old Janina her carefully-stored wedding outfit - a satin skirt and white blouse. When Rachel did not come home and Janina found her trousseau missing, she understood where Rachel had gone.
"Our landlord and landlady went next. They took all their kitchen stuff - pots and pans, large bundles tied up in a sheet, back and front, they could hardly walk. But they went. They waved goodbye and promised to write when they arrived in the East.''
The ghetto had been created as a holding pen for Jews in November 1940. The large Jewish population of Warsaw - a third of the city - was confined to a tiny area, where they were walled in.
They were joined by tens of thousands of Jews from other parts of Poland, Hungary and other German-occupied countries.
"You heard every language in the street," remembers Janina. "Yiddish, Polish, Hungarian, German."
Janina and her well-to-do family came from the city of Kalisz.
"I was an only child watched over very carefully by a nanny - frightfully well brought up - white gloves to play in the park! My mother had been to finishing school in Zurich... she could not boil an egg when the war started."
Janina and her parents squeezed into a tiny room, so damp that "I could write sums on the wall", and the sheets had to be dried before bedtime. They cooked on sawdust between two bricks, and fetched water from a communal tap. Food was bread mixed with sawdust and potatoes, rationed to 108 calories per day.
Janina's cousin Rosa had a lively toddler, who slowly starved to death. Like thousands of ghetto children, Cousin Rosa's little boy stopped walking, shriveled and died.
Desperate for a wage, Janina's father Marek got a job in the Jewish Law and Order service - the Jewish police.
The service was often reviled as a tool of Nazi policy, along with the Jewish administration. But at the time, the job seemed to hold out the best chance of keeping the family alive until the end of the war. Marek escorted cartloads of rubble out of the ghetto, and smuggled in small amounts of food.
Families tried fiercely to maintain a semblance of ordinary life between 1940 and 1942.
There were tremendous efforts to run community soup kitchens and look after orphans whose parents had starved to death, or died of the diseases that raged in the ghetto.
Many children like Janina attended illegal schools, risking instant execution for teachers and pupils if discovered.
There were choirs, physics lectures and cabaret shows to raise money for social services. Classes were held in every conceivable skill from cookery to paper-flower making.
A symphony orchestra played at the theatre, complete with the stars of the music that all Warsaw had danced to before the war.
The Polish record company, Electro-Syrena, had been Jewish-owned and had produced hundreds of hits before 1939. Now, musicians and technicians alike lived in the ghetto - jazz men like the Gold brothers, Henryk and Artur, who'd run the famous Adria night club.
All they had to do was outlast the war, people told themselves, and life would continue - perhaps not as before, but at least in some form.
"My mother, my grandmother would say: 'Oh, we need new curtains in the living room,'" Janina remembers.
"The carpets! We'll get Sophie and Stephanie in to give us a hand. No-one believed it would go on. France had fallen, but there was England and the USSR and America - there was a whole world. Of course it was going to end."
At the time, it was a reasonable wager. It was not until the autumn of 1941 and the German failure to march victoriously through the Soviet Union, that Nazi policy moved from the mass shooting of European Jews to comprehensive extermination.
Through July and August 1942, another 6,000 were sent from the ghetto to Treblinka each day.
By the end of the summer, more than a quarter of a million were gone, dead within hours of arrival at Treblinka.
Janina, as a policeman's daughter, was one of the few children alive.
"Our whole block of flats was empty. The father of the twins living above us threw himself out of the window when he came home and didn't find the children."
Janina's aunt was taken, then her grandparents. Then the police began being rounded up.
In the last weeks of the ghetto, in the winter of 1942, Janina's parents managed to smuggle her out to Christian Warsaw. As her father had police papers, he was allowed to escort lorries through the gates, so she slipped out with him.
In Warsaw, she was kept hidden by Catholic nuns, changing her name and concealing her identity.
Her parents stayed behind. She never saw them again. Janina thinks her father died in the Majdanek extermination camp. She does not know how or where her mother was killed.
After the war, Janina found one uncle. She returned to Kalisz, hoping someone else might reappear. She waited for over a year before giving up.
After two years in a children's home, Janina sailed in a ship full of emigrants to start a new life in Melbourne, Australia, where she got a job in a factory. It was in Australia that she managed, finally, to resume her education, and qualified as a social worker.
Homesick for Europe, she moved to London in 1958, where she began to write down her experiences in order to make sense of her life. She became a writer and translator, and has lived in London ever since.
Janina's autobiography, A Square of Sky, is written under her pen name of Janina David
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An Arctic freeze has been sweeping across North America, bringing temperatures as low as -40C (-40F) with wind chill in some cities. What are the risks of extreme cold and how can you avoid them, asks Aidan Lewis. | Magazine MonitorA collection of cultural artefacts
Plummeting temperatures and icy winds present two main dangers. Hypothermia, in which your body shuts down after reaching an abnormally low temperature, and frostbite, an injury to the body caused by freezing. This is most common on extremities such as fingers and toes, but can affect eyelashes.
Sitting out a cold snap indoors, with plentiful stocks of food, water and medicine, is one solution. Taps can be kept open at a drip to stop pipes freezing. Pets can be brought inside.
Many schools and offices in the worst affected areas have been closed. But those still needing to make essential trips are advised to wear several layers of loose fitting clothing, with a wicking layer at the base that won't leave moisture on the skin, and a tightly woven outer layer. Mittens are warmer than gloves. Hand or foot warmers can be placed inside a glove or inside a boot, though these may not heat the tips of fingers or toes.
Goggles or glasses can help keep the temperature around the eyes stable, says John Stone of Survival Systems in Halifax, Canada, though eyelashes are only likely to freeze together if they're wet. Eyeballs, he says, are likely to be fine in these temperatures.
Earrings and facial jewellery should be removed, he says. "The temperature of the metal is going to become very cold very quickly, much more quickly than the skin temperature."
Caffeine and alcohol cause your body to lose heat more rapidly. It's best to seek shelter if you feel your body temperature dropping. Chicago, where temperatures dropped to -27C (-16F), was extending the opening hours at warming centres across the city.
Vehicles, like homes, should be well-stocked with emergency supplies. Though petrol (gas) only freezes at about -60C (-76F), diesel can clog at -10C (14F) and needs to be "winter-weighted". Tyres can freeze solid, which makes for a bumpy start to a journey but is unlikely to damage them, says Stone. "It's like driving a Fred Flintstone-mobile."
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Among the Luhya community in western Kenya, a tradition of bull-fighting exists. Originally practised to mark important events such as funerals, the sport has evolved into a more competitive and at times profitable pursuit. | Photographer Duncan Moore travelled to see how community leaders in Kakamega county want to bring it into the mainstream, forming leagues and working to have it recognised as a legitimate sport.
Early Saturday morning and a bull-fighter and his entourage make their way to the designated fighting ground where he will pit his bull against an opponent from another village.
The procession features Isukuti musicians, who play a traditional form of music from western Kenya and accompany the bull as it makes its way to the fight, attracting more people along the way.
As the crowd grows, kids climb trees both to get a better view and to avoid the bulls on the ground. While this is a smaller, local match up, major events at designated venues attract huge numbers of people.
Spectators examine one of the bulls, Misango, before the fight. Still young with the potential to grow, a bull like this could sell for 80,000 Kenyan shillings ($800; £633). The most expensive bull ever sold, a champion fighter named Nasa, fetched 260,000 shillings.
The other competitor, Tupa Tupa, charges at one of the men trying to escort him to the fight. Groups of men with sticks do their best to corral the animals, but when a bull decides to run there's not much anyone can do.
Arguably the most dangerous part of the sport, especially in informal events such as this, is watching it. Here a girl is carried away after being knocked over by a bull that decided to flee instead of fight.
After sizing each other up for several minutes the bulls launch into each other and the fight is on. While they can be herded towards a certain area, the animals fight where they want to, which in this case happened to be a maize field.
Kakamega bull-fighting is an up close and personal experience, with the crowd following the action and running occasionally to avoid getting hit.
Participants and spectators circle the competitors and cheer on their preferred animal, creating an atmosphere more akin to a fight club.
Despite objections from some animal rights activists, proponents of the sport say it is an important economic activity and part of the Luhya cultural heritage.
Gerald Ashiono, chairman of the local Bull Owners Welfare group, also looks on. The association works to ensure fights are registered, bulls are taken care of and proper arenas are found.
Horns locked, Misango (left) and Tupa Tupa (right) battle for dominance. Mr Ashiono says that bull-fighting is an intangible part of the region's heritage, spanning generations: "My grandfather owned bulls, my father owned bulls, now I own a bull."
A fight breaks out between two men representing different bulls. With gambling on the outcome a major component of the sport, tensions can run high during fights.
The crowd cheers as the bulls move from the maize field towards another farm.
According to Mr Ashiono this form of bull-fighting is more humane than the Spanish variety: "The bull has a choice, if it doesn't want to fight that day you can't force it."
Defeated, Tupa Tupa and his owner return home. While unsuccessful bulls may eventually be sold for meat, a key difference with Kenyan bull-fighting is that no bulls are killed in the process.
Misango, the victor after forcing Tupa Tupa to run away, is escorted back to the owner's village by a crowd of jubilant supporters.
Raising a fighting bull is not easy. The animals are pampered and fed a specific diet featuring supplements and local herbs.
Mr Ashiono, pictured here with his prize bull Imbongo, says: "For us, it is a cultural event, a community event and also a sport with a huge following. The future of bull-fighting is very bright."
Photos by Duncan Moore
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About 22,000 people in the UK have HIV - but are unaware they have it.
In this week's Scrubbing Up, Dr Stephen Taylor, consultant physician in sexual health and HIV medicine, argues that lives are being unnecessarily lost because clinicians are reluctant to test for HIV. | By Dr Stephen TaylorConsultant Physician Sexual Health and HIV, Birmingham Heartlands Hospital
I have been fortunate enough in my medical career to see real improvements in the treatment options we can offer our HIV positive patients. In the early 1980s we did not even have a name for HIV; now we have a wide range of anti-retroviral drugs.
We have made huge, rapid steps in our understanding of and ability to combat HIV. A patient properly treated now has a life expectancy of 30 years or more and can live those years as fruitfully and successfully as anyone.
But people still die with HIV. There is no cure and treatment can be tricky. Patients can develop drug resistance and often do not even present themselves to HIV services until very late.
One in four of those infected with HIV does not know they are infected. The people who are dying from HIV now are, in general, those who are diagnosed so far down the road that the effectiveness of our drug regimes are significantly reduced.
Reluctance to test
There are many reasons for this: prejudice, a lack of awareness and especially a reluctance to test. Education is the key solution to each of these problems. We must correct the many inaccurate assumptions about HIV.
Too many heterosexuals still believe they are not at risk of infection, too many young people are becoming increasingly complacent about a condition they think is under control - and it is simply not true that taking an HIV test adversely affects your insurance premiums or your ability to get a mortgage.
Yet many physicians continue to propagate these messages.
Some 95% of all pregnant women now receive an HIV test as a standard part of their antenatal care. I, and many others in the HIV community, believe this is a courtesy which should be extended to the wider population.
Only through more effective and more widespread testing can we make earlier diagnoses, reduce undetected HIV cases and thus halt onward transmissions. This is a sentiment recently echoed by Anne Milton, the public health minister, at the recent "Time to Test" campaign held at the Royal College of Physicians to mark World Aids Day.
Not only does normalising HIV testing make good clinical sense, but early testing could ultimately build towards achieving the £1.1bn cost savings that could be associated with solid HIV prevention strategies.
Cost pressure
However, here is the rub: the cost savings are not immediate. In fact, initially the cost of HIV care will increase as those blissfully unaware that they are infected become an immediate cost pressure for the NHS.
But I maintain that normalising and increased testing has got to be the way forward. Regular testing and getting people on treatment is likely to be one of the most powerful tools we now have to reduce ongoing transmission of HIV and its long-term impacts.
In my own hospital, we are launching a new HIV testing awareness campaign - Saving Lives - in an attempt to reduce undiagnosed infections and prevent avoidable mortality and morbidity.
Its method is simple: to arm clinical practitioners, whatever their discipline or role, with knowledge of the symptoms and signs that HIV can present with and of the necessity of testing for it.
If clinicians work together, and test every patient presenting with "indicator conditions" - not just those people we assume to be more at risk - will we diagnose HIV early, when treatment can do the most good.
Save lives
It is a very scary statistic that today in the UK there are over 22,000 people infected with HIV who are unaware they are infected. We must prioritise diagnosing them, especially as HIV can be symptomless for many years.
So regular blood testing is often not just our best but our only tool in controlling the spread of HIV.
We must therefore target the assumptions of the public and clinicians alike. Accessible public awareness campaigns like "Beer Goggles Johnny" may help get sexual health messages through to resistant demographics.
And if we can integrate HIV testing into patient pathways, and be more proactive in our efforts to get patients on to treatment early, we can continue to make significant progress in our fight against HIV.
The trouble is, talk is cheap. Unless the government, local PCTs and hospital trusts attach an importance and an incentive to encourage testing - be it with a carrot or a stick - I fear testing will not increase and our opportunity to save lives will once again be missed.
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A new TV advert for a brand of electronic cigarettes marks the first time in decades cigarettes of any sort have been promoted on US television. Anti-smoking campaigners fear the rapid growth of tobacco-free cigarettes could undermine years of successful anti-smoking efforts. | By Daniel NasawBBC News Magazine, Washington
A handsome actor poses and struts on a beach in a stylishly shot black-and-white television spot. He puts the cigarette to his lips, takes a puff, and exhales a rich flume.
"Blu lets me enjoy smoking without it affecting the people around me, because it's vapour not tobacco smoke," says Stephen Dorff, the scruffy heartthrob star of The Immortals.
"We're all adults here, it's time we take our freedom back."
The launch this autumn of the advert for blu eCigs marks a turning point in the fast-growing US market for electronic cigarettes, which use an electronic mechanism to warm a liquid nicotine solution and release mist into the lungs.
Most living Americans had never before seen a cigarette advertised on television - they were banned in 1971.
But the electronic cigarettes fall outside that law, since they contain no tobacco. That is just one way they fall into what one anti-smoking campaigner calls a regulatory "no man's land".
Electronic cigarettes have exploded in popularity in the US since they first appeared on the market in 2007. Blu is just one brand, with NJOY, SmokeAnywhere, Joye eGo, and many more also available.
Their appeal stems from perceptions - as yet untested by science - that they are safer than tobacco cigarettes and can even help smokers kick the habit.
And because they contain no tobacco, the e-cigarettes seem exempt, for now, from ever-stricter public smoking bans.
Since their emergence onto the US market, US sales have risen from $5m (£3.1m) to an estimated $250m, according to UBS estimates.
Amid the explosive growth, smoking opponents are eyeing the devices warily.
"We know that smoke-free laws encourage smokers to try to quit," says Danny McGoldrick, vice-president of research at Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
If electronic cigarettes keep people smoking who would otherwise quit, that is harmful, he says.
Once sold mostly online and in small kiosks, they were given a huge boost in April when US tobacco giant Lorillard Inc purchased blu from the brand's creators for $135m (£84m).
Lorillard executives said they foresaw rapid growth and were keen to put their weight behind the brand.
Since the acquisition blu has seen a five-fold increase in its retail availability, and will be available in some 50,000 shops by the end of this year. The national advertising campaign launched in October.
"They've come in and put in their tremendous resources and experience and they've put us on steroids and given us the resources to grow well," blu's creator and president Jason Healy said of the Lorillard acquisition.
"We've established blu as a lifestyle brand for smokers."
Electronic cigarettes have been subjected only to minimal scientific study - not enough to demonstrate whether they are safer than tobacco cigarettes or effective as a smoking cessation product like nicotine gum or patches.
The World Health Organization has warned electronic cigarettes "pose significant public health issues and raise questions for tobacco control policy and regulation".
And a 2009 test by the US Food and Drug Administration of electronic cigarettes - none from blu - found traces of cancer-causing chemicals and other toxic chemicals.
Electronic cigarettes are either banned or heavily regulated in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany and several other countries.
But in the US, at present electronic cigarettes "are essentially unregulated" says McGoldrick.
Unless they make a therapeutic claim, for example that they can help people quit smoking, they fall in the cracks between federal tobacco regulations and rules covering drug devices like insulin pumps,
In the new commercial, Lorillard appears to have reached into the bag of advertising tricks that got previous generations of Americans hooked on cigarettes, tobacco industry critics say.
"It feels like what they're trying to do is re-establish a norm that smoking is okay, that smoking is glamorous and acceptable," says Cynthia Hallett, executive director of Americans for Non-Smokers' Rights.
The blu advert stokes the spirit of rebellion that appealed to smokers when they first started as adolescents, says David Abrams, executive director of the Schroeder Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies at Legacy, an anti-tobacco organisation.
This time around, instead of defying parents and teachers, the ad encourages smokers to rebel against more recent anti-smoking social norms.
"They're capitalising on that with adult smokers by basically saying 'don't let society tell you what to do'," Abrams says.
"'You have the freedom to smoke. Thumb your nose at the anti-smoking policies and the FDA.'"
The thick flume of smoke streaming from Stephen Dorff's mouth creates the urge in smokers to reach for their pack, even as the seaside setting evokes associations of clean, fresh air, says Joseph Cappella, a professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania.
"The environment is presented as a way of making clear there is a cleanliness, a healthiness linked to this nicotine delivery device," he says.
Electronic cigarettes are sold in a variety of flavours: The Eonsmoke brand, for one, sells cartridges in apple, menthol, strawberry, "mojito", "tobacco" and others.
Extensive research has shown flavoured tobacco appeals to young smokers and adolescents who are not ready for standard cigarettes, Abrams says.
Anti-smoking campaigners including the American Cancer Society fear electronic cigarettes could get young smokers and adolescents hooked on nicotine - and later onto tobacco.
Healy rejects that. He says blu's target customers are 35-55 years old and have been smoking for years.
"This is about giving smokers freedom and choice," says Healy, an Australian former professional basketball player.
Soon after e-cigarettes arrived on the market the FDA moved to regulate them under its authority over drug delivery devices, but a court rejected the move.
The FDA has since hinted it may regulate them like tobacco products and an extensive rule-making procedure is underway. That would give the agency authority to restrict how they are marketed and labelled.
Healy says regulation could help the category in the long-run by reining in makers of poor-quality products.
"There's a lot of cowboys out there who can't afford to do a lot of things you need to do to ensure product quality and safety," he says. "It's going to be great for the consumer."
Anti-tobacco campaigners say they're keeping an open mind about electronic cigarettes.
"We are not against them being on the market but they should be responsibly regulated and marketed and tracked over time in a way that protects the public health and fully informs consumers of their effects and indications for use," says Abrams.
"The introduction of these new non-combustible products that are appealing like e-cigarettes could have great public health value."
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The Chinese President Xi Jinping comes to the UK this week. | By Andrew WalkerBBC World Service economics correspondent
It's a formal state visit. He will be the Queen's guest at Buckingham Palace.
There will be plenty of pomp and circumstance, but also a lot of hard-nosed commercial work.
Both sides are keen to see more trade, and the UK in particular wants to encourage Chinese investment here.
Before any of the business gets under way there has been some news that will affect the atmosphere of President Xi's visit. We have had new data for China's economic growth in the third quarter of the year.
And it came very close to what was expected. According to the official figures China's economy grew by 6.9% compared with a year earlier. That's just below 7% for each of the first two quarters, and significantly down from the 10% average of the previous three decades.
The figures feed into what is arguably the biggest global economic issue of the moment - will China's growth slowdown be a smooth or bumpy ride? Or as it is often put - a hard or soft landing?
That there is a slowdown is beyond doubt, and in principle, as long as we do get the soft landing, it's generally seen as welcome.
For three decades China's annual economic growth averaged 10%. Since 2010 it has slowed. Last year's figure was 7.4%, and it's generally accepted this year will be slower, followed by a further deceleration in 2016.
Yes, these are Chinese official figures whose reliability is widely criticised. Willem Buiter, chief economist at the giant financial firm Citigroup has suggested this year's true figure could be less than 4%. Danny Gabay of Fathom Consulting told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that it's more like 3%. He says China is already into a hard landing and there's a financial crisis on the way.
There are plenty who don't think it's that bad. But there is no real doubt that growth is slowing, perhaps by a good deal more than those official figures suggest.
Changing forces
Meanwhile, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, wants to deepen the UK's commercial relationship with China.
Back in 2013 he took steps to encourage trading of the Chinese currency in London.
More recently, while in China, he told the BBC he wants the country to become Britain's second-biggest export market within 10 years. It's currently sixth.
Is that wise, you might ask? If China is slowing perhaps British exporters have missed the boat if they have not already established themselves there.
And will China be such an important source of business for British financial services?
Well, it may be slowing but it is continuing to grow. The International Monetary Fund projects growth of more than 6% up to 2019.
As China is either the largest, or second largest, economy on the planet, depending on how you convert national figures into dollars (or some other currency), it means China growing at more than 6% would contribute more growth to the global economy than any other country.
In fact China alone growing at 6% would mean global economic growth of more than 1%. On the basis of IMF projections for growth over the next few years, no other country comes close.
Even if you take sides with the statistical sceptics and take a lower figure for China's growth outlook, it still looks like an important business opportunity.
It's true some countries are already feeling the pinch from China's slowdown.
Producers of industrial commodities - energy and metals - are especially exposed. China's slowdown has undermined demand for their exports, and prices have fallen dramatically.
Not that Britain has been completely immune to this kind of problem.
The crisis and the job losses at the SSI steel plant in Redcar - and more expected at Tata Steel operations in Scunthorpe and Lanarkshire - have been blamed in part on cheaper Chinese steel sales and the fall in global steel prices
But China is not just slowing. It's trying to change the driving forces behind its expanding economy.
The aim for China's leaders is to shift from an economy driven by exports and very high levels of investment. The focus it's shifting away from - industry and big construction projects - is the kind of business that is hungry for these industrial commodities.
Instead the Chinese authorities want an economy that's increasingly driven by Chinese consumers.
So perhaps that will open up new types of opportunity.
Foreign Office economists have looked at where the gains might lie for British industry if China opens its economy up.
The report suggested that cars, pharmaceuticals, and financial and business services have a lot to gain.
That certainly makes sense in terms of sectors you would expect to experience growing demand as a country's economy develops. As Chinese businesses become more sophisticated they are likely to need more specialist services, an area where Britain is strong.
More prosperous people will want more medicines, and of course more cars.
The UK's Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said (in February): "China is the largest single market for British-built cars after the UK".
The manufacturers are not British-owned, but they do make cars in the UK and sell them abroad.
China still has a long way to go to catch up with the developed world in terms of average living standards.
Even if the whole economy is arguably the biggest of all in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), it is far behind in GDP per person, which is a rough and ready indicator of prosperity.
China's GDP per capita is just over a third of the UK's, and a quarter of the US figure. But the gap is closing.
Slowdown or not, China's economy is increasingly one of the biggest games in town, even if it's not the only one.
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Moray's business leaders have been meeting Finance Secretary John Swinney to discuss the local economy in the wake of the defence review. | RAF Lossiemouth was saved from closure under defence cuts which were announced on Monday.
RAF Kinloss will shut as an air base and be taken over by the Army.
Members of the Moray Economic Partnership and community and business leaders were meeting Mr Swinney in Forres.
There was a high-profile campaign by local businesses and politicians who feared losing the bases would devastate the Moray economy.
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Donald Trump pledged to unify America as he addressed cheering supporters at a concert at the Lincoln Memorial on the eve of his inauguration, flanked by his wife and extended family. So who are the new first family of the United States?
| Tiffany Trump is Donald Trump's daughter by his second wife Marla Maples, a former actress and TV personality. She is an avid user of social media, where her posts depict a glamorous lifestyle. She won a highly sought-after internship with Vogue in 2011 and released a pop song, Like a Bird, when she was 17. Tiffany kept a relatively low profile during the election campaign but earned her father's praise for her "fantastic" convention speech, in which she said her father was a "natural-born encourager".
Jared Kushner is the husband of Ivanka, Donald's eldest daughter. He is the son of a prominent New York property developer and has been the owner of the weekly Observer paper in New York for 10 years. For someone with no prior government experience, he has accumulated a dizzying array of portfolios in the administration of his father-in-law. The 36-year-old, whose previous main work experience was running his father's real-estate firm, is a senior adviser to the commander-in-chief. Despite having no diplomatic credentials, he has been tasked with no less a challenge than resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also serves as the president's lead adviser on relations with China, Mexico and Canada. Mr Kushner, who is Jewish, is reported to have angered members of his own family when he wrote a defence of Donald Trump's use of the Star of David in a tweet attacking Hillary Clinton. Writing in his own newspaper, he said: "My father-in-law is not an anti-Semite". He continued: "The difference between me and the journalists and Twitter throngs who find it so convenient to dismiss my father-in-law is simple. I know him and they don't."
Ivanka Trump is perhaps the best-known of Donald Trump's children, the only daughter of his marriage to Ivana, his first wife. In March 2017 it was announced that she was officially joining her father's administration as an unpaid employee with the title Assistant to the President. The US first daughter bowed to pressure following an outcry from ethics experts at her initial plans to serve in a more informal capacity. A model in her early years, she is also a vice-president at The Trump Organization and was also a judge on her father's reality TV show The Apprentice. She converted to Judaism after marrying Jared in 2009. In a speech to the Republican National Congress, she backed her father to support women's rights: "As a mother myself, of three young children, I know how hard it is to work while raising a family. And I also know that I'm far more fortunate than most. American families need relief. Policies that allow women with children to thrive should not be novelties, they should be the norm."
Arabella is the eldest daughter of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
Melania Trump, a former model born in Slovenia, married Donald Trump in January 2005. She has made few public appearances since her husband became president and sometimes appears stiff and awkward when she does so. "She has been thrust into a role she didn't seek and doesn't seem to relish," the BBC's Barbara Plett Usher reported in March 2017. But it may be that cracks in Mrs Trump's famous reserve will appear as she prepares to move to Washington from New York when her son Barron finishes the school year. She stood by her husband after video footage emerged during the campaign in which he boasted about groping women. In July 2016 she made headlines after making a speech at the Republican National Convention, which she was accused of plagiarising from one made by Michelle Obama in 2008. In an October 2016 interview with CNN, she was asked what she would change about her husband. She replied: "His tweeting."
Barron Trump is the only child from Donald's current marriage to Melania, and he walked part of Pennsylvania Avenue in the inauguration parade. Although he made brief appearances on the election campaign trail, the 10-year-old has been mostly kept out of the spotlight. All that changed soon after the president's inauguration in January 2017, however when he was at the centre of a Twitter storm following comments made about him by a comedian. Barron plays golf with his father and is reported to be fluent in Slovenian, his mother's native language.
Kai Trump is the eldest of Vanessa and Donald Jr's five children.
Lara Yunaska, a former TV producer and keen equestrian, married Eric Trump in 2014. She broke both her wrists horse-riding two weeks before their wedding, at which Jared Kushner officiated. The couple are expecting their first child in September. As an animal welfare advocate, it is not known what Lara makes of her husband's hunting hobby. She is also involved in the Trump Foundation, said to be one of the largest private charities in the US. Lara told Fox News on 6 November: "Women are highly offended that a candidate like Hillary Clinton thinks she can get our vote simply because we are the same gender… It's ridiculous, it's insulting, and it's offensive".
Donald Trump Jr is Donald Trump's eldest son from his first marriage to Ivana. In March 2017 he controversially criticised London's mayor shortly after the terror attack on Westminster which killed three people. Now executive vice-president of The Trump Organization, he married Vanessa Haydon after being introduced to her at a fashion show by his father. His rise has not been free from controversy. His, and brother Eric's, taste for hunting big game was criticised after photos emerged showing them posing with dead animals including a leopard and a crocodile. Donald Jr was also holding the severed tail of an elephant.
Eric Trump is the third child of Mr Trump's marriage to Ivana. Like his siblings, he is also an executive vice-president of The Trump Organization. Eric is president of the Trump Winery in Virginia and oversees Trump golf clubs. In 2006, he also set up the Eric Trump Foundation, which has pledged $28m to a research hospital which helps children battling life-threatening diseases. In March 2017 he said that he will give his father "quarterly" updates on the Trump family's business interests, a pledge made despite the president's promises to divest himself of his business interests. Like his brother, Donald Jr, Eric was criticised over a hunting trip to Zimbabwe in 2010. He may have broken the law on election day by tweeting a picture of his ballot paper, saying it was an "incredible honour to vote for my father."
Vanessa Trump, nee Haydon, married Donald Trump Jr in November 2005. The couple have five young children, including Kai, aged eight (pictured). Vanessa began modelling as a child and once dated Leonardo DiCaprio. She serves on the executive committee of her brother-in-law Eric's charity foundation. She keeps a gun at home - and according to an interview with SilencerCo, a company that makes gun silencers, she also has a permit to carry a concealed weapon and shoots regularly.
Donald III is the eldest son of Vanessa and Donald Jr.
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A man and a woman have gone on trial charged with the murder of a 65-year-old man in South Yorkshire. | The body of John Gogarty was found with stab wounds at his home in Marsh Street, Wombwell, near Barnsley, on 17 July.
Helen Nichols, 38, and Ian Birley, 43, both of Mont Walk, Wombwell, pleaded not guilty to murder.
The pair were remanded in custody at Sheffield Crown Court. Their trial is expected to last three weeks.
A post-mortem examination revealed Mr Gogarty died from stab wounds.
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Victory in the Eurovision Song Contest has given Azerbaijan a unique opportunity to showcase its culture, when it hosts the event next year. But it will also throw a spotlight on its much-criticised human rights record, and comes amid growing fears of war. | By Damien McGuinnessBBC News South Caucasus correspondent
Last weekend's win by the duo Ell and Nikki sparked celebrations on the streets of the capital, Baku, despite being announced in the middle of the night.
President Ilham Aliyev called the result "a great success of the Azerbaijani state and people". The country's public broadcaster said it would give the country a chance to show off its culture and traditions to the whole of Europe.
After all, Eurovision, that riotous celebration of sequins, high-kicks and cheesy lyrics, is one of the most watched televised events in the world, attracting more than 100 million viewers.
So host countries see the competition as a major PR opportunity to boost tourism and trade - something particularly appreciated by the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, squeezed into an often overlooked region between Russia, Iran and Turkey.
'Fake charges'
But light-hearted Eurovision camp sits uneasily with Azerbaijan's human rights record.
When it comes to media freedom, Azerbaijan is ranked 171 out of 191 countries by the Freedom House NGO. In March and April, hundreds of people were detained in peaceful protests against the government. And, according to Amnesty International, increasing numbers of journalists and youth activists are being imprisoned on fabricated charges.
One of those, Amnesty says, is 20-year-old Jabbar Savalan, who at the beginning of May was convicted to two-and-a-half years in prison on drugs charges, after calling for anti-government protests on Facebook.
Human rights activists are now hoping that Eurovision will bring more than just upbeat jingles to the Azeri capital, Baku.
"This victory will now put Azerbaijan in the spotlight which could mean that the government starts treating its citizens better," says Baku-based political analyst Tabib Huseynov.
"The Azeri government cares about its international image. And when you are in the spotlight you behave better."
The authorities in Azerbaijan deny accusations of human rights abuses. When asked by the BBC why peaceful protesters are arrested, government officials said demonstrations are allowed, but only in permitted areas outside the city centre.
Denial
It is unlikely that international attention during a song festival will necessarily lead to the release of government critics. After all, condemnation from the European Parliament and the European Court of Human Rights has so far not led to that. But the hope is that Azerbaijan will at least try to avoid international criticism which could mar the celebrations.
But Arastun Orujlu, head of the East-West Research Center in Baku, says Eurovision is actually being used to shore up the government's position.
"President Aliyev is promoting the Eurovision win as a success of the government," he said.
"Officials are not prepared to accept there are any problems with democracy, media freedom or human rights. If they deny these problems even exist, it's clear they are not ready for democratic development."
One problem that cannot be denied, however, is the conflict with Armenia over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The two countries went to war over the enclave in 1992 after the break-up of the Soviet Union. Around 25,000 people were killed and more than a million became refugees.
A tenuous ceasefire was agreed in 1994. But both sides are even now acquiring more sophisticated weaponry and upping the bellicose rhetoric. The number of skirmishes and fatalities on the front line is rising, and peace talks have stalled. So there is a growing risk that the already precarious situation could spiral out of control, leading to an accidental war.
"We're stuck unfortunately in a quagmire," says Laurence Sheets, of the International Crisis Group. "This is a region of tremendous strategic and energy importance to the entire world. And there is the potential for countries like Turkey, a Nato member, Russia or Iran to be drawn into war or open hostilities."
Personal connections
In such a tense environment, even the apparently innocent fun of the Eurovision Song Contest is politically sensitive. In 2009, Azerbaijan's ministry of national security called Azeris accused of voting for Armenia in for questioning. Voting in Eurovision is a matter of national security, was the explanation of the authorities.
Next year's event in Baku has the potential to bring both sides together. If the Armenian delegates decide to attend, and the Azeri authorities welcome them, Eurovision's party atmosphere could provide a rare opportunity. If people meet on a personal level, Arastun Orujlu believes, they inevitably stop fighting.
"It's only the governments on both sides which are aggressive because they can blame domestic problems on the conflict," he said "But people themselves are tired. They want to co-operate."
This year Armenia's entry sang "boom, boom, chaka, chaka" while emerging out of a giant boxing glove on stage - seen by some as a metaphor for winning the war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The lyrics at Eurovision are not always the most erudite. But if Eurovision can help ease tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, there may be some sense to them after all.
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A £17m recycling centre processing about 200,000 tonnes of waste a year is to be built near Grangemouth, Falkirk.
| Avondale Environmental, who will operate the centre, plan to build it on an existing landfill site by Junction 4 of the M9 motorway.
The Manchester-based company said it would deal with household and commercial waste.
It has been designed to "vastly reduce" the amount of rubbish going to landfill, the company said.
Avondale director Derek Cooper said: "We've nurtured our plans over a number of years, including taking the scheme through planning, so we're obviously delighted to have reached this significant milestone."
The company already has a range of public and private sector waste contracts in central and northern Scotland.
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Throughout James Malley's usually bustling school, classrooms sit strangely empty and quiet. Chairs sit neatly on top of tables after the cleaners have been through. But sitting at his head teacher's desk, he can see and hear students chatting from far away, as he watches the potential future of education in a coronavirus world. | By Dominic CascianiHome affairs correspondent
Sixth form geography students are mid-video conference. Their teacher, working from home, is talking about volcanoes - transmitting a presentation direct into their homes - just as if it were on the whiteboard in the classroom.
"When we closed down, I don't think anybody was even contemplating no GCSEs, no A-Levels schools and not coming back for the rest of the academic year," he says.
So sitting staring at a virtual class is not how Mr Malley set out to lead Therfield School in Leatherhead, Surrey - nor did any other head teacher anywhere else in the world.
But if social distancing continues until who-knows-when, he and thousands of other heads know that video classes may now be inevitable. And that, in turn, is developing into an enormous existential dilemma for his profession: will teachers unintentionally, deepen the education divide between "Zoom Haves" and "Zoom Have Nots"?
Since the UK's national closure of schools began in March, many heads like Mr Malley have taken their schools through three broad phases of completely reinventing the way they teach:
"We're not trying to replicate the school day," says Mr Malley. "In any given two weeks there is a core offer and then other activities to extend the curriculum."
Therfield is now fully embedded in the second of these three phases. Teachers have converted their classroom materials into Powerpoint-style presentations that are delivered via the homework portal. They call each student, every week, for a chat - and they can see proof of actual progress through formal online assessments.
But it's in phase three that the risks really begin to emerge, say many teachers. If schools try to recreate live online classes, will the poorest students lose out?
First mover advantage?
Epsom College is a grand private school, close to the world famous race course and five miles from Therfield. Almost half of its pupils are boarders, many of them children from abroad whose families value a traditional English education. Like Therfield, headmaster Jay Piggot and his leadership team rapidly developed a stop-gap plan of online worksheets, to keep teaching going during the first weeks of lockdown.
And like many other independent schools, they've moved far more quickly to full video classes - and are now offering all their students a broadcast curriculum, throughout the day. They are using Microsoft Teams, rather than Zoom. Other providers are available. The school day has been shortened - and classes only run for 40 minutes. And there are more breaks to help teachers prepare and give everyone a screen break. His staff and students have already learnt a lot.
"You have to concentrate much harder within a video conference - you won't get the body language cues," says Mr Piggot. "Teaching tends to be more of a monologue and then a response. But there are strengths too. If a teacher sets a question and the students can respond online, then the teacher has received an immediate insight. That is very useful, but in terms of the richness of the classroom, it's no comparison."
The technology has also helped, virtually at least, preserve the school community as video has brought pupils together for assemblies, challenges and even a digital choir.
So, is there now a coronavirus technological divide widening the gap between independent and state schools?
Jay Piggot says he is concerned there will be - and he's sharing what he has learnt so far about video teaching with the state schools near to him.
What works for remote learning?
And Stephen Fraser of the Education Endowment Foundation, a leading education charity, says there is now a historic challenge.
"Universal and compulsory schooling are the great leveller," he says. "This crisis has thrown that universal platform in the air. There is now a huge variability in what students can access."
The EEF predicts that the most disadvantaged students may need 12 months or longer to catch up on what they have lost during lockdown. But he adds: "Teaching practice always trumps the platform. Whether it's video conferencing, through to the delivery of hard [paper] copies of lessons, if it is backed up by high quality teaching, that is what matters."
"We know that if a teacher makes a phone call at the start of the week to the child who they know, that can be really effective."
Instinctively, state school heads like Mr Malley are restless to do more. That's where the dilemma of embracing video classes will become acute. Some 15% of Therfield students are eligible for free school meals - the national average. Approximately 10% of the 910 students are what Mr Malley terms internet poor - either they have no proper access at all, or it is limited by availability of devices or bandwidth in the home.
"We've got parents working from home and they have one laptop between them. If we say at 10 o'clock, it's your history lesson, that's not meaningful. If you think about schools in more deprived areas, you're going to be doubling those figures.
"So you are then into a situation where you have to ask how much are those students losing out compared to their peers?
"That is the moral dilemma that state school heads are facing," says Mr Malley. "Every time we decide to do more, there might be some students who won't get access."
The Department for Education has already launched a major programme to lend laptops and other technology to disadvantaged families. But while James Malley welcomes the government cash - it remains an imperfect solution to what could become, for some, a perfect storm of underachievement because of factors beyond sending data across the internet.
"I'm a historian by trade. In wars and in periods of crisis, we adapt. We will probably end up doing some things better than we have ever done them. But that's not a replacement for the things that you lose."
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A lorry with 16 men suspected of being illegal immigrants has been stopped at a motorway service station in Surrey, police said.
| The men were found in a refrigerated unit after the driver reported hearing someone in the back of his lorry at Cobham services on the M25 on Monday.
Paramedics were called but none of the men, who are all thought to be from Ethiopia, needed medical treatment.
They were taken to various custody centres across Surrey.
The men were arrested on suspicion of entering the country illegally.
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A teenager is to face trial accused of kidnapping a 12-year-old girl from a street in Leeds.
| Michael Sehannie, of St Luke's Road, Beeston, will face a jury over the alleged offence on Old Run Road in Hunslet on 23 April.
The 18-year-old pleaded not guilty via video link and was remanded in custody at Leeds Crown Court.
Judge Tom Bayliss told Mr Sehannie he would face a two-day trial starting on 14 October.
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The mass escape of 38 IRA prisoners from the Maze Prison, near Belfast, on 25 September 1983, in which a prison warder was stabbed to death, is detailed in previously confidential files released by the Public Record Office in Belfast. | By Eamon PhoenixHistorian
Like many files in this year's releases, that relating to the prison escape is partially closed to 2069.
Confidential reports prepared for the Secretary of State Jim Prior in the wake of what was described as the biggest prison escape in Irish history, shed new light on the wounding of a prison officer and the role of a British military guard during the unfolding event.
In a report on the events of that dramatic Sunday, penned the following day, W J Kerr, director of prison operations in Northern Ireland, described how at 16:45 BST he was informed of "an incident at the Maze".
He immediately proceeded to the prison where he "was informed that H7 Block had been taken over by armed prisoners who had hijacked the kitchen lorry and had proceeded to the main gate".
He then went to the Royal Victoria Hospital to speak to the wife of officer Adams who had been wounded in the head, and then to visit the family of officer Ferris who had been stabbed to death during the escape.
Diary of events
On his return to the Maze that evening he learned that 15 escapees had been recaptured, leaving 23 IRA men still "unlawfully at large".
There follows a diary of the events on that Sunday.
The day began normally with prisoners unlocked for breakfast and exercise.
At 11:15 BST Fr Rooney, the Roman Catholic chaplain, celebrated Mass in the H Block with 54 prisoners in attendance.
Dinner was served at 12:15 BST after which all the prisoners were returned to their cells.
At 14:00 BST, as the day prison staff resumed duty, there were 126 prisoners in H Block 7 and 24 warders prior to the 'incident'.
Suddenly at 14:45 BST prisoners in H Block 7 overpowered staff on duty and took control of the block.
Various weapons were used including guns.
The prisoners commandeered the prison meals delivery van and 38 prisoners forced the prison officer driver to drive the van from the block through segment gates one and eight to the prison main gate.
The prisoners then overpowered the staff on duty at the gate and, although eventually the alarm was raised, they managed to get out of the prison proper.
The prisoners at this point disappeared and fled in different directions.
Among the prisoners in H7 were Gerry Kelly, aged 30, (the current Sinn Féin MLA for North Belfast) and Brendan "Bik" McFarlane, who had been a spokesman for the hunger strikers during the 1981 hunger strike.
Kelly had been convicted at Winchester in 1973, along with the Price sisters and Hugh Feeney, for setting off car bombs in London; in all he had made four previous escape attempts.
McFarlane, then 31, described in the file as "a Provisional IRA (PIRA) leader deeply involved in the organisation", was sentenced to five life terms for the 1975 bombing of the Bayardo Bar on the Shankill Road in which five people died.
The sequence of events at the prison began at 14:45 BST when prisoner Mead asked to see a senior prison officer.
"On entering the office Mead produced a gun. (Officer) Smylie attempted to disarm him and in the struggle Mead struck Smylie across the face with the gun."
Overpowered
At this point "prisoner Storey entered the principal officer's office carrying a gun and pointed it at Mr Smylie's head. Storey then took charge. Mr Smylie was tied up and Mr George ordered to sit and answer the telephone in a normal manner."
Meanwhile, other officers were being overpowered and tied up throughout the H Block.
The report continues: "Officer Leak was in the toilet when he heard two shots. He left (to see) prisoner 58 Kelly (Gerry Kelly, MLA) pointing a pistol into the control room. Kelly turned the gun on Leak and forced him into the officers' tea room. Leak was tied up and hooded."
Kerr added at this point: "This would establish that prisoner Kelly shot officer Adams who was on duty in the control. It is not clear if the control grille was locked before Mr Adams was shot."
As the IRA inmates gradually seized control of the wings, prisoner Kerr approached the grille (security) gates and forced the officer on duty to hand over the keys.
The officer was then taken to D Wing, stripped and tied up.
By this stage the prisoners were within sight of the 'lock gates' where prison officer McFall was on duty.
McFall was approached by Bik McFarlane who said he had been "sent to clean the sentry box" beside the gates.
The report continues: "McFall opened the inner gate with McFarlane when two prisoners appeared from the side of the gate. Each of these prisoners had guns... McFall was taken to the officers' tea room and hooded, stripped and tied."
Meanwhile, officer McLaughlin was on duty as kitchen van driver and at 15:25 BST had passed through the lock gates of H Block to deliver afternoon tea.
Kerr reported what happened next to the Secretary of State, Jim Prior: "As officer McLaughlin started to unload the meal from the van, prisoner Storey put a gun to his head and forced him into the medical inspection room. Whilst there he was threatened by prisoner Kelly who told him to do as he was told or he would be 'blown away'. McLaughlin was then forced to drive the van from the block to the main gate through the inner gates."
According to the report the van proceeded through the first segment gate unchallenged.
Conclusion
At the next gate - "the admin gate" - officer Ireland, who was on duty, identified the van driver as officer McLaughlin and, as a result, "the van was allowed to proceed through this gate without being searched".
The plan was now reaching its conclusion, as the report describes: "After the van left the admin gate the driver was forced to take the vehicle to the transport parking area where most of the uniformed prisoners disembarked making their way to the tally lodge (at the main gate of the jail). They rushed into the gate area where they succeeded in taking over the controls of the main gate."
However, Kerr stressed, the staff in the tally lodge "resisted strongly and in the ensuing affray one officer was stabbed and died shortly afterwards" while a number of other staff were injured.
"In the meantime the driver was forced to take the van to the inner main gate where it was permitted to enter the 'airlock area'. The outer main gate was then opened by a prisoner at the controls, but by this time the alarm had been raised and two officers sitting in their cars outside the gate drove into the area, blocking the exit."
Other staff returning from their meal breaks attempted to prevent the escape, one of them receiving a gunshot wound to the leg.
In the resulting melee three inmates were prevented from leaving the gate area, but the others "ran across country chased by members of staff".
A further seven, including a prisoner called Murray, who was wounded by an army sentry, were apprehended.
'At large'
By 11:00 BST on 26 September the security forces had captured another six inmates.
At the time of the report on 26 September, 21 inmates remained "unlawfully at large".
In his conclusion, Kerr highlighted a number of aspects of the IRA escape that gave him cause for concern.
In particular, the fact that the inmates were in possession of firearms suggested that they and their supporters outside were able to breach the security measures at the Maze.
He was particularly alarmed at the ease with which prisoners were able to gain access to the secure entrance into the blocks and the main gates.
He also questioned how the escaping prisoners were allowed to drive a hijacked vehicle through two segment gates without being challenged, and why five officers in H Block 7 were permitted to be off their posts at the same time and that "an apparently abnormal number of inmates" had been in the central area at the time of the takeover.
Notwithstanding these concerns, the director of prison operations recorded his appreciation of the "acts of considerable courage" by his officers in resisting the escape attempt.
The escape was the focus of a meeting between a DUP delegation, led by Rev Ian Paisley and Peter Robinson, to the secretary of state on 26 September 1983.
The DUP MPs claimed that the escape could only have been organised with assistance from prison officers and expressed incomprehension that "the guards on the control towers had not fired on the escaping prisoners".
Dr Paisley went on to demand the resignation of the minister in charge of prisons, Nicholas Scott.
Dr Paisley's allegations prompted a memo to the secretary of state from an NIO official, P W J Buxton, on 28 September 1983 on the reaction of the soldiers who formed a prison guard force of 150 men at the prison.
Rules
He reported that the sentry on duty in the watchtower on the main gate was the only member of the military guard immediately involved in the actual breakout at the gate; he had shot an escaper whom he had seen shoot a prison officer.
Buxton was clear on the rules governing the response of the military guard to any escape attempt: the position of a soldier shooting escapers is quite clear; the yellow card applies.
Thus, unless the escaper is presenting a direct threat to life, or has just killed or injured someone and there was no other way of arresting, he is not authorised to shoot.
The Army would not shoot escapers who are simply escaping... such action would not be the "minimum force" that the card calls for.
The official told Prior that there was "no question of recent prosecutions of members of the security forces for murder having made the sentry uncertain of his legal position" though he was undoubtedly "inhibited by the uncertainty as to who was an escaper and who was a prison officer, as some prisoners were in prison officer clothing and some of the (officers) in civilian clothes."
He revealed that as soon as the alarm was raised, "39 Brigade scrambled the city helicopter and implemented Operation Greyhound, a Northern Ireland-wide vehicle checkpoint plan".
Meanwhile, within minutes of the escape the RUC chief constable had implemented Operation Bolt resulting in NI-wide checkpoints.
He noted that prison officers apprehended eight escapers at the scene while 11 others were arrested in the following days by the RUC and Army.
Five loaded handguns and two imitation firearms were recovered, one on the escaper who was wounded by the sentry.
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Within the month of September 2019 Michaela Hollywood flew across America eight times, such were the demands of a leadership programme she was on. Since coronavirus, however, she has only been able to leave her home five times. | By Beth RoseBBC Ouch
In early 2020 Michaela was scrolling through the news when she found an article about a "weird virus in China". As someone with health difficulties, the 30-year-old immediately started making changes to her life.
"I tried to stop touching any surfaces outside my home," she says. "If I'd waited until the extremely clinically vulnerable letter had come in, who knows what would have happened."
Michaela, from Northern Ireland, has spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a genetic and degenerative condition which weakens muscles and impacts movement. She is a full-time wheelchair-user, is unable to sit-up unaided and her breathing muscles are paralysed.
Michaela went about life cautiously but continued with cinema trips and bingo with her mum - until her final night of freedom, although she didn't know that when she went out.
"It was big money night at bingo," she says. "My phone started flashing to say that we had community transmission in Northern Ireland, and I knew that would be it. I decided to shield."
It was 12 March 2020 - one day after the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic.
At this point there was no guidance offered in the UK. Friends who had previously been part of Michaela's medical team suggested she take "every precaution".
She went from jet setting across America for her work in disability rights, to trying to settle into life at home under lockdown just six months later.
She lives with her parents, while her sisters, brother-in-law, nieces and nephews live in the next house along. "I still had family around me, so I know I'm really privileged," she says.
But the initial weeks and months of lockdown were taken up with solving problems.
Michaela uses personal assistants to help with everyday tasks like washing and eating, but that became problematic when protective clothing, known as PPE, ran out because of high demand.
There was one way around it.
"Two of them moved in," she says. "We have a spare room, but it was full of junk. So we had a day where we emptied the room. I'm really thankful to them for making it happen."
While this newly-formed bubble solved one problem there were others.
Mastering the balance between having medication stocked at home and ordering new batches in time, while allowing for delays, was tricky. And food was a headache too. Michaela's condition affects her ability to swallow and so while she can eat solid food, it needs to be soft.
For the first four months, securing online deliveries without food substituted for something she might not be able to eat was near-impossible and she relied on what she had stockpiled pre-lockdown.
"I lived on beans and soup," she says. "Once I was able to get on to the register as a vulnerable person it wasn't too bad."
Then there was the mundanity of lockdown everyone has faced for a year too. But for Michaela there was no possibility of a walk outside or meeting a friend, socially distanced.
"I watched Star Wars for the first time, and I am still trying to watch every episode of The Simpsons. It's all those little things that sound nothing but actually keep you busy."
Although stuck inside, technology did open up the world for some disabled people.
"There was a sense of euphoria because all of a sudden there were events we could go to - there were concerts online, access to university," Michaela says.
"I was looking at all these things and thinking how much better this is for our community.
"That's not saying we would choose that every time, we wouldn't, but we would certainly need it sometimes."
It wasn't being confined to the house which Michaela found most frustrating, but other people's behaviour, including those who could but refused to wear masks.
"It's not straightforward to shield when you're also physically disabled," she says. "I have to bring people in from the community into my house every day - I can't stay in my room on my own."
This was one reason why her PAs moved in, so she didn't have to deal with a variety of agency staff.
Michaela also implemented her own rules - she wouldn't step on ground beyond the house boundary until community transmissions stopped.
Come June, that possibility arrived when Northern Ireland recorded no new cases.
"I made the most of that," she says.
'Liquid gold'
Having got a new job to support disabled people with technology, Michaela hit the shops for new work clothes and managed to get a private cinema screening of Tenet, because no one else had booked.
She only had three other trips outdoors, all for medical appointments - X-rays, blood tests and her first Covid vaccination. It still felt like freedom.
"That was a period of grace for me and I still genuinely believe that it should have been two weeks for shielders to get out and have some respite," she says.
Some European countries like Spain did implement a timetable to ensure everyone could enjoy time outside - something Michaela thinks the UK should think about next time.
Non-shielders were banned from going out during certain hours to allow those shielding or the over 70s to go out safely.
During the interview, Michaela's phone rings and she says she has to take it, but wants to keep me on Zoom.
"You have just witnessed the greatest moment of my life," she beams, looking slightly shocked as she ends the call.
"There's a drug for my condition called Risdiplam that has just become available in Northern Ireland - I can only call it liquid gold."
Risdiplam helps the body produce the protein that people with SMA are missing, which causes muscle weakness. It can halt the progression of SMA and may encourage improvements.
"For the first time ever, my speech should hopefully become clearer," she says. "Wow - I might be able to lift my hand up to my mouth again.
"It's turned the worst year of my life into one of the most changing."
With Michaela's first order arriving this week it brings hope that things are getting better.
In England and Wales 1 April signals the end of shielding. In Northern Ireland shielders are advised to continue taking extra precautions until further notice.
"I would need to know that community transmission has all but stopped before things change for me," Michaela says.
But that doesn't stop her dreaming about that day.
"There is an ice cream parlour, not far from here. It's by the seaside and they do the most incredible ice cream."
For more disability news, follow BBC Ouch on Twitter and Facebook and subscribe to the weekly podcast on BBC Sounds.
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Since October, a wave of anti-government protests has swept across Iraq. The protesters represent a cross-section of society and, unusually for a traditionally patriarchal country, women have taken a leading role. | Their prominence is celebrated in murals which have sprung up across the capital, Baghdad.
Baghdad's Tahrir Square, epicentre of the protests, has been transformed into a hub of creative defiance.
Murals paying tribute to the spirit and strength of Iraqi women have become an iconic visual representation of the protests.
Often produced by women, the artwork highlights their increasingly active role in seeking to shape their future.
The demonstrations and the murals have enabled women to create a collective community, reclaim their national identity and re-write their history.
Despite facing disapproval from parents and husbands over fears for their safety - more than 400 people have been killed by security forces - women continue to join the demonstrations, sometimes secretly.
For women, who have in the past been neglected by political movements, the absence of any political agenda behind the protests has spurred them to take part.
And in a society where men and women have seldom protested side by side, the fact that they are working together in the interest of reaching a shared goal is a significant social achievement.
All photographs subject to copyright.
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More than 30 people had to be moved from their homes after a bomb was found in a pub in County Louth on Tuesday night. | The device was found in a toilet in Sarsfields bar, Cord Road, in Drogheda at about 21:30 local time.
Part of the street was also cordoned off as a precaution.
An army bomb disposal team were on the scene before midnight and made the device safe. They left the scene at 01:05.
"Following an assessment of the device, it was made safe at the scene and removed for further examination in a secure military location, where it was found to be viable," an army spokesman said.
Residents were allowed back into their homes at about 01.30.
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Up to a billion people worldwide watched the London 2012 opening ceremony along with 80,000 in the Olympic Stadium. Here volunteer performer Neil Smith tells what it was like to be part of the Danny Boyle-directed spectacular. | It was an incredible feeling to walk out into the Olympic Stadium on 27 July knowing the world was watching.
Yet I and the hundreds of others taking part in the Pandemonium section had a job to do and our minds were fixed upon it.
In my case, that job was playing one of the Working Men and Women charged with tearing up England's "green and pleasant land" and erecting an industrial landscape in its place.
Marching in time to a "click track" piped into our ears through in-ear monitors, we set about the task with gusto.
To the casual observer, ripping up turf, removing fences and dragging off hedgerows might not seem sophisticated.
Yet finding the most time-efficient way to "strike" our respective "counties" involved many hours of laborious trial and error.
It was vital that scenery was removed quickly from trap doors beneath which chimney stacks and beam engines were waiting to emerge.
We also had to deal with a rogue element - droppings left by animals involved in the 50-minute "pre-show" depicting bucolic country life.
I am sure I was not the only participant grateful for the gloves and sturdy work boots we had all been assigned.
The rest of my costume? A weathered shirt, hessian trousers, leather belt and cap.
With my unshaven cheeks blackened with soot, I resembled how Gavroche from Les Miserables might have looked had he made it to middle age.
The nervous tension was palpable as we waited behind curtains to make our entrance, shortly after 21:00 BST.
Technical rehearsals held earlier that week had steeled us for appearing in front of an audience, but this was a different ball game.
So much to remember, so much to forget - not least the choreography we had all been taught by Toby Sedgwick, "movement director" of War Horse and Boyle's production of Frankenstein.
It was a swine to get right. When enacted en masse, though, it created a potent image of a digging, hammering army working in synchronous harmony.
There were other factors to deal with. A Caribbean steel band. A cottage on castors. A papier-mache mock-up of the Windrush.
There was also the spine-tingling "poppy moment", a brief hiatus of activity in tribute to those who have fallen on foreign fields.
Small wonder that it all went by in a blur. Indeed, it was only when I saw a recording later that I realised I'd been caught on camera.
The set-piece of our section was the "forging" of the Olympic rings that culminated in a pyrotechnic shower from the heavens.
Being able to witness this astonishing moment of epic theatricality is something I will always cherish.
We then soaked up the applause, took our bows and made a hasty exit up the aisles so the rest of the production could continue.
As I walked back to our holding pen I passed the Athletes' Parade, a huge conga line that stretched across the Olympic Park as far as the eye could see.
As I write this I feel an enormous sense of pride to have played a role, however small, in such a memorable and dazzling occasion.
And if anybody ever doubts me, I have a certificate, my costume and my name in the programme to prove it.
Yet what I will also take away from this experience is the camaraderie, commitment and enthusiasm displayed by everyone involved in this gargantuan enterprise.
Together we put on one hell of a show.
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David Cameron revealed earlier that he hasn't driven a car in four and a half years. He's not really allowed to for security reasons, you see. So when did prime ministers stop getting behind the wheel? | By Pippa Simm and Brian WheelerPolitical reporters
The official government car service came into being in 1946, but it was the declaration of war in 1939 that changed ministers' travel habits for good.
Before this, it was only the home secretary, who was allocated a police car, that got an official motor. And for the other ministers? Well, they had to provide their own or take public transport.
But, as the country went to war, it was decided that six 20-horsepower Austin chauffeur-driven cars should be permanently at the disposal of the War Cabinet, according to Geoffrey Dudley's History of the Government Car Service.
On Her Majesty's Service
Today, the car used by prime ministers is a rather James Bond-like Jaguar; although the parallels between PMs and the 007 agent probably end there.
The leader of the opposition is the only MP entitled to an official chauffeur-driven government car who isn't a minister.
But all former prime ministers are entitled to one, too. As is, perhaps surprisingly, the prime minister's spouse - since the days of Cherie Blair.
In fact, there was a designated driver - Roy Gibbon - for the PM's other half.
However, Samantha Cameron, while making use of the official perk, reportedly requested a female driver instead, as she was more comfortable with a woman taking her children to school, according to the Telegraph.
Churchill's car assurance
When Winston Churchill became prime minister in 1940, he reportedly decided that that his 23.5 horsepower Austin chauffeur-driven car - part of a pool of cars made available to the War Cabinet - was not fast enough. And so it was replaced with a speedier 28 horsepower model. By 1941, he had upgraded to a bullet-proof War Office Humber.
Mr Churchill wasn't averse to getting in the driving seat, pictured above driving himself to the House of Commons for the State Opening of Parliament in November 1925.
Since the 1950s, prime ministers have effectively been banned from driving while in office - for security reasons that have never been made entirely clear. For security reasons.
Although the need to be accompanied everywhere by protection officers, trained in the art of driving out of trouble, will no doubt have something to do with it.
Humble Humber?
Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee assumes the role of passenger as his wife, Violet, takes the wheel of their splendid Humber Pullman, kick-starting a 1,000-mile election tour in February 1950. In previous campaigns, the famously modest Attlee used a little Hillman Minx. Do you think they argued over who should drive?
Night of the long drives
Private car ownership soared during Harold Macmillan's "never had it so good" era and he also widened the use of government cars by junior ministers.
In this picture, the Tory PM finds himself in rather a tight squeeze, as he slots into a particularly small car on display at the 1957 Earls Court motor show, which he opened.
More room on top?
In his youth, Conservative Prime Minister John Major failed the bus conductor exam. Luckily for him, the minor setback didn't hamper his chances of reaching the highest office in the land. Fortunately he had a chauffeur-driven car service at his disposal.
Buggy diplomacy
Gordon Brown revealed in 2010 that, although he had a driving licence, he hadn't been behind the wheel since he was 21. In an interview with Piers Morgan, he said that after losing the sight in one of his eyes "your ability to judge distance is affected".
Tony's travels
There are remarkably few pictures of Tony Blair behind the wheel (that we can find). But here he is enjoying a spin in an open-air Team GB car at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. It was definitely the weather for it!
No turning back
Talk about one-upmanship. Margaret Thatcher left other prime ministers in the shade after her tank-driving display, during a visit to British forces in Fallingbostel, Germany. After all, why settle for a car when you can ride in the turret of a tank?
And once you've driven a tank, getting behind the wheel of a bus is probably plain sailing. Here the Conservative prime minister is pictured at the wheel of the Tory battle bus during the 1987 election campaign.
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A man and a woman have been arrested on suspicion of murder following the death of a man who was stabbed outside a pub. | Emergency services were called to reports of a stabbing outside the Freemans Arms on Freeman Street in Grimsby at about 20:10 BST on Saturday.
Humberside Police said the family of the 36-year-old, who died a short time after arriving at hospital, had been informed and were being supported.
A force spokesman said the stabbing was believed to be an "isolated incident".
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The half-year results for Ulster Bank show some improvement on the same period last year with losses reducing to £329m. But, as John Campbell reports, the company still has a big unresolved problem with mortgages in the Republic of Ireland. | By John CampbellBBC News
In July, Ulster Bank's top managers held a presentation for investors at which they explained how they were going to create a "Really Good Bank".
The presentation contained an unprecedented level of detail about the differing performance of the bank's businesses on either side of the Irish border.
It showed that on almost every measurement the Dublin-based part of the bank is in a worse condition.
It earned about 70% of the bank's income in 2012, but was responsible for about 90% of its £1bn losses.
The Belfast-based bit of the bank had a conservative loan-to-deposit ratio of 80%. In Dublin, the ratio was 152%.
Net interest margin is an expression of how much the bank earns from the basic business of lending money: in Belfast it was just over 3%, in Dublin it was just 1.6%.
And the main reason for that divergence on the interest margin comes down to one financial product: tracker mortgages.
These were very popular in the Republic of Ireland during the boom years - the interest rate is fixed at a certain level above the European Central Bank (ECB) base rate, often for the lifetime of the mortgage.
Homeowners taking these mortgages were effectively betting that the ECB would keep rates low.
That is a gamble that has paid off because the crisis in the Eurozone means the rate is at a rock bottom 0.5% and is unlikely to move up anytime soon.
For the banks it has been a disaster; trackers are mostly loss-making as the interest charged is less than the banks' cost of funding.
A whopping 65% of the Ulster's total mortgage book in the Republic consists of lifetime trackers.
In total Ulster holds £13bn of tracker mortgages.
That is £13bn of the bank's capital tied up in a business that basically makes no money.
It is also nearly impossible to persuade - or force - people with trackers to come off them.
Dublin 'woes'
Or as the Ulster's chief financial officer put it in banker-speak: "The margin on that business is around 90 basis points so that constitutes a significant drag...It is also a drag that's relatively difficult to relieve and the mortgage book has a long life and it will take some time to roll off."
But that is not the end of the Dublin-based mortgage woes.
The analysts also heard that while 4.4% of Ulster's residential mortgages in Northern Ireland were "90 days or more past due" (i.e. had not been paid in three months) in the Republic, it was more like 16%.
These diverging north/ south performances raise an intriguing possibility at a time when the whole shape of the bank's parent, RBS, is under review.
Could the whole Dublin part of the bank, with its troublesome mortgages, be spun off into a "bad bank" while the Belfast bit remains in the RBS family?
The bank insists it remains committed to all its customers across the island and sees opportunities for future growth.
But whether those sentiments are shared by its main shareholder, the UK government, remains to be seen.
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The BBC's weekly The Boss series profiles business leaders from around the world. This week we speak to 48-year-old Nisha Katona, founder of Mowgli Street Food - a contemporary Indian restaurant chain in the UK. | By Gaggan SabherwalBusiness reporter, BBC News
When Nisha Katona decided to quit her successful career as a barrister after 20 years to open a restaurant, her friends and family thought she was having a mid-life crisis.
Nisha knew the move would come with risks as she would be giving up a well paid job and had a mortgage to pay.
But she had long had a dream to become a professional chef and it was starting to give her sleepless nights. So while she was still working full time in 2014, as a family and child law barrister in Liverpool, she decided to take the plunge and opened Mowgli.
The Liverpool restaurant, which specialises in "authentic" Indian cuisine, quickly took off and has since grown into a UK-wide chain with sales of £10m.
"Mowgli is a pet name I have for my two teenage girls which literally means feral child," Nisha says of the name, which is not, as some people think, linked to the famous Jungle Book character.
"My daughters chose the logo and the restaurant was named after them."
The daughter of Indians who emigrated to Lancashire in the 1960s, Nisha was always obsessed with Indian cuisine and even used to plan her holidays around trying new foods.
She says she has taken cookery lessons all around the world, but never from professional chefs, only home cooks and "usually grandmothers".
Before she launched Mowgli she gave cookery lessons herself, launching her own Youtube channel. And she did lots of market research - for instance, standing in the corner of restaurant kitchens at night to see how they operated.
Nisha says Mowgli is about showing how Indians eat at home and on the streets, which is a "far cry" from what you find at traditional UK curry houses.
She says her dishes, which are all based on family recipes, are "simple, fresh and delicate" while having a modern twist.
"What I want is people to understand how my grandmother cooked. This is how we, as Indians, eat at home. We don't have a balti or a bhuna, and we don't have naan breads and poppadoms."
Her passion for Indian cuisine has also led her to write three of her own cookbooks - Pimp My Rice, The Spice Tree and Mowgli Street Food.
"I still remember when I wrote my first cook book. I'd never written a book in my life, so I thought how do I publish this? I looked in the Jamie Oliver cook book and Googled some of the names in his acknowledgments.
"One was his agent and so I sent her my proposal, and within 10 minutes she wrote back to me and said 'can we meet on Monday'? And she signed me on."
But despite her success, Nisha says starting her first restaurant wasn't easy. As a second-generation immigrant living in 1970s Britain, she had developed "a thick skin" early on in life, and she had been the first female Asian barrister in Liverpool.
But she was still unprepared for the pressures she faced as a woman entering the male-dominated restaurant scene.
More The Boss features:
"As I was building Mowgli, at times I was met with disdain from friends and family as I threw myself into the business and had less time to spend with my daughters.
"It struck me that if I were the husband, or simply the man, I wouldn't receive this criticism. And unfortunately, in this day and age, I still must fight my corner as a businesswoman."
The fact there were so few female role models in the industry didn't help, she says, as she would have loved a woman to have "guided her or been a mentor".
Today the entrepreneur runs seven successful Mowgli restaurants in cities such as Manchester, Birmingham and Oxford.
"The fact that Nisha has opened not one or two but seven restaurants in the UK, in just over four years, means she is definitely doing something right, especially in today's highly competitive food industry," says Mr Yawar Khan, head of the Asian Catering Federation.
He also says giving up her job and starting a new career in her 40s took "courage and guts".
"South Asian women need more role models like Nisha to encourage them to start restaurants and curry houses."
Earlier this year Nisha achieved another milestone when she made The New Year Honours list and was awarded an MBE in recognition of her services to the British food industry.
"It just felt like a blessing. It was almost as though we got royal assent for my mother's dhal," she says.
"It was the most moving moment and what it meant to my mother, who came to England 50 years ago with nothing, is beyond words."
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A row has erupted over a £1.8m loan to the Eden Project which was paid out of public money.
The debt, which was paid by the now defunct South West Regional Development Agency (RDA) in 2008, has raised the question over how much public money the tourist attraction gets and how much it is worth to the local economy. | By Jonathan MorrisBBC News, Plymouth
John Sinkins is a busy man as a partner in Lostwithiel-based textiles printing firm Lorna Wiles.
But he admits that he would be less busy if not for the Eden Project, a major buyer of its products.
The firm started supplying organically-produced tea towels more than five years ago and has now added deck chairs, oven gloves and aprons to the list.
"We're really pleased to be working with Eden," he said.
"Without their orders we would not have had the confidence to invest in organic raw materials for our tea towels and that's opened up a whole new global market for us."
The tea towels are certified as organic by the Soil Association and the link with the Eden Project has resulted in Lorna Wiles products being stocked in Marks and Spencer and John Lewis.
It is a long way from 2001 when the Eden Project was launched and invited local firms to do business with it.
Now Eden spends more than £12m every year on products and services, many of which are supplied by businesses based in Cornwall and the South West.
A total of 101 companies have been chosen as key suppliers for "providing a high level of service and quality, and a commitment to waste efficiency and maximising sustainable practise".
'Sense of pride'
More than 50% of its supplies by value in 2009 were from within Cornwall, according to
an independent report for the South West Regional Development Agency
.
Other firms that supply Eden include Sharp's Brewery at Rock, Cornish Orchards at Liskeard and bulb supplier Fentogallon near Truro.
Andy Atkinson, of Cornish Orchards, said the Eden Project, along with other attractions such as the Lost Gardens of Heligan and restaurants such as Rick Stein's, had helped create a Cornwall "brand".
He said: "Eden has been good for the county as a whole. It does not matter whether you supply them or not."
Eden received more than £132m from 2001-2009 - £48.5m from the public sector and £56.4m from the Millennium Commission.
But the report said that as well as attracting 10 million visitors from 2001 to 2009, more than 40% of visitors to Cornwall said that the Eden Project had influenced their decision.
The report also said that the substantial number of staff - 420 in 2009 - and all the economic benefits combined meant that it had brought in an estimated £805m into the local economy over the six-and-a-half years leading up to 2009.
'Good bet'
It also said there were other benefits to the local area through its support of communities, schools and other groups.
It said: "The Eden Project has generated a sense of pride and an increase in the collective self-esteem as well as increased community cohesion."
The report concluded that overall, Eden had "delivered very good value for money for a project of its type".
Eden founder, Tim Smit, said the number of visitors to the attraction was rising.
"We are on the up. We have 467 staff. We are in the top 20 employers in the South West," he said.
"I would say that Cornwall, the RDA and Europe made a pretty good bet in betting on us."
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Workers will leave Dairy Crest's Crudgington Creamery in Shropshire will go next month, the firm has told the USDAW union. | Plans to close the site, risking its 161 jobs, were revealed two years ago.
Dairy Crest said the departure of "a proportion" of staff marks the start of the plant's closure, although it is has not said when it will completely shut.
The move is part of a "drive to improve efficiency" and could see about 50 jobs transferring to Kirkby, in Liverpool.
Dairy Crest transferred production of Clover butter from Crudgington to Kirkby in 2012, with the loss of about 90 jobs.
In January it closed its Whitland dairy, in Carmarthenshire, blaming falling sales and rising costs.
Thirty-one jobs were lost and milk production transferred to Stonehouse, near Stroud in Gloucestershire.
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Colombians are deciding whether to sign up to a ceasefire with the Farc rebel group, and put an end to more than 50 years of war. One photographer - Jesus Abad Colorado Lopez - documented the violence in his images over many years, as his former colleague, the BBC's Juan Carlos Perez Salazar, explains. | Strangely, despite the Colombian war's longevity, there are very few defining images recording it.
Jesus Abad Colorado Lopez is the photographer who has perhaps best captured the pain of the war over the past 25 years. But this story begins before his birth, with a photo that he didn't take.
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In 1960, his grandparents were living with their family in the town of San Carlos, Antioquia, in the middle of Colombia. It was the era that is referred to within the country now simply as La Violencia - The Violence. Sympathisers of the two main political parties - Liberal and Conservative - faced each other in a bloody war.
His grandparents were Liberals in a Conservative town.
One night the mob came into their house, killing the grandfather and slitting the throat of the smallest child - a little boy. The grandmother stopped eating and she died grief-stricken four months later.
The family felt they had to escape to Medellin, the capital of Antioquia. But they hadn't escaped violence and found themselves again living with war from the 1970s through to the 1990s.
In the black and white photograph of Colorado Lopez's grandparents, you can trace the roots of the current violence in Colombia.
The bipartisan struggle that forced out the family was the origin of the Farc and of the war that has consumed Colombia over the past few decades.
More on Colombia from the BBC
Colorado Lopez took the vast majority of his photographs in black and white.
"I think it is more respectful. Colour is too bombastic in violent situations. Black and white gives a more documentary feel, a more sorrowful one."
His black and white images record the horror of war. Often he was the only journalist to have travelled to sites where a massacre had taken place.
And he was almost always the last to leave. It was never so much the bare facts of what led up to the massacre that interested him, but rather the consequences. He wanted to explore the repercussions that follow every violent act, and that transform - or destroy - lives and societies.
Colorado Lopez has always formed personal connections with people, allowing him to take intimate photos, such as the one of Aniceto, who watched his wife Ubertina bleed to death from a gunshot, while the army and the guerrillas stopped him from taking her to hospital.
When they allowed him to, it was already too late. Colorado Lopez accompanied him as he took her body home again and recorded his profound sorrow.
"If I give importance to a human being and he understands my solidarity, surely there is no problem in having this record. It's my duty to memory. I'm a witness," says the photographer.
Colorado Lopez wanted to record the victims. He never exhibited photographs of commanders or generals, or those who held power. He showed only low-ranking fighters and civilians.
And many of those were pictured in difficult circumstances, like the soldier who survived a guerrilla ambush on his convoy in September 1993, while his comrades lie dead around him on the road.
Or this soldier who cries inconsolably because the guerrillas killed his 13-year-old sister. They had previously warned him that if he did not leave the army, they were going to kill his family. His superiors did not believe him when he told them about the threats.
But his camera lens has above all focused on civilians, those who found themselves caught up in the crossfire and who had been the vast majority of the 220,000 violent deaths that are estimated to have happened over the past few decades in Colombia.
So he managed to capture such incredible images as the boy fastening the shirt of his dead father, killed by paramilitaries in San Carlos in October 1998, the same town that, 38 years previously, Colorado Lopez's family had fled.
Or the initials of the United Self-defence Forces of Colombia, the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), cut with a knife into the arm of a young woman of 18 by paramilitaries who kidnapped and raped her in one of the poor neighbourhoods of Medellin in November 2002.
Or this almost biblical image of peasants leaving their village of San Jose de Apartado following a massacre by paramilitaries with the help of the army.
But the wounds of war are to be found not only on bodies. They are also among landscapes and communities.
Such as in El Aro, Antioquia, where the paramilitaries - with the complicity of the army - spent five days torturing and killing 15 people in the main square, while they forced the rest of the inhabitants to watch. They then looted and set fire to the town.
When the paramilitaries left, the survivors also left El Aro en masse.
Or the crater left by a bomb fired by the army during an operation against the guerrillas in Rio Sucio, Choco, in which they were accused of acting in conjunction with paramilitaries. The operation left at least 8,000 homeless.
Or the bullet marks in a school that found itself caught in the crossfire.
The menacing presence of war is almost always there in the photographs of "Chucho", as the photographer is known among his friends.
Such as in this photo, in which a group of paramilitaries watch the city of Medellin, the capital of Antioquia, from the mountains above.
Despite the fact that his family has continued to fall victim to the conflict (a cousin was disappeared by the army, another died kidnapped by the Farc) and that he himself has been kidnapped twice by guerrillas, another of his favourite themes is hope in the midst of sorrow.
That is the message of this photograph, of a march by the inhabitants of Granada, calling for peace after a guerrilla operation left their town in ruins.
At times they are intimate, not epic photographs, like this butterfly which landed on the ammunition of a paramilitary. He only reluctantly allowed his photo to be taken, as he thought his masculinity was being questioned.
Or the father who returned with his daughter to his home town after being forcibly displaced for several months, while guerrillas and paramilitaries waged a bloody battle.
Or this last photograph, with which we close this story and which, in some way, manages to encapsulate what Jesus Abad Colorado Lopez (referred to in Colombia as the "the witnesses' witness"), tries to achieve in all his work: "Don't forget, remember, mourn and find justice."
And offer hope.
Jesus Abad Colorado Lopez was born in Medellin, Colombia, and worked for the newspaper El Colombiano between 1992 and 2001. This picture of him was taken by a child who was escaping with his family from a paramilitary attack on their town. He is the author of Mirar De La Vida Profunda (A Gaze At Life Profound).
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A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 29 January and 5 February.
Send your photos to [email protected]. Please ensure you adhere to the BBC's rules regarding photographs that can be found here.
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Isle of Wight Council is to decide whether to allocate £500,000 to re-establish access to a road which suffered a major landslide in February. | Residents of Undercliff Drive had to evacuate their homes when the road began to collapse following heavy rain.
The authority is considering whether to build pedestrian access, a new access road to properties at the base of the cliff or a low-cost road from the west.
Councillors will decide on Tuesday whether to approve the funding.
The road, between Niton and St Lawrence, remains closed and a four-mile detour is in place.
The landslide happened during reconstruction of the road and eight families are still living in rented accommodation.
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Not for the first time, Madonna is on the war path. | By Mark SavageBBC Music reporter
The focus of her rage is Universal Pictures, who snapped up a script about the singer's early years in New York earlier this week.
Madonna sought out a copy of the screenplay, called Blonde Ambition, and immediately declared it to be "all lies".
"Nobody knows what I know and what I have seen," the 58-year-old fumed on Instagram.
"Only I can tell my story. Anyone else who tries is a charlatan and a fool. Looking for instant gratification without doing the work. This is a disease in our society."
Penned by first-time writer Elyse Hollander, Blonde Ambition topped last year's Black List, Hollywood's annual chart of the best unproduced screenplays.
The list has previously featured future Oscar-winners such as Spotlight, The Revenant, Argo and American Hustle - so it's no surprise that Universal nabbed the rights.
Two major producers have already been attached to the project, Michael De Luca (The Social Network) and Brett Ratner (X-Men), who himself directed Madonna's Beautiful Stranger video in 1999.
However, it's clear that the project doesn't have the star's approval.
In theory, that's not a barrier to the film getting made, but the script relies heavily on Madonna's music, including Like A Virgin, Everybody and Lucky Star.
If the singer vetoes their use, the project would essentially be dead in the water.
But how inaccurate is Hollander's script?
We read a publicly available draft to see how closely it stuck to Madonna's story.
While the arc is broadly true, Hollander compresses and condenses events, even creating composite characters to keep up the momentum.
Here's what's true, and what isn't.
True: Madonna was in a band called The Emmys
The first act of the script focuses on Madonna's pre-fame band The Emmys, which she formed with her boyfriend Dan Gilroy and childhood friend Stephen Bray, who went on to co-write Into The Groove, Express Yourself and True Blue.
Their name derived from Madonna's childhood nickname, and video footage of their scrappy garage tunes can easily be found online.
The film insists the group were a cheap knock-off of new wave pop band Blondie, but their sound was more indebted to Britain's ska and 2 Tone scenes.
Madonna can even be heard adopting a British accent in some of their early demos.
False: The Emmys were erased from history
One of the script's biggest fabrications was that Madonna and The Emmys had a deal with Sire Records and cut an entire album before Madonna took the songs, erased Dan's vocals and launched herself as a solo artist.
In reality, the band never got beyond making demo tapes; and many of the songs attributed to them in the film - including Borderline and Lucky Star - were written much later.
Madonna even paid tribute to Dan Gilroy when she was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.
"He lived in an abandoned synagogue in Queens," she recalled, "and he taught me how to play guitar.
"I practised those four chords that Dan taught me over and over and over again."
Partially true: Madonna worked in a Russian tea room
At the start of Blonde Ambition, Madonna is seen waiting tables at New York's prestigious Russian Tea Room.
While the star did work at the venue for two months, she was stationed in the cloakroom, and eventually let go for failing to adhere to the dress code.
"She was a hard worker, conscientious," said restaurant manager Gregory Camillucci in 1991.
"I got the impression that the one meal we fed her was the only food she was getting."
True: She dated her producer, Jellybean Benitez
Blonde Ambition's biggest sub-plot is Madonna's romance with dance producer John "Jellybean" Benitez, who produced her breakthrough single, Holiday, and remixed others, including Material Girl, Like A Virgin and Dress You Up.
They first met at the influential New York club Fun House, where, according to one observer, Madonna "walked right up to the DJ booth, grabbed him and kissed him".
After that, they dated for two years, during which time Madonna's career exploded - leading to inevitable tensions and the eventual breakdown of their relationship.
However, it's unlikely that their courtship included the sort of "romantic" dialogue Hollander provides in her script.
"You're the first Latin DJ to break out of genre in a heavily white industry and I'm a driven woman in [an] all boys club," says Madonna during one encounter. "We're both outsiders but I'm willing to work the system from within. Are you?"
True: (Most of) the things she said
Throughout the script, entire lines of dialogue are lifted verbatim from Madonna's interviews, including the pivotal quote: "It never occurred to me to get into this business and not be a huge success. I wanted the world to notice me, always have."
In fact, Hollander's reliance on archive clips caught Madonna out during her Instagram rant.
As an example of the script's inaccuracies, the singer singled out a line of dialogue on the first page, in which Madonna tells US TV personality Dick Clark: "I was born in Detroit. I'm a famed high school dropout."
"I was born in Bay City, not Detroit. And I did not drop out of high school. In fact, I went to University of Michigan," Madonna said.
But the interview Hollander quotes is available on YouTube - which might explain why Madonna later deleted her comments.
However, some of her quotes have been placed in a new context.
On page 58 of the script, Madonna tells Jellybean: "I always knew I was going to be a nun or a star. Spending six months in a convent cured me of the first one."
This superb (and untrue) piece of hyperbole actually comes from a handwritten letter Madonna sent to film director Stephen Lewicki, requesting an audition for his movie A Certain Sacrifice.
Partially true: She signed her record deal in hospital
One of the most well-worn Madonna stories is that Seymour Stein signed her to Sire Records in hospital, hours after having heart surgery.
In the script, this is all at Madonna's behest. So desperate is she to sign the deal that she storms into his ward and practically puts the pen in his hand.
But Stein insists he was the one who summoned Madonna to him.
"I was caught with dirty pyjamas with a slit up the back of my gown," he told Rolling Stone.
"I needed a shave and a shower. But I got it together to meet with her.
"When she walked in the room, I could tell she wouldn't have cared if I was like Sarah Bernhardt lying in a coffin.
"All she cared about was that one of my arms moved, that I could sign a contract.
"What I saw there was even more important than the one song I heard.
"I saw a young woman who was so determined to be a star."
Uncertain: The abortion
In Blonde Ambition's final scene, backstage at the 1984 MTV Awards, Madonna coldly informs Jellybean that she has aborted their child.
"I won't have to choose between my career and a family now," she says, not even deigning to make eye contact. "And that's how I want it."
Madonna has never suggested she was pregnant in 1984, and Hollander's claim would appear to be based on Christopher Andersen's salacious 1992 biography Madonna: Unauthorized (you can read an excerpt here).
However, Madonna has frequently spoken about having an abortion at the start of her career.
"You always have regrets when you make those kind of decisions," she told Times Magazine in 1996, "but you have to look at your lifestyle and ask, 'Am I at a place in my life where I can devote a lot of time to being the really good parent I want to be?'
"I think you have to be mentally prepared for it. If you're not, you're only doing the world a disservice by bringing up a child you don't want."
(A group of New York Film Students have filmed Blonde Ambition's final scene, should you be interested in watching an am-dram version of the movie).
True: The feud with Cher
"I think Madonna's vulgar and tacky," says Cher on the 83rd page of Blonde Ambition. "She's a flash in the pan at best."
Amazing though it may seem, the quote is real.
Madonna even responded to the comment in a 1984 interview with her future biographer J Randy Taborelli, saying: "Who knows tacky better than Cher?"
False: Madonna auditioned songwriters in a swimming pool
Half-way through Blonde Ambition, Madonna is desperately seeking a final song to complete her debut album. So she and Jellybean hold an open audition in an indoor swimming pool at the YMCA.
After a montage of dismal musicians playing dismal songs, funk duo Pure Energy walk through the double doors.
Singer Lisa Stevens and bassist Curtis Hudson (bizarrely renamed Richard Curtis in Hollander's script) nervously set up their instruments before playing what will become Madonna's signature song, Holiday.
Great story - but it never happened.
The band originally submitted a cassette demo of the song to Mary Wilson, of The Supremes.
When she rejected it, Holiday was passed on to Jellybean, who presented it to Madonna.
"The song still generates money," Curtis told blogcritics in 2006 .
"Can you live off of one hit? Yes, you can if you get the right hit. It can last you a lifetime. We've been living proof of that. If we did nothing else, the royalties from Holiday could support us."
True: She fell over at the 1984 MTV Awards
Madonna's most public mishap came at the 2015 Brit Awards, when she was yanked off stage by a cape.
But it had happened once before - at the first MTV Awards in 1984, when she lost a stiletto while walking down a 17ft (5m) tall wedding cake in her wedding dress (it could happen to anyone).
Although the incident plays a pivotal part in Blonde Ambition - has she lost the baby? - it was never as serious as the script makes out.
"I thought, 'Well, I'll just pretend I meant to do this,'" Madonna later said. "So I dove on the floor and I rolled around. And, as I reached for the shoe, the dress went up. And [my] underpants were showing."
The stumble-flash made television history and propelled Madonna to even greater heights. And that's where the film drops the curtain.
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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Plummeting voter turnout and big gains for fringe parties at either end of the political spectrum are arguably signs of South Africa's maturing democracy, however they could also be seen as evidence of a more divided society. The governing ANC has limped on with a reduced majority but some difficult challenges lie ahead. | By Pumza FihlaniBBC News, Johannesburg
1: The ANC lost ground - but is celebrating
Many people are asking why the governing African National Congress (ANC) is happy after recording its worst performance since white minority rule ended in 1994 - 58% share of the vote.
This is the first time the party that has led South Africa since 1994 has won less than 60% of votes, but for an organisation that is hugely divided, riddled by corruption and has had a decade of lethargic leadership, this result is seen as a boost for its new leader Cyril Ramaphosa.
Many people see this as the ANC's last chance to redeem itself.
Mr Ramaphosa took over the party in December 2017, after the ANC sacked Jacob Zuma, embroiled in corruption allegations, which he denies.
One of its senior members, Fikile Mbalula, said the party's share of votes "would have probably dropped to 40%" had its leadership not changed.
But the ANC shouldn't celebrate too soon.
The people of South Africa may have given the ANC a mandate to lead, but it is not unconditional.
The last decade has been damaging to the party's reputation and has alienated millions of South Africans who are desperate for their conditions to improve, and had trusted the ANC to do that, but instead they got worse.
Growth has been slow here, millions are unemployed and society remains hugely unequal.
Now begins a tough juggling act for Mr Ramaphosa - the act of restoring confidence in his government and more importantly delivering on his promise to fight corruption.
The ANC has been accused of putting its own survival ahead of the interests of the country. How Mr Ramaphosa chooses his cabinet will be the first indication of whether that has changed.
2: The official opposition has an 'identity crisis'
This has been a difficult result for the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) - a "bruising outcome", some have said.
It's the first election in which the party's vote share has not grown. In fact, it lost some of its conservative supporters to the more radical Freedom Front Plus (VF+), a right-wing, mainly Afrikaner minority party.
Some analysts have said the DA also failed to make inroads with South Africa's black population.
This has partly been attributed to what some have called "an identity crisis".
The DA is still seen within the black community as a white party, protecting white interests, something its black leader Mmusi Maimane has been working to disprove.
Commenting on the outcome, Mr Maimane said the party needs to do some self-reflection, but added that the DA "refuse[s] to be a party for one race".
Other senior members have been bolder, stating that the DA "is not a party for racists", alluding that it is better off without the support of those with deeply held racist sentiments.
Still, the numbers matter, and this will be the big test for Mr Maimane's leadership.
The DA is now looking ahead to the 2021 elections, hoping to redeem itself there.
But having been accused by VF+ of "trying to be everything to everyone", the DA has some hard decisions to make - and will need to be clear about where it wants to focus its energies.
The men who would be president:
3: Radical EFF gains support
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which wants to seize white-owned land without compensation and nationalise the huge mining industry, was one of the fastest-growing parties at this election, increasing its share of the vote from 6% to 10%.
Crucially, it has also become the official opposition in three provinces.
The EFF, with its "no-nonsense" leader Julius Malema, always talks a big game. On the campaign trail, representatives called themselves "the government-in-waiting".
They are of course nowhere near that, judging by the huge margin between the EFF's support base and that of the ANC.
But undeniably the EFF's message of being a party for the poor and working class has resonated, and it has found a support base with the disgruntled.
The party has been accused of populism and divisive rhetoric by the more moderate parties in South Africa, so it will be interesting to see how the EFF maintains its support base over the next five years.
4: Rise of the Afrikaner nationalists
One of the biggest surprises has been the growth of the Freedom Front Plus (VF+). The mainly Afrikaner party, which says it's fighting for the right of minority groups, has doubled its support, to about 2%, making it the fifth largest party nationwide, behind the mainly Zulu Inkatha Freedom Party.
Five years ago, VF+ was lost in obscurity. So why did it grow and how?
One theory is that the contentious issue of land expropriation without compensation, touted by the ANC and EFF, pushed some DA supporters towards this more hardline party because they feared the DA would not protect their interests.
The debate on land expropriation also encouraged existing members of VF+ to go out and vote.
Their message was simple - white Afrikaners are under siege and needed to protect their interests as a minority group in South Africa.
5: Plummeting voter turnout
Hard lessons need to be learned by South Africa's political parties, with voter participation at its lowest since the dawn of democracy in 1994.
What's more, about 1 in 4 people did not register, according to Africa Check.
There are two ways to interpret this.
Voter apathy is the first: a portion of the population has lost faith in the country's political leaders - all of them - and therefore chose to stay away.
The second interpretation is that this is part and parcel of a maturing democracy.
Perhaps the lesson is that leaders need new ways of appealing to voters - particularly South Africa's young people, 6 million of whom did not register to vote.
It would be too simplistic to suggest that young people are not interested in politics or what is happening in the country.
They are worst hit by soaring rates of unemployment and have been at the forefront of protests challenging the status quo.
What this general election has shown us is that while South African youths are active in civil society, this is not translating to the formal process of voting.
And that is a problem for all political parties.
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An Indian Dalit (formerly untouchable) woman, who once attempted suicide to escape discrimination, poverty and physical abuse, becomes the CEO of a multi-million dollar company. The BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan in Mumbai captures Kalpana Saroj's journey - a symbol of the Dalit struggle to mark their arrival at the top. | Her life reads like the plot of a Bollywood film, with a narrative which has defied so many obstacles, to conclude with a happy ending.
The "rags to riches" cliche can be overused, but it goes some way in describing the story of Kalpana Saroj, a woman who struggled on so many occasions on her way to the top.
Born into a low-caste Dalit family, she was bullied at school, forced into marriage at the age of 12, fought social pressures to leave her husband, before she tried to take her own life.
Today, she is a multi-millionaire. At the helm of a successful company, she rubs shoulders with prominent businessmen and has won awards for her professionalism.
"The first time I came to Mumbai, I did not even know where to go. I was from such a small village. Today my company has two roads named after it in the city," she says, summing up the extent to which her life has transformed.
India's caste system is an ancient social hierarchy, which places people into different categories by birth. Those born into the lower castes have historically faced discrimination.
"Some of my friends' parents would not let me in their homes, and I was not even allowed to participate in some school activities because I was a Dalit," says the 52-year-old.
"I used to get angry. I felt really nervous because I thought even I am a human being," she adds.
Marital woes
Even though her father allowed her to get an education, wider family pressures saw Kalpana become a bride at the age of 12.
She moved to Mumbai to be with her husband who was 10 years older, but was shocked to find herself living in a slum.
But that was not the only hardship she had to endure.
"I was treated badly by my husband's elder brother and his wife. They would pull my hair and beat me, sometimes over little things. I felt broken with all the physical and verbal abuse," she says.
Leaving a husband is widely frowned upon in Indian culture, but Kalpana was able to escape the violent relationship, thanks to her supportive father.
When he visited her in Mumbai, he was shocked to see his daughter emaciated and wearing torn clothes and took her back home.
Many villagers were suspicious of her return, viewing Kalpana as a failure.
She tried to ignore the judgemental comments thrown at her, focusing instead on getting a job. She learnt tailoring as a way to make money.
But, even with some degree of financial independence, the pressure became too much.
"One day, I decided to end my life. I drank three bottles of insecticide, termite poison," she says, recalling her lowest moment.
Kalpana was saved after her aunt walked into the room and found her frothing at the mouth and shaking uncontrollably.
The big change
It marked a watershed for her. "I decided to live my life, and do something big, and then die," she says.
So, at the age of 16, she moved back to Mumbai to stay with an uncle and work as a tailor.
She began by earning less than a dollar a month, but tirelessly learnt how to operate industrial sewing machines, and as a result saw her income rise.
But the money she earned was not enough to pay for her sister's treatment which could have saved her life, a moment which defined Kalpana's entrepreneurial spirit.
"I was highly disappointed and realised that money did matter in life, and that I needed to make more."
She took a government loan to open a furniture business and expand her tailoring work.
She worked 16 hours a day, a routine she has not managed to shake off to this day.
In the following years, she remarried, this time to a fellow furniture businessman, and had two children.
Her reputation led to her being asked to take over the running of a metal engineering company, Kamani Tubes, which was in massive debt.
By restructuring the company, she turned things around.
"I wanted to give justice to the people who were working there. I had to save the company. I could relate to the staff who needed to put food on the table for their family," she says of her motivations at the time.
Now, Kamani Tubes is a growing business, worth more than $100m.
Kalpana employs hundreds of people, from all backgrounds and castes. She has met prominent businessmen such as Ratan Tata and Mukesh Ambani, and in 2006 won a prestigious award for her entrepreneurial spirit.
Kalpana regularly visits her home village and does charity work to help those in her community.
As a Dalit and a woman, her story is all the more remarkable in a country where so few CEOs are from such a background.
"If you give your heart and soul to your job and never give up, things can happen for you," she says.
It is a mantra that has helped Kalpana through the worst of times and still rings true for her.
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More than 200 people have died in an unprecedented attack targeting a Sunni mosque in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula during Friday prayers, highlighting the alarming threat posed by jihadist militants in the region. | So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest of its kind in the country.
So-called Islamic State (IS) is the most prominent and violent of the militant groups in Sinai, with a record of targeting civilians in that area and in mainland Egypt.
Other groups active in the country are mostly aligned with IS's arch jihadist rival, al-Qaeda.
Sinai Province
IS's Sinai affiliate, Sinai Province, has claimed responsibility for many deadly attacks, mostly targeting the army in Sinai. It also claimed the downing of a Russian airliner in October 2015.
Formerly known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, the group first appeared in September 2011 and rebranded itself with an IS pledge of allegiance in November 2014.
The group generally targets Egyptian security forces in northern Sinai, but has also claimed an attack on a tourist site in southern Sinai in April.
In the first part of the year IS stepped up its rhetoric and attacks against Christians in Sinai and elsewhere in Egypt, claiming two deadly attacks on churches in Tanta and Alexandria on 9 April.
IS started to scale up its attacks in Sinai since September, as it started losing territory in Iraq and Syria.
On 24 November, IS boasted about attacks it had carried out earlier in the week targeting policemen in western Arish, the area of the attacked mosque.
In addition to its attacks on Christians, IS has adopted a threatening tone against Sufi Muslims, whom it considers to be heretics.
The head of IS's religious police in Sinai had previously said that Sufis who did not "repent" would be killed. IS has beheaded a number of Sufi men whom it accused of "sorcery".
Jund al-Islam
The propaganda and rhetoric of this low-profile group suggests alignment with al-Qaeda.
Its rivalry with IS in Sinai surfaced in November when Jund al-Islam issued a threat to IS militants.
In an audio message released on 11 November, Jund al-Islam claimed responsibility for an October attack on IS militants in Sinai, and vowed to crush the rival group "for committing crimes against Muslims" in the peninsula.
A day later, Jund al-Islam issued another statement condemning the 9 November deadly attack on lorry drivers in northern Sinai, as well as blaming IS and the Egyptian government for the deaths.
In both its recent messages, Jund al-Islam stressed that it did not target "innocent Muslims".
Jund al-Islam's recent communiques follow a lengthy spell of media silence since 2015, and suggest the group is presenting itself as a challenger to IS in Sinai.
The group emerged in September 2013 with a claim of a double suicide attack on the Egyptian military intelligence HQ in the northern Sinai town of Rafah, which borders the Gaza Strip.
It stepped up its propaganda campaign in 2015, claiming rocket attacks on Israel and issuing a propaganda video that hinted at links with al-Qaeda in Yemen (AQAP).
Al-Mourabitoun
Not to be confused with the former Sahara-based jihadist group al-Mourabitoun, this Egyptian faction announced itself in 2015.
However, since its formation, the group has not been observed to carry out any prominent attacks, and has mainly put out statements and threats.
Given its lack of visible activity, it remains unclear where exactly al-Mourabitoun operates in Egypt.
Its propaganda suggests an al-Qaeda orientation, and veteran jihadist media operatives have linked it to an al-Qaeda attempt to check the rise of IS in Egypt.
Its leader, Abu-Umar al-Muhajir, alias Hisham Ashmawi, is a former Egyptian army officer and a senior figure in Ansar Beit al-Maqdis before it pledged allegiance to IS.
In October 2015, Ashmawi called for the killing of Egyptian military officers, and for revenge in response to the deaths of Palestinians by Israel's security forces.
Ashmawi reiterated that message in March 2016, and urged Muslim clerics to play an active role in encouraging young people to embrace jihad.
Ansar al-Islam
This new group, not to be confused with the veteran Ansar al-Islam in Iraq, emerged in November, when it claimed responsibility for a high-profile attack in Egypt's Western Desert.
Ansar al-Islam described the attack, in which more than 50 security personnel died, as "the beginning of our jihad".
The group's attack claim and its founding statement of 3 November was widely circulated by high-profile online supporters of al-Qaeda, which suggested a nod of approval.
Its rhetoric and pledge to fight until the establishment of Islamic law suggest a jihadist orientation.
Ansar al-Islam's statement urged Egyptians to join the jihad, or support the group through words or funds.
Ajnad Misr
Meaning "Soldiers of Egypt", this group appeared in January 2014, and carried out attacks in Cairo over the summer.
It has possible al-Qaeda associations, in that the Yemeni and African branches of that network posted eulogies on the death of its leader in April 2015.
It also coordinated attacks with Ansar Beit al-Maqdis before the latter joined IS.
But Ajnad Misr has repeatedly said that it tries to avoid civilian casualties in its attacks.
Many of the group's members are now thought to be in prison.
In October 2017, the Egyptian authorities sought death sentences for 13 individuals with suspected links to the group.
The individuals are accused of killing soldiers, police officers and civilians, with a verdict expected in December.
Hasm
The Hasm Movement surfaced in the summer of 2016 and has focused on attacking government and security personnel in Cairo and elsewhere in Egypt.
The Egyptian authorities and media have linked Hasm to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is outlawed in Egypt.
The group's rhetoric is more Islamist and "pro-revolution" than jihadist.
On 1 October Hasm targeted the Myanmar embassy in Cairo with an explosive device to express its solidarity with Rohingya Muslims, it said.
Hasm released its first propaganda video in January in which it showcased its training camps and boasted about the range of attacks it had carried out on the Egyptian authorities.
Slick production and the group's claim of organisation and structure in the video were clearly meant to indicate that Hasm was not a shadowy group, but rather a sophisticated force to be reckoned with.
BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.
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The States of Guernsey has been asked for a £1m over the next four years to improve storage for the island's historical objects. | The Culture and Leisure Department said the facilities at the Gibauderie Yard, Baubigny Arsenal and Little St John Street were no longer fit for purpose.
Minister Mike O'Hara said it something had to be done to save the items.
He said: "If we don't do this then I'm afraid the collection is going to deteriorate and no-one wants that."
"We want to be able to say in a 100 years' time that all these objects, our culture and heritage identity, will be there for future generations," Deputy O'Hara added.
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An investigation is under way into the cause of a blaze which engulfed a polystyrene factory, causing nearby workers to flee the area. | Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue crews remain at the scene at Twinwood Business Park, in Milton Ernest, after being called at about midday on Friday.
Three buildings caught fire and at its height 60 firefighters tackled the flames.
Thick black smoke could be seen for miles around.
Thurleigh Road remains closed but other roads, including the A6, have reopened, the fire service said.
Water was pumped to the site from the River Ouse more than a mile away.
Matthew Smith, who was evacuated from his work close by, said as it looked so "dangerous" they "ran out the area as quickly as we could".
Bedfordshire Fire said "all people have been accounted for" and crews from Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire and Oxfordshire attended.
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Nineteen-year-old Red is a student, a fan of metal music and aspiring make-up artist. As a child, she was chatty and full of life - but only when she was at home. When she left the house, everything changed. | By Naomi PallasBBC Stories
At a secondary school open evening in Kettering, Northamptonshire, a teacher was playing a game with some prospective students and called over to a girl standing nearby to ask if she wanted to join in.
Red Elizabeth Jolley shrugged "OK" and walked over. Her parents exchanged excited glances behind the 11-year-old's back. Red steadied herself and tried to stay cool, thinking, "You just did a normal person thing." Later, when Red's mum, Carrie, got home she updated her Facebook status to say how proud she was of her daughter.
That little word "OK" represented a breakthrough, as for years Red had maintained almost complete silence outside the house.
At first, her parents thought she was shy. At nursery school, the only time Red would speak to the teacher was when the other kids were playing outside, so no-one could overhear. But they realised it was more than this when a new teacher arrived, and complained that Red was now refusing to talk altogether.
At home, she was a lively child. Her parents remember her as confident and relaxed, with a wicked sense of humour. They couldn't understand what might cause her to behave so differently at school. And they continued to hope that as time went on she would relax, and become her usual chatty self.
After the first year, however, she still wasn't talking. It was a mystery.
Now at university, Red speaks quietly but confidently and is quick to break into a smile.
Growing up, she mostly remembers being jealous of other children. It seemed as though there was a glass wall separating them, leaving her feeling she was watching from the outside.
Her frustration was overwhelming. Holding every word inside all day meant that they had to spill out somewhere. Red remembers coming home from primary school and screaming, crying and shouting.
As soon as you leave the house, the world expects you to talk.
"Communication with others is at the heart of our social functioning, enabling us to express ourselves, build and maintain relationships and get our needs met - all of which are important for our well-being and resilience," says Anita McKiernan, adviser on selective mutism for the The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT).
But the expectation that she would talk made Red uncomfortable.
An unfamiliar face or an unexpected question, were enough to trigger extreme anxiety.
Eventually, she got a diagnosis of selective mutism. Often dismissed as naughty or rude in the past, children with selective mutism are now understood to have a severe form of anxiety which means they can only talk to certain people.
Selective mutism
As she grew up, Red was happy talking to her parents and a few family members, but if anyone else tried to talk to her, the words would get stuck in her throat and gag her.
"I shrivel into myself and just freeze," she says. "My brain overthinks for a minute and then stops. Then it overthinks again." On repeat.
The girl who couldn't speak joined the Brownies (the younger version of the Girl Guides) by recording her pledge at home and playing it in front of her troop. She easily picked up her sign language badge. But she never said a word out loud.
Everyday tasks were surprisingly difficult, so the family came up with solutions. Red took laminated cards to her friends' houses, so she could tell their parents if she wanted a drink, had fallen over or wanted to go home. Flashing a "yes" or a "no", she could tell them if she wanted to drink orange juice or water.
So that night at the school open evening was a turning point, a fresh start for Red.
As her confidence gradually built up at secondary school, she answered teachers and built friendships. Both mother and daughter remember a time when Red was threatened with detention for talking in class. The family got a takeaway as a treat that night. Carrie jokes, "I'm probably the only parent that's ever been wishing that some teacher will phone me saying your child swore at me today. Brilliant! Well done: I'll reward her!"
Although she still suffers from anxiety, Red spoke to me in a busy coffee shop in the centre of Birmingham, where she is a student. She has a good group of friends at university and has given talks in front of rooms full of people. But there are still a handful of people she's never spoken a word to.
Her grandad is one of them.
When Red's parents realised that she was selectively mute, they began researching the condition and looking for ways to help their daughter. They went to speech and language therapists, and to psychologists, and tried hypnotherapy and support groups. In 2009 the family invited a BBC crew into their home, in case it would help any other puzzled parents out there to understand their child's behaviour.
The resulting documentary shows John, Red's grandad, trying to communicate with his granddaughter. A speech therapist suggests that he leaves voicemails which Red can respond to. As he listens to the first four words she has ever spoken to him through the tinny speaker of his phone, he grins.
The family said they kept this up after the documentary, but it eventually petered out.
Red now simply does not speak to her grandad. In messages on social media, people ask if she'd be able to speak to him on his deathbed, if she'd ever just tried to speak to him, if he'd upset her somehow. The answers are: no, yes, and no.
"I want to speak. I would if I could. I am trying," she says, quietly.
When she travels to his house, Red will chatter the whole way in the car and sing along to music. But as soon as they arrive and the minute the front door opens she is silent. "She'll start curling in, looking uncomfortable with her shoulders slumped, looking down a bit," says Carrie, her mum. "She will change completely. How she stands, how she walks. It's very dramatic."
Where to get help
Ispeak
Finding our voices
SM Space Cafe (Facebook)
Although her grandad works extra hard to make her feel comfortable, Red's mouth will stay firmly shut while she is in the house. If they stay overnight, the most Red can manage is a loud whisper to say goodnight to her mum. She just can't relax until the car door slams and they get on the motorway.
Carrie talks casually about how Red will simply nod or shake her head to get her point across, but it's clear that she finds it difficult that her only child has never spoken to her father. John himself has called it "heartbreaking".
After the documentary aired, Red remembers with amusement a letter which the family received, in which a viewer said it was no wonder she was mute, with a name like Red Elizabeth Jolley. But in reality the cause of selective mutism is unknown.
Traumatic mutism comes on after a negative experience and affects communication with everyone. But selective mutism only affects talking to certain people, and there is no logic to who is, or isn't, on the "list".
Although she can now chat away, Red's anxiety has had one long lasting, irreversible effect.
When she was 12 years old, Red was walking back from a netball game and slipped. She didn't cry much, or make a fuss, which Anita McKiernan says is typical of people with selective mutism. She has worked with children who have broken bones and not told anyone until they got home.
Red had dislocated her knee. When it came to treatment, she was so anxious she didn't allow anybody to touch her leg. She would not communicate with doctors, and did not give consent for treatment.
She would cry if somebody walked in the room too quickly, worrying they would move the air over her knee. Her anxiety meant she needed to be sedated for an MRI scan. The pressure on the family led to her dad signing off work from the stress.
After missing five months of school, two major operations and physiotherapy, Red now walks with a limp.
"All over a dislocated knee," her mum sighs.
When she was growing up, there were about eight people who Red could talk to without struggling to get the words out. Over her teenage years, her anxiety lessened and she can now speak to new people.
But just as with her grandad, there are a few aunts and uncles who she's never spoken to. Red thinks she'll never be able to overcome this.
She says that her mum used to worry non-stop about her - how she would cope with a job interview, order food in a cafe, or go on holiday - but is now more relaxed. "She's fine," Red says. "She's like: 'You've got this.'"
Carrie agrees. She's no longer worried. She knows Red is happy and studying hard.
"Not having her at home, it's very quiet - ironically," she laughs.
BBC Crossing Divides
A season of stories about bringing people together in a fragmented world.
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"I have an original voice," says Belinda Carlisle, | By Mark SavageBBC Music reporter
"It may not be the best voice but it's distinct and I think that's what has carried me through the years."
She's being modest, of course. Without that foundation-quaking vibrato, there would be no Heaven Is A Place On Earth, no Circle In The Sand and no Summer Rain.
And then there's her catalogue with The Go-Go's, the new wave girl band she formed in her teens. Hits like We Got The Beat and Our Lips Are Sealed sent their debut album to number one in America.
To this day, Beauty and the Beat is still the only US chart-topper to be written and played by women.
But through all of that success, Carlisle was harbouring a severe cocaine habit. Even fellow party animal Rod Stewart was shocked, writing in his autobiography that Carlisle "could snort the lacquer off a table".
After two decades, though, the singer finally got clean after hearing a voice telling her: "You are going to be found dead in a hotel if you don't stop."
That was in 2005. Now, aged 59, she's releasing her first album in a decade, Wilder Shores, which is built around the Kundalini yoga chants that helped her recovery.
On the phone from Brighton, she told the BBC about that record, the 30th anniversary of the Heaven On Earth album and what it's like to be covered in spit at a punk show.
Hi, Belinda! How's Brighton?
I love Brighton! I've been coming here since the late 70s when it was just one fish-and-chip shop on the sea front.
That would have been when The Go-Go's supported Madness on tour?
Yes, exactly. It was my second trip to the UK - I think I was probably 19 and we opened for Madness on their tour, and it was mostly seaside towns.
What were the audiences like at those gigs?
Oh my God! Back then, the whole National Front thing was unfortunately involved with the ska movement - so there were lots of tattooed skinheads, and one of the things they would do is, if they liked you, they would gob on you. So we would be coming off stage covered in spit.
We were just five girls from Southern California, so it was really scary. There were a lot of tears. But overall, even though we had no money and were covered in spit, we still had a good time.
I'm always amazed that The Go-Go's are still the only all-female band to have written a number one album. It's like you battered down the door and no-one else came through.
I don't know… I guess the Bangles came close.
But they used a lot of co-writers..
Yeah, they did. Go figure. You'd think there would be more after us, but there weren't. I don't understand that at all.
You can still see your legacy in other bands, like Haim or Hole or L7. It's just a shame no-one else has replicated the success.
Well, I mean, good luck now, unless you're put together by a svengali. Something like The Go-Gos could never happen now. It was too authentic. And authenticity is really lacking in music.
Was there a backlash when you went from punk-inspired sound of The Go-Gos to the pure pop of Heaven On Earth?
Oh, I think so - and I can see why. But everything I've ever done has been true to myself. The albums Heaven On Earth and Runaway Horses and Live Your Life Be Free were harking back to when I was a young girl and listening to Californian radio - lush productions, complicated melodies, harmonies like the Beach Boys and the Mamas and Papas. That's what those albums remind me of.
So they're all very dear to my heart. Except A Woman and a Man [Belinda's sixth album, released in 1996].
But even on that record you got to work with Brian Wilson.
Well, gosh, that was one of the highlights - but, you know, at that point I was in a lot of personal turmoil… I guess there were a few good songs in there and California was one of them. Having Brian Wilson sing on my album was an unforgettable experience.
What do you recall of making the Heaven On Earth album?
I'll never forget the first time I heard Circle In The Sand; or I Get Weak, which [songwriter] Dianne Warren played on the piano and sang for me. I actually told her she should release it, because she has a great voice. And then hearing Heaven for the first time, I realised, and I think we all realised, that it had the potential to be a global hit.
Which songs have you enjoyed revisiting on the tour?
Should I Let You In - I'd totally forgotten about that one. And Fool For Love, which I started working into my set this last summer, people love it! It's just such a fun, powerful, pop song.
You don't have any writing credits on Heaven On Earth but by your fifth album, Real, you were contributing to almost every song. What changed?
For the first three albums, pretty much, I was just a voice - and I mean that in the best possible way. But on Real, I felt I needed to make a change.
I've always known I could write. I have an ear for production and melody. It was just that in those early years, I let everyone do it for me. To be honest, I was a little lazy!
Listening to Real now, it was ahead of its time, insofar as its sound and incorporating loops. And right after that, Alanis Morrisette came out with Jagged Little Pill, which had a similar approach. I mean, I'm not claiming that - there's not an original thought out there. It just happened to be a little ahead of its time.
Fast-forward to 2017, and you've just performed a concert at a yoga class...
That was really good fun. The yoga audience was pretty new for me, but what was funny was seeing fans who'd never done yoga before coming in with their mats and experiencing the mantra and singing along with it.
How did you end up making an album of chants?
I started chanting before I got sober, and chanting is really interesting, because it's a science and it definitely works.
Way back at the beginning… I had made so many messes in my life and it had all come to a head. It would have been very easy for me to jump off a cliff but because of all the chanting I was doing, I was flying high. It was like a feeling of elation at the very beginning of my sobriety. It was very strange, so I know it's power.
Then I started experimenting with repetitive mantra in a pop song format. And I think it works. And that's how you get Wilder Shores.
Which of the mantras on the album has been the most useful to you personally?
Ek Ong Kar Sat Gur Prasad [roughly translated as, "There is one creator of all creation. All is a blessing of the one creator"]. It's one that, simply put, makes me feel pretty happy, instantaneously.
Could you have got sober without it?
Oh I probably could have, but there's no question that it made my transition into sobriety easier, no question.
Will you be singing the mantras on tour?
I do one chant at the very, very end of the show [but] it doesn't really work in the context of a full-on rock concert. The focus is really on the Heaven On Earth album.
Your voice sounds stronger than ever on the record. What do you put that down to?
Well, I always say it was 30 years of booze and cigarettes!
Belinda Carlisle's new album, Wilder Shores, is out now; as is a three-disc anniversary edition of Heaven On Earth. She is currently on tour in the UK.
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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Louisiana has joined a slew of states across the US in legalising an anti-abortion measure that bans the procedure as soon as six weeks into a pregnancy. What's behind the push - and the backlash - for anti-abortion bills across the US? | In the first months of this year, nearly 30 states introduced some form of an abortion ban in their legislature. Fifteen have specifically been working with so-called "heartbeat bills", that would ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
These bills are part of a wider movement of anti-abortion measures sweeping the US.
Earlier in May, Alabama lawmakers passed a bill to ban abortion outright.
And Missouri's sole remaining abortion clinic remains embroiled in a legal battle to keep its operating license from the state health department. If the provider loses, Missouri will become the only US state without an abortion clinic.
What are these bans - and why now?
"Heartbeat bills", as the term implies, seek to make abortion illegal as soon as what anti-abortion supporters describe as a foetus' heartbeat becomes detectable. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says the name is misleading, and that what is being detected is "a portion of the foetal tissue that will become the heart as the embryo develops".
In most cases, this point is at the six-week mark of a pregnancy - before many women even know they are pregnant.
"We have never seen so much action around six-week abortion bans," said Elizabeth Nash, senior state issues manager at the Guttmacher Institute - a pro-choice group that researches sexual and reproductive health.
"But we now have seen a shift in the composition of the US Supreme Court."
President Donald Trump has placed two conservative Supreme Court justices and, Ms Nash says, making it seem more amenable to revoking abortion rights.
"Because of this, we are seeing state legislatures looking to ban abortion as a way to kickstart litigation that would come before the [Supreme] court, and the court could then roll back abortion rights."
Other legislators are also responding - in January, New York signed into law a bill safeguarding abortion rights after 24 weeks in certain cases, reigniting discussions about the controversial procedure.
Illinois is the latest Democrat-led state to protect abortion rights, passing a bill in June repealing a 1975 abortion law that required spousal consent, waiting periods, restrictions on facilities and penalties for doctors.
The new measure changes the definition of viability to survival outside the womb without extraordinary medical measures and allows for abortions after the viability point to protect the mother's health.
Vermont also passed legislation affirming abortion rights, and Maine's Democratic Governor Janet Mills signed a bill allowing health care providers who are not physicians to also perform abortions.
A backlash from business
A growing number of public figures have threatened to divest from the states enacting anti-abortion legislation.
Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, says Georgia's six-week ban would make it "difficult" to keep filming there.
Georgia has become a popular destination for Hollywood producers who flock to the state for its generous tax breaks for films. It offers a 20% incentive on productions of $500,000 or more and a further 10% if the film includes Georgia's logo in its credits.
Blockbusters like Black Panther and Avengers: Endgame were recently shot in the state.
However, Mr Iger said "many people who work for us will not want to work there" should the law go into effect.
"We will have to heed their wishes," he told Reuters.
Earlier this week, streaming giant Netflix said it would "rethink" its operations in the state if the law goes into effect. Netflix series Stranger Things and Ozark are both shot in Georgia.
But the threats to leave Georgia if the law should take effect are unlikely to be realised in the near future.
Georgia's new law - like others in the anti-abortion movement - are intentionally unconstitutional. Anti-abortion supporters anticipate resulting legal challenges and hope the appeals will reach the US Supreme Court to allow them to re-visit federal laws protecting the procedure.
As of yet, despite the wave of abortion bans, it remains legal in all 50 US states.
Meanwhile, stars including Amy Schumer, Ben Stiller, Christina Applegate, Laverne Cox and Alec Baldwin wrote to the governor saying they would "do everything in our power to move our industry to a safer state for women".
Actor Jason Bateman, who stars in the Netflix show Ozark and in HBO's The Outsider, which are both currently filming in Georgia, told The Hollywood Reporter: "I will not work in Georgia, or any other state, that is so disgracefully at odds with women's rights".
So, how did we get here?
The US movement against abortion began in the 1800s, spearheaded by physicians who saw non-medical professionals providing abortion services as both a threat to their industry and harmful to women's health.
By 1900, every state had banned abortions entirely - with exceptions granted only at the discretion of a licensed physician.
The issue arose again in the 1960s, when women began advocating for reproductive rights. Colorado changed its anti-abortion law in 1967, followed soon after by California and New York.
Amid these efforts to return the choice to women, the anti-abortion movement as we currently see it was born, led largely by Catholics and other conservative religious groups. The oldest such group in the US, the National Right to Life, was founded in 1968.
Most funding for the movement still comes from religious conservatives - including wealthy donors like the vocally pro-life DeVos family.
In 1973, the Supreme Court issued the landmark Roe v Wade ruling legalising abortion in all 50 states.
Roe v Wade protects a woman's right to an abortion only until viability - that is, the point at which a foetus is able to live outside the womb, generally at the start of the third trimester, 28 weeks into a pregnancy.
What's happening in Missouri?
In Missouri, the battle over abortion rights is centred on the state's last remaining abortion clinic, which is in jeopardy amidst a standoff with state officials.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services refused to renew the licence for the clinic unless its physicians agree to interviews about what it calls "potential deficient practices".
Planned Parenthood, which runs the clinic, has refused, saying it could mean doctors who perform abortions face criminal charges.
It won a court order last month to keep the clinic open on the day it was due to close.
"Today is a victory for women across Missouri, but this fight is far from over," said Dr Leana Wen, president of the reproductive health organisation.
If Planned Parenthood ultimately loses the case, Missouri could become the first state not to have a legal abortion clinic since 1973.
What will the Supreme Court do?
This week, the Supreme Court issued two decisions on an Indiana law restricting abortions, providing a hint at how the top court may respond to other anti-abortion laws.
In an unsigned opinion, the justices upheld a state requirement that all foetal remains - whether the product of a miscarriage or an abortion - be either buried or cremated.
But the justices declined to revive another part of the law that would ban abortions if chosen because of the sex or disability of a foetus.
The court's actions were a mixed bag for those on both sides of the abortion debate.
Anti-abortion activists viewed the provision as a step toward recognising foetal tissue not as medical waste but as human remains deserving dignified treatment.
Abortion rights groups countered that the Supreme Court precedent does not consider a foetus to be human. The purpose of the Indiana law, Planned Parenthood wrote in a statement, is to "shame and stigmatise" women seeking abortions.
By not examining the case in full, the top court effectively punted an opportunity to revisit the 1973 Roe v Wade precedent upholding a woman's right to abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas, a conservative, said his colleagues on the bench would eventually have to act.
The BBC's Anthony Zurcher says the ruling could be an indication that a majority of the justices on the court are in no hurry to reverse 46 years of precedent.
What does the anti-abortion movement want?
For Karen Swallow Prior, a professor at the evangelical Liberty University who is a proponent of banning abortion outright, these six-week bans are "a good faith effort" to restrict abortion.
"These bills and the pro-life [anti-abortion] movement are not about punishing women for having sex, they are about preserving a human life that already exists," Prof Prior says. She emphasised it was not a religiously motivated viewpoint, but one based on science and human rights.
In addition to these six-week bans, anti-abortion activists have fought for restrictions on abortion methods, rationales (such as sex or race or abnormality) and trigger bans that would end abortion if Roe v Wade is overturned.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, 18 states have laws that would restrict abortion in the absence of the federal law, while 10 have laws that would protect abortion in the same scenario.
But some activists are focusing instead on changing infrastructure they view as promoting abortion, rather than seeking to immediately criminalise the procedure.
Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, founder of New Wave Feminists, says her organisation wants to make abortion "unthinkable".
"We're arguing about autonomy - which is more important, the woman's or the child's? As a pro-life feminist, I believe we have to take into account both."
She is not opposed to the bills, but says her own activism focuses on women's empowerment.
"We know statistically it's a decision made on financial constraints, lack of access to healthcare, things like that," she says. "Let's get to the real root as to why women feel they have to have an abortion in the first place."
What about the other side?
Reverend Marie Alford-Harkey says the right to have an abortion goes hand in hand with the right to follow one's own values and morals.
Rev Alford-Harkey, who is a Christian pastor and the president and CEO of the Religious Institute, a national multi-faith organisation working for sexual, gender, and reproductive justice, says the notion of reproductive justice, a term created by black women in the 1990s, is behind her pro-choice views.
"It's the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, to have children, to not have children, to parent in safe and sustainable communities," Rev Alford-Harkey explains.
"Justice is a very Christian concept, and this particular framework grew out of communities that were not being served."
Rev Alford-Harkey recently began working as an abortion doula, accompanying women into the exam rooms, speaking with them before, after and sometimes even during the procedure.
"I've been asked once or twice if I think God would forgive them and I say, I don't think there's anything for God to forgive. What I think is a sin is that we've taught people that God won't forgive them for doing what's best for their own bodies, their own lives."
What has Trump said?
President Donald Trump broke his silence last week on the recent restrictions across the US.
Mr Trump, whose position on abortion has shifted dramatically over the years, posted a series of tweets outlining his views, saying he was against abortion except in cases of rape, incest or a "serious health risk" to the mother.
"I am very strongly pro-life, with the three exceptions - rape, incest and protecting the life of the mother - the same position taken by Ronald Reagan", he said.
The president added that judicial measures, such as his appointment of conservative Supreme Court judges Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, had helped to make abortion laws in various states more restrictive.
Mr Trump's views on abortion have evolved considerably over time.
In 1999, he said: "I'm very pro-choice. I hate the concept of abortion. I hate it. I hate everything it stands for. I cringe when I listen to people debating the subject. But you still - I just believe in choice."
But in March 2016, he clarified that his position was "pro-life with exceptions".
In May, he tweeted that Republicans must unite to "win for life in 2020".
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There are few certainties in electoral politics. One may presume baby-kissing. Further, it can be taken as read that candidates, on encountering the juvenile offspring of voters, will scarcely be able to avoid breaking into childish ditties, hummed or chanted according to choice. | Brian TaylorPolitical editor, Scotland
However, there is one other element that is generally regarded as a constant. Voters, it can be presumed, tend not to favour parties which display elements of division.
This is fairly logical, if you think about it. The sensible voter - and, despite occasional caricatures, that is most of them - will generally prefer to lend support to a party which appears to present a common front to the world, rather than a disparate offer.
What, the sensible voter asks, are we getting for our cross on the ballot paper? Are we getting the version of this party presented by Leader A or the alternative scenario sketched out by would-be Leader B?
Such division afflicts all parties at sundry points. It is customarily accompanied by zealous demands for internal unity. Unity under whom, customarily retort the combatants, gearing up for another squabble.
There is something uniquely attractive to politicians about in-fighting. After all, the other lot are simply opponents. Those on your own side are potential enemies; rivals for advancement, jobs and the leader's favour.
Now, that is rather a long and wordy preamble to chatting about a development which is rather lower league than the full-blown internal battles we have occasionally witnessed in the past. But which, nonetheless, is about disunity or internal disagreement.
Scottish Labour is in a bit of a flap as a result of fall-out from the local elections earlier this month. Naturally, said flap is potentially - I stress, potentially - washing over into Labour's campaign for the UK general election.
You will perhaps be already familiar with the basics. The Labour group in Aberdeen City Council has signed a coalition deal with the Conservatives and Independents, thus deftly cutting out the SNP, which is the largest party.
Up with this Kezia Dugdale will not put. The party has issued a statement condemning the deal in strong terms, noting that Labour cannot reach any electoral accommodation if it would "result in further austerity being imposed on local communities".
It adds that Labour councillors in the Granite City should stand down from this deal or face possible suspension from the party.
A number of thoughts occur in fairly rapid succession. Labour's Scottish executive did not explicitly rule out deals with the Tories (the SNP did).
Rather, Labour's prohibition was upon coalitions which promoted austerity, however defined. Today's statement re: Aberdeen, effectively, equates the Tories with a pro-austerity approach. Given that, perhaps they should have made the bar upon talking to the Tories more explicit - although one appreciates the dilemma between a nationwide approach and local democratic discretion.
Secondly, there is that local v national factor. I worked as a journalist in Aberdeen as a youth and can well remember the attitude of the North-east towards the central belt. Aberdonians are proud people who dislike being told what to do by folk from Edinburgh or Glasgow.
Thirdly, there is pragmatism v politics. Every mainland council ended up in No Overall Control as a consequence of this month's local elections. That means haggling. That means bargaining.
Labour lost ground but retained sufficient clout and sufficient numbers to be significant players in several councils. So they are too small to govern on their own or in coalitions entirely of their own choosing. But they are too big to retreat entirely into the doctrinal purity of opposition.
Does any of this matter? Well, it matters in Aberdeen where local governance is under challenge and contest. It matters elsewhere in Scotland where similar discussions are being held, if not with the same outcome.
Does it matter in the UK general election? One must be careful not to overstate the issue. The majority of voters, arguably, will pay minimal heed to this controversy. Some may be impressed by Scottish Labour's determination seemingly to stand firm against the Tories.
Others, though, may wonder what it says about Labour's deftness of touch. The party's statement today concludes by noting that "voters across Scotland have a chance to reject further austerity and a divisive second independence referendum by voting Labour on June 8." Will today's development help or hinder that prospect?
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Three children in eastern Germany have fished rusty World War Two shells and bullets out of a pond using a powerful magnet, without injuring themselves. | They called police when they made their discovery near the town of Ohrdruf.
Police cordoned off the area, urging the public to report any such finds immediately and leave the munitions alone. It is not clear why the ammunition had been dumped in the pond.
Unexploded WW2 bombs are often found in Germany, prompting mass evacuations.
Germany was littered with explosives after the war because of the intensive air raids by British, US and Soviet bombers.
Bomb disposal experts have to deal with the finds, as an old detonator can set off a bomb by itself. The discoveries are often made at construction sites.
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Fear isn't something 88-year-old Mathilde gives in to easily. Sitting on the terrace of her local bistro in Paris, hours after it reopened this week, she sipped a fizzy drink, as the morning sunshine drew perspiration from her glass. | By Lucy WilliamsonBBC Paris correspondent
"I've been waiting for this," she said. "To be surrounded by people, not to be alone anymore!"
Mathilde had dressed for the occasion: a printed dress, perfectly styled hair.
Public life here has always demanded a little extra effort. For its cafes and restaurants that means new rules on seating, new cleaning procedures, hand sanitiser everywhere you look.
"Of course I'm scared," said her friend Annie, 10 years younger. "But, you know, at our age we don't have much time left, so at some point we have to just do it."
Why an empty Paris lost its identity
Many people have expressed relief that Paris's bars and cafes are open again; their terraces full.
There was something about the emptiness of this city, in particular, during lockdown that felt especially poignant, says Joan Dejean, an author and historian of French culture, because the destiny of Paris was to be seen: "Paris was intentionally constructed for people in the streets, to be viewed, to be appreciated visually," she told me.
"If there are no pedestrians looking at everything, from the gardens to the great houses to the Ile St Louis, they lose their raison d'être."
During the lockdown, she says, there were two cities that were particularly photographed for their emptiness: Venice and Paris. Venice, to show what the city looked like without tourists; Paris, to show how difficult it was to recognise the city without people enjoying it.
"I loved it even more," said Delphine, a long-term Paris resident. "You heard the birds. I had an end-of-lockdown blues; I felt a bit attacked that people were back in the streets."
The gradual return to normality is recreating familiar frictions.
Delphine has two young daughters and lives near the Sacré-Cœur church. As lockdown began to ease, she and other young parents took camping stools into the streets of Montmartre to watch their children play football.
Recently, Delphine says, a man leaned out of a window and told them that he was working from home, and to stop making so much noise.
"Behind him we could hear his wife screaming at us to leave," Delphine said. "Clearly they were at breaking point."
Not all Parisians were unhappy
Alane Kadouri, a psychiatrist at the Cochin Hospital in Paris, says he was surprised by the number of people who actually preferred confinement.
"Those who are afraid of social relationships felt secure during the lockdown," he explained. "Those who find love life complicated didn't have to ask themselves questions; and the teens were happy to stay at home to play video games and be on social media."
But, he said, there was a big gap between the experience of ordinary citizens and many nurses at his hospital.
"One in ten nurses was attacked during the lockdown," he said. "Some were asked to leave their flats by their neighbours, because of the contagion risk."
Now normal life is returning, he says, he's seeing some of them break down. "They're all afraid of the second wave, and they're exhausted," he said. "I've heard from 30-year-old nurses who are having trouble climbing stairs."
Who is important in today's Paris?
Rolande Mariel is a nurse, also working at the Cochin Hospital. As pressure on the health system eases, and non-Covid patients return for treatment, she says public support seems to be waning.
"When our patients started coming back they were as aggressive as usual," she said. "I told them it was useless to clap for us every evening if they're going to behave like that! People have short memories. After the Bataclan [terrorist attack], the cops were heroes; now everyone thinks they want to kill us."
As this city begins to come alive again after months of social and economic coma, the sense of who is important to Paris has been reshuffled.
As one researcher put it, who is most valuable to you: a top executive working from home, or the man who delivers food to your mother?
And what was evident during the yellow vest protests of recent years has been brought home starkly again: the people who make Paris work - the rubbish collectors, train drivers, teachers and nurses - can't afford to live here.
"We won't come out of this quite the same," believes geographer Luc Gwiazdzinski.
A lot of wealthier Parisians are already thinking of moving out of the capital - as many of them did during the lockdown itself - and teleworking from homes in the countryside.
That may benefit smaller provincial towns, he says, in a country where Paris dominates the French economy. But what does that mean for life in the capital itself?
"Paris is like the phoenix; it will be reborn," he said. "Paris is not just an economic hub, it has a romantic, imaginary world. Its image as the capital of love, of romance hasn't been damaged. But for people living here it was a different story."
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On 1 May the US attorney general spent five acrimonious hours in front of a congressional committee explaining his handling of the Mueller report. The intensity of some of the exchanges suggests multiple legal and political battles lie ahead between the Democrats in Congress and President Donald Trump. | Anthony ZurcherNorth America reporter@awzurcheron Twitter
A day after Attorney General William Barr traded blows with senators, the stakes ramped up considerably as he refused to testify to another committee and the Democratic leadership accused him of lying under oath.
Here's a look at five areas where the fighting could be the most heated - and where they could be headed.
Waiting for Mueller
Mr Barr's Senate testimony may have prompted as many questions as it answered, raising to a fevered pitch Democratic calls to hear from Robert Mueller himself.
They want to ask him why he failed to reach a conclusion on whether the president obstructed justice, and what he thinks about the attorney general's handling of his report.
They'll also want to question him about the contacts between the Trump campaign team and Russians - and how close they may have come to being a criminal conspiracy.
Although Republican Senate Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham says he has no interest in calling Mr Mueller before his committee - insisting that the matter is closed - House Democrats have other ideas.
The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerrold Nadler, said negotiations are continuing over finding a date, perhaps in May, when the special counsel can testify before his committee.
Mr Barr has said he has no objection to Mr Mueller making such an appearance and Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway also said that Mr Mueller - who is still, technically, a Justice Department employee - can testify.
The president, on the other hand, may have different ideas. He has tweeted that Mr Mueller "should not" testify and that Democratic in Congress are looking for a "redo" after being dissatisfied with the conclusions presented in the special counsel report.
Outlook: Mueller spent most of his time as special counsel shrouded in secrecy and silence. It seems unlikely, however, that he will be able to quietly disappear from the national stage.
Punishing Bill Barr
In a press conference on Thursday morning, Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi straight-up accused William Barr of committing a crime.
She was specifically referring to the attorney general's claims, during congressional testimony in early April, that he was unaware of reports of dissatisfaction with his handling of the Mueller report expressed by members of the special counsel's office.
Democrats now believe this was a lie - based on a recent revealed letter from Mr Mueller to Mr Barr complaining that the attorney general's four-page summary did not "fully capture the context, nature and substance" of his work.
Mr Barr countered that his communications were with Mr Muller himself, not his team, and the dissatisfaction had to do with the media coverage of his letter, not how he relayed Mr Mueller's findings.
Needless to say, Democrats aren't buying it.
Then there are other reasons Democrats are angry at Mr Barr - such as his refusal to testify before the House Judiciary Committee and his decision to ignore congressional document subpoenas.
What are Democrats going to do about it? Mrs Pelosi only made vague references to a "process", but they have several options if they want to punish the attorney general.
The House Judiciary Committee, by a straight party-line margin, has already voted to hold Mr Barr in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over the unredacted Mueller report and supporting evidence.
The measure will now move to the full House of Representatives, where if a majority approves, Mr Barr would become only the second attorney general to receive such a sanction (Eric Holder, of the Obama Administration, was the first).
Congress may ask the Justice Department, which Mr Barr runs, to enforce the contempt citation, which would be an unlikely prospect.
There has also been talk among Democrats of exercising the seldom-used power of "inherent contempt", which could empower the House sergeant-at-arms to arrest the attorney general - setting off an even greater crisis.
The House of Representatives could also vote to formally censure the attorney general, putting a black mark on his record but not much more.
Finally, they could try to impeach the attorney general and have him removed from office. The process would be similar to that for removing a US president - a majority vote in the House of Representatives followed by a trial in the US Senate requiring a two-thirds vote to "convict".
Only one White House cabinet official has ever been impeached - Ulysses S Grant's Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876 - and he was ultimately acquitted of corruption charges by the Senate.
Outlook: A court fight appears inevitable, but of uncertain outcome. Censorship appears pointless. Impeachment would be an uphill fight, but it could also serve as proxy battle for the impeaching Mr Trump himself, venting frustration for Democrats who are itching for a fight but wary of taking on the president directly.
Subpoenas for McGahn and Trump Jr
While Mr Mueller's appearance before the US Congress would be a blockbuster occasion, he's not the only individual Democrats want to question in open testimony. The special counsel's report detailed how former White House Counsel Don McGahn felt the president pressured him to fire Mr Mueller and, later, write a memo saying that Mr Trump issued no such directive.
When Mr Barr was questioned about the matter by Senate Democrats, he said the president only suggested Mr Mueller be "replaced" because of a perceived conflict of interest - and then instructed Mr McGahn to write a memo to correct inaccurate media reports.
Democrats, needless to say, aren't buying this, viewing the episode as one of the most obvious instances of possible obstruction of justice. Mr Nadler has issued a subpoena calling on Mr McGahn to testify before his committee on 21 May so his committee can get the former Trump aide's account directly.
The White House has responded by asserting "executive privilege" - a legal concept that presidents are entitled to candid and confidential advice from their aides - to block Mr McGahn from providing requested documents to Congress. Mr Trump has said he plans to fight all the congressional subpoenas, and in an interview on Fox News, he said: "I don't think I can let him [testify]."
If both sides dig in, Mr McGahn's freedom to talk to Congress could end up a matter for the courts to decide. Executive privilege is a controversial legal principle, but there are plenty of judges - and Supreme Court justices - who could be eager to see these presidential protections strengthened.
Meanwhile, the Senate Intelligence Committee - chaired by Republican Richard Burr - has subpoenaed the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr for a second round of questioning, after his first appearance in 2017. The committee could be interested in further questioning Trump Jr on his involvement in 2016 negotiations for a Trump construction project in Moscow
In a statement released to the press, an unnamed source "close to Trump Jr" called the subpoena an "obvious PR stunt" and called Mr Burr a "so-called 'Republican'". Trump Jr could ignore the request, risking a contempt of Congress citation, or refuse to testify by invoking his constitutional protection against self-incrimination.
Outlook: Mr McGahn would be a blockbuster witness, but with a legal fight brewing the Mueller report may end up being his only public account. Public testimony by Trump Jr would be equally riveting, but he seems uncooperative and even less likely to appear beneath the congressional lights.
An unredacted report
While most of the Mueller report was made public in mid-April, there are still roughly 36 pages that the Justice Department has redacted - because of sensitive intelligence data, grand jury information, material relevant to ongoing investigations or matters concerning "peripheral third parties".
Democrats in Congress want to see the entire report and have issued a subpoena - again courtesy of House Judiciary Chair Nadler - to force the Justice Department to hand it over.
The White House has said the report was produced by the special counsel for the attorney general, and Congress has no right to see it in its entirety.
It has subsequently claimed "executive privilege" over the report in its entirety, pending further to determine if any of the currently redacted portions of the report or its supporting documents also contain protected communications between the president and his aides.
There's also an unstated concern that if the report receives wider distribution, its sensitive contests will leak to the public.
Attorney General Barr said in his Senate testimony, however, that there were no significant areas of disagreement between Mr Mueller and himself over what to redact. There's no guarantee that the blacked-out portions of the report contain any new, explosive information.
With contempt of Congress proceedings advancing against Mr Barr for refusing to turn over the full report, this is shaping up to be another battle between two branches of government, the executive and legislative, that will have to be decided by the third, the judiciary.
Outlook: This could end up being a fierce battle over a hill that doesn't matter in the larger war.
Trump's tax returns and other documents
There are two separate legal battles brewing over congressional requests for Donald Trump's business records and - that holy grail for many on the left - his tax returns.
A month ago, Richard Neal, the Democrat in charge of the House Ways and Means Committee, formally requested that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) provide him with copies of the president's tax returns for six years, citing a seldom-used 1924 law as authority.
So far Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, whose department oversees the IRS, has only said he's reviewing the matter.
The president and his lawyers, on the other hand, have called the request improper and insisted that the IRS not comply.
"The Democrats are demanding that the IRS turn over the documents, and that is not going to happen and they know it," acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said a few days after the first committee request was filed.
If the Treasury Department continues to drag its feet, the Democrats could start court proceedings that eventually determine the constitutionality of that old federal law and the legality of the Democratic action.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump's personal lawyers have filed a flurry of lawsuits to prevent an accounting firm and two banks used by Mr Trump's businesses - Deutsche Bank and Capital One - from complying with requests by several Democratic-controlled House committees for Trump organisation financial records.
Courts have previously given Congress broad subpoena powers as part of their legislative and investigatory responsibilities, but Mr Trump's lawyers are painting the move as a partisan fishing expedition that intrudes on the privacy of the president and his family.
Democrats counter that a thorough inspection of Trump businesses is the only way to ensure that he doesn't have financial involvements that are illegal or make him susceptible to foreign influence.
Outlook: This appears set for another long, drawn-out legal battle. Democrats could find a way to circumvent the federal government, however, if New York state - which possesses the president's state tax returns and oversees many big financial institutions - hands over what they have to Congress.
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Vampire Weekend, Dead Weather, Florence And The Machine, Beck and Bat for Lashes are all confirmed for the soundtrack for new movie in the Twilight Saga: Eclipse. | Muse have contributed a new song Neutron Star Collision which will be the first single to be released from the compilation. It's no surprise as this will be the band's third musical appearance in the Twilight series.
Supermassive Black Hole heavily featured in the first movie, and a remix of 'I Belong To You' made the New Moon set.
Vampire Weekend, The Dead Weather have also put forward brand new tracks while Beck and Bat For Lashes have collaborated together on Let's Get Lost especially for the album.
Eclipse is due out a months after the soundtrack's released in June.
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A mother has spoken of how her son disappeared after getting caught up in a "county lines" drugs trade amid threats to his life. She urges parents to look out for signs that their child could be being groomed by criminal gangs during lockdown. | Jenny, not her real name, from London, said she wished she had known what to look for, as her son got involved in "county lines" drug dealing.
Her 15-year-old son started to become withdrawn from her and became moody and closed.
"He had a new phone, expensive alcohol and weed and was being suspended from school," she said.
"Social services became involved but he was not seen as a risk."
Working every day, Jenny said it was hard to keep tabs on her son,
"Then one day, he said he was going to the gym, and just disappeared," she said.
"It wasn't until a good few days of him being missing that I found out from friends talking on social media that he had 'gone up country'.
Jenny did some research and came across the Children's Society website which helped her realise her son was being groomed.
"I realised he was being exploited. I felt guilty, that I hadn't spotted the signs", she said.
"I had no idea that this existed, that people out there prey on children, gain their trust and use them to sell drugs in other parts of England."
According to the Home Office, 2,000 teenagers from London have been identified as having a link to "county lines" activity.
Charities are seeing a rise in cases of online exploitation and want the public to become more vigilant.
The Met Police said gangs are finding new tactics during the pandemic.
What are the signs?
Police and children's charities say parents should look out for:
Becky Fedia from The Children's Society said organised crime groups had not stopped targeting young people during lockdown.
"In fact they've changed their tactics to ensure they're not detected, like putting children in taxis instead of trains when transporting drugs."
She said it was also worrying that many children were missing out on contact they were previously having with teachers and social workers during lockdown.
Jenny said her son was exploited by organised criminals, initially to shoplift, but later to carry drugs.
He was arrested and faced trial for supplying Class A drugs.
She is concerned children are more susceptible to being groomed online now more than ever.
"[Parents] are working from home and thinking [their children are] probably doing online classes, but they could be on their phones, on Snapchat.
"Criminals are always finding new ways to entice children, and I think social media right now is number one for that to show off what you can get if you start working for me."
The Children's Society offers help and support to the parents and carers of children who have been groomed.
On Monday it is partnering with British Transport Police to encourage the public to look for signs a child may be at risk of being groomed and exploited.
A report by City Hall last year found gang leaders encouraged youngsters to vary dealing hours and locations in order to blend in or justify breaking restrictions if stopped.
For Jenny, her relationship with her son is a "work in progress" but she says life has improved after receiving help.
"He's done his exams now, got his provisional license", she said.
"We managed to move and start over again. Our relationship is stronger.
"A lot of parents think think that's not going to happen to their kids. But it can happen to anyone."
Related Internet Links
Home - The Met
The Children's Society - UK children's charity
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Wales is bracing itself for strong winds across Sunday and Monday, with gusts of up to 80mph (129km/h) expected in coastal areas. | The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for wind between 15:00 GMT on Sunday and 06:00 on Monday.
The warning covers the whole of Wales, with the Irish Sea coast set for the worst of the winds.
The Met Office has said there will be "some travel disruption and possible dangerous conditions".
It added that Storm Freya could cause injuries and "danger to life" from flying debris, while damage was possible to buildings and trees.
It comes less than a week after Wales basked in its warmest ever February day.
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A man has died following a three-vehicle crash in County Donegal, Irish police have said. | It happened at at Admiran, near Stranorlar at around 09:20 local time on Monday.
The victim, who was in his 60s, was the driver of a car which was involved in a collision with two jeeps.
He was taken to Letterkenny University Hospital but later died as a result of his injuries.
The road has been closed and diversions are in place as investigations continue.
Gardaí (Irish police) are appealing for witnesses to come forward.
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As Russia prepares to elect Vladimir Putin for a fourth term as president on 18 March, the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse looks back at a revealing event that took place at the start of his Kremlin career - when he was Russia's acting president, running in his first presidential election. | Russians rarely see their president cry, though there has been plenty of tragedy during his 18 years in power. It happened once, right at the start of his rule - on 24 February 2000, at the funeral of Anatoly Sobchak.
Sobchak was one of the men who, alongside Gorbachev and Yeltsin, helped bring about the end of the Soviet Union. He was also the reformer who plucked a middle-ranking KGB officer by the name of Vladimir Putin from obscurity and gave him his first job in politics.
No-one really knows what drove him to make that fateful decision. But today, factions from the old Soviet security establishment have taken hold of the levers of power in Russia to such an extent as to make it a democracy hardly worth the name.
There are eight candidates running in this latest election, but Putin is known as the "main candidate", and the outcome is not in any doubt.
One rival candidate calls it a "fake election". "Just like in a casino," she told me, "where the house always wins, in Russian democracy, the win is always on Putin's side."
Her name - wait for it - is Ksenia Sobchak, and she is the daughter of Anatoly, Putin's old friend and mentor.
Find out more
Ksenia, as she is often known, is 36 years old, a former reality TV presenter-turned-opposition-journalist. Supporters of Alexei Navalny, the quote-unquote "real" opposition candidate, who's been barred from standing, say she is a Kremlin stooge - an old family friend drafted in by Putin to lend the election an air of credibility.
Certainly, she would not be running without the tacit permission of the authorities. That's how Russian democracy works.
But the men in grey suits who run the Kremlin may be regretting their decision. Ksenia is touring TV studios naming corrupt cronies around Putin and calling the annexation of Crimea illegal. If, as she maintains, she is running not to win but to be heard, then she is certainly breaking some taboos.
So what on Earth is going on?
Let's leave the daughter for a moment and go back to the father. He was mayor of St Petersburg. Putin was his deputy. The two were so close that when Sobchak senior was accused of corruption, Putin helped spirit him out of the country on a specially chartered aeroplane. That was in the 1990s.
Remember those days? Russia was in chaos. Its president, Boris Yeltsin, was frequently drunk and barely functioning.
The men in grey suits in the Kremlin thought they'd found just the solution - another grey man, a blank slate, from which to build the ideal antidote to Yeltsin. They began grooming Putin as his successor.
Then, suddenly, just as Putin was running for president for the first time, his old friend Anatoly Sobchak died, at the age of 62, in a hotel room in Kaliningrad.
The autopsy said it was cardiac arrest but can't find any trace of a heart attack. Sobchak's widow suspected foul play and had her own autopsy done.
Her name is Lyudmila Narusova. I met her recently and asked her if she thought her husband had been murdered. She paused long enough to say "Yes" 10 times over, and then replied: "I don't know."
Some have suggested Putin may have had a hand in his death. Did Sobchak have something on him? Narusova dismissed that idea out of hand
I went back and looked at the footage of the funeral.
Putin really is distraught. His eyes are red, he seems to struggle to swallow as he embraces Lyudmila Narusova. Putin is not an actor. Nor is he prone to public displays of emotion. So it's reasonable to assume that he is struggling with some genuine grief. Or is it something else. Guilt?
"There were people who were manoeuvring Putin into power," Narusova told me.
She's right. Back then, Putin was a vehicle to power for various factions inside the Kremlin. To some extent he still is.
If Sobchak was murdered, was it by one of those factions who feared his mentor's hold over him? Maybe. And if so, did the old KGB officer realise his old friend died in the furtherance of Project Putin. It's only a suspicion, but I'm beginning to think so.
I asked Narusova about that autopsy she had done.
It turns out she never made the results public, but keeps the documents locked in a safe in a secret location outside Russia. When I asked her why, she didn't want to talk about it.
I pressed her. I said, "It sounds like you've got yourself some kind of insurance policy."
"You could see it that way," she responded.
"Are you afraid," I asked, "for your own safety or that of your daughter?"
She paused for a moment.
"You know," she said, "to live in this country is scary. Especially for those who hold opposition views. So yes, I am afraid. I am…"
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A Caithness-based firm involved in decommissioning Dounreay has been taken over by Spanish nuclear industry company Grupo Dominguis (GD).
| NDSL was started in 2001 and has 120 employees.
Ninety of its workforce are contractors at Dounreay, an experimental nuclear power site on the Caithness coast.
NDSL managing director, Bertie Williams, said staff would see "little change" following what he described as a "friendly takeover".
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