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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The troubles just keep on mounting for Tesco.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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