Broken dreams for woman forced to flee IS-held Syria

Razan became accustomed to the new look imposed on women living in parts of northern Syria that were seized by Islamic State (IS) in 2013.

She used to wear modern headscarves with colourful outfits. But the jihadists forced her to wear a long, black abaya, a cloak covering her body, and a niqab, a veil that covered all but the area around her eyes.

But Razan was no ordinary woman. She was a doctor at a hospital and a civil society activist who campaigned against violence, especially violence against women.

During the first two years of the uprising in Syria - before IS first appeared and started to seize northern and eastern parts of the country - Razan and her fellow activists were able to operate freely and press their demands for freedom and democracy.

"It was a golden time", she says. "We had big dreams."

But soon, those dreams turned into nightmares. Razan's public activities had to become secret and she was unable to meet male activists because of strict gender segregation.

Stonings

It got even worse when female jihadists, many of them foreigners, started to arrive in IS-held areas and monitored the activities of women like Razan.

"We used to do a lot of stuff hiding under our niqab because male jihadists would not uncover us," Razan says. "But when the Khansaa Brigade for female jihadists was formed, we were even afraid inside our own homes."

Members of the Khansaa Brigade had the power to remove women's veils, carry out surprise searches of their homes, and monitor what they were doing.
The northern Syrian city of Raqqa is the de facto capital of the "caliphate" proclaimed by Islamic State

Gatherings for anything other than religious purposes were prohibited and those who attended illegal meetings risked punishment by the Khansaa Brigade.

Islamic State's treatment of civilians became more brutal after the group announced the creation of a "caliphate" in the territory under its control in Syria and neighbouring Iraq in June.

"Their violence was beyond description; they terrified people," Razan recalls.

"Public whipping for men and women became a common practice. There were several cases of stoning of women who were accused of adultery by the group."

Even wearing the wrong type of niqab - if it was not light enough or was striped, for example - could lead to a woman being punished. In many cases, Sharia courts got involved.

Bodies on road

One hot summer's morning in 2014, Razan herself incurred the wrath of IS.

When members of the group visited her hospital, they began questioning her and criticised the way in which she was wearing her niqab. Razan covered her face completely to avoid any trouble.

After the men had left, one of them came back and warned her: "Run for your life. They are going to bring you before a Sharia court."

"I owe him my life," Razan says. "I still don't know why he helped me but he saved my life."
Women in IS-held areas of Syria are forced to wear long, black abayas and niqabs

"I left the hospital through a back door and I asked my father to pick me up. I was very worried that they would do something to me. I went to my sister's house. I never returned to my house again nor to the hospital."

A few days later, Razan's friends told her that IS members had been asking about her.

"I was afraid of being arrested, flogged or killed," Razan says.

Soon afterwards, she managed to flee the country by using another woman's ID. The drive to the Turkish border was a terrifying experience, she says.

"I still remember the beheaded bodies on the road.

"In the car there were two children who cried when they saw [them]", she adds. "The heads were lined up on both sides of the road. It was horrific."

'Bitter reality'

Razan was lucky to have a visa for the UK, where she is now living as a refugee.
Razan's most treasured possessions are her house keys and stethoscope

She is safe there, but does not want to be identified out of fear for her relatives in Syria.

Razan says she is determined to pursue her dreams in seeking further education and to continue to support her civil society activists in Syria.

The reality is bitter for Razan and many of her generation who had high hopes of freedom and democracy in Syria.

"My dreams are different from the reality," she says. "The world is preoccupied with fighting IS and is ignoring the source of the problem - Bashar al-Assad."

Razan believes she will only return home once the president is no longer in power.

"I have the keys to my house in Syria. I am sure I will use them one day, hopefully very soon."

Hormone-disrupting chemicals ‘cost billions’

Pesticides can block and mimic the function of human hormones

Common chemicals that disrupt human hormones could be costing more than €150bn ($165.4bn; £108.5bn) a year in damage to human health in Europe, a series of studies claims.

The data suggests the high economic impact of chemicals in pesticides, plastics and flame retardants.

The team, led by New York University, said the estimates were conservative.

However, experts cautioned the findings were "informed speculation" and called for more detailed research.

The data was presented at the annual meeting of the Endocrinology Society.

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) can be physically similar to the hormones that naturally control our body's physiology so mimic their function. They can also block the function of hormones.

They have been linked with declining sperm counts, some cancers, impaired intelligence, obesity and diabetes. The main concern surrounds their impact during early development.

The authors of the study argued that limiting exposure would have significant benefits.

'There is uncertainty'

In the EU, one of the most famous disrupting chemicals, bisphenol A (BPA), has been banned in baby bottles and children's toys.

Yet the European Commission says the relationship between EDCs is not clear and has called for more detailed studies.

Many of the conditions linked to EDCs are also influenced by a wide range of other environmental influences. And some scientists contest the levels in the environment are not high enough to influence health.
Some questioned whether BPA, found in babies' bottles, was that harmful

The international research team acknowledge "there is uncertainty" and adapted techniques used by the International Panel on Climate Change to balance the uncertainty with the potential scale of the impact.

Their mathematical models suggested that across the 27 members of the EU, the most likely cost was €157bn ($173bn; £113.6bn) a year, but could be much higher. That equates to 1.2% of Europe's GDP.

This included healthcare costs as well as lost economic potential.

Their calculations said it was more than 99% certain that at least one of the chemicals was indeed having an impact on health.

The major economic impact was from pesticides (€120bn; $132.3bn; £86.8bn), followed by chemicals found in plastics (€26bn; $28.7bn; £18.8bn) and flame retardants (€9bn; $9.9bn; £6.5bn).

Dr Leonardo Trasande, a paediatrician at the New York University school of medicine, told the BBC: "These results suggest that regulating endocrine disrupting chemicals could produce substantial economic benefit that would be less than the cost of implementing safer alternatives and produce net economic benefits.

"Clearly we need further research, but there is a greater than 99% probability that these chemicals contribute to disease."

Lost IQ points

The overwhelming majority of the reported costs were from "lost cognitive potential". The studies claimed around 13m IQ points were being lost across Europe and 59,300 cases of intellectual disability could be attributed to EDCs.

Dr Trasande argued: "If one child comes back from school with one less IQ point, the parent might not notice, the neuropsychologist might not notice, but if 100,000 children come back with one less IQ point then the economy notices."
The main concern over EDCs is how they affect early development

The studies looked at less than 5% of suspected EDCs and did not look at conditions such as cancer and female reproductive diseases. Hence the scientific team argue that these are conservative estimates.

Prof Richard Sharpe, from the UK Medical Research Council's Human Reproductive Sciences Unit based in Edinburgh, told the BBC he agreed with the authors that more research was needed in this area.

But he cautioned: "Most of the content of these publications is interpretation and informed speculation and none of us should lose sight of this.

"What worries me about this approach is that whilst this may help to focus attention on the need for further research to clarify the huge number of uncertainties in these areas, these highly presumptive estimations inevitably become viewed and presented as being far more solid than they actually are."

The man who posted himself to Australia

In the mid-1960s, Australian athlete Reg Spiers found himself stranded in London with no money to buy a plane ticket home. Desperate to get back to Australia in time for his daughter's birthday, he decided to post himself in a wooden crate.

"I just got in the thing and went. What was there to be frightened of? I'm not frightened of the dark so I just sat there.

"It's like when I travel now if I go overseas. There's the seat. Sit in it, and go."

Reg Spiers makes it sound very straightforward more than half a century later, but it caused a media storm in Australia at the time.

He explains his attitude like this: "I've come up with this mad scheme to get back to Australia in a box. Who can say it won't work? Let's give it a shot."

Spiers had come to the UK to try to recover from an injury that had interrupted his athletics career. A promising javelin thrower, he had been on course to compete at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964.

But when it became clear he would not make the games, Spiers set his mind to raising enough money to fly back to Australia, and took an airport job to earn some cash.

But his plans changed when his wallet, containing all his savings, was stolen. With a wife and daughter back home, Spiers wanted to get back to Adelaide, but "there was one catch," he explains. "I didn't have any money."

And with his daughter's birthday looming, he was in a hurry.

"I worked in the export cargo section, so I knew about cash-on-delivery with freight. I'd seen animals come through all the time and I thought, 'If they can do it I can do it.'"
A miniature replica of the box used to promote a book about the escapade

Spiers also knew the maximum size of crate that could be sent by air freight. He had been staying with a friend, John McSorley, in London, and persuaded him to build a box in which he could send himself home.

"He told me it had to be 5ft x 3ft x 2.5ft, (1.5m x 0.9m x 0.75m)," says McSorley. "I knew Reg and I thought, 'He's going to do it regardless, so if he's going to do it I'd better make him a box that at least is going to get him there.'"

Built to Spiers's specifications, the crate allowed him to sit up straight-legged, or lie on his back with his knees bent. The two ends of the crate were held in place by wooden spigots operated from the inside, so Spiers could let himself out of either end. It was fitted with straps to hold him in place as the crate was loaded and unloaded.

To avoid any suspicion that a person was inside, the crate was labelled as a load of paint and addressed to a fictitious Australian shoe company.
The replica shows how straps were fixed inside the box

Although the cost of sending such a large and heavy cargo would have been more than a passenger seat, Spiers knew he could send himself cash-on-delivery - and worry about how to pay the fees once he arrived in Australia.

Packed into the box with some tinned food, a torch, a blanket and a pillow, plus two plastic bottles - one for water, one for urine - Spiers was loaded on to an Air India plane bound for Perth, Western Australia. Although Spiers wanted ultimately to get to Adelaide, Perth was chosen because it was a smaller airport.

He endured a 24-hour delay at the airport in London due to fog, and let himself out of the crate once the plane was in the air.


"I got out of the box between London and Paris, dying for a leak," says Spiers. "I peed in a can and put it on top of the box. I was stretching my legs and all of a sudden, because it's a short distance, the plane began to descend. A little panicky I jumped back in the box, and the can full of pee was still sitting on top."

I was grinning from ear to ear, but I wasn't going to let them know I'm there now - I've almost pulled the whole thing off”Reg Spiers

The French baggage handlers in Paris thought the can's unsavoury contents had been left for them as an unkind joke by their counterparts in London.

"They were saying some terrible things about the English," says Spiers. "But they didn't even think of the box. So I kept on going."

The next stop on the long journey back to Australia was in Bombay, where baggage handlers parked Spiers - upside down - in the sun's glare for four hours.

"It was hot as hell in Bombay so I took off all my clothes," he says. "Wouldn't it have been funny if I'd got pinched then?"

"They had the thing on its end. I was on the tarmac while they were changing me from one plane to another. I'm strapped in but my feet are up in the air. I'm sweating like a pig but not to give up - wait, be patient - and eventually they came and got me and put me on another plane."

When the plane finally touched down in Perth, the cargo hold was opened and Spiers heard the Australian baggage handlers swearing about the size of the crate he was in. He knew immediately he was home.

"The accents - how could you miss?" says Spiers. "I'm on the soil. Amazing. Wonderful. I made it.

"I was grinning from ear to ear, but I wasn't going to let them know I'm there now - I've almost pulled the whole thing off.

"I knew they would take the box to a bond shed. When they put me in the shed I got out straight away. There were cartons of beer in there. I don't drink but I whipped a beer out and had a drink of that."
Reg Spiers in London before his freight journey in 1964

Spiers had survived three days travelling in the wooden crate. But he still faced the challenge of getting out of the airport. Fortunately, his luck continued.

"There were some tools in there so I just cut a hole in the wall and got out.

"There was no security. I put on a suit out of my bag so I looked cool, jumped through the window, walked out on to the street and thumbed a ride into town. Simple as that."

But back in England, John McSorley, who had built the crate and delivered Spiers to the airport, was desperately worried about his friend. Spiers hitchhiked his way back to his family in Adelaide, but neglected to tell McSorley he had come through his journey intact.

In an effort find out what had happened, McSorley alerted the media, and Spiers quickly became a sensation in his home country.

"I got a telegram from a renowned Australian politician," he says, which read, "'A gallant effort by a real Aussie - and here's five quid.' I'm winning big time. It was great."

In the end the airline didn't make him pay the shipping fees. But Spiers admits he was taken aback by the media coverage of his adventure.

"I'd never seen anything like it. It scared the hell out of my mother with the whole street blocked with media. And it would go on for weeks. It was pretty wild."

Spiers succeeded in making it back in time for his daughter's birthday but he still had a job convincing his wife his story was true.

"She didn't believe me," he says. "But then she thought about it and thought 'He must have done it, how else did he get here?' So eventually she rode with it."

Air industry insiders say something like this would never be able to happen now. The hold is usually pressurised and the temperature will usually be above freezing but all cargo loaded on to planes is screened for security reasons and a hidden person would be found.

Harrison Ford injured in plane crash

US actor Harrison Ford has been injured in a small plane crash in Los Angeles.

The 72-year-old star of the Indiana Jones and Star Wars films reported engine failure and crash-landed his vintage plane on a Venice golf course.

He was breathing and alert when medics arrived and took him to hospital in a "fair to moderate" condition, a fire department spokesman said.

His son Ben, a chef in Los Angeles, later tweeted from the hospital: "Dad is OK. Battered but OK!

His publicist said: "The injuries sustained are not life threatening, and he is expected to make a full recovery,"

The nature of Ford's injuries have not been disclosed but website TMZ, which first reported the story, said he suffered "multiple gashes to his head".

Shortly after take-off from Santa Monica Airport, he said he was having engine failure with his 1942 Ryan Aeronautical ST3KR and was making an "immediate return".

He was unable to reach the runway and landed on the golf course, where onlookers pulled him from the plane fearing it could explode.

Officials said the plane had been flying at about 3,000 feet (914 metres) and hit a tree on the way down.

"There was no explosion or anything. It just sounded like a car hitting the ground or a tree or something. Like that one little bang, and that was it," Jeff Kuprycz, who was playing golf told the Associated Press news agency.

"He ended up crashing around the eighth hole."
Hollywood royalty Ford has more films in the pipeline

Christian Fry of the Santa Monica Airport Association said it was "an absolutely beautifully executed emergency landing by an unbelievably well-trained pilot".

Film producer Ryan Kavanaugh witnessed the accident from his office near the airport where Harrison had taken off.

He told The Hollywood Reporter: "He literally had five seconds, and 99 per cent of pilots would have turned around to go back to the runway and would have crashed - it would have stalled, gone nose first and crashed."

"Harrison did what the best pilots in the world would do," he continued. "He made the correct turn that the plane was designed for with an engine out."

'Moderate trauma'

After crash-landing, Ford was initially treated by two doctors who happened to be at the golf course.

Fire Department spokesman Patrick Butler said the LAFD received a 911 emergency call at 14:20 (22:20 GMT) and attended to a "medium-to-high impact" plane crash at the Penmar Golf Course.
The plane crashed just short of the Santa Monica Municipal Airport

There have been calls from local people to close Santa Monica airport, which is situated in a residential district, because of concerns about safety and noise.

Later this year, Ford is reprising his role of Han Solo in the latest addition to the Star Wars franchise, Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

He broke his leg in June last year on set at Pinewood Studios while filming a scene involving a door on the Millennium Falcon spaceship.

Ford took up flying when he was in his 50s and is also trained to fly helicopters.

In 1999, Ford crash-landed his helicopter during a training flight in Los Angeles but both he and the instructor were unhurt.

A year later a plane he was flying had to make an emergency landing at Lincoln Municipal Airport in Nebraska. Again he and his passenger escaped unhurt after the plane clipped the runway.

'Erasing History' in Nimrud, Iraq

Islamic State bulldozers 'erasing history' in Nimrud, Iraq

IS says ancient shrines and statues - like this Assyrian relief - are "false idols"


Archaeologists and cultural officials have expressed heartbreak and outrage about the bulldozing of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in Iraq.

Islamic State militants began demolishing the site on Thursday, Iraqi officials said.

The UN cultural body's Iraq director, Alex Plathe, called it "another appalling attack on Iraq's heritage".

"They are erasing our history," Iraqi archaeologist Dr Lamia al-Gailanitold the BBC.

IS says ancient shrines and statues are "false idols" that have to be smashed.
Many of Nimrud's artefacts have been transferred to museums in Baghdad and overseas, but giant "lamassu" statues - winged bulls with human heads - remain on site
Nimrud lies just south-east of Mosul, where militants attacked artefacts with sledgehammers last week

Nimrud, which was founded in the 13th Century BC, lies about 30km (18 miles) south-east of Mosul.

Many of the artefacts found there have been moved to museums in Baghdad and overseas, but larger artefacts remain on site.

'Levelled'

Nimrud covers a large area, and it is not yet clear whether it has been totally destroyed, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut, neighbouring Lebanon.

But a local tribal source told Reuters news agency: "Islamic State members came to the Nimrud archaeological city and looted the valuables in it and then they proceeded to level the site to the ground.

"There used to be statues and walls as well as a castle that Islamic State has destroyed completely."

UK bomb plot suspect Abid Naseer found guilty

A Pakistani man extradited from the UK to the US has been convicted for plotting attacks in several countries.

Abid Naseer, 28, was found guilty by a New York jury of providing material support to al-Qaeda and conspiracy to use a destructive device.

He faces up to life imprisonment at sentencing.

Evidence at Naseer's trial included a document found in the raid of the bin Laden compound and MI5 officers testifying in wigs.

A jury took returned the verdict after a day of deliberation following closing arguments on Monday.

Prosecutors argued Naseer was part of a broader al-Qaeda conspiracy to attack various Western locations, including a Manchester shopping centre and the New York subway system.
Abid Naseer (seen here in 2010) was previously arrested in the UK over a bomb plot in Manchester

In closing arguments on Monday, prosecutors said Naseer lied about his history during his defence, including becoming radicalised in Pakistan.

"If the defendant hadn't been stopped, hundreds of innocent men, women and children wouldn't be alive today," prosecutor Zainab Ahmed said during closing arguments.

"The defendant has something to hide," Ms Ahmed said, according to the New York Daily News.

"He was trying to cover up his motive for revenge against the United States and its Nato allies. Revenge was the defendant's motive."

Naseer, who represented himself in court, said in closing arguments the prosecution had not directly connected him to al-Qaeda.

He insisted his emails were simply harmless banter about finding a wife.
The trial heard from MI5 operatives dressed in wigs and make-up

"He wanted to settle down," Naseer said speaking in the third person on Monday. "Is there anything wrong with that?"

His defence was largely based on his own testimony and cross-examining prosecution witnesses.

Prosecutors brought in MI5 agents who had previously tracked Naseer in 2009 at a shopping centre in the UK.

They also relied on the testimony of two co-conspirators who pleaded guilty to the subway plot - Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay - who said certain words in Naseer's emails about marriage were code.

The New York jury were also presented a letter to Osama Bin Laden outlining planned attacks.

Taken during a US Navy Seal raid on the al-Qaeda chief's Pakistan home in 2011, the papers made no mention of Manchester specifically and did not mention the defendant's name.

In the letter to Bin Laden, the author says "brothers" had been dispatched to Britain, Russia and Europe but that some had been arrested.

Iraqi forces seek to encircle IS fighters in Tikrit

IS-held areas of Tikrit have come under heavy bombardment since the offensive began

Iraqi army soldiers and Shia militiamen are seeking to encircle Islamic State fighters in Tikrit, on the third day of a major operation to retake the city.

State-run al-Iraqiya TV said government forces were "advancing" but progress has been slowed by roadside bombs.

Security sources said they had captured villages and oil fields east of the city, and blocked a key IS supply line to neighbouring Diyala province.

The offensive is being overseen at least in part by an Iranian general.

On Tuesday, the top US general said Iran's role in Tikrit could be positive, as long as it did not fuel sectarian tensions.

'Suffocate then pounce'

Some 30,000 soldiers and militiamen from the Popular Mobilisation (Hashid Shaabi) force, backed by Iraqi jets and helicopters, have advanced gradually since the offensive began on Monday.

On Wednesday, a source in the Samarra Operations Command told the BBC that government forces had taken control of the village of al-Maibdi, on the road between Tikrit and the Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk, as well as the nearby Ajil and Alas oilfields. The road was a key supply route for IS between Salahuddin and Diyala provinces, the source said.
Soldiers and militiamen have recaptured several towns and villages surrounding Tikrit


Another official told All Iraq News that the villages of Siha and Mazraat al-Rahim, just to the north of Tikrit in al-Alam district, had also been retaken.

However, the soldiers and militiamen have not breached IS defences around Tikrit and al-Dour, a town 19km (12 miles) to the south, which officials say is another stronghold of the jihadist group.

Military officials said on Tuesday that al-Dour had been surrounded and sealed off, but that an assault on the town had not yet been launched.


Popular Mobilisation
Iranian-backed Shia militiamen have played a key role in forcing IS to retreat north of Baghdad
The Popular Mobilisation (Hashid Shaabi), comprising dozens of Shia militia, takes a lead role in Iraqi operations against IS
It was formed by the Shia-led government in June 2014 after the army collapsed in the face of an advance by IS across northern Iraq
Thousands volunteered to fight after Iraq's most senior Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, called on people to take up arms and defend their country and its holy sites
Iran provides funding, weapons and military advisers to militia in the Popular Mobilisation, and reportedly controls several of them directly
The Popular Mobilisation is headed by Jamal Jaafar Mohammed, also known as Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis, a former Badr Organisation commander who is close to Iranian General Qassem Soleimani
Militiamen have been accused of committing atrocities and acting with impunity. Activists say Sunni Arab civilians have been forced from their homes, kidnapped, and in some cases summarily killed


A senior army commander said the operation was focused on preventing IS from launching more attacks, and cutting supply lines to stop reinforcements and weapons reaching Tikrit.

The next step would be to "surround the towns completely, suffocate them and then pounce," Lt Gen Abdul Amir al-Zaidi told the AFP news agency.

Gen Zaidi said progress along roads into Tikrit had been slowed by sniper fire and roadside bombs planted by IS militants since they seized Saddam Hussein's hometown last June. On one 8km (5-mile) stretch of road, soldiers found about 100 mines and bombs.

Sectarianism fears

Troops taking part in the offensive have so far not received the support of US-led coalition aircraft.

Coalition officials said air strikes had not been requested by the Iraqi authorities, but there are reportedly concerns about the prominent role of Iran and its allied Shia militia.

Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, was said on Tuesday to have been directing operations from near the frontline east of Tikrit.

A senior commander in the main Shia alliance, Moeen al-Kadhimi, explained his strategy against IS to the BBC's Ahmed Maher

He was seen alongside the leader of the Popular Mobilisation, Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis, and Transport Minister Hadi al-Amiri, who heads the powerful Badr Organisation.

Iranian troops are also reportedly operating artillery, rocket launchers and aerial drones.

Gen Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Tikrit campaign signalled a new level of Iranian involvement but added that it could turn out to be "a positive thing".

"This is the most overt conduct of Iranian support, in the form of artillery and other things," he said in a response to questions from members of the Senate armed services committee.

"Frankly, it will only be a problem if it results in sectarianism."

The UN warned that the operation had to be conducted "with full respect for fundamental human rights principles and humanitarian law" after militia leaders vowed to seek revenge for the massacre of hundreds of soldiers, most of them Shia, at Camp Speicher near Tikrit in June.

Million dollar motor: When an ordinary car is not enough

What do you buy when an ordinary luxury car is just not good enough? How about a Dartz Prombron?

This monster is built on a Mercedes-Benz chassis. The list of options and features is breathtaking: V8 or V12 six-litre engine, a top speed of 194mph (312km/h), armour-plating, bullet-proof windows, electrified door handles, a choice of exotic leather interiors, dual petrol tanks, signal jammer... the list is almost endless.

The vehicle, which costs at least $1.1m (£730,000; €1m), is the brainchild of Leonard Yankelovich. He was born and grew up in Latvia, when it was still part of the Soviet Union. He trained as an engineer, and made a fortune from customising windows and other car parts in the 1990s.

The Dartz workshop and offices are located on the site of the old Russo-Baltic works in Latvia's capital Riga, where in the past luxury train carriages were made, as well as early models of armoured cars.
The car's body is armour-plated to enable a driver to make a quick getaway in the event of a shooting

"I am continuing a tradition," says Mr Yankelovich.

After a period of doing increasingly elaborate customisation work, Mr Yankelovich eventually moved into creating vehicles aimed at a new target market - the ultra wealthy.

"Rich people are strange people," he says.

He mentions that he has a client from the UAE who owned a Bugatti sports car, and who then became dissatisfied when his friends also bought Bugattis.

Luxury is too common a word… luxury you can buy in a supermarket. I use the word opulence.
Leonard Yankelovich, Dartz

He says it's like "two ladies [who] will hate to come to a party [wearing] the same dress".

Mr Yankelovich says his customers are often driven by a need to own something exclusive. Essentially they want something that other people cannot have, and that has been made especially for them.

In order to serve this market, he says he has to go beyond ordinary luxury.

"Luxury is too common a word… luxury you can buy in a supermarket," he says. "I use the word opulence."

One way to achieve this is through attention to detail. For example, buttons in the car are often gold-plated or made from titanium rather than plastic.

For Mr Yankelovich the aim is to commemorate the glories of the past when, in items made for Russian tsars, sometimes parts like screws would be engraved with the owner's name. Though unseen, the owner would know they were there.

"That's opulence," he says.
The Prombron is believed to be the world's most expensive SUV
All the car's internal features, such as the steering wheel, are finished with a high level of detail
The car windows are extra thick to protect passengers from any kind of attack

But trying to achieve this goal has sometimes caused him trouble. Amongst the exotic coverings that could be used to finish the car's interior he once suggested that whale penis leather could be an option.

A storm of protests followed, including objections from the actress Pamela Anderson. Mr Yankelovich backed down, although Dartz still offers a wide range of other leather finishes, including crocodile.

Another key selling point for the vehicle is protection. Armour-plating is built into the body of the car, rather than being bolted on afterwards and even the bonnet is armoured.

Mr Yankelovich says this is sometimes overlooked but is very important. If the bonnet is not protected, an attacker might be able to shoot at the engine and disable the vehicle, and then would be free to attack the car and its occupants at leisure.

The aim, he says, is not to build a tank, but to enable the car to get away as quickly as possible if a shot is fired - so there is no time for a second shot.
A Dartz car featured in the Sacha Baron Cohen film The Dictator

It may be this aspect that has attracted the interests of Hollywood filmmakers. Dartz cars have featured in several movies, including The Dictator.

A Dartz vehicle does not come cheap. Mr Yankelovich is coy about the exact price, partly because each model is individually made, and the huge range of options mean that final prices will vary a lot. However, he indicates that a vehicle is unlikely to cost less than a million euros.

Mr Yankelovich says he has had some success with his business, with sales to customers in several parts of the world. The biggest challenge though is to find more customers and grow the business further.

But does Dartz's approach provide the basis for a viable long-term business model?

Magic 'metamaterials' storm physics

One material on display was a rubber slab with programmable stiffness

Physicists are abuzz with possibilities for "metamaterials" that can be designed to have surprising properties.

Tweaking the structure of materials to manipulate things like their appearance is already fairly well-known; the next phase is changing their mechanics.

A major conference is alive with ideas, designs and samples including springy ceramics, unfeelability cloaks and programmable rubber sponges.

They could help build spacecraft tiles or even terrain-sensitive shoe soles.

"I think this idea of metamaterials is slowly migrating into different areas," said Prof Martin Wegener, from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany.

"Originally the excitement was all about electromagnetism - and then it went to totally different areas like thermodynamics and, lately, mechanics."

Prof Wegner also told the BBC that the term "metamaterial" has been applied to all sorts of weird and wonderful designs, without much consistency - but that it usually refers to a case where unusual properties jump out, which would not be expected from the original ingredients.

Now you feel it

Prof Wegener works on cloaking, but his aim is not to make things invisible. He wants to hide them from physical forces, and last year his lab produced a honeycomb-like material that made an object beneath it unfeelable.

This particular metamaterial was a solid lattice that acts like a fluid in certain ways, deflecting pressure around its hidden cargo.
A small honeycomb structure cloaked the cylinder beneath from being felt

Now the tiny, hidden cylinder was very small in that case (less than 1mm) but related work by Prof Wegener's team was picked up by French physicists and engineers, who showed that a careful pattern of drilled holes could divert damaging earthquake vibrations.

Turning the ground itself into a sort of metamaterial, it seems, might go so far as to protect a power station from a tremor.

Here at the American Physical Society's March Meeting, Prof Wegener presented his latest work - which includes cloaking a hole at the centre of a flat sheet - saying: "It’s a design principle. You can apply it to anything you want."

Set your sole

Elsewhere at the meeting, Bastiaan Florijn, a final-year PhD student at Leiden University in the Netherlands, showed reporters what he calls thefirst ever mechanically "programmable" material.

It is a surprisingly low-tech looking slab of rubber, punched with an array of holes. But those holes, of two sizes, are specifically designed so that they can compress either vertically or sideways - and that switch is controlled by adding a small clamp.

The end result is a sort of oversized sponge that can be stiff, or soft, or flit between the two at a specific stage of the squeeze.
Prof Bertoldi has worked on metal 'metamaterials' to improve engine components

If it switches to become softer while still under pressure, this is known as "negative stiffness" - a property so weird that Mr Florijn said he still hasn't worked out an application for it.

But the slabs have another property that could be immensely useful: they absorb energy.

"Imagine a car bumper that you can program - for instance, if you drive in a neighbourhood with a lot of small kids, you want to have a very soft bumper," Mr Florign said.

"But then if you're going fast on the highway, you want it to be stiff." He and his colleagues are also talking to shoe companies, who are interested in producing soles that adjust to different terrain.

Saving engines

Prof Katia Bertoldi of Harvard University also studies strange, elastic materials like this, which have a negative "Poisson ratio".

This means that when you compress them, instead of squashing out to the sides and getting both flatter and wider, they actually shrink in all directions.

Then when stretched, they expand in all directions. Prof Bertoldi's team has engineered various useful properties into such materials, including making them absorb sound at different frequencies when squeezed.

The Poisson ratio can also affect fatigue in a metal - so she has worked with Rolls Royce to design engine components with complex slits wound into them, which withstand many more cycles of compression before breaking.

To get unique properties, Prof Bertoldi said, "we can either engineer complex building blocks, or use simple ones and arrange them in an interesting way".

Tubular bounce

A team at the California Institute of Technology, meanwhile, has madevery small ceramics that do something entirely unprecedented: they spring back after being squashed by up to 50%.

They used a technique that builds material one atomic layer at a time, to create a network of hollow ceramic tubes.

The tube walls are just a few nanometres thick (millionths of a millimetre) and the whole lattice is thinner than a piece of paper.
The group's latest ceramic designs use a lattice of lattices, rather like the Eiffel Tower

"I could have several in my hand now and you wouldn’t know," said PhD student Lucas Meza.

Their raw material is aluminium oxide, which is stronger than steel - but like most ceramics, it is usually terribly brittle.

With the right thickness in the tube walls, however, these tiny specimens simply rebound from a blow. They are still far, far too small to be useful, but with enough investment Mr Meza is sure the ceramics will find a home, particularly "in places where our normal materials don't work".

Spacecraft or jet engines, for example, might use ceramic tiling rather than a metal shell, in order to withstand heat.

Stepbrother charged with Becky Watts murder in Bristol

Becky Watts went missing from her family home on 19 February

Nathan Matthews, the stepbrother of missing 16-year-old Becky Watts, has been charged with her murder, Avon and Somerset Police have said.

His girlfriend, Shauna Hoare, 21, also known as Shauna Phillips, has been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The pair, of Cotton Mill Lane, Bristol, are due before magistrates on Thursday.

Four other men and a woman, all in their 20s, are still being questioned on suspicion of assisting an offender.

Mr Matthews and Ms Hoare are due to appear at Bristol Magistrates Court at 10:00 GMT on Thursday.

Ms Hoare was last night taken to hospital by officers after "feeling unwell" in custody but returned after being seen by a doctor, police previously said.

Becky, who was described by her family as "wonderful", was last seen on 19 February and was reported missing the following day.
Nathan Matthews and Shauna Hoare were arrested at the weekend
Floral tributes have been left outside Becky's home in St George, Bristol

On Tuesday, body parts were found at a house in Barton Hill, Bristol.

Floral tributes have been left outside Becky's home and near the house where the body parts were found.

A fundraising page has also been set up to help pay for Becky's funeral.

St Ambrose Church, near the family home, is to hold a special hour-long service from 20:00.

On Thursday, the church will also open from 10:30 to 21:00 for people to light candles in the 16-year-old's memory.

A book of condolence has also been placed there.

The Right Reverend Mike Hill, Bishop of Bristol, paid tribute to Becky's family and said he had been "deeply" affected by the death.

"I feel sure that people both of faith and of no faith will join with me in wishing to support the friends and family of Becky Watts," he said.

On Wednesday morning, magistrates granted police a further 24 hours to question the two men aged 29, two aged 23 and a woman aged 23 who had been arrested earlier in the week on suspicion of assisting an offender.

'First human' discovered in Ethiopia

The

Scientists have unearthed the jawbone of what they claim is one of the very first humans.

The 2.8 million-year-old specimen is 400,000 years older than researchers thought that our kind first emerged.

The discovery in Ethiopia suggests climate change spurred the transition from tree dweller to upright walker.

The head of the research team told BBC News that the find gives the first insight into "the most important transitions in human evolution".

This is the most important transition in human evolution”Prof Brian VillmoareUniversity of Nevada

Prof Brian Villmoare of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas said the discovery makes a clear link between an iconic 3.2 million-year-old hominin (human-like primate) discovered in the same area in 1974, called "Lucy".

Could Lucy's kind - which belonged to the species Australopithecus afarensis - have evolved into the very first primitive humans?

"That's what we are arguing," said Prof Villmoare.

But the fossil record between the time period when Lucy and her kin were alive and the emergence of Homo erectus (with its relatively large brain and humanlike body proportions) two million years ago is sparse.

The 2.8 million-year-old lower jawbone was found in the Ledi-Geraru research area, Afar Regional State, by Ethiopian student Chalachew Seyoum. He told BBC News that he was "stunned" when he saw the fossil.

"The moment I found it, I realised that it was important, as this is the time period represented by few (human) fossils in Eastern Africa."

The fossil is of the left side of the lower jaw, along with five teeth. The back molar teeth are smaller than those of other hominins living in the area and are one of the features that distinguish humans from more primitive ancestors, according to Professor William Kimbel, director of Arizona State University's Institute of Human Origins.

These new studies challenge us to consider the very definition of what it is to be human”Prof Chris StringerNatural History Museum, London

"Previously, the oldest fossil attributed to the genus Homo was an upper jaw from Hadar, Ethiopia, dated to 2.35m years ago," he told BBC News.

"So this new discovery pushes the human line back by 400,000 years or so, very close to its likely (pre-human) ancestor. Its mix of primitive and advanced features makes the Ledi jaw a good transitional form between (Lucy) and later humans."

A computer reconstruction of a skull belonging to the species Homo habilis, which has been published in Nature journal, indicates that it may well have been the evolutionary descendant of the species announced today.

The researcher involved, Prof Fred Spoor of University College London told BBC News that, taken together, the new findings had lifted a veil on a key period in the evolution of our species.

"By discovering a new fossil and re-analysing an old one we have truly contributed to our knowledge of our own evolutionary period, stretching over a million years that had been shrouded in mystery," he said.

Climate change

The dating of the jawbone might help answer one of the key questions in human evolution. What caused some apes to climb down from the trees and make their homes on the ground.

A separate study in Science hints that a change in climate might have been a factor. An analysis of the fossilised plant and animal life in the area suggests that what had once been lush forest had become dry grassland.

As the trees made way for vast plains, apes found a way of exploiting the new environmental niche, developing bigger brains and becoming less reliant on having big jaws and teeth by using tools.

Prof Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London described the discovery as a "big story".

He says the new species clearly does show the earliest step toward human characteristics, but suggests that half a jawbone is not enough to tell just how human it was and does not provide enough evidence to suggest that it was this line that led to us.
The jawbone was found close to the area where Lucy was discovered

He notes that the emergence of human-like characteristics was not unique to Ethiopia.

"The human-like features shown by Australopithecus sediba in South Africa at around 1.95 million years ago are likely to have developed independently of the processes which produced (humans) in East Africa, showing that parallel origins are a distinct possibility," Prof Stringer explained.

This would suggest several different species of humans co-existing in Africa around two million years ago with only one of them surviving and eventually evolving into our species, Homo sapiens. It is as if nature was experimenting with different versions of the same evolutionary configuration until one succeeded.

Prof Stringer added: "These new studies leave us with an even more complex picture of early humans than we thought, and they challenge us to consider the very definition of what it is to be human. Are we defined by our small teeth and jaws, our large brain, our long legs, tool-making, or some combination of these traits?"

Boston bombing trial: Tsarnaev lawyer admits his guilt

The trial of the man accused of bombing the Boston Marathon two years ago has begun, with his defence lawyer telling the jury he committed the crime.

"It was him," the lawyer said as she prepared to defend Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's actions by saying he had been influenced by his older brother.

Mr Tsarnaev, 21, could face the death penalty and is charged with more than 30 counts relating to the bombings.

It was the deadliest terror attack on US soil since 9/11.

Speaking before the defence, a federal prosecutor said in opening statements on Wednesday that Tsarnaev had "murder in his heart" when he placed the bomb.

In 2013, Mr Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty to all charges related to the attack.

The left side of the court was filled with about two dozen of the attack's victims as the trial began.

Three people, including an eight-year-old boy, were killed after two pressure cooker bombs packed with nails, ball bearings and other shrapnel detonated in April 2013.

More than 260 people were injured, with many losing limbs.
A member of Mr Tsarnaev's defence team walks into the court Wednesday morning
Many victims of the bombings attended the first day of the trial

Opening statements

The prosecutor delivered his statements first. Mr Tsarnaev's lead defence attorney followed, and immediately shocked the court by candidly telling the jury that he was responsible for the attack.

The 21-year-old suspect slouched in his chair and stared straight ahead as the prosecutor, William Weinreb, began his opening statement.

Detailing the scene near the finish line just under two years ago, the prosecutor said: "The air was filled with the smell of burning sulphur and people's screams."

Mr Weinreb described the backpack bomb that Mr Tsarnaev allegedly planted at the finish as "the type of bombs favoured by terrorists because it's designed to tear people apart and create a bloody spectacle."

Among those in attendance were Denise and Bill Richard, whose 8-year-old son, Martin, died in the bombings.

As they looked on, the prosecutor told the jury that Ms Richard watched helplessly as "the bomb tore large chunks of flesh out of Martin Richard".

The boy had been standing on a metal barrier with other children so that he could better see the runners crossing the finish line.

Heather Abbott, who lost a leg in the attack, sat near the Richard family.

"While victims of the bombing lay in the hospital and learned that they would have to have their limbs chopped off to save their lives, the defendant pretended that nothing had happened," Mr Weinreb said, noting that Mr Tsarnaev returned to socialise with his friends at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth following the attack.
The two bombs detonated at the finishing line of the Boston Marathon


Judy Clarke, a famed attorney who has represented a number of high-profile suspects in the past, began her opening remarks by saying: "It was him."

She said that her team would not attempt to "sidestep" Mr Tsarnaev's guilt in carrying out the "senseless, horribly misguided acts carried out by two brothers".

Instead, she will argue that his elder brother, Tamerlan, was the mastermind of the plot and coerced the younger sibling into being a submissive participant.

After the lawyers concluded their opening statements, several witnesses were brought before the jury to testify.

The jurors were also shown a video of one of the explosions. It showed a huge blast of smoke, and several police officers running to the scene.

Mr Tsarnaev is also accused of killing a police officer in the days after the bombing.

A huge police manhunt followed the attacks, culminating in Mr Tsarnaev's arrest and the death of his elder brother.

World's oldest person celebrates 117th birthday in Japan

The world's oldest person, a woman from Japan, is turning 117-years-old.

Misao Okawa, who was born on 5 March 1898 in Osaka, spent time with family the day before her actual birthday, to mark the occasion.

Speaking at Wednesday's celebrations she said that 117 years didn't seem like such a long time.

She now lives in a nursing home in Osaka and staff there said she has slowed down a bit in recent months and has trouble with her hearing.

Despite this she is still in good health and eats well.

Born to a kimono maker, Mrs Okawa married her husband Yukio in 1919. He died in 1931.

They had two daughters and a son. Mrs Okawa now has four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

She was officially recognised as the world's oldest person in 2013 by Guinness World Records.

"දනේෂ මදුරංග එදිරිසූරිය"

මේ පොටෝ එකේ ඉන්න මිතුරා facebook එන, වර්ථමාණයේ බොහෝදෙනා දන්න කෙනෙක් ඔහු නමින් "දනේෂ මදුරංග එදිරිසූරිය" ඔහු බොහෝ පින්කම් facebook මිතුර මිතුරියන් එකතුකරගෙන සිදුකරනවා.

බලන්න මේ පොටෝඑක ඇතැම් කෙනෙක් මේ අම්මා ලගට උපස්ථාන කරන්න තියා නිකම්වත් ලන්වෙන්න කැමතිවෙන්නේ කීයෙන් කීදෙනාද..? බොහෝ අයට එහෙම දෙයක් කරන්න අමාරුයි. ඔහු කරන්නේ සාමාන්‍ය තරුණයෙක් නොකරන දෙයක්. මේ ඡායාරූපය ධනේෂ මීට ටික කාලෙකට කලින් ගත්ත එකක්, අද වෙද්දි ඔහුගේ profile පින්තුරය විදිහට ඔහු ඒක යොදාගෙන තියෙනවා. ඒ කියන්නේ ඔහුටත් මේ අවස්ථාව තදින් සිතට සංවේදී මතකයක් උනා කියන එකයි.

මිතුර ඔබ සිදුකරන පින්කම් පිළිබදව අපට නිතර පින්පොතෙහි සටහනක් තැබීමට නොහැකි උනත් අවස්ථාව ලැබෙන විදිහට සිදුකරන්නේ ඉතාම සතුටින්. මේ පින්කමත් ඔබ රටේ විවිද ස්ථානවල සිදුකරන පින්කම්, පින් පොතෙහි අපි සතුටින් අනුමෝදන් වෙනවා..!

ඒවගේම ඉදිරියටත් නොයෙක් පින්කම් කරගන්නට ඔබට තෙරුවනේ අනන්ත ආශිර්වාදය ලැබේවා.!

සාදු සාදු සාදු..!!

පියවි ඇස රවටන ස්වභාව ධර්මයේ අපූරු සිදුවීමක් කැමරාවක සටහන් වූ අයුරු

මේ ඡායාරූපයෙන් දැක්වෙන සිද්ධිය හරහා සතුන් අතර පවතින අපූරු මිත්‍රත්වයක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඔබ මහත් සතුටට පත්වනවා වන්නට පුළුවන.

කොළ පැහැති කොට්ටෝරුවෙකු විසින් මුගටි පැටවෙක් රැගෙන පියාඹා යන සංවේදී දර්ශනයෙන් ඔබ කුල්මත් වනවා වන්නට හැකි ය.

එහෙත්, ඔබගේ නිගමන සම්පූර්ණයෙන් වැරදි ය.

මේ මිත්‍රත්වයක් නොවේ. අහිංසක කොට්ටෝරුවෙකු, මුගටියෙකුගේ ග්‍රහණයෙන් මිදී දිවි ගලවා ගැනීම සඳහා කරන අරගලයකි.

මාර්ටින් ලී මේ නමැති එංගලන්ත ජාතිකයෙකු නැගෙනහිර ලන්ඩනයේ පිහිටි Hornchurch Country Park නමැති උද්‍යානයේදී මෙම ඡායාරූපය ගෙන තිබේ.

විනෝදාංශයක් ලෙස ඡායාරූප ගැනීමෙහි නිරත ඔහු පවසන්නේ, සිය බිරිඳ සමග අදාළ උද්‍යානයේ සිටියදී කොළ පැහැති කොට්ටෝරුවෙකු පියාඹා ගෙන පැමිණි බව ය.

එවැනි කොට්ටෝරුවෙකු තමන් ඉන් පෙර දැක නොතිබූ හෙයින් වහා ඡායාරූපයක් ලබා ගත් බව ඔහු පවසයි.

කෙසේ වෙතත්, අදාළ කොට්ටෝරුවා කෑ ගසමින් වේගයෙන් පියාඹා ගෙන පැමිණි බව ඡායාරූපය ගැනීමෙන් පසුව ඔහුට වැටහී ඇත.

ඉන්පසු එම කොට්ටෝරුවා ආහාරයට ගැනීම සඳහා මුගටි පැටවෙකු උගේ බෙල්ලෙහි එල්ලී සිටින බව මාර්ටින් ලී මේ දැක තිබේ.

එය දුටු වහා ම තමන් කොට්ටෝරුවා බේරා ගැනීම සඳහා ඉදිරියට යන අතරතුර මුගටියා බියට පත්වූ හෙයින් කොට්ටෝරුවා ග්‍රහණයෙන් මිදුණු බව මාර්ටින් ලී මේ පවසයි.

ඒ අතරවාරයේ කොට්ටෝරුවා වහා ඉගිළ ගොස් සිය ජීවිතය බේරා ගෙන ඇත.