Very beginning this is our mass too good to be true the u.s. Capitol is united as the Washington Nationals win the baseball World Series 1st our top stories Hello I'm Chris Berrow with the b.b.c. News a fire has swept through a train in Pakistan killing more than 70 people and injuring dozens of other passengers the train was traveling from the southern city of Karachi to Rawalpindi officials say many passengers were heading to a Muslim religious conference local media reported that some died while leaping from the move in train to escape the blaze so can become Money reports video on social media shows at least 3 carriages being engulfed by the flames and railway officials say that the fire began when a gas cylinder that some passengers were using to cook food exploded and they're not an item that are allowed on board trains normally but it's only railways don't have a particularly good safety record but this is one of the worst incidents in recent years Human Rights Watch has issued a damning report accusing Afghan paramilitary units backed by the CIA of carrying out extrajudicial killings indiscriminate airstrikes and forced disappearances with impunity against civilians arguing that the unit should be disbanded the report documents 14 cases over 2 years where it says entire communities were consigned to the terror of botched night raids as the unit's Stenson looked for Taliban targets . The u.s. Authorities have struck a deal with a high profile fugitive financier from Malaysia in which he forfeits millions of dollars worth of assets including a Beverly Hills Hotel and a private jet Syria has and has the details the whereabouts of the fugitive billionaire Jolo remain unknown and yet he was able to strike a deal with the u.s. Justice Department through his lawyers he'll hand over $700000000.00 worth of assets linked to the one n.d.b. Corruption scandal which saw billions of dollars go missing from Malaysia's State Investment Fund However in a statement issued through his lawyers Mr Lowe said the settlement reached with the u.s. Government doesn't constitute an admission of guilt liability or any form of wrongdoing he still faces charges in Malaysia and the u.s. Linked to money laundering and bribery 2 major car manufacturers fit Chrysler and the parent company of Persia and citron have agreed to merge the merger between the Italian American feared Chrysler and the French p.s.a. Group will create the world's 4th largest car company in terms of annual sales with the latest for us his theory legates Pierce a group and fair at Chrysler presenting this plan as a response to major changes that are taking place in the car industry they include the rapid development of technology such as electric cars and automated driving a merger would allow them to combine their resources and pool their research it would also combine p.s.a. Group strength in the European market with fear at Chrysler's scale in North America the 2 groups say they expect to make annual savings of $3200000000.00 pounds but insists this estimate is not based on any factory closures this is the latest world news from the b.b.c. . Australia's national airline contest has become the latest to ground one of its Boeing 737 n.-g. Planes after a crack was detected a spokeswoman said the aircraft was removed for repair to the parts known as the pickle fork that attaches the fuselage to the wing Boeing flanks the fold earlier in October prompting other airlines worldwide to inspect their fleet security has been stepped up in Islamabad as tens of thousands of antigovernment protesters a Jew to reach the Pakistani capital demanding the resignation of the prime minister in Rann can the protests are organized by a Mullard lot Rahman the leader of one of Pakistan's largest religious parties he says the government is illegitimate and was installed by the military after a rigged election last year Imran Khan and the military rejects the accusations 4 men have been arrested in Australia after police found over $200000000.00 worth of drugs hidden inside imported hot sauce bottles the authorities searched a consignment of 3 ratchet chili sauce from the u.s. And discovered 400 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine matter O'Connor speaks for Australia's border force this detection of 400 kilograms of ice equates to me at $4000000.00 heat with an estimated street value of approximately $300000000.00 They've gone to considerable effort to make the source appear to be source and within the bin it is significant a man admitting pyramid and the flamboyant speaker of Britain's lower house of parliament is stepping down today after a decade in the chair John Bercow has gained a profile worldwide with his frequent bellows of order during the unruly or sessions of the House of Commons a series of often controversial decisions during the breaks it debate prompted accusations of bias from pro breaks it empties which he denies Mr Bercow the son of a taxi driver he's known for his put downs and flowery language and that's the latest b.b.c. News. Thank you very much listening to the news room from the b.b.c. World Service where the all of a Conway will start with the horrific scenes in Pakistan where a train caught fire while traveling from corrupt cheat to Raul Pindi. hours 4 4. A. Day I was going to get going to get my wounds heal that. Was the real. Footage there taken shortly after the incident thick black smoke pause from the carriages as a large crowd watches on some of those who escaped the blaze wander around looking dazed with their clothes charges locals offer them water at least 70 people died some passengers leaping from the train to try to escape there are conflicting reports about what caused the fire with the railway minister blaming gas cylinder used by passengers for cooking others though talking about a possible electrical fault but our correspondent succumb to command he is in the Pakistani capital Islamabad to come a different suggestions about the cause but no doubt about the dreadful result. And succumb to can you hear me in Islamabad. And I think we can't come make contact with succumbed at the moment instead we're going to take a look at a report from Liberia the country's football star turn President George where promised to help struggling youngsters when he came into power 2 years ago but he is struggling to revive one of the poorest countries in the world traumatized as it is by a civil war that claimed a quarter of a 1000000 lives unemployment is widespread inflation has led to price rises for things like food summer resort to crime to survive including an underclass known as Ghost this report by Lucy ash. On the side of the road in Liberia's capital Monrovia a group of men a patching up old car tires their clothes a filthy and their faces haggard but they're trying to make ends meet in a city where many accuse them of being goes slang for fags and thieves because. They really afraid of. You so you have a bad reputation in Monrovia people are afraid of you these men are all for my child soldiers Shareef the leader of the group took up arms as a 13 year old after his brother was killed by the rebels he felt the only way to protect his own life was to become a fighter himself do a lot of bad things that. Yes I believe. In for a long life is in for people with what I did that Sharif admits he's haunted by some of the atrocities he committed during the 14 year long civil war his commanders used to ply him with drugs just before battle and he's been addicted ever since with you on the phone. You got to be so you have to. Use a soft and I will make you. 2 facing a food source. So what did you take to make your brain you are wearing paranoia and how much would you consume in a day 5 pieces of a day years ago. If you bring drugs into any country and you give it to young people who have no way of getting out of it all I can see is down to Mortimer that still Howard Taylor Liberia's vice president she was once married to Charles Taylor the rebel leader who got boys like Sharif hooked on drugs in the 1st place but now her ex-husband is serving a life sentence for war crimes she's recast herself as a scourge of the drug traffickers and champion of the downtrodden goes well I would like to see is the charge so that people will bring in jobs and a court will actually be put in jail until the cases are finished the 2nd thing is that going to make it detox in a rehabilitation center the government will have to provide some support because these are our citizens but funding is scarce despite many pre-election promises from the football star turned President George Weah recently a man on his way to church was killed for his $10.00 phone and in retaliate ation for suspected goes were lynched by an angry mob sums or goes a planning to March on the parliament next month demanding proper rehabilitation to help them leave the streets and turn their lives around the reporting from Liberia return to our top story that train fire in Pakistan hopefully we can speak to our correspondent succumb to come on in Islamabad to come I was saying there are conflicting suggestions about what caused it but no doubt about the outcome. Yes Absolutely we've been hearing from survivors who have described the panic and the chaos as people try to get off the train and escape with their lives this train was as you were saying earlier traveling from the city of Karachi towards roll up in the when around 6 in the morning local time a fire broke out with fierce flames engulfing least 3 carriages. And you know as you say there's conflicting reports about what the cause was Railway officials have been saying that this was the result of a gas cylinder explosion a gas cylinder they say which was being used by some passengers to cook breakfast but some of the survivors have been saying that's not true and actually there was some kind of electrical fault on board the train and that's what caused it either way there's been a rescue effort underway with some of the injured people being evacuated by an Army helicopter was the authorities now are going through the grim task of trying to identify all of those who died and I guess it will take some time to find a definitive conclusion as to the cause but if it was a gas cylinder how common they being used on trains and if it's an electrical fault then surely the railway will have to look to to it. Well either way I think there's a there's a sense of public anger here even if it was a gas cylinder a lot of people are saying well why weren't there enough security checks being done at the railway stations to ensure that gas cylinders weren't bought on board the train with the obvious safety risks that they carry Gosselin does are are a banned item on trains for obvious reasons so either way I think there are certainly questions for for the railway minister and his department to answer and we'll have to see what exactly how what response they come up to with the prime minister Imran Khan as well as expressing his condolences has ordered an immediate inquiry to take place the some reports that many people were travelling to a Muslim religious conference do you know how crowded the train was we had reports of people trying to jump from as the carriages were burning. You know we've had reports of people jumping what's the what's the train was still moving at this breaking through the window after it come to a stop after someone had pulled the kind of emergency lever we do know that at least 2 of the carriages that caught light had been booked by the same person who was booking them on behalf of a group of members of a Muslim religious organization which were traveling for a for a conference as you say we don't have the details of all the dead but one imagines that they will form a substantial portion of the victims to come there in Islam about thank you paramilitary gangs backed by the CIA a murder civilians during brutal nighttime raids in Afghanistan according to a report by the campaign group Human Rights Watch It says the units which total thousands of men are also to blame for enforced disappearances and indiscriminate airstrikes Patricia Gasman the report's author says these units have carried out numerous atrocities. The problem with these particular militia groups these paramilitaries is they operate outside normal chains of command within the ordinary Afghan government forces or the u.s. Forces and so they're not held accountable and that lack of transparency means civilians cannot go to someone and find out what happened get any kind of justice for the crimes committed when I speak to our correspondent. In Kabul this report looked at for team raids What did it find. Yes. This is the 1st a detailed study of the show by an international human rights group as it's been observed and what they have found is shocking even by Afghan standards and that trades the report say is you know by district forces aimed at killing or capturing insurgents largely occur there to rural areas that. Control and but attack civilians you know because of mistaken identity poor intelligence or political rival it is in. Look at the tribes but it's the details that are horrifying as for example in one of the near Kabul you know a man's son was shot you know there were taken with them and then they turned to him and asking why are you feeding the Taliban in Pakistan near the Durand line with Pakistan in August he killed at least the One Power military unit killed at least 8 to mean men who were visiting their families for the. And again in one of that province near Kabul a medical clinic in one of the province i.q. You know their staff were accused through treating Taliban fighters and as a result the for the task force killed 2 caregivers a guard in a clinic a lab worker now. Is happening at a bad time for the Afghan government because the units wants to be you know there's the election results and it wants to be representing the Afghan people and powerful the presidential palace says you know the current situation is unacceptable to the president and that they had increased the accountability of these groups and would bring in more reforms but. Human rights groups say is that you know perhaps these are not. These are not sufficient because as a court you know the u.s. And Afghan governments have not adequately investigated alleged unlawful airstrikes in Afghanistan and other killings earlier many thanks indeed earlier atrophy in Kabul this is the newsroom from the b.b.c. World Service reminder of our headlines from Chris a fire has swept through a passenger train in Pakistan the killing at least 70 people as we've been hearing Human Rights Watch has accused CIA backed Afghan paramilitaries of committing war crimes including indiscriminate airstrikes and summary executions and campaigning is underway in Britain snap general election the 1st to be held in December in the early on 100 years getting an idea of what the parties will be saying the prime minister Boris Johnson will argue that only his Conservative Party can get breaks it damn well of course he has failed to take the u.k. Out of the e.u. By today as he pledged times do or die come what may he hope to blame his failure on the main opposition Labor Party they and their leader Jeremy Corbyn have been accused of having a confusing policy they instead prefer to campaign on social issues promising to take on quote the few who run a corrupt system one of Labour's most prominent M.P.'s Diane Abbott says low earners must be paid more we're going to have a Department of Labor in the coming Labor government and we will be trying to protect employees to many people. Are being exploited is 0 hours contracts so many people are being exploited and we want to put an end to that. Having a set of policies on employment that protect workers our political correspondent and is here Rob what is Labour's pitch they're setting out today it's quite simply a really he's a radical socialist right I mean he's saying capitalism is good for the good for the few at the top but not great for them only vote for me I'm a socialist and I think interesting Lee while a lot of people might agree with his diagnosis that things could be more equal in the United Kingdom whether they think socialism in Germany Corben is the answer is rather a different question but Brecht's it will of course loom larger in this campaign remind us of Labor's position of labor. Is strong as stands out for being neither pro or anti Bracks at the believes in doing a different kind of deal with the e.u. And then putting that to a 2nd referendum and here is the problem potentially that labor faces if you think how Brit how Bracks this polarized this country like nothing else in the 17th century you know you're either remain or leave and it's a bit like having a market where everybody has gone to the market wants to buy either an apple or an orange and suddenly Labor's coming and turning up trying to solve some bananas Ok what about the Conservative Party today was meant to be break today were meant to leave the e.u. According to Boris Johnson how much will that hurt I think it depends really it depends whether leave voters blame him for having made what I think many people would see was an immensely dark and reckless promise or whether they buy Boris Johnson's line that somehow this is all parliaments fault even though actually conservative prime ministers have been in power ever since the referendum but I think that's what it depends on and briefly one of the major characters who got us where we are today in parliament John Bercow leaves What's his legacy going to be as my kids would say earlier that we got the guy has become a bit of a legend Order order. Her around the world doesn't know this and you know I was I was on t.v. The other day with a female journalist whose husband was a schoolteacher said you know what the kids at my husband's school whenever there's rowdiness in the class they say or do order and I think in many ways that will be as legacy but there will be a new speaker when in the next few days we think I mean how exactly what's going to happen I don't know because of course parliament is only going to be there for a couple more days so it's rather an odd time to be having an election Rob aunts and. Using spiders for inspiration scientists in the USA They may have found a way to stick body tissue back together after surgery the researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology noticed how the spiders used a type of glue to catch insects the newsroom's Richard Hamilton reports getting tissues in the body to form a tight seal is difficult because water on their surface makes them slippery sutures or stitches that hold a wound or cut together don't always work well and can lead to infections tissue clues which already exist can take several minutes to work and may drip onto other body parts the scientists from mit noticed how spiders catch their prey in the rain by secreted a sticky material containing a carbohydrate known as polysaccharides that absorbed water from the surface of an insect almost instantaneously leaving a small dry patch the glue can then stick to the research has developed a double sided tape treated with the type of acids to do the same they then tried it out on different types of rat and pig tissue including the lung small intestine stomach liver and skin they found it worked within about 5 seconds the team said that with more research it could be used in place of sutures and even to attach medical devices to organs such as the heart but they warned they're still several years away from human trials Richard Hutton our look at some of the day's other stories with Chris it's emerged that dozens of prisons across England and Wales are failing to operate emergency telephone lines to help prevent suicide and health self harm figures show a 3rd of jails of either not installed a line or don't answer calls from relatives worried about inmates the Ministry of Justice says the situation is unacceptable and it's taken immediate action Peter Dawson is from the Prison Reform Trust one of the groups involved in the research 1st of all it's very hard to find a number of top. Some prisons some times the number that was given didn't work and when you could go through then what you normally got through to was an answer machine only in one in 10 prisons was it possible to make a successful call and to speak to a human being who you could have a conversation with New York City Council has voted to prohibit the sale of for a graph from 2020 it's produced from the livers of ducks and geese that have been traditionally force fed corn campaigners say the practice is cruel and its production has already been banned in several countries but farmers say they take proper care of the birds and have threatened to take legal action against the move and the popular turns and comedian has been summons to a police station after posting edited pictures of the country's president John Mica fully on his social media accounts it results in a former winner of Big Brother Africa shared 2 photos one shows Mr mega Phillies head on the comedian's body complete with a pair of suspenders the 2nd photo shows the entertainer's face on the president's body sitting on a presidential chair correspondent say he should be charged under a controversial new Cybercrime Law Thank you donations have started pouring in for a Chinese student who'd been living off the equivalent of 30 u.s. Cents worth of food over the past 5 years presumably a day China Media Analyst Carrie Allen is here what was happening this is a case of extreme poverty in southwestern China and this student called well why yen was trying to support her brother and also herself both her parents that died and she was studying at college and because of her brother's big medical bills he was in and out of hospital she was really really struggling to keep both of them alive so this case came to light yesterday in Chinese media and people saw these horrific images of her she only weighed about 25 kilograms and her face looks so old for a for a woman in her early twenty's so Chinese people have been reacting really really angrily about this and was saying how is this still happening in Chinese society that there. These cases of such poor people you've lived in China what can you get for $0.30 a day nothing absolutely nothing maybe a piece of fruit So what are the authorities doing about well they also it is a responded today and they've said they've set up an emergency fund for her and donations there were suggestions yesterday people were saying we want to donate but they didn't know where to send them within the last 5 days something along the region of $66000.00 u.s. Dollars have come into her from donations the figure may be much higher so people are really saying that she's going to get the support that she needs at long last but also the local authorities are saying that they want to look at other cases like this you know I mean if you are in a situation like this in China is there any welfare net to help you well that was one of the criticisms that she was a college student how come her university wasn't helping her how come she was she looked so poor she looked physically frail so there are still these criticisms that the government needs to do more at national level carry on our China media analysts that. Yes and this edition of The Newsroom by talking about a shock result of the climax of the u.s. Baseball season the Washington Nationals have won the World Series for the 1st time in their history they beat the Houston Astros in the final game of the 7 game series $62.00 the win is being seen as one of the most dramatic championship runs in the history of Major League Baseball it's also the 1st World Series title for team from the u.s. Capitol since 1924 uniting a normally divided city after the game finished my colleague spoke to Patricia Guadalupe a Washington based journalist and a huge fan of the Nats today is how winter it sounds like an unofficial holiday around here and you know that a lot of people including myself are going to be operating because the Nationals won the World Series and after having a terrible terrible season in the very beginning this is almost too good to be true too good to be true put your firm aside for one second how did they manage to turn it around from that awful beginning Well I think they did a little bit of some changes to their pensions and they brought in a couple of new people they traded away one key players to the Philadelphia team Bryce Harper and I think that that sort of unified team behind the rest of the players that were there and basically had them saying you know what it doesn't depend just one person where you can feel that there was a lot more unity incredible and let's just be honest the world series itself was a bit of a nail biter didn't finish to the final game game 7 well and that's what's really good about these things because you know what even if you are a fan of the team that's winning you really don't want to blow out you really want to see it in a way where you're basically sitting at the edge of your seat a true nail biter in this. Was the last game set then and it basically came down to the wire it felt almost like a Cinderella story the Nationals were formerly the Montreal Expos the Washington had they had a baseball team or professional baseball team for almost 40 years and this was something that a lot of people could rally around especially in Washington be in such a political town that this has nothing to do with politics and so a lot of people were very enthusiastic about be unable to follow baseball and have nothing to do with what's going on at the White House or Congress that it was a truly nonpartisan way to celebrate in the nation's capital Washington Nationals' fine journalist Patricia talking to my colleague and media Sampedro And that brings us to our main world news once again a fire has swept through a passenger train in Pakistan killing at least 70 people have a summary of all the latest world news next but that's it for now from the newsroom . Distribution of the b.b.c. World Service in the u.s. Is made possible by American Public Media producer and distributor of award winning public radio content a.p.m. American Public Media with support from numerous offering a personalized weight loss program that uses psychology and small goals to help lose weight and keep it off for good learn more new n o m. Hello health checks coming out from the b.b.c. In a moment with me Claudia Hammond people often say there are gets worse when the weather is turning damp and cold but it's been hard to prove in till now with a study where thousands of people tracked their daily pain using an app where they write all along the deal that means that more people will be able to get a drug to help their cystic fibrosis and why monks in Thailand are putting on weight from the unhealthy food offerings that people leave for them all coming up in health check after the news b.b.c. News with Chris Sparrow a fire swept through a train in Pakistan killing more than 70 people and injuring dozens the minister of railway said the blaze was caused by the explosion of a gas cylinder being used by passengers cooking breakfast on the karate Raul Pindi train Human Rights Watch has accused Afghan paramilitary units backed by the CIA of carrying out extrajudicial killings indiscriminate airstrikes and false disappearances with impunity against civilians the report documents 14 cases of entire communities being consigned to abusive and botched night raids as the units look for Taliban targets. The Us authorities have struck a deal with a high profile fugitive financier from Malaysia in which he forfeits assets worth $700000000.00 including a Beverly Hills Hotel and a private jet Joe Lo would relinquish the fortune allegedly stolen in the one m. D.b. Corruption scandal which saw billions go missing from Malaysia's State Investment Fund 2 major car manufacturers fit Chrysler and the parent company of Persia and citron have agreed to merge the merger between the Italian American fit Chrysler and the French p.s.a. Group will create the world's 4th largest car company. The head of Russia's space agency says the Russian crews on Soyuz rockets will have to be cuts in the next 2 years to create room for u.s. Astronauts traveling to the International Space Station there's also money being allocated to build 2 additional saw use given that the Americans are experiencing delays in commissioning their new generation of manned spacecraft the NATO chief has praised the Ukrainian president for what he calls his courage and leadership in trying to find a peaceful resolution on the conflict with Russia backed separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine and John Bercow the flamboyant speaker of Britain's lower house of parliament is stepping down today after a decade in the chair a series of often controversial decisions during the breaks it debate prompted accusations of bias from pro breaks it M.P.'s which he denies B.B.C.'s. Hi there welcome to health check from the b.b.c. I'm Claudia ham and today we hear why half of monks in Thailand are obese unable to choose their own meals and relying on offerings that are often deep fried and high in calories salt and sugar Well night for 2 months when they can. Leverage it relates to the sugar and. What the real health consequences. From Kenya how the installation of a special tap is making a difference to people's health and my guest today is Sara Bowes Lee health editor of The Guardian newspaper Sarah what have you got for us this week I've got some good news for cystic fibrosis patients and some good and not quite so good news on per year and we look forward to that later and let me ask you something are you a big follower of the weather forecasts and I do look at my app every now and again but usually when I'm a bit worried about getting wet in need of waterproof but we are British so we can't help but keep looking I have to weather apps which I constantly cross reference probably several times a day but sometimes I can tell the weather is getting damp or because my joints start to ache a bit and I'm not alone apparently 3 quarters of people diagnosed with painful conditions such as arthritis believe the weather affects their pain and many report that the cold makes it worse Others are more troubled by rain or even by warm weather so can the weather really affect the pain a group of researchers based at the University of Manchester have just published the results of a 50 month study with over $13000.00 u.k. Residents living with chronic pain and the whole project has a name I really like I'm sure you like a good pun Sarah it's called Cloudy With a Chance of pain Oh I do like that yes that's a really good kid isn't it now William Dixon is professor of digital epidemiology at the University of Manchester but he also works as a doctor and it was what his patients told him that got him interested consult rheumatologists or sleep patients with arthritis every week in my clinic and it's really common looked. People report that their joints are better or worse because of the weather but actually there's really no conclusive evidence as to what the relationship is and I think that surprised lots of people that there isn't any lots of evidence about this wouldn't it because so many people say all they can they can feel it in their joints when the weather's damp and when it suddenly cuts rainy and cold that they feel much worse that's right so people's beliefs are very strong in fact over 80 percent of patients with arthritis believe that there's an association between the weather and their pain and in fact over half of people believe that they can predict the weather based on their symptoms and so you decided to gather a really large sample of people together and to get people to use their smartphones What do people have to do we asked people to download a study app and in the app we asked people to try their symptoms every day and then we automatically use the g.p.s. To link to the local weather data therefore building up a large data sets including both high quality daily data about symptoms and the weather we used to smartphones because over 8 in 10 people in the u.k. Have access to a smartphone which meant that we could potentially reach much larger numbers of people than had been possible previously we had over 13000 people take parts over one in 7 participants enter data almost every day for 6 months or more and ultimately we had over 5100000 symptoms alongside daily weather from all around the u.k. To analyze so every day they failed in things like how stiff they were feeling how bad their pain was how tired there was and then I guess you can then match that up because you know you know whereabouts they were so you know exactly what the weather is you have got to rely on them trying to remember or get it right so after all that what did you find what we found that indeed there was an association between weather in pain we found that high humidity was that had the strongest association with pain but that stronger winds and low pressure were also associated Why should falling pressure make your hip or your other joints her. More Does that make sense well our study wasn't able to look at the mechanisms by which these weather ingredients were associated with pain but other people have hypothesized as to why there may be this relationship pressure within joints certainly as relates to pain if people have an inflammatory arthritis they develop an increased amount of fluid within their joints that creates pressure so people have thought that pressure around a joint may indeed influence how you did this study in the u.k. Where it's sometimes raining do you think these results would apply and in other countries as well it is difficult to know the answer to that I think if there are countries that have similar climbers then we might assume that they would have similar findings but we can't really extrapolate what we found in the u.k. To climates that are completely different now of course people were able to decide whether they took part in this so is it possible that all the people who think that there's a link between their joint pain in the weather are more likely to take part than the people who don't think there is any link because they want to prove it's true that skew the results that's a really important point in epidemiology we always have to be concerned about selection bias about whether the people who participate are in some way different from those that we're trying to sample from when were our participants downloaded the app we asked them a series 'd of questions and that included questions about their beliefs about whether they thought there was a relationship between whether a paid so on average we saw the same proportion of people who had strong beliefs compared to other studies that are similar questions and interestingly as we followed people forwards through time those people who stayed in the study longer also had the same level of baseline belief as those who drops out and could this be useful for patients in some Lamin apart from the you know the satisfaction of being proved right could this be useful I don't know ends in somehow managing your pain I think there are 3 reasons why the results are helpful so the 1st is exactly as you say it's this validates and provides evidence for this long held belief. If lots of patients have told us that they'd been telling doctors this for years and have been dismissed so we've generated evidence that there is a genuine Association Secondly having worked out what's in gradients it says within the work that relates it's a pain and knowing that we can forecast pain this does open the opportunity of a pain forecast which would allow people to plan their lives in the coming week or so based upon when we think that they might have a better or worse day and then lastly if we can pass our findings over to other scientists who can work out the mechanisms by which these where the features affect pain that might then in the future open the door to new treatments it's a really clever idea getting people to use apps on their phone to take part in research like this so you can get these big numbers do you think there's more potential for this kind of research absolutely by having people collecting data just for a minuscule period of time into great since their daily lives it allows us to answer questions that have been really difficult for scientists to answer for years for decades for centuries even and I think it's a really exciting future William Dixon I like the way that forecasting seems to be going on in both directions people's pain seems to forecast the weather but the weather also forecasts their pain or do you reckon to the idea of having pain forecasts at the end of the t.v. Weather one day so I think it might make a few people feeling going to be in pain anyway Come come what may is but maybe not touching an idea maybe now we often discuss how hard it can be in low income countries for people to get hold of the medical treatment they need but of course sometimes that is the case in high income countries too and in England patients with cystic fibrosis have been celebrating this week with the news that they will be able to obtain one particular drugs etc What is this drug and how will it help them this drug is called or can be that's the brand name and it's to help the actual condition of cystic fibrosis it's not just the symptoms this is looking at the underlying problem so cystic fibrosis. This is a genetic disease and it's a really nasty thing actually it gradually clogs up the lungs they fill up with mucus and to the point where people can't breathe and children have an awful lot of physiotherapy just to keep them actually breathing properly and they get infections and they end up in intensive care in hospitals that's really pretty nasty so there's been a battle for 4 years to try to get this drug on the n.h.s. In England and the reason is that Vertex the American company pitched the price so very high that the n.h.s. That it was just an affordable in spite of all the potential it has so 104000 pounds per year per patient and now finally n.h.s. England appears after a lot of pressure a lot of fuss a lot of negotiations to brought the price down although we don't know to what level because that's commercially compared and now that that deal has been done in England does that mean that other countries might follow suit there are some countries around the world that have already done deals mainly because they've got smaller populations of people with cystic fibrosis than England has so the bill wasn't quite so high but in some cases they're going to renegotiate later when they work out really how effective is druggies in Germany is one of those for instance so we'll see in might actually have an influence yes there been to see what happens thanks Sara now around the world many of us take a safe clean supply of water for granted but of course in many places clean water is not available leading to the spread of diseases such as cholera just outside the city of consumer in Kenya a project has been trying a new solution special community taps which inject just enough chlorine solution into the water to kill harmful microbes the B.B.C.'s Michael cloak he has been to see what kind of a difference it's made out of of. Them of their animals. In the village of one young or just outside the city of the Symbol Man or woman comes with her Jerry count to accused by water for happy family who did it as a. Like many in and around consuming the people here are my treated mains water system and rely on the water that's pumped in a pipe to this kiosk from deep underground Willetts But you know manages the kiosk or the community. There one day a compromise. And then they want to use Bob to a story down the 10000 Let us then it trickles through water pipes like your. Kind and you have all 1500 that depends on this water because the fork you let we have particularly if you're going to need something around 500 people until 2 years ago the water that came out of the kiosk stops was entirely untreated and could contain bacteria responsible for dangerous diseases such as cholera and typhoid outbreaks of these water borne illnesses are not uncommon in this part of Kenya but that changed here when a project run by the Kenyan NGO swop and Tufts University in the United States installed a device known as the m s venturi chlorine goes up at the kiosk. Swaps research cord in a pet Jarrad already opened up the white and blue box on the side of the kiosk. This device that is attached on the Chios looks like a box for the assistant to hit. Inside it you will find there is a glow in storage tank and it was also a dozen components to it injects the Korean solution into the water. When the tap is turned on water flows through that device and the dose that injects just the right amount of chlorine solution to kill how cold bacteria but not enough to make the water taste unpleasant this device is very sustainable because since the started 2 years ago the device has been here. Very minimal mechanical import that's been done. We hope the next 3 years the device will be still working the Project installed 7 chlorine those at kiosks in the area and 5 still operating and the fact is that chlorine solution is easily available and inexpensive and the DOE's as don't need electricity to work sups director Alex Markey says that ease of maintenance is one of the advantages we are using a product that is locally available but is chlorine and we have various branches in the community that we can use to disinfect their water and so. Communities will always have access to so drinking water any time they go collect water he said that just. One liter of chlorine solution in the dozer is enough this impacts 12000 liters of water and the treated water is popular with some members of the community. Again uniting including me and. Down there I use the water in my household together with my husband and my children often do you come to talk your support and how much do you buy the beautiful look you know I'm going to take you to the kiosk and they buy 3 jerry cans what I like it because it helps prevent diseases and when you wash using the water it is softer the community paid $250.00 u.s. Dollars for the chlorine goes up and the water it treats costs a little more than untreated water at the kiosk $3.00 u.s. Cents per liter Very says to us cents to cover the cost of the chlorine solution but manager when you did tell me that's enough to put some customers off some tend not to go for it they say that one is expensive the community that we are serving it is composed of a beat up within the. Oh poor people that have been with you for one of what we thought we'd be Little them actually most of them still of the earth do you think there are 2 pipes that are producing the untreated want but for those who understand they put those who are using the soup What are they death to buy you know dark in the problem the one sense difference doesn't deter this regular customers and you know what I mean it's going to somebody's gonna And you know. My name please listen it's going to be a group of ph lately Judy kind of thing to me to be the man you get the man that they treat him with is clean and safe it is not like the entity which when we used to drink could make us sick. Michael Cloquet reporting and one of the people behind that project Amy Pickering has carried out a similar interventions in other countries such as Bangladesh and she's been telling Paul McGraw what she found when she measured the impact on health of those who use the clean water taps we found that it was actually able to cut diarrhea by almost a quarter for children under 5 so reduce child diarrhea by 20 percent and do you think you'd see a similar impact if you measured that in other communities definitely almost 1000000000 people in the world access water that's supposed to be a problem troops sources but it's actually contaminated with oxygen and. Sewage So I think there would be help but if it's another someone or something we had done it tasted collection experiment and dark to understand exactly at what level of chlorine dose could people detect the teamster chlorine and then in that trial we were able to dose just under that level and we still were able to still see a big reduction in child diarrhea but the acceptability of the intervention was quite high because people couldn't really taste exploring do you think that up until now them that we've been. Using a bit of a sledgehammer to crack a nut when we could as you say use a much lower dosage and it still be effective that's a great way to put it yes I think sometimes the perfect is the enemy of good if you're implementing something that people are not going to use and they're not going to like it's not going to be good advice there you're listening to health check from the b.b.c. I'm Claudia Hammond and my guest today is Sara Bowes Leigh from the Guardian Now we always like some good news on health among the doom and gloom we have here on health check and there is some well some good news and some bad news on polio what's happened well everybody's exaggerating the good news obviously and rightly so so what has happened is that wild polio virus type 3 has been officially eradicated there are 3 types of wild polio virus and we've already got rid of type 2 and this is type 3 that's gone as well so it's just a type one that we've got to battle and that's causing most of the case that we have at the moment and Type one is just endemic now in 2 countries in Afghanistan and Pakistan and Nigeria used to be the 3rd country that was listed but they now haven't had any cases since 2016 so why are these last pockets so difficult to reach in Afghanistan and Pakistan it's been difficult actually in a number of countries to deal with conflict and this was certainly the case in Nigeria you had the areas in the north where there was fighting going on there's also a lot of suspicion actually so it's quite a miracle to my mind that they've managed to get children vaccinated up in the north of Nigeria and the same sort of things apply in the areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan where the store problems. Having said that this isn't the end of it all because you still have to get rid of the vaccine derived cases so the oral vaccine which is the easiest one to give to children because it's just a few drops in the mouth and if you're going through large areas of Afghanistan in the remote you can do that quite easily but that one does. Actually leads to children it's creating a weakened form of polio virus and if that's left for very long to spread communicate and actually cause paralysis causing polio which is is pretty horrible So there are some cases that are actually from the vaccine still happening and the good news is that type stray has been eradicated but so what's the bad news then well the not so good news we say is actually that the case numbers are up for type one so last year in 2018 there were 33 cases of polio virus in the world this year so far they've been 94 which doesn't look so good that's as quite a rise not sure why there has been some expression of this yet but I'm sure that those really brilliant people who are trying to eradicate polio will be on this case and trying to pin down again very hard here thank you very much Sara now monks in Thailand have been experiencing a health crisis thanks to the tasty religious offerings they're given to eat they're held in such high esteem that every day people bring them food and if they have to go to hospital they even have their own special wards but news that nearly half the monks are obese putting them at risk of developing type 2 diabetes and its complications has prompted action Professor junket from Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University was determined to help the monks are to she spotted surprising numbers of them in hospital she created a health chart of the monks which is due to be rolled out across the country by the end of this year and I asked her how she 1st noticed there was a problem because of the rate for the general population is about 31 percent among At that time in Bangkok it is 48 percent which is really. Like. The months have claimed it is quite high compared to the meal population Thailand there were around like 60 percent on. Let's roll among. Monk is quite like 42 percent could you tell me about the boards with the monks in the hospital in Thailand we have kind of. War for the mom and really song and could take it in the food you know likes and quite sad when we take the dietetic students to the ward when I talk to moms they don't know when they consume sweets the message that it relates to the lot sugar level and when we saw that Steve we have health consequences I say that the problem is that ticking time bomb but the tie health promotion Foundation go on to the funding for me in the telegram university and then we start to study the nutrition problem in money people may think of monks as very abstemious and probably healthy Why is it that they have an unhealthy lifestyle if we look at the way of life of monks in Thailand they have one or 2 meals a day in fact it seems that they should have kind of like lesser calories compared to the general population but monks have to receive the food from their lay people the food that they offer to moms is quite tight that high calories and less protein low side or the people believe that when they offer food this try to offer food that their deceased family members laugh and those food more likely to be like the delicious food and not healthy and moms they cannot refuse the full that is offered they have to take it and we don't make merit for those who are forced Is it right that after midday the monks can't eat any more food or yes but the liquid or the dream is a lot how they having on healthy drinks they have during that it's kind of like to return beverages live. South during juices they contain high sugar so this sounds like a difficult problem to tackle since the monks can choose what they need to stay in the offerings that people bring them out of the being able to do to give them a more healthy diet we have in their interview with the moms and the lay people and then at last we receive the way that we can empower because I think the main idea is that we lack awareness and when we create nutritional media education media for monks and also for laypeople we start to see the change and also you have a special belt that you've developed which is another looking belt it's like a sash that's sort of golden yellow What does that. So maybe it's kind of like up a little bit funny but what I try to do when we create a be any media we try to make them like you know imposed in the real life of monks because of the nature we could in fact we found 4 major culprits that can explain the cause of the health problems in monks right now and one of the issue is about the body size we know that the west side of monks these are related to the blood sugar level of the cholesterol level so you're active level and blood pressure so we try to invent what I call it just like well it means that in their rote they have a belt usually they wear it every day so we put the special mark in their belt so they start cutting back the calories or you know are doing something that is more healthy and how much difference has it made have the rates for the city come down when we talk about the obesity rate we have to do a major balance on that. You have to wait a little bit but we have to taste the 2nd because we tackle off 4 out of the month we call it the 4 during the West flight and that was already a political activity and then we take quare 8 weeks and then we expire until we found that their body. Not only body weight that we put into is better and the right leg and especially when Metabo finding like we have reduced cholesterol equivalent to the state. And then they reckon it's right and you were asked and blood pressure Professor junket now Sarah knows is there some new research out on how much the rest of us eat and this is a review of all the research that's been done on whether people eat more when they're alone or having meals with other people what does the answer seem to be well we seem to eat more when we're in company so everybody sitting around the table whether it's family or friends. Maybe at a restaurant maybe at home and we gorge ourselves it seems by comparison with what we do when we're all on our own and what sort of explanations to the authors offer for this well they offer a couple one is sort of evolutionary approach perhaps which is that when we were short of food and worried that it might run out we'd share it all around so so eating becomes something it's this is sort of survival process and everybody gets to beat So it's that's why we like to eating company perhaps but frankly I think there's the other explanation to me rings true or which is that is a lot more fun to eat with friends and I'm sure everybody eggs each other on sorry that's a very bad farm there I thought it was bad but that's a good one yeah so you know one person says I think I have a putting How about you and before you know it's everybody's got a spoon and we're all at the putting And also if it's found you don't really want to stop the meal do you say you like to just carry on and you said f a longer I suppose then you could have chatted. In which case you months will take a little bit more from the middle of the table or you know have another a spectator Yes The longer you sit there and stare at it the more tempting it gets and make me angry Well thank you very much Sara Bowes the health editor at The Guardian newspaper for coming in today and thanks to the producer Paula McGrath You can find me on Twitter at Claudia ham and I will be back at the same time next week when we'll hear why it's the teenagers who are a combination of kind and mean who tend to be the most popular at school by for now right here on State of art Joan of my proudest awards ever way best storyteller and mystics 1st grade class ever sex this we got state of art we're hearing from writer Veera starboard she wrote the perseverance theater produced double fish and she writes for the p.b.s. Kids show Molly Denali we talk love letters to indigenous cultures and keeping things authentic but state of art brought it to 45 last public media after 1 point one. Support for Alaska Public Media comes from members like you thank you. This is Quinn Christofferson from Alaska winner of the n.p.r. Tiny Desk concert and you're listening to a great. News . B.b.c. World Service It's 11 o'clock g.m.t. This is all of a convoy with news or I'm a fire has swept through a train in Pakistan killing at least 70 people. hours 4 4. For it to the. Official says started when a cooking gas cylinder exploded others have pointed to an electrical fault we have the latest from Islamabad also on the newsroom paramilitaries backed by the CIA are accused of committing war crimes in Afghanistan the underclass battling to survive in Liberia if you bring drugs into any country and you give it to young people who have no way of getting out of it on their own I can see is down to more tomorrow and a victory against the odds after having terrible terrible season in the very beginning this is almost too good to be true a result tonight the u.s. Capitol of the Washington Nationals when the baseball World Series 1st our top stories. Hello I'm Chris Sparrow with the b.b.c. Needs a fire has swept through a train in Pakistan killing more than 70 people and injuring dozens of others the train was traveling from the city of Karachi to Rawalpindi officials say many on board were heading to a Muslim religious conference is 2nd to come early railway officials have been saying that the fire was caused by a gas cylinder exploding a gas cylinder that was being used by some passengers they say to cook breakfast but some survivors have been suggesting that's not true and suggested instead that it was caused by an electrical fault there is anger here there are questions being asked about if the fire was caused by these gas cylinders then why were these gas cylinders allowed onto the train in the 1st place there is something that are banned because of the obvious safety concerns the Pakistani rail network does not have a particularly good record there have been major accidents before but this is one of the worst Human Rights Watch has issued a damning report accusing African paramilitary units banks by the CIA of carrying out extrajudicial killings indiscriminate airstrikes and forced disappearances with impunity against civilians the report documents 14 cases over the last 2 years Patricia Glassman is from Human Rights Watch It was the 1st time I was aware that these kind of night raids had become so frequent and that the people affected had really no avenue for redress no one to turn to and what he described was exactly what we documented in this report of forces coming in the middle of the night shooting several men taking others with them and no no answers about why they were targeted.