The BBC is facing an angry reaction in Afghanistan after it changed the name of one of its local language Facebook pages to BBC Dari, one of the official names of the Afghan version of Persian or Farsi but one rejected by many local Persian speakers. Many Persian speakers say the name Dari has been imposed historically by the traditionally dominant Pashto ethnic group, as an implicit denial of Afghanistan’s place in the wider Persian-speaking world.
The head of the BBC’s Afghan service, Meena Baktash defended the use of the term Dari, noting that it was the official name of the language in Afghanistan. She said the change was intended to link the Facebook page to the BBC Dari radio service, which was launched in 2003 and which, together with the BBC Pashto service, occupies an important place in the crowded local media landscape.
Click through to read more of Al Jazeera’s coverage of this politically charged onomastic issue.
The American Literature Association will offer a roundtable session on “The Newness of Little Women” in celebration of the novel’s 150
On the 22nd of July 2011, the peaceful Norway experienced one of the deadliest attacks on its soil since the Second World War. Within a 24-hour period, the lives of 77 Norwegians were lost at the hands of the right-wing white supremacist Anders Behring Breivik. 
Many pieces of US legislation are given clever names to increase their appeal. An excellent example is the 2001 “Act to deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes” that is better known today by the acronym USA PATRIOT ACT. Almost two decades later, the suggested name of another legislative act has made the news. In an effort to draw positive attention to an upcoming financial act, 
From the 29th to the 30th of June 2018, Bishop Grosseteste University (Lincoln, UK) will be holding a two-day conference celebrating the inception and reception of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in celebration of 200th anniversary of this literary classic. Confirmed Speakers include Angela Wright (Professor in English Literature, University of Sheffield), and Marc Hanheide (Reader in Computer Science, University of Lincoln). The Monster Conference will allow attendees to explore the intersection of this classic work with popular culture, and focus upon the pertinent theoretical and methodological challenges relating to how monstrosity and the monstrous get taught at universities and in schools.
An annual Austrian linguistics conference, 
From the 17th to the 21st of July 2018, 
“trans-kom”, the Journal of Translation and Technical Communication Research will be devoting a special issue to the topic ”Industry 4.0 meets Language and Knowledge Resources.” trans-kom is an academic journal for translation and technical communication research published solely on the Internet. The overarching question of this issue is what research in the fields of translation and technical communication can contribute to all that at the interface between the industry 4.0 world and the language and knowledge resources world. 