Chinese medicine no help to get pregnant: british experts
Couples who use acupuncture and Chinese medicine to try and increase their chances of having a baby were warned there was no evidence it worked by British fertility experts Wednesday.
As a new F1 season starts today, racing legend John Surtees tells of the agonising decision he faced after his son's freak fatal accident
Robert winston: the dark side of the inventions that changed the world
Robert Winston on spears, flame throwers and fax machines (Or why the dark side of our ingenuity shows we're too clever by half).
A heavily-pregnant carly zucker goes shopping as she waits for the birth of her first child
Most women would be at home with their feet up if they were weeks away from giving birth.
Mark owen's distraught wife reveals confession over affairs 'hit me like a bolt out of the blue'
Emma, 32, who married the Take That star just five months ago, has told friends she is finding it difficult to come to terms with her husband's drunken infidelities.
Nearly half of recruits for afghan police fail drugs test
Opium, the raw form of heroin, is by far the most common substance detected, according to British military sources.
Ladies in red: eva longoria and sarah harding dazzle in rouge at children's charity gala in london
Eva Longoria Parker couldn't have looked any less like a desperate housewife as she attended a children's charity event in London last night.
Black widow who killed husband with poisoned curry in new probe over vanished lover
A British woman dubbed the Black Widow after murdering her husband with a poisoned curry is facing a new investigation – after it was revealed that one of her previous boyfriends vanished.
Labour accused of fixing shortlist to land gmtv’s gloria de piero a safe seat
Glamorous Gloria De Piero quit last month as GMTV's political editor in an attempt to replace Geoff Hoon as the MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire.
Police in Pakistan say they still have new questions about the evidence given to them by the father of kidnapped five-year-old Sahil Saeed before he left the country to return to Britain.
Us and russia 'near' nuclear deal
Russia and the US are close to concluding a new nuclear disarmament treaty, officials in Washington and Moscow say.
Panic in georgia as bogus tv report says russia has invaded
Panic is sparked in Georgia after a bogus TV news report says Russian tanks have invaded and the country's president was dead.
Bombed out and banned: Gaza's male hairdressers
Schools 'force' young mothers out
Pregnant teenagers are being forced out of education due to a "lack of support", a children's charity claims.
New US movement tells politicians to smell the coffee
Gum disease 'link' to early birth
Successful treatment for gum disease cuts the risk of pregnant women giving birth early, say US researchers.
Clegg bids to cool coalition talk
Nick Clegg is to say he is "not the kingmaker" amid speculation about the Lib Dems' possible role in a coalition government.
Knife crime plans 'may cost £80m'
Proposals for mandatory jail terms for knife carriers could cost up to £80m a year, figures obtained by the Lib Dems suggest.
Black fathers urged over children
Black fathers need to become more involved with their children to help tackle their social problems, an MP will say.
Taliban kill at least 30 in kandahar
A squad of Taliban suicide bombers have killed at least 30 civilians and police in the Afghan city of Kandahar in attacks on buildings including a newly fortified prison and the police chief's compound.
French complain at sarko 'dwarf' jibe by david cameron
David Cameron has become embroiled in an embarrassing row with Nicolas Sarkozy after it emerged that the French have complained about a series of jibes at their leader's lack of height.
Clegg tries to pacify his party over talk of pact with cameron
Nick Clegg yesterday tried to calm fears in his party that he would plunge into a post-election pact with David Cameron after the threat of a major rebellion by left-wingers in his ranks.
Bendtner saves best for last to fuel arsenal's title drive
For the second time in 24 hours, Phil Brown felt the urge to use the words Women's Institute and apology in the same sentence, but on this occasion he didn't need to be quite as sheepish.
Shakespeare's star-cross'd lovers start to act their age
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is... a pensioner. It's all right, though, because in this version of Romeo and Juliet, which begins at Britain's oldest theatre this week, the star-cross'd lovers are both in their eighties and living in a care home.
Storrie wanted preferential treatment for agent involved in tax case defence
Deposed Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie tried to push agent Willie McKay to the front of the club's queue of creditors because he needed him for tax evasion defence.
Kate simon: need a cheap city break? try barcelona, prague, or maybe coventry
The hotel industry is on the up. So says a report released last week by the business advisory firm Deloitte. It confirms that demand for hotel rooms across Europe has risen since last October, with a 3.3 per cent increase in January compared with the same month in 2009.
Katy holland: woodland to wonderland: easter escapes that won't break the bank
On my to-do list this weekend: make a plan for the Easter holidays that: a) doesn't require a second mortgage to pay for it; and b) will distract the kids from their usual pastime of throttling each other.
Sarah sands: the french shrug at affairs. but they're learning...
When Baroness Ashton said she could speak for Europe with one voice, she had not reckoned on the fall-out of the Sarkozy affair. The President of France arrives in Britain to discuss the apocalyptic global financial crisis with the Prime Minister of Great Britain. The two statesmen speak to the international press. The question asked of Sarkozy is whether his wife, Carla, is sleeping with a younger musician, and if the President has taken up with his ecology minister. Sarkozy replies: "You must know very little about what a President of the Republic actually has to do all day long."
£500m 'squandered' on scheme to help dangerous prisoners
Nearly £500m has been squandered on an experimental scheme to treat Britain's most dangerous offenders which experts have branded "ineffective", "unscientific" and "wasteful".
Fur flies again in the fashion world
For years it was the bête noire of fashion; the merest glimpse of a glossy stole was enough to send animal rights activists into a frenzy of paint-throwing. While even the bravest fashion fans have been wary of stepping out in fur, all that looks set to change. With fur-packed catwalks at the recent Paris, Milan, New York and London fashion shows raising barely a murmur of protest, the luxe material is likely to be a key look for next winter, with fur-free stores reportedly altering their stance and stocking it.
Slacker chic: why grunge is the trend that refuses to die
Can a moment happen twice? Fashion is certainly adept at repeating itself; it's a clever way of keeping the young 'uns interested without alienating the oldies. Though with trends from the catwalk now taking hold on the high street almost instantly, and always vigorously, you could be forgiven for thinking that there's no such thing as a "moment" any more. There can't be in a cultural climate where the style press tout shoulder pads as the next big thing one minute, and reviles them two weeks later when some character on the deeply unfashionable Emmerdale dons a pair.
Physicist Michael Beard, the unlikely seducer at the centre of Ian McEwan's latest novel, won the Nobel Prize for his Beard-Einstein Conflation, a brilliant theory that allowed him to be sucked along in the slipstream of Einstein's hurtling importance. Celebrity in his field and honorary degrees ensued, while he coasted through two decades without producing any further original hypotheses, "vaguely weary of himself, bereft of alternatives".
Torture garden, by octave mirbeau trs michael richardson
A fin de siècle horror story, this rebarbative novel begins with a group of cynical French intellectuals discussing murder; one of their number announces that he has an extraordinary story to recount. There follows a section in which the narrator criticises the hypocritical French society that exiled him to the Orient. This is, as it were, the entrance money: the narrator then takes a mistress, Clara, who takes him to visit the garden of a Chinese prison where, amid the peonies and peach trees, inmates are tortured to death in a variety of revolting ways, to the delight and sexual excitation of Clara.
Pretty wise buys: beauty products that are a genuine bargain
Right now there's nothing more fashionable than spending wisely, which has spurred both luxury and high-street brands to work harder than ever for our loyalty. Whether it's a make-up formulation that lasts or a moisturiser that works for everyone, it's worth knowing when to splurge and when to save...
Things are not what they seem. That's the thrust of the new Hyundai iX35's introduction to the world. We are told that although it is essentially a compact SUV, a role within Hyundai's range that it takes over from the Tucson, it can actually be all things to nearly all buyers.
Prudential incurs investors' wrath as thiam heads north
Prudential's chief executive, Tidjane Thiam, will head to Edinburgh tomorrow to meet fund managers in the Scottish capital after botching a number of meetings with investors in London last week.
Dj taylor: kate adie's 'village' is now a sci-fi cityscape, but tension's in the air
The only adjective capable of doing justice to Dubai City and its environs is "Ballardian".
British seafood faces sfo scrutiny
The Serious Fraud Office is set to examine the circumstances behind the collapse of British Seafood Group, a frozen-fish company with sales of more than £300m, which failed last month.
Ge plans to open new research centre in the developing world
General Electric is to open another research centre in the developing world, following similar ventures in China and India.
Crossrail prepares for bids from train manufacturers
Crossrail, the proposed £15.9bn Berkshire-to-Essex rail link that will run through central London, will invite bids this summer to build commuter trains for the project.
The architectural firm founded by Will Alsop, the British designer behind the Peckham Library and Hotel du Department in Marseilles, is to be rebranded this week.
Lords to rule on whether pfi aimed to hide liabilities off balance sheet
The Lords' economic affairs committee will announce its verdict on the Private Finance Initiative on Wednesday.
Fraud charges loom for lehman bros
Ex-Lehman Brothers directors and their UK advisers could face a fresh blitz of civil and criminal charges following the publication on Friday of the explosive report into the collapse of the Wall Street bank which claimed it "misrepresented" its financial position.
Renault lends f1 team £18m for new season
Renault has given a €20m (£18m) loan to its Formula One racing team in an attempt to boost its chances of challenging for the world championship, which begins today in Bahrain.
Editor-at-large: three cheers for our clever, funny generation y
Lucy Neville-Rolfe of Tesco is one of a handful of bosses (including her own chief executive, Sir Terry Leahy, and Sir Stuart Rose of M&S) who seem to delight in denigrating young people, painting a picture of a generation that's not just lazy, but unemployable. Last week, she addressed the Institute of Grocery Distribution, moaning that some school leavers "seem to think the world owes them a living", adding that there was a "fair amount of evidence" exams were "getting easier and failing to stretch people..." and "I find that attitudes have changed."
Rupert cornwell: fbi 'most wanted' list celebrates 60 years of notoriety
From the outset, there was no way the venture could fail. After all, it combined America's eternal love of lists with the country's most celebrated criminals and the organisation that likes to think of itself as the world's most powerful law enforcement agency. And so it has proved. Today marks the 60th anniversary of a minor national institution here: the FBI's Most Wanted list.
John rentoul: warning – women are people too
Gordon Brown is so worried about Labour's failure to mobilise the men's vote that he has set up a special unit at Labour HQ and appointed Jon Cruddas as Minister for Men (unpaid), with special responsibility for taking the party's message to garages, betting shops and the edges of dance floors. He is worried that Labour's policies for lawnmowing credits, free TV licences for elderly football fans and the reduction of VAT on shaving cream are not getting across.
Britain's pets: the best of times, the worst of times
Milo stands patiently as the final few tweaks are made to his already perfectly groomed beard. The four-year-old shih-tzu has been up since three o'clock this morning. He was bathed, brushed and blow-dried before the hair on the top of his head was put into curlers. Hair tongs are then used to achieve the desired height for his bouffant fringe.
'you people cannot walk, you only move in cars'
A New York dinner party isn't the place to open your mouth and not follow through – no matter how much Brooklyn Lager you've drunk. Yet, after a fellow guest told my partner, Helen, and I how he had walked 500 miles across Europe on the El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, we declared that we'd been contemplating a journey for some time and a long walk sounded like just the thing.
Why visit? There's an air of excitement gripping the beautiful Baroque city of Turin.
All you need on the slopes is a bit of back-up
Tom is perched at the top of a piste, looking down apprehensively. And he has more reason than most to be apprehensive. This is his first day back on the slopes since he broke his neck doing tricks on a snowboard two years ago.
How we met: lara bohinc&ernst malmsten
Lara Bohinc, 38, is a Slovenian-born, London-based jewellery designer who, after designing for Gucci and Lanvin, started her own business in 1997. Her collections have expanded to handbags and, most recently, shoes. She lives in London with her partner and daughter, Coco
Whether we like it or not, jewellery finds its way into most of our lives. It might be a brooch passed down through the generations of a family. Or it could be a friendship bracelet, engagement ring or wedding band. Right now, however, it's more likely to be forcing its way into our consciousness via the catwalk, music videos and glossy magazines, where extravagant, unexpected and just plain beautiful pieces threaten to upstage the clothes they accessorise.
Jon thor birgisson: 'i like being a social outcast'
Deep within the base- ment of an East London working-men's club, two men who have never been inside such a place before sit beside one another having pink make-up applied to their faces, glitter to their cheekbones, and feather epaulettes to their shoulder pads. Frequently, they catch one another's eye and giggle in a manner that would doubtless prompt censorious disapproval here on an average night.
Shares in John Maynard Keynes are rising, and Peter Clarke's elegant, succinct biography could not be more timely. The first half is a chronological account of Keynes's life, reminding us what a polymath the man was. As well as the most influential economist of the 20th century, he was a mathematician and philosopher whose first published work was a treatise on probability, an essayist and journalist, an adviser to governments, and friend of most of the leading intellectuals of his day. (Bertrand Russell described him as the cleverest man he ever knew, and said that every time he argued with Keynes he felt as though he was taking his life in his hands.)
Carola long: 'how to plan ahead for your year in fashion'
Terry Pratchett couldn't invent a more complex play on the space-time continuum than the fashion calendar. In theory, at least, it's simple: several months before designer collections hit the shelves, the catwalk shows give a pretty clear glimpse into our sartorial future, followed by a handy period of preparation. However, it gets a bit more complicated when you factor in pre-fall (autumn) collections, which hit the shops around May and June, cruise collections, which start landing in October and November, and the fact that winter coats go on sale at the hottest time of the year, in high summer. Not to mention trying to look au fait with the season we're actually in.
Rabbit with new-season garlic, artichokes and white beans
Farmed rabbit, which I prefer, has a very mild flavour. It works best with flavours that are equally as mild so the meat is not overpowered. Artichokes are in season, so it's lovely to use them as often as possible.
Why your world is about to get a whole lot smaller, by jeff rubin
The economist Jeff Rubin has a track record of being right. In 2000, he addressed the Petroleum Club in Calgary and told them that oil would shortly reach $50 a barrel. His audience was incredulous to the point of amusement. He was right. Five years later, he returned to the same venue and announced that triple-digit prices were imminent. Again he was laughed down, and again he was right. So, when he tells us that oil prices will keep rising and rising because the stuff is getting scarcer and scarcer, and that this will have a seismic effect on the global economy, we ought to listen.
Manhood for amateurs, by michael chabon fourth
Over the past 20 years, the US author Michael Chabon has carved a place as one of the most imaginative and skilful writers of his generation. In a handful of fantastic novels, as well as in short stories, screenplays, children's fiction, comics and more, he's consistently succeeded in marrying high-concept literary values with a love of pop culture, throwing an irrepressible storytelling compulsion into the bargain. Those tropes all recur in this brilliant collection of short essays, which focuses on the nature of family, parenthood, childhood and relationships but takes in so much more besides. It's a manifesto of sorts, but one delivered with all the caveats, excuses and exceptions of a modern man struggling to make sense of the 21st century. It's also delivered with a huge amount of insight into the way we live our lives today, not to mention plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and some heartbreaking, melancholic ones as well.
Skye gyngell cooks with new-season garlic
Gentle, sweet and soft in flavour, young, "wet" garlic is around now. Its flavour so delicate and its smell almost imperceptible when slowly cooked, it can be eaten just on its own. Roasted alongside shallots, it is lovely on toast – the cloves are not divided as they are in older bulbs, and the taste is no stronger than poached leeks.
Savoy cabbage with new-season garlic and anchovy butter
Fibrous, roughly textured savoy cabbage works well with roasted new-season garlic. The anchovy butter gives a depth and salty flavour, which is very pleasant.
The alternative hero, by tim thornton
Clive Beresford is a music fan. And how. In his thirties, he is still in the grip of the obsession that ruled him in his teens – an obsession with alternative music in general and the Thieving Magpies in particular. (The Magpies are a fictional band but slot in so neatly beside the Stone Roses, Violent Femmes, Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine and all the other bands name-checked here, that one almost believes in them.) When Clive discovers that Lance Webster, the former frontman of the now-disbanded Magpies, lives just around the corner, he starts plotting to befriend him and solve the tormenting question once and for all: why did the Magpies break up?
Leading article: clegg the credible
Nick Clegg has done a good job of preparing the Liberal Democrats for an election that suddenly looks likely to be the closest since 1992, and possibly since 1974. His task has not been an easy one. The space for a distinctively liberal pitch to the voters has been squeezed where it has not simply fallen away. David Cameron has shifted the Conservative Party on green policy and civil liberties, while Europe and the Iraq war have become less pressing. Meanwhile, Gordon Brown has moved the Labour Party's language away from at least some of his predecessor's aggressive authoritarianism.
Fraud costs online banking £60m as scams soar by 14 per cent
Fraud on debit and credit cards may have fallen by more than a quarter last year, the first decrease since 2006, but online scams are on the up, according to the latest card and banking fraud figures.
Wealth check: my credit cards are paid off – what do i do now?
The patient When Sophie Hammond, 32, from Derby, finally cleared her substantial credit-card bills last month, she realised she didn't know what to do next.
Barbados is queen of the caribbean
It is not hard to see why Barbados is considered the premier destination for Britons thinking of buying property in the Caribbean.
Julian knight: no more banks behaving badly on card debt
You can tell the election is ahoy. Tomorrow, the Government will announce that it has come to an agreement with the banks over how consumer debt is to be handled.
Car choice: 'i'm looking for fun, but i'm not a boy racer, honest'
Graham Hyde is looking for a used car for about £12,000. Graham says that he is not a boy racer but is looking to have some fun – without going too wild. He has been considering such cars as the Subaru Impreza Turbo, Volkswagen Golf GTI, and Honda Civic Type R. He says he has also considered something "more left field", such as the Alfa Romeo GT, so he is open to suggestions.
Famous, rich and jobless, bbc1jobless, bbc1
Really, enough is enough. We've had the Duchess of York getting on with hoodies on a Manchester estate; we've had MPs living "like real people" in tower blocks; we've had the Marquess of Blandford sleeping rough (under duck down in a five-star hotel after he'd had it with this nonsense), and now we've got four, decidedly D-list celebrities finding out what it's like to look for work when there is none.
Mumford&sons, the junction, cambridgegrizzly bear, corn exchange, brighton
Despite the self-imposed handicap of a name that sounds like a firm of funeral directors – it is, coincidentally, the name of a fish and chip shop in Grays, Essex – indie folk quartet Mumford&Sons are unmistakably going places.
London assurance, nt olivier, londonlove never dies, adelphi, londonking lear, courtyard, stratford
Simon Russell Beale is a ludicrous bauble of vanity in London Assurance. This is the little-known comedy by Irish-born playwright Dion Boucicault, penned in 1841 and now revived with joyous brio by Nicholas Hytner.
Kingdom of ife, british museum, london
To a varying degree, we see all art through the veils of time and culture. Mondrian's Broadway Boogie-Woogie is an entirely familiar image, but it was painted 70 years ago by a French-speaking Dutch Theosophist in exile from a world war in New York.
First seen in Florence, Graham Vick's cool, contemplative production of Tamerlano would have been unlikely to feature in the current Royal Opera House season without Placido Domingo's endorsement.
Rory bremner's international satirists, radio 4the alps, radio 4
I went right off Rory Bremner one Saturday morning a while back when he was on Radio 2 with Mark Lamarr, who was standing in for Jonathan Ross.
One aspect of The Hurt Locker which set it apart from Hollywood's other Iraq war thrillers is that it didn't take a political stance: it showed what the US military was (and is) doing, but it never got on to the issue of why.
Shutter island, martin scorsese, 138 mins, (15)
There may come a point, halfway through watching Shutter Island, when you wonder who – you, or director Martin Scorsese – has taken leave of their senses.
La fille mal gardée, royal opera house, london
London audiences in 1791 called it "Filly me Gardy". Now fans refer to it with a single syllable: "Fille". The old French title of La Fille mal gardée (translated as The Wayward Daughter, for which read Saucy Little Stop-Out) is misleading: there is nothing hard to understand in this touching two-act romcom. The version by Frederick Ashton, now revived to mark its 50th birthday, is pure sunshine and pure Englishness – remarkable given its origins in France the month the Bastille fell.
Alison shepherd: my preston, the paris of the north
Poor old Mark Owen – he just can't keep it zipped up. But at least he falls back on the age-old booze excuse. He's not come so far from his Oldham roots that he feels able to blame that fancy dan, new-fangled sex addiction stuff.
Dom joly: i've seen the sugababes and the world's first fireplace
Two days back home and then it was off to Central Asia again. This time my destination was Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. As guest of one of the new tycoons this area seems to be producing, this was no ordinary trip. I was put up at a swanky London hotel, wined and dined and then, the following morning, whisked over Europe in a private jet towards Azerbaijan. It was a little like a de luxe special rendition.
Matthew bell: the ios diary (14/03/10)
The British are said to be at their best in a crisis, and so it proved at the English National Opera on Thursday when the tenor John Tessier was struck with a sore throat. In a further blow, his understudy was also ill, and it looked as though there would be nobody to sing the lead in The Elixir of Love, directed by Jonathan Miller. Hearts sank as the news was broken to a packed Coliseum, but the Blitz spirit soon kicked in as ENO went on to announce that a Brazilian tenor, Luciano Botelho, who had recently sung the part in Italian, had been tracked down to France and had flown in that afternoon. And so it was that a smouldering Nemorino wooed Adina in Donizetti's original Italian, while Sarah Tynan played with his emotions in English, with some memorable Anglo-Italian interchanges, much to the audience's delight.
Joan smith: great expectations for many, hard times for the old
A "death tax" sounds shocking: a cruel imposition on bereaved families who have enough to think about without having to hand over thousands of pounds to an unfeeling government. The phrase resurfaced last week, a month after the Tories' controversial poster – and Tory-supporting editors know that it strikes middle-class voters where it hurts: in their fantasy about every Briton's right to a substantial, property-based inheritance.
Alan watkins: a hung parliament is a red herring
We are now stuck with the phrase "hung parliament". Everyone knows what is meant by it, though in our politics it goes back only to 1974. The phenomenon itself goes back for centuries. All it means is that no party holds an absolute majority in the legislature.
ios letters, emails&online postings (14 march 2010)
In your fascinating piece about the 100 most influential women you repeated the myth about the suffragette Emily Davison's death by saying that she threw herself under the King's horse in the 1913 Derby ("A century of distinction", 7 March). The film of the incident shows she did no such thing. She attempted to grab the reins to stop the horse as an audacious and original protest, meaning no harm to any person or animal. People in the know at the time confirmed this. This was hardly a wise move given the weight and pace of these horses, but Emily Davison had everything to live for, and the energy and drive to continue until the campaign for women's votes succeeded. To suggest that she deliberately threw her life away and tried at the same time to kill or maim a horse and its rider in a weird, publicity-stunt suicide both misrepresents and demeans her.
Mother of mine! it's her day, so why not serenade her?
With his cheeky Motherwell lilt, crooked grin and perfectly coiffed side parting, prepubescent child star Neil Reid had sons and daughters everywhere reaching for their tissues and into their pockets to propel his 1971 single, "Mother of Mine", to fame that would last a thousand Mother's Days.
Women who changed the world: 'there's always room for one more woman...'
If there were ever any debate about the passion and engagement of Independent on Sunday readers, your response to last week's feature for the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day settled it once and for all. At the end of our list of 100 British women who have shaped the past century, we invited you to offer your comments and criticisms, and to point out any omissions. That you did – and some.
Anthony horowitz: 'labour has done all it can to demonise our children'
Anthony Horowitz is on his soapbox. He's adamant he doesn't want to be there – he's been forced to step on to it in outrage at the way children are treated these days. Now he is there, though, he might as well get a few things off his chest.
Can ashcroft put a spell on pendle? tories spend heavily in the pennines
"I don't know who's spending the money and I don't care." Joey Riley, a "recently unemployed" mechanic scratching a living in the Lancashire town of Nelson, is unmoved by the row over the amount being spent to win his vote. "Is it against the law? Is it harming anybody? No. All I am interested in is who's going to help me get a new job, or promise not to cut my dole while I'm waiting to find one."
An evening with david sedaris, leicester square theatre, london
There were no dancing girls during An Evening with David Sedaris. Nor was there any strobe lighting. Musical accompaniment did not feature, and back-projected images were entirely absent.
Parks and flood kick against a rising tide of mediocrity
You will have to take this on trust, but there were many press pundits and doubtless paying punters who were talking beforehand of the probability of a draw, and after that very result in a mediocre match enlivened mostly by the ancient enmity, there were few claims of an injustice done. Scotland made the greater territorial gains but were never hammering at England's line. The obdurate visitors might have won it with a couple of second-half kicks by their replacement fly-half, Toby Flood, but the Scotland No 10, Dan Parks, hit a post twice too. In very many ways, including a dearth of a world class cutting edge, each cancelled the other out.
The next Billy Elliot in the making, 16-year-old Daniel Dolan, from Widnes in Cheshire, is a precociously talented ballet dancer who’s been studying for six months at the world-famous Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow. He’s only the third Briton to be offered a place in the school’s 237-year history, but it has been a steep learning curve, not least because he’s been living in a country with a very different culture, and whose language initially he couldn’t speak.
Vatican denounces attempts to draw pope into scandal
The Vatican yesterday denounced what it called aggressive attempts to draw Pope Benedict XVI into a scandal in his German homeland, after it emerged a suspected paedophile priest was sent to do community work by the Munich archdiocese while the Pope was archbishop there some 30 years ago.
Ban on bluefin tuna would 'threaten japanese culture'
The fate of the Atlantic bluefin tuna – beloved by sushi gourmets and on the brink of extinction – could be decided within days.
Children of gaza: scarred, trapped, vengeful
Omsyatte adjusts her green school uniform and climbs gingerly on to a desk at the front of the classroom. The shy 12-year-old holds up a brightly coloured picture and begins to explain to her classmates what she has drawn. It is a scene played out in schools all over the world, but for one striking difference: Omsyatte's picture does not illustrate a recent family holiday, or jolly school outing, but the day an Israeli military offensive killed her nine-year-old brother and destroyed her home.
British man to be force-fed in us jail
A British man who has been on hunger strike in a US prison since September 2007 can legally be force-fed by prison authorities, a court has ruled. William Coleman, who is serving an eight-year sentence for raping his wife, is protesting at what he says is a corrupt judicial system. The case has reignited a debate over whether force-feeding prisoners contravenes their human rights.
The clock is ticking, and this time Jack Bauer really will be lucky to escape. After eight seasons and 192 hours of real-time drama, the daring action hero at the centre of 24 faces one group of adversaries who will always hold the upper hand: the men in suits at his TV network.
Dancing to the precipice, by caroline moorhead
Lucie de la Tour du Pin led an interesting life. Born to an aristocratic family in Paris in 1770, she saw many of her friends and family guillotined, but managed to escape the Terror with her husband and flee to America, where she forgot her aristocratic ways, learnt to milk cows and became a farmer.
New-season garlic, goat's curd and radicchio
Goat's cheese is at its best in spring. Fresh, clean and sweet, it is lovely just on its own, served on toast for breakfast or spooned through simple salads in which its flavour can really shine. The sweet young garlic is a perfect accompaniment.
The gay hussar, 2 greek street, london w1
If I was running BBC4, I'd commission a documentary about The Gay Hussar. It's not just that it has an interesting history in its own right, being London's first Hungarian restaurant; it would also enable you to chart the rise and fall of the liberal intelligentsia. Ever since it opened in 1953, the fate of The Gay Hussar has been intimately bound up with that of Britain's intellectual class, peaking in 1980 with the election of the late Michael Foot as Labour leader.
Watch what you're saying!: linguist david crystal on twitter, texting and our native tongue
Were the English language ever to need an official guardian, Professor David Crystal certainly looks the part. With a godly white beard, a pair of oval spectacles and the sort of suit that gave Open University its distinctive visual styling, he makes one feel secure in his judgments. And rightly so: Crystal, now an honorary professor of linguistics at the Bangor University, has been ploughing this academic field for 50 years.
British National Party leaders were under fire yesterday after it emerged that they were plotting to "derail" a government programme aimed at quashing violent extremism throughout the UK.