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Peter Crouch admits he has considered quitting international football but wants to play on for England.
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Donaldson still performs up and down the country doing readings and acting Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson has been named as the new children’s laureate.
She will take over from Anthony Browne, who has held the post since 2009.
The role, which has a bursary of £15,000, is awarded every two years to an eminent writer or illustrator of children’s books.
“I hope to find every opportunity to be a spokesperson and advocate for children’s books and reading,” Donaldson said.
Previous children’s laureates include Michael Rosen, Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson and Quentin Blake.
Donaldson began her career writing songs for TV but in 1993, one of her songs, A Squash and a Squeeze, was made into a book, illustrated by Axel Scheffler.
The pair went on to collaborate on the best-selling picture book, The Gruffalo.
She has written more than 120 books for children and teenagers to date, including The Gruffalo’s Child, Room on the Broom, Zog and The Snail and the Whale.
A film adaptation of The Gruffalo was nominated for an Oscar “With my background in plays and song-writing, I am particularly keen to develop projects which link books with drama and music, and to explore the ways performance can help children enjoy reading and grow in confidence,” she said.
She also wants to promote signing stories for deaf children and get involved in the children’s laureate libraries campaign.
In 2010, The Gruffalo came out top in a survey of children’s favourite books and in the same year, she was the most borrowed children’s author from British libraries.
Almost one in five children (18%) picked the Julia Donaldson tale, while Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Peppa Pig came joint second with 11%.
More than 1,500 UK parents of primary school aged children took part in the research for free reading scheme Booktime.
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The Queen officially opened the fourth assembly following assembly elections on 5 May 2011.
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A road near Peterborough, once branded the worst in the UK for fly tipping , has been transformed.
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Julia Donaldson has sold millions of books around the world The Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson is Britain’s new Children’s Laureate, it has been announced.
The 62-year-old writer, who was born in London and lives in Glasgow, said she would “relish” the role and would be an “advocate” for reading.
She takes on the two-year post from outgoing laureate Anthony Browne.
Donaldson has written more than 120 books including The Snail And The Whale, A Squash and a Squeeze and the teenage novel, Running On The Cracks.
Her most famous work, The Gruffalo, tells the story of how a cunning mouse outwits the mythical creature and other predators during a walk in the woods.
It has sold millions of copies around the world and won numerous awards.
An animated film adaptation was nominated for an Oscar last year.
Speaking about her role, Donaldson said: “I think some people would not want to do it because they think it would distract them from writing but I relish that public role.
The Gruffalo is Julia Donaldson’s best known work “My husband has been going on for years saying, ‘You should be the Children’s Laureate,’ so any resistance I might have had has been beaten down years ago.”
Donaldson said she was looking forward to becoming an “advocate” for reading but said she was not worried the work would get in the way of her writing.
She said: “Luckily I was quite productive before I knew about this so I got a couple of texts finished and there are more on the way so I don’t think the public will notice any gaps.”
She added she wanted to “explore the ways performance can help children enjoy reading and grow in confidence” and was thinking of planning “a big public performance” to mark the end of her stint in the role.
Donaldson said she would also like to promote signed stories for deaf children and add her voice to campaigns against library closures.
She was presented with the Children’s Laureate medal and a £15,000 bursary cheque at an event in central London on Tuesday by Baroness Floella Benjamin, who chaired this year’s selection committee.
The former children’s television presenter said Donaldson had “a passion to excite, educate and entertain children through her writing which fires up their imagination in a most delightful way”.
Previous laureates since the post was created in 1999 have included Quentin Blake, Michael Morpurgo and Jacqueline Wilson.
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By Richard Black
More UK ecosystems are in decline than are improving, recent research showed The government has published proposals aimed at curbing loss of nature across England and strengthening links between people and the wild.
The Natural Environment White Paper aims to put a value on nature, and use economic levers to conserve it.
Businesses building on green space may have to pay “biodiversity offsets”.
The government intends to establish an index of “natural capital”, to sit beside GDP and the new index of well-being as markers of society’s health.
Last week, the National Ecosystem Assessment (NEA) concluded that nature was worth billions of pounds to the UK each year, through providing “ecosystem services” such as clean water, pollination and fertile soil.
The white paper calls for the establishment of 12 “improvement areas” in places where ecological health has been degraded.
Some public funds will be available to restore them, to be allocated on a competitive basis.
But the government is expected to ask businesses and community groups to raise money and lead the process.
Establishing these restoration areas was one of the measures advocated in a government-commissioned report, Making Space for Nature, published last year.
The NEA put a value of £300 per person on urban green space Both it, and the NEA, concluded that more aspects of nature are declining across the UK than are improving.
And Making Space for Nature said England’s protected wild areas were too fragmented, failing to offer long-term stability and protection to wildlife.
The assessment called for “corridors” to be established to allow wildlife to move from one area to another.
“The big thing for us is we want the white paper to map out a vision of how we can move from the current state of a net loss of nature to a position of net gain,” said Helen Meech, The National Trust’s assistant director-general for external affairs.
The white paper establishes a number of ways in which nature can be restored to better health.
These include the establishment of a “biodiversity offset” scheme, under which businesses developing schemes that affect nature would have to pay for conservation in a different place.
The UN recognises four basic categories of ecosystem service that nature provides to humanity:Provisioning – providing timber, wheat, fish, etcRegulating – disposing of pollutants, regulating rainfall, storing carbonCultural – sacred sites, tourism, enjoyment of countrysideSupporting – maintaining soils and plant growth
This is a concept that is already used by some businesses, such as mining giant Rio Tinto, that have declared policies of “no net loss of biodiversity”.
The paper also includes tweaks to planning regulations, although more profound reforms are due later in the year.
“The government needs to take a fresh look – and a smarter approach – at the way we use and manage the natural environment,” said Paul Wilkinson, head of living landscape at The Wildlife Trusts.
“We currently find ourselves working amidst an array of policies and mechanisms that determine how land is used and managed.
“Few of these were designed with nature in mind, and virtually none allow for its restoration.”
Some organisations want incentives in areas such as health and education to be used in ways relating to nature.
The “pupil premium” that schools receive for enrolling poor students could be used to fund visits to forests or rivers, while Department of Health funding for people to use gyms could be diverted into outdoor exercise projects.
Some interested groups are concerned that short-term priorities such as dealing with the recession could reduce spending on nature.
But advisers such as the National Trust say the government must stick with the long-term message of the NEA – that investing in nature protection will pay dividends in future.
“We’re in the middle of a time of great economic constraint, and we’re urging the government not to constrain their ambition but to take a long-term view,” Ms Meech told BBC News.
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Microsoft has announced a range of new titles and features on its Kinect platform in an attempt to appeal to hardcore gamers.
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The property market has been stagnant for some time, surveys have showed House prices have been falling in spring, according to the Halifax, but the lender is expecting a stabilisation in prices later in the year.
The value of the average home rose by 0.1% from April to May, to £160,519.
But prices were 4.2% lower than the same period a year ago – the biggest annual drop since October 2009.
The Halifax, now part of Lloyds Banking Group, said a moderate improvement in the economy and low interest rates would help the market.
The annual change is based on average prices during the three months to the end of May, compared with the same three-month period of the previous year.
When comparing to prices in the three months to the end of May with the previous three months, there was a 1.2% drop, the Halifax said.
“House prices continue to drift modestly downwards,” said Halifax chief economist Martin Ellis.
“Low earnings growth, higher taxes and relatively high inflation are all putting pressure on household finances.
“Confidence is also weak as a result of uncertainty about the economic and employment outlook. These factors are probably constraining housing demand and applying some downward pressure on prices.”
A separate survey by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) suggested that consumer spending in the shops dropped in May compared with a year earlier.
The Halifax survey mirrors other house price data, which has shown a stagnation in the housing market for some months.
The Nationwide, recording a 1.2% annual drop in property values, said the housing market was reflecting the “lacklustre” state of the economy.
The Land Registry also recorded falling prices in England and Wales, although it noted some distinct regional variations.
In London, prices were up 5% in the year to April, according to the Land Registry, whereas prices in the north-east of England fell by 8% over the same period.
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Professor Grayling says the £18,000-per-year college will promote “excellent teaching quality” A private college being set up by leading academics does not have the right to use the title “university college,” say government officials.
The New College for the Humanities (NCH) was launched at the weekend as an “independent university college”, with plans to charge £18,000 per year.
But it does not have university college status, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Bis) says.
The college says it is going to apply to become a university college.
“New College for the Humanities is not currently a university college. The college has not yet applied to use this title,” said a Bis spokesman.
But the college said it was able to describe itself as a university college.
“We have been advised that we may legally describe ourselves as a new independent university college, and will be working with the department to ensure that we comply with their particular guidelines on this before next autumn,” said a statement from the college.
NCH plans to create a private higher-education institution in London, inviting applications for courses beginning in autumn 2012.
The college says it will recruit high-calibre students who will receive individual tuition from a group of leading academics including AC Grayling and Richard Dawkins.
They will also pay much higher prices – with fees to be set at £18,000, twice the upper limit for public universities in England. At least a fifth of students will receive financial support, says the college.
The college will not have its own degree-awarding powers, and students will take University of London degrees – under the university’s international programme.
There are already 50,000 students around the world following these degree courses drawn from the curricula of 12 of the University of London’s colleges.
“For most undergraduate awards this costs less than £1,500 per annum, on a full-time basis,” says a statement from the University of London.
The University of London also issued a clarification about the links with NCH.
“To avoid any confusion, it should be made clear that NCH is not, and will not be, a part of the University of London.”
And the university said there was no agreement for NCH students to have access to the University of London’s Senate House library – other than the same access available to other external students.
There was also a statement from Birkbeck, University of London, saying: “Birkbeck has no links with New College and no agreement to provide New College with access to any of its facilities.”
NCH says it will be applying for accreditation with the university standards watchdog, Quality Assurance Agency
If it wants to recruit overseas students, who need a student visa, the college will also have to become a registered sponsor.
Its first faculty member, Professor Grayling, says it will defend subjects threatened by budget cuts in the state sector.
“Our priorities at the college will be excellent teaching quality, excellent ratios of teachers to students, and a strongly supportive and responsive learning environment,” he said.
“Our students will be challenged to develop as skilled, informed and reflective thinkers, and will receive an education to match that aspiration.”
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Motorbikes have been banned at night in Maiduguri in a bid to stop the attacks A gunman believed to be from the Boko Haram Muslim sect has shot dead a prominent cleric from a rival sect in northern Nigeria.
Ibrahim Birkuti has criticised Boko Haram for killing dozens of security agents and politicians in recent months near the city of Maiduguri.
Like most of the other victims, he was shot dead by a man riding a motorbike, witnesses say.
Hundreds of Boko Haram supporters died during an uprising in 2009.
The sect campaigns against Western education and is also known locally as the Taliban, after the Afghan group, with which it shares some beliefs.
Mr Birkuti was from the Saudi Arabian-inspired Wahabbi group, which has been gaining ground in the mainly Muslim north of Nigeria in recent years.
He was killed outside his house in the town of Biu, some 200km (120 miles) south of Maiduguri.
“A gunman riding a motorcycle stopped outside the house and brought out a gun from under his shirt and shot him twice at close range before fleeing,” Babagana Hanafi, Birkuti’s neighbour for 15 years told the AFP news agency.
Last week, Boko Haram told the BBC it had carried out a series of bombings after President Goodluck Jonathan’s inauguration last week.
A sect spokesman said it was also responsible for killing the brother of the Shehu of Borno, one of Nigeria’s most important Islamic leaders
In Maiduguri, the police have made hundreds of arrests and even banned motorbikes at night but have not been able to stop the violence.
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Visitors to a new exhibition at Dover Castle will be able to explore the hidden tunnels from where the Dunkirk evacuation was masterminded.
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The Jockey Club saw turnover rise by 8% in 2010 and will increase its contribution to racing’s prize money by £2.7m.
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Children’s feelings on growing up in poverty
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The massive Great Indian bustard is now Critically Endangered, according to this year’s Red List of rare birds.
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Singapore Airlines recently announced a new budget subsidiary Singapore Airlines and Virgin Australia have entered a partnership which allows them to sell tickets and seats on each other’s international and domestic flights.
The so called code-sharing agreement will mean passengers may purchase a seat with Virgin but the flight will be operated by Singapore Air.
The deal is subject to regulatory approval.
Asia is the world’s largest and fastest growing market for air travel.
The agreement brings Singapore Airlines’ international network together with Virgin’s routes within Australia and the Pacific.
“It will enhance the attractiveness of Australia as a travel destination while also opening up new horizons for travellers from Australia,” said Singapore Airlines head Goh Choon Phong in a statement.
Singapore Airlines passengers will be able to access a further 30 destinations.
While Virgin customers will be able to fly to 70 more places.
“Singapore Airlines’ extensive network throughout Asia will be particularly attractive to our international business and leisure travellers,” said Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti in a statement.
Virgin already has alliances with Delta Airlines, Etihad and Air New Zealand.
Virgin, Australia’s second largest airline, said the agreement with Singapore Air will also allow reciprocal frequent flyer programme benefits and lounge access.
The alliance goes into effect on 1 August.
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