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China formally invites Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of North Korea’s leader and his likely heir, to visit, South Korean sources say.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
China must ensure social stability by reducing inflation and corruption, Premier Wen Jiabao is telling the parliament’s annual session.
Mr Wen is addressing about 3,000 delegates to open the National People’s Congress in Beijing.
According to the released text of Mr Wen’s speech, the government aims to keep inflation to within 4% and hit economic growth of 8%.
Mr Wen says he accepts uneven economic development is a “serious problem”.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
A test to detect the early stages of bowel cancer could be one step closer Scientists have discovered what could be the first step towards a DNA test to detect the early signs of bowel cancer.
Tests on two distinct genes were highly accurate in distinguishing between tumours and benign polyps – growths in the bowel that can become cancerous.
While not all polyps in the bowel become cancerous it is thought almost all bowel cancers develop from polyps.
The Cambridge study, in the BMJ Journal Gut, analysed 261 samples from patients with benign polyps or bowel cancer.
In particular it looked at what are called DNA methylation patterns – a key process in cell development.
The researchers at Cancer UK’s Cambridge Research Institute at Cambridge University say that DNA methylation is essential for life.
“This first step in detecting molecular ‘flags’ for bowel cancer, could, one day, lead to a simple test to search DNA for the early signs of the disease”
Dr Ashraf Ibrahim Cambridge Research Institute
In healthy cells a compound called a methyl group is tagged to DNA where it acts as a “red light”, preventing certain genes from producing proteins.
But this process can go wrong in cancer cells and DNA methylation can also contribute to the cause and development of cancer by blocking important “protective genes”
Dr Ashraf Ibrahim, the lead author of the study, says studying molecular changes could make diagnosing bowel cancer much simpler in the future.
“The molecular signals, which tell genes whether to make proteins or not, can become jumbled in cancer cells. We’ve identified several places where this signal becomes damaged and shown this is linked to bowel cancer development.
“The majority of bowel cancers develop from benign polyps that turn cancerous – and this crucial research deepens our understanding of the molecular changes behind this development.
“This first step in detecting molecular ‘flags’ for bowel cancer, could, one day, lead to a simple test to search DNA for the early signs of the disease.”
Dr Lesley Walker, Cancer Research UK’s director of cancer information, says the research opens up the possibility of much earlier diagnosis of bowel cancer, when it is easier to treat.
“We’ve come a long way in improving screening and developing better treatments – our scientists have been involved in testing many drugs that are used to treat bowel cancer and they’ve had a key role in pinning down the genetic causes of the disease.
“But there is still more to be done. Research like this is vital in our goal to develop the best methods to detect, monitor and treat cancer and improve survival.”
More than 38,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with the disease each year.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Fashion house Christian Dior has unveiled its latest collection in Paris in an event overshadowed by an uproar over its former designer John Galliano.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Daniel Jubb is the brains behind the Falcon rocket The first full test firing of the rocket that will power a British car to over 1,000mph (1,600km/h) will take place in the coming months.
Producing 122kN (27,000lb) of thrust, the hybrid Falcon motor will be the largest rocket to be ignited in the UK for 20 years.
It will not be the only power unit in the Bloodhound vehicle when it tries to break the land speed record next year.
There will also be a jet from a fighter plane and the engine from an F1 car.
The team behind the project believes this trio of power units could secure the absolute land speed record for Britain for many years to come.
“We are creating the ultimate car; we’re going where no-one has gone before,” said Richard Noble, the Bloodhound project director.
Several locations are being considered for the rocket test.
They include places with historic connections to the land speed record – places such as Pendine in West Wales where several records were set in the 1920s, and at Shoeburyness in eastern England where the engines for the current record holder, the Thrust SSC vehicle, were tested. Both these locations have military evaluation centres.
“To the best of my knowledge there isn’t a piston engine operating anywhere that’s in a vehicle that’s running at supersonic speed”
Tim Routsis Cosworth CEO
Bloodhound’s 45cm-wide, 3.6m-long (18in by 12ft) rocket will be British designed and built.
It will burn a mixture of solid propellant (HTPB, or hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene) and liquid oxidiser (high-test peroxide, HTP) for 20 seconds.
To put its peak thrust of 122kN in context, it is equivalent to the combined power of about 645 family saloon cars.
Added to the 90kN of thrust coming from the EJ200 Eurofighter-Typhoon jet, Bloodhound should have sufficient energy to put itself 8km away from a standing start in just 100 seconds.
The rocket is being developed by the Falcon Project Ltd, a specialist rocketry company based in Manchester and led by 27-year-old self-trained rocketeer Daniel Jubb.
“We’ve done 10 firings to date of our six-inch model – that was in the Mojave Desert in California,” explained Mr Jubb.
“We’ve also done one on the 18-inch Bloodhound model, but it was pressure-fed; it wasn’t done using our new pump and that’s the point about this upcoming test.”
The Falcon will need almost a tonne of HTP pushed through it, which is the job of the F1 engine.
The rocket has been fired once already, in the Mojave Desert in California
Cosworth, which manufactures power units for several cars on the F1 grid, are making one of their CA2010 engines available just to drive the Falcon’s oxidiser pump.
Engineers at Cosworth will have to meet several new challenges to make the CA2010 work in Bloodhound. For one thing, it is sitting back-to-front compared with its usual mounting in an F1 vehicle, and this means its oil lubricant will move about the engine in a different way.
This will need to be managed carefully if the engine is to run efficiently. The design team also has to figure out how to let the engine “breathe” when it is sitting in a car moving at 1,000mph.
“To the best of my knowledge there isn’t a piston engine operating anywhere that’s in a vehicle that’s running at supersonic speed,” said Cosworth chief executive Tim Routsis.
“It means the way you actually connect the engine to the outside world needs an awful lot of thought because if we were to feed it a supersonic airflow we would give it a fairly epic amount of boost and it would be very powerful for an extremely short period of time.
“In areas like this, we are moving into the unknown.”
The CA2010 will sit “back-to-front” in the Bloodhound SuperSonic Car The production of the Bloodhound car’s body formally began last month. The vehicle should be finished and ready to begin “low speed” trials on a UK runway in the first half of next year before being shipped to Hakskeen Pan in the Northern Cape for high-speed runs in late 2012 or 2013.
The Bloodhound venture was conceived not just as another record bid but as a project that could inspire children to engage in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects.
Some one and a half million children in more than 4,000 British schools are now involved in the Bloodhound Education Programme.
Many more around the globe have access to online teaching resources via IT partner Intel Corporation’s “Skoool” initiative.
“When Richard first talked to me about Bloodhound I got very engaged, very quickly, because I saw it as a wonderful platform through which we can introduce the young boys and girls to the sort of world that we work in,” said Mr Routsis.
“We can show them that STEM subjects are not just boring things you do in a classroom, but they can actually lead to an extremely interesting set of challenges that you can address in a very fulfilling life.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Jeremy Bowen reports from Tajoura near Tripoli, where one anti-government protester spoke about people’s fears of being killed
Libyan rebels have been locked in fierce battles with pro-Gaddafi forces on two fronts.
Rebel-held Zawiya, just 50km (30 miles) west of Tripoli, was the subject of a fierce government assault. Both sides later claimed to be in control.
Heavy casualties were reported there and in other key cities, including the eastern port of Ras Lanuf.
Dozens of people were also killed and hurt in apparently accidental blasts at an arms dump in rebel-held Benghazi.
Hospital sources in the city, Libya’s second-largest, said they believed the two explosions were not triggered by an air strike.
Reports said at least 17 people had been killed in the blasts.
Earlier in the day, clashes briefly erupted after Friday prayers in the capital, Tripoli, but protesters dispersed after security forces fired tear gas and baton rounds.
Reports from Zawiya said the most senior rebel commander in the city was among those killed there.
There were violent scenes here, just on the outskirts of Tripoli. This is significant because, of course, Col Gaddafi insists that everybody, especially in the country near Tripoli, loves him and that there are no protests.
What we saw today after Friday prayers was a vociferous protest by anti-Gaddafi demonstrators. Then, all of a sudden, pro-government militia and police came in vehicles screeching into the centre of the suburbs, firing dozens of tear gas canisters and baton rounds.
The scene was chaotic as people ran away but then they came back, shouting anti-Gaddafi slogans.
We knew that Fridays are always significant because a lot of the anti-government protesters gather in and around the mosque and come out into the streets. But this is proof that this isn’t just an uprising in the east and perhaps the west of the country, but there are significant elements in and near Tripoli that are opposed to the regime.
Despite the considerable risks they are running, they are prepared to protest and demand the end of a man who has ruled this country for 42 years.
One resident told BBC Arabic TV that many people had died when a peaceful demonstration came under fire.
Another told Reuters news agency up to 50 people could have been killed.
A second Reuters witness said he had just come from the hospital and many people were lying dead and injured.
“We have counted 30 dead civilians,” he said. “The hospital was full. They could not find space for the casualties.”
Libyan state television said the town had been retaken by pro-Gaddafi forces, although later government reports spoke of “pockets of resistance”.
After nightfall, some unconfirmed reports said electricity had been cut and there were fears of further government attacks.
Fierce fighting was also reported outside Ras Lanuf, with the sound of multiple explosions and heavy artillery being heard after opposition fighters advanced on the city. Pro-Gaddafi forces withdrew to Ras Lanuf two days ago after a battle.
Rebels at Ras Lanuf later told news agencies they had taken complete control of the town, but there was no independent confirmation.
There were also conflicting reports about the situation in Brega. Some government sources said the town was in rebel hands, while others insisted it was not.
In other developments:
A Libyan warplane bombed the rebel-held Mediterranean port town of Ajdabiya, narrowly missing a munitions dumpSeveral hundred mercenaries from the Tuareg community in the north African country of Mali have just joined government forces, a senior Malian official told the BBCInterpol issued an “orange alert” relating to Col Gaddafi and 15 other Libyans, saying it would help member states enforce sanctions against them
Fierce fighting has been reported around several key locations, including the port of Ras Lanuf In Benghazi, the leader of the opposition National Libyan Council reportedly told cheering crowds in the city they would not give up.
“We are people who fight, we don’t surrender,” former Libyan Justice Minister Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, who went over to the opposition last month, was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
“Victory or death. We will not stop till we liberate all this country.”
The UN refugee agency UNHCR has expressed new concerns that people trying to flee into Tunisia may be finding their way blocked by armed pro-government forces, after a sudden drop in the numbers crossing the border.
“Victory or death – we will not stop till we liberate all this country”
Mustafa Abdel-Jalil Opposition leaderIn pictures: Libya protestsLibyan currency worth £100m heldSeized Dutch crew paraded on TV
At least 10,000 people a day were crossing the border earlier in the week, but the number suddenly fell to fewer than 2,000 on Thursday, the agency says.
“Many of those who have crossed the border appear to be frightened and are unwilling to speak,” said UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming.
“We believe that has implications – that they may have been intimidated in some way.”
Tens of thousands of people, most of them migrant workers, have streamed to the border since the unrest began, sparking a humanitarian crisis.
The European Union’s humanitarian aid commissioner has demanded that Libya allow help into the country, citing increasing concerns over the situation of refugees in border areas, AFP reported.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
President Boni Yayi is seeking a second term Benin’s constitutional court has approved another one-week delay in the presidential election, to 13 March.
The move follows complaints that more than one million people were not yet registered to vote and preparations for the poll were not complete.
The UN and the African Union had called for the postponement, saying more time was needed to distribute voter cards.
President Boni Yayi is seeking a second term, with his main challengers Adrien Houngbedji and Abdoulaye Bio Tchane.
In its decision, the constitutional court said the time remaining before Sunday’s rescheduled election date “clearly does not allow the [electoral commission] to accomplish the indispensable tasks for a credible election”.
The vote in the West African nation was originally scheduled for 27 February then postponed to 6 March.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Liberty’s Shami Chakrabarti questioned against the clock
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
By Mark Simpson
In 2002 the Queen visited the site of the Omagh bombing but she has never been south of the border When Irish rugby captain Brian O’Driscoll was recently invited to the Royal wedding, it was clear that it was only a matter of time before the Queen visited the Republic of Ireland for the first time.
The connection may seem trivial but it was the latest in a long list of signs that Ireland and the UK now have a normal, neighbourly relationship not weighed down by the baggage of Anglo-Irish history.
Another signal was when Prince Charles and Camilla were invited four months ago to a reception at the Irish Embassy in London.
In a speech, the prince said: “I hope that we can endeavour to become the subject of our history, and not its prisoners.”
A further sign of normalisation came at the end of last year when the UK offered the Irish government a £3bn bi-lateral loan as part of Ireland’s international bail-out.
Economic realities trumped political sensitivities as both nations realised it made financial sense to protect mutual trade interests.
Die-hard republicans say the Queen should only come to Dublin once Britain gives up sovereignty over Northern Ireland, accepts responsibility for the Troubles and apologises for the Irish famine.
Enda Kenny hopes to be the first Taoiseach to welcome the Queen Most politicians in Belfast and Dublin prefer to concentrate on the future, rather than a subjective view of the past.
However, significant political hurdles had to be negotiated to make the Queen’s visit later this year possible.
British-Irish relations have been close to breaking point over the course of the past century.
The most testing times came when Ireland gained independence, and then when the Troubles broke out in Northern Ireland.
The British Embassy in Dublin was burned down in 1972 in the wake of Bloody Sunday.
The historic breakthrough in British-Irish relations came with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
Talk of the Queen visiting Dublin then began but it was only when the fragile power-sharing executive at Stormont finally stabilised a decade later, that serious consideration of setting a date for a trip started.
Elections then got in the way. The British poll last year, followed by the Irish election last week, created political uncertainty. Now, finally, the way is clear for the visit to happen.
Irish President Mary McAleese, who leaves office at the end of this year, has been the driving force behind the visit.
The theme of her 14-year presidency has been building bridges, and she is determined to cement the new era in relations between London and Dublin.
The business links are already extensive:
The Republic of Ireland is the UK’s fifth largest export marketEvery person in Ireland spends an average of £3,607 per year on British goods62 Irish companies are listed on the London Stock ExchangeThere are 43,000 Irish directors of UK companies
The state visit will cost Ireland money, at a time when its finances have hit a record low.
The security bill will be high, given the threat from dissident republicans.
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has said he is not in favour of the visit, but his party has yet to say whether it will stage street protests. All the other main political parties in Dublin support the visit.
It is being seen by the Dublin establishment as a good investment in Ireland’s future, and a sign of a new, mature international relationship.
Gerry Adams, recently elected as TD for County Louth, is opposed to the visit As for the UK perspective, Daily Telegraph writer Ed West recently wrote: “From Britain’s point of view it is like having an ex-wife who has hated you for so long because of your unhappy marriage, but with whom you finally make peace, so that you have even come to like each other as friends.”
The news of the impending visit hit the headlines in Dublin on Friday evening but did not stir many strong feelings in the city.
The most humorous Irish response on Twitter was: “Queen coming to Dublin? Hope they play all their hits and not just their new album.”
Apart from Israel and Greece, it is difficult to think of many other prominent countries in the world the Queen has not visited. She has been to more than 100 different states, but not her closest neighbour.
The trip to Ireland is not a major trip in geographical terms, but when history is written, it may turn out to be one of the most significant of the Queen’s long reign.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Michael Moore believes Scottish business needs support in order to recover and thrive Business is Scotland’s “lifeline” in the post-recession years, Scottish Secretary Michael Moore will tell his party’s conference.
The Lib Dem MP will tell delegates in Perth that his party understands business in Scotland.
He will say Scottish firms need support to reinvent themselves in order to recover from the downturn and thrive.
UK Lib Dem leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is also making a keynote speech to delegates.
In his speech, Mr Moore will say Scottish business must succeed in order to reshape the economy.
He will add: “We need business to generate the wealth that will se us prosper, to create the jobs that provide security and opportunity and to raise the revenue that will pay for the public services on which we all depend.
“Business is not a bystander – business is Scotland’s lifeline.”
“In Scotland today, Liberal Democrats are the party that understands business.”
Mr Moore will also tell the conference: “Business brings creativity to our country, diversity to our economy and colour to our national life.
“Building confidence is key – creating the economic conditions to inspire that confidence is our number one priority.”
The Scottish secretary will also say that, while some companies “haven’t made it” through the recession, others had reinvented themselves and found new markets.
The UK Government, he will argue, was helping through corporation tax cuts National Insurance “holidays” to help new businesses hire staff and and agreement with high street banks to raise lending to smaller firms by 15% next year.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Viewers of all ages watched an average of more than 28 hours a week last year, the report said The average adult watches TV for an hour longer per day than they think, a survey for TV Licensing suggests.
Industry figures suggest people watch more than 30 hours of TV a week but the 2,066 adults in the online survey said they watched an average of less than 20 hours of TV a week in January.
The report also said more than 9.5 million TV sets were sold in the UK in 2010 – double the number in 2002.
And it says 72% of people ate at least one meal in front of the TV each day.
The ICM poll, for TV Licensing, also suggests that the average number of of TV sets in each home has risen in the past 10 years from 1.9 to 2.4.
It said viewers of all ages watched an average of more than 28 hours a week last year compared with 25 hours in 2001.
Some 89% of people watch most of their TV in their living room and only 3% of households do not have a television, it adds.
TV sets are also getting larger, with two million sets with screens of 40 inches or larger were sold in 2010, compared with fewer than 600,000 in 2006.
Iain Logie Baird, grandson of the inventor of the first television set John Logie Baird and curator at the National Media Museum in Bradford, said there was “no question” that “television is playing a more central role in our lives than ever”.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
One of the members of the radical art collective Voina, Leonid Nikolayev British graffiti artist Banksy may never have been seen in public but his nearest Russian equivalents cannot seem to keep out of the news these days – thanks partly to the Russian police.
Leonid Nikolayev and Oleg Vorotnikov, members of the radical art collective Voina, were freed from custody last week after nearly four months awaiting trail for overturning police cars in St Petersburg.
“They attacked Leonid from behind and rained down blows on my back and my head”
Oleg Vorotnikov
They held a press conference on Thursday to talk about their ordeal. On their way home, accompanied by Oleg’s wife Natalia Sokol and his two-year-old son, Casper, they noticed they were being followed by seven men, who looked like “typical thugs”.
When Natalia started taking pictures of the men, they tried to grab the camera. In the struggle she was pushed into a puddle and dragged by the hair, so violently that one of her braids was ripped out.
“They said they were from the Criminal Investigation department,” she said when I eventually reached her by e-mail. “But if they really were police investigators they behaved pretty strangely.”
Oleg added: “They waved their IDs, but we couldn’t examine them. Then they attacked Leonid from behind and rained down blows on my back and my head.”
The baby pram was given a violent push, knocking Casper’s face hard against a wall.
St Petersburg police could not be reached for comment but a spokesman told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti that “preliminary investigations” were under way.
The news conference was the artists’ first public appearance since they walked free from jail – thanks to Banksy paying 300,000 roubles (£6,500) bail for each of them.
The St Petersburg drawbridge faces the security service headquarters At the time of their release I received breezy e-mail from Leonid. “We’re in excellent spirits,” he wrote. “Prison has been a most interesting and revealing adventure.”
That is not the way most people would describe being locked in a filthy, bug-infested cell for three months.
But then most people wouldn’t try crossing one of Moscow’s busiest roads with a blue bucket over their head. Leonid, also known as Crazy Lenya, pulled off that stunt earlier this year to protest against the widespread abuse of blue emergency lights by bureaucrats and businessmen.
The name of the collective, Voina, means war, and its artists delight in full frontal confrontation.
Their defining moment came last summer when they painted a giant penis on a St Petersburg drawbridge facing the local headquarters of the Federal Security Service, successor to the KGB.
But it was the overturned police cars that proved the last straw for the authorities and landed Lenya and Oleg Vorotnikov behind bars.
I met the artists in Moscow a couple months after this exploit, and asked Lenya if he wasn’t afraid of being attacked or arrested. “Our society has lived in fear for so many decades, we are trying to wake it by kicking it,” he replied.
Two weeks later, though, it was the police who did the kicking.
At dawn on 15 November, 10 plainclothes policemen broke into the apartment where the group was staying.
“The cops laid Oleg and Lenya face down, tied their hands behind their backs and put plastic bags on their heads,” Natalia explained later.
“They told us they were armed and had to right to use their weapons. Then they flung the guys on to the metal floor of a van and drove to St Petersburg.”
The artists were accused of aggravated hooliganism, a charge that applies in cases of “incitement of hatred against an ethnic, religious or social group” and carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.
Leonid Nikolayev wore a blue bucket to protest against police misuse of emergency lights It is typically used to protect gays, foreigners and other minorities – the “social group” in this case is the Russian police.
Natalia posted the letters Oleg wrote her from St Petersburg’s infamous Kresty prison on the art collective’s website. He said there were “bedbugs everywhere” in the eight-square-metre cell he shared with five other people.
As a newcomer, Oleg had to sleep on the top bunk which inmates call the “palm tree” because it is uncomfortably close to a bare light bulb that shines day and night and is never switched off.
Among the inmates he met were fascists who had decapitated their disloyal comrade and kept his head in the fridge.
“Diseases are rampant”, he added. “In almost every cell there is at least one person with HIV or hepatitis. It’s against prison rules to keep sick inmates among the general population, but they do it anyway.”
It was when Banksy heard my report on Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent programme, and discovered that the artists had been locked up, that he offered to pay to get them out – but the court initially rejected their bail application.
I met Natalia with her little boy Casper in Moscow in late January. She told me she was very grateful for Banksy’s support. For Voina, she said, the British artist was an “inspirational figure” and they admired his “mystique and unpredictable sense of humour”.
Casper suffered bruises this week when attackers pushed his pram into a wall Last week Leonid’s lawyer, Pavel Chikov, filed a case with a the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, claiming that the Russian authorities had neither cited sufficient evidence against the artists nor justified holding them indefinitely in pre-trial detention.
The following day (24 February) the Russian judge finally accepted the British artist’s bail money.
Oleg and Lenya emerged triumphant and boasted that they had recruited some more Voina members inside the pre-trial jail. But the charges against them still stand.
“They can do what they like with the penis – we don’t have copyright”
Leonid Nikolayev
In fact, there is a risk that they may be re-incarcerated and subjected to psychiatric tests, which lawyers say the investigator in charge of the case has asked for.
“This looks like the return of punitive psychiatry,” said Igor Ryabchikov, Oleg’s lawyer, referring to the Soviet-era tactic of forcibly sectioning dissidents.
The lawyer also intends to fight his client’s tough bail terms – which include an obligation to give the authorities two hours’ notice every time he wants to leave the house. If he is ever deemed to have broken the conditions, he will be rearrested and Banksy’s money will be forfeited.
Ironically, Voina’s penis-on-the-bridge stunt titled A Dick Captured by the FSB was recently nominated for a state prize for contemporary art – only to be mysteriously removed from the shortlist a week ago.
Leonid’s response was terse: “They can do what they like with the penis – we don’t have copyright.”
Natalia added: “Voina never has and never will participate in any awards or money prizes. Our art touches people. And no-one dares fix a price to it.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Sue Perkins will investigate what makes a book a best seller for World Book Night One million books, including works by Alan Bennett and John Le Carre, are being given away in the UK and Ireland to mark the inaugural World Book Night.
They will be distributed at venues including homeless centres, pubs and hospitals in a bid to boost reading.
Some 20,000 people have been asked to pick their favourite from 25 titles and will be given 48 copies to pass on to friends with their recommendation.
BBC Two is also screening an evening of special programmes to mark the event.
The schedule includes three Culture Show Specials and a premiere of BBC Films’ adaptation of Brideshead Revisited.
Live broadcasts from World Book Night events around the country will be broadcast in between the TV programmes.
On Friday a night of performances by some of the most celebrated artists from stage, screen, literature and art took part in a launch event.
Compered by Graham Norton in London’s Trafalgar Square, Margaret Atwood, Alan Bennett and Nick Cave were just some of the names that participated.
A Million Books For Free: A Culture Show Special, presented by Andrew Graham-Dixon, tells the story of World Book Night.
The half-hour show follows some of the 20,000 volunteers who will be handing out copies of their favourite books that featured on the World Book Night’s list of selected titles.
The second Culture Show special features comedian and former Booker Prize-judge Sue Perkins who will investigate what makes a best-selling novel.
Some of the authors featured in The Books We Really Read, include Agatha Christie, Lee Child and Sophie Kinsella.
New Novelists: 12 Of The Best from The Culture Show, is the final documentary of the night.
The authors were selected by a panel of judges.
The live broadcasts will take place from the Aye Write Festival in Glasgow, a centre for the homeless in Manchester and the Southbank Centre’s Clore Ballroom at the Royal Festival Hall.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Twenty-five different titles are being given away during World Book Night A million books are being given away in book shops, libraries and cafes across the UK on Saturday as part of World Book Night, a campaign by publishers to promote reading.
In Manchester, the organisers of a reading group for homeless people will be handing out books. They explain why they think reading can change lives.
The reading group ran last year at Manchester Central Library and took in books from Yann Martel’s Life Of Pi to Dickens’ A Tale Of Two Cities.
“I was speaking to a homeless guy one morning and he started telling me about how much he read, and out of that came the idea,” explains David Dennehy, who set up the group.
“Well, if lots of homeless people are reading, why don’t they get together and read?”
It was, he says, “a distraction from the harsh realities of everyday life”.
But it was more than just a chance to get together and forget their problems.
“There’s an assumption that just because someone’s homeless, they might be illiterate or won’t be a reader”
Libby Tempest Manchester Library & Information Service
For some, the intellectual interaction was the springboard to further positive steps, while others took advantage of the practical information and support in the library, such as information about courses.
“It was being part of normal society,” Mr Dennehy says. “A lot of homeless people have to go to some effort to keep away from drink and drugs, or people who are involved in drink and drugs, so it was also setting a social norm, if you like – there is more to life.”
Libby Tempest, cultural services and events manager for the Manchester Library Service, ran the group and says members were initially surprised to find they were welcome in the library, and were not treated as uneducated just because they were homeless.
“People would come along because it was great to sit in a nice warm room and have a cup of tea and a biscuit and talk about books, but the thing about a reading group is it’s a waste of time being in one if you haven’t actually read the book,” she says.
“Inevitably the people who came along were people who enjoyed reading and were readers.
“There’s an assumption that just because someone’s homeless, they might be illiterate or unintelligent or they won’t be a reader. Just to break down that assumption was a very powerful thing to do.”
Life Of Pi by Yann Martel (left) was the reading group’s favourite book The biggest hit with the reading group was The Life Of Pi, which won the Booker Prize in 2002 and tells the fantastical story of a man stranded on a boat with a Bengal tiger.
Asked why it was so popular, Mr Dennehy explains: “It’s the story of surviving impossible odds. But not a misery story of a miserable life.”
The Life Of Pi is one of the books that will be given away to homeless and other people from marginalised communities on Saturday at The Mustard Tree support centre in Manchester.
The venue is also hosting an open-mic session for writers, actors, poets and singers, and Ms Tempest is hoping it will also help spread the word about libraries.
“It isn’t just that homeless people have the right to come here, it’s that they are positively welcome here,” she says. “That’s the message I need to get across.”
The benefits of a reading group, with its camaraderie, stimulation and practical support, are easy to see. But what can be gained from handing out books for people to read on their own?
Ms Tempest believes reading can be “empowering” because it can make a person more articulate and improve their vocabulary and reading skills. Those things, in turn, can enhance the chances of getting a job.
But as well as that, reading helps you see the world from other people’s points of view and to realise that others have been through similar things, and come through the other side. “Sometimes, just that feeling that it’s not just you is enough,” she says.
Mr Dennehy agrees. “For some people, it allows them to read narratives of life stories that they can relate to,” he says. “For others, it makes explicit how other lives are possible to be lived.
“If that character can achieve that, then maybe I can.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The eventual death toll from the quake may now be lower than first feared Search teams in Christchurch, New Zealand, have reacted with relief after finding no bodies in the rubble of the earthquake-hit cathedral.
Cathedral Dean Peter Beck told Radio New Zealand that he “burst into tears” on hearing the news.
It was feared that as many as 22 people could have been inside the cathedral when the quake struck on 22 February.
The confirmed death toll stands at 165 after two more bodies were found in the rubble of the Canterbury TV building.
Christchurch’s shattered cathedral with its broken spire became one of the most striking images after the 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck.
“We have cleared the cathedral site and we found no bodies in the cathedral at all, so to us that is fantastic news,” police Supt Sandra Manderson told Radio New Zealand.
She said police were now reviewing the list of missing people and the death toll could be lower than first feared.
Officials had said as many as 240 people could have lost their lives in the quake.
“It will be really good if that does go down, and it’s highly possible,” Supt Manderson said.
Dean Peter Beck said he heard the news from the head of the Urban Search and Rescue task force, Ralph Moore.
“I was expecting to get a call from him saying they had found a body and I and my colleagues were going to go down and say prayers at the side of the body,” he said.
“But of course I got this other news and I just burst into tears. I was speechless, it was unbelievable.”
Earlier this week, police said 90 of the bodies found so far were pulled from the Canterbury TV Building.
Rebuilding costs from the earthquake are put at billions of dollars.
It is estimated that up to a third of Christchurch’s buildings have been, or will have to be, demolished.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.