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The breakthrough for bands that sing in English has not been straightforward. Under France’s cultural protection laws, radio stations can only play a set amount of English-language music, and most prefer to fill their quota with actual British or American bands. That means little airtime for French-English bands.

There’s also a feeling among some critics that singing in English is perhaps a bit of a cop out. But for the members of Anorak, in rehearsal here outside Paris, singing in English is simply a recognition of changing times.

The internet generation cares little for national barriers, today’s French youngsters are tuned into English like everyone else is, so why feel guilty? Language has always been a vital part of French culture, so whether you like it or resent it, what’s happening is undoubtedly significant. Young French musicians are abandoning their linguistic heritage, and joining the globalised world.

In the packed auction room the bidding was brisk for lot 358, a Barbie doll quite unlike any you have ever seen before. This version of the all-American blonde toy was dressed in a black strapless evening dress, with a pink diamond necklace matching her pink peep-toe stiletto heels.

It was the diamonds which drove Barbie’s price up to US$302,500. Who bought her? An anonymous bidder. The price was at the lower end of the estimates that Christie’s, the auction house, had put.

The jewellery designer Stefano Canturi, who created this Barbie and her necklace, says investors are taking refuge in rare gems right now because of uncertain economic times. The prices of diamonds and coloured jewels have gone up 20% over the past year, according to the auction house, Christie’s.

The proceeds from the sale of the bejewelled Barbie will go to Breast Cancer Research.

Some think it’s the next must-have accessory for movie buffs. At the cinema, why wear those free plastic specs that someone else has used already, when you can buy your own 3D glasses?

Designers like Oakley and Calvin Klein hope consumers will pay up to US$180 a pair to be trendsetters. It’s the next step in the personalisation of 3D entertainment. It’s already a growing format for movies including the blockbuster ‘Avatar’.

Now, electronics companies are offering 3D TV sets for the home. But they may supply 3D glasses that work only with their products, not in cinemas, which would make those stylish designer glasses of limited use.

Just as with the advent of home video recording when VHS battled and triumphed over Betamax, there could be a format war looming over 3D glasses. Designers hope they’re tapping into a fashion-conscious market but soon will those personalised 3D specs be useful or just stylish?

These earliest dinosaur-like animals were about the size of domestic cats. They would have weighed two or three pounds (1 to 1.5 kilos) and walked on four legs.

But what’s really intrigued scientists is that they date from two million years after the worst mass extinction event in the history of the planet.

It was a time when volcanic eruptions, sudden global warming and a stagnation of the oceans wiped out more than 90% of all life on Earth.

Up until recently scientists thought that dinosaurs emerged 15 to 20 million years after this event. But the new footprints suggest that they arose directly as a result of the devastation, filling a gaping ecological void. Without the mass extinctions there would have been no dinosaurs.

On Christmas Day 1990, in a laboratory in Switzerland, British physicist Tim Berners-Lee finished developing the tools to create the World Wide Web. He was working at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, Cern, in Geneva.

His boss gave him the green light to work on the project during his spare time and together with the help of his Belgian colleague Robert Cailliau, Tim Berners-Lee produced the world’s first webpage.

The experiment heralded a new era because it demonstrated how computers could talk to each other through a new language they created called Hyper-Text Markup Language, or HTML.

Currently there might be anything up to a trillion webpages with all sorts of content. People buy and sell products and services, make friends through these pages, learn and teach. We found many enthusiasts of the web in the streets of London.

Man 1: “It means having information in your home with easy access which in the past would have only been available in thousands of libraries. So it’s information at your fingertips.”

Woman: “Access to a lot of people really. We’ve got a lot of family overseas so we use Skype quite a bit.”

Man 2: “Information, news, social groups.”

Man 3: “I’m just using it usually for emails and social networking with my friends and well, reading newspapers and information. Basically everything!”

Fortunes were made in the World Wide Web. Many say that Tim Berners-Lee could have been a billionaire through his invention but he said that all he wants is to keep the egalitarian spirit of the web intact and the medium free to use. Many users share the same ideals.

Man 1: “I think that today it is essential to have an internet connection and that’s going to be a real problem in terms of you know, digital divide when some people in the world can’t access the internet or when the speed (connection speed) is not enough.”

And there are other concerns.

Woman: “I’m not very keen on that because of all the privacy issues and everything, I’m very aware of it. So I try to keep private things private as much as I can.”

And there are the diehards, who shy away from technology.

Man 2: “I leave it all to my wife, I hate computers.”

Valdirene Ruston, BBC Learning English

The typhoon has left Taiwan, but the number of people dead is just beginning to rise. Thirteen bodies have been dug up from the rubble of collapsed buildings, but there are still no clear signs of a busload of Chinese tourists missing since Thursday. The 19 tourists, their tour guide and driver are believed to have been travelling on a coastal highway, when rockslides and heavy rain caused portions of the road to collapse.

More than 200 search and rescue workers continue to comb a steep mountainside and rocky coastal area for signs of the bus and its occupants. They are searching on foot, from helicopters and in vessels in the sea. Officials say the bus may have been buried under tons of mud and rocks, or washed out to sea.

In addition to the Chinese tourists, four other people are also missing, including a driver and tour guide from another bus that plunged down the side of the highway. The passengers of that bus escaped just in time.

Taiwanese officials said they will not give up any chance of finding survivors. Relatives of the Chinese tourists will be arriving from China later on Monday.

In a surprise decision, the Constitutional Court has ruled that an agreement signed by former President, Alvaro Uribe, with Washington, allowing the US military access to at least seven bases on Colombian soil, was unconstitutional and therefore invalid.

The US has supplied Colombia with more than $7bn dollars in aid, mainly military, since 2000 and last year negotiated a ten-year agreement to turn this country into the regional hub for the American military.

The court ruling does not mean that the US has to pack up and leave immediately. The government in Bogota has been given a way out. If it can present a bill to congress, which is approved, a new agreement could be valid.

The new president, Juan Manuel Santos, who took office earlier this month, controls more than 70 percent of Congress so should have no problem getting new legislation approved.

However, as it stands, the court ruling will please many of Colombia’s neighbours, foremost among them Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who has stated on repeated occasions, that the US plans to invade his country and take control of the oil reserves, using Colombia.

Jeopardy is one of America’s oldest and most popular quiz shows. But this time, inside the brightly-lit studio, a contest billed as ‘man versus machine’ - the programme’s producers pitted two of their most successful contestants ever against a computer. Known as Watson, the computer is a giant piece of hardware, equivalent in size to several fridges. And over three programmes, Watson beat his human contenders with ease.

In a split-second, Watson is able to digest the question and try and match it against huge amounts of information it has at its disposal. It very quickly assesses how good a match it thinks it has and buzzes either very quickly, or not so quickly, reflecting how confident it is that it has the right answer.

Watson is also able to notice nuances in language, between say ‘bat’ the animal and ‘bat’ used in sports. On a prime-time US TV show with millions of viewers it was great publicity for IBM. But the company says Watson the computer is an IT genius and a breakthrough in computing.

Yukio Hatoyama said Japan would urge countries around the world to set aggressive goals on climate change. He said Japan would aim to cut its own emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, significantly more than the 8 percent pledged by the outgoing Government. It’s likely to face opposition from industry.

The reductions are to be achieved by introducing emissions trading, renovating houses, as well as subsidising solar panels and low-energy appliances and cars.

After leading his Democratic Party to a landslide victory in a general election, Mr Hatoyama is due to be formally confirmed as Japan’s Prime Minister by Parliament next week.

Japan is keen to play a leading role at United Nations’ backed talks on climate change in Copenhagen in December. Countries will try to work out a new global agreement to reduce emissions to follow the Kyoto Protocol.

Commuters had a nasty surprise on Monday when they found one of the main routes into the French capital was blocked. Drivers heading the other way were confronted with “no entry” signs in all directions. For two days there was chaos among bemused drivers at the point where the two rival systems converged, with all traffic forced down one side road.

Vox pops: “It’s a real mess now for a lot of people who are forced to go by car to their work and go back to their home by car.”

“It’s difficult to go to work. We lost between 15 or 20 minutes, per day.”

The confusion followed a decision by the mayor of Levallois Patrick Balkany, from France’s ruling right-wing party. He wanted to introduce a one-way system to free up traffic through his borough.
Fearing an overspill into his district, the mayor of Clichy Gilles Catoire, a socialist, brought in a one-way system running the other way. The local prefect, representing the French state, has issued a decree ordering the immediate return of two-way traffic in Clichy, accusing its mayor of provoking serious disorder. Mr Catoire is refusing to back down, saying he’ll challenge the decision in court.

Billboards around South Africa’s largest city, Johannesburg, proclaimed the imminent arrival of a new newspaper, The New Age, promising more positive news, but the eleventh hour resignation of top editors has scuppered Wednesday’s launch.

Senior staff issued a statement saying that it would not be proper nor professional to speak out about the reasons for standing down, but it’s understood disagreements between management and staff about editorial content may be behind the move.

The newspaper’s funders, the Gupta Group, have close links to the ruling party, the ANC, and President Jacob Zuma. The paper’s aborted launch comes just a day after hundreds of protesters took to the streets to demonstrate against tough new laws being considered in parliament, which would severely restrict journalists’ access to information, information which is currently in the public domain.

The working week has begun in Christchurch but people in many parts of the city speak of an eerie quiet, with the streets still strewn with rubble and shattered glass.

No buses are running and thousands of people are off work because the central business district remains cordoned off; some 90 buildings in this area have yet to be declared safe and police say there’s a risk from falling masonry and glass.

Some residents are still without anywhere to stay; around 150 people had to spend another night in welfare centres. Schools are closed and sewage is leaking from broken pipes, threatening water supplies. Officials from the Ministry of Civil Defence say aftershocks have continued since Saturday, and the threat of more – up to a magnitude of six – will remain for the next week. Predicted gale-force winds never made it to Christchurch on Sunday, but there’s been heavy rain, doing nothing to help the clean up efforts.

Home loans were at the heart of the financial crisis and the subsequent bailout of the banks. President Obama’s government has already pushed through congress an overhaul of regulation, but one important item was left out; what to do about the two key agencies in the mortgage market, known informally as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They underpin the business by providing insurance to lenders against borrowers failing to repay and they also provide the funds by buying home loans from the original lenders.

But they lost money heavily as the housing market crashed and were rescued by the government. They were private companies, but all along the financial markets assumed they would be rescued if they got into trouble and that was a factor in the housing market bubble that led to the crisis - the decisive factor, according to some of their critics.

Now President Obama’s Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, has two objectives that are not easily reconciled: enabling Americans to borrow the money they want to buy homes, without risking a need for future taxpayer rescues.

He says there is a case for some sort of government guarantees but he also wants fundamental change. He has now started a process that should lead to concrete proposals by early next year, with aim of making US housing finance less at risk from crises in the future.

Andrew Walker, BBC News, London

Wang Fei: Welcome to The English We Speak. I’m Wang Fei!

Finn: And I’m Finn!

Wang Fei: Finn has decided to take us out for a ride on his new motorbike today and he’s very proud of it.

Finn: I am, very proud of it. I thought it would be good to get out of the studio. Look at all the beautiful, green fields around us, Wang Fei.

Wang Fei: Yes, beautiful green fields. That’s the word for the day isn’t it: green?

Finn: Green, yes!

Wang Fei: A bit easy, isn’t it? Everyone knows the colour green!

Finn: The colour green? No, not that meaning, Wang Fei!

Wang Fei: So, what do you mean? Green as in good for the environment?

Finn: No, not that green either!

Wang Fei: Oh, ok, maybe another green? Oh ok, maybe, green with envy? I know that phrase, that means to envy somebody, doesn’t it?

Finn: Yes, that’s right. But what are you envious about, Wang Fei? That’s not what we’re… oh! … ahhh!

FX - CRASH

Both: Ow!

Wang Fei: Finn, you are a terrible, terrible driver!

Finn: I know.

Wang Fei: Will you tell me what this green means?!

Finn: I’m sorry Wang Fei. What I mean is I’m very green at riding motorbikes, that’s what I wanted to say. Green means inexperienced or new to something.

Wang Fei: Oh, I see. So when do we use it?

Finn: Well, normally we use it to describe someone who is new to a particular job or skill.

Wang Fei: Ooh, I see. But I’m not feeling good. So why don’t we listen to some examples for a moment?

* I'm a bit green at video editing, so it takes me a long time to edit things.

* He's a bit green in this job so he's bound to need some help.

* My uncle's very green at searching the internet. He prefers to go to the library.

Finn: Ok, time to go again, Wang Fei!

Wang Fei: (To himself) Hmm. But I’m still not feeling that great to be honest…

FX - BIKE STARTS

Finn: What was that, Wang Fei?

Wang Fei: Oh nothing. Let’s go.

Finn: Wow, what beautiful countryside…

Wang Fei: Gosh, I’m really feeling ill to be honest. I’m worried we’re going to crash again.

Finn: Wang Fei, what did you say? Are you ok?

Wang Fei: Not really.

Finn: Oh no, you look bad. You’ve gone green!

Wang Fei: What?

Finn: You’ve gone green – it means you look ill!

Wang Fei: Another green phrase… Finn – can’t you just concentrate on your driving!

Finn: Ok, sorry. OK then! Bye everyone…

Wang Fei: And wish me luck. Bye.

Finn: Hello. I’m Finn.

Li: And I’m Li.

Finn: And we’re whispering – we’re talking very quietly - because we are about to watch an awards ceremony for the best dancer in the UK.

Li: Yes – I think it’s going to begin now. Shh.

Awards Host: And the award for best dancer this year goes to… Timmy Tapper!

(Applause)

Timmy Tapper: Erm, thank you!

Awards Host: Timmy, would you like to say a few words?

Timmy Tapper: Yes, erm, thank you… to… everybody! Thanks.

Awards Host: Great. Well thank you Timmy. You’ve done a fantastic job this year!

Finn: (whispers) Li, what happened? He was like a rabbit in the headlights.

Li: I don’t know, he was very nervous. But what did you say, Finn, about rabbits?

Finn: Oh, rabbits, yes. A rabbit in the headlights. It’s a phrase used to describe someone who is so nervous that they can’t move or speak.

Li: I see. Someone who is too nervous to move or speak. But why does it involve headlights – the lights at the front of a car?

Finn: Well if you think about if you are driving a car at night and you have your headlights on. Suddenly, a rabbit appears in the middle of the road. But it is too scared by the car driving towards for it to run away. It’s a rabbit in the headlights.

Li: That’s a rabbit in the headlights. Oh, Finn, I think Timmy Tapper wants to say something.

Finn: Oh yes.

Timmy Tapper: Oh, sorry. Can I just say one more thing?

Awards Host: Sure, go ahead, Timmy!

(Timmy starts tap dancing)

Awards Host: Well, isn’t that amazing!

Li: Ha ha. I think Timmy was nervous speaking in front of everyone here just now, but now he’s happy to express himself through tap dancing!

Finn: He looks very happy doesn’t he? And while Timmy dances, I have some advice for everyone. If you want to speak confident English, and not be like a rabbit in the headlights, why not visit our website explore our free English learning materials?

Li: bbclearningenglish.com

Finn: That’s it. Bye.

Li: Bye.

Wang Fei: (Screaming) Ahhh!!

Finn: Wang Fei, are you ok?

Wang Fei: (Screaming) No, no. Ahhh!!

Finn: What’s wrong? What’s wrong?

Wang Fei: There’s a big, green spider in the studio!

Finn: A spider? Oh, it’s only a spider. Chillax!

Wang Fei: Chillax?!

Finn: Yes, chillax. I’ll get the spider… Now, hold on… Got it. Feel better?

Wang Fei: Thanks, yes, much better. So Finn, what was that word you just said?

Finn: Chillax. It’s a combination of two words. Can you guess them?

Wang Fei: Chill… and… relax?

Finn: Chill and relax, yes. It means the same as chill or chill out or relax. So just now I told you to chillax, which means don’t worry, relax.

Wang Fei: Oh, I understand. So if I tell somebody to chillax it means, basically, to relax or to calm down?

Finn: That’s right. That’s one way we can use it. For example:

* I'm so worried about going on my first date with Steven!
* Chillax, it'll be ok. I'm sure you'll have a nice time.

Finn: You could also just say, I want to chillax or I’m chillaxing.

Wang Fei: Chillaxing.

* What are you doing tonight?
* Nothing special, just going to chillax at home.

Wang Fei: So does chillax mean exactly the same as chill out and relax?

Finn: Well the meaning is the same, but chillax is a newer expression, so you probably won’t hear it as much.

Wang Fei: Great. So by the way Finn, where did you put that spider?

Finn: The spider?

Wang Fei: Yes, the big, green spider.

Finn: Oh, the spider. I can’t remember. I think I left it on the desk.

Wang Fei: Really? Then what is that big, green thing climbing up your neck?

Finn: Eh? What? Ahhh!!

Wang Fei: Ha ha. Finn, chillax! I was just kidding.

Finn: Very funny Wang Fei. Bye for now.

Wang Fei: Bye.

Curwen: Let me ask you a question about your management technique. I understand you’ve got a rule: if an employee sends you an email asking permission to do something, then there’s a very specific reaction to that. If you don’t get a reply to the email, what happens then?

Banga: Well, that’s all about urgency. Basically, my approach is that if you don’t get an answer within a specified period of time, and the specified period of time differs a little bit, depending on how serious the matter is.

Then it means that you are approved to go ahead. So what happens is, it shifts the burden of response to the individual who has been asked for permission, as against to the individual who is asking, who then has to keep chasing up into a, let’s say, a black hole.

Curwen: How well does it work? Do you ever find that mistakes have been made because of this?

Banga: Yeah, you have to be careful and that’s why you’ve got to set the right time limit for different kinds of things. But you know, leadership is about change. And change is about driving people into places to do things they wouldn’t normally have done. And then you’ve got to get out of the way. You’ve got to empower people to take some of these thoughtful risks with a sense of urgency.

That’s the way that you’ve got to drive a company of thousands of people, because you can’t be everywhere yourself. And centralising everything is certainly not the right way for a decentralised company to work.

Finn: Welcome to the slang-tastic programme, The English We Speak.

Wang Fei: Hello I’m Wang Fei.

Finn: This is our word-tastic programme where you learn the latest English-tastic phrases.

Wang Fei: Yes… erm…

Finn: We hope you have a learning-tastic time with us today…

Wang Fei: Finn, sorry for interrupting you, but why do you keep adding ‘tastic’ to all these words?

Finn: Sorry Wang Fei, I should have said. Tastic is our new word, or should I say, new suffix, for the day.

Wang Fei: A suffix is something you add onto the end of another word to change the meaning.

Finn: That’s right.

Wang Fei: So when we add tastic, what does that mean?

Finn: Well, it’s kind of related to the word fantastic. When you add tastic to a word, for example slang, it means ‘fantastic in terms of slang’. So English-tastic means ‘fantastic in terms of English’.

Wang Fei: And learning-tastic means fantastic in terms of learning?

Finn: It does, absolutely. Let’s hear a couple more examples.

* A: Did you hear Britney's new song?
* B: Yes. It's pop-tastic! I love it.

* A: Did you have a good time yesterday?
* B: It was so much fun. Fun-tastic! Ha ha.

Wang Fei: Wow, very good examples. So can I say example-tastic?

Finn: Example-tastic, you can! Now, this way of making new words is very informal – it comes from pop culture – so you probably wouldn’t see it in a business letter.

Wang Fei: So, it’s not business-tastic?!

Finn: It’s not business-tastic. Not really, unless you work in an industry like fashion or pop music. Anyway, I think it’s time to tell our listeners about our website.

Wang Fei: Yes, and our web-tastic site is www.bbclearningenglish.com! You can learn English for free, and even download programmes to your mp3 player.

Finn: Yes, it’s download-tastic! Time to go, now. Bye!

Despite their name, tawny owls actually come in two colours. And in Finland, the freezing, snowy winters give pale grey birds a camouflage advantage over their darker brown-feathered counterparts. But as the Finnish winters get milder, the grey owls are disappearing.

The University of Helsinki team gathered 30 years’ worth of genetic and population data on tawny owls. They found that the birds inherited their plumage colour from their parents. The grey tawnys, as well being better hidden from predators in the snow, seem to be endowed with other genetic advantages that make them healthier and stronger. But despite this, the brown owl population is now overtaking that of the greys, because the warmer winters have improved the brown owls’ chances of survival.

The lead researcher, Dr Patrik Karell, said that this showed that the birds were evolving in response to climate change, so the tawny owl gene pool is actually getting browner. This is the first evidence of climate change having such an effect in the animal kingdom.

Victoria Gill, BBC News

It took the Supreme Court about two hours to throw out Thaksin Shinawatra’s appeal, having decided that the evidence presented by the defence didn’t amount to anything new.

Six months ago, the same court ruled that the former prime minister had concealed his stake in the family telecoms business which was sold, for a substantial profit, to the investment arm of the Singapore government. That decision will now stand, ending any hope that the Thaksin family might get their money back.

“We have reached the end of the road” one of Mr Thaksin’s lawyers conceded. “Our team will now concentrate on other cases” he said. There are several to choose from. Mr Thaksin is facing charges of terrorism in connection with recent anti-government protests and allegations that he failed to declare all his assets while in office. That’s in addition to the two year jail sentence already imposed on him for corruption.