Scientists have connected the brains of a pair of animals and allowed them to share sensory information in a major step towards what the researchers call the world’s first “organic computer”.
The US team fitted two rats with devices called brain-to-brain interfaces that let the animals collaborate on simple tasks to earn rewards, such as a drink of water. In one radical demonstration of the technology, the scientists used the internet to link the brains of two rats separated by thousands of miles, with one in the researchers’ lab at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and the other in Natal, Brazil.
Led by Miguel Nicolelis, a pioneer of devices that allow paralyzed people to control computers and robotic arms with their thoughts, the researchers say their latest work may enable multiple brains to be hooked up to share information. “These experiments showed that we have established a sophisticated, direct communication linkage between brains,” Nicolelis said in a statement. “Basically, we are creating what I call an organic computer.”
The scientists first demonstrated that rats can share, and act on, each other’s sensory information by electrically connecting their brains via tiny grids of electrodes that reach into the motor cortex, the brain region that processes movement.
The rats were trained to press a lever when a light went on above it. When they performed the task correctly, they got a drink of water. To test the animals’ ability to share brain information, they put the rats in two separate compartments. Only one compartment had a light that came on above the lever. When the rat pressed the lever, an electronic version of its brain activity was sent directly to the other rat’s brain. In trials, the second rat responded correctly to the imported brain signals 70% of the time by pressing the lever.
Remarkably, the communication between the rats was two-way. If the receiving rat failed at the task, the first rat was not rewarded with a drink, and appeared to change its behaviour to make the task easier for its partner. In further experiments, the rats collaborated on a task that required them to distinguish between narrow and wide openings using their whiskers.
In the final test, the scientists connected rats on different continents and beamed their brain activity back and forth over the internet. “Even though the animals were on different continents, with the resulting noisy transmission and signal delays, they could still communicate,” said Miguel Pais-Vieira, the first author of the study. “This tells us that we could create a workable network of animal brains distributed in many different locations.”
Nicolelis said the team is now working on ways to link several animals’ brains at once to solve more complex tasks. “We cannot even predict what kinds of emergent properties would appear when animals begin interacting as part of a 'brain-net',” he said. “In theory, you could imagine that a combination of brains could provide solutions that individual brains cannot achieve by themselves.” The research is published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Anders Sandberg, who studies the ethics of neurotechnologies at the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University, said the work was “very important” in helping to understand how brains encode information. But the implications of the technology and its potential future uses are far broader, said Sandberg. “The main reason we are running the planet is that we are amazingly good at communicating and coordinating. Without that, although we are very smart animals, we would not dominate the planet.”
“I don’t think there’s any risk of supersmart rats from this,” he added. “There’s a big difference between sharing sensory information and being able to plan. I’m not worried about an imminent invasion of 'rat multiborgs'.”
Very little is known about how thoughts are encoded and how they might be transmitted into another person’s brain, so that is not a realistic prospect any time soon. And much of what is in our minds is what Sandberg calls a “draft” of what we might do. “Often, we don’t want to reveal those drafts; that would be embarrassing and confusing. And a lot of those drafts are changed before we act. Most of the time I think we’d be very thankful not to be in someone else’s head.”


Intermediate
James Hamblin, senior editor of The Atlantic magazine, recently did an experiment. As part of his series, If Our Bodies Could Talk, Hamblin took on a no-showering challenge to examine the effect of over-cleansing the body. He reduced the number of showers he had and did not use shampoo or soap when he had a shower.
He discovered what thousands of others have: the more we try to clean ourselves with soaps and body washes, the harder our skin works to restore its balance and this encourages us to begin the whole process again. Showering removes oil and bacteria from the skin. Many would say That is the reason I shower! But, apparently, this sometimes works a little too well, especially when you add hot water and cleansing products.
You know that feeling after a shower when you feel like your skin is tight? Thats because much of your skins natural moisture has been washed down the drain. Also, our skin, like our gut, has millions of bene cial bacteria. Showering destroys these bacterial colonies; theyre completely destroyed by all our frequent rubbing and scrubbing. And, when the bacteria washed off by soap return, they usually favour microbes which produce an odour  yes, showering too often may actually make you smell more. However, when you stop showering and using soap, your skin goes through an initial (probably gross) adjustment period and, then, after that, the skin typically restores balance, oil production slows and healthy bacteria  ourish.
By doing the challenge, Hamblin realized what other no-soap/no-shower fans have known for years: that the human body, working on its own, is actually quite lovely. And, its not just scent and aesthetics  although skin experts suggest that using less soap can improve skin conditions like eczema. Reducing the frequency of showers (and the number of cleansing products used) has implications for our environment. The average shower lasts seven minutes and uses 65 litres of water. Thats 65 litres of clean, drinkable water that were  lling with soap and washing down the drain each day  sometimes more than once.
The vital importance of clean water is becoming harder and harder to ignore, as California enters another summer of drought. Its becoming clear that clean water is one of the most valuable things in the world and we soon wont have enough. Add the environmental effect of all those body wash bottles and you have a number of very good reasons to let your body be a bit more natural.
If the idea of showering less and using less soap is giving you the heebie-jeebies as you remember the last time you were close to people who already dont shower enough, relax. Many people who have decided to shower less still use deodorant if they  nd it necessary (everyones natural scent varies in intensity and it can be affected by a number of things including diet, hydration and exercise). And, hand-washing with soap is still recommended as a vital way to reduce the spread of infectious diseases.
You dont need to give up completely, as Hamblin did, but you dont need to shower three times a day either. There is something in the middle. Our familiar, simple advice is: reduce. Skip a few showers, put down the soap and let those lovely little bacteria  ourish a little.


Thousands of people protested on Australia’s beaches against a shark cull in Western Australia. They asked the state’s prime minister to stop the cull, and RSPCA Australia and Virgin Atlantic owner Richard Branson criticized it. Catching and killing sharks longer than three metres began after a number of shark attacks on Western Australia’s coast. A 35-year-old surfer, who was killed in November 2013, was the sixth person to die from a shark attack in two years.
But the whole of Australia has had, on average, just one shark-related death a year for the last 50 years. Kate Faehrmann, of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, said, from a protest in Perth, the state capital of Western Australia: “We’ve always said that this idea won’t work. Drumlines, which they use to catch the sharks, kill sharks if they’re one, two, three metres or more, and also dolphins, turtles and other things. That’s why we don’t want the cull.”
Thousands of people protested on beaches in the cities of Perth, Sydney and Adelaide, and at beaches in Victoria and Queensland. Faehrmann said the protests showed that Australians wanted sharks to be protected: “What’s amazing is that so many people in Australia love sharks. This has shown that people are scared but thousands of people are coming out across the country to say, ‘That’s the sharks’ ocean. We respect them, we love them and we don’t want you to kill them.’ Anthony Joyce, a surfer who once had his foot caught in a shark’s mouth, said: “The number of sharks they are going to kill is going to make no difference.”
The state government will not say how many sharks they have killed, but some people say that sharks smaller than three metres were released after they were caught on drumlines, floating drums fixed to the sea bed with bait on hooks underneath them. Conservationists say there is no evidence the cull will reduce the number of shark attacks on humans, because no other cull has only used drumlines. Researchers at the University of Western Australia say the increased number of shark attacks in the state may be because Western Australia has the fastest-growing population in Australia, not because of a rising number of sharks.
Richard Peirce, of the UK-based conservation charity, the Shark Trust, said that the cull would not work and could bring more predators towards the coast. “The activity in Western Australia is adding to the human tragedy of shark attacks. It is very sad that a government has ignored the best advice and chosen a method that is ineffective and counterproductive,” he said, “and, even if they monitor drumlines through the day, leaving the lines in at night could attract other predators to the area, attracted by those sharks and other species hooked and injured.”
Worldwide, in 2012, there were 80 attacks by sharks. Seven of the attacks were fatal. This is compared to nearly 100 million sharks killed by humans each year. RSPCA Australia says it believes the cull is wrong. “There is no evidence that the increase in attacks is a result of increasing shark numbers. We think it is the result of a changing population and changing human behaviour; that is, there are more people in the water,” it said.
Richard Branson said the idea was not working. “I’m sure one of the reasons Western Australia Premier, Colin Barnett, did it was because he was thinking it would encourage tourism. It’s going to do the opposite, I think. You’re advertising a problem that doesn’t exist in a big way and you’re going to stop people from wanting to come to Perth and your beautiful countryside around it. All you’re going to achieve, I think, is to worry people.”


The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has appealed to Washington to sort out its finances after the US pulled back from the brink of a debt default and hundreds of thousands of federal employees returned to work after a 16-day government shutdown.
As the US President, Barack Obama, warned “We’ve got to get out of the habit of governing by crisis,” the IMF’s managing director, Christine Lagarde, appealed for more stability.
“It will be essential to reduce uncertainty surrounding the conduct of fiscal policy by raising the debt limit in a more durable manner,” she said.
“We also continue to encourage the US to approve a budget for 2014 and replace the sequester with gradually phased-in measures that would not harm the recovery, and to adopt a balanced and comprehensive medium-term fiscal plan.”
A Senate-drafted peace deal that contained almost no concessions to the conservatives who had driven the country to the precipice of a new financial crisis was passed by the Republican-dominated House of Representatives just hours before a deadline to extend the US debt limit was to pass.
The World Bank, too, expressed its relief that the global economy had “dodged a potential catastrophe ”, with its president, Jim Yong Kim, urging policymakers in all countries to “continue to focus on crafting and implementing policies that promote economic growth and boost jobs and opportunity for all ”.
Stock markets in Japan, China, Hong Kong and South Korea initially reflected relief after the Republicans finally capitulated in their failed attempt to undermine Obama’s healthcare reforms. But, in Asia and Europe, stock markets overall displayed a muted reaction, with traders apparently expecting another battle in Washington early in 2014.
The shutdown is estimated to have cost the US $24bn, according to the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s. China’s official Xinhua News Agency had accused Washington of jeopardizing other countries’ dollar assets. China is the US government’s largest creditor.
Obama signed the necessary legislation to fend off a default shortly after midnight on Thursday after a Republican split in the House of Representatives. The bill had passed easily with broad bipartisan support in the Senate, where Democratic and Republican leaders forged the agreement. It offers a temporary fix, funding the government until 15 January and raising the debt ceiling until 7 February.
But the president made clear he did not expect another bitter budget fight and shutdown in 2014.
In brief remarks at the White House shortly before the House vote, Obama said he hoped the deal would “lift the cloud of uncertainty” that had hung over the country in recent weeks.
“Once this agreement arrives on my desk, I will sign it immediately,” he said, in a statement delivered at the White House. “Hopefully, next time it won’t be in the eleventh hour. We’ve got to get out of the habit of governing by crisis.”
As he left the lectern after his Wednesday night press briefing, the president was asked by a journalist whether the crisis would happen all over again in a few months. Speaking over his shoulder, Obama replied, “No.”
Earlier, the Republican senator Mike Lee had struck a defiant tone, perhaps indicating more trouble ahead: “The media keeps asking: 'Was it worth it?' My answer is, it is always worth it to do the right thing.” He added: “This is not over.”
However, the political deal was one of the worst of all possible outcomes for Republicans. None of their stated goals was achieved and polls showed that voters overwhelmingly blamed them for the crisis.


What is it like to look at the very last of something? To contemplate the passing of a unique wonder that will soon vanish from the face of the earth? Sudan is the last male northern white rhino on the planet. If he does not mate successfully soon with one of two female northern white rhinos at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, there will be no more of their kind, male or female, born anywhere. And it seems a slim chance, as Sudan is getting old at 42 and breeding efforts have so far failed. Apart from these three animals, there are only two other northern white rhinos in the world, both in zoos, both female.
It seems an image of human tenderness that Sudan is lovingly guarded by armed men who stand vigilantly and caringly with him. But, of course, it is an image of brutality. Even at this last desperate stage in the fate of the northern white rhino, Sudan is under threat from poachers who kill rhinos and hack off their horns to sell them on the Asian medicine market – despite the fact that he has had his horn cut off to deter them.
Sudan doesn’t know how precious he is. His eye is a sad black dot in his massive wrinkled face as he wanders the reserve with his guards. His head is a marvellous thing. It is a majestic rectangle of strong bone and leathery flesh, a head that expresses pure strength. How terrible that such a mighty head can, in reality, be so vulnerable. It is lowered melancholically beneath the sinister sky, as if weighed down by fate. This is the noble head of an old warrior, his armour battered, his appetite for struggle fading.
Under his immense looming shoulder, his legs protrude like squat columns from the tough tank of his body. The way his foreleg emerges from his thick coat of skin reminds us how long human beings have been wondering at the natural spectacle that is the rhino. For Sudan does not look so different from the rhinoceros that Albrecht Dürer portrayed in 1515. They have the same little legs stuck out of a majestic body and they even lower their heads in the same contemplative way. Dürer was a Renaissance artist picturing an exotic beast from the exotic lands that Europe was starting to see more and more of. In 1515, a live Indian rhinoceros was sent by the ruler of Gujarat in India to the king of Portugal: he in turn sent it to the Pope but, on the way, it died in a shipwreck.
Human beings – we always kill the things we love. We have been doing so since the Ice Age. There are beautiful pictures of European woolly rhinos in caves in France that were painted up to 30,000 years ago. These ancient relatives of Sudan share his heroic bulk, mighty power and paradoxical air of gentleness. A woolly rhino in Chauvet Cave seems agile and young, a creature full of life. But the same people who painted such sensitive portraits of Ice Age rhinos helped to kill them off. As climate turned against the woolly megafauna with the end of the last Ice Age, human spears probably delivered the coup de grâce.
Today, immense love is invested in rhinos, yet they are being slaughtered in ever greater numbers. The northern white rhino is the rarest species of African rhino. There are far greater numbers of southern white rhinos and black rhinos. But the demand in some countries for rhino horn as a traditional medicine believed to cure everything from flu to cancer is fuelling a boom in poaching. From 2007, when just 13 rhinos were killed by poachers in South Africa, the killings have grown horrifically. In 2014, 1,215 rhinos were slaughtered for their horns in South Africa. 2015 already looks certain to beat that dreadful record.
The vulnerable northern white rhino has been hunted virtually to extinction – in spite of every precaution, in spite of the guards and their guns – and other varieties of African rhino are under a sustained attack from poachers that is totally out of control. The Javan rhinoceros is also on the verge of extinction. India has successfully protected the Indian rhinoceros after it was almost wiped out by British hunters in colonial times but here, too, poaching is a menace. What a majestic creature and what futile human destructiveness. Have we learned nothing since the Ice Age?


He is the star of one of the world’s longest running and most successful film series, with 23 movies and more than $6bn amassed at the global box office, but James Bond shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, the Bond brand is stronger than ever, after the record-breaking performance of Skyfall, which became the biggest ever film at the UK box office on its release in 2012 and, with its total earnings of $1.1bn, currently stands in ninth place of all-time largest earners.
Hence the intense interest that surrounded the announcement of a few more details of the 24th Bond film – not the least its official title, Spectre. The number one question is this: can Spectre repeat the Skyfall trick? Will Skyfall remain a high water mark for the Bond movie or can Spectre extend this winning run?
Charles Gant, film editor for Heat magazine, says the indications are it is heading in the right direction.” Skyfall was a brilliant strategic move,” he says. “It was cleverly positioned as simultaneously modern and retro. It appealed to the Daniel-Craig-era fans, who are relative newcomers to the franchise, and it also managed to engage the older, more nostalgic elements of the audience, who may have lost interest over the previous few films. With the new title,” he adds, “they are already on to a winner. My feeling is that Spectre announces that they want to hang on to the nostalgic, more age-diverse Bond fan, as well as retaining the younger audience.”
The initial signs are that Eon Productions, the company originally founded in 1961 to make Dr No and that is behind all the “official” Bonds, is doing its utmost to ensure lightning strikes twice by installing the key creative talent behind Skyfall on Spectre. Daniel Craig has been tied down at least until Bond 25, while the same writers have produced the script.
But it’s the recapture of director Sam Mendes that gives Bondwatchers the most hope. A director principally known for character studies such as American Beauty and Revolutionary Road, Mendes has taken the Bond series to new heights. Gant says: “Mendes managed to engage with both the modern and the traditional Bond audience, and he also pulled in high-calibre actors like Ralph Fiennes. To get actors like Fiennes in, they have to be happy with the director.”
Among other achievements, Skyfall virtually doubled the box office of its predecessor, Quantum of Solace, which managed a worldwide figure of $586m on its release in 2008. No one is expecting anything like that this time, but Eon will not be complacent.
Though the Bond series was not in trouble before Mendes’s arrival – and Craig’s – there was the sense of a certain amount of staleness towards the end of Pierce Brosnan’s run. The series had survived the drying up of actual Bond stories to adapt, the movies having long since departed from any resemblance to the Ian Fleming originals, but it was lacking a certain dynamism.
This cycle, however, was nothing new: the history of the Bond series has been one of ebb and flow, stasis and renewal, revolving most obviously around the lead actor: first, Sean Connery; then, successively, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Brosnan and, now, Craig. Each appointment has been a response to the state of the series and some have worked out better than others.
Lazenby only lasted a single film, while Dalton’s two efforts, The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill coincided with a period in the late 80s when the 007 movie had been thoroughly eclipsed by more aggressive, slickly produced Hollywood action movies. According to Gant, “the period of Roger Moore’s last ones, going into Dalton, didn’t really excite audiences. Brosnan saw a bit of an upturn commercially, while Craig has taken it to new levels. On the other hand, the early Bonds were incredibly commercial films, sexy and exciting, and there was very little around like them.”
It’s a point worth underlining that, although Skyfall’s actual receipts dwarf all the other Bond films, the performance of some of the 1960s entries in the series was almost as brilliant by comparison. With figures adjusted for inflation, the 1965 release, Thunderball , is only a hair’s breadth below Skyfall , while Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice both outperformed the other Craig films (as did the 70s Bonds, The Spy Who Loved Me and Live and Let Die ). By this reckoning, Licence to Kill is the worst-performing of all Bonds, with Moore’s final effort, A View to a Kill, in second-to-last place.
Nevertheless, the Bond brand has remained immensely powerful over the decades, with Eon being forced to fend off attempts by rival outfits to capitalize on the series’s popularity. Through a quirk of rights ownership, adaptations of Casino Royale (in 1967) and Thunderball (as Never Say Never Again , in 1983) were released in competition with Eon productions. Although subject to legal disputes over several decades, Eon now has full control of both books.
Casino Royale, whose rights had been individually sold off by Fleming in 1955, eventually passed to Eon in 1999 as a result of an agreement between Eon’s backers, MGM, and rival Hollywood studio Sony – thereby clearing the way for the 2006 version. Thunderball, on the other hand, owed its disputed status to writer-producer Kevin McClory, who helped Fleming outline the original story and who claimed ownership of the novel over subsequent decades, and produced Never Say Never Again as a result. After McClory’s death in 2006, his family eventually settled with MGM and Eon’s parent company in November 2013.
If the initial surge of enthusiasm for Bond movies lasted through the 60s and into the 1970s, it’s fair to say that the series almost ground to a halt after Licence to Kill’s poor figures. Goldeneye, the first of Brosnan’s efforts, heralded a dramatic renewal: not simply because of a new actor but, more significantly, because of who was behind the camera.
However, after a six-year break, Eon installed Martin Campbell in the chair: another experienced British director but one who was able to orchestrate one of the most elaborate stunts in Bond history. The justly renowned opening scene of Goldeneye – during which Bond freefalls into the cockpit of a pilotless light aeroplane – did much to reinvigorate and modernize the series on its own. Moreover, a whole new generation was reached through a hugely successful Goldeneye video-game spin-off, making a significant contribution to perceptions that the Bond film was no longer stale and old-fashioned.


A new study shows that there are more and more brown bears, wolves and lynx in the forests and suburban areas of Europe. Rising human populations and use of resources have made many people believe that these animals could soon become extinct. But the study says that numbers of large predators are stable or rising in Europe.
Brown bears, wolves and the Eurasian lynx are found in nearly one-third of mainland Europe (excluding Belarus, Ukraine and Russia). Most live outside nature reserves – this shows that changing attitudes and conservation methods are protecting these species very well.
Bears are the most common large carnivore in Europe – there are around 17,000 bears. There are 12,000 wolves and 9,000 Eurasian lynx. Only Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Luxembourg in mainland Europe have no breeding populations of at least one large carnivore species. Britain also has none. But the study said these animals live in regions of Europe where lots of people live and this shows that they could live even in the British countryside.
Guillaume Chapron from Sweden’s University of Agricultural Sciences and researchers across Europe found wolves living in suburban areas with up to 3,050 people per square kilometre. On average in Europe, wolves live on land where there are 37 people per square kilometre, lynx in areas where there are 21 people per square kilometre and bears where there are 19 people per square kilometre. In the Scottish Highlands there are just nine people per square kilometre.
“To have wolves, we don’t need to remove people from the landscape,” said Chapron. He also said that the big carnivore revival shows the success of a “land-sharing” method of conservation – it is different from the method in North America and Africa, where they use fences to separate these animals in “wilderness” areas.
“I’m not saying it’s a perfect love story – living together often means conflict – but it’s important to control that conflict and resolve the problems it causes. Wolves can be difficult neighbours,” said Chapron.
According to the researchers, countries in other parts of the world could use this “land-sharing” method. Land-sharing works in Europe because there are more and more animals such as wild deer for the predators to eat and there is money for electric fences to protect livestock fences, so farmers do not have to shoot wild predators. Most important, said Chapron, is the EU Habitats Directive, which has forced member states to protect and revive rare species.
“Without the Habitats Directive, I don’t think we would have had this revival,” he said. “It shows that we can protect animals, if people really want to help and if politicians make strong laws.” Author George Monbiot was happy about the revival. He is starting a charity called Rewilding Britain. It encourages the return of wild landscape and extinct species.
“It is great to see more of these animals in Europe. But Britain is completely different – we’ve lost more of our large animals than any country except for Ireland,” he said. “We accidentally reintroduced wild boar but we’ve done nothing else. In much of the rest of Europe we’ve got bears, lynx and wolves coming back. If it works in the rest of Europe, there’s absolutely no reason why it can’t work in the UK,” he said. He added that bears and wolves live less than an hour away from Rome. “There’s no reason why we can’t have a similar return of wildlife in the UK.”


Emmanuel Limal wanted to find love on online dating sites but he was tired of meeting women who said that they weren’t ready to start a family. The 43-year-old actor, who is from France, has lived in Copenhagen for 20 years. He was looking for love and wanted to start a family.
He tried to find someone online but without success. “Everyone said that they were really active, always travelling or with a long list of hobbies, but they didn’t talk about children,” Limal said. “On some sites, there was an option to click saying: 'I’d like kids someday,' but I read the person’s profile and thought: 'You will never have time!' If someone’s going to the gym eight times a week and travelling every month, they are not putting a family first.”
Limal has a six-year-old daughter from an old relationship but he has always wanted more children. “I couldn’t meet anyone who wanted to start a family”. He said it was difficult to know when to talk about wanting kids when he met someone new. “It’s a difficult subject to talk about when you are on a date,” he said. “Then one day I read a profile from a 38-year-old who said she knew it was 'really bad to admit' but she wanted children. And I thought: 'You shouldn’t be ashamed of this.'”
Limal borrowed money to start Babyklar.nu – or 'baby-ready now' in English. It works like a normal dating site but everyone is asked to be honest about their wish to start a family soon. “We ask people if they are OK with someone who already has children and if they want another baby,” Limal said. “But we don’t make them say how many children they would like. That would be like food shopping online.”
He has had a very positive response to the site. “Fifty people signed up every hour when we started in June. There are already couples who met through the site and are now together. I think we will have the first Babyklar.nu baby by next summer.” More men have signed up than women (53% to 47%), with comments such as “I can finally be honest about what I want.”
The site has come at the right time for the country of five million people. Danes are not having enough children and the current rate of 1.7 children per family means that the population is falling. The usual reasons are given – women are leaving it “too late” and couples are living together without getting married and waiting to start families.
“Now, I hope, men and women who want to start a family but haven’t met the right person yet will have another choice,” says Limal. He says that this isn’t just about making babies: “I want this to be about children and love. My goal is to bring together people who really want a family and a partner – and who’ll stay together. I’m a romantic.”
He is planning to start sites in France and the UK later in 2013, but at the moment the only site is in Denmark. “Danes have no problem having children before marriage so things can move fast and, because the country’s so small, someone from Jutland can date someone from Copenhagen without too much travel,” Limal said. And Limal has finally found love. “I’ve met a nice woman and she wants a baby too – so we shall see.”


An international agreement to improve safety in Bangladesh’s clothing factories is facing the threat of legal action as factory owners demand compensation for the cost of closures and repair work. With some repair programmes expected to take months, factory owners say they cannot shoulder the costs of paying staff while factories are closed, alongside the expense of some major works needed to ensure buildings are safe. The building overhauls are being carried out in the wake of the collapse of the Rana Plaza complex in the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, in 2013, in which 1,138 people were killed.
The problems come as hundreds of Bangladeshi clothing factories per month are inspected for fire- safety and structural problems under the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, which is backed by over 170 international brands, including Primark and Marks & Spencer, and international trade unions, including IndustriALL.
The owner of one Dhaka-based factory, Softex Cotton, has threatened legal action against the Accord after his factory was closed down due to structural problems, prompting a demand for a reported $100m in compensation.
Another factory owner, who declined to be named, said that once a factory closed its doors, even for a few months, it would lose orders and close permanently: “There is no such thing as temporary closure,” he said. The factory owner said that the Accord agreement had “pussyfooted” around the issue of who paid for factory closures amid efforts to get as many brands as possible to sign up to a deal in the wake of the Rana Plaza disaster. He said there was no clear process in place to handle the costs involved.
Jenny Holdcroft, policy director for IndustriALL, which has been closely involved in the Accord, said that the agreement ensured that factories would not lose orders during closure because brands had committed to maintain orders with suppliers for two years.
While 12 factories have been identified so far by the Accord as needing significant work, Holdcroft said many of those only needed partial closure in order to reduce stress on the building so production could continue on other floors. The Accord also legally binds brands to ensure that workers are paid during factory closures. She said the detail on who would make payments had been left open in order to ensure that all those factory owners who could afford to pay for repairs and compensation for workers made the necessary contribution.
“This was always going to be a topic of negotiation. Brands don’t want to commit to paying so that rich factory owners who have just pocketed the profits and not been spending on their factories for years continue to do so. There was obviously going to be disruption. If there was no disruption, there would be no change,” she said. A spokesman for the Accord said negotiations over payments and even legal action would not hold up its work to improve safety in factories.
However, pressure on the Accord to contribute to the payment of displaced workers has ratcheted up after a rival factory-safety group backed by US retailers including Walmart and Gap, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, set aside $5m to help pay factory workers for up to two months while work is carried out on the buildings it has identified as needing improvement. It has, so far, identified five factories in four buildings where production needed to be suspended.
“The Alliance is sharing the workers’ salary along with entrepreneurs so now there is a big confusion. We had a big meeting with the Accord to make them understand they have to come forward or how will we help our workers?” said Shaidullah Azim, a director of the Bangladeshi Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.


The vast fortunes made by the world’s richest 100 billionaires are driving up inequality and hindering the world’s ability to tackle poverty, according to Oxfam.
The charity said the accumulation of wealth and income on an unprecedented scale, often at the expense of secure jobs and decent wages for the poorest, undermined the ability of people who survive on aid or low wages to improve their situation and escape poverty.
Oxfam said the world’s poorest could be lifted out of poverty several times over if the richest 100 billionaires would give away the money they made in 2012.
Without pointing a finger at individuals, the charity argued that the $240bn net income amassed in 2012 by the richest 100 billionaires would be enough to make extreme poverty history four times over.
It is rare for charities to attack the wealthy, who are usually regarded as a source of funding. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are among a group of 40 US billionaires who have pledged much of their wealth to aid projects, but there is little detail about the level of their annual donations. Their actions have also not been matched by Russian, Middle Eastern or Chinese billionaires.
In the report, The Cost of Inequality: How Wealth and Income Extremes Hurt Us All , published just before the World Economic Forum in Davos, the charity calls on world leaders to curb income extremes and commit to reducing inequality to at least 1990 levels.
The report found that the richest 1% had increased their incomes by 60% in the past 20 years, with the financial crisis accelerating rather than slowing the process.
Barbara Stocking, Oxfam’s Chief Executive, said extreme wealth was “economically inefficient, politically corrosive, socially divisive and environmentally destructive”.
She said studies show that countries suffer low levels of investment and growth as workers are forced to survive on a smaller share of total incomes.
She said: “We can no longer pretend that the creation of wealth for a few will inevitably benefit the many – too often the reverse is true.”
The report said the issue affected all parts of the world. “In the UK, inequality is rapidly returning to levels not seen since the time of Charles Dickens [the nineteenth-century novelist]. In China, the top 10% now take home nearly 60% of the income. Chinese inequality levels are now similar to those in South Africa, which is now the most unequal country on Earth and significantly more unequal than at the end of apartheid.”
In the US, the share of national income going to the top 1% has doubled since 1980 from 10 to 20%, the report says. For the top 0.01% the share of national income is above levels last seen in the 1920s.
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund have argued that extreme income inequality undermines growth and both organizations have attempted to tie their loans to programmes that limit the growth of inequality.
Members of the richest 1% are estimated to use as much as 10,000 times more carbon than the average US citizen.
Oxfam said world leaders should learn from countries such as Brazil, which has grown rapidly while reducing inequality.
Stocking said: “We need a global new deal to reverse decades of increasing inequality. As a first step, world leaders should formally commit themselves to reducing inequality to the levels seen in 1990.”
She said closing tax havens, which the Tax Justice Network says hold as much as $31 trillion, or as much as a third of all global wealth, could yield $189bn in additional tax revenues.


Intermediate
According to a new census, there are more tigers in Nepal than at any time since the 1970s. This has given conservationists hope that the big cats, whose numbers have been dropping across south Asia for 100 years, can be saved.
The number of wild royal bengal tigers in Nepal has increased to 198  a 63.6% rise in five years  the government survey showed. This is very good news, said Maheshwar Dhakal, an ecologist with Nepals Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation.
The census is based on the examination of pictures from more than 500 cameras in five protected areas and three wildlife corridors. More than 250 conservationists and wildlife experts worked on the survey, which cost about 250,000. Dhakal said that a similar survey was done in India and the results from both countries will be published later in 2013. It will take a few more months for India, which now has 1,300 big cats in several huge protected areas, to finish the survey, he added. Nepal has promised to double the population of tigers by the year 2022 from 121 in 2009 when the last systematic tiger count took place.
Increasing wealth in Asia has led to higher prices for tiger skins and the body parts used in traditional Chinese medicines. International gangs pay poor local Nepali large amounts of money to kill the cats. The skin and bones are given to middlemen, who pass easily through the border with India, where the major dealers are based.
One major problem is that some senior officials help mafia networks involved in the trade. Conservation experts believe that the increase in tiger numbers is the result of better policing of national parks and better management of tiger habitats in Nepal, where forests cover 29% of the land. But they say Nepal needs to do more to protect the habitat and animals on which tigers feed so the big cats have enough space to roam and food to eat.
As the number of tigers has increased over the years, conflict with villagers has increased, too. Seven people were killed in attacks by tigers around national parks in 2012 compared to four in 2011, park officials said. Villagers also want better protection. The government is making conservation plans for tigers. But it should also produce plans to protect people from tigers, Krishna Bhurtel, a village headman, told a Nepali newspaper. Wildlife authorities captured a tiger after it killed two people, including a villager who was pulled from his bed in May.
Thousands of tigers once roamed the forests in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. But their numbers have dropped to about 3,000, a 95% drop over a century. Chitwan National Park in central Nepal has the highest number of adult tigers, with 120, followed by Bardiya National Park (50) and Shukla Phanta Wildlife Reserve (17).
Diwakar Chapagain, head of a World Wildlife Fund Nepal unit that monitors wildlife trade, said tiger skins were in demand in Tibet, where rich people use them as festival costumes.
In Nepal, kings used to stand on tiger skins for special occasions. Some wealthy Nepali have tiger heads on the walls of their living rooms. Tiger bones are used in traditional Chinese medicines. The trade in tiger parts is lucrative and fetches thousands of dollars in illegal markets, Chapagain said.


Intermediate
Himalayan lakes, spacewalks and the US presidential campaign helped Scott Kelly stay sane during his 340 days in space, the astronaut told journalists after he landed back on Earth from a record-breaking mission. It seemed like I lived there forever, Kelly said. He had been on several previous missions but said that his biggest surprise was simply how long this one felt. Maybe, occasionally, you do go bananas, he said.
Kelly and a Russian colleague, Mikhail Kornienko, spent nearly a year on the International Space Station (ISS) in order to study the effects of weightlessness, radiation and the cramped conditions of space ight on humans. NASA considers this research essential for a future mission to Mars.
Kelly said the length of the mission was its biggest challenge and that he felt much more sore when he returned to gravity than after shorter trips. Kelly and his twin brother, Mark, a retired astronaut, have spent the last year taking physical and mental tests. The tests will continue, to help NASA learn about how the body copes with the severe strains of space ight.
He said the discomfort of returning to gravity took nothing from the sense of wonder he felt after he landed back on Earth. When the Russian capsule opened on to the cool air of Kazakhstan, Kelly said, he smelled a fragrance like a plant was blooming in that area. It was the fresh air mixed with the charred, kind of sweet smell of a spacecraft that had survived re-entry through the atmosphere.
As he left the spacecraft, he said, the importance of the mission began to sink in: 340 days on a 15-year- old space station which is a million pounds, the size of a football  eld, the internal volume, some say, of a six-bedroom house. The ISS, he said, is a place that uses the power of the sun and was built with the help of an international team.
There are things were going to discover about our experience in space in the space station that we dont even know now, Kelly said, comparing the research of more than 450 missions there to the work done by computer scientists at NASA in the 1960s and 1970s. He added: The view is great, too.
Kelly made the most of that view  he posted spectacular photos on social media of the Earths cities, landscapes, oceans and atmosphere. The Earth is a beautiful planet, he said, describing the beautiful waters around the Bahamas and the rainbow colours of the lakes of the northern Himalayas. He said he would like to visit that region, though he would  rst need to learn what country actually owns them. But, mainly, you just notice how thin the atmosphere is, Kelly added. That, together with these large areas of pollution, is kind of alarming.
The astronaut said he could see entire systems of pollution: smoke clouds from wild res that covered parts of the US, sections of Asia with continuous, visible pollution nearly all year round. He said the message we need to save the planet wasnt completely correct: The planet will get better; its us that wont be here because well destroy the environment. The worlds thin shield of atmosphere makes you more of an environmentalist after spending so much time looking down, he said.
Its for us to take care of the air we breathe and the water we drink. And I do believe we have an impact on that and we do have the ability to change it, if we make the decision to. Kelly was very active on social media, which made many people follow him online. But he said he was unaware of it. Instead, he watched the drama of the 2016 US presidential election.
Besides the news, he said, steady work helped keep him sane: I tried to have milestones that were close, like when is the next crew arriving, the next spacewalk, the next science experiment. That made a difference to me  it kept my sanity. Being back on Earth with the rest of humanity had not quite sunk in, he added. He recalled how shocked he had been to see a crowd of people after a previous mission. Ill soon start feeling that kind of culture shock, he said.
Kelly predicted that he would not  y again with NASA. But I dont think I would ever say Im absolutely, 100%  nished, he added, because of the sudden successes of private space ight companies such as SpaceX. They might need a guy like me someday, he said. Maybe, in the next 20 years, youll be able to buy a cheap ticket, just go for a little visit.


What is it like to look at the last of something? Sudan is the last male northern white rhino on the planet. If he does not mate soon with one of two female northern white rhinos at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, there will be no more rhinos like them, male or female, born anywhere. And they probably won’t mate because Sudan is 42 so he is old. There are only two other northern white rhinos in the world, both in zoos, both female.
The image seems to show that humans are gentle – armed men guard Sudan and stay with him. But, of course, it shows that humans are cruel. Sudan is in danger from poachers. The poachers kill rhinos and cut off their horns to sell them for medicine. Sudan has had his horn cut off to stop the poachers but he is still in danger.
Sudan doesn’t know how precious he is. His eye is a sad black dot in his big face as he walks around the reserve with his guards. His head is a marvellous thing. It is a majestic rectangle of strong bone, a head of pure strength. How terrible that such a powerful head can be so vulnerable.
Sudan does not look so different from the artist Albrecht Dürer ’s rhinoceros from 1515. Dürer was a Renaissance artist. He drew an exotic beast from an exotic place. In 1515, the ruler of Gujarat in India sent a live Indian rhinoceros to the king of Portugal. The king sent it to the Pope but the ship sank and it died.
Human beings – we always kill the things we love. This hasn’t changed since the Ice Age. There are beautiful pictures of European woolly rhinos in caves in France that were painted up to 30,000 years ago. These ancient relatives of Sudan were gentle and powerful, like Sudan. A woolly rhino in Chauvet Cave seems young, an animal full of life. But the same people who painted such sensitive pictures of Ice Age rhinos helped to kill them all.
Today, people love rhinos. But, at the same time, people are killing more and more rhinos. The northern white rhino is the rarest kind of African rhino. There are more southern white rhinos and black rhinos. But, in some countries, more and more people want rhino horn to use as a traditional medicine. And this increases the poaching. In 2007, 13 rhinos were killed by poachers in South Africa. In 2014, 1,215 rhinos were killed for their horns in South Africa.
The vulnerable northern white rhino has nearly been hunted to extinction – in spite of the guards and their guns. The poaching is totally out of control. The Javan rhinoceros is also nearly extinct. India has successfully protected the Indian rhinoceros but here, too, poaching is a problem. Sudan is such a majestic animal. Have we learned nothing since the Ice Age?


Intermediate
When it comes to climate change, we usually just focus on the  rst part of the story, the part about the problem. We usually forget the second part of the story about the many available solutions. These solutions are speeding up recycling, slowing down emissions and providing sustainable alternatives to plastic, air conditioning, smartphones and fast fashion.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change met recently in Copenhagen to present its latest report on the impacts and speed of climate change. Climate change is now measured on all continents. Our efforts to lower emissions must be intensi ed to avoid climate change getting out of control. Copenhagen looked at the risks and challenges but also the solutions.
Focusing on what can be done, Sustainia Award, chaired by Arnold Schwarzenegger, celebrated ten leading sustainable solutions used in 84 countries. From food to fashion, energy to transportation, education to health, the awards showed that there is an alternative to the grim-future scenarios we so often read about.
From California, we saw how we can now produce plastics from greenhouse gases that are competitive with normal oil-based plastics in price and quality. From Switzerland, we learned how we can recycle and reuse old clothes and shoes more effectively. And from Canada, we learned how smartphones can make bike-sharing more convenient.
The ten projects each offered unique solutions to sustainability challenges but it was the Nigerian initiative, Wecyclers, that won Arnold Schwarzenegger and the rest of jurys vote. It won the Sustainia Award 2014.
Wecyclers allows poor communities to make money on waste in their streets. By using bicycles to collect and recycle waste in Lagos, Wecyclers lets families exchange garbage for consumer goods via an SMS-based point system.
Recycling companies purchase Wecyclers sorted waste and make it into products such as mattresses, pillows and trash bags. Wecyclers is a response to local waste problems, where its estimated that only 40% of the citys rubbish is collected. According to the World Bank, only 46% of municipal waste in Africa is collected. More than 5,000 households are involved and there are plans to extend the initiative to other cities throughout Nigeria.
Solutions to deal with climate change are often hi-tech innovations focused on cutting emissions. However, to successfully solve the variety of challenges, we need variety in our solutions as well. Sustainability is not just about bringing down emissions, it is also a question of using our natural resources more intelligently and creating healthier lives for ourselves. These initiatives might be low-tech in innovation, but they are high-impact when it comes to creating sustainable change for entire communities.
With a wide range of solutions for the wide range of challenges, we must focus more on the important part of the story that creates enthusiasm, momentum and that helps to create positive change.


Intermediate
Organic food has more of the antioxidants linked to better health than regular food, and lower levels of toxic metals and pesticides, according to the most comprehensive scienti c analysis so far. The international team behind the work suggests that switching to organic fruit and vegetables could give the same bene ts as adding one or two portions of the recommended  ve a day fruit and vegetables.
The team, led by Professor Carlo Leifert, concludes that there are statistically signi cant differences, with a range of antioxidants being substantially higher  between 19% and 69%  in organic food. It is the  rst study to demonstrate clear differences between organic and conventional fruits, vegetables and cereals.
The researchers say the increased levels of antioxidants are equivalent to one to two of the  ve portions of fruits and vegetables recommended to be consumed daily and would therefore be signi cant in terms of human nutrition.
The  ndings will add to the controversy over organic food and whether it is better for people. Tom Sanders, a professor of nutrition at Kings College London, said the research did show some differences. But the question is are they within natural variation? And are they nutritionally relevant? I am not convinced. He added, Leifert has had a lot of disagreements with a lot of people. He also said that research showed organic cereals have less protein than conventional crops.
The results of the research are based on an analysis of 343 studies from around the world  more than ever before  which examine differences between organic and conventional fruit, vegetables and cereals. The important thing about this research is that it shatters the myth that how we farm does not affect the quality of the food we eat, said Helen Browning, chief executive of the Soil Association, which campaigns for organic farming.
Leifert and his colleagues conclude that many antioxidants have previously been linked to a reduced risk of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases and certain cancers. The researchers also found much higher levels of cadmium, a toxic metal, in conventional crops. Pesticide residues were found on conventional crops four times more often than on organic food.
The research is certain to be criticized: the inclusion of so many studies in the analysis could mean poor-quality work makes the results unreliable. Also, the higher levels of cadmium and pesticides in conventional produce were still far below recommended limits. But, the researchers say cadmium accumulates over time in the body and that some people may wish to avoid this, and that pesticide limits are set individually, not for the cocktail of chemicals used on crops.
A further criticism of the research is that the differences seen may result from different climates, soil types and crop varieties, and not from organic farming. The greatest criticism, however, will be over the suggestions of possible health bene ts. The most recent major analysis, which included 223 studies in 2012, found little evidence. The published literature lacks strong evidence that organic foods are signi cantly more nutritious than conventional foods, it found.
This was also the conclusion of earlier, smaller studies published in 2009 in a scienti c journal and by the UK Food Standards Agency. The 2012 study did note that eating organic food might help people avoid pesticide residues. Sanders said he was not persuaded by the new work. You are not going to be healthier if you eat organic food, he said. What is most important is what you eat, not whether its organic or conventional. Its whether you eat fruit and vegetables at all.
Opinion polls show healthy eating (55%) and avoiding chemical residues (53%) are key reasons given by shoppers for buying organic produce. But, many also say care for the environment (44%) and animal welfare (31%) are important, and also taste (35%). Browning said: This research con rms what people think about organic food. In other countries, there have, for a long time, been much higher levels of support and acceptance of the bene ts of organic food and farming. We hope these  ndings will bring the UK into line with the rest of Europe.


Intermediate
We may not yet be living in an age of  ying cars, as predicted in the 1985  lm Back to the Future II, but the rise of smartphones and other new technologies is creating a reality that is just as exciting and almost as far-fetched. Experts agree that economic and demographic changes, technological advances, and environmental concerns are fundamentally changing transportation. Its a very dynamic time, said transport expert Robert Puentes. Theres a tighter connection between transportation and the economic health of cities and its impact on people.
As the transport infrastructure grows old, cities across the US are forced to rede ne what transportation is. Urban planners, transportation experts and scientists are now realizing that old methods focused on reducing traf c congestion arent enough to solve problems like population growth and carbon emissions, and transportation is now a key part of protecting the environment.
Big US cities like Los Angeles and Chicago are working to make better use of their streets by adding more bus lanes and pedestrian walkways, and expanding rail networks. At the same time, they are working on advanced technologies that will allow a vehicle to drive itself and communicate with other vehicles and its environment. The most sustainable places to live are places that have multi-modal transport systems, Puentes said
Here are three key ideas that experts predict will in uence transportation in the coming years.
Connectivity Ride-sharing services like Uber  taxis booked via smartphone  and apps like Waze, which uses real-time traf c data to  nd the quickest routes for drivers, are dramatically changing how people move around and affecting the way traf c moves through a city. Communication between riders and drivers, between different vehicles and between cars and infrastructure is bringing transportation into a new era, according to Allan Clelland, an expert on transportation technology.
According to a recent study, car travel has reduced among people born in the 1990s compared to previous generations. According to the study, people born in the 1990s are making 4% fewer car trips and travelling 18% fewer miles per year, on average, than members of previous generations did at the same stage in their lives.
People still driving cars are dealing with less traf c thanks to Waze. Experts say the traf c app has reduced congestion on motorways and reduced travel times for drivers. But it has also led to a problematic rise in cars moving through residential neighbourhoods.
This trend could continue as vehicle-to-vehicle data communication, as well as communication between vehicles and the surrounding infrastructure, grows. Currently, a traf c light knows when a car is getting close but thats all. Companies are working to develop technology that will allow a vehicle to tell traf c control systems not only that it is present but also where it is going and how fast it is travelling.
Automation Driverless cars have been in the headlines ever since Google began road testing the vehicles back in 2012 but no-one really knows when driverless cars will become commonplace. However, the partial automation of cars is already underway. Automation will probably happen in stages:  rst, there might be automated buses with their own lanes, then perhaps lorries in ports or mining towns: that is, vehicles that are connected electronically and travel in single  le.
The idea of a fully automated transportation system is intriguing because it could improve safety by removing human error. It could also help reduce carbon emissions and traf c congestion, and allow more people access to cars. But, even if driverless technology were ready to use now, it would take a long time to get fully automated because the average age of cars on the road is 11.5 years old.
To see what driverless cars might look like in action, go to the video at: vimeo.com/37751380.
Environmental concern As the world races to avoid catastrophic climate change and countries and cities work to meet ambitious emissions goals, these policies could also have a big effect on the future of transportation. Concern about the environment could lead to everything from zero- and low-emission vehicles to apps that encourage more walking, biking and carpooling.
When considering the future of transportation, its also important to keep in mind why people travel: they may be going to work, to meet friends or family, or to do the shopping. Technologies that reduce the need for those trips  for example, virtual meetings or telecommuting  could also have a big effect on transportation.
In the past, the idea of a  ying car represented the best in innovation but the technologies that people are imagining and developing now are possibly even more sophisticated  and more useful in solving the social and environmental problems that we face in the coming decades.


Intermediate
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge won the first part of their battle for privacy when a French magazine was banned from selling or reusing photos of the couple at a private chateau in Provence.
French prosecutors must now decide if there should be criminal proceedings against the magazine editor and the photographer or photographers who took the pictures of the duchess sunbathing topless while on holiday in the south of France.
The Tribunal de Grande Instance in Nanterre, Paris ordered the gossip magazine Closer to give the couple the digital files of the pictures within 24 hours. The magazine will have to pay 10,000 for every day it does not give the couple the files.
The court also ordered Mondadori Magazines France, Closers publisher, to pay 2,000 of legal costs.
These photos, which showed the couple, partly naked on the terrace of a private home, surrounded by a park several hundred metres from a public road, are particularly intrusive, the court said.
The court decided that every time Mondadori  the publishing company owned by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi  publishes a photograph in the future in France, they will be fined 10,000.
But the decision refers only to the 14 pictures that have already been published. Closers editor has hinted she has other, more intimate pictures.
The couple welcome the judges decision. A source said: They always believed the law was broken and that they had a right to their privacy. Maud Sobel, a lawyer for the royal couple in Paris, described it as a wonderful decision.
The royal couple are pleased with the decision, but they want there to be a much more public criminal prosecution for invasion of privacy against the magazine and photographer or photographers.
Paris police began an investigation on Tuesday. Under French law, if you invade someones privacy, you may have to spend a maximum of one year in prison and pay a fine of 45,000.
This punishment would send a message to the world and, the couple hope, stop paparazzi from invading their privacy in the future.
The Irish Daily Star has also published the photos. And the Mondadori-owned Italian celebrity magazine Chi published a special edition of 26 pages with the photos of the future queen.


Intermediate
They call him the Robin Hood of the banks, a man who took out many loans worth almost half a million euros with no intention of ever paying them back. Instead, Enric Duran gave the money to projects that created and promoted alternatives to capitalism.
After 14 months in hiding, Duran is unapologetic, even though his activities could put him in jail. Im proud of what I did, he said in an interview by Skype from a secret location.
From 2006 to 2008, Duran took out 68 commercial and personal loans from 39 banks in Spain. He gave the money to social activists, who used it to pay for speaking tours against capitalism and TV cameras for a media network. He said he saw that these social movements were building alternatives but that they didnt have enough money. Meanwhile, constant growth was creating a system that created money out of nothing.
The loans he swindled from banks were his way of regulating and denouncing this situation, he said. He started slowly. I  lled out a few credit applications with my real details. They said no, but I just wanted to understand what they were asking for.
From there, the former table-tennis coach began to set up a confusing web of accounts, payments and transfers. I was learning constantly. By the summer of 2007, he had discovered how to make the system work  he applied for loans under the name of a false television production company. Then, I managed to get a lot. 492,000, to be exact.
Duran was arrested in Spain in 2009, on charges brought against him by six of the 39 banks that had lent him money. He spent two months in prison before being let out on 50,000 bail. In February 2013, threatened with up to eight years in prison, he decided to  ee rather than stand trial because, he said, he doesnt recognize the authority of the judicial system.
His actions, he said, were an important part of a worldwide debate on the economic crisis. The timing pushed the anti-capitalist movement into the light, just as many Spaniards were looking for alternatives to a system that has caused chaos in their lives.
In todays Spain, the anti-capitalist movement, and groups such as the Indignados, are supported by thousands of Spaniards.
Duran is now widening his focus to include Spains justice system, by promoting restorative justice. The people in Spain who believe that banks dont work, they think that I dont owe anything. Ive already done my work, he said. But there is a part of a population that is not in agreement with us and I think I should respond to that.
In his case, he said, he could offer banks the insight he got from years of obtaining bank loans fraudulently. He could share his thoughts on which best practices work and the bad ones that dont, he suggested, for the general population and for bank workers.


David Cameron has declared a “clear result” in the Scottish independence referendum after Scotland voted by a 10.6-point margin against ending the 307-year-old union with England and Wales. The prime minister promised a devolution revolution across Great Britain, including votes on English issues by English MPs at Westminster, as he welcomed Scotland’s decision to remain inside the UK. “There can be no disputes, no reruns – we have heard the settled will of the Scottish people,” Cameron said in a statement
Earlier, Scotland’s first minister, Alex Salmond, remained defiant at a downbeat Scottish National Party rally in Edinburgh, saying he accepted Scotland had not, “at this stage”, decided to vote for independence. He paid tribute to what he called a “triumph for democratic politics” and said he would work with Westminster in the best interests of Scotland and the rest of the UK – warning the leaders of the three main parties to make good on their promises of enhanced devolution for Scotland. “We have touched sections of the community who have never before been touched by politics,” he said.
The yes campaign scored four big successes, winning 53% of the vote in Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow, 57% in Dundee and 51% in North Lanarkshire. However, the no camp was victorious in 28 authorities. It won overwhelmingly in areas where it was expected to do well, including Edinburgh, Aberdeenshire and Borders, but also in areas that could have gone to the yes campaign, including the Western Isles. In the final count, the no camp won 2,001,926 votes (55.3%) to 1,617,989 for yes (44.7%).
In his speech, Cameron made clear that the constitutional reforms, including in Scotland, would not be delivered until after the general election, and that Scottish measures would proceed in tandem with changes in England. “We have heard the voice of Scotland and, now, the millions of voices of England must be heard,” he said.
Cameron added: “The people of Scotland have spoken and it is a clear result. They have kept our country of four nations together and, like millions of other people, I am delighted. As I said during the campaign, it would have broken my heart to see our United Kingdom come to an end. And I know that sentiment was shared by people not just across our country but around the world because of what we have achieved together in the past and what we can do together in the future. So, now, it is time for our United Kingdom to come together and to move forward. A vital part of that will be a balanced settlement, fair to people in Scotland and, importantly, to everyone in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well.”
Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, said the referendum was a vote from the Scottish people for change. “We know our country needs to change in the way it is governed and we know our country needs to change in who it is governed for. We will deliver on stronger powers for a stronger Scottish parliament, a strong Scotland.” But he said that would go beyond Scotland. “We will also meet the desire for change across England, across Wales, across the whole of the United Kingdom.”
Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, said the referendum “marks not only a new chapter for Scotland within the UK but also wider constitutional reform across the union”. Echoing the SNP’s argument, he said a vote against independence was “clearly not a vote against change”. “We must now deliver on time and in full the radical package of newly devolved powers to Scotland,” he added.
Yet that result raises the risk of further turmoil, with MPs from Cameron’s Conservative Party threatening to revolt against the prime minister’s late and potentially vital promise to quickly increase the Scottish parliament’s powers while protecting its spending.
The UK Independence Party leader, Nigel Farage, said Cameron’s offer of more devolution for England did not go far enough. “The English are 86% by population of this union. They’ve been left out of all of this for the last 18 years. We still have a situation where Scottish MPs can vote in the House of Commons on English-only issues. I think what most English people want is a fair settlement,” he said.
Cameron and the Queen will both move to calm tensions when they deliver statements on the result. The prime minister will try, in the words of one cabinet minister, to “cement in” the no vote by outlining how he will deliver the deepening of Scotland’s devolution settlement, including handing greater powers over tax and welfare to the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.
The Queen, who has monitored the referendum with interest, will make a written statement. It is understood that her remarks will focus on reconciliation. The prime minister wants to move fast to show that the three main UK party leaders will live up to their commitments made during the referendum campaign to deliver what the former prime minister Gordon Brown called “home rule” within the UK.
Ministers believe it is important to move quickly to avoid a repeat of the 1980 referendum in Québec. The triumphalist behaviour of Ontario fuelled the separatist cause that nearly succeeded in a second referendum in 1995.
For the no campaign, there was relief: a spate of authoritative polls in the final days of the campaign had said the vote was on a knife-edge, bringing Yes Scotland within touching distance of victory after a dramatic surge in support.


Brazil’s latest funk sensation, Anitta, has won millions of fans by taking the favela sound into the mainstream, but she is at the centre of a debate about skin colour.
Anti-discrimination campaigners and social commentators say the music industry’s fastest rising star has had to sacrifice her blackness to make it into the predominantly white middle- class market.
The controversy was prompted by the publication of then-and-now photographs that show a dramatic lightening of Anitta’s skin tone since she signed a deal with Warner.
In the first, when she was relatively unknown, she looked darker. In the second – a marketing shot after she became famous – she seems paler. Whether this was the result of whitening products and cosmetic surgery or – more likely – Photoshop tweaks, the contrast has rekindled discussion about whether you need to be pale to get ahead in Brazil.
Jarid Arraes, a psychology student and blogger, wrote a post criticizing the latent discrimination in media and marketing that she felt Anitta’s image change represented. “People refuse to accept that they are racist and they think they live in a multiracial democracy, but the statistics show that is far from the case. The whitening shows us a profoundly intolerant society that doesn’t support diversity. White is the image of the rich, the nice, the successful, the good, while people see black as the opposite of all that.”
Born Larissa de Macedo Machado, the diva-to-be was a church chorister in her childhood. In her teens, she made a name for herself in Rio de Janeiro’s baile funk scene as a dancer and singer.
She has now exploded into the public consciousness with an album and a huge hit single, Show das Poderosas , which topped the charts and attracted 52 million YouTube views.
Though adored first and foremost as a pop idol with a strong message and some catchy tunes, her backers project her as a cultural bridge between the predominantly black and mixed-race shanty towns on Rio’s hillsides and the wealthier and whiter communities below.
She has toned down the suggestive dancing, gangsta references and explicit lyrics of baile funk. Now, however, questions are being asked about whether she – or her marketing team – have gone too far in re-tailoring her image to attract a more lucrative demographic. “If pop stars have curly hair, they are going to feel coerced into straightening it. If they have a big nose, they will be coerced into getting rhinoplasty,” said Arraes. “It creates a vicious cycle for self-esteem.”
This is a sensitive topic in this largely mixed-raced nation. Brazil – one of the last big countries in the world to ban slavery – has the largest population of African descent outside Africa, but race and ancestry are less important here than colour. And, despite the nation’s goal of being a multiracial democracy, there is a clear link between skin tone and inequality.
In Brazilian cities, white workers earn roughly twice as much as those of African descent. Up until 2011, black or mixed-race students also spent two years less at school on average.
The government says the gap is closing thanks to quota systems for university places and other forms of affirmative action. But the gulf remains glaringly apparent. The vast majority of business and government executives are white, while most menial jobs are done by black and mixed-race workers. Walk through Ipanema, Gávea or other upmarket districts and you are far more likely to see black nannies pushing strollers with white toddlers than a white nanny pushing a black child.
Defining colour is complex. People who define themselves as white were in the minority for the first time in the most recent census in 2010. Among the 197 million population, 82 million said they were “pardu” (mixed race), 15 million black, two million Asian and 0.5% indigenous.
Sylvio Ferreira, a psychology lecturer at the Federal University of Pernambuco, believes Anitta has won the hearts of the middle class by taking a rebellious sound and making it tamer and more palatable to everyone.
“Was this achieved by racial whitening? No,” he said. “What happened was a change of the social space where Anitta produced her art: from the periphery to the centre.”
Others agree that the issue of colour is overblown. Maycon de Mattos Batista, a financial analyst who worked with Anitta while she was an intern, said there had been a huge change in Anitta’s image, but not of her colour.
“I don’t believe it’s whitening; it’s more the way they are producing her with makeup, hairstylists and the way she dresses,” he said. “I don’t think that was because of pressure being put on her. She always liked to show off, sing and dance. That was a natural thing for her. I believe that it is because of this naturalness that she is where she is today.”
Leandro Silva de Souza, a racial equality activist in the north-eastern city of Salvador, said the prejudice lay not with society but with music producers and media executives. The public, he said, proved they were interested in music for its own sake by choosing Ellen Oléria – a black lesbian – as the recent winner of the talent show The Voice Brazil .
The Guardian was unable to reach Anitta for comment. But, in a recent interview, she described the need for identity to be self-defined.
“All-powerful is a woman who doesn’t need to be beautiful, but she has so much attitude that she is marvellous, she is powerful. What I try to pass on in my work for everyone is that we can be who we want.”


Intermediate
Health warnings that cover nearly two-thirds of cigarette packs and a ban on menthol cigarettes in the EU have come a step nearer after a vote in the European Parliament.
Menthol and other flavours will be banned from 2022, and MEPs also decided that most electronic cigarettes, which are increasingly popular as alternatives to tobacco products, do not need to be regulated in the same way as medicines.
Health officials and the e-cigarette industry in Britain want to clarify what this means  for instance, whether e-cigarette companies will have the same bans on sponsorship and promotion at sports events as tobacco firms.
The Department of Health would not comment on the advertising issue until officials had studied the MEPs decisions. But, in a statement, the DH said: We are very pleased to see tougher action on tobacco, with European controls banning flavoured cigarettes and the introduction of stricter rules on front-of-pack health warnings.
However, we are disappointed with the decision not to regulate nicotine-containing products (NCPs), including e-cigarettes, as medicines. We believe these products need to be regulated as medicines and will continue to make this point during further negotiations.
Smoking levels in England are at their lowest since records began  19.5 per cent  but we are determined to further reduce rates of smoking and believe this important step will help.
The UK e-cigarette industry, which welcomed the parliaments vote, said it was already in talks with the Advertising Standards Authority but added that it would not be sensible, reasonable or useful to ban all advertising.
MEPs decided e-cigarettes should only be regulated as medical products if manufacturers claimed they could prevent the smoking of tobacco  a decision criticized by the governments main medicines regulator.
They want to put the e-cigarettes, used by an estimated 1.3 million people in Britain, on the same legal basis as gums, patches and mouth sprays, which help smokers to quit, but the industry says that licensing is expensive and this would force alternatives to tobacco off the shelves.
The MEPs voted to put health warnings on 65% of each cigarette pack. At present, the warnings cover at least 30% on the front and 40% on the back. The UK government has delayed a decision on whether to follow Australia by introducing standardized packaging until there is evidence that this will reduce tobacco use.
The MEPs decision, which could become law in 2014, will be followed by negotiations with the EU Council of Ministers.
The UK continues to believe that medicinal regulation of NCPs is the best way to improve public health, said a spokesman for the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority.
Linda McAvan, Labour MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber and spokesperson on tobacco issues for the parliaments Socialists & Democrats group, said: We know that it is children, not adults, who start smoking. And, although there are fewer and fewer adult smokers in most member states, the World Health Organization figures show an increase in a number of our member states of young smokers.
We need to stop tobacco companies targeting young people with gimmicky products and we need to make sure that cigarette packs have effective warnings.
Martin Callanan, the Conservative MEP for North East England, said: Forcing e-cigarettes off the shelves would have been totally crazy. These are products that have helped many people stop smoking more harmful cigarettes and yet some MEPs wanted to make them harder to manufacture than ordinary tobacco.
British American Tobacco said the larger health warnings demanded by MEPs were not necessary and that a ban on mentholated cigarettes would increase demand for black-market products.


Intermediate
When the Taliban sent a gunman to shoot Malala Yousafzai in October 2012 as she rode home on a bus after school, they knew what they wanted: to silence the teenager and kill off her campaign for girls education.
Nine months and countless surgical operations later, she stood up at the United Nations on her 16th birthday on Friday to give a defiant reply. They thought that the bullet would silence us. But they failed, she said.
It was an unusual 16th birthday. Instead of blowing out candles on a cake, Malala sat in one of the main council chambers at the United Nations in the central seat usually reserved for world leaders.
She listened quietly as Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, described her as our hero, our champion; and as the former British prime minister and now UN education envoy, Gordon Brown, said what he called the words the Taliban never wanted her to hear: happy 16th birthday, Malala.
The event, named Malala Day, was the culmination of an extraordinary four years for the girl from Mingora in Pakistan. She was thrust into the public glare after she wrote a blog for the BBC Urdu service describing her experiences of struggling to get an education under the rising power of Taliban militants.
By 11, she was showing exceptional determination, calling personally on the US special representative to Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, to use his influence against the Talibans efforts to stop education for girls. By 14, she was on the radar of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who suggested her for the International Childrens Peace Prize, and, by 15, she became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize nominee in history.
But all this global attention came at a price. Death threats followed, and, on 9 October 2012, following a meeting of Pakistani Taliban leaders, the gunman was sent to silence her.
Multiple operations in Pakistan and the UK followed the attack on the bus, including the fitting of a titanium plate on her left forehead and a cochlear implant to restore her hearing. She now lives with her family in Birmingham and does what the Taliban tried to stop her doing: she goes to school every day. I am not against anyone, she said in the UN chamber, having taken this day out from the classroom. Neither am I here to speak in terms of personal revenge against the Taliban or any other terrorist group.
Malala responded to the violence of the Taliban with words against bullets. I do not even hate the Talib who shot me. Even if there was a gun in my hand and he stood in front of me, I would not shoot him.
She spoke confidently, with only an injured eye and a slightly drooping left side of her face to hint at such fresh traumas. There was one other allusion to the horror of her past: she wore a white shawl belonging to a woman who was also targeted by extremists but who, unlike Malala, did not survive: Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan.
The extremists are afraid of books and pens, the teenager continued. The power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women. The power of the voice of women frightens them.
She talked about the attack in June on a hospital in Quetta, capital of Baluchistan, and killings of female teachers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. That is why they are blasting schools every day  because they were and they are afraid of change, afraid of the equality that we will bring to our society.
And she gave her own opposing interpretation of Islam to the Talibans. They think that God is a tiny, little conservative being who would send girls to hell just because they go to school. The terrorists are misusing the name of Islam and Pashtun society for their own personal benefits. Islam is a religion of peace, humanity and brotherhood. Islam says that it is not only each childs right to get education but their duty and responsibility.
Such ability to say what normally remains unsaid  to give voice to young people who are normally silenced  has created its own response. The Stand with Malala petition, demanding education for the 57 million children around the world who do not go to school, has attracted more than four million signatures  more than a million were added after Malalas speech.
At the start of her speech, Malala said: I dont know where to begin my speech. I dont know what people are expecting me to say. She did not need to worry.


He arrived – in his own words, in 2005 – as “a simple, humble worker in God’s vineyard”. And on a grey, cold, blustery Monday in February, Pope Benedict XVI signed off in the same fashion: like an elderly labourer who can no longer ignore the pains in his back; who can no more count on the strength of his arms. Characteristically for this most traditionally minded of pontiffs, he made his excuses in Latin. The first German pope in modern times timed his departure to the minute. “From 28 February 2013, at 20.00 hours”, he told a gathering of cardinals in the Vatican, “the see of Rome, the see of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a conclave to elect the new supreme pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.”
Among those present was a Mexican prelate, Monsignor Oscar Sanchéz Barba, from Guadalajara. He was in Rome to be told the date for a canonization in which he has played a leading role. “We were all in the Sala del Concistoro in the third loggia of the Apostolic Palace,” he said. “After giving the date for the canonization, the twelfth of May, the Pope took a sheet of paper and read from it.
“We were all left …” – Sanchéz Barba looked around him in the Bernini colonnade that embraces St Peter’s Square, grasping for the word, as speechless as the “princes of the church” who had just heard the man they believe to be God’s representative on earth give up on the job. “The cardinals were just looking at one another,” Sanchéz Barba said.
Angelo Sodano, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, who must have been forewarned, delivered a brief and perhaps hurriedly composed speech. Before going on to assure the Pope of the cardinals’ loyalty and devotion, he said he and the others present had “listened to you with a sense of bewilderment, almost completely incredulous ”. At the end of his address, the Pope blessed those present, and left. “It was so simple; the simplest thing imaginable,” said Sanchéz Barba. “Then we all left in silence. There was absolute silence … and sadness.”
John Thavis, who spent 30 years reporting on the Holy See and whose book, The Vatican Diaries, is soon to be published, said he had had an intuition the Pope might be about to resign and timed his return to Rome from the US accordingly. A fellow-Vatican watcher confirmed this to be the case. Thavis noted that in the book-length interview Benedict gave to a German journalist, published as Light of the World in 2010, he had made it clear he considered it would be right to go if he felt he were no longer up to the job. “I asked myself: if I were Pope and wanted to resign, when would I choose? He has completed his series of books and most of his projects are off the ground. What is more, there were no dates in his calendar of events he personally had to attend. I thought the most likely date was 22 February, which is the Feast of the Chair of St Peter. So I got it wrong.”
The line emerging from the Vatican within hours of the announcement was that the Pope’s decision was a brave one. By this account, Benedict – never one to shrink from utterances and decisions that shocked – had taken it upon himself to bring his church face to face with reality: the reality that contemporary medicine can keep men alive far beyond the age at which they are up to grappling with the demands of running a vast global organization. Thavis agreed: “What I find particularly courageous is that he is prepared to say now, when he is not sick, that he is going; and that he’s doing it because he’s tired and not because he’s particularly ill.” But is that the whole story? Does he know more about his state of health than the Vatican has so far made public?
Benedict’s own account of his reasons makes it clear that he took into account not only his physical, but also his psychological condition: “In order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me.” Other theories will no doubt swirl around the Vatican in the days and weeks ahead, just as they did following the death of Pope John Paul I in 1978, 33 days after his election. Already there is speculation that something was about to come out about Benedict’s past. The Vatican will just as predictably dismiss such notions with contempt. But they are understandable all the same, for the transcendental importance of what Benedict has done cannot be overstated.
Emerging from St Peter’s Basilica, Julia Rochester, from London, who described herself as a lapsed Catholic, was still turning over the implications of the Pope’s resignation. “If you’re God’s chosen one, how do you choose not be chosen?” she mused. It is a question many practising Catholics will be asking of their priests in the weeks ahead. In his first speech as Pope – humbly disclaiming his fitness for the task – Benedict said: “I am consoled by the fact that the Lord knows how to work and how to act, even with insufficient tools.” At some point in the last eight years, it would seem, he ceased to believe that was true.


The roof is plastic held up by a crooked tree trunk and the desks just a jumble of cast-off chairs, but the students inside the Chemin des Dunes school are studying with the same intensity you would find in a seminar at Oxford University. At stake is the hope of a new life in France.
“The French language is very difficult but we try hard. If we come every day, maybe we can touch our dreams,” says Kamal, a refugee from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur district who comes to three or four hours of classes every day. “It’s a good thing to keep your brain active.”
The 29-year-old electrical engineer is one of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of refugees living in the “jungle” camp outside Calais who have applied for asylum in France and are eager to learn the language of what they hope will be their new home.
Like many of his fellow students, he is frustrated that media coverage of the sprawling tent-village has focused only on those who use it as a staging post for risky nightly bids to sneak on board cross-Channel lorries or trains.
“I need to tell people in the UK, they think that everyone wants to go there. But there are a lot of people here who want to stay in France,” Kamal said.
France is already home to more than a quarter of a million refugees, according to United Nations data – the country has taken in more than twice as many as the UK, even though the countries have similar populations.
There are a further 56,000 asylum seekers waiting for their claim to a French safe haven to be processed – the second highest number in Europe – while, in the UK, there are 36,000.
While the applicants wait for an answer, though, France does not provide them with any financial support or allow them to work – and the slow process can take many months. The jungle camp offers a free meal a day and a plastic roof over their heads so many decide to endure the basic conditions for a few extra months, rather than potentially jeopardize their asylum bid by working illegally.
The idea for the school was first touted by some of that group at the start of the summer, when they were bored with sitting around waiting and nervous about starting a new life in France totally unable to communicate. It was a reality within weeks, opening on 11 July.
“We did it to reunite the 'brothers' and, at the same time, they can learn French,” said Zimarco Jones, the school’s Nigerian founder, who arrived in Calais in 2013 and is still waiting for his asylum claim to be processed. “Now, we need to build another one,” he says with a grin.
At its busiest, the tiny classroom holds 30 pupils, crammed into five rows of desks in front of a big green chalkboard and pictures of cartoon animals for each letter of the French alphabet. There are also classes in English, art and t’ai chi but the biggest draw is the French lessons, provided by volunteers from Calais and beyond.
“French is not as easy as English but, two weeks ago, I decided there was no way to get to the UK,” says George, another Darfur refugee and dedicated student. He wanted to cross the Channel because he speaks fluent English but, with language classes, he says he is happy to settle in France.
“Anywhere there is peace, I can stay, no problem,” he says, already waiting at the classroom more than half an hour before his teachers arrive.
He admits he doesn’t know much about France but says that the classes are slowly helping him understand the country as well as the language.
Many of the volunteers at the jungle school are local teachers who are giving up their summer holidays.
Jenny Flahaut, 33, who works at a children’s home, was inspired to volunteer after seeing an advertisement on Facebook. “I saw these people in Calais every day and I wanted to do something for them,” she said.
She is particularly frustrated by the depiction of migrants in the media and by politicians who have never visited the camp, most recently David Cameron, the British prime minister, who in a much criticized speech talked about “swarms” of people trying to reach the UK.
“They don’t know them and have a bad vision but they are not like that,” Flahaut said as she prepared for an afternoon lesson. “Most of them are very good people. They are welcoming and friendly. They want to improve their life and make it better, and learning is part of that.”
The teachers and Zimarco are focused, now, on setting up a separate classroom to serve around 200 women and two dozen children. The women are outnumbered around ten to one by men in the Calais encampment and most feel uncomfortable attending classes with male students they don’t know, the volunteers say.
When that is finished, the former hotel worker whose work getting the school off the ground is remembered in its unofficial name – everyone in the camp just calls it “Zimarco’s school” – has more dreams for making the camp a place to live, not just survive. He wants to set up a football team for migrants, he explains over an instant cappuccino in the immaculate tent he calls home, and even dreams of changing the camp name. He hates “the jungle” because he says it implies the residents aren’t people.
“We have a discotheque, a house, a mosque, a school, shops,” he says. “We are not animals.”


Intermediate
Legos profits rose strongly in the first half of 2014, helped by the success of its Lego Movie, which has stormed box offices in the US and UK.
The Danish toy firms sales rose across Europe, the Americas and Asia as children bought products linked to the film. The film, released in February 2014, took more than $250m in the US and 31m in the UK by the first weekend in April.
The movie cost about $60m to make and has been described as an almost perfect piece of marketing. It is entertaining and aimed at consumers who are likely to go out and buy the companys products.
Legos finance director, John Goodwin, said that the Lego Movie products had a positive effect on profits during the first half of 2014. They are now waiting to see how the products will continue to develop after the launch of the movie on DVD in the second half of 2014.
Jrgen Vig Knudstorp, Legos chief executive, said: It is a very satisfactory result that shows our significant growth in recent years in a tough economic environment. The result for the first half of 2014 is an outcome of our ability to develop, launch and distribute Lego products, which children all over the world put at the top of their wishlists.
Lego, based in the small town of Billund, started producing its plastic bricks in 1949 and became a popular and well-known childrens toy around the world by the 1970s. But the group lost its way and was on the brink of collapse in 2003. Knudstrop took over as chief executive, ending 70 years of family rule, and got rid of hundreds of surplus products. He then refocused the business on its bricks.
The company opened its first factory in China in April and opened an office in Shanghai to start expansion into the worlds second-biggest economy.