Big Ben, one of the UK's most iconic landmarks, is 150 years old on Sunday 31st May 2009. It is the world's largest four-faced chiming clock.

The nick name Big Ben is usually used to describe the clock, the tower which houses it (designed by Pugin) as well as the large bell lodged inside. Purists prefer to reserve the term for the large or great bell though there is some uncertainly as to the 'Ben' the nick name derives from.

There are two contenders the commissioner of the works Sir Benjamin Hall and a heavyweight boxer of the time of its casting Benjamin Caunt.

During the second world war there was heavy bombing on London including on the Palace of Westminster. The chamber of the House of Commons was destroyed and whilst the clock face of Big Ben was damaged the clock never stopped working or chiming the quarter hours as it still does today.

• The bell – or Great Bell, nicknamed Big Ben – weighs 13.5 tonnes (30,000lbs)

• The clock was first started on May 31, 1859. Big Ben first struck the hour on July 11 that year

• The BBC first broadcast the chimes on December 31, 1923

• The chimes are based on Handel’s Messiah, a phrase from the aria I Know that My Redeemer Liveth. They were set to verse and the words inscribed on a plaque in the clock room: All through this hour Lord be my Guide That by Thy Power No foot shall slide

• When a bomb destroyed the Commons chamber in 1941, glass was blown out of the south dial but the clock kept going

Both clubs caught their stride at the end of their respective conference finals. Each snowballing with momentum, we're bound to have a colossal collision between these two giants.

After dismantling the Nuggets, the Lakers are back in the championship round, but staring into the eyes of new adversaries. Though questioned and criticized by critics in their series against Houston and Denver, Phil Jackson and Kobe pulled out victories, telling everyone in the basketball world, "we know we're doing".

Dwight Howard, sick of the media hyping the Kobe/Lebron NBA finals showdown, took it upon himself to erase the Cavaliers from the playoff picture in game six. 40 points and 14 rebounds later, he and the Magic find themselves somewhere the team hasn't been in over a decade. Here in new territory, Superman and crew get to prove to the world just how hungry they are.

Many people out there won't give Orlando much of a chance at winning this series, and for good reason; the Lakers are battle tested, more experienced, and have pieces that the Cavs didn't have to take down the Magic.

Bynum and Pau Gasol are very capable on both ends of the court. While on defense, Stan Van Gundy won't be able to cheat off of them to focus on Kobe without paying a price. The Cavaliers did not make the Magic pay for doubling Lebron, but if SVG implements a similar strategy for Kobe, don't expect the same outcome. One glaring problem for the Magic is the Lakers' size down on the block. With Pau and Bynum are on the floor at the same time, I doubt Lewis playing power forward will suffice defensively speaking. Additionally, if Phil runs plays for his big men early and often, Howard is in danger of getting into early foul trouble. It'll be interesting to see whether or not SVG decides to play Gortat and Howard together more often for matchup purposes.

That being said, the Magic can also impose their will on offense if they take the initiative. Playing Rashard at PF allows them to stretch the floor (with Turkoglu, Howard, Lee, and Alston filling the other four spots), drawing Gasol out of the paint. This gives Dwight some room in the middle to execute some post moves, and get Bynum in foul trouble. When the double team comes, Howard knows the kick out to one of his open shooters. If the Magic can consistently hit from behind the arc, then they've got a shot at winning this thing.

For this reason, I think Phil Jackson will choose not to play Gasol and Bynum at the same time, instead opting to have Odom play big minutes at the 4. Kobe, Ariza, and Odom are going to give Orlando's wing-men lots of trouble on defense, and have more than enough offense ability between the three of them keep Orlando defenders honest while the Lakers have the ball.

Much of this battle will be dependent on the coaches. Both teams have multiple options, and it really comes down to how the coaches choose to adjust based on what's happening.

In series 3, Britain’s Got Talent become more popular than ever, with an especially large international audience thanks in large part to one of the most overrated reality TV contestants in recent memory, singer Susan Boyle.

As much hype as there was surrounding Boyle, mounting speculation during the semi-final rounds was that she was no sure thing to win, as there was a lot of talent (in addition to some acts that slipped through merely because they were desperate to fill 40 slots).
The top ten who competed in the final were:

2 Grand: grandfather and granddaughter singing duo (on her own, the granddaughter had potential, though either way Callum Francis should have advanced instead)
Aidan Davis: 12 year old dancer (who many said was better than last year’s winner George Sampson)
Diversity: male dance group
Flawless: male dance group
Hollie Steel: 10 year old singer (who many felt was put through with a pity vote after she broke down crying during her semi-final performance)
Julian Smith: saxophonist
Shaheen Jafargholi: 12 year old singer (arguably the best singer in the competition)
Shaun Smith: singer
Stavros Flatly: Greek dancing father and son seriously needing to start wearing shirts
Susan Boyle: singer

The top three acts as voted for by the public are: Susan Boyle, Julian Smith, and Diversity.

In third place is Julian Smith. The Britain’s Got Talent 2009 winner is Diversity. The group dance acts normally get lost in the shuffle, but their creativity made them stand out, which can be attributed largely to choreographer and lead dancer Ashley Banjo. With their win, they are now £100,000 richer and will be performing for the queen at the Royal Variety. As for the other acts, there are several who can make careers out of their talents, not the least of which is runner up Susan Boyle, who Simon Cowell will no doubt be signing any day now.

A man aged 29 has fathered 21 children with 11 different women, it emerged yesterday.

Desmond Hatchett's brood came to light after authorities in Tennessee in the U.S. took him to court for non-payment of child support.

He has apparently set a U.S. record but said: 'It just happened.'

He added that he would not have any more children. 'I'm done. I'll say I'm done,' he said.

Hatchett, who earns a minimal wage, told TV reporters he knows the names and ages of all his offspring.

Their ages range from newborn to 11 years old.

Authorities in Knoxville said they plan to take half of his monthly salary to pay for the youngsters but officials said that would work out to just over £1 a week for each.

His lawyer Keith Pope said: 'The children can't all be supported by Desmond, so the state of Tennessee has had to step in.'

Many Knoxville residents called for him to be castrated.

He even boasted of fathering four children by different women in the same year.

Hatchett's name appeared on court documents 11 times representing 15 of his 21 children.

U.S. authorities are now braced for more women coming forward to claim Hatchett is the father of their children after he appeared on local TV.

He said the women he was involved with all knew he had other children.

One mother, who has two children with Hatchett, said she should get £44 a month but rarely receives any child support.

'It's frustrating, but usually, when I ask he gives it to me,' she said.

Authorities in Knoxville ordered Hatchett to court to explain how he intends to pay child support.

He arrived for the hearing with just over £300.

A Russian naval ship carrying out target practice off the Russian Baltic Sea coast accidentally rained shell fragments on a village near St. Petersburg, officials said Friday.

Nobody was injured when the fragments from shells fired by an anti-submarine ship in the Gulf of Finland fell on houses in the village of Zelyonaya Roshcha, close to the border with Finland, regional military prosecutor Igor Lebedev said. An investigation has begun, Lebedev said.

Russia's NTV television said that the ship fired its six-barrel anti-aircraft gun near the shore, and the exploding shells rained shards of metal on the village. It showed metal fragments several centimeters (inches) long which were spread all over the area.

"Some people thought that a war started," one villager, Yuri Mikhailov, was quoted as telling the RIA Novosti news agency. "It was like a hail of steel."

A Chinese man who has been suffering from a bleeding nose for years is feeling much better after a 10cm long leech was removed from his nose, which had been living there for five years, reports China Daily.

According to the daily, the 73 year old man named Fu, who is from a village in the south of the country, decided to visit a village doctor after his nose bled for ten days in a row.

Fu thinks that the leech entered his nose five years ago, when the bleeding and blocked nose started, maybe at the moment when he drank water from a spring in the mountains, whilst he was gathering herbs.

A new member of the arenavirus family, Lujo virus, has been identified in patients who died during an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever in late 2008. Sequence analysis reveals that Lujo is a new arenavirus, genetically distinct from other members of the family which includes Lassa virus.

A patient with unexplained hemorrhagic fever was identified in Zambia in September 2008. After transfer to Sandton for further care, four health care workers involved with the case also became ill. The first four patients died, and the fifth survived after treatment with ribavirin.

Sequence analysis of total liver and serum RNA from the patients revealed the presence of a new member of the arenavirus family. The virus has been provisionally named Lujo based on its origin in Lusaka, Zambia, and Johannesburg, South Africa. Phylogenetic trees were prepared from the viral genome sequences (example at left). These trees show that Lujo virus branches off the root of the Old World arenaviruses. This analysis suggests that Lujo virus is a member of a novel genetic lineage, and is distinct from previously characterized viruses in this family.

It’s not clear how the index case was infected by Lujo virus. Most arenavirus infections are acquired by contact with infected rodent excreta, by inhalation of dust or aerosolized virus-containing particles, or ingestion of contaminated foods. At least one arenavirus might be transmitted from bats, and this possibility should not be ruled out for Lujo virus. The index patient likely transmitted the infection to the four health care workers via aerosols or infected body fluids.

There are several noteworthy aspects of this emerging story. First, it is clear that pyrosequencing can be used to rapidly identify new pathogens. In this case, sequences were obtained within 72 hours of receipt of clinical specimens. Lujo virus appears to be highly lethal in humans, based on the deaths of 4 out of 5 of the infected patients. However the number of infections identified so far is small, and the lethality ratio might fall as additional infections are studied. Now that the sequence of Lujo virus is known, reagents can be produced which will enable rapid identification of new cases by more conventional diagnostic approaches such as polymerase chain reaction. Lujo is a new member of the arenavirus family and is genetically distinct from both Old and New World arenaviruses. Why it has just appeared in humans is not known, but possible reasons include the more frequent contact between humans and wild animal species, and better and more aggressive detection methods. It is likely that a virus closely related to Lujo is present in either rodents or bats but has not been previously detected. As we have said many times before, the zoonotic pool is very deep.

I am struck by similarities between the events surrounding the discovery of Lujo virua and Lassa virus in 1969. In both outbreaks, Columbia University Medical center was involved, and a nurse who was infected by the index patient survived as a consequence of antiviral therapy.