50.

It began with three friends searching for an easier way to share videos. One - Jawed Karim -

uploaded the site's first clip - a movie of himself dressed in an anorak at San Diego Zoo.

By the end of its first year YouTube was broadcasting 25 million videos a day and it was soon

bought by the internet giant Google. In 2010 24 hours of video are now uploaded every

minute.

The site's also become an important political tool - almost a million people watched a

wounded girl dying during protests in Iran in July 2009. President Barack Obama

successfully used the site during his election campaign.

Thousands of teenagers around the world have also used the site to upload embarrassing

videos of friends and its creators have been forced to deny claims that it's encouraged

bullying.

With online habits and fads constantly changing no-one's sure what the next five years hold

for YouTube. Some believe it could end up as a TV channel beamed into our living rooms.

Others predict it will be overtaken by new technology and dumped on the internet scrap

heap.

Maddy Savage, BBC News

51.

Jeopardy is one of America's oldest and most popular quiz shows. But this time, inside the

brightly-lit studio, a contest billed as 'man versus machine' - the programme's producers

pitted two of their most successful contestants ever against a computer. Known as Watson,

the computer is a giant piece of hardware, equivalent in size to several fridges. And over three

programmes, Watson beat his human contenders with ease.

In a split-second, Watson is able to digest the question and try and match it against huge

amounts of information it has at its disposal. It very quickly assesses how good a match it

thinks it has and buzzes either very quickly, or not so quickly, reflecting how confident it is

that it has the right answer.

Watson is also able to notice nuances in language, between say 'bat' the animal and 'bat' used

in sports. On a prime-time US TV show with millions of viewers it was great publicity for

IBM. But the company says Watson the computer is an IT genius and a breakthrough in

computing.

Tom Burridge, BBC News

52.

Forest Whittaker's portrayal of Idi Amin has been hailed as a masterpiece but many African directors are groaning at what they see as another negative Hollywood film about Africa. 'The Last King of Scotland' was shot in Uganda but the money, script and main stars were western. The film is about one of Africa's worst ever dictators. The Nigerian director Mahmoud Ali Balugan believes 'the Last King of Scotland' follows a typical pattern.

Mahmoud Ali Balugan:

Hollywood is not being fair to Africa. Most of the films they've taken out of Africa have been negative films, films portraying Africa in a bad light. There are so many positive things about Africa that Hollywood could have latched onto and even attempts when they've taken African stories that are positive, they still manage to inject some negative things about Africa.

'The Last King of Scotland' will be shown at Fespaco but it has no chance of winning the main prize. The Nnengo stallion, as the award for the best feature film is known, is open only to African films. Hundreds of movies will be shown during Fespaco, the majority made by African directors. The festival is vital for the continent's film makers since their work is often not widely shown around the world. One of the major themes of this year's festival is Africa's tortured relationship with the west, with several films making a strong case that Africa continues to be exploited.

James Copnall, BBC News, Burkino Faso

53.

It's more than eight months since the Brazilian government announced a package of

measures to combat deforestation, after satellite observations showed the rate of destruction

in the Amazon was picking up again. So far, there's been little evidence of a slowdown,

despite a string of raids on illegal sawmills and moves to cut off credit to farmers operating

outside the law.

The latest initiative concentrates on the impunity with which illegal deforestation is still

carried out in Brazil, according to the government's own account. The environment minister

Carlos Minc reckons that only one in ten offenders is prosecuted and fewer than one in 200

convicted in the courts.

As well as naming the top 100 deforesters, Mr Minc is planning to set up a task force with

the prosecuting authorities and environmental enforcement agencies, to ensure that more are

brought to justice. He's also promised to step up efforts to bring greater legality to farming

and forestry activities in the regions of the Amazon where most deforestation has taken place.

Tim Hirsch, BBC News, Sao Paulo

54.

These championships could not have been more different than the cold, wet and windy experience that was the last edition two years ago in Helsinki. For athletes and spectators, track and field is at its best when the weather is fine, but with the mercury soaring above the thirty degrees mark and soaking humidity, Osaka has taken it to the extreme.

But there were few complaints and although no world records have been set, the running, throwing and jumping has been of the highest quality. The most successful athlete has been the American sprinter, Tyson Gaye, who will leave Japan with three gold medals.

There was much to enjoy here in Osaka but the overall attendance has been disappointing. The sports governing body is under pressure to attract a new audience. One idea under consideration is to make the schedule more compact, by reducing the length of the championships.

But at least there have been no scandals - yet. At least one drug sample is suspicious, but the organisers say it will take at least a week to determine whether there's been a doping violation.

Alex Capstick, BBC, Osaka

55.

The President's award from the English Speaking Union is given for innovation in the use new technologies for the teaching and advancement of English. The Teacher is a series featuring a slightly madcap character explaining such idioms as ‘ants in your pants’, ‘monkey business’ and ‘to let the cat out of the bag’. It's designed to be eye-catching, funny, quirky and memorable.

The producer of the series Neil Edgeller says the Teacher character is based on a composite character of people he met while an English teacher himself.

The Teacher is aimed at upper-intermediate English learners, although is intended to be interesting and funny in its own right. There are nine videos available online now with another six to follow.

Prince Philip, President of the English Speaking Union, will present the award at BuckinghamPalacelater this month. The Teacher will attend, resulting in a special edition episode, ‘The Teacher Goes toBuckinghamPalace’.

56.

China has been working on its space programme since the 1970s but in 2003 it sent an astronaut into

space, becoming only the third country to launch a person into orbit. Since then, the country's

ambitions and capability have grown to the point where the US space agency now thinks China could

put people on the Moon within the next decade, if it so wishes.

Dr Michael Griffin, who has been the head of NASA since 2005, told the BBC that China could

achieve this milestone before the return mission planned by the United States for the year 2020.

President George Bush announced the American Moon initiative in 2004, but Dr Griffin would not be

drawn on whether it mattered if China got there before the United States. He even hinted that the two

countries could collaborate on space projects in future.

Dr. Michael Griffin:

"I think we're always better off if we try to find arenas where we can collaborate rather than quarrel

and I would remind your viewers that the first first US-Soviet human space co-operation took place in

1975 at virtually the height of the Cold War and it led in the end, you know, eighteen years later to

discussions about an international space station programme in which we are involved together today."

Though China has given no timetable, some observers think a manned Moon mission is inevitable.

Dr Griffin said humans needed to continue advancing the frontiers of space exploration, regardless of

which countries made the breakthroughs.

Paul Rincon, BBC science reporter

57.

Beijing has brought in a whole range of measures to reduce the city's notorious air

pollution ahead of the Olympics. They include removing more than one million cars from

the roads of the capital, shutting down polluting factories and closing dusty construction

sites.

But so far, those policies don't appear to be working. For the fourth day in a row, there is a

thick layer of grey smog hanging over Beijing.

Now some officials are suggesting they might take more drastic action to improve air quality,

including banning 90 per cent of all private cars from the streets of Beijing.

So far those plans haven't been implemented but with less than two weeks to the Olympics,

Beijing hasn't got much time to get rid of the smog.

Daniel Griffiths, BBC News, Beijing

58.

It's taken seven years of planning at a cost of 40 billion dollars. Nothing has been left to

chance in China's bid to show the world what it can do. The organisers will be hoping issues,

such as air pollution, internet access, and political demonstrations against China, can be put

to one side once the Olympics begin. Tiu Mingte, a senior official with the Beijing Olympic

organisers, says the Chinese people are proud and excited about the Games:

TIU MINGTE: Since you've been here, you can see, you can feel the atmosphere, the

enthusiasm as expressed by the general public. And you switch on the TV, you will see - so

much we are talking about the preparation of the Olympics, and people like it, are looking

forward to it.

The President of the IOC [International Olympic Committee], Jacques Rogge, has repeatedly

defended the decision to let China host the Olympics. He said he hoped the Games would

help the world to understand China, and for China to understand the world. His organisation

will be watching closely to see whether the most expensive Games in history pays off.

Alex Capstick, BBC News, Beijing

59.

Harbin is one of China's coldest cities. In winter, temperatures can drop as low as minus 35

degrees centigrade. Despite this harsh climate, the city has turned itself into a popular

winter tourist destination. Visitors arrive from across Asia to experience the cold - and see

the city's ice sculptures. Animals, people, even famous buildings are turned into intricate

sculptures that are lit up at night.

But, there's a problem - winters just aren't as cold as they used to be. Last year, Harbin had

its warmest year since records began. And that means the city's famous ice sculptures are

melting earlier.

The ice festival traditionally lasts until the end of February. But this year, there are fears

the ice will have melted long before then. And this is not just a worry for

environmentalists. Harbin's ice festival is the city's biggest source of income. If the ice

goes, so do the tourists.

60.

For three minutes a collective wail was heard across the town of Beichuan as air raid sirens

and car horns sounded the exact time when the earthquake hit China one week ago. Workers

here laid wreaths outside the town's school. At 2.28 in the afternoon, last Monday, it was

engulfed in a landslide, hundreds of children died.

To the side of the mourners, bodies lay waiting to be buried. Rescue work has now resumed

and two women were found alive here this morning, but these glimmers of hope are

increasingly rare.

Elsewhere in the province, two hundred rescue workers have been lost in a landslide; the

aftershocks continue.

Quentin Sommerville, BBC News, Beichuan

61.

Concentrating Solar Power is a breakthrough in energy production. Using stacks of mirrors, it intensifies sunlight so much that a single plant can provide the needs of a modern city.

CSP scientists are hoping to develop especially the Sahara- the world's largest hot desert. CSP mirrors across only one per cent of the Sahara, they say, would meet the electricity needs of the whole world - with no pollution and no greenhouse gasses.

The first CSP tower is already producing, atSevillein southernSpain, where Europe almost touches theMaghreb. Similar projects are planned inMorocco, inEgypt, and theGulf States. Eventually, the idea is to export electricity toEurope.Algeriais already in talks withGermanyabout selling clean, green power.

The projects will of course take huge investment. CSP scientists hope that European countries will take the lead and forge new partnerships with Africa, seeing their own future at stake.

62.

The Dark Knight has become the biggest grossing film, in its first weekend, of all time. It

made 155 million dollars in US cinemas, surpassing a record set last year by Spiderman 3.

The movie was one of the most widely anticipated of the summer, in part because it features

Heath Ledger in one of his last performances.

The actor died from an accidental drug overdose shortly after filming his role as Batman's

nemesis, The Joker. It's a performance that has been widely praised, leading to speculation

that Ledger could receive a posthumous nomination for an Oscar.

The Dark Knight is on course to become a hugely profitable film. It cost less money to

make than it has already made in the US and 20 other countries.

Peter Bowes, BBC, Los angeles

63.

One of Britain's greatest ever writers, Charles Dickens is most associated with Victorian London and in particular the misery and poverty we call Dickensian, so he hasn't - up until now - been much used as a literary brand. Now on an industrial estate in the rather run down town of Chatham in Kent where the writer grew up, Dickens World is opening, a theme park dedicated, so it says, to giving a flavour of life in Dicken's England.

The centrepiece is a boat ride through an elaborate interactive stage set of picturesque slums and their associated smells, to conjure up an illusion of real Victorian life - and misery. It's ignited a familiar debate of entertainment versus education. While critics have attacked the trivialisation of Dickens's legacy, the organisers reply that the writer was a great popular entertainer who would have heartily approved of such a theme park.

The critics say the real Dickens experience is in the books - and trips down fake Victorian sewers won't get people reading. But it is of course ultimately a business proposition, investing 120 million dollars, and predicting 300,000 visitors a year. That shows a lot of confidence in both the pulling power of Dickens and of theme park versions of misery and poverty.

Lawrence Pollard, BBC

64.

The Sopranos ended its six-year run on American television earlier this year. The mob drama is widely regarded as a ground-breaking series, and the award for best drama, a befitting tribute to one of the most popular shows of the past decade. But the programme's main star, James Gandolfini, failed to win the award for best actor. Instead, James Spader took top honours for his role in the drama Boston Legal.

Sally Field was named best actress in a drama for Brothers and Sisters. She plays a mother whose son serves in the Iraq war. In her acceptance speech, she said if mothers ruled the world, there would be no wars in the first place.

Dame Helen Mirren was honoured for her long-running role in the detective series Prime Suspect. By contrast, the award for best comedy series went to a newcomer, 30 Rock, a sitcom about a TV show. America Ferrera was named best actress in a comedy for Ugly Betty.

The other winners included the veteran singer Tony Bennett who won the award for best performance on a variety show, and the former vice-president Al Gore picked up an Emmy for his interactive TV channel that shows videos made by viewers.

Peter Bowes, BBC News, Los Angeles

65.

China hasn't experienced weather this bad in decades. And as the country prepares for Chinese New Year, the disruption couldn't come at a worse time. Over 100,000 people are stranded in Guangzhou railway station in the south. It may climb to as many as 600,000 as more people arrive to make their journeys home for the Spring Festival. Travellers have been evacuated to nearby sports stadiums and exhibition centres.

Across China around nineteen airports have shut because of the weather. Around half the provinces in the country have had to start rationing power, according to the state media. The government has suspended coal exports in favour of home consumption. At least a dozen people died over the weekend because of heavy rains and the snowfall.

The Spring Festival is China's most important holiday when people journey home to be with their families. For millions of the country's migrant workers it's their only holiday. Some two billion journeys were made during the festival last year, making it the largest migration of people on the planet. And even without the severe weather, conditions on overcrowded trains and buses are terrible. The holiday stretches China's transport system to its very limits.

Quentin Sommerville, BBC News, Shanghai

66.

67.

The organisers of the exhibition say many of the 160,000 people that have visited the Train of Commemoration since it began its journey through Germany in November have been moved to tears. Their spokesman, Hans-Ruediger Minow, says Germans born at the end of the war, and especially men, weep when they see how their parents hid the truth and covered up the crimes committed in Nazi Germany. Mr Minow says the high number of visitors is proof that there are people in Germany interested in confronting their country's history.

The exhibition's organisers have, however, strongly criticised the lack of support from the national railway operator, Deutsche Bahn -- the successor of the Reichsbahn which the Nazis used to carry out the deportations of millions of Holocaust victims. Last week, the German government urged Deutsche Bahn to drop its demand of more than $110,000 in fees for the train's use of its network. The rail operator has also been criticised for refusing the exhibition the use ofBerlin's new Central Station in the centre of the capital, offering the train the Ostbahnhof in formerEast Berlin instead.

The Train of Commemoration will continue its journey later this month and is due to arrive at Auschwitz inPoland on May 8th, the anniversary of the end of the war inEurope.

Marcus Erbe, BBC

68.

Boiled, baked, roasted or fried the potato is a versatile vegetable. It also produces nutritious food quicker and on less land than any other major crop. Which is why the FAO is promoting it.

It's calling for photographers around the world - amateur and professional - to focus on the humble spud's potential to feed more people. Although not generally regarded as particularly photogenic, the organisers say that the photographers who explore the world of the potato will find plenty of inspiration. And the best portraits will win up to four thousand dollars.

The potato was first cultivated by hunter-gatherers in the Andes thousands of years ago. After the Spanish conquest of Peru in the sixteenth century the tuber was brought to Europe where it was considered an exotic gift. By the nineteenth century it had become a staple across the continent.

It is a good source of energy and protein and a medium-sized potato provides half the recommended daily intake of vitamin C. As the global population increases and pressure on land and water in developing countries intensifies, the potato could just prove to be buried treasure.

Kate Poland, BBC

69.

'Not in my backyard' is becoming the motto for millions of Italians being asked to accept unwanted trash from Naples. Every merchant ship that docks at ports in Sicily and Sardinia after sailing from the mainland is being scrutinised to see if it is attempting to land some of the accumulated rubbish from the Naples area that the Italian authorities are trying to clear.

Up to two hundred thousand tons of stinking household trash is being bulldozed by the army and loaded onto cargo ships and freight trains to destinations in various parts of Italy. Local landfills around Naples are all full.

In Sicily and Sardinia several protesters have been injured in scuffles with the police after ships docked with Neapolitan waste. Two men were arrested on charges of planning to hurl firebombs against the residence of the head of Sardinia's local regional government, Renato Soru.

The government in Rome has asked regional authorities all over the country to accept some of this huge accumulation of waste that Neapolitans fear is now a health hazard. A former police chief and an army general are in charge of operations to clean up the port city. Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has added his voice to those criticising the authorities for allowing the rubbish crisis to get out of hand. He said Italy's image abroad had been seriously damaged.

David Willey, BBC News, Rome

70.

71.

The economies of Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Chile have all boomed in recent years on the

back of exporting more commodities to China like soya, iron ore, copper and other metals.

But Mexico has mostly suffered from competition with China particularly as it supplies

similar manufactured products like shoes and clothing to the US market. Indeed, many in

Mexico see China as more of a threat than an opportunity. They point to the loss of foreign

investment in Mexico's assembly industries, which has shifted to China because wages there

are generally much lower. Mexico also has a large trade deficit with China of more than

twenty billion dollars.

President Calderon is hoping to change all this. He is keen for Chinese companies to come to

Mexico as China's foreign investment last year was a meagre four million dollars. That

compares unfavourably with the hundreds of millions of dollars Chinese companies have

invested in Peru's mining industry and Venezuela's oil and gas sectors. Mexican law prevents

foreign investment in the state-owned petrol company, but the president is still hoping for

joint business ventures in the steel, car and computer industries.

A large trade delegation from Brazil is also in China this week. Businessmen from Latin

America's two largest economies are clearly keen to get a share of the growing demand from

China's burgeoning middle class.

72.

Investigators have concluded engineer Robert Sanchez - who was in charge of a busy

passenger train - failed to apply the brakes before a red light and ploughed into an oncoming

freight train. 25 people, including Sanchez, died and more than 130 were hurt in the collision

in Chatsworth, north of Los Angeles. Sanchez was sending text messages from his mobile

phone that day and some teenagers told a local news station they received one such message

from him one minute before the crash.

The California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates transportation in the state, has

now banned rail employees from using mobile phones while working on a moving train. If

they do so, they could now face a fine of up to $20,000. The measure strengthens an existing

ban issued by the train company.

It was also partly prompted by another crash in June - then 14 people were hurt when two

San Francisco trams collided. Investigators believe one of the drivers in that accident may

also have been using a mobile phone.

Rajesh Mirchandani, BBC News, Los Angeles

73.

Michel Deronzier grazes his herd of 70 dairy cattle on fields just outside the village of Villaz,

in the pastoral bliss of a French Alpine mountainside. Several of the animals wear cowbells -

not for decoration, he insists, but for the very practical reason that they can be more easily

located if they stray.

But several of Monsieur Deronzier's neighbours have had enough. They say that the constant

chiming of the cowbells is stopping them sleeping, and now one of them has filed a suit at the

courts demanding that the herd be kept away.

Monsieur Deronzier is naturally furious, but he might be comforted if he knew that his case is

far from unique. In recent years across France there's been a series of law-suits over such

rustic nuisances as the crowing of cocks, the quacking of ducks or the clanging of church

bells.

It's a reflection of the changing sociological face of the French provinces. Most of the law

suits are filed by a new type of rural inhabitant: former town-dwellers who've come in

search of the silence and instead find life in the countryside disquietingly loud.

Hugh Schofield, BBC News, Paris

74.

Product placement is banned in many EU states at the moment. But these new rules will allow them to legalise it. Makers of fictional programming, like drama, soaps, light entertainment, will soon be able to make money from including products or services or references to them in their content.

There are some exceptions; it still won't be allowed in news, documentaries and children's programming and there are conditions too. It mustn't be too obvious, though of course that definition is subjective and could change over time, and viewers must also be told when it's happening, but not, interestingly, which products out of the many on show are being paid for.

Consumer organisations across Europe oppose the introduction of product placement, saying it would undermine trust in broadcasters. But many independent programme makers who are getting less and less money from regular advertising say the extra money will be helpful to bolster their budgets. EU lawmakers agreed with them. Member states have to pass all this into their own law by the end of 2009.

Dominic Laurie, BBC News, Brussels

75.

The Kremlin is more usually the scene for power struggles than power sharing, so all eyes now are on Russia's President-elect. The question is: how will he work with the man whose support landed him the top job? Dmitry Medvedev has promised to continue Vladimir Putin's policies. Mr Putin is set to become Prime Minister.

It's not clear who will really be in charge. Mr Medvedev has already tried to show he'll be his own man - stressing, for instance, that as President he will control foreign policy. But he also said that he and Mr Putin would work together to choose the cabinet.

To their supporters, it's the perfect result. Their opponents are angry at what they allege was an election plagued with violations. There are claims that public sector and other workers were pressurised into voting for Mr Medvedev. Election officials say they're aware of nothing which could have altered the result.

James Rodgers, BBC News, Moscow

76.

Ko San beat thirty-six thousand other hopefuls for the chance to becomeSouth Korea's first man in space. At a cost of twenty million dollars the thirty-one year old had been sent by his government to the Russian Federal Space Agency, training for a Soyuz rocket mission to the International Space Station in early April.

But following what are being described as breaches of protocol, the first South Korean in space will now be a woman, as Mr Ko is being replaced by his understudy on the training programme, a twenty-nine year old engineer, Yi So Yeon. The Russian authorities say that Mr Ko mistakenly sent a mission-training manual home along with his belongings, and then violated another rule by acquiring a document he was not authorised to see, reportedly a set of instructions for a spacecraft pilot.

The South Korean government says that these were minor violations, and that Mr Ko will remain on the Russian training programme, albeit now in the role of reserve astronaut. South Korea has ambitious plans for its space programme, and is developing its own rocket launching capability for sending satellites into low Earth orbit from later this year.

John Sudworth, BBC Correspondent,Seoul

77.

It was a sell out show - almost 16,000 people packed into Vancouver's GM Place to see the five together on stage for the first time since they broke up.

Many had come dressed as Spice Girls saying they had waited their whole lives to see them.

The five women had a lot to prove in this show and the verdict from fans afterwards was that they had impressed.

Many leaving said they thought it was amazing and most had bought some of the Spice Girls merchandise that was on sale.

With their share of that, plus the percentage of the tickets sales and sponsorship deals, the girls are looking at ten million pounds or twenty million dollars each.

Heather Alexander, BBC News, Vancouver

78.

79.

Under the new system, travellers to Britainfrom 133 countries - covering three quarters of the world's population - must now have their fingerprints checked against a database compiled by officials. The British Government says it's necessary to deter people from using false identities when they apply to enter the UK, including would-be asylum-seekers who've previously been turned down or deported, people with criminal records and wanted terrorists.

Nearly five hundred cases of identity swapping have been detected so far and the scheme is now fully operational three months earlier than expected. The Government also says it's exceeded its target for deporting foreign national prisoners at the end of their sentence, with more than four thousand removed last year.

By the end of this year the Government says it will begin issuing compulsory identity cards for all non-European Union foreign nationals in Britain, though it says the much more controversial plans to force British citizens to hold ID cards are some years away and require a change in the law.

Andy Tighe, BBC