My Blog

In the small village of Bagnone, the hunt is on for the winner of Italy’s massive lottery jackpot, thought to be Europe’s biggest ever. Speculation is rife among the Tuscan village’s 2,000 residents as to who owns the lucky Superenalotto ticket – worth 146.9m euros (￡128.3m; $211.8m). Candidates include a woodcutter, builder and shopkeeper. Italian [...]

The winner of a 360m yuan ($52.7m; ￡32m) lottery in China remains a mystery after he appeared at a news conference in sunglasses and a mask. He took nearly three weeks to claim his prize, fuelling speculation that the lottery had been fixed. The winner, from Anyang in central China’s Henan province, announced he was [...]

For as long as South Africa’s opposition parties champion pro-business policies, they will fail to threaten the power of the incoming African National Congress government, led by the controversial Jacob Zuma. Most poor black South Africans see the long-established Democratic Alliance (DA) party, which retained its status as the official opposition in the national election, [...]

The Syrian capital, Damascus, is becoming a popular destination for foreigners who want to learn Arabic. The BBC’s Paul Moss, who spent time there earlier this year, was inspired to study hard by his encounters with the city’s people. The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters Alex sent a text message to say he had been [...]

As the US tries to restart peace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, Jeremy Bowen says the fundamental differences between the two sides will need to be addressed before there can be a realistic chance of success. Israelis are good at welcoming family and friends. Shops in the concourse at Tel Aviv airport sell [...]

“Where were you? Where were you?,” screams the veiled woman on the screen, before breaking into heaving sobs. She has already lost one son to drug-related gang violence and the other is late home. “I was really crying, I wasn’t acting,” says Nisrin Rihan, one of the non-professional actors catapulted into the international limelight by [...]

The Financial Services Authority is guilty of a “systematic failure of duty” over the Northern Rock crisis, a key parliamentary committee has said. The Treasury committee said the UK’s financial watchdog should have spotted the bank’s “reckless” business plan. To help prevent any further crisis, the report calls for the Bank of England to set [...]

A number of measures have been introduced in recent months to protect people’s savings amid the financial crisis. The system was changed to ease the Northern Rock crisis The first measure announced was an increase in the amount of bank deposits guaranteed by the government, which has gone up from ￡35,000 to ￡50,000. The latest [...]

Threats to the safety of savings and the search for good returns at times of low interest rates have been a constant source of concern for savers. An array of information is available through the BBC News website and various groups offer help for struggling householders. The rescue of Northern Rock and the subsequent banking [...]

The UK economy unexpectedly contracted by 0.4% between July and September, according to official figures, meaning the country is still in recession. It is the first time UK gross domestic product (GDP) has contracted for six consecutive quarters, since quarterly figures were first recorded in 1955. But the figures could still be revised up or [...]