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Is English or Mandarin the language of the future? By Jennifer Pak BBC World Service English has been the dominant global language for a century, but is it the language of the future? If Mandarin Chinese is to challenge English globally, then it first has to conquer its own backyard, South East Asia. In Malaysia's southernmost city of Johor Bahru, the desire to speak good English has driven some children to make a remarkable two-hour journey to school every day. Nine-year-old Aw Yee Han hops on a yellow mini van at 04:30. His passport is tucked inside a small pouch hung around his neck. This makes it easier for him to show it to immigration officials when he reaches the Malaysian border. His school is located on the other side, in Singapore, where unlike in Malaysia, English is the main language. It's not your typical school run, but his mother, Shirley Chua thinks it's worth it. "Science and maths are all...

More mobiles than humans in 2012, says Cisco   Mobile data has come a long way since the start of the millennium Mobile devices will outnumber humans this year, according to network firm Cisco's latest analysis of global mobile data traffic. By 2016 it predicts that there will be 10 billion mobile connected devices around the world. By the same date networks will be carrying 130 exabytes of data each year, equivalent to 33 billion DVDs. Mobile data traffic in 2011 was eight times the size of the global internet in 2000, according to the report. Gigabyte club The rise in data consumption is likely to cause more problems for mobile operators already struggling to cope with demand. Currently the average smartphone uses 150 megabytes of data per month but this is expected to rise to 2.6 gigabytes by 2016, the report found. "By 2016, 60% of mobile users - three billion people worldwide - will belong to the Gigabyte Club, each generating more than on...

Love gifts in the animal kingdom By Ella Davies Reporter, BBC Nature   Spiders are gift-giving lovers On Valentine's day, what beau could possibly resist a hand-picked gift, wrapped in perfumed silk? Certainly not female Paratrechalea ornata spiders, according to research by Dr Luiz Costa-Schmidt, an arachnid expert studying in Brazil. Male spiders of this south-American species incorporate a chemical known as a pheromone into their silk gift wrap. This encourages females to accept them as mates. Using a present, or "nuptial gift", to ensure a sexual engagement is a practice found throughout the animal kingdom but it can be startlingly different from our human perception of courtship. Here are some of the weird array of presents that animals give to potential mates. Perfumed package P. ornata are not the only spiders to give gifts to their intended: the male nursery web spider ( Pisaura mirab...

Google Motorola bid approved in EU and US   Google aims to strengthen its patent portfolio with the Motorola takeover US regulators have approved Google's $12.5bn (£7.9bn) bid for phone maker Motorola Mobility, hours after it won clearance from European authorities. The European Commission ruled the deal would not raise competition issues in the market for operating systems for devices like mobile phones or tablets. Regulators in the US agreed, although both authorities vowed to monitor the company and rivals' use of patents. Approval from China, Taiwan and Israel is needed before the deal is completed. Motorola split in two last year, prompting Google to bid for the section that makes phones and tablet computers in a bid to gain access to more than 17,000 of Motorola Mobility's patents. 'Important milestone' EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a statement that regulators did not think the deal would diminish competition. ...

Apple iPad China sales and shipments threat in name row   China is a major manufacturing base for Apple products. A Chinese company is to ask customs officials to block shipments of Apple's iPad both into and out of the country. If the request succeeds, it could affect global sales as China is a key manufacturing base for the company. The move follows a long-running dispute between Apple and electronics firm Proview over ownership of the iPad name. Last year Proview won an initial judgement in a mainland Chinese court, which Apple has appealed against. Proview said it is contacting officials across China with a view to blocking sales of the product. Proview lawyer Xie Xianghui said: "We are now working on a request to China Customs to ban and seize all the import and export of the iPad products that have violated the trademark." 'Worldwide rights' Local media reports said that several dozen iPads were taken from shelves in the city of S...

When Charles Dickens fell out with America   Photography was in its infancy in the 1840s. These portraits date from 1860 On his first visit to America in 1842, English novelist Charles Dickens was greeted like a modern rock star. But the trip soon turned sour, as Simon Watts reports. On Valentine's Day, 1842, New York hosted one of the grandest events the city had ever seen - a ball in honour of the English novelist Charles Dickens. Dickens was only 30, but works such as Oliver Twist and the Pickwick Papers had already made him the most famous writer in the world. The cream of New York society hired the grandest venue in the city - the Park Theatre - and decorated it with wreaths and paintings in honour of the illustrious visitor. There was even a bust of Dickens hanging from one of the theatre balconies, with an eagle appearing to soar over his head. Dickens and his wife, Catherine, danced most of the night in the company of around 3,000 guests. ...

Townsend Griffiss, forgotten hero of World War II By Stephen Mulvey BBC News It's 70 years this week since the first US air force officer was killed in Europe, following America's entry into World War II. By heading the list of 30,000 USAAF men to lose their lives in the European theatre, Lt Col Townsend Griffiss became a footnote in the history of the war. But who was he and how did he die? There is no memorial to Townsend Griffiss in the UK, but a corner of Bushy Park in west London offers the faintest of reminders. Here, half covered by grass, are a handful of tablets in the earth, marking the various blocks of Camp Griffiss, the British headquarters of the US Army Air Force, set up in the summer of 1942. It's a royal park, and the royal deer help prevent the plaques disappearing into the grass entirely. Overhead, civilian airliners pass by on their way towards nearby Heathrow. From above, the outlines can also...