Alicia Keys Broadway play Stick Fly closing

ER star Mekhi Phifer and Cold Case actress Tracie Thoms appear in the Broadway play

A Broadway play co-produced by R&B singer Alicia Keys is to close after failing to perform at the box office.

Stick Fly, about a rich black family who gather at their holiday home on Martha's Vineyard, received mainly favourable reviews from critics.
However last week it took only $238,338 (£150,574) - about 26% of its $903,858 (£571.295) potential, with the Cort Theatre about 57% full.
Its last show will be on 26 February after three months of performances.
The play stars West Wing actor Dule Hill and ER's Mekhi Phifer as brothers who decide to introduce their girlfriends to their parents on the same weekend, sparking sibling rivalry.
When the play was first announced last June, Keys said she was "passionate" about Lydia R Diamond's play because it "portrays black America in a way that we don't often get to see in entertainment".
"This is a story that everybody can relate to," Keys said.
"I know it will touch all audiences who will find a piece of themselves somewhere inside this house."
Since the show began previews on 20 November, weekly box office takings had rarely topped $300,000 (£190,000), making a financial loss for producers.
By the time it closes, the play will have run for 24 previews and 92 regular performances.

Central Philippines earthquake 'kills at least seven'

Buildings in the worst affected areas were violently shaken

At least 15 people have died after a 6.7 magnitude quake struck the central Philippines, according to government officials.

The quake hit 70km north of Dumaguete city on Negros island at 11:49 (15:49 GMT) at a depth of 20km, according to the US Geological Survey.
The Office of Civil Defense told the BBC that at least 29 people were also reported missing.
But one local report put the number of dead at 43.
Local military commander Colonel Fransisco Patrimonio is quoted in local press as saying that 43 people died in the badly-hit coastal area of Guihulngan, many of them in a landslide following the quake.
But this report has not yet been confirmed by the central authorities.
"As of 8pm tonight we have 10 identified dead and five still unidentified dead and 29 are still missing. The 29 have been identified but they are still missing. Their bodies have not been found," civil defence operations officer Ver Neil Balaba, based in Cebu, told the BBC.
Tsunami alert lifted A series of aftershocks followed the initial quake, one of them registered a magnitude of 6.2 at the epicentre many hours after the initial earthquake hit.
Search and rescue operations are being carried out in areas where houses and buildings collapsed due to landslides.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology issued a tsunami alert for the area, but had lifted it by 14:30.
The late morning quake in the Negros and Cebu region caused panic in nearby cities, with people rushing out of schools, malls and offices. Officials in some areas suspended work and cancelled classes.
The death toll includes two children, according to the government's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).
A child was reportedly crushed to death by a collapsed wall in Tayasan town in Negros, NDRRMC chief Benito Ramos told reporters.
Buildings in the cities of Cebu and San Carlos shook violently and sustained damages such as broken windows and cracks on the walls, he added.

Girl, 15, killed at Bishop's Stortford railway crossing

A 15-year-old girl was killed at Johnson's footpath crossing in Hertfordshire

A 15-year-old girl was killed when she was hit by a train at a foot crossing in Hertfordshire, police have said.

The girl was struck at Johnson's Footpath Crossing in Bishop's Stortford at about 11:45 GMT on Saturday.
Her death is being treated as a "tragic accident", British Transport Police (BTP) said.
Concerns had previously been raised about the crossing after a previous death which led to improved safety measures being installed in 2003.
The girl, who has not been named, is said to come from Bishop's Stortford. Her next of kin have been informed.
A BTP spokeswoman said the death was not being treated as suspicious. An investigation into the incident is under way.
A gate and flashing lights were installed at the site after an 81-year-old woman was killed in 2002 while walking across the track with her dog.
'Potential for accidents' In 2005, Olivia Bazlinton, 14, and Charlotte Thompson, 13, died at nearby Elsenham station, a few miles from Bishop's Stortford, when they were hit by a train while making their way to Cambridge on a shopping trip.
Jill Sortwell, 64, who lives next to Johnson's crossing in Cannons Close, said residents had been worried about the site for years.
Fears were heightened with the introduction of the high-speed Stansted Express, she said.
"We have had quite a few fatalities on this line," Mrs Sortwell said. "It is a direct route into town.
"It is used all day, every day and people become blase, especially the youngsters."
Mrs Sortwell was one of a number of residents who urged former transport secretary Ruth Kelly to introduce a buzzer warning at the crossing and new, track-side gates.
But she still feels more needs to be done to make the crossing safe.
"I think it is still dangerous," she said. "The crossing is better now but it still has the potential for bad accidents to happen."
The BTP spokeswoman said investigators would be looking at all factors surrounding how the girl died.

The world's biggest cities: How do you measure them?

Which is the biggest city in the world? And why is such a simple question so difficult to answer?

If you search on the internet for the world's biggest city, you'll find various different candidates: Tokyo, Seoul, Chongqing, Shanghai...
Which one you regard as the holder of the title, all depends on what you mean by "city".
Most experts will tell you that Tokyo is the world's largest metropolis, with a population of about 36 million people.
But the core of the city has only eight million people living in it.
The reason it gets into the record books is that the surrounding region - which includes the country's second city Yokohama, as well as 86 other towns and cities - has become so built up that it is now one huge continuous urbanised area.
Yokohama alone has a population of 3.6 million.

• City proper: Tokyo city was merged with Tokyo Prefecture in 1943 to form a "metropolitan prefecture" - it still contains the 23 wards of the old city
• The urban area shown here reflects dense inhabitation (at least 4,000 people per sq km) within administrative boundaries

Defining the borders of a city is no easy task - and there is no international standard to ensure consistency.

Three scholars who in 2009 compared eight different lists of top cities by population, found there were 30 "top 20 cities" in total.

One of them, Richard Greene, associate professor of geography at Northern Illinois University in the United States, says even the most authoritative list, from the UN, "compares apples with pears".

"We tend to think of 3 concepts of the city," he says.
"One being a municipal definition - the legal city if you will. A second we call the urbanised area, or the physical city - the built-up portion. A third we call the metropolitan area, which some people refer to as the influence of the city - how far out does the city go in terms of its influence, such as commuting patterns."
Austria-sized city? Most experts rate Tokyo as the world's biggest city because of the size of the population in the larger urbanised area.

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Many of the 30 million people who are said to live in the city of Chongqing are actually agricultural workers living in a rural setting”

It will probably still be the biggest in 2025, although its population is expected to scarcely increase. The UN expects it to be followed by the two major megacities in India - Delhi and Mumbai, which are projected respectively to have 29 million and 26 million inhabitants respectively by then.

And what about the cities in the country everyone is talking about - China?
Its cities are growing so fast that for the first time more than half the population live in urban areas, it was announced earlier this month.
But China's population statistics can be particularly misleading.
"Virtually overnight, Chongqing has become the largest city not only in China, but in the world," Time Magazine proclaimed in 2005.
But it wasn't true - Chongqing is not the largest city in the world, or even in China.
Why do so many people think it is?
Professor Kam Wing Chan of the University of Washington in the United States, who has made a career out of correcting people's exaggerated claims about Chinese population statistics, explains that what China calls a municipality or city is better understood as a province.
Many of the 30 million people who are said to live in the city of Chongqing are actually agricultural workers living in a rural setting, he says.
In fact, he says, the area is so huge it's about the size of Austria.
'Doom and gloom' "And if you were to travel from the downtown area to some of the peripheral areas where those 30 million live, it might take a day or two because the road conditions are not that good. So, this cannot be possibly called a city. Because when we call a place a city the general understanding is that we're talking about a commuting zone."
Professor Chan calculates that a more reasonable estimate of the urban population of Chongqing is six or seven million.
The largest city in China is actually Shanghai. It is commonly thought to have a population of 20 million, but Professor Chan thinks 16 million is a better estimate.
He says everyone just loves to think China's cities are bigger than they actually are. He has even had to correct fellow experts at a world conference on global megacities of the future.
"They were trying to paint a really doom and gloom picture of these unmanageable urban giants, megacities with a population range of 20 to 30 million people.
"They were saying China will easily have a few of those in that range, which is not true - they are just picking up on a wrong definition. That gloom and doom scenario will definitely need to be revised."

Bowel disease expert pleads for children's funding

Muhammad's rare condition is thought to affect 12 to 15 children in the UK

Eighteen-year-old Muhammad Miah has never been able to eat.

While many people are trying to eat less after the excesses of the festive season, Muhammad cannot even drink tap water.
"The water has got to be boiled or be mineral water otherwise my gut doesn't like it. My stomach is very sensitive."
A serious gut condition means he has had to rely on artificial nutrition since birth.
During the day his meals come in liquid form, containing protein, carbohydrate, fat, water, minerals and vitamins.
At night a pump feeds more nutrients directly into his stomach via a special tube.
In the past he has had to rely on being fed intravenously, where the contents of the feed bypass the usual processes of eating and digestion

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My feeds are so well timetabled now that I don't really get hungry, to be honest”

Muhammad Miah

There was a particularly bad spell a few years ago, Muhammad recalls.

"My gut stopped working at all. I couldn't even have liquid nutrition or water. It was a case of 'nil by mouth'. That lasted several months."
Nerve failure Known as intestinal pseudo obstruction, Muhammad's rare condition is thought to affect 12 to 15 children in the UK.
The intestines lose the ability to push food, stool or air through the gastrointestinal tract.
Doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where Muhammad has been treated, believe that his particular condition is caused by a failure of the nerves within the smooth muscle of the intestines, something known as hollow visceral myopathy.
But he still see a potential positive side to his condition.
"Sometimes I think I'm healthier than other people. When you think about all the junk food people are eating... at least I won't get fat."
Doesn't he ever get desperate to devour a proper meal?
"My feeds are so well timetabled now that I don't really get hungry, to be honest. And when I'm really unwell I don't feel hunger anymore. It's just normal to me."

Muhammad's doctor, Dr Nikhil Thapar, says more research into bowel diseases is needed

Despite his brave attitude, the condition has had a major impact on Muhammad's life.
Although he is managing to pursue his studies at Newham College and hopes to go on to university next year, he has days when his energy levels are very low and he struggles to get out of bed.
'Knife edge' Dr Nikhil Thapar, senior lecturer in paediatric gastroenterology at University College London's Institute of Child Health, says there is an urgent need to understand gut conditions better.
"We can only control the symptoms at the moment. The treatment is just allowing patients like Muhammad to survive. We don't offer any cure.
"But we want to look at why these birth defects develop in the first place, and do some research looking at stem cells to grow some of the missing nerves."
Dr Thapar acknowledges that children with intestinal pseudo obstruction have a lifelong problem which they cannot change.
"These children are very brave, despite everything.
"They can have a very poor quality of life, be in and out of hospital every week and suffer severe constipation and blood clots.
"They are often living on a knife edge."
Great Ormond Street Hospital in London has recently been designated the national centre for diagnosing and treating children with the condition.
"Bowel problems are so common," says Dr Thapar.
"Fifty per cent of children suffer from bowel problems at some point."
In an effort to raise awareness and money for bowel disease research, Dr Thapar is climbing Kilimanjaro in February.
After many operations, Muhammad's energy levels would not allow him to take part in such an exhausting challenge.
But he is hoping that the trek and any future research will have life-changing implications for him.

Bill Gates tells school pupils about giving it all away

Bill Gates told pupils he began his computing career by producing a school timetable

When a south London secondary school asked for an inspiring guest speaker to talk to their pupils, they didn't expect Bill Gates to turn up.

But youngsters at Deptford Green School, gathered in their school hall on Wednesday morning, found themselves being addressed by one of the great philanthropists of the modern age.
Mr Gates, on the classic Seattle-Deptford-Davos route, received a rapturous welcome from a packed hall full of south London teenagers.
Before he arrived, the pupils had been told by teachers to "face the front and look interested", but there was no need for any choreographed enthusiasm, because these youngsters seemed to be really engaged by his story.
His first big break in computing, he told the pupils, was when he was asked to fix the school timetable system which had baffled the teachers. It got him two things, he said, control over the schedule and money.
"I was known as a computer nut. I'd stay on it night and day," he said.
He told pupils how he'd dropped out of Harvard - "still dreaming of a personal computer" - and had begun on the road to become the Microsoft mogul that made him so famously wealthy.
"If I hadn't given my money away, I would now have more money than anyone else on the planet," he said casually.
And it's the giving away that makes him so interesting.
Eradicating polio His philanthropy is on an epic scale. He is seriously planning to eradicate diseases in his lifetime that have plagued humanity for thousands of years.

Bill Gates visited Deptford Green as part of the Speakers for Schools project

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has already given $26bn (£17bn) to fund health, development and education projects.
Even the biggest cynic would have to be impressed by this massive engine of generosity, with Bill Gates working full time on donating the income from an endowment worth $33.5bn (£21.5bn).
And he told the Deptford schoolchildren how his foundation was methodically working to get rid of every last case of polio, a scourge which had paralysed hundreds and thousands of people each year.
There's a hit list of 12 diseases which he wants to target - and he told the Deptford pupils that what had really surprised him was that these preventable illnesses had not been stopped before and that there had not been more innovation in vaccines.
"I was stunned how little resources had gone into this," he said.
His foundation's work is carried out with a "hard-nosed mathematical" approach, he says, calculating the impact in terms of "dollars per year of life saved".
'Cool stuff' He is applying the same attention to detail that made him such a business success into the business of saving lives.
He answered questions with a relaxed, self-deprecating style that went down well with his young audience. He has his own geek-chic, with his Windows haircut, peppering his answers with phrases like "cool stuff".
"When I was your age, I didn't know much about poverty," he told them, describing his school as "super nice" and a place where he was the kid who was good at maths.
Now he was immersed in tackling the worst diseases in the poorest communities in the world.
"The goal is equity. If we don't have these diseases, why should people in Africa or Asia?"
One of the girls in the audience, speaking afterwards, was particularly impressed that he had worked hard to earn the money that he had now decided to donate.
Unprompted, another pupil described his decision to give his fortune away as "really inspiring".
Getting Mr Gates to a community school in south London was also an impressive feather in the cap for the Speakers for Schools project, set up by the BBC's Robert Peston - which seeks to get high-profile figures to talk to pupils in state schools.
Nick Chambers, director of the Education and Employers Taskforce which administers the scheme, told the school assembly that this unexpected visit from Bill Gates all came from a Friday night in November when English teacher Keely Wilson decided to apply for someone interesting to visit.
She wasn't disappointed.

Why the Chancellor wants China's cash

Will China be investing more in British infrastructure?

Perhaps the most important cause of our economic malaise is that for years as a nation we have been living beyond our means, in deficit with the rest of the world, buying from other countries far more than we produce, till our indebtedness became unsustainable.

By contrast China has been consuming far less than it produces, accumulating vast surpluses.

So as we work down our debts, the hope of the government has been that the Chinese could be persuaded to invest some of their vast surpluses in our infrastructure, in a way that would ease the pain of our economic slowdown and would yield a decent return to China over the long term.

That's why the Chancellor of the Exchequer was today so delighted that China's sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corporation, which controls more than £250bn - has bought a stake of almost 9 per cent in London's water and sewage business, Thames Water.

It is a significant moment, in that the deal is CIC's first investment of any sort in the UK.

But that significance should not be overstated. China is buying a small stake in a long established stable business, currently controlled by an Australian investment firm, Macquarie, rather than taking a risk on improving the fabric of the UK.

The transaction will only turn out to be important if it is the priming of a financial pump that then gushes a flow of Chinese money into British roads, rail, hospitals and the other things that our indebted government is struggling to afford.

Man shoots nail into brain without noticing

Dante Autullo took the opportunity to post his x-ray to Facebook in the ambulance between hospitals

A suburban Chicago man accidentally shot a 3.25in (8.25cm) nail into his skull but is recovering after doctors successfully removed it from the centre of his brain.

Dante Autullo, 34, was in his workshop when a nail gun recoiled near his head.

But he had no idea the nail had entered his brain until the next day, when he began feeling nauseous.

Doctors told Mr Autullo that the nail came within millimetres of the area used for motor function.

His fiancee, Gail Glaenzer, told the Associated Press on Friday that he was in good spirits after the two-hour surgery to remove the nail at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois.

Sensor triggered

"He feels good. He moved all his limbs, he's talking normal, he remembers everything," she said. "It's amazing, a miracle."

Ms Glaenzer said she had no idea the nail had entered his skull when she cleaned a cut on his forehead.

Gail Glaenzer said he jokingly told her to get the TV cameras: "I'm one of those medical miracles"

She convinced him to go to the hospital after he felt nauseous for much of Wednesday.

Mr Autullo thought that the nail gun had simply hit his forehead, but realised later that when the gun came in contact with his head, the sensor recognised a flat surface and fired.

While there are pain-sensitive nerves on a person's skull, there are none within the brain itself.

Hospital spokesman Mike Maggio said the part of the skull that was removed for surgery had to be replaced with a titanium mesh amid worries that it might have been contaminated by the nail.

Sopa and Pipa bills postponed in US Congress

Protesters say the passage of the anti-online piracy bills would threaten the openness of the internet

The US Congress has halted debate on two contested anti-online piracy bills.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid delayed a vote on the Protect IP Act (Pipa) scheduled for Tuesday.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith then said his panel would not consider the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) until a compromise was reached.

The decisions follow protests by online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, and thousands of other websites, which went "dark" in protest for 24 hours earlier this week.

"In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday's vote on the PROTECT IP Act," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat,said in a statement on Friday.

Mr Smith, a Texas Republican in the House of Representatives, said in a statement: "I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy.

"It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products."

'Censoring the web'

Of about 40 co-sponsors for the Pipa bill, a handful withdrew their support on Wednesday, as thousands of websites participated in a co-ordinated online protest.

Sopa and Pipa explained

The US bills are designed to block access to sites containing unauthorised copyright material.

Content owners and the US government would be given the power to request court orders to shut down sites associated with piracy.

Advertisers, payment processors and internet service providers would be forbidden from doing business with infringers based overseas.

Sopa also requires search engines to remove foreign infringing sites from their results, a provision absent in Pipa.

Floods of emails and phone calls to congressmen followed the online protests, prompting some lawmakers to withdraw their support for the measures.

More than seven million people signed a petition on Google saying that passage of the legislation would result in censoring the web and impose a regulatory burden on businesses.

Both bills focus on responding to online piracy, specifically illegal copies of films and other media.

The bills would also outlaw sites from containing information about how to access blocked sites.

The Motion Picture Association of America, a key supporter of the legislation, has campaigned strongly against the violation of copyright laws.

But on Thursday evening their website was targeted by a hacking group known as Anonymous.

Celebrity backing

Anonymous also claimed credit for blocking access to the US Department of Justice and FBI websites, by launching a so-called "denial-of-service" attach that bombards their websites with traffic.

The move was being seen as a retaliation after the Department of Justice shut down a major file-sharing website, Megaupload.

The firm's co-founders have been charged with violating existing anti-piracy laws.

Four Megaupload employees were arrested in Auckland, New Zealand, at the request of US authorities.

Police seized cash, valuable cars and a short-barrelled shotgun from the residence of the website's German founder, Kim Dotcom, formerly known as Kim Schmitz.

Their Hong Kong-based site had around 150 million users and 50 million daily hits.

It has received celebrity endorsements from artists such as Alicia Keys and Kanye West, making it one of the internet's most high profile file-sharing platforms.

Iran nuclear: Russia's Lavrov warns against attack

The Iranian nuclear site at Fordo - seen here in a 2009 satellite image - is now producing uranium enriched to 20%

The Russian foreign minister has warned that a Western military strike against Iran would be "a catastrophe".

Sergei Lavrov said an attack would lead to "large flows" of refugees from Iran and would "fan the flames" of sectarian tension in the Middle East.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak earlier said any decision on an Israeli attack on Iran was "very far off".

Meanwhile, Iran's foreign minister said talks on its nuclear programme would "most probably" take place in Istanbul.

Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters during a visit to Turkey that negotiations were going on about venue and date, and the timings would be settled soon.

But the UK Foreign Office said that there were "no dates or concrete plans" for talks, as Tehran was "yet to demonstrate clearly that it is willing to respond to [EU foreign policy chief] Baroness Ashton's letter and negotiate without preconditions.

"Until it does so, the international community will only increase pressure on it through further peaceful and legitimate sanctions."

Talks between Iran and six world powers - the US, UK, China, France, Russia and Germany - were last held in Istanbul a year ago but no progress was made.

A Western diplomat told the BBC that Iran was "chasing headlines" and "pretending that it was ready to engage". Tehran was "more interested in propaganda" than in sitting down without preconditions, he said.

Sanctions

Tensions with Iran have risen in recent weeks after the UN's nuclear monitors confirmed Tehran was producing 20% enriched uranium at its Fordo plant near Qom.

The US and its allies suspect the Islamic Republic of secretly trying to develop a nuclear weapons capacity but Iran insists its programme is peaceful.

The US has recently imposed sanctions on Iran's central bank and against three oil companies which trade with the country. The European Union has said it will place an embargo on Iran's oil exports.

For its part, Iran has threatened to block the transport of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route.

The comments from Russia's foreign minister included criticism of the Western moves to strengthen sanctions on the Islamic Republic, which he said were aimed at "stifling" Iran's economy.

Mr Lavrov told journalists in Moscow that they would have to ask those who he said were "talking constantly" about a military attack to find out if it would occur. He said such an attack would start off a "chain reaction" and he did not know how that would end.

Iranian scientist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan was killed by a bomb on his car

Israel - thought to be the only nuclear power in the region - has said it could launch a military strike against Iran to prevent it developing nuclear weapons.

Last week, Iran blamed Israel and the US for the death of Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, an Iranian nuclear scientist apparently killed by a bomb targeting his car in Tehran.

US concern

Mr Barak's comments can be seen as an attempt to placate the Americans, who are growing concerned that Israel may take military action against Iran without alerting Washington in advance.

The Israeli defence minister, speaking on Israel's army radio, implied that any plans would be co-ordinated with the US.

"I don't think our ties with the United States are such that they have no idea what we are talking about," he said.

The US defence chief General Martin Dempsey is due to arrive in Israel on Thursday for his first visit since becoming chairman of the joint chiefs of staff in September. On his agenda are meetings with various Israeli officials including Mr Barak.

Israel will present Gen Dempsey with an intelligence assessment that indicates Iran has "not yet decided" whether to make a nuclear bomb.

It is not clear when Iran might make the decision to use its nuclear capabilities to manufacture a weapon, the paper says.

My Business: The slum dweller who founded a food chain

Former slum dweller Sarath Babu dreams of providing for half a million people by creating catering jobs
What makes an entrepreneur? Sarath Babu, 31, a former slum dweller who wants to help end hunger in India by employing 100,000 people in the catering business he founded.

The bamboo walls have been replaced with brick, and what was once a slum has improved over the years.

But Sarath Babu, 31, still lives with his mother in the hut she raised him in, in the Indian city of Chennai.

Despite his shiny shirt, Blackberry and beloved Chevrolet, he has few of the trappings of a graduate of one India's top management schools - despite the fact he now employs 250 people in his fast-growing catering empire.

Sarath still lives in the same hut that his mother raised him in

Born to a family with next to nothing, Sarath dreams of an India without hunger.

He has set himself the target of providing for half a million people, by creating 100,000 (known as one lakh) jobs.

"I give a job, and that person takes care of four to five people - so I take care of five lakh people directly," he says.

He still regularly visits a slum similar to the one where he and his sister used to sell idlis - steamed rice cakes - made by his mother.

She became the sole breadwinner for five children after Sarath's father died.

It was her commitment to raising the money to put him through an English-language school that opened the door to a different life.

At the school he met middle-class children, and noticed that they had several sets of clothes - while he wore one school uniform for three years.

He also discovered his ability to come top of the class.

"I realised that without involving my mother's effort, or my teacher's effort - only with my effort - I could get some recognition and this didn't require money," he said.

And from then on, he began studying hard.

Sarath eventually gained entry - and a scholarship to cover some costs - to BITS Pilani, one of India's most prestigious and highly selective universities.

After working for a software company for three years to pay off university debts, he then went on to complete an MBA at another elite institution, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad.

'Dark and challenging'

But when offers of well-paid jobs finally began to roll in, they brought with them a dilemma - which Sarath says he visualised as two doors.

One represented all that wealth had to offer, the other his long-standing dream to start a business that would transform the lives of those who, like him, started out poor.

To the first door, he says he said: "Me and my family suffered because of you, today I know that I can have you, but I don't need you."

Instead, he chose the second option. "I knew that it was going to be really dark and really challenging, but I knew at the end of this path it's going to be really beautiful - so I thought I should stick to my dream."

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

Having come from the slum, with absolutely nothing… there is absolutely no risk for me”

Sarath BabuFounder of Foodking

Sarath launched Foodking in 2006, supplying snacks to banks, software firms and other corporates, with just 2,000 rupees (£24; $38) to fund the first month.

But with his impressive academic pedigree, he was soon able to secure a bank loan of 100,000 rupees (£1,205; $1,890), and employed eight to 10 workers.

The expansion continued, and he now has seven outlets and an annual turnover of $1.3m.

The first year was tough, however. At one point, Sarath missed a train and found himself forced to sleep on a station platform as he could not afford a bed for the night. He considered giving up.

"But then I said to myself, so what if you are an IIM-Ahmadabad guy? Can't you sleep on the platform - there are 300 other people sleeping on the platform - let them all sleep in homes and then you can think about yourself...

"Until then, you think about the business, you think about them."

And Sarath's drive remains strong.

He wants to have 100 outlets by the end of this year - and 5,000 across the state eventually.

Family loans

He already gives lectures at schools and business institutes, and spends time encouraging children in a local slum to continue studying.

Foodking aims to offer good food at affordable prices - as well as to create jobs for the poor

And he hopes to inspire 1,000 entrepreneurs across the state, who too would go on to create employment opportunities for others.

Sarath's approach is clearly shaped by his humble beginnings.

He is determined to provide affordable, good quality food. Foodking's meals cost 20-45 rupees (25p-54p; $0.37-0.84) each - which would more usually buy only fast food.

To keep prices low, premises are simple. And while Sarath is happy to pitch in and help the workers out, he's tough on waste, challenging staff over unused chopped vegetables and taps left running.

Sarath's relatives loaned him money for his university fees, while his sister pawned her wedding jewellery to help cover the cost of his MBA.

His gratitude is evident, to them and even more deeply for his mother's sacrifices - as is his determination to provide for his family.

But although he has been offered salaries of up to $33,000 (£21,050) a year - highly paid in Indian terms - he says he never saw turning down employment and starting the business as a risk.

"What is risk? It's risk to lifestyle. Having come from the slum, with absolutely nothing… there is absolutely no risk for me."

My Business: From banking to ice cream making

Suzanne Batlle, 43, describes how she gave up a well paid job in banking to set up an ice cream store bringing the flavours of South America to Miami
What makes an entrepreneur? Suzanne Batlle, 43, a single-mother who gave up a job in the banking sector to set up an ice cream store bringing the flavours of South America to Miami.

As the huge styrofoam ice-cream cone took shape, day after day, in her Miami backyard, Suzanne Batlle frequently asked herself how she had come to be spending $30,000 (£26,000) on it.

A single-mother supporting two teenage children, she had resigned from a well-paid job in banking and set up an ice-cream shop in the city's Little Havana district.

With bank loans difficult to obtain during the credit crunch, she ploughed $280,000, mainly borrowed from her mother and brother, into the business.

"Actually, it was all my inheritance," she says. "If you jump, you jump."

Azucar, Ms Batlle's shop selling homemade ice-cream in flavours with a Latin American twist, draws its inspiration from her grandmother.

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What's great about this is ice cream's fun. Ice cream's a good time!”

Suzanne BatlleManager of Azucar Ice Cream

Married to an engineer working for a big Cuban sugar company, her grandmother would collect exotic fruits on her travels around Latin America, and use them to make the frozen dessert.

When the 2008 crisis struck in banking, it ended Ms Batlle's enjoyment of a world in which she'd worked for more than two decades.

"There was no career progression, it became impossible to do business. I hated it."

After a brief stint working as an estate agent, she decided to take the plunge and start her own business.

Ms Batlle spent a couple of months studying "the chemistry and physics" of ice-cream at two specialist institutes, and then enlisted the help of a chef friend and began to concoct her own flavours.

These ranged from the Latin American fruit mamey, to avocado, to rum cake and a blend of guava, cream cheese and crackers, which echoes a popular Cuban habit of eating the three together.

Customers engage in lively debates to help refine the flavours.

Ms Batlle thinks the styrofoam ice cream outside her shop could be the world's biggest

After five months, Ms Batlle is taking $750 a day - enough to cover rent, bills, ingredients, loan repayments and a small wage for herself - although it isn't enough to live on.

At this rate, she says, the business's debts will be paid off within five years.

Family affair

She is not, however, paying staff yet. Family and friends are all pitching in.

"We're family so I have a stronghold on these people," she jokes.

"Of course they get free ice cream, and at night it becomes a bit of a party."

"Suzy" as she's known locally, buzzes with energy as she switches effortlessly between English and Spanish in her sales banter.

But she says the venture has been tougher than she expected.

Costs spiralled from $180,000 to $280,000, as difficulties arose with building renovation and second-hand freezers broke down.

"I didn't realize I'd be there 14 hours a day," she adds, describing a punishing schedule beginning with getting her daughter to school for 6am, and ending after the shop closes at 11pm.

The Azucar Ice Cream Company hopes to emulate Cuba's spirit in Miami's Little Havana

And the scale of the investment weighs heavily.

"I feel anxious every day. You don't sleep at night, you've got a big nut to crack every month - it's brave thing to do. I never realised until I did it," she says.

But although she has been driven to tears at times, Ms Batlle says she has learned to face setbacks.

"When my freezer broke and I had a birthday party coming in and all the ice cream was melted. You think 'oh my god what do I do?' But you start making ice-cream, you serve it soft," she says.

"You just keep going. In banking I never had those problems, but it's funny, you just have to deal with it."

The shop's reputation has grown faster than she had dared to hope, for which she credits its presence on social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Ms Batlle's daughter, Bianca, 14, has taken to appearing around Little Havana in an ice-cream cone suit, in situations ranging from playing dominoes with elderly men, to posing on a fire engine.

"Photos of her exploits have been reposted on the internet and are developing a growing online following," says Ms Batlle.

Ms Batlle hopes to instil in her own children the same work ethic she inherited from her parents, who left behind land and homes in Cuba in 1960 after Fidel Castro established communist rule on the island.

Her mother held down three jobs to help support four children, who in turn were expected to work from their early teens.

'Luxury items'

Even amid the economic downturn, Ms Battle says demand is healthy.

"For $5 you can give yourself a luxury item. They're not buying jewellery, they're not buying art, but they are buying ice cream."

Customers see ice cream as an affordable luxury in a time of economic downturn

Locals, such as her first customer Vidal, initially complained the prices were too high, but Ms Batlle says many have been won over as she has explained the quality of the ingredients she uses.

A local restaurant has recently begun selling her lemon and basil ice-cream, and she hopes eventually to sell wholesale, and also to open other premises.

And now the Styrofoam ice-cream is now proudly displayed on the shop's front she has another goal: to get it certified by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest.

China angry at US sanctions on oil firm Zhuhai Zhenrong

Chinese Premier Wen Jianbao is currently visiting Gulf oil-producing nations including Saudi Arabia

China has criticised sanctions imposed by the US on a Chinese firm for selling refined petroleum products to Iran.

China's foreign ministry said imposing unilateral sanctions on Zhuhai Zhenrong based on US law was "unreasonable".

The US said on Thursday Zhuhai Zhenrong was one of three international firms to be punished for dealing with Iran.

It comes as Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visits Arab oil-producing nations amid fears of major sanctions-related disruption to Iranian oil exports.

Mr Wen visited Saudi Arabia - China's biggest source of imported oil - on Saturday.

He told Saudi Prince Nayef both countries are "in important stages of development and there are broad prospects for enhancing cooperation," China's state-run news agency Xinhua reports.

"Both sides must strive together to expand trade and co-operation, upstream and downstream, in crude oil and natural gas," Mr Wen added.

During his visit, state-run Saudi oil giant Aramco and China's Sinopec finalised an initial agreement to build an oil refinery in the Red Sea city of Yanbu to deal with 400,000 barrels per day.

Sanctions biting

Later on Saturday, Beijing denounced Washington's decision to punish Zhuhai Zhenrong.

"Imposing sanctions on a Chinese company based on a domestic (US) law is totally unreasonable and does not conform to the spirit or content of the UN Security Council resolutions about the Iran nuclear issue," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said.

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If the oil producing nations on the Persian Gulf decide to substitute Iran's oil, then they will be held responsible for what happens”

Mohammad Ali KhatibiIran's Opec representative

"China expressed its strong dissatisfaction and adamant opposition," he added.

Washington has accused Zhuhai Zhenrong of being the largest supplier of refined petroleum products to Iran.

The US state department said the sanctions - preventing the firms from receiving US export licences, US Export Import Bank financing or any loans over $10m from US financial institutions - were part of efforts to persuade Iran to rein in its nuclear ambitions.

The European Union has also agreed to follow the US by freezing Iranian central bank assets and impose an embargo on oil imports.

The sanctions on Iranian oil exports are of particular concern to China, which is under pressure to secure enough energy supplies to keep its economy going.

Iran is currently China's third largest supplier of oil, after Angola and Saudi Arabia.

Tehran has warned its Gulf neighbours against making up the shortfall in oil exports as the US and EU sanctions start to bite.

"We would not consider these actions to be friendly," Tehran's Opec representative, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, was quoted as saying on Sunday.

"If the oil producing nations on the Persian Gulf decide to substitute Iran's oil, then they will be held responsible for what happens," he added, in the Sharq newspaper's report.