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.