It doesn't rain enough in the UK

You may think that it rains all the time in the UK. So you may be surprised to learn that there is a real risk of people in some areas having to restrict their water use this year, because of lack of rainfall. It has been the driest autumn in 100 years in some areas.
Not all areas are affected, and the problems are unlikely to affect visitors. But if a long period of heavy rain does not come soon in the South, the East Midlands, and the East of England people will be warned that they cannot use water for some things.
People call this a "hosepipe ban". Usually it means that households are not allowed to use hoses to water gardens or wash cars, and will be asked to shower rather than take a bath.

British singer takes over Grammy awards

This week saw the Grammy music awards in the United States. American artists usually win most of the awards, but this week a woman from London was the story of the night.
Adele, who comes from North London, had the top-selling album of the year in the US, called 21. She has had a bad few months because of throat problems, and needed to have an operation.
But she was nominated for six awards in the Grammys and won all of them, including best album, record, and song of the year. The only other woman to have done this was Beyonce.

The most interesting town in Britain?

Croydon is a town just south of London which until now was famous for its tall buildings and good train connections. But it was not a place where people wanted to go.
Now a man called James Taylor has set up a new business, called Croydon Tours. He says Croydon is Britain's most interesting town, and has started to take visitors round the sights. These include a street market dating backt o 1276, the summer home of the heads of the Church of England and 1960s office blocks.
The idea has had lots of publicity because people think it is very funny.

Modern art or rubbish?

It could be hard to tell the difference between art and rubbish at a new exhibition in London. The exhibits at Waste Not include ten umbrellas, 16 chairs, three old radiators and lots of old medicine bottles and boxes of tea.
All 10,000 exhibits at the Waste Not exhibition at the Barbican came from the house of Zhao Xiangyuan, the mother of the artist Song Dong.
She originally kept the items because Chinese people were encouraged to keep and re-use things, not throw them away. When her husband died she started keeping many more things. All of these are in the exhibition.
The artist says that when they put the exhibition together for the first time in China, people spent hours talking to his mother about their memories. "It got my mother out of her sadness. She said she had a second life," he said.