Daily news plus quizzes

BBC News 9 April 2014 Prince George met other babies and played with toys at the event in Wellington The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge took Prince George on the first official public engagement of their 19-day tour of New Zealand and Australia. The royal couple met fellow new mothers and fathers at Government House in Wellington along with not-for-profit childcare organisation Plunket. The parents were selected to reflect the diversity of New Zealand society. Eight-month-old Prince George appeared to remain calm even though there were tears from some of a similar age. 'Babies everywhere' All the babies were born within [...]

Are you crazy busy? Overworked? Are you sure? It’s a common refrain from friends — or our own mouths — that we’re too busy and have too much to do. For some, being loaded down with work and other commitments is a badge of honour, a sign of importance. But should we be glorifying busy?  Are we really overworked or have we just lost focus on the most important elements of our job? It’s a topic LinkedIn Influencers considered this week. Are we really overworked or have we just lost focus on the most important elements of our job? Here is what some [...]

The search for two large objects that may be from the missing Malaysia Airlines jet has resumed in the southern Indian Ocean. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said Friday's operation would involve five aircraft, including three RAAF Orions, and a US Navy P8 Poseidon. The planes are scouring a remote area of 8,800 sq miles (23,000 sq km). A Norwegian merchant ship - the first vessel to reach the vicinity - has been using searchlights through the night to try to locate the objects. The area where the search will concentrate on todayThey were spotted by a satellite last Sunday and [...]

Sky News 6th March 2014 Liz Wahl says she believes in "disseminating the truth" as she hits out at Russia Today's coverage of the Ukraine crisis. A presenter for a Russian government-funded TV channel has resigned live on air, after accusing the station of "whitewashing the actions" of Vladimir Putin. Liz Wahl, a US anchor for Russia Today America, told viewers during the broadcast: "I'm proud to be an American and believe in disseminating the truth and that is why after this newscast, I'm resigning." Her grandparents fled to the US as refugees during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution to escape the [...]

Facebook has agreed to buy the mobile messaging company WhatsApp for $19bn (£11.4bn), the social network has announced. The company said in a statement that it would pay $4bn (£2.4bn) in cash and $15bn (£9bn) in Facebook shares as part of the deal. The app's founders and employees will get $3bn (£1.8bn) of the shares as restricted stock that will vest over four years after the deal closes. The purchase marks the largest single acquisition in Facebook's 10-year history. WhatsApp is a real-time mobile messaging service with more than 450 million monthly users. The app has more than one million new [...]

  Some of Britain's banks announce plans to help homeowners affected by damaging floods sweeping the country. Banks have announced a range of support for flood victims, as rising waters continue to cause havoc for homeowners. Santander said it would offer free overdraft extensions and mortgage payment holidays to customers who have been affected by the flooding. Homeowners' circumstances would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and may include conversion of mortgage loans to interest-only payments. Farmers would be offered extensions to current facilities for up to a year and businesses would get at least six months extensions. Customer overdraft extensions [...]

By Alex Crawford, Africa Correspondent SKY NEWS 12 Feb 2014 The battle to save the African forest elephant is reaching crisis levels. Some, like Professor Lee White - a British-born zoologist who is among those fighting to rescue the species - already believe it is "ecologically extinct". And in an exclusive interview with Sky News, Prof White's friend and ally, the Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba, told me he will be demanding "zero tolerance" from his Chinese peers regarding ivory trafficking. Gabon has lost a third of its forest elephants over the past decade. In the Minkebe National Park which lies [...]

Read the text and take the quiz! Sky news 17 November 2013 Chinese state media has reported that the country's one child policy is to be "loosened", in what will be a major policy shift. The official Xinhua News Agency said the Communist party released a key document saying it will now allow couples to have two children if one of the parents is an only child. The law has caused many social problems, including uncertainty for the elderly who are left with no real safety net because four grandparents and two parents only have one caretaker for old age. The [...]

Watch the video, read the text and do the quiz at the bottom of the page! Sky News 11th November 2013 Rescuers are struggling to get desperately needed aid to areas of the Philippines devastated by Typhoon Haiyan - as a new storm approaches. Aid workers are being held back by blocked roads and damaged airports as they try to deliver tents, food and medicines to the worst affected areas. Troops have been sent to the city of Tacloban to restore law and order after reports of looting, with Philippines President Benigno Aquino declaring a state of calamity and considering whether martial [...]