News

It is Day 3 of the Olympic torch's relay through the UK, and already over 250 people have carried the torch as part of its 70-day relay for the London Olympics 2012. Today the torch will be passed between 113 torchbearers, including triple jumper Jonathan Edwards and cricketer Marcus Trescothick, as it travels between Exeter and Taunton.

The Journey So Far

After travelling around Greece for a week, the lit torch was flown over to Britain in a special gold-painted plane with a rather unusual set of passengers. Amongst others, the passengers watching over the torch included London mayor Boris Johnson, Olympic organiser Lord Seb Coe, David Beckham and Princess Anne.

There's a new face on the internet who is taking the student blogging world by storm. IntProblems.com has a selection of brilliant images pointing out the common problems and differences that international students face in a new country (just like the ones above). It seems other foreign students can relate to the amusing observations and every new post is being reblogged around the world, with the online community growing all the time.

After spotting the blog, we had to know who was behind it, and discovered 20-year-old Boston University student Tessa ten Cate. We spoke to Tessa to find out her background and why she created IntProblems.com.

A railway company has come up with an unusual way of improving their customer experience. Chiltern Railways have hired a top British sitcom writer to create comedy announcements that customers will hear on their trains. They then went one step further, by hiring TV comedian Tony Robinson to teach the staff how to deliver these new announcements.

Writer Richard Preddy, who wrote the series Green Wing, was hired by the company after research showed that commuters unsurprisingly found their journeys depressing. The new announcements will hopefully soon be putting smiles on commuters' faces on trains between London and Birmingham, as well as at London Marylebone Station. Preddy explained:

"We have all waited for a train or a bus into work as the rain pours down and bustled our way to a seat and I think comedy can help to alleviate that stress. It's important to note that we aren't trying to turn everyone into a comedian. Rather we are hoping to bring out a little more of the staff's personality and humour via their day-to-day announcements and help cheer up the commuters along the way."

Boris Johnson retained his position as Mayor of London after the results of last Thursday's election were revealed over the weekend. The contest was far closer than many predicted, with Boris beating his Labour party rival Ken Livingstone by just 3%.

It is the second time that the two candidates had faced each other in the London mayoral election, and between them they have shared the post ever since its creation in 2000. Overall, Boris Johnson took 44% of the votes, versus Ken Livingtsone's 40.3%, with the various other candidates taking less than 16% between them (see all the candidate profiles).

In reaction to the final count, Boris vowed to "continue to fight for a good deal for Londoners, a good deal from government", whilst Ken announced his retirement from frontline politics, revealing "this will be my last election".

Millions of people throughout London will (hopefully) be heading to polling stations today to vote on their next Mayor of London. There have only ever been two mayors since the position was created in 2000. Ken Livingstone held it for 8 years, before the current mayor, Boris Johnson, took over in 2008. So, you'll never guess who the two frontrunners are this year.

That's right, the mayoral election is looking like a straight up two-way battle between Boris and Ken...again. However, though you wouldn't know it, there are other candidates. Here we give a run down of all the main candidates and what changes they are likely to make to the Capital if they get in to power.