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Events were held throughout London yesterday to celebrate the start of the one-year countdown to the 2012 Olympics. To mark the occasion, a ceremony was held in Trafalgar Square where the likes of Princess Anne, Prime Minister David Cameron and Mayor Boris Johnson unveiled the medals that will be awarded to successful athletes.

The gold, silver and bronze medals (pictured above) have been designed by British artist David Watkins and have the usual symbolism that sports bodies enjoy but which makes little sense. The backs of the medals (on the right of the picture) supposedly have a number of symbolic images, including a grid of ‘radiating energy that represents the athletes' achievements and effort', a dished background that ‘suggests a bowl similar to the design of an amphitheatre' and a ribbon that represents the River Thames and ‘adds a sense of celebration'.

Regardless of what they are meant to symbolically represent, there is a general consensus that the medals do encapsulate both the history of the Olympic Games and the modernity of the London 2012 edition.

A number of British MPs have criticised the student visa changes that are to be introduced by the government next year, arguing that they will harm the economy.

The government first announced the cuts earlier this year, in a bid to reduce immigration into the UK by up to 230,000 over five years. However, official figures released in June predict that the new restrictions could cost the economy £3.6 billion.

Figures Dismissed

Despite being calculated by her own department, the Home Secretary, Theresa May, has dismissed this figure and instead asked the migration advisory committee for a "better assessment and a better judgment of the true picture".

However, the Home Affairs Committee is outraged by May's refusal to believe the facts, with the chairman Keith Vaz revealing:

"The Home Secretary's dismissal of the impact assessment is very disappointing. The government appears to be not only making policy without adequate immigration statistics, but also ignoring its own evidence. We reiterate the need for an immigration policy which is both evidence-based and does not adversely affect the British economy."

After more than 12,000 suggestions, the name for the London 2012 Olympic football has been chosen. And the winning name is....'The Albert'.

Adidas, who are to make the ball, ran a competition inviting anyone and everyone to send in their ideas for names, before eventually choosing the name suggested by Robert Ashcroft- a 45-year-old from Derbyshire. Whilst the connection between a football and the name Albert may seem a little odd, it is actually from cockney rhyming slang, where ‘Albert Hall' (pictured above) means ‘ball'. For this reason, Mr. Ashcroft believed "The Albert was the obvious choice for me. It made perfect sense to name a ball with the rhyming slang heritage."

An Adidas spokesman agreed, revealing that:

"The London 2012 Games are becoming synonymous with the East End of London and it was important to us that the name reflected this strong heritage - 'The Albert' creates mass appeal to the British public as well as creating global intrigue."

With more and more universities revealing that from 2012 they are going to start charging the maximum amount of £9,000 per year for UK and EU students, there have been a number of suggestions of how to minimize the impact it has on the students. In the last few days two more alternatives have been put forward.

The Open University

Firstly, the Open University announced yesterday that it will be charging just £5,000 per year for full-time students, making it one of the cheapest universities in England. Similarly,

This year's Mercury Music Prize nominees have been announced with the usual mixture of well known superstars and obscure jazz musicians. The annual prize is awarded to the best British album of the year as chosen by music industry experts and journalists, and is well known for its diverse choices of winners.

Whilst you will have probably heard of previous winners such as Dizzee Rascal, Arctic Monkeys and Elbow, chances are you haven't heard of acts such as Speech Debelle and Talvin Singh. It is this diversity that marks the Mercury Prize as so unlike most other music awards, and helps create the prestige surrounding it. The winning artist not only gets the glory, but also a cheque for £20,000 and usually a huge boost in album sales.

This year, the nominees are typically varied. Some have had huge number 1 hits, whilst others almost no one will have heard of before. Here we go through the 12 acts nominated, and give you the chance to listen to each one of them.