Bees

You might not have seen many of these little guys around lately.

Environmentalists have found that there has been around a massive 85 percent drop in the numbers of Queen bees in the UK.
They think that the pesticides, chemicals used on farms and gardens, cause the buzzy creatures to become disorientated so they can't find their way back to their hives.
Numbers of bees have been going down for the last decade.
Bees play a really important role in the environment, they pollinate loads of flower, fruit and other plants that we rely on.
In fact all their hard work is thought to be worth a whopping £430 million to the UK economy. (CBBC Newsround)

Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870)

Charles Dickens is much loved for his great contribution to classic English literature. He was the quintessential Victorian author. His epic stories, vivid characters and exhaustive depiction of contemporary life are unforgettable.

His own story is one of rags to riches. He was born in Portsmouth on 7 February 1812, to John and Elizabeth Dickens. The good fortune of being sent to school at the age of nine was short-lived because his father, inspiration for the character of Mr Micawber in 'David Copperfield', was imprisoned for bad debt. The entire family, apart from Charles, were sent to Marshalsea along with their patriarch. Charles was sent to work in Warren's blacking factory and endured appalling conditions as well as loneliness and despair. After three years he was returned to school, but the experience was never forgotten and became fictionalised in two of his better-known novels 'David Copperfield' and 'Great Expectations'.
Like many others, he began his literary career as a journalist. His own father became a reporter and Charles began with the journals 'The Mirror of Parliament' and 'The True Sun'. Then in 1833 he became parliamentary journalist for The Morning Chronicle. With new contacts in the press he was able to publish a series of sketches under the pseudonym 'Boz'. In April 1836, he married Catherine Hogarth, daughter of George Hogarth who edited 'Sketches by Boz'. Within the same month came the publication of the highly successful 'Pickwick Papers', and from that point on there was no looking back for Dickens.
As well as a huge list of novels he published autobiography, edited weekly periodicals including 'Household Words' and 'All Year Round', wrote travel books and administered charitable organisations. He was also a theatre enthusiast, wrote plays and performed before Queen Victoria in 1851. His energy was inexhaustible and he spent much time abroad - for example lecturing against slavery in the United States and touring Italy with companions Augustus Egg and Wilkie Collins, a contemporary writer who inspired Dickens' final unfinished novel 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood'.
He was estranged from his wife in 1858 after the birth of their ten children, but maintained relations with his mistress, the actress Ellen Ternan. He died of a stroke in 1870. He is buried at Westminster Abbey. (BBC)

Lionel Messi

Barcelona star Lionel Messi has picked out Sergio Aguero, Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie as the three Premier League stars he admires the most.

Speaking to CBBC's Match of the Day Kickabout, the Argentine genius said: "There are several quality players in the Premier League at the moment.

"Kun Aguero, who is my friend and I really like how he plays; Rooney [and] van Persie who, at the moment, are playing really well. 

"They are great players," he says.

 

'Hates' comparisons

Messi goes on to say he hates being compared to other players and doesn't think he's similar to anyone else in the world.

"I think each player has his own playing style.

"Because we are all different, no one player is the same as another. Not me, or any other player - in any team you can think of."

 

The best he's played alongside?

Unsurprisingly, Messi found the question of who's the best player he's ever played with, difficult to answer.

"I have been lucky to always have really good team-mates. I was to lucky to play with Ronaldinho, with Deco, with Eto'o, and nowadays with Xavi, Iniesta, Cesc [Fabregas].

"It's very difficult to pick one. The truth is, all those players are spectacular and I was lucky to play with them, to experience that, to train with them, play with them - it was wonderful."

 

Changing his game

Messi says he's had to develop his game from youth level and become much more of a team player.

"[When I was 12] the truth is... I would get the ball and never pass it. But I'd try and make everyone to pass to me so I could score. I was a bit like that." (CBBC Newsround)

James Watt (1736 - 1819)

Watt was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, renowned for his improvements in steam engine technology.
James Watt was born in Greenock on 18 January 1736. His father was a prosperous shipwright. Watt initially worked as a maker of mathematical instruments, but soon became interested in steam engines.
The first working steam engine had been patented in 1698 and by the time of Watt's birth, Newcomen engines were pumping water from mines all over the country. In around 1764, Watt was given a model Newcomen engine to repair. He realised that it was hopelessly inefficient and began to work to improve the design. He designed a separate condensing chamber for the steam engine that prevented enormous losses of steam. His first patent in 1769 covered this device and other improvements on Newcomen's engine.
Watt's partner and backer was the inventor John Roebuck. In 1775, Roebuck's interest was taken over by Matthew Boulton who owned an engineering works in Birmingham. Together he and Watt began to manufacture steam engines. Boulton & Watt became the most important engineering firm in the country, meeting considerable demand. Initially this came from Cornish mine owners, but extended to paper, flour, cotton and iron mills, as well as distilleries, canals and waterworks. In 1785, Watt and Boulton were elected fellows of the Royal Society.
By 1790, Watt was a wealthy man and in 1800 he retired and devoted himself entirely to research work. He patented several other important inventions including the rotary engine, the double-action engine and the steam indicator, which records the steam pressure inside the engine.
Watt died on 19 August 1819. A unit of measurement of electrical and mechanical power - the watt - is named in his honour. (BBC History)

The French Revolution, 1789

Louis XVI (1754-1793)

Louis was king of France when the monarchy was overthrown during the French Revolution. He was guillotined in 1793.
Louis was born at Versailles on 23 August 1754. In 1770, he married Marie Antoinette, daughter of the emperor and empress of Austria, a match intended to consolidate an alliance between France and Austria. In 1774, Louis succeeded his grandfather Louis XV as king of France.
Louis initially supported attempts by his ministers Jacques Turgot and later Jacques Necker to relieve France's financial problems. French support for the colonists in the American War of Independence had brought the country to the verge of bankruptcy. Meanwhile, accusations of frivolity, extravagance and scandalous behaviour against the queen, Marie Antoinette, further discredited the monarchy.
In 1789, to avert the deepening crisis, Louis agreed to summon the 'estates-general' (a form of parliament, but without real power) in order to try and raise taxes. This was the first time the body had met since 1614. Angered by Louis' refusal to allow the three estates - the first (clergy), second (nobles) and third (commons) - to meet simultaneously, the Third Estate proclaimed itself a national assembly, declaring that only it had the right to represent the nation.
Rumours that the king intended to suppress the assembly provoked the popular storming of the Bastille prison, a symbol of repressive royal power, on 14 July 1789. In October, Louis and his family were forced by the mob to return to Paris from their palace at Versailles. In June 1791, they attempted to escape, which was considered proof of Louis' treasonable dealings with foreign powers. He was forced to accept a new constitution, thereby establishing a constitutional monarchy.
Nonetheless, against a background of military defeat by Austria and Prussia, the revolutionary leadership was becoming increasingly radicalised. In September 1792, the new National Convention abolished the monarchy and declared France a republic. Louis was found guilty of treason and executed at the guillotine on 21 January 1793. Marie Antoinette was executed nine months later. (BBC History)

Russian grannies set their sights on Eurovision win

The competition is already heating up in the race to be this year's Eurovision Song Contest champion.

After the UK's surprise selection of Engelbert Humperdinck, Russia has now picked their entry - a group of grannies!
The Buranovo Grannies beat off a lot of glam competition to represent their country at this year's contest in May.
The folk band performed in traditional red dresses and shoes made out of tree bark! (CBBC Newsround)

International Women's Day

International Women's Day (8 March) is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.

International Women's Day is the story of ordinary women as makers of history; it is rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. In ancient Greece, Lysistrata initiated a sexual strike against men in order to end war; during the French Revolution, Parisian women calling for "liberty, equality, fraternity" marched on Versailles to demand women's suffrage.

The idea of an International Women's Day first arose at the turn of the century, which in the industrialized world was a period of expansion and turbulence, booming population growth and radical ideologies. (Women)

On This Day: 4th March 1975

1975: Comic genius Chaplin is knighted
Silent film legend Charlie Chaplin has become Sir Charles after a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
The star of such films as The Kid and The Great Dictator was knighted in the New Year's Honours List.
The ceremony took place just miles from the south London district where he spent much of his childhood.
Sir Charles was accompanied to Buckingham Palace by his fourth wife, Oona, and the two youngest of his nine children.
The slapstick legend, famed for his acrobatic routines, received his knighthood, from a wheelchair.
It was a reflection of just how late in life - at the age of 85 - his honour had finally come. (BBC)