Wayne Rooney surprises fans… again

Lots of football fans were surprised to hear that Wayne Rooney was seriously thinking about leaving Manchester United. And most people were even more surprised when it was announced this week that he would stay at the club.

Rooney had said he was considering leaving Man U because he was unsure of plans for its future. Some fans were so angry about this that they demonstrated outside his house one night.

But Rooney decided he was happy to sign a new contract. It is said his new wages will double to GBP 180,000 a week. Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson insisted Rooney had to apologise to him and the team for what he said about the team's future.

Richer than Wayne Rooney

Somewhere in the UK is somebody who overnight became much richer than Wayne Rooney. But we don’t know who it is.

The mystery man or woman is now worth at least GBP 113,000 after buying the winning ticket in the EuroMillions lottery. Tickets are sold all over Europe.

The winner has decided not to reveal who they are, but they have become the 589th richest person in the UK. They are likely to be earning GBP 9,000 interest on their fortune every day.

British people see stars

We learned this week that lots of British people are very good at starwatching for fun. A man called Kevin Apps did better than 30 American space agency staff when he found a very rare star called a Transiting Brown Dwarf.

Mr Apps, who is a gas worker, found the star by analysing findings sent back from a space telescope on his home computer in the South of England. He has found rare stars before, and now a film is going to be made about him.

Two other amateur astronomers using telescopes in their gardens saw fireballs on the planet Jupiter, caused by an asteroid collision. And another English man, Tom Boles, has discovered more exploding stars (supernovae) than any other person.

Studying the stars was also made more popular by a TV series earlier this year about the solar system. It was presented by Professor Brian Cox, who was once a keyboard player in a pop band and is now famous for having brains and good looks. He will present a live astronomy show later this year.

What are British babies called?

Jack was the most popular name for boys for 14 years, until 2009. New figures show Oliver has become the top boys' name instead of Jack. The top name for baby girls is Olivia.

The top ten names for boys in 2009 were Oliver, Jack, Harry, Alfie, Joshua, Thomas, Charlie, William, James and Daniel. Lots of these names were out of fashion for a long time until the last 10 years. Some, like Charlie and Alfie, are short forms of names such as Charles and Alfred.

The top girls' names were Olivia, Ruby, Chloe, Emily, Sophie, Jessica, Grace, Lily, Amelia and Evie. More than half of the names on the boys' and girls' lists were also in the top ten a decade ago.

Mohammed was the most popular boys' name in one part of England, and is in 16th place in the national list.

by Susan Young
susan@englishuk.com