This week's UK news: 22 November 2013
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22 November 2013


New Word of the Year in English

Editors from the Oxford dictionaries spend a lot of time adding new words to their books. This year the team have announced that their Word of 2013 is "selfie".

In case you don't know, a "selfie" is a photograph you take of yourself. One famous selfie this year was taken by the Pope of himself with a group of teenagers.

The word was first used online in 2002 when an Australian posted a picture of the injuries he got after a friend's party, but did not become common till last year. Oxford's editors say use of the word has increased by 17,000% in the last 12 months. They have not yet added the word to their dictionary.


Charity TV night raises GBP 31m

Children in Need is a fund-raising event held every year by the UK's public service broadcaster, the BBC. The event raises money for children's charities.

People all over the country take part to raise cash. Schools often ask children to dress in costumes and bring some money for the charity, or people sell cakes to raise funds.

The main event is a six-hour long TV show with lots of performances. During this, people are asked to donate money for the charity. There are also lots of appearances from the charity's mascot, a yellow teddy bear called Pudsey.

This year the event raised GBP 31m on the night, more than ever before.


UK officially one of the most beautiful countries

People from all over the world have voted Britain one of the world's most beautiful countries.

Britain is now rated the 20th most beautiful country in the world overall. It came fifth in an Indian poll for most beautiful country, ninth in China and 12th in Australia. These are the highest ratings the UK has had for beauty in this international survey.

In addition, the UK came third overall as the country where people would most likely consider living and working. It also scored very highly among German voters for sports facilities.


UK goes Dr Who mad

Dr Who is one of the UK's most popular TV shows, and it is also well known around the world. It is the story of an alien who travels through space and time in a blue police phone box, fighting other aliens like Daleks and Cybermen. The actors playing the Doctor change every few years, but his new "face" is part of the story.

The show began 50 years ago and has been running on our BBC TV channel for most of the time since. It stopped running for a few years and was brought back with better effects and bigger budgets almost a decade ago, and is now very popular.

This weekend the BBC will show a special 50th anniversary episode. Unusually, it will include more than one Doctor - several actors who have played the part will appear in the story. All week, the BBC has been showing old episodes of the programme as well as special shows about its history.

 

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