Museum rising star ditches gadgetry
The rising star of the museum world is turning his back on interactive displays and the creeping Millennium Dome culture of "blooming knobs and buttons". Simon Thurley, the 39-year-old whizz-kid director of the Museum of London, already talked of as a future head of the British Museum, is ditching all the hitech gimmicks and technical trickery in a new £20 million, six-year overhaul of his galleries. Guardian
Labour's pay claim refuted
The government's claim to have narrowed the earnings gap between men and women last year was refuted by updated figures published by the Office for National Statistics yesterday, on the eve of a new report about tackling pay discrimination. Guardian , Financial Times
Employers' pay report may ease gender gap
Employers with large workforces may soon be obliged to report annually on staff terms and conditions as part of moves to close the pay gap between the sexes. Financial Times
Career break costs women their rights
Women who take a career break to bring up their children do not automatically retain their employment rights, an employment tribunal has ruled. Times
Proposals for tax credit on research unveiled
Chancellor Gordon Brown yesterday announced detailed proposals for a research and development tax credit for large companies as ministers prepared to face hard-pressed manufacturers and unions at a "summit" in Birmingham. Financial Times
Mobile users ape monkeys
Gossip on mobile phones has turned into "the equivalent of social grooming among primates", according to a survey out today. This process has become vital as an antidote to the pressures and alienation of modern life according to the Social Issue Research Centre in Oxford. Guardian , Daily Telegraph , Daily Mail
Literati celebrate contortions
A veritable Kama Sutra of variations on the inept fictional sex scene was celebrated last night at a glamorous ceremony in London's clubland where the ninth Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction was awarded to novelist and thirty-something journalist Christopher Hart. Independent
Internet virus hits computer systems
Companies around the world found their email systems disabled yesterday after they were attacked by the new "goner" virus. Financial Times
Briton pays £10m to be space tourist
A British tycoon is to become the world's second space tourist. Internet multi-millionaire Mark Shuttleworth, 28, will pay more than £10 million for the ten-day trip in April aboard a Russian rocket. Daily Mail