For years, Jacek Kusz found his mind was elsewhere: in his past, reminiscing; or in the future, planning his next project. Until, that is, a sickly monkey changed his perspective.

India's right-wing Bharatiya Janta Party is known for its staunch conservatism and hard-line religious views. But it risks developing an image problem after two of its lawmakers were accused of viewing pornography in the Gujarat state assembly, only weeks after two BJP ministers in the south-western state of Karnataka were forced to quit after being caught watching x-rated videos on a mobile phone.

Going green never quite loses its capacity to surprise. Things that once seemed obvious turn out not to be. Once, we took it for granted that nuclear power was an environmental disaster story. Once, we thought windmills were a picturesque feature of a fairy-tale Middle Ages. Once, we thought British politics would never be the same because the Green Party won 15 per cent of the vote in the European Parliament elections of 1989.

Take off the green hair shirt – it doesn't suit anyone

No chamber group has done more to change the musical landscape than the Kronos Quartet, and its short Barbican residency bade fair to reinforce the point.

The landlord of Canary Wharf ushered in a new phase in the evolution of its sprawling estate today with a land deal which could eventually bring another 20,000 workers to London's Docklands.

They journeyed from the East to pay homage to the boy king bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. But they would struggle to complete the feat today. Times for wise men have never been tougher. Gold prices are soaring on commodity markets, myrrh crops have been hit by drought – and now frankincense could soon be no more.

Eva Joly is about to complete one of the most extraordinary CVs in world politics. At the age of 18, she was a Norwegian beauty queen. At 20, she was an au pair in France. At 37, she was a feared French investigative magistrate.

Protesters gathered at Greenwich Park at a dry run for Olympic equestrian sports yesterday. They object to parts of the Royal Park being closed to the public for the 2012 Games, and say it will harm the ecology. Forty of the world's top riders took part in the dressage at the temporary arena.

The blast furnaces that powered the Industrial Revolution had only just begun belching clouds of carbon into the sky when, in 1860, Charles Darwin encouraged a Victorian nobleman to maintain accurate data on an intriguing herd of cattle living feral in the grounds of his medieval castle.

A new generation of pesticides is implicated in the widespread deaths of bees and other pollinators and should be suspended in Britain while the Government reviews new scientific evidence about their effects, MPs were told yesterday.

Producing rare-earth metals carries considerable environmental risks, not least because the ores in which they are found often contain thorium, radium and uranium, which are radioactive. Add to that the toxic acids involved in the refining process, and the "tailings", or waste sludge, from the mine can be very unpleasant indeed. Rare earths, which are widely used in such green energy applications as electric cars and wind turbines, have been referred to as "clean energy's dirty little secret".

The demise of the dinosaurs created the ecological opportunity for the diminutive prehistoric mammals of the time to become the largest creatures on Earth today, scientists have demonstrated conclusively for the first time.

France will gain a new political party this weekend which could, it believes, instantly become an important player in the country's future.