WHEN YOU ask people to recommend somewhere to stay in Paris, they usually, and wisely, suggest a little place that they know in somewhere like St Germain. Wise, because if you stay there you are in the thick of it, with all the hip shops and restaurants within easy reach.

PETER REID, who led Sunderland to promotion to the Premiership last season, will replace Peter Taylor as coach of the England Under-21 side. The appointment was announced by the Football Association's technical director, Howard Wilkinson, who added that the job will again revert to a part-time role.

THE HEADY aroma of hops and malt fills the air, and 3,000 foamy gallons of bitter are fermenting in a stainless steel vat. But gloom pervades Lancaster's ancient stone brewery, a city landmark for more than four centuries.

ALAN WELLBURN was a biochemist who made numerous contributions to our understanding of the ways in which plants function in different environments, particularly in atmospheres contaminated with air pollutants. He was an early authority on "acid rain" and climate change.

A FRESH backbench revolt was threatened last night, over Jack Straw's plans to impose cuts on social security benefits for asylum seekers, after a number of Labour MPs from the 1997 intake signed a rebel amendment to the Government's Immigration and Asylum Bill.

Big isn't always best in the world of business schools.

TRAVEL - AS the music business has long realised, from Chuck Berry ("Route 66") and Cliff Richard ("Summer Holiday") via Prefab Sprout ("From Langley Park to Memphis") to the Fun Lovin' Criminals ("Korean Bodega") - helps sell pop records. Now some of them are turning vicious.

Sir: Your editorial ("A quartet of unions that do the teachers a great disservice", 31 March) is wide of the mark. All the teachers unions are right to be objecting to the Green Paper.

The gatehouses of large country estates may no longer have a practical role to play, but they make fantastic homes for those wanting something a little unusual. And you don't even have to opt for the rural life - cities too boast their share of lodges. By Gwenda Joyce

THOSE INTRIGUED by the recent appearance of Prince Charles in the Falklands, can learn more about these remote islands at a lecture given by Geoffrey Moir on the Flora of the Falkland Islands on 24 March at 7pm at the Museum of Garden History, Lambeth Road, London SE1. For tickets (pounds 6) call 0171- 401 8864.

A HARD LEFT candidate is set to win the presidency of the three million-strong National Union of Students next week, ending 16 years of Labour control. Kate Buckell, a member of the Alliance for Workers' Liberty, is the favourite to take the post when elections are held at the union's annual conference in Blackpool on Tuesday.

Sir: I was horrified by Dulcie Powell's lack of compassion for the victims of the massacre in Uganda and their families (letter, 6 March). Personally, I regard being hacked to death by a gang wielding machetes with the aim of bringing their cause to the world's attention as a sign of just how evil human beings can be, rather than an "unpleasant consequence" of foreign travel.

Strongman sunk by Navy frigate

KEVIN KEEGAN yesterday gave the first hint that he is prepared to become England's manager in succession to Glenn Hoddle. At least he is prepared to talk to the Football Association, which makes him an on- the-record exception among club managers.