A pair of Magellanic penguins have remained faithful to each other for 16 years, according to researchers who have been monitoring the birds and have shown they can travel up to 10,000 miles a year in their search for food and love.

It is a story of epic journeys and enduring love.

A pair of Magellanic penguins has been revealed as among the most faithful of couples in the animal kingdom.

Their relationship has spanned 16 years — almost their entire breeding life — despite spending long periods apart and each of them taking solo trips totalling 200,000 miles.

Yet each year they have returned to the same nest, and each other, to produce a new brood of chicks.

Now they have grown old together — the penguin’s natural lifespan means they normally die around 20 years after they start breeding.

Biologists have expressed surprise at the endurance of the couple’s relationship as most pairings are cut short by either the death of one of the penguins during their long sea journeys or a failure to successfully produce chicks, which are often killed by predators or hunger.

Research has revealed a tragic twist to Magellanic penguin relationships — if a couple ever fails to successfully hatch their chicks then they will “divorce,” leaving each other to find new partners.

The longest relationships between penguins previously seen by researchers have been between five and ten years before tragedy strikes and they fail to breed successfully.

The tale, which would rival any romantic novel, has emerged as part of a 30-year study of Magellanic penguins, one of the most abundant but poorly-understood flightless birds on the planet.

They spend their summer breeding season on the Patagonian coastline of southern Argentina, where researchers put metal identity bands on the flippers of 50,000 birds to follow their progress.

Satellite tracking conducted for the first time this year has added a new insight, revealing the enormous journeys they make each winter when they migrate individually to warmer waters off Brazil. They live, sleep and eat on the waves for up to six months, clocking up around 10,000 miles before returning in the spring to their old nest and the same partner.

“The bond they have is incredible really,” said Dr Pablo Garcia Borboroglu, a researcher at the National Research Council of Argentina who has been leading the research and president of the Global Penguin Society .

“It is unbelievable how far Magellanic penguins swim – and each breeding season they come back to the same nest and to the same partner.”

For most of the three-decade study, the penguins were monitored on the Argentinian beaches of Punta Tombo and Cabo Dos Bahias, but their activities while at sea remained a mystery. The researchers tried to follow the penguins at sea but would frequently lose track of them.

Now, however, new lightweight satellite positioning tags have been fitted to 15 birds - dubbed VIPs, or Very Important Penguins - allowing Dr Borboroglu and his colleagues to follow their movements in more detail.

The study has been carried out jointly with Dr Dee Boersma of the University of Washington, another expert in Magellanic penguins, who said it was an impressive feat for the penguin pair that have remained together for 16 years due to the risks their young face in the wild.

She said: “Many pairs stay together for five or even ten years. The fate of most penguin chicks is to die - they get eaten by predators or simply starve as their parents don’t bring them enough food.”

Magellanic penguins usually begin to breed from around the age of five years old for females and seven years old for males.

The penguins arrive at their nesting sites in September - spring in the southern hemisphere - and find their partners among the 100,000-strong colony by the distinctive sound of one another’s calls. Once reunited at their old nest, the birds groom each other to re-establish their bond.

After mating, the female typically lays two eggs. The parents take turns standing over the eggs while the other partner goes out to sea, swimming up to 100 miles a day in search of the fish and squid they feed on.

The eggs hatch after six weeks, then the parents spend another month together looking after the young. Once chicks are old enough to look after themselves, the penguins undertake an even more impressive journey that takes them up to 3,500 miles north, to their wintering area.

Dr Borboroglu said he hoped further analysis of the tag data would help reveal whether the penguins meet up in the ocean, and whether their routes put them at risk from shipping or oil production.

He revealed his research after delivering a lecture to the Whitley Fund for Nature in London, which has helped fund his studies after he won a Whitley Award in 2010 . He will set out his findings in a book to be published next year called Penguins: Natural History and Conservation.

Dr Borboroglu believes that penguins can help to provide a valuable indication of how healthy the oceans are as their populations dramatically vary according to fish numbers.

There are 18 penguin species, five of which are deemed to be endangered while six are classed as vulnerable.

Numbers of Magellanic penguins have dropped dramatically since the turn of the century with some colonies halving in the past 15 years due to threats from oil spills and falling fish numbers. There are thought to be around 1.2 million left in the world.

Happy families: other monogamous species

Albatross – Living for up to 80 years, these seabirds mate for life. They will wander the skies above the open oceans for years at a time before returning to their nests, usually on remote islands, to breed with the same partner.

French angel fish – These fish bond for all 15 years of their lives and will often not seek a new partner if one of them dies. They travel as couples, defending their territory and feeding side-by-side.

Prairie vole – Just five per cent of mammals are monogamous. These voles are among the select few that pair for life, but only live one year. Even after the female dies, the male will not look for a new partner.

Black vulture – These American scavengers, which live for an average of 30 years, show that looks are not important when mating for life. They have even been observed to attack other vultures that have strayed from their mates.

Kirk’s Dik-Dik – This dwarf African antelope forms monogamous pairs for life - around four years in the wild. Initially biologists believed this was because males seldom encounter more than one female, but recent research has shown that even when other single females are nearby, the males stay faithful.

Kings of the swingers: those that are less picky about their partners

Bonobos - these close relatives of chimpanzees are highly promiscuous. Living in small mixed-sex groups, they engage in more sexual liaisons than any other primate, often with members of their own families.

Bronze-winged jacana - the females of these tropical shorebirds maintain harems of males, laying many clutches of eggs for the males to tend. The females will often destroy eggs of competing females to have the opportunity to mate with a male.

Bottlenose dolphins - Dolphins mate both to reproduce and for pleasure, often as a form of social interaction. Their liaisons, however, are usually brief, lasting less than a minute.

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The entire Christian calendar is based on a miscalculation, the Pope has declared, as he claims in a new book that Jesus was born several years earlier than commonly believed.

The 'mistake' was made by a sixth century monk known as Dionysius Exiguus or in English Dennis the Small, the 85-year-old pontiff claims in the book 'Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives', published on Wednesday.

"The calculation of the beginning of our calendar – based on the birth of Jesus – was made by Dionysius Exiguus, who made a mistake in his calculations by several years,"the Pope writes in the book, which went on sale around the world with an initial print run of a million copies.

"The actual date of Jesus's birth was several years before."

The assertion that the Christian calendar is based on a false premise is not new – many historians believe that Christ was born sometime between 7BC and 2BC.

But the fact that doubts over one of the keystones of Christian tradition have been raised by the leader of the world's one billion Catholics is striking.

Dennis the Small, who was born in Eastern Europe, is credited with being the "inventor" of the modern calendar and the concept of the Anno Domini era.

He drew up the new system in part to distance it from the calendar in use at the time, which was based on the years since the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian.

The emperor had persecuted Christians, so there was good reason to expunge him from the new dating system in favour of one inspired by the birth of Christ.

The monk's calendar became widely accepted in Europe after it was adopted by the Venerable Bede, the historian-monk, to date the events that he recounted in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which he completed in AD 731.

But exactly how Dennis calculated the year of Christ's birth is not clear and the Pope's claim that he made a mistake is a view shared by many scholars.

The Bible does not specify a date for the birth of Christ. The monk instead appears to have based his calculations on vague references to Jesus's age at the start of his ministry and the fact that he was baptized in the reign of the emperor Tiberius.

Christ's birth date is not the only controversy raised by the Pope in his new book – he also said that contrary to the traditional Nativity scene, there were no oxen, donkeys or other animals at Jesus's birth .

He also weighs in on the debate over Christ's birthplace, rejecting arguments by some scholars that he was born in Nazareth rather than Bethlehem.

John Barton, Professor of the Interpretation of the Holy Scripture at Oriel College, Oxford University, said most academics agreed with the Pope that the Christian calendar was wrong and that Jesus was born several years earlier than commonly thought, probably between 6BC and 4BC.

"There is no reference to when he was born in the Bible - all we know is that he was born in the reign of Herod the Great, who died before 1AD," he told The Daily Telegraph. "It's been surmised for a very long time that Jesus was born before 1AD so technically we may well be living in 2007 or 2008 or whatever - no one knows for sure."

The idea that Christ was born on Dec 25 also has no basis in historical fact. "We don't even know which season he was born in. The whole idea of celebrating his birth during the darkest part of the year is probably linked to pagan traditions and the winter solstice."

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Secret diary of a board babe: Our own relocation package, which does not include support for families moving abroad, is putting mothers at a career disadvantage. I am fighting to change my firm's policy.

Our company employs a 75:25 split of females to males. Of the 256 global assignments in 2011/2012, less than a quarter were taken up by women. Of the women who were approached for global secondments or moves, those who declined did so because they had families and our relocation policy did not consider families as part of the support package.

We are an international company employing far more women than men, and yet it is our male employees, by and large, that get to take up the opportunities to work abroad.

All because our jobs relocation packages do not consider families and mothers feel they cannot leave their children behind, quite understandably, to go and work overseas for months on end. Our stats show it is often the father, or young men and women without children, who can take advantage of this.

Some of my close female colleagues have lost out on international opportunities within my organisation and this riles me. We all know that if you can spend time abroad in a big multinational, that will help you progress up the career ladder . Women that work for us are being put at a disadvantage in their careers.

I discovered all this during a recent budget review process. Our board met to analyse the annual spend and discuss areas of cost savings. One area that instigated significant discussion and debate was around how we hire people into the business. We value our people significantly and invest in training and development more so than most organisations I’ve worked for before.

We do however; look for the highest calibre of people we can find. We’ve paid astronomical fees to search firms and recruitment agencies over the last year. This led us to look at the opportunities we’ve taken, and lost, to share our best workers across the organisation globally. So-called "global mobility" statistics were pulled – how often workers are tasked to move abroad on short-term assignments – and the results I saw were shocking.

I’m not sure what riled me more; the fact that we are a female majority organisation but so few get to go abroad, or that mothers who may have wanted to continue their career internationally have felt unable to, because we didn’t facilitate their progression. In a country where inequality still exists, I couldn’t believe we were actually contributing to it.

I am now working with my colleagues to bringing about change to the relocation policy to support our own female talent, and their families, taking up international assignments.

We have had positive support so far, and what I am working on is calculating the cost benefit of keeping internal talent, rather than outsourcing positions at considerable time, labour and spend. It may be cheaper for us to help our very driven, very talented employees (and mostly women right on our doorstep) to relocate abroad with their families than bring in external talent, no expenses spared.

I often reflect on situations like this one, and wonder why we haven’t taken action before. Perhaps no one else asked the question, or asked for the numbers which are so concerning in what they bring to light.

I would never want to think that my career would be hindered by my own company’s policies or lack of support. Anything we can do now, for all the mothers and carers in this company, is a job well worth the effort, the influencing, challenging conversations and perseverance. It's times like now when I value the decision-making power I have, and the potential change I can bring about with the support of my board team.

Board Babe sits on the executive board of a multinational company with more than 10,000 employees. In her weekly blog, she reveals the ups and downs of being a woman at the top in a corporate environment.

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10. Honda Jazz

Year: 2001-2008

Reliability Index rating: 21

9. Toyota Yaris (tie)

Year: 1999-2003

Reliability Index rating: 20

9. Mercedes-Benz E-Class (tie)

Year: 2006-

Reliability Index rating: 20

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Japanese artist Yoko Ono has collaborated with Opening Ceremony to design a menswear collection inspired by her late husband, John Lennon.

A collection of drawings created as a wedding present for Beatles singer John Lennon in 1969 entitled “Fashions for Men” has inspired Yoko Ono’s quirky foray into menswear design.

Concept store Opening Ceremony, which recently launched in London’s Covent Garden, will stock the 18-piece collection of from November 30. Highlights include suit trousers with a hand silhouette sewn over the crotch (approx £210), a jumper with eyelets cut out around the nipples and a battery-operated lightbulb bra which can be worn underneath said top (£160).

Liverpool-born Lennon and Ono collaborated together on an album just weeks before he was assassinated in 1980. “I was inspired to create ‘Fashions for Men’ amazed at how my man was looking so great. I felt it was a pity if we could not make clothes emphasizing his very sexy bod,” Yoko told WWD .

She rather un-modestly continues: “So, I made this whole series with love for his hot bod and gave it to him as a wedding present. You can imagine how he went wild and fell in love with me even more.”

Each piece from the collection, which also includes hoodies (around £50) and two styles of boots has a run of just 52 items. A softcover book comprised of Ono’s drawings accompanies the collection, as well as sweatshirts and posters decorated with her sketches.

“We loved the idea of sort of celebrating the holidays with Yoko with this collection” said Opening Ceremony co-founder Carol Lim, while fellow founder Humberto Leon explained: “I think she just fell in love with John’s body and wanted to show off all of the parts of his body that she loved. There’s something so beautiful about that sentiment. And we’ve realized these designs in pretty actual terms of how she drew them.”

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Online clothes shoppers will be told exactly what size is best for them using new software which combines with their webcam or smart phone to form a "3D tape measure".

Scientists from Surrey University and design experts from the London College of Fashion are developing a programme which can take precise waist, hip, chest and other measurements from camera images.

Using the person's height as a starting point, the software will be able to build up a 3D image and estimate their size at various different points on the body, based on their overall proportions.

The result will be a more accurate sizing guide than systems based on waist size or a "small/medium/large" scale, which rely on limited measurements and the buyer's perception of their own body size.

Shoppers and retailers who choose to sign up for the project could save millions of pounds a year in postage costs by eliminating the need to order multiple sizes of the same garment and send back ill-fitting clothes, researchers claimed.

Prof Adrian Hilton of Surrey University said: “It’s unrealistic to expect online clothes shoppers to have the time or inclination to take a series of highly accurate body measurements of themselves. The new system makes it all very easy.”

The project, sponsored by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), is expected to be brought to market within two years.

After choosing an item, the shopper will activate the software and enter their height, before in front of their webcam or smartphone in their underwear and taking a photograph.

The software will not store or transmit the image to the internet, but will use it to judge the person's dimensions at various points on their body.

Because label sizes vary between manufacturers, the programme will use the exact measurements of each individual garment to predict which size will be the best fit.

Philip Delamore of the London College of Fashion said: "The potential benefits for the fashion industry and for shoppers are huge. Currently, it’s common for online shoppers to order two or three different sizes of the same item of clothing at the same time, as they’re unsure which one will fit best.”

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Emperor penguins depend on sea ice to rest in between dives while foraging for food, according to a new study which could help scientists understand the impact of climate change on colonies.

The changing habitat of the Antarctic is thought to favour some penguins, such as Gentoos, which spend little time on sea ice, while threatening others including Adélies which have declined across the region as ice recedes.

Now the first ever detailed study of emperor penguin activity during their long foraging trips at the water's edge has found that they rely on the solid land to rest and stay safe from predators.

However, the emperor penguins did not use the ice to travel long distances and, unlike Adélies, spent most of their time in the water.

The findings will lead to a greater understanding of the relationship between sea ice levels and emperor penguins' foraging behaviour, researchers said.

Emperor penguins rear their young inland, and parents take turns to make foraging trips in search of food for up to two weeks while the other looks after the chick.

Researchers from Fukuyama University in Japan studied the movements of 10 emperor penguins during one such trip using monitoring devices and found that they spent only 31 per cent of their time on the ice itself.

The birds did not travel far over the ice, making most journeys by water and only coming onto dry land to take short breaks in between exhausting dives as deep as 500m.

The length of time the penguins spent sitting or lying on the ice was linked to the duration of their last dive, suggesting they used it to recuperate after tiring themselves out.

Researchers speculated that rest on the ice and prolonged waiting periods near the water could also be due to the presence of predators such as leopard seals which congregate at the ice edge.

Diving together as a group could reduce an individual penguin's chance of being caught through weight of numbers and increased vigilance against predators.

Writing in the Public Library of Science ONE journal, the researchers concluded: "The emperor penguins spent much more time diving compared to Adélie penguins with shorter foraging trips; emperor penguins spent 69 per cent of the time in water of which 66 per cent of time was spent diving.

"We suggest that 24 hours of sunlight and the cycling of dive bouts with short rest periods on sea ice allow emperor penguins to dive continuously through the day during prolonged foraging trips to sea."

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Doha will host the latest round of United Nations talks on climate change. But can a major oil and gas hub with the highest carbon footprint per person in the world lead the way on a switch to a green economy?

Carbon

Doha has the largest carbon footprint per person in the world. Qataris use five times the amount of carbon than the average Briton, at 44 metric tonnes per person per year in 2009. This is largely because of energy intensive air conditioning and desalination plants for water. Because water and electricity is free, there is little incentive to cut usage.

Gas

The UK spends more on gas from Qatar than any other country. In 2011 the UK spent £4.25bn on Qatari gas, 70 per cent more than our next largest import partner, Norway.

This is not because the UK imports more gas from Qatar than Norway but because it is much more expensive.

The tiny emirate has more than 15 per cent of the world's proven gas reserves and has talked about using “unconventional sources” in future, opening the possibility of deepwater drilling or shale.

Human rights

Migrant workers, including workers on gas rigs, make up more than 80 per cent of Qatar’s population and come mostly from south and south-east Asia.

According to Amnesty International they are “inadequately protected under the law and continued to be exploited and abused by employers.”

Womens rights are advanced for the region and female athletes went to the Olympics this summer.

Climate reputation

As a developing country Qatar does not have fixed emission reduction targets, nor has it made any voluntary pledge to cut emissions.

There will be pressure on Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries to announce targets during the UN meeting.

Environment

In Qatar, 22 per cent of the land is designated as a protected area by the Ministry of Environment. This number far exceeds the 10 per cent stipulated by signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity, of which Qatar is a signatory – although it is tiny areas since the country is so small.

Qatar has several wildlife initiatives including banning camel grazing, which can be harmful to plant growth; reintroducing and protecting threatened fish species and their coral habitats; monitoring and protecting seasonal sea turtle breeding grounds; and monitoring and protecting the migratory patterns of the dugong sea mammals.

Time to cut carbon?

Qatar is one of the 10 developing countries predicted to be most affected by rising sea levels, so it has an interest in acting on climate change.

As hosts of the conference, the Qataris have promised to do everything possible to make to keep carbon emissions as low as possible.

The Qatar National Convention Centre is certified by the US Green Building Council’s as a Leader in Energy and Environment Design (LEED). It used sustainably logged wood and some 3,500 meters of solar panels can provide up to 12.5 per cent of the building’s energy needs. Skylights built into exhibition halls bring in natural light. More than 400 buses will be laid on to reduce emissions from transport, including some run on biofuels. The website claims that materials and items used at the conference will be “disposed of responsibly, through reuse, donation to charitable organisations, recycling, and composting or energy recovery”. Paper use will be minimised through the ‘PaperSmart’ system that means documents are only printed out on request.

Christiana Figueres, head of the UN Climate talks, said Qatar should be more committed to tackling climate change.

“Climate change and increase in temperatures is making Qatar even more vulnerable to the lack of water and food insecurity" she said. "Every single drop of water that is used in Qatar needs to be desalinated. Every single gram of food that is eaten needs to be either imported or grown with desalinated water. I have no doubt they (Qatar) are committed to a (meeting) that is not only going to be successful in format but that is actually going to be successful in substance."

A greener future

Qatar, like many other Middle Eastern nations, is aware the oil and gas will eventually run out.

The Qatar Foundation has been set up to switch the nation from a supplier of fossil fuels to a “knowledge economy”.

Billions are being spent on developing new technology to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. A greenhouse in the coastal desert uses solar panels to power desalination plants and grow food. Biofuels are being developed for aeroplanes.

Qatar also owns the forthright satellite TV station Al-Jazeera, which has attracted a growing audience, and is a powerful tool for changing attitudes.

The symbol of the Qatar Foundation is the Sidra tree, where poets and scholars would traditionally gather.

“With its roots bound in the soil of this world and its branches reaching upwards toward perfection, it is a symbol of solidarity and determination,” says the Foundation. “It reminds us that goals of this world are not incompatible with the goals of the spirit.”

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Turning the human body into a power station sounds like a zany plotline from the Matrix movies, but scientists are starting to take seriously the idea that one way to stem climate change might be to harvest tiny amounts of energy in the form of the body’s heat, movement, metabolism and vibrations.

In one form of the technology, experts are turning to piezoelectricity, which means “electricity resulting from pressure”. In a piezoelectric material, small amounts of power are generated when it is pushed out of shape. As an extraordinary example of what’s now possible with these materials, the heart itself could be used to power an artificial pacemaker. Though these devices require only tiny amounts of power – one millionth of a watt – their batteries typically run out after a few years. But as Dr Amin Karami at the University of Michigan says, a pacemaker that harvests the energy of the heartbeat itself might operate for a lifetime. In a recent address to the American Heart Association in Los Angeles, he pointed out that a sliver of a piezoelectric ceramic one hundredth of an inch thick, powered by vibrations in the chest cavity, is able to generate almost 10 times the power required to operate a pacemaker.

The technology can be used on the outside of the body as well. Nanotechnology researchers are developing the perfect complement to the power tie: a “power shirt” woven from pairs of fibres coated with tiny strips of zinc oxide and gold. As you move, the fibres rub against each other to produce a current. Prof Zhong Lin Wang, at the Georgia Institute of Technology, says that “we could provide a flexible, foldable and wearable power source that, for example, would allow people to generate their own electrical current while walking”.

In Britain, at the University of Newcastle, Dr Michele Pozzi has created a “pizzicato” energy source that could power a satellite navigation device. Fixed on the knee, the device consists of an outer ring and central hub. As you walk, the ring rotates, and 72 plectra around it “pluck” four piezoelectric arms on the hub, generating electricity. Steve Burrows, of Bristol University, has harnessed the up-and-down motion of walking to turn an electricity generator. Even our footsteps can generate power, by driving a salty liquid through microscopic pores in a shoe sole to deliver up to two watts per leg, using a “reverse electrowetting” device developed by Prof Tom Krupenkin at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “This is more than sufficient to power such common devices as smartphones and tablets,” he says. “We expect the first product prototype to be available in one to two years.”

Laurie Winkless, of the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, has studied a range of such harvesting technologies. She points out that they have their drawbacks. A piezoelectric “battery” inside a heel may be able to power emergency location devices for hikers, but the wearer will feel the added resistance from anything above a few tenths of a watt. There are also problems with so-called “thermoelectric” materials, which generate electricity when one side is hot and the other cold: a shirt made of such a fabric could draw too much heat from the body, leaving the wearer feeling chilly.

Overall, however, the future for such nanogeneration appears bright. In the Science Museum’s Atmosphere gallery, we have a model of one promising technology that is now in use: a paving slab made by Pavegen Systems to scavenge the energy of tramping feet. The company’s tiles were incorporated in a walkway leading to the Olympic Park that turned more than 10 million footsteps into enough energy to illuminate the walkway for eight hours each day.

In future, says Winkless, a range of energy-grubbing technologies will increasingly appear in the home: “Energy harvesting pots could mean that boiling your pasta charges your mobile phone. The vibrations of your washing machine could power wireless sensors – or your TV remote could be powered just by you pressing the buttons.”

Roger Highfield is director of external affairs at the Science Museum Group

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Getting along with the in-laws is never easy but it could be the secret to a long and happy marriage, according to new research.

Husbands who enjoy a good relationship with their in-laws have a 20 per cent higher chance of avoiding divorce, an American study has found.

However, the opposite is true for women. Wives who get on well with their in-laws are 20 per cent more likely to split up.

According to researchers at the University of Michigan, women who enjoy the company of their in-laws may become too involved with their husband's family, to the point where wives believe their in-laws are meddling.

Men do not share the same worries, which could explain the discrepancy between husbands and wives.

Dr Terri Orbuch, a psychologist and research professor who led the study, said it's a positive aspect of a relationship if men get on well with their in-laws because "these ties connect the husband to the wife".

However, women do not view relationships with in-laws in the same way, she said.

"Because relationships are so important to women, their identity as a wife and mother is central to their being," she said.

"They interpret what their in-laws say and do as interference into their identity as a spouse and parent."

She added that wives should be wary of sharing details of their marriages so that boundaries are kept in place.

The study at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research examined 373 same-race couples over a period of 26 years, beginning in 1986.

All the couples were aged between 25 and 37 and had been married for a year or less when the study began. Dr Orbuch has followed them throughout their years of marriage.

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The world's most beautiful women, including Karlie Kloss, Petra Nemcova and a heavily pregnant Adriana Lima, cover up for photojournalist Steve McCurry's Pirelli Calendar.

If you happen to be one of the select handful of people on the mailing list for Pirelli’s iconic annual calendar, prepare to be shocked.

Not, as you might usually be, by the sight of the world’s most beautiful women in an artistic state of undress, but by the complete absence of any nudity whatsoever.

The 2013 calendar has been shot by photojournalist Steve McCurry, best known for his powerful images of refugees in war-torn Afghanistan, in particular his celebrated 1985 National Geographic cover image ‘Afghan Girl’, so this was never going to be a re-run of Terry Richardson’s titilating 2010 assignment for the Italian motoring giants.

IN PICTURES: See the 2013 Pirelli Calendar

Instead McCurry and Pirelli’s casting agent of 17 years, Jennifer Starr, worked together to choose a group of models whose appeal went further than their looks.

Each of the girls was selected because of their extensive charity work, and as Starr told The Cut, they thought that nudity would “dilute the message” and compromise their work (Kyleigh Kuhn, for example, is a campaigner for women’s rights in Afghanistan).

Instead, McCurry took eleven girls — including Brazilians Isabeli Fontana, 62-year-old actress Sônia Braga, Marisa Monte and a heavily pregnant Adriana Lima (the first Pirelli girl to appear visibly pregnant), on location in Rio de Janeiro, with several suitcases of clothes, to capture their natural beauty against the colourful backdrop of the streets.

READ: Adriana Lima bares her baby bump in the 2013 Pirelli calendar

The other girls who made the cut this year are Elisa Sednaoui, Petra Nemcova, Hanaa Ben Abdesslem, Summer Rayne Oakes, Liya Kebede and Karlie Kloss.

Alongside Terry Richardson, the Pirelli Calendar has, in recent years, been the preserve of the biggest names in fashion photography, from Mario Sorrenti and Karl Lagerfeld, to Patrick Demarchelier and Mert & Marcus, so McCurry’s appointment was clearly meant as a deliberate gear shift.

IN PICTURES: The 2012 Pirelli calendar

Could this signal the end of naked women in the Pirelli Calendar? Some certainly feel the usual format is a gratuitous hangover of a bygone era, but while McCurry’s images are strikingly beautiful and thought provoking, we can’t help but wonder how many disappointed faces there will be when the postman comes.

DON'T MISS: Last Year's Pirelli Calendar Was Definitely NSFW

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The launch of Africa’s first low-cost airline promises to open the continent's skies to first-time fliers and cut costs for tourists currently hit with some of the world’s most expensive air tickets.

Fastjet, part-owned by easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, will take its first scheduled flight in Tanzania this week and plans to expand first across East Africa and then to Ghana and Angola.

If the airline sticks to these plans, British tourists could soon combine safaris in Kenya with gorilla treks in Uganda and time on Zanzibar's beaches in a two-week trip without excessive flight costs.

Such multi-country holidays in Africa have traditionally been restricted to backpackers with time to take cheap transport.

It is the first time the “book early, pay less” model has come to most of Sub-Saharan Africa. Passengers used to full-service airlines may be surprised at charges for checked-in bags or onboard drinks and snacks. But in return for the lack of frills, the firm’s British management promise base fares for hour-long flights from as little £13 before taxes.

“This is something that can revolutionise my work,” said Godfrey Hicheka, a charity director in Tanzania, who regularly travels between Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital, and Kilimanjaro in the north, to visit field projects.

Often he cannot justify the £225 cost for the 50-minute each-way flight. On fastjet, the return ticket will be as low as £33, including taxes.

“That is cheaper than taking the bus, and it means I can go for a meeting in the morning and be back in Dar by evening – it's unbelievable,” he said.

Long-distance road travel is often the only option for most Africans, even those in the booming middle class with salaried jobs.

Mr Hicheka’s 400-mile journey from Dar es Salaam to Kilimanjaro would take 11 hours on a cramped coach on roads with an awful reputation for accidents. Unlike in India or South-East Asia, there are few passenger trains in Africa.

“African economies are among the fastest growing in the world, and a lot of that growth is happening in the middle classes,” said Ed Winter, fastjet’s CEO and former chief operating officer of both Go and easyJet.

“But they have simply not been properly served with options to fly to business meetings, to fly home to see their relatives at Christmas, to take their families on holidays. We are here to fill that gap.”

Fastjet has three 156-seat Airbus A319s at its first hub in Dar es Salaam, initially serving Kilimanjaro and Mwanza, a major Tanzanian city on Lake Victoria.

Before the end of the year, Mr Winter plans to start the first international flight, to Entebbe in Uganda, and then to Nairobi, Kenya, by Easter, where the airline's second hub will be based. Twelve more leased A319s will be delivered by the end of 2013, he said.

“There will of course be benefits not just to East Africans, but to tourists as well,” he said. Flights already connect to Kilimanjaro, for visitors attempting to reach the summit Africa’s highest mountain.

Future destinations include the Indian Ocean resorts of Mombasa and Zanzibar, and Entebbe and Kigali, which would give tourists cheaper access to treks to see mountain gorillas.

However, the fact that no other airline has yet seriously attempted to bring no-frills flying to Africa points to the significant challenges fastjet faces.

Government regulations can be complex, taxes are high, and airport infrastructure often lags decades behind what passengers in the rest of the world expect.

“We know that improved air services are critical to opening up our economy to development, and we can be sure that infrastructure will be improved,” Charles Tizeba, Tanzania’s deputy transport minister, said at the fastjet launch in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday.

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, which means that the over-commercialisation of what should be primarily a religious and family-oriented holiday is in full-swing.

What we need is a bit more peace on earth and mercy mild, a bit less of the ubiquitous “must-have” lists.

For parents, navigating the relentless onslaught of toys – what your child wants, where you can get it, whether you can afford it – is made all the more unpleasant by the increasingly gendered toy market (yes, that means you, Lego - since when is 'Girls' a category alongside 'Vehicles', 'Books' and 'Robotics'? ).

This year, as a special pre-yultide gift to me, Sweden’s Toys ‘R’ Us has published a gender-neutral Christmas toy catalogue. This has caused quite a furore abroad but, for the life of me, I cannot work out why people feel so insecure in their own sense of gender and threatened by this catalogue . Take a look and decide for yourself.

The catalogue, created by TOP-TOY, which runs dozens of Toys ‘R’ Us stores across northern Europe, shows a boy taking a doll’s temperature (below), a girl shooting a Nerf machine gun(above), and boys and girls together using a play kitchen, a small ironing board, and a doll’s changing table. What on earth is the fuss about? It’s not as if TOP-TOY has given little girls penises.

In the above photo, we see a little boy taking a doll’s temperature. While more women than men are now becoming doctors, surely healthcare is not the exclusive realm of the fairer sex?

All sorts of women shoot for sport. Just ask the Queen, Sarah Palin, Mrs Moneypenny, or Annie Oakley.

And if a toy catalogue can help children to get the message early on that it takes two to have a family, all the better. Men can cook, clean and change nappies. Plenty of them do – and not just our blond friends to the north.

Thomas Pascoe slams the Swedish Toys ‘R’ Us for its bid to be “gender-neutral”, saying that for all of Sweden’s drive for equality by law, the reality is less than equal. He cites the fact that women still earn less than men in Sweden. Fair point.

But where Mr Pascoe believes this is a sign that women should return to their “social role as mothers” (I'm pretty sure that never went away, Mr Pascoe, unless Swedish men are now giving birth... in which case, I hate being pregnant - it's uncomfortable ! nothing fits! no-one takes you seriously as a worker or human being - and am moving to Sweden immediately), I believe continued inequality is a sign that things like the purposefully egalitarian effort in the Toys ‘R’ Us catalogue are still needed.

If you actually look into why TOP-TOY pursued an egalitarian agenda in its Christmas catalogue, you learn that they simply wanted to reflect the way children actually play. In a statement on the company’s website, Thomas Meng, the company's retail marketing director, says : “We want our catalogues to reflect the way that boys and girls play in real life, and not present a stereotype image of them. If both girls and boys in Sweden like to play with a toy kitchen, then we want to reflect this pattern."

This follows a 2008 complaint lodged by a group of 12-year-olds with the country’s advertising ombudsman about the “outdated gender roles” in a Toys ‘R’ Us catalogue, according to The Local, Sweden’s English-language newspaper.

As far as I can tell, the bottom line here is that some Swedish children got what they wanted, and TOP-TOY has got a lot of free publicity, which I’m quite happy to add to, as I think their mission is really without guile; they are, as they say, responding to the market.

This is not to say that there is anything wrong with showing girls playing with dolls, or boys with cars.

I had a whole arsenal of dolls as a child and, if she shows an interest, my daughter will, too. Dolls – even Barbies – are a great vehicle for creative play for children. But I spent most of my time as a child making clothes for my dolls, as I was a keen sewer and was more interested in creating things than pretending I was a baby’s mother. I created Marie Antoinette-style outfits for the Barbies, whose figures came in top corseted form, though I would rather prefer that my daughter play with dolls exhibiting a more realistic body type – like this Lottie doll .

Dolls are fine. Tea sets are fine. Cars are fine. Water pistols are fine. Go with what your child wants.

Our obsession with gender association is pathetic. My daughter wears a lot of blue. She wears an olive-coloured jacket with a fur collar, the inside label of which clearly reads: John Lewis boy (she runs outside a lot. I wasn’t about to buy a bubble-gum pink wool frock coat). She also has a very pink stuffed pig that serves as a constant sidekick between the hours of 6pm and 7am, and shows a precocious interest in shoes. She's young, confident, chooses what she likes, and is, thus far, seemingly oblivious to gender distinction. Long may it continue.

My child, had she the words, would be begging Father Christmas for a scooter . She tries to steal them from older children regularly at the park. She’s 16 months old. Things with wheels are at the top of her agenda. But do you know what? I’m so tired of this gender obsession that I think I may just avoid blue and pink altogether, and buy her one in a sleek, minimalist black scooter. That would be very Batman.

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Vast billboards have appeared in Gaza expressing thanks to Iran for its help in the recent conflict between Hamas and Israel.

Written in English, Farsi, Arabic and Hebrew, the billboards carry the words "Thank You Iran" next to an image of the Iranian-made Fajr 5 rocket, which was fired at Israeli towns and cities, including Jerusalem Tel Aviv, during the eight-day war, which left 166 Palestinians and six Israelis dead.

The signs are certain to further fuel Israeli hostility to Iran's Islamic regime, which denies Israel's right to exist.

Their appearance at several major road junctions in Gaza follows boasts by senior Iranian officials that they had provided military assistance and "technology" to militant groups in the Palestinian territory.

Last week, the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Major General Mohammad-Ali Jafari, said Iran had provided the "know-how" for Fajr 5 weapons to be produced in Gaza while the parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, said Tehran had given financial help.

It is not clear if the billboards, which are unsigned, were put up with the approval of Hamas, the Islamist organisation that runs Gaza.

The previous warm relations between Hamas and Iran have cooled recently because of Tehran's support for President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria against an armed uprising against his rule.

Khader Habib, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, a smaller group with ties to Iran told Reuters it was natural to express gratitude to Iran.

"Iranian rockets struck at Tel Aviv. They reached out to Jerusalem.

Therefore it was our duty to thank those who helped our people," he said.

But this week, Mousa Abu Marzouk, Hamas' deputy political director, warned Iran that it must reverse its policy on Syria if wanted to retain the support of Arab public opinion.

That prompted a critical commentary from the Iranian news website Tabnak, linked to the influential former Revolutionary Guard commander Mohsen Rezai, under the headline "Why Have the Leaders of Hamas Become Forgetful?".

The apparent fallout came just days after Khaled Mashaal, Hamas' leader-in-exile, and Ismail Haniyeh, the de facto prime minister of Gaza, publicly praised Iran's role in the recent conflict.

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In China, perhaps even more than in Britain, a man's home is his castle.

So when 38-year-old Shen Jianzhong was faced with a mob of thugs trying to evict him, he asked himself what his hero, Bruce Lee, would do.

The answer, according to a video that has attracted more than two million hits on the Chinese internet, is turn to kung fu.

For 20 years, Mr Shen had been practising kung fu, teaching himself Bruce Lee's system in his courtyard home in Bazhou, Hebei province.

Working in a local gym as a fitness coach, he is also the holder of a world record, at least according to an association in Hong Kong, for the most press-ups in a minute using a roller. "I am now training to break the record for most press-ups on a balance beam," he said.

At the end of October, Mr Shen was able to put his kung fu into action. For six months, a property developer had been trying to get his hands on Mr Shen's house.

"They called it a remodelling project, to turn our village into a town," he said.

"They wanted to tear down the whole street, and promised we would get a new house of the same size in two years, as well as rent to cover the interim.

But I heard of people in a neighbouring village getting a much better deal, so we refused to sign."

At first, the property company stuck up posters warning of dire consequences for any families who held out. Then, Mr Shen said, when 70 of the 100 households had left, the threats escalated.

"This mob of thugs would block the street most days. They would pick on the women, threatening to kill their kids. Then people started tossing bricks through windows and letting off fireworks at night. Some people got beaten on the street."

On October 29, as Mr Shen went to work and his wife popped out for a packet of instant noodles, a mob of "30 to 50 men" materialised at their front door.

"My wife tried to close the door, but they pushed it back and she tripped over. That is how the fight started," said Mr Shen.

With a flurry of kicks and punches, he and his 18-year-old son, a fellow kung fu devotee, set about the attackers, rendering seven of them near unconscious in the hallway.

"It was self defence. I really cannot remember what kung fu skills I used.

It was quite messy. Only seven people were injured because the rest were scared and stayed outside. Some of them ran away," he said.

When the police arrived, however, they were little help, insisting that since the thugs were unarmed, it was Mr Shen and his family who were in the wrong. They urged the family to sign the contract.

Instead, the Shens posted their homemade video online, where it has gone viral as a rare David versus Goliath moment in the bleak fight against China's avaricious property barons.

They then fled, on the evening of November 21, to Beijing. Upon arriving in the capital, however, Mr Shen's son was arrested by the police, who said they would charge him with assault.

"I do not regret the fight, but I am worried about my son," said Mr Shen.

"I think they are trying to fit up him up with some crime. I am concerned that my actions will end up hurting him," he said, acknowledging that officials may try to emotionally blackmail him into signing over his lease.

As the Telegraph interviewed Mr Shen, however, his phone rang. It was, he said, a man named Zhou Jin, who claimed to be a member of the Central Military Commission, which oversees the People's Liberation Army.

"He said he had seen my plight and was outraged. He said I should not give any interviews to the media and he would come and collect me in his car this afternoon," said Mr Shen.

An attempt to contact Mr Zhou on the number he provided failed, but perhaps Mr Shen's bravura has won him a powerful ally.

Additional reporting by Valentina Luo

SEE ALSO: China's New Passport Contains A Subtle Yet Undeniable Insult To Territorial Rivals >

SEE ALSO: Sad Essay From Sixth-Grader Shows The Remarkable Pressure Chinese Students Feel They Are Under >

SEE ALSO: Why Finland Has The Best Education System In The World >

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The eyes may not be the window to the soul, according to a study which found we detect strong emotion in others by studying their body language and not their face.

Contrary to popular belief, looking at someone's face alone is not enough to tell us whether they are roaring in celebration or screaming in frustration, researchers claimed.

While people may believe they have the ability to read each other's faces, body language is the real clue that reveals whether strong emotions someone is feeling are feeling are positive or negative.

In a study published in the Science journal, groups of participants were shown a series of intense facial expressions – such as tennis players photographed just after winning or losing a point.

In some cases the volunteers were able to see the player's full body, but in others they were only shown either their face or their body with the other removed.

Participants could clearly tell whether the players were winning or losing when shown the full picture or just the body, but their guesses were no better than chance when based on the face alone.

Those who were allowed to see the full image were convinced they had made their judgment based on the players' facial expressions even though results from the two other groups suggested otherwise.

The researchers, from New York and Princeton Universities and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, carried out a second study where volunteers were shown a wider range of faces depicting emotions including joy, pleasure, victory, grief, pain and defeat.

Using photo editing software, the researchers attached the faces to bodies expressing the opposite emotion, and asked participants to act out the emotions they saw in the photos.

The resulting poses mimicked the body poses in the photographs but not the facial expressions, demonstrating that people base their interpretation of strong emotions on cues in the body and not the face, the researchers reported.

Dr. Hillel Aviezer, who led the study, said: "These results show that when emotions become extremely intense, the difference between positive and negative facial expression blurs.

"The results may help researchers understand how body/face expressions interact during emotional situations. For example, individuals with autism may fail to recognise facial expressions, but perhaps if trained to process important body cues, their performance may significantly improve."

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Plans are in process to make a sequel to the 1942 classic Hollywood film Casablanca.

Nearly 70 years after the release of the original film, plans are in process to make a sequel to Casablanca, the famous romantic drama starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.

Current rumor is that Warner Bros is considering making a sequel to the timeless classic, entitled either Return to Casablanca or As Time Goes By.

Its plot revolves around Richard Blaine, the illegitimate son of Humphrey Bogart's Rick Blaine and Ingrid Bergman's Ilsa Lund, who were separated at the end of the original movie.

Blaine, who has been raised in the US by Lund and her husband Victor Laszlo, returns to North Africa to find out what became of his biological father.

The project is the brainchild of Cass Warner, a Hollywood producer, who was a close friend of the late Howard Koch, one the movie's three screenwriters.

Koch, wrote the guidelines for a sequel in the Eighties. Cass Warner, granddaughter of Warner Bros co-founder Harry Warner, was reportedly given the script by Koch and is pressing the studio to make a sequel.

However, sequels often involve the same actors, actresses or directors. In the case of Casablanca, director Michael Curtiz passed away 50 years ago, and the leading actors and actresses have all died as well. So will this be more of a remake?

Commenting in the Independent, Cass said: "There will be flashbacks, but it's a film about the next generation; a son going back to find what happened to his parents. I wouldn't want to touch the original for the world."

Naturally, film purists aren't happy. Fans frequently cite that the loose ends left by the original movie are one of its greatest charms. A new film would only compromise its predecessor.

Meanwhile, the piano used in the Oscar-winning film is expected to fetch more than £650,000 when it is sold next month at auction in New York.

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As the Batmobile goes up for sale, we look at 30 great cars in films and TV, from 007 to Laurel And Hardy.

The Batmobile

The Batmobile was a 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car adapted by George Barris.

It featured the Batphone, a Bat Eye Switch and Bat Smoke and was used in the television series starring Adam West.

Ghostbusters

The Ectombile, or Ecto-1 was used in the 1984 comedy Ghostbusters.

The paranormal exterminator service Ghostbusters used this converted 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor ambulance to drive to places in New York that were overrun by evil spirits.

Genevieve

Genevieve is a 1904 Darracq that regularly takes part in the annual London to Brighton Veteran Car Run.

It was the star of the 1953 romantic comedy starring John Gregson and Dinah Sheridan.

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Telegraph journalist Chris Knapman visits the Porsche Experience Centre to put winter and summer tyres to the test.

This is precisely the situation where the owner of a four-wheel-drive SUV should be feeling smug.

Sat at the bottom of a hill, its surface glistening with ice, you push the accelerator to the floor and await all of those expensive differentials to do their job.

You creep forward, but not as you might think, for while the speedo is climbing it is wheel speed and not road speed that you’re gaining.

The steering wheel has gone light in your hands and has little influence on your direction of travel, causing panic as your two-tonne car begins to wander toward the verge.

You stop before you hit anything, but now you’re stuck. And you’re wishing you had invested in a set of those winter tyres that everybody keeps talking about.

In fact, the correct term is cold-weather tyres, but “winter tyres” has become the vernacular so that’s what we’ll stick with. And to see exactly how good they are we spent a day at the Porsche Experience Centre at Silverstone, which just so happens to have its own "Ice Hill" nestled between the high-speed test tracks.

This seven per cent slope features a low-friction surface and two computer-controlled water jets to simulate the kind of conditions that for the last two years have sent British roads into a state of chaos.

Time to put into practice what we preach.

A two-wheel drive car on winter tyres is better than a four-wheel-drive car on summer tyres...

Having just about (and it was a close thing) managed to zig zag our way to the top of the Ice Hill in a four-wheel-drive Cayenne on summer tyres, we are going to try something slightly different.

Climbing down from the big SUV I land in the seat of a rear-wheel drive, high-performance Porsche Boxster and return to the bottom of the Ice Hill. In theory the Boxster shouldn’t stand a chance here, but as I slot the gearlever into drive and lean on the throttle it begins to move.

Be too ambitious with the power and the rear wheels will still spin, but with a bit of restraint it ascends the hill with ease, its steering crisp and controlled. The difference, of course, is that it’s wearing winter tyres.

...but a four-wheel-drive car with winter tyres is better again

With that experience under our belt it’s no surprise to find that swapping to our third and final car, a four-wheel-drive Cayenne on winter tyres, we make it to the top of the hill with ease. In fact, such is the grip on offer that you have to be quite aggressive with the controls for anything dramatic to happen.

It’s a similar story when we put the cars through a slalom, this time travelling down the Ice Hill. On summer tyres the Cayenne doesn’t even make the first turn, understeering hopelessly before threatening to go into a huge spin.

Try the same in the Boxster on cold-weather tyres and you still need to work the steering, applying half a turn of opposite lock as you guide the car between the obstacles, but the difference is that as soon as you straighten the steering wheel the tyres regain grip.

Again though, it’s the Cayenne on winter tyres that puts in the strongest performance, weaving through the slalom without a problem. And it’s not just that you can see and feel the grip, but you can hear it too, the tyres thrumming merrily as they bite into the surface.

Four-wheel-drive might help to you get moving, but it’s of no use when you’re trying to stop

Our driver in the Cayenne on summer tyres might have had a torrid time getting to the top of the hill, but now there he can continue on his way. Before he knows it he is heading back downhill again at a steady 24mph when, in the distance, he sees a lorry has jack-knifed and is blocking the road.

He brakes as hard as he can, but while he can feel the ABS system pulsing through the pedal the car sails forward, its speed barely diminishing as the tyres glide across the road surface. On that same seven per cent Ice Hill it takes 55 metres to come to a complete stop. From the driver’s seat it is, quite frankly, terrifying.

Behind, the Cayenne with winter tyres is travelling at exactly the same speed. Spotting the lorry at the same point it too performs an emergency stop. Again the ABS pulses, but this time the nose dives as the tyres grip, and the car comes to a halt in just 30 metres.

In fact, so effective are the tyres that it takes the Cayenne just five metres more to stop than the much lighter Boxster.

What makes winter tyres so effective?

First, the tread pattern. Winter tyres feature more “sipes” (or grooves) within the tread blocks (Michelin’s winter tyres feature about 1,500 sipes, compared with 200 for a normal tyre) to provide traction and stability.

In snow these sipes actually fill with snow, which then grips to the snow on the road (imagine rolling a snowball) to provide traction. There will also be a higher groove to rubber ratio to help clear water and reduce aquaplaning.

Winter tyres also have a different compound, with a high-silica content meaning that they stay softer, more pliable and thus offer more grip at low temperatures than summer tyres.

When searching for new rubber, SUV drivers might also encounter Mud and Snow tyres, which are defined by TyreSafe as those “whose tread and structure are designed to give better handling than normal tyres in slush and fresh or melting snow”.

However, there are no rules stating that such tyres should also feature a winter-specific compound, which is so essential to performance in cold conditions. To ensure that the tyres are winter-specific, look for a snowflake or snow-topped mountain symbol on the sidewall.

When should I fit winter tyres and how much will they cost?

Due to their compound, winter tyres come into their own as soon as the temperature drops below seven degrees C. That is to say, from late October until March you’ll benefit from superior acceleration, braking and handling – and thus safety – if your car has winter tyres fitted. That applies on dry, clear roads, and their advantage over summer tyres only increases in rain, snow and ice.

As for cost, it depends on the car you drive and the tyre you choose to buy. For the Cayenne we’ve been testing, an approved wheel and winter tyre package from Porsche costs from £1,600, and for the Boxster from £1,800. Audi sells wheel and tyre packages from £799 (or tyres only from a very reasonable £325), and at present is throwing in a year’s roadside assistance if you buy wheels and tyres.

The other option is to source your own winter rubber, for which you’ll be paying about £350 plus £40-60 for fitting, depending on which tyres you choose and where you take them to be fitted. For the latter, it’s well worth phoning around for a few quotes.

Remember too that the performance of a summer tyre will vary enormously depending on how much you spend, and the same applies to winter rubber.

Other considerations

- Last winter the Association of British Insurers published a winter tyre agreement, stating that insurers would not charge an additional premium if customers choose to fit winter tyres. As such, there shouldn’t be any associated cost with making the swap, but it’s worth a quick courtesy call to let your insurer know.

- It sounds obvious, but consider where you’re going to store your existing wheels and tyres. If you don’t have room at home then your main dealer might have space and be happy to store them. Typically this will cost about £10 a month, although some dealers might have special offers (Suzuki is currently charging customers £49.99 for a year).

- Remember that winter tyres must be fitted to all four wheels. Only fitting them to the driven wheels on a two-wheel-drive car will result in unbalanced handling and braking.

- If you already use winter tyres remember to check that they have sufficient tread. The AA advises at least 3mm for winter driving, and no less than 2mm.

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Just nine days after Greenpeace launched its report 'Toxic Threads: The Big Fashion Stitch-Up', high street giant Zara has gone into detox.

As the party season commences, high street giant Zara is about to embark on the ultimate detox.

The 1975-born Spanish clothing label has promised to eradicate all releases of hazardous chemicals throughout its entire supply chain and products by 2020, following public pressure in response to Greenpeace’s Detox campaign.

READ: Has Miranda Kerr's relationship with Victoria's Secret turned toxic?

Zara’s commitment comes just nine days after Greenpeace launched its report: ‘Toxic Threads: The Big Fashion Stitch-Up’ in Beijing on November 20. Having already named and shamed Victoria’s Secret for the levels of phthalates found in the brands lingerie — so high that "if that product was a toy it would not be permitted in the EU"– the environmental activists have spurred more than 315,000 people to join the 2011-launched Detox campaign.

Zara have seen over 700 people protesting in front of stores around the world, since last Tuesday.

READ: Zara owner is world’s third-richest person

“Greenpeace welcomes Zara’s commitment to toxic-free fashion,” notes Detox Campaign Coordinator, Martin Hojsik, of the brand’s decision to join the seven already committed companies. “If the world’s biggest fashion retailer can do it, there’s no excuse for other brands not to clean up their supply chains and make fashion without pollution,” Hojsik continues.

As part of this radical change in production, Zara – and parent company Inditex – will enforce its suppliers to disclose all releases of toxic chemicals from their facilities to surrounding communities. With the target of zero hazardous discharge by 2020, Zara has already asked 20 suppliers to achieve this by March 2013.

READ: How Zara got its name

With the eco stakes hotting up — and, most importantly, Miranda Kerr threatening to denounce her position as a Victoria’s Secret ‘Angel’ due to the brand's toxic nature — will the weeks ahead see the likes of other high street chains succumb to the detox?

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