"I loved it but I think the language was too heavy for Iranian people. I think they should have put more slang in it so people could understand it," said Noushin, a drama student. For those whose English was not quite up to scratch, a simultaneous Persian translation was available, high up on a screen above the stage. But this did not go as smoothly as planned. Technical difficulties meant the screen frequently froze or zipped across so quickly it was almost impossible to read. Irrational behaviour The audience reaction to the hitches was mixed. "I thought it was very good. The standard of the performance was very high but unfortunately the subtitles went a bit haywire and I think that put a lot of people off," said Reza, a university lecturer. Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale combines jealousy and irrational behaviour with tragedy and laughter. Meg Fraser played Hermione King Leontes of Sicilia suspects his wife Hermione of having an affair with his childhood best friend Polixenes.ss He rages to himself about their paddling palms and pinching fingers and convinces himself of their guilt. He consequently sends his wife to prison and orders his friend to die. For the director Dominic Hill, the fact that physical contact between the sexes is banned makes the play more relevant. "Concentrating on the physicality and when it's important is quite helpful so that when they do first touch, it becomes more exciting and more electrifying," he said. "At home, people ask the question why does King Leontes behave like that and it's just a kind of psychosis. "But when you put it in this environment, in some ways it is more understandable because in some ways the 2 people are breaking a taboo."

The actresses had to cover their heads Meg Fraser played Hermione

Relaxed rules

In order for the play to be accepted by the authorities, women had to be dressed in hejab or head scarves and certain aspects of the production had to be changed.

Some of the dance themes were re-choreographed with women dancing with women and men dancing with men.


The company put on a modern interpretation

But the rule banning any kind of physical contact was not enforced. In fact at a dress rehearsal in the afternoon, the only parts that they were asked to change involved the men's attire.

"The women had a bit of a triumph because it was the men that were pulled up for revealing their legs," said Ann Louise Ross who plays Paulina.

"We were able to show a little bit of hair, have a little body contact but the men were told to cover up their legs.

"They saw bare flesh exposed and they didn't think that would be appropriate. Us women were delighted."

The trip was organised by the British Council who hope this will be the first of many cultural exchanges between the UK and Iran in the future.

Diplomatic links between the two countries were severed after the Revolution in 1979.

The last time a UK theatre company performed here was in 1977 when Derek Jacobi starred in Hamlet.

Like many other Iranian entertainers, he had to leave the county after the Islamic revolution in 1979, which banned pop music. Across more than half a century, Vigen performed some of the most memorable songs in recent Iranian history. He had a wonderful, resonant voice. For Iranians, young and old, he was a legend. Great entertainer He was born Vigen Derderian in 1929 in western Iran into a relatively poor family. He became Iran's real first male pop and jazz star and was generally known in Persian as the ''Sultan of Jazz''. Some of his fans compared him to the American singer Elvis Presley.

Vigen in his heyday with his daughter Jacqueline

After the Islamic revolution in 1979, which banned pop music, Vigen left the country and began a new life in Los Angeles.

He regularly performed in European and American cities to packed audiences.

Although he was from Iran's minority Armenian community, he was loved by all Iranians.

Vigen sang both in Persian and Armenian. He will be remembered by millions of his fans as one of Iran's greatest entertainers.

More than £200,000 has been received by the Iranian embassy in London to help earthquake victims. One anonymous donor, believed to be an Iranian living in London, gave 100,000 US dollars, or more than £50,000. But most cheques pushed through the embassy's door since the earthquake in Bam on 26 December have been for much smaller sums. Embassy spokesman Mohammed Eskandari said it had attracted responses "from all countries and faiths". Staff working at the London embassy - one of the biggest Iranian embassies in the world - have also agreed to give up three days' pay to help the people of Bam. Another £25,000 has been collected by Pakistanis living in London and more has come from different organisations and the Red Cross.

The earthquake flattened the ancient city of Bam

The British government has so far contributed £900,000 to the relief effort for those affected by the quake which is thought to have killed more than 30,000 people.

The quake destroyed 90% of the city's buildings. Survivors have been sleeping in tents close to the rubble of their homes.

International aid agencies are this week planning to launch a massive appeal for specific donations to help Bam in the long term.

Economic success comes down to factors including skills, the labour landscape, employment law and even racism. Some migration is not primarily for economic reasons, such as refugees and students. What is clear is that there is a wide disparity in performance between and within nationalities. For instance, Bangladesh-born people can be said to do really badly. But this has a lot to do with the jobs they tend to come to, and there are improvements over time. Crucially, we can see new migrants in poorly paid jobs - indicating how demand for cheap labour plays a key role in migration economics. In the table below, low earners are people earning less than £149.20 a week (half the UK median wage), high earners are people earning more than £750 a week. Click column titles to sort table by that column.

*British Isles figures: New and settled immigrant status does not apply, but figures displayed like this for easy comparison

Dizaei 'had been set for top' Mr Dizaei was cleared of perverting the course of justice in April With his outspoken campaigning on race relations and solid reputation for day-to-day crime-fighting, Superintendent Ali Dizaei had been tipped to be Britain's first black chief constable. He began his career in the well-to-do town of Henley-on-Thames, where he still lives, earning a name for tackling teenage drink and drug abuse. The Iranian-born officer later became an adviser on race to the Home Secretary and moved into a £52,000 a year job in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Mr Dizaei was cleared of perverting the course of justice in April

But Supt Dizaei was himself secretly suspected of crimes and in 2000 became the subject of what was to become the most expensive inquiry ever into a single officer.

Three years later he has been cleared of perverting the course of justice, misconduct in public office and making false expense claims - leading to renewed claims that the Metropolitan Police has failed to stamp out racism.

Lifestyle gossip

With his flamboyant taste for designer clothes, self-confessed open marriage and taste for expensive nightclubs, Supt Dizaei was never a straightforward member of the police rank and file.

It was said that the father of three was intensely disliked by some colleagues who described his sunglasses and cowboy boots as "flash".

Supt Dizaei was described as a keen bodybuilder who rarely socialised with other officers. But the gossip about his lifestyle was accompanied by more serious concerns and Supt Dizaei was

If he is a threat to national security, why has he not been charged? Michael Mansfield QC

It was even claimed that he worked for the Iranian secret service- allegations which Mr Dizaei has not been able to confront because much of the evidence against him was not revealed in open court.

Defending Supt Dizaei, Michael Mansfield QC said: "The suggestion actually is that he remains a threat to national security.

"If he is a threat to national security, why has he not been charged? The answer appears to be: 'We cannot tell you'."

'Witch-hunt'

Speaking after the last of the charges were dropped, Supt Dizaei said he believed there had been a campaign by individuals to "destroy my life and my career".

With some estimates putting the official £3m cost of the investigation closer to £7m he said that he found it "astonishing and extraordinary" that so much taxpayers' money had been used against him.

Mr Mansfield accused police of a "witch-hunt" which led to nothing more than a trial over a scratched car.

Peter Herbert, chair of the Society of Black Lawyers, said the case showed the Metropolitan Police had failed to learn from the mistakes of the Stephen Lawrence case.

He said it appeared to be a "clear case of institutional racism, victimisation and quite possibly an abuse of process designed to extinguish this officer's career and reputation".

'Disciplinary issues'

In a statement the Metropolitan Police said it had acted because: "Honesty and integrity are key values for any police officer and the police service must take steps to investigate those whose behaviour is called into question."

It said it had carefully handled what was a sensitive case and that Supt Dizaei's allegations of unfairness and prejudice had been rejected by the Recorder of London.

Scotland Yard added: "The Metropolitan Police are now in a position to consider any outstanding internal police disciplinary issues previously mentioned in court.

"It would be inappropriate for us to comment further on these matters at this stage as to do so may potentially prejudice possible future proceedings."

Since the prize started in 1901, women have received just 11 of the 111 awards, through which Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel wanted to reward those who do the most for the "promotion of peace and fraternity". "We will keep looking for women candidates," Geir Lundestad, secretary of the secretive committee that awards the prize, had vowed recently. "I would suggest that at least some of these women will be found in parts of the world where women are particularly exploited." This year's winner, Shirin Ebadi, is a woman who fights for the rights of fellow women in Iran. She had been the country's first female judge, but was forced to resign following the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Kissinger was one of the most controversial choices

Kissinger controversy

Recipients of the prize have tended to fall into two distinct categories.

In the first category are those individuals and organisations which have sought to resolve conflicts.

One such example is former US President Theodore Roosevelt, who in 1905 took the prize for drawing up the peace treaty between Russia and Japan, as is the 1994 joint award to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and the then foreign minister Shimon Peres, for the now defunct Oslo peace accords.

In the second are those who have sought to promote a different kind of peace, many of whom are campaigners for political freedom or those who have tried to bring humanitarian relief to others. Ms Ebadi falls into this category, as does another prominent female winner, Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was awarded the prize while under house arrest in 1991. The Red Cross has been awarded the prize on several occasions in the course of the last century. The five members of the committee, which is appointed by the Norwegian parliament but independent of it, do not shy away from making political statements through their selections.

For me it is a big mistake, a bad mistake, an unfortunate mistake Lech Walesa Former winner

Last year's choice of former US President Jimmy Carter for "decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts" was designed to be "a kick in the leg" to George W Bush, as he threatened Iraq with the prospect of military action.

"The award can and must be interpreted as a criticism of the line that the current administration has taken on Iraq," said committee chairman Gunnar Berge as the prize was given.

Perhaps therefore unsurprisingly, their choices often draw widespread condemnation. The decision in 1973 to present the then US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger with the award for his role in ending the Vietnam War still raises hackles 30 years on. While Mr Kissinger came to office in 1968 promising a quick end to the war - and was instrumental in ultimately securing the withdrawal of US troops from South Vietnam - the intervening years saw an escalation in the conflict. Mr Kissinger was complicit in the illegal carpet-bombing of neutral Cambodia in 1969 and 1970. Estimates vary drastically on how many innocent Cambodians died in the bombing, with numbers ranging from 100,000 to 800,000. Rights and wrongs

Ebadi said she hoped the award would highlight human rights in Iran

While the kudos of the award - which also carries prize money of nearly $1m - is beyond dispute, pundits frequently ponder whether it has any impact in promoting peace.

It has not stopped wars, they argue, nor guaranteed the future success and the continued accomplishments of its recipients.

Indeed many of those who have been rewarded are already past their best, they argue.

Nonetheless, that the Nobel tag has retained its prestige down the decades despite its controversial choices is seen by some as a clear sign that the committee is doing something right.