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The pair played Senator Padme Amidala and Anakin Skywalker Star Wars couple Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen have been voted as having the least plausible on-screen chemistry by film fans.The pair beat Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez for their performance in Gigli into second place, which was made when they were a real life couple. Former duo Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman also made the list with Eyes Wide Shut. British pairing Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom were thought "too stiff upper lip" in Pirates of the Caribbean. The 3,000 movie-goers who were surveyed for Pearl and Dean said...

China believes it is a 're-emerging power' "China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese" were the wise words of one of the great statesman of the 20th century, former French President Charles De Gaulle. As that century drew to a close, soon-to-be US president George W Bush was asked if he knew who India's leader was. "The new prime minister of India is ... No," he replied. It is unlikely historians will look back at this new century and find western leaders happily displaying their ignorance of the two most populous nations on earth. Things have changed...

The researchers disovered at least 74 new temples The great medieval temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia was once at the centre of a sprawling urban settlement, according to a new, detailed map of the area.Using Nasa satellites, an international team have discovered at least 74 new temples and complex irrigation systems. The map, published in the journal PNAS, extends the known settlement by 1000 sq km, about the size of Los Angeles. Analysis also lends weight to the theory that Angkor's residents were architects of the city's demise. "The large-scale city engineered its own downfall by disrupting its...

In the first of a series of features to mark one year to go before the Beijing Olympics, the BBC's Michael Bristow finds China determined to win gold on home soil. The school is training some of China's best young sporting talent At Beijing's Shichahai Sports School, children as young as six are training hard to be the Olympic stars of tomorrow. Along with several thousand others, the school is part of a sports machine that aims to bring glory to China through sporting success. And success comes no more glorious than the Olympic Games, to be held in...

Chinese workers pull trolleys through the streets of Milan In cities across Italy tension between the Chinese and Italians is high. The rapid influx of Chinese migrant workers and their dramatic impact on the labour market have caught Italy off guard - particularly in the northern industrial heartland. Culture clash Prato, Italy's main textile manufacturing city, is at the heart of a culture clash which is transforming the way the textile industry operates. Chinese migrants have been pouring into Prato to work in the city's thousands of factories, warehouses and sweatshops that supply the cloth and yarns to the...

Asean members hope to adopt the charter formally later this year Ministers from South-East Asian countries have reached agreement on a landmark draft charter. The document gives the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) a set of binding rules for the first time in the bloc's 40-year existence. The agreement comes after nearly two years of deliberations among members. It includes a contentious provision to set up a commission monitoring human rights in the region - despite strong misgivings from some Asean countries. Credibility boost With governments in the region running the gamut from fully-fledged democracies to a military...

A South Korean woman held hostage with 21 others in Afghanistan has pleaded for help to secure their release.The woman, who identified herself as Yo Syun Ju, told the BBC by telephone she was "sick and in a terrible situation". "Tell them to do something to get us released," she said in an interview carried out in the presence of the Taleban militants holding her captive. A group of 23 Koreans was abducted one week ago. The kidnappers have since killed one of the hostages.

Taiwan has submitted its first formal application to join the United Nations, a government spokesman has said.He said an application signed by President Chen Shui-bian had been delivered to the UN Secretary General. The Chinese foreign ministry immediately dismissed the move, saying it was "doomed to failure". Taiwan has long campaigned to join the UN but all such attempts have been blocked by China which regards the island as a breakaway province. The government in Taipei held the UN seat for China until 1971 when it was replaced by Beijing. This was the first time the country launched a...

The new moon could be related to Methone and Pallene A new moon has been discovered orbiting Saturn - bringing the planet's latest moon tally up to 60.The body was spotted in a series of images taken by cameras onboard the Cassini spacecraft. Initial calculations suggest the moon is about 2km-wide (1.2 miles) and its orbit sits between those of two other Saturnian moons, Methone and Pallene. The Cassini Imaging Team, who found the object, said Saturn's moon count could rise further still. New family The moon appears as a dim speck in images taken by the Cassini probe's...

Chief Executive Donald Tsang has pledged more democracy Hong Kong's government has unveiled a range of proposals on how and when it might arrive at full democracy.The publication of a long-awaited consultation paper has begun a three-month consultation period on the Chinese territory's political future. The paper includes the option of universal suffrage in five years' time or at an unspecified date after that. Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang hopes to find a consensus on the speed of political change to take to Beijing. The city's head is currently elected by an 800-member, pro-Beijing electoral committee with no...

Here the generator, in the centre of the chip, powers an accelerometer A tiny generator powered by natural vibrations could soon be helping keep heart pacemakers working.Created by scientists at the University of Southampton, the generator has been developed to power devices where replacing batteries is very difficult. The device is expected initially to be used to power wireless sensors on equipment in manufacturing plants. The generator's creators say the generator is up to 10 times more efficient than similar devices. Power packed The tiny device, which is less than one cubic centimetre in size, uses vibrations in the...

Hiroshima has preserved some of its ruins from the blast The nuclear bombs dropped by the United States on Japan in 1945 were the inevitable way to end World War II, Japan's defence minister has said. "I think it was something that couldn't be helped," said Fumio Kyuma in a speech at a university east of Tokyo. His comments sparked outrage from survivors of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The minister, who represents Nagasaki in parliament, said later that he was expressing the US view of events. In his speech, he said the US must have thought...

Muammar Gaddafi came to power in a coup in 1969 Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi has described the African Union as a failure and vowed to press ahead with plans for a single African government.Speaking in the Guinean capital Conakry Mr Gaddafi said there was no future for individual African nation states. He urged leaders attending next month's African Union summit in Ghana to decide to create a United States of Africa. Mr Gaddafi has long been a leading proponent of the idea, but some observers say it is not realistic. "At the Accra summit we are going to get...

The Australians have also been patrolling northern Gulf waters Iranian naval forces in the Gulf tried to capture an Australian Navy boarding team but were vigorously repelled, the BBC has learned.The incident took place before Iran successfully seized 15 British sailors and Marines in March. The lessons from the earlier attempt do not appear to have been applied in time by British maritime patrols. The 15 Britons were searching a cargo boat in the Gulf when they were captured over a boundary dispute. 'Having none of it' When Iranian Revolutionary Guards captured the British sailors and Royal Marines in...

The Kush kingdom was conquered by the Egyptians A team of archaeologists has discovered a huge ancient gold processing centre and a graveyard along the River Nile in northern Sudan.They were part of the 4,000-year-old Kush, or Nubian, kingdom. The scholars say the finds show the empire was much bigger than previously thought and rivalled ancient Egypt. The archaeologists are racing to dig up the Hosh el-Geruf area, some 225 miles from the capital, Khartoum, before the Merowe dam floods the area next year. The dam is due to create a lake 100 miles long and two miles wide,...

Have been not eating meat for some time, and the diet has changed largely to carbohydrates, cheese, and sugary foods (such as cookies). Not so much vegetables. Does eating lots (and it is lots) of sugars lead to diabetes type 2 more so than on other diets. It would seem so, if diabetes is the body having difficulty dealing with sugar. The sugary foods: do they give a fast burst of sugar that can overwhelm the insulin in the body? If so, would carbohydrates, since their sugar is released more slowly, be safer than than sugary foods. And just how...

The researchers hope to scale the work up to the whole of the genome A close-up view of the human genome has revealed its innermost workings to be far more complex than first thought.The study, which was carried out on just 1% of our DNA code, challenges the view that genes are the main players in driving our biochemistry. Instead, it suggests genes, so called junk DNA and other elements, together weave an intricate control network. The work, published in the journals Nature and Genome Research, is to be scaled up to the rest of the genome. Views transformed...

Tensions rise in May as UN troops withdraw and Egypt deploys troops in the Sinai and Gaza RELATED MEDIA David Rubinger, Time and Life photographer Zeid al-Rifai, adviser to Jordan's King Hussein Forty years on RELATED BBC LINKS: Radio 4's Six Days That Changed The Middle East Special Report: Middle East Crisis The 1967 Middle East War, also known as the Six Day War, was the third conflict between Israel and neighbouring Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The first, in 1948, left East Jerusalem and the River Jordan's West Bank under Jordanian control and the coastal Gaza Strip under Egyptian...

By Trevor Timpson BBC News The Last Roman's grave (ringed) was found close to the Square. Two very different finds, dug up close to each other by Trafalgar Square, shine new light on the greatest puzzle of London archaeology - the "silent" centuries after Roman rule.That the skeleton of "London's Last Roman" - or anything ancient and unknown - can be discovered in 2006 in Trafalgar Square is remarkable. But when it comes to yielding secrets, the square's church, St Martin-in-the-Fields, has a long record. When the present church was being built in the 18th Century a body was...

The current US presidential debates are almost certain to see the candidates asked to comment on spiritual issues, but some Americans are worried about the trend towards religiosity in public life. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will be challenged on their beliefs At my twins' annual school camp in West Virginia, you are meant to leave your troubles behind. It is an idyllic couple of days - a communing with nature which my wife gallantly insists is simply too enjoyable for her to take part in - it has to be a dad's experience. Actually it is not that...