The Mohorovicic discontinuity is a strange region, and could hardly be more important to us

The paradox of planet Earth is that almost all of it is unknown. The European Space Agency has just underlined this with the most accurate gravimetric satellite map so far of a universal feature called the Mohorovicic discontinuity. This strange region – the Moho for short – is a kind of basement floor, 70km or so below the Himalayas, a trifling 10km or so below the ocean floor. It marks the boundary between the brittle crust of the continents and seabed, and the dense and very different mantle that makes up 68% of the planet. It could hardly be more important to us.

Nobody knew of its existence until 1909, when a Croatian seismologist called Andrija Mohorovicic noticed that earthquake waves accelerated as they reached a certain depth. It was the first evidence that the Earth had a crust, above a mantle that extended for nearly 3,000km to the planet's metal core. The mantle is an agency in the steady making of the living world. Through submarine volcanic vents along the mid-ocean ridge, it delivers fresh basalt to resurface the planet's oceans every 200m years, and to drive the moving pavements on which the continents ride at a few centimetres a year, occasionally colliding to throw up features such as the Alps and the Tibetan plateau. These same forces built the Andes and the Rockies, and power the volcanoes that yearly discharge massive quantities of new water, gas and minerals to the biosphere. Earthquakes, too, are a reminder that the mantle is active, and determined to go on pushing us around. The great seams of concentrated mineral wealth – from the copper, tin, silver and gold that enriched the first civilisations to the rare earths and fissile elements that power new technologies – are ancient casual side-effects of the same process.

The Moho is so important that, 50 years ago, geologists backed an international effort to drill down to it, taking with them the novelist and amateur oceanographer John Steinbeck. The Mohole was abandoned as seemingly impossible: no ocean drill had ever got below 2km. The initiative has now been revived by European oceanographers who want to probe the mantle where the ocean crust is thinnest, should anyone deliver the finance, the political will and the technology.

Even in 1961, the idea was not new: Arthur Conan Doyle sent his Professor Challenger drilling to the mantle in 1928, in a short story called When the World Screamed. Challenger discovered that, beneath its scaly mineral carapace, the planet was a living thing, which reacted violently to the insult. Doyle's fantasy was prescient: the world is dynamic, and forever renewing its skin, and the creatures on that surface are alive ultimately because the mantle is febrile and active. There certainly is a case for going deeper.

The great crested newt is waking up after its long winter hibernation. It is by far the largest of the three native British newts and the most endangered. At this time of year the males look like miniature dragons: they have a large ragged crest on the back, essential for impressing females in the courtship display. The species is also known as the northern crested newt or warty newt. It is dark brown or black with rough skin, but underneath is bright orange with black spots. The most distinguishing feature is its size, up to 15cm long, much larger than either the smooth newt or palmate newt, which it would eat if it got the chance.

This newt is one of the most heavily protected species in Britain. If one is found in a pond on a site earmarked for development, it is major stumbling block and a delight for any protesters. It may stop the development outright and would certainly delay it for a year while the newt population is counted, captured and translocated to another site. Some firms are licensed by the government as specialist newt hunters. They offer to dig new ponds so the amphibians can be moved out of harm's way, and newt-proof fencing is erected to prevent their return.

Even so the homing instinct can be a major problem because this species of newt, like toads, will return to their traditional breeding grounds if possible. How successful these translocation programmes are in saving newt populations is the subject of government sponsored research. It is not yet known whether protection for these newts will be affected by the government's new planning rules but the European Union has penalties in store for those who abuse warty newts. It is an offence to kill, injure, capture or even disturb these newts in any way.

Numbers of great crested newts have declined steadily across Britain and Europe. This is because of loss of ponds and suitable rough habitat around their breeding areas. They need to hunt in wild areas during the summer months to fatten up for hibernation. Newts travel up to half a mile from their breeding sites during the summer and live around 10 years, although the oldest recorded was 27 years old.

Because they and their young, called efts, swim around in open water, these newts are particularly vulnerable to being eaten by fish, so they prefer breeding in ponds that dry out occasionally and are therefore fish free. They also like waterweed in the pond, enabling females to wrap up their eggs for protection.

Another help is a pond in the sun. Warm water helps the efts to develop quickly.

Britain is still a stronghold of the species, and there are a substantial number of places where there are still large populations. These sites, from Scotland to Kent, have been closely monitored and protected for years, but they are widely spread out and in between newt populations are suffering.

A warm autumn, short winter and March heat-wave has brought the rapid onset of spring. Migrant birds have started to arrive. The problem for the natural world is that the timing of spring is crucial to the start of the breeding cycle. For birds particularly it is vital to have chicks hatched and hungry at the moment when there are plentiful caterpillars, aphids or other diet staples available.

The evidence is that spring has shifted forward an average of 12 days since records began, and in response birds like swallows arrive about a week earlier than they did in 1970. Although the dry spring weather of the last two years may also have made a difference, it is the long-term trends that are having an effect on some of our best loved birds. Many have failed to move their breeding forward enough to coincide with the new life cycle of the insects they feed on.

For one particular species, the cuckoo, the early spring brings double jeopardy. It is known that many cuckoos target particular species of small birds, and are dependent on finding a nest and laying their egg in it at precisely the same moment as the host bird. But the earlier spring means that the cuckoos are arriving when their hosts, chiefly meadow pipits, dunnocks and reed warblers have already hatched their young. As a result in many parts of the country the cuckoo has now completely disappeared – an early victim of climate change.

Both the Tories and Labour are paying a political price for the failure to rebalance Britain's economy across the regions

A clear and compelling link can be made between the rejection of mainstream parties by voters in Bradford West last week and George Osborne's budget – and it has nothing to do with pasties. Rather, it has more to do with something David Cameron put his finger on almost two years ago, in his first big speech as prime minister: "We have been sleepwalking our way to an economy that is unsustainable, unstable, unfair and, frankly, uninspiring ... Can we rebalance economic power across our regions, across different industries, so that more people have a stake in our success?"

This was the promise of rebalancing the busted British economy, away from London and south-east and finance, and towards other regions and other sectors of the economy. It was a promise also made by Nick Clegg and Vince Cable. And it is a promise that the coalition is failing to deliver on. That much is clear from the numbers, which show that in both jobs and housing markets London and the south-east are bouncing back from the City's crash, even while the rest of the country founders. But it is clear too from last month's budget, in which the confusion of this government's policy on industrial and regional development is laid bare. The cost of this confusion is not just a matter for Whitehall. More importantly, there is a vast human toll, in chronic unemployment. And there's a political price, as George Galloway's success demonstrates. Sure, wars and poor campaigning played their part – but the fact that only four out of 10 voters in deindustrialised Bradford West plumped for a mainstream party should also tell Westminster what happens when all three parties pay a region's economic development only lip service.

Yet lip service is precisely what Mr Osborne has gone in for. Sure, the chancellor has always been happy to talk about the "march of the makers". But beyond rhetoric, the coalition's industrial strategy boils down to the belief, familiar to anyone who lived through Thatcher or Blair, that the main role of government in stimulating private business through tax cuts was to get out of the way. Such a hands-off approach was never going to succeed in rejuvenating economies that have been hollowed out over decades. Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that last month's budget marked a decided shift. The old policy could still be spotted in those corporation-tax cuts, but there were also Gordon Brown-style giveaways to the video games industry, and for British films. Most telling was this line in the chancellor's speech: "We shouldn't be shy about identifying our successful industries and reinforcing them." This, from the politician who used to sneer at picking winners, and from the government that cancelled Peter Mandelson's loan to Sheffield Forgemasters.

The truth is that no minister minds picking winners – it's backing losers they find painful. The chancellor happily took credit for GlaxoSmithKline opening up a factory in Cumbria, thanks to his implementation of Labour's new low taxes on British research. Yet he is only slowly drawing the lesson that smart state intervention can pay off. The coalition's policy on industrial development is now stuck somewhere between a lazy Thatcherism and Michael Heseltine-lite.

Nor are ministers under much pressure from Labour. For all their promising speeches, shadow frontbenchers remain deeply conflicted about how to address New Labour's record on regional policy. The good bits, such as regional development agencies, are overshadowed by the rest. Yet Labour should be pressing the government on its lack of economic rebalancing. Labour should also argue for directing funds towards those sectors that can best provide decent jobs in industries and regions outside the south-east. It should do that through the public banks, as Vince Cable suggests, and through directed tax cuts. Ed Miliband can either set the terms of the debate about how Britain rebuilds its busted economic model, or risk appearing an irrelevance to voters in plenty of other seats besides Bradford West.

Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich's music-woven radio show relays the mysteries of science with passion and irreverence

Countless science programmes have sought to attract the layperson, yet few do so with as much passion, irreverence and sheer gusto as Radiolab, the American radio show hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich. Abumrad, a composer by training, is largely responsible for giving the show its signature, a total immersion of sounds and music interwoven with interviewees who debate topics as far and wide as the afterlife, coincidences and space travel. The production is polished, and every little sigh, every little note has its place, as if in a symphony. Nor does it condescend to listeners. Nowhere else can you listen to a young woman communicating with her boyfriend for the first time after a long coma, a scientist discussing zombie cockroaches, or an athlete explaining how a devastating brain injury made her one of the best ultra runners in the world. The wonders of our universe have never been relayed so enchantingly.

Amy Winehouse, JK Rowling, Noel Gallagher, Mick Jagger and the Monty Python foot to feature in update of 1967 original

British pop artist Sir Peter Blake has taken inspiration from his most famous artwork – the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures he most admires as he marks his 80th birthday.

Twiggy, Amy Winehouse, Grayson Perry, JK Rowling and even Monty Python's emblematic foot all feature in a reworked version of the 1967 cover created for his birthday celebrations.

Blake, often called the godfather of the British pop art scene, said: "I've chosen people I admire, great people and some who are dear friends.

"I had a very long list of people who I wanted to go in but couldn't fit everyone in – I think that shows how strong British culture and its legacy of the last six decades is."

Singer Noel Gallagher, formerly of Oasis, was "chuffed" to be included. "To be on there with the likes of Vivienne Westwood, Mick Jagger and Paul Weller, just those three people alone, is amazing for me as I wouldn't put myself up with any of those," he said.

Rowling said: "Given that I've devoted quite a lot of time to gazing at the original Sgt Pepper album cover, you can perhaps imagine what it means to me to be featured."

Playwright Tom Stoppard said his inclusion was "an honour that outdoes delirium" while singer Elvis Costello said: "I always dreamed that I might one day stand in the boots of [Liverpool footballer] Albert Stubbins."

The original 1967 artwork also featured James Dean, Bob Dylan, Karl Marx and Marilyn Monroe.

The new version has been created for a special birthday celebration of Blake's life at Wayne Hemingway's Vintage festival at Boughton House, Northamptonshire, in July.

Hemingway, co-founder of the Red or Dead fashion brand, said: "The new artwork is a tribute to Britain's standing as the world's leading creative nation."

It was "an incredible honour" for Blake to "reimagine such an iconic work of art", he said, adding: "We are proud to be dedicating the Sunday at Vintage this year to celebrate his 80th birthday and creative and cultural legacy."

Terry Jones, the actor, director and original Python, said: "Monty Python is flattered to have had his foot selected, but there are better parts of his body available at very little cost."

The foot itself was borrowed by Terry Gilliam from Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time, a work by 16th century Florentine painter Bronzino.

His Python co-star, Michael Palin, added: "It's a great tribute to a fine foot – just don't tell Bronzino or he'll want royalties."

Lloyds Bank business barometer indicates confidence in March was at a nine month high with 51% of companies being upbeat

Despite weaker than expected UK growth figures last week, the prospects for the economy are looking brighter as business fears over the eurozone crisis recede, according to two surveys out on Monday.

Business confidence rose to a nine month high in March, the latest Lloyds Bank business barometer showed, with 51% of companies saying they were more optimistic, up 13% on the February figure. Only 20% were more pessimistic, down from 37% the previous month. This is the first time since June 2011 that more than half of those surveyed were positive about the UK outlook. Lloyds said: "Lloyds [The improvement in] sentiment on the UK's economic outlook is no doubt influenced by the less immediate threat of a Greek default causing wide disruption across eurozone economies."

There was a marginal fall in businesses' confidence in their own performance, but Lloyds said the overall survey pointed to a slight expansion in output in the first quarter of 2012. But it added: "It is much more likely – since the barometer tends to act as a leading indicator of future economic activity – that this will not feed through into stronger GDP performance until the second quarter." Last week the Paris-based thinktank the OECD said the UK could fall back into recession in the first quarter as it forecast a decline at an annual rate of 0.4%, after a 1.2% fall in the final quarter of 2011.

However Trevor Williams, chief economist at Lloyds Bank wholesale banking and markets, said: "This month's [survey] results provide strong support to our contention that GDP will expand in the first half of 2012.

Meanwhile financial services firms are now more optimistic than three months ago, according to the quarterly survey from the CBI and PwC. Business sentiment grew strongly, from a negative reading of 24 to a positive 32. Employment numbers increased unexpectedly this quarter – a balance of 19% compared to expectations of a negative 18% reading – and are forecast to rise similarly next quarter.

Ian McCafferty, the CBI's chief economic adviser, said: "Financial services sales volumes and income continued to rise this quarter, putting the sector's recovery on a firmer footing.

"Optimism levels and business investment intentions have also improved, in contrast to last quarter as some of the worst risks around the euro area crisis have eased.

"The unexpected rise in employment is a further encouraging sign for the sector. But with the current level of business regarded as below normal, conditions still remain challenging for financial firms."

Nine chief executives, including Diageo's Paul Welsh and Centrica's Sam Laidlaw sit on the pay committees of FTSE firms

Executive pay has spiralled out of control because nearly half of remuneration committee members are either serving or former company bosses, according to a report by the High Pay Commission.

Nine current FTSE 100 chief executives, including Smith Group's Philip Bowman, Kingfisher's Ian Cheshire, Diageo's Paul Welsh and Centrica's Sam Laidlaw sit on the remuneration committees of fellow blue chip companies.

The committees, which set chief executives' pay, succumb to "group-think" because they are dominated by a "closed shop" of highly paid current and former directors who benefit personally from rising pay levels, the campaign group said.

The average pay of a FTSE 100 boss now stands at £4.2m, according the employment research group IDS. On Friday, it emerged that the former Reckitt Benckiser chief executive Bart Becht, who stepped down in September, had been paid £12.1m last year in cash and shares. The company behind Cillit Bang and Vanish paid him cash and shares worth £203m in six years, and he could still be in line for staggered payouts worth £45m in future years.

Over 46% of people sitting on pay committees are or have been lead company executives, according to the commission's research, which is published on Monday.

"Through the common process of benchmarking, current executives may have an indirect financial interest in increasing pay in other companies," the report states.

Laidlaw, whose package at Centrica was worth a potential £4.3m last year, sits on the HSBC Holdings' remuneration committee. Walsh, who was paid £4.4m by Diageo and has amassed a £13.4m pension pot over a decade in the post, sits on the Unilever remuneration committee. Cheshire, whose last published package was worth £4.2m, sits on the board of the pubs group Whitbread.

Some 33% of FTSE 100 companies have a current company chief executive or executive chairman on their pay committees. The vast majority come either from business or financial intermediation such as banking and investment.

Of the 366 non-executive directors who sit on pay committees, only 37 – or 10% – are not from these professions. The commission found two from the BBC, 20 who were from the civil service or politics, three lawyers, seven accountants, four academics and one film producer.

The committees are also male dominated. In the 96 FTSE 100 companies surveyed by the commission, 45% have all male committees, while there are just 59 women – 16% of the total – sitting on pay committees at blue chip companies.

Most boards seek to pay above the median average, the report says, and increasingly make awards in the upper quartile of the pay scale for performance-related awards. This results in wage inflation.

"It takes a very brave remuneration committee to seek to pay its executives below the median," the report states. "It is seen as the equivalent of admitting they are mediocre or not up to the job."

At Barclays, chief executive Bob Diamond is in line for a £17m payday, and the bank is proposing to pay his £5.7m tax bill incurred when he relocated from the US to the UK to run the company last year.

The business secretary, Vince Cable, is hoping to use shareholder votes to reign in spiralling pay. A consultative paper suggests a number of reforms, including making a vote on a firm's future pay policy binding, with at least 75% of shareholders required to give their approval, and a binding vote when directors who leave collect more than a year's salary.

Cable also wants listed firms to publish a single figure for an executive's total remuneration each year, and to clearly illustrate how awards relate to performance.

Fund manager Fidelity says boards should be required to secure shareholder approval for "annual variable compensation" - bonuses and incentive plans – before payment. Resolutions failing to win 75% approval would have to be redrafted and put to a new vote.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, head of the new 30,000-strong Joint Forces Command said his aim was to 'bring lessons more quickly from current operations into future operations'

One of the armed forces' most senior officers is to oversee a wholesale review of the decade-long campaign in Afghanistan to help prepare the military for future conflicts. Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach will look at tactics and strategy – good and bad – as part of his role as the head of the new 30,000-strong Joint Forces Command (JFC), which "stands up" on Monday.

The formation of the JFC marks one of the most significant structural changes in the British military since the second world war. The new department will be at the core of intelligence gathering and contingency planning for any future campaigns.

It is thought the JFC, which was a key proposal in Lord Levene's report on defence reforms, is already helping the chief of the defence staff, Sir David Richards, consider how the UK might be affected by, and potentially contribute to, any conflict between the west and Iran.

Inevitably, much of the work undertaken by the JFC will be top secret.

In an interview with the Guardian, Peach, 55, said the JFC would "be the glue that helps bind together" the navy, airforce and army. It will also ensure that lessons from campaigns such as Afghanistan are learned quickly.

It will also oversee the development of weapons for cyberwarfare, and recommend new "smart" equipment that might make the difference in future campaigns.

"One of key ways to exploit this new command is to make sure that lessons are applied into education and training, so that our soldiers, sailors and airmen are better prepared. We want to build on the way we have prepared forces for current operations."

On Afghanistan, he said: "All campaigns evolve over time. The threat has evolved into these improvised explosive devices. We have a very important role in understanding countermeasures and techniques to defeat those devices. It is one of the key lessons we have identified."

Peach said his aim was to "bring lessons more quickly from current operations into future operations" – which could entail new training, as well as changes in tactics and procedures.

Peach said he didn't want to "imply it was all rubbish before", but said the JFC would bring proper focus to certain areas that needed to be championed to give the best possible advantage to troops fighting in the front line.

He also denied the JFC was, in effect, a fourth service. "No, it's definitely not a fourth service. We are not creating new uniforms or anything of that sort. We are complementary to three single services. We have a close relationship."

Nevertheless, the remit of the JFC is huge, and Peach is now one of the most significant players in the British military. His command includes responsibility for counterterrorist training teams, the directorate of special forces, defence intelligence, the surgeon general's headquarters, and the defence cyber-operations group.

With a core staff of 150 to support him, Peach also sits over the Permanent Joint Headquarters in Northwood, Middlesex, which has operational control for campaigns abroad, including Afghanistan, and last year in Libya.

"The JFC is not about ships, aircraft and tanks. It is about command, control, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and cyber. They are vital in current operations but you cannot reach out and touch them. Sometimes they can lose priority in a resource constrained world. We are the champions of the things you cannot see."

He added: "We are joining up that which we have learned, sometimes the hard way, with that which we need to provide in both equipment and support … we are about joining up the dots."

Peach said the JFC would be looking to experiment with "new and small capabilities", as well as building up a better picture of potential threats through surveillance and reconnaissance.

The US military used to have a JFC, but it has been disbanded to cut costs, raising questions about whether the UK really needs one of its own.

Peach says the British JFC cannot be compared to the American model because they are undertaking different roles. He also insisted the army, navy and air force were behind the new body, even though Lord Levene's report made clear the three services were riven by parochial self-interest, and were highly suspicious of each other – particularly at senior levels.

"Actually we have a generation of young men and women (who) understand that we need to work together. They understand the army, navy and airforce are better together than apart. There is a hunger to enable joint operations to provide foundation capabilities we are better together. It's not just a question of a slogan of working together."

Peach would not be drawn on the kinds of cyber-capabilities the UK will be looking to develop, and said the UK needed to better understand the threat.

"We need a single point of authority within defence to provide appropriate focus. That focus is within Joint Forces Command. There is lots of speculation about threat, and obviously [we are] trying to understand the threat and what we do about it. The threat is real. Defining it, codifying it, and understanding it are important."

Peach said the JFC would be a success "when the young men and women on operations realise that those operations are more effective because of what we have done".

Though he also admitted that looking ahead could also be an inexact science. "All predictions of the future are invariably wrong," he said.

Prices rose 0.2% last month, according to a survey of 1,500 surveyors and agents by Hometrack

House prices rose in March for the first time in 20 months, partly helped by increased activity ahead of the ending of the first-time-buyer stamp duty holiday.

Prices rose 0.2% last month, according to a survey of 1,500 surveyors and agents by Hometrack, with London's 0.5% increase leading the way. This was the biggest monthly rise in the capital since April 2010, but elsewhere in the country the picture was mixed, with the midlands, the north and Wales showing declines.

Hometrack said increased demand and activity and a scarcity of housing for sale had helped drive the overall increase in March, and believed the trend would continue: "Looking ahead to the rest of the year, all the evidence points to a continuing firming in prices in the next few months as demand increases and supply remains suppressed.

"The divergence in the relative strength of the housing market in northern and southern England is set to remain."

In a poll by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers 35% of teachers said they could be persuaded to cheat

More than a third of teachers have admitted they could be tempted to re-write their pupils' exam answers, according to a poll.

Some 35% of teachers said the pressure to improve their students' grades was now so strong they could be persuaded to cheat.

A few admitted cheating was already rife in their schools in the survey of 512 teachers conducted by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL).

One secondary school French teacher, who didn't want to be named, told the pollsters she "virtually re-wrote" students' work to match the marking criteria, rather than teach them:

"I do this simply because there is not time to do both."

A primary school teacher told the pollsters she had "been forced to manipulate results so that levels of progress stay up". "Our head fears an Ofsted inspection should our results waver."

A secondary school teacher said their school "definitely pushes the boundaries of exam integrity". Maintaining the school's status in league tables "took precedence over developing the abilities of pupils," they said.

A spokesman from the Department for Education said parents would be "absolutely outraged" if teachers were manipulating exam or test scores.

"There is absolutely no excuse for teachers cheating … It undermines other staff, damages children's education and risks destroying the public's faith in the profession."

He said all the leading education systems in the world had "robust" testing in schools and classroom inspections. "Parents and the taxpayer would rightly be asking questions if they couldn't judge how schools are doing," he said.

Some 71% of those polled said pressure to improve their pupils' grades had increased in the past two years. Teachers were asked to list the groups placing pressure on them. Some 88% said their headteachers, 51% said inspectors and 50% said parents. Just over a third said the government.

The majority of teachers offer after-school classes, while 9% said they sometimes give up weekends to coach pupils. Just over a quarter gave rewards to pupils to encourage them to study harder.

Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of ATL, said the government's "persistent" focus on tests, exams and league tables left teachers under "enormous pressure" and that this was "often to the detriment to high quality teaching and learning."

"Results now appear to be more important than learning this does nothing to help children's progress," she said. The government needs to think urgently about relieving the pressure on headteachers and leaders. This pressure simply filters on to teachers and lecturers in the classroom."

Thousands of teachers and lecturers will gather in Manchester on Monday for ATL's annual conference.

Himalayan nation calls on heads of state to come to capital for summit on way countries measure progress

The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, aghast at what it calls the world's "suicidal path", has called on heads of state and leading economists to come to the capital Thimphu for a global summit to reform the international financial system and the way countries measure progress.

"We need to rethink our entire growth-based economy so that we can thrive more effectively on our own resources in harmony with nature. We do not need to accept as inevitable a world of impending climate chaos and financial collapse," prime minister Jigmi Thinley will tell the UN in New York on Monday.

Bhutan – sandwiched between China and India with a population about the size of Birmingham – has avoided social and economic chaos, he says, because it is not hooked to the materialist bandwagon and because it measures progress by the level of happiness among its citizens and not by gross domestic production.

It proposes that purely economic measures of growth which count resource depletion and pollution as gains lead to ecological destruction and over-consumption.

"Economic growth is mistakenly seen as synonymous with well-being. The faster we cut down forests and haul in fish stocks to extinction, the more GDP grows. Even crime, war, sickness, and natural disasters make GDP grow, simply because these ills cause money to be spent", Thinley will say in Bhutan's submission to the UN ahead of the Rio +20 earth summit in June.

"The [global] economic system is in rapid meltdown. It is based on the premise of limitless growth on a finite planet. It has produced ever-widening inequalities with 20% of the world now consuming 86% of its goods, while the poorest 20% consume 1% or less and emit 2% of the worlds greenhouse gases.".

Bhutan's leaders argue that institutions like the World Bank and IMF, set up in 1944 to govern commercial and financial relations between the world's major states, are now perilously outdated and must be reformed to avoid catastrophe.

In their place, they say, must come new systems of fair trade, rewards for good behaviour, prompt responses by countries to resource depletion and new ways to measure social, economic and ecological progress.

"The world is in need of an international consensus for the creation of a new economic paradigm with well-being indicators, new national accounting systems that count natural and social capital, and incentives for sustainable production", Bhutan says.

The clarion call for a new system of financial governance is supported by the UN and 68 countries so far. Last year the UN adopted Bhutan's call for a "holistic approach" to development, aimed at promoting wellbeing and happiness.

Its adoption of a new type of economy has encouraged it to take a global lead. Four years ago it launched a gross national happiness index to guide all public policy. Its constitution now ensures that at least 60% of the country remains under forest cover in perpetuity and its aim is to be 100% organic in its agricultural production.

Life expectancy has doubled in two generations, 99% of primary age children are in school, and the country has vowed to always be a carbon sink. However, it remains one of the "poorest" nations on earth, with 25% of its people living on less than $1.25 a day, and 70% without electricity. Until 1974, no tourists were allowed into the Buddhist nation.

"[Our] measures of progress and GNH index clearly show that producing and consuming more stuff does not make people happier. On the contrary when they overwork and go into debt to buy ever more goods and pay the bills, they get more stressed. Working, producing and consuming less is not only good for nature but gives us more time to enjoy each others", says Thinley.

"Instead of progress [the world] has perilously accelerated ecosystem decline. Humanity is now using up natural resources at a 35% faster rate than nature can regenerate. This ecological destruction is not separate from global economic realities that are dividing rich from poor", Bhutan will say in its submission.

The New York meeting will lay the groundwork for countries to adopt new "sustainable development" goals at the Rio +20 meeting, the follow-up to the historic 1992 "Earth summit" which saw the introduction of global treaties to address climate change and biodiversity loss.

Philharmonic Hall, London

The annual collaboration between the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the European Opera Centre, based at Liverpool's Hope University, is usually given over to a work that has languished in obscurity since its premiere. Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's I Quattro Rusteghi isn't quite that. First performed in 1906, it was popular until the 1950s, though of late, like too many of his operas, it has tended to slip from view.

There's a retro quality to Wolf-Ferrari that isn't perhaps to everyone's taste. I Quattro Rusteghi (literally "The Four Curmudgeons", though the piece is usually known in English as "School for Fathers") is based on a play by Goldoni in which the womenfolk surrounding four cantankerous Venetian merchants try to outwit their men, whose aim is to arrange a marriage between the daughter of one of their number and the son of another. The score gazes back to Rossini's comedies, though there's also a deep vein of sadness, reminiscent of Verdi's Falstaff, in Wolf-Ferrari's depiction of an older generation of women determined that their children should have opportunities to marry for love that they themselves were denied.

It's beautifully done, though there are some uncertainties of tone in Bernard Rozet's modern-dress semi-staging. Lunardo (Minhea Lamatic), the father of intended bride Lucieta (Romina Casucci), is prone to terrorising his wife Margarita (Silvia Beltrami) with a shotgun, while the groom, Filipeto (Tansel Akzeybek), lives in fear of his military father Maurizio (Aleksandar Stefanovski). The opening scenes are too severe, though things take off when Ana James's glorious Felice arrives with her put-upon husband Cancian and uppity lover Riccardo (show-stealing performances from Roman Ialcic and Giulio Pelligra respectively). The singing is uniformly good, and Vasily Petrenko's conducting exquisite.

Rating: 4/5

Barbican, London

Performances of Mahler's Third Symphony may not be as rare as they used to be, but each one is still an event, and a challenge for any conductor. Semyon Bychkov made his debut with the London Symphony Orchestra two years ago, and an invitation back to conduct one of the longest works in the regular symphonic repertoire suggests the initial acquaintance went very well. Certainly the orchestral playing in this performance couldn't be faulted, but Bychkov's interpretation raised many more questions.

If the Third is the work in which Mahler comes closest to realising his famous dictum that a symphony must be "like the world – it must embrace everything", then the world Bychkov envisaged was a strangely hyperreal one, in which everything seemed to be pushed to extremes. The huge first movement set the tone. Instead of a single integrated structure, it was presented as a frieze of isolated events, a pageant in which each musical image was sharp-etched and luridly lit; the drum strokes were apocalyptic, the fortissimos threateningly fierce, so that by its end you were not exhilarated, just battered into submission.

Bychkov's tactics in the rest of the work may not have been so confrontational, but they were equally extreme. Tempi were sometimes exaggeratedly slow, accelerations unexpectedly abrupt, though the vocal movements provided some relief – Christiane Stotijn was a rather uninvolving mezzo in the fourth movement's Nietzsche setting, the women of the London Symphony Chorus impersonated the Knaben Wunderhorn angels in the fifth, with the Tiffin Boys' Choir supplying the bims and the bams. Then the focus was back on Bychkov and the orchestra for the finale, with perhaps the greatest melody Mahler ever composed turned into an exercise in extreme refinement and pianissimo string playing; one was impressed but never remotely moved.

Rating: 3/5

Trinity Mirror chief executive will have short-term incentives cut under proposed remuneration policy – but rise in long-term incentives would keep her potential pay the same

Trinity Mirror has outlined a new pay package for its chief executive Sly Bailey in response to shareholder criticism that she is overpaid – but the new deal still failed to satisfy major investors.

Bailey's short-term incentives will be cut by £500,000 under proposals to be put to the vote at the newspaper group's annual general meeting on 10 May. However, her long-term bonus will be increased by a similar amount, and Bailey's base salary of £750,000 remains unchanged.

Investors have been highly critical of the group's pay policy, which has allowed Bailey to earn £14m during her nine years in charge. The group's share price has fallen so far that it is no longer even part of the FTSE 250 index of second tier companies.

"The feedback the company has had from us and from others is that the cost of the chief executive is too high," said one investor. "The company has done a bit of tweaking but they haven't addressed the issue. Their response is likely to be deemed insufficient."

The shareholder predicted there will be a significant vote against the revised pay package, and against remuneration committee chairman Jane Lighting, a former chief executive of broadcaster Five and of Flextech.

Investment managers at Schroders, Aviva, Standard Life and Legal & General, who control over 40% of Trinity Mirror, are all thought to have expressed concerns about the size of Bailey's pay to incoming chairman David Grigson, who is due to take over from Sir Ian Gibson in August.

Bailey's salary and share awards were worth £1.8m last year. Under the proposals, Bailey's maximum potential annual cash bonus will be slashed from £825,000 – 110% of her base salary of £750,000 – to 55%. That is a cut of £412,500 and reduces her maximum cash bonus to the same sum.

Trinity Mirror's annual deferred share award bonus plan will also be cut back from a maximum of 66% of Bailey's basic salary to 55% – a cut amounting to a maximum £82,500 at the time of grant. Taken together the two bonus cuts amount to just under £500,000.

However, to compensate Bailey, Trinity Mirror said that its chief executive would be eligible to receive a higher long-term incentive scheme. She currently receives up to 80% of her salary in shares – worth £600,000 – every year, which vest three years later with a value dependent on the share price of the company at that time.

Under the proposals this will increase to 144% of her salary, to a potential maximum of £1.08m. This means her long-term incentives will rise by a potential £480,000 a year, cancelling out the savings made from her annual awards and allowing her to retain the same earnings potential.

The proposed scheme is part of a raft of changes to director earnings drawn up by the remuneration committee, which recommended short-term cash rewards should be reduced with a significant rebalancing towards long-term share incentives.

"Forget the share price, the company as a company has performed very well during this crisis," said Gibson. "The company continues to be substantially profitable at a time of industry wide decline in trading."

He said the independent directors had considered but decided against reducing Bailey's base salary, partly because it has remained unchanged since 2007. He pointed out that the long-term scheme would only pay out significantly once Trinity's share price, currently 37.5p, rises above 100p. The share price must reach 200p for Bailey to earn the maximum payout.

"There is an impression that there is a unanimous voice out there. That is far from what we discovered in our consultation," Gibson said.

Arcola, London

I can see why Leonid Zorin's Russian play, written in 1967, became a global success: it deals with that most universal of themes, a fractured love affair. But Romeo and Juliet it isn't – and, although here it's very well performed, what makes it seem a tediously protracted business is the lack of resilience shown by the star-crossed lovers.

Victor, a trainee Russian viticulturist, and Helya, a Polish singing student, meet by chance at a Moscow recital in December 1946. They date, dream, enjoy stolen kisses in museums and fall headlong in love. But their hopes of a long-term future together are dashed by Stalin's decree of 1947 forbidding marriage between Soviet citizens and foreigners. At this point, I'd love to have seen Zorin explore the tactics used to circumvent this brutal ruling: at the very least, I assume loving couples would still have had furtive flings or kept in close touch, knowing that the 68-year-old Stalin could not last for ever. But Victor and Helya part instantly, only to have soulful reunions in the ensuing years.

In his memoirs, Zorin claimed the play was popular because it showed the couple's "fight against the state". But that's the one thing it doesn't show: instead, it's about reluctant capitulation. It also strikes me that Victor, although performed with stoic fortitude by Oliver King, is a bit of a dull dog. The evening is largely carried by Helya, whom Emily Tucker endows with a skittish vivacity and superabundant energy: she even sings The Merry Widow waltz in Polish with total conviction. I have no complaints about Oleg Mirochnikov's production, drenched in Chopinesque romanticism. What puts me off me is Zorin's sentimental notion that all love is intrinsically doomed.

Rating: 2/5

There is cause for hope, but government attacks on ethnic minority populations illustrate how far Burma has yet to go

I have dreamed for many years of seeing Aung San Suu Kyi elected to parliament and watching thousands of people celebrating in the streets. Yet, while the scenes made me happy, I also felt a strange emptiness inside.

We always expected that Aung San Suu Kyi being allowed to take a seat in parliament would be a final step on the road to democracy. Instead, it is only the first. Aung San Suu Kyi is even more cautious. Asked last week how democratic Burma was on a scale of one to 10, she answered "on the way to one".

Too much importance has been attached to these byelections, whose significance is more symbolic than practical. Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, will have about 5% of the seats in parliament, compared with 80% for the military and the main military-backed party. Even if Aung San Suu Kyi had a majority, parliament has very limited power, and the military has an effective veto over its decisions.

Yet, as Aung San Suu Kyi hoped, the byelection campaign has successfully mobilised many people, breaking down the fear of engaging in politics after generations of dictatorship. Now she is trying to use the limited new political space to bring genuine democratic reform, but the challenges are immense. To use these byelections as a benchmark for judging change is a mistake. Even had they been free and fair, and they were not, they don't mean Burma is now free.

I have another reason for feeling cautious. I am from the Karen ethnic group, which has faced appalling repression since Burma gained independence. Aged 16 I had to flee my village, when without warning, the army fired mortars into the village, while I was doing my homework. That was 15 years ago but, under the "reforming" Thein Sein, attacks like that by the army haven't decreased. Quite the opposite.

While the international community gets excited about the changes taking place in Burma, many people from ethnic minorities, who make up 40% of the population, feel left behind and forgotten. The only change for many people from ethnic minorities under Thein Sein has been that things have got worse.

The government broke ceasefires with some armed ethnic political parties, and its soldiers went on the rampage, raping, killing, looting, burning villages, using villagers as slave labour. In the past year more than 150,000 people in ethnic minority states fled their homes because of army attacks. If this had happened in or around Burma's capital, Rangoon, there would be international outrage. No one would be talking about lifting sanctions. But because it happens out of sight in the mountains in ethnic minority states, the international community ignores what is going on.

I can't help thinking how people in the refugee camps in Thailand, facing yet more cuts in rations because the EU is cutting funding, and who cannot safely return home, will feel seeing pictures of celebrations in Rangoon. How will a mother in Kachin state, living in an overcrowded temporary camp and whose child is sick from malnutrition because Thein Sein won't allow aid to them, feel when she sees those pictures? There has always been a divide and mistrust between ethnic minorities and the Burman population in central Burma. My father, a Karen leader who was assassinated in 2008 by government agents, said the dictatorship's successful divide and rule strategy was one of the main reasons we hadn't won our freedom.

The contrast in experiences between the changes for those in central Burma, and new horrors for ethnic minorities in the border areas, is enormous, but we must not allow it to increase resentment and mistrust. There are reasons for optimism as well. Aung San Suu Kyi won her seat in the Irrawaddy delta thanks to the overwhelming support of the ethnic Karen who live in her constituency. Burma's reform process might be leaving ethnic minorities behind, but we should still stay united for our common cause: freedom.

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Slide back into recession in European economies encourages switch to growing US export markets

Europe's slide back into recession has been blamed for a sluggish return to growth across the manufacturing sectors of Asia's largest economies.

China, South Korea and Taiwan on Monday reported modest increases in sales and orders in March as businesses switched from selling to Europe in favour of exports to the growing US economy.

Only India bucked the trend in the region after months of high inflation and uncertainty over the outcome of regional elections undermined manufacturers' confidence and hit sales.

Delhi, at the centre of Asia's third-largest economy, suffered a third straight month of slower growth in its purchasing managers' index (PMI), dragged down by a decline in orders. Indian businesses were also hesitant after the costs of raw materials showed no signs of falling.

While the index remained above 50, it slipped to 54.7 in March from 56.6 in February. Any figure above 50 indicates expansion.

China's manufacturers have also suffered the after-effects of rising inflation. Government attempts to cool the economy following a prolonged housing boom have included tighter credit controls, which have helped to avoid a hard landing. But the controls brought an end to the stimulus that kept the economy growing at a fast pace in 2010 and 2011. China's economy now appears to be headed for its weakest quarter since early 2009.

Beijing's official PMI hit an 11-month high with a stronger than expected 53.1 for March. But a separate, private survey by HSBC, which focuses more on smaller factories than the large state-owned enterprises captured in the official data, paints a gloomier picture. The index stayed below the 50 mark separating growth from contraction, coming in at 48.3.

"The upside surprise in China's manufacturing PMI is welcome, and should help quell excessive fears of a 'hard landing' in China," said Vishnu Varathan, an economist with Mizuho in Singapore.

"But equally, we should not be lulled into thinking that China has turned a corner either. Global conditions continue to be highly uncertain notwithstanding the stabilisation in Europe and 'green shoots' in the US."

Qinwei Wang, China economist at analysts Capital Economics in London, said the official PMI might be too optimistic.

"The much better performance in the index probably reflects its seasonal strength around this time of the year rather than a significant improvement in conditions for the sector," he said.

"Indeed, the official PMI has never declined in March and the average increase in that month has been 3.2 points since it was first released in 2005 (excluding the latest data). The data are said to have been seasonally adjusted prior to release, but a clear pattern still remains."

HSBC's PMI for South Korea edged up to a one-year high of about 52 in March from February's 50.7, despite a 1.4% decline in exports. In Taiwan, the PMI figures marked the second straight month of improving business conditions and the pace of expansion was the fastest since April 2011.

Increased demand, both domestically and from abroad, supported factory activity in March.

Police would get joint responsibility for the number-plate recognition cameras under the London mayor's proposals

Boris Johnson is planning to give the Metropolitan police access to cameras used to monitor vehicles travelling in the London congestion charge zone and the region-wide low emission zone, to help detect crime.

The Conservative mayor, who is seeking re-election in May, said he wanted to ensure automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) was used "across all London" to help track down the vehicles of criminals.

This had proved of particular use against burglars, he said. Giving the Met joint responsibility for the Transport for London (TfL) camera systems would give the Met "straightforward access with an explicit purpose for crime prevention and detection".

The congestion charge scheme, under which drivers pay £10 to enter a central London zone, and the Greater London area's low emission zone, which charges certain vehicle types that fail to meet emissions standards, are both administered by IBM on behalf of TfL.

The mayor, who chairs TfL and recently assumed a crime and policing commissioner role for the region – a post he has delegated to his deputy mayor for policing, Kit Malthouse – said in his re-election literature on fighting crime: "In order to safeguard our civil liberties, this will be accompanied by a public awareness campaign, to ensure the processing of personal data is fair and lawful, and measures to guard against the possibility of it becoming part of a 'surveillance state'."

Johnson said that under his watch crime rates had fallen by almost 11%, with the murder rate down by a quarter. He vowed to do more to increase public safety in the capital if re-elected.

"On many of the key indicators, crime in London is going in the right direction and yet there is no earthly use in my claiming that we have the problem cracked. We need to go further and faster and that is why I am today announcing a series of measures – some of them new to London – to tackle crime across the board."

Unveiling the crime and policing element of his manifesto in Harrow, north-west London, Johnson promised to fund the capital's four rape crisis centres for the entirety of his second term. He also pledged to launch a pan-London domestic violence service and set up a taskforce to confront female genital mutilation and other harmful cultural practices, including so-called witchcraft killings.

He promised 2,000 more community support officers and special constables in the capital's safer neighbourhood teams, and local boards to give Londoners a bigger say in how their streets are policed. Among their duties would be the monitoring of complaints about borough-based police officers, as well as crime performance and community confidence. Part of the role would be to visit local offenders after arrest.

Johnson said: "If you invest in neighbourhood policing you can begin to win the war on crime even in tough economic times. Above all, we need to recognise the role of the local safer neighbourhood teams in spotting the problem kids and the problem families."

Labour accused Johnson of making Londoners less safe during his time in office. A spokesman for Ken Livingstone, Labour's mayoral candidate, said: "In January this year the Tory mayor admitted cutting over 1,700 police officers from London whilst he knew that violent crimes including knife crime, robbery, burglary and rape were all rising.

"Boris Johnson has tried repeatedly to mislead Londoners, claiming knife crime is falling when the Metropolitan police say knife crime is rising. Broken promises on knife crime mean broken lives. It's time for a new approach which puts Londoners first. Ken is committed to reversing Boris Johnson's police cuts and making Londoners safer on the streets and in their homes."

City hall said the current police strength was 32,230.

The Labour MP Tom Watson has written to the UK Statistics Authority claiming Johnson has given misleading figures on knife crime. Watson asked for an investigation, saying the mayor had said on four occasions that knife crime had fallen, despite official Met figures showing it had risen three years in a row.

In a letter dated to coincide with a campaign event by Livingstone highlighting knife crime, Watson said: "This is an extremely serious matter, for the mayor to be claiming knife crime is falling when in fact it is rising. I believe it is vital that the public are not misled over these matters of great importance. I believe the mayor's claims are inaccurate and must be investigated."

Cigarette butts, butterflies and that shark go on show as artist shrugs off critic's claim he is a 'spent force'

He is either the presiding genius of contemporary British art, justifiably making a fortune by thrilling audiences with his memorable reflections on life and death. Or he is an empty con artist, making a fool of us and raking in millions from buyers with more money than sense. On Wednesday, the paying public can decide as the largest UK exhibition of Damien Hirst work opens for a five-month run at Tate Modern in London.

The blockbuster retrospective brings together 70 works and covers everything Hirst is particularly known for – from pickling sharks and killing flies to painting spots and encrusting a skull with diamonds and selling it for a claimed price of £50m.

They are also the things that get his critics foaming. Does he care about what they say about his art?: "I don't think you can. I only care what people say when it's true. I'm sure there were people around when they were doing it in the caves, going 'I like your cave, but I hate that crap you've got on the walls'."

Many have complained that Hirst is only in it for the money. "Money is important and money can sometimes obscure the art but ultimately the art has got to be more important than the money or I wouldn't do it," is his reply.

"Money is so important because so many people haven't got any – it's the key isn't it, more important than languages, it's the key to the world, it can save your life. People without money can die – you can't afford an operation, you die."

Conspicuous wealth is certainly on show at Tate Modern. Hirst's For the Love of God, a small human skull encrusted with 8,601 diamonds, is displayed in a darkened room with its own security in the vast Turbine Hall.

In the shop, rolls of wallpaper Hirst created specifically for the show are on sale at £250 each, along with £310 butterfly deckchairs and sets of 12 bone china butterfly plates for £10,500. Those who really want to say "stuff the recession" can pay £36,800 for a limited-edition plastic skull (painted in "household gloss").

The show includes a room full of live butterflies happily feeding on fruit and drinking from pot plants with their own entomological consultant on hand to check they are living their short lives as comfortably as possible.

Staff will check visitors' hair and clothing to prevent breaks for freedom through the plastic curtains. One journalist walked for five minutes through the entire show, unaware that one butterfly had taken audacious refuge on her turquoise coat. It was escorted back home by the show's curator Ann Gallagher.

There was no such hope for the flies feeding on a rotting cow's head in Hirst's 1990 work, A Thousand Years. The flies emerge from maggots before feeding and dying on the installation's light trap, with the smell of electrocuted insects just beginning to waft in to the gallery.

An even greater, more unpleasant smell emanates from Hirst's work Crematorium, a huge open ashtray of the same smoked cigarettes used when the piece was created in 1996.

The show begins with some of the artist's earliest work including his first spot painting made when he was still a student at Goldsmith's college.

"It is a little bit embarrassing that room," said Hirst, "but I think it's important to tell the story like that. The room is only important because I went on to make the other works. When I made those things, I was thinking they were the greatest things of the 20th century and I realised very quickly they weren't, so there's disappointment in them in terms of what I thought they were and what they are.

"Art is about magic, so something like the shark, I imagined it was one thing and what actually appeared when I made it was beyond that."

The shark suspended in formaldehyde, a work entitled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, is one of Hirst's best-known works but, before that, visitors will see his very first attempt on the theme: 76 fish displayed in two vitrines and collected, Hirst said, from Billingsgate market in the Citroen of his dealer Jay Jopling.

"I stank his car out for about a month. He swapped me the car for a spot painting and I've still got the Citroen and he's still got the spot painting – the car's not worth as much as the painting. I wouldn't swap him his new car [a Maserati] for a spot painting."

In truth, Hirst could buy a car park full of Maseratis but says he prefers to spend his fortune on art. He owns about 2,000 works and plans to open his own version of the Saatchi gallery in south London in 2014.

Hirst, aged 46, was the leading figure in the Young British Artists movement and his work sells for crazy prices.

Some people, however, regard him as a spent force. One critic, Julian Spalding, published a book at the weekend arguing that Hirst's work is 'con art' and owners of his work should sell soon before the penny drops.

Hirst hit back, saying the comment was "more about selling a book than selling art".

Hirst said people have an opportunity at Tate Modern to make a judgement for themselves.

"I didn't start considering a retrospective until I got to the point when I was ready and I've enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I think it looks good. I'm maybe a little bit proud of it. It looks a lot fresher and more exciting than I thought it would."

Damien Hirst is at Tate Modern 4 April-9 September