Click to enlarge, and debate the strip below the line. Keith Hackett's official answers appear in Sunday's Observer and here from Monday.Competition: win an official club shirt of your choiceFor a chance to win a club shirt from the range at Kitbag.com send us your questions for You are the Ref to you.are.the.ref@observer.co.uk. The best scenario

For four years, Officer A lived a secret life among anti-racist activists as they fought brutal battles with the police and the BNP. Here he tells of the terrifying life he led, the psychological burden it placed on him and his growing fears that the work of his unit could threaten legitimate protestAn officer from a secretive unit of the Metropoli

It should be a source of national pride that Britain is thought a desirable destination by refugeesIn September 2004, Tony Blair set out a new public sector performance target. By the end of the following year the number of failed asylum seekers being deported each month would exceed the number of new applicants.This benchmark has come to be known

Rooftop turbines on the 'Razor' are first in world to be built into fabric of apartment blockPeering down 148 metres from the top of the latest addition to London's skyline, the traffic-clogged Elephant and Castle roundabout and its notorious neighbour, the Heygate estate, below feel an unlikely location for a world first. But next week, this n

MPs and financial experts demand regulators reform industry in effort to eliminate risky practices, writes Phillip InmanPressure was mounting this weekend for a root-and-branch review of the role played by auditors in the credit crunch, following the revelation that Lehman Brothers was able to hide $50bn (£32bn) of debts from regulators despite ch

Managing director Mark Price aims to keep fast-growing upmarket grocer ahead of rival M&SWaitrose boss Mark Price is drawing up plans to transform the upmarket food chain into a consumer brand available in thousands of non-Waitrose shops in the UK and overseas. He believes the Waitrose label has the potential to be a big "fmcg" – fast moving co

Bigelow's prize makes little difference to Hollywood's basic sexist approach towards womenA woman winning the Oscar for best directing is one of those cultural milestones that would pass better unremarked. Sadly, it didn't."The moment has come!" chirruped Barbra Streisand, emoting harder than any of the actresses who were nominated that night.

Billions of pounds of debt, the internet and piracy are crippling one of Britain's most iconic firmsIt is a tale of sex, debt and rock'n'roll that is unlikely to have a happy ending. When Guy Hands, a City financier with a penchant for fast food and an insatiable appetite for deal-making, came up with a plan to buy EMI, Britain's flagship music

The 137-year-old magazine has put all its back numbers online, including articles by Darwin, Pasteur – and predictions of orbiting space-hotelsIt has a list of authors that would make a publisher's eyes water and includes Charles Darwin, Thomas Huxley, Louis Pasteur and Thomas Edison. They are all great scientists, and all writers who have put t

Four explosions in Kandahar cause chaos but terrorists' attempt to free prisoners is thwartedAt least 30 people were killed when four suspected suicide bombers blew themselves up yesterday in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. The bombers' targets included a new prison and the local police headquarters.The attacks are believed to have been tim

An old south London boozer gets a dramatic new lease of life as the chef behind the Eagle lands in StockwellThe Canton Arms, 177 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 (020 7582 8710). Meal for two, including drinks and service, £75There is one item served occasionally at the Canton Arms, a re-opened pub in Stockwell, south London, which best sums it up.

The New Yorker's theatre critic has divided US theatregoers with a furious assault on Irish writer Martin McDonagh's hit new playControversial playwright Martin McDonagh is used to creating headlines in Britain and Ireland with his dark tales laced with black humour and flowing with stage blood.So his attempt to crack the American market with h

Charities say reports of abuse being routinely ignored is a 'systemic and increasing problem'Torture survivors seeking sanctuary in Britain are being wrongly held in government detention centres, despite independent medical evidence supporting claims of brutal violence against them in their home countries.According to Home Office guidelines, in c

Nick Clegg describes George Osborne's plans to slash budgets as 'economic masochism'The Liberal Democrats have distanced themselves from the Conservatives by warning they would not support plans to cut public spending too early in the next parliament.The party's leader, Nick Clegg, said early deep cuts would be "economic masochism". It came a

Ethiopian ambassador says the BBC World Service has endangered its credibility with claims that western aid money was diverted to buy weaponsThe row between Bob Geldof and the BBC escalated into a diplomatic dispute yesterday as the Ethiopian ambassador called for an apology from the World Service after it reported claims that aid money meant for f

We all have film sequences that stick in our minds. Some are shared by many – such as the shower scene from Psycho – others are particular to us. Here our film critic and a panel of leading movie-makers reveal their favourites. What are yours?Who will ever forget the first time they saw the 45-second shower-room murder in Hitchcock's Psycho? I

With 400 million users, will the social networking service end up eating itself?Is Facebook now "too big to fail"? I don't mean in the sense that the taxpayer would have to pick up the pieces if it went under, but in the sense that the social networking service has achieved a position of such dominance in the online ecosystem that its eclipse is

It's depressing how 'Anyone But England' has become the mantra for the ScotsIn Johannesburg in June the sun will rise on another football bacchanal while Scotland nurses its wrath of ages at home. Five major tournaments have come and gone since last we participated. And, as we all know, It's Not The Same Without the Tartan Army. Brazilian samba

Benedict XVI's spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, suggests 'tenacious' plot to implicate pontiff in cover-upThe pope's spokesman has launched a vigorous counter-attack against a report linking Benedict XVI to a sex abuse cover-up while he was archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1981.Father Federico Lombardi appeared to suggest in an interview o

Study finds US, Germany, Italy and Norway have more problems with foods such as apples, peaches, shrimp and wheatBritish people are some of the least likely in the western world to suffer from food sensitivity reactions. This is the conclusion of a study of more than 4,500 adults from 13 countries carried out by Imperial College London.The study fo

Chancellor will cite state investment in jobs as key to lower-than-expected unemploymentAlistair Darling will claim next week that government action to protect jobs has saved around £12bn, as Labour uses the pre-election budget to spell out key economic dividing lines with the Tories.In what is expected to be the most political budget in decades,

Former prime minister builds network of Christian allies as he prepares to launch a religious 'offensive' in North AmericaTony Blair is preparing to launch a "faith offensive" across the United States over the next year, after building up relationships with a network of influential religious leaders and faith organisations.With Afghanistan and

Rights groups express concern at the rising number of juveniles as young as 12 who are held behind bars and 'treated like terrorists'With more than 300 Palestinian children being held in Israeli prisons, human rights groups and Palestinian officials are increasingly concerned about the actions of the Israeli military.The Israeli group B'Tselem

Surely not that 'upstart crow' from Stratford? As James Shapiro's new book rehearses the loony arguments about our greatest playwright, we ask some of today's finest Shakespearean actors and directors their thoughts on the authorship questionFive years ago, James Shapiro, an American academic teaching at Columbia university in New York took the

Nigel Slater visits Suffolk – and returns with a batch of smoked food recipesEven before you turn into the narrow opening that is Baker's Lane, you spot the winding trail of grey smoke against Orford's white winter sky. Turn sharp right, and you see the rickety smokehouse, as black as tar, leaning drunkenly against the side of the open shop, wi

The singer-songwriter Kate Nash tells how she beat exhaustion, self-doubt and music industry sexism to return to the fray with her second albumAsking Kate Nash a question is like winding up a motorised toy car and then letting it career around the room until it runs out of power. Her words come out in an unstoppable, breathless stream, punctuated b

A monthly look at the best foodie appsWhat is it? The daddy of all food apps, Jamie Oliver's £4.99 digital mini-cookbook was the single-most lucrative app on iTunes UK only weeks after its launch towards the end of last year.Key ingredient? Jamie's anyone-can-do-this ethos. The result: 55 straightforward recipes, from chilli corn chowder

PS3, Xbox 360, Capcom, cert 3Racing on four wheels tends to dominate motorsport's limelight, with this year's F1 shaping up to be no exception, yet so good is MotoGP 09/10 it simply demands that you pay attention to this two-wheeled rival. It's blisteringly fast and inconceivably dangerous, yet MotoGP remains somewhat of a niche sport, despite t

I started making pornography for women because there was a need. And now I want to do something about the need for more female MPsI'm Anna Arrowsmith, the Liberal Democrat PPC for Gravesend or, as many will know me, Anna Span, the UK's first female porn director. Take your pick.Since news of my selection broke on Thursday, many people have asked

What the Conservatives say publicly about Europe is not what they really think, says the MEP for Yorkshire and the HumberWilliam Hague has been using positive words to describe the Conservative party's future relations in government with our EU partners. I have been around the higher circles of the party for long enough to know that a visceral eur

The government is set to make credit card providers use customer payments to reduce the costlier part of debts first, writes Lisa BachelorCredit card firms are to be forced to change the way they make customers pay off their debts, in a move that could save nine million borrowers a typical £225 each a year, the government will announce tomorrow.Ca

Seven floors of abandoned opulence with breathtaking views – the perfect squat. But the squatters are not looking for a home. Young, middle class and disillusioned, they're hedonists looking for space to spread their message of liberty and creativityOn Thursday 11 February, 3,000 revellers descended in numbers normally only seen at festivals to

Top doctor accuses hospitals of failing to provide beds for families, who end up exhausted, stressed and depressedThe NHS is adding to the suffering of parents with a child in hospital by not giving them somewhere to sleep, the UK's top children's doctor has warned.Far too few hospitals provide parents with accommodation so they can stay beside

After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Brad Pitt called in the world's top architects for his acclaimed Make It Right project. The plan was to build green homes to replace those destroyed in New Orleans. Now the first houses are up and inhabited… so is it just a celebrity ego trip or a true regeneration?Debra Dupar, pregnant with her fifth

Conservative drive to 'clean up politics' faces test over failure by several candidates to fully declare their work for lobby firms, says Nick MathiasonDavid Cameron's drive to clean up politics is facing an embarrassing public test after it emerged that a number of prospective Conservative MPs have failed fully to declare in their campaign lite

Life chances of teenage mothers and their children threatened by barriers to education, Barnardo's survey findsTeenage mothers are being thrown on the career scrap heap because they face so many barriers in getting back into school, the children's charity Barnardo's says.Young women are often left out of school on "spurious health and safety gr

From the letters of an early 19th-century rifleman to a housewife's account of the second world war, Max Hastings, military historian and ex-war reporter, chooses his favourite observations on conflictThe Letters of Private Wheeler, 1809-28, by William Wheeler, 1948Only in the 19th century did soldiers begin to describe their experiences in langua

From eternally Tory Eastbourne to the Labour heartlands of West Yorkshire, the Liberal Democrats are convinced that they can take seats off both main parties at the forthcoming general election and end up holding the balance of power in a hung parliament. Could it really happen?Annemarie Field smiled, her pale blue eyes sparkling in the s

Former prime minister builds network of Christian allies as he prepares to launch a religious 'offensive' in North AmericaTony Blair is preparing to launch a "faith offensive" across the United States over the next year, after building up relationships with a network of influential religious leaders and faith organisations.With Afghanistan and

The Lib Dems have a fabulous opportunity, but will need exceptional discipline during the campaignIn conversation with friends about the forthcoming televised election debates between the party leaders, Nick Clegg was heard to say: "I'd better not screw up." That self-deprecation is an attractive side of his character. If Gordon Brown entertains