Small UK city joins world's top ten

Salisbury, a small city in the South of England, has been listed in the top ten places to visit next year by a leading travel guide.

Each year, Lonely Planet chooses cities which have interesting things happening, and which it thinks are lively. At the top of the 2015 list is Washington DC in the USA, followed by El Chalten in Argentina, Milan in Italy, Zermatt in Switzerland, Valetta in Malta and Plovdiv in Bulgaria.

Salisbury, which is in seventh place in the list, has been chosen because its cathedral has the best surviving version of the Magna Carta, a document signed 800 years ago. It was a historic document because it transferred some powers from the then King to rich landowners. The city also has a beautiful Cathedral and surrounding buildings, many lovely 13^th century buildings and Stonehenge is close by.

UK starts first darts team for blind people

Darts is a popular UK pub game where players throw small sharp arrows at a round target on a wall. You get more points and win the game by being able to hit small numbered areas of the target.

Now a group of friends has formed the UK's first blind darts team, and plan to play in their first competition next week. They call themselves The Optimists (which means thinking that things will turn out well).

The players attach a string to the middle of the board and hold on to this as they throw the dart. One of the players, Richard Pryor, said the team manage to hit the board aound two out of every three throws.

Cold pasta is healthier

UK scientists have found that it is healthier to eat pasta which has been cooked, cooled, and warmed up rather than freshly cooked pasta.

They found that eating pre-cooking pasta does not make people's blood sugar rise so much as eating fresh pasta. This means it is less likely to make people gain weight or become ill. "This means leftovers could be healthier for us than the original meal," said one of the researchers.

Queen adds to artwork in London castle

In the UK, poppy flowers are used to remember people who died in wars. This year, to mark the 100^th anniversary of the first world war, a special art work is being created around the Tower of London.

Artist Paul Cummins has created 888,246 poppies from china, to mark every soldier who died fighting for the UK. The poppies have been gradually planted around the moat of the Tower of London to create a stunning artwork. Last week the Queen visited the artwork.

Volunteers are planting the poppies, and later each one will be sold.