Leonard Nimoy, actor who played Mr Spock on Star Trek, dies aged 83

Leonard Nimoy, who enchanted generations of audiences with his depiction of Star Trek’s human-alien philosopher and first officer Mr Spock, has died at his home in Los Angeles. He was 83.

Chinese New Year

People around the world are preparing to welcome in the Year of the Goat on Thursday. We’ll be celebrating Chinese New Year in my YL classes this weekend by making paper lanterns. And thanks to the British Council Learn English Kids site, it’ll also be a chance to raise the children’s awareness of accent variation. The craft section of the website features a video of a Chinese boy explaining, step by step, how to make a paper lantern. Since most coursebooks still feature mostly native speaker accents, this video provides a useful opportunity to focus students on a potentially unfamiliar accent. It also serves as a springboard for discussion to encourage students to reflect on how they can respond to unfamiliar accents

Office Equipment

Beijing, ChinaDecorations go on sale for the year of the sheep celebrations on 19 February

Photograph: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

Igualada, SpainA toxic orange cloud spread after a chemical explosion at a warehouse in the Spanish north-eastern Catalonian town of Igualada. The blast occurred when products delivered to a warehouse became mixed and exploded setting a truck on fire

Photograph: -/AFP/Getty Images

Brutal killing of a samba ‘queen’ exposes dark world behind the glitter of carnival