Fela Kuti: Africa’s Bob Marley – or an African Handel?

(Lewton Cole/Alamy)

Fela Kuti found fame in Africa in the ‘70s – but at the time it eluded him elsewhere. As new audiences discover his music, Peter Culshaw looks back at the complex character.

When I met Fela Kuti, the self-styled “Black President”, he was in a London hotel wearing only a pair of red underpants, smoking a massive joint, surrounded by three of his wives (he notoriously married 26 in one day) and his personal magician, a Ghanaian who called himself Professor Hindu. This was in 1984, and was the first interview I ever had published. At the time, Fela was a cult figure in the UK and I was working on one of the few articles about him. Back in Nigeria and the rest of West Africa, though, he had been a major figure for well over a decade; when he died Lagos came to a standstill after a million people turned up to his funeral.
Fela died of an Aids-related illness in 1997, and it seems that every year since then his profile outside Africa has been steadily increasing. Barely a month goes by without new re-releases of his music. Next month sees yet another box set,  this time selected by Brian Eno, a musical pioneer himself – as well the producer of U2, Coldplay and Talking Heads – who says he has played his music more than any other artist. He has also said:“I thought it was the music of the future in 1972 and I still do.”
Fela’s music – or  the Afrobeat genre that he founded – can be heard in lofts in fashionable Dalston in London or Williamsburg in New York, and current popular indie artists like Vampire Weekend, Franz Ferdinand and Damon Albarn have acknowledged a musical debt to him. Albarn has worked with Tony Allen, the original drummer in Fela’s Africa 70, who continues to release albums.
Fela’s crossover to a mainstream Western audience was boosted by the musical Fela! which ran in London and Broadway in 2010. And now there’s a feature film – Finding Fela – directed by Academy Award-winner Alex Gibney, which is showing in a few cinemas in the US and rolls out in Europe and beyond in September.  As a musician and social activist, he is increasingly being compared with Bob Marley.
Band on the run?
Since the early 1970s, Fela and his bands Africa 70 and, later, Egypt 80 built up an audience in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa. People were drawn to the revolutionary politics of his music, with songs like ITT (International Thief Thief), which attacked multinational corporations and Zombie, which parodied the mindless military types who unquestioningly followed orders. In the course of his life he was arrested more than 100 times, imprisoned and beaten. Like Bob Marley, he was a man of the people, with a strong  political agenda.
But it was as a musical revolutionary that he became a talismanic figure for fellow artists. In Gibney’s film, Paul McCartney recounts how he saw Fela’s band when recording Band on the Run at the EMI’s Lagos studioin 1972. “They were the best band I’ve ever seen live” he said. “When Kuti and his band eventually really began to play, after a long, crazy build-up, I couldn’t stop weeping with joy.”

Great jazz musicians like Miles Davis also acknowledged Fela Kuti as a 'life-transforming artist' (AF archive/Alamy)

One of Fela’s main musical inspirations was the funk of James Brown – who was in turn influenced by Kuti after his group visited The Shrine, Fela’s nightclub in Lagos. As Brown’s bassist Bootsy Collins recalls: “We were telling them they’re the funkiest cats we ever heard in our life. I mean, this is the James Brown band, but we were totally wiped out!”
Other revered musicians in the ‘70s – from Stevie Wonder to Gilberto Gil – came to Nigeria’s largest city to see for themselves what the fuss was about. Great jazz musicians like Miles Davis also acknowledged him as a “life-transforming artist”.  With some of the top musicians in the world backing him, why didn’t he become a global star 40 years ago?
One reason Kuti wasn’t better known in his lifetime was his personality – he was a difficult, complex man with a self-destructive streak. When Paul McCartney offered to have Kuti and his band as guests on Band on the Run, Fela got up the next night at The Shrine, and said “the white man has come to steal our music.” McCartney said at the time: “Do us a favour, Fela, we do OK. We sell a couple of records here and there.” Band on the Run, incidentally, was the best-selling album of 1973 and being on the record would have put Fela on the world map.
When Motown wanted to set up an African label called Taboo in the early ’80s, it offered Kuti a deal. Rikki Stein, Kuti’s manager and friend, says that Kuti’s response was to contact the spirits via Professor Hindu. The spirits refused to let him sign for another two years. Kuti also refused Motown his back catalogue and wanted $1m in cash. “Even then, Motown went along with it,” Stein says. “But after two years, in April 1985, the very month that Kuti was about to sign, the Motown guy got the sack and the deal was off.”
Kuti received various other offers from American record labels in the ‘80s, but at the time the problem was he was producing 60-minute-long pieces. “Can’t you do a three-minute song for the radio?” Stein recalls asking. “Fela just said: 'I wouldn’t know how to.’”
Fela avoided the Western companies who he saw as imperialist – and mixed with his lack of radio-friendly material –made him a difficult sell.  But one way of understanding his music is as he saw it himself.
‘Sacred monster’
Kuti studied classical music at Trinity College in London in the early ‘60s, where he also had a jazz and highlife band called Koola Lobitos. When I asked him, cub reporter style, who his favourite musician was, he said: “Handel. Western music is Bach, Handel and Schubert. It’s good music, cleverly done. As a musician, I can see that. Classical music gives musicians a kick. But African music gives everyone a kick.”
In the ‘80s, he started calling his music “African classical music” – and is quoted in the new film saying that you wouldn’t expect composers like Mozart or Beethoven to write three-minute numbers, so why should he?
While many of his political insights on religious fundamentalism, corporate greed and political corruption are still prescient, both the musical and Gibney’s film have been accused of underplaying much of Kuti’s controversial opinions about women and homosexuals, which sit uncomfortably with modern liberal mores. He could happily sing anti-feminist songs such as Lady or Mattress and was unapologetic about his views. As he put it: “To call me a sexist… for me it’s still not a negative name. If I’m a sexist, it’s a gift.”
Nor do the film or musical go into any detail on his death from an illness arising from Aids. He was in denial about the disease, and described the use of condoms as “un-African” – the last song he released was a tirade against them. Fela apologists say though that his death actually brought Aids out in the open and many lives were saved as a result. His opinions were to some extent provocation. As Bill T Jones, the director and devisor of the extraordinary choreography in Fela! and a talking head in Gibney’s film, sees the problem: “He would say things like, if you aren’t a real man in this life, you will come back as a homosexual. Although he called himself a priest, for example, quite a few Yoruba practitioners have called him a poseur. He was first and foremost a showman. I think of him as a sacred monster.”

The Fela! musical was seen by a million people and endorsed by stars from around the music world (REX/Alastair Muir)

Rikki Stein doesn’t think Fela could ever reach Bob Marley levels of global awareness. “He wasn’t a popster” he says, but interest in and knowledge of his innovative and dynamic music is still increasing rapidly. As it happens, a new pop star from Nigeria, D’Banj, who has described himself as a “cross between Fela Kuti and Michael Jackson” and had a global hit in 2012 with Oliver Twist, has an album out later in the year and may well achieve the pop success that Fela never did.
Still, a million people saw the Fela! musical, and with luminaries such as Jay Z endorsing him, a lot of young people have now been made aware of him – and the new film will only increase his fame. But perhaps the way to think of Fela Kuti is less like the African Bob Marley, but more as he saw it, the African Handel or Shostakovich

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Short but sweet: The miniskirt

Natalie Wood (Globe Photos/Rex)

The shortened garment emerged in the 1960s as a symbol of rebellious youth culture – and endures to this day. Katya Foreman looks back at the style icon.

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Among the many revolutions of the Swinging ’60s, from The Beatles to the first man on the moon, the miniskirt remains one of the era’s most enduring icons. While opinions differ on who invented the abbreviated garment, with Mary Quant, André Courrèges, John Bates and Jean Varon among the contenders, in London − the miniskirt’s launch pad − it was local designer Quant who was the driving force behind the city’s ‘60s fashions. In recognition of her legacy, a minidress by Quant − the ‘Banana Split’ – figured among 10 Design Classics stamps issued by the Royal Mail in 2009 to celebrate a century of British design. The selection included the Spitfire, the Concorde, the red telephone box and the London Underground map.

Mary Quant stamp (Royal Mail)

“The miniskirt was an extraordinary phenomenon and had a big impact because it was part of the emerging youth culture of the 1960s and it was very much an expression of that youth culture and also of the beginnings of the sexual liberation movement due to the invention of the birth control pill. So it was kind of a historic moment,” says Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of The Museum at FIT. “You had had something of a youth culture and a short skirt in the 1920s as well but, although young women in the ‘20s were seen as being far more sexually liberated than their precursors, that primarily meant that they felt more free to go out on dates unsupervised, choose their future spouse, kiss multiple men before getting married and sometimes engage in petting. But they still were threatened with what had always limited women’s sexual freedom − that danger of becoming pregnant.”

The 1920s mini (Sasha/Getty Images)

Quant, who ran the cult King’s Road boutique Bazaar (co-founded with her husband, Alexander Plunket Greene, and Archie McNair), started dealing in minis – hitherto the domain of sportswomen – in 1966, but she’d been experimenting with the look since her youth, when she would hitch up the skirt of her school uniform “to be more exciting-looking”. Quant’s muse was an anonymous tap dancer she spied at the dance studio where she used to attend ballet class. “During [one ballet class], I could hear exciting music coming from next door, and when I peeked through the glass I saw a tap-dancing class take place, and in the middle of the room, a girl a couple of years older than me who was the vision of everything I wanted to be,” Quant told The Week. “She was wearing a short pleated skirt about 10in long, with a skinny black sweater, black tights and a bob haircut. What struck me was how the whole outfit focused on what she had on her feet: a pair of white ankle socks, and a pair of patent tap shoes with ankle straps … From that day on I was struck with this lovely vision of legs and ankles.” Quant, who turned 80 in February, famously named the miniskirt after her favourite car, the Mini Cooper. “The mini car went exactly with the miniskirt; it did everything one wanted, it looked great, it was optimistic, exuberant, young, flirty, it was exactly right,” said Quant in the documentary Mary Quant, Mini Cooper, Miniskirt.
Rising star
A heady mix of messages, Quant’s coquettish miniskirts telegraphed a tongue-in-cheek girly innocence and playful attitude, all the while packing a rebellious punch to the repressed post-war generation of the ‘50s raised on no-frills utilitarian designs. With its audaciously brief hemline, the miniskirt − then worn with flat Mary Janes, zip-up knee-high boots and thick, brightly coloured tights − challenged society and shook up conservative values. “Middle age business men would beat on the window and shout ‘It’s obscene, it’s disgusting.’ Extraordinary, isn’t it!” marvelled Quant in an interview with British Vogue’s Alexandra Shulman. Among its detractors, Coco Chanel dismissed the miniskirt as “just awful”.
“You’d had an increasingly conservative attitude from the 1930s through much of the 1950s, and the youth culture of the 1960s broke dramatically with that − although it had its roots in ‘50s youth culture, the beginning of the rise of rock ‘n’ roll and the idea of delinquence, and co-ed college girl style, but it really began to flourish in the 1960s,” observes Valerie Steele.

(Hedenstrom/Rex)

For Quant, it was the girls on the street who invented the miniskirt. Her customers, would demand that she go ever shorter with her creations. “It all started in Chelsea, really. There was this sort of mood; rules were there to be broken,” the designer told the Sunday Mirror. Before the 1960s young women had been expected to dress like their mothers, whereas this was about the young looking young. Suddenly fashion, with its jolt of Crayola colours (a sharp contrast to the lacklustre yellows and waiting-room browns of post-war Britain), was a playground, with Twiggy among the movement’s figureheads. With her androgynous, prepubescent look – all gangly legs, Peter Pan hairdo, beguiling Bambi eyes and painted on eyelashes – the gamine British model broke away from the elegant, debutante airs of models of the ‘50s.
Staying true to the Hemline Index, whereby skirt hemlines rise along with stock prices, the miniskirt perfectly captured the zing of booming 1960s London. And, surfing the slipstream of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones’ global mania, demand for shorter hemlines soon took off (cementing the trend, Jackie Kennedy opted for a short white pleated Valentino dress for her marriage to Aristotle Onassis in 1968). Though the miniskirt’s popularity was soon overshadowed by the new hippie silhouette of long bell-bottoms and flowing skirts, the garment – today a wardrobe staple – has clung on, resurfacing with gusto during the 1980s (think rah-rah skirts and short skirted power suits).

Twiggy on the King's Road (Stan Meagher/Express/Getty Images)

Age limit?
Gathering multiple personalities across the years, with tweaks on length, material and accessories projecting radically different vibes, the miniskirt − arguably more than any other item of clothing − remains a symbol of youth. With women stretching its society-imposed age limits over time, especially in these celebrity-led body beautiful times, a whole heap of judgement has been piled on the age appropriate-ness of the miniskirt. According to a recent study by the British department store Debenhams, women today are happy to wear miniskirts up to the age of 40, whereas figures from 1980 showed that on average women stopped buying minis when they reached 33 years old. “If this trend continues, there's no doubt that, within the next decade, women in their mid 40s and early 50s will rightly regard a miniskirt as an essential part of their everyday wardrobe,” Debenhams said in the report.
Such a democratic view remains extremely short-sighted, however. With bans enforced in several African countries, the miniskirt didn’t even get a look in in certain territories. As recently as 2010, the mayor of an Italian resort town, Castellammare di Stabia, issued orders to police to fine anyone spotted wearing a 'very short' miniskirt, according to a report in the Guardian, while in late February around 200 women took to the streets of Uganda's capital to protest against a new anti-pornography legislation − dubbed ‘the miniskirt law’ by local media – which bans women from revealing their thighs, breasts and buttocks and from dressing indecently in a manner to sexually excite.
Fifty years after its invention, the garment still has many barriers to break.“With the rise of all kinds of religious fundamentalism in the world today there’s been a backlash against women and against sexual liberation, especially in terms of gay liberation ... On the one hand, we’ve become much more accepting of diversity in Western countries, however internationally things have turned very much to the right and we are seeing many cultures that are striking out at women for dressing in a way that is not hyper conservative and body concealing,” says Steele. While the miniskirt’s shock factor is a thing of the past in most Western cities, as well as cities like Tokyo or Shanghai in the East, “in much of the world, I would definitely hesitate to wear a miniskirt,” she added. “You’re looking forward to a much freer future and backwards to a much more restricted past, and the miniskirt is kind of symbolic of that.”

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Movie review: Pacino returns to form in The Humbling

Al Pacino and Greta Gerwig in The Humbling (Millennium Films)

The Humbling stars Al Pacino as an actor confused between fantasy and reality. But despite some great performances, Nicholas Barber is left bemused by the film.

Two days after the Venice Film Festival opened with Alejandro Gonzáles Inárritu’s Birdman, along comes an uncannily similar comedy drama about a Broadway actor who’s having trouble distinguishing between reality and fantasy. I don’t want to give anything away, but two pivotal sequences are almost identical in both films. The Humbling is a much slower, more muffled affair, however. Directed by Barry Levinson, and adapted from a recent Philip Roth novel, it stars Al Pacino as its befuddled actor, a Broadway veteran named Simon Axler. Now in his late 60s, he’s started to forget his lines and to sink into disturbing daydreams. He finishes a particularly dispiriting performance of As You Like It by diving headfirst off the stage. A month in psychiatric care follows, and then Axler retires to his house in a wood in Connecticut, where he spends his days shambling around the big, empty rooms, not quite killing himself, but not quite sure what else to do.
His isolation is curtailed by a visit from Pegeen (the excellent Greta Gerwig), a local drama teacher, and the grown-up daughter of two of his oldest friends. Shortly after announcing that she is a lesbian, Pegeen pounces on Axler and declares that she has fantasised about him since she was a young girl – never mind an age gap, which is a decade wider in the film than it is in the book. Axler jumps into a relationship with her... or so it seems. Drifting woozily between hallucinations and the real world, Axler is never quite sure what is going on, and neither are we. Does Pegeen really care about Axler? Does she even exist? The Humbling is too enigmatic to tell us one way or the other.
That’s not to say that nothing concrete happens in the film. One uninvited guest after another marches onto Axler’s property to make life difficult for him, including a woman (Nina Arianda) who demands that he murder her husband. There are also some treasurable bursts of sharp comedy: the argument between Pegeen’s parents and a sedated Axler is worth the price of a cinema ticket by itself. But there’s nothing to bind these various sequences together except Pacino’s narration, as Axler talks over his state of mind with his psychiatrist (Dylan Baker) on Skype. The film is so fragmentary and dreamlike that you might think its screenwriters (one of whom is the 83-year-old Buck Henry) had only hazy memories of Roth’s novel, and were throwing in scenes from it whenever they happened to remember them.
Thanks to its reflective mood and autumnal atmosphere, The Humbling qualifies as a touching meditation on old age, and it’s a thrill to see Pacino quoting Shakespeare and pondering his craft rather than topping up his pension fund in another facile cop movie. Unlike some film stars, he has no qualms about presenting himself as wrinkled and decrepit, and yet his wolfish charisma and playful twinkle explain why Pegeen would be drawn to Axler. But the lack of any progression in the plot or the characters may well leave viewers scratching their heads. Axler tells his psychiatrist that Pegeen has changed his life, and that he would do anything to please her. But he appears to be weighed down by the same weariness throughout the film, as if Pacino were dragging along an invisible ball and chain behind him. Pegeen, meanwhile, remains a mystery. Only ever seen from Axler’s perspective, she is either a vampiric nag or a life-enhancing free spirit, but she isn’t quite a human being.
It’s a boldly unconventional film from Levinson, the director of such mainstream hits as Rain Man and Good Morning, Vietnam. But ultimately he takes its cloudy vagueness too far. The Humbling could also be called The Bewildering.

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Roald Dahl draft spills Charlie and the Chocolate Factory secrets

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory went through several drafts before its 1964 publication

Little-known characters and incidents that could have featured in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory have been revealed by the Roald Dahl estate.

An unused chapter from a 1961 draft of what was then Charlie's Chocolate Boy takes the reader to the Vanilla Fudge Room in Willy Wonka's factory.
It also includes two new children and refers to two others who do not feature in the version published in 1964.
Dahl's classic children's novel marks its 50th anniversary in October.
It tells of a young boy called Charlie Bucket who finds one of five golden tickets that grant privileged access to Wonka's magical empire.

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Illustrator Quentin Blake talks about how he draws

The book features four other children - Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde and Mike Teavee - who are punished for their naughtiness during the visit.
Yet the draft chapter - published in full in Saturday's edition of The Guardian - reveals there were as many as 10 golden tickets, and children, in earlier versions.
Two of them, Tommy Troutbeck and Wilbur Rice, get into trouble through their disobedience on the Vanilla Fudge Mountain featured in the chapter.
The excerpt also contains references to children named Augustus Pottle and Miranda Grope and has Charlie accompanied by his mother, rather than his Grandpa Joe.
Whipple-Scrumpets According to Lucy Mangan, author of Inside Charlie's Chocolate Factory, Dahl wrote five drafts of his story, four of which survive.
"With each draft it evolves into something more purely joyful, more extreme [and] more fully realised," she told the BBC's arts editor Will Gompertz.
Reading the drafts, she continued, showed the author "learning his craft".

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Wilbur Rice and Tommy Troutbeck are two characters who did not make it into the final version

"He was very disciplined and wanted it to be as good as it could be."
The story and characters went through many changes along the way. Wonka's Oompa-Loompas, for example, were once called Whipple-Scrumpets.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory became one of Dahl's most popular novels and went on to spawn a sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.
Filmed in 1971 (as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) and again in 2005, the book recently inspired a successful West End musical.

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To live is to jog

Once upon a time these people would be regarded as more than a little eccentric

Out there, pounding the hard yards, losing weight, getting fit, ready for the run, joggers owe it all to one man who died a quarter of a century ago, Jim Fixx.

Running would have Sartre fuming in his grave, and put the sport's first prophet in one.

JIM FIXX Started running aged 35 The Complete Book of Running was a bestseller Died aged 52 while out on a run Family history of heart disease Had smoked and had drunk copiously

Twenty five years ago today, a formerly fat magazine editor named Jim Fixx was found dead by the side of a road in the New England countryside.
Fixx was a self-made phenomenon, a nobody who somehow became world-famous for losing a little weight, giving up cigarettes, and jogging down the street for an hour a day.
He put his hairy legs on the cover of a rather mediocre book and declared that running was the secret for health, wealth and an active sex life. In his case, it was true.
He made a fortune from one of the bestselling hardback books of all time, but suffered a massive heart attack seven years later in the middle of a run.
That should have been the end of that. Any scientist who held up a vial, proclaimed "voila, the formula for eternal life" and then keeled over after downing the contents would guarantee that no one would ever touch the stuff again.
Fixx's own book, in hindsight, is almost pulsing with public-safety warnings. The cover of "The Complete Book of Running" is the flaming red of an emergency evacuation signal.
The foreword is titled "On the Subversive Nature of This Book", hinting at trouble ahead like the demolished cars that some US police forces put by the side of the road to warn drivers what happens if you get a little too seduced by speed.
But instead of slowing down, people by the millions have been galloping on. Far from subversive, the marathon is now downright suburban.
It has passed the celebrity smell test, with world-class eaters and partiers like Gordon Ramsey, Oprah, and Puff Daddy finishing marathons.

The fun run is now a ubiquitous institution Enlarge Image

And it's gone on to become a stamp of political earnestness. In the US, every presidential campaign since golfer Richard Nixon was run out of office has had a serious set of legs on the ticket.
Jimmy Carter, Michael Dukakis, the Bushes, Al Gore, John Edwards... even Bill Clinton strapped on the trainers and at least tried to look the part.
Barack Obama was "accidentally" photographed running in Hawaii just before taking office, and Sarah Palin still has time for her hobby. The same week she quit as governor, she appeared wrapped in the American flag in Runner's World magazine. Mikula Dzurinda, prime minister of Slovakia, managed to steal time from running the country to run the Malokarpatsky Marathon.
The final straw was Nicolas Sarkozy's scandalous sweat streaks. The French president could marry a model who had posed nude with zero political fallout. But huff around Paris in shorts?

JOGGING v RUNNING No absolute definition But OED says running is: "rapid motion on foot; racing" Jogging sometimes taken to be running slower than 6mph

"A right wing conspiracy," grumbled Liberation, Sartre's own news organ. All this jogging, Sarkozy's liberal critics say, is an attempt to push a conservative agenda by broadcasting the subliminal command to quit messing about with art and literature and empathy and get down to survival-of-the-fittest business.
It's almost a clear declaration of image war with those iconic photos of Sartre himself - legs crossed, sipping a coffee beneath clouds of Gauloises smoke, outliving Jim Fixx by a languid quarter-century.
The conspiracy theorists are right, of course. At least about one thing - the running boom is certainly a sign that trouble is afoot.

Nicolas Sarkozy is fond of working up a sweat with jogging

Three times in modern history, distance-running has skyrocketed. Each time, it's been in the midst of a major crisis.
In the US, the first boom came during the Great Depression. The next was in the 1970s, during a recession, race riots, assassinations, and the war in Vietnam.
And the third boom? One year after the 9/11 attacks, trail running suddenly became the fastest-growing outdoor sport in the US.
Maybe it's a coincidence. Or maybe there's a trigger in the human psyche, a pre-coded response that activates our first and greatest survival skill when we sense the raptors approaching.

Sartre was not a jogger

In terms of stress relief and sensual pleasure, running is what you have before you're old enough for sex. The equipment and desire come factory-installed - all you have to do is let her rip and hang on for the ride.
And is it also a coincidence that some of the most enlightened people on the planet earth are the greatest ultra-distance runners?
Not just Nelson Mandela (a cross-country runner who still jogged seven miles a day in place in his cell), or Abraham Lincoln (known for "beating all the other boys in a foot race").
The Tarahumara Indians, a lost tribe who live at the bottom of Mexico's wild Copper Canyons, routinely run races of 200 miles or more, without shoes and on the balls of their feet. They are celebrated for their lack of obesity, diabetes and depression, and their amazing longevity. They also avoid the runner's curse of knee and foot injuries.
But if running is the magic pill, what happened to Jim Fixx? As it turned out, for years Fixx had smoked two packs a day and wined and dined heartily. He'd bloated up from 150 to 215 pounds before he finally started running at 35, the same age his father was when he suffered his first heart attack.

People seek out nice surroundings, but at pace

Despite his dad's death at 43, Fixx wouldn't do anything about his super-high cholesterol or even get a treadmill stress test, as a cardiologist friend begged. The autopsy would later reveal that three of Fixx's cardiac arteries were almost completely blocked.
Running used to be a necessity, the only way early humans could survive and thrive and spread across the planet. You ran to eat and to avoid being eaten. You ran to find a mate and impress her, and with her you ran off to start a new life together. You had to love running, or you wouldn't live to love anything else.
Running used to be vital for survival - and now, as tens of thousands turn out for the London Marathon and millions more fill the parks after work, we're instinctively realising that it still is

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Hijab for a day: Non-Muslim women who try the headscarf

Jess Rhodes, with and without her hijab

World Hijab Day calls on non-Muslim women to try out life under the traditional head scarf. Can it lead to more religious tolerance and understanding?

"Because I'm not very skilled I'm wearing what you could call a one-piece hijab - you just pull it over your head. But I've discovered the scope is endless. There are all sorts of options."
So says Jess Rhodes, 21, a student from Norwich in the UK. She had always wanted to try a headscarf but, as a non-Muslim, didn't think it an option. So, when given the opportunity by a friend to try wearing the scarf, she took it.
"She assured me that I didn't need to be Muslim, that it was just about modesty, although obviously linked to Islam, so I thought, 'why not?'"
Rhodes is one of hundreds of non-Muslims who will be wearing the headscarf as part of the first annual World Hijab Day on 1 February.

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Originated by New York woman Nazma Khan, the movement has been organised almost solely over social networking sites. It has attracted interest from Muslims and non-Muslims in more than 50 countries across the world.

For many people, the hijab is a symbol of oppression and divisiveness. It's a visible target that often bears the brunt of a larger debate about Islam in the West.
World Hijab Day is designed to counteract these controversies. It encourages non-Muslim women (or even Muslim women who do not ordinarily wear one) to don the hijab and experience what it's like to do so, as part of a bid to foster better understanding.
"Growing up in the Bronx, in NYC, I experienced a great deal of discrimination due to my hijab," says organiser Khan, who moved to New York from Bangladesh aged 11. She was the only "hijabi" (a word for someone who wears the headscarf) in her school.

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“Start Quote

I figured the only way to end discrimination if we ask our fellow sisters to experience hijab themselves”

Nazma Khan World Hijab day founder

"In middle school I was 'Batman' or 'ninja,'" she says.

"When I moved on to college it was just after 9/11, so they would call me Osama Bin Laden or terrorist. It was awful.
"I figured the only way to end discrimination is if we ask our fellow sisters to experience hijab themselves."
Khan had no idea the concept would result in support from all over the world. She says she has been contacted by people in dozens of countries, including the UK, Australia, India, Pakistan, France and Germany. The group's literature has been translated into 22 languages.
It was social networking that got Jess Rhodes involved. Her friend Widyan Al Ubudy lives in Australia and asked her Facebook friends to participate.
"My parents, their natural reaction was to wonder if this was a good idea," says Rhodes, who decided to wear her hijab for a month.
"They were worried I would be attacked in the street because of a lack of tolerance."
Rhodes herself was concerned about the reaction, but after eight days of wearing the headscarf she has actually been surprised by how positive it has been.
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Muslim headscarves

The word hijab comes from the Arabic for veil and is used to describe the headscarves worn by Muslim women. These scarves come in myriad styles and colours. The type most commonly worn in the West is a square scarf that covers the head and neck but leaves the face clear.

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"I can't explain it really but people have been really very helpful, especially in shops," she says.

Esther Dale, 28, lives in the US state of California and is another non-Muslim trying out the headscarf for the day. The mother-of-three was told about the event by a friend of hers who is a "hijabi".
As a practising Mormon, Dale understands the importance of faith in daily life, and the judgement that can come with the associated clothing.
She says she knows the stigma that surround the headscarf and hopes this is an opportunity to help combat that.
"I knew that it's about modesty of behaviour, not just clothing, and that it's a faulty assumption that women only wear it if they're forced to - especially in the US. That's not at all the truth," she says.
"It's a good chance to educate people that you can't make an accurate judgement about someone based solely on what they're wearing," says Dale.
The hijab has been a frequent target of criticism from people like Maryam Namazie, a vocal ex-Muslim and campaigner, who sees the garment as a form of oppression.

Hijabs on display at a market. The term comes from the Arabic word for 'veil' or 'screen'

"Millions of women and girls have been harassed, fined, intimidated and arrested for 'improper' veiling over the past several decades," she wrote in a blog post about the Iranian women's football team's hijabs.
"Anyone who has ever taken an Iran Air flight will verify how quickly veils are removed the minute the airplane leaves Iranian airspace.
"And anyone who knows anything about Iran knows the long and hard struggle that has taken place against compulsory veiling and sex apartheid."
Organisers of this event say they were fed up with seeing the words "oppressed" or "subjugated" when it came to discussing the Muslim head-covering.
They reject the notion that women only wear hijabs at the insistence of a father or a radical member of the family.
This day, then, is about showing the world that women can choose the hijab willingly.
Rhodes says it's a choice she will continue to make.
"I will wear it from time to time," she says of her hijab. "I'm saying to the world, my beauty is for my family and my partner. Any woman can wear this."

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Pakistan protesters clash with Islamabad police

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Protest leader Dr Tahirul Qadri says the demonstration was "peaceful"

Pakistan police have fired tear gas at anti-government protesters marching on the official Islamabad residence of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The city's two main hospitals have told BBC 264 people have been injured, including at least 26 policemen.
Demonstrators loyal to opposition politician Imran Khan and cleric Tahirul Qadri have been taking part in a sit-in for two weeks.
They want Mr Sharif to resign, alleging corruption and electoral fraud.
Islamabad police chief Khalid Khattak told the BBC that close to 100 protesters had been arrested at the scene.
"Many of them were armed with axes, hammers and cutters, and I'm sure they also have firearms though we haven't seen one yet," he said.
On Friday Pakistan's powerful army chief, Gen Raheel Sharif, stepped in to mediate amid an ongoing deadlock.
Imran Khan ended talks with the government last week.
A government minister said that repeated attempts to resolve the two-week long standoff with protesters had failed.
Speaking to BBC World TV, cleric Qadri condemned the police's actions as an "unimaginable attack by the state upon the people", and denied that protesters were armed with weapons.

A number of protesters were seen carrying clubs as they marched on the residence of Pakistan's PM

Police fired tear gas to try to disperse the crowds

Nearly 100 protesters were arrested at the scene

Local TV pictures showed police throwing tear gas shells, and protesters throwing rocks back at them, some wielding sticks and slingshots.
An official at the Polyclinic hospital in Islamabad told reporters that the wounds of those injured were caused by teargas shells, stones and batons.
Two of the injured are reported to be in critical condition.

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Ross County: Patrick Kluivert a surprise candidate for vacancy

Former Barcelona striker Patrick Kluivert and ex-Barca youth coach Sergio Lobera have emerged as candidates for the Ross County vacancy.

Kluivert, 38, was assistant to Louis van Gaal at the 2014 World Cup as the Netherlands finished third in Brazil.
He has yet to manage a club in his own right but did spend a year with FC Twente's reserves and had spells at AZ Alkmaar and as NEC Nijmegen assistant.
Lobera was most recently in charge of Spanish second-tier club Las Palmas.
The 37-year-old helped bring through European and former world champions Pedro and Sergio Busquets while at the Nou Camp. He also spent a short time as assistant manager to the late Tito Vilanova two years ago.

Striker Patrick Kluivert scored 40 goals in 79 Netherlands appearances from 1994 to 2004

Kluivert helped Ajax to their famous 1995 Champions League triumph, scoring the winning goal against AC Milan in Vienna, and had a lengthy spell at Barca after a year at Milan.
He earned 79 caps for the Netherlands national team over a decade.
The Ross County board will begin considering candidates for Derek Adams's replacement next week and
Adams was sacked by County on Thursday after a largely successful seven years in charge over two spells, with the club languishing at the bottom of the league with four straight opening defeats. His father George, who was director of football, also left the club.

“I think an affiliation with the Highlands is really important”

Roy MacGregor Ross County chairman

Ross County chairman Roy MacGregor confirmed Kluivert had applied for the job.

"I cannot believe the quality of applicants," MacGregor told BBC Scotland.
"We have had a really good response. That response five years ago would never have happened and it wouldn't have happened two years ago.
"The credit for putting Ross County on the map is back to George and Derek and I'd like to thank them for that.
"The calibre of applicant has been really good."
Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Hibernian boss Terry Butcher has also been mentioned in connection with the job.
"I believe Terry [Butcher] is under garden leave with Hibs," explained MacGregor.
"He certainly was a motivator [at Inverness], he did a wonderful job there. He has an affiliation with the Highlands.
"I think an affiliation with the Highlands is really important and that they understand what our area is about."

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Indian woman kills leopard that attacked her

Kamla Devi spoke to the media from hospital, where she is stable

An Indian woman armed only with farm tools is stable in hospital after killing a leopard that attacked her.

Kamla Devi, 56, sustained multiple bites, cuts and fractures during the half-hour battle.
She had been fetching water in northern Uttarakhand state when the leopard pounced on her from nearby bushes - she fought back with a sickle and spade.
"I thought I was dead but I did not lose patience and courage," she told reporters after her lucky escape.
Smashed teeth Ms Devi was carrying water from a canal to her field near the village of Sem Nauti in Rudraprayag district when she was attacked on Sunday.
She said she managed to smash some of the animal's teeth during the struggle.
"I fought head on with it for almost half an hour. Then I came to know it was dead," she told reporters from hospital in the nearby town of Srinagar Garhwal.
Doctors were surprised she had survived.

Doctors say Kamla Devi was lucky to escape with her life

"She has two fractures on the right hand and one on the left. She also has deep injuries on her head and legs. There are bite marks all over her body," said Dr Abdul Rahul, who has been treating her.
Pankaj Bist, one of the villagers who helped take Ms Devi to hospital, said: "It was around 10 in the morning when she went to the field. A leopard pounced on her."
"She is very brave. She attacked the leopard and took the fight head on with her sickle."
In the past week, leopards have killed one woman elsewhere in Uttarakhand, and injured another in the Rudraprayag area.

Leopards are losing their habitat - this one in Assam was killed earlier this month

Villagers say leopards are now more visible around human settlements as the big cats' habitat is increasingly encroached upon by humans.
Rudraprayag was made famous in the 1920s by hunter-turned-conservationist Jim Corbett.
His book Man Eater of Rudraprayag charts his efforts to track down an elderly male leopard which terrorised locals for years and was reputed to have killed more than 125 people before Corbett shot it dead in 1925.

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Nigeria launches national electronic ID cards

President Jonathan said the e-ID scheme would be the primary database for all government departments

Nigeria's president has formally launched a national electronic identity card, which all Nigerians will have to have by 2019 if they want to vote.

Goodluck Jonathan received the first biometric card which can also be used to make electronic payments.
MasterCard is providing the prepaid payment element and it hopes millions of Nigerians without bank accounts will now gain access to financial services.
An attempt to introduce national ID cards in Nigeria 10 years ago failed.
Analysts blame corruption for its failure, and say the same problems may stymie the new e-ID scheme.
'Breaks barriers' "The card is not only a means of certifying your identity, but also a personal database repository and payment card, all in your pocket," President Jonathan said at the launch in the capital, Abuja.
"I have taken keen interest in this project, primarily because of the pervasive impact it can have on every facet of the socio-economic fabric of our dear nation," he said.
According to Nigeria's central bank, about 30% of the country's 167 million inhabitants have access to bank accounts, Bloomberg news agency reports.

President Goodluck Jonathan used his new e-ID card at an ATM during the launch

MasterCard said combining an identity card with a payment card for those aged 16 and over was a significant move.
"It breaks down one of the most significant barriers to financial inclusion - proof of identity," MasterCard's Daniel Monehin said in a statement.
The new cards show a person's photograph, name, age and unique ID number - and 10 fingerprints and an iris are scanned during enrolment.
These details are intended to ensure that there are no duplicates on the system.
During the pilot phase, which began registering names last October, 13 million MasterCard-branded ID cards will be issued.
There are enrolment centres in all 36 states and there is no fee to get the card, though people will be charged in the event that it needs to be replaced.
The Nigerian Identity Management Commission (NIMC), which is behind the rollout, is trying to integrate several government databases including those for driving licences, voter registration, health insurance, taxes and pensions.

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India's economic growth hits two year high

India's economy grew by 5.7% in the three months to June, its fastest pace in two-and-a-half years, according to an official estimate.

The economy was helped by strong growth in electricity, gas and water supply, and financial services, the Ministry of Statistics said.
The growth figure was higher than analysts had been expecting.
India's new government has launched policies designed to encourage business investment, including changes to tax.

Analysis: Sameer Hashmi, India Business Report Ever since the Narendra Modi government took charge, business sentiment has improved on the ground. Investors have started pumping in money again, capital markets have been roaring, consumer demand has revived & hiring has picked up.
But this euphoria is primarily driven by sentiment and more steps would be required to sustain this optimism.
The performance of the Modi government as it approaches a hundred days in office - has been a mixed one.
While it has initiated measures to minimize tax litigation and opened up defence manufacturing along with railway infrastructure to attract foreign investors, it is still to announce big bang reforms that would give a major boost to the economy.

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How much of the science in Breaking Bad is real?

Breaking Bad is into its final few episodes, with fans already speculating how the story of a teacher-turned-drug-producing-criminal-mastermind will reach its denouement. But how many of the frequent science scenes reflect reality, asks chemist and physicist Dr Jonathan Hare.

Spoiler warning: Multiple plot details revealed below "The chemistry must be respected." So says Walter White.
Walt is a brilliant research chemist who has to leave his work and take up a career teaching high school chemistry.
After discovering he has terminal cancer, he turns his skills to methamphetamine production in collaboration with former pupil Jesse Pinkman.

With his background as a chemistry teacher, there are times when Walt instructs Jesse as if he is still back in the classroom. Jesse was a very poor science student at school, but while "cooking" meth with Walt, he starts to pick up and respect the chemistry that's so essential for a good product.

But how do Walt's "lessons" fare from a scientific point of view?
Can blue meth be pure meth? The crystal meth Walt makes is understood to be unusually pure and also has a characteristic delicate blue colour. This is a useful device for the narrative but generally the colour of a crystal does not suggest a pure or impure chemical compound. Impurities in minerals such as quartz crystal can lead it to look pink (rose quartz) or violet (amethyst) but generally the colour is a result of the way the electrons in the substance absorb light and is not a specific indicator of purity.
Poisonous gas

In one scene, in their makeshift mobile meth lab out in the desert, Walt is being threatened by two gangsters. He improvises a method to gas them by throwing red phosphorus into hot water. Walt manages to run out, locking the gangsters in. He later explains to Jesse that this reaction produced poisonous phosphine gas. Red phosphorus can react with hydrogen to produce phosphine - but not with hot water. White phosphorus can react with sodium hydroxide (a chemical he would have had) but you can see he throws in a red powder, rather than a white substance. Nor is that what he describes to Jesse. I don't think this trick would work.
The dissolving bath

The gas only kills one of the gangsters. Walt summons up the courage to kill the other but now has the problem of getting rid of the body. In a gruesome scene, Jesse adds hydrofluoric acid (HF) to dissolve the body. It's a useful acid to have in any lab because of its unusual chemistry. It dissolves glass and so has to be stored in plastic (PTFE or Teflon) bottles.

Other questions

• Could you use a giant magnet to wipe a laptop?
• Could you cut through plastic handcuffs with a live wire?
• Is it easy to make ricin poison out of beans?

It is a powerful acid but it's the chemistry of HF that makes it dissolve glass (and body parts) and not its super "strength". Unfortunately, Jesse does not follow Walt's careful advice to use a specific type of plastic container (which would be HF-proof). He simply pours it into his bath. The remains of a partly dissolved body and bathtub crash through a partially dissolved ceiling.

The makeshift battery In another desert scene, Walt and Jesse are "cooking" but when they need to drive home, they find the car battery is dead. Walt makes an improvised and very basic battery out of acid, different metals and wires and explains the chemistry to Jesse. If you put two different metals in an acid (or even electrolyte solutions such as sea water), the difference in chemical reactivity between the metals produces a voltage. It's a basic electrochemical cell. A number of these cells wired in series like a daisy chain is called a battery.

Continue reading the main story

Making meth

• Many of the chemicals used to make methamphetamine are correctly named in the show
• They include pseudoephedrine and methylamine
• But the show's adviser organic chemist Prof Donna Nelson has explained how complete drug-making processes are avoided in the show
• The end result is said to feel authentic without showing anyone how to actually make meth
• Some bloggers have analysed the detailed chemistry of the meth-producing
• Mythbusters recently had a one-off special on Breaking Bad's science

Anyone who had metal amalgam fillings as a child will recall the weird sensation of accidentally getting a piece of aluminium sweet wrapper in your mouth. The saliva was acting as the electrolyte solution. The metal filling and foil were acting as the two different metals, and we were being electrocuted by our very own mouth battery. Walt's explanation is fairly accurate but unfortunately such a simple battery would only provide a tiny amount of the power required to turn over an engine.

Fulminate of mercury Jesse has been swindled and beaten up by psychopathic gangster Tuco. Walt confronts Tuco in his office, offering him more crystals but insisting on being paid immediately. Tuco starts to get nasty but Walt has a plan. The bag of meth crystals he has just given Tuco were in fact "fulminate of mercury". He throws a crystal on the ground which detonates, creating an almighty explosion. We see Walt walking victoriously from the smoking remains, clutching his bag of money. But could a small crystal really do so much damage?
Mercury fulminate is a very unstable and explosive compound that can only be safely made in very small crystals, but it is something that a high school teacher could make.

Crystals larger than a few millimetres in size are very tricky to handle. Snappits, the children's toy that you throw on the ground to create a small crack, contain small amounts of silver fulminate. Walt's crystals are rather large and a bag of them would not be stable enough to walk around with and handle as we see in the programme. They would, however, theoretically create a very powerful explosion. But the shockwave would no doubt have detonated the other crystals in the bag on Tuco's desk. If Walt and Tuco had miraculously survived the explosion, they would not have been able to hear much for a long while.

Burning out the lock

Walt and Jesse burn out a lock in a heavy duty door to get access to an industrial chemical store. Walt describes the process they are using - the thermite reaction - to Jesse. Here you mix a metal oxide (for example iron oxide) with a reactive metal powder (such as aluminium) and it produces iron metal and aluminium oxide. The temperature of the reaction is extremely high and can be used to weld train tracks together or indeed burn out a lock. The science here is correct and the episode is made memorable as Jesse and Walt fumble and stumble as they try to carry the chemical barrels instead of rolling them.

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Philippine peacekeepers rescued in Syria's Golan Heights

There has been heavy fighting in the Quneitra area of the Syrian Golan Heights in recent days

Thirty-two Philippine peacekeepers trapped by rebels in the Syrian Golan Heights have been rescued, the UN says.

A UN spokesperson said the "situation on the ground is calm but tense", without providing further details.
Another group of 40 peacekeepers escaped a seven-hour siege by rebels after returning fire in self-defence, said the head of the Philippines army.
The rebels - said to be from the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front - have taken 44 Fijian peacekeepers hostage.
They have also seized a crossing point into the Israeli-occupied Golan.
Worsening security "Everyone is in a safe position. We left our (old) position but we brought all our arms," said Philippine Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala.
The head of the Philippine armed forces, General Gregorio Pio Catapang, speaking Manila, said: "We may call it the greatest escape."
The Fijian members of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (Undof) were detained on Wednesday near Quneitra, during fighting between rebels and government forces.
Last week the Philippine government said it would bring home its 331 peacekeeping troops from the Golan Heights in October, amid deteriorating security there.
Israel seized most of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau in south-western Syria, during the 1967 Six-Day War.
The two countries signed an armistice in 1974, after which Undof was put in place to monitor the demilitarised zone.
It has 1,224 lightly-armed military personnel from Fiji, India, Ireland, Nepal, the Netherlands and the Philippines.

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Lockdown on US base after soldier turns gun on herself

An Army official described the soldier as "enraged" but did not specify what about

A soldier barricaded herself inside an office on a Virginia Army base before shooting herself in the head, Army officials have said.

The unnamed soldier was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital on Monday.
The US Army's Fort Lee base was put on lockdown for part of the morning after a report of an "active shooter".
Maj Gen Stephen Lyons said the soldier was talking to negotiators before firing a small gun that was not her service weapon.
"This situation could've been worse," he told reporters during a press conference earlier on Monday, adding no-one else was hurt.
He described the soldier as "enraged" but did not say what about.
"We are sad for our solider in arms that she faced those types of challenges that she thought she had to resort to those kind of actions," said Maj Gen Lyons.
The soldier held the rank of sergeant first class, and was previously deployed to Iraq in 2007. Army officials said they were withholding her identity until family members were notified.
Gen Lyons told reporters the soldier was alone in a third-floor office while negotiators spoke to her from outside a closed door.
He added those talking to her believed they were making progress when they heard a gunshot.
The all-clear on Fort Lee was sounded at 09:50 local time (13:50 GMT), about an hour after the base went on lockdown.

In April, three soldiers were killed and 16 wounded when army Specialist Ivan Lopez opened fire at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas before taking his own life.
The same base was also the scene of a 2009 rampage in which 13 soldiers were killed and 32 wounded by Maj Nidal Hasan.
In September 2013, Aaron Alexis, a 34-year-old former US Navy reservist, killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard.

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Google tests drone deliveries in Project Wing trials

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WATCH: Google filmed this footage of its prototype drone

Google has built and tested autonomous aerial vehicles, which it believes could be used for goods deliveries.

The project is being developed at Google X, the company's clandestine tech research arm, which is also responsible for its self-driving car.
Project Wing has been running for two years, but was a secret until now.
Google said that its long-term goal was to develop drones that could be used for disaster relief by delivering aid to isolated areas.
They could be used after earthquakes, floods, or extreme weather events, the company suggested, to take small items such as medicines or batteries to people in areas that conventional vehicles cannot reach.
"Even just a few of these, being able to shuttle nearly continuously could service a very large number of people in an emergency situation," explained Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots - Google X's name for big-thinking projects.
Australia tests Google's self-flying vehicle project was first conceived of as a way to deliver defibrillator kits to people suspected of having heart attacks. The idea was that the drones would transport the equipment faster than an ambulance could.
"When you have a tool like this you can really allow the operators of those emergency services to add an entirely new dimension to the set of tools and solutions that they can think of," said Dave Voss, incoming leader of Project Wing.

The Project Wing trials have been held in Australia's north-eastern state Queensland

The prototype vehicles that the company has built have successfully been tested by delivering packages to remote farms in Queensland, Australia from neighbouring properties.
Australia was selected as a test site due to what Google calls "progressive" rules about the use of drones, which are more tightly controlled in other parts of the word.
Dual mode Project Wing's aircraft have a wingspan of approximately 1.5m (4.9ft) and have four electrically-driven propellers.
The total weight, including the package to be delivered, is approximately 10kg (22lb). The aircraft itself accounts for the bulk of that at 8.5kg (18.7lb).
The small, white glossy machine has a "blended wing" design where the entire body of the aircraft provides lift.
The vehicle is known as a "tail sitter" - since it rests on the ground with its propellers pointed straight up, but then transitions into a horizontal flight pattern.

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BBC's Nigel Cassidy reported on Amazon's drone project in December

This dual mode operation gives the self-flying vehicle some of the benefits of both planes and helicopters.
It can take off or land without a runway, and can hold its position hovering in one spot. It can also fly quickly and efficiently, allowing it to cover larger distances than the more traditional quadcopter vehicles available commercially.
The vehicles are pre-programmed with a destination, but then left to fly themselves there automatically.
This differs from many military drone aircraft, which are often remotely controlled by a pilot on the ground, sometimes on the other side of the world.
Eventually Google said it could use unmanned flying vehicles to deliver shopping items to consumers at home. That's a use that retail giant Amazon has already stated an interest in, with its proposed Prime Air service - the announcement of which generated headlines at the end of last year:
Amazon has asked the US Federal Aviation Administration for permission to conduct outdoor tests.

Google would not be permitted to carry out the Project Wing tests in the US

"The things we would do there are not unlike what is traditionally done in aerospace," said Mr Voss.
"It will be clear for us what level of redundancy we need in the controls and sensors, the computers that are onboard, and the motors, and how they are able to fail gracefully such that you don't have catastrophic problems occurring."
Other unusual vehicles have been investigated for humanitarian aid, including flying cars and hoverbikes, with the same aims of reaching cut-off areas quickly.
"We will have to see what kind of specific technology works best within the aid landscape, and if the new technology can integrate positively in the local context," said Lou Del Bello from news site SciDev.net, speaking about the category in general.
"It will need to demonstrate it can be cost effective, and respond to actual needs of local people."

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Man Utd: The key questions facing Louis van Gaal after Burnley draw

Louis van Gaal has extended the scale of his Manchester United reconstruction to suggest it could be a year before the rewards of his work are witnessed.

No-one was challenging the former Netherlands coach's assertion after an uninspiring afternoon in Lancashire brought a goalless draw against Premier League newcomers Burnley - who more than merited their point.

United only have two points from what many would regard as kind opening fixtures against Swansea, Sunderland and Burnley, a sharp contrast to the tough hand dealt out to Van Gaal's predecessor David Moyes when he succeeded Sir Alex Ferguson.

The poor start prodded executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward into action as this week saw the British record £59.7m purchase of Angel Di Maria from Real Madrid and a £13.8m deal for Ajax's Daley Blind.

The draw at Turf Moor, however, only highlighted that Van Gaal will surely want more reinforcements before the transfer window closes on Monday - although word from inside Old Trafford is that Blind may be the final arrival.

So what must Van Gaal do to pull United out of this desperately uninspired start to the season?

Are signings needed in the next 48 hours?

It would do Van Gaal and United a disservice to ignore the fact that injuries have robbed them of two players who were meant to be of great influence in this new Old Trafford era, England defender Luke Shawand midfielder Ander Herrera. Even the introduction of new defender Marcos Rojo has been delayed by work permit complications.

Argentina international defender Marcos Rojo signed for £16m on a five-year contract from Sporting Lisbon

The signing of Di Maria has been portrayed as akin to sticking the roof on your house before the foundations have been laid, although few would question the contribution he will make.

There is no doubt, however, that there are clear areas where United need top-class reinforcements.

United's three-man defensive system requires the sort of composure and expertise that appeared beyond Phil Jones and Jonny Evans at Burnley, while Tyler Blackett can be excused as one for the future. Whether Chris Smalling kicks on to fulfil the requirements remains to be seen.

If United cannot find a high-class central defender before Monday night - and Borussia Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp scoffed at a reported interest in Germany's World Cup winner Mats Hummels - then this is undoubtedly an area opponents will see as fair game.

Burnley could not quite take advantage, especially in a desperate opening 10 minutes from United, but there would be real relish at the prospect from the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea.

Herrera's absence is a genuine misfortune but there must also be a need for another top-class operator in that area. There has been the long-standing link with Juventus's Arturo Vidal but time is running out.

A more likely option is that Van Gaal will make do and mend until January and see how Roma's Dutch midfielder Kevin Strootman has recovered from a serious knee injury - hoping not too much damage is done to United's season before then.

Who is on the way out?

There was widespread astonishment that Anderson - who clearly has no place in Van Gaal's long-term plans - came on for the tiring Di Maria, although less when Danny Welbeck was sent on for Robin van Persie.

Anderson is one of those surplus to requirements at Old Trafford while Welbeck, as energetic as ever when he appeared, might also leave before the end of the transfer window, as could Shinji Kagawa.

Van Gaal has told Shinji Kagawa he is surplus to requirements and his former club Borussia Dortmund are interested

Tom Cleverley could well have played his last game for United as Aston Villa attempt to persuade him to complete an £8m move while Javier Hernandez is attracting interest from Valencia and Juventus.

Van Gaal will not be unhappy to see them go to thin out his squad - but the real push over the next few months will be on incomings.

Will he stick with 3-5-2?

Van Gaal used Evans, Jones and Blackett as a three-man back line at Turf Moor - and at no time did it look fully secure.

It is unlikely these three players will be his chosen ones in a defensive system he stands by after the successes of his outstanding career - but can he make it work at Old Trafford?

He will certainly need better wing-backs than Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young to make it a success, which is where the versatility of the likes of Di Maria and Adnan Januzaj will be beneficial, although it is questionable whether Juan Mata is suited to the role as he lacks pace.

Di Maria made no tackles on his United debut but was heavily involved during his 70 minutes on the pitch

Van Gaal will also need better central defenders and there are clear signs that the shift in tactical emphasis has been a struggle for some United players.

They had better get used to it because there are few coaches in world football with such complete belief and faith in their own methods as Van Gaal.

It should also be emphasised that it is very early days in what is a tactical work-in-progress, a new manager getting used to new players and new players getting used to a new manager.

Van Gaal has repeatedly stated that his first three months in a job have often been a struggle before the penny drops and success follows.

It might not look easy on the eye so far - but do not bank on Van Gaal changing it one jot.

£150m of attacking talent: but how to make it work?

The Manchester United manager fielded new signing Di Maria alongside Mata, Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie - almost £150m worth of attacking talent. Is there really room for all of them in the same team?

On this occasion, Di Maria was tucked in left of centre with Ashley Young wide, while Mata was entrusted with drifting in the spaces behind Rooney and Van Persie and Darren Fletcher as the insurance policy. It was almost a 3-4-1-2.

Louis van Gaal will need to find a way to accommodate all of his expensively assembled attacking players

While there is no questioning the quality of that group, it places a heavy responsibility on Fletcher and there must be question marks over its regular use over the course of a long season.

With Van Persie rated so highly by Van Gaal - although it did not stop him being removed here - and Rooney his captain, it could leave Mata as the most vulnerable, given Di Maria is clearly an integral part of United's future.

And what of Januzaj? He is obviously one for the future but his was the name being chanted regularly and loudly by United supporters as their team struggled at Turf Moor.

Januzaj has the quality of versatility, as does the excellent Di Maria, so there is plenty of solace for Van Gaal in the ability to juggle and shift around his resources.

Rooney, Van Persie and Di Maria will surely be Van Gaal's "go to" men - the others may have to make do with being part of a rotation policy unless they can force the issue with sheer weight of performances.

Where is the urgency?

Van Gaal is not a technical-area stalker. As with his other early United games, the Dutchman did not move from his seat. He stayed in the dug-out clutching his trademark clipboard and consulting his assistant Ryan Giggs.

In contrast, his opposite number Sean Dyche stripped off his jacket and spent the entire 90 minutes in his technical area, encouraging and cajoling.

Van Gaal says it will take three months for the players to adapt to the way he wants to play

No manager should ever be judged by his touchline demeanour or time spent in the dug-out - but it was the lack of urgency on the pitch that was surely a concern and brought an angry reaction from United's fans.

Twice in the second half there was a furious reaction from the thousands gathered in Turf Moor's David Fishwick stand - once when United's players stood a long way back as Burnley took a free-kick on the edge of their penalty area and another as Evans dawdled when in a perfect crossing position.

The United of old would have been attempting to press Burnley into submission and even though the Clarets went into something of a retreat late on, there was never the sense of an oncoming siege or late goal you would have expected from previous teams

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