Silatech, a region-wide innovative youth investment initiative of Her Highness Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned of Qatar, FTSE Group, the award-winning global index provider, and the Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA) have announced a strategic alliance to launch a new index project across the Arab World.

EDX London’s Russian IOB Derivatives service enjoyed a record month during May 2008 with more than 1.3 million contracts traded. This was the first time that trading volumes have exceeded 1 million contracts in a single month, exceeding the previous monthly record by 41 per cent. Trading volumes during May were 62 per cent higher than for April, more than double the month-on-month growth rate of 30 per cent for the first four months of the year.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No - it's an opera singer. Londoners were amazed this morning to be greeted with the sight of opera superstar Lesley Garrett giving her most unique performance yet - 50 metres above the Tower of London.

English National Opera’s 2008/09 Sky Arts Season includes 10 new productions, five revivals and the opera directing debut of acclaimed actress Fiona Shaw and the UK debut of award-winning film makers Penny Woolcock and Abbas Kiarostami.

Future technology designed to cut the carbon cost of air travel will be displayed to the public for the first time in a new exhibition, Does Flying Cost the Earth?, opening at the Science Museum. Exhibition developers will unveil cutting-edge models of the aeroplanes of tomorrow, the lightest new materials and advanced engine technologies in an exhibition which takes an investigative look at the impact of aviation on climate change.

In a unique partnership, the British Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew will conjure up a stunning China landscape in the forecourt of the British Museum this summer, running through 26 October 2008. The landscape will celebrate the two institutions shared vision to strengthen cultural understanding and support biodiversity conservation across the world.

The London Stock Exchange today announces the establishment of a new service to offer equity research on smaller quoted companies. PSQ Analytics, as the venture will be called, will be available to companies on AIM as well as smaller companies on the Main Market, and will provide information that improves investor understanding of their businesses.

Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME) and FTSE Group (FTSE), the global index company, have licensed BBVA to use the FTSE4Good IBEX index as the basis of an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) to be listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange. The FTSE4Good IBEX index is a new responsible investment index made up of companies listed on the BME that demonstrate good practice in corporate social responsibility.

In summary, the enlarged Group has delivered an excellent overall performance, reflecting strong organic growth and the merger with Borsa Italiana:

The Victoria And Albert Museum’s autumn exhibition, Cold War Modern: Design 1945-70, will be the first to examine contemporary design, architecture, film and popular culture on both sides of the Iron Curtain during the Cold War era. The exhibition will be on view from 25 September 2008 to 11 January 2009.

A new exhibition at the Victoria And Albert Museum this summer, from 5 August to 14 December 2008, Fashion V Sport, will explore the relationship between contemporary fashion and global sportswear brands. Both industries have been inspired by street style and have been working in closer collaboration in recent years.

The London Stock Exchange today welcomed its sixth and seventh international companies to the Main Market and PSM in less than four weeks: