Missed hit: one actors' loss, anothers' gain

Among the few hits of 2014 so far, is the Arjun Kapoor, Alia Bhatt-starrer, 2 States. And while the movie has proved to be lucky for Arjun, not many know that Imran Khan was apparently offered the part earlier.

Alia Bhatt and Arjun Kapoor, the new hit jodi of 2 States, grace the cover of CineBlitz for the month of May.

However, he turned it down because the film’s dates were clashing with Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola (2013). While Imran couldn’t be reached for comment, he isn’t the first actor to have rejected a movie that became a hit later. Says producer Ramesh Taurani, "They might not go on the record about it, but those actors (who turn down films which become big hits) must be regretting turning down such offers. Ultimately, they have to take the call on which projects they want to do."

Watch the movie review of  2 States!

Kareena Kapoor Khan dropped out of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela last year to make way for Deepika Padukone. Back then, she had said that she has "never regretted" not doing a film. Apparently, Kareena has also refused other big projects like Queen, Chennai Express (2013), Fashion (2008), Kal Ho Na Ho (2003) and Black (2005). Her husband Saif Ali Khan was also offered Talaash (2012) first, which was later done by Aamir Khan.

Similarly, Shahid Kapoor passed over last year’s hit, Shuddh Desi Romance, that was eventually done by Sushant Singh Rajput. On the other hand, Jacqueline Fernandez was supposed to play Kangana Ranaut’s part in Hrithik Roshan’s Krrish 3 (2013). "It was an unfortunate clash of dates," Jacqueline told IANS later on. She had also dropped out of another hit, Raaz 3 (2012) in which she was replaced by Bipasha Basu.

Inter-estingly, Shah Rukh Khan was first offered Ek Tha Tiger (2012, as revealed by him to HT). "I didn’t take it up due to paucity of time," he told us. The actor reportedly also turned down parts in films such as Slumdog Millionaire (2008), Lagaan (2001) and 3 Idiots (2010), and Munnabhai MBBS (2003).

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Essex care home worker arrested on suspicion of assaulting elderly resident

A still from the Panorama investigation into the Old Deanery care home in Braintree, Essex. Photograph: Bbc/PA

A woman has been arrested on suspicion of assaulting a resident at a care home that was the subject of an undercover investigation by the BBC's Panorama.

The woman, in her 40s, was arrested on Friday by detectives probing abuse at the Old Deanery care home in Braintree, Essex police said.

Anglia Retirement Homes Ltd, which runs the home, sacked seven members of staff there after Panorama showed an elderly woman with dementia being bullied and slapped by a worker.

The woman arrested has been released on bail until later this month pending further inquiries, police added.

An Essex police spokesman said on Saturday the woman had been arrested after police watched the Panorama broadcast.

He added: "The documentary highlighted the treatment of residents inside the Old Deanery care home.

"Essex police were denied an advance viewing of the programme so were only able to begin an investigation following its nationwide broadcast on Wednesday April 30.

"On Friday evening officers arrested a woman in her 40s at her home in Braintree on suspicion of assaulting a resident at the care home before being released on police bail until later this month pending further inquiries."

The force urged anyone else wanting to report abuse or neglect at the home to come forward.

The programme showed residents being taunted, roughly handled, ignored and left in their own excrement for hours at the 93-bed home, which costs up to £700 a week.

Anglia released a statement after the documentary was aired in which it insisted the incidents involved only a small number of staff and said the company did not tolerate this kind of behaviour.

It said that after initially suspending eight members of staff when the allegations came to light, six had been dismissed and a further case was being urgently reviewed, while the care worker who slapped the resident had been summarily dismissed.

The Care Quality Commission visited the site while Panorama was filming undercover in November and gave the home a clean bill of health.

But the regulator returned two months ago after it was informed about the Panorama findings and found shortcomings including too few staff and some residents having to wait too long for assistance

Royal Bank of Scotland fears losing staff over bonus block

Ross McEwan, CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland, is worried about retaining key staff. Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

The chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland has said the government's refusal to back its bonus plans may make it difficult for him to keep the top staff he needs to pull off his turnaround plan.

Ross McEwan was speaking as the 81% taxpayer-owned bank reported a jump in first quarter profits to £1.6bn from £826m a year ago, alongside a return to profit of its troubled Ulster Bank – into which it has poured at least £14bn since the banking crisis – for the first time in five years.

McEwan was giving his first comments on the decision by the government to block RBS proposals to pay bonuses twice the size of salaries this year, rather than equal to salaries, the level imposed by the EU bonus cap. "We are not going to pretend it's ideal. Not having the flexibility does have an element of risk for us, which I as the chief executive am going to manage," he said. "We will have to make some changes to those people to make sure we hold on to them."

The rise in profitability prompted a 10% rise in the shares to 347p during the day and made RBS the biggest gainer in the FTSE 100, though they dropped slightly to end the day at 331p .

The £17m profits at Ulster Bank were caused by the transfer of its most troublesome assets into RBS's new mini bad bank. McEwan will announce his plans for the bad bank – possibly including a merger with a rival – in the summer.

McEwan refused to disclose precisely how many of RBS's 116,000 staff fall under the scope of the EU bonus cap. He said the most vulnerable areas included the restructuring experts in the new mini bad bank and those in the US operation Citizens, which is being prepared for a stock market flotation in the fourth quarter of this year, as well as what remains of its slimmed down investment bank.

"I want to make sure I'm in a position to pay these people so I can retain them for the value of this business," said McEwan, who would not disclose if this approach involved rises in salaries as well as giving out bonuses.

The bank has cut 6,300 jobs – about 2,400 of which are in high street operations – as it tries to cut costs in an attempt to return to profitability.

While the first quarter results were free of charges for mis-selling payment protection insurance and regulatory fines that have had an impact on results in the past, the bank warned these risks could recur.

McEwan said: "Today's results show that in steady state, RBS will be a bank that does a great job for customers while delivering good returns for our shareholders. But we still have a lot of work to do and plenty of issues from the past to reckon with."

RBS is facing legal action from major City investors over disclosures made at the time of a £12bn cash call in 2008 – six months before the taxpayer bailout – and McEwan said the bank would fight the claims.

McEwan, who took over from Stephen Hester on 1 October, is trying to focus RBS increasingly on the UK and on retail customers, following a three-year strategy he set out in February when the 81% taxpayer-owned bank reported it had slumped to losses of more than £8bn in 2013.

The bank has also taken efforts to avoid a repeat of the IT meltdown in 2012 when customers of RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank were locked out of their accounts. It is seeking to ensure a problem in one brand's systems will not effect the others.

RBS added that its outgoing finance director, Nathan Bostock, is to be sent on three months' gardening leave before taking up the role of deputy chief executive of Santander's UK arm in mid-August.

UK demand for asparagus soars by 540% over a decade

Tesco asparagus buyer: 'Asparagus, particularly the home-grown variety, has become one of the UK’s trendiest vegetables.' Photograph: Jupiterimages/Getty Images

It was once considered a slightly "posh" culinary delicacy whose arrival in the shops still symbolises the start of the British spring. But as consumer demand for British-grown asparagus has rocketed over the last decade, producers have nearly trebled the amount they grow.

In 10 years UK demand for the vegetable has soared by 540% according to Kantar data produced for the British Asparagus Association.

During that time the amount grown by UK farmers has soared from 788 hectares in 2005 to 2,178 hectares this year – a leap of 176%. The UK's largest supermarket, Tesco, reports that demand is growing at 20% year on year.

Tesco asparagus buyer Adam Morris said: "Asparagus, particularly the home-grown variety, has become one of the UK's trendiest vegetables. A lot of that is down to seasonality and the short-lived British season which only lasts for roughly eight weeks from mid-April to mid-June."

"In the past British growers were reluctant to give over field space to such a niche product but now there is a great clamour for the home grown variety as experts say it is the best in the world because of our perfect, mild climate."

Airmile-laden products from Peru – still the world's largest exporter of asparagus – have traditionally bolstered British supermarket shelves because of the unpredictability of British weather.

At Marks & Spencer sales of British asparagus last week were up by 48% compared with the previous year. The retailer was the first in the UK to stock asparagus at the beginning of March and the first to sell 100% UK stock in mid April. A spokeswoman said: "This has paid off with the sales as it seems as soon as British comes in our customers rush to buy it."

Waitrose has this year been selling British-grown asparagus four weeks earlier than usual because of the good weather, with sales up 28% week on week.

Last year Tesco trialled white asparagus which proved popular with shoppers, and this year it has doubled the amount it has on its shelves. White asparagus is a highly-prized gourmet food that until last year was only imported from the continent but is now being grown in commercial quantities for the first time by Britain's largest asparagus growers, Cobrey Farms who are based in the Wye Valley, Herefordshire.

White asparagus has traditionally been the preserve of foodies, featuring in the recipes of celebrity chefs and on the menus of top Michelin starred restaurants such as Gordon Ramsey's Foxtrot Oscar.

Headteachers debate changes to long summer break

Delegates at the National Association of Head Teachers annual meeting opted for more research into the best school timetable before making a final decision. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA

The long summer school holiday has been derided as a relic from an agricultural age and the bane of working parents – and now headteachers want to research the impact of ditching it in favour of shorter but more frequent breaks through the school year.

The result could bring relief to parents paying peak-season holiday prices during July and August, the subject of controversy since the government's recent ruling blocked pupils taking family holidays during term-time.

At its annual meeting in Birmingham, the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) considered adopting a policy of dividing the school year into more terms, but delegates opted for more research into the best school timetable before making a final decision.

The union – which mainly represents primary and special needs school leaders in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – debated an election-year manifesto for 2015 including a call for "more frequent, shorter holidays (adding up to the same overall number), staggered across the country on a regional basis to reduce the holiday price premium".

The move was also seen as cutting stress for teachers, by giving them more breaks between terms, while ending the problem of the long summer gap interrupting pupils' progress.

Academies, voluntary-aided and free schools in England already have powers to vary the school year, although few choose to make radical changes because of the disruption to parents and teachers with children in other schools.

One of the few is the David Young Community Academy in Leeds, with aschool year of seven terms, each around five weeks long, and holidays of two to four weeks. The first term starts in early June, and the seventh finishes in late May.

From September this year the Department for Education extends the same powers to all state schools, although local authorities can already vary the timing of holidays and terms. Maintained schools will still be required to be open for a minimum of 190 days a year.

NAHT delegrates heard that varying holidays and terms between regions would help tackle the summer holiday price premium and spread out travel pressures.

The union also called for research into the impact of changing school admission policies to give priority to children from low-income families who are eligible for free school meals and the pupil premium.

Russell Hobby, the NAHT's general secretary gave an impassioned speech to delegates in Birmingham, saying "the dice are stacked against those who serve the most challenging communities. If we are honest with ourselves, there are also ways to allow selection to creep in unnoticed."

Offering disadvantaged children priority in applications "at a stroke … would limit the house price barrier to good schools and secure more firmly the comprehensive principle of education".

Last week a group of selective state grammar schools in England announced they would give priority to children eligible for free school meals as a "tie-breaker" when oversubscribed.

UK home construction industry upbeat amid property boom

Housebuilders have benefited from the government's Help to Buy, which is aimed at first-time buyers. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images

UK house building is enjoying its longest run of growth since before the financial crisis in a further sign of Britain's booming property market.

Housing construction grew for a 15th month in April, the longest period of continuous growth since 2006/07 according to the Markit/CIPS construction PMI.

Activity in the broader construction sector, which also includes commercial property and civil engineering, grew for the 12th month in a row but at the slowest pace in six months according to the PMI, with the headline index slipping to 60.8 from 62.5 – anything above 50 signals expansion. The figures suggest growth in the sector – which accounts for about 6% of the economy – remains robust.

The figures came in below economists forecasts of 62, but Rob Wood, chief UK economist at Berenberg, said the survey showed the construction sector was still "red hot".

Confidence among construction businesses remained elevated, according to the survey, while employment in the sector rose for an 11th month. The Office for National Statistics said in a separate report on Friday that job vacancies in the construction industry in particular had risen recently, with firms seeking to recruit more staff to meet growing demand. It said the number of vacancies jumped from 14,000 in the three months ending November 2013, to 20,000 in the first quarter of 2014.

Tim Moore, senior economist at Markit, said: "Construction growth has started to moderate from the rapid pace seen over the winter, but strong rises in new work and payroll numbers provide ample optimism that output will expand strongly over the course of 2014."

House building grew at the fastest rate of all three sub sectors included in the PMI, although it was slightly slower than the rate of growth in March.

It follows a warning from Sir Jon Cunliffe, the Bank of England's deputy governor for financial stability, that Britain's housing market could be heading for a fresh crash. He said it would be dangerous to ignore the momentum apparent in the property market across the country.

"This is a movie that has been seen more than once in the UK," he said

Green politicians launch legal challenge over GCHQ surveillance

Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

Two politicians have launched a legal action to challenge the government's ability to spy on parliamentarians.

The pair allege that GCHQ is violating a long-established rule that bans intelligence agencies from eavesdropping on MPs and peers. They say their communications are likely to have been intercepted by GCHQ, which gathers and stores data on millions of people "on a blanket basis".

The claim by Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion, and Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb, the Green party's two representatives in parliament, adds to a growing number of legal challenges over the large-scale harvesting of emails, phone calls and other internet traffic by GCHQ.

Their complaint focuses on a rule introduced by 1966 by the then prime minister, Harold Wilson, instructing Britain's intelligence agencies not to tap the telephones of MPs and peers unless there is a national emergency.

A government minister acknowledged last July that this explicit ban, still in force and known as the Wilson doctrine, also applied to electronicsurveillance.

Lucas and Jones say: "The Wilson doctrine is a fundamental doctrine of public policy. It not only protects the rights and privileges of elected politicians, but it also protects the privacy of their communications with their constituents, who may very well be complaining or whistleblowing about the very government departments and agencies and other agents of the state who try to carry out surveillance on them."

They say there is a strong likelihood that GCHQ spies "have intercepted and are intercepting [their] communications as members of the Houses of Parliament".

They highlight a secret GCHQ programme codenamed Tempora, whose existence was disclosed by the Guardian last June. Confidential documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed that GCHQ had secretly gained access to the network of fibre-optic cables that carries the world's phone calls and internet traffic.

The spy centre has been scooping up huge quantities of communications between innocent people as well as targeted suspects, according to the documents. The sensitive information, shared with the NSA, included recordings of phone calls, the content of email messages, and entries on Facebook.

Lucas and Jones say the Tempora programme is unlawful as they had a "legitimate expectation" that their communications were protected under the Wilson doctrine.

With the help of the human rights law firm Leigh Day, they have lodged a claim with the investigatory powers tribunal, the secretive court that hears complaints about Britain's intelligence agencies. They want a declaration that the interception of their communications has been prohibited.

Lucas said: "I am deeply concerned that GCHQ may have spied on members of parliament. Every day, MPs deal with very personal issues that their constituents raise with them. By spying on MPs, GCHQ has been spying on us all, as everyone may at some time need the help of their MP.

"There are good reasons why GCHQ are prohibited from spying on MPs – this matter goes to the heart of our democracy. If people cannot trust that their conversations with their MP are private, then important issues will not be raised in parliament and receive the scrutiny that they deserve."

GCHQ says it has a longstanding policy of never commenting on intelligence matters, but insists that all of its activities are necessary, proportionate and in accordance with UK law, governed by rigorous oversight.

Other complaints about the spy centre's mass surveillance have been initiated by pressure groups including Privacy International and Liberty.