West Lancashire residents are offered free trees in a council bid to spruce up its neighbourhoods.

As India looks to become a major tourist destination, experts say it must do more than just spruce up its heritage sites.

A growing number of workers in northern Canada's forests are originally from Africa - drawn by the good wages.

Small businesses in Derby are offered grants of up to £25,000 to improve the look of their premises.

Traders are to meet with police and council officials amid concerns about crime in a city shopping street.

With a month and a day to go before the Beijing Games open, BBC News' Michael Bristow asks whether China is ready.

A tree thought to be nearly 10,000 years old is found in central Sweden, scientists say.

Grants of up to £3000 are on offer to small retailers in Leicester to help spruce up their premises.

Our tradition of putting up decorated Christmas trees was introduced to England by Prince Albert in the 17th Century.

A Herefordshire tree has the honour of being put up outside one of the country's most famous addresses.

A Ceredigion company wins a contest to hang a Christmas wreath at the prime minister's official residence.

Prime exhibits from Culloden are heading for a spring clean prior to the opening of a new visitor centre.

Clean streets, 4x4s and high-rise buildings form the first impressions of an Indian IT consultant who comes to the UK. It's not like in Dickens, he tells his brother in e-mails charting his progress in making a new life with his family.

Researchers in Dundee discover a drug developed to treat schizophrenia can be used to fight cancer.

Ancient DNA samples show that southern Greenland was teeming with insect and plant life 450,000 years ago.

A farm once owned by Beatrix Potter shares in a multi-million pound scheme to spruce up visitor accommodation.

Green campaigner David Bellamy visits a County Durham town and helps school children plant trees.

Less than a month after the Somali capital's worst violence, the authorities are trying to spruce up the city.

Political correspondent Robin Brant examines Brown's final stop on the first day of his leadership campaign.

Alderney is being cleaned up over the next eight weeks in a project to spruce up the island for summer.