Aided by her Buddhist practice, Akiko Matsumura struggled to overcome the suicide of her adult son.

I was born as the second daughter in a well-off family and lived my life without ever having to struggle much with anything. I was bright and happy, with a tenacious, never-give-up attitude. I loved literature, and when I was in high school, I had an essay published in a local newspaper. 

'Death is a great motivator of life.' An amazing international essay winner from 13-year-old Elisey Biryukov in Belarus

I have never really thought about the future until… Until two months ago an announcement was made at our school about one girl. She was seriously ill. She had cancer. A very aggressive form of it. The doctors in our country did everything they could for her. Still she was dying. Her only hope was the treatment that she could get in Germany. She needed minimum of 50 thousand Euros to be able to go and soon. The price of the human life. It's a lot of money here.

When they spot a white peace poppy some red poppy wearers see red.

At the same time - on the same day... people around the world - from Kosovo to Cambodia -Belarus to India - Finland to Tanzania... sang the Beatles classic to raise money for the fight against AIDs in Africa. 

When her partner’s work was relocated to Greater Manchester Diane Southam, a confirmed Southerner, was faced with a tough choice: Singledom or Salford?

And so to Hampton Court to see the The Wild, the Beautiful and the Damned, an exhibition of portraits of Charles II’s principal mistresses, including Nell Gwyn and Barbara Villiers, brought together for the first time, writes Julia Stephenson.