England

With his carefully tended hair, tight trousers and perfect harmonies, Robin Gibb, along with his brothers Maurice and Barry, defined the disco era. As part of the Bee Gees — short for the Brothers Gibb — they created dance floor classics like "Stayin Alive," ''Jive Talkin'," and "Night Fever" that can still get crowds onto a dance floor. The catchy songs, with their falsetto vocals and relentless beat, are familiar pop culture mainstays. There are more than 6,000 cover versions of the Bee Gees hits, and they are still heard on dance floors and at wedding receptions, birthday...

GRISEY'S ‘LE NOIR DE L'ETOILE' A rare outdoor performance of this sweeping percussion work inspired by beating of pulsars as captured by radio telescopes. May 25, 8:16 p.m. (pre-concert discussion at 7:15). Greenwood School, Putney, Vt., 802-387-6637, www.yellowbarn.org CHAMELEON ARTS ENSEMBLE A free family concert with an instrument petting zoo, and works by Strauss, Mozart, Augusta Read Thomas, and many others. 2 p.m., June 2. Hyde Park Branch Library.

US Senator Scott Brown has turned questions over Democrat Elizabeth Warren's claims of Native American ancestry into a key strategy in his bid to retain his Senate seat. Almost every day for more than two weeks, the Brown campaign or a Republican surrogate has highlighted the latest bit of news to emerge on the subject, often citing articles on conservative websites in a bid to coax more coverage from the mainstream news media. Warren's failure to offer a full and concise answer on what role her ancestry has played in her professional career has left an opening that has allowed the questions to linger.

Kittery, Maine Four hurt in fire on submarine A fire on a nuclear-powered submarine at a Maine shipyard has injured four people. Fire crews responded Wednesday to the USS Miami, SSN 755, at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on an island in Kittery, a town near Portsmouth, N.H. The shipyard said the four injured people were treated and released. Shipyard public affairs specialist Gary Hildreth said the fire started in the forward compartment of the sub. The reactor was not operating and was unaffected.

"There's also a family connection in England. " PEAK EXPERIENCE: In London, "we didn't do the walking we wanted to do because of the heat wave. " Instead, they moved on to nearby Derbyshire, an area of mountains and valleys called the Peak District.

WHO: Rose A. Doherty, 62, of Needham, and 13 others, primarily members of the Partnership of the Historic Bostons and First Church in Boston WHERE: Boston, England WHEN: A week in April WHY: "We were there to celebrate the 375th anniversary of the sailing of the Puritans, who were centered in Boston, England, for the New World, where they would eventually name their first town Boston," Doherty said. "Boston, England, in Lincolnshire [www.bostonuk.com]

FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- Army Reserve Private First Class Lynndie England, charged with abusing Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison, was read her rights in court yesterday, and a military judge set an Aug. 3 hearing to decide whether she should face trial. England answered "Yes, ma'am" when the presiding judge, Colonel Denise Arn, asked whether she understood her rights and "No, ma'am" when she was asked whether she had any questions. Arn also granted a request by lawyer Rick Hernandez to have Army Captain John Crisp join England's defense team.

Germany is scrambling to catch up with traditional soccer rival England as the 2012 European Championship approaches — on Facebook. The national team's official fan page announced Thursday that more than 1 million people now "like" it. It added: "in 2012 we should overtake the pole position of England. " The England team's Facebook page had more than 1.1 million "likes" as of Thursday. But both national teams have plenty of ground to make up on club sides. Germany's most consistently successful club, Bayern Munich, has 2.6 million Facebook fans.

CAPE TOWN — England is looking nothing like the soccer power it’s supposed to be. Underdog Algeria yesterday held the Three Lions to a second disappointing World Cup draw, a 0-0 tie that left the Group C wide open and is sure to have English fans furious after their team arrived in South Africa as a favorite. “If we want to stay in this tourney to the later stages we have to improve,’’ England midfielder Steven Gerrard said. “We know the job we’ve got to go do, win the last game.

David Beckham’s record-setting England career appears to be over after coach Fabio Capello indicated the midfielder is too old. Beckham has played 115 times for England, second behind only goalkeeper Peter Shilton’s 125 from 1970-90. Beckham, 35, missed playing at a fourth World Cup after tearing an Achilles’ in March while on loan to AC Milan from the Galaxy and resumed training yesterday in Los Angeles. Before England’s exhibition against Hungary in Wembley, Capello told the British broadcaster ITV that Beckham is “probably a bit too old’’ to...

FOXBOROUGH - Coughing up two leads after two goals by Saer Sene cost the Revolution 2 points. The toughest blow was the second one, with Houston scoring in the 87th minute and earning a 2-2 tie Saturday night at Gillette Stadium. It took New England (4-6-1) 11 games to get its first tie, but kept the Revolution tied with the Dynamo (3-3-4) for fifth place in the Eastern Conference. "I scored two goals, but I'm sad, I'm disappointed because we take only 1 point from this game, and we must take the 3," said Sene, a first-year MLS player from France who had his first two-goal game, pushing...

FOR FAMILIES Parents and children visiting Martha's Vineyard flock to Joseph Sylvia State Beach. Waves are minimal and the beach slopes gradually into the water, so kids can play without getting in over their heads. The beach stretches about 2 miles between Oak Bluffs and Edgartown, and there's parking along the road that connects the two — just try to arrive before 10 a.m. on a hot summer day to get a spot. Of all the swimming beaches on the Cape Cod National Seashore, Coast Guard Beach in Eastham (lot parking available)

LEND A HAND Randolph, New Hampshire Members of the venerable Randolph Mountain Club ( randolphmountainclub.org ), founded in 1910 in northern New Hampshire, care for more than 100 miles of trails on three majestic Presidential peaks — Adams, Madison, and Jefferson — as well as Randolph's town trails located in the Crescent Range. Volunteer Trail Days on Saturdays in July and the beginning of August invite the public to give a little back with their backs.

Congratulations to the Nature Conservancy and the Forest Society of Maine for protecting from development 363,000 acres of Plum Creek lands in the Moosehead Lake region (" Massive easement pact set in Maine ; Record deal saves 363,000 acres for conservation," Metro, May 16). It's the largest contiguous conservation easement in the nation. Congratulations also to the people of Maine for their determination and leadership in supporting large-scale land conservation projects.

LONDON — The Bank of England on Wednesday gave a gloomy outlook for the British economy as it cut its growth outlook and said inflation in the near term would be higher than previously expected. Weak growth and high inflation ‘‘has been painful for everyone in our society" and would continue to hurt disposable income in the near term, said Mervyn King, the Bank of England governor, as he presented the central bank's quarterly inflation report. ‘‘The path of recovery is likely to be slow and uncertain," he said, adding that for Britain the ‘‘biggest risk to...

The Royal Palace says Queen Sofia has canceled a visit to London at the request of the government because of fresh disagreements over the disputed British colony of Gibraltar on Spain's southern tip. A spokesman said Thursday the decision was made because the government felt it inappropriate for the queen to take part in Queen Elizabeth II's jubilee events given the circumstances. He spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with palace policy. Spain last week complained to Britain over an upcoming visit to Gibraltar by Britain's Prince Edward.

LONDON - The Church of England is offering couples a two-for-one service - marriage for them and baptisms for their children. The church is recognizing the changing reality of British families, it said yesterday. Statistics show that 44 percent of children in Britain are born to unmarried women, and the church’s research found that 1 in 5 couples seeking a church wedding already had children together or from a previous relationship. New guidelines sent to the Church of England’s 16,000 parish churches encourage services that combine a wedding with a christening or a service of thanksgiving...

That traditional distance between performer and audience - they’re up there on the stage, we’re down here, cozy in our seats - has lately begun to narrow. First there was the American Repertory Theater production of “Sleep No More,’’ which puts spectators smack in the middle of the bloody doings of “Macbeth.’’ Now comes “England,’’ a surprisingly affecting conceptual work by Tim Crouch that also brings the audience face to face with the performers. (Crouch, the head of the British avant-garde ensemble News from Nowhere, is also author of “My...

From cycling to shooting, several New Englanders have a chance to participate in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. Meet some of the athletes with local connections who hope to bid for medals in London: Elizabeth Beisel New England connection: Grew up in Saunderstown, R.I. Team: Swimming Age: 19 Notes: Beisel will have a final chance to qualify for the Olympics in June. She captured the gold in the 400 IM at the 2011 FINA World Championships for her first world title.

The Bank of England has trimmed its growth forecast for the U.K. economy and warned that inflation will remain above target for another year — assuming the country isn't knocked off course by turmoil in the eurozone. In its quarterly Inflation Report released Wednesday, the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee reduced its growth forecast for this year from 1 percent just three months ago to 0.8 percent. It also abandoned a longstanding hope that consumer price inflation, now 3.5 percent, will fall back to the official 2 percent target by the end of the year.