The ObserverHouse pricesIn areas where homeowners find it hard to sell, builders are offering PX deals to get people moving – but look carefullyRead the recent house price reports and you will find a similar story: the market is booming. But some areas of the UK remain quiet and, in a bid to sell new homes and guarantee profits, builders are pushing part-exchange schemes. PX, as it is known in the industry, enables you to trade in your home as part payment for a new build property bought from a developer or builder.

Christina Aguilera This article is more than 12 years oldChristina Aguilera arrested for public intoxicationThis article is more than 12 years oldSinger taken into custody on suspicion of being drunk after police pull over a car driven by her boyfriend in West HollywoodChristina Aguilera spent yesterday morning sobering up in a West Hollywood police station. The pop star was arrested for public intoxication after officers pulled over a car driven by her boyfriend, Matthew Rutler, charging him with driving under the influence.

OperaReviewColiseum, London English National Opera’s one-off performance of Britten’s uneven opera was very fine in every respect, with Christine Rice an exceptional Elizabeth I Originally scheduled to mark Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee year, English National Opera’s single performance of Britten’s Gloriana became instead a tribute to the late Queen’s memory, heightening, perhaps, the ambiguities of a work that holds an awkward place in the Britten canon. Commissioned for the coronation celebrations of 1953, it drew something of a blank at the time.

Mexico This article is more than 6 years oldMexicans aghast as man notorious for leading bungled case named as spy chiefThis article is more than 6 years oldAlberto Bazbaz, an ally of the president, has been handed the top intelligence job despite leading a nine-day search for missing girl later found dead in her own bed Mexicans have expressed incredulity at the appointment of a former prosecutor to the country’s top intelligence position, even though he once oversaw a notorious nine-day search for a missing girl who was eventually found lying dead in her own bed.

GraduationTickets for New York University’s 2019 commencement ceremony are being advertised for as much as $250 It’s graduation season in the United States, which means lots of caps, gowns, pomp and circumstance, corny speeches, selfies – and an underground trade in graduation tickets to top off the celebrations. Many colleges and universities limit the number of people who can attend a graduation ceremony, providing students with tickets to the event they can distribute to friends and family.