Teenagers could study the Beatles and learn to DJ as part of a new music GCSE, it has been announced.

The Fab Four’s famous album St Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is part of a new course expected to be introduced next year, with pupils asked to examine three tracks – Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds, With A Little Help From My Friends and Within You, Without You.

Seb Ross of AQA, the exam board that has developed the qualification, said that there was no better band to study for contemporary music, as it had helped to “define popular music”.

Man. Utd man’s very hot tub

Firefighters were called to the home of Manchester United and England defender Chris Smalling after his hot tub caught fire.

An electrical fault may have led to a blaze in the garden of the player’s home in Bowdon, Altrincham.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service said a crew from Altrincham Fire Station had attended after police initially reported the blaze. It added: “There was nobody in the house at the time of the incident.”

Australia to have Edinburgh Castle

A full-size replica of Edinburgh Castle is to be built in Australia as the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo travels for a rare overseas performance. About 1,200 pipers, drummers, dancers and musicians will take part in a three-night run of the show in Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium next February.

The Tattoo is traditionally staged on the floodlit esplanade of Edinburgh Castle and organisers have decided they will keep the backdrop by building a replica of the world-famous landmark for the Australian shows.

Leap of love for pupil’s prom date

A Connecticut boarding school student has videotaped himself asking his girlfriend to go to the prom with him while jumping out of a plane.

Pomfret School student Eddie Staten saw people skydiving on his way back from Easter vacation and decided that’s how he would ask his girlfriend of about two years to prom.

Eddie jumped out of the plane this month giving the camera a thumbs up in one hand and holding the sign asking Talia Guilino to prom in the other. He says she has agreed to go.

Hot dog trouble for Georgia man

A Georgia man who saved a dog from a hot Mustang has been arrested for smashing a window to free the animal.

Michael Hammons of Athens was charged with criminal trespassing after freeing a small Pomeranian mix in distress from a hot car outside a store. Witnesses say that while a group of shoppers waited for police to arrive to free the dog, the army veteran smashed the window.

Deputies say the car’s owner insisted Hammons be arrested. Deputies did not identify the woman. She was cited for leaving the dog in the hot car. Georgia state law allows an individual to break a window to save a child in distress but not a pet. Animal advocates say they are working to change the law.

Rainbow lights arrive in Vienna

Some Vienna pedestrian traffic lights are suddenly not only red or green. They’re also gay or straight.

The city has started setting up lights at pedestrian crossings that show pairs of figures instead of the usual stick men. Some show a man and a woman. Others, two women. Still others, two men. All couples are complete with hearts.

The lights are being erected at 47 crossings and will stay up until June. Vienna hosts several events linked to tolerance during that time, including the Eurovision Song Contest and the Life Ball, Europe’s biggest charity event for AIDS and HIV research.