For more than a century, a point on the top of a hill in south-east London has been recognised as the centre of world time and the official starting point of each new day. But now the supremacy of Greenwich Mean Time is being challenged by a gargantuan new clock being built in Mecca, by which the world's 1.5 billion Muslims could soon be setting their watches.

This news makes me sad. I guess everything that has a long rich history and a special place in people's hearts will soon be erased by the glitzy new kids on the block. Someone tell me...is nothing sacred?