23/01/2014 Newsround

Plus, the moving heads that'll mess with your mind. This is Newsround.

But first, today marks an exciting landmark in the countdown to another

major sporting event right here in the UK. It's exactly six months

until the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and

for the last few months the Queen's Baton has been travelling round the

world to the many different countries that are invited to

compete. Here's Nel with more on it's epic journey.

Travelling through 70 Commonwealth relations, the Queens Batten covers

190,000 kilometres in 288 days. The BBC has been following the amazing

journey since it left Buckingham Palace and it will be.

The whole point is to build up to the Commonwealth games and it is the

invitation to the athletes to come and conflict Pete. Sports stars

across the Commonwealth have come out in the thousand to join

celebrations. The Batten is making its way across the Indian Ocean.

This 14 old summer has qualified for the games. She carried the Batten.

I was really excited and looking forward to it and pro to represent

my country and the crowd was cheering and going wild. The

Commonwealth nations and the territories make up one third of the

population of the world. We are making our way so through Africa.

From here it heads through the Americas and Europe before heading

back to the UK in the opening ceremony.

As the adventure of the Batten as the summer, so begins the journey

from sporting hopefuls across the globe. In other news more than

fifteen hundred jobs in the armed forces are being cut.

It's the final stage of Government plans to reduce the number of

regular soldiers from around 100,000 to just over 80,000 in the next

three years. The opposition Labour Party say the cuts risk Britain's

safety and security. The Government say they're needed to save money

They hope to make up for the cuts by recruiting more part-time

reservists. And the Queen's new great-granddaughter finally has a

name. Six days after she was born her mum - Olympic equestrian star

Zara Phillips, and dad - rugby star dad Mike Tindall - have announced

she'll be known as Mia Grace. Buckingham Palace confirmed the news

in the last hour. Mia is 16th in line to the British throne.

Now those Commonwealth Games in Glasgow aren't the only big sporting

event on the way in 2014. Next month the Sochi Winter Olympics will see

some of the world's best athletes compete in some of the craziest

sports going. And there's none crazier than sledge hockey.

Sledge hockey is the Paralympic version of ice hockey. It's fast,

physical, and downright crazy, so not really for the faint hearted.

Sledge hockey is probably the best sport you've never tried of even

heard of. It is fast and full contact.

Since its debut at the 1994 Winter Games, sledge hockey has quickly

become one of the star attractions for spectators. So let's skate

through some of the rules. The main differences between ice hockey and

sledge hockey is in the equipment players use. Specially designed

sledges are fitted with one or two blades to move themselves across the

ice. They have two playing sticks, which are used for pushing - and to

control and shoot the puck. The game has three periods, each 15 minutes

in length. 15 players make up a team with five outfield players and one

goalie allowed on the ice at any one time.

Right, enough watching. Time for me to give it a go? And I quickly find

out its a lot harder than it looks. The British team failed to qualify

for this year's Winter Games, but if you think sledge hockey is as cool

as the ice it's played on you'll still be able to catch the world's

best players compete for gold in Sochi.

And finally to the crazy statues that'll mess with your eyes. Chinese

artist Li Hongbo made these sculptures from thousands of sheets

of paper. They appear firm at first but transform into all kinds of

weird and